Author: Inaida Sou
Translator: Kei of ChocoCats

○ 306 DAYS AGO (Part 2)

Under the sky with big cumulonimbus clouds, I walk along the park road with my brother. Although the heat remained, there was no damp wind, and a refreshing autumn breeze is blowing.

“Onii-chan, did you always record Nojima-sensei’s actions?”

While holding hands together, I asked him. I thought he will deny and give me excuses, but he just nodded quietly.

“Yeah. Her behaviours as a teacher are clearly crossing the line. I thought if I tell everyone that Mai is being bullied, no one will believe me because we are family.”

“Am I being bullied?”

“It’s obvious, her attitudes are different only to Mai. And other girl students at committee seem to be having a hard time too, so I figure we need to straighten it up.”

My brother said so while gazing at the sky. The sound of cicadas that had been heard until a while ago has disappeared, and the cries of Higurashi are echoing around. In the distance, I could see small children playing in the park.

^{(TN: Higurashi/Tanna Japonensis is an evening cicada, I’m not an insect expert and I don’t know the English word for Higurashi, so I decided to put it as it is.)}

“That teacher wasn’t very good in managing my class either, especially the violent third-year students. It’s not to the point to be annoying, so I don’t need to submit a complaint, also maybe because she’s just a college student and not really a teacher yet.”

Somehow, my brother seems to be more mature than Nojima-sensei. Kurobe-kun in the manga has always seemed to mature faster than other kids around him since a young age, and even now I still can feel that tendency. Perhaps for him, he sees adults at the same level or lower than him.

If that is so, I think it will be stressful. Even though having stress doesn’t mean he can arrange a death game and kill his classmates, since that hasn’t happened yet, I can sympathize with him for now.

Even though that kind of thing has nothing to do with the manga, I really hate it. But I can’t do it no matter what.

“Here.”

As I walked while staring at the shadow extending in front of me, my upper arm was poked with something a bit hard. I’m not sure if it’s a cutter, but it doesn’t feel like a knife. When I looked at it, it was a card that was confiscated by Nojima-sensei.

“I took it back.”

“Ah… thank you.”

A card that I made to surprise my brother. My brother handed it over to me. It’s useless now but I’m a little happy.

“I was going to surprise you with this originally…”

“Yeah, I was surprised. I think you made it well.”

“Not that kind of reaction. More like, I want to see you get awestruck. Like a heart-stopping surprise.”

“I’ve been thinking for a long time, but why do you want to surprise me so bad?”

I stopped my legs at my brother’s word. There is no way I can say that, so he won’t kill his classmates in the future. I thought a bit and look straight into my brother’s eyes.

“Because the world will be over.”

The glimmering dark deep-sea eyes stared at me as if digging deep inside me. It looked awkwardly unbalanced with the solid blue sky.

“That’s why I want to see Onii-chan’s surprised face.”

I smiled. My brother seems a little astonished, but the core of his eyes is still cold as if he sees through me. After a while, he took a step closer to me and messed up my hair.

“Wah, wait… what are you doing?”

“You said something so cheeky, I just want to tease you.”

“Stop it, Onii-chan is too rough, I feel like being attacked by a crow!”

He’s kneading my hair like clay, but it doesn’t hurt because he’s not using strength. After a while, my brother stopped stroking my messed-up head.

“You did well, Mai.”

“Hmm?”

“Reading session.”

My brother’s voice was so gentle that I was taken aback. I blinked my eyes. Under the blue sky, my brother pulled my hand while saying, “Let’s go.”

◇

“Oh yes, I forgot that mom told me to buy a battery. I’m sorry Mai, can you stay at home?”

When we arrived at the front of the house, my brother turned back. I was wondering if I should go with him, but my mother said that she had forgotten her key today, so if I don’t stay, she will have to wait in front of the house until we come back. And it’s about time for her to come back.

“I will also buy lunch on the way, what do you want to eat?”

“Mentaiko pasta.”

^{(TN: Mentaiko: pollock roe)}

“This girl… Isn’t that a little expensive… Oh well, don’t forget to lock the door, okay?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Just say yes once.”

After seeing off my brother who said that I went inside alone. After washing my hands and rinsing my mouth, I sit lazily on the sofa in the living room. The convenience store is located on the main street, there will be no danger going there alone.

And the incident with a cat being run over will happen in winter. Thinking about something I could do to surprise my brother; I went out to the garden to dig a hole.

For today, let’s dig many small holes rather than one big hole.

I dig for a while. After the garden filled with holes like whack-a-mole holes, my brother hasn’t come back yet. I leave my smartphone in the living room. I wiped off the soil on my hands and enter the living room. It’s a hassle to take off my shoes so I slowly crawled toward the table and step on something on the way.

“Uwa–“

It’s a TV remote. I was wondering if the button is okay, turns out it becomes dirty with soil. I unwillingly took off my shoes, threw them into the garden and headed toward the washroom. When I returned to the living room while wiping my washed hands, I was amazed at the sight.

I think I pressed the switch on when I stepped on the remote control a while ago. The TV is on. In between of passer-by that is shooting in real-time, there is a figure of my brother. When I try to look closely, the scene suddenly changed.

[“Breaking news. The criminal of the serial murder case that occurred frequently near Kozukioka-area, has been arrested. In addition, Nojima Sayaka, a 21-year-old woman who had been attacked by the criminal, is in critical condition. The criminal has been secured and transferred, and the blood spilt on the road as the reminder of the horror incident, remained on the scene.”]

The reporter took the cameraman into a dim alley near the school. There was a dark mark of blood there and I become speechless. The name of Nojima-sensei is displayed, and it is written in large yellow letters as an unconscious person.

My head can’t keep up with the images that I saw. With a bad feeling, I headed to my brother’s room.

I searched for an SD card as soon as I enter the room. I thought the reason he ran out of memory space was that he was recording Nojima-sensei, but there is another possibility. It’s possible that my brother was searching and watching the criminal because my brother right now still hasn’t killed anyone. No matter how much I look around, I couldn’t find the SD card on the desk or drawer. The bookshelf, on which Kurobe-kun keeps his favourite grotesque record, hasn’t been crafted, and instead, the reference books were just lined up. However, the letters I saw in between statistics books, made my heart beat violently.

What if my brother was trying to predict where the killer would kill next, and every night he went out so he could be there when the incident happens…?

It might just be my imagination, I have no way to confirm it, but there is no reason to absolutely deny it. My heart beats harder but then I head towards the porch.

I put my hands into the back of the morgue box. When I opened the aluminium box, I found an SD card with a memo pad.

I pick it up and immediately connect it to my laptop.

[“Haa… Haa……”]

The video started with a scene where the frame shook as the cameraman ran. Occasional streetlights seem to be saying that it’s barely outside. It might be midnight because it’s dark and there is almost no sound of cars. The voice belongs to my brother. He was filming this.

[“What… already dead huh?”]

The scenes are cut off immediately with a sigh when a person is seen lying down. It repeats, only the places always change. However, my brother gradually seemed to be frustrated and said, “The calculation was wrong again…”; “Criminal, where are you… It’s only dead guys…” with a small voice.

That alone made it clear why my brother was wandering at midnight.

My brother wants to record when the criminal is murdering people. But my brother is frustrated because he only found the victim already dead. When I flipped open the memo pad while feeling astonished, there is a memo of the criminal information that I could hear from the news, a calculation formula that predicts the next murder site, and more—

[Nojima, she matches the criminal’s victim preferences. Maybe I can make her collide with the criminal on Friday afternoon?]

Maybe he can’t control his thrilling heart, there is a memo with hasty handwriting as if he dances with his pen. Inside that memo seems to have calculated when the criminal will move his target near the school.

My heartbeat is noisy. I take off the SD card from my laptop and return it back along with the memo pad to its original place.

It’s not my delusion. I felt that the sweet expectations that I had somewhere in my heart, thinking that my brother might not kill insects or hold a death game, were shattered.

I should do something about it…

My brother will absolutely kill all his classmates in the summer of his first year of high school.

◇

T/N: Next chapter will also be split into two because it will be even longer than this chapter. Please understand.

Also, thank you to everyone who gave me encouragement and helpful advice. I talked a lot with the HR team and they finally decided on the day. I will wait patiently until then.
The sad news is, I can’t get days off as I planned. So I can’t give bonus chapters TT sorry.
After quitting, I plan to translate more novels and fasten the update to 3 times a week. (wish me luck) I already have one title suggestion on the line, so if you guys have more suggestions, me and my team will consider it.

Thank you again and see you in the next chapter.

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