Haruma-4

Chigusa’s words were unfailingly polite.

Pulling out her hands which she had been ruffling in her pockets, she held them neatly in front of her body and bowed. As she went through the motions, I found myself thinking that Chigusa’s bashful face was honestly very flattering.

I’ll be blunt. This girl was adorable.

Pretty much no guy ever would get a bad feeling when a cute girl asks a favour of him. Being relied upon by a beautiful girl is the best thing that can happen to a guy.

For example, when a girl looks at you with puppy dog eyes and leans forward with her hands pressed together in a way that emphasises her chest—or alternatively, when a high-handed tsundere says stuff like, “I-It can’t be helped, so I’ll let you a.s.sist me! Be grateful!”—a guy will usually respond readily. As for the requests themselves, there are a bunch of variations to how they’re carried out.

Type A) A request

Type B) An entreaty

Type C) A businesslike transaction

Type D) A demand

Type E) An order

Now then, here’s a question! Which category did our favourite Chigusa Yuu—the most beautiful, most refined, most pure and sweet girl on the planet—fall into?! This is an easy one!

The correct answer is… intimidation. None of the above!

As a smile spread across every inch of her face, Chigusa held a personal alarm in her tiny palms. The ball chain seemed to sparkle as she brought it out. This had gone well past intimidation and into the realm of barbarism.

“…I’m not a bother to you, am I?”

Chigusa’s eyes started welling up with tears. The alarm chain started making a tinkling sound. If she pulled that chain, the alarm would blare and policemen would probably come running from all directions.

As much as it was our own business, this did look like a case of an unsavoury-looking guy with a crying girl. No matter what the truth of the matter was, I was the bad guy, the villain. I could have the best lawyer in the world and he still wouldn’t be able to come up with a good defence!

Chigusa lowered her eyes sorrowfully and hugged herself tightly. As you might expect, she was still holding the alarm in one hand.

“I thought if anyone would listen to my story, it would be you, Kusaoka-san…”

“I get it already! I’ll listen! In fact, I’m all ears! Say whatever you want!”

Chigusa’s face lit up at my words and she finally put away the personal alarm. Who would have thought a high school girl’s personal alarm would serve the same purpose as the yakuza’s extortion tools…?

“Thank you ever so much. Now then… there are quite a few things I’d prefer not to say at a place like this, so let us be off.” Chigusa smiled cheerfully as she wiped away her tears and pointed down the road. Don’t say a place like this… This is my house, d.a.m.n it.

Yet for all that, I had no right to refuse. Not only had she bombarded me with my personal information, she held the power of life and death over me as far as society was concerned. Once I shut up and nodded meekly, Chigusa smiled from the bottom of her heart in a way that one would not think possible of a girl who had been threatening me just a moment ago.

When I saw her smile, my heart skipped a beat.

I should mention that sweat started pouring off me, my breathing hitched and my lips turned purple. These were the early symptoms of shock, weren’t they…? Just from looking at her, I couldn’t help but think that this could be… love!

There was not one shred of similiarity between Chigusa Yuu’s outward appearance and her actual actions. On top of that, she seemed to act as if nothing was the matter at all. There was something deeply unsettling about the fact that only her face was amazingly cute.

I’ll be blunt. This girl… was strange.