The Couple-Killer Beam: A Solo's Finishing Move, Forged from Rage and Sorrow. The Target Dies.
Shinoma Tetsuya had come back to his old school with his girlfriend, Ichino Miyu, for the first time in a long while.
Before they knew it, they were in their fifth year together.
Shiodome Private High School, where it had all begun, was of course thick with memories, and the day they returned was the culture festival itself—a page bold enough to claim its own place among them.
"Where should we go?"
"Hmm. Class 1-A, obviously."
Club booths crowded the grounds and filled them with noise, but Miyu answered with a bright smile, as if she wanted to see again the place where they had first met.
"Class 1-A... The pamphlet says it's a cosplay café."
"A cosplay café? We were going to do one of those when we were third-years."
"Well, in the end the haunted house got more votes, so it fell through."
Miyu laughed softly at that.
"The boys got way too excited. It was a little much to watch, so every girl put her vote on the haunted house. The boys split between the cosplay café and the haunted house, and that was that. They never had a chance."
"...I wasn't excited."
"Yes, yes. We'll go with that."
She hummed as she walked on ahead, and for some reason Tetsuya felt as if he had lost.
Still, he decided even that was one of the pleasures of a date. He took out his phone and scanned the barcode in the pamphlet for Class 1-A's cosplay café.
A flyer for the café appeared.
"Oh..."
"Hm? Something wrong?"
"Look at this."
There were five of them in all, and every one was so finely done it was hard to believe they hadn't been commissioned from outside.
"These are incredibly well made."
"They really are."
The whole design was stylish, but what caught the eye most were the drawings of the butler and the maid. Even Tetsuya and Miyu, who had no particular interest in art, could tell that the illustrations explaining the cosplay café were something special.
"I'm looking forward to this."
With that, Tetsuya took Miyu's hand and started forward, carrying the feeling that today was going to be a good experience.
Class 1-A's cosplay café was busy enough to have a line.
After waiting about ten minutes, Tetsuya stepped into the classroom with Miyu and looked around.
"Ooh."
"Cleaner than I expected. This is pretty nice~."
Of course, it wasn't without its rough edges. But the faint drift of coffee, the tidy tables, and the fussy little decorations all showed how hard their juniors had worked, and to Tetsuya and Miyu that unfinished quality felt like a charm of its own.
"Should I do coffee and a brownie?"
"Then I'll do coffee and a macaron."
They both preferred coffee to black tea, so they settled on ordering different desserts and sharing.
"We'd like to order."
"...Yes."
The junior who came at Tetsuya's call wore a butler's uniform, with a name tag at the chest that read Kayano Mina. The modest height and the long hair gave her away, and more than anything the chest that no butler's coat could quite conceal made it plain she was a girl.
A butler's uniform can feel a little stiff, but glossy light-brown hair, and the soft line of her eyes and features, loosened that stiffness. At the same time, mysterious blue eyes and a cool air around her drew out the restrained allure the coat was meant to have. It was a face striking enough to let two opposite charms live at full strength, without letting either kill the other.
Neither of them could help having their eyes stolen by a girl like that.
"Um... I'll take your order, young master, my lady..."
"Ah, yes. I-I'll have coffee and a brownie."
"Coffee and a macaron, please..."
Tetsuya was a little tense. Miyu recited her order as if her soul had left her.
"...Understood. Please wait just a moment."
The girl gave a small nod and drew back to prepare the order, and Tetsuya and Miyu could not look away even from something as simple as her retreating back.
"Wasn't that amazing?"
"Yeah. The macaron and the brownie were delicious, and the coffee smelled wonderful."
They strolled the corridor, trading remarks. The subject, of course, was Class 1-A's cosplay café, which had satisfied them far more than either of them expected.
"And that girl was so incredibly cool..."
Tetsuya didn't need an explanation to know who Miyu meant. She was talking about Kayano, the junior in the butler's uniform who had served them.
"She was cool, sure, but wasn't the cute feeling stronger?"
"...It was a cool impression, not a cute one!"
And over a reason that amounted to nothing, their idle talk began to catch fire.
"A jet-black butler's coat that suits that cold atmosphere, and those icy eyes that look straight through a person. Of course you'd think she was cool."
"You're not wrong, but I think the shape of her eyes and how small she is, set against that atmosphere, brought the cute side out more."
"But when she talked, she broke her sentences into little pieces on purpose, to keep that cold air. You didn't feel how cool that was?"
"Hmm. Did she? I thought her service just felt awkward, and that was what made her cute."
Talk as they might, Tetsuya's opinion and Miyu's refused to move any closer.
Miyu was the one who changed the subject first.
"So, did you enjoy talking to a cute girl like that?"
"...Huh? No, that isn't what we were talking about."
"Hmph. You're on a date with your girlfriend, and you go all melty over a high school girl who's younger and cuter than me. That's awful."
Tetsuya's breath caught short.
Hadn't Miyu been the one to bring it up in the first place? Why was he the one being scolded?
"Th-then by that logic, you kept saying how cool she was, right in front of me."
"What? She and I are both girls. It's a different situation."
He had been about to press exactly that point, but Miyu's defenses were already up. The glare turned on him, the lower lip pushed just a little forward—no one had to explain that she was deeply displeased.
"I'm going to walk around by myself for a bit. We can talk later."
"Mi-Miyu?!"
She slipped her hand out of his and strode off at a quick pace. Startled, Tetsuya called her name and followed, but for a good while she showed no intention of looking back.
Kayano's Couple-Killer Beam had, just like that, reduced one couple's relationship to a complete wreck.
With that broadcast, the first day of the culture festival came to an end.
"Good work, everyone."
Miyauchi wasn't lying when she said they had worked hard. Our class's cosplay café had been popular beyond anything we imagined. The afternoon shift was even busier than the morning shift I had worked, and in the end every last bit of food we'd prepared sold out.
...I was really glad I'd worked the morning. If it had been the afternoon shift, I'd probably be flat on my back in the nurse's office right now.
The one small mercy was that most of the customers cared more about the cosplay than about conversation. So even when I stuttered taking an order, or made a mistake, almost no one got angry. No one picked on me for the way my arms shook when I carried food or poured drinks, and from what I heard, the talking that came afterward hadn't drawn any complaints either. Thankfully.
"Haa..."
Even so, today's communication stamina is completely spent, so the stream can wait....
"So, how'd the first day of the festival go? Was it fun?"
At Miss Koga's question, I tried to remember the day. In the morning I had worked—in my own way? diligently?—and in the afternoon I'd eaten a simple piece of bread, spent some time in the Old Science Room, and gone home. Fortunately, no one else had come by in the middle of it.
Had it been fun?
...Still, I'd spent the hours I was supposed to be in class doing all sorts of things on my phone. Maybe it was fair to call that fun.
"It was p-pretty f-fun."
"Please. You obviously just went to some classroom nobody uses and killed time."
"..."
"...Huh. For real? You didn't even go look at the other classes' exhibits or anything?"
"Yeah..."
She had never even imagined it might actually be true, and Miss Koga's words sank into my heart like a blade.
I-I wasn't without a reason, though. I was going to walk around with Miss Akabane tomorrow afternoon anyway, so there was no need to wander today. It wasn't because getting around was a pain. That wasn't why I'd stayed in the Old Science Room the whole time.
Probably....
"I knew Izumi was introverted, but shouldn't you enjoy a culture festival at least a little? Memories from high school stay with you for a very long time."
"Ah, th-there are still two chances left, so..."
"That isn't really what I meant."
Miss Koga let out a stifled little laugh.
What a relief. Even as recently as yesterday, she had sounded like she was in a bad mood when we talked. Maybe something personal had been going on. I hoped it had worked out.
"Anyway, serving customers must have worn you out, so rest well tonight. I'm going to go get ready for my stream. Let's talk again tomorrow."
"Ah, yes. D-do your best..."
"Mm. That's all, then."
A soft chime, and Miss Koga left the Misscode call.
"Ugh..."
I stretched lightly and threw myself onto the bed. If it had been up to my heart, I would have watched her stream, but serving customers had tired me out more than I expected, and my eyes kept sliding shut.
Come to think of it, what am I supposed to do when Miss Akabane gets here tomorrow? I have to work the floor again in the morning. By the time she arrives, my communication stamina will already be empty. Will I even be able to walk around properly? And she's a guest, whatever else she is. Can I really show her around...? Honestly, I don't know a single exhibit the other classes are putting on.
This is bad....
At the familiar's question, Yukari's mouth curved into a small smile.
Telling them she was going to meet Izumi wouldn't have mattered all that much, but it was obvious things would become a nuisance. The moment she brought it up, the news would certainly reach the ears of a certain tiny angel, and then she would be grilled by DMs and calls until dawn. Yukari made up her mind to keep it a secret, if only so she could tease her afterward.
After she ended the stream, Yukari looked at the DM where their plans were written.
"...This is going to be fun."
And, as if she truly meant it, she smiled quietly.