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It was the day after we paid another visit to the circus. In other words, Tuesday.

Today, classes also ended after only four hours. Before I started dating Mika, I’d spend such days by fully immersing myself in video games, but I could no longer do that. Come to think of it, I barely played those recently. That said, I usually got scolded if I did nothing but play games.

Our school was strict when it came to studying, so people were on edge with the end of the term just a few weeks away. Well, it was mostly the teachers, and the higher-ranking ones at that.

“That’s it for today. See~ ya,” the listless voice of the teacher on day duty today echoed through the room.

We got up in unison and shouldered our satchels.

“See you tomorrow, then.”
“Woof, see you!”
“Right, later.”
“Bye, you two.”

Shuu and Rir had club activities now. With the prefectural tournament in four days, they were training extra hard. I had confidence in Shuu stealing the show and emerging the champion of the national tournament.

Huh, “Shuu stealing the show”, that’s almost a pun¹.

“What will we do today once we’re home?” Mika asked.
“Hm, what to do…”

We’d hung out in each other’s rooms for ages now, so we started to run out of things to do. We mostly played games. Recently, not sure if it was because of our stats, Mika started getting quite good at them. She’d been better than me at beat ’em ups and first-person shooters from the start, but that now also included virtual board games.

“Then how about we play a racing game today and the loser has to strip?”
“We can’t do that, we’re not in Anazumu…”
“Oh, you’re right.”

Every now and then, Mika wanted us to play strip versions of various games. I already knew what signs to watch out for. We were currently on Earth, so we couldn’t just do that.

“Mrr.”
“Is something wrong?”

She had suddenly stopped in place.

“No, I just got a feeling.”
“Your intuition? What does it tell you this time?”
“That we should pay the Jizou statue a visit, seeing it’s been a while.”

We actually visited the statue once per week, but we just finished two weeks in Anazumu, so it really felt like it had been a while.

“Let’s go there, then.”
“Alright!”

Thus, we made a detour to the statue on our way back home. We stood in front of it and folded our hands in prayer, though we had no idea if this was the correct way.

“How many years have we been coming here already?” I wondered.
“Let’s see, I’ve been coming here since one year before your family moved in, so… 16 years?”
“That would make it 15 years for me.”

Time flies so fast… and the statue still is squeaky clean, you’d never think it’s decades or even centuries old. It’s incredible… as if it was made with material from Anazumu. Well, it was what sent us over there, so I guess it’s not impossible.

“Mh, alright, let’s go home.”
“Yep.”

We were about to leave and looked back. That moment, a man wearing a black hood entered my field of view. I couldn’t see his face.

“Huh.”
“When did he…”

It looked like Mika had seen him too, meaning I wasn’t hallucinating.

“Eh… what’s with that guy…”
“No clue…”

Could it be that he came here to abduct us? Not that I was positive about that, but we’d been in situations when it almost happened, so I was extremely wary.

“Huh… what a coincidence.”
“…?”

The way he spoke in undertones made him appear even scarier.

“Time passed quickly. The two of you have grown up and become quite beautiful.”
“Wh-Wh-What are you saying?”

From how he spoke, the man seemed to know us.
But from where…?

“Ayumu, didn’t your younger brother tell you about me?”
“Oh…”

Right, this guy must be the suspicious man with the black hood Kanata mentioned. The one who knows about us.

“Y-Yes, he told us.”
“I see, ha-ha-ha-ha!”

What’s going on with him? He seems super excited… Also, he said my name earlier. Even assuming he has a connection to Anazumu, no one from there except for Mr. Mitsuo should know my name.

“So, what’s this about?”
“Oh, I just wanted to see your faces. No other reason.”
“I-I see…”
“In any case, that’s farewell for now. We’ll surely meet again,” the hooded man spoke and then vanished with a poof, as if he were a ghost.

“…We’ll end up meeting him again, huh?”
“Probably.”
“Just what is this about…”
“There is no one in Anazumu who knew us when we were little, right?”
“There shouldn’t be.”

It was scary not knowing what this man’s goal was.
Ugh… is that why Kanata told us to be ready to fight?

“By the way, Ayumu.”
“Hm?”

For some reason, Mika seemed bashfully happy.
What’s brought that on?

“Uhm, thank you for always trying to protect me.”
“Ah, sure.”

Now that she mentioned it, she was right. At this point, I was probably doing it unconsciously.

“Eh-heh-heh…”

And even though we were in public, she kissed me on my cheek.

1. In the original, he notices that 翔が優勝 (“Shou is the champion”), which reads as “shou ga yushou”, sounds like a pun.

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