NOVEL NEXT chapter 4
4
4, The Girl is Happy
After I got off the swing and the girl, we arrived at the slide.
The girl is excitedly climbing the ladder of the slide.
“Be careful, okay?”
The girl, who was afraid of falling and getting hurt, was looking up at me with a worried expression.
“…”
And then she regretted it.
I saw a white cloth peeking out of the girl’s skirt.
It looked really impressive.
“Ugh…”
It’s something that young sisters or someone I admired.
No, this is still a bit too young…
If I wore glasses, I’d still be safe.
No, I’ll pull myself back…
“What’s wrong? Not going up?”
“If you’ve gone up, I’ll go too. This is the way it’s supposed to be, in order.”
“That’s right.”
I was deeply regretting what I saw – the pure and innocent contents of the girl’s skirt.
I didn’t know that something as natural as this could be seen as so sinful, like a cosplay showoff, and that there would be such a big difference in the sense of guilt…
I never really understood the difference in taste between wild and farmed tuna, but it started to feel like a terribly rude incident.
Comparing a girl’s underwear situation to tuna seems to have a weird connotation, and it’s off-putting.
“Fun!”
“Why are you having fun before you even play?”
Please, slide down the slide and enjoy the feeling of fun.
Why do you feel happy just by climbing to the top?
Your head is a little too much on the happy set.
“Climb, climb.”
“Alright, alright.”
I chuckle as I hold onto the ladder of the slide and climb up.
“What should I do now?”
“Just go down from this sloped part.”
“I’ll try!”
Talking to the girl, I get the impression it’s her first time at the park.
I wonder how I felt the first time I played in a park.
Let me think back a bit.
—
“I wonder if pushing my uncle from here would kill him…”
Standing at the top of the slide, I looked down from above.
“I’m going to kill him, make him suffer and kill him.”
A chuckle escapes me.
“Ah, this is fun!”
Incredibly, just like the girl, I found joy not in sliding down but simply in the act of climbing…
—
That’s incredibly ominous!
It’s like awakening as Akechi Hidetora!
The me before I remembered my past life is scary!!
“What’s wrong…?”
“I guess I can’t really talk about others…”
“?”
I didn’t quite understand, but I had no intention of teaching.
“Look, try going down from here.”
“Okay!”
She nodded as if she had been waiting and turned towards the slope.
“Weee!”
With that, she ran down the slope, enjoying herself all the way.
“Phew, this is fun! It felt really good.”
“Is that so…”
No, you’re supposed to sit before sliding, I thought to myself as I also ran down the slide’s slope.
She murmured, “Let’s go one more time,” and climbed up the slide again.
“So fun—!”
She ran down the slope for the second time, but I decided not to interject anymore.
I just sat down on the bench.
The muggy heat of the sun made sweat form on my forehead.
“A troublesome thing has awakened…”
Celebrities or those with gifts are prone to going viral.
Recently, a video uploader became famous overnight for having the gift of “perfectly copying someone’s voice.”
Impersonators and video uploaders have tearful abilities.
I wonder if I could use some ability to make money…
Well, in the original work, they were extorting money, but I certainly don’t have the ethics to do that now.
The original Akechi Hidetoyo was terrible with his gift.
Like Hidetoyo, he exploited the “poor home environment” of the heroine, making her commit patricide and cover it up…
Hidetoyo was handsome and had the gift of manipulating people, even controlling “Hidetoyo’s girlfriend” to harass others.
He would make his girlfriend and the heroine close, extracting information about the heroine’s estrangement from her parents—utterly ruthless.
Hidetoyo’s girlfriend also garnered a lot of hate…
Like Hidetoyo, she also had a role to die, and comments like “serves the couple right” were common…
In the “Breaking the Chain of Sorrow Series” least favorite coupling vote, out of 7556 votes, Hidetoyo and his girlfriend received about 60 percent of the votes, making them an unpopular pairing.
Comments like “Just having Hidetoyo’s girlfriend pisses me off,” “Both are scum and deserve each other lol,” and “The blot on this work” were common…
In defense, comments like “Hidetoyo and the heroine’s coupling is 100 times worse lol” and “This jerk is easy to cuckold, so it’s better they stay together” were also seen.
“Sigh… I must seal away the gift so it’s not used recklessly…”
I have to use it around family, though…
“Huh? You can use a Gift?”
“Eh?”
When I turned towards the voice, a girl was calling out to me.
Did I mess up…?
Maybe I should erase the memories related to the Gift.
Or should I erase everything that happened here today?
“Is using a Gift fun?”
“It’s not fun…”
The original me seemed to have a blast misusing the Gift.
…Right, if I get into the habit of using the Gift for things like this, even if the direction is different, I’m bound to develop a dangerous personality.
I should stop, think about sealing it away. It’s counterproductive to use the Gift when I was just considering that.
“And, don’t go around telling people I can use a Gift, okay?”
“Yeah! Got it!”
I’m not sure she really understands, but she’s nodding, so I’ll trust her for now.
“In return, show me what kind of Gift you have!”
“…”
So that’s her angle…
I wonder if it’s okay to say I can control people since she’s a child, but as an adult, it would be bad to be thought of as “Hey, isn’t that guy dangerous?”
I guess I should keep the truth hidden.
“It’s a ‘magic trick’ Gift.”
“I want to see! Do it, do it!”
Kids love magic tricks and magic.
I’ll keep it at the level of harmless pranks.
“So, here’s a 10-yen coin. I’ll warp this 10-yen coin into your hand without you noticing.”
“Eh? That’s impossible! I’ll definitely notice.”
“Good reaction. I like that kind of response. Keep your hands closed in fists.”
I took the 10-yen coin I got as allowance from the lady and hid it in my closed fist.
The girl’s gaze was fixed on my left hand as she clenched both hands into fists.
“【Take the 10-yen coin I’m about to pass to you and grip it in your palm. After you’ve taken it, erase only the memory of this moment.】”
The girl, as if under a spell, took the 10-yen coin and concealed it in her fist.
I too kept my left hand, which had passed the coin, clenched in a fist.
Good, this should have erased her memory.
“Okay, it’s done. The 10-yen coin has disappeared from my hand.”
With a swift motion, I opened my hand, and of course, the coin was gone.
She exclaimed in amazement, “Wow!”
“Now, open your hand.”
“What!? No way!?”
There it was—the 10-yen coin I had sneakily transferred was now in the girl’s hand.
“Magic-meow.”
“Huh? What’s that?”
“It didn’t catch on, huh…”
A generational gap indeed.
“That’s amazing! Can I keep this?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll treasure it!”
If I can distract her with a 10-yen coin as my gift, it’s a cheap bribe.
Nice, I can’t do this on TV or in videos, but face-to-face, a debut as the magician Hideyori might be possible.
“Hey hey, what’s your name, big brother?”
“Me? I’m Akechi Hideyori. And your name?”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t even introduced myself yet.
I asked the girl for her name.
“My name is Sasaki Emi!”
“I see, Sasaki Emi… Huh? Emi?”
Wait a minute?
That name sounds familiar.
No, it’s a common enough name, but…
I felt a snag.
The “Chain of Sorrow” series, being a trilogy, naturally features a number of heroines.
Yet, there is no heroine named “Sasaki Emi” among them.
To begin with, the heroine with the tearful beauty mark was supposed to be absent from this game, something I had confirmed earlier.
…Huh? Tearful beauty mark?
I feel like I’ve just remembered something extremely unpleasant.
I want to punch my past self for forgetting such an important thing…