Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture, Vol. 6: Dark Reflections by Mikage Sawamura

Author:Mikage Sawamura [SAWAMURA, MIKAGE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yen On
Published: 2025-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

Leaving Mikako’s apartment like they were making an escape, Naoya and Yuuto carried Takatsuki to the car.

Thankfully, Takatsuki didn’t seem to have completely lost consciousness, though he looked quite unwell. At Yuuto seeing him resting limply against the window, breathing shallowly, his face turned pale as well.

“Are you okay? Maybe you should go to a hospital or something.”

“…It’s like a minor bit of anemia, so I’ll be fine if I rest,” Takatsuki replied with a weak smile. “I’m sorry, Yuuto… I wasn’t much help, and I’ve caused you trouble.”

“I’m the one who should be apologizing,” Yuuto muttered. “Sorry for dragging you into it… I never imagined things would end up like this.”

The sharpness that had been present in Yuuto’s voice on the car ride to the apartment was gone.

“I’m sorry,” Naoya said as Yuuto sat in the driver’s seat. “If possible, it would be really helpful if you could give us a ride to the professor’s apartment.”

“Yeah, of course.”

Giving an immediate reply, Yuuto made to start driving.

The moment he gripped the steering wheel, however, he turned around.

“…Where are you living now?” he mumbled, his expression a little embarrassed.

When Naoya gave him the address, he nodded wordlessly and took off.

Mikako’s apartment receded into the distance. Naoya had the feeling Mikako was watching them go from her window and wished the car would just make a turn already. The sound of her giggling mixed with the bird’s flapping wings seemed to echo in his ears, making him feel ill. The sweetness in her voice when she called Takatsuki Tengu-sama was practically poisonous.

What was it? Just what on earth had that woman been trying to do?

“…Hey, Yuuto,” Takatsuki said. “Does Miss Mikako still meet with my mother?”

Earlier, Mikako had said, “Auntie waits for you, even now.”

That “Auntie” was probably in reference to Takatsuki’s mother.

“I don’t know,” Yuuto replied. “Because of work, my parents probably have more direct contact with the Takamura family than yours, but…I can’t say for sure that she doesn’t.”

Putting a hand to his forehead, Takatsuki exhaled slowly and met Yuuto’s gaze through the rearview mirror.

“My mother, what’s she like now…? She wasn’t able to leave the house for a while, I believe.”

“She recovered a while back. I’m pretty sure she’s socializing a fair bit. I see her at family gatherings, and—from what I’ve seen—she seems normal.”

“I see… Well, that’s good.”

Takatsuki’s quiet response came out on an exhalation.

Naoya knew that Takatsuki’s mother had once had a complete break with reality.

Her delusion that he was the Tengu’s Child was born of her love for her son. It was the only interpretation she could accept to explain the void in his past.

But that only ended up driving her son, Takatsuki, into a corner.

After all, no one suffered more because of that void than Takatsuki himself.

Every time his mother called him the Tengu’s Child or hailed him as a living deity, Takatsuki became even more confused. Was he human? A god? Or a monster with clipped wings?

And so, one day, Takatsuki told her—

“I’m done.”

He said that he wasn’t the Tengu’s Child, that he couldn’t behave the way she wanted anymore.

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