VOLUME 5

Chapter 4: Part 5

We soon made it back safely to the darts bar.

Sera still had that calm, regal expression on her face, while Tomonori was in high spirits. And Saras just looked grumpy.

Seeing these three beauties with me, Orito quickly dashed over.

“S-Sera-san! Aikawa! You are a truly wonderful friend!”

Orito started to pant heavily at seeing Sera in her whit edress.

“Disgusting…”

Sera crossed her arms under her full bosom and curtly turned the other way.

There weren’t many people left in the bar. I could see Orito, Mihara, Hiramatsu, Anderson-kun, Dai-sensei, and Yuu. Almost everyone else had already gone home.

“Sera, Saras, sorry. I guess the mixer really is over.”

“Actually, I am quite relieved.”

“Yes, it would be unbearable to see my darling staring l.u.s.tfully at other girls.”

I didn’t know if they were being honest or just considerate. Either way, I was relieved. And Tomonori… she seemed already fully satisfied from her marathon.

“We’ve been waiting for you. Had to convince the shopowner to let us stay until you came back.”

Mihara winked her false eyelashes at us.

“Kanami, yo!”

“Yuki-chan! What’s up with that getup?!”

Mihara seemed really shocked at seeing the seductive red dress that Tomonori was wearing.

“Fufufu… I look pretty girly, don’t I? Maybe it’d be cool go to school like this next time~~. Ah! Aikawa! That was a pretty good little pun, wasn’t it?!”

“Not…… really……” I hadn’t even noticed that “cool” and “school” was supposed to be a pun.

“You’re so mean, Aikawa~~.”

A few conversations started here and there, but only Kyouko and Dai-sensei remained silent.

Dai-sensei was just smiling, while Kyouko awkwardly glanced at Dai-sensei, without fully being able to look her in the face.

Anderson-kun appeared next to me, and put his mouth close to my ear.

Don’t get so close, dammit. My heart’s racing now.

“We heard what was going on from Eucliwood.”

I glanced towards Yuu, and saw that Yuu was expressionlessly watching Kyouko and Dai-sensei.

“I see. How did Yuu explain things to Dai-sensei?”

–

Ayumu will settle things and bring her back. I am certain.

–

Anderson-kun pa.s.sed me a memo with that written on it in cute gothic-style handwriting.

Kyouko bowed her head, looking quite docile in front of Dai-sensei.

“I’m sorry for making you worry. I’m okay now.”

“I wasn’t worried for even a minute~~.”

Dai-sensei glanced at me.

“I had faith in him, after all~~.”

Both Yuu and Kyouko nodded at Dai-sensei’s words.

Seeing that all was well with them, I turned to Orito and the others next. There were a bunch of thousand-yen bills heaped up on the table, and Orito and Anderson-kun were doing a count.

“Okay, two thousand yen each please.”

Orito reached his hands out towards Tomonori’s seductive b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Tomonori brushed his hand away.

“I just got here! I’m not gonna pay!”

“Ahaha, it’s okay Yuki-chan.”

Mihara tried to pacify the raging Tomonori, while I took my wallet out. Together with Yuu, Haruna, and Kyouko’s share, I owed around ten-thousand, but…

“Hey Orito… are you sure you have enough?”

I didn’t think we could get away with only two thousand yen a person at a place like this.

“I’ll make up the difference. I thought something like this would happen, so I brought three years worth of New Year’s money.”

After saying that, Orito took out a big pack of ten-thousand yen notes (1)… wait, how much are you planning to pay exactly?

“Here, let me cover half too.”

Anderson-kun said that, and also began to rain ten-thousand yen notes down on the heap.

“Nah, it’s fine. It’s fine, really. I’m the one who said it. Also, everyone else has gone home already, so it’s not like I can go around asking people to pay up anymore.”

Orito laughed the same, annoying, idiotic laugh he always let out.

“I’ll pay some too.” I saw a grumpy-looking Mihara take out her wallet and dump its entire contents onto the table.

“Me too. I only brought thirty-thousand yen though.”

“… Eh? We… don’t have enough. Sorry… I… only have this…”

Hiramatsu came over and added three thousand yen to the pile.

“It’s fine guys. Just knowing you wanted to pay is enough. But just let me try and be the cool guy right now.”

“What’s so cool about paying for everything yourself? A good-looking guy paying just one yen is still way cooler than your million yen, you know.”

“Yeah. Actually, that’s like the opposite of cool.”

Mihara and Anderson-kun chimed in as they returned Orito’s money to him.

“Ah, I’ll pay~~.”

Dai-sensei suddenly took out a wad of bills from her pocket so big that I thought we were in a Hollywood drama. There must’ve been millions of yen in that…

“Today’s my treat~~. You can be sure to treat me next time, ‘kaaay~~?”

Dai-sensei gave us a full smile.

”S-So cool…”

Mihara and Anderson-kun said that simultaneously.

Naturally, I agreed with them.

Well then, because of Dai-sensei’s frightening generosity, all of us were able to get away with only paying two thousand yen a person. With that, the mixer ended without incident, and we caught a train back to our home station from Roppongi.

We walked along the street like a group of students coming back from a field trip, but our group also slowly wound down in size.

“Hey, useless darling. You really were listening to my song, right?”

“Yeah, sorry, my bad. You’ll sing it for me again sometime, right?”

“Eh? … A-Ahh… o-of course!”

Saras flushed red, and wrapped an arm around my shoulders like a good buddy. But Yuu pushed Saras from behind.

That is my spot.

Yuu squeezed between Saras and me, and just looked straight forwards.

Just being able to see this side of Yuu made today a worthwhile day.

We soon came to an intersection, when…

“Well then, my darling. Today was quite a full, fun day. I give you my thanks.”

“Yeah, it was fun! Next time, invite me from the very beginning!”

Tomonori and Saras lived in the same building. This is where we would split ways.

One person left, and then another. Our group grew smaller and smaller. At the next intersection, Orito and Hiramatsu both stopped.

“Alright, we’re going this way from here.”

“… Aikawa-kun… I’ll see you… at school.”

Hiramatsu waved at me. I managed to see a different side of Hiramatsu today too.

“Yeah. Oh, and if you think Orito’s trying to pull something strange, just give me a call.”

“Fufu… I will be fine… Orito-kun is… a nice person…”

We shared a small chuckle together. It seemed that Hiramatsu had fun today too.

“Yeah, Aikawa. I’m a nice person!”

“Yeah right!”

As if running away from my retort, Orito dashed off into the night.

“Ah, we’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I’ll be going with them after all.”

Mihara gave Hiramatsu a bit of a push from behind, and began to set off after Orito.

“Hm? You’re also going this way? Don’t tell me… you want to go home together with me?”

Something sparkled in the middle of Orito’s gla.s.ses.

“I-I can get back home this way too! And I’d worry about Tae-chan if she had to go home alone with an animal like you, so that’s why I’m tagging along! Get your head out of the gutter!”

Mihara smacked Orito across the cheek. But, hmm… she didn’t seem all that upset…

“Well, take care then.”

“Ayumu! Let’s go!”

I followed Haruna’s voice while waving goodbye to Orito and Hiramatsu.

I watched as my friends’ shadows receded into the distance. I felt an indescribable loneliness seem to fall onto me from the night sky.

“Actually, now that I think about it, where does Anderson-kun live?”

The only people left were me, Haruna, Yuu, Sera, Kyouko, Dai-sensei, and Anderson-kun.

“Hm? I live near Hiramatsu.”

“Eh? Then why didn’t you go with Orito and the others back the-“

Anderson-kun interrupted me by pointing forwards. Following his hand, I saw Haruna and the owl. I see. As long as Haruna didn’t part with the owl, Anderson-kun couldn’t go back.

“Sorry. I’ll say something to Haruna…”

“It’s fine. I was planning to follow you back to your house anyways. I have to post up this flyer.”

Anderson-kun showed me a flyer with Basketball Team Recruitment! written on it. Anderson, you… thanks.

“Sorry. And thanks.”

The road narrowed a bit, and we began to walk in pairs.

Haruna and the owl were in front, with Kyouko and Dai-sensei following. Anderson-kun and Yuu were next, while Sera and I brought up the rear.

“Hey, Sera. The chief is revived, so your mission is complete, right? Are you still going to be staying with us?”

“Yes… the chief directly gave me a new mission. I am to help out and keep watch over h.e.l.lscythe-dono.”

“I see. That’s great. Okay then… looking forward to having you around.”

“… It was you, wasn’t it?”

“Hm?”

“You were the one who proposed that to the chief, weren’t you?”

I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t decide whether I should lie or tell her the truth.

Sera let out her usual snort of laughter.

“Thank you. Well, I think any debt though has already been repaid with that Saras incident back there.”

Ah. That’s what she meant when she said we were even.

“Did I maybe intrude too much?”

“No, I am grateful. I… have grown to like this lifestyle. Have grown to like living with Haruna, with h.e.l.lscythe-dono… with you.”

“Well that’s surprising. And here for all this time I thought you hated me.”

“Didn’t I already say it before?”

“Say what?”

“My affection points for you are already at their maximum.”

Sera’s usually cold expression softened a bit when she said that. She gave me a teasing smile, looking almost like a mischievous child in the style of Haruna or Kyouko.

“Eh? Okay then, can you call me oniichan from now on?”

“… Disgusting. Do you know where they sell paper shredders big enough to fit gross people like you? I’d be interested in purchasing one.”

She wanted to chop me up! I had said that as a joke, so she really didn’t have to take it that seriously…

We slowly walked along the road. We pa.s.sed by the school, and when we were just a little bit away fro my house, Dai-sensei turned around to look at us.

“Well then, Ayumu-san. We’re going to head back now~~.”

“Ehh, Dai-sensei should just start living at Ayumu’s place!”

“That would be just lovelyyy~~, but I have too much work to do.”

“Maybe I can live there?”

Kyouko joked around. It didn’t seem like she was being serious at all.

“Y-You stay away!”

“Ahaha… yeah yeah. I know. Ah, right. I completely forgot.”

“Hm?”

“You wanted to know Chris’s weak point, right?”

Ah, right, that had been my goal for today. Right. I had gone to the mixer so I could hear about Chris’s weak point.

“Just tickle her.”

“Huh?”

“That person told me. If Chris gets her sides tickled, she’ll curl up and quiet down, like she’s a cat who just got her neck pinched.”

The King of the Night could control this mist and then teleport things using that mist.

For him, tickling Chris seemed like a simple thing, but… ugh, that sounded hard.

If I could do something like that, then I’d probably be able to beat her.

So I guess she really didn’t have any weak points. G.o.d dammit…

“Ahh yes… a long time ago we used to tease and tickle Chris quite a lot~~…”

Dai-sensei clapped her hands, as if remembering something.

I had to touch her sides, huh…? I guess I’ll keep that in mind, but it really seemed impossible.

Kyouko showed me her healthy-looking, pearly white teeth, and then bowed her head.

“Thank you for today. It was really, reaaaaally fun! Maybe… when my punishment is over and I can come out again… you’ll play with me again?”

It looked like she was paying me a lot of respect, but she probably was just simply too embarra.s.sed to thank me to my face, so she was bowing.

“Yeah, sure.”

I instantly answered.

“My my~~. Are you sure you should be making promises like thaatt~~? Who knows how many centuries it might be~~…”

“Yeah, I know. I’ll wait for you. I don’t care if it’s a hundred or a thousand years… you won’t try to run away anymore, right?”

“I won’t! … Okay, goodbye. Aikawa-san.”

“Farewellllll~~.”

Dai-sensei flew into the air, taking Kyouko with her.

Leaving me with not enough time to ask Kyouko why she had those faint tears in her eyes.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) He calls the ten-thousand yen notes “Yukichi-sama,” in reference to Yukichi f.u.kuzawa, the person on the ten-thousand yen note.