Chapter 43: Settling Down, Pussy-Settling Down, or Landing the Punchline

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For the time being, Naegi-san was taken to the hospital, and it turned out that there was nothing inside her that even resembled a child.

“…Good for you, Nishida. You managed not to become a murderer.”

“Hm? What's up, Yuuya? Why so sudden?”

“Nothing. Just a mutter on the level of an apothecary's monologue.”

After the whole string of procedures was finally over, Temari, Mahiro, and I headed home.

For some reason, Temari had ridden in the ambulance along with Nishida. Leaving everything to Temari, who was basically unrelated to the mess, would have felt wrong even for me, so Mahiro and I had followed after them too, reluctantly.

Still, even though they had been dragged into this whole shitshow hard enough to be ridiculous, what felt strange to me was that neither Temari nor Mahiro was spilling any complaints.

Why the hell not? It is fine, you know.

Just like piss or love juice, you can dribble out your grudges whether you are doing it reluctantly or with your shame parts. We are the only ones here anyway.

The relief that it did not turn into an absolute disaster had apparently glossed over everything.

…

Well, still.

The whole thing had happened because Naegi-san had thought about how she should raise a child someday if she ever had one, and as a result, she had decided to stop spoiling Nishida.

Sooner or later, those two would have had to face the thing called the present, the past, and the future.

Even if they had taken a wrong turn and gotten lost somewhere, neither of them seemed dexterous enough to live on their own.

Look, there go the seagulls.

Thinking of it that way, this whole uproar should not have been for nothing. Whether it was a short straw covered in pubes or just a plain shitty short straw, I could pull one or two of them for their sake, and afterward, as a provisional friend, I would talk passionately with my lips.

Well, that said, whether those two had been infected with any other diseases was a separate issue. For the sake of their honor, I decided not to speak about that part.

“…But Naegi-san's father was like a demon. Are fathers normally like that?”

“No clue.”

Mahiro asked me that, but I did not have any memories of my own father, so there was no way I could answer.

Before Naegi-san had been taken to the hospital, I had used the family home phone number she told us while she was still conscious and left a message on their answering machine. After that, her father had come rushing over.

Incidentally, the question of whether the domestic violence would become a police matter ended in a mutual beating situation because that father had beaten the absolute s**t out of Nishida. We wanted nothing to do with a troublesome incident either, so for the moment, all's well that ends well… maybe?

“Still, I was surprised to hear that Naegi-san's parents are divorced and that she went with her father. I thought girls usually went with their mothers.”

Temari, riding on Mahiro's question, threw out a reasonable-sounding doubt. I could more or less imagine the reason, though.

“Sure, there's always the possibility that her mother was a piece of s**t, but… when you look at that stubbly, bear-like father of hers, you can kind of imagine it, can't you?”

“Ah… I see…”

Even if there was a bit of a father complex mixed in, Naegi-san's caretaker kink for falling for sloppy men seemed to run bone-deep.

No wonder I had never stood a chance.

“Well, hopefully Nishida uses this as a chance to get his s**t together. At least enough that he doesn't keep repeating the whole DV and debt routine and make Naegi-san miserable.”

““…Huh?””

But after I said that, both Temari and Mahiro threw me the same look of doubt.

“What's with you two? Did I say something weird? Why are you making faces like you're about to play a staring contest? Even a namahage would run away instead of laughing if it saw those rare expressions.”

“You always say one damn thing too many!! No, I mean, I get wanting to believe in your friend, but you don't seriously think those two are going to keep dating from here on out, do you?”

“Yeah… on that point, I think that's pushing it too.”

“Really?”

“Well, her father got involved and everything… I'd think even Naegi-san would finally come to her senses, you know?”

“…Yeah. Or rather, I think she's already realized it. The sense of despair covering the future those two would see together.”

“…”

Temari was one thing, but when Mahiro said it after having once been in a similar position himself, it felt ridiculously heavy. I could not argue back.

But still, if I was being honest.

If those two break up, then what the hell was all that despair I went through even for?

That was why I wanted Naegi-san to stay with Nishida just like this. At least until they graduated from university.

―・―・―・―・―・―・―

About half a month after that incident, Naegi-san returned to university.

“…Nakanishi-kun, could I talk to you for a moment?”

And as soon as she came back, I got called out by Naegi-san. Well, I already knew perfectly well this was not going to be some sexy conversation, so I decided to respond calmly.

---

Yeah… well, it’s been a while~ 😂

I won’t make any excuses—I genuinely forgot about this. But Daddy’s home~

I’ll try to update more regularly from now on. Yeah, I still can’t promise anything~ But if I disappear again, just DM me on Discord~