Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Kiro
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 51
The final event… All year’s joint relay ended without a hitch, and the results of the sports festival were announced.
The Red team won the overall victory. In terms of score, Class A ranked 1st, followed by Class C, followed by Class B, and finally Class D. Class B was in the lead during the initial period, but it ended up with a subtle result.
“Well, I enjoyed it more than I thought.”
“That’s good. Next time, I will do my best to make you laugh.”
While talking about that with Arisu-chan, I left the school in a state of excitement.
The next day, Honami came to our room.
“Master~”
She rubbed her face against my knee. With each passing day, I got the feeling that her spoiledness was getting more intense.
“Uwah, disgusting…”
“T-that’s a terrible thing to say!”
The person who made such a comment while looking at Honami with an ice-cold gaze was Kikyou-chan.
As a fellow woman, perhaps it couldn’t be helped to think of Honami’s behavior as disgusting. But for me as a man, I still think it was cute, though…
Right after that, Kikyou-chan’s body shook. Did she feel something from Honami?
“Leave it at that. There, I’ll stroke your head.”
“Wah… it feels good. It’s both gentle and warm.”
“I-I see.”
“Haruto-kun, I love you. Even if you might never turn my way, I will always love you.”
I was perplexed. I didn’t expect her to say such a thing. I wasn’t very conscious of it, but she was a peerless beauty. Having such a person whisper that she loved me, there was no way a man wouldn’t be shaken.
“Let’s continue yesterday’s topic regarding the sports festival.”
“…Roger that. It’s something I was most curious about at the moment, so I was thinking of asking eventually.”
Seeing I stiffened up, Honami chose to change the topic. I honestly felt saved by that.
If she chose to continue her sweet words, what would happen to me?
…If Honami used the special ability she had with all her might on me, could I really endure it? I alone would never get dyed by Honami. Such a naïve thought was nothing but arrogance. It was necessary to always consider the risk of getting brainwashed and dragged into the “Honami cult.”
I finally realized that. She was seriously trying to make me fall for her. Of course I didn’t dislike that, as there was no way I would feel bad for being liked. I didn’t intend to completely ignore it… but it’s important to have a strong mind. I should never forget that my top priority was Arisu-chan.
“Then I have a question, how did you get Morofuji to record the participation table?”
Morofuji was suspended from school before the participation form was submitted. How did Honami use her to get information about the sports festival? I was thinking about it in between competitions yesterday, but I never came up with an answer.
“Fufu, about that… It’s because the participation table itself isn’t recorded. Is this good enough?”
“What?”
“Then, let’s check the answer, shall we?”
Honami placed her index finger on her lips and winked.
That was cunning of her. But when she was the one who did that, it strangely became a good scene, so I guess it was because she was a beautiful girl.
“The day before her suspension took effect, Morofuji-san quietly went to the school during the after-school period to bring her textbooks and reference books that were left unattended back to her dormitory.”
I was taken aback from the beginning. Certainly, it was something that Morofuji had to do. Suspended or not, she would be expelled if she got a failing grade on an exam. She needed to do self-study during her suspension period or she wouldn’t survive this school.
In addition, since it was after school, most students were busy practicing for the sports festival, so there were barely any people in the class… Considering Morofuji’s current situation, she should have chosen a time when she wouldn’t have to meet anyone. She would be blamed by people of her class after all.
“Aah, since you didn’t make her record the information personally… It means Morofuji set up something at that time. I’m starting to understand the story.”
“That’s correct. I only requested one thing from Morofuji-san. Put the fully charged voice recorder I gave her in advance into her desk… as deep as possible, in the state of turned on before she went back. Then that recorder would be collected the next day after school. Well, this one was done by a member of my class.”
…She was quite good.
I was surprised there was no video, but the audio alone should give her quite a bit of information. Class D was already in a state where they had to rework their participation table due to 3 people getting expelled, so nobody would think they would be wiretapped while they were doing that.
If things like the content of idle chats… the tactics of the class were included, it gave a different kind of benefit than simply receiving the image of the participation table. The fact it was really happening has been proven through the result of the sports festival.
However, one question remained.
“I understand your strategy for Class D. But what about Class C?”
“As for that… Horikita-san told me.”
I was surprised and turned to Kikyou-chan.
“…As I thought, she really betrayed the class.”
“You’re right. Morofuji-san told me that Horikita-san made a deal with Ryuuen-kun several days ago. As I heard that, I went to Horikita-san and ‘persuaded’ her. She changed her mind easier than I thought.”
“Aah, perhaps.”
“As expected of Kikyou-chan, you are amazing. I think it’s as you imagined, but I brought out her brother’s name. I told Horikita-san something like ‘Would student council president Horikita find a person like Ryuuen-kun favorable?’ I have no idea what kind of person her brother actually is, but Horikita-san seemed to idealize her brother.”
It was as Honami said, Horikita seemed to consider the student council president like a hero of justice.
She just one-sidedly decided that the student council president and Ryuuen wouldn’t get along. Rather, I think the student council president could get along well with victory supremacists like Ryuuen. Since the student council president could get along with Kiyotaka, I think they weren’t that bad compatibility-wise.
However, the current Horikita had a narrow field of vision. The fact that Ryuuen had an extremely bad reputation, she also couldn’t deny that some of his methods might be something her brother wouldn’t approve of. That said, if it was anyone else, Horikita might just respond with her usual prickly attitude, but she was confronting the god, Ichinose Honami. I was sure Honami gave her some sweet and kind words.
…I think the day Horikita converted into the Honami cult wouldn’t be that far into the future.
“I understand everything now, thank you.”
Still, that was an interesting story. Since it was true that Honami did well, I thanked her.
“Master, I love you…”
She gave me another misty look. Looking at it gave me a strange feeling…
Looking at Honami’s behavior, Arisu-chan was frightened from the beginning to the end.
After having Honami go home, the three of us decided to have dinner in our room.
Since the sports festival was over, Kikyou-chan would be staying with us practically every day from today onward.
“Hic… please don’t go anywhere else.”
Arisu-chan embraced me while half-crying. She must have worried that Honami might take me away from her.
“That girl is seriously dangerous. Perhaps she can only see Haruto-kun by now?”
“So you think that way after all?”
Kikyou-chan said so with a dejected look on her face.
Perhaps she had felt something during our interaction with Honami.
“She is a woman filled with kindness and that part doesn’t change… but how to say this, I think that nature is directed only at you now. Perhaps she doesn’t even think of me as a friend.”
“Eh, seriously?”
“That’s right. Her previous self wouldn’t be that indifferent to Arisu-chan, right?”
She’s right, I thought. In the first place, the beginning of our relationship was Arisu-chan playing using Honami… in which Arisu-chan chose Honami as a “performer” to keep me entertained instead of doing it herself. Naturally, it meant Honami had more communication with Arisu-chan than toward me, and in a sense, I was just a supporting role in that relationship.
But what about now? Earlier, Honami didn’t talk to Arisu-chan at all.
“Haruto-kun has become the center of Honami-san’s world. Her standard of good and evil got overwritten into whether you like it or not. Since my existence wouldn’t affect that, perhaps she just thought she was already done with me. Fufu, what an irony. To think the moment she lost interest in me, her purpose coincided with mine.”
Now that Honami was gone, Arisu-chan’s energy returned a little. It seemed it had already reached the level where Arisu-chan was not good at dealing with Honami. It was a complete reversal of their initial relationship.
…Done with Arisu-chan, was it? I didn’t think Honami was someone who had such cruel thoughts, though. Since it was something deep within her, I couldn’t deny if she unconsciously thought so, though.
“Even so, this is delicious.”
“Really~? That’s great… Even though I did practice recently, I couldn’t help but worry.”
Kikyou-chan cooked our meal for today. I really think she was the best kind of girl. I also felt it back at the sports festival, but her caring skill was too high. I couldn’t imagine life without Kikyou-chan. I liked her so much that I could no longer return to how it was. Now that it came to this, I could only make her stay with us forever.
She also got used to assisting Arisu-chan. Before I knew it, she could already do the laundry. I think even Arisu-chan, whose initial stance was ‘you may come whenever you like,’ wouldn’t let Kikyou-chan go even if Kikyou-chan said she wanted to part with us.
And now, she was about to catch our stomach. Before we knew it, Kikyou-chan became the top caste in this room.
“…Arisu-chan, you don’t have to worry about Honami too much. The most important thing for me is the time the three of us spent together. Sitting with family and enjoying a meal together, there’s nothing that makes me happier.”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I guess it’s a bad habit of mine to worry too much about everything.”
After we finished our meal, I brought the plates to the sink and started washing the dishes.
Since Kikyou-chan already made the meal, I wouldn’t be convinced unless I did this much.
I held a sponge in one hand and thought while washing the dishes.
For me, the girl named Kikyou-chan was becoming a special existence. If I didn’t have Arisu-chan as a lover, I was sure I would confess to her and develop a romantic relationship. That was how much I liked her and I was aware she liked me about the same. Now, it went beyond that… I could feel her love as ‘family.’
[“I’m sure you’ll be part of our family someday.”]
I had a flashback of what Arisu-chan said during the exam on the ship.
Kikyou-chan was running at a tremendous speed on the road that was presented to her that day. That goal was already close, or rather, since both Arisu-chan and I were already crazy about her, she might have run past the goal already.
Then what about Honami? What path should I suggest her to walk on?
It might be a bad way of putting it, but I was just taking an ambivalent attitude because I hated the trouble that occurred when I dumped her. To me, Honami was just at the level of “dog at a pet shop that I was considering whether to keep or not.”
…But to Honami, I was “someone she devoted her heart to.” It wasn’t like I regretted saving her that day, but I never imagined it would turn into this kind of trouble.
Aah, I guess I was just no good.
Although it was a fact that needed no confirmation after all this time, I thought about that once again.
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