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Chapter 57 — This Pink-Haired Girl Looks Familiar
🕑 Added 2025-05-09 02:32:11 +0000 UTCAfter holding hands with Tomori, nothing seemed to happen at first. Could it be that this kind of 'innocent' physical contact only triggers a reward the first time?
[Simulation count +1 acquired]
So it did increase…
However, this time the reward came noticeably slower than before.
In the beginning, just the slightest contact with Tomori had immediately granted a simulator reward. But now, it took holding hands for quite a while before it triggered.
Could it really be what he was thinking? Surely the simulator isn't that stingy…
Maybe it's more like mining, you have to gradually deepen your relationship with the simulation target, and then through increasingly intimate contact, slowly 'mine' rewards from them?
Just as Kazami Haru was lost in thought, he suddenly felt something poke his side.
He turned his head slowly, only to see no one there.
"Big brother, over here!"
A cute and childlike voice came from below. Haru quickly looked down.
Standing in front of him was a little girl, around five years old, wearing a black-and-white dress and sporting bright, striking pink hair. She had her hands on her hips and stared up at him with sparkling blue eyes, her chubby, bun-like cheeks lifted in a proud smile.
That pink hair… it looked a bit familiar.
"Haru? What is it?" Tomori also looked over, puzzled, her gaze falling on the little girl beside Haru.
This was a bustling commercial street, seeing a child around five years old here alone was definitely strange.
There didn't seem to be any adults nearby either. She looked like a lost child.
From the first glance, Haru had an odd sense of familiarity.
Most of all, that distinct pink hair immediately reminded him of someone he used to know.
As if to confirm his suspicions, Haru slowly squatted down.
"What's your name?"
"Futari! Gotoh Futari!"
Innocently and proudly, the girl placed her hands on her hips and declared her name.
"Gotoh?"
Tomori tilted her head thoughtfully. Then her eyes lit up in realization, and she gently tapped her fist into her open palm.
The surname Gotoh wasn't common around here and with her iconic cherry-blossom pink hair and a face somewhat resembling Gotoh Hitori…
Haru instantly knew who she was.
"What is Gotoh Hitori to you?"
"She's my sister!"
Futari beamed with pride at the mention of Bocchi's name, as though delivering a grand speech or showing off a treasured possession.
This kid… she's the total opposite of her sister's personality.
"I see. So Futari, how come you came to find me? This should be our first meeting, right?"
"Because I saw Big Brother's picture on Sis's phone before! So I recognized you right away!"
What the hell, that's terrifying!
Why does Bocchi have pictures of him on her phone!?
"Futari-chan, are you lost?"
"I'm lost!"
Futari confidently declared to Tomori, sharing her predicament without a hint of worry.
That smug, hands-on-hips stance made it look like Haru was the one who was lost.
This was troublesome, they couldn't just leave a kid here alone.
"Haru, I think we should…" Tomori nervously tugged on Haru's sleeve, clearly wanting to help Futari. He understood her intention at once.
"Tomori, looks like I can't take you home yet. We'll have to get Futari back to Bocchi first."
"Right, we can't leave Futari-chan alone."
"Yay! Let's go find Sis!"
Looking at this cheerful and friendly Futari, Haru was momentarily reminded of Kita Ikuyo.
Seriously though, she's Bocchi's little sister, how could their personalities be so different?
Anyway, the most important thing now was to contact Bocchi—
Wait… he didn't have Bocchi's contact information.
Haru vaguely remembered that after the band's welcome party, Bocchi had been so overwhelmed that she curled up into her "pink slug" mode and didn't respond no matter how they called her.
Because of that, Nijika gave up on adding her to the band's LINE group chat and decided to invite her again during the next meeting.
"Futari, do you know your family's contact number?"
Tomori also squatted down and gently asked Futari.
The pink-haired mini-Bocchi pinched her chin like a detective, as if she were about to declare "There is only one truth."
But after a moment's thought, she confidently said, "Nope."
Figures, she was only five years old.
The priority now was figuring out how to reach Bocchi. Haru didn't have her phone number or LINE account, so finding her directly would be tough.
But then he remembered, there was someone else.
He scrolled through his phone for a while and finally found a contact saved as "Blue-haired Trash Woman."
He never thought the contact Yamada Ryo had forced onto him back then would actually come in handy.
If he could reach Yamada, he might be able to get to Gotoh Hitori indirectly!
[Hello? Can you hear me?]
[I'm broke.]
[…That's not what I asked. Is Bocchi at STARRY right now?]
[Information fee: 100 yen. Cash or other payment methods?]
[I'll treat you to a Monster next time.]
[Bocchi's not here.]
...
Shimokitazawa STARRY—
The blue-haired girl blankly stared at her phone screen, noting that "Easy-to-deal-with guy" had already hung up. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and leaned on her hand in thought.
She'd just woken up from another midday nap and had another vague dream.
This time, the dream had even fewer details than the last.
But Yamada Ryo had caught a few fragmented, incoherent images.
The clearest one: a red-haired Kita Ikuyo holding Haru in her arms, crying in the middle of the road, so heart-wrenching that Ryo couldn't forget it.
That image had jolted her awake.
Then Haru called, and she picked up without thinking.
Hearing his familiar voice finally calmed her rapidly beating heart.
Still, she had to remain cautious. Like the last time, this dream probably meant something.
Could it be… Kita Ikuyo who causes what she saw?
