Chapter 31: Take It Easy

After we finished discussing tomorrow’s plans, we were lounging around and resting when I got a phone call from Takamiya-san.

I answered it.

“Hellooo? Nasshi-chi, how’ve you been?”

“I’m doing fine. How about you, Miyacchi?”

Incidentally, this was the very first time she’d called me Nasshi-chi, and the first time I’d called her Miyacchi.

“‘Miyacchi’ makes me sound like Ayaka.”

Well, her name was Ayaka Miyama.

“Then you two can form the Miya-Miya Alliance.”

“Oh, you’re right! Ayaka, we are alliance members now!”

“…So you’ve noticed. I refuse.”

Apparently, Ayaka wasn’t interested.

“That’s so mean.”

“Do not worry. You and I can always form the Taka-Taka Alliance instead.”

I wonder if that day would ever come.

“Mayumi, putting that aside, what’s up? Something happen?”

Ayaka completely ignored the alliance talk.

“Nah, everything’s peaceful over here. Exciting, but peaceful.”

The horse races.

“So what is it?”

“I was just wondering how things are on your end. You’re coming tomorrow, right? Everything okay?”

She’d called because she was worried about us.

“Yeah. We’ll leave here at eight tomorrow morning and should arrive at the racetrack around ten.”

“Got it. We talked it over here too, and decided we’ll stay here tomorrow night, then cross over to Shimonoseki the day after.”

The day after tomorrow.

That sounded reasonable.

“Everything’s going to be alright, right?”

“Sis, Sis! You okay over there?”

“Would you two be quiet for a second?… Hmm… Number Four’s still my favorite, but lately…”

Apparently Linda was too busy making horse-racing predictions.

“It’ll be fine!”

…What would?

“I see… Well, never mind. Any news about Minato or Riku?”

“Nothing about them. But apparently there was a major massacre in Hiroshima.”

“A massacre?”

“What do you mean?”

“It was all over social media. More than a hundred demons were killed overnight in Hiroshima. Nobody knows who did it.”

Hearing that, Ayaka and Elvis both pulled out their phones and started searching.

“It’s true…”

“It’s blowing up online…”

Then it was probably real.

“Think it was one of our classmates?”

“It’s possible. I mean, who else could pull something like that off? And… this might sound awful, but from our perspective, demons are basically monsters. They look exactly like the monsters we fought in the other world.”

She was right…

It probably wouldn’t feel the same as killing another human.

And then there was mana—that experience-point-like concept.

“At the very least, it’s probably safe to assume one of our classmates did it. Yamane already proved that someone from our class could do something like that.”

Kitaura-san had a point.

“I think so too. But if that’s the case, heading into Hiroshima might be a little difficult.”

“Still, if we’re aiming for Tokyo, that’s the route we’d normally take, right? Or are we going around through Shimane?”

“Hmm…”

There was also the matter of Shikoku.

“Let’s talk it over after we regroup. There’s something involving our families. Ayaka’s grandparents live in Shikoku.”

“Ah, right. It’s not just our parents we have to think about.”

“Oh! My cousin lives in Kyoto.”

So Kitaura-san also had relatives in western Japan.

“We should discuss all of that. We actually don’t know much about each other’s families.”

“We never talked about that stuff… Alright. Once we meet up, let’s have a proper discussion. Oh, by the way, I was in the school concert band back in middle school.”

That was another thing we’d never talked about.

“I was in the go-home club.”

“Yeah, that sounds like you.”

“Haha! Me too.”

That sounded about right.

“I was on the basketball team.”

Ayaka had played basketball?

I never knew that.

“Let’s start talking about those kinds of things from now on. Takamiya-san, Kitaura-san… stay safe.”

“We will.”

“Don’t worry. My assassination skills are ready to shine!”

Kitaura-san’s advanced class was Assassin.

That said…

She’d never actually assassinated anyone.

“After facing them, I realized something. Some people just can’t be reasoned with.”

“We could’ve ended up like that ourselves if things had gone differently.”

“Yeah. I can’t say I don’t understand how they feel. I tried escaping reality so many times. I kept telling myself it had to be a dream.”

I’d done the same.

“Let’s all be careful. See you tomorrow. I’ve got potato chips and chocolate to bring you.”

“I thought I was going to cry when I saw those cup noodles.”

Seriously.

“That brings back memories…”

“I want chocolate.”

“I’ll bring some. See you tomorrow.”

“Take it easy!”

I wasn’t really sure what she meant by “take it easy,” but I ended the call.

“Looks like everything is fine on their end.”

“Yeah. Alright, I think I’ll go take a bath.”

“Good idea.”

We went to the hot spring on the top floor and soaked in the water, taking our time.

When evening came, we enjoyed a seafood hot pot.

After dinner, Elvis returned to his own room, leaving Ayaka and me alone.

“Yuu, what were things like during your first year?”

Ayaka asked me something she hadn’t asked about before.

“Hmm… Normal, I guess? I was in the same class as Minato, Riku, and Shouta, and we were always together. None of the four of us joined any clubs, so we spent our first year just talking about trivial things—anime, videos, TV shows, stuff like that.”

I think we were about as ordinary and unremarkable as you could get.

“Sounds like you were really close.”

“Yeah.”

“Every day we’d say things like, ‘Man, this is boring,’ or ‘There’s nothing fun to do,’ but looking back, I guess that was what made it fun. Though, I did have plenty of fun in the other world too.”

“True. I think we were pretty similar. We were just normal high school students. It’s been ten years since then…”

We had talked about something similar before we were transported.

“Yeah. Actually… I’m a little scared to meet my family.”

“Everyone feels that way, don’t they? Ten years is just too long. My adorable little brother is already twenty now… Hey, Yuu, do you have any siblings?”

“No, I’m an only child. Ah, but I do have a cousin who was living in Chiba. She was in middle school back then, but she’s already over twenty now.”

I only saw her during New Year’s or Obon, but after ten years apart…

Would she even recognize me?

“I hope you get to see her.”

“Yeah.”

The thought of whether they were even still alive had been lingering in the back of my mind this whole time.

I didn’t say it out loud, but everyone must have been thinking the same thing.

“Ayaka… when we get to Tokyo… what are you going to do?”

Sorry, Miyacchi.

I can’t say it.

“Well… my family, obviously. After that, we’ll figure things out when the time comes. We could even start a company.”

“Yeah. We’ll talk it over. Anyway, should we go to sleep early?”

“Sure. Good night.”

It was still early, but we decided to turn in for the night.