novelraw Chapter 59: Shocked Family of Misae!
Chapter 59: Shocked Family of Misae!
Inside the car, a whiff of premium leather and brand-new plastic, plus the special scent of maintenance and cleaning wrapped around the Koyama family.
The space in the back was indeed outrageously spacious.
Even when four females with differing figures stuffed in, there was not the slightest trace of constraint. It was rather like four dolls carefully placed into a velvet jewelry box.
"Wah——! So amazing! This car is way too awesome!" As soon as Koyama Musae sat inside, she let out an undisguised sigh of admiration.
She was like a curious little mouse barging into a rice granary. Her small hands touched here and pressed there. Those dark and glossy large eyes of hers flashed with light brighter than seeing any handsome guys.
And constantly turned her head to say to Koyama Masae sitting beside her with surprise: "Eldest Sister, look at this leather quality, and this wood grain decoration, it's identical to new hey!"
Making Koyama Yoshiharu sitting in the front passenger seat slowly have his rigid face almost unable to hold it together due to his youngest daughter's erratic behavior.
'Damned brat! I clearly said it! Too embarrassing!'
But Koyama Musae's words were not an embodiment of exaggeration.
Mother Koyama Takasae and eldest sister Masae also noticed this. The newness of this car clearly already exceeded the category of 'well maintained'.In certain corners of the seat, one could even see a small patch of transparent dustproof plastic film that hadn't been completely torn off, like stamps of bashful marks declaring its "virgin body".
Sitting in the front passenger seat, Koyama Yoshiharu's feeling was even more direct.
That thick, almost domineering smell belonging to new cars was continuously drilling into his nasal cavity, as if repeatedly emphasizing its extraordinariness using a manner allowing no room for interference.
That cold and hard face of his like the winter rocks of Kumamoto Prefecture remained rigidly straight, his gaze serenely looking straight ahead, as if having absolutely no feeling towards this expensive mobile fortress beneath him.
Except, those hands trembling slightly while clenched on his knees still exposed the ripples in his heart.
Even though he was a civil servant in Kumamoto Prefecture.
He had never sat in such a fine car!
"Attention everyone, we are starting to move."
Nohara Hiroshi sat in the driver's seat, smiled toward those faces full of curiosity and probing in the rearview mirror, yet didn't explain anything.
He skillfully ignited and shifted gears.
The V8 engine Toyota was proud of let out an almost inaudible low roar, and the entire vehicle, like a piece of black silk gliding over ice, silently merged into the traffic exiting the parking lot.
"Yoshiharu, look at this child, he drives quite steadily." Koyama Takasae in the back looked at the rapidly retreating scenery outside the window and couldn't stand not whispering to her husband in the front row, her tone carrying a bit of initial approval.
This could be considered easing again the unpleasantness appearing from the previous harshness.
Koyama Yoshiharu merely let out a sound of "Mhm" with unclear meaning from his nasal cavity as a response.
The key point was his heart also had no continuing prejudice.
And was fiercely wavering.
The brand-newness of this car had already made his previous guess of 'borrowed from a leader' somewhat untenable.
After all, what leader would casually lend a new car that hadn't even passed its break-in period to an intern?
Unless... this young man, was already not merely a simple confidant, but... an existence bordering on being an illegitimate son?
An illegitimate son of a grand leader!?
Right when his thoughts were wandering aimlessly, the eldest daughter Masae in the back suddenly let out a light sound of 'eh' carrying a bit of confusion.
"Eh? Misae, look at the car roof, what is that?"
She stretched out a slender finger, pointing towards that piece of beige velvet lining on the rear car roof. Everyone raised their heads to look, only to see imprinted on that smooth velvet surface was distinctly a clear, petite... shoeprint clearly belonging to women's high heels.
The angle of that shoeprint was somewhat tricky, carrying a trace full of motion left behind after forcefully kicking.
"..."
The entire carriage instantly fell into a bizarre silence.
The air seemed to solidify, only the engine breathed in low hums.
That small face of Koyama Misae that was already somewhat rosy because of nervousness instantly flushed red like a ripe tomato with a "swish". That heat almost steamed a layer of mist onto the car windows.
She looked at that shoeprint, in her mind uncontrollably emerging scenes from yesterday afternoon inside this brand-new 'castle', certain faces blushing red and heartbeats accelerating.
What castle weighing anchor... clearly the residual scars of the Titanic rapidly and repeatedly colliding with the iceberg!
"Ah! That... that is!"
She was like a kitten whose tail was stepped on, hurriedly waving her hands, attempting to change the topic. Yet her brain was entirely blank because of extreme shyness and embarrassment. In the end, unexpectedly speaking indiscriminately, she roared out the biggest secret:
"This... this is the new car Hiroshi-kun just bought yesterday! Because I was afraid of getting the car dirty when test driving, I took off my shoes and held them in my hand, and accidentally bumped them onto the car roof!"
"..."
If the silence just now was solidified air, then at this moment, inside this carriage, it was an absolute vacuum.
Even the breathing sound of the engine seemed to vanish.
"New... new car?" Mother Koyama Takasae's voice carried a trace of trembling.
"Yesterday... just bought?" Eldest sister Masae's eyes were written full of disbelief.
Even that youngest sister Musae who always appeared excited towards everything, at this moment also opened her mouth wide. In those dark and glossy large eyes, only pure shock remained.
"Yeah! Hiroshi spent over five million yen to buy it in full payment!" Misae at this time merely nodded repeatedly.
As for Koyama Yoshiharu in the front passenger seat, he slowly turned his head. That movement was as stiff as a rusted robot.
He looked at the young man beside him who was merely calmly driving the car from beginning to end, his face even continuing to wear a trace of light smile. He felt that heart of his, having experienced hundreds of battles and having long been tempered as firm as a rock by his career as Head Teacher, at this moment, was fiercely smashed by a giant hammer named reality into a bottomless crack.
That hand of his placed on his knee began to tremble slightly uncontrollably.
Over five million yen.
Full payment.
To buy a car.
He thought of that middle school he worked at for his entire life. He thought of that principal who always hung 'industriousness and thrift in managing a household' on his lips—that principal only drove an old model Crown that was over ten years old.
Yet this young man before his eyes who was only so young...
Koyama Yoshiharu felt his Head Teacher career was like a joke.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to maintain his dignity as the head of the family, yet the words arriving at his lips, ultimately transformed into a powerless turbid breath, swallowed down with difficulty by him.
Koyama Yoshiharu somewhat couldn't say anything.
The gaze looking towards Nohara Hiroshi.
Truly was entirely filled with doubt.
'This guy, could he really be the illegitimate son of a high-level leader of TV Tokyo? With Misae following such an illegitimate son, would she be mocked by others? What should we do when she gives birth to a child?'
Koyama Yoshiharu's head was a piece of chaos.
His worldview was almost shattering!
Right when his fragile worldview was tottering, younger sister Musae in the back seemed to suddenly think of something, violently slapping her thigh, letting out an earth-shattering weird screech.
"Ah! I remember! Nohara Hiroshi! This name... I seem to have seen it somewhere!"
She hurriedly dug into her designer bag, digging out a copy of the latest issue of 『Weekly Shonen Jump』. Because that magazine had been flipped through countless times by her, the corners were already somewhat curled.
She rapidly flipped to the middle color page, pointing to a name marked with bold font on top, her voice changing tune because of excitement.
"Brother-in-law! You... you are that Teacher Nohara who draws 『YuYu Hakusho』?!"
Once her words came out, before everyone could recover their wits from the impact of the five million luxury car, yet another depth charge with even more formidable might violently detonated within this small carriage.
"What?!" Eldest sister Masae and Koyama Takasae exclaimed in unison.
Although they didn't read manga, the name 『YuYu Hakusho』, recently in the younger generation of Kumamoto, was truly too popular.
"No... not only 『YuYu Hakusho』!"
On Musae's face already surfaced a fanaticism of having met an idol. She pointed again at that line of small text on the header, almost roaring it out: "——Super Popular Late-Night Anime 『Yamishibai』 Original Creator & Planner, Genius Manga Artist · Nohara Hiroshi!"
『Yamishibai』...
This name like a lightning bolt split apart the piece of chaotic fog in Koyama Yoshiharu's mind.
He remembered!
Just last night, he even drank with a few old colleagues in an izakaya.
During the banquet, that Vice Principal who always loved to brag about how successful his son was mingling in Tokyo, chattered with spittle flying all over about this anime.
He said, the young people in his son's company now didn't dare to work overtime alone at night, taking detours when seeing photocopiers.
He said, the viewership rating of this anime created a myth for the late-night slot of TV Tokyo.
He said, the producer of this anime is a genius that shouldn't exist in the world.
At that time, he Koyama Yoshiharu even sneered at it, considering it merely some unpresentable minor tricks to please the public with claptrap.
But now...
That... devil, praised as a "Genius", having created a "Myth", making all the young people of Tokyo tremble over him.
Was sitting right beside him, calmly driving the car, about to become... his son-in-law?
Koyama Yoshiharu felt his world, at this moment, had completely collapsed.
He slowly leaned back into the soft genuine leather seat. That always-rigid face that was as cold and hard as a rock, for the first time, appeared a trace of... crack lines.
'This illegitimate son is actually quite capable!'