Chapter 350: Bonus Story
(Note: this is a bonus story included with 350, which is otherwise a character introduction chapter.)
Touya is dead.
It was apparently electrocution by lightning. What the hell is that guy doing…
I got to know Mochizuki Touya when I started middle school. He was a weird one from the moment I met him. There's no way he doesn't know the kind of treatment I get in class, and yet he was the one who approached me first.
He was the only one who treated me normally, when everyone else avoided me like a tumor. On the first day of school, he went up to a delinquent who looked like he would get suspended anytime and said, "Got 100 yen to spare?", you know? (Note: very confused by the second sentence. It could either mean Touya went up to a delinquent and said that, or Touya went up to the guy narrating this and said that, or a delinquent said that to the guy narrating… Just mix and match the three and you get a list of all possible combinations. The way this part was phrased was casual and a bit slang-ish, so… Any help is appreciated.)
Of course, I had ignored him that time.
The time when we began properly talking to each other was… Right, it was that time when we got bothered by guys from another school and got in a fight.
When I was surrounded by five guys and was seriously feeling a bit scared, Touya just swung by on a scooter and let me on, and we escaped like that.
Of course, he didn't have a license. Apparently, the scooter was borrowed, and he learnt to drive it from his gramps. We were lucky that time and didn't get caught, but well, he's the type of dude who does that.
After that, we began hanging out a lot, and before I noticed there were more people around me besides him. I believe that he was the reason why I could spend my middle school life happily.
He was a guy who was kind to his friends and would pay attention to even small details about them, but once he recognizes you as an enemy, he would never let you off. That guy, his methods are so cruel that even I recoiled sometimes. I would never make him my enemy. It's too scary.
Once, when I asked him if he isn't overdoing it, he said "Rather than not doing it and regretting, I'd rather do it and then regret about it." I'm not sure, but I think you're using that wrongly, you know.
That Touya had died.
And we had promised to meet up and play together sometime since we went to different high schools…
I attended both his vigil and funeral, and offered to help out. I had wanted to help Touya's parents. I knew oji-san and oba-san well, and if I didn't do something, my feelings wouldn't settle down.
A while after the funeral ended, I began seeing weird dreams.
An old grandpa who called himself god came up and showed them to me.
Touya showed up in those dreams. He was wearing some weird clothes and swinging a katana around. He was fighting against some monsters that looked like the one in a game.
I remember thinking, what the hell is this? Still, even if it was inside a dream, I was glad to see Touya doing well.
The next dream I saw was the figure of Touya getting into a fight to save a girl who dressed like a samurai. I laughed out unintentionally, thinking that it's like him to jump in without thinking about anything.
And the next dream had him being proposed to by a princess. And it was a girl who's only 12, you know? Didn't know he was a lolicon. Well, it's inside my dream anyway.
After that, I saw dreams about Touya a few more times. Eventually, I began thinking that Touya didn't actually die, but was living in some other world instead.
And this New Year, as I was looking at the New Year's card sent by everyone, I got a bit lonely when I thought about how I won't get his somewhat-clumsily made New Year's card.
Even though he could play the piano, he didn't have any artistic inclinations. Even though his dad works in that industry. Guess artistic talent doesn't always get inherited.
That reminds me, he praised my drawings pretty often. I'm not boasting, but my art grades aren't that bad.
Although I was only interested to the degree of sketching something once in a while, when I saw oji-san's books lined up on my bookshelf, a thought came to me.
Thinking about it now, as stupid as it may sound, I might've wanted to do something with my art, which he had acknowledged.
And before I noticed, I had already rung the doorbell of Touya's house.
"Oji-san, please make me your disciple."
"No, even if you tell me that… I don't think I'm at a level qualified enough to even have one…"
Touya's father was bewildered at my sudden visit. Well, I can understand.
"What made you come up with that?"
"There's, something I want to draw. With Touya as the protagonist…"
I told oji-san about the dreams that I saw. Oji-san listened to it in silence, before laughing slightly.
"… Quite the interesting dream. Un, I'd like to read that story properly as well. Rather than disciple, recently I was searching for an assistant, actually. I can't pay you a lot, but would you like to do it?"
"Yes!"
I don't know if I can become a pro manga artist like oji-san. Still, I'd like to draw his story sometime.
If he's really alive, and working hard in some other world, then I've gotta work hard too. I'm not gonna lose, Touya.