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Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume12 Chapter5 5

2018-02-26T12:52:54Z

Ambjoorn: /* Searching in the Mist. Part 5 */ small typo fix

=== <noinclude> Searching in the Mist. </noinclude>Part 5 ===

On Friday morning, they received a written invitation to a party from Saionji Yukari-sama.

The invitation said that the party would be held tomorrow evening, ie. Saturday, at Saionji's house, and was addressed to both Sachiko-sama and Yumi.

Yesterday was Ayanokouji-sama followed by Kyougoku-sama, and tomorrow would be Saionji-sama, so it felt like there was one more battle to come.

Now for the conversation about what to do.

"What is there to even talk about? Don't go."

The braided girl spoke forcibly as she picked up a financier cake.

"I agree. I think you'd be better off not going … perhaps."

Said the young girl with the fluffy, cotton-candy-like hair that looked like a western doll.

"It's kind of immature. Like they're grade-school bullies."

This was from the Japanese doll seated beside the western doll. However, none of the other guests had any experience with that so they couldn't judge whether this analogy was right or wrong, so all they could do was go, "Mmm," and ponder it.

The girl with the very short hair, that could be easily mistaken for a boy, silently sipped her tea.

It was Saturday afternoon.

They were in the familiar confines of the room on the second floor of the Rose Mansion … or not. Actually, they were most certainly in the Ogasawara family's holiday house.

The people occupying the salon for the tea-party were Yumi, Rei-sama, Yoshino-san, Shimako-san, and Noriko-chan.

The location was the only thing changed and it felt like a regular Yamayurikai meeting, but this wasn't a delusion brought on by away-team Yumi's despair, it was the real and honest truth.

It was no coincidence that the Yellow and White Rose Soeurs had come to visit on the same day.

The postcards that Yumi had mailed on Wednesday morning arrived safely at the Toudou and Shimazu households in Tokyo on Thursday. The pair then spoke to each other and decided on a time and date to make a trip out to the Ogasawara's villa. Yoshino-san and Rei-sama's ascent of Mt Fuji was on Friday, so by having the visit on Saturday they could just extend their trip.

"Because, the postcard was so tepid, it seemed like you were wasting away from boredom or something. And when I called Shimako-san, she was worried too, so we decided to come and check things out for ourselves."

That was Yoshino-san's story.

"You provided such a detailed address that I thought that was perhaps a sign that you wanted us to come and visit. I'm sorry, it looks like I jumped to a hasty conclusion – you said it was Sachiko-sama that wrote the address, didn't you?"

Shimako-san drew inwards slightly, seemingly out of embarrassment.

"Then maybe Rosa Chinensis wanted you to come – "

Noriko-chan said quietly.

"Sachiko-sama … ?"

Yumi mumbled. Perhaps some part of Sachiko-sama wanted to show this place to the other Yamayurikai members. There could be some truth to that.

"But why?"

"Probably because she noticed you were feeling a little flat too."

"Oh? I suppose, you could be right … "

Sachiko-sama had done it for Yumi's sake. If that was what the neutral observer Noriko-chan thought, then it was probably true.

"So, what did Sachiko say? About the party."

Rei-sama asked.

"Not much … there's no RSVP required, so I won't know what she's planning until right before the party. She seemed to be in two minds about it."

Yumi answered.

Sachiko-sama was away visiting the Matsudaira's holiday house. She'd been reluctant to go because she was concerned about leaving Yumi alone, but she'd gone because her late grandmother's attending physician, Touko-chan's grandfather, was staying there and she couldn't have pretended not to know this.

"She's in two minds? I see, that makes sense."

"What do you see?"

Yoshino-san asked, when she heard Rei-sama's comment.

"Right now, Sachiko's shaken. Fundamentally, if someone's looking to fight her, she'll fight. But in her case, she always wants to know as much about her opponent as she can."

"To avoid fighting a losing battle?"

"It's not that. Even if she knows she's going to lose, she won't back down until she has to. Because she'll fully understand how she's going to lose and how much damage she'll take."

Rei-sama used the examples of Sachiko-sama's contest with Satou Sei-sama over Shimako-san, and her wager with the previous Roses over the role of Cinderella. Indeed, in those situations Sachiko-sama had fought without regards to her chances of success.

"But when she doesn't know who her opponent is, or what they're thinking, then she becomes incredibly timid. Probably because she's afraid of being hurt more than necessary."

As expected of a long-time friend, Rei-sama seemed to understand Sachiko-sama incredibly well.

"I think I get it."

Yumi agreed.

Sachiko-sama boasted that she hated to run away, but had then run from place to place, avoiding her dearly beloved Kashiwagi-san. She'd probably run away because she was scared, not knowing what would happen to her if she met with him.

"That's how she was when you two were quarreling, Yumi-chan. If she'd sat down and talked to you properly, she could have cleared up that misunderstanding, but she was afraid of what might be waiting for her, so she closed herself off."

"What did she think might be waiting for her?"

Shimako-san asked, and Rei-sama answered unequivocally.

"That Yumi-chan would return her rosary."

All present fell silent. Those that had performed the soeur ceremony knew that the rosary held far more weight than just its physical mass. Even the Yellow Rose soeurs, who had temporarily split up then got back together, hadn't treated it lightly.

"She'd probably go if it was just her. Sachiko doesn't hold back when she's angry. It wouldn't necessarily be calculated, but she'd hone in on her opponent's weak point and hit them there hard, then go home."

"But this time she's got Yumi-sama with her."

Noriko-chan said.

"Exactly. That's why she's hesitating, since her opponent might target Yumi-chan. For Sachiko, it would be more painful to see Yumi-chan attacked than it would be for her to be attacked herself."

Previously, Yumi would have laughed this off with an, "As if." But having seen how Sachiko-sama had been behaving these last couple of days, she vaguely felt that Rei-sama might be on to something. Sachiko-sama had been nervous and fussy, like a mother hen watching over her chick.

"What do you want to do, Yumi-san?"

Yoshino-san asked.

"I … "

Yumi answered.

" … don't really know what I should do … or rather, whichever path I take, I don't think it'll be right."

"How so … ?"

"If I go to the Saionji's party, then I'm sure something unpleasant will happen. But if I don't go, it'll leave things unsettled. It feels like running away will just cause it to come back even stronger at some point in the future. Either way, I intend to go along with whatever Sachiko-sama chooses."

"So you might actually go to the party?"

"Yeah."

When Yumi confirmed this, Yoshino-san graced her with one of her favorite phrases:

"You idiot, Yumi-san. Don't willingly walk into their ambush. Come home with us, on the evening bullet train. You can't go to the party if you've gone home. Not even this Saionji girl would be crazy enough to chase after you."

"You're more than welcome to come with us too, although we're taking a regional express train home."

Shimako-san also extended an invitation. But Yumi shook her head.

"Thank-you for the offer, but I'm not leaving today. I've made up my mind that when I go home, it'll be with my onee-sama."

"Yumi-san … "

At that moment, Sachiko-sama arrived home from Touko-chan's villa. Then, her first words when she saw the Yamayurikai members were:

"You made it here. I'm so glad."

– that.

"Gokigenyou. When we saw the address on the postcard, we decided to gatecrash."

Yoshino-san greeted her cheerfully.

"This area is like a maze. If we didn't know the exact address, we may never have found this place."

Shimako-san remarked, and Sachiko-sama seemed to swell with pride as she answered:

"It is, isn't it. That's why I don't give it out lightly – if you don't know the address, you can't do anything."

"Like the combination to a safe."

Noriko-chan said with a straight face.

"To Sachiko's secret base."

Rei-sama joked.

"That's right. My secret base."

Sachiko-sama seemed to be truly happy. So, it really was Sachiko-sama's magnetism that had drawn them here.

"And yourself? How did you go, climbing Mt Fuji?"

Sachiko-sama prodded as she sat down.

"There's not much to say."

Rei-sama grumbled.

"We were aiming to reach the summit at dawn, so we stayed overnight in a mountain hut – although, it was hard to sleep because we were stuffed in there like sardines. Yoshino slept next to the wall, and I was beside her, but next to me was this incredibly obese old woman that snored like a chainsaw. And to top it all off, she tossed and turned in her sleep. It was such a pain."

"How was the rising sun?"

"Very spiritual."

Yoshino-san made the peace sign. This was the first time Yumi had heard the phrase "rising sun" used to refer to watching the day break from the top of a mountain, or that there were spiritual connotations to it. Lillian's Girls Academy was a Catholic school, but Yoshino-san and Rei-sama didn't seem to be too bothered by that.

"But, still, the size of the blisters on my feet."

"Blisters?"

"Although we went straight to an onsen when we came down from the mountain, so that popped them."

Rei-sama raised her foot slightly above the table, to show everyone. She said she'd worn two pairs of socks, but the unfamiliar climbing boots and mountain trails had taken their toll on the skin of her feet. But despite all that –

[[Image:MM_v12_006.jpg|thumb]]

"Same here."

Yoshino-san said, acting as though it was no big deal.

"You cheated, Yoshino. You got on a horse half way down."

"Huh!?"

"Ahh, Rei-chan. I told you not to tell them that."

Her secret revealed, Yoshino-san hit Rei-sama on the shoulder. But this was a bit of a problem, since Rei-sama still had one foot in the air. As a result, she lost her balance and toppled out of her chair. Even so, it was a testament to Rei-sama's agility that the fall had left her more or less unscathed. The only part of her that was even slightly injured was a scrape on her blistered foot. Although, based on that result, it was hard to say whether that was lucky or unlucky given the circumstances.

"And you, Shimako? What have you been up to today?"

Sachiko-sama moved on to inquiring of the White Rose soeurs.

"We've been out on a day-trip visiting various Buddhist statues and churches. We stopped in on our way home."

They surely would have had to change their route so that they could stop in at the villa. But Shimako-san was probably taking into consideration that Sachiko-sama would likely be upset if she'd said, "We went out of our way to come here."

Even so, their eyes sparkled as they talked for the next twenty minutes about their early morning departure from Tokyo, the famous churches they went to, and the stone statues of Kannon that they saw.

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume30 Chapter2 3

2017-10-10T16:13:29Z

Ambjoorn: /* Frivolity and Self-loathing. Part 3. */

===<noinclude>Frivolity and Self-loathing. </noinclude>Part 3.===

They began their time at the amusement park with everyone riding the steam train together. When they disembarked, Noriko thought that it had been a splendid idea from Yoshino-sama.

At the very least, it had been for the White Rose sisters. Squeezed into that single carriage with the rest of the passengers, they felt the vibrations of the train track as they were quickly whisked around the grounds. The gentle caress of the wind coming through the open windows upon Noriko's face had relaxed her. If it had just been the two of them, the situation would have seemed more serious, so much so that she would have been conscious of how she was breathing.

So when Yumi-sama had enthusiastically asked, "Who wants to go to the haunted house?" Noriko raised her hand without hesitation. She loved Shimako-san, and they really needed to have a proper talk soon, but for now she just wanted to spend a bit more time with her friends.

Shimako-san said, "I wonder if we should go too," perhaps because she understood Noriko's feelings. As usual, Noriko's chest tightened when she saw Shimako-san smile.

Shimako-san had said that, "It's not that big a deal," but Noriko couldn't set it aside that easily. But, while still not knowing what she should do, Noriko realized that there had been nothing she could have done all along. All she could do was take the hit, but she was running away to try and avoid that.

What had been her state of mind when she first discovered that Shimako-san was the daughter of a Buddhist priest? No matter how hard Noriko tried to remember, she couldn't. Shimako-san's secret had been announced to the whole school, making it no longer a secret, then they had become soeurs, and the quiet, peaceful days had piled up one on top of the other.

Certainly, there were still many things she didn't know about Shimako-san. But Noriko had never considered that this would be one of them.

Some lively music intruded on Noriko's thoughts. It looked as though a parade had started on Main Street. The group of friends she was walking with had paused to watch as well.

The characters in their brilliant costumes sang, danced and paraded. The spectating children waved at the bears and squealed with delight. Everyone seemed to be having fun.

Still, as the parade became more and more cheerful, Noriko became more and more depressed. Or perhaps her mood hadn't changed from five minutes ago, it just seemed more or less pronounced depending on the excitement level of her surroundings. Like if someone had been walking along a flat road for a long time and suddenly there were mountains towering over them on each side, they'd think they were in a valley. That kind of thing. Probably.

(Was it a heavy burden for you?)

Even now, the words Shimako-san said to her about an hour ago lingered in her mind.

Shimako-san, standing right beside her and smiling as she shook the bear's hand, seemed incredibly mysterious.

Noriko had arranged to meet with Shimako-san at the subway's ticket gate.

They would both be taking the same JR train-line to get there, but they had delayed their meeting because it was too hard to organize a rendezvous on-board a train.

Noriko disembarked from the JR train just after 9:10am. They had arranged to meet at 9:20am, so it was perfect timing. She looked around as she walked to their meeting place, thinking they both may have caught the same train, but when she got there Shimako-san was already waiting for her.

Since Shimako-san lived further away, she had probably left earlier to make sure she arrived on time. She might seem light and fluffy, but she was actually very diligent and earnest.

"Gokigenyou."

After exchanging greetings, they walked towards the platform. From time to time they would go on outings to churches, temples and statues of Buddha together, but this was their first time going to an amusement park. Consequently, Noriko was a bit giddy with delight, although she wasn't aware of it.

"We're only changing trains once but it all looks so complicated."

Shimako-san said, as she unfolded a map of the train lines in Tokyo's outskirts.

"It's alright. I know my way around here really well, so leave it to me."

Noriko smiled, saying that, obviously, the reason she knew her way around here wasn't because she was always going to the amusement park. One of her relatives used to live in this area and they would often come and visit, and, as a child, she had often traveled to Tokyo alone to view various statues of Buddha.

"Alright, I'll follow you."

Shimako-san said, quickly putting the map back in her bag. Noriko was gladdened by that small gesture, which said, "I have faith in you."

There weren't as many people on the platform as during rush hour on a weekday, but there were more than Noriko had expected. She thought there was no way that all these people would be going to the amusement park, but predicted that about two-thirds of them would get on the same train as her and Shimako-san. Since people usually faced in the direction that the train they wanted to catch was coming from.

The train arrived not that long after, and the number of people getting on the train was roughly what Noriko had predicted. A lot of people got off the train as well, so it wasn't too crowded. They could stand normally, without brushing up against other people.

They stood opposite the door they had used to board, beside the closed door. They'd have to take care when their door was open not to obstruct the people getting on or off, but while it was closed they could have a leisurely conversation.

"I wonder if everyone's coming."

Shimako-san said softly as she looked out the window.

"It seems like Yoshino-san and Rei-sama will definitely be there."

"I'm not sure about Touko and Kanako-san. I wanted to call them and find out, but since it was supposed to be entirely optional I didn't feel like I should."

Over the telephone it would be easy to mistake a simple question of whether or not they were going for an imposition.

"That's true. And the amusement park costs money too... Noriko, are you okay?"

Shimako-san's sudden inquiry implied that she had only just considered this. She was probably worried because Noriko lived away from her parents.

"I have money set aside for unexpected expenses, plus I still have some left over from my New Year's gift."

She curled her index finger around to meet her thumb, making the OK sign. Her hobby of viewing Buddha statues didn't usually require much money, but there were the occasional massive spikes. Like when there was an exhibition of a Buddha statue that was only shown once every few years, at a place that was too far away for a day-trip, and she had to pay for travel and lodging. Consequently, Noriko was used to budgeting and keeping some spare cash on hand.

"In my case, I thought I'd be able to pay for it myself, but."

Shimako-san smiled ruefully.

"But?"

It seemed like someone else was footing the bill for Shimako-san's fun today.

"My father gave me a special allowance."

"Your father?"

Shimako-san's father was the chief priest of the fairly large Buddhist temple called Shouguuji, and friend of Noriko's boyfriend / partner-in-Buddhist-statue-admiration, Takuya-kun. He was a cheerful and funny guy, whether he was wearing his monk's robes or not.

"Strange, isn't it? If any normal girl were in my place, she'd be delighted."

"…"

Somehow or other, Noriko felt like she understood.

Shimako-san's father would feel more at ease with a daughter tainted by the world, rather than one who stubbornly brooded over becoming a nun. And, understanding that, Shimako-san had decided to gratefully accept his money and go out and have some fun.

"I guess you never pester your parents for things you want, Shimako-san."

Looking at her, you wouldn't think she had any worldly desires.

"You do, Noriko?"

"I do. For Christmas, I pestered them for a 10,000 yen photobook of statues of Buddha."

"For Christmas you wanted a photobook of – "

"Statues of Buddha. It's odd, right?"

"Perhaps. A little."

While they were both giggling, the train stopped and the door they were standing next to opened. The two of them stood back and watched as the train seemed to breathe, exhaling old passengers and inhaling new ones. Then the train's mouth closed, and it resumed its rattling journey. At that point, Noriko resumed their conversation.

"I want to talk to you about Touko."

"Touko-chan?"

Shimako-san cocked her head. That name had only been mentioned in passing in their earlier conversation. Noriko's classmate, the girl who may or may not be going to the amusement park. Someone who probably considered Noriko her friend.

"I asked Touko to tell me the details about her date with Yumi-sama. This was after the report had been published in the Lillian Kawaraban. I asked her casually, without thinking about it too hard, since they were now safely soeurs."

"Ohh."

"I thought the report was just an excerpt, but I was wrong. The places they went were all in there. Then I started wondering, did that mean that anybody could follow the same trail as them and have the same date. I can't explain it all that well, but the things that weren't written in the report – their conversations and emotions – those would probably be completely different."

Noriko asked herself, "What am I trying to say?" Certainly, when she started this conversation there had been something she wanted to say to Shimako-san. But the more she talked, the further it seemed she was getting from that, to the point where she had become trapped in a maze of her own words.

But Shimako-san didn't hurry her, instead listening to Noriko's words with a calm expression. Not dragging her forwards, just waiting nonchalantly by the exit. That kind of feeling.

"When she was a baby, Touko's real parents both died in a car accident. She went to visit the location of that accident with Yumi."

"Hold on a moment."

Shimako-san interrupted her.

"Is this something you should be telling me?"

What Noriko had just blurted out may have been something she was told by Touko in confidence. It was therefore only natural that Shimako-san would want to confirm that it was okay.

"Yeah."

Noriko nodded.

"Touko said it was okay if I told you. That she knew it was painful to keep things from your onee-sama."

Actually, Touko had laughed. She said that Rosa Chinensis and Yumi-sama already knew, so there was no need to hide it anymore.

It seemed that, for Touko, the main question had been whether or not Yumi-sama knew about this. Since she had broken through that barrier and was able to speak openly with Yumi-sama, it was of no concern if the rest of her friends knew as well. If anything, she seemed revitalized by it, although that was a poor way of putting it.

"I see."

Shimako-san nodded slightly, then her expression changed to one of understanding.

"If I had known that during the Christmas party, I could have had a different conversation with her."

"Christmas party?"

Again, an old conversation was mentioned. About three months old, now.

"Back then, she asked if I would succeed my father in the family business."

"Ahh – "

That explains it. This time it was Noriko with the expression of understanding.

Touko had told her that her grandfather owned a hospital near the accident site and that her father had no plans to succeed him. Apparently she was thinking about shouldering the burden of the hospital in her father's place. Shimako-san's family ran a temple, so perhaps Touko asked because she thought it could serve as a reference.

"So, what was your response, Shimako-san?"

"I said I wasn't sure, but thought it would be better if my older brother succeeded my father."

"I see."

Shimako-san had a much older brother. He was an enigma of a man, who at one point was a Buddhist monk but now occasionally made sweets (apparently).

"But even if I had known about the accident, I still wouldn't have been able to offer any pertinent advice. Everybody is different, so my experience wouldn't necessarily apply."

At that point, Noriko equivocally said, "I guess so," and let the matter drop. People who had lived long lives had all kinds of experiences so could more easily place themselves in the other person's position, whereas someone who was only a little bit older wouldn't be able to offer much advice. Noriko knew that was the prevailing view amongst the general population.

So Noriko returned to their earlier conversation. There was something she wanted to hear Shimako-san's opinion on.

"I was useless. I'd blundered into this heavy conversation in a light, thoughtless manner. I didn't know what I should have said to Touko – "

Noriko was just as useless in this current conversation, although she hadn't yet realized it.

She believed that Shimako would smile and warn her to show more discretion in the future.

Instead, what awaited her was Shimako-san's serious face.

"When Touko-chan told you this, was it a heavy burden for you?"

"Huh?"

"Did you regret that you heard it, Noriko?"

Why was Shimako-san throwing these questions at her?

"I'm not sure. Why do you ask?"

Noriko really wasn't sure of her true feelings, but what would Shimako-san's reaction have been if she had said that it was a heavy burden and that she did regret hearing it?

Shimako-san wasn't Touko. So why was she fixated on this?

[[Image:MM_v30_p069.png|thumb]]

Suddenly, Noriko's heart started hammering in her chest.

(What was it that Shimako-san had said about the Christmas party?)

She said, "If I had known that during the Christmas party, I could have had a different conversation with her."

("If I had known that" – what was the 'that'?)

That Touko wasn't really her parent's child.

(No way.)

Noriko looked at Shimako-san.

"It looks like I'm the useless one again."

Shimako-san silently turned and looked straight at her.

"To me, it's not that big a deal. So I was going to bring it up as a casual conversation, without thinking that it might be a difficult thing to hear."

Wait, don't just keep the conversation flowing. At least, not until she'd had some time to mentally prepare herself. Just as she was thinking this, Noriko realized she already had some inkling of where this conversation was headed.

"On top of that, I haven't found a way to tactfully broach the subject."

Noriko wanted to avert her gaze. To close her ears. But she couldn't. Shimako-san had already noticed.

"But I see you've already figured it out, Noriko."

"Shimako-san."

Noriko wanted to cry, not knowing what else to do. But that was the one thing she couldn't do. Noriko desperately repeated this to herself like a mantra. Shimako-san still hadn't said anything.

"Right."

Shimako-san smiled.

"I'm not the child of my two parents."

Noriko thought that it would have kept gnawing away at her mind if she had managed to evade this conversation. Therefore, Shimako-san's choice was definitely the correct one.

Still, even if she had managed to deduce it, it was still a shock to hear the truth coming directly from Shimako-san's mouth.

She was also shocked at the fact that she was currently shocked.

Noriko was thrown into confusion, questioning why she was shocked.

Regardless of whose child Shimako-san was, Shimako-san was Shimako-san and Noriko's feelings for her shouldn't change.

So then, why was she so upset?

Was it a feeling of pity that Shimako-san didn't know her parents? Was it the shock momentarily overwhelming her sense of compassion?

A family didn't have to be bonded by blood. There were plenty of parents lovingly raising non-blood-related children. Conversely, there were also blood-related families that were miserable.

"We'll discuss this properly. Let's get off the train."

Shimako-san took hold of Noriko's hand.

"Huh?"

"This is where we change trains, right?"

When the doors opened, the two of them were caught in the crowd of passengers getting off the train. Noriko looked up and saw the name of the station and, sure enough, this was the place where they had to get off.

Even so, they both remained motionless for a while. After watching the other passengers get sucked into the stairway, they sat down on an empty bench.

"I know you've met my older brother. But, the truth is, … there was another brother, older than Masafumi."

Shimako-san spoke in past tense – 'There was another brother.'

"He was my real father."

"So then..."

The chief priest at Shouguuji was Shimako-san's –

"My grandfather. Although they're now listed as my parents in the family register."

"What happened to your real mother and father?"

"They died. Much like Touko-chan, it happened when I was just a baby."

"When did you find out about it?"

"I've always known about it – my parents explained it to me when I was very young. Perhaps they would have tried to hide it from me if my real parents had been strangers, but since their son was my father, it was bound to come out sooner or later."

Traces of their dead son's life undoubtedly remained in various places around the house. It would be hard to remove them all so that Shimako-san never saw them. It would probably be equally difficult to tell Shimako-san that he was her elder brother. And it would be nigh-impossible to keep that a secret in a place like their temple, with so many people coming and going. As the eldest son of the head priest, he would have been known to everyone in the community.

"So that's why it's not something that I find particularly worth mentioning."

Like pointing at fresh leaves and teaching her that they were the color green. Or like teaching her that a priest was a job, much like a fishmonger or chauffeur. She had been taught that she had dead parents, and living parents. That was how Shimako-san spoke about it.

"Since it was all so natural to me, I never realized that it was such a serious topic. If I had known, I would have told you earlier. I'm sorry, Noriko."

Noriko looked down and shook her head numerous times.

The reason it had never come up in conversation wasn't because Shimako-san was hiding it, but because she wasn't aware that it was special.

Even now, Shimako-san probably didn't think of it that way. Despite that, she had adopted a serious expression and spoke about the matter as though it were of importance. Noriko felt like she was the one who should apologize.

But if she apologized here, Shimako-san would be even more conscious of her feelings. Therefore, she mustn't appear gloomy.

"Noriko?"

Shimako-san was inquiring if she was alright, so Noriko smiled.

"I'm fine. It just took me by surprise is all."

Noriko rose from the bench, indicating it was about time they left. If they waited around here too long then the next train would arrive and the platform would once more be full of people.

"Okay. Lead the way, please."

"Leave it to me."

Noriko nodded, took hold of Shimako-san's hand and cheerfully headed towards the staircase.

Looking back on it, her cheerfulness has probably been a front to hide her confusion, a false bravado, as she hadn't yet regained her presence of mind.

Even though Noriko knew the area quite well, and even though they got on the right train line, they caught the in-bound train rather than the out-bound train they were supposed to catch.

As a result, when they finally arrived at the amusement park thirty minutes late, Noriko was feeling doubly depressed. No longer able to squeeze out any more bravado, she had become reticent.

The bear from the parade that had been shaking Shimako-san's hand made his way over to Noriko, and patted her on the shoulder.

She couldn't hear what the man inside the bear costume was saying, but he seemed to be encouraging her to "Cheer up."

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume28 Chapter18

2017-08-29T18:07:59Z

Ambjoorn:

==A Roll of Film==

The characteristic smell of the permanent marker accompanied its squeaking sound.

The words I wrote on the roll of film (27 shots) after I'd taken it out of its box were 'Takeshima Tsutako.'

All I'd done was write the katakana that made up her name, but it still made my heart flutter a little. Who knows what would have happened if I'd written out the oh-so-familiar kanji form of her name, instead of giving up on that idea due to lack of space. My heart might have gone from fluttering to pounding, and I may have fallen to my knees.

That'd be no good, no good at all. This was still part of the toilet block, after all, even if it was cleaned every day. Leaning against the wall would be about the limit.

And as for why my heart was fluttering, and why I was holed up, working away in a deserted bathroom after school, all those questions are answered by the one reason.

And that reason is because I am not 'Takeshima Tsutako.' My real name is Naitou Shouko.

And even though I am not Takeshima Tsutako, I wrote Takeshima Tsutako and I did not follow it with the honorific '-sama.' I suppose that would account for the fluttering heart. It's almost the same feeling you get when you write your name next to your bosom buddy's, or you write your first name followed by the last name of a guy you like. Ahh, that's so embarrassing.

It all started with a single statement from a third-year onee-sama (senior).

"Shouko-chan, you'll be displaying something for the photography exhibit, right?"

"Huh? No, don't be absurd."

The onee-samas may have called it a photography exhibit, but it was part of the 'Third-years' Send-off' and a group display that we could either choose to participate in, or not. Since our photography club had responded to the request for participation promptly, we'd already been allocated our space.

"If a newbie like me were to display her work, it would sully the good name of the photography club."

"Oh, but you've been paying such close attention to how Tsutako-chan works, haven't you?"

The five third-years exchanged glances and laughed. I can stand up to them when it's just one-on-one, but it was more intense encountering all of them in the photography club at once. It felt ominous. Although, having seen the list of photography club members, I knew that not all of them were here yet.

"I don't pay close attention to her, that's absurd. I just take care to make sure I'm not getting in her way."

I backed away, smiling insincerely. It looked like I wouldn't be able to match wits with them, since they were two years older and almost adult women.

"Well. Okay. But about the exhibition. Even though us third-years are participating, it's for the 'Third-years' Send-off,' so the feeling of starting a new chapter in your life is important. We want to be in a position to congratulate our adorable Shouko-chan on her memorable display."

"Haa."

What she was saying sounded plausible enough, but the onee-samas only thought of me as a new toy.

Tsutako-sama was a year younger than them but still didn't hesitate to call herself the 'Photography Club's Ace.' And since they couldn't find a gap in Tsutako-sama's defenses, they instead took great delight in alternatively teasing and caressing (who they thought was) her henchman, ie. me. You could even say it was a warped form of affection.

Like today, they'd banned the second-years from coming to the clubhouse because they said they were going to be developing some photos, but they sweet-talked me into going with them (by saying, "Tsutako-chan will be there too,") when I was walking down the hallway. But when I entered the club room, far from developing film they were having a candy party. At this point, nothing would shock me.

[[Image:MM_v28_243.png|thumb]]

"It's not about good or bad, it's the thought that counts, right?"

Timidly, I sought confirmation.

"That's true."

One of the onee-samas grinned, then added:

"But it can't be bad. Because it's the thought."

She had confirmed my crunch-time guarantee, but that's the sort of thing you'd expect from a wily old third-year student. In the end, no matter how I struggled they were easily able to maneuver me around. It was even their preference that I refer to them as onee-samas.

"Ah, right, right."

When I was about to leave, one of the onee-samas called out to me.

"Like we were saying, you can't ask Tsutako-chan for help on this one."

"Huh?"

I hadn't even thought about that, but it still upset me that they kept warning me not to get Tsutako-sama to help.

"You'll be fine. We'll help you with developing the film. All you have to do is take the photos by yourself, and bring the film here. Of course, those photos have to be ones that prove to us, no, to everyone that sees them, that you took them all by yourself."

I felt uneasy when they gave me an unused roll of film.

"But how will I … "

Be able to prove that I took them all by myself?

"Don't make that face. You'll work it out, if you think about it. There's at least one way of doing it."

"Huh … ?"

A biscuit was jammed into my open mouth.

"Ah."

As I munched on that confectionery shaped like the door on the second floor of the Rose Mansion, I left the clubhouse behind, almost tumbling out the door.

From there I ran to the university store and bought a permanent marker, then returned to the school grounds and entered the toilet block, where I have just opened the box of film that I was given.

The characteristic smell of the permanent maker accompanied its squeaking sound.

The words I wrote on the roll of film (27 shots) after taking it out of the box were 'Takeshima Tsutako.'

For the next couple of days, I'm going to walk around with this film in my camera.

The significance of the name 'Takeshima Tsutako' written on the film is that I intend to fill it with shots of her.

Without Tsutako-sama noticing. Just thinking about it excites me.

At this point, I still don't know what an ordeal it will become.

I can't even imagine the sort of fuss that the completed film will cause.

<noinclude>

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|-
| Return to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru|Main Page]]
| Back to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume28_Chapter17|Frame of Mind 9]]
| Forward to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume28_Chapter19|Frame of Mind 10]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume26 Chapter5 3

2017-07-06T13:23:56Z

Ambjoorn: /* The Blank Map's Valley. Part 3 */ Missing word?

===<noinclude>The Blank Map's Valley. </noinclude>Part 3===

Touko had arrived in front of the social studies prep room.

She checked the map, just in case. It was inside the treasure hunt area.

The door wasn't locked. Touko didn't know if anyone was already in there, but she opened the door without knocking anyway.

The room was not particularly large. Despite the poor light it was plain to see that no one else was inside.

The light switch was right by the door. She didn't have to look for it, it was right in the spot she expected when she reached out her hand. Touko walked to the center of the now bright room.

Standing right in the middle, she surveyed the room. This place stored the various teaching aids used in the different social studies classes — Japanese History, World History, geography, civics, and economics.

Her gaze was immediately attracted to a large globe. It didn't look to be all that new, as it had stickers with hand-written names attached to some countries that had recently changed name. There was also rolled-up wall scrolls and old textbooks.

Touko let her gaze pass over these as she slowly walked forward, before coming to a stop in front of a set of shelves enclosed by a glass door.

There was a stack of thin booklets of varying sizes next to the atlases. It was hard to make out the lettering along their spines because they were so thin, but if she strained she could see they all had the same words written on them:

– Blank Maps

She opened the glass door and took out one of those books.

In a sense, these were forms, but none of them were filled out. They may have been made long ago, and some of the pages had brown stains, but they were all brand new as they rested here.

Touko took the next book off the shelf. After flipping through all the pages, she moved on to the next one.

Her heart was thumping. Her hope of finding the card in there was fighting with her uncertainty about what to do if it wasn't.

She ordered herself to calm down, but her fingers kept flipping through the pages of their own accord. Instead of slowing down, they sped up.

"I hate to break it to you, but it's not in here."

These words reached her just as she finished flipping through the last book.

"So it seems."

Touko returned the books to the cupboard, closed the door, and turned around. She'd known it was Noriko standing there from the first word she spoke.

"What's with the blank maps?"

Noriko asked. From Noriko's position, she'd only be able to see Touko's back, so the blank maps must have been a good guess. It didn't seem like she had a good understanding of where everything was in here because there was something special stored here.

It wasn't here. Since Noriko had said that, it was pretty certain that the red card was hidden in a different location.

So why had Noriko appeared? It was hard to imagine her tailing Touko here from the classroom. By all rights, she should be in the Rose Mansion.

"Was there something between you and Yumi-sama related to blank maps?"

Noriko questioned her again.

"—"

Touko didn't mind if Noriko knew about this, but she didn't know how to explain it.

Noriko may have interpreted her silence as a desire to not discuss this, as she changed tack with her next question.

"Do you think Yumi-sama hid her card where she did because she wanted you to find it? Is that why you're here?"

That was exactly right. As expected of Noriko. Even though she didn't know the significance of the blank maps, she'd deduced the reason that Touko had come to the social studies prep room.

"Are you here to laugh at my conceit?"

Touko fired back and Noriko looked completely serious as she denied this.

"Not at all. If you think that Yumi-sama hid her card here so that you could find it, then there's something I have to tell you."

"What—"

"You're taking Yumi-sama far too lightly."

Those words pierced Touko's heart. Sachiko-onee-sama had said something similar the other day, so maybe it was just that she couldn't block it out any more.

She'd been acting high and mighty, looking down on Yumi-sama.

"Yumi-sama cherishes you, but she's not the sort of person to hide her card somewhere where only you could find it."

She was Rosa Chinensis en bouton; she would soon be Rosa Chinensis — Noriko's eyes were saying this.

"I get it, truly. You're here in this small room because you're searching for Yumi-sama. But no matter how you look, Yumi-sama isn't in here. Yumi-sama's bigger than you imagine. So big that she can't fit in this room. That's why you can't see her, Touko."

Noriko sniffled.

"You don't understand Yumi-sama's heart."

Noriko might have been crying. But why would she be crying?

"You like Yumi-sama, right Touko? She's the only one you rely on. Why can't you trust your own instincts? You have to face her head on."

[[Image:MM_v26_111.png|thumb]]

Noriko grabbed Touko's hands and squeezed them tight, like Touko had done in the courtyard after school last Saturday.

"Back then, I thought you wanted to escape from this situation. Was I wrong?"

"—"

"But if you keep yourself hidden away in this small room, you won't reach Yumi-sama's heart. If you remain how you are, you're never going to find Yumi-sama's card."

Noriko freed her hands from Touko's and wiped the back of her hand in a line across her own cheek. Then, apparently satisfied with what she'd conveyed, she walked off towards the door.

Noriko looked like she was going to leave it at that, so Touko called out to her friend's back.

"Aren't you just saying what you want to say?"

Then Noriko stopped, turned around, and said:

"I'm your friend, so I'd have to say something even if I didn't want to."

After Noriko had left, Touko looked up at the ceiling and let out a sigh.

"Good grief."

Only Noriko and her meddling could have left her feeling unsatisfied about staying in this room. Smiling slightly to herself, Touko left the social studies prep room.

There was no point stopping here, since no one she cared about what was in the room.

(What should I do when I leave?)

She'd made up her mind.

She'd go and see her.

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume26 Chapter4 2

2017-07-06T13:21:53Z

Ambjoorn: /* A Shortcut and Dropping In on the Way. Part 2 */ Was there a mistake in TL? If not, undo this change.

===<noinclude>A Shortcut and Dropping In on the Way. </noinclude>Part 2===

"It looks like the hints are only for Shimako-san's card...."

Seven hints, apparently.

While she hadn't yet encountered a second hint, she'd more or less figured it out by catching fragments of conversations between students that were walking around the grounds looking at their maps. While some of it may have been bogus information, she heard the word "hint" paired with "White Rose" numerous times, but never with "Red" or "Yellow Rose."

("Ta" is the "ta" from Tanuma. "Ma" is the "ma" from Tanuma. Yeah, right.)

Chisato smiled.

It was fun. A year ago, she never would have believed that the treasure hunt could be this fun.

Last year, she'd approached it with a win-at-all-costs attitude, thinking that she absolutely had to get Rei-sama's card and the half-day date that came with it. She hadn't allowed herself the luxury of enjoying it, instead she'd cast off her pride and adopted the tactic of following Yoshino-san, who seemed most likely to know where Rei-sama's card was. This idea had also occurred to some other fans of Rei-sama, and they joined forces.

In the end, while Yoshino-san made a baffling stopover in the library, they'd combed through some likely looking books and found the yellow card. Chisato then won the game of scissors-paper-rock, granting her the ticket for a half-day date. Ah, youth.

(Last year, I was thinking it didn't matter how I got it.)

Naturally, the game of scissors-paper-rock had been above board. She hadn't waited until she saw her opponent's move, or anything like that.

"I heard there was a 'ku' in the old greenhouse."

As Chisato walked towards the library, a lively pair of first-years dashed past.

("Ku." … That's another one for the list.)

With lots of people moving around, the chances of this sort of information leaking out were high. Those girls were chatting normally, seemingly unaware that a rival was nearby and that they'd just handed her a clue.

In a similar vein, they'd be better off acting independently. In the rare event that they did happen to speak to themselves, it would only be to themselves, and wouldn't be loud enough to carry to someone else. Plus, if they did find the treasure, they'd have it all to themselves and wouldn't have to play scissors-paper-rock.

(What a pity. There's no "ku" in Tanuma.)

Well, she knew from the outset that that wouldn't be the solution. At any rate, the characters she knew were "ta," "ma," and "ku." If the seven characters were all collected and placed in the correct order, they'd probably point to the hiding place.

(Ta/ma/ku, ta/ku/ma … ta/ku/ma/shi/i (strong)?)

That wasn't right, it only used five characters.

(Maybe something like ta/ku/ma/shi/i se/i/to (strong student)?)

She counted this out on her fingers. That wasn't right either, it had one character too many. But more than that, what would "strong student" mean? How would anyone get the hiding place from that?

(Let's just pause this.)

Chisato suspended her speculations and entered the library. If she had the other four hints, then she might be able to come up with an answer — but she had absolutely no confidence that she would be able to.

Aside from that, Chisato's preferred target this time around was Yoshino-san's yellow card.

However, with all due respect to Yoshino-san, Chisato wasn't absolutely desperate to go on a date with her, unlike last year. But it would leave everyone gobsmacked if she found the yellow card two years in a row. Just thinking about it brought a smile to her lips, so she'd taken it on as a challenge. Adding to the entertainment was her own opinion that last year's finder of Shimako-san's card, Rosa Canina, had felt the same way.

Now then.

There were a lot more students in the reading room than usual.

That was to be expected. The yellow card had been found in the reading room last year. It seemed obvious enough that the students that knew this would want to check here, just in case.

(That's pretty much why I came here too.)

But Chisato ignored the not-for-loan books on prices in the Edo period, where the card was found last year. Whatever the circumstances, having the card hidden in the same spot two years in a row was uninspired. Even if it was meant as a double bluff, enough time had elapsed since the start for it to be found.

(Instead of that.)

Chisato walked over to the "How-to" section.

(If I remember correctly....)

Last year, Yoshino-san had been looking through books in this area. Chisato followed Yoshino-san's actions from last year and flipped through the books in the cooking and handicraft shelves.

It had stuck with her ever since then. Why had Yoshino-san been fixated on this section? What made her think that the card was hidden in one of these books?

That pair had such a unique relationship, it might be they alone could answer those questions.

Even so, Chisato couldn't help but look. And since it was Yoshino-san's turn to hide the card this year, perhaps she had chosen this location.

"Oh, is that you, Tanuma Chisato-san?"

A voice called out to her from behind, just as she'd established that her search had been in vain.

"Ah...."

She turned around and there was —

"Gokigenyou."

The Photography Club's ace, Takeshima Tsutako-san, was standing there, holding her trademark camera and smiling. She was accompanied by a first-year, and Chisato asked if this was her petite s&oelig;ur, to which Tsutako-san replied in the negative. Although, from the outside, they did look like a close pair of s&oelig;urs.

Tsutako-san gently raised her camera and said:

"It must be fate that we met here. Do you mind if I take a photo? I'll call it, let's see, 'Last Year's Winner.' You wouldn't be opposed to it appearing in the Lillian Kawaraban, right?"

"Not at all. By all means, take the photo. It'll make a nice memento."

Chisato happily agreed. Then she followed along as Tsutako-san indicated where she should stand. They were still in the reference section, but the different lighting or background probably made for a better picture overall. Although Tsutako-san said that when she captured the decisive moment she didn't concern herself about such things.

"Although, if possible, I'd like to drop 'Last Year's' from that title."

Chisato said as she looked straight at the camera lens.

"Oh, that's good. In that case, I'll have to change the title. 'Back to Back Winner' … no, how about, 'Winner Again This Year'?"

A flash of light and the sweet sound of the shutter clicking overlaid Tsutako-san's voice. Just like she'd said earlier, the flash and the shutter only went off once. But, because of that, Chisato had the feeling that it would be a good photo. Every single one of Tsutako-san's photos was the real deal.

"Thanks for your cooperation."

"I'd like a copy of that, okay?"

"Of course."

A couple of students were attracted by the flash, but most of them didn't notice as they kept searching for the cards. Tsutako-san had probably been taking photos before Chisato had arrived and they were used to it by now.

It looked like Tsutako-san and the younger girl had hit upon a likely hiding place and were combing the area as thoroughly as possible. So even if they didn't capture the moment of victory, they'd still be able to get lots of good pictures of students searching for the cards.

Tsutako-san said that she'd turned down all the requests for commemorative s&oelig;ur photos in front of the statue of Maria-sama for the duration of this year's treasure hunt, so that she could dedicate herself to the event.

Then Chisato floated a question:

"You're not part of the event staff, Tsutako-san?"

Tsutako-san was holding the exact same map that Chisato had. The one that was printed along with the entry form; the half that the participants were left with. Since she was holding that, it meant —

"No."

Tsutako-san confirmed this.

"I'm not an organizer, just a regular participant. Although Mami-san did tell me that the Lillian Kawaraban would print any good photos I took."

"But surely it would have been better if you were involved in the event."

If she knew where the cards were, she could wait nearby and get a great shot. But apparently that was thinking too shallowly, because Tsutako-san said:

"Sure, I'd love to get a shot of the moment a card was found. But, because of that, me being in a location would instantly reveal to the participants that it was a hiding place, right?"

"I see."

Chisato clapped her hands together. Tsutako-san knowing the hiding locations would spoil the treasure hunt.

"Besides, even if I knew where all three cards were hidden, I'm only one person."

Tsutako-san folded her arms and let out a sigh. She seemed to be seriously considering this scenario, even though it was only hypothetical. Asking herself where she would wait, in that situation.

— Indeed, it was quite the conundrum.

User:Ambjoorn

2017-02-01T14:49:41Z

Ambjoorn: Oops, wrong blood type.

A humble reader in his twenties, trying his best to maximize the enjoyment of reading the novels through minor grammar and spelling corrections.

==Languages==
These are the languages I'm fluent in:
*Swedish
*German
*English

I also have a small proficiency in multiple basic coding languages.

==Information about myself==
*Gender: Male
*Zodiac: Taurus
*Blood-type: B+ (RhD positive)
*Born: 3rd May 1994

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!

2016-07-05T07:29:46Z

Ambjoorn: Undo revision 495481 by Apelmerah (talk)

{{Status|Active}}

[[Image:Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! v01 cover.jpeg|thumb|Volume 1 Cover]]
'''''Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!''''' (この素晴らしい世界に祝福を!, ''Gifting the Wonderful World with Blessings!'') is a Japanese light novel series written by Akatsuki Natsume and illustrated by Mishima Kurone. It is ongoing with 7 volumes. An anime adaptation of 10 episodes aired from Jan 14, 2016 to Mar 17, 2016.

==Story Synopsis==
Kazuma Satou is a shut-in who loves games, but his life suddenly ends ... Appearing before him is a beautiful girl claiming to be a goddess. Kazuma, who was transported to a different world, works hard to earn a living! Kazuma wants to live a stable life, but he's burdened with problems caused by the goddess he brought along to the different world with him. He was even targeted by the demon king's army!?

==Translations==

Translations and editing by [http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/ Skythewood Translations]

==Updates==
* September 23, 2015 - Volume 4, Epilogue Complete
* September 16, 2015 - Volume 4, Chapter 5 Complete
* September 09, 2015 - Volume 4, Chapter 4 Complete
* September 02, 2015 - Volume 4, Chapter 3 Complete
* August 26, 2015 - Volume 4, Chapter 2 Complete
* August 19, 2015 - Volume 4, Chapter 1 Complete
* August 14, 2015 - Volume 4, Prologue Complete
* July 2, 2015 - Volume 3, Epilogue Complete
* June 24, 2015 - Volume 3, Chapter 4 Complete
* June 17, 2015 - Volume 3, Chapter 3 Complete
* June 10, 2015 - Volume 3, Chapter 2 Complete
* June 3, 2015 - Volume 3, Chapter 1 Complete
* May 27, 2015 - Volume 3, Prologue Complete
* March 12, 2015 - Volume 2, Epilogue Complete
* March 12, 2015 - Volume 2, Chapter 5 Complete
* March 5, 2015 - Volume 2, Chapter 4 Complete
* February 26, 2015 - Volume 2, Chapter 3 Complete
* February 19, 2015 - Volume 2, Chapter 2 Complete
* February 13, 2015 - Volume 2, Prologue and Chapter 1 Complete
* December 25, 2014 - Volume 1 Complete
* December 23, 2014 - Volume 1 Started

==The ''Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!'' series by Akatsuki Natsume ==

===Volume 1: Ah! My Useless Goddess! ([http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/p/gifting-wonderful-world-with-blessings.html Full Volume])===
[[Image:Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! v01 cover.jpeg|right|150px]]

*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Prologue]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 1: Arriving in This Alternate World With Someone Claiming To Be a Goddess!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 2: Stealing Treasures (Panties) With My Right Hand!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 3: Adding Fresh Goddess juice Into the Lake!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 4: Ending This Poor Excuse of a Fight!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Epilogue]

 

===Volume 2: Even with Chuunibyou, I Want to Be a Witch!===
[[Image:Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! v02 cover.jpeg|right|150px]]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Prologue]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 1: Trading these true companions of mine away!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 2: Gifting the master of the dungeon with peace!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 3: Offering a helping hand to the ghost of a young girl!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 4: Gifting this wonderful shop with blessings!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 5: Burning the tyrannical fortress!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Epilogue]
 

===Volume 3: They are calling for you, Darkness-san!===
[[Image:Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! v03 cover.jpeg|right|150px]]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Prologue]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 1: Requesting aid against this unjust sentencing!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 2: Helping the Crimson Magic girl make friends!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 3: Gifting the aristocratic lady with marriage!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 4: Turning the masked knight into a slave!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Epilogue]
 

===Volume 4: The Useless Quartet===
[[Image:Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! v04 cover.jpeg|right|150px]]

*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Prologue]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 1: Bidding Farewell to this Annoying World!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 2: Gifting these shameless blockheads with a warm welcome!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 3: Sightseeing in this pain in the ass city!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 4: Gifting this Suspicious Incident with Aid!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 5: Gifting this Polluted Hot Spring City with a Goddess!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Epilogue]

 

===Volume 5: Let's Go, Crimson Magic of Explosion!===
[[Image:Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! v05 cover.jpeg|right|150px]]

*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Prologue]. Also on the [https://kntranslation.wordpress.com/2015/10/16/kono-suba-vol-5-prologue/ kntranslation]
*[https://kntranslation.wordpress.com/konosuba-5-chapter-1/ Chapter 1: Let's give this serious letter a decision!]
*[https://kntranslation.wordpress.com/konosuba-5-chapter-2/ Chapter 2: Let’s make these boisterous beast-eared girls into my harem!]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 3: Making a temporary stop in this village that makes my balls hurt ]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 4: Gifting a proper excuse in this restless night! ]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2016/01/received-dmca-for-gifting_6.html Chapter 5: Sending Explosions to this damn ruins! ]
 

===Volume 6: The Princess of the Six Flowers===
[[Image:Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! v06 cover.jpg|right|150px]]
 

===Volume 7: 110 Millions Bride (Priceless Bride)===
[[Image:Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! v07 cover.jpg|right|150px]]
 

==Project Staff==
*Project Administrator:
*Project Supervisor:
===Translators===
:*[http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/ Skythewood Translations]
:*[https://kntranslation.wordpress.com/ kntranslation]

===Editors===

==Series Overview==
# 《この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! あぁ、駄女神さま》, 2013-09-28, ISBN 978-4-0410-1020-4
# 《この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! (2) 中二病でも魔女がしたい!》, 2013-11-30, ISBN 978-4-0410-1110-2
# 《この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! (3) よんでますよ、ダクネスさん。》, 2014-02-28, ISBN 978-4-0410-1242-0
# 《この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! (4) 鈍ら四重奏 ~ナマクラカルテット~》, 2014-04-26, ISBN 978-4-0410-1570-4
# 《この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! (5) 爆裂紅魔にレッツ&ゴー!!》, 2014-08-30, ISBN 978-4-0410-1571-1
# 《この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! (6) 六花の王女》, 2015-02-28, ISBN 978-4-04-102267-2
# 《この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! (7) 億千万の花嫁》, 2015-08-29, ISBN 978-4-0410-3539-9

[[Category:Light novel (English)]]
[[Category:Linked Project]]

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar

2016-07-05T07:28:15Z

Ambjoorn: Undo revision 495484 by Apelmerah (talk)

[[Image:Grimgal_V1_cover.jpg‎|thumb|300px|Volume 1 Cover]]

'''Hai to Gensou no Grimgar''' (灰と幻想のグリムガル) is an action and fantasy novel written by Ao Jyumonji and illustrated by Eiri Shirai. The series is currently ongoing with eight volumes released. The series has an anime, published by 'FUNimation' and produced by 'A-1 Pictures' & 'Toho Company'. As of now, three of the seven volumes have been translated by translation group NanoDesu, with translation of the fourth volume currently in progress.

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar is also available in the following languages:
*[[Hai_to_Gensou_no_Grimgar_-_Fran%C3%A7ais|Français (French)]]
*[[Hai_to_Gensou_no_Grimgar_(Indonesia)|Bahasa (Indonesia)]]

==Novel Summary==
Before Haruhiro had realized what happened, he was surrounded by darkness. Why was he here? Where was here? Even now, he still didn’t know. Those around him were the same as him, no one remembered anything other than their own names. And when they emerged from the darkness, the world that awaited them seemed like something out of a videogame.

In order to survive, Haruhiro forms a party with the others, learns fighting skills, and as a soldier in the reserve force, takes his first steps into the world of Grimgar. What awaits him there, he doesn't know…

This the story of an adventure born from the ashes.

== Updates ==
(DD/MM/YY)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Release Date !! Volume # !! Chapter # !! Part #
|-
| '''08 May 16''' || Level 3|| Chapter 15|| Part 1/1
|-
| '''15 May 16''' || Level 3|| Chapter 16|| Part 1/3
|-
| '''22 May 16''' || Level 3|| Chapter 16|| Part 2/3
|-
| '''29 May 16''' || Level 3|| Chapter 16|| Part 3/3
|-
| '''05 Jun 16''' || Level 4|| Chapter 0|| Part 1/1
|}

Older updates can be found [[Hai_to_Gensou_no_Grimgar: Updates|here]].

==The ''Hai to Gensou no Grimgar'' series by Ao Jyumonji==

This novel is hosted from [https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/ Nanodesu].

'''All main links below are external links to [http://nanodesutranslations.wordpress.com/ NanoDesu]'''

'''WARNING:''' The illustrations contain possible spoilers.
 

===Level 1ː A Whisper, an Aria, a Prayer, an Awakening ([https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/pdf-and-epub/ PDF/ePub from Nanodesu])===
[[image:Grimgal_V1_cover.jpg|left|300px|border]]
<table border=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td>
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/color-illustrations// Illustrations]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-0-6/chapter-0/ Chapter 0]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-0-6/chapter-1/ Chapter 1: Without Knowing Anything]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-0-6/chapter-2-lost-and-out-of-options/ Chapter 2: Lost and Out of Options]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-0-6/chapter-3-yorozu/ Chapter 3: Yorozu]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-0-6/chapter-4-enjoying-life-in-a-guild/ Chapter 4: Enjoying Life in a Guild]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-0-6/chapter-5-rendezvous/ Chapter 5: Rendevous]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-0-6/chapter-6-1-1-warrior/ Chapter 6: +1/-1 Warrior]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-7-13/chapter-7-slow-start/ Chapter 7: Slow Start]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-7-13/chapter-8-persistence/ Chapter 8: Persistence]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-7-13/chapter-9-heavy-resolution/ Chapter 9: Heavy Resolution]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-7-13/chapter-10-damroww/ Chapter 10: Damroww]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-7-13/chapter-11-dont-go/ Chapter 11: Don't Go]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-7-13/chapter-12-where-to-turn-now/ Chapter 12: Where to turn now?]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-7-13/chapter-13-crucial-piece/ Chapter 13: Crucial Piece]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-14-20/chapter-14-silvers-gold-coin/ Chapter 14: Silver's Gold Coin]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-14-20/chapter-15-apologies/ Chapter 15: Apologies]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-14-20/chapter-16-aiming-for-the-top/ Chapter 16: Aiming for the Top]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-14-20/chapter-17-to-hold-dear/ Chapter 17: To Hold Dear]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-14-20/chapter-18-her-reasons/ Chapter 18: Her Reasons]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-14-20/chapter-19-ad-interim-tomorrow/ Chapter 19: Ad Interim, Tomorrow]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-14-20/chapter-20-not-quite-glories-of-the-goblin-slayers/ Chapter 20: Not-Quite-Glories of the Goblin Slayers]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-21-23/chapter-21-the-fine-line-between-innocence/ Chapter 21: The Fine Line Between Innocence]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-21-23/chapter-22-our-offering-to-you/ Chapter 22: Our Offering to You]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapters-21-23/chapter-23-prologue/ Chapter 23: Prologue]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/afterword/ Afterword]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/appendix/ Appendix]
</td></tr></table> 

===Level 2: Everything is Precious, Nothing is Replaceable ([https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/pdf-and-epub/ PDF/ePub from Nanodesu])===
[[image:Grimgal_V2_cover.jpg|left|300px|border]]
<table border=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td>
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/color-illustrations/ Illustrations]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/the-story-so-far/ The Story So Far...]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/characters/ Characters]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-1-5/chapter-1-a-different-level/ Chapter 1: A Different Level]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-1-5/chapter-2-inept-executive/ Chapter 2: Inept Executive]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-1-5/chapter-3-the-law-of-non-inertial-inertia/ Chapter 3: The Law of Non-inertial Inertia]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-1-5/chapter-4-pitch-black-style/ Chapter 4: Pitch-Black Style]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-1-5/chapter-5-container/ Chapter 5: Container]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-6-10/chapter-6-taking-the-long-way-around/ Chapter 6: Taking the Long Way Around]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-6-10/chapter-7-leave-it-to-the-master/ Chapter 7: Leave it to the Master]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-6-10/chapter-8-grasping-beyond-reach/ Chapter 8: Grasping Beyond Reach]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-6-10/chapter-9-let-go-of-jealousy/ Chapter 9: Let Go of Jealousy]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-6-10/chapter-10-not-supposed-to-be-cool/ Chapter 10: Not Supposed to be Cool]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-11-15/chapter-11-leave-this-to-me/ Chapter 11: Leave this to me!]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-11-15/chapter-12-critical-time/ Chapter 12: Critical Time]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-11-15/chapter-13-combo/ Chapter 13: Combo]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-11-15/chapter-14-that-boy/ Chapter 14: That Boy]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-11-15/chapter-15-the-rising-falling-dread-knight/ Chapter 15: The Rising-Falling Dread Knight]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-16-and-17/resolution-and-a-wish/ Chapter 16: Resolution & A Wish]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/chapters-16-and-17/chapter-17-lies-and-yesterday-today-and-tomorrow/ Chapter 17: Lies & Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/afterword/ Afterword]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/appendix/ Appendix]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-2/%EF%BD%8Fmake/omake-high-elf/ Omake - High Elf]
</td></tr></table> 

===Level 3: Even the Best Laid Plans go Awry, but Such is This World===
[[image:Grimgal_V3_cover.jpg|left|300px|border]]
<table border=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td>
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/color-illustrations/ Illustrations]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/the-story-so-far/ The Story So Far...]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/characters/ Characters]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/1223-2/chapter-1-myself-natural-talent-and-bittersweetness/ Chapter 1: Myself, Natural Talent, and Bittersweetness]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/1223-2/chapter-2-coincidence/ Chapter 2: Coincidence]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/1223-2/chapter-3-talk-of-unfinished-dreams/ Chapter 3: Talk of Unfinished Dreams]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/1223-2/chapter-4-to-not-get-swept-along/ Chapter 4: To Not Get Swept Along]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/1223-2/chapter-5-just-a-feeling/ Chapter 5: Just a Feeling]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-6-10/chapter-6-outcome-of-the-vote/ Chapter 6: Outcome of the vote]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-6-10/chapter-7-late-into-night/ Chapter 7: Late Into Night]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-6-10/chapter-8-meat-shield/ Chapter 8: Meat Shield]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-6-10/chapter-9-briefing-for-kittens/ Chapter 9: Briefing for Kittens]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-6-10/chapter-10-graduation/ Chapter 10: Graduation]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-11-15/chapter-11-warriors-of-the-frontier/ Chapter 11: Warriors of the Frontier]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-11-15/chapter-12-afterwards/ Chapter 12: Afterwards]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-11-15/chapter-13-our-mistake/ Chapter 13: Our Mistake]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-11-15/chapter-14-words-unspoken-left-unsaid/ Chapter 14: Words Unspoken, Left Unsaid]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-11-15/chapter-15-line-between-life-and-death/ Chapter 15: Line Between Life & Death]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-3/chapters-11-15/chapter-16-last-stand/ Chapter 16: Last Stand]

*Afterword

*Appendix
</td></tr></table> 

===Level 4: Guidance that Guides People===
[[image:Grimgal_V4_cover.jpg|left|300px|border]]
<table border=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td>
*[[Hai to Gensou no Grimgar::Volume 4 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
*[https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/level-4/chapters-0-5/chapter-0/ Chapter 0]
*Chapter 1
*Chapter 2
*Chapter 3
*Chapter 4
*Chapter 5
*Chapter 6
*Chapter 7
*Chapter 8
*Chapter 9
*Chapter 10
*Chapter 11
*Chapter 12
*Chapter 13
*Chapter 14
*Chapter 15
*Chapter 16
*Chapter 17
*Chapter 18
</td></tr></table> 

===Level 5: You Won't Hear Me Laughing===
[[image:Grimgal_V5_cover.jpg|left|300px|border]]
<table border=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td>
*[[Hai to Gensou no Grimgar::Volume 5 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
*Chapter 1
*Chapter 2
*Chapter 3
*Chapter 4
*Chapter 5
*Chapter 6
*Chapter 7
*Chapter 8
*Chapter 9
*Chapter 10
*Chapter 11
</td></tr></table> 

===Level 6: Towards an Inconsequential Glory===
[[image:Grimgal_V6_cover.jpg|left|300px|border]]
<table border=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td>
*[[Hai to Gensou no Grimgar::Volume 6 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
*Chapter 1
*Chapter 2
*Chapter 3
*Chapter 4
*Chapter 5
*Chapter 6
*Chapter 7
*Chapter 8
*Chapter 9
</td></tr></table> 

===Level 7: The Other Side of the Rainbow===
[[image:Grimgal_V7_cover.jpg|left|300px|border]]
<table border=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td>
*[[Hai to Gensou no Grimgar::Volume 7 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
*Chapter 1
*Chapter 2
*Chapter 3
*Chapter 4
*Chapter 5
*Chapter 6
*Chapter 7
*Chapter 8
*Chapter 9
*Chapter 10
*Chapter 11
*Chapter 12
*Chapter 13
*Chapter 14
*Chapter 15
*Chapter 16
*Chapter 17
*Chapter 18
*Chapter 19
</td></tr></table> 

===Level 8: And So, We Will Wait for Tomorrow===
[[image:Grimgal_V8_cover.jpg|left|300px|border]]
<table border=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td>

</td></tr></table> 

==Project Staff==

*Supervisor: N/A
*Project Manager: N/A

===Translators===
ACTIVE
*[http://nanodesutranslations.wordpress.com/ NanoDesu]

===Editors===
All editors who speak English proficiently are welcomed.
*Page Checkers: xland44
*Proofreaders: N/A

== Series Overview ==
*灰と幻想のグリムガル level.1 ささやき、詠唱、祈り、目覚めよ (22 JUN 2013, ISBN 978-4-90-686622-9)
*灰と幻想のグリムガル level.2 大切じゃないものなんか、ない。 (22 NOV 2013, ISBN 978-4-90-686647-2)
*灰と幻想のグリムガル level.3 思い通りに行かないのが世の中だと割り切るしかなくても (22 MAR 2014, ISBN 978-4-90-686669-4)
*灰と幻想のグリムガル level.4 導き導かれし者たち (24 JULY 2014, ISBN 978-4-90-686691-5)
*灰と幻想のグリムガル level.5 笑わないで聞いておくれよ (24 FEB 2015, ISBN 978-4-86-554026-0)
*灰と幻想のグリムガル level.6 とるにたらない栄光に向かって (25 OCT 2015, ISBN 978-4-86554-072-7)
*灰と幻想のグリムガル level.7 彼方の虹 (23 DEC 2015, ISBN 978-4-86-554086-4)
*灰と幻想のグリムガル level.8 そして僕らは明日を待つ (24 MAR 2016, ISBN 978-4-86-554114-4)

[[Category:Linked Project]]
[[Category:NanoDesu Translations]]
[[Category:Light novel (English)]]

The New Gate

2016-05-19T11:27:49Z

Ambjoorn: Removing (Full Text) link because of external website chapters

{{Web_novel|English}}

[[File:The_New_Gate_V01_Cover.jpg|thumb|300px|The cover art of volume 1]]
'''The New Gate''' is a Japanese web novel written by Kazanami Shinogi (風波しのぎ).

==Synopsis==
"THE NEW GATE", an online game that trapped its players and turned into a death game, was now releasing the thousands of players that had been dragged into it, thanks to the efforts of Shin, one of the most powerful players. But after having defeated the last boss and freed everyone, he was swallowed up by a strange light and found himself inside the game world 500 years in the future and unable to leave.... (From Baka-Updates)

== Translation & Editing ==

=== [[The_New_Gate:Registration Page|Registration]] ===

Translators are asked to message [https://shintranslations.com/ shintranslations] beforehand to avoid confusions.

'''Translators are asked to [[The_New_Gate:Registration Page|register]] for chapters they want to work on'''

=== Translators ===
[https://oniichanyamete.wordpress.com oniichanyamete]

[https://shintranslations.com/ shintranslations]

===Guidelines and Formats===

*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]
*[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=The_New_Gate:Names_And_Terms/ List of the Various Names and Terms]

== Original Web Novel ==

Original web published novel can be found here: [http://ncode.syosetu.com/n5711bb/ LINK]

== Updates ==
{{:The_New_Gate:Updates}}

Older updates can be found [[The_New_Gate:Updates|here]].

=="The New Gate" series by Kazanami Shinogi==
===Volume 1 – A Beginning and an End [[The New Gate:Volume 1|(Full Text)]] [http://www.mediafire.com/view/b2nnbplp5dak13p (PDF)]===
[[File:The_New_Gate_V01_Cover.jpg|right|frameless|200px]]

:*[[The New Gate:Volume 1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]

 

===Volume 2 – Wraith Plains [[The New Gate:Volume 2|(Full Text)]] [http://www.mediafire.com/view/5qxjjbaf90959ew (PDF)]===

[[File:The_New_Gate_V02_Cover.jpg|right|frameless|200px]]

:*[[The New Gate:Volume 2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 1| Chapter 1]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 2| Chapter 2]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 3| Chapter 3]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 4| Chapter 4]]

 

===Volume 3 – Falnido Beast Alliance [http://www.mediafire.com/view/r29j3dasha1rzjp (PDF)]===

[[File:The_New_Gate_V03_Cover.jpg|right|frameless|200px]]

:*[[The New Gate:Volume 3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[The New Gate:Volume 3 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]

====Chapter 2====
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-3-chapter-2-part-1/ Chapter 2 – Part 1]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-3-chapter-2-part-2/ Chapter 2 – Part 2]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-3-chapter-2-part-3/ Chapter 2 – Part 3]

====Chapter 3====
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-3-chapter-3-part-1/ Chapter 3 – Part 1]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-3-chapter-3-part-2/ Chapter 3 – Part 2]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-3-chapter-3-part-3/ Chapter 3 – Part 3]

====Chapter 4====
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-3-chapter-4-part-1/ Chapter 4 – Part 1]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-3-chapter-4-part-2/ Chapter 4 – Part 2]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-3-chapter-4-part-3side-story/ Chapter 4 – Part 3 (Side Story)]

 

===Volume 4 – Sacred Land of Blue Ancient===

[[File:Volume-4-Cover-698x1024.png|right|frameless|200px]]

:*[https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-illustrations/ Novel Illustrations]

====Chapter 1====
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-1-part-1/ Chapter 1 – Part 1]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-1-part-2/ Chapter 1 – Part 2]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-1-part-3/ Chapter 1 – Part 3]

====Chapter 2====
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-2-part-1/ Chapter 2 – Part 1]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-2-part-2/ Chapter 2 – Part 2]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-2-part-3/ Chapter 2 – Part 3]

====Chapter 3====
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-3-part-1/ Chapter 3 – Part 1]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-3-part-2/ Chapter 3 – Part 2]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-3-part-3/ Chapter 3 – Part 3]

====Chapter 4====
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-4-part-1/ Chapter 4 – Part 1]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-4-part-2/ Chapter 4 – Part 2]
* [https://shintranslations.com/vol-4-chapter-4-part-3/ Chapter 4 – Part 3]

 

<references/>

[[Category:Linked Project]]

The New Gate:Volume 2

2016-05-18T23:19:38Z

Ambjoorn: Created page with "{{:The New Gate:Volume 2 Illustrations}} {{:The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 1}} {{:The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 2}} {{:The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter..."

{{:The New Gate:Volume 2 Illustrations}}
 
{{:The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 1}}
 
{{:The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 2}}
 
{{:The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 3}}
 
{{:The New Gate:Volume 2 Chapter 4}}
 
== Translator's Notes ==
<references/>

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Return to [[The_New_Gate|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

The New Gate:Volume 1

2016-05-18T18:09:15Z

Ambjoorn: Created page with "{{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Illustrations}} {{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Prologue}} {{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 1}} {{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 2..."

{{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Illustrations}}
 
{{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Prologue}}
 
{{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 1}}
 
{{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 2}}
 
{{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 3}}
 
{{:The New Gate:Volume 1 Chapter 4}}
 
== Translator's Notes ==
<references/>

<noinclude>
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HEAVY OBJECT

2015-11-08T22:25:07Z

Ambjoorn:

{{Status|Active}}

[[Image:Heavy Object v01 cover.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''The cover art of volume 1'']]"HEAVY OBJECT" (ヘヴィーオブジェクト) is a science fiction series by Kazuma Kamachi (鎌池和馬) and illustrated by Ryou Nagi(凪良) published under the Dengeki light novel label. Currently nine volumes have been published. There is also a manga adaptation previously serialized in the monthly magazine of Dengeki Maou.

An '''anime adaptation''' of the light novels is currently under production.

The Heavy Object series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Heavy Object ~ (Spanish)|Español (Spanish)]]
*[[Heavy Object ~ (Indonesia)|Bahasa Indonesia (Bahasa)]]
*[[Heavy_Object_~Russian_Version~|Русский (Russian)]]

== Story Synopsis ==
In the end, war couldn't be extinguished. But, there was a transformation. Even in the heart of a worthless accomplice in murder who was indifferently continuing his task, there was a transformation. The massive weapon "Object". This was a weapon that changed the whole definition of war. An exchange student named Quenser, who was dispatched to the battlefield, met at the base a girl with a strange aura. The girl, dubbed "Elite", is the pilot of "Object". The near future. This diminutive boy had come to take on the role of standing up against the strongest weapon "Object" for the sake of the girl. This was the motive for their first meeting.

== Translation ==

=== [[HEAVY OBJECT:Registration Page|Registration]] ===

'''Translators are asked to [[HEAVY OBJECT:Registration Page|register]] which chapters they are working on'''

===Format Standards===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

===Feedback===
'''If you enjoyed the series, why don't you tell us in the [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4660 Discussion Thread] and give the project a vote'''

==Updates==
*July 30, 2015 Heavy Object Vol.9 '''completed'''.
*June 14, 2014 Heavy Object Vol.8 '''completed'''.
*January 20, 2014 Heavy Object Vol.7 '''completed'''.
*February 5, 2013 Heavy Object Vol.6 '''completed'''.
*December 12, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.5 '''completed'''.
*September 19, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.4 '''completed'''.
*August 22, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.3 '''completed'''.
*July 2, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.2 '''completed'''.
*February 22, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.1 '''completed'''.
*July 23, 2011: Project Page Created. Forum translations by DNK uploaded.

== The "HEAVY OBJECT" Series by Kazuma Kamachi==

=== Volume 1 ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_1|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?8lte9b4umh91gta PDF] - [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4889 ePUB/MOBI]) ===

[[File:Heavy_Object_v01_cover.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - The Rank and File Soldiers that Tie Up Gulliver >> Battle on the Freezing Alaskan Snow]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - Tom Thumb Runs through the Oil Field >> Battle to Prevent Passage through Gibraltar]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - War of the Ant and the Grasshopper >> Battle to Defeat an Oceanian Military Nation]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

=== Volume 2: Adoption War — ''An Audition War'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_2|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?hapktwc4xd9rtf2 PDF])===
[[File:HO v02 009.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - It is Only Natural to get Muddy in an Obstacle Course >> Battle to Control Antarctica]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - A Three Legged Race Up a Mountain is a Matter of Life and Death >> Battle of Shells in the Iguazu Mountains]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - In a Cavalry Battle, Destroy Your Opponent’s Footing >> Total War in Amazon City]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

=== Volume 3: Shadow of the Giants — ''Global Shadow'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_3|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?4e48a34fu12xneu PDF])===
[[File:Heavy_Object_Volume_3_Cover.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - A Grave of Junk is a Mountain of Rare Metals >> Interception at the Remains of the Alaska Battlefield]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - A Coal Mine that Scatters Stacks of Cash >> Nighttime Surprise Blitzkrieg on the Kamchatka Peninsula]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - Honor is Priceless >> Emergency Interception at Victoria Island]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

=== Volume 4: Treasure of Electron Mathematics — ''Theoretical Vein'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_4|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?mq8diobbijo9r8r PDF]) ===
[[File:Heavy_Object_Volume_4_Cover.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - What Should Have Been a Pure Blue Ocean >> Unofficial Battle in the Loyauté District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - Christmas on a White Sand Beach >> Furlough Garrison Battle (?) in the Oceania District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - The Treasure of the Sea Dyed Deep Red >> Defensive Battle in the Solomon District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

=== Volume 5: Festival of Death — ''Purge of Technopics'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_5|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?eqfja9yro4jmgkb PDF] - [http://www.mediafire.com/download/wd52u7b9w4abm2f/ Mobi]) ===
[[File:Heavy_Object_Volume_5_Cover.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

=== Volume 6: Path to the Third Generation — ''The Coming of Third Generation'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_6|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?9yilz1037r7m8b6 PDF] - [http://www.mediafire.com/download/5olrh4u6p4p9kj5/ MOBI] ) ===
[[File:Heavy_Object_Volume_6_Cover.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - The War Broker Closest to Heaven >> Intelligence Battle in the Cook District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - The Team that Carries Out Dirty Jobs More Painful than Hell >> Transportation Battle in the Athabasca District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - The Conspiracy Bank that Motivates Human Greed >> Bombardment Battle in the Amazon District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

=== Volume 7: ''The Police of Ghosts'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_7|Full Text]]) ===
[[File:Heavy_Object_Volume_7_Cover.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: A Deadly Firefight between Two Idiots >> Mock Battle in Oceania]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: My Job is to Transport Paint >> Intelligence Battle in Oceania]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Police are a Means of Stopping War >> Liberation Battle in Oceania]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

=== Volume 8: ''Dominion 70%'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_8|Full Text]])===
[[File:Heavy_Object_Volume_8_Cover.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: A Resource Which Cannot Be Made Plentiful >> Landing on the Island Nation’s Ame-no-Darin]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Where Has the New Model Disappeared To? >> Minesweeping Battle in the Far West Pacific District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Eyes of the Goddess Glowing Deep in the Darkness >> All-Out War in the New Caledonia District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

=== Volume 9: ''Judgement -195℃'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_9|Full Text]])===
[[File:Heavy_Object_Volume_9_Cover.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: Light-Emitting Magician >> Urban Battle of Lost Angels]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Guardian Deity of Talent >> Mountain Battle of Lost Angels]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Obsessive Faith >> Ocean Battle of Lost Angels]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

=== Volume 10: ''The Outer Gods'' ([[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume_10|Full Text]])===
[[File:Heavy_Object_Volume_10_Cover.jpg|right|border|x200px]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: The Season in Which the Flower of Hell Blooms >> Battle for the Arctic Course through the White Sea District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Rapidly Growing Conspiracy Theory >> Joint Military Exercise in the Kariba District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: The Sixth Branch in Full Bloom >> Disturbance Intervention in the Soberania District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Afterword|Afterword]]
 

===Short Story===
This short story was published shortly after the release of the first Heavy Object novel.

:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:ShortStory1|Sandy Short Program >> Second Oceanian Struggle]]

==Official Parody Story==
{{Toaru:Crossover}}

==Project Staff==

*Supervisor: N/A
*Project Manager: N/A

===Translators===
ACTIVE
*[[user:Js06|Js06]]

===Editors===
All editors who speak English proficiently are welcomed.
*[[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] (Proofreader and Formatting)
*[[User:IANightfiend|IANightfiend]] (Will help in any way)
*Page Checkers
:*[[User:Wilfriback|Wilfriback]]
*Proofreaders
:*[[User:Hiro Hayase|Hiro Hayase]]

== Series Overview ==
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト / HEAVY OBJECT (10 OCT 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-868069-1)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト採用戦争 / HEAVY OBJECT Saiyou Sensou (10 JUN 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-868594-8)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト巨人達の影 / HEAVY OBJECT Kyojin tachi no Kage (10 NOV 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-870051-1)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト電子数学の財宝 / HEAVY OBJECT Denshi Suugaku no Zaihou (10 SEP 2011, ISBN 978-4-04-870549-3)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト死の祭典 / HEAVY OBJECT Shi no Saiten (10 NOV 2011, ISBN 978-4-04-870997-2)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト第三世代への道 / HEAVY OBJECT Daisansedai e no Michi (10 JUN 2012, ISBN 978-4-04-886624-8)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト亡霊達の警察 / HEAVY OBJECT Bourei tachi no Keisatsu (9 NOV 2013, ISBN 978-4-04-866080-8)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト七〇%の支配者 / HEAVY OBJECT Nana rei-pasento no Shihai-sha (8 MAR 2014, ISBN 978-4-04-866379-3)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト氷点下一九五度の救済 / HEAVY OBJECT Hyoutenka Ichi Kyuu Go-do no Kyuusai (10 APR 2015, ISBN 978-4-04-865064-9)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト外なる神 / HEAVY OBJECT Soto naru Kami (10 OCT 2015, ISBN 978-4-04-865452-4)

[[Category:Light novel (English)]]
[[Category:Dengeki Bunko]]
[[Category:Kazuma Kamachi]]

[[Category:Genre - Action]]
[[Category:Genre - Comedy]]
[[Category:Genre - Mystery]]
[[Category:Genre - Sci-Fi]]

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume 9

2015-11-08T22:24:39Z

Ambjoorn:

==Novel Illustrations==
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Illustrations}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Prologue}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 1}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 2}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 3}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Epilogue}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Afterword}}

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume 8|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume 10}}</noinclude>

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume 10

2015-11-08T22:22:04Z

Ambjoorn: Created page with "==Novel Illustrations== {{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Illustrations}} {{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Prologue}} {{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Chapter 1}} {{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Chapter 2}}..."

==Novel Illustrations==
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Illustrations}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Prologue}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Chapter 1}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Chapter 2}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Chapter 3}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Epilogue}}
{{:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Afterword}}

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume 9|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume 10}}</noinclude>

User talk:Vcr

2015-08-13T21:58:46Z

Ambjoorn:

Wow, not only do we both share the same birthday, we also have similar interests. (At least at what I can gather from your profile page.) The only difference would be that I didn't learn to read Japanese... [[User:Ambjoorn|Ambjoorn]] ([[User talk:Ambjoorn|talk]]) 21:58, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Epilogue

2015-08-11T17:43:43Z

Ambjoorn:

==Epilogue==

Quenser stood on the deck of one of the fleet’s supply ships.

He leaned on the metal railing and stared off into the shining blue sea.

“That was pretty crazy.”

The sounds of a moving crane accompanied his words.

A small submarine floated in the ocean directly below and it was attached to a thick tube from the supply ship. It was not receiving water or fuel. Instead, the fuel stored inside the submarine was being sucked out.

No, not even that was entirely accurate.

Technically, it was the fuel taken from the side of the Nataraja as it sat on the ocean bottom two thousand meters down.

“Putana apparently swung around her main cannon and road roller to choose where she landed after sinking. That took her right on top of the Nataraja. Pilot Elites are all so scary. They must think on an entirely different scale.”

He was speaking to the Princess who stood next to him.

She replied while giving the seabirds breadcrumbs she must have brought from her cockpit’s supplies.

“You just don’t have enough of a fighting spirit, Quenser.”

“Eh? What? You’re on her side!?”

The supplies inside the Nataraja were being returned to the Legitimacy Kingdom, Information Alliance, Capitalist Corporations, and Faith Organization.

The fossil fuels were simple to deal with, but the Nataraja’s own structures would eventually be dismantled, melted, broken down, and finally returned to their rightful owners. Quenser could not even imagine when the work would be complete. In all seriousness, it was like the creation of a new undersea mine on a global scale.

Even the genius children who had rebelled would be returned.

“Those brats said the world has already ended. They said the hands of the World Clock had reached the end before we were even born.”

“…”

“They said it was a matter of when we would realize it. They claimed we would remember we were dead in the next two hundred years.”

There were countless problems.

They were all intertwined and they would be difficult to untangle.

And while they resolved one problem, another four or five would rise from the chaos.

But the Princess gave her answer with emotionless eyes.

“So what?”

“Yeah. That’s the proper reaction.”

Overly tidy people sometimes did not notice their own messy hair.

Even if those children had risen from the sea after mankind’s destruction and terraformed a burned continent with plants and microbes they had preserved, they probably would not have created the utopia they hoped for.

They would have created the same sort of society with some of the positions shifted around a bit.

Take the present for example.

No one got along and war was an everyday occurrence, but when everyone’s interests aligned, the world powers would put on forced smiles and push for a path of cooperation.

They had all been children once and now they were adults.

That was all there was to it.

“I don’t think the world will end in two hundred years,” said the Princess.

“?”

“But in two hundred years, I think the world will have become something we could never imagine.”

“Probably. If humans were the kind of creature to give up and let themselves be destroyed, the world never would have ended up like this.”

“Do you really understand what ‘the world’ is?”

“Of course not. After all, the world is waiting for me in the future. I’ll become an Object designer and look down on it from the top floor of a skyscraper with a champagne glass in one hand.”

Fleets from the other world powers had arrived and similarly retrieved resources from the Nataraja.

They would almost certainly use those resources to wage new wars.

Or maybe someone would try to avoid that by sending an Object to attack the returning transport fleets.

As oil reserve estimates were corrected and new technology reduced the consumption rate, the hands of the World Clock would move forward or back quite easily. The colossal ship at the bottom of the ocean would become a new basis for a countdown to replace the old countdown based on the tapped out deposits around the world.

And thus, the world continued to change, bit by bit.

It travelled down such a complex path that it was impossible to tell who wanted it to head in that direction.

So…

“We at least have to do our best to make sure the world isn’t an ugly place in two hundred years’ time.”

Frolaytia Capistrano used her laptop’s camera to speak with a superior officer waiting in a distant safe country.

“You all have a way of digging up these bizarre international problems, don’t you?” asked the officer.

“What scares me is that some people might think those boys are actually diligent soldiers.”

“But all this business with geniuses really makes you think, doesn’t it? It’s simple enough to say you hate liars, losers, thugs, and selfish people, but just swinging around a stick isn’t going to do anything about it. You won’t change the world and you’ll have your corners removed as you’re rounded off like stone in the river. But they had the strength needed to fight that flow.”

The officer seemed to be enjoying himself.

Or perhaps a soldier who never set foot on the battlefield needed the flexibility of mind to turn any situation into a positive.

“But at the same time, this was an opportunity for us. This Nataraja incident let us divide the geniuses between the usable and the unusable, between the safe and the unsafe. It’s a lot like the good and evil gods the Faith Organization sometimes talks about. We know who to make offerings to and who to seal away, and that means a lot.”

“But given the recent technology race, I doubt the masterminds will be executed. While they are dangerous, they have the brains needed to pull something like that off.”

“That’s why they’re evil gods, not demons. You fear and yet revere them. Although that might be a tragedy for them and not salvation,” smoothly added the officer. “It seems the Island Nation has a tradition of worshiping unmanageable evil spirits as gods, but this may be similar. Malice only needs a shrine to contain it. And the system used to utilize these malicious geniuses will probably look bizarre to any normal person. In fact, they would probably see it as a fate worse than death.”

“Doing that is not the military’s job.”

“Ha ha. That’s true. You can end the conversation by saying they brought it upon themselves, but the world really is extremely cruelly made.”

Human history was already over.

They would remember that within two hundred years and it would all crumble away once they did.

Those geniuses had experienced something that made them think that.

They had been presented with all sorts of ugly data to solve the problems at hand and it had led them to give up on Planet Earth.

“Even I sometimes wonder if this world should have been destroyed long ago,” said the officer.

“…”

“I wonder if the curtains of history should have been gallantly lowered as soon as something as bizarre as the collapse of the UN occurred. I wonder if everything’s been coasting on inertia ever since and there’s no chance of a bright future remaining.”

“But our history is what has continued afterwards. And now that it has continued, we can’t exactly throw in the towel.”

“Yeah, that is true. But aren’t you saying that thinking is too much of a pain, so you’re giving up? That too is childish reasoning.”

The old maintenance lady operated her notebook-sized tablet while checking on the damage to the Baby Magnum. The onion armor always had to be replaced, but the damage this time was far from light.

While performing her work, she spoke to the brown girl next to her.

“Are you sure that was what you wanted?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I suggested you detonate the Collective Farming’s reactor in exchange for helping us, but you didn’t actually do it.”

The girl in a green nurse-like special suit shrugged at that question.

That had been an option at that time and in that place.

She could not have escaped and would have been caught in the blast, but she could have kept the Legitimacy Kingdom from analyzing the technology any further if she had detonated the Sarasvati.

She could have offered up the Sarasvati.

And if the stolen resources in the Nataraja had been lost in the Sarasvati’s explosion, the world powers may have been unable to keep up appearances and may have rotted away in despair. Beginning with the extinction of the saprophytic bacteria, the continents would have been buried in seemingly living flames created by the sludge and solid fuel covering the world.

That may have let her take revenge against the Legitimacy Kingdom for taking everything from her and it may have had the greatest anesthetic effect on her suicidal desire.

But the brown girl had not done it.

She had wanted to see what came next.

She had likely found something that made her think that way.

“I only did what I needed to.”

“Yes, but not many people can do that in such an extreme environment.”

The Sarasvati remained on the bottom of the ocean, but the Legitimacy Kingdom apparently intended to send an underwater drone to continue analyzing the technology. Another project would use underwater arc cutting to slice away the components and retrieve them, bit by bit.

Once the Legitimacy Kingdom fully absorbed the technology, Putana might be summoned as the Pilot Elite for an Object based on it.

Of course, the Legitimacy Kingdom and the Faith Organization were in the middle of an international trial over who owned the Sarasvati, while the Information Alliance and Capitalist Corporations wanted to interfere. There was no guarantee it would all go as planned.

“What do you intend to do now?” asked the old lady.

“For now, I’ll be going somewhere beyond the Faith Organization’s reach. I was custom made with military secrets, so I will probably be sent to a laboratory that deals with Elites.”

“I see. I heard Millia wanted you.”

“That wouldn’t have been bad either.”

The old lady received a text message summons on her tablet.

It was from Frolaytia.

Frolaytia was busy putting together the paperwork for the higher ups who leisurely sat around in the safe countries. If she needed the old lady’s help, she probably needed detailed data on the condition of the Baby Magnum or the Princess.

The old lady left the rest of the work to her maintenance soldier subordinates and started toward the motorboat that would take her to the small aircraft carrier holding the high ranking officer.

On the way, she turned back to speak.

“Oh, right. I forgot to say one thing.”

“What is it?”

“Thanks for not giving up on the current world.”

Putana Highball’s emotionless eyes softened a bit at that.

“I should be thanking you. It was your words that showed me a wider world.”

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 3|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Afterword}}</noinclude>

Overlord

2015-07-19T20:28:15Z

Ambjoorn:

{{Status|Active}}

[[File:Overlord v1 cover.jpg|thumb|Volume 1 Cover]]

 
'''''Overlord''''' (オーバーロード) is a Japanese light novel series written by Maruyama Kugane (丸山くがね) and illustrated by so-bin. The series is ongoing with 9 volumes. An [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-08-28/over-lord-fantasy-rpg-light-novel-has-anime-in-the-works/.78118| anime adaptation] has been announced, and is currently in the works.
:The Overlord series is also available in the following languages:

*[[Overlord~Brazilian Portuguese~|Português (Portuguese)]]
*[[Overlord~Russian_Version~|Русский (Russian)]]

 

==Story Synopsis==
The story begins with Yggdrasil, a popular online game which is quietly shut down on its last day. Our protagonist Momonga decided to stay until the last moment in his beloved game and wait for the force logout. Unexpectedly, the server did not shut down and Momonga is stuck in his skeleton body and got transferred to another world. "The powerful Overlord" now needs to discover a new world and face continuous challenges.

Having no parents, friends, or place in society, this ordinary man strives to take over the new world the game has become.

==Translations==
For further details on the credited Translators and Editors please refer to the [[Overlord:Registration Page|Registration page]] and the Staff section below.

=== [[Overlord:Registration Page|Registration]] ===

Those who wish to contribute are asked to first check the [[Overlord:Registration Page|registration page]] and the designated project representative(s).

'''Translators are asked to [[Overlord:Registration Page|register]] which chapters they're working on'''

===Format Standards===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must confirm to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]
*[[Overlord:Terminology and Guidelines|Terminology and Guidelines]] - Standardization for names, terms and locations.

==Updates==
* July 11, 2015 - Volume 5 Chapter 1 Complete.
* July 11, 2015 - Volume 5 Prologue Complete.
* July 11, 2015 - Volume 7, Chapter 1 Complete.
* June 1, 2015 - Volume 7, Prologue Complete.

For older updates click [[Overlord:update_history|here]]

==The ''Overlord'' series by Maruyama Kugane==

===Volume 1: The Undead King ([[Overlord:Volume1 Full Text|Full Text]] [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/p/knights-and-magic-author-amazake-no.html Link] ])===
[[File:Overlord v1 cover.jpg|right|300px]]
'''For further details for all external Links please refer to the Registration Page for Translator credits'''
::*Illustrations [ [http://imoutoliciouslnt.blogspot.com/2014/08/overlord-volume-1-main.html Link] ]
::*Prologue [ [http://imoutoliciouslnt.blogspot.com/2014/04/overlord-v01-prologue.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 1
::**Part 1 [ [http://imoutoliciouslnt.blogspot.com/2014/08/overlord-v01-chapter-1-end-and.html Link] ]
::**Part 2 [ [http://imoutoliciouslnt.blogspot.com/2014/10/overlord-v01-chapter-1-end-and.html Link] ]
::**Part 3 [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/10/O11.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 2. Floor Guardians [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/10/O12.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 3. Battle of Carne Village [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/10/O13.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 4. Conflict [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/10/O14.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 5. Ruler of Death [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/10/O15.html Link] ]
::*Epilogue [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/10/O16.html Link] ]
::*Afterword/Character Introduction [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/10/O17.html Link] ]

 

===Volume 2: The Dark Warrior ([[Overlord:Volume2 Full Text|Full Text]] [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/p/knights-and-magic-author-amazake-no.html Link] ])===
[[File:Overlord v2 cover.jpg|right|300px]]
'''For further details for all external Links please refer to the Registration Page for Translator credits'''
::*Illustrations
::*Prologue [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/10/O20.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 1. The Two Adventurers [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/11/O21.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 2. Journey + Interlude [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/11/O22.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 3. Virtuous King of the Forest [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2014/12/O23.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 4. The Dual Blade of Death [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/01/O24.html Link] ]
::*Epilogue [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/01/O25.html Link] ]
::*Afterword/Character Introduction [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/01/O26.html Link] ]

 

===Volume 3: The Bloody Valkyrie ([[Overlord:Volume3 Full Text|Full Text]])===
[[File:Overlord v3 cover.jpg|right|300px]]
::*Illustrations [ [http://sweetacollections.blogspot.com/2015/01/overlord-volume-3-novel-illustrations.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 1. Predator's Gang [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/01/O31.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 2. True Vampire + Intermission [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/02/O32.html Link] ]
::*Interlude [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/02/O328.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 3. Confusion and Understanding [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/03/O33.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 4. Before the Death Match [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/03/O34.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 5. Player Vs Non Player Character [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/03/O35.html Link] ]
::*Epilogue [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/04/O36.html Link] ]
 

===Volume 4: The Lizard Man Heroes===
[[File:Overlord v4 cover.jpg|right|300px]]
::*Illustrations [ [http://sweetacollections.blogspot.com/2015/01/overlord-volume-4-novel-illustrations.html Link] ]
::*Prologue [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/04/O40.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 1. Departure [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/04/O41.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 2. Gathering, Lizardman [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/05/O42.html Link] ]
::*Intermission [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/06/O425.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 3. Army of Death [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/06/O43.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 4. The Dawn of Despair [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/06/O44.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 5. The Freezing God [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/07/O45.html Link] ]
::*Epilogue [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/07/O46.html Link] ]
::*CD Bonus 80% [ [http://imoutoliciouslnt.blogspot.com/2015/03/overlord-drama-cd-volume-1-sealed-evil.html Link] ]
 

===Volume 5: The Men in the Kingdom - Part 1===
[[File:Overlord v5 cover.jpg|right|300px]]
::*Illustrations [ [http://sweetacollections.blogspot.com/2015/01/overlord-volume-5-novel-illustrations.html Link] ]
::*Prologue [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/07/O50.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 1. A Boy's Feeling [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/07/O51.html Link] ]
::*Chapter 2. Blue Rose [ [http://skythewood.blogspot.com/2015/07/O52.html Link] ]
::*Intermission
::*Chapter 3. Those who pick up, those who picked up
::*Chapter 4. Congregated Men
::*Chapter 5. Extinguished, soard sparks of fire.

 

===Volume 6: The Men in the Kingdom - Part 2===
[[File:Overlord v6 cover.jpg|right|300px]]
::*[[Overlord:Volume6 Illustrations| Illustrations]]
::*Chapter 6. Introduction of King capital disturbance
::*Chapter 7. Attack preparations
::*Chapter 8. Six arms
::*Chapter 9. Jaldabaoth
::*Chapter 10. The most strongest trump
::*Chapter 11. The final Battle of the disturbance
::*Epilogue

 

===Volume 7: The Invaders of the Large Tomb ([[Overlord:Volume7 Full Text|Full Text]])===
[[File:Overlord v7 cover.jpg|right|300px]]
::*[[Overlord:Volume7 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
::*[[Overlord:Volume7 Prologue| Prologue]]
::*[[Overlord:Volume7 Chapter 1|Chapter 1. Invitation to death]]
::*Chapter 2. Butterfly entangled in a spider web
::*Chapter 3. The large tomb
::*Chapter 4. A handful of hope
::*Epilogue

 

===Volume 8: The Two Leaders===
[[File:Overlord v8 cover.jpg|right|300px]]
::*[[Overlord:Volume8 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
::*Story 1. Henri's upheaval and hectic days
::*Story 2. A day of Nazarick

 

===Volume 9: The Magic Caster of Destroy===
[[File:Overlord v9 cover.jpg|right|300px]]
::*[[Overlord:Volume9 Illustrations|Illustrations]]

 

==Project Staff==
*Project Administrator: [[user:onizuka-gto|Onizuka-GTO]]
*Project Supervisor:
===Translators===
*[http://imoutoliciouslnt.blogspot.com/ Imoutolicious LNT]
*[http://skythewood.blogspot.com/p/knights-and-magic-author-amazake-no.html Skythewood Translations]
*[[User:Ferro|Ferro]]
*[http://sweetacollections.blogspot.com/ Sweet A Collections]
*[https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByPeaKaqUsGFQVAxUEM2bUI0R0E&usp=sharing/ CoCayn]
*[[User:SifaV6|SifaV6]]

===Editors===
*Namorax
*Mecani

===Inactive===
*cerulean13
*Ghoststaker
*Chanity

== Source ==
The web novel raws can be found [http://ncode.syosetu.com/n4402bd/ here] and continued [http://ncode.syosetu.com/n1839bd/ here], although major changes were made for the light novel releases.

==Series Overview==
# 《オーバーロード1 不死者の王》, 2012-07-30, ISBN 978-4-0472-8152-3
# 《オーバーロード2 漆黒の戦士》, 2012-11-13, ISBN 978-4-0472-8451-7
# 《オーバーロード3 鮮血の戦乙女》, 2013-03-30, ISBN 978-4-0472-8689-4
# 《オーバーロード4 蜥蜴人の勇者たち》, 2013-07-31, ISBN 978-4-0472-8954-3
# 《オーバーロード5 王国の漢たち [上]》, 2013-12-28, ISBN 978-4-0472-9259-8
# 《オーバーロード6 王国の漢たち[下]》, 2014-01-31, ISBN 978-4-0472-9357-1
# 《オーバーロード7 大墳墓の侵入者》, 2014-08-30, ISBN 978-4-0472-9809-5
# 《オーバーロード8 二人の指導者》, 2014-12-26, ISBN 978-4-0473-0084-2

[[Category:Hosted Projects]]
[[Category:Light novel (English)]]

[[Category:Genre - Action]]
[[Category:Genre - Comedy]]
[[Category:Genre - Fantasy]]
[[Category:Genre - Harem]]
[[Category:Genre - Supernatural]]

User talk:Ambjoorn

2015-07-01T09:01:22Z

Ambjoorn:

Whoa, to think that the other person following Enn Are's Marimite translation would share my exact birthday! People born then must have good taste. [[User:Vcr|Vcr]] ([[User talk:Vcr|talk]]) 22:13, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

What an amazing coincidence. Although I can't speak for everybody but as far as I know, people born then do indeed seem to have good taste. [[User:Ambjoorn|Ambjoorn]] ([[User talk:Ambjoorn#top|talk]]) 09:01, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

User talk:Enn are

2015-06-22T14:14:24Z

Ambjoorn:

'''Awesome''' work in translating Maria-sama ga Miteru Volume 8, ''truly outstanding''. Are you planning on translating volume 9 too? [[User:Ambjoorn|Ambjoorn]] ([[User talk:Ambjoorn|talk]]) 08:38, 22 September 2013 (CDT)

As always, '''wonderful''' work you're doing! Can't help but smile! [[User:Ambjoorn|Ambjoorn]] ([[User talk:Ambjoorn|talk]]) 14:14, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

User talk:Rydenius

2015-06-15T15:54:54Z

Ambjoorn:

== Talk to Rydenius ==
Feel free to talk to me here. I'll organize it into sections later if there's need. [[User:Rydenius|Rydenius]] ([[User talk:Rydenius#top|talk]]) 02:57, 27 November 2013 (CST)

Just wanted drop by and say hello. Thanks for your feedback on the forums~. It's really nice to see you moving along with your translations. Thanks for helping out! --[[User:Cloudii|Cloudii]] ([[User talk:Cloudii#top|talk]]) 22:35, 6 April 2014 (CDT)

Thanks Cloudii. Glad to be useful, and working on these projects is a good experience for me as I progress in my Japanese learning process, but encouragement (and maybe the taskmaster's whip) always helps! I want to see Maria-sama ga Miteru through until completion before taking on any new projects (I've got the physical raw novels to start on 5 or 6 others that don't appear to have been done yet), but I'm still no match for NR -- he's really been powering through and doing an awesome job! Speaking of which I need to get back to finishing out the current chapter I'm working on ASAP. Been procrastinating a bit and busy with real life things, but there's only a few pages left to finish the chapter! :) The next chapter after that is where I'll have to dig down deep and find out if I really have what it takes to knock out a whole volume. 0_0' --[[User:Rydenius|Rydenius]] ([[User talk:Rydenius#top|talk]]) 23:37, 6 April 2014 (CDT)

Hello!
I'm addressing this to you, as there is no listed project manager, and you're the only linked translator.
I've been reading your translations of Marimite for a while now, and I've noticed that the project has no current active editors. I've never worked on any editing projects myself in the past, but I'd like to help you and NR by editing this project. I am a native English speaker (Australian), and i think. I would enjoy the work of reading through your translations and fixing the occasional typo/error, as well as any other editing jobs you need me to do. My time is limited, as I'm in my final year at school (finishing October-ish this year), but if you'll have me, I'll gladly put in a few spare hours when I can, and of course, I'l, check through when. I read your new translations. I'm also ready to check up on the pages for vandalism, and to follow up on the guidelines. I also have a friend who is interested in taking part, and he is in the process of registering an account. --[[User:simonoz|simonoz]] ([[User talk:simonoz#top|talk]]) 23:08, 26 April 2015 (EST)

Hi simonoz! I've been inactive for a bit (it's a long story involving a hard drive crash, flu, the JLPT N4 exam (I passed yay!), etc.), but I'm planning to be active again relatively soon. I think I only have a page and a half left to do for the chapter I was last working on. Any case, as far as the editing goes, you are certainly welcome to edit as you feel free. If you have a question about a particular word choice or anything, feel free to post it here or on the relevant talk page (or PM me on the forum) and I'll take a look at it. Apparently, I've set this page up to send me e-mail notifications on update, so... :)
--[[User:Rydenius|Rydenius]] ([[User talk:Rydenius#top|talk]]) 22:32, 26 April 2015 (CDT)

Gokigenyou. Glad to see that you've come back! I was a bit sad that there hadn't been any updates over the last few months when I checked on April 20th.
[[User:Ambjoorn|Ambjoorn]] ([[User talk:Ambjoorn|talk]]) 15:54, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

No Game No Life

2014-08-30T17:19:22Z

Ambjoorn: /* Volume 5 - It Appears the Gamer Siblings Hate New Game+ */

{{Status|Active}}

[[Image:NGNL Volume 1 cover page.jpg|thumb|300px|No Game No Life Volume 1 Cover]]

<big><big>'''This project has been licensed by Yen Press' imprint Yen On. First volume will be published in April 2015.'''</big></big>

No Game No Life (ノーゲーム．ノーライフ) is a light novel series written and illustrated by Kamiya Yuu (榎宫祐) and published in MF Bunko J. The series currently has 6 volumes published.
An anime adaptation began airing on April 9th 2014.

This series is also available in the following languages:

:*[[No_Game_No_Life~Brazilian_Portuguese~|Português (Brazilian Portuguese)]]
:*[[No_Game_No_Life-Spanish_Español|Español (Spanish)]]
:*[[No Game No Life - Français|Français (French)]]
:*[[No Game No Life - Türkçe|Turkish (Türkçe)]]
:*[[No Game No Life (Indonesia)|Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)]]

==Story Synopsis==

There was an urban legend that there was a legendary, undefeated gamer called 『　　』, but in reality he was just a NEET brother and sister called 空 (Sora) and 白 (Shiro). These hikikomori siblings who both refer to the real world as a worthless "Kuso Game" are one day summoned to a different world by a boy calling himself "God". In this world, war is prohibited by God and everything is instead decided by a game...that's right, even country borders. Can the two NEET brother and sister save the last of the human race <Imanity>, which only has one city left?

"Now...let the game begin!"

== Translation ==

===Format Standards===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]
*[[No_Game_No_Life:Names and Terminology Guideline|Project specific Guidelines: Names and Terminology]]

=== [[No Game No Life:Registration Page|Registration]] ===

'''Translators are asked to [[No Game No Life:Registration Page|register]] which chapters they're working on'''

=== Feedback ===
'''If you enjoyed the translation, why don't you tell us in the [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=5520 Feedback thread]'''

==Updates==
*August 30, 2014 - Volume 5 Chapter 4 completed
*August 21, 2014 - Volume 6 Chapter 2 completed
*August 7, 2014 - Volume 5 Chapter 3 completed
*July 21, 2014 - Volume 5 Chapter 2 completed
*July 20, 2014 - Volume 6 Chapter 1 completed
*July 14, 2014 - Volume 5 Chapter 1 completed
*July 1, 2014 - Volume 4 Chapter 1 and Volume 6 Prologue completed
*June 29, 2014 - Volume 4 Interrupt End, Afterword completed
*June 28, 2014 - Volume 4 Chapter 4 completed
*June 16, 2014 - Volume 4 Chapter 3 completed
*June 8, 2014 - Volume 4 Chapter 2 completed

[[No Game No Life:Past Updates|Past Updates can be found here.]]

== No Game No Life by Kamiya Yuu ==

This series also being translated by Eternal Dreamer on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/ NanoDesu Translations.]

===Volume 1 - It Seems Gamer Siblings Will Conquer a Fantasy World ([[No Game No Life:Volume 1|Full Text]])===
[[File:NGNL Volume 1 cover page.jpg|frameless|right|x185px]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/color-illustrations/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/prologue/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 1 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - Beginner/Amateur]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapter-1/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - Challenger/Challenger]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapter-2/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 1 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - Expert/Expert]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapter-3-expert-expert/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 1 Chapter 4|Chapter 4 - Grandmaster/The King]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/chapter-4-grandmaster-king/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 1 Epilogue|Epilogue]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/epilogue/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 1 Afterwords|Afterwords]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/afterword/ NanoDesu]''')
 

===Volume 2 - The Gamer Siblings Seem to Have Their Sights on the Land of Kemonomimi ([[No Game No Life:Volume 2|Full Text]])===
[[File:NGNL V2 Cover Page.jpg|frameless|right|x185px]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-2/color-illustrations/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 2 Prologue|Opening]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-2/opening/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 2 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - Weak Square/Setting the Board]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-2/chapter-1/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 2 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - Interesting/One Move]] ('''Also on [http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-2/chapter-2/ NanoDesu]''')
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 2 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - Sacrifice/Sacrificial Move]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 2 Chapter 4|Chapter 4 - Checkmate/Checkmate]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 2 Epilogue|Fake End]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 2 Afterwords|Afterwords]]

 

===Volume 3 - A Half of the Gamer Siblings Seems to Have Disappeared...? ([[No Game No Life:Volume 3|Full Text]])===
[[File:NGNL V3 Cover Page.jpg|frameless|right|x185px]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 3 Prologue|Data Load]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 3 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - Sky Walk/Disassociation Method]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 3 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - Blue Rose/Directional Method]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 3 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - Killing Giant/Guiding Method]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 3 Chapter 4|Chapter 4 - Rule Number 10/Convergence Method]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 3 Epilogue|True End]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 3 Afterwords|Afterwords]]

 

===Volume 4 - The Gamer Siblings Have Run Away From a Realistic Romance Game ([[No Game No Life:Volume 4|Full Text]])===
[[File:NGNL V4 Cover Page.jpg|frameless|right|x185px]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 4 Preface|Preface]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 4 Prologue|Easy Start]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 4 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - Encounter/lıʌǝᗡ ǝɥ<big style="font-weight: 600;">⊥</big>]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 4 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - Strategist/The Sun]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 4 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - Charmer/ssǝɹdɯƎ ǝɥ<big style="font-weight: 600;">⊥</big>]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 4 Chapter 4|Chapter 4 - Wild Card/The Fool]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 4 Epilogue|Interrupt End]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 4 Afterword|Afterword]]

 

===Volume 5 - It Appears the Gamer Siblings Hate New Game+ ([[No Game No Life:Volume 5|Full Text]])===
[[File:NGNL V5 Cover Page.jpg|frameless|right|x185px]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 5 Prologue|Normal Start]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 5 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - Try (Act)]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 5 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - Fail (Error)]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 5 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - Learn (Revise)]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 5 Chapter 4|Chapter 4 - Retry (React)]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 5 Epilogue|Neverending]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 5 Afterwords|Afterwords]]

 

===Volume 6 - It Seems the Gamer Couple Challenged The World===
[[File:NGNL V6 Cover.jpg|frameless|right|x185px]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 6 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 6 Prologue|Opening Talk]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 6 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - 3-1=Hopeless]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 6 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - 1×1=Aimless]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 6 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - 1+1=Deathless]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Chapter 4 - 1÷2=Companionless]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Chapter 5 - 1÷0=Etherealness]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 6 Epilogue|Ending Talk]]
::*[[No Game No Life:Volume 6 Afterwords|Afterwords]]
 

''Courtesy of [[User:jonathanasdf|jonathanasdf]] for the teaser of vol. 1 chapter 3''

''Courtesy of [[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] for the teaser of vol. 1 chapter 1'' as part of the "a translation a day" initiative

==Side Stories==
::*No Game No Life Manga Volume 1 New Short Story - 5 Years Ago (licensed)
::*No Game No Life New Year Special
===BD/DVD Special===
*Volume 1
**Novel Illustrations
**Omitted Scene: Threefold repetition

==Project Staff==
* Supervisor:
* Project Manager:

===Translators===
:*[http://ngnlthetranslation.wordpress.com/ NanoDesu Translations (external)]
:*[[User:Drinkingwater|Drinkingwater]] (CL translator)
:*[[User:Seitsuki|Seitsuki]]
:*[[User:Maine12329|Maine12329]] (CL translator)
:*[[User:Venis|Venis]] (CL translator)

===Editors===

:*[[User:神|神]]
:*[[User:Sideswipe|Sideswipe]]
:*[[User:Azurue|Azurue]] (Roaming edit guy)
:*[[User:mikawa|mikawa]]

== Series Overview ==

*ノーゲーム・ノーライフ1 ゲーマー兄妹がファンタジー世界を征服するそうです (MF文庫J) (April 23, 2012) - ISBN: 978-4-8401-4546-6
*ノーゲーム・ノーライフ2 ゲーマー兄妹が獣耳っ子の国に目をつけたようです (MF文庫J) (September 22, 2012) - ISBN: 978-4-8401-4819-1
*ノーゲーム・ノーライフ3 ゲーマー兄妹の片割れが消えたようですが……？ (MF文庫J) (January 25, 2013) - ISBN: 978-4-8401-4958-7
*ノーゲーム・ノーライフ4 ゲーマー兄妹はリアル恋愛ゲームから逃げ出しました (MF文庫J) (June 25, 2013) - ISBN: 978-4-8401-5185-6
*ノーゲーム・ノーライフ5 ゲーマー兄妹は強くてニューゲームがお嫌いなようです (MF文庫J) (November 25, 2013) - ISBN: 978-4-04-066080-6
*ノーゲーム・ノーライフ6 ゲーマー夫嫁は世界に挑んだそうです (MF文庫J) (April 25, 2014) - ISBN: 978-4-04-066382-1

[[Category:MF_Bunko_J]]
[[Category:Hosted Projects]]
[[Category:NanoDesu Translations]]
[[Category:Light novel (English)]]
[[Category:Yuu Kamiya]]

User:Ambjoorn

2014-08-15T10:38:19Z

Ambjoorn:

User:Ambjoorn

2014-08-15T10:37:36Z

Ambjoorn: /* Information about myself */

A humble teenage reader, trying his best to maximize the enjoyment of reading the novels through minor grammar and spelling corrections.

==Languages==
These are the languages I'm fluent in:
*Swedish
*German
*English

I also have a small proficiency in multiple basic coding languages.

==Information about myself==
*Gender: Male
*Zodiac: Taurus
*Blood-type: 0- (Rh negative)
*Born: 3rd May 1994

HEAVY OBJECT

2014-06-14T15:41:28Z

Ambjoorn:

[[Image:Heavy Object v01 cover.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''The cover art of volume 1'']]"HEAVY OBJECT" (ヘヴィーオブジェクト) is a science fiction series by Kazuma Kamachi (鎌池和馬) and illustrated by Ryou Nagi(凪良) published under the Dengeki light novel label. Currently eight volumes have been published. There is also a manga adaptation previously serialized in the monthly magazine of Dengeki Maou.

The Heavy Object series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Heavy Object ~ (Spanish)|Español (Spanish)]]

== Story Synopsis ==
In the end, war couldn't be extinguished. But, there was a transformation. Even in the heart of a worthless accomplice in murder who was indifferently continuing his task, there was a transformation. The massive weapon "Object". This was a weapon that changed the whole definition of war. An exchange student named Quenser, who was dispatched to the battlefield, met at the base a girl with a strange aura. The girl, dubbed "Elite", is the pilot of "Object". The near future. This diminutive boy had come to take on the role of standing up against the strongest weapon "Object" for the sake of the girl. This was the motive for their first meeting.

== Translation ==

=== [[HEAVY OBJECT:Registration Page|Registration]] ===

'''Translators are asked to [[HEAVY OBJECT:Registration Page|register]] which chapters they are working on'''

===Format Standards===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

===Feedback===
'''If you enjoyed the series, why don't you tell us in the [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4660 Discussion Thread] and give the project a vote'''

==Updates==
*June 14, 2014 Heavy Object Vol.8 '''completed'''.
*January 20, 2014 Heavy Object Vol.7 '''completed'''.
*February 5, 2013 Heavy Object Vol.6 '''completed'''.
*December 12, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.5 '''completed'''.
*September 19, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.4 '''completed'''.
*August 22, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.3 '''completed'''.
*July 2, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.2 '''completed'''.
*February 22, 2012 Heavy Object Vol.1 '''completed'''.
*July 23, 2011: Project Page Created. Forum translations by DNK uploaded.

== The "HEAVY OBJECT" Series ==

=== Volume 1 ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_1|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?8lte9b4umh91gta PDF] - [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4889 ePUB/MOBI]) ===
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - The Rank and File Soldiers that Tie Up Gulliver >> Battle on the Freezing Alaskan Snow]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - Tom Thumb Runs through the Oil Field >> Battle to Prevent Passage through Gibraltar]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - War of the Ant and the Grasshopper >> Battle to Defeat an Oceanian Military Nation]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Afterword|Afterword]]

=== Volume 2: Adoption War — ''An Audition War'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_2|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?hapktwc4xd9rtf2 PDF])===
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - It is Only Natural to get Muddy in an Obstacle Course >> Battle to Control Antarctica]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - A Three Legged Race Up a Mountain is a Matter of Life and Death >> Battle of Shells in the Iguazu Mountains]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - In a Cavalry Battle, Destroy Your Opponent’s Footing >> Total War in Amazon City]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Afterword|Afterword]]

=== Volume 3: Shadow of the Giants — ''Global Shadow'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_3|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?4e48a34fu12xneu PDF])===
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - A Grave of Junk is a Mountain of Rare Metals >> Interception at the Remains of the Alaska Battlefield]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - A Coal Mine that Scatters Stacks of Cash >> Nighttime Surprise Blitzkrieg on the Kamchatka Peninsula]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - Honor is Priceless >> Emergency Interception at Victoria Island]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Afterword|Afterword]]

=== Volume 4: Treasure of Electron Mathematics — ''Theoretical Vein'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_4|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?mq8diobbijo9r8r PDF]) ===
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - What Should Have Been a Pure Blue Ocean >> Unofficial Battle in the Loyauté District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - Christmas on a White Sand Beach >> Furlough Garrison Battle (?) in the Oceania District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - The Treasure of the Sea Dyed Deep Red >> Defensive Battle in the Solomon District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Afterword|Afterword]]

=== Volume 5: Festival of Death — ''Purge of Technopics'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_5|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?eqfja9yro4jmgkb PDF] - [http://www.mediafire.com/download/wd52u7b9w4abm2f/ Mobi]) ===
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Afterword|Afterword]]

=== Volume 6: Path to the Third Generation — ''The Coming of Third Generation'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_6|Full Text]] - [http://www.mediafire.com/?9yilz1037r7m8b6 PDF] - [http://www.mediafire.com/download/5olrh4u6p4p9kj5/ MOBI] ) ===
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - The War Broker Closest to Heaven >> Intelligence Battle in the Cook District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 2|Chapter 2 - The Team that Carries Out Dirty Jobs More Painful than Hell >> Transportation Battle in the Athabasca District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 3|Chapter 3 - The Conspiracy Bank that Motivates Human Greed >> Bombardment Battle in the Amazon District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Afterword|Afterword]]

=== Volume 7: ''The Police of Ghosts'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_7|Full Text]]) ===
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: A Deadly Firefight between Two Idiots >> Mock Battle in Oceania]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: My Job is to Transport Paint >> Intelligence Battle in Oceania]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Police are a Means of Stopping War >> Liberation Battle in Oceania]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Afterword|Afterword]]

=== Volume 8: ''Dominion'' ([[HEAVY_OBJECT:Volume_8|Full Text]])===
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: A Resource Which Cannot Be Made Plentiful >> Landing on the Island Nation’s Ame-no-Darin]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Where Has the New Model Disappeared To? >> Minesweeping Battle in the Far West Pacific District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Eyes of the Goddess Glowing Deep in the Darkness >> All-Out War in the New Caledonia District]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Short Story===
This short story was published shortly after the release of the first Heavy Object novel.

:*[[HEAVY OBJECT:ShortStory1|Sandy Short Program >> Second Oceanian Struggle]]

==Project Staff==

*Supervisor: N/A
*Project Manager: N/A

===Translators===
ACTIVE
*[[user:Js06|Js06]]

===Editors===
All editors who speak English proficiently are welcomed.
*[[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] (Proofreader and Formatting)
*[[User:IANightfiend|IANightfiend]] (Will help in any way)
*Page Checkers
:*[[User:Wilfriback|Wilfriback]]
*Proofreaders
:*[[User:Hiro Hayase|Hiro Hayase]]

== Series Overview ==
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト / HEAVY OBJECT (10 OCT 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-868069-1)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト採用戦争 / HEAVY OBJECT Saiyou Sensou (10 JUN 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-868594-8)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト巨人達の影 / HEAVY OBJECT Kyojin tachi no Kage (10 NOV 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-870051-1)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト電子数学の財宝 / HEAVY OBJECT Denshi Suugaku no Zaihou (10 SEP 2011, ISBN 978-4-04-870549-3)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト死の祭典 / HEAVY OBJECT Shi no Saiten (10 NOV 2011, ISBN 978-4-04-870997-2)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト第三世代への道 / HEAVY OBJECT Daisansedai e no Michi (10 JUN 2012, ISBN 978-4-04-886624-8)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト亡霊達の警察 / HEAVY OBJECT Bourei tachi no Keisatsu (9 NOV 2013, ISBN 978-4-04-866080-8)
*ヘヴィーオブジェクト七〇%の支配者 / HEAVY OBJECT Nana rei-pasento no Shihai-sha(8 MARCH 2014, ISBN 978-4-04-866379-3)

[[Category:Dengeki Bunko]]
[[Category:Genre - Harem]]
[[Category:Genre - Action]]
[[Category:Light novel (English)]]
[[Category:Kazuma Kamachi]]
[[Category:Kazuma Kamachi]]

User talk:Enn are

2013-09-22T13:38:40Z

Ambjoorn:

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 1

2013-08-04T23:03:13Z

Ambjoorn:

==Chapter 1: A Grave of Junk is a Mountain of Rare Metals >> Interception at the Remains of the Alaska Battlefield==

===Part 1===

There was once an Object known as the Water Strider.

It was a cutting edge Generation 2 Object. The monstrous Object had travelled smoothly across the snowy plains using static electricity, and had been able to pierce the armor of enemy Objects with two low-stability plasma cannons on either side even though not even a nuclear weapon could do the same.

A normal Generation 1 Object would have had a hard time standing up to the Water Strider, but a battlefield student who had come to study Object design and a noble radar analyst who had come to amass valiant deeds had managed to blow it to pieces. That was 2 months ago.

And now…

“We’re back, Alaska. I’m glad to see you’re even colder than when I saw you last.”

“Hey, Quenser. Let’s ditch this work and go look for Santa Claus’s house or something.”

“I thought Santa lived in Scandinavia.”

“You’d have to ask the Faith Organization about that one. Wait, he changed the color of his clothes in a soft drink commercial, so would he be with the Capitalist Corporations? He might actually be relaxing in some company’s health facility.”

Quenser and Heivia of the Legitimacy Kingdom chatted as they walked through the snow.

One had blond hair and the only way to determine his gender at first glance was whether he was wearing pants or a skirt. He was a commoner battlefield student named Quenser.

The other had short brown hair and a somewhat muscular build. He was a noble radar analysis specialist named Heivia.

They were not walking through a white winter scene that filled one with the wonders of nature.

It was true that there were not any areas where the bare ground was visible. The white covered the ground all the way to the horizon.

However, strange metal pieces of art were scattered about.

That was the remains of the Second Generation Object known as the Water Strider. A small screw would be buried beneath the snow, but these masses of steel were 20 meters or more across. Main cannons that looked like bent metal bridges created a large wall blocking the way along that plain.

“I’ve gotta admit, this is pretty damn amazing,” muttered Heivia as he scratched at his head. “It looks like a volcano erupted. There’s wreckage as far as the eye can see. That blast was pointed up, but I think some of these things flew a few hundred meters away.”

“Some things probably flew kilometers. But it was a 200,000 ton Object. It isn’t that easy to retrieve the parts. And that goes for us as much as it does for the other side.”

“I was wondering what those gloomy intelligence guys were so busy doing. I guess they must be analyzing the technology on site as well as stripping it of any rare metals.”

“We can leave all that to them, so let’s get on with our own job.”

Quenser then half-slid down a relatively gently sloped cliff. He was heading for a spot a few meters down. Fragments of the Water Strider could be seen glittering there, but either due to the area that exploded or the direction of the wind, no pieces larger than 10 meters were there.

That was the problem.

And Quenser had been called in as a combat engineer to solve that problem.

“Okay, okay.” Quenser gently tapped the cliff he had come down from with his palm. “The surface is already crumbling. It seems like a waste to use this expensive Hand Axe on it.”

“Everything looks fine up above too,” said Heivia when he came sliding down shortly thereafter. “Just open up a 5 meter crack and all the wreckage should come sliding down. And that includes an entire leg belonging to that damn Water Strider.”

“And we can use that to hold it back,” replied Quenser offhandedly as he assembled an electric drill.

It was a model used for road construction rather than for work around the house, so the actual drill itself was 50-70 cm across. He held the electric drill about level with the cliff slope and pressed the trigger-like button.

After drilling a few holes in the cliff face, Quenser said, “Stick a bomb in the areas I mark. Afterwards, cover them up with the metal plates I gave you beforehand. Then cover it all back up with dirt. That way the energy of the bomb will be directed into the cliff.”

“Fine, fine. Honestly, this is as much of a pain in the ass as squeezing whipped cream onto a cake. A gram of this explosive is more expensive than a gram of platinum, right? It’s really powerful stuff, so can’t you just place it wherever and have the cliff collapse?”

“Are you complaining this much because you had to carry around all the spare batteries for the drill?”

“I’m complaining because I’m a radar analyst and yet am out in the snow working with drills. Can’t we just blow it up already so we can head back?”

“Surely you know that you set up bombs differently for different situations. Even a powerful explosive won’t do much damage if all of the energy escapes.”

“Didn’t you come here to learn about Object design?”

“I’m not doing this because I want to, but I have to make myself useful if I’m going to stay here. And the same goes for you, you delinquent soldier.”

After creating all the small pockets in the cliff, Quenser too began setting up the bombs.

But then he frowned.

Heivia had realized it too.

“Hey, I put just a fuse inside to test the detonation signal receiver, but it isn’t responding to the radio signal. Is the dirt or the metal plate cutting off the signal?”

“Dammit, this wasn’t my plan.” Quenser clicked his tongue with a puff of white breath. “Froleytia’s an excellent commander, but she has a tendency to make up the small details on the fly.”

“We can grope those giant tits of her over this later, but what are we supposed to do now, Quenser?”

“We’ll have to use a timed fuse rather than a radio one. The signal doesn’t matter then.”

“What should I set as the detonation time?”

“1700 hours. That’s about 20 minutes from now.”

There was a reason they set it to detonate at a specific time. If they set it to detonate after a certain number of minutes, the time spent between setting up each bomb would result in them not detonating simultaneously.

After setting up all of the bombs along the cliff face, Quenser and Heivia quickly left. After all, they had fewer than 10 minutes left.

“Hey, Quenser. With that much explosive, how far away do we need to get in order to be safe?”

“The blast is directed inward, so 50 meters should be enough to avoid being deafened given the shockwave. But it couldn’t hurt to be extra safe.”

“Froleytia wouldn’t shut up about not leaving footprints, but it’s not like we can help it with this snow.”

“With the blizzard today, it should all be gone after a few minutes.”

While chatting some more, the two boys made it about 100 meters away.

Heivia suddenly looked like he had just realized he had forgotten to lock the front door after heading out.

“Hm? Oh, I think I messed up!!”

“What is it, Heivia?”

“I might have entered the number without switching the fuse mode first. So instead of setting the timer, I might have set the frequency to 1700. I-I need to go check.”

“Now!? They’re going to detonate in less than 10 minutes!!”

“I just need to run over and check, then run right back!!”

“You can’t!! Just wait until 1700 hours. If they don’t detonate then, we can go back and check. Okay, okay!?”

“You’re the one that said the bombs have to be set up to match the situation. If the ones I set up don’t do anything and yours blow up properly, we won’t get the results we want, will we?”

“You’re right…” Quenser trailed off.

“C’mon, c’mon. We just have to get it over with real quick. Hurry up!” urged Heivia.

“Eh? Me too? This was your mistake, not mine!!”

With Quenser being dragged along in bewilderment, the two of them started back toward the cliff.

They were about 100 meters away.

After travelling 30 of those meters…

A huge explosion suddenly erupted from the cliff before 1700 hours had arrived.

As Quenser and Heivia approached defenselessly, the sudden shockwave knocked them onto their backs. Quenser had said they would be safe as long as they were 50 meters away, but that was only if they were crouched down preparing for the shock. He had not been talking about if they were defenselessly standing straight up.

While the two of them were sinking into the snow on the ground, Quenser started beating Heivia with his fists.

“You idiot!! You idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idioooottt!!”

“Ow!! My bad, my bad!!”

“You didn’t just forget to set it properly! You set the time too soon!! You did the ones in that area, right!? And you didn’t set the metal plates right either, did you!? If you had, the blast wouldn’t have reached this far!!”

“Yeah, but we would’ve been killed if I hadn’t set the time so soon. It all turned out all right in the end.”

“Depending on the situation, this kind of mistake could ruin an entire military operation! That could lead to an entire unit being killed!!”

“Quenser! Hey, Quenser!”

“Don’t interrupt me when I’m just getting warmed up!! I’m legitimately mad here!! Look, the cliff only partially collapsed. Our first objective for today was completely-…!!”

“No, it’s almost 1700 hours!! The bombs you set are going to detonate!!’

“Eh?”

Quenser looked over blankly.

In the next instant, the second wave of explosions occurred.

Those two idiots had finally managed to lift their upper bodies from the snow, but they were knocked back into the exact same position as before due to the shockwave. A pain ran through their heads like spikes were being stabbed into their brains through both ears.

After a short silence, Heivia finally managed to clench his fists.

“You idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idioooottt!! You didn’t set up the metal plates right, either!! If you had, that shockwave would never have reached us!!”

“My bad, my bad!! Ow! I’m sorry about acting so full of myself when I was rushing things, too!!”

However, the cliff still collapsed thanks to an unexpected coincidence.

The collapse of the cliff brought Water Strider wreckage down with it. Among the wreckage was a leg that looked like a twisted steel pylon and a mass of armor that was over 10 meters long.

The two of them had gotten into a scuffle in the snow, but they froze in place at that unexpected result.

Quenser spoke up first.

“Hmm. It seems the wreckage rolled down far enough to plug up the area between cliffs.”

“And that will block the path of the convoy trying to pass by below.” Heivia frowned. “I know they can’t move things this heavy so easily, but will this really work? Using such huge pieces of wreckage for a wall also means the gaps are huge.”

“There’s an ambush set up to deal with that.” Quenser pointed out into the snowy plain. “There are tiny fragments a few centimeters or a few millimeters across scattered all over the place. That’s why we can’t just send in giant cranes to deal with this. Those caltrops would blow the tires.”

“So I guess stage 1 was a success.”

“Yes.” Quenser disassembled the large electric drill that was no longer needed. “We have the foundation we need to confine the Information Alliance Object.”

===Part 2===

It all started three days prior.

That was the day Quenser and Heivia were flown to Alaska while complaining as usual.

“Our enemy this time is an Information Alliance Object. It is a cutting edge Generation 2 Object that we at the Legitimacy Kingdom military have codenamed Rush,” said Froleytia, their silver-haired, large-breasted, and Japanese-obsessed commander.

This was not part of an official pre-mission briefing.

It was after she had discovered the billiards table those two idiots had made out of scrap wood and had lectured them for two hours straight. After she had made sure they had taken official responsibility for that, Froleytia’s expression became more cheerful and they started playing a game of pool to kill time.

In a disgusted tone of voice, Quenser said, “Taking on a Second Generation Object in Alaska? I have a bad feeling about that.”

“Make sure not to mention that we’re fighting atop the freezing cold snow of Alaska in front of the princess. It would only anger her.” Froleytia sighed before continuing. “The remains of the Water Strider that became our nightmare are still strewn across Alaska. We want to analyze the technology there, but it’s just too much to easily transport away.”

The wreckage from the previous Baby Magnum was still there too, but the Legitimacy Kingdom had no real reason to look into it. They would only strip it of rare metals to reuse them.

“Can’t we just hook it to one of our Objects and tow it out of there?” said Heivia who was exhibiting his position as a noble by holding the cue skillfully.

Froleytia smoked her kiseru with even more annoyance and said, “The area is still fiercely fought over, so Objects are commonly coming and going. What if a different Object targets ours while doing that? We would just end up with another souvenir to analyze the technology of.”

“Is that so?” muttered Heivia offhandedly.

However, the conversation must have affected his concentration because the cue ball he struck was swallowed up by one of the pockets.

Froleytia removed the kiseru from her mouth with one hand and said, “Heivia, I’m going to perform a middle kick, so stick your ass out this way.”

“Where the hell did that come from!?”

“Quiet. Hitting the cue ball into a pocket without getting a single other ball in is punished with a kick to the ass where I come from. Okay, lower your knees a bit and…yes, right there. Now, don’t move. If you dodge it, you get two.”

“Dammit. The thrill in your voice is scaring me, you sadistic queen!!”

Froleytia’s lovely leg shot out like a whip before Heivia could complain any more. With a ridiculous crack as if from a real whip, Heivia collapsed to the ground holding his ass despite all his military training.

“Gyahh!? The boot’s air conditioning motor!!”

Quenser had known Heivia for a while, but he had never heard that kind of voice come from him before.

Meanwhile, Froleytia put the kiseru back in her mouth and spoke with an unconcerned look on her face.

“Hmm. I may be a weak little girl, but I am good at doing that.”

“…Y-you liar. You could never pull that off without thoroughly training your entire body…” groaned Heivia.

Ignoring him, Froleytia took the cue from Quenser who was trembling in fear. She then headed for the billiards table.

“Getting back on topic, the remains of the Water Strider are strewn about Alaska. Those remains are full of treasure both of the soft and hard variety. We can learn from the technology used in its design, from the electronic programs it used, and it’s also full of military secrets. Not to mention all the rare metals inside. Also, we might also learn something about the techniques of the artisans that made the armor from the composition of the highly heat resistant materials and the balance of heat treatment. Since we were the ones that blew up the Faith Organization’s Water Strider, we naturally have the right to the benefits of that analysis. However, we are not the only ones that want those benefits.”

Froleytia aimed the cue at the white cue ball, staring down a straight line from the ball. She was so focused on the game that she did not seem to notice that her ass inside her tight skirt was sticking out toward Quenser.

“We have learned that some intelligence agents from the Information Alliance snuck in there a few weeks ago, but they went too far. We were ordered to destroy the quickly constructed antenna facility they were preparing in order to transmit information on the technology they had analyzed. I doubt the Information Alliance will take that sitting down, so they will likely send an Arctic Object in.”

“And that’s the Generation 2 Rush…?”

“You’ve already seen it, Quenser.”

The high pitched noise of a number of balls striking each other rang out and the 3 ball was swallowed up by a pocket. Froleytia circled around the table with a delighted spring in her step.

“That’s the one we fought alongside during the liberation of that Oceanian military nation. Its two rapid fire beam cannon Gatling guns were its trademark.”

Hearing that, Quenser almost brought his hand to his forehead.

“(…That G-cup ‘Oh ho ho’!?)”

His bitter expression was not simply because he had to fight someone he knew. They did belong to enemy nations after all.

It was because he knew just how powerful the Object that “Oh ho ho” piloted was. The rapid fire beam cannon Gatling guns it used as its main weapons were more powerful than the princess’s main cannons when it came to brute force. The odds were good the enemy would simply maintain an ideal distance, and blow away their Object’s armor in no time at all without giving any chance to evade.

Froleytia would have gone through all sorts of data on it beforehand when coming up with the strategy, and she seemed to realize what Quenser was worried about.

“We won’t be fighting it head on. Not even the higher ups are expecting that of us. This is more of a job for our decorated combat engineers.”

“Wait! Wait just a second!! I like that even less!! That’s just putting all the danger on us! I’ve been wondering, why does this unit seem completely incapable of sending an Object after an Object like normal units do!?”

“It’s no good, Quenser. You heard that thrill in her voice, right? That’s the tone she gets when she’s hoping for a good reaction from us when she asks something ridiculous of us,” said Heivia with tears in his eyes as he continued to hold his ass.

Froleytia targeted the next ball and pouted the lips that held her kiseru.

“Don’t talk about me like I use my position to harass you. The princess still takes the leading role while you only have supporting roles, so don’t worry. You just have to take care of some simple demolition wor-…Hm!?”

Her sudden exclamation was due to the cue ball unexpectedly veering a bit diagonally after she struck it with the cue. The conversation must have affected her concentration.

The cue ball struck the edge of the table a few times before being swallowed up by a corner pocket.

“…”

“…”

“…”

The three remained silent for a bit.

In order to break that awkward silence, Froleytia squeezed the cue with all her strength, held it out toward Quenser, and opened her eyes wide.

“You’re up next, Quenser!! And since I foolishly hit the cue ball into the pocket, it’s your duty to kick my ass as hard as you can!! Now!!!!!!”

“Please stop trying to hide your embarrassment with intensity!! It’s scary!! This is the first time anyone has stuck their ass out toward me so forcefully!!”

===Part 3===

And so those two idiots played their roles as supporting characters by moving secretly across a snowy plain of Alaska and carrying out demolitions work to stop the enemy convoy.

“This is the 5th spot,” muttered Quenser on that snowy plain that had grown dark due to the sun having completely set. “The ‘maze’ is finally complete.”

“Now the Information Alliance maintenance convoy can’t move freely to and from the battlefield. The primary route is blocked by the wall of wreckage we created and the sharp fragments will destroy their tires if they try to find a way through. But we can still move through quickly because we know the proper route.”

“This in itself does not actually work as an attack against the Rush. It’ll all be a waste of time if our princess loses in a direct conflict.”

“Not necessarily.”

“?”

Quenser looked confused, and a cruel smile appeared on Heivia’s face.

“The Rush uses a special means of movement that uses both an air cushion and treads. It normally floats using the power of air, but it uses chainsaw-like treads to tear at the ground and give it bursts of high speed. Surely you knew that, right?”

“Well, yeah…”

“Unlike the princess whose Object floats at all times, the Rush does contact the ground at times.” Heivia lightly waved his index finger. “That means it’s possible the fragments of the destroyed Object could be sucked in by the treads, causing a malfunction.”

Normal stones or concrete would be torn away by those treads powered by the massive energy of the giant reactor.

However, the obstacles this time were remnants and armor plates from a similarly monstrous Object. It was possible those could actually damage the monster’s treads.

“But will it really go that well?” Quenser was somehow doubtful. “Objects have tons of sensors. They’ll be able to detect the metal on the ground, right?”

“It’s everywhere. Even if they can detect it, they might not be able to avoid it.”

“If this would really work, wouldn’t someone be putting serious effort into developing anti-Object caltrops?”

“The high heat resistance of the armor plates comes from the work of artisans. This isn’t cheap stuff they can pump out like crazy. They’ve likely determined it’s more efficient to focus it all on spare parts for Objects.”

“You sure are optimistic, Heivia. Are you the type that wouldn’t hesitate to buy a lucky pot if your beautiful commander confidently told you to?”

“Our large-breasted commander isn’t the type of beauty that gives you a sense of peace.”

“…Yeah, she’s the type of commander that personally organizes a unit under her direct control to perform surprise checks for porn magazines in the barracks.”

“About that! Why does she have to put only women in their 20s in that group!? If it was some middle-aged guy, it could all be resolved peacefully with an awkward smile!!”

“That’s the entire point. By the way, how about we form an alliance, Heivia? When it looks like they’ll be checking in one of our hiding spots, the other can hide the goods in their spot and vice versa.”

“But she has complete control of the radio transmissions. She would hear any emergency transmissions we made.”

“We can use metaphors or code words or something. Y’know, we can say ‘I’m cornered over here’ or something to denote the beginning of a coded conversation.”

“It would be best if we didn’t use the same metaphors for long. How about we switch them out between missions?”

The two worked out those plans together, but they did not forget that they were on a battlefield.

“It looks like we’ll know just how effective our sabotage is soon.” Heivia checked the time on his military watch. “The clash between the princess and the Rush should be beginning right about now.”

“…In any normal place, only people working overtime would still be at work. I’d like to make it back in time for the last train.”

===Part 4===

The Legitimacy Kingdom Object known as the Baby Magnum was designated a Composite Multi-Role Object.

However, the more common term used was “First Generation Object”.

It was made to perform in all environments and weather conditions. If some parts were switched out, it could even move freely over the ocean. When First Generation Objects first appeared, they were said to be more powerful and easier to use than a nuclear weapon, but the situation had changed now that it was normal for world powers to possess powerful Objects.

[[Image:HO_v03_06.png|thumb]]

The main cannons supported by the seven arms extending from the back of the Object could rotate at the base like a revolver. This allowed it to fire different types and varieties of weapons to match the situation. When put that way, it sounded quite convenient and powerful.

However, the Elite pilot girl who piloted the Baby Magnum felt about it differently.

Her Object only had multiple options for its main cannons because it was necessary.

In other words, the designers had not been confident its main cannons could defeat an enemy in a single strike, so they had prepared that option as a form of insurance.

Her main cannons were weak.

The implications of this were as follows: In an age where Objects were common and there was a flood of Objects of equal or greater ability, a standard First Generation Object had no guarantee that it could destroy any and all enemies.

(I know that…)

The slender princess took a deep breath within the cockpit at the center of the Object. The air was purified with multiple filters and caustic soda, and the air pressure was maintained at the perfect level for high-speed thought. That air almost mechanically swept away her negative thoughts and allowed her to bring her thoughts in order.

(Regardless, I can only pilot the Baby Magnum as it is what I was specially modified to pilot. I have no choice but to take on the world with the Baby Magnum.)

She focused her thoughts and looked back at the front monitor.

There was already a reading on the radar.

She had her enemy’s location and her enemy surely had hers.

It was 1 on 1.

Single combat on the greatest scale ever seen in the world was about to begin.

Just as the princess felt a tense atmosphere fill the cockpit, she heard the electronic tone indicating an external transmission had come in.

It was not on an official Legitimacy Kingdom military frequency.

Objects tended to have the ability to pick up all transmission from frequencies not of their own army and attempt to analyze them. If they happened to learn of the enemy’s movements from doing so, that was great. Due to complex codes, enemy transmissions were rarely intercepted, and when they were, they could always be false information meant to lead you into a trap. This meant it was usually not too useful, but a Composite Multi-Role Object was filled with such “useless” features.

What the Baby Magnum had picked up was on neither a Legitimacy Kingdom military frequency nor an Information Alliance military frequency. It was pretty much a general frequency. It was also not coded so either side could understand it.

(Are they purposefully letting me hear this…?)

The princess gave a suspicious look.

The voice of a teenage girl came from the speaker.

“Oh ho ho. I don’t believe I have seen you since Oceania, you unrefined Legitimacy Kingdom Elite.”

“…”

The princess immediately cut off the transmission, but another transmission came over a different frequency almost immediately after that.

“I suppose I cannot blame you for trembling in fear, but do not worry. I am kind. Oh ho ho. I am of course generous enough to recognize your white flag. I am not like that Object that lies in pieces all around here.”

“Must you insult me with every word you speak…?” A dangerous light appeared in the princess’s expressionless eyes at the Information Alliance Elite’s reference to her defeat to the Water Strider. “I will make sure we have no need of our white flag. I will destroy you here. I will make you into a souvenir just like the Water Strider.”

“My, my. Now, this is a problem. I cannot take my reward according to plan unless I make you use your white flag. Oh ho ho.”

“…?”

“After all, if you use your white flag, we can take prisoners from the surviving soldiers. Which means… Oh ho ho. I will have a chance to retrieve a certain gentleman from your unit and scout him for my own uses.”

In the next instant, the princess fired one of the Baby Magnum’s main cannons.

[[Image:HO_v03_07.png|thumb]]

The coilgun fired a massive steel shell with the power of electromagnets, but the Information Alliance’s Rush was out of range, so it did not receive so much as a scratch. However, the princess had achieved her objective.

That had been no warning shot.

It had been a signal to denote the beginning of the deadly battle.

As if in response to the shot, the giant Object before her quickly approached. It charged across the open snowy plain as if intentionally entering effective range of the Baby Magnum’s weapons.

The princess also charged across the snowy plain while heading back and forth in an S-curve.

A simple word was filling her head.

“Die…!!”

“Oh ho ho! Oh ho ho ho ho ho!! Once I have that gentleman, I will put a collar and dog ears on him and give him the best of care, so do not worry! In fact, he would clearly be happier here than with your unrefined unit. Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!!”

With an overwhelming explosive noise that disturbed even the electromagnetic waves of their transmissions to each other, the two giant weapons fired their main cannons.

===Part 5===

Object versus Object.

A safe and clean battlefield.

That international competition was something like an official sports competition that cleanly distinguished between the battlefield and safe countries.

In this age, wars were deadly fights between those giant weapons, so no others needed to die in the wars. When one of the Objects was destroyed, the war was over. The only sacrifice was the Elite piloting the Object. And even that was not assured. If the Elite performed an emergency ejection and transmitted the signal known as the white flag, the enemy Object would end its pursuit and preparations would be made for an end of war conference between the two nations.

Dying on the battlefield was no longer common.

The most common reason for a soldier to leave a front lines base was not injuries or death. Instead, it was due to complications in a romantic relationship with someone else on the base.

New soldiers fresh out of boot camp would lose their edge on the front lines.

Or so it should have been…

“God dammit!! How in the hell is this a safe and clean battlefield!?” shouted Quenser and Heivia in unison as they ran full tilt across the snowy white plain.

They had been hiding about a kilometer from where the two Objects had begun to clash. From there, they had tried to use binoculars or rifle scope to watch the “sports competition”, but the aftereffects of the battle spread to a frightening distance.

The cause of their fear was the shockwaves.

The main bodies of the Objects alone were over 50 meters across, so when they fired their main cannons, something like a tremor in the earth spread across the snowy white plain, causing the ground to push up at them from below. That had relentlessly shaken the 10-meter-long piece of Water Strider wreckage Quenser and Heivia were hiding behind, causing it to fall over so that it would crush them.

With the cover they were using as a shield trying to kill them, Quenser and Heivia were forced to run as fast as they could across the snowy plain. Given how massive the piece of wreckage was, it was just as dynamic a sight as seeing a slightly old car being turned into a hunk of recycled metal.

The Objects on the battlefield did not seem to notice the presence of the two boys. Or they had but were simply ignoring them because they could not affect the battle any.

The puny human crawling across the ground named Quenser did not want his grave to list such a pathetic cause of death, so he ran away looking like a demon covered in snow.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!! See, this is just as ridiculous as ever!! This is divine punishment for lowly people like us thinking we could watch an Object battle with our own eyes!!”

“Divine punishment!? Are you from the Faith Organization now!? Only shrine maidens talk about divine punishment!!”

“Divine punishment is a Shinto concept? I thought it was Buddhist.”

After the wreckage fell over and knocked a cloud of white snow into the air like dust, Quenser and Heivia hid behind it once more. The shockwaves still blasted through intermittently, but the Object wreckage seemed to have fallen into a more stable position. It was the same as a fallen tree not moving after it loses to gravity the first time.

Heivia lay on his stomach behind the wreckage and kept his breathing shallow.

“…This is really pathetic. We’re putting our lives in the hands of the wreckage that tried to kill us. It feels like getting in the bath the next day without letting out the water.”

“If you worry about pride when up against an Object, you won’t last 5 seconds,” replied Quenser offhand as he checked on the battlefield with his binoculars.

Since it was 50 meter+ monsters fighting, the assistance of the lenses was pretty much unnecessary.

They were fighting at close range.

Despite their huge size, Objects could move at high speeds of 500 kph. And this was not simply in a straight trajectory. They could make slight evasive movements similar to the footwork of a mixed martial artist. Overall, they ended up moving in circles around each other.

They could not hide behind cover to avoid shells and they could not use chaff or flares to throw off the enemy’s aim.

When a shell came flying toward them, they evaded it by sliding to the side.

They could actually predict when a cannon would fire from the minute movements it made, but the sight of shells being avoided like they were fists moving at tremendous speed was enough to leave a human speechless.

“…We should be thankful for the enemy’s rapid fire,” said Quenser quietly as he carefully watched the Information Alliance’s Rush. “Its main cannons are rapid fire beam cannon Gatling guns. They were made into Gatling guns in order to extend how long they could fire, but even then 30 seconds at a time is the limit. They probably put one on either side to make up for the time it takes to cool down.”

If it could fire those Gatling guns without limit, the princess would not be able to escape with her quick movements. It would be no different from the enemy swinging around a giant saber. But with the time limit, the princess only had to flee at full speed in one direction during that time and then change directions once the rapid fire ended.

With both main cannons, the Rush could fire without break, but its giant form got in the way. Each cannon could rotate enough to cover 180 degrees. This meant the right main cannon could only target the right 180 degrees. If the princess escaped to the left side of the spherical main body, that cannon could not target her.

“It looks like the Information Alliance’s ‘Oh ho ho’ is trying to make up for that by rotating the entire Object, but she isn’t able to keep up with the princess’s speed.”

“Hey. Hey, Quenser. Listen to this.” Heivia had been messing with the radio and now he held the rectangular device out toward Quenser. “I’ve picked up some kind of lover’s quarrel.”

“?”

Quenser frowned and focused on the voices coming from the radio.

What he heard was…

“Oh ho ho!! Just as I would expect of a loser like you, you are excellent at running away! End this pointless struggle and hand that gentleman over to my G-cup chest!!”

[[Image:HO_v03_08.png|thumb]]

“He is here to perform maintenance on my Object. ''My'' Object!! He would be wasted on an Object as irregularly shaped as yours. You’re not wanted here, so get lost. Or die.”

The two Objects continued to fire their cannons at each other, but the two Elite’s tone of voice was even more frightening.

Still holding out the radio, Heivia said, “This is no joke. I bet that large-breasted commander of ours has her head in her hands right about now.”

“Hey, Heivia. What is this about?”

“Weren’t you listening? It’s pretty obvious. Does this really sound like some high level code to you?”

“Two Elites from different sides using a war to fight over a single maintenance soldier? That’s one hell of a story. How much engineering skill does this guy have? Does he have proprietary tools only he can use or something?”

Without speaking a word and still smiling, Heivia clenched his right fist and punched his partner in the face.

Lying in the snow and holding his nose, Quenser was about to cry out in protest, but the voice never came.

A major change came over the battle.

A remarkably loud explosion rang out.

The two Objects had fired their main cannons and hit their opponent.

“They hit each other!!” shouted Heivia.

“How’s the princess!?” shouted Quenser.

It seemed both Elites had decided it would be a long battle and had therefore targeted their opponent’s main cannons.

The princess’s Baby Magnum had blown one of the Rush’s main cannons clean off. Its main cannons rotated to cover the 180 degrees on either side. With one of those gone, one side was a complete safe area.

And as for the princess’s Baby Magnum…

“Hey, this is bad.” Heivia gulped as he looked through his rifle scope that provided more magnification than Quenser’s binoculars. “The Baby Magnum had the ‘base’ taken out!! The back of the body where the joints for the 7 main cannon arms are gathered was blown off!!”

“The joints? But that could keep all of the arms from moving!”

“She focused too much on taking out that ‘Oh ho ho’s’ main cannon while circling around the Rush. Otherwise, she would never have been hit in the back in a 1 on 1 fight!!”

The two Objects continued in slow circles around each other, but the bombardment had ended.

The shouting voices over the radio had ended as well.

Silence.

Quiet.

The princess’s back joints had been shot off, but it was unclear if all of the 7 main cannons were unusable or if some of them were just barely functioning.

It was just as unclear how well the Information Alliance’s Rush could continue fighting with only one of its main cannons.

They were both trying to assess the battle ability of their opponent.

Quenser felt a great tension cover the battlefield.

If either of them decided they had a way to attack, the battle would be over in an instant. However, that decision might not be correct. If they tried, they could fail. If they failed, the battle would end with their opponent taking advantage of that failure and taking them out.

The Elites piloting the Objects were likely using their respective Object’s auto diagnostics to their fullest to determine just how usable their Object was. And all the while, they would be repeating strategy simulations in their heads dozens or even hundreds of times.

(…What are they going to do?)

Quenser had never known that a motionless battlefield could be so oppressive. He felt a pressure over his entire body like he was on a submarine sinking into the dark depths of the ocean after an engine failure.

And…

After about 500 seconds, the slow circular motion stopped completely.

With its main cannons pointed at the Information Alliance’s Rush, the princess’s Baby Magnum slowly moved backwards. She was headed away from the snowy plain of the battlefield and to her maintenance base zone.

The Information Alliance’s “Oh ho ho” did not try to head after her.

As if in response, the Rush backed away from the snowy plain as well.

Once it began, it all sped up.

After they had moved about 500 meters each, the two Objects suddenly rotated 180 degrees and left at full speed.

Quenser and Heivia were left alone on the battlefield.

“Wh-what was that? What happened?”

“They’re going in for a pit stop.” Heivia got up off the snow. “Only another Object’s main cannon can penetrate the thick armor of an Object. Both of them had their main cannons taken out. Without a way to finish this, there was no point in continuing. They need to have maintenance performed as quickly as possible so they can attack before the other’s maintenance is complete.”

“But the Rush still had one of its main cannons.”

“Didn’t you see the layout of the Rush’s main cannons, battlefield student? It had one on either side. With one destroyed, it has a major blind spot. That was hardly an ideal situation for the Rush. She probably wanted to head back for maintenance if possible.”

As previously stated, the princess’s back joints for the seven arms of the seven main cannons had been damaged. The cannons themselves had not been destroyed, so it was possible they could still be fired. The Rush had wanted something certain, so it had not headed after her.

Naturally, the one that finished its pit stop first would win.

“That means…” Quenser felt an unpleasant pressure in his gut. “This is bad. The princess had the part on the back that collects the joints for the 7 main cannon arms destroyed. That’s like a human hand. All the joints in there make it a delicate area. Can they swap that out quickly?”

“And the Information Alliance just has to put in a whole main cannon. Even a monkey would be able to tell who will likely finish changing first.” Despite his words, Heivia did not look all that frightened. “Hey, Quenser. Why do you think we drilled holes in that cliff and stuffed bombs inside? It was to get in the way of their maintenance unit.”

“Oh, that’s right,” said Quenser as if he had only just remembered.

The flashy battle between Objects had made him completely forget.

They had originally been trying to block the path for the maintenance convoy.

Heivia shrugged and said, “The Information Alliance’s highhanded girl and her followers will be caught in our obstacle course. If the princess can finish changing in the time that we manage to buy, we win.”

“But what are we supposed to do? Head back to the base as quickly as we can and help with the maintenance? They’ll need all the help they can get.”

“You idiot. I said it was a pit stop, remember? If it isn’t done by the time we make it back to the base, the Information Alliance will finish first no matter how much time we buy. Even if we rush back to the base at full speed, the princess’s maintenance will be over already.”

“Then what ''are'' we supposed to do? That leaves us with nothing.”

“Are you trying to be an overachiever now? There’s no rule saying we have to always be doing some kind of work. If there’s nothing for us to do, we just need to head back at a nice leisurely pace. In fact, if we rush back, that giant-breasted commander would probably just force some odd jobs on us.”

“Really…?”

“Really. What, did you get all excited seeing Objects so close? The presence of two puny soldiers makes no difference, so why bother gathering your strength? Froleytia and the others rely on us too much. A battle between Objects is just on too great a scale for humans with nothing but their two hands to deal with.”

“True,” agreed Quenser.

In what seemed like some kind of cruel punishment on a global scale, Quenser had been forced to face Objects himself due to various unpleasant coincidences, but wars that did not require his involvement should have been in the vast majority.

There was no reason for them to go all out here.

For one thing, they had properly carried out the demolition work on the cliff as Froleytia had ordered.

They had carried out their role, so there was no need to carry out any free overtime.

The Information Alliance military would get caught in the Alaskan obstacle course as planned, so the maintenance on the princess would have time to finish. After that, she could destroy the Second Generation Rush.

After thinking through all that, the tension finally left Quenser’s shoulders.

“…Then let’s take our time heading back.”

“Yes, yes. That’s our general stance. Did you finally remember? How about we try to find a deer or bear to shoot on the way back? Despite all my complaints about those flavorless rations, they would probably work as bait if we cut them up and scattered them over the ground.”

“If we have time, I would rather see if I can analyze any of the technology in the Water Strider. There’s educational material just scattered over this entire area.”

“You’re still digging for scraps? You’re quite the enthusiastic student.”

“When it leads to making a fortune, anyone would get serious about it.”

“But the Legitimacy Kingdom military has already analyzed it all to a certain extent. Isn’t there even a design in the database?”

“That’s just an estimation based on the pieces we have. There might be some technology they overlooked. Really, I see more value in digging through this mountain of treasure than this pointless war.”

As they chatted, the two started walking across the snow, but then Froleytia contacted them via radio.

“Quenser, Heivia!! Are you still at Point 199ASD!? I’m checking via satellite, so don’t try to lie. This is an emergency, so I have no time for stupid jokes!!”

“Froleytia?”

“I don’t feel like explaining it all, so just check the satellite image via handheld device and listen.” The impatience was clearly evident in Froleytia’s voice. As she spoke, Quenser frantically pulled out his handheld device. “I’ll get straight to the point. The Information Alliance’s Second Generation Rush has not returned to the maintenance base 50 kilometers to the north. They have deployed a different convoy from nearby. If the work to swap out its main cannon begins like this, it will likely finish before the princess’s maintenance is done!!”

“Wait, wait, wait!!” cut in Heivia from the side. “Isn’t that what we blew up those cliffs to stop!? I thought the convoy couldn’t reach the battlefield because of the Water Strider wreckage in the way!?”

“The convoy couldn’t,” replied Froleytia.

Quenser finally managed to call up the satellite image and he grimaced when he realized what she meant.

“…Look, Heivia. They carried it on foot.”

“Hahh!? What’s that supposed to mean!? How many tons do you think an Object’s main cannon weighs!?”

“The Information Alliance has worked to make the raw materials as light as possible, so about 100 tons I would think. But that uses 5 rapid fire beam cannons, so each individual one would be about 20 tons. They broke each one apart into over 100 pieces and are carrying those pieces!! That’s 200 kilograms a person! Just five trips between the stopped vehicles and the work area would be enough!!”

“200…There’s no way they can walk around on this snowy plain while carrying that much!!”

“Normally, no. But the Information Alliance has a powered suit unit. The normal limits of the human body do not apply here,” Froleytia replied to Heivia’s complaint. “The walls of wreckage that keeps the large vehicles from getting through have big enough openings for people to walk through! They have headed through those openings to meet up with the Rush!!”

“This is bad…” Heivia audibly gulped. “This is really bad!! This is no joke! Even with the time it takes to disassemble and assemble the Rush’s main cannon, we’re at the disadvantage here. If they finish their pit stop, the princess will be destroyed without being able to fight back!!”

“That’s right, Heivia. It’s possible the Rush’s main cannons were designed to be easily disassembled so that they could be transported by air. That’s why I need you two to stop the Rush’s maintenance in any way possible!! The expected rendezvous point for the enemy is 2 kilometers north of you! You’re closest!!”

“You’re crazy,” muttered Heivia as he trembled at the invitation to a deadly battle he had just been given. “I saw their powered suits in that Oceanian military nation, and those aren’t things you can take care of with a rifle!! And even if it needs maintenance, that Second Generation Object is still functioning!! It still has one main cannon, not to mention the almost 100 smaller cannons all over it!! If we get close, we’ll just be blown to pieces!”

“If we had another option, we would not be relying on problem soldiers like you two.” Froleytia sounded annoyed and she was likely holding her head in her hands. “At this rate, Alaska will be transformed into a nightmarish battlefield once more. If you’re okay with that, then you can just hide behind that Water Strider wreckage, Heivia. Think up a way of slowing them down on your own,” was all Froleytia added before ending the transmission.

Heivia almost threw the radio to the ground, but the ecological side of his mind just barely won out over that urge.

Looking like he was about to cry, Heivia spoke to the student who stood next to him.

“This is really no joke. They say a request from a beauty is another name for a one way ticket to hell!! What are we going to do, Quenser!?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Quenser as he stared at his handheld device.

The old movement patterns from the Rush’s battles in the Oceanian military nation were recorded in the Legitimacy Kingdom database. He was checking those.

“We need to think of a way to deal with this. Otherwise, the princess will be the first one to be taken out.”

“Wait, I thought the obvious solution was to ignore our orders and run away! Wait a second, Quenser!! Dammit, you really are a knight in shining armor, you know that!? You’re wasted as a commoner!!” shouted back Heivia as he chased after Quenser who had started to run.

Quenser was headed for the wreckage of one of the Water Strider’s main cannons. The wreckage looked like a metal pylon forcibly bent into a V shape. It had ripped open like an empty can right in the middle of the bend.

The rip was over 70 cm across. A human could probably walk inside without even crouching.

Quenser slid his body inside the crack, but did not go all the way inside. He was checking on the edge of the “wall” as seen from within the crack.

Flat cylindrical objects with a 20 cm diameter and 10 cm thickness were stuffed inside. They were likely installed from one end of the tunnel-like main cannon to the other.

As Quenser inspected the edge, Heivia asked a question with an expression of regret.

“Hey, Sir Knight. Is this any time to be looting? What are you looking for anyway?”

“Electromagnets,” replied Quenser bluntly. “The Water Strider’s main cannons were low-stability plasma cannons. After the special gas was turned into plasma, it was sent in the proper direction using a large number of electromagnets installed within the barrel.”

“Did you look up the destroyed Object’s design, battlefield student?”

“That much is just general knowledge,” said Quenser as he continued his work with both hands.

He took the parts for the large electric drill he had for drilling into the cliff wall and removed them from their bag. He then removed the cylindrical electromagnets from the edge of the rip in the main cannon and put them into the empty bag. After finishing, he grabbed just the battery from the electric drill’s parts.

“What are you going to do with those electromagnets?”

“Attach them to metal of course. You know what Objects are primarily made of, right?” After leaving the crack in the main cannon, Quenser tapped the side of the cannon with the back of his hand. “Steel mixed with high heat resistant materials.”

“Are you serious? Are you saying you’re going to go rock climbing on that giant monster!?”

“Look.”

Without answering the question, Quenser held his handheld device out toward Heivia’s face.

It was displaying the satellite image.

“Froleytia seemed pretty impatient, but we probably have a bit more time. They can’t head straight for the area 2 kilometers north of here. That’s where the Water Strider wreckage is thickest. Even if the powered suit unit can get over it, there is too much wreckage around for them to have enough space to carry out the assembly process. They’ll have to head back and take a bit of a detour. …That means the Rush can’t just head away from here in a straight line. While they’re circling around, we’ll have a chance where the Rush draws closer to us. We might be able to do something.”

“You mean because the wall of Object wreckage can’t be blown away with normal explosives?” asked Heivia in annoyance. “Did you forget, Quenser? The Rush still has one of its main cannons left! That thing can destroy a brand new Object, so that wreckage will be no problem for it!!”

“If it just had to destroy it, yes.” Quenser’s expression did not change. “But the Rush’s main cannon is a rapid fire beam cannon Gatling gun. The armor it fires at melts from the heat. Even if they’re wearing a powered suit, do you think a person can just walk through those blast furnace-like conditions? Also, the outside of the main cannon may be resistant to shocks, but the inner portions they’ll also be carrying are filled with sensitive equipment.”

“Even if the Rush takes this detour,” said Heivia who seemed completely flustered. “We’ll still be in danger. Whether it’s the powered suits that 5.56mm bullets won’t work on or the Second Generation Object with 100 cannons covering every direction, it would be suicide for just the two of us to try to fight them.”

“Sorry, but I don’t have time to argue. …Look at this image, Heivia. The Rush will be here in less than 3 minutes!! It’ll be passing by less than 50 meters from here!!”

“To hell with that!! If there’s no time, then just explain yourself! I’m running away otherwise!!”

Heivia was ready to run away regardless of shame or honor, but Quenser grabbed his shoulder. Heivia seriously considered knocking him down by force, but Quenser spoke before he could do so.

“Please help me, Heivia.”

“No, thank you! I only take sadistic orders from women!! I’m not going down to hell with you!!”

“You can’t escape regardless. If the unit is wiped out, the Information Alliance will use all of its forces to do a sweep of the area. And even if you slip through the gaps in their search, the Legitimacy Kingdom will not rescue you. You will just end up freezing to death before spring.”

“…!!”

“And don’t think you’ll be rescued if they take you prisoner. I’m just a commoner, but you’re a noble. The brunt of their cruelty will be aimed at you rather than me. And having to pay a ransom for you would bring shame to your family, so you would never inherit it after that.”

“Are you serious…? Then what am I supposed to do!?”

“Help me, Heivia,” said Quenser again. “We have no time.”

===Part 6===

The Second Generation Object known as the Rush by the Legitimacy Kingdom was named the Gatling 033 by the Information Alliance. The Elite girl sat in its cockpit. As Quenser had predicted, she had no choice but to take a detour.

The battle with the Legitimacy Kingdom Object would be determined by how quickly the maintenance on her main cannon could be completed. Once it was, the battle would effectively be over.

However, the Elite girl was not piloting the Object at full speed.

In fact, she had lowered her speed to move along very, very cautiously.

The Gatling 033 used an air cushion engine that used the power of the air and special treads for high speed movement. She doubted the scattered Object wreckage could damage the treads, but in the off chance that they did, she would lose even more time with the extra maintenance. She was afraid of losing her time advantage.

(Objects can withstand nuclear attacks, so I doubt it would be damaged so easily, but that is why completely unpredictable “acts of god” are so frightening. Oh ho ho.)

Those who let their guard down when they had a single safe strategy could not hope to defeat what were known as “coincidences”.

The outcome of entire wars rested on the shoulders of an Elite, so the girl felt it was necessary to pay close attention even after putting together a safe strategy.

Luckily, her maintenance was simple enough that she would likely still have time to finish her maintenance and attack the Legitimacy Kingdom Object even while taking such a cautious detour.

A few different means of hindering the convoy had been set up, but the powered suit unit had taken action to keep them from losing any time.

However, she could not allow herself to get too worked up.

It was important to keep a level head.

If she became impatient and moved at full speed to preserve that safe strategy, it could bring about unnecessary trouble that would bring that safe strategy crashing down. Even if she was just barely staying on the proper side of the limit, she had to accurately move the Object like she was a machine as well. That was the way to ensure victory.

Suddenly, the Gatling 033’s sensors picked up infrared rays.

It was the type that guided weapons used to aim.

(…My, my.)

The white smoke of something being launched came from atop a cliff to her side…but the cliff only came up to about half the height of the Gatling 033. It was a portable anti-tank missile, a weapon that was not really useful on a modern battlefield.

(If this is all they can do to slow me down, then these “acts of god” are surprisingly cute. Oh ho ho.)

It happened immediately after it was fired.

It was no more than 0.3 seconds later.

The smallest of the Gatling 033’s weapons reacted. A metal railgun shell was fired at a speed greater than Mach 5. The missile that had only just left the barrel was shot down and an area 10 meters around where it had been fired was blown away. The impact held such great power that it blew away even the flames of the missile.

A dull rumble shook the snowy earth.

Paying it no heed, the Elite girl informed her fellow soldiers.

“Oh ho ho. This is the Gatling 033. Someone who is likely from the Legitimacy Kingdom attacked me in the middle of my detour.” She sounded utterly bored. “No, that will not be necessary. There is unlikely to be even a body left. It would be a waste of time to investigate. Oh ho ho.”

===Part 7===

Heivia hid behind some rocks a bit away.

He had attached a portable anti-tank missile launcher to some Water Strider wreckage, connected a cable to it, and had fired it remotely. The Rush’s railgun had fired on an area well away from where Heivia was.

But his body was still covered in sweat.

If the Rush realized what Heivia was trying to do, he would have been shot without hesitation.

“…God dammit. I can’t tell if going along with him is bringing me towards victory or death.”

Quenser was not currently with Heivia.

He of course had not been blown away with the anti-tank missile.

Heivia slowly left the rocks, got down on his belly, and used his rifle scope to check around the area.

Quenser had run between pieces of Water Strider wreckage to travel across the cliff. The Information Alliance’s Rush had various sensors, so the odds were good he would be spotted if he simply hid. The reason Quenser had not been shot was…

(Because it’s Object wreckage, hm?)

Heivia himself was hiding behind a piece of thick armor plating.

Object armor was incredibly thick and it would reflect radar and most other types of sensors. Also, Quenser was currently using a piece of anti-nuclear weapon lead plating as a shield. Quenser could not have been located even with X-rays.

(Also, the shockwave from that blast affected the surrounding snow and the smaller pieces of armor. Someone running around in white camouflage might be overlooked as long as the sensors don’t pick up on an abnormality.)

The Rush was currently moving through a ravine.

The Object was slowly moving along such that it was almost rubbing up against the cliff face

And…

Quenser jumped from the cliff.

Just before he jumped, he threw a plastic explosive off the cliff and detonated it. A great amount of dirt and snow cut off the Rush’s information from its cameras, microphones, heat sensors, and other sensors. Since the Object barely fit inside the ravine, the Elite would likely either think the vibration of the Object had caused a landslide or a bomb had been detonated remotely in an attempt to block the Object’s path.

The Rush was made up of the spherical main body with the <big>'''†'''</big> shaped float and the treads located directly below that. The floats extended to the front, back, left, and right. The two to the left and the right each had a rapid fire beam cannon Gatling gun installed on the top of the end.

Quenser had landed on one of those.

Even if the Rush had slowed down to make it through the ravine, it was still moving. When Quenser landed, he could not stop his momentum, and his feet slipped.

(Waaahhh!? Damn. The past movement patterns I checked on my handheld device were no use whatsoever!!)

He then slipped down off the main cannon.

He landed on his butt atop the Rush’s float.

(…Come to think of it, I rode on here in Oceania, didn’t I?)

He looked up.

The Object had over 100 cannons both large and small, but it did not have all that many on the side. They likely wanted to give priority to giving the main cannon room.

However, it did have almost 20 smaller cannons.

Quenser attached a rope to an electromagnet and then wrapped a battery cable around the rope. He plugged the power cable into the jack on the front of the electromagnet and bluish-white sparks flew from it. He lightly swung the rope around to build up centrifugal force. After gaining momentum, he threw the electromagnet straight up. The mass attached at a point near the base of a small cannon.

The Rush’s armor plates used carbon and aramid, but the electromagnet succeeded in attaching.

(Now then. This is like having something stuck to your face. Even all those sensors are of no use at this close range. That’s the problem with being so large.)

Quenser grabbed the rope with both hands and began climbing up. In all honesty, that was the hardest part. He was wearing thick gloves, but a stinging, scraping pain covered his palms in no time.

It felt like forever before he made it all the way up.

While making sure to avoid being seen by the aiming camera located just below the barrel, he sat down on top of the cannon. It was similar to taking a quick rest on a short outcropping while rock climbing. However, his goal was still quite distant.

He was only about 20 meters up.

Quenser pulled an additional electromagnet and rope out of the large bag, but then he heard Heivia over his radio.

“You really just run all over the place with a confident grin on your face, don’t you? If the Rush had magnetic sensors, you would have been noticed the second you used the first electromagnet.”

“That was no coincidence,” said Quenser as he started to move slowly toward the spherical main body at the base of the cannon. Moving across the cylindrical cannon took more care than he had expected. “I rode on the Rush’s float in that Oceanian military nation, remember? I noticed it had no magnetic sensors on the main body then. I also noticed that the aiming cameras for the cannons were located on the underside, leaving the top side defenseless.”

“Oh, god. Wouldn’t it be faster if you just got the Object design from her in bed?” joked Heivia, but Quenser ignored him and looked up at the giant Object.

Just the main body was 50 meters across, so he still had plenty to look up at.

“It’s just like how you can’t see something stuck to your face with your own eyes. The Elite won’t notice that I’m rock climbing.”

===Part 8===

Quenser removed the rope from the electromagnet attached to the side of the armor.

However, he was more than halfway down the spherical main body, so the wall was slanted more than 90 degrees. It was jutting out towards Quenser. An expert free climber may have managed easily, but a complete amateur like Quenser would have a hard time climbing up even with the help of the rope. It would have been easier if he was climbing straight up with the rope hanging down vertically.

However, he could hardly head back now.

He was over 20 meters from the ground. Even with snow on the ground, he would not fare well with a drop from that height. Meanwhile, the Object was picking up speed. It must have left the narrowest part of the ravine. With the Water Strider wreckage buried under the snow, jumping to the ground would be suicide.

(Both heading up and heading down leads to hell. I should really get paid overtime for this.)

While crouched down atop the small cannon, Quenser looked around to check on his climbing route.

“Quenser,” said Heivia from the radio tucked into Quenser’s uniform. “I get that you’re climbing up, but where exactly are you headed?”

“Dunno. But I need to find something I can use to slow down their maintenance! I could destroy the radar or the auxiliary sensors, or I could do something to the cockpit barriers to force them to open! After I get up, I need to find a way to buy us some time!!”

“We’re running out of time. If you don’t hurry, you’ll be taken along with the Rush to the Information Alliance’s impromptu maintenance area!! If that happens, it’ll be hard for me to provide a diversion while you escape!”

Hearing that, Quenser pulled a new electromagnet from the bag.

The electromagnet could be used as a powerful handhold, but it was useless in its current state.

Still on the cannon, Quenser connected the thick cable into the jack on the electromagnet.

Bluish-white sparks flew.

He forced himself not to flinch and threw the electromagnet a few meters up onto the Rush’s body.

With a solid click, a new contact point was created on the flat armor of the spherical body.

(The pilot can’t see a soldier attached to the surface from within the cockpit. But I have to make sure not to pass in front of one of the cannon’s cameras. The cameras are set below the cannons. I have to pass the rope around and get my feet on the cannon from above.)

“Quenser, not good!!” shouted Heivia in a sharp voice.

For an instant, Quenser did not know what Heivia meant, but he soon figured it out.

Over 200 cannons both large and small were installed on the Rush’s surface.

Those cannons were making small, ordered movements like a crowd in a stadium doing the wave. That flow was headed his way like a grassy field blowing in the wind.

(There must have been a slight error in the cannon’s movement, so it’s checking to see if anything is hanging from any of them or on top of any of them!!)

Quenser took his feet from the cannon he was standing on and hung from the rope with both arms.

Immediately afterwards, the wave of the cannons passed right below him.

He had managed to get through it.

But then Quenser felt an unpleasant jerking sensation reach his arms.

(The electromagnet…!?)

He had only one battery, but he had multiple electromagnets. The more electromagnets he used, the less power would be left in the battery. And that would lower the power with which the electromagnets clung to the armor.

He could tell the electromagnet attached to the armor surface was slowly sliding down. Quenser frantically got a better grip on the rope and tried to climb up as much as he could.

Luckily, he was almost at the center of the sphere.

The slope was greater than 90 degrees there, but once he got past the halfway point, the slope would work in his favor. Then, he would just be heading up a slope.

(Don’t fall…)

If he had received proper training like Heivia, he might have learned how to support his weight by grabbing the rope with his feet. However, Quenser did not know how to do that. He frantically climbed up using almost entirely his arms.

(Please, don’t let me fall here!!)

Quenser finally made it up the rope and grabbed the electromagnet itself.

He pulled himself up onto the upper portion of the sphere.

He just had an upwards slope left.

(Now I can make it…)

Quenser’s heavy breathing showed white in the cold air.

The effects would be even weaker, but he used an additional electromagnet to create another handhold. However, it no longer had to support his entire weight. He just needed something to help him with the steep slope, so he would be putting less of a burden on it. It would most likely be no problem.

“Heivia. Can you hear me, Heivia?”

He tried to contact the other boy over the radio, but he got no response.

He must have moved out of range. The Object was headed to the nearby site where the Information Alliance powered suit unit would replace the main cannon, but he had still ended up quite far away.

Quenser’s mind turned to the plastic explosives in the bag on his back.

(Now, what do I target? I’m not trying to blow up the Object this time. Where can I damage it to slow down the maintenance the most?)

He was not even sure if the bombs he had were enough to destroy any part of it. An Object was a monstrous weapon that could withstand a nuclear strike. Its sensors and radar would likely be destroyed in a nuclear strike, but that did not mean the Hand Axe plastic explosive would be enough.

(Trying to destroy something from the outside will be difficult. This isn’t something for a flesh-and-blood soldier to attempt. Which means…)

Quenser came up with a new plan.

If he was going to do something, this idea was his only option.

But he did not have time to slowly check that his plan would work. The Object he stood on took another new action.

Specifically, the cannons did.

The lenses of the cameras attached to them all made a slight whirring noise in unison.

That meant…

(Not good.)

Quenser’s throat grew dry.

(A simultaneous firing!?)

===Part 9===

Inside the cockpit of the Information Alliance’s Second Generation Object, the Gatling 033, the pilot Elite’s fingertips moved complexly.

Multiple windows opened on the large window, but she did not see any suspicious shadows at the moment. She was using the sensors too, but for an Object, “close range” was a few hundred meters out. An enemy that was truly close by was unlikely to show up.

There was a simple reason that she was suspicious of something being there.

“Some kind of electromagnetic signal was transmitting from close to the Gatling 033’s surface. Oh ho ho.”

The Elite girl had carried out the check due to a warning that appeared in a small window. She had confirmed that some kind of signal was being sent and received, but she unfortunately could not determine what kind of information it was.

There might have been someone there.

Or it might have been something unmanned.

(Oh ho ho. I moved all the cannons, so I know whatever it is is not using a cannon as a foothold.)

Due to that, the Elite girl decided that it was most likely unmanned. The radio signal might have been coming from a transmitter that would help the enemy Object aim.

The Elite moved her fingertips and sent signals to every one of the Gatling 033’s cannons.

(How about I carry out one more countermeasure to be absolutely sure? Oh ho ho.)

She was performing a simultaneous firing.

She would fire the over 100 cannons both large and small installed on the Gatling 033 all at once.

She did not have to worry about aiming.

What mattered was that she fired them.

(Oh ho ho. Strictly speaking, it is the shockwaves and radiant heat that accompanies the firing that will swat away any annoying bugs.)

Railguns, coilguns, laser beams, and low-stability plasma cannons.

Each of the cannons produced massive side effects when fired. Object cannons could not be placed around bases because those side effects were so great they would likely affect those in the base.

If someone was clinging to the Object or some small device was attached, the Gatling 033’s simultaneous firing would send shockwaves and radiant heat across the entirety of the armor.

Whether it was a person or an unmanned device sending the radio signal, they or it would be knocked off.

“Hm.”

The Elite accessed the recorder box and called up information from the countless cameras and sensors installed on the Object. She was checking the time when she had passed through the narrowest portion of the ravine.

The camera showed only a blurred shadow, but the heat sensor had picked something up. But…

(Well, either way...)

The Elite coldheartedly hit a key with her index finger.

(Mercy to those who bow down before me and none for those who oppose me. That is the standard for those who operate Objects. Oh ho ho.)

Immediately afterwards, every single cannon fired mercilessly.

Massive shockwaves and radiant heat covered the entirety of the Object’s armor.

After confirming that the radio signal had disappeared, the Elite girl happily piloted the Gatling 033 on further.

===Part 10===

The shockwave had been powerful enough to knock a human unconscious.

The radiant heat had been hot enough to burn both skin and military uniform black.

With it covering the entire spherical body of the Object, there should have been nowhere to flee.

That is, Quenser should have had nowhere to flee.

However…

There was one exception.

The area where the Rush’s auxiliary sensors were gathered.

The Object’s cannons did indeed produce massive shockwaves and radiant heat. However, they were made so that the side effects the Object produced did not destroy its own sensors and radar.

In other words, the arrangement and density of the cannons was designed to ensure the delicate radar and sensors were not affected by those side effects.

Quenser had immediately crawled into there.

(Before, the princess and the old lady got really mad at me for carelessly getting too close to the Baby Magnum’s sensors. However, these sensors are only for support, so it can apparently continue fighting without them.)

Approaching the sensitive sensors increased the risk of being noticed by the Elite. However, luck had been with Quenser in his actions. Since the Object did nothing more, the Elite must have decided the intruder had fallen off from the simultaneous firing or none had been there in the first place.

(…Oh, shit. Did she notice this?)

Quenser looked down at the radio he had turned off and wiped away sweat that had started to freeze like sherbet. When he breathed out, it was visibly white.

(…This is where it truly begins.)

He pulled a clay-like bomb out of the bag on his back.

Even in that area filled with the most delicate sensors, he was surrounded by thick pillars, so it seemed it would be difficult to blow them away with bombs.

(I guess that’s my only option.)

Quenser had an idea, but it would require a bit of luck.

An attack on that place was not something he could do on his own.

However, an attack there would have much greater results.

(I can’t just go with a safe plan.)

As he thought, Quenser kneaded the clay-like plastic explosive in his hand.

(Standing up to a monstrous weapon like this is nothing but risks from the very beginning.)

===Part 11===

The Information Alliance’s Second Generation Object, the Gatling 033, slowly came to a stop on a snowy plain.

It had not run into some kind of mechanical trouble.

It had reached the rendezvous point with the powered suit unit. The foot soldiers had gathered the parts to the disassembled rapid fire beam cannon Gatling gun. They just had to reassemble it and switch it out with the destroyed one. Then the Gatling 033 could attack the enemy Legitimacy Kingdom Object and the maintenance base zone it was within.

The Elite used her communications device to contact a maintenance soldier wearing a powered suit.

“Juliet is confirmed to be shut off. We will now replace the main cannon,” said the maintenance soldier.

“Please keep this pit stop short. Oh ho ho. I have a plan laid out, so do not make it meaningless by wasting time.”

In battles between two Objects, it was generally considered “bad manners” for an Object to attack a maintenance base zone. (This was not a strict rule, so there was no real need to follow it, however.) But if an enemy Object holed up in its maintenance base zone and refused to come out to the battlefield, the other Object had no choice but to destroy the Object, base and all.

On that pretext, a maintenance base zone could be attacked.

(…Oh ho ho. If it comes to that, there is a chance I will lose that gentleman.)

The Elite sank deeply into her seat, grabbed a small oxygen inhalation spray located to her side, and tried to recover some of the stamina she had lost in the high-G battle.

(But I have no other choice if it comes to that. I would like to make him mine, but it is not worth risking my life over. Oh ho ho.)

The main cannon replacement would be done before long.

She called up images recorded from the battle. The damage to the enemy Object had been in a more serious area. No matter how skilled their maintenance soldiers were, it was unlikely they could make up for the time delay it would cause.

(I can win this.)

The Elite used the spray to suck in more compressed oxygen and gave a thin smile.

Improvised autosuggestion was one means an Elite had to regulate her own condition.

(Oh ho ho. This is not just my power. It is me, my unit, and the Gatling 033. Every one of those is superior to the enemy’s. I will not be destroyed so easily. They cannot turn this around now. That is why I can win this. I ''will'' win this.)

Suddenly, a red warning window appeared.

The Elite looked at it in suspicion. Some odd measurement errors had occurred in the targeting sensors.

(…Oh ho ho. I do not like this. It is like a prickling feeling in the back of my mind.)

To anyone else, they may have seemed like minor errors. She could easily fight with them. However, they were difficult measurement errors to deal with for an Elite who viewed the Object like an extension of her own body.

She moved her slender fingers to perform a few adjustments, but they did not correct the measurement errors.

It was not a software issue.

There was something physically wrong with the sensors themselves.

“Maintenance soldiers! Recheck sensors A through E!! They have measurement errors from 0.5 to 0.7. Oh ho ho. If it requires manual work, I will come out too!!”

“That will vastly slow down our work,” said a maintenance soldier who was not sure what to say to the sudden request. “0.5 to 0.7 is within acceptable ranges. After the main cannon has been replaced, you need to immediately head out to engage the Legitimacy Kingdom Object! We do not have time!!”

“Do not be foolish!! Oh ho ho. It is because I will be up against an Object that I cannot allow even the slightest error!!”

“We really do not have time! The current strategy did not take into account any replacements other than the main cannon!! Lieutenant Colonel Lendy Farolito has ordered us to follow that strategy, so doing otherwise could get us court martialed!”

“You do not understand,” spat the Elite.

The current pit stop was just something added to the strategy. The Object lay at the foundation of the plan, so everything would be a waste if its abilities were hampered. If fighting with the measurement errors in the sensors led to the Gatling 033 being destroyed, who was supposed to take responsibility?

The maintenance soldiers did nothing.

Normally, the adjustments to the sensitive sensors would have been carried out by the girl herself under observation of the maintenance soldiers.

“Argh!! Oh ho ho. Then I will do it on my own!!”

To carry that out, the Elite opened the dozens of barriers leading from the cockpit. She would use an elevator to bring the cockpit itself up to the outer wall.

However, the cockpit never had a chance to ascend.

Something else happened before it could.

A noise came first.

It was the sound of cloth rubbing up against something. By the time she realized it was the sound of something sliding down a slope, it was too late.

She did not have time to turn around, much less undo her seatbelt.

“Excuse me, mademoiselle,” said a voice from directly behind her.

She felt a cold object press against the back of her neck. It was a short-bladed knife.

“I do not normally sneak into a lady’s bedroom, but I am woefully short on time. I will need you to just do what I tell you.”

She recognized the intruder’s voice.

It was the boy whose Legitimacy Kingdom comrades had called Quenser.

“Do not worry.” The Elite girl shrugged and sighed with her body still held in by the seatbelt. “I was already planning to invite you in here. Oh ho ho.”

===Part 12===

Quenser had managed to sneak into the Rush’s cockpit.

He had used the Hand Axe plastic explosive, but not to blow something up. He had attached the clay-like bombs to the top of the sensors to lower their sensitivity. If they had been noticed and someone tried to remove them, he could have hidden inside an arbitrary cannon barrel to hide from the enemy soldier and the blast. Then, he could have detonated the bomb to do some damage to the maintenance soldiers.

He knew they were short on time.

However, the Elite would not remain silent if there was some abnormality with the sensors.

The Elite might have headed out to check the sensors herself. Or she might have told the maintenance soldiers to do it or else she would not go out to fight. Either way, the Elite would still have to open up the barriers and exit the Object.

Quenser had been waiting near the exit connecting to the cockpit, so that had allowed him to sneak inside.

Even if an Object could not be destroyed from within, things were different when he was on the inside.

(This isn’t really a plan. It’s more or less a gamble. But I just had the best card dealt to me.)

Even with how close the princess and the old maintenance lady were, they still discussed in much detail the delicate adjustments that needed to be made to the sensors. If those partners did not have such a close understanding of each other, the princess would likely have dealt with the sensors directly. Quenser had seen Elites using tools in documentaries he had seen.

An Elite saw the Object as part of her body, so a slight error in the sensors was like wearing glasses that were not quite right. Rather than having any direct results, it would wear down her concentration.

(Only the Elite is risking her life. It isn’t surprising that she would be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the condition of the Object. With every second and every instant counting, she likely felt it would be faster to do it herself rather than continuing to argue.)

The blade Quenser was pressing against the Elite’s neck was a small cooking knife from his survival kit. The actual blade was only as long as his thumb.

[[Image:HO_v03_09.png|thumb]]

Quenser was reaching his arm around the chair.

(What…? That’s rather low.)

He frowned.

From what he had heard in the Oceanian military nation, the Rush’s Elite had a nice body with G-cup breasts.

But what he actually found was a girl of at most 10. She was maybe 130 cm tall. She of course did not have a G-cup. With her body type, it was doubtful if she had ever even seen a bra.

He had no idea if she was aware of it, but her special suit was designed like a white school swimsuit worn over a skintight red under-suit that covered her entire body. Just like with the princess’s, it showed no sign of any attempt at camouflage.

The Elite girl must have been able to see Quenser’s face reflected in the monitor because she remained calm even with the knife at her throat.

“Oh ho ho. Surprised? The Information Alliance views truth as just and falsehoods as evil. However, intentional lies can be used as an attack on enemies.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Real sorrow seemed to cover Quenser’s face.

He repeated himself as if to say farewell to the nice body and G-cup he had imagined in his mind’s eye.

“…Sob…You’ve gotta be kidding me…Sob…”

“Wait a second. I’m going to get mad if it brings tears to your eyes. This body type is excellent in its own way, don’t you think? Oh ho ho. Back in the home country, I act as an Idol Elite that sings and dances.”

“But your official profile said you have that nice body and G-cup. How could you fool everyone that much!?”

“Oh ho ho. I have a dummy body displayed on a screen in full 3DCG. It is a shame that some call me a liar for that, but the motion is completely based on my own data.”

In the Information Alliance, all sorts of data was managed over the internet and truths and falsehoods were used strategically. It was possible the people there knew it was likely nothing more than wartime propaganda, but they did not care if it was virtual so long as they could get emotionally invested.

“By the way, this conversation is being transmitted to those outside. You will be surrounded before long. Oh ho ho.”

“That doesn’t matter. You are the only one that can use this Object. If they take any careless actions, I will put an end to their Elite’s life. I would rather not go that far, though. …You can hear me out there, can’t you?”

Quenser ignored that girl’s nonsense and moved on to the mission at hand.

He looked around the cockpit.

It was odd.

The area was a sphere of about 2 meters across with a giant monitor attached to the front. To that extent, it was the same as the princess’s Baby Magnum.

However, while the Baby Magnum had many different forms of interfaces such as a control column, buttons, a keyboard, a trackball, and more, the Rush used only one form of input.

Keyboards.

A large number of keyboards were lined up on three stepped levels. And the third step spread out in a U-shape around the edge of the cockpit. Quenser had no idea how that was an efficient layout. It was possible not even other Elites would understand. It must have been designed based on a line of reasoning that only worked for the girl who piloted the Rush.

In the space not taken up by keyboards, an inscription read “Manual Interface ‘JULIET’ ”. Quenser wondered if that was the Elite girl’s name.

(I guess an Object really can’t be piloted by anyone but its Elite…)

Quenser felt like an idiot for the faint hope he had briefly held.

Quenser gathered strength in the hand holding the knife and spoke in as low a voice as he could.

“First, close all the barriers leading to the cockpit. I’m sure those outside will complain, but ignore them.”

“Oh ho ho. That will only cut off your escape route.”

“Just hurry up and do it. I would rather not slice through a girl’s skin as a meaningless threat.”

“I must praise you for still treating me like a girl. Oh ho ho.”

Quenser raised the blade he had pressed against the girl’s neck.

The Elite girl shrugged to indicate she was giving in and pressed a few keys. Her 5 slender fingers moved at an inhuman speed like a sewing machine. At the Elite’s command, the dozens of barriers through the pathway leading to the cockpit closed.

The maintenance soldiers sent several alarmed transmissions.

However, they received no response.

After all, Quenser had the Elite’s movements sealed.

“Oh ho ho. Welcome to the most private love seat in the world. …You have now hijacked an Object with nothing but a knife. You really do love doing unprecedented things, don’t you?”

“Listen to what I have to say and do not say anything more than necessary. That is how you can survive this.”

“What should I do next? Should I shoot the Statue of Liberty with my main cannons or something?”

“Don’t do anything,” was Quenser’s sharp command. “Even once the maintenance finishes, do not move. Do not respond to the communications from the maintenance soldiers. Do not move a finger until our princess has completed her preparations…no, until she has declared checkmate. That is all.”

“Oh, dear. Oh ho ho. Should you really be saying that?”

“Do not try anything. I am not used to this. It’s possible the tension could make my arm tremble enough to slit your throat.”

“No, not that. Oh ho ho,” said the Elite girl with a smile on her face.

That was the difference that experience made. Quenser could not believe that she had the nerves to smile while an enemy soldier was holding a knife to her throat.

But the Elite was truly calm.

He probably should have put more thought into why that was.

“If I am not holding the ‘reins’, not even I know how much of a rampage the Gatling 033 will run. Oh ho ho.”

Quenser did not understand what she meant.

But shortly thereafter, the answer became evident.

Quenser’s body was thrown by the monstrous power of inertia, sending him slamming into the wall.

The maintenance vehicles surrounding the Rush were knocked away and the maintenance soldiers ran screaming out of the way, but Quenser was too focused on himself to care what was going on outside.

“Gah!?”

All the oxygen in his lungs rushed out in an instant.

The knife fell from his hand.

The Object had suddenly moved. He could tell that much, but he felt practically weightless. The force was simply too great to just brace himself against. His vision blurred at high speed, but he could still see the Elite girl grinning while held in her seat by the seatbelt.

With the threat of the knife gone, the girl contacted her allies.

“Oh ho ho. The main cannon has been replaced, correct?”

“Gatling 033, we heard what is going on there, but you can’t possibly mean to head out with that Legitimacy Kingdom soldier still aboard!”

“And what if I am? Either way, there is no way to force open the Object’s barriers from the outside. And right now, every minute and every second of delay could greatly affect the outcome of the battle. I have no choice but to head on. Unless you wish to raise the white flag here.”

“But…!!”

“Then are you going to raise the white flag? On whose authority? Are you going to waste a possible victory against an Object due to a single flesh-and-blood soldier?” The Elite girl spoke slowly but with a steady voice. “First of all, we should not be discussing my own safety here. What matters is if the maintenance is complete or not. And whether my Gatling 033 can continue fighting or not. So can my Gatling 033 fight?”

“…”

“Answer me. This is crucial to our strategy.”

“Y-yes. We just now finished the replacement of the main cannon. But we have not managed to deal with the sensors you ordered us to-…”

“That is fine,” said the Elite girl, cutting him off. She turned to face Quenser who was coughing on the floor before finishing. “But I do not feel like operating the Gatling 033 in that state. I have no choice but to leave this to the Strategic AI Juliet. Oh ho ho.”

“…!?”

Quenser’s body stiffened in shock at the term “AI”.

“Wait a second!!” shouted the maintenance soldier. “Juliet’s complete Object control is still in the third stage of testing! The odds of misfires based on erroneous detections or judgments goes up, raising the risk of friendly fire!!”

“If I narrow the possible targets down to the anti-Object level of 50 meters and up, that will not be a problem. Oh ho ho.”

“But Juliet is too dangerous to use in its current state!! If we give it complete control of our greatest weapon, who knows how far the damage could spread!!”

“Oh ho ho. Please do not make me repeat myself,” said the Elite girl. “If we simply follow the standard military codes, we will lose this battle. As we have a means of continuing to fight, I do not intend to end the fight prematurely. Oh ho ho.”

The Elite cut off the transmission and looked at Quenser once more.

“Surely you have heard the rumors of the Information Alliance working on a plan to make unmanned Objects. Oh ho ho.”

“It can’t be,” groaned Quenser from the floor. “AI research is impractical. Something simple like a UAV that goes on periodic patrols is one thing, but no program can match an Elite in a high speed battle requiring quick improvisations.”

“Are you talking about the Legitimacy Kingom’s Angelina List? Oh ho ho.”

“…”

“Oh ho ho. If I recall, that is a paper collecting the weaknesses and failures of AIs after repeated tests designed to be difficult for AI by a group of scientists opposed to the idea of AI. Running amok, freezing, and erroneous learning…I believe there were several patterns.”

“The Angelina List is the world’s standard barrier for creating strategic AI for Objects. The paper is free to access on the Legitimacy Kingdom’s public database, so the Information Alliance most likely used it in their research. Something with simple movements like a UAV is one thing, but the system controlling an Object is too large and complex. With our current technology, it is impossible to create an AI that can pilot an Object with greater speed and flexibility than an Elite who has been thoroughly improved both mentally and physically.”

“Oh ho ho. Are you talking about how AIs will choose the shortest path to victory too much, leaving openings for attack? Or how they will continue with vain attacks when in a situation their learned patterns do not know how to handle?”

“…”

“That just means it cannot be completely unmanned. Oh ho ho. When the Gatling 033 is used at full specs, it is not being controlled by me. The Strategic AI Juliet generally pilots it while I deal with any mistakes caused by errors or bugs. Meaning…” The Elite grinned. This smile was different from her previous smiles. “If I do nothing, the Gatling 033 will begin a rampage.”

Quenser was unable to hear her sentence through to the end.

The monstrous weapon known as an Object began using its full power.

Quenser learned firsthand what that meant.

A massive amount of inertia.

That power began squeezing at Quenser’s insides.

“Gh…ah…!?”

Everything shook front and back, left and right.

A great pressure kept him from breathing.

“Ghaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

It felt like every single blood vessel in his body was swelling up oddly. The contents of his stomach rose, he could not take in enough oxygen no matter how wide he opened his mouth, and it felt like he could not properly control even the expanding and contracting of his heart. After a dozen or so seconds, he could tell his thoughts were becoming completely scattered. Blood was not reaching his brain properly. Color gradually faded away from the edges of his vision. An unpleasant ringing in his ears took over his entire head.

The Rush was doing nothing special.

It was merely headed away from the maintenance base zone and towards the battlefield where the Baby Magnum awaited.

That was all it was doing and yet Quenser was on the verge of death.

All the while, the Elite girl grinned in her seat.

She looked like a young queen looking down in contempt at a bug crawling across the ground.

Quenser could not understand how she could be so calm.

The special suit she wore was not enough to explain it.

The only possibility he could think of was that she was made differently than a normal soldier down to the most fundamental construction of her body.

“Oh, dear. What has your eyes spinning like that? Oh ho ho. You will never be able to handle the Gatling 033’s high speed battle like this.”

As that girl of only about 10 spoke to Quenser, she calmly sipped at the straw of a drink sitting in her armrest.

For strategic PR purposes, the Information Alliance military had created an idealized G-cup Elite using a full 3DCG model. The people (whether they knew it was a lie or not) had accepted that. It was possible their ultimate objective there was to have the people accept that virtual ideal as a foundation to accepting an AI-controlled Object.

And…

“This is still only about 9 Gs. When the treads are used, it can momentarily exceed 12 Gs. Well, that is enough for any normal person to certainly lose consciousness, so try your best to bear with it. Oh ho ho. After all, I was kind enough to invite you to this special seat when I really should have handed you over to the Information Alliance military.”

12 Gs.

It had been proven that a normal human could not withstand anything at that level. But for her, that room was like a bedroom. The Elite’s body had been so thoroughly remade that it felt normal to her.

That concept sent a chill down Quenser’s spine.

(So this is…an Elite…)

Quenser thought as something like foam seeped from the corner of his mouth.

(Their bodies have been altered for the sole purpose of piloting Objects into battles. Dammit. This is like a battle between a deep sea fish and a submarine…)

Modern soldiers would often jokingly say something.

''Modern battlefields are so boring. If they really wanted us to fight wars, they should send one of those air-conditioned Objects our way.

But…

This was no joke.

Actually being aboard one of those monsters was enough to shorten your lifespan. Quenser was in such intense pain that he thought his blood vessels were going to burst and that his eyeballs were literally going to pop out of his head. Amidst
it all, he decided that the people who piloted those Objects like it was nothing were not normal. Unless the human body was remade both inside and out, it was impossible.

While sprawled on the floor next to the wall, Quenser tried to stretch out his arm.

A great number of keyboards were installed around the Elite girl. It was possible that tapping just one of those small keys could end that nightmarish pain.

But he could not move his arm. All he could manage was making his fingertips twitch ever so slightly.

It was not just that he could not move his body.

A tremendous pressure was also holding down the thoughts and emotions in his head.

“Now, then.”

Having restrained the enemy soldier with inertia rather than handcuffs or shackles, the Elite girl placed her drink back down next to her and brought her 10 fingers to the keyboards around her.

She was not piloting the Object.

As if she was holding the reins of a rampaging horse, she removed the unneeded commands from the hundreds and thousands the strategic AI was instantaneously calculating out.

“I now have what I wanted, so it is about time I finished with today’s job. Oh ho ho.”

The treads shot a blast of snow into the air and the Second Generation Rush shot across the snowy plain. The scenery visible in the monitor sped up all at once.

Quenser heard a familiar sound through the speakers.

It was the emergency siren used at his base. They had arrived within a few kilometers of the Legitimacy Kingdom convoy. He could see the tanks that had been deployed just in case frantically leaving the path of the Object.

(Shit…!! How far has the princess’s maintenance gotten!?)

The joints on the back gathering the Baby Magnum’s seven main cannons had been shot off. To replace the part, every damaged joint had to be removed and then it all had to be built back up.

He saw no way the Baby Magnum’s seven main cannon arms could be fully functioning after such a short time.

Nevertheless, the princess’s Object headed out from the convoy.

By showing an intention to fight, she was making sure the convoy would not be a valid target.

“Oh ho ho. So you have decided to show yourself.”

A smile appeared on the Elite girl’s face

This one was different yet again. It was tinged with cruelty.

“I need not even use my high precision sensors. It is clear only one of them can move. Oh ho ho. You must truly be desperate to come out to fight with only one of your seven main cannons functioning.”

Objects had over 100 cannons both large and small, but only the main cannon class armaments could finish off another Object. That meant it was more logical to work towards getting one cannon up and running at full power rather than having all seven running at limited power.

However…

That only gave her the bare minimum of ability to keep fighting. Since it was assumed she could fight evenly with the enemy Object with all 7 main cannons functioning, she was clearly at an overwhelming disadvantage with just the one functioning main cannon.

“She might be purposefully keeping the others motionless to lull you into a false sense of security.”

“Oh ho ho. Falsehoods are evil. You were fortunate enough to be captured by me. I suggest you quickly teach yourself the rules of the Information Alliance.”

The Elite girl casually typed on the keyboards while ignoring that Quenser looked like he was about to cough up blood. She seemed to be adjusting the radio. Quenser thought she was preparing to contact her allies, but she was not.

She sent a transmission on a frequency that was intentionally easy to intercept by the Legitimacy Kingdom princess.

“Oh ho ho. Hello there, unrefined Legitimacy Kingdom Elite. If you raise the white flag, I promise to spare your lives.”

“…Sorry, but military regulations do not allow the white flag to be raised before the Object has been destroyed.”

“Fine, then.” The Elite girl rhythmically tapped at the keys. “I have no obligation to be considerate. I merely have to blow you away. Oh ho ho.”

The real battle began.

With a set amount of distance between each other, the two Objects each moved quickly to the left and right. The action looked like two opposing magnets being forcibly pushed towards each other. The two Objects moved at high speed in circles around each other as they fired their weapons at each other.

The princess was an expert at battle.

Even in her dismal situation of having only one functioning main cannon, she was not immediately dragged down into a disadvantageous situation. Even if they could not finish off the enemy Object, the Baby Magnum still had around 100 other cannons. The princess used them to blow away the snow on the ground and fired weak lasers to interfere with the enemy’s sensors. While using disturbance tactics like that to dull the enemy’s movements, she fired her one remaining main cannon.

However…

The Information Alliance girl was as much of an Elite as the princess.

She existed to pilot an Object.

She would lose everything if she could no longer pilot an Object.

That girl’s body had been trained to the extreme, the amount of blood in her body was modified to stand up to high Gs, and she had been given artificially high amounts of iron to supply her with large amounts of oxygen. Even in those abnormal conditions that reached 10 Gs, she continued typing while humming.

The disturbance tactics were not working.

Even with one sensor sealed, multiple windows would immediately appear from which she could gather information from multiple angles. Using that, she continued the high speed battle.

She knew she could not avoid every attack, so she repeated bold, high-speed movements that focused on surely avoiding the attacks from the main cannon that could actually produce a fatal blow.

She repeatedly made quick, high-speed movements using the treads while trying to lure the Baby Magnum closer and closer to a position where the terrain would corner the princess against a cliff wall.

The princess was clearly in the disadvantage.

(Dammit…I need to…interfere with…her control…!!)

Quenser frantically tried to suppress the urge to vomit, but even moving a single finger was difficult as he lay sprawled out on the floor. There were plenty of keyboards close enough to easily reach if he could only stand up, but he could not even stretch his arm out to the side in those high Gs.

Suddenly, the Elite girl moved the Object sharply to the side. Quenser’s body flew through the air and landed neatly in the Elite girl’s seat.

“Oh ho ho. Leaving this to Juliet is so boring, how about the two of us take this time to get to know each other better…physically.”

“Wha…!? Gh…What are you saying!?”

The intense power of the inertia was still affecting Quenser, so he was unable to give a proper response. He felt like a heavy sheet was being pressed down on his chest, so he could hardly breathe.

And then the princess’s voice came in over the Rush’s radio.

“…Quenser…?”

“W-wait, why are you using that heavy tone like you’re speaking to some suspicious perso-…gfh!?”

“Oh ho ho! Oh ho ho ho ho ho!! There is no room left here for you, unrefined Legitimacy Kingdom Elite!! Now, let us show this to her. We can email her a picture of us with our cheeks pressed up against each other. Say cheese! …Oh, dear. The barriers are cutting off the signal, so I cannot send it to the Legitimacy Kingdom with my phone.”

“Quenser… I am sorry, but this is a battle with the Rush. …I have no idea why you are there, but if you do not escape soon, you will be blown away along with her.”

“W-wait, wait. I’ll do something about the Rush’s movements from within…”

As he was being crushed down into the seat, Quenser tried to reach his trembling fingers toward one of the Elite’s keyboards. However, the Elite girl slapped his hand down like she was scolding him.

Quenser’s hand was so weak that was enough to knock his hand out of the way.

(…Damn…it… I can’t even do this…)

The giant screen was divided up into windows that were covered with all sorts of constantly changing information.

The Strategic AI Juliet was piloting the Object.

One window displayed a tree diagram that must have represented what commands the AI was using. Quenser could not tell if the number of lines was 100 or 1000, but the Elite girl would rapidly type a few things on the keyboard and a few of the lines would turn red and be cut off. That must have been what she called “holding the reigns”. The movements of the Object gradually lost their unevenness and stiffness. That may have been because the AI was starting to “learn” from the progress of the battle, or it may have been because the Elite girl had grasped some of the AI’s idiosyncrasies and was able to “revise” the commands more efficiently.

“…Gaahhhh…!!”

The great pressure of inertia squeezed at Quenser’s heart even more.

As blood trailed from the corner of Quenser’s mouth, something fell from his pocket. It was his wireless device. Seeing the small device sliding along the floor, the Elite girl gave a slight sneer.

“Oh ho ho. Even if you are within the cockpit, that cheap piece of junk cannot interfere with my interface. And trying to rely on a Legitimacy Kingdom supercomputer will not work either. The thick barriers cut off any and all signals.”

Quenser ignored the Elite girl’s gloating and stared at the screen of the handheld device that had slid a bit away.

The Strategic AI Juliet.

The radio transmission currently connected between the princess and the Elite girl.

The plastic explosive in his hand.

While still unable to move much, Quenser stared at the giant monitor with bloodshot eyes. He had a silent thought.

(I might have found the beginnings of a plan.)

===Part 13===

Meanwhile, the princess was breathing shallow breaths as she piloted the Baby Magnum.

The situation was changing from moment to moment. A dizzying amount of new information was constantly being displayed on the large monitor in front. Even with the device that read the movements of her eyes and sent commands based on them, it did not seem she could keep up with it all. The 200,000 ton mass moved quickly to the left or right to evade the Information Alliance Rush’s attacks. The great pressure of the inertia brought on by those movements wore down her stamina. Her brain had been optimized to pilot that Object, so she brought out its full processing power even while more than half of the air she breathed in could not be taken in by her body.

The struggle continued.

Sometimes she seemed to have the upper hand, other times she did not.

However, the princess could tell something was different about this battle. She had only 1 of her 7 main cannons. If that one was taken out, it was all over. However, that was not what she was worried about.

It was more along the lines of the vague luck of a gambler.

She had an odd feeling that the state of the battle was sliding to the side. It was supposed to be a struggle purely along a straight line. However, she had a premonition of a new vector appearing that would greatly change the flow of the battle.

(This is bad…)

The signs pointed towards things changing for the worse.

If the situation changed, it would be like she was a toy ship floating in the bath when the drain plug was pulled out. The danger of things growing worse would rise drastically.

The princess knew that, but she had no way of changing the flow in that direction. She had her hands full keeping up with that high speed battle. She did not have time to focus on anything else.

But then…

“…Quenser to…Baby Magnum…”

The voice sounded like it was being squeezed out.

It was coming from the communications device installed in the cockpit. However, it was not coming from a Legitimacy Kingdom military frequency. It was the same frequency that she had been arguing with the Information Alliance Rush over.

(So is he really aboard that Object…?)

As that thought entered the princess’s head, Quenser continued his transmission.

“I-I’m cornered over here. Can I ask you a favor just in case?”

“What?”

“If I kick the bucket here, I want you to return the engagement ring in the maintenance base zone barracks to my childhood friend Angelina from my hometown…”

“…”

The Baby Magnum fired its main cannon while completely ignoring the flow of the battle.

The Rush evaded the low-stability plasma cannon blast with a quick movement.

The princess was still expressionless, but her pupils were larger than usual, letting the piloting lasers in even more.

With an extremely calm voice, she said, “I am sorry, Quenser. I forgot to ask you if you would rather be shot with a coilgun, a laser, or a low-stability plasma cannon.”

“Ugehhh!? The inertia from these evasive maneuvers is doing horrible things inside my body! You idiot! Don’t fight seriously!! At this rate, you’ll meet the same fate as when you were easily taken out by the Water Strider that is strewn about here!!”

“Quenser, now you are digging up things from the past that would best be kept buried? …And ‘easily’?”

The increased firing and evading left Quenser only able to reply with groans.

“By the way, Quenser, if you would like to say anything else, now is the time.”

“Ugh. R-really? Okay, then. Various things happened with this foreign girl named Etta who worked as efficiently as an AI at a restaurant back in the safe country, so could you give her the necklace I have in the barra-..gbheeeehhhh!?”

This time, the Rush took evasive actions back and forth that did not seem at all necessary to evade anything.

The Information Alliance Elite said, “…Oh ho ho. I too would like some questions answered about this childhood friend and these ‘various things’.”

“Bfh!? S-stop! Don’t move back and forth like that!!”

Quenser seemed to be enduring unreasonable torture, but then he suddenly shouted, “Now’s your chance!!”

“?”

“Quenser to Baby Magnum!! Can you hear me!? The Rush’s Elite is taking actions not needed for the battle. This is your only chance to escape this bad situation! Evade to the right! Evade way to the right!!”

“…”

“Don’t get so mad!! Please just listen to what I’m telling you!!”

The princess frowned at his instructions.

They did not fit into the strategy she had put together. As the Object’s pilot, she knew it best. That was why she hesitated to immediately obey the piloting instructions of a boy who was more or less a complete amateur. But…

“At this rate, you’ll be cornered against the cliff face and shot with her main cannons once you can no longer move!! Trust me! I have a way to win this!! So evade to the right! Way to the right!! You’ll be blown away if you don’t!!”

It was true that she would soon be cornered.

And it was highly likely Quenser had made it into the Rush’s cockpit. He might have read something about the Rush’s strategy from something displayed on the monitor.

“…”

She made up her mind.

She moved the lever she was gripping tightly.

The Baby Magnum took a great evasive action to the right and the intense power of inertia struck her slender body.

But…

“Oh ho ho. Even if you are greatly mistaken, hearing that still pisses me off.”

A slight chill had entered the Elite girl’s voice.

The Rush spun around which must have created quite a bit of inertial power. Over the radio, the princess heard a pained gasp presumably from Quenser.

The bullets of light fired by the rapid fire beam cannon Gatling gun grazed the Baby Magnum’s body slightly. The beam cannons continued to fire, crushing one of the princess’s main cannons and sending it flying through the air.

Ignoring that, Quenser shouted, “…Gh…!? N-next, make a slight turn to the left!! Switch to the low-stability plasma canno-…gh!? Fire at the front of the Rush!! And…the Killer Squall sub-cannons!! Aim for the Water Strider wreckage…the the left!! Cough. If you melt the snow around it with the lasers…it can be used as cover!!”

“Oh ho ho! Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!! I do not know what you are after, but you are too slow!! Even if you are trying to get my strategy across to her using information from the cockpit, you are too slow! By the time the unrefined Legitimacy Kingdom Elite can take action, the command will already be complete!!”

The enemy was exactly right.

Quenser’s instructions would essentially waste the princess’s last chance to attack. It was like knowing you would be checkmated in 100 turns, and then wasting half of that time. Even then, a thin portion of the Baby Magnum’s armor had been peeled away and several of her cannons had been blown off to litter the Alaskan snow. Several warning windows had appeared and she could hear shouts from the operator monitoring the situation from the maintenance base zone.

Suddenly, the Baby Magnum’s movements came crashing to a halt.

The enemy’s main cannon had struck her near the core. Thousands and even tens of thousands of beams fired from the Gatling gun-style weapon. The thick armor glowed orange and the beams dug through it in no time. Sparks flew, the air explosively expanded, and a violent wind burst from the “wound” like it was a jet engine. That great wind kept the Baby Magnum from moving properly.

“I hope you have prepared yourself. Oh ho ho,” said the Rush’s pilot Elite with the tone of someone who had just placed their queen in a crucial point. “This settles it!! You can regret not raising your readily available white flag while you burn in the depths of hell!! Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!!”

The princess gritted her teeth.

She hesitated over whether she should stop the ejection device that had automatically started to power up.

“Trust me.”

But…

Quenser’s voice over the radio had not given up.

“You can win like this.”

A great noise like a thick gear breaking rang out.

The princess had no idea what had happened.

That was not surprising.

It had not come from the Baby Magnum. As it was not something wrong with her own machine, it was completely natural for her to not understand what had happened.

But that meant…

“Quenser…?” muttered the princess.

Yes.

The Information Alliance Rush had been the unopposed ruler of the battlefield just a moment before, but it had completely stopped in the middle of the snow.

===Part 14===

The machine suddenly stopped.

Quenser was thrown across the floor, but he was not the only one damaged by it.

The immense inertial force caused by that truth stopped even the Rush’s Elite girl’s breathing for an instant.

“Gah…!? Wh-what!?”

The girl was coughing, but her voice held more confusion than pain.

The Information Alliance’s Second Generation Gatling 033 operated based on high speed decisions made by the Strategic AI Juliet. The Elite girl did not completely pilot the Object. Instead, she selected and deleted the bugs and errors amid the hundreds or even thousands of commands Juliet created each second. Basically, she held the reins of a rampaging horse and guided it in the direction she wanted.

Nevertheless, the Gatling 033 was not moving.

It was not that the strategic AI had stopped. Juliet was still calculating at maddening speed.

However…

None of the seeming inexhaustible supply of commands it calculated out at high speed led to the Gatling 033 doing anything.

No matter how skilled a coachman the Elite girl may have been, she could do nothing when the horse stopped to think and did not take a single step forward. When the horse refused to move no matter how much she kicked it with her heels or struck it with her whip, the very value of the coachman was brought into question.

It was like a gear connecting the thoughts of the strategic AI to actual movement had been removed.

No matter how high the Juliet’s specs were and no matter how skilled the Elite girl was, there was nothing that could be done if the Gatling 033 could not move.

“Ho…ho ho. Oh ho ho.”

The Elite girl looked around while seated in the cockpit.

She then looked over at Quenser as he lay collapsed on the floor.

She was forced to view him as an actual opponent.

“What…? What did you do to my Gatling 033?”

Quenser did not reply immediately. The inertial forces that had squeezed at his body had done some damage. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly as he took deep breaths.

Finally, the boy gave a thin smile and said, “Are you hoping…to start a quiz show…?’

“Oh…ho ho. I can tell some of it from the situation.”

The girl’s small shoulders were trembling.

Trembling in bewilderment and anger.

“I can tell that Juliet is carrying out unnecessary ‘learning’!! I can tell that has caused various bugs and errors which are causing a conflict over which commands to prioritize!! The bugs and errors are spreading so quickly, my ‘revisions’ cannot keep up!! I am asking about something beyond that! I am not asking what is happening! I am asking why!! What did you do to Juliet!?”

“It is reevaluating the risks,” said Quenser despite being unable to even sit up.

Fatigue and pain seeped into his voice, but there was no weakness there.

That boy had successfully become an equal opponent to that Elite who piloted a giant weapon known as an Object.

“The Juliet has keenly noticed some changes to the situation that you cannot see. These changes have made a major change to the priority of what the Rush should do.”

“Wha-…?”

“It’s unfortunate, though. This strategic AI pilots an Object that can alter the outcome of a war, and yet it seems not to have the ability to raise the white flag and surrender. Thanks to that, the Juliet has no choice but to continue calculating out a way to resolve the situation despite being in clear checkmate. The Rush has come to a halt because the Juliet is vainly trying to think up a way out of the situation.”

“That’s…That’s ridiculous!!” denied the Elite girl reflexively. “Oh ho ho!! My Gatling 033 had the overwhelming advantage!! There is no way I would have lost to that unrefined Legitimacy Kingdom First Generation Object here! Even if you were advising her via radio, there is no way I would have been in checkmate!!”

“I was not advising the princess,” said Quenser decisively and the Elite girl froze in place. “Like hell I have a childhood friend named Angelina. And what kind of nickname is Etta? That was a surprisingly simple code referring to a report in the Legitimacy Kingdom military database.”

“Angelina…report…Etta…Juliet… You don’t mean…!?”

“Since you’re the one that went out of your way to contact your enemy, you should have known that the transmission being sent to the Baby Magnum could be picked up by other soldiers’ radios too.”

===Part 15===

A while before when the Baby Magnum and the Rush were firing at each other at high speed, a small figure was moving through the snowy plain that was littered with Water Strider wreckage.

It was Heivia.

He was listening to Quenser’s voice coming from his radio.

At first, it sounded like he was using the Rush’s communications equipment to give advice to the princess. However…

(“I’m cornered over here”. That was the code phrase to indicate a secret discussion about a porn magazine check. The “foreign girl” must have been referring to the Rush. Since he also used the name “Angelina”, the term AI can likely be taken at face value.)

“Ugh. Dammit Quenser. You rely on your beautiful genius of a noble partner a bit too much,” Heivia said to no one in particular.

His handheld device was displaying the design of the Water Strider. It was the one the Legitimacy Kingdom military had drawn up from an analysis of the technology in the enemy Object.

(Heading to the right and turning to the left. Why do his instructions have to be such a pain in the ass?)

Just the main body of the Object was 50 meters across, so the design was quite large. Heivia scrolled the screen as Quenser instructed and marked the necessary components.

(Now I just have to use the map to check where those parts are on the battlefield.)

“Made it! Made it!”

Heivia stopped at one of the places he had marked.

It was a main cannon-class low-stability plasma cannon lying bent in the snow.

“Y’know, I’m little disturbed that I was able to figure out what Quenser meant so well. I’d rather have this kind of tacit understanding with a girl.”

He lowered his bag from his back.

Inside were a large number of batteries. They were the backups prepared for the electric drill.

Heivia’s original mission had been to work with Quenser to drill holes in the cliff wall, stuff explosives inside, and efficiently bring the wreckage down. Heivia had been carrying quite a burden to support Quenser.

However, those batteries were nowhere near enough to power an Object’s main cannon.

Luckily, Heivia had no intention of doing that.

“Well, just getting the infrared targeting system running should be enough to fool it.”

He peered in through a tear in the armor on the side of the cannon where it had been bent in the middle. He stuck his hand inside and pulled out a giant electromagnet. He unwound the lead wrapped around the cylindrical container to create a coil and then rewound it to create a different coil.

“Electromagnetic induction~. That’s what transformers use~,” sang Heivia as he used the square-shaped metal core to prepare a large coil and a small coil.

He then faced the infrared targeting device that was as large as a log.

It was surrounded by armor that a normal bombardment would not budge, but it could not be maintained if there was no way of getting at it. Heivia used his tools to open a panel on the armor. He attached a battery to the cable and transformer inside. Then, he removed the wireless detonation device from a Hand Axe electric fuse and added it to his impromptu device.

Now, he could freely run the Water Strider’s infrared aiming device with the flick of a switch on his radio.

“The Water Strider had 8 main cannons, right? Well, just 3 of them should be enough.”

Heivia looked back at the design from the Legitimacy Kingdom military database that had been created with the intention of using the technology from the destroyed enemy Object. He then began moving again.

Partway there, he found an off road vehicle that had likely been abandoned by the Information Alliance when it could not make it past the giant pieces of wreckage.

He climbed aboard and said, “The plan is to confuse the Rush’s AI by adding in unnecessary calculations, but why am I the one running around doing all the work?”

Heivia’s goal was plain and simple.

He would fix up just the targeting devices for the Water Strider weapons scattered about the snowy plain and set them to run when he sent a radio signal.

Using that, he would make the Rush’s strategic AI mistakenly conclude that the Water Strider’s main cannons were still functional and so the Rush had to constantly keep that danger in mind.

After that, Heivia had switched the 8 main cannons’ targeting devices on and off at high speed and in a certain pattern. By continually giving the strategic AI unnecessary calculations and having it “learn” unnecessary and incorrect things, the high level calculation ability would work in vain for a while.

He had the source for this information in his hands.

The Angelina List.

That report had been put together by the Legitimacy Kingdom military and it contained countless records of problems and failures of AIs that had led to AI research being declared “unrealistic”.

Of course, that alone would not function as a weakness of the Rush’s strategic AI.

The Information Alliance had the most advanced AI research in the world, so they would have already come up with countermeasures for those things.

It was like using a computer virus on a computer that had a proper countermeasure for that virus.

However, just the foundations were enough.

Heivia was not simply going to use the Angelina List. Like he was creating a subspecies of that virus, he just had to create a new problem right then and there.

He already had the knowledge and skills required.

While he usually seemed to do nothing but run around the battlefield with a rifle, Heivia Winchell was a radar analyst.

He was an expert when it came to viewing the battlefield as a board and the Object as a game piece in order to search out the idiosyncrasies and weaknesses of the enemy machine from its movements.

===Part 16===

“Oh…ho ho… You used the Angelina List…to make her stop and think…?”

Having heard Quenser’s explanation, the Elite girl sat in the Rush’s cockpit with her small body trembling.

Quenser had finally managed to slowly get up from the floor and he wiped away some of the blood flowing from his nose and ears due to the inertia. He spoke to the Elite girl of the stopped Gatling 033 once more.

“Shouldn’t you be doing something? Now is your only chance to stop the Juliet.”

“Ho…Oh ho ho… What do you mean…?”

“Even now, the Rush continues its wasted thinking. Countless bugs and errors are created and vie for priority. Before long, there will be too many for even an Elite’s thoughts to keep up with.”

“…”

“An AI is not just a program. Its ability to learn can be both a plus and a minus. At this rate, the problems are going to multiply explosively. An AI that is rapidly learning in an erroneous direction should be forcibly terminated as early as possible. Otherwise, the Juliet will fatally damage its own script.”

Quenser was grinning as he spoke.

He must have had a good guess as to what “forcibly terminating” the AI would entail.

(Kh… He’s right. I have no choice but to perform a forced termination on Juliet in this situation.)

The Elite girl bit her lip.

(The Object is too large and complex a system and the strategic AI must constantly simulate the movements of the enemy and the progression of the battle, so it cannot be turned on and off so easily. Once I perform the forced termination, it will take time to reactivate it!!)

And since the system was intended to be run primarily by the strategic AI, it was clear what risk there would be in having that AI shut off.

Whether she let Juliet continue thinking or manually shut it down, she would be left at an overwhelming disadvantage.

At some point her choices had been downgraded from “win or lose” to “lose one way or lose another way”.

The Elite girl trembled at the great change to the situation, but she had another thought as well.

“…”

That boy was not normal.

It was true that it had been the boy’s partner who had actually taken action. However, it had been the boy in the cockpit who had originally thought up the method and had created the perfect opportunity to carry it out.

Even if someone had come up with that plan and tried to use it as a means of recovering, would they have been able to pull it off so perfectly on an unpracticed first attempt? Would they have been able to accurately get across their idea using an easily-misunderstood transmission filled with code words without having any kind of agreement beforehand?

To take care of such a broad threat, a foundation had to be laid first.

And what was most frightening was that the Legitimacy Kingdom boy had not had the slightest clue that any trouble of that nature would be occurring.

He had not undergone any kind of specialized training.

And yet he had succeeded with an impromptu plan.

How open-minded would someone have to be in order to pull that off?

“What will you do?” Quenser gave his ultimatum. “Will you let the Juliet destroy itself or will you forcibly terminate it? Choose how you want this to end yourself. The delinquent soldier helping me has likely explained the situation to the princess, so she will hold back for now. However, that is no guarantee. If our commander orders her to prioritize destruction over acquiring the technology, she will immediately shoot you with her main cannon.”

“Ho.”

And…

The Elite girl’s small shoulders moved up and down.

She was laughing.

“Ho…ho ho. Oh ho ho. Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!! You are right. I will give you that much!! Juliet is done for now. Letting her continue her calculations will accomplish nothing, so I have no choice but to perform a forced termination!!” The Elite girl did not stop there, however. “But do not think this is over.”

A painfully high-pitched noise reverberated through the cockpit.

The Elite girl had forcefully struck one of the keys on the countless keyboards.

In the next instant, all illumination disappeared from the monitor and lights.

Darkness ruled for an instant.

That was proof of all the systems having stopped.

However…

As she had announced, the Rush did not stop there.

A combination of static from multiple sources slammed into Quenser’s ears. At the same time, the monitor and lights lit up once more. With a mechanical noise, the angles of the countless keyboards surrounding the Elite girl were adjusted.

They were now positioned so it was easier for a human to use them all.

They were now positioned so her ten fingers could race across them even faster.

“Full key touch. Release,” she announced.

There was a smile on the Elite girl’s face. It was not the calm expression of one in a privileged class. It was the extremely wild smile of someone crossing swords with their destined enemy on the battlefield.

“Oh ho ho!! The Gatling 033 is primarily intended to be piloted by Juliet with me performing ‘revisions’, but I do not recall saying that it could not be piloted any other way!! I can pilot it on my own if necessary!!”

One hundred cannons, many more sensors and radars gathering data, a complex propulsion device that used both treads and an air cushion, and a reactor that produced massive amounts of power.

She was announcing that she could control it all with just her 10 fingers.

That was not something any normal human would ever think of doing.

Even a normal tank was usually run by 4 or 5 people, but that reasoning did not apply to an Elite whose body and mind had been thoroughly improved.

Computers carried out all sorts of tasks in the background that normal people were never aware of. She was basically saying she could take care of all of that better than the computer by manually entering it all one letter of the alphabet or number at a time.

And…

If she truly could continue fighting, it was clear as day which Object would have the advantage.

The Baby Magnum was truly cornered.

If things continued, the princess would be the one destroyed.

“Oh ho ho. I must praise your skill for coming up with that weakness of Juliet’s.”

The Elite girl’s fingers stopped to hover above the keyboards.

The pause was as filled with tension as if she had the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of her enemy’s head.

“But that has just made me want you even more!! Such quick thinking. Such application. You are perfect for my unit!! Honestly. Ho ho. Honestly. Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!! Why do you light such a fire in my heart!? Oh ho ho!!”

But…

“Stop,” said Quenser quietly.

He used a finger to wipe up some blood that was dripping down from his ear and slowly crawled across the cockpit floor.

“This is a useless struggle. You cannot defeat our princess like this.”

“Oh ho ho. And what proof of this do you-…”

The Elite girl trailed off.

Quenser had used his finger to write something in red on the floor.

''A bomb has been set up.

The Elite girl looked at Quenser in shock, and he wrote more on the floor in blood.

''Cut off all transmissions. Including the ones monitored in the background.

“What…?”

Quenser slammed his palm against the wall.

His gaze said it all.

''Do not speak.

''Whatever you do, do not speak.

''If you overlook this opportunity, you are doomed.

He had no time to deal with the Elite girl’s confusion.

“…”

The girl’s slender fingers hovered hesitantly above the keyboards for a few seconds. Finally, she hit the switch. After seeing her finger move, Quenser slowly got up.

“Over there. On the floor below the cockpit seat, a plastic explosive has been set up. It is likely to be used in emergencies. Did they not tell you anything about this?”

For a bit, the girl did not move. After that, she shook her head for some reason. She may have wanted to deny something. However, Quenser gave no response. Silence reigned. The Elite girl undid her seatbelt with trembling hands and slowly stood up. She timidly circled around behind the seat and peered underneath.

She then staggered as if she was feeling faint.

“Why?” Her whispered voice could be heard throughout the small cockpit. “Why would they set up something like this? Oh ho ho. Losing the Object or its Elite means certain death for my unit.”

“An Object is a monstrous weapon that cannot be destroyed even with a nuke. When it is controlled by a single Elite, the military will fear the Elite turning on them. If the Object did turn its main cannons on its own base, no one would be able to stop it.” Quenser leaned against the wall and took a long, slow breath before continuing. “And the Rush is controlled by a strategic AI. There is even more danger of a rampage since there could be a bug in the program that the Elite cannot take care of fast enough. That is why they created an ‘emergency shutoff’ for themselves. There is probably a similar bomb installed on the Juliet’s main computer in addition to this one in the cockpit.”

“…”

“But that is not the biggest problem.”

The Elite girl understood what he was trying to say.

Quenser pointed towards where the bomb was with his index finger that was wet with blood.

“The detonation counter has begun. It may be linked to a major error occurring in the strategic AI.”

“Impossible! Ho…oh ho ho. I-I am the Elite of the Gatling 033! They would not dispose of me so simply!!”

“The Elite is important, but only so long as the military views it that way,” spat out Quenser in reply. “I have seen an Elite being discarded. When the princess was defeated by the Water Strider here in the Alaska district, she was used as a decoy so the unit could retreat. An Elite only has value when combined with a functioning Object. And as long as they have the Juliet and the public 3D model, they do not even need to tell the people if you die. Is there perhaps a backup? Is the Juliet saved to some area of memory in the network?”

“Kh!!”

The Elite girl leaped back into the cockpit chair and reached for the communications system’s switch.

But Quenser said, “Stop. They did not want you to know about the bombs. It is entirely possible they will remotely detonate them the instant you ask about them. They might decide your knowledge would lead you to betray them.”

The Elite girl’s finger stopped an instant before reaching the key.

As she remained motionless, Quenser continued.

“Why do you think the bombs were set up only in the cockpit and the main computer? Because they want to keep the damages to a minimum so they can switch out just the interior and reuse the Object. Normally, only you can pilot the Gatling 033 because it was modified just for you. However, if they only use the frame and reconstruct the inner portion similar to another Object, they can swap in another Elite fairly quick. This way, they can discard an Elite they can no longer use and move over to the next plan with a minimum cost.”

“I…I would never betray them or go on a rampage!! Ho…ho ho. And the erroneous learning of the Strategic AI Juliet is due to the vulnerabilities of the program!!”

“But what do you think the commanders back at your base zone are thinking right now? They saw the Rush suddenly stop when it should have been able to continue fighting. It is not the Rush or the Elite that the Information Alliance military cares about. It is the Strategic AI Juliet.”

[[Image:HO_v03_10.png|thumb]]

“…!!”

The Elite clenched her fist.

She stood up, swaying, and slammed her small fist into Quenser’s face as he sat with his back against the wall. She did not stop with just one or two hits. She continued on and on and on and on and on. She punched him with all of her strength again and again.

“This is…! This is all your fault!! I did…nothing wrong!!”

The dull sounds continued on.

The girl’s shoulders trembled.

She was not running out of stamina.

Her humiliation, her anger, and the fear she could no longer hide were making her body tremble.

“What will you do?” Quenser asked the Elite girl with his split lips. “The plastic explosives will detonate in another 10 minutes at this rate. The bomb here is not that big, but the blast is enough to kill any human in this enclosed space. Do you understand the situation now? What will you do?”

“…”

The Elite girl swung her fist up, but then stopped.

Her trembling reached its peak. That cockpit surrounded by thick walls had likely been akin to a cradle for her. Feeling real danger in there may have given her claustrophobic fear for the first time in her life.

She motionlessly breathed shallow breaths and Quenser sighed.

“Where is the ejection device?”

“?”

“Where is the control device for ejection? I came to the battlefield to study Object design as a battlefield student. I can look into it. If the ejection is linked to the bomb, you can’t just activate it. I need to cut the cord connecting it first.”

Quenser placed a hand on the wall and slowly stood up with his face swelling from the pummeling it had taken.

The Elite girl hesitated for a second, but finally said, “Th-the ejection device is built into the seat. Oh ho ho.”

“I see. So it’s the same as our princess’s.”

Quenser pulled some small tools out of his uniform’s pockets. The screws in the cockpit chair were made in a special shape, so his Legitimacy Kingdom tools would not work. However, he pulled out a small pair of pliers and directly rotated the heads of the screws.

After removing four screws, he pulled off a small panel.

He saw several cables and an air compressor used to tighten the seatbelt.

As he looked inside, he said, “Here it is. It is connected. But it doesn’t use some complex system to connect the cord or anything. This isn’t some puzzle like the time bombs in movies. I can take care of this simply enough.” Quenser grabbed the Elite girl’s shoulders and sat her down in the cockpit chair. “Put on the seatbelt again. Eject after I cut the cord. That should take care of this. This is still a battlefield with rules. As long as you go through the proper steps, you won’t be shot out of the air or pursued across the snowy plain after you eject.”

“Wh-why…?”

“This is war. I am not doing this out of kindness.” Quenser circled around behind the chair and stretched an arm inside where he had removed the panel. “As I told you before, I came here to study Object design. Ultimately, I do not care who wins or loses the war…as long as our lives are not in danger, that is. And as a student, this is a chance to drive the pilot Elite out and capture an enemy Object almost completely unharmed. This is a key to getting rich quick. Normally, I would never get to study a Second Generation Information Alliance Object.”

The Elite girl blinked in confusion while held in place by her seatbelt.

In response, Quenser said, “This is a one time deal. The next time we meet, we’ll be enemies. We’ll be forced to fight to the death. Keep this a secret from the princess. If it turns out I let an enemy Elite escape, I could very well be court martialed. Normally, it seems you would be used in negotiations between nations.”

A loud snipping sound could be heard.

It was the sound of Quenser cutting the cord connecting the ejection device to the bomb.

Now she could eject.

His arm reached around the chair and headed for the red ejection key.

That was when the Elite girl realized something.

“W-wait a second! The ejection device can only eject me, and the bomb’s detonator is still functioning! You will just be trapped here-…”

“Yes,” Quenser readily admitted. “I’ll deal with the rest myself. As I said, this is a key to getting rich quick. It’s worth risking my life for. At the very least, it’s worth risking my life more than fighting deadly battles for the interests of the higher ups is. If the Elite does not eject soon to display that you can no longer fight, the princess will destroy the Object. Once that happens, I’ll have nothing left to study.”

“Wai-”

“Make sure you survive. I’ll make the proper preparations so you can.”

Before the Elite girl could complain any further, Quenser slammed down the red ejection key.

The dozens of barriers set throughout the tunnel-like passageway all opened up. After the route was confirmed to be open, the Elite girl’s seat was forcefully launched out.

It took less than 10 seconds for her to exit the tunnel. Once she had exited the Object, the Elite herself was launched from the chair and a parachute activated.

“…”

With that, the war was over.

Left alone, Quenser unsteadily moved backwards until his back struck the wall.

While leaning against the wall, he slid down to a sitting position.

His focus lay only on the presence of the plastic explosive sitting on the floor where it had been set up to kill the Elite.

===Part 17===

The Strategic AI Juliet of the Information Alliance’s Gatling 033 had been shut off and the Elite girl who had mastered the technique of manually controlling the entire Object had ejected.

With the Gatling 033 truly unable to move, the war in Alaska came to an end. Naturally, the Legitimacy Kingdom was the victor.

“…”

After landing on the snow with her parachute, the Elite girl turned tail and ran, but the Legitimacy Kingdom Object did not pursue her. That was proof that she stood upon a clean battlefield ruled by a type of law and order. The Elite girl bit her lip in humiliation, but she had no way to fight back in her current situation. Retreating as quickly as possible when given the opportunity was the duty of the loser.

She ran for kilometer after kilometer across the cold snow.

Even inside her special suit made with cutting edge technology, she was gradually losing heat.

As she gritted her teeth at the bitterness of defeat, the Elite girl heard the sound of snow being crushed. However, it was too smooth a noise to be human footsteps. It was an Information Alliance off-road vehicle. Since the noise of an engine would draw in enemies, the Information Alliance usually used hybrids. The electric motor made much less noise. Issues of horsepower and driving distance prevented them from using fully electric vehicles. The gasoline engine would be used for terrain with harsher slopes and the electric motor would be used when enemy troops were likely around.

The off-road vehicle stopped in front of the Elite girl. The door opened and the commander of the Information Alliance’s maintenance base zone stepped out. Her name was Lendy Farolito. She was a woman of about 20 with brown skin and silver hair. She was one of the young officers who were growing rather common in recent years.

The fact that the commander had personally come to the front lines may have been a form of respect for the Elite. Or perhaps the commander simply had nothing better to do with the war over.

“Thank goodness… It seems you managed to survive,” said Lendy with a relieved expression.

The Elite girl remained silent and simply looked at her commander. Lendy seemed to interpret that hard look as coming from the shock of defeat.

“For now, we need to retreat. The intelligence department trying to analyze the technology from the Object wreckage will probably resent us. The facility they set up to transmit their data will likely be destroyed by the Legitimacy Kingdom now. However, we have no duty to continue fighting to the last man once our Object has been lost. We can deal with this digitally. A certain amount of data has already been gathered from the wreckage, so this was not without any results. And the higher ups do not seem insistent that we stick with this. Fortunately, we were deemed to be a card worth preserving.”

Lendy crouched down to put herself on eyelevel with the short Elite girl.

She looked like a parent or a teacher.

However, the Elite girl could not forget two facts.

The fact that a bomb had been set up inside the cockpit and the fact that a detonation signal had been sent to it after the situation had grown unfavorable.

“Losing the Gatling 033 is a painful blow, but the Information Alliance military emphasizes piloting systems and strategic AI, so we should be fine. The Juliet was backed up and you can still be used. Constructing an entire Object would take 3 or 4 years, but we can take one in construction and change the layout to suit our needs. That way, it won’t take too long before you can get back to it.”

“…”

“The biggest problem is the fear that the Legitimacy Kingdom will retrieve the Gatling 033 and analyze the data and technology concerning the Strategic AI Juliet. But we do not need to worry about that. The main circuits and memory devices in the Gatling 033 have heating elements installed to deal with that. With the circuits directly fried, all the crucial technology will be erased, so-…”

A high-pitched noise rang out.

It came from Lendy Farolito’s cheek.

The Elite girl had slapped her commander.

In a stiff voice, the Elite girl said, “If you try something like that again, I really will turn my main cannons on your base zone.”

Having been slapped, Lendy looked at the Elite girl with an expression of bewilderment. The Elite girl did not feel like dealing with her commander if she was going to feign ignorance. She headed for the back seat of the off-road vehicle while ignoring Lendy who was holding her cheek with one hand.

(That boy.)

The Elite girl thought while ignoring the driver who was remaining silent due to the odd atmosphere.

(It may be safer to keep an engineer like him as a confidant than a soldier who excels at giving suspicious pretexts for everything. …Oh ho ho. Now I want him even more.)

===Part 18===

Meanwhile, Quenser held his radio to his ear in the Rush’s cockpit. The thick barriers had prevented the radio signal from getting through before, but the tunnel-like passageway had opened up during the ejection. That meant he could now use his radio.

He was speaking with his large-breasted commander.

“The battle is over. I’ve gotten us the Second Generation Information Alliance Object almost completely intact. Send over some people from the electronic simulation department who know how to deal with the data processing. Of course, any staff familiar with the Information Alliance format would be best. A strategic AI called Juliet was stopped due to a conflict over commands, but it would be best not to leave it for too long. An auto-scan or self-restart could begin which might lead to the reactor being detonated to keep their data from us.”

“Understood, Quenser. First the Water Strider and now this. This really is a mountain of treasure for the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

“Tell me when you’re going to dismantle it. I would appreciate it if you could negotiate with the higher ups to get me in first.”

“Hmm, I can’t promise anything. The analysis of the latest technology of an enemy nation will likely become a national project. They might not let you due to fears that letting a student participate could damage some sensitive circuitry and prevent a proper analysis.”

“I guess it isn’t that easy…” sighed Quenser.

Either way, a report on the analysis of the Rush would be uploaded to the military database. He could learn a lot from that. There was more than one path to becoming a designer, so he decided it might be best to let this one slide.

After ending the transmission with Froleytia, Quenser began coughing. The intense inertial forces had injured him internally. He had blood coming from his ears and nose. It would likely be best if he received a full medical inspection once he returned to the maintenance base zone.

After that thought, Quenser noticed a new incoming transmission on his radio.

It was from Heivia.

“Hey, Sir Knight. It seems the plan to cause erroneous learning in the AI to stop the Object was a success. You should thank me. They might have to add a new strategy to the training manual for new recruits next year.”

“The Information Alliance won’t make the same mistake twice. They’ll have a countermeasure the next time we meet. A technique used once is an outdated technique. The battlefield is being constantly updated, so even the best information can become worthless in no time.”

“I heard a plastic explosive had been set in the cockpit to prevent the Elite from turning on them.”

“Thanks to that, I was easily able to get the Elite to eject. It seems she was able to control the Rush using full key touch. If it hadn’t been for that disagreement with her comrades, this battle might have lasted quite a bit longer.”

“Hmm,” said Heivia half-heartedly.

And then…

“By any chance, was that bomb made of Hand Axe?”

Quenser fell silent.

He glanced over.

The plastic explosive was definitely set up there. The name of the explosive used was Hand Axe. A gram of it was more valuable than a gram of platinum, and it was developed by the Legitimacy Kingdom military. Naturally, the Information Alliance had no way of manufacturing it.

What looked like a detonator was actually a decoration created from the cords meant for a wired detonation and the LCD screen taken from a pen-shaped wireless fuse.

Finally, Quenser spoke into the radio once more.

“…This is war. I wasn’t doing it out of kindness.”

“That was a bit of a cruel method. But just a bit. You could have been more thorough. You just needed to prevent the Elite from manually piloting using full key touch, so you could have just killed her. As long as she’s still alive, she can always use a derivative Object to return to the battlefield. The Information Alliance hadn’t raised the white flag yet, so you could have done it, right?”

“Should you really be saying that?” Quenser sighed. “After blowing up several Objects, I’m not really one to talk, but this is Alaska. Don’t tell me you forget what happened here.”

“Heh heh. True enough. Humans really aren’t fair. We complain like hell when someone does it to us, but forget all about that when we’re the ones doing it.”

“Please, just keep this a secret from the princess and Froleytia.”

“Because they’ll be mad at you for going against military regulations for something like that? The princess seems calm at first glance, but she does have a bad habit of being oversensitive when it comes to wins or losses against Objects, doesn’t she?”

“No, because it would probably put them in a bad mood. I’d rather not be ordered to make a 30 kilometer dash through the snow.”

“Heh heh. Shouldn’t you be more worried about the bad mood the princess is already in? When you were getting along surprisingly well with the Rush’s Elite, you said some rather explosive things. She seems quite agitated wondering who this Angelina childhood friend and Etta from the restaurant are.”

“Hah? I was just pointing you to the Angelina List!! You followed my instructions, so surely you figured that out, Heivia!”

“Eh? It’s not my problem if she didn’t catch on.”

“Why does it look like I’m going to have to explain myself to the princess after all this…?” muttered Quenser.

Ignoring him, Heivia cut off the transmission.

Amid the silence, Quenser looked up at the ceiling of the Rush’s cockpit. He thought back to what he had said.

''The next time we meet, we’ll be enemies.

''We’ll be forced to fight to the death.

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Prologue|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 2}}</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume7 Chapter4 1

2013-07-31T21:38:48Z

Ambjoorn: /* Golden Rose Uproar. Part 1 */

===<noinclude>Golden Rose Uproar. </noinclude>Part 1===

The newspaper club did it again.

What, you ask?

The latest edition of the old reliable "Lillian Kawaraban" was completely filled with a short story by Tsukiyama Minako-sama. The main character's name had been changed slightly, but it was obviously based on Rosa Foetida.

The title was "The Golden Rose," and that's just a Yellow Rose by any other name.

It was absurd enough to make a born-and-raised Tokyoite start quoting Shakespeare.

And it was about "Tory Eniko." Anyone just glancing at the article would read it as Torii Eriko. The disclaimer that it was a "short story" and "fiction", probably a defense against libel claims, was very inconspicuous. Nobody would ever notice it unless it was brought to their attention.

Yumi remembered the words that Rosa Gigantea had spoken during the Yellow Rose Revolution.

– Tsukiyama Minako was better suited to being a novelist than an editor.

That may indeed be true. It wasn't clear how much she knew, but since it had the "short story" disclaimer, there had to be some part of it that was pure speculation. According to Tsutako-san, the newspaper club hadn't received any additional reports. Naturally, they hadn't been given any photos either.

"What's with this artist's impression photograph?"

For the first time in a while, Sachiko-sama vented her anger directly.

"It's probably meant to imitate the scene recreations they do on talk shows. It's fine, sit down Sachiko."

Rosa Chinensis quietly ordered as she sipped her tea.

"Like how they'll show a fake replay streaming in the background when reporting on juvenile crime."

That was Rosa Gigantea. Chiming in as she sat with both arms and legs crossed.

"They do it when broadcasting pictures of the perpetrator or their school is inappropriate. So instead they'll show official documents, or an artist's impression, or the silhouette of an actor unrelated to the matter. Shot from behind or otherwise blurred."

Yoshino-san, an avid watcher of talk shows when she was in hospital, joined in to explain the artist's impression concept. Rei-sama, Shimako-san and even Yumi all nodded, saying, "I see." That left Sachiko-sama on her own.

"That's not what I'd call this."

She thumped the table as she spoke. On it were the copies of the latest edition of the "Lillian Kawaraban" that each of them had brought, making seven in total.

"Look, the photo's taken from behind, but no matter how you look at it, it's Minako-san. You can see her bangs pushed up by the hairband. It all seems very makeshift. However, she's made a huge mistake if she thinks it will fool any of the readers into thinking that that's Rosa Foetida."

"…"

Yumi instinctively looked down. Embarrassingly, not only hadn't she realized that it was Minako-sama, but she'd actually thought that it was Rosa Foetida. So, of the people that had the current edition of the "Lillian Kawaraban," about half of them would probably fall for the optical illusion. After all, even Yumi hadn't been able to see through it.

At any rate, for the first time in a while, the third-years had joined them in the Rose Mansion. After getting a copy of the "Lillian Kawaraban," they had spontaneously assembled after school.

The focal point, Rosa Foetida, was absent.

Yumi had peeked inside her shoe box a little earlier and determined that, at they very least, Rosa Foetida wasn't in the school building.

"It was thoughtless of me."

Rosa Chinensis muttered as she looked up at the ceiling.

"I never imagined the newspaper club would move like this."

At this, Sachiko-sama raised her eyes once more and said:

"Onee-sama, you knew of this!?"

"Somewhat. Just that she was going out on dates with different men every night."

A scratching, scrunching sound came from somewhere. Yumi had thought it was someone grinding their teeth, but it turned out to be Sachiko-sama wringing her handkerchief.

(This is bad … )

Come on, Sachiko-sama. Get your anger under control.

(Now then, this is a pickle.)

That it was the build up to an explosion made it all the more scary.

"If you knew about this, why didn't you do something?"

Scrunch, scrunch, scrunch.

"I thought I'd wait and see what happened. I didn't want to cause a disturbance. If I'd flown off the handle, like you just did Sachiko, it would have complicated the situation."

Had she noticed the scraping or not? Rosa Chinensis seemed to be deliberately choosing words that would provoke Sachiko-sama.

"Yeah, good point."

Fanning the flames, Rosa Gigantea recklessly agreed.

Scrunch, scrunch.

"Pardon me, I too … uh"

Unable to endure a moment longer, Yumi raised her hand. A voluntary admission. There was a ticking time-bomb sitting right in front of her that Yumi couldn't defuse, and she couldn't just sit there and wait for it to go off. In that case, she might as well move the hand of the clock forward herself.

"Even you – "

The focus of her anger had shifted. Sachiko-sama's face looked demonic, like a Hannya mask.

"I'm sorry, onee-sama. I thought about discussing it with you, but you're … "

"I'm what?"

"How can I put this, it felt like it would be an unpleasant topic with you, men and women, their relationships, that sort of thing."

Scrunch, scrunch … rip.

"Unpleasant? Unpleasant you say?"

Sachiko-sama's white handkerchief had finally given way, and she hurled it down onto the table.

"Why can't you see that hearing out about it afterward like this is hundreds of times more unpleasant!"

"Hyaa"

Finally, the explosion. Yumi was at her wits' end, but the two third-years were making snide comments, like, "Ah, there she goes."

"So, what? Because I can't stand men, you hid this from me?"

Sachiko-sama picked up her discarded handkerchief and started wringing it again. Yumi had no excuse for her own actions, but there was one thing she could say clearly. That handkerchief had done nothing wrong.

"All of you, you're mocking me – "

Yumi was about to say that it wasn't like that when Shimako-san raised her hand and said:

"I didn't know anything about this, though."

Then Yoshino-san jumped in with, "Me neither."

"So Yumi-san's vague, rambling talk about assisted dating, that was about Rosa Foetida?"

"Assisted dating? Stop already."

Rei-sama was shivering.

"Well, just from reading "The Golden Rose," those sort of suspicions are inevitable."

Rosa Gigantea seemed to be reveling in the current situation, although it was hard to tell whether those were her true feelings or a facade.

"Hmm."

In the end, Sachiko-sama was cheered up by seeing that the knowledge had only spread to those in the Red Rose family, thus limiting the damage. Being the only one not to know would have been an unforgivable affront to her pride.

"Setting that aside, if this story really is modeled after my onee-sama – "

Rei-sama hung her head in shame, looking like she was about to cry. With that, the mood turned somber. In many ways, the shock was probably greatest for Rosa Foetida's petit soeur, Rei-sama.

"Don't worry, it's labeled fiction, so most of it's pure speculation."

Rosa Chinensis reached across the table and patted Rei-sama on the shoulder.

"But you don't know that for sure."

Like she was praying to the statue of Maria-sama, Rei-sama clung on to Rosa Chinensis.

"Of course I do. I can point out the many mistakes in "The Golden Rose.""

Her chest puffed out with pride, Rosa Chinensis was always reliable.

With that, everyone's gaze turned back to the pages of the "Lillian Kawarban."

'''Synopsis of "The Golden Rose"'''

Approaching her graduation from high-school, the "Golden Rose," Tory Eniko, felt a hole in her heart. To supplement her study of society, she took a part-time job at a Date Club. All her partners were adults, and they introduced Eniko to a world she'd never known.

Baseball player A took her on an all-night road trip. Surgeon B took her to an art gallery, while Model C took her to an exclusive, hidden restaurant.

But as she changed men every night just like she changed clothes, Eniko started to feel hollow.

Then who should appear but a new teacher at Eniko's school, who had only recently graduated from college, Teacher D. He found Eniko aimlessly wandering the streets at night, and gently admonished her to return home. Hearing his words, Eniko's eyes were opened and she returned to her former life, realizing that what she had been searching for was Teacher D all along.

Eniko decided to propose to Teacher D on the day of her graduation …

" – Well, that's the short version anyway. It's a pretty weak story. But if you read it thinking it's modeled on someone you know, you can't put it down."

Rosa Chinensis laughed sarcastically.

"So which part of it's wrong then? Don't stop there, please tell us."

Sachiko-sama looked sullen as she urged Rosa Chinensis to continue.

"Oh, calm down. Yumi-chan, do you still have those things from before in your pocket?"

"Ah."

Things from before that were still in her pocket? Well, of course there was her handkerchief … but obviously that's not what she meant.

"Hand them over."

" … Here."

Yumi obediently handed over "those things from before," the photographs. Rosa Chinensis took them and spread them out over the table.

"These photos were all taken by one of Yumi-chan's classmates, Takeshima Tsutako-san."

"Way to go, Camera-chan."

Rosa Gigantea whistled.

"Sei, quit fooling around."

" … Sorry, continue."

Rosa Chinensis joined her hands together in a display of forbearance and continued.

"There's five men pictured here, right? Based on their appearance, if we were to name them – "

Rosa Chinensis lined up the photos A, B and C. Interestingly, they matched the description of the characters from "The Golden Rose" exactly.

"So, Teacher D is?"

What was left over was a balding, overweight, middle-aged man and the bear-man.

"At the very least, neither of them are teachers at our school. Nor do they look like they've recently graduated from college."

Everyone agreed, "That's true."

"So, what that means is … "

"The second half's completely made up."

"Then the first half is true?"

Once more, Rei-sama looked like she was about to cry.

"No, it's mostly speculation. By the way, Rosa Gigantea."

Rosa Chinensis set the photo with the bear-man to one side before asking.

"Have a look at these four photos, do you notice anything?"

"These four … ah."

"Right?"

"I see."

Rosa Chinensis and Rosa Gigantea's eyes met and they nodded. And then.

"Third-year chrysanthemum class, Torii Eriko-san please report to the educational guidance room immediately."

Could be heard coming through the school PA system, after the cheery intro music.

"I repeat, third-year chrysanthemum – "

Was this a repeat of the "Forest of Thorns?" This time around Rosa Foetida was being summoned to the educational guidance room.

"No way. Don't tell me the guidance teacher took this story for the truth?"

"That can't be."

Hahaha.

Nervous laughter echoed around the Rose Mansion.

But nobody there thought it was completely unrelated.

"What should we do?"

"We have to make an appearance, right?"

The seven young girls, none of whom were called Torii Eriko, stood up simultaneously. Just like the seven samurai.

"Yumi. Don't forget the photographs."

Sachiko-sama said on the way out the door, and Yumi nodded and gave her a thumbs-up.

Reading you loud and clear.

User talk:Ambjoorn

2013-07-02T17:20:27Z

Ambjoorn: Blanked the page

Strike Witches

2013-06-27T13:15:23Z

Ambjoorn: /* Volume 2 - Suomus Misfits Squadron in Love */ fixed external links

[[Image:SW vol1 cover.jpg|thumb|''Volume 1 Cover'']]

The ''Strike Witches'' series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Strike_Witches_~Spanish~|Español (Spanish)]]
*[[Strike Witches (German)|Deutsch (German)]]

== Story Synopsis ==

Strike Witches takes place in a world similar to Earth, but where magic exists. Magic abilities appear almost exclusively among young women, and usually disappears with age. However, these abilities are generally limited to raising a simple protective magic field, or moving objects slightly at a distance, or for some, flying on a broom. Then, in the 16th and 17 centuries, humanity entered into an age of discovery, highlighted by the Britannian witch Jamie Watt's invention of the magic engine, a steam-powered mechanical device which could boost a witch's natural magic powers several times over, which could then be used to drive all types of machinery. The magic engine was soon put to use in all forms of industry and transport, increasing production to levels previously thought impossible.

However, together with this huge increase in magic usage, sightings of the Neuroi, enigmatic lifeforms which had been spotted on scarce occasions for centuries, also began to increase exponentially. Appearing in countries all over the world, the Neuroi spread a noxious miasma, putrefying the land and consuming all types of metals, and they began encroaching on human territory. Normal soldiers could do nothing against that miasma, and humanity was on its last legs, with no choice but to retreat time and time again. It was then that it was discovered that a witch's protective field could block the miasma, and with the power of a magic engine, witches joined the battlefield. With the ability to easily wield weapons which would normally be far too heavy, imbue their attacks with magic, fly through the air freely, and block enemy attacks with magic fields, witches began to turn the tide against the Neuroi invasion. These witches, together with the Striker Units they wore, were known as "Strike Witches".

In 1939, as the European mainland faced the crisis of a Neuroi invasion of unprecedented scale, Imperial Army and Navy Witches from the far off Fuso Empire were sent to the battlefield as volunteer soldiers. One such Imperial Army Witch, Anabuki Tomoko, an ace and hero to the people after her outstanding service during the Neuroi raid known as the "Fuso Sea Incident", had been expecting to be sent to Karlsland, where the heaviest fighting was going on. However, she was instead deployed to the northernmost extreme of Europe, Suomus. There she meets the rest of her future fellow squadron members, none of whom had ever made a name for themselves in their former countries, instead being treated nearly like outcasts, half-baked witches without any talent or motivation. It's now up to the "Misfits Squadron", or officially the "Suomus Independent Volunteer Air Squadron", to find out how they can stand up to the Neuroi menace.

== Information ==

This series was written by Yamaguchi Noboru, also known for the Zero no Tsukaima series of light novels. It was first published in October 2006, and there are currently three books, with a fourth scheduled for Spring 2009.

A separate light novel using the characters from the OVA and anime series was written by Nanbou Hidehisa, and published in August 2008. A sequel was published in February 2009.

A semi-official novelette/manga doujinshi was released during Comiket 74, also in August 2008. A sequel was released during Comiket 75, in December 2008. The novel section was written by Suzuki Takaaki, while the manga section was illustrated by Nogami Takeshi.

Also the animated series of [http://hubpages.com/hub/Strike-Witches-Character-Guide Strike Witches] was released in April 2010 in the United States. This version was completely in English.

*April 4, 2013:
Yamaguchi Noboru author of Zero no Tsukaima, Strike Witches and many other works has passed away at the age of 41 due to cancer.
RIP February 11, 1972 – April 4, 2013

== Progress ==
'''2012'''
* March 4th - Suomus Misfits Squadron Volume 1 Chapter 7 and Epilogue complete.
* February 29th - Suomus Misfits Squadron Volume 1 Chapter 5-6 complete.
'''2009'''
* July 4th - Suomus Misfits Squadron Volume 1 Chapter 4 complete. To Do: Change F/S to F/Sgt
* March 5th - Der Stern von Afrika Volume 2 Chapter 1
* March 1st - Der Stern von Afrika Volume 1 Chapter 7 and Epilogue complete. Commence :selkirkeffort:.
'''2008'''
* November 10th - Suomus Misfits Squadron Volume 1 Chapter 3 complete.
* August 24th - Suomus Misfits Squadron Volume 1 Chapter 2 complete.
* August 2nd - Suomus Misfits Squadron Volume 1 Chapter 1 complete.

Older updates can be found on the [[Strike Witches:Updates|Strike Witches Updates page]].

== Translation ==

=== [[Strike_Witches:Registration_Page|Registration]] ===

Those who wish to contribute are asked to first notify a supervisor beforehand.

'''Translators are asked to [[Strike_Witches:Registration_Page|register]] which chapters they're working on'''

=== Format Standards ===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the agreed points highlighted in the below guidelines'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]
*[[Strike_Witches:guidelines|Strike Witches Format Guidelines]]

== Strike Witches: Suomus Misfits Squadron, by Yamaguchi Noboru ==

=== Volume 1 - Suomus Misfits Squadron Moving Up ===
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Shou-i Anabuki Tomoko]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Suomus, Northern Europe]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Training in the Azure Sky]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Tomoko's Depression]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Neuroi Invasion]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Ace]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Showdown! Diomedea!]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Postscript|Postscript]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume1_Exposition|Exposition]]

=== Volume 2 - Suomus Misfits Squadron in Love ===

Whole chapter hosted on the [http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Suomus_Misfits_Squadron_in_Love Strike Witches Wikia]

::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Illustrations Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume2_Introduction|Character Introduction]]
::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_1_-_Dark_Clouds_over_Suomus Chapter 1 - Dark Clouds over Suomus]]
::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_2_-_Mikkeli_Temporary_Air_Base Chapter 2 - Mikkeli Temporary Air Base]]
::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_3_-_Stuka_Squadron Chapter 3 - Stuka Squadron]]
::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_4_-_New_Model_Ki-44 Chapter 4 - New Model Ki-44]]
::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_5_-_Tomoko%27s_Unrest Chapter 5 - Tomoko's Unrest]]
::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_6_-_First_Love_under_the_Aurora Chapter 6 - First Love under the Aurora]]
::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_7_-_Recapture_Slussen! Chapter 7 - Recapture Slussen!]]
::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_8_-_Showdown!_Mobile_Fortress! Chapter 8 - Showdown! Mobile Fortress!]]
::*[[http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Epilogue_Misfits_Volume_2 Epilogue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume2_Postscript|Postscript]]

=== Volume 3 - Clash in the Suomus Misfits Squadron ===
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Introduction|Character Introduction]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Tomoko's Distress]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Operation Bridges Down]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Backup from Romagna]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Chapter4|Chapter 4 - SEAD Mission]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Giuseppina]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Duel]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Operation Rescue Haruka]] - 15%
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Tsubame-gaeshi "Kai"]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Volume3_Epilogue|Epilogue]]

== Strike Witches, by Nanbou Hidehisa ==

=== Otome no Maki 1 ===
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume1_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume1_Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume1_Chapter1|Chapter 1 - The Good Witch from the East]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume1_Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume1_Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Exhibition, Mamma Mia!]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume1_Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Show of Courage]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume1_Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume1_Comment|Comment]]

=== Otome no Maki 2 ===
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Swift, Gigantic, and Soft―or, A Midsummer Night's Ghost Story]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Solidarity―or, the Chapter for Sanya, by Sanya, for Sanya]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Disappearing Lucchini―or, the Pocket-Plugging Treasure]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Intermission1|Intermission 1 - Sleeping Beauty]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Special Operation Riceball!―or, the Maiden's Waistline]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Memories of Fun Summer Days―or, Barkhorn in Wonderland]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Intermission2|Intermission 2 - Sleeping Beauty, part 2]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Escape Route―or, Low as the clouds, strong as the wind, high as the waves]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Intermission3|Intermission 3 - Base Command, we have achieved total surprise!]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Forget You Not―or, a Red Dress and Lili Marleen]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume2_Postscript|Postscript]]

=== Otome no Maki 3 ===
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Intermission1|Intermission 1 - Micchan Impossible]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Defend at All Costs-or, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Flowing Blood]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Trust and Friendship-or, Regret and Determination]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Intermission2|Intermission 2 - Micchan Impossible II]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Chapter3|Chapter 3 - To the Sky...-or, Unhoped-for Partings]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Strike Witches-or, the Liberation of Gallia]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Intermission3|Intermission 3 - Micchan Impossible III]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Epilogue|Epilogue - Or Prologue?]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:OnM_Volume3_Postscript|Postscript]]

== Strike Witches: Der Stern von Afrika, by Suzuki Takaaki ==

=== Der Stern von Afrika ([[Strike_Witches:Afrika|Full Text]])===
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Africa]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Romagnan Logistics Base]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Karlsland]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Onward to the Base]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Chapter5|Chapter 5 - The Britannian Soldier]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Marseille]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Glory's Afterglow]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_Prototype|Original Plot Prototype]] - 25%
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika_FAQ|FAQ]]

=== The Eagle and the Moon and the Sun ===
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika2_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika2_Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Tobruk Revisited]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika2_Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Africa Independent Flight Squadron]] - 70%
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika2_Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Formation of the Katou Squadron]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika2_Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Britannian Armed Forces Headquarters]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika2_Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Romagnan Armed Forces Headquarters]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika2_Chapter6|Chapter 6 - JG 27]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika2_Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Joint Fighter Wing "Afrika"]]

=== Owl Morn ===
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika3_Prologue|Prologue - Fuso Army General Staff Office]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika3_Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Storm in Tobruk]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika3_Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Fuso Army General Staff Office]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika3_Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Africa's Skies]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika3_Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Owl Morn]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:Afrika3_Epilogue|Epilogue - Coming of a Goddess]]

== Assorted short stories, by Nanbou Hidehisa ==
=== After the Sky (Official Fanbook) ===
::*[[Strike_Witches:SS_AftertheSky_SS1|After the Sky - Endless Stretch of Blue]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:SS_AftertheSky_SS2|After the Sky - The White Somethings Flapping in the Wind]]
::*[[Strike_Witches:SS_AftertheSky_SS3|After the Sky - Golden Soup]]

=== The Sneaker shorts ===
::*[[Strike_Witches:SS_Sneaker0409|Strike Witches]] (April 2009)

== Project Staff ==

=== Translators ===
::*[[User:Britfag|Britfag]]
::*[[user:selkirk|selkirk]]

=== Editors ===
::*[[user:Piroko|Piroko]]

== Series Overview ==

1. Strike Witches I - ストライクウィッチーズ壱の巻スオムスいらん子中隊がんばる - ISBN: 978-4044246051 - Released 2006.10.1

2. Strike Witches II - ストライクウィッチーズ弐の巻スオムスいらん子中隊恋する - ISBN: 978-4044246068 - Released 2007.3.1

3. Strike Witches III - ストライクウィッチーズ参ノ巻スオムスいらん子中隊はじける - ISBN: 978-4044246075 - Released 2008.7.1

4. Strike Witches Otome no Maki - ストライクウィッチーズ乙女の巻 - ISBN: 978-4044739010 - Released 2008.8.1

5. Strike Witches Otome no Maki 2 - ストライクウィッチーズ乙女の巻2 - ISBN: 978-4044739027 - Released 2009.3.1

6. Strike Witches Otome no Maki 3 - ストライクウィッチーズ乙女の巻３ - ISBN: 978-4044739034 - Released 2009.8.1

7. Strike Witches: Witch in Africa - ストライクウィッチーズアフリカの星　- Doujinshi - Released 2008.8.17

8. Strike Witches: Tiger in Desert - ストライクウィッチーズ砂漠の虎　- Doujinshi - Released 2008.12.30

9. Strike Witches: Tiger in Desert Vol.2 - ストライクウィッチーズ砂漠の虎　後編　- Doujinshi - Released 2009.8.16

10. Strike Witches Official Fanbook Complete File - ストライクウィッチーズオフィシャルファンブックコンプリートファイル - ISBN: 978-4048542968 - Released 2009.1.10

11. The Sneaker (April 2009) - ザ・スニーカー (21年4月号) - Magazine - Released 2009.2.27

User:Ambjoorn

2013-06-08T13:41:14Z

Ambjoorn: /* Information about myself */

Zero no Tsukaima:Volume16 Chapter9

2013-06-06T23:43:21Z

Ambjoorn:

===Chapter 9: Secret meeting===

"Oh my......"

Never thinking that the room of the palace was linked to Des Ornières, Saito and Henrietta sat on the bed of the underground room. It seemed that the mirror was a magical object that worked like a secret door, linking this room and the palace far away.

"It's almost like a world door," according to Saito.

"I'm afraid that it's something...... that uses that kind of power."

Something that uses the power of Void...... The date when it was made remains an unknown, but it seems quite majestic. Even though its creator is also an enigma, someone that can condense the power of Void truly existed in this world, passing it on to future mages. That was Brimir that he once dreamt of, right? However, Saito knew nothing regarding this.

On the other hand, because the wall on Henrietta's bedroom did not have this magic, the entrance there remained hidden until now. This was a blind spot; if the skill, Detect Magic, can't find it, then there was no magic present; that was the kind of thinking that had taken root in the mind of the nobles.

"Of course, it should be that! This is a secret escape route, right?" Saito exclaimed. There was a norm in most plays of old...... The rooms of kings and his ministers should have some kind of escape route. That was what Saito thought.

However, Henrietta shook her head.

"I......don't think it's so. Looking around the structure of this room......In the past, the land of Des Ornières was the concubine room (E/N: referred to as an oda) of Father's or Grandfather's."

"Concubine room?"

"Yes. Also known as......even though it really isn't something to be proud of, it refers to lovers."

Lovers......hearing this made Saito blush.

"If it really was just an escape route, there wouldn't really be a need to build this room, right? Unfortunately, I think......it's to let the lover live in the rooms above ground and meet secretly with her here in this room."

Looking around the place, it was filled with things coveted by lovers. On the wall with meticulous carvings and decorated with beautiful jewels......the canopied bed was large and the cloth used were of high quality.

"Father, Grandfather, Great-grandfather......Even though I don't know who, I don't think I would be wrong. I know of the escape routes of the city, but not of this secret passage. That should means it's down to this."

"......"

"Sorry about that. However, it's strange. Father and Grandfather were once known as strict kings, but they also had such a side to them."

It seems like Henrietta does not feel that her family was impure, but simply felt that they were not the stone cold statues she knew of. After the mystery of the identity of the room was solved, there was not much to it......but this unexpected result left Saito very nervous.

Naturally......this being a place where lovers met secretly, but now he was sitting here with Henrietta alone.

Henrietta seemed to notice Saito's inner conflict, so she said with a soothing voice.

"I really didn't know about it. The land given to you being connected to the palace this way."

"I understand. Don't worry about it."

"Then it's settled then. It has been given to you in any case. I was just thinking when I should come over to visit you......how was the stay here?"

Saito was at a loss of words. He can't really say that he never really stayed here, right? So he just muttered,

"It's not bad. Strolling around here is quite refreshing."

"Is it so? Then that's excellent."

They remained silent for a while.

Saito looked at Henrietta from the corner of his eyes. Henrietta, illuminated by the candlelight seemed to radiate irresistible sweet scent. This was a point that Louise could never match up to. Also......there was a hint of a valley in the center of the nightgown-like dress.

Thinking back to the Henrietta just now, only wearing her underwear, Saito held his nose.

Not knowing if she took note of Saito's inner conflict, Henrietta continued to talk nonchalantly.

"I always had this......strange feeling."

"Strange feeling?"

What was the "strange feeling" she was talking about? Maybe it was......butterflies in her stomach kind of feeling?

"Yes. Even though it is now peacetime, some other troublesome things pop out."

A quiet voice was filled with emotion.

"Yeah."

Saito thought about the fight with Louise just now while answering.

"I was looking forward to a time of peace, knowing that such times are hard to come by......but there are still many things that trouble me. This is really such irony."

"Trouble?"

Seeing as Saito asked, Henrietta answered.

"To unite the nobles of the country, Mother and Mazarin are asking me to marry."

Quietly, dejectedly, Henrietta spoke her piece. From her voice, Henrietta did not wish for such a marriage. Not knowing what to say, Saito was very disturbed.

"I already gave up hope of marrying the person I loved. However......facing such a matter again still makes me very depressed."

It seems that someone has already tried to matchmake her, so that she would tie the knot with some powerful noble in the country. To make hay while the sun shines during peacetime, the country's society should be consolidated. Saito finally understood that it was a classic power struggle of the court.

"Do you really want to marry?"

"Hmm......I still can't make a decision."

Henrietta lifted her head to look at Saito. Her gaze, looking for someone to depend on made Saito stopped breathing.

"Can you decide for me?"

In a sudden, Saito didn't know what she was referring to.

"Decide......what?"

"Decide the path I should take."

Saito bucked up and looked at Henrietta.

"Meaning, the matter of marrying?"

"Yes."

Slowly, Henrietta nodded.

"Why......me?"

"I don't really know why, but when I'm troubled, your face will pop out in my mind. In the past, because of the incident of Wales-sama, from the bottom of my heart; I vowed not to love anyone again, but......how many times have I been saved by you? I now looked to you as my pillar of support, I don't know why, but I keep thinking about you. In my dreams, in the real world, I have only gone through love once, so I don't really know if this feeling is called love. However......the part about my heart beating wildly, this part is true."

Henrietta lowered her head. It can be seen that her previous words,"I can only let you see the Queen side of me" was not true.

"So that's why you chose me?"

"No, not only that."

Saying this, Henrietta grasped Saito's hands tightly. Even though his hands were just held, Saito's heart beat wildly. Louise, Tiffania, Siesta, Tabitha, Saito witnessed various beautiful girls, but Henrietta's beauty was different from its very core. She was not just beautiful, she has an attractive, irresistible, even devilish aura about her. Also, this irresistible aura can't be found in the majestic palace, but only in this sunless underground room, or even in that cheap inn.

"Don't you feel the same way from me?"

The Henrietta asking now, was not the face of the Queen, but it was that of a normal girl.

Saito's breath almost stopped. Henrietta's words, one by one, were printed onto his heart. Yeah, during that time......he really tasted Henrietta's beauty, his heart beating wildly.

Saito felt that his heart was beating wildly again, as Henrietta showed a cheerful smile.

"The thing that night was really unforgettable."

She then cheekily watched Saito's reaction from below.

"At that time, you came at my lips like this......"

Henrietta's face closing into his, Saito's body turned stiff. Henrietta gently hugged Saito's shoulders, and slowly joined her lips with his in one elegant swoop.
[[File:ZnT16-201.jpg|thumbnail|right]]
A long time passed before Henrietta's lips left Saito's. A self-teasing smile surfaced on her face.

"You won't say a word about asking me not to marry, will you?"

"Hmm......"

Saito asked his soul. Something along the lines of not sacrificing oneself for the country might seem easy to speak......but considering Henrietta's stand, that really seemed willful to do so.

However......even if she was born to be a queen, should she stand to such a degree?

"This has nothing to do with that."

Saito realised it.

There was not a need for such petty values, what's important was if his inner heart really wished for Henrietta's marriage. Is it really true that I......Saito shook his head. No, the person he liked was Louise......

Saito felt extremely conflicted. Henrietta spoke with a hint of remorse.

"Sorry, I didn't want to trouble you with this. Really."

It could be said firmly that Saito's heart was shaken again.

"Discussing this with you was really too willful. You're Louise's lover, but I still seduced you......I'm still the same as my Father and Grandfather who built this room."

Henrietta lowered her head for a while before showing a lonely smile and standing up.

"I'm really sorry, please forget it......"

"Princess."

Henrietta mumbled as if she wanted to leave everything in her heart behind.

"I guess I'll have to marry. Mulling it over calmly, this really is the best choice. I won't be troubled by anyone anymore."

Saito stood reflexively, holding Henrietta's hand, shouting,

"No! Don't marry!"

"Eh?"

"Just agreeing to marriage without thinking it over is still quite strange. If you don't want it why can't you just refuse it?"

Henrietta suddenly turned serious.

"Are you saying that because you're pitying me? Or......"

Seeing Saito at a loss of words, Henrietta smiled.

"Why are you so troubled over this......I understand, you're a decent man. If it was someone else, they won't think twice and just commit infidelity. This isn't just to defend you, but I think anyside of you is true. I'm the same. You're the lover of my best friend, I should have forgotten about you long ago. But, there is another me in my heart who doesn't wish so, thinking, ''there's nothing to do with that.'' But......I don't think that's strange. Humans, are beings that are naturally conflicted."

"......"

"Thank you. Since you said it, I'll turn down this marriage offer. However, I won't ask you to replace that. Don't worry about it. It's just that, can we meet here, sometimes, like this again? At least I......No, nothing. Nn, just wanting to be friends. How about it?"

Saito......slowly nodded.

If it just was being friends, there's nothing wrong about that. However, can they really just be friends?

Saito felt that he was weak. However......even so, he just can't refuse Henrietta. The dim candlelight or Henrietta's body amplified her charm, stimulating Saito's primal urges.

Through the door slit, Louise, who watched the couple from beginning to the end, sat on the ground of the underground passage.

"How did it turn out this way?"

Her mind was filled with what she saw just now.

Louise, who had a fight with Saito just now, only started thinking after she returned to her bed. In the end, she reflected on her actions.

Just because she "didn't want Saito to be taken as a fool by her family", she unknowingly treated him sternly. She didn't know how to let Saito know of her true intention, but still stubbornly played around with the thought that "Satio would know even if she didn't say anything." Thinking here, Louise started to regret her actions.

Holding her pride and emotions at bay, Louise jumped down from her bed and ran to the canteen. There was only Siesta, sleeping, blanketed with a towel. Saito was not there.

Starting to worry about Saito, Louise looked high and low throughout the house before noticing the door to the basement ajar. After that......Louise walked along the passage where Saito had just walked to door of the underground room.

When she saw Saito and Henrietta inside, Lousie's heart almost stopped from fright.

She wanted to call them, but not a sound leaked out.

At first, Louise thought that this was prearranged by Henrietta to meet with Saito secretly.

But it was not so.

From their conversations, it was obvious that the both of them had also just knew of the existence of this room.

But hearing their conversation completely, that was not important at all. Henrietta once told Louise that, "If there was a need to do so, then she will take the will to do it."

"She was serious about it."

Also......Saito also seemed interested in Henrietta. After understanding this, Louise wanted to ask Siato and Henrietta about their infidelity, but she couldn't take another step.

Yeah......it must be just as the Princess said.

The feelings of both sides are true.

Saito's feelings about herself was true, and so was his feelings to Henrietta. If as Henrietta's friend, her feelings were also true, then her feelings for Saito were also true.

Both sides are true......then there are not any contradictions anymore. They are a perfect match for each other.

When she knew of everything......her mind blanked out. Louise started to think,

Does she have the right to blame them?

That feeling that stirred inside Louise was not betrayal but a deep sadness.

Just now, wasn't she unable to let Saito know of her true intentions and just got angry?

Saito just kept tolerating her. Just like what Louise said, striving to look elegant. Even so, what did she say to Saito?

"You'll just embarass me like that, you know? How are you going to dance with me during the ball?"

Her inner doubts before coming to this house started to resurface in her mind. Inner doubts that were held down by her pride.

Saito, who has become the country's hero.

Saito, who is more alive than any of the heroes in ancient tales.

"To Saito, am I really made out for him?"

Just like before, Louise sneaked back to her room. Her brain turned slack. Trying to calm down, Louise finished packing her luggage.

Louise, who just witnessed everything, concluded this.

"I'm not made out for him."

Just like that.

To Saito, the hero who just saved the country, and also one who has many enemies, he needs a real protector. Even if she was called "the user of Void", she'd just keep attracting trouble. She would just get in Satio's way.

If it was Henrietta, she will surely complete her grand mission.

Anyhow, she's a queen of this country. If one were to be at her side, normal nobles won't dare to do anything.

But all these are just petty reasons. There is only one true reason.

The most important part is that......both of them match each other well.

Since things turned out like this, where can she fit in?

Blaming the both of them, crying in front of them, just doesn't feel right. This is because Henrietta can protect Saito better than she could ever do, she will also cherish him more than she ever could. Also, Saito......

Actually likes Henrietta. He's just enduring it, just because he's worried about me......

As the blow dealt was too harsh, Louise forgot to ask Saito about his true feelings. For Louise, Saito is much more perfectly matched with Henrietta than with herself. Louise did not notice that her thoughts now were a cause of her Inferiority complex.

Louise just thought like this.

It would be nice if she just disappeared. This way, everyone would be happy and completely enjoy the hard earned peace.

"Being at my side just makes everybody uncomfortable."

"It's so simple, Louise. If you really think that everybody is important, then you should do it."

Her heart frozen by grief, Louise packed her luggage while mumbling. There was just one bag, nothing else. She then shortly looked around the bedroom. The house she lived with Saito. It was nobody's, but a castle of two......thinking, Louise let out her emotions.

"I'm really happy. This should be enough for me."

She should write something, a letter, so Saito would not worry. Louise took out a pen and paper. Thinking about something to write, Louise's mind was filled with various fantasies, substituting words, crying tears. Drop by drop, tears fell, the parchment wet with droplets.

Louise squeezed her brain for something, but she just thought of one line. If she tried to write anything more, her sadness would paralyse her body.

Placing the paper on the bed, hugging her bag, Louise opened the door and ran outside.

Anyhow, she must leave Des Ornières. As for the future, she would just ponder about it now. Louise ran to the stable, riding on Saito's horse.

"Sorry, but I'll find someone to return it to you later on......for now just borrow it to me for a while."

She told Saito in her heart. Under the twin moons, Louise left, alone.

She must hurry. Hurry, and leave Des Ornières. She didn't know when sadness would take hold of her body and render her motionless again, if so, she couldn't move another inch.

The further she got from the house, the more her body felt like breaking apart.

Louise felt like fainting......but she persevered, and rushed away in the dead of the night.

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Zero no Tsukaima:Volume16 Chapter6

2013-06-02T16:46:32Z

Ambjoorn:

===Chapter 6 - Daily Tea Time===

At the start of summer vacation, Louise and Saito decided to stay in Des Ornières. This was pratically a rehersal of what life would be after graduation.

Gradually, the two began to get used to this calm, peaceful lifestyle, so carefree that all the events happened a year ago was as if nothing more a mere dream.

Without more than a few days time, Louise's tense nerves had already calmed down.

Saito and Louise, after dismissing the grandmother Helen with a "take care", decided to take a walk in the woods as usual.

Strong rays of sunlight projected through the trees, giving this place a energizing feel. This plot of forest was rid of all sounds other than the chirping of birds; Saito and Louise was walking along this small path.

Behind the two of them, Siesta was carrying a basket and smiling as she followed them. It wasn't long before they found a place with a good view and atmosphere, the perfect location for lunch.

Once filled, Siesta fell asleep lying in the shade of a tree. Seeing so, just to check if Siesta was really asleep, Louise even jabbed her a few times with a branch.

But Siesta's sleeping habits have been established so well that once she had fallen asleep, she will not wake up for at least an hour no matter the circumstances.

After making sure of such, Louise curled up like a kitten into Saito's lap. Then, in a very seductive way, she smirked and started to play with her hair.

Regardless of wherever she had learnt that from, this behaviour was particularly intense to Saito.
''Aah..., she, as I thought, can be very cute...''

As if reading Saito's mind, Louise began to intensified her attacks.

"What’s the matter? Do I have something on my face?"

"N-no ... It's not that..."

"Then... why are you staring at me like that?"
Said Louise with condemning half closed eyelids and in a cool expression. Saito became even more flustered as if a lost sheep without a sense of direction. Saito's voice began to tremble slightly.
"I realised that you are really, really cute..."
Said Saito in a seemingly recited tone. After all, Saito still isn't used to praising a girl in her face. In rare occasions when he's for some reason filled with a mysterious source of confidence, he may be able to deliever a normal speech alright, but when faced with sudden situations like these? He could not be more unprepared.

Therefore, Louise was enjoying this even more.
"Well isn't that obvious? Do you know, there can't be a girl cuter than me in existance"

"I, I was thinking so too, too....."

In short, the proud Louise was was like a fire fueled with firewood. As far as Saito knew, there was not another person in the whole wide world and Halkeginia who could fit that attitude Louise had better....

"You sure are lucky. To have someone like be beside you"

"Just, just like that"

"Like what?"

"Like what you said"

Hearing so Louise became even more energized, her superiority starting to affect Saito. Succumbing to Louise, Saito began to ask himself, why does he feel as insignificant as an insect. However, this self-demeaning feeling was soon overwhelmed by his impulses towards Louise, and naturally leaned in to her lips.

"What. What are you trying to do?"

"Ki- kiss..."

"Kiss, who with whom?"

"Me and, Louise"

"Then, you'll have to listen to me first"

Louise stood up and crossed her arms, getting carried away by the situation fervently. Saito used to always call her Lemon-chan, even laughing about her unbelievably small size secretly, but this time she finally got the advantage in hands.

''Now then, what to get him to say...''

However..., there wasn't much to have him say given this moment. Only thing Louise could think of was to have him whisper in her ears "I love you..." or something like that, then give her a hug romantically. This was more than enough to Louise, other than this nothing else really mattered. Even Louise began to hate herself for being satisfied too easily, but on the other hand this can't be helped with. After all, even just what was mentioned was enough to have Louise blush and her heart thump irratically.

"Remember to kiss more ro-romantically"

"That's it?"

"....Mhm"

Saito wasn't too sure about her definition of romantic, therefore put up a serious expression and lifted Louise's chin.

"You are just like a jewel", Saito tried to say so but was so tense that he said it hoarsly, not even daring to look into her eyes. Just as he thought this wasn't going well, Louise was already moved to the point that her eyes were gleaming with tears of joy.

Seeing the almost weeping Louise,
''This girl's difficulty level is too low,'' Saito sighed. At the same time, looking at the unbelievably easy but incredibly cute Louise, Saito instinctively hugged her tightly and kissed her. Louise, in response, also hugged Saito's head and closed her eyes dreamily.

At this moment....

Crack, sounds as if something broke.

Crack, crack, crack crack.

The two fearfully turned their heads in the direction of the noise, only to see Siesta in a very dark mood gripping branches in her hand.

"Wh-what! You were awake already!"

"Oh yes. Thanks to a certain someone and someone of some action, I woke up just now"
Siesta smiled while saying so, bearing a frown on her head and mercilessly broke the dead branches in her hand into two clean parts.

"Wha-what are you trying to do!"

"Oh nothing, just making a bonfire as well as some tea..."

Siesta coughed slightly and stood up. To complete the fabricated story, she also patted the dead leaves off her skirt. Just as Saito and Louise were both standing there awkwardly, Siesta took something out from her basket.

"Did the two of you know, that if you add a little bit of lemon with tea, it will taste great?"
In the hands of Siesta, was none other than that yellow fruit.
"Ho, ho..."

Although uncertain where she heard about it, it is obvious that she is insinuating to the "lemon-chan" event a while ago.
''What's with this maid. How dare you look down on me!'' Louise trembled with rage.

"Oh wait, I can't do this"
Siesta suddenly covered her mouth acting astonished.

"C-can't do what?"

"Wouldn't this be eating your own kind.... or in this case, drinking your own kind?"

"Just eat already!"
Louise snorted angrily and walked up to Siesta with a quick pace, snatched the lemon out of her hands and stuffed it in Siesta's mouth.

Siesta calmly took the lemon out of her mouth and sliced the lemon into thin slices, then threw all the slices into Louise's face.

What used to be a peaceful atmosphere where the both of them were smiling, turned in no time into the stalemate silent war that always wages between the two of them. Saito sat helplessly and watched the two.

With their skirts fluttering in the wind, Saito was indulging in how beatifully this scene is set up. Upon realising Saito's looks, the two immediately stood up yelling something like "Where are you looking at", "Whose fault do you think it is", and "Which one of us are you going to choose" all while hitting and kicking Saito.

Then Louise started glaring at Seista with a proud face as if she's won, saying "the conclusion is obvious isn't it". Neither did Seista back down and retaliated with a "Huh, it's still too early for an outcome"

Of course, while they were glaring at each other, neither of them stopped their almost repetitive hitting and kicking of Saito. Saito in some degree gave up as well, thinking ''well, I'm fine as long as they don't go any further than this'' and quietly recieved all the blows. ''Whether if it's Seista or Louise, they're both gorgeous beautiful girls. I guess this is a suitable payment in return for living with both of them together''

And so..., as the night drew upon them, due to Louise spending too much energy in the daytime, she went to bed at a rather early hour. As usual, there was only one bed. The given reason was that there weren't enough savings, but in reality Louise just wanted to sleep with Saito.

When buying that bed, Louise would often also comment how buying two beds would have been expensive..., how buying two beds is unlucky..., all sorts of reasons.

Yet contrary to all the reasons she gave, she bought Seista a proper bed all for her. Of course, this made Seista very unhappy. If she objected, Louise would then say "I would feel very bad if we didn't prepare a bed for you after tiring yourself out all day long" and similar excuses.

Therefore, Seista would also sneak into their bedroom in the middle of the night and sleep next to Saito.

And of course, Louise would blow up when she wakes up in the morning, and yell something like "Didn't I properly give you a bed all for yourself?!" And Seista would reply something like "Oh, the bed's too uncomfortable", or "this house looks haunted it's so scary at night!" and similar excuses.

"What do you mean this house looks haunted"
Louise questioned one day with big stern interrogating eyes. Seista looked away
"Sigh-, how should I put it, it's kinda white, and light, floating in midair, you know. It's really terrifying...."

"Stop lying"

"Then, how about you sleep at my place once for a change and confirm it for yourself? But wait, Miss Vaillere is probably not going to come since you're afraid of ghosts"

"Fine, I'll do it"
Louise replied with gritted teeth glaring at Seista.

And on that night, Louise actually decided to go to Seista's room, planning to finish off Seista once in for all if the spectre didn't appear. She thought of bringing Saito with her, but she definitely didn't expect
"If there're more than one person in the room, the ghost won't come out"
said Seista.

Without a choice, Louise could only sleep alone that night. ''It's only a stupid lie after all. Huh. About time I should give Saito a lesson too, I'll go over and yell at him," just as she thought so and prepared to leave....

A white object floated into the room, causing Louise to immediately jump since she didn't expect it would actually appear at all, and cried out of fear
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Just as she was about to faint, Louise's huge scream caused the white object to retreat a few steps in fear too before falling on the floor itself, revealing its real body. Turns out it was nothing more than Seista with a bedsheet over her head.

"You, you..."

"Sheesh, you sc-scared me too"

Entering into a storm of fury, Louise ran after Seista and used her magic without thinking, which ended up hitting Seista's bed direcly.

And so, Seista's bed got disintegrated and from that night onwards, Seista could then proudly come into their room every night carrying her pillow. Although Louise later begged Saito "please, please buy a new one",

"You'll only break it again so no"
Saito refused without even looking at her.

In the end, Saito, Louise and Seista, just like how they were back at the Magical Academy, slept together in the same bed.

Although it's the usual noisy and arguing days, to Saito this didn't seem so bad to him. Regardless, they are still living in peace. Sure, there may be a war waging between the two women in this house, but it's not like anyone would actually get hurt. Besides, Louise and Seista both seemed to have their bottom line. Unless the other have really pushed their limits and crossed the line, they'd just let it be, as shown apparantly from how they didn't complain in the end about sleeping together in the same bed.

And so, Seista, Louise and Saito the three of them...., no, there's also Grandma Helen, all four of them was just somehow managed to fit together. Unfortunately all peaceful days have an end...

Only one week after entering summer holiday, they were immediately visited by a guest already.

After going out for a walk like usual, they saw a rather nervous Helen standing in front of the gates.

"Helen, what's the matter?"
Asked Saito

"Master, this is bad, there's going to be trouble."
Grandma Helen's kind round face was full of anxiety and worries, and said so while running towards the group.
"There's a visitor, but, but, but it's a frightening young lady.... She looks like she's the wife of someone famous, but she's really frightening! She glared at me in front of my face with this, this frown on her head! Glared without blinking!"

"A frigetening young lady?"
Louise asked

"Mhm. She looks somewhat similar to Miss Louise"

"...What color is her hair?"

"It's a beautiful blonde"

Saito and Louise looked at eached other. It's Elinore!

"Helen, that lady is still single. Even if you're joking, don't even say 'she looks like the wife of someone famous', or that kind. You'll have your ear cut off otherwise"

Hearing so, Grandma Helen immediately drew a cross on herself with shaking hands.

In the guest room on the ground floor, Elinore was waiting for all of them to come back.

After Louise entered, Elinore stood up slowly and twisted Louise's cheek with surprising power.
"You little! You Louise!"

"Oww~~"

"Doing everything yourself again! I already know everything! Ma-m-m-m-mar, cough cough..."
Elinore seemed to be unable to say the word in one go.

"Water, hurry..."

Seista hurriedly poured a glass of water for Elinore. After emptying the whole glass, she continued
"Marriage, you living with a man before marriage! What in the world are you thinking! Haven't you had enough fun going to the war already, and now you're thinking of living with a man? You will NOT get my permission at all!"
After being pointed out by Elinore like so, Louise immediately refuted
"Wh-wh-wha... we're not living together! Look, it's only a familiar and master.... it's more like we don't have a choice but to life together..."

"This won't do. The other people in the world won't see it this way. La Valliere's third daughter is living with some unidentified man, if such news were to be spread out, we'd be laughed at by the entire country!"

"But, but..."

Elinore's face turned to a serious tone.

"...Louise. You, didn't you get the legendary power?"

Louise nodded lightly. She had told her family about this some time ago.

"That's right, which is why Father said to me 'walk on the path you believe is right'. You were there, weren't you?"

"But that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want too. You, have obtained greater power than your talents"

"I understand"

"You ''don't'' understand. Your power is not achieved by you alone. This power is great enough to decide the fate of our mother country. Be more self-respectful, Louise"

"But.... it doesn't matter. This won't cause anything distasterous"

"What makes you say so?"

Louise took a peek at Saito. ''Well, isn't this good-'' Saito gave her a nod indicating so. Now that they have crushed Romalia's ambitions, there's no need to hide anymore. Besides, Elinore is none other than Louise's sister.

So, Louise told Elinore everything that happened between Romalia and Gallia a while ago.
"...And because of that, the revival of the void is now impossible... Romalia is incapable of conducting a crusade anymore. Although it won't change the fact that my power is great...., in other words, I don't think it's necessary to be as self-respectful as you say"
Then Louise continued
"Even if it were as you said, if I needed to protect my powers, Saito is indispensable. There can't be another person better than Saito to protect me"

Saito nodded his head emotionally. Not being pursuaded at all, Elinore finally broke out and yelled at Louise

"Don't give me nonsense!"

"No! You're the one spouting nonsense! What, it doesn't really matter whatever happens to the legendary power at all, does it"? It's all because what I'm doing now and my status now that's annoying you isn't it? I won't be the same tiny Louise forever!"

Hearing Louise say so, Elinore's eyelashes started to pulse. Perhaps it is like what Louise said that all the things about the legendary power are nothing more than excuses. She's just hurt that the once small Louise that has been growing up under her watchful eye hasn't discussed about Louise's future with her at all.

Still unwilling to give up, Elinore started to even pull on Louise's neck.

"Then, you explain the same thing to Father and Mother and see what they think. Okay, we should go now Miss La Valliere"

Saito instinctively stood in her way
"H-hey! Sister!"

"What. I have no reason to be called sister by you, do I?"

Stared at Elinore with the cold piercing eyes of hers, Saito couldn't help but shudder. In this overwhelming atmosphere, he could even feel his heart thump against his ribs.

"Just because you helped out in the war, don't think so highly of yourself, much less trying to steal my sister from me. I will '''not''' let you have your way!"

"W-which is why! I was thinking recently that we might come along and visit...."

"Visit!? You? Visit? What business would you have? Do-don't tell me, you're planning to p-p-p-propose marriage!"

"N-no..., that's..."

"You think some flea like you will be able to get the hands of our dearest La Valliere!? I will definitely NOT agree!"

"W-wait!"
Louise interrupted.

"Sister! Saito isn't some flea! He's now her highness's close guard's co-captain, and he even has his own territory! Now he is even a fully accredited aristocrat.... Hurry Saito! Name your rank!"

Saito put on a solemn pose, puffed out his chest and declared
"My name, is Saito Chevalier De Hiraga De Ornielle, Sis"

"Not even a duke, you're nothing but a aristocrat of a peasant's background, stop trying to play cool. In Conclusion! I don't care whether or not you're some legendary hero, La Valliere's dearest daughter will NOT marry some random noble that jumped out of nowhere"

"Then..., what kind of background will a noble need to have for you to be satisfied?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I, Saito, will definitely become a suitable noble as you see fit!"

"A suitable noble?"

Louise nodded. Elinore also turned towards Saito. From whichever angle, he looks nothing more than a teenager from a foreign country. As a noble, there are rules and etiquttes that are completely different to that of a commoner. This natural talent is the most important proof of a noble status.

As a child of a family of a high status like Elinore, one glance is enough to determine whether her target is a real or a fake.

But..., once Louise is determined to do something, there is no way to restrain her from doing so. ''This child is really like me....'' Elinore quietly whispered to herself.

"I understand. By the time I arrive next time, you better have teached him everything a noble needs to have. If I am not satisfied in even as much as a single flaw, Louise, you're coming home with me at once!"

"Understood!"

Elinore snorted and rushed out of the door without greeting any one of them goodbye.

"Left a bad impression...." Saito muttered to himself sheepishly before turning around to Louise.
"Say Louise, just now, about teaching me to become a proper noble...."
but only to find Louise holding a whip while growling with a low voice, flicking the whip god-knows-when-she-had-taken-out on the bed.

"Wha-what are you planning to do!"

"'Miss Valliere. Would you be so kind to instruct me the methods of a noble?' you mean?"

"Eh? Eh? A-are we beginning already?"

"Shut up! By the next time Elinore comes, I will have turned you from the inside out to an impeccable noble!"

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima:Volume16_Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
| Return to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Zero no Tsukaima:Volume16 Chapter7 ~Preview~|Chapter 7]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume6 Chapter2 6

2013-05-11T12:35:49Z

Ambjoorn: /* Hors d'oeuvre. Part 6. */

===<noinclude>Hors d'oeuvre. </noinclude>Part 6.===

"Can you tell me just what you are thinking?"

Shimako finally blurted out. Until now she had refrained from asking this, time and again.

"What am I thinking, you say. Well, I'm alive. So I think all sorts of things. That's all."

With her face still pointed towards the window, Shizuka-sama gave a thin smile. Whether intentionally or subconsciously, she didn't turn to face Shimako.

– is what Shimako was thinking when she suddenly turned to her and said.

"More importantly, is there a kitchen knife in the Rose Mansion?"

"Huh?"

"A kitchen knife. Or a regular knife would probably do."

As she said this, she held up the box from the cake store. It had a whole, but incredibly small, cheesecake inside it.

"Ahh, yes, we do. A kitchen knife, and knives and forks."

And with that, it looked like Shizuka-sama really was planning on taking her to their school. She knew that if they stayed on this bus they would eventually arrive at the 'Lillian's Girls Academy' bus stop, but why would Shizuka-sama take her to school on their date? Shimako didn't have a clue.

The two of them were jolted along in the bus.

The bus departed from the north entrance of K station and looped past Lillian's Girls Academy. For lunch time on a Sunday, it was surprisingly empty. Originally intended for student's use, the route only ran for half of the time on weekdays. In contrast, the government operated bus that went to her house was incredibly crowded.

"But we couldn't really get a lot with our 3000 yen."

At their feet the plastic bags containing the food they had bought from the station building's food court were scattered around. A slice of spinach quiche, 100 grams of noodle salad, 100 grams of marinated mushrooms, things like that. The smallest amount possible of a wide variety of things.

But Shizuka-sama didn't seem to be satisfied with what they had bought.

"If we weren't going to school, we could have had lunch somewhere else …"

Soup, salad, a main dish.... With desert and a coffee, they could have done that within the 1500 yen.

"That's putting the cart before the horse."

"Huh?"

"We didn't leave K station because I wanted to come to school, I chose the school because I wanted to leave K station."

"…?"

"The peanut gallery's annoying, right? You can't have a leisurely conversation."

"Haa."

At first Shimako thought she was using the term 'peanut gallery' to refer to the overflowing crowds at the center, but as she listened further it seemed that this wasn't the case.

"It took about 3 minutes for the bus to arrive, right? During that time, the newspaper club's Minako-san and the photography club's … umm .. "

"Tsutako-san?"

Thinking quicker, Shimako answered. When speaking of the photography club, the only person that came to mind was her classmate.

"Right, Tsutako-san. They were standing in front of the station."

"Those two were in front of the station?"

"I thought, 'I knew it.'"

Shizuka-sama seemed to smile triumphantly as she said this. But, unfortunately Shimako didn't understand what she was trying to say, or why she looked the way she did.

The bus stopped at a place that wasn't a bus stop. 50 metres ahead the light was green. And yet they weren't moving, I suppose it must be congestion.

The light went yellow, then red, then green again. Shimako spent the entire time thinking, but in the end couldn't compose just the right question.

"What did you mean by 'I knew it.'?"

As the bus started to lurch slowly forwards, she boldly inquired.

"Huh?"

It seems Shizuka-sama had considered that conversation finished, as she didn't seem to understand the question at first.

"You said you saw Minako-sama and Tsutako-san standing in front of the station."

As Shimako explained, Shizuka-sama said 'ahh' and responded.

"Right, the newspaper club and the photography club were getting ready."

"Okay"

The bus stopped at a bus stop where three people got off and two more got on. The inside of the bus wasn't changing much but the scenery outside was changing noticeably with each stop. Slipping away from the hustle and bustle of the shopping district, they were going to an area of increasing greenery. Around here were a lot of temples, shrines, parks and, of course, schools. The shops were small, neighborhood stores and, despite being a residential area, there weren't many apartment complexes, which gave the area a tranquil atmosphere.

"If you think about why those two were at K station, you'll understand, right?"

Shizuka-sama clearly and slowly said this, as though trying to contain her excitement.

"Why they were at K station...?"

As she repeated Shizuka-sama's words, Shimako thought about it. Why those two were at K station, and why Shizuka-sama was acting as though she was avoiding them.

Before she could reach a conclusion, Shizuka-sama opened her mouth in irritation.

"… You aren't suspicious of people? Or is this an act?"

"An act?"

Shimako didn't immediately understand what she was talking about. She only felt that lurking somewhere within those words was a barb.

"The Toudou Shimako that Yumi-san spoke about is different to my impression of you."

"But I don't know what Yumi-san has said – "

"That Shimako-san's pretty, kind, smart, popular and so level headed that it's hard to imagine she's the same age."

"That's quite an overestimation"

"I think so too."

The bus continued on smoothly. Bypassing stops where no-one was getting on or off, and not getting stuck at traffic lights.

"But I think I've understood something. You yourself are the source of most of that overestimation."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is what I said. You've gone to great effort to build this image of Toudou Shimako."

"…"

"Disagree?"

"… I won't respond to that."

"That's the honor student's response, yeah."

"Pardon me."

"It's okay. I'll stop."

Shizuka-sama shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"I'm sorry, I said too much... I thought I'd be able to draw you out with this sort of conversation."

"Hmm"

Shimako herself didn't know whether she didn't respond because she didn't know how to accurately express herself in words, or because she lacked the energy and conviction to refute it.

It seemed strange to her that it hadn't come as more of a shock.

It's just that, until now, no-one had managed to fully comprehend her heart.

For the wild and free Shimako, alone in her heart, the existence of someone who had the power to reach into and intervene in someone else's domain was much more surprising.

What should I do, if this is that person?

Huddling inside her heart, she wondered if the rapidly approaching person was coming to rescue her.

Looking outside at the tree lined avenue, she was thinking. Before she knew it, the bus was passing through familiar scenery. It had linked up with the route she took every day from M station.

Suddenly, Shimako hit upon something and asked.

"Perhaps Minako-sama and Tsutako-san were pursuing us for a story about our date. Is that what you meant?"

"Yes, that was more or less what I was expecting."

Was Shizuka-sama's response.

Their conversation resumed, as though nothing had happened.

"So K station was risky, then."

"Right. So meeting at K station was also a bit of a thrill."

"… Ahh, that's why it was the west exit."

Shizuka-sama's designated meeting point was the station building's westernmost exit, which was also the one furthest from the ticket gate. It was a meeting place that people coming by train wouldn't usually choose. Until then, she had supposed it was chosen simply because it was close to the food court.

"You were just thinking, 'in that case, we should have met at school,' weren't you, Shimako-san?"

"Huh? How did you know that?"

She'd been spot on. But then she suddenly remembered her friend's face. The oft-teased Yumi would also get agitated like this.

"You made the same face earlier. If you're watching closely, you can understand."

Appearing satisfied, Shizuka-sama smiled.

"Earlier?"

The bus slid past a shrine.

"When you were talking lunch, and so on. But, again, this time I threw you off balance. Cart before the horse, yeah?"

"Why?"

"Well, we have to have a date right? I wanted to spend time shopping, riding the bus, and all the rest with you."

Shizuka-sama pressed the push-button. By the time she had gently stood up, they were almost at Lillian's Girls Academy.

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume6 Chapter2 5

2013-05-11T12:29:07Z

Ambjoorn: /* Hors d'oeuvre. Part 5. */

===<noinclude>Hors d'oeuvre. </noinclude>Part 5.===

"I'm planning an ambush. Do you have any objections?"

Tsutako was looking straight at Minako-sama, who spat out her words somewhat sullenly.

"I object."

"But you're not going to elaborate further?"

"Ahh, yeah. Although I appreciate all the effort you've gone to so far."

Despite the cold, they were underneath the enormous "K-station" sign at the station's north exit. In other words they were standing outside the station, shivering.

A matching set of young women, they were. – Without a guardian, looking to cause mayhem. Well, Tsutako was looking to cause unsupervised mayhem – but her parter was Minako-sama so she should exercise some discretion.

"Gokigenyou"

– And so, toning down her behavior, first came the greeting. Actually, this was the first time today she had met Minako-sama.

"Yes, gokigenyou."

But, despite the words, Minako-sama didn't seem to be in good spirits. Well, standing around in the cold for so long while watching the people passing by would put her in a bad mood too.

"Earlier I ran into Shimazu Yoshino, and she'd hit upon something."

"Yoshino-san? What did she say?"

"It'll be difficult because I'm looking for something that moves around, she said."

"Hah."

"So if I don't move, sooner or later I'll see Rei-san or Shimako-san as they go past here."

"…"

For argument's sake, even if you did assume that the targets did come to the north exit, Tsutako thought it would only happen when the date was almost over. It was the front of the station.

There were certainly a lot of people around, but they were all heading towards the station, or the station building, or the building next door. You'd have a higher chance finding them miles away from the station before the date was about to begin, she thought.

Firstly, even if they used this station, there were exits open in all four directions so if they didn't come this way it was all over.

It's a long shot. – In her mind, Tsutako let out a sigh.

What's the matter with you, Minako-sama. If you keep up like this, you won't get to see Rei-sama or Shimako-san.

"Umm, why don't we take a break somewhere."

She offered, hoisting her plastic shopping bag.

"If you'd like, I've brought some things we could eat."

Somebody had to make a move, otherwise she'd be here forever.

"A break?"

Minako-sama abruptly asked, with an 'in a situation like this?' look on her face.

"If you're not free to take a break, so to speak, I don't mind if we call it a strategy meeting."

"Strategy meeting?"

This time it was a suspicious look that seemed to say 'what's your motive?' Probably because she was used to bossing around first years.

"You'll treat me to a nice, warm, canned tea, Minako-sama. And then we'll call it even. Come, come."

Pulling her by the hand, they entered the station building. As long as they were out of the wind, anywhere was fine. She was only this frozen because she'd met up with Minako-sama.

"Wait, Tsutako-san. I'm still – "

Tsutako whispered into Minako-sama's ear something that silenced her grumbling.

"It's okay. I have a better idea."

If they had looked back over their shoulder they would have seen the outline of a familiar bus departing amidst the wintry scenery.

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume6 Chapter2 3

2013-05-11T12:15:07Z

Ambjoorn: /* Hors d'oeuvre. Part 3. */

===<noinclude>Hors d'oeuvre. </noinclude>Part 3.===

Now that Valentine's Day had passed the shops had already changed to match the mood of the next event, the Doll's Festival.

"Err, is this route really okay?"

As she looked at her note, Yumi asked for confirmation. What was written was the previously discussed and agreed upon course for their date.

"Of course?"

Sachiko-sama agreed, looking slightly doubtful.

"You said you sometimes come to K station to do some shopping, didn't you Yumi? I don't really know this area, so I want to see some of the places that you usually visit."

So.

First off was window shopping.

This activity was a mismatch for the daughter of the Ogasawara family. Although it may have been fitting if they were in Ginza. Like taking a stroll through the Ginza shopping district. Although that phrase seemed like something from her grandfather's time.

"Is there anything you would like to change?"

"Let's see. I'd prefer not to go to the department store."

So, with that, they left the station building, and entered into the fashion building that rose up in front of their eyes.

"Ah, onee-sama. Shall we take the elevator to the top floor and gradually make our way down. It was written in a Feng Shui book that that way was better."

"... You have such strange concerns."

Sachiko-sama grumbled, but let Yumi have her way. For Yumi, it wasn't really a huge concern. However, having no real preference either way, it was better to follow what she had heard would make a better mood. Similarly, she was wearing a sweater in today's lucky color so that she could happen upon some good fortune. Incidentally, she didn't have anything in lavender so it was pink, which was close.

They had to wait about a minute before finally getting on the elevator. It was Sunday after all, so the crowding was to be expected.

"Which floor would you like?"

Situated closest to the control buttons, Sachiko-sama asked the shoppers who were crowded inside and pressed the buttons for them. It may have been the natural thing to do, but Yumi watched her onee-sama's actions proudly. Well, she wasn't dealing with her first pushy salesman, but she handled it very smoothly. From time to time she could shout hysterically, or get on her high horse but in spite of this Sachiko-sama was wonderful. Stylish in everything she does.

(Hey, guy near the buttons on the other side with the facial piercings, follow Sachiko-sama's example. Stop trying to clear your nose without a handkerchief)

Because of the overcrowding, she was pressed into Sachiko-sama's back, although that slight good fortune didn't last long.

At the first floor the elevator stopped at Yumi and the others near the door temporarily got out so that those further in the elevator could also leave. But since this was the ladies fashion floor Yumi decided they should get off here without riding the elevator to the top.

"We're not going higher up?"

Sachiko-sama inquired.

"Above here is men's fashion."

"Is that so?"

Although the idea of window shopping was that you didn't buy anything, there was no need for two women to visit the men's section, right? Unless Sachiko-sama was intending to look for presents for someone, or something similar. For some reason, she looked a bit let down.

Who, I wonder, who? – Soon enough, a face she didn't want to remember popped into her mind. Him. Gradually the pieces seemed to fit together, but before that she stopped thinking about it.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. If you want to have a look at it, shall we go to the highest level?"

Yumi sounded her out, indirectly. So I'm this jealous type of person, am I? Yumi thought.

"Ahh, no, I was just thinking about my father's birthday present. But the stores in this building are mainly targeting young people, so some other opportunity will come up."

"Ah, Sachiko-sama's father."

With that said, Yumi turned towards the ascending escalator when Sachiko-sama grabbed her wrist.

"You can't. If you do that, all the effort you went to with the Feng Shui will – "

"... Ehh?"

"Huh?"

Perhaps as a result of entrusting her with the lead, Sachiko-sama had been completely contaminated with Yumi's way of thinking.

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter5 3

2013-04-29T17:03:18Z

Ambjoorn: /* St. Valentine's prank. Part 3. */

===<noinclude>St. Valentine's prank. </noinclude>Part 3.===

A step back allowed Yumi to observe the students' movements clearly.

First, as soon as the start sign was given, the students who'd finished signing their sheets and cutting it in half as Minako-sama explained things immediately dashed to the newspaper club members whom were holding cardboard boxes titled "Written Vows," tossed the sheets in, and scattered toward the school facilities. They were quick. –They probably had ideas of where to check.

Next, the methodical and somewhat nervous types. They acted as though they weren't willing to write without something solid underneath the sheet, and the idea of cutting the sheets without a scissors was impermissible. Not minding the fact that time was ticking, they lined up to use the desks that'd been set up for writing. At this rate, some of them would actually start even later than the boutons' sisters.

But the most common type of participant was the one in between. They were the ones who glanced around in confusion when the start signal was given, or the ones that finished signing their vows with their friends and left the courtyard chattering excitedly amongst themselves. Yumi thought it'd be better if they acted individually in the event they were to find a treasure…

As an extra, there were some students that seemed to have given up finding the treasures to begin with, having come along simply to be near the boutons as long as possible. They were the ones that had turned in their contracts and then stood close by, gazing at the boutons.

As for Yumi, she held the sheet against the Rose Mansion door and wrote her name. Yoshino-san was more the first type, so she'd been completely prepared, and occupied her time kicking at the grass in irritation. They wouldn't accept her contract yet, so she couldn't even just give and run.

(Sheesh.)

Dirt was finally getting on the toes of her shoes. If she were to walk into the buildings like that, there would be dirt all over the place.

"It's been five minutes. The boutons' sœurs, you may begin."

At the sound of Minako-sama's voice, Rosa Gigantea, Rosa Foetida, Yoshino-san, and Yumi all rushed to the cardboard box.

"Hey, Yoshino-chan."

Rosa Foetida grabbed Yoshino-san's arm before she could run off.

"Your indoor shoes have dirt on them. Wipe them with a rag."

"Ehhh."

"No 'ehhh.' It's my job to caution you in the stead of busy Rei, isn't it?"

"… Yes."

She was full of complaints, but she couldn't argue against her onee-sama's onee-sama.

"But, Rosa Foetida. I can't get a rag like this, can I?"

A small counter-attack. But grandmother Rosa Foetida wasn't about to lose to her grandchild.

"I'll go grab one from the Rose Mansion, so you wait here."

"Um, then I'll go."

She couldn't let a third-year do odd jobs like that. Yumi received permission from Minako-sama and entered the Rose Mansion. Of course, it was already acceptable grounds for the treasure hunt, so she was told she didn't need permission to begin with.

"What? What?"

Rosa Gigantea gleefully followed Yumi, not having seen what had transpired.

"Nothing, sheesh."

It felt like too much of a bother to explain, so she just trounced up the stairs and opened the wooden locker in front of the room. The cleaning utilities were stored there, so she grabbed a rag hanging over a bucket, rinsed it in the room, then jumped back down the stairs. Rosa Gigantea was following her up and down, but Yumi apologetically ignored her completely.

"I'm sorry for the bother, Yumi-chan."

Rei-sama apologized to Yumi at the foyer. She'd been watching Yoshino-san from a distance.

"Yumi. When you're finished, just spread the rag out and leave it here."
Sachiko-sama, who'd interjected, continued.

"In case the students coming in feel guilty, so they can clean their shoes."

"Yes."

She was ecstatic Sachiko-sama had spoken to her. She was so happy that she forgot all about Yoshino-san and just watched Sachiko-sama disappear into the Rose Mansion. It wasn't even like Sachiko-sama had smiled for her.

The boutons were going to stay on the second floor of the Rose Mansion and wait for students to find their treasure. They climbed the stairs holding the cardboard boxes with the vows in the stead of the newspaper club members, who'd dispersed to selected locations around the school grounds.

Who would be the lucky one to report finding Sachiko-sama's card? Yumi so dearly wished it would be her.

When she looked at the clock, it was already five past four.

There was only thirty-five minutes left.

<noinclude>
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|-
| Return to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru|Main Page]]
| Back to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume5_Chapter5_2|Part 2]]
| Forward to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume5_Chapter5_4|Part 4]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter4 3

2013-04-29T12:01:44Z

Ambjoorn: /* The thirteenth of February. Part 3. */

===<noinclude>The thirteenth of February. </noinclude>Part 3.===

After stopping by the classroom for her bag and coat, she walked home together with Rosa Gigantea. She could see the Rose Mansion lights from the window facing the courtyard along the way.

As Sachiko-sama said, they probably shouldn't speak today. She just had a gut feeling.

She rinsed her face with water using the hallway lavatory, then looked at the mirror. Her eyes were still bloodshot, but her face was much less swollen. Maybe it was because she'd been talking in the greenhouse for an hour. It would probably really become indistinguishable if she were to let the night breeze blow at it on the way home. Which meant she would probably avoid worrying her family.

As they walked along the gingko pathway, Rosa Gigantea explained that the sisters with both similar and different aspects get along best. And that most sisters were like that, anyways.

"Then Rosa Gigantea, do you see bits of yourself in Shimako-san, too?"

"Mm? Me in Shimako? Yeah, sometimes. I think, wow, what a pain in the butt. But I also think she's much better than how I used to be. If I could, I'd love to free Shimako from some of her shackles, but I can't."

"Why?"

"Because I know Shimako too well. So I can only patch things up."

So she was envious of sisters who would get in fights because they didn't understand each other completely. And she'd poke her head into things because of that.

I kinda understood her, and kinda didn't.

As she put her hands together in front of the Maria-sama statue, Yumi tilted her head to the side. Why was it that whenever she spoke to Rosa Gigantea, the conversation would always steamroll ahead without her understanding things? At least in the greenhouse she could keep up…

"By the way. I imagine the chocolate Yumi-chan makes being really sweet."

As she stepped on the bus, Rosa Gigantea cackled, as if remembering. Sheesh, the conversation really had a knack for skipping around.

"You're going to make some for Sachiko, right? Tonight?"

"Well, yes."

Actually, she'd just been reminded. She was really just intending to go home and finish it before dinner, but so many things happened that those plans went awry. When would she be able to take a bath, she wondered.

"I hope it turns out good."

Even as they sat down, Rosa Gigantea continued on the topic of chocolate. Like chocolate from one store should fit really well with blue mountain tea from a certain café, but it was a shame she couldn't actually try it. Or the right temperature to store chocolate. It sounded like she was just hungry.

"So, like, I prefer ones that are a bit scaled-back on sweetness. And if Western liquor is dripped in just a teensy weensy, like a hidden taste, that'd be best."

Now she got it, now she understood what Rosa Gigantea was getting at.

"Umm. Rosa Gigantea, I never said I was giving you chocolate."

"Wait, seriously!? I thought it was a given!?"

A given, just where did she come up with that? She'd already given up on receiving chocolate from Shimako-san, too…

"People who go pester Shizuka-sama won't receive even store-bought chocolate."

"Woah, why do you know about that?"

And she said that without even a hint of remorse. So it left a bitter taste. She was probably going around pestering everyone for chocolate, at this rate, that Rosa Gigantea.

"Aww."

She puckered her lip and pouted like a child. Reverted back to the usual Rosa Gigantea, from to that wise high school senior.

"If you want to eat chocolate, they sell it at stores."

Especially at this time of year, they were lined up everywhere.

"I want to eat ones that're filled with love."

"Then call Shimako-san's house. And tell her you want chocolate."

"Don't wanna."

"Then all you can do is give up."

"Don't wanna don't wanna. I'll eat Yumi-chan if you don't give me chocolate!"

"Yes, yes."

There was no use talking sensibly to her anymore.

"If I say I'll eat you, I'll definitely eat you!"

Because the bus was sparse, her perverted-old-man mode was on full blast. She'd dropped her voice to a level that other people would barely not make out what she was saying, and her head was turned, so it must look like innocent Lillian students chatting away. That a somewhat exotic-looking girl with such a beautiful face would be spewing this sort of vulgar language… the driver, the middle-aged men, even the silver-seat old women wouldn't imagine that.

Until they arrived at the train station, Rosa Gigantea continued to chant "chocolate" at Yumi. For some reason, she began to feel a bit sorry for her, so she decided if she felt like it, she would make chocolate for Rosa Gigantea, too.

Of course, it would probably be left-overs from her cooking for Sachiko-sama.

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Return to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru|Main Page]]
| Back to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume5_Chapter4_2|Part 2]]
| Forward to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume5_Chapter5_1|Part 1]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter4 2

2013-04-29T11:55:01Z

Ambjoorn: /* The thirteenth of February. Part 2. */

===<noinclude>The thirteenth of February. </noinclude>Part 2.===

"'All of your worrying and perplexing will simply pave the way to a better future, both next year and the year after.'"

As she ran down the hallway, Shizuka-sama's words kept repeating in her mind.

(It was no good, Shizuka-sama.)

How could she expect good memories now?

Her self-hatred and her despair, along with her tear-drenched, sloppy face, no matter how many years and month passed, she would never be able to look back upon this and smile.

"'Then why are we sisters?'"

Sachiko-sama must have lost patience with Yumi this time, once and for all.

Yumi was absorbed in finding a place to be alone. From Rei-sama's expression, she could guess she looked to be in a bad shape. There would probably be some people left in the classroom, so she couldn't go back just yet. They'd try to get to the bottom of things, and that'd just make things worse.

Anyways, she didn't want to see anyone.

Eventually she found herself at the corner of the building, where the emergency exit in front of her blinded her with its green lamp. Yumi opened the door and stepped out.

The cold air felt a bit painful, but that was just a surface thing. Avoiding the students leaving through the rear gate, she hurried to that place. Because she knew most people didn't go near it.

The old greenhouse, it'd been a while since she'd come by. It hadn't changed much. The flowers had all wilted, so the leaves were by their lonesome, so it looked a lot more dreary, but as it was, most people avoided coming here, so no one had bothered to fix any of the cracked glasses. So even though it was a greenhouse, she wasn't here to be cheered up.

It was a crumbling greenhouse, but it was a good windbreaker, so she was able to settle down.

The day before the school festival, Sachiko-sama had also come here, escaping from Kashiwagi-san and everything he symbolized. Come to think of it, Rei-sama had come here, too, after Yoshino-san had returned her rosary.

She wondered why. Did this greenhouse have the power to heal wounded hearts?

"-Rosa Chinensis."

They were there, between the dead branches and the skinny trees sleeping winter away. They weren't in a pot, but rather were growing from the ground, where someone had pried away a piece of floor tiling. The greenhouse was darkening, but it seemed like there was a single spotlight shining down upon them, so Yumi could see them clearly.

It wasn't like there was a nameplate, but Yumi knew. Because someone she loved had taught her. Yumi stepped close and placed a hand on that strong trunk. That's when she realized she'd come here to see that rose bush.

"So, you bloom every season."

But unfortunately, the red flowers from back then weren't there. She realized she was bitterly smiling. It almost looked like there was some kind of apocalypse.

"I wonder if onee-sama hates me, now."

Her feelings for Sachiko-sama hadn't changed since that day she was taught about this plant. No, maybe it was even stronger, the more she'd come to know Sachiko-sama. But then, how did things come to this?

Thump, thump. She raised her head, hearing the knocking sound from outside. Her eyes, barely getting used to the darkness, made out Rosa Gigantea through the dirty glass.

"I knew you'd be here."

She walked around and poked her head in through the entrance. What an uncommon occurrence: Rosa Gigantea asked, "May I come in?" before she took a step in.

"I wondered if you'd prefer to be alone, but Yumi-chan is scared of the dark."

"… I'm sorry I'm such a bother."

How strange. She'd been so adamantly against seeing anyone, but the moment Rosa Gigantea appeared, she felt relieved and comforted.

"Not at all, not at all."

Rosa Gigantea chuckled, walked to Yumi, and also squatted down by the Rosa Chinensis bush.

"It's not like I'm part of the meeting, so I had to walk out anyways. Plus, that happened in the middle of our conversation, you know? It left a bitter aftertaste."

The conversation before Shimako-san had come to the Rose Mansion. She still remembered.

"But wow, that felt like a complete flashback."

Fidgeting around with a dead branch she'd picked up, Rosa Gigantea sounded nostalgic. Yumi didn't know what "that" was exactly pointing to, so she stayed silent.

"Yumi-chan, you might think you're totally unlike Sachiko, but from my perspective, you two are stunningly alike."

"… That we're always one step too slow?"

"Ahh, I did say something like that before, didn't I. Well, roughly speaking, yeah, but I think the nuance is a bit different."

For example, Rosa Gigantea said.

"Sometimes you'll always feel differently about something with someone else. When that happens, Yoshino-chan immediately brings forth an aggressive discussion, to make sure the other person knows her stance, and sometimes even to make them a turncoat. But Yumi-chan closes her mouth and leaves. Sachiko, too. You two are similar like that."

"Sachiko-sama always says what she thinks."

Yumi interjected almost reflexively. Rosa Gigantea, aren't you thinking of someone else?

"Because Rosa Chinensis really disciplined her, she's improved."

But she used to be dead silent, and tough to get along with. Hard to believe.

"But she's probably still fundamentally the same. The type that doesn't like to explain how she feels, for fear of it being rejected. Like, Kashiwagi, she'd kept that bottled up for a really long time. So when she realizes she can speak out, she kinda flaunts it. Like, I can speak out in front of this person, that sort of thing. I guess in the end it just means she's not really self-confident."

Rosa Gigantea freely went ahead and broke down Sachiko-sama's personality.

"And, what I meant before was that Yumi-chan and Sachiko was almost exactly like Sachiko and Youko a year and ten months ago- you know, the current Rosa Chinensis."

"What?"

"I think it was right after they'd become sisters? Or maybe it was before. I didn't really care about other students back then, so I don't really remember the time and stuff too well, but it was right around the beginning of the first semester, when I saw Youko saying 'if you want to say something, say it clearly!' in really harsh tones."

"To Sachiko-sama?"

"Yup. Because you know, Sachiko, I guess her upbringing plays a part in it, but she's really bad at expressing her opinions. So she'd just silently brood over it. So one day Youko strongly told her, that's too hard to understand. And it must have hit Sachiko hard. And she started trying to express herself after that. So her hysteria is more like a remnant of that, or maybe just the kick-back from everything. And that's why no one really gets bothered by it."

"Ah."

"So she's probably getting irritated."

"Irritated… Sachiko-sama?"

"Yup."

"Why?"

"Well, because she must feel like she's staring at herself."

That's when Yumi remembered Tsutako-san's words from some time ago. That Sachiko-sama probably didn't want a sister just like herself.

People seek things they don't have-. That was one of the reasons why she was attracted to Sachiko-sama, so Yumi knew full well what that meant.

Then, what if. What if she'd found someone close to her that had the exact characteristics she hated of herself? It would feel like she was looking at a mirror, and it'd obviously be quite discomforting.

"So, forgive Sachiko's harsh behavior."

"I wasn't even thinking about that…"
She shook her head vigorously.

"Then, you don't hate her for it?"

"O-Of course not."

This time she nodded vigorously. Even if Sachiko-sama were to hate her, she'd never be the one hating back. Ever.

"Good girl."

Rosa Gigantea ruffled Yumi's hair and laughed.

"Alright, let's go back then. I don't like this greenhouse too much."

Hoisting herself up, Rosa Gigantea patted down her own skirt. It'd already become quite dark, so she could hardly tell what sort of face Rosa Gigantea had. Luckily, one of the lamp-posts littered around the school managed to reach the greenhouse, so she made it outside without tripping. There might have been a light switch somewhere, but they were easily able to get out before they could find it.

[[Image:MM_v05_08.jpg|thumb]]
"Yumi-chan, there's a step here, so be careful."

Rosa Gigantea reached out with her left hand. Yumi took it, and then grabbed the arm it belonged to.

"What am I going to do?"

"Hmm?"

"Rosa Gigantea is going to graduate soon. What am I going to do then?"

There would be no one left to help her through tough times like these. No one who could scoot in between her and Sachiko-sama like this.

"That makes me feel so happy, Yumi-chan."

Rosa Gigantea didn't show any signs of displeasure at finding her arm suddenly grabbed. So Yumi, despite feeling a bit bad toward Shimako-san, decided to keep borrowing this kind arm.

"It'll be alright."

The right hand lightly pinched Yumi's cheek.

"I was worried when my onee-sama graduated, too. But you know, you'd be surprised at how everything ends up working out."

"Ends up working out-"

Will things really end up working out? She was this anxious over tomorrow, so she couldn't even begin to imagine beyond that.

"In Yumi-chan's case, you just need to tell Sachiko how you feel, even just a little more. As long as you can do that, no matter what happens, you two can overcome everything."

"But…"
"You can do it, Yumi-chan. See, we both managed to express how we feel to each other, right?"

Rosa Gigantea seemed to point to herself as a practice dummy, but that's not right. Because to Yumi, speaking to Rosa Gigantea was the real deal, too.

"Alright then, homework for Yumi-chan. Making up with Sachiko with your own strength, okay?"

"… Yes."

She wasn't confident, but she replied anyways. Because Sachiko-sama and Yumi were sisters. They shouldn't need someone else to come in for them to make up.

It was just the two of them when she accepted the rosary. When it came to matters involving sisters, they had to work it out with just the two of them.

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| Back to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume5_Chapter4_1|Part 1]]
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</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter4 1

2013-04-29T11:43:12Z

Ambjoorn: /* The thirteenth of February. Part 1. */

===<noinclude>The thirteenth of February. </noinclude>Part 1.===

"-Anyways, while I know why everyone may become over-excited, but please conduct yourselves in a manner appropriate to a Lillian student. After all, classes will go on as usual."

After listening to their homeroom teacher, Yamamura-sensei, with faithful ears, the students answer, "Yes." But they weren't really paying much attention. The teachers were warning them beforehand, but that was also a bit more for show, because they weren't really holding very high expectations tomorrow, either. The students were this excited, so it was far, far too late to expect that to settle down.

Homeroom was ended quickly, too. If there were any important papers to distribute, it would be more definite if they were distributed the day after tomorrow. She's a veteran as well as a Lillian alumni, so sensei knew exactly how we felt and would act.

"That's all."

Stand, bow[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#aisatsu].

After homeroom, the teacher disappeared on the other side of the door. And Yumi, who'd sprung up and hurried out, was stopped by a classmate.

"Yumi-san, we don't have to clean the music room today."

"What?"

"The contracted floor cleaners are in today, so feel free to spend time as you please."

She was in Yumi's cleaning group, so she knew why Yumi was in such a hurry.

"Thank you, gokigenyou."

She was told to "feel free to spend time as she pleased," but Yumi dashed out to the hallway anyways. After all, it wasn't a warning about her hasty departure. Rather, Yumi had always been visiting a certain place before going to the music room lately, and so she was actually being told that she didn't have to scurry to the music room after she was done.

Tomorrow awaited a joyous Valentine.

As well as a somewhat suspenseful Valentine.

Moving her legs forward, she began silently singing impromptu.

Trotting down the hallway, and then resuming her trot after going down the stairs. After entering the courtyard, she went straight to the Rose Mansion. And it didn't feel like anyone had gotten there.

"Safe."

Creak, creak, creak, creak, she climbed up the stairs, opened the biscuit-shape door, and walked straight toward the electric pot and began setting things up.

When she glanced at the sink, she noticed there were no dishes awaiting cleaning. Shimako-san had probably stopped by during lunch break and finished that. With that aside, Yumi went to open the windows for ventilation. She did a light sweeping of the floors, wiped the table, rinsed the washing rags, and was done. She didn't have cleaning duty at the music room today, so she didn't really need to hurry back to the school, but she didn't feel comfortable staying here. So she began leaving.

-And then.

"Are you gongitsune[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#gongitsune]?"

"Gyah!?"

The person who'd been standing in the shadow of the door suddenly spoke, so Yumi almost had a heart-attack.

"- Haven't I been telling you to start using 'kya'?"

"…R- Rosa Gigantea."

Yumi'd also thought that most people can't control what they say when they're surprised.
"You didn't even notice me standing by the entrance when you flew into the Rose Mansion, so I was wondering what was going on."

Rosa Gigantea coldly said.

"So, what is this? Yumi-chan's sense of aesthetics? Coming here every day without being seen, cleaning everything up, and then leaving?"

"Umm."

She wasn't really doing this every day. Because if homeroom ended late, or if Shimako-san beat her here, she didn't come.

"Oh well, not really my place to say anything. … It would be coarse to dampen Yumi-chan's sense of self-satisfaction."

Rosa Gigantea groaned as she stretched, and then began walking down the stairs. But Yumi couldn't let those words be, and she quickly pursued.

"Umm, am I making a mistake!?"

"Hmm?"

Thump, thump, thump, thump, the stairs sounded.

"Because, self-satisfaction, dampening…"

"I said those words, yes?"

When they reached the bottom, Rosa Gigantea finally turned to Yumi.

"You know, I think Yumi-chan's just charging ahead with your emotions. Like a mother doing ohyakudo[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#ohyakudo] for the success of her child."

"Ohyakudo."

She'd seen that acted out in historical plays. She couldn't remember if it was a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple, but people with wishes would go back and forth to pray. If she remembered correctly, sometimes they'd have conditions, like not being caught doing it.

"But you shouldn't stop someone doing ohyakudo and say 'come come, that's eerie, so stop,' either "

Said Rosa Gigantea, who was saying she shouldn't be doing so, but had already done it.

"Eerie?"

"Yep."
"How direct."

"Well you followed me because you wanted to hear me be direct, didn't you?"

"Umm."

Yumi didn't think that was her exact reason, but it wasn't wrong, either.

"Rather than a mother doing ohyakudo or cold-water ablutions, I'd prefer a mother who'd make me warm dinner every day."

"Huh?"

"Just my personal opinion. Because my mother's more like the former, so a delinquent child is too heavy a burden for her. … Umm, but that's an example, my mother doesn't actually use sorcery, so you don't have to worry there."

"Uhhh."

Wow, she was able to understand Rosa Gigantea before, but now the conversation was taking quite the detour and was going beyond her grasp.

And that's when Shimako-san came in through the door, having finished her cleaning duty, so the conversation abruptly ended. Of course, it might have been ended in Rosa Gigantea's mind anyways.

"Ah, onee-sama."

Noticing Rosa Gigantea, Shimako-san smiled like an angel. She was already like an ephemeral beauty, but her smile was on a different level. Even though they were of the same age, how could people be so different?

"I passed."

No preface. Rosa Gigantea faced Shimako-san and made a V with her hand, in a peace sign.

(Eh……? What?)

"Congratulations, onee-sama."

But Shimako-san's bouncy reply made Yumi realize what happened. Rosa Gigantea was accepted into her first-choice school.

(Oh, so that's what happened.)

Rosa Gigantea wanted to let Shimako-san know first, and that's why she'd come here.

Because the way she looked at Shimako-san was gentle and kind. It wasn't the old-man version of Rosa Gigantea that'd generally been teasing Yumi.

"Congratulations."

She felt bad for intruding on their world, but she felt compelled to say that word, being a bystander.

"Thanks, Yumi-chan."

Rosa Gigantea patted Yumi's head, then tossed her front hair and laughed.

"Gosh, it was tough. I mean I didn't plan on going to university at all, so I only started studying after the turn of the year. But whatever, I'll be a student at a women's college this spring."

She only had one university she was aiming for, so she was set. Still, she managed to get into a university after a little more than a month of studying, so Rosa Gigantea was definitely superhuman.

"Then you must feel relieved."
"But Eriko and Youko aren't done yet, so…"

Yumi didn't even think about Rosa Foetida and Rosa Chinensis there. But Rosa Gigantea didn't seem to notice she'd called her friends by their names, either.

The university exam dates differed depending on the universities, so some people had even finished last year, while others will be waiting until graduation. Of course, most schools had their exams take place during January and February.

"But, anyways, it looks like I can enjoy myself to the fullest tomorrow."

Snap, crackle. Rosa Gigantea cracked her white knuckles and let the somewhat pleasant sound echo off the ceiling.

"Then I shall have to do my best for onee-sama, too."

Shimako-san forced a smile.

Knowing Rosa Gigantea was going to participate, she may decide to change her hiding place. Placing it in an easier spot? No, probably the opposite.

Shimako-san knew Rosa Gigantea understood her. So if she hid it in an obvious spot, it'd be too easy. And Rosa Gigantea wouldn't be able to have fun.

"I'll be waiting."

She looked completely excited. Rosa Gigantea was like a child when she was like this.

Like, I won't let anyone else get Rei-sama's card! Well, it's a harsh way of putting it, but Rosa Gigantea wasn't like Yoshino-san in that regard, because Yoshino-san would use any means necessary to win. Rather, Rosa Gigantea was more the type of person to enjoy the treasure hunt, itself, so the harder the better.

Then how about herself? Yumi thought, but she didn't really know.

Thinking is hard.

She didn't know how she felt, so it was even more difficult imagining how others might feel. Or maybe she didn't know how she felt because it was herself.

That's when she noticed a person was standing on the other side of the wooden door to the courtyard, the person's shadow visible through the ornamental glassing.

Yumi quickly opened the door.

"Ah."

There stood Sachiko-sama.

"Onee-sama, gokigenyou."

"---"

But she knew onee-sama wasn't in good spirits, before the fact that a response never came, just by looking at her. She didn't know why, but Sachiko-sama looked particularly angry. Her whole body screamed "displeased."

However.

Why didn't she come into the Rose Mansion if she was standing outside? Just as Yumi was beginning to wonder, Sachiko-sama's mouth opened.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself."

Yumi didn't know how long Sachiko-sama had been standing outside, but their laughter had definitely been heard.
"Oh. Rosa Gigantea was here, and-"

She was going to relate the news of Rosa Gigantea's university acceptance, but Sachiko-sama cut her off.

"I see. If Rosa Gigantea is here, you can enjoy yourself."

"… Huh?"

"So? Since when have you hated me so much you don't want to look at me?"

"What?"

She didn't know what Sachiko-sama meant.

Because she'd never even imagined Sachiko-sama saying such words, so even if her ears could take it in, her brain wasn't able to keep up. Peoples' nervous system works better when there's a precedent.

"I… hate onee-sama?"

She repeated the words she'd heard, and immediately doubted them. Where did Sachiko-sama come up with such a thought?

"Are you saying I'm wrong? Then why are you avoiding me?"

"I haven't been avoiding…"

But Sachiko-sama didn't believe her.

"You are."

She stated clearly, and didn't budge. Yumi didn't intend it that way, but her actions and behavior might have been working against her.

"At first I tried to understand, because I am a bouton, but you've been interacting with Rei and Shimako just fine. Even when you come to the Rose Mansion you leave before I come, and when I arrive earlier than usual, you dash out like you're escaping."

"That's-"

Because she was going to be late for cleaning duty.

And she was speaking with Rei-sama because she was being taught how to make chocolate for Sachiko-sama.

"What's the matter? If you have something to say, speak it clearly."

But she couldn't.

She couldn't say it was for Sachiko-sama. Because she was the one forcing everything on her.

She'd been conceited.

As Rosa Gigantea said, self-satisfaction. No, even worse, she finally realized it.

Yumi looked at Sachiko-sama.

"Why are you silent? Why don't you throw your thoughts at me? I can't possibly understand otherwise."

Onee-sama looked extremely scary.

"I'm sorry… onee-sama."

That was all she could muster. She was ashamed of herself, for making onee-sama look like this, for forcing onee-sama to speak like this.

But no matter what, she would never hate onee-sama.

Still, all Yumi could do was watch as her vision of her most beloved person became blurred.

"Um, Sachiko-sama?"

Perhaps realizing the situation was going downhill, Shimako-san stepped toward the door and spoke, but she was powerless in this strained atmosphere.

[[Image:MM_v05_07.jpg|thumb]]
"… Shimako, come."

Rosa Gigantea held Shimako-san's shoulder and dragged her away.

"Why do you cry?"

With the foyer left to the two of them, Sachiko-sama whispered.

"Please, stop. Now it just looks like I'm picking on a kouhai. I'm the one that wants to cry. I'm being avoided by my sister, and I don't know why-"

"Ukk."

A strange sound was emitted from Yumi's throat. She tried to speak, but she couldn't formulate words, because it felt like a lump of meat was lodged in.

"Why won't you tell me? Is that all I was to you? Then why are we sisters? Why did you accept my rosary?"

She wanted to say that's not how it is, but her tears just kept flowing. She could tell her eyes were beginning to swell.

She felt incredibly stupid. Sachiko-sama was angry, she knew that, but she could only keep crying.

But, this was the first time Sachiko-sama had ever shown her such strong emotions, and it confused her.

"… Enough."

Sachiko-sama said, exasperated.

"Let's talk about this again some other time. I may be high-strung, myself, so I may have been too harsh."

"Ah…"

Sachiko-sama had turned around, and she looked so lonely that Yumi instinctively began following, and that was when Rei-sama and Minako-sama arrived at the Rose Mansion.

"W-What happened, Yumi-chan?"
Rei-sama shouted.

"Nothing. Let's just finish the final meeting."

Sachiko-sama quickly went ahead, leaving Yumi behind.

"Nothing…? Umm."

"Yes."

Minako-sama and Rei-sama looked at each other. Well, it was obvious just by looking at Yumi's face that it was clearly not "nothing." But Yumi just wanted to be left alone. It would be worse if someone acted kind to her.

"Are you two going to label me a villain, too!?"

A hysteric-sounding voice came from above.

"… eally, it's nothing."

Finally managing to wring her voice out, she ran in the complete opposite direction from Sachiko-sama, out the Mansion. She felt like she heard Rei-sama and Minako-sama's voices, but she didn't turn around.

Or rather, she couldn't.

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| Back to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume5_Chapter3_3|Chapter 3 Part 3]]
| Forward to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume5_Chapter4_2|Part 2]]
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</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter3 1

2013-04-29T07:30:08Z

Ambjoorn: /* Outsider. Part 1. */

===<noinclude>Outsider. </noinclude>Part 1.===

"So, how'd it go?"

Tsutako-san leaned in, brimming with curiosity.

It was lunch break a few days after the "special meeting." Yumi was eating lunch with Katsura-san's group, but her hand that was holding her chopsticks was frozen.

"How'd it go? I'm sure you can tell just by looking at me."

Because she'd been eating lunch in the classroom for three straight days.

"My, my, Yumi-san, whose most notable feature is her vigor, is sighing. Which means the little sisters aren't particularly amused by all this."

"Pretty much."

It wasn't like they were expelled from the Rose Mansion, but it didn't feel comfortable sitting there. Because even if they were eating lunch together, the boutons would gather and discuss things amongst themselves. And when that happened, the "outsiders" would feel obliged to remain "outsiders" and scoot themselves to a corner, so they wouldn't hear.

Then, it would be better if they weren't there to begin with. So after discussing it with Yoshino-san, they decided not to frequent the Rose Mansion for the time being. If something were to happen, Shimako-san would notify them, anyways.

The boutons were all in different classes, and Rei-sama had club activities after school, to Yumi understood they didn't have much time to discuss things together. So when they did manage to gather in one place at once, it would be better to let them be.

"Tsutako-san, would you like to sit here?"

Katsura-san said as she stood, and offered her seat.

"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm fine."

"No, no. We finished eating, and we're going, now."

The five had pushed their tables together for lunch, and other than Yumi, everyone had stood up. Her four classmates neatly packed up their lunches and placed them in their bags.

"Everyone?"

Tsutako-san put a finger to the bridge of her frameless glasses and raised them.

"Yes. We invited Yumi-san, but she doesn't seem interested. But it would probably be lonesome eating lunch alone, so please, Tsutako-san."

Katsura-san quickly explained, before she hurried to catch up to the classmates whom were waiting by the door, and then they all skipped along to their destination.

"… What was that?"

Now that only Yumi could hear her, Tsutako-san let her guard down and muttered.

"They're going to the library to look up chocolate recipes."

Apparently one of them had found a wonderful recipe book at a bookstore, but it was extraordinarily expensive, so she couldn't afford it with her allowance. Well, she could, but then she'd be short on ingredients for the chocolate itself, or something. Anyways, someone else pointed out that she thinks she saw that book in the library, so they all decided, "let's look for that wonderful book!" and that was that.

And on a side note, the speed at which they ate lunch after deciding to go was incredible. Katsura-san had taught Yumi that it was better for one's health if one deliberately chewed and ate their food, but that same Katsura-san was swallowing down food after four or five bites.

"I see. A wonderful chocolate book. That would be fascinating, indeed. Why didn't you go with them, Yumi-san?"

Tsutako-san stretched back to her seat and grabbed her milk box, then sat down on Katsura-san's seat, which had been warmed like a zabuton.

"Sachiko-sama seems to hate chocolate."

Yumi meekly replied. She didn't want to talk about this.

"You jest. Sachiko-sama was eating Rosa Foetida en bouton's handmade Bûche de Noël on Christmas."

That was delicious, said Tsutako-san as she stared off into space. It wasn't really handmade, as she'd simply touched up a marketplace good, but Tsutako-san didn't really see it being made, so she didn't know about that.

"… That's right."

The Bûche de Noël is in fact filled with chocolate cream. Yumi saw Sachiko-sama eating it, too, and it was not like she was eating something she disliked out of courtesy.

Sachiko-sama was extremely picky with food. They'd only known each other for four months, but Yumi had completely grasped Sachiko-sama's expression when she found something she disliked. Someone who would look that disgusted by something wouldn't be able to completely hide that fact.

"Then I wonder if she's just against the act of giving chocolate on Valentine's Day? It's all the same to me, though."

"You lost the joy of giving chocolate on your anticipated Valentine's Day, is it?"

Even though you went through such lengths to do research, remarked Tsutako-san. Her milk box made a hissing sound as she drained the rest of it. She might have been being compassionate, but that spontaneous noise was intrusive, and so if she was being cordial, it ruined the feeling.

"Well that's indeed harsh. You've basically been kicked out of the Rose Mansion, but the classroom is filled with Valentine's Day talk."

Tsutako-san glanced around the lunch-time first-year peach-class.

Exactly.

It wasn't just Katsura-san and others. Two-third, maybe even three-quarters, whatever the number, the majority of the students were thinking almost entirely of Valentine's Day, so outside of class, conversations naturally drifted in that direction.

How to give the chocolate, which chocolate stores are good, I saw a chocolate recipe on TV, that sort of thing. The ones that were truly excited to the point of intending to present handmade knitting were even knitting at every non-class opportunity.

For the teachers that put up with us every day, for that senpai we admire, for that boy from another school that we have a one-sided love for, everyone had different people they wanted to gift, but everyone was thinking along the same lines.

It was just a week until Valentine's Day.

"So, what are you going to do?"

What is she going to do? She was gloomy because she didn't know what she was going to do.

"If this is how it'd be, I should have stayed an insider. Even if I become an outsider, it's not like I'm confident I can find Sachiko-sama's card."

Hearing Yumi's complaint, Tsutako-san mischievously prodded back.

"Mmm. So you don't care if someone else dates Sachiko-sama."
"Of course not."

Absolutely positively not.

"Then there's nothing else you can do. I mean, you stepped out knowing it would be a long shot to begin with. What an ungallant way of thinking."

She knew that almost as much as she knew it would be a long shot.

That's why Yoshino-san was gallant. Because she knew it would be a long shot, but she stepped on that plane without any hesitation, and on top of that, she was proactively trying to figure out where Rei-sama would hide it. She only has one body, after all, so she was already planning out where she'd start looking, and so even though she wasn't with Rei-sama, her days were always busy. Plus, Yoshino-san still had the joy of giving Valentine's Day chocolate, on a completely different note from the date.

"I wanted to give Sachiko-sama chocolate, too."

Said Yumi, as she somberly looked up at the dreary sky.

"Then, why don't you make it and forcibly give it to her?"

Gosh, Tsutako-san, she even clapped her hands, as if she'd come up with a stroke of genius. Furthermore, Yumi could do it like how Yoshino-san returned Rei-sama's rosary, but calling Sachiko-sama to the Maria-sama statue. Tsutako-san was definitely aiming to grab a photo.

"Do you think I could do it? Me?"

After all, her onee-sama was her onee-sama. Yumi didn't think she could even call Sachiko-sama out anywhere.

"That's true, it might be impossible for Yumi-san. More befitting might be an image of you holding back tears while despondently making chocolate, and those tears drip into the mix, knowing that this chocolate would never be eaten. And the chocolate that should be sweet ends up being a bit salty."

Tsutako-san acted out a melancholic face and balled her hands, but all Yumi could do was sigh.

"… That's just enka[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#enka]."

Plus, how do held-back tears drip? She wished Tsutako-san wouldn't make fun of it just because it was someone else's problem.

"But Yumi-san, thinking is 'free.' If you want to give her chocolate, think of it from the perspective of giving, okay? If on the fourteenth of February Sachiko-sama suddenly wants chocolate, how would you feel if you weren't prepared? You would regret it forever. So you should start off by making chocolate, and if she wouldn't accept it after all, then you can call me and we can eat it together in the classroom."

I'll even treat you to canned coffee then, she concluded. Because after all, friends exist to be there for you. And Yumi began to feel better.

Tsutako-san then finished things off by adding that, if possible, she'd like to be present (if hidden) during the chocolate presentation, but Yumi graciously declined. It wasn't a documentary, and she wouldn't be able to speak with seriousness to Sachiko-sama when knowing there was a camera somewhere. If she wanted a perfect shot that badly, Tsutako-san could try to track them down. Her very own treasure hunt.

"Well then, good luck!"

While they were conversing, the early bell for the afternoon classes rang. After seeing Tsutako-san back to her seat, Yumi wrapped her empty lunchbox with a bandana.

Katsura-san and friends came back from the library filled with excitement. And the knitting students seemed to intend to keep knitting until the late bell.

-Which is when Tsutako-san came back, apparently remembering something.

"I forgot to tell you. This treasure hunt, actually the photography club is going to get a bite of the pie, too. But we're more like assistants rather than cooperatives, so we won't be told who hid what where, but the photography club is in charge of the photographs for the 'Lillian Kawaraban.'"

That's all, said Tsutako-san as she walked back in good humor.

And from that, Yumi guessed Tsutako-san didn't intend to give anyone chocolate this Valentine's Day. The camera and photo-loving photography club ace was going to chase young ladies this year, without any holidays, again.

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| Back to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume5_Chapter2_4|Chapter 2 Part 4]]
| Forward to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume5_Chapter3_2|Part 2]]
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</noinclude>

Date A Live:Kotori Birthday

2013-04-29T06:54:38Z

Ambjoorn:

[[File:Dal ss1.jpg|403px]]

"——Commander Itsuka! Happy birthday to you!"

A deafening sound echoed out the instant Itsuka Kotori entered <Fraxinus>'s bridge, party poppers were repeatedly fired off.

Following that was a resounding applause, a trolley cart that had cake loaded on it was also pushed in.

"......Seriously, you guys."

Faced with such a heartwarming scene, Kotori however calmly sighed.

Twin ponytails tied with black ribbons, a young girl who wore an iconic crimson leather jacket. She is without a doubt the youngest person in the room, however her actions and speech hinted at the authority of a leader.

"What are you guys doing so early in the morning......"

As Kotori uttered that line, the crew members voiced out their disapproval.

"Today is our commander's fourteenth birthday! How can you continue to be working at such an important day!"

"I heard that the commander is already holding a party at her house this evening, so we can only celebrate now!"

Although today is the third of August, which happens to be Kotori's birthday......It somehow feels that they had gone slightly overboard.

"......Well, there's nothing bad about it. Everyone just wants to wish you well that's all."

Murasame Reine who was standing on her left spoke. Kotori could only reply "Nn......" as she began to stutter.

"Of course, I did not say that we could not celebrate. That is, I......I don't really dislike this."

Looking at Kotori who replied with an unsteady gaze, the crew members began to get excited.

"It's here! The commander's dere expression!!"

"Thank the gods! Thank the gods!"

A tall man who was standing behind the crowd——Kannazuki stepped out.

"Happy birthday to you, Commander. Being able to meet the commander in person on such a memorable day, I can't feel thankful enough for this moment!"

Kannazuki made a movement as though he was trying to hold back his tears as he continued.

"As such, we have prepared a special gift for you this year!"

"......A special gift?"

As Kotori asked in surprise, the rest of the crew members hastily ran over to cover Kannazuki's mouth.

"Why are you saying this out of the blue!"

"We still have to keep this a secret!?"

"Ah, that, that is true......"

Kotori glared the crew with a gaze of suspicion.

"......What are you guys plotting?"

"Ah, that is......Hahaha."

Just as the crew was intending to laugh it off, Reine raised her head as though she just thought of something.

"......Speaking of presents, Kotori. Shin seems like he still hasn't decided on what to give you yet, you could ask him to get something that you want. Why don't you try and ask him?"

Although it seems like she was saying that just to draw her attention away from the topic......However, there's not much meaning if she tried to get to the bottom of it right now. Kotori turned to face Reine. At the same time, Kotori heard the crew members heave sighs of relief.

"That sort of thing, I can't think of anything if you ask me that all of a sudden."

"......Then how about we change that to something that you want him to do, or wish for him to do for you?"

"Eh?"

Looking at Kotori's face that had a look of suspicion, Reine held out one finger.

"......For example, today you will be dere towards your onii-chan and the like?"

"Wh, why did it become that way! I don't want to be dere towards him!"

"............"

"Wh, what is it?"

"......Nothing. Well, if you put it that way then we'll leave it at that......"

Saying that, Reine turned back and sat down in her own seat, getting back to work.

After temporarily staring at Reine's back without a sound, Kotori clapped her hands.

"Alright alright, hurry up and get back to work."

The crew members immediately returned to their work stations in a haste.

"Really now."

Kotori sighed as she played with her fringe.

"......That kind of thing, how is it possible for me to say it out......"

◇

"Oh, oooh......! shidou! What is this moving thing called!"

Yatogami Tohka pointed at the display window in front of her, enthusiastically crying out.

Black long hair and a perfect face. She was a girl whose beauty was just as described.

What she saw in front of her, was a thin saucer-like automated cleaning machine that was currently in operation. So that's how it was, it truly was moving around in a cute manner.

However, Itsuka Shidou merely sighed, after which he placed his hand on Tohka's shoulder.

"Tohka, do you still remember today's mission?"

"Nn? Nn, of course I still remember! It is to buy something to celebrate Kotori's birthday!"

Tohka nodded exaggeratedly.

That's right, Shidou and Tohka at present was at the shopping mall located in front of Tenguu Train Station in order to search for Kotori's birthday present.

"That's correct, so you understand right? At the very least Kotori won't be happy if that gets into her hands. Perhaps I would feel happier if I got that."

"Then Shidou should get it!"

"That's not the point......"

"That......"

Just as Shidou was in conversation with Tohka, a voice called out from his back.

Turning around to look, standing right there was a small girl who was wearing a straw sunhat whose left hand had a rabbit puppet on. She was Yoshino who tagged along in order to help Shidou to search for Kotori's birthday present.

"Shidou-san, what do you think......of this?"

Saying that, Yoshino used her right hand and the hand that had the puppet on to pass a box for Shidou to look at. Inside the box was an exquisite white tea set.

"Ohh......I see, I think that it's a great idea, Kotori likes to drink red tea after all."

Hearing Shidou say that, Yoshino's face became red due to embarrassment.

"Oooh......I get it now, so that would be more suitable! Then I'll——"

Shidou stopped Tohka who seemed like she had realized something and was about to run into the mall.

"You can't, she'll feel awkward if she receives a similar present right?"

"Uuh......is that so. Then, shidou what do you want to give her?"

"Eh? I......"

Being questioned, Shidou was rendered speechless.

It was not because he has to keep it a secret till the party, it was also not something that is embarrassing to say when said out loud. It was simply because he still has not thought of what to get for her.

It was not that Shidou was clueless about what Kotori would want that would make her happy. However, once he considered that it was a birthday that happens only once a year, it became hard for him to make a final decision......As a result, he is still unable to decide on a gift even on her birthday itself.

"Nn......"

Shidou used his hand to support his chin, closing his eyes and tried to picture Kotori in his mind. ——After that,

"——Ah, now that you mention it......"

Shidou opened his eyes, as though recalling something.

◇

"......Where's Kotori?"

"She just returned home."

Kannazuki swiftly replied Reine's question. At the same time, the crew members in the bridge showed battle-ready expressions, awaiting instructions at their own work stations.

That's right, the 8th of March has just begun.

"Everyone, are you all ready?"

"Yes sir!"

At the same moment the crew members replied as one, the main screen at the bridge displayed the image of the Itsuka residence. Shidou and the others were in the midst of happily preparing for the party.

"Alright then, next up is the main point, let me reconfirm the battle plan, first of all——"

Kannazuki began to briefly run through the plan for the final time.

Just as Kannazuki had finished his explanation of the battle plan, He suddenly threw a suspicious look behind him.

"Nn?"

"What's the matter?"

"Was there someone over there just now?"

The crew members turned their heads around at Kannazuki's words, but there was no one there.

"No one's there. Are you thinking too much?"

Kannazuki scratched his head and tilted his head in confusion.

"............Uh."

Reine turned to look at the door, using her hand to support her chin as she did so.

◇

"——HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

A warm cheer resonated at the dining table of the Itsuka residence.

At present The table was full of dishes that Shidou made, in the center was a huge strawberry cake.

3rd August, Thursday. It was Shidou's sister——Itsuka Kotori's fourteenth birthday.

Seated right inside was the person of the day Kotori. Seated on the two sides were Tohka, Yoshino, Shidou and Reine.

"I already did say that it would have been better if you guys had kept it simple......"

Saying that, Kotori who seated at the birthday seat slowly blushed crimson.

It could be because Kotori was constantly fidgeting, her two ponytails that was tied together with black ribbons seemed to be happily waving about.

"......Happy birthday. This has the best wishes of everyone onboard <Fraxinus> in it."

Reine passed over a simple square box to Kotori.

"Thank you......So this was the special present mentioned previously?"

"......Why don't you guess?"

Reine started to purposely avoid making eye contact, Kotori stared at Reine's face with a suspicious expression.

However, that expression was swiftly replaced with another expression.

"Kotori! Happy birthday!"

"Happy birthday, Kotori-san!"

[Congratulations!]

Tohka, Yoshino and [Yoshinon] passed their delicately wrapped presents to Kotori.

"Th, thanks......"

Kotori turned her eyes away seemingly embarrassed while accepting the presents.

Looking at Kotori acting this way, Shidou's facial expression relaxed unconsciously. Kotori seemed to have noticed that fact as well, her face blushed an even deeper shade of red.

"Ahaha......sorry sorry. About that, happy birthday, Kotori."

Saying that, Shidou and Tohka gave their presents as well.

"......I guess I have to say thanks to you as well."

"Nnn don't mention it."

"......Can I open them now?"

Kotori looked at everyone as she asked. Tohka, Yoshino and [Yoshinon] eagerly nodded their heads in agreement.

However Reine stopped Kotori.

"......Kotori, can you open my present after all of us go back?"

"Eh? It's not like I can't do so......"

Kotori inclined her head to the side in confusion, placing Reine's present that was in her hands to one side.

Seeing that, Shidou raised his volume.

"Ah——If it is possible, can my present be opened when everyone goes home as well?"

"Shidou you too? I can do that......but the way the two of you are acting, have you two planned something?"

"No, there's no planning whatsoever......"

Shidou stuttered as he replied. How to say it, Shidou somehow felt that it would be embarrassing if it were to be exposed in front of everyone. It was embarrassing to the point where he had to get Tohka and Yoshino to wait outside when he bought it.

"Uh......Well, it's fine. Then I'll open Tohka's and Yoshino's first."

Tohka, on the other hand excitedly leaned forward over the table.

"Hey shidou, can we start eating!?"

Tohka pointed to the dishes on the table, her eyes shining as though she couldn't wait any longer.

"Nn......shouldn't we wait till Kotori opens the presents?"

"! Uuh, is that so, we should normally open presents first huh......sorry Kotori, I've been rude."

After Shidou gently reminded Tohka, Tohka immediately apologized to Kotori as though she had just realized something.

"It's alright, let's eat first."

After Kotori waved her hands and said that line, Tohka's expressions immediately brightened.

"Really!?"

"Of course."

Kotori nodded her head in agreement. Tohka then turned to face Shidou, since the star of the day has already said it there's nothing he could do about it, Shidou too nodded his head.

"Oooh, then I'm digging in!"

Tohka said it as such, happily putting her hands together with a 'Pa!'

Approximately three hours passed.

Once everybody had tasted the delicious food, drank tea from the teaset that Yoshino and [Yoshinon] had bought and played board games that Tohka had given. It was finally time for Tohka to return to the building next door and for Yoshino and Reine to go back to <Fraxinus>.

"Nn, then I'll see you tomorrow, Shidou."

Tohka who had finished eating those delicious dishes and had a fun time with those board games yawned with a "Haa~"

"Alright, remember to bathe and brush your teeth."

"Nn!"

Tohka nodded her head in agreement before wearing her shoes and opening the door.

"......Well then, we better be going now."

"Good night......"

[Seeya!]

After Tohka left, Reine and the others slowly made their way to the foyer. As though replying their words, Kotori waved to them.

"Nn, see you tomorrow."

After that Tohka and the others waved their hands in return and closed the door with a 'Patan.'.

Only when the footsteps of the three could not be heard did Shidou stretch and relaxed.

"Well then, I guess I should hurry up and finish clearing things up."

Saying that Shidou returned to the living room and started to clear the remaining utensils left on the table.

Kotori on the other hand seemed to be avoiding Shidou's line of sight as she sneaked to the corner where the sofa was and started to fiddle with something.

"Kotori? What are you doing?"

"! Do, don't mind me!"

"......?"

Having a mild sense of confusion, Shidou merely tilted his head and continued to clear the utensils.

After a while Kotori stood up, walking towards the dining table in the living room. For reasons unknown, Kotori looked slightly different from before.

"Alright......Next up is......"

Kotori stood in front of the dining table, forcefully stuck her head out in an unnatural manner.

And so at that moment, one of the black ribbons that Kotori used to tie her hair fell off and happened to land on the cutlery.

"Uwah!"

Kotori hastily fished her ribbon out.

"Ah, it's dirtied......"

"Oi oi......here, let me see."

Saying that Shidou extended his hand towards Kotori. However, Kotori suddenly took a step backwards just as Shidou's hand was about to touch her.

"I'm going to change a ribbon since it can't be helped."

"Eh? About that, although you should change one, but you should at least soak it in water first......"

"I'll be back soon, wait for me!"

Kotori did not listen to Shidou's words till the end, running off to the corridor.

"Well......Since it was black anyway, the stain shouldn't be that obvious."

Saying that, Shidou noticed something out of the ordinary just now. Now that he recalled when Kotori came over from the corner of the sofa her ribbon seemed to have already been loosened.

"It can't be......"

Just as Shidou was in deep thought, Kotori suddenly pushed opened the door to the living room and came back.

"Onii~chan~~!!"

——It was the highly expressive Kotori who had changed into white ribbons.

From her expressions, Kotori became reasonably gentler, her speech became the same as that of how girls her age should be. If people who aren't aware were to see this, they would probably think that she was Kotori's twin sister.

"Kotori......?"

He frowned whilst feeling that something was odd......but upon a second thought he decided that it was unavoidable.

——Kotori, she only has that single pair of black ribbons.

To Kotori, the act of [changing ribbons] had an even deeper meaning compared of changing clothes.

When she wears white ribbons, she was the Kotori that was as sweet and innocent as her age group.

When she wears black ribbons, she was the Kotori that was the tough commander of <Fraxinus>.

It was precisely because of these two distinct personalities, that Kotori was able to possess a [strong self] and undertake cruel missions.

"Alright, let's clean up! Clean up!"

Kotori seemed to be happy as she rolled up her sleeves and brought the cutlery to the washbasin.

For a second Shidou was left in a daze, but that was quickly changed to that of a bitter smile. That was because ever since Shidou started interacting with the Spirits, situations with Kotori being in commander mode has been increasing, so it was kind of refreshing for Shidou to see the original Kotori.

"Onii——chan? What's——the matter?"

Kotori used a questioning glance to look at Shidou. Shidou on the other hand waved his hand from side to side in an attempt to cover it up and continued to walk to the washbasin.

At this moment, Kotori seemed to have remembered something, looking towards the present which Reine had given her that was left on the chair.

"They did say that we should open it once everyone went back right? So it should be alright if I open it now?"

"Nn, open it then."

When Shidou said that, Kotori immediately used a refreshing American style opening method to tear the wrapping open.

"What's inside?"

"Nn, It......looks like a DVD of a movie."

"A movie? Is it created by the,? Just like [A great leader and rare revolutinary——Comrade Itsuka Kotori and our footsteps] or something like that."

"It can't be! Although I've never seen it before, but it looks like the kind that is commonly sold on the market."

"Eh......That's odd."

Shidou shrugged as he put on his apron. Thinking about the crew members of <Fraxinus> who loved Kotori so much, he was kind of expecting a unique present to be given to her.

Shidou began to wash the dishes as he pondered. Following that, a low hum sounded from the television, it seems that Kotori had started watching that movie.

"Hey hey, you're watching it now?"

"It's al~right, it's al~right, it will end in two hours or so. Presents are rarely given, it's better to finish watching it today."

"......Really now, be sure to bathe immediately after watching it."

"I——know!"

A single right hand rose from the sofa. Shidou went back to washing the dishes.

However, a few minutes later,

"Waaaaaaaaa!?"

At the same time a loud sound was emitted from the television speakers, Kotori began crying out loudly as she escaped into the kitchen. For good measure, she hugged Shidou's waist and hid behind him.

"Waa! Wh, what's with you......"

Shidou lowered his gaze, looking at Kotori who was tightly grabbing onto the corner of Shidou's shirt, Shidou felt his shoulder tremble from her shaking.

Shidou frowned as he looked towards the screen of the television——and soon found out the reason for this situation.

Shown on the screen was a horde of terrifying zombies, looks like it was a horror movie.

It seems that he has become absent minded recently, he just remembered that Kotori was weak towards stuff involving horror.

"Really now Reine-san, don't tell me she has no idea that Kotori is terrified of such things......? Alright then, I'll turn it off for you, so you can let go now."

Shidou said as he wiped his hands on the apron, however Kotori shook her head while trembling.

"N......no need. I want, to finish it."

"I say, aren't you really afraid of these kind of things? You don't have to force yourself......"

"......This was selected by everyone for me, so I have to finish watching this."

Saying that, Kotori raised her head. Judging from her expression, it looks like she does not wish to let down the expectations that everybody had of her.

"......Well then, um, all the best."

"Nn......!"

Kotori vigorously nodded her head, walking towards the living room. ......For some unknown reason, she was still pulling on the edge of Shidou's clothing.

"I still have to wash the dishes......"

"......Uu......"

Kotori suddenly made an expression as though she was about to break down in tears, Shidou sighed as though it can't be helped, took off the apron and walked towards the living room along with Kotori.

"......What's the situation?"

After sending Yoshino back to her room, Reine who had returned to the bridge of <Fraxinus> questioned the crew with a low voice.

"The commander has started to watch the movie. Furthermore it looks like we have succeeded in making her feel frightened.

"......But she is still watching it, correct?"

"That's right, there is no signs of her stopping, it seems that she intends to finish watching the movie."

"After all the commander did say that she would never do any rude acts such as carelessly handling presents......!"

"Nn......how wonderful, commander......!"

The crew wiped their eyes while being extremely touched.

"However, it was really a stroke of luck, we didn't expect her ribbon to be changed. It was as though it was destined!"

"......Just a coincidence, huh?"

"? Is something the matter?"

"......It's nothing."

After Reine returned to her seat, she looked at Kotori and Shidou who were shown on the main screen.

"......We should let Kotori honestly do what she wants occasionally."

Saying that Reine manipulated the controls, a complicated route map was shown on the screen.

"......Two hours from now, we will start Phase Two of our battle plan. Make preparations."

"Understood!"

The crew members replied Reine's orders with raised voices.

On a side note, looking at the vice-commander who was originally supposed to give the orders——Kannazuki.

"Ah, that expression is excellent, commander! But the S commander is also......!"

He was alone while immersed in his delusions.

The two hours could be said to be lacking in comfort.

Due to the screen repeatedly showing monsters from the movie, coupled with the fact that a sudden telephone ring would cause Kotori to squeal aloud and grab Shidou's sleeves tightly, or bury her face into his side. The movie finally ended with much effort, his sleeves seemed to have been stretched quite a fair bit.

"Haa......Haa......"

Kotori's eyes were red due to the circulation of blood, she rested her head onto Shidou's shoulder. Through the bodily contact Shidou was able to feel her rapid heartbeat as well as her damp body due to sweat.

"Look, it already ended. There's no need to be afraid anymore."

"Nn, nn......"

After taking a deep breath, Kotori finally released Shidou's hand.

However——At that instant.

"Eh......!?"

Suddenly, all the lights in the room went out, causing the loudest wail of today to cry out.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA——!!"

"U, wah! Ca, calm down Kotori!"

Perhaps she panicked due to the sudden turn of events, in the pitch black darkness, Kotori pounced onto Shidou's.

Shidou gently patted Kotori's back attempting to calm her down, at the same time he took out his handphone as a form of illumination.

"Is it a power trip......? I'll go and take a look, so can you stay here and wait for me......"

"I dun wadda! (I don't wanna)"

Kotori said using a voice that was on the verge of breaking down, hugging him tightly.

"There's no helping it then......Then let's go and take a look together."

"Au——......"

Shidou stood up, Kotori on the other hand was tightly gripping onto his hand.

Using the weak light to illuminate their front, they slowly moved from the corridor to the circuit breaker.

"Eh......There's nothing wrong with the circuit breaker. Don't tell me it's a power outage?"

"Eh? Ehh......!?"

Probably thinking that everything would be alright once they've arrived here, Kotori couldn't help but cry out.

"Th, then what should we do......?"

"Well......I guess we'll have to make do until the power comes back on again."

After Shidou said that, Kotori's eyes widened in horror.

"No......No way......! Absolutely not!"

Even if you say that there's nothing I can do. Shidou scratched his head feeling troubled.

However Kotori whose body was quivering like a small animal raised her head as though she had just thought of an idea.

"Th, that's right! Onii-chan, let's go to the <Fraxinus>!"

"Ahh, you're right. We still got that option."

Not even waiting for Shidou to finish his sentence, Kotori took out her earphone and put it into her ear.

"......He, hello! My name is Itsuka Kotori, is this Murasame-san!?"

Kotori seemed to be in panic as she spoke through the earphone.

"Ah, Reine! Can you immediately bring the two of us——Eh?"

Kotori was midway through her words when she stopped and turned to look at Shidou.

"O......Onii-chan......"

"Wh, what's the matter?"

"Th, that is......she said that there's something wrong with the transfer unit......it will only be fixed tomorrow morning......"

"Ah, is that so?"

Shidou frowned as he replied. Reine and the others just made use of that not too long ago......can it really happen in such a short time span.

Although he was not sure of the exact details, but if they were unable to make use of the transfer device, then they would be unable to be transported into the airship. It seems that they would have to scrap this plan.

"......Let's go back to the living room then."

"Uu......nn......"

Kotori made an uneasy sound, following Shidou's back as she held his hand tight. Shidou carefully made his way through the pitch black corridor.

When they arrived at the entrance of the living room, Kotori suddenly stopped in her footsteps.

"? What's wrong Kotori. Aren't you going in?"

"Gah......um."

Kotori looked embarrassed, she rubbed her thighs together as she lowered her head and twisted her body.

"I......I, need to go to the washroom......"

"Ha? Oh, then you should go then."

You don't have to explicitly voice it out......just as Shidou was contemplating that, Kotori shook her head with a degree of force that one might worry that it would fall off.

"H, how can I go......!"

"You can't very well hold it in for an entire night......"

"Uu......uuuu......"

Kotori frowned and raised her head, after taking a look at the dark corridor, she swiftly conveyed her thoughts to Shidou using eye contact, there's just no way she can do it!

"Br, bring the toilet bowl over......! I'm going to do it here!"

"Id, idiot! How can I bring that over!"

"Th, then I'll settle for diapers, hurry up and give it to me! Save me Moonyman!"<ref group="A">Moonyman is a diaper brand in Japan.</ref>

"You should just go——"

Just as Shidou started to speak, the doorbell rang.

"Eek......!?"

Kotori's body gave a violent jolt, she pounced onto Shidou. Lowering her head and fidgeting her body, she made a faint voice.

"Uu, uuu......I think it came out a little......"

"Eh?"

"N, nothing at all!"

Although there were many things that he did not understand, but he couldn't very well leave a visitor outside unattended. Shidou walked towards the entrance dragging Kotori along with him.

"I'm coming, who is it......"

After opening the door, standing outside was a tall male carrying an enormous cardboard box with his cap worn at the eyebrow level.

"Good evening. This is a package that was sent to your house."

"You are still delivering......at this time?"

"Yes! Do use it immediately!"

Shidou tilted his head. That voice feels familiar somehow.

"Don't tell me you are, Kannazuki-sa——"

"! I'll just leave this here then!"

"Eh, about that, don't you need me to stamp it......"

But the man left, just as Shidou was midway through his words.

"What in the world is going on here......"

Shidou stared at the door for a while before shutting it, looking at the cardboard box that was placed onto the floor.

After moving it to the corridor, he tore the tape and opened it.

Inside the box was a duck-shaped urinal for infants and diapers.

"Th, this is......"

"!! Hu, hurry up and give that to me!"
[[Image:dal_ss2.jpg|thumb|]]
Kotori yelled out, taking out the urinal from the cardboard box, squatting over it.

"Ho, hold on a minute! If you are going to do this it is going to be wrong on so many levels!?"

"I, I'm already at my limit here......!"

Kotori yelled as though she has run out of options, using her hands to hold her abdomen. Shidou couldn't help but lightly sigh.

"I understand. I will follow you then."

Saying that, Kotori hesitated for an instant before nodding her head.

"Nn......Thank you, Onii-chan."

Kotori said to him with an honest expression, exerting more strength into holding Shidou's hand.

"Uuh......"

Shidou let out a groan. Somehow......due to being constantly scolded by her recently, when the current Kotori is able to honestly rely on him like this, it made him feel extremely happy.

Shidou made his way to the washroom, building up his Onii-chan power as he did so.

"Well then, I'll wait for you here then."

"Nn......"

After Kotori lightly nodded her head, she timidly opened the door to the toilet.

"Kya......!"

However, she couldn't help but hold her breath and retreat a few steps back upon gazing into the space resembling a black hole.

Well, to be honest Shidou did understand how she felt, after all he too felt slightly creeped out. The current Kotori must be full of fear right now.

"I can't do it......I'm too scared......!"

"Even if you say that......there's no other way. Isn't it going to come out already?"

"Uuh......"

After Kotori made a tiny whine, she seemed to have thought of something as she opened her mouth to speak.

"O, Onii-chan should come in as well!"

"Ha......Haa?"

Hearing her sudden solution, Shidou accidentally let out an agitated voice while frowning.

"You, what are you saying. How can I——"

"Then I will do it inside the urinal! Or I will do it right here! I've already made my resolve!"

"What the hell!"

"Oh no, I'm at my limit! It's coming out!"

"Ah, really......I got it already!"

He couldn't very well let his fourteen year old sister do a disgraceful thing like leaking. As such Shidou entered the toilet while holding Kotori's hand.

"Onii-chan, please look the other way......"

"Oo, oh......"

Following her instructions, he turned his body towards the door. Very swiftly Kotori started to move behind Shidou's back, hearing the sound of thin fabric rubbing against each other, Shidou got a shock.

"Um, Onii-chan......Can you please cover your ears......?"

"! Ah, s, sorry......"

He totally did not notice this fact. Shidou hastily used his hands to plug his two ears. After which Kotori used her two hands to tightly hug Shidou's body.

......Although Shidou wasn't the cause, but he somehow felt that he was doing something extremely wrong, causing his heart to beat violently. An extremely massive sense of immorality filled his heart, exiting from his nose as heated breathing.

Not long after, the two hands that were wrapped around his body relaxed, softly hugging his back.

"It's alright now. ......Thank you."

"Nn......You're welcome."

Saying that, Shidou and Kotori walked out of the washroom together.

The problem was finally solved, Shidou breathed a sigh of relief.

However the next problem swiftly appeared——a few minutes right after they came out of the toilet.

"I think......since we can't do anything due to the power out, why don't we turn in early for the night."

As soon as Shidou said that, Kotori, "Ehh—......", made a voice of displeasure.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just......I haven't taken a bath today......"

Although the electricity reliant water heater has stopped working, but the power outage happened not too long ago, therefore the water in the bathtub should still be warm. However......

"......But, the bathroom is pitch dark as well you know? Will you be alright?"

"Uuu......But my body's all sticky......"

"Well you did make a big ruckus just now."

After Shidou spoke, Kotori pouted.

"Ab, about that, Onii-chan......"

"Nn? So you're finally giving up?"

"If, if it's possible, let's bathe together......"

"No way no way no way."

It was true that they used to take baths together when they were young, but it's impossible to happily bathe with his sister whose secondary sex characteristics are beginning to show. Shidou frantically waved his hands and objected.

And then Kotori tightly clung onto Shidou's body and pleaded.

"Onii-chan......This is my life's biggest wish......Please bathe with me......"

Kotori begged with a sobbing voice, rushing towards Shidou with a tear-streaked face. Shidou made a troubled expression and lightly sighed.

"Doing this is just not right......"

"There's no problem, because it's impossible to see due to the darkness! Furthermore we're siblings!"

"Um......"

"Oniiiiiii-chaaaaaaaan......."

"I got it I got it. I'll bathe with you, so stop clinging onto me!"

Faced with Kotori's forceful advances, Shidou finally gave in, he raised his two arms up to indicate his surrender. Only then did Kotori release her hold of Shidou's body.

"Really now......Only for today alright?"

Leading Kotori into the changing room, after preparing bath towels as well as clothes to change in, he started to take off his clothes with his back turned to Kotori.

"Uu......"

However, resistance still existed within him. Even though they were siblings, but bathing with a person of the opposite sex and similar age still does not feel right......

If Kotori were to speak of this incident to anybody Shidou may very well be dealt with the death penalty in society. Needless to say, neither his friends nor his parents must know of this.

Just as Shidou was contemplating upon these problems, behind his back came the sound of Kotori taking off her clothes. It seems that she has started to make preparations to enter the bath. As such Shidou too, hastily took off his clothes, placing them in the washing basket.

"Onii-chan......are you done?"

"O, oh......yeah."

A room devoid of light. Although his eyes have already gotten used to the darkness, but he could only roughly see Kotori's outline. However once he recalled that the sister before him is currently in a state with her clothes removed, he couldn't help but panic.

"Onii-chan......?"

"Aaah......I'm sorry, let's go in."

After Shidou entered the bathroom, he carefully felt for and removed the cover of the bathtub, immersing his body inside.

Usually he should first wash his body clean before entering the bath, but since they were currently in a special situation as well as in their own home, they would not need to care about that so much about that.

Closely behind Shidou, Kotori too entered the bathtub. Facing Shidou, she sat down in the bathtub like how she did during P.E. lessons. Due to two people entering the tub, a large amount of water flowed out as a result.

"Ah......A bath feels great."

"Uu, nn......After bathing in warm water I feel less scared compared to just now......"

The legs of the two constantly touched as they engaged in conversation. However, the two soon felt embarrassed due to the sense of fear dissipating, as a result they soon fell into silence.

"............"

God knows how long had passed, Kotori seemed to have made up her mind about something as she started to speak to Shidou.

"U, um......Onii-chan. Don't you think......it's a little cramped in here?"

"Nn? This is a bathtub designed for a single person after all. Well, since you seem fine by yourself, then I'll go——"

"Th, that's not what I meant!"

Sounds of water splashing could be heard. It seems that Kotori was waving her hands on the water surface.

"I'm saying......Can I go over there......"

"Eh?"

Shidou tilted his head in question, before he even had the chance to reply, Kotori suddenly stood up, turned around before entering the bathtub once more.

The end result was Kotori sitting on Shidou's body.

"Eehh......!?"

Thighs, stomach, chest were all in close contact with Kotori's soft skin. Shidou's body froze due to Kotori's sudden action.

......To be honest, he was truly careless. Although he kept saying "How can we bathe together......", but in actual fact deep down inside he felt that since they had already bathed together a few times before, there was no way he would commit any mistakes.

But, this is simply the worst. The absolute worst. What he felt from Kotori who was sitting on him, was not the weight of his cute sister, but the attractive warmth and feel of a female.

If he was unable to control himself here, Shidou would have reached the point of no return. When his parents return from overseas work, he may possibly have to introduce a new family member to them.

However Kotori did not sense Shidou's thoughts as all, she softly laughed.

"Ahaha......Onii-chan is scared as well."

"Eh? Wh, why do you say that......"

"That's because your heart is beating even faster now?"

Saying that, Kotori got even closer to him.

——The one I'm frightened of is you! Shidou yelled out loudly within his mind.

I'm at my limit soon, I have to hurry up and get away from Kotori.

Even though he said that, the current Kotori was in a state of fear, she would not be leaving Shidou's side that easily.

"Ah......That's right."

Shidou suddenly recalled something, using his hand to cover his mouth, he remained silent for a period of time.

Probably feeling that something was off about Shidou, Kotori spoke to Shidou.

"Onii——chan? What's wrong with you......?"

And then towards Kotori, Shidou used a low, menacing voice to reply.

"He, hehe......Your, Onii-chan has already disappeared from this body......"

"Kya......!?"

Kotori held her breath, her body started to tremble.

That's right. Since Kotori did not wish to leave Shidou's side, then he'll have to scare her to make her leave.

"O, Onii-chan!?"

"This body has already been possessed by me......"

"Ho, how can this be......"

"Kotori-chan, there's a very nice smell coming from your body......it smells very delicious......"

"Waaaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaaaaa!"

Kotori let out a wail, frantically moved her limbs. After that she stood up as though she wanted to escape from the bathtub.

Alright......Shidou reflexively clenched his fist. She fell for it, now it'll be alright once she escape into the changing room——

However,

"Onii—chan! Onii-chaaaaaaaan——!"

Kotori seemed to have remembered something as she suddenly turned around, attempting to enter the bath once more. Furthermore due to her panic, her foot slipped, falling towards Shidou.

The same time Shidou's face made contact with an extremely soft and warm area——he gave a wail. Kotori who suffered a fright due to this let out a wail as well.

"Waa——!"

"Waa——!"

......Screams continued to resound from the bathroom.

◇

"Ar, are you alright......Kotori......"

"Nn......and Onii-chan......?"

"Oh, I'm fine too......"

Peace at last, Shidou who had changed into his pyjamas spoke as he rubbed the part of his head that hit the side of the bathtub.

Although he suffered multiple injuries, but he has somehow avoided the worst case scenario. Even though he is the older brother he couldn't very well commit a mistake because of love. 

Looking at the time indicated on his handphone. It seems that two or three hours had passed.

"Since we've already brushed our teeth, let's sleep now."

"Nn......You're right......"

Kotori nodded, holding Shidou's hand in a natural fashion. Due to the recent turn of events, this action made Shidou's heart skip a beat......However he still had his pride as her brother, so he did not openly voice it out.

Just as Shidou was about to enter his own room, Kotori suddenly exerted more force into her grip.

......Well, he had already expected as much from the series of events. But Shidou still turned to face Kotori.

"What's wrong, Kotori?"

"......Today, please sleep with me?"

"......I expected as much——"

Shidou silently mumbled, nodding his head as though he had completely given up.

"Alright. But it's only for today."

"! That's wonderful!"

Kotori let out a joyful voice.

Well, what's this compared to bathing together. Shidou and Kotori first went inside Kotori's room to take her pillow before moving to Shidou's room. After placing the handphone at the shelf near the bed, Shidou lay on the bed.

"Hey, Kotori. Be careful not to fall off."

"Nn!"

After Kotori placed her pillow, she too joined Shidou. After Shidou stroked her head, he pulled the blanket and began to sleep.

"Good night, Kotori."

"Nn......Good night, Onii-chan."

Kotori spoke in a small voice. Although he couldn't see her expression, but he felt that she was probably smiling when she said that.

Perhaps it was due to fatigue, ten minutes did net even pass yet, Shidou had already slipped into deep sleep.

Just before he totally fell asleep,

"Today......really, thanks a lot. ——I love you the most, Onii-chan."

Seemingly hearing something like that, as well as feeling something soft on his cheek......Whether it was real or just a dream, Shidou could no longer tell the difference.

◇

On the main screen on the bridge of <Fraxinus>, showed Shidou and Kotori sleeping closely next to each other.

Looking at the image, the crew members nodded with satisfaction, clapping their hands together, some of them even started tearing due to the influx of emotions. Among them, there was also one who was screaming, "Why isn't there scenes of the toilet and the bathrooooooooooom!", but it would be alright to ignore him.

In a nutshell, the present was successfully handed over to Kotori. Reine watched the screen as she silently spoke.

"......Happy birthday, Kotori."

◇

"Seiya!"

"Gaoo......!?"

The next morning. Accompanied with the sunlight shining through the window, the violent impact generated at his torso, caused Shidou's body to nearly break in two.

"Hmph, what kind of cry was that, you can stay here and act like a lion if you want."

A strong voice sounded out. Kotori who had already changed was standing right there eating a lollipop.

——On a side note, her hair was currently tied up with black ribbons.

"Kotori......That is."

Due to the power outage last night, Kotori's black ribbons should still be unwashed......

"Ah."

At this point, Shidou noticed something.

Those black ribbons were too clean and neat to have been used for five years.

"You've already......put them on huh."

That's right. The ribbons that Kotori is using right now, was the present that Shidou gave her last night.

After all Kotori had been using the black ribbons since Shidou gave them to her five years ago. Although she had always been treasuring it, but wear and tear was unavoidable. The quality became rough, threads had already started to come out.

Shidou who had noticed this fact bought ribbons identical to the ones five years ago and gave them to Kotori once more.

"Well, Shidou's performance is average I guess. I'll commend you for that."

Saying that, Kotori jumped to the floor from Shidou's body.

"Nnn......"

Shidou slowly sat up, rubbing his throbbing chest as he did so.

"But......since you've already woken up you could have woken me up as well. You don't have to open the present and wake me after wearing that......"

"Hmph, the person who can't wake up only has himself to blame. ——Furthermore, I've already opened all the presents yesterday. I won't do something as rude as setting aside gifts for a night."

Her words and actions were totally opposite from yesterday. Shidou couldn't help but sigh while missing that cute little sister.

"Really now, you were still crying and shouting Onii-chan Onii-chan yesterday too......"

"Mach Pierce!"

"Guha!?"

Kotori hit him with an acceleration that utilized her full strength, Shidou groaned from the impact.

"You better come down quickly. ——Even though it's a little simple, but I've already made breakfast"

"Eh?"

Shidou could not stop himself from widening his eyes in surprise. Kotori was definitely bad at cooking......

"How rare. Have you been planning to do so?"

"......I just felt like doing it. And, I'm not too sure about the taste too."

"That doesn't matter at all. Thank you."

"......Hmph"

As Kotori finished, she twirled the stick of the lollipop with her mouth as she walked out of the room.

"......Nn?"

At this moment, he suddenly realized something.

Kotori's words just now, there was something odd about that.

Presents were already opened yesterday......Kotori did say that.

But ever since the power outage, Kotori had always been with Shidou.

If Kotori had the opportunity to move about by herself, she would only have a few minutes after Shidou fell asleep......But that would mean, Kotori would have to walk inside the pitch black house in the middle of the night by herself to the living room.

If she was able to accomplish that, then wouldn't she be able to go to the toilet and bathe by herself......

"Forget it......That's impossible."

Shidou shrugged. How can Kotori who was so afraid of the dark do that. She must have opened it when Shidou was unaware.

"——Shidou! You're too slow!"

"Oh no......"

The terrifying imouto-sama's voice could be heard from the bottom of the staircase, as such Shidou hastily walked out of the room.

End.

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===References===
<references group="A"/>

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Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter1 2

2013-04-17T15:16:15Z

Ambjoorn: /* Research. Part 2. */

===<noinclude>Research. </noinclude>Part 2.===

And a few days later.

"Valentine's Day?"

Yumi didn't expect anything to begin with, and Shimako-san tilted her head, asking, "What do you mean?"

"… Umm."

Yumi thought while scratching her non-itchy head.

How predictable. Shimako-san was clearly not the kind of person who gave chocolate to people on the fourteenth of February every year.

"Oh, Yumi-san, even I know about Valentine's Day."

She giggled politely. Oh, that's good, Yumi sighed, relieved. She didn't know what she'd do if she had to explain Valentine's Day from scratch.

"Saint Valentine, or Saint Valentinus, there're lots of pronunciations, but in Japan they call him 'Valentain' don't they."

"Vale…?"

"Valentine. The name of an Italian saint that was martyred. February fourteen is a holiday for him."

"Mmm."

Shimako-san's explanation sounded extraordinarily genuine and dignified.
Regretfully, she wasn't able to ask about this in the sanctuary. Instead, they were in the dressing room inside the gymnasium. It was the break-time before physical education, so the appearances of other students' thighs and in their underwears leapt into her eyes.

Yumi'd paused in the middle of changing for the conversation, so she hurriedly shed her petticoat and put on her knee-high, black spats. Then, she took off the three-quarter sleeved v-neck shirt that she wore instead of a one-piece or a babashirt[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#babashirt], and put on a white collared gym shirt that had "1 Peach 33 Fukuzawa" sewed on to the front. And with her arms exposed, she felt goose bumps all over. Not that she could do anything about that, it was retribution for keeping herself too well cared for on a daily basis.

"I don't know when or how the holiday arrived on Japanese shores, but chocolate is very unrelated."

Having finished changing, herself, Shimako-san bundled her soft, cotton-like hair with a plain, thick black rubber band, and then tightened a hachimaki that matched our class color – peach. Shimako-san often looked soft and impossible to restrain, but in truth, she always walked around with a straight back, and no matter the weather, she carried herself without ever letting down. It is like she's always tense. She looks like such an angel, but you can never figure out what she is thinking, so in a way she is quite mysterious.

"Then, you're not giving Rosa Gigantea chocolate?"

Lowering her voice, Yumi whispered in Shimako-san's ear.

"Oh, that's what you meant."

Shimako-san smiled, finally piecing together what Yumi had meant. She'd been asked, what are you going to do for Valentine's Day? But Yumi thought, wouldn't you normally immediately think about chocolate?

"Chocolate…"

"Yup. Shimako-san became Rosa Gigantea's sister a little earlier than me, right? So I was wondering what you planned for Valentine's Day."

Would you call it research? She wanted to gather as much information as possible and come up with a masterful plan. It was the idea behind her asking around. But Yoshino-san was completely unreliable.

"… I'd not given it any thought."

"Probably."

She didn't feel disappointed at all. Because Shimako-san was a question mark from the start, so she'd given up before she'd asked.

Yumi and Shimako-san's image of Valentine's Day was too different. After all, she talked about Saint Valentine. She'd probably never done something as mundane as sending a gift of chocolate. … Probably not even to her father.

"I'm sorry I couldn't serve as a reference."

Shimako-san concluded the conversation the same way as Yoshino-san and stepped out of the dressing room.

Even with a sweatshirt and a jersey training pant, February physical education was tough. The light jogging to warm-up bodies didn't work, because cold air drifted through the space in the cloth, so it ended up being more of a war of attrition. Blowing hot air into her cupped hands, Yumi simply wanted to avoid jamming her fingers as she ran.

Because today, they were going to play basketball.

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Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter9 2

2013-04-17T01:08:17Z

Ambjoorn: /* By onee-sama's side. Part 2. */

===<noinclude>By onee-sama's side. </noinclude>Part 2.===

"Uhh, ummm. I know it's an indecent request."

It was just after eleven thirty at night when Yuuki prostrated himself in front of Rosa Gigantea and Sachiko-sama.

After our late dinner, we split up and cleaned the dishes, and has then split up into the Lillian and Hanadera groups.

This house had many guest rooms, but they were all semi-double or twin bedrooms, so even if we could fit two people into one, it wasn't possible to crowd three, so aunt Sayako suggested we spread blankets in the Japanese-style room. It was like we were lodging, after all, so Sachiko-sama had to be with us.

We dragged three sets of blankets from the blanket room (!) to the Japanese-style room we played cards in, amused ourselves by spreading our blankets out like a parachute, and put them down. We felt so much better when Kashiwagi-san left from our sight that it almost felt mercenary.

After spreading out the blankets, we went into Sachiko-sama's bedroom bathroom by seniority (as big as it was, we couldn't fit all of us at once), and as I was enveloped by Sachiko-sama's own body soap and shampoo, I couldn't stop myself from humming. Maybe I was this happy because I was able to see Sachiko-sama's room. As I expected, it was gorgeous, but I won't bother explaining. I'm feeling this good, there's no reason for me to compare it to my own room and depress myself.

And, we were in the middle of deciding who was going to sleep where when Yuuki stumbled into our room. Of course, we immediately thought, "What!?" and Sachiko-sama even quickly wrapped her negligee with a gown.

"Um, so, what. You don't want to sleep alone with Kashiwagi. So you rolled into the room of the three, young maidens."

Hmmhmm, abbreviated Rosa Gigantea, who looked like she was cordially listening, but in truth, she was definitely finding this hilarious.

"Yes."

Yuuki nodded, looking troubled.

"I get it."

I didn't understand him at first, but I realized Kashiwagi-san's orientation and thought, "Oh, wow."

Neither Sachiko-sama nor Rosa Gigantea asked "why." Because they knew, of course. That Kashiwagi-san was a homosexual. But they both had, like me, probably forgotten all about it.

(But, but.)

Even if he's a homosexual for boys, did it necessarily mean he liked anyone? After all, Hanadera Institute is an all-boys school, so it would be like unleashing a wolf among sheep, so that would be extremely dangerous.

"Kashiwagi-san is rather distrusted, isn't he?"

"How rude, Rosa Gigantea. I am always a gentleman."

And Kashiwagi-san appeared, having pursued Yuuki. This time, I covered my pajama with a sweater. Rosa Gigantea seemed to intend to sleep in a T-shirt and spats, but she didn't care about the male eyes. –Though I think she should have fretted about it just a bit.

"I was joking, Yukichi. Here, come."

He lifted both hands and gave a somewhat crooked smile, like that of Rhett Butler. Even if you weren't Yuuki, you'd want to run from that. I felt goosebumps all over.

"Even if you were just teasing, don't you think the fact that he believed you reflects on your habitual behavior, Kashiwagi?"

Said Rosa Gigantea. Wait, can you be talking?

[[Image:MM_v04_08.jpg|thumb]]
"Not that you can be talking."
See.

And everyone could see Kashiwagi-sama's counterattack coming.

"I mean, who do you think you are, anyways? A woman talking to a man like that. Is that what the ladies' school, Lillian, is coming to these days? How uncute."

"Hmph. None of your business. And if the student council president has such an old-fashioned view on women, Hanadera isn't much of anything, either. Buddha must be rolling in his grave."

"What-!"

Maybe it was because they hated each other, because they were really going to the extremes. Plus, they were both good with words, and they had the confidence of student council presidents. And to top it off, now they were fighting for their school pride. And Yuuki, who sort of caused this, was looking confused about what to do.

"Sure, Yuuki-san. Go ahead and bring blankets. Not with us, but you may use the empty room on the other side of these sliding doors."

Leaving that seemingly endless verbal spar to the side, Sachiko-sama turned to Yuuki.

"Th, thank you very much. Sachiko-san."

(Sa, Sachiko-san!?)

Even though he was my blood-related brother, I became enraged. Calling my precious onee-sama by "-san!?"

"Yumi. Lead him, please."

"… Yes."

I reluctantly stood up. Onee-sama's orders are absolute, anyways. And Sachiko-sama didn't seem perturbed by being called "-san," so there was no point in me kicking up a fuss about it.

"Oh, I'll go too."

Kashiwagi-san paused the fight and said.

"Wait."

Rosa Gigantea hurriedly stopped him.

"Why're you going?"

"If Yukichi is going to sleep here, I have to bring my own set of blankets, too."

Never questioning his own properness, Kashiwagi-san continued, with an "I mean, think about it" expression on his face.

"Even if you're next door, it's still just a single sliding door. And Yukichi's a healthy guy. Yumi-chan aside, if he were to attack Sacchan or you, what would you do? So I need to keep watch over him."

You're more dangerous, I thought, but then I remembered Kashiwagi-san isn't interested in girls. Well, thinking objectively, without thinking of Yuuki as a relative, a high school male was indeed dangerous, but. Ummm. But I'd rather not think about that. I mean, he is my brother.

Then.

"Sachiko-san, are you still awake?"

The door to the hallway slid open, and aunt Sayako peeked in.

"Oh, Suguru-san was here, too?"

"Oh listen to them, they're trying to leave me out, alone."

Without any humor or jest, Kashiwagi-san bluntly spoke the truth. Well, we were trying to eliminate Kashiwagi-san, so I guess he does end up being "left out."

"My, why?"

"Probably because I'm handsome."

-If Yoshino-san were here, she'd say his brains definitely melted somewhere.

"No, that's not-"

When I began speaking, Rosa Gigantea harrumphed and stopped me. Apparently aunt Sayako doesn't know of Kashiwagi-san's "preference." Well, when you see aunt Sayako's serene smile, you end up feeling like you shouldn't tell her.

"Oh, come come, play nice, okay?"

"… Yes."

And so, despite everyone else objecting, Kashiwagi-san was to sleep next door with Yuuki.

"-Oh well, then. Okay, Yuuki, if Kashiwagi attacks you, shout for help."

Said Rosa Gigantea to Yuuki, who was walking to bring blankets.

"Oh, mother, did you want something?"

She said "good night" an hour ago, but she suddenly came back, so of course she probably had a reason. And she was wearing a gown over her pajama, so aunt Sayako seemed to already be prepared to go to sleep.

"Oh, yes, yes. Sachiko-san. Isn't tonight the night to float treasure boats?"

"Oh, that's right. The second of every year. I had completely forgotten, I'll get them ready now."

And with that, Sachiko-sama left the Japanese-style room. And she returned with "writing utensils" such as brush pens, magic pens and ball pens, as well as neatly colored paper, so I could surprise those were the tools needed to "float treasure boats."

"What's starting?"

Rosa Gigantea didn't know either. She asked aunt Sayako, who'd pulled a cabinet table from the corner of the room to the light and begun writing on the back of the colored paper.

"'Nakakiyo,' you don't do it at Sei-san's house?"

"Nakakiyo?"

Of course, we didn't do such a thing at the Fukuzawa household either. I don't even know what it is.

"Oh, nakakiyo? Wow, how nostalgic. I didn't know you still did that."

Kashiwagi-san said, as he put his blankets down.

"What's 'nakakiyo'?"

Yuuki asked.

"You guys don't do it, either?"

-No, we don't. So, what's this "nakakiyo?" Does it have to do with treasure boats?

"It's a charm. They say if you write a song starting with nakakiyono on a sailboat and put it under your pillow, you see a good first-dream."

As Sachiko-sama explained, aunt Sayako seemed to have finished writing, as she placed her brush pen down. The words she showed me had beautiful, flowing handwriting.

Nakakiyono

Toononefurino minamesame

Naminorifuneno

Otonoyokikana

"Hmmhmm, a palindrome."

Rosa Gigantea nodded.

"A palindrome?"

I tilted my head, and then Yuuki blushed and muttered, "You don't even know that?"

"Read it backwards."

"Nakakiyono- oh."

Wow. It was like "tomato" and "shinbunshi (newspaper)." Oh, there was a Koike Keiko-san in my class, too. I mean, I'd end up "Miyuwazakufu," so that's no fun.

"But, what does it mean?"
It sounded more like an incantation than a charm, to me, so it didn't soak into my heart at all. I mean, what's "nakakiyo," anyways?

"'Nakakiyo' is for 'nagaki yono (of the long night).' Changing the voiced sounds into non-voiced sounds, like the iroha song, you know?"

"Iroha song?"

"You know. 'Irohanihoheto' is for 'Iro ha nioedo (the fragrance of colors).'"

"Ah."

I found that out for the first time. But I didn't want to embarrass my onee-sama any more, so I stayed silent.

Nagaki yono (of the long night)

Touno neburi no mina mezame (everyone awakens from a distant sleep)

Naminori fune no (the surfing boat's)

Otono yokikana (pleasant sounds)

Sachiko-sama wrote a song mixing kanji and kana. And then the unintelligible incantation magically turned into a 31-syllable poem.

"Nagaki yono-"

I didn't understand exactly what it was supposed to mean, but I felt like I could see a wonderful dream while being softly rocked on a big boat. After all, that's what "otono yokikana" would mean.

"Is this an Ogasawara custom?"

"No, my parent's home. That's why I was so surprised the first New Year's after being wed, because no one folded treasure boats."

Aunt Sayako giggled like a young girl as she folded her sailboat. Yes, I don't think it's very prevalent in the world. At the very least, it's the first time I'd heard of it. Rosa Gigantea, too.

But, oh, as expected of someone from a noble family. When it comes to elegance, I think this is the zenith of it. Even if aunt Sayako wasn't the wife of the "rich Ogasawara household," she would probably be living elegantly like this, anyways. There might be other unimaginable customs floating around this household.

And, now Sachiko-sama folds treasure boats with her. Sachiko-sama's father and uncles were absent, but if guests or assistants remained in the house on the night of the second, they were mystified and did it with her. Kashiwagi-san, too. Because he was a cousin, he probably stayed over since he was young. It was a bit vexing, but as I said to Rosa Gigantea, it happened "before I became her sister," and I repeated that to myself like a mantra. The past is the past.

Of course, we folded treasure boats, too. If we could partake in such an unusual experience, and have a good dream on top of it all, there was no way I was going to miss out.

"Nakakiyono toononefurino minamesame…"

We copied the example Sachiko-sama gave us. The brush pen handwriting was artistic, and in comparison, our felt-tip pen handwriting looked much thinner and edgy, and because we were so used to writing horizontally, the letters end up gradually slanting. Plus, we spaced it horribly, so there was plenty of margin to the left and under it, so it looked pretty bad.

"Who cares. Once you fold it, you can't see it anymore."

Displaying mind reading skills, Rosa Gigantea consoled me. Of course, I was probably going through life's many phases, anyways.

We sat shoulder-to-shoulder and shared the small desk. I stole a glance at the completed and in-progress ones, and noticed Kashiwagi-san and Rosa Gigantea both had clean, skillful handwriting. It was like, not tall, or wide, or slanted, but rather was handwriting that would cleanly fit Japanese writing paper, that sort of model-like handwriting. And yet they still had a unique blend to their styles. So they looked completely different. That said, they were both strongly unique individuals, so that wasn't surprising.

Yuuki's handwriting was big and bold. It wasn't good, per se, but it had its own flavor. I was used to seeing it, but in this situation, it looked fresh.

After writing the song, I double-checked by reading backwards, and then folded the boat so the words were inside. First, you fold it into a regular boat, and then you add a sail. It'd been a while since I did origami so I was a bit confused at first, but after a bit of fidgeting with the windmill, I figured it out.

"Not like that, Yuuki-san, see, you fold this diagonally."

Sachiko-sama finished folding her treasure boat earlier, so she was teaching Yuuki how to fold it.

"How envious."

Whispered Kashiwagi-san, but the significance of that was unfathomable.

"Good night."

This time, really. Aunt Sayako returned to her bedroom after folding her treasure boat. Before the sliding doors were shut down, Yuuki dragged his sheets right next to the door, and dragged Kashiwagi-san's sheets to the complete other side.

"Sachiko, over there, Yumi-chan in the middle, and I'll be here."

Rosa Gigantea said they should pick who sleeps where with rock-scissors-papers in the beginning, but now she seemed to have a complete change of heart as she felt sleepy, directing people to where they would sleep. Rosa Gigantea closest to the room with the Hanadera guys, me, then Sachiko-sama.

"Children in the middle, you know. Yumi-chan is the youngest and has the smallest breasts, so you're the child."

"… Then Sachiko-sama's the mother and Rosa Gigantea's the father?"

I said what came to mind, and she wrapped an arm around my neck, "What a rude child."

"You shouldn't have any complaints, Yumi-chan, you're next to Sachiko."

"Right."

I felt happy and I felt a bit defeated. It was a chance to see Sachiko-sama's face, but in turn, she'd be able to see my foolish face.

"No need to worry yourself, Rosa Gigantea."

Sachiko-sama smiled.

"Nonsense."

Rosa Gigantea looked determined.
"You can't be too cautious."

She dubiously glanced at the door.

(… Oh, I get it!)

Rosa Gigantea didn't trust Kashiwagi-san. Should I be happy or sad that she wasn't thinking of Yuuki at all? She probably set up sleeping positions in case Kashiwagi-san had any weird thoughts.

Like, if he were to attack Yuuki, she'd be able to rush over immediately.

Like, if he were to try to go near Sachiko-sama. The two people in the middle would be obstacles, so we could thwart him. Even if he said he was only interested in men, he did have the precedence of trying to kiss Sachiko-sama, so you could let your guard down. But of course, that just made me an obstacle.

"What should we do about lighting?"

"How about a brown-out?"

I piped up.

"Brown-out?"

They both asked. Huh, they don't know what a brown-out is?

Then a poorly stifled chuckle from the other side of the door came through. –Kashiwagi-san.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to listen in. Yumi-chan, do you mean one light bulb?"

"Yes."

"What a wonderful expression. That does indeed turn the room brown."

But Kashiwagi-san's praise didn't make me happy. Oh, but his chuckle was contagious, as Sachiko-sama began giggling, too. Rosa Gigantea killed her voice by lying face down in her pillow.

"That's Yukichi's big sister for you. What a flavor."

I could just imagine Kashiwagi-san holding his stomach with laughter and Yuuki cradling his head in embarrassment. I'm sorry I'm an idiot, brother.

The other room seemed to pick "black" instead of "brown." I could see their lights being turned out.

And that left our room.

"I think it's easier to sleep in the dark?"

"As Sachiko says. Two-to-one, Yumi-chan's opinion is rejected. Lights out."

Quick vote, quick action, the lights were immediately snuffed out.

"Oh, evil."

"Yumi. Are you afraid of the dark?"

Sachiko-sama whispered.

"N, no."

"Ah, bingo."

Rosa Gigantea maliciously laughed.

"That's not it!"

Well, actually it was, but it's not something you admit. But of course, denying it was just like affirming it, anyways.

"Ooh, complainers get rolled into a reed."

Rolled in a reed? -As I pondered that, I think it was Rosa Gigantea, who tossed a blanket over me and tightened it from both sides. Umm, isn't this more like a Belgium waffle than a reed?

"If you're scared, 'fess up!"

"Waah."

Squeeze, squeeze.

"Onee-sama, save me."

Rosa Gigantea was going all-out in hugging me. It was through a blanket, but because Sachiko-sama was right there, she was enjoying herself to the fullest.

"Save, is something happening?"

"Rosa Gigantea-"

As soon as I started speaking, the lights went on. Under the bright lights, Rosa Gigantea backed off and surrendered to Sachiko-sama.

"I take back my words. I support brown. If something happens in the dark, our reaction is slowed."

"It seems so."

Still holding onto the string for the light, Sachiko-sama laughed bitterly. When I got up and looked at what they saw, the sliding door was open, and Kashiwagi-san and Yuuki both looked like they were going to jump in. It was hard to see if the door was open in the dark. Not that it was pitch black, because light came through the hallway lights.

"Just so you know, we didn't open the door for bad intentions."

"We know, we know. It's too early for a sneaking visit."

"Alright, then."

They were having such a childish fight earlier, so it was kind of surprising that they could have a mature conversation. –I thought. Understanding without much explanation, then receiving the sign of understanding, and through it all, even including a bit of jest.

Maybe Kashiwagi-san fit Rosa Gigantea's level of conversation perfectly. I mean, sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in a maze, but Kashiwagi-san deftly handled it like a game of catch. Though maybe it should have been obvious from the moment it was apparent they could have a verbal spat. But if I were to say that, Rosa Gigantea would squeeze me to death again.

But, "sneaking visit?" What era is she from?

"Yuuki, I won't make fun of your sister anymore, so go ahead and sleep."
Yuuki didn't know what was going on, but when he heard his name, he snapped back and hurriedly closed the door he opened.

"G, good night."

"Yes, good night. Yuuki's cute."

Rosa Gigantea seemed to think fondly of my brother. Maybe she likes raccoon faces.

"Then this uncute fellow will retreat, too."

"Thank you for your troubles, Mr. Bodyguard."

"No problem."

Kashiwagi-san closed the other door, and Sachiko-sama mumbled.

"Suguru-san, thank you for your concern."

"Good night."

Kashiwagi-san shut the doors together softly. And then on the other side of the door, they began wordlessly pillow fighting, so it was kind of exasperating. But after the conversation about attacking and not attacking, it was kind of smile-inducing.

"Well those treasure boats are going to end up lost."

Turning the room brown after leaving one lightbulb, Sachiko-sama slowly slid herself into the sheets to my side. And that slight breeze sent the fragrance of her shampoo to me. My hair, or Sachiko-sama's hair, or maybe Rosa Gigantea's hair, I don't know. Not that it mattered, I felt peaceful anyways.

"By the way, Yumi-chan, we're getting up at six thirty tomorrow morning."

Out of the blue, Rosa Gigantea placed an already-set alarm clock next to my pillow.

"Ehh."

There's no school, so I whined for more sleep, but she would have none of it.

"We're eating breakfast together. Because it's 'lodging.'"

She explained aunt Sayako's cooking was delicious but took extraordinary time to finish. So the plan was to occupy the kitchen before she began making breakfast.

"If she wants to eat bread, she's the type of person to start measuring out how much flour would be needed."

Sachiko-sama sighed. Well, she was so confused about pouring tea that it was understandable. Of course, employed cooks usually prepared meals.

"… If we also did radio exercise, this would be a complete lodging."

I let slip, and Rosa Gigantea began cackling.

"Sounds nice, let's do it."

"Feel free. But, I won't be accompanying."

-Indeed. Sachiko-sama and radio exercises were a mismatch.

Rosa Gigantea said she'd drive Yuuki and I home after breakfast, but I politely turned her down. Apparently it took a while to walk to the nearest station, though, but I would also prefer not to ride with Kashiwagi-san. Since he's the same age as Rosa Gigantea, he's likely recently gotten his license, too. I don't trust his handling technique, plus there's that red car. I became embarrassed just looking at it.

What to do.

While I pondered, the blanket warmed my body, and I slowly drifted. The pillow fight next door had ended at some point, so it was silent. They were so active right before sleeping, so they must have gone straight to sleep.

I thought I'd never actually like Kashiwagi-san, but he wasn't as bad as I thought. After all, he's related by blood to Sachiko-sama, and she did like him a long time ago (this is important!). So he's not really that bad.

I turned around and went closer to Sachiko-sama. So we wouldn't get cold, we had stuck our blankets next to each other.

(Did onee-sama already go to sleep?)

I could feel Rosa Gigantea, behind me, was already in sleeping mode. Hey, hey, weren't you going to protect us?

I decided to leave it at "I never heard" her soft snores. Not for Rosa Gigantea, but for Rosa Gigantea's fans.

(Still, it's like a dream.)

In the brown room, I could see Sachiko-sama's sleeping face at an arm's length. I was the only one that could savor this scene, this moment.

Not even her cousin, her fiancé, Kashiwagi-san.

I truly appreciated being born a girl who could become Sachiko-sama's sister, and that I was a Lillian student at the same time as Sachiko-sama. I thanked Maria-sama with all my heart.

I usually sleep facing up, but I decided to sleep with my right shoulder down.

-And that's when Sachiko-sama's eyes opened.

(Eh!?)

[[Image:MM_v04_09.jpg|thumb]]
I panicked, like a middle-aged man who just got caught peeping, but Sachiko-sama didn't seem to be scolding me.

"Yumi."

Sachiko-sama spoke to me in a voice only I could hear.

"Y, yes."

"I'm glad you could come today."

"Yes."

"If you don't mind, feel free to come again."

"Yes."

As pathetic as it may seem, I could only say "yes," not being able to answer fully. I don't know if Sachiko-sama was exasperated or not, but she giggled, said "good night," and closed her eyes again.

She went through the trouble of talking to me-. I felt guilty, but I also became elated, replaying Sachiko-sama's words in my mind.

(Did she say she was glad? And, I could come again?)

I was so excited the drowsiness that was visiting me just a moment ago vanished.

I even folded treasure boats, too. If I didn't get to sleep soon, morning would arrive.

But my simplistic mind simply repeated Sachiko-sama's words like a circular canon.

I'm glad

Come again

I'm glad

Come again

Eventually those words became waves, and I was on a big boat riding those waves.

My first dream was of Sachiko-sama cosplaying as Benten carrying a towering stack of sushi boxes.

When I thought I should help, Rosa Gigantea, looking like Daikokuten, arrived with bags of takoyaki and toumorokoshi slung over her left shoulder, and she chased me everywhere while cackling with a small mallet.

And when the mallet hit me, lots of small candy sprayed everywhere. Like rain, and that rain never ended.

Nagakiyono touno nemurino minamezame naminori funeno otono yokikana

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Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter8 3

2013-04-16T23:19:12Z

Ambjoorn: /* With the archenemy. Part 3. */

===<noinclude>With the archenemy. </noinclude>Part 3.===

So, without really figuring out what was going on, we began playing a poem card game, and I was swept along with the momentums, so without realizing it, I actually began playing around with Sachiko-sama's mortal enemy, Kashiwagi-san.

We'd moved places to the Japanese-style room, which is where we ended up playing. The scent of the freshly-laid tatami tickled my nostrils, and the room was decorated with a lavish India-ink hanging scroll and a shouchikubai flower arrangement. This room was designed so that if you removed the sliding doors, it could become twice or even three times as spacious.

The results of the match were, of course, the complete defeat of the Fukuzawa siblings, who weren't used to playing such a refined game. In contrast, the Ogasawara relatives had years of experience, so there was simply too much of a difference in skill. That said, even though it was obvious how things would turn out, losing was vexing.

"Okay, how about diving up into teams and playing cards?"

Kashiwagi-san suggested.

Rosa Gigantea, who'd lost to Kashiwagi-san by one point, agreed vigorously. She seemed to be looking at it as a chance to take revenge.

"Sure, but how should we split teams?"

"If we do the Fukuzawa siblings, then the Ogasawara family, that would leave Rosa Gigantea and I-"

"What-!?"

Yuuki and I, as well as Rosa Gigantea all raised a complaining voice. Of course. Turning it into a team match was theoretically supposed to be to even things up, so sticking the inexperienced Fukuzawa siblings together was absurd.

That said, Rosa Gigantea was complaining for a different reason. They had bad blood between them, so the two of them teaming up wouldn't end too well.

"If half object, I guess that idea's been rejected."

He probably said it just to say it. Because he backed down quickly.

I glanced at Sachiko-sama, who was putting away the poem card game. She looked like she didn't really care who she was paired with. Aunt Sayako, to her right, looked the same. They're so mature.

I mean, I'm not saying it aloud, but I wouldn't like it if Sachiko-sama and Kashiwagi-san were paired. And like Rosa Gigantea, I would prefer if I wasn't paired with him, either. But if everyone said something that selfish, we wouldn't get anywhere.

"Auntie and I, Sachiko and Yumi-chan, and the two men?"

-Suggested Rosa Gigantea. Kashiwagi-san seemed to be pleased by the suggestion, too.

"What a wonderful arrangement. Yukichi, come here."

Kashiwagi-san slid to the side, opening the space next to him. He seemed to be in very good humor.

(…?)

I knew Kashiwagi-san was a homosexual, but was he really that fond of placing the raccoon-faced Yuuki next to him? I mean, I'm not a male homosexual, so I can't really say much about it. Speaking of which, Yuuki was the one being rather indecisive.

"Onee-sama, shall I come over?"

"Please."

I settled down where Yuuki used to be. Rosa Gigantea slid over, and with that, every pair was able to sit next to each other.

"What first?"

Rosa Gigantea shuffled the plastic cards with blinding speed.

"Shall we start with babanuki[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#babanuki]?"

Aunt Sayako giggled.

"Yumi, you're in charge of taking the card from the neighbor."

"Ah."

"Okay? Be insentient as you do it, and then hand it to me. I'll manage our cards."

Sachiko-sama whispered in my ear, at the start.

"Oh, battle plans? How friendly."

Rosa Gigantea laughed, teasing, but I didn't understand that "battle plan." Because babanuki was luck-based, wasn't it? It's a simple game where you discard pairs while taking and giving cards?

But I realized it wasn't so simple. It was usually an individual game, so that left one person on each team free to perform a task. Thus, the game hinged on how that free person was used.

(What… what?)

Right after everyone spread out their cards in a fan, Kashiwagi-san just stared at me. We were going clockwise, so sitting to our left, they would take cards from Sachiko-sama.

Wondering why he was doing that, I took a card from aunt Sayako's fan.

(Insentient, insentient.)

However. I glanced at the card as I handed it to Sachiko-sama, and I reflexively went, "Erk!"

(J, Joker…)

The Joker is the "baba." How unfortunate to draw the Joker in the first turn. Then, Kashiwagi-san's eyes glimmered.

"Yumi-chan, you just drew 'baba' didn't you.'

"Ah."

When I shouted, Yuuki and Rosa Gigantea, whom were supposed to be enemies, both said, "Idiot." And Sachiko-sama, to my side, sighed.

Of course, my reaction at drawing the joker was bad enough, but then my reaction to his question was even worse. It was like saying, "Yes, we have the Joker."

"So that's what you meant by insentient."

Sachiko-sama said, "Don't worry, we just started," and placed a reassuring hand on my depressed shoulders.

I learnt a lesson. You couldn't underestimate "babanuki." It's a poker-like adult's game.

Afterward, I pulled cards while singing "Maria-sama's soul" in my mind. As a result of it, the game continued without a hitch, and we were able to finish first. Maria-sama may have lent her strength to us.

But when it came to intellectual games like shichinarabe[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#shichinarabe] and doubt, Kashiwagi-san and Rosa Gigantea showed immense skill.

"Yumi-chan, keep this in mind. Men that are good at shichinarabe are men you want to avoid at all costs."

"If I may interject, ladies that are great at doubt are like they're admitting they're great liars, are they not?"

And so they argued. Rosa Gigantea and Kashiwagi-san were like archenemies. They were similar, and yet very contradictory.

"Shall we take a break?"

Aunt Sayako said, and their circle crumbled. They looked like they were relaxed, but everyone was pretty focused.

After the poetry card game, babanuki, shichinarabe, doubt, scum, rummy, concentration, page one, and then ladders, so it was already past eight. Time flies when you're having fun. I looked at the score we kept on a notepad and was surprised we'd played so much.

"Where could I wash my hands?"

I stood up.

"Oh, I'll lead you."

Rosa Gigantea went with me. She knew her way around another person's house. She took my hand and lead me down the halls.

"Rosa Gigantea, have you been here before?"

She seemed to know Sachiko-sama's mother, too.

"Indeed. This year, no, I guess it's more like last summer, I came over. Rosa Chinensis was with me, of course."

"Mmm."

"Jealous?"

Rosa Gigantea stopped and pinched my cheeks. I'm not being sullen!

"It was before I became her sister."

It would be illogical to be jealous, I thought. I mean, of course. That said, I also felt it was natural that I'd be a bit envious when listening to stories about onee-sama before I came to know her. So in the end, I probably was being sullen.

"Righto, youths with bright futures shouldn't be bothered by the past."

Rosa Gigantea opened the brown door in front of her. That seemed to be the washroom. It seemed like it wasn't designed just for one person, so Rosa Gigantea came in, too.

A rich person's house seemed to be on a different scale from a regular house in every way. It was like a miniature version of the washroom at the high-class hotel I went to, when my cousin married last month. The floor used a fluffy carpet material, there were powder room corners separate from the washing counter, and hand towels were neatly folded in a cute basket, imploring you to use them. The lighting utensils were shaped like flowers, and it was just lovely.

There were three individual rooms. And each bathroom was around twice as large as the western-style toilets. Apparently this was the visitors' restroom, and there were other, employee-use restrooms and family-use restrooms fitted around the house. Sachiko-sama's room came with a bathroom and toilet, so this house was definitely like a hotel.

"After we graduate, you should just come over to visit every now and then."

When I was washing my hands, Rosa Gigantea began speaking to my reflection on the mirror.

"What?"

"Probably when her uncles and father aren't home, like today."

"I don't follow?"

When I asked, she said, "Wait a second," washed her hands, and dried her hands using the dry parts of the hand towel I used, before turning to me.

"Today, the Ogasawara men are with their other women."

"Eh!?"

"I told you about this before, didn't I? The men in this household are unique, they have other houses. On New Year's Day they have an exquisite party with their main household, right? And then on the second and third, they call it a vacation and let their housekeepers go home. And then the men go to the number twos. Actually maybe it's the other way around. Because the men aren't home, the housekeepers can take a break. Not that it matters."

"Then, the third is with their number threes, and the fourth is…"

I wasn't really trying to joke, but Rosa Gigantea laughed, anyways.

"I don't think I hear the term 'number three' used much. Anyways, I'm sure the men of this household have that many. Actually I hear they have a meal party with the executives from their company on the fourth, so they come home by then."

"You're pretty knowledgeable."

"Jealous?"

"… A bit."

When I grumbled, Rosa Gigantea grinned.

"People have their roles. She can't really show her weaknesses to you, because you're her little sister, you know? Likewise, I don't show any weaknesses to Sachiko, either."

"Then, why?"

"Sachiko's onee-sama is my friend."

"Rosa Chinensis…!"

Of course, Sachiko-sama was like Rosa Gigantea's little sister. Then she would talk to Rosa Gigantea whenever she was in a bind-

"Right, she told me. And Sachiko knows about that, so it's alright."

"Ah."

"In the end, it just means Rosa Chinensis trusts me. And by doing so, she's able to use me. And as a result, I'm just doing as she wants me to do."

"Umm."

Now she was losing me.

"In other words, the goal was to bring Yumi-chan and brighten the place. It's lonesome to sit here alone with her mother, while the men are off with other women. So we come in, brighten the place, and make everyone happy."

"Ah… oh, I get it."

So I don't need to wonder about any ulterior motives for buying temple food, eating them here, sipping tea, and playing card games all day.

"There was an unexpected person, but hey, everything's worked out, so who cares."

"I'm sorry."

Yuuki was probably the unexpected person. Of course, Kashiwagi-san was the one who brought him, but as his elder sister, I ended up feeling a bit responsible.

"No, Kashiwagi probably thought the same thing when he brought him."

"Brightening the day?"

"Yup. And Yumi-chan's brother is just like you, fitting in well and all. As expected of cousins, I guess? He knew what kind of person Sachiko-sama might be comfortable with."

"Ah."

I got a slightly better opinion of him, but I think I'll never able to like Kashiwagi-san. Rosa Gigantea opened the door to the hallway and crinkled her nose as she grinned.

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</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter8 1

2013-04-16T23:02:51Z

Ambjoorn: /* With the archenemy. Part 1. */

===<noinclude>With the archenemy. </noinclude>Part 1.===

"We're here."

I don't know what roads we'd taken, nor how we may have looked driving across them, but somehow we'd managed to reach our destination without getting in an accident. I don't remember how many times I must have repeated prayers.

"And… it doesn't look like heaven, yet."

Gathering some composure, I looked outside the window. We were in an extremely quiet, green neighborhood. It wasn't the quiet you'd describe the countryside with, like you would my home. The trees, which were grown with a clear esthetic sense, grew thick over the towering fences surrounding the site, as well as colored the peaceful promenade as roadside trees.

"Where are we?"

"Where we're staying tonight."

"You were serious?"

Rosa Gigantea was so carefree that I'd begun to doubt her words entirely.

"Of course I was serious. Hold on."

Rosa Gigantea stepped out of the car and pressed the interphone button in front of her.

(Interphone?)

It was a house with an interphone placed conspicuously right on the gate, like you would expect any other house. But of course, I felt out of place. Not because of the interphone, but because the interphone belonged to a house that was far, far larger than your regular house. Let's just say, it's larger than mine. By far.

Rosa Gigantea did say a friend's house, but I definitely didn't expect a house this large. I mean, I don't even know how large the house is, because I can't see the end of the fence from inside the car. I felt faint.

"And I'm back."

As Rosa Gigantea settled back into the driver's seat, the gate opened.

"Wow."

It was surprising enough that the gate opened by itself, but the intensity of the world that lay beyond it made me gulp.

"This isn't a school nor hospital, right?"

"Hahahah. I see."

After laughing, Rosa Gigantea pointed to the splendid nameplate that hung on the gate, as she slowly nudged the car forward.

I read it.

"Ogasawara."

(Eh?)

I re-read it, doubting my eyes.

Ogasawara.

The car slid through the gate. The afterimage of the plate was burnt into my mind.

"Umm, umm."

I became speechless, trying to say so many things at once. Opening and closing my mouth, not being able to make my vocal cords work, I clutched at Rosa Gigantea's arm, imploring her to stop.

"So, Yumi-chan, how do you feel?"

"Then, this is Sachiko-sama's-"

"Righto!"

"Rosa Gigantea, you liar! You never said we were going to Sachiko-sama's house!"

"Yes I did, I said we're going to a friend's house. And Sachiko's a friend, right? So I wasn't lying."

That's just a sophism! It was so obvious she'd been fudging over the fact so she could surprise me.

"But who cares. Yumi-chan, you wanted to see Sachiko, didn't you?"

"Of, of course, but, I mean…"

Then what, she asked, but I didn't know how to answer. But if she just drove me to Sachiko-sama like this, I don't know what I'd do. I wasn't in good condition, kind of.

"I haven't readied myself."

"Why? You see Sachiko every day at school, stop being so nervous. Relax, relax."

I wished she could lend me even a tenth of her composure. Rosa Gigantea ignored my petition and slowly moved the car along. It was like a forest after going through the gate, but there was a tube-like tunnel for the winding pathway through it.

"I mean, after all, it's not like we're going to Sachiko's parents and asking, 'May I have your daughter?' or something."

"P, parents!?"

I hadn't even thought about that. Sachiko's household meant, obviously, her parents would be in. What a rude "little sister" to be intruding on the second of the new year.

I wanted Rosa Gigantea to turn around, but it was too late for that. We'd already pushed ourselves into the house, the moment she used the interphone.

(Rosa Gigantea I hate you so much.)

When they finally finished passing through the forest, she found herself in the middle of an English-style garden, with a building that looked like a mansion, or maybe even more like a castle, in view.

"Umm, I think it was a right."

Rosa Gigantea turned the wheel, and they saw something like a parking lot. Something like, because there were other cars, but otherwise you wouldn't have been able to tell. As for why, that's because it was spacious enough to easily fit twenty plus cars, but unlike the parking lot at a supermarket or something of the sort, it had a neat roof.

"I have a bad feeling."

Rosa Gigantea muttered, as she saw a shiny, polished, red open-car in the lot.

"Bad feeling?"

"I can't explain it, but that car gives me a really bad feeling."

"Huh?"

"Umm, just think about what kind of guy that might belong to."

Rosa Gigantea deliberately chose the furthest spot from that red car, and parked. Red and yellow. It would be like a stoplight if they had a green car. When I looked at the other two cars parked in this space, I realized it was the parking lot for visitors, because there were no black cars.

"Alright, alright."

I stepped out of the car and helped guide Rosa Gigantea's parking, and imagined "what kind of guy that might belong to." Someone that's self-confident, conceited and narcissistic.

"Ahh!"

"What, what, Yumi-chan!?"

Rosa Gigantea, not used to parking, reacted to my voice, slamming the breaks and quickly sticking her head out of her window. She thought she was about to hit or scrape something.

"Oh, sorry, you're still alright."

"… Don't scare me like that."

She turned off the engine and tottered out of the car, holding a hand to her breast. Well, it looked like she was nervous about driving, after all. Plus, the car belonged to her mother, she said.

"Could it be… the prince?"

"Oh, that car? Yeah, I'm thinking the gingko kingdom prince."

We retrieved the presents, our belongings, and the food we bought at the temple, and walked toward the building.

"Because it's New Year's. Because they're cousins. Because they're fiancées."

I mumbled to myself. That it wasn't surprising that he was at Sachiko-sama's house.

"But Yumi-chan is boring."

"Ah…"

But in my case, I don't know if boring or interesting were a good way to describe me.

"Maybe that's why I was called."

As always, Rosa Gigantea abbreviated her sentences, so I needed someone to translate for me.

"Who called you?"

"Sachiko."

Of course, was Rosa Gigantea's facial expression. Maybe she knew everything, but I'd finally begun to understand what was going on. And even then, just roughly.

"So, Sachiko-sama called you?"

"Of course, what did you think?"

"That Rosa Gigantea was invading."

When I answered truthfully, Rosa Gigantea flicked my forehead, "How rude."

"She asked about my New Year's plans, and then said, 'Then would you like to come over to play?' She specifically singled out this date, Sachiko."

So Rosa Gigantea seriously tried to gather the three Rose families for a hatsumoude, but Rosa Chinensis and Rosa Foetida turned her down for prior arrangements (not that she was surprised, because she came up with the idea the afternoon before New Year's Day), and right when she gave up hope, Sachiko-sama called her with the pleasant invitation, so she took me along.

"But that would mean I wasn't called."

"Why? When I mentioned your name, she said, 'Bring her, please.'"

"Really!?"

Rosa Gigantea's words made me ecstatic.

"You know, both of you are so unlike one another, but for some reason you both are so passive. If you're both 'waiting' for the other to act, a hundred years'll pass before anything happens."

Right when Rosa Gigantea made her happy, she immediately dropped the floor out from under her feet. A hundred years'll pass- what a harsh way to put it.

"Speaking of which, what was the gingko prince's name?"

Had Rosa Gigantea tried to eradicate his existence from her mind? The gingko prince's name.

"Umm-"

But I couldn't remember.

I remembered his name wasn't Ogasawara, despite being her cousin. But it sounded like it came from the Tale of the Genji.

Ahh, I couldn't remember peoples' names lately. Should I start all over again from A?

"Oh, whatever, who cares about him."

Rosa Gigantea stood in front of the big, entrance-like door, and yanked on the chain dangling in front of her, ringing the doorbell.

It looked awesome. The building itself was very antique. I imagined a white-haired gentleman coming out, in a crisp, black suit, like in those western-style movies. Like a butler.

After a moment, I heard the lock being opened from inside. Unlike the gate, this one was manual.

"Satou-sama? Please come in."

The door was opened. But the person that answered the door wasn't a butler, as I'd imagined. Well, they were both men, I suppose, but he wasn't wearing a suit, nor did he have white hair. In fact, I recognized him.
"Huh?"

"Huh?"

We both spoke up. Not Rosa Gigantea and I, but the person who opened the door and I.

We looked at each other with a surprised face, like we were wondering if there was a mirror in front of us. Because the person on the other side of the door "wasn't supposed to be there."

[[Image:MM_v04_07.jpg|thumb]]
"Yuuki…?"

"Yumi…?"

I tried to get an answer from Rosa Gigantea. But it wasn't a continuation of her bag of tricks. Rosa Gigantea was also looking at us siblings, with amusement.

"What's going on?"

A tall man crept up from the hallway behind Yuuki.

"Yo, welcome."

When I saw him, the fog cleared from my brain.

(It was "ka"!)

The person who wrote Yuuki a New Year's card, the name I thought looked familiar. It was the tall man standing in front of me. –Ka, I remembered I skipped past it, for some reason.

Ka, for Kashiwagi.

Kashiwagi. Kashiwagi Suguru.

Rosa Gigantea and I both thought it was certainly not amusing that he was here, standing in front of us. The gingko prince, Kashiwagi Suguru. As always, he wore an invigorating smile on his face, and had the look of, "I belong here."

-And he rested a hand on my brother's shoulder.

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</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter7 1

2013-04-16T22:53:50Z

Ambjoorn: /* The hatsumoude on the second. Part 1. */

===<noinclude>The hatsumoude on the second. </noinclude>Part 1.===

They say the population of Tokyo is going down, but I think overcrowding is a bigger problem in some areas than others, because there're tons of people in some places and almost no one in others.

Really, if you go to place that's just a housing district, it's quiet, like the world just ended, so despite walking almost seven minutes to the bus stop, the only living being I crossed paths with was a stray cat.

Maybe most people don't think about going to hatsumoude on the noon of the second. Speaking of which, the postal services are probably on break, too, so the New Year's cards wouldn't be sent out today.

The bus routes that were so clogged with traffic during work days only had a few household cars passing by, and even those cars were sparse, so the streets were quiet. Even the air felt like it was trying to vanish.

Only I was waiting at the bus stop.

I looked right, at the direction the bus was supposed to come from. Nothing.

I lowered the shoulder-bag that hung over my right shoulder on the bench, and then sat down. The timetable for New Year's was a sheet of dyer paper pasted over the usual plastic timetable, but I didn't bother looking at it. This bus route went between JR Station and the private railway tracks, and because it went through a number of big crossings and picked up and dropped off people from schools, apartments and hospitals, it rarely matched up with the schedules.

(I wonder if father and mother have gotten to Yamanashi by now.)

I cradled the box of pastry on my thighs. Last night, mother went out and bought it. Because I was intruding in on someone else's property. So she bought three boxes of the same pastry, giving one to me and one to Yuuki, and then departed. These days, the number of department stores open on New Year's Day had increased.

Yuuki departed one step ahead and was lightly packed. I think all he took was a paper bag with the box of pastry. Men have it easy.

(Oh yeah, Yuuki said he was staying at Kobayashi-kun's house?)

He's a lively, nice kid. Well, we're the same age, but I nodded approvingly, in nee-san mode, and that reminded me of the New Year's card, the one with the familiar name.

However.

(Huh…?)

Because it was after a night's sleep, I couldn't remember anything about the name, much less what kanji it may have been made up with.

(Hmm. I guess I'll start from "A.")

Aikawa, Aizawa, Aida. … Oh jeez this'll take forever.

Just as I thought it probably wouldn't have started with an A, the bus came. Fitting the New Year's mood, it had a Japanese flag plate on its front end.

It was more crowded than I expected, but lots of people got off at that stop, so I was able to find a seat.

(Iida, Ikeuchi, Itakura-)

The roads were empty, so the bus went smoothly, like a monorail at an amusement park.

(Ueki, Usami, Uchida, Umezu-)

The temple you could see from the bus was surrounded by paper shides hanging from stretched-out, thin ropes, and you could even see the temple festival carts.

The temple you passed by when riding on the circulation bus that left M Station and went to Lillian Girls' Academy, I wondered if that one was also like this on New Year's. Temples dressed up on New Year's quite a bit, so it was a bit like Maria-sama being dressed up during the Maria festival.

(Etou, Enatsu, Enoki, Endou-)

While I did that, the bus reached the north exit of M Station. It usually took twenty minutes, but it only took at most half that today, so it was shocking. When I got off the bus and looked around, I noticed there were still a lot of people wearing kimono, because it was still the first three days of the new year.

(Oikawa, Ooki, Okano…)

-Ogasawara.

My heart skipped. Maybe I could see her today, I thought, and even my legs trembled with excitement at the thought, as I tried to climb the stairs.
(O is Ogasawara's O.)

-Ogasawara. Ogasawara Sachiko.

It'd been a quick three months since we'd performed the sœur ritual. Yet, I still didn't feel "calm" around Sachiko-sama. Having my sailor scarf tied had become more of a daily ritual, so I was getting used to that. But Sachiko-sama would always do the unexpected, and that would subsequently leave me scrambling to figure out how to respond.

Walking while holding my hand, untying one of the ribbons in my hair.

Sachiko-sama might not realize how I become petrified when she does something like that.

There were many people in front of the convenience store I was told to wait at, but no one I recognized.

(Did I arrive too early?)

There were more than twenty minutes left until the time I was told. Because someone else might come, in the meantime, I stood in front of the convenience store instead of waiting inside. I wanted to see someone I recognize quickly. I wanted to welcome everyone.

(Okuyaam, Osada, Oda, Onizuka.)

[[Image:MM_v04_05.jpg|thumb]]
I was bored, so I resumed the name-finding quiz.

(-Onda.)

But my memory wasn't even slightly stirred. It probably was from the A-line. Just as I was about to start down the K's, the automatic door behind me whizzed open. I tried to instinctively turn around, but the person who came out of the convenience store was way too fast, as that person embraced me.

"Gyauh!"

"… You sound like the child of a monster."

Sounding exasperated, the "degenerate" loosed her arms that had been wrapped around me from behind.

"After all, you are a Lillian student, so you should at least tone that down to 'Kya.'"

She didn't even need to look. That voice, and the feel of those arms.

"Rosa Gigantea-!"

When I spun around and knocked Rosa Gigantea's arms off, I felt like jumping, so elated I was to see her. It'd just been a week, but it felt so nostalgic.

"Alright! Happy New Year's!"

Rosa Gigantea opened a bag of candy mix, which screamed "I was just bought at this convenience store," with its logo'd tape, then reached in, grabbed a handful and stuffed it into my pocket.

"Ah, gochisousama."

I bowed.

"Eat it whenever you feel like it."

"But how about everyone else's share?"

A handful of candy might have been over half of the bag.

"Oh don't worry about it, I bought it for Yumi, the sweets-lover."

Rosa Gigantea unwrapped a maccha candy, tossed it into her mouth, and then rolled up the considerably emptied bag and smartly stuffed it into her own pocket. I wondered if she'd bought the candy, and then didn't feel like holding onto it, leading to the sharing. After all, she only had a small handbag, so there was nowhere for her to put it.

"What-?"

Rosa Gigantea glared back lightly, like she was scolding me, for my ill-mannered stare at her.

"Ah, sorry, it's the first time I've seen Rosa Gigantea in casual clothes, so it feels like it's something really fresh."

"Mmm."

Maybe she took care of the hair ends today, because her features looked especially sharp. She wore dark brown boots to go with her caramel-colored long coat. And she casually wrapped a condensed-milk-like white muffler, resulting in her looking really like an adult… or maybe more like a gentleman from outside the country. It was cool.

"Yumi-chan, you look cute, your navy duffle coat suits you well."

"Eh, oh, hardly, I'm nothing compared to Rosa Gigantea's expensive coat."

What was I hurriedly returning a compliment for? And who uses such a cheap term like "expensive" in such a situation, anyways? -As I depressed myself, I flicked my own forehead. In this sort of situation, Sachiko-sama would just smile and say, "Thank you."

But this was Rosa Gigantea.
"Yup, it was expensive. It's cashmere. Last year, no, maybe the year before that, I begged my parents to buy it for me. A combined Christmas and birthday present. And maybe my New Year's gift, too."

Rosa Gigantea was just as cheap. I felt like I was with an associate.

"But, dang, Yumi-chan's bag is stuffed. Do you have your pajama and change of clothes in there?"

She sniffed. Gosh, she's totally like a perverted old man.

"… Yes, I do."

Plus, my bath towel, my tooth brushing set, and other things like that. Personally, I thought Rosa Gigantea's setup was the bigger question. Because we were sleeping over, and not at a hotel, but at a home, right?

"But you came early, Rosa Gigantea, you came by train, right?"

I asked, while distancing my bag from Rosa Gigantea.

"Nope, I came by vroom vroom."

(…)

Vroom vroom, would be the kindergartener's way of saying "car." Gosh, an old man, or a baby, Rosa Gigantea really needed to pick.

"But there's no bus from M Station to Rosa Gigantea's house, right? Wow, you got driven by your parents? How wonderful."

"What, Yumi-chan, you want to ride a car?"

(… No, that's not it…)

I think Rosa Gigantea's wrong, here. But if I were to try to correct her, I'd end up confused, so I decided against it.

Sa.

Sa is Satou's as.

Satou Sei. –Also known as Rosa Gigantea.

"Okay, let's get going, then."

When I reached into my pocket for a peach-yogurt flavored candy, Rosa Gigantea said that, despite it being before the meeting time.

"Eh, what, but…"

I was about to ask about the other people, but she dragged me to the north gate.

"Did I ever say anyone else was coming?"

"Huh?"

"All I said was, let's go on a date."

"Eh!?"

"Fufufu. Gotcha, Yumi-chan."

Rosa Gigantea made a slurping sound and terrified me.

"B, but, didn't you say lodging…?"

I asked, frightened.

"One stick is still called a carrot. Two people is still lodging."

(Eek…)

"G, good bye."

I turned around.

"Oh dear. Do you think I'd actually let go of prey that easily?"

Rosa Gigantea grinned, as she dragged me back.

"Yumi-chan, you're sooooo cuuuuuuute. There there, let's go somewhere nice, with onee-san.'

"Please have mercy!"

Usually this would be when Sachiko-sama showed up. … However.

"Searching for Sachiko is futile. She's at home right nooow."

"Then, seriously?"

"Yumi-chan is all mine. How shall I cook you tonight?"

"Stooooop."

I squirmed, as Rosa Gigantea whispered into my ear, and she responded by hugging me like a doll.

"Hey! Didn't Sachiko teach you? When you act like that, it just serves to please me."

(… She might seriously be sadistic, Rosa Gigantea.)

And I'm masochistic because I enjoyed being scolded by Sachiko-sama, so we were a perfect fit. –Wait, what am I thinking?

"-Anyways, leaving sexual harassment at this…."

After touching me all over on her own accord, Rosa Gigantea either became satisfied or got bored, let go completely, like there was some sort of time trigger.

"Let's get going."

(…)

I feel like I heard her say that just a moment ago. I hope this person doesn't intend to repeat every action since then.

"Come on, let's go."

Rosa Gigantea went down the steps, first.

(…)

"Yumi-chan, hurry up."

(Ahhh!)

That's when I realized. The time between the first "let's get going" and the second "let's get going," Rosa Gigantea intended to act innocently, like nothing ever happened.

"Rosa Gigantea, you're sneaky!"

I caught up to Rosa Gigantea and lightly whacked her arm. The candy was swaying in my pocket.

I won't be deceived by this!

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</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter6 2

2013-04-16T18:10:21Z

Ambjoorn: /* The first of January. Part 2. */

===<noinclude>The first of January. </noinclude>Part 2.===

I was up until one on New Year's Day, but I was still awakened at seven o'clock by my mother.

But, this was customary in the Fukuzawa household on New Year's Day, so I had to get up, rubbing my eyes.

Well no, actually, stumbling down while rubbing my eyes wasn't allowed. First I had to brush my teeth, wash my face, and of course I had to change out of my pajamas. When I finally finished dressing myself, we were to gather in the only Japanese-style room in the house.

After all, we have to prepare ourselves for the upcoming year on New Year's Day.

When we became middle-schoolers, the ban on watching Kouhaku Utagassen[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#gantan] was lifted, so ever since then it became customary to exchange "Happy New Years!" greetings deep in the night. Even so, we still maintained our tradition of waking up in the morning and once again exchanging greetings before eating our ojuu. Then we received a sip of otoso, and opened our ojuu.

"Alright, I'll be taking mochi orders."

When everyone placed their chopsticks on the ojuu food, Yuuki stood up and began taking note of how much mochi everyone wanted. At the same time, father stood up and walked to the kitchen. In our household, it was customary that grilling mochi and boiling soba was done by the men, so mother and I didn't move. That said, it wasn't like we were supposed to happily eat while waiting. In the meantime, we'd prepare the ozouni for the mochi, and set up oshouyu and nori.

"But his unusual obstinacy is such a bother."

Whispered mother. Usually you could just toast mochi in a microwave, but mochi is better when it's grilled on an iron, my father said, and so we did it the old way. As a result, the one who washed the irons with carbonized mochi was his assistant. Poor Yuuki, he was destined to become the victim of father's obstinacy on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

The living room had a television, like it was from a completely different era, and it showed things like the first sunrise of the year, a shouchikubai, or an announcer wearing a kimono. The morning newspaper that was placed in the sideboard after father had finished reading it was thicker than usual, being the New Year's edition. And from those small differences from the normal day, you could feel that New Year's Day was a relatively special occasion, I think.

And while we dug ourselves into the horigotatsu while eating mochi and osechi, and sipping tea, the New Year's Cards would be distributed. Usually the postman would be riding around in a bike at this time of day, but during New Year's, the job is instead taking by university part-time workers. So even if a stack of postcards were placed in the mailbox, sometimes you never heard them coming, and you'd only realize it later.

It was the job of children to retrieve the New Year's Cards. –Or rather, more like a hobby. It was like trying to get a magazine you were waiting eagerly for. It was a pain to write them, but receiving them was a joyful occasion. Who sent me a post card? I wanna see! And so Yuuki and I alternated peeking out of the house and checked the mailbox every ten minutes.

After a number of whiffs, I coincidentally opened the door and saw the onii-san placing the stacks in our mailbox. Well, I say onii-san, but he didn't look like he was that much older than me.

"Thank you for your troubles."

We greeted each other, and he handed me to postcards directly. There were two stacks. The part-time nii-san, before moving on to the next house, stopped by the mailbox a few steps down, and placed a stack into my father's office's mailbox. It was ten forty in the morning.

Me first, we probably looked like, as we scrambled into the house and began dividing the cards.

To father, to mother, to me, to Yuuki, and then to father's office, they were all mixed together. Oh, and a few that had been accidentally mixed in, that were supposed to be sent elsewhere. As a result, the postcards were split into six mountains, and piled up before each respective person.

"Yumi, read your cards later."

Yuuki cautioned, not stopping. But even so, when you saw the name of who wrote you the card, wasn't it normal to want to flip to the back?

"Father, father, Yuuki, me, father, mother, father, father."

When she resumed working, to catch up, this time she was warned, "Quiet."

"Think it in your head, it's distracting."

"Yuuki's like a mother-in-law."

"Anyone would complain like this if their son had a wife like Yumi."

Giving up, I started saying, "father, father, mother, Yuuki," in my head.

(Huh…?)

But when she split a card to Yuuki, she felt like the name on the card was familiar. And it stuck her mind because the card was to Yuuki. Yumi thought, most high-school cards were from classmates or club-mates, but it wasn't a name she'd heard from Yuuki's mouth-.

(Who was it?)

But she couldn't double-check, because Yuuki stacked more cards on top of it.

She could have asked Yuuki, can I see who that was? But it would have been wasted effort if she'd been wrong, so she forgot about it. There're plenty of people with similar names, after all. And if Yuuki asked her about a card sent to her, she wouldn't feel too comfortable, either. Privacy is important.

Of course, almost half of the cards sent to our household were to father. And if you counted the cards sent to his office, how many is he receiving? It was overwhelming. Because, if you're receiving cards, it also means you're sending around that many, too, right? Becoming an adult is dreadful. Even our mother, a housewife, received far more than we did.

Having finished splitting the cards, Yuuki and I took our shares, split up a bit, and sat down on the sofa. It wasn't like "whoever has more cards is more popular," but it did put a bit of pressure on the other person. Luckily, we were about the same, judging from the thickness of our stacks. I was happy that the number of cards I received went up along with my New Year's gift when I became a high-schooler. Even though I wasn't a part of any club.

Instead of reading them in order, I looked for one name.
Ogasawara Sachiko.

The person I love the most at school.

Silently apologizing to Yoshino-san and Tsutako-san, I skipped past their cards, and as I began to worry, "Maybe she didn't send me one?" I found it.

"B, brushwork…"

Would it be called India-ink painting? It was a relatively simple postcard, with a plum flower painted using faint hues, and on top of it, with black India ink, "Happy New Year's," and "Best regards for the year," and then the year, and then "New Year's Day." The little stamp pressed to the side was Sachiko-sama's "Sachiko," in a brilliant scarlet accent.

"How refined…"

When I remembered the card I'd sent out, my face felt like it was on fire. It was bad enough that I hurriedly wrote it because I'd forgotten about it until the second-semester closing ceremony, but the New Year's card that I'd begged father to let me print off of his computer was rather scrambled and noisy. I should have just used a template that came with the word processor software, but I ended up adding a bunch of things, and in retrospect that was a bad idea. The letters were extremely fancy, and I used way too many colors.

Your personally showed in your New Year's cards. I carved that into my brain.

The first phone call we received for the new year came when mother was hurrying me about my Yamanashi decision.

"It's from grandmother."

Wait right there, she scolded, before she picked up the receiver.

"Happy New Years. It's Fukuzawa."
Her voice was an octave high. Oh, mother, her voice was in New Year's mode, too.

"Ah, yes. No, not at all. Thank you for looking after her all the time. Has she been bothering you much?"

Wait right there, I'd been told, so I couldn't return to my room. Plus, I'd finally finished writing the thank you cards, and had stumbled down the stairs to go to the bathroom, so the air conditioner in my room was still on.

(I hope it's not a long phone call.)

I tried to reason out who the caller might be, by concentrating on the receiver. From the speech mannerism, I could tell it wasn't grandmother. And it was someone "looking after" someone other than mother.

"I see. Please guide her in the future, too. … Please wait a second. I'll switch to her."

Still holding onto the receiver, mother bowed toward the phone, pressed the hold button, and turned to me, "Yumi-chan."

"Me?"

She wouldn't say "please guide in the future" to a friend of mine. But I couldn't imagine my homeroom teacher calling-.

(C, could it be…)

"It's Rosa Gigantea."

"Eh?"

"Rosa Gigantea, right? Satou-san. My, the Roses are so polite have such a proper way of speaking."

"---"

I forgot to mention that mother was a graduate of Lillian Girls' academy. She was a regular student who never dealt with the Roses, but her admiration of the Yamayurikai staff was extraordinary. She would probably be shocked beyond belief if she were to see how the real Rosa Gigantea acted, so I didn't deny it, simply agreeing, "Yes, she's so wonderful."

"Hello, it's me."

"Ah, Yumi-chan? Did you hope for a moment it was Sachiko?"

"… No. Happy New Year's."

"Happy New Year! Kingashinnen![http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#kingeashinnen] Bonne année! Boy, how joyous, how auspicious!"

"…"

Even in the new year, Rosa Gigantea's old-fashioned methods were still in good health.

"Did something happen?"

"I wanted to hear Yumi-chan's voice."

"Huh?"

"- Is a lie hohoho-"

"Did you call me to be the first to tease me?"

Rosa Gigantea might do it, seriously.

"Of course not. Getting right to the point, do you have any plans tomorrow and the day after?"

"What do you want?"

"I'm bored. Wanna go on a date?"

"Date?"

"Other people call it a hatsumoude[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#hatsumoude]."

"I'll go!"

I immediately OK'd it. This invitation was my wish. A hatsumoude with the Yamayurikai members.

And maybe I'd be able to see Sachiko-sama in a kimono.

"So, will it be the second or the third?"

"Are you open on both? Because it's a one-night two-day lodging course?"

"Lodging?"

"- Though by lodging I mean at a friend's house, so it's free. But, it's a sleep-over, so make sure you have your parents permission."

"Friend's house?"

"It's a big house, but their family is out for the second and the third. So, we're going to barge in and help out with house-keeping, kind of. You know, if the young people are happily partying the night away, it'll ward robbers away."

"W, wait a second."

An unexpected development.

And it was far, far more enticing than staying at home or going to Yamanashi.

"Mother."

I turned to mother, who was listening not two meters away.

"Can I go to the Yamayurikai lodging?"

"Lodging, on New Year's?"

Mother looked dubious, at first, but I implored her enough that she finally reluctantly allowed me to go.

She'd allowed her son to go, so she probably felt guilty if she didn't let her daughter go, too. After all, our household is based on the fundamental of "boys and girls are equal."

Plus, Rosa Gigantea seemed like such a lady, that adults adore her. And so with a senpai like that, she doesn't have to worry as much about me. Of course, if she knew how Rosa Gigantea really is, maybe she would worry.

Finally, the kicker was that I was already hesitant on going to Yamanashi. She was probably worried about the prospect of leaving me at home alone anyways, on a level totally different from "boys and girls are equal." So me going to a friend's house put her at ease. Either way, I'm the kind of daughter that'd go anyways, even if they were to tell me, "Don't go," so I'm sure that just added to her worries.

"Rosa Gigantea, she's given me permission. I'll participate."

I jumped back on the receiver, panting.

"Roger. See you, then, we're meeting at M Station tomorrow at two. In front of the convenience store before the ticket gates, you know what I mean?"

"Roger-"

She quickly took a mental note.

"Give mother my blessings. I'll be taking care of her tomorrow, like that."

"Yes. Then, tomorrow."

After hanging up, I remembered I forgot to ask who else was coming. It seemed like I was definitely excited. I felt a bit inconsiderate, as she might have wanted me to call the other people and spread the word.

(I hope onee-sama's with us.)

Ahh, and as I thought such a thing, my heart really went into Happy New Year mode.

My brain was so filled with rapture that, even though Yuuki and I usually did rock-scissors-paper to see who put the thank you cards in the mailbox, this time I went ahead and did it on my own accord.

I felt bad for grandmother, but I thanked her for coming back from Narita.

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</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter6 1

2013-04-16T17:47:44Z

Ambjoorn: /* The first of January. Part 1. */

===<noinclude>The first of January. </noinclude>Part 1.===

"We're thinking of going to Yamanashi."

Everything started when my parents said that.

"Yamanashi?"

My brother, Yuuki, and I of course responded, as their children, "When?" "Why?" –etc. Placing a slight feeling of surprise into those questions.

Because that "We're thinking of going to Yamanashi" proposal was given right when the countdown finally ended on the year's end TV show, after my father pasted this amulet on the wall, one we got from some temple somewhere and were told we had to hang it up right as the year turned its page, and then we all said "Happy New Years!" That's when he said it.

So, of course we were filled with question marks, because it was such a contextually out-of-place statement. We hadn't even received our New Year's gifts.

"Grandmother's alone, apparently, this New Year's."

Mother said, sighing. –Well, when they mentioned Yamanashi it was obvious it was related to my aunt.

"But, aunt Taeko?"

Yamanashi's grandmother was my mother's mother, and she turned down offers to live with her children after grandfather died, stubbornly choosing to live alone. Luckily, mother's sister, aunt Taeko, lived about 500 meters away, so she went to check on her a lot, and they spent Christmas and New Year's, among other holidays, together, so they were able to breath easy.

"She won a trip to Hawaii through the year's end lottery."

"A trip to Hawaii?"

The children sat up on the sofa. What? What? This is the first time we're hearing this.

"Right. An invitation for a family of four. And aunt Taeko's is a family of three, right? So they were supposed to take grandmother along, but she suddenly refused to go, and went home alone."

"From where?"

"Narita."

"… What a waste."

I mumbled. After all, I'd never gone outside the country. But Yuuki, sitting next to me, poked my head.

"Idiot. Think about grandmother's welfare, first."

"Ow. Mother and father are going to Yamanashi because she got home safely, right?"

"Well, true."

Yuuki kept muttering. As kind as ever.

The considerateness that I forgot in mother's stomach had been secured by my brother when he was born. Not just his share, but what was supposed to be my share, too. So, sometimes he covers for me to the point of irritation. Like he's still trying to deliver lost goods from fifteen years ago. Even though he was a premature baby, his height and maturity was far past mine, and it was vexing to have to admit it.

But I'm glad Yuuki is a guy. If we both had to go to a girls' school, I'd always be compared to him. And since we're both the same age, it would be horrible.

"And so aunt Taeko called us about grandmother from the airport. We don't have to go the first three days of January, but she wanted us to check in on grandmother at some point. But father says we should go soon."

Of course, in this case, father was not the grandfather that had passed away, but rather my father, who was drinking beer right at the start of the new year.

"Because the elderly are worrisome."

He was deftly removing the peanuts from the pile of kakipi[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#kakipi] on his paper plate. Father was fond of mother's mother. Because his parents died relatively early.

When he wanted to have filial piety, he had no parents.

You can't put a blanket over a tombstone.

That's father's saying. It made sense, but it was hard to appreciate, because both parents were quite lively.

"Then go."

Yuuki said, as he put all of the kaki seeds father had left onto his own plate. Even if they had different tastes, they still behaved similarly. As such, at the Fukuzawa household, kakipi was eradicated without any remnants.

"So, when're you going?"

"Today… well, the first day is busy, so probably the morning of the 2nd. The U-turn rush is brutal, though, so we'll stay one night and come back on the 3rd."

"How about you two?"

"Oh, I'll pass. I'm staying over at a friend's house the second."

Yuuki said, without any hesitation.
"Eh-!?"

"What do you mean, eh-. Yumi has no right to complain. Father and mother consented long ago."

"What."

"Nee-chan, you can just forget about me and go."

"… Right."

But going to a place like Yamanashi for one night was just going for the sake of getting tired. She would have preferred to stay home with Yuuki, but since he was going out, it was a different story altogether. It was too scary to be left alone in this gigantic, three-story house.

"How about Yumi-chan?"

"Ugh-"

They were probably going by car, so it wouldn't bother them if she came along. And she didn't see any other option. And it's a bit impolite to say it so, but she could also check on grandmother's health.

(But…)

She was perplexed when she thought about the possibility of the Roses inviting her while she was gone. Could there be an invitation? Of course, it was just a personal wish, but if that "maybe" became real, and she wasn't around for it, she would definitely regret it.

"Can you wait on that?"

She pleaded her mother.

"Sure? But tell us by evening today, because we have to pack."

"Okay."

"Oh, Yumi-chan has plans, too?"

Father looked a bit lonely, "I guess once you become a high-schooler you find friends to hang out with," so instead of answering "I don't know," Yumi simply giggled, "Eheheh" and poured him more beer.

Father happily chugged the cheer his daughter poured, reached into the pockets of his cardigan and handed and small pouch to Yuuki and I.

"Good luck, this year."

We said, "Okay," with our brightest, liveliest voices of the year, and accepted the pouches.

When I dashed to the kitchen, as if I was helping mother, and checked the contents, I noticed the New Year's gift sum had risen a bit from last year.

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| Back to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume4_Chapter5_3|Chapter 5 Part 3]]
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</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter5 3

2013-04-16T17:35:52Z

Ambjoorn: /* A modest secret. Part 3. */

===<noinclude>A modest secret. </noinclude>Part 3.===

Rosa Gigantea took a few steps, then reached into the thickets by the gingko trees, grabbed the uniform collar and dragged the peeping tom out.

"Hey. Peeping is bad."

"I'm sorry, I was just passing by, and-"

Yumi, caught, desperately tried to explain herself.

[[Image:MM_v04_04.jpg|thumb]]
Right after the results were posted, Yumi noticed Rosa Gigantea at the edge of the crowd of students. But Rosa Gigantea, after a quick glance at the imitation paper on which the names and number of votes were written, quickly left, so Yumi, after being cut off from Sachiko-sama and others, squeezed out of the crowd and followed after. The three boutons, having safely won their elections, were swept up in a storm of blessings, so they didn't seem like they could get out any time soon.

So, when she followed Rosa Gigantea, there was an unexpected preceding visitor, so she was immediately taken aback. And she hurriedly hurled herself into the hedge. Because it was a special atmosphere. Rosa Gigantea and Shizuka-sama.

"Well, I didn't mind being seen."

As they walked back to the sanctuary, Rosa Gigantea prodded Yumi's head and laughed.

"I won't tell Shimako-san."

"You can tell, I don't mind."

"I won't tell."

"You're persistent."

"Of course."

If Sachiko-sama kissed someone, even if it was just on the cheek, she wouldn't like it, at all. –Yumi thought. So she couldn't tell Shimako-san. No matter what.

In Shimako-san's stead, Yumi dragged Rosa Gigantea to the sanctuary by the hand, but in by pinching her hand a bit. She needed to feel a bit of pain.

The sanctuary had actually been somewhat vacated by the time they returned. They became extremely excited, and then the wildfire had been blown out. Everyone left in threes and fives. It was a Saturday afternoon. As the main event had ended, they had other plans to attend to.

And in the middle of a few remaining people were Sachiko-sama, Rei-sama and Shimako-san.

"Well, first of all, congratulations."

Rosa Gigantea cackled, as she walked to them. The "first of all" was so unnecessary.

"Thank you very much."

The three of them bowed.

"Looked like an easy victory."

"Not entirely."

Shimako-san shook her head and smiled.

For someone who wasn't as famous, Rosa Canina put up quite the fight. Of course, the results weren't especially close, but she had certainly been up to the task. You could say that much.

If Lillian didn't have a system of sœur, and the four candidates had been lined up at the same start line, Shizuka-sama may have beaten Shimako-san to become one of the Roses. Of course, that was an "if." No one could complain about Shimako-san winning the election, and becoming a Rose in her second year was a brilliant achievement.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

She had no idea when Yoshino-san had gone round-trip, as she showed up carrying two peoples' coats and bags. And Rei-sama, upon seeing her, hurried over like a magnet, and took hers.

"Well, apologies for leaving early, but we have plans."

Rei-sama and Yoshino-san lined up like ohina-sama[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#ohinasama] and bid their farewells.

"How enviable. Hasekura + Shimazu double celebration?"

Sachiko-sama said.

"Yes."

Yoshino-san looked happy. She was constantly smiling, as if she herself had won.

"Well, see you all next week."

"Gokigenyou."

After watching the two of them walk down the gingko pathway, hands together, Sachiko-sama grabbed Yumi's hand. "Come."

"Onee-sama?"

"Let's have Rosa Gigantea do something onee-sama-like, for once."

She whispered, and pulled Yumi away. When they blended into the crowd of students and looked back, Shimako-san was surprisingly crying, and just as rare of a scene was Rosa Gigantea embracing her closely.

"It might be meddlesome, but sometimes you have to be over-considerate with them. She looks strong, but Shimako is just a first-year, like Yumi."

She's been so tense for so long, she has to be given space, sometimes, Sachiko-sama said.

"How about onee-sama?"

Yumi asked. If Shimako-san was just a first-year, Sachiko-sama was just a year older, herself.

"Me?"

She tilted her head to the side, thinking.

"Really, I may have been too tense, too. Then I shall have Yumi make me relax."

"Okay!"

Yumi excitedly answered, like a puppy.

"I'll do anything, go on."

Not a lie, not an exaggeration, she thought she was capable of anything, right now. If onee-sama desired, she would bungee jump or go on a standing jet coaster, that's how excited she was.

But Sachiko-sama was far more grounded, and made an extremely simple request.

"First of all, pour me hot tea at the Rose Mansion. And then let's eat the remainder of our lunch together."

"Huh…? Lunch, remainder?"

"Let me confess that I only ate half, too. I just wanted to look strong, in front of you."

Ducking her shoulders, Sachiko-sama said, "So let's eat together."

"You made me regain my appetite."

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| Back to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume4_Chapter5_2|Part 2]]
| Forward to [[Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume4_Chapter6_1|Chapter 6 Part 1]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter4 3

2013-04-16T17:01:18Z

Ambjoorn: /* Raison d'etre for sœur. Part 3. */

===<noinclude>Raison d'etre for sœur. </noinclude>Part 3.===

By the time Yumi and Sachiko-sama arrived at the sanctuary, the sanctuary seats were filled with the student audience.

According to the election management committee chief, possibly related to the fact that seats were unreserved, there were students that even skipped on lunch to grab seats immediately after fourth period, so the first-year and second-year students were quite interested in the election.

The extra spice of the fourth candidate, as opposed to the regular three-person election, had stirred things up. Of course, it was basically a test to see if the bouton really had what it took to become the next student presidents.

Rei-sama had already arrived at the sanctuary stage's wing, and she was partaking in friendly chat, surrounded by Yoshino-san and Rosa Foetida. The third-years had no obligation to take part, so they were allowed to go home in the afternoon, but Rosa Foetida came, after all. Come to think of it, Rosa Foetida loved amusing things, so there was no way she would miss this.

Rosa Chinensis sat waaaaaaay in the back. The revitalized Sachiko-sama didn't have a particular need for onee-sama's protective warmth.

(And Rosa Gigantea-)

She hadn't been seen today, Yumi thought as she glanced around, and just then, Rosa Gigantea entered the stage wing and marched straight to Shimako-san.

"Onee-sama…"

Shimako-san stood up from her candidate-reserved seat and whispered. Maybe she thought Rosa Gigantea wouldn't come.

"Shimako."

Rosa Gigantea took one final step and touched Shimako-san's cheek. Everyone thought she would give encouragement or sympathy. But there's Rosa Gigantea, betraying all expectations.

"I didn't coerce you into this. You decided this. So if you win, take responsibility, all the way to the end."

Everyone who heard it must have felt like jumping out of their seats in anger.

"Um, are you sure that's the right thing to say, Rosa Gigantea?"

Without thinking, Yumi interjected. Now it was obvious she was listening in on their conversation.

"My my my, Yumi-chan's spirits have been revived! What, my words are wrong? How so?"

"Umm, you're usually supposed to say 'good luck' or 'I'm cheering for you' or something like that."

"But that would be a lie."

"A lie-"

It sounded like Shimako-san wasn't supposed to win the election. When Yumi was about to object, someone touched her shoulder.

"It's alright, Yumi-san."

Shimako-san smiled.

"You see. Onee-sama's words just now, they're the most inspiring words to me possible, right now."

"Eh?"

When she hurriedly glanced at Rosa Gigantea, she was already looking in a completely different direction, and said, "Who knows?" Yumi took it all back, she would never understand these two.

Ten different types for ten pairs, one hundred different types for a hundred pairs, they say every sibling is different. But Rosa Gigantea and Shimako-san were definitely in a class of their own. Yumi could say that with utmost confidence.

*****

The speech presentation began at one o'clock, after the election management committee chairman gave his quick speech.

First, the committee chairman's greeting, then every candidate went on the stage, and gave a speech in the order of their registration. None of the candidates had their speeches given by someone else. They all chose to give their speech with their own voice.

While listening to Sachiko-sama's speech, Yumi kept cheering, "Do your best," " Do your best." Even though she didn't want to miss a single word of the speech, she was too excited to actually listen.

She wanted to cry again, but she held her hands tight and stopped herself. If she cried, her sight would be too blurry to see Sachiko-sama.

(Do your best…!)

Before she went up to the podium, Sachiko-sama grasped Yumi's hand and said.

"Sit there, and watch me."

So she had to watch carefully. Sachiko-sama's hand trembled just a bit in Yumi's hand. So the least she could do as her sister was fight here, with her. Because Yumi was Sachiko-sama's support.

In the first row, they weren't doing anything gaudy, but Rosa Canina's classmates had secured all the seats and wore hachimaki[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Notes#hachimaki] with "Rosa Canina" written across them. Well, her name-value was considerably less than that of the boutons, so Yumi could sympathize with their need to appeal Rosa Canina as much as possible, but she knew it was added pressure for Sachiko-sama to give the speech directly in front of her rival's fans.

But she never once looked down at her speech as she spoke, looking straight at the spacious sanctuary and drawing in the audience with her echoing voice. Sachiko-sama was always fantastic, but she was absolutely glowing as she stood in front of the audience. Her voice was so filled with confidence it almost made a lie of the trembling hand.

Onee-sama was wonderful.

No matter what happened with the election, Sachiko-sama was Yumi's Rosa Chinensis. The deep-red petals were beginning to blossom. That's how she felt.

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