Chapter 2: Planning Won't
Help, but Let's Do It Anyway
"So, that's the whole story! What on earth should I do
now?!"
It was the day after I'd met Mio. The very serious
predicament that I'd very carelessly stumbled my way into
was far too weighty for me to bear on my own, and so the
moment the afternoon break began, I went out to find a
certain upperclassman and spilled the whole story to her,
from start to finish!
"I don't know how you'd expect me to know what you
should do, whether I have the whole story or not," that
upperclassman said with a shrug that told me she really just
couldn't be bothered.
Her name was Akane Hishimochi, and she was both the
president of the Sacrosanct fan club and also one of the
very few third-years—or rather, the only third-year—who I
was acquainted with. I'd called her out more or less on a
whim, and had ended up meeting with her in the student
guidance room yet again. That might seem like an odd
choice for me, but, I mean...the place was always
abandoned, right? It really was pretty convenient, in all sorts
of ways.
"I really think it'd make more sense to talk to
Maightingale about this sort of thing than me, don't you?"
the president asked.
"Maighting...? Oh, Koganezaki! I already did, actually. She
said, 'Don't know, don't care' and left," I explained.
"Oof, yeah, she would. Cold and coolheaded as ever, that
girl."
"It really is just like her, isn't it? But I figured that since
you're the opposite of coolheaded, talking to you instead
might make sense!"
The president paused. "Was that supposed to sound like
an insult?"
"N-Naaah, no way! I just meant you're friendly and
enthusiastic, of course," I replied in a stilted monotone.
The president gave me a long, hard stare, her eyes half
closed behind her glasses, and I broke eye contact. "For
crying out loud... You really never change, do you, uhh...
Wait, what was it again?"
"What was what?"
The president paused. Again.
"Your name."
"Huh?! You mean you forgot?!" Now that hurts! I'd
thought that the president was the one upperclassman I was
acquainted with, but apparently as far as she was
concerned, we hadn't even reached the acquaintance level!
"N-No, not like that," said the president. "I remember
your name. Of course I do. It's just..."
"Just?"
"I gave you, y'know, a nickname or something, right?
That's the part I forgot."
"Ahh..." Okay, I actually forgot that one too. I feel like it
involved the word "band" in some way or another, but that's
all I've got. "Okay, but do you really have to use a
nickname? Couldn't you just use my actual name instead?" I
proposed.
"Absolutely not!" the president snapped.
"Huuuh...?"
"Do you have even the slightest clue how socially
awkward I am?! And you expect me to just come out and
call you by your actual, real-life first name?!"
You'd almost think I was the one being unreasonable,
from the way she laid into me. I hadn't actually said
anything about her using my first name, for the record—my
last name would've been just fine too. It wasn't like I was an
idol who worked on a first-name-only basis or anything.
"Wait," I said, "I thought you were super sociable,
actually? You're so cheerful and chatty and stuff!"
"You only think that because you're seeing me on a
surface level," said the president. "You might say that's how
I defend myself. If I keep talking nonstop, then I'll never
have to deal with any awkward silences, and it makes me
look nice and friendly too, right? Even if I do catch people
saying stuff like 'Man, Hishimochi just never shuts up, does
she, lol' behind my back later on sometimes..."
"Ugh?!" Just hearing about that bit of gossip was
excruciating. Though, to be fair, pretty much any behindthe-back gossip was painful for me to listen to. You might
even say that sort of gossip was my greatest weakness.
"But if I had my way, I wouldn't talk to anyone. I'd love to
shut myself up in my own little world, all alone...but that's
not on the table, right? So I figured that at the very least I
could be as superficially friendly as possible, and, well,
calling people nicknames is a pretty friendly sort of shtick,
right? Or, I mean...I kinda hoped it would be, I guess...? Ugh,
sorry, I'm being such a pain..."
Ahhh! The president's losing momentum at record speed!
I had no idea that her nickname for me was that important
to her... If she'd just told me, I would've made a note about
it on my phone or something!
"You're not a pain at all!" I insisted. "I mean, I do stuff like
that all the time too!"
"Put a sock in it, Miss Has-A-Social-Life..."
"Ugaaah?!"
O-Okay, yes, from a broad societal perspective, I
probably would look like a socially fulfilled normie, what with
the being-in-a-relationship thing and all. But that was just
luck! By nature, I live in the deepest, darkest depths of the
social trenches! Even if it was just her trying to protect
herself, her bright and cheery attitude was way more
impressive than anything I've ever pulled off!
"I-I know!" I said. "You can just give me a new nickname
right now, okay?! We can't un-forget the first one, but we
can start fresh instead!"
"A new nickname...?"
"And I'll call you by a nickname too! Like, uhh..."
I did, in fact, remember that the president already had a
nickname I'd used in the past: Mocchi. That, however, was a
nickname that she'd told me to call her—I hadn't come up
with it myself. Considering I was asking her to think up a
new nickname for me, it only seemed fair for me to think up
a new nickname for her too!
Let's see... Nicknames, nicknames...
"Mocchi" had come from the latter half of "Hishimochi,"
her surname. It was a pretty rare surname, by the way,
written with some odd, kind of cute characters, but the
problem was that if I picked a surname-derived nickname
for her, it could just as easily apply to her parents too.
Imagine if I called her at home, said, "Hi, is Mocchi there?"
and her mom or dad was all, "Yes, speaking" or something!
It was just asking for misunderstandings, no two ways about
it.
In other words, this time, I was set on thinking up a new
nickname using her given name, Akane, as its basis. It'd be
the better move long-term, for sure!
So... Umm, sooo...
"Akksy?"
"You're definitely making fun of me now!"
"Am not?! I thought it'd be cute! It has a nice ring,
right?!" I'm absolutely not trying to make you sound like a
big dumb cow! It's Akksy, not Ox-y! Half of Akane with an s
and a y!
I was operating off of the same system that Makina had
used to give me my Yotsy nickname. A system employed by
an idol could never be flawed—it would be no exaggeration
to say that my new nickname for her could trace its origins
back to the most noble and respectable of sources! (Even if
Makina was in kindergarten when she gave mine to me!)
"Hmph... Akksy, huh?" the president—or rather, Akksy
muttered to herself. A faint smile began to spread across her
face. "You know, I think this might be the first time someone
else has given me a nickname," she said as the smile
continued to grow, her eyes narrowing contentedly.
Th-That's so...
On the one hand, her perfectly innocent smile was
adorable, and on the other hand, the fact that she'd been
calling people nicknames for so long without anyone else
ever giving her one of her own was a little tragic. I was torn
between "so cute" and "so sad" in equal measure. I hadn't
really considered it when she first told me to call her
"Mocchi," but from the sound of things, she really had come
up with that nickname for herself...
"Akksy, Akksy... It still kinda feels like you're making fun
of me, but if you want to call me that, then I guess I
wouldn't mind letting you get away with it," Akksy said in a
hesitant, faltering tone, her cheeks slightly flushed as she
looked at me with bashfully upturned eyes. She was actually
acting so bashful that I felt a little embarrassed too. I'd
given her the nickname pretty casually, but it was starting
to feel like that act had carried a lot more significance than
I'd realized. "H-Hey. Try saying it, okay?"
"O-Okay! So, umm...A-Akksy," I said, a little flustered.
"Yeah," Akksy replied after a slight pause. She still
seemed embarrassed, but even more than that, she seemed
distinctly happy in a really cute/sad sort of way. "And as for
you...since you're calling me Akksy, I'll call you Yocchi!" she
added with a grin, almost like she was powering through her
embarrassment and overriding it with confidence.
From Yotsuba to Yocchi? I can sort of see it, and it's
actually kind of cute, I guess!
I hadn't thought that Akksy would turn The Makina
System right back around on me...and while I'm on the
subject, there's actually a bit of a story to how Makina
ended up calling me "Yotsy" in the first place. You'd think
that if the goal was just to trim my name down a bit, "Yotsu"
would be the obvious choice, but it just didn't have a very
nice ring to it, and going all the way down to "Yot" would've
made me sound like a boat. "Yotsy" was the nicer-sounding
compromise that the two of us ended up settling on
together. It was a weirdly heartwarming feeling to more or
less live out that old memory all over again as my high
school self, and I soon found myself grinning as well.
"I like it!" I said.
"Hee hee... You do...? Then I guess you're Yocchi starting
today!" the president—Akksy—said with a satisfied chuckle.
Actually getting called by a nickname like that really did
make me feel like squirming a little, but in a good way. I had
a feeling that the way she was acting now was probably the
closest thing I'd seen to Akksy's true personality. That did
raise some questions about the crazy hyper persona she'd
adopted the first time I met her, of course. Maybe she'd
psyched herself up for it since she knew I'd be coming in
advance?
Or maybe I'm reading into it too much, and it wasn't
about me after all. If that is what happened, though, then I
feel a little bad for visiting her like this today. I did kinda call
her out for a talk without any warning at all.
"So anyway, Akksy, about what I actually came to talk
about today," I said, steering us back on track. I felt a little
bad for it, but this really was a super pressing problem for
me, and I needed someone to give me advice about it. After
all, the cultural festival was less than a month away!
"Oh, right. Yeah," said Akksy. "So, umm, the issue was
Miss Makina's coworker, right? You know, when I step back
and look at the big picture, I think you might be the single
biggest trouble magnet in the world."
"Ugh... I can't argue with that..."
"So now you have a contest going—or I guess you called
it a bet."
"Do you think I could, like...just take it back? No way,
right?"
"Yeah, nah, I can't see that going well. Judging by how
you described her, she's the sort of girl who won't stop until
she's satisfied, one way or the other."
"Thought so..." I groaned. My shoulders slumped with
dismay. "Come to think of it, didn't you say that you were a
diehard idol fan at one point, Akksy?"
"Oooh, yeah, I guess. Shooting Star's way outside my
area of interest, though," Akksy replied.
"Well, do you, like...know how members of idol groups
usually treat each other, or anything like that...?"
They weren't friends, and they weren't family. They were
coworkers. A professional relationship. "Coworkers" wasn't a
word I'd had many opportunities to use, but judging by how
relationships like that were portrayed on TV—plus how
business interests and money would make interpersonal
dynamics all weird—I had a feeling that it would be a very
complicated sort of relationship to have with someone.
Like, imagine you get along really well with someone, but
they're super bad at their job and end up getting fired. Or
imagine the other way around, where someone's a total jerk
but they make you so much money you can't bring yourself
to complain about them. Someone who was your best friend
one day could turn into your worst enemy the next, totally
out of the blue...thought that bit might've just been some
dramatic exaggeration on those TV shows' part.
I wonder just who Makina is to Mio, at the end of the
day...?
Mio had certainly lavished Makina with praise during our
encounter, but on the other hand, it had all been praise
directed at her efforts as an idol. It didn't quite feel like
she'd shown that she valued Makina as a person.
The way I saw it, Makina was just Makina. I'd known her
as my childhood friend Makina Oda since long before I found
out about the idol Maki Amagi. To Mio, however, Makina was
Maki. The girl she knew was Maki Amagi, her idol coworker.
She saw—and valued—Makina in an entirely different way
than I did. I couldn't say that she was in the wrong
either...but I did wish that she'd learn to see Makina as more
than just the idol she performed as. Maybe that was selfish
of me, but I couldn't help it.
"Hmmm. I mean, there's all sorts of idol groups. Some of
them put on a show of being besties onstage, but actually
hate each other's guts behind the scenes. Like, way beyond
a 'not on speaking terms' level—I mean they actively badmouth each other and stuff."
"O-Oh, really...?"
"Idols are humans too, and people are just like that,
right? Sometimes idols get caught bashing each other on
secret social media accounts, and it turns into a huge
scandal. It happens," Akksy said with a shrug. That sounded
like it'd be a pretty major disaster to me, but the way she
framed it made it seem like it was perfectly ordinary.
Does Mio do stuff like that too...? I thought before shaking
my head. I didn't want to believe that she was the sort of
girl who'd sink that low. The fact that I'd met and spoken
with her in person made it impossible for me to imagine.
"Anyway, it sounds like this Mio girl's got a pretty good
idea that you and Miss Makina are on good terms. She
provoked you into the bet, sure, but you did agree, and if
you back out on it without a really good excuse, don't you
think that could end up causing trouble for Miss Makina in
its own right?" Akksy noted.
"Good point!" I exclaimed.
If Mio ended up concluding that I was a bad influence on
Makina, it could make her more dedicated to ending
Makina's hiatus than ever. It seemed really possible that
she'd resort to even pushier methods than before. In fact,
judging by how she came across, I was positive that was
exactly what she'd do! Now that I'd agreed to the bet, there
was no getting out of it anymore. My only choice was to
pray that the performance was good enough to satisfy Mio...
"Whoa there, Yocchi—this is no time to sit around
praying!"
I blinked. "Excuse me?"
"To start: How exactly are you planning on showing her
the performance in the first place?"
"Huh?"
"Your show's on day one of the festival, right? That's the
day when only currently enrolled students are allowed in,
isn't it?"
"The day when... Oh. Ooooooh."
I hadn't even slightly considered that tiny little problem
until the very moment Akksy pointed it out. There was a
huge, physical barrier in between us and our bet playing out
as intended!
Class 2-A had come together for one purpose, more or
less: to prove to the whole school that we made the best
team ever, bar none. Considering the school was our target
audience, day one of the festival—which was dedicated
entirely to current students—fit the concept better than day
two, when outside visitors would also be allowed in. It would
invite way less in the way of trouble, as well.
Mio, needless to say, was not one of our students. She
wouldn't be allowed into the festival on day one. In other
words...she wouldn't be able to see the performance at all!!!
"Wh-What should we do?!"
"You know, I bet this is why Maightingale brushed you off
so quickly. She probably figured this out right away, and you
know how she is about following the rules."
"O-Oh, I have an idea! How about we record the
performance and show it to her on video later?"
"I'm not saying that wouldn't work, but it'd basically
guarantee that you'd lose, y'know?"
"Wait, how...?"
"I mean, live concerts are all about the atmosphere,
right? You have to be there to get the full effect. None of
that excitement comes through on video—it all ends up
feeling way smaller, somehow. Doesn't help that you're
holding your show on the stage in a school gym."
"That does make sense, actually..."
Akksy was completely right. It wouldn't matter how good
their performance was if those good points failed to come
through in the version Mio actually got to see. And we
wouldn't even be able to show her a properly produced
concert recording—it'd be the sort of video that a single fan
in the audience could record on their own.
"If you want to stand any chance of winning this, then
you're going to have to get Miss Mio in to see the
performance in person," said Akksy.
"Okay... But how?"
"Gooood question." Akksy slumped forward, resting her
cheek on the table she was sitting at and humming to
herself as she pondered our options. "You could talk with the
festival's executive committee and have them shift the
show to day two?"
"Well, umm, the thing is...we actually were scheduled to
perform on day two at first, and ended up striking a deal to
swap with another class who wanted a day-two slot..."
"Ahh. Okay, yeah, then that's not happening. Asking to
change your slot more than once is a really good way to
make the scheduling people despise you. And since day two
gets way more visitors, it's more desirable to begin with—
shifting to day two would be way harder than shifting away
from it."
I didn't say it, but there was one other factor as well: I
didn't want to drag my whole class into something that was
really my own personal problem. Especially considering how
I'd already gotten up on a soapbox in front of them back
during the advertising meeting!
"Okay, then, idea number two!" said Akksy. "You could
get her to transfer into our school before the day of the
festival!"
"Wait, that's an option?! I guess if she could clear the
entrance exam, it might just work...?"
"Ha ha ha! No, it seriously wouldn't. I bet even the
paperwork stage would take too long on its own."
"Then why did you say it in the first place?!"
"No harm sharing an extra idea or two, right? Even if
they're bad ones!" Akksy said with a rather amused grin.
Is she trying to do some sort of comedy bit right now...? It
sure seemed that way, but then again, even joke ideas
could hold the key to real solutions from time to time.
Probably. I need to start thinking out of the box too...
"Oh, okay, here's one," said Akksy. "You could bribe the
teachers to look the other way when you let her in!"
"I'm pretty sure I'd be expelled the second I even tried to
bribe them!"
"Oh, I guess you would. It'll be a real shame to lose you,
Yocchi, especially since we only just became friends and all.
I'll come see you whenever they give you visitation hours!"
"When did this turn into me getting sent to prison?!"
They don't lock you up in jail for getting kicked out of high
school...and anyway, I haven't even been expelled yet!
That said, it struck me that I might not even need to bribe
anyone to make that plan work in a broad sense. If I asked
my homeroom teacher Miki for help, then there was a slight
chance she'd cooperate...or so I thought for a moment, but I
dismissed the idea as quickly as I'd had it. Miki was a
tremendously serious person—so much so that she'd given
up her time off from work just to help me with my studies—
and if I tried to pull her into a scheme that involved breaking
the school rules, there was a hundred percent chance she'd
get mad at me. Even just using the student guidance room
without permission like we were at that very moment would
probably make her mad, if she found out...especially since
this time, it had been my idea.
"Okay, well, if bribery's off the table, how about you
smuggle her in?! Stuff Miss Mio in a cardboard box, then
ship her to school the day before!"
"That'd be super not okay even before you take our
school rules into account!"
"Hmm. You're a real stickler for these things, aren't you,
Yocchi?"
"Also, I don't think that Mio would let us stuff her into a
cardboard box in the first place."
"Oh, that's easy to solve. You just, y'know—whack!"
Akksy said as she mimed a karate chop to the neck, like
how they knock people out in movies. I was pretty sure I'd
heard that doing that to someone in real life would most
likely just kill them...
It really did seem like sneaking Mio in was our only
option. Bribing a teacher was out, though, and shipping her
to school in a box was out too. That just left...
"We could...have her act like one of our students and just
walk in?"
"Aww, but that's so played out! Wouldn't it be boring?"
"Boring?! I think it'd be really risky in its own right,
actually..."
"Okay, but sneaking someone in's going to be risky no
matter how you do it."
"You're not wrong about that..."
"So you just have to psych yourself up to face the
consequences if you get caught. That aside, the only factors
worth considering are how to make it less likely that you'll
get busted...and what methods would be the most
entertaining!"
"Entertaining?!" I'm seriously worried about this, you
know?! Why are you acting like it's a game? That's so mean!
"Oh, don't look at me like that, Yocchi. It'll be fiiine! Just
sit back, relax, and wait for your friendly neighborhood
savior Akksy to step in with an idea so good it'll blow your
socks off!" Akksy declared.
That was actually the opposite of reassuring...but I bit my
tongue and resisted the urge to say so. I decided to have
faith that, for all her joking around, she really was doing her
best to come up with a plan for me. Plus, it was all but
certain that whatever she thought up in the end would be
better than any plan I could dream up on my own!
To make a long story short, I left school that day with the
details of Akksy's plan—titled "Operation Sneak Mio Kuruma
into the Festival"—jotted down for future reference. Now I
just had to lay all the groundwork we'd need before the day
arrived.
◇◇◇
A few days later...
"Ahhh... Did I ever need that bath," I muttered to myself.
Days on end of festival prep plus secretly working on
Operation Sneak Mio Kuruma into the Festival in the
background—not to mention all the actual schoolwork I had
to deal with at the same time, considering I was still a
student and all—had my capacity for busyness so severely
maxed out, I was on the verge of overheating.
And so the moment I got out of the bath, I went straight
to my room and dove into bed! I was seriously tempted to
go to sleep just like that, but it was still only ten...and before
I could make any final decisions, there was a knock on my
door.
"Yeees?" I droned.
"I'm coming in, okay?" my little sister Sakura said before
stepping into the room. She took one look at me, then gave
me another, longer, much more exasperated stare. "You
look like a slob, Yotsuba."
"Huh," I grunted back at her. Considering how I was lying
sprawled out on my bed, lazing it up like no
tomorrow...yeah, she did have a bit of a point, honestly. The
fact that I'd thrown on a random T-shirt and pair of shorts
after my bath wasn't helping much, especially considering
my shirt had ridden up to expose my midsection. Sakura, on
the other hand, was properly dressed in her pajamas. She'd
even buttoned her shirt all the way up, which gave her a
sort of formal vibe. "Oh," I continued, "is it that day
already?"
"Yes, it is," Sakura sighed. "I bet you were about to fall
asleep without us, weren't you?"
"Ha ha ha—my bad."
It was, in fact, one of the days I was scheduled to have a
bedroom sleepover with Sakura and my other sister, Aoi. We
didn't have a strictly set schedule of exactly when or how
often we'd have those days, but one of my sisters would
usually tell me a few days in advance when they'd decided
it was time again. I did vaguely remember them telling me
about today as well, in retrospect... I'd just been so tired at
the time that it went in one ear and out the other, most
likely.
"Yotsuba...?" said Sakura.
"Hmm? Yeah?" I blearily replied. My sleepiness and
exhaustion had me a little out of it.
Sakura walked over to my bed, then crawled up onto it on
her hands and knees, coming to a stop beside me...
"Sakura— Mmph!"
...and then, before I had the chance to say or do much of
anything, she kissed me.
Uh... What?!
"Mh! Yotsuba..."
"S-Sakuraaa?!" I yelped. I was completely caught off
guard, and she more or less had me pinned to the bed
before I knew it. "Wh-What was that for? Did something
happen...?"
"Well, it's been so long since last time," Sakura pouted.
Since last time...? For the record, normal sisters don't kiss
each other on the lips at all! You know that, right?!
"Mh..."
My internal protests, of course, didn't stop her from doing
it again. Oh, but don't get me wrong—I'm not saying I was
trying to flat-out reject her or anything! After all, it's an
older sister's duty to live up to her little sister's
expectations...or at least, I was so used to this sort of thing
by now that I could put myself into that mindset without too
much trouble. I had no clue whether or not that was a good
thing, but what I did know for sure was that it was pretty
rare for Sakura to kiss me this proactively. She was usually
way more shy, if not a little prickly, and she barely ever
came straight out and asked for affection from me.
"I love you, Yotsuba. I seriously do."
"Mh... Sakura..."
She was just pecking at me, really—almost like she was
testing how soft my lips were. It felt sort of ticklish, though
in a nice way. In fact, while the first kiss had woken me up in
an instant, the longer it went on, the more that pleasant
sensation felt like it was lulling me into a comfortable doze.
"It's okay, Yotsuba. You can leave it to me. I'll make sure
it feels nice," Sakura whispered. She'd read me like a book,
apparently. "Don't worry—Aoi won't be here for a little
longer, most likely... She was talking on the phone, and still
has to take a bath... It'll just be the two of us for now."
"So you can give me all the attention I want" was the
unstated conclusion that I figured she was getting at. Aoi
was Sakura's little sister too, and Sakura always made a
point of playing the big sister when Aoi was around, which
made her even more tense and prone to acting tough than
ever. I had a feeling that her little don't-worry speech had
been for herself as much as—if not more than—for me.
"Love you, Yotsuba. I love you..." Sakura muttered in
complete earnestness between every kiss.
I was still totally pinned down, but I somehow managed
to move my arm—which was completely asleep—just
enough to pat her on the head. It was just about bedtime, so
she didn't have her hair tied up into her usual pigtails. Hers
was long, unlike mine, and was so incredibly silky that just
touching it felt really nice.
Anyway, I couldn't say for sure just how long the onesided kissing continued. It could've been a few seconds, or it
could've been ten minutes. My sense of time was so
hopelessly shot that I hadn't the foggiest idea, but one way
or another...
"Okay, Yotsuba, your wait's over! Your cutie-patootie little
sis Aoi's finally arrived, and I'm ready to— Whahuuuuuuh?!"
...it was very abruptly disrupted when Aoi, who'd strolled
right on in without bothering to knock, let out an earsplitting
yelp.
"What're you doing, Sakura?!"
"Mh, Yotsuba..."
"And you're just ignoring me?! Sheesh, just how caught
up in it are you...?"
Aoi let out a tired sigh and, confusingly, stepped back out
of the room again. Sakura just kept on kissing me like she
hadn't even noticed until Aoi arrived once more, this time
carrying a set of bedding. We'd tried out a few
configurations for our sleepovers in the past, and had
quickly determined that one bed was way too cramped for
all three of us. Spreading a pair of futons out on the floor, on
the other hand, gave us a comfy amount of space to work
with. One of those would be the one I had laid out on my
bed, and the other that Aoi had just brought was most likely
the one she usually slept on.
"Well, you know how it is, Yotsuba," said Aoi. "She needs
this sometimes. It seems like she's really been stressing
over her entrance exams lately, after all."
"Mmph, mmh!"
"I'll be taking a nice, long turn after her, of course! You
have an all-night course of little-sister therapy coming up!"
"Mnhh, mph!"
Sakura was totally absorbed in kissing me, and Aoi
seemed to decide to give her some space, turning her
attention to setting up her bedding instead. Normally she
would've been sulking like a little kid by now, but every
once in a while she'd have one of these moments of
surprising maturity and consideration. In a certain sense,
she was actually the toughest of the Hazama sisters. She
only had one major weakness I could think of, in fact, that
being her abysmal cooking.
But then again, since she has me around to cook for her,
doesn't she effectively have no weaknesses whatsoever...?
Isn't she more or less flawless?
"Okaaay, all done!"
"Eeek! A-Aoi?! When did you get here?"
"Ages ago, jeez! Honestly, do you know how irritating it's
been to have to be around you making out like that?" Aoi
huffed with her lips pursed and her hands on her hips.
Sakura's eyes were about as wide as I'd ever seen them.
Oh. I guess Aoi just looked like she was keeping her cool,
and was actually pretty much at her limit?! Whatever it is
about me that drives my sisters' affection to these crazy
extremes, it's definitely something I should—
"Okay, my turn next! Smooooch!"
"Mmmph?!"
"Ahh, there's seriously nothing better than kissing you,
Yotsuba... I live for this...!"
Aoi launched herself straight at me, clinging to me like
her life depended on it and kissing me with all her might. I,
meanwhile, didn't even know what was happening anymore.
I mean, it felt nice, of course, and the way she kissed me
was just so Aoi in the most endearing sort of way, but it was
also pretty clear that this was a situation in which I didn't
have the authority to so much as lift a finger. My job was to
sit still and let my sisters get their fill of affection until they
were satisfied.
I knew that, really, sisters weren't supposed to kiss each
other like this at all. By all rights, it was probably my
responsibility as their older sister to put my foot down and
tell them no. Why didn't I? Simply put...because this was
what the two of them wanted. Not to mention that I
appreciated my little sisters expressing their love for me,
even if it wasn't quite the variety of love it probably
should've been.
In short: This was just the form that sisterly love had
taken for the three of us. There was no way we could tell our
parents about it, of course, and I wasn't about to proactively
kiss the two of them either...but I guess you could say that
we had a sort of tacit understanding, or something like it.
"Come on, Aoi, it's my turn..."
"Mmph, no it isn't! Your first turn was already so long!"
Not to mention that, speaking as the oldest sibling, it was
always nice to see the two of them getting along better than
ever—even if they expressed it by fighting over me
sometimes.
◇◇◇
Eventually, my rather heated bonding moment with
Sakura and Aoi came to an end and the three of us climbed
into bed. I slept in the middle, with the two of them on
either side of me, each clinging to one of my arms.
Could there possibly be a happier place on earth than
this? I really don't think so! It's so perfect, it almost feels
like I've wandered straight into heaven! The two of them
must be the wings that carried me up there, I guess...
Certain things had dragged on for long enough that it was
now well and truly bedtime, but I no longer felt even the
slightest bit sleepy. That wasn't much of a surprise—of
course I'd be wide awake after spending that long with my
heart pounding and my blood pumping away.
"Oh, right! There's something I wanted to ask the two of
you," I said.
"Hm? What?" replied Sakura.
"You two know all about Shooting Star, right?"
It seemed pretty likely that people our age who didn't
know much about Shooting Star were actually in the
minority, really. Sakura and Aoi were firmly in the majority in
that sense. They'd both been devastated when Makina's
hiatus from show business was announced, and they'd also
both freaked out in a big way when Makina stopped by for a
visit the other day.
"Is this about Maki...I mean, about Makina?" Sakura
asked, pausing to quickly correct herself.
"No, not this time, actually... It's about another member
named Mio Kuruma," I explained.
"Oh. Does that mean that Mio's your next target,
Yotsuba?" Aoi prodded.
"Target for what?!" I yelped. It wasn't that I didn't
understand what she was implying, really...I just wanted to
make it super clear that I had never been the one to initiate
any of the things she was alluding to. But I was also afraid
that if I did say it, the two of them would pick the argument
to pieces in all sorts of ways I never could have anticipated.
So I decided to keep it to myself instead. "N-No, I'm just a
little curious, that's all! Just thought it'd be fun to find out a
little about the people in her group—you know, her
coworkers!"
"Hmm..." Sakura shot me a very pointed glance, then
added a skeptical sigh for good measure, almost making me
cry then and there. "Mio's Shoo-Star's subleader. She's the
same age as Makina, and...I think they get along, right?"
"Yeah," Aoi chimed in. "They're always placed first and
second as far as popularity goes, and they end up getting
paired together as a set an awful lot."
"Oh...?" They get along, huh? There was always the
chance that this was the sort of situation Akksy had
described where they were only acting like they got along,
and there was no way of knowing how they felt about each
other behind the scenes...but it was still a little reassuring to
know that they seemed friendly from a fan's perspective.
"I'm a fan of Mio's too," said Sakura. "Makina comes
across as a prodigy and is always the one rushing ahead
and pushing the group forward, but Mio's the one who looks
out for everyone and pulls them along with her, if that
makes sense."
"A lot of people say that Mio's more of a leader than Maki
sometimes," Aoi added.
"Oh, really?" I said.
"Some people think that Maki's only the leader because
it's been that way since the group was founded, yeah.
Honestly, she doesn't really feel like the leader type in a lot
of ways," said Aoi.
"And Mio had a leg up on her in terms of skills at first too.
Makina just kept getting better and better as time went on,
of course...but it's not like Mio ever stopped putting in the
effort or anything," said Sakura. "The fact that Shoo-Star
still works as a group even now that Makina's on hiatus is
mostly thanks to Mio, in my book. It's hard to look good
when everyone's always comparing you with Makina, but
Mio really is incredible in her own right too."
Whoooa... I knew that the two of them were fans of
Shooting Star on the whole, but even taking that into
consideration, their opinions of Mio were remarkably high.
They were so enthusiastic about her, in fact, that I was
starting to feel I might take a liking to her as well. She was
pushy, sure, and she was a sort of person who I had a kind
of hard time dealing with on a personal level...but then
again, it was also possible that she was trying to get Makina
to cancel her hiatus and get back to her idol work for
Makina's sake rather than her own.
There was just one thing that caught my attention about
Sakura's description—the part about how it was hard to look
good when everyone compared you with Makina. It struck
me that by that same logic, it would be easier for her to look
good if Makina wasn't around. This was a human
relationship, of course, and I knew it couldn't be that black-
and-white, but, well... It just seemed complicated, basically.
"Yotsuba...?" said Sakura.
"Hm? What is it?" I asked.
"That's what I want to know. Were you thinking about
something again?"
"Are you sure you were 'just curious'?" Aoi added.
"O-Of course!" I yelped.
"You know it's never safe to believe you about this sort of
thing. Right, Sakura?"
"Right. Don't even think about it, Yotsuba. You already
have Yuna and Rinka—not to mention me and Aoi!"
I felt my sisters' grips on my arms grow distinctly tighter
as they clung to me more firmly than ever. It felt like they
were trying to claim me as their own, which was really cute,
even though it was also a sign that they definitely thought I
was a total degenerate with no sense of ethics whatsoever.
So that was kind of conflicting...though considering that my
whole goal was to break the school rules and sneak Mio onto
our campus, I couldn't deny that I was doing some real
scheming at the moment.
"Well, if you ever decide you want to do something really
bad, be sure to tell us first," said Aoi. "We're your sisters, so
you can tell us anything—even things you couldn't tell your
girlfriends! We'll satisfy all your desires!"
"Something really bad?! My desires?!"
"Right, Sakura?"
Sakura hesitated. "Right," she finally said. "I'll do my
best...!"
I-Is it just me, or are my little sisters taking some pretty
major steps forward...? I know they say that kids grow up
fast these days, but this seems like a little much!
Even I could tell that when Aoi said "something really
bad," she wasn't exactly talking about secretly opening up a
bag of potato chips to snack on after bedtime. Dragging my
little sisters into anything worse than that would disqualify
me from big-sisterhood so thoroughly and immediately that
I absolutely had to restrain myself, no matter what...even if I
was a little—juuust a little—curious about what exactly
she'd meant with the whole "satisfying desires" part.
Chapter 3: The Festival
Begins!
Day after frantically busy day passed by, and before I
knew it, the time had arrived. October was just about Octover, and the cultural festival was here! It felt like it had
barely taken any time at all to get here, weirdly enough,
even though it had seemed like we had all the time in the
world back when we first started planning.
Class 2-A's performance was scheduled for Saturday, the
first day of the festival. We all showed up bright and early,
all wearing the T-shirts we'd had specially made for the
event. I'd heard that the point of school uniforms was to
instill a sense of belonging in a student body, and in a
strange sort of way, those matching T-shirts accomplished
that effect way more than any uniform I'd ever worn. I could
really feel the solidarity in the classroom that morning.
Everyone knew exactly what they'd be doing up until and
throughout our performance. The performers—Yuna, Rinka,
and Makina—would stick around in the classroom to change
into and make any final adjustments to their outfits, put on
makeup, and head over to the music room around lunchtime
to warm up their voices. After that, it'd be time for the real
deal.
The rest of the people involved in the show proper—the
musicians, the announcer, and the ones who'd help manage
the event overall—would apparently be working right up
until the last minute to make sure everything went off
without a hitch. Most of the people who were left over were
split up into two groups, with the majority of the boys
standing by around the stage to act as security, just in case,
and the girls standing by to sell the merch we'd made after
the show was over.
And as for me...
"Good luck, Hazama! This is a really important job, but I
know you can do it!" said our class rep.
"Y-Yeah...!" I apprehensively replied as I accepted a
shoulder bag containing a quite expensive-looking SLR
camera.
My role for the day: camerawoman. I'd be taking pictures
of the show, catching as much of it on film as I could
manage. People were talking about how the photos would
probably end up in the yearbook and stuff, so like the class
rep had said, it really was a super serious responsibility for
sure!
"Oh, jeez, the pressure..." I muttered to myself. "They
taught me how to use it and all, but it still seems so hard..."
"Ha ha ha! You'll be fine, Hazama! And it's not like you're
alone—four other people will be taking pictures too."
"Ah, Mukai," I said as I glanced upward. It seemed she'd
noticed how anxious I was, and had decided to come over
and talk to me. "Thanks again for all this, by the way."
"It's fine! Don't mention it," Mukai replied.
Mukai was, in fact, the very person who had suggested
that I be one of the show's photographers. Her opinion
carried quite a bit of weight in the class these days, seeing
as she was in charge of our advertising efforts, but I was
sure it still must've been pretty hard for her to convince
them to give a jobless bum like me such an important role...
Mukai claimed that, in her words, "That's not true! You were
a huge help this time, and everyone said it was fine right
away," but I was pretty sure she was just being nice.
Mukai was also right: There were five people responsible
for recording the performance, me included. We'd already
figured out where each of us would be positioned, as well—
I'd ended up on the gym's second-floor gallery, overlooking
the stage. Mukai had been nice enough to make sure I was
put there, since it'd be much easier to see from an overhead
perspective than it would be down in the crowd. She was so
nice, it almost made me want to break down in tears!
Aside from a few people who were in charge of the
lighting, only members of our class would be allowed up into
the gallery during the performance. I had a feeling it was
going to be a little weird looking down on everyone from on
high like that, but it would definitely make it way easier to
see what was happening.
"Yotsuba!"
"Hey, Yotsuba."
"Ah!" I exclaimed. While Mukai and I were talking, Yuna
and Rinka had shown up to see me—with Makina following
along just a step behind them!
"Can't wait to hear you cheer for us today," said Yuna.
"We'll prove you right by making this the best
performance anyone's ever seen," added Rinka.
"Yeah! I can't wait!" I replied. They'd kept their comments
as safe and neutral as they could, since we were surrounded
by our classmates, but that was fine. I understood what they
were really trying to say to me. We'd talked all about it on
the phone the night before, after all, and above all else, I
knew that the two of them were more excited for the show
than anyone. "You too, Makina—break a leg!" I added.
For a moment, Makina hesitated. "Thank you. I'll do my
best," she finally said with a slight, awkward smile.
I found myself a little worried about her. Maybe she was
just nervous? Did she get nervous?
"Are you okay, Makina?" asked Yuna.
"If you're tired, you can feel free to rest until it's time for
us to perform," Rinka suggested.
"No need to worry about me, thank you. I'm in perfect
condition. I'll be just fine," Makina replied. This time, she
sounded just like she always did.
Wait—is it me? Did she only sound uncomfortable
because I'm the one she was talking to...?
Looking back, she'd been going out of her way to avoid
making eye contact with me all throughout the
conversation. It hadn't started today, even—she'd been
acting that way for quite some time now.
"Hey, Makina?" I said. "Did I..."
"Ah, sorry! I should stop by the restroom. I'll be back in a
moment."
"...do something..." I trailed off.
Before I could even finish my question, Makina had made
up an excuse and stepped out of the room. It was so
obviously unnatural that Yuna, Rinka, and Mukai all cocked
their heads in confusion.
"Do you...think I did something?" I asked.
"Considering this is you we're talking about? I can't rule it
out," said Yuna.
"Whaaat?!"
"It's all right, Yotsuba," Rinka interjected. "Yuna and I will
be watching over Makina. You don't have to worry about her
—we have it under control."
"You're not denying it either...?" I groaned. As depressing
as that was, I was also relieved that the two of them would
be around to keep an eye on her.
Not long afterward, Yuna and Rinka were called away to
prepare for the show. It was a bit of a shame, but
considering that they were today's stars, I couldn't exactly
complain.
"Ugggh..." I sighed as I leaned up against one of the
classroom's walls. Needless to say, I was still worried about
Makina. In retrospect, she'd been acting a little strangely for
ages. As far back as the day I met Mio on my way home
from school, even. I'd just been too preoccupied with my
own problems—or, really, too flustered by the memory of
her kissing me—to notice. She could have dropped all sorts
of hints that something was wrong that I just hadn't been
able to pick up on.
Would talking to her about it now be a good idea, though?
What if it just made her more conflicted than ever? In the
worst case, I was worried it could ruin her performance
altogether...
"The group's pretty close-knit these days, isn't it?" Mukai,
who was still standing beside me, commented out of the
blue.
"Huh...?"
"Momose, Aiba, and Oda, I mean."
"O-Oh, those three! I know, right? I guess that's only
natural, seeing as they've spent most of the past two
months together. Anyone would get along after that, right?"
"Oh... Sorry, I didn't phrase that very clearly. I guess I
thought it went without saying that you were part of the
group too."
"Wait, me?" I asked.
"Yeah," said Mukai. "It's not that you said anything that
made me feel that way—I can sort of tell just looking at the
four of you. It's your atmosphere, or something. I'm a little
jealous, actually."
"Huh?"
The last part of what Mukai had said came out so quietly,
I was pretty sure that I'd misheard her...but the rest of it had
given me plenty to think about anyway.
Oh, huh. If Makina and I look like we're close, then maybe
it doesn't seem like she's behaving strangely from an
outside perspective after all?
Incidentally, I'd started calling Makina by her given name
at some point along the way without really considering the
potential consequences, but thankfully, my classmates had
accepted it as normal without making much of a fuss about
it. I'd definitely called her "Makina" all over the place by
accident back during my speech at the advertising meeting,
in retrospect...but Makina had told the whole class that it
was fine for people to use her given name, and I guess
people remembered that well enough to not read into me
doing so. It was just another example of how high-level her
communication skills were, or how incredibly charismatic
she was, or something.
"Oh... Sorry, Hazama! I should be going now," said Mukai.
"It's fine," I said with a shake of my head. "Good luck
today!"
Mukai went along on her way. She wouldn't be up
onstage, but she—and everyone else, for that matter—was
still as busy as could be. I didn't have any responsibilities in
particular to take care of at all until the show started...but I
did have one ridiculously difficult mission that I had to pull
off before then, unbeknownst to everyone. A ridiculously
difficult mission that made me heave another sigh the
second it crossed my mind.
◇◇◇
How would we sneak Mio into the school?
The plan that Akksy gave me in the end was, in short,
that we'd have her pretend to be an Eichou High student. In
other words, Akksy had eventually decided to go with the
plan that she herself had dismissed because it was boring...
But, no, never mind—I don't actually want to complain
about that, on second thought. All the other plans she
thought up were way too risky! They would've practically
taken superpowers to pull off!
How, then, could we realistically sneak her into the
school? The answer turned out to be surprisingly simple.
"Umm, let's see... She should be here soon, right...?" I
muttered as I glanced around the school's entryway. It was
right around the time when students would usually be
pouring into the building, and even though it was the day of
the cultural festival, there were still plenty of kids heading
inside. All of class 2-A's students had already arrived,
though, so our shoe cubbies should have been
deserted...but just as that thought crossed my mind, a girl
stepped up to them.
Huh...?
Her long, black hair was tied into a pair of braided
pigtails, she was wearing glasses, and for some reason, I
found my eyes drawn toward her. She was wearing one of
our school's uniforms, so she clearly belonged here, but for
some reason she was standing by class 2-A's shoe cubbies,
restlessly glancing around the area...until finally her gaze
met mine and she jerked her chin in the air, gesturing for
me to come over to her.
Wait. Is that...?
"G-Good morning...?" I said as I stepped toward her.
"Why were you just standing around gaping at me? You
said you'd find me yourself, didn't you?" the girl snapped.
Her tone was really harsh, especially in contrast to her plain,
subdued looks, and her glare was so sharp that I actually
started trembling for a second. That powerful stare was
something no disguise could ever cover up. There was no
doubt about it!
"You're, umm...Mio, right?"
"Of course I am. Come on, hurry up. I need your shoes,
remember?"
DC
D
Π
"O-Oh, right!"
Mio stashed her outdoor shoes in my shoe cubby, then
pulled out a pair of indoor footwear I'd brought for her (a
spare pair that I didn't normally use, specifically). I watched
her as she changed into them, and was struck by just how
different she seemed. Her medium-length brown hair was
now black and way longer, for one thing, but more
importantly, she just felt different on an overall vibe sort of
level. She felt...well, normal now. That special, sparkly idol
aura I'd felt from her before was completely hidden away,
replaced with a perfect facsimile of the sort of normal, mildmannered girl you could find at any school anywhere.
Her eyes, however, were an exception. They were the
same as ever. Makeup had nothing to do with the power of
her gaze, apparently—it was a natural-born talent. I figured
she probably could've used makeup to hide it, but
considering she was supposed to be a prep school student,
showing up with too much makeup on would've looked
suspicious in its own right. The glasses would do a good
enough job of keeping her gaze inconspicuous without
catching people's attention, hopefully.
Anyway, Mio's glare was bad for my heart, but good for
my nerves. After all, it was a relief to see that she wasn't
completely unrecognizable. If that powerful glare had
vanished as well, her disguise would've been so perfect that
if I'd lost track of her in a crowd, I might never have found
her again.
"All I can say is wow," I muttered.
"What? This is totally normal," Mio gruffly replied. It was
so much easier to recognize her when she talked. Her tone
didn't match up with her looks at all—like if a purehearted,
well-to-do maiden turned out to secretly ride around on a
motorcycle in the dead of the night, or something.
"Yotsuba? Why're you spacing out on me?"
"Ah, sorry! So, umm, first things first...let's go
somewhere!"
Mio's aura had overpowered me, and I ended up setting
off at a walk, wandering for some time without any
destination in mind whatsoever. She followed along, sticking
very close behind me. I didn't get the sense that any of the
students we passed paid her any attention whatsoever. That
was a good thing, of course—I would be in deep trouble if
we were busted—but I still couldn't help being nervous. I
probably looked like more of an intruder than she did,
actually.
"Where are we going, Yotsuba?" Mio eventually asked.
"Huh?!" I yelped. "Oh, umm... So, the thing is, the cultural
festival has an opening ceremony that's happening soon."
"So?"
"Well, all the students are supposed to attend...but it'd be
a huge mistake for you to go too, right?"
"It'd be an easy way to get caught, that's for sure."
"So I thought we'd find somewhere for you to hide until
the ceremony's over! I was just thinking about what would
be a good spot."
"Okay, I get it now. Anywhere works for me. I can just
hang out in a restroom or something."
"Wait, really? You wouldn't mind? I was so sure that you'd
want your own green room and would throw a fit if I didn't
get your lunch specially catered for you, or— Ouch! Ow ow
ow?!?!"
"You're messing with me, right? Right?"
I mean, yeah, I was, but it was just a little joke! You didn't
have to pinch me that hard!
"Oh, relax. I know how to make it look like I'm pinching
someone without it actually hurting."
"It does hurt, actually?! Like, a lot?!"
Mio kept pinching my side for a few seconds longer, then
finally released me. It hurt so much I didn't know how she
thought she could get away with telling me to relax about it.
Then again, assuming she wasn't kidding and actually could
pinch painfully or not-painfully at will...had I just been
pinched by a master?! I sort of wondered if she'd be willing
to demonstrate the looks-painful-but-isn't pinch on me too,
but I had a feeling that she'd just do the painful one again if
I asked, so I did my best to suppress my curiosity.
"Well, umm, in that case, I should be going now!" I said.
"I'll come back and get you as soon as the ceremony's
over...but I thought it'd be boring just waiting for me, so I
grabbed this for you to read."
"A booklet about the festival? Thanks, but you don't have
to bother coming back for me at all, really. I'm sure there
are plenty of things I could do to entertain myself here—I
can just catch a few opening acts while I wait."
"No way! I couldn't abandon you! I'd feel bad about
making you wait around on your own. It's fine, don't worry
about it!" I assured her.
"Oh...?" Mio replied. Her eyes widened slightly in a way
that made me wonder if she was a little surprised, but she
took the festival booklet and headed off into the nearby
restroom before I could follow that train of thought any
further.
Oh—maybe she was planning on fiddling with her phone
the whole time, and giving her that booklet was a waste of
effort? I guess having it can't hurt, though, so it's probably
fine, I told myself. I was still curious about what was going
on in her head, but I had an opening ceremony to get to, so
I rushed off to the gym instead of worrying about it.
◇◇◇
"Hey, I want to check this out," Mio said, eyes sparkling
with glee as she pointed at one of the events listed in the
festival booklet. I'd headed over to liberate her from her
hiding place the moment the opening ceremony ended, and
found that not only had she read the booklet in the
meantime, she'd actually circled a few items on its itinerary.
The one she was pointing at now was class 2-B's offering,
which happened to be a maid café.
I dunno... Class 2-B...?
"What's that look supposed to mean? I'm here, so I might
as well enjoy the festival—something weird about that?" Mio
huffed.
"No, it's not that you're being weird," I replied.
"I get where you're coming from, okay? You broke the
rules to sneak me in here, and I know that was asking a lot
from you, but I don't exactly get many chances to attend
this sort of event!"
"You don't?"
"Nope. I couldn't go to my own school's cultural festival—
work got in the way. That's...not exactly why I'm curious
about them, but I guess it's sort of related, at least," Mio
explained as she bashfully broke eye contact. Judging by the
slight flush of her cheeks, it wasn't an act—she really was a
little embarrassed.
Mio was right: If she got busted, I'd get in trouble for
sure, and the more we walked around the festival, the
bigger the risk that someone would see her and be all,
"Wait, who's that kid?" I wanted to avoid that sort of
situation, if at all possible...but I couldn't exactly tell her no
after she'd opened up to me like that, could I? It was sort of
like one of those moments when a cat that usually won't get
anywhere near you suddenly gets all affectionate out of
nowhere—not that I'd know much about that, seeing as I'd
never had a pet cat!
"Ugh..." I groaned. "Okay, fine."
"All right!" Mio said, pumping her fist. "Let's get moving,
then!"
Mio set off down the corridor, humming a happy little
tune as she went. It really felt like she had me in the palm of
her hand, but I also definitely couldn't let her wander off on
her own, so I chased after her.
"Come to think of it, what was your plan? It's kind of
weird that you rushed right back here if you weren't into the
idea of us walking around the place. What were you thinking
we'd do?" asked Mio.
"It's not that I don't like the idea, exactly... But I was just
planning on sticking around and waiting with you," I replied.
"What, like, to keep an eye on me?"
"No, not like that! I just thought you might get lonely, so I
figured I'd hang out with you until the performance. I hadn't
actually thought about what we'd do, though... We could've,
umm, chatted, maybe?"
Mio stopped in her tracks, then spun around to face me.
Her lips were slightly pursed, and she looked sort of upset.
"Wh-What's wrong?" I asked.
"You're a flirt."
"What?"
"You, Yotsuba, are a flirt. You haven't realized it?"
"Whaaat?!"
"So, what, you're just like this naturally...? How is that
even fair?"
"H-How is what fair?!"
"Well, whatever. It'd be one thing if it was on purpose,
but I guess it's kind of endearing if it's just the way you
are."
"Oh. Uhh... Thanks?"
"Ha ha ha! That's how you react? Come on!"
I'd been totally serious throughout that whole exchange,
but apparently as far as Mio was concerned, my reactions
had been hysterical. The little smile on her face almost felt
like a mean-spirited smirk, but at the same time, it gave me
the impression that she was having a blast...and suddenly,
the intensity of her gaze that had freaked me out so much
up until then didn't bother me at all anymore.
◇◇◇
And then there we were—at class 2-B's maid café.
"I believe I'll have...the omelet rice and a coffee, please.
What would you like, Yotsuba?" asked Mio.
"Huh? Uhh... Orange juice and a slice of cake," I ordered
in a fluster.
Okay...who is this girl I'm sitting with all of a sudden?!
She's all graceful and ladylike and stuff! I can practically
hear one of those fancy-shmancy sound effects they use to
show that characters are high-class playing in the
background!
As Mio watched me fall into a state of total bewilderment,
a very slight, satisfied smile flashed across her face. It was
like she was silently saying, This sort of persona matches
nicely with how I look now, doesn't it? or something along
those lines. The thought had already crossed my mind when
I first saw her by the shoe cubbies, but I was more sure than
ever now: She wasn't a pro idol who took on acting gigs for
nothing!
"And...will that be all for you?"
"Hyeeek!"
And then, with a spine-chilling sensation that I had to
imagine was a lot like how it felt to take on the Ice Bucket
Challenge, my easygoing admiration of Mio's acting chops
was swept away by a voice so frigid it felt downright lethal!
It came from a certain waitress who I'd been doing my
absolute best to not focus on—even though she'd had my
full attention since the very moment that I stepped into the
room—and now I did my best to give her a nod without
looking her in the eye, or anywhere even close to it.
"Yup...'s fine, thanks..."
"Understood. Your order will be ready momentarily."
I could actually hear her inner voice, I swear. Specifically,
I could hear the inner voice of the (frilly, floofy maiduniform-clad) waitress saying, "Why are you here?", "Leave.
Now," and "You'll make a decent meal for the sharks in
whichever corner of Tokyo Bay I end up sinking you in."
"Hmm. You know, I don't think I was giving this cultural
festival enough credit," Mio said, shifting back to her usual
tone as the waitress went on her way. "It's pretty decently
put together, actually. The uniforms are on point, and that
waitress was seriously so pretty. A little stiff in the
expression department, though... In fact, she was glaring at
us so hard, you'd think we murdered her whole family or
something. Then again, I guess pretty girls who want
nothing to do with you are popular in their own right."
Right? They really did go all out on this café. And the
waitress really was pretty, wasn't she?
There was just one slight problem: the very real
possibility that said waitress was, in fact, going to kill me at
some point in the immediate future. Yes, indeed—the
slender, well-endowed girl who looked incredibly natural in a
frilly maid uniform and had a name tag with "Mai (heart)"
written on it pinned to her chest was, in fact, an emissary
from the netherworld sent to drag me down to the Great
Beyond.
That's right. I'd found myself in class 2-B. Which is to say,
Mai Koganezaki's class.
The moment I looked at the cultural festival booklet and
saw that Koganezaki's class would be doing a maid café, I'd
sent her a text saying, "I'll stop by for sure!" She'd
responded with a text that read, "I'll kill you if you do,"
complete with a middle finger emoji. It had, to put it mildly,
stuck out in my memory a little. And so, when Mio told me
that was where she wanted to go, I'd started feverishly
praying that Koganezaki wouldn't be working a shift when
we arrived—and ended up having precisely none of those
prayers answered. Given my track record for these things,
of course they weren't.
"I wonder if she'll take a picture with us if we ask? What
do you think, Yotsuba?"
"Huh?! Yeaaah, I, umm, think she probably wouldn't be
very happy about that..."
"Oh? Isn't that the point, though? You can just tell that
she doesn't want to be wearing a maid uniform, and the fact
that she's being forced to wear it anyway is exactly what
makes it work so well."
"I...kind of get that, actually," I admitted.
Koganezaki really did look pretty darn good in a maid
uniform. That wasn't surprising, of course—she had the sort
of figure that would let her look good in just about anything.
Seeing her dressed like that, by the way, reminded me of
how I'd ended up wearing a maid uniform as well when I
went to visit her apartment with Emma. It was really
embarrassing, but knowing that I was doing it for her sake
had given me the drive I needed to muster up my courage
and put it on anyway.
Considering that she'd seen me in a maid uniform, maybe
this was a fair trade? Maybe it was okay for me to feast my
eyes on her maid-uniformed figure? Surely it was, right?
These were all rhetorical questions, right? Of course they
were!
Wham!
"Pgyah!"
"Thank you for waiting. Your coffee and orange juice."
O-Oh, jeez, that scared me...
The sound of my glass being slammed onto the table
dispelled my defiant attitude in the blink of an eye.
Needless to say, the merciless, maid-impersonating assassin
who'd brutally dispatched my will to assert myself was none
other than Koganezaki herself. She'd set my glass of orange
juice down so forcefully that she just barely avoided spilling
any of its contents, then set down Mio's coffee with the
gentle care you'd expect from a waitress. The message
couldn't have been clearer: If she wanted to, she could end
me at any given moment. And even if she didn't, my heart
might just give up the ghost and do the job for her!
"Here's your omelet rice and cake!" a different waitress
said as she brought our food to our table.
Oh, that was close... I thought. I'd been worried that
Koganezaki would shove my slice of cake right into my face
if she was the one who delivered it. In fact, I was totally
convinced she would've!
"Umm, excuse me," said Mio.
"Yes...?" Koganezaki replied.
"It said on the menu that you'd cast the 'yummy-yummy
spell' on our food if we asked? And I'm asking."
"Wha—?!" I gasped. I almost tried to stop her, but it was
already far too late. Mio had already finished making her
request by the time I realized what she was doing, and since
the waitress who'd brought our food had already moved on
to another table...the only one left to fulfill her order was
Koganezaki.
Koganezaki paused for a moment...then shot me an
incredibly pointed glare.
"You brought her here, so you deal with her"...? Wha—
Huh?! Did Koganezaki talk to me telepathically just now?! SSorry! Don't know her! She's a total stranger! Just happened
to sit next to me!
"Is that not okay...?" Mio asked. Her shoulders were
slumped, and she had tears in her eyes. She looked so
genuinely depressed that for a moment, I almost believed
that she was a perfectly ordinary, slightly timid high school
girl who'd worked up her courage to make the request.
Her acting's incredible... But no, seriously, please stop!
You have no idea what sort of price I'm going to have to pay
when this is all over!
"...As you wish," said Koganezaki, ignoring my terrified
shivering. It seemed she'd taken pity on Mio—or, really, on
Mio's totally fake schoolgirl persona—and agreed in the
most purely emotionless tone of voice I'd ever heard come
out of her mouth. I watched on pins and needles as
Koganezaki turned to Mio's omelet, gulped...
"Y-Yummy yummy, in your tummy..."
...and somehow, just barely, formed a heart with
trembling fingers that she aimed at the dish. Her whole face
was bright red, and she looked like she was on the verge of
tears as she forced herself to recite the "spell" in the most
weary, reluctant way imaginable.
"...That's all."
"Oooh," Mio cooed, throwing in a round of applause for
good measure. I had no idea what she was so impressed by.
Koganezaki turned to face me, her fists clenched as
tightly as they could possibly go. The glare she shot in my
direction all but screamed, This is your fault, and you'll be
dead three times over by the time you finish making up for
it.
"Okay, but that was really cute, Koganeza— Owww?!"
She flicked me in the forehead! Why, though?! I was just
trying to be nice!
◇◇◇
To make a long story short, I did eventually manage to
escape the gut-churning danger zone that was class 2-B's
room. Seeing their maid café wasn't nearly enough to
satisfy Mio's curiosity, though, and she ended up leading me
all around the school on a grand tour of the festival's
offerings. On the bright side, she didn't steer us toward any
other restaurant-style attractions where we'd be obligated
to hang around for a set period of time, sticking instead to
exhibits that we could leave whenever we wanted.
"Hmm..." Mio hummed to herself as she took it all in. She
seemed rather impressed by all the various items, art
pieces, and cultural-club research projects that my peers
had chosen to put on display.
You'd think that Mio had a remarkable variety of interests,
judging by how indiscriminate she was about the things she
stopped to look at...but to me, having had plenty of time to
watch her by then, it sort of felt like she wasn't really
focusing on any of them. Her mind seemed to be
somewhere else entirely.
"Ahh, that was great!" Mio exclaimed, pausing to stretch
as we stepped out of yet another classroom.
"Hey, Mio?" I said.
"Hmm?"
"Are you nervous?"
"Am I... What?"
Makina's performance was scheduled to start at two in
the afternoon. That moment was rapidly approaching, and
the closer it came, the more Mio lost her cool...or at least it
seemed that way to me, anyway.
"I guess...I might be. Maybe I am," Mio replied. She
seemed puzzled, narrowing her eyes for a moment. It was
almost like she was asking herself how she felt. "Hey,
Yotsuba? Is there somewhere nearby where we could take a
break for a little? Somewhere there won't be anyone else
around, I mean."
"Umm... Yeah, I think so! This way," I replied.
I took Mio by the hand and set off, making my way
through—and fleeing from, more or less—the crowds of
excited festivalgoers. Eventually, we arrived at a landing at
the top of a staircase. That landing featured the doorway to
the rooftop and basically nothing else whatsoever.
"The roof's off-limits during the festival, so I don't think
anyone else is going to bother coming all the way over here
today," I explained.
"Hmm. Sounds good," Mio replied. She smiled as she took
a seat on the stairs. "Come on, don't just stand there. You
should sit down too."
"Oh, sure!"
I sat down next to Mio...and a moment later, I heard a
very long, deep sigh from beside me.
"I really didn't think you'd call me out. Not that directly,
anyway... Was it that obvious? Am I just an open book, or
what?" Mio asked.
"Umm, not really," I said. "It was just a hunch, honestly. I
don't even know why I thought you were nervous..."
"Oh, I was talking to myself just now, not to you. No need
to answer me."
"Whaaat?! Come on!"
Was she really...? I was so sure she was talking to me!
Why is communication always so dang hard?!
"Gotcha! I was just kidding. You're really fun to mess
with, Yotsuba."
"To mess with?!"
"Yup. You make it easy. Heh heh!" Mio chuckled in a
weirdly childlike sort of way before reaching over and
mussing up my hair.
"Wha— Hey?! Mio?!" I yelped.
I tried to push her arm away reflexively, but she dodged
away from my grasp with ease. She was toying with me, in
more ways than one...until suddenly, she was interrupted by
the sound of footsteps. Someone was climbing the staircase.
"It's okay," I said to Mio. She'd jumped with surprise, her
shoulders shuddering slightly, but I knew exactly who was
on her way to meet with us. I just hadn't mentioned it, that
was all.
"Well, here I am, Hazama," our visitor said as she
ascended the staircase.
"Huh?" grunted Mio. "Aren't you the maid from earlier...?"
"That's correct, Mio Kuruma," said Koganezaki. She
turned to me next, her mouth set in a frown and her eyes
displaying all the interest you'd express toward a random
rock you happened to notice lying by the side of the road.
Oh, good! She's treating me the same way as always!
"You know who I am...?" said Mio. "I'm guessing that
means Yotsuba told you what's going on?"
"Y-Yeah," I replied. "I asked her for advice when I was
trying to figure out how to get you into the school. She did
say no, but still."
"And you expect her to be on our side, why?"
"She is, trust me! You wouldn't think it just looking at her,
but she's actually really helpful and reliable and stuff! Right,
Koganezaki?"
"Why exactly would you ask me to vouch for myself?"
Koganezaki replied before crossing her arms and heaving a
sigh. She had, incidentally, swapped her maid outfit for her
usual student uniform, which was kind of a shame. Not that
our school's winter uniform didn't suit her super well too!
"It's pretty hard to believe that she's nice when your
word is the only proof I have, Yotsuba," said Mio.
"Wait, what's that supposed to mean?!" I wailed.
"That I might be deceiving you, presumably," said
Koganezaki. "Which is fair enough, considering how much of
a sucker you can be at times."
"That's what you meant?!" Thanks for the helpful
clarification, I guess!
"I don't particularly need you to trust me," Koganezaki
continued. "That said, since I'm aware of your presence
here and the circumstances surrounding it, there's every
chance that if you're exposed, I could end up being caught
up in the inevitable fallout. I refused to help, yes, but I know
perfectly well that if she ends up being questioned, she
could easily end up accidentally implicating me anyway with
some harebrained half-truth or another."
"Oooh, yeah. I can definitely see that," said Mio.
"Wow! Mean!" But also, it sort of sounds like she's going
to help us after all? She really is the nicest! This is exactly
why I always end up relying on her! At the end of the day,
Koganezaki's number one!
"Oh, right!" Mio added. "I forgot to ask for a picture
earlier. Can I take one now?"
"I'm off the clock at the moment, so no, you may not,"
Koganezaki bluntly replied.
Heh heh heh! Classic Koganezaki—but I know that if I
asked her, she'd totally say yes! After all, she's an incredibly
hospitable person at the end of the day! She's got a chilly
attitude, sure, but I know she loves me to pieces deep
down!
That said, I didn't actually end up asking. I didn't want to
make it look like I was showing off how well we got along to
Mio, after all...which was the only reason. I definitely wasn't
worried about how depressed I'd get if she did shoot me
down after all. My motivations were most definitely not that
tragically pathetic.