Chapter 25 Persimmons and Strawberries Part 2
Between the two options of Hagiwara Kenji jumping out of the window and carrying her home, and following Matsuda Jinpei back to the Hagiwara family, Kurosaki Utaki, a weak soul who had now lost the ability to resist, humbly chose the latter.
Aside from ringing the doorbell and saying hello, Matsuda Jinpei remained silent the entire time. Even when he ran into Chisuga, the Hagiwara family's older sister, he simply said good morning and dashed off upstairs to Hagiwara Kenji's room.
Of course, he wanted to help Kurosaki Utahara at the beginning, but was rejected by the other party.
He actually wanted to ask Kurosaki Utsuki what had happened, but he was worried about hearing a terrible answer, so he finally decided to wait and hear his friend explain it in person... But after going up to the second floor, he couldn't help but ask Kurosaki Utsuki a question that he was very concerned about.
"Kurosaki, why do I feel like Chisu-nee didn't see you just now?"
Hagiwara Chisu, who had just greeted him, did not show any familiarity with Kurosaki Utsuki's visit, nor did he specifically ask who the girl with him, dressed subtly, was. Instead, he completely ignored her, did not say a word to her, and did not even look in her direction, as if she did not exist, which gave him a very bad association.
In response, the orange-haired girl following behind him nodded as a matter of course: "Because I'm a ghost."
I see, because she's a ghost—
"But your transparency is much lower than other ghosts. You look completely human... Wait a minute!" Jinpei Matsuda suddenly realized the problem and took a breath. He stopped abruptly and turned around in the corridor. "You are a ghost? How did you die, Kurosaki?!"
Kurosaki Utsuki twitched the corner of her mouth and glanced across at Hagiwara Kenji who had stuck his head out of the room.
"I'm not dead yet, but it's very difficult to explain." She said, "Please keep your voice down. The person downstairs can't hear me, but he can hear you."
She had not originally intended to tell her secret to anyone other than Hagiwara Kenji, but now that things had come to this, and she was no longer a Shinigami or a Quincy, she might as well give up struggling and make up a story to solve the problem once and for all.
So a minute later, the two of them and one soul sat in a circle in Hagiwara Kenji's small room - Hagiwara on the bed, Matsuda on the floor, and Kurosaki Utsuki on the only chair.
"How should I explain it..." The orange-haired girl twisted a strand of hair, hesitating and thinking, "Should I start with my family background?"
"How does this have anything to do with family background?" Matsuda Jinpei looked at her in confusion, but then a flash of inspiration struck him, and he suddenly realized, "Could it be that, Kurosaki, you are the child of a human and a spirit?"
"That's not wrong..." Kurosaki Utsuki glanced at Hagiwara Kenji. The boy didn't say anything about the information he already knew, so she continued to speak carefully and fabricate, "Actually, I, Yoruichi?"
She suddenly stopped talking because of the black cat that suddenly appeared in her sight. As she called out her name, the two young men simultaneously looked in her direction—up on the windowsill, against the bright morning sunlight, the figure of the black cat with golden pupils caught their eyes simultaneously.
Hagiwara Kenji was stunned: "Ah, it's from last night..."
It’s the talking black cat from last night.
"Kuroki-chan." Regardless of the presence of another strange boy in the room, the black cat said solemnly, "Is it okay to just give up like this?"
Jinpei Matsuda widened his eyes and was speechless for a moment.
Was he dreaming? Why did he seem to hear the cat talking? And why did his friend seem to be taking it well? Was it his fault? Or was he missing something?
The person whose name was called, Kurosaki Utaki, felt her heart beating violently.
"I……"
Of course she didn't want to give up.
Whether it's to continue protecting the souls within her sight - although she always complains that she's about to die from overwork and occasionally slacks off, she likes this job as a Death Agent - or for her still unfulfilled wish to avenge her mother.
Also, I don't want to go back to the weak me who couldn't survive after leaving the hospital.
She wanted to continue to hold that power in her hands.
However, that power had never belonged to her in the first place. After nearly six years, she had finally waited for her brother's awakening, and now it was time to return what she had borrowed.
"I can't go on—"
But her refusal was interrupted. The expression of the young man Hagiwara beside her was unusually serious: "Will it hurt anyone if Kurosaki-chan tells the truth?"
Why did he say that...
"No, but..."
Jinpei Matsuda, standing nearby, was initially stunned by the cat's ability to speak. He didn't understand what this supposed "power" was, but he understood what his friend Hagiwara was trying to say. He bluntly expressed his opinion, "Didn't they ask you if you wanted to? Why not just say what you think?"
Hagiwara Kenji immediately chimed in: "What exactly is Kurosaki-chan's wish?"
Kurosaki Utsuki took a deep breath.
What? They were all like this. They clearly didn't understand how hard it was for her to resist the temptation of this power, yet they still insisted that she reveal her true wish...
"...Of course I don't want to give up."
She whispered, looking into Yoruichi's golden cat eyes.
"But what I want more is not to borrow my brother's power, but to have my own power. If my brother needs it, I want to be able to provide him with support. I have always thought so, but..."
But she had no talent, not only did she not have any spiritual power, she was even weaker than an ordinary person. She couldn't use the Annihilation Cross at all, nor could she possess a Zanpakutō. She could do nothing.
"That's good." The black cat jumped down from the windowsill and landed in front of her, rubbing its tail against her calf. "That's good, Gexi-chan."
"It" was like an elder who saw through everything and easily touched the point that mattered most in her heart.
"—You are not without talent."
This sentence is like opening a bottle of carbonated drink that has been shaken several times. The pain and stubbornness that have been suppressed in the heart for more than ten years burst out along with the bubbles and splashed all over the floor.
One of the people she trusts most, Shihouin Yoruichi, said that she is not without talent.
It was as if to say that she would finally have her own strength, that she would be able to use her own strength to support her brother and fight alongside him, that one day, she would be able to realize her wish.
Of course, she also knew that it was the "future" and not the "present".
"I understand." The orange-haired girl nodded and decided to give herself some more time. "I'll think about it again."
Seeing that the matter between the cat and Kurosaki Utsuki seemed to have been discussed, Matsuda Jinpei, who still could not accept the fact that the cat could talk, finally tentatively reached out and poked the cat's ear that was close to him.
The black cat didn't dodge, but its ears twitched because of his movements, and it looked no different from a real cat.
"It really is a cat..." He swallowed hard, then looked at Kurosaki Utsuki, who seemed very familiar with cats, "Kurosaki, why would a cat... Don't tell me he's actually an Animagus. I don't believe in magic..."
"You can see ghosts, but you don't believe in magic?" Kurosaki Utsuki tilted her head, smiled, and hugged the black cat in her arms. "By the way, it's not 'he' but 'she'. Yoruichi is a girl with a great figure."
...No, he couldn't imagine a sexy woman with that kind of deep voice.
The next moment, Kenji Hagiwara received a pleading gaze from his friend, but he could only laugh dryly and express, "There's nothing I can do. You can only understand and accept it yourself. I can't help you." After all... he couldn't imagine it.
"Anyway," Kurosaki Utsuki stood up, ready to say goodbye, "It's better if you don't know my secret, Matsuda-san, or I'll have to go through the trouble of clearing your memory."
Since the situation has changed, she also changed her mind and decided to give up making up lies that might be exposed in the future.
"Eh? Kurosaki seemed to have said something scary... Does Hagi know your secret?"
The orange-haired girl nodded honestly. "I know. He's working for me." She took two steps toward the window. "So for the sake of his job, it's best to just pretend that what happened today didn't happen."
Before Matsuda could respond, Hagiwara Kenji had already guessed her next move and immediately said, "Isn't Kurosaki-chan's ankle injured?"
If I walk home alone like this, the injury might get worse... and I can't ride a cat.
Kurosaki Utsuki paused: "...No, I'm not injured. It's just your illusion."
It's the Quincy's Static Blood Suit.
It was the moment she heard Yoruichi say she had a gift, her body reacted subconsciously. The "muscle memory" of her soul, built up over the past six years, briefly overcame the spiritual power from her "warehouse" that she had deliberately blocked, and easily healed her slightly injured body.
The orange-haired girl hugged the cat and jumped out of the window again. This time, she landed on the ground steadily.
·
Of course, Kurosaki Utsuki didn't go to school for the rest of the day.
After she followed Yoruichi back home and returned to her body that had been "dead" for a long time, she did nothing in a hurry and took a long and serious bath first.
As she entered the bathtub, she couldn't help but think that the reason her body still felt stiff was probably not related to her spiritual power, but rather the rigor mortis caused by being "dead" for too long.
Not long after she cleared her mind in the hot water, the black cat that came home with her also jumped into the bathtub, splashing some water outside.
Kurosaki Utsuki raised her eyes and said, "How's the new member of my family? Isn't he cute?"
Yoruichi didn't join her in the bathroom. Instead, she went to greet Xiaoye and Maya, the cats she had brought home last night. The two cats were now housed in a bare room, furnished only with a cat bowl, a climbing frame, and a litter box. She had taught them how to use the litter box before leaving last night, hoping they would quickly adapt to their new surroundings.
The black cat, whose true form was actually a human, pawed at the water twice and said, "As an ordinary cat, I'm still quite qualified."
The orange-haired girl smiled and said, "Of course, Yoruichi is the cutest." She hugged the black cat close to her chest, her eyelashes drooping, and finally asked about what happened last night, "What happened to my brother?"
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