Chapter 58: The Mysterious Girl Behind Komichi Kazue
Faced with Komichi Kazue's hopeful question, Kazama Chiba answered quickly.
"No."
Kazue asked again, her voice so small it seemed like the wind might blow it away at any moment.
"Mom and Dad..."
"Did they get lost? Big brother, you really haven't seen them?"
"I haven't seen your parents. And..."
Chiba paused, his gaze drifting away from the girl's dirty little face.
"You should stop waiting. Those two people are never coming back."
The smile on Komichi Kazue's face froze.
She seemed unable to understand what he meant—or perhaps she simply refused to understand.
"You're lying."
"Mom and Dad promised me that as long as I'm good, as long as I sing loud enough, they'll hear me. They just went to buy hamburgers... there's a long line there, I know... they never lied to Kazue. Big brother, you're the liar."
"Sniff... Chiba..."
From his shoulder came Kerberos's suppressed sobbing. It buried its head in its yellow fur, unable to bear watching this scene.
Kazama Chiba ignored the overly sentimental plush.
"Think whatever you want."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out five or six of the largest denomination bills without even counting them, then held them out to the girl.
"Take these."
Seeing so much money, Komichi Kazue instinctively refused.
"No, Mom said I can't take money from strangers. Kazue isn't a beggar."
Despite the massive change in her circumstances, the upbringing ingrained in her bones made her instinctively resist this suspicious charity.
"Grrrr—"
But at that moment, her stomach let out a hollow growl, making Kazue's face turn slightly red.
Chiba's hand holding the money didn't waver in the slightest. Instead, he pushed it forward, practically shoving it toward her nose.
"Consider it a loan. When you grow up and earn money, pay me back with interest—high interest. Make sure you remember that."
"Go get yourself a proper meal now. Buy some warmer clothes. Even if you're going to wait for someone, don't starve to death on the roadside and cause trouble for people."
Kazue bit her lip, staring blankly at what was an astronomical sum to her, then touched her still-protesting stomach.
Finally, the girl clutched those warm bills, sniffled, and nodded heavily.
"Yes! Kazue will remember! I'll definitely pay big brother back!"
"Big brother, where do you live? When I'm not hungry anymore, when Mom and Dad come back... when I have money, I'll return it to you."
"We'll talk about that later."
Chiba waved his hand dismissively and turned to leave without sparing her another glance.
Money meant nothing to him now anyway—he wouldn't even use it as toilet paper because it was too rough.
If he wanted, he could have the Shadow Khan empty out an entire bank vault whenever he pleased.
"This area hasn't been very safe lately. Don't wander into isolated places, even during the day. If human traffickers kidnap you, I'll have to write this debt off as a bad loan."
Having said that, Chiba felt he'd done more than enough.
For a stranger he'd met by chance, this was already going above and beyond.
Halfway down the street, Kerberos remained silent.
Like an eggplant beaten by frost, it had no energy or spirit left at all.
Chiba walked with his hands in his pockets, fingers touching The Illusion and Mirror cards inside. For a moment, compassion stirred in his heart. He considered using magic to create a fake pair of parents to coax the girl into obediently returning to the orphanage.
But after hesitating repeatedly, he released his grip.
Fake was fake, after all.
No matter how miraculous the magic, no matter how realistic or beautiful the illusion, it would still just be a false shell.
It was poison—poison wrapped in sugar coating. Once she woke up, the gap between illusion and reality would only make her more desperate.
Besides, Chiba wasn't arrogant enough to think he had the right to casually interfere with and orchestrate someone else's life script, even with good intentions.
However, Kerberos, perched on his shoulder, belatedly felt something strange after finishing its crying.
It turned its head, watching the pink speck in the distance grow smaller and smaller.
It might have been its imagination...
But just now, from Kazue, besides the familiar feeling between acquaintances, there seemed to be another familiar scent?
What was it exactly?
Kerberos scratched its head, completely baffled.
While both of them were lost in their own thoughts, neither noticed that inside the backpack—
The Sparklence, which had reverted to plastic, suddenly flickered without warning shortly after Chiba's act of kindness.
...
The wind at the street corner kept blowing.
After Chiba's silhouette completely disappeared at the end of the street, Komichi Kazue, left behind alone, finally seemed to drop all her defenses.
Only after confirming that person had really left and wouldn't come back—
She roughly wiped the tears from her face, folded those crumpled bills neatly, and placed them in her inner pocket.
Then Komichi Kazue turned around and softly called out to the empty air that contained nothing but a lamppost and trash can:
"Big sister."
As those two words fell—
The originally empty air suddenly rippled with strange waves.
The next second—
A figure slowly materialized behind her.
It was a girl.
She looked young, perhaps only sixteen or seventeen, but she was extraordinarily beautiful.
"Has he left...?"
Looking in the direction Chiba had departed, the girl's shoulders, which had been tense the entire time, relaxed slightly as she let out a long breath.
"Big sister!"
Seeing the girl appear, Kazue showed no surprise. Instead, she revealed that sweet smile reserved only for family and threw herself forward to hug the girl's legs.
"That big brother is a good person! Even though he looked scary and said mean things, he gave me so much money... now we won't have to go hungry anymore."
"Big sister, why did you hide just now? Big brother is really a good person! You don't need to be afraid!"
"...Mm."
The girl withdrew her gaze, lowered her head, and gently placed her hand on the child's messy hair.
"I wasn't afraid. It's just that I can't meet him yet, because our promise isn't complete, right?"
The girl's voice was beautiful.
Unlike humans with their impurities, it had an ethereal quality like wind chimes stirred by the breeze.
"Yes!"
At the mention of their promise, Kazue looked up, her tears turning to smiles.
"Big sister promised to take care of me in place of Mom and Dad until they come back to find me!"
"That's right."
A faint smile bloomed on the girl's face.
"I said I would stay with you always, until your parents come to get you."
Kazue was very happy to hear this, then excitedly tugged at the girl's dress hem.
"Then big sister, keep teaching me how to sing! As long as I sing better, when Mom and Dad hear it, they'll definitely walk out from that corner just like big sister did!"
"Alright."
The girl nodded with a smile.
But when she looked back toward the street, a flash of deep, inconsolable sorrow crossed her eyes.