Volume 2 - CH 4.2

Sandai bowed his head for the time being.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Fujiwara Sandai. Umm, I’m Shino’s… no, I’m Yuizaki Shino-san’s boyfriend.”

“So you are her—I’ve heard from Shino. I’m Shino’s father, Daigo.”

It was a really important occasion where the pressure should be heavy as well, but Shino’s father’s—Daigo’s swollen up face made the feeling of tension not there at all.

“Yes. It is my pleasure to meet you.”

“Now, please take a seat there.” Daigo stood up and placed down a floor cushion.

Sandai sat down after saying his thanks, and Shino sat down next to him.

“Umm… it might be sudden, but would it be all right for me to ask a question?” nervously, Sandai decided to ask first about the thing that had been bothering him since earlier.

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Umm… I’m not sure how to say it, but it seems there have been wasps from somewhere, or someone has fallen down… that sort of…”

When Sandai in a roundabout way asked why Daigo’s face was swollen, “Pfft,” the two sitting on Daigo’s sides looked away and laughed.

And then Shino looked at Saigo with a piercing gaze.

It seemed… there was something.

However, it wasn’t the time and place where Sandai could get the answer to that either, so he kept silent.

“A few things happened, you see. It’s not anything you have to be concerned about.”

Sandai felt such a silent pressure to not ask for the details from Daigo.

For just a little the air became tense.

Immediately after, Shino’s mother got up with a wry smile, poured tea, and placed it in front of Sandai.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Don’t mention it. That aside, you sure seem like what I heard from Shino, Fujiwara-kun… I believe you already can tell, but I’m Shino’s mom. I’m called Neko子子. It’s written with two characters for ‘child子,’ Neko子子. I do quite like my own name, so feel free to call me Neko, okay?”

It was an easy-to-understand, and then an easy-to-remember name. She was also someone who seemed kind and gentle.

However, he also felt that her personality wouldn’t live up to such a first impression.

From the circumstances of living together, children are strongly susceptible to their parents’ influence—when taking such a common view into consideration, it wouldn’t make sense for Neko to be completely different from both Shino and Miki.

One way or another, he felt that Daigo seemed to resemble Miki, but…

It would be different if they were always away from home like Sandai’s family, but despite being busy, the Yuizaki family had a proper family time. It was hard to think that the influence within family members was small… In other words, it was reasonable to think of Neko to be acting nice.

However, Neko’s personality wasn’t that important. If she didn’t seem to oppose Sandai’s relationship with Shino, there wouldn’t be any need to know in detail either.

So, instead of such a thing, Sandai was more interested in how Shino had talked about him.

Like what I heard—guessing from these words, it seemed Shino had talked about him honestly, not too much and not too little, but…

“Come on, Daigo-san, don’t get sullen like that. Quickly ask if there’s something you want to ask.”

Told so by Neko, Daigo folded his arms and looked at Sandai once more.

“Well, umm, it seems you want to go on a trip with Shino as a boyfriend and girlfriend, huh?”

Shino had said that she had told them everything. It seemed she had told her parents about everything, literally, about their relationship as well as the trip.

“Yes. I believed it was wrong to go on one as we please, so I thought of making a proper greeting, and then go on one after receiving approval.”

“I see.”

“Are we… not allowed to?”

“How about money?”

“I will pay for everything. I do have a part-time job, but the reason I started one in the first place was because I thought money really would be necessary when I would like to create memories with Shino-san.”

“That’s right. Money is necessary for everything… Hmm.”

While giving his chin a stroke, Daigo looked at Sandai with evaluating eyes.

Daigo’s face was in a bad state, but could it be that the reason Sandai was feeling something akin to a mysterious dignity nevertheless was because of a duty as a father?

Though, perhaps the one who was feeling that way was only Sandai, since Miki was chuckling while looking at Daigo, and Neko and Shino looked fed up.

“Hmm… I see, I understand that you are thinking ahead. Hmm… By the way, what kind are your parents?”

Were a daughter’s boyfriend’s parents something to be concerned about as a father? Wasn’t finding out what kind of person the boyfriend was the important one?

However, it wasn’t anything particularly needed to be hidden either. As long as he would like to know, Sandai would honestly answer.

“First of all, my father and mother are not in Japan.”

“Could it be that they’re foreigners?”

“N-No, both are Japanese. They are overseas for work.”

“…I see. So, what kind of work are they doing? They’re not crime syndicate’s smugglers or anything, are they?”

A jumping-the-gun way of thinking that made Sandai wonder whether Daigo had watched too many movies, but Daigo was Shino’s father. Sandai mustn’t make such a quip and displease him.

“Both my father and mother are volcanologists. The two of them are doing collaborative research; something of the sort.”

When Sandai mentioned the fact truthfully without any lies, Daigo, Neko, Miki, and then Shino, “Hmm?” squinted.

The one to break the short silence was Daigo.

“Parents are volcanologists and the family name is Fujiwara… By chance, could it be that your father’s full name is Fujiwara Nidai? Does he live in a country named Iceland or something?”

Both the full name as well as place of residence were exactly as what Daigo had said.

However, there shouldn’t be any connection whatsoever between Daigo and Nidai, so how did he know?

“Fujiwara Nidai is certainly my father. Do you know of him?”

“I think it was about a week ago… There was a special program about natural disasters on TV. The name of the so-called volcanologist who appeared there was that. I have also recorded it thinking it could help to prepare in the time of a disaster, but… Hold on a bit… let’s see… yeah, this one.”

Shino’s father used the TV remote, and a light, opening BGM was played, and a documentary-like special program about natural disasters started.

Sandai’s eyes nailed down to the background screen in the program. A middle-aged man in a white robe wearing a black-rimmed glasses was reflected there, but that was without a doubt Sandai’s father.

“Global warming is looming. Floods and large droughts constantly occur somewhere in the world. It is also no stranger to Japan that has always been greeted by one since time immemorial. Today we would like to discuss the ‘what if a volcanic eruption were to occur in Japan.’ We have a guest who will be giving any explanations today connected through a video; a volcanologist, Professor Fujiwara Nidai.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Fujiwara Nidai. It’s my pleasure to be here.”

“It is a pleasure to have you here… As Professor Fujiwara currently lives in Iceland, we are transmitting directly through a live video.”

“I wish I could’ve flown directly to Japan, but given the flight schedules, I didn’t think I would be able to make it, thus this is the way it turned out. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Not at all, it is I who should be saying so. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule for us.”

“I hope I can be of any help.”

“Our guest today is Professor Fujiwara Nidai, a natural sciences graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with its nickname MIT, who went on to the graduate school in the same university where he received his PhD. He has been asked for his input by several heads of state at an international forum last year. Currently, he is said to be the closest person to the Nobel Prize as a Japanese citizen…”

To think that his father would appear on the TV screen, Sandai had never imagined it. It somehow didn’t feel real.

“Could this person be… your father, Fujiwara-kun?”

“I would… say so.”

“Is he the kind of person who would get a Nobel Prize?”

“I would say that’s not much of a stretch… I don’t know in detail about my parents’ work, but they probably have put in all kinds of efforts, I think…”

Sandai had never heard any details about their work, neither from Nidai nor Sandai’s mother. He only vaguely knew that they were scholars.

When Sandai averted his eyes, Daigo stood up without saying a thing, beckoned Neko and Miki with his hands, and headed to the hallway.

It seemed the three would be having a family meeting without Shino.