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"Eh? But I don't have a Magic car?"
Gotō Hitori hesitated.
"Can't you just take the train?"
"It feels like it would be very expensive…"
Gotō Hitori mumbled softly, "And Kessoku Band has practice tonight."
"Skip it."
"O-o-o-oysters!"
The girl shook her head so fast it almost left afterimages.
It was already her fault that things were going wrong, and now she would abandon Yamada Ryo and Ijichi Nijika to go out and play. Whether it was her conscience or her social anxiety, she felt she couldn't do such a thing.
"Anyway, looking at the current situation, Bocchi-chan, you can't practice properly, so why not go out with me? Maybe you can relax a bit and make things better."
"Even if Hoshino Ai says so…"
Gotō Hitori was still a bit hesitant. Although her home was slightly closer to Miyazaki Prefecture than Shimokitazawa and Chiba, it still took nearly four hours to get there, so it wasn't a distance where she could just leave immediately.
"Bocchi-chan, can I use your hands?"
"Huh, why does that sound a bit familiar…"
Gotō Hitori mumbled, but still released her control again: "Um…no rubbing my chest, okay?"
"Got it~"
Then Gotō Hitori watched as her hands took out her phone, opened Kessoku Band's Line group chat, and then, at an extremely fast speed, sent a message: 'I'm going on a journey to find my inner self! I hope I can take a day off today.'
"Eh?"
Because the entire sequence of actions was so fluid, by the time Gotō Hitori snapped out of her dazed state, her hands had already put the phone back into her pocket, acting as if nothing had happened.
"Eh? Eh? Eh?!"
The girl frantically regained control of her hands, took out her phone, and looked at the message in the group chat, flustered.
"If I say now that this message was sent because my dog stepped on my phone—"
She tried to cover up in a panic: "Hoshino Ai, do you think Nijika-senpai and the others will believe it?"
"No, they won't~"
"Ugh…"
Before the girl could think of how to explain, a few more messages appeared in the Line group, from Yamada Ryo and Ijichi Nijika respectively. It seemed they had all seen her message.
Yamada Ryo: I underestimated Bocchi's rock heart. I will pray for you. P.S. Clover is delicious.
Ijichi Nijika: If you want to rest, just tell me anytime, it's fine. Don't be too impatient, let's do our best together, Bocchi-chan~
Ijichi Nijika: Ryo! You can't eat random things!
"Now there's absolutely no way to explain it…"
Gotō Hitori knelt on the tatami mat in despair, looking utterly hopeless.
"On the other hand, doesn't that mean you can come to Miyazaki Prefecture with me and relax your mind and body~"
"For me, the most relaxing place is the closet at home…"
"Bocchi-chan, although I haven't mentioned it much, you should know that idols make a lot of money, right?"
"It…it seems so…"
Actually, unlike the popular celebrities in China, idols in Japan aren't as glamorous as they seem. Most of their income is taken by their agencies, so the idols themselves don't get a particularly large amount.
However, this kind of information was clearly not within Gotō Hitori's knowledge. The girl paused for a moment, then, based on her impression of those big stars, nodded in agreement.
"As long as Bocchi-chan comes with me to Miyazaki Prefecture, I can give you my most important treasure from when I was alive as a reward~"
"Treasure!"
Gotō Hitori's eyes lit up, but then her timid nature overcame her inner greed, and she still felt some resistance towards going to unfamiliar Miyazaki Prefecture.
"Bocchi-chan, you really hate working, right? Then think about it, as long as you have a large sum of money sufficient for your life, no matter where it comes from, it can save you from having to force yourself to go out and work, can't it? And if you can gain some fame with Kessoku Band by then, you won't have to face the difficult and terrifying society!"
"Ugh, just…just that much…"
Although she said that, Gotō Hitori's body was very honest. She cautiously took some money from her piggy bank, where she had been saving for a while, then changed into her usual tracksuit and nervously went downstairs.
"…Mom, I'm going out for a bit, I might be back late—"
The girl thought for a moment and added, "You don't have to save dinner for me."
"Okay."
Michiyo Gotō, who was watching TV, said without turning her head.
The TV was broadcasting a foreign drama from a mysterious ancient Eastern country across the sea. On the screen, a woman dressed in palace attire shouted, "Your servant accuses Consort Xi of adultery!"
"Um…"
Gotō Hitori still felt something was off, so she quietly asked, "What Futari said just now…"
"Want some snacks? The dorayaki are on the table, help yourself."
Michiyo Gotō said casually.
"No, I mean…the chest rubbing…"
Gotō Hitori said with difficulty. By the time she finished, her entire face was red and felt intensely hot.
"Is it any different from the usual Hitori?"
However, Michiyo Gotō still said, completely oblivious, "After all, doesn't the usual Hitori also do some strange things?"
"…"
Unexpectedly being treated as a strange child by her own mother, Gotō Hitori knelt on the floor in an OTZ pose of dejection.
Even when she left home and got on the train to Miyazaki Prefecture, she was still in a daze.
"Bocchi-chan, are you really okay?"
"N-no problem…I'm very good at adjusting my mood…as long as I imagine there are still many air friends cheering me on in my mind…hehe…"
"No, no, this actually looks even stranger, doesn't it? Wake up, Bocchi-chan!"
After her emotions finally stabilized, Gotō Hitori hesitated for a long time before she couldn't help but ask, "Why is Hoshino Ai so eager to go to Miyazaki Prefecture to find that child?"
After all, when they were in the magic car before, Asakura-kun had also said that he would take them to Miyazaki Prefecture after the Founders' Festival.
Not taking a free ride, and instead paying her own money to go to Miyazaki Prefecture, made Gotō Hitori feel suspicious.
"Huh, didn't I tell you?"
Perhaps because they were getting closer to Miyazaki Prefecture, Hoshino Ai's voice sounded a bit distracted. "Because my little fan, Tendoji Sarina-chan, has a terminal illness… Degenerative astrocytoma? I think that's what it's called. Anyway, it should be something similar to cancer."
"Can…cancer…"
Gotō Hitori was startled.
"In the last letter I received from that child before I died, she wrote that I was her courage to live, and as long as I was still here, she would have the motivation to continue fighting her illness."
Hoshino Ai said, "So even for just a moment, I want to see Sarina-chan quickly…to tell her the pain of death, and to have the determination to live well in my place."
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