Chapter 111 (2/2)

“…Then why would you say something like that?”

Sheryl just smiled and answered back casually.

“It’s because I thought that it would at least make you feel better once you get angry and vented everything that you’ve been keeping to yourself until now. And if you vent to a stranger like me, it at least won’t affect your relationship with the people who are close to you. But it seems that there was no need for me to worry about that.”

It left a big impression on Katsuya. Sheryl helped him to move on from all of his acc.u.mulated grieve that he had kept inside his heart since the day he lost his friends. She prioritized helping him in moving out of worry even though the words that she said there might anger him, a Hunter who had even successfully hunted a bounty monster, a Hunter who was strong enough to easily kill a common civilian. Katsuya felt slight amazement as he stared at Sheryl.

Sheryl then stood up from her seat.

“Unfortunately, it seems that it’s about time for me to leave, so please excuse me.”

Sheryl lightly said her goodbye.

“Ah…”

Seeing Sheryl was about to leave that place, Katsuya inadvertently tried to stop her, but he himself did not know the reason why he did that.

“…Uhmm, can we meet again some other day?”

Sheryl looked a bit surprised, but she then smiled smugly and teasingly said.

“Are you trying to hit on me?”

Katsuya was so fl.u.s.tered that he could not give any concrete reply to that. Sheryl then mischievously smiled and said.

“I’m just joking. We should be able to meet again if we’re fated to. Yumina-san and Airi-san too, please be careful out there and until we meet again”

Sheryl once again said goodbye and left that place together with Erio.

Katsuya, Airi, and Yumina who were left continued eating their lunch. Yumina and Airi glanced a few times at Katsuya.

“…Uhmmm, is there anything wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing. I’m just glad that you cheered up.”

After hearing Yumina’s answer, Katsuya then apologized to her and Airi.

“I’m really sorry to have worried both of you… I should’ve talked about it to both of you sooner.”

“We’re teammates, after all, there’s no need to hold back. You can tell us sooner next time.”

“Of course.”

Katsuya gave a firm nod. The shadow that plagued him lately had completely vanished.

Yumina sighed, the girl who she met only twice was able to easily clear Katsuya’s worry. Yumina was amazed by that. Although she did not show it on her face, she actually felt discouraged by it too. But that was not the most important point here, Yumina was focused on something else.

[…I guess that was a mistake, huh… Ahhh, no no no, I should not think like that. Katsuya was cheered up, so it should be fine.]

Yumina kept telling herself that at least Sheryl was not looking at Katsuya as her love interest, that was why it should be fine.

After finishing the rest of the administrative work, Sheryl walked through the streets of the lower district and headed back to her base. She had met up with Darris beforehand. But after telling Darris what happened, she decided to take a detour to avoid meeting Katsuya again.

Sheryl realized that Erio was looking at her. Ever since she finished her business in the Hunter Office, he had been glancing at her with a conflicted expression.

Sheryl was weirded out by that as she lightly snapped at him.

“Erio, what is it? You’ve been glancing at me. Do you have anything you want to say to me or something?”

But Erio then replied as if he was trying to run away.

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”

Half of the reason as to why he kept glancing at Sheryl was out of fear. He was fearful of how she was able to completely trick Katsuya and his friends. It was because he noticed how much the person that he knew well, had changed. But, he did not have the courage to say that in front of Sheryl.

But then, Sheryl sounded irritated as she replied back to Erio. It might be because she did not like the fact that he was not being honest there.

“You won’t behave like that if it was nothing, right? So just tell me already, what is it?”

Erio understood well that it would be a bad idea if he kept trying to say that it was nothing. Thus he decided to ask Sheryl something that had been bothering him.

“…Back then, you said all of those things to that Hunter… Katsuya, was it again? So like, how much of them were your true feelings?”

“My true feelings?”

Sheryl looked flabbergasted after hearing Erio’s question, her face was saying that she did not understand the meaning behind that question. But after she had that expression on her face for a few seconds, she suddenly seemed to have realized something and said.

“…Ahhh, I see!! By any chance, do you think that I was really worried about Katsuya and sympathized with him, that’s why I tried to cheer him up? Don’t be stupid, I don’t care about his story at all. As a matter of fact, the main point that I was actually saying to him was for him to stop moping around and move on, you know? Although I did overly dramatize it though. You got hooked to his story too much, you know. Were you so bored just standing next to me that you could not help but to listen closely to our conversation?”

Erio was rather surprised by her answer as he said.

“I-is that so? But well, I do feel sad when I lose my friends too. So when I realised that even a strong Hunter felt the same, I sympathized with him for a bit though…”

Sheryl frowned.

“Erio. Get a better grip of yourself, will you? We’re not in a position to feel pity for them, you know? Seriously though, sympathy? Do you really think that such a thing could exist between slum children like us and a successful Hunter who had even hunted a bounty monster? I bet you’re just mistaking it for your feeling of wanting to be like him.”

“W-well, now that you mention it, that might be true…? No, but still, like, you know, don’t you think that it might be a good idea to get close to them and get them to support us just like Akira?”

“So then what? Will you be satisfied if he mourns when you, me, Alicia, and the other children get killed? That’s obviously not the case for me though.”

“Neither for me as well…”

“In the first place, what do you think we can give back to them if we get them to support us? It’s already a miracle to have Akira supporting us, you know? Even right now… I’m at loss on what we can give back to him.”

Sheryl was about to say that she still could not repay for everything that Akira had done for the gang and she had no idea how long Akira would keep helping the gang, but she somehow was able to change her wordings.

When he heard that, Erio hung his head low. It was because the hope that he was unconsciously having was crushed with no mercy at all by Sheryl.

“…You’re right, I’m sorry. I just thought that it would be great if they could do that. But I guess the reality is not that kind, huh.”

“It’s all good that you understand now. And if you really understand it now, you should be more thankful to Akira. It’s all thanks to his support that we’re not dead now, you know…? Well, of course, except for that fool. That fool even dared to be so rude to Akira and tried taking me hostage, that’s why he’s dead now. You got spared once, so you should be extra careful.”

“I know, I don’t want to die after all.”

Sheryl nodded in satisfaction after hearing Erio’s response. She then added an extra warning.

“Erio, I’ll give you one other warning besides that one just now. In case if you never break up with Alicia, you should never let her get close to that Katsuya.”

Erio’s face stiffened. He then asked Sheryl in panic.

“W-what do you mean by that?”

“It’s just my intuition. Since both of you are officers in my gang, I’m sure there’ll be a lot of occasions where both of you accompany me, it would be bad if Alicia gets to meet Katsuya by pure coincidence. There is a chance that she will fall for him, you know. Judging from what I heard back then, it seems that Katsuya has a habit of saying things that invite misunderstanding to girls. After all, he’s a kind young handsome powerful Hunter with a lot of money and talent. Even though it seems there are a lot of girls around him, if he treats Alicia kindly… I’m not sure if she can just give up on him, you know?”

After saying that, Sheryl sent a deep meaningful gaze to Erio. Erio’s face turned pale, he must be imagining what she just said. After she confirmed that, she then made a serious face and thought.

[It seems that Erio was really pulled to Katsuya’s side although he was only listening to our conversation from behind me. Well, it’s true that it’s a rather amazing story of successful Hunter, so it’s no surprise that Erio admired him, but… I wonder if that’s all there is to it. Or maybe he felt that weird feeling that I also felt back then? In the worst-case scenario, he might even propose a crazy idea like kicking Akira out and hiding behind Katsuya and his friends for protection. I brought Alicia into the conversation to prevent him from getting too close to Katsuya, but… Looking at his reaction, I guess that was unnecessary, huh…]

As Sheryl kept on thinking about it and Erio kept making a pale face, Darris who heard their conversation thought about something else.

[I don’t know just how strong that Katsuya guy is, but leaving him aside, Akira himself is pretty crazy… He fought a swarm of monsters twice on the same day. I didn’t think about it much since he saved us, but back then, he was not using an augmented suit and was able to fight a swarm of monsters with just his flimsy AAH rifle. He was even able to save us in the end. Well, it’s true that back then, we had a machine gun as our main firepower, then Elena and Sara saved us on our second encounter with the monster swarm that day, but there’s no mistaking that Akira did very well in both fights… As I thought, it’s really weird. Katsuragi is also bothered by that sudden change in Sheryl’s behaviour but… Sheryl is indeed a competent person and there’s nothing strange about it, As for Akira… It’s true that he’s a powerful Hunter, but… There’s just something not right about him.]

All of them had their own thoughts as they walked back to their base.

On the night of that day, Katsuya was lying on the bed of his personal room as he remembered what Sheryl said to him. That time when he had only met her once, he yearned to meet her again. And, on their second encounter, she was able to clear his worry.

Lately, Katsuya could not get a good sleep since he always had nightmares where his dead friends blamed him. His regret for not being able to save them, his feeling of guilt, they unconsciously turned his dead friends into ghosts. But after listening to what Sheryl said to him, they had been turned back to his important friends that he was proud of. He was sure that he would not see those nightmares anymore.

Katsuya’s heart was gnawed by his regret and guilt. Although it pushed him to get stronger as fast as he could, it only chained and bound him down. Thus preventing him from showing the true value of his talent.

But now, it had completely disappeared. It left a big hole in his heart, and the feeling for a certain someone was slowly filling that hole.

“We didn’t exchange contact numbers but… I wonder if we can meet again one day?”

Katsuya lightly smiled and closed his eyes, he was then peacefully lulled to sleep.

That night, Sheryl was lying on the bed in her private room and recollecting what happened that day.

She looked back at everything that she said that day, analyzed them to find any flaws that she should fix next time. Then she remembered how much Katsuya grieved for his dead friends.

It might be due to the creeping sleepiness that she started to think about unnecessary things.

As questions welled up inside her head, they were quickly followed by her own answers. Although she was answering her own question, there was a good chance that her answers were correct. Sheryl’s face then twitched.

Her question was short and simple–if she got killed, would Akira mourn for her death? And the answer was an obvious resounding ‘no’.

She then immediately stopped herself from thinking of any reasoning or assumptions that she could think of to refute that since it felt like she could spend eternity just thinking about those things.

[…Let’s think about something else, there are still so many other things that I need to worry about.]

If she kept thinking about that, there was no mistaking it that she would get a nightmare that night. As Sheryl thought so, she immediately tried to think about something else. She tried her best to fight back against the sleepiness to think about other subjects, and in the end, she fell asleep without thinking about anything.

Inside that white world, she heard a voice.

“Stop thinking about unnecessary things.”

And then, that voice vanished.

Index