CH 96

After drying my hair with a hair dryer, I laid down in bed and thought about how to get out of this world.

Is this even my memory in the first place?

For example, this is an illusion Julian is showing me and…

No, I don’t think so.

It’s hard to believe that such realistic illusions can be reproduced with magic.

Well, that’s not the point. We need to figure out a way to get back to the real world.

The clue is…

“Oh, no, I can’t think of anything!”

I got out of bed and started to wander around the house.

From all indications, it’s my parents’ house from a previous life.

There isn’t… any doorway out of memory in this house, is there?

And as I was walking around the house like that, I found my mom in the living room looking at an album.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m looking through Yuta’s childhood albums.”

In the album is a picture of me as a high school student.

Me, standing on the edge of the picture, looking bored.

I wasn’t always a centered leader character.

Mom flipped through the album and stopped at a picture.

“Hey …this picture, do you remember?”

What she showed me was myself when I was in high school.

My face is swollen …and I had a fight.

“Why is this picture still here?”

My mom took this picture because she thought my face looked funny.

“Isn’t that interesting?”

“That’s why…”

“I’m just kidding, this is from when Yuta got into a fight, I was surprised that the normally quiet Yuta would get into a fight.”

That’s what you get when you punch a bunch of chuckleheads at school and get …beaten back to a pulp.

I didn’t fight them out of envy because I’m jealous of their hotness!

“Those guys …pissed me off.”

“It’s for your friends, right?”

“Yeah, …how do you know?”

“Don’t underestimate your mother’s network, though your father …still thinks it’s just a fight between two kids.”

“Oh, yeah, I knew that.”

My best friend’s dream was destroyed.

I had a friend who wanted to be a cartoonist.

They told him he couldn’t do it, so he showed me a picture that he hadn’t shown to anyone but me.

The picture was not that good.

Even the story, while well thought out for a high school student, wasn’t enough to draw me in.

But my friend was serious about becoming a cartoonist.

But one day.

My friend’s cartoon was uploaded to the Internet.

These are the guys who are popular in class and are enjoying their lives.

They happened to find my friend’s manga and put it on the internet for fun.

Perhaps he wanted a review.

The result is …terrible reviews.

I learned the horror of the online world.

You can connect with anyone and send it out to the world at any time.

On the other hand, you’re always being watched and evaluated by all kinds of people and friends, and you’re being ridiculed and …flamed by complete strangers.

—It is less than the doodle of an elementary school student.

—A story without any twists and turns or interesting plot.

Each word stabbed him in the heart and …he lost his motivation and stopped aiming to become a manga artist, which was his dream since he was a little boy.

Maybe the readers were just trying to be funny … just for the heck of it.

Maybe the bad ones are the people who unleashed abusive and mindless words online.

Still, I couldn’t let it go, so I punched those guys.

And got suspended.

Here’s a picture from that time.

“…I felt that this kid is growing up well, and I’m proud of Yuta for being able to be angry for the sake of other people.”

“Oh? Really? You were so mad at me.”

“Of course not. You were suspended from shcool, what a stupid thing to do… I had to bow down to the principal and the homeroom teacher …It was hard.”

“It’s …I’m sorry …for always bothering my mom…”

“It’s okay, it was a long time ago.”

“No. No, that’s not it either, but …not just about that.”

I stopped my mouth.

“I won’t … ask what happened to Yuta, but he has nothing to apologize for.”

“Because I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Don’t say that, the memories of Yuta are your mother’s treasures, oh no, you look so sad, I got emotional.”

“Even if you’re depressed… you always look like this.”

“Yes, just like your father, you look unreliable and …also very dependable.

That’s it. I don’t know what kind of look you’re talking about.

I just don’t feel so bad.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

The next day, I said goodbye to my parents at the door.

“I’ll go …then.”

“Take care.”

“Take care, Mom.”

“Don’t catch a cold…”

“Yeah, okay, Dad, and …watch out not to hurt you back.”

I opened the door and left the house.

Now …I’ll never see my parents againーーI’m not going to see them.

I just wish I could stay here forever.

There is a weak part of me that wants to be spoiled.

So this is the last time I’m going to see my parents.

Because I’m not Yuta Sasaki anymore.

“Yuta!”

I was about to walk out the front door when my dad stopped me.

“Thank you for being born as our child.”

Dad nodded vigorously at that.

Next to her, Mom smiled gently and said, “Yes.”

This is my memory.

Those aren’t the words of my real parents.

I know that.

But it’s an important memory —that proves I was alive as Yuta Sasaki.

“Thanks, Dad. Thanks, Mom.”

Thank you for loving me——.