Chapter 103-104 – After The Fireworks – 1
When Yuka asked me a question, I hesitated before answering "No."
My mind had gone completely blank for a moment. I was unable to process the suddenness of her question.
"Come on, why would I not be Takuya? Your joke is too much."
Unfortunately, I couldn't control my expression either. Cold sweat soaked my back, and I felt my lips trembling as if they had a mind of their own.
What could I do? It was such a sudden attack that I was caught completely off guard, without any mental preparation or strategy.
I thought to myself, preparing to deny it if she pressed further. Then I waited silently for Yuka to continue.
"Hmm…"
Yuka stared at me for what felt like an eternity. Then she spoke again, right next to my ear. This time, she pronounced each syllable carefully, as if measuring them.
"Then, let's talk separately later."
After saying this, Yuka seemed to lose interest in me. She turned her head to join Ayaka, who was filming the fireworks with her flip phone, and started giving her advice.
I stared at Yuka with a blank face, unable to understand her sudden change in attitude. I had expected her to keep pressing me relentlessly.
'She's backing down so easily? Why?'
After that, I lost all sense of time. I ate, but it didn't feel like I had. I watched the fireworks, but I couldn't remember a single burst or color.
After finishing a meal where I couldn't even tell if the food had gone into my mouth or nose, we packed up our mats. The fireworks were over, and we left the festival grounds to head home.
On the way back, Miyuki, Sota, and Haruka went in different directions, so we parted ways in the middle. I had wanted to walk them home, but unfortunately, I didn't have the time or energy for that right now.
After we parted, I walked with Ayaka and Yuka on either side of me, holding their hands. Normally, I would have felt overjoyed, thinking I was surrounded by flowers on both sides…
I glanced sideways, carefully watching Yuka, who was talking to Ayaka as if nothing had happened. Her expression seemed perfectly normal, and I couldn't help but sigh inwardly. That normal expression was even more frightening than any words could be.
'Haa… I was prepared for this, but…'
I had thought I was ready, but now that it was actually happening, I didn't know how to feel.
I walked for a while, feeling like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse. Each step felt heavier than the last.
"Oh, right. Ayaka, Takuya, and I are just going to the convenience store for a bit."
"Huh? Why the convenience store?"
"We should have a drink on a day like this. He's the pack mule, after all."
"Okay. Be careful. Takuya, listen to Yuka, okay?"
I nodded at Ayaka's words. Then I watched blankly as she walked away, her footsteps gradually fading behind us. Of course, that moment of relief didn't last long.
"Now it's just the two of us, huh?"
As soon as Ayaka disappeared from view, Yuka spoke to me directly. Her voice was calm but deliberate.
I nodded at her words, trying to steady my breathing. Luckily, my mind had calmed down somewhat during the walk here. Of course, that didn't mean I wasn't still feeling like I was going to die inside.
"Haa… Let's go somewhere quiet to talk."
'What could I do? It wasn't really my fault, but this was also my karma.'
I thought to myself and headed to a nearby park with Yuka. I was unaware that someone was quietly following us from a distance. Later, on a bench in a quiet corner of the park, we sat in silence.
Honestly, I wanted to say something, but the atmosphere was too heavy. So, I kept my mouth shut and waited for Yuka to say something, anything, to break the tension.
Yuka—no, Yuka, who had become a mother at a young age—gave me a cold, piercing look and said,
"I'm already sure that you're not Takuya."
'She knew that?'
'I thought I was doing a good job acting like him at home, since I had his memories.'
It seemed a mother's instincts were far stronger than I had imagined.
While I was thinking that, Yuka continued. "So, I won't drag this out. I'll just get to the point. Where is my son?"
Unfortunately, that was a question I couldn't answer.
'How am I supposed to know?' I wanted to ask her instead.
Where was the original Takuya? Was he really dead, or had his body been taken while his mind was still intact? I was genuinely curious.
Of course, I knew that saying this wouldn't help, so I calmly stated the facts.
"First of all, I don't know where your son is."
"Ugh… Wh-what do you mean…"
Yuka seemed shocked that I wasn't the real Takuya. Her usually confident voice trembled noticeably.
Well, it was understandable. No matter how prepared you were, it would be shocking to find out that someone had taken your child's body.
Normally, I would have been sweet and considerate here, trying to ease her pain, but I had to keep the pace going.
So, I interrupted Yuka and said, "In the first place, I'm a victim, not a perpetrator."
That was also true. No, in this regard, I was honestly more wronged than anyone.
All I had done was download and play a game I had found at home. I had needed my own escape, too.
That was why I could confidently say that I was a victim. Of course, Yuka didn't seem convinced.
"How can I believe th─"
But who cared? It was the truth.
"Then don't believe me. It's not like you can tell anyone else, right?"
I replied in a rather aggressive tone.
Honestly, I had been accumulating stress without even realizing it.
You could make a lot of money, use future knowledge to connect with celebrities, and still enjoy yourself… wasn't it amazing?
Let me be honest. I didn't know much about Japan in the 2000s.
Of course, I knew some celebrities. But even if the difference was only ten or twenty years, this was almost a forty-year gap. How was I supposed to remember everything from back then?
Besides, I had been drafted into the military early, so my knowledge of celebrities was limited.
What, was I supposed to try befriending the future Japanese politicians I knew about? I didn't want to get involved with them at all.
In the first place, I only knew about Bitcoin because it will be widely used in South Korea in the future. Otherwise, I wouldn't have remembered it at all.
Because of that, I had been squeezing my brain every day to extract scraps of future memories just to get more useful information.
Thanks to this constant strain, I had been accumulating stress without realizing it. Yuka had touched a nerve, and my old military personality had surfaced without warning.
After hearing my words, Yuka looked confused for a moment. Then her breathing became ragged, and tears began to well up in her eyes.
"No. Then, haa… my son, Takuya… Where is he…?"
At that moment, Yuka was no longer the woman who had been questioning me but a mother who had lost her child.
It wasn't a look I particularly liked.
I had seen it too many times before, and also…
[My, our son is really… really dead…?]
[Don't talk nonsense! You said you'd send him to a safe rear area?! But, but why is our son!]
[Lord… why was it my grandson and not me…]
The look of despair, anger, and then emptiness on a person's face was truly heartbreaking.
Because of that, my own expression wasn't good either. It brought back a past I desperately wanted to forget.
In the end, I scratched at my still-growing hair to ease my discomfort and said, "Haa… It might sound like empty hope, but it's not like there are no clues about your son."
"What do you mean…"
"It's a bit complicated. I'll put it simply."
After saying that to Yuka, I told her about the strange ability I had gained.
I didn't mention the screen or the hypnosis, but I said that I received rewards for doing certain things.
After hearing my words, Yuka's eyes had been filled with despair just moments before. Now, they flickered with a hint of hope.
Honestly, it was more likely that what I said wasn't true…
But seeing her eyes shining like that, I couldn't bring myself to tell her otherwise.
In the end, I sighed again and said to Yuka, who had calmed down a little,
"Anyway, it doesn't seem like I'll be in a good state if I stay here. So, for the time being, I'll stay at Sota's house…"
It might be too much for me, physiologically. I needed to separate myself for a while.
For some reason, when I said that and tried to leave for Sota's house, Yuka grabbed my wrist. She stopped me from walking away.
"Please… please don't go… if you're gone too, I…"
She said this while crying, using a woman's most powerful weapon. Because of that, I had no choice but to withdraw my decision.
'But wait, wasn't I supposed to be physiologically uncomfortable?'
After that, I spent a long time comforting Yuka—no, Yuka as a mother—before finally buying some alcohol at the convenience store and heading home.
It had been a tiring day in so many ways.