VOLUME 4
Chapter 4: Part 6
And so, a storm had come when the school festival was just about to end. In reality, that storm itself signaled that the festival had ended.
The students suddenly found themselves with nothing to do, and all shuffled back to their cla.s.ses to clean up.
As the crowd thinned out, Haruna, who had naturally taken the leadership role and was busy ordering people around, suddenly collapsed onto the floor.
“Hey hey, are you alright there?”
“Maybe she wore herself out too much?”
Worried, we ran over to her. Sera and Tomonori and the others also came over, and we surrounded Haruna on all sides.
“Seems… she’s at her limit.”
Anderson-kun had a grave look on his face.
“What limit?”
“People say that there is only one person in the whole world who is able to contain Eucliwood’s magical energy. If you were stuffed but someone kept on forcefeeding you steaks, you would probably collapse as well.”
When I heard that explanation, I was a bit at a loss for what to do.
If I told Yuu to take her powers back, she’d probably do that for me. But…
“Eucliwood h.e.l.lscythe…-san.”
Tomonori bowed her head.
“Please! Return Master back to normal! You can do that, right?”
It seemed that to Tomonori, Haruna wasn’t just her Master.
“Can that kind of thing really be possible?”
Sera looked at Yuu with surprise in her eyes.
Tomonori, you… were you eavesdropping on my conversation with Anderson-kun?
“…… I can.”
Yuu’s voice sounded full of apology.
Sera’s eyes narrowed. This was probably the first time she’s ever glared at Yuu.
“You could’ve saved Haruna from her pain… but you didn’t? Is that what you’re saying?”
Yes… that’s what she was saying.
It could’ve been that because of Haruna’s magical energy suction device, Yuu’s powers had been transferred to her. It wasn’t that Yuu had transferred her powers of her own free will.
But even if that were true… Yuu didn’t return things to normal.
All so she could spend today enjoying the school festival.
“Sera.” I grabbed Sera by the shoulder as she began to heat up.
“I know. Please don’t touch me with your filthy hands.”
She brushed my hand off her shoulder. Maybe it was because of the cold, but I felt that her hands were shaking a bit.
“Just for today… just for one day, I wanted more than anything to enjoy myself with Ayumu.”
Both Sera and I were already painfully aware of that fact. Indeed, we knew that Yuu thought like that. And so, neitehr Sera and I could be surprised or angry any longer.
“Anyways, for now, just s.n.a.t.c.h those powers back from Master! Please!”
“It is fine… I was planning to do that, after all.”
Yuu shut her eyes.
“Ayumu, while I can still talk, I would like to say to you something I have always wanted to say.”
“What is it?”
Yuu looked at Tomonori and then at Sera, before standing on her toes and leaning in to whisper in my ear.
–
“Thank you. For always being there to support me… thank you so much.”
–
After Yuu said that, she gave me an embara.s.sed smile. It was the cutest smile I had ever seen up until now. It was a smile so beautiful that I wanted to hug her right now and take her to some scenic place in Australia where I could shout my love to her. When would be the next time I could see her smile like that?
Could it be that I’d never see that smile again? Just thinking about that made me…
“Haruna. Please come over here.”
Haruna stood up, her legs shaking like those of a newborn deer, but then started writing rapidly on her memo pad.
She showed us the first page, where she had written in huge letters:
“What?!”
She flipped to the second page. Once again, in big letters:
“Don’t screw with me!”
And then the third page.
“This is my magical energy, so you’re not doing anything!”
Understand the mess you’re in, you idiot girl!
I put my arms around Haruna from behind her, and forced her over to where Yuu was.
“Alright, go ahead.”
Yuu gave me a single nod, and took Haruna by one of her gaunleted hands.
Next, with practiced motions, she took off Haruna’s gauntlets and put them on herself. Next, she pressed her forehead to Haruna’s. Their lips looked almost close enough to kiss, and I could see Haruna was blushing. Seriously, control your emotoins, dammit. You’re way too pure and innocent, you know that?
After that… a blue light shone out. A pale smoke began to lift off Haruna like dry ice. That was smoke made of magical energy, but only the few people standing around Haruna knew that.
Yuu’s silver hair glittered.
The magical smoke around Haruna began to be sucked into Yuu. Here and there, I also spied ruby-colored light… the magical energy that Haruna originally had as a masou shoujo.
Yuu’s work ended in around a minute.
“Now, Master should be oka-“
Tomonori’s happy statement was cut short.
There was a kitchen knife sticking into that stomach she was always so worried about. She pitched forwards, and her breath began to come out in sharp, painful-sounding bursts.
And then, the ring Tomonori had on her right ring finger was s.n.a.t.c.hed away.
The person behind all these annoying actions was… Kurisu. Our homeroom teacher.
“Hey, what the h.e.l.l do you think you’re-“
At that moment, I realized that Haruna’s magaical energy suction device was hanging from our homeroom teacher’s neck.
The pale smoke coming from Yuu and Haruna suddenly began to head towards our teacher.
In the middle of that happening, I also saw glimpses of ruby light. Ruby light which flashed in the midst of all that pale smoke.
In the end, it was only Haruna’s masou shoujo energy that was flowing towards that old man.
As Kurisu gathered more and more of that ruby light, he began to chuckle.
“Fufufufufufu…”
But his ominous laugh was already no longer that of an old man.
I watched as before our very eyes, he grew shorter and his clothing changed.
What… the h.e.l.l was happening?
“Ehehehe~. I’m finally back! Hooray~~!!”
Right where he was standing was now a pet.i.te little girl wearing a white gothic lolita outfit.
It was… that drunk little girl. I see… in other words, when she told me her name was Chris, she didn’t mean she was Kurisu’s daughter or something… she was actually Kurisu himself.
“Ah! It’s you!”
Haruna shouted out. Realizing she had just let out her voice, she clapped a hand to her mouth, but it seemed like even though she had talked, her head didn’t hurt.
In other words, Yuu’s power had been successfully removed from her. Yuu’s face turned pale and she crumbled to the ground.
I suddenly let go of Haruna’s hand and grabbed Yuu.
I touched my hand to her forehead.
It was hot… it was really hot. She was probably suffering from an extreme fever like Haruna had been this morning.
Even so, Yuu had a quiet expression on her face.
“Haruna, you know this girl?”
“Of course I know! You idiot!”
I feel it’s been a while since I’ve heard Haruna’s energetic scream like this.
“I’d love it if you could tell me a bit more.”
“This person is… ah, umm… wait… this person is… right. Chris. Chris-sensei! They say she’s the strongest masou shoujo. She’s Dai-sensei’s sensei!”
So this person was important enough for even Haruna to know her name? Haruna didn’t even know Dai-sensei’s real name…
Our own homeroom teacher, nicknamed “No Personality,” was actually not an old man, but a masou shoujo. And the “strongest,” huh…? This was all just so d.a.m.n sudden that all this felt so out of place…
“Haruna, help Tomonori stop the bleeding. I’ll… talk with this person.”
Still holding onto Yuu, I watched as Haruna went over to the collapsed Tomonori and began to deal with the knife in her stomach.
“Ehehe~. Having a personality feels wonderful. Don’t you think so, Aikawa?”
Having my name suddenly called like that, I found myself at a complete loss for words.
Like I was watching some old television set, the pet.i.te litlte girl in the white gothic lolita outfit blurred for a second, and then I saw her suddenly standing right in front of Tomonori, who was putting pressure on her stab wound and coughing.
“Sorry about that~. When I was that old man, I definitely wouldn’t be able to win against Yoshida without doing that, ya know?”
Even if you just considered the way she talked, this girl was nothing like that “No Personality” homeroom teacher of ours.
“U-Umm… uhh…” Tomonori was also at a loss. Well, anybody would be in her position.
After all, if a middle-aged man turned into a pet.i.te, cute girl in front of you, wouldn’t you be shocked speechless too?
Our homeroom teacher… no, this masou shoujo Chris put her right hand in front of her. She spread her five fingers wide, and began to quickly mutter something with a look of supreme confidence on her face.
After that… almost every person crumbled to the ground.
Apart from Haruna, Yuu and me… including Sera, Saras, Tomonori, and Anderson-kun… everyone crumbled.
“No way! She used wide-area memory manipulation without a masou renki!”
Haruna’s words clued me in to what was happening. This was the power of the masou shoujo to wipe out the memories of anybody who didn’t have the power of a masou shoujo.
“My my~~. Aikawa is amazing. He’s a guy but also a masou shoujo~~.”
“You too… what the h.e.l.l are you exactly? An old man or a little girl?”
Her body blurred again, and this time I found this pet.i.te little girl standing right in front of me.
“Ahem. This is my true form!”
“But we’ve met a few times during the school festival. Why were you already in your true form back then?”
“If I get drunk, I go back to my true form!”
“So that’s why you were always drinking? … Can I ask you something? Why were you in that old man’s body, and why were you our homeroom teacher?”
“You’ll listen? You’ll listen to Chris’s story? Well, you know, I guess it was a century ago… Chris tried to take over Virie and challenged the queen to battle.”
A century ago… I think Haruna was talking about this at some point.
“You’re the person who tried to set up a coup d’état?”
“Yup yup. You’ve studied Virie’s history? Even though all you do in Chris’s cla.s.s is sleep~~…”
“Nah, I don’t know much about it.”
“It’s not like it matters now, but you know? Back then, Chris thought he could beat anyone, you know? Beat them into the ground, even the queen! But, Chris got completely beaten. She got cursed and her personality and powers were taken away, and then she was driven out of the world.”
She was originally a masou shoujo. I see, that’s why she could still remember the animal transformation incident, even though I had used memory manipulation magic. That magic didn’t have any effect on masou shoujo.
“So, you know? Chris waited a long, loooong time. To an immortal masou shoujo like me, being stuck in an old man’s body and never having anyone pay attention to me was pure h.e.l.l… but I never gave up and just waited. I picked this world because it seemed like I could meet strong masou shoujo here too~~. Because, you know, the Megalo are pretty strong here.”
Megalo were stronger here? And Anderson-kun had mentioned that I was surrounded by weird people because Yuu was here.
How long exactly has Yuu been in Tokyo? The King of the Night was here because Yuu was here, right? And there were so many vampire ninjas gathering because they were trying to get to Yuu, right? And if weird masou shoujo were coming because the Megalo here were stronger… if you traced that back to its origin… it all came back to Yuu, right?
If that’s true… next time I really wanted to hear about the Megalo more. About the Underworld’s side of the story.
“So you wanted to suck up the magical energy with that device from a strong masou shoujo?”
“Yup yup. And then… I met Haruna.”
“Wha-… you backstabber! To think you were a Demon Baroness!”
Haruna’s ahoge looked like it was ready to explode.
“Demon Baroness? Chris is? No no no. You’ve got it wroooong~~.”
She stretched out her energetic-looking little body and continued speaking.
Did she know this Demon Baroness person? If I remember correctly… this Demon Baroness was Dai-sensei’s friend, and was the mastermind behind the coup d’état.
“Haruna is super talented. She’s the best in all the masou shoujo I’ve seen up ‘til now! After all, she made this suction device, and so easily!”
I see. Haruna had mentioned that she had borrowed some equipment or something to make that device.
To accomplish that, she didn’t need a student’s aid, but that of a teacher. So, that person who helped her out was our homeroom teacher?
“If I had a device like this, I thought I could get back my masou shoujo powers. But, there was one problem.”
“You would also suck up unwanted things like Yuu’s power?”
“Wow wow! You’re pretty sharp!”
“Unfortunately, I’ve gotten pretty used to nonsense like this…”
“So I was about to give up and drink my sorrows away…”
So this was why she had been drinking so much?
Dammit, when I thought about it, now that I knew that lazy good-for-nothing teacher was actually a pet.i.te little girl, everything felt a lot more cuter. When she looked like an old man, I didn’t feel bad about hurling abuse at him because he didn’t work and was annoying… but now if I thought about all that as a little girl trying to do a grownup’s job… it was a different story. Ugh, c.r.a.p, I just can’t be angry at that! It was all just too cute!
“But then, I saw something interesting by the pool.”
“Pool…”
Wait, does she mean when Tomonori got attacked by those wash basins?
“Yup, it’s just what you think. I never thought that Ariel’s masou weapon would be in Yoshida. And then, I knew about this ring too. This is something you can use to control magical energy, right? So I thought, if I could just get those two things, I might be able to go back to my old self! So right away, I went and borrowed that magical energy suction device that Haruna didn’t need anymore, and then watched for a chance to get to Yoshida. And then… well, you know the rest.”
She held up her skirt and did a single happy twirl.
“Congrats… is what I should say, right? What exactly is your goal here?”
“Revenge… maybe? I still feel bits of that hundred-year grudge in me.”
In other words, she wants to go and beat the queen of Virie? If she had the same goal as Dai-sensei did, then maybe we should help her.
But…
“Can you give Haruna back her magical energy?”
“Don’t wanna~~~. If Chris gives that back, she’ll go back to being an old man!”
“Huh? Don’t screw with me! Give it back!”
“Wanna try taking it back by force?”
Chris gave us a smile.
Granted, just sitting here and getting played around with like this was h.e.l.l on the nerves…
And more importantly, this girl had already done one thing I couldn’t forgive her for.
–
When she was still an old man, she had caused harm to Tomonori.
–
If that was just a joke that a pet.i.te little girl had played, then I could forgive her… but at that time, she was still an old man.
And I wasn’t generous enough to forgive old men who did foolish things!
“Haruna, you say she’s the strongest masou shoujo, but what you mean is she used to be, right?”
“Yeah. The strongest now is Dai-sensei!”
“Should I go for it?”
“Yeah! Go for it, Ayumu!”
How long has it been since I’ve seen Haruna smile like that?
I turned my gaze back onto Kuri- I mean Chris, but…
I felt the back of my head crash into a wall. While that was happening, my limbs were torn off and my heart crushed.
“W-Wait just a second! Don’t do that without any warni-“
“Hey hey, do you know what you need if you want to stay on top?”
She looked like she was having fun. But it wasn’t a happy, innocent kind of fun… her eyes were filled with madness.
“You have to be willing to give anything up! Sorry. You shouldn’t have gone against me. I’m gonna erase your existence now, ‘kay~~?”
“Erase… my existence? You can do something like that?”
If that was possible, then the King of the Night wouldn’t have suffered so much.
“Sorry sorry, I put that wrong. I’m gonna lock you up into a pitch-dark s.p.a.ce where time doesn’t exist, ‘kay? There, is that clearer?”
Ah, I see. Wait! That didn’t sound good at all!
… I wouldn’t be able to last one day in a place like that! I’d want to die!
But at that point, Yuu, who had been standing there expressionless, suddenly kneeled and put her head to the ground.
“Forgive them.” I heard those words come out from her mouth.
When I heard those words… well, I guess it wasn’t too bad if Haruna didn’t get back her magical energy. I started thinking like that. Haruna also…
“Whatever, just do what you want.”
She muttered something like that. Meanwhile, Chris’s entire body started shaking.
“Uwah. What powerful words. I’ll forgive you this time. But…”
With the same smile still on her face, Chris pulled my head right off my neck…
“There won’t be any forgiveness next time, ‘kay?”
Brr. I felt a tremendous shiver run right up my spine.
Although, I was only a head right now, so it’s not like I had a spine…
Chris casually tossed my head away and gave a stretch.
“Anyways… Chris needs to get back into form. Maybe she’ll go find and kill the strongest person around~~.”
She went on announcing her next crime, and then her body blurred and vanished.
I could tell clearly that Chris’s attempts at revenge could make some huge waves. And those huge waves might throw the entire world into chaos. And yet, I couldn’t care less about any of that.
But, she had taken something. Something… something important that belonged to someone important to me.
If I didn’t get Haruna’s magical energy back, then she’d just get depressed again.
And I didn’t ever want to see her tears again.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES