kscans

Chapter 196 - An Act of Youthful Folly

"So, Saionji, why are you a company president anyway?"

"I've never asked before, but I've been curious about that too. I didn't think you were that type of person."

Chika silently kept gulping down her drink, and once she felt her wounds had healed nicely, the idle chatter resumed. Takahashi and Suzuki brought up something they had been wondering about for a while. The Saionji Chika, or rather, Saionji Chikage they knew, was more of a subordinate than anything else. She was the type to calmly carry out orders from above, and they couldn't quite imagine her taking the lead.

"Um, well... about that... how should I put it..."

"What? Is it something you can't talk about with me here?"

"Oh, no, it is but it isn't. Um, let me ask you, Rika. Why do you think Mama started a company?"

"Well, you must have had some kind of lofty ambition, right? People who start companies are all like that, aren't they?"

Not everyone who starts a company has such a noble goal. Still, it was only natural for a child like Rika to see a company president as someone from another world entirely. Chika knew her daughter thought this way, which was exactly why she found it so hard to say. It wasn't something she could hide forever, though.

"Unfortunately, I had no magnificent ambitions or anything of the sort."

Chika sighed in resignation and began her story, dangling her can.

"It was kind of... on a whim?"

"""On a whim!?"""

The three of them stared in shock. And for good reason. It was completely out of character for Chika. Acting on such a motive was Satou's territory.

"Hey, hey, acting on a whim is the complete opposite of who you are."

"...That's so unlike you. You're always so earnest."

"Yeah, really. You always say it, Mama. 'Everything requires a plan.'"

Chika nodded at their words. It was certainly true.

"The younger me... or rather, the me who had just started living in the Surface World wasn't like that."

"""Hmm?"""

"Hiro said it to us before, didn't he? That we're not suited for things like surprises."

"He did say that."

"Ah, this is bad... I'm getting mad just remembering it."

Chika continued, calming down Takahashi who was simmering with irritation. After all the trouble they went through to plan that for him, the reason he was down was, of all things...!

"Basically, he was saying it's just pathetic when a gloomy person tries to act all cheerful and get on that vibe, right?"

"I don't think he went that far."

"...Well, he's not entirely wrong, though."

"That's exactly what I used to be like."

It was partly a way to escape her fear of Satou and her guilt. But even without that, Chika herself had longed for a life in the sunlit world.

"Everything was so new, I must have thought it'd be a waste not to be doing something. So I tried my hand at all sorts of things. But well, I was just a naive little girl who didn't know the first thing about the world, you know? And on top of that, the ideal person I admired, or rather, wanted to be like, was none other than Hiro."

Satou would fearlessly charge into anything, she thought. He'd be able to laugh off even his failures. With that in mind, Chika threw herself into all kinds of challenges.

"No way, that's impossible. His sense of balance is a natural gift."

"His actions are a product of his personality. It's just painful if anyone else tries to imitate him."

"Uncle is a natural-born extrovert, so I think it'd be a pretty high bar for you to copy him, Mama."

Hit by a barrage of blunt criticism, Chika's cheeks twitched, but since they were absolutely right, she didn't argue.

"Anyway, just assume that's what I was like back then. That's why I got involved with a stupid man... but well, let's leave that aside. I think it was about a year or so after Rika was born? I was just doing the normal full-time housewife thing."

Then, a thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Huh? Isn't raising a child easier than people say?"

"""Don't you dare underestimate child-rearing."""

"I, I know that now... I really did cause Rika a lot of trouble..."

But that wasn't what she meant.

"You know how you often hear about things like postpartum depression and stuff?"

"Ah... so that's what you mean. True, that's something we'd never have to deal with."

Stories of not getting even an hour of sleep because of a baby crying through the night were common. However, even though Chika had sealed her powers, they weren't completely suppressed. In terms of physical stamina, she still had about as much as a low-tier superhuman.

"I could probably raise a child for a week without eating or drinking and be fine. The mental side is the same. I lived in a world where the threat of death was always close, so little things didn't faze me, you know? The pressure of protecting a weak life, a baby... well, it wasn't like there was none, okay? But you know, I also had the mental safety net of knowing I could rely on my supernatural powers if it came to it, right?"

And so, she explained, the burden of child-rearing was extremely light for her.

"When you have that much extra capacity... you just start to think. Isn't it a waste not to be doing something?"

She was finally enjoying her long-desired life in the Surface World. If she had the leeway to try something else, shouldn't she do it? It was a completely misguided notion. If Satou heard, he would have surely given her a lecture.

"I get it now, you know? That there's a certain charm to just enjoying idle time for what it is. But I was in my early twenties... I hadn't even been living in the Surface World for ten years, so of course, you know?"

It was around that time.

"I had a chance to have a meal with a friend from junior college. We were all catching up and getting excited about what everyone was up to, when one of my friends who worked at a company said something."

She said that for now, she was biding her time. But once she saved up enough money, she was going to start her own business.

"She spoke with such passion that I was really impressed. So I raised my hand and said, 'In that case, why don't I be your sponsor?' The money I had earned in the Supernatural World was usable in the Surface World as an inheritance from my fictional parents, and I hadn't touched much of it."

So she thought she might as well help a friend's dream come true. When Chika spoke up, her other friends there also offered to help. So they all agreed to give it their all with a big "Yeah!", which was great, but...

"At first, I was just planning on providing the money and helping out with some of the minor administrative tasks, but."

"""But?"""

"Just as we were about to set sail on the rough seas of society! The girl who started it all said something."

She said she wasn't cut out to be a president or the face of a company. She was better suited to working behind the scenes. So they turned to another friend, but she was met with "Me? No way," and "You've got to be kidding me," as the others also refused. But it was too late to call everything off. Everyone turned their expectant gazes toward Chika.

"So I said, 'Well, I guess I have no choice...' and that's how I ended up here."

Incidentally, those friends are still supporting Chika as executives today.

"""How did you ever manage to make it work!?"""

"Well, you know, I had a good role model for that."

"""A role model?"""

"Hiro."

He regularly led Takahashi and Suzuki, and not just them. Large-scale subjugation requests carried out with other members, the coup d'état at the Mutual Aid Society, the final battle against the Chaos Army of the new world. Satou always stood above others, leading people. Chika had watched him up close all that time, so she decided to use him as a reference.

"And when I actually tried it, it went surprisingly well. Hey, of course not everything was a success, and I made mistakes, okay? Yes, it wasn't all smooth sailing."

But through it all, she said, she grew and established her own way of being a leader, moving beyond mere imitation.

"Woah... but it's kind of funny that the uncle you used as a reference is a company employee while you're the president, Mama."

"Having the aptitude for something and actually using it are two different things."

Satou only did it because he was forced to by necessity. Otherwise, he was the type who was more suited to taking it easy.

"To be such a standout individual yet also be strong leading a group... when you think about it again, that guy's just not playing fair, is he?"

"It's amazing we fought against someone like that."

"Well, Hiro wasn't quite off the charts yet at the time of the final battle."

"""But he turned us into girls with some weirdo technique?"""

Chika offered a polite smile.