Kays Translations

03-What’s wrong with not being able to say that one word?

03-01-The courage of that day and a confession in limbo

Do you know the best amount of time to sleep?

I do. Seven hours. I googled it.

It is said that seven hours is the time when the risk of high blood pressure, cancer, and depression is the lowest.

This seven-hour period seems to be effective for comfortable sleeping and waking. That’s why I’m practicing it.

But it’s not.

“... Hmm ...”

Is there any way to get out of bed each morning?

Rubbing my eyes, I eat a breadstick (with sweet bean paste) and change into my school uniform.

I rinse out my desert like mouth, which has become dry, and poke my toothbrush into it.

Oh, it was the bread stick….

____

“Oh, good morning”

“... Good morning”

Maybe it’s been going on for more than a week by chance, but again  I happened to come across Akari Reina on the way to school.

When I return the morning greeting, Akari breaks into a smile and comes to stand next to me. What is this girl, a puppy?

“I’m sorry about, you know, everything.”

“Yes, I’m sorry. I wanted to help Fujima-kun this time ... but in the end, you helped me again ...”

My “I’m sorry” was supposed to refer to my “lousy” failure to trust her kindness and such, but apparently she took it as referring to the beach yesterday.

“I wasn’t helping you. I just got hit by an arrow when I tried to avoid it. Besides, if I hadn’t run away in the first place, you guys wouldn’t have had to go through that.”

If I hadn’t run away.

If I had been strong.

If I hadn’t died, if Akari hadn’t been in danger, if she hadn’t bowed her head like this, then I wouldn’t be here.

「……」

「……」

But what the heck.

If I’m the worst, it means that Akari wasn’t the worst.

Then that day, the classroom at dusk.

How should I accept Akari’s confession?

If it’s not a punishment game, what is it?

Was that really serious ……?

You’re kidding, right?

Because let’s be honest, Reina is the cute one, right?　　I mean, she’s ridiculously cute, right?

A girl like this confesses her feelings to a bad eyed, gloomy guy like me ......?

No way.

After graduating from junior high school and prior to entering high school, I moved here alone from out of the prefecture.

That night, one week before the entrance ceremony...

____

I had just started living alone in the Kanto area to commute to school, and I was on the move from noon to buy more daily necessities.

I was on my way home after shopping at a shopping center near the station. It was already dark.

The unfamiliarity of high school in just one week was unappealing to me. I resign myself to a gray high school life, but then I imagine the games waiting for me at home, decadently painting the gray into colorlessness.

And so, when the view shifts from the downtown area to a quieter, less bustling building district...

“Stop, please, I’ll call someone!”

Such a voice pierced through the darkness and reached my ears.

I turned on the recording function on my phone and slid my body between buildings towards the voice.

After proceeding through a narrow space, I found myself in a slightly larger courtyard-like area, where a girl with long black hair looking frightened and a blonde-haired charlatan, – two hoodlums – were facing each other.

“don’t you know you know you hit me?”

“That’s right, we have to get a little compensation. If you can’t pay up you could use your body?”

A tempestuous thug and a tempestuous tragic heroine.

If I were a tempestuous hero, I would have jumped right out.

“From me......you hit me, didn’t you?”

But, as you all know, I’m just a shady guy.

I’m not going to jump out and save her and get beat up instead.

My job is to capture on my phone the scene of a thug assaulting a young girl, and to help the girl later impose legal sanctions...that’s about it.

“From us?　Can anyone prove that?　　We both say you bumped into us. I’ll fuck you up if you keep talking nonsense.”

“Hic ......!”

I am ashamed to say that I have been bullied a lot.

I have been verbally and physically abused.

So, I don’t want to be in pain anymore.

“Hey Masashi. This is troublesome. Let’s do it already.”

“Idiot. These days, DNA and other evidence can be left behind. The other day, Yasu got cracked for that.”

“It’s all right. If I do something so embarrassing that she can’t go to the police, she won’t report it.”

Oh, man, these are some seriously bad guys .

Obviously, it’s bad.

It’s not bullying or anything like that.

It’s a crime.

They are bad people.

“Hic ... Hic ...!”

“I’ve been into choking and fucking lately.”

“Don’t leave any marks.”

Let’s run away.

Let’s run away, let’s run away, let’s run away.

I am thinking so, but I can’t move my legs.

I am afraid that the sound of my footsteps will alert them to my escape.

But I have to run away.

......I thought so, but...

I maneuvered my phone one more time before

Pasha Shasha Shasha Shasha Shasha!

I jumped out while taking a quick shot on my smartphone’s camera.

...... Of the three.

“Ah!　You are the doujinshi artist, Mr. Maruyaki Cream Puff, aren’t you!　I’m a fan of yours!　Please sign me!”

Even if I called the police, they would never get there in time.

But there was no way I could stop them.

These guys are obviously stronger and they are obviously scarier.

Then, the only thing that could beat these guys was “abnormality”.

“I love the boobs you draw!　　I could eat three bowls of rice with that!　　Please sign me!　　And while you’re at it, please draw me a pair of boobs next to your signature!”

‘Who the hell is this guy?”

The “abnormality” beyond imagination frightens them for a moment. I took advantage of this opportunity to push them both hard.

“Ah……”

I waved back to the girl with black hair, “Go, go.”

“......!”

“Huh, wait”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” follow her!”

“Wait a minute, sensei! I’m a fan of yours!　　Please sign me! Tits and autographs, please!”

I grabbed the arm of the thug who tried to chase and stopped.

“ Disgusting!!”

An mpact on the back of the head.

Oh, ouch. It’s much more painful than the violence I received when I was bullied.

Doggah, gosh, boom.

They gave up chasing after the girl, and the two of them lynched me, punching and kicking me.

I was punched.

Kicked.

Stomped on my face.

They broke my phone that I took a quick picture in.

“I’m a fan of .......”

“You’re still saying that!”

Gosu~tsu (fist 👊 impact)

“Uhehehehe, sign ...”

“This guy is crazy, he’s absolutely out of his mind. ......!”

Wow ...... these guys are pulling back.

I’m so sick that I’m going to pull it off.

Who the heck is Maruyaki Cream Puff sensei? I’m afraid of my vocabulary.

“── This is it! Please!”

I wonder how much he hit me. From far away, I heard the girl screaming.

“No, it’s the police, isn’t it? Masashi ...”

“Yeah ... Oh, this guy’s head is crazy ...”

Immediately, the violence against me stopped, and for some reason I was hugged by these guys.

“Hey! Are you okay? You’re okay! Stay with me!”

“Damn ......!　Who did this to you ......!”

...... Can you believe it?　　This line is coming from these guys who beat me to a pulp.

“Police!”

I was very excited to see the five policemen who came towards us.

“Over here!　　He’s down and ......”

“We just had a girl call the police. ......!”

They tried to play the helping hand.

“No, sir!　I was attacked by these two guys and this guy saved me ......”

“Oh, come on, don’t make scary jokes.”

“We just met this girl today, but we didn’t do that kind of thing, did we?　　I think the three of us found this guy lying on the ground.”

He’s going to take advantage of my phone they smashed and the lack of evidence, to blindside me.

There was no way I could push it. I’m sure that when it comes to interrogation, they will be able to charge these guys with assault with the bruises on me and the shoe prints on my face.

But it’s not enough.

I couldn’t forgive them for trying to assault her, for inflicting all this violence on me, and for her defiance that it wasn’t her fault.

“Anyway, the situation at the station ──”

“……please wait”

I leave the arms of two ugly people.

── Looking back, the past.

“I’m not bad!　Fujima-kun is bad, right?　Hey, everybody thinks so right!?”

This world is full of scum.

“I was beaten to a pulp by these guys ....... I have proof.”

Every time I open my mouth, my face hurts. But I don’t stop talking.

“You can talk like a normal person!”

I can talk, okay?　　Because what I just said was an act.

“I took a video with that phone. The video right before she was attacked, and my face before I was hit. You can see if you look it up, but it’s all about five minutes old.”

The “thing” I was pointing at was my phone, which had been properly destroyed, including the SD card.

“But in a state like that, ......”

I saw two faces grinning at the police.

Scum.

I’m going to freeze them out.

“Before I jumped out, I saved the video to the cloud. As long as i have the password, we can watch it from any device.”

“You son of a bitch!”

“Screw you!”

“I’m not an idiot. I’m going to charge you for my phone, clothes, and compensation you idiots. Go eat some stale food, you piece of garbage.”

_____

── Well, that’s what happened.

What do you think? I guess, depending on how you look at it, it could be said that I put myself on the line to save Reina Akari’s life.

If I had beaten the two hoodlums in style and said, “It’s all right now,” I could have believed at least a percentage of the time when Akari confessed to me. Not ten percent, not even a minute.

...... but the way I intervened. Sensei..?. I was full of it that I created a doujinshi Maruyaki cream puff sensei. ...... I was so weird that the goons were put off.

That’s why I didn’t think that confession was genuine. ...... To be honest, if I were a woman, I’d definitely be turned off.

“Oh ...... giving me the sidewalk side again ...... so gentle ......”

But Akari’s cheeks turning red at such a trivial thing is a reaction that if this were a manga, anime, or a novel, she would definitely be head over heels.

What if, by some chance, there is a suspension bridge effect?　　Even if that’s the reason why Akari liked me, even if that’s why she confessed her feelings to me, well, that’s just the way it is, isn’t it? I don’t think so though.

Because even if that was really a confession.

“If it’s a punishment game, do it somewhere else”

“Don’t talk to me again”

How could Akari still like me after what I said to her?

Still, should I apologize?

Is it okay to bring up the confession of that day and ask what was that?

I don’t know.

Ah!, relationships are so annoying.

...... Oh, well, today is the release date of the new Monster Hunter game. I’ll have to buy it after school.

I’m still suited to be thinking about that kind of thing, I told myself as we walked uphill to school together.

Asami Takagi didn’t call out to me this morning.

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