Chapter 1: The Precipice

The time rewinds just a bit, to two days before the camping trip.

Nine-thirty in the morning.

I’m driving north along National Route 139. To the east, Mount Fuji looms, its peak scarred deeply by the Osawa Collapse. The surrounding highlands stretch out, a pastoral landscape that seems to go on forever. There are several ranches around here, so the air drifting through the window carries their distinct scent.

It’s not exactly a pleasant smell, but there’s a nostalgic charm to it, reminiscent of childhood, so I keep the window open and continue driving.

The sky is a brilliant blue, not a single cloud in sight—perfect weather.

Today, I’m headed to my grandparents’ house in the northwest part of town. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen them once since coming back here. It’s probably been a decade since I last saw them.

The Civic hums as I follow the road.

Maybe it’s the season, but I notice a lot of campers and tour buses among the passing cars.

This area is rich in tourist attractions, drawing plenty of people for outdoor activities. There are campgrounds and lodging facilities aplenty, including the one we’re going to the day after tomorrow, not far from here.

I turn onto a road that cuts through the woods, heading toward my mother’s family home—the Togami residence.

“It’s been a while, huh.”

The Togami house is a traditional Japanese estate. The spacious front garden features a pond with a bridge, and the shrubs and trees are meticulously maintained.

I spot a small figure watering the plants. Sneaking up quietly from behind, I call out.

“Yo!”

“Wah! Oh, Yuu-chan!?”

“Long time no see, Grandma.”

“Oh, goodness, you startled me!”

My maternal grandmother—Togami Katsuno—puts a hand to her chest and lets out a big sigh.

“Sorry, sorry.”

Her slightly hunched back, thick reading glasses, short hair, and pleasantly plump figure—she’s almost exactly as I remember her. Maybe a few more white hairs, but that’s about it.

“Where’s Grandpa?”

“He’s at the co-op. Oh, you really gave me a shock.”

Standing around talking in the heat isn’t ideal, so we head inside. In a tatami room facing the garden, we sip cold barley tea and catch up on old times.

“You haven’t shown your face once since graduating high school. You came back in March, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“You could’ve come by at least once. Not even showing up for New Year’s, honestly!”

“Well, I’ve been busy, you know.”

“Really, now.”

Grandma sets her glass on an adorable rabbit-shaped coaster and stands up.

“I’ve got some snacks. Want some? Oh, and by the way, right now—”

Just then, the intercom chimes.

“Hm? Who could that be?”

Grandma trudges toward the entrance. I sip my tea alone, wandering around the room.

The stains on the walls, the arrangement of the furniture, the grain of the wooden pillars—everything’s just as it was. Sure, the landline, fridge, and air conditioner have been updated to newer models, but still.

It’s a bit far from our house, so we didn’t visit often, but this place is packed with precious childhood memories.

Grandma still hasn’t come back.

Peeking toward the entrance, I see her chatting with a middle-aged woman. Looks like she’ll be a while. Maybe I’ll explore the house a bit more.

I glance into the great hall.

It’s about thirty tatami mats in size, with long, narrow tables lined up in parallel. During New Year’s or Obon, relatives would gather here for lively banquets.

My mom’s side of the family, led by her, are all heavy drinkers—people who love alcohol more than three square meals. They’d find any excuse to get together and throw a drinking party in this room. The clamor of those days feels like it’s coming back to life.

“Hm?”

Between the tables and the TV, I spot something that seems out of place.

A small notebook with red polka dots. Next to it, a pen with a Hello ○tty keychain, left carelessly behind.

In a room that reeks of sake-soaked banquets, something this cute stands out. It must be Grandma’s, but isn’t it a bit too whimsical?

Maybe she wants to keep her heart young forever.

I head upstairs to Grandpa’s study.

It smells of dust and something oily. This room, too, is almost unchanged from the past.

The walls on both sides are lined with towering bookshelves, crammed with all sorts of books. A writing desk sits in front of the window, but the room’s owner is absent. Grandma did say he’s at the co-op.

On the desk, a stack of novels sits alongside a sake cup and a bag of dried squid, tossed there haphazardly. An empty sake bottle rolls on the floor nearby.

Grandpa used to read here while sipping sake. When I was a kid, I’d sneak in and he’d share his snacks with me. Since I couldn’t drink sake—still not much of a drinker—I’d sip cider or cola, pretending to keep up.

“Oh?”

Here, too, I find something that doesn’t quite fit.

On a table in the center of the room, there’s a small container holding candies like strawberry milk chews and Hi-Chews.

If memory serves, Grandpa wasn’t fond of sweets…

Well, people’s tastes can change, I suppose.

I continue wandering through the house, lost in memories.

“Here it is.”

A certain room on the second floor.

This place holds especially vivid memories.

While the adults were engrossed in their banquets, my cousins and I would gather here to play games. This house only had a Super ○tendo, so we’d bring our Game○ubes or Play○tation 2s, or play on handheld consoles like the Game ○oy Advance or D○.

I open the door. The first thing that catches my eye is—

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

A pair of white panties, wrapped around a backside.

＊

Golden hair cascading down her back, skin as white as snow. Blue eyes peering at me over her shoulder. She’s holding a T-shirt she just took off in her right hand.

Her doll-like, perfectly sculpted face shows a flicker of shock at this sudden encounter—and I’m just as rattled.

W-Who is she?

She looks like a teenager, maybe middle school age?

Our eyes lock, and neither of us moves an inch. The suddenness of it all has us both frozen, unable to process the situation. A sweet fragrance drifts from the room, but that’s beside the point.

“Uh…”

As I start to speak, she turns to face me. And then she screams.

“Eek!”

Her piercing shriek snaps me back to reality.

Oh no. This makes it look like I’m some kind of pervert who came to peep on a girl changing!

“S-Sorry!”

I quickly slam the door shut.

What in the world just happened?

More importantly, who was that beautiful girl? This house is supposed to be just Grandpa and Grandma… so why is there a blonde bombshell here? N-No way… did they, at their age…?

No, that’s impossible… or is it? If that girl’s, say, fifteen, and I work backward from my grandparents’ ages… but she clearly has foreign blood in her…

“Wait!”

A secret lovechild?

No, no, what am I even thinking?

I’m panicking so much my thoughts are spiraling into absurdity. I take a deep breath to calm myself. I need to ask Grandma—she’d know what’s going on. I hurry back downstairs.

“Huh? Where’d she go?”

She was at the entrance earlier, but now she’s nowhere in sight.

“Grandma?”

I check the kitchen, the great hall, everywhere I can think of, but she’s not there. Did she step outside? I slip on my shoes and head out.

I check the garden, but she’s not there either.

“This is bad.”

I can’t bring myself to go back inside. Just who was that girl? I wait outside for about ten minutes until Grandma returns, arms full of vegetables.

“Hey!”

Oh, right, there’s a vegetable patch out back.

“Oh, Grandma!”

“Yuu-chan, come grab some of these veggies.”

“Yeah, thanks. But more importantly…”

I need to explain what just happened.

That’s when it happens. A familiar black-and-white car—a police cruiser—pulls up in front of the house.

“Huh?”

Then, a tense-looking police officer steps forward. The heavy atmosphere makes my chest tighten sharply.

My mind’s been nothing but a string of question marks since earlier.

“We came because of a report.”

?

“You’re safe now.”

?

“Uh, what’s going on?”

Grandma asks.

“We received a report of a suspicious person breaking into the house.”

?

Grandma and I exchange glances.

“That’s him, that’s the guy, officer!”

A voice calls out from behind. I turn to see the beautiful girl from before.

“Get away from Grandma!”

Grandma?

“W-Who are you, exactly?”

The beautiful girl ignores me and marches up to the officer.

“What’s wrong, Yuuhi?”

Grandma asks.

“This creep was peeping on me while I was changing!”

She points straight at me.

My heart lurches.

The air around us feels oppressively heavy, despite the clear blue sky above.

The officer’s cold, mechanical gaze, the blonde girl’s fiery glare, and Grandma’s bewildered look all zero in on me.

My stomach churns painfully, and it feels like my blood’s turned to ice, my body temperature plummeting. Yet, sweat pours from every pore—a familiar, dreadful sensation.

The officer takes a step toward me.

“Mind telling me exactly what happened?”

“N-No, it’s a misunderstanding! I was just—”

At that moment, the mysterious blonde girl glares at me with her piercing blue eyes.

“Who the heck are you?”

I almost snap back, “That’s my line,” but then I recall the name that popped up in her conversation with Grandma earlier.

Yuuhi.

A nostalgic memory bubbles up from the depths of my mind. Yuuhi… that’s right…

Pale golden hair inherited from her English mother, a doll-like face with perfect features. A petite, carefree personality—Togami Yuuhi, my cousin. We only saw each other a few times a year during Obon or New Year’s, and I haven’t seen her in a decade, so I completely forgot about her.

That’s it, that’s it!

“Grandma, is this Yuuhi-chan?”

Grandma’s face lights up with a warm smile.

“Yes, yes! She’s living with us now.”

“Wow, she’s grown so much…”

My memory of Yuuhi is frozen at her kindergarten days, but I can definitely see traces of her younger self in her face.

“Yuuhi-chan, it’s been a while! Do you remember me?”

“Don’t know you! Who are you?!”

“Oof…”

Yuuhi shouts with a fierceness that looks ready to pounce.

And fair enough.

From her perspective, some random old guy barged into her room and saw her changing.

“It’s Yuu-chan, don’t you remember?” Grandma says soothingly. “Sayaka’s son, the one who used to play with you a lot?”

Yuuhi narrows her eyes at me.

“Sayaka-obasan’s…? Wait, so this old guy’s my cousin?”

“Exactly. He came to visit today. I’m really sorry for walking in on you changing. My bad. I didn’t know you were living here, Yuuhi-chan.”

I bow deeply.

“I should’ve told you earlier,” Grandma adds.

“I’m really sorry.”

“…You really mean that?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmph. Well, Yuuhi’s not a monster, so if you’re genuinely sorry, I guess I can forgive you.”

“Really? Thanks!”

“Hmph!”

She crosses her arms, still sounding miffed, but I’ve managed to earn her forgiveness—barely. I explain the situation to the officer, who’s been watching the whole exchange, and the misunderstanding is finally cleared up.

“Sorry for the trouble,” I say.

I bow to the officer again as I see the patrol car off.

2

We gather in the living room of the mansion, facing each other properly for the first time.

“It’s been, what, ten years, Yuuhi-chan? You’ve grown so much.”

“Yuuhi doesn’t remember you at all.”

“R-Right.”

The last time I saw Yuuhi, she was in her final year of kindergarten. She was six back then, so it’s no surprise she doesn’t remember me after more than a decade.

Unlike Miya and the others, who I spent every day with, it’s only natural for her to react this way after ten years of no contact.

Still, it stings a bit that I’m the only one who remembers.

“You two used to play games together,” Grandma says, her voice tinged with nostalgia.

“Don’t remember.”

Yuuhi’s response is instant.

“You’re family, but you haven’t come back for New Year’s or Obon, have you?”

Ouch, she hit a sore spot.

“Work kept me too busy to come back. I quit my job and moved back to Shizuoka in March.”

“So, a NEET?”

“No, I’m working at the family shop, properly.”

“Moonlight Terrace, right? Haven’t been there in a while.”

Yuuhi sounds bored. I try to keep the conversation going.

“You’re in high school now, right? Which one?”

“Kita High.”

“Nice.”

Same school as Miya and Mahiru, huh.

“I went to Kita High too, back in the day.”

“Oh, cool.”

Yuuhi twirls her hair around her finger, clearly uninterested.

“It’s been about ten years since Yuu-chan got a job in Tokyo,” Grandma says, getting up to brew some tea.

As soon as she leaves, Yuuhi leans in close, her face inches from mine.

(I’ll let the misunderstanding slide, but the fact is you saw me changing, so you’re gonna make up for it properly someday, got it? You pervert.)

With that, Yuuhi storms out of the room.

“P-Pervert?”

She’s really got her guard up.

Given how we met, the fault’s entirely mine, so I can’t blame her for hating me. Still, getting rejected by a kid I’ve known since forever—especially a cousin—hits hard.

“Oh? Where’s Yuuhi?”

Grandma returns with a tray carrying three cups.

“She went back to her room, looks like.”

“Aw, I was hoping you’d get along like you used to.”

“Haha… yeah…”

That evening, I’m invited to stay for dinner at the Togami house and end up spending the night, leaving my car there.

“Here, have another!”

My grandfather—Togami Toyokichi—swiftly refills my empty glass with beer.

“N-No, I’m done, Grandpa!”

“What’re you talkin’ about? We haven’t even finished one bottle yet!”

Grandpa holds up the beer bottle, still more than half full.

“Hey, hey, don’t force him to drink too much. C’mon, Yuu-chan, hand it over.”

Snatching the glass from my hand, Grandma downs the beer in one gulp.

“No way…”

“Phew, that’s good stuff!”

And just like that, my grandparents start piling up empty bottles at an alarming rate.

“Grandma, don’t overdo it, okay?”

When Yuuhi says this, Grandma flashes a bright smile.

“No worries, no worries!”

“Haa…”

She sure looks like she’s got it under control. As expected from the woman who brought my mom into this world.

I’ve been used to seeing my grandparents down alcohol like this since I was a kid. But now that I’m old enough to understand the power of booze, witnessing this scene again makes me realize just how crazy it is.

They’re chugging beer like it’s water. Meanwhile, I’m barely managing a sip every few minutes, and that’s my limit.

“Haa… To think I’d get to drink with Yuu like this.”

Grandpa’s in high spirits.

“…Thanks for the meal.”

Yuuhi stands up. Maybe because of what happened earlier today, our conversation didn’t exactly flow.

“H-Hey, Yuuhi-chan.”

“What, pervert?”

“Ugh…”

No way to get through to her. And now I’ve been branded a pervert, to top it all off.

“What’s up with Yuuhi? Yuu’s here, and she’s acting like that.”

“Girls her age have their own stuff going on. Yuu-chan, use the room at the end of the hall on the second floor, okay?”

“Oh, uh, sure.”

I hadn’t planned on staying over, but Grandpa strong-armed me into it, and I ended up drinking. I’ve got work tomorrow, so I’ll need to wake up early and head home. After keeping up with my grandparents’ drinking session, I’ve had a decent amount myself.

My head’s spinning, and the room’s starting to swirl.

This is getting a bit bad.

I’m not at the point of throwing up, but I’m definitely hitting my limit.

“I-I’m gonna hit the sack.”

“Second floor, end of the hall, got it?”

“Yeah.”

Barely keeping my balance, I stumble out of the room.

Can I even make it up the stairs like this?

＊

Yuuhi flips through the album. Her eyes land on a photo taken in the grand hall of this mansion.

Sure enough, there’s that old guy’s face among the relatives.

And over here—there’s even a two-shot of that guy and Yuuhi. A picture from when Yuuhi was four. The guy’s holding her in his arms, laughing on the bridge in the garden.

“Hmmm.”

Yuuhi doesn’t remember it at all, but it seems like the story about that guy being her cousin is true.

Come to think of it, she vaguely recalls hearing a long time ago that Aunt Aritsuki’s son got a job in Tokyo.

There are tons of other two-shots too: playing Super Fami together, sprawling out by the kotatsu in the living room, or the guy playing horse while carrying Yuuhi on his back.

“…”

They look so close, almost like siblings.

He remembered Yuuhi, huh? Maybe she was a bit too cold to him. Not that peeking at her while she was changing isn’t a major crime.

For someone like Yuuhi—one of Kita High’s Ironclad Maidens—having her changing scene spied on is something you could get killed for, no questions asked.

A glance at the clock shows it’s almost eight. Maybe it’s time for a bath.

As she heads downstairs, she bumps into someone.

“Ow!”

“Whoa!”

“Wha—!”

That old guy comes crashing into her, his face smacking right into her chest.

This pervert, he’s definitely doing it on purpose…

“Whoops!”

He’s clearly plastered, and he ends up falling flat on his butt. It seems the alcohol’s got him so unsteady that he tripped and collided with her.

What a moron.

“Haa, you okay—”

Kind-hearted Yuuhi reaches out a hand to help.

“Oh, Yuuhi-chan? I, uh, kinda ran into a wall or something.”

“Tch! A wall…?”

“No, not a wall, like… a board or something flat…”

His face is bright red, and his unfocused eyes stare off into space. He’s so drunk he doesn’t even realize he bumped into Yuuhi.

Still—

“Like, vertical, or straight, or just… something really flat…”

“Sorry for being a wall!”

Flipping her outstretched hand, she slaps his cheek with all her might.

A satisfying smack echoes through the air.

“Gyaah!”

“Hey, hey, what’s going on?”

Grandma comes rushing out from the living room.

“I was wobbling and ran into a wall—”

He’s still going on about that?

“I’m done with this pervert!”

Leaving the two behind, Yuuhi hurries off to the bath.