c2 (2/2)
Koutarou took the canteen fro the barley tea inside it Ruth’s skill at japanese style cooking was increasing and her barely tea had i
“The tea’s good today too”
“I prefer it a bit weaker”
“If you don’t like it, get off”
“No way, I want to drink too”
“What a selfish girl”
“Well I’uy is co”
“McKenzie?”
As Koutarou closed the lid on the barley tea he’d been drinking, his childhood friend, Matsudaira Kenji, appeared in the area he orking He’d said he was going out somewhere today, so Koutarou knit his eyebrows in puzzlement
“Kou!”
“Yo, McKenzie, I thought you weren’t co today?”
“I wasn’t, but well, a lot of stuff happened”
“Don’t tell ain?”
Koutarou knew Kenji had plans with his girlfriend, and Kenji’s personality o to work So naturally, the possibility he’d broken up rose to the surface It was a pattern even Koutarou understood
“That’s not the case… But nearly”
“You never learn your lesson…”
“You’ve never even gone out, so you wouldn’t know!”
They ords that Kenji had just thought of as an excuse, but they resounded strangely to Koutarou
“You wouldn’t understand unless you’ve gone out, huh… That ht be true…”
Koutarou glanced behind hi for the a butterfly with her eyes It was a char ti here with her Koutarou’s valuation of Sanae was very different from when they first met, and that was true to a certain extent for the other invaders too That was definitely – albeit slightly different fro he wouldn’t have understood without going out with them
“Talk before it gets weird”
“Okay, okay”
However, Koutarou and Kenji were exact opposites, with time, Koutarou made relationshi+ps, but with time, Kenji destroyed thes
“So how many does that make it now?”
“You’re not even past zero yet, so you can’t talk, Kou!”
Koutarou and Kenji started excavating whilst arguing Sanae watched theo and walk around the area
“Koutarou, Koutarou, I’o look around over there”
“…Don’t go too far so you don’t get lost”
“Okay, I’m off!”
“…Sure, be careful”
Sanae made sure to tell Koutarou, and then went off to walk But she didn’t notice how naturally she did it, Koutarou was the sae that had occurred between them in the past few months
“Kou, did you say so?”
“No, nothing Oh, an arrowhead”
Koutarou orking with Kenji, and Sanae alking on her own, they were doing things separately, but the distance between their hearts wasn’t as great as the actual distance between them
Kenji had so easily told his sob story to use it as , even if it was Kenji asking he wouldn’t easily get to the core of things with no reward
“If we’re talking about troubling stuff, Kou”
“Yeah?”
“…You’re strangely not troubled”
For a moment, Kenji’s kind disposition showed
“How do you mean?”
“To tell the truth, when you started living on your own, I thought you’d go bad again”
Koutarou had lived with just his father HisThat had destroyed his ho time to build it back up His childhood friend Kenji had seen that up close, so whilst he’d said various things when Koutarou started to live alone, he was actually worried about it That was also why he’d taken every chance to tell Koutarou to get a girlfriend
“Aah, that’s what you mean”
Koutarou stopped working and shtly
To Koutarou, Kenji worrying about that wasn’t strange, and because it was Kenji, he didn’t find it unpleasant, he’d played a large role in fixing his life after it was destroyed
“But… you’ve been the sa was okay”
Kenji said that with a wry slad that his worries were unfounded but was still curious He wanted to know if there was a reason It was proof of his friendshi+p
“Now that you mention it…”
Now that Kenji had pointed it out to hi alone
“Why’s it like that…?”
Koutarou found it strange The day he’dfor him there, and his voice echoed in the empty room
However…
“I see, I ht…”
If Koutarou went ho dinner, Ruth would be preparing tea Theia would be engrossed in a ga in the wardrobe or readingon Koutarou’s back as always
In other words, fro in, Koutarou hadn’t been alone since
“So there is a reason?”
“It’s not quite a reason I’o to school there are loads of people I get on ith at school, right? So I don’t feel lonely”
Koutarou couldn’t directly say that though so he changed it so Kenji would understand This was about the li a lie
“Now that you mention it, you have been more sociable recently”
But thankfully, Kenji accepted this answer and nodded deeply
Fro sociable with the boys, but with female students too Theia and Ruth stood out, and there was the honour student Kiriha and Yurika as nearly failing that he was sociable with, a large variety He was also enthusiastic in the knitting society, so it looked like he did plenty at school to compensate for any loneliness at home
“So you don’t need to worry, you should worry about your own girlfriend”
“Is that anyway to talk to someone orried for you!?”
“You’ve got bad habits”
The atmosphere between them was serious for a while, but that iped out in an instant and the mood returned to normal
“Then what about you Kou, there’s that irls around you, isn’t there one you’re interested in?”
“There’s not”
He denied it on the surface, but in Koutarou’s irls’ faces appeared
Theia, always aggressive but also kind
Ruth, alorrying about everyone
Yurika, a cosplayer who didn’t think much and was irresponsible, but he couldn’t hate
Kiriha, who he didn’t knohat she was thinking, but he’d caught a glimpse of her deeper emotions
Haru
shi+zuka, who looked after Corona House alone after inheriting it from her parents
And-
“Koutarou, look, look! I caught a beetle! It’s huge!”
-Sanae, always energetic and s innocently
Koutarou was interested in these seven girls They rapped in coht be too early to call them friends But even so, it was true that they had stopped Koutarou fro lonely They were people who Koutarou didn’t want to look away from for lots of reasons
Sanae was chasing backwards and forwards after a butterfly when she saw a rhinoceros beetle and went to catch it She could see spiritual waves and fly through the air, so no beetle could escape her After catching it, she flew back to Koutarou at full speed and full of pride
“Rhi-chan, ehehehe~”
Full of satisfaction, Sanae returned to Koutarou’s back and put her captured beetle on his hat, watching it with a bright smile
“Well done catching one so big”
“It’s aht?”
“Yeah, The earth’s bad around here, so I didn’t think there would be any so big”
Rhinoceros beetles lived under the ground when they were larvae and preferred a certain level of huround When theyoff of their sap So in open areas like the top of this mountain, there weren’tfurther down so Koutarou was honestly ie beetle like that in this kind of unsuitable area
“That’sthe impossible possible”
“Well done, well done”
Koutarou would have normally rubbed Sanae’s head to praise her, but his hands were covered in ainst hers instead
“Nyahahaha, that tickles”
“Tickle tickle”
“You’ve done it now!”
Sanae started doing the saether, so it didn’t hurt, and if one of them wanted to stop, both would immediately The two of them played like that for a while
“…Kou, what are you doing?”
But to people who couldn’t see ghosts, Koutarou looked like he’d gone insane, so Kenji orried the heat had gotten to hi
“N-nothing, I thought I had some mud on my head”
“Oh, okay then, it’s hot, so watch it”
Fortunately Kenji didn’t question it any further and returned to his oork
“Geez”
Koutarou brushed off his chest in relief
“Tehehe, sorry”
“It’s fine”
Sanae apologised, but Koutarou wasn’t bothered, the two of the
Then, because of the two of the noise, the beetle on Koutarou’s hat flew off
“Oh no…”
Sanae watched the beetle fly off in disappoints and flew once around their heads before heading straight towards the trees Its instincts telling it where to go to get home
“Are you sure you want to let it go?”
Koutarou found Sanae letting it go strange, she could catch up to it and stop it getting aith her spiritual powers
“Yeah, we can’t take Rhi-chan holed in our circumstances”
“You’ve grown up, Sanae”
“I think even kids can be grown up sometimes”
“I think you’re right”
Koutarou and Sanae had both becorown up recently so they knew better than to just bring others into their circumstances, it wouldn’t be fair to keep it as a pet, or keep it there for no reason
“If you’re proud then praise me properly”
“Good girl, good girl”
“Ehehehe~”
“…Kou, seriously, are you alright?”
“I’ it off!”
Theback to the trees, its wings flapped strongly and were full of life It was a sight that had held beetles’ position as children’s idols for a long tith and beauty
“…He’s gone”
“Yeah… Hey, Koutarou, do you think Rhi-chan has a family?”
“I think he does, I’ for him in the trees
“Right I’m sure… he does”
After Koutarou and Sanae watched the beetle until they couldn’t see it anymore, he returned to work, and for the rest of the day, Sanae didn’t leave his back
When Koutarou and Sanae got to the road ho It was the s were still bright They headed towards Corona House as if they were pursuing the slowly setting sun
“Koutarou, you really worked hard, right?”
“You can tell?”
“Yeah, recently I’ve been able to tell things like that about you, only when I’h”
“That’s strange Maybe it’s because you’ve practised or we’re not scared of each other or so…”
“I think it’s because be get on better now”
“It’s e to admit that up front like that”
“Because you’re a guy?”
“I’lad you understand”
“Ehehehe~”
They carried on chatting as they walked down the road and eventually could see Corona House in the distance, it was far away so they could only see the roof, but that old fashi+oned design was unmistakably Corona House
“Satomi-sama, Sanae-sama!”
The two of them heard a voice from nearby and turned around at the sa towards the Not far behind her were Theia and Kiriha, it looked like the three of the
“You’re co home too then?”
“Yeah, it’s already six after all”
“Ruth, I made sure Koutarou drank the tea”
“Thank you for you work, Sanae-sama”
“Koutarou, you’ve got mud on your face”
“It’s fine, you’ll get your handkerchief dirty”
“I don’t et home anyway”
Noith five people, the group continued back to Corona House The liveliness of the conversation increased with the number of people, it was especially noticeable because when it was just the two of the suspicious
“Koutarou, you can’t get tricked by Kiriha, I’m the only one you can believe!”
“I know, I’m fine”
“How heartless, and after I was so loving too”
Kiriha heaved a heartbroken sigh and looked away, before grabbing Koutarou and pressing his are chest It was a lascivious act that would startle any man
“W-why you, are you seriously doing this!?”
Koutarou too, lost himself to shock here, but he knew this was one of her techniques for the invasion, so he shook his head violently to shake out those thoughts
“Satohness’ retainer, so please restrain yourself”
“It’s useless to just say it, he’s an idiot”
“What was that!? I’ll reht!”
“That goes for me too!”
With Ruth’s intervention, Koutarou’s attention was drawn coical attack useless
“Your Highness, Satoo as Kiriha-sama wishes if you stay like this”
“That’s right Koutarou, if you lose it’d be bad forin there!”
“R-right”
“I’m sorry, Ruth”
Then, thanks to Ruth and Sanae the flames between Koutarou and Theia died down In these ain their balance
“You don’t need to be that careful, I think of you all as friends”
“If it was necessary, you’d be fine with defeating friends”
“Well that’s true”
“Why you…”
“Koutarou… You can’t really talk like that to a lovelyyou like this, can you?”
Her slightly adult smile had a charm that ht that put a stop to that
“That card… and her story about her first love… I don’t think it was a lie… so what’s this for?”
On the night they all went to the beach, Kiriha had told him about her first love He didn’t want to think of that as a lie so thought her seductive techniques were bad
“Is she just teasing h, I don’t know!”
He couldn’t reach a conclusion and was utterly confused If he asked her, she’d just smile at hietting on well
“…She’s got guts”
“She’s a difficult opponent”
Not knowing Koutarou’s worries, Sanae and Ruth looked harshly at her as a rival, other than Koutarou, all of the others still thought of Kiriha as just a rival
“Even so… what’s with them…”
He’d reconciled with Sanae, talked with Kiriha about her first love, Ruth was alorrying about everyone and Yurika would no doubt be watching ani they were just enemies but now Koutarou couldn’t just call thean to blossom in his chest