[Serialized Novel] "Honeybee Caprice" Episode 33

"Whoa! What was that!?"
Startled by having her right wrist suddenly grabbed, Yuri turned around to find a stranger in her early thirties wearing a nurse's uniform, standing there with a look like a temple guardian statue. A nameplate on her left chest read "Rie Sawatari."
"Uh, who are you? What is this about!?"
"Just come with me."
The woman snatched Yuri's pochette and pulled her by the hand, walking briskly in the opposite direction of the hospital's outpatient entrance.
They headed toward a less crowded area, and when she opened a door marked "Night/Holiday Entrance" and stepped outside, the humid air clung to their bodies. Only then did the woman let go of Yuri's hand.
"Ouch... What is this all of a sudden? Did I do something!?"
Yuri glared back at the woman, who was staring at her with a furrowed brow.
"...You shouldn't come to a place like this. Stop investigating things you don't need to."
"Things I don't need to...? I just came to visit a classmate."
"You've been snooping around about the Academy. That is what I mean by unnecessary."
"Nurse... do you know something? If you do, please tell me. That school is strange. People die, someone disappears every year—it's not normal. My aunt also went missing at that school seventeen years ago. So, please, I'm begging you. If you know anything, tell me!"
"No. I can't tell you. You have already wandered into a dangerous territory. Leave here while you still can. Quit the Academy as soon as possible."
The woman pushed Yuri away with a cold tone, but Yuri raised her voice, refusing to give in.
"No! I don't care if it's dangerous. I want to know the truth. I won't leave until I find out about my missing friend and my aunt!"
"Yuri!! Listen to what I'm saying!"
The woman grabbed both of Yuri's arms tightly and fixed her with an intense gaze.
"How do you know my name...?"
Yuri felt as if she knew the woman's face.
Where had she met her? She felt like she had been very close to her. The short, soft, wavy hair, and the flaxen eyes that matched her hair. And, two small moles lined up under her left eye.
"...Aunt Chikage...?"
She had aged since the student days she had seen in photos and had become a bit fuller, but there was no mistaking the woman who looked so much like her.
"I knew you had enrolled in the high school division. But I couldn't reveal my identity... Still, I truly wanted to tell you to get away from here as soon as possible."
"Why...? Dad was always worried and looking for you. I've been hearing stories about you since I was little, and that's why I came to this Academy to find you. If you knew, why didn't you tell me sooner? If Dad had just known you were alive, he could have been at peace."
Chikage held back her tears and hugged Yuri.
"...I'm sorry for being selfish. But back then, I had nowhere to return to—not home, not school. Your father... my brother, he loved me, but it was nothing more than a twisted love and hate. If I had gone back then, I wouldn't have been safe. I wouldn't have been able to protect what was precious to me. That's why I had no choice but to run away."
"...Did you find the 'Red Suggestion Box' too, Auntie?"
"I thought something like that was just one of the seven mysteries, but even so, back then, I had no choice but to cling to even such rumors. I searched desperately, and one day, I truly found it."
"What exactly is the 'Red Suggestion Box'? My friend Shirayuki must have found the 'Red Suggestion Box' too. Where do the children who find it go? What happens when they obtain a 'new life'?"

(To be continued)

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