Chapter 5: Dating My Club Senior (With Little Sister and Classmate Monitoring)

At first, Kanako just read books to pass the time.

She did it on the way to and from school, and she would stay in the library until dinnertime. As long as she said was studying, her mother wouldn’t stop her.

She chose the library as her refuge because no one would find it strange for an elementary school student to spend long hours there.

She spent her time in idleness, pretending to read books, wiling away hours she would otherwise have to spend with her mother. Anyone who saw her would just think she was a regular bookworm.

Then one day, a voice abruptly interrupted her routine. “You haven’t read any of it, have you?”

Kanako glanced up from the book, and looked beside her. There was a beautiful woman in glasses sitting there.

She wasn’t sure how to react to being addressed by a total stranger like this, and she was shocked to have been seen through in such a manner.

It was quiet. The library was always quiet, but it was even quieter now than it usually was. She realized that she and the woman were the only ones in the small room.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“A book-loving sorceress.”

“Are you making fun of me?” Kanako asked indignantly. Even if she was just a child, she wasn’t going to fall for something like that.

“If you want me to prove it, I will,” the woman said. “If I show you a spell, will you believe me, then? ...Ah, I know. You won’t be able to see out the windows. Instead, you’ll see a view into another world. How about that?” The woman pointed to the window.

Kanako froze.

The sight that hung before her eyes was unlike anything she could ever have imagined.

The library was not well-lit even at noon, but now, it was illuminated by blinding sunlight. A blue sky spread out wide above.

In it, an enormous dragon and bird were locked in battle. The dragon won, but just as it was about to fly off with the bird in its talons, an enormous fish jumped up from below and gobbled them both whole.

When she looked more carefully, she could see all kinds of things in that sky. Winged horses and women with wings for arms. Witches on brooms and knights on flying carpets, all going this way and that.

Kanako drew closer to the window.

“You cannot open the windows,” the woman said. “But you’ll have no trouble seeing what’s out there. Look all you like.”

Kanako looked down below.

A sea as red as blood spread out before her. The fish that had swallowed the dragon landed with a big splash.

She looked to the horizon and saw that it was curved. If this world was a sphere, then the planet must be much smaller than Earth.

Kanako looked up above.

She saw three round moons, red, black, and white, each moving in strange ways. The red throbbed, the black trembled, and the white seemed to spin. Then, as they all turned towards her, she realized that they were eyes.

It gave Kanako a jolt.

She realized that something else had entered her line of vision while she was looking up at the sky.

It was a castle, beautiful, white, and sparkling. It was floating atop an enormous island.

“Do you believe I’m a sorceress now?” the woman asked.

Kanako listened distantly to the words as she looked out the window, trying various angles. It was true that she couldn’t open the window, but it was clearly more than a simple image projected onto it.

It was really there. Kanako was convinced.

“Yeah... but why...?” Kanako came back and sat down next to the woman.

It was clear that she had some sort of mysterious power, yet Kanako didn’t find it frightening.

If this sorceress had come to her, then surely, she had come to take Kanako somewhere. To the world outside the window, perhaps? While Kanako turned over the woman’s potential intentions over and over in her mind, the woman set a book down on the desk. It was just an ordinary novel for children, though it came in a box with rather extravagant binding.

A book given to her by a sorceress. It could be something terrible, but Kanako’s reaction was not fear, but disappointment.

“I want you to read this,” the woman said. “Hmm? You seem to be disappointed... were you expecting something better?”

“No, but...” Kanako said. She had apparently been unable to conceal her disappointment.

“I had a feeling you were only pretending to read books,” the woman said. “So I wanted to teach you the joy of reading by offering you one of my favorites.”

“But even if you leave it there, I might not read it.” Kanako said sulkily.

“Then I suppose that’s what you’ll do. If I forced you to read it, it would defeat the point.” The woman stood up and left the room.

Kanako remained behind, still confused about everything.

The minute the woman left, the sunlight dimmed abruptly. When Kanako looked outside, all she could see was the dingy wall of the next building over. Then, to complete the return to normalcy, people appeared again.

It was almost like a daydream. But the sorceress had definitely been there. The book she had left behind was proof.

Unable to simply ignore all of that, Kanako decided to start reading the book.

It was a fantasy, the story of a young child brought to our world from another as a changeling, who eventually returned to the original world and had an adventure there. Kanako soon found herself engrossed in the book.

The protagonist’s circumstances matched Kanako’s own.

For a long time, she’d held a vague feeling that not everything was the way it was supposed to be. Maybe all children in circumstances like Kanako’s felt that way: Was I found somewhere? Did someone take me in?

An idea entered Kanako’s mind. Was the sorceress trying to tell her that she was not a native of this world?

Why would a sorceress appear out of nowhere and give her a book? There must be a reason. She must have come here with some special purpose.

Gradually, that appealing daydream took over Kanako’s mind. She had real parents out there somewhere. If only she could get to them, her life would be happy. Someday, maybe, they would come to get her.

Most people would find that a foolish idea. But Kanako knew that magic existed. She had seen another world — an isekai — with her own eyes.

Kanako lost herself in reading, and escaping into that daydream carried her through her elementary school years. She read piles of these “isekai” stories, dreamed of going to an isekai, and eventually started thinking about writing a story of her own. And now, in present day, having achieved her dream of becoming a writer...

...Kanako was a slave to a deadline.

✽✽✽✽✽

It was a Sunday in early September, a little before noon, at the station building.

In the middle of the station’s concourse was a meeting spot known as the Carillon Bell. Aiko was there, but she wasn’t at the bell. She was hiding behind a nearby pillar, watching.

Her attention was focused on Yuichi. He was wearing a light jacket and jeans combo, which she had seen him in before, and he was just standing under the bell, not doing anything in particular.

What a way to spend my day off... Aiko thought.

Yuichi was going out on the town with Kanako today, and she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She’d spent the whole morning fidgeting, until the next thing she knew, she was here.

“Noro.”

“Eek!” The sudden voice behind her caused Aiko to jump.

“Please, keep it down,” the voice chided her. It was a girl, wearing a hat pulled low over her face. She was dressed casually, in a T-shirt and jeans. It was possibly supposed to help her blend in, but it couldn’t hide the fact that she was a beautiful young girl.

“Huh? Yoriko?” Aiko asked.

It was indeed Yuichi’s little sister, Yoriko Sakaki, and her exasperation with Aiko was palpable. “What, exactly, are you doing here?” she asked.

“The same thing as you, probably!” Aiko said indignantly. The surprise had annoyed the already-aggravated Aiko.

“Well, yes, but you aren’t very well hidden, you know,” said Yoriko. “I spotted you right away.”

“I-I wasn’t trying to hide!” It was true she was trying to blend in, but she wasn’t trying to hide, or follow him, or anything like that... Although, now that Aiko thought about it, she wasn’t entirely sure what she was trying to do.

“But Orihara, eh?” Yoriko asked. “I never expected this development. I thought she had no interest in my brother...”

Yoriko had met Kanako for the first time during their summer training camp, so she must have made that determination then.

“Yeah, I thought the same thing...” Aiko murmured. Kanako usually referred to Yuichi as “Sakaki the Younger,” so Aiko had assumed she only thought of him as Mutsuko’s kid brother.

“Research for a story, perhaps?” Yoriko asked. “No... if that was all she was doing, she wouldn’t have to drag my brother along! She could have asked Big Sis or you!”

“I’m not sure I’d go along if she asked me, though...” said Aiko. “Hey, why don’t we meet up with them? They’re not necessarily on a date, right? And we probably wouldn’t get in the way of her research.”

“Oh, it’s clearly a date,” said Yoriko. “And I make it a policy not to interrupt dates. I would hate having someone get in the way of mine, after all.”

“That’s a surprise. I thought you’d be happy to get in their way.”

“Noro, who do you think I am, exactly?” Yoriko looked a little bit angry.

“You were very aggressive when it came to mine...” Aiko was thinking of the time she had gone out with Yuichi to buy a thank-you gift for Yoriko. Yoriko had clung to her brother quite a lot on that day.

“Because he agreed to go out with me first!” Yoriko exclaimed. “You’re the one who got in my way! Oh, but thank you for the gift. I really appreciated it.” It was moments of surprising politeness like these that made Aiko feel that Yoriko wasn’t a bad girl.

Aiko said, “Well, as for who I think you are, I think you’re a little sister with a complex, who loves her big brother very much.”

“It’s a bit annoying to have it summed up that way, but I can’t deny that you’re more or less right,” said Yoriko. “I won’t deny that I used to aggressively block women who showed an interest in my brother, either. But not anymore. If someone falls in love with my brother, there’s nothing I can do about it! Be it natural development, or divine intervention, somehow, I have matured! Of course, I wouldn’t say I go out of my way to encourage young maidens in love, but at least, I won’t get in their way! Thus, whomsoever my brother decides to date, I’ve decided to allow it.”

“Ah-ha...” Aiko was skeptical. Yoriko seemed quite confident about it, but Aiko had her doubts that Yoriko would keep her cool if such a situation ever arose.

“...Maybe I should just go home...” Aiko concluded gloomily, starting to think that all the sneaking around made her kind of pathetic. As his little sister, Yoriko may have had some right to gauge the situation, perhaps. But Aiko was in no position to comment on anything that Yuichi did. She was his classmate, his club mate, and his friend. No matter how she might try to frame it, Aiko wasn’t anything more to him.

“What are you talking about?” Yoriko snapped. “You’re going to run away after all this?”

“But...”

As Aiko dithered over what to do, Kanako appeared, walking up the steps from one of the lower platforms. She was wearing a white tulle skirt and a polka-dot blouse topped off with a brown cardigan. Aiko thought it made her look a bit like a rich heiress. She had heard that Kanako’s family wasn’t actually that well off, yet she looked more like an heiress than Aiko, whose family was genuinely wealthy. It was a difficult feeling to deal with.

“But that, there... it’s truly fiendish, isn’t it?” Yoriko gulped from Aiko’s side.

Aiko immediately understood what she meant. The white blouse emphasized Kanako’s large breasts more than ever. And the way the unbuttoned cardigan hung down the front just called even more attention to it.

“Exactly noon,” said Aiko. “Which means Sakaki has been waiting for about thirty minutes...” Aiko remembered that Yuichi had come early when they were supposed to meet, too.

“Big Brother... I mean, my brother can be somewhat irresponsible at times, but this is one area in which he never slacks,” Yoriko said, somehow proudly.

“I’ve been wondering about this, but you always refer to Sakaki as ‘my brother’ instead of ‘big brother’ in front of people,” commented Aiko. “Why is that?” It was a little thing, but she had wondered about it when they’d first met.

“Oh, no major reason,” said Yoriko. “If I call him ‘big brother,’ I get people referring to him as ‘Yoriko’s big brother.’ But I am the only one who has the right to call him that! And in order to protect that right, I will call him what I must in front of others!”

“Ah, okay... oh, it looks like they’re moving.” As Aiko was trying to figure out how to react to that, she noticed Yuichi and Kanako heading for the ticket gate together.

“Here we go!” Yoriko pursued them excitedly.

Realizing it was too late to turn back now, Aiko started to follow.

✽✽✽✽✽

Yuichi and Kanako came to a cafe near the station.

Yuichi cast a glance at the seats closest to the entrance. Remembering how the truck had crashed into the cafe there before, he headed for a seat further in.

“Is something wrong with this restaurant?” Kanako asked him, perhaps finding his manner strange.

“I ran into a little trouble here back in July,” Yuichi said. “I’m still kinda jumpy about it.”

As he spoke, he took a seat at a table, and Kanako sat down opposite him.

Yuichi put in his order with the waiter, then asked, after a moment, “You want places students normally go, right? Should I ask what the setting of the novel is? Maybe I could give you some advice...”

“Um, the title is The Half-Isekai Classroom,” said Kanako.

“...I thought it was a school story, but it still has to do with an isekai, huh?” Yuichi felt a little bit worn out by the idea.

“The basic plot is that a whole school is transported to another world, and there’s a bit of a survival element,” Kanako said.

It seemed to Yuichi the kind of story that Mutsuko would like; maybe it was Mutsuko’s influence that had led her to the idea.

“So they go to an isekai, right?” he said. “Where do the normal high school hang-out spots come in, in that case?”

“The truth is... I don’t have any ideas...” Kanako cradled her head in her hands and rested her elbows on the table.

Yuichi found the gesture very writer-like, but it sounded like the situation was more serious than he’d thought. “No ideas at all?”

“All I came up with was the prologue! I haven’t thought anything about how the story should unfold, but I still have to write it!” Kanako suddenly sat up again. Now that he looked closer, he could see bags under her eyes. She must not have slept at all last night.

“Um... Orihara, you look like you’re at your wits’ end,” said Yuichi. “When’s the deadline, exactly?”

“I have to have a first draft by the end of September. But I’ve only written the prologue...”

Today was Sunday of the second week of September. That meant she had to write the rest in a little less than three weeks.

“Um, should you really be doing this, then?” Yuichi asked. “Shouldn’t you be at home, writing the manuscript?”

“If just sitting in front of a desk would fill my head with ideas, I wouldn’t be having any trouble!” Her bloodcurdling expression took Yuichi aback.

“Um, sorry.”

“Oh? I’m sorry... I didn’t mean...” Kanako remembered herself and apologized.

“You don’t have to apologize,” he said. “But what should we do? Can I be of any help?”

Yuichi had thought she’d just needed to visit some random high school haunts, so now he was stumped. It sounded like an urgent situation.

“Yeah,” Kanako said. “Um, it’s important to try new things, I think. It can change your inspiration and point of view. Since the protagonist is in high school, I thought that finding out how normal high school students think, and the kinds of places they go, would be good reference.”

“Oh, I see,” said Yuichi. “Okay. I’ll do anything I can to help. So what’s in the prologue you’ve written?” It was unlikely that a layman high school student could offer any advice to a professional writer, but she really seemed to be at her wits’ end, so maybe he could help dislodge something.

“The love interest is decapitated in the gymnasium,” said Kanako. “The protagonist tries to stop it, but he’s not in time. That’s the prologue.”

“The love interest dies?!” Yuichi couldn’t say she shouldn’t do it, but it seemed a bit off for a light novel.

“Yeah... is it bad if she dies?” Kanako tilted her head prettily.

“Um, so... it’s not a thing where she didn’t really die, or it’s a fantasy story so she comes back to life later, or it was really her twin sister who died, or it was a hallucination, or something like that?” he asked.

“No. She’s really dead. Otherwise, the protagonist’s actions afterwards will seem like a farce.”

“The love interest really never appears again?” he asked incredulously.

“...in flashbacks, mostly?” She tilted her head prettily again, but it wasn’t enough to distract Yuichi from his confusion.

“If it’s giving you trouble, couldn’t you change it?” he asked. “Have her saved in the nick of time, maybe?”

“No!” Kanako insisted. “I have it in my head that the love interest threw away her life to save the protagonist, and she’s killed by a god of death in the form of angel! I can’t change it!”

“What made you decide to do that, anyway?” Yuichi asked.

“Well, I was told that impact is the most important thing for the beginning of a story...”

“So you were only thinking about the impact... I guess I really can’t advise you on the story, after all,” he said. “Then cheering you up is the best I can do. Have you thought about where you want to go next?”

Kanako silently shook her head.

“I see... sorry,” Yuichi said regretfully. “I should have asked more before we came out here. Then I could have thought more on places to go.”

Yuichi had only ever gone around in the city with girls he was related to, so he didn’t know much about where kids usually went.

“We’re high school students, right?” he asked. “So we wouldn’t go anywhere that costs too much money... maybe karaoke, or to a movie. A zoo’s a bit childish... what about an aquarium?” Unable to think of much in particular, he began naming random things in desperation.

Kanako smiled, seeming to find that funny.

“Ah, did I say something awkward?” he asked.

“No, I was thinking you’re a nice boy, Sakaki the Younger.”

“Please don’t tease me,” he said. Kanako was older than him, but Yuichi still didn’t like being treated like a child.

✽✽✽✽✽

Aiko and Yoriko followed the couple stealthily into the restaurant, and took seats some distance away.

“This is the restaurant the truck crashed into,” said Aiko.

That had been at the end of July, after their summer camp, and it looked like the damage had been completely repaired.

“I suppose they’ll have lunch here first,” said Yoriko.

“It looks like they’re talking about something, but I can’t tell what...” Aiko wondered what they were supposed to accomplish by sitting this far away.

Yoriko just gave her a confident wink. It was in theatrical gestures like that that her relation to Mutsuko was plain to see. “It’s okay. I can read lips!”

“You’re really talented, Yoriko...” Aiko said. Yoriko was extremely strong and even had special skills like lip reading. Her resume was very impressive.

After they ordered lunch, Yoriko began reading their conversation with an intent expression. Aiko just watched quietly, knowing she shouldn’t interrupt.

“He’s saying they might go to karaoke or a movie or an aquarium... wait a minute, this really is a date!” Yoriko said in indignation after a while.

She’d said before she wouldn’t get in their way, but just as Aiko had thought, she really couldn’t accept it.

“Isn’t the aquarium a little far?” Aiko asked. “Oh, but there’s a shellfish museum close by...”

“That one’s nothing but lines of oyster shells,” said Yoriko. “Only a real ocean geek would want to go there for a date...”

“You’ve been there?” Aiko asked.

“My dating spot simulations are perfect!”

“Ahh...”

“I beg your pardon! Why are you looking at me like that?”

It sounded like she had been planning out places to go with Yuichi. Aiko found it funny, but Yoriko didn’t seem to take it that way.

“It must be material for a story, right?” Aiko asked, changing the subject. “I wonder what kind.”

“It seems it’s an isekai school story, but she’s having trouble because she hasn’t figured anything out... but it’s a bit unfair, don’t you think?” Yoriko burst out. “If it’s for a story, there are no limits to what she could ask for! She could even drag him to a love hotel!”

“What are you talking about, Yoriko?” Aiko was taken aback by her use of the term. It was terrifying, the things middle school students knew these days.

“Oh, please, don’t act so flustered,” Yoriko said. “There are light novels about high school big brothers and middle school little sisters going to love hotels, aren’t there?”

“Wouldn’t that be against some sort of law?!” Aiko had a hard time believing something like that really existed.

“Regardless, it is clear that Orihara has become a powerful rival,” Yoriko said. “She’s just playing the airhead to get my brother to do whatever she wants. And he’ll do whatever she wants, so it’s not a bad racket...” Yoriko’s listless sigh had a strange emotion behind it.

“Speaking of which, how do you view me, Yoriko?” Aiko asked. Talking with her like this made Aiko feel a little bit strange. She had been sure that Yoriko hated her, after all.

“I’m on guard about you as a rival too, all right?” Yoriko snapped. “But of the women in my brother’s presence, I think you’re one of the safer ones.”

“The safer ones?” Aiko wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“Because you’re not aggressive,” Yoriko added. “Although I was surprised when you came at him that night at the training camp!”

“Th-That was different! I was, um, sleepwalking, and...” To be precise, Aiko hadn’t really been sleepwalking. She’d remembered some of it, and though it had been through a sort of madness, she had done it all willingly.

“I know that,” Yoriko said. “You would never have the backbone for it, after all.”

“I-It’s not about backbone... I...” Aiko stammered, feeling a little flustered by what sounded like mockery.

As they were talking, the dishes they ordered arrived, and Aiko decided to distract herself with her food.

✽✽✽✽✽

It all felt a bit strange to Kanako, walking around town with her friend’s little brother.

It was her first time walking around with a boy like this, but she wasn’t especially nervous, maybe because Yuichi was acting the way he always did.

Kanako had had many attempted suitors in the past, but she had rejected them all. She didn’t have that much confidence in her looks, but she knew objectively that she had a large chest, so she hadn’t been able to escape the thought that that was all they were looking at.

If they were interested in her breasts, then it followed that if she had a relationship with them, they would eventually have children. And as she had told Yuichi before, Kanako had no faith in her ability to love a child.

“Um... can we talk about something not related to your next novel?” Yuichi asked. They had left the cafe and gone walking, and he’d proposed the change of subject with an apologetic tone.

“Yes,” Kanako said. “Don’t worry about it. I just want you to act like you always do.” She felt bad for Yuichi, who was trying so hard. At the same time, she found it cute.

“Oh, really?” Yuichi said, looking relieved. “So, um... I read your book.”

“Did you?” Kanako asked. “Why now? Was it because you were going out with me today?”

“Yeah, pretty much. I borrowed it from my sister and read it.” Yuichi winced as she saw right through him. “It’s not what I imagined, from hearing my sister talk about it. I thought the protagonist would be a real tough guy.”

“Yes,” Kanako agreed. “In the first volume, he doesn’t even have a proper fight, and his power isn’t very good.” The protagonist of My Demon Lord Is Too Cute to Kill and Now the World is in Danger! was the Hero of Scales. The only power he had was to know which of two choices was better, and as of the first volume, it had been completely useless.

“But it was really fun,” Yuichi added.

Maybe he was just being solicitous, but Kanako thanked him anyway.

Then she froze.

She didn’t know why she had frozen, at first. Her mind had made a connection, unconsciously, and signaled her body to stop. But it took longer than that instant for her conscious mind to recognize the reason.

The surrounding world seemed to drift away. Everything around her was hazy. Only one tiny portion of it remained, cast into bright, vivid relief.

On the other side of Yuichi, not far away, a father and mother were walking with their child.

The boy, still very young, stood between them, jumping and playing.

The very picture of a happy family; that was what anyone would think. But Kanako rejected it. She knew it couldn’t be true.

She searched that picture for any sign, no matter how trivial, of the unhappiness that surely lurked beneath. But she could not find it. Not even a fragment.

Kanako’s mind could not accept what she was seeing.

She didn’t want to understand what it meant.

To see her absent mother, Chinatsu, smiling happily at her child.

✽✽✽✽✽

Kanako Orihara’s mother had never said a single kind word to her.

Kanako hadn’t realized that was true until she went over to a friend’s house to play in middle school. But even then, there had been nothing she could do about it.

What if her friend got 80% on a test? That was above average, and she would receive praise from her mother for such a score. Sometimes, she said, she even got extra snacks for it.

But what would Kanako’s mother, Chinatsu Orihara, say about it?

“You know, I always got perfect scores on my tests in elementary school. Elementary school problems are so easy, you know.” It wasn’t open mockery, but her meaning was clear: anyone should be able to get a perfect score.

Kanako had decided, in that case, that she just had to get perfect scores. But when she did, and triumphantly declared that fact to her, her mother’s attitude remained the same.

“You know, Kanako, nobody likes a braggart. Are you just studying to try to earn praise? That’s not what it’s for. You should be studying for your own sake.” She’d admonish her daughter with a smile.

When she was very small, Kanako had often forgotten things she needed for school. This was something else she couldn’t help. The teacher had even told her parents to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, but Kanako’s mother hadn’t done that.

It wasn’t that she’d forgotten, or that she’d found it too much trouble. She would carefully study all the print-outs, so that she would know what Kanako needed for the next day’s class. But she wouldn’t warn her daughter, or remind her. So Kanako would forget something, get yelled at, and come back. And what would follow?

“I knew it. You really are hopeless, Kanako.” Her mother would laugh as if she’d done something outrageous. “I knew about it since yesterday, but if I told you, you wouldn’t learn anything from it,” she would assert.

One time, Kanako had vomited in school. It was because of her mother’s cooking, which appeared to have been rotten.

She’d spent some time in the hospital then, and her mother had come dutifully to her side. Yet even then, she’d shown no signs of apology. “I took a bite and thought it tasted strange, but you seemed to be enjoying it, so I assumed it was fine...”

It wasn’t enough to be called neglect, and she’d taken just enough care of her daughter so as not to invite comment. She’d never been violent to her or used abusive language. She just never said one kind word, or supported her, ever.

When Kanako’s father was around, he often took her side. But her father was busy with work, so he was almost never home. That left her all alone with her mother.

Her words, so gentle on the outside, yet so laced with venom, slowly opened a wound inside Kanako.

There was no one to protect her, no one to see how deeply she’d been hurt.

Over time, she began to think of her mother as a monster. An insect without a human heart. A poor machine programmed to act like a mother.

Such thoughts were how Kanako shielded herself from the unbearable thought that a mother might feel spite towards her child.

Her mother had left right after summer vacation had started in her first year of middle school. It had been an amicable separation.

Kanako should have welcomed the departure of the mother who did not love her. Even if it made her life a little harder, it should have been nothing compared to the psychological burden she had borne during the previous years. Indeed, that might seem to be the case, on the surface.

The reality was different.

In reality, Kanako felt a deep sense of abandonment.

Kanako had avoided coming home most days because she hadn’t wanted to see her mother, but having her completely removed from her life opened a void inside her heart. It made Kanako realize that no matter how her mother treated her, she still loved her mother, and wanted to be loved by her.

A monster, an insect, a machine. She had tried to tell herself that her mother was these things, but in the end, she never convinced herself of it.

Instead, her heart had continued holding on to a dream. Perhaps, when she grew up, then she would be able to understand and forgive her mother. Perhaps they would be able to look back together and laugh at all that had happened.

But with her mother gone, that had been no longer possible. In place of that dream came a deep sense of rejection.

Kanako hadn’t cared what might happen anymore, to anyone.

“It was just a divorce,” some might say. “It’s not like it was abuse, just insufficient affection.”

But it didn’t feel that way to Kanako.

It was a little while after her mother had left her that Kanako had begun to think about suicide.

✽✽✽✽✽

The next thing Kanako knew, she was in her own room, in bed.

She reached a sluggish hand for the bedside table, and checked her alarm clock.

It was night.

She touched her face with her hands. Her eyelids were damp. She had a vague memory of crying.

Yuichi must have brought her home. She wondered how worried he must have been after seeing her freeze up like that.

But as the memory of that afternoon came back to her, she realized that she didn’t care.

The sight of that happy family.

She couldn’t understand.

That woman shouldn’t have been capable of such an expression. She wasn’t a happy, loving person who smiled kindly at her child.

It was unbelievable.

All that woman did was look down on people and laugh at them. She simply wasn’t capable of loving anybody.

As long as that was the case, it would be fine. It was a hard thing for Kanako to accept, but after her mother had been gone for a while, she’d begun to think of things that way. Maybe her mother had just been born that way, or maybe it was something in how she had been raised, but Kanako had decided that that was the reason her mother hadn’t loved her, and she was trying to forgive her for that. She simply could not hate her mother.

“Why...” Kanako murmured to herself, even knowing that no answer would come to her.

“Shall I tell you?” But suddenly, there was a voice.

Kanako sat up and turned to face it.

A woman stood at the entrance to the room. A woman with glasses, whom she had seen before.

“First, let me quell any silly misconceptions you might have,” the woman said. “The reason I’m here is that the front door was unlocked. I didn’t just appear out of nowhere.”

“You’re the sorceress...” Kanako whispered. The woman she’d met in the library as a child that day. The woman who had set a book in front of her and left. The woman who had changed Kanako’s life.

“I didn’t think you’d make it this far. I thought you might kill yourself when your mother left,” the woman whispered, with deep emotion in her voice.

Kanako could do nothing but stare, dumbstruck, at the woman.

It was definitely strange for a woman she’d only met once, long ago, to come barging into her room. But Kanako gave no thought to driving her out.

She didn’t care about anything anymore. Whoever she was, or whatever she was saying to her... none of it mattered.

“I did want you to feel despair, but I can’t have you completely breaking down,” the woman said. “Please, try to get it together a bit more. There’s no way I can win the Evil God story now, so I really need my Plan B.”

The woman walked closer, squatted down, and peered into Kanako’s face. Kanako’s eyes, reflected in the woman’s, were empty, but Kanako couldn’t tell.