Chapter 42: Stockholm
Chapter 42: Stockholm
It took a bit of time to finish cooking.
Sakurai Saki divided the rice into portions and placed the dishes on the table.
He didn't forget the ghost girl who had followed him into the kitchen.
"Dinner time!! Yay!" Yakumo Shiro spun in the air, happily raising both hands and clapping.
✧｡٩(ˊᗜˋ )و✧*｡
Now that he thought about it—what do ghosts usually eat?
Incense? ♨♨♨
Did tasting food serve only to satisfy their lingering desires for flavor? Or was it that if they weren't offered anything by their family, ghosts would starve until they faded away? Would that make them... hungry ghosts?
At the dining table, Sakurai Saki watched Yakumo Shiro and realized she was very picky.
She hated bell peppers, disliked carrots, but seemed delighted eating pickled vegetables.
Tonight's meal was tempura—pretty greasy—so the pickled daikon was there to help balance things out.
Nakano Nino glanced at the pickles with a displeased expression, then pushed them away.
After doing that, she cheerfully picked up a tempura shrimp and popped it into her mouth.
A few seconds later, Nino broke into a smile of pure bliss.
Delicious!
(っ˘ڡ˘ς)
Sakurai Saki picked up a piece of vegetable and waited for the ghost girl to finish eating before swallowing his own bite.
"How bad is your nearsightedness? I'll go buy contact lenses for you tomorrow." Sakurai Saki thought it wasn't a good idea to let her stay blind like this.
Yesterday when he picked her up, he had seen several injuries on her body. They looked like self-inflicted wounds… but could've also been from falling.
"No need… someone like me isn't worth your concern." Nakano Nino lifted her head and said anxiously.
(｡Ó﹏Ò｡)
She didn't dare let him sacrifice anything more for her.
Nakano Nino had never imagined she'd ever have to lower herself like this in front of a complete stranger.
But remembering the things he said to her yesterday made her heart beat faster.
'Sharp tongue, soft heart… maybe that's the type of person he is?'
Thinking this, Nino's cheeks flushed a little.
( //>///
Sakurai Saki noticed, and felt more certain that something wasn't quite right with her mentally.
Or rather, from the moment they met yesterday, her mental state had been unstable.
Someone who's seen darkness—when they finally glimpse a ray of light—will pour everything they have into that faint glimmer.
That's why no matter how much he yelled at her or tried to kick her out, she never talked back.
She even began to belittle and devalue herself.
Even Aizen couldn't manipulate someone's mind this fast—it's only been a single day.
Sakurai Saki suddenly started wondering just what exactly this girl had gone through yesterday.
This situation reminded him of a psychological term: "Stockholm Syndrome."
A psychological phenomenon where victims develop emotional bonds with their abuser—even going so far as to protect or justify them.
Though the current scenario was a bit different from classic Stockholm Syndrome… after all, it's not like he had been mistreating or kidnapped her.
To Sakurai Saki, using supernatural powers always came with a strict rule: Never use them to harm innocent people.
Even if someone cursed at him—so long as they admitted their mistakes afterward—he might be willing to forgive them after a small retaliation. But that rule only applied if the other party hadn't made the first move.
If someone did try to harm Sakurai Saki—if they had any intent to hurt him—he wouldn't hesitate to crush them using his powers.
Last week, during a fight with some thugs, Sakurai Saki had followed that exact principle.
When they provoked him, he didn't use his powers. He simply "taught them a small lesson," then generously let it go.
Sakurai Saki thought of himself as maybe... just a little tiny bit petty. But probably not too bad.
"It's just contact lenses, no trouble at all. There's an optical store on the way home," Sakurai Saki thought out loud and said.
Hearing that, Nakano Nino's heart warmed again.
Then she told him her prescription.
Sakurai Saki found it a bit strange.
With that level of nearsightedness, it wasn't like she couldn't see anything—at least it wasn't that serious. Could she be pretending?
The reason for his suspicion was that Sakurai Saki noticed she always avoided making eye contact with him.
Was his face really that handsome? So much that she didn't even dare to look?
Sakurai inside: （￣へ￣）
Next to him—
"There's a lot of black energy coming off her, y'know~" Yakumo Shiro said, her eyes glowing with an eerie blue light.
At the same time, the love letter in Sakurai Saki's pocket emitted a faint glow.
Yakumo Shiro's ability to now touch Sakurai Saki—and even share vision with him—was all thanks to the fact that he had accepted her confession.
As for the exact reason why… that was her little secret, not something to be casually revealed here.
Sakurai Saki focused and looked above Nakano Nino's head.
From there, thin trails of black smoke continuously rose upward.
"Only people close to death look like that. Right now, she's barely holding on to her connection with the real world."
After saying this, Yakumo Shiro thought for a moment before concluding:
"Sakura-kun, if you kick her out now, she'll die really soon."
Sakurai Saki didn't seem too concerned by that.
A different image popped into his mind—the one he saw earlier of Shirogane Miyuki's head.
That strange mix of black and white energy coming off him—what the hell was that?
(ಠ_ಠ)
"Oh right, Sakura-kun, that student council president guy you were talking to at lunch—he's super, super strong!" Yakumo Shiro said with a tone full of admiration.
"He constantly hovers between life and death, so his fate is extremely tough—not easy to kill at all."
… That was kind of funny.
A kind of funny that was soaked in tragedy.
ꉂ (≧ヮ≦)
...
...
After finishing dinner, Sakurai Saki began clearing the table.
Nakano Nino noticed and quickly offered to help.
"I'll do it~"
Sakurai Saki understood—she was trying to find some kind of value in her existence.
Someone who no longer felt they had a reason to exist… would eventually want to die.
Even if Sakurai Saki didn't particularly care whether she lived or died, he still hoped that when she did die, she wouldn't carry any thoughts about him with her.
He couldn't help but watch her silhouette as she moved busily around the kitchen.
She was still wearing the clothes he had given her yesterday.
An oversized shirt, and shorts that only reached her knees.
A curvy body.
And yet, just washing dishes seemed to make her that happy—as if she'd never touched a kitchen before in her life.
Sakurai Saki recalled the school uniform she was wearing yesterday—looked like it was from Shuchiin Academy. If that's the case, she probably came from a wealthy family.
But with a Ojou-sama like that, if she went missing, her family would've already launched a search by now.
'Don't tell me… she really doesn't have a home?'
Maybe her parents had died or divorced, and there were no other relatives left.
Working part-time while studying, doing her best to get into Shuchiin on a scholarship…
Hmm… why does this sound so familiar?
After thinking for a few seconds, Sakurai Saki silently apologized to Shirogane Miyuki.
But that possibility was almost impossible.
Because Sakurai Saki pretty much remembered all the notable people in the school.
If she really was one of those struggling scholarship kids in the mixed institute of Shuchiin, there's no way he wouldn't know.
Nakano Nino finished washing the dishes, and when she came back, she found Sakurai Saki staring at her.
She hesitated to speak, a little nervous.
Did I wash them wrong? Or… did I use too much water?
Was he about to kick her out…?
"Um… sorry!"
The apology left Sakurai Saki confused.
"It's fine."
Hearing that, Nakano Nino let out a breath of relief.
As long as she wasn't getting scolded, it was all good.
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