A few days later, around five in the afternoon.
Kurozawa told Kana not to go out casually if there was nothing important, then left the house alone.
The place he was going to was Shinichi Izumi's house.
Since the choice he gave Shinichi Izumi at the time was to trade Righty for the lives of his family, Kurozawa wouldn't break his promise. He rarely made promises, but every promise he made was basically fulfilled.
Since they lived in the same block, Shinichi Izumi's house wasn't far from Kurozawa's.
Taking the high-speed train line, it was only a few minutes and two or three stops away.
Earlier at school, Kurozawa had sought out Shinichi Izumi again and learned from their conversation when Shinichi Izumi's parents planned to go on vacation.
It was tonight. To save time, Nobuko Izumi and Kazuyuki Izumi planned to pack up after getting off work today, take necessary documents and items, and drive overnight to their destination.
Coming to a corner, Kurozawa leaned against the wall, quietly watching Shinichi Izumi's house.
In the original timeline.
Shinichi Izumi's parents were very unlucky to encounter a Parasitic Organism that intercepted their car and attacked, killing and taking over Nobuko Izumi's body, and also almost killing Kazuyuki Izumi.
Afterward, the Parasitic Organism, now in Nobuko Izumi's form, returned home and pierced Shinichi Izumi's heart, indirectly causing Shinichi Izumi and Righty to deeply merge.
However, these events were about to change drastically with Kurozawa's appearance.
After merging Righty into his own body, the story's trajectory had already taken a detour.
From here on, things would be somewhat uncontrollable.
"Shinichi Izumi is the protagonist, the child of the world."
"With this kind of contact with him, I should have already been exposed."
As he hadn't awakened Fighting Spirit and couldn't truly confirm the presence of malice, Kurozawa could only guess that he was currently being spied on.
But this didn't affect him.
Because being watched and spied on was an irreversible outcome, and worrying was useless.
After patiently waiting for about half an hour, the door of Shinichi Izumi's house creaked open.
Kazuyuki Izumi, wearing a high-neck sweater and with a clean-shaven beard, and Nobuko Izumi, wearing a wide-brimmed white hat with neatly styled hair, stepped out of the house together.
It was clear that the two were quite looking forward to what was essentially a trip for just the two of them, and they had both dressed up carefully.
Following the appearance of the two, Shinichi Izumi also followed from behind.
The three chatted at the door for a few more minutes, mainly with Nobuko Izumi talking and Shinichi Izumi listening, nodding repeatedly.
Those words were likely telling Shinichi Izumi to take good care of himself, be mindful of things like eating, not to go out casually, and so on.
The various murder cases that had frequently appeared on television recently were truly terrifying.
But it was a rare opportunity, and the couple didn't want to miss the chance to go on this trip.
After all, those were ultimately just cases in the television news; separated by a screen, they seemed quite distant from their own lives.
Finally, Shinichi Izumi smiled and waved his arm, watching his parents start the car and drive away into the distance.
He suddenly froze slightly.
Dimly, he seemed to see a figure appear from the corner and follow the car his parents were driving.
That back view was not one he had been very familiar with before.
But now it was deeply imprinted in his mind, sometimes waking him up from dreams.
"Ryoma..."
Shinichi Izumi wasn't stupid. He guessed in his heart that perhaps his parents would encounter an attack by Parasitic Organisms during this trip, which was why Kurozawa had come here.
Since that night, until now, Shinichi Izumi couldn't say whether he felt relieved or lost.
Kurozawa had said he gave him a choice back then.
But from Shinichi Izumi's own perspective, he didn't have a choice.
However, after Righty left, the feeling of being on edge when walking down the street, constantly having to hide himself to prevent being sensed by chance encounters with Parasitic Organisms, no longer happened.
Without Righty's reminder, the Parasitic Organisms seemed to disappear instantly.
Ryoko Tamiya, who was still often seen at school, also seemed like just an ordinary young female teacher when she didn't display an aggressive stance.
"I hope this peaceful life can continue like this," Shinichi Izumi thought to himself, then turned and went back into the house.
In the middle of the night.
On a highway that ran through the mountains, a black car was driving neither fast nor slow.
The headlights were very bright, seemingly piercing the darkness. Huh?
Inside the car, Nobuko Izumi and Kazuyuki Izumi were chatting and laughing, temporarily leaving behind all their work and life worries, regaining some of the feeling of their younger days.
"Huh, how come I feel like the car behind us has been following us for a while?"
Looking through the rearview mirror, Kazuyuki Izumi saw a white car behind them and couldn't help but feel a little puzzled.
That car didn't have its headlights on, driving silently on a starless, moonless night. The driver's figure was shrouded in darkness, making it difficult to see clearly, like a white ghost.
Hearing this, Nobuko Izumi also looked back, then smiled gently and said, "Kazuyuki, you're thinking too much."
"We're probably just going the same way by chance, heading to the same destination."
Neither of them had any shady identities; they were just ordinary people, no different from anyone else. A chase scene like something out of a movie shouldn't be happening to them.
Kazuyuki Izumi nodded, feeling that made sense, and focused on driving.
Behind them, there was only one person in that car, and it was Kurozawa.
Kurozawa looked completely relaxed and at ease at the moment.
He was in the backseat, legs crossed, resting with his eyes closed.
And the one driving was Lefty, whom he had woken up from its slumber.
It hadn't even been a week since Lefty had entered its slumber when Kurozawa disturbed it. Lefty thought Kurozawa had something urgent, but it didn't expect to be tasked with driving.
The scene in the car now was Kurozawa sitting in the back, practicing his Breathing Technique to refine his body.
Meanwhile, Lefty's left hand had morphed into several tentacles, with eyes extending from the tips to watch the road, driving the car Kurozawa had picked up from the roadside.
"Is there an important reason why we're following them?" Lefty asked Kurozawa actively while focusing on driving.
Kurozawa still had his eyes closed, his expression calm.
"I exchanged you for Shinichi Izumi, and I promised to protect his family's lives."
Lefty was startled.
Now, Lefty had merged with the previous Righty. Their conscious cells had reassembled to form a unified consciousness; they were no longer separate.
Lefty had always found Kurozawa inscrutable.
Many times, when it observed Kurozawa, it did so with a scrutinizing attitude, wanting to know where this person came from and what he was thinking.
Some of Kurozawa's strange actions, like seeming to know that certain things were about to happen, left Lefty bewildered.
Peering into the future? A prophet? Precognition?
Or did he reincarnate and travel back in time?
Lefty had some exposure to novels, so it had many theories about Kurozawa, but there were too many, and it could never settle on the correct answer.
"Is it today?" Lefty asked.
Kurozawa just nodded slightly, saying no more.
When practicing the Breathing Technique, it was best to focus one's mind and circulate the energy.
On the other side, seeing that Kurozawa wasn't in the mood to talk, Lefty also concentrated on controlling the vehicle.
It had studied various kinds of human knowledge. Although most of it was theoretical, it was extremely quick to pick things up in practice. Basically, as soon as it touched the steering wheel, it knew how to drive.
It could even pull off a few Initial D-style drifts around corners with ease.
In terms of learning ability, Parasitic Organisms far surpassed humans.
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