Chapter 6: Planned Regret【Part 3】
【言語に関するご注意 / Language Notice】本作はすべて、英語と英語の表現で書かれています。翻訳作品ではなく、オリジナルの英語ライトノベルです。あらかじめご了承の上、作品をお楽しみください。
See chapter one for the main author's note.
Jiro
“Hello, don’t jump! It’s just your room—” The greeting dies in my throat.
“…”
“…”
Standing near the left bed is a girl. That girl.
She stands frozen mid-motion, caught in the act of making her bed. Her umbrella rests casually against the wooden frame.
The claustrophobic room just became even smaller.
Split down the middle between the beds, a low wooden table has been flipped onto its side, its legs pointing defensively toward the empty, unmade bed on the right.
Wonderful. This is just what I needed.
She keeps staring at me, as if I deliberately tried to paralyze her just now. The white sheets still dangling in the air, suspended between her hands like a static cloud.
My exhausted sigh is the first thing to break the silence. “Um. So… I guess we—”
“No.” Her sharp interjection slashes through the room.
“I think we should at least just—”
“No. Stop talking.”
“But… I—”
Dropping the sheets, she turns to the bedside table, frantically shoving her belongings back into her backpack, abandoning the half-made bed to its fate.
I take a few careful steps further into the room. “If you could just listen to me for a moment, I’m sure we could—”
She does not seem to listen.
Umbrella gripped tightly in one hand and her backpack strapped over both shoulders, she marches directly toward the exit.
I raise an arm halfway across the narrow path, suspending it like a lowered railroad gate. “Wait, before you go. Could you answer a question?”
Without breaking her stride, she effortlessly ducks beneath my outstretched arm, her posture snapping back upright as she glides past me. Stopping just past the open doorway, her back stays pinned firmly toward me.
My arm drops to my side.
“Why… didn’t you help?” The question leaves me in a hollow murmur.
Silence stretches out between us.
“Now why would I have done that?” she responds in a tone stripped clean of whatever little warmth it had left.
Click.
Without waiting for an answer, she steps out. Her footsteps already echo down the quiet corridor as she disappears into the night.
I step to the door and pull it shut, locking out the rest of the world.
My bag drops to the floor. Navigating past the table legs, I collapse straight onto the unmade bed.
Sayoko
Of course, my phone contact book is still empty.
I click off the display and try to find a comfortable position on the park bench. The unforgiving wood sends a dull ache straight up my spine. I should have dragged some bedding out of that room before storming out…
The biting night wind seems to pick up by the minute. At the very least, the nearby streetlights cast a dim, gentle glow, and the park fountain provides a soothing murmur. It sure took a good moment to find such a perfect spot this balanced between nature and quiet.
It is certainly not what I anticipated for my first night at this school, but it will have to do for now. I will just have to sort out this situation in the morning. I am sure Fukimi has some extra floor space for the next night.
I let out a soft sigh, trying to clear my head. Just a quick night in the fresh air, nothing special.
My eyes drift shut... then snap wide open at a strange, rustling sound from a nearby tree.
This is impossible. Even a local police station or a night-shift desk at the town hall would be better than this. Whichever option I choose, the current standard will not be difficult to beat.
I strap my backpack back on and start moving again.
Click.
The map on my phone guides me through the residential grid, pointing slowly toward the main plaza. The streets are desolate. Even the faint, stray chatter from earlier has died down.
Keeping my eyes fixed on the darkness ahead, I pass the silhouette of the dormitory block and cut through the narrow side walkways out onto a larger main street.
As I make my way down the avenue, the brilliant lights of the plaza fountain shimmer in the distance. But then, a shape catches my eye in the periphery.
Wrapped tightly in a thick duvet, someone lies dead silent on a concrete bench.
The stark white of the bandages makes it painfully easy to figure out who it is. I cannot help but feel a sudden wave of irritation flaring up inside me. What is he doing out here?
Click.
A little bit of extra force will be needed this time to cut through all that padding…
Thwack!
“W-what?!” The bundle twists violently as the thick bedding slides away from his body.
Click.
I point the tip of my folded umbrella at him like a conductor reprimanding a stray musician, staring down at the disheveled form.
“Boy who can’t control gravity. What do you think you are doing here?”
“Well, um, trying to sleep,” he groans, rubbing his messy hair and squinting up at the light above us. “Until I got clubbed down just now.”
“Yes, my eyes work perfectly fine at night, thank you. But my question was more about why you are not in the dormitory I gracefully left you? Did I wander into the night just for you to lie outside like a lost mummy?”
He pulls the duvet around his shoulders again, trying to tuck himself back into the fabric. “I figured you might want to actually use the bed later. And since you didn’t seem to want to be anywhere near me, I took the bedding and cleared out so you could go back when you felt like it.”
The words hang in the air between us.
The irritation fades quicker than it came, replaced by the faint regret of its speed. I find myself a bit lost for words.
“I see,” is the only response I can manage to assemble.
“…”
My fingers shift restlessly against the umbrella handle as I look away.
“Well,” I turn sharply on my heel, forcing a sharp stride toward the fountain plaza. “I was already heading toward the hotels near the central plaza anyway. I have no intention of going back there tonight, but I suppose you are free to loiter wherever you want of course.”
His sleepy voice echoes down the empty street behind me. “Does this island even have a hotel?”
【 ？ ？ ？ 】
Night wind rustles leaves,
dewdrops gather on the bark,
tomorrow takes root.
I step inside, shutting out the biting chill and sealing myself within the familiar, dim amber glow of the narrow corridor. Wood-paneled walls soften my footsteps as I walk straight into the awaiting chamber, clasping my hands behind my back.
“Core Two,” I instruct.
“Core Two,” a synthetic chime mimics.
The chamber comes to life. Deep within the architecture, mechanisms shift as the vehicle accelerates.
I like to close my eyes on the journey, it somehow feels more vivid that way.
With the world blacked out, the fluidity of the movements are visualized in my mind—the sinking drops, horizontal drifts, and sideways pulls as the chamber navigates around like an ocean tossed around by gales.
The deep hum of the machinery finally slows, the vibrations settling until all movement stops. A polite ping breaks the silence.
The doors slide open, parting like a stage curtain at the start of a show.
I step forward.
“I’m here.”
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Discover what happens next in: Chapter 7: Lenient Bashing【Part 1】
Written by Limited_Infinity. Official publishing platforms and updates are exclusively communicated on Bluesky: @Limited-Infinity
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