Chapter: 55. There will always be a day it will come in handy
“Yukino, are you here to buy a bento too?”
“Yes~ After all, everyone has to stay in the dorm tonight and can’t go out, so apart from bentos, I want to buy some snacks to bring back~” While answering Kanade’s question, Yukino was picking items from the convenience store shelves.
Yukino’s words suddenly made Kanade realize something.
“Yukino, what did you just say?”
“Hmm? Did you mean, ‘Onii-chan is actually willing to treat me to a bento, Yukino is really so touched~’?”
“Please don’t suddenly start extorting my wallet.”
“But besides money, what else does Onii-chan have that is valuable?”
“Is this an outrageous statement?! Am I just a wallet in Yukino’s eyes?!”
“Well, well~ I’m just joking. Even Onii-chan has quite a few good points, like… umm… that one thing~”
“For some reason, that comforting sentence doesn’t make me happy at all… Anyway, what I want to ask is, Yukino, you just said ‘everyone has to stay in the dorm tonight’, right?”
“That’s correct. Onii-chan, didn’t you receive the notice? It seems like the artificial island is undergoing scheduled maintenance in the next few days, so going out at night is prohibited.”
“That’s it… that’s it!” Kanade finally realized how he should find that urban legend, “Senior Nanjou.”
Now, Ark Academy has ordered all students to stay in the dorms at night.
So this Senior Nanjou must be no exception.
In other words, he could find her at Shikikukan tonight.
“Why is Onii-chan suddenly so excited?!” Yukino looked at Kanade, who suddenly showed a happy expression, with curiosity. “Could it be that Onii-chan is so happy to find out that he can stay in the dorm with Aki-senpai tonight that he shouted out loud?”
Yukino looked at him with a disdainful gaze, as if she had seen a pervert, and quickly increased the distance from Kanade.
“Why is this the explanation?! What image do I have in Yukino’s eyes?!”
“Then how do you explain your behavior just now, Onii-chan?”
“That, that was… just suddenly realizing I need to buy some necessities to take back, just in case.” Kanade averted his gaze a bit sheepishly, brushing off Yukino’s question.
He shifted his focus to another side, where Mana and Nagi seemed to be picking their bentos for tonight.
Meanwhile, Yukino’s two classmates were selecting snacks to take back.
“In that case… I think there’s something I need to recommend to Onii-chan, just in case.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“It’s this~ The most expensive hair growth tonic in the store.”
“Why would I need this thing?!”
“Because…”
“Why are you suddenly looking at the top of my head?! My hair is still thick!”
“Hmph, that’s only for now…”
“Don’t suddenly start talking about such a frightening topic!? In any case, I really don’t need this!”
Kanade put the hair tonic Yukino handed him back on the shelf.
“Seriously… why does a convenience store for students have this kind of thing?”
“Onii-chan is really so willful~ Then this~ The necessity I specially recommend for Onii-chan—”
While Yukino made a promotional voice, she handed something over to Kanade.
“—That’s right! It’s this energy supplement!”
“……”
“Huh? Onii-chan, why are you not commenting here? Why did you really put this supplement into the basket?! I wanted a different reaction!?”
Kanade pretended not to hear Yukino’s question and silently put the drink labeled with “Energy Supplement MAX” that she passed him into his shopping basket.
——Where did Yukino get this from…
——Let’s buy a few more bottles later…
“I see, I didn’t expect Onii-chan to reach this age.”
“What do you mean by that?” Kanade looked at Yukino, who seemed to be nodding to herself, feeling a sense of foreboding.
“No, no, no, this customer~ I still have good things to recommend to you~” Yukino switched to the tone of a convenience store cashier, jogging over to the self-checkout, then quickly returning.
“Just consider it a benefit of our store~” Yukino said as she tossed a small box into Kanade’s shopping basket.
Kanade peeked inside and froze.
“Yukino, wait—! What are you putting in here?!”
“This customer~ This is a safety device disguised in different packaging so that customers won’t feel embarrassed~”
“Isn’t the 0.002 on this completely exposed? Where’s the disguise?!”
“Hmph~ Customer~ That’s part of the disguise; it’s actually a size 0.001.”
“Instead, it’s disguised in a completely unnecessary place!”
“Kanade, listen, my sister is a good girl, so~”
“I’m Yukino’s brother, right?! Nagi isn’t even your sister yet!”
“Ah~ Onii-chan exposed himself~ Even though I didn’t say who, Onii-chan has already implied he wants to use it on Aki-senpai, right?”
“Huh, huh?! I don’t—!” Just as Kanade thought, “I’ve been tricked.”
Nagi’s adorable head suddenly peeked out from beside Kanade.
“What’s wrong? Have you and Yukino-chan chosen what to buy yet?” Nagi asked as she looked at Kanade’s shopping basket.
“——N-no! This, this thing was forcibly stuffed in by Yukino, I absolutely do not need this!”
“Mmhm, sorry, it’s all my own will…”
Unexpectedly for Kanade, Yukino really lowered her head and apologized—
“Though I’ve tried my best to dissuade him, Onii-chan still hopes to ‘have’ with Aki-senpai—”
“I didn’t mean that!”
“Then what do you mean? Ultimately, does Onii-chan want to use this or not?”
“Why is Yukino so confident in questioning me?!”
“Onii-chan, this is very important for girls~”
“While I can’t deny that this is a valid point, what does it really have to do with now?!” Kanade, having been sarcastic too much, started to feel a bit of a headache.
“Ah! I get it! Could it be that Onii-chan wants to play that thing with Aki-senpai—’If you want it, go down to the convenience store to buy it now, remember to tell the clerk that it’s for use right after, so it doesn’t need to be wrapped’ play!?” Yukino realized with a bang.
“Yukino, why does a girl think about this kind of thing all the time?!”
“Onii-chan, so sweet~ All girls of this age are very lecherous (proudly).”
“In short, you first apologize to all the girls in high school worldwide!”
While Kanade and Yukino were having a fierce back-and-forth argument.
Mana, who had already chosen her bento, also walked over.
“Tsukimi-kun, your voice is too loud. Though this is an unmanned convenience store, it shouldn’t be too noisy.”
“W-wait! Little Mana, I can explain—” the moment Kanade heard Mana’s voice, he involuntarily shivered and turned around.
“I heard it already~ This is Yukino’s prank, right?” Mana sighed.
“Little Mana—” Seeing the understanding Mana in front of him, Kanade couldn’t help but shed tears of gratitude.
“Tsukimi-kun, we’ve also picked our bentos. For now, you should put the things in your basket back.”
“O-okay.” As Kanade nodded in agreement.
He then realized that, aside from that pink box, his shopping basket also contained a bottle of what could potentially be a “life-saving” energy supplement.
“What’s wrong?”
“….. No, nothing.” Kanade, still crying, returned his life-saving items for tonight back to the shelf.
“That Onii-chan actually looked like someone who was about to die… what on earth happened?” Yukino looked surprised.
Then she noticed that Nagi hadn’t said a word since just now.
“….. Aki-senpai?”
“Ah um? I-I… uh, is something wrong?”
“Aki-senpai is so flustered!?”
Seeing this, Mana couldn’t help but sigh again and then turned to Nagi.
“For Nagi-chan, it’s still too early.”
“W-what? What are you talking about?!”
“But you must use it in the future, okay?”
“So what! What are you talking about?!”
—————–
After buying bentos and bidding farewell to Yukino.
As soon as Kanade and the others entered Shikikukan.
The sky, shrouded in dark clouds, began to drizzle lightly.
The entire artificial academy island was enveloped in this curtain of rain.
Kanade, who had been staying in the first-floor lounge, saw Otori and Akko returning to the dorm one after another.
Excluding Seiryu, who needed to survey the situation in each dorm as the student council president, he still hadn’t spotted Senior Nanjou, whom he desperately wanted to see.
——Could it be that even though the school issued a restriction order, that urban legend could choose not to return to the dorm?
——If that’s true, how on earth could he find her?
The sky grew darker.
After everyone had a full meal and bathed.
“Alright, in any case, Nagi-chan and I will sleep in the same room tonight.”
“Eh? But I want to sleep with Tsukimi-kun—”
“——No! Nagi-chan is no longer a child, she should pay more attention to the distance between boys and girls!” Mana said in a motherly tone, half-pulling and half-dragging Nagi back to the room.
Kanade smiled bitterly as he waved goodbye to the two, then secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.
——It looks like his life for tonight was saved.
——Thank you, Little Mana, you truly are my lifesaver.
Back in his room, Kanade opened the books he borrowed from Uemon today.
These books related to the supernatural, which he had never cared about and only understood to the bare minimum in the past.
But now, in order to figure out what was happening to him and to protect Nagi.
Kanade had to delve deeper into the details.
Unbeknownst to him, time had already reached midnight.
After closing the book, Kanade still had not found the answers he wanted to know.
“Sigh, it seems I can only turn to the teacher for help?” Just as he thought about climbing into bed, his phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated.
In the silent deep night.
That vibration was akin to the ticking of a clock counting down, instantly clearing Kanade’s sleepiness.
【Is there any progress today, Tsukimi-san?】
The message was from Teacher Kitano.
Although the content was just a short greeting.
In Kanade’s eyes, it was a silent warning.
Warning him—time is running out.
【I heard that people from Tsuki Academy will set out for Ark Academy in the next few days; I hope Tsukimi-san can complete our transaction before they arrive~】
“Tsk…”
Kanade, becoming increasingly irritated, left his room intending to get a drink of water to calm down.
As he arrived in the dimly lit first-floor lounge.
A black-haired girl sitting at the dining table caught his eye, with a candle emitting a soft yellow glow in front of her, illuminating her starry eyes shimmering with light.
