VOLUME 6

Chapter 5: Part 3

Well, things had taken an inexplicable turn for the strange. I was now walking under the cold winter sky without a scarf or gloves, heading for a graveyard that (judging from the atmosphere) was already quite chilly.

We walked past the lines of graves and grave markers, heading for a large s.p.a.ce on the other side. There was a huge tree there which must’ve been centuries old. Wait, exactly why did we have to do this thing outside on such a cold day?

Sera and Saras, two long-haired beauties, were standing right next to a grave and glaring at each other.

Haruna was also there, holding what seemed to be a number of clothing rods. You know, the things you hang clothes on. By the way, Yuu wasn’t even here. She was probably still comfortably sitting under the kotatsu right now.

“Ah, a bit more to the right. Go over to that tree over there!”

This arrogant little girl threw an order at me as her ahoge jumped from side to side, and I reluctantly walked towards the big tree.

All the leaves had already withered away, and the tree just stood there looking very lonely. This was one of the best moon-watching spots for a zombie like me. The s.p.a.ce itself was very wide, to the point where I could see myself playing a game of dodgeball here.

“Okay, it’s the javelin compet.i.tion! Of course, we’re gonna aim for Ayumu. Round one, start!”

What the h.e.l.l?! But, I spent so long doubting my ears that before I had a chance to say something in my defense, Haruna had already handed Sera and Saras their clothing rods.

In the next instant, a clothing rods whose end had been sharpened to a point tore through the night air. I heard a sharp sound of wind as it grazed my ear and flew past me.

“Wait! What the h.e.l.l is this?! Aren’t you supposed to be seeing who can throw those things the farthest?!”

I had no idea if they were listening to my shouting or not… no, clearly they were not.

Another rod was coming right at my forehead, so in true Matrix fas.h.i.+on I bent my body completely backwards and somehow managed to avoid it.

“Okay, both of you missed!”

Phew… looked like I managed to survive. Ugh, that Haruna was going overboard again. For the love of G.o.d, someone please go and tell Haruna how javelin actually works…

“Let’s start round two!”

They were going again?! Were they going to just keep throwing until someone hit me?!

“Wait!” I made a mad dash for Haruna and the others.

Sera scowled, holding her rod in one hand.

“What’s the problem?”

“A-Ahh, you don’t know? Umm, well, the javelin compet.i.tion is now over.”

Sera and Saras both gave me quite vampire-ish glares as their faces warped in anger. They looked clearly annoyed at what I was saying.

“Well then, who won this match then?”

Saras shrugged.

“Well…” I took a look around at everyone present. Hm? Why did everyone look so dissatisfied?

“Maybe we need… a judge? Haruna, who won?”

Haruna clasped her hands together and seemed to be thinking hard. Her ahoge bounced from side to side. Soon, that ahoge suddenly stood straight on end, and she gave us a sparkling smile.

“The leaf woman!”

Okay, I guess Sera won… clap clap clap.

“Is this not unfair? You all live under the same roof, so I accuse you of favoritism.”

Saras did bring up a good point there. I would probably give preference to Sera as well.

“Maybe we really should have a second round of javelin…”

“L-Let’s try some other kind of contest. Umm… ummmmm…”

I racked my brains for a solution, when another girl came running.

“Yooo, Aikawa~~! I heard you guys were competing or something!”

It was a short-haired girl. She was quite energetic, but unlike Haruna she was also quite tomboyish. Her name was Tomonori, and she gave us a smile.

She liked sports and was also obsessed with convenience stores like me. She was an idiot that held the hearts of both the boys and the girls at our school.

Yeah, I guess Tomonori would be someone who would really like compet.i.tions like this. I wonder how she actually sniffed us out?

“Yo, Tomonori. Perfect timing.”

“Don’t call me Tomonori! I’m a girl, okay?!”

I explained the situation to Tomonori, how we just finished our javelin compet.i.tion and were now trying to figure out what to do next. She didn’t even pretend to think about it, but gave an instant, energetic answer.

“Okay! Let’s have a race! There’s this place that the vampire ninjas just built for training!”

Yes, she was also a vampire ninja like Sera and Saras. And since this was a battle between two vampire ninjas, I felt fine about leaving the rest to another vampire ninja like Tomonori.

Well, I guess I’ll just take my leave here. Gotta get home and-

“s.h.i.+t darling. Exactly where do you think you’re going?”

Saras stopped me.

Sera and Haruna were already following behind Tomonori. Oh, were they moving everything somewhere else already?

“I’m going home. I’ll leave the rest Tomonori and Haruna.”

“Do you not think you have a duty to see this contest through to an end?”

“Not really… actually, why are you competing in the first place? You could’ve just handed over the udon. It’s not like you really cared too much about the udon when you bought it.”

“Do you not understand why I instigated this battle?”

“Yeah, not a clue.”

“It is because my lovely bitter-but-not-really-bitter-okay-maybe-a-bit-bitter darling has prioritized Seraphim over me. I felt my chest ready to burst from agony when I learned of this. In other words, I am jealous.”

Is that why she had sounded a bit moody on the phone?

“No, it’s not like I prioritized her over you or anything…”

“Well then, allow me to ask a question, my good-for-nothing darling. Do you sincerely think of me more than you think of Seraphim?”

“Even if you ask me to choose like that…”

How was I supposed to answer that question? I stared up at the sky, watching my breath cloud up above me like the smoke from a steam engine.

What should I do…?

“I admit I do not dislike that troubled expression of yours.”

Saras gave me a beautiful chuckle. She looked so cute when she did that, maybe because it was just so different from how she usually acted. Looking at Saras, I felt myself blush a bit, before looking in Sera’s direction with a pout on my face.

Well… if I was the reason this little battle broke out, then I guess I had to stick it through to the end. Geez…

Well, I’d be happy as long as we were going somewhere warmer.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES