“After school, I’m going to pick up his son with Toji. He’s a younger brother who’s one year younger than us… Yuta, please go home first, okay?”
When they were getting ready for lunch break, Okkotsu Yuta was setting out bedding for the two of them, and Sakurai Hoshi was crouched beside him as she said this.
There was mizuganjun on the lunchbox Hoshi liked, and she had given her own portion to Yuta as well. That sweet scent, like flowers and fruit, still seemed to linger on her body now. Okkotsu could not help leaning in and sniffing lightly.
Maybe it was the scent of Hoshi herself that was attracting him.
“W-where are you going to pick him up? I, I can…” Okkotsu did not want to leave her, but refusing Sakurai Hoshi was, for him, always a very difficult thing. That cautious expression came back to his face. His fingers clutched tightly at the girl’s blanket as he glanced at Sakurai Hoshi’s expression.
“I’ll get along with my younger brother properly. Wouldn’t it be better if we all went to pick him up together? If Big Brother and Big Sister are there too, maybe he’ll be happier——” Okkotsu Yuta’s words came to an abrupt halt.
Sakurai Hoshi seemed to be thinking. He rarely saw her with such a hesitant expression.
“Sorry, Yuta, but… I think Toji may need a little more space… This isn’t an easy thing for him.”
Although Fushiguro Toji always looked like he did not care about anything, the goddess could feel what was deeply hidden under him.
You’ve taken a really difficult step, Toji.
A person who had protected himself with layer upon layer of armor had opened the most soft, fragile, and fatal point to her.
As one of the people who helped bring this result about, the goddess had to protect, within the extent of what she could do, that weakness that could not be shown to others.
Okkotsu Yuta lowered his head, looking somewhat lost.
He had been rejected.
Unable to control himself, he moved closer to her and heard his own dry voice say disjointed things: “Will Hoshi live together with them? Live together and go to school together… and will she still be together with me in the future?”
The change in his emotions finally drew the goddess’s attention back.
She met Okkotsu’s eyes a little uncertainly, and was thrown into complete disarray by his face at such close range, his eyes slightly red, his lips pressed together: “W-wait! Yuta, don’t do that…”
The one who had always been the one bullying Okkotsu Yuta actually had a day when she was made red-faced by Yuta’s fussing.
The player miss awkwardly turned her face away. “Honestly, Yuta, you’re way too cunning…”
Every time he wanted to say something she was not allowed to refuse, he would show that kind of expression… He clearly knew she was the most helpless against him looking like that.
“Will Hoshi live together with them? Will you move? Tell me, okay?” Okkotsu Yuta also turned red with embarrassment. He gave a shy smile, but there was no real smile in his slightly lowered eyes.
Usually Okkotsu Yuta always had the personality of a soft lump of dough, as if no matter what Sakurai Hoshi said or did he would not resist. Only very rarely would he reveal the stubborn side of his personality.
Based on the fact that, at present, among the people around them only Fushiguro Toji could see curses, and the goddess lady almost unconditionally tolerated family and friends… this somewhat extreme nature had not yet been exposed.
Okkotsu was holding the blanket that belonged to the two of them, with no intention of continuing to spread it out. Probably if she did not answer, he would wear her down here today.
“What are you thinking… Of course we won’t move. I don’t want to be separated from Yuta.”
That newly sprouted faint corner of him was quickly soothed by the goddess without her realizing it.
Fushiguro Toji, who had always witnessed this way of getting along, could not help suspecting whether she was doing it on purpose, or whether she really had no awareness at all of her childhood friend’s feelings. In the end, this suspicion basically could only get the conclusion that she really had not thought that much about it.
In that case, the goddess, who could do this unconsciously, was even more awe-inspiring in the heart of the professional pretty-boy.
“But it is true that we’ll be living together with them. There really isn’t enough living space at home… Looks like I’ll have to ask Dad and Mom to look for houses for sale nearby.”
At this point, she became lively again. “Let’s buy a bigger house, I want a garden——then Yuta and I can go shopping together! We can decorate the room together too!”
“Then, it’s a promise.” Okkotsu raised his head, seemingly barely accepting the result of having one more person. “You have to always be with me, and you’re not allowed to only look at other people, okay?”
Like sneaking out together with Toji alone last night… even if it was to do the church’s business, Okkotsu Yuta had felt upset for a long time. But the things he saw behind the curtains, he should not tell Hoshi.
“Mm, it’s a promise~”
If only Hoshi could grow on his body.
Okkotsu Yuta, who was lying under the blanket while holding Sakurai Hoshi, did not sleep. He just kept staring at her cute sleeping face. A lot of wild, fantastical thoughts flashed chaotically through his head, and then turned into warm currents in the hand Hoshi was holding.
As long as he stayed with Hoshi, all pain and unease would disappear.
But what he wanted seemed to be more than that.
…
At the entrance of the kindergarten after school, after parting from his clingy childhood friend, Sakurai Hoshi waited for Fushiguro Toji.
“Yo, miss.” In order to let his gold master enjoy chauffeur service by meat puppet, Fushiguro Toji had put on a tight long-sleeved shirt. Even the hand he was preparing to use to carry her was wearing black leather gloves, blocking skin contact in every possible way. “I’ll ask first, it won’t affect things if I touch you through clothes, right?”
“It won’t, I guess.” The goddess lady was extremely unhappy as she hugged her little arms and inspected him. “But your outfit makes me feel like I’m the source of an infection…”
“At times like this, don’t be so picky.” Fushiguro Toji picked her up in one motion. His bulging chest muscles pressed against the goddess’s face. At a glance, it was obvious he had not held children much. “I hardly ever even held my own son. Consider it a bargain.”
“Mmmph, mmmph, mmmph——” The player who had been ambushed only felt like both her face and her body were being stuffed with meat. “Puhah——idiot Toji! Are you trying to murder the goddess lady with your chest muscles?!”
Sakurai Hoshi’s two little hands braced against his bulging chest, and she could not help wiggling her fingers. The fleshy feel in her hands was extremely subtle.
Is this what a physique of 25 is like? Is this really a chest circumference a human can have?! No matter how you look at it, this is a little too shameful…
“How is it? Pretty good feel, right?”
Fushiguro showed a wicked smile and even flexed his chest muscles, deliberately teasing the little kid whose face was bright red and who did not know what to do.
Soft, and a little bouncy…
No, wait, stop remembering it!!
Ahhh——damn Toji…! The goddess is going to grow into a terrible adult…!!
“Hm? Why aren’t you talking? Want to experience it again?”
“Shut up——I don’t know, I don’t feel anything, ask again and I’ll kill myself!”
…
“…So, where is your son?”
“…Ah. That, well…”
A vein popped on the player lady’s forehead.
“…Don’t tell me you forgot where your own son is.”
“Well, that can’t be helped either.” Fushiguro Toji had no shame at all, with no sense of embarrassment whatsoever. “I haven’t seen them for several years.”
“…Your son is only three years old, right?! Just how long have you not been back?! Reflect properly on yourself, you bastard Toji!” She could not take it anymore, the player lady could not take it anymore. She was going to kill this scumbag right now! “If you can’t remember, then don’t even think about going home today!!”
The goddess was fuming here, smoke practically coming out of all seven orifices, and the scumbag Toji could still laugh because of her words.
“…? What are you laughing at? What’s so funny! A failed man who can’t even remember where his son is has the mood to laugh?!”
“Ha, I’m thinking, I’m thinking, don’t scold me, miss.”
Home…?
He thought lazily about what Sakurai Hoshi had blurted out, and lightly tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“That kid’s school… should be over this way.”
…
“Why… is your speed so fast…”
Sakurai Hoshi, whose hair had been blown straight up by the wind, had a blank look in her eyes and only felt that the dignity she had as a player had been shattered to pieces.
Is this guy really human? She practically took a ride on an open-top plane!!
“Mm… didn’t I tell you… I’m Heavenly Restriction, I have no cursed energy and no technique, so my body is very strong.”
Cursed energy?
The player, who had come into contact with a new term, did not have time to think carefully for the moment.
Not far away was a kindergarten. Parents were gathered at the gate, and the children were being led out one after another by their teachers after school.
“Quick, they’re getting out!” Sakurai Hoshi urgently struggled free from Fushiguro’s arms. “Quick, put me down——”
“Are you sure? There are a lot of people over there. Isn’t it better if I’m holding you?”
“Idiot Toji!” The player lady, hating that he would not learn, slapped his chest. “A deadbeat father who hasn’t been seen for several years suddenly appears in front of his own kid, and he’s even carrying an unfamiliar child who is only one year older than him in his arms——this is just about the worst reunion possible! The goddess lady does not want to join a family-feelings Shura field!”
Fushiguro Toji clicked his tongue impatiently, but still obediently put her down.
“Let’s go,” Sakurai Hoshi said, holding onto Toji’s pants leg. “What is Toji’s son’s name?”
He stopped walking.
“…Megumi.”
Fushiguro Toji stared fixedly at the small figure at the kindergarten gate, and spoke that name softly, almost as if murmuring it.
The goddess who was holding onto his pant leg suddenly raised her head and looked at him.
“Come on, Toji. Be brave.” She said softly, as if encouraging him, “Megumi is waiting for you.”
…
The closer they got to the kindergarten gate, the slower Fushiguro Toji’s steps became. In the end, he even had to be pulled along by Sakurai Hoshi before he could move.
The curse-user killer, who could face any extremely evil and terrifying monster, or other people’s malice and hatred, without changing expression, might only be a lone beast afraid of being burned by warmth.
When he stood in front of the teacher and was looked at with wary, unfamiliar, and puzzled eyes, Fushiguro Toji, who was rarely at a loss, could only wear a sour expression and stand there stiffly, not moving at all.
Teacher: …
Fushiguro Toji: …
That expression, comparable to a mafia boss, and his overly muscular body obviously gave the poor kindergarten teacher tremendous pressure. But professional training still drove her to force herself to speak:
“Excuse me, sir…”
“…I’m here to pick him up.” Fushiguro Toji looked at the little boy not far behind her, his face showing nothing extra. Only the goddess could see a trace of something in his slightly lowered eyes.
“Time to go home… Megumi.”
Author’s note: Hoshi is trying her best to give Toji and Megumi some space alone
Maybe in her view, Toji just needs someone to give him a push
There’s a plan tomorrow, so I might not be able to update, so I’m putting this up first today~ I hope little angels will leave lots of comments! Seeing comments really makes me very happy w
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or gave me nutrient solution between 2022-11-04 12:19:35~2022-11-05 00:01:02~
Thank you to the little angel who threw a rocket launcher: Buzhi Guilu 1;
Thank you to the little angels who threw landmines: Jia, Yaomei 1;
Thank you to the little angels who irrigated nutrient solution: Yuehei Fenggao Sharen Ye 15 bottles; Huaiyu 11 bottles; Rushi Shuimo Danqing 10 bottles; nana 5 bottles; Jin 3 bottles; Qinglan, Shiguang Yuan, Yingying, Kushai 1 bottle;
Thank you all very much for your support, I will keep working hard!