Zero no Tsukaima:Volume11 Chapter10

Chapter Ten: The Heart of The Duet

“I’m home.”

Returning back from school, Saito passed the doorway of his house. Immediately he took his uniform jacket off and went straight to the living room to turn the television on.

It was an ordinary day. While he was watching the television, the phone rang.

He picked up the telephone.

It was his classmate.

[Saito, have you seen the latest TV program?]

“Why do you think I did?”

[Someone who has as much free time as you ought to.] 　 Trivial conversation.

Trivial every day.

But there’s nothing that could replace the lovely everyday routine…

Saito decided to browse the internet, so he turned the notebook computer on.

“Hm?”

It didn’t turn on.

There's no power supply.

He pushed it many times, until he found himself behind his mother’s back. Her hair was rather short and she seemed to have gained some weight lately.

“Mom, I’m hungry. Give me some food.”

“Not yet.”

“What? I want to drink some miso soup.”

For some reason he really wanted to drink it.

Mother's miso soup.

Though it was nothing special, and had the trivial taste, for Saito it felt like the best meal ever.

“Saito.”

“What?”

“Haven’t you forgotten something?”

“What is it?”

“Something. A thing that you should have done.”

“Homework?”

“That’s true as well, but there is something else, isn’t there? The promise.”

“Promise?”

“Uh-huh. Haven’t you made an important promise to a friend?”

What could that be, Saito thought.

He could not recall it.

Hurry up, remember, and while trying to remember, Saito woke up.

On a bed.

Tabitha was sitting nearby, reading a book.

He knew the sight of this bed and of this room. It was Tiffania’s room inside a house in Westwood Village.

He used to stay in here.

Because the bright sunlight was pouring through the window, Saito squeezed his eyes shut.

Somehow…he was feeling refreshed.

Though his head was still dizzy from the collapse, he was feeling free… Noticing that Saito woke up, Tabitha closed her book.

“How?”

“Hm? I feel refreshed… I wonder if it’s Tiffania’s spell’s effect? It was enough to put me to sleep… I feel alright I guess. However, it feels bit weird. As if something is gone.”

Tabitha nodded.

“Everyone?”

“They already returned back home earlier. They took that half-elf girl with them.”

“I see…what a heartless lot. Disregarding the person under a strange spell, moreover — leaving him behind.”

Then Tabitha stood up and looked directly at Saito's face.

“You want anything?”

“To drink miso soup.”

Saito said with a sigh. He uttered the spontaneous words.

“What is that?”

“Well, a dish in my world… I would like such soup.”

Embarrassed, Saito said.

Dom! — strong feelings hit him.

A full torrent of feelings.

What was stored up till now, the so called "Nostalgia" suppressed, now it literally started to flow out like the huge waterfall into Saito's head.

The girl who sat next to him.

The best friend with whom he used to play together.

Every person’s face floated in his memory that once had vanished from there.

He remembered the face of the physical education teacher who used to punish him. He felt like missing even such sort of people.

“What's wrong?”

“…It’s returning. Returning.”

Saito choked out.

When he recalled the hometown, he started to cry…

Indeed, ‘the fake motive to stay in this world’ has disappeared.

After he came to this world, more than one year passed.

I want to return home.

I want to drink miso soup.

I want to meet my friends.

I want to go to school.

I want to browse the Internet. For a long time…what was hidden deep inside, Saito felt that broke free with cracking sounds.

He recalled Cattleya’s words from before,

“When shocking events happen, a human locks their mind.”

And just now, the lock came off.

Saito cried… sobbing painfully.

“What’s wrong?”

Tabitha asked him.

Saito looked at the runes on his left hand absent-mindedly.

“What? The runes look different…”

Derflinger, who was leaning against the bed, answered,

“Because Tiffania erased ‘the fake motive to stay in this world’. It effected your familiar abilities as well.

“…Then shouldn’t they have been erased altogether as well?”

Saito said while watching the faded runes.

“That’s true somewhat. Runes react to your mind’s state. Because you just lost the reason to stay in this world, the turmoil in your mind was reflected on your runes as well.”

Absent-minded, Saito said in a far away voice,

“Hey Derf...”

“What?”

“My…my feelings for Louise — were they also the fake created by the Familiar’s runes?”

Derflinger thought about it for a while

“Now. It's not for me to know. It's the way Partner’s heart feels.”

“Well, if that’s the case…then it will be my true choice, I guess.”

“I guess, it will be the true choice.”