Volume 1-5: The Unexpected Sixteen Years of Kotono Harukawa

TL: Damn trees blinding people and destroying futures

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The first thing I thought when I saw the mansion was that it looked like the Horned Mansion at Disneyland.

　The butler, an old man with an expressionless face who looked like he was actually a wax figure, opened the door and led us to the reception room.

“Well, thank you for coming. I was actually just about to come and see you.”

　Kotono’s father, sitting on the sofa, greeted Mukaishima and me with a smile.

　We sat facing each other across a large table.

“She’s in the hospital right now. She’s not here, but she’ll be back in about a week.”

　Mukaishima glanced at me with a puzzled look.

　If Kotono was not here, why were we called?

“Actually, Kotono had an accident. Did you know that there’s a tree planted in the school courtyard?”

　Mukaishima nodded, and I shook my head. I knew there was a big tree planted there, but I had never heard of plantain before.

“Two days before the summer vacation ended, Kotono fell from the tree and hit her head hard. So ……”

He held his nose with his hand and narrowed his eyes, “It damaged the retina part of her eye. Do you understand?　It’s the part of the eye that plays an important role in seeing things. Please visit her at …”

“her eyesight will never return to normal.” That’s what the doctor told us.

I’ve been told that she will remain blind for the rest of her life.

　As her father was explaining this to Mukaishima and I in a strangled voice, I wondered why I was thinking about something else.

　I wondered if he would be more disappointed that she had fallen out of the tree than that she became blind.

“So, Sasuke-kun, I have a favor to ask you.”

With moist eyes, Tatsuhiko Harukawa pressed me.

“I’d like to ask you to live in this house and be Kotono’s confidant.

It was my turn to look at Mukaishima,

“I know I’m asking a lot. I know I’m being unreasonable, but please try to feel sorry for her. You can continue to go to elementary school as you are now, and I’ll take full responsibility for sending you to junior high school. Above all, she wants to see you. You’re the only person she can trust.”

*Flashback*

I remembered some of the things Kotono had done to me so far.

　The most recent was when she tried to force me to do her morning glory observation diary for homework on the last day of school.

Kotono shoved her own morning glory at me and said, “Okay, take good care of it as if it were me. And keep a diary, okay?

“I do not want it, do it yourself. How am I even supposed to bring it home?

*End of Flashback*

I was skeptical of Mr. Tatsuhiko’s intentions. I suspected Mr. Tatsuhiko was just trying to coerce me to take care of his daughter, who had lost her eyesight and just didn’t know what to do with her.

“Of course, you can’t decide on your own, so I’ll talk to your parents as well. But the thing I want to respect the most is your will. If you really don’t want to go, you can say no.”

　I looked at Mukaishima again.

　She was sitting there with a stiff expression on her face, looking straight ahead but not actually focused on anything.

　I didn’t know what to say, so I just stared at Tatsuhiko in silence.

    I don’t know what to do,

Perhaps.

　At that time, Mukaishima probably had a rough idea of why Kotono had fallen from the tree, although he didn’t know.

　At the hospital, Kotono cried out

　“I’ll die if I don’t see Sasuke!”

　I didn’t find out until much later.

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