ch21-ch40 · 028-ch28

Chapter 28: Teh-Hehe

　I, Ōnaki Kiriko, am in a great mood.

　When the kind of stuff you usually only see in anime and manga happens to you personally, well, of course an otaku like me would get all excited and thrilled, right?

　This heart-pounding excitement that started the day before yesterday when we met Melkid.

　Yesterday was so insanely intense I couldn't even think about "heart-pounding," but we made it home safe, so all's good.

　I'm still pissed about Melkid's betrayal, though. And he saw me naked too. Dammit, I thought he was just a mascot character, but to think he was actually some old guy—what a miscalculation! Eh, you ask if Melkid isn't young? To a high school girl like me, that's totally an old guy, old guy.

　Even setting aside that detestable Melkid situation, the joy far outweighed it.

　Ai and Ai's Papa, who were directly involved, had it rough, but since I was more of a bystander in all that, maybe I had it comparatively easy.

　Especially the scene where Ai's Papa enveloped himself in crows and transformed into the Black Knight—that was so awesome!

　My usual interests have been pretty much limited to 2D, but 3D isn't bad either... slurp.

　Anyway, now that I know the secret about Ai's Papa coming from another world, I'm getting all excited too.

　Of course, I'm not gonna go spreading this around as some juicy story. This kind of thing is special precisely because it's kept a secret... But setting aside my personal interests, there's no way I'd go blabbing about my best friend Ai and her Papa, right?

　And so, Ai's taking today off from school to have a family meeting with Papa. The topic's probably about the other world, I'd guess.

　And since Ai's so dutiful, it seems she's going to tell me and Sumi all about what she learned. "I can't keep quiet after dragging you guys into this." Even though she could've just left me out of it.

　And so, after school, Sumi and I are making our way—slowly but surely—to Ai's house.

　Ai bikes to school, but it's not like it's too far to walk. Still, we decided to take the bus since it'd be bad if we got there late.

　We snag the very back seats in the empty bus.

　When I look beside me, there's Sumi, radiating tension in complete contrast to her usual spacey mode at school. I get it, I really do.

　Sumi might have kept her mouth shut when everyone at school pressed her, but she can't fool me.

　"...Did you fall for him that much? Ai's Papa, I mean."

　Sumi whips her head around to face me in an instant.

　Don't give me that "How'd you know?" look. It'd be weird if I didn't figure it out after just yesterday, right?

　"Well, yeah, he was pretty cool, wasn't he? Catching Sumi mid-air, and then that princess carry. Can't blame you for falling for him."

　He jumped from his bike to catch the girl thrown from the car, then flipped and landed.

　When someone does that for you, well, it's only natural to fall.

　"N-no, that's not it. A-and he was cool, yeah, but... it's not that I, um, fell for him because of that..."

　We've been best friends for years, but this is the first time I've ever seen her turn bright red and look down.

　"It's just... I should've been worried sick about Ai, but instead I... all I could think was 'Thank goodness Sumi-chan is safe'..."

"Kyaah, Sumi-chan is so cute~!"

"A-auu..."




Sum's turning not just her face but every bit of visible skin completely red as her head keeps sinking lower and lower. If she keeps this up, she's gonna roll herself into a ball, you know?


Still, Ai's Papa is something else. Making a currently-enrolled high school girl fall for him this hard. That's some serious manliness that makes you forget the age gap.


"Anyway, Kiri, you're not crushing on him or anything? From Ai's messages, sounds like even crazier stuff happened after all that, right?"


Oh yeah, that's right—Sumi was out of commission midway through, so she didn't get to see the Black Knight's heroic feats.

If she'd seen that, Sumi probably would've just gone past her limits and lost it completely.


That said.


"Well, I don't have any romantic feelings or anything like that. It's more like... I've found a new fave, I guess?"




Like, he's way too old, and he's my friend's dad, and all that.

But even setting all that aside, no romantic feelings sprouted or anything. It's more like that feeling you get when you're looking at a character in a story?

Obviously, he's way more real than someone on the other side of a screen. He's real, but it feels like I'm watching some fictional tale... But he's so strong and cool, and how he dotes on his daughter—I can totally get behind that! Kinda feeling.


"...Hmm?"


Just as we're getting off at the nearest bus stop, Sumi tilts her head curiously. This feeling just isn't getting through to her, huh.

Well, given that Sumi didn't get to see that transformation and battle scene, Ai's Papa is still in the "pretty impressive person" category for her, so it can't be helped...


"Huh, déjà vu, maybe?"


Sumi points to the sidewalk right after getting off. It seems Sumi was tilting her head not because she couldn't understand my feelings, but because some mysterious object had fallen on the sidewalk—right in our path.

A white, fluffy lump that I've seen somewhere before. Yeah, I have a bad feeling about this.


After meeting eyes with Sumi and nodding at each other, we carefully start closing the distance, making sure not to get too close.


And then, at a position where we can clearly see what that fluffy thing is, we stop, and both of us shout.


"Melkid!?"


At hearing its name, the fluffy lump reacts with a twitch, slowly raises its face to look at us... and sticks out its tongue.


"...Teh-heh."




Appearances aside, coming from someone like me who knows what's inside, that was the least cute "teh-heh" in the world.