Bigamy Is Forbidden!?
"Ah! Brother! You'll injure yourself! Please, let go of it!"
Clara leapt down from the tall stool and came running in a panic. The enormous axe that hadn't budged no matter how I strained at it with both hands rose lightly in one small, slender palm of hers. A smooth little lift, as if she were picking up a foam toy.
So this was a magical girl's physical strength. The thought flickered through my mind, and honestly, it was a little deflating. The axe I'd clung to until the veins stood out on my arms moved like a feather in that tiny hand.
Clara slung the weapon—nearly as tall as she was—neatly across her back, then flushed scarlet and didn't know what to do with herself.
"F-forgive me! To be swept away by emotion and carelessly abandon the holy instrument of judgment...! What would I have done if I had injured your wrist, Brother!"
She hovered over my wrist, genuinely stricken, and in that flustered fussing I could see the gentle nature hidden behind the strict, exacting nun.
"Magical girls really are strong..."
I tucked my reddened wrist behind my back and smiled.
"When Miss Shinano comes by later, I'll ask her to fix the table."
The poor bar table, split clean in half—I coolly decided to leave that problem to our venerable senior.
"Since we're out here anyway, shall we drink outside? The weather's nice, and the moon looked pretty."
I opened the refrigerator and took out three cans of the pink rosé beer I usually enjoyed, then carefully nestled the cans, beaded with cold droplets, into Clara's arms.
That was the moment. Clara's youthful face flared crimson like a volcano on the verge of eruption, and a massive earthquake shook her golden eyes. The small hands that had accepted the cold cans trembled like aspen leaves.
"Th-the moon... b-beautiful, you say...! Th-that is... I mean, that...! F-for a cleric such as myself, s-such a sudden c-confession...!"
I had only been talking about the weather, but inside Clara's head it seemed a romance novel was being written, not scripture.
"Waaah! We're drinking outside?! That's the absolute best!"
Yui's cheer cut clean through the middle of the chaos.
"Yui loves playing outside so, so much! And rosé beer? It's pink, and so pretty!"
She hopped down from the counter and pattered toward the café door as if she might burst outside any second.
"Hurry up, Oppa! Clara, hurry, hurry! The moon's really bright and round tonight!"
Yui's pink twin-tails fluttered beyond the door and vanished. Clara still clutched the three cans to her chest like a lifeline, her burning face bowed low.
"O Lord... lead not this sinful nun into temptation... my faith hangs by a thread..."
We sat side by side where the lake and the moonlight fell most beautifully. Beneath the open night sky, a full moon like a silver tray lay reflected on the mirror-clear water. A cool mountain breeze brushed our cheeks, carrying the soft chirring of insects. It was nothing like drinking inside the café, wrapped in jazz and lamplight. Instead of a ceiling there were stars; instead of walls, the forest; instead of lamps, moonlight.
"Whoa... drinking outside feels completely different! The woods smell amazing, and the beer's sweet and fizzy—exactly Yui's taste!"
Yui stretched her legs out comfortably on the rustling grass, gripped her can of rosé beer in both hands, and happily swung her feet. Her pink twin-tails tossed in the night wind, and moonlight glittered in her eyes.
The little nun seated on my other side, by contrast, was one spark away from disaster.
"Gulp... nngh..."
The shock from earlier clearly hadn't left her. Despite the cool night air, a flush that looked ready to burst showed no sign of fading—from her youthful face to the tips of her ears, even down the nape of her neck. Knees neatly together, Clara cradled the can in both hands as if it were a holy chalice, coloring as she took tiny sips. Her gaze kept drifting to my profile instead of the moonlight on the lake, and whenever her head happened to turn far enough that our eyes might meet, she startled and snapped her face forward again.
I turned the cold can lightly in my hands and took in the view. Pale moonlight shattered across the still surface of the lake, and a cool mountain wind tickled past my cheek. The quiet of a night that felt set apart from ordinary life was all the more amusing for the two magical girls beside me, reacting at absolute opposite extremes.
"The moon's so pretty~ Yui loves it!"
Yui tipped the rosé beer back in long, refreshing gulps, then licked the pink foam from her lips with a quick flick of her tongue.
"Oh! Oppa! Wanna hear the rest of what Yui was talking about earlier?"
Excited, she raised both hands and mimed spinning an enormous gun barrel.
"Big Sis Hina was totally amazing! She was holding that heavy thing and spinning around going dudududu!, and those tacky monsters couldn't even get close—they just went flying, boom, boom!"
Shaking with delight on the grass as she reenacted it, Yui looked less like a warrior and more like a kid gushing about her favorite cartoon.
"Big Sis Hina was so pumped she was shouting, 'Take Hina's bullets of love!' and Yui couldn't lose, so Yui blasted them with a big one from her magic wand! Today's fight is gonna be a really cool memory!"
Thanks to Yui's vivid war story, the gothic-lolita magical girl spraying that flashy minigun painted itself across my mind all on its own. And yet, spectacular as the tale ringing out right beside her was, not a single word of it seemed to be reaching Clara's ears.
"Hff..."
Seated on my other side, Clara had been fidgeting with her can and swallowing dryly for some time. Even as Yui's exploits scattered on the night wind, those golden eyes stayed fixed not on the lake, nor the moon, nor Yui, but only on my profile. Then, as if she had finally steeled herself, her small hands clenched tight around the can of rosé beer.
"U-um... B-Bartender... Brother..."
Her voice was as small and thin as a mosquito's. Face bowed and crimson, lashes fluttering, she carefully opened her mouth.
"I... I also... I, too..."
She drew a deep breath and looked back and forth between me and the full moon hanging in the night sky.
"A-as you said, Brother... t-tonight's moon... t-truly... I think it is beautiful...!"
The instant the last word left her, Clara's face reddened to its limit. The hand gripping the can shook, and the flush spread all the way to her ears, vivid even in the dark.
With that adorable misunderstanding blushing and floundering right beside me, I explained reality to her in a very gentle, soft voice. Calling the moon pretty was a line from romance novels that hardly anyone used anymore.
"That's a relief, Clara. Around the time the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the pollen makes it hard to go outside."
The moment the thoroughly practical word pollen left my mouth, Clara's fidgeting with the can froze solid as stone. Her youthful face began to burn a furious red, in a sense entirely different from before.
"Ah... aah... nnghh..."
She clutched the can in both hands and hung her head. And right in the middle of that sweet romantic comedy, our Yui—who hadn't read the mood in the slightest—looked up at the night sky and laughed, bright and carefree.
"Wow! Just like Oppa said, the moonlight's shining so pretty!"
The silver full moon had slipped right into Yui's eyes. Watching that lovely smile, I nodded too.
"Yeah. A drink like this tastes especially good, doesn't it?"
At my easy voice, Yui held out her can and lightly tapped it against my rosé beer.
Clink.
"Mm-hm! Super special! The sweet stuff Oppa gave me, plus this pretty lake—Yui's gonna fill her diary with giant stars, packed in tight!"
That was when Clara shot to her feet as if her seat had caught fire. The hem of the habit she'd been sitting in on the grass snapped and fluttered in the night wind. Then she cried out toward the sky—or perhaps toward me—as if in anguish.
"B-bigamy is not permitted! It is a clear violation of doctrine... a transgression against the Lord's law!"
Tears welled in her golden eyes.
"Sister Yui...! Even if you say Brother's feelings run deep...!"
At the nun's sudden ban on bigamy, Yui and I—mid-sip—could only stare at her, mouths hanging open. Foam still on her lips, Yui blinked and tilted her head.
"Huh...? Clara, what's wrong all of a sudden? Bigamy? Who's getting married?"
The moment Yui's clear, innocent question scattered into the night air, Clara's round eyes began to shake violently. Only after she saw the blank looks on our faces did she seem, at last, to realize that something had gone terribly wrong.
"Ah... aaaah... aaaahhh!!"
Having grasped the enormity of her own misunderstanding, Clara's face flushed an even deeper shade than before.
Whoooosh!
As if she could not bear to remain another second, Clara let out something close to a scream and fled, flying off far along the lakeshore. The hem of her habit whipped in the night wind and vanished from sight in an instant, leaving only a faint scent of beer and the clear night air around those of us left behind.
Yui watched Clara's retreating back as it soared into the distance, turning her can in her hands.
"Why'd Clara suddenly do that? Is it because the moonlight's too pretty?"
She grinned again and looked out over the lake, and I nodded along with her.
"Yeah. Must be."
I took a sip of rosé beer. While the sweet taste wet my mouth, the hem of a nun's habit fluttered one last time in the sky, off in the direction Clara had flown. Our nun had failed to overcome her embarrassment and ascended into the night—but in the drinks left behind on the lakeshore, the round moonlight still shone, pretty as ever.