6 An Encounter

Author: Bishamon Mine
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0664js/7/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

I was sleeping in Swallow-san’s one-room with the gravity control and the lights off.

Swallow-san’s one-room is more calming than my room in the apartment.

Admiller-san had called me, so I went, by the way, but I didn’t get to see her.
I wanted to fluff the fennec ears, too.

But the reward went up.

Standard reward: 200,000 Union credits and 500,000 merit points.
On top of that, a special reward: 300,000 Union credits and 500,000 merit points.
In other words, it became almost more than double.

I made a lot, so I thought about living it up on Highlane, but sleep won.
My first real battle apparently used a lot of stamina. I planned to sleep until time for school.

Then a vvvvmmm woke me up.
My phone had been buzzing the whole time.
I mutter, still half in a dream.

“What? Onee-chan? I’m already done studying, so it’s fine——”

I couldn’t fight the sleep, and the doze swallowed me.

 

There is no day the sun does not rise——on Earth, so far.

Today the sun has not had a stellar-destruction bomb shot into it or anything. Just a weekday, so I rub my sleepy eyes and proceed as normal, heading to school on the monorail.

You must not ride Swallow-san to school, by the way.
Coming to school in a fighter is like coming by motorcycle, so it’s forbidden.

Well, I’m keeping being a player secret, so I wouldn’t ride up anyway.

The school I go to is Kanagawa Prefectural Souha High School.
A school along the Enoden with an excessively refreshing name.

I thought a soft-drink ad would even suit it, and right after I enrolled, they actually shot one.

The girl in the CM is a first-year like me. Yachimata Alice-san, apparently from Britain. Stage name “Isshiki Alice.”

A model, sometimes on TV, she’s done acting, she’s even sung an anime OP, she’s done voice work. On top of that she placed in the top eight at the middle-school kendo nationals. A superwoman who can do anything.

Looks: blond, blue-eyed, fair-skinned beauty.

The epithet she got among kendo people in middle school was, whoever started it, “Hakama Alice.”
Getting a real epithet is way too cool.

The CM is Yachimata-san cheering on a boy doing the high jump.
Yachimata-san was so cute I wanted to huff huff.

I mean, I can’t, though.

At the end of the CM Yachimata-san drinks a sparkling drink and goes “ei” into a high jump, and the classmates were spectacularly slain by that cuteness.

She even drops a girl like me. What a natural gigolo.

And just like that, Yachimata-san became the school celebrity overnight.

Which is why I’m gulping Yachimata-san’s CM juice, “puhaa, good. Yachimata juice, good,”

muttering stupid things like that, when I level my gaze and a trembling small animal is reflected down below.
——No, what looked like a small animal was a person.
And a girl in the same school uniform.

Sitting in the seat was Yachimata Alice-san.

——Eh?

Yachimata-san!?
I drop my gaze further in surprise, and Yachimata-san is trembling, face paper-white.
Glasses (probably a disguise) and a mask, but there’s no mistake. It’s Yachimata-san.

The sudden encounter nearly blanks my head, but no matter how you look at it Yachimata-san is not in a normal state.

She was fair to begin with, but this is the blood gone from her face.
Maybe she feels sick.
No, don’t tell me she heard what I just muttered?

If a fellow girl said something indescribable like “your juice is good,” of course you’d tremble from the bottom of your body.

“Wh-wh-what’s wrong, Yachimata-san.”

———Ah…… I blew it. Yachimata-san probably doesn’t even know me, and I said her name.

This is exactly like a creepy girl who watches Yachimata-san from far away.
And I stuttered full-power, as usual.

To tell the truth, I’m bad at conversation that isn’t “yes” or “no.”
——Whether “yes” or “no” even counts as conversation, I couldn’t say.

But isn’t it kind of like a hero in some game? “Yes” or “No.”
While I’m suffering from that self-consciousness,

“The ground——”

Yachimata-san mutters.
Then she takes the hem of my blazer.

“The ground?”
“There is no ground.”

The hand gripping my uniform is trembling in tiny shakes.
Here I arrive at it.
This train is a monorail.

And the kind they call suspended——a rail on top of the cars, and they run hanging from it.

In other words——

“Yachimata-san, are you maybe…… acrophobic?”

The paper-white face nods, small, up and down.

“Ahh……”

Yeah, that’s scary.

Because this line is nicknamed the roller coaster.

This part of Kanagawa has a lot of mountains, so it turns, it goes up and down, it dives into tunnels—it’s a bit like an attraction.

“I-I’m sorry.”
“Eh?”

Yachimata-san suddenly apologized, so I tilt my head without meaning to.

“……I grabbed your hem without asking.”
“Y-you can grab it as much as you want.”

If anything I want her to grab it forever. I will never wash this uniform for the rest of my life.
No, if it gets dirty I’ll wash it——as a girl.

And then the silence that occurs.
I blew it. I’m communication-impaired.
——Communication-impaired enough to withdraw into a spaceship, to solo-play life, the ultimate kind.

Wh-wh-what do I do.
I fall into a mini-panic and run my brain cells at full power.

Right.

“Want a drink? ——”

I hold out the sparkling drink I had in my hand.

“——I heard carbonation is good for motion sickness.”

Ah, this is the one I put my mouth on.

Or rather, offering Yachimata-san the juice she was in the CM for completely outs what’s in my head.

My brain cells——full power and this is what I get? I’m an idiot. I’m an idio.

Then Yachimata-san shakes her head.

“It isn’t motion sickness.”

An extremely proper reply.

Then this is no longer a problem I can fight.
I have nothing to say.
I’m done.

But Yachimata-san doesn’t say “I don’t want it because Suzusaki put her mouth on it” or “it’s creepy that you’re drinking the juice I was in the CM for.” Is she an angel, or an angel?

In elementary school Suzusaki germs, a thing called “Suzusa-germs,” spawned in massive numbers and it was a whole situation.

“Why……”

Yachimata-san mutters.
The voice is, somehow, a little like a curse.
When I ask back, “Why?”

“……Why did humans create a vehicle this abominable……”

Eh, maybe think about the driver’s feelings?

“……Just this lump of iron running around over people’s heads through the city is ghastly enough……”

It’s leaking, it’s leaking, the curse is leaking out.

“……At this speed, heaving up and down like this…… was human foolishness this far? ———It is already unforgivable.”

Eh, scary? My idol-san, you’re scary?

“Y-Yachimata-san, please don’t despair of humanity and decide to destroy the world, okay?”
“I won’t, though.”

Thank goodness she was calm.
Yachimata-san smiles a little.

“Suzusaki-san, your ideas really jump……”

Eh, she knows my name? Or rather, she remembers!?
Why!? We’ve never even been involved.

A twenty-meter radius: that is my Habitable Zone against her, who is like the sun.
——Dying if you get close to the sun, what are you, Earth-kun, a shade-type? Me too, me too (lol)

Yachimata-san covering her mouth.

“Ah, I’m sorry. You were the new-student representative, so…… I remembered.”

She apologized. Don’t apologize!

It’s the first time. Someone who properly remembered my name.

In middle school for three years I was only ever called “that girl,” “that person,” “shade-type,” “curly.”

And I knew Yachimata-san’s name for creepy reasons——and she doesn’t even poke at that.

Is she not a little too much of an archangel, to put it mildly?

While I’m sensing a halo on Yachimata-san’s back, the monorail creaks.
Giiii.
Then Yachimata-san looks around and delivers a line of overwhelming sincerity.

“The frame is screaming!”
“Th-the frame…… this isn’t a mecha anime.”

Don’t you mean the car body (lol)?
I find it a little funny and look at Yachimata-san.

Then Yachimata-san “squeezes” my clothes with both hands, eyes and mouth “squeezed” too.
What is this small animal. So precious.

Well, she’s desperate, so it would be bad to watch her all warm and fuzzy.

“Next stop, Shonan-Enoshima, last stop. Please make sure you have not forgotten——”

“Ah——we’re h-here, Yachimata-san.”
“This hell quest is over too…… thank goodness.”

——Quest?

But Yachimata-san, you ride this monorail on the way home too, right? Are you okay?
No——maybe she walks home.

And so we transfer to the Enoden and arrive at school.

Yachimata-san and I, by some connection, walk side by side across the yard.
Then something almost punches out of my mouth:

“Hey, I wonder how we look from around us? ——Like, what if they get the wrong idea and think we’re friends♥”

content like that.

I throw away the delusion that would get me recoiled from, switch my head, and look for a general topic. Then I ask Yachimata-san something I’d been wondering.

“W-why were you on the monorail today?”

From how she looked, there’s no way she uses it regularly.
You can’t use something that turns your face white and makes you tremble, every day.

“My bicycle broke.”

As one would expect.
That was when.
From behind,

“Ah.”

a voice.

The back of my neck goes cold, and without meaning to I turn, my arm muscles moving like they were being driven on low-frequency current, and I pull Yachimata-san in.

Then a baseball-club ball screams past the place where the back of Yachimata-san’s head had been.
Probably a hit off a bat.

(——Close)

“Kyah——eh?”

Yachimata-san, surprised in my chest, looks at me and the baseball-club member in turn.

“What——a ball?”
“Looks like it went past.”
“Suzusaki-san——isn’t that reaction too fast……? I couldn’t even see the light of consciousness.”
“The light of consciousness?”
“No……”

Then the baseball-club member chases the ball, glove up, and apologizes.

“S-sorry—”

“Th-that’s right, apologize! ——Become eternal life, something between organism and mineral in outer space, and keep apologizing while you wander!”

At the words I let out, the baseball-club member recoils a little, goes “eh, please don’t?” and picks up the ball.

“Honestly, what were you going to do if Yachimata-san’s honored countenance got damaged.”
“H-honored countenance? ——Or rather, Suzusaki-san, Kar○ is too pitiful. But thank you.”

Yachimata-san extracts herself from my chest and smiles. Nnn, angel.
While I’m admiring that, Yachimata-san suddenly goes “right” and turns to me.

“Suzusaki-san.”
“Y-yeah?”
“What is ‘Yachimata juice’?”

……I did it.

 

A long silence is born after that, and we get awkward.
Yachimata-san looks around me like she’s scanning and mutters, “Awful light……”

(Light?)

Maybe she felt the air get heavy; Yachimata-san takes out her phone.

“Um——! I found an amazing video yesterday!”
“What kind, what kind?”

Yes. I managed to answer like my brain was light. A great person said that when the air is heavy, you should answer with a light brain.

“This. It’s amazing. They’re clearing ‘〈Insanity〉 Death Road’ in an unmodded mass-production, and a last-gen Swallowtail at that.——Ah, do you know FateLege? I think this is probably a person called Suu.”
“———Hn?”

I peek at Yachimata-san’s phone.

“Huh? Isn’t this my video?”

I mutter it without thinking, and Yachimata-san’s expressionless face turns toward me as smoothly as a fidget spinner.

“Suzu, saki-san’s vi——deo?”

I clap a hand over my mouth without thinking.
Right. Being a player was a secret.

“Just kidding!?”

I try to make the statement not have happened, but Yachimata-san’s face stays blank.
I try again.

“J-just…… kidding?”

I try to make the statement not have happened again, but Yachimata-san’s expression doesn’t come back.
Then she mutters under her breath.

〔Come to think of it, that reaction just now wasn’t human work——I can compete at kendo nationals and I couldn’t react……〕

Alice-san’s eyes on me open wider and wider.
Eventually her pupils shake as if in shock, then,

“Could it be, Suzusaki-san is——Suu!? Ah, ‘suzusaki suzuhi’——Suu!!”

Uwah, who made an ID this easy to read. Idiot, I’m an idio.
Wait, she even remembered my given name? This person is amazing. A god, to put it mildly?

“Y-Yachimata-san. Pretend that statement just now didn’t happen.”
“I will not!”

……I did it.

Resigned, I take out my own phone.
When I look, the notification count is outrageous, something I’ve never seen like “999+.”

“————It’s all channel subs and comment notifications.”

Overnight, my channel had 200,000 subscribers.
The video comments are over 1,000 too.

For example, comments like these.

❝What even is a human, ugogogo❞
❝Piloting technique too insane, 〈Insanity Atlas〉 isn’t even a boss lmao❞
❝Where in this barrage is there even a gap for Swallowtail to fit lmao❞
❝I can only do a weird laugh anymore❞
❝Eh, from midway it’s spirit-dodging? There are no safe spots!?❞
❝Dynamic vision and reflexes are amazing but the piloting is too insane. Space and ground, how do you even draw a trajectory like that?❞
❝Wait lmao from midway they’re flying backward lmao❞
❝Some people can do the first three. From the fourth it’s the human graduation exam❞
❝Grazing the barrage with sharp drifts. And drifting backward, drifting diagonal-up and down, I can’t even tell where they’re flying anymore lmao and they keep slipping a barrage with almost no gaps while staying on target❞
❝You have to go this far or Swallowtail’s firepower can’t clear Insanity Death Road? Insanity Death Road is too insane❞
❝2nd place, gg❞
❝This is a world-first: weakest mass-prod, and a last-gen Swallowtail at that❞
❝I mean how do you even clear it in weakest Waro❞
❝Fake, thanks❞
❝I want to see a livestream❞
❝You want them to go live too right❞

Uwah.
I almost cry.
It’s blowing up. This many people are recognizing me!

Yachimata-san grabs my arm.

“S-so you really are Suu!? I was watching Suu-san’s fight with 〈Deli-At〉 yesterday on the Stratos Association monitor! It was an unprecedented fight!!”

Yachimata-san keeps going, shaking my arm.

“When you took the small craft’s rear so beautifully with a barrel roll in the dogfight, I went numb from the bottom of my stomach——!! The people around were dumbfounded too!!”

Yachimata-san’s excitement will not stop.

“In the first place, spinning that fast the whole time, don’t you lose up and down and left and right!? What are you using as a reference to know your own speed!! ——I-if you don’t mind, would you teach me various things about piloting!! ——”

Yachimata-san’s hands, so soft, so warm, “dufufufufu.”

“——I became Suu-san’s fan in one shot———right, Suu-san! Do you not stream or anything?!”
“Eh, stream?”
“If you start a stream now you’ll definitely blow up, Suu-san!!”

Hmm, as expected of an active model. The ideas are entertainer.
Also, stop with the Suu? People around can hear……

I put a hand to my chin and ask myself.

“Streaming, huh——streaming.——Can I attain liberation from society. Can I flee from entanglements.”
“I don’t really understand, but I’m sure you can?”
“Simply put, I want money.”
“H-honest, aren’t you. But then I think you can get a lot!”

And so my life plan began, little by little, to slip off the ordinary rails.