You say this is a love game?

Page 40

So, what exactly is the meaning of "happiness"?

Pleasant? Comfortable?

A sense of satisfaction? A sense of accomplishment?

Makoto Mizutani discovered that his definition of "happiness" was not that clear.

But there was one thing he was quite clear about.

“Now, I’ve encountered something that makes me feel bad.”

"If the mystery isn't completely solved, the unhappiness in my heart will become a thorn deep in my heart."

"Even if they don't show up now, they will throw the troubles of this moment back at me at some point in the future, thus hindering my complete 'happiness'."

and so--

I want to help her.

It was not a task of the system, but a decision made by his personal will.

Makoto Mizutani chose to trust Zashiki, the little brat who prepared a sumptuous dinner for him and wanted to go to the supermarket with him to buy groceries and teach him how to manage the household.

And since he chose to believe, he had to help her.

This is the sincerity that should be shown to friends.

For this reason, he did not hesitate or shrink back too much. He brushed his soul to 1500 and went directly to Kurosawa Ryohito to exchange props, and then quit the game next to the torii.

Now we have packed our rain gear and are rushing to our destination without stopping.

Along the way, the rain never stopped. Mizutani Makoto was wearing a raincoat and holding an umbrella at the same time. The raincoat was enough for him, but now the double protection was obviously to hold an umbrella for the zashiki.

Night Light City is not an international metropolis.

It was late at night and it was raining heavily. There were almost no pedestrians on the road, with only a few vehicles passing by. From a distance, the night lights under the rain seemed as ethereal as another world.

Zashiki still remembered the place where she woke up.

It was a crossroads.

There was a red light in front of them, so they stopped in front of the zebra crossing, but there was no need to run to the middle of the road, as the smelling salts were already within the usable range in this area.

As the rain fell, Mizutani Makoto took out the bottle of sin-stain smelling salts worth 1500 souls from his pocket.

Smelling salts.

It's not a seasoning, but a sobering medicine. It's usually a liquid similar to wine sealed in a glass bottle, and its pungent smell can relieve symptoms such as coma and headaches.

But the smelling salts that Mizutani Makoto was holding contained mist.

Gray-red mist floated in the glass bottle, swirling slowly like a chaotic nebula vortex.

It looks quite cool.

It’s just a little expensive.

Sin Smelling Salts

[Description: Smelling salts, created using secret methods by the shrine maiden Furuya Ruriko, contain the lamentations of the gods and the shrine maiden's hopes for humanity.]

[Comment: The final destination of the redeemer is to become a new pillar of salt.]

A rather special tool.

There are no detailed instructions for use, which makes it feel a bit confusing.

Mizutani Makoto recalled Kurosawa Ryojin's instruction manual and looked down at it.

I felt an icy cool touch on my palm, and blood was oozing out of the glass bottle with patterns on it, proving that a "sin" had indeed occurred here.

Actually, it’s more than that.

As Mizutani Makoto walked along, blood had already come out of this bottle many times. Night Light City is so big, and how many places on this land are truly clean?

But he had no intention of caring about other things for the time being.

Under the rain, Mizutani Makoto let go of the glass bottle.

The small bottle of Sin-Stained Smelling Salts fell in the rain, and the moment it hit the ground, it splashed glass shards high up like water.

What followed was a sudden expansion of black and red fog. The pungent smell poured into the brain from the nasal cavity, darkness appeared in front of the eyes, and then a dazzling light climbed up from the corners of the eyes.

It is darkness and a faint light.

"call--"

The little girl blew out her birthday candles and prayed silently.

Mom’s illness must get better.

Chapter 046 Can You Find Me?

As far as the girl can remember, her mother has always lived in the hospital.

Every time she wanted to see her mother, she had to go to the hospital to visit her. This memory lasted from the age of 4 to 7, even when she went to elementary school.

But my mother's smile was very bright.

The disinfectant in the hospital smells terrible, and the ceiling and walls are cold and ugly, but my mother’s smiling face is beautiful, and the flowers on the head of her bed are also beautiful.

Smiling faces or flowers have become the few bright colors in a girl's eyes.

So she likes her mother very much too.

I really like such a strong mother and such a mother who loves to laugh.

But when she was six years old, during an accidental visit, her father asked her to wait outside the ward. Through the narrow gap in the door, she saw her parents hugging each other, but at that moment there was no smile on her mother's face. Instead, she hugged her father tightly, with her face resting on her lover's shoulder, tears streaming down her face.

From that day on, the girl knew the dividing line between happiness and unhappiness.

My mother was in the hospital and my father took care of the whole family alone, but he was very good to her.

Influenced by the family environment, the girl becomes very mature at an early age. She is proficient in washing clothes and cooking. When she is bored, she will do a thorough cleaning of the house from time to time.

This was not asked by her father, but she took the initiative to ask her mother. She wanted to help at home, so her mother told her that she could help her father with housework and cooking... She learned everything until the door was opened and her tired father could smile the moment he saw the house.

Is this what she should do?

In fact, the girl didn’t think about these things at all, but she felt very happy. Her mother would feel happy, and her father would also be happy with her being well-behaved and sensible. Everything was beautiful.

Even when she was seven years old and reached school age, the girl didn't pay much attention to school matters.

She has friends and close friends, but her heart is always at home and in her mother's ward.

School life is happy, but her life ultimately ends at home.

She actually didn't know what was wrong with her mother.

Dad also kept comforting her and told her that everything would be fine.

As long as you are a good and sensible child, everything will get better slowly.

Fortunately, she has been a sensible and good child since she was young.

"..."

Mizutani Makoto opened his eyes, and the outline of the zashiki was reflected in his pupils. The girl in the story was of course the zashiki.

She has a kind and lovely father but a bedridden mother. The keyword "cancer" can be heard in the girl's trivial memories, which makes Mizutani Makoto even more silent.

He already realized who the Zashiki's strawberry daifuku was for.

"Dad, I want this!"

"Dad has no money, so let's not have it, okay?"

"Well! Then I'll buy it when Daddy has money!"

"Daddy, don't cry. When you have money in the future, I'll buy me lots of gifts, okay? Be good, don't cry..."

"Ding-dang! Look, Dad, I'm going to help distribute flyers. This Strawberry Daifuku! I'll give it to you and Mom!"

"How can I give one away? Hehe, actually I bought two! Isn't that awesome?"

"I'm good, aren't I? Mom, eat quickly! Didn't the doctor say that if you feel better, your illness will definitely get better!"

Memories floated past him like clouds.

He felt that the clouds passing through his fingertips were like the evaporating sea, and a strong feeling of emptiness grew from the bottom of his heart, like a seed of tenacious vitality that could not be hindered by any emotion.

As an outsider, he can more clearly see the changes in Zashiki's family. Poverty has swept through this once well-off family. The husband who loves his wife deeply has spared no effort to help her, but it can only buy her a brief respite. There is no end in sight for the recovery of cancer.

On her seventh birthday, she made a birthday wish for her mother to recover.

When she was seven years old, she lay in front of her mother's hospital bed, gently fiddling with the carnations on the bedside, and told her mother with relish the most boring thing in the world - the daily campus life in the first grade of elementary school.

But my mother was very happy to hear it.

"Will Mom get better?"

Most definitely.

Everyone praised her for being a good child. How could her mother abandon such a good child?

And she had to keep her mother happy... In the future! Someday in the future! They would definitely be able to live happily together!

So, at night, when her mother looked in pain, the girl who was waiting by her mother's bedside made a decision.

She wants to go to the supermarket and buy a strawberry daifuku.

The sweetest strawberry daifuku that will bring a smile to mom's face.

Be happy, if you are in a good mood, you will definitely be able to defeat the disease!

Everything is frozen in the night.

Just like the girl who went to the mountains to pick herbs and never returned home, the girl's back also disappeared like smoke in the night.

Lights, dazzling lights came towards her.

What followed was darkness, and the narrow darkness swallowed the girl.

"it hurts……"

"anyone there?"

"Let me out, it's so dark here, I'm so scared, I can't breathe..."

The heavy earth completely drowned out the sound of the girl clapping in the suitcase. In the narrow suitcase, she spent the last of her life in darkness, crampedness and despair.

Mizutani Makoto stood on the street in a daze.

The effect of the Sin-Stain Smelling Salts gradually wore off.

He still hadn't recovered from this story.

"Zashiki?"

It's still raining.

Under the umbrella he held up, an ominous black fog spread out, dispersing into the sky and earth like misty clouds.

"Big brother."

The girl's vibrato.

"Am I a bad boy?"

"...You are a good child, an unquestionable good child. There are not many children in the world who can do what you do."

Mizutani Makoto bent down.

The umbrella he held covered the zashiki under its protection.