Editing Leviathan:Volume 5 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 3===

Returning to port after the whale watching tour, it happened to be noon.

Hal silently gestured with his eyes and the group set off with Asya in the lead. Their destination was a restaurant specializing in seafood cuisine. After having lunch there with lobster as the main course, they continued their sightseeing in the afternoon.

As a side note, Hal and Asya had a little discussion after the meal.

"Since we're in Boston already, how about another visit to Salem? A pilgrimage tour to relive the Prohibition Era of Lovecraft's time and step foot upon the various lands of the Great Old Ones."

"Denied. Given that we're in Boston..."

Asya decisively rejected Hal's suggestion.

"How about visiting the museum of John Manjiro, the great explorer who was born in Japan during the Bakumatsu era when the nation was still closed off? It's only a short drive away."

"Ahem. Excuse me, you two, please arrange an itinerary that's more considerate towards people who are visiting America for the first time♪"

Finally, to fulfill Orihime's request, the group started urban sightseeing within Boston.

&mdash;As a side note, John Manjiro, also known as Nakahama Manjirou, was shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean when he was fourteen years old.

It was during the Bakumatsu era when Japan pursued an isolationist policy. John had to survive as a cast away for as long as a month.

However, he was miraculously rescued by an American whaleboat, thus bringing him to America. Thereafter, he became a first-rate navigator and explorer before returning to his home country of Japan in the end. Although Asya felt deeply empathetic to his plight, at this moment, she had completely forgotten him and was enjoying the urban sightseeing.

From the waterfront by the sea to the prosperous downtown.

Following such a route, they could experience the street scenery woven together from modern skyscrapers and brick buildings whose style dated back to the earlier half of the nineteenth century. This commercial district was a must-see attraction for tourists to Boston.

While Orihime and Hazumi were strolling leisurely, a general store caught their eye.

Fashionable and adorable trinkets were displayed on the tasteful shelves. The two Japanese witches looked at these goods together while chatting with smiles on their faces.

"...We definitely wouldn't come across this kind of store if it was just the two of us."

"...On the other hand, we do frequently visit dusty shops that carry unearthed objects that appear to be related to our work."

Withdrawing to a corner inside the store, Asya and Hal conversed in whispers.

"Time for the social studies tour to end. Old Manhattan is up next."

"Sneaking into the lair of dragonkind's great king in search of treasure so as to find a way to oppose the dragon princess&mdash;Isn't this kind of putting the cart before the horse?"

"Let's pray that the great king won't jump out himself and say 'A monster has appeared!'..."

The two of them were planning to infiltrate the Old Manhattan Concession, the territory of Red Hannibal.

Even so, Asya was still quite relaxed in mood.

After all, Luna was not around. Without that vixen trying to bewitch Hal using underhanded means, she was able to calmly take on the challenge to build a new relationship with her childhood friend.

First of all, she had to obtain at least one accomplishment during this America expedition.

For example... Yes. Before the conclusion of the trip, she must make Hal say this:

'Although I failed to notice until now, Asya, you're really... very pretty.' Something like that.

For this purpose, it might be a good idea for her to put on her victory outfit and dress up properly.

Right now, she was still dressed in a short-sleeve blouse paired with a miniskirt, but had removed the flight jacket she was always wearing. Simulating a fashion show in her mind, Asya began to review her options.

Plan 1: How about a frilly one-piece dress to emphasize her cuteness and femininity? Then pair that with a black officer coat (styled like the German panzer division during Second World War).

Plan 2: A refreshing white blouse with apair of green shorts. Then add a military hat that symbolized the Green Berets (obviously, the beret) and special forces epaulets.

Plan 3: Straight balls should be used for decisive showdowns. Using that amazing masterpiece of a military rifle, the AK-47&mdash;

"Huh? Wait, something feels weird..."

Asya sudden tilted her head.

Even though she was clearly pondering fashion considerations to demonstrate cuteness, beauty and femininity, why did she keep thinking of accessories associated with violence?

"...I-It must be because of Mom's influence. The fault lies in my childhood immersion environment!"

She accidentally spoke out the answer to her own question.

Perhaps startled, Hal asked, "What's wrong, Asya?"

"Oh nothing. I just realized that my tastes in fashion have been influenced a lot by Mom... Whether now or in the past, she's always incorporated military issued items into her oufit, like coats, jackets, boots or watches."

"Now that you mention it, I think that really is true."

"And she totally isn't aware of it herself. She simply chooses them because they're handy and available. That's why, since I've been dressing in hand-me-downs since childhood as her daughter, the result is&mdash;"

"She passed on that habit to you?"

"Exactly. Sheesh... I can't believe that someone so careless could have a fan club. There are so many inexplicable things in this world."

"After all, Auntie is&mdash;well, not only pretty but sexy too."

"S-Sexy!?"

"Yeah. Her disposition is the type to instantly captivate the hearts of men. Despite her coolness and not primping herself at all, she's got a kind of womanly charm that's hard to describe, it's very sexy."

Hal spoke with his gaze cast out into the distance. Inexplicably, he seemed a bit happy.

"Don't tell me you're thinking about Mom right now?"

"Well&mdash;hahaha."

Hal tried to cover up with laughter. Asya concluded her guess was correct.

Gah&mdash;Asya felt frustrated to an unprecedented degree. Their facial appearances could be considered identical but in spite of that, her mother was always the one popular with men!

Whatever. The task at hand was to develop further relations with her childhood friend.

Asya pretended to cough. Just as she was about to speak to Hal&mdash;

"Excuse me, Senpai! Could you help translate a bit?"

"Sure. I'll be right there."

Answering the sudden request, Hal walked over towards the source of the voice.

Naturally, the one who called him was Hazumi. Asya took a closer look, only to see Hazumi with Orihime, staring at a palm-sized music box. The salesman, a black man standing next to them, was speaking rapidly in English.

"What is he saying?"

"It's too fast for me to catch, so I had no choice but to give up."

Hazumi was tilting her head. Next to her, Orihime shrugged too.

If it were a conversation on the level of buying drinks from a vendor, there would be no need to bother too much with grammar. Simply stringing a few suitable words together would be enough to express one's meaning.

However, that approach did not work with an English speaker whose rapid words were delivered with a Puerto Rican accent.

Hal explained briefly to the two Japanese girls.

"What he's saying is the usual 'I'll give you a discount if you buy it, okay?' that's common in tourist shops.  Right now, it's 10% off. Do you want to try haggling, Shirasaka? You can probably bring it even lower."

"Eh? Y-You want me to do it!?"

"Relax. If it's just haggling over the price, you'll definitely find a way."

Hal took out his phone and started up a calculator app.

Next, he entered the price of the music box Hazumi had selected&mdash;and discounted it by 20%. After seeing that, the face of the excellent learner who was both his assistant and his junior in school instantly lit up.

Hazumi immediately took out her cellphone.

She opened up the calculator, typed in 50% of the listed price then showed the salesman. The man shook his head and changed the value to 20% off. Unfazed, Hazumi changed it to 40% off&mdash;

Seeing Hazumi working as hard as she could, Hal retreated to the back.

Orihime smiled and stood by Hazumi's side. This price battle became a solo showdown between Hazumi and the salesman.

(Haruga-kun, you taught Hazumi something unusual again.)

(Not at all, this kind of economic warfare happens frequently all over the world. Well, I have to say that the people who made Arabic numerals spread across the entire world were truly great.)

Hearing Orihime's whispers, Hal answered quietly in return.

Since they were talking very quietly and whispering in each other's ear, their distance was extremely intimate, almost touching face to face. Asya panicked as a result.
[[image:Leviathan 05 085.jpg|thumb]]

This was almost like seeing a loving couple together!

Besides, Hal and Orihime seemed to realize this too. Suddenly flustered, the two of them sneaked a glance at each other's face frantically and shyly.

One could feel a bittersweetness just by observing from the side, it felt extremely embarrassing&mdash;

Asya was shocked.

"I-Is this the romantic comedy state of 'more than friends but less than lovers' that people talk about? Hazumi also seems quite close to Haruomi and he dotes on her a lot...!"

Trapped in her mouth, her mutterings were unintelligible.

Could it be that at this rate, even in Luna's absence, the relationships on this side were going to progress too...?

''I have to hurry and do something''&mdash;Asya vowed in her heart.


"Like I said, is there any solution!?"

'There is not much help I can provide when you call me out of the blue to discuss this sort of matter. It's not like I am Dora●mon.'

That night, Asya made a international long-distance call to President M.

However, although her figure featured elements from a certain country's cat robot, the club president with a body weight of 140kg by visual estimates replied mercilessly, 'The time of "Game Over" draws near.'

"No way!?"

Incidentally, Asya was currently in a single room at a certain hotel in Boston City.

She had spent the previous night in the same room, but the plan was to check out early tomorrow morning. It was time to travel to the part of New York City at the peninsula of Long Island in preparation for infiltrating Old Manhattan.

'Didn't I tell you last time? There is no hope unless you press the reset button. Your score has been the repeated accumulation of zero the whole time.'

"That's why I called you for advice, hoping that one of your magic-like skills could instantly help&mdash;"

'Totally impossible, useless girl.'

"Sob sob sob."

'Besides, isn't magic your specialty? Don't you guys wield kinds of extremely suspicious powers?'

"I-I don't want to be called suspicious by someone who has a mysterious superpower."

'There there. Why don't you simply concoct a witch's love potion and have Haruga drink it?'

"Love potion... Of course there isn't such a convenient spell. If anything, out of all the techniques I know of, what would be effective&mdash;"

Asya began to space out with several ideas spinning in her mind.

Objectively speaking, she and her mother were quite similar in terms of basic elements. Equals in face. Their military mindset and spartan behavior patterns made them akin to sister models.

Yet in spite of that, her mother was the only one who was popular with men.

In other words, all she needed to do was add what her mother had but she did not&mdash;!

'It appears that you have grasped some kind of key point...'

"Yes. From this point on, I will fight with everything I've got or die trying!"

After hanging up, Asya walked over to the bathroom sink.

The key was self-hypnosis and changing herself physically, mentally and spiritually. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she released magical power&mdash;