Otherside Picnic: Volume 8 [Parts 1 to 7] by Iori Miyazawa

Author:Iori Miyazawa
Language: eng
Format: epub

2

“You know about the suspension bridge effect, right?” Kozakura asked and I nodded. “I’ve always chalked your relationship up to that.”

“My relationship with Toriko?”

“In the same way people misidentify their fear of the shaky bridge as romantic attraction, you two have convinced yourselves that your experiences on the Otherside are a shared bond—that’s how it looked to me. At first, anyway.”

I’d come to Kozakura’s house in Shakujii-kouen, fully prepared to accept some lecturing in order to get the opinion of someone older than myself.

“When you say ‘at first,’ does that mean something changed?”

“My opinion now is ‘it’s out of my hands at this point.’”

“You’re badmouthing us, right?”

“Sure am,” Kozakura confirmed sullenly.

Illuminated by the light of her multiple monitors, she sat with her back hunched, holding a mug of hot cola. Just like when I first visited this house. Come to think of it, it was June then too.

“If you don’t like that, let me rephrase it to ‘it’s too late’ or ‘they’re beyond help.’”

“That’s still sounding derogatory.”

“I’d want to call it a codependent relationship, but the two of you are surprisingly frank about it. You’re not mentally unwell in a way that’s easy to understand, at least. If anything, you two are too insensitive.”

“I don’t know about me, but isn’t Toriko pretty sensitive in some ways?”

“‘Sensitive’ people don’t go to the Otherside carrying firearms. That word’s meant for describing people like me.”

“You? Sensitive?”

“What’s that look for?”

“Nothing.”

“I always thought of myself as an oddball who couldn’t conform to society’s expectations of her. Until the two of you walked into my life, trudging all over it with your muddy boots, that is. I got over myself real fast once I learned there were weirdos out there who were way above my level. It turned out I was an incredibly ordinary, common-sense, social person.”

“I don’t know that I’d go that far.”

“You picking a fight?”

“For one thing, I don’t think we’d call someone who’s stashing a shotgun under their floor a ‘common-sense person.’”

“Did you get a little cleverer, Sorawo-chan?”

“What kind of person do you think I am?”

Kozakura decided to get the conversation back on track without addressing my complaint. “The thing is, the suspension bridge effect may have just lasted a long time. Continuously exposing yourself to dangerous places kept the fear going, as well as the heightened emotions. Or it might be the other way around. You could be keeping the terror coming in order to maintain those emotional highs.”

“You make it sound like an addiction.”

“Can you say that’s totally wrong?”

“That’s not what the Otherside is for me, at least.”

After looking at my face, Kozakura made a sour expression. “Yeah. I know. You’ve just got a genuine interest in the other world, Toriko or no Toriko.”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“Which makes it all the worse.”

“Huh...?”

“If you were using the Otherside as an excuse to flirt with her, that’d be insensitive and awful, but I’d at least be able to understand. There are people who would take their dates out on tests of courage or to haunted houses, after all.

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