Chapter 270: Traces of the Past
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 270: Traces of the Past
"So, Fuma-senpai, what happens if Chiaki doesn't resolve her grudge and stays like this?"
Fuma-senpai, who had just taken a large bite of her hamburger, answered while munching on the contents of her mouth.
"There's a common expression, 'to wander the earth.' A soul that fails to pass on cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation and is doomed to wander the human world endlessly. Among them, if a soul with a grudge so deep becomes tainted by malice, it becomes a yokai that harms people."
"A yokai..."
According to Fuma-senpai, there are specialists in Japan's underworld who exclusively hunt yokai.
The Fuma clan is one of them. Originally a village-based mercenary group, they apparently retreated into the mountains after facing near-annihilation during the Sengoku period and have made exorcism their trade ever since.
"What's more, this girl is a soul with so much yin energy that even our clan, which has fought yokai for hundreds of years, mistook her for a great yokai. Just because she isn't dangerous right now, if we leave her be, in a few years, a great yokai capable of shaking the nation, like Sutoku Tengu, could be born."
"I see."
The scale of the story was much larger than I'd thought, and I couldn't help but wear a dazed expression.
「If you're not gonna eat these fries, can I have them all?」
Regardless of our conversation, Chiaki was still only interested in the food.
'This kid is the seed of a great yokai?'
I stared at her blankly for a moment before pushing the french fries toward her, signaling that she could have them all.
Technically, it was an offering of food to a spirit, so it wasn't like the fries on the tray would actually disappear.
I just had to wait until she was done and then eat them myself.
In any case, I decided to finish my conversation with Fuma-senpai.
"So, it would be best to resolve her grudge if possible, right?"
"That's right. To be honest, if it weren't for you and your Extreme Yang Body, she's absolutely not a ghost that a normal human could handle."
At Fuma-senpai's words, I couldn't help but picture Ryuji, who had a ghost on a similar level to Chiaki with him.
Handling Chiaki alone was tough enough, but that guy had two of them, including Mahes... what in the world...
I suppose it was the protagonist's buff, but thinking about it again, he was such an OP character.
"Well, I think that's enough of a warning. I should get going now. My break time isn't unlimited."
Fuma-senpai, who had been diligently eating her hamburger throughout our conversation, stood up with her now-empty tray.
As she was about to throw away the trash, she turned back as if she had just remembered something.
"Kim Yoo-Sung, do you have any plans for New Year's morning?"
"No, not really."
"Then would you like to go to the shrine with us? Meiling-unni and I are planning to go for a New Year's visit."
"Meiling-unni...? When did you two get so close?"
"We exchanged LINE IDs at the fight club when we went to watch your fight with Ivan."
Shrugging, Fuma-senpai asked, "So, what's your answer?"
Of course, since I had no other plans, I gave her the okay.
"Sure. I can do that."
I wanted to see Meiling too; it had been a while.
"Alright, I'll count you in then."
Waving goodbye, Fuma-senpai dropped the empty tray in the return bin and went back down to the first floor for her part-time job.
*
After finishing off the fries Chiaki had left behind, we decided to head home, albeit a little early.
It was because Chiaki was making a fuss, worrying that Ryuji would be concerned if we stayed out too late.
「Ah! I miss this place! It's still here!」
After taking the subway back to Setagaya, while we were walking toward the tower mansion where Ryuji lived, Chiaki suddenly stopped and exclaimed.
Wondering what was going on, I followed her gaze to a playground in the park.
「Here! This is where Ryuji, Maiya, and I used to play when we were kids!」
"Really?"
I looked at the playground Chiaki was pointing at with a new sense of awareness.
The playground in the citizen's park was clearly weathered by time.
Likely due to a long period of neglect, much of the equipment was rusted red.
It was originally a popular spot for the neighborhood kids, but a newer, bigger, and flashier playground had recently been built in another park, so now no one ever came here.
Digging through my old memories, I think the younger Kim Yoo-Sung might have come here to play, but being an indoor person, he must have quickly lost interest and gone home to read manga.
It's kind of sad to think that while some were making sweet memories at the playground, someone else was cooped up in his room watching anime all day.
「We always used to play house here when we met up. Back then, we'd pull each other's hair fighting over who would be Ryuji's wife, but Maiya was always the one to give in. She knew I was sick.」
Chiaki gazed at the playground's sandbox, lost in thought, before flying through the air and landing on top of the slide.
「Thinking about it now, Maiya has changed so much. She used to be as much of a tomboy as me, but now she's so much more mellow.」
I recalled the quiet Yaguchi I saw in the classroom and the energetic Yaguchi I saw when I went to the dojo with Meiling.
"Maybe you're mistaken, Chiaki."
「About what?」
"Girls tend to act coy in front of the person they like."
Yaguchi's true personality might be closer to the tomboy Chiaki described.
After all, a person's personality doesn't change that easily.
Chiaki slid down the slide and looked back at it with a dissatisfied expression, as if something was bothering her.
「That's no fun.」
"What's no fun?"
「It felt so long before, but now it feels short.」
I said with a wry smile.
"That's because you've grown up."
Although she was a ghost whose appearance no longer changed, her current form was at least that of a middle schooler.
Since girls hit puberty earlier than boys, it wasn't strange that her body size had changed so drastically.
「I wanna go again.」
With that, Chiaki went back up the slide. It took about five more trips before she was finally able to escape the slide's clutches.
To catch our breath, I sat on a nearby bench and asked Chiaki as she slowly approached.
"By the way, how old were you when you left this town?"
「Me?」
As if the memory was too old to recall clearly, Chiaki counted on her fingers.
「Maybe 9? It's probably been about 10 years? My symptoms started getting worse as I entered the upper grades of elementary school.」
"So you made that marriage promise back then?"
「...Why are you suddenly asking about that?」
"Just curious. I don't know what you guys were like in the past."
As I shrugged, Chiaki averted her gaze slightly and answered.
「Like I said before, I was frail since I was little, so Ryuji was the first friend I ever made. I wanted to make sure he wouldn't forget me even after I left town. Looking back, it feels like such an irresponsible promise.」
I gave a wry smile at her words.
"Like you said, you were just a kid. It's normal to make a promise like that. And in the end, you two met again, right?"
At that, Chiaki seemed to have a realization. 「Yeah. It's all thanks to you,」 she replied in a much calmer voice.
Then, without any warning, she suddenly bowed deeply to me.
「I know this is long overdue, but thank you for bringing me back to this town. Thanks to you, I was able to see Ryuji again.」
"Hey, what's with the sudden formality? You're making me flustered."
I waved my hands in a hurry.
Ignoring me, Chiaki remained bowed.
Seeing someone who never acts like this suddenly be so polite had a devastating impact.
Finally, Chiaki straightened up and said teasingly with a bright smile.
「Hehe, did I fluster you by acting like that all of a sudden?」
"Is that even a question..."
I let out a sigh of relief seeing Chiaki back to her usual self and stood up from the bench, saying it was time to go.
Chiaki walked over to me and lightly punched me in the chest.
「But still, everything I just said was sincere. Thanks to you, Yoo-Sung, I'm even here in the first place. When I think back on it, from what happened before to what happened today, I've done nothing but rely on you.」
"If you know that, then treat me a little better."
As I made a gesture of dusting off my chest, Chiaki stared at me for a moment before saying with a mischievous smile.
「I'm glad you're my friend.」
Her heartfelt words were like a magic spell that washed away all the fatigue I'd felt from being dragged around all day.
"You're welcome."
I replied, feeling strangely embarrassed as I brushed a finger under my nose.