Horizon:Volume 1 Chapter 07

Chapter 07: Philosophers Atop the Stairs

If there is a person who should be able to speak.

Speak of a person who should speak.

Speak together of the person who should speak.

Point Allocation (Dissertation)

●

"Alright, with that, we will be having the special Student Council and Chancellor's Board meeting."

A boy's voice was brought to life at a high position. Atop a wooden bridge under the sky, which was slightly past noon.

On the frontal bridge of Ariadust Academy in Musashi's Center Trailing Ship - Okutama, atop the stairs which descended towards the front door, figures clad in uniforms were numerous.

The companions, Toori being at the center, were Kimi and Tenzou as well as Shirojiro and Heidi. The boy who had let forth the voice from just now, Neshinbara, while tapping on the Torii-design keyboard which was displaying in the air-

"The meeting topic of today is: 'Let's make Aoi-kun's confession succeed! meeting." This is brought to you with the sponsorship of me, Neshinbara, the secretary--Everyone, you can just slam him however you like you know? Then, Aoi-kun, it's all yours."

"Mmm, if we suddenly just think about the ratings, it'd be more interesting if I get rejected, right?"

"Is that what the person himself says from the beginning!?"

'Aah?' Toori glanced around at everybody-

"The hell is this, all of you!? Can't I be rejected!? I get it. That's th-the repression of results-oriented behaviour isn't it!? Faced with that kind of society who doesn't acknowledge a guy who's down on his luck, I want to firmly object! Is that alright?--Don't think that anybody can get married, alright!? You too! And you too!!"

Everybody held down Toori, who had started pointing at people returning home as a result of his rampage, and stopped him. Sanyou, who had been pointed at approximately the fifth time had run away while crying, but everyone was unable to follow-up until that point.

Anyways, Toori, who had been made to sit, took a breath and looked at Tenzou, sitting next to him, who was wearing a ninja cap. And-

"Hey, Tenzou, fundamentally, how does somebody confess? In terms of number, you're pretty used to it right?"

"Ri-right now, I have been rejected a lot, you know!? It is that way, you know!?"

"It's fine, just try saying it."

"Mmm', Tenzou folded his arms and nodded. Afterward, he raised his right index finger-

"Suddenly confessing, being completely honest, is the admirable road. No matter who it is, they have the thing called preparation of the heart; Toori-dono, in the morning, if a girl you do not know is standing in front of your house and you are told 'I love you,'--wouldn't that be amazing! --You do not need it! Preparation of the heart, you do not need it!"

"Yes. However, if that girl was Tenzou, I'd be pretty disgusted. After you stand in front of my house for the sake of confessing to me, nervously hoping, I'd run away before your sanity level drops. Without a doubt."

"You're horrible!!"

"--Hey, this is the opinion of the secretary. The two of you, take this seriously!"

At the voice of Neshinbara, continuing to tap at the keyboard, taking down the meeting log, the two folded their arms.

After a while, once again, Tenzou raised his right index finger-

"...This is one, how would a 'letter operation' be?"

Tenzou took out a pen and notepad from his chest.

'What?' at the destination of everyone's gazes, Tenzou passed the pen and notepad to Toori's hands.

"Would that be alright? When confessing, a person will always get flustered. For example, you thought you were saying 'I love you,' but you panic and, 'I love your man!' explodes out, or if you seriously stutter and 'I w-wuvee you!' bursts out, or if you force yourself to do it cheerfully 'Watashiii loooveess kimiiiii yoou knowwww---!?';you will say one of those kinds of fail honest confessions."

"You really have a lot of experience. You're reassuring, but be a little tolerant, since you're a ninja."

"Lectured! In this kind of timing, I was lectured!"

"Don't worry about it, Tenzou, or rather, what does this notepad and pen have to do with your happy failure stories?"

'Ah', Tenzou cracked his finger.

"It is simple-Write down what you want to tell her in advance, and in place of a confession put that into a letter and hand it to her."

"Mmm', Tenzou nodded.

"If you do so, it has absolutely no relationship with getting flustered, and if you are embarrassed, it is fine if you return home just like that. Furthermore, if it ends without the other person responding immediately, even a response by letter is good, so it is thoroughly caring--"

"Hey, hey, are the failure stories of getting rejected by that method going to start now? It's a good atmosphere right now!"

"I-I am sorry! The atmosphere has become awkward!"

However, Toori looked at the memopad, and he said 'But, y'know' to Tenzou. "Y'know', he introduced further-

"In short, write how I fell in love with the other person on this?"

"Well, officially a piece of paper, but it should be fine to summarize what you think up here."

"Mmmmm...Don't really want to do it. Y'know why? This kind of, workings of the emotions of love or hate, it can't really be put into words well, can it?"

Responding to those words was not Tenzou. It was Kimi, curling her body up against the railing of the bridge. While her hair fluttered in the wind, she looked at Toori-

"Fufufu, idiot brother, there's no good way to put emotions, things like love or hate, into words? What a cute line. If that's so, as a test, try to write down what you dislike about the eroge-ninja."

"No Sis, things like what I dislike about my friend, there's no way I could put that into words well, can I?"

● As for what I think about how he is as a human, hiding his face all the time, I can't put it into words very well.

● I wonder whether using 'gozaru' as a sentence ending is meant to be a gag, but I can't put it into words very well.

● I really wish he'd do something about the fact that sometimes a smell like the smell of a dog comes from his clothes, but I can't put it into words very well.

"Like I thought, it's something that I can't really put into words, the bad areas of my friend."

"Yo-you just wrote it down without any trouble! You did! And in bullet points!"

"Hmm? That's weird. I can't write anything about your good areas though. ファー..."

"The hell is 'ファー...'! This guy is the worst!!"

Tenzou grabbed Toori's collar and shook him, but Toori continued smirking. As if in his place, Kimi peeled her body from the railing and stood behind Toori-

"Fufufu, idiot brother, putting that aside, haven't we been able to practice at a good stepping stone? If that's so, try writing down the good areas of the she who is inside your heart."

"Eeh? Again, Sis is asking me to do a really difficult thing. Tenzou's hateful areas are direct, as in already apparent, so I can do it easily, but she is--that's right, it's the heart, you know!? The heart! Do you think that the workings of my pure soul can be easily put into words well!?"

● That her face rather fits my tastes is something that I can't put into words very well.

● That I can peek at the part inside her apron, what looks like panties, from the fringe when she squats is something I can't put into words very well.

● That the lines at the area from her waist till her butt are amazing is something that I can't put into words very well.

"Mmm, like I thought, my pure soul is something that I can't put into words very well."

"--Th-this is really specific! Yet it is practical!"

"Don't be so noisy, Tenzou. If I were to seriously get specific, it wouldn't end with just this...!"

"Wait, waitwait...those bullet points, for Toori, an important thing is missing."

The person who formed those words was a massive figure seated two steps down, the half-dragon Ulquiaga.

Bending his arms, which were also frontal wings, he rubbed his chin with the small hand within the wing-

"As far as I can see...there is a mystery to Toori's affection."

"Eh? There's something missing from Toori-kun's practical affections?"

At Heidi, who asked that, 'Yeah', Ulquiaga nodded. And, he-

"--Why has this citizen of the boob camp not mentioned anything about boobs directed to the other person?"

At Ulquiaga's words, everyone drew a breath of surprise and looked at Toori.

In the surroundings, even the students going home from school slightly stopped the movements of their bodies in response to the words just now.

"Have I, by any chance become the authority of that path?"

While speaking, Toori nodded with a serious face. And when he slowly sucked in a breath, his expression stilled and he began to run his pen down the paper-

"I have done it. In short--If I do not try to/Fondle those breasts which she holds/I won't understand."

"Don't just read the first line of a poem indifferently!!"

At everyone's tsukkomi, Toori frowned. 'Hey you guys, you know,' he folded his arms.

"What should I do for the word about the seasons?"

"Fufufu, idiot brother, just now, I just shuddered from the beauty in your simplicity. However-"

Kimi sat next to Toori. And, she rested her chin on her folded knees-

"However, what's the reason for you not bringing up the boob topic at the teenagers' discussion place of your confessee's charm."

"Sis, right now I'm just like the song of yearning for boobs which I wrote. I haven't fondled them so I don't know."

"Fufufu, in short--when it comes to boobs, you can't really judge them? How honest!"

'Aah', the little brother who answered raised the hand which was holding his sisters'-

"Even if I look like this, I'm serious! I won't just say anything I want!"

"...That this brother and sister's heads are weird might not matter, but this act of calling out boobs repeatedly these few minutes is unmistakeably going over the yearly usage limit."

"Fufufu, loser ninja, please shut up. However, idiot brother, even if it's just like your song, isn't it something that you can understand from looking at it roughly? The appearance of someone like Asama's is roughly the same."

The instant Kimi spoke, a window on the third floor of the school building behind them opened. It was the window of a classroom that was being used for the activities of the tea ceremony club.

"Hey! Don't just do body trivia of people as you feel like it! Things like it's around the same, or the appearance is around the same!"

"That's right! Asama's aren't like they appear! Within the sphere a little--"

"Uwa, saying that like a sommelier is the worst--! Wai-don't move from there!! My bow! MY BOW!!"

"Hey, hey, has the tea ceremony club recently started archery?"

Faced with Toori, who had taken out a writing implement and had began to write '100 points' on the top part of the ninja cap on Tenzou, who was sitting next to him, his sister tilted her neck.

"Anyways idiot brother, let's keep the serious talking till that point and continue with the thing about you--As the goods and bads of the boobs of the confessee cannot be judged by visual information, if after you started going out if you understand that 'this wouldn't have done' from a sommelier point of view, what are you going to do? You have to test once, don't you?"

"Test? Test what?"

"--Plead to an owner of boobs close to the one of the confessee, and it's definite that she'd let you fondle them, isn't it?"

Simultaneous with Kimi's words, atop the bridge and even the schoolyard below it, people evacuated from within a thirty-meter radius. Girls from the start; boys also hid their chest and briskly walked away penguin-like.

Atop the bridge which had become silent, Toori looked at her sister-

"Sis, you're amazing! You're smart but aren't you an idiot!?"

"Fufu, idiot brother, the things that a genius thinks about cannot be understood by anyone but the genius herself. Loneliness is wonderful! Then, what kind of feeling do your confessee's give? Which of the three selections from HARD/NORMAL/EASY, or is it HELL!?"

"Mmm, it's rather advanced, so I can't say it simply, but--fairly HARD, I think."

"You are saying it unreasonably simply, you know!"

"Fufu, fairly hard, huh.　In other words, that it's thin..."

Kimi looked around the area. Focusing on the few people on the stairs-

"I see, Adele or Suzu or Sanyou-sensei maybe?"

"Sis! Sis! Having a teacher also included in your list of names, do you have no differentiation!?"

"Fufufu, idiot brother, your sister is not a person who chooses the measures. I don't choose the goal either, though. For now, just think about the groping! Only fondlいる! But well, other than that, it's that or this..."

"--? What are you doing sitting here?"

As if interrupting Kimi's words, a voice sounded from the school building.

Turning around, from the entrance of the school building, two figures were coming. The first was a stooped-

"President Sakai..."

At everyone's voice, calling out, Sakai raised his hand with a 'Yo'. And the other person, walking besides Sakai, was a girl shouldering an enormous leather bag on her left and right shoulders. A girl who had at the top of her rather tall body a large, silver fringe and sharp, golden eyes. And, the name of she, who was shaking the large bundles of the hair at her back, rolled into circles-

Kimi called.

"Mitotsudaira. Are you descending to Mikawa with President Sakai?"

●

At that question, she, Mitotsudaira shook her head with a small motion. Narrowing her sharp eyes-

"There is no way that I, a knight charged with a Matsudaira branch family, would go to Mikawa, which are creating gifts for P.A. ODA, is there? Just, as the relationship of my authority as a branch family member, this is because a document of certification is needed for President Sakai, who is descending."

Toori turned his smile to Sakai, who had said, 'Well, that's how it is,'

"Grand head, are you going even till the center of Mikawa, Nagoya? You sure were given permission."

"It's 'cause a companion from long ago called me out--It's been ten years. He's probably changed a lot, so when I've had something to drink with him I'll be returning. There's been bad rumours about the Mikawa of recent times due to the closed state they're in, so if I stay long I'll be eyed by the Testament Union, y'know."

The moment Sakai spoke till that point. Shirojiro raised his hand.

"President Sakai, we're paying for the trip, so could you take a look at the flow of money for me?--This is about the Mikawa of this year, but for some reason, mostly without buying materials from us, all they've been doing is selling. Because an even larger amount of sale notices were given before we entered port, it's an arrangement where currently, the importers are squabbling over warehouses."

"Earlier, Lord-sensei was talking about 'fireworks' though. I wonder if this has something to do with that."

"I wonder', Shirojiro said, and everyone tilted their heads and murmured.

In response, without following deeper, Sakai-

"Well, I'll be careful--Then, this's become some sort of rumour, but Toori, it was something like you were going to confess...The person whom that kinda dangerous behaviour is gonna reach is--"

"It's Horizon."

At the line he said, everyone fell silent, and Sakai looked up at the sky. And he, after a while-

"...Hmm, so, you actually think that?"

"For President-sensei, it's that, right? Last year, you were consulted with by Asama and Neshinbara, and you went to see; from then on, weren't you avoiding giving any comments?...President-sensei always doesn't talk about important stuff."

"Yeah, there is that..."

Sakai made his introduction-

"The chance that she's somebody else, that she just happens to resemble another exists. No, it's strongly in that direction, right?"

"I know. That's why I've watched her for a year, just like a stalker. Anyway, if it happened that I was just chasing after her looks, I'd be a mistaken stalker. So well, when I watched her for a year..."

"Not mistaken, that's an official stalker, isn't it?...But well, when you watched her for a year?"

Opposing him, Toori spoke. His smiling face still in that state-

"The facial features and body are different from ten years ago, it's another person. So, if I'm chasing the past, that kind of difference would have bothered me, I thought, but when I had watched her for a year, it started to not matter what the past was like, and I had been captured by that part of her which tried her best in various things...Before it became this way, I had thought this at the first."

A breath.

"That if she was Horizon, 'I had no right to get close to her.'....But, step by step, 'If she's here, then just that is fine.' I thought, and eventually, 'I want to talk to her', or 'I want to try and touch her', I thought that, and that's what I'm thinking now...Even if she isn't Horizon--"

"Even if she isn't?"

"It's the me who can't do anything, but I wondered if she wouldn't be together with me."

'I see', Sakai said. Sighing as if spitting out the smoke from his tabacco, 'I see', he said again-

"When did you think that?"

"About a week ago--When I thought 'at this time ten years ago, Horizon left, didn't she', it naturally seemed that way. That were she to just be here, I'd hate it. That's why, I decided to confess. It'll probably be a one-sided confession, but--"

"But?"

"Tomorrow is ten years, and that as a boundary in time, I won't treat Horizon as something to run from anymore."

'Yes,' he nodded-

"--She doesn't know who she herself is, right? Therefore, the confession will go well, and if she wishes for it, I was thinking that we'd find out about it together. A lot of things will probably happen because of that, but because I won't treat Horizon as something to run from--It'll be alright."

'I see' Sakai dropped his gaze. An expression which could be said to be a wry smile. He stroked that chin with the hand that was in his pockets, when-

"These ten years were quick, weren't they. It happened right after I came, that accident."

'That's right', nodding was Kimi. She sighed with a 'Fuu'-

"But, you're stupid, idiot brother. You should write what you said just now on the letter. It's a little long, so I think that it'd be better if you made it simpler though. A-l-so-"

"Also?"

'Yes', Kimi nodded.

"There's still one problem which hasn't been resolved--Whether you can take hard or not."

"Hard?"

Frowning was Mitotsudaira, listening to the conversation from beside Sakai.

Aside from shallowly folding her arms, Mitotsudaira was tilting her head, looking at Kimi through narrowed eyes.

"Is there some sort of problem which the Chancellor has? Well, he is somebody who always has problems, but what is it this time?"

"Eh, I'll say it so it's easy to understand."

Kimi said this.

"Mitotsudaira--Faced with the difficulty which Toori bears right now, Mitosudaira is a fitting person."

●

At Kimi's words, Mitotsudaira lightly tilted her head.

"What is going on?' she thought, and further, inside her heart-

...Another strange thing.

Nodding within her heart, she looked back and forth between the sitting Toori and Kimi.

"Truthfully, somehow I do not really understand, but trouble and fitting is an exaggeration, isn't it."

"An exaggeration? That's stupid, Mitotsudaira--for my idiot brother, it's an important event of his lifetime, you know? In any case, it's a matter of great gravity concerning the confession tomorrow."

At the words she was told, Mitotsudaira moved her eyebrows.

"A matter concerning the Chancellor's confession tomorrow?"

'Yeah, that's right' nodded at in response to the question, Mitotsudaira touched her hand to a single cheek.

...Confession.

What kind of importance that kind of event holds to they themselves, I understand very well. Even in light novels and manga, on stage and in TV dramas, as a subject it is something that always comes up. However-

"...Well, could it be something that the knight Mitotsudaira, charged with the Matsudaira's branch family, cannot understand?"

Being spoken to, Mitotsudaira felt that a slight crack was born within her heart.

...Indeed, I am a knight who was sent here for the sake of receiving the provisional inheritance of the name Mito Matsudaira.

"Being part of this family, which has been presented from Hexagone Francaise to the Far East, it is true that things like marriage being decided by my country, my parents, and the Testament's recreation of history, I have no connection the practices of commoners such as free confessions of romance."

But, Mitotsudaira said.

"Even I will eventually become a person, a single part which bears the Far East--There is no way that I would have no understanding of the practices of commoners, is there?"

"If that's so--"

'Ehh,' Mitotsudaira said. Tapping her own chest lightly with the palm of her right hand and sticking it out-

"There is no knight which does not help a commoner's troubles. To be able to resolve this problem, no matter what it may be, I, Nate Mitotsudaira will give my all. Then, Chancellor, what is your wish?"

Having asked, Toori turned this way. However, while standing up, he folded his arms and tilted his head-

"Mmm...what it is, it's a little hard to say though?"

"You are not a man who is very clear, are you--I will lend you my strength, so be bold."

"No, if I say it clearly, you'll get mad. If I say it boldly--I'll be killed."

'Huh?' Mitotsudaira, tilting her head forwards looked around the area. On the stairs, each person who was there, with the exception of Kimi, everyone nodded at the words which had just been spoken.

...This is...

'I have a bad feeling about this,' Mitotsudaira thought inside her heart. In any case, that they are not good is something which always happens. Even the day before, when I was meeting with a high-classed guest, the business partners of the Mitotsudaira family, over lunch at a restaurant in Tama, Toori and Kimi and all the others came pouring in like an avalanche, and it was horrible.

Even though I tried to chase them out, the guests trying to show mercy rendered that void. Sitting with someone they did not know was further something which could not have happened. Anyway, Toori, who had known that they had gourmet tastes, ordered some bear and started an argument-

"Geezer! Geezer! Saying that any kind of food is delicoius, is that true!?"

"Ha, hahahaha, no matter what kind of food it is, finding the good points and enjoying is common sense."

"Hah!? You serious!? Then, cook! These gourmets said they'd eat dog! They're really brave!"

...The specialty cook who was at their side, face pale, raised his empty teacup and chopsticks with his two hands, but what did that mean?

Anyways, if I just state the conclusion, the gourmet, completely naked, was running home while crying, and I had lost one client. ...Thinking about it again, it was a huge hindrance to business...!

At that time, I had gotten rather angry, but this time, I was receiving advance warning by that anger from beyond.

Therefore, it cannot be that, but-

"Jud.--then, for the sake of safety, let me verify first. What could you possibly wish from me?"

"Well, that's..."

Toori, standing right in front of me, averted his gaze slightly and scratched his head. Besides that, he-

"Just a little practice, or rather, I want you to be my rehearsal partner."

At those words, Sakai, next to me, crooked his neck.

"Saying rehearsal, in short, that's the recital of your confession, isn't it? Again, that's..."

'Stupid', I was glanced at by Sakai, who had said that, out of the corner of his eye. It seemed as if he wanted to say, 'I wonder if you can.'

'However, as that is the case,' Mitotsudaira thought this.

...Th-there is not really anything stupid about it, you know?

A confession, she is interested in that event. Therefore, she cleared her throat, and shrugging her shoulders exaggeratedly-

"Chancellor?...In other words, that is using me as a substitute for the person you are confessing to, is it not?"

A breath. Mitotsudaira touched her hand to her waist, staring into his face-

"...Indeed, that kind of thing, if I think about my pride as a woman, it is obvious I can get mad. 'Rather than the person I am confessing to, you have no worth, but you look like her, so I want to use you,' is what it is, is it not."

"Mmm, I don't know whether you don't have any worth or not, rather, I judged on sight."

"Jud., well, I do not really understand, but I am indebted to you..."

Mitotsudaira nodded. Forcing power into her eyebrows, she stuck her chest out-

"I am fine with it. Nate Mitotsudaira, for the sake of being your rehearsal--"

Mitotusudaira thought. In this situation, what should I say?

...For the sake of being your rehearsal...?

Certainly, if it was the standing throw which had begun to become trendy lately, in a situation where you accept a higher-rank or lower-rank's wish to be practice for them, there should be some sort of an expression. Therefore, Mitotsudaira lightly tapped her chest with the fingers of her hand, and said it.

"Eh, I--will lend you this chest."

The instant she said it. Mitotsudaira was bathed in everyone's sudden reactions.

'Eeh!?', pressured by the voices of shock coming from all directions, Mitotsudaira-

...Huh?

Sweeping the area with her gaze, not only Toori, Kimi and everyone on the stairs, everybody, who was for some reason peeking this way from a place around thirty meters away, turned heir voices and gazes this way.

I do not know the meaning of that, but I could feel a hint of admiration in everyone's murmurs of surprise which had rung out. However-

...I-is it really something to make so much noise about?

Slightly unsettled, as if confirming, towards the murmuring Toori and company-

"U-um, just because I said that I would lend this chest for the sake of the rehearsal of Chancellor's confession..."

Having said that, once again, everyone started murmuring. Other than the voice, 'she's serious,'-

"She said it twice! She said it twice, you know!"

"Wow, as expected, a knight's dedication is amazing..."

"Certainly, in terms of position and in terms of durability, a human shield...!"

Only the last one I did not comprehend, but anyways, I was able to understand that this was something earthshaking.

...We-well, everyone also seems to be hoping in me.

If I refuse to cooperate at this stage, I will lose everyone's support. I am atop the small Musashi； as a knight who takes charge of numerous villages as her territory, I wish to avoid that kind of development.

Beside me, Sakai, who like me does not understand the meaning of what is going on, while processing the reaction of the area-

"Well, do your best...I'll be going to Mikawa now."

'Ah', realizing, everyone said farewell or bowed, and Sakai left. When he was descending the stairs-

"I'll be meeting up with Masazumi, there something you want to say to her?"

"I'll be making some noise here at eight o'clock, could you ask whether or not she can come?"

'Jud., Jud.' Sakai raised his hand lightly, and forming a smile at the edge of his mouth, he descended.

And, Mitotsudaira saw. In front of her, Toori was looking her way with a serious face-

"Alright then, Nate, let's do it--I'll do it tightly, alright? Afterward, don't hit me, alright?"

Responding to that question, first, Mitotsudaira calmed her breathing. Achieving calm by doing that, through pulling aside her fringe, she corrected her posture-

"Sent knights are allowed the possession of large-scale weapons, but that is something for the sake of protecting the people. On my pride of one of werewolf-lineage, I will not do anything like that...Generally, is there some sort of dangerous prerequisite to the rehearsal of a confession?"

"Then, I won't hold back."

Along with his words, Mitotsudaira had a sensation on her chest.

...Eh?

Looking, two sets of Toori's five fingers were shallowly buried in the chest of her uniform.

●

Without being able to understand her own state, Mitotsudaira sucked in a shallow breath once-

"...U-um."

"Wait, Nate, please be quiet. Right now, I'm in the midst of confirmation."

Rather than what she was being told, perplexed by the current advancing situation, Mitotsudaira lost her words.

...Um, this is--...

As she was thinking, she realized that heat was steadily building up in her face. Thinking about what that was all about, she remained not giving an answer-

"Wonder how it is."

Toori brought his body low. Bringing his head with brown hair to her chest-

"Mm."

His ear was pressed against her chest. What she could be faintly smelled was the fragrance of his hair; Mitotsudaira noticed that he used the same shampoo as his sister, her unconscious was shouting to notice something more important.

...Bu-but, um, this situation is...

Now, an ear is being pressed against my chest, and it's being groped. That is the reality. The words 'rehearsal for a confession' and what is happening right before my eyes do not connect. What is this. If I were to speak in French, then 'Quoi?'.

Could it be that there was a mistake in my reactions up till now?

I do not know. What should I do? Now, the best reaction my unconscious is shouting is to slaughter the idiot before my eyes with my two hands, but as expected, a noontime killing is risky. If I am to do it, it should be at night.

However, if other than that, at this kind of time, what should I do?

...U-um...

In that state, seconds passed by; as everyone was speechless, silence continued-

"...I see."

Toori took his hands and ears off my chest.

As if matching that movement, everyone leaned forward and focused their eyes upon Toori.

"...How was it, Tori-dono!?"

'Yeah', Toori, who nodded, stuck his thumb up for all to see-

"She wasn't wearing a bra."

'Ooh', everyone muttered, but is there not a limit to the exposure of personal information?

However, Toori moved. Returning a nod to everyone, he looked this way with a refreshing smile-

"Thanks a lot, Mitotsudaira! Thanks to you, I've completed one of my self-searches!"

Sticking up his right thumb-

"I--am all right!"

"You are not all right at all, you idioooottt--!!"

Releasing the spell seal on her body along with her cry, Mitotsudaira hammered Toori against the railing with a single right backhand.

The railing was unable to completely take Toori's body, spinning and flying away.

"--!"

Along with a cracking sound, the railing twisted and broke, and with the excess energy, Toori's body flew towards the school courtyard along with the foundation. "Waaah', towards the direction of everyone in the schoolyard, who was running, Mitotsudaira turned her gaze and sighed.

"You really were an idiot from the beginning! Think yourself lucky you were not wearing personal equipment! Really..."

Lightly wiping away the tears hovering at the corners of her eyes with a finger, she straightened her eyebrows-

"--Tomorrow, it would be nice if you were rejected!!"

Translator's notes and references

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