[Master K] The bad one next door

——"It's okay, everything will be fine!"

This seemingly irresponsible and overly optimistic statement is the mantra of Tokusu Tatara.Although the dark-haired young man's usual dazed energy made people not flatter him, but shortly after he said the word "it's okay" in a brisk tone, the things that troubled everyone really improved a little bit. So much so that in the end, not only the other people in Barbara, but even Ten Beams had the illusion that "I do seem to have the magic power to make my words come true".

And that magic seems to have worn off recently.

"Failed?"

"Yeah." Toku in front of the bar showed a distressed expression, "You know Kusanagi, it's about Hatta-kun."

Kusanagi immediately understood the familiar name.

Although he and Toku were not there on the day when the incident happened, he heard something from other members afterwards.

"It refers to the disappearance of Little Hatta's childhood sweetheart?"

"Hey, yes." Shishu smiled wryly, "Yata also participated in the search for people, but I heard that the search has not improved."

After that, he tried his best to comfort Hatta, and as always, he swore, "It's okay, the child will be fine".At that time, it really gave the orange-haired boy enough comfort, but the effect—and I can see it now—is really negligible.

Kusanagi wiped the cup, but didn't take it seriously: "You don't have that kind of ability in the first place, so there's nothing to be depressed about."

It was a sunny afternoon.There is usually no one in the bar at this time, only Kusanagi, Tosuke, Kushina Anna who is playing with red glass beads in front of the sofa in the corner, and the red-haired Anna who should be sleeping soundly in the room on the second floor king.

As for the others, perhaps loitering in twos and threes somewhere in the city.

Although the clan led by the Scarlet King is frightening enough, what Kusanagi has to admit is that such an organization is essentially a gangster that is slightly stronger and more arrogant than other gangsters—that is, what ordinary people call NEET Association.

Thinking about it this way, it's not surprising that the youth group, which exists like civil servants, would target them in this way.

"Besides, think about it." The blond man gently placed the clear wine glass in a row of wiped wine glasses, and the glass collided with the glass to make a soft sound, "I haven't had those little ghosts making noise in my ears these days." Nao, the ears are much cleaner, the weather is so good today, just to enjoy a beautiful and peaceful afternoon——

Before the words were finished, the glass door of the bar was slammed open with a "bang".

"Yo! Good afternoon, Brother Kusanagi, Anna——Brother Shishu is here?"

As the orange-haired boy with a skateboard between his legs walked in full of energy, Kusanagi Izumo's fantasy of "beautiful afternoon" was shattered.

<<<<<

"So? Is it finally resolved?"

"Hmm! It was resolved very satisfactorily!" Hatta bit the straw and sucked a big mouthful of Coke, without hiding the happy smile on his face, "After we found her, we sent her home, cut, I Just to put it bluntly, how could this guy die so easily..."

Kamamoto on the side couldn't help muttering: "Obviously you were the one who cried the most at that time."

Hatta immediately choked on the Coke, his face flushed red.

"Ah? Smelly, stinky sickle, I've never cried before! I just accidentally got sand in my eyes!"

"Then why do you say 'what if you can't find her'..."

"Then absolutely, definitely, you must have heard it wrong!"

"But Brother Hatta..."

"Wow, I'll beat you if you make noise again! It's all said that you got it wrong, are you annoyed!"

The duo quarreled unscrupulously in the bar as usual.Toku turned to look at Kusanagi with a dark face, blinked, showing an expression that seemed to say "Look, my ability is still working".

——No, this is obviously just a coincidence.

Kusanagi groaned silently while mixing the brown sugar water, walked out of the bar, and gently placed it in front of Anna who was still holding the glass ball.

The dispute between the two continued.Ten beams asked curiously, "How did you find that child?"

"This." Hatta stopped talking, turned his head and scratched his head, "Actually, I was just strolling around and suddenly found her at Zhenmuzhong Station——by the way, Brother Shishu," he suddenly remembered something, "You Have you heard of Kisaragi Station?

Shi Shu was taken aback, showing a rare blank expression.

Sure enough, Brother Shishu doesn't know either.

When Hatta couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, it was Izumo Kusanagi who had been listening to their conversation silently since the very beginning.

"'Kisaragi Station', what a nostalgic name."

After returning to the bar, the blond man neatly arranged the wine glasses. He didn't seem to notice that the group of people in front of him were stunned by his words, and continued to sigh with a smile: "I thought the students at this time didn't know Kisaragi Station anymore. , I didn’t expect it to be still circulating. Then, Little Hatta, does this place have anything to do with your childhood sweetheart?”

Hatta was stunned for a long time, and after realizing his reaction, he jumped up suddenly, his knee hit the chair leg hard, and he almost fell down with the chair: "Wait, wait! Brother Kusanagi, you know...!"

"Oh, can't I know?"

Hatta choked, a little embarrassed: "No, I just feel a little surprised..."

Kusanagi didn't continue to be embarrassed, lowered his head and put the last goblet on the table, and explained: "When I was in junior high school, Kisaragi Station seemed to be very famous, and I often heard people talking about it, and I heard it more or less. Some. It's an urban legend if I remember correctly."

"Yes, Miya also went to places like Kisaragi Station after hearing this strange urban legend..."

At this moment, Shi Shu spoke up: "So that child's name is Mami, what a cute name."

"Ke, cute?!" Hatta was stunned for a moment, remembering something, suddenly became embarrassed, and waved his hands in a panic, "No, actually it's not very... but, cute..."

When he said the word "cute", his face gradually turned red, and he couldn't go on anymore.Toku looked at Hatta as if he had discovered a new world, and he wanted to ask questions with interest, but Kusanagi interrupted the conversation with a light cough.

"You said that Ms. Maya went to Kisaragi Station when she disappeared? Are you sure?"

"She, she told me so." Hatta replied with a trace of nervousness, "I don't think she's lying."

"I didn't lie" - when he said this conclusion, his tone was very firm.Obviously this childhood sweetheart won his trust.

Kusanagi stared at the goblet in his hand thoughtfully, the lines of his slender fingers clearly reflected behind the clear glass: "How much do you know about Kisaragi Station?"

Hatta didn't seem to expect him to ask this question, but he still said honestly: "It's probably the case that a person disappeared after arriving at Kisaragi Station..."

Maya told him the story he had heard completely, so he also understood it somewhat.

Kusanagi gently put down the goblet, and the bottom of the cup hit the bar with a dull sound: "What you and your childhood sweethearts know is the incomplete version."

"Eh?"

"Actually, there is still a follow-up to the legend of Kisaragi Station."

……

In 2010, the sixth year after Lianshi disappeared, when everyone thought he had disappeared, he suddenly appeared on the 2ch website and published his first post in six years.

"Thank you very much for your concern over the years. Thanks to your support, I am fine now." Lianshi said in the post, "Actually, if someone hadn't helped me, I might have died in that inexplicable station. inside."

Lianshi said that when he finished posting the last post, his mobile phone ran out of battery, and the driver kept driving him up the mountain after that.He saw the driver's ashen face from the rearview mirror, and the muttering from his pale lips became more and more gibberish, as if he had been possessed by a demon—Lian Shi also half-jokingly said that he was worried about his life At the same time, he was afraid that the person would drive the whole car into the cliff with a shake of his hand.

After finally getting to the top of the mountain, the man finally stopped the car.Lianshi, who had been tense all the time, immediately opened the door of the car, jumped out of the car and fled, but the driver quickly followed, holding a knife drawn from nowhere, chasing him and hacking all over the mountain. The speed is also surprisingly fast. If he hadn't used the obstacles on the mountain to dodge several times, he would have been hit by a knife.

What caught his attention was that the man was still wailing incoherently with a ferocious face when he swung the knife indiscriminately.

"You must be removed... Potential must be removed..."

"I-I really don't want to kill you! But if I don't do that, that person will...I've seen it...since then..."

"...I don't want to become that kind of thing! I don't want to! That kind of monster is still doing what I was forced to do when I was alive... That can't be called a corpse at all..."

"Ahhh! So, so you just die for me!"

Then, the man screamed and slashed with the knife.

At that time, Lianshi had been cornered, and now he couldn't avoid the opponent's frenzied attack, let alone parry it.Just when he thought he was bound to die, a sudden change happened.

The tip of the knife suddenly stopped very close to the tip of his nose.

The knife almost brushed his nose, and the strong wind made the skin sting.

Visually, it's only about a millimeter.

Lianshi was frightened into a cold sweat, her legs were so weak that she could hardly stand, she could only stare at the man who suddenly froze in front of her with wide eyes.The man's face was sweating, his wrists were tense, and he seemed to want to press the knife down several times, but he couldn't move anyway.

At this moment, an anxious shout suddenly came from behind: "It's dangerous here, you leave first, I'll hold him back!"

He saw a person running past him, and quickly formed a fight with the man holding the knife. He immediately ran down the hill at this opportunity, arrived at the previous station in a while, and then returned to the normal world through the station in a daze.

But after returning, Lianshi could barely recognize the streets near her home.When he was taken by the Public Security Bureau to take a record, he realized that it was already 2010, and six years had passed in the outside world in his quarter of an hour.During this period, the streets have been remodeled a lot, and it is normal not to recognize them.

Then, it was his parents who took him home without any change in appearance, and he posted this post on 2ch, and he disappeared from there.

……

Hatta kept a dumbfounded expression after listening.

"This..." He opened his mouth, and it took him a long time to hold back a sentence, "Brother Kusanagi, are you sure this is not a ghost story? Why does this sound so mysterious?"

When Maki described it to him, she took it lightly. How could there be such a wonderful experience?

Kusanagi took a cigarette, bit it in his mouth, lit it with a lighter, and quietly watched the green smoke lingering among the sparks: "Urban legends are just urban legends after all, and no one can verify the authenticity—at least when you mention your I thought so about my friend beforehand, after all, it was not me but her who went to Kisaragi Station."

The implication is that instead of doubting me, you might as well consider whether your friend is a big fool.

Hatta was a little embarrassed for a while.But he still couldn't help retorting:

"Maki won't lie to me."

"so?"

"I... I wonder if someone with illusion ability is eyeing her." Hatta stammered out his inference, then carefully raised his eyes to look at Kusanagi, "Maybe it's because of me... So, so I told her about the Barbara."

As soon as the voice fell, the whole bar fell silent.

After a long silence, Kusanagi stubbed out the cigarette butt and took a deep breath: "Little Hatta, you—"

"--it does not matter."

Anna in the corner suddenly spoke.

The two turned their heads, and saw her holding the red bead and holding it in front of her eyes, her purple eyes staring silently at the astonished Hatta through the glass bead.After a while, she put down the beads, as if she had confirmed something, and repeated softly: "It's okay."

"That girl is not an enemy."

<<<<<

In the end, Kusanagi let Hatta go.

"Well, forget it, since Anna has said so, your family should be trustworthy." Kusanagi said, smiling and kicking him out of the bar door, "Besides, it won't be long before the ability user It’s going to be exposed, so it’s okay to reveal a little bit earlier.”

Hatta was stunned for a while, and soon realized what was happening, his face became like a boiled shrimp.

"Wait, wait, what is my guy!"

Really, so is Brother Shishu, and so is Brother Kusanagi, they always like to make strange jokes about others.

But having said that, what does "exposure of ability users" mean?

At the dinner table at home, he had been thinking about this matter, and had been in a state of distraction, until his mother's emotional words suddenly broke into his eardrums——

"That's why Maki-chan is quite pitiful."

The familiar name instantly pulled back his soul.

"Ah, ah? What happened to Miya?"

"Really, what are you kidding in a daze!" Hatta's mother sighed resentfully, obviously extremely dissatisfied with what she said just now, "Mama's parents are getting divorced. "

Hatta was really stunned this time.

"when--"

"The divorce was proposed yesterday, and the signs must have been there a long time ago." Hatta's mother thought for a while, showing a sympathetic expression, "Xiao Zhenya should have discovered it a long time ago, and she was so distraught when I saw her a while ago." It's not easy to force a smile even though she looks like her - Misaki, you have to treat her better in the future, do you hear me?"

Hatta didn't speak for a while.

After a while, he slowly clenched his chopsticks tightly.

Is that so?Is it because of this kind of thing that she didn't notice it for a while and walked into that kind of trap?Did she care so much about other people's trust in her?

All doubts have been cleared up.

As the so-called "childhood sweetheart", he didn't notice these clues at all.

—— Misaki Hatta, you are really bad.