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With the help of one of Keiji’s relatives, we settled on a two-bedroom apartment as our new place.

Compared to the one-room apartment I had been living in until recently, it was overwhelmingly more expensive, but even so, the rent was just under seventy thousand yen a month, and I was grateful that we could move in immediately.

“Once you include all the extra costs, this must’ve set you back quite a bit, huh?”

The moment we entered the living room, Keiji looked around with wide eyes and said that.

I answered with a sigh as I carried a cardboard box.

“If I hadn’t been saving, I’d have been screwed. Seriously, little things really do add up.”

“Whoa. That sounds heavy coming from you, Sabu.”

“You should save properly too. You never know what might happen.”

“True… I might suddenly end up living with Nako-chan someday.”

Apparently hearing his nonsense, the fluffy girl in question came in behind us.

“What is it, Keiji-san?”

“Whoa, nothing. It’s nothing, okay?”

Keiji hurriedly brushed it off. Nako-san looked puzzled, but soon went back to talking with Yūha.

“So, what’re you doing after this, Sabu? You’ve still got stuff to take care of, right?”

“Yeah, a little. Sorry, but could the three of you take Yūha out for lunch? I’ll give you the money.”

“Don’t need it, idiot. You’re strapped for cash right now, aren’t you?”

“I’d feel bad otherwise. Nako-san even stayed up all night for this.”

“I’m not enough of a piece of trash to make my best friend treat me when he’s in a situation like this. Once you’ve got some breathing room, I’ll let you buy me as much as you want.”

“Sorry… seriously, that helps a lot. Thanks.”

“Heh. Don’t thank me. It’s creepy.”

“Ugh, gross, gross.”

Keiji laughed before calling out to the two girls.

“Let’s go get lunch. Yūha-chan, anything you feel like eating?”

“Ah, um…”

“Sabu’s still busy. We’d just get in his way, so let’s go, just the three of us.”

He casually talked as he led the two of them out.

Soon, I was alone in the living room with nothing but cardboard boxes.

I had already given Yūha a spare key when we got out of the car. Even if I wasn’t here when they came back, she would be able to get inside without any trouble.

I made some instant coffee in the kitchen and returned to the room. I sank deeply into a chair and drew a long breath.

For now, I have managed to bring Yūha here.

Since she had agreed to come with me, the first stage was cleared.

But the real problem came after this.

With my current income, supporting Yūha would be extremely difficult. We could survive, but I probably wouldn’t be able to buy her new clothes or let her go out and have fun with her friends.

That would defeat the whole point.

I was taking her away from her family.

No matter how worthless her parents were, they were still the only two people in the world who were her flesh and blood. Even if she acted strong, that wouldn’t stop it from hurting.

Because that girl was kind.

Kind enough to still care about even someone like me.

I wanted to show her a future that would be worth what she was losing.

For that, I would sell my soul to the devil if I had to.

I was trash to begin with. Falling a little further wouldn’t make much difference.

I set my empty cup on the desk and turned on the computer.

I placed the two things I had stolen, one each from my mother’s and father’s rooms, beside me and started researching them.

Over the past year, I had taken on more work involving the internet, so I had gotten pretty good at searching for things.

Thanks to that, I found the website I was looking for without too much trouble. I took screenshots and saved them to a USB drive.

Then I shut down the computer and put the clear file folder and USB drive into a reusable shopping bag.

I left the apartment, returned the rental car, and went to a nearby convenience store.

I printed out the image data from earlier, placed the pages into the clear file folder, and left the store.

Then, suddenly, I caught sight of my reflection in the convenience store window.

“—Hah. What an awful face.”

A twisted, asymmetrical expression was plastered across it.

The left half of my face was wrinkled as though enduring pain, while the right half looked strangely calm.

I loosened my stiff facial muscles, and it got a little better.

But only a little. My face still looked awful.

“What am I about to do, kill someone?”

I laughed bitterly at myself and went into a nearby café.

The phone call I had been waiting for finally came four hours later.

When Yūha and the others returned from lunch, Rokurō was nowhere to be seen.

There was no note, but she had a good idea where he had gone.

Anxiety surged up inside her all at once, and she nearly ran straight back out of the apartment.

“Yūha-chan, where are you going?”

“I have to go to Rokurō…! I have a bad feeling.”

Nako grabbed Yūha’s hand, forcing her to stop.

But a strong determination burned in Yūha’s eyes.

If she didn’t go after him now, Rokurō would get hurt again.

And then he might disappear from in front of her again.

“You can’t do that. Yūha-chan, are you planning to make everything Sabu’s done completely pointless?”

Keiji’s voice was cold, nothing like his usual carefree tone.

His words were gentle, but Yūha could sense a faint anger in him.

“You probably don’t know this—actually, to be honest, I barely know any of it myself. He found this place and signed the lease, bowed his head to me and Nako-chan, researched all kinds of things he probably never wanted to know, and asked adults to help you—basically, he’s been doing all kinds of things. You understand that separating a child from their parents isn’t easy, right? That’s why he worked so hard to make sure it wouldn’t turn into a bigger problem, and to make sure your safety and your life would be protected. He did all of it alone while still working. He went by himself because all of this is for you.”

“But I—”

“If he’s out there fighting with his life on the line, wouldn’t it be cruel not to trust him?”

Yūha looked at Keiji and froze.

The man who called himself Rokurō’s best friend had his face twisted up as he desperately fought back tears.

When he could no longer continue, Nako took over and gently touched Yūha’s hand.

“When we went to pick you up, Rokurō-san’s hands were trembling. I’m sure he was scared. But he never showed it. Honestly, I don’t know Rokurō-san as well as either of you do… but he’s a strong person. Just like Keiji-san, he’s strong, kind, and wonderful.”

“Wait, Nako-chan, with that setup I’m seriously—seriously gonna cry…”

It had been a long time since Yūha had seen an older man cry.

She felt grateful.

Knowing there was someone who cared this much about Rokurō made her feel incredibly reassured.

“I understand. I’ll wait.”

Yūha acknowledged that there was nothing she could do.

But even so, there was one thing she desperately wanted to tell him—

So she decided to entrust those words to “Yū.”

The girl pressed her smartphone to her forehead and closed her eyes as though praying.

‘Do your best.’

The young man looked at the message that had arrived and gave a small smile.

It caught him off guard, but somehow, the tension that had been wound so tightly inside him loosened.

‘Yes. I’ll do my best.’

If she had been Yūha, she couldn’t have sent it.

If he had been Rokurō, he couldn’t have accepted it.

Because she was “Yū,” she could say it.

Because he was “Saburō,” he could smile.

It was a very strange feeling.