Chương 25: Chapter 7 An Unexpected Encounter(Part 1)

Such Footsteps Worried, I stayed up late researching everything I could find. Unfortunately, today was still a school day. When I headed into the living room after waking up, I ran into Mom carrying a suitcase. She was probably planning to stay at the hospital with Dad.

"Is Dad okay?"

"He became adorable, but he's okay! See you later!" Leaving behind a completely incomprehensible statement, Mom dashed out the door.... What? There was absolutely no connection between Dad and adorable. Even if Dad were somehow adorable, it would be in the same way a stuffed animal was adorable.

"Well... judging by her mood, he's alive at least... right?" If Dad were seriously hurt, Mom wouldn't be acting like that. My parents were disgustingly close. They kissed every morning. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. They still took baths together. If Dad died, Mom probably wouldn't recover from it. Yet she'd left the house practically skipping. So he was probably fine. Probably.

"Guess I should get going too." After spreading butter over some toast and eating a quick breakfast, I hopped on my bike and headed to school. Summer was approaching, and by the time I arrived, I was already sweating a little. Maybe I'd change in the club room before classes started. I'd rushed home yesterday after leaving early and had thrown my karate uniform into my locker. If I left it there any longer, it'd become a biological weapon. After changing my undershirt and retrieving my gi, I entered the classroom.

My childhood friend, Yuki Kudo, and Chihiro Saeki immediately approached. Yuki lived diagonally across from my house. Since we were the same age, our families had always been close, and we'd spent most of our childhood running around together. Chihiro was connected through our karate dojo. We'd attended different elementary schools but ended up together in middle school and high school. Honestly, she looked surprisingly cool in a sailor uniform.

"You left club activities early yesterday," Chihiro said.

"What happened? Was it related to that Ring from the news? Apparently one appeared at your uncle's workplace."

"My mom said she saw Rina-san leaving with someone she didn't know," Yuki added.

"I was worried too." They were both concerned about Dad. The problem was... I didn't know anything either. The entire world was talking about the Rings, yet strangely enough, Dad's name never appeared anywhere. Whenever information surfaced, it was usually nothing more than reports about missing people being found.

"Honestly, I have no idea," I admitted.

"Dad definitely got caught up in it somehow, but he still hasn't come back from the hospital. I talked to Mom this morning, and she just kept saying weird things. Still... she doesn't seem depressed, so I think he's doing okay."

"Ah, that's true," Yuki said with a wry smile.

"Rina-san is crazy about Tsukasa-san. If she's acting normal, he's probably fine." That much was hard to deny. Those two flirted constantly. The scary part was that Mom knew exactly what she was doing. Dad didn't. He simply accepted it all as completely normal. If Mom puckered her lips, he'd kiss her without hesitation, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Still, if he's in the hospital," Chihiro mused, placing a hand to her chin, "he must have been injured somehow. Or maybe he's undergoing tests. The Rings are everywhere in the news, but no one knows anything about them." I nodded. I'd spent most of the night researching and had come to the same conclusion. The most common theories online were: Ancient super-civilization relics. Secret military weapons. Alien invasion. Those were the big three.

There were even stranger theories if you dug deeper, but none of them sounded remotely believable.

"Thanks for worrying about him," I said.

"But knowing Dad, he'll probably just stroll back home like nothing happened." At that exact moment, our homeroom teacher entered the classroom and morning homeroom began. The biggest announcement was unsurprising. Due to the appearance of the Rings, all club activities were suspended indefinitely. Honestly, it made sense. No one knew what those things were. Safety came first.