Hidan no Aria:Volume8 Chapter4

4th Ammo: 350m Altitude Tornado

After the Inquesta lesson, I started on the way home only after attending 'Strategy 1' in the Assault lecture hall.

It had become quite late, so when I exited the building, it was already dark. Maybe it's because we're getting deeper into Autumn.

Stepping on the fallen leaves from the trees by the road, I headed towards the bus stop...

Several laughing girls exited from the backdoor of the Connect building, which was next to Assault.

Each of them threw the brooms they were holding behind the Connect section, past a metal fence into the artificial forest beyond. What are they doing?

"Nacchi, we'll be leaving the rest to you!"

After shouting into the forest with their hands cupped around their mouths, the girls went towards the shopping district.

Nacchi...? Somebody's nickname?

"...Ah, y-yes..."

I could only hear the sound of leaves, so I frowned and looked in the direction of the voice...

It looked like someone was cleaning up the fallen leaves in the dim forest.

That was...

"Nakasorachi...?"

I called out to her.

The figure startled, clutching the broom to herself.

Because of that movement, the garbage in which the fallen leaves were kept got caught on the broom...and it fell on its side, spilling its contents.

"U-U-Um, that voice--To-Bo-Tohyama, Boy, Boyama-kun!"

This disappointing way of talking...it really is Nakasorachi.

She was plain, having completely blended into the forest, so I didn't notice.

"Are you cleaning up by yourself? Weren't the people just now up for cleaning duty?"

It seemed that she had knocked over the bag because of me, so I entered the forest in order to fix it...

"Y-Yes, but, um, I was asked to do it by the other people on duty, so..."

Nakasorachi backed away from me, her legs twisted towards each other...

Her back touched a tree, and she went 'Eek!', scaring herself.

Leaving that aside...rather than being asked to do it, she was forced to do it, huh.

(Really, those people...)

The actual forest is pretty small, but the amount of fallen leaves have reached their peak, so cleaning them up is a pain.

Forcing her to clean this up...that has to be bullying.

In any case, even if I go home, there won't be anybody there, so I didn't have anything to do.

"Lend me one of these."

I picked up a broom and decided to help her gather up the leaves.

Nakasorachi saw me.

"Ah, ah! It's fine, really, it's fine...Hic, hic, hi~!"

It seems like she started to hiccup.

"It's fine, I'll help. Remember the first article of the Butei Charter?"

"Yesh...Hic, th-thank yhou! Thank hyou!"

Still clutching the broom, Nakasorachi bowed her head deeply, her long black hair swinging about.

Your voice is way too loud. Why're you suddenly upping the atmosphere.

In front of me, who was shying away, Nakasorachi leapt to the garbage bag and dropped into a crouch. She then started to stuff the spilled leaves into the bag.

Well, she can really do it if she tries. Her dull movements from just a moment ago suddenly became sharp.

I started sweeping up the leaves...

"......Nnn....!"

I averted my eyes from the full, plump thighs that were visible from the corner of Nakasorachi's skirt, as she squatted there vulnerably.

L-Luckily it's dark around here. If it was bright, I would've seen farther in.

Rather--if you're going to squat, squat with your knees together.

"...? What's wrong with your eyes?"

I, whose gaze had fled upwards, noticed that there were no glasses beneath the veil of Nakasorachi's long front hair.

"Ah, ah, my glasses. That's um, during class, I was clumsy, and a ball, um, during PE, a volleyball, I was hit, my glasses, um, I was clumsy, um..."

Just because I spoke to her, Nakasorachi started to talk in a way where she was rearranging the sentence order.

Apparently, I've a companion in the 'ball to the face' team.

"Rather, you're being...pretty polite? We're in the same year, so it's fine to speak casually."

"G-guys, b-boys. I-I've, um...never really...talked...to boys before, so...just by reflex, I started, um, speaking politely. S-Sorry!"

Nakasorachi dipped her head with such momentum that it looked like she was going to thrust her head into the bag containing the leaves.

"A-Also, I-I, g-got carried away, a-and I-I've only seen, To-Tohyama-kun, during battle, through a camera image, so i-it's like, I'm able to meet a person, f-from a film, a drama...I'm suddenly, talking too much, w-when I'm spoken to, I-I get carried aw-aw-aw-awawa..."

"Ahh...it's fine to speak politely. Alright, let's gather up the leaves that've fallen down."

Starting Nakasorachi, who had stopped working, back up...We divided the work, with me gathering the fallen leaves with a broom, and Nakasorachi crouching down, picking them up in a dustpan and putting them in the bag.

If I gave instructions, Nakasorachi would follow them properly, so the cleaning went on smoothly--

"...This should be it, right? It's so dark I can't really tell."

"Yes. T-The sound of the grass and leaves ru-ruru-rustl...ing has gone."

Nakasorachi closed the mouth of the garbage bag, when...

The sound of a car honking its horn at students who had exited Connect and were trying to cross the road rang out.

"Eek!"

Nakasorachi frighted at just that noise and leaped into the air, clutching onto my arm.

(Uu...!)

Th-That was dangerous. I obstructed her with the broom so it ended in an instant, but boobs that held a loose softness and were the size of volleyballs had pressed into me.

For me, this held the same danger level as being pierced by a sharp blade.

Nakasorachi's eyes seemed to have met mine, which were filled with tension.

"Ah, ah, ee-eek!"

She rammed into me with unexpected strength.

Thanks to that, the back of my head smashed into a tree trunk. Ouch...

"I-I-I-It's not what you think! T-The reason I grabbed your hand wa-was completely unrelated from the fact that our eyes met! I-I wasn't f-f-fantasizing about T-Tohyama-kun!"

...What is it this time...

"I-I wasn't d-doing anything like f-fantasizing here! Nothing dirty! Nothing a-about the depths of the forest! I-In the shadows of the underbrush, where nobody's eyes could reach! I-I wasn't!"

In the depths of the forest...? I have no idea what she's saying.

"Ah, Nakasorachi. Please don't say anything right now."

I said--

"!"

Nakasorachi stretched out her body like she had been subjected to a high voltage electric current.

"T-T-T-T-That kind of forceful...! B-Butbut, we've finished cleaning, so I-I'll just lay something over the u-underbrush in advance! Please wait for a moment!"

As if pushing a reset button, I lightly tapped her on the waist with my broom.

"Hey. I'm finishing up. Speaking is forbidden until we finish. Alright?"

I picked up the bag filled with fallen leaves, and Nakasorachi nodded again and again, one hand over her mouth. She tottered off to gather up the brooms. It looks like she's obeying what I told her, 'don't talk'.

Rather...Nakasorachi's cowardly enough that she gets frightened from a car horn, yet she serves as a Butei.

She's probably a rare type of person. At our school, at least.

At the bus stop, I was waiting with Nakasorachi for the bus.

"To-Tohyama-kun. Th-Thaou yonk, for, um, today."

Thank you, maybe?

"It's fine. All I did was help you a little for today."

"T-This is the first time, so-somebody's, helped me li-like this, so...I-I don't have...friends, so, all I have is, J-Jeanne-san..."

...Jeanne.

Now that she mentions her, what could she be doing?

Ever since the Bandere, I've not seen hide nor hair of her--it's worrying.

"...Don't you know where Jeanne is right now?"

I asked, though I expected her to say no.

"Right now? I-In my room, or rather, th-the room Jeanne-san and I are...sharing, i-in the, gi-girl's dormitory...I think?"

"Eh?"

"At one point last week, she called me to ask for something...She said that she was coming back that morning, that she'd been absent, from school. Because she was injured. Right now, she's in the room."

Jeanne.

She'd returned to Butei High?

However, she said she was injured. That's worrying. I'll have to go meet her.

However...Jeanne seems to be roommates with Nakasorachi.

I don't know which room it is, so I'd like her to guide me there, but that, in short, is like telling this person, 'let's go into your room' so it looks like I'll have trouble bringing it up.

If I don't say it a little carefully, I'll be made to do another sentence order quiz.

"Nakasorachi, I've like to ask you for a favour..."

"F-Favour, favour? Th-that's i-impossible, a fa-favour from a b-bo-bo-boy..."

Suddenly this.

"I-I'm the t-type of person th-that can't s-say no when as-asked a favour of! So, pl-please be gentle!"

"That's convenient. I'd like--"

"B-Before that, I-I have t-to change! B-boy, please let me change! Especially the bottom!"

"I haven't said anything yet..."

That was what the situation was like, so I needed the time from when we got on the bus till we got off the bus to communicate to her what I meant (and I only just managed to do it too), but...

Somehow, I was able to go to Jeanne and Nakasorachi's room, located in the third girl's dormitory.

Together with Nakasorachi, her knees shivering as her legs pressed together in an X shape, I ascended to her room.

"Wow..."

Inside the room, massive amounts of acoustic equipment were gathered, enough for me to let out my voice.

Countless speakers and expensive looking amplifiers were piled up on a rack, surrounding a black desk with a semicircle.

The soundproof walls were painted black, and headphones of every colour were hanging from them like a electronics volume retailer.

Not only did the entire scene look like the mixing room of a radio station, but in the room, there were even communication devices coming from every time period and every place imaginable, all lined up neatly. Not only computers and wireless devices used for processing, but there were around 50 types of handheld cellphones.

The places the access lamps lead to blinked with lights, and in the midst of this room, which smelled of electronic devices...the only thing that resembled a girl's room was a miniature decorative plant, placed right by the window.

Rather, that plant with two leaves...there's what looks like a small placard with 'Tohyama-kun' written on it standing there. Was there a plant like that?

I was looking at the mini plant when Nakasorachi leaped into the air with a '!' and covered it with an empty box for headphones, hiding it.

"I-I-It's not what you think! I-I do-don't talk to that plant at all! I-I'm not that l-lonely! Ah, also, there's nothing inside that small room over there! Things that I bought in preparation for unexpected circumstances, l-lewd underwear, alcohol, none of that is there!"

"Um...I haven't come to raid your place. Rather than that, Jeanne is...?"

"Jeanne-san is, that way."

Nakasorachi turned her back on 'Tohyama-kun' and pointed at a door. That was the only door with a wood grain, having been decorated in an antique, western style. Needless to say, it was just like Jeanne.

The door creaked as it opened, and when I stepped through it, it was bright.

It does seem like she's here. I can't see her though...

A mahogany desk. A light which looks like an ancient gas lamp. Somehow, it seems like the room is decorated with chic ornaments, just like an executive office of a high-tier business, or a politician's office. It's completely different from the Nakasorachi zone.

As for the wooden shelf...French and Japanese books that seemed like history books lined the shelves.

(She's a scholar, huh...)

I thought, taking out a book, and beyond the books bound with leather, there lay another row in...Mm...?

There were comics for girls hidden inside. And a lot of them.

Shoucomi, Margaret, Betsufure, Hanatoyume. Hehe. Jeanne reads stuff like this?

I've found an unexpected side of her. So she keeps the girly part of her hidden inside. That's just like her.

Rustle...Rustle.

Raising my head at the slight indication, there was another room further in. It seemed that Jeanne was inside there.

That's right, this isn't the time to laugh.

Jeanne. She chased 'Grenada', and it seems that she was injured, but--is she alright?