Only 100 days left in life

"Only a very small number of people can see youkai," Natsume Takashi explained, "so I'm a little surprised that Shiratori-san can see Aoi."

He laughed, "I had a classmate who couldn't see Aoi before. That's when I realized that Aoi is a monster."

Shiratori Mariko nodded half understanding.

"I see," she said, before changing the subject, "Natsume, are you still a high school student?"

Natsume Takashi nodded because he didn't know, "Yes."

Thinking of the phrase "Are you a high school student?" when he first met Aoi, he lost his mind for a moment.

"Aren't you busy with your studies in the second grade? That's great," Mariko Shiratori said with a smile, "According to your age, you should be a little older than Huijun."

Fu Heihui, who was sitting on the side: "Yeah."

The screen lit up for a moment, he glanced at the insignificant notification, and locked the phone screen again.

Shiratori Mariko tilted her head, and glanced at Fukuroe's screen.

Only then did she belatedly remember that it was already very late, "Mr. Hui still has tasks tomorrow, right? Go back and rest early."

Fuhei Hui paused, looked at Natsume Takashi and his friend, "Then them?"

He has always been uneasy about putting Mariko Shiratori with strangers, especially monsters.

Shiratori Mariko looked at Natsume Takashi on the other side, "Where's Natsume? If you're okay, welcome to sit here for a while."

She thought for a while and said gently, "However, it's very late now. If you don't go back, the family will worry, right?"

Natsume Takashi, who was holding a disposable paper cup, was stunned for a moment, thinking of Aunt Toko who was probably still waiting for him at home, "Ah, indeed, we are leaving too."

He looked at Aoi who was sitting on the other side, "Aoi?"

The black-haired young man who was peeling off the candy wrapper and stuffing the lollipop into his mouth raised his head.

"Got it," Aoi stood up with a lollipop in her mouth, "let's go, I'm going back. There's still something to do."

Natsume Takashi responded with a smile, "Yes. Let's go down the mountain early when you're done."

Seeing that Aoi jumped over easily, he hugged the beckoning cat with its chubby and chubby face, and turned over with one hand on the window sill.

"Excuse me today, Miss Shiratori," he said from the other side of the window sill.

Shiratori Mariko smiled and waved to him, "See you next time."

As the window was quickly closed, Shiratori Mariko could feel the relief of Fushiguro Megumi beside her.

"Is it so scary?" She said a little funny, "But thank you, Hui Jun."

Fu Heihui, who just put away the jade dog, said, "That beckoning cat is very dangerous."

He sighed helplessly, "Be careful, Shiratori."

Shiratori Mariko raised her eyebrows, "It's okay. I still have this sense of propriety—you go and rest."

She urged, "Don't worry about this kind of thing, see you tomorrow!"

Fu Heihui nodded and said softly, "See you tomorrow."

After Fuguro Megumi left, Shiratori Mariko felt that the room became quiet almost instantly.

She took a breath and raised her head, only to find that something seemed to have fallen under the sofa.

A white envelope with a small red heart stuck on the seal.

Was Natsume and the others who had just left behind?

Shiratori Mariko picked up the envelope with some doubts, held it and walked to the window.

She reached out and knocked on the window, "Natsume, are you still there?"

After a while, she got a reply.

"Still," Natsume Takashi replied through the window, "What's wrong, Miss Shiratori?"

"I dropped an envelope on my sofa," said Mariko Shiratori, "I don't know if it was you—"

The windows were jerked open.

Aoi, who hadn't spoken much just now, was standing on the edge of the window, reaching out to her, "It's my letter."

Glancing at Natsume Takashi, who was a little dazed, Shiratori Mariko nodded and handed the letter to him, "Then keep it well. Is it an important letter?"

"Don't throw it away," she said.

Aoi accepted the letter, "Understood."

He paused, didn't close the window, but asked a bit rashly, "Are you an adult human?"

Mariko Shiratori, who was quietly looking at the dark woods on the other side, came back to her senses.

She was a little confused, so she responded, "Yes, I'm an adult. What's wrong?"

"Alone?" Aoi continued to ask.

Shiratori Mariko nodded, "Yes. I live alone."

She asked puzzled, "What's wrong?"

Aoi was silent for a moment, then said with difficulty, "There are no monsters in your world."

He seemed to be saying something he couldn't understand, "But you live alone?"

Shiratori Mariko said blankly, "But it doesn't matter if I live alone and whether there are monsters or not?"

She looked at Takashi Natsume, "In your world, do people who can see monsters live alone?"

Natsume Takashi laughed, "No, I think I understand what Aoi means."

"Because spending too much time with monsters, you will gradually lose touch with human society," he explained, "and then lose some interpersonal relationships that take time to maintain. In the end, it probably feels a little bit out of touch with society. I don't get along with people for a long time. If you touch it, you might feel lonely.”

After Natsume Takashi's explanation, Shiratori Mariko understood.

She paused, "I see. That's what it meant. Will Natsume be troubled by it?"

Takashi Natsume froze for a moment, before replying, "No, not really. Actually, I'm glad to see youkai."

"It's a great thing. Really," he said with a laugh.

Shiratori Mariko nodded, and said with a smile, "So, sometimes, a thing is always like a coin, and there are always two sides when it is thrown."

Leaning on the window sill, she turned her head and said, "If Kui Fei wants to ask, I don't think there is anything wrong with being alone, so I chose to live alone, that's all."

"Isn't it because of escaping from something?" Aoi asked.

"No," Shiratori Mariko was a little surprised, "Why do you need to escape something before you choose to live alone?"

She gathered the coat on her body and looked at the distant forest belonging to the other side of the world, "I'm just used to living alone. Some things are treasures for some people, but just for others. A little rain, that's all."

Aoi nodded thoughtfully.

"Is that so," he said, "humans are really strange creatures."

Shiratori Mariko: "Is it a bit too much to complain about me in front of me?"

She looked at Xiang Kui helplessly, "So, if you want to ask me any questions, you can ask me directly, without beating around the bush."

After a pause, she added, "I'm relatively free today."

Then he swallowed the next sentence of "no charge" that almost popped out.

Aoi was silent for a moment, then reached out and opened the abandoned box on the other side.

Inside was a box full of notes, almost overflowing.

"I have a friend," Aoi said, "I've known him for a long time."

A monster meets a girl, and the two grow up together.

They spend every weekend quarreling and noisy, playing and running together in the forest, and have a very good relationship, even surpassing most ordinary friends.

"Xiaoxiang was my first human friend," Aoi said. "I unilaterally severed my relationship with her when she graduated from junior high school."

Xiaoxiang shouldn't spend most of her time with him, in the forest, with the monsters.

A lively, startled girl like her should hang out with her peers, go shopping with her, or do something else.

It would be unfortunate and lonely for humans to value youkai more than humans.

"How long have you been out of contact?" Shiratori Mariko asked.

"For several years. Then a while ago, I received her wedding invitation," Aoi said. "She said in the letter that she had found someone who cherished her."

Therefore, Xiaoxiang hoped that he would go to bless her to find her happiness.

"I will go," Aoi seemed to be persuading herself, and seemed to be speaking to Shiratori Mariko and Natsume Takashi in front of her, "She can get her own happiness, which is indeed what I have been looking forward to. In this way, I You can rest easy."

After hearing the ins and outs of this matter, Shiratori Mariko glanced at Natsume Takashi next to him.

"I roughly understand," she said, "Then you and Natsume, Miss Xiaoxiang, who came here in the middle of the night, shouldn't be getting married in the middle of the night, right?"

"That's a good joke," Madara, who looks like a beckoning cat, laughed. "I'm a little attracted to you, human. Ah, what's your name?"

"It's Miss Shiratori," Natsume Takashi said helplessly, "Mr. Kitty, don't do this."

After eating a plate of oranges from others and still asking for their names here, he didn't know where to start.

Shiratori Mariko tried to bring the topic back, "So, what is it?"

"I'm here to burn the note," Aoi said, "I won't come here again."

He said, "After saying goodbye to Xiang, I will leave here and continue to practice."

Shiratori Mariko responded, and changed the topic, "I want to come and see if you mind?"

Confused by her reaction, Aoi looked blankly at Natsume Takashi on the other side.

"I think I should try it myself, after all, I'm not a child anymore, I'm a mature adult," Shiratori Mariko murmured seeing that neither of them had any objections, "Then, let's start by climbing onto the windowsill."

She propped her hands on the window sill, "One, two, three, hard——"

When it was very embarrassing, even though Mariko Shiratori tried her best, her body remained motionless, showing no sign of responding.

She sighed in frustration, and was about to turn around and move a stool, when a hand suddenly appeared in front of her.

Natsume Takashi handed her his hand and said with a smile, "If you don't mind?"

Shiratori Mariko looked at her slender arm due to illness, and at Natsume Takashi's equally slender, weak-looking arm.

It's probably not good to squeeze a minor.

Just when she was hesitating whether to care for the fragile self-esteem of the male high school student, Takashi Natsume took the initiative to hold Mariko Shiratori's hand.

Some dry, with a little temperature, glowing with warm heat in such an autumn night.

With the help of Natsume Takashi, Shiratori Mariko simply climbed over the window sill and fell to the ground on the other side with ease.

There was soft soil under her feet, she glanced at her phone subconsciously, "It's late. If you are going to do something, you better hurry up?"

There is also a high school student who probably needs to go to school tomorrow.

Even if you know monsters, you can't adjust the time to sleep for half an hour, right?

"Got it," Aoi glanced at her.

Mariko Shiratori leaned against the letterbox, watching Aoi pile up the folded papers.

"Why burn it?" She asked curiously, "Wouldn't it be better to keep it? Obviously you are very reluctant."

Aoi raised her head and glanced at Mariko Shiratori.

"You don't understand," he said dryly, "it's because you don't understand anything that you speak so lightly."

Shiratori Mariko froze for a moment.

"I really don't understand," she said apologetically, "I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way."

After getting an apology from Shiratori Mariko, Aoi felt a little uncomfortable now, "No, forget it. After all, you are human."

He stretched out his hand, and the blue flames from his fingertips engulfed the piles of papers. Unknown emotions flickered in his eyes, "Human life is short, and we always don't understand it."

The life of a monster is long, but much simpler.

But human beings are different. Human life is changing and busy, like gravel slipping from fingertips in a hurry. Once something is forgotten, it is difficult to find it again.The relationship with human beings is fickle but short-lived like a puff of smoke, which only adds to the sadness.

Natsume Takashi on the side blinked his eyes and said softly, "Aoi thinks that because of this, the people who become friends with monsters can't make it to the end?"

Aoi shook her head, "I don't know."

He murmured, "I don't know."

He is so weak and vacillating, because of that letter, he asked Natsume to take him to meet Xiaoxiang; and because he hesitated to see Xiaoxiang being blessed by others, he wavered and planned to leave directly .

As a monster, fearing the fire like a moth, but can't help but be attracted by the fire, is it really right?

Mariko Shiratori got closer to the fire and found that there was no smoke and dust when it was burning, but a few fluorescent blue butterflies fluttered their gleaming wings and flew towards the sky.

She stretched out her hand almost in amazement, trying to touch the flying and circling butterflies.

"If you ask me," said Mariko Shiratori, "if you want to do something, do it as soon as possible."

She hugged a butterfly, let it flutter in her palm, and finally turned into nothingness, "Only when you do it, you will know whether the result is good or bad. But if you don't go, you will never know the answer, right? "