Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part4 (1/2)

Speaking of prep schools that are meant to prepare students for University exams, schools that follow the traditional method of a large number of students sitting in a cla.s.sroom to take lessons from a teacher are becoming scarce.

This is because almost every high school student goes on to take university exams these days, and the examination methods are getting more intensive, to differentiate between students with even one point differences.

Yasuo attends a prep school called Tokorozawa School, advertised as a ”thousand year academy”. Each cla.s.sroom is divided into booths, and each booth is equipped with a computer and a headset, similar to an internet cafe. Students can reserve a period of time in the available timeslots and use a booth. Along with having video tutorial courses, the booths also allow students to revise topics and do self-study.

The tutorial courses can be selected based on factors such as the University the student wants to join, or their level of understanding. After viewing the video tutorials for the allotted period of time, the student will have to take a test to measure their progress. Such a method of teaching is becoming more commonplace.

If there is something a student does not understand in the tutorials or their self-study, or they need a clarification, they can ask for guidance from their cla.s.s leader or a university student who is appointed as the tutor in charge of their education.

Yasuo thought that he could focus on his studies, or rather his life as a third-year high school student, by concentrating on the video tutorial that played on his screen. However, those hopes were mercilessly dashed by the English reading comprehension tutorial that he had selected.

The theme of the lesson was to read a short story, but the story was about the only daughter of a soldier who fought in the Vietnam War, looking for one of her father's old comrade-in-arms. The plot was so similar to the current situation of the Kenzaki family, that he was unable to focus on reading it. The daughter pleaded to the old man who was the protagonist of the story to rescue her father from some predicament, but the protagonist had circ.u.mstances that prevented him from immediately rus.h.i.+ng to the aid of his old friend.

After reading this much, Yasuo's mind rejected reading until the end of the story. Even though he knew that this was a part of the course syllabus, he was afraid to see what would happen at the end of the story, when he considered what would happen if the actions of the old man in the story overlapped with the actions of his father.

Unfortunately, today was the day when he had to clear a test to move on to the next course, and of course he wasn’t able to properly answer a single question.

”You're usually not like this, is there something that is bothering you?”

Due to that, Kobayas.h.i.+ Yuusuke, who was a third-year student at Waseta University and the tutor in charge of Yasuo, was worried about him.

Of course, there was something he was worried about. However, that was not something that could be resolved with the help of a tutor from his prep school.

Yasuo came out from the prep school looking crestfallen, and started to walk back home with a frown on his face. Eventually, he was able to see the lights of his house. The lights in the living room and the kitchen were lit, but he couldn't tell if Diana was still there or not.

”Does she intend to stay here until Dad agrees to go with her?”

Yasuo had fainted last night and wasn't aware that Diana had stayed over, but the phrase ”Unexpectedly living together with a beautiful girl from another world” floated through his mind.

”Something that stupid can't possibly happen.”

Thinking about it realistically, that was not possible.

Staying over for one or two nights was understandable, but he hadn't considered the possibility that Diana might continue to live in their house.

Putting aside his personal opinions, it was a simple matter of the size of the Kenzaki family house. Even his mother's room, where Diana appeared to have slept last night, was full of items that had acc.u.mulated over their long stay in that house, and it must have been very difficult to prepare a futon in that cramped room.

Besides, if he considered whether he wanted to live in the same house as her, the answer was a definite no.

Diana was definitely a beauty. However, even if you didn’t consider the stuff about her being from a different world and so forth, she was still someone he didn't know anything about.

If he told the whole story to his close friends Aoto, Igaras.h.i.+, and Hino, they would probably say something like this:

”Not only is your nagging father leaving, but you also get to live in the same house as a beautiful girl, what more could you possibly want?”

If Diana was someone from a more realistic place, and she didn't fill his father's head with such nonsense, maybe Yasuo would have thought the same thing as well. However, in Yasuo's opinion, Diana was an intruder who had come to destroy the peace of his family. He had heard that dubious religious cults sometimes used beautiful women to lure in young men, and this situation felt pretty close to that.

”Haa… I'm home.”

However, he didn't have the option of not going home. He opened the front door of his house with a heavy heart, and that's when he heard it.

”Hmm?”

Somebody was singing. It was a tremulous voice, but was definitely the voice of a girl singing from her heart.

However, the lyrics of the song that he heard were definitely not j.a.panese. Which meant that the person who was singing was…

”……”

When he quietly opened the door to the living room, he saw Diana, who was facing away from him and singing while in a praying posture in front of a gently steaming cup of black tea. By the way, the clothes she was wearing were his mother's, just like in the morning.

Listening more closely, he realized that her voice was not tremulous, she was just singing a melody with a slow rhythm while trying to keep her voice down.

However, it is unexpectedly difficult to sing the higher ranges of a song with a slow rhythm in a low, steady voice without using vibrato, unless you are used to singing it.

Yasuo was taken in by her beautiful singing voice, and he unintentionally let his voice slip out.

”Is that a hymn?”

”Yes… Ah! W-welcome back!”

Diana must have heard his voice, so she suddenly stopped singing and turned around.

Due to that, her knee hit the cup of tea and the contents went flying everywhere.

”Ouch, that's hot!”

”H-Hey, be more careful.”

Seeing the apparently hot tea spilling on Diana's leg, even Yasuo panicked.

”Hey, are you okay? Here, use this!”

Yasuo rushed into the kitchen without even putting his bag down, and threw a dish cloth to Diana after running it under water and lightly squeezing the water out.

”Umm… Did you h-hear, hear that-”

”Did you get burned anywhere? Use that to wipe it off, first!”

”Did you hear that!? Did you!? Umm, I've heard that you shouldn't get devices like this wet, wait, did you really hear me just now!?”

Diana seemed to be very confused, and was moving around in confusion with a red face while holding the TV remote that had been splashed with some tea as if it was a very important object.

”It won't break so easily. More importantly, your leg! Most of the tea spilled on your leg! Did you get burned…”

”Ah! Umm, I didn’t get burned, but I got Madoka's clothes dirty, I'm very sorry!”

Diana started to take off her pants while still red-faced and holding onto the remote, so it was Yasuo's turn to be embarra.s.sed and become confused.

”Hey, stop! Don’t take them off here!!”

”B-But, tea stains are hard to remove so i need to wash it right away!”

”Go to the washroom!”

”But, but I can't intrude while Madoka is in the middle of her bath!”

”Mom is in the bath!? It's okay, the bath is separated from the rest of the washroom, so you can go in!”

”Ah, you're right! Sorry, I showed such a shameful side of me in front of you, Yasuo!”

”Like I said, don't take your clothes off here! Go to the washroom!”

”Ahh, I was in the middle of my prayer…! And I made such a mess in front of Yasuo…!”

Yasuo felt relieved to see that Diana headed to the washroom after the end of their heated conversation. He realized that he was still holding his bag, and set it down. He then put the cup that cup that Diana had knocked flying in the sink, rinsed the dish cloth, and finished cleaning up the spilt tea. He then heard Diana's voice that sounded apologetic.

”Ahh, Yasuo, I'm very sorry, but…”

”Hmm?”

She was sticking her hand through the slightly opened door to the living room, and was pointing at the door to his mother's room that was on the other side of the living room.

”Umm, Madoka gave me some pyjamas to wear at night, but…”

”Ah.”

What did she expect him to do? He nodded as if he understood, but then realized that he was not thinking straight after getting caught up in this kind of ordinary trouble.

”Umm, could you… go get it… for me…”

”Eh? Ahh! I understand, wait a moment. Sorry, I honestly didn’t realize!”

After thinking about it for a second, Yasuo realized that he had been lacking consideration. If she had washed the pants that she had been wearing, then she obviously could not just walk past Yasuo in that state.

Yasuo dashed into his mother's room and grabbed the pyjamas that had been folded carefully to ensure that they didn’t crease. As a boy of high school age, he felt regret for a second that Diana had regained her composure, but shook off that feeling and threw the pyjamas at the opposite door while trying not to get them too crumpled.

As soon as he threw them, he realized that he could have just handed them to her without looking, but decided not to dwell on that too much.

”T-thank you very much.”

Before long, Diana appeared before Yasuo wearing his mother's pyjamas, and stood there while fidgeting and looking at him with upturned eyes.

”Umm… about that, well…”

”No, that one was my fault. I really didn’t have any other intentions, honest.”

Yasuo started to apologize to Diana before she could complete her sentence, but it only sounded like he was making excuses, and couldn’t stop himself from speaking.

A girl wearing only her underwear had been just on the other side of a wall.

Yasuo's heart was completely shaken by that thought, and as his heart rate skyrocketed, his face also became red.

Diana's face was even redder than Yasuo's, but she strongly shook her head to the sides.

”N-No! I-I'm not talking about that….”

”Eh? Then what is it? Oh, you're talking about that.”

Yasuo finally remembered what happened before this latest event, and took a deep breath to forcefully calm down, even though he was still shaken. He then spoke in a slightly fast pace:

”Sorry, I heard you. B-But if you're going to sing in the living room, obviously someone will hear it.”

Although that sentence sounded like an excuse as well, the words seemed to have a strong impact on Diana, as her face turned even redder.

”I-I'm sorry for making a racket… Umm, that was kind of an etiquette that is followed by people in Resteria in recent times, and it's something I have become accustomed to doing no matter what…”

Was it that shameful for her to been while she was singing?

”The song… is etiquette?”

When he just asked the question that occurred to him, Diana panicked even more.

”Umm, I have always been hopeless at singing, and the Church Priest would always scold me saying that I wasn’t putting my heart into the prayers, I actually have no power at all!”

He had no idea what Diana meant by 'power' of the song, but Diana's excuses didn't stop there.

”That's why I don’t think you'll believe me when I say this, but the song I was singing earlier was… right, it was you call a 'prayer' in this world! It's like the Namu Amida Butsu!”

”Fu.”

It seemed that Diana was still panicking as she was waving her arms about and crossing them in front of her face several times.

Yasuo let out a snort of laughter because of her sudden use of the phrase ”Namu Amida Butsu”, but that allowed him to regain his composure before Diana.

”Namu Amida Butsu is not a prayer, it's a sutra. Well, I guess the two aren't really that different.”

”Okyou? Umm, let's see, 'okyou'… does that mean a big fish?”

”That's Ohyou”

Speaking of halibut, Yasuo had seen on TV before that there was a certain large fish that was used in making sus.h.i.+, and also went well with curry. He was surprised that the knowledge of the fish came back to him so quickly even though he had only seen it once before on TV, and was also surprised that Diana knew about the fish but not about sutras.

”Ah, well, it's normal for Christians to pray at home at night, and there are hymns that are sung before going to bed. If it's that sort of thing, I can understand.”

”Eh?”

Diana blinked at Yasuo's unexpected words.

Even though Yasuo didn’t realize it, this was the first time he said something positive to Diana.

”I still don't believe that stuff about you coming from a different world, but your singing… well, I think it's pretty good.”

”Really? That's the first time anyone has said that to me.”

Diana timidly asked him to confirm, but she was slightly smiling from joy at being praised.

It would have been fine if he had left it like this, but Yasuo suddenly got embarra.s.sed at having praised her honestly, so he added some unnecessary words.

”It felt like you were used to singing that particular song. Since you said it's become a habit, I guess I can understand that. The melody felt a little dark, though.”

”Ahh, about that, the song is actually a requiem that is sung before going to sleep.”

Diana hurriedly replied to his comment. She seemed desperate to extend the time spent talking to Yasuo even by a second.

”A requiem? Before going to sleep?”

He felt like that could hardly be cla.s.sified as a cheerful habit.

”Yes. There are several hymns that are meant for singing before going to bed, but I… no, all Magitech soldiers probably sing this song instead.”

Yasuo was about to ask the reason behind doing that, but he stopped himself after hearing the word 'Magitech soldier'. It was a danger signal that she was about to start talking about that other world stuff again. Even if that was not the case, he felt that he had been talking to her a little too much.

Maybe letting his guard down due to the incident with the tea was a bad idea. Yasuo also felt ashamed at pretentiously commenting about her singing.

”Well then, I'm going to my room.”

After saying that, Yasuo turned away from Diana and started to leave the room, while silently telling himself that he hadn't put down his guard against her.

”W-Wait!”

At that time, Diana called out to him.

”Thank you very much. That was the first time anyone other than my parents complimented my singing, so… well…”