VOLUME 4

Chapter 4: Part 2

Partially because the j.a.panese teacher had seen everything and protested on my behalf, I once again managed to escape from suspension.

If I met that d.a.m.n sake-drinking little girl one more time, I really wouldn’t be happy unless I smacked her one.

As I walked around more with an angry look on my face…

“Ayumu.”

That cute voice stopped me. It was a voice powerful enough to get my facial muscles to relax and to reduce me to rubbery mush.

It was… Yuu, wearing a chiffon one-piece.

“Yuu, is the whole bunny girl thing over already?”

She gave me a small, firm nod. She was now allowed to show emotion, but maybe by force of habit she remained emotionless.

“Haruna caught someone random and forced her to switch with me.”

“That idiot… is she still in the track room?

I wanted to go there right away and just tear into her, but Yuu shook her head.

“She was walking around and exploring things with me… but I don’t know where she is now.”

“Alright. Do you want to walk around with me then while we look for her?”

Yuu gave me a strong nod and held out her hand. She wanted to hold hands?

“Let’s hold hands?”

Geez, Yuu’s voice was seriously cute. Instead of responding, I just took her outstretched hand. Well, I guess I had spent the first half of the festival with Haruna, so I’ll spend the rest with Yuu now.

I took a look at the pamphlet, searching for events I hadn’t seen yet.

Oh? There was a magic show outside. Maybe we should go take a quick look.

Going outside, we found a small crowd had gathered in the courtyard between the school building and the gym.

I mean, the crowd wasn’t that big though… it didn’t seem like there weren’t any amazing illusions going on. Of course, that’s to be expected from a school festival magic show.

Taking a good luck, I saw a normal looking guy getting put into a big box.

It seemed like the magic trick was just about to start.

That music which was so fundamental to magic shows blared from a pair of speakers, and then I heard a drumroll.

The magician turned the box around, showing the audience that it was just a normal box.

And then… with a ding! the box opened.

Inside was left only the clothes of the guy who had gotten in.

That was more impressive than I had expected. It was like a snake had shed its skin in there.

“This is clearly the work of Dr. Gero’s android.” (1)

That’s even more amazing! I guess it’s true that you’d turn out like this if Cell sucked up all your life energy! A round of applause and laughter rose up around us. Yuu was the only one who remained silent.

This was a rare opportunity for her to laugh and have fun, but Yuu did neither of those things.

After that, the magician brought out the next box he had prepared. He picked another volunteer who went inside, and then did the trick where half the box slides past the other half, seeming to sever the volunteer from the middle.

But no matter how anyone looked at that, it seemed fake. I see, this was why this show wasn’t getting too much of an audience…

Once she saw the audience getting a bit bored, Yuu spoke in an impressed voice.

“As expected from the niisan from Turn A.” (2)

Hey, it’s not like he was torn to pieces or something!

After that, every time the magician did a trick…

“Maybe he used Esper Mami’s teleportation magic (3), or…”

“If he’s really Dhalsim from Street Fighter, this would all make sense.”

I see. For some reason, Yuu’s mutterings were received very well by the people around us, and the previously boring magic show got really exciting.

“Thank you! I had fun because of you!”

There were people who even came up to us and said that.

More importantly, the members of the Magician’s Club who had organized this event all paid Yuu great thanks. I and the Magician’s Club members were all smiles, but Yuu remained emotionless. She could’ve showed emotion if she wanted to, but perhaps because she was used to killing those urges, her expression didn’t change at all.

I found myself really wanting to see her smile. As I thought that, I took Yuu’s hand and we walked further into the courtyard.

After we pa.s.sed the courtyard, I heard the sounds of singing echoing from the gymnasium.

Was a band putting on a performance or something?

“Ayumu, I have a request.”

My heart pounded at the sound of Yuu’s cute voice.

Her lovable way of asking that sent my head for a loop, so my frazzled brain could only muster up the electrical signals necessary for…

“W-W-What ish iiit~~?”

I ended up responding in a shaking voice, in the style of Lupin.

Yuu let out a small cough, her expression remaining emotionless.

“I also would like to enter the karaoke tournament.”

Karaoke tournament. According to the school festival pamphlet, starting from eight in the evening and lasting two hours, there would be a karaoke tournament held in the gym.

I see. So these singing voices coming from the gym were because of the karaoke tournament.

However, there was no karaoke machine at this school.

Rather, they were just playing the karaoke versions that came with the CDs. It was a simple event like that.

However, that meant random people couldn’t join in, and you had to give the karaoke tournament committee a CD with the karaoke version beforehand to register.

Why exactly did Yuu want to partic.i.p.ate in something like that?

No, there was an obvious reason here, I think.

Yuu couldn’t even let out her voice until this morning.

It was natural that she would want to sing while she could still use her voice.

“I can’t?”

Hnnghhhhhh~~!! This was bad! When I saw her looking up at me with those pretty, pure, blue eyes and going “I can’t?” it made me want to move the moon for her.

“Hm. How about we go to karaoke tomorrow?”

It would be Sunday. So let’s go out and have a h.e.l.l of a time with our free day. We could call Tomonori and Orito too, and Haruna would definitely also-

Haruna. I forgot. Yuu might have gotten her voice back, but in exchange Haruna couldn’t speak anymore.

I definitely wanted to go to karaoke with Yuu. But… in the end, we also needed someone like Haruna there to be stupid and loud. If we were going to go to karaoke, I wanted to go with everyone…

Yuu probably thought the same way, didn’t she?

“I want to sing in front of a lot of people.”

I was shocked at her proactive approach.

Yuu was supposed to be a prim and proper, shy princess. I had always thought of her like that.

So I never would have expected her to want to sing in front of a lot of people.

“Why?”

“I want… to have as many people remember my voice as possible. Soon… I will not be able to use it anymore.”

“Yuu…” But I found myself at a loss for words. I realized, though, that none of the usual sadness was left in Yuu’s eyes. It was replaced by determination and impatience.

It was true. We didn’t know how long the current situation would persist. It could be that come tomorrow, all of Yuu’s powers would have returned to her.

We couldn’t just leave Haruna like that, but I also wanted to hear Yuu laugh more.

Would the day ever come when we all could laugh together?

So, what should we do now? We could do it here on the school grounds where there were plenty of people to listen, but there was a similar event going on in the gym, and if people had a choice they’d probably go to the gym where there were places to sit.

I wanted as many people as possible to be able to hear Yuu’s concert.

… Concert?

I see. That was another idea.

“Yuu. Let’s do it!”

“What?”

“A concert!”

“But… how?”

“In return, just be warned that no matter how many people come to listen, you won’t be able to stop. Are you prepared for that?”

Yuu gave me a strong, firm nod. Seeing her do that, I turned heel and went back to the place where the magic show had been going on.

“Could I have a minute?”

I called out to the Magician’s Club members who were starting to clean up, and explained the situation to them.

And then, when I asked to borrow their huge speakers that they had been using to play music before, they gave me eager nods of approval.

After that, I took out my cell phone.

I dialed… a number I had only recently gotten.

“Hey! This is Yos.h.i.+da! Yos.h.i.+da Yuki!”

“Tomonori. Could you do me a favor?”

“A-Aikawa! Getting a call from Aikawa… I’m kinda happy about that! What’s up? Ask anything you want!”

“I want permission to use the school grounds. I don’t think the teachers have a very good opinion of me so it’s hard for me to ask them… Hiramatsu and Mihara are also with you, right?”

Hiramatsu and Tomonori had a good rapport with the teachers, so they’d probably be able to get the permissions we needed in one shot.

“Yeah! We’re watching Cinderella right now!”

“… Don’t use your phone in the middle of a play.”

“Aikawa was the one who called me!”

“Anyways, can you do that for me?”

“Roger! What do you want to do on the school grounds?”

“An outdoor concert.”

Tomonori could probably imaging my idiotic grin from the other side of the line. She burst out laughing.

Bursting out laughing during Cinderella was pretty rude towards the Drama Club…

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) Dragonball Z reference.

(2) Gundam Turn A reference to Gym Ghingham.

(3) An old manga series.