VOLUME 2

Chapter 4: Part 4

When I returned, I saw Haruna standing in the entrance way, holding a telephone receiver and groaning.

“What exactly are you doing?”

“A-Ayumu! Since when have you been there?!”

Haruna hid the telephone receiver behind her back. It looked like she was doing something that made her feel guilty.

“What are you planning to do with the telephone?”

“Why does it matter?! It’s got nothing to do with you!”

“I mean, it’s our telephone, so it kind of does… if you don’t tell me, I’m going to go wash your underwear.”

“Well, the truth is…” Haruna seemed to resign herself and her att.i.tude took a 180 degree turn. She put the telephone back where it belonged. Her ahoge waved from side to side, and she seemed to be thinking about something.

“I thought I might apologize to Dai-sensei…”

I was shocked at that statement. To think that Haruna would actually take the initiative and apologize. Was she going to apologize for that argument they had? Haruna was? Wow. So Dai-sensei was that important of an existence to her…

“But you know, just apologizing is…”

“Well, why don’t you invite her to the arcade?”

At my idea, her ahoge bounced in response.

“Yeah! That’s it! Dai-sensei would definitely be happy if I did that!”

Seeing Haruna happy made me feel it was an honor to have been able to be of some use.

As if she was playing Attack Rock-Paper-Scissors (1), Haruna immediately s.n.a.t.c.hed up the telephone receiver and quickly dialed out.

“Ah, is this Dai-sensei? It’s me. Haruna from the Refrain Year, Rising Cla.s.s.”

I returned to my room, all the while wondering why girls changed the way they acted only when they were on the phone. When I got back to my room, I saw Sera there, cleaning.

“Oh, so you came back?”

“Yeah, I’m back. It sure is nice having Sera here now.”

“All I do is make the trash bin look a bit better every once in a while.”

Sera thought of this room as a trash bin.

I put my schoolbag down and changed out of my uniform. Sera didn’t seem to care even if I changed right next to her. If it was Haruna, she would definitely turn red though. I opened up one of my dresser drawers, and took out the pair of jeans on the top.

“By the way, Ayumu, when I do the laundry, make sure you take all the things out of your dirty clothes’ pockets.”

Sera showed me that bomb that was shaped like a pencil. Wow, I had completely forgotten that. It would have gotten crazy if that had blown up in the was.h.i.+ng machine.

“Ahh, sorry about that.”

When I checked that nothing in particular was out of place, Sera next took out the gla.s.ses case and thrust it at me.

“And then, there are these gla.s.ses…”

Oogh. It looks like she discovered those pervy gla.s.ses. This wasn’t good.

“Well, those are…”

If she found out they were pervy gla.s.ses, Sera would probably chop my head off. As I thought about what lies or excuses I could feed her, Sera spoke with a serious expression.

“If you were handed these already, why didn’t you pa.s.s them over to me?”

Hm? Wait, could it be that those black-rimmed gla.s.ses were Sera’s?

“The person who gave me those didn’t tell me anything when she did.”

Wait just a second. When that person had handed me those gla.s.ses, she had said something like “I’m sure you’ve already heard.” So maybe both Sera and that girl thought that the other party had already explained the situation to me.

“As I thought, I should have been the one to go. But I really would rather not have to go to your school.”

“So that person was also a conservative faction vampire ninja?”

“Yes, exactly. And she didn’t explain anything to you?”

“Yeah, nothing at all. Why do you need pervy gla.s.ses like-“

“Ayumu, did you use these? Please allow me to despise you. No, I already despise you, so I apologize, but could you tell me what word I should use to express my scorn even more?”

Was that really something you should be asking the person you despise? In any case, don’t change your eye color and look at me like that.

“So, what do you use those gla.s.ses for?”

Sera took out a piece of paper from the pocket of her denim pants.

“Those gla.s.ses give you the ability to see through things.”

“Yeah, I’ve already figured that out.”

“It’s necessary to read this secret message here.”

“Ah, I see. So why did you give those to me then?”

“I went to retrieve them once, but I couldn’t meet up with my old friend, so considering you two attend the same school, I instructed her to pa.s.s it along to you.”

Isn’t that something you should have told the third person? As I had guessed, both of them had a.s.sumed the other had explained the situation to me and failed to do so themselves.

“Well, this is probably about that machine they have.”

Sera put on the gla.s.ses.

“Yes, as I thought. And to stop that machine, we need to…”

The piece of paper fluttered in the air as it dropped from Sera’s shaking hands. Sera stood completely still, acting almost as if time had stopped.

“Are you alright? What was written on the paper?”

Sera silently took off the gla.s.ses. She put her index finger to her lips and fell into thought.

“Ayumu, what should I do?”

“As I said, what was written on the piece of paper?”

“It said… that I am to kill h.e.l.lscythe-dono.”

Huh? Sera came to protect Yuu, didn’t she? If she kills Yuu, then wouldn’t they not be able to revive the old vampire ninja leader anymore?

“Why in the world do you have to kill her?”

“According to this secret message, there are some who have this ridiculous plan to use that machine to turn humanity into vampire ninjas.”

“What in the world does that have to do with Yuu?”

“Well, it’s a plan to deal with the ma.s.sive number of monsters appearing lately. The idea is that if we can change half of mankind into vampire ninjas, then not only this time, but if something like this ever happens again, we would be able to deal with it. So this huge number of monster appearances is the cause of it all. And then, when they tried to figure out who was the root cause of the monster appearances, they arrived at the conclusion that it was h.e.l.lscythe-dono.”

How in the world did they get to that? I had absolutely no idea what they could have been thinking.

“Didn’t they say there was an a.s.sa.s.sin who was trying to destroy that machine?”

“Yes, that’s what they said. When I heard about that, I had been pretty sure that this secret message would talk about that a.s.sa.s.sin. However… I was wrong.”

“So, do you even need to ask what to do? Killing Yuu would be pointless.”

“Please don’t just put it so easily like that.”

“Wasn’t your mission to protect Yuu? For you to kill her would just be…”

“That mission has been changed. Do you not understand what that means to me?”

“Yeah, I don’t get it.”

“… I’m a ninja, you know?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“…… Fine. Whatever.”

I seemed to have angered Sera in some way, and she began to leave the room with an exasperated expression.

I put the pencil-shaped bomb into my pocket, and tightly gripped Sera’s arm as she walked past me.

“Wait a second! What are you planning to do?”

“If we must stop the monsters from appearing, then there is no need to kill h.e.l.lscythe-dono.”

“What then? Are you going to go fight off all the Megalo by yourself?”

“Yes. That is exactly what I’m saying. I already know who is pulling the strings behind this all. I will find that person and I will kill that person.”

“There’s no way you would be able to do that. For now, why not just report to your superiors and tell them about Kyouko and the others?”

“I did. I’ve already reported everything I’ve seen.”

“And they still want you to kill Yuu?”

“This is the latest message. In other words, there has been no change.”

“Even so, aren’t they just ignoring you way too much?”

“It’s an extreme measure… I see. That’s it!”

“Hm?”

“They have gone to these extreme measures of trying to kill h.e.l.lscythe-dono because of that other ridiculous plan. In other words, if I can just destroy that machine, my orders might change once again.”

“And if your orders don’t change, what would you do? Would you really kill Yuu?”

“If it comes to that, then unfortunately…”

Then she would have no choice. Sera looked like she was about to say that, so I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Don’t screw around, dammit!!” I raised my voice, and Sera’s eyes widened.

“Why are you vampire ninjas so d.a.m.n stubborn?! If you don’t want to do it, then just don’t do it!!”

“You do not understand the meaning of our missions to us.”

“Is Yuu’s life worth less than that?!”

“That’s not fair! To vampire ninjas like me-“

“I’m tired of hearing about that. So, are you really going to kill Yuu?”

“As I said, don’t ask me obvious questions like that!”

“Those aren’t the words I want to hear! Which is it?! Are you going to kill her? Or do you not want to kill her? I’m not asking a vampire ninja! I’m asking Sera herself!”

“There’s no way I would want to kill her, is there?!”

Her jade-colored eyes watered up. Her eyes, which usually emitted a strong, confident light, today seemed to waver a bit.

“… You’re a pretty honest person, aren’t you?”

“I don’t need your flattery. It’s disgusting.”

Sera hmphed, and after rubbing her eyes with her index finger, she spoke with the same controlled determination I was used to seeing from her.

“But thanks to you, my resolve has broken through. I will abandon this mission.”

I let out a huge sigh.

“For now, we really have to do something about that machine.”

“Yeah.”

At that time, we heard the pitter-patter of feet from outside the room. I knew in an instant who those feet belonged to. It was Haruna.

“Ayumu! I’m going to the arcade for a bit, but do you want to come too?”

I looked at Sera, and Sera looked at me.

“Nah, I have plans. Dai-sensei is going with you?”

“Yeah! She said she just dealt with a huge load of Megalo! So then they gave her a holiday, but she said she was really bored.”

I could hear Haruna’s excitement in every word she uttered. It seemed that she was able to make up with Dai-sensei.

“You should just take this chance and have fun with Dai-sensei together.”

“Ehhh, Ayumu should come too. What about the leaf woman?”

“I also have some small things to take care of.”

“Why don’t you invite Yuu?”

“The gloomy necromancer? She said she didn’t want to go out.”

Was Yuu still worrying about the other day? Worried that Kyouko and the Megalo appearing was her fault…

“We’ll go together next time.”

“Alright! That’s a promise, alright?!”

I watched Haruna fly out of the room and turned my gaze to Sera. I didn’t even have to ask her if she was ready; she knew exactly what I wanted to say, and just gave me a firm nod in response.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) According to Wikipedia, this is a variation on Rock-Paper-Scissors, where the winner of each rock-paper-scissors has the right to smack the loser, and the loser has to try to defend before that happens.