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II: Lily of the Valley
Chapter 54: Us
Past events are like songs.

***

April 2017 ■ Outskirts of Sendai,

The night cherry blossoms were blooming outside the window, the orange lights reflected the lush flowers, and mottled shadows fall on the moss-covered corners.

The study meeting was an annual three-day and two-night off-campus tutoring session. Students could sign up freely. Compared with on-campus, the atmosphere of the study meeting outside the school was more relaxed and pleasant.

The students were divided into various classes, and each class was divided into several groups. During the three days and two nights of the study meeting, they stayed together, went to school, ate, and slept.

This year's study session of Sugisawa High School was held in the suburbs of Sendai.

After graduating from college, Yayoi returned to her alma mater in Sendai to work as a teacher.

Grandpa was not very happy about the fact that Yayoi returned to Sendai to become a teacher after graduating from university.

Grandpa was an old man with strong self-esteem and strong will. He always thoughts that Yayoi ran back to Sendai to become a teacher because of himself.

The hard-spoken and soft-hearted little old man believed that whether Yayoi or Yuji, they should plan their lives and work hard for themselves. Even though Yayoi and Yuji were still young, they both have a bright future and prospects. At best, he was an old man with one foot in the coffin.

Yayoi and Yuji were still young and have plenty of time and youth. They were both very strong and should do meaningful things and help more people instead of hanging around a useless old man like him every day.

When he said this, Wasuke was still hospitalized. The weather had changed frequently in the past few days, and he accidentally contracted influenza. He had a fever in the middle of the night and still refused to go to the hospital.

Yayoi and Yuji had experience in handling matters such as grandpa being sick and unwilling to go to the hospital. One of the two siblings rushed out of the door with the person on their back, while the other prepared the documents and followed closely behind. The two of them ran towards the hospital with their grandfather roaring, "You two unworthy grandchildren, I don't want to go to the hospital."

"Yayoi, you are a good child. You and Yuji are both powerful. You should not spend time on an old man like me." Grandpa was wearing a hospital gown and sitting on the bedside.

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom recently. The heavy flowers bend the branches, and the delicate petals hold small and delicate dewdrops, and the sun shone on the dewdrops.

Grandpa didn't look at Yayoi. He was tilting his head and looking at the cherry blossoms in full bloom outside the window.

The beautiful cherry blossoms bloom enthusiastically and energetically, just like a girl in her prime, just like Yayoi.

Yayoi was only twenty-four years old. Although her brain sometimes good, sometimes bad, she was an excellent child with beautiful appearance. She was the type that many boys like. At this age, she should fall in love and work hard for her career, instead of sitting around next to an old man

Grandpa moved his mouth, wanting to say something, but closed it again. He knew that neither Yayoi nor Yuji wanted him to speak like this.

Yayoi was peeling an apple for her grandfather. The blade of the fruit knife was pressed against the apple, and her thumb was pressed against the blade. The bright peel fell off in circles as the peel rotates.

Yayoi lowered her eyelashes, creating a shallow silhouette under her eyes.

"Grandpa, I want to be a teacher." Yayoi twirled the apple in circles, "I still don't understand many things."

"I chose to be a teacher because I think the answers I want can be found in my students." Yayoi cut the apple into small pieces and placed them on a washed white porcelain plate.

"Someone said before that I would not be able to be a human being sooner or later." Yayoi inserted a toothpick into the apple block, "So now I am learning from my students how to be a human being."

"Someone taught me how to be a good person." Yayoi put the plate on the bedside table beside her grandfather, "But before I fully learned it, they left me."

"So I've only learned a few things until now." Yayoi said softly, "So, grandpa, let me be a teacher, even though I'm not a qualified teacher."

Wasuke's hands folded on the quilt clenched involuntarily.

From the first meeting, Wasuke knew that Yayoi was a little girl who was different from ordinary people. Which normal person would seriously injure four vicious bullies and send them to the police without him noticing? She was very strong, and like his grandson, she was destined not to be a mediocre ordinary person.

Three years later, this little red-haired girl was entrusted to the Itadori family because of her mother's death. After spending time together, he discovered that Yayoi's outlook on life was distorted. At first, she might have been like a blank sheet of paper.

A person's three views would grow along with their physical growth, but Yayoi's three views were stuck in the most blank period for a certain period of time, like a bird in a cage, looking up at the sky day after day, but she didn't know how high or far the sky was. Her world was trapped in a cage, and her sight and outlook were also trapped. This situation didn't end until someone brought bits and pieces of the world into her world.

The process of growing up in a cage was not correct. The consequence of someone forcibly correcting it later was that her three views would become distorted. What's more, the correction was not complete, and the missing things were not made up. Yayoi vaguely realized that she was missing something, and instinctively wanted to make up for it.

Haruna, what happened to your child?

Why did this child...

Wasuke sighed and loosened his grip on the quilt, leaving wrinkled marks on the quilt.

Wasuke waved to Yayoi, and Yayoi ran over obediently.

The old man with all white hair stretched out his hand and gently stroked the bright red hair, "It doesn't matter if you can't learn it."

"You just need to live your life well." Wasuke said, "Do what you want to do."

Don't be like him, growing old in the years and reaching the end of your life in vain.

"But you can't hang around an old man like me all the time, and so does Yuji." Grandpa's face turned serious for a moment, and he scolded loudly, "Don't your school have extracurricular tutoring? Are you a teacher? Since the teacher has to take care of the students, don't refuse! Go and take care of the students!"

So Yayoi was kicked out of the hospital by her grandfather that day. Under her grandfather's frequent reminders, she obeyed the school's assignment and taught students in a study group tutoring class outside Sendai.

Owls were most active in the middle of the night. After winter, the temperature had warmed up, and the activities of owls that like to be active at night have become more frequent.

The sound of rustling leaves could be heard in the ears, and the call of owls echoed in the shrouded in darkness.

Yayoi held a flashlight, and the light gathered into a bunch of light swept across the ink-colored grass. The soles of her feet were soil and fallen leaves wet by the spring rain, and her nose was filled with the scent of flowers and the earthy smell of rain.

Tonight was Yayoi's turn to stay on duty. This was the outskirts of Sendai. Although there were no large carnivores, the weather had warmed up in spring and hibernating snakes have woken up from their nests. Apart from snakes, many things could cause safety problems.

High school students at this age have a very high desire for exploration and action, and they like to go out on dark nights to try out adventures. Even if the teacher repeatedly told them to pay attention to safety, everything was thrown away in their head and didn't know which corner it was missing.

Mishima-sensei, who was on duty last night, caught a bunch of little b*stards who wanted to go to the abandoned school building to try their luck. The students who were caught were normally punished with the day's duty and a 2,500-word self-examination.

On the first day of the dormitory, the teacher repeatedly warned not to go to the abandoned school building at the back. It was a very old school building and had become a dangerous building over time. Many of the facilities were aging. If the building partially collapsed, it would not be a common misfortune, but would result in loss of life.

In June last year, other schools held their annual study meeting here. Several students secretly went to the abandoned school building. Only one person came out in the end, and that person was still lying in the hospital. The attending doctor said that it was because he was overly frightened that he became like this. The brain's self-protection mechanism caused him to fall into a deep coma.

Yayoi walked around the old school building several times. The light swept over the barbed wire fence and passed the yellow warning signs to confirm that there were no students here.

The danger in the dilapidated building with old facilities was secondary. The most important thing was that the school building had become a nest where the curse was entrenched.

Yayoi's ears twitched, and the sound of the soles of her shoes was heard by the clicking of dead branches and leaves on the ground, the rustling of the ground, the hooting of owls in the wind, and the sounds of men and women talking.

'There were disobedient students again.'

Yayoi stepped forward and strode towards the source of the sound. She raised her flashlight and the beam of the flashlight directly hit the face of a boy among several children.

"There's too much noise," Yayoi said, "young men and young girls who stay up in the middle of the night."

"Obviously Yayoi-sensei is not much older than us!" The boy who was hit in the face by the beam didn't feel guilty about being a thief at all. He muttered super loudly, "Aaah, why did you find us! We are obviously very careful!"

"The footsteps are too loud, Sakai-san." Yayoi answered the question super seriously.

"It's all your fault, Sakai!" The girl slapped Sakai on the shoulder, and the 'slap' sound was particularly loud.

"It hurts!" The boy called Sakai rubbed his shoulders.

"Aren't you afraid of ghosts at night? Saegusa-san." Yayoi bared her teeth and made a super fierce expression.

The girl named Saegusa stuck out her tongue, not showing any fear at all, "Yayoi-sensei's face with this expression is not scary at all! And the ghost stuff is a lie, right?"

Several children happened to be in the class of Yayoi. Compared with other teachers in the school, Yayoi was younger, with a beautiful young face and amber eyes that sparkled when she smiled, like a cat.

Unlike most teachers who always like to maintain a serious attitude, Yayoi looked like an adolescent girl. When she was active, she looked like an energetic cat. With her face that was somewhere between a girl and an adult woman, it didn't feel out of place at all.

After getting along for a long time, the students would find that this red-haired teacher with strange hair and eye-catching appearance was full of strange brain circuits, and the things she occasionally did would make even trouble-loving boys at this age dumbfounded. When she was full of troughs and wanted to vomit, she felt disgusted that she had to open her mouth. [1]

Yayoi was the teacher with the most beautiful appearance and the most eye-catching hair color in the school, and she was full of strange ideas.

The beautiful and young red-haired teacher was unexpectedly popular among the students.

"It's getting late. Staying up late is a taboo for girls to be beautiful." Yayoi waved the flashlight, "If you want to have a courage test, go back and change places. This way is blocked."

Sakai's face fell suddenly, "But we have been planning for a long time."

"But I'm on duty here." Yayoi said with a sudden change of scenery, "It's not impossible to go there if you want."

Sakai's eyes lit up, "Hey, are there any conditions? Tell me quickly!"

Yayoi held the flashlight in her armpit, rolled up her sleeves, and exposed her fair elbows, "If you can beat me in an arm wrestling match, you can pass."

"..."

"..."

"..."

We could not do it, this was the red-haired teacher who could throw a shot put straight across the playground with her bare hands!

"That won't work." Yayoi said regretfully, "If the small boss in front of the big boss can't be defeated, the big boss behind will be even more useless."

"Sensei is the real boss!" Sakai said with a sad face.

"Okay." Yayoi put her hands on her hips, "That's it for now, boys and girls, go back to the dormitory and sleep. I won't punish you for doing the inspection and duty!"

After all the students were driven back to the dormitory to sleep by Yayoi, Yayoi took a flashlight and wandered around for a while. On the way, she accidentally made eye contact with an owl on the tree, and encountered a grinning little wild cat. A few disobedient students had no other emergencies in the first half of the night.

Yayoi planned to put out the flashlight and go back to sleep.

In April, the cherry blossoms in Sendai were in full bloom, falling like rain and snow. The full moon inlaid in the sky was cool and round, and the moonlight danced on the shadows of the falling trees.

A huge shadow fell from the sky, the air suddenly became thicker, and a cold breath passed through the sky.

It was a huge bird with a long beak and a bulging throat pouch, like a pelican. It stretched its huge wings across the cold full moon, and when it passed through the sky, it cast a huge drop shadow on the ground.

That's a cursed spirit.

Yayoi paused.

The cursed spirit stopped on the rooftop of the abandoned school building, opened its huge mouth, and two girls jumped out of it; one with short black hair and the other with platinum blond hair.

Yayoi turned off the flashlight, put it in her pocket, and planned to leave.

Those two girls were not ordinary people. Satoru and Suguru once told her that there were two types of people who could use cursed energy, one was the sorcerers and the other was the curse users.

Both were people who use curses, but there was a fundamental difference. If we really want to distinguish, the curse users were evil people who would use curses to kill ordinary people unscrupulously, while the sorcerers exorcised the cursed spirits, protect the weak, and maintained ordinary social order.

Suguru told her so.

At that time, Satoru was huddled in the kotatsu like a cat cake, holding Yayoi's Shiba Inu pillow. The originally bulging Shiba Inu pillow was squashed flat by him, and he supported his chin with one hand.

"This is Suguru's righteousness." Satoru held his chin and curled his lips, "I hate righteousness the most."

As a result, the two of them had a quarrel, which almost overturned the kotatsu in her house. In the end, she stuffed a mouthful of oranges into their mouths to stop them.

That winter, the courtyard was quiet and desolate, the world was all white, and it was as cold as a palace in heaven.

Yayoi didn't know yet whether the two children were curse users or sorcerers. The two children were similar in age to her students.

Yayoi's five senses were well-developed, and even from a long distance, fragmented words enter her ears with the wind. The fragmented words were probably words like 'Geto-sama' and 'monkey'.

Among the people Yayoi knew, only Suguru used the surname Geto.

The past was like spring water that suddenly gushed out, but it had passed by and was left in the past forever.

She hadn't seen those two people for a long time.

***

· Genuine translation can be found only in OchatimesBlogspotCom, FanFictionNet, and Wattpad

[1] I'm a bit confused with the last sentence though, probably some idioms, the rough understanding of the last sentence probably Yayoi will say anything what was on her mind.



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