Volu 4, Chapter 5: Princess?Kaguya
45th Loop
The first morning of training camp.
When I opened my eyes, Kagurai-senpai was sitting by my pillow.
I didn’t know why, but she looked extrely tired.
“… Good morning, forty-fifth Kagoshima.”
And she explained everything in regards to the situation we were enraptured in. The keyword ‘widow’ left with no choice but to believe her.
“This is the forty-fifth ti, and the ones absent from camp this ti are Kurisu and Kikyouin…”
aning this ti’s… the mbers participating in the forty-fifth training camp were Kagoshima Akira, Kagurai Monyumi, and Orino Shiori.
“What I’ve learned from forty-five repetitions is that the probability of there being fewer mbers is gradually increasing. From thirty-six onwards, it’s always been two absences…”
Apparently, only Kagurai-senpai and I participated in each and every one of the forty-five iterations.
The two of us were investigating together the whole ti, it seems.
But… the results were none too favorable.
No apparent progress.
“… That’s it for the explanation. Kagoshima, we’re continuing on from last ti. To make sure we haven’t missed anything, we’ll do another…!”
“K-Kagurai-senpai!”
The mont she tried to stand, her knees buckled, sending her falling towards as I raised only my torso from the futon. I reflexively held her body up with both hands.
“Are you alright!?”
“… I’m fine. Nothing amiss.”
“Nothing amiss… your face is pale.”
“There’s no way that’s true… every day, my fatigue is all reset when the clock strikes twenty-four. So there’s no way I could be tired…”
Perhaps in theory. At present, not a shred of fatigue remained in .
But… Kagurai-senpai maintained her mories. For forty-five days—a month and a half, she repeated the sa day. In a loop that would never advance to tomorrow.
Even if she didn’t accumulate physical fatigue or injury, her spirit accumulated any and everything. As the sickness of the body can start with the mind, it wouldn’t be strange if irregular ntal strain brought a negative influence to her body. At present, the girl in my arm had a terrible complexion, her breaths were shallow and short.
Forty five days.
How much pain to her heart had such an empty repetition wrought?
“A-anyways, you should rest this ti around! Get yourself in perfect position in preparation for the next one.”
“… Quit making repeat myself, Kagoshima.”
A powerful look pierced into . Quit making repeat myself likely ant that the previous , and the before that said sothing to the sa effect.
I couldn’t stand to see Kagurai-senpai in such pain.
“After that dumbass playing elite, Hihihiko… put through the wringer, like hell I can keep quiet…”
“Hihihiko… oh, are you talking about that Shakujii Hihihiko-san that appeared on the thirteenth?”
I don’t know the specifics, but it looks like coming in contact with Shakujii-san had disturbed her to such an extent.
“Umm, is there any way we can get in touch with Shakujii-san to ask for his help?”
“… The answer to that question is, ‘Hell no’ in two senses of the word. It is impossible to establish contact from our side… the reason being I am unable to utilize the B3 World. And even if we did get in contact with him, I’d rather die than run teary-eyed to that bastard…”
She said as she unsteadily stood. But a few steps and she soon crumbled once more.
“… Dam, mit.”
Her cracked voice groaned in irritation. I hurriedly raced over and held up her body.
“… Kagurai-senpai. Don’t push yourself, just rest this ti. Okay?”
Kagurai-senpai bit into her lip before nodding.
*BREAK*
After I took her to the girls’ room, Kagurai-senpai fell sound asleep. It looks like she was amassing ntal fatigue after all.
… It’s just, when I slid open the screen to the girl’s room, I happened to catch Orino-san changing out of her pajamas, getting an eye-full of her undergarnts. It was a delightful, embarrassing happening, but with my somber mood, I couldn’t enjoy it.
what’s more, when I reflexively dodged her, “Kyaaah! Akira-san, you pervert,” slap, she landed a clean hit on Kagurai-senpai- of hazy consciousness beside -’s jaw, and I get the feeling that was the finishing blow, but… well, so be it.
It’s that. You see it all the ti in shonen manga. With apprehensions for the sub-character enduring their wounds to make for their place of death, the main character knocks them out with a body blow. It’s sothing like that.
Please, rest in peace, Kagurai-senpai.
“……”
And if you ask what I’m doing, I’m not doing anything.
Kagurai-senpai slept soundly without signs of nightmare, so she didn’t look like she needed nursing. But that didn’t an I got in the mood to play.
I naturally returned to my room, while Orino-san remained in the girls’ room.
I pushed the futon and low table into a corner, laying out over the space that made, counting the stains on the ceiling much like a maiden greeting her first night. Without any aning.
I grit my teeth at my own powerlessness, if I put it like that, I might be able to make it sound cool. I knew I wanted to do sothing, but I hadn’t the slightest inkling of what I should do.
If Kagurai-senpai wasn’t here, forget resolving the problem, I wouldn’t even be able to grasp it. What’s more, if I did anything unnecessary, there was a danger of worsening it.
I was unable to do anything to a detestable extent.
Perhaps this isn’t the first ti I’ve been tornted by my incompetence like this. Every ti, I must have co face to face with it, regretted, reflected, and without changing the result, I’d open my eyes to the next one as if nothing had happened at all.
What emptiness.
It happened as I was wrapped in such feelings of self-loathing and self-harm.
“K-Kagoshima-kun.”
From outside the room ca Orino-san’s slightly high-pitched voice.
“C-can I co in?”
I got up and told her to go ahead.
The screen imdiately slid open—taking aback.
I think my mouth was idiotically hung open. There’s no doubt I ended up making a considerably blockheaded face. Well, I doubt I could help it. I an, as Orino-san entered the room… she was in her swimsuit.
A bikini. Her abundant torso was unsparingly exposed. I was sure the phrase, stuck out in all the right places, was a word made for her.
[IMAGE]
With her face bright red, Orino-san forcefully closed the screen behind her. She made for with fast feet and sat. Her hands hid her chest or covered her face, her eyes swimming all around, she looked like she was quite busy on her own.
“D-don’t just stand there, say sothing…”
In my mute amazent, Orino-san spoke bashfully.
“U-umm…”
“N-never mind, please don’t say anything.”
So which is it?
A peculiar silence it was hard to put a shape on seeped into the room. Unable to keep up with the situation, I matched Orino-san and sat on the floor.
“… What’s wrong, Orino-san?”
I said, unable to endure the silence.
“… Umm, uh… Kagurai-senpai’s in bed, so playing at the beach and stuff, it’s not that mood anymore… but I went to the trouble of buying a new swimsuit, so I wouldn’t want this to end without having a chance to wear it…”
Her face turned redder and redder, she used her hand to pin down her navel.
“And… Kagurai-senpai said…… -kun’s na in her sleep…”
“She’s sleeptalking? Did she say sothing?”
“… N-nothing at all!”
To summarize, she wanted to wear her new swimsuit. I guess girls really do want to throw on the clothes they’ve just bought. No, but still, taking another look at her, a swimsuited Orino-san’s charms could only be expressed in my pitiful vocabulary by the word, ‘dayum’.
Not at the beach or a pool, a beautiful swimsuited girl in a tatami-lain Japanese-styled room gave off a perverse fascination I couldn’t put into words.
I can’t think of a clever taphor, but… maybe that.
Like when a mature lady puts on a school uniform…
“… You’re thinking sothing strange.”
“N-not at all!”
Glared at with cold eyes, I frantically waved my hand. In all actuality, I wasn’t thinking anything perverted, but I was thinking sothing strange, making act terribly suspicious.
“Um… it looks good on you.”
“T-thanks. Y-you don’t think I’m… a-a-a- pervert, do you?”
“I don’t think so,” I hurriedly refuted. “You just wanted to wear your new swimsuit! I get it!”
“… Yeah. There’s that too…”
“But there’s sothing else?”
“Back there, Kagoshima-kun… you saw , um, changing, right?”
“Ah… yeah.”
“Back there, your reaction was far lighter than I expected… it was a bit of a shock, a bit irritating.”
“You’re worried about that!?”
Kagurai-senpai was in pain back there, so I couldn’t react well, and if I had to say, my thoughts were turning towards, “Hey, read the mood a bit, Orino-san,” I’ll admit it!
But co to think of it, perhaps I’m at fault for looking at a girl’s undergarnts without providing her with a decent reaction.
Anyways, I must follow through!
“You’re wrong about that, Orino-san. Sure enough, my reaction was light back there, but that’s because the heat didn’t escape from the thermos. I was actually boiling hot inside. Your underwear, black both top and bottom, what’s more, the lace made it look like you were going all out; I saw it all and burned it into my brain in such detail I can describe the patterns on them to a great degree of accuracy, so don’t worry”
I was slapped.
At three tis the speed of when I saw her changing, it was impossible to avoid.
Hmmm. Girls are hard.
But if there’s one thing I understood, when Orino-san said, “G-god. Kagoshima-kun, you really are a pervert,” she was transcendentally cute.
“I’m sorry.”
“… Don’t apologize.”
“Then thank you most kindly.”
“That’s even worse!”
“… Haha.”
“Fufu.”
For no real reason, we exchanged a laugh.
I finally understood. Orino-san quite likely ca to cheer up. Right after I heard Kagurai-senpai’s expression, I must have been making quite a dark face. While she didn’t understand the situation, Orino-san ca to pep .
Well, I get the feeling her service spirit is a bit too vigorous, mind you.
“Thank you, Orino-san.”
This ti, I expressed gratitude without the jokes.
“Mn.”
Without getting angry, Orino-san gave a small nod.
Ah, co to think of it, out of the ComClub mbers, the one I’ve known longest is Orino-san. It was only a difference of a few months, but I t her sooner than any of the others.
Perhaps that’s why.
It felt so nostalgic to be with her, as if we had known each other from childhood.
No…
Is that so? Is that really so?
Ten years ago.
What could be called my roots, the chance encounter at Gentle Breeze Park.
The lady in the strange suit.
That lady’s face… resembled Orino-san’s, didn’t it?
Huh?
Strange. How strange.
Why am I paying attention to sothing like that?
Usually… the usual would never mind such a thing. There’s no way I’d notice.
“Ahaha, but you know.”
Her face still a little red, not noticing the change in , Orino-san continued on.
“Kagoshima-kun, you prefer it when I wear a T-shirt, right?”
I shuddered.
Fear raced down my spine. As she smiled sweet as a honeycomb, undoubtedly saying it as a joke, I ended up seeing sothing terribly ominous in her. I certainly did hold the opinion that, ‘wearing a T-shirt over a swimsuit is contrarily more sexy’. But I’d never said it to Orino-san… no, let be more precise. I haven’t said it this ti… the forty-fifth ti.
aning she maintains her mories?
Like Kagurai-senpai—
“H-huh… What’s wrong, Kagoshima-kun? You suddenly went quiet.”
“… Orino-san.”
“W-what?”
Her expression turned fearful. From her atmosphere, I knew I was wrong.
The impression she gave off was… different from Kagurai-senpai.
I could only explain it as a ‘sothing’, a vague ambiguous difference, but it was definitely different. She was simply coping with this loop.
That’s right. This feeling is the sa as back then.
When Orino-san first t my childhood friend.
It’s similar to when she t Kai.
This sensation that Orino-san alone is off from the world.
Thanks to that, a discrepancy was born between my recognition and her’s.
“O—Orino-san?”
“Yes? What is it?”
Before her perplexed face, I hesitated. I hesitated and hesitated, and at the end, “Don’t you think you should put on so clothes? You’ll catch a cold.” I told a lie.
“Ah, sure. You’re right.”
Orino-san nodded and left the room. The screen closed quietly behind her.
“……”
I couldn’t say it.
When she didn’t know anything… when she didn’t notice her own abnormality, I was unable to thrust it at her.
That wasn’t like at all, I thought.
For to tell a lie and cover up the truth, that was sothing I’d never done before.
*BREAK*
It’s a full moon tonight.
Or perhaps it was more accurate to say a full moon again. This was surely the forty-fifth full moon.
Soaking down to my shoulders in the white-tinted open-air bath, I gazed at the night sky alone. The full moon floating without a cloud in the sky was a beautiful sight to behold.
And yet, my feelings wouldn’t clear.
It’s not like anything happened in particular. And the forty-fifth first day was about to end without anything happening. Perhaps the situation was far more severe than I had imagined.
An endlessly repeating loop.
Where ti was unlimited, I thought the greatest problem would be maintaining motivation.
But maybe that wasn’t the case.
A problem that made motivation, ntal stress and the like seem inconsequential, a problem coming from a completely different vector had barged in.
Orino-san was acting strange.
And… so was I.
As I don’t maintain my mories, I can’t tell from when we started acting strange, but the fact Kagurai-senpai didn’t say anything about us ant there was a high probability this one was the first.
Sothing was crumbling.
What we had all treasured and protected, that vague, abstract… sothing.
If this loop continued, I got the feeling we would reach a point from which there was no turning back.
“… Dammit.”
In the depths of my chest, an anger started to well up towards my own impatience. No, it was a little different from anger. I was simply bewildered by a sensation I had never felt before.
“I wonder what’s wrong with …”
This was the first ti I ever felt so irritated. An unfamiliar anxiety leaned indefinitely on both shoulders. If had had to keep it simple… I was troubled.
At the end of the rope.
“… Do sothing about this.”
My voice naturally ca out.
Feeling as if I was praying to God, I pleaded help from the most reliable person I knew.
For so reason… I got the feeling he could do sothing about it.
There was very little in this world he was incapable of.
“Help out here, Kai.”
“I didn’t do anything this ti around, nor do I intend to. I’m a complete mber of the peanut gallery, aning my plan is to enjoy this story as but a single reader.”
A rolling sound.
From behind, I heard the glass door open.
“This incident Kagoshima Akira’s party has encountered, put favorably, a midsumr dream, and put poorly, a low-brow cody. It was simple enough to infiltrate this closed world, but it looks like it’ll resolve itself even if I leave it be, so I very much intend to watch it to its conclusion without lifting a finger.”
I understood that a transparent voice had seeped into the night sky.
That voice gradually grew closer.
“Unlike Akira, I don’t have that much free ti.”
But you know, he said.
“If you beg in such a sad voice, there’s no way I wouldn’t make the trip.”
I turned.
Gray hair close to white… and white skin as if it rejected the sun’s radiance.
He had a surprisingly beautiful body. While it was a delicate figure I wouldn’t call strong by any ans, neither did it give off a feeble feel. Like a tempered sword, I felt a supple strength.
My childhood friend, Shinose Kai.
Made his appearance buck naked.
*BREAK*
“… D-Dragoon MS (tal Storm) Ultimate Version!”
“Drakensberg. A region encompassing the Republic of South Africa’s central plateau.”
“…… I-I’ve got nothing.”
“Yep. It’s my win.”
The ga of concentration we started on a whim as we soaked in the bath ended at my complete failure.
“U… uwaaaaaaah”
I just normally lost!
What’s up with that!?
When I was just barely within the rules, or rather, completely breaking them, I lost fair and square. What’s more, all of Kai’s answers were intellectual. It made look like a brat for saying nothing but Beyblade bit beasts.
“With Beyblade’s Dragoon as an exception, in Japanese fantasy-type literary productions, Dragoons are often knights who ride dragons, or warriors who fight alongside them, but the original aning differs. They were indeed soldiers who fought alongside dragons, so it might sound misleading, but the dragon in this instance was a na given to a weapon that breathed fire like the dragons of legend. aning they were a horseback cavalry equipped with firearms, and not knights who mounted dragons.”
He even ended it spouting miscellaneous trivia. So this is what it ans to be at soone’s rcy. Seeing seep deeper into the water breathing contrary bubbles, Kai smiled.
“Thinking back, this is the first ti we’ve ever taken a bath together.”
“That’s because you would never co over to my house. I invited you ti and again.”
“I’ve got so circumstances.”
“I want to play a whole load of things with you.”
“Right. I’ll pray that the day cos.”
Softly parrying my words, Kai gazed at the sky with sentintal eyes.
He ca to this guesthouse by pure coincidence, apparently. The place he just happened to drop by in the midst of his journey to find himself was Guesthouse Sunflower, apparently.
Well, it’s a small world, so those coincidences can happen.
“Co to think of it, what’ve you been up to lately? We haven’t t this past week, have we.”
“You had your ti filled with redial lessons. I was—playing with Saijou Mutsuki.”
“With Saijou-kun?”
Saijou-kun was a boy around middle school age I t the other day. He wore glasses, looked childish, and said sothing incomprehensible about wanting to et the founder of a movie club or sothing.
“You’re acquainted with Saijou-kun too?”
“I can’t say we’re acquainted. He doesn’t know who I am. So more specifically, I was using Saijou Mutsuki to play.”
“Hmm. I don’t really get it.”
“If you don’t get it, that’s fine.”
“Yeah. It doesn’t really matter if I get it or not.”
The sa old exchange between the two of us.
“It seems Saijou Mutsuki looks up to you.”
“?”
Did I have any cool traits soone would look up to?
“It might be closer to say he’s jealous. Whatever the case, it seems like he wants to get along with all sorts of won like you do.”
“Oh, that? … Any man would think so.”
“You have a point.”
Bitter and sweet, he ford his usual smile.
“It’s boring to be the only one talking. Akira, what’s your story been like?”
Kai drew his face close. A wave rose in the bathwater, spreading ripples to the edge.
“When you’re staying buddy-buddy under the sa roof as four beautiful won, such a dream-like situation, why are you making such a gloomy face?”
“……”
I silently averted my eyes from Kai, sinking a bit further into the water.
I didn’t know why I was so gloomy either. The loop, Kagurai-senpai’s health, Orino-san, and myself. There were so many things to think about, I didn’t know where to start.
But it’s not like I could throw that all at Kai.
The fact that ti is looping isn’t sothing one could believe so easily.
And if I told him the senpai of the club I’m affiliated with was actually a ti traveler, I’d be the one treated like a crazy person…
“… Fufu. Haha, hahahah.”
When I thought deeply, Kai rose his voice into an uncontainable laugh.
“W-what’s wrong?”
“Haha. Sorry, sorry. I just thought you were thinking sothing that missed the mark to a hopeless extent as per usual.”
“… Are you perhaps making fun of ?”
“I’m admiring you.”
“No, I think that line was considerably mocking.”
“I’ve never made fun of you in my entire life. That’s the truth, you know?”
If there’s sothing you can’t talk about, just tell what you can, Kai said, so I went right ahead and spoke about my feelings. Without saying a single specific, what’s more, I just said whatever ca to mind without my thoughts in order, so I think it beca a considerably cryptic explanation; yet as per usual, he made a smile as if he had seen through it all.
“And then?”
Kai said, once I’d finished speaking.
“And then… that’s the whole story.”
“Don’t lie. I can tell when you’re lying, Akira. There’s still sothing you want to get off your chest, isn’t there?”
“……”
He gazed into with his deep, gentle eyes, and pulled up my true thoughts.
*BREAK*
“I get the feeling… Kagurai-senpai already knows everything.”
*BREAK*
She knows, but she averts her eyes.
No, she averts her eyes, so she can never know.
I get the feeling she’s gotten sothing wrong in a fundantal part of the problem.
I feel excessively so.
“… Ah, sorry. You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you.”
I hurriedly apologized, but Kai thought a bit.
“… You’re the sa as always. That ability of yours to see through to the true nature of things… no, your power to only see the true nature”
He said. He slowly raised his head and gazed at the moon in the sky.
“Hey, Akira. What do you think Princess Kaguya was thinking?”
Kai suddenly changed the topic.
“Princess Kaguya…? You an the girl found in the stalk of bamboo?”
I read the picture book when I was a kid, but I only rembered the general outline. As I recall, the original story had her quarreling in her married life, but my knowledge in that field is vague at best.
All I know is that she was originally a resident of the moon, and at the end, she had to return to it.
“As long as you know that, that’s enough.”
Kai spoke.
“Princess Kaguya was aware that she was of the other world. While knowing she would soday have to return to the moon, she hid her identity and continued to act as it were that she was a person of this country. Forget the affections of the n she drew, she even deceived the parents who raised her. Don’t you think she’s quite the grand villainess?”
“I think… you’re wrong about that.”
I refuted without any basis.
It was rare, but I had no choice but to refute.
“I’m sure Princess Kaguya started to have fun.”
That’s why she couldn’t bring herself to say it to the very end.
If you want to fra her as evil, that might an she deceived them.
She might have told a lie.
But the ti Princess Kaguya spend with the old man and woman was definitely not a lie.
“Just what I’d expect from you.”
Said he with a bitter and sweet smile.
“Just what could be going through her head, I wonder.”
There Kai spoke of.
Who he was pointing to, I had no id—
*BREAK*
— Huh?
*BREAK*
A person of another world. Eventually has to return. Hides their identity. Deceives everyone. Isn’t that… signifying Kagurai-senpai?
Then the fact he brought up Princess Kaguya at that timing ans… Kai knows her identity? Wait a second. Co to think of it, I ended up going with the flow and accepting it, but there’s no way sothing as convenient as Kai coincidentally stopping by the guesthouse we just happened to be in could ever realistically happen.
Is it alright for those manga-esque encounter rates to make their way to reality?
In the back of my head, my suspicions simred up.
When I began noticing the abnormal nature of my childhood friend, bap, he lightly rested his hand on my head.
*BREAK*
“You’re breaking character.”
*BREAK*
Kai grabbed my head and fixed in place. He brought his face close enough to kiss and gazed into both my eyes.
“That’s not like you, Akira. When I say sothing incomprehensible, you’re supposed to let it slide as incomprehensible babble. ‘Eh? What was that?’ or ‘Mn? Did you say sothing?’ or ‘Thanks to that sudden gust of wind, your voice didn’t reach my ears,’ it can be anything, just conveniently play it off. Isn’t that who Kagoshima Akira is?”
“Ka… i…”
“This is definitely because Kagurai Monuyumi ca out. Even if it’s one out of four, it looks like noticing the truth has begun crumbling that special little character of yours.”
“……”
“I was right to keep watch over you. Change of plans. If I leave things be, eventually, either Kagurai Monyumi or the Cage of Death Remnant will resolve this closed world, but I can’t let this go on. Having Akira notice is too great of a loss.”
That’s why… I’ll accelerate the story a bit.
Said Kai.
The glare in his eyes transfixed like a frog staring into the eyes of a snake.
Aaah…
Now that I’ve noticed one out of four I can tell.
I’ve t this Shinose Kai a number of tis as well.
Scary, yet sowhat sorrowful, the subli World of Death.
“You don’t have to worry about a thing, Akira. I’ll lend you a helping hand. So just close your eyes for a bit.”
Unable to go against his words, I closed my eyes like a marionette.
Right ever, I could tell sothing around was crumbling without a sound.
This is, this sensation as if the world is bending out of place—
“My 《Finishing Stroke》 is… put bluntly, an invincible skill. A grand, absolute power to overturn the world, what’s more, due to its nature, it doesn’t have any particular limits. So it has no weaknesses.”
From his tone of voice, I understood well that it wasn’t a brag or exaggeration. More so, the opposite. His voice was terribly pessimistic, terribly self-depreciating. This man held no pride or attachnt to the ability he possessed. It even felt like he held it in disgust.
“But you know, Akira. While my ability has no weak points, I can’t say the sa for my plan.”
“……”
“My plan to make the 《Neverending Prologue》does have one fatal flaw.”
A fatal flaw?
I reflexively repeated.
“… And why are you telling that?”
“Because I’m one of those kind enemy characters from manga and ani who’ll arbitrarily say everything about themselves and reveal their weaknesses even when no one asked.”
Kai chided, though “Kidding,” he imdiately revoked that statent
“I’m sure even Saijou Mutsuki could notice this flaw. It’s far too fundantal of a mistake, at this point it’s even idiotic to try covering up. If you were to prick at that weak point, then I’d crumble defeated all too easily, but that’s also in itself, what I desire.”
“……”
“All that aside, that’s a conversation for a little further down the line. For now, instead of the princess in the cage, you should go off and save your Princess Kaguya.”
Now.
Let’s return to the usual Akira.
*BREAK*
《Finishing Stro—
*BREAK*
“Oh shut it.”
Said I.
“One-sidedly dragging along a conversation is your bad habit.”
I opened my eyes.
Without averting them from those inhuman pupils before , I returned the glare.
I face my childhood friend who’d shown his true colors head on.
“Don’t get wrong, I’ll let things go your way this ti. While as always, I don’t understand a single thing you just said, letting things go your way sounds like it’ll save Kagurai-senpai faster— but let tell you one thing.”
On the verge of noticing everything,
I cried sour grapes as hard as I could.
*BREAK*
“Don’t think we’ll be dancing to your tune forever.”
*BREAK*
Kai opened his eyes wide, making a surprised face.
“… Remnants of the 《Book Marker》…? No, could it be this is”
He grimaced just a bit, but quickly, his mouth curved into a smile.
A sowhat intrigued smile.
“You’re breaking character too hard, Akira. I don’t even know who you are anymore.”
*BREAK*
《Finishing Stroke》
*BREAK*
*BREAK*
“I get the feeling… Kagurai-senpai already knows everything.”
“……”
Half-ignoring my words, Kai rose from the bathwater. The pale skin was exposed to the open air. He quietly closed his eyes.
“Was it for I fell, asleep whilst yearning for her, that she did stop by? Had I known it was a dream, I would not have woken up.”
In a voice that penetrated the atmosphere, Kai sung to himself.
No, that was five, seven, five, seven, seven, so a tanka poem, perhaps?
In that case, would it be more precise to say recited rather than sang?
“Ono no Komachi’s Love song, from the Kokin Wakashu collection.”
He opened his eyes, and looked at as he spoke.
“It’s a famous poem that was chosen as one of the cards in the Hundred Cards Hundred Poets ga. Didn’t you learn it in classic literature?”
“… Why did you suddenly bring it up?”
“I just got into the mood for a reading. Ah, if you want, why don’t you try delivering that song to this Kagurai-senpai of yours?”
“Eh? Why?”
“When I heard the story, I was certain that song fit her perfectly. So it’s a present.”
Presenting a poem…
I get the feeling that’s real cold, but I guess it’s fine.
“Since when were you such a pompous prick?”
“You should try acting a bit cooler, Akira. Especially in front of girls.”
By the ti I noticed it, Kai was gone.
I thought he planned to stay at the guesthouse, but from what I got from the owner, we were the only guests here. He was always an elusive man, so it wasn’t particularly surprising if he suddenly disappeared at this point.
Knowing of Kai’s absence, I made for the girls’ room. I passed by Orino-san on her way to the bath, so Kagurai-senpai was in the room alone. Having rested a day, her complexion had improved considerably.
And,
“Was it for I fell, asleep whilst yearning for her, that she did stop by? Had I known it was a dream, I would not have woken up.”
I recited the poem Kai entrusted as is.
“…”
Raising her upper body from the futon, after a mont’s blank expression, Kagurai-senpai closed her eyes with a grave countenance. It seems she was reflecting on the poem’s aning.
“From your… childhood friend, to ?”
“Yes.”
“And who is this childhood friend…?”
“Who knows.”
I tilted my head.
“Umm, Kagurai-senpai, did you get what that ans?”
“I told you, didn’t I? There was a ti I got hooked on the Hundred Poet Hundred Card ga, and I know the aning of all the poems.”
“No, first I’m hearing of it.”
“… Ah, I see. I didn’t tell you this ti.”
Kagurai-senpai gave a troubled laugh and went silent.
To her unreliable form, I resolved myself and opened my mouth.
“Kagurai-senpai. You already know everything , don’t you?”
Without a response, ten, twenty seconds passed. When thirty seconds were about to pass by, “… Soon,” an isolated word leaked out.
“Soon, we should experience a pattern where it’s just and you, the two of us at this training camp. When the ti cos… I’ll tell you everything.”
Kagurai-senpai looked straight at . There was no longer any panic or hesitation in her eyes.
They were eyes of resolve.
Was the poem the trigger, or did she really know everything from the start? I was unable to decide. But it did seem the story was soon to end.
As if soone pressed the fast-forward button, it was all reaching its resolution at a breakneck pace.
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