kscans

Chapter 138 - As Long as the Heart Keeps Beating

"I’m sorry, making you hang out with us when you’re tired from work."

"Don’t worry about it. I’m the one who agreed to this."

After work, I stopped by the Mutual Aid Society, and the first thing Hikaru-kun did was apologize. He is such a serious kid, really. Looking at him makes me remember what we were like in high school, and I get so embarrassed.

"Still, I feel bad making you look after kids both at work and in your private life."

"We apologize for the trouble."

Rika-chan and Sarna-chan said that. She looks exactly like the Saionji from the old days, but her personality is so completely different that I still get a little confused. I am not used to Sarna-chan either. It is just violent. This is the violence of physical development. Every time I see her, I feel like I should bow down in worship. Even other girls are overwhelmed by her.

"Is being a nursery school teacher really that tough?"

"Ah… I’m tired today because of something else, not work, so don’t worry about it."

I waved my hand dismissively at Sakuya-kun, who was looking at me with concern. It is scary how this kid can be so good, despite being related to Satou. Seriously, it makes you doubt if he even has the same blood running through his veins.

"More importantly, to the training ground…"

Just as I was about to say we should go, the two junior high girls stopped me.

"What’s up?"

"Since you came all this way, Takahashi-san, there was something else we wanted to ask you."

"Ask me?"

"Actually, we have a work experience program coming up in the fall."

"And for that, we have an assignment to ask an adult we know why they chose their profession."

"Ah… right, right."

I remember being made to do something like that when I was a student.

"So we want to ask, why did you decide to become a nursery school teacher, Takahashi-san?"

"If you would not mind, could you please tell us your story?"

When I looked, the two boys seemed interested too. They are both serious kids, after all. They probably hope it will help them think about their own futures.

"Sure. It’s not much of a story, though."

When I sat down on a chair, the girls took out notebooks and pens. Getting all prepared like that makes me a little nervous, you know.

"Back in high school, I was chasing a dream I was willing to lay down my life to achieve."

"Lay down your… life…"

"Yeah. But for a lot of people, it was nothing but a nuisance. In the end, Satou beat the crap out of me and my dream was crushed."

"That’s when you and Suzuki-san were turned into women by Uncle, right?"

The one who jumped at those words was Sakuya-kun. Ah, yeah. If you just hear that, it is not impossible to think Satou was violent with some girls.

"Sakuya-kun. It’s not what you think, okay? I mean we were literally changed from men into women."

"Isn’t that a sufficiently strange situation on its own?"

Sarna-chan’s comeback is harsh...

"Sex… change?"

"Yep. And it wasn’t just changing my body into a woman’s. My thought processes became a woman’s too."

As long as I was alive, no matter how pathetic it looked, I would have kept chasing my dream again and again. But since my way of thinking changed to a woman’s… I could no longer reach for that dream. The dream that had reached the level of obsession no longer felt like my own.

"I was alive, but my dream didn’t feel like my own anymore."

That experience truly made me understand the meaning of the phrase, to have a hole in your chest. Well, that aside, I am sorry, Sakuya-kun. Having a relative turn his best friends into women, even if it is not in a weird way, is still pretty insane. My sense of normalcy was shot.

"Hero Uncle… did something like that… I mean, the technology for a sex change is just a normal thing on the inside, then…"

"We have transformation magic and stuff, so isn’t it not that strange?"

"Ah, no, Hikaru-kun. That’s not quite right. The only one who can do a complete sex change is that bastard Satou."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. If it’s temporary, that’s one thing, but making it permanent with the body causes problems."

The soul and the body have a very close relationship. Just as the state of the former can affect the latter, the reverse is also true.

"A man’s soul in a woman’s body. Problems arise, and it messes with your mind."

"...Then what happens in cases of gender identity disorder?"

Sakuya-kun threw out a sharp question. You are quite the social commentator, aren’t you. And you are really into this. You even took out a notepad.

"That’s a mismatch from the very beginning, right? That state is their standard, so as long as you don’t mess with it from there, it’s fine."

The problem is artificially shifting the soul and body. There are things like gender affirmation surgery in the normal world, but those are fine. I think it is because you do not become a completely male or female body. The one Satou does comes complete with a uterus and ovaries.

"So if you’re going to do a perfect sex change, you have to mess with the soul too."

And that is beyond difficult. Technology to manipulate the soul exists, but we are talking about rebuilding it from the ground up. It is like being asked to build a supercomputer from manufacturing the parts to final assembly, by hand, with no manual.

"That’s why his technique, which just steamrolls all of that and completely changes your sex, is totally insane."

TS God Fist. The name sounds completely moronic, but it is a bug-like technique. For now, what I think is this. It is a good thing the only victims were me, Suzuki, and those dumbass death gods.

"Takahashi-san, Takahashi-san. You’re getting off topic."

"Oops, sorry."

"Ah, me too, sorry."

Now, where was I. Right, up to the part about having a hole in my chest.

"I had this huge hole in my chest, but I was still alive. Suzuki apparently became listless and turned into a shut-in, but I was the opposite."

The sense of loss was so unbearable that I felt like I would go crazy if I was not doing something. So even though my dream was crushed, I forced myself to get up and take action, telling myself that life goes on.

"You’ve got to work to live. But what should I do? And that’s when I thought."

To make a clean break with my past self, I would do something completely opposite, something I had absolutely no connection to.

"And that’s why you became a nursery school teacher?"

"I didn’t become one right away. At first, I think… I had a part-time job at a flower shop?"

And after that, I was a clerk at a fancy goods shop. I even worked at a maid cafe for a while.

"I went from job to job like that, and when I was wondering what to do next, being a nursery school teacher came up as an option."

I had also worked part-time as a host for a kids’ event show, so I thought getting seriously involved with children might be a good idea. So I went to a vocational school, studied, got my license, and found a job.

"It turned out to be a surprisingly good fit, and I’ve been doing it ever since."

"Haaah…"

The two girls were nodding over and over, as if impressed. What kind of emotion is that. Like I said at the beginning, it was not that great of a story.

"Isn’t it a wonderful thing to have your dream shattered, yet continue to walk on without stopping, and find a good place in the end?"

"You’re laying it on too thick."

More importantly.

"That’s the end of the story. Let’s get to the training ground. I’m going to work you hard, so be ready."

"Yes!!"

Now then… how should I get Satou to make this up to me?