Next update will definitely not be this fast.
As always, please point out any errors, or anything that you think could be worded better.
Chapter 1: The Devilish Truth Stare Disappeared!?
The start of the week.As per usual, I headed over to Rikka"s apartment to pick her up. The arrangement was that on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I headed over to Rikka"s apartment, while on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sat.u.r.day, Rikka headed over to my house to pick me up.
That it had also almost been a year since we had started this custom of ours - honestly, felt way too soon.
That"s right.
In other words, almost a year had pa.s.sed since I had first met - correction, since I had first exchanged contracts with Rikka. It was nostalgic, remembering how it all began.
While I had been a bit interested in her from the start (when I saw her back then, cute was what came to mind. Of course, it was the same even now), there was no way that I would have imagined that I would end up going out with Rikka, nor would I have dreamed that the two of us would have dated for around a year.
Or rather, now that I think about it, the event that first sparked us exchanging contracts was a rather impossible development… That was the only way to describe it.
According to Rikka, two of us had met each other prior to us having enrolled at this school, but, as sad as it is, since I couldn"t actually remember this meeting of ours (it seemed that this meeting of ours really happened, as when I asked a bunch of people about this indirectly, they responded with, "If I"m not mistaken, when the results were announced you had shouted some embarra.s.sing lines." How embarra.s.sing!), that wasn"t what I meant by impossible development. For someone to become contracted to a girl that they were escorting after said girl"s eye started to suddenly hurt, and for that said someone to end up, among other things, dating said girl: other than me, there was no one else in the world that would have experienced an event like that.
But, then again, when I think about it, I guess it could be said that it was predestined.
I"m glad that Rikka had chuunibyou.
And that I had it too - although I had, at that time, claimed that I was a former chuunibyou patient, perhaps it was actually thanks to being infected with chuunibyou that I was able to sympathise with Rikka.
That"s what I honestly think.
While I, for some reason or other, reminisced about the past in a manner that befitted the nostalgia of being contracted to Rikka for close to a year, I arrived at the front of Rikka"s apartment.
The first time that I came to Rikka"s apartment, her apartment did not have an intercom. However, as the apartment"s security was now strengthened, her home was now equipped with an intercom.
There were a variety of reasons for why an intercom was installed, but as for right now, there wasn"t a particular need for me to press it.
I had arrived on time, just like I said I would.
When I stood in front of the door, without having the time to press the intercom - the door to Rikka"s apartment opened automatically.
The same thing happened the first time I came over - as I reminisced fondly about the past,
"G-good morning, Yuuta."
said Rikka as she came out.
Something felt off. Although it was a phrase that I had used an awful lot in the past, it was precisely because of just how much I had overused that phrase my use of it this time emphasised just how off things felt.
It wasn"t at the sort of level where things feel off.
To start, her uniform was normal. The frills that she had added to her skirt had disappeared. The various accessories that she used to wear were also gone. Opposite from usual, she had a bandage wrapped around her right arm, but that was probably just to hide Yumeha"s doodle from the other day. But most importantly of all, Rikka"s eyepatch was gone - while that in and of itself was not problematic, as there occasionally "release period" days where she didn"t wear her eyepatch, the thing behind her eyepatch, Rikka"s eye, was not gold.
In other words.
It was not the Devilish Truth Stare.
"G-good morning. …Um, what happened?"
I tried throwing her a question that went straight to the point.
"Ahaha. Well. Don"t be surprised, okay…?"
Although Rikka"s tone, choice of words, and behaviour felt extremely off,
"O-okay."
I somehow managed to nod my head in agreement.
"When I got up this morning, the Devilish Truth Stare had disappeared…"
It was earth-shattering - in other words, it was something beyond my comprehension.
"That"s why, I"m normal today."
"Rather, even the way that you talk has changed!?"
"Maybe the way I talked before had also been one of its abilities…"
"Of course it would be one of the Devilish Truth Stare"s abilities!!! Wait, huh!? Are you feeling okay!?"
"Y-yeah! I feel like I"m full of energy[1]?"
After saying that, Rikka made a pose where she extended both of her hands to the sky.
…Preparing to form a Spirit Bomb: sure enough, it was a mystery as to whether it was the correct pose to make to show off how energy one had.
"I, I see… For the time being, that"s rea.s.suring to hear… At least for now…"
It was also a mystery as to whether I should be feeling relieved by her "energy" point, but, well, it was better to be energetic and healthy than not. It seemed that it wasn"t the case that she had lost the Devilish Truth Stare due to having suffered from a high fever or something.
"Um, can you think of why the Devilish Truth Stare had disappeared…?"
"Hmm…? I"m not sure why… When I woke up this morning, I just suddenly felt that it was gone…"
"Is that so…?"
"S-sorry?"
"No no, it"s not Rikka"s fault at all."
Hah - I took a deep breath.
Previously, I had been so surprised that my thoughts had not caught up with me yet. Now, however, I was finally beginning to calm down.
By now, when it came to the Devilish Truth Stare, I was under the impression that it was a real ability of Rikka, but when I think about it calmly - it was the product of her chuunibyou… the Devilish Truth Stare.
Eh, then, could this be a hidden camera prank!?
Although it was rather rude of me to do so without saying anything, I went and checked my surroundings: there was no one there. I was expecting for Dekomori to come out from somewhere and say, "Te-tete-te-death! You have been deceived, Idiot Flame Master!", but it didn"t seem like that was going to be the case.
And from how Rikka looked too: it didn"t seem like she had planned for a hidden camera prank.
In that case, it may be more natural to a.s.sume that Rikka"s Devilish Truth Stare had disappeared because something had happened to her.
As for what that said something was - I had absolutely no idea.
The cause, huh…
"What did you eat yesterday?"
"Er, umm, yesterday I had fried rice! Yuuta"s special fried rice! It was delicious!"
It appeared that she had not eaten something bad.
It was a bit of a simplistic idea though, to think that food was the cause.
"Had anything unusual happened?"
"Hmm… not that I can think of…? Ah, did Yuuta appear in my dream?"
"Huh, I appear every night!?"
"Yep! You almost always appear! The Yuuta of just the other day taught me a way of doing laundry cleanly. It"s funny to remember, hehe."
"The dream me, was I Rikka"s mom or something!?"
The content of her dream aside, it didn"t seem like anything unusual had happened either.
Alright. Let"s try a slightly different approach.
"Um, the ability from the other day - could we not head to school quickly with Wicked Nine Nights?"
"ah. Uh, er, um, I"m sorry. Right now, I can"t use abilities at all. I apologise…"
I was apologised to. Over something absurd.
It felt like I had done something that I needed to apologise greatly for.
"N-no, I"m the one that should be apologising. I just thought that maybe there was some leftover power or something…"
"I, I see, that makes sense! B-but, I"m sorry. It doesn"t seem like…"
"No no, Rikka, it"s not your fault at all, so, it"s okay, relax."
No no. This isn"t what I should be doing.
That"s right. The loss of her abilities: the one that was the most uneasy about it was Rikka. Before trying to find out what the cause of it was, I should be checking in with Rikka to see how she was feeling about all this first.
"Um, are you troubled by the fact that you don"t have abilities?"
"Hm? Um, not really? I don"t feel that I have powers anymore, but apart from that I"m okay, I think."
"I see. If you do start feeling troubled, please tell me, okay?"
"Yeah! Thank you, Yuuta. You really are kind, aren"t you Yuuta?"
"No no, it"s only natural for me to do this much. Since I"m your contractee, and your boyfriend."
"…Hey, um,"
Stopping her words there, Rikka looked at me anxiously.
Then, after a short pause, she continued.
"Today"s me… Is it no good?"
I gave an immediate reply.
"It"s excessively cute!"
To be frank, it may have been because I"ve never seen Rikka like this before that I felt this way, but regardless of whether it was because of how unexpected this Rikka was or due to the gap between this Rikka and the usual Rikka, I found this Rikka to be the absolute cutest.
She was so cute that I wanted to hug her right here and now. But, I will restrain myself.
"Ehhh, is that so?"
What is this adorable creature!
This bashful yet happy-looking Rikka is also the absolute cutest!
This novel and fresh Rikka was so cute that the conversation ended up being me just boasting about how cute she was.
It wasn"t that I was flirting with her.
If I kept on calling her cute repeatedly like this (even though I"ve already called her cute an awful lot of times already) I would seem like an idiot (I felt that I already gave off that impression).
And so, to put an end to the conversation,
"Anyway, for the time being, let"s head to school."
I urged us to leave for school.
"Yeah. We have to hurry, or else we"ll be late!"
As she said that, Rikka broke into a run. Her retreating figure too: it somehow seemed different from usual. It was strangely cute.
Since she was already cute, I guess her being like this was fine.
[1] This, and the following lines, plays on the word 元気, which can mean lively/in good health/energetic. In the first line, Rikka replies with 私は元気だよ?, which roughly translates to "I"m feeling fine?". To prove this, Rikka then makes the 元気玉, or the Spirit Bomb, pose, leading to Yuuta to conclude that Rikka, at the very least, had 元気.
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