novelThe Prologue of the Election Tournament (4)
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"Woow senpai, you are really beautiful you know? Fuffuffu."
"That's why, stop it with that [fuffuffu] already―. From a while ago I sensed S vibes from that smiling face of yours..."
Hoshikaze-senpai who wore the maid uniform on top of her fit-wear curled herself up with a boiling red face.
He felt something like [cute maid-san] from Mio and the others, but in the case of Hoshikaze-senpai, words like beautiful or lovely were suitable for her.
"A tall stature with crisp appearance, I can sense the [reliable maid-san] in senpai. No matter what kind of work, senpai looks like you'll be able to do it skillfully and briskly."
"Mou―, Hayashizaku-kun knows about it already right―. That I'm a really scatterbrained person."
"There is that kind of gap too, doesn't that make it even cuter?"
"Don't say I'm cutee―!" Hoshikaze-senpai waved her arms up and down angrily.
"Well then, let's go show this to everyone."
"Eee! No way, no way, I'd get laughed by Kaguya!"
"It won't be a punishment game if it's not seen by anyone. If it's the commemorative photo of me in female clothing, then senpai too will show it around to everyone right?"
"I will absolutely do it, but. But...I want to be Hayashizaki-kun's maid only..."
Senpai was looking at him with upturned eyes that were blurred with tears, she pleaded him with her hands lightly clasping her mouth and heartrending expression. Kazuki's heart suddenly felt tight.
"Please, in exchange I will listen to one thing that you say no matter what it is, so..."
"I, it can't be helped then. Then I won't show senpai to anyone else, senpai is a maid only for me."
"Thank you very much, Master! Master!!"
Hoshikaze-senpai that was overcome with emotion kneeled at Kazuki and called him Master repeatedly.
―Right there the door opened with a click and Koyuki showed her face.
Hoshikaze-senpai's whole body stiffened with a twitch and she was petrified.
Koyuki's knocking sound was reserved after all, so sometimes it was hard to hear.
Koyuki looked alternately at Hoshikaze-senpai who was kneeling in a maid uniform and Kazuki, "...coerced service..." with that her eyes turned extremely cold.
"Looks like you two are busy, I'm sorry. Stupid Kazuki."
The door closed with a bang, Koyuki had departed completely.
"Wait Koyuki-chan! You misunderstand, at least listen to the reason!!"
Hoshikaze-senpai chased her in a panic.
"Which reminds me, everyone frequently comes to this room freely."
It seemed to have something like a secret maid-san was impossible no matter what.
"Senpai, are you seriously planning to stay over in this room?"
"I'm planning to do that, but is it a bother for you I wonder? Look, I brought my pillow here!"
She took off the maid uniform when it was the time to sleep and went back to her fit-wear, senpai carried out her favorite pillow and showed it to Kazuki.
"Then please sleep on the bed, Senpai. I'm going to sleep on the floor."
"I'm thankful for you to say that, but...the truth is when I was waiting for you, I was secretly sniffing out the smell of your futon however."
"...What are you doing, that's really embarrassing."
"I am likewise not good with the smell of a boy. But different with directly sniffing a boy, when I sniffed your futon it was not scary but for some reason my heart started to beat fast and I couldn't calm down...that's why I'm sleeping on the floor!"
Hoshikaze-senpai fell over on the wooden flooring with a roll.
"But I wouldn't be able to calm down if it's only me that is sleeping on the bed while senpai sleep on the floor."
"Then let's sleep together in a huddle! If our bodies are not directly touching and get too close, I'll be okay!"
If she said so, Kazuki too threw himself down at the floor energetically.
The floor felt hard, but for some reason it reminded him of his time as a child.
"Doing something like this really makes you feel what close friends we are, right! That's right, from now on I'll call you Kazuki! Hehehe, Kazuki! Kazuki!"
While kicking around her legs on the floor, senpai faced him with a wide smiling face.
"Then, I'll call senpai as Hikaru-senpai, okay?"
If senpai was seeking for that kind of friendship, then Kazuki too had to answer that feeling of hers.
"Uu―n, you also don't need to call me senpai. But you care about that kind of thing, so it's fine!"
When Kazuki turned off the room's lights, senpai's tension was raising even further.
"Kazuki, who do you like the most among the girls in the Witch's Manor?"
"W, what are you saying all of a sudden? Is this the night of a school trip?"
"Come on, say it―, we are fellow men so it's fine right―. I'll keep it a secret from everyone―. Hey, say it―"
"I said it already that Hikaru-senpai is not a man!"
—————
Early morning, Kazuki and Hoshikaze-senpai woke up at completely the same time.
Their eyes met with a blink, senpai was laughing weirdly "Ahaha".
"Morning, Kazuki....Ahaha, we have to change for practice."
She stood up while smiling with a big grin, then senpai took off her spats smoothly.
The young and lustrous bottom of a girl that was radiantly white flew into his eyes from point-blank range.
Senpai was half-asleep. This too sudden development was impossible to Foresight even for Kazuki.
"Se, senpai!" He let out a loud voice after reflexively averting his eyes. However he noticed that this was still the time where everyone else was still asleep in the other rooms so Kazuki dropped his volume.
"...Please change in your own room, Hikaru-senpai's clothes are not here after all..."
"Eeeh? Now that you say it, this is my room yet why is Kazuki here?"
"This is my room you know...!"
He couldn't even chase Hikaru-senpai out, who had a man phobia forcefully, Kazuki accosted her with just his voice.
The rustling sounds of bra-tops being taken off was reaching the ears of Kazuki who was averting his eyes even further.
It was continuing, the sounds of the rustling clothes and the sound of searching in a drawer.
When he spontaneously directed his eyes to the sound's direction, Hoshikaze-senpai was wearing Kazuki's trunks.
"Senpai, please don't wear my pants!!"
"Sorry, Kazuki... I showed you something dirty."
"Dirty?"
"My ass..."
"No, it was beautiful though. It was very glossy."
What's with this conversation?
"By any chance, are you tired because you accompanied me the whole night yesterday?"
Hikaru-senpai who changed into a gym uniform for training said that in an introspective mood while walking in the corridor.
"There is no way it's like that. Playing and making a racket with senpai was fun after all."
"Really!? I'm glad~, because that was my first time to make merry with a friend of the same gender."
"I said we aren't the same gender already. Are you saying that on purpose to make me tsukkomi?"
"Ahaha. But as expected, we really look like the same gender when there is no hesitation between us like this."
Hoshikaze-senpai might have been starved for a relationship that could be called friendship for a long time.
The girls that yearned for her as the prince were a little different from a friend.
{...But it's quite concerning how you haven't obtained the key from her. }
Inside Kazuki's head, Leme was coming with telepathy.
Had she came back from Futsunushi no Kami's place? She was not at Futsunushi no Kami's domain for that long, however Kazuki was completely ignorant of whatever Leme was doing in Astrum.
When Leme was not materializing in this world, she had no connection with other Divas and she might be all alone by herself in Astrum for a long time. When he thought of that, a feeling that he must be more proactive toward girls was sprouting inside him.
Hoshikaze Hikaru―54. Regardless of the enjoyable time they spent from last night, the range of increase of senpai's positivity level, who held a man phobia in her heart, was slow.
{This number might be the limit of the good mood between the same gender from a close friendship. }
Kazuki's expression became clouded hearing Leme's words. When he saw Hikaru-senpai who was playing happily, a feeling of wanting to give senpai a good time even more as a friend was welling up inside him.
Was that pointless however? The bond that Leme was looking for, was it pointless if it was friendship...
Kazuki and Hikaru-senpai went out to the courtyard like that. The fresh air of the dawn made his chest feel a little light from the cloudy feeling inside. In the courtyard that was still dark, the figure of a person was waiting.
"...Hayashizaki, that, I also have something to talk about so I was waiting."
"Kazuha-senpai."
Now that he thought again, Kazuha-senpai also said before that she had something to talk about.
"So, what did senpai want to talk about?"
For the moment, Kazuki took a little distance from Hikaru-senpai so their talk couldn't be heard and asked Kazuha-senpai.
"You know...until now I said a lot of unpleasant things about you but, no, I actually don't like you but..."
While looking down and grumbling, Kazuha-senpai began the preface of what she wanted to talk about. However the positivity level from here was 29. It was by no means high, but the truth was that she didn't hate him deep inside.
"But I honestly respect you as a swordsman! That's why actually I too, want to learn kenjutsu from you!"
"We're on the same team anyway, naturally I don't mind. But is it okay for senpai with me?"
"At first I was trying to get Kohaku to teach me...but that person is not good whether in teaching something or going easy on someone, she was suddenly doing a real battle method and saying things like [I'm sorry] or [Forgive me] while slashing at me earnestly with her full power...I, it was scary. I saw a killing machine."
"She doesn't have any ill will and is clumsy but, that will only make senpai lose confidence won't it?"
"I think you are still better compared to that killing machine! Better, I mean...when you taught me before it was vexing but, what you said was accurate! You're fine already!!"
Had she already got a concrete result? Kazuha-senpai raised her voice in an excited mood.
"Also there is this feeling of playing an active role in the battle election and looking triumphantly to those guys in the Sword Division. At first I thought it's fine if I make a striking display with Futsunushi no Kami's power, but the rules forbid it so...if it keeps like this I will be made fun of by everyone..."
Kazuha-senpai who loved swords and made a contract with a Diva of the sword, her own skills in kenjutsu were immature, so it seemed she was made fun of in the Sword Division which held the doctrine of real strength.
In this battle election that was to be held in front of the students of the entire school, it was a chance to be triumphant over everybody.
...Kazuha-senpai kept saying things like Kazuki was an enemy of women, but Kazuki himself didn't dislike this senpai. Kazuha-senpai loved swords above all else, she was trying to crawl up from the very bottom.
Rather, the one who could get along with him the best, by some chance it might be this girl.
"Hikaru-senpai, is it okay for this senpai to join in our practice too?"
Kazuki called out to Hikaru-senpai who was doing calisthenics early in the place slightly separated from them.
Hikaru-senpai sent the bright smile of a prince in this direction. She looked dazzling with the morning sun as her background.
"Of course, I don't mind at all. Welcome."
Kazuha-senpai was staring fixedly toward that smiling face.
"Hayashizaki Kazuki....That person, she is just too cool, somehow I feel like shrinking in front of her though."
"But Hikaru-senpai, because of that coolness, has very few friends. That's why don't mind her appearance, please think of her as a normal girl and become her friend."
"I, is that so!? She is in [solitude] like me!?"
Kazuha-senpai stared at Hikaru-senpai with bright eyes that were filled with affinity.
"I am Hoshikaze Hikaru. Best regards."
"I, I am Tsukahara Kazuha! Please take care of me!"
Both of them approached each other and grasped each other's hands tightly.
| ← Ch. 063 | Ch. 065 → |