Maidens of Cygnus - Volume 3 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Worried Maidens

Because of the different days the Martial Magic Arts Club and the Crowd Ball Club have their activities, Alisa needed to kill time somewhere in the school until Marika’s club activities ended every Monday. Alisa uses this time studying by herself in the library.

Monday, the 15th of June, after school. Alisa visited the library’s self-study room this week too.

She borrowed a terminal at the reception to use the school’s internet and looked for a seat. Fortunately, the seat she uses every week was free today as well. The seats in the self-study room aren’t fixed, but regulars tend to choose the same seats every time. Besides, its users pretty much have a fixed day and time.

She opened the terminal and once she was done confirming her ID, a voice next to her called out to her, asking “Can I sit here?”. It was the voice of a boy she was already familiar with.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Alisa responded while turning her head. As she expected, the one who stood there was a student in the same year she is in.

“Excuse me.”

He conscientiously said so while sitting down.

The shy smile that appeared on his face when he was caught in Alisa’s line of sight was also something she was used to seeing.

The name of this boy is Karatachibana Mamoru. A student in the same year that she met for the first time about a month ago.

Their classes are different, but maybe because they were compatible, they quickly became friends. Nowadays, they are close enough to study together like this.

Though, because they do this once a week, they still haven’t done this that many times.

Their relationship wasn’t deep enough for him to be her boyfriend. 

“...By the way, is it okay to ask you something a little personal?”

“Something personal...? Sure, go ahead.”

“Juumonji-san, I heard a rumor that you’re dating Kagari-kun from your class. Is it true?”

That’s why it never crossed her mind that he would ask such a question, like she’s being accused of cheating.

Though feeling like it was ‘accusing her of cheating’ was Alisa’s misunderstanding.

“Why would you ask such a thing?”

“Well, I was thinking that if it was true that you’re dating, we should refrain from doing this.”

Questioned in return with thorns in her voice, Mamoru replied with a slightly hesitant tone.

Mamoru was just being considerate in that way.

But this time, Alisa, for reasons she didn’t know herself, was frustrated by Mamoru’s concern.

“I misunderstood. How about you, Karatachibana-kun?”

“Eh, what do you mean?”

Mamoru was bewildered by Alisa’s display of irritation. He didn’t understand at all why Alisa’s mood became so bad.

“If you have a girlfriend, we shouldn’t study together anymore.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend, nothing close to one.”

Mamoru denied it in a hurry.

“I don’t either. If I had a boyfriend, I would prioritize him.”

A blunt tone. In her mind, Alisa thought hard ‘Why am taking out my anger on him?’, unable to control herself.

“...I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Well, because... it looks like I’ve angered you somehow.”

If she’s made him go as far as to say that, her feelings of guilt will naturally overwhelm her.

“...Not really, I’m not angry.”

Saying so without looking at Mamoru’s face, Alisa closed her terminal.

“I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m feeling a little weird so I’m going home for the day.”

“Huh? Ah, okay.”

“Sorry, until next time.”

Leaving behind an utterly confused Mamoru, Alisa left the self-study room.

(...What was that back there? Why did I do that...?)

Confusion may have been greater for Alisa than Mamoru.

She couldn’t understand at all why she was frustrated and what she was frustrated at. Even as she thought back, she couldn’t find a single thing in the conversation with Mamoru that would ruin her mood.

There are reasons to vent your anger at others. When something doesn’t go the way you wanted, and you throw your displeasure at someone else to try to get rid of it, that’s what venting your anger is. But Alisa couldn’t think of the ‘something’ that made her frustrated back there in the first place.

Her ‘I’m not feeling well so I’m going home’ from earlier was just an excuse to leave her seat. She just ran away because she couldn’t stand her own absurd self. But when she thought about her condition again, she really felt weird in some way.

Perhaps it would be better if she went home for the day?

(...Either way, I have to go to where Mina is.)

Even if she goes home early, she should let Marika know first. Still in carrying that confusion, Alisa headed to the small gymnasium.

◇ ◇ ◇

Burning with fighting spirit and aiming for the confrontation with Third High — or to be accurate, Ichijou Akane — Marika was burdened with a great worry lately.

She lacks sparring partners.

She is not conceited. Objectively speaking, other than the Club President of the women’s division Kitahata Chika, whose ability is on par or better than hers, there was nobody. If you practice only against the same person, the way you fight will eventually become biased.

Considering how calm it is in the club, Marika didn’t voice her complaints about that. But, to the eyes of someone who is strong, it seemed obvious.

“Tookami-san. Do you want to practice with me today?”

At the end of the warm-up, the men’s division Club President Chigusa Tadashige called out to Marika.

“I’ll be in your care!”

Naturally, Marika had no objection. She bowed with enough force to create wind.

“It is me who should say that, go easy on me. Should we do it without grappling techniques?”

Chigusa proposed while smiling to Marika, who had energetically taken the offer.

“No, no restrictions please!”

Completely motivated and with a face 100% filled with fighting spirit, Marika quickly assumed her stance.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Mi...!”

Almost yelling out ‘Mina!’, Alisa covered her own mouth with her hands in a hurry.

If she shouts suddenly, she’ll be interrupting their practice. Cheering aside, screaming would be awkward.

Alisa knows full well she is not cut out to spectate martial arts. For that reason, whenever she visits Marika during her club activities, she deliberately prepares herself mentally. Today too, she intended to take deep breaths and compose herself before entering the small gymnasium.

Despite that, she nearly screamed in reflex when the sight of Marika being pinned down by a boy suddenly jumped into her sight.

‘Mina is being attacked!’, Alisa was met with panic for a short time, a fraction of a breath. As she almost screamed, she realized that she was just being pinned down in a bout-style practice. That’s why she managed to cover her mouth with her hands.

The boy who was holding Marika down immediately got off her when she made apparent her wish to give up with a tap. Once he stood up and she saw his profile, Alisa understood Marika’s opponent was the Club President of the men’s division.

No matter how you look at it, that’s ridiculous, Alisa thought. In addition of the disadvantages of first-year against third-year and girl against boy, the opponent was the Club President. There’s no way he is an equal competitor.

This wasn’t an incorrect assumption on Alisa’s part. After that, Marika continued to be beaten down by Club President Chigusa.

Feeling nervous while watching over Marika, Alisa forgot about her frustrations and worries.

Before long, a whistle rang and Marika and Chigusa bowed to each other. Alisa had the feeling that she was watching their freestyle practice spar for far too long, but objectively speaking, it was only a little too much.

Alisa took a deep breath, held on to the rail of the spectator gallery (an aisle for spectators that looks like a gallery, set up at the height of a second floor), and repeatedly took short breaths while looking downwards. She had been unconsciously holding her breath because she was worried about Marika, who was being rash.

After regaining her breath, Alisa turned her eyes to Marika once again. While sitting in the seiza position on the map, Marika was talking face-to-face with Chigusa, who was sitting next to her with his legs crossed.

Perhaps she is getting guidance regarding the aspects she should work on from the spar just now, Alisa wondered. Both Marika, who was earnestly receiving instructions, and Club President Chigusa, who was coaching her seriously, had attitudes that gave her a good impression.

Alisa forgot to call out to them and looked at them amiably, but her expression suddenly became stiff.

A sudden laugh, and Alisa saw Marika’s smile.

They’re in the middle of high school club activities. No matter how serious they are, they’ll likely joke around.

But it was the first time Alisa had seen Marika make that kind of smile.

A smile that is mindful of the other person’s gaze, a smile that is slightly strained.

It wasn’t anything weird. She’s talking one-on-one with a senior in her club, and on top of that, a male senpai. She can’t show her ‘true face’ like when she’s with classmates and people of the same sex.

Maybe that’s the case for herself as well, Alisa thought.

But Marika’s smile looked very mature.

She felt like a woman.

For the current Alisa, that was a strange shock.

Alisa turned her whole body away from Marika and Chigusa and headed to the exit of the gallery.

(Asha?)

Marika noticed Alisa in the gallery during her spar.

It can’t be called evidence of that fact, but the first thing she was warned about during her-post spar guidance was that she failed to defend because she was distracted by Alisa.

So, when Alisa decided to leave, Marika realized right away.

“Senpai, excuse me for a minute!”

Though the guidance was not yet over, Marika rushed to stand up and went towards the exit of the small gymnasium to stop Alisa.

Fortunately — in this case, as far as Marika is concerned, it can be described as ‘fortunate’ — Alisa’s stride was sluggish. Marika could see Alisa’s back before she left the small gymnasium.

“Asha!”

Alisa’s shoulders trembled slightly at Marika’s call. Her hesitant movements as she turned back can’t have been Marika’s imagination either.

“Mina, aren’t you still in the middle of practice?”

With her tone, she was pretending that nothing was out of the ordinary, but Marika’s ears could not be deceived. It was faint enough that only Marika could tell, but she was clearly agitated.

“I saw you, Asha, so I left for a bit.“

“I see.”

“Asha, are you going home already?”

“Yeah... I’m feeling a little under the weather.”

Even after hearing that, Marika didn’t panic. That she wasn’t feeling well was probably not a complete lie, but it was definitely an excuse. That’s what it looked like to Marika.

“In that case, you should have let me know.”

But she did not do anything like directly pressing her for answers. Even though Marika looked like she wasn’t thinking of anything, she was not at all inconsiderate.

“Your bout is fast approaching, I thought it would be bad of me to interrupt.”

Alisa became easier to understand than before, as she strained herself to smile.

“Like I’m saying, Asha, I can’t let you go home alone when you’re not feeling well. Just wait a little. I’ll tell the President that I’m leaving early.”

“Stop, don’t do that!”

Alisa was flustered and grabbed Marika’s arm.

The anxiousness that appeared on her face was what she really felt.

“But...”

Marika wasn’t acting either. Realizing that Marika was seriously worried about her, Alisa became even more anxious.

“I’ll be fine after resting a little!”

“You will? Really?”

“Yes, really. I’ll wait for you at Einebrise.”

“Okay. Asha, just don’t go home without saying anything.”

Marika peered into Alisa’s eyes.

“I got it.”

Alisa could not oppose that look of hers.

◇ ◇ ◇

On a side street just slightly off the main road connecting First High and the nearest train station is the coffee shop Einebrise. There are also a café and a fast-food restaurant facing the school road between First High and the station, where most of the students drop by.

That said, Einebrise doesn’t have a lack of customers. This place is secretly famous because it was the coffee shop where Shiba Tatsuya was a regular, so there were enthusiastic regulars.

Einebrise is typically like that, but today there weren’t many customers. Maybe it was a coincidence that it was empty today, or maybe because it looked like it was going to rain and the customers left before it began to pour.

In such an empty store, Alisa hogged the counter all to herself. With an unusually bad posture for her, her elbows placed on the counter, her arms piled on top of each other and one of her cheeks resting on top, she was staring at the glass of iced coffee she had tasted a single sip from.

She was in a listless mood, looking on the verge of letting out a deep sigh.

“Is something wrong? You don’t look too well.”

Alisa heard a familiar voice behind her and slowly raised her body.

She would normally correct her posture in a hurry. Alisa truly was unwell. 

“Izayoi-senpai.”

She turned around, called his name, and bowed while sitting like that.

“What happened?”

Souma nodded to return the bow and repeated his question.

“Senpai, weren’t you on Committee duty today?”

By replying to the question with another question, Alisa refused to answer Souma’s question.

“It was patrol, so I’ve finished.”

“I believe there is still quite some time until the main entrance closes, though.”

Souma smiled bitterly at Alisa’s words filled with a nuance of reproach.

“It looks like you’re misunderstanding, Juumonji-san, you really don’t have a responsibility to continue until the school closes. This isn’t a job in the first place.”

“I thought patrolling was the job of the Public Morals Committee, though?”

Alisa asked back, with a doubtful expression.

Souma shook his head to say ‘That’s not the case.’

“We aren’t school staff, we’re students. Our job is to be thorough in our studies, the Committee is an extracurricular activity. You shouldn’t neglect it, but you don’t need to be bound by it that much.”

Taken by surprise, Alisa’s expression left from her face. It was not an expressionless look, but defenseless.

“...Yuuto-san always stays until the end.”

Alisa took several seconds to recover and managed to offer a rebuttal.

“The Student Council is workaholic by tradition. I don’t think that doing everything by themselves is good for the other students. If the interested people are just given everything, their awareness won’t develop.”

“I can understand that, but...”

Alisa narrowed her eyes toward Souma.

She was not smiling. She was amazed.

“Senpai, you’re not just saying something believable as an excuse to not do your job, right?”

“No way. Start with the first step, right?”

“...”

The idiom ‘start with the first step’ is also used with the meaning ‘The one to suggest it should put it into practice’. Because only a few students stay until late and do all the Student Council work, the other students become apathetic to it. In order to correct this situation, he is taking the initiative of leaving early. — That was probably what Souma wanted to say.

However, the work of the Public Morals Committee, similar to the preparations for the Nine Schools Competition, is not something that can be done by dividing workload between a large group of people. To Alisa, it seemed likely that Souma’s claims were nothing but sophistry.

“Looks like you’re feeling a bit better, huh.”

Souma abruptly changed the topic.

Maybe he thought it was as unreasonable assertion himself. It is also possible that he felt his outlook was poor based on Alisa’s suspicious gaze, so she tried to change the subject.

But when Souma pointed it out, Alisa realized that those unidentified ill feelings that had been inside her were fading away. She felt more at ease, no doubt because of Souma.

Because of that, deep in her heart, Alisa was just a little thankful.

◇ ◇ ◇

Marika joined up with Alisa and they immediately left Einebrise. Once she saw Souma was there, Marika dragged Alisa out of there.

“Asha, what were you talking about with Izayoi-senpai? He didn’t say anything weird, did he?”

Marika asked Alisa as soon as the Cabinet departed.

As always, Marika had a poor opinion of Souma.

“Anything weird...”

Alisa instinctively thought about it. It wasn’t ‘anything weird’ like what Marika was asking, but the warped logic in Souma’s argument was plenty ‘weird’.

“I knew it!”

Marika was indignant. Considering who she is, it’s obvious she would get angry.

“Ah, he didn’t say anything particularly unpleasant.”

Alisa hurried to add, not wanting to plant the seeds of misunderstanding on Marika.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. A logical argument for him to end his patrol duties early... Or rather, I guess it was more of an excuse.”

After starting it off like that, Alisa told Marika what Souma said, re-enacting his words almost perfectly.

“Hmm... He said something unusually decent.”

Unexpectedly, Marika appeared to sympathize with Souma.

“So you think it was decent, Mina?”

‘Oh, crap!’ appeared on Marika’s face.

After that, she was surely trying to look calm, as her face stiffened strangely.

“No, I think what Izayoi-senpai said was an excuse too.”

Marika herself probably intended to speak calmly, but Alisa could see quite clearly her best friend’s panic.

(You don’t need to worry about it that much...)

When Marika commended Souma, Alisa didn’t misunderstand it as anything like ‘Marika likes Souma’. Alisa knew that Marika thinks of Souma as ‘shady’.

“I was just thinking whether it’s wrong that only the Council and Committee members stay until late, forced to do all the work, while the other students are indifferent to it. I think an environment where some are just given all the benefits without paying any of the costs will turn people useless.”

Alisa also thinks that this is correct in theory.

But no matter what arguments are used, regardless of the time and place they are put into words, it comes off as sophism.

Therefore, Alisa couldn’t sympathize with Souma’s excuse like Marika did.

“More importantly, are you feeling better now?”

Maybe she realized she was digging herself into a hole, Marika suddenly changed the subject.

“I’m feeling better than before.”

Alisa wasn’t flustered. It wasn’t a lie that she hadn’t felt well, nor that it had improved. The frustrations, the worries, and the unidentified shock she had been assaulted by, were all likely caused because she was terribly mentally exhausted.

Even now, she can’t say she has an accurate understanding of her own condition. But she could tell her head was feeling lighter. That her chat with Souma had been the starting point to this, Alisa was reluctant to admit.

“I’m glad. But what caused it?”

“I don’t know, but...”

Prompted by Marika, Alisa searched her memories.

“...I was talking with Karatachibana-kun when I suddenly felt sick.”

Marika’s eyes gleamed, feeling like they were saying ‘Ooh!?’.

Alisa was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice Marika’s expression, who looked like she was delighted by her best friend’s sorrow and leaked out her expectations, unable to hide them.

“What did you talk about?”

“He didn’t say anything particularly bad. He just asked about Kagari-kun, and then—”

“You mean about the rumor of you going out with Kagari-kun?”

“Yes, it was about that.”

“And then, what did he say?”

“That if we were dating, we shouldn’t study together.”

Alisa didn’t tell Marika about her questioning Mamoru about his relationships with girls.

She wasn’t even aware that she kept that hidden.

On the other hand, Marika slightly, yet unconsciously, raised the corners of her mouth.

By what Alisa just said, Mamoru is thinking that if Alisa has a boyfriend he should keep his distance.

That is to say, as of now, his feelings for Alisa are no stronger than that.

To Marika, who thought of Mamoru as the most problematic one, these were great news.

“Hey, Asha.”

With one of her worries gone, Marika got carried away.

“Before, when you tried to go home without saying anything, wasn’t that because I was talking face-to-face with Chigusa-senpai?”

“Eh!?”

“Could it be, were you jealous?”

“Huh? What are you saying?”

But what she got back was a cold reaction.

Marika had to keep buttering up to Alisa until they reached the station closest to their home.

◇ ◇ ◇

They both said “Good night” with a smile, and she ended the video call with Marika that had become a nightly routine.

But right after the screen blacked out, Alisa’s expression grew gloomy.

(I did something awful to Mina today...)

What she was thinking back on was her behavior inside the Cabinet.

Even if it was her carefree best friend, her attitude at the time was terrible... Though Alisa didn’t think she was 100% wrong. She wasn’t that much of a self-punishing masochist.

To begin with, the matter inside the Cabinet was caused by Marika’s insensitive question ‘were you jealous?’.

But — even if it was lacking in delicacy, it wasn’t off the mark.

When she tried to leave the small gymnasium without saying anything, deep inside her, there was also jealousy.

She got jealous, she mentally vented her anger, and not wanting to let it out of her mind, she ran away from that place. She now understood all that.

No, in truth, she knew at the time. She just tried not to think about it, but she understood it deep in her heart.

The indignation that caused her to vent was directed at Mamoru.

She is not an easy woman who, while not having a particular boyfriend, spends way too much time alone with other members of the opposite sex. Why doesn’t he understand that? Alisa thought that at the time. She actually said it out loud in reply to Mamoru, but that alone didn’t cool her temper down.

(But why was I so irritated...?)

It is in her nature that she isn’t aggressive towards other people. She thinks that the other may have their feelings hurt, and because of that she hesitates. Distinctly speaking out like that and venting her irritation on someone was not her usual behavioral pattern.

Alisa doesn’t think of herself as a timid girl who can’t even say what she wants to say. She also has past memories of making remarks that went against the mood.

But with Mamoru it was different. That was not like her.

That regret was coiling around Alisa’s heart.

(Even though I didn’t need to be that aggressive)

It was a situation where, if she had spoken more calmly, they could have laughed it off. If that had been the case, it wouldn’t have become the final act of something like a couple fighting and falling apart, it would have been the usual after school time.

(Why did I act like that?)

(I wonder if Karatachibana-kun thinks of me as an unpleasant girl...)

Before she realized it, Alisa’s thoughts moved from her guilt towards Marika to her regret regarding Mamoru.

Alisa was unaware of that.