Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

Page 142

Young Bow finds everything around him fascinating and is looking around with wide eyes.

She was led to the dining room by Terasaki Ayasa's hand, and the maid thoughtfully prepared a slightly higher chair for her so that she could reach the table.

The woman dressed as a maid smiled and picked her up, then secretly pinched her cheek and whispered, "So cute."

Although I don't know why my child's seventeen or eighteen-year-old guardian suddenly became two, Mayumi is so cute.

Huh? Oh right, you brought two children. Which one is Mamiya?

Yuuki tilted her head slightly to examine the aunt who looked somewhat familiar; Sugiyama Rika's features bore a resemblance to hers.

She liked the fine lines around his eyes. Although his smile was more lively and playful, his gentleness reminded her of her mother.

She also gave the other person a bright smile.

Chapter 225 Mom, it's me!

Sugiyama Rika couldn't eat her meal in peace without seeing her bedridden mother.

Okay, let's finish eating right away and then go upstairs.

—That was Sugiyama Rika's original plan.

After the dishes were served, she picked up her rice bowl and reached for the fried fish in front of her with her chopsticks.

Logically speaking, someone with her family's financial strength should have hired a chef of a very high standard.

It's just that my family doesn't like extravagance and prefers food that suits their taste rather than fancy ingredients, which is why there are so many ordinary-looking dishes on the table.

Even so, the taste won't be too bad.

But when Sugiyama Rika poked it with her chopsticks, she realized something was wrong.

Why did she hear the sound of the wooden chopsticks in her hand breaking?

Sugiyama Rika suddenly realized something and carefully examined each dish in front of her.

Everything looks fine, very appetizing. It smells incredibly enticing, but the texture…

It doesn't look like something you could eat at all.

Wait, etc.

I've encountered this situation before.

This kind of extravagant diet usually occurs in...

...when Mom suddenly felt like cooking.

Although Sugiyama Rika's mother is a wealthy woman, she still has the mentality of a little girl.

They have a youthful mindset, an outgoing personality, are always full of energy, and are very good at accepting new things.

Every month, Sugiyama Rika sees her mother enrolling in different extracurricular classes, ranging from playing musical instruments, painting, writing, and cooking, to plumbing, computer programming, and even making bubble tea, all of which she attends with great enthusiasm.

Mrs. Sugiyama approached these things with great enthusiasm, regardless of the depth or difficulty of her learning.

It can be said that Sugiyama Rika's personality is inherited from her mother, unconventional yet never out of line.

Because Mrs. Sugiyama had eaten too many strangely textured foods while taking cooking classes, Sugiyama Rika immediately realized that this was her mother's prank.

Mrs. Sugiyama also had a habit of always observing the victim's reaction at the scene whenever she played a prank.

So……

Sugiyama Rika's gaze shifted and immediately locked onto the person standing next to the young Mayumi Haga.

The other person was dressed as a maid, but she was secretive when serving the food, and her figure was clearly exactly the same as her mother's.

"Ah! Mom! What are you doing here?" Sugiyama Rika jumped up.

Upon hearing this, Kyoko Sugiyama looked up, revealing a gentle smile.

She styled her chestnut-brown hair into braids that draped over her shoulders. Time had etched shallow lines around her eyes, but it couldn't conceal the beauty of this woman in her youth.

Kyoko Sugiyama looked younger than her actual age and always had a smile on her face. Seeing that her scheme had been exposed, she stepped forward confidently and said, "Oh dear, I was wondering when Rika would find out."

“Dad said I came back because you were sick.” Seeing her mother standing in front of her healthy and strong, Sugiyama Rika breathed a sigh of relief, but then felt aggrieved at being deceived by the alliance. “How could you make such a joke?”

"It wasn't exactly a joke," Kyoko Sugiyama said, pretending to wipe away tears. "Actually, as for me..."

Sugiyama Rika immediately tensed up: "What's wrong? What happened?"

It seems like there's something I don't know. Could it be that Mom is still sick?

"I had a cold a while ago," Kyoko Sugiyama said with a smile.

Sugiyama Rika: ...You recovered so quickly.

Well, she knew she was being played.

“Besides, Rihua hasn’t been home for so many years, and Mom thought you’d become a bad kid.” Sugiyama Kyoko deliberately sighed in front of her. “After graduating, you left home without a word, and we couldn’t find you anywhere. We tried private investigators and TV missing person searches, but there was no trace of you.”

Now it was Sugiyama Rikka's turn to be drenched in sweat.

Because of her physical condition, she decided to devote herself entirely to magic. At that time, she had already used magic to shield herself from all information, making it impossible for her family to find her.

But in her family's eyes, she simply disappeared without a trace.

Fortunately, Sugiyama Rika occasionally—actually, about once every year or two—sent postcards home, which prevented her from being added to the list of missing persons and victims too early.

But it's clear that this action wasn't enough to quell her family's concerns.

Just to be on the safe side, Sugiyama Rika still asked, "The truth?"

"Oh? To be honest, I wasn't worried at all." Sugiyama Kyoko laughed. "After all, without Rika getting in the way at home, I can throw my clothes everywhere without getting nagged, and I don't have to apologize to the teacher when Rika skips class. I can sleep until I naturally wake up every day without being woken up to accompany someone to school. It's really comfortable."

While it's certainly cozy for children to be at home, mothers do miss their own children.

But the premise is that you don't stay at home all the time.

Having had enough of Sugiyama Rika's constant presence at home for the past ten or twenty years, the air felt fresher after Sugiyama Rika left.

After her initial shock, Kyoko Sugiyama quickly got used to the days when she and her husband could enjoy time alone without their daughter bothering them at home.

The husband, on the other hand, was so worried about his daughter that he could only eat three meals a day, and his endocrine system became imbalanced, causing him to gain a lot of weight.

This is not a joke. After all, Arata Sugiyama, a strong and fit man who maintains a fitness routine, used to eat at least four meals a day whenever he was hungry.

Upon learning that her mother hadn't become depressed or ill from not being able to find her, but was actually more relaxed than when she was there, Sugiyama Rika had mixed feelings: "Generally speaking, parents would worry when their child goes missing!"

Kyoko Sugiyama, however, said directly, "Huh? I actually know what you're going there for, Rihanna. Your family has been receiving this every year since you were in junior high."

She took out her phone and projected the photos she had taken inside onto the restaurant's TV screen.

It was a form that Sugiyama Rika had never seen before, but just looking at it for the first time was enough to make her mind go blank.

Even Terasaki Ayasa, who was standing next to her, looked at her with disbelief.

There is no other reason.

This form is the magical girl performance report that Sugiyama Rikako received every year after the assessment day when she debuted as a magical girl.

It displays anti-addiction information such as how many monsters and demons she defeated, how many hours she fought as a magical girl, etc.

Why would such a thing even exist?!

Sugiyama Rika appeared calm, but in reality, she was terrified.

She frantically shook Terasaki Ayasa, who was standing next to her, in the telepathic communication: 【Ayasa! Ayasa! What is this? Am I the only one who has it? Why was it sent to my house?!】

Terasaki Ayasa's even more surprised reply was: "You put your home address on this?"

[I remember now, they did ask us for an address back then...]

[The original text said "your contact method when you were a magical girl!" It required your magical signature for delivery, so why did you fill in your home delivery address?]

[Is that so?! I thought it was for sending prizes home or something, so I just filled in my mom's address and phone number that I used when I shopped online...]

Unexpectedly, this thing was sent over every year, and Kyoko Sugiyama saw them all.

Doesn't this mean that my mother actually knew that I was the magical girl Akane from back then?

Sugiyama Rika's secret, which she had kept for so many years, was so easily exposed, and she suddenly didn't know how to face her mother, who had always known the truth.

Her voice trembled: "Mom, so you always knew...?"

Kyoko Sugiyama nodded knowingly: "Of course I know. What wouldn't I know about my own child?"

How... how could this happen...?

Sugiyama Rika's mind went blank. Just as she was about to say something, she suddenly heard her mother, who was speaking heavily, add, "Of course I know you're a huge fan of Magical Girl Red!"

“…Huh?” Sugiyama Rika, who had just started to organize her thoughts and tell her mother everything, was stunned once again.

Her words stuck in her throat, unable to come out or come down.

He just stared wide-eyed at Kyoko Sugiyama, making the scene somewhat comical.

Kyoko Sugiyama, oblivious to Rika Sugiyama's speechless expression, continued, "Mom already knew. You must have been searching all over the world for traces of the magical girl, Red. You liked her a lot back then, and you would record or cut out news reports about her from the newspapers..."

"..."

"And every time that kid is fighting the monster, you always try to show up at the scene, hoping to bump into her, right? Actually, Mom doesn't object to you being a fan, but this is a bit like being a stalker, so please don't do it in the future."

Kyoko Sugiyama couldn't understand why her daughter had become so strange after the appearance of the magical girl Akane.

She always rushes out with her friends, skips class to appear near the Magical Girl Red event, pays extra attention to their news reports, and even buys related merchandise online.

That's right, Kyoko Sugiyama just thought of this as a piece of magical girl merchandise that Rika Sugiyama had bought online.

Kyoko Sugiyama didn't quite understand it back then, but recently, with the emergence of annual summary reports on various apps, she finally realized what it meant.

So this is also part of being a fan.

Moreover, after the magical girl Crimson retired, her own child disappeared from everyone's sight, looking utterly dejected.

Maybe they're going all over the country to look for their idols.

Kyoko Sugiyama doesn't object to Rika Sugiyama doing this, after all, her family is wealthy and doesn't need Rika Sugiyama to go out and work properly.

She wouldn't mind spending the rest of her life chasing celebrities or working as a private investigator.

As long as the child is happy.

However, it's going too far to pick up a child from outside and not bring her home to see her.

Kyoko Sugiyama actually quite likes children, provided that she only needs to play with the children and doesn't need to take care of them herself.

As soon as she found out that her daughter had brought home a pretty little girl, she wanted to see just how cute the child was.

After all, she is still the mother of the other party's guardian in name only, and she can't keep acting like she doesn't exist.

And she was indeed very interested.

Seeing how cute the children who were brought here makes me even happier.

Before her mother could continue bothering Mayumi, Sugiyama Rika quickly grabbed Sugiyama Kyoko, whose mind was wandering, and asked, "By the way, Mom, where did Dad go? Didn't he tell us to come back?"

"Ah, Ah Xin had some company business to attend to, so he went out just now."

"...The truth?"

"He felt he was going to get back at you, so he ran away quickly."

“Then…” Sugiyama Rika remembered that she had one last purpose for going home.

That is to find out whether there was a younger sister in the family.

I have a feeling about it myself, and my mother probably remembers something too.

Kyoko Sugiyama smiled and put her arm around Rika Sugiyama's shoulder. She could tell that Rika Sugiyama seemed to have something important to say, so she didn't beat around the bush. "Eat something first. I had the chef prepare some food that's a little bit better than what I make. Let's talk about it after we've filled our stomachs. Children can't go hungry."

As she spoke, she reached out her wicked hand to young Mayumi Haga, who was sitting at the dining table, and couldn't resist touching the smooth texture of her face.

.................................................. ..................

"Achoo!"

Yoko Sugiyama sneezed.

She rubbed her nose: "...Strange, could it be that someone is talking about me?"

But it's obviously impossible. Almost everyone has forgotten her existence. The only ones who can speak ill of her are the two guys who just escaped, and the Fear Monster and Despair Monster who are imprisoned in the Otherworld.

When it comes to Mayumi Haga's ability to escape the underworld through her "rationality" and "desire," Yoko Sugiyama is actually somewhat puzzled.

Logically, she had already severed the passage in the mirror, so those two people without magic shouldn't be able to go back.