It suddenly dawned on me.
That’s right, my objective was the diversion.
I open the pocket watch engraved with the mark of [Nega-Messiah]—which serves as a membership badge—.
The designated 10 minutes had just passed.
I turn my eyes towards Hinata-chan once more.
“Y-you… how dare you…”
She glares at me with teary eyes while wobbling to her feet.
Her bright pink eyes, usually filled with gentleness, were now swirling with emotion.
—Yeah, time to run.
“W-well, I’ve bought enough time. See you later then, Hinata-chan.”
I spin around.
I dash out to the main street that was right there.
“W-wait—”
Whether due to lingering confusion or embarrassment.
Hinata-chan didn’t chase after me again.
I felt like a criminal.
Actually, I was a criminal.
I had committed an indecent act by peeking at the underwear of a 15-year-old girl who fights for justice, and then hugging her for thirty seconds.
That much was still okay (it’s not okay).
—The problem was that this girl was my oshi (favorite idol)!
Yes! Oshi, No! Touch! There are things you can and can’t do even if you’ve become your oshi’s enemy!
This is no different from an obsessed fan turning into a stalker and committing a crime…!
“Oh, my oshi… Please rain divine punishment upon this lowly self…!”
Having successfully (?) completed the diversion, I found myself at a corner of Café-Manhattan.
There, I was repeatedly banging my head on the table.
My suspicious behavior was so extreme that even the café owner, Yuika-san, who had warmly greeted me with “Get lost~” when I arrived, now absolutely refused to look my way.
Then, as if a spider’s thread had been lowered into this hell, the door of the shop opened.
“—What is that?”
The newcomer, Kushina, asked the owner with her first words, keeping her distance.
Yuika-san shook her head vigorously, her lips pressed into a tight line.
It seemed she didn’t want to say “I understand” even as a lie.
“Haah, really…”
Kushina sighed with exasperation, then walked over to me smoothly,
“Here.”
Saying that, she turned her face away and—spread both arms wide.
“…Huh?”
“Mm.”
My childhood friend, her cheeks slightly flushed, urged me to do something.
“I-it’s the usual… hurry up…”
The usual…?
What does she mean with that hug-waiting-like pose—oh.
! Image
Paying [Contact], huh…!
“Ah, right! The usual, of course!”
It seems she thought I was engaging in this bizarre behavior while resisting the compulsion of my Umbra Compensation to “hug someone!”
As expected of a long-time childhood friend.
Usually, she wouldn’t be far off the mark.
—Usually, that is!
However, today I’m a criminal, so I no longer have any Umbra Compensation to pay.
But if I refuse here and it becomes “Who did you make pay your tab?”, it’s all over.
Feeling guilty, I hurriedly stood up… and tightly embraced Kushina.
“Mm, it’s strong today…”
“…Yeah.”
Hugging voluntarily without the Umbra Compensation, unlike usual, feels quite different, you could say…
Caught up with the payments, I can’t usually notice these things, but now I feel everything about Kushina—her breath, her warmth, her softness.
At the same time, a part of my mind is swirling with the depth of my sins.
I paid the price by hugging another girl and now, to hide it, I’m just hugging my childhood friend without any reason.
Why am I acting like a scumbag trying to cover up his cheating…?
Trying to escape the guilt, I looked around—and our eyes met.
“Ah… eh, huh?”
It was Yuika, her cheeks flushed, covering her mouth like a typical woman in this world.
Seeing the shopkeeper fainting, I calmed down.
Let’s take a step back and see myself objectively.
At a café, saying “the usual” while passionately hugging a beauty—ah, this is no good.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
Hello, it’s me, the “criminal” and “suspicious guy” and “scumbag” and “lovey-dovey couple.”
Brace yourself, because everything that happened today happened in one day.
“Neighborhood big brother” is a title from long ago.
As expected of [Watayume], the density of the story is different from the first episode… haha…
“Ah, it’s the price of Umbra… right.”
At a secluded table in Café Manhattan.
Yuika, with her cheeks still slightly flushed, fanned herself awkwardly and laughed.
Thinking how even without lying, one can still speak by nodding—since you can’t lie in a nod—I was lost in escapist thoughts.
“An inconvenient price of Umbra, involving others after the fact.”
Ignoring our unease, Kushina sipped her coffee with a calm face.
But, the girl next to me occasionally rubbed her legs together nervously.
Internally, she was writhing in embarrassment.
Yuika, across from us, seemed unaware and nodded.
“Seems easy…”
She probably meant to say “seems hard.”
But in front of someone who’s constantly forced to lie, you want to take her words at face value.
“It’s easier than for you, Yuika. As long as I don’t touch anyone, I can manage for about half a day.”
She looked at me with troubled eyes.
…I’m not really hiding it, and it’s fine if it’s her.
“‘Separation.’ That’s my natural Talent Lux.”
Saying it suddenly, Yuika blinked her big round eyes in surprise.
Then she clasped her hands in front of her chest and smiled joyfully.
“Thank you!”
Though a natural Talent Lux is personal information, it’s close to height or weight in feeling.
If you’re confident and slim, you’ll talk about it; if you’re overweight and want to hide it, you won’t mention it.
Just like physical features you can roughly estimate at a glance, if you use your natural Talent Lux in public, it’s generally apparent.
Only those with a natural Talent Lux as their lifeline and something shady to hide (that’s us) bother to conceal it.
But revealing it is undeniably a sign of trust.
“But… Bunri, separation?”
Yuika tilted her head as she separated her clasped hands.
“Yep, that separation. According to ‘Divine Revelation,’ it’s the ability to separate two touching objects.”
“That’s… isn’t that an inconvenient natural Talent Lux?”
She said “inconvenient natural Talent Lux,” but she probably meant “convenient natural Talent Lux.”
“It sounds convenient at first. The problem is the activation condition: [visual recognition of the two objects].”
“Hmm…”
Seeing Yuika press her finger to her cheek in thought, Kushina spoke up.
“For example,”
She pushed forward her coffee cup.
“This café latte is made of coffee and milk, right?”
“And a bit of honey for sweet-tooth Kushina.”
“Kushina has a sweet tooth? …Oh, I see. Right, Kushina loves sweets.”
Judging by this, she probably added a lot of honey, not just a bit.
“…That’s not important right now.”
Kushina, her ears slightly red, muttered, “You didn’t need to mention that.”
“And so?”
“…Can you visually separate the coffee and milk in this café latte?”
Yuika shook her head. “No, I can’t.”
“Same with Ibuki. If he can’t recognize it, it’s excluded.”
“Hmm, it’s a rather lenient condition.”
“Not unlenient, just tedious.”
Having left the explanation to Kushina, I smoothly took over the conversation.
Ignoring the capable childhood friend giving me a sharp look.
“If it’s something far enough away that I can’t see it, it’s impossible, and the same goes for objects through a camera.”
“So…”
“Basically, it can only be used on solids within sight. Also…”
I looked at the cup used in the earlier explanation.
Activating my natural Talent Lux, it floated on the wooden table.
—For an extremely brief moment, over an extremely short distance.
“…”
Yuika made a subtly awkward expression.
It’s understandable.
To the onlooker, it seemed like the coffee cup just made a small noise as it settled.
“Um, but…”
“To clarify, I can’t separate the handle from the cup. I recognize the [handle included as part of the cup].”
“…”
“It’s okay! You can laugh at me for having a power that’s useless for even dismantling bulky waste!”
“No, not that…”
Yuika, taken aback by my energy, touched her cheek and looked away.
Low versatility and no offensive power. How did original Ibuki plan to fight with this weak natural Talent Lux?
“But still, you managed to avoid getting caught by Exia”
Yuika smiled as if to deflect the situation.
“Oh, I just used ‘Separation’ to run away.”
“Used?”
“Yes.”
I straightened up, regaining my composure.
“This ‘Separation’ has two processes. First, nullifying the energy of one target. Second, creating a slight gap between the two targets.”
For the cup on the table, it means nullifying the gravitational energy for a moment.
Simultaneously creating a minuscule gap between them.
Resulting in the cup slightly separating from the table. Like that.
“What about jumping off buildings?”
“That’s the first use. I nullified the fall energy at the moment of impact.”
“Wha… in that split second you lift the cup…?”
“Miss the timing by even a fraction of a second, and you get crushed.”
“Lies…”
Being called a liar by someone who lies…
Suddenly, I realized.
“Hey, how do you know I jumped off a building?”
“Huh? It was on the radio.”
“Radio?”
As I tilted my head in confusion, Yuika pointed to the corner of the store.
At the end of her finger, there was a regular LCD TV mounted near the ceiling.
“Oh, not radio, TV… I see, they broadcast incidents involving natural Talent Lux.”
Yuika nodded.
“Well, this time, you two were too fast (slow) for them to keep up—wait, you didn’t know?”
Yuika exclaimed in surprise.
Kushina shrugged and said,
“Ibuki avoids electronic devices because they’re bad for his eyes.”
“Haha, my natural Talent Lux relies on good eyesight.”
“It’s overkill, if you ask me.”
Whether due to my constitution or not, I’ve had exceptionally good vision since I was young.
Both static and dynamic vision are far beyond normal.
If I concentrate fully, I can easily distinguish the features of each passenger on a passing train.
“Thanks to that, I can use ‘Separation’ when jumping from high places.”
“Wow…”
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