The Happiness That The Shinigami Gave Me - V1 Chapter 24

Volume 1 Chapter 24

“It’s true that I lost my key. I was waiting for them to come home, but since I was tired from staying up late to study the other day, I fell asleep right away.”

“When I woke up, it was already dark,” she continued.

“Since it was cold, I tried to go inside and guess what I saw? The light on the second floor was on.”

“Huh?”

My heart grew cold.

“This kind of thing could happen, it seems, Yamaoka-kun. They ignored their own child sleeping in front of the house on a cold winter night…”

I couldn’t say anything to that.

Natsuhara-san closed her eyelids and let go of the pent-up feelings she had.

“When I realized it, I just…stopped caring. I could press the intercom or call them or even just barge into the house, but I didn’t care anymore.”

A heavy silence fell between us. Then she let out a faint laugh, as if to drive away the atmosphere.

“So I went back to sleep…and you showed up out of nowhere. That surprised me. Back when we first talked, you also showed up out of nowhere, didn’t you?”

“Mhm. Back then, the black cat also led me to you.”

“…Sorry for my harsh words back then. Back then I thought of you as an eyesore.”

“Did I do something to you?”

I didn’t remember doing anything to her, but I might’ve been wrong.

“You see, I’m not good at anything except for kendo. Unlike other people, I can’t fit into my surroundings. I can’t even make any friends…”

What came to my mind was the figure of Natsuhara-san leaning her hand on her cheeks by herself inside the classroom.

Her solitary figure rejected any kind of interaction with her classmates.

“I always told myself that it was my upbringing that made me the kind of person I am. It was inevitable that I’d become lonely. After all, I’m the kind of kid that my parents neglected.”

Ah, I see. At that moment, I heard the voice of her heart. ‘It’s not my fault that I became like this. I’m not in the wrong, so I should keep this up. It’s going to be okay.’

“Then I heard about you. The poor parentless boy. When I heard about you, I thought that we were kindred spirits. I thought that we were the same kind of people: lonely, empty and detached from everyone else. And yet, we weren’t alike at all. You could smile, you could laugh. You even have friends even though school barely even started. Unlike me, you didn’t spend your time by yourself at class.”

She wiped her eyelids. Her thin eyelashes swayed gently.

“I felt hurt. Someone who’s in a worse situation than I am is living a better life than I am. That made me realize the reason why I didn’t fit in isn’t because of my upbringing, but because I’m a bad person. You succeeded in making me feel disillusioned.”

Her stiffened body started to relax as she let out a wry smile.

“And yet, you tried to talk to me.”

She giggled.

“Even though you looked so scared at that time.”

I remembered that day. It was late in spring, the first time I tried to talk to her. I had gathered all my courage to take the first step in her direction.

“I never thought that you’d throw away the word ‘fate’ around like a chuunibyou.”

“I was just telling the truth.”

“Weirdo.” She let out another series of chuckles. Even though she didn’t believe anything about what I said back then, her voice when reminiscing about that time was gentle. It was as if she was talking about her precious memory.

“Honestly, even though I felt that your words were ridiculous back then, I felt so happy. It was the first time that someone reached out to me like that…”

“Yamaoka-kun…” While looking away, she called out to me. It felt like she was avoiding eye contact with me.

“Thank you so much for today. Thank you for scolding me and dragging me away from that place. The tea…felt really warm…”

“Natsuhara-san…”

I felt like crying.

The shadow of my late mother flashed through my mind. My face, stomach, legs, arms, there was no spot in my body that she hadn’t hit yet.

But that was all in the past.

The girl in front of me was still being tortured by her parents.

I felt anger welling up from the bottom of my stomach.

To hell with my contract with the shinigami. I’d definitely protect this girl.

When we reached her house and pressed the intercom, the door was opened without any issue. Her parents didn’t say anything from the other side.

With a wry smile, she entered her house.

Then, she turned around.

“Thank you for everything, Yamaoka-kun. Stay safe on your way home.”

“Mhm. Thank you. See you.”

“Also,” at the last moment, she called out to me while pouting. It seemed like she had something else to say to me.

“Yamaoka-kun, can you please call me Suzuno? Maybe if you call me by my first name, I can convince myself that I actually exist in this world…”

TL: Iyo

ED: samheart564

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