ALL NOVEL Chapter 16.1: Return
“Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes. I apologize for all the hassle and trouble I have caused you.”
It was my first day of work in Takenaka’s absence. My fever had subsided, so I went to work as per my rescheduled shift.
“After that, Takenaka told me that… you and Aoyama had made various arrangements for me and came to work in my place… Excuse me, I will take better care of myself from now on.”
“Haha, don’t fret about it. You must have accumulated a lot of fatigue.”
I am glad you got back to work so soon, he added. I lowered my head as the manager patted me on the shoulder and offered encouragement.
“Hmm, you do seem a little out of shape, though… let me know if you don’t think you can handle things… I can manage on my own.”
“No, that’s a bit against my conscience.”
“I don’t want you to collapse again, so don’t strain yourself.”
“…Yes.”
“Takenaka was worried about you, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, he even did the cooking for me… I am sincerely apologetic to him.”
“Haha, it’s fine. He loves tending to people like that, and apparently, he was working as a social welfare worker before joining this place.”
“I see.”
What the manager mentioned reminded me of the time Takenaka nursed me back to health. I see… No wonder he was familiar with it.
“Then why is he working part-time here now?”
“No clue, I haven’t heard anything about that either. Many things happened to him… but now he found something new he wants to do, and he’s accumulating money here while studying.”
“Heh…”
“But he has been here for a long time now, and I think it’s time for him to leave…Something seems to be holding him back, though.” Crossing his arms, the manager laughed with a troubled countenance. “Takenaka. He’s been nicknamed ‘Guardian God,’ but even he’s a little cautious about that name.”
“Cautious?”
“Yeah… I think a part of him thinks deep down that he has to protect this place and that he shouldn’t leave so easily.”
“Did Takenaka say that?”
“No, but I feel that from what I’ve seen…”
Otherwise, even if he was constitutionally fit, he wouldn’t have stuck around in a place like this for so long.
Yeah, that was certain…
“Have you heard anything from him?”
“No. When we parted, I asked him a little about… but he was kind of vague about it.”
“I see.”
“Takenaka said he was helping me and others for his own sake… but I didn’t think so.”
I thought there must have been another reason. With no doubt, he gave a response in which he omitted several essential words.
For his own sake. I didn’t perceive Takenaka as such a self-centered individual.
“Manager… if you know something… Can you please enlighten me about Takenaka?”
Why is he helping me and others like that? What happened to him?
“Hmm~…” The manager growled with his mouth sealed shut. “Well, no, you see…”
Don’t look around restlessly! That was even more of a nuisance, bar code!
“I was told by Takenaka not to share this information.”
“No, please just let that slide.”
“But, you know…”
He was murmuring something about “personal information” while resting his palm on his greasy forehead, but it didn’t take long for the manager to relent because of my adamant unwillingness to give in.
“Oh… Takenaka will be upset if he learns about this. Okay? Even if he asks, you must maintain complete confidentiality.”
Despite feeling some resistance, I listened to the manager as he began to talk.
“About two years ago, I guess… Right, when Hirai hadn’t joined here yet and Takenaka was a newcomer here.”
The manager reminisced, saying he remembered those times well. Shortly after quitting his job, Takenaka visited this convenience store. While his facial expression was noticeably fainter when he initially got here and his atmosphere was far darker than it was today, his verbal communication style, inability to smile, and reluctance to socialize more than was necessary all stayed the same as they were two years ago.
The manager reasoned that he must have had a negative experience at his former job. Though he said that Takenaka didn’t discuss it, upon further reflection, he surmised that… Takenaka’s power may have had a part in it.
“Suzuki… If I remember correctly… After Takenaka joined here, another person came in after him.”
Suzuki was a 24-year-old unmarried woman at the time. Bright and sociable, the polar opposite of Takenaka, who had joined earlier, she immediately struck up a rapport with the staff at the convenience store and, perhaps because they were the same age, she often got cozy with Takenaka as well. Takenaka, who was initially distant, gradually began to smile and speak on his own as he was carried along by Suzuki’s pace.
“Both of them got along well… and I think Takenaka probably liked Suzuki because even though he had a poker face, he always seemed kind of happy in front of her.”
But… after a particular day, things started to get strained between the two, who had grown to be such close friends that even the boss and other employees had to admit it.
“All of a sudden, Suzuki started avoiding Takenaka.”
When the manager pressed for an explanation, Suzuki cited Takenaka’s recent strange behavior.
“She said that he had started saying uncanny things out of the blue, which bothered her and left her unsure of what to do… At first, I didn’t notice it either, but it turned out that Takenaka could see that she was in danger. I wish I had believed him right then and there…”
The manager, at the request of the terrified Suzuki, reassigned them to different days and rescheduled their shifts without realizing that Takenaka, who had recently joined them had the ability to see things that others could not.
Even after the shift change, Takenaka persistently asked Suzuki to leave this place in the near future. Since he was asking so earnestly, the manager suspected something and probed further to get the truth. It was only then that he learned that Takenaka was a man who could see specters. Believing what Takenaka said, the manager told Suzuki what Takenaka wanted to convey to her.
However―
“…It was too late.”
On her way to the convenience store the next night as the manager was going to inform her, she made a steering error and collided with the guardrail with her entire motorcycle. She didn’t fall from the bike, but her vehicle skidded off the road and collided with the pavement…
“…Did she die…”
The manager silently shook his head to the side.
“Fortunately, she survived… but she might not have if she had been discovered sooner… The injuries she sustained in the accident were fairly horrific…”
Bandages were wrapped around her face, her neck and legs were immobilized, and when the two men paid her a visit, no trace of the bright, brilliant woman was anywhere to be found. Half of her face peeking through the bandages was emaciated, her lips were peeled back, and above all, her eyes were devoid of life.
No matter what was said to her, she never talked about the accident. Only once before leaving did she say to Takenaka…
[Are you satisfied with this…?]
Her mouth was moving frantically as if she was trying to vent her abhorrence.
[Since meeting you… strange things have been happening one after the other… After the way you spoke to me… I can’t believe you had nothing to do with this. You know, I am sure … everyone… is holding you accountable for what happened to me―]
“That’s awful…”
Even if I stated that, I couldn’t speak for anybody else because, up until recently, I didn’t believe in specters or individuals who could see them and even I had said harsher things to Hyuga.
I might not have understood how she felt when she uttered those words…
“Since then, I have assured him repeatedly that he is not to blame for what occurred. Takenaka nonetheless persists in his belief that the incident was his fault.”
“Didn’t Takenaka just intend to save that Suzuki person?”
“That’s right… Takenaka would not have been that affected if it weren’t for her final remarks.”
A tragedy that was supposed to have been known but nevertheless couldn’t have been averted. If only he had been able to convey the message to her better…
Perhaps it was out of this desire that Takenaka continued to call out to people who were incompatible with this convenience store, including me, in order to ensure that people like Suzuki would never show up again. Regardless of how frightened or suspicious others might be, he would always call out to people… Even if they didn’t believe him, he would still do so…
“In the course of all this, it became like it was part of Takenaka’s job to stay here and protect the newcomers… He can’t leave now either… and I think he’s afraid of what would take place if he were to leave.”
“…So when he said he was doing it for his own sake…”
Even if he claimed otherwise, he was not doing this for his own sake but merely offering himself as a sacrifice. I didn’t have any idea about this, nor did it occur to me that such a thing had unfolded. Takenaka’s feelings too…
Despite feeling terrible, having many people accuse him of being a liar, and having other things he wanted to do… he didn’t run away and leave this place. It was inconceivable that would make him feel comfortable, yet he continued to remain here… Just how patient could that be…
And I, who was saved every time by Takenaka, who had a cool face and shouldered the whole load by himself, was so lame, wasn’t I?
Just one time I ran into an obstacle and I lost sight of my surroundings, vented my anger on others for no reason, and even drove a person to suicide. Takenaka was alone, enduring, and saving many people from danger in the shadows.
Without anyone ever thanking him.
“If it’s gratitude, that’s being expressed.”
When I looked up, the manager smiled with a shiny face.
“Hakamada, didn’t you express your thanks to him?”
“Oh…”Translator: MadHatter
“That’s what’s saving him. It may have been rough for him until now… but I’m sure he’s happy now because you believe in him. All this time, he lost himself in doubt about whether what he was doing was meaningful. But now that you believe in him, I think for the first time Takenaka is able to think that what he has done all this time was not in vain.”
“Does Takenaka thinks so…”
“He does.”NotSharedOnAggregatorSite
“Even after all the trouble I have caused him?”
“It’s not a trouble. Takenaka wants to protect you because of the meaning you’ve given to his actions.”
Despite uncertainty about the truth of Takenaka’s feelings as described by the manager, I would like to thank him again when I meet him again in three days. Once more, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks.
And this time, I would like to say that I would listen to whatever his worries were, just as he listened to me the other day.
Saying that, though, he might find out that I have asked the manager about him.
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