All the Heroines are my Ex-girlfriends

Chapter 121: Yukima Azuma: Guardian, it's late, come sleep.

Fingers moved swiftly across the keyboard.

Typically, whether writing a light novel or a short or long novel,

after completing the initial setup,

the next step is to establish an outline of the plot.

Some authors, however, skip this outlining step and dive straight into writing the opening.

They joke that the outline exists in their minds,

writing intuitively and letting the story develop as they follow the flow.

However, Yukima Azuma's approach this time was exceptionally peculiar.

For this volume, Yukima Azuma started writing from the ending.

This light novel, was born with the purpose of changing someone's ending.

For this purpose, the ending of the light novel was predetermined.

It would undoubtedly conclude with the scene of a girl falling from an overpass.

In the story, the boy would do everything in his power to reach out and save her.

But whether or not he could save the girl, that was not for Yukima Azuma to decide.

After finishing the ending, Yukima Azuma stretched.

As he stretched, his arm brushed against the girl's hand.

Only then did Yukima Azuma remember

that someone was still beside him.

Turning his head,

he saw Kurokawa Akane quietly standing behind his chair.

Glancing at the bottom right corner of the screen where the time was displayed,

Yukima Azuma realized Kurokawa Akane had been standing there, behind him, for three hours straight.

The occasional light taps on his shoulder,

he had overlooked due to his intense focus.

But Kurokawa Akane hadn't moved a single step.

When Yukima Azuma stood up from his chair,

the girl's arm dropped weakly to her side,

clearly too fatigued to endure any longer.

For a moment, Yukima Azuma was at a loss for words.

Though he had done this to give Kurokawa Akane something to do,

to stop the chaotic thoughts threatening to break her down,

the scene before him left him with mixed emotions.

Looking at Kurokawa Akane's numb expression,

Yukima Azuma said nothing.

Some words are better left unsaid until the girl before him is in a better state.

Of course, that is if both he and she still remember this moment by then.

...

Yukima Azuma walked toward the bed in the room.

It was a large double bed,

with pristine white sheets, spotless and wrinkle-free.

Sitting down, Yukima Azuma caused a small depression in the mattress.

"Guardian, it's late, come sleep with me," he said.

Kurokawa Akane looked at the boy.

Faced with his almost teasing invitation,

she simply thought for a moment before responding:

"I'll stay here with you. I won't leave until you fall asleep."

She merely assumed Yukima Azuma was like a child who couldn't sleep alone without someone nearby.

Yukima Azuma didn't deny this assumption.

He simply tilted his head slightly.

"Just sitting by my side, huh? Guardian, could you give me a hug?"

"On every cold, sleepless night, I always long for a warm embrace."

"Humans, if they don't sleep, can apparently last up to eleven days..."

Before Yukima Azuma could finish his sentence,

before he could say words like "and then die,"

Kurokawa Akane had already moved closer.

She lifted her fatigued arms and wrapped them around Yukima Azuma's neck.

The two fell together onto the soft, white bed.

The bed, originally pure white like snow, now bore wrinkles spreading from their center to the edges.

The girl's soft body fell into his arms.

Yukima Azuma slightly moved his nose.

There was still a faint smell of blood that couldn't be dispelled.

But Yukima Azuma didn't want to turn off the strange "perception state" he had maintained.

He had grown used to holding onto this subtle feeling.

So, to avoid feeling disadvantaged,

Yukima Azuma placed his chin on the girl's neck.

Her smooth, black hair draped in front of him.

The gentle scent of shampoo wafted up.

The faint smell of blood was instantly replaced.

Without turning off the lights, the two prepared to drift into sleep like this.

It was unclear how much time passed.

Yukima Azuma felt the phone buzz gently.

He picked it up and glanced at it.

It was a message from MEM.

It seemed urgent.

Yukima Azuma unlocked the phone and opened Line.

MEM: [Trouble! Akane-chan is missing! Akane's mother says the window in her room was wide open, but she's nowhere to be found!!!]

Just reading the message conveyed the anxiety and urgency.

Yukima Azuma tilted his head and glanced at Kurokawa Akane, who was lying in his arms.

At this moment, Kurokawa Akane was resting on Yukima Azuma's left arm, her small head resting on his chest.

Her breathing was steady, clearly in a deep sleep.

But even while asleep, she still held onto Yukima Azuma's neck.

The girl frowned in her sleep, clearly dreaming of something unpleasant.

Yukima Azuma reached out and gently stroked the space between her eyebrows, smoothing out the crease on her face.

Then he picked up his phone.

Snap.

Azuma: [She's with me.]

Azuma: [Akane is sleeping.jpg]

Azuma: [Regarding Akane's mother, I give that to you, MEM-san. Right now, she's unstable, and it's better for her to stay with me than go home.]

MEM: [???]

MEM: [Cat expression asking.jpg]

MEM: ['The other party is typing...']

After about two minutes, the chat still showed "The other party is typing," but no message was sent.

Yukima Azuma pressed the phone screen off, casually tossing it to the side of the pillow.

Sleep, sleep.

...

Meanwhile, in another place.

MEM was at the Kurokawa house, her face contorted in distress.

Is this for real bruh?!

Does this even make sense?

She opened the picture Yukima Azuma sent, zoomed in to look at it, then turned it off. Afterward, she opened it again to confirm.

The content of the picture was so strange it made her feel like it was a photoshopped image!

Why are these two, who hadn't even met until this afternoon...

now sleeping together like this at night?

And… how am I supposed to explain this to Akane-chan's mother?!

She looked up at Mrs. Kurokawa, who was extremely worried.

MEM took a deep breath and hesitantly raised her hand.

"Um... Aunt Kurokawa, Akane-chan is fine, she's been found, and right now she's with one of my friends."

At this point, MEM really didn't know how to continue.

Hearing this, Mrs. Kurokawa hurriedly walked over.

MEM decisively showed her chat screen to Mrs. Kurokawa.

Seeing her daughter's photo,

Mrs. Kurokawa first breathed a sigh of relief, but soon after, her expression grew a little strange.

Her daughter, who had never been in a relationship before,

was now sleeping with a boy.

But as she was about to speak, she found herself unable to say anything.

She remembered something from before.

The cyberbullying her daughter never told her about, simply to avoid worrying her.

And then everything had ended up this way.

Mrs. Kurokawa hadn't want her daughter to make much money or something like that.

Her support for Akane's pursuit of an artistic path

had only been because, since childhood, Akane had admired a young idol.

What Mrs. Kurokawa longed for most was simply that her daughter could be happy.

After returning from the police station,

Mrs. Kurokawa had also realized that her daughter wasn't okay.

She was extremely worried, even frightened.

And now,

Her daughter in the photo seemed to be sleeping peacefully, without any sign of danger.

Compared to the safety of her daughter, other worries at the moment seemed trivial.

Seeing Mrs. Kurokawa's expression, which seemed to want to speak but couldn't,

MEM thought for a moment and finally came up with something to say.

"Aunt Kurokawa, my friend is the one who saved Akane-chan this afternoon."

"He definitely won't harm Akane-chan, so don't worry."

Hearing this, Mrs. Kurokawa finally eased her worries.

"Sorry for troubling you kids so much... My daughter never tells me anything."

"As long as my daughter is safe, nothing else matters."

"You all are good kids... Akane, I entrust her to you, please..."

Finally, Mrs. Kurokawa couldn't hold back and hugged MEM, crying uncontrollably.

MEM hurriedly comforted Mrs. Kurokawa, while sighing inwardly.

After all, it was just good that everything was fine.

At this point, all hopes had to be placed on the young man she had just met.

MEM looked back at the photo on her phone.

He had said he would find a 'job' for Akane-chan.

Could it be that he intends to... do something like... have a child with her?

MEM: [I've explained it clearly, Aunt Kurokawa has calmed down for now.]

MEM: [Thank me later! Such a task and you give it to me! The pressure is immense!]

MEM: [Where are you?]

MEM: [Aaaaa! So unreasonable!]

The messages on Line fell silent.

Late at night, in the wind and rain, MEM felt as though she didn't even know what she was busy with anymore.

....

The next morning.

The window still didn't have any sunlight shining through.

Occasionally, there was the sound of light rain tapping against the window.

On a day like this with a storm, the rain came in bursts—sometimes heavy, sometimes light, occasionally stopping, but mostly it was a downpour.

The room in this guesthouse was very soundproof, and the howling wind outside barely made it through.

On the large bed,

Kurokawa Akane opened her eyes groggily.

Her eyes were slightly red, as if she had been crying.

Since the online scandal began, she could hardly sleep.

Especially the night before the storm started.

She spent the whole night scrolling through comments online.

This self-destructive behavior almost made her mentally and physically exhausted.

Just the smallest trigger could make everything collapse completely.

Fortunately, before everything fell apart, the figure of the boy suddenly appeared in her vision.

Last night, after a physically and mentally exhausting day,

Kurokawa Akane finally stopped her endless thoughts for a moment and fell into a deep sleep.

Her nerves, which had been at their breaking point, gradually relaxed.

Why was she able to sleep?

Perhaps it was because of a warm hug.

The handsome face of the boy appeared in her mind.

But Kurokawa Akane's expression remained blank.

At this moment, she was like a machine stuck.

Because of the scandal, she fell into self-destruction.

Because of this boy, she temporarily stopped her self-destructive behavior.

She could still take in information from the outside world,

but her mind couldn't process it normally.

All emotions were temporarily paused, waiting for the wounds to heal and for her mind to start functioning again.

The information that had been absorbed would only manifest through emotions when that happened.

At this point, Kurokawa Akane was like an emotionless machine.

Receiving instructions and making judgments.

If it made sense, she would act.

And the only principle that governed her actions was not to let the boy in front of her die.

This principle had no reason, but that was the truth.

She didn't know when, but the boy had opened his eyes.

"Good morning, guardian."

"..."

Kurokawa Akane didn't respond.

"Guardian, I'm hungry. Could you make breakfast for me?"

"I'll go make it right now, wait for me a bit, don't wander off."

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