The next day arrived.
The utterly normal day was the exact
opposite of the day before when Mutsuki had been prepared to die more than
once, had nearly cried, had worn out his hips, and had climbed the staircase to
adulthood.
His classmates were the same as before.
Sakae and Saya were as energetic as ever and Ibekusa Machina arrived at the
last second as always. Mutsuki tried to greet her again but once again failed
to say anything.
There was only one difference.
“Jiyuuni Ange. Nice to meet you.”
A small panic erupted after the morning
homeroom.
The transfer student had given the most
perfunctory greeting before moving to her assigned seat. That seat was the
rearmost one by the window, putting her diagonally back from Mutsuki. He
doubted she was doing it intentionally, but she was resting her had on her hand
and staring disinterestedly out the window just like Machina in front of her.
She immediately put on a lopsided frown and
showed no hint of sociability. Mutsuki was worried she would not be able to get
along with the others, but Ange simply turned her back on their classmates’
curious looks.
She seemed to have a natural preference for
purity, so she had a poor opinion of the Serpent’s Eye that could force women
into a state of arousal. However, her dislike did not seem isolated to Mutsuki,
so her claim of not liking humans may have been true.
But…
“Ohhhhhhhh! You’re so cute! I love you! Please marry me!”
“Wa ha! Your red hair is so pretty♡ Is it natural? And your eyes are blue… Are you only half-Japanese?”
“We don’t usually get transfer students at
this time of year. Where was your old school?”
The fact that she was a beautiful young girl proved surprisingly powerful. As
soon as homeroom ended, a tsunami of classmates rushed toward her.
“Hey, make sure you’re ready for first
period.”
Their homeroom teacher, Katsue-sensei, rang
vainly through the classroom, but no one was listening.
Ange must not have expected this either.
“Well… It’s natural and my eyes are normal.
My old school was somewhere far away.”
Despite her composed answers, she looked
shocked.
Mutsuki breathed a sigh of relief as he
watched on from a step away.
They were pretending to be strangers
because of the trouble it would cause if their classmates found out they were
living together, but she had of course transferred to the school to be his
bodyguard. Since she had come for him, he wanted her to get along with the
others.
“Jiyuuni-san… I can call you, Ange-chan,
right? I’m Kurikara. Kurikara Saya.”
The class’s female eternal optimist pushed
through the crowd of people.
“You can call me Saya. Nice to meet-…”
“Outta the way, jelly-face. If someone like
you shows up in front of the nervous transfer student, she’ll think you’re
gonna eat her. Leave this to THE Tomono Sakae, the most reassuring man there
is.”
“Jelly-face!? How dare you call a girl-…
dah wah wah! Don’t push!”
The male eternal optimist joined the fray.
Saya and Sakae kept pushing each other out of the way and almost climbing onto
the desk to get in front. Ange pulled back with a troubled look each time they
got closer.
The two of them finally moved in toward her
together.
“Nice to meet you, Jiyuuni-san. I’m the
class rep, Tomono Sakae. You can remember me as the man who will one day stand
at the center of the world.”
“Hah. The center of the world? The center
of this class is the most you can manage.”
“What’d you say!?”
“You heard me! You wanna fight!?”
They really did start fighting.
The classroom’s excitement was growing at
the arrival of this beautiful transfer student, so no one tried to stop them
and some even seemed to egg them on.
Unable to keep up, Ange gave Mutsuki a look
that asked “what’s their deal?”
The boy could only smile warmly back at
her. One could only grow accustomed to those two’s energy.
Their classmates continued to cheer and
their questions never seemed to end. Even first period was only a brief respite
before the next break. And the next. And the lunch break. And afterschool.
The sullen angel-winged transfer student
had been confused at first, but she seemed to gradually grow accustomed to the
noise.
By the time they left, she was fitting into
the class well enough.
Based on her attitude at school and what
Micha had said, Ange was apparently not very familiar with human society.
Or with the human world as a whole.
“Wowwwwww!”
Mutsuki had no idea how an angel normally
lived her life, but…
“This place is so big!”
She had apparently never seen a shopping
mall before.
“Try to be a little quieter. You’re
embarrassing me.”
“Sorry.”
“I know how you feel, though, so let’s
enjoy ourselves on this shopping trip♪”
Her usual risqué outfit was gathering a
fair bit of attention, but Micha started walking without shame. Ange followed
with her blue eyes sparkling at all the stores lining the walls. Mutsuki walked
along behind the both of them.
This was SeeDWalK, the biggest shopping
mall near their town, which had pretty much anything one might want to buy. It
was sudden, but they were already buying supplies for Mutsuki.
“I’ll pay for it all, so choose whatever
you want. Ange, if you see anything you want, feel free to buy it. I’ll write
it all off as a business expense.”
Micha showed off a black credit card and
grinned proudly. Mutsuki did not know how business expenses worked for angels,
but he had a feeling this woman was abusing the system more than anyone else.
“Wow, wow! What’s that!? There’s a train
running through the building!”
The mall was as large as a small theme park
and Ange was impressed by just about everything. She was interested in every
store, every facility, and even the bathrooms and benches. She was currently
getting worked up over a bus to carry children around the building.
He had first met her just about twenty-four
hours before, but this was his first time seeing anything other than an angry
or sullen look on her face. It was a refreshing experience.
They started by buying things they would
not have to lug around with them afterwards. First, they headed to the
furniture store on the first floor of the shopping mall’s western wing.
“Wowwww.”
The girl voiced her amazement yet again
when she saw the beds, tables, sofas, etc. filling a space the size of a soccer
court.
“Is there any phrase more wonderful than
‘business expense’? Maybe I should get a new everything while we’re at it♪”
Micha turned her sparkling eyes toward a
fashionable white wood dining table with a lace tablecloth, an elegant wooden
armchair with no nails or bolts, a tall rack with a mirror covering the entire
thing, and other fashionable pieces of furniture. When she spotted a recliner
with a built-in cooler for beer, she grabbed the purchase form without even
checking the price tag.
And yet their apartment already had a TV,
couch, and beds, so Mutsuki had thought it already had the bare necessities.
“ ‘Please try me out.’ Hey… Hey, Mutsuki!”
“Yeah?”
Ange gestured him over. She seemed
interested in the bed section and she pointed at a plate that said “Please try
me out.”
“It’s saying you can lie on it to see how
it feels. Keep your shoes on the plastic at the bottom, though. Also…”
Before he could tell her to do it quietly,
the girl dove noisily onto the bed mat. The creaking of the springs seemed to
fill the entire floor.
“Wow, wow! This is amazing! It’s so bouncy
and soft.”
The comfort that 99800 yen bought was
apparently several steps above the cheap bed that had come with the apartment.
She kept bouncing up and down on it like a trampoline.
An employee naturally started giving them a
disapproving look.
(Why am I the one getting glared at?)
The employee seemed to think she was his
little sister, so he averted his gaze.
But…
“~~♡♡♡ That settles it.
I’m buying this. I’m definitely buying this.”
Ange stretched happily.
Since she said she was going to buy it, he
decided to let her do whatever she wanted.
“~~♪”
“…”
She lay on her stomach and kicked her feet.
Mutsuki’s expression relaxed when he saw
her playing around like a puppy wagging its tail in a nice sunny spot.
The two of them had not exactly been
getting along, but he could not think of her as a bad person when he saw this
innocent side of her.
He wanted them to get along.
They were roommates, she was helping him as
his bodyguard, and they were about the same age.
He was pretty sure they would be able to
get along when the right opportunity came along, but…
“I see, I see.”
He felt a soft sensation on the back of his
neck. Next, a sweet breath tickled his ear.
“How about we buy a bigger bed? The ones we
have are too small, so we almost fell off when doing it doggy style. One with a
waterproof mat would be best.”
“H-have you bought a recliner yet?”
He quickly moved away from the large round
objects resting on his shoulders.
Amused by his reaction, Micha giggled.
“I did buy one, but I’ve hit a snag. I used
a trick to get the lease for our apartment, so we’re technically not registered
as its residents. I need to stop by the government office and get things
legal.”
“Oh… I see.”
He was bothered by the parts about “using a
trick” and “getting things legal”, but she was an angel. He decided to turn a
blind eye.
“Sorry. I’ll be gone for a bit, so you kill
some time with Ange.”
“Oh… Wait, what!?”
“If you see anything you want, go ahead and
buy it all.”
She tossed the black card his way and
turned around.
The boy naturally panicked when he was
handed an object that could produce as much money as he wanted.
“W-wait, Micha-san!”
She was already gone.
All that remained was the weak-willed boy
and the credit card he was afraid to use.
“What did Micha want?”
Having seen her guardian walk up and leave,
Ange only tilted her head and got down from the bed.
They decided to look at the furniture
later, so Mutsuki showed Ange around the mall since she wanted to see more
large stores.
“What a strange place. It’s like an entire
shopping district was put inside a single building.”
“That’s what a mall is.”
Fortunately, Mutsuki visited the place
about once a month with his sisters, so he knew his way around pretty well.
Showing Ange around was a simple task.
“Ha ha♪”
Ange seemed to like the spiral escalator that
made a half circuit of the central space as it brought them to the second
floor. A huge smile covered her face as she saw all the stores spinning around
her.
The boy laughed quietly when he saw her
unable to maintain her usual air of composure.
(She really is a good girl.)
Due to some compatibility issues and bad
timing, he had not had a good impression of her. But when he saw her here, she
no longer seemed like someone he could never get along with. As long as she
could claim it was her duty, she would do a proper job of protecting him 24/7.
“Hm? What is it?”
She seemed to have noticed him looking at
her, so she tilted her head while leaning over the railing.
He felt like he had been watching her all
day and she seemed to have a habit of putting on that lopsided frown even when
she was not particularly angry. That impression was helped by the natural angle
of her narrow eyebrows and the sharp look to her eyes.
“I’m just glad you seem to be enjoying
this,” he said with a smile. “I thought you might not be able to enjoy yourself
with me.”
“Uuh… I-I’m not enjoying the human world in
the slightest. It’s just, um, not boring since it’s so different.”
This time, she really did look to the side with a sullen look. The problem
seemed to be her prejudice against the human world, her short temper, and her
refusal to be honest.
The escalator reached the second floor, so
they continued on up to the third. The central space seemed to rotate around
them on this half circuit.
Mutsuki spoke to the girl who leaned on the
railing with her cute lips bent in a lopsided frown.
“Hey, Ange. Look at that.”
“What is it? …Wow.”
He pointed down toward the central space.
When she peered down, her angry expression
immediately lit up.
On the first floor, the central rest area’s
decorative plants had appeared to be arranged in an irregular pattern, but from
this high up, they formed a picture. With summer approaching, the many yellow
seedlings painted a beautiful sunflower.
“Ah ha ha♪ You humans think up the weirdest things.”
She seemed to be enjoying herself again.
She completely forgot to frown as the escalator rotated around and changed
their angle of view, somewhat changing the sunflower’s colors and shape.
She really was a pure girl. Mutsuki stepped
up alongside her with a smile. She was not going to complain if that was all he
did.
Although maybe pure was not quite the
right word.
“There are so many clothing stores, too.
…Ah! Wait a second, Mutsuki! Why are those people standing around in their
underwear!? They’re in public!”
Ignorant may have been the better word
choice.
“Those are mannequins.”
“Manne…what? Oh, they’re dolls. …Ah! Wait a
second, Mutsuki! They’re selling human bones over there!”
“Those are piggy banks shaped like skulls.”
“Oh, so they’re fake. …Ah! Wait a second,
Mutsuki! That man is wearing a girl’s sailor uniform!”
“That’s…a personal preference…I guess.”
By the time they reached the third floor,
the atmosphere had lightened up quite a bit.
The first floor’s stores were primarily for
food, cafés, and general living items. The second floor’s stores were all
related to fashion. They planned to visit those places once Micha got back, so
they made their way to the third floor. That floor was for entertainment shops.
The stores were all entertainment related:
books, music, snacks, movies, etc. Mutsuki had chosen it because it had plenty
of stores that sold things Ange would probably like to see, such as kid’s
accessories and amusement products.
But as soon as they arrived, Ange’s interest
latched onto one spot in particular.
“What’s this place? It sure is loud. Game
Master City?”
“It’s an arcade. They have games there.”
“The whole place is for games?”
“Yup.”
“You’re kidding.”
Her mouth hung open as she looked around.
Her reaction was hardly surprising. Game
Master City took up a full third of SeeDWalK’s third floor and it was one of
the town’s leading amusement parks. More than just video games, it had ping
pong, pool tables, a bowling alley, karaoke, and a manga café. It even had an
indoor tennis and futsal court for rent until seven at night.
Sakae would often drag Mutsuki to arcades,
including this one, so it was actually the perfect spot for him to show Ange
around. He followed her as she rushed inside.
“Hmmm… You humans really are geniuses when
it comes to the most pointless things.”
Despite the backhanded compliment, she
smiled happily and ran around the arcade.
“What’s this?”
“The crane game. After putting in some
money, you move this around to grab the prize.”
“What’s this?”
“Horse racing. You buy a token from those
machines and bet on this. All the games in this area need tokens to-…”
“What’s this?”
“At least hear me out. This is a photo
booth. It takes your picture.”
As she dragged him around, Mutsuki checked
on the contents of his wallet. He was not about to use the card for games. His
investigation turned up a total of about 7000 yen. That seemed like it would be
enough.
“I want to try them! Tell me how to do it!”
In an unsurprising turn of events, she
called him over as soon as she pulled out a 1000 yen bill. He smiled bitterly
and broke it down into 100 yen coins.
“Which one do you want to try?”
“This one. Everyone’s smiling, so it looks
fun.”
She pointed at a nearby booth and tugged on
his sleeve.
“Um, but…”
He was a little troubled, but before he
could say anything more, he was dragged into the booth covered in pictures of
“everyone smiling”.
He was unsure what to say since this
technically was not a game, but he could not refuse Ange when she looked so
excited. He inserted a coin and decided showing her would be faster than
explaining.
“Well? Well? What do I do?”
“Um, first, you choose a frame. Which size
do you want? There are five options.”
“Size? I don’t know what you’re talking
about, but the bigger the better.”
“Then I’ll go with the biggest one. I’ll
set the brightness to automatic and add no decorations. …Okay, here it goes.”
He doubted she knew what was going to
happen, but she looked charming enough with the excited sparkle in her eyes.
He was embarrassed standing next to her, so
he left a space between them and smiled awkwardly.
“C’mon, what kind of game is it?”
She was still grabbing onto the elbow of
his sleeve and she pulled him in close.
At that exact moment, the booth took the
picture.
“??”
She turned around in surprise at the sudden
light, but her long and skinny eyebrows twisted when the booth did nothing
more.
Mutsuki was somewhat troubled as he checked
the photo on the screen, but he guessed she would be mad if he retook it. He
touched the “confirm” button on the panel and it took around a dozen seconds to
print the photos.
“What is this?”
“Like I was saying, this machine isn’t
actually a game.”
Anger visibly grew on Ange’s face when he
handed her the printed photos.
He began to wonder if he should have
retaken it after all. Depending on how one looked at it, it almost looked like
they were smiling together with their arms linked.
“What is this!? So it just takes pictures?
That isn’t a game at all!”
“Well, you’re actually supposed to draw on
the pictures you take.”
“Where’s the fun in that!? How stupid!”
He had started this because he had thought
she would find something “stupid” to be fun, but she had gotten mad instead.
She seemed to especially dislike how friendly they looked in the photo. She
blushed and stomped out of the booth.
Mutsuki scratched at his head and followed
her.
But he did secretly pocket his first
one-on-one photo with a girl since it had come out so well.
Ange seemed more cautious after that first
failure, so she avoided any kind of machine with a screen as she started
searching for something that looked fun.
Even in such a large place, there was only
so much they could do, so they naturally ended up at a certain device.
“You called this the crane game?”
“Yes. You grab the prizes with that crane.”
“Hmm.”
Still looking sullen, she stopped in front
of the prize area that contained over one hundred machines.
The prizes were exposed behind a single
layer of glass and one could snag one for as little as one hundred yen. The
genre had an attraction for people like her who knew little of normal games and
it drew her attention quite well.
“Want to try it? Although it’s not easy, so
I doubt you can get anything.”
There were plenty of varieties: orthodox
cranes, shovels that scooped up treats and glass beads, extending arms, baskets
the prizes were shaken into, and hooks to snag the prizes. For a beginner like
her, he guessed the roulette that relied entirely on luck would give her the
best odds of success, but…
“I can teach you the trick to it if you
want. So which one do you-… Uh, oh.”
“…”
When he noticed what her slanted blue eyes
were focused on, he grimaced.
She apparently wanted a Lazy Bear cushion,
based on a mascot character that had gotten popular recently. It was a large
prize and there was only one per machine. And of course, each play in those
machines cost two hundred yen.
“I can get this too?”
“Um… W-well, yes. If you can grab it. But…”
“I’ll do it. Just tell me how.”
Her unconcerned tone of voice would not
take no for an answer, so Mutsuki had no choice but to operate the machine in
question and teach her how it was done. It was an orthodox crane type where
Button 1 moved it to the side and Button 2 moved it forward. He told her that
she had to stop the crane above the prize to grab it, that targeting the center
of gravity was best, and to go for a spot that was not too thick but not too
thin since it responded to pressure.
But…
“Okay. I’ll give it a shot.”
The machine cost two hundred yen a try, but
he inserted a five hundred yen coin which was worth three games.
Ange stared at the prize beyond the glass
with as serious a look as when she wielded her great sword. Mutsuki had paid
for three game’s worth to make sure she was convinced, but…
“…Here.”
Whirrrr.
“…There!”
Whirrr.
Whir-whir-whir-whir-whir.
“…”
“…”
“…? Is that all?”
“Yeah, you failed your first try.”
The claws had grabbed the prize at a good
spot, but they had risen back up without lifting the target in the slightest.
Then they moved back above the prize hole.
“What the hell!? What a piece of junk!”
“I told it wasn’t easy, didn’t I?”
He smiled bitterly at the angry girl
because he had expected this to happen.
Prize games generally had two types of
machines: the lure machines that drew in customers with their magnificent
prizes and the opened machines that drew in customers with the ability to
actually win something.
Mutsuki had looked into it because his sister
Mutsumi was really into the Lazy Bear series, but the cushion was a new
product. That meant it would be in one of the lure machines. The machine was
only meant to show off the prizes, so it would be made so no one could actually
win them.
There would be days when it was set up to
be possible, but a weekday like today was hopeless. Based on Ange’s game, the
claws were too loose. Even one hundred games would not be enough to get it.
“Grrr…”
Oblivious to that world of adults, Ange
furrowed her brow and glared at the machine as she reached for the buttons
again.
Three games would never satisfy her, so
Mutsuki inserted another five hundred yen, increasing the “remaining plays”
light to “4”. In the meantime, he started looking for another solution.
Fortunately, he quickly found what he was
looking for. It was the machine he had worked himself to death conquering after
Mutsumi had begged him.
“…”
“…”
“Ahhhhhhh! There’s no way you can get it!
Is this thing rigged!?”
After using up all of her plays and only
moving the cushion a little over two millimeters, the girl shouted loud enough
for the employees to here.
“As I said, it’s really hard.”
Mutsuki returned to her with a smile.
“This isn’t just hard. It’s made so you
can’t win!”
“And you lost from the moment you didn’t
realize that.”
“…”
“Here.”
He handed his prize to the girl whose
adorable face was twisted in anger.
Ange was shocked to have something a few
sizes larger than the cushion pressed against her chest. Her eyes opened wide
when she realized what it was. The shape was a little different, but it was the
same character as what she had wanted.
It was a Lazy Bear body pillow. He had
worked his ass off winning one two weeks before for Mutsumi…and then had won
another for his jealous older sister. And then a third time for Chiaki when she
sulked.
He was so accustomed to it that he had won
this one after only two tries. It was not a difficult thing on one of the
opened machines.
“You can have it. It’s not a cushion, but
it’s pretty much the same, right?”
“~~ I-I don’t need…”
“You don’t want it?”
“…”
She never said she did, but she refused to
let go of it.
She quickly grew silent, so he headed to
the service counter to get a bag.
When he turned his back, he barely picked
up a voice saying “…nk you”, but he pretended not to hear it and continued to
the counter.
However, he could not keep up his
gentlemanly act, so he peeked back toward her after turning
the corner and
asking an employee for a prize bag.
Ange remained entirely motionless for a
while, but…
“~~”
He saw her squeeze the pillow just once.
Afterwards, they enjoyed themselves in the
normal game section.
With the fighting, puzzle, mahjong, and
quiz games that were only buttons and a screen, she could only tell “something
is happening on the screen” since she did not know the rules. On the other
hand, she quite liked the games that required moving one’s body.
Take the shooting games for example:
“Wah! Wah! This is really gory! Take this
and this and this and this!”
“Wow, perfect accuracy. That’s amazing for
your first time.”
“Why you-! Take this! …H-huh? What the
hell!? Why did I die when I was never hit once!?”
“As I’ve already explained several times,
your life goes down whenever you shoot a hostage. You can’t just shoot
everything that moves.”
“Grr…”
Or the rhythm games:
“Ah ha ha ha ha. This is so easy.”
“No misses is pretty amazing for a first
attempt.”
“Heh heh. Well, if I actually try a little,
you should expect this.”
“…”
“But there’s someone with three times my score in the high scores.”
“That’s because you’re hitting the buttons
without paying attention to the rhythm. You won’t get a good score that way.”
Or the punching machine:
“What does a punch strength of ‘E’ mean?”
“That’s an error. Try hitting it again.”
“If you say so… Deryah!”
“…”
“What? Now it’s not even showing the ‘E’.”
“The pole is stuck inside the machine. I’ll
go call an employee.”
Perhaps due to her personality, she found
something to complain about with everything.
“C’mon, Mutsuki! Let’s play this one next!”
“S-sure.”
Still, she seemed to be enjoying herself as
she kept tugging on his sleeve.
“Is this like what Micha rides?”
Her interest turned toward the line of
motorcycle machines.
It was a racing game that allowed up to
eight people to play at once.
She hopped onto one, placed her bag on her
thigh, and grabbed the grips. They were coordinated enough by now that Mutsuki
inserted two coins, climbed onto the next machine over, and explained how to
accelerate, turn, and brake.
“Let’s start with a simple course. Choose
the automatic transmission and…that red bike is easy to use.”
They began the game on the practice course,
a beginner’s motorcycle, and the easier transmission mode.
“The automatic transmission means you only
have to twist the grip to pick up speed. But if you go too fast, you can’t make
the turns, so watch out. Good, good. Start by trying not to crash or fall
over.”
“Oh, oops… Like this!?”
“Yes. Very good.”
He slowly drove alongside her on the screen
as well as on the machine.
“Hmm. Motorcycles are fun. Maybe I should
borrow Micha’s sometime.”
“You need a license for a real one. …Wait?
Does Micha-san have a license?”
“Oh, that was close! I’m not going to fall
over anymore.”
“Good, good. Make sure to lean to the side
when you want to-…oh.”
His heart skipped a beat when she tilted
her machine for the curve and her skirt flipped up, revealing the spats-covered
thighs below.
Due to her personality, she had gone too
fast and crashed a lot at first, but she was noticeably improving with each
lap. That may have been thanks to her superhuman athletics. Before long, she
was no longer crashing and actually making it around the curves, even if just
barely. At the end of the tenth of twelve laps, she was about as good as your
average player.
“Ha ha♪ Did you see that,
Mutsuki? I didn’t crash again.”
“That’s amazing. You aren’t spinning out
even at your top speed. You’re a proper player now.”
“Heh heh. Well, a human game isn’t about to
give me much trouble. …Whoops.”
She almost crashed while giving him a proud
look, but she continued reducing her lap time.
Mutsuki was not very athletic
and it had taken him a long time to get used to this sort of game, so he was
jealous.
“Heh heh heh heh.”
A smile of victory filled Ange’s slanted
eyes.
(She’s so cute.)
That was his honest thought.
She naturally left a powerful impression,
but the harsh side vanished when she smiled, leaving only the cute side. Only
the cheerfulness of a sunflower and the purity of the blue sky remained.
Once he noticed, he could not keep his eyes
off of her.
The two of them crossed the finish line at
the same time.
“Hm? It’s already over?”
“It was a twelve lap race. Well? Did you
have fun?”
“Yeah! …No, I mean, a bit I guess.”
Her eyebrows rose in defiance, but she
still looked cute.
As the boy climbed down from the machine,
his cheeks were loose with self-deprecation.
“Wait,” said the girl. “You’re supposed to
use this to race, right? In other words, to see who’s the fastest?”
She put her hands on her hips and pulled
her chin back to give him a challenging upwards look.
“Eh? …You want to race?”
Mutsuki checked, but no one else was
around. It looked like they could play twice in a row.
“I’ll have a pretty big advantage since I’ve
played this game a lot.”
“I’ll take that handicap.”
“Hm… Fine then.”
He climbed back on and inserted two more
coins.
“Don’t you dare go easy on me. And don’t
make any excuses if I beat you.”
“Fine, fine.”
Mutsuki realized he was mostly just
enjoying playing with her instead of trying to get along with her. He selected
the same course, the same bike, and the same transmission.
“No going easy on you, you said?”
“Eh? Ange, don’t kick it! They’ll get mad
at us.”
Mutsuki left the motorcycle section while
worried about the looks the employees were giving them. Ange stomped off after
him.
“Um…”
“Shut up.”
“I-I play that game a lot. You did really
well for your first day.”
“Shut up.”
“I’ll admit I went a little overboard when
I lapped you the fourth time, but that was because you told me not to go easy
on you.”
“Shut uuuuuuup! You’re making fun of me,
aren’t you!?”
She shouted angrily back and Mutsuki was
too weak-willed to say anything more.
Ange may have been good for a beginner, but
Mutsuki had been able to drive alongside her and give her instructions. The
difference was like night and day. His mistake had been truly not going on easy
on her without giving any thought to her pride.
“I’m never riding a motorcycle again! Not
even Micha’s!”
She seemed thoroughly pissed after being so
badly beaten.
“Sigh.”
The boy sighed at how poorly this was
going.
At the same time, he was in a fairly decent
mood.
He was certain the two of them had grown a
lot closer over the last while.
Ange was still holding onto her prize bag
as she moved on ahead. Mutsuki could not help but laugh quietly before jogging
back to her side.
“Hmph.”
Even the way she exaggeratedly turned away
seemed cute.
After leaving Game Master City, they
returned to the mall corridor. Evening was shifting to night and the number of
customers had grown a bit.
“Hey, Ange.”
“What?”
“That Lazy Bear cushion will be moved to
the opened machines in a while, so how about we come back for a rematch then?”
“…”
She slowed her quick pace and faced him.
Her reddish-brown hair fluttered behind her as she did.
“This time you can win the prize.”
“~~”
Merely imaging herself defeating that
loathsome crane on her own was enough for her normal lopsided frown to melt and
curve upwards.
But it quickly stiffened back up.
“I-I don’t really want that, so it doesn’t
matter!”
She stomped off again.
Mutsuki laughed again. That was when Ange
noticed the boy had been smiling all this time. She gave a sullen frown.
“And what do you mean ‘in a while’? It’s
not like we’re going to be together for that long.”
Her tone was ice cold.
“Really?”
“Didn’t Micha tell you? The angel
headquarters down here on earth are searching for a countermeasure against the
demons and FeTUS. If we can restrict the influence of those two groups, you
won’t need a bodyguard. Then I’ll be freed from this annoying job.”
“Oh, yeah. I did hear that.”
If the other angels could defeat those
moving machines and that black water, he would no longer have to live with
those two angels. He could return to his family. Micha had explained that the
night before.
But when he thought back, something about
that bothered him.
“I see. So after that, I won’t be able to
see you and Micha-san anymore.”
That felt sad even if he had only met them
the day before, so the tone of his voice dropped.
The girl glanced over at him, but she
groaned and wrinkled her brow awkwardly when she noticed his expression. But
she quickly bristled with annoyance.
“That’s right! I’ll be leaving soon and
then we’ll be strangers again!”
She pointed at his nose and raised her
voice.
It felt less like she was actually angry
and more like she was trying to break the gloomy atmosphere.
The boy was used to being yelled at, but it
shocked him when she began shouting in public. Naturally, they drew a lot of
attention.
“Just to be clear, every minute and every
second I have to spend with you is an annoyance.”
“S-sure. …Um, Ange?”
“Besides, why do I even have to be your
bodyguard? You’re pathetic and perverted, so I’d never want to have anything to
do with you if it wasn’t for the Serpent’s Eye.”
“Sorry. …But could you keep it down?”
Not only was she yelling quite loudly in
public, but she was calling him pathetic and perverted.
More and more people
started looking their way, so he was of course embarrassed.
But he could stand embarrassment. He could
bear with the half smiles in those strangers’ eyes.
“Like I told you before, I hate, hate, hate
people with no delicacy and no shame!”
“Yeah, you told me that yesterday.
Anyway-…”
“I just can’t stand this. Stop getting
carried away and acting like we’re friends or something.”
“Can you please-…”
“Just because we live together is no
excuse!”
“Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”
This time, everyone on the third floor
turned around.
But they looked past Ange and Mutsuki to
look at the girl behind them.
With the worst case scenario in mind,
Mutsuki turned around with stiff movements.
“Living together… No shame, pathetic,
perverted…”
The worst case scenario was here.
And it was the worst possible person for
that worst case scenario. Mutsuki started feeling dizzy, so he figured this was
would be when someone would faint from shock.
“No delicacy…and pathetic…when being
perverted…together.”
A familiar girl was quickly rearranging the
keywords for her own convenience.
Her mouth was opened wide, the corners were
twitching, and even her nostrils were opened wide as she smiled.
“Hear me out, Kurikara-san. You’ve got it
all wrong. The truth is…”
“Spam restrictions off! Chainmail ready to
go! Send to entire address book!”
“Stooooooooooooooooop!!”
Even though she was a girl, he seriously
grabbed at her to steal her cellphone.
But the girl, Kurikara Saya, easily swayed
out of the way and continued dodging his attacks as her thumb raced across the
keys with lightning speed.
Ange could only watch in confusion because
she was unfamiliar with the human world and did not know of the incredibly
dangerous type of human known as the “gossiping girl”.
By the following day, the entire school
knew they lived together.
Thxs for the chapter.
ReplyDeleteGood job Ange.
ReplyDelete