CHAPTER 6 – IT WAS MY FIRST TIME SEEING A SHADOW OF DEATH

A public park near grandpa’s house. On my way home from elementary school, I ran there as usual.

As I looked around from the entrance of the park, I saw her sitting quietly on top of a dome-shaped playground equipment with holes on it.

【Heeyy, ——!!】

When I called out her name while running over to her, she suddenly turned around and waved her hand in the air with a broad happy-looking smile.

【Masaaachika!】

【Like I said, my name is Masachika】

I corrected her with a wry smile as usual, but she didn’t seem to care and laughed happily. When I was looking at that smile, I couldn’t help but feel “Oh well, fine”.

【Masaaachika come up here too!】

【Eeh~?】

【Hurry hurry!】

【Got no choice then】

The dome-shaped playground equipment had ladders attached to its side. I placed my schoolbag there and climbed up with my tiny arms and legs as fast as I could.

【Kaay~ I’m here~】

As I reached the top of the dome, she greeted me with a laugh. Long golden hair1 that shone under the setting sun. Even now, I still remembered the blue eyes that were squinting happily at me.

【Look look! The sunset is really pretty!】

【Oh, you’re right. It’s really pretty】

While we were watching the sunset side by side, we continued our idle chatter. Although I said that, I felt it was me talking one-sidedly.

【So, this seirei school is my mom and dad’s alma mater, they said. It’s a really difficult school but my grades are fine~ they said】

【Wow. Masaaachika can really do anything!】

【Hehe, not at all】

She didn’t even face my boyish bragging with a disapproving look, just a genuine praise.

I was so happy and proud when she praised me, that no amount of effort was too much for me.

Studying; sport; music; I could do my best at whatever was thrown at me because of her.

【Ah, gotta go home soon…】

When the sun went down, that’s when we said our goodbyes. That was our rule.

【Okay then, see you tomorrow. Masaaachika】

【Yeah, see you tomorrow. ——-】

When we said our goodbyes, she hugged me tightly and gave me a light kiss in the cheek.

I was too embarrassed to do the same to her, but the truth was, I was really happy. She separated her body, and laughed happily while—–

“Baam!”

“Ubooah!?”

Suddenly, there was a tremendous impact running from my abdomen over to my chest, forcing me to wake up.

“Guha! Ga, gaha”

“Good morning~ my brother”1

“Uugh… Just now, because of you it became not good anymore!”

I managed to catch my breath, and glared at Yuki smirking at me from above. Then Yuki raised one of her eyebrows and looked puzzled.

“Oh come on, what are you mad about? Isn’t this a little sister’s wake up body press longed by all high school boys in the world. Be happy”

“You talk like it’s some kind of a wake up prank. Isn’t this just a DV”

“Just a DearVenus2? Geez~ onii-chan is so, Si . S . Con♡

“It’s DOMESTIC VIOLENCE! What kind of skewed interpretation was that”

“Muu…. What is it you don’t like that much?”

‘All of it. All“

When I said that, Yuki wrinkled her eyebrows huffily, and seemed to be thinking about something. Suddenly, she made a face as if she had a revelation and snapped her finger.

“You’re that kind. Instead of a wake-up body press, you’re in a camp that wants to wake up in the morning with your little sister already under the cover next to you”

“If.. that happens in real life won’t it be somewhat scary?”

“Eh? Then, don’t tell me you’re a person that wants your little sister to crawl under the bed? What a maniac~”

“That’s just plain scary!”

“I guess I’ve no choice~ So next time I’ll crawl under the bed and the moment you get off the bed I’ll grab your leg, okay?”

“What is even your goal by doing that….”

“Something like, woken up by little sister horror scenarios. Real new, right?”

“It’s too new for me to keep up…. Rather, get off already”

When I said this to Yuki who was still on top of me flapping her legs, she grinned and tilted her head.

“Why? Because there’s a reaction?”

“Die”

I pierced the little sister who was giving me a dumb dirty joke very early in the morning to me with absolute zero eyes. Yuki then laughed while moving away from on top of me and left the room.

“Haah, good grief….”

I raised my body and sat on the bed.

“….”

I saw… a nostalgic dream. Memories of my first love. Memories of the most brightest time I’d ever had in my life. I’d meet with her at the park and played a lot with her. I wanted to talk with her, so I seriously learned Russian3.

Even though my parents didn’t get along and I was left alone at grandpa’s house, I didn’t feel lonely because she was there.

That’s right, I certainly fell in love with that girl. And yet… I couldn’t even remember her face nor her name.

“….Tsk”

Of course, I’m that mother’s son after all. She was a heartless human being who could easily forget the person she once really liked.

Inside my chest, something cold was slowly piling up. The feelings of love and motivation that had been burning brightly in those days were now buried underneath, no longer visible.

There were excuses for losing my motivation. I could always blame someone else. But, no matter what kind of excuses I made or whomever I blamed, in the end, I’d come to the conclusion that I was just a lazy scum who found most things troublesome.

A scum who admired hard work, and loathed working hard, a scum who thought he was better than other scum because he was self-aware of it, a scum who comforted himself with low-level self-gratification. That’s me.

“There’s no way… that kind of guy would fit to be in the student council, right?”

Not to mention, even becoming a student council vice president. I knew this precisely because I was unable to refuse Yuki’s request, becoming her partner and the middle school student council vice-president thoughtlessly. That was not a position you could take without any passion or resolution.

At the time when Yuki’s election was decided, I saw the figure of the other candidate crying behind the auditorium.

‘I betrayed my parents’ expectations’; ‘I’m not sure what kind of face I should show when I get home’;

The girl who was weeping uncontrollably to her friends was.. a comrade who was active as the same member of the student council for the next one year.

The figure of her acting tough in front of Yuki, praising each other’s good fight, left me with a horrible sense of shock and guilt.

Yuki was also the same, carrying the expectations of her blood-relatives. But what about me? Me, who became the vice-president just because of familial love and sense of guilt towards Yuki? Did I really have the right to defeat her?

And then for the next one year, I did everything I could at student council’s work to get rid of that feeling.

Even so, that didn’t clear up the sense of guilt in me in the slightest.

I don’t ever want to… feel that—-

“Baaam! Hey you, don’t go back to slee…. Huh? You’re awake?”

“Listen here…. stop trying to kick the door open, okay. You keep kicking the same spot it got a little dented there, you know?”

I knew it was useless, but I said it nevertheless with an exasperated feeling to Yuki, who came into the room breaking the serious atmosphere.

In fact, the door to my room had a slight dent below the doorknob and only there was the texture smoother than the rest. Sending a glance there, Yuki for some reason smiled satisfyingly.

“I think in a few years we’ll have it beautifully pierced”

“Stop the slow but steady wins the race style discipline. What kind of martial artist are you”

“There have been many heroines who’ve kicked down doors in history, but I’m probably going to become the first heroine who spent years piercing into a door”

“In the first place, how can there be so many women kicking down doors in real life”

In fact, even Yuki didn’t really just kick the door open.

She turned the doorknob at the top with her hand and then intentionally kicked it open with her foot. Why would she do that was a real mystery to me, though.

“Okay come on, get up quickly~ Your cute little sister made you breakfast, you know~?”

“I hear you, alright”

When urged, I went to the living room, and sure enough, the breakfast was there. But….

“….”

“? What’s wrong older brother?”

“….This is?”

When I pointed at the semi-solid-all-over-the-places egg dish on the middle of the plate and asked, Yuki blinked her eyes and replied with an innocent look on her face.

“Eh? Scrambled eggs”

“You should just call it the shadow of rolled eggs’ past glory”

“….I don’t know what onii-chan is talking about”

I stabbed the back of the head of the easy to understand Yuki with glaring eyes, who turned her face away.

By the way, the taste itself was not bad. When I put ketchup on it, it became an indescribable taste of jumbled up Japanese and Europe’s flavors, though.

◇

After watching the movie as they had planned, Masachika and Yuki left the movie theater in the wave of people heading for the exit. Once they left the movie theater on top of the floor of a large commercial complex, they took the escalator leading directly downstairs.

“Hnnnn~~ ……”

Yuki then stretched out her body, and said while relaxing the tension in her.

“Yeaaah… It exploded grandly!”

“You’re really being frank there, eh”

“The land mine was bigger than I expected~ As I thought, it’s impossible for a sparkly idol to play in a fantasy with dark world view~ It gave off a very cosplay-like feeling till the end. The content itself too spent a lot of time with spectacular battle scenes and the parts leading up to them were super messy. It’s like they’re leaving behind the audiences who haven’t read the original work~”

“Guess so. But the action itself was pretty elaborate, and that part was worth seeing, though”

Masachika gave Yuki a response with a wry smile, who talked down the movie with a harsh evaluation while smiling brightly. It was still a little early for lunch, so they lazily roamed around inside the commercial building while discussing their impressions of the movie.

“Ah, this clothing is cute. I’ve been wanting a new one-piece dress for summer, you see~. But I’m planning to splurge on Animate later….”

“Uhuh, 15,000 yen is…. Expensive!”

“Onii-chan too should dress up a bit more~ you have the money, right?”

“I don’t get as much pocket money as you, okay”

“You don’t use it that much anyway. Unlike me, you don’t spend your money on otaku activities after all”

It’s just like what Yuki said. In fact, unlike Yuki, Masachika didn’t collect any goods, and he also rarely purchased mangas or light novels on his own.

That was because, Yuki, who hid the fact that she was a super otaku from the Suou house, brought all of her purchased otaku goods to Kuze’s home.

Masachika borrowed and read mangas and light novels that interested him from there, so he didn’t have to buy them himself.

In the first place, Masachika converted into an otaku itself was due to Yuki’s fervent missionary work.

“Didn’t you wear that clothing last year too. You should get a new one soon”

“Uhuh, if you put it that way isn’t the clothing you wear now a hand-me-down from me”

Today Yuki wore a largish shirt with a long-sleeved inner and jeans. It was a rather boyish look.

And in fact, that shirt and jeans were hand-me-downs from Masachika.

“This is fine because it’s stylish. The more you wear jeans, the better they look”

“Riiight… by the way little sister”

“What is it, onii-chan-sama”

“….Since some time ago I saw something silver flickering at the corner of my vision, is it just my imagination?”

“I don’t think it’s just your imagination yeah my brother”

“Thought so. Since who knows when you’re not in a ponytail anymore. You’re also doing the young-lady-conducts mode too”

Like what Masachika had said, Yuki had been in a ponytail and now her hair was untied. Her way of talking was unchanged but her conducts had become the elegant one shown at school.

“Fuh…. I noticed it long before older brother noticed it, yeah?”

“Seriously. Since when?”

“Relatively quickly after we came down to this floor”

“Isn’t that quite a while already…. You did well noticing it, huh?”

“Fuh…. I have this hyper-sense allowing me to sense the eyes of people I know immediately….”

“Are you serious…. Are you not embarrassed by what you just said yourself?”

“Fuh…. really embarrassed”

“Don’t say that with a stiff face, just don’t”

While doing a siblings-skit like this, he could feel an immense gaze diagonally from behind. He closely looked at the glass on a storefront, and there he saw a very distinct and familiar silver-haired girl with half of her body concealed behind a pillar.

Moreover, and only if he wasn’t imagining it, there was a ‘menacingly menacingly’…. Sound effect plastered in the background.

(Now then, what to do)

Should we call out to her from here, or wait for her to call out to us. Or shoul we give her a slip somewhere. Then, from Masachika’s side who was contemplating what’s the right thing to do.

“Oh, Alya-san?”

Yuki suddenly turned her head around, and spoke as if she had just noticed her.

(Little sisteeeeeeer—–!!)

Masachika screamed inside at the sudden frontal breakthrough. But, the die had already been cast. He turned around in resignation and donned a surprised expression.

“Huh? Isn’t it Alya. What a coincidence”

Masachika himself wasn’t confident if he was able to do his acting that skillfully but Alisa didn’t pay attention to that extent.

She was fiddling with the phone in her hand without any reason, her eyes were wandering all over the place while approaching them. Then she opened her mouth, still looking agitated.

“Yes, what a coincidence. Umm…. since a little earlier I’ve noticed you but, I couldn’t really find the timing to call out….”

The two siblings’ hearts were harmonized with, “no way it’s just a ‘little’…”, such a thought but they didn’t show it on the surface.

Even so, Masachika couldn’t stop his eyes from becoming lukewarm, but Yuki, who was completely in her young lady mode nodded with an unsuspecting face and, “Is that so”

“Does Alya-san have something to do here?”

“Yes…. to buy some clothes”

“Is that so. Have you eaten lunch yet?”

“No, I still haven’t”

“Then, since you’re here, would you like to join us? We also—“

“Wait a minute”

Unable to leave it at that, Masachika cut off Yuki’s words. He then frowned and asked towards Yuki, who donned a composed face.

“You, you’re not going to take Alya to that shop4, are you?”

“Is it.. Not good? Wasn’t Masachika-kun also looking forward to it?”

“Of course you can’t. If Alya is going to come, we should go to another place”

“What? What’s the problem?”

Alisa interrupted the two, who were ignoring her and having a conversation she couldn’t understand.

“Alya-san, do you dislike spicy food?”

“Spicy food? No, it’s not like I dislike it….”

“The shop we are going to go to after this is one that serves spicy ramen. If Alya-san is fine with spicy food then—-”

“Don’t put it so lightly like that. Alya, I’ll be frank. It’s not just spicy, it’s a place serving extremely spicy ramen. I’ve never been there either but, it’s probably a place you won’t enjoy if you don’t like extremely spicy food. That’s why—-”

“I’ll go”

Alisa clearly said that, cutting off Masachika’s words trying to somehow persuade her.

Towards that unbent expression Masachika thought to himself, “I guess it’s no use anymore”, while he continued to persuade her.

“Honestly, I think it’s better if you don’t, okay? There’s another place we can go to instead….”

“You were looking forward to it, right? Then I’ll go. I’d also feel sorry to have you change your plan”

“No, even if you don’t have to force yourself to come….”

“Oh? Am I in your way?”

“I didn’t mean it like that… were eating spicy food ever your forte, I wonder?“

“It’s not like I’m bad with it”

He thought to himself, “Reaaalllly~~?”, but Masachika wasn’t able to speak out that she was lying.

According to what Masachika’d seen, Alisa was quite a considerable sweet tooth. He never heard it directly from the person in question, but he got a glimpse of it from her every word and action she’d done until now.

So, if one were to ask him whether she’s bad with spicy food, he didn’t know. In the first place he didn’t have any recollection of seeing Alisa eating spicy food.

(Well, the person herself said she’s fine with it, and there could also be something less spicy in the menu….)

After reminding himself of this, Masachika headed for the shop with a hint of anxiety.

◇

“….Here?”

“Yes”

Alisa’s face twitched as she looked up at a single ramen shop along a narrow street, a short walk away outside the large commercial building.

Masachika thought to himself, “I can see why” and nodded his head. On the other hand, Yuki had a really nice smile.

“The shop’s name is ‘The Cauldron of Hell’…. This.. is really a ramen shop, right?”

“Yes, it is though?”

“There’s ‘hell’ in the name though….?”

“Please be at ease. It’s even in the name in the menu”

“…..I see”

No matter how you sliced it, it’s not a component that could ease your mind but, perhaps the shock was too strong or she was a little overwhelmed, it made Alisa’s lips twitch while she nodded her head.

“….Maybe you want to stop after all?”

However, when Masachika showed his concern, Alisa’s expression turned into a determined one and glared at Masachika sharply.

“There’s no way I’ll stop. I was just surprised it’s such a unique shop”

“I see….”

With Alisa completely showing her hating-to-lose part, Masachika resigned and thought to himself, “No matter what’s said she won’t listen anymore” and followed Yuki into the shop.

“Welcooome~!”

Immediately, a strong smell hit his nose and eyes along with the employee’s high-spirited voice. Behind Masachika, a faint, “Uuh!?”, voice came out.

“How many people~?”

“Three people”

“Yeees~ Please come to this counter~”

The employee guided them and they’re seated in the same order as they’d come.

Masachika glanced down at Alisa to his right and saw Alisa holding her nose with subtle tears in her eyes.

Masachika and Yuki who liked to visit shops serving extremely spicy food were used to it but, for Alisa who was most likely a newcomer, this irritating smell might’ve been hard to take.

“….Are you okay?”

“About what?”

Said Alisa with a voice as if crushed to death, who was obviously pretending to be tough. She closed her eyes at once and retracted her tears. She then reached for the menu with her hand, pretending to be calm…. and froze when she opened it.

“….Say”

“Hmm?”

“Even when I looked at the menu, I don’t know what’s what though?”

“…..Right”

Masachika subtly nodded to the frozen Alisa. But it’s understandable.

It’s because, “Blood Pond of Hell”, or “Pincushion of Hell”, and such dangerous names that one couldn’t think generally as a dish name were lined up.

Yuki, whose hair tied up at the bottom of the neck with a rubber band, then made an explanation with know-it-all airs.

“‘Blood Pond of Hell’, like its name suggests it is a ramen characterized by its soup that is as red as blood, and then its spiciness is the most reserved. And then there is the ‘Pincushion of Hell’. Like its names suggest too, its spiciness will make your tongue feel like it is pricked by countless needles”

“I-I see… then”

While twitching her face at Yuki’s explanation, Alisa looked towards the name of a dish at the bottom of the menu written in an eerie handwriting.

“How about.. this ‘Avici of Hell’?”

Alisa asked nervously and Yuki gave a truly pleasant I-am-glad-you-asked smile.

“They said it has the kind of spiciness that comes full circle and you can’t feel a thing!”

“Won’t your nerves… die?”

Next to Alisa who was showing impatience on her face finally understanding that this shop was seriously bad, Masachika checked the menu once again and closed his eyes, realizing there was no such thing like a safe and less spicy dish on the menu.

“….Then, I guess I’ll go with ‘Blood Pond of Hell’. When it’s your first time visiting a restaurant, it’s the standard to order something standard anyway”

“I guess.. so. The basics are important, isn’t it”

“Oh? Are the two of you going to order the same thing? Then, shall I get the same one too”

At the very least, Masachika sent a lifeboat and without a moment’s delay, Alisa climbed on it. Yuki too took advantage of this, and the three of them ended up ordering the same thing from the menu.

“By the way, Yuki-san’s attire today is looking very boyish. It surprised me a little”

“Fufufu, it is a day-off after all5. I just wanted to change up the mood a bit”

“I see. It certainly considerably changed the air around you, but I think it suits you very well”

“Thank you very much. Alya-san’s casual clothes also suit you very well. I thought you were a professional model”

“Really? Thanks”

While feeling both pleasant and uncomfortable at the same time towards the girls-talk taking place on both sides, Masachika was breaking into a cold sweat at the stares of the men in the surrounding.

Especially the awful stare of a male employee around the same age as him seemingly to be working part-time.

He looked at him as if he was completely an enemy. However, setting the actual circumstances aside, from the sides it certainly looked like he had flowers on both arms so he couldn’t say anything about it.

Moreover it’s not just any flower. Those two were beautiful girls at the level where he would nod if they were labeled as “unrivaled”

If an ordinary-looking guy were to accompany two people like them, even Masachika would take notice.

And, “Eh? A love-comedy protagonist? Are you a protagonist of a harem love-comedy huh!?”, he would get excited like such. Such is the nature of an otaku.

(Well, actually, it’s not like the two of them were fighting over me, and I’m sure they’d guess from this scene that it’s two close female friends and their luggage carrier)

Just like Masachika had imagined, seeing two beautiful girls having a conversation without the guy in the middle, “The guy’s just an extra, huh”, they seemed to consent like such, and the inquisitive eyes from inside the shop faded.

Even the part-time employee glaring at Masachika with eyes loaded with envy and hatred, had his eyes softened and went back to work…. At that moment, Yuki threw a bomb.

“Actually, this shirt and jeans are hand-me-downs from Masachika-kun”

Alisa’s smile hardened with a snap, and the air inside the shop too.

(Little siisssssteeeeerrrrrrr——!!)

The inquisitive eyes inside the shop were, once again, refocusing. The part-time employee-kun looked alternatingly between Masachika and Yuki with eyes as if he just saw something unbelievable.

“….Hand-me-downs?”

“Yes, at home I have been told to dress in a manner appropriate for a lady…. But, I wanted to try this kind of boyish attire, so I requested Masachika-kun for it”

“Hee…. I see”

The smile on Alisa’s lips turned into a thin ominous smile as her glaring gaze pierced through Masachika.

“Childhood friends are awfully close to each other, aren’t they. I never thought Kuze-kun had a hobby of making a girl wear his clothes”

“No, it’s not my hobby”

“That is right. It is not a hobby but a fetish”

“You shut up”

When Masachika said, don’t say anything more than this, with his eyes, Yuki made a curious face.

“Oh? However, when I wore boyfriend shirt 6 previously at that time.. I remember (you / I)7 looked very happy though….”

“That’s not the truth!”

Yuki threw in an additional bomb with an innocent face.

The store became noisy. By the way, the “truth” Masachika referred to was the truth regarding the truth about Masachika looking happy, and she wore a boyfriend shirt .

Yuki sometimes came to Kuze’s house without a change of clothes on a whim and in such cases, she would use Masachika’s old shirts as her pajamas.

The first time she did that, it was Yuki who was excited saying “It’s boyfriend shirt , it’s boyfriend shirt ”. Masachika looked at such Yuki with exasperated eyes but, such circumstances were not for others to know.

“…. Wither shirt?8 ”

But fortunately, it seemed that Alisa, who was unfamiliar with subculture, didn’t know what something called a “ boyfriend shirt ” was.

“If you don’t know then I will tell you about it”, said Yuki, trying to do the devil’s whisper with an angelic smile. Masachika immediately tried to stop her, and before he could do that, the part-time employee-kun came carrying their ramens while glaring at Masachika with eyes as if he was looking at his parents’ enemy.

“Thank you for waiting~ It’s three Blood Pond of Hell~”

Looking down at the ramen that had just arrived, Alisa leaked a, “Uuh!”, and bent her body backward.

In addition to the impressive visual impact of the dark red soup that didn’t betray its name, the rising steam seemed to also stimulate his mucous membrane.

The two siblings, who loved extremely spicy food, picked their chopsticks with smiles on their faces while Alisa was lightly choking at this point in time.

“Then, let’s eat before the noodles stretch”

“Yeah”

“Yo-you’re right”

The three of them said “Time to eat” in unison. Masachika and Yuki were without hesitation, while Alisa scooped the noodles nervously.

“Nnn! It’s delicious!”

“Yeah, it really lives up to its name”

The siblings slurping and smiling in satisfaction. Now, Masachika sent a sidelong glance at Alisa to peek how Alisa was doing and….

“….”

There, with her whole body stiff, eyes wide open, was Alisa who continued chewing without even blinking. Her left hand on the table was clenched with unusual strength, and her fist was trembling.

“….Alya, are you okay?”

“….n, yes, it’s… tasty”

She swallowed what was inside her mouth, and then Alisa finally blinked again and showed a putting-on-airs look.

Masachika held out a paper napkin for now, while being astonished and impressed at her pretending to be tough at this point in time.

“You better wipe your lips with the paper napkin after every bite, okay? Your lips could swell from the spiciness after all”

“….Thanks”

After seeing that Alisa obediently wiped her lips, Masachika started eating his ramen again.

Everytime I slurp the noodles, the intense spiciness of the chili fills the inside of my mouth.

It’s a spiciness that makes me break out in sweat. However, the spiciness brought out the good flavor of the ingredients and left me wanting for more and more.

More, it makes me want to peek into the abyss of this crimson sea (※This was just his personal opinion)

“Yeah, delish”

Masachika exhaled in satisfaction. And towards Masachika’s ears….

【It hurts】

….from his side, came a terribly pitiful complaint. He sent a glance and there, he saw Alisa, her chopsticks completely stopped.

She somehow managed to maintain her calm expression, but she couldn’t seem to move her chopsticks any longer.

Then, Alisa noticed Masachika’s gaze and, as if pushed by it, she moved her chopsticks into the bowl again.

“Well, Alya. You seriously don’t have to force yourself, okay?”

“What is it? I did say it’s tasty, didn’t I”

You said it hurt in Russian, didn’t you.

“No… I mean, yeah. I understand”

He wondered if she would be okay, but he knew that it would be useless to tell Alisa to stop now so Masachika decided not to worry about it anymore.

After a short break to drink water, he was ready to face the abyss of the crimson sea again. With the chopsticks—-

【I can’t anymore….】

I can’t concentrate!!

The voice coming from the side was too feeble, evoking sorrow.

Still, he tried not to worry about it and continued with his meal. But….

【Mom….】

When she finally started to cling onto her phantom mother, unable to take it anymore, he looked at Alisa.

(Ah, this is no good. Her pupils look dilated)

To his surprise, Alisa’s facial expression remained unchanged this late in the game. But…. there was.. a faint shadow of death coming out.

This is hopeless. I was thinking of letting her do whatever she wanted until she gave up but, now there’s no choice but to stop her. It’s a doctor stop.

“Al—”

It was just at the moment when Masachika was about to stop her. Beating him to the punch, Yuki called out from the other side.

“How is it, Alya-san?”

Alisa’s eyes, which had been completely blown away by the voice of her rival she would compete with for the seat of the next student council president, came into focus.

The feeling of rivalry towards Yuki fired her up, and Alisa regained her life and she even had a smile on her face.

“Yes, it’s delicious”

“I’m glad to hear it. I see that Alya-san liked extremely spicy food too”

Alisa showed a somewhat ghastly, fierce smile and Yuki showed an innocent smile. And then, with her innocent smile, she held out a small jar to Alisa.

“In this shop, it seems like you can increase the spiciness with this ‘Demon Tears’. If it’s fine with Alya-san, would you like to try it?”

Yuki, commenced an unexpected attack on a wounded enemy. The edge of Alisa’s lips twitched.

By the way, this seasoning was called “Demon Tears”. Its official name was “Even a Demon Would Shed Tears”, and as the name implied it’s so spicy that a demon would burst into tears. It was this shop’s original seasoning.

(Please stop! Alya-san’s life is already at zero!)

While shouting in his heart, Masachika realized.

(I see. Because it’s in Russian, Yuki doesn’t realize Alya’s leaking out her complaint, huh)

If that’s the case, let’s whisper it to her sneakily…. And when Masachika turned towards Yuki, he realized.

With a seemingly innocent smile, the depth of Yuki’s eyes were harboring a sadistic light.

(This girl, she knows what she’s doing….!?)

Masachika trembled in fear. From next to him, a white hand stretched out and seized the small jar that Yuki had presented.

“Even just a few drops will make it taste much better, you know?”

“Wait, Alya!? I really think it’s better for you to stop now, okay!?”

Despite Masachika’s warning, Alya opened the lid of the jar and with a small spoon, she scooped out the bright red liquid from the inside. She then scattered it on top of her ramen. And….

“~~~~~!?”

Several seconds later, Alisa’s silent scream echoed through the shop.

Chapter 5

ToC

Chapter 7

TL notes:

^1. I did check on google that one’s hair color can change as they grow older, not only the one when it turns to grey. But from Gloden/Blond to Silver? hahaha fiction magic.

^2. DearVenus = Beautiful Goddess

^3. TBH, this sentence made me doubt if he actually was being made to watch lots of russian films in ch1. Probably it went like this: the impetus was when he was being made to watch lots of russian films, then met this girl and he then seriously started wanting to learn Russian BY being made to watch lots of russian films by his grandpa. I guess it’s not wrong? but quite confusing. Dunno, I never learned JP officially. I could be wrong

^4. Calling it as restaurant is not appropriate imho. I mean, I call a kebab shop as kebab shop, not a kebab restaurant. It’s the same case here

^5. In the last chapter(should be the previous day) Alisa did say “Mata Ashita” to Yuki and it’s a day-off in this chapter(should be the next day). I’m confused. And from what I can find the kanji for “ashita” can also mean in the near future. So I changed the one from the previous chapter to “See you in a few days”. Touya saying “see you next week” proved it even more that on ch5 it should be a weekday(Friday?) and ch6 should be the next day, a day-off(Saturday?). There’s no way Alisa had planned to follow them all along to meet them on a day-off, right?

^6. Originally “彼シャツ” read as “Kare Shatsu” could be mistaken as “Boyfriend Shirt” or “His/he Shirt”. But in actuality it has other meaning:

“The term(kare syatsu) is used to describe the way in which a woman of a man and a woman in a relationship wears a man’s shirt. The word is often used to describe the way a woman wears a large shirt with a little extra length and width, which is considered adorable. The word is also used to describe a man who wears a sweater”.

And the real meaning Yuki referred as “Boyfriend shirt/Kare Shatsu” should be the “women wearing oversized shirt” part. How their surrounding understood the word “Kare shatsu” is up for debate but, yeah… It can really raise one’s eyebrows

^7. In Japanese it’s often to just kick out the subject. It’s such a case here. So basically Yuki said “I remember ??? looked happy” She didn’t mention WHO was happy, so I put the (You / I) in a bracket. But of course since she was basically responding to Masachika, it could be mistaken that she meant MASACHIKA was happy and everyone who heard this must’ve assumed she meant Masachika was happy. Japanese is hard

^8. The original JP “枯れシャツ” Also read as “kare shatsu” just like how “Boyfriend Shirt” is read as “kare shatsu”. but different Kanji and an extra hiragana. in this case it means Wither Shirt/Mature shirt. The kanji “枯” itself means wither, die, dry up, be seasoned. Again, another kind of misunderstanding but from Alisa’s side

Other changes/opinion:

1. Chapter 5 lines towards the end. Changed “hardly related by blood” to “strongly related by blood”. Considering the context(next line) using ‘strongly’ should be the right one imho.

well, this is a fun chapter to read. And I’ll admit that’s one long ass TL notes. I haven’t checked how long the next chapter is in comparison to this and previous chapters, anyway that’s all from me! o7