Maidens of Cygnus - Volume 3 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – From the Hometown in the North

“Eeh!?”

At lunchtime in the cafeteria, a girl suddenly yelled in surprise.

Today is Saturday, so classes have already ended. But a great number of students were in the cafeteria, in preparation for club and Student Council activities.

Their eyes were redirected towards Marika, who had raised her voice.

But Alisa, sitting next to her, didn’t care about the numerous gazes.

“Did you get it too, Mina?”

She asked Marika, who still had her eyes turned down towards her portable terminal.

“You too, Asha?”

It goes without saying that Marika wasn’t concerned about the glances either.

“Tomorrow is pretty sudden, isn’t it?”

“Why are my parents coming here?”

The email they both received said that Marika’s parents were coming to Tokyo tomorrow.

“How about you call them tonight?”

“Let’s call them together.”

Marika proposed after Alisa’s suggestion.

“I can’t stay over without warning in advance.”

Whether Alisa goes to stay over at Marika’s apartment or Marika is invited to Alisa’s room, they need to get permission of the Juumonji Family in advance — at least a day before.

“If you don’t stay over then it’s fine, right?

“Hmm... Katsuto-san and Yuuto-san will get worried if it gets too late, so...”

“Then if I go to your room, doesn’t that work?”

“No, it’s the same. After you go back home, they always worry about whether they should have accompanied you home.”

Marika looked dumbfounded, her face appearing to say ‘Soo overprotective...’

“...Then it’ll be fine if I don’t stay late.”

“Well, that may be true, but...”

“Dinner at your house is a 7 o’clock, right?”

Alisa assumed a noncommittal expression due to Marika’s question.

“Then, let’s go home early today. If we leave school at 5, we can make it home before 6, so we can be together for an hour, can’t we? It’ll be before 7, so your relatives shouldn’t be that worried either, right?”

“Maybe...”

Alisa’s answer appeared unconfident, but Marika didn’t care and settled it with a “Okay, we’ll go with that.”

As Marika declared, they finished their Public Morals Committee work early and left school, arriving at Alisa’s room before 6pm.

While Alisa was changing from her uniform to casual clothes, Marika called her mother on her portable terminal without delay.

“Hello, mom? Yeah, right. It’s about tomorrow. What happened for you to come here so suddenly? Eh, a funeral? Whose!?... Okay.”

Marika’s voice quivered for a moment, then she quickly regained her composure and held out the terminal to Alisa.

“Mom, I’m giving it over to Alisa.”

“To me?”

Alisa knit her eyebrows, took the terminal from Marika, and put the speaker part against her ear.

“...Eh? Mama’s?... Is that so, someone like that... Yes, I understand. I’ll do it.”

Alisa nodded with a meek expression and returned the terminal to Marika.

After that, she ended the call after a short conversation.

“Asha, can you tell me whose funeral it is?”

Taking the terminal off her ear, Marika asked Alisa.

“Aunt didn’t tell you?”

Marika nodded. She said that her mother just told her “You don’t have to go”.

“Is it better for me to not know?”

“I don’t think it’s anything like that.”

Alisa appeared to be confused while saying that.

“You see, it was a Russian person that helped mama when she defected.”

But she immediately replied as such, without pausing.

“Then, it’s your mom’s benefactor?”

The reason Alisa was taken in by the Tookami Family in Hokkaido was because her mother left her behind when she died when Alisa was young. Naturally, given the circumstances, Marika never met Alisa’s mother personally.

To Marika, Alisa’s mother is not a woman called ‘Darya Andreevna Ivanova’, she’s just ‘Asha’s mom’ who she sometimes sees in photos. Even if told that her benefactor has died, it’s inevitable that it didn’t really hit her.

“In that case, I understand that it’s better for me to not go.”

Marika looked convinced, but Alisa interpreted it differently.

“If they’ve always been in contact with your parents, it shouldn’t be weird for you to attend, though...”

“It’s common to think people would be happier to be sent off by a lot of people, but things become more difficult as the number increases. I understand they’d want to hold the funeral only with those they were closest with.”

Marika’s parents’ house is, to put it bluntly, in the boonies. There are few people, but the bonds among the locals are strong. As a result, any important ceremony becomes huge. Marika had also been asked to help many times, so she knew those hardships well.

“I’m sorry.”

This apology from Alisa was both for not being able to spend time together with Marika even though it’s a Sunday, and also for Marika not being able to be spend more time with her parents, who she’s meeting for the first time in a long time.

“How strange. It’s not your fault, but you’re apologizing...”

“Is it strange?”

“Yeah, it’s weird.”

Alisa tilted her head to the side, and Marika asserted back at her.

After a sequence of questions and answers “Is it?” “It is” “It... might be, huh?” “Yeah, it is” with not much meaning, they laughed while looking at each other, maybe because they realized how silly it was.

◇ ◇ ◇

Next morning at 9 o’clock, Alisa and Marika appeared in the Tokyo Bay International Airport, commonly called ‘Haneda Airport’. Naturally, they were welcoming Marika’s parents.

“Ah!” “They’re here.”

When the Tookami couple appeared on the baggage reclaim area, Alisa and Marika noticed them simultaneously.

The baggage management system has also improved immensely since the previous century, and now, instead of searching for your own luggage on a baggage carrousel, the system calls the for the storage case using RFID tags. Compared to the past, there is no need to wait a long time while reclaiming baggage.

As her parents came out to the arrival lobby, Marika ran up to them with lively steps.

Though she seemed she was going to hug them, she stopped just before she did.

Her father, Ryoutarou, was showing slight surprise, probably because he too believed his daughter was going to hug him.

Truthfully, Marika had intended to do so, but just before she did, she rethought ‘Isn’t this pretty childish?’. Ryoutarou’s expectations cannot be said to be entirely mistaken.

“Dad, mom, long time no see.”

But when his daughter turned her carefree smile to him, the dejection disappeared instantaneously from Ryoutarou’s expression.

“Marika, have you doing well?”

“Looks like you haven’t changed at all, Marika.”

Following her father Ryoutarou, Marika’s mother Serika looked fondly at her and addressed her.

“I’m relieved you seem to be doing well.”

Naturally, Serika’s expression was not simply a smile, it was an appraisal of her daughter’s lifestyle.

“Ahaha... I’m keeping my promise properly.”

Marika let out a fake laugh.

Living in accordance with the rules, even when living by herself. That is what Marika promised to do to be allowed to live alone. Marika was mentally dripping in cold sweat as her mother looked over her.

“You look well too, Alisa. You’ve become so grown up.”

“Uncle, aunt, sorry for not contacting you.”

When called out to, Alisa, who had taken a step back so as to not interrupt the reunion between parents and child, lined up next to Marika and gave a small bow.

“You really do look more grown up...”

Ryoutarou let his astonishment at her appearance escape. Certainly, Alisa looked even more mature than usual in her elegant black one-piece dress.

“Doesn’t she!”

It was Marika’s proud voice that responded to Ryoutarou’s praise. The one who was praised was Alisa, and yet Marika was happy as if it was about her.

“Don’t dress like a boy forever, you should learn a little from Alisa.”

But as Serika revealed her disappointment in her unisex shorts and striped shirt, Marika toned down with a “Okaay”.

The four headed to a hotel in Asakusa where Marika’s parents reserved a room. The funeral starts just after noon and, though it includes the farewell feast[1], it is scheduled to end before evening. They had enough time to make the entire trip in one day, but they decided to stay over a night to have some free time.

“Okay Marika. See you later.”

“Yeah. I’ll drop by the club for a while so wait for me at the apartment. I’ll be back by 4 o’clock.”

Marika nodded to her mother’s words at the hotel lobby after they checked in. After splitting up with the three of them here, she had plans to participate in Magic Arts Club practice.

Alisa will be going as she is directly to the funeral hall with Ryoutarou and Serika, who changed to mourning clothes at the hotel room. The black dress she wore was for that purpose.

“See you later, Mina.”

The four of them decided they would have dinner out tonight. Alisa hesitated with “you haven’t been alone with just family in so long”, but Serika scolded her with “You are part of our family too”, and Alisa couldn’t decline any more.

“Yeah. Do your best, Asha.”

Alisa is just attending the funeral, and isn’t expected to help out, but Marika said that anyway and sent off her best friend who was raised with her like a sister.

◇ ◇ ◇

The funeral hall is in Kiryu City, in the former Gunma Prefecture. This was the place the deceased lived since he came to Japan up to his death.

Upon arriving at Kiryu, Alisa was met with a vague feeling of nostalgia. Though it was not in this neighborhood, Alisa had lived in Kiryu until she was taken in by the Tookami couple. She lived with her mother at the time. She didn’t remember those days when she was very young well, but maybe she had met the deceased long ago, when she still lived in the same city as him.

“Karube-san?”

According to the information displayed at the funeral hall, the surname of the deceased was ‘Karube’.

She was surprised for a moment because she’d heard he was Russian, but Alisa immediately reconsidered. According to what Ryoutarou told her while they were coming here from Asakusa, the deceased came to Japan shortly after he helped her mother, so he lived in Japan for a period of over 20 years. It is not strange at all that he naturalized.

Whether he had gotten married and received the surname that way, or came up with the new surname by himself, Alisa didn’t know, but it would be rather rude to be suspicious of how he got a Japanese surname.

“Yuuri got his partner’s name when he got married.”

However, Alisa’s murmurs reached Ryoutarou’s ears. But Ryoutarou didn’t scold Alisa about it. He seemed to interpret Alisa’s murmurs as a simple question.

“So his name was Yuuri-san.”

“Yes. After naturalizing, he changed his name to Karube Yuuri. It was thanks to him that Darya-san could leave the New Soviet Union while under government supervision.”

Alisa’s expression turned gloomy after hearing Ryoutarou’s explanation.

Alisa’s mother was a modified human created by the Russian government during the world war. Even after Russia became the New Soviet Union and the war ended, she remained under government control. Alisa, who doesn’t know of those times, could only imagine the risks of helping her escape.

“...From the story before, Yuuri-san came to Japan half a year after mother defected, right? Could it be that he had to leave his hometown because he helped mother escape?”

Ryoutarou shook his head horizontally as Alisa’s question.

“You could say that, but you don’t need to feel guilty about it. Darya-san was not the only defector he helped escape to Japan. And in those times, a storm of political purges was sweeping over the New Soviet Union. Minorities like them were the target of the majority’s displeasure. Even if he didn’t help Darya-san, Yuuri would likely have fled sooner or later.”

Upon hearing that, Alisa’s feelings of guilt faded, but as she thought about the difficult situation her late mother and the deceased endured, she didn’t feel any better.

“Dear, why don’t we stop the conversation there and go inside?”

There was still some time left, so Alisa and Ryoutarou were talking outside the venue. By coincidence, right after Serika urged them to go in, light rain started falling. The three hurriedly ran inside the funeral hall.

The first time Alisa exchanged words with that woman was after the funeral was over, at the venue of the farewell feast.

Her name is Karube Ayana. She is the deceased’s sole daughter.

She is taller than Alisa — looking at her, it feels about the same height as Hotta Kaho, her senpai in the club — and she also looks mature. It appears she turned 20 years old this year, so she’s four years older than Alisa.

The conversation did not move past the boundaries of a formal greeting, but Alisa got a good impression from her. She looked somewhat androgynous, but not to the point where it felt uncomfortable, and she had the appearance of a Japanese person.

This was probably not just because the mother’s blood was expressed strongly, but also because her father had an appearance that was not much different from a Japanese person. People of various ethnicities live in the New Soviet Union. The deceased was of an ethnic minority with strong Eastern Asian characteristics.

Right after seeing Alisa, Ayana realized that she was the daughter of a defected Russian. She didn’t mention it, but the change in her expression said the whole story. When Ayana moved to another table to greet other guests, it seemed that she wanted to continue talking with Alisa for a bit longer.

◇ ◇ ◇

For dinner that day, as requested by Marika’s mother Serika, they went to a long-established tempura shop that has been around since the 19th century.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never asked about this...”

Perhaps fed up with being asked by her parents about anything to do with her way of living as she lives by herself, Marika didn’t let the chance of a pause in the questioning escape and sought to change the subject.

“Dad, mom, have you ever been to the New Soviet Union?”

They took the trouble of coming all the way from Hokkaido to attend the funeral of someone they hadn’t met in years. They must have had a close relationship with the deceased to do that.

And the deceased was a person who helped his fellow countrymen escape the New Soviet Union.

The fragmented story is telling her that her parents also had a role in supporting the people who defected.

They haven’t told her clearly, but she has no doubt that they became close with Alisa’s mother through that connection.

That is also the connection that bound Marika and Alisa together. Marika could not stay indifferent to it.

“Your dad has.”

“He has? Before he met you, mom?”

Her parents have a very close relationship. If her father went to the dangerous country called New Soviet Union, her mother would have certainly followed him , even against his will. That was what Marika thought.

“That’s right.”

Ryoutarou nodded to Marika’s question.

“But you met each other when you were students, right?”

“I went to the new Soviet Union when I was a university student. I took half a year off from university and went to learn about the state of Siberian husbandry, which survived a period of extreme cold weather. It was at that time that I met Yuuri... the deceased.”

When Marika heard that, she stared in amazement as if saying ‘I just realized’.

“...You were able to leave Japan. And to an unfriendly country too.”

“...Back then, there were still strong feelings of aversion towards Extras. We were treated as things that weren’t there.”

Ryoutarou slightly hesitated in his response to Marika and replied with his voice lowered.

“In some ways, it was freedom. The various restrictions imposed on magicians didn’t apply to us, since it had been decided we weren’t there.”

Serika shot Ryoutarou a look filled with worry and muttered “Dear...”

Alisa’s expression also became gloomier.

But Marika was different.

“— Freedom, huh? I think I’m a little jealous. I mean, I don’t really care if I don’t become a magician. And it would be so good if I could go anywhere I want, no matter where it is. I don’t think it’s worth having my freedom restricted just because I’m a magician.”

Marika said so, looking like she was indifferent to it all.

“...I see. Jealous, huh?”

A bitter smile appeared in Ryoutarou’s face as a result of his daughter’s unexpected thoughts.

It can’t be denied that Marika’s remarks felt too carefree when the past circumstances of the Extras are considered. But that it had the result of blowing away the gloomy atmosphere also cannot be denied.

“Then dad and that person have known each other for almost 30 years.”

“It’s true we knew each other since about then, but we only became close about five years later. I graduated from university, and around when I began helping at a veterinarian clinic of an acquaintance of my teacher in Hokkaido, Yuuri contacted me. He wanted me to assist him in helping with asylum seekers.”

“...He suddenly asked you to support the defected only 5 years after he met you?”

It wasn’t just Marika, who asked it, who was curious about it, Alisa, next to her, was also listening closely.

“Yuuri wasn’t a magician, but he had a special eye for the hidden abilities of animals, humans included.”

“Ah, then...”

But the two looked like they understood from Ryoutarou’s answer.

“At the time I was preparing to marry Serika-san so I refused to go to Siberia, but he just asked me to help lead the asylum seekers into the country... For the next four years, I helped defect people from the New Soviet Union about twice a year. Darya-san escaped to Japan on the third year, I believe.”

Serika turned to Ryoutarou and nodded.

“On the fourth year, Yuuri himself took his chance to escape, so the task of helping the refugees was handed over to someone else. They should be active even to this day.”

“Nowadays, they’ve become a legal humanitarian organization.”

Serika added from the side.

“Eh! Then dad helped in illegal immigration?”

Marika was amazed by what her parents said. But naturally, she had the good sense to not shout it out.

“We didn’t use the legal entry procedures, but the Ministry of Justice tolerated it. We had a secret partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Ryoutarou looked calm. Most likely he is confident he won’t be arrested now. He might have questionable information about the authorities that he can use as a bargaining chip.

“The company managed by the family of Karube-san, who Yuuri married, is still supporting the settlements of the refugees now. It was also due to Karube-san’s support that Darya-san lived in Kiryu.”

“So I wasn’t just imagining it, and I’ve actually met the family before?”

Ryoutarou nodded his head to reply affirmatively to Alisa.

“But the company doesn’t have a successor, right?”

“Yes. Yuuri didn’t feel like getting involved with the management, and his wife’s brother also has a different job. Managing the company itself doesn’t appear to be as simple as it once was either, so it’ll probably be difficult to continue the support operations any longer.”

Ryoutarou replied with a bitter smile to what Serika brought up.

“Their daughter looked like she wanted to continue, though...”

From Ryatourou’s mutterings, Alisa remembered Ayana’s face.