Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 10 - Visitor Chapter (II) Page 12
Nonetheless, Honoka was aware that Miyuki had figured out the reason for her 'poor condition', so to her, this was an extremely distressing comment. Especially the "you are not really getting any work done today" part.
"I see… Um. Then…"
After displaying that slight hesitation, Honoka enthusiastically stood up and energetically bowed.
"I am truly sorry! Please forgive me for leaving early today. Then from tomorrow onward, I will once again work hard!"
"Yes, we will work hard tomorrow."
Miyuki gave her reply to Honoka, forestalling (disregarding) any answer from the two senpai. Azusa felt that there was something strange about Honoka not using 'also' to indicate the effort put into today's work was the same as the effort she intended to put into tomorrow's work, but only Honoka, herself, could understand what she meant by that.
As she bowed her head and asked to be excused, Honoka's face had red-stained cheeks as she abruptly left.
◊ ◊ ◊
"…Honoka left early for that reason."
Miyuki explained that to Tatsuya as they took the road from the school to the station.
"Oh… Maybe she's getting ready for tomorrow."
"Unmistakably."
Miyuki nodded, extremely sure, and Tatsuya's face started to look as if he was feeling very uneasy.
"Since Honoka is the type to put a lot of effort into things like this…"
"Are you happy, Onii-sama?"
She was not feeling jealous — Miyuki was questioning him in a teasing tone; not really in the mood to be teased, Tatsuya shrugged in answer.
"Rather than feeling happy, I feel guilty. Even though I can give her material things in return, I can't give her the most critical thing in return."
Miyuki made a show of shyly grabbing Tatsuya's sleeve as he whispered to her in a somewhat serious tone of voice.
"…Please, don't trouble yourself about that. Both Honoka and I just want Onii-sama to be happy with all our hearts."
"…Really?"
"Really, it's okay to accept her gift without protest."
"Umm, I'm sorry to bother you just as you were getting in the mood, however..."
Tatsuya, with Miyuki still clutching his sleeve, turned to look at Lina, who had hesitantly interrupted them; although she sounded more irritated than embarrassed, reluctance was displayed on her face.
"Mood? You are uttering peculiar things, Lina."
"The peculiarities are in your heads!" is what she wanted to assert loudly, but applying verbal brute force would not win against Tatsuya anyway, as she had already found out.
"In short, Honoka's condition was bad because she was worrying about giving Tatsuya chocolate tomorrow?"
"You've grasped it quite well, Lina. Giving chocolate is a custom unique to Japan, I believe."
Lina had been looking at Tatsuya's face when she asked the question, but Miyuki answered as if it was perfectly natural for the reply to come from her. …This could not be said to be the first time it happened, so Lina had already stopped thinking "these siblings are doing it again" when Tatsuya didn't answer the question.
"That not true. 'Girls giving chocolate for Valentine's Day' is a famous Japanese cultural tradition. Even in the States, a lot of girls copy it, and I have heard about it from some of my classmates aside from Miyuki."
Lina dealt with Miyuki's reservations by giving her a somewhat tedious answer.
"Hmmmm… who are you going to give chocolate to, Lina?"
"Even you are asking me that question, Miyuki…?"
It could be deduced from the disagreeable scowl that Lina had been asked that question persistently by a lot of people. Although it might take different forms, this kind of curiosity was the same as a hundred years before and make no mistake, it will not change in another hundred years.
"I don't plan on giving anyone chocolate."
"Oh my, not even courtesy chocolate? Or is it possible that you weren't told about courtesy chocolate?"
"I know the general details of courtesy chocolate."
"Then, wouldn't you make a lot of people happy if you give it to them, to the people who helped you when you started to study abroad and others like that?"
Lina lightly glared at Miyuki's face. However, she was not able to read anything but mild curiosity from Miyuki's expression.
"If I gave people presents from me, personally, various problems would break out."
"That's it? Popular people have it tough."
Lina's breath stopped in her throat at Miyuki's mutter.
She felt like Miyuki's popularity exceeded even Miyuki's power, but she recognized that was a paranoid delusion.
"If we are talking about popular people, aren't you even more popular, Miyuki? Who are you going to give chocolate to, Miyuki? You're going to give Tatsuya your 'I love you' chocolate, right?"
That Miyuki would bestow true love chocolate on Tatsuya was obvious, so go ahead and speak of your love for him to the utmost, because I am going to tease you so bad, thought Lina, but…
"What are you saying, Lina? Onii-sama and I are siblings. It would be weird if I gave my older brother 'I love you' chocolate, right?"
"…"
I didn't say anything because I had decided not to say another word, right… Lina whispered in the depths of her heart.
◊ ◊ ◊
"…Psst, psst, Izumi, what do you think Onee-chan is doing?"
"I think that… she's making chocolate?"
"Then… what's up with the creepy laughter…?"
Currently in their third year of middle school, Saegusa Kasumi and Saegusa Izumi, twin daughters of the head of the Saegusa Clan, were quietly whispering into each other's ears at the entrance to the kitchen.
"She looks like… she's happy. Sort of."
"But, isn't that a little wrong?"
In front of the pair's eyes, Mayumi was happily double boiling bars of chocolate. However, even if they described her as happy, the smile on her face was definitely not the kind that belonged on the face of a young maiden in love on the night before Valentine's Day.
"…Who do you think she is going to present it to?"
The tone of Mayumi's laughter had already gone from "uhuhuhuhu," passing through "HuhHuhHuhHuhHu…" and the rest and was now close to becoming something like "KukKukKukKukKukKu…" As the person who resembled their elder sister acted as if she was plotting to poison someone, the twins looked at each other with faces drained of color.
"Kasumi-chan, about the chocolate that Onee-sama is using, is that…"
"Aah, oh yes… that's the stuff that's ninety-five percent cacao with zero percent sugar…"
In the past, products that stated that they contained ninety-nine percent cacao had been available for purchase, but what was currently available commercially was the strongest, bitterest chocolate, and that was what Mayumi was using as an ingredient.
"Over there, that bag…"
"It's espresso powder…"
"Onee-chan, what kind of awful…"
◊ ◊ ◊
An incredibly heavy burst of Psions arrived in the Information Dimension and quickly crashed into an isolated Information Body.
"You are only doing so-so today, so why don't we cut off this morning's session now."
"…Thank you."
As Tatsuya adjusted his breath and directed a bow towards Yakumo, Miyuki rushed up to him to hand him a towel.
Despite it being midwinter, there was a large quantity of sweat on Tatsuya's forehead. After spending some time being lost in watching Tatsuya wipe the sweat off, Miyuki started a conversation with Yakumo.
"Sensei, I think Onii-sama is extremely exhausted from using Gram Demolition…"
Yakumo caught Tatsuya's eye as he was about to answer the question himself, then shook his head to indicate that it was alright.
"Some exhaustion can't be helped. Since for Tatsuya-kun, the Information Dimension holds concepts of things that did not originally exist, 'Movement' and 'Exclusion'."
"That's …something that is produced as a byproduct of arranging, right?"
She was confident that her brother was the strongest magician, but she knew there were a lot of things that he couldn't do. If it were necessary to secure victory, her brother would let his heart and body be damaged, for example — shortening his life span — and she intended to use anything, even tears, to quickly stop him from doing that.
"No, I don't think it's that kind of thing."
Yakumo's answer quickly contradicted Miyuki's theory.
"Because only Tatsuya-kun's recognition method is changing. He is not directly hitting the target; he is establishing coordinates by making marks from one second to thirty-two minutes from the side of the target, and he is producing a concept bullet that will give him the exclusion of movement in an area he has subconscious dominion over that he connects to the real world — right, Tatsuya-kun?"
"That's what we're doing, Miyuki. Rotating back and forth between thinking and sensing makes me mentally… no, it only exhausts my sensitivity. Don't worry, I won't do anything that would make me fall victim to a side effect."
"Really…"
Miyuki appeared reassured by Tatsuya's clear explanation.
"So, there is a good chance of making a means to attack the Parasite?"
Upon being gazed upon by his younger sister with glittering eyes that said "just what I would expect from Onii-sama," Tatsuya unintentionally made a pained smile.
"No."
"If he goes up against a 'child' who has just been born, he will probably destroy him. But it would be tough to go up against an 'adult' fortified with months and years of experience."
Tatsuya let out a pained laugh as he shook his head.
Yakumo intervened and lowered her expectations slightly.
—Thanks to that, the siblings ended the session without awkwardness.
Miyuki had not accompanied Tatsuya this morning on a whim, much less to check on the progress of Tatsuya's training.
Miyuki had come to Yakumo's temple on the morning of February fourteenth last year and the year before, so this was the third time.
She probably didn't have to state her errand.
When they returned to the temple priest's quarters, Miyuki took out a pretty package from the bag she left there and presented it to Yakumo.
"Sensei might consider this a heathen custom, but please accept this. Sensei is always doing so much for my brother."
As she did this, Yakumo made a smug smile.
"No no, good things are steadily maintained, even if they're foreign heathen customs."
Surely Tatsuya wasn't the only one thinking "Every year, he says the same thing, this guy…"
"Master, everyone's watching."
However, Tatsuya was the only one who could give him a chiding look rather than merely keeping his face unnaturally stiff.
"Hm? Isn't it alright? It's an incentive to train you."
Naturally, Yakumo didn't act like he noticed Tatsuya disapproval at all.
"Doesn't this touch on the precepts on worldly desires?"
"As long as it doesn't end in carnal desire, it doesn't matter."
Yakumo spoke as if he was aloof from the world, but the avarice on his face didn't suit his words.
As Tatsuya shrugged "there's nothing that can be done with this man," the number of disciples who silently agreed with him was close to a majority.
◊ ◊ ◊
Until half a century ago, a large number of people used electric cars for transportation, but the modern era's cabinet had won on the point of ability to estimate arrival times.
If the method of how they're used is considered, the reason why can be understood, but cabinets do not have what is called an arrival time table. Naturally, in order not to cause any congestion, there is a wide window for cabinet arrival without being late. The lack of legally imposed speed limits within a cabinet's route forms the basis for fast arrival times. Though it can be said that it was a little inconvenient for meeting at a prearranged time and place.
In the first semester, Tatsuya and his friends had met at the station and joined the flow going to school together many times, but recently their pattern had been to congregate when they arrived in their classroom.
"Good morning, Tatsuya-san."
"Morning, Honoka."
This defiance of the difficulty, could it possibly be due to being young.
Or perhaps it was due to being in love.
Maybe both answers were correct.
"Ah, good morning, Honoka-san."
"Morning, Mizuki."
And for a maiden in love on this day alone, companions are intolerable. Since being with Miyuki was the default, nothing could be done about that, Honoka thought.
However, anyone other than Miyuki was not a friend but a mere obstacle. No, it was because they were friends that Honoka thought she wanted them to make assumptions based on what today's date was.
—Certainly, that thought showed on her face.
It could be said that Mizuki read the mood by the slight change in Honoka's expression.
Mizuki quickly started fidgeting. Although she was extremely uncomfortable, it would be too unnatural to suddenly burst out words like "I'll go on ahead" or "I remember I have to be somewhere" right now.
Even though she wanted to align with Honoka's expectation, in that situation Mizuki couldn't move; unexpectedly(?), Miyuki was the one who abolished the stalemate.
"Mizuki, is there something on your uniform?"
"Eh?"
Of course, upon suddenly being told that, Mizuki craned her neck with all her might, trying to look over her shoulder to see her back.
There was no way doing such a thing would allow someone to see their own back and since there was nothing back there in the first place, it was nothing but an exercise in futility, however—
"Stay. I'll get it for you. Onii-sama, I'm sorry, but please go on ahead. Honoka, could you go on ahead too?"
"Oh, I understand."
Honoka looked awestruck by this unexpected development; Tatsuya nodded easily and Honoka nodded at his look.
Honoka awkwardly forced her legs to trail after Tatsuya's back and turned only her upper body to thank Miyuki with her eyes.
Miyuki nodded with a small smile.
Honoka's nervousness and excitement over the unimaginable chance to walk to school with only the two of them knew no bounds. Even though Tatsuya made conversation, she was only able to make the proper responses by the skin of her teeth. Additionally, her voice was hoarse. In spite of Tatsuya walking rather slowly, her legs had difficulties due to joint stiffness, and she nearly stumbled over spots where there was nothing to stumble over.
Even if she was the only one who called it stage fright, it was the unmistakable truth.
If they entered the school building like this, the difference of status between the first course and second course students would part them. Honoka also understood very well that this incredible chance was also about to be wasted.
Not using the salt you were given was nothing more than betraying yourself to your rivals.
"Um, Tatsuya-san!"
Just as they passed the school gate, Honoka called for Tatsuya to stop.
"Would it be alright if I could have a moment of your time!"
The way she spoke was like she was standing on ceremony with a superior officer several ranks above or an upper level m
anager several classes above her.
"Fine."
Not even the least bit of surprise showed on the humbly smiling face that had stopped for her as Tatsuya nodded.
"Over here… please."
Stealthily, as if hesitant to attract people's eyes (which made her stand out), Honoka advanced on quick feet in the direction of the outer garden, Tatsuya following at a pace that was neither faster or slower. —With a face that said he knew all.
"Well, Tachu…!"
The private spot on the school grounds (it made a passable confession spot) she knew of was in the shadow of a tree behind the robot research garage. (However, there was no special legend attached to it.)
Honoka stood in front of Tatsuya, vigorously presenting a small wrapped box held steadily in both hands — with all her heart and fumbling her words.
Honoka froze in that position.
Her long hair, fastened in two ponytails above her neck, did not conceal her burning red ears. Her head hanging down showed off the part in the middle of her hair, that little slice of skin displaying the fact that she was completely red.
She couldn't make the slightest movement. She also couldn't speak. She could neither advance or retreat. Both of her arms trembled weakly, her heart throbbed loudly. Other places on campus were producing similar ripples but the waves produced from her heart were as strong and big as anyone else's. The form of the wave was pretty and unbundled like the ping produced by a tuning fork. —Guiding the bud of an ego of a trembling soul with no heart.
"Thank you, Honoka."
From both of the stretched out hands of Honoka, who was strangled by her own passion and unable to move, Tatsuya gently disconnected the wrapped box of chocolate to prevent it from breaking. And in exchange, installed a slightly smaller gift bag in the palm of her hand to grasp.
The uncertainty over the unexpected action might have (temporarily) overcome her shyness; Honoka pulled the gift bag to her breast with a blank expression on her face.
"Uh, Tatsuya-san, this…"
"For the time being, a return gift. Since I'll give you something different next month[2], that one you'll have to wait for."