PuiPui:Volume1 Chapter1

Chapter 1

The spring breeze blew refreshingly over the wide river's surface. The wonderful month of April was ending, and warm sunlight was breaking the glass surface of the water, glittering and shining across it.

Along the bank, soft green grass swayed in the wind. On the road above, a high-class convertible sparkled in the light as it drove past.

In the back seat of the convertible, wearing the elite Harusha's Private Academy Uniform, sat class 1-2's Zadou Sierra. Her long hair fluttered in the spring breeze as she sat upright, looking like a glass statue with her hands placed softly above her lap. She was the daughter of a prominent family.

The driver wore a black jacket and had a hat pulled low over the eyes. Next to Sierra, a middle school girl sat with a tense facial expression.

"Si...Sierra-sama's car, it really does feel nice to ride in, doesn't it?"

"Of course. Is your leg injury okay yet?"

Sierra smiled sweetly. With a smiling face like a blooming flower, her inner friendliness, elegance and grace came forth.

"Yeah.....or rather, it's just a scrape...."

The school girl who had an adhesive bandage stuck to her knee lowered her gaze apologetically.

"Negligence is forbidden. I think if you overdo a little injury, it'll get worse and cause a bigger problem."

"B-but, because Sierra-sama took me, I feel sorry for everyone in class."

"Everyone in class?"

"Because, Sierra-sama is admired by everyone...."

"Okay, then please. Take it as this upperclassman's selfishness, will you let me take you?"

Sierra put both of her hands together, entreating the school girl to comply while staring fixedly at her. With a pop the girl's face turned red.

"Ah, Uhm, uhm, uhm, uhm...."

The clearly flustered school girl just shrugged her shoulders in embarrassment, finally answering in a small voice.

"Ye, Yes....please do."

"Good. Then, please just relax. Would you like a pastry?"

Sierra reached into a velvet box, pulling out a high-class chocolate truffle. The girl had the opposite reaction however, instead becoming more nervous as her face flushed a deeper red, while her heart beat tightly against her chest.

Sierra's car continued along the road, while on the embankment below.....Araki Jin in his school uniform, was lying down amidst the tall swaying grass. His clearly determined eyes and taut well-tanned skin gave off a sort of hot and dry impression, like that of the desert wind.

As Jin used his school bag as a pillow, he read an archaeology book held closely to his lips. It contained pictures of a clay tablet with wedge-shaped characters engraved on it.

Utada Yuuya, Jin's classmate, also sat nearby. His skin and hair were weak in color, while he had a thin, frail frame. He wore headphones over his ears, with his slender eyes narrowed as he absentmindedly listened to the music.

"Ah......it's the Zadou's car."

Sierra's car continued driving on, while Yuuya blinked in an unfocused manner, muttering in happiness.

"Aaah, such a secluded young woman......She lives on a completely different level in this world, and there are a great deal of people who want to confess to her, but she's like that flower on the top of a mountain, oh how bittersweet."

"Ehh. Beautiful flowers can grow from plants on high mountains."

Jin's gaze was directed at his book, so he only responded in a simple manner. Yuuya lifted his eyebrow like the katakana character "ha", and took his headphones off from his ears, resting it on his neck.

"Flower on a high cliff, you don't even get it! We're talking about Zadou Sierra here."

"The name of this flower sure sounds like a human."

"You're slow and you're only making a shallow point. Zadou is a beauty and a celebrity who's very kind, she's a flawless Ojou-sama. Everyday, guys at the academy talk about how they want to confess to her, but since they're too scared to confess, they can only admire her from afar. Isn't it unbelievable that you don't know her?"

"My shoulder's been hurting since yesterday. Wonder what I should do."

So, without caring, Jin rubbed his left shoulder. He hadn't listened at all to the speech; Yuuya was stunned.

"Someone's talking here! Besides it's because you read books all the time, that's why your shoulder's hurting. You're like an old man."

"It's near the collarbone, and it feels like there is a chestnut in there grinding heavily."

"That's an inflamed lymph node you know......hey, why are promising students like us talking about such a depressing topic?"

"Yesterday, my shoulder finally reached an intolerable level. It felt like parasites underneath my skin were eating my flesh."

"How can you say that with such a calm expression? Surely it's because they come from inside the books stacked around our room. Just joking, I've actually been hearing some rustling sounds at night as well. Don't you think it would be better if you went to the hospital?"

"Hnn......This cuneiform seems to be written in the Sumer writing style."

"You're not listenin' to me again!"

"If you do that, then these symbols make......S-L-M-N..........Solomon! Perhaps this clay tablet holds the key to 'Solomon's Treasure'?"

"What are you talking about Solomon's Treasure for?"

"I'm going back to my room, there's some stuff I want to check on."

Yuuya's words went unheeded as Jin stood up, grasped the book in his hands, and ran along the embankment path. Yuuya became confused as Jin had left his bag behind.

"Hey! Wait a minute! You forgot your bag!"

But Jin never heard those words. Half wanting to give up, Yuuya nevertheless picked up both their school bags, clutching them to his chest as he chased after Jin.

* * *

After returning, Jin had come one kilometer from the academy, to reach Harushiya Academy's male dormitory, "Tachibana". The two-story dormitory gave off an old and historic feel, as the roof was built with wooden roof tiles. The room was set up so that two people from the same year would board together. Jin and Yuuya were roommates.

Their room had two beds, an old-fashioned desk, and mountains of books burying cardboard boxes, so that there wasn't even any room to put one's feet. Digging into the mountain of boxes and books, Jin was searching for something.

"Well then......it must be buried somewhere around here."

"This is just like excavating."

Yuuya had just about given up, after going through and classifying a bunch of books underneath the two beds.

"Geez......this room should be a place to relax."

"Ah, found it. The reference book to the Sumer characters......"

Jin gave a big pull on one book in the center of the mountain of books. The mountain of books swayed and wobbled, before tumbling on top of Yuuya.

"Gaaaah! It's an avalanche of booooks!"

Underneath the two beds, books had piled up. Jin ignored the "Ah", and without doing anything special, expressionlessly pulled a book out from under one of the beds.

"Hey, are you alive?"

As he extracted the book, a cloud of dust was released. Crawling out from inside the dust cloud, Yuuya was coughing.

"Move it! By the way, where did all these boxes even come from! The only way they could have entered this dorm, is one by one."

Yuuya's body was still struggling with the dust. But as Yuuya was getting angrier, Jin, at his own pace, looked around the inside of the room without any emotion on his face.

"Even if you say that......all of these, are important reference books."

"Then you should at least organize them!"

"I don't know about that. You think after they're organized, they wouldn't fall around like this?"

"It wouldn't be this bad if you had organized them!"

In Yuuya's madness, he pushed Jin's face down into the bundle of books.

"I can't take it anymore! I can't live in a room like this!"

Yuuya picked up from the top of the desk, and held in his hand a small gadget......an MP3 Player, and after moving his headphones from around his neck, he stormed out into the corridor with heavy footsteps.

This normally calm and carefree guy, was seriously upset.

"I'm going to the lounge, so you have one hour to organize this room. If you don't, I'm going to take a bunch of your things that are against the dormitory rules to the dorm supervisor and have a nice chat with him."

"How can you even make that kind of horrible joke?"

"You think I care! Forget about that, and hurry up with the sorting!"

Slaam! Yuuya had forcefully closed the door behind him. A bit thickheaded, all Jin could do was tilt his head to the side.

"What a wierd guy. Why's he so mad?"

Jin lifted his gaze to the mountain of books. There was no way to clean all of this in an hour.

"Well......for now I'll just do what I can. If I'm kicked out of here, I don't have any place to go..."

Slowly, Jin began opening the cardboard boxes. Inside, there were things like Arabic newspapers, clay pots, and fragments of pottery. Looking at all of that, Jin began to feel very tired.

"Haah. So Dad and the others didn't even try to organize any of it......Anyway, I'll start by separating things I need and don't need, and then I'll throw out the junk......"

Jin took out the newspapers from inside the boxes, spreading them out in stacks and tying them with cord into bundles. However, even while steadily tying the newspapers into increasing bundles, the cardboard boxes did not seem to be diminishing. Even before he started with this tedious work, Jin had already been somewhat tired.

"......Geez, why do I have to keep doing this?"

Jin kicked a nearby box into the air. After the cardboard box collapsed on landing, the contents spilled out into the room. Amongst the fragments of broken earthenware and bricks, there lay a dull golden shining object. The strange metallic vessel looked like a water kettle with an attached leg.

* * *

Around the same time, Sierra had gone to the woman's dormitory, called "Sakura Dormitory," to drop off the middle school girl, following which she returned to her home.

Sierra's house was located in a very exclusive residential area, and was quite noticeably a large, stately mansion. Ten-thousand square meters had been used as the site for the construction of the large home. To the back of the property, there was a large tennis court, pool, and even a rose garden where exquisite flowers were blooming.

The automatic gate opened with the approach of the car. Just then, from within the mansion ten maids came flying out, rolling out a red carpet in welcome.

"A most welcome return, Ojou-sama!"

The employee's in the mansion, were all live-in workers. The maids wore lengthy, deep blue apron dresses, with black tights, and wore loafers for footwear, while a headdress was affixed to the hair......the maid's uniform was old-fashioned and quite reserved. Busting around the car as Sierra exited, they took her school bag.

"Now then, I will put the car into the garage. Until next time."

The driver bowed his head deeply. Giving an elegant smile, Sierra also bowed her head.

"Okay, Nicolai. Thank you for your hard work every day."

"Not at all. It is for Ojou-sama's sake."

The driver then took the car, and brought it into the spacious garage by the side of the mansion. In the garage, some ten other high grade automobiles were there. As Sierra walked atop the red carpet, the maids followed, rolling up the carpet as they went. The maids were all addressing Sierra in unison.

"You must be quite tired. Would you like an afternoon snack?"

"Thank you. I am alright for now."

"Is there any homework that you may have?"

"For home economics, my homework is to hand in an embroidered handkerchief."

"Understood. Then we shall call the world class designer from Paris shortly."

"Paris......that reminds me, how is Mother?"

Just then Sierra was passing through the entrance way to the mansion. The entry hall also had red carpeting, reaching up to the large stairwell. Along either side of the red carpet, another twenty maids and employees were lined up.

"A most welcome return, Ojou-sama!"

Said within the interval of a second, there had been no one off mark, as the twenty people spoke and bowed their heads in unison. After ascertaining that her mother was not within the arrayed group, Sierra inquired again.

"Marie. Is Mother still shopping in Paris?"

"She isn't. Today she went to watch an opera......she took the private jet when she left."

The head maid Marie Savant was respectfully bowing her head. Older than the other maids, she still had the appearance of being in her twenties, and her movements had the standard elegance of an Englishwoman, with no flaws in their perfection.

"What about Father?"

"He is in his room."

"I see. He's probably busy earning "money" again."

Huffing, Sierra took a deep breath. Within a moment, her expression returned to that of a big smile. However, Marie didn't miss the change......realizing, but pretending not to have noticed, she maintained a poker face with her response.

"Ojou-sama, would you like to have some afternoon tea?"

"Eh?......no, why do you ask me?"

Not sure why Marie would want her to take tea, Sierra could only tilt her head to the side in puzzlement. Seeing the maids off, Sierra started up the great staircase. At the top of the large staircase, the driver from earlier was waiting, and having taken off the black coat and hat, he was now wearing a tailcoat.

"A most welcome return, Ojou-sama."

He, Nicolai Pavurof, was the Zadou House's Butler. Even though he was a butler, he was only in his twenties, and had an appearance that was tall and thin, with firm shoulders. He gave off an icy feel with his glinting blue eyes, and platinum blond hair.

Standing atop the staiwell, Nicolai had not missed observing Sierra's thoughts, and had seen her hasty smile.

"Ojou-sama. Are you at all tired?"

"No, but I should be saying that to you......I apologize for having you make another stop today. Looking after Father's health must also be very busying."

"Not at all. Being a driver is a job that I enjoy very much after all."

As Sierra was heading towards her room, Nicolai followed along at her pace. Sierra's emotions were weaving.

"Why are you following, Nicolai?"

"I had assumed it was Ojou-sama's intention that I should follow."

"I didn't really mean that......"

"Ah......then I deeply apologize. It's a course of upbringing."

Nicolai, in a small movement, quickly bowed his head.

"By the way, Ojou-sama......would you like some Russian Tea?"

"Marie also tried to give me some tea. Do you really want me to drink tea that much?"

"April's winds are still known to be quite cold."

Nicolai had tried to modestly hide from view his facial expression. However, Sierra had noticed his worry for her.

"That's true. Well then......I will gladly have some."

Sierra's expression changed. After confirming that, Nicolai bowed his head very deeply.

"Well then, I shall put the charcoal in the Samovar Teakettle."

With that, Sierra turned back to her room.

The room was like an ultra high class Hotel Suite in all its splendor. It had a bedroom and a living room, where in the bedroom was a queen sized bed with a canopy, while in the living was there were three one-hundred inch plasma screen TV's. One was for television, another for games, and the third was for videos.

Sierra tossed herself down on the sofa in front of the TV, starring absent-mindedly up at the ceiling. It was boring, with nothing to do. She thought about how she hadn't seen her parent's faces all week.

"Father, Mother......"

Facing up, she realized she was crying. Sierra quickly sat upright on the couch, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.

Suddenly, something strange happened. Looking at her hand, Sierra noticed an unfamiliar white glove.

"Huh? When......did I, put on a glove?"

At that instant, Sierra's entire body was swallowed by a golden light.

Nicolai, with a silver Samovar teakettle from the Romanov Dynasty, and a porcelian teaset, was pushing them down the corridor on top of a cart.

"Ojou-sama, excuse my impoliteness."

Nicolai knocked on Sierra's door. But, no reply came.

"......Ojou-sama. Sierra Ojou-sama?"

He called again, but there still was no reply. Pushing gently, he opened the door. Inside the room, strewn about atop the sofa, was a school uniform and a pair of shoes. It looked as if a body had simply vanished from within the clothes, while in the middle of sleep.

"It seems the uniform was removed. Well, that must mean......"

Nicolai turned his gaze to face the inner shower room. His normally stark white face, turned bright red.

"M, My most humblest of apologies!"

Nicolai hurriedly flew back into the corridor. He had thought Sierra was taking a shower. Rushing out, he caught his foot on the cart, smacking his face on the cart as he collapsed.

"......Mister Pavlov, what are you doing?"

In the middle of patrolling the mansion to supervise the maids in their work, Mary had stopped to inquire while glancing down suspiciously at Nicolai, who looked like a car-squashed frog lying on the floor. Sierra was nowhere to be found.

* * *

Sierra, was in an unfamiliar room.

Dust was piled on a great deal of old books, and there were boxes of bowls and heaps of newpapers.

"Wha, what is this....some kind of warehouse? How did I, come to this kind of place?"

"Y....you, who are you?"

Sierra turned her suprised eyes towards the bewildered voice. She was met with flashing eyes, which belonged to Jin. In front of him, a dull golden container in the shape of a water kettle tumbled away.

"Y, you're, Araki Jin! Why, are you here?"

"Why you ask, this is my room!"

"Eh....your room? W, why....?"

"By the way, how come you know my name?"

"What was that? We're in the same class, so it's obvious right?"

"Eh....the same class?"

"No way, you don't know me? Me?"

"I transferred here from another high school, that's why."

"That's not the problem! April is over and yet you still don't know the names of the girls in your same class? I mean, why does someone not know me in the academy?"

Sierra angrily slapped her hand against her hip, then suddenly narrowed her eyes.

"......Ah, I see. This must mean, your eyes are bad? I thought it was strange. It's because you can't see me, that's why you're not making a fuss. Then it's agreed."

"Nope. Both my eyes are one/five."

"Hah? What's that, I don't believe it!"

"Why when my eyes are so good, are you getting so mad. By the way, who are you really?"

"They're plain clothes, but when you look at this uniform, you still don't understand?"

"Uniform? It's okay but, our school prohibits part-time work."

"Part-time work? You, ever since before you've been saying things that I don't understand."

"But, isn't that an Akiba Maid uniform?"

"Maid you say!? Saying that I would every be a maid, is the biggest insult ever! Now apologize!"

Angrily facing Jin, Sierra glanced at her hands, and was shocked. On her hand, she was wearing a white glove. Realizing something also felt different about her hair, Sierra lifted her hand to the top of her head. A lace headress was pinned in her hair.

"W......what is this?"

Losing her calm, Sierra looked down at her body. She was wearing a mini apron dress, with long knee socks. There was also a mini skirt, just revealing her white bottom. Normally Sierra was a very conservatively dressed Ojou-sama. So wearing the mini skirt, she blushed deep scarlet. She tried to pull tighter with both hands, and managed to conceal her bottom a bit more.

"What's......with these clothes! Why am I wearing maid clothes!?"

"Idiot, you're too loud! After coming here, do you want everybody around to see you?"

"Besides caring if someone sees, why am I even here, I have no idea how I got here myself!"

"Stop yelling so loud! In this dorm, the rules are that no girls or pets are allowed. If they find you, I'll get evicted."

"Myse....don't compare myself to an animal! I didn't realize until just now, but I've had enough of your impoliteness!"

"I said your voice is too loud!"

"Could I request of you a little manners?"

"I'm begging you, please lower your voice."

"Will you do something for me?"

"If I can do it."

"Then die apologizing!"

"Sorry but, I think that exceeds the limits of what I'm capable of."

Jin said this in a harsh voice, devoid of emotion.

"Anyway, before somebody sees you, hurry up and get out of here."

"Until you die apologizing, I'm not moving."

Sierra had seated herself in traditional Japanese style, with her face looking straight.

"Geez, seriously just give me a break."