“…it"s delicious.”
“…that"s good.”
Aoi was no longer on the verge of crying and was slowly pecking away at a tonkatsu set meal.
I sat next to her and was facing Mik.u.ma who continued to eat her omurice silently and Saeki who was stuffing her face with curry rice.
“Onii-chan, your ramen is getting soggy.”
“… you want some?”
“I don"t need it.”
Shouhei, who already finished eating his cheeseburger combo, was rocking the baby stroller next to me.
We changed our location and we were currently at the food court in the Central building.
If you"re looking for a place to sit down and calm down, this was a result of settling.
When I took a peek at the baby stroller, Jaja and Nana were peacefully sleeping.
Shouhei might still concerned about what happened earlier, he decided not to leave the twins.
After they were fed one by one and put to sleep, Shouhei took the baby stroller"s handle from me and continued watching the twins with a serious face.
It was already evening.
It was the first place they come to, I guess they"re tired.
Jaja and Nana were happily snoring.
Everything was new for the two of them.
“… Kazamachi-kun”
“Y-yes.”
Mik.u.ma let out a mysterious oppressive feeling, and my body straightened itself out.
“Can you explain, please?”
Why does it look like you"re about to cry!
“No, well, I don"t know what to say, there are lots of things that are difficult to explain…”
Such as Aoi and them being dragons, or the eggs were hatched with my blood, in order to hide them, there were many things I couldn"t talk about.
“Just last month, my childhood friend that I tearfully sent away… is living with children that he made with someone that looks like a middle school student, I don"t understand.”
Mik.u.ma placed her spoon on the tray and took off her thick gla.s.ses.
She covered her eyes with one hand and wiped.
“Well, even I haven"t completely figured out why this happened, though.”
How should I gloss this over to improve the situation?
“You fought, even though you think you didn"t do anything wrong, but that behavior is enough so that you can"t show your face in public.”
Saeki who was preaching, looked happy.
I felt a little irritated.
“I had no intentions of doing anything wrong.”
“Then, can you explain the reason to me?”
Her honest eyes were lit up and Mik.u.ma intently stared at my eyes.
Although we didn"t speak after entering middle school, we spoke a lot during elementary school.
She"s a book lover that didn"t go outside to play much. She is smart and has a much stronger sense of justice than anyone else.
We were both library committee members, surprisingly I also like books.
Looking at this person who seemed to enjoy talking about books with me, I still had a good feeling.
If I"m not mistaken, I remember that I helped her a bit at the end of sixth grade.
Everyone turned a blind eye to the bullying in Mik.u.ma"s cla.s.s, the shy her faced it head on. Mik.u.ma who was supposed to have helped was bullied.
The bully from the wild boar tribe was a prime example of a brat, it"s not like the whole cla.s.s partic.i.p.ated, but everyone was too afraid to do anything.
Mik.u.ma couldn"t have overlooked it.
Why do you do such things, how could you do such things, what did you do to the bullied?
Mik.u.ma merely questioned what she couldn"t understand.
That got on the brat"s nerves.
Starting from being ignored by the cla.s.s, to hiding her textbooks and wetting her gym clothes.
At that time, Saeki was in a different cla.s.s and Mik.u.ma who had a fear of strangers, had no allies.
Speaking of myself, it was in the process of when my bad expression began to stand out and I was beginning to be avoided.
I had no way of knowing about the bullying going on in another cla.s.s.
Towards the end of summer vacation, when Shouhei and I were returning home from shopping.
Mik.u.ma was crying in a park a near the apartment where we lived at the time.
She tried to stifle her voice with a tunnel playground equipment and was desperately wiping her overflowing tears, seemingly enduring it.
When I came across her by chance, she told me the reason why she was crying.
About how she denounced the bully, about how she got bullied, about how no one helped her, about how even if she told the homeroom teacher she was brushed off lightly.
That"s why she was crying, because she was scared of the start of a new semester.
She did not want to worry her parents who were both very busy with work, so she took it all on herself and I guess over thought and exploded.
If I think about it now, I over thought a lot of things.
But, such a gentle girl was being bullied.
That story made me explode in anger.
On the first day of the new semester, I laid in ambush at the school gate.
So that I didn"t overlook the brat.
Over the six years, most of the faces from the people of the same grade were familiar.
I found him right away.
I forcibly grabbed the nape of his neck and took him to the other side of the school to interrogate him.
He didn"t show a timid expression, my memory was gone when he began to happily boast about what he did.
Before I noticed, I was standing on the gymnasium stage riddled with injuries, grabbing the microphone with tattered clothes, and making the brat prostrate in front of all the students.
I threatened the bawling brat, making him pledge to never again touch Mik.u.ma, and thinking about it, it was overkill when I finally kicked him vigorously in the stomach
While he spread vomit everywhere, he cried and shouted even more.
After that, it was straight to the princ.i.p.als office.
A lot of adults subdued me, pinning my arms behind my back, called my father and hit my homeroom teacher.
My father who was called first, wanted to listen to my story, silenced the homeroom teacher and approached me who was sitting on the carpet in the princ.i.p.al"s office.
“Was what you did something bad?”
“… it was something bad.”
“Then, for the time being, I"ll hit you.”
My father that said that clenched his fist and punched me on the cheeks, I was sent flying.
My father approached me who was in agony and once again asked.
“Then, why did you do something bad?”
“Because even though that guy was someone who bullied others, he didn"t think anything of it!”
I was crying in frustration, he gently bundled my cheeks and asked again.
“For whose sake did you do bad things for?”
“I- I thought it was wrong! I hit him!!”
“All right, I"ll forgive everything with one shot.”
He said that, this time it was an open hand that came flying.
But had less power than I expected, I was perplexed.
“That"s the end from me. Leave the rest to me.”
My father caressed my head, then lowered his head to the brat"s and my homeroom teacher.
“I"ve punished him. What he did was by no means acceptable, but this guy also has a sense of justice and beliefs. As a parent, I believe his intentions. I"ll accept any punishment. Of course, I"ll also pay for the medical fees, please let me apologize with that. However, I would like this to be the punishment for himself. “
When the homeroom teachers began to recoil from my father"s honest gaze, Mik.u.ma who had a pale face jumped into the princ.i.p.al"s office.
“Pwease dun scold Kazamchi-kun!”
While dripping tears and snot, Mik.u.ma persuaded the homeroom teachers despite not being able to properly put her reasoning to words.
Fortunately, the princ.i.p.al of our school was a fairly competent person.
Later on, the PTA questioned everybody in Mik.u.ma"s cla.s.s individually and determined the truth.
Evidence was gathered so that the brat"s parents couldn"t refute it, Mik.u.ma"s homeroom teacher was also severely punished, so he worked to bring the situation under control.
If the homeroom teacher brought it to an end, Kazamachi-kun"s rampage was gone. (TN: Wasn"t 100% sure what 収めていれば meant in the context of the homeroom teacher)
He came to my house to apologize.
After his disgraceful behavior was exposed to all the students, it seems that the brat that usually put on airs was nowhere to be seen in the second half of the second semester. It seems he went to a different middle school.
I was hugged strongly by Mik.u.ma, apologized to and thanked.
Everyone in the cla.s.s seems to have apologized to Mik.u.ma.
But then after that…
After the knowledge of me snapping and being dangerous became widespread, my loneliness accelerated.
“Kazamachi-kun?”
Hah!
I took refuge in the memories of the past for too long!
d.a.m.n it.
It"s because I looked at Mik.u.ma"s eyes.
My dark history…
“Reason you ask? I…”
I was evasive and couldn"t answer.
Basically, the idiot that is me, couldn"t even think up of a good lie.
“Can you not say…”
Mik.u.ma compared Aoi with Jaja and Nana.
“Are these children, dragons?”
“Huh?”
I was at a loss for words.