Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko:Volume7 Chapter8

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Next Chapter - Daydream, Invasion

“…And so, Ryuushi or something, uh, sang that thing that was playing on TV…”

With an expression that said, “I see, I see,” Tamura-san listened intently, nodding along at appropriate intervals. Erio was reporting on how she had spent the previous weekend playing with everyone, using all sorts of gestures to embellish her story.

I sat there blankly, facing the entrance of the candy shop with my back turned to both of them. Since a young girl, much like a granddaughter, was speaking so joyfully, Tamura-san had little choice but to listen.

A week had passed since that Sunday, and a new Sunday had arrived. I sat there in front of the shopfront of the Tamura store, narrowing my eyes in the atmosphere of the October air as I breathed it in deeply. My eyelids slowly grew heavy.

I closed my eyes without resistance and found peace, using Erio’s energetic, topic-jumping boasts as my background music. The air touching my skin was cool, while my toes, warmed by the sunlight, felt cosy; it was an ideal climate.

I had decided to help Erio keep watch over the shop, and a day off like this wasn’t so bad. There was a small part of me that worried this was becoming the “Great-Grandpa Chapter” of my own fantasies, but it was a trivial concern.

“And look, look! A cellphone! I bought a cell phone!”

When I turned around, Erio was holding up a mobile phone at Tamura-san’s eye level, making a mysterious “ta-daaa!” sound with her mouth. The matching sparrow straps we had bought together swayed from side to side. Tamura-san stroked her chin and gazed at the light blue phone, feigning indifference.

“How many times have you been boasting about it now? I’ve heard it seven times already this week.”

That basically meant every single day, huh? How did you put up with it every time, Tamura-san?

“Grandma, what’s your phone number?”

“Idiot, do you really think I have it? Go call Meme or something.”

“Mom sends me plenty of emails.”

“Ah, those that caused incessant chirping while we were working the shop yesterday? That fool should get a job.”

“She sent about a hundred yesterday.”

Any more than that, and it would have crossed the line into harassment. Meme-san often sent messages to my phone as well, but her contents consisted of emojis and emoticons that were entirely inappropriate for her age, making them almost like a cypher. They were impossible to decode.

“Aaah, so what kind of stuff is in those messages from that idiot?”

Tamura-san peered at the phone, feigning complete lack of interest. Erio, however, operated the device with pure delight. She tapped the buttons with her index finger, pulling up the inbox history.

“Something like this.”

Tamura-san readjusted her reading glasses and stared intently at the screen, her face contorting into a scowl as she let out a disgruntled, “Ah? ‘Eri-chan, what did you have for lunch?’… Is that all?”

“Yeah.”

“That girl is really an idiot. She could have just come and asked you directly.”

She dismissed Meme-san with a dismissive snort. Clutched tightly in Erio’s hand, the mobile phone served as the backdrop for her continued, staccato-filled high-pitched chatter. She pressed on with her mixture of bragging and self-reporting.

“And then, I managed to get Ryuushi or something’s number and Maekawa or something’s number, too…”

I did not interrupt her and instead looked forward again, letting my mind drift into the autumn air.

It had been about seven months since I moved to this town. Seven months since I met Touwa Erio.

Ryuushi-san had said the same thing at the karaoke box. Over and over, I would find myself ruminating on the mysterious flow of reality, as if reflecting deeply and thinking, “Yeah, that’s right.” Even though my final conclusion was exactly the same: “I can’t believe it.”

Starting from the day I first spoke to her, I could never have imagined that I would arrive at a day like this. That I would find peace of mind while sharing the same space as that Denpa-san and that I would find myself laughing at the way she proudly spoke of her connections with friends, even if her words were a little clumsy. If I were her father, I would have burst into tears at how much she had grown.

It wasn’t as if I had intentionally chosen this path. It was simply that I had always chosen the path that seemed best in every given moment, and it just happened to turn out this way. I didn’t deny that.

From then on, I would likely continue to be lured by whatever seemed best in the moment. I would struggle with the tip of a swaying fishing rod, giving my all only to the fish that bit at that very instant. In the end, that was all I could do. Even if the future were all predetermined, the only time I truly lived was the present. The future was nothing more than a present that would eventually arrive.

Furthermore, the present was not something to be changed but something to be chosen. While my way of choosing remained somewhat vague, it was beginning to stabilise, and I soon found that I rarely struggled with such decisions anymore. If any doubt remained, it was only regarding the nature of Youth Points.

“…………”

I turned around. Now that Erio had become a “Youthful Woman”, I found myself unable to predict how the scenery of my youth would evolve around me. For better or worse, Touwa Erio was an unpredictable element in my life. Her mother was the same, though in her case, it was mostly for the worse. Setting that aside, the situation was deeply troubling.

However, looking back at my own burgeoning delusions… someone might have argued that it was only natural, since they were delusions to begin with, but they were filled with nothing but a bright future. Whenever the April version of Denpa Erio was by my side, realms of imagination that I surely could never have reached would unfold easily within my mind.

That was why I felt certain, yes, certain, that my “present” would never be labelled a “bad future”. I felt a twinge of guilt, however, for having reached a conclusion that was the polar opposite of what I had concluded when I dismissed her as a negative factor.

As long as I lived my life alongside Erio…

“… Crap, the Great-Grandpa Ending or the Living with Meme-tan Ending are looking way too likely. How scary.”

Even as I felt that fear, there was one thing I felt certain of.

It was a single light that brightened the future, born from my decision to believe in the person I had been until now.

No matter which path I chose from here on out, that light-blue “Denpa Onna” would likely never appear by my side again.

I had been optimistic, perhaps even too complacent, thinking such things.

But reality, as if finding its very purpose in mocking me, summoned the “next” thing.

From a “beyond” that I knew nothing about.

“Mofuffuffufu”

The silhouette of a creature that suddenly, with lazy dexterity, used its toes to swing the entrance door open was…

“Mofuffuffufu”

It was a combination of a familiar appearance and an unfamiliar smallness.

“Mofuffuffufu”

“Mofufu.”

Little Smakin had made its appearance at Tamura store.

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