Vol 2 Chapter 3 (1/2)

Season 2, Episode 3

Episode 3:

“Hey!”

Having at last, cleared the entrance, Shun’s cla.s.smate Uehara Harukichi greeted him upon sight.

“It’s really bad for you, you know? If you continue hanging around real girls like that, I mean.”

Such acidic words, and yet, the perpetrator was such a beautiful being.

Uehara, having had a long-standing relations.h.i.+p with Akihabara[1], was a renowned figurine designer. He was successful, yes indeed, but what stood out most to Shun was, that despite all that, he still looked like but a child.

His hair was ruffled in that cute I-did-not-put-any-effort-into-this way, serving to emphasize his short stature. His smile was roguish and dimpled, giving him the air of a cheeky, endearing little boy (Shun believed that it was called the shota[2]-style)

“Good morning, Haru-chan!”

A group of female third year seniors walked past, calling out a friendly greeting to Uehara in the process.

Uehara growled in annoyance.

“Kyaa! So cute!”

The seniors hugged each other in an exaggerated fas.h.i.+on, hearts practically flooding from their pores, saturating the air. Everything about Uehara was just too cute! He was like a motherless little boy looking for love, appealing to the nurturer in them.

Uehara on the other hand looked nothing short of extremely p.i.s.sed.

“Shut up! Man, this is why I don’t like real girls. They move by themselves, talk by themselves – just annoys me to no end!”

He then went on muttering something about the end of the world under his breath while turning his back on the parade of real life females. His cute outward appearance, which seemed to be his only saving grace, was in his case both, a blessing and curse.

Sigh.

Sometimes, Shun really wondered why he was friends with such a guy.

–

Placing his shoes in the locker, Shun headed to cla.s.s with Uehara.

“Hey, have you heard about that terrorist act at the National a.s.sembly Hall yesterday?”

Shun schooled his features into a polite, bland smile. Best to pretend to know nothing here.

“There has been some really interesting things on the internet about it.”

“I see.”

“Well, you know how according to the news, the National a.s.sembly Hall was destroyed by missiles, and the whole fault lay with the newly built fighter jets? Listen to this. Some websites on the net actually claim that the real culprit behind all this was a beam of light that descended from the sky.”

Sucking in his cheeks for effect, he continued.

“In fact, rumour has it that that strange light actually came down twice, which was what destroyed the entire building. Also, you might not believe this, but some people even said that they saw towering spirals of fire rise up from the ground!”

“This is just a bunch of bulls.h.i.+t.”

“Yeah. At first, the part of the light from the sky sounded kind of real to me, especially when quite a few people claimed to have witnessed that. But really, when you add the part about fires and Dragon Bless curses and whatnot, now that just makes everything sound completely dodgy.”

“Definitely stuff of stories.”

Uehara continued his rant.

“Some guy even went on to say that he saw a girl cosplaying as Rosalie at the scene of action. That really takes the cherry! Other people have since taken it one step further and claimed that Rosalie did not simply disappear from Dragon Bless, but instead has appeared in the real world in order to destroy j.a.pan’s National a.s.sembly Hall!”

“…”

His s.h.i.+rt was see-through now, what with the rate he was sweating at.

Play it cool, Shun! Calm down, no one knows about Rosalie, remember?

“Man, your reaction’s slow today! Anything up, Shun? Normally, you’d be the first to react if there was any news about Rosalie.”

“O-Oh no, well, you see – “

“Whatcha talkin’ about?”

Saved by the bell.

Or rather, by a girl.

–