Traveling With a Beautiful Girl - Chapter 3: Let’s Go on a Trip

“No, y-you can’t die!”

Those words came out of reflex.

“I don’t know what has happened to you, but you mustn’t die, no matter what!”

I said forcefully, grabbing Nanase by the shoulders.

“E-E-Eh?”

I saw confusion on Nanase’s face. It was the first time I had seen this expression on her.

“But you don’t know how I feel.”

She shook off my arm. A strong gaze turned towards me.

“Isn’t it wrong for a third party to force someone to live, even though their life is hard, exhausting, and they would rather die?”

“W-Well, that may be true, but …”

“By nature, people should not be forced to live or die, because their life is their own. Life belongs to the individual. I don’t deserve to have my will to die denied by you, who knows nothing about me.”

Nanase quietly, nonchalantly, and without inflection, laid out her words.

I had witnessed her construct logic in this way several times in the classroom.

Countless others have been defeated by Nanase’s methodical logic and rational reasoning devoid of emotion.

However, I cannot just say, “Well, good luck in the next life,” and adieu.

If I let Nanase go and she becomes minced meat, I will regret it until my next life.

Nevertheless, what should I do?

……Yes, I have a secret plan.

I started posting videos on Youtube a year ago.

In the process, I’d seen the comments section flare up many times.

This was where I came into contact with the culture of “resba”

(T/N: Here: Resba)

I have learned a lot from the fierce people who have earned the title of “argument breakers” after a lot of quibbling, argument shifting, and irrelevant mounting battles.

When persuading others, it’s not whether your logic is right or wrong that’s important.It’s whether or not you can say something to sway their minds!

I turned my head towards her.

What’s a good quibble that would be good… That’s it!

“Let’s go on a trip!”

“………..Huh?”

Nanase frowned with all her might, but I continued with my momentum.

“I don’t know what happened, but I’m sure you’re tired! So let’s go somewhere far away, eat some good food, see some beautiful scenery, and refresh ourselves! Then you’ll feel more like having fun than feeling like dying, and you’ll be happy!”

The way I spread my arms out grandly and wielded my eloquence was like that of a guru of a dubious religion.

“……are you aware that you are talking nonsense right now?”

“I’m quite serious.”

That’s a lie.

I’m aware that I’m really speaking nonsense.

My breathing is ragged.

My face is hot.

But I can’t back down now.

Her life was at stake.

My heart was on the verge of bursting, but I tried to keep a serious expression on my face and waited for Nanase’s reaction.

“Pfft!”

She laughed.

Why?

Giggling, Nanase placed her hand over her mouth and smiled.

It was my first time seeing this expression once again.

“You say some pretty funny things, don’t you?”

“A-ah, yes, thank you…….”

My communication disorder got triggered.

The momentum from earlier seemed to have flown to Brazil.

“But a trip, a journey, huh…..I hadn’t thought of that.”

Nanase folded her arms, put her finger to her chin, and nodded, ‘hmmmm’.

“R-Right? Let’s go on a trip once! Then maybe you won’t even feel like dying…!”

“Okay.”

“Eh?”

“I’m gonna stop dying once and for all.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, I did it!

I pushed through!

I made a gut pose in my heart!

“I don’t know if traveling, as you say, will change my mind, but… it seems like a good distraction before I die.”

“Ah…so you still have a death wish..”

My gut pose shatters.

“Isn’t it obvious? With this degree of wanting to disappear…….how could I not have one?”

Nanase’s eyes, as she said this, seemed to be swirling with emotions deeper than darkness.

I gulped.

What in the world could have made Nanase like this?

I can’t ask her right now.

“So, when are we going?”

“Eh?”

“Not ‘eh?’. You are also going on the trip with me, aren’t you? You’re not suggesting that I go on a trip by myself, are you?”

She was absolutely right.

And thinking about it calmly, if I let her go here, she might try to jump onto the train again without flinching.

We will travel together and I’ll somehow make Nanase lose her desire to die.

I thought that would be best. Although I said….

“I-I think we’ll go now.”

“W-What!?”

Nanase seemed to be amazed and raised her voice in an agitated manner.

Then, she looked at the bulging backpack I was carrying and widened her eyes.

“No way, were you planning to travel now? Alone?”

“Yeah. Actually, I had a fight with my… parents a while ago, and I just ran out of the house.”

“Running away?”

“Call it the first step toward independence.”

“Do you know what independence means?”

“No need to get into the details.”

After a few seconds, Nanase opened her mouth.

“Okay, well, let’s go now.”

“……seriously?”

“I’m serious. I was going to die anyway, and…”

“And?”

There was a short pause.

Nanase clenched her fists.

“I never want to go home again.”

Nanase’s expression was obscured by the lights of the train coming onto the platform.