Part 1On the day of the festival, many students were traveling along the coastal road during daytime, usually deserted except during commutes, which was lined with vendor stalls. They were also dressed differently from usual.
"What a great move on the princ.i.p.al"s part, providing yukatas to all students. Everyone looks very different."
Having finished chopping some cabbage at Shinomiya-sensei"s stall, Lisa looked out towards the female students in yukatas, coming to buy yakisoba.
"Yes—It doesn"t feel like we"re at Midgard anymore. It"s really like a festival in j.a.pan."
Likewise in charge of the stall with Lisa, I agreed while cutting carrots.
To adhere completely to a festival in j.a.panese style, Charl had issued a yukata to every student. Furthermore, the students could choose whatever style they preferred.
It was probably borne by Charl"s personal tastes, but definitely a lot of work.
But thanks to that, the girls were all very excited. The main event of the festival was the fireworks show at night, but the seaside was already very busy.
"A j.a.panese festival... I have long wanted to attend one in person."
"I"ll take you to one if a chance comes up. However—It"ll be pretty tough."
When I smiled wryly, Lisa frowned.
"What do you mean by that? Are you saying I will get lost?"
"No, that"s not it. You"re too pretty and striking in your yukata, Lisa, so guarding you will be tough."
"Wha—"
Turning bright red, Lisa halted in her food preparation.
"P-Pretty... If only you had said this earlier—back when I first showed myself to you in the yukata. Saying it at a time like this would throw me off-balance."
Confronted with Lisa"s sharp glare, I apologized frantically.
"S-Sorry about that, but I already praised your yukata look long ago..."
Like the girls, I was also wearing a yukata.
Currently at the stall, Lisa and I were the ones in charge of preparation while four others including Shinomiya-sensei and Shion were cooking and serving customers. Since the shop area was limited, we were on a shift system. The rest of the cla.s.s was walking around to check out other vendors.
I was wearing a traditional navy-blue yukata for men, but girls all loved to dress up glamorously.
Lisa was wearing a wisteria yukata with floral patterns, a great match for her glittering blonde hair which had been coiled up.
"tHaNk yOu."
Bowing to customers, Shion was wearing a cute yukata with patterns of blooming pink flowers on a white background. To make up for her slight lack in height, she was standing on a stool.
The adorable Shion was stimulating the girls" maternal instincts. I heard "So cute!" many times.
Although Shinomiya-sensei was frequently distracted by Shion"s cuteness, she continued to cook masterfully.
She was dressed in a yukata that was primarily blue with white flowers, exemplifying a mature and conservative style. Beneath her swaying ponytail, her neck flashed in and out of sight, making my heart pound with excitement.
Naturally, I could not voice all of these thoughts but I still expressed my honest opinion to the girls earlier.
However, Lisa did not look satisfied.
"You lumped us all together and said it looked good on us. You call that a compliment?"
"Uh... But it"s too unnatural if I praised you one by one—And you girls were about to depart too. If I showed too much interest, it"d turn into s.e.xual hara.s.sment, right?"
When I apologized, Lisa shrugged with resignation.
"Although it was an insensitive thing to say, it would still be better than no comment at all. I am glad for the fact that you take an interest in my attire. Well, getting mad or not is a separate matter."
"Why does it feel like I"m being subjected to unreasonable demands... Fine. Starting now, I"ll focus on getting you not mad."
While sighing, I nodded with a wry smile.
Seeing my reaction, Lisa"s eyebrow twitched slightly.
"—It appears that you have regained a little normalcy."
"Huh?"
Surprised, I looked back at Lisa. She was wearing a complicated expression.
"Recently, something has been troubling you, yes? Although I dared not ask about it earlier, has it been resolved?"
Continuing to cut cabbage, Lisa asked me.
Ever since the barbecue, I had been thinking about how to answer Mitsuki"s question. However, it looked like Lisa had seen through me.
This was definitely not surprising. That was how Lisa was as a person.
"Resolved... Not yet. But I know how to handle it properly, so you don"t need to worry."
I answered vaguely.
I had not been able to reach an answer before the festival. All I had done was nonstop reminiscence.
Digging deeper into the depths of the memories Tia had recovered for me—I carefully went through my memories, starting from my earliest recollections with Mitsuki and dug out every memory since then.
For memories that had faded, I would call my parents to confirm, asking them to try their best to recall and send me photos preserved in alb.u.ms for me as reference material.
In this manner, I kept thinking about Mitsuki, all the way till today.
But even though I still had not found a clear answer—I should be able to speak naturally when I meet Mitsuki later.
"Is that so? Then I shan"t worry. Please do your best."
Lisa smiled and spoke with rea.s.surance. She began to cut cabbage swiftly again.
"Yes, I"ll give it my best."
I smiled too and nodded, cutting carrots in sync with her rhythm—
I had agreed with the girls to go check out the festival together when our shift ended.
My promised meeting with Mitsuki was last—before the fireworks. I was going to convey my answer then.
Before that, I wanted to enjoy the festival with everyone and so intended to calm my emotions—However...
"So, the winning team gets to monopolize Yuu."
"Yeah—Agreed. The team that wins the most prizes wins."
In front of the ring tossing game stall, Kili and Ariella were staring at each other.
Both of them looked good in their yukatas, but now was not the time to be praising them.
"Do not fail mine expectations, daughter."
"Good luck, Onee-chan."
The two sides had Vritra and Ren cheering for them respectively.
"Uh... Wouldn"t it be better for us to stick together?"
Having walked around with these four so far, I tried to mediate.
In the beginning, the four girls were having fun together relatively peacefully, but Kili and Ariella later got into a conflict—Then it became like this.
Ariella had interfered in Kili"s night visit before, which resulted in a subtle sense of compet.i.tiveness to develop between them.
"No, Yuu. We"re already at the stall, so I won"t give up."
"That"s right, Monon.o.be-kun. For our sake so that the three of us can enjoy the festival together in peace, this contest is unavoidable."
In perfect agreement in a certain way, the two of them immediately rejected my suggestion.
Next, they presented cash coupons to the stall keeper.
Along with the yukatas, we had been issued cash coupons that could be used at the vendors during the festival. Normally when buying things from the cafeteria or the snack shop, we could pay by direct debit from our personal accounts through our portable terminals, but this was not available at these stalls.
Furthermore, since Midgard"s Ds earned money by trans.m.u.ting resources from dark matter, many of them were immensely wealthy. Unless there was some restriction imposed on sales, the merchandise could get sold out in a flash.
Since this festival was held to let the entire student body enjoy themselves, one method to prevent things from getting sold out was to inst.i.tute cash coupons.
"Okay, three rings each."
Saying that, a female member of Midgard staff handed out rings to Kili and Ariella. I had seen her many times before in the command center. Although I did not know her name, I remembered she was the switchboard operator.
It looked like all of Midgard"s staff really were running this festival.
"Since the type of prize doesn"t matter, aiming for small prizes is fine too."
Kili confirmed the size of the rings and said quietly with a serious expression.
The prizes were each secured onto the stand and could be won by landing a ring to encircle the desired prize. Comparatively speaking, it was more likely for the rings to bounce off larger prizes.
"Although I"ve been to a j.a.panese festival with Ren before—Compared to the original stalls, these prizes are really grand."
Ariella appraised the prizes while remarking poignantly.
"Mm... So many cute ones too. That bunny... is great."
Standing straight, Ren was looking at a rabbit plushie while her eyes shone.
As pointed out by Ren, most of the prizes were cute and girly things. That selection of prizes was only natural since everyone was a girl except for me.
"Oh, do you want that, Ren? I"d really like to win it, but it"s kind of big. It"d be too risky if I"m trying to win the showdown."
Seeing Ariella hesitating, I raised my hand.
"Then I"ll go for the plushie."
Saying that, I handed a cash coupon to the staff and received the rings.
"—Thank you, Onii-chan."
Ren"s happy grat.i.tude was filling me up with motivation.
"Yes, leave it to me."
To be honest, I was very confident.
For someone like me with honed combat abilities, tossing an object was merely a single faceted skill. Given three chances, I could also make slight adjustments. There was no reason for me to miss.
But while I was checking the ring"s weight and shape, Vritra, who was standing on Ren"s other side, tugged at my yukata sleeve.
She pointed at a certain product seriously.
"I desire that."
It was a bag containing candies of different colors. It was a relatively challenging target because the ring was barely large enough to fit around it.
"Why don"t you try it yourself first?"
"I have decided to use all coupons on food. I do not have any to spare on such games with uncertain prizes."
Despite Vritra"s matter-of-fact declaration that only served her own interests, I still went "fine" and sighed. None of the prizes was anything I wanted. Since I had three rings, I might as well help Vritra.
"—Got it. I"ll help Ren first."
"Yes. I am counting on thee, my comrade."
Since we were cooperating, Vritra haughtily tapped my arm without worry.
Next, Ariella, Kili and I stood side by side with me in the middle and started to toss rings.
"Yes!"
Ariella and Kili won small prizes of low risk.
On further thought, they were very definitely very compet.i.tive. Succeeding on the first toss was only natural.
Having no intention of losing to them, I focused my concentration and stared at the rabbit plushie intently.
I adjusted my breathing and tossed the ring like releasing a hand grenade.
Slightly off, the ring"s center of gravity was unstable, wobbling while it flew, but this was within my calculations.
Having calculated the loss of distance due to the wobbling, my first toss landed over the rabbit plushie as intended.
"Wow!"
Ren cheered out loud in a rare display.
"You are all amazing."
Accepting the prize from the female staff, I handed the rabbit to Ren.
"Here you go, Ren."
"Mm... So happy. I"ll... cherish this gift from Onii-chan."
Blushing, Ren hugged the rabbit plushie.
However, Vritra soon urged "next one is mine."
Smiling wryly, I attempted the second toss.
Building on my success against a high-risk target on the first toss, I did not need to be that nervous. Tossed lightly, the ring landed on the bag of candy.
"Hmm, well done."
Vritra praised my efforts haughtily as usual but seeing her relieved expression, I felt that I had nothing to be mad about.
Next to me, Kili and Ariella also succeeded on their second toss.
"You"re not bad."
"—You too are better than I thought."
Seing sparks fly between them, I picked up my last ring.
Since I had won Ren and Vritra"s prizes, I no longer had any clear target. As a result, winning anything was fine...
However...
After scanning the stand, I noticed a j.a.panese style brooch in a corner of the merchandise. It was an exquisitely crafted brooch with a maple pattern.
—A brooch huh.
It would not suit me but I remembered Tia"s happy face from when I gave her a brooch in the past. I tossed the ring over.
Following a trajectory even more ideal than my second toss, the ring landed accurately over the brooch.
Thus, my rings were all used up. Only Kili and Ariella"s third toss was left.
After concentrating for a long while, the two girls exhaled strongly and tossed their rings at the same time.
"—Oh."
Seeing the two rings" trajectories, I could not help but cry out.
They were apparently aiming for the same target. The rings collided in midair and fell on the ground.
"Why did you get in my way!?"
Kili roared angrily and Ariella replied with raised eyebrows.
"No, you"re the one who got in my way, Kili."
After glaring at each other for a while, they handed coupons to the female staff at the same time.
"Another go."
"Another go, okay?"
The second round of the contest began.
"...Looks like it"ll take a while."
"I am tired."
Satisfied with their prizes, Ren and Vritra commented wearily.
Indeed, it would be very hard to reach a conclusion between Kili and Ariella. When serious, neither of them was going to make a mistake while attempting interference would only end in mutual failure.
When I saw the fifth round starting, I suggested to Ren and Vritra:
"While they"re still competing, why don"t we first check out the nearby stalls?"
"Mm, good idea."
"Hmm, that frankfurter stand first, yes?"
The two of them responded immediately.
Then we walked to the vendors opposite to us.
In the end, Kili and Ariella did not manage to settle who was the winner. Since the time for their shift arrived, they had no choice but to give up.
Carrying the mountain of prizes they had won, I was really glad that their shift had started before they could use up all their coupons.