by Takehaya
“I want three, and if possible, each with different packaging!”
“In that case, two of them will cost extra.”
“That’s fine by me! I don’t care what it costs!”
“All right then. You can count on me.”
Maki’s to-order chocolates appeared to be a big hit. She received over twenty orders before long, and her list was continually getting longer. If the unpopular boys weren’t going to get valentines through normal means, they were happy to pay Maki for one. They wanted to eat gorgeous handmade chocolate and at least feel like they had gotten the real deal. That was just how desperate the unpopular boys alliance was this time of year.
“Y-You guys...”
“So, what about you, Kou?”
“I don’t need any!”
“You should buy some. This might be your only chance, you know.”
“Shut it, Mackenzie! You don’t understand how I feel!”
The serious and stubborn Koutarou couldn’t find it in him to pay for Valentine’s chocolate. Especially not in front of Kenji with such a smug look on his face.
“I think you’re the one who doesn’t understand, though...”
“Yeah, you’re so stubborn... You’ll only lose out like that, Satomi-kun.”
“Quiet, you! Your business preys on lonely men’s innocent hearts!”
In the end, it looked like it would be yet another lonely Valentine’s Day for Koutarou.
Deep in thought, Ruth continued to observe Koutarou as he carried on loudly with his classmates.
Looking at him now, he doesn’t seem any different from before...
That was the conclusion Ruth had reached after watching him all morning. Koutarou ultimately didn’t seem any different since he and Clan had vanished together. He was cheerfully chatting with his classmates like always.
But how can that be?
Knowing how much Koutarou had improved with the sword and seeing how much his relationship with Clan had changed, Ruth was sure that something had happened while they were gone. And it had to have been something big. She just couldn’t tell what it was.
Satomi-sama wouldn’t tell me even when I asked him...
When Ruth had asked Koutarou about it before, she had only gotten a vague summary of what had happened. He and Clan had been sent to a different world, and they were forced to work together in order to return. During that process, they’d become friends. That was Koutarou’s answer every time Ruth had asked him about it. She wanted to hear the details, but he was oddly mum on the matter. In order to get the truth out of him, she would need some kind of definitive proof to confront him with. That’s why she’d been observing Koutarou the entire day, looking for something that might give him away, but she had yet to find anything that fit the bill.
“Hey, Ruth, did something happen between you and Koutarou?”
As Ruth was deep in thought, Sanae appeared upside down in front of her. She was able to do such things freely as a ghost, and she floated in front of Ruth like so to talk to her.
“Kyah!”
Ruth was startled by her sudden appearance, but she quickly returned to a smile when she realized it was a familiar face.
“O-Oh, it’s just you, Sanae-sama.”
“You’ve had this big wrinkle on your forehead since this morning and you’ve done nothing but glare at Koutarou like you’re trying to curse him to death. Did you get into a fight? Or are you pretending to be a stalker or something?”
Since Sanae could see the auras of others, she was especially sensitive to changes in people’s emotions. Because of that, she was the first to notice the doubts that had begun sprouting within Ruth towards Koutarou.
“Um...”
Ruth fumbled for an answer, but that was when she realized that Sanae might be able to help her. Since Sanae had noticed her doubts, there was a chance she might be able to tell what was different with Koutarou too.
“It’s not like we had a fight, but... I just feel like the atmosphere around Satomi-sama has changed a little.”
Ruth carefully choose her words as she explained herself to Sanae. In response, Sanae turned around and looked at Koutarou.
“Oh, that’s what you’re talking about.”
“So you’ve noticed it too?”
“Yeah.”
Sanae turned back to Ruth with a smile on her face. As Ruth had suspected, Sanae had also noticed the change in Koutarou.
“The feeling inside Koutarou has changed a little.”
“The feeling inside him?”
Sanae’s choice of words confused Ruth. She had no idea what Sanae meant about the feeling inside him.
“Oh, right, sorry. You know how I usually sleep inside of Koutarou, right?”
“Oh!”
Ruth clapped her hands together as the lightbulb came on. Since, as a ghost, Sanae didn’t have a physical form of her own, she could enter into the bodies of others. Her favorite person to inhabit was Koutarou, and she would often slip into his body to sleep. Ruth had seen it herself—a few too many times for her taste, in fact—so she immediately registered what Sanae was talking about. The sight of Sanae’s head and limbs sticking out of Koutarou’s body wasn’t something she would soon forget.
“It’s still comfortable, but it feels bigger than before.”
“Bigger?”
“Yeah.”
Sanae nodded and spread her arms out in an attempt to express her meaning.
“Before, when I entered, it felt really cozy with just me in there, but now it feels like there’s room for several more.”
Based on Sanae’s exaggerated gesture, she seemed to be indicating the size of room 106. It was like he’d gone from feeling like the size of the wardrobe to the whole apartment.
So inside of Satomi-sama has gotten bigger... I guess that means he’s gotten more mentally mature or that he has grown into a man of higher caliber.
That was how Ruth interpreted Sanae’s explanation. In the past, Koutarou’s heart only had room for one or two people, but now there was room for plenty more. That seemed to indicate he’d matured mentally or emotionally somehow.
“That’s right. We should sleep together inside Koutarou sometime, Ruth.”
“N-No, I... You know I can’t leave my own body.”
“Man, what a shame. It’s so warm and pleasant.”
Entering Koutarou’s body might give her the chance to find new clues, so it wasn’t like Sanae’s suggestion was an unattractive one to Ruth. There was just no way it would work. Since the only way she could do it would be to die and become a ghost too, she had no choice but to give up on the idea.
That said, this only makes me more sure that something big happened to Koutarou-sama and Clan-sama...
Thanks to Sanae, Ruth had learned that Koutarou’s sword skills weren’t the only things that had developed while he was away. And she wasn’t idealistic enough to think that kind of growth happened spontaneously. After talking with Sanae, Ruth only grew more suspicious of Koutarou.
To the girl known as Sakuraba Harumi, this year’s Valentine’s Day was special. It would be the first one she’d spend in love—something she had only read about in books before. Of course, that’s not to say it would be her first time trying her hand at making chocolate. She made it every year for her family and the children at the hospital. But even so, this would be her first time making a real, bona fide valentine for a boy she loved. As such, she was going to proceed carefully to make sure it came out perfect.
Aww, I should’ve started on preparations earlier!
Harumi stared at the mountain of snacks on the desk in the club room, secretly panicking. The old club room was still cold since it was the middle of February, but Harumi didn’t have the mental energy to spend caring about the temperature. Or on her knitting, for that matter. The needles in her hands were moving at a snail’s pace, almost autonomously. The truth was that Harumi hadn’t realized until very recently that she even had someone she wanted to give a
valentine.
“Are you going to give Satomi-san a valentine, Sakuraba-senpai?”
It was actually a question from Yurika that had prompted it. Until then, she’d only been planning on giving chocolates to her family and the children in the hospital as usual.
Harumi didn’t currently have the courage to confess to Koutarou. But since the difference between a real valentine and an obligatory one was so obscure, she could express her real feelings to Koutarou without having to worry about how he might take it. Thinking of it that way, Harumi definitely wanted to make chocolate for him. It was a quest she couldn’t afford to fail. She knew she had to make the best chocolate she could, but she also wanted to make sure that it was something Koutarou would actually like. She couldn’t do this just for her own satisfaction.
And so Harumi began researching Koutarou’s tastes when it came to sweets. However, since she’d only just started her research the other day, she hadn’t learned much yet. And since she couldn’t flat out ask Koutarou what kind of chocolate he liked, she was starting to panic a little.
“Oh, hey, Sakuraba-senpai, Mackenzie asked me about you at work yesterday.”
Koutarou, who had been ardently knitting, set aside his work and reached out for a cup of freshly poured tea.
Maybe this time...
With his needles and his knitting now on the desk, Harumi paid close attention to Koutarou’s hands. In his left was a cup of tea, and his right was reaching out towards the mountain of snacks.
At last!
This was exactly the moment Harumi had been waiting for, and she instinctively held her breath as she watched with great anticipation.
“He wants you to appear in another play. It seems you were a big hit even with people outside of the school.”
Unaware of Harumi’s intentions, Koutarou casually grabbed a snack and threw it into his mouth.
Another tick for milk chocolate.
Harumi made a mental note of every type of snack Koutarou ate, and this time he’d chosen a milk chocolate one. Harumi had prepared the snacks herself, and while she’d included rice crackers and potato chips, she’d made sure that most of the snacks were chocolatey sweets.
There were three kinds of chocolate snacks in total, each with a different coating. There was the sweet and easy to eat milk chocolate, the bitter chocolate without much sugar or milk in it, and the bittersweet chocolate in between the two. This time Koutarou had taken one of the milk chocolate snacks.
Based on everything so far, it seems like Satomi-kun prefers milk chocolate...
Harumi had secretly been researching Koutarou’s preferences this way since last week. Since she couldn’t find it in herself to ask him straight out, she had taken this roundabout method instead. She felt only lining up chocolates would be too obvious, so she had included various other candies as well. Because of that, however, her research was taking quite a long time and she was starting to panic.
Maybe I should use milk chocolate to make something fun...
Based on the data Harumi had collected so far, she knew that Koutarou was extremely fond of specially shaped candy. When she had brought candy she’d made using flour, water, and syrup in a mold, Koutarou’s eyes had sparkled and he had gone after those first. And based on her findings today, she learned that Koutarou preferred milk chocolate. And so Harumi slowly began thinking of things she could do putting the two together.
“Sakuraba-senpai. Hey, Sakuraba-senpai.”
But as she stared up at the ceiling while thinking up recipes, Koutarou’s face suddenly appeared in front of her.
“Y-Yes?!”
Harumi let out a loud yelp in response. She was caught off guard by Koutarou’s unexpected appearance. She was so startled, in fact, that she nearly jumped out of her chair.
“U-Uh, wh-what is it, S-Satomi-kun?”
“Weren’t you listening?”
“I-I’m sorry, m-my mind just wandered off...”
Harumi tried to calm her racing heart and apologized to Koutarou in a fluster. She couldn’t tell Koutarou what she was really thinking about. She couldn’t even bear to imagine what he might think of her if he knew.
“Pffft! Ahahahaha!”
But Koutarou only laughed. Harumi’s flustered face and her panicked excuses were just so cute and funny that he couldn’t hold it in.
“S-Satomi-kun?”
Harumi was baffled by Koutarou’s laughter, and her eyes opened wide in surprise at the sound. That reaction, however, only made things funnier to Koutarou. He nearly busted a gut laughing.
“Wahahahahaha! Wh-What’s with that face, Sakuraba-senpai?! Hahahahaha!”
“Oh you, Satomi-kun!”
“No, not me! Ahahaha! It’s your face that’s funny, wahahaha!”
Harumi quickly realized that Koutarou was laughing at her, but by then there was nothing she could do about it. Koutarou found her face so funny that he had to gasp for breath in between fits of laughter.
“Satomi-kun, you really are a big meanie, jeez...”
Harumi’s angry face—which was 50 percent embarrassment, 40 percent affection, and 10 percent anger—only made Koutarou laugh even harder.
While Koutarou was laughing like an idiot, Sanae and Yurika, who had been getting along well recently, were visiting the supermarket by the station.
“Wow, there’s so much chocolate!”
“I hope some of it’s a good bargain!”
The supermarket was having a special sale on chocolate now that Valentine’s Day was so close. Armed with that knowledge, two girls who rarely went to the supermarket had come to do some serious shopping.
“Don’t be so cheap. Valentine’s Day only comes once a year.”
Sanae cheerfully looked over each and every one of the chocolates on display, and she was currently eyeing the shelf lined with the relatively expensive products. Since she rarely used her money, being a ghost and all, they were well within her price range even with just the small allowance she got from Koutarou. The only other thing she really ever bought was anime related merchandise. Because of that, she was planning on buying something nice.
But if it’s too expensive, Koutarou might not like it, so something around here should be good...
Sanae had perused the top-shelf chocolates briefly, but in the end she decided against them. She was planning on giving Koutarou chocolate, but she was also planning on sharing it with him by clinging to his back as he ate it so that she could taste it too. But that meant if she bought him a kind of chocolate that he was unused to and he didn’t like it, she wouldn’t get the right sensation out of it. She loved the spiritual energy Koutarou showered her with when he was happy, and if all she really wanted was Koutarou to be happy, there was no reason to buy a needlessly expensive chocolate.
In the end, Sanae chose a nice, limited edition Valentine’s Day chocolate from a popular brand. The label read: “A special version of the taste everyone loves, just for the special person you love.” That spoke to her, and she felt like she made the right choice.
“But, but, but! Expensive chocolate doesn’t fill you up like the cheap stuff does!”
Unlike Sanae who headed for the more expensive products, Yurika immediately went for the bargain bin. They were split up, Yurika on the left side of the aisle and Sanae on the right.
Yurika lived off the stipend she received from Folsaria. However, considering the strength of the yen right now and how seriously her stipend was docked to cover all the property damage she’d caused in the past, she had to survive off of very meager means. Despite that, she still couldn’t stop herself from buying her beloved shoujo manga, meaning that she had almost no spare money. If it weren’t for Koutarou generously allowing her to live in room 106, she’d be the first homeless magical girl in history. As a result, Yurika ended up being drawn towards the right shelves.
Do I get ten 10 yen chocolates, two 50 yen chocolates, or one 100 yen chocolate? Auuugh, what should I do?
Yurika was wondering
how to use the 100 yen she’d managed to scrounge up. Should she buy a bunch of cheap chocolates, one of the most expensive kind she could afford, or something in the middle? If she were buying for herself, she definitely would have chosen the cheapest chocolate to get as much as possible, but since she was going to give it to Koutarou and the others, she felt like going too cheap would be bad. At a loss for what to do, she began thinking of different ways to spend her 100 yen, such as two 30 yen chocolates and four 10 yen chocolates.
“...I hate this. I hate being poor...”
Since Yurika loved shoujo manga so much, Valentine’s Day had a special place in her heart. She also wanted to try giving a boy she liked a big, homemade chocolate creation. But with the market and her circumstances what they were, that was just a pipe dream. Yurika clenched the 100 yen coin in her hand and gritted her teeth. It was all she could do.
“V-Valentine’s Day sucks...”
Yurika stared at the chocolate on the shelf with tears in her eyes.
“Yurika, Yurika!”
That was when Sanae, holding her own chocolate, approached.
“Huh?”
Yurika looked up to see Sanae pointing behind her.
“Isn’t that the one you were talking about the other day?”
“Huh, what?”
Yurika looked in the direction Sanae was pointing.
“Whaaat?!”
Yurika froze when she read the words: “Sale! Kanto seaweed soy sauce ramen! One bag for just 78 yen!” It was a sign for the new flavor of instant ramen that she had eagerly been waiting to try.
While Sanae and Yurika were at the supermarket, two other girls from the Corona House crew arrived. They, however, weren’t headed for the candy aisle.
“Kiriha-san, over here.”
“Thank you, Shizuka. You’re a big help.”
Shizuka and Kiriha were browsing the alcohol aisle, not that they wanted any to drink. What they were after was special cooking liquor.
“It’s no trouble. I’m here to buy something myself anyway.”
