Chapter 19: What the Angel Wants (1/2)
“So, you have something you want?”
The next day, Amane took the opportunity to raise this issue to Mahiru over dinner.
He decided to give her a present, a birthday present per se, but he did not really mean anything, and just wanted to repay her favors.
But that would have sounded really suspicious.
Even he found his question to be indelicate, brutish even, and started to regret it. But Mahiru stared at him in surprise.
“Why ask this out of a sudden?”
“Well, it looks like you have nothing you want, so I’m just asking because I’m curious.”
“That is still too sudden…”
He felt he could have done better trying to misdirect her, but he could not take back the words he had said.
Luckily or not, it appeared Mahiru did not notice it was about her birthday.
Ultimately, she felt he could not have known about his birthday, and never thought about that.
“I see. So what do I need now…r what I want?”
“What do you want?”
“A whetstone.”
“…Whetstone?”
He asked again without thinking, for the answer was completely beyond his expectations.
Or rather, nobody would have expected a high school girl to want such a thing.
Typically, they would have wanted cosmetics, accessories, bags, and such stuff. Amane could not imagine that she would have asked for a tool to sharpen metals.
“Yes, a whetstone. I do have a few of them, but I do wish for a finer polishing whetstone.”
“Hey, you’re a high school girl now.”
“Please do not ask of me to be an ordinary high school girl.”
Her words left Amane unable to retort.
No matter how lightly they put it, Mahiru truly could not be called an ordinary high school girl.
She was already famous as the Angel in school, equipped with brains and brains, perfectly capable of housework and cooking.
Her taking care of Amane, who was completely hopeless at housework, would have one assuming she was a girl already married off.
But who would have imagined her wanting a whetstone?
It appeared Mahiru would be the only high school girl who would have wanted a whetstone.
“You’re not buying for yourself?”
“Not that I cannot, but I do not often have the chance to, and it is relatively pricey, so I have not. Also, I have a few polishing whetstone, so I am in no real need for them.”
As she mentioned how she had a few with her, he really could not imagine how she would be in the future.
“…We have a high school girl sharpening her chopper here.”
“There are though.”
“Even if there are, you’re the only one I know of, never mind someone who wants to have a whetstone.”
“Sounds like a rare thing. Not bad.”
“What do you mean, not bad…”
It was really rare to see a girl with such likes, and so he did not know what she wanted.
Amane himself was at his wits end, and Mahiru tilted her head incredulously.
“Say, Itsuki.”
As he did not know what kinds of things Mahiru wanted, he could only go with his last resort, to ask Itsuki.