Chapter 295 – Worry (2)

{Arrived at D:00! I was late in contacting you because I was changing the communication district!]
{What are you doing?]
{Are you sleeping?]
{Eat when you wake up!]
{If you go on a rescue mission, you won’t be able to contact us for a while.]

In the chat window that automatically scrolls to the last message you read, you can see the messages Grape sent after arriving at D City.
I can see that unchecked messages are sparsely piled up because I was focusing on Rapid.
Maybe he sent a message during his busy schedule, but the time between messages is quite long.

{Mission done, something weird happened…]
{The work ended a little earlier than expected, so I think I’ll spend some time while cleaning up.]
{Tomorrow, I’m going to go to the place Anger told me about.]
{I want to call… Anger didn’t sign up for long-distance calls… ?]
{I’ll pay you, so would you like to join?]

The message after that seems to have been sent after the rescue mission, after something happened with the people of the Kaiju Cult, according to Grape’s words.
The next message was sent the next morning.
I see a photo message with egg rolls on it.

{(Picture)]
{Egg rolls are delicious!]
{I’m thinking of going to Anger’s old house later.]
{Reply when you have time!]
{I’m home! The landlord grandmother is well too!]

A photo of the landlord grandmother and Grape, who are exactly as they were in my memory, and a photo of Grape opening a box full of my belongings are sent one after another.
I see photos of my childhood.
And…

“Hmm… ?”

With a short headache, vision is blurred, then returns to normal.
What was it
Feeling strangely uncomfortable, I focused on the screen again.

{(Picture)]
{(Picture)]
{(Picture)]
{(Picture)]
{You laughed a lot when you were young, right?]

On the vision phone, the picture of me and my parents sent by Grape was filling up the screen.
His father is a firefighter, and his mother… Anime voice actor.
Between the two of them, there is a photo of me smiling as a child, wearing a fireman’s hat that resembles the head of a fire hydrant and holding a toy magic wand.

{I want to come and see Anger later.]
{I want to put Anger’s recent photos in the empty space of the album…]
{Grandma says it’s not okay to take the album… She says that Anger keeps trying to throw him away…]
{Grandma told me to go get something to eat, so I’m going to eat with her. She’s thinking about going to all the other places Anger told me about later.]
{(Picture)]

Grape is sitting at a table with bowls of dishes prepared by the landlord’s grandmother.
Grape seems to squeeze into childhood memories.
I scrolled down with a strange feeling.

{I’ve been to D city a few times, but this is the first time I’ve been around so much.]
{I want to call…]
{Angeo is very busy… ?]
{Excuse me… ?]
{What’s wrong… ?]

The atmosphere, which was normal than expected, suddenly changes rapidly.
When there was no reply for a day or two, I think I thought something was wrong.
You can feel the message full of worries and confusion.

{Are you mad?]
{I did something wrong… ?]
{It’s because Anger nags me not to eat things he likes… ?]
{Isn’t there a subway by any chance?]
{Have you been to Area 11?]

At first, I thought I was getting angry and ignoring the message, but after a while, I wonder if I’ve changed my mind, and it’s full of questions asking where I am.
Time zone… Around the time I was being kidnapped by Riff.
Did you have a bad feeling about something?

{(Grepe requested to share location)]
{(Cancelled)]
{Anger? Where are you?]
{(Grepe requested to share location)]
{(Cancelled)]
{(Grepe requested to share location)]
{(Cancelled)]
{(Grepe requested to share location)]
{(Cancelled)]
{Answer me… I’m worried…]
{Where are you]
{Not on the buyer’s list]
{Please]
{If you’re angry, even curse at me]
{(Grepe requested to share location)]
{(Cancelled)]
{(Grepe requested to share location)]
{(Cancelled)]
{(Grepe requested to share location)]
{(Cancelled)]

Even after that, it is full of records that kept sending me location sharing requests.
One page… About two pages, spent staying up all night.
After that morning, Grape did not request to share his location for a while, as if he had changed his mind again.

{If you are angry, please tell me.]
{It’s not a very good way to say you’re angry like this.]
{Sorry.]
{Please read it.]
{Since I applied to the National Defense Force to track the device, Anger continues to appear at home… You’re at home…]

Tracking devices in the National Guard… Magical girls can apply for that too…
By the way, this is a rather strange message.
If you look at the time the message was sent, it’s when I’m still being held by Riff, but it comes out as being at home… ?

Could Riff have done something?
He seemed to have a rough idea of ​​what kind of relationship I was with Grape Franc, and he said as if he had purposely targeted the timing when Grape wasn’t there… It must be true that Riff manipulated my location information.
Because of that, Grape seemed to think I was ignoring the message without reading it on purpose.

{I hated contacting you… ?]
{Tell me why…]
{I’ll fix it if you tell me…]
{It’s a misunderstanding.]
{I’ll fix it…]

What’s wrong and what to fix…
The message didn’t come again for a while, then it led to the morning of the meeting with Grape.
The time zone sent is lunchtime, so this is probably the last message he sent right before meeting me.

{I’m here at A.]
{Why don’t you answer the phone…]
{Please answer the phone…]
{Let’s go home and talk later}
{Answer me…]

After reading the entire dialog window, I was lost in thought.
I thought it was scary because there were a lot of messages, but after reading all of them, it wasn’t scary… That was a bit of a pity.
I didn’t expect that Grape would be so concerned while she couldn’t contact me.

Was it because I didn’t reply that he was so sensitive when I saw him in front of the company?
It’s scary that they tracked my location and kept sending me messages even though I didn’t get a reply, but what… I’m assuming it was because I was worried…
There was something I couldn’t reply to because I lost my vision phone to Leaf, but it’s a pity that I didn’t reply to the message that was sent before that.

I was worried that I might have fallen out with Rapid, so I was paying attention to that and not checking anything else.
I guess I should apologize for this… ?
I replied to Grape.

[Sorry}

Then, before two seconds passed, a read mark appeared on the message I sent, and the messages Grape sent began to disappear one by one.
Instead of a worry-filled sentence, the cool sentence “The message has been deleted” Takes its place.
Grape deleted all messages after the photo of him having a meal with his grandmother, his landlord.

{No! It was a misunderstanding. Where are you? House?]
[No, to get the card reissued…}
{Did you drive well?]
{Wasn’t it scary?]
[It’s automatic driving, so what’s scary?]
{Now then, are you getting a card reissued?]
[Reissued]
{That’s fast! Have you eaten your meal?]
{Since you worked hard, buy something delicious with my card!]
[Uh, no, I’m going to go buy something now…}

I replied to Grape, who talked as if nothing had happened, and moved on.
I felt a little sorry, but Grape didn’t seem to care.
Grape continued to message me at an unnervingly fast pace.

{Oh, would you like some fries for dinner tonight?]
{What’s your favorite tempura?]
{Shrimp? Chicken? Pig? Cow?]
{Eat something delicious and take a picture!]
{Where is it now then?]
{If we’re going to eat later, shall we go to lunch? Would you like to have lunch together?]

It’s burdensome, a little scary.
I can feel the overwhelming pressure with just the message.
There’s still more than an hour and a half until lunchtime, and it’s time to work… Not working?

[Shrimp, I’ll take a picture later and show you. District 15, in front of the bank. I think I can eat lunch alone… Aren’t you busy?}
{I’m busy, but it’s okay!]
[No… Work… Grape… You’re the team leader…}
{No matter how busy you are, you still have time to talk to Anger.]
[Work… You can talk to me when you’re at home.}

If you’re someone who works as hard as Grape, even if you’re not the team leader, no one will say anything about taking a break, but it’s hard for me to reply.
Looking at the sentences pouring down, I feel like my energy is being sucked out.
Fortunately, Grape listened to my words as if he thought there was some truth in my words.

{I see… When we’re together at home, we can talk about what we’ve been up to all day…]
{Then I’ll wait for you at home when I get off work later… ?]
[Uh… Huh… I will… There’s not much to do outside anyway.}

There’s nothing to do alone in District 15, so I’m thinking of going home after having a delicious lunch.
By the evening when Grape leaves work, he has no choice but to wait for Grape at home.
He said that you can play games at home, so you can spend time playing games until then.

{Please contact me when you arrive home!]
[Okay.}
{Ah… I still want to eat lunch together… Do you have time on the weekend?]
[On the weekend? Why?}
{Since I work on weekdays… Do you eat together when you have a lot of time? Play together… ? I want to… ?]

I want to play with you…
Weekends are days to spend time with Rapid.
I’m sorry Grape, but I can’t concede this.

[Sorry, I was a little busy at the time.}
{What’s going on… ?]
[Uh… Should I get a job too? Get ready for a job…}
{Can’t we do that on weekdays?]
[Hmm…}
{And the job… Wouldn’t it be nice to just rest at my house for a while? It’s okay though.]

I tried to cover it up with the word job preparation in moderation, but I was at a loss for words.
If I was really busy preparing for a job, would I be like that without even realizing it? It was a sweet word to answer.
But I can’t answer that because I’m busy on the weekends, not because I’m preparing for a job, but because I have to go on a date with Rapid.

For some reason, I’m a bit reluctant to tell Grape outright that I can’t because I have to date Rapid.
He’s the one I had sex with, and for some reason I don’t feel like talking about it…
I should have convinced Grape by giving a good reason, but what should I say?

{Fire? Unnecessary?]
{Are you not hurt?]
{I was late checking the reply because I was training!]
{Are you okay?]
{Where are you?]

At that time when I was in trouble, Rapid sent me a message.
Sentences pouring out one after another, wondering whether they were very embarrassed or worried.
I immediately closed the chat window with Grape and replied to Rapid.