The next day.
Morning.
Kitahara Minakaze struggled out of bed.
After downing a few mouthfuls of ice water in the living room, he finally managed to wake himself up completely.
After being jolted awake by that so-called emergency quest last night, he had stayed up until the middle of the night, unable to fall back asleep.
It wasn’t that he was particularly worried about the emergency quest.
Rather, he was the type of person for whom sleeping even a single second counted as a full sleep cycle.
Even if it was just for a moment, his brain would register the fact that he had already slept, making it incredibly difficult to drift off again.
Didn’t you just sleep, you little shit?
Why the hell are you trying to sleep again…
It was roughly that kind of feeling.
Yeah, his brain was just that troublesome.
Setting down his glass.
Minakaze looked around and noticed that Natsume Mio and her Grandpa were nowhere to be seen.
He walked over to the dining table and found a sandwich wrapped in plastic film, a bento box, and a sticky note.
[I saw you were sleeping soundly, so I headed out first. Remember to go to school; even if you’re late, you still have to go. Don’t forget to eat breakfast. Also, remember to take your bento. There’s money pressed underneath it. Grandpa will be going out, so just take care of your own dinner! (ノ゜▽゜)ノ]
“What’s the point of drawing out kaomoji? If you have this much free time, why not just go to school earlier?”
Minakaze took a bite of the sandwich and muttered a complaint.
Then, he picked up the bento on the table.
Sure enough, there was a Fukuzawa Yukichi pressed underneath it.
Oh crap.
Seeing the ten-thousand-yen bill, Minakaze suddenly felt that the sandwich in his mouth had become incredibly soft and sweet…
…
After finishing breakfast.
Minakaze washed up, changed into his winter long-sleeved uniform—which was already starting to feel a bit too warm—grabbed his bag, the bento, and the Fukuzawa Yukichi, and headed out.
Kanagawa Prefectural Fukasawa High School, where he and Mio studied, wasn’t far from home.
It was only about a kilometer away, a ten-minute walk at most.
Passing through a rather narrow alley and a dense residential area, he arrived at the main road running alongside the Sagami River, the mother river of Kanagawa.
The number of students on the street gradually increased.
He hadn’t paid attention last night.
But now, Minakaze noticed.
Along this route.
There were an unexpected number of shrines.
In this short distance of just over a kilometer, Minakaze had already seen two shrines.
One was an Inari Shrine dedicated to the Inari deity, and the other was a Goryo Shrine that seemed to enshrine some shogunate military commander.
Counting the Natsume family’s shrine, that made three.
And in Minakaze’s memory, not far past the school, just a few kilometers further down.
There was another shrine called Sanjuban Shrine—God knows if it enshrined thirty deities or if it was just the thirtieth one established.
That made four…
Although the mythological figures and legends of every country were absurd and complicated.
Setting aside the enshrined historical figures.
Take the famous Seven Lucky Gods, for example.
Just these seven deities alone were an amalgamation of Shintoism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Brahmanism.
In theory, only one of them was an original, native god.
No wonder they claimed to have eight million gods.
All things have spirits, and gods exist everywhere you go.
Coupled with the secondary creations of gods assimilated from other religions.
Enshrining absolutely everything in shrines—of course that would add up to eight million.
Slinging his shoulder bag over his shoulder, Minakaze silently roasted Shintoism as he followed the flow of students through the school gates.
Walking up the long slope, he was surrounded by energetic students.
Next to them was the sports field connected to the club building.
Some unknown club was currently doing their morning practice, their shouts echoing loudly through the air.
The aura of youth was practically overflowing.
I feel like I’ve ended up in an incredible place.
Minakaze, who considered himself a veteran corporate slave, felt a bit emotional.
After changing into his indoor shoes at the entrance shoe lockers.
Minakaze first made a trip to the second floor.
“Hey, I’m telling you, that TV drama is super interesting.”
“…I’m talking about the drama, the lead actor is really handsome, isn’t he?”
“Ah, yeah, I watched it last night. He’s super handsome.”
“Right?”
Noisy chatter drifted out from the classroom, the topics of discussion as incomprehensible as ever.
Minakaze looked up at the classroom door.
After confirming it was indeed Class 1-A, he peeked inside.
Mio was sitting in the front row by the window, looking down at her phone and occasionally looking up to chat with a few classmates.
She was still alive, her head was still attached, and she was alive and kicking.
Inside the classroom, as if sensing his gaze, Mio turned her eyes toward the door.
The moment she saw Minakaze, she looked a bit surprised and started to stand up.
But Minakaze just raised his hand and waved.
After greeting her, he didn’t go in; instead, he simply turned and left.
His own classroom was on the third floor.
His main reason for coming here was just to confirm whether Mio was still alive.
On the other side.
In the classroom, seeing Mio stand up, her friends belatedly followed her gaze toward the door.
However, Minakaze had already left, so they only managed to catch a glimpse of his profile.
“…Wow, so handsome. Do we have a hot guy like that in our school?”
“He seemed to be looking for Mio. A boyfriend?”
However, it was just a mere profile.
Yet it was enough to leave Mio’s classmates absolutely stunned.
“You guys are such gossips.”
Mio lightly patted the shoulder of the classmate who had called Minakaze her boyfriend and chided, “That’s my stepbrother, my stepbrother.”
“Brother…”
Hearing Mio say this, her classmates paused for a moment before subtle expressions appeared on their faces.
“Oh, that guy… The guy who suddenly ran over to threaten us and told us to take care of you.”
“No wonder he’s a handsome guy I’ve never seen before. So he’s your stepbrother. He hasn’t been to school in half a year, right?”
“It must be tough, Mio, suddenly getting a delinquent older brother and all. I bumped into him smoking last time, and I heard someone even saw him walking into a yakuza base… Wait, was he just trying to ask you for money? Don’t give it to him, Mio.”
The classmates started chiming in one after another, discussing Minakaze.
His reputation wasn’t exactly good.
Mio felt a bit helpless.
She was just about to explain.
“Actually…”
Suddenly, a girl standing to the side who hadn’t spoken yet chimed in.
“If he’s that handsome, giving him money doesn’t seem like such a bad idea… How about you introduce us, Mio? A delinquent boyfriend… thinking about it, it actually sounds pretty fun.”
“Eh?!” The others whipped their heads to look at her.
“What? Think about it, isn’t it kind of interesting? He really is super handsome.”
“Uh… I guess so, but wouldn’t he be hard to handle? If he cheats on you, you wouldn’t have any way to fight back.”
“When he ends up two-timing you, you won’t be able to do anything but break up with him. Plus, looking at him, he definitely already has a girlfriend outside of school.”
“Outside and in school don’t conflict, right?”
“Eh…”
“Enough!”
The classmates were getting more and more carried away with their chatter.
Mio pursed her lips, unable to hold back any longer.
She suddenly raised her voice slightly and shouted.
The discussing classmates immediately stopped talking and looked at her.
After shouting, Mio paused.
Forcing a smile, she tried her best to put on a half-joking facade and restrained herself, saying, “…Stop making jokes about other people’s brothers, you idiots.”
“…”
“Yeah, I got too excited. Sorry.”
“Yeah, let’s drop it. Class is about to start.”
“Let’s go, let’s go.”
“…”
In Japan, the most important skill to have was reading the room.
Although Mio had disguised it well, an aura of displeasure still washed over them, and everyone felt it.
So, everyone quickly found an excuse and slipped away.
Watching those classmates walk away with slightly annoyed expressions on their faces.
Mio sighed and sat down.
She still felt a bit uncomfortable in her heart.