Chapter 53 – After The Fireworks (1)
To Yuka’s mom’s question, I hesitated before answering no.
It was because my brain had momentarily stopped working due to the suddenness of the question.
“Come on, why would I not be Takuya? Your joke is too much.”
And unfortunately, I couldn’t manage my expression either.
Cold sweat soaked my back, and I could feel my lips trembling.
What could I do? It was such a sudden attack that I was caught completely off guard, without any mental preparation.
I thought to myself, planning to deny it somehow if she said anything else, and waited for Yuka’s mom to continue.
“Hmm…”
Yuka’s mom stared at me for a long time, then spoke again, right next to my ear.
This time, she spoke each syllable clearly.
“Then, let’s talk separately later.”
After saying this, Yuka’s mom seemed to lose interest in me, turning her head to join Ayaka’s mom, who was filming the fireworks with her flip phone, and started giving her advice.
I stared at Yuka’s mom with a blank face.
I had expected her to keep pressing me.
‘She’s backing down so easily? Why?’
After that, I don’t know how time passed.
I ate, but it didn’t feel like I had, and I watched the fireworks, but I couldn’t remember any of it.
After finishing a meal where I didn’t know if the food went into my mouth or my nose, we packed up our mats since the fireworks were over and left the festival grounds to go home.
On the way home.
Miyuki, Sota, and Haruka lived in different directions, so we parted ways in the middle.
I wanted to walk them home, but unfortunately, I didn’t have the time for that right now.
After we parted, I walked with Ayaka’s mom and Yuka’s mom on either side of me, holding their hands.
Normally, I would have been happy, thinking I was surrounded by flowers on both sides…
I glanced sideways, carefully watching Yuka’s mom, who was talking to Ayaka’s mom as usual.
Her expression seemed so normal that I sighed inwardly.
That normal expression was even more frightening.
‘Haa… I was prepared for this, but…’
I had been preparing myself for this, but now that it was actually happening, I didn’t know how to feel.
I walked for a while, feeling like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse.
“Oh, right. Ayaka, Takuya and I are just going to the convenience store for a bit.”
“Huh? Why the convenience store?”
“We should have a drink on a day like this. He’s the pack mule.”
“Okay. Be careful. Takuya, listen to Yuka, okay?”
I nodded at Ayaka’s mom’s words, then stared blankly as she walked away.
Of course, that didn’t last long.
“Now it’s just the two of us, huh?”
As soon as Ayaka’s mom was out of sight, Yuka’s mom spoke to me directly.
I nodded at her words.
Luckily, my mind had calmed down a lot on the way here.
Of course, that didn’t mean I wasn’t still feeling like I was going to die.
“Haa… Let’s go somewhere quiet to talk.”
What could I do? It wasn’t really my fault, but this was also my karma.
I thought to myself and headed to a nearby park with Yuka’s mom.
Unaware that someone was secretly following us.
***
Later, on a bench in a quiet park.
We sat on the bench in silence.
Honestly, I wanted to say something, but the atmosphere was too heavy.
So, I kept my mouth shut and waited for Yuka’s mom to say something, anything.
Yuka’s mom, no, Yuka, who had become a mother at a young age, gave me a cold look and said,
“I’m already sure that you’re not Takuya.”
She knew that?
‘I thought I was doing a good job of acting like him at home since I had his memories.’
It seemed a mother’s power was greater than I had imagined.
While I was thinking that, Yuka continued.
“So, I won’t drag this out. I’ll just get to the point. Where is my son?”
Unfortunately, that was a question I couldn’t answer.
‘How am I supposed to know?’
I wanted to ask her instead.
Where was the original Takuya?
Was Takuya really dead, or had his body just been taken while his mind was still intact? I was genuinely curious.
Of course, I knew that saying this wouldn’t help, so I calmly stated the facts.
“First of all, I don’t know where your son is.”
“Ugh… Wh-what do you mean…”
It seemed Yuka was quite shocked that I wasn’t the real Takuya. Her usually confident voice was trembling quite a bit.
Well, it was understandable. No matter how much you prepared yourself, it would be shocking to find out that someone had taken your child’s body.
Normally, I would have been sweet and considerate here, but I had to keep the pace going.
So, I interrupted Yuka and said,
“In the first place, I’m a victim, not a perpetrator.”
That was also true.
No. In this regard, I was honestly more wronged.
All I had done was download and play a game that I found at home.
I had to get my fix, too.
Anyway, that’s why I could confidently say that I was a victim.
Of course, Yuka didn’t seem to believe me.
“How can I believe th─”
But who cares? It was the truth.
“Then don’t believe me. It’s not like you can tell anyone else, right?”
I replied in a rather aggressive tone.
Honestly, I had been accumulating stress without realizing it.
You can make a lot of money, and you can use future knowledge to make connections with celebrities, so isn’t it great?
Let me be honest. I don’t know much about Japan in the 2000s.
Of course, I know some celebrities.
But even if it was a difference of 10 or 20 years, it’s almost a 40-year difference. How am I supposed to remember all of that?
Besides, I was drafted into the military early, so I didn’t know many celebrities.
What, should I try to befriend the future Japanese politicians that I know?
I don’t want to get involved with them.
In the first place, I only knew about Bitcoin because it was widely used in South Korea in the future.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have remembered it.
So, I was squeezing my brain every day to extract future memories in order to get other future information.
Thanks to that, I had been accumulating stress without realizing it, and Yuka had touched a nerve, bringing out my old military personality.
And after hearing my words, Yuka looked confused for a moment, then her breathing became ragged, and tears started to well up in her eyes.
“No. Then, haa… my son, Takuya… where is he…”
And at that moment, Yuka was no longer the woman who had been questioning me, but a mother who had lost her child.
It wasn’t a look I particularly liked.
I had seen it too many times, and also…
[My, our son is really… really dead…?]
[Don’t talk nonsense! You said you’d send him to a safe rear area?! But, but why is our son!]
[Lord… why was it my grandson and not me…]
The look of despair, anger, and then emptiness on a person’s face was truly heartbreaking.
Because of that, my expression wasn’t good either.
It brought back a past I didn’t want to remember.
In the end, I scratched my still-growing hair to ease my discomfort and said,
“Haa… It might sound like empty hope, but it’s not like there are no clues about your son.”
“What do you mean…”
“It’s a bit complicated. I’ll put it simply.”
After saying that to Yuka, I told her about the strange ability I had gained.
I didn’t mention the screen or hypnosis, but I said that I was rewarded for doing certain things.
After hearing my words, Yuka’s eyes, which had been filled with despair, seemed to light up with a bit of hope.
Honestly, it was more likely that it wasn’t true…
But seeing her eyes shining like that, I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
In the end, I sighed again and said to Yuka, who had calmed down a bit,
“Anyway, it doesn’t seem like I’ll be in a good state if I stay here. So, for the time being, I’ll stay at Sota’s house…”
It might be too much for me, physiologically. I was trying to separate myself.
For some reason, when I said that and tried to go to Sota’s house, Yuka grabbed my wrist and stopped me.
“Please… please don’t go… if you’re gone too, I…”
She said, crying, using a woman’s most powerful weapon.
Because of that, I had no choice but to withdraw my decision.
But wait, wasn’t I supposed to be physiologically uncomfortable?
After that, I spent a long time comforting Yuka, no, Yuka’s mom, and then bought some alcohol at the convenience store before finally arriving home.
It was a tiring day in many ways.