Maidens of Cygnus - Volume 1 - Chapter Pr3

Chapter 3 

After the small fight between Katsuto and Marika, Alisa and Katsuto had a meeting with the Toogami Family. 

Here too Marika heavily opposed Alisa travelling to Tokyo. But when it was brought up that she too was one step away from her magic running out of control, she finally was unable to disagree on Alisa being taken in by the Juumonji Family. 

Alisa will go to Tokyo during spring break, which is soon, and will attend a middle school in Tokyo for the next year. 

And I was now Sunday, March the 31st. She arrived at the New Chitose Airport’s lobby. 

Today Alisa leaves Hokkaido for the Juumonji Family household in Tokyo. 

“Asha, don’t forget about me! I’ll call you every day, okay!” 

As Alisa was trying to walk through the boarding gate, Marika clinged to her with a tearful voice. An outsider who heard her voice thought ‘How can she forget you if you’re going to call every day?’, but Marika was dead serious. 

“I won’t forget you. No matter what happens, I’ll never forget you, Mina. No matter how far apart we are, I’ll always be thinking about you.” 

“Ashaaa...” 

Marika finally burst into tears. Alisa is also crying while patting her back. 

If nobody stops them, who knows how long this atmosphere will last. 

“...Alisa, the time for your plane is almost here. You too, Marika, let her go already.” 

Both Katsuto and Ryoutarou were there, but Serika was the only one who could force them to break apart. 

“Yeah... Okay.” 

Marika stopped clinging to Alisa’s arm, took a step back and rubbed her eyes while looking down. 

“Mina, I’m going now.” 

“Alisa, I’m serious about our promise. Two years from now.” 

“Yeah, I’ll do my best too. I’ll see you in two years.” 

“Yes!” 

Marika gave a big wave with her eyes soaked in tears towards Alisa, who advanced to the boarding gate. 

Alisa turned around, and with a smile on her red-eyed smiling face, she gave a tiny wave back. 

March 2099. 

Today is the day the nine Magic University-affiliated High Schools hold their entrance exams nationwide. 

Here in Hachioji’s First High School a large number of students also gathered to take the exams. 

Most of them are basically middle school graduates from Kanto, but some of the students who have come to take the exams in hopes of making it in are from further away. From as south as Ishigaki and as north as Hokkaido. 

The southwest islands aside, there’s also the Eight High School in Hokkaido. There are Magic High Schools in the Tohoku, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions as well. Despite this, the people who are aiming for First High are not few, and a big reason for this is because this is the alma matter of Shiba Tatsuya. 

Still only 20 years old this year, a very young age, Shiba Tatsuya has become well-known not just in Japan but around the world, not just in the military field but also in technology and academic fields, he has become a magician young people strive to be like, especially for those aiming to be Magic Engineers. Seeking to be like him, many boys and girls from around the country gather here, greatly raising the competition at First High. 

Even in the midst of such a crowd of hopeful students, Alisa’s pale blonde hair, close to silver, along with her beautiful face, made her stand out. Many magicians tend to have a good appearance. But even among them, Alisa’s face and figure were conspicuous. 

That’s why finding her in this crowd must not have been very hard. 

“Ashaa!” 

Alisa looked back giggling when she heard the voice she missed from behind her. – She heard it over the phone every day, but it’s been a long time since she heard it naturally. 

“Mina.” 

“It’s been so long!” 

Before Alisa could completely turn around, Marika ran up to her and put her arms around Alisa’s shoulders. They both grew taller these last two years, but Alisa is still about 5 centimeters taller, so Marika is in a position where she’s hanging a bit. 

“I’m here, just like I promised! I studied really hard!” 

The promise Marika made to Alisa that day when they parted at the airport was to ‘go to the same high school’. 

“It would be nice if both of us could attend this school in April.” 

Marika agreed to Alisa’s words with a big nod. 

“I’m definitely coming with you! And I know you won’t fail either, Asha!” 

“Of course, I’ll be doing my best as well.” 

To the students around them, these two are their rivals in these exams. 

But any middle school student watching these two close friends heading to the school building, whether they were male or female, found themselves smiling. 

(Maidens of Cygnus – Prequel End) 

[1]  The Hyperloop is a sealed tube or system of tubes with low air pressure through which a pod may travel substantially free of air resistance or friction. It was first proposed in 2012. 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop 

[2]  S Town is probably referring to Shiraoi, a town directly to the west of Tomakomai. This has a river bearing its name with a main road going north to the inlands that splits into several branch roads. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tomakomai,+Hokkaido,+Japan/@42.5528236,141.3479137,14.71z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x5f7519d5c5b32289:0x6e600e18a6a55b0d!8m2!3d42.6312464!4d141.6031222 

[3]  The Tookami name is written 遠上. Katsuto wonders if they are related to the Toogami, which has similar reading but is written with different kanji, 十神, which starts with the character for ‘ten’. 

[4]  The kanji for Marika ((茉莉花) means Arabian Jasmine. 

[5]  The original text compares it to a specific “manga tic”, a situation in manga portrayed as comedic and usually has text written representing the situation. I couldn’t translate this directly so I replaced It with something that is hopefully similar enough and the average English reader will understand better.