Yuko Masaka held a freshly baked frankfurter, weaving in and out of the crowd taking photos with various cartoon characters, and ran towards somewhere.
It was only a dozen meters away, but it was affected by the crowds and took more than twice the time.
When I came to the bench near the fountain, a girl in a school uniform was sitting on it.
Her nearly black brown hair is soft and loose in front of her shoulders. Her appearance is somewhere between cute and beautiful. She has a slim and plump figure. A pair of slender white legs stick out from under the pleated skirt and are held together dignifiedly.
She was holding a book in her hand, and she was reading the contents quietly at the moment, exuding a quiet and elegant temperament.
Masaka Yuko trotted over with cheerful steps.
"I've been waiting for a long time~~ Sayu-chan, here you go, Frankfurter sausage~"
"Welcome back, Yuko." Sayu looked up from the book with a bright smile on her face.
"Thank you~ Also, thank you for your hard work."
"Well~ if you really want to thank me, can you give me a hug?"
"……hug?"
"Ah~ah~it's because of you, Sayu-chan."
"I?"
"——It's so cute~!!"
"Hey~~~ You're here again, but I think Yuko is cute too?"
"I'm very cute?"
"Hmm~ She's very cute. Unlike before, I was the only one who found her cute. Now Yuko is a girl that everyone finds cute~!"
Sayu put his hands on his thighs and looked at his friends beside him with a smile.
Yuko Masaka is also wearing Asahaka's uniform.
The upper body is a white shirt and a blue suit jacket with a bow tie on the collar, and the lower body is a gray plaid skirt.
The long black hair permed with a curling iron is draped in front of the shoulders. The eyes with contact lenses look very bright. The eyelashes painted with mascara are long and curled. The moderate makeup covers the freckles on the face well.
, the whole person looks quite beautiful.
"Well, it's really cute~" She nodded slightly and repeated it again.
"Ah~ stop talking, stop talking!" Yuko Masaka scratched her face in embarrassment.
"Besides, the fact that I can look like this and present this image to others is all thanks to Sayu-chan's suggestion that I change my look. Thank you~~~ You are my best friend!"
She stated this with sincere words, her face showing joy and gratitude from the bottom of her heart.
Although she was very happy to receive compliments, Yuko Masaka also knew that her foundation was not actually very good, and she relied more on makeup to set it off.
Compared to her, Sayu next to her is the naturally beautiful type, not only very cute, but also very handsome.
The fair skin is particularly delicate without makeup, a pair of amber eyes are crystal clear and bright, the lines of the nose are beautiful, and there are soft rosy lips underneath.
The most important thing is his confident, restrained and gentle aura, as if no matter how difficult it is, he can't defeat him, and he has a sense of cleansing away the past.
Can a girl like this really be friends with me?
——Masaka Yuko occasionally feels deeply troubled by this, but at the same time she is deeply proud to have such a best friend.
Finally, he threw away his worries with a smile, leaving only admiration and respect.
After all, the girl in front of her is the unique princess in the world who changed and saved her life.
The other person is really very, very gentle, and will lend a helping hand to those who encounter difficulties. She will carry people like her who cannot move forward alone on her back, and carry the hopes of others on her back.
Generally speaking, people will call such people...
"hero……"
Masaka Yuko murmured unconsciously.
"——Eh? Did you say something? Yuko."
Sayu took a bite of frankfurter and looked at it in confusion. He chewed the food covered with bread and ketchup in small bites, his cheeks bulging cutely.
"Huh? Ah, um~ nothing."
Masaka Yuko chuckled and decided to keep these words in her heart, otherwise if she really said them out, her friend in front of her would be shy and angry.
After all, he is such a lovely person~~
She took a bite of the sausage and said, "Ahhh~", and her gaze naturally downwards, landing on the girl's legs.
A book with a very strange cover comes into view
——"Numao (Nagumo Ryunosuke)".
"Ah~~~! You brought this book again! Sayu-chan."
"...Huh? That's true, but is there anything strange about it...?"
"Wow, you mean how much you like that novel? You even brought it with you on a hike...is it that interesting?"
"Hey, that's not the case. I just think it would be less boring to read a book while waiting in line or waiting."
"Seriously." Yuko Masaka said slightly depressed.
"Obviously the place we came to is Disney! That Tokyo Disney! You're so weird~ Sayu-chan!"
"Then, would you feel better if I replaced it with a red book?"
"No, no, no, no, no! It can't be done! Reading past university exam questions when you go out to play is simply a devilish pressure. You will make everyone nervous together... Please don't!"
"I'm just doing my own thing. What you said is really exaggerating. Besides..."
Sayu looked around casually and said, "I didn't mean to disturb others."
"Well, I know you don't have that awareness yourself."
Yuko Masaka took another bite of sausage and continued talking.
"But you have to be conscious of your own influence? The behavior of such a perfect Sayu-chan will automatically have an impact on the people around you."
Her tone was very normal, containing both concern for her friends and a kind reminder.
Because she once stood on the edge, Masaka Yuko knows one thing very well.
That is, regardless of whether the central figures in the class are aware of it or not, their words and deeds, who they like or hate, even small things or emotions that are forgotten in the blink of an eye, will have a huge impact on the class.
People will subconsciously pander to those people, as if failing to empathize with them and share their emotions is something wrong, and they will be condemned by the monster called "The Collective" for doing so.
This happens every day, even in every school.
For her and those students who had the same duties as her, this was really an unbearable disaster.
Masaka Yuko stopped when she thought of this, and quickly changed the topic before the awkward atmosphere spread.
"Speaking of which, I remember Sayu-chan's book. Is it about shadows or reincarnation?"
After hearing this, Sayu shook his head slightly and said amusedly: "The answer is correct but not completely correct. It's a shadow."
"Yes, Shadow Shadow, I remembered it! Hehe~ So what did you say next?"
"Aren't you not interested? There's no need to talk about this specifically, right?"
"But I'm very interested in Sayu-chan. For example, can you tell me the reason why you like this book?"
"I can't say whether I like it or not. I just looked at it casually and didn't think too much about it."
"As for the shadow you talked about last time, I remember that it had the same appearance and memory as my original self. What happened next?"
"It's nothing, it's just that the shadow will copy everything, then kill the original person and continue to live in his place."
"Disgusting, what is that? Why do they do that?"
"It seems that if you don't do this, the shadow won't be able to survive for a long time."
"It's so scary, just like a monster."
Yuko Masaka suddenly felt a chill, instinctively folded her arms and spoke in fear.
"Actually, I have imagined before that it would be great if a clone could go to school for me, help me work, and do things I don't want to do."
"Now that I think about it, if this clone came to kill me in order to take away my life, and it would not be discovered after taking it away, it would be terrible!"
Sayu nodded slightly, pursed his lips slightly, and imagined that scene for a moment, and an eerie feeling came over him.
It's like the original self was replaced by someone, and the clone that remained... No, if that really happened, could that person still be called a clone...?
"Then what?"
"Hey, what then?"
"Have you not finished reading the story of this book?"
"Well, not yet, because I have been studying recently."
"That's it...then tell me what kind of story this book tells up to the part Sayu-chan has read so far?"
"To put it bluntly...it's basically a process in which the protagonist, a girl, is delusional and believes that her family and friends have all been replaced by fakes that look exactly the same, so she tries to solve the mystery and reveal the secret."
"I see, but the so-called paranoia is just the outside world's misunderstanding of the protagonist. The real fact is actually the other way around."
Sayu nodded in affirmation, opened the first page of the novel, and showed the preface to Yuko Masaka.
——"In the summer of my second year in junior high school, I was killed by myself. (Hitsuru Sagimori)"
Masaka Yuko frowned and read it several times silently.
Immediately afterwards——
"——Huh? Does this mean that even the protagonist was replaced from the beginning!?!?"
She screamed in surprise.
"Ahaha, actually I didn't quite understand it when I first saw it, but later I realized that it wasn't the case. It was deliberately set up for suspense."
Sayu chuckled and explained, as if she found it very interesting.
"What? This author is deliberately titillating. It's so boring!"
"Ah, are you just venting your anger, Yuko? In fact, this book has a lot of amazing foreshadowing and delicate psychological descriptions, and the successive revelations are also worthy of praise. You will know after you actually read it~"
"is that so……?"
Masaka Yuko tilted her head doubtfully, thought for a moment and said, "Then when you finish reading this book, why don't you lend it to me?"
"Well, well, if you're interested, of course it's no problem."
The topic about the novel ends here.
While eating the food they bought, the two of them studied the map in the brochure they received from the entrance when they entered the park, and discussed the activities they wanted to play next.
At a nearby amusement facility, a roller coaster rushed out of the crater. Slowly, the screams of the people sitting on it could also be heard.
Tourists holding Spanish churros and popcorn laughed and chatted by the fountain. Couples on a date cuddled closely together, and everyone's face was filled with sparkling energy.
Even on such a working day, the number of tourists in the park is not small.
"——Let's go, Sayu-chan! Let's go ride a roller coaster~~~~!" Himekawa Yoshiko suggested, and Sayu held her chin and spoke.
"Yes, yes, but I want to drink something first. Do you want to buy a cup of milk tea?"
"Hey~~ I'll buy it after I finish playing. Let's go play first!"
"Well... what should I do - wait a minute, don't suddenly drag people away and run away!"
"Because - Sayu-chan, you are procrastinating~~~~!"
The cool wind blew by, and the light skirt swayed in the wind.
The two girls held hands and happily ran towards the end of the roller coaster line.
Vibrant laughter filled the air, blending with the chatter and laughter of the crowd and the screams of tourists, full of the atmosphere and taste of jubilation...
◇
Unknowingly, Venus bloomed in the sky.
The night falls low and the bright moon hangs high.
The stars twinkling all over the sky, like countless silver beads, densely inlaid on the dark black velvet, casting dreamlike starlight, slightly illuminating the mountains and forests at night.
Amidst the snoring, silence also flows in the middle of the night.
Without disturbing anyone, Yusuke Kato came to the management building alone.
Quietly opening the metal door in front of you, you will immediately see the quiet and open rooftop.
Located in a corner of the rooftop, there is a small table and two folding chairs.
The not-too-big kettle vibrated with a "gurgling" sound and made a gentle sound on the alcohol lamp.
Sitting on the chair, Kanoko Hasumi took out the black tea bag and started making tea.
Kato Yusuke walked over, naturally sat down on the empty chairs side by side, and asked:
"Why don't you rest up so late? Kano-chan."
The time now is eleven o'clock in the evening.
Half an hour ago, he received a message on his Line, the other party invited him to come here for an unknown reason.
"Teacher Maria who is in the same room has been on the phone with her boyfriend, which made me sleepy, so I tried to call you out and enjoy the moon together."
"Is it a last-minute idea?"
"No~ The fact is that I specially borrowed these equipment from Mr. Nakamura and prepared them here in advance. If you don't come or fall asleep, I will be very frustrated. Isn't that okay?"
As Hasumi Kanoko spoke, she poured a cup of tea with the lid of a thermos cup and handed it over.
"and yours?"
"You drink first, and I will drink after you finish."
Kato Yusuke unconsciously raised the corners of his mouth, reached out to take the tea, took a sip, and then returned the cup again, but the other party did not take it.
In his doubtful gaze, the woman in the blanket lowered her head, leaned her face towards the cup in his hand, opened her lips slightly, and took a clumsy sip of the black tea.
He raised his eyebrows slightly, feeling a little funny, but he still cooperated and tilted the cup slightly so that the tea could better enter the other person's mouth.