Chapter 5
“...Eh? You mean you weren’t already
dating...?”
This is shortly after our last chapter.
After they both arrived at the school, they
were now sitting in the room of the year one A class of the Taiju Private
Academy High School.
“I can’t believe it. You were all over each
other all the time and you weren’t even dating? That’s really so ambiguous.
Even kindergarteners these days make more progress than that.”
The person questioning Sakura was Nagasawa
Takumi, her elbows propped on the desk and her face showing open amazement, she
was a friend of Sakura since they had started the school this spring.
“You can put it like that, but I couldn’t help
it,” Sakura pouted and continued, “You know how you lose the sense of distance
when you’ve been with someone for too long? That’s basically what happened with
me and Hikaru.”
“No, sorry but I really don’t know that
feeling.”
It was before homeroom had begun and the room
was filled with the buzz of conversation.
Takumi’s voice was filled with surety as she
nibbled at her yakisoba bread, bought for after her morning training.
“I’d stake my claim on the boy I liked and
wouldn’t let him go no matter what. I would’ve used anything I could think up
to make sure he was mine.”
“Ah well, that’s because you’re a man-eater,
Takumin…”
“This has nothing to do with being a man-eater
or wallflower. If you were serious about something you desired, isn’t it
natural to not care about appearances and go for the catch.”
Nagasawa Takumi was a member of the volleyball
club.
She looked strong, intense and
dominating──even if her argument was sound, she was too blunt and went right
for the jugular. Compared to her, Sakura seemed rather mild.
“But ya know, this Oogami Hikaru guy, I
haven’t really chatted with him much, but isn’t he like, really weird?”
Takumi asked, finishing off her yakisoba bread
and moving on to the curry bread.
Her appetite was congruent with her towering
170 cm of height and position in a sports club.
“Out with it, Sakura, just what part of him do
you like?”
“Eh?”
“You were confessed to, proposed to even, and
finally started dating, right? And haven’t you loved him for the whole sixteen
years you’ve known each other?”
Takumi nodded towards the boy in question,
also in the same class, was sitting and having an amiable chat with a friend.
“Since I just recently got to know you two, I
really don’t know what’s so good about him, so why don’t you tell me instead?”
Takumi, being a man-eater and a sporty girl,
was direct with everything. If she had something to say, she would say it. If
she wanted to ask something, she would ask. And yet, she wouldn’t make people
around her feel bad either.
People were surprisingly accepting of her
innocent frankness.
“Eh~? No no no no…”
Sakura became bashful. Though she was bashful,
at the same time, she was smiling ear to ear.
After all, her long cherished wish had been
realised. Never had she actually expected Hikaru, someone who never stood out,
to be the one to confess. The extent of her delight could be understood just
from the fact that the first thing she did when she got here was telling Takumi
all about what happened.
In other words, Sakura was in full merry mode,
unlike her usual tsundere self.
“I mean… to begin with, isn’t he just so
cool?”
“Cool, huh?”
Takumi looked towards Hikaru, at his laughing
figure as he chatted with his classmate.
A carefree face, an average height and an
average body.
He was a normal high school boy, to say the
least. One you certainly wouldn’t call cool at a glance.
“...What part of him?”
“Eh? I mean, like, his eyes, his lips, and the
air around him. His very existence is cool.”
“His very existence, huh?”
Takumi was sports-minded, but she had a good
head on her shoulders.
In fact, she was even assigned in the A class
of the private Taiji academy, this was the university admission course, and she
was a man-eater girl that excelled in both the literary and military arts.
And taking all that into account, her final
judgement after much thought was:
“No, sorry. I really can’t see it.”
“Eh, really? But well, I’m fine with it even
if it’s just me who sees his good points. Plus I’m gonna be having another
rival if you were to awaken to his charm, Takumin.”
“Nope. That’s not happening.”
“Eeh? I see, so you don’t understand it at
all. Heeh.”
Sakura grinned in self-satisfaction.
She was acting flippant due her freshly formed
relationship.
Takumi hunched her shoulders in annoyance.
“Okay, I got it. Tell me more concretely about
this charm of his. If he satisfies my criteria, I’ll try to steal him with all
my power.”
“Eh, wha-, gimme a break! You sound like you
are really gonna do it, Takumin…”
“Nevermind that and tell me already, since you
are bragging so much already.”
“Eeh? I didn’t mean to do that.”
Ehehehe, Sakura’s expression loosened without helping.
“For example… Hikaru is very nice.”
“As I said, be more concrete. How exactly is
he nice?”
“Err… This is just an example, just an
example, okay?”
“Kay.”
“Even if the goddesses were trying to court
him, he still wouldn’t cross that final line, or something.”
“Right.”
Takumi answered with a complex expression, as
if she was listening to Swahili.
“...I don’t really get it, but where is his
kindness in that?”
“Eh, he is. The goddesses are really cute, you
know? Honestly, if I was a man, I’d jump on them right away, okay? But Hikaru
knows I would hate that, so he isn’t going all the way with them.”
“...And you call that kindness?”
“It is kindness! And it’s also part of his
greatness!”
“It’s not great at all, and I don’t understand
what you mean. And you two just started dating, didn’t you? How is it a
kindness to not cross that final line for some girl that he wasn’t even dating
yet. Also, what the heck do you mean by the goddesses?”
“It was just a hypothetical.”
“I don’t get it. Talk about his charm in some
other way.”
“Err, then… He is manly.”
“Manly?”
Takumi glanced at Hikaru, and if she had to
say, his body looked on the weaker side, and had a tender expression.
To be more specific, she could even see him as
“a high priest that had reached enlightenment.”
“Nope, I don’t get it. Manly? Which part?”
“Well, you might not see it from his
appearance. Takumin, you don’t know much about him yet. It’s about what’s
inside, you know, inside.”
“Please be more specific.”
“Err, okay so another hypothetical.”
“Okay.”
“Even if he is approached by the goddesses and
has lewd things done to him, he still protects his chastity in the end.”
“Sorry, Sakura. Can you speak in Japanese
please.”
“Eeeeh? But protecting his chastity is really
hard, you know? It’s the goddesses we are talking about here. That’s a really impressive
feat. Takumin, you would understand it if you actually met those goddesses.”
“No, that’s never gonna happen… Well, fine. I
more or less got the idea.”
Takumi said in consent while calming her down.
“In short, it’s basically what they call ‘love
is blind,’ isn’t it? Love is blind, so after you fall in love everything looks
nice.”
“Ehh? No, that’s not it! I at least have an
eye for guys, okay?”
“That doesn’t sound so convincing… This is the
first time I’ve heard something so unconvincing, actually.”
“Eehh?”
“Anyway, what I understood is that you’re
pretty unlucky.”
Takumi said in conclusion, which, in turn made
Sakura pout with a dissatisfied face.
“It really feels so wasteful. The two of you
don’t really balance the scales well, honestly speaking. There aren’t that many
girls as cute as you, Sakura.”
“Me? No no, that’s definitely not the case.”
“Are you an idiot? You can’t deceive my eyes.
You are definitely a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Supporting her chin with her hand, she pointed
at Sakura.
“Those unfashionable braids, that bulky
glasses and knee-length skirt──if you singled out those parts, you are the very
image of unfashionable, but…”
“But?”
“You have a big chest, and long legs. A small
face and a straight back. You are most definitely in the top of the caste. Even
if you keep up the appearances on the outside, you can’t fully hide that aura
that’s seeping from you.”
“Well, yea! It’s actually like that! Sorry
that I’m so cute!”
“...I just pointed it out, but you suddenly
got really into it. That somehow pisses me off.”
“I mean, since you’ve found me out, there’s no
point in hiding it anymore.”
“Well, right. So why are you hiding it? It’s
not because you can’t be bothered with fashion, is it?”
“Mmm, well, you see…”
Sakura directed her sight at Hikaru.
Her childhood friend was still engaged in a
friendly chat with his classmate.
It was the face that she had gotten used to
seeing for over ten years by now.
Yet it was also the face that she would never
get tired of looking at.
Sakura’s expression slackened without
realising.
When she had that face, she looked so lovely
she rivalled even a goddess.
“...Isn’t it fine to just show your good parts
to the person you like?”
“Oh?”
“Or rather, I only want to show it to him.
It’s a bit different from the sense of virtue, and I come of as old-fashioned,
even if I say so myself. But I don’t want to show it to anyone, my true self
that is. After all, the only guy I care about is Hikaru.”
“Mhm-mhm.”
“That and, you know, that gap moe? or
something they often talk about? If you act a bit unfashionable normally, it
will have a bigger impact when the time comes. If me and Hikaru go on a date,
I’ll be going all out with my clothes then.”
“I see, I see.”
“Also, it’s the same for you, but nor does
anyone else really understand his charm, right? That’s why, I think it’s fine
even if I’m not too careful, or more like, I don’t have to approach him so
aggressively… And then all my calculations went out of the window when those
goddesses appeared. Hikaru is fawning over them now, and all that reincarnation
of Odin and stuff suddenly appeared too… But well, we were able to start dating
without a problem, so I guess you could call it a windfall or super-luck.”
“Sorry. I don’t really understand what you
started saying all of a sudden.”
“Ah, sorry, I’m just talking to myself. Well,
anyway, you get the point. If I use my killer move everyday its effect will
fade away, and if I’m too reserved, it’ll have an opposite effect too.”
“Heeh…”
Takumi looked at her as if appraising her.
And then she suddenly grinned and said.
“I see. I got the general idea.”
“I see. I got the general idea.”
“Ah, really? You got what I mean?”
“Sakura, you really are an earnest and a good
girl.”
“Ehehe. Right? Right?”
“And you are quite clever, too. I see you in a
better light now.”
“Yup, yup. Isn’t that right?”
“But you are the type that gets used by boys
as they please. If you felt like it, you could get any boy you like, but to be
doing the opposite… what an unfortunate girl.”
“Hey, stop… I’m a bit self-conscious about
that part.”
Sakura prostrated herself on the desk with a
groan.
That action looked lovely even for Takumi who
was of the same sex.
If you had to sum it up, she was a hidden
unfortunate beauty.
Also, she didn’t say it on purpose──if she had
to be honest, it wasn’t just Takumi who realised it. The fact that Sakura was
simply feigning her appearance.
Unfashionable braids, bulky glasses and
knee-length skirt. It wasn’t something that could be hidden by those things
alone. Takumi had many times been a witness of how the boys that were full of
desires sent passionate gazes at her. Or rather, Takumi was also included among
them.
After all, Sakura had a very erotic body.
And Sakura who was only interested in Hikaru
wasn’t aware of that fact in the slightest.
She was acting like a tactician, but her own
defenses were weak. She was full of gaps and wasn’t going anywhere with her
methods.
But that was fine.
“Maybe I should snitch a bit of you before you
get eaten up by Oogami Hikaru…”
“Eh? Did you say something, Takumin?”
“It’s nothing. I was just saying that you’d be
a perfect girl if only you had eyes for guys.”
“Hey, that’s a misunderstanding, I said! I do
have proper eyes for guys!”
Such was their little exchange in the corner
of the classroom that no one spared a glance to.
The relationship between the unfashionable
girl and the bisexual man-eater had just only begun.
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