Chapter 10: My Ex-Girlfriend’s Friend ④

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Translator: Soafp

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It seems I still haven't managed to avoid the future where Komori-san gets into a traffic accident…

There are only two days left until the end of May.

Which means tomorrow or the day after — that “nightmare” could very likely become reality.

“H-How long are you going to keep holding it!?”

As if trying to shake off my hand while I was deep in thought, Komori-san jerked her arm back.

I stood there frozen, desperately thinking of a way to get out of this situation.

There was no way I could just let her die like this.

Reluctantly, we had eaten lunch together once, after all.

“Komori-san, let's talk for a moment. This is serious.”

“Huh? Ah… actually, there was something I wanted to talk about too…”

Komori-san turned her face toward Yuzuki.

“Sorry! I'm going to talk with Fukagawa for a bit!”

“O-Okay… um, what kind of relationship do you two have…?”

Yuzuki asked nervously.

With the sudden hand-holding and everything, she seemed to be misunderstanding something.

But whether she misunderstood or not didn't really matter to me anymore.

I answered for Komori-san.

“We're just friends.”

“Huh? Friends? Me and Fukagawa?”

But Komori-san responded with a completely bewildered voice.

…From an outsider's point of view, it probably just looks like I'm making a fool of myself — nothing more than a painfully embarrassing personal black history.

But now that I think about it, Yuzuki was supposed to be Komori-san's first friend.

That's probably the typical mindset of a loner.

Unless someone explicitly declares it, she can't really recognize someone as a friend.

“We've eaten together, and you've even come to my house. If that's not friendship, then what is?”

“Ah… w-when you put it that way, I guess you're right?”

Komori-san raised one corner of her mouth slightly and showed an awkward smile.

“Hehe… hehe… I just got one more friend.”

She may have successfully reinvented herself when she started high school, but it seems her introverted nature hasn't completely disappeared.

Even though she now looks like a perfectly cheerful, outgoing girl, what is with this gap?

Maybe my tastes are weird, but I even found it a little cute.

(Now's not the time for that.)

I grabbed Komori-san by the wrist and led her to the stair landing.

Yuzuki kept glancing back and forth between me and Komori-san the whole time, but I didn't have the luxury to care about that right now.

For the moment, I took a deep breath and organized my thoughts.

The top priority was Komori-san's life.

With that firmly in mind, I opened my mouth to speak —

“Sorry!”

Komori-san suddenly bowed her head.

Why was she apologizing all of a sudden?

As if answering my question, she continued.

“I don't think I can convince her!”

Ah, she meant the thing about quitting the photography club.

Since she had almost lost her only friend, she was probably afraid to try persuading her again.

“That's fine. I wasn't really expecting much anyway.”

“Eh!? R-Really!?”

To begin with, Yuzuki and I have known each other since kindergarten.

Once she makes a decision, she rarely changes it unless something extraordinary happens.

There was no way Komori-san — who had known her for less than two months — could easily break that stubbornness.

“Then why did you call me here? Isn't it about Yuzuki?”

“No. I have something important to tell you, Komori-san.”

“Huh? Me?”

I nodded.

But suddenly she took out her wallet.

“Um… just because we became friends, are you going to make me pay a friendship fee? How much is it? I don't get that much allowance—”

“No, no, what are you talking about?”

I never thought I'd see someone seriously try to pay a “friendship fee” to a classmate.

I placed both hands on Komori-san's shoulders and looked straight into her eyes.

“Listen carefully. You might not believe this… but there's a high chance you'll get into a traffic accident tomorrow or the day after.”

“…What?”

“Just hear me out once, even if you think I'm lying. At this rate, Komori-san… you're going to get hit by a car and die.”

“Is this… some kind of new religious cult or something?”

“It's not!”

Ah, just as I thought — she didn't believe me.

It's not some obvious ability like shooting beams from my eyes that anyone could immediately see, so moments like this are troublesome.

(If it's come to this, I'll have to intervene directly.)

I wanted to keep my interference minimal and aim for a butterfly effect… but that was naïve.

I don't have any solid proof.

But if I just sit here and do nothing, I'll definitely regret it.

I pulled out my smartphone and opened the map app.

“Komori-san, do you know this three-way intersection?”

I pointed to the intersection from my dream, the one with the azaleas in full bloom.

She nodded immediately.

“Of course I know it… why?”

“Do you pass through here often?”

“Not often — every day.”

“Every day? Why?”

“Because my house is that way. I can't get home without passing through that intersection.”

It felt like someone had smashed the back of my head with a hammer.

That meant the accident would happen almost right in front of her house.

“Please. Just for two days — tomorrow and the day after — could you take a different route home? One that doesn't go through that intersection?”

“That's impossible. There's no detour. If I don't go through that intersection, I can't get home.”

“Then could you stay at someone else's house for those two days? Like Kitayama-san's. My house is— no, that would definitely be bad.”

“S-Staying over at a friend's house!? I-I've always wanted to try that!”

Komori-san's eyes suddenly began sparkling.

“If it's hard for you to ask, I'll talk to her for you.”

“R-Really?”

Honestly, I didn't want to face Yuzuki anymore.

But Komori-san's life was at stake.

That mattered more than my personal feelings.

“But it might be a little difficult…”

“Why? Because you're nervous?”

“No… it's just… my parents come home late. And my little sister is still young, so I can't leave her alone.”

Another troublesome problem appeared.

“Then bring your sister with you and stay at Kitayama-san's place too.”

Yuzuki actually likes kids.

She takes photos of them all the time.

“My sister is also… a bit shy around strangers…”

So introversion runs in the family?

I felt irritated inside, but suppressed it and tried another idea.

“Then stay at a hotel for two days. Bring your sister.”

“A h-hotel? Isn't that expensive?”

“I'll pay.”

“If that's the case it's fine… but I don't know if my dad would allow it. Staying out overnight with my sister, and not even at a friend's house… he's a bit overprotective.”

Seriously…

Why does this have to be so difficult?

Could Komori-san also be tied to “fate”?

Two times in a row after Yuzuki?

“Then what about staying inside your house for two days and not going out at all?”

“Huh? That would mean skipping school without permission.”

“It's just two days.”

“My internal evaluation will drop! And I'm aiming for perfect attendance!”

Your life is on the line — what good is perfect attendance going to do?

Are you planning to attend perfectly in the afterlife?

The words almost slipped out, but I barely held them back.

“Then at least take a taxi to and from school—”

I stopped mid-sentence.

Even if Komori-san's accident wasn't a “fate-class” event like Yuzuki or a natural disaster, the causal chain behind it might be extremely strong.

That's why every indirect method I tried seemed to get blocked.

If that was the case, there was only one method left.

“For the next two days, let's go to and from school together.”

“Eh!? W-With you, Fukagawa!?”

“Yeah. I'll come pick you up in the morning. In exchange, once you get home after school, don't leave the house at all.”

“But… going to and from school alone with you…”

Komori-san looked down shyly.

Please don't get embarrassed over something like this.

Just think of me as a bodyguard.

(Ah, maybe I can use the fact that she doesn't have friends.)

When it comes to anything related to friendship, Komori-san is surprisingly easy to persuade.

The idea popped into my head and I said it immediately.

“If we're friends, it's normal to go to and from school together, right?”

“Huh? Ah… I think I've seen people do that…”

“And when you go home together, you can stop somewhere along the way and hang out.”

“Th-That's on my bucket list! I've always wanted to try it!”

…It's even on her bucket list?

Now I almost felt sorry for her.

“Kitayama-san is busy with the photography club, right? It's more convenient to do it with me since we're both in the go-home club.”

“That's true…! Fukagawa, you're a genius!”

“Uh… thanks.”

“Then I'm counting on you for the next two days!”

That was easier than I expected.

It was good, but honestly it felt a bit anticlimactic.

Maybe I should've even suggested staying at a hotel together as friends.

No… she probably would've refused that.

Komori-san fidgeted with her fingers and muttered.

“Hehe… going to and from school with a friend…”

Seeing how happy she looked made me feel oddly satisfied.

…Meanwhile, for the next two days, I'd have to keep my nerves on edge around every passing car.

---

The next morning.

To pick up Komori-san, I woke up two hours earlier than usual.

She sent me her address on LINE yesterday, so now I just had to head there.

(Thinking about it, exchanging LINE yesterday was quite a commotion too.)

For a while she stared intently at the friend list on her phone.

Saying things like, “The second non-family LINE friend in my life!”

Honestly, someone even lonelier than me is pretty rare in my experience.

Her house is in the opposite direction from school, so it'll take longer than my usual route.

Just in case, I sent her a message.

“I'm on my way. It'll probably take about 30–40 minutes.”

I turned off my phone screen and was about to put it in my pocket —

when suddenly:

“My first time sending a LINE message to a boy on my own!”

“Ah, was that kind of creepy? Sorry (crying)”

“I'm already completely ready.”

“Ahh, I'm so nervous…”

“By the way, did you eat breakfast? If not, I could make sandwiches.”

“We're going to stop somewhere after school today, right? Crepes or bubble tea — I'm super excited!!”

Notifications started flooding in one after another, filling up the screen.

Most of them were completely trivial chatter.

Because of that, I was basically forced into walking while staring at my phone.

Just as I was about to reply casually, another message came in.

“Hey, you're reading this, right? If it says ‘read', that means you read it, right? Why aren't you replying?”

“Did you already get tired of me?”

“Fukagawa? We're friends, right? Friends talk like this on LINE, right? Am I doing something wrong?”

“Please reply…”

…She's intense.