You finally didn't come back.

　My room at night, after the salon had broken up.
　Sakura was sitting cross-legged on my bed.

　She looked strangely cute in that way.

　There was a clear distinction between the cute pattern and the messy pattern for girls to sit cross-legged.
　Sakura's was the cute one, with her hands on her crossed legs.

'Didn't you come back?'
Nihonium. And the Sakuya?
Yeah.

　The nihonium didn't come back until the end of the day at last.

'I had a feeling it was going to come back somehow,'
Oh, well, me too. There's no way you'll be able to come back, right?

　Sakura smirked.

'I think that misunderstanding is one of the reasons it's so hard to come back.
It's not a mistake, that's why it's so hard to leave.

　Sakura denied my words as fast as she could with a smile on her face.

You're really acting like a grade school kid, aren't you? If a girl you like says you're being mean to her, you deliberately do the opposite, saying you're not, even if you're being mean to her.
Isn't that the kind of situation where you're willing to bully them even more?
Was that your uncle?
I'm...

　I crossed my arms and twisted my neck, wondering how it went.
　I don't remember much about elementary school.

　There must have been a girl in my class that I liked, but I can only barely remember her name, how she wrote the kanji and what she looked like.
　I couldn't remember any of that stuff at all anymore.

'-not really. It was just a normal approach.
"Huh?
My homeroom teacher in the upper grades of elementary school liked games, not video games, but games for fun.
"Ho ho!
For example, on a kanji test or some other quiz, if a child got a perfect score, he or she was given the right to change seats for a day. I used that to switch seats with the kids I liked.
'That's so funny!　Huh?　But wasn't that too loud, like the PTA or something?
'I don't know about that. I've never had a problem with it, so I'm probably okay with it.

　I dredge up memories from nearly twenty years ago.
　That teacher was my homeroom teacher until I graduated, and he was doing the same thing for a long time, so I was probably okay with it.

'Oh yeah ...... hey. What did that girl you like do when her uncle came next to her?
What's going on?
Look, if you're always doing this, they're going to know, right?　Uncle says he likes himself.
'Oh ...... come to think of it. I wonder how it went: ......

　I try to remember that, but I can't.
　I can't even remember the other person's face properly in the first place.
　I can't remember how she was reacting to me at all anymore.

'Oh, you can't remember?'
Well, you know.

　I chuckle.

'...... Well, he's an uncle, so what can I say?'
What do you mean, "I'm here"?
"The Biggest Nibbler of the Century.

　Sakura had a half-amused, half-grinned expression on her face.

　　　　　☆

　The next day, I came down to the third basement floor of Nifonium.

'Kappa.'

　As soon as I came down, I encountered a monster.
　The monster on the third basement floor was instantly recognizable and unmistakable, it was a kappa.

　It wasn't even six inches tall, about the size of a kindergartner.

　I pull out my gun and aim - it misses.

...... um, yeah.

　I knew right away why I was out of it.
　It was because I was a little, sorry.

　At first I tried for a head shot, as I always do, but the head was in my eyes.

　The plate of the head, which is a characteristic of Kappa.
　I saw it in my eyes and tried to aim at it - but it reminded me of the crippled people with the ha-head, and I felt bad, and my hand slipped and my aim was off.

　I regained my composure and fired a second shot.
　This time, I shoot firmly between the eyes, not daring to look above it.

　Kappa shot out between the eyebrows, but somehow the plate on his head cracked while blowing off.

　As that kappa disappears, a yellowish, star-shaped fruit drops out.