Season 2, Episode 3
Episode 3:
“Hey!”
Having at last, cleared the entrance, Shun’s cla.s.smate Uehara Harukichi greeted him upon sight.
“It’s really bad for you, you know? If you continue hanging around real girls like that, I mean.”
Such acidic words, and yet, the perpetrator was such a beautiful being.
Uehara, having had a long-standing relationship with Akihabara[1], was a renowned figurine designer. He was successful, yes indeed, but what stood out most to Shun was, that despite all that, he still looked like but a child.
His hair was ruffled in that cute I-did-not-put-any-effort-into-this way, serving to emphasize his short stature. His smile was roguish and dimpled, giving him the air of a cheeky, endearing little boy (Shun believed that it was called the shota[2]-style)
“Good morning, Haru-chan!”
A group of female third year seniors walked past, calling out a friendly greeting to Uehara in the process.
Uehara growled in annoyance.
“Kyaa! So cute!”
The seniors hugged each other in an exaggerated fashion, hearts practically flooding from their pores, saturating the air. Everything about Uehara was just too cute! He was like a motherless little boy looking for love, appealing to the nurturer in them.
Uehara on the other hand looked nothing short of extremely p.i.s.sed.
“Shut up! Man, this is why I don’t like real girls. They move by themselves, talk by themselves – just annoys me to no end!”
He then went on muttering something about the end of the world under his breath while turning his back on the parade of real life females. His cute outward appearance, which seemed to be his only saving grace, was in his case both, a blessing and curse.
Sigh.
Sometimes, Shun really wondered why he was friends with such a guy.
–
Placing his shoes in the locker, Shun headed to cla.s.s with Uehara.
“Hey, have you heard about that terrorist act at the National a.s.sembly Hall yesterday?”
Shun schooled his features into a polite, bland smile. Best to pretend to know nothing here.
“There has been some really interesting things on the internet about it.”
“I see.”
“Well, you know how according to the news, the National a.s.sembly Hall was destroyed by missiles, and the whole fault lay with the newly built fighter jets? Listen to this. Some websites on the net actually claim that the real culprit behind all this was a beam of light that descended from the sky.”
Sucking in his cheeks for effect, he continued.
“In fact, rumour has it that that strange light actually came down twice, which was what destroyed the entire building. Also, you might not believe this, but some people even said that they saw towering spirals of fire rise up from the ground!”
“This is just a bunch of bulls.h.i.t.”
“Yeah. At first, the part of the light from the sky sounded kind of real to me, especially when quite a few people claimed to have witnessed that. But really, when you add the part about fires and Dragon Bless curses and whatnot, now that just makes everything sound completely dodgy.”
“Definitely stuff of stories.”
Uehara continued his rant.
“Some guy even went on to say that he saw a girl cosplaying as Rosalie at the scene of action. That really takes the cherry! Other people have since taken it one step further and claimed that Rosalie did not simply disappear from Dragon Bless, but instead has appeared in the real world in order to destroy j.a.pan’s National a.s.sembly Hall!”
“…”
His shirt was see-through now, what with the rate he was sweating at.
Play it cool, Shun! Calm down, no one knows about Rosalie, remember?
“Man, your reaction’s slow today! Anything up, Shun? Normally, you’d be the first to react if there was any news about Rosalie.”
“O-Oh no, well, you see – “
“Whatcha talkin’ about?”
Saved by the bell.
Or rather, by a girl.
–
Their conversation was interrupted, just before Uehara could pursue this further.
Turning around in relief, Shun was greeted by a perky pair of cat ears.
“Were you guys talking about games?”
Shun wrenched his gaze away from the ears to look at the girl who was smiling brightly at them – the student council president, Shirogane Sora.
“Ah, well, you see –“
“You know, I’ve started playing games recently too!”
“I see, that’s great…”
She is gorgeous.
Shun might have been her cla.s.smate, but that didn’t mean that he was immune to the refined air of grace and beauty that practically enveloped Sora.
In fact, she was the only girl around with that type of allure who had not been enrolled in the Celeb Course.
With Nadeshiko effectively ruling the entire student population, Sora’s t.i.tle was but a decoration. However, the fact that she was able to hold such a t.i.tle also meant that she was the only one amongst the populace that Nadeshiko recognized. Or so the rumours said.
Regardless, the fact that she could spur such rumours in itself showed how enchanted the students were with her. So much so that no one even commented on her cat ears.
“Erm….”
Uehara had long since turned away. This was rather common really. He often did that, usually as soon as someone else came into the conversation. The only time he really talked was when he was alone with Shun.
“Oh my!”
Sora exclaimed in distress, her hands flying to her mouth.
“I haven’t bothered you have I? I’m so sorry!”
“Oh no, don’t worry! It was nothing.”
Can’t make my relief too obvious, after all.
Upon hearing this, Sora was all smiles once again.
“Oh, thank G.o.d! That’s great!”
With that, they walked down the hallway towards their cla.s.s, chattering all the way about mindless, trivial things.
–
“Kanda! Kanda!”
Shun heard someone call his name, just as he had placed his bag on the table.
A guy from his cla.s.s had just called out to him.
“Could you fix my bicycle for me? The tire’s punctured. I’ll collect it later after club.”
“Sure!”
From his pocket, his friend dug out a 200 yen coin for Shun. That was the regular fee Shun charged. Having picked up a skill for fixing bicycles, he accepted requests like this in order to line his pockets for a comfortable school lunch. It would be about four to five times more expensive to get things fixed at a bicycle shop anyways. Shun knew, which was the main reason why the requests kept on coming.
“Make it look like a Ferrari, okay?”
“I’ll paint it bright red for you.”
Shun teased his friend lightly. Opening his bag, he was just about to slip his binder into his desk when he noticed something poking out of the corner of it.
Casually, but placed in a spot where he could definitely find it, was a small folded note.
“I wish to talk to you. Come to the back of the gym after school. This is about Rosalie.”
The words were upright and delicate, the little blue piece of paper undescriptive, leaving no clue as to who had written, or left it for Shun.
Shun looked up, head whipping around the cla.s.sroom, only to find that everybody was engrossed in their own business.
The chime sounded. Cla.s.s was about to begin.
[1] Akihabara = a district in Tokyo, j.a.pan, famous for it’s anime and manga-related shops and businesses.
[2] Shota = refers to cute young boys, has connotations which involve attracting girls to young boys.