VOLUME 6

Chapter 5: Part 2

After I got back home, I headed straight for the living room instead of my own room. My body was chilled, so I wanted to dive right under the kotatsu and relax with the big plasma television in there. In the living room, I found a pretty girl who was letting out a long, sad sigh.

“Sera, what’s wrong? You’re sighing.”

I got under the kotatsu and spoke up.

The beautiful girl in front of me had her glistening long hair tied up into a ponytail. It was honestly a bit strange to be calling her a “girl”. She wasn’t just “cute,” but was “beautiful,” and now that beautiful girl had a look of sorrow on her face.

“Ahh, it’s Ayumu…” Sigh.

Had something really awful happened while I wasn’t looking? I really didn’t know what to say, and just tried to figure out how Sera was feeling, when I heard two taps on the desk.

When I looked to the side, I saw another pretty girl with silver hair looking at me with emotionless eyes.

She was dressed in a set of western armor, presenting a sight that you wouldn’t have seen even in the heyday of plate armor. But that was also because Yuu was a girl of unprecedented beauty.

Her skin was smooth and pale, almost to the point of being see-through. Her eyes were blue, and seemed to suck you in. Every part of her was just so lovable.

There was a single torn-off memo now on the table. And this was written on that memo:

She does not want to give up.

“Give up? Give up on what?”

A question mark appeared above my head. I really didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Well, there was supposed to be a limited edition cup udon on sale today…”

Sera’s voice rang with sadness, like a light rain that had just begun to fall.

“Ahh, that seafood udon? The Hiraga Gennai thing…”

I gave a pretty indifferent response, but Sera’s jade eyes snapped wide open.

“Do you know of it? D-Don’t tell me, Ayumu, did you buy it?!”

Sera banged on the table and stood up. She came right up to me, and my eyes became glued to not her pretty face, but the chest that lay right below it. I can see down your s.h.i.+rt, you know…

“N-No… I didn’t buy it.”

“… As always, you are completely useless. In MTG terms, you would be a scaled wurm.”

“Don’t underestimate the scaled wurm. Also… ah, I guess Saras ended up buying the last one. I recommended it to her.”

“Why did you not buy it for me instead?!”

Stop yelling. It’s not like I had any way of knowing you wanted something like that. But a timid person like me wouldn’t be able to say that even if my mouth was close to tearing near the seams. Well, granted, I got the feeling that someone was going to tear my mouth whether I said it or not…

Sera has looked for it at thirty stores already, but has not succeeded.

“That sounds pretty rough.” I looked at Sera with pity in my eyes.

“I apologize. I seem to have lost my composure.”

Sera looked quite sorrowful as she took in a deep breath and pulled her body back.

“Geez, why exactly do you want that cup udon this badly? I could understand if this was Yuu, but…”

I took a glance at the emotionless necromancer who was next to me.

Yuu always looked like an expressionless doll. That made her all the more cute.

“They say that even Hiraga Gennai would be surprised by this udon. Does that not make you intensely curious?”

“That’s why?! Well, okay, I admit I have no idea why they picked Hiraga Gennai out of all people…”

“Hiraga Gennai was born in Sanuki, in Kagawa Prefecture.” (1)

“I see… you sure know a lot about him.”

“Yes. I like him just as much as Ooka Echizen. (2) So I really wanted to try this udon… but to think it would be so difficult to acquire this item…”

In other words, Sera was a big fan of Hiraga Gennai. And she was completely taken in by the tagline ‘Hiraga Gennai would be super surprised!’ on the package. And that led us to this situation. Seeing this side of Sera admittedly made me chuckle a bit.

“Well, that’s just bad timing I guess. You should’ve told me… I know when all the convenience stores in the neighborhood would’ve gotten that udon in stock.”

“If it had been anybody other than Saras who bought it…”

Sera and Saras were both vampire ninjas, so you might think Sera could just ask Saras nicely for the udon. But Sera was Saras’s subordinate, so she was the one who got the orders, not the one who gave them. It was hard for her to go to Saras and ask her to hand over the udon.

Well, guess I have to pitch in here and do my part.

I kept an eye on the frustrated look on Sera’s face and thought over what to do before fis.h.i.+ng out my cell phone.

Ringggg… ringgg… click.

“Do not call me so suddenly, you irritating darling. Are you looking to pick a fight with me?”

That’s the first thing she said to me after picking up the phone. If I didn’t know she was a tsundere, I would’ve been terrified and wouldn’t have been able to say anything. But I was already used to this.

“Hey, I need to ask you something. Did you eat that udon you bought earlier?”

“Are you a moron? I bought it to eat late tonight.”

“That’s good. Sorry, but could you let me have the udon? Sera said she really wanted a taste of it…”

Saras had sounded like she was in a bad mood, but now her mood was dyed completely black. She spoke as if she was the leader of some evil organization.

“I see… I understand your situation. Please relay the following message to Seraphim. If she wants this, she should come and battle me for it. That is all.”

You really don’t have to get this p.i.s.sy about it but I obediently relayed the message to Sera.

“And that’s what she said.”

“If she is offering a battle for that udon, then I could wish for nothing better.”

Sera at that moment looked just as majestically calm as she always did.

“Ohh! I overheard what’s going on! Fu fu fu.”

A girl game over, sporting shoulder-length chestnut hair. A little tuft of hair was peeking up out the top of her head, in what was called an “ahoge.” Ahoges were quite popular in certain circles.

Anyways, this was our house’s resident troublemaker, the masou shoujo Haruna. Whenever she got involved, the situation always went to c.r.a.p.

Her sparkling, mischievous eyes looked right at me.

“I heard there was gonna be a battle! Just leave it to me!”

Where’s that migraine medication when you need it…

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) Sanuki is famous for its udon.

(2) Another name for Ooka Tadasuke, a j.a.panese samurai.