Chapter 367 - My Hand
(1)
"Toya-kun, good morning."
"Good morning, Airi."
After exchanging morning greetings, I got out of bed and was about to wash my face when Airi wrapped her arms around my waist from behind.
"What's wrong, Airi?"
Airi said nothing.
Well, times like this are usually predictable.
"After I finish getting ready for the morning?"
"...okay."
Once released from Airi, I headed to the dining room.
Airi followed behind me.
After finishing breakfast, I took a mug and returned to the room.
I placed the mug on the table, sat on the floor, and accepted Airi.
There probably isn't much time left to be doing things like this.
So I thought I'd let her be spoiled while we still could.
I thought I wouldn't let Airi have any unnecessary stress.
Then Airi started doing whatever she wanted.
Even while I was drinking coffee like this, Airi kept frolicking and clinging to me.
And when a certain time came, as if a switch had been flipped, she headed to the vanity.
Confirming that, I also started getting ready.
I timed when Airi's preparations were finished and said to her,
"Shall we go soon?"
"Yeah."
Then we left the house and headed to school.
These days, snow is starting to become noticeable on the roadside.
Illuminations are decorated throughout the city.
Even though it must be cold, Airi faithfully matches my fashion preferences.
A long skirt, long coat,
thick gloves and muffler,
and a hat on her head.
After classes ended and lunch break arrived, we all had lunch together.
Despite the cheerful atmosphere, the content of the conversation was extremely dangerous.
"Today was the deadline, wasn't it?"
Emi-san said.
"Now we have to deal with it properly."
Akira-san grinned.
We had thoroughly considered for a week.
And we decided to deal with them politely.
I had already discussed it with Ai-san and the others.
We were scheduled to begin dealing with it at 4 PM.
"By the way, I have a request."
Sakai-kun said?
"What is it, Sakai-kun?"
"Does anyone here know someone who's looking for a part-time job?"
Sakai-kun and Honoka-san are leaving the Blue Bird after this academic year.
Kitamura-san would be the only one working part-time there.
Even if they try to hire, for better or worse, the Blue Bird has become notorious and no one comes.
He was asking if there was a good person in Watanabe's group.
If possible, they wanted a male hand.
"There's no one suitable in Watanabe's group."
Watanabe-kun said.
"I figured~"
Most of Watanabe's group already have jobs or circles.
Kisaragi-kun lives far away and isn't suited for customer service.
"Why didn't you say something like that, Zen-kun?"
It seemed he hadn't told Akira-san.
"Our subsidiary has a temp agency. Why not send a temp from there?"
"We don't have the power to hire a temp worker."
"I'll go. The hourly wage seems better than my current part-time, and above all, it's close."
Saki-san said.
"Then, come for an interview today."
"Yes, then all we have to do is recruit next year's new students for the part-time, right?"
"Do you have someone in mind?"
"No, but can't we just make it a condition for joining Watanabe's group?"
"Is that a good idea?"
I said.
"No good?"
"If we do that, a situation might arise where no one is around during Watanabe's group events. It's better to separate it from Watanabe's group."
It's surprising that this hasn't been a problem up until now.
"Toya's right. Considering the Blue Bird, it seems better to look for someone separately from Watanabe's group members."
Watanabe-kun said.
"Well, things will change again next year."
I said.
"Graduation... it's almost upon us..."
Emi-san said.
"Shall we all go on a graduation trip?"
Akira-san said.
"That's right. Even if it's just the fourth-years, I'd like to go."
"Where to~?"
Emi-san and Airi said.
"Domestic or overseas... depends on that."
Akira-san said.
"How about Okinawa?"
Emi-san suggested.
"The timing is good, and we don't need to get passports. Besides, none of you are thinking of Okinawa for your honeymoon, right?"
"We hadn't even thought about a honeymoon."
Kanna said.
"I recommend it even for people like that. Okinawa."
I don't mind, but what about everyone else?
"Ai and the others say it's fine."
Emi-san said while looking at her phone.
"Then it's decided."
While everyone was making a commotion, Airi whispered.
"Um..."
I know what Airi is thinking.
"How about we go to Hokkaido?"
"Yeah!"
I'm glad we decided to move during February after all.
Okinawa and Hokkaido, huh.
As a result of the discussion, it was decided that the graduation group alone would go to Okinawa for three days and two nights in mid-March.
Then maybe we'll go in early March. There were places I wanted to go.
As we were talking about that, it was time.
Everyone headed to the classroom.
"A graduation trip~ I'm looking forward to it."
"Yeah."
First, we have to deal with the problem in front of us.
(2)
That evening, we were at a certain apartment.
We rang the doorbell.
"Yeees~"
A woman's light voice.
But that voice changed the next moment.
"My name is Kiritani."
"Huh?"
It turned into a dejected voice.
The door opened.
"Um... is something the matter?"
"Nice to meet you. My name is Kiritani Ai. I heard my husband caused you a lot of trouble. You're Kashiwagi Riho-san, right?"
"Ah, yes..."
The woman was confused.
"I heard you were hospitalized at Bito Clinic, but they said you weren't there, so I came to your home to apologize."
"Riho! Who is it?!"
A man's voice.
"Mr. Kiritani came to apologize."
Her voice sounded like she was about to cry.
"What?!"
The man came out shirtless. He had tattoos.
"What? Did you bring money?"
"I've prepared a compensation fee."
I handed the man an envelope. Inside was 200,000 yen.
"This is for the mistake my husband made—an apology and repair costs."
"Don't mess with me, that's not nearly enough!"
"I think you'd better accept it quietly."
Katagiri-kun, who had come with us, said.
"If this goes to court, we have the advantage. You were trying to cheat us out of money by lying."
"It was a rear-end collision, so fault is 100 to 0. Don't you university students even know that?!"
"How can you press charges without an accident report? You've also violated the Road Traffic Act."
"Huh? Are you trying to threaten us?"
"That's not my intention. What Kiritani-kun did was a fact. That's why I came to apologize for that discourtesy... Sorry, but I'd like to talk to Kashiwagi-san."
"Don't screw with us, you brats!"
Hirosue grabbed Katagiri-kun. Katagiri-kun took his hand and easily threw him.
Hirosue was slammed to the ground.
"Sorry, but could you stay quiet there? We came to talk to her."
Thwack.
"Toya-kun, calm down! Your aggressive side is coming out."
Airi hit Katagiri-kun's head.
Ishihara-kun's foot was stepping on the right arm of the man who had been slammed to the ground.
"Please don't try to resist. I don't like conflict either."
Ishihara-kun said.
"Kiritani-kun. You have to apologize properly."
"I-I'm sorry."
When Katagiri-kun said that, Eita apologized.
"S-See, I told you I tried to stop it..."
Kashiwagi-san was crying.
"Y-You think you can get away with this?!"
Hirosue seemed to have some complaint about Ishihara-kun and Katagiri-kun, but Ishihara-kun said,
"Stinger? Or the Red Society? ...Either way, you can't lay a hand on us."
Ishihara-kun looked down at him with cold eyes.
Katagiri-kun also turned around and glared at Hirosue.
"You shut up."
Hirosue was cowering.
"...Let's go, Kiritani-san and everyone."
Katagiri-kun said.
"Y-Yeah. Our business is done..."
We left the house.
The last one out was Katagiri-kun.
Katagiri-kun silently glared at Hirosue again.
Hirosue's eyes were darting around.
When Katagiri-kun left without a word, we followed after him.
(3)
"Are you the Eguchi-san?"
We were stopped by a junior we didn't recognize.
Since I was adopted, my surname had been changed to Eguchi.
My original surname no longer even remained in the family register, so there was no need to be particular about it now.
"That's right, but who are you?"
Naru didn't let go of my hand because the child's gender was female.
"My name is Morishige Shiori. I am the daughter of Morishige Seita."
Morishige Seita. As I recall, he's a former city council member scheduled to run in next year's mayoral election.
"What does that Morishige-san want with us?"
"No, I heard we were relatives, so I thought I'd greet you. I heard you're graduating this year."
Relatives? I got a little interested, so on the way home we stopped at a fast food restaurant and talked while I listened.
Morishige Seita's secretary is Hayashida Yuhei, the husband of Hayashida Hanae.
Hayashida Hanae apparently is Emi-san's older cousin.
He was overseas on business but apparently returned today.
So today the four of them were supposed to have a dinner meeting.
Hanae-san's mother is a savvy trading merchant, and while helping with that business, she also designs clothes herself.
She seems to be the driving force behind the founding of ETC.
Since I hadn't heard anything about Emi-san's relatives, I was surprised.
As expected, the whole family is amazing.
"I've heard rumors that you, senpai, were also amazing from your first day of transfer."
They're not exactly flattering rumors, though.
After talking for a while, we parted ways with her at the store.
"Kosei."
Naru grabbed my arm.
"I know, let's follow her."
Probably Naru had the same bad feeling.
We followed her without being noticed.
Then a wagon stopped near her, and a hand from inside the car grabbed Morishige-san.
She resisted desperately.
I dashed out, grabbed that arm, and slammed him into the wall.
"Naru! Take care of Morishige-san!"
I was surrounded by three adults, but this much is nothing.
I grabbed each man who lunged at me, threw them against the wall, and took them down one by one.
By the time I finished throwing the third, the car had fled.
"Who are you? What do you want with her?"
The man's mouth was tight.
He must have been trained that way.
Thinking it would be bad if things got noisy, we released them.
"Morishige-san, any idea who they are?"
"Probably the work of my father's rival."
I recalled that the current mayor, Ando Tamae, was retiring, leading to a conflict with Eto Shinichiro.
Kidnapping for the mayoral election, huh.
Most likely, they intended to threaten him into withdrawing his candidacy.
After we saw her home, we told Uncle about the matter.
"I told you to stop doing dangerous things."
Uncle scolded us.
"Learn the difference between courage and recklessness."
"I'm sorry."
"Hmm, but you did well. I'll look into that matter."
Uncle said that.
When I returned to my room, I messaged the news to Watanabe's group.
The mayoral election vote counting is at the end of February.
I hope nothing happens.
(4)
After Kiritani-kun's issue was settled, I and Emi were heading to Emi's parents' home.
It seemed Emi had been suddenly called out.
Wondering what was up, we arrived at Emi's parents' home.
As we entered Emi's entrance, one woman hugged Emi.
She had brown hair in a ponytail, was taller than Emi, and had well-defined facial features.
"Emi! How have you been?! Long time no see!"
"Hanae! Long time no see! When did you get back here?"
Emi seemed to know her.
Emi looked at me and introduced me to Hanae-san.
"This is Ishihara Nozomi. My husband."
Hanae-san looked me over appraisingly and said,
"Well, well, so the boy is the famous 'Hedgehog'? Nice to meet you. I'm Emi's older cousin, Hayashida Hanae."
"Nice to meet you."
"Let me introduce myself too. Standing over there is my husband, Hayashida Yuhei."
Hayashida Yuhei-san nodded while holding a small child.
Another small child was clinging to Yuhei-san's leg.
Hanae-san apparently returns to Japan four times a year: for her children's birthdays and her wedding anniversary.
The reason she came back this time was because she wanted to see Emi's face after a long time.
But I have a feeling there's still something else.
"You didn't come all the way home just to see me, did you? You're busy, right? Work?"
She apparently spends the whole year rushing overseas helping with her mother's trading business.
Alongside that, she also works as a fashion designer, an extremely busy schedule.
"Half was to come see Emi, but the other half was for a different matter. I came to see your father."
"My father?"
"Yes, I wanted to borrow some manpower."
That doesn't sound peaceful.
"Emi, do you know Morishige Seita?"
"I read the newspaper. He's running for the next mayoral election, or something."
"He's the secretary for that Morishige Seita."
Morishige Seita apparently aims for the mayor's seat after the current mayor, Ando Tamae, retires.
He wants to cleanse the corrupt city government and eventually change the prefectural government.
That seems to be his thinking.
However, his rival, Eto Shinichiro, is the successor to the current administration. His base is solid.
Still, it's said that his dedicated activities are popular with the younger generation and will gather floating votes.
If the Eguchi Group's votes are added to that, it might overturn the disadvantage.
The stories matched up.
That's where the attempted kidnapping that Kosei and Naru mentioned came in.
They wanted to borrow soldiers to protect relatives.
"So what did Father say?"
"He said he'll lend his strength."
"That's good. How long will Hanae stay?"
"I plan to be here for the rest of the year."
"I see."
"Emi's husband has a good face. I'm glad. Well, we'll be going now."
"Yeah, I look forward to seeing you again."
"I'll stop by again before I leave. Emi... can I ask you to take care of your husband? He's serious now, but he was a handful in the past."
"I see... Leave it to me."
"Well then."
Saying that, Hanae-san left.
We also greeted Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, Kosei, and Naru, and then headed home.
"She was a nice person."
"Of course she is. She's the older sister I always admired. Though she was something else in the past."
Apparently, she was quite reckless in high school.
After graduating high school, she didn't settle into a steady job and did whatever she wanted.
It seems that during that time, she met her current husband, who is three years younger.
After that, Hanae-san's mother, unable to bear watching anymore, made her help with her own business.
It was then that she met Morishige Seita and resonated with his will, leading to the man he is today, they say.
"I'd like her to win. Morishige Seita. A person who can change even Yuhei-san."
"Yeah."
Change the city government, huh...
There's nothing we can do about it, but I thought I'd like to meet Morishige Seita-san once.
(5)
While Airi was in the bath, I was looking at Watanabe's group chat.
Morishige Seita, huh...
Just how far will Watanabe's group expand its influence?
Well, if the Eguchi Group is moving, there's no place for us to step in.
As expected, intervening in the political world is difficult.
Still, the Shimizu group also says they'll cooperate.
If things go well, Morishige Seita might become mayor.
I became curious about what kind of person Morishige Seita is.
If I could meet him, I'd like to.
"Toya-kun, I'm back~"
"Oh, welcome back, Airi."
"Here, this~"
A cocktail today, huh.
I drink with Airi and watch TV.
The usual everyday news is playing.
It seems the kanji of the year has been decided.
The world is moving toward Christmas and then the end of the year.
Next year is also an important year for us.
Life alone with Airi.
And the year I propose to Airi.
"A lot happened this year too~"
Airi said.
"Yeah."
"I wonder what kind of year next year will be."
"First, we have to decide where to live."
"That's right!"
Is Airi also seeing the same future?
Everyone must be thinking it.
Believing in their respective promises of precious things.
Looking up at the same sky, enveloped in the pouring light, my hand spread into the piercing wind.
The profile of Airi from that day reaches back.
Someday the sun will rise.
Today continues.
Airi, who was missing by my side, is here.
The dawn stings my eyes, and what I noticed was your hand that connects a certain beat.