Chapter 123 – Ichijouji Reina’s Daily Life – Seven
Translator’s Note: I’m putting everyone’s names here at the start to avoid confusion.
Yuu – Oda Yuuki
Maria – Hagiwara Mai
Hannes – Sugo Masaki
Ryne – Kokonoe Kurumi
Cherry – Shinonome Sakura
Eleanor – Kanno Nozomi
Kellin – Odawara Kenji
Myra – Kamiya Nozomi
“Miss Ichijouji, do you have a moment?” A classmate of mine suddenly said once classes were over.
“What is it?” I asked her back. I can’t really remember her name, and I don’t know why she talked to me either, but it wouldn’t be ‘normal’ to ignore her, so I replied.
“You’re playing a game called KSO, right?” She asked me.
“Yes, I am.” I told her. I don’t get why she asked me instead of Yuuki or Mai though, they’re definitely better than me at game talk.
“What is it like? What do you do when you play it!?” She seemed to be excited for some reason.
“I just… Do whatever I want?” I told her. I don’t really have a specific routine or anything, and I mostly play solo, so there isn’t much more to say.
“B-b-but what about that thing about you being a genocider?” She eagerly asked.
I didn’t know how to reply, and Yahiko did say I could just smile at those times, so let’s try it. I smiled at her without really saying anything.
“I-I-I see! T-thank you for your time! I’ll see you tomorrow!” She said before leaving.
“See you tomorrow.” I replied… Smiling really did work, what a nice trick. I should thank him for this one later.
“Reina! Let’s go home together!” Mai suddenly called out to me as soon as the other girl left.
“Alright.” I replied, which made her give me a big smile as she started walking with me… Also, Yuuki came together while walking a bit behind us, he was also fidgeting a bit… I suppose the three of us will go home together? I’m not used to this kind of ‘ordinary’ thing, but it feels nice.
“By the way, Masaki and his friends said they wanna come with us too.” Mai told me as we walked to the shoe lockers.
“Yeah, they said they’ll wait at the school’s gates.” Yuuki complemented.
So we’re going home with a big group? That’s a first to me… Well, I suppose it’s fine, even a bit unexpected and confusing.
*****
(Yuu’s PoV)
There was an awkward heavy mood in the air right now… It was just supposed to be me and Mai going home with Reina, but Sugo and his friends ended up overhearing our plans and took advantage of it, and we’re now in this mess.
“Reina, do you like sweets? Let’s buy some crepes!” Mai told her.
“I don’t hate them.” Reina replied.
“So even the Genocider likes sweets…” Kanno commented. The girls are in a good mood, yet we over here are in such a drought… Why did I have to ask if Sugo still liked Reina? Such a bad move on my end, this is why otaku and normies shouldn’t mix! This topic choice was terrible!
“I’ll take the strawberry chocolate one!” Kamiya said as we reached the crepe stall.
“I’ll go with custard pudding.” Shinonome said.
“And I… Will go for a crepe of caramel with whipped cream, I suppose.” Kanno said.
“I’ll have the same! What about you Reina, which one do you want?” Mai asked her. At least the girls are having fun, I guess… Or rather, everyone except me and Sugo are having fun, since his two male friends sneaked away from us two and were having fun on their own…
“I don’t know? I’ve never eaten crepes before.” Reina replied.
“Then get the same as me! I recommend it! Give one to her too, clerk!” Mai dragged Reina into eating her favorite flavor… I suppose that’s fine.
Though it is a bit pitiful that Reina has never gone out to buy sweets on her own like this… Well, not much we can do about her past, I suppose. Let’s just try to enjoy our time together now.
With those thoughts in my head, me and the other guys in the group ordered our crepes.
“… Hey.” Sugo suddenly called me out.
“W-what!?” I replied with a really weird voice due to how surprising it was for him to talk to me out of nowhere… He started laughing because of it… Tsk.
After a small while he stopped though, and then asked me, “Is she always like this?” Must be talking about Reina…
“Well, pretty much. She is pretty sheltered it seems… She feels lost by the smallest of things, like how to play with a stray cat, or how to reply to the greeting of an elementary student even.” I told him.
“Really now…” Sugo seemed to be thinking about something as I thought of the times where me and Mai were together with Reina and witnessed her being troubled by those trivial things…
“Mmmmm…” Reina was looking at the crepe without really biting it.
“Reina, like this!” Mai called her out, and then took a bite.
“Oh!” Reina replied and took a bite in the same way Mai did just now.
“I’m surprised you don’t even know how to eat a crepe.” Shinonome commented.
“Must be because she’s a lady, I guess?” Kamiya replied.
This looked just like a scene out of an anime… Wait, no, forget those thoughts! There are non-otaku here, you shouldn’t bring those things up.
“… Sweet.” Reina said while smiling.
“It’s delicious, isn’t it!?” Mai commented.
“How can the Genocider be like this? You’re so cute!” Shinonome said.
Reina was mostly expressionless, so I suppose her rare smiles were that much more impressive… I wonder if this was because of her upbringing, making her unable to smile much, or even take big bites from food… Mai once said that she wanted to pat Reina’s said while saying stuff like ‘it’s alright, you can eat more if you want.’
… And just as the mood was getting better, my phone had to ruin it, damn it! I can’t believe I forgot to change my usual anime ringtone! There’s no way they didn’t hear it when this mail arrived… I should have just chosen a normal J-pop for today, why did I have to forget to change it…?
I sighed before looking at the phone, “Huh? That’s surprising… It’s from KSO management.” I told everyone after I read the mail.
“What does it say?” Sugo asked me.
“We’ll be having another event.” I replied.
“Oh…” Sugo instantly turned his gaze towards Reina, who just tilted her head in response, “Ichijouji, you better prepare yourself for this next event, alright!?” He said.
“… Oh, alright.” Was her reply… This was supposed to be some sort of anime climax moment or something, right? I mean, I think it’s what Sugo was going for, but… Both of them had some cream around their mouthes, so they just looked silly right now.
“Ah, and by the way…” They started saying in unison… Honestly, it was hard to not laugh right now, but everyone seemed to be at a mutual understanding that we shouldn’t break the mood by laughing, “There’s some cream on your face.” they said together again… At this point, we all started laughing.
