OreShura: Volume 2 Chapter 9
Chapter 9 The Gray World Split Apart is Mayhem
After a few days, it was Sunday afternoon.
Although it was a rare day off school, we in ｢Jien-Otsu｣ were ordered to the clean the school’s swimming pool, which is otherwise known as punishment by labor. Exposed to the intense sunlight during the height of summer, we brushed the deck and brushed the pool drained of water; this bitterness was enough to make me want to curse all the world’s living things.
"Why does a swimming pool without water exist in this world? We obviously don’t need it."
Chiwa rested her chin against the handle of her brush, muttering nonsense to herself.
"Even swimming pools with water have no reason to exist in this world."
Masuzu indifferently moved her brush.
The two of them wore their gym clothes, and because of their sweat it stuck to their skin… and as a result the outline of their underwear was visible. It made me unsure where to look.
Incidentally, we did not ask Hime to come. If she got heatstroke working this hot weather, that would be bad.
"Ah --- Do you mean, Natsukawa is useless?"
"You’re quite rude. I can swim."
"But before you almost drowned, right? How can you drown at a depth where your feat can touch the bottom of the pool? Why don’t you tell me the details?"
Having identified her enemy’s weakness, Chihuahua-san drew closer to Masuzu, unable to contain her joy, but ---
"I refuse. To compensate, should I describe to you the flavor of Eita-kun’s lips?"
Chiwa was wounded by the response, and the corner of her mouth trembled for a moment.
Thousand and was sharply riposte, mouth shaking a bit.
Then, for reasons I didn’t understand, she stared at me and said:
"Ei-kun, you’re about to drown! I’ll give you artificial respiration to eliminate the memory of this bitch!"
"Wouldn’t it be better of Harusaki drowned? That way, I’ll give you artificial respiration, so that way you can have an indirect kiss with Eita-kun. You’d be happy, right?"
--- They were really at their wits’ end.
I tried to clean far away from the sparks and flames shooting from the two of them. If I were caught in it, it would be unbearable. But even though Masuzu said that she’d ｢forget about the artificial respiration business｣, I didn’t understand why she let herself be provoked by Chiwa.
After we cleared the bottom of the pool of filth, a black limousine pulled into the parking lot as we sprinkled the side of the pool with a hose.
Just as I was thinking that I had seen that somewhere before ---
"Hi --- Nii-san ♪"
Natsukawa Mana.
Masuzu’s little sister shook her blond hair and got off the limousine. Her bodyguard dressed in black also got off from the driver’s seat, and followed from the side.
"......You again?"
I firmly stared at her from the pool deck, very much wanting to spray her with the water hose. Because this girl kissed me and caused so much trouble for me.
Mana condescendingly returned the stare:
"So it looks you made up with Suzu? So boring, especially after all my trouble to start some chaos."
"Mana, what are you doing here?"
Masuzu spoke, with her face stiff and body frozen next to me.
"This is my school, and I don’t want you to take one step in here."
"Such a rude greeting, even though I particularly came here to apologize."
"Apologize?"
As Masuzu and I tilted our heads, puzzled, Chiwa finally returned from putting away the deck brushes.
"That’s weird. Ei-kun, who is that girl?"
At that moment, Mana gave out a ｢Wahh- ♪｣
"Is this girl Harusaki Chihuahua? Huh --- she’s quite cute."
This girl even know about Chiwa?
When she said she even knew ｢the headmaster of Suzu’s school｣, she wasn’t lying? Perhaps she even found out that we would be at the swimming pool today through that means.
"So, Nii-san must be really popular, with this girl in one arm while holding Suzu in the other---"
Chiwa stared at her intently, feeling quite uncomfortable.
Masuzu spoke in an irritable voice:
"Get to the point. What are you apologizing about?"
"Ah, well ......"
Mana deliberately clapped her hands together as if pretending to beg forgiveness from Masuzu:
"You know that time I said I’d take care of things with Dad? It was no good. ♪ Dad got extremely angry, and I couldn’t do anything about it."
Masuzu’s expression visibly froze.
"He wants you to go home right now, and he doesn’t want you to wait until the end of the semester. If you don’t, he said he’d even go directly to your apartment and drag you back."
"No!"
Unexpectedly, Masuzu cried out in an emotional voice.
"My apartment is the only thing I don’t want him to touch! I absolutely don’t want that person to come!"
"If that’s the case, you can only listen obediently, right?"
A triumphant smile emerged on Mana’s face.
"I’ll arrange your luggage and so forth, so Suzu-chan can just go home. If you don’t leave by tomorrow or the day after...... well I can’t say for sure what will happen, hm?"
Msauzu did not respond.
Masuzu was sweating so much it seemed like a lie, and she shivered slightly.
"Nii-san, why don’t you use this to throw a goodbye party for Suzu?"
Mana took a purse from the man dressed in black, and grabbed a ten thousand yuan banknote and stuffed it inside the fence of the swimming pool. Even if she was a stupid middle school student, she was rich.
"I don’t want it, take it back."
"Really? It’s better to turn down gifts of money. Is that how your aunt raised you?"
"......Why do you even know about that?"
"Haven’t I said it already? I have investigated. Everything."
Mana tored apart the ten thousand yuan bill into shreds, and let it be scattered by the wind.
The man wearing black opened the door, and Mana got into the limousine.
"So, to each of you young maidens in the club, farewell---"
Mana waved her hands like a naïve child and left.
......Damn, she really did what she wanted.
Chiwa watched the taillights of the limousine and said:
"What?! That girl is so arrogant! Does Natsukawa know her?"
"That girl is a Masuzu’s little sister."
"S-sister? Really? But their hair color isn’t the same!"
Although I was also curious about this, I didn’t want to ask Masuzu, so I could only ignore it. My best guess is that they didn’t share the same mother or father, and perhaps they had a very complicated family.
Even at this point Masuzu still had her head bent down, wordless.
"What are you going to do, Masuzu?"
"......I can only go back. Go back home."
"Ah, there’s nothing you can do about it, right? Since your father even said it to that extent… at least it’s almost summer vacation."
Chiwa probably still did not understand the situation.
She thought that ｢go home｣ meant ｢visiting relatives｣.
I was afraid that ---
"Where is Natsukawa’s family from? Kanto? Northeast? It can’t be Hokkaido?"
"From Sweden."
"............"
Chiwa was stunned.
"I'm afraid I might never come back tot Japan."
"Really?"
Masuzu did not meet my eyes, as she nodded slightly.
Then, she suddenly spoke out in a refreshed voice:
"Ah --- it looks like my relationship with Eita-kun will end here. I can’t try to maintain a long-distance relationship while separated by an ocean. Although our time together was short, I was very happy to be together with you."
"......"
Only Chiwa was speechless. As for me, this was not so surprising.
Because, after all, I was fake.
If she dropped out of school, the ｢boyfriend contract｣ didn’t make any sense.
For me, it was pretty much my wish fulfilled. Without a ｢girlfriend｣, I would be able to return to my previous life. This excessive mayhem was finally coming to an end.
But......
"Do you think this is okay?"
"After all, I’m not the kind of person to get sentimental about the past, Since I’m going to leave this school, I don’t intend to prolong my relationship with you."
Masuzu’s cold indifference was astonishing.
"Eita-kun, dump me right now."
"......"
"Heh, I knew it would be impossible for Eita-kun."
Masuzu exposed a slightly lonely smile, and said:
"Then let me do it...... I'm tired of you, I hate you, and I don’t even want to see your face. I will return you to your childhood friend, and ask both of you to be happy. When two you have the wedding --- don’t bother looking for me, I don’t care."
"Ei-kun was mine in the first place."
Chiwa, who had been silent the entire time, whispered resolutely.
"I don’t remember when I gave him to you. From the beginning, I didn’t intend to invite you to the wedding."
This was beginning to turn quite extraordinary, but now was not the time to tsukkomi.
Chiwa glared at Masuzu and said:
"Why are you giving up so easily? What did you just tell me? Weren’t you going to tel about about how Ei-kun’s l-l-l-l-lips tasted like? Even if it was just artificial respiration, you had such an arrogant expression. You aren’t attached to the past? Who do you think you are? It’s really pitiful for Ei-kun! More importantly, it’s pitiful to me! Just because you showed up, I..."
I patted the speechless Chiwa on the back.
"Masuzu, I think you misunderstood."
"......Misunderstood what?"
"When I asked, ｢Do you think this is okay?｣ I wasn’t talking about myself. I was talking about the young maiden’s club, and Hime’s business."
Masuzu’s icy expression was obviously shaken.
"The person who proposed to let Hime join the club was you, right? The person who gave her the assignment was also you, and she’s taking it very seriously. Even though she’s surrounded by electric waves, is extremely shy, and lacks a model for communication skills, she’s taking a new step out despite her worries to attempt ｢club activities｣. And you who suggested this is going to run away?"
"I can’t do anything about it."
Masuzu just said that one phrase.
"That man will stop at nothing to achieve what he wants. If I don’t go back, I don’t know what means he’ll use, perhaps even hurt you all. Mana said it already. He already knows about my situation at school here."
When Masuzu said ｢that man｣, she probably meant her father.
"Then what?"
"There is no, ｢then what｣, so ---"
"Then what do you want?"
Masuzu distinctly gasped.
"What do you want? Natsukawa Masuzu, do you want to stay here? Or do you not want to stay?"
"......I don’t have the power to choose."
"You bastard!"
I didn’t ask you this!
I don’t want to hear you say that kind of thing.
Do you want to stay here, or do you not want to stay? That’s all I asked.
If you say, ｢I want to stay here｣, then......
I will… we will---
"Ei-kun, let’s go?"
Chiwa ignored Masuzu with her head down, and pulled on my arm.
"Do not worry about her, okay? Hey! Today I want to eat a hamburger steak. Make it for me, Ei-kun. Let can go shopping at ｢Wonder｣[1] and then go back?"
I reluctantly nodded.
I grabbed my bag hanging on the wall, and walked out with Chiwa.
While I was leaving the pool, I only looked back once.
As the sunlight began to tinge orange, it illuminated Masuzu’s pale profile.
"Hey, Masuzu!"
I shouted to her.
"E-even if you go back, at least collect Hime’s assignment! Can you do that at the very least? Hey, Masuzu---"
"Hey, Ei-kun, let’s go!"
Chiwa kept pulling my hand away.
Masuzu.
My ｢girlfriend｣ was getting farther and father away from me.
I was eating dinner with Chiwa.
With a huge hamburger steak as the main dish, Chiwa refilled her big bowl of rice three times. Since she normally only eats three small bowls of rice, she was approaching nearly twice her usual. Although she must have been hungry from cleaning the pool, this amount of food was simply too frightening.
"I’m so angry --- angry, angry! Rawr!"
Chiwa whined while she crunched and snapped at a mixed carrot dish. And what was the meaning of that rawr? It wasn’t cute at all.
"Why are you so angry?"
"What? --- Ei-kun isn’t angry? Natsukawa’s attitude is really unbelievable! Even if her parents ordered it, why is she suddenly break up?! Really! Really!"
She turned into a cow again, [2] which definitely was not cute.
"No, for me, it’s not that I’m angry......"
It’s a lonely feeling.
If Masuzu were upset or resisted it all, then I would try to do something.
But since she gave up, it made me feel lonely.
It felt like I was rejected.
Our relationship as ｢Fake Boyfriend｣ only went to that degree.
"I’m more surprised that you’re angry."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because your natural predator Masuzu is going to disappear. I thought you would definitely be happy."
Chiwa drank her barley tea in one gulp, and slammed the drinking glass on the table.
"You, Ei-kun. You know my personality."
"Personality?"
"If I don’t have a rival, I can’t get fired up! That’s because my goal is to become someone more popular than Natsukawa! If she slip away after beating me, that’s what I can’t accept."
"......I see."
Right.
Chiwa was that kind of straightforward person.
"Even though I hate Natsukawa, I still like our ｢Young Maidens Club｣. After all this trouble, she leaves just when we’re about to get more members. She’s really too irresponsible, too headstrong!"
"Aren’t you against Hime joining the club?"
"............I used to be against it."
Chiwa’s momentum suddenly disappeared, and she looked down.
"Because that girl always sticks to Ei-kun’s side, and said stuff like ｢it’s vulgar to be popular｣. If her only goal is Ei-kun, I originally did not want her to join our club, but......"
Chiwa took out her cellphone from her pocket, and placed the screen in front of me.
"Woo, wuahh!"
I couldn’t help but let out a sound.
Displayed on the screen is "guh!" the face of Hime rolling her eyes.
Bloodshot eyes.
Saliva dribbled from the corner of her mouth.
I think this must have been a mental breakdown......
"This one too. Look, and then this."
Every time Chiwa pushed the buttom, the image switched, and each one was of Hime rolling her eyes.
"What is this? You wanted to get pictures of supernatural things?"
"This was practice for looking up with the eyes."
"Eh?"
"Hime-chan used a digital camera to take pictures of the entire drill of looking up with the eyes, one hundred times."
Now that you mention it, Chiwa was the one who previously advocated that Hime should undergo ｢basic training｣.
I didn’t think Hime would actually do it......
"Last night, she sent a lot of texts to my phone. The subject was, ｢Eyes Really Tired｣. Once I saw her perseverance, who could opposite it?"
"I see."
Hime really intended to become more courageous.
Maybe this is what she meant by the first step that could ｢split apart the gray-colored world｣.
"Let’s talk to Masuzu again at the club room."
I mumbled to myself.
If ｢Jien-Otsu｣ ended in this kind of way, it didn’t matter if it was Hime or Ciwa or --- of course, me --- our hearts would not be happy.
Even if Masuzu intended to leave, I had to settle this comfortable mood.
"I won’t go."
Chiwa shut up as she chewed the last piece of hamburger steak, and turned away.
"Tomorrow our class is having a party to celebrate the end of exams, and everyone’s going to a barbecue buffet. I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time."
"Well, leave it to me then."
Right.
Even if it was for this totally un-cute ｢childhood friend｣, I had to try to get Masuzu to stay.
[to be continued... about 45%]
Notes
| Back to Chapter 8 | Return to Main Page | Forward to Chapter 10 |
