Translator: mii
Editor: Ryunakama
Going back to twelve hours ago, I received LINE messages at 10:00 PM last night.
Maharun♪：Good evening
Maharun♪：Senpai, you should be free tomorrow, right?
Maharun♪：Let"s go out and play together
She told me to meet at the next station from our usual one, at 10 AM. I didn"t ask where we would go to since she wouldn"t tell me the destination anyway.
Don"t drag me out to be active during holiday mornings, seriously.
And then, now.
Kouhai-chan was already there when I left the ticket gate of the station, while pushing down my drowsiness. She was wearing a simple knit, making her look warm. There was also an umbrella in her hand, with a stylish black and white border.
I didn"t even bring any umbrella with me today. Oh well.
「Yo.」
I didn"t say something like「Have you waited for a long time?」 or「Sorry for the wait」to her at all. It"s her fault to set the meeting time in the morning on a holiday. I wasn"t late as well.
「I have waited for a while, senpai!」
Or so I thought, but she actually said that herself. As usual, what a severe girl.
「My blanket is also waiting for me. I want to go back and sleep again.」
「You can"t.」
「How about my blanket"s fate then?」
「Even if senpai said that, I like how you still somehow come and meet me here, senpai.」
Wait. Don"t just say ‘like" so carelessly. It surprises me, okay. Won"t my heart race if you do that now?
But, well. Kouhai-chan started to walk ahead after our usual light conversation. I didn"t know what to feel with this Pet.i.t Mystery Tour at all. At least, I want to know where we were going, so that I could prepare my heart.
I walked for around five minutes and arrived at a karaoke place. The store opens at 10 AM, so it shouldn"t be crowded yet.
「Karaoke?」
「Yes, it"s karaoke.」
「Er, empty orchestra?」1; カラオケ, clipped compound of j.a.panese kara 空 “empty” and ōkesutora オーケストラ “orchestra”. (from Wikipedia)]
「So it has that meaning, huh.」
I never knew that before.
「Last week, I already-」
「Go to a karaoke, right? Together with your friend.」
I know.
「Then, why?」
「It"s because I also want to go to a karaoke with senpai.」
「Er… Right.」
My reason usually couldn"t be a valid reasoning for senpai, but it seems like he was convinced for some reason.
「Senpai, which do you prefer, DAM or JOY?」2
The receptionist asked for our preference at the front desk, so I asked senpai about it.
「Of course it"s DAM.」
「Then, we"ll take DAM, please.」
I received our room number plate, together with the drink bar cup.
I went to a karaoke last week too.
This was the first time for me to come to a karaoke in such a short interval.
When we entered the room, I noticed.
For me to be alone with this girl in a closed room is――ah, but there"s that time when she entered my room, huh. Then, in a closed room outside my house. Is karaoke box even considered as a closed room? There"s no key after all.
But since it was dim, a little narrow, not to say with how we sat side by side in this kind of room (we had to sit side by side since we need to put our things beside), I couldn"t help feeling conscious of how she was sitting beside me.
The distance between both of us is only around one hand. That is the distance between Kouhai-chan and me right now.
「Senpai? What happened to you? Why are you suddenly so quiet?」
「Nn? Ah, no, nothing.」
I shouldn"t think of anything random in front of this girl. I could feel how she was somewhat grinning at me.
「Senpai shouldn"t do something weird just because you are now alone with your cute kouhai, okay?」
「Yes, yes.」
How dangerous! I almost said ‘cute, really cute" because of my conditioned reflex!
I bit my tongue, stopping myself from saying that forcefully.
「Tsk.」
「Hey, you clicked your tongue just now, right?」
「I didn"t, though?」
「No, you definitely did it.」
「I wouldn"t do something like that, senpai.」
「Haa… forget it.」
Since the room was narrow, I could hear Kouhai-chan"s voice even closer than usual.
「By the way, senpai, how about we have a match?」
「A match?」
「It"s a match on who will have the highest score in the scoring function, or the『Precision Scoring DX』before we go home.」
「How simple.」
「I think it will only become troublesome if we put this or that conditions. Since we will keep finding fault in it.」
「That"s certainly true.」
「Let"s make the winner get the right to ask for a thing, just like the『question of the day』.」
「It suddenly become very serious, eh?」
「Of course, only to the extent of common sense.」
「Common sense」is really a convenient word, huh.
「Senpai, how about it?」
「Why do we even need to have a match in the first place?」
「It"s because I want to compete with senpai.」
「I see! So my intentions are not taken into account!」
「I think senpai will just join in pa.s.sively if we come here anyway.」
When she said it like that, I couldn"t say anything back.
Looking at my clogged appearance from a sidelong glance, Kouhai-chan laughed happily.
「It"s decided. Then… who will sing first?」
The first strike is important. The point of the person who sang first would be the standard score for the future.
Even though I know a lot of trump cards, I"m not very confident in singing. If possible, I want to sing and get a good score first.
「Since the first player is important, let"s decide it fairly.」
「Then, how about rock-paper-scissors? The winner can start first.」
I w a s w a i t i n g f o r t h o s e w o r d s ! !
「Sure.」
The agreement was formed.
Crying a shout of victory inside my heat while trying not to let it leak on my expression, I asked her.
「My『today"s question』, Kouhai-chan.」
There"s a winning strategy when Kouhai-chan and I are going to have a rock-paper-scissors.
「Kouhai-chan. which hand will you take out?」
Right.
「Today"s question」, where I could just ask which hand will she take out, and she has to answer me honestly. Whatever the answer is, if I go with a winning hand, I would always win. This was just like a sure-to-win victory.
Uwaa…
Senpai, how serious are you in this rock-paper-scissors? Is the first player that important anyway?
But, he cares too much about the timing of the question, and forgets about other important things.
My answer, is this.
「Eh, I will take out my right hand.」
He only asked which hand I will take out. I"m right-handed, so of course I would use my right hand in rock-paper-scissors.
I understand very well about what senpai"s intention is. Since I could see the loophole, I wouldn"t be that easy to bully to the point that I would just go with the flow.
「You are really…」
Ah. Senpai looked greatly perplexed, and he put his head on the small table.
Really, who is the one making you like that? It"s me, huh.
Well then, let"s give senpai my final blow.
「Senpai, this is also my『today"s question』.」
You should be okay if you asked me like this, senpai.
「Which hand will senpai take out on the rock-paper-scissors, between rock, paper, and scissors?」
「I"ll take out the rock… I will resist… with a fist…」
「I got it.」
Then, let me borrow your hand, senpai.
「Rock, paper, scissors…」
Thus, I got the right to sing first.
For the beginning… that"s right. I"ll go with this to make it exciting.
Kouhai-chan"s singing was really good.
Really, even though she was singing while grinning at me, it didn"t sound bad at all.
She controlled her voice well, she didn"t go out from the pitch, and her emotions in the song are rich. Even though the machine scoring didn"t increase any points to things other than the pitch, she still exceeded 90 points.
「You"re good.」
「Aren"t I?」
「Yes, yes. Good, very good.」
No, she is honestly amazing.
In the first place, if she didn"t feel confident in her singing, she wouldn"t propose a match with me anyway.
Hmm. I don"t think I could make 90 points in my first song. What should I do.
Anyway, let"s just sing an appropriate anime song for now.
With this, many songs had pa.s.sed.
The one who had the highest point so far was still Kouhai-chan, with her first song. Since then, she only sang some up-tempo songs. Did she like cheerful ones?
I couldn"t beat Kouhai-chan"s score even though I sang some proper songs already. There"s no choice but to pull out my legendary sword now, huh.
I operate the remote control. The t.i.tle of the next song appears on the screen.
The performance time is around a minute. The t.i.tle is『Sea』. Yes, it"s a nursery song that everyone knows.
This song will definitely displease someone if I sing it at ordinary karaoke, but it should be allowed for today.
Also, nursery songs are made on the a.s.sumption that children would be able to sing it. In other words, the melody should be easy to sing.
In fact, look.
I got 92 points. Kouhai-chan"s score was removed cleanly.
This would be my victory if she didn"t improve her score in the future.
Kouhai-chan"s next song was the second ending song from a certain anime. The tempo is relaxed, and it should be very easy to sing.
When the microphone picked up the sound of her breathing, it resounded throughout the room, and I immediately feel shivers running on my body for some reason.
Kouhai-chan began to sing seriously.
Until now, all she was doing was only warm-ups, so this was really overwhelming. If she was at the singer level just now, this one was already completely at the professional level. That"s just how good her singing voice was.
If this keeps going on, I will lose.
Give up? No, I still have some hidden skills.
However, her singing voice is too beautiful and I think it will be a waste to destroy it like that.
I began to disturb her in the lyrics, the cuts between the lyrics, and the interlude.
I turned to face Kouhai-chan, and blew a breath into her well-shaped ear next to her beautiful face.
「Nn!?」
Her back became tense, and she made a coquettish sigh from her mouth. In the meantime, the song will soon enter the C Mello.
I blow her ears in the same time as the singing. Fuu.
Kouhai-chan"s perfect singing voice was disturbed.
I"m sorry. But I don"t want to lose. Sometimes, I just want to win. You already won against me just now anyway.
I blow her ears several times again. And then, Kouhai-chan who has continued singing in response to my attack quietly put down the microphone. The song hasn"t finished yet, meaning that she abandoned the song. In other words, her score will fall down.
「Senpai?」
However, what makes me unable to be honestly happy is because her voice has changed completely different, from the one when she sang just now.
It"s as if she is intimidating me to answer, and also pushing me down with her pressure.
「Yes.」
「If you did that to me, that means you won"t mind me doing that to you as well, right?」
The smile affixed to her face is really scaring me.
「Sorry.」
「If everything can be resolved with an apology, we wouldn"t need police anymore. Please prepare yourself, okay?」
She straddles across my lap and starts tickling me on my armpit.
Felling the tickling sensation from the back to my brain, I immediately lose my mind and fall down to the couch. What I know is the feeling of her hand tickling around my upper body.
The tickling seemed to continue until the karaoke clerk who brought the potato I ordered opened the door. When I noticed her, the potato was already placed on the table.
The things I knew about my senpai㉟
His singing skill was ordinary.
Karaoke (/ˌkæriˈoʊki/, j.a.panese: [kaɾaoke ↩ ↩