[Spell Return] Beast of Despair

27.

—April 2018, Wakayama, Kii Oshima—

After the small ship drifted turbulently on the gloomy sea for more than ten minutes, the outline of the island could gradually be seen.The smell of sea water became stronger than any moment, and the air in the cabin was full of humidity.

Now is not the tourist season, and there are very few people on board.However, strictly speaking, Kii Oshima has never been a place that tourists like to come to, so there will not be any tourist season with huge crowds.It has always been a lonely island.

Shizhi sat alone in the last row of the cabin by the window, looking at the approaching coastline, quietly calculating in his mind how long it would take for the ship to arrive at the port.

Her estimate was 15 minutes.But in fact, only 8 minutes later, the boat stopped at the shore, which was twice as fast as her guess.

There will be such a deviation, which is actually quite normal.It is true that he has not been back here for many years, and of course he does not know that the ship that connects the land and the island that he used to take has been replaced.

Leaning on crutches, pressing down on the brim of his hat, he slowly walked off the boat.There weren't many people on the shore, which meant she didn't have to face stupid questions like "Are you the daughter of the Yae family?"

Here, almost everyone knows her.This is not surprising, after all, this is just a small island, so small that he has already visited every part of the island before going to elementary school.

The small island has a warm and humid wind in April.Ye Zhi walked slowly in such a wind. Even though she took a light step, when the prosthetic leg touched the gravel road, it would always make a particularly unnatural sound.She thought, maybe there are still problems with the way she walks and her center of gravity.

Having worked with the prosthetic for several weeks, the greatest degree of mobility he can do now is walking on crutches.As for grasping things with prosthetic hands, this is temporarily beyond her ability.

Even the simple movement of stepping forward still seems unnatural, so I often lean my body unconsciously.She thought that she needed more time for the body's center of gravity to return to the state of bipedal walking.

But no matter what, even if the running-in between her and the prosthesis was indeed a failure, she still managed to come here.

Came to Wakayama, came to the place where she grew up, which can be called "home".

Why do you want to come back?Sitting on the train coming to Wakayama, Shizhi thought about this question again, and the answer he got was the same as when he first thought of this idea.

She wanted to visit her siblings, so she came back.

Children who died in foreign lands were finally buried on the island where they were born and raised.I heard that the state of the corpse was so terrible that it was impossible to identify who was who, so it was cremated and put in the same box and buried in the Yae family's cemetery.

Yezhi was unable to attend the funeral - her health did not allow her to do so.

But now she can, so she's back.That's it, it's such a simple logical relationship.

The cemetery is at the southern end of the island.When we were about to arrive at our destination, the sky that had been gloomy all morning finally leaked sunlight.This ray of light-colored light immediately tore through the dark clouds and sprinkled on Yeshi's shoulders, but it was not very warm.She walked on.

What you can see with your lowered eyes is a gravel path, which then turns into a green grassland, and finally a gray-white tombstone, on which everyone's name is engraved, and the lily-of-the-valley bouquet placed in front of the tombstone has already withered.Shizhi wiped off the dust on the name with his hands, moved his lips, but couldn't say anything.

She didn't know what to say, and she didn't feel that she had the right to say something, even though she had imagined countless times to tell the ghosts of her brothers and sisters when she came here.

"I will avenge you", "Trust me one last time", "I'm not lying to you" - I really want to say such promises, but I can't.

So Zhi could only put down the flowers in his hands and stood silently.

The scattered dark clouds slowly gathered in the silence, and turned into a layer of gray covering the dome again.The sunlight was completely blocked, and the air seemed to be a little bit colder, only the humidity remained.

In the silence, the figure of a middle-aged man broke into her peripheral vision.The moment he saw her, he stopped stiffly, and after a pause for a few seconds, he took another step.

So she felt his hesitation, and she didn't think there was anything strange about this emotion.

It would be weird if you didn't hesitate.

Man holds bouquet of lilies of the valley.It was only a short distance, but when he came, he kept wiping his forehead with a handkerchief nervously, keeping his head down all the time, not daring to look at her.

Finally, at a place three steps away from her, he stopped, still not daring to look at her.The bouquet held in his hand shook because of trembling, and the leaves rubbed against each other, making a weak and crisp sound.

In this faint little noise, Yezhi heard the man say:

"Want...to go home for a meal?"

28.

—February 2011, Tokyo, Gojo House—

Lying on the soft sofa, with Wuwu's legs as pillows, the warm afternoon sun shone on his body, and the drowsiness crept out quietly.

Yes, he raised his head.Looking from this angle, you can just see the balcony outside the floor-to-ceiling glass doors and the plants on the shelves—it’s just the other way around.

Looking at it, she suddenly let out a meaningful groan.

"I'm thinking about one thing right now..." She retracted her eyes while pinching Gojo Satoru's fingers, and asked solemnly, "Do you like planting flowers?"

"Ok?"

This question sounds really inexplicable.

After thinking about it, Gojo Satoru gave this answer: "I don't particularly like it, I just make random things."

Shizhi sat up, continued to stare at the lush plants on the balcony, curled his lips in dissatisfaction.

"Is it possible to grow so well with just any variety? I'm so envious!"

"What's there to envy about?"

"I just raised a pot of roses yesterday. This is the tenth pot of roses I have raised this year."

Wujo nodded as if he understood: "Oh——"

It turns out that this is the case, no wonder there is such an emotion called "envy".

"I've been thinking about why I can't grow flowers and plants well. I think I've found the reason now." Shizhi patted the back of Gojo Satoru's hand with a serious face, "It must be because my family lives on the top floor. Because your family lives on the second floor!"

"What kind of nonsense is this?" Gojo Satoru tried his best to hold back a smile, "There is no scientific basis for it?"

His question was met with another pat from Yeshi.

"There are some!" The tone was still serious, "My father said that even if the plants are planted in pots, they should be placed closer to the ground. Because this will have a more 'earth atmosphere'."

"……is that so?"

Gojo Satoru raised his eyebrows, always a little skeptical about the veracity of this theory.He only remembered that she said that her father was not a magician, but just a very ordinary elementary school teacher with almost no magic power.

The gap between the primary school teacher and the plants in the pot seems to be a little big.

"My father likes to grow flowers." The gap disappeared all of a sudden, and she gently pressed her fingertips into Gojo Satoru's palm, "And it grows quite well. Do you know Lily of the Valley? Actually, this kind of flower is not suitable for planting in It’s from the island, but my father managed to grow it successfully. So my family has the only clump of lily of the valley on the island.”

"But you're not good at growing flowers."

"That's right...by the way, can I have a look at those plants on the balcony? I'm a little curious."

Gojo Satoru pinched her ears: "Of course."

With the permission of Wutiao adults, Shizhi jumped off the sofa, and ran all the way to the balcony as if looking forward to it, but after only a few seconds, she returned indoors.

"It's freezing outside." She shivered, turned to Gojo Satoru and said, "Lend me your coat for a while!"

"no problem."

So Zhi took off the khaki windbreaker hanging on the wooden hanger, always feeling that it was extremely heavy and troublesome to wear.After finally putting it on, my hands were completely covered by the long sleeves, and I couldn't stretch them out.

Seeing her roll up her sleeves, Gojo Satoru couldn't help but let out a chuckle.He walked behind Yeshi, grasped the shoulder line of the windbreaker with both hands and lifted it up.

"The clothes are touching the floor, little Douding."

"……Eh!?"

Shizhi was so frightened that he hurriedly lowered his head to check, but the hem of the clothes was clearly at her ankles, and it didn't touch the floor at all.Gojo Satoru was just trying to scare her.

Furiously, he swung his sleeves and slapped Gojo Satoru's arm lightly, but he dodged all the attacks with a smile.He gently pushed her back towards the flower stand on the balcony, and immediately hugged her from behind as soon as he stopped.

"It sure is cold outside," he said.

No matter how it sounds like an excuse to cover up.However, Yezhi will not expose him.

She looked carefully at these neatly arranged flower pots, many of which had already reached the flowering season, such as the white rose on the top of the flower stand, which should be in full bloom in a few hours.

Looking at the pot of roses, he let out an exclamation of "ah".

"I remembered a very famous song! Ahem... Sing it to you."

She cleared her throat, ready to speak.

"You are more beautiful than Qiangwei~ah~you have changed~"

In a short sentence, it is a combination of broken sound and out-of-tune.Gojo Satoru laughed unkindly.Yes, he laughed too.

For her singing skills, she is still very good.

Smiling and laughing, a soft "meow" suddenly came between them.Looking back, it turned out that a black cat jumped onto the balcony.

There are red strings and bells around the cat's neck. It seems that it is a cat that ran out of a certain house. It is not afraid of strangers at all. It is the first time I saw it, but it is familiar with it and rubs against her legs. .

Yezhi hugged the cat, her exceptionally soft and warm body seemed a bit different from her family's Cheetos.

"This is the neighbor's cat that you said always came to your house, right?" Shizhi pinched the cat's fleshy paw, "It's so cute."

"It's not cute when you're begging for food."

"Ah, I'm envious again!"

Shizhi hugged the cat tightly, and rubbed hard on its fluffy head several times, his tone of voice was full of envy.

"If you live on the top floor, there will be no cats coming into the house! Even if there were, Cheetos would scare them away. Uh...wait a minute!"

She suddenly stopped talking, only looked at the cat's round eyes, then looked up at Gojo Satoru's face, her gaze flicked back and forth between the two.Looking at it, the corners of his mouth raised unconsciously.

"Wu! You look like a cat!"

She excitedly shared this little wonder.

"Super cute!"