NOVEL NEXT Chapter 361
Actually, that might not have been such a good thing.
I’ve brought friends home before, but helping someone is a whole different story.
No other kids have slept over at my house, and while they’ve visited my room, they haven’t exactly explored the whole second floor. If they had, they’d have figured out something was off pretty quickly.
Kagami and Dad have to be married for my dad to be in another room. No matter how convincingly the master bedroom is decorated, there’s always a chance it could get exposed upon closer inspection.
It would be one thing if it were really weird to have separate rooms… but for us, even a tiny hint of something strange could cause big problems.
So, it was actually more problematic to bring someone completely unknown—
“Koto Ne, welcome—ah.”
As soon as I rang the doorbell at home, Kagami opened the door promptly.
And then, upon seeing me from beyond that door, he looked shocked.
“Koto Ne? That kid is…”
But his surprise seemed to fade as he looked at the child’s knees, which were bleeding.
Upon a closer look, the pants were also baggy. They were shorts, but they weren’t meant to be long enough to reach the knees; they should have been noticeably shorter.
Besides, a child wearing short sleeves and shorts in this weather just didn’t feel normal.
Perhaps having overheard our conversation, Dad, who had finished work early today, came downstairs as well.
Kagami’s and Dad’s expressions changed in an instant.
In a situation like this, they likely weren’t thinking of sending the kid out; both helped escort the child to the living room.
“Oh my.”
Maybe it was because she was a mom.
Kagami seemed a little shocked by the child’s appearance. Bruises were evident not just on the legs, but also on the arms.
Moreover, the child wasn’t in a good state mentally either. Just a little while ago, she had the strength to defy me, but now that energy seemed to have vanished.
What if she hit something when she fell? I’m scared that might be the case. I had tried clearing the stones, but she was the one who tripped over them.
Kagami quickly took out a first-aid kit to disinfect the child’s knees, applied some medicine, and then placed a larger bandage over it.
The child was staring blankly at the ceiling with her eyes half-open. Given that there was a child a few years younger than me in this state, even Dad, who must have seen some rough sights himself, didn’t know what to say.
“Call the police—”
As Kagami was saying that, the child suddenly grabbed her arm.
“No, I don’t want to.”
Kagami’s eyes widened.
The child, while maintaining eye contact with her, said, “I’m going to meet my brother.”
It was said by a little girl.
It seemed Kagami was quite shocked by that statement.
Could she perhaps be recalling something about her and Kagami’s situation? If she was recalling her own childhood, it would make sense—
I hurried to the kitchen and opened the fridge.
I had planned to give the child some candy, but right now, I was worried that if I gave her something hard, she might choke on it in her frantic state.
Inside the fridge—there was one custard pudding left. Kagami had put it away not long ago. When I had arrived home, I had consumed one each day, and it just so happened that there was one left.
I quickly grabbed it and ran back to the child with a small spoon.
“Here, eat this.”
As I opened the lid and handed it to her along with the spoon, the child looked at me with a dazed expression.
Then, she glanced back down and seemed drawn to the spoon, popping it into her mouth.
Sparkle.
In the depths of those almost lifeless eyes, a tiny light seemed to glimmer.
After that, the child devoured the pudding in an instant, gulping it down so quickly it was almost concerning; she even licked the plastic container clean.
“……”
Eventually realizing that there wasn’t anything more to eat in there, she turned to look back at me with a blank face.
Could it be that she wanted more?
Before I could even respond, Kagami quickly headed toward the kitchen.
*
Though the pudding was gone, thankfully, there were other snacks I had bought. Naturally, most of them were sweet.
After consuming a bag of snacks and some strawberry milk, the child slowly started to regain her senses.
“……”
And then, the three of us—me, Kagami, and Dad—found ourselves in an even trickier situation.
Having heard the child say she didn’t want the police or an ambulance called, the situation became more ambiguous.
I certainly hadn’t intended to kidnap her, but that didn’t mean we could keep her without parental permission. No matter how terrible the parents might be.
No, more than that, I began to wonder if we called the police, would they even be ordinary cops? That thought sprang to mind a bit too late.
Still, the first one to muster courage was Kagami.
Even if life had been tough, Kagami’s appearance was notably gentle and kind compared to other women. While I may have inherited some of Kagami’s looks, I certainly didn’t possess her gentle voice.
Kagami crouched to meet the child’s gaze and softly asked, “You want to go see your brother, don’t you?”
“……Yes.”
The child seemed to finally understand her situation once she regained her sense of awareness.
Having been hungry and in pain, she had been on edge, but upon grasping the surroundings, she realized she was encircled by adults.
The child fidgeted, tugging at the hem of her clothes.
Still in those old clothes. It was hard to tell whether it was fine to change her or take her in to wash up.
“Do you know where your brother lives?”
The child nodded at that question.
“Here, nearby…”
As she pointed to the wall with her finger while saying that, it certainly seemed like she lived in this neighborhood.
“Where did you come from?”
To that, the child replied. She might not know exactly where it was, but it was clear that it wasn’t around here.
“How did you get here?”
“In a car…”
“A car? You mean a bus, perhaps?”
Kagami tilted her head in confusion.
Is it really okay for such a little kid to ride a bus alone without any adults noticing?
If she had walked, it might have been a different story. People might not pay attention to every little detail of a passing child. Kids around that age wandering about isn’t unheard of either.
However, a bus is another matter. If you’re in a cramped space with others for a long time…
But the child shook her head.
Both Kagami and Dad exchanged puzzled looks.
A taxi… seems unlikely. It’s hard to imagine a kid being able to afford a taxi ride looking as obviously abused as she did.
The child hesitated.
“Pachinko parlor…”
“……”
Dad seemed to freeze at those words.
When Kagami looked up, Dad had a scowl on his face as he spoke.
“…There are stories about people who win big in the game by leaving children in the car.”
Upon hearing that, Kagami’s face briefly went blank.
I had heard about it too. I might not be Japanese, but in my previous life, I distinctly enjoyed things like manga.
I learned about pachinko while browsing different links on wiki.
There are famous pachinko parlors known for winning big, and some spots within those parlors can be quite lucrative. People even line up to play when new machines come in.
So maybe the adults who brought this child here… are deliberately searching for a well-performing pachinko machine.
Maybe they even used to live somewhere nearby.
“…Could I ask your name?”
At Kagami’s gentle inquiry, the child shrank back more. It seems she had just realized she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to be here.
While she might not have been scared as long as it was just me, I could see how it would be intimidating to have a stranger continuously trying to talk to her.
“…Shii.”
“Shii-chan.”
Kagami gently smiled and lightly held Shii’s hand.
Shii flinched a bit but didn’t pull away, earning a soft smile from Kagami.
“You said you came to meet your brother, right? If you know where he lives, I can take you there?”
“!”
Shii perked up, looking up at Kagami.
Her eyes sparkled a bit. No longer lifeless as before, they seemed to be brimming with newfound hope.
Those eyes tugged at my heart.
“I want to go too.”
Dad stood up, saying that.
“Koto Ne, could you please wait a minute? I’ll be right back.”
I nodded.
Adults have to deal with these situations too.
…Though I do want to know more about what’s going on with that child, pushing too hard might just make Kagami anxious.
I decided to wait quietly at home.