VOLUME 5

Chapter 4: Part 4

On our way back to the mixer, we pa.s.sed by the oden restaurant again. We saw a huge crowd there. There were way more people there than before, and they were all laughing and seemed to be having a good time.

Chris… wasn’t there. I didn’t know whether that was a good or a bad thing. Well, I kind of understood her movements now, so all in all this was a good day.

… Hm? Was that Sera over there?

I see. Those were all vampire ninjas. All the vampire ninjas were here at the oden stall. Had they chosen that stall for the after party?

What the h.e.l.l… at least some of them should’ve come and tried to help me out back there… ugh.

“Haruna, Kyouko. You two head back first.”

“Hueh? A-Ayumu! … Ugh, Ayumu just does whatever he wants, doesn’t he?”

I left Haruna, Kyouko, and the owl behind, das.h.i.+ng towards Tokyo Tower.

After all that, Sera had to take care of that demon baron for me until the very end. I had to thank her before I forgot, and also ask her about what had happened after I had left.

“Hey, Sera-“

I spoke up to the ponytailed beauty in front of me, but…

“Aikawaaa, what are you doing~~?”

Tomonori came up behind me and whacked me on the shoulder, still wearing that rather revealing red dress of hers.

“Whatcha talkin’ bout, Aikawa~~? Also, let’s play Kabaddi!”

“Tomonori, I’ll get to you soon, so just wait there for a bit.”

“Ugh, Aikawa, what the h.e.l.l~~… ah, let’s play sepak takraw!”

Now, Tomonori playing sepak takraw in her skirt is something I’d definitely want to see… oops, that was close. I almost got completely swept away by Tomonori’s energy. “Next time, okay?” I replied, before speaking up to the girl in the white dress sitting there eating oden.

“Sera, sorry for leaving that guy to you until the very end… did everything work out?”

“Do you have so little faith in me? There is no need to worry.”

“Sorry, that was a stupid question. I’m sure you handled everything perfectly.”

“Naturally. So… did h.e.l.lscythe-dono and Haruna have fun?”

“Ah yeah… thanks. Is the vampire ninja meeting over?”

“Yes, without issue. The chief also seems quite satisfied.”

I had left the demon baron completely to Sera, but it seemed like she had gotten through it pretty well. As expected from Sera. She was so reliable.

“You should come to the mixer too.”

“No thank you. That sounds disgusting. I don’t have many fond memories of mixers.”

“It’s not like I have any dirty ulterior motives or anything. Yuu’s also there, so why not just go?”

“That’s true. Well, if Saras wants to go, I will go with her. Would that be alright?”

Saras? Then, I realized that Sera was looking directly behind me…

There was an evil black aura emanating from behind me. How did I not notice that before?

“Ah, look at the stupid face which decided to show itself… my darling.”

The black-haired beauty who was standing there was like a wall. I could feel my heart withering away… maybe her anger was just that overwhelming, but when she looked down at me with her arms crossed like that, I just saw her as nothing but a huge wall.

“Y-Yoo, Saras. Sorry about earlier. There was a bit of an emergency…”

Saras let out a sigh.

“I know already. I’m sure you have your own things to take care of. Ugh… because of my piece of c.r.a.p darling, I feel like I’ve become so much more forgiving now…”

As I thought, she was a really nice, patient person. She might have some selfish, unrelenting sides to her personality, but… I see. When she said she would forgive me for anything, she seemed more pleasant than annoying. Almost like I could get away with saying anything. Alright, this was my only chance.

“Thanks. By the way…”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Do you want to go to the mixer too?”

With Saras like she was now, she’d probably just laugh it off and then give me the okay… is what I thought. But I was an idiot.

I could’ve sworn I heard the sound of something in Saras’s heart breaking, like a rubber band had just snapped.

Was she going to be forgiving or not?! Make up your mind, dammit!

“I am not so generous as to be able to love mixers!”

Ah, I see. I was asking her to like something that wasn’t me, so she couldn’t be forgiving.

“Hm? Sarasvati isn’t going? Let’s go, Aikawa! To the mixer!”

Tomonori hopped up and down with a full-fledged smile on her face, and she took me by my hand.

“Eh? Ahh, okay…”

I glanced at Saras, and… gyah! She looked like a volcano just about to erupt!

“… I changed my mind. I will join you as well.”

“What?!”

Saras almost jumped at Sera’s resigned words.

“Ayumu, if we’re going to go, then let us hurry.”

Sera linked her arm with mine and began to walk, causing Saras to panic.

“W-Wait, you all… I never said that I wasn’t going!”

It seemed that Saras had been diffused, and she confiscated my arm from Sera.

“Now we’re perfectly even.”

I didn’t really know what she meant by that, but it seemed that Sera had saved me.

Yeah, Sera really was pretty reliable.

We met up with Haruna and Kyouko on the way, and we were almost at the darts bar too… but suddenly I felt a bit of déjà vu from a girl pa.s.sing us by and stopped.

“Hey, piece of c.r.a.p darling. You must have a lot of courage to be ogling another girl in my presence.”

“No, that’s not really the reason I stopped…”

I muttered that without looking Saras in the face, when Kyouko explained to me why I was feeling a bit strange.

“That girl was at the mixer, wasn’t she?”

I see. Yeah, she was right. I had the feeling that I’d been seeing a couple people in the past few minutes who had been at the mixer.

I suddenly came to a realization and fished out my cell phone.

On the display, I saw… it was twelve minutes past seven.

The time limit on our reservation had been seven o’clock. The mixer had already ended.

“Ah, sorry everyone… looks like the mixer is over already.”

“Ehh, but we already came this faaarrr~~…”

Tomonori sounded disappointed. But Haruna whacked Tomonori on the head.

“Don’t give up so easily! We won’t know until we go!”

“Hoo. Hoo.” The owl seemed to agree with Haruna.

“Yeah! That’s right! As expected from Master! I’m seriously moved!”

These girls were pretty simple when it came to things like this. Sera seemed to agree with that sentiment.

“Well, I think it’s over though.”

“Yeah, it probably is.”

“Okay then! Let’s face the evening sun and run! There’s nothing better than a marathon in the middle of winter!”

… The sun has set already, you know. Tomonori took off running, and Haruna followed her. I just found this all kind of bothersome, but someone started to push me from behind.

“Shall we go, Aikawa-san?”

Kyouko stood behind me, her angelic smile back on her face. Well… looks like there’s no helping it anymore.

Shall we go for a run?

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES