For God knows how many times, the scene of Hoshino Gen's battle with the faceless swordsman in the dojo had been replaying in Shimizu Yuu's mind. Her expression was a mixture of excitement and discomfort. To put it simply, it was like the feeling when you finally see a conceptual product you've been looking forward to for a long time being mass-produced and put on the shelves, but the price is far beyond your budget.
Or perhaps—"What's with that expression? Are you constipated?" Suzuki Sawami had a strange look on her face.
"You're the one who's constipated!" Shimizu Yuu gave her friend an annoyed glance and then drooped her head listlessly. "I'm fine. I just feel a bit... bored."
"Bored?" Suzuki Sawami looked at her best friend in disbelief. "Am I so boring to be with?" With that, she looked on the verge of crying. "You heartless jerk who plays with people's feelings! Let's break up!"
Shimizu Yuu gave her attention-seeking friend a deadpan look, but then her gaze was caught by a group of people running towards the gymnasium with umbrellas in the corner of her eye.
She tugged at Suzuki Sawami's sleeve and pointed curiously at the gymnasium building swarming with people in the distance. "There are so many people over there. Is there an important match today?"
Suzuki Sawami naturally put away her teary expression and casually glanced in the direction Shimizu Yuu pointed. "Don't you know? TKY02 is holding a concert at the Shinjuku National Stadium today."
"TKY02?" Shimizu Yuu thought for a moment and then exclaimed in surprise, "Isn't that the idol group that Hoshino Rin is in?"
"Yeah, the younger sister of Hoshino Gen in our class. They're super popular." Suzuki Sawami said enviously. "Except on the first day of school, I've never seen her at school. Being an idol is really nice. You can skip classes as you like."
"..." Shimizu Yuu gave Suzuki Sawami a speechless glance and then couldn't help but wonder if that idol knew about her brother's "superpower" or not...
"Okay, let's go. Don't tell me you want to go to their concert now. The tickets must have been sold out long ago!" Suzuki Sawami took Shimizu Yuu's hand and walked towards the more bustling streets.
...
In the evening, the rain stopped, and the dark clouds that had covered the sky were cut into pieces of white rags hanging on the horizon.
The sunset after the rain was always particularly charming. The red and purple light洒下 on the horizon bathed the whole city in an ambiguous and slightly tipsy glow.
Shimizu Yuu chased a black stray cat with a hair tie in its mouth into a secluded alley because that hair tie was a new product she had just bought today! Although it was the change from the money her mother gave her to buy clothes, it wasn't cheap either!
The stray cat bumped open the door of a shop in the alley and darted inside. Without a second thought, Shimizu Yuu rushed to the door of that shop.
She was just about to push the door open and rush in when she was stunned by the delicate and classic look of the door. But she had seen many high-end places. Although she was surprised why someone would open a shop here and have such a beautiful door, it didn't stop her from rushing in to get her hair tie back from that rascal cat!
The door was pushed open, and a clear jingle of wind chimes rang out.
The scene behind the door came into view. Shimizu Yuu froze with her leg half-raised in the air, and her whole expression solidified.
In a waiting room with a medieval classical atmosphere, a young man with slightly long black hair was squatting on a fluffy carpet, holding some cat food in one hand and offering it to the black stray cat's mouth.
The evening sunset flowed over him through the window, and the scene was as beautiful as a healing oil painting.
The person in the painting seemed to be disturbed by the sound of the door opening and cast his gaze at the "uninvited guest" outside the door. His left blue eye was as clear as the sea, and his right black eye was as deep as an abyss.
Shimizu Yuu snapped back to her senses with a start. "Hoshino-kun?!"
After shouting this, Shimizu Yuu didn't quite believe it and backed away to look at the small standing sign on the door frame. After confirming that it was an antique shop, she once again looked at Hoshino Gen with disbelief in her eyes. "You... came here to buy antiques?"
"No, this shop is mine." Hoshino Gen tilted his head and also looked at Shimizu Yuu with curiosity. But he reacted quickly and immediately thought of something. He bent down to pick up the hair tie that had been dropped aside by the black cat and was now dirty. "Is this... yours?"
"Ah!!" Shimizu Yuu shouted and was about to rush in, but Hoshino Gen raised his hand to stop her. "Please change your shoes first. There are disposable ones in the cabinet on your right."
Shimizu Yuu took a look at the spotless floor in the room and the large areas of fluffy carpets. Then she looked at her shoes that were inevitably stained from running on the ground that had just rained. Without a word, she immediately kicked off her sports shoes and stepped onto the disposable slippers with her white socks on.
She came to Hoshino Gen's side and took the hair tie that had been brand new just a few minutes ago, with a pained look on her face.
"How much is the hair tie? I'll pay you for it." Hoshino Gen suddenly said.
"Ah?" Shimizu Yuu was taken aback and then shook her head immediately. "No need. I'll just wash it when I get back."
After saying that, she looked down at the black cat that was burying its head in eating the cat food in Hoshino Gen's hand and asked uncertainly, "Is this cat yours?"
"No." Hoshino Gen thought for a moment and said, "I only got to know it two months ago. At that time, it looked so hungry that it was almost dying. I gave it some food. After that, it would often bring some things here to exchange for food. Sometimes it was some trash that it thought was valuable, and sometimes it was other people's lost items..."
"A pretty smart guy, isn't it?" Hoshino Gen smiled at Shimizu Yuu.
Shimizu Yuu was indeed a bit surprised by the intelligence of this stray cat. It actually knew things that many humans didn't understand. But thinking back, she just accidentally used too much force when unpacking the hair tie and dropped it on the ground. As a result, this cat just darted over, picked it up, and ran away. This was no longer just picking up things to exchange for food. This was robbery!
Her pretty face darkened a bit, and she pursed her lips without saying a word.
The small handful of cat food was quickly eaten up. The black cat meowed at Hoshino Gen twice, then licked its paws and walked away, looking extremely unrestrained.
Watching the little guy disappear outside the door, Hoshino Gen looked back at Shimizu Yuu and asked with a smile, "Is there anything else, Shimizu-san?"
Perhaps feeling that it was impolite to talk to others while she was standing and Hoshino Gen was squatting, Shimizu Yuu simply sat down cross-legged on the carpet. She scratched her cheek a bit embarrassedly. "Well, your superpower..."
"Sorry, I don't have any superpower." Hoshino Gen got up and went behind the bar. "Coffee or juice?"
"Ah... no need." Shimizu Yuu waved her hands repeatedly, but Hoshino Gen just pretended not to hear and poured a glass of juice on his own and handed it to Shimizu Yuu.
Reluctantly taking the juice, Shimizu Yuu persisted and asked again, "The faceless swordsman in the dojo yesterday..."
"Was it a ghost?" She whispered her guess.
"..." Hoshino Gen stared at her face silently. After a long while, he sighed and said, "Why do you have to dig so deep? Or are you dissatisfied with your past life? Why must you explore such a dangerous variable?"
"I'm just curious! When something that you always thought only existed in novels and animations suddenly appears in reality, anyone would want to figure it out!" Shimizu Yuu muttered in rebuttal.