VOLUME 1

Chapter 1: Part 6

We all ate in the living room, sitting around the square table. On the table were two bowls filled to the brim with rice and miso soup. And of course, the large quant.i.ties of pork kimchi I had prepared were lined up. There was also a rice cooker and a pot next to me. I was expecting to have to deal with the surging waves of these ravenous two asking for seconds.

I had only made two people’s worth of food because a convenience store bento was more than enough for me. Who dares to complain about a hamburger bento? If anyone laughs at convenience store bento, I’ll unleash my zombie ultimate attack on him.

“Ayumu, seconds!”

Haruna energetically handed me her rice bowl. Next, Yuu also seemed to want seconds. Geez, you two are eating just a bit too much. Girls should be more wary about their weight and eat less.

“I’m surprised at how good the food is in this world at reviving my store of magical power! Mystletainn no longer rejects me anymore, so at this rate I might be able to return to being a masou shoujo soon! Maybe maybe!”

She dug into the pork kimchi with a smile. Every time she moved, the ahoge coming out of her head waved.

“Oh, by the way, the fried egg you made was delicious.”

Smiling, I stroked Haruna’s head.

“Ah, of course it was. Who the h.e.l.l do you think I am?”

For some reason, when I stroked Haruna’s head like this, she didn’t object. At some point, Haruna realized that I had an almost-disgusting zombie smile on my face.

“What are you laughing about? Gross… die! Idiot!”

Blus.h.i.+ng, she sent a storm of verbal abuse my way.

And at that time…

Bam! A dry sound echoed through the room, and I widened my eyes in surprise.

For some reason, Yuu had leaned forwards and smacked Haruna across her flushed cheeks. Haruna and I both stood dumbfounded at these sudden happenings.

And then, even though Yuu normally never picked up her pen while eating, she faced Haruna and thrust a memo in her direction.

Don’t use those words lightly. = “Geez! Don’t say bad things about oniichan!”

There was not a tremor in either of her eyebrows, but I could see that she was getting angry.

“Yuu, while I appreciate the sentiment, it’s not like Haruna was being serious either.”

“No, seriously die. Die with that gloomy necromancer (1) over there!”

And then, another dry sound rang through the room. Two of them this time. Haruna had countered this time.

Death is painful.

I could not translate those words into the cute-Yuu-speak inside me. Haruna also seemed to be at a loss for words. Yuu’s blue eyes were filled with sadness.

Trying to break the silence, I gave out a strange yell of “Daaahh!” as if I was at the Inoki Bom-ba-ye (2). Haruna began to shovel rice into her mouth. Yuu also returned to eating with a nonchalant face as if nothing had happened.

“Ayumu! More! Super more!”

Yeah yeah, I’ll give you a lot this time. I piled up a mountain of rice into her bowl and handed it back to her. Taking the bowl, Haruna showed me a smile lined with her white teeth. Her smile was so lovely that it was contagious.

When I looked in Yuu’s direction, I saw a single tear come out of her eye and roll down her cheek.

That’s surprising… to think that the usually completely emotionless Yuu would suddenly begin to cry.

“Hey, Yuu! What’s wrong? Ah… umm… uhh…”

Drip. Drip. She didn’t give out a single sob, and her expression did not change at all, but tears began to spill out of her eyes.

Yuu put her left hand to her cheek, and traced the trails the tears left behind. And then, finally, she seemed to realize that she had been crying.

I didn’t know what to do at this sudden turn of events. I looked to Haruna for help, but she cleanly dismissed me, and in the face of my gradually growing bewilderment, I couldn’t do anything but stroke her silky silver hair.

Was there anything else I could do…? Anything else I could do for her?

Calm down, me. Why is Yuu crying?

Glancing at the table, I noticed that Yuu’s bowl was empty.

Ah, I see! Having been put into a trance by Haruna, I had completely forgotten about refilling Yuu’s bowl.

“Sorry, I’ll give you more rice right away.”

Fl.u.s.tered, I heaped rice into Yuu’s bowl. When I peeked at her face, I saw that tears were no longer flowing out from her eyes. Even Yuu can cry sometimes, huh? After confirming how Yuu could be pretty human-like sometimes, I tried to enjoy the rest of dinner.

“I would like some miso soup too.”

Yeah yeah. Some miso sou- wait, who the h.e.l.l are you?!

The people sitting around the table… there was me, Yuu, Haruna, and one more person. A woman. She was wearing low-rise jeans and a camisole along with clothes you would normally see on girls everywhere. Her long hair was tied back with a rubber band. I-It was a ponytail! Ponytails were my biggest weakness! (3)

Of course, she also had an attractive face and figure, but unlike the other two, she exuded a cold dignified air. And the things that drew my gaze more than anything else were her sparkling jade-colored eyes.

I had said that she was a woman, but she didn’t look older than I was. It was just that she exuded an air of maturity.

Since the time I had met Yuu, the girls that have been showing up at my door have all been cute or beautiful, without exception. They all had beautiful, graceful faces that I would not forget. But I haven’t seen this particular girl before.

Oh well, I’ll give her the miso soup she asked for.

“Hey, Ayumu. Who’s this?”

Ahh, it seems like it wasn’t one of Haruna’s acquaintances. So that means…

She was an acquaintance of the necromancer silently sipping her miso soup next to me. So, while handing over a bowl of miso soup to that mysterious girl (the third mysterious girl)…

“For now… could you introduce yourself?”

“Understood. My name is Seraphim.”

Hooh, her name sounded like it could be an angel’s name. It was one of the angelic ranks, right?

Staying silent, I waited for her to continue.

With an imposing air, she fixedly stared straight forwards. I couldn’t help but be charmed by her beauty. The otherwise silent living room was dominated by the sound of miso soup being sipped.

Wait, that was her idea of an introduction?! And it didn’t seem like I was the only person who thought that way.

“That’s it? Don’t you have things you like, or special skills, or hobbies? C-Could it be that you’re a wizard?! You planning to blow me up or something?!”

Haruna. Are all the wizards you know cruel and merciless or something?

“My likes: Hiken, Tsubame Gaes.h.i.+. My special skills: Hiken, Tsubame Gaes.h.i.+. My hobbies: Hiken, Tsubame Gaes.h.i.+.”

Well at any rate, at least she responded to the question.

“Why are you here?”

“A mission.”

“What kind of mission?”

“To borrow the power of Eucliwood h.e.l.lscythe-dono.” (4)

I glanced in Yuu’s direction. The necromancer in question was proceeding with her meal as silently as ever. She didn’t seem to care about what was going on around her.

Yuu often had her life targeted. She had the power to bring the dead back to life, so there were an endless supply of beings who tried to kill her and take that power for themselves. Up to now, a countless number of strange things had come visiting.

There were vampires, and vampires. Well, also… vampires? Now that I think about it, vampires came really often.

“Could it be that you’re a vampire?”

At my question, Seraphim-san widened her eyes. Her expression screamed “How did you-?!” But soon she returned back to her cold expression, and nodded once.

“Precisely. I’m a vampire ninja.”

As I thought.

Hm? No, it was a bit different. Well well well well, whatever, it’s fine… ninjas… demons… it’s all pretty much the same.

Wait, that’s not true at all! Am I an idiot?!

Listening to her, I learned that she was a ninja who needed blood to retain her youth and power.

She had been living in a secret mountain village, but the death of their chief had incited a war of succession. The war had continued for hundreds of years, it seemed. And, to suppress that war, she wanted to revive their fallen chief.

So there were still ninja villages in j.a.pan… that’s surprising.

Hm? There’s also the point that everyone who’s come here so far has basically been a vampire. They all had deep crimson eyes and wore black cloaks, so of my own accord, I had labeled them as vampires.

When I asked about this matter, Seraphim-san nodded.

“Yes. They are trying to take h.e.l.lscythe-dono’s life and make her unique power their own. Their schemes are precisely meant to hinder our efforts.”

Pouring miso soup down her throat, Seraphim set her empty bowl down onto the table and continued.

“My mission is to request that h.e.l.lscythe-dono accompany me, and to protect her life. There are stubborn types that would prefer to just kidnap her, but we respect her power. So if possible, I would like to ask the person herself to come with me of her own free will.”

And that’s how the story ran. Mealtime had ended, and on the table that only bore empty plates Yuu placed a single memo. And then, she put her ballpoint pen to the memo.

Tap tap. She tapped the table twice.

Ayumu. I don’t care. Drive her away.

It seemed like the negotiations had broken down with a single blow. I had also worked hard to defeat all the vampire ninjas that had appeared at our house up until now. But, as Seraphim-san had said, they were the ones who were trying to force us to do what they wanted. They were trying to kidnap Yuu. So I could fight them with no hesitation whatsoever, but this time was a bit…

I mean, she’s a girl, right? And she also had said that she would protect Yuu’s life.

“But there’s no need to fight this time, right?”

At that question, Yuu tap-tapped on the table. She wasn’t writing anything. She seemed to want me to look once again at the memo she had already written. That’s what I thought, but it seemed that she had added something… when did she…

Ayumu. I don’t care. It’s fine, so drive her away.

Hm, what should I do? These were, once again, words that I couldn’t make cute in my head.

Haruna, say something to Yuu, won’t you?

“I see. If you’re a ninja, you can suddenly appear and disappear, right?”

She completely ignored me!

Without even trying to clean up, Haruna got up and left the room.

Did people who came from the magic world Virie not have any interest in supernatural beings outside of Megalo? This is why these young masou shoujo are so…

“What relation are you to h.e.l.lscythe-dono?”

As expected, from that beautiful mouth came a beautiful voice. Her fixed stare made me blush.

“Hm? How do I put it…”

Tap tap. I looked over at Yuu.

Servant.

Well, I guess that’s not technically wrong. Personally, I prefer “oniichan.”

“If that’s the case, I will also become your servant. Please call me Sera.”

Sera spoke with a completely serious expression. She won’t mind if I call her Sera too, right?

Soon, I saw that Yuu had added something to the memo on which she had written “Servant.”

I only need one servant. = “For Yuu, only one oniichan is enough!”

“If that’s the case, you don’t need him, right? No matter how I look at it, he seems to be stupid.”

Sera-chan. That really does annoy me, you know. I resent that.

The vampire ninja and zombie had a glaring contest. Sera stood straight up.

“Let’s find somewhere we won’t be disturbed.”

She seems to be pretty determined. Without cleaning up after the meal, I also stood up and we left the room. If we were going to fight, I knew just the right place.

That place that I was quite fond of.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) Pun pun pun. Haruna calls Yuu a “nekura mancer,” which is an obvious play on words of “necromancer.” But “nekura” also means “gloomy” in j.a.panese.

(2) Martial arts tournament held in j.a.pan.

(3) He literally says something like “there is no moe that exceeds ponytail moe.”

(4) Dono is a pretty respectful honorific.