Cocooned in my naive bubble of “good intentions” and “common sense.”
I didn’t expect the kitchen knife in his right hand. Didn’t expect him to swing it wildly in broad daylight. But it happened. Time slowed. One thing I knew for sure: the blade wasn’t aimed at me.
His eyes locked onto the person most precious to me—
But his wish didn’t come true. The knife pierced my abdomen instead.
(Well, he was after Saku senpai. I must’ve taken the blow shielding her. My memory’s fuzzy there.)
I learned later, the cliché of “waking up in a hospital bed” doesn’t apply to stab wounds. I remember the pain blazing in the ambulance.
After the anesthesia wore off, the details spilled out.
The attacker was caught fast—daylight assault in a public place.
A cop visited my hospital room, bowing deeply for failing to stop the stalker despite prior reports. I bet my mom tore into them behind the scenes. She’s like that.
Mom’s fury apparently spilled onto Saku senpai too, but that’s absurd. Saku senpai did nothing wrong. All I did in that hospital bed was curse myself for not realizing how much she’d been suffering.
“Just a few millimeters more, and you’d’ve been crossing the Sanzu River! Guess your good deeds paid off~”
The nurse’s flippant joke didn’t feel real.
The wound was deep, though. My hospital stay dragged on. The pain in my gut? Bland hospital food? Boredom was the real torment. Friends visited, but the one I wanted to see never came.
“…How’s Sakuneesan?”
No one gave me a straight answer.
——Is she blaming herself?
She must be. That’s why I wanted to apologize the moment I was discharged. Just one sentence: I’m sorry I didn’t know.
I thought that’d fix everything. I was wrong.
Winter’s end approached. When I finally returned to school, Saku senpai was gone.
Not because she’d advanced to high school, either. That’s when I first heard: she’d taken entrance exams for an outside high school.
And here’s another first—I learned the attacker, during his post-arrest interrogation…
“An evil succubus seduced me,” and “During the crime, my mind was under her control.” These were the statements he kept repeating.
Although it wasn’t a major scandal, the news, along with reports of a second-year junior high boy’s serious injuries, had been covered by various media outlets.
Of course, his claims were not only incoherent but physically impossible. They didn’t influence the subsequent trial, and he eventually received a prison sentence for attempted murder.
The real problem, however, was the prevailing social climate at the time. A loud, small, and vocal minority (mostly on social media) argued that the “victims of stalkers also bear some responsibility,” spreading discriminatory views. It was easy for even middle school students, with just a smartphone, to be exposed to such ideas.
──Wasn’t it dangerous to get close to Saiin Sakuya, a succubus?
In the confined cage of school, rumors, no matter how baseless, spread like wildfire. Ultimately, with nowhere left to go, Saku senpai had no choice but to leave school on her own, without waiting to be expelled.
When I learned the full story after everything was over, I was shocked.
──Could something like this really be allowed?
Whether she actively did something or not no longer mattered. I believed everyone was equally guilty—those who didn’t protect her, those who just went with the flow, and those who didn’t try to stop it. It didn’t matter if they were adults or children.
What are you doing? What are you thinking? You’re all the same.
With deep distrust in everything, I withdrew into myself, unable to do anything but shut myself away.
Even though I could’ve visited Saku senpai at any time, I felt too ashamed to face her. The thought of accidentally running into her terrified me, so I stopped going outside altogether.
I spent most of my days in a dark room with the curtains drawn shut, staring into the darkness.
Saying the enemy was too powerful was just an excuse. The truth was I was simply a weak person. At my family’s urging, I returned to school within a month and acted friendly with my former friends (at least on the surface). I quickly resumed my everyday life.
After all, nothing had changed. When I saw the world keep spinning as if nothing happened after Saku senpai disappeared, I briefly felt like biting back. But I quickly realized my own terrible mistake.
──Knowing it wasn’t enough.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
I never wanted to realize this. It was impossible to make everyone else understand anyway.
Unfulfilled dreams become curses that torment people. Those who carry them can never be truly happy.
Still, I couldn’t do nothing. I spent my days obsessively researching Myudents and related legends, gathering knowledge like I was possessed. I knew it was just self-satisfaction. If she hadn’t existed, I wouldn’t have cared about succubi at all. I wouldn’t have even been interested.
So when the next winter came around,
I told my parents I wanted to transfer to nearby Musashidai Academy instead of staying at the hated Kitashira Ito Academy. As expected, my mother strongly opposed me, and her offhand comment (which subtly criticized Saku senpai) sparked a huge argument. Our relationship has been cold ever since, and at least from my side, things have remained broken.
Thankfully, my father respected my wishes, so I was able to follow my desired path without needing to convince the people who opposed me. Well, the truth was that my mother’s opposition wasn’t about me giving up the right to advance internally, but about the school I was transferring to—Musashidai Academy itself. I didn’t know that at the time, though.
“On the first day of school, I overheard boys talking: ‘Did you see the succubus upperclassman from second year?’ ‘She’s super hot!’ ‘I even got her autograph!'”
As soon as I heard that conversation on the first day of school, my heart nearly stopped.
Without even taking the class photo or properly attaching the flower on my badge, I spent hours searching the entire school for her, a girl I hadn’t seen in over a year.
I had always been too afraid to speak, so I thought this was my chance.
I just needed to say one thing: “I’m sorry.” That would be enough. After that, I wouldn’t get involved with her anymore.
I checked every classroom building but couldn’t find her. I went through the special buildings one by one, but she wasn’t there either.
Finally, I reached the literature clubroom, the furthest room on the third floor. With half-hearted resignation, I opened the door—and there she was…
It’s apparently common for old men to wake up from their own snoring.
“Ugh…smells…can’t breathe…headache…huh!?”
I woke up startled because my own sleep-talking and groaning were too loud.
I fell asleep slumped over the table, so it’s my own fault, but my arm, used as a pillow, was numb and prickling, and my neck and lower back were painfully stiff. My body screamed with exhaustion, despite not feeling like I had slept at all.
That alone was enough for a terrible awakening, but the sound of [Pshhh, pshhh…], like a terrible beatbox practice, kept blaring without even a snooze, and a foul stench stung my nose. How could I not call this the worst possible way to wake up?
“Oh, good morning, Tsubasa-kun.”
Her voice sounded unusually muffled. When I turned around, the reason was obvious.
Saku senpai was sitting by the window, wearing transparent goggles and a small gas mask, her uniform covered by a jumpsuit, gloves firmly on her hands. The reason for her full protective gear was the metal instrument in her hand—an airbrush that looked like a pen, spraying paint.
Before her was a homemade paint booth cut from cardboard. Delicate plastic model parts were clipped inside, standing on a stand like a curious little army.
“What the hell are you doing, you!?”
“What? Well, these are clear parts, so I’m applying a gray primer first…”
Pshhh, pshhh. Ignoring my anguished shout, Saku senpai kept blowing the airbrush.
“Hey, stop it! Don’t ruin my health anymore!”
“Stop exaggerating. I opened the window and turned on the desk fan.”
“You’re wearing a gas mask and goggles, aren’t you!?”
“That’s because I’m working right here. I’m much closer than you.”
“I can still smell the thinner from here!”
“Tsk. That can’t be right. I adjusted the wind direction carefully—oh wait.”
At that moment, a switch is pressed and a buzzing sound is heard.
Click—”The fan wasn’t on.”
“No wonder!”
Kids, please don’t try this at home.
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
