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II: Lily of the Valley
Chapter 109: Reed Flowers
I have a grandpa and a sister.

***

The red sunset hung on the distant horizon, the orange-red sunset glow spread over the rows of tall buildings, and the black curtain silently covered the entire city. The red sun sank in the mountains, and the last ray of sunlight was swallowed up by the night.

The night in September was exceptionally quiet, with the faint chirping of insects floating among the green branches and leaves.

Soft light overflowed from the crack in the door, and there was a pair of red sneakers at the entrance.

A guest came to the Yoshino tonight, and Junpei made a new friend.

She was passing by the river embankment when she returned home. The river water was burnt into a beautiful golden red by the setting sun, like thick syrup. She saw two boys on the river bank. At first, they looked familiar. When they walked in, she realized that they were her son and an unknown boy. He seemed to be about the same age as Junpei, and seemed to have found some common topic. She saw her son's brows stained with joy from a distance.

Since a certain time, Junpei had fallen into a state of self-isolation, not caring about the things among the crowd, not being noticed by the crowd, rejecting and tired of social communication. It was not sudden that this state changes one day. The changes were little by little. At first, he came home dirty, sneaked to the bathroom to change out of dirty clothes, and started eating big meals. Later, he went out frequently, and after being bumped into by her once, he simply didn't bother to cover up, and went out openly, and went home dirty to change clothes. His brows became increasingly energetic, and his words became tougher.

She realized that her son's change was due to someone he came into contact with outside.

Later, she met the little redhead that she had not seen for more than ten years. Her vision was not wrong. When she grew up, the little redhead was a beauty, a big beauty with red hair. Her son's transformation came from this little red head.

The last time her son was so happy was two months ago.

Nagi thought about it, and walked over. The boy's hair looked like cherry blossoms in spring, and his stomach was rumbling loudly. She suddenly found it funny, and she invited him to her home for dinner.

Nagi was in a good mood these two days. Although she had been angry for a while about her son being bullied at school without telling her about it before, but fortunately she had found a new job in Tokyo. The savings were enough for her to settle down in Tokyo with her son Junpei.

In a few days, they would move to Tokyo and start over.

Tokyo.

Nagi thought of Yayoi and moved to Tokyo. The little redhead now lived in Tokyo. When she was free, she could go and play with the little redhead.

When she was young, the little red-haired girl was as beautiful as a porcelain doll. Compared with other naughty children who loved crying and making noises, this little red-haired girl was dumbfounded and didn't look angry. In fact, she used the most innocent expression to do it. Carrying out the most vicious school bully incident, she beat the little kid in the kindergarten until he cried for his father and mother.

It had been many years since they had seen each other. When they were saying goodbye, the little girl came to say goodbye to her with a whole glass jar full of candies. The candies in the glass jar were shiny, and the round candies one after another were wrapped in beautiful tinfoil. Here, she knew that the redhead had a hobby of saving candies, so she kept saving them, and unknowingly she had a whole glass jar. All the candies that she finally saved were given to her.

"Sister Nagi, I will give you the candy, so you can stop smoking."

She vaguely remembered the little girl's eyes, which were beautiful amber eyes filled with clear sunshine.

"Sister Nagi, will we meet again?" "

Nagi was so sad at that time that she wanted to pack the redhead into the suitcase and take her away.

It's a pity that she was someone else's little redhead.

It didn’t matter if it belonged to someone else. The redhead was so beautiful. Why wouldn’t some people like her?

Her consciousness was tugging between chaos and clarity, and the sound of the neighbor's quarrel more than ten years ago echoed in her ears.

Nagi, who was very drunk, felt her nose was sore. She sniffed, and the alcohol was so strong that she directly raised the can and slammed the table. The table was banged by her, and Junpei watched helplessly as he grew older.

His mother started drinking like crazy in front of his friend. She banged the table so loudly that it hurt her own hand. She felt aggrieved and cried out that it hurt.

Junpei couldn't help but say, "...mom, you drank too much!"

Not to mention that Yuji was still there when she was drunk. Junpei, who rarely invited friends to his house for dinner, was extremely embarrassed.

I'm so sad!" Nagi raised her head and drank all the beer in the can. Her heroic attitude shocked the two boys present.

Junpei: "...sorry, my mom drank too much."

"If I were not a minor, I would also like to drink like this once." The little tiger with a high emotional intelligence looked at Nagi who drank until her face turned red with a bright smile. Junpei even saw the overflowing envy on it.

"Junpei's mother is a very good person." Yuji said from the bottom of his heart.

Junpei paused and said that it was too late and then his mother slapped her face on the table in front of him. He was so frightened that Junpei almost fell over with his chair. Thanks to Yuji's quick reaction and timely response, he held up a chair.

Junpei watched his drunken mother throw away the empty can, with a ferocious expression on her face, and muttered in a fierce tone, "Why would there be someone in this world who doesn't like little redhead!"

Junpei was stunned for a long time before he realized that the little redhead his mother was talking about was Yayoi.

But...

What did this had to do with Yayoi-san?

Junpei is full of complaints and his drunken mother was so willful that she knew no bounds.

"Don't give it to me!" The drunk mother jumped up from the chair and said angrily, "I should have stuffed her into the suitcase and packed it away together when I knew I was moving!"

Junpei: "..."

What was this all about? No one wanted to be stuffed into a suitcase and packed away, right?

"Auntie, I understand you!" Yuji stood up straight from the chair, his movements were like lifting a corpse from a coffin, and he knocked over the chair because of his too much movement.

Junpei: "..."
Why were you joining in the fun?

The moment a drunkard and a spirited young man met their eyes, they felt an inexplicable sympathy for each other. Junpei immediately had the feeling that these two pairs of eyes would burst into tears when they looked at each other.

Junpei: "..."

"Although her brain is not very bright, she is very well-behaved." Nagi said tremblingly.

"She acts faster than her brain, but her intuition is always accurate." Yuji responded tremblingly.

"She looked so silly and easy to trick..." Nagi continued.

Perhaps because of the alcohol, Junpei actually saw mist in his mother's eyes.

"Those who lie to her will go to the hospital," Yuji continued, "because they will be beaten if they find out."
So far, the only person who had not been admitted to the hospital after deceiving his sister was Gojo-sensei, because he was the strongest.

Junpei: ???
What were you skepticism about?

"That little redhead..." Nagi sniffed.

"Her name is Yayoi Amamiya." Yuji told the truth, "She is my sister."

Junpei: ???

`My younger brother can support both of you. His weight has already exceeded 80Kg.`
`Yuji is not fat. He is all muscle. His body fat percentage is in single digits.`

The thoughtful big boy recalled the conversation two months ago, and then recalled the scene of Yuji holding someone's pants and running wildly. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Yuji's strong muscles under his school uniform, and he realized.

Junpei looked at Yuji with complicated eyes, thinking that he was the gorilla who weighted 80kg and had a single-digit body fat rate.

"Never mind she's someone else's little red-haired girl, why doesn't that person's father still like her?" Nagi picked up the glass bottle next to her with a ferocious expression and pointed the bottle at Yuji with the momentum of a gangster holding a steel pipe.

"I like my sister very much. Auntie, don't talk nonsense!" Yuji shouted, "Who is that 'other family' who doesn't like the little redhead? My sister is from our Itadori family!"
It didn't matter which family his sister had lived in before, or whether she was related by blood or not. Now that she was at Itadori's house, she was his, Yuji Itadori's sister!

"Huh? When did little redhead become your sister?" Three Yujis appeared in Nagi's sight. Her eyes were confused. The three Yujis were dangling in her sight, she shook her head, "She has a younger brother but she didn't tell me... *hic*, speaking of which, Yuji-kun... is really a bit like little redhead, little redhead... *hic* especially good at *hic*... running... very fast... *hic*..."

There was a lot of noise in the living room, and the two people started singing cross talk. The glass bottle in Nagi's hand rolled to the floor. Junpei felt that the night was endless.

After dinner, Yuji stayed to help Junpei clear away the empty plates on the table. Nagi collapsed on the sofa in the living room, belched alcohol, turned over, and collapsed on the sofa like a salted fish.

At the end of summer and early autumn, the weather gradually turned cooler in September. She might catch a cold just lying in the living room like this. Junpei tried to wake up her mother, but Nagi waved her hand and told the two boys in the living room who dared to disturb her sleep, she would go to find the little redhead to beat him. In desperation, Junpei had no choice but to dig out a blanket from the room and cover it with his drunkard mother. After she was covered with a blanket, Nagi turned over, muttered something, tilted her head, and fell asleep.

She looked as willful as a little girl when sleeping, but she was an adult woman who could say famous quotes that only adults could say. After becoming a mother, both her mentality and life experience were developing in a more mature direction. A naive little girl would be left in the past by her mature mother, but his mother left behind that little girl, her still young self who was not yet a mother, herself who was young, beautiful and big.

"Junpei likes his mother very much." Yuji smiled gently.

The soft light fell into his eyes, sparkling as if containing starlight.

"Of course, she is my mother." Junpei tucked Nagi's blanket.

He didn't know when it started, but he and his mother were the only ones left at home. The only person left in his life was his mother, his most important relative, a relative connected by blood, a relative who respected him and loved him.

"What kind of person is Itadori-kun's mother?" Junpei couldn't help but speak, his mother-like face softening.

Yuji paused, as if in a daze, and looked into the olive green eyes that suddenly became energetic.

"Mother?"

Yuji found that there was no mother, mother's preferences, mother's voice, mother's appearance, not even a faint outline in his memory. His father's memory also faded into vague outlines and color blocks. He only had grandpa and sister.

"I haven't seen her, but dad, has a vague impression of him." Yuji said casually, with a calm and relaxed tone.

"But I have a grandpa and a sister." Yuji scratched his hair at the temples, and an unsophisticated smile appeared on his face involuntarily.

"Sister... is she Yayoi-san?" Junpei said.

"Yeah." Yuji nodded vigorously, "Although we are not related by blood, but... family is family, and nothing else seems to be so important."

His mother was like a concept in his memory, and his father was lost in time. At first, he only had his grandfather, a strong and stubborn old man with white hair. To him, his grandfather was no different from his parents. In the spring when he was five years old, it seemed that not long after his birthday, the cherry blossoms in Sendai were blooming exceptionally brilliantly, and the warm sunshine fell into the yard like a thin layer of honey. He had a sister who came with a cat in her arms.

The two older boys chatted without a word. Nagi was sleeping comfortably on the sofa covered with a blanket, and the soft light filled the polished dining table.

After Yuji received Ijichi's call, he said goodbye to Junpei.

The cool night breeze carried the undulating calls of night owls, and the lights in the residential area were like stars scattered on the sky. The stars in the city were bright, while the sky in the wilderness was dim.

Yoshino house's door closed behind him, and there was an exceptionally clear sound in the dark night.

Yuji turned around and plunged into the long night. In the starless night, the darkness shrouded like an overwhelming tide, flooding the entire sky, and the lonely lights fell into the empty alleys.

The bright headlights dispersed the bottomless shadows. The black car stopped in front of him. The window slowly rolled down. The person sitting in the back seat looked up at him, her amber eyes gentle and bright.

"How do you feel?" Yayoi bent her eyes at him.

Yuji scratched his face and smiled softly, "Well, we might... no, we are quite compatible."

Insects chirped at night, the moonlight pierced the thick haze, and the bright full moon hung high in the sky, casting a long shadow on the ground.

Yuji opened the car door, sat in, stretched his legs, but hit the passenger seat. The car was too small, but he straightened his legs and retracted them.

His mood was not affected.

"Sister." Yuji suddenly said.

"Are you not full?" Yayoi blinked, "There is a mobile ramen stall in the alley."

"It's nothing, I just think it's nice to have sister here." Yuji raised a bright smile, tilted his pink head directly on Yayoi's shoulder, and arched at his sister's cheek like a big cat.

Yayoi smiled softly and smoothed his hair.

"Sister, where have you been?" Yuji tilted his head and looked at the headlights in front of him, "Why are you here?"

"Went to the sewers." Yayoi replied, "Went to help Nanami-san fight."

"Oh." Yuji sat up straight, "Did you win?"

"It's not a win," Yayoi said, "let it run away."

"Where is Nanamin?" Yuji didn't see Kento.

"Nanamin?" Yayoi paused, then realized it was Kento. She suddenly felt that it was suitable for Kento, but she didn't know if he would like it. "Nanami-san wants to go back to the high school."

"The opponent is a bit tricky." Yayoi added.

Yuji paused, "The opponent... is a curse spirit?"

"It's a cursed spirit." Yayoi answered in the affirmative, "I seem to be on its blacklist. You should be careful lately."

After the appearance of two special-grade cursed spirits and the person who stole Suguru's body, she always felt that there was something wrong. Even if the two special-grade cursed spirits and the impostor were added together, for now, Satoru didn't have to put much effort into beating them to death. On the surface, the problem was not that big, but precisely because there was no problem, she became more and more uneasy.

Her younger brother turned into a "Sukuna vessel", then special-grade cursed spirits appeared together, and then there was an impostor who stole Suguru's body. She thought again of Junpei, who had been in close contact with the cursed spirit, and her uneasiness swelled again.

"Sister?" Yuji's voice brought back her divergent thoughts.

Yayoi closed her divergent gaze and raised her eyes, "Yuji, I want to go to Junpei's house."

"Eh?"

"Junpei is a child who doesn't like to talk too much." Yayoi lowered her eyelashes, "If you don't ask him carefully, he will not interfere or explain too much, whether it is his own affairs or other people's affairs."

She herself was such a person.

"Junpei, somewhere, at a certain time, he came into contact with that cursed spirit."

This was her intuition.

***

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

• Omake •

Gojo the Cat: Get out of the way, this redhead belongs to me.



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