What Exists for the Sake of People (4)
"How in the world is that possible? Do you truly think it makes any sense?"
At the interrogating edge in Hyakurenno Yuri's voice, Ninomae turned awkwardly toward the street sliding past beyond the window.
Once the meal was done, Yuri had taken only Ninomae and left the table, on the grounds that she was heading to the company for today's concert rehearsal. Ninomae was hardly oblivious to the fact that this was nothing more than a pretext. There was still a long while left before the appointed hour. Yuri had simply wanted to sit with her and talk at length—or rather, it was closer to being sweetly hounded, those eyes glittering, to hurry up and produce some gossip.
"I mean, well, it was the first day we started dating, so I don't see why it would be strange if nothing happened..."
"No. This isn't a high-school romance, you know? You're both adults, so if the spark catches, even on the first day... no, that isn't it. Plenty of people sleep together first and only start dating afterward. And yet you spent a whole night at your lover's house, and nothing happened..."
Well, that house is my house too, though...? Ninomae swallowed the rebuttal. It would never land with a young lady this starved for romantic tales, and there was no one else who might raise an objection in her place. The chauffeur driving the limousine they rode in still hadn't let out so much as the sound of a breath, intent only on the road, and the one other passenger—the maid—was slumped over dead drunk, snoring.
"A date, once this broadcast schedule is finished... mm, yes, this really is the moment. You ought to simply carry out the deed that day."
Left alone with a Yuri this worked up, Ninomae had of course been forced to spill every word she had and every word she didn't, including the date she had arranged with Seoyeon a few days from now. That Yuri had grown still more excited and pounced on the story went without saying.
"The... the deed..."
Ninomae murmured it, her face burning. It wasn't that she had fumbled for failing to understand the meaning. Quite the opposite. Whether she was picturing herself and Han Seoyeon carrying out that "deed," or calling up the SisMea erotic doujinshi lodged in her memory, she ended by hiding her face in her hands.
"You don't want to?"
"No, well, if I absolutely have to sort it into wanting to and not wanting to, um... I suppose I do fall on the wanting-to side..."
"Then there's nothing to hesitate over."
Hearing that answer, Yuri closed both hands warmly around Ninomae's.
"Ninomae-san. If you want things to move forward, you have to be the one who moves."
The gaze that met hers a moment later carried a feeling that was quite serious.
"I'm speaking as someone with a wealth of experience, so I'm certain of it. Shion-san is definitely the type who only hesitates, and never manages to make any progress."
"A wealth of experience, is it?"
What crossed Ninomae's face immediately after, however, was puzzlement. She had never once heard a word about Yuri's love life. For someone of her standing, even the trivial business of meeting a person and parting from them would surely be treated as a scandal. And yet, if she could go so far as to call herself experienced, just how secretly must she have been conducting these hidden affairs? Ninomae was turning even that thought over when the maid came weaving over and threw her arms around Yuri from behind.
"It's all just stuff from novels anywaaaay."
"Would you get off, Chisa? The smell is going to soak into my clothes."
"...A novel?"
"Theory refined to its peak is no different from actual experience. Wouldn't you agree?"
Ninomae stared at her as if to demand what on earth that was supposed to mean, but Yuri remained as brazen as ever.
"Ruth Benedict never set foot in Japan even once, and yet she is also the author of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, still widely read to this day. So long as the theoretical foundation and the research are sufficient, they are hardly inadequate as a supplement to experience, wouldn't you say?"
"No—what I'm saying is, that 'theory' of yours is romance novels..."
"There are manga, dramas, and films as well. Through the diversification of one's materials, you could even say I possess far more objective knowledge."
"So in the end, your romantic experience is zer—"
"Is that truly such an important point of contention? I don't believe it is."
In the end, Ninomae closed her mouth. She could have kept pressing if she wished, but the truth was that she was hardly in a position to claim she was any better off. There didn't seem to be much difference between a person with no romantic experience at all and someone on the second day of a relationship—which, counted in hours, had not yet even reached twenty-four.
If one insisted on splitting hairs, the very person who had given the advice by which Seoyeon and Ninomae at last came together was Hyakurenno Yuri, sitting right here. Whether that was truly because she possessed richer knowledge than Ninomae, or only because watching from a third party's seat had made it possible, was impossible to say.
"Young miss, we've arrived."
And around then, the car came to a stop. The man who had not spoken a single word since Ninomae and Yuri boarded the limousine finally raised his voice. He stepped out of the driver's seat and opened the rear door, and beyond it stood a building whose glass windows glittered where they caught the sun. It was a building Ninomae knew.
"Well then. Shall we?"
"Um... where to?"
"Shopping, of course."
A department store owned by the Hyakurenno Group. Stepping down from the car, Yuri turned a light circle and smiled.
"Mm. This one's quite nice."
Yuri lifted a blouse from its hanger and held it lightly up against Ninomae's front. She looked it over from one angle and another, then turned her head and addressed the clerk.
"Would it be all right if she tried this on?"
"Y-yes, ma'am...! Of course!"
"Um... Yuri-san...? If you go around speaking to the staff so freely, isn't there a chance their stomachs will give out...?"
Ninomae said it with a strained smile, having slid her eyes sideways to read the clerk's complexion. Fitting rooms existed precisely so that people might try things on, and most who checked with a clerk were only asking once out of courtesy—but even so, there were limits. With a speaker like this, how did the words even constitute a question? Setting aside that refusal was impossible, one had to worry whether a displeasing expression might make the workplace itself vanish.
Of course, even someone who had not kept company with her for as long as Ninomae had would know Yuri was not that sort of person. She was someone whose face appeared often enough in the press that her image was already established. Even so, the what-if could not help but arise. Malice or none, a presence of this scale could strike a person dead with a stone tossed without a thought, and it would not be the least bit strange.
Hearing the remark, Yuri smiled thinly.
"I do know. But if I go to a shop the Group doesn't own, they get frightened in their own way."
"Ah..."
Ninomae pressed a hand to her brow. It was true enough. If a certain redheaded Mr. Donald ever paid Burger King a visit, the atmosphere would turn decidedly strange.
"The life of a Hyakurenno isn't an easy one either, is it."
Murmuring that, she accepted the hanger Yuri held out to her.
"That aside, why a clothing store all of a sudden?"
"A date begins with dressing up, doesn't it? If the two of you were planning a shopping date, that would be one thing, but neither of you is the sort who enjoys shopping."
Ninomae nodded. At the very least, it would not be a date spent wandering clothing stores. She herself did not dislike shopping for clothes, exactly, but Han Seoyeon would plainly have no interest whatsoever—and if that were the case, Ninomae would have no reason to go either.
"U-um... how is it? Is this all right?"
"Yes. It suits you."
And so, changed into the clothes Yuri had recommended, Ninomae cautiously showed herself: a sleeveless white blouse trimmed in frills, and a black flare skirt given its accent by a belt. Perhaps strangely conscious of the area around her chest, she kept tugging at the fabric there.
"Then we'll settle on this one, and as for the rest..."
"We're buying m-more? For a date, surely one outfit is enough...?"
"But Ninomae-san, aren't you going abroad before long as well? Then one outfit really won't do! Now, next is this... no, would this be better? Something that emphasizes the chest a little, so we can make the most of your advantages..."
"Ugh... somehow it feels as though you're even more excited about this than I am, Yuri-san."
Ninomae muttered it like a complaint, then fell quiet. She held no genuine grievance—the other woman was only helping out of kindness—and besides, the reason Yuri was enjoying herself this much was not something Ninomae failed to understand. The "hardships" of living as the young lady of the Hyakurenno would, of course, include matters of romance.
An ordinary heiress of a conglomerate family might at least have people approaching her with an eye on the money, but at the level of the Hyakurenno, one had to wonder whether even cases of that sort existed. It felt, quite literally, as though the world she inhabited sat a tier or two apart. Unless the matter was official, she would have no occasion at all to grow close to another person. Even the one workplace where she could manage, barely, to step out from under the Hyakurenno Group's shadow was a VTuber company whose business was yuri, and it was sensitive in all sorts of ways about relations between men and women. Dating was not forbidden outright, but company policy held that one must never, ever be caught.
Considered the other way around, of course, someone in a position like Yuri's could force a thing through on her own will alone, no matter what anyone around her said. But however much she might seem to go at her own pace, Ninomae knew that when it truly mattered, she was a person who took seriously the duties allotted to her place.
"—Shall we go, then?"
"Ah, yes. All right."
Living as the young lady of the Hyakurenno was surely a harder life than one would expect. So if it was a matter of keeping her company in a diversion like this, Ninomae could indulge her as much as she liked.
"...Eh, wait a moment? I'm sorry. What was it we were talking about? My mind wandered for a second."
She had been sunk in thought, and only after answering on reflex did her eyes go round. Drawn along by Yuri's hand into yet another shop—and when, exactly, did we pay?—she asked.
"Why, we have to lay in the underwear that will crown the end of the date! Victory lingerie is essential!"
"Ah, I—wait, now that I think of it, something just came to me that I really need to hurry and—!"
The instant she laid eyes on the merchandise hanging from the mannequins in the shop opening before her, Ninomae threw out every conclusion she had reached thus far and attempted to flee.
"No, hold on, this is really not it! How is anyone supposed to weaaar panties with that little fabric?!"
"Everyone says that at first! Cross the line just once, and it gets easy from then on!"
"That's because you don't have a 'first time' or a 'once,' Yuri-san!"
Of course, the one she was up against was a madwoman whose morning regimen included a twenty-kilometer run. Even with her strength held in check, she was the eccentric once classed as the equal of that werewolf, Tsunashi. For a vampire to be subdued by a Holy Knight was simply the natural order of the world.