Ultra: Heroes Don't Ask Where They Come From

Loneliness does not mean that you will not be lonely if you have someone to talk to you or if you have friends with you.

Loneliness is something in the heart. Even if you are in a very busy and prosperous place, and you are being comforted by your friends, you may not be motivated and have a feeling that you have been picked up and thrown out of the world. That is a kind of loneliness.

But this kind of loneliness is also different. Very small things can make you feel abandoned by society - but it is not that you have abandoned society. It is just a very short intermittent loss, because the blow to your high aspirations for society will lead to this situation.

However, your personal life is neither restricted nor your future is completely determined. That loneliness is just a temporary loss, not proof that you have fallen out of this world. Deep down, you still desire to make some kind of achievement in this world.

When we were going out, Xia Long handed me the black umbrella. I looked at him in confusion. Although I took it, I was obviously not sure what it meant.

This morning's weather forecast said the probability of rainfall was more than 10 percent. Although weather forecasts were not accurate and sometimes it would rain even when it said the probability of rainfall was only 20 percent, she usually only brought rain gear when the probability exceeded 50 percent.

"It's not because of the rain. The sun is very hot and you will get a tan."

Xia Long seemed to see my doubts and explained;

He did say yesterday to be careful about the hot weather and that you would get a tan, but I didn't expect he would remember it today.

He looked up at the clouds in the sky and said casually, "It will be very hot today too. As long as the clouds don't cover the sky or it doesn't rain, the sun will always be very hot. If you walk for a day in such weather, the skin you expose will be completely different from the skin under your clothes."

"Want to hold hands?"

He held up a finger to me.

For a moment I felt like I was back in my childhood, because children’s hands are very small and can only hold one adult’s finger. But now I am a teenager. Although I am still not an adult, I am not old enough to hold fingers either. I didn’t expect that he would actually stretch out a finger and say, “Do you want to hold hands?”

I felt a little amused, but if this person did it, it might be correct. Who knows how old the tall green trees in the forest are?

I walked forward and held that finger. He gently retracted it, turned his hand in the other direction, and held my palm with five fingers, but I didn't shake it back. Instead, I was stunned by the unexpected scene, so my palm was flat, and it looked like he was just holding my hand.

"Think about it carefully. You are not a child anymore. It is not good to just ask you to hold my fingers. Is this okay? When I was walking up the mountain with my sister before, she held my hand like this. At that time, I didn't like to hold her hand back. I always felt that it was too cheesy and made people feel embarrassed. So she always held my hand, sometimes with the palm, sometimes with the wrist."

Sister, sister...?

As we walked, he talked about his past.

"The same reason applies to umbrellas. In the past, I had to stay outdoors for a whole day because of some things. I wore short-sleeved shirts and shorts. When I went home to take a shower, I saw that the sleeves were the dividing line, half black and half white. It was very obvious. I think girls should pay more attention to this kind of thing."

I couldn't help but say;

"You, do you have family too?"

"Didn't I tell you not to use honorifics? I can tell the difference between you and yours."

"Feel sorry."

"I don't mean to ask you to apologize."

With this sentence as the emphasis, he was silent for a moment, then spoke.

"Of course I have a family too. In this world, only a few people are born without any ties, and that's not necessarily a good thing. All of a person's troubles come from interpersonal relationships, but humans are social creatures after all. Living alone without other people is not impossible, but it's a very lonely life."

"This is the first time I've heard you talk about the past."

This man is very mysterious.

At least, it is definitely not human, not just human.

Since that incident, the girl has awakened abilities beyond mortal understanding, but that is only beyond mortal understanding. She cannot fly across the sky or break down walls like Superman. It is precisely because of this that she can truly see how terrifying and powerful the power contained in the man is.

If we have to say that the power is used in an occasion, it is neither for school bullying nor for gang vendettas, but for a force of the same scale as that used in war.

The girl felt that even if the man was not a "god", he must be a very special kind of person, one of those people who wrote down his experiences in rough writing in mythology. Such a person was a little too otherworldly, so in this case, it was a bit surprising to hear him talk about his family in the past.

What exactly are the family of such a person? And he speaks of it so calmly and ordinary that it gives people the feeling that his father is really an ordinary person like himself.

"Well, it's hard for me to go back to the past. If I can't see it again from now on, I'd feel embarrassed to say it out loud."

"......What's the meaning?"

"I don't know what it means, but maybe it means that you hope to treat it as a treasure in your heart?"

I held my breath a little.

Does that sentence mean that because it is the most important thing, we should treasure it in our heart until the end?

But...usually only the things that are lost are the most precious.

Came to the commercial street.

Although he said he would take me out to play, I never actually asked where we should go.

When you come to the commercial street, you will find something unexpected and expected...

"You haven't had breakfast yet."

"Yes......"

I looked at him in confusion.

"For today only, fill your stomach with junk food!"

"--ha?"

I couldn't help but let out a sound of surprise.

"Children will have this desire. As adults grow up, they develop resistance to the food they loved when they were young. Because of health reasons, they don't let their children buy so many of their favorite foods. Most children, because their parents don't buy them, or they restrain themselves from buying, when they walk past the stalls, they obviously want to eat, but they will endure it. As a result, when they grow up and have the ability to eat a big meal, they no longer have that opportunity."

"I want to eat all-you-can-eat barbecue, stinky tofu, chicken legs, octopus balls, candies that stick to your mouth, and all kinds of snacks. I want to eat all kinds of things that may not be so healthy but are delicious."

"Well, if you were really a child, I might worry that spoiling you would have a bad influence, but good children deserve good rewards. I treat crybaby children and well-behaved children equally, or I actually prefer the latter."

"...Yeah, a girl said that?"

"There's no need to worry about getting fat. It's only today. It's impossible that there's nothing you like to eat. I'm fine with sushi and Western food. Or do you want hot pot and curry? Yakiniku or seafood dishes? Even if it's a barbecue or a restaurant, I'll definitely find it for you. For me, money is something that comes in more than it goes out. It would be a shame if I didn't spend it—"

it's wired.

It's really strange.

Well, of course I know I'm your daughter.

You also told everyone without hesitation that this person is your daughter.

But I have always been wondering and confused. Am I really qualified to be your daughter?

I have neither merits nor purity. I am dark, dumb and cannot speak. I am of no use at all except silently doing things that are of no benefit to you.

Can I really have a father as I am now?

As I thought about this, tears seemed to flow down my cheeks, but I couldn't let them flow.

Because this is something worth being happy about.

So you must never shed tears.

She must never express joy with tears, and she must never let herself, a daughter, hold back her tears around her father in public.

Because although this person may make others cry, he will never make others sad.

I wiped my eyes hastily, interrupted my father in a calm tone and said;

"No, no, I already know what I want to eat."

"really?"

"Yeah, of course."

Sitting in the family dining room, my father looked at me with a slightly confused expression.

"Is that enough?"

"Well, I've always wanted to come here again with my family. Although it would be difficult to find an identical store, I'm very satisfied with this."

The waiter brought the Oyakodon and I slowly opened the disposable chopsticks while whispering;

"When I was a kid, my mother would often bring me here and order Oyakodon for me. She would order the same thing as me. I remember ordering a variety of different things to prevent me from getting tired of it, but I like Oyakodon the best."

I stirred the eggs and meat, mixing them together. Steam rose up and the aroma, as familiar as before, reached my nose. The white steam moved in the curls like a movie screen.

My father's eyes were gentle and he didn't say much.

"Really? But it's fine if you like it."

"Do you... do you like to eat?"

"I like rice very much, so I also like rice bowls like this."

I lowered my head and fiddled with the rice mixture into my mouth.

Really, it’s delicious.

As before, delicious...

“What’s next?” I asked.

"In a big city like Tokyo, movies start at 9 o'clock."

"Want to go to the movies?"

"Yes, to be honest, I have no idea what movies are available in this era, so it all depends on luck. Of course, it's up to you to choose, so even if you don't like it, you have to watch it to the end."

"Ok."

In this era? Although it is something that a normal person would hardly say, I certainly wouldn't be surprised by it.

Because there were not many movies to choose from early in the morning, and Xia Long didn't know any of them, so when Ogasawara Aiko asked him for his opinion, he just said that if it was really difficult to choose, just close your eyes and guess one at random.

When they walked out, the father and daughter looked at each other.

"This..." (Note 1)

“It seems to be surprisingly good.”

We all laughed at each other.

He took me shopping at noon, but of course I personally didn't want to buy anything.

I opened a black umbrella to block the sunlight from overhead, but the umbrella was not big and was for one person.

Maybe men don't need this kind of thing, so I prepared a single umbrella. When I hold up this umbrella, I can't hold hands with my father. Although not being able to hold hands is not a big deal, the opportunity is rare. As he said, he works very slowly, and I don't know when he can accompany me again.

It’s not impossible to put down the parasol. He seemed to see what I was thinking, so he really stretched out a finger this time.