The Story of the Seven

CHAPTER 21 - Recuperating Time

After being lambasted by Mother, I spent some time recuperating my mental and emotional health by holing up in Toukichi's apartment.

"Bro, you've been here for like a week already – ain't it time for you to go back home?"

"Don't wanna ....."

"Are you so scared of your parents? Seriously?"

"You don't know how terrified I was."

"By the way, you know that Mafuyu was totally pissed off that you eloped with Amane?"

"What do you mean by "elope"? She's the one who plotted all of this?"

"Regardless of your personal opinions and beliefs, the public's taken your incident as that."

"Who's the public?"

"Like Amane's parents, or me, or Mafuyu's parents, and the like?"

"I'm totally screwed for life – help me?"

"Then go apologize to Mafuyu!"

"Why do you keep bringing her up? I'm not even that close to her!"

"Well, don't ask me, but she's like, seriously, attached to you."

"What?"

"You know that she's adopted, right?"

"For real?"

"Yeah, and her mother was vehemently opposed to adopting her, it seems like. She was screamin' stuff like "over my dead body" at her husband when they were discussing about adopting a child."

"Wait, so Mafuyu's father adopted Mafuyu on his own?"

"Yeah, pretty much. But as soon as Mafuyu's mother met Mafuyu, she had a change of heart and decided to be a good mother by being strict – you know the parent figure that express love through bein' tough and scary?"

"Huh – but then why does Mafuyu hate her mother's guts?"

"Mafuyu still doesn't believe that her mother had a change of heart. She's completely paranoid that her mother's waiting for a good chance to dispose her or somethin'."

"That's messed up!"

"Yeah, so anyways, Mafuyu's got a lot of issues like that, along with not having any friends, and her parents bein' so busy and not spending enough time with her, and her being an antisocial introvert in general."

"Ah – antisocial introverts strangely are the type to get lonely the quickest, right?"

"True – and that's where you come in."

"Pardon me?"

"You're like her first friend, so you gotta take care of her. She's known as the future of the organization, so basically the future of the organization lies in your hands – since she for some reason decided to rely on you."

"More responsibilities?"

"Yeah, good luck. Like I said, you're her only friend – aside from her father."

"Ah, I'm totally screwed."

"Why? You get to be friends with someone powerful – you might reap big rewards later ."

"I hate those people that become your friend for benefits."

"Did you just casually diss me?"

"Anyways, I guess I'll go pay her a visit."

"Countin' on you, man."

"Thanks."

As I exited Toukichi's apartemnt, I wondered - how come Mafuyu trusted me so much? Was there an ulterior scheme going on? Or was she simply impressed by how I comforted her when me first met? And why on Earth would a paranoid, antisocial, introvert girl like her designate me as "brother"? I just couldn't comprehend – not that I'm complaining.