spooky love

When planting or tidying up, Ryoichiro will definitely ask him for help, so even the professor and associate professor have known Dema since he was a student.

Holding two umbrellas in his hand, with a smile on his face, Dema squatted down beside Ryoichiro, pointing to the overgrown grass around the small handmade pond.

"do you know?"

Hearing his question, Dema wiped his fingers lightly... He seems to remember that Ryoichiro once said, "This weed blooms in autumn, and the color of the flowers is like mother's nails." It is said that Ryoichiro described this "Polygonum halberd" ( Note 15) Fukushima angrily told him not to plant weeds when the flowers were brought into the greenhouse.Thinking of being beaten by the other party, the embers of anger ignited like sparks in his heart.

"I don't remember asking you to come and help, what's the matter?"

Dema's right hand moved up and down repeatedly, and this gesture wanted to express "because it is raining, I will send an umbrella here".Before Ryoichiro entered the greenhouse, the sky was a heavy gray and it hadn't rained yet.

"Not yet..."

He was about to continue to say, "It hasn't rained yet." At this moment, the sound of raindrops hitting the glass was heard throughout the greenhouse. Dema smiled triumphantly, and then took out paper and paper from his pocket. Pencil, and then write "When you leave school today, please go back through the back door".

"back door?"

Dema would sometimes tell him to come home from the west, or make him take a talisman with him or something.

"Why can't you go through the front door?"

Hearing his question, Dema wrote some words on the paper again.

『There is something bad at the front gate, and it will be troublesome if you get possessed. 』

After reading it, Ryoichiro whispered "Oh".De Ma usually sees things that do not belong to this world.Since he was a child, he has repeatedly said inexplicable and terrifying things, so there are rumors that "if you get close to that guy, you will be possessed by a fox fairy... and so on, everyone around you hates him.

"I see, I won't go home through the main entrance today."

Dema nodded slightly.

"Then, it would be better for me to tell the others, 'Don't go through the front door,' too?"

Dema immediately wrote "It should be okay" for him to read.

"Even if you say that, there's clearly something bad about it, and I'm just watching..."

"That thing will not cause harm to everyone who passes by, and even if it is possessed, it is the fate of that person. 』

Ryoichiro suddenly felt unable to let go.

"Because you gave me advice, I won't be possessed by that strange thing. Isn't that unfair?"

"no. 』

After Dema clearly denied it, he continued:

"Whether you passed there without knowing it and got possessed, I work under Master Ryoichiro, give advice for Master Ryoichiro, so that you can avoid disaster, everything is fate. 』

Ryoichiro was speechless.Dema placed the umbrella beside Ryoichiro, and stood up quickly.Dema likes to wear a white kimono. Once a student saw Dema standing in a white kimono, he whispered to Ryoichiro, "That man's standing posture is like a flower." Ryoichiro responded with a wry smile: "When a man hears this You won’t be happy with your compliments.” But because of this, I learned again that “Dema is also very beautiful in the eyes of others.”

Noticing that Dema was looking at him, he thought, "Why is Dema staring at him like that?" It turned out that it was because he didn't look away.Feeling compelled to say something, Ryoichiro said:

"It's hard for you to keep seeing things you wouldn't otherwise see."

Dema showed a surprised expression, but smiled as if trying to hide it...it was a lonely smile.

Although he realized that he had said something bad, Ryoichiro didn't take back what he had said, and just kept silent.

After nodding slightly, Dema went back.After he went back, Ryoichiro fell into depression, feeling that he was really a crazy person.

Ryoichiro returned to the assistant classroom from the greenhouse and found that Fukushima was not there, and only the student surnamed Hara was alone in the specimen room replacing the newspapers that clamped the specimens and used them as moisture-absorbing paper.Hara seemed to be afraid of Ryoichiro, and kept his head trembling.

Trying not to take the awkward atmosphere seriously, Ryoichiro began sketching specimens.When he was so engrossed in painting that he forgot about "there are students", Hara suddenly said to him, "Mr. Satake, I'm sorry, can I ask you for advice?"

Looking back, I saw Yuan holding a newspaper in his hand and standing straight with a bewildered expression.

"This...uh, what should I do?"

Probe to look at the newspaper, the specimen sandwiched in the middle has been severely moldy.If there is only a little mold or dirt, it can be saved by wiping with alcohol or the like, but this specimen has already begun to rot.

"Ah, this is no longer possible."

Hearing Ryoichiro's words, Hara turned pale.

"Hygroscopic newspapers are replaced too slowly."

Yuan was about to cry.

"This is an important specimen of the teacher... what should I do, I obviously followed his instructions to change it every five days."

"Now this season has to be changed every three days, and the humidity in this room is terrible."

Ryoichiro stared at the moldy specimen between the newspapers.

"Please throw it away. Is this... Yano Muscaria (Note 16)? It was collected when I went to Mount Quantang last month, right? This is not a particularly rare plant, and the professor seems to have collected the same one .”

Yuan looked up, down, left, and right for a while, and finally threw the specimen into the trash can.After that, he showed Ryoichiro two or three specimens that had become moldy and started to rot, as if asking Ryoichiro to judge how to deal with them.

"Sensei Satake is like a picture book."

It turned out that Ryoichiro didn't even read the book, but he was able to name the plants he took out one after another, and nodded with a sigh.Although Ryoichiro humbly said: "Where is that..." It didn't feel bad. He thought he was Fukushima's follower and kept him at arm's length, but after starting the conversation, he found that the other party might be a frank and serious person.

I don't know if it was because of the rain, it got dark earlier than usual.Just after four o'clock in the afternoon, Hara said to Ryoichiro, "I'll take my leave first." However, although he said goodbye, he didn't seem to want to go home.Just when Ryoichiro wondered what was going on, Hara unexpectedly apologized to Fukushima for his reckless behavior: "That incident during the day... I am very sorry."

"Fukushima-sensei usually doesn't make irresponsible remarks to others like that, but today he seems a little irritable, that's why..."

Looking at the distressed eyes of the other party, Ryoichiro gradually began to feel sorry for the student who was caught in the middle, showing a broad-minded look of "you don't need to worry about it", Hara showed a relieved expression, and the corners of his mouth tightened It also eased down.

The rustling of the rain grew louder.When Ryoichiro approached the window pane and looked down, thinking "it's really big", he saw a man with a big black umbrella for men walking out from the front door—it was Fukushima.He was not in the assistant classroom just now, he should be staying in a library or something.

"Original--"

Ryoichiro turned around.

"Please use the back door when you come home today."

Yuan tilted his head in doubt and replied, "Huh?"

"There seems to be something not so clean at the main entrance today."

"Sensei, can you see that unclean thing?"

"No, I can't see it, but someone I know told me in advance not to go through the main entrance."

"Sensei believes in things that don't exist in this world..."

Ryoichiro replied: "I don't believe it." Hearing this, he didn't know if he couldn't understand it, so he said, "Teacher, it's strange to say that."

Ryoichiro replied, "What's so strange?"

"Although I hate superstitions such as "elimination of disasters and disasters", I trust the person who says he can see."

The figure of Fukushima disappeared from his vision.Ryoichiro thought, although this person doesn't get along with him, he hopes he won't be possessed by something unclean...

The lights in front of the door swayed in the wind, and when the thick-handled Japanese umbrella was closed, water poured down from the closed tip of the umbrella like a waterfall.Ryoichiro entered the house from the entrance, perhaps he had heard the sound of the sliding door, and before he could call out, Dema had already come to the corridor.Ryoichiro took out the package he had brought back carefully to avoid getting wet, and handed it to Dema.

"I bought it for my mother-in-law and you too, let's eat it later."

Dema took the package of snacks and smiled, then handed the package to the mother-in-law who came out later, and wiped Ryoichiro's shoulders and feet with a hand towel (Note 17).

After changing clothes, it was time for dinner, and he sat and ate with Dema at the dining table.Although I also invited my mother-in-law to have a meal together, my mother-in-law seemed not used to the Western-style dining table and chairs, so she politely declined.

Dinnertime can be very quiet if you don't talk to yourself.The rustling of the rain was almost annoying, but it couldn't get rid of the indescribable loneliness.

After the meal, Ryoichiro asked the mother-in-law to bring the wine and desserts to the Japanese room, and tried to persuade her to drink when the mother-in-law brought the wine bottle to the Japanese room, but the mother-in-law refused, but the snacks were eaten unceremoniously , and then quickly went back to his room.Ryoichiro had a drink with Dema in the dim light of the oil lamp, drinking bit by bit.Even with the paper door closed, the sound of rain still rustled.Dema did not refuse Ryoichiro's persuasion because of his drinking capacity.Ryoichiro alone admired Toma's white face and neck gradually turning red due to drunkenness.

"By the way, have you ever eaten beef rice?"

Dema shook his head.

"I went to eat with my students before, it was delicious, I will take you there next time."

Dama blushed and nodded.When Ryoichiro picked up the sake cup, Tokuma stepped forward to pour him wine.