Disclaimer: Hello again fellow readers! I'm sure you all know this, but I'll announce it anyway! All credit goes to Shingo Nanami and フクロウ. I'm just フクロウ's translator. Ahem, well then now let's begin this chapter shall we?
野良猫を落とす10の方法 II
10 Ways To Drop A Stray Cat II
Part Two
"What? What's with you suddenly becoming all friendly with a high school student!?" Toukichirou loudly complained at the counter where Nobunaga, Katsusaburou, Nouhime, and Gorouza were drinking.
At Toukichirou's drunken speech, Katsusaburou nearly spat out the beer that he just drunk from his glass. He barely managed to keep it down in the end.
Composing himself and feigning ignorance, Ikeda continued to sip his beer.
This guy, just what in the world is he talking about?
"So nice~! Must be nice~! How come you're the one who gets all affectionate with a girl while I get all the bad luck in mixers? Plus she's a high school girl! I'm so jealous! !"
"Haha, Toukichirou, you're not popular because you say things like that."
"That's right! But if Nouhime comforts me, I'll be a-ok~!"
"Hahaha! I refuse."
Just as Toukichirou snuggled up to Nouhime, she immediately cut him down. He's surprisingly persistent as well.
"Uuuu… But still I'm super jealous! ! Girls only see me as a nice guy…! I just want a cute girlfriend already!"
Glancing at the bawling Toukichirou from the corner of his eye, Ikeda continued to feign ignorance.
It's true that he and Kasane have been keeping close contact lately. But it's not like he goes out to personally meet her. Rather, they happen to meet each other every morning when they check up on the cat.
Something like that. It really isn't something that big to make a fuss about here. Especially when his old acquaintances Nobunaga and Nouhime were right next to him. Now that this topic is out in the open, he doesn't know how much they'll tease him tonight.
Cursing Toukichirou in his head, Ikeda nervously checked Nouhime's and Nobunaga's expression as cold sweat ran down his face.
"If you know a high school girl, then introduce me to her! Introduce me! It'll just give a good memory! Tono!"
(…Tono?)
So the one Toukichirou was talking to wasn't him, but Nobunaga. Ikeda widened his eyes at this unexpected development.
"…Shut up. It's not like I'm doing something ridiculous as your absurd imagination."
"But I'm still envious of you~! I wanna get close to a cute high school girl~! !" Nobunaga pushed the noisy Toukichirou off of him. Nouhime curiously turned her gaze toward Nobunaga.
"What? Nobunaga, you're going out with a high school girl?"
"…We're not going out. We just happened to meet due to a certain incident."
"But this is the first time I've seen you initiating contact with a girl."
It's true. Nobunaga's love life was frankly, very simple. He did date with many woman before, but always broke up with them quickly. If you would ask the reason why… One, they would constantly call him. Two, they would instantly complain if he didn't reply to their texts. Three, they persistently bugging him so that they could meet up later. Four, they were just plain troublesome.
He couldn't find an appropriate woman that harmonized well with him. Plus, the ever so frank Nobunaga found the restraint that the women had on him to be very annoying.
That's why he tried dating girls who didn't require such troublesome attention because he believed women were just satisfied with connecting with the man they love.
However when he couldn't meet up with them because of work, they would immediately complain and accuse him of putting work over them. They would go red with rage, as if it's obvious to prioritize themselves first into his life.
And that's basically how he dated his former girlfriends.
He paid little attention to them and often neglected them.
He never contacted them, never tried to meet up with them, and never sent them a single text message. At most, he would never communicate with them for a whole month. In other words, he treated all of them horribly.
Even when countless voice mails pile up, he deletes all of them with ease and the cycle continues once more.
You may call him 'the most detestable man in the world'.
Nobunaga never invited his girlfriends to his home because of his deep-seated aversion towards them. Without exception, he never once brought any of those girls to his home, no matter how much they begged him.
In fact Nobunaga rarely brings guests over to his current home. Those he occasionally invited were his old friends (the three idiots), the monkey, his foster brother (Ikeda), and (one of the very few women that he's friendly with) Nouhime.
But even the number of times they, the members, visited his home could be counted on one hand.
Nobunaga hated inviting people over. Much to the point where he avoided the matter altogether. Unless if it's someone he knew really well, he will never open the front door of his house.
That's how thorough his policy was.
So, even though he's 'dating', it's absolutely absurd to him to invite a woman, whom he barely knows anything about, to his abode.
And they, his former girlfriends, somehow put up with it.
Which usually meant, by continually getting furious or crying their eyes out or moving on to another man.
His third girlfriend was the easiest type to handle. She didn't ever try to contact him and their relationship just naturally came to an end.
Then there's the type of women who readily get furious at him until their relationship crashes. And next there's the clingy and whiny type of girls. He found those to be the most troublesome of the lot, yep they were absolutely troublesome.
Especially when they were the ones that never wanted to break up with him.
He never knew why they were so attached to him, for he too thought of himself as a horrible man.
That's why they should move on to the next man. If they were with another man, that person would surely take care of them.
He always coldly push them away, telling them to look for someone else. Many times he bluntly told them that he couldn't tolerate their annoying behavior.
Nobunaga knew well enough that he's a despicable human. But he firmly believed it's worse to continue a loveless relationship than to leave things be.
They would still cling onto him, but they would eventually give up and never contact him again.
That's fine. It was impossible for them to be with someone as terrible as him. There are many others who would treasure them, who would dearly love them, who would give them happiness.
The longest one lasted for two months.
Truthfully after that exhausting breakup, Nobunaga decided to stop dating altogether. He still counts himself fortunate for not being sexually frustrated.
In the first place, Nobunaga isn't very sociable. Things like dating is not suitable for him.
Date for a period of time and break up, date and separate. Repeating that cycle over and over and over again finally allowed him to realize that he, clearly, wasn't suited for this. As a result, he now always, out of goodwill, rejected the advances of women.
Nobunaga often thought of what he got out of this experience, why he couldn't love those women. He tried doing what other ordinary couples did, but could not bring himself to love them. Maybe he's the one who's just out of place.
In other words, he gave up.
He couldn't understand why women love him.
He didn't even know what it exactly means to be in love or to have affection towards someone.
Incomprehensible things always made him unpleasant.
Things like marriage and future successors… well they could be compromised later. When the time comes, he'll deal with it.
It's easier to be single, than to waste time with something unfathomable.
He had no need creating a partner for himself, he had no problem being alone.
"So you fell for a high school student?"
"…"
Nouhime cheekily smirked while Nobunaga's eyes flew open in surprise.
"…It's not like that. I just happened to come across an unusual cat."
"Cat?"
At the word 'cat', Ikeda unconsciously jumped. For a second, the image of that girl popped into his mind, but he soon smiled with self-mockery.
Just what were the chances it was her out of the hundreds, no thousands of high school girls in this city alone?
"So is she a beauty? Or is she super cute!?" Instantly curious at the current topic, Toukichirou excitedly bugged Nobunaga.
"…Dunno."
"You always say that! If she interests you that much, then she must be super attractive! You're so lucky. I wanna get get to know her too~. If you happen to lose interest, why don't ya try to introduce me to her~?" he wiggled around, attempting to flatter Nobunaga, but the latter pulled off a disgusted face and promptly shooed Toukichirou away from him.
He was interested in Kasane.
He was fond of her pleasant smile and her friendly demeanor.
However Nobunaga still didn't understand anything about love.
He was interested, he was definitely interested in Kasane.
Since that day, he's been in touch with her.
What did he want to do with her?
He still did not know
TBC
Whew, this was a long one for me! I hoped everyone enjoyed this chapter. I will try to post two new chapters tomorrow, if possible. That's all, have a nice day!
