Threatening Shadow
Friday.
In anticipation of the hectic business on Sunday and Saturday, I and Tina are in town to buy the supplies.
“Takuma-sama, Takuma-sama! Today’s tofu is cheap!”
Tina waves her hand with a smile.
“Oh, half price. How nice. With tofu, we can make a lot of things like mapo tofu, boiled tofu, lightly fried tofu.”
Purchase decided.
I also bought meat, fish, rice, and seasonings.
We bought quite a lot.
“We have bought a lot, didn’t we~!”
“Yep. With this, we won’t starve during the weekend.”
Tina’s eyes shined while looking at the bags in both her hands.
Like a child that just bought a new toy.
“Wah, Takuma-sama, Takuma-sama!”
“N?”
Tina calls me with an excited voice.
“Look! It’s Nyaamel babies!”
Tina points her finger at a pet shop-like store.
Small, fuzzy animals are crying mi~ya miya~ in a case in front of the store.
Ain’t that a cat?
The only difference is that the tail branches into two?
First of all, it’s plentily cute.
“Wawaaaa……”
Tina is looking at the Nyaamel babies with sparkling eyes.
I felt the same aura from her I felt from Nanase-san when she played with Tina.
“Shall we take a look?”
“Is it okay!?”
“Of course.”
“Wah~! Thank you~!”
Pyun!!
“Whoa, so fast!?”
Tina rushes to the case in high-speed.
I follow after her.
“There, there~ come here, okay~”
Miya~ miya~
“Ah, it came!”
“It may have understood you since you are a cat ears friends.”
Miya~, pero.
“Kya, that tickles!”
Miya~ miya~, Tina giggles playfully.
What is this soft vision?
This sight alone just blew off 5 hours of the work fatigue.
…… You really became lively, Tina.
Although it should be a heartwarming scene, I recalled the uneasiness.
When I first met her, Tina was tattered and looked like she could disappear at any moment.
With vacant eyes and not even a fragment of desire, I couldn’t feel almost any life in her.
If I haven’t found her, she would most likely die in that church all alone.
Compared to that time, Tina has become so lovely, like a different person.
Her dirty, unkempt hair became silky and white as clouds.
Her dirty, bloody skin became smooth without any stains.
She’s now lively and cheerful as if the gloomy aura was just a shadow of the past.
An adequate meal, sleep, and place.
I think that Tina has recovered because of these things.
But,
(No matter how you look at it, to transform this much?)
Even though she was treated like a slave, thrown away, and mentally at the bottom.
If my memory serves me right, Tina has become cheerful in a single week.
I know that people with damaged minds have to recover gradually, over a long period of time.
No matter how much was Tina originally cheerful, recovering in a such short time is questionable.
Additionally, I was able to confirm this abnormal phenomenon with my own eyes.
(The moment Tina entered the Hot Springs, the whip wounds on her body immediately disappeared……)
The instantaneous healing power I first saw when Tina entered.
The matter which I was worried about being discovered by the castle on the day of the opening of Otherworldly Hot Springs.
But, there was no report after the opening.
Because of that, I have completely forgotten, but.
(Doesn’t that Hot Springs include some kind of positive effect after all?)
The Hot Springs in Japan have positive effects on stiff shoulders, lower back pain, and such things.
But, the Hot Springs which I dug up, obviously contains some remarkable effect.
Recovering mental condition, healing wounds.
(But, why does the Otherworldly Hot Springs don’t have this effect, but the church’s Hot Springs does?)
Is there possibly a difference between those two hot springs?
“It’s necessary to do an inspection……”
“Of what?”
Tina looks at me in wonder.
“Ah, no, it’s nothing. Apart from that, are you good now?”
“Yes! I have surely verified the relationship between Nyaamel-chans.”
“What’s that?”
Tina clenches her fist with a serious expression, then she smiles.
…… I have to grasp the real nature of the thing I dug up for this child’s sake.
What kind of effects does the Hot Springs have and to what extent?
Since the inspection is about to come I have decided to do it later.
“Let’s return home, Takuma-sama!”
Before I noticed, the sun began to go down.
The visitors will soon start coming in.
“Well then, let’s go back.”
“Yes!”
The moment I took a step,
“Oi you, where are you looking when walking!!”
I heard a rough, angry voice.
When I turn around, I see two people picking up a quarrel with a middle-aged man.
“You have some nerve bumping with the two of us, oi?”
The first one is Bandou.
A classmate with hair dyed gold and bad-looking eyes.
“D, didn’t you two bump into me on your own!?”
The man retorts with scared eyes.
“What did you say, huhhh!? Do you know who are you talking to, oi!?”
The second classmate with long hair and ear piercings, Miyake.
Dark clouds are under his eyes, he looks stoned at first glance.
“Takuma-sama, those are……”
“Bullies, in short.”
The kidnappers who stole Noguchi-san from my wallet.
To put it simply, delinquents.
The ultimate bad guys of the school.
Apparently, they are doing the bump and charge which is commonly used in manga.
Don’t go hunting for street violence against middle-aged men in a different world, good grief.
──Kamijou-kun, you also be careful. Since the Hot Springs is a hot topic in the town, they also might sniff it out.
I suddenly recall Nanase-san’s words.
“Certainly…… it would be really troublesome if those guys come.”
“Takuma-sama?”
“Sorry, Tina. Let’s return back to the store earlier.”
There is a lot of pedestrian traffic, the public safety people will surely come soon.
I turned my back on Bandou and Miyake, grabbed Tina’s hand and walked away.