Translator: Nefarian
Taiyou Castle was standing tall even in this tempest storm, Taiyou opened the door and entered. Having lost his umbrella, both Taiyou and Shirokiyami created a big puddle of water beneath their feet.
Aoba comes over with a clatter of loud steps to greet him at the front door.
「Welcome back Natsuno-kun……. Eh, why are you so soaked? And also that girl is….?」
「I’ll talk about the minor details later, is the bath free right now?」
「Ah, yes. Kohaku-san said that when Natsuno-kun comes back, he’ll want a bath, so we already heated the bath…」
「I won’t ask why she a.s.sumed that I would need a hot bath….. But thanks.」
Saying his thanks towards Aoba, he looks at Shirokiyami once again.
「Come here.」
Her hands had already become completely cold due to being wet, he grabbed her and headed straight for the bathroom. Pulling open the polished gla.s.s door, she was taken to the bathroom.
「Wait a minute.」
Saying that, he let go of her hand and entered the bathroom alone. The bath was hot enough to release a steamy vapor that caused the ceiling to drop down droplets of water with a *pitter patter*. The bath was really wide and it was filled to the brim with hot water.
「The water’s already heated so you will be able to take a bath soon―― Eh? What are you doing!?」
Taiyou let out a loud voice instinctively. That’s because Shirokiyami had already entered the bathroom and all her goth-loli clothes she normally wore were taken off and she was stark-naked.
Her white skin exposed under the fluorescent light, and her splendidly beautiful and naked body was way too ero-tic. These days, Taiyou felt like a car whose break mechanism stopped working, becoming dumbfounded he felt like his brain would just stop working.
「What do, you mean?」
On the other hand, Shirokiyami was acting normally and didn’t seem to be worried about the situation at all.
「It’s the bath, after all. So I took off my, clothes. It’s normal, to take them off.」
「Normally you wait until the guy gets out before taking them off, don’t you?!」
「…..Now that you mention it.」
「That’s not what you should be saying?! What if I lost my reason and started to attack you?!」
「…..Cut?」
「That’s scary! It’s really scary to think that you would cut me!」
「Ah…. I made a mistake.」
「Huh?」
「I’d be scar-ed?」1
The person who showed her face, was Kohaku who was still in her spoiled child mode. Her sleeves were rolled up, and she was holding a towel, but once she saw the scene inside of the bathroom, she exclaimed with an “Ohh”.
She alternated between looking at Taiyou and at Shirokiyami, after that she closed her mouth, she went out of the bathroom but her face remained and she continued to peek inside.
「I’m sorry, it seems that I wasn’t able to read the mood jya. The bath will be free for about 2 hours so please take your time.」
「What do you mean by 2 hours?! As if we’d need that much time!」
「How could it be?! Don’t tell me you only need three clicks to finish up?」
「That’s too extreme! Or more like, the denomination used is strange!」
「Three clicks is what a King uses to count time, you know?」
「Please throw away those types of geeky obsessions!」
「「「What’s wrong?」」」
Hearing the commotion occurring in the bathroom, the three sisters came in this time. However, the moment they see the scene in the bathroom, the three girls rapidly turn their eyes away and hid themselves in the other side of the wall.
「I’m sorry! To have intruded!」
「Koto-chan, Kaza-chan, we need to lay out a futon bed in the open room」
「I’ll leave that to you, I’ll go and buy a camellia flower」2
「Wait a minute, you guys don’t need to prepare the futon bed, the flower is also unnecessary!」
Taiyou’s words seem to have no effect as the three sisters already started to move and prepare. Chasing after them to join in, Kohaku also closed the door and calmly left the scene.
Holding his own forehead, Taiyou could not help but to let out a sigh.
In comparison, Shirokiyami was as expected very calm. She slightly tilted her head before asking him.
「In a situation like this… Is it normal to lay out a futon?」
「No, it’s not normal」
「What about the, Camellia flower?」
「That kind of thing only happens in a TV showcasing the Showa Era!」
Since the beginning, Taiyou wasn’t planning on doing anything to her. After sighing out one more time, he pushes Shirokiyami into the bath before heading out of the bathroom.
After taking a bath, Shirokiyami looked really cute in her new outfit.
She was wearing this light blue colored Pyjamas. The three sisters prepared it for her, so judging from the size, it was probably Suzune’s clothes. The pants were quite short reaching only up to her knees, and the cuff of her clothing had this vibrant red colored string wrapped around it, it was a really lovely outfit.
Originally she always dressed according to her code name Shirokiyami, and only wore either white and or black type clothing, but now that she was actually wearing all these different colors, Taiyou thought that she looked really good in them.
He was relaxing on the sofa lying on his back, but once he saw her, he stood up straight and couldn’t just sit slouched anymore, that was how lovely she looked.
「Y-You’ve finished?」
「Yes…. I’ve finished」
「Have you been able to warm your body? It would be bad if you caught a cold so.」
「I’m fine, I won’t…… Catch a cold.」
「You’re saying that with an awful lot of confidence aren’t you?」
「Yes, cause I’m the strong-est.」
「You sound silly saying that, so please stop. Although, that in itself is persuasive coming from you.」
Taiyou smiled wryly after speaking with her. Although he tends to forget, she was actually known as a teenage expert who is declared as one of the strongest existences. It’s easy to imagine that she’s trained her body to a state where she was immune to catching mere colds.
「But all things considered, can you tell me why you were in a place like that? A typhoon is going to be coming you know? You can’t be seriously saying that you were going to train in that kind of weather?」
Saying that, Taiyou glanced at the scene outside of the window. Because a typhoon was approaching the area, the intensity of the storm was increasing at a remarkable pace. The rain hitting against the window, was no longer something that could be replicated by just pouring water from a bucket.
「I was seriously, training.」
「Eh?」
「I was making progress…. in the storm. Training under a waterfall or in the sea is also good…. but it’s a little dangerous」
Taiyou’s eyes were bewildered as he continued to stare at her.
He didn’t think she was seriously training.
But, she really didn’t look like she was lying to him, just like she first told him, it seemed to be the case that she was literally training in the storm.
「I’m really sorry.」
Taiyou stands up straight, then he turns his body towards her and bowed deeply lowering his waist.
「…..Eh?」
「If that were really true, then I have actually disturbed your training. I didn’t know what you were doing…. So I’m really sorry.」
「That’s fine, more….importantly」
After saying that, she avoided meeting his eyes. It was like she wanted to say something, but was finding the right words to convey her message.
「I was lying… Pyon.」3
Making a halo by placing her fingers on top of her head, and doing an awkward pose. She looked like a child that was acting foolishly.
「…. Is that so?」
Taiyou thought that she was definitely lying about lying right now. But he didn’t point out this fact. She was being considerate of his feelings so he didn’t want to treat her with disdain.
「Stop standing there, you should also come and sit――」
Letting bygone be bygones, she was heading to her seat when…
――Crackle, Snap.
An unfamiliar sound struck his eardrum. In the next moment, the electricity cut off.
「「「Kyaaahh!」」」
「What? What’s wrong?」
「Ohh, this is?」
The voices of the women living in this house could be heard.
「Everyone? Are you guys alright?」
「「「Yes! We’re fine!」」」
「No problem nojya.」
Both the three sisters and Kohaku responded while talking in a slightly higher pitch. But for some reason, Aoba’s reply could not be heard, thinking that this was strange, Taiyou headed towards the direction her heard the sound and called out to her once again.
「Aoba?」
*Silence*. Indeed, there was still no answer. Wondering if something had happened, Taiyou walked through this dim area, and headed towards Aoba’s direction. And then, he found Aoba at the bottom of the stairs. She was holding her head while crouching down, and her body was trembling.
「Aoba?」
「Natsuno-kun….」
She looked up at him with teary eyes. It was apparent from her face that she was frightened by something.
「Want to hold on to me?」
「――Yes！」
The moment he asked, Aoba flew up and jumped towards Taiyou’s arms clinging to him. Even while in this position, she was trembling, even though it hasn’t been long since the power cut off in the house, the small hands clinging to him were already completely cold.
「Are you scared of the dark?」
Aoba nods her head up and down. Seeing her like this, he embraced her shoulder closely, and returned to the living terrace area.
He was comforting the trembling Aoba while looking out of the window. All the lights outside seemed to have gone out and he couldn’t see a single light working.
「It seems the power failure has occurred in a large area. That means that we can’t do much but wait it out.」
Saying this, he continued to hold her tight whilst sitting down on the sofa.
Suddenly, he noticed something.
Shirokiyami was still standing in the same spot, but she was acting weird.
Her face still remained expressionless but, this was different from her normally boundless and elusive expression……. He could see that she was tense.
Above all, her treasured sword the Reverse-Heaven that wasn’t there a little while ago was now taken out and being embraced closely. It was like she was using it as a support.
「Don’t tell me, you are――」
「I’m not afraid okay?」
She spoke as if she was making light of the situation. Normally Shirokiyami had this tendency to talk in broken sentences, but right now the words she spoke were very clear, for a moment he just stared at her blankly and then Taiyou started to laugh a little.
「Danna-sama.」
「「「Taiyou-san.」」」
From the corner of his eyes, he could see both the three sisters and Kohaku. Taiyou beckons them to come over towards him. The girls rushed up to him with happy looking faces.
“I will be together with them like this until the power comes back on”, Taiyou was thinking of doing this but then…
Boom.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
Along with the thunderous sound, all the girls around him simultaneously cringe with fear (Shirokiyami went as far as to take her sword out of her scabbard). The building was shaking largely.
When he looked in the direction of the sound, he saw that the wall was destroyed by a broken gigantic tree, and the wind and rain was blowing everywhere into the house.
Nefarian: This girl and her broken sentences, she’s saying she retracts that comment about cutting Taiyou, but will instead be acting like a scared girl.」
Saying that, she held on to her small body shaking left and right as if to hide herself. Even after she was acting cutesy and saying dialog like that, Taiyou wondered why but he still doubted her.
「No, well forget about that. I don’t really expect you to act like that so. To be frank, I’d prefer if you just cut me instead.」
「….You a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t?」
「I’m obviously not!」
「Then…. Are you a super-m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t?」
「Why is it becoming worse?!」
Speaking in this sketch comedy type of way, Taiyou actually regained his cool. Shirokiyami’s silly lines somehow seemed really spontaneous, so it a cooling down effect on Taiyou’s l.u.s.t.
In addition to the circ.u.mstances leading to another situation, it was no longer a situation he could become aroused in any longer. Taiyou pulled Shirokiyami’s hand and forcibly pushed her into the bathroom.
「Look, for the time being, just soak your body in this hot water and warm yourself up――」
In the moment he spoke. The gla.s.s door slid open with a clattering sound: *gara gara gara*.
「Welcome home nojya, Danna-sama. Don’t you need your bride to wash your back for you?――」[2. Nef: Kohaku calls him by Danna-sama, never explained that this can mean, “Master of the house” or “Husband”. ↩Nef: this Camellia flower, symbolizes the arrival of the Main Character’s Girlfriend ↩Nef: Pyon is just a really cutesy way of speaking. ↩