As the darkness deepened and the streetlights along the road finally lit up row by row, Tsushima Kagami saw Sayuri and the other two off at the subway station before returning to the nearby convenience store where Yukinoshita Shizuku worked part-ti.
"Welco."
Tsushima Kagami, having just entered, paused for a mont.
He then looked toward the cash register; standing there was none other than Shimizu Nayotake.
It seed there were no problems for the ti being.
"Hello there, Shimizu-san."
Shimizu Nayotake simply nodded to acknowledge him, just as she usually did.
After greeting her, Tsushima Kagami walked over to Yukinoshita Shizuku, who was off to the side counting inventory.
Watching Yukinoshita Shizuku, who was carefully counting product quantities while checking against a form, Tsushima Kagami stood beside her and nudged her with his elbow.
"Don't ss around, I have to count all over again."
Yukinoshita Shizuku frowned, her eyes still fixed intently on the shelf as she began counting again with her finger.
Tsushima Kagami then bent down and whispered into Yukinoshita Shizuku's ear.
"I haven't had dinner yet. What are we eating after you get off work?"
"I'm busy right now, we'll talk after work."
Seeing Yukinoshita Shizuku start counting from the beginning once more, Tsushima Kagami smiled and nudged her with his hand again.
"How about that ran shop? I had their onsen egg last ti, and the taste was pretty good."
Accompanied by a "Gulu gulu" growling sound from her stomach, Yukinoshita Shizuku's finger paused. She looked at Tsushima Kagami with a mix of slight anger and impatience.
"I told you not to disturb . Go over there and read a magazine yourself."
"Alright, alright."
Tsushima Kagami did not push his luck any further and headed to his faithful magazine section.
He had just casually picked up a magazine that soone had already unsealed and was about to read it when he felt his leg being hugged by soone.
Tsushima Kagami looked down.
He saw Ijichi Nijika looking up at him with a pair of large, innocent eyes.
Seeing Tsushima Kagami look down at her, she grinned, revealing a happy smile.
"Big Brother!"
Looking at Ijichi Nijika's comical smile and hearing her tone—which was leaking air due to a missing front tooth for so reason—Tsushima Kagami smiled and asked:
"Little Nijika, where is your front tooth?"
"It got changed out. I accidentally bit it right off when I was eating an apple."
Still speaking with that comical, airy lisp, Ijichi Nijika explained while tapping her other teeth with her finger.
"These ones are all perfectly fine, though."
Tsushima Kagami squatted down and cooperated with Ijichi Nijika to inspect them carefully.
"Indeed, very beautiful teeth. Rember to brush them every day to protect them well, okay?"
"Mhm-hm!"
Ijichi Nijika nodded heavily after hearing this.
At this mont, Mrs. Ijichi also walked over with a smile.
"We et again, Yukinoshita-kun."
"Good evening, Mrs. Ijichi."
"Are you out taking Little Nijika for so evening fun?"
Hearing Tsushima Kagami ask this, Mrs. Ijichi put on a worried look again.
"I suppose you could say that. Seika had a band performance today, and Nijika was clamoring to see Seika perform, so I brought her out."
"As it turned out, Seika might have been too shy. She didn't want us to see how she acts when playing in the band, so she insisted on not letting us watch. In the end, she got into an argunt with Nijika, so I just decided to bring her back."
"We just stopped by here to buy so seasonings on the way."
"Yeah! Big Sister is too an!"
Ijichi Nijika, standing to the side, pouted and chid in.
"You can't say that about your sister."
Mrs. Ijichi scolded Nijika gently, then smiled apologetically.
"Sorry to disturb you. I'll take Nijika to pay now."
Tsushima Kagami patted Nijika's head.
"Well then, goodbye, Nijika."
"Bye-bye~"
Nijika waved her hand at Tsushima Kagami, flashing that lisping smile once again.
Watching the two leave after paying, Tsushima Kagami picked up the magazine again to kill ti.
...
When Yukinoshita Shizuku and Shimizu Nayotake finally finished the shift change with the next rotation and officially got off work, Tsushima Kagami asked Yukinoshita Shizuku again:
"Have you decided what to eat?"
"Didn't you say we're eating ran? And you want to eat onsen eggs."
Yukinoshita Shizuku retorted with a question.
"Looks like you rembered it all."
Tsushima Kagami looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku with a smile.
"Aiya, are you eating or not? If not, go back and cook for yourself."
"Eating, eating, eating. I'm already starving, let's go quickly."
After speaking, Tsushima Kagami prepared to pull Yukinoshita Shizuku toward the ran shop.
Yukinoshita Shizuku, however, first grabbed Shimizu Nayotake, who had changed clothes and was preparing to go back.
"Shimizu-san, do you want to go eat ran together?"
Shimizu Nayotake simply shook her head, then spoke:
"I... I have sothing to do."
Yukinoshita Shizuku wanted to persuade Shimizu Nayotake further to eat with them before going back, but Tsushima Kagami spoke up:
"If Shimizu-san has sothing to do, just let her go back first."
Yukinoshita Shizuku looked at Tsushima Kagami, then at Shimizu Nayotake, whom she was holding onto. Finally, she had to let go.
"If you have any inconvenient difficulties next ti, you can co find ."
Shimizu Nayotake looked into Yukinoshita Shizuku's sincere and expectant eyes. After hesitating for a while, she nodded.
Then, after bowing deeply to the two of them, she turned and left.
Yukinoshita Shizuku and Tsushima Kagami headed to the ran shop together.
"By the way, did you ask Little Moe-sensei about Shimizu-san's situation today?"
"I did ask, yes."
"What's the situation?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku turned her head to look at Tsushima Kagami curiously.
"Eh, but Little Moe-sensei said it was confidential."
As Tsushima Kagami spoke, he made a zipping motion across his mouth with his hand.
Yukinoshita Shizuku rolled her eyes at him.
"I'll keep it a secret too!"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure!"
"In the future, if you accidentally let it slip, you're not allowed to say it was ."
"I'll just say Little Moe-sensei told ."
"Yosh~"
As they walked, Tsushima Kagami told Yukinoshita Shizuku all the news he had heard from Tsukuyomi Komoe.
...
Bunkyo Ward, The University of Tokyo Hospital.
Shimizu Nayotake walked into a single-patient ward.
"Is that Little Nayotake?"
Hearing the sound of the door opening, the woman lying on the hospital bed called out softly.
"Mom, it's ."
Shimizu Nayotake walked to the woman's side, sat down, and held the woman's thin, rough hand with both of hers.
"Did they go to the house again yesterday?"
Shimizu Nayotake nodded.
"I guessed as much when you didn't co to the hospital yesterday."
As she spoke, the woman, who still had an oxygen tube inserted, struggled to sit up, wanting to reach out and touch Shimizu Nayotake's head.
Shimizu Nayotake also stood up to help her sit up properly.
The woman stroked her head, then sighed.
"I've dragged you down."
Shimizu Nayotake, who had been enjoying her mother's touch, felt her expression turn cold involuntarily upon hearing this sentence.
She moved her head away from the woman's hand.
"I told you not to say things like that anymore."
The woman smiled gently again.
"I won't say it. It was Mom being too selfish. I won't leave Little Nayotake behind ever again."
"When I'm discharged in a few days, Mom will make you your favorite pancakes, okay?"
Only then did Shimizu Nayotake hug the woman again, burying her head deeply into the woman's embrace.
"We won't live for long anyway, so at the very least, I don't want to see Mom leave first."
"I'm sorry, Mom, for making you suffer so much. The selfish one is actually ."
____
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