“Really, I don’t know what to do about this.” It was quite late at night, late enough that the kids were each resting in their own rooms, one in his bedroom and one in the guest room. Shihoko had apparently had a little bit of work left to finish at home. She’d come down into the living room, grumbling and sighing in frustration. Shuuto thought carefully about what might be bothering his wife. “Something about work?” he asked. “Are they being unreasonable about your deadlines?” “Ah, no, no, I’m talking about the thing earlier, with Amane.” When he heard her mention the thing with Amane, Shuuto immediately knew what was troubling Shihoko. “The thing with the Toujou boy?” “Yeah. It sounds like he was bugging him again. You know, ever since they started high school, it’s like he’s gone wild or something. I’ve been hearing about it from the other wives I know, and it sounds like he’s turned into kind of a rascal.” Just recently, when Amane and his guest had gone for a walk, they’d had the misfortune of running into the other boy as soon as they’d stepped outside. They’d heard as much from Amane himself. It sounded like it had really been a chance reunion. It was impossible to imagine Amane had deliberately gone to see him. Though it might be conceivable Toujou, having heard Amane was coming home, had planned to run into him. “Well, as long as Amane’s gotten over it, I don’t think we should say anything. Especially since it doesn’t seem like the Toujou boy did anything to him. If he had, I’m sure we’d see it in the way both Amane and Miss Shiina were behaving.” Without peering into their hearts, Amane’s parents couldn’t know exactly what had happened, but at least they didn’t see any signs Amane had been hurt. In other words, his contact with Toujou had affected Amane only mildly. And given what they knew about Mahiru’s personality, if Amane was suffering, she would probably be wearing a sorrowful expression, and she would likely find a way to casually report what had happened to Shihoko, so Shihoko was fairly certain nothing much had happened. And his wounds have all completely healed, too. It was all deeply emotional for Shuuto, who knew how low Amane’s spirits had once sunk. Amane had been used and betrayed. Then later, the same boys who had hurt him had turned Amane’s classmates against him, which had hurt him badly at the time. Shuuto regretted that neither he nor Shihoko had noticed what was going on with Toujou, or had reprimanded him for his behavior toward others. Before all that happened, they had showered Amane with affection and made sure he wanted for nothing. Thanks to that, Amane had grown into a sincere child, who was honest and never distrusted anyone, which had been his downfall. Only after his son was broken did Shuuto realize someone raised in perfect conditions was easier to break than someone who’d had experienced just the right amount of hardship. Well, in the end, he grew into a fine young man, but still… Everything that had happened, and all the hurt it had caused, had shaped the person Amane became, so it hadn’t been entirely bad. At least that’s how it seemed to them now, in hindsight. At the time, they had been beside themselves with worry. “That’s true, but…as his mother, I still worry, you know?” Shihoko always worried the most about their son, even though she teased him. Shuuto patted her head, and after glancing down the hallway, he smiled at his wife. “If he’s been able to overcome it on his own and change the way he thinks about his past, then I don’t have anything in particular to say about it.” “You’re very calm about this, Shuuto.” “I don’t know if I’m calm exactly, but I trust him, our Amane.” “Whereas I can’t help but feel like Mama needs to step in and do something, when I see my darling only son sniffling and sobbing!” “Amane would object to that if he heard you. He’d say, ‘I’m not crying!’ And I also don’t think you’d be the one he’d turn to for help, Shihoko.” “Well, I suppose if he was crying, he’d get comfort from sweet Mahiru, so he probably doesn’t need his old mother anymore, sniff.” “Was that a sniffle I heard?” “Stop picking at little details.” Shihoko was cutely pretending to cry, but Shuuto could tell she was genuinely concerned, so he comforted her, stroking her head intermittently. However, she must have had more to say about the incident with Toujou, because even though Shuuto comforted her, he could see she was still slightly on edge. “Even so, the Toujous must be having a hard time of it, too. He must be making life difficult for his parents.” “He sure is. Now, it wasn’t our obligation to say anything, but we were a little late in confronting the issue. It sounds like he really got out of control after the boys started middle school, you know.” What they’d realized when they looked into things after the incident with Amane was that Toujou had started hanging out with those kinds of friends after entering middle school and that his new companions had rapidly tipped the scales. It was around this time they picked up on what the boy’s home environment was like. Shihoko had always claimed Toujou’s parents were good people, but from where Shuuto stood, that assessment didn’t seem quite right. Sure, Toujou’s parents were sociable and had pleasant personalities. And he also knew they were a polite, honest, and kind couple. However, what Shuuto sensed was that this was only what they showed to other people. When he looked at their boy, it was easy to tell their efforts to be pure and righteous had gone off track, and that had manifested in their son. Shihoko and Shuuto themselves had also warped Amane in certain ways, or rather, they’d caused him problems by failing to teach him that his innocence could make him an unwitting target for the darkness in the world. But a different kind of difficulty in child-rearing had become apparent in the Toujou household. “The rebellious years are a difficult time. I was actually worried because Amane didn’t rebel very much.” “Amane had a little bit of a rebellious phase, but that was the least of our worries then, wasn’t it?” “The timing was just awful. To have something like that happen at such a sensitive stage…” “It was actually concerning because he was too good of a kid, I remember. Even though I was looking forward to getting yelled at, and called ‘stupid old man!’” Shuuto had been prepared for that kind of a rebellious phase, but Amane was a well-behaved child to begin with, so he hadn’t pushed back against his parents all that much, and in fact, he had grown into a tenderhearted young man, which was somewhat anticlimactic. “I wonder what it says about you, that you were looking forward to something like that?” “I mean, I was like that, so I thought I’d be able to take it in stride when he called me names, like it’s just part of growing up.” “…Your father did say you didn’t really settle down until you were almost out of high school or just starting college, Shuuto.” “Ah-ha-ha. But you know, it wasn’t the sort of thing that hurt anyone else. I just did stupid stuff with my friends. I would classify it as not knowing how to behave; that’s all.” His response came out sounding a little like a dig at the person who had brought up the topic a moment ago, but that wasn’t intentional. Even so, it seemed like it had dredged up memories for her. When Shihoko sighed softly, Shuuto knew he had messed up, and he felt a little remorseful. “The Toujou boy still hasn’t changed at all, has he?” “Sounds that way. Compared to Amane and his friends, he seems to be the same as he was years ago. Amane, on the other hand, has changed so much, it’s startling.” “Oh, he really has changed, our Amane.” Both Shuuto and Shihoko nodded in unison whenever anyone asked if Amane was different now. When they’d sent Amane out on his own, confident he would overcome his hurt feelings, he had been totally introverted, misanthropic, and brusque, and he’d had a cold way of talking that didn’t allow people to get close to him. But the Amane who had come home to visit had completely transformed. He had this tenderness and composure that would have been unbelievable half a year earlier, and the confidence exuding from him now lit up his whole expression. His parents had been quite concerned about him for a while, but Amane’s wounds had healed, and he had grown into such an upright young man they verifiably didn’t need to worry any longer. “It’s a relief to see he’s changed in a positive direction. I wasn’t sure how things would turn out when he left home, but letting him go was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?” “You’re right. There are parts of a child that can’t develop under the loving protection of his parents, so it’s gratifying to see he’s done some growing up since leaving.” “Heh-heh, and the trigger for that growth was definitely the idea of someone like dear Mahiru becoming a member of the Fujimiya family, don’t you think?” “Love can push someone to mature very quickly.” “People never do change, do they, without something to kick-start it?” There were very few people who could make up their own minds to change without any kind of push. Most people first started to change when something or other gave them a push on the back to get them going. In Amane’s case, that had been Mahiru; that was all. “I’m glad Amane got over all of that so quickly, but…I worry that boy might get fixated on Amane. I mean, people hold on to grudges sometimes, right?” “The fact there’s physical distance between them sets my mind at ease. And anyway, the Toujou boy may be on the wrong path, but I think he has enough sense not to do anything truly terrible. I don’t think he has the nerve to cross any hard lines. For better or worse, I think he’s really just a kid who’s easily scared trying to seem tougher than he is.” “You’re strangely confident, considering how bitter you are about the whole thing.” “I looked into him a little bit, and that’s the conclusion I came to after looking at his present situation.” “…You work fast.” Shihoko gave him an astonished look, and Shuuto smiled back at her. He had investigated Toujou’s circumstances at the time, too, and had recently been checking again to a certain degree, wondering what was driving his present-day behavior and attitude. He had looked into everything he could, from his previous home environment to his current home environment, from his parents’ working environments to his school environment, and made his judgment based on that. Sure enough, Toujou’s character hadn’t changed, and he seemed to be behaving in high school just as he had been in middle school, stubbornly refusing to develop beyond being a mischievous kid. He seemed to be venting his frustration on a daily basis while staying just out of the reach of the law, so he hadn’t gone so far as to cross the last lines of decency his parents had drilled into him. At least, as far as Shuuto could see, that was how it seemed. “There’s no way I wouldn’t look into someone who might do harm to my son. I’ll make use of any means I can. I have acquaintances among his current teachers and neighbors, so I enlisted their help.” “Maybe you work a little too quickly?” “The faster I work, the faster we can see what our options are, right?” Rather than always being one step behind, they ought to make the first move. It would be too late if he had waited to investigate until after something had already happened. If it was possible to prevent something from happening ahead of time, surely that was the better option. “He was going through a major rebellious phase and that might’ve been the end of it, but when his parents tried to rein him in, he had a major outburst instead. That’s all for now, but…” Though he was hostile toward his parents and seemed depressed, the boy wasn’t really a bad kid. That more or less described his present situation. “Well, in any case…Amane probably doesn’t intend to come back here again, even after he graduates. He plans to attend college over there, too. And I haven’t told the people around here what high school Amane is attending. How about you, Shihoko? You’ve only said he went to a different prefecture, right?” “Yes. Just in case.” “Once he graduates from college and starts working, it will be even harder for anyone to track him down. And I doubt the Toujou boy has the tenacity to chase him that far.” Shuuto was on alert just in case he did hit rock bottom, but he was just barely staying on solid footing for the time being. And Toujou had to know even if he did fixate on Amane, nothing would come of it. Because he was no longer a part of Amane’s world. “Besides…” “Besides?” “There won’t be a next time.” If, on the very off chance, he tried to do some kind of harm to Amane again, Shuuto would justifiably take suitable action. He had forgiven the first offense. He wouldn’t forgive a second. No matter what kind of background the boy had, no matter what his motives, the Fujimiyas had no margin for taking extenuating circumstances into consideration. As the victims, they had no interest in the motivations of the aggressor. If he tried to hurt Amane again, they would have no choice but to make sure he couldn’t do any further damage to them, and that was all there was to it. They would get him to understand firsthand what he had done and what he was trying to do, and they would take measures to ensure he never appeared before Amane ever again. “…I think you’re the one who’s angriest about it, Shuuto.” “I am angry. Or rather, I feel justified in getting rid of him if he becomes an obstacle for Amane, I suppose.” If there was a bug trying to devour a tree trunk that was growing tall and beautiful, it would only be natural to deal with it. At least until the tree was finished growing, until it had developed its own defenses and could deal with the bug itself, it was proper for caretakers to look after it. Even if a child eventually set down roots and built a home somewhere far away, it was in a parent’s nature to want to protect them while they were still a child under their parents’ guardianship. “Doesn’t that count as being angry?” “Mmm…I’m not angry. But I also haven’t forgiven him.” Shuuto was not holding on to his anger toward Toujou. It was a waste of energy and mental space, and as long as he wasn’t doing anything, Shuuto wouldn’t consider making any moves on his end. However, he still remembered what the boy had done, and he wasn’t willing to simply forgive and forget. That was all. “Shuuto, you sure can hold a grudge.” “Well, now. I’m sure everyone experiences frustrations in this life, but if someone tries to stab you in the back, you have to act accordingly.” “I was so scared back then. From the time you started using your personal connections and actively investigating the family, I believed you were seriously angry, you know.” “Parents protect their children, after all. And because you gave me a lot of emotional support, Shihoko, I was able to work behind the scenes. I couldn’t have done it without you.” “…You didn’t do anything, though, did you?” “No, I didn’t. That was his first offense, so I let him get off with a warning.” “What about the second time?” “I’m no saint. And I see no reason to wait for a third time.” It was ridiculous to think he would forgive violence twice. Of course, he would make an effort to ensure it didn’t happen, but if it did happen a second time, the moment that it did, he had every intention of eliminating the threat. “Now, if it stays in the realm of a quarrel between two children, then as a parent, I won’t do anything, but if it goes beyond that, then it falls into the domain of the adults. Before my child gets mixed up in something that hurts him, it’s my job as a grown-up to take care of it.” If bullying progressed to defamation, threats, and acts of violence, there was no longer anything that a child could do. That was the point where adult intervention was necessary, and the perpetrator should be punished in accordance with the law. There was probably no longer any need to worry about that for Amane, but the best thing to do was to be prepared, Shuuto concluded, and he leaned back against the sofa. Shihoko wore a contemplative look on her face but ultimately agreed with him and let out a little sigh. That was the moment the living room door let in a little fresh air from the hallway. The sound of the hinges squeaking cut through the quiet night. When they both looked in that direction, the door was slightly ajar, and Mahiru was peeking in at them, looking uncomfortable. “Oh, Mahiru dear, what’s the matter? What are you doing up this late?” In an instant, Shihoko’s expression brightened, and she put on a smile. Hesitantly, with a worried look on her face, Mahiru stepped into the living room. It didn’t sound like Mahiru was usually awake at this hour, so apparently she had either woken up again or hadn’t been able to go to sleep. “Ah, well, um…I thought I might be able to get some water…” “Oh, water? Wait just a moment, okay? You can have a seat right there.” “Oh, no, sorry to bother you.” “It’s fine, it’s fine. Make yourself at home.” Shihoko was suddenly in much higher spirits. She got up and trotted toward the kitchen, keeping her footsteps quiet, and her husband, Shuuto, couldn’t help but smile at how quickly she had changed gears. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Mahiru, who was in someone else’s home, didn’t seem able to shake her reserve. In a truly timid manner, she walked over to him and bobbed her head in a little bow. “Um, I’m sorry for intruding.” “Oh, no, we don’t mind. You don’t need to be so formal or apologize for anything.”
Chapter 174
16 min read