I'm a Pokémon Master from School City (by mistake)

Chapter Seventy-Five: Me and Her

When exactly did you meet Chiyo?

In Chiyo's hospital room, Mikoto felt a pang of sadness.

She hadn't expected that the person Chiyo woke up looking for was Shokuhou Misaki.

No... perhaps I should have thought of this a long time ago.

Because Chiyo knew Misaki Shokuhou before she knew herself.

Even knowing this, Mikoto was still a little jealous.

She and Chiyo should have been the closest, they were sisters, and their happiness should have been shared.

But why!

Why did Chiyo call out Misaki Shokuhou's name the first thing she did upon waking up?

We should call her name!

she....

She understands...

Chiyo knew Misaki Shokuhou before she knew herself; they were once best friends.

Can...

But she was still jealous!

"How's your investigation going?" Misaki Shokuhou didn't answer the question but instead asked, "Didn't you say you were going to investigate Chiyo's past?"

"this..."

Mikoto was unable to answer immediately.

She wasn't the kind of person who only had a three-minute attention span, but she really didn't know where to start when she wanted to investigate Chiyo's past.

Chiyo's past cannot be said to be completely nonexistent; it's as if it fell from the sky.

It could also be said that many things bear the marks of being deliberately erased.

Mikoto originally thought this wouldn't be too difficult, as she believed that deciphering or restoring the code would be relatively easy for her.

but...

If she were physically isolated, there would be no way for her to escape.

She could find information online, both public and private, but the problem was that when she followed those suspected clues, she quickly encountered the message "server is offline".

It's not the kind that appears to be offline but is actually secretly online.

Mikoto tried it; it's the kind of real physical disconnection.

Faced with this situation, and not knowing where the server is located.

Mikoto really had no choice.

The investigation has been going around in circles without any substantial progress.

“Actually, you don’t need to investigate anything,” Misaki Shokuhou said. “Some things are better left unknown, both for you and for Chiyo.”

"Chiyo was probably the name she chose for herself in order to break free from the past."

“But…” Mikoto wanted to say something more.

"For you, cherishing the present is the most important thing to do, isn't it?" Misaki Shokuhou countered. "Chiyo has come through a lot of hardship. Wasn't the reason she didn't want to acknowledge me as a friend before because she didn't want people to talk about her past?"

"Whether you investigate or not is your business. I'm just advising you as a friend of Chiyo's."

Once you know Chiyo's true identity, how will you treat her?

Misaki Shokuhou is willing to believe that Mikoto is kind, and that even if Mikoto knew the truth, she would not be prejudiced against Chiyo, and would even treat her as a true sister.

Can...

But she couldn't believe in humanity.

Having the ability to read minds, she has witnessed far too many filthy things. Even real twin sisters can turn against each other over certain matters.

And what about Chiyo?

Perhaps it's best not to know, and not to investigate anything at all.

"Why?" Mikoto still couldn't understand. Did knowing Chiyo's past mean it was wrong?

“Because she was covered in wounds in the past,” Misaki Shokuhou said. “Whether it was physical or psychological, it could only be about reopening old wounds.”

"So I'm just pretending I don't know anything?" Mikoto said angrily. "She's my sister! She's my family! Why can't I know? Why! Why did you keep it from me? I wanted to help too, I wanted to take care of Chiyo!"

"I think...."

I want so many things, but...

"Family?" Misaki Shokuhou shook her head without saying anything more.

She wondered if she would still consider them family after learning the truth.

That's all she had to say; she had no right to stop Mikoto from knowing the truth.

She didn't know what she was capable of doing.

Perhaps only by quietly watching everything unfold, or only after Mikoto learns the truth, can she be the one to prevent the outcome from spiraling into the worst.

The two looked at each other speechlessly.

Chiyo didn't know how long she had been unconscious. When she woke up, the hospital room was empty, and there was no one there.

What are your feelings?

No.

When she woke up in the middle of the night, she could sense that Mikoto, Misaki Shokuhou, Mitsuko Koyomi, and Kuroko were all there and by her side.

But they are all students after all, and cannot accompany them for a long time.

I strained to open my heavy eyelids and looked out the window.

I don't know what time it is, but it should be class time.

'This time it seems like we really went a bit too far.' Chiyo felt a little uncomfortable.

She was so crazy in the Naruto world that she never imagined it would affect her in this world.

'Speaking of which...' Chiyo closed her eyes again, 'Dolly...'

My body is still too tired, and I can't stand it again after just a short while.

I wanted to sleep but couldn't, and thus fell into a strange state of being half asleep and half awake.

However, she seemed to remember that on the first day of her coma, she had a brief moment of lucidity and felt that Mikoto and the others were by her side.

I also tried my best to open my eyes to let them know I was safe.

She knew her condition, and if she could really wake up, she would do the same; she didn't want them to worry about her.

This is a disguise, a body that appears to be recovering, but is gradually losing its vitality.

It would be inappropriate to call it a final burst of energy before death, but it would be quite accurate to say that it resembled a candle flame sucking up the solidified wax that had melted and spilled onto the table.

She was struggling to survive, desperately burning with the help of the Netherworld Soul Chaser and the meager amount of wax provided by the system.

From the first day we came into this world.

That's how she strives to live.

If she never finds a way out in the future, and when she eventually leaves, she hopes that she can come quietly and leave quietly, so that no one will shed tears for her or grieve for her.

It was as if she had never come into this world.

Chiyo never imagined that she was alive.

'Are you here, Dolly?'

Chiyo wasn't sure if she was asking a question. At this moment, she had neither the option to enter the dream space nor was she fully awake. She was in a half-asleep, half-awake state, silently asking herself this question.

She had always believed that Dolly was dead, and that her consciousness had faded away with her death.

But it was Dolly who truly woke up that day.

Chiyo is very certain.

That must be Dolly; she couldn't possibly have woken up at that time.

In that memory of waking up, she would never have spoken like that.

only...

No one responded.

Just like when I first arrived, I was all alone here; there was no one else.

But Chiyo knew that there was another person deep within her soul.

'What is this?' Chiyo didn't know what to say.

'One body, two souls? Or dual personality?'

Was it because he inherited Dolly's body, and Dolly, who came back to life, also came back to life, becoming his other personality? Or another soul living in this body?

Why isn't it responding?

Why can't you answer yourself?

do not know.

It seems that Dolly's soul and personality never existed in this body.

Chiyo eventually fell into a deep sleep.

For more than half of the month and a half, she used twenty clones to cultivate, which was too much of a burden on her body.

I don't know how long I slept.

Chiyo woke up once again.

What I saw was neither Mikoto, nor Kuroko, nor even Mitsuko after marriage.

It's someone Chiyo feels is reasonable yet also feels shouldn't be here.

Misaki Shokuhou.

She tried to sit up, but she was too weak to move at all, and gave up after a couple of attempts.

"Oh my gosh~" Misaki Shokuhou said, looking particularly surprised, "You're finally awake."

“You’ve been sleeping for over a week.”

'Has it been a week...?'

Chiyokokoro said.

This time, he was unconscious for far too long.

Twenty clones are definitely... we need to double that!

Yeah, just kidding.

We need to reduce the number of clones in a planned way, and we can't do it all at once for a month and a half.

The price of madness is what we have now.

Too much time was wasted in cultivation.

We need to be more scientific and have a better plan.

One should make full use of the time difference between different worlds, and while increasing one's cultivation, also use the time difference to allow one's body to rest fully.

Um...

Yes, that's how it should be planned.

Otherwise, working for a month and a half and then giving up would be a complete waste.

"Thank you," Chiyo finally opened her eyes and said sincerely.