Chapter 47: Huh? Dead?
When we entered the hotel, we bypassed the front desk and headed toward the elevators.
“Did you already pick up the keys?”
“Yes. Seventh floor.”
Right, we were in room 705, and Takamiya-san and the others were in 706.
We got into the elevator and pressed for the seventh floor.
“Takanashi-kun, I’ll contact Linda-neesan, so you get in touch with Elvis.”
“Got it.”
Takamiya-san took out her smartphone, and I took out mine and texted Elvis that we had arrived at the hotel, along with our room number. When the elevator reached the seventh floor, we headed to our rooms and stopped in front of their respective doors.
“We’ll be bored until the two of them get back, so we’ll come over in a bit~”
“Wanna play cards?”
Takamiya-san and Kitaura-san said that before going into room 706, while Ayaka and I entered room 705.
The room was quite spacious and comfortable. Plus, there was a large window with a view of the ocean.
“Ooh, nice room~”
Ayaka went over to the window and enjoyed the view.
“Yeah. Hey, are you sure you’re okay with sharing a room? We’ve got money—or mana, rather—and there should be single rooms available.”
“About that… I talked it over with Hina, and we thought we should avoid staying in single rooms from now on. I doubt we’d get attacked at a hotel, but remember how we had problems at night in Beppu and on the way back from Kumamoto? From that perspective, I think it’s better to stay together to some degree. We’d be able to move more quickly that way.”
I see. That makes sense.
For some reason, the image of Kitaura-san giving a thumbs-up and winking floated through my mind, but the idea itself wasn’t wrong. We’d stuck together as much as possible in the other world too, since there were ordinary thieves and such.
“Got it. Sorry you have to put up with me.”
“It’s fine. It’s fun being with Yuu-kun too.”
Ah, she’s cute.
Ever since our second year of high school, I’d thought she was cute, and sure enough, she still was.
I’m glad we were able to reunite in the other world.
And I’m glad we were able to come back together.
“Which bed do you want?”
“Hmm… the one closer to the door, I guess? Yuu-kun, you can have the one by the window.”
“Really? Thanks. Though there sure are a lot of boats passing by.”
We’d seen quite a few of them while browsing the souvenir shops too.
“If we could get a ride on one of those, we could probably get to Osaka or Hyogo, right?”
Maybe so.
“I don’t think they’d let us on, though.”
They don’t even stop, for one thing.
“Well, yeah. Plus our destination is Hagi.”
To reunite with Riku.
“I wonder if that guy’s doing okay?”
“I’m sure he is. Riku gives off the impression of being mentally strong.”
He was strong—quiet, but unflappable and always calm.
“Minato’s the one I’m worried about, in that sense.”
That guy has a tendency to get carried away.
“You really want to see him?”
“Of course I do.”
“Yeah, me too. But you’re the only guy, Yuu-kun.”
Ah, that.
“I won’t deny that it’s a little awkward, but I know Ayaka, Takamiya-san, and Kitaura-san well enough that it’s fine.”
Plus, having Elvis around is huge.
“Really? I’m glad. I think I’d feel a bit awkward if it were the other way around. Well, I think I’d manage as long as Yuu-kun is there.”
Maybe.
Those girls would probably hold back a bit around Ayaka.
The reason is probably… me.
“I’m glad we got transported together.”
“Yes. Just thinking about being alone gives me the chills.”
“Me too.”
As we were talking, we heard a knock at the door.
Ayaka went to the door and let in Takamiya-san and Kitaura-san.
“What a nice room~. As expected of neesan’s choice.”
“It’s so spacious.”
The two of them came over and gazed at the ocean from the window.
“Ayaka, and you two as well—do any of you still have potions?”
“Ah, nope~”
“I had one, but I drank it.”
“I don’t have any either. I mean, I went to your shop to get some in the first place.”
Like Minato and Riku, I’d given them various potions when they went monster hunting.
We didn’t know when combat might break out, so we needed to build up some stock.
“I’ll make some. You three play cards or something.”
“Thanks.”
“As expected of Takanashi-kun.”
“Our leader. No, our company president.”
I nodded.
Kitaura-san gets it.
I sat down at the round table and began making potions.
The three girls started playing cards on the bed.
“Ah, right. Linda-neesan contacted me—she said we’re going to an acquaintance’s place for dinner. She said to be ready when she’s done.”
Ooh…
For the record, Elvis just replied “Understood.”
“An acquaintance’s place? A succubus place?”
“Wow… that got risqué real fast.”
It sure did…
No matter how you look at it, it’s an adult establishment.
“Surely not… right?”
“Probably not? We’re going too, after all.”
Well, I suppose so.
She’s a lewd person, but she seemed to have some sense when it came to anyone besides me.
“Then I guess it’s fine…”
I continued making potions while watching the three of them have fun. Sometime after 3 PM, I finished and handed the potions out to them.
“Drink these if you feel even slightly unwell. It’ll be bad if things get worse. Especially in the current state of the world—we don’t know how functional hospitals are, and there definitely aren’t any in demon towns.”
“That’s true… Come to think of it, can we even go to hospitals?”
Ayaka tilted her head.
“We’re human, so we should be able to go, right?”
“No, but can we go with just student IDs? I’m not sure about the details, but what about insurance cards?”
Insurance cards—what are those again?
I didn’t really go to hospitals much.
“Huh?”
I looked at Takamiya-san and Kitaura-san.
“I don’t know…”
“Actually, it’s a little late to ask this, but what even is our status? Aren’t we legally dead?”
Umm…
“W-wait, let me look this up.”
“Right…”
“Umm…”
“I hope we’re okay…”
We each took out our smartphones and started researching.
“It seems insurance cards are a no-go.”
That’s what it said.
There was information about being covered under a parent’s plan and various other details, but the answer was no.
“Well, we don’t have them anyway…”
Our parents would have them, I suppose.
But either way, it seems we’re out of luck.
“Um… It says here that you’re declared dead after seven years…”
Takamiya-san looked up with a strained expression.
“No, that requires an application, apparently. Surely they haven’t done that? At the very least, Ayaka and Mayumi’s parents definitely haven’t.”
After all, they haven’t canceled our smartphones.
Because they think we’re still alive.
“I wonder about my parents…?”
“Mine seems iffy too…”
Kitaura-san’s parents and mine canceled our smartphone contracts.
Well, I mean, I can understand not wanting to waste money.
“No, even if that’s the case, surely it can be reversed.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Ayaka and Takamiya-san are so kind.
“Well, I’ll worry about that later. So basically, we can’t go to hospitals?”
The whole death thing can wait until we get to Tokyo.
What’s important right now is hospitals.
“It’s iffy… It seems we’d have to pay full price without insurance cards, but more importantly, they’d wonder why we don’t have them in the first place.”
That seems likely.
“Let’s avoid them after all. We don’t want to stand out in our current state, and we don’t want to get involved with the government or hospitals.”
It would absolutely cause a commotion.
We couldn’t afford that right now.
At the very least, we need to reunite with Minato and Riku.
“So that means we’ll be relying on Yuu’s potions or Riku’s healing. Ah, Minato’s in trouble.”
That guy has no recovery methods.
“We want to find Minato soon too. There’s no information about him at all.”
He’s the cautious type, if you could call him that.
He’d avoid standing out.
“Yuu-kun, it might be a bit of a burden, but I’m counting on you for the potions.”
“It’s fine. I can make as many as we need.”
“Thanks.”
You’re welcome.
“So we should rely on the company president after all~”
“As long as it’s not a black company, I’ll follow you for life.”
Thank you very much.
I won’t make it a black company, so please keep following me.