Amid the heat and drowsiness day after day, autumn drove away the annoying heat and appeared in gorgeous dresses swaying in gorgeous skirts, and Yokohama once again returned to the cool late autumn.
Hojo Natsuki is nineteen years old, still a corporate slave, still not promoted (if he gets promoted he will have to usurp the throne and become the leader), and still obsessed with the Traveling Frog.
While on a business trip to the neighboring city of Yokosuka, he met an unexpected person.
—Oda Sakunosuke.
The red-haired man who retired from the port mafia long ago is still a little unkempt, with a gentle temperament. He blends in naturally among ordinary people who live a serious life. You can't tell at all that he is a killer who once served the mafia.
The sky suddenly turned violent and a heavy rain fell on this night that should have been peaceful and peaceful, soaking Hojo Natsuki, who had sneaked out to wander around.
The weather was cold, and he wrapped himself in a half-wet black windbreaker, like a pitiful cat in the water.
Natsuki took out his cell phone and was about to call his assistant and driver when Oda Sakunosuke, holding a straight-handled umbrella, came out from the corner and the two met each other unexpectedly.
Oda Sakunosuke: "... Uh, long time no see?"
Natsuki: "Ah, Mr. Odasaku..."
Oda Sakunosuke looked him up and down, and asked hesitantly, "Are you... cold? My home is only a ten-minute walk away. Do you want to go and have some hot soup?"
Logically speaking, the relationship between the two was not good enough to visit each other's home, but Oda Sakunosuke was secretly grateful to Natsuki for persuading him to leave Port Maifa (actually it was just one sentence), which made him end his procrastination and hesitation, leave his old job and take the first step towards his ideal. He is currently a novice freelance novelist.
Oda Sakumitsu knew that Dazai had defected from Port Mafia not long ago. Seeing the pitiful situation of Hojo Natsuki standing in front of a convenience store to avoid the rain, he thought that he had also escaped from the Port Mafia, so he thought it was a good idea for a person who has changed his profession to help another person who has changed his profession, and he kindly extended a helping hand.
Of course, Hojo Natsuki, who had just gone out, didn't want to go back. After thinking for a few seconds, he agreed.
Yokosuka City is a military port city with a long coastline, and Oda Sakunosuke's new home is a small villa on the coast.
When the door was opened, children's voices could be heard one after another in the house.
"Odasaku, you're back—"
"Why are you back so late?"
“We are starving!”
"I'm so hungry, Odasaku—"
"We have guests today," Oda Sakunosuke said, "please be quiet."
Hojo Natsuki changed his shoes and walked into the living room.
He had an impression of them, they were the kids he had met by chance in McDonald's before; kids grow up very fast, and their faces and bodies have changed a lot in more than a year.
The children called out "Hello, brother" one by one, and scattered around the living room, doing their own things in twos and threes. The boys watched TV, and the girl named Sakiraku sat at the piano bench, continuing to practice her fingering, the sound of the piano ringing crisply.
Hojo Natsuki stared at her for a long time, and his expression suddenly became serious.
A few minutes later, Oda Sakunosuke brought a bowl of hot soup, looked along his line of sight, and explained, "Sakura has been studying for two years."
Hojo Natsuki looked up and asked seriously, "Generally speaking, children have to take interest classes, right?"
Oda Sakunosuke didn't know why he suddenly became serious, and didn't know how to answer for a moment. He was stunned for a second or two before saying, "Not necessarily, but if conditions permit, we should try our best to support children's hobbies. It is good for their physical and mental health, and can cultivate their self-confidence..."
Hojo Natsuki ignored the first half of the sentence and looked shocked.
"Good for physical and mental health", "Build self-confidence"...
That's advice from a veteran father of five adopted children.
What about the Frog? The Frog has no hobbies other than CS. I guess sucking your thumb can barely be counted as one of them (?). Other children learn to play the piano, learn to play Go, and learn to dance, but it has been addicted to playing CS since it was a child. As a little frog, it even learned to swim later.
It was not properly cultivated when it was young, no wonder it grew into such a cold
Cool question for adults!
"What's wrong with you?" Oda Sakunosuke glanced at his expression and asked, "Did anything happen?"
Natsuki: “…I realized I did something very wrong.”
Odasaku: "Is it work?"
Natsuki: "Childcare."
Odasaku: “?”
Did he also adopt orphans
"Hmm." Oda Sakunosuke thought for a moment and gave a thoughtful suggestion that was impeccable, "Since you've already made a mistake, then find a way to remedy it."
Hojo Natsuki thought for a moment, "You think there's still room for remedy, right? It's never too late?"
Odasaku: "What if we can take action as soon as possible before things get worse?"
Xia Shu nodded: "You are right." Then he put his hands together and said: "I will start."
He drank the hot soup spoonful by spoonful.
"By the way, can you answer me? How old is your child this year?" Oda Sakunosuke said, "Different age groups require different remedial measures..."
This is not an unanswerable question.
Hojo Natsuki's expression became more serious. He paused, reminiscing. When he finished, he felt a little embarrassed and said in a serious and low voice, "Twenty-one."
Odasaku: “?”
He was not good at complaining, so he choked for a while before slowly answering, "Well, it's quite humorous..."
Half an hour later, the rain subsided. Hojo Natsuki said goodbye to his kind former colleague who had taken him in, and went home with a new idea to tinker with the frog.
What's wrong with being 21 years old? A 30-year-old male star is an ignorant child, but a 21-year-old Qinwa is not? Moreover, the age in the game cannot be counted. It is a number that is randomly increased in the attribute panel. Let alone 20, Qinwa would still be his son even if he was 100 years old.
[Natsuki]: I thought about it, you need to learn a hobby
[Natsuki]：Since your name contains the word koto, why don’t you learn a koto instrument? Shamisen? Piano? Violin
Qinwa was used to his words and didn't even object to the "learning the piano" thing at the first time.
[Gin]：Where is the word "Gin" in my name
[Natsuki]: You can’t read
The piano of “Qinwa”!
It ignored him.
Hojo Natsuki started his krypton gold show.
Shamisen, buy; violin, buy; piano, buy…
And there is a zither!
This musical instrument, which came from China several centuries ago, is called "qin" in Japanese. It is very elegant and beautiful. Even in this simple painting style, it has a kind of fairy-like aura that is out of this world - buy it, you must buy it.
Hojo Natsuki bought the course and fell asleep peacefully.
In his dream, he saw a frog playing the zither beside the pond outside the house. A rare tranquil expression appeared on the little green frog's face. The breeze was melodious, the shadows of bamboos were intertwined, and the deer was resting on the edge of the quiet pond. The gurgling water reflected the sound of the zither...
After waking up.
[[Qinwa] was speechless at the sudden appearance of the musical instrument]
[[Koto Frog] Take a closer look at the [Shamisen]]
[[Qinwa] dismantled the [Qin] I bought for it, thinking that the strings would be a good hidden weapon to kill people]
[[Qinwa] is very satisfied with another use of the strings, favorability 1]
Hojo Natsuki: “…”
Don't add favorability in such a weird place! ! I don't want this kind of favorability at all! !
He poked Qinwa and asked, "Why did you dismantle the piano I gave you?"
[Gin]：
[Gin]：Why can’t it be demolished
[Natsuki]: That's for you!
[Gin]: No
[Gin]：No
Hojo Natsuki: “…”
This unlucky kid has even learned to answer questions quickly.
Seeing Qinwa's refusal to listen, he also gave up on himself. Forget it. Hobbies are just a fact.
You can't force it, and trying to give it by force becomes a torture.
However, he did not put away the musical instruments, hoping that the koto frog would suddenly come to his senses one day; the koto frog also left them to gather dust in the room, and in the following days, gradually removed the strings of the koto and shamisen and used them to commit crimes.
More than half a year passed in the game, and the poor shamisen became a bald instrument, and the artistic cells in the frog still failed to grow.
But it graduated from university and successfully obtained a degree certificate.
[Gin]: I graduated
[Gin]: You said, stop asking me to go to school
Hojo Natsuki answered frankly: [Okay]
Anyway, it graduated and is still working in the Frog Organization.
His abnormally frank attitude made Kurosawa Jin feel that something was wrong, and he was afraid that the other party would set a trap in an unexpected place again.
So, Kurosawa began to recall his college life: he went to school five times in total, relied on substitute teachers to attend classes, relied on someone else to take exams, and outsourced his graduation project and thesis... But he got his degree certificate, so everything was normal and there was nothing wrong to find.
Kurosawa was indeed overthinking it. Hojo Natsuki had never been to college and was busy, so he didn't think about it at all.
He was already tired of dealing with the pile of work, not to mention the addition of a colleague who only made trouble. After Dazai left, his vacant position was bought by a idiot named A for a large sum of money.
A has no loyalty to Port Mafia and Chief Mori. He has a lot of money and spends it everywhere. He thinks the title of "cadre" is cool, so he spends money to buy a position and takes the initiative to become Chief Mori's emotionless ATM machine. Mori Ogai also has zero trust in him. A has no access to the core of Port Mafia at all, but he is a man who loves to make money and stir up trouble, which affects the normal work of Hojo Natsuki and often requires him to clean up the mess for him.
With his personality, it is impossible for him to tell his subordinates the truth that his colleague is an idiot. He can only express his opinion with a cold smile and bland sarcasm.
Then he yelled at his colleague Qinwa, calling him an idiot.
Thanks to the Internet.
Qinwa passively accepted several complaints, but he actually took the initiative to come up with solutions for him!
Because I was really annoyed.
[Gin]: It’s so noisy
[Gin]：What's his name and where is he
The subtext is to help him get rid of A.
The frog held a mobile phone in its two paws and a cigarette in its mouth, with its mouth and eyes turned down, as if to say - "It doesn't matter! The frog will take action!"
Hojo Natsuki was immediately amused, and immediately pushed his stupid colleague behind his head and touched Xiaogua's serious face.
After he poked its face, it bounced back like green jelly, with its serious expression that was so cute that it was unfair, which made people's bad mood of the whole day disappear.
The frog had a stern face.
[Gin]：Reply
Hojo Natsuki: [You can't find him, he's not in your world]
[Gin]: Oh
Its tense expression, ready to go out and kill someone at any time, gradually relaxed and turned into a very dissatisfied and stiff expression. Then, the frog walked around the room, as if preparing something, with a slightly faster pace than usual, betraying its inner irritability.
I don’t know what suddenly made it unhappy.
[Gin]：Move the piano away
[Gin]：Taking up space
The piano stood quietly in the corner and had been there for more than half a year, but at this moment it was inexplicably offended, causing the piano frog to suddenly vent its anger on it.
On the dust sheet, there were a plucked-out zither and shamisen, also covered in dust.
"His temper is still so changeable." Hojo Natsuki thought.
He clicked on the piano, and the phone screen was suddenly occupied by the standard 88 keys. He was stunned, he didn't expect that this was a two-way interaction and players could also play it.
So he put the phone flat, thought for a few seconds, and pressed the first tone.
It was tentative and awkward at first, but before long, a smooth and lively song "Summer" flowed out from his fingertips.
It was as if a gust of wind passed through the summer road, penetrating the clear
The clean blue sky blows towards another world, across the cracks of time and the invisible barriers between dimensions.
Qinwa held the gun in his arms, stopped moving, and the impatient look slowly faded from his face.
Hojo Natsuki finished playing, feeling a little emotional. He had learned piano a long time ago, and thought he was so rusty that he couldn't even recognize middle C, but when he faced those keys again, he could play the songs he had practiced without thinking.
He closed the interface and saw the reaction of the frog, feeling a little proud.
[Natsuki]：Does it sound good? Do you regret not learning it? =w=
The frog's gentle expression suddenly turned grim.
[Gin]: No
[Natsuki]：Does it sound good
It refused to return.
Poke it.
[Gin]：Not bad
[Natsuki]：Just not unpleasant to the ear
[Gin]：…
[Gin]: Not bad
The frog seemed to have made a huge concession.
Then, Hojo Natsuki sneered mercilessly and started typing.
[Natsuki]: You can say it's OK even though you play it so badly.
[Natsuki]: I knew that you, a tone-deaf person who can only tear apart guitar strings and use them as weapons, could understand nothing about music! You have no appreciation at all! Ugh!
[Gin]：…
(End of this chapter)