I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

I'll go pick it up.

Yukino Yukinoshita, who was closest to the door, quickly got up, picked up the intercom, and spoke with a smile, seemingly teasing the person who pressed the doorbell. Like a playful child, her eyes sparkled with a pure and bright light.

Yukino Yukinoshita was seeing her older sister like that for the first time, and she stood there stunned, her expression subtle.

Not long after, Yu Tenkuji opened the door carrying two bags of supermarket plastic bags.

"It's good that you're awake. I'll go cook some porridge. If you're not in a hurry to go home for dinner, you can have some while you're at it. After I'm done cooking, I'll go home to help my family with dinner."

He glanced at the girls by the sofa, then hurried into the kitchen as if on a journey, closing the kitchen door behind him without giving anyone a chance to follow.

Her gaze followed him the moment he entered the room. Natsukawa Masaki stared blankly at his back, as if she had forgotten who she was and where she was.

Then, the blank consciousness seemed to ripple with memories, struggling, stirring, and trying, but in the end no images appeared, and it returned to emptiness in a calm and quiet way.

"That person..."

She murmured, her pale lips parted as if suffocating.

Chapter 31 Natsukawa Masuzu's Nightmare (16/23)

Although it only happened in the morning, looking back, it feels like more than a month has passed.

Natsukawa Masuzu woke up from a nightmare.

She doesn't remember what kind of nightmare it was, only that she opened her eyes and shouted "No!" Then, she lay on the bed trembling in a cold sweat, like a child frightened by a ghost story. She didn't even have the strength to get up and turn on the light, and her extremities were so cold that they went numb.

She comforted herself, thinking it was just a nightmare and would be fine in a bit—as she stared blankly at the clock, noticing the time slowly ticking away.

Seven o'clock, eight o'clock...

The phone rang several times, but I didn't know who was calling, or when she had turned it off.

Nine o'clock, ten o'clock...

At midnight, my stomach started to ache with hunger, and my mouth, which hadn't had a drop of water, was so dry that even breathing felt like torture. My lips must have been so chapped and white that they were unsightly.

The side effects of the nightmare continue, like a curse whose source cannot be found.

Natsukawa Masaki slowly sat up from the bed. This simple action exhausted all the strength she had accumulated over the past six hours. She could only lean against the headboard and breathe lightly. With her dull silver hair, she looked like a lonely old woman who was seriously ill and had no one to take care of her.

"A cold? A fever? The flu? It can't be cancer... I hope it's just a side effect of awakening my Stand."

He tried to laugh it off, but could only manage a hoarse, breathy sound.

She swallowed hard, pursed her lips, and tried to make herself feel a little better.

"Today is August 13th..."

Slowly shifting her gaze, Natsukawa Masaki looked out the window at the clear, elegant blue sky, and began to recall and ponder what sins she had committed to end up in this state before today.

He left Sweden to see his mother and waited silently in this apartment;

In order to prevent her father from having a reason to arrest her and send her back, she dutifully played the role of a beautiful mixed-race young lady who had returned from abroad at school.

In order to deal with the endless stream of troublesome confessions, she planned to find someone to act as a shield, called a "fake boyfriend," but for various reasons, she never took action.

She hadn't harmed anyone, nor had she hindered anyone's interests; she simply lived a lonely and humble life, wanting only a peaceful school life.

If that's the case, then what's with her current state? Are we to say she brought it on herself?

A feeling of complaint and resentment welled up from the bottom of her heart. Xia Chuanzhen took a deep breath and forced her powerless body to throw off the quilt, turn to the edge of the bed, and start turning like a rusty machine, stepping barefoot onto the cold ground.

She wasn't afraid of the cold; eastern Japan was much warmer than Sweden, and the November temperature wasn't even enough for her to turn on the heating.

But for some reason, a chill seeped into her body through the soles of her feet, stinging her nerve endings, causing her to subconsciously pick up the dusty remote control and turn on the air conditioner's heating function.

"Aha……"

Sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at the distance from the bed to the door, Natsukawa Masaki realized for the first time how big her house was, so big that it seemed to take several tens of minutes to even leave the room.

However, you need to take good care of yourself.

You have to be strong enough that you don't need anyone to protect you and that you no longer have to cry.

Who said that to her? Her mother?

Of course, there would be no one else but her mother.

The only person she cares about, the only person who cares about her in this world, is her mother.

As she asked and answered herself, Natsukawa Masuzu dragged her weak steps and slowly left the room. She slowly washed her face with hot water, without brushing her teeth or combing her hair, and slowly returned to the room with water stains on her face.

She was hungry and thirsty, but strangely, she had no desire to eat at all. She only managed to drink a few drops of water, as if her body was refusing any action that would allow her to survive.

"It's ridiculous, when did I become so dramatic..."

Lying in bed, she stared blankly at the ceiling. The white light slowly diffused into a misty haze, as if she could see the dead characters from JoJo beckoning to her.

Master Zeppeli, Caesar, Kakyoin, Fat Shige, Bucciarati...

"It must have been a nightmare."

She closed her eyes, letting her body heat continuously dissipate from her empty chest, even with the heating on, it couldn't bring much warmth.

It's like the pillar you depend on for survival has suddenly disappeared from your life, like being betrayed by the thing you trust most—that feeling of the sky falling and your life instantly turning black and white...

"...I see."

I must have been dreaming that my mother had an accident, right?

Because it was too sad and too painful, I didn't want to think about it. Only the pain of my heart being torn apart and my chest being cut open remained in my body.

I felt somewhat relieved.

Of course, because I know my mother is definitely alright and is living a good life somewhere I don't know about.

As a bargaining chip to make her obey, no matter how unwilling she was, her father would do his best to protect her safety.

Therefore, what Natsukawa Masuzu was afraid of was not the content of the nightmare.

Instead, they didn't know why they had become so distraught.

Feeling relieved that she had found the answer, she let the pale light carry away her consciousness and fell into a deep sleep again.

……

"You said you would never leave me..."

Struggling to reach her hand towards the sky, she woke up by the window in the deep darkness of night.

He held his palms against the clean white ceiling as if trying to grasp something, then weakly covered his forehead with them.

Forgetting what she had just murmured, letting the wet touch spread from her cheeks to behind her ears, Natsukawa Masuzu stared blankly at the empty space in front of her, like a beautifully carved, dusty doll.

After a long while, she silently propped herself up and went to the toilet to wash up.

It was 6 p.m., and I had regained a lot of strength compared to 12 hours ago. Although the hunger and thirst were more intense, I was at least able to walk around the house normally.

She turned off the tap and looked at herself in the mirror. Her pale, disheveled face was expressionless, and her eyes were dark and dull, like an empty shell that only knew how to follow the operating principles, having lost its most important core.

"Is this the Natsukawa family's jewel? How ridiculous."

Even as he mocked himself, he remained completely unmoved.

Natsukawa Masuzu returned to her room, glanced at her black-screened phone, and without checking whether the message was from her teacher or her father, walked to the bookshelf and casually picked up a JoJo manga.

When she was sad, lonely, or confused, she relied on this comic to support herself, mocking the fate of being a slave with the characters in it, instead of being like a prisoner, sighing all day and hoping that a prince would change her life.

The same applies now. Even if the impact of the "nightmare" is unexpectedly large, as long as I read a few more JoJo books, I will definitely be able to return to my normal self soon.

Just as Natsukawa Masuzu sat down at his desk and opened the first volume of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Part 6", the doorbell rang.

She raised her head slightly in confusion, but quickly looked back down at the comic book—she didn't want to see anyone right now.

She wouldn't open the door to anyone except her mother.

"...I will consider calling the police and asking the property management to open the door for me."

"whispering sound."

With a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth and a look of displeasure on her face, Natsukawa Masuzu put down the book. To avoid trouble, she could only walk to the front door, pull open the security chain, hide behind the door crack, and reflexively reveal a barbed sneer.

"Under the snow? Ah, what a rare guest..."

Then, their eyes met, eyes that were both unfamiliar and strangely familiar.

In that instant.

She seemed to hear someone whispering something in her ear, gentle yet helpless:

"Take good care of yourself while I'm gone."

—But without you, I am no longer a complete person.

Chapter Thirty-Two: Tests and Porridge

Coming back to her senses, Natsukawa Masuzu pursed her warm lips and looked at Yuigahama Yui.

"Why is Tenkuji here too?"

"Ah, this is related to our club. Originally, only Xiaoxue would come..."

After explaining the reasons why there are so many people in her family now, Yui Yuigahama looked at her still slightly furrowed brows and tilted her head in confusion.

"What's wrong? Is there anything you don't understand?"

Natsukawa Masaki hesitated for a moment, hiding her bewildered eyes in the steam of the hot tea, and sighed softly.

"No, it's just that my mother... someone told me that I shouldn't let men who aren't my boyfriends into my house, so I'm a little concerned about that."

"Don't say things like that when you've received help from someone."

Taking a sip of the hot tea in her paper cup, Yukino Yukinoshita lowered her eyes slightly and said softly, "Anyway, he left after he finished cooking the porridge. He had no chance and wouldn't have done anything to you. There's no need to worry about such useless things."

The tone carried a hint of reproach, as if someone was defending someone who was currently cooking porridge in the kitchen and didn't want them to be misunderstood.

Knowing that the other party had helped him a great deal, and could even be considered his benefactor, Natsukawa Masuzu, driven by some instinct ingrained in his DNA, still retorted sarcastically:

"Of course I know, it's just that normal girls have concerns, and I hope Yukinoshita can understand."

Receiving the hostile signal, Yukino Yukinoshita raised an eyebrow, her sharp gaze piercing through the heat and coldly fixed on her.

"Are you trying to say I'm abnormal? Then I suggest you see a doctor more often. It's understandable to be physically weak, but if you have cognitive problems, you need to actively seek treatment."