Chapter 56: Things I Don’t Remember Don’t Count

Reading Settings

For the time being, since Mahiro had completely clammed up and the awkwardness had reached a Tokyo-interior level of vastness, I left the room without waiting for Naegi-san to return.

Still, I needed to think about this rationally.

My brain had been so thoroughly corrupted by alcohol that my memory had become completely unreliable, but was it really possible that I got overly excited and opened up the Aura Hole like a sex warrior man-boob with Mahiro?

If I were an Aura Battler, maybe, but a convenient development like that only existed in thin doujinshi you couldn’t buy with a Master(bation) Card.

There’s no way I can get hard while that s**t-faced drunk!!

Therefore, I hadn’t done a single thing. I couldn’t have. So if Mahiro claimed that something had happened, it would be a blatant case of reverse rape. The crime of non-consensual sexual intercourse would be established.

…Alright, I’d go in with a strong front.

Having solidified that resolve, I went home.

A spectacular walk of shame.

“Hey, Yuuya! What is the meaning of this, staying out all night without even a single call?!”

“Yuuya-kun, did you have a good time last night? What happens to Mahiro?”

The moment I thought that, my hopes were instantly crushed.

This was the worst. Why was Chihiro-san here?

Retreating to my room became the only path to victory. A strategic retreat might be shameful, but it gave me wood.

“I get forced to drink, become completely wasted, and pass out. The end.”

“Wai-wai-wait, don’t try to run away! Explain yourself properly like a real man!”

“Why don’t you just ask your daughter? Tell her to put a hand on her chest and think about it.”

“Yuuya, do you put your hands on Mahiro-chan’s chest and grope her?!”

“I-HAVE-NO-IDEA-WHAT-YOU-ARE-TALKING-ABOUT.”

“Why are you acting like a suspicious foreigner?”

“I-HAVE-NO-RECOLLECTION-OF-THAT.”

I seriously didn’t remember a damn thing, so I just wanted them to cut me some slack. I decided to exercise my right to lock myself away.

“I-I can’t just stand around doing nothing! I need to do a full-body inspection on Mahiro!”

“Chihiro-san, are you still doing that every single time?!”

Without listening to another word from me, Chihiro-san bolted back to her own house.

After watching Chihiro’s entire routine unfold, my mom stared straight at me.

“…So, does anything actually happen?”

Please stop giving me that serious guardian face. I was the victim here… probably.

“I seriously don’t know. I get forced to drink so much that instead of becoming half-conscious, my ego completely vanishes. My head is still throbbing right now.”

“A hangover must be enjoyable for someone in your position, honestly. Society is loud about underage drinking, so you better watch yourself. If you mess up, the circle that hosts the drinking party might end up getting crushed.”

“A circle like that is better off getting crushed.”

“Well, if you’re in a state of sheer intoxication, I guess no mistakes can happen… Men can’t get it up when they’re dead drunk, after all.”

“…How exactly do you know that, dear Mother? Don’t tell me you have past experience trying to get a man you target drunk to create a fait accompli, only for him to get too drunk and ruin the plan?”

“…”

At that, my mom’s glaring gaze shifted away from me.

The eyes spoke just as much as the mouth.

“Well, there’s no way to recover memories you don’t remember. So even if Chihiro-san asks Mahiro, she won’t get the details.”

“No, but what if Mahiro-chan massively exaggerates things that may or may not happen? Can you take responsibility?”

“Why does it come to that? Do you seriously think Mahiro goes out of her way to declare, ‘I cross the line with him!’? I got brutally rejected by her in the past, remember?”

“You can’t just lump past evaluations and present evaluations together. Right now, Mahiro-chan definitely thinks of you as a ‘pretty damn good catch.'”

“…Huh?”

It hit me like a bolt from the blue.

This was the second time I’d used that expression today, but Windows hadn’t messed up the kanji conversion this time. Had it actually learned a little? Totally unrelated, but I bet there were fewer people who could properly write the kanji for “Bolt (Heikireki)” than those who could write “Rose (Bara)” or “Melancholy (Yuuutsu).”

“Think about it calmly. Imagine you have a childhood friend who’s super lame when you’re little, a girl you constantly make fun of.”

“My only childhood friend is Mahiro, though.”

“That’s your bad habit, Yuuya. Snapping the spine of someone else’s story. Just shut up and listen until the end. So, let’s say you haven’t seen this childhood friend for a while, and you reunite about five years later. You see that this childhood friend has blossomed into a gorgeous beauty with an amazing, massive rack. Aren’t you moved? Don’t you fall for her?”

“…”

“Human beings flip their opinions just like that. When you make fun of someone, you’re only looking at their ‘present.’ But successfully making someone flip their opinion means victory for the person who makes them do it. It’s the result of pure effort. You should be proud of that.”

For once, my old lady was actually praising me.

Was this the prelude to a natural disaster on the level of Chii Takeo?

“Or rather, if they’re flipping their opinion, doesn’t that just mean they have terrible judgment?”

“Well, that’s true. For better or worse, there are tons of people who only look at the present. That’s exactly why they end up getting caught by completely awful partners.”

“Like you?”

I got slugged.

“That might be true, but it pisses me off when you actually say it to my face. Love is an impulse. The only people who tap the stone bridge before crossing in love are those who’ve gone through agonizing pain in the past.”

“…”

“That’s exactly why, to Mahiro-chan right now, I think you look like prime real estate.”

No, no.

Mahiro had never tapped any stone bridges.

She’d never had an eye for men to begin with.

Who would ever think that someone once treated as condemned property could become prime real estate in just three years? Especially when we hadn’t even put any physical distance between us.

First of all, if I truly were prime real estate to Mahiro, that would only prove beyond doubt that her taste in men was utterly catastrophic.

After all, I’d forever remain a scrawny loser in my own mind.

Trauma didn’t disappear that easily.

I’d long accepted that my romantic life would forever be set to hard mode.

I didn’t argue back with my mom and simply headed straight to my room.

I felt strangely empty, but I decided to write off everything I couldn’t remember as not counting.

From that day onward, Temari grew distant, while, in exchange, Mahiro inexplicably started coming over to our house far more often.