Uncle Hikigaya is Forever Young [65]

Mrs. Machida’s overly enthusiastic—or rather, forceful—approach to her daughter’s life was making things difficult for Editor Machida.

She was already anxious enough, okay? She’d already decided to put serious effort into getting married this year, so why was her mom still behaving like this?!

She was already writing—ah no! She was already seriously preparing for blind dates!

Yet her mom was even more anxious than her, making her life unbearable!

She really wanted to send her mother away, but whenever she showed even the slightest resistance to her mother’s matchmaking boot camp, she'd get poked in the forehead and called unfilial—a disobedient daughter?!

Honestly, she couldn’t understand how her mom arrived at that conclusion.
There wasn’t even a shred of logic in it!

And so, to everyone’s delight and universal celebration, Editor Machida endured her mother's fussing for the entire night, trying on one outfit after another, practicing one forced expression after another.

If Machida-san hadn’t found it too shameful and flatly refused, Mrs. Machida would’ve even insisted on rehearsing the blind date with her.

Because they’d fussed until late into the night, mother and daughter ended up sharing the same bed.

Mrs. Machida was exhausted—mainly emotionally drained—so she decided to simply crash at her daughter’s place for the night.

And conveniently keep an eye on her!

Just in case her daughter tried to sabotage things again tomorrow.

Deep down, Editor-san didn't really approve of her mother’s overly vigilant attitude.

She felt her past failures in matchmaking were simply because she hadn’t put enough effort into it. As long as she really put her heart into it, things should... probably be fine… maybe…

First, let’s review her conditions: A true native of metropolitan Tokyo, financially comfortable family background, with a stable, respectable career; neither too tall nor too short; neither skinny nor fat, just nicely proportioned.

Her looks—how should she put it? She considered herself pretty good-looking. With some proper effort, she could definitely reach the level of a beauty.

As for her education, wasn't she technically a graduate from a prestigious school?

Machida-san lay in bed, and before drifting off to sleep, secretly pulled out her phone and took another glance at the picture of her blind date tomorrow.

His name was Hikigaya Ryōhei, right?

Hmm... income, education—all quite in line with her standards!

To be honest, he was even a little handsome.

She wondered what conversation with him would be like?

She felt herself looking forward to tomorrow, just a little!

Actually, Miura Fusako had originally arranged the date for last weekend, but after Mrs. Machida called to interrogate, things got delayed until now.

But Machida Sonoko hadn’t spent these days idly. After all, she truly felt the anxiety of approaching thirty-two.

Coincidentally, during this period, she'd attended a massive matchmaking event in Tokyo hosted jointly by the city's leading publishing houses, titled something cheesy like "5.12 Love Fiesta."

Yes, exactly—one of those crowded, unreliable, utterly absurd matchmaking events.

The kind where everyone writes their name, age, height, occupation, and phone number on a heart-shaped card and hangs it on a tree. Yes, that kind of idiotic matchmaking event.

Perhaps due to her age being a disadvantage, though several men added Machida-san on LINE, after briefly chatting, none met her basic requirements (which were: prestigious education, height over 175cm, maximum age 35).

One man, perhaps too full of himself, immediately spammed her with several selfies.

To describe him briefly: rural punk hairstyle, tiny pea-sized eyes, dirty stubble—in short, even breathing was a mistake for such a person, right?

This led to an unexpected consequence.

After being subjected to that experience, Editor Machida found Hikigaya Ryōhei’s photo even more pleasing to look at.

Despite her age, perhaps because she regularly read romance novels and spent a lot of time around young women, she still had a somewhat superficial preference for handsome faces.

Slap!

“Ow, Mom! That really hurts! You're gonna make me stupid!”

Mrs. Machida squinted slightly and caught sight of the phone screen’s glow near her daughter’s head. Too tired to even get properly angry, she just directly slapped the back of her daughter's head.

“Better to slap you stupid and be done with it!”

Editor Machida resignedly buried her head under the covers.

Mrs. Machida was also tired. Out of sight, out of mind. She flipped over, turning her back toward her daughter.

Editor-san also felt a bit guilty. Just as she was about to turn off her phone and sleep, the device vibrated again.

A message had arrived.

Though it was on vibrate mode, at this dead-quiet hour, the sound still vaguely echoed throughout the room.

Hurriedly, she switched it to silent mode.

It turned out to be from Kasumigaoka—that girl had finally remembered to reply.

I'll just check it quickly and then sleep!

The content of the message from her most lucrative yet most problematic author—the beautiful yet troublesome university student novelist, Kasumigaoka Utaha—was truly concise and to-the-point.

Just two words:

—Not changing.]

Machida-san felt a surge of anger beneath her blankets. If her mom wasn’t sleeping right beside her, she definitely would've called to argue right then and there, even though it was already exactly midnight.

Annoyed, she furiously typed out her reply to that stubborn Kasumi-fatty:

—[Fine, flop and die then!]

...

Saturday.

Today, the Hikigaya household had a somewhat refreshed atmosphere.

A small second-hand house, not spacious but comfortable enough; kids happily arranging their new rooms, and Hikigaya slowly settling into his work and life.

This probably was what they called "hope," right?

Currently, Hikigaya Ryōhei wasn’t actively looking to find himself a partner. He’d only recently started at Sōbu High, and intended to spend some serious time working first.

Although he’d quickly adapted to being a teacher again, differences between two different worlds remained—including knowledge gaps, workplace culture, and countless other things he still had to pay attention to.

Financially speaking, after paying the initial three months’ rent and other necessary fees, Ryōhei’s savings were just enough for about a month and a half of living expenses.

Of course, last week the young civil servant had delivered the compensation money for Akeno’s parents, which was quite a significant sum.

4.12 million yen!

But that was the portion from the government only. According to Kushida-san, nothing had yet come from the shipping company.

Ryōhei planned to save this money entirely for Akeno.

Of course, he wasn’t inflexible enough to cling to a bankbook until he starved—if life ever truly got tough, he'd reconsider.

“Hm? Isn’t that Yuigahama-san? Is she heading out somewhere?”

While taking a short break from cleaning, Ryōhei glanced through his study’s window and noticed Mrs. Yuigahama’s distinctive brown hair on the sidewalk.

The mother-daughter duo looked almost like sisters, Yui affectionately holding her mother’s arm.

“Speaking of which, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mr. Yuigahama, huh? When their daughter had that incident last time, it was also Mrs. Yuigahama who showed up… Come to think of it, I haven't heard anything at all about a man in their household, have I?”

---

A/N: Currently, I don’t plan to let Miura-aniki die… But, of course, there’ll inevitably be deaths in this story—after all, Conan’s involved. You all should mentally prepare yourselves early!

T/N: GODDAMN YOU CONANNN

This is a fan translation of 比企谷大叔永远年轻 by Stargazer All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!