Vol 2 CHAPTER 21: Summer Festival Scramble ⑤【Volume 2: With the Footsteps of Ruin Echoing, I Come Crawling for You 【NTR Execution Arc】】

When it comes to “seeking advice,” you can basically split it into two categories, depending on the content—or rather, the intent.

One is the kind where the person actually tries to find concrete measures to solve the problem they’re facing. And the other is the kind that exists only to ease the person’s vague anxiety.

If I think about which category Kotofuki’s “advice session” falls under, it’s the latter. She’s anxious. She can feel something off in her relationship with Ichinose-senpai, and she wants someone to tell her, “It’s okay.”

But that’s also the kind of line that pushes the real solution even farther away. If you deny reality and put blind faith in baseless comfort, then someday, you’re going to get your footing swept out from under you.

And, well… that was exactly what I wanted.

I’d be thrilled if Kotofuki kept looking away from reality, so I comforted her as much as I could. Which is really just the work of listening sincerely, agreeing with her, and telling her she isn’t wrong—but even that alone can strip away a lot of someone’s anxiety.

There was also the calculation that my favorability would go up.

When someone becomes dependent on something, what they need is a “successful experience.”

A person who’s never won even once in gambling doesn’t become a gambling addict. It’s only after experiencing one big win—even just once—that they start sinking into the bottomless swamp.

It’s the same with relationships.

I want Kotofuki to have the successful experience of, “When I talked to Kudo-kun, I felt lighter.”

That way, the next time she gets hit with the same kind of anxiety, she’ll latch onto me—the second loach—without even thinking.

So I choose my responses carefully, and I make sure I never deny Kotofuki or Ichinose-senpai.

I considered scaring Kotofuki a little by pointing out that Ichinose-senpai has some suspicious points, and pushing her into paranoia, but she already seems to have her share of doubts about him. And too much discord would just interfere with the later plan, so I decided against it.

——

——

Eventually, Kotofuki’s consultation hit a natural stopping point, and she said:

“Thank you. Talking to you, Kudo-kun… I feel a lot lighter.”

Yep—exactly the words I wanted. I was satisfied.

And seriously, Kotofuki is so honest—and such a pushover.

“You’re welcome. I mean, all I did was listen, so it’s not like I was much help…”

“No, that’s not true. I feel like I’ve been relying on you nonstop, Kudo-kun.”

“Then… if you’re saying that, Kotofuki, that makes me happy.”

I said that and smiled at her.

Then Kotofuki pressed her lips together.

She went quiet, staring at me.

Confused, I spoke up.

“Um… is something wrong?”

“H-Huh? Ah! Sorry, it’s just… I was thinking it’s kind of strange.”

“Strange? What is?”

When I asked, Kotofuki furrowed her brows like she was troubled.

“Kudo-kun… you changed, didn’t you?”

“Did I?”

“You did. Totally. You became someone dependable. Did something happen over summer break?”

“Ah—well… actually, a little.”

“A little?”

Thinking back on my “training” over the summer, I said:

“Like… working out and training, I guess. Self-improvement. Just a bit… man, that sounds embarrassing coming out of me.”

“That’s not embarrassing at all. But… I see. So that’s what it was…”

Kotofuki looked like she was quietly mulling something over—like she was chewing on some kind of bitterness.

I didn’t really understand what that expression meant, but I decided to joke around anyway.

“A good man became a seriously good man, right?”

“…Pfft… hehe… yeah. That’s true.”

Kotofuki gave me a faint smile.

“I don’t know everything you’re worried about, Kotofuki… but if something comes up again—something that feels like it’s stuck in your chest—talk to me. It’s true that I’m on your side.”

“…You really changed.”

Kotofuki murmured that under her breath.

And then, quietly, she told me, “Thank you.”

For a while, we just sat there in silence, neither of us knowing what to say. But then, like she’d made up her mind, Kotofuki finally opened her mouth.

“Hey, um—Kudo-kun, you—”

But that was cut off by a sound from above—

BOOM!

—A roaring blast. At the same time, the vibration in the air shook our hair.

Startled, I looked up, and there it was: a huge bloom of light bursting in the sky.

“Ah… fireworks. They started.”

“Yeah.”

“Can’t be helped… It’s kind of hard to see, but I guess we have to watch from here.”

Kotofuki suggested we watch the fireworks from here instead of meeting up with our classmates.

And sure, since they’re just fireworks put on for a local summer festival, it’s not like they’ll keep launching them forever. From here, it would take time to get up to the higher viewing area, and if we mess up, we might miss most of them.

But where we were now was also smack in the middle of foot traffic, and there were too many people around for it to be a good place to watch fireworks.

I thought for a moment, then spoke to Kotofuki.

“Kotofuki, can you come with me for a second?”

There’s a better place for two people to watch fireworks.

Vol 2 CHAPTER 22: Summer Festival Scramble ⑥【Volume 2: With the Footsteps of Ruin Echoing, I Come Crawling for You 【NTR Execution Arc】】

Where I brought Kotofuki was—inside the shrine grounds.

Far off, I could hear fireworks bursting—BOOM, POP—and each time, the approach lined with stalls would erupt with an “Ooooh…” of cheers. But over here, it felt quiet.

There wasn’t any big crowd inside the grounds.

Sure, there were people like me and Kotofuki who came to watch the fireworks, but it had to be nothing compared to the viewing area up on the hill.

“Can you see the fireworks well from here?”

“Nope. From here, the main hall gets in the way, so you can’t see all of them.”

I explained it to Kotofuki as she made a puzzled face.

The reason there weren’t many people here was exactly that: you couldn’t watch the full show. The shrine’s main hall—tall enough to matter—blocked the fireworks, and if the burst didn’t go high enough, you’d only catch a tiny bit above the roof.

“Huh? Then—”

“Easy, easy. Don’t rush… come over here.”

I stopped Kotofuki when she looked like she wanted to say this place was useless, and I guided her to a certain point. It was a dim corner near the edge of the grounds—so obviously sketchy it screamed don’t lure a girl here.

But there were scattered fireworks-watchers there, so Kotofuki followed without getting especially tense.

“Is this good?”

“Yeah. Now face the main hall for me.”

When I told her that, Kotofuki answered, “Okay,” like an obedient kid, and stared up at the sky.

I did the same and waited for the moment—and then I heard the Fweee— of a whistling firework rising—

“Woooow…”

Kotofuki let out a breath of awe.

Fireworks launched from behind the main hall burst with a POP—and in that instant, they lit up the area, staining the shrine grounds a vivid red.

The dim grounds were suddenly painted into something dreamlike. The summer night’s thin darkness, melting into red flame. And that unreal, otherworldly space vanished as the sparks scattered.

All that remained was the same dim shrine grounds as before.

“You can see the high ones clearly. And only then, you get a little scene like that. A main hall lit up by fireworks is pretty classy, huh?”

“…That’s amazing, Kudo-kun.”

Kotofuki said it like she was excited.

I threw on a smug face and asked, “Right? And we got to see that, so isn’t this spot kind of a better deal?” Kotofuki nodded hard. “I like this spot better, too.”

After that, every time a higher firework burst, we enjoyed the fireworks and the shrine grounds being dyed different colors.

Red, yellow, green, orange.

As we watched those colors bloom and fade, I asked her:

“For an end-of-summer memory, was it pretty good?”

“Yeah! Totally!”

Seeing that beaming smile, I felt satisfied and—

“Good. I’m glad.”

—that was all I said.

The way she looked, gazing up at the fireworks, was beautiful. Her pale turquoise yukata shimmered under the light, like a lake surface catching sunbeams.

And then the biggest firework of the night went up, and the summer festival came to its end.

——

——

We went to pray at the main hall and thanked the gods for letting us watch the fireworks, then contacted the classmates we’d gotten separated from. Turns out they’d been looking for us too, and we agreed to meet up once before everyone dispersed.

As we started moving, I spoke to Kotofuki.

“Kotofuki, here. Take this.”

“Huh? What is it?”

What I handed her was a pair of tickets.

Entry tickets for an autograph session with a famous rock band.

It was being held at a music store downtown, and the date was during the September long weekend.

“You said it was Ichinose-senpai’s favorite band, right?”

“I-I can’t take something like that! It must’ve been hard to get!”

“Nah, not really. It’s more like I got them by accident.”

I explained that my cousin is a fan of the band and the tickets came to me through that. Of course, it was a lie—the truth is I got them by applying together with Takanashi—but there’s no way I could say that, so I kept a straight face.

“So, you know… it’s better to give them to someone who’ll actually make good use of them, right? I brought them thinking I’d hand them off if somebody wanted them.”

“But…”

“Yeah, well… I figured it might be meddling, but use those and go have a real talk with Ichinose-senpai. If it’s during the long weekend, even if he’s busy, he can probably make time for at least one day.”

“Kudo-kun…”

I worried that logic might be pushing it a little, but Kotofuki didn’t doubt me at all—she just looked at me with wet eyes. For a second, the image of a pampered puppy flashed through my head, but I didn’t get softened up. I told her anyway:

“In return, treat me to something good sometime.”

“—Okay. Thank you, really, Kudo-kun.”

Kotofuki nodded happily.

And just like that, I quietly secured a meal date.

Most girls would probably try to dodge that kind of promise by giving you sweets as a thank-you gift, but this is Kotofuki. She’s the type who looks like she’d earnestly show up with a hotel buffet or a yakiniku buffet.

When that happens, Ichinose-senpai will probably be there too…

Kukukuku, Kotofuki.

Sadly, that future isn’t coming.

The moment you took those tickets, you already stepped onto a path you can’t turn back from.

Kukukuku…

Fuhahahaha…

FWAA—HAHAHA—HAHAHA!!

Go ahead and wash your neck and wait.

For Kotofuki, this is where Hell Street, Block One begins.

——

——

And with that manic laughter echoing inside my head, my first night of scheming came to an end.

The next stage is the new semester.