Aunt Xiangzi, how did you manage to live?

After a short wait, the doorbell was rang.

"……who is it?"

A girl's slightly hoarse voice came through the communicator next to the electronic doorbell.

Without even thinking, Xiao instinctively recognized that it was Mu's voice.

However, this instinct was also subtly reminding him of something else.

Something seems off.

Chapter Ten: Teacher Da Mo, Don't Wear My Mom's Suit

"...Akatsuki? Is it Akatsuki?"

The voice in the communicator paused only briefly before continuing to reach Kazama's ears.

That was clearly Mu's voice, but he always felt that something was not quite right.

"Mu...? Are you alright?"

"I...I'm fine...Xiao, why did you suddenly..."

Mu's voice sounded a little unnatural. Could it be that my uninvited visit made her feel flattered?

"Because I was worried about you. You haven't replied to my messages in a long time, remember?"

Okay, but if he comes knocking on my door without replying to messages, people who don't know the inside story will definitely interpret it as him being sexist—but Mu should be able to understand that, right?

"Well……"

What's going on? Did the voice in your contacts hesitate for a moment?

"Anyway, Xiao, please come in first."

However, with a click, she still pressed the button to open the door.

The door, controlled by an electronic lock, slowly opened, and Kazama temporarily abandoned his skepticism and entered the Wakaba residence at Mutsumi's invitation.

Akira was brought back to the Wakaba residence by Mu at a very young age, and in his heart, this place is an important place closely related to the word "family".

Even years later, when Mu moved with Xiao to a more spacious and bright house that belonged only to the two of them, it was still the place where everything began for Xiao.

But now, this place is a completely different environment from what I remember.

As he walked from the entrance hall into the living room, he felt that something was not quite right. Compared to the scorching summer atmosphere outside the house, the Ruoye residence gave him a cold and lifeless feeling for some reason.

The home furnishings are brand newer than I remember... and for some reason, they feel colder and more devoid of warmth than I remember.

In short, this place doesn't feel like home.

Aside from the light green-haired girl standing in front of the living room table, her hands behind her back, watching him walk into the room.

This place can be defined as "home" simply because it exists here.

It seemed that seeing the boy was like seeing a reassuring presence; a gentle emotion flowed through her beautiful eyes. But soon, her gaze shifted to the cane supporting the boy—

"Xiao... is she ready to be discharged from the hospital?"

She quickly stepped forward a couple of times, seemingly wanting to help but worried that her clumsiness might make things worse, so her hands remained stiffly suspended in mid-air.

"It's okay, it's okay. The doctor said that as long as you go back for regular check-ups, that's enough. Wait, Mingming, you're the one who disappeared without a word during this time."

Kazama carefully scanned Mutsu from head to toe, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he was sure that she was indeed alright.

"What's wrong? Are you in a bad mood?"

But with the naked eye, it was only possible to observe that there was nothing wrong with her physical condition.

So he adopted a gentle tone, trying to break down Mu's defenses.

Logically speaking, it should be very simple, since they have already shared a lot of their innermost thoughts with each other.

But this time it seems a little different.

"No, I just want to be alone for the next few days."

Mutsu nodded obediently and answered his question, which was also a way of showing that she completely ignored Kazama's concern for her.

"........."

Was Mu usually like this?

Kazama sensed that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put it into words.

"Xiao, did you come to see me right after being discharged from the hospital? You must be exhausted... Thank you for always thinking of me."

Mu blinked, her delicate and adorable face, like that of a doll, revealing obvious gratitude and concern.

But this is what made Xiao feel uneasy.

The girl with long, light green hair displayed a rich and appropriate capacity for empathy towards him very smoothly.

This empathy was something that Mutsu in his memory did not possess, and it was a capability that only his "mother," Wakaba Mutsu, possessed much, much later.

Moreover, while this is called empathy, there wasn't any genuine feeling that made Kazama feel truly cared for.

The person in front of me simply realized that I "should" say those words at this moment, which is why I blurted them out.

She is not Mu.

Unfounded speculation, without factual evidence.

But Kazama somehow sensed this information.

"...Has Mu been staying home alone all these days?"

After much deliberation, he decided to remain inactive and observe the situation further.

"Even Xiangzi didn't come to your door looking for you?"

If it weren't for the fact that it would seem strange to blurt out "Who are you?", he probably would have asked that question already.

"No, Xiangzi hasn't contacted me at all lately. But that's fine, since I also want to be alone... Of course, I don't feel uncomfortable if Xiao comes to see me."

What's wrong with him? Kazama could understand why Xiangzi stopped visiting him in the hospital after that incident... but how come he's ignoring even his most important half?

The girl's expression remained calm and undisturbed, as if she were trying to express her clumsy concern for Kazama with words.

Even so, that strange feeling still lingered.

...He talks too much.

Compared to her usual harmony, she was unusually talkative today.

And Mutsumi has always called Toyokawa Shoko "Shoko," right? It seems she just followed Kazama's words and started calling her "Shoko" directly.

"...I see. I'm so glad Mutsu didn't find me strange."

As the saying goes, when you find one cockroach in your room, there's probably already a nest of baby cockroaches building up in the corner.

All the subtle signs on Mu's body seem to point to one thing.

Beneath this familiar Kazama-like exterior lies another unknown soul.

"The one thing I don't want is for Mu to hate me. Does Mu know why?"

In that case, perhaps there is another way to force this "mysterious person" out without having to break the ice.

He stared directly into the girl's eyes, already having made his plans in mind while waiting for her to frown in confusion.

"Why is Xiao so considerate of my feelings? # I X7 [mixed with personal feelings]?"

The girl tilted her head, her cute little face full of confusion.

No, because I love you.

Until Kazama said those words without batting an eye.

"—"

Sure enough, the young lady's expression froze.

It seems this tactic is quite effective.

Kazama kept his smugness to himself and continued to use words to forcefully dismantle the girl's disguise.

"And you are the person I love the most. I want to be family with you, protect you and guard you until the end of my life. I will send you off to rest in peace in front of the funeral hall."

"Wait—isn't that a bit too heavy a word? Is it something you should say in this situation?!"

Miss "Wakaba Mutsumi" seemed unable to bear Kazama's series of heartfelt confessions, and finally completely dropped her pretense, revealing her frantic and indignant side.

As expected, he revealed his true form.

Kazama touched his nose, his face remaining calm and composed—he even felt a little amused by the girl's helpless expression.

But just as he was about to blurt out the question, "You're not Mu, are you?", the doorbell rang unexpectedly again from the entrance.

Ding-dong-

The unpleasant notification sound broke the standoff between the two, even causing Kazama and the girl to simultaneously turn their gazes toward the door.

The one who rang the doorbell was Nagasaki Motoyo, who was completely unaware of all this and looked somewhat uneasy.

If she knew what she was about to face, she would probably only have a more complicated expression.

Chapter Eleven: Your Love Is Nothing More Than This

Nagasaki Motoyo stood at the door of Wakaba's house, feeling slightly uneasy.

The reason she knew Mu's address was certainly not because Mu had told her himself.

"If Mu knew that I found out her address by following her home, she would definitely be unhappy..."

Su Shi murmured to herself, another secret she couldn't tell Mu.

However, in short, she came here under a special circumstance where she had to see Mu and ask her for information.

That was the memory that surfaced in my mind after touching the photograph, about the boy's surname—Wakaba.

There are hundreds of people in Japan with the surname Wakaba, but not every member of the Wakaba family is likely to be related to the future Nagasaki Motoyo.

If what I've witnessed actually happens in the future, it means that the boy might also become a member of the Wakaba family. Plus, he looks similar to Kazama…

There is another point that Su Shi is particularly concerned about.

That was the intimate name my middle-aged self used for the boy in my arms, within that memory.

"Axiao (あき鲁一奇卫&豱8死+④ Damちゃん)..."

This pronunciation can correspond to nicknames like Ah Ming, Ah Liang, and Ah Zhang, but at first glance, she only understood it as an affectionate nickname for Akira.

If these two people are indeed related, we can only tentatively deduce that they are uncle and nephew or even father and son with different spellings but similar pronunciations... But no matter which way we lean, there are inexplicable aspects.

It's too difficult; thinking about such a complicated parent-child relationship is just too difficult.

No matter how hard she tried, Su Shi's little brain couldn't come up with a logically coherent reasoning process.

Since she couldn't figure it out, she might as well just check the Ruoye family's genealogy—of course, that's a bit of an exaggeration; Su Shi just wanted to find some useful clues from Mu.

After calming herself down, Su Shi took a deep breath and nervously pressed the doorbell of the Ruoye family's house.

She returned to her original position and began to wait, but the pleasant doorbell remained unanswered, as if time had stood still for half a century.

I don't know how much time passed before a faint female voice came from the communicator.

"Is this Su Shi? Come in, come in..."

Su Shi's eyes lit up; it was Mu's voice—and she hadn't rejected him.

As the door unlocked, she quickly pushed it open and entered the foyer. But as she looked around for Mu's whereabouts, she caught a glimpse of a scene in the living room that she hadn't expected.

"...Xiaojun?"

Kazama, who was leaning on a cane, had obviously just been discharged from the hospital but for some reason appeared here. He had a playful smile on his face and kept staring at Mutsu beside him.

Mutsu, on the other hand, seemed a little uneasy for some reason, constantly avoiding Kazama's gaze. It wasn't until he saw Suze arrive that he smiled broadly as if he had found a savior.

"Su Shi! Why did you suddenly decide to come to my house to see me?"