OreShura: Volume 7 Chapter 3
#3: Mayhem aimed at Christmas[edit]
With that, Masuzu returned to school as usual.
She was able to return “normally” without causing much commotion thanks to the huge school festival. Some problems did happen, like when Akano Mei brought the female classmates and asked her “What did you do during your leave? Were you sick? Or were you having a vacation?” or Tanaka from the football club yelling “Goalkeeper, jump to the side—!” when he saw Masuzu coming and was sent outside to stand in the corridor, but only to that extent.
Nobody knew about us breaking up.
The only people who knew were members of “Jien-otsu”, but they probably won’t just go around talking about that, so it doesn’t really trouble Masuzu; I am relieved about that.
A really hot lunch break.
I was eating lunch together with Kaoru at the garden behind the school shed.
I told him honestly about what happened with Masuzu, and wanted to discuss this through with him—
“I think it won’t be easily exposed since you will frequently have club activities together, but I don’t know if it will last for long.”
Kaoru held his strawberry milk in one hand and gave his slightly pessimistic view.
“After all, Natsukawa-san is well known. If nobody sees you going home together, or talking rather distantly, those petty things will cause rumors. If people like Akano-san start asking ‘Did you guys break up?’ then it would be bad.”
“Hmm…”
What Kaoru said is certainly correct, I can imagine it happening.
“Also, Natsukawa-san is planning to help Chihuahua-chan and Eita right? Won’t it be immediately exposed when people see this?”
He’s getting more and more on point, damn.
“It’s hard to be the class couple.”
Kaoru-sensei, who knows nothing about love, gave me some much needed advice.
“Meeting every day even after breaking up should be quite hard, I think. You will also be seen as ‘ex-lovers’ by others, that would be hard to deal with. Although I know quite a few girls who are in a relationship with their classmates, but they keep it low, which makes everything smoother.”
“I see.”
It seems that I had a peek of the school community controlled by the lovestruck minds.
I have always thought of lovers as beasts who think “Look at us going all lovey-dovey! Look!” before this.
But when they meet people whom they want to be in a serious relationship with, it would be better to not flaunt it and do it in secrecy……
“But, Kaoru doesn’t seem to be surprised, huh.”
“About what?”
“You don’t seem to be surprised about Masuzu and I breaking up.”
Kaoru answered while folding his empty carton.
“Natsukawa’s unstable emotions are obvious, even to outsiders, after entering the second semester.”
“So you thought we would break up?”
“From the start, why would you go out is already a mystery.”
How Kaoru-like, straight to the point.
“Tha-that’s also true, the most beautiful girl in the school and me, no matter how you think about it, it doesn’t match huh?”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant by that.”
Kaoru thought in silence for quite some time.
“No matter how you think about it, it’s because Chihuahua-chan is too heavy……”
“Heavy?”
He can’t be talking about her weight, Chiwa is just as light as she looks.
“I think, any normal girl wouldn’t want to come in between Chihuahua-chan and Eita.”
“What are you talking about, how do you explain Hime and Fuyuumi?”
“Akishino-san already drew her line right? She doesn’t follow you around as much after the second semester.”
Ugh, I can’t say anything.
I'm not really near Hime aside from club activities, Kaoru is quite perceptive.
“The problem is A-chan, but mainly because she doesn’t know what is going on between Chihuahua-chan and you.”
“She introduces herself as my childhood friend too.”
There is nothing wrong with that, even now, I still treasure the memories with A-chan.
But using this memory to force me into marriage, this troubles me.
“This is because A-chan thinks her own memory is the most important, so she ignores Chihuahua-chan; maybe she will get into trouble one day.
“Don’t speak about such scary things.”
Kaoru shrugged.
“Don’t you see, Eita? You have a lot of landmines around you.”
“……hah.”
Initially I wanted to laugh it off, but I can’t do that.
Because Kaoru’s expression was serious.
“Careful to not step on the mines. Despite how I look, I am actually quite worried about you.”
With Masuzu’s return, “Jien-otsu returned to its normal activities.
Chiwa was munching on her snacks nonstop.
Masuzu was busy reading JoJo.
Fuyuumi brought her laptop to do her student council work.
I was reading my textbooks in silence.
Hime started drawing recently, and she was sketching with the aid of an artbook today. She is really passionate about it, and her hand was black from the lead.
“Himecchi, what are you drawing?”
The instant Chiwa leaned over, Hime instantly covered the notebook with her body.
“This is a secret for now, when I get better I’ll let everyone see it.”
She seemed to be planning something. She was able to produce cat ears and tails of such quality after learning a bit, her drawing should be improving really fast too.
But—
She didn’t change one bit. To the point where it is scary.
Hime was silent. She was obviously at a loss when Masuzu confessed during the school festival, but she is staying silent right now.
Did she go over something with Mana? If that’s the case, then won’t Mana know about the fake boyfriend incident—no, Hime will never tell her that.
“Oh, do you guys have any plans for Christmas?”
Masuzu, who just finished a volume of JoJo, suddenly spoke up.
“What Christmas are you talking about, isn’t there still another month to Christmas?”
“The station is already filled with lightings. Decorating the street for the lovers……it is really beautiful. How plastic.”
Although this is definitely not passing the construction law, but the word she was looking for is probably romantic.[1]
Masuzu smiled like an angel.
“Such a beautiful Christmas, Eita-kun, who are you planning to spend it with?”
Chiwa, with a chip in her hand, froze.
Fuyuumi’s hand, which was tapping at the keyboard before, froze.
Hime……ah, her pen is still going, she seems to not have realized, getting too soaked in her drawing.
I also didn’t stop working on the problems.
“Because I have supplementary classes for winter, I don’t have time to play—“
“Eh, the same supplementary classes from before?”
—the voice was Fuyuumi’s.
“Yeah, there is an early bird discount.”
“Then Ai-chan will also go♪we definitely will be in the same class again.”
“Probably.”
Because the system should be the same as the summer classes, it should be class Z again.
“So that means, this year’s Christmas, you will be spending it in supplementary classes with Fuyuumi-san?”
Masuzu cut us off with a sharp tone, totally different from before.
“Then what happens to Harusaki-san? Do you want to leave her alone? Chihuahua will die if left alone.”
“I-I won’t die.”
Chiwa was calm.
“Because Ei-kun wants to study, I can understand that.”
Masuzu still stared at me fiercely.
“Please spread your wings of imagination. On the cold Christmas night, the Chihuahua-san who was selling matches in a deserted street. ‘Do you need some matches wan?’ ‘Would you like to buy some matches wan?’ The Chihuahua-san who was shunned by the passersby. ‘Shut up, who needs matches!’ ‘Don’t you sell Zippo lighters? You don’t even have that, what a terrible shop.’ ‘I will buy the entire basket, in return……you understand, right? You are no longer a child anymore hehehe.’ Aaaah, the Chihuahua-san who was found frozen the next morning!”
“Why must I die?”
Looks like Masuzu still has the tendency of thinking pessimistically.
In the end, she is just thinking too highly of Christmas, just like those lovestruck brains.
“Isn’t it just a Western celebration? How silly. Why must one spend Christmas with a lover? This is just an evil plot by the commercial agencies.”
“I agree.”
Hime spoke up, she seemed to be done with her drawing.
I stole a glance at the notebook……hmm? There are boxes? Is it a comic?
“Speaking of Christmas, one would think it is a Christian celebration, but that is just a plot to scam the stupid people.
“That’s right, everyone seems to be controlled by the media.”
“From the information I got from the president of the internet, the ‘American army’s plot’ conspiracy seems to be the most possible. Christmas night is the only night when the magic power of the red moon hits 666, it is the best time to initiate their plot to revive Lucifer. The out of season typhoon that hit Hanenoyama City a few days ago is also reported to be the American army testing out their meteorological weapons[2], we must not let down our guard.”
“……o-oh.”
So “that” is her conspiracy—
……how embarrassing……
Chuunibyou can be cured just by looking at other people’s chuunibyou. Sorry, commercial agencies and the American army.
Masuzu seemed to not be done with her speech and leaned forward.
“Listen up Eita-kun, please spread your wings of imagination.”
“I don’t want to spread anymore……”
You probably just wanted to say “wings of imagination”.
“Christmas night, the Chihuahua-san who was eating alone. Biting on the supermarket’s half price chicken that seems to be horrible. ‘Is mom and dad working overtime again tonight?’ ‘Can’t help it, they are working for my sake.’ Nobody answered her mumbles, the only sound being the microwave’s “beep” after heating up the soup. ‘Ei-kun, is with Fuyuumi now……’ To fend off her heavy heart, Harusaki-san reached out to the leftover matches. She reminisced her memories with him through the dancing flames. ‘Ei-kun, ahhhh, Ei-kun!’. The Chihuahua-san who lighted one match after another, and drowned herself in her memories. Alas, the Chihuahua-san whose body was once again found the next day, cold!”
“Wasn’t she at home!?”
Looks like she wants Chiwa dead no matter what.
Masuzu said she wanted to support our relationship, and it does look that way, but she feels the same as the old Masuzu.
“Back to the point, I really don’t mind. I am having dinner with my parents during Christmas, right, Ei-kun?”
“It’s the same every year for your family.”
Due to Chiwa’s parents being busy at work and not at home most of them time, they treat festivities like New Years, Christmas and birthdays highly.
Fuyuumi happily leaned over.
“If that’s the case, let’s work hard together during Christmas!”
“Yeah, you’ll help me a lot by not being so close right now.”
I was worried if she would actually let me study in peace.
On the other hand, Masuzu started mumbling to herself.
“Sigh, Harusaki-san really isn’t wary enough. If you don’t firmly hold this man down he will start flirting left and right, he’s indecent when it comes to girls, there is no helping him.”
She has really bad notions of me.
“Ah—that, Masuzu? You really don’t need to worry that much—“
“What are you talking about! This lecturing geek, if we leave you alone you will definitely run off to study or lecture other women! If you don’t start going out in front of me, I will be worried!”
“Ehhhh……”
So troublesome.
Just like what Kaoru said, landmines are aplenty.
Although there were plenty of bombs before this, but they are visible.
But right now, the situation is quite messed up, I don’t even know where to step.
With that, I carefully moved through the landmines to the second half of the second semester.
It is the second week of November, which means there is less than a month to the finals.
If I can’t take back first place this time, I have to spend the rest of the year as second place. This is not a joke, I must welcome the new year with first place.
My strongest rival yawned on the seat beside me.
“Fuaaah, why can’t my table be made of feathers?”
The one speaking is Mogami Yura-san (currently first place in our year).
She was lying on the table, lightly tapping on it with her soft right cheek.
Fifth period, which was located right after lunch was changed into a self-study session to let the other classes catch up with our pace.
Because there was a teacher in class, nobody left their seats, but there were a few people chatting softly or dozing off. Since the teacher was busy computing the marks for the quiz, she just ignored them.
“Kidou-kun is really diligent in class huh.”
“Hmph, what is wrong with studying in a self-study session.”
“Nobody said it was wrong."
She yawned while saying “it feels really uncomfortable”, seems like she was up quite late studying.
“Hey, how long do you practice each day?[3]”
“Normally I start once I reach home, because there is a special room for that, so I just shut myself in it and study. I do eat dinner and bathe in between, and study until 12 o’ clock. In total…about six hours?”
“Hmm, how deserving.”
What a person, even I only study about 5 hours a day.
I still have to waste time on housework, what should I do to defeat her on the time spent studying?
“But the broadcasting amount is not rising……although I sent it in almost ten times already.”
“Huh?”
“Looks like I definitely need to practice more. I need to start saving up money, and have more vocal practice.”
“……what are you talking about?”
“Of course it is karaoke, isn’t that obvious?”
“I’m talking about studying!”
I can’t help but shout.
I lowered my head as the teacher stared at me.
Mogami replied in a hushed tone.
“Didn’t Chiwa tell you about it? I thought you must be talking about this.”
“How should I know, and how did our conversation topic turn into karaoke?”
“But I thought where our conversation was headed didn’t involve you asking me about my time spent studying. The fact that you are interested in someone else’s study habits is already out of my imagination.
“…aah, really?”
Anyhow.
Mogami Yura has no interest in studying, and doesn’t treat me as a rival.
Then why is she still taking first place, how annoying.
“Then, let me ask you again. How much time do you spend studying a day?”
“Usually, zero.”
“Ze—”
“Isn’t paying attention in class enough? Although I would study a bit for exams.”
“—ro”
So this type of people actually does exist.
Indeed, looking at the experience sharing of first rate university graduates, there are people who say things like “as long as you attend class and practice the past year papers it would be enough!”.
“Then, why are you studying in Hane-kou?”
“Because it is close to my house, I can see the field’s white lines from my bathroom window.
Mogami yawned three times while saying that line.
This person—is really a monster.
I have to overcome a genius like this and regain first place…..can I really do this?
The bell signaling the end of school hours rang, and while I was stuffing my notebooks and textbooks into my bag—
“Hmm?”
A pencil that I should’ve kept in my stationery case is gone.
I looked around, but it wasn’t on the floor.
“Alright, whatever.”
Because I usually use my mechanical pencil, the pencil is just a spare, and I rarely use it, so it doesn’t really trouble me.
“Okay, Eita-kun, time for club activities.”
Masuzu approached me, bag in hand.
“I have something to do in the office, please go on ahead, don’t forget to fetch Harusaki-san.”
“Why do I have to fetch her?”
I tilt my head in wonder, and Masuzu snapped.
“For two people who like each other and are in the same club, isn’t going to club activities together normal?
“Definitely not, Chiwa and I are not even goin—“
“Let’s not talk about this.”
Masuzu stopped me from finishing and rolled her eyes.
“You were talking with Mogami Yura again, right?”
“It was just a casual chat, she is sitting beside me after all.”
“This won’t do, you need to avoid doing things that will invoke misunderstandings with Harusaki-san! Do you understand?”
“Yes yes.”
“Once is enough!”
“……yyyessss.[4]”
When will this support for our relationship end?
Making it this obvious, the fact that you are single will be easily seen, right?
I received a message when Chiwa, Hime and I were waiting in the clubroom.
It is from the currently missing Fuyuumi. I already heard that she wasn’t coming today due to student council work beforehand.
[Subject] ♥LOVE♥INVITATION♥
[Content] I am waiting for you on the roof, can you come alone?
……
What is she planning this time?
Alright, even though I have the rough idea.
“Pachi Lemon” December Issue•Merry Christmas Special
A must do even during Christmas night♥Popucute test!
Answered by “Summer River”-san (pen name)
Q1: What is the true form of Santa Claus?
A1: Do we need to know this? Even though we are killing him?
Q2: White Christmas! How would you have some fun in the snow with him?
A2: Checkmate him.[5]
Q3: What do you want to give him as a present?
A3: An iPad with a broken LCD screen.
Q4: What do you wish to get from him?
A4: An iPad without a broken LCD screen.
Q5: What is Christmas to you truthfully?
A5: I can’t watch the JoJo colour version I bought……
Your Christmas is: Too sad!
Pachi Lemon Editorial Board: Did your iPad break?
Translator notes and references[edit]
- ↑ Plastic and romantic both ends with –tic, and that’s the same case in Japanese. “プラスチック” and “ロマンチック”.
- ↑ Basically a manipulation of weather during war.
- ↑ Here, practice doesn’t have a definite action, since Kidou meant it as studying, but didn’t specify the action, for the following neta it is required to be kept this way. The original sentence was “ねあ、お前って一日何時間くらいやってるんだ？”.
- ↑ Imagine it being dragged out.
- ↑ The original phrase is “雪隠詰め”, which includes the word “snow” but has nothing to do with snow. It means to corner someone.
| Back to #2 | Return to Main Page | Forward to #4 |
