After breaking up, my ex asked me to win her back

After entering spring, there would occasionally be such weather.

The overcast sky, dim light, and a slightly humid breeze would occasionally sweep past the corners of clothes.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

On these days when it might rain at any moment, Kagura Hikaru had stopped his part-time work at the livehouse, believing it to be very irresponsible to expose his guitar, worth over four hundred thousand yen, to the risk of getting wet at any time.

Therefore, he hadn't brought his guitar to school these days.

Perhaps it was because of this.

Without the extra weight on his shoulder and the large guitar case blocking his line of sight, Kagura Hikaru quickly noticed the trace of the stalker.

He became aware of it within the third minute of leaving the school.

When he occasionally looked back, he could see a petite figure swiftly retracting into the shadow of a utility pole.

But you're exposed, completely exposed, with that oversized black coat sticking out.

He rounded a corner, killed his presence, waited quietly for five seconds, and came out expressionlessly, just in time to meet the sneaky Komori Ai eye to eye.

"Caught you, Brother Kagura is so amazing!" Komori Ai covered her small mouth in astonishment, then ran backward like a chick, waving her hands and shouting loudly, "Now it's brother's turn to catch me! Remember to count down from thirty!"

So this was hide and seek.

The play-along had started from the moment he left school, hadn't it?

Kagura Hikaru actually waited for thirty seconds at the corner before heading in the direction Komori Ai had left.

Soon after, he found the 'devil' crouching behind a stand-up billboard.

Komori Ai turned her head and revealed a surprised smile, "Ah, caught again."

Then she covered her eyes, turned back, faced the wall, and started counting loudly, "One, two..."

Kagura Hikaru glanced around, no passerby seemed to notice Komori Ai's voice, they seemed more curious about him instead.

A male high school student standing behind a billboard and daydreaming, he must be the weirdest one of all.

Komori Ai used her power again to hide her figure, ordinary people couldn't see or hear her, so it seems that revealing her true self and playing with everyone at the camp was a rare occurrence.

The game of hide and seek continued until Komori Ai was found for the third time.

This time she was hiding in the park.

Or rather, she didn't really hide at all.

When Kagura Hikaru found her, she was squatting next to a children's sandbox, humming an unknown nursery rhyme, building sandcastles with her bare hands, so engrossed that she didn't even notice Kagura Hikaru standing behind her.

This childish image, so far removed from the idea of a ghost or monster, once again made Kagura Hikaru feel that she might indeed be human.

He also walked over and squatted beside Komori Ai.

"Sand, is it fun?"

"Yes!" Komori Ai nodded vigorously, focusing on sculpting details with her fingers.

Perhaps because of the recent rain and the high humidity, the sand in the sandbox was moist enough to hold its shape without additional water.

Kagura Hikaru watched her quietly.

Komori Ai's behavior clearly didn't match her age.

According to her own words, she was fifteen this year.

But no matter how he looked, he couldn't associate the girl intently building sandcastles in front of him with the image of a fifteen-year-old high school student.

At this age, normal girls would either be addicted to chatting on their smartphones and short video apps, or be crazy over handsome actors on TV.

None would be like Komori Ai, playing with sand in the park with a serious face, without a shred of embarrassment even when being watched.

If one were to discard the idea that 'her behavior is strange because she's a supernatural being,' and judge her by human standards instead, she could only be seen as lacking common sense or having a cognitive ability different from the norm.

Going a step further.

Her bizarre behaviors, such as tilting her head at odd angles, staring with widened eyes closely at people, and so on, resembled the actions of ghosts in horror films. Medically, they might be indicative of an unknown mental disorder, or perhaps emotional disturbances, preventing her from expressing her emotions normally.

Kagura Hikaru suddenly remembered the bloody and religiously charged memory images he had seen through mind-reading and fell silent.

Was it that experience that had changed her into what she was now?

Perhaps Komori Ai's past was even more grueling and dark than he had thought. Experience new tales on empire

He didn't know where her parents had gone, leaving such a young child to wander outside.

Oh right, she had mentioned before that she was an orphan, so her parents were probably no longer around.

...In any case, as long as she didn't show any signs of aggression, she could be considered safe enough.

Kagura Hikaru didn't think of her as a dangerous person anymore.

But just to be safe, he still needed to observe her more.

It was convenient that Komori Ai would actively approach him.

After all, she was still too dangerous.

The ability to hypnotize a wide range of humans in an instant.

The exact range hadn't been measured yet, but it should exceed a hundred-meter radius or maybe it would activate as long as she was observed; he didn't know if it worked through security cameras.

He figured it probably did; otherwise, Komori Ai wandering aimlessly around the school would have already been discovered.

This was a power stronger than mind-reading, one that could easily dominate over authority.

Compared to Kagura Hikaru, who could only pry into people's hearts, perhaps Komori Ai was the real threat to world safety.

This was certainly not a topic to be excited about.

"Brother Kagura, let's play together!" Komori Ai said.

Kagura Hikaru nodded, picked up a twig the length of a finger from the side as a tool, and started embellishing Komori Ai's sandcastle, occasionally asking for architectural advice.

If he was going to do it, he wanted to do it best.

He built up all the sand on the surface of the sandbox, centering on Komori Ai's castle, constructing a complex of buildings with swift movements.

To outsiders, he probably appeared as a highly skilled high school student talking to himself and occasionally behaving oddly, frantically playing in the sand, scaring away elementary school kids who passed by.

...Not just elementary school kids; even Kagura Hikaru probably wouldn't want to have anything to do with such a weird person if he had been a passerby.

Thirty minutes later.

"Done."

Kagura Hikaru exhaled softly, wiped an imaginary sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, and looked at his creation with a sense of accomplishment.

A mini-city rivaling Stormwind Castle had emerged in a children's sandbox, typically found in any little park.

In the center stood a tall German-style castle, clearly the royal castle, then extending out in tiers were the palaces, temples, and finally shops and residences, with the edge framed by the grand walls enclosing the entire city-state.

If they wanted to be even more detailed, they could create the pattern of the city's flooring, random objects, and human inhabitants.

That was indeed what Kagura Hikaru and Komori Ai had planned.

They exchanged a glance, their eyes reflecting the experience of seasoned craftsmen, and once again picked up their fingers and twigs to begin the next phase of their work.

Just then, a hand pressed on Kagura Hikaru's shoulder from behind.

He turned around to see a police officer holding his hat brim with a smile and three elementary school students with scared expressions behind him.

"Are you a high school student from around here? Could you tell me your name?"

Kagura Hikaru decisively ran away.

Taking Komori Ai with him.