The Night That Followed
After that night in No Longer Human, I never saw Tsuneko again. In the moment I bowed my head in cowardice before fear instead of protecting her, I had forfeited any right to love. The weight of my debt and guilt toward her crushed me. To avoid running into her, I simply lay in my room at the Sen'yukan boarding house like a corpse, dying a little more each day.
I couldn't bring myself to go outside because I dreaded encountering the communists. The thought of facing the people I had betrayed filled me with unbearable terror. But what frightened me most was something else entirely. Whenever I saw the crimson sunset fading, my hands would tremble violently. In other words, the approach of night terrified me more than the night itself.
When I was pathetically shaking like that, the daughter of the Sen'yukan boarding house would come to my room, just as she always did, and insist on chatting about this and that. In those moments, I had no choice but to play along—reading her obvious intentions, pretending to take her one-sided advice about how I really ought to attend school, listening to stories about her utterly uninteresting day, and asking polite questions I couldn't care less about. It was all a form of service I was forced to provide.
As I endured that daily ordeal, it gradually became difficult to tell whether the goblin's night had been a real event or merely a seizure of my own mind. I also grew tired of feeling indebted to the young lady, and staying cooped up in that second-floor room all day became uncomfortable. In the end, I had no choice but to steel myself, accept the risk of running into the party members, and decide to return to high school.
"Found you."
Just how many days of school had this guy been skipping? I woke up from a nap in a tree and nearly lost my mind when I realized the protagonist had vanished. Searching for one person in this old-timey Japan where neither speech nor writing worked had been absolute hell.
My routine for the past several weeks had been brutal: in the mornings I'd scrutinize every commuting high school student one by one, during the day I'd spread a blanket on a suitable rooftop for a nap, and as soon as dusk fell I'd stake out the red-light district in case he was there. At night I'd check wealthy-looking houses to see if the protagonist might be hiding in one, all while stealing whatever food I could get my hands on. It was a lifestyle perfectly designed to make me sick and die, yet somehow I'd only grown healthier. If anything, I was in better shape than before.
The Sleep Well skill was performing far beyond expectations.
Falls asleep easily. Recovery is accelerated.
Effect:Not only fatigue but also sprained ankles and cuts from sharp roof tiles heal rapidly.
Bonus:Immune to colds even after sleeping in the rain.
After the school bell rang, I spotted the protagonist among the gloomy crowd of boys in black uniforms, looking like death warmed over. Instead of acting immediately, I decided to wait until school let out and first confirm which building he was staying in.
The boarding house he entered was shabbier than I'd expected. It wasn't that the house itself was particularly bad—it just looked rundown compared to the grand residences I'd been checking until now.
"So I've been searching in all the wrong places..."
It left me feeling a bit empty, but the soft fabric of my clothes and the food stored in my inventory kept my spirits steady. Now that I'd found the kid, what should I do next? For starters, constant surveillance seemed wise. Whenever he went to the red-light district, I'd show up and knock some sense into him. Keeping his health in check was also crucial. I wasn't entirely sure, but if I fed him multivitamins and protein, it should work out somehow...
"I'm going to need some supplies. Intrusion terminated."
[Intrusion Terminated]
[Intrusion Settlement...]
[+20pt Acquired]
[You have twisted the protagonist's fate. +40pt Acquired]
[Theft Lv.1 Acquired]
[Tracking Lv.1 Acquired]
[Fear Lv.1 Acquired]
"Why do all these skills look so shady?"