Vol 1 Chapter 4 (2/2)

“Well, it’s a bit of a complicated issue…”

Asama raised her eyebrows a little, but her shoulders soon relaxed and she waved her right hand with an understanding smile on her lips.

“Um, you don’t need to think about it too seriously. When I asked Mito, she immediately rejected me. So no pressure.”

This is getting heavy, thought Kimi with a silent sigh. When Asama forced a smile like this, it was always something quite heavy and always something related to her herself. So…

“What is it?”

“Well,” said Asama with an empty smile. “Do you want to form a band?”

“With who?”

“Just you and me.”

“U-um,” said Mitotsudaira behind Asama, but Kimi ignored her.

Kimi was focused on a certain fact.

…I see.

It was true of her brother and while it may not have been true of everyone…

…People really do change.

Mitotsudaira heard Kimi speak with her back turned.

“No…”

It was a rejection.

She was refusing Asama’s request.

“…”

Asama’s smile briefly lost all strength, but…

“I had a feeling…”

Still smiling, Asama gave a skillful sigh and shook her hands a little.

“Oh, um, then forget what I just said. Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me. Pretend I didn’t say it in the first place.”

“A-are you sure?”

Asama turned her smile toward Mitotsudaira’s question.

“Well,” she began while thinking. “I guess I don’t want to start something like that when I’m so out of my element.”

Mitotsudaira knew what she meant, but then she heard a new sigh.

It came from Kimi. She put her hands on her hips and gave a disappointed sigh.

“Don’t be silly. …Your obvious disappointment shows just how much you wanted to do this, Asama. If it weren’t for that, I would be telling you to do it on your own,” she said. “But today, I have no right to attack you for that.”

“Eh? What do you mean, Kimi?”

“Judge. It’s simple. …I too need to do things on my own if I want to do this right.”

In other words…

“I was making a quick test to see if I could live on my own, but here I am about to rely on my friends. Of course, I have no idea if pus.h.i.+ng you away would be the right thing or the self indulgent thing to do.”

“On your own?”

Asama tilted her head and voiced the doubt in her mind.

“But don’t you have Toori-kun?”

“Judge.” Kimi nodded, shook her hair, placed a hand on her cheek, and crumbled to the ground. “My foolish brother is trying to win over another girl!”

…A girl!?

Asama did not know how to react to Kimi’s words.

She had known Toori for a long time, but he had apparently found a girl he was interested in. This was the idiot who enjoyed p.o.r.n games, did not hesitate to stare at a girl’s b.u.t.t or b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and would head to the health examination in the nude if it was being administered by a female doctor. He and his idiot sister were like family to her, but…

…Sigh…

I guess “is that so?” is all I can say for now. It makes me wonder why he’s being so distant with me, but maybe that means I don’t understand the situation.

To sum up…

“I have difficulty imagining that.”

How did he act when he went to meet and speak with this girl?

It was less that she could not imagine it at all, but it only raised further questions when she imagined him using his perverted arts to stare at her b.u.t.t and b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

But how was she supposed to respond?

For one thing, she did not know if Kimi’s mood was a sign of her unease or just her usual craziness.

“Um, Kimi?”

“What!? What is it, Asama!? Now, leap into this sister’s chest which is about to burst with a ‘snap!’ or ‘pop!’ sound effect due to all the pain of being abandoned by her brother!”

“I really have no idea what you’re talking about, but…”

Just as she was going to ask who the girl was, she sensed a sound.

It was a rumbling.

A solid strength was fired down from directly above, shaking both the schoolyard and the bridge.

…Oh.

Just as she realized things had spread in a dangerous direction, Asama looked to the person standing beyond Kimi.

That person had stomped the schoolyard in displeasure.

“Mito, do you have something to say?”

“No! …Nothing!”

Mitotsudaira realized her eyes had narrowed sharply.

I’m getting pretty worked up, she objectively noted, but she was also unable to stop what she had been holding inside.

This was a fairly dangerous situation.

She felt bad when the Cerberus restlessly looked up at her face, but…

…Kh.

Part of her was on the verge of tears.

“My king…”

During a certain incident in middle school, she and him had promised to be knight and king. Afterwards (and with some urging from her family back in Hexagone Française), she had started showing up at meetings for the Musas.h.i.+’s Knights League and had become a Rank 1 Knight as a student.

She was one of Musas.h.i.+’s knights, but if she was to say whose knight she was, he was the only answer.

And if she ignored Kimi because she was his sister and Asama because she was “like family” and in charge of his spell contract, she thought of herself as having the closest defined relations.h.i.+p with him.

While Kimi and Asama outdid her in their official positions, she thought of herself as the first to enter into a relations.h.i.+p with him outside of the necessary things like family or contracts.

It was not an issue of likes and dislikes or of love and hate. It was the trust between master and servant that she viewed as surpa.s.sing such things. No matter what happened, they would walk together toward the same goal. That was the trust between master and servant.

However…

…A girl!?

Needless to say, a romantic relations.h.i.+p was different from the trust between master and servant. There was nothing wrong with both types of relations.h.i.+ps coexisting.

But that was only from a logical perspective and she did not know if he would begin mixing those things.

And if he was distracted by romance…

…Will he forget about our promise?

He had already been ignoring her a lot since they had entered high school.

“Maybe, she thought. This is what it is like to be a knight serving a king who is infatuated with his queen.

But…

“Are you certain, Kimi?”

She wanted to avoid any unilateral doubts. She nearly s.h.i.+fted into serious mode, but Kimi…

“Judge. I am! If I was a dog, I’d spin around thrice!! Now, spin and bark! You want to bark for attention, don’t you? Don’t you? Hey, hey. Don’t you, Mitotsduairaaaan?”

“Now I think I’m getting serious in a different way!”

Then Mitotsudaira and Asama asked the same question.

“What is going on?”

And as if to finish the question…

“What do you mean?”

Kimi’s eyes raced toward the school building to check on the time.

It was still shortly after six. The athletic teams would begin their morning practice soon, but she and the other girls would not be in their way quite yet. Naruze was lying in a pile of blood on the schoolyard while occasionally convulsing, but it was Naruze. She had probably found a new way to have fun. Kimi would only address that when she wanted to have some fun as well.

But at the moment, she stood between Mitotsudaira and Asama.

…Asama’s case is much more serious.

Mitotsudaira had her king and knight relations.h.i.+p with Kimi’s brother, so she would use that to interpret the boy’s new life.

But Asama had nothing like that. Or rather, she had a lot like that, but she was not aware of it. The girl was currently tilting her head in thought.

“Hm. When did Toori-kun end up like this?”

Her comments were naturally rubbing Mitotsudaira the wrong way, but Asama did not understand any of it.

She did not understand what was happening, so she was trying to view Kimi’s brother as someone incomprehensible. She was trying to escape this safely instead of trying to understand it.

…What a troublesome girl.

If she wanted to look smart, she could always look at it as something other than emotion.

Kimi was also confused, so she wondered if she was only viewing it so calmly because her own symptoms were not as strong.

I see, she thought while looking to Asama and then Mitotsudaira.

“There is a way of healing all of our illnesses someday.”

“Eh?”

Answering their question here would be meaningless. That “treatment” would only be possible if a lot of unlikely events occurred and a lot of people other than her did all the right things. And…

“That would mean picking a fight with the entire world and making the impossible possible.”

“What?”

Asama and Mitotsudaira’s question brought a thought to Kimi’s mind.

…Interesting.

She did not know her own destiny and she of course did not know her friends’ destinies either. But…

“Don’t you think it would be interesting if our reality suddenly changed one day?” she asked. “What if something you thought was impossible, or that you never realized might actually be possible, suddenly happened and all our dreams came true? Do you think that could happen?”

“Of course not. That’s impossible…”

After saying that, Mitotsudaira realized something and Asama put it to words.

“Making the impossible possible… Kimi, can you see a future that holds a method we haven’t even thought of?”

“No, I can’t. But I think it could happen. It isn’t a situation; it’s a development. It isn’t a board set up for us; it’s a place we only arrive after working together to overturn that board. But…”

But…

“It isn’t like me to work hard toward something like that. Still, whether you want it or not, when you approach that place, you will find a dancer pulling you forward. You can think of it like that.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Well, when have we ever understood what Kimi’s talking about?”

“That’s fine,” said Kimi as she patted their shoulders.

…What should I do?

Should she hope for that?

She thought it would be interesting if that happened.

But her goal for today was to reject everything, so…

“You’ll have to convince me to do it.”

Mitotsudaira would not be a problem. She had settled on who she wanted to be and was almost scarily easy to tease.

…So I can get her involved without a problem.

“Asama, Mitostudaira.”

“Wh-what?”

“What is it?”

While wondering why they were already on guard, Kimi took a step back.

She crossed her arms and puffed out her chest.

“To set everything up and to convince me…you will be going on a date with me today. Got that!?”

The first thing Mitotsudaira did after hearing Kimi was to pick up the Cerberus.

She could not accept this crazy person’s words at face value.

Yes, that might have been a direct hit, but I am a knight, second in line to the Far East, and Extra Special Duty Officer of the Chancellor’s Officers, so…

…A date?

That was normally what a boy and a girl in a romantic relations.h.i.+p would do. It was generally done during the day. They would shop around town, see a play, get something to eat, and in some cases share the bedroom afterwards.

In other words, a date was meant to establish or strengthen a relations.h.i.+p. And a romantic one at that.

“…Eh?”

Could it be? she wondered with three possibilities in mind.

First, since her brother was trying to establish a romantic relations.h.i.+p with someone else, Kimi had gone crazy like usual and wanted to acquire the same thing here to compete with him.

Two, Kimi was treating them as targets of romance in order to give them someone onto whom they could release their anger over her brother’s actions.

And third…

…She’s simply gone insane.

That last one seemed the most likely, but if so, she could not let herself get involved.

She had already slipped away from common sense with Asama and made an unnecessary misunderstanding. The band invitation had somehow become a confession between girls. And…

“Um, Mito?”

“Wh-what?”

“You look like you’re trying to hold back from some marking, but are you okay?”

“I am doing nothing of the sort!!”

That misunderstanding had not been cleared up, but the idiot sister was quick to latch onto it.

“That’s perfect! Let’s go on a date, Mitotsudaira!”

“I really don’t see the connection.”

“Who cares!? Asama has been growing and floating things in the spring lately, so we’ll have plenty of equipment for marking! If possible, do it where I can see you!”

“Stop shouting utter lies so loudly!”

The idiot sister danced out of the way. She then spun back into place and pointed at Asama with both hands.

“That settles it!”

“We haven’t settled anything!” shouted Mitotsudaira.

However, someone had a different opinion: Asama. She clasped her hands and blushed.

“I-if I satisfy you, you’ll form a band with me, Kimi!?”

“Of course. But that’s a tall hurdle.”

The dancing crazy person readily agreed to those terms.

Mitotsudaira was confused and felt left out in a number of ways.

…What am I supposed to do about the band issue?

She wanted to take part, but she had ended up refusing already. She could always say it was a misunderstanding, but she would be unable to answer if she was asked what misunderstanding she had made. But…

“Heh heh. Mitotsudaira, you can join us too.”

“I-I do not need your help!”

Mitotsudaira was frightened by her own stubbornness. Sometimes pride only makes things worse, she thought. But I guess this is over now…

Asama turned her blus.h.i.+ng face Mitotsudaira’s way.

“Mito, I just have to satisfy you too, don’t I!?”

Naito flew down from the sky holding a Magie Figur with “Recording” written on it. Mitotsudaira had a feeling some incredible danger awaited her in the future, but…

“Th-that is fine with me!”

She did not want to let this last chance slip from her fingers and she tried to make sure Naito could not hear as she avoided mentioning the band directly.

“You had better satisfy us both today! For the sake of our future!”

“Torii-chan, are you satisfied with that? You’re probably on your way back from morning practice, so you can eat more. It’ll make me more money too.”

A woman’s voice filled a wooden s.p.a.ce. It was the Blue Thunder café/bakery.

At the counter in front of the table, someone sat in the seat by the window while typing at a sign frame with one hand and munching on a rice ball with the other.

“Torii Motonaga. That’s an inherited name, so you can live a more exciting life, you know?”

The manager placed a cup of tea in front of Torii and the girl raised a hand in appreciation.

“Thanks. But the name is really only something I got for being the Chancellor and Student Council President, so I try not to think much about that kind of thing.”

“But you’re the second generation of your family with the Torii name, right?”

“Well, I thought that would make it easier to inherit,” she said. “More importantly, where’s Toori?”

“Oh, he came by last night and bought a bunch of bread to hand out to people, so he won’t be here this morning.”

The manager looked back over her shoulder where a silver-haired automaton stood at the counter.

Torii fixed the chest of her uniform that she had modified into a bustier.

“How are you doing, P-01s?”

“Judge, I am functioning well. I excreted quite a bit this morning.”

“You have no problem saying those things, but they’re really hard to reply to, you know?”

“Calm down.” The automaton held out a hand to stop her. “Where are Suga-sama, Nabe-sama, and Oo-sama?”

“Took me a second to realize that last one was Ookubo.”

Torii drank some tea and looked down at a yellow ma.s.s. It was an omelet, but…

“This looks fully cooked, but I see it has something mixed in.”

“You’ll notice once you eat it, but the contents are distributed evenly throughout,” said the manager.

“I see,” said Torii.

She grabbed the salt and pepper from the seasonings and held both between the fingers of her right hand. She roughly shook the two bottles with quick snaps of her wrist.

“Ookubo is probably out for some morning training with the Chancellor’s Officers. Suga is probably asleep and Nabe will either be gathering information or giving a report at the provisional council building. That’s generally how it is on Wednesdays.”

“Generally?”

“Do you not like things to be inexact, P-01s?”

“I have difficulty grasping the extent of the terms. Rather than ‘not liking’ them, I have determined I am unskilled at them.”

“Judge. You should tell Toori that.”

“Toori?”

Torii looked over at the manager, but the woman only smiled bitterly.

Torii sighed and looked up at the tall ceiling.

“It’s fine being unskilled at it, P-01s.”

“Is it?”

“That means you aren’t the best at it, but you don’t dislike it.”

“…Deep. That is deep, Torii-sama.”

“Well you’re the one that said it. But maybe it is.”

When Torii saw the automaton crossing her arms and nodding, she brought her fork to the omelet. She stuck the fork inside without hesitation and observed what it was like inside.

Just as the manager had said, the cooked egg split apart and revealed steaming vegetables.

Torii smiled a little and spoke.

“P-01s.”

“What is it?”

“Is this an omelet?”

When P-01s replied “judge”, Torii groaned in thought.

“Hmm. If anything, I’d say it’s more like a Tres Españan tortilla.”

“Unfortunately, a tortilla would have more oil and be harder.”

“How much harder?”

“Wait just a moment,” said P-01s with a hand held out.

She approached the counter and held out her hands as if she were holding a board.

“Hnn!”

She mimed breaking the board over her raised knee and continued until her hands clapped together.

“That hard.”

“That was helpful for me, but I’m not sure the people who are going to eat it would like that.”

Torii smiled bitterly and took a bite of the soft, warm ma.s.s on her fork. She breathed just once to ventilate her cheeks, and…

“Amazing. How can you make it so even throughout?”

“That is strange, isn’t it?”

“You don’t know?”

“I suppose I actually do.”

“In what way?”

“If I might fail otherwise, then I might as well do it like this.”

“I see.” Torii nodded, looked to the manager, and finally continued. “There’s a lot I’d like to say, but I think I’ll leave that to the others.”

“The others?”

“Judge. Those who don’t decide what the flavor is in advance.”

In other words…

“Those who won’t judge you solely on your appearance and will actually approach you, unskilled automaton.”

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