"Her eyes were pretty big when she glared, weren't they?"
Natsuo sat on a bench under a tree, a piece of bread in one hand and a carton of milk in the other.
"Where do you even get this weird habit of yours?"
Hiratsuka Yū sat beside him. She wasn't eating anything, just watching him as she thought back on the morning.
Four full classes. He'd spent them needling the Yukinoshita girl with his eyes during lessons, then slipped away the moment class ended.
Natsuo took a sip of milk to wash down the bread. "Wrong. It's not a weird habit. She saw you. I just don't want to get into that whole thing with her."
Yū gave him an odd look. He doesn't want to get into it, but he'll keep provoking her instead… She couldn't help but feel that the kid her teacher had taken in had gotten stranger as he grew up. Before, he'd just been quiet and had a sharp tongue. That was it.
Natsuo tilted his head toward the ghost beside him and took a bite of bread. "Looks like you're bad-mouthing me in your head."
Yū put on a righteous face. "I'm a teacher, you know."
Natsuo looked away. She didn't deny it. I'll have to find a chance to bring this up with her daughter later.
"Is the bread good?" The voice was cold.
"Not bad." Natsuo looked at the girl who had walked up to him and nodded. "I've decided wheat bread is better than yakisoba-pan."
Yukinoshita Yukino watched him take a bite of bread and chase it down with milk, and she couldn't for the life of her see how either "not bad" or "better" applied.
Her gaze shifted to the woman sitting beside him. Their eyes met.
Yukino parted her lips, then realized she didn't know how to start.
When faced with a ghost, was "hello" the appropriate greeting?
Yū smiled without a word, simply scooching farther away from the boy, leaving an empty space in the middle of the bench.
Natsuo didn't object. He was too busy wondering if the school had switched bakers, today's bread was unusually tough.
Yukino watched the two of them in silence for a moment.
It was noon. The sun blazed overhead, bright white light filtering through the leaves and dappling their shoulders in shifting patterns. The wind stirred their hair.
He really was good-looking. Whenever he sat here with a book, a lot of students would find themselves glancing his way.
Quiet.
Peaceful.
Like a painting.
There was even a saying going around: Yamanashi-kun is perfect in every way, except for when he opens his mouth.
Yukino took a soft breath, then walked over with her lunch bag and sat down. No matter what, she needed to get to the bottom of things.
She took her bento out slowly and deliberately, and spoke. "Yamanashi-kun, are you afraid of me?"
Natsuo nodded enthusiastically. "Yep, yep. Yukinoshita-san is super scary."
Yukino accepted his answer with a nod of her own. "I thought so. I mean, you were running scared all over the place."
Natsuo stopped chewing and turned to look at her.
Yukino turned her head to meet his gaze, her expression calm.
Natsuo forced down the bread and refuted her claim. "I wasn't running scared. It's more that your eyes have this exorcist-like quality to them. Felt like keeping my distance was the better move."
Yukino nodded. "I understand. Yamanashi-kun is evil, so of course he'd want to stay away from justice."
Natsuo raised an eyebrow. "You mean the kind of justice that insults her classmates on a daily basis?"
Yukino lowered her gaze to open her bento. "In that regard, Yamanashi-kun isn't much better than I am."
"Don't slander me. I ignore people unless they come bothering me. You're the one who actively walks up to classmates and attacks them."
"Oh? Yamanashi-kun pays a lot of attention to me."
"Tch. Coming from someone who looked at me a total of five hundred and twenty-one times over four classes today."
"Yamanashi-kun really does pay attention to me. You even kept count."
Yū watched the two of them volley words back and forth, their eyes locked, and couldn't help but twitch.
They both seem pretty mature for their age, so why does this conversation sound like kids squabbling?
She raised a hand to cut in. "Um, I thought I was the main attraction today?"
The atmosphere settled. Yukino turned to her with a serious expression. "Hello. I'm Yukinoshita Yukino."
Yū smiled. "Hiratsuka Yū. I was a teacher when I was alive. You can call me Hiratsuka-san, or sensei if you like."
Natsuo clicked his tongue and went back to his bread.
Yukino felt a quiet sense of relief. This woman, now a ghost, seemed very approachable.
Leaving her bento aside for the moment, Yukino began asking Yū questions, trying to understand the situation.
Natsuo ignored the one-human, one-ghost conversation happening next to him. He just reached for another piece of bread and kept eating.
Eight years old was a crucial time for building a foundation. Getting a little chubby was fine. Going hungry wasn't.
After a while, Yukino nodded thoughtfully. "So you're waiting to reincarnate, Hiratsuka-san. And for that to happen, your lingering attachments need to be resolved, your wishes fulfilled."
She paused, her young face settling into an expression of young seriousness. "I understand. I'll help."
Natsuo choked on his bread, thumping his chest and hurriedly washing it down with milk.
Yukino turned to him, her expression cooling. "What's wrong? I thought Yamanashi-kun said the bread was good?"
This time, Natsuo didn't rise to the bait. His tone turned slightly more serious. "Let me give you a warning. Life and death are separate. Right now, what you're experiencing is just a side effect from your soul briefly leaving your body. It'll pass quickly. But if you keep interacting with the dead, your spiritual sight will deepen. Eventually, it'll become second nature. And that's not some fun adventure story, it's a life that gets more twisted the more you open yourself to that other world."
Yukino's expression grew serious as well. "Helping those who need help is one of the principles I live by. Life and death don't change that."
She paused, then added, "If I turned a blind eye, I wouldn't be me anymore. I can't be that numb."
"Wow. Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man over here."
"Yamanashi-kun, is your way of speaking always this odd?"
"I was complimenting you. Why can't you just take it?"
"Thank you. Please don't do it again."
They fell silent. One went back to his bread. The other started on her bento.
Yū watched them quietly.
They argued easily, but when it came down to something real, they both knew how to think it through.
Clear-headed. She wondered who would end up being their teacher when they grew up. It would probably be challenging. And entertaining.
'Huh? Yukino's bento looks… kind of good…'
Natsuo chewed his bread, sneaking a glance at her lunch out of the corner of his eye.
Egg roll, average, It had gone cold.
Lettuce, not bad, that kind of vegetable held up well.
Fried fish, good choice, fried food kept its crispness for a long time.
Pickled vegetables, solid, ice for whetting the appetite.
The rice was soaked in some kind of broth, he couldn't tell what it was, but it… actually looked kind of good…
Yukino kept her head down, stirring her rice with her chopsticks. She could feel eyes on her from both sides, but her expression didn't change.
Eat slowly.
Make him jealous.
…
After school, Natsuo walked along the sidewalk toward the ramen shop, his gaze fixed on the girl a few paces ahead.
He turned to look at Yū. "So did you actually come here for the ramen, or did you just want to see your daughter?"
Yū gave him an innocent look. "What's the conflict? Seeing my daughter and eating ramen aren't mutually exclusive."
Yukino said nothing. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the scene ahead.
A group of people were gathered around. And that older sister… she'd just punched someone and sent them flying several meters.
That was… impressive…