Volu 1, Chapter 6: Kuria’s Grand?Adventure
Saturday noon, Orino-san and I were on the terrace of an Italian restaurant in front of the station. We had co to see a movie together, and were on the way back.
Yesterday, ‘I used my connections in the movie club to get so presale tickets, but do you want to go?’ Orino-san invited out. To , it felt like she had quite purposely prepared the tickets to make a strong appeal to the fact she was indeed in a movie club, but that’s just what you call reading too deeply into it.
After brushing off all the food and draining the water in my cup, I asked.
“What do you want to do now? I think it’s a little early to go ho.”
“Right.”
She put her hand to her chin in thought. It was a cute, girly gesture. When I looked at her mouth unable to conceal its smile, my own mood ward up. And there—the uncouth vibrating sound of a cellphone resounded.
“… Ah.”
A mont later, Orino-san’s expression clouded.
As if she knew exactly what was going on from the vibration pattern.
“You’re not going to answer?”
“I will. I’m sorry…”
Standing from her seat, she answered the phone a little away. After exchanging a few words, she returned with an apologetic face.
“Sorry… um, I have so urgent business to attend to, so I have to get going.”
“Really? … I see. Then there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“I’m sorry…”
“It’s fine. If it’s urgent, you’d better go.”
She apologized with a truly pained face, making feel apologetic myself.
“… You’re not suspicious?”
The words softly spilled from Orino-san’s mouth.
“Suspicious of what?”
I couldn’t tell the aning of her question.
“I might be lying to you. About urgent business, and my stomach hurting…”
At her faint voice as if her heart was leaking, I tilted my head even further.
“Why would you have to lie to ?”
“… Never mind. I’m sorry I asked such a strange question.”
Well then, Orino-san left in a hurry.
Her back looked extrely unreliable, too fleeting to entrust the world.
“Orino-san!”
I ended up calling out.
“I’ll be waiting for you.”
Orino-san turned in surprise.
“I’ll be waiting. Until you finish your business, I’ll be in the area. Today, I feel like playing with you so more.”
“… Okay. Thank you!”
Her cloudy face slightly clearing, Orino-san ran off. Her step was a little lighter than before.
“I wonder what she has to do…”
I pondered a bit, but quickly stopped thinking.
*BREAK*
I went to the arcade and departnt store to kill ti. Along the way, Kagurai-senpai called . When I wondered what it was, she reported she was returning to her parents’ house.
‘So you won’t be able to call for a while, but don’t worry about it.’
“Is your parents’ house out of service? Could it be out in the country…”
‘No, that’s not it, but… well, just know you won’t be able to get in touch. It’s too far away.’
“Where is it?”
‘By the standards of this world, as I recall… it should be around Shibuya.’
“That’s really close.”
‘It’s close space-wise, but ti-wise… no, never mind. It’s nothing.’
Kagurai-senpai’s voice had more intensity and leisure than before. Like a seasoned warrior who overca a life or death struggle and matured, she had increased in awe.
The reason she was returning ho was owing to the fact she had finished up a job, apparently.
… I wonder why, I got the feeling I just missed a climax. Like a new finishing move, and a wager with the last boss, and so drama between brother and sister, the sort of feeling that I completely missed out on all of it.
‘Well, I should be back after around a week.’
She said before hanging up the line.
That person went as far as skipping school to go ho. I wonder what she was doing.
Thinking over such things, I killed even more ti.
*BREAK*
Orino-san returned passed six in the evening.
“Kagoshima-kun!”
I was sitting on a bench in the station-front plaza, and when I raised my face from the Corocoro I was reading, I saw Orino-san jogging towards .
“… I’m really sorry. I kept you waiting.”
“It’s fine. I said it before, but I don’t hate boredom.”
I put my Corocoro away in my bag… huh, it won’t fit. I guess Corocoro really is just too big. But don’t think that’s going to stop ! Hup. Hup. Hup!
Snap!
“… Do you want to go buy a bag?”
“…… Yeah.”
(Note: An Issue of Corocoro Comics is approximately 750 pages long (~6cm))
*BREAK*
I walked with Orino-san through the darkened residential district.
I really wanted to walk her ho, but, “I can’t reveal the location of my house to a civilian… I-I an my father is very strict, so if a man escorts back, it’ll get a little…” so while it pained my heart, the arrangent reversed and she was walking back to my place.
“There are less children playing around these days, though the park is getting old. I heard they’re going to flatten it and make a parking lot.”
“I see. It’s always a little sad when that happens.”
“I’m also sad. I’ve got so mories here.”
“mories?”
“Yeah. Back in elentary school, I t a wonderful person here.”
Feeling a tingling sorrow like the pain of being pricked with a pin, I proceeded through the empty park. At that mont, the misanga on my right arm let off a faint light. But it quickly died out.
“… Hm? What’s this?”
Next to the stone slab that spelled out ‘Gentle Breeze Park’, it was scribbled in with chalk: a complicated shape made of circles and quadrilaterals.
“I wonder what it is. It kinda looks like a magic circle.”
“I’m sure so kid doodled it.”
Good grief, what are they doing to public property? The park belongs to everyone. My civil service spirit revived, I borrowed a picked tissue from Orino-san and got to erasing the white doodle.
I gave a light wipe, and the mont one portion of the doodle was gone,
Clink!
Ca the sound of breaking glass.
“W-what?”
I nervously looked around in surprise.
In the center of Gentle Breeze Park that had been empty up to a mont ago, Kurisu-chan was collapsed.
“Kurisu-chan!?”
Orino-san and I rushed in.
“… Ah, Kagoshima-senpai… and Orino-senpai too… I see, so you broke the barrier for … that’s good. I couldn’t do anything from the inside, it was really bothering .”
Kurisu-chan returned a faint voice. Her body was limp, her breath was shallow and short. Her face was pale.
“Whoah. You’re burning up… Orino-san, call an ambulance!”
“O-on it.”
“… I’m fine.”
Kurisu-chan reached a hand towards Orino-san, blocking the report to 119.
“I just used a bit too much magic… I tried every spell I could to break the barrier, and wasted quite a bit… the doctors here won’t be able to do anything but… I really am fine. If I rest a bit…”
She muttered incoherently as she closed her eyes. For a mont I panicked, but noticing a sleeper’s breath leak from her lips, I gave a sigh of relief.
“What should we do… she said the hospital’s no good so, should we let her rest in my house for now…”
When I turned towards Orino-san,
“… Magic… barrier, and spell…?”
Her mind had stopped on all the words I ignored.
*BREAK*
My house was a standard two-story and I lived there alone. This was the first ti I ever thought it better that my parents weren’t there. Just what sort of ruckus would they have made if I took ho a debilitated young girl?
“How’s Kurisu-chan doing?”
When I climbed the stairs with a first-aid-kit and towel in hand, I ran into Orino-san on her way out from my room.
“Hmm, she’s still in pain, but she’s cald down.”
“I see…”
While I hesitated a bit, I tucked Kurisu-chan into my bed. I had the option of my mother’s bed (my father’s bed was not an option), but it hadn’t been used for a while, so the futon was gathering dust in the closet. I couldn’t keep a patient waiting while I made the bed.
“… Huh? Orino-san, why are you holding your bag?”
I said, noting the bag in her hands. She didn’t have to carry it around, she could’ve just left it in my room. Hmm? In the first place, why was she leaving?
Could it be she was already going ho? It was getting late, so if she really had to…
“… You ask why I have my bag?”
Orino-san said in a low voice, patting the bag a few tis.
“Because I can’t leave these in the sa room as a patient!”
As she yelled with a reddened face, she forcefully pulled the bag open.
Inside it was… yeah, well, they were so-called erotica. Five, no six indecent covers were cramd tightly into the bag.
“Orino-san… do you always carry those around with you…?”
Learning an unexpected side of Orino-san, I was filled with concern.
“Ah, but… yeah. Your secrets safe with . Yeah. That’s right. Won have interest in that sort of thing as well.”
“Wha!? Y-you’re wrong! Look, take a good look at this!”
“Take a good look!? At that book!? What’s gotten into you, Orino-san!?”
“Aah, god! Just take a look at it already!”
She grabbed my head and thrust it into the bag filled with porn mags.
It was embarrassing, but I had no choice but to look them over as ordered.
…… Huh?
For so reason, I had a recollection of all of them…
“Wait, these are mine!”
C-crap!
I forgot to put those away!
Whoah! That wasn’t the right ti to say, “This is my room, so just go in. I’ll go get so towels and ice!”
A classmate (female) just cleaned up my porn.
When even my mom’s never put it away before.
“Putting it under the bed is one thing, but they were just normally strewn around the center of the room…”
No, I an…
A man hides his porn out of fear his family might find it, so I have no reason to do so while I live alone, and wait, when a boy lives alone eight to nine out of ten cases, it’ll turn out like this!
Or so I wanted to give an excuse, but Orino-san glared at with anger and a maiden’s embarrassnt flushed all over her face, so I couldn’t say a thing.
“Now look here, Kagoshima-kun. I won’t tell you it’s bad to look at this sort of thing, but it’s real troubling to if you…”
“Stop! Please don’t be kind!”
It was truly painful to be scolded in a big sister tone.
It would be easier if she just stretched out my cheeks.
“Good grief… well, now Kurisu-chan won’t have to see them, so rest at east. I got the place all cleaned up.”
“… Thanks for that… but it’s amazing you were able to clean it that fast. I thought it quite a ss in there, but how did you manage?”
When I asked, Orino-san mortifyingly clenched her fist.
“…… You’re a real piece of work, making use it for such a stupid…”
She muttered resentfully under her breath. I couldn’t quite catch what she said, but I got the feeling she said sothing along the lines of, ‘I’ve cut yet another worthless thing’.
Hah, a large sigh ca from her mouth.
“Though I’m a little relieved.”
And this ti, she sent a malicious grin.
“So Kagoshima, you’re a proper boy, I see.”
“U-urgh…”
I grumbled at her teasings.
I an, I still read Corocoro comics, and when I read boy’s magazines in-store, I’m a coward who hesitates when there’s a pinup girl on the cover, but even so, I’m an honest-to-goodness man.
“Hmm. So you like this kind of thing.”
“Stop, ti out! Give it a rest, Orino-san! I’m really sorry!”
As she began checking over them one by one, I lowered my head with all my might. I was already at my wit’s end. Orino-san shrugged her shoulders.
“Then you’d better hide these properly.”
She said, handing the porn. I imdiately brought them into my father’s room, and while it was orthodox, I shoved them under the bed before returning to my room.
“So anyways, Kagoshima-kun.”
Orino-san said in front of the door. She changed gears to a serious tone.
“I want to wipe down Kurisu-chan’s body, so could you stay out for a while?”
“Yeah, go ahead. Kurisu-chan was sweating quite a bit. Yeah, I get it.”
I nodded and handed her the towel and other dical supplies I brought.
“No peeping, okay?”
“I know.”
“Do you really? With all that porn strewn about?”
Erk, she was still dragging that one on? I got the feeling she’d keep teasing as long as I stayed there, so I swiftly proceeded down the stairs. From behind, I heard the click of a door shut.
“Now then. With that, I don’t think Kagoshima-kun will be in for a while, Kurisu-chan.”
“Thank you. I’m really sorry, having you help out with this.”
“Don’t worry about it. Even so, magic, is it… I still can’t believe it.”
“Hey, if you want to take it there, you’re also… I was shocked. Though it’s not on Kagurai-senpai’s level.”
“Kagurai-senpai is still just my guess. It’s a guess, rather a hunch, perhaps? Well, whatever the case, that much is about right for us. We’ve all got our own circumstance.”
“… As I thought, we’ve all got our appearance to keep up.”
“Right. So people just get it…”
“Seriously, I had a faint… ah, sorry, Orino-senpai. That card’s a little crooked.”
I got the feeling the two of them were discussing sothing in my room, but it was mostly drowned out by the sound of my feet on the stairs.
Now then, I should make her so porridge.
*BREAK*
“Kurisu-chan. Egg, or apricot? Which sort of porridge do you want?”
“Kyaah!”
“Why are you coming in, Kagoshima-kun!?”
“I’m sorry!”
“Urgh, Kagoshima-senpai you pervert!”
“I told you I’m wiping her body!”
“I an, I thought you would be done by now…”
“I just started!”
“Then what were you doing all this ti?”
“That’s… whatever! Just get out already, you pervert!”
“G-got it… I really am sorry, Kurisu-chan.”
“Urgh… I like simple porridge without anything in it.”
“… Understood.”
And so I was in the process of making porridge.
Not covered up by eggs or fruit, a porridge using only the taste of white rice. Yes. It’s ti for to show my stuff.
To a self-proclaid whiz in the kitchen like , this is a battle I can’t afford to lose.
Um… we’re out of salt. Then I’ll have to use sugar. They look the sa, so it’ll work itself out. Wash the rice as thoroughly as usual, ah, we’re out of Joy. Then I’ll have to use shampoo. Wash it all out, shove it all into a frying pan, cook in oil and orange juice, and put in this and that as a secret ingredient, cook well together, and I’m sure it’ll co out with porridge.
“… What is this sll?”
When I turned, I saw Orino-san coming down the stairs. She was wincing, holding her nose as if enduring a foreign scent.
“Ah, how’s Kurisu-chan doing?”
“She’s sleeping comfortably but… more importantly, Kagoshima-kun, what are you doing?”
“Making porridge.”
“…”
Silently snatching away the frying pan in my hands, she discarded all its contents into the trash.
“What do you think you’re doing to my porridge!?”
“Such purple porridge does not, and shall not exist in this world… move for a second, I’ll put sothing together.”
She stole everything from . My position, my apron. With accustod motions, she equipped the apron and fastened her hair into one with a hair tie. Seeing her uniform motions, I secretly pumped my fist.
Yes, how should I put it, it got to .
A woman who can cook. I was filled with an excessive urge to marry her.
“Hey, where’s the rice cooker?”
“Rice cooker? What’s that?”
When I tilted my head, she glared with dreadful eyes.
“Why do you have rice but no rice cooker!? How do you usually eat it!?”
“Just normally. Eat it as is as a snack, and put it in milk to eat it like cereal.”
“…”
“Of course, I properly wash it before eating it. With detergent and everything.”
“… I can kinda get why soone would be chard by a woman who can’t cook, but a man who can’t has no appeal whatsoever…”
A man who can’t cook? Who was she referring to?
A wrinkle on her brow, Orino-san briskly began to cook.
“Hey, do you have a pot?”
“In that cupboard. I mail ordered the latest pressure cooker the other day.”
“… Pearls before swine.”
Orino-san smoothly washed the rice with nothing but water, taking out the earthenware pot she found in the back of the cupboard (Porridge tastes better in an earthen pot, apparently), pouring the rice in and boiling it.
“Kagoshima-kun, what do you usually eat? As I recall, you said you cook for yourself, right?”
“I exercise my creativity every day! It’s an improv with no scenario. A recipe-less wonderland. Even I don’t know what I’m fully capable of. Yes, every day truly is a box of surprises!”
“… Pretentious.”
“Well, I usually co out with sothing tasty.”
“This is my first ti eting a taste-deaf person.”
“How rude. Whatever I eat is tasty, that’s all.”
“That’s what the world calls taste-deaf.”
“h.”
Orino-san was sharper-tongued than I rembered her. I got the feeling she wasn’t insulting , and was just saying the right thing, but that was surely my persecution complex.
Seeing Orino-san cook in the kitchen, she gave off a familiar warmth and just seeing her soothed my soul.
She continued boiling the pot a few minutes. Tasting it a few tis along the way, she tuned the flavor with various seasonings, finally adding minced green onion to complete the dish. Thankfully, she even made a portion for . Kurisu-chan’s was patient-made, and mine was for normal consumption, she said, but I couldn’t tell the difference.
We sat across the table from one another, I parted the gleaming grains of rice with a Chinese spoon and led it into my mouth.
“Whoah, it’s delicious.”
“Thank you. Though being praised by soone who calls everything delicious doesn’t make happy.”
“Harsh,” I let the spoon take its round trip between my mouth and the bowl as I gave a bitter smile. “But I think I’m actually better off this way.”
“What do you an?”
“For example, the gourmand has too-developed taste buds, he won’t find anything tasty unless it’s extra-high-class. And then you have soone taste-deaf who can see everything as delicious. If you ask which one is happier, wouldn’t it have to be the latter?”
“I see. I get what you’re saying.”
But, Orino-san raised her eyebrows.
“… You an it’s happier to be an idiot? Completely separated, unattached to the essence, the ugliness of the world, are you trying to say an imbecile will be happier.”
“I know it doesn’t sound good, but that’s a true statent…”
Orino-san’s tone was strangely heavy, overpowering .
“Ignorance is a bliss, is what you want to say…”
The colors of sorrow gradually revealed themselves over Orino-san’s face. As if she was trying to endure her sadness, she bit her lip.
“Orino… san?”
“… I should get ho.”
I could only watch as Orino-san swiftly prepared to leave.
*BREAK*
In the end, Kurisu-chan stayed the night. For a high school boy, it was a situation where one’s tensions would have no choice but to rise. However, when I looked at her, with a slight fever remaining, I couldn’t think the slightest strange thought. It’s not like we were sleeping in the sa room. I decided to sleep in my father’s room next door.
“… Hm?”
My eyes opened to a strange voice in the middle of the night.
‘Well I’m glad to see you’re doing your best, Crea.’
“Yeah. I’m getting by, mama.”
‘I really caused you so trouble. It’s all because I let the enemy get it away.’
“It’s fine. I got the school to treat it as a study abroad, and I always did want to pay a visit to this world.”
‘That’s good. And so? How’s the world your papa was born and raised in.’
“… In spring, when I had just arrived, a lot of things confused , but I’ve gotten quite accustod to it. Both this world and that one aren’t very different at the root.”
‘Hmmm. You an?’
“There are good people, there are bad people. Whether there are witches or not… no matter the world, the people don’t change.”
‘Oh my, when you’re just my daughter, you’re saying so wise things there. Back when I was your age, I was running riot, not a thought in my head.’
“You taught by bad example.”
‘Soone’s learned to talk… but you’re right. You really don’t take after . ek and ladylike, you really are like your papa.’
“… I visited papa’s grave the other day.”
‘I see. Then you finally got to et him.’
“Yeah…”
‘… Your papa, see. He was quite the wimp. Timid and cautious, a coward. He was always pissing the hell out of .’
“But when it ca down to it, he was reliable, a passionate man, right? You’ve told again and again. You really love papa, don’t you mama?”
‘Oh shut it. Your cool papa went and protected in that battle of Togahr Ghoul—no, he protected you in my tummy and died.’
“… It’s because of that incident that papa lost his life, and mama was driven out of the temple. It usually wouldn’t be strange if they called you a hero, but they keep giving you all the grunt work, the dirty work.”
‘It’s fine. Status, and fa, I never really cared for it. Your papa and I, we just protected what we wanted to protect. That’s— all there is to it.’
“… Yeah.”
“Well then, it’s about ti we get to the main issue.”
“Eh? There’s the main issue? Knowing you, I thought you just set up a connection to kill ti.”
‘Crea—co ho.’
“… Eh?”
‘The enemy you’re chasing—the Red Crow’s finally entered the temple’s sights. They don’t want the world to start wondering why they’re taking so long to deal with what should be a small bandit troupe. That’s why they’re putting together a force to sent to that world all at once.’
“They can’t…”
‘In short, there’s no work left for a student like you. That’s why you should co ho already… I’m sorry, I made you clean up my ss. I should’ve just gone there myself, but when the temple drove out, they deprived of the right to move worlds.’
“B-but… I don’t want to leave it to the temple’s people. Those people don’t care about this world at all. Even at Togahr Ghoul… it’s because you didn’t like the temple’s decision that you and papa fought together…”
‘… Crea, the reason you care for that world is because you’re a half-blood. Over here, a majority of people hold that world in contempt. The evils born from the witch hunts they carried out in the middle ages still remain as firmly rooted as ever.’
“I know that, but…”
‘If you leave it to their subjugation force, the Red Crow will be brought in in no ti. Well, perhaps a city or two will be caught in the crossfire, but that’s what people deem a noble sacrifice.’
“…”
‘Just co ho, Crea. You don’t have to beco like us. There should be a better way for you to live out your life.’
“I-I don’t want to!”
‘… Crea.’
“I value this world and that one the sa… in school, you know, I t so really nice upperclassn. They saved today. They made think this world can be warm too. Hey mama, do you ever regret fighting alongside papa? You don’t do you? I can tell. I’m your little girl, mama.”
‘…’
“No matter the world, the people don’t change. That’s why I want to protect them both. Even if one becos a sacrifice for the other’s peace, it won’t make happy in the slightest. I’m papa and mama’s daughter. Even if the world doesn’t accept it, my papa and mama will always be amazing!”
‘… Fufufufu.’
“Eh? Mama…?”
‘Ahahahahahaha! So it’s co to that. You really are my daughter.’
“Huh?”
‘I knew you’d say that. That’s why I moved so pieces in the temple and made the subjugation force never happen. Fufufu. Even like this, I’ve still got a few connections around. Just goes to show there are still people in the temple who’ll listen.’
‘Oh mama! You were testing !’
‘That’s right. Only a parent has a right to test their child.’
“Urgh…”
‘As I thought, you really take after your papa. When it cos down to it, the way you get passionate is just like him. Fufu. When you find a man, make sure he’s a wild-type like , and I guarantee you’ll get along wonderfully.’
‘You think… Hmm, what boys do I know? If I had to say, senpai’s the peaceful sort…’
“Hm? What was that?”
“N-no, it’s nothing!”
‘I see… Crea. You live as you want. You can follow my lead. You can choose a different path. Your mama… and your papa will always be on your side. Now do your best. Creastia Crimson Cridende Christopher Kurisu.’
“Okay!”
A stream of words flowed through the single thin wall.
I pulled the cover over my head and sighed.
“… Kurisu-chan’s one amazing sleeptalker.”
I couldn’t catch most of it, but it sounded like so grand drama between mother and child. She’s cute, so I’ll give it a pass. It might even be a charm point. A sleep talking girl… no, there’s really no way that’s happening. That’s a little too much to handle. It’ll definitely beco annoying. But, even so, I wonder why my heart felt warr.
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