“…”
Yahiro went silent at Kuon’s retort, but after some time, he said, slowly,
“…take ethics courses…?”
“Hey… Again, you’re giving such a normal answer it’s hard to react…”
“It was normal? Really? Thank goodness…”
“Don’t look so relieved! Ah dammit, why are you so weird?!”
Kuon was halfway to tears as he said this, but he noticed the storeowner smiling benignly at them in the corner of his eye, and changed the topic, asking,
“Now now now, more importantly: Miss! So are you dating Ryūgamine-sempai after all?”
After some thought, Anri said to the boy,
“That’s… a secret.”
Afterwards, the high school students left with their various purchases.
Anri thought back on them, and smiled with nostalgia again.
—It really reminds me… of back when I just met Mikado-kun and Kida-kun…
As she saw the overlap between their past selves and the trio of high school students, Anri quietly savoured the contentment of her everyday.
Running the antiques store had not been a smooth ride the whole way, but even so, she was truly happy to have gained the place for her to belong, that she had been seeking.
Her tumultous fortune that had begun in Ikebukuro several years ago.
With the premonition that her juniors from Raira Academy would eventually live out a similar fate in the face of the huge wave with the Headless Rider at its root, Anri simply chose to pray that they have a peaceful journey.
Meanwhile, Anri did not pray for her own peace as strongly.
From the time she had chosen to inherit this store, with its abundance of history tying its fate to countless others, she had been ready to encounter some rockiness—and most importantly, she felt that these waves were what sealed her connection to many others.
Certainly one could say that Sonohara Anri’s varied fortunes would continue.
And as though to prove it—
The store’s door opened quietly, and the shape of this latest ‘wave’ appeared.
“Welcome.”
As per usual, Anri bowed from the counter at the new customer.
But the strange customer—a young man with his face covered in bandages, and glasses perched on top—did not respond to Anri’s greeting, checking that the shop was deserted before he spoke.
“Are you Sonohara Anri?”
“? Yes, that’s me…”
Anri tilted her head in puzzlement at having her name called by an unfamiliar man.
And to her, this man stated, evenly, the ‘product’ he was seeking to purchase.
“…I want to buy Saika.”
Saika.
The instant she heard this word, Anri’s smile was replaced by wariness.
While she remained unspeaking in her surprise, the male customer calmly continued to propose his deal.
“As for money… I’m willing to fork out five million yen, to start with.”
Following this, he uttered the words that demonstrated his knowledge of Saika’s nature.
“You can even cut me and make me a ‘child’; it doesn’t matter to me.”
♀♂
Same day. Night time. Along Kawagoe Highway. Shinra’s apartment.
‘I think I’m going to start working.’
To his cohabitant who said this—Celty Sturluson—the owner of the apartment, Kishitani Shinra, tilted his head.
“Celty? Why so sudden? You’re already doing a part-time, right? That, um, freelancing business by those high schoolers?”
Right now she was working for a freelance business called Snake Hands, run by a boy by the name of Kotonami Kuon.
She did not receive many assignments, but perhaps Kuon specifically selected ones with high profit, for the jobs he introduced to her earned plenty of money. For Celty, who had no need for food, it was more than enough to cover living expenses.
‘Not that part-time; I’m thinking of officially resuming my courier job.’
“No way, Celty! If you work it’s losing!”
Shinra cried out and clung to Celty, but she pried him off and retorted calmly with her smartphone.
‘Who’s losing to what?’
To this perfectly logical question, Shinra cried out his truest thoughts:
“I’ll be losing to reality! How can I win over the loneliness at home when you’re out working?”
‘Just keep going.’
Celty typed, exasperated at Shinra’s tantrum.
“To keep going I have to charge up! Just a hug from Celty can refill my health to the max and give me unlimited livessbebu”
‘Don’t say weird things and try to hug me! …Anyway, I have a reason for wanting to resume the job after so long.’
Celty sat back down on the sofa, and Shinra settled in seiza on the carpet to face her.
“Alright, tell me about it. Whatever it is, surely there’s a loophole. If it’s a problem with money, I’ll pay, so it’s no problem at all! The power of money where society runs on it is incredible! Money makes the world go round!”
‘You… really can say such things without feeling embarrassed, can’t you…’
Celty said with resignation, to which Shinra replied unabashedly, eyes shining,
“There’s no need to hide anything from you at this point of our relationship. Ah, but let me say this, okay? It’s true that money is important. But it’s not the most important! The number one most important is Celty! Of course, the number two is Celty, too! And number three, and number four… Ah whatever, it’s