The World God Only Knows:Volume 1 Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Minus World
Katsuragi Keima led the way, and the girl was fidgeting somewhat, and she said with a stiff voice to hide it,
“He, hey, Katsuragi! Where are you bringing me to? I, I’ll say these bold words first. I’ll refuse if you want to do anything bold to me! I’ll really refuse you! We have to go in order.
“…”
Keima suddenly turned his head back.
He stared through the girl with a piercing expression, and the girl could only look around helplessly. They were at a shrine somewhat distant away from the road.
There wasn’t anyone else there.
No, there was someone there.
The person who seemed to be observing them came out stealthily from behind the trees…
(Who, who’s that?)
The girl didn’t know what to do. A girl with a skull-shaped headdress appeared there.
Katsuragi Keima was asking that girl something.
It seemed that those two people knew each other.
“Elsie, how is it?”
The girl called Elsie shook her head.
“Not her.”
“…In other words.”
“No. This person doesn’t have a wandering spirit.”
Katsuragi Keima sighed loudly.
“I see. Thinking through it carefully… maybe I should have realized it. I had a direct thought-through and thought that the girl with a wandering spirit would have some problems. And because of that, I was searching a girl without problems for problems. After clearing the smokescreen, it wasn’t even a dual character.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“I was really naïve! No, rather than that.”
He grimaced.
“Elsie, there wouldn’t be this problem if you had followed me after school. I wouldn’t have been bothered by such a low-level trick…well, the reason why I put you in charge of Amami Tooru was because you’re the only one who could detect runaway spirits.”
He sighed.
“This time, the smart one got misled.”
The girl called Elsie stared at the other girl.
“She really looks the same.”
The girl panicked.
She was anxious.
Katsuragi Keima and this girl called Elsie were saying something strange right from the beginning. She was thinking that ‘it seemed that Katsuragi-kun’s not some bad person, so my mission should be over with’. However, these good feelings scattered away.
Her instincts were scaring her, burning like oil being lit.
Who is this person?
Katsuragi-kun.
Who is this person?
Keima glanced at the girl.
“Fuu…‘what do you want?’. Actually, that was my line. Well, it doesn’t matter. I can roughly guess why you wanted to do this. So just confess, you’re not Yoshino Asami.”
“!”
The girl widened her eyes. Keima raised his hand and pointed at her.
“…You’re.”
He said this.
“Yoshino Ikumi. Her sister, and twin.”
The girl.
Yoshino Asami’s twin sister, Yoshino Ikumi stood there, stunned.
She was confused.
She looked around in a flustered manner, and the girl called Elsie was looking at her in an interested manner. Yoshino Asami—
Or rather, Yoshino Ikumi who was pretending to be Yoshino Asami felt Keima’s cold gaze pouring through her,
“Thi, this, that.”
First, she raised the one question that bothered her the most.
“Let’s ask this…how did you know why name?”
Even after been seen through, she didn’t get angry due to embarrassment, and neither did she laugh at Keima. She was just panicking honestly.
At this moment, a certain aspect of Yoshino Ikumi showed through, or rather, she basically revealed herself there.
Keima sighed.
“It’s simple. I asked your elder sister a question back at school, and made a request.”
“Eh?”
“I asked her if ‘you had a twin sister?’. Then, it was ‘don’t tell your sister what I asked you today when you got home, but you can follow whatever else she says’.”
Yoshino Ikumi widened her eyes. Keima then said.
“Yoshino Asami…your elder sister answered yes to both questions. She looked incredulous, like you now. She had never told anyone the existence of her twin sister at a different school, and how I knew—like that.”
Keima then continued.
“It’s because of this, right? You heard from Yoshino Asami…your elder sister. She had never told anyone at school about you, so logically, I wouldn’t know of your existence. Thus, you tried to trick me and pose as Yoshino Asami…your elder sister to understand me, right? To know me personally.”
“Ah, un.”
Yoshino Ikumi was stunned.
“Then, when did you realize it?”
She was completely lost.
“You didn’t show any change in expression even until the weekend.”
Keima looked somewhat self-mocking as he laughed.
“No, that was a coincidence…one that you won’t understand even if I tell you. A girl would look so different, then maybe the opposite can hold true. In other words, two girls may look like one person under set conditions. I just thought of that.”
Keima glanced at Elsie.
For some reason, Elsie was all happy, and Keima stared back at her with a somewhat kind look.
“…”
After a moment of silence, haha, Yoshino Ikumi laughed stiffly.
“That’s amazing.”
She lamented from deep inside her heart.
“I could even fool mom since young if I was serious. To think that you saw through it.”
Keima then added on.
“…But you weren’t serious at all.”
After revealing this, Yoshino Ikumi looked somewhat embarrassed.
“U, tha, that’s because…”
“It’s likely.”
Keima pushed his glasses and said with a heavy tone.
“If you were serious, you may be able to be just like your sister. That ‘ordinary’ personality can be completely duplicated, right? But you showed your true personality in front of me because you weren’t aiming to make fun of me or play a prank on my. Your aim was simply just to understand me.”
Yoshino Ikumi was showing fear in her eyes.
Because Katsuragi Keima.
This good looking boy in front of her was practically saying the truth.
Fu, Keima grimaced.
“…Speaking of which, even if you weren’t serious, I was fooled by you. Twin switching should be the basics of basics.”
He clicked his tongue slightly.
“Two conquests overlapped…so I had the idea of taking the initiative. I was too naïve too.”
He continued to remind himself.
“But, well, since you took action like this, I found a way to solve it, and this outcome’s rather delightful too.”
Keima used his long and narrow eyes to look at Yoshino Asami.
“You’ll tell me, right? Tell me about your sister’s troubles, Yoshino Ikumi. That’s why you approached me, right? If it’s me.”
Keima said confidentally.
“I’ll definitely save your sister. I can do it.”
Yoshino Ikumi timidly shouted out.
“HOW MUCH!?”
She practically shouted her lungs out.
“HOW MUCH DID YOU KNOW, KATSURAGI-KUN?”
The shout was filled with the fear the ordinary girl had on the insightful boy. Keima widened his eyes, but just for that moment.
“…How much?”
Fuu, he laughed confidently.
“Everything! Everything! I know everything! Yoshino Ikumi, everything!”
Keima waved his hand as his declared that.
Elsie nodded her head too without hesitation as she folded her arms.
“Hm~as expected of kami-sama.”
“…”
Yoshino Ikumi looked at Keima and Elsie, showing obvious fear on her face.
“You said, eve, everything…”
She said with a hoarse voice.
“Yo, you.”
She finally managed to find her words.
“You’re not god!”
Then.
“…”
Keima’s expression suddenly went serious. He turned around and muttered to himself.
“Speaking of which…this is the second time I was called ‘kami-sama’ since I started this conquest. However.”
He again turned to look at Yoshino Ikumi.
“I’m really.”
He gave an expression that was overwhelming and wouldn’t allow for any objections, and it can even be called pressurizing.
“I am God! I’m the conquest god!”
It wasn’t just an expression itself as Yoshino Ikumi was wavering from the expression. Elsie seemed to be really impressed as she said,
“Hey, that’s true, you know? Kami-sama’s really god!”
“…”
Yoshino Ikumi was speechless. It’s like a certain part in her brain short-circuited, and that she felt numb. (Actually, this was really Keima’s aim, to use a forceful tone to show his confidence to her.)
And then,
“Aha!”
Yoshino Ikumi suddenly showed tears in her eyes, and at the next moment.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
She started laughing like she had a loose screw. Elsie was shocked, but Keima merely cocked his eyebrows.
“…Is it strange?”
He asked coldly.
“Is it strange that I called myself god?”
“Ah, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
Yoshino Ikumi was laughing so much that she was gasping, and shook her hand.
“No! That’s not it, ahahaha!”
Finally, she managed to hold back her laughter, and her fingers wiped away the tears that came out.
“Un.”
She suddenly nodded her head with a relaxed expression.
“Un!”
Her eyes were full of confidence. Keima’s lips showed a smile. This was exactly,
The outcome that he wanted.
Yoshino Ikumi declared.
“I got it! I’ll trust Katsuragi-kun completely! Please! Solve onee-chan’s problems!”
“…”
Keima smiled with his lips, and also his eyes.
He simply said.
“Understood.”
That was something that happened a long time after that. Yoshino Ikumi still remembered everything as she said to her friends in amazement.
“Katsuragi-kun’s really.”
Her words were full of honesty,
Though she more or less misunderstood about the term ‘Conquest god’, this was more or less something to take heart from!
“Really’s a guy who conquered earth!”
And,
However, this would be what happened after. Right now, Yoshino Ikumi was wholeheartedly describing her sister’s situation to Katsuragi Keima. Keima, Ikumi and Elsie went to the back of the shrine, found a bench to sit down on. They were drinking the canned juice Elsie went to buy, and Yoshino Ikumi started to talk,
About her sister’s situation.
“Onee-chan, she really hates humans.”
She said such a shocking thing so easily, took a deep breath, exhaled greatly, and looked at Keima.
However, Keima was,
Completely unmoved.
Yoshino Ikumi smiled.
(That’s great.)
She thought.
(It’s great to have someone like this.)
Then, she hurriedly said to hide her delight.
“It’s not just an expression.”
She said to Keima, who in turn nodded her head.
“I know.”
“Aren’t you surprised? This onee-chan of mine looks so ‘ordinary’, so approachable, doesn’t have any special characteristics and looks so well-behaved hates humans, you know?”
“Why?”
Keima similarly asked back.
“Is there something to be shocked if she merely hates humans? And,”
He showed a knowledgeable expression as he added,
“I’m thinking of whether it’s this sort of reason…or rather, this kind of reason. That ‘ordinary’ was just a mask of Yoshino Asami, right? For convenience in her life.”
“Aha.”
Yoshino Ikumi chuckled.
“No wonder onee-chan would be so concerned about you, Katsuragi-kun?”
“…”
Keima prompted her to continue on with her eyes. Yoshino Ikumi nodded her head hard too. On a side note, Elsie was the only one who was confused.
The girl didn’t understand more than half of her words.
However, Yoshino Ikumi and Keima continued with their conversation as they left Elsie aside.
“Ever since we were young.”
Yoshino Ikumi started saying,
“Ever since we were young, we were often told that ‘you sisters really aren’t like each other’. Ah, of course we’re not talking about our appearances. About that, we’ll occasionally feel that we’re facing the mirror. I feel that twins are more similar to each other.”
Keima nodded his head.
Yoshino Ikumi smiled slightly and said with a complicated expression.
“But.”
She said with a sad expression.
“She’s completely different inside.”
“…”
“Katsuragi-kun, what about me?”
Yoshino Ikumi hurriedly turned to look at Keima.
“I guess you can tell from the time you were with me, but I like humans! I like being with humans! I have lots of friends, I like school, and I’m really happy to talk with Katsuragi-kun now. But,”
She sighed,
“Onee-chan’s the opposite.”
Keima remained silent. Yoshino Ikumi continued on,
“But onee-chan, she’s the complete opposite of me. She hates humans, hates gatherings, hates being with people, and a school with lots of people is something that depressed her. Interacting with people and being with them would cause her to feel like she’s suffering.
Keima thought.
(In the karaoke bar…in the theme park, at the bowling alley…so that’s the reason why she doesn’t feel comfortable.)
Yoshino Ikumi said,
“As for onee-chan, she said that she really liked to read books alone, play games, watch movies. That’s her dream.”
Yoshino Ikumi grimaced.
“When we were young, both of us had a dream. Mine was to be a kindergarten teacher. Guess what onee-chan’s wish was? To hide in a nunnery deep inside a forest, and that was during elementary school, you know? What kind of student is this!? A lot of people would have thought.”
Keima didn’t say anything.
Yoshino Ikumi shook her head.
“But,”
She added on with a depressed look.
“The biggest problem is.”
She paused and then muttered,
“Onee-chan hates this aspect of hers the most.”
Keima’s eyebrows never twitched at all.
Because this was exactly what he expected.
If not, she wouldn’t be wearing that mask to live on.
“Onee-chan, she.”
Yoshino Ikumi continued,
“She said that she always envied me, seeing that I’m on so good relations with others, envied me for laughing together with everyone else. That’s what she said. We’re sisters. Is it because we’re twins? No, that’s not it. Onee-chan herself would have exceptions when it comes to hating people. Family members are basically alright, so at home, onee-chan would often…no, would always talk to me, and then.”
She smiled.
“It was the first time, really the first time. Onee-chan started talking about all sorts of things that happened in school. More accurately…”
She sealed the lid to look at Keima’s expression.
However,
“…”
Keima’s expression didn’t show any change at all. Yoshino Ikumi then smiled slyly as if she wanted to crush Keima’s poker face, and said,
“She started talking to me all about this guy called Katsuragi Keima.”
“…”
However, as expected.
Keima still remained silent.
This was also as expected.
“And then?”
Keima prompted her to continue. Yoshino Ikumi looked somewhat bored as she said,
“Aren’t you shocked? That onee-chan would only talk about how you, Katsuragi-kun, whether it’s ‘whatever happened to Katsuragi-kun today’ or ‘he enraged a teacher today’ and would continue talking! Her eyes were blazing! Isn’t this love or something! Onee-chan’s really an ordinary girl!”
(Is that so?)
Keima had a question mark in his mind.
(It’s not love or anything. Absolutely, at least for now.)
However, he didn’t say this to Ikumi and merely asked.
“So.”
He stared at her eyes and said,
“So to check my behavior, you disguised yourself as Yoshino Asami, your own sister?”
“Yes~!”
Yoshino Ikumi nodded her head heavily.
“I was really shocked the first time I met you! At that time, I knew that Katsuragi-kun stayed near our house. I was shocked when onee-chan was really happy as she said ‘I walked home with Katsuragi-kun!’. That’s because you were really there, Katsuragi-kun, and more importantly, your appearance was just like what onee-chan told me! ‘Pretty-looking face and looks like a rich kid hikkikomori!’ or something like that.”
“…”
“Before that, I heard onee-chan that ‘otamegane, he’s called otamegane’, so I thought that onee-chan’s description of Katsuragi-kun’s appearance would be an image created from a girl in love, so I was half-doubting it. But I was really shocked when I met you. You’re really like a rich kid.”
Yoshino Ikumi giggled.
Keima himself was giving off cold sweat.
Should he be happy about this at this point…
“Ahaha, it’s late, but I have to apologize to you, right. Anyway, I still tricked you, Katsuragi-kun.”
Yoshino Ikumi lowered her head.
On a side note, at this moment, Elsie was…sleeping.
Kukaa~she was sleeping soundly. It seemed that she logically gave up on understanding the topic at hand as it was too complicated. Keima glanced at her and sighed.
“It’s alright. This shows that you’re worried about your sister. So your sister’s not really good with socializing with others, and if you understand me really well, it’s obvious that it’s not suitable for her to dive into a relationship with me. So you wanted to try me out to see whether I can match your sister.”
“To be honest.”
Yoshino Ikumi scratched her head in an awkward manner.
“To be honest, I was a little curious as well. I was really curious how this Katsuragi-kun onee-chan kept talking about was like.”
“…Which was why you didn’t disguise yourself completely to be like your sister.”
“Yes.”
Yoshino Ikumi admitted.
“Because, if possible, I wanted to look at how you would respond to my sister with a different mask on, a different ‘me’…how you would respond to onee-chan inside school and outside school. Well, this can be a conclusion somewhat.”
Keima smiled,
“It’s true that I was troubled.”
“Really?”
“Because a lot of scenarios overlapped with each other.”
“Hey.”
Yoshino Ikumi lifted her eyes and looked at Katsuragi Keima.
“I could have told you the truth earlier, but I didn’t do so. I delayed it for a while…well, I actually wanted to confess about this to you…do you know why?”
Keima gave a wry smile and said,
“It’s because you saw Amami Tooru…that girl who was just like an angel, right?”
“That’s absolutely correct! At that time, I was thinking that even though this guy’s called otaku, otamegane, is he really a flirt? I don’t know how you managed to attract such an irritating onee-chan, but were you fooling around with that onee-chan or something like that.”
“…You’re mistaken.”
Keima plainly stated.
“I.”
He stated casually,
“I’m not popular with girls at all. Normally speaking, that’s the case.”
“…”
This time, it’s Yoshino Ikumi’s turn to break out cold sweat.
This time, it’s Keima’s turn to ask.
“You just said that Yoshino Asami, your sister, started talking about me from the first day on. That’s likely something that happened long ago, right?”
Yoshino Ikumi nodded her head.
“I guess it’s around the time when she was in the same class as Katsuragi-kun.”
“I see. This is just my guess, but was there a huge change in Yoshino Asami during the few days after she met me? For example, did she say lots of self-loathing things, especially about human relationships?”
Yoshino Ikumi widened her eyes.
“Why.”
Either way, her voice trembled in amazement.
“How did you know?”
“Just as expected.”
Keima sighed.
“…”
Yoshino Ikumi continued to stare at Keima silently for a while, and then sighed in the same manner, looked forward and said,
“Un, that’s how the case is. I don’t know how you knew this, Katsuragi-kun, but it’s just as you said. Onee-chan was always envious of me, but it seemed to have become even more intense. ‘Let alone you, Ikumi…I guess I want to be a girl who can interact with others too’—that was what she said. We, well, I guess that’s it. She felt even more bothered after liking you, Katsuragi-kun, I guess. Maybe she thought this way because she wanted to on good relations with you?”
“…
Keima didn’t answer.
But in his heart,
“I see. It’s shaping up…seems like Yoshino Ikumi was correct.”
He muttered deep inside his head.
He then answered with a question.
“But your sister always wanted to correct herself. That’s why she joined the tea ceremony club which requires one on one communication with others, something she’s most inept at, right?”
“Ha, haha.”
Yoshino Ikumi laughed stiffly.
“That’s right, that’s completely right. Onee-chan joined the tea ceremony club because of this reason. Onee-chan had been worried about her personality and wanted to correct it, correct how she hated humans. Thus, she would try to join gatherings, and would even work hard to participate in club activities.
“…”
“Hey!”
Yoshino Ikumi grabbed Keima’s hand.
“Please! How can we cure here? What should we do to make onee-chan more sociable?”
Her eyes were full of trust in the almighty insight of Keima.
“If it’s Katsuragi-kun! If it’s you, Katsuragi-kun, you’ll know, right? What should we do?”
“…”
Keima didn’t respond as he raised a question that’s slightly deviated from the topic at hand.
It wasn’t really a question that was directly linked with the conquest, just something that this boy called Katsuragi Keima himself wanted to know, something he wanted to understand about Yoshino Asami.
“How’s your sister when she’s not wearing a mask? How’s she at home?”
“How’s she at home?”
Yoshino Ikumi said with some doubt,
“Ah, no, you’ve been talking about some mask up till now, Katsuragi-kun. But onee-chan won’t really change personalities immediately, and she would be delicate and kind to others just like she would be to us. She would also listen to my complaints too. I feel that she was even gentler because she’s not really good with people. It’s just…onee-chan would never show her burdens to others, ever. It seemed that she would be pained to let others see her real weak side. Thus, she always wanted to be a good girl. I said before that onee-chan would let me share my complaints, but that’s the difference. Onee-chan, she,”
Yoshino Ikumi paused for a while,
“Actually, she’s really a good girl who tries to overcome her weakness.”
She concluded.
Keima was silent for quite a while.
“…Is that so.”
And he merely answered and stroked her chin. Elsie rubbed her eyes and got up in a dazed manner. Keima glanced at Elsie and then said,
“I got it. I’ll find a way. It’s definitely possible.”
Yoshino Ikumi’s eyes were shining.
“Rea, really?”
At this moment, Keima answered with a stern expression and said,
“But your assistance will be necessary. You’ll help me, right, Yoshino Ikumi?”
At this,
“Of course!”
Yoshino Ikumi raised her hands in approval.
And Elsie,
Was standing there blankly.
That day,
Yoshino Asami was invited by her younger sister Ikumi, who just returned home.
“My friends and I will be going to Dean Land tomorrow. You you want to come along, onee-chan?”
Of course, Yoshino Asami wasn’t really interested. However, the younger sister said,
“Well, I feel that it’s a good training for you as you try to get along with others well, onee-chan.”
Also, she added a ‘and also’, which shook Yoshino Asami’s heart.
“Katsuragi-kun’s coming along too, that Katsuragi Keima-kun onee-chan often mentioned.”
Of course,
“Eh?”
Yoshino Asami couldn’t help but ask as that face of hers was full of,
(Why???)
Such questions. Yoshino Ikumi answered,
“Coincidentally, my friend’s friend is Katsuragi-kun!”
On hearing that,
“I’ll go.”
Yoshino Asami answered as if it was instinct.
Her younger sister Yoshino Ikumi was nodding away in a satisfied manner.
The next day was a bright sunny day.
Yoshino Asami’s heart was beating hard as she reached the entrance of the Dean Land. Over there, there’s the bronze statue of the founder of Dean Land, Ikegoma Gakkan. This was the gathering place.
For some reason, her little sister Ikumi,
“I’ve got something on, so I’ll go first, okay?”
And after saying that, she smiled and left the house.
Yoshino Asami thought,
(Since we’re living together, shouldn’t we just go together…or rather, even though I don’t know what you have, I can still accompany you.)
Even so,
“Ahahaha, you must enjoy yourself today, really enjoy yourself, onee-chan~”
Seeing her little sister give such a bright smile, she couldn’t say anything.
Facing this sister of hers who had a completely different personality, Yoshino Asami always felt that there was something she couldn’t match her in.
She was heavily reliant on her twin sister, Yoshino Ikumi.
She had reached the age of youth, and she couldn’t fawn around with her parents like when she was young (even though this was the case, there wasn’t really much of a family issue, just a little feeling of isolation, especially to the father). Her sister was basically the only person she would talk to.
Even though she would also have her own troubles or talk about school, whenever the little sister complained about youth things that ‘studying for tests is so hard~’ or ‘there’s a handsome guy in class…’ (Even though they look the same physically, in this aspect, Yoshino Asami would be a late bloomer, so she was rather restrained in front of guys, often being very shy) she would listen attentively.
Even removing this factor, the twin sisters were on good terms with each other.
But even though she’s the elder sister, the decision making between these two girls would always land on the younger sister, whether it’s about school or about Katsuragi Keima.
“Onee-chan, tell me more!”
Ikumi would always prompt her to talk me. She knew that her sister was worried about her.
Worried that she still had inter-personal problems.
Her sister was always so worried.
‘You hate humans.’ That’s how the sister would describe Asami, but to Asami, it was a little different.
She’s just not good with humans.
Asami wasn’t really good with building relationships with others on the surface.
Thus, if there’s a need to say that she ‘hated’.
It’s more like she hated,
‘Communication with others’.
She hated it…
No, that’s not it.
More accurately,
‘She hated ‘herself’ for being unable to communicate with other successfully.”
In fact, she didn’t really hate ‘humans’, or rather, it was the opposite. Asami loved to read books, and she basically read highly-rated books, biographies, and of course, light novels too. However, she’s engrossed with the characters that appeared in the books because she liked the existences called ‘humans’. As she couldn’t be involved, Yoshino Asami liked to see people interactions.
For example,
“Onee-chan, in our class, a classmate close to me likes a certain guy from another class, but he.”
She liked to listen to her sister Ikumi talk about these unnecessary things. To be honest, what shocked Ikumi was that Asami was very clear about her sister’s relationships with her friends, and also, she understood her classmates’ personalities, standpoints, history and so on.
It’s not that she didn’t care about humans. She’s really interested in them. However,
Once she got involved, she couldn’t take it.
Yoshino Asami really liked happy people.
Ikumi was able to describe things things so happily because she could always build rapport with anyone around her, and she liked to look at classmates who could get along well from afar.
However,
She herself.
Couldn’t do it. Once she got involved, she felt like she would crumble. How should she put it? It’s like the harmonious balance would collapse once it enters ‘her’. She would not know how to react, and would then feel uncomfortable, and then her body would feel uncomfortable. Thus, human thought that ‘onee-chan hated humans’ as a response.
Also,
She’s really frustrated with herself for having such strong thoughts.
She wondered when was it that she couldn’t get along well with people.
It wasn’t that there was any chance.
Before she realized it, she found her sister dazzling, and then always envied her, and then felt unhappy about it—that was when she was still a kid.
She wrote that she ‘wanted to be a hermit in the mountains’ as her dream, and her homeroom teacher was extremely worried and told her parents, who were in turn extremely angry.
However,
These were her true thoughts. It’s not that anyone wasn’t good with her, but that she just couldn’t do it.
After they reached their youth, the difference in personalities between her and her sister became more obvious, and Asami tried her best to correct her personality…
Even though she felt anxious about that, but this was a major reason why she agreed to go to Dean’s Land. Asami was still fearful about human relationships, but she would often take part in class activities or social events, and she chose the tea ceremony club because she hoped to use one one one communication to improve her interaction ability.
But in fact.
Most of the situations couldn’t work. She couldn’t smile too much when she was playing with others (she didn’t feel like she was smiling), she was worried about whether she irritated them, whether she made them unhappy, got really anxious until she felt uncomfortable. Then, she would be more cautious about the people around her and would feel even more embarrassed. She would always inadvertently compare herself with her sister.
‘’Why am I always like this?’’
And would feel dejected because of it.
But to be honest, she had a little expectation that came with this anxiety.
That was…
“Un…here?”
After she got off the bus a walked down a gradual downhill slope, she looked around and found the meet-up location. There was a stern-looking male bronze statue beside the entrance, and 2 people were already standing there.
Arre?
Ikumi and Katsuragi-kun aren’t here yet?
Thinking about this, she wanted to turn to the opposite direction to look for him, and found him there.
“Ah!”
Her heart beat wildly as Katsuragi Keima was standing there alone.
However,
He was still playing his handheld games. Asami was troubled as she wondered if she should talk to him. After hesitating for a moment.
“We, well, Katsuragi-kun.”
She summoned her courage to utter out those words.
“HA!”
Katsuragi Keima suddenly spread his arms wide and kicked his right leg like he was using to the handheld console in his hands to catch something that’s falling from the sky.
Yoshino Asami was taken aback as she backed away.
“Hm?”
Keima’s eyes returned back to the screen.
“Okay, success…good morning.”
He spoke.
Yoshino Asami heaved a sigh of relief.
“Ah, u, un, good morning.”
She found her senses and put on her usual ‘ordinary’ mask. This was the only skill of interaction Yoshino Asami had.
Yoshino Asami, who’s not good with getting along with others, thought of the only way to mix with the crowd.
A low profile.
Average.
Ordinary.
Not making people unhappy or be too forthcoming. That’s,
Yoshino Asami’s method.
“You’re really early.”
She said with a calm tone as she looked for a way to start the conversation.
“Your younger sister…Elsie-san, she’s not coming?”
It doesn’t look like it was a problematic question, and logically, she felt that Keima would answer,
“Un, I like buns, but I’ll take anything you make for me.”
“?”
Yoshino Asami was bothered.
“Eh?”
She couldn’t help but ask back.
“So you don’t have to depreciate your own cooking.”
“Ha?”
“Ha?”
Unable to establish a conversation, Keima then said to the handheld game,
“I, TOLD, YOU, I, LIKE, BUNS!”
“…”
Yoshino Asami was speechless.
“We, well, Katsuragi-kun?”
The moment she asked this question, Keima said,
“I, LIKE, BUNS!”
No matter how she looked at it, there’s only one dangerous weirdo. Yoshino Asami finally realized that Katsuragi Keima was talking to an in-game character.
The proof was,
“Un…NO! I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE COLOR OF UNDERWEAR I LIKE, REALLY!”
She frowned.
“Un…it’s nice to download this morning breakfast event, but the voice recognition device still can’t work. This will be bad for conquest. Got to let the manufacturer correct it. Hm?”
At this moment, Keima finally noticed that Yoshino Asami was staring at her blankly. After glancing at her, the first thing Keima said was,
“Hey, you’re here?”
Yoshino Asami was stunned…
Katsuragi Keima.
Has she really fallen for him?
To her sister, it was,
“Well~it’s love love! You’re definitely thinking about Katsuragi-kun now, onee-chan!”
And that was what she said.
As she reported her daily school life events to her sister, the mysterious boy called Katsuragi Keima kept popping up more often, and her sister pointed that out.
On hearing that.
She should more or less be honest with herself.
It was a fact that she was blushing, and her heart was beating even faster. Her sister happily said,
“Hey~ just as expected!”
She clapped her hands.
“No, that’s not it!”
Yoshino Asami shook her head and her hands. She thought that she couldn’t possibly have this feeling.
Normally, when she talked about him, she would be merely a little more shy than usual.
However,
Ignoring this rationality, it’s just like what her sister said. Her heart did waver. Was this—falling in love?
At the beginning, she was often mindful of this boy called Katsuragi Keima. During lessons, lunch break, inside the classroom.
Even when they brushed by each other on the corridors.
Before she realized it, she was shocked to find that her eyes were always following Keima. To be honest, recently, she had been going home with Keima, and even though she looked like nothing was going on, her heart was secretly beating wildly.
Love…
Nobody knew whether it was really love or not, and to be honest, she didn’t really understand this thing called love.
There’s just one thing.
There’s just one thing she could be certain of.
And it was,
She was very mindful of Katsuragi Keima, this boy.
She couldn’t deny that she had feelings for him.
She didn’t know the reason.
Thus, she checked this thought of hers which she couldn’t really understand. Even if it’s a little, if she talked more to Katsuragi Keima, maybe she could sort out the messy thoughts that couldn’t be sliced off. However…
She just felt uncomfortable on meeting him.
What made her even more troubled was—the next thing Keima said,
“Alright, let’s go in, shall we?”
And just like that, he brought Yoshino Asami into the Dean’s Land. Asami was panicking.
“Eh? Th, this?”
Right in front of Keima, the ‘ordinary’ mask she always managed to put on successfully was shed.
“Wait! Where’s my sister? Everyone else?”
“Hm?”
Keima stopped.
“What? Didn’t you hear? Your sister and Elsie will be here one hour later, and the rest seem like they’ll be here after that. There are only 2 of us right from the start.”
On hearing these words,
Yoshino Asami was rooted for a moment.
“EEEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!!?”
And couldn’t help but shout out as it was completely unexpected.
Then, Keima hurriedly entered Dean’s Land, and Yoshino Asami looked lost as she followed in.
Keima looked at the crowds of people that entered and said without hesitation.
“…I don’t feel like changing clothes. What about you?”
(This is a facility that only allows access after getting into cosplay.”
Yoshino Asami blinked her eyes and blushed.
She didn’t know what to do, what to cosplay.
It was alright if she was with her sister, but it would be too embarrassing to do it alone with Katsuragi-kun!
“No, no!”
She couldn’t help but say these words, and then realized something as she stuffed her mouth. However, Keima’s mood didn’t seem to be affected.
“Of course. Really, I don’t know what those people who like cosplay are thinking. It’s impossible for 3-D to beat 2-D.”
He muttered to himself, and Yoshino Asami’s mind was thinking about all sorts of things.
(Eh? Ar, are we going to be alone together? Wha, what do I do now? I can’t sing karaoke, I can’t play games, I, I can’t hang on!)
Asami was bothered by this as she started to panic again. But soon, all these thoughts were for naught. Keima’s expression suddenly,
“…”
Went completely serious.
“?”
Yoshino Asami reacted to where Keima was looking at. Over there,
“Bishoujo game~Uniform enhancement week~”
There was such a poster on. Keima looked around with an even serious expression, and Yoshino Asami also looked around.
So that’s how it was.
She wasn’t sure, but there were really girls wearing strangely glamorous uniforms around.
Perhaps these uniforms were all worn by girls in games?
At this moment,
“Is that the uniform of Izumi Academy in ‘Poninyan’? But the color of the sash isn’t right…and what’s that!? The uniform of Grand Sand Academy from ‘The Time Without You’ and the Furuhara High School uniform from ‘The Smiling Summer Vacation’ is all mixed up!”
It seemed that Katsuragi Keima really couldn’t stand seeing the slight mistakes in the uniforms.
“That uniform’s insignia’s reverse! I said that there’s a bird together with a tree on the insignia of that Ohno bird patch! Or else that last flag would be meaningless!?”
To be honest, Yoshino Asami didn’t understand what Keima was saying, but…
“Really unbelievable!”
She could thoroughly understand why Keima was angry. Then, he answered the statements of ‘hey you, do you have any right to say that’ with action.
Completely ignoring the existence of Yoshino Asami, who was accompanying him, he stormed to the reception and ranted,
“This so-called uniform has huge problems!”
He complained to the workers of Dean Land, and then sad meticulously,
“Then, remove the scarf here, and that should be all. There should be gold thread used to make prince clothing, right? It would look more like a student from Neville Academy.”
He continued to raise point after point of improvement. At first, the workers were all incredulous, but as what Keima pointed out were direct and would have a huge effect with just a little correction, what happened was that it wasn’t just the counter girl who listened, but also the superior, until,
“That, that’s really amazing! Please be our costume consultant!”
He held Keima’s hands in a touched manner and tried to convince him. As for Keima,
“If I can do so for costumes related to gal-games.”
He readily agreed.
Just like that, an hour passed.
Until the time Yoshino Ikumi and Elsie arrived.
