15-Intermission 1: Hayato Masaki
15-Intermission 1: Hayato Masaki
※ This is from Hero Hayato's point of view
"Looks like there's a time limit for God Parion to connect worlds. I have to go soon."
Gentle light falls from the heaven, wrapping me.
My body floats in the air and my view is swallowed by the light while my friends and Satou are watching.
I could dimly hear Rin's sorrowful voices calling me.
--Sorry, Rin.
I apologize to my friends in my mind.
『My gratitude, Hero.』
I heard a voice mixed with noise, like a badly tuned radio, inside my mind.
This cute childish voice is of God Parion.
She conveys her thought with flowing images.
Looks like she's thanking me for subjugating the demon lord.
I regret that I can't see the young goddess inside the whitened view.
『Parting, Apologize.』
--Don't worry about it. I'm the one who chose to do it.
I shook my head at God Parion's apologetic thought.
『Great Happiness, Future, Blessing.』
--Yeah, I'll find so much happiness so that Rin and the others I left behind won't have to worry.
Hearing me, the young goddess sent a smiling image at me.
That's right, children gotta have to smile!
◇
"This place is--"
I was standing on a stone pavement when I noticed.
--The precincts of a shrine?
Right! I was in this shrine when I got summoned.
"So I've come back...."
I run down the stairs.
I passed through a vermilion arc gate, arriving at a gray road that smelled of exhaust fumes.
"Kya"
I heard a girl's voice on the side.
Looks like she was surprised because I rushed in.
"My bad--Tachibana!"
"--Eh? Masaki-kun?"
I found my childhood friend with her loli face--Tachibana Yumiri and I immediately hugged her slender childish body.
"No, w-wait, Hayato-chan! Please do this at a more romantic spot."
When I heard my panicking childhood friend's voice, I couldn't hold back my nostalgia and ended up weeping.
"What? Are you hurt anywhere? Heey, Hayato-chan."
"Yumiri Yumiri, I'm back. I've come back."
Yumiri gently hugged this unseemly me back even while being at a loss.
◇
"Here you go, Pekari. You like it right."
"T-thank you. Ah to think I could drink Pekari again--"
Yumiri offered a handkerchief as I got in tears again when I saw the sport drink she gave.
I feel that Yumiri's cheeks look red, maybe because of the hug earlier.
"--Huh?"
"What is it now."
Yumiri frowns quizzically.
"Why are you in sailor uniform?"
From what I remember, this guy doesn't have a cosplaying hobby.
"You're really! We were together at the school earlier."
--Earlier?
I stare at Yumiri's eyes.
"W-what."
Yumiri crosses her arms in front of her body, taking a guarding pose.
She was shaken enough that she began to act strangely, but I only noticed that after I got home.
There was something more important for me at this time.
"What year and date are now!"
"He?"
I caught the puzzled Yumiri's shoulders and asked.
"Tell me!"
"U-un.... It's the third of March 2013, the time too? It's 12:15."
I don't remember the time, but there's no mistake about the date.
This was the day I got summoned.
"I thought Time magic didn't exist...."
"Hey, didn't you say that you'd graduated from chuunibyou in your middle school days? Did it recur again?"
Yumiri who heard my muttering said something, but I couldn't afford to mind that as I touch my face all around.
"Are you really alright?"
"Mirror! Do you have a mirror?"
"I do though?"
I look at the mirror Yumiri handed to me worryingly.
--It's the high schooler me.
"Huh? Come to think of it, why are you wearing a suit? Interview for a part-time job?"
"It's a long story--"
I talked to Yumiri about the other world while feeling pleasant with the surprise from the young goddess.
At first Yumiri didn't believe me at all, but she consented after I crushed a coin into four parts with my fingers.
My strength had been badly lowered compared to when I was another world's hero since I couldn't use my skill here, but there was still enough unreasonable strength remaining for me to do that.
I feel that I probably could join into the circle of top athletes if I just trained a bit.
"Hmm, you went through a lot. And, did you leave lovers or wives in the other world?"
Her words were light.
Looks like she didn't completely believe it.
Well, whatever.
I also would have laughed someone if they told me something like this.
"Nah, I didn't have any lover nor wife--"
--The one that's always been in my mind.
Yumiri blushed as I stared her.
Let's not talk about Princess Arisa.
"Sorry, Yumiri, I have to go home and say 『I'm home』 to my little sister."
When I said that with an earnest look, Yumiri's shoulders dropped down a bit for some reason, but then she waved her hand and said, "Bye bye" while looking astonished.
"Un, see you tomorrow."
My cheeks loosened from Yumiri's farewell.
"Yea, see you."
"Bye~"
Yumiri looked satisfied when I replied her.
◇
"Ichirou-nii's friend?"
A beautiful woman who feels similar to Satou is looking at me suspiciously.
"Yes, I'm here to deliver a letter he's entrusted to me."
"How old are you?"
"Tw--seventeen."
I almost said my age when I was in the other world.
"Then you knew Ichi-nii when you were seven?"
--What does she mean?
"No, it was two years ago."
Her expression disappeared from her face when I said that.
"Really--"
The beauty whose expression changed into that of a noh mask said, "Go home", and turned back into the entranceway.
"P-please wait. At least please take letter."
"If you want to prank someone, do it somewhere else--"
She said that with a cold voice, and then she slammed the entranceway's door right before my face.
"Oh my? Do you need something here?"
When I turned back at the voice behind, there was a middle aged woman who looked similar to Satou, holding a shopping bag.
"Are you Suzuki Ichirou's mother?"
"Yes, I am?"
After introducing myself, I told her the same thing I said earlier.
"Don't you know that our son went missing 10 years ago?"
"10 years ago? He left me a business card though--"
I hold out a business card that Satou gave me.
"I think you're mistaking him with someone else. That child went missing when he was attending an university. He shouldn't be working anywhere."
I recalled, the words "The world might be different" that Satou said when I listened to her.
After apologizing to her for the clamor, I left the Suzuki house.
◇
"Hayato-nii, what a' you doin'?"
My little sister Aika who had just turned three talked to me clumsily.
"I'm making a doghouse."
"Do'! Keep do'?"
Aika gleefully asked while climbing my back.
She's adorable today too.
Truly an angel.
"Right. We should keep one."
"Waai"
Aika happily jumps up and down.
I quickly supported Aika as she was about to fall from my back and lowered her on the ground.
"Ride on do' back!"
"I see I see. Then we gotta keep a big dog."
"Aye!"
Looks like my image library will get additional pics of my pretty little sister riding on a dog's back.
Aika was watching me making the doghouse for a while, but then she dozed off halfway through so I let her sleep in the sofa.
"--Alright, complete."
Lastly, I nailed a nameplate written with word, Satou, on the doghouse.
I got this nameplate from the [Satou] of that world.
I clap my hand to brush off wood chips and dust.
"Still, asking me to build this hut, I don't understand Satou's request at all."
I muttered while stretching once.
"Hayato-chan, are you inside?"
I heard my childhood friend Yumiri's voice from the entranceway.
After our reunion recently, she came to call me "Hayato-chan" like she used before, instead of "Masaki-kun."
I got thoroughly made fun of in the school, but since it somehow felt like I regained my lost youth, I gladly enjoyed it and then it waned before I knew it.
"I'm here!"
I called Yumiri from the garden, thinking of bragging the doghouse to her.
At that time, a presence appeared behind me.
"Hello, Hayato-sama. It's been awhile."
I turned back and saw a man who looked like he was just before his thirty coming out of the doghouse.
"Don't tell me, you're Satou?"
"Yes, it's been a while isn't it."
It's my friend with the same atmosphere, but aged.
I don't know how he crossed worlds, but Satou could probably do it indiscreetly.
"Thank you for coming. I'm happy to see you again."
"Yes, me too."
It's only been several months for me, but it's probably around 10 years for Satou.
"Satou, what happened to that world--"
I asked my friend's business while exchanging reunion hugs with him.
◆
"Ha-Hayato-chan? Onee-san thinks BL is bad for you!"
Yumiri who saw us exchanging reunion hugs said some preposterous remark.
"Would you happen to be Hayato-san's elder sister?"
"N-no, I'm Tachibana Yumiri, Masaki-kun's childhood friend and classmate."
Satou shrewdly talked to Yumiri.
He murmured, "Tachibana" when she heard Yumiri's name.
"Sometimes ago, Hayato-san really helped me when he picked up a briefcase with a large sum of money in it."
"Briefcase?"
"Yes, that's right. If I couldn't find that briefcase--"
Looks like Satou is fit to be a first-rate fraud.
Yumiri who got deceived in the blink of an eye said, "It's nothing important, I'll talk to you at school tomorrow", and went home.
"I'm glad we cleared the misunderstanding."
"You bet yea."
I ask Satou again while sighing in relief.
"And, did something happen to that world?"
--I won't spare anything if my power is needed.
"Arisa asked me for something."
"My honey--sorry."
Oops, it should be about time for her to become Satou's wife and have children.
"No, you're free to call her what you like."
Satou is all smiles like usual.
For some reason, he's drinking the cheap instant coffee with great relish.
"And, what do you need? Ask me anything if it's something I can help."
"Then, could you guide me to the drugstore or supermarket nearby?"
--Drugstore?
"Arisa said that she wanted to eat instant food, thus I'm here to buy various kinds."
--Haa?
This was the time when my jaw dropped.
Who would have guessed that he was teleportating between worlds, which even gods couldn't do, just to buy instant food!
"You never change...."
While sighing, I lead my friend to the city in order to fulfill his wish.
"You even had a driver's license."
"Yes, I couldn't exchange that thing with money if I didn't have an ID card."
Satou got his fund by selling a mysterious object made of gold in a precious metal purchasing shop.
After the exchange, we went into a back alley and his appearance changed to the 15 year old Satou I'm familiar with.
"The effect of illusion magic is truly short in this world isn't it."
Apparently, it's not that 15 years have passed in that world, he just had it prepared to match his appearance on the driver's license.
After buying several boxes of instant foods, Satou went back to the other world satisfyingly.
Afterward, he occasionally came to visit once every several months.
I was surprised when brought along Rin who looked and got younger, but right now she's got along well with Yumiri and Aika.
Satou prepared her family register in this world.
His cheat performance is really dependable like always.
"Satou, how is the world there?"
"Yes, it's really peaceful like this world."
I asked Satou while watching him playing with my little sister in the garden.
"Hey, did you do something to that?"
The TV was full of news about wars and disasters when I got back to this world, but they decreased every time Satou came visiting.
Satou only smiled and laughed without answering me back.
Geez, looks like Satou is Satou no matter the world.
※ The next update is planned for 2/26.
※ The part after ◆ might change depending on the development of the main story