Aqua Hoshino, in fact, had already realized it back when Ai Hoshino died.
His own life was like a train hurtling shrieking toward the northern country.
This train had no brakes.
Which meant it could not be stopped.
A runaway train had only one mission.
To, before dying, race full-tilt toward the frigid, barren lands without ceasing for even an instant!
And this was also his punishment for standing by and watching Ai Hoshino die.
Perhaps just as Minami Yuji had said, his line of sight was already completely obscured — he had utterly lost his sense of direction.
But the scenery along this one-way road called life — he could no longer afford to take any of it in.
Because he was going to take revenge.
He absolutely had to take revenge!
No matter how much time, no matter how much energy this act would cost him!
For that reason—
“I have no choice but to do whatever it takes!!!
I have to find Ai’s murderer!
I have to find that bastard!!!”
Aqua Hoshino spoke up in a voice that sounded on the verge of throwing up, the view in front of his eyes feeling like it was warping.
At his fingertips, the warm, sticky sensation of fresh blood surfaced once again.
Sweat seeped out from his back.
This was a fairly severe PTSD reaction.
Normally a PTSD reaction shouldn’t be triggered that easily by another person’s mere couple of sentences.
But Minami Yuji’s words were simply far too lethal where he was concerned.
It was practically picking at his wounds with a knife — and worse, one stab wasn’t enough; the knife had to be pulled out and shoved back in again.
But—
“So what?”
Aqua Hoshino lifted his head, wiped the drool at the corner of his mouth, and unsteadily pushed himself up to his feet.
His small little body was as drenched with sweat as if he’d just been pulled out of a tub of water.
Yet the look in those eyes beneath his bangs was unspeakably gloomy.
Paired with that face twisted from extreme pain, never mind a child — even an adult would probably be terrified by such an expression.
“Telling me all this — is it because you want to laugh at me?
Are you trying to say I’m doing it wrong?”
Yes.
The other party had deliberately shown up in front of him, and deliberately stirred his emotions up…
If the goal had been to whip him into an emotional state.
Then even he had no choice but to admit it — the other party had genuinely succeeded, and on top of that, succeeded thoroughly and completely.
And yet—
“No.
I have no interest in stirring up your emotions.
Likewise, I don’t have any objection at all to the path you’ve chosen — taking revenge for your mother.”
Even faced with him in his demon-like state, the expression on the Minami Yuji standing before him remained as calm as ever, without the slightest change.
He simply spoke in that steady tone, saying things that came across as a matter of course.
That voice — without a single trace of falsehood mixed in — even left the already-somewhat-out-of-control Aqua Hoshino momentarily dumbstruck.
Because what Minami Yuji said was exactly what he thought.
He was just an outsider.
He had no way of empathizing with the pain of Aqua Hoshino losing his mother — and in the same way, he had no way of understanding Aqua Hoshino’s obsession with revenge.
So from the very start, he had no standing to pass judgment on Aqua Hoshino’s choices.
But—
“Even though I don’t have the standing to pass judgment on you — as a fellow adult, I still have to nag at you a bit about the consequences of your choice.”
The reliable adult, at this moment, narrowed his eyes.
Yes. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
Aqua Hoshino wanting to take revenge — he couldn’t control that, and he wouldn’t try to control it.
Because that was Aqua Hoshino’s personal business, and he wasn’t nosy enough to start running his mouth about other people’s personal business.
But…
“Don’t let your actions affect Miyako!
Do you have any idea how worried she is about you?!”
Aqua Hoshino’s body gave a shudder.
That’s right — this was Minami Yuji’s whole point.
To put it bluntly, even if Aqua Hoshino went and actually killed someone in the end, dragging his own father down to drown alongside him — none of that had anything to do with him.
But if it affected Saito Miyako, then it had everything to do with him!
He and that kid were nothing alike!
He had only barely managed to transfer schools from the Okinawa orphanage to Tokyo, had only barely pulled out every trick in the book to become a koyaku, and was just now starting to see a sliver of hope at actually earning some money — there was no way he was letting Aqua Hoshino’s emotions affect Saito Miyako!
Because the weight he was carrying on his shoulders wasn’t any less than what Aqua Hoshino was carrying!
If anything, it was a whole lot heavier!
All forty-three little kids in that orphanage were still waiting on him to earn money so they could repair the building, so they could eat — and among them were several runny-nosed little ones who would obediently cling to his hand every single day, calling him ‘Yuji-nii.’
And [Ichigo Pro] was just a small agency, with everything in shambles waiting to be rebuilt.
So these were words he absolutely had to say!
“Do you have any idea how many days it’s been since I transferred into [Ichigo Pro]?
Three days total.
That’s it.”
In the midst of Aqua Hoshino’s silence, his voice paused.
“But do you have any idea how many times in these three days Miss Miyako has brought up your name to me?”
His gaze lifted.
“At the very least, no fewer than forty or fifty times!”
Minami Yuji slowly closed his eyes.
Even now he still remembered the look on Saito Miyako’s face — the one she wore even while driving, worrying about the taciturn Aqua Hoshino.
‘Do you think Aqua would like this, Yuji-kun?’
‘You’re both children — Aqua should be able to talk things over comfortably with you, right, Yuji-kun?’
‘Haaah, maybe I’m being a little naggy, but that kid is different from Ruby-chan at home.
His personality is very gloomy.
The moment I can’t see him with my own eyes, for no real reason, I start worrying about him.’
‘…’
And just thinking about those things.
Then looking at the Aqua Hoshino in front of him — that weak, anguished face that looked as though he were the most miserable person under heaven.
Even the reliable adult felt his temper flare up in an instant.
Bam!!!
A fair, pale palm slammed violently into the wall beside them.
The terrifying strength of it shook flakes of wall plaster loose.
Minami Yuji’s eyes snapped open.
“Show a little bit of backbone, would you?!
Stop always putting on that gloomy, completely sealed-off-from-the-world face like you’re the only victim under heaven!
Do you think after Ai Hoshino died, you’re really the only person in pain?!”
Everyone.
In the original storyline, just about everyone, after Ai Hoshino’s death, had been making accommodations for Aqua Hoshino!
Not wanting to touch his wounds.
Well then — did none of those people feel pain over Ai Hoshino’s death?
How could that possibly be?
His palm shot out, grabbing Aqua Hoshino by the collar without a moment’s hesitation, hoisting the other party up one-handed!
Those pitch-black eyes — always so steady and composed — locked onto those sea-blue eyes that didn’t dare meet his own, surging for the very first time with storm-like emotions.
“In your past life, you were more or less an adult too, weren’t you?!
Then for crying out loud, give me at least a little bit of the responsibility and accountability that an adult ought to have!”
That’s right. This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
If Aqua Hoshino’s mental age had been like Ruby Hoshino’s — a completely ordinary child of around ten years old at most — Minami Yuji probably wouldn’t have said much at all.
But he just so happened to be an adult.
An adult who couldn’t even manage himself!
“What do you even know?”
No matter how good someone is at controlling their own emotions, in a situation like this — having their scars ripped open right in their face over and over again — they probably can’t keep their composure.
Those originally sea-blue eyes of Aqua Hoshino’s stopped flinching away.
Even with Minami Yuji’s overwhelming presence right in front of him, he still clenched his teeth and let out a voice that was almost hysterical.
“Ai died!”
“She died!
Right in front of me!
She just gently held me like this!
And then she died!
But I couldn’t do a single thing!
Do you have any idea what I was feeling at that moment?!”
He had witnessed it with his own eyes — the color of the light of life gradually fading from the eyes of someone he loved…
At the same time as Aqua Hoshino spoke those words.
Those blue eyes — the ones that, ever since Ai Hoshino’s death, had never once shown an emotion again — for the very first time, something began to well up in them.
Tears gradually blurred his vision.
But even so, he kept his eyes wide open, glaring furiously at the Minami Yuji in front of him, as if relying on this single question to soften the other party’s overbearing aura.
That’s right — what did Minami Yuji, who had never gone through any of this, even know about him?
However—
“You’re right.
You’re absolutely right.
I really don’t know a thing.”
Minami Yuji nodded with no expression on his face.
He acknowledged what Aqua Hoshino said.
But—
The crisp sound of forehead colliding against forehead rang out!
Bam!
“But there’s just one thing I want to say — one thing you’ve been plugging your ears against and refusing to hear!” Minami Yuji’s hand released its grip.
Pain transmitted through his forehead, and Aqua Hoshino tumbled to the floor.
Listening to the next words from the black-haired koyaku, he, for the very first time, revealed an expression of disbelief.
Because, from his vantage point looking down at him, Minami Yuji gazed at him and said words that he could never have imagined.
“You’ve already done enough.”
“It’s been two whole years.
It’s about time you forgave yourself.”
“Aqua.”
In his voice, in that single instant, there was not the slightest hint of the earlier overbearingness.
All that remained was something just like Ai Hoshino in her final moments…
that soft, enveloping warmth that seemed as though it would wrap him up entirely.
Done enough…
Ever since Ai Hoshino had passed away — Aqua Hoshino, who had given up on opening his heart to anyone, who had never once forgiven himself — suddenly felt as though the scene in front of him had gone hazy.
He felt it, somehow.
That train inside his chest — the one that had been shrieking nonstop, racing all the way toward the frigid, barren northern lands — seemed, in this very moment, to have come completely to a stop.
He reflexively turned his head back.
All that lay before his eyes was the warm scenery of the southern country…
____
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