Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ - Volume 7 - Chapter 1.5

First Interlude

When I was a child, I was blessed.

My dad managed a start-up company that was decently successful and steadily expanding. Our family had sufficient savings as well. Therefore, I grew up in a well-off household, raised by my mom who was a full-time housewife.

We had money to spare, so my dad was mentally stable and got along well with my mom. He was busy on weekdays and often wouldn’t come home until the middle of the night, but he’d take me to all sorts of places on the weekend.

My dad was a kind man. He always wore a friendly, gentle smile, and yet still commanded a bold attitude, overflowing with confidence—he was idolized by many. Back then, there was strength in his eyes.

I respected him.

The turning point came when I began my second year of middle school. I had just secured a spot as a starter on the soccer team, and I was enjoying my club activities.

I didn’t know the details of what had transpired. All I knew was that the company my father managed had gone bankrupt. When I heard that, I couldn’t wrap my head around the gravity of the situation. Money will be tight from now on, was the most that went through my mind. However, as the days and months rolled by, I was forced to understand: my dad’s company going bankrupt was a fatal blow that would cause my family to fall apart.

Our savings evaporated, and my father—burdened with debt—became mentally exhausted. His eyes, which had once brimmed with vigor, clouded over, and he spent his days drinking alcohol to run away from reality.

My mom was angry at him for that. She had always been a hot-tempered person, but my old dad had been composed and could skillfully handle her outbursts. But he was different now. Every time I came home, the two of them would be fighting. Those fights often didn’t end in a mere verbal spat. It wasn’t just one or two broken plates either. Our house fell into ruins. Eventually, I grew to hate coming home.

I would go to school, finish practice, and then kick a ball around in the park. I did whatever I could to spend as little time at home as possible. I had to sleep there, but besides that, I spent all my time kicking a ball outside. My parents were so distressed that they didn’t care where I was.

“Huh? Isn’t that Shiratori?”

Every day, I kicked my ball at the park until late into the night, and that was how I coincidentally encountered Hasegawa Koya’s delinquent gang. They were an infamous bunch at our school, and I didn’t want to have anything to do with them.

However, I often acted as a mediator between them and the ordinary students. As long as we attended the same school, the occasional conversation was inevitable. Some frightened students had asked me for help, and I hesitated to decline.

I reluctantly became their go-between, and over time, those delinquents started saying hi to me. As a result, my initial impression of them changed. Though they regularly caused trouble, I found that they weren’t such a bad bunch when I talked to them.

“Practicing soccer this late? You’re so passionate.”

“Teach us some tricks. We’ve got time to kill.”

“Okay, sure.”

I agreed to their request. I had nothing better to do, and playing with others made for better practice. From then on, Koya and his boys would come play with me in the park at night.

Meanwhile, my home situation rapidly worsened. Spending time outside was my solace. Please let this be over soon, I constantly wished. And one day, my wish was granted.

When I woke up one morning, my mom was gone. Her room was completely empty. Before I knew it, all of her belongings had vanished. She couldn’t have moved everything out in one night. She must’ve been making preparations for some time. That was how my mom absconded and I lost all contact with her. My dad didn’t say a word and simply continued to drown himself in booze.

The arguments and yelling that I had despised disappeared in a single night.

As though he had given up on something, my dad sold the single-family home we’d lived in. We moved to an old apartment in the neighborhood. Our former house was too big for the two of us, so I didn’t have any particular complaints in regards to the move itself.

“What will we do now?” I timidly asked.

“There’s nothing else but to look for a job,” he replied. Ironically, my mom’s departure was what finally activated his sense of crisis.

Our problem now was our lack of money. Most of what we made from selling the house went down the drain to repay our debt. We couldn’t afford the soccer team fees, so I was forced to quit.

I’d had a vague feeling that might happen. My practice clothes and shoes were already in tatters, but I couldn’t ask for new ones. That was how bad off we were.

Although I understood the situation, it didn’t change how awful I felt. I loved soccer. I had secured a spot as a starter and risen up to a position where my team called me their ace. It was supposed to be the brightest time of my life, but the rug was ripped out from under me.

There were so many things I wanted to say. However, my dad had begun to do grunt work at a local construction company, and when I saw him, I couldn’t complain.

Playing soccer in the park at night with Koya and his gang became my only source of comfort. I had quit the soccer team, so I’d abruptly lost that connection with my close friends. At the time, I didn’t care about anything at all. I gave up on everything in the world and ran away from reality.

I went with the flow and started hanging out with Koya’s gang. I was comfortable there. At the very least, it was better than spending nights at home.

Now that I had quit the soccer team, there was no reason for me to have second thoughts about getting into fights. When the gang got into disputes, I tagged along with Koya, and little by little, I began to join in. No matter what it was, I saw myself as a prodigy. I learned a few tips from Koya and then swiftly became a force to be reckoned with.

At school, I felt people’s perceptions of me change. They were obviously keeping their distance, but not even that mattered. There was nothing left that I wanted to do.

Even during those days, my objective side sat somewhere in the corner of my heart. Nothing will change if you do all these stupid things. You need to recognize that this is your new reality. We have to start over one step at a time. Though I knew that, I couldn’t help but cling to the comfort I had now.

One night when my dad returned home late, out of the blue, he told me, “I’ve saved up some money. You can rejoin your club again.”

My dad, having turned away from alcohol, had finally remembered me.

“I’m sorry for putting you through all this pain.”

It felt too late to hear those words, and I was at a loss. The soccer team no longer had a place ready for me. I couldn’t turn my reputation around at school either. I was already a member of a delinquent gang; my only choice was to continue living out my life with all hopes abandoned.

When I didn’t know what to do, Hasegawa Koya told me something.

“Let’s duke it out. If you lose to me, go back to the soccer team.”