winner among the partic.i.p.ants, the event will increase in value with that alone.”Although Ayato tentatively lent his name as he was begged by Eis.h.i.+ro, he began to worry a little because he did not think that it would become that big a deal.
“But, is it really all right? I also said it before, but I have a prior engagement during the school festival. I can’t absolutely promise that I’ll be able to partic.i.p.ate.”
Since he was indebted to Eis.h.i.+ro in various ways, he really wanted to cooperate with him; but his partic.i.p.ation would be difficult depending on the situation.
“Can’t you somehow make so that you’ll able to? Hey, please!”
However, Eis.h.i.+ro joined both his hands and bowed his head as he a.s.sumed the posture of praying.
Ayato felt slightly uncomfortable as he saw him like that.
“At any rate, you’re quite enthusiastic. Is there any reason for that?”
Eis.h.i.+ro was usually enthusiastic about the newspaper club activities and Ayato also understood that this was a major event, but even so, this enthusiasm of his was not normal.
“Ah, no… to tell you the truth, rather than me, my club president is already extremely enthusiastic about it, you see. In the first place, it’s also her who directly went into the Meteoric Engineering research meeting and has gotten the partic.i.p.ation of the newspaper club.”
“When you say president, are you talking about that bob cut[4]?”
Though vague, Ayato recalled having seen her face once over a s.p.a.ce window.
“Since president will also graduate in this year, she wants to launch huge fireworks in her last year. So I, her faithful dog, am doing my best like this, too.”
Eis.h.i.+ro tried joking as he said so, but even if he hid it by doing so, one could understand that he was unusually embarra.s.sed.
This was the first time that Ayato saw Eis.h.i.+ro like this.
Perhaps because Ayato guessed his true motives, Eis.h.i.+ro stopped beating around the bush and scratched his head.
“Ah, so it’s something like that. I’m slightly indebted to the president. I’ll have nightmares if I don’t return it… So please, Amagiri!”
“Hmm, even I want to do something about it, but…”
Though he was surprised at Eis.h.i.+ro’s laudable side, he could not fail to keep his promise.
“Rather, what is that prior engagement you’re speaking about? If it’s fine with you, could you tell me…?”
“Ugh…! Errr, that’s, um…”
His prior engagement of school festival was with that diva Sylvia Lyyneheym.
As a thanks for having helping him in rescuing Flora before, for some reason he would have a date with her in the school festival.
But, since she didn’t contact him at all even since the New Year beginning, he has begun to think that maybe it was a joke, but——
『Ah, h.e.l.lo Ayato-kun? It’s about the school festival, but I’m sorry for the late contact. I had a bit of trouble to pick a day off. But I manage to win some vacation days, so let’s have our date in three days, okay?』
Just the other day, he received such a message from the very Sylvia.
…Be that as it may, he could not afford to talk about such a thing to Eis.h.i.+ro.
“A-Anyway, I’ll just try discussing with the person. But, it might be at the very last minute that I can get a confirmation.”
Although he would meet with Sylvia in three days, he has not heard yet up to their date’s small schedule. Or rather, it looked like Sylvia fairly overdid it in order to take some days off, and his call could not get through at all.
Even if there was no problem since he only heard the appointment’s place and time, at this rate he might not be able to contact her until the appointed day.
“OK, that’s enough. I’m expecting a favorable reply as much as possible.”
As Eis.h.i.+ro said so, he suddenly changed the topic as he recalled something.
“By the way, you’ll have a break from your team training during the school festival, right?”
“Ah, yes. It looks like Julis will practice independently though…”
Claudia seemed to have work as the student council president, and it looked like she would run around here and there during the school festival period. On the other hand, Julis, seemingly not having any interest at all in the school festival, said that she would seclude herself in the training room.
“Heeh, she’s a hard-liner, that Princess.”
As Eis.h.i.+ro looked towards Julis as he said so, Julis who was eating bread that she bought, alone at her seat, stole a glance and stared at Eis.h.i.+ro.
“What? Do you have any complaints, Yabuki?”
“N-No, not at all…!”
To the intensity of her stare, Eis.h.i.+ro backed off with a cramp face.
“H-Hey, isn’t the Princess somehow in a bad mood?”
“That’s right. She has been like this all along lately…”
When Ayato and Eis.h.i.+ro brought their faces near to each other, and were exchanging such a conversation in low voices.
“Hmph!”
Julis snorted with a displeased face and tuned her face away. At the seat next to Julis’s, even Saya was glaring at Ayato with reproachful eyes for some reason. No, her expression was as usual, but the fact that she was angry was transmitted by the atmosphere.
“…Amagiri, do you really have no idea why they are in a bad mood?”
“No, even if you ask me that…”
Then, the bell announcing the lunch break end resounded.
“It’s bad, it’s bad, I was unintentionally absorbed in the talk. Then, I’ll be off.”
“No, like I said, Yabuki! What about the afternoon cla.s.ses?”
He called out so to Eis.h.i.+ro who headed to the door with casual steps, but the self-proclaimed newspaper club’s ace waved his hand while looking back.
“It’s fine. Afternoon cla.s.ses are always very boring anyway, so it will make no difference whether I’m here or not.”
But when he was going to leave the cla.s.sroom, Eis.h.i.+ro b.u.mped into a woman who was just entering.
“Oops, my bad, my bad. I wasn’t looking in front of…”
The face of Eis.h.i.+ro who started to say so turned pale in an instant.
“Oh, I don’t really mind it. More than that, you said something quite interesting, Yabuki. Is my cla.s.s so boring? Haah[5]?”
Yatsuzaki Kyouko, their homeroom teacher, with a smile still stuck on her face, casually raised the nail bat that she held in hand.
“No, um, that’s, how to put it…! Y-You’re wrong! I-It’s a misunderstanding, Kyouko-chan! You’ll understand if we talk this thro——”
Approximately at the same time as Ayato unintentionally covered his eyes, a very pitiful strike sound resounded through the cla.s.sroom.
——Seidoukan Academy, Promenade.
The school festival’s first day was blessed with a fine weather and the sunlight filtering through the fresh green canopy was also dazzling.
Perhaps for that reason, the school festival’s success was also considerable and it overflowed with people everywhere. This promenade was fairly detached even in Seidoukan Academy’s site and there should have neither food stands nor stalls around, but even if one sat on a bench and absentmindedly looked around, figures of people coming and going did not die out.
Even so, because it could be regarded as cute compared with the congestion of the area continuing from the front gate to the school buildings group, it might be said that it was still a calmed one.
“——I keep you waiting, Ayato-kun.”
When he raised his gaze as his name was suddenly called, a girl wearing a large hat over her eyes was standing there.
“No, you’re on time. More importantly, I’m surprised you know well such a place, Sylvie.”
Having designed this bench as the meeting place was the girl ——Sylvia.
It would not be strange if she was a student of Seidoukan, but it was slightly surprising that Sylvia who commuted to Queen Veil knew such a remote place.
“I have come to play here at the time of school festival several times after all. As expected, it will be scary to meet in front the main gate.”
Sylvia lightly shrugged her shoulders as she said so.
Certainly Sylvia was exceptionally good at erasing all trace of presence, but even so the possibility of her ident.i.ty being exposed was not zero.
“Actually, I wanted to be smartly dressed a little more, but… as expected it’ll be bad to stand out too much.”
Sylvia almost had the same appearance of jeans and blouse that she had when they first met.
“No, I think that it looks good enough on you.”
Sylvia, when appearing on TV, was either generally dressed up, or in Queen Veil’s uniform. Of course, he thought that such outfits looked good on her, but such simple attire also fitted well with Sylvia’s carefree and cheerful personality.
Then, after Sylvia blinked with a slightly surprised face, she slightly loosened her cheeks.
“Hmm… you said it plainly. But thank you. It makes me quite happy.”
Then, she bent her body and suddenly drew her face closer.
“Ho-we-ver! I think yours is a little problem.”
“Eh? W-What is?”
His heart throbbed as Sylvia’s beautiful face drew close.
“Your outfit. Certainly, it’s me who said that Ayato-kun should also disguise himself, but with that, you look rather too suspicious.”
“I-Is that so…?”
There was no doubt that Ayato who was the winner was now a celebrity. Moreover, if he were to walk with Sylvia, Ayato would certainly need to disguise himself so that he would not be recognized at first glance, too.Therefore although cliché, he chose an outfit of hat and sungla.s.ses so that he could not be exposed at all, but looked like it was ineffective.
“Even when we met before, you weren’t heavily dressed up; but today’s outfit is outrageous.”
The evaluation of Sylvia who frowned with both her hands on her waists was unexpectedly severe.
“Well, I’m glad I make preparations expecting that something like this might happen.”
“…Preparations?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just sit down, Ayato-kun.”
Sylvia took off Ayato’s hat and swept his hair all back. Then, she took out something like a thin hair band from her bag and put it on Ayato’s head.
“Errr, what was that just now?”
“It’s the same as the headband that I use. Though for a short time, it can change one’s hair color. Well more exactly, it only shows as if your hair color changed.”
I see, there also existed such a convenient item.
“And I’ll complete it by replacing your sungla.s.ses with lensless gla.s.ses. ——look, what do you think?”
When he looked into the compact[6] which Sylvia has held out, his face whose impression completely changed was reflected.
No matter what he had to say first, that his hair turned blond was probably the biggest change.
The lensless gla.s.ses also had a much more fas.h.i.+onable design than the ones he used for his disguise, and the hair band could not be seen as it was concealed in his hair.
With this, the risk of his ident.i.ty being exposed completely disappeared.
“All right, since our preparations are complete, shall we begin our date?”
When Sylvia said so, she took Ayato’s arm and made him stand up.
“…Understood. I shall accompany you, my lady.”
“I want you not to accompany, but to properly escort me though.”
Sylvia smoothly linked arms with Ayato and looked at his face with upturned eyes.
He was completely led by her pace.
“Ugh… I-I’ll do my best.”
“Good. Well then first, could you show me around in this Seidoukan Academy?”
At her request, Ayato unintentionally t.i.tled his head to the side.
“That’s fine with me, but… are you all right with not watching things such stage or event?”
“Hmm… if there’s something I have in mind, I guess it’s all right to observe it a little. I feel like I want to see various things, but my objective is all academies conquest after all.”
While walking along the promenade towards the school buildings, Sylvia eagerly told so as she strongly clenched her fist.
“Wait, do you intend to go around all the six academies?”
“Of course I’m not saying I’ll do it all today. But, it’s for that reason that I got a break for three days after all.”
In that case, it meant that they must visit at least one other academy other than this Seidoukan today.
Since it was still forenoon, there was probably no problem time wise; but if it was that schedule, certainly they could not afford to leisurely enjoy divertiss.e.m.e.nt.
“But, if there is an event or something that Ayato-kun wants to see, I don’t mind you giving priority to it.”
“Ah, then there is an event which I was requested to partic.i.p.ate in by a friend, so may I show up there?”
“Ah, are you perhaps talking about this?”
When Ayato told so, Sylvia skillfully operated her portable terminal with one hand and opened a s.p.a.ce window.
A quite showy site where “Great Shock! Grand Coliseum” was written on top was displayed there. The date was the school festival’s last day and the place was Sirius Dome. But in the columns of the contents, only “Partic.i.p.ation Type Field Simulation Battle!” was written; nothing was written about what kind of event it was.
“Look, there is Ayato-kun’s name here.”
“…Wow, this is written with quite big characters.”
Ahead of where Sylvia pointed at, was written “ Champion Amagiri Ayato’s partic.i.p.ation!” in a big way at the top of the guest entry list.“Since it became the hot topic on the net, I was a little interested in it. Ayato-kun, you aren’t the kind of person to partic.i.p.ate in things like this, right?”
“Well, yes. But I have a friend who is among the organizer of this event you see. I couldn’t just turn him down; or rather I was forced to partic.i.p.ate…”
“I see, so that’s it.”
Sylvia closed the s.p.a.ce window while saying so. They were just at the end of the promenade; it was probably because the number of people around increased at a stretch.
This area was the back of the middle school building; they could not go inside the school building, but food stands lined up in a row as they surrounded the school building group.
“But since I had a prior engagement with Sylvie, if it seems impossible, then I will decline it.”
“No, it’s all right. I’m also a little interested in it —— ah, wait a minute!”
Then, Sylvia suddenly stopped.
Her gaze seemed to be directed at the food stand immediately beside them.
“Onii-san[7], please give me two.”
“Okay~”
When Sylvia called out to the stand seller so, she was immediately handed two ice creams.
“Here, Ayato-kun.”
“Thank you. But why ice cream?”
“Ice cream is something indispensable for a date hiding one’s status. Well more exactly, it’s the gelato[8] though.”
“I see.”
She seemed to liken it to old movies.
——And.
『Well then, let’s go with the next tune~!』
They noticed that a song with a very loud volume was flowing from before them.
When they turned their gazes, a huge s.p.a.ce screen was unfolded multiangular up in the air of the open s.p.a.ce before the high school building. It seemed like it was broadcasting a live concert held in Sirius Dome.
“Ah, looks like Miluše and the others are full of vigor.”
Sylvia muttered so while lovelily licking the ice cream.
“Are they acquaintances of yours?”
“Yes. They are my cute kouhais[9]. Have you heard about Rusalka?”
“Yes; so these girls are the Rusalka.”
Ayato once again looked up at the girls projected to the s.p.a.ce screen.
Although not to the extent of Sylvia, it was a Girls Rock Band which boasted of a global degree of popularity.
Speaking of which, Ayato felt like he has heard the music, which was playing now, somewhere.
“If I’m not mistaken, they will take part in the next , right?”“I guess it’ll be so if it goes according to Petra-san’s publicity strategy… It’s originally a group which decorated its striking debut in the last . Ah, Petra-san is our board chairman, and Rusalka’s and my producer. Though she’s malicious in various ways, she’s competent.”“Heeh…”
For a moment, Claudia’s face came to his mind; those standing above others might be often like that.
“Ayato-kun, you and your friends will partic.i.p.ate in the , right? In that case, you should be careful. Those girls are quite capable. Well, they’ve a slightly stormy side in them though…”Sylvia’s voice gradually became small, and Ayato was not able to catch the latter half very well.
“Won’t you yourself partic.i.p.ate in the , Sylvie?”“Hmm, I basically narrow down to the . I also want to take my revenge for the last .”Sylvia was the last runner up. The opponent whom Sylvia lost against was that Orphelia.“——I’m unexpectedly bad at giving up, you know?”
Sylvia said so with a self-derisive smile.
And then while exchanging a silly conversation with Sylvia for a while, he showed around Seidoukan here and there. As the person himself also said, they peeked into events for only a short while and spent time at those events a bit longer than expected
The only exception was an event named “water survival” held in an indoor pool. It was an event hosted jointly by Seidoukan Academy’s swimming club and shooting club; simply put, it was a survival game which used water guns; but there a person with outstanding ability seemed to have caught their attention.
“Hey, if I’m not mistaken, she’s Ayato’s acquaintance, right?”
“Eh?”
When looking ahead of where Sylvia pointed at from a second floor of the indoor pool——
“Saya…?”
There, his childhood friend holding large water guns in both hands was performing a fight in school swimsuit. He did not know what the rules were, but Saya seemed to have turned most of the other compet.i.tors into her enemies. There were probably more than 20 people.
The pool was dotted with many floating landma.s.ses, but Saya was knocking down her opponents down into the pool one after another with unmatched accurate shots while leaping at them with well placed jumps.
“T-This is amazing! Sasamiya-san, being irresistible means exactly this! As expected, best four isn’t just for show!”The quite amateurish live reporter also raised a somewhat excited voice.
“Hmm… her balance sense is amazing, but the most amazing thing is her dynamic vision, I would say. One can’t really imitate that shooting precision in the air while dodging attacks.”
Sylvia also looked impressed.
When Saya sank all the members except herself before long, the buzzer resounded as to announce Saya’s victory.
“…With that said, this third game is the victory of Sasamiya Saya-san who annihilated all the other partic.i.p.ants with overwhelming power!”
On the plain platform built to the poolside, the man who was apparently the live reporter raised Saya’s hand.
But Saya, no showing any behavior of being happy, did not change her complexion one bit even when she was handed the trophy.
“Then Sasamiya-san, please could you say one or two words?”
“…It was irritating. I am not satisfied.”
“…Yes? Errr, what on earth…”
Though the man c.o.c.ked his head in puzzlement, Saya continued her words ignoring him.
“I want to do it once more.”
“N-No, no! I’m sorry, but that’s a little…!”
“——L-Let’s go, Sylvie.”
The confused man and Saya who tried to force her way through was still continuing, but Ayato felt a chill and left the place with Sylvia.
ReferencesJump up↑ up↑ Here she refers to herself as Onee-san which means big sister as she tells him not to struggle too much since despite being a magician/Taoist, she is also trained in taijutsu, thus her physical strengthJump up↑ Already explained in vol4 ch1; you can also see these pictures: 包拳礼&client=opera&hs=aYH&biw=1024&bih=660&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=pSDwVJC4F8Tmas_AgtAC&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQJump up↑ As to say a person with a bob cut, and I guess here that Eis.h.i.+ro’s club president is a girl see: up↑ She exclaims here like a yakuzaJump up↑ Portable makeup and mirror caseJump up↑ Refers here to the stand sellerJump up↑ Italian ice creamJump up↑ Kouhai: a junior in an organization; the opposite of a senpai. In this case, an undercla.s.sman