挫北・夏の終わり
Discouraging Return - End of Summer


Youko: ......And so, the useless Hato-chan was chased back home, then.

Kei: Uuu, I'm useless......

Youko: Well, even if you were there, you'd just have the role of making things more lively.

Youko: For entertainment, you can't leave out the layperson for the audience to get what's going on, but in a real battlefield, they're just annoying and they get in the way.

Kei: "Annoying?" That's mean......

To think she'd say whatever she wants to her friend when she's depressed, that's Youko-chan for you.

Kei: ......Hey, Youko-chan?

Youko: Fmgfm?

She answers, while shoving at the partially jutting hamburger in her mouth with her fingers.

Kei: What would you have done?

Youko: Ngu!...... Me?

Kei: Yeah. I wonder if I could've done something with vitality like yours.

Youko: That's just impossible, no way! My chants against monsters can only go this far.

Kei: By "this far," how far?

Youko: Raamen, soomen, miso raamen, plate of yakisoba, nanmaidaa!

As Youko-chan hums an extremely random sutra, accompanied with suspicious body gesturing.
If this were a Chinese restaurant, she'd probably have been tapping her bowl with chopsticks. No doubt.

Kei: Wah, that seems remarkably ineffective.

Youko: Got that right. In the end, we mere civilians have to make do fighting with humans in life. As if we could manage with monsters hopping in.

Kei: Then, who'll fight the monsters?

Youko: That'd be... someone.

Kei: Someone?

Youko: Someone. At least it won't be me.

Kei: Wah, take it easy......

Youko: Thinking like that'll make it easier to get used to times like this.

Kei: Uuu...... But in my case, it had something to do with my family. Something other people shouldn't worry about, you know......?

Youko: Aagh! GIVE ME A BREAK! With that gloomy gloomy gloomy family family family crap!

Youko: Times like these, eating's the best medicine, yon! Now, now, eat! Eat!

Kei: Uuu......

With her constant encouragement, I stuff my cheeks with the value meal #1 Fish and Chips (240 Yen for a mountain of food).

Kei: Uuu...... It's so oily, and it smells bad...... The food in Hemidzuka was really good......

Youko: Come on, Hato-chan. You're comparing fast food to a full meal at a hot springs resort. It's like goading a cat and mouse to fight, you know.

Kei: Uuu, a cornered mouse can at least bite the cat, right?

Youko: Just biting won't give you a final blow, okay? At least the dessert variety is kinda substantial. That's about it, right?

Kei: I guess......

Youko: There, come on, I'm treating you here. Before you complain, eat. Eat!

Kei: Uuu, I'll eat, then. I'll eat with all my might!

Youko: That's right. As long as humans can eat and sleep, no matter what, you can live through it. Hato-chan, Fight-o!

Kei: Okay!

After a while, having returned to my normal life, I had a call from Sakuya-san.

Sakuya: Ah, Kei? Are you alive and well? You weren't attacked by anything weird?

Kei: I'm fine, but...... Am I going to be attacked?

Sakuya: Nope, if you're fine now, I think you're really okay.

Sakuya: By the way, we've finished our business here.

Kei: Really!? Then, it's okay if I go over there!?

Sakuya: You probably can't meet the Ohashirasama, though.

Kei: Eh!? I can't meet her, why!?

Sakuya: She's sleeping to rebuild her power. In the beginning, she was always sleeping, before you came here. In other words, it's all back to normal.

Kei: I see......

Sakuya: I'll show up soon. --ta, ack!

Kei: Sakuya-san, are you hurt?! What's wrong!?

Sakuya: Yeah, I'm a-okay. It's nothing big at all. A single arm'll regrow within a month.

Kei: It wouldn't grow back! At least not normally...

Kei: Anyway, Sakuya-san. After chasing me off, you went to do dangerous things on your own. Am I right?

Sakuya: I'm an adult and you're a kid. That's the way the world is, you know?

Sakuya: And it can't be helped. I owe Emiko-san a great deal, and you're her grandchild. Your mom told me to look after you, and Yumei, even......

Just like Youko-chan said, while I was living my life, "someone" solved that problem for me.
A flower petal falls.
The summer flowers scatter---
---And just like that, my summer comes to an end.

Blue ending: Discouraging return - End of Summer.