Chapter 96: Determined to Sneak Away

In an alley in Shinjuku, an unmarked izakaya was open for business.

Even good sake fears deep alleys; business seemed a little slow. At the time of day when such establishments should be busiest, the seats were only half full.

At a window seat in the corner, the table was laden with grilled skewers and alcohol—Tsukimiya Suzuna ate the skewers, Chen Zi'ang drank, and the two of them worked together in tacit harmony.

"Senpai, don't you want to take it easy?" Suzuna finished off a chicken meatball skewer and suddenly spoke. "Careful not to get drunk."

Having learned from last time, she had no intention of drinking again this time, so as not to end up drunk before her senpai yet again.

"It's fine." Chen Zi'ang waved his hand. "Didn't you say Uncle Emon was coming to pick us up in a while?"

He set down his cup, sighed, and looked out the window.

Outside, it seemed to have started raining; a pattering sound drifted through the night, and thin trails of water crawled slowly down the glass.

"In our line of work, we always encounter things too painful to speak of." Chen Zi'ang said slowly. "Before... a long time ago, I had a colleague."

Tsukimiya Suzuna said nothing, because she knew the best way to respond was not to interrupt, but to listen.

But Chen Zi'ang did not go on. He simply kept drinking.

It was only when the empty bottles had piled up higher and higher that Suzuna finally couldn't hold it in:

"And then? You said you had a colleague, senpai—what happened to him later?"

"Later, he died." Chen Zi'ang set down his cup and looked at Suzuna.

Tsukimiya Suzuna: ......

"In our line of work, we should have grown used to life and death, treating it as a matter of course." Chen Zi'ang slumped onto the table, closed his eyes, and continued. "But we aren't truly without feelings."

"Sometimes, dead memories suddenly come back to life from the depths of the heart, and then... leap out... and attack you..."

His voice gradually faded into inaudibility, then turned into even breathing. He seemed to have finally gotten drunk.

"Senpai." Tsukimiya Suzuna tried calling him a few times, and could probably confirm that he had lost consciousness.

Looking at the large pile of empty bottles beside them, she let out a long sigh of her own.

Dead memories suddenly reviving and leaping out to attack you—I know that all too well, senpai.

Suzuna ate one more skewer of lantern chicken ovary, rinsed her mouth simply with tea, and then spoke softly:

"Senpai, then listen to my story?"

...

"Once upon a time, there was a noble youth who fell in love with a woman from a foreign land."

"Unfortunately, the woman was already married, and her husband happened to be a very good friend of the youth. So the youth had lost from the very beginning—he never had any chance at all."

"The woman also sensed the youth's quiet affection for her, and so she always kept her distance, maintaining nothing more than an ordinary friendship."

"The pain of violating ethics and morality, together with the rejection of the one he loved, tormented the youth until he grew increasingly despondent and haggard. In the end, he decided to confess to his friend and to the woman, to withdraw from this love that should never have been, and to wish them a long and happy life together."

At this point in the story, Tsukimiya Suzuna picked up Chen Zi'ang's cup and took a sip.

"But in the end, he never got the chance to tell the woman... he was always one step too late."

"The enemy nation suddenly raided a border city. The woman caught wind of the news, but her husband was away, so she could only try to hurry back to the capital alone to report it. The noble youth volunteered to accompany her, but on the way they were ambushed by enemy troops, and the woman, before the youth's very eyes... died."

"The last words she said to him before she died were..."

"...Save them."

Suddenly, a clap of thunder sounded outside the window; lightning tore open the distant night sky like a shattered sea.

Tsukimiya Suzuna set down the cup and murmured:

"Those words—he probably remembered them his whole life, and they haunted him his whole life."

"The youth returned to the capital to report the news, but the corrupt upper echelons paid him no heed. In order to fulfill the dying wish of the one he loved, he ultimately returned to his own domain, rallied all the people willing to follow him, left the war-torn duchy behind, and established a new kingdom on the border of the continent."

"And in the end, he was crowned king, never married, and clutching the crown upon a cold throne, lived out his life in solitude."

"...Senpai, what do you think of a story like that?"

Chen Zi'ang did not answer, because he had truly gotten drunk.

Tsukimiya Suzuna pondered for a moment, then picked up a grilled chicken gizzard from the plate and slowly ate it.

"Actually," she said indistinctly, "I hate this story."

"Because I hate heroes."

"Only the dead get to be heroes."

After finishing the gizzard, Suzuna extended the bamboo skewer, as if to poke her senpai's arm.

But looking at the sharp tip of the skewer, she hesitated slightly, then turned it around and used the blunt, unsharpened end to tap Chen Zi'ang on the head.

"Bad senpai, so bad, so bad..."

Humming a little improvised tune that didn't exist anywhere, Tsukimiya Suzuna watched the rain outside the window growing heavier, and murmured:

"The rain is coming down hard now—we can't go out, senpai."

"How about we find a place nearby to spend the night?"

"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes."

—-------------------------------------

In the end, they didn't spend the night outside after all, because she was worried about little sister.

She had Uncle Emon drop the two of them off at the door, then Suzuna supported the reeling Chen Zi'ang inside, helped him wash up, and changed him into his pajamas.

Back at the hotel in Chishima, Chen Zi'ang had perhaps been mindful of propriety between men and women, and had only removed her outer clothes—but Tsukimiya Suzuna didn't have so many scruples.

After taking care of the brother, she went to take care of the sister. Chen Xiaozhu also said nothing, merely letting Suzuna help her into bed.

"Little sister." Looking at Chen Xiaozhu, who had curled up under the blanket and was sleeping soundly, Suzuna asked softly, "Would it be all right if I became your sister-in-law?"

Chen Xiaozhu did not answer.

"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes." Tsukimiya Suzuna repeated her trick. "Lend me a set of pajamas—I'll buy you new ones later."

She opened the wardrobe; inside were neatly folded pajamas of every sort, none of them expensive designer brands, with nothing overlapping the labels she was used to wearing.

But Suzuna didn't mind in the slightest. Instead, she picked one out with great interest—a silk set—and changed into it.

Chen Xiaozhu's bedroom had no mirror; the reason went without saying. So Suzuna quietly closed the door, slipped into the next room—Chen Zi'ang's room—and tiptoed over to the full-length mirror.

Light brown hair spilled over her shoulders, and her shapely figure was faintly visible beneath the thin veil of the silk pajamas. Though all her makeup had been washed away, perhaps because she had drunk a little, her lovely face was flushed with a pure, endearing pink, set against the natural whiteness of her skin—alluring, and yet charming.

Of course, Tsukimiya Suzuna was a traditional good girl, and she wouldn't do such-and-such just because her senpai was drunk... What she wanted was her senpai's heart.

At most, she'd just hold him while she slept~

Turning to look at the deeply sleeping Chen Zi'ang, Suzuna suddenly changed her mind.

Come to think of it... chances like this are rare, aren't they?

When you can sprint straight to the finish line, why would you honestly run the whole marathon?

The battlefield of love means no strategy is off the table!

Charge!

Charge, charge, charge—invincible Suzuna-chan, charging forward!

(End of chapter)