"So, Miss Furuhara was born with the ability to see these things?"

In an anime café not far from the venue, Moon Shadow Chigusa lowers her head and stirs the ice cubes in her Coke cup with a straw.

"That's right, I can only feel the presence of something faintly at first......"

Sitting on the opposite side was Gu Risa who forcibly dragged him to this shop on the grounds of "at least let me treat you to dessert as a repayment", and began to eat a lot of food on his own.

"After experiencing a very scary event, I gradually saw it more and more clearly......

At this moment, she has changed back into a high school uniform with a vibrant girlish style.

"It's a pity, even if you get entangled, you can't complain to your parents and classmates, only the real bow ......"

After all, you can't sit down with a pair of wings and taste the latest "Flowing Cheese Cat's Paw Cake".

"Aha, then Miss Furuhara is really strong......"

Looking at the woman who almost lost her tongue not long ago, but now she was eating cake with full vitality, Moon Shadow Chigusa touched her head and smiled dryly, but her eyes under the frame became deep.

When did you start to be able to see yourself?

It's like when I got that laptop and created my first "work......

……

Three years ago.

"The contemptible person is Yanagida, I have to ask you to come so far, if it weren't for the police contact, I wouldn't have known that Dean Qingren actually had such a big son......"

In the dilapidated welfare home, a middle-aged man enthusiastically led Moonshadow Chigusa into the room on the third floor.

"Hmph, no one will call a strange man they have never met in their life a father......"

Seeing Yanagida kneeling on the tatami mat, Tsukiage Chigusa didn't sit down, but just snorted coldly.

“…… Take it out, the document you said, I'll leave after signing it. ”

A few days ago, it was this man named Yanagida who contacted him through the police and asked him to sign a "death confirmation" as the only immediate family member.

The "confirmed object" of this "Death Confirmation" is none other than Moonshadow Chigusa's father, who has not seen since birth, Moonshadow Haruto.

"So, this guy, for more than twenty years, has been hiding in a small room in this welfare home?"

With a sigh, Moonshadow Chigusa finally sat down, curiously surveying her surroundings.

With curiosity about his life experience and the earnest gentleness of the other party, he hesitated again and again, but he still chose to come.

In the small and dilapidated tatami room, in addition to the basic living furniture, there are only a few bookshelves full of books, which shows that the owner lived a very poor life during his lifetime, but he was a lover of books.

"Although, as I don't know, I'm not qualified to give any opinions, but Dean Haruto, for our 'Little Daisy Welfare House', it is really an important existence like the sun......"

Yanagida took out a document from a drawer and placed it on the low table, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, and sighed and looked at the shrine beside him.

"Over the years, he has not only donated all his manuscript fees and property to the welfare home, but even he himself has worked hard for his children until the last moment of their lives......

Following Yanagida's gaze, Moon Shadow Chigusa looked at the photo on the shrine in a trance.

It was a ******, middle-aged man who looked suave and bookish, with a warm smile on his face.

"Too ...... Hey...... Hey, hey, hey...... You ...... Irresponsible scum!! ”

Looking at the facial features that seemed to be familiar to him on the black and white photo, Moonshadow Chigusa's eyes flashed with a fierce light like a wounded beast, and he pointed at the man in the photo and cursed.

When he was a child, he often fantasized about what it would be like to meet his father for the first time before falling asleep.

Perhaps, he was sent on a top-secret mission around the world by an agency that starts with the letter D, so he can't return home every night like his classmates' fathers.

Perhaps, he lost his memory because of a brain tumor, and one day he will come to this familiar neighborhood by mistake, hold the hands of their mother and son, and retrieve the lost memories together.

Or perhaps, he has already died and become a powerful existence in the corpse soul realm, planning to defect from the void circle one day in the future and come to the present world to put on a mask of cutting off cause and effect for himself.

As he grew older, his naïve delusions burst like a bubble, but occasionally he couldn't hold back his curiosity about his father.

After the death of his mother, this ignorant thought gradually turned into hatred.

But he never thought that the first time he saw his father's image was through a black-and-white posthumous photo in front of the Buddhist shrine.

What I didn't expect was that in the past 20 years, this man has lived in a place that he can reach in four hours by Shinkansen, nested in this dilapidated welfare home, and lived an ascetic life for these orphans.

"Moonshadow-kun, please don't get excited...... Perhaps, there is some hidden meaning and misunderstanding in this......"

"Secrets? Misunderstand? ”

Moon Shadow Chigusa slumped limply, her hands slamming the low table.

"What reasonable secrets and misunderstandings would make a father do his best in a dilapidated welfare home, but let his children become real orphans?!"

"For so many years, not to mention visits, there is not even a letter or a phone call!!"

“…… As a result, the first and last meeting actually asked me to sign this broken word for him?! ”

"If he hadn't abandoned us...... If someone is at home that day...... Mom won't ......."

Large tears dripped down the tatami mats and then dissipated like waves on the beach.

"Please ...... Condolences ......"

Yanagida opened his mouth slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he could only gently pat the young man's thin back.

After a while, as if calming down, Moon Shadow Chigusa wiped the corners of her eyes, picked up the pen on the table, and signed her name on the document.

In the silence of the room, only the sound of the pen could be heard.

“…… That's it. ”

After signing, Moon Shadow Chigusa got up and prepared to leave.

But his gaze was fixed on the penultimate layer of the huge bookshelf in front of him.

There, there was a black worn suitcase.

On the corner of the box is the words "Emi Sato" engraved.

It should be the name of the former owner of the box.

"It's ......"

Moon Shadow Chigusa couldn't help it, and reached down to take the box.

“…… This bastard who didn't even dare to come back...... There is still a face with other people's things......"

Although Sato is the number one surname in Japan......

But Emi Sato is the name before his mother got married and changed her name to "Emi Tsukikage".

Over the years, although her mother has never mentioned the man's affairs in front of him, it can be seen that she has never changed her surname back, and she still has inseparable thoughts about that man.

Until she died, she was thinking about the man who was nowhere to be found.

"It's, Mommy's stuff...... I'm going to take this box with ......."

Moonshadow Chigusa turned around and looked at Yanagida on the side with a determined expression: "This man who has never fulfilled his responsibilities as a husband and father for a day is not qualified to keep this thing!" ”

"Although the things on these bookshelves, the dean has explained that he must let Araki-kun take the time to come back and tidy them up by himself, but ......"

Hearing his request, Yanagida looked embarrassed, frowned, and nodded.

“…… If this makes you feel less hatred for Dean Haruhin, then please do it. ”

After all, his heart was also full of apologies and pity for this son whom Dean Qingren had never met.

Although I don't know the hardships of Dean Qingren for abandoning his wife and children, it is an indisputable fact that he dedicated his life and all his inheritance to the welfare home.

As the sole heir in law, the young man in front of him is too inhumane if he doesn't even want to let the other party take away some sundries from his life to keep a memory.

"Don't worry, I don't have time to waste my precious life to hold a grudge against a stranger who has died."

Seeing the other party's approval, Moon Shadow Chigusa took a deep breath, lifted the box, and turned away without hesitation.