Vol 6 Prologue (1/2)

Prologue

“Hey, what do you mean by devil?”

Along with her words, my cla.s.smate Minami approached with a serious expression.

I didn’t know how to answer her question and kept my mouth shut in confusion.

To be honest, both me and Hijiri had been careless. I had never imagined that I would met Minami here.

—A park on an early morning during summer vacation that I came to yawning to tag along with Nazuna and Elni’s radio exercise. There we met Gogyou Hijiri by chance and I had asked her casually.

If she would come to the seaside school next week.

Upon that question, Hijiri had answered that she would partic.i.p.ate since she had a job request there.

Apparently, there was a possibility of a devil hiding at the place where the seaside school was held, so there happened to be a request for an inquiry for the exorcist Hijiri.

Hijiri trusted me, so she had told me about her job. But usually, Hijiri kept her job a secret. So when she realized that Minami overheard her talk about her job, she was shaken without doubt. Hijiri was looking at Minami with a stiff expression.

Not paying any mind to Hijiri’s behaviour, Minami took even one more step closer.

“What’s this request for an inquiry about?”

“That’s…”

Before I could say anything to cover it up,

“About a game!”

Elni, whenever she had come back, raised her voice with a smile.

“There is an event like that in a game we’re obsessed with right now. The request for an inquiry means a quest we got from the guild.”

Most likely Elni had heard our conversation. Making a follow up, she started to talk about a fictional game with gestures, which sadly didn’t seem to be effective. At the beginning Minami was surprised at the sudden appearance of Elni, but now she was in a state of half-believing, half-doubting.

“…Was it really from a game?”

“Y- Yeah, that’s right.”

“Then what’s the t.i.tle of the game?”

“Eh? Th- The t.i.tle? It’s, ehm…’Near Mad Dog Armageddon’?”

When Elni rolled her eyes, Minami doubtful tilted her head.

“I never heard of a game with such a t.i.tle….?”

“Wh- What a coincidence! Actually, I never heard of it either! Ahahaha!”

Elni laughed and said quibbling. But there was no way she could hush it up with that and Minami gave Elni a doubtful look.

At that moment,

“Geez, El-chan, don’t kid around so much. The t.i.tle of the game is…”

To help Elni, Nazuna added and then gave the t.i.tle of a game that I had heard of while smiling at Minami.

—Nazuna was aware of Hijiri’s job.

Because previously, when Machina tried to kidnap Nazuna, Hijiri had shown her power as an exorcist.

At that time Nazuna hadn’t had minded that Luna and Machina were devils, nor had she been scared of Hijiri. However, not everyone was the same. There might be people, who are scared of devils or exorcists. Nazuna probably understood that.

That was why she tried to cover it up like Elni.

Taking Elni’s spot, Nazuna continued to talk about the game with a somewhat awkward smile, when Minami finally seemed to consent,

“I see. You were talking about a game. I got the wrong idea there. You see, Gogyou-san seems to have a good spiritual sense, so I thought she really might exorcise devils…Ahahaha. As if devils would exists.”

as she made a shy smile and faced Hijiri.

“But that’s a surprise. To think that you’re playing games, Gogyou-san.”

“M- My big sister loves games, so we often play it together.”

“Hee…”

Hijiri’s so called “Big Sister” must refer to the maid of the Gogyou Household, Kaoru aka Kaorun.

Such thoughts crossed my mind, when Minami s.h.i.+fted her gaze and talked to me.

“You don’t really give off the image of a gamer, Nanjou-kun, but do you play often?”

“Well, I like reading more than gaming…..but my sister and Hijiri introduced me to it this time.”

Resting my head on Nazuna’s head, I matched my story to theirs, when Minami frowned lightly for some reason.

“….Somehow, I get the feeling that you and Gogyou-san became really close after the culture festival? After all, you two suddenly started to call each other by your first names…”

“What, you jealous?”

“Y- Yeah! I’m jealous! I want to become closer too!”

When I asked her teasingly, Minami suddenly brought her face closer and answered.

Big eyes and long eyelashes. Smooth cheeks and pink lips. Beautiful features. All that close by, I became a bit unsettled.

For now, I averted my eyes from Minami by dropping my gaze, but upon that, I now had her bulging huge b.r.e.a.s.t.s in my vision.

Minami’s presented big b.r.e.a.s.t.s were at a defenceless distance, where a little movement of my hand could grab them, which only added to my unrest. But I kept my composure, at least appearance-wise. I raised my head and looked into Minami’s eyes.

“Minami, if you want to get closer to Hijiri, I think you should tell that to herself and not me.”

“Th- That’s no what I mean. Sure, I want to get closer to Gogyou-san, but I, well, with you, I…”

Fidgeting with her index fingers against each other, Minami tried to say something with a quiet voice, but

“Sis~ The radio exercise is starting~!”

suddenly there was a loud voice and erased her words completely.

I s.h.i.+fted my gaze to the voice, where I confirmed a boy, at the age for elementary school, widely waved his hand to Minami, probably her little brother.

For a moment, Minami showed a complicated expression upon seeing that, but soon enough she relaxed the corners of her mouth and waved her hand with a “I’m coming!”.

“Sorry, Nanjou-kun, Gogyou-san, my brother is waiting for me. See you later.”

“Yeah, see you later. Though I’m going home now.”

When I replied so suited, Minami took my hand somewhat spoiled.

“Geez, don’t be so mean. It’s a chance meeting, so let’s talk for a bit.”

“Talk, huh…. About the summer homework?”

“I, I don’t want to hear these words from your mouth, Nanjou-kun!”

Along with her words, she let go off my hand, pressed both her hands against her ears and turned her back to me.

It was a reaction like when your lover brought up a break-up. Minami went away just like that in an escape, but she suddenly stopped and turned around.

“Reminds me, Nanjou-kun, you’re not going to come to seaside school again this year?”

“Yeah. Just like last year, I’m busy spending my times with alcohol, cigarettes, fights and women.”

“Nanjou-kun, that’s so cool…”

Surprisingly enough, Minami showed a positive reaction with a spellbound expression. But in contrast to that Minami, Hijiri and Nazuna stared at me incredible lonely. I couldn’t endure their looks, so I hastily corrected my statement.

“M- Minami, I was just kidding around, a joke. Actually, I’m coming too.”

“Eh, really!?”

In a matter of seconds, a joyful look spread on Minami’s face and her cheeks coloured pinkish.

“Nanjou-kun, Nanjou-kun, I’m going too, so let’s play together there.”

“Well, if I feel like it…”

I nonchalant replied the sudden hyper Minami.

Then, for no apparent reason, Minami crossed her arms behind her back and started to take a s.e.xy pose.

“Nanjou-kun, you know, I bought a daring swimsuit this year. Fufu, you’ll certainly feel like it.”

Laughing erotically, Minami sent me a wink.

…Minami had a good style, so when she took a pose like that, it was quite something.

I was having that honest impression, when Minami suddenly faced Nazuna.

“We’ll talk later too, Nazuna-chan.”

“Eh? O- Okay…”

Suddenly being called upon, Nazuna nodded a bit bewildered. Minami grinned and went over to her little brother…but it was weird. Nazuan shouldn’t have named herself yet.

A bit concerned, I called out to Nazuna.

“Hey, Nazuna. You knew Minami?”

“Mhm~, I think it was my first time meeting her, but… somehow, I have a strange feeling. When she called my name, I had a real scare.”

Tilting her head, Nazuan grumbled mysterious.

There Elni rested her hand on Nazuna’s shoulder.