Remake Volume 1 Chapter 2 Part 8 – The Place Known as Oogei Arts University

Translator: Flowingcloud’s Friend    Editor: Arocks141    Proofreader: Arocks141    TLC: Manshiro

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Drinking parties were being held all around the school, in the dark. It seemed like this was how it usually was till the freshmen recruitment period ended.

As I looked at the clock which said it was long past midnight, I left the school.

“Like hell it was a freshmen welcoming party! The ones that were supposed to be welcomed were the ones that went through hell!”

While carrying Shinoaki who slept carefreely on my back, I bickered complaints regarding the domineering seniors.

The spring night was of moderate temperature, and the only relief I had was that the road was easy to fare.

Contrary to the hustle and bustle which could be heard from the school building, the air and sounds along the narrow street were serene.

“Hm……? Huh, did I fall asleep?”

I heard a voice from my back.

“Good morning.”

When I answered, the creature on my back buried her face in the hood of the Parker I was wearing.

“Ugh-…… It seems like my head is still in a daze…….”

“Well, that’s to be expected if you drink that much.” I said with a bitter smile, looking back on Shinoaki’s actions until a while ago.

In the end, despite his efforts, Shinoaki drank a considerable amount of “water”.

While I was busy feeling anxious, Shinoaki was in a position where she sat magnificently like a chief, smiling like a cat, and the male seniors were pouring 『water』 into her cup.

How many years ago did the word Otasaa princess come out again……. There was also the word sticky steam woman too.

“But I’m glad that the seniors are good guys-”

Shinoaki said in a laid-back voice.

“Well, they don’t seem like bad guys…… Maybe.”

Obviously, they were all weird people from their behavior and remarks, but they were not the stereotypical bad guys.

There wasn’t anyone who forced Shinoaki or me to drink alcohol (Kiryuu was somewhat suspicious though), so in that sense, they are quite a decent, or a gentle circle.

Well, they also said it’s fine if it’s just secondary, so it might be a good place to enter for the time being.

“Kyouya-kun.”

Suddenly.

In a clear and distinct tone different from earlier, Shinoaki called my name.

“Recently, you’ve being pondering about complicated stuffs, haven’t you?”

“Eh.”

At an unexpected timing, moreover from an unexpected individual, my heart was seen through.

How did she figure it out?

Certainly, I often thought about certain things after seeing Shinoaki’s state that day. Did I show it on my face enough for Shinoaki herself to realize.

“Fufu~, your reaction is one that’s asking, ‘How did she know~?’”

As though she realized my suspicious behavior by my reply, Shinoaki laughed sneakily.

“Ugh, so how could you tell?”

I asked timidly, “Kyouya-kun doesn’t really talk about himself and is kind of an adult, or rather you tend to worry about other people, so I just made a little observation.”

That made my heart BA-DUMB a bit.

Since I came from 10 years in the future, some part of me had been seeing everyone as children. Nanako was a little grown up, and Shinoaki was childish., but I didn’t particularly intend to show it, and I didn’t think I was being discerned in the slightest.

So, even though it was a hunch, I had been found out.

Moreover, by Shinoaki who I felt was childish. I was a little shaken.

“So, it’s something that’s difficult to say?”

“Well, not really.”

“Then why not talk to me? Maybe you’ll understand things better.”

As she suggested, I spoke to her.

About how Tsurayuki and the people around me were all amazing (obviously I didn’t go anywhere near Shinoaki’s painting) and how compared to that, I didn’t have much to offer.

Even I was surprised at how honestly I was speaking.

“Hmm……. That’s surprising.”

“Surprising?”

“I see Kyouya-kun as somebody who is capable of a lot of things, I had no idea you were worrying over something like that.”

“A lot of things, you say, how?”

That personal evaluation itself was what was surprising. Did it perhaps seem different from Shinoaki’s point of view.

“Well, for example…… Tsurayuki-kun is super weak against mornings!”

“I know. I’ve been forcing him up to go to school for some time now.”

“In addition, he’s not any good with house chores, the most he can do is prepare a bath!”

“I know. He had himself removed from cooking duty after all.”

“He readily mixes up garbage disposal days!”

“I know. I’ve had to step in sometimes.”

As Shinoaki nodded in agreement,

“Kyouya-kun, can do all of those things.”

“Well, yeah, but don’t those errands have nothing to do with lessons in Arts University?”

I involuntarily uttered it.

“…… But these are important things to know in order to keep on living.”

As Shinoaki responded solemnly with that, “People who can’t do anything, desperately look for things they can do. So, I think people who Kyouya-kun thinks are amazing are also desperate to do something, somehow.”

I felt like her body became very feverish for a moment.

From my back where we were in contact, heat flowed through to my body. Shinoaki may have spoken casually, but those words boiled through to my mind and shook it.

“You, may be right.”

After squeezing out one word, a scene emerged in his mind.

The figure of Shinoaki, focused on the monitor, drawing single-mindedly.

If you had something, cling onto it. But if there was nothing, you just had to find something. I wondered if Tsurayuki too was desperately searching for something to cling to.

And, the me right now didn’t have that.

“Kyouya-kun is a capable child, yo.”

Shinoaki’s tone had reverted back.

Somehow I laughed a little at the tone which resembled a parent consoling a child. With this our positions were reversed.

“Well thanks……, eh!”

Immediately afterwards, I involuntarily raised my voice to the soft thing which was put on my head.

“There there…….”

Shinoaki ‘s hand gently stroked my head.

A warm hand which was slightly flushed, stroked my head several times as though wrapping around it.

The warmth should only have been on my head, but my whole body seemed to have warmed up.

“……Shinoaki.”

When I was in high school, my parents divorced.

I had not seen my mother ever since I was taken by my father.

The mingled emotions of loneliness and dismay were being enveloped by her kindness.

And naturally,”Thank you,” I expressed my gratitude to Shinoaki.

“Hm…….”

Shinoaki was relieved to hear my voice, and just like that, she slowly lowered the hand she was using to stroke my head.

I soon began to hear her breaths from my back.

While rushing down the road to the boarding house, I suddenly looked up at the night sky with the spring breeze blowing on my face.

A cherry blossom petal celebrating the freshmen was dancing in that wind.

“I wonder what it is I can do.”

I returned 10 years back into the past, chose a different route from my previous life, and enrolled into the Art University.

There was nothing much I could do, and I didn’t know what I should have been doing.

However, somehow, I felt like I had finally arrived at the starting point.