Natsuo stood quietly and watched the black car drive away. He didn't wave.
Scaring those classmates with the snake had gone as expected, but the ripple effects afterward had been a bit unexpected. Maybe Yukino was right, he'd been a little reckless this time.
Next time he let a snake loose, he should remember to add, "Stick to the sewers, or you're ending up in a soup pot."
Oh well. Next time he ran into that snake, soup it was.
Turning around, Natsuo headed toward the train station.
There had been an extra person in the Yukinoshita family car today. He hadn't seen her around after school before maybe an older sister or something.
Pretty intimidating. She'd been trying so hard to stare at him through the privacy glass.
He entered the station, swiped his card, and made his way to the platform.
His home wasn't in Inage Ward, but in neighboring Kamiyama Ward just three stops away.
It wasn't like he hadn't considered going to school in Kamiyama. He could've had Eru bring him homemade lunches every day, soaked up the sun together, told her little stories.
But the kids in Kamiyama were kind of a handful. With their parents' influence, they all treated him like the next master of the shrine. Every time they saw him, they practically bowed ninety degrees.
With kids like that, the best thing to do was keep your distance. Otherwise, once they got older and started thinking for themselves, they might hit that rebellious phase and start wondering, "Who does this guy think he is? Why do my parents expect me to treat him with so much respect?"
Then would come the bullying. And before long, he'd end up like Yukino, unable to find his shoes in the locker every morning.
Well, the shoe thing was probably just a Yukino problem.
Leaning against the train door, Natsuo watched the scenery shift from concrete and steel to farmland and hills.
He suddenly thought something about Yukino's situation was a bit odd.
It wasn't the first time he'd seen her indoor shoes go missing. Last time, there'd even been a dog pawing at the lockers. Felt like something out of a weird urban legend.
Lost in idle thoughts, he stepped off the train, glanced around the nearly empty station, and headed toward home.
The Kamiyama station was one of those open-air platforms. Just a ticket gate, a vending machine or two, and nothing else.
Convenient, honestly. At least there was no security checkpoint to deal with.
Swiping out, Natsuo skipped the main road lined with houses and took the narrow path through the fields instead, breathing in the odd mix of earth and straw.
Despite his name meaning "born in summer," Natsuo wasn't really a fan of the season. It wasn't just the heat, the cicadas were way too loud. They didn't even let up at dusk.
He nudged aside a small dog that had run out from somewhere, ignoring its hurt expression as he kept walking along the quiet path.
Crossing a river and passing a road lined with cherry trees, he stopped in front of a house not far from a small hill.
Reaching up to slip his bag off his shoulder, he carried it in hand and asked curiously, "Why didn't you go inside?"
The girl standing there with both hands clasped around a cloth bag in front of her had long hair flowing over her shoulders. Her eyes lit up with joy, her brows softening, the corners of her mouth curving upward. With a gentle squint, she answered in a well-behaved tone, "Because I was waiting for my brother to come home."
Natsuo walked toward his house, the gate of which wasn't even closed. "My place doesn't lock. You could've just gone in."
Chitanda Eru kept pace beside him, hesitating. "But my brother wasn't home."
He waved it off. "Just think of it as watching the place for me. In case any thieves show up."
"Eh?" Eru followed him onto the porch, set her cloth bag aside, and sat down next to him on the bench, tilting her head. "But in Kamiyama, no one would ever steal from my brother's house."
Natsuo looked into those pale violet eyes, then turned away, thinking. "Maybe someone would have a sudden change of heart and decide to steal. That's why I need you to keep an eye on the place."
Eru glanced toward the open door of the living room and replied hesitantly, "But… my brother's house doesn't even have a TV. There's nothing valuable to steal."
Natsuo fell silent for a moment. A TV… maybe he'd buy one tomorrow. Otherwise, the place really did look like an empty shell.
He turned to the person sitting beside him. "So, was there something you needed today?"
Eru blinked, as if she herself had momentarily forgotten what she'd come for. After a short while, her eyes gradually widened, the violet deepening, slowly brightening.
"Brother's story from last time isn't finished yet! I'm curious!"
With that, Chitanda Eru reached out and grabbed his arm, leaning in close, her eyes fixed on him without blinking.
Natsuo quietly leaned his head back, trying to recall. "Where did I leave off?"
Eru turned back to face forward, thinking as she answered. "Last time, the big brother finally reached the end of his journey and met his final enemy. He had a cleaver in his hand, and he cut his way from the Southern Gates of Heaven all the way to the Eastern Paradise, back and forth for three whole days and nights. Blood flowed like rivers, and all the while he just kept raising his cleaver and bringing it down, raise, bring down, raise, bring down, without blinking even once."
Natsuo remembered now. "Ah, yeah, that's where we left off."
Eru tilted her head. "I kept thinking about it in class today. If he was going back and forth for three whole days without blinking, wouldn't his eyes get dry?"
Natsuo thought for a moment before answering. "Nope. He had really good eyes, so it didn't bother him."
"I see." Eru nodded earnestly, her eyes narrowing into crescents. "As expected of the big brother. He's amazing."
Natsuo glanced at the admiration in her eyes, rubbed his chin, and nodded. "Yeah, pretty amazing… most people couldn't keep it up that long."
Eru picked up her cloth bag, pulled out a lunchbox, opened it, and carefully picked up a rice ball to hand to him. "So what happened next? What happened to the big brother?"
Natsuo took the rice ball, bit into it, and chewed as he spoke. "He had no family left, and no friends. He had a master who taught him martial arts, but that master had wandered off into somewhere, and even he couldn't find him. So after he took revenge, he suddenly didn't know what to do next. But luck was on his side, that day happened to be his eighteenth birthday, and it also happened to be a Thursday."
He swallowed the rice ball and looked up at the sunset over the distant hills. "When he was in elementary school, he'd often hear his classmates talk about KFC's Thursday special meal deal. It was supposed to be really good, but after graduating, he'd been too busy killing and burning things to ever try it."
"That day, he went to the store and bought a whole order of crispy fried chicken, plus six egg tarts. He walked down the street, eating as he went, celebrating turning eighteen and finally getting his revenge."
"He walked and walked until he came to a crossroads. He stood there eating his chicken, waiting for the light to change. Next to him was a little girl with a balloon, also waiting for the light."
"Then, out of nowhere, just as he was eating his last chicken wing, a truck ran the red light and barreled straight toward him."
"What did he do? Did he dodge its attack?"
"Dodge? No."
"Oh, right the little girl was next to him." Eru nodded earnestly. "The big brother was actually a very kind person."
"No, he wasn't." Natsuo grabbed another rice ball and bit into it. "He just thought that truck was breaking the traffic laws, and it shouldn't be him who moved."
"So he turned around, took a few steps toward the truck, and smashed it into scrap."
"As expected of the big brother!" Eru's eyes lit up.
"Right?" Natsuo swallowed the rice ball, looking thoughtful. "But maybe he was too worn out, or maybe that truck's strength really was too much for him. When he walked out of the wreckage holding that last chicken wing, the world had already changed. The clouds in the sky were gone, and all that was left was a full moon."
"He didn't have time to figure out what kind of new world he'd landed in, because his body and strength were fading fast. In just a few seconds, the chicken wing fell to the ground, and he had turned into a baby lying there, wailing."
"That sounds really dangerous." Eru grabbed the edge of his sleeve.
"Yeah, it was pretty dangerous. But he got lucky. An old shrine maiden happened to pass by and took him home."
"The old woman gave him a new name and taught him how to perform divine arts techniques that used the power of the gods. But he thought his old master's training was better, so he never really took it seriously."
"He started getting to know this new world, growing up all over again."