Vol 1 Chapter 4 (2/2)

“May I?”

“…Go ahead.”

Homura nodded with a tense expression.

Touya opened the lid and peeked into the boxed lunch.

“It looks normal.”

“…R-Really?”

Homura poured them both cups of soup from a thermos flask.

“Thanks for the food!”

“You’re welcome… Then, I’ll also dig in…”

Homura gave him a cup and timidly picked up her own boxed lunch.

Touya vigorously brandished his chopsticks and began gulping down the food.

After his first bite, he was expressionless.

After his second bite, his expression become dubious, and after his third bite, it turned to certainty and he grimaced.

“……kuh…!”

He gulped down some soup to get rid of the taste until he finally recovered.

“……”

Touya silently glared at Homura.

“……Hinooka.”

“H-How was it?”

“Could it be that this is your first time cooking?”

“I didn’t mention it?”

“This is the first time I’m hearing it.”

Thinking it might be some misunderstanding, Touya cleared his feelings and tried another bite, but the result didn’t change.

“…Hinooka. Regardless of the taste, I’m the one being fed here, so I won’t say, ‘It’s terrible’.”

“But you just said it, didn’t you?”

“However, do you really have the guts to challenge the Boxed Lunch Contest where girls who have received training in the Home Economics Club will be partic.i.p.ating? Are you sure you aren’t trying for the Humor Prize instead?”

“D-Do you really have to go that far?”

“Hey, you. What’s that?”

“Eh? …This?”

With a CG-like smile, Homura hid her own boxed lunch behind her back.

“It’s just a boxed lunch, you know?”

“The contents look completely different from mine. What’s with that?”

It was easy to tell at a glance that the lunch box that Homura was hiding had been made by her mother.

“B-But, my mother always makes three persons’ worth of food by mistake, so it gets divided between me, my father and my little sister.”

“Hooh.”

“Come on, that’s my first prototype boxed lunch, right? The ingredients originally came from perfectly good leftovers, and it would have been a waste to throw it all away and release extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from cooking more, you know?”

“Why do I have to be considerate of the environment and you get to eat human food?”

Touya pressed his boxed lunch at Homura’s face.

“Eat this yourself. Why do these omelettes taste like coffee, anyway? Aah?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Homura quickly gave in.

Her expression then turned serious and she murmured softly.

“How about we take turns sampling it? Or we can decide by Russian Roulette—”

“Don’t be stupid. Properly make two persons’ worth starting tomorrow. In the contest, you’ll have to make food for five people. Consider it practice.”

“Uuugh, roger.”

Well, she had been vaguely aware of it when she tasted samples during her struggle to cook at home last night.

Homura had brought a cooking magazine along with her, but today it appeared she wasn’t at the point where she could even consult it yet.

However, it wasn’t in Homura’s nature to let herself be one-sidedly criticized.

Within her, (unjustified) anger boiled up.

For instance, about this morning’s run—

“…Hey, by the way, why do only I have to run while you get to ride a bicycle, Touya-kun? Isn’t that unfair?”

“It’s to raise your stamina, remember! I had already finished my morning training before I came to meet you!”

“Ooh, as expected of a sports boy.”

In that case, just how early had he gotten up this morning?

It was all completely foreign and unknown territory to Homura.

“Touya-kun, don’t you have friends who you eat boxed lunches with?”

“Ah, no, I don’t,” Touya answered nonchalantly.

“…I see, sorry for bringing it up.”

“Well, I prefer eating bread instead of boxed lunches, but regardless, I usually eat during recess after second or third period at school. The other guys are also like that.”

“A-An early lunch, huh? Then what do you do during lunch break?”

“Basketball.”

True, Homura could hear the sounds of b.a.l.l.s bouncing off the ground and shouts from the other side of the school building that surrounded the courtyard where she and Touya were.

“Sorry for taking up your time here.”

“It’s fine. It’s just playing around. And yet, when I told the others that I was going to be absent for a while in order to eat lunch with you, they strangled me and flipped me over by grabbing my legs. Geez, I should feed this stuff to those guys instead!”

“Haha… Please use discretion.”

Afterwards, the two of them divided the prototype boxed lunch between them and ate while occasionally groaning “Aah” or “Ugh”.

Above, a silver midday moon could be seen floating sublimely in the blue sky.

“Hey, Touya-kun.”

“Yeah?”

“Is Nutella far away?”

“Do you want to go there?”

“No, not really.”

“What’s with that?” Touya grumbled with a disappointed expression.

“Rather, most of that pamphlet was pretty much unreadable for me. It was full of nothing but threatening warnings of some kind.”

“It can’t be helped. It’s for the sake of protecting the investigators.”

“With all that, it’s going to be hard convincing my father…”

“Is that so? My dad gave the okay pretty easily, so I can’t give you any advice on that.”

Touya’s eyes were serious as he gazed at the moon.

“Your mother was acting pretty supportive, but she seems to be misunderstanding the boxed lunches. Well, there are times when poison might get mixed into our meals when we explore. I guess I’ll use this as a kind of rehearsal.”

“You’re going as far as to say that the boxed lunch I spent all night making is poison?”

Homura handed Touya more soup while muttering in self-deprecation.

Accepting the cup, Touya bowed his head apologetically.

“…No, I’m sorry. I said too much.”

“That you did.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just bring it on. I’ll taste as much of your food as it takes.”

Homura bowed her head laudably.

“I’m the one who should be grateful here. To tell the truth, I can’t really rely on anyone else for this.”

—Because it’s too embarra.s.sing!

Touya returned his gaze to the sky as he resumed speaking.

“Nutella’s location has nothing to do with distance. I’m still in the midst of studying the theory of teleportation and have only experienced going there twice so far, though.”

“Really? Distance is irrelevant?”

“Yeah. In the end, it’s determined according to the person going there. Nutella is a mathematical existence, so getting there is determined by the results of the teleportation calculation—by your perception.”

“A mathematical existence…”

Leaving aside the actual contents of the Exploration Club’s activities, the pamphlet’s explanation section on the makeup of the Imaginary Earth had instantly made her sleepy.

Staying ignorant like this would be troublesome for Homura if she intended to become a mage, though.

“The way to understand it is the exact opposite of our Earth.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, the Earth is actually round, but we use flat maps, right? That’s just because it’s easier to record that way. In truth, maps are inaccurate and incomplete since they can’t show things like the surface area, direction and distance in equally sufficient detail. In order to really know the shape and appearance of the Earth, you can only go directly to the place in question or look down at it from s.p.a.ce.”

“Ah, that example is easy to understand,” Homura said with a nod.

“…In that case, Nutella is instead closer to being like a map than the real thing.”

“That’s what the pamphlet seemed to say. It was too complicated for me.”

It was at that point that Homura belatedly realized something.

“Is it okay to tell me these kinds of things even though I’m not a formal member of the Exploration Club yet?”

Touya laughed as he saw Homura watch her surroundings nervously.

“This much information can be easily found on the net. There doesn’t seem to have been cases of successful teleportation in the civilian sector yet, but you can research it yourself if you’re interested.”

“I don’t use computers. My cell phone is enough to send text messages.”

Touya reacted in shock.

“Seriously? Being computer-savvy is an indispensable skill in the Exploration Club. Didn’t you at least learn about how to do net searches?”

Saying that, Touya took out a cell phone… or rather, something that looked like one.

It was similar to a recent model released by a big company, but it had an unfamiliar subdued coloring.

“Ooh, so cool! Hmm…? Is that cell phone perhaps the rumored one with a transmitter attached for twenty-four hour surveillance purposes…?”

“Transmitter? You mean the GPS? Yeah, it’s one of the provisions of the Exploration Club. And it’s a terminal, not a cell phone. It’d be bad if it was stolen and misused, so it only works in certain locations. But regardless, it really is amazing.”

Touya proudly flipped open his terminal and showed it off to Homura.

And right at that instant, a call came in. The way it vibrated and lit up was just like that of a normal cell phone.

“…Oh? It’s the club president.”

“!?”

Homura instinctively went on guard at the mention of the club president.

Touya unlocked the terminal and answered the call.

“Yes, Touya here.”

“…Isn’t it a cell phone if you can take calls?” Homura grumbled.

“Ah, yes. Sorry—Yes. I’ll be careful from now on.”

The call ended in less than ten seconds.

Homura inched closer on the bench in order to try and listen in, but it ended before she could do so, making her click her tongue.

On the other hand, Touya put away his terminal in his pocket in a slightly dejected manner.

“What’s wrong, young lad?”

“I got scolded. She told me not to show the terminal to outsiders.”

“Huh?”

Homura nervously stood up from the bench and surveyed the courtyard once more.

The school was peaceful with the sound of the lunchtime ruckus filling the grounds as usual… but the darkness of the hallways and the shadows of the rooftop water tank all looked conspicuously suspicious to her.

“So you really are being monitored…!?”

Chapter 4 END

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) Yakult: a probiotic dairy product that is basically like yogurt milk and is a staple drink in j.a.pan.

(2) Joa: a particular brand of Yakult milk.

(3) MONO and Dostellar are both eraser brands in j.a.pan.

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