Miss Heir wasn't very kind to me.

Chapter 99: 30. "Izakaya, my ancient predecessors and board games"

On the Kobe Municipal Subway, on the coastline nicknamed "Dream Seagull," six people sat quietly in the carriage, heading to the restaurant where they were treated.

When I left the station at Harborland, a seagull with pure white wings happened to fly overhead.

Surrounded by thirty-two red steel branches, the Kobe Tower stands quietly, with the azure sea behind it and the clear sky reflecting the sea, like the collar of a summer sailor's jacket, with airplane contrails adding a finishing touch.

It was the height of summer, and the scorching heat distorted the distant view. The bright red observation tower seemed to be swaying slightly, which made Masumi inexplicably think of the red scarf on Haiyue's sailor uniform that day.

"What are you thinking about, Masumi-san?" Qian Ai asked, looking at him with a dazed look on his face.

"Sailor uniform..."

After blurting out the words, Masumi paused and changed his words: "Haiyue."

"I?"

The jellyfish girl tilted her head and said, "I'm not wearing that dress today..."

"Wait! What are you talking about?"

Asami overheard the conversation keenly, moved closer to Masumi, and hinted at him with her eyes, with an expression that said, "Why did you let it slip?"

Rin and Kurokawa also took a step closer, quietly waiting for his next words:

"It means the name of the restaurant we're going to later is Haiyue Restaurant."

Masumi put on a nonchalant expression and spoke calmly.

To be more precise, it's an izakaya with a Tabelog rating of 3.4, and it opens after 11:30 am.

Masumi and the others arrived at 2:10 pm, which was a bit strange considering the lunch time.

However, due to the fact that they run a coffee shop, the time when regular customers come to the store to consume is basically fixed, and the work and rest schedules of several people naturally change according to these times, and they usually have lunch after the peak period.

The smallest private room in the store can accommodate just 6 people and has a tatami design.

"Hey, did Masumi-kun choose this restaurant specifically considering the number of people?"

Mami took off her sandals at the door, knelt on the tatami with her thighs resting on her calves, curled her toes, and pressed her ripe and beautiful buttocks on it, revealing her plump and round outline.

"No, I've been here before."

Masumi explained, "There's a Live House nearby. I once went here with my seniors from the light music club to support an underground band we knew. After the show, we held a celebration party here."

"The senior from the Light Music Club..." Rin asked, "Is that Miss... me, Rugu?"

"Yes."

"Eh." Qian Ai's eyes were filled with surprise: "Rin Yin actually knows Chitose-sister too, did Masumi-san tell you?"

"Ah."

Rin nodded calmly.

"Pause for a moment, who am I, Miss Rugu? How come you all seem to know her?" Mami was confused.

"I want to know too." Kurokawa Mio's face darkened.

Masumi: "He's a senior from the high school light music club."

"That's the same as no introduction at all." Mami complained, "What I want to know is more specific information, such as Miss Rugu's personality and figure."

The fire of gossip burned fiercely in her eyes.

"The seniors in the club always seem like a very convenient character."

Her cheek suddenly moved closer, staring at Masumi with expectant eyes.

"...Convenient for what?"

He's asking questions even though he already knows the answer. Judging from Seno's brain, it's definitely not a healthy one.

Asami blinked repeatedly and didn't answer, with a stubborn expression that said, "I won't give up until I hear the story."

Next to him, Kurokawa Mio's gaze was also fixed on him, and it felt painful as her eyes pierced his skin.

Masumi sighed, and after slightly simplifying what he had said to Kamishiro, he repeated it again.

The box became quiet, with only the sound of him telling stories.

"Eh--"

"Masumi-kun, this is actually the reason why you started playing in a band." Asami smiled narrowed her eyes: "Because I was fascinated by a senior sister who played in a band or something."

"Why does it feel like the taste has changed when it comes out of your mouth?"

"Sorry, sorry." Mami's smile remained. "I just think that saying 'don't have expectations of yourself' sounds a bit too heavy."

"Don't worry, I'm not that fragile yet." Masumi shook his head.

"Really?"

The one questioning her was a bit unexpected for Masumi. Meeting his puzzled gaze, Rinone gathered her beautiful black hair around her ears, parted her red lips, and said nonchalantly, "Just pretend I didn't say anything."

"..."

"Go on, Masumi-kun," Asami urged him.

"say what."

"One-on-one guidance from seniors and juniors in the light music club."

◇

"Congratulations, Masumi, you bought your first guitar."

In the music classroom, my senior sister Rugu was talking and laughing, and her smile was gentle.

"Thank you for the help in introducing the job."

During the first semester of her freshman year in high school, including the Golden Week, Masumi worked part-time at the bookstore she introduced, of course, with her senior.

"That kind of trivial matter is not worth mentioning. Instead of this, let's try the new Green King we bought first."

"Midori-kun?"

"Yeah," my senior said as if it was a matter of course: "The first thing I do after buying a musical instrument is, of course, give it a nice name and then post a message on social media using the hashtag "My New Gear."

"This guitar is green, and the LP shape feels very boyish. How about calling it Green Lord?"

"Oh, that's fine then."

Masumi nodded absentmindedly, and half-forced by her senior, she took a photo and tweeted "My New Gear", but she didn't expect it to be retweeted the next moment.

After clicking on the account, I found a user called "My New Gear Bot". His tweets were all about showing off musical instruments, effects pedals, and reposting other people's "My New Gear".

"There really are so many people like this." Masumi looked dumbfounded.

"Look." My senior sister Rugu tilted her head and smiled.

"Well, today's guitar lesson officially begins."

——The sound of strings rang out.

The senior student strummed the strings and announced this.

Masumi connected the speaker, hung the shoulder strap on his shoulder, and gently stroked the guitar with his fingertips. The light green paint surface reflected his still somewhat childish outline.

The senior sister's soft voice sounded:

"Start by learning to pluck the strings, like this, holding the pick between your index finger and thumb."

My senior Rugu stretched out her white and slender fingers and showed Masumi the gesture.

"Although guitarists have a wide variety of picking postures, it's best for beginners to stick to a standard hand shape."

"Ok."

Masumi responded.

Because of her senior's strong personal preference, the pick used by Masumi is a rounded triangular rice ball shape, and the surface also has a real rice ball pattern.

He held the pick, and without pressing any strings with his left hand, he just lightly swept the open strings with the pick.

Along with the sound of the strings, there was the sound of "Baji, Baji" applause.

As my senior sister Rugu clapped her hands, she put on an exaggerated expression on her pretty face and praised him.

"It's incredible! It's simply the sound of nature!"

"Senior..." Masumi complained, "Your reaction is too exaggerated."

"I just want to give Masumi-chan some confidence. This is called encouraging teaching."

My senior sister Rugu smiled and said, "Next is the left hand pressing the strings."

"My index finger is on the first fret of the second string."

Masumi followed the movement of her fingers, and at the senior's reminder, made sure to stand her fingertips upright.

"Great. Next, use your middle finger on the 4th string, 2nd fret, and your ring finger on the 5th string, 3rd fret."

After holding them all firmly, Masumi swept his right hand, and the warm and bright C chord sound echoed in the music classroom through the amplifier.

"You won't praise me this time?" he asked.

"Eh." My Rugu-senpai crossed her arms: "As expected, you still want people's affirmation, Masumi-chan, you are not frank."

"..."

"Wow, it's incredible. What a great voice."

"Let's not do this anymore."

Faced with the exaggerated praise from his senior, the fifteen-year-old Masumi sighed silently, but in his heart he felt a little happy. When did he become such a superficial person?

"How does it feel? Guitar." asked the senior student.

"If it's this level, it's quite simple."

"Oh, you're quite confident." My senior sister Rugu narrowed her eyes gently and said, "Then let's try the F chord next."

"F chord?"

"Ah."

我如古学姐又开始发号施令：“中指按在3弦2品，无名指按在5弦3品，小指按在4弦3品……”

"Finally, use your index finger to press down the entire first fret."

"Oh, okay." Masumi reacted, pressed the tip of his left index finger against the fretboard, and then swept it with the pick.

However, the sound it made was very dull.

The strings had no time to vibrate before they were muffled by the fingers.

Masumi tried several times but couldn't play the F chord, and her fingertips hurt from pressing on the metal strings.

"Hmm~ Now you understand how difficult it is?"

The senior student was very proud: "This is a big difficulty for beginners learning guitar."

"……I will work hard."

“Hard work alone isn’t enough; it also requires skill and patience.”

My senior Rugu made a very clear argument, but at the end, she added a malicious sarcasm: "Otherwise, you'll be just like those hot-blooded idiots in the sports department."

The baseball team happened to let out a very powerful shout from the playground and slipped into the room through the open window.

"Senior, do you have any opinions about the sports club?"

"I always do this to Yangjiao."

The senior's beautiful face suddenly moved closer: "So, let's make a deal first, you are not allowed to sneak away, Masumi-chan."

"What do you mean by sneaking away?"

"It means becoming a super-yang-type person, flirting with other women, and having more than one girl around you. This situation is absolutely not allowed."

"After all, Masumi-kun is a member of the 'Hidden Corner Club' that never makes friends or falls in love, right?"

"Didn't I join the light music club?"

"That's exactly what the light music club at West High School is like."

"But Sasakura-senpai has a girlfriend."

"So now she's become a ghost club member and doesn't play bass anymore..."

My Rugu-senpai sighed and suddenly opened her eyes wide. "Wait, you said girlfriend? Maya's Tachibana-san turns out to be a girl."

Macheng shook his head: "Just pretend I didn't say anything."

I, Senior Sister Rugu, didn't care, squinted my eyes and murmured in a deep voice.

"Anyway—don't sneak away."

The look in his eyes is a bit scary.

"Otherwise I'll use Masumi-chan's fingernails as plectrums," she threatened.

Hiss, it hurts.

Masumi subconsciously frowned due to the phantom pain, nodded tremblingly, and then saw the senior sister showing her usual playful smile.

"Clang~ I'm just kidding. You're not really scared by me, are you?"

My senior Rugu's lips curled up in a triumphant smile: "I'm so sorry if I scared you."

"The joke's gone too far."

"So, how do you play this F chord?"

"Oh, you're getting competitive, huh? Let onee-chan help you."

As she spoke, she grasped Masumi's fingers. Her cheeks moved closer, and the scent of shampoo filled her face. Masumi leaned back. A close-up of the beautiful senior's face wasn't good for her heart.

I heard the senior say that this was all the result of debuting in high school, but today's false eyelashes were a little crooked, Masumi thought a little disappointedly.

"Bend your middle finger a little and hold it upright, so the tip of your finger doesn't rub against the string below."

"And then the ring finger."

She reached out and grasped Masumi's fingers again, making the latter feel a little uncomfortable.

Could it be that the senior sister’s social anxiety is because she is not good at maintaining a distance from others?
I am as uncertain as my classmate Gu.

"Masumi-chan? Why are you daydreaming? Is it that difficult?"

"Nothing." He replied nonchalantly.

If my senior discovered that I wasn't comfortable with this kind of contact, I'd have a complex feeling of both heat and chills running down my spine. And she'd probably tease me even more.

Not wanting her to notice his feelings, Masumi pretended to be calm.

But the senior student held his left hand, slowly took it off the fingerboard, then looked at his fingers with narrowed eyes.

"what happened?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking, Masumi-chan has really beautiful hands, his palms are very broad and big, and his fingers are very slender and long."

"What are you going to do, senior?"

"Don't worry, big sister just wants it to appear where it should be."

She said in a meaningful tone.

"Where is that?"

"It's a guitar. Speaking of which, the neck is really thick..."

◇

"Please pause for a moment and don't modify my memories without permission."

Masumi corrected: "The correct recollection is only until the F chord."

"Eh? Isn't that what's going to happen next?" Mami said playfully, "The ambiguous interaction between an adolescent boy and an older sister."

"Your imagination is too rich." Masumi sighed, looking like his mind was polluted.

Mami was about to say a few more words, but Qian Ai suddenly tugged at her clothes and whispered, "Sister Mami, I think you'd better stop talking..."

"——The room is a bit stuffy, I'm going out for some fresh air!"

Kurokawa Mio stood up suddenly, and after she finished speaking, she got up and left the box. Her long honey-gold hair swayed, and the silver of her earrings flashed between the raised hair.

Isn't it hotter outside the izakaya?

Masumi watched the slender figure in a summer dress disappear from his sight.

Kurokawa Mio changed into sandals at the door, her heels making powerful clicking sounds on the asphalt road as she walked out of the izakaya.

She clutched the hem of her skirt tightly with both hands, then ignored the passers-by who were looking at her in confusion, lowered her head, and breathed deeply into the summer heat.

Ahhhh! How could this happen!
Kurokawa Mio gasped for breath and made hysterical sounds in her heart.

I originally thought that Chiai, my childhood sweetheart and a sister-like character, wouldn't pose a threat, so I just had to be on guard against Rin, Kaitsuki, and Ms. Mami...

Damn it! There are already so many people here, how could another senior show up?

Why is the guitarist of the Xigao light music section a girl?

A gentle and intellectual older sister who possesses the tolerance and life experience that I lack, and she is also Masumi's band mentor.

Definitely a strong rival!
He actually touched my Masumi in the name of guitar teaching. That's too much.

Then again, there shouldn't be any other place for enlightenment, right?

No, no, I can't think about it anymore.

Kurokawa Mio shook her head desperately, her delicate and cold face could not hide her strong and shaken emotions, so her expression was stiff.

Fortunately, Masumi has no contact with her now.

And...I don't play guitar anymore...

Her long honey-gold hair fluttered in the wind, covering her somewhat lonely expression. Kurokawa tried hard to hold back and took out the lipstick from her bag.

She pursed her lips in the makeup mirror, forced a deliberately charming smile, and walked back into the izakaya.

Swish—the sound of a wooden door being opened.

Masumi looked up from the menu and saw Kurokawa Mio sitting next to her as if nothing had happened, her snow-white and round shoulders showing from her one-shoulder dress, and she trembled slightly at this moment.

"Are you ok?"

"It's okay," she whispered in an exhausted voice.

Masumi knew it all, knowing that she went out to calm down because she cared about me, Rugu-senpai, so she changed the subject and asked, "What would you like to eat?"

"I want..." She took the menu and glanced at it casually: "Grilled whitebait rice balls are ready."

The fried whitebait wrapped in crispy skin is soaked in sauce and buried in white rice, wrapped in seaweed.

Kurokawa Mio chewed the rice ball in small bites, her soft jawline was noticeably undulating, her cheeks were puffed up like a hamster's cheek pouches, and she was sulking.

The dishes ordered were handed over by the waiter one by one:
Fried tempura (a combination of horse mackerel, crab legs, onion, and basil), steamed chawanmushi, grilled beef offal, cod omelet, grilled eggplant with bonito flakes, kappa roll, and Korean lettuce salad.

Asami ordered the 1700 yen all-you-can-drink set meal, and the grilled ray fin as a side dish.

"Ms. Mio, welcome to become the third drinker of the Stars. Speaking of Kiku Masamune, this is it!"

She poured Kurokawa a glass of Kikumasamune Jozen.

"Thank you."

Kurokawa Mio picked up the wine glass, thinking that getting drunk would relieve all her worries, and drank the sake in the glass... That was what she thought.

In fact, he still took small sips and frowned slightly at the pungent taste of alcohol.

"Sister Mio, are you okay? Your face is so red." Qian Ai asked with concern.

"fine."

Kurokawa shook his head to indicate that he was fine.

He picked up the bottle and poured himself another glass.

What happened next was like a conscious person sinking slowly beneath the water.

Haiyue tentatively reached out her chopsticks towards the egg roll, but Qianai shouted, "No! That's made of cod roe." People who didn't know might think she was allergic to fish roe.

After finishing her meal, Ms. Mami found a Tokaido cardboard box in the private room and, slightly tipsy, said in a slightly louder voice, "This shop also has board games. Let's play together."

"How do you play this?" Qian Ai asked in confusion.

"Very simple."

Ms. Mami spread out the map on the table and introduced it, "Each player takes on the role of a traveler, starting from Kyoto and traveling along the Tōkaidō Road to Edo. Along the way, they'll stop at different locations, each with similar rules, for points to accumulate."

She expertly distributed chess pieces to everyone and drew character cards. Kurokawa Mio drew the Samurai card. She continued, "After all the pieces have reached the finish line, the points are calculated based on the collected cards to determine the winner."

It is a low-threshold board game suitable for beginners.

The game was originally for five people, but Miss Mami waved her hand and changed the rules at will.

“Games are meant to be fun, right?”

She said so.

Tokaido originally referred to one of the five regions and seven roads established by the island country in imitation of the Tang Dynasty's legal system. Later, it referred to one of the five main land transportation routes starting from Edo during the Edo period. Major cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Nagoya were all within its scope.

The board game in front of you is based on the latter.

"This post station called Kusatsu-juku should be my hometown," said Mami.

The six people then started playing this board game called Tokaido.

In the first game, Rin won a landslide victory.

The character card she drew at the beginning was a wealthy type. As the game progressed, she quickly figured out the rules and got bonuses by donating money at the temple, which opened up a large gap between her and the second-place Masumi.

Qian Ai ranked third, Hai Yue ranked fourth, and as for Miss Mami, who introduced the rules at the beginning, she ranked fifth, and her points were only narrowly ahead of Kurokawa Mio.

"Kurokawa, are you okay?" Masumi asked, looking at himself.

Asami: "Ms. Mio looks dizzy, is she drunk?"

"Same here, Mami-san. Your face is red too," Qian Ai complained.

"I'm fine. I'm just a little tipsy this time. But Ms. Mio..."

"I'm fine..."

Feeling a little unwilling to finish last, Kurokawa Mio was about to ask for another game, but her thoughts completely sank.

I don't remember the details of what happened afterwards.

In short, I am now lying on Masumi's back, being carried on the road by him.

"...Where is this?"

Hearing Kurokawa Mio's muttering, Masumi's reply came immediately: "We're almost at the stars."

Perhaps because of the physical contact, the sound sounded particularly clear.

"Where are Rinne and the others?"

"I went to the Anpanman Museum with Hanekawa. We might even go on the Ferris wheel later. Seeing you like this, I'll bring you back first."

"Didn't Rinne or Chiai say they wanted to come along?"

"No, but he told me to take good care of you."

Drunk people are troublesome, especially those with bad drinking habits.

For example, that guy Seno, when he gets drunk and is surrounded by people he knows, he will become extremely unruly.

Fortunately, Kurokawa's reaction was very obedient, he just limp and powerless, like a puddle of spring mud.

"...That's it."

Kurokawa Mio lowered her head and uttered a voice that seemed to be squeezed out of her throat: "Thank you."

"It's just a small matter, there's no need to be like this."

"Come to think of it, I didn't know you could drink so poorly."

"Well, what an incompetent boyfriend." Kurokawa Mio said in a teasing tone.

"But you can't blame Masumi. After all, I never drink at celebration parties."

And as long as I look cold, no one dares to urge me to drink.

"Feel sorry."

After hearing Masumi's whispers, she was slightly stunned, and her lips opened and closed several times, as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself.

"Hey, Masumi."

"how?"

"You...don't play guitar anymore?"

"Ah."

Being carried on his back, I couldn't see what expression he had.

“…Is it because of me?”

“Don’t overthink it. Giving up something you’ve held on to for a long time is never determined by a single variable.”

"So, it still has an impact, right?"

"..."

Masumi didn't know which answer to give, a true confession out of guilt, or a lie out of a sense of responsibility.

Responsibility is the heaviest shackle, and those who have never borne it cannot understand it.

But before he could make a decision, the next moment, Kurokawa Mio's voice sounded from behind him.

"If... I listen to you and leave..."

"...Will you pick up your guitar again and form a band again, somewhere I can't see you?"

The tone of this sentence is by no means strong, and it always ends abruptly in unnatural places, as gentle as a wisp of floating smoke.

Before it was blown away by the sea breeze, a firm voice caught it.

"will not."

Masumi's answer reached her ears.

"My quitting the band has nothing to do with anyone else."

After hearing his decisive assertion, Kurokawa Mio said nothing, turned her head and looked at the sea in the distance.

The waves of the Seto Inland Sea washed over the beach on the other side of the breakwater, and starlight shone from the deep crimson sky where darkness was beginning to seep through.

The sea breeze blew over her body, and she felt that Masumi's body warmth would be taken away, so she hugged him a little tighter from behind.

She doesn't want to be lonely.

Because the important things to cherish are here.

……

(End of this chapter)