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TAMCG Chapter 40: Final Preparations 2
🕑 Added 2024-10-07 07:08:24 +0000 UTCRyuichi P.O.V
As I walked through the almost desolate streets and tinted with the color of the sunset I found myself thinking a little about anything that was pending, now that I had finished talking with Kirisu-sensei there were only a few important things left to do.
After she calmed down, I was able to talk to her once again normally, well, that's if I didn't count how embarrassed she was for showing me the "embarrassing" side of her.
And even though she said that, I believed that it was something she had to let out sooner or later to move forward, so I was happy to help her.
But of course, all her embarrassment disappeared when I told her that I wouldn't be in town for a couple of weeks, I didn't even have time to elaborate when she asked if that had anything to do with devils or the supernatural world.
At that point, trying to lie to her was not among my options, so I was as ambiguous as possible, saying that it had nothing to do with devils, but that it was something related to the supernatural.
She instantly demanded to know everything in great detail, but I refused to tell her, she had already had something resembling an existential crisis after learning about how crazy this world was and was just beginning to get used to the idea that the gods, magical beings, and so on existed.
I didn't want to imagine how she would react to the existence of parallel worlds or other universes, especially knowing that in one of them, an invasion of monstrous dolls had wiped out a large part of the population.
So, for her own sake, I tried hard to convince her that I couldn't tell her but that I would return in 2 weeks.
Once she understood and accepted what I was telling her, I finally moved on to the part where I would need her help, asking her to intervene on my behalf with the school principal, telling him that she had seen in person how I had a family emergency and that I had conducted an urgent trip abroad, more specifically, China, where I knew my mother's family was from.
Since Kirisu-sensei knew the director and he seemed to trust her a lot, I hoped that would give my excuse enough credibility.
Luckily she assured me that there would be no problem, although when she asked about Touji, I told her that I had already spoken to Karasuma-san to give me a hand, letting him stay at her house during the time that I was gone.
Leaving that topic aside, I sighed as I reviewed all the things she had in preparation for the mission, with the extra payment I had received from Rias I had been able to choose better the things I wanted to take.
Enough food and water for several days, clothing for hot and cold climates, filters and tablets to purify water, ropes, a couple of sleeping bags, tents, a couple of compasses, flints, dynamo flashlights, the most resistant cell phone I could find, and many more things, but my most unexpected additions were without a doubt, 3 objects obtained from the supernatural world or by magical means.
These were-!!!
My thoughts stopped when, because I was distracted, I collided with a person in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Ah, I'm sorry I didn't was lo-wait a minute, Mikazuki?" I interrupted my apology when I saw that the person in front of me was my perverted kouhai.
"Ryu-senpai!" The girl said happily as she opened her arms and jumped towards me, with perhaps a little too much joy, which made me think that perhaps this meeting had not been by coincidence.
With narrowed eyes, I overlooked the fact that Mikazuki was hugging me, or at least I did until the little pervert buried her face in my chest before moving it back and forth while sniffing me like an old pervert would do with a schoolgirl. "What do you think you're doing?" I asked feeling my eye twitch.
"Eh...strengthen the unbreakable bond that unites us? Tee hee." She asked after removing her face from my chest as she winked, she gently bumped her fist against her head and stuck her tongue out.
"Don't 'tee hee' to me, this is clearly sexual harassment." I said with a blank expression.
"Come on senpai, don't be melodramatic, look, when the time comes, and we both know it will, I'll let you do the same with me for as long as you want, doesn't that sound good?" She said, looking at me with a wicked smile as if daring me to say otherwise.
I grabbed the back of the jacket she was wearing and pulled it off of me. "You sure have a lot of confidence to say that, right? And if you wanted to bribe me with an offer like that, I think you're a little lacking in the breasts department"
"Ah!" Now standing on the ground and in front of me, Mikazuki pointed at me with an accusatory expression. "Senpai, how can you be so cruel to say that to a lady?! Besides, we both know that you like thighs much more than breasts, and you'll see, I have it in the blood, soon this pair will grow until they put my sister's to shame!!" She said as she held her small breasts.
Before I responded, a mature voice caught our attention. "What did you just say Mikazuki?!!" And when we both turned around, we saw Kiryu-sensei dressed in casual clothes, walking towards us in a threatening manner.
"I heard you even where I was! I'm going to teach you to respect your big sister." She said, grabbing Mikazuki's ear and pulling on it.
"Ayayayay, no, sister, it will break, you will tear my ear!" The younger sister complained, and when I was about to intervene, the girl with the pigtails mistakenly hit the envelope that my teacher had under her arm, causing it to fall and spill its contents.
"Ah." My teacher let go of her sister and knelt down as fast as she could, trying to pick up the papers scattered on the floor, and of course, I had also squatted down to help her before any wind current could blow away any leaves.
"Here you have sen-!!!" My words got stuck in my throat when I saw the content of the sheets, which were actually photographs of Kiryu-sensei cosplaying some characters, but the one that caught my attention the most was definitely her interpretation of the character Mai from King Of Fighters, for obvious reasons.
"Hye!!" Kiryu-sensei screeched and snatched the photos from me, although that probably didn't matter because just like the time she ended up almost naked and on top of me, or that incident in the shower, the image I had just seen was burned into my memory.
"R-ryuichi-kun, t-this is not what it looks like, I swear!! I, I, I." My teacher repeated "I" like a malfunctioning machine while it was obvious that she was trying to find an excuse that was at least halfway believable, but she was failing spectacularly.
And when I saw the cause of all this commotion, the ruthless little agent of chaos, Mikazuki, she had taken out a small notebook from a pocket of her skirt, one very similar to the ones Kyujin carried, and she started to write down while speaking out loud.
"So, with this Onee-chan loses some points, and her ranking drops to 3rd and last place, now I just have to wait for Kirisu-sensei to screw up one of these days and I will have free rein to attack with all my weapons-ouch!"
I interrupted her with a very light karate chop to the head. "Letting your plans leak like that is something that, if there was real competition, would take away a lot of points"
"Come on, it's just a friendly competition, after all, as a certain third pink-haired alien princess would say, the ideal ending is the harem ending, this little competition is just to decide the pecking order." She assured giving me a thumbs up.
"You're too much of a fan of To Love Ru, last time I checked, I didn't have any blessings that ensured that every time I fell I did so in a compromising position with a girl, and if you wanted to play the role of Momo then, once again, you're lacking in the breast department"
"Geh!" Mikazuki held her chest as if he had been shot directly at her heart, but I let her do the act, Kiryu-sensei had been repeating. "I, I, I." For too long, so it was time to save at least a little of her dignity.
"Sensei." I said snapping my fingers in front of her face, breaking her out of her repeat loop and getting her attention, although when she looked at me, she seemed quite embarrassed, reaching the point where I sincerely hoped she would turn around and run away at any moment.
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that you’re a cosplayer." I said, although the fact that I knew probably embarrassed her more than the possibility of me spreading it, perhaps.
"Besides." I hastened to add so as not to create misunderstandings. "Even I've cosplayed a few times before." I admitted reluctantly, which caught the attention of the two sisters.
"Eh? Really?!" Kirisu-sensei's embarrassment disappeared, replaced by what seemed like childish excitement.
"How come I never found out about that?!!" Mikazuki, on the other hand, had stars in her eyes while she had her notebook in her hand and a pen in the other, ready to write again.
"Eh, well, yes, once a year I go with Touji to the Comiket in Odaiba, last year I went to the Fuyucomi in December, and I cosplayed Michaelis Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji." I admitted.
"As a butler?!" Kirisu-sensei seemed more excited. "So you don't think that cosplaying is immature or ridiculous?"
"Of course not, you have a curious hobby, so what? You do your job, you are not financially dependent on anyone, and you don't make a fuss by openly cosplaying while revealing your identity, in my opinion, you have every right to tell any idiot who wants to tell you how to live your life that they can go to hell." I said, and Kiryu-sensei seemed quite happy with my answer, while Mikazuki wrote furiously in her notebook.
"So one of the senpai's fetishes is cosplay, umm." She made a slight sound of annoyance, but she also smiled excitedly. "With this onee-chan takes the lead once again." She said before putting her notebook away and approaching me.
"Hey, senpai~." The pervert sang as she poked my side with her hand. "So, hypothetically speaking, if I came to your house cosplaying as an ero-maid or a bunny girl, you would be excited, right?"
"Hey, don't do that, I don't want a police patrol to end up coming to my house"
"Boo." Mikazuki complained, deflating like a balloon. "But at least I can go play, right? I think it's time for me to meet my future little brother-in-law, erm, I mean, your little brother"
"That won't be possible, at least not for now." I replied.
"But why? Of the 3 heavenly queens, I am the only one who has not been to your house, and I am the one who has known you the longest, why are you so bad with your beloved kouhai?"
I froze, she had named the supposed group formed by her, Kirisu-sensei and Kiryu-sensei the 3 heavenly queens? That not only was too chunibyo, but anyone who heard it would think I was some kind of bastard playboy, and even if I didn't care about that gossip, I'm sure Kirisu-sensei would be extra demanding in our study sessions if she found out that I knew about this and I didn't stop it or warn her.
"Mikazuki! What is this about heavenly queens?! Don't go around giving people embarrassing labels." Before I came to my senses and said anything, Kiryu-sensei stepped forward, scolding her sister.
"Ah, we can talk about the name later, anyway, it would be better if there was one more, 4 heavenly queens sounds better than 3, senpai, don't you know if Kirisu-sensei has an unmarried younger sister? Ehehehe." Mikazuki laughed, wiping away some of the drool that fell from the corner of her mouth, and while she gave off the image of an old pervert, she managed to make Kiryu-sensei take a couple of steps back cautiously.
"Ah, but joking aside, Ryu-senpai, why can't I come to your house to play?" She asked, turning from her imitation of a perverted old man to a cute kouhai.
"Several reasons, among which are that I don't want one or more of my clothes to disappear mysteriously, that it wouldn't be pleasant to find panties under my pillow when I go to sleep that night, or that, knowing you to the extent that I do, I hope that you somehow hide and then sneak into my bed while I sleep." I listed with a neutral tone, raising a finger for each reason.
"But mainly because I won't be in Japan for a while." This time, my tone was a little resigned, after all these silly interactions with both sisters felt just as pleasant as the ones I had with Kirisu-sensei, although they were different.
Maybe I was being selfish, trying to take whatever form of normality I once had, clinging to my old life even when I knew that wasn't possible, desperately holding on to that past for the same reason Kirisu-sensei gave me.
Because it made me happy.
"Senpai, did something happen?" Mikazuki put aside her act and asked me with genuine concern, which also caught Kiryu-sensei's attention strongly, surprising her more than the occurrences of her younger sister.
"Let's say it's… a family emergency, and I'm forced to go." I explained without giving the slightest detail, sticking to the lie I had agreed upon with my pink-haired teacher.
"Is this something about Ryu-senpai's mother's family?"
"Something like that"
"And how long will you be gone?"
"More or less two weeks"
Mikazuki made a disgusted face, all of her mischief and happiness had disappeared as if they had never been there.
"Hey, come on, don't make that face, it's annoying, a lot, but I'll just go, bother whoever wants to mess with me, and I'll come back the exact second I finish what I have to do." I assured her by patting her on the head a couple of times.
I understood why it didn't sit well with her to think that I would go to meet members of my mother's family, and that was just another proof that no matter how eccentric Mikazuki was, she was someone who genuinely cared about me, and I would always be grateful to her for that sincere feeling of hers.
Then I looked at Kiryu-sensei, she seemed a little lost because of how she had seen her younger sister react, and to be honest, I could already imagine her asking Mikazuki about what she knew, and being what she was, my perverted kouhai would surely tell her sister everything, that was something I couldn't avoid, so I decided to back to my house to finish preparing.
"Well, I have to pack my bags, I'll be leaving early tomorrow, so I don't have much time, see you Mikazuki, goodbye Kiryu-sensei." I said goodbye, raising a hand and waving it before walking away from both of them.
"Ah, yes, good luck on your trip." My teacher said, with a voice somewhere between confused and worried.
"Senpai, be careful, please." Mikazuki seemed a little downcast, but she still forced herself to smile at me.
I gave them a thumbs-up. "I will have it." I said before quickening my pace.
######
Yuzuki Kiryu P.O.V
"Mikazuki." I said as we walked in silence, it had been about 5 minutes since Ryuichi-kun had left, and I couldn't stop my curiosity any longer.
"Um?" My younger sister, who, although she no longer seemed so downcast, still had a thoughtful expression, turned her neck to look at me.
"What's wrong Onee-chan?" She asked, and I could instantly see that she already knew what I wanted to talk about.
"What was that before?"
"That?" She pretended not to understand, playing with me, so I said it clearly.
"About Ryuichi-kun and his mother's family, do you know anything?" I asked, although, from the way she had reacted, it was more than obvious.
"Oh? Are you interested? Are you worried about Ryu-senpai?" She said with a bit of mockery, but it was obvious that she was trying to lighten the mood a bit.
"Of course I do, he is my student"
"Oh really?" She didn't seem convinced. "I already told you Onee-chan, you have to be more honest, or you will be left behind, and you will reach 50 and still be alone and a virgin." She said with a shrug.
I felt my face turn incredibly red with embarrassment, how could this brat talk about such embarrassing things on the street without a shred of consideration for her poor older sister?
It was fortunate that the person closest to us was an elderly woman, who was walking 5 meters in front of us with what seemed to be her grandson, if someone had heard her, I don't know how I would have reacted.
"Oh well." After seeing that I couldn't speak because of shame, she continued. "As a fellow heavenly queen and your younger sister, I will tell you, with this we will both be ahead of Kirisu-sensei in terms of closeness with senpai." She declared before pointing her finger at a family restaurant.
"But if you want this valuable information, you will have to pay, I want a hamburger steak and a delicious dessert." She said, walking a little faster.
I sighed with resignation. "Just don't order anything too expensive, payday is still a while away." I asked, following her.
X-X-X-X-X
We're so close to the end of this "volume" that I can almost taste it, let's hope Ryuichi is prepared as best as possible.
Now, completely random extra facts that have to do with this chapter:
-Mikazuki is a big fan of To Love-Ru and To Love-Ru Darkness, and thanks to her, Ryuichi discovered that series.
-Her favorite characters are Momo Belia Deviluke and Nemesis.
-She gave Ryuichi volume 18 (where Momo is on the cover) of the "Darkness" saga autographed by Kentaro Yabuki (co-creator and artist of the manga) on his last birthday.
-Because of this, Ryuichi has been looking for a copy of volume 8 or 16 (volumes where Nemesis is on the cover) autographed by Yabuki to give her on her next birthday.
-Ryuichi's favorite character (and waifu) from To Love-Ru is Yui Kotegawa.
See you in the next chapter
