Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Volume 3 Chapter 4 Part4

And chapter 4’s done.

I’ll be busy playing Super Mario Odyssey and Xen.o.blade Chronicles 2 when they come out studying for exams over the coming weeks, so expect the next update to be in mid-late December, unless the next part is going to take way less time than I think it would.

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Up until now, I've never entered the princ.i.p.al's office, but it was exactly as I imagined it to be - there was a bookshelf embellished in trophies and a wall ornamented with framed certificates.

However, there was a scene before my eyes which, while frequently seen in a normal cla.s.sroom, felt quite out-of-place in the princ.i.p.al's office.
In front of the princ.i.p.al's desk.

Sitting on the sofa which seemed to be for guests, with her arms on the table to use as a pillow, was a sleeping girl with drool spilling out of her mouth.
It was really strange.

Why are you sleeping in the princ.i.p.al's office?

I was visibly dumbfounded by this and couldn't say anything to Rikka and Shichimiya, who came in after me.

They were also speechless and had confused expressions on their faces.

I turned my attention towards the face of the sleeping girl, who was drooling.

Where have I seen her before - ah, that time in the nurse's office.

I remember her clearly, as she had something scribbled on her forehead at that time.
If I'm not mistaken, it was the word "demon".

There wasn't anything on her forehead this time, so it doesn't look like that was a special quirk of hers. Rather, it seemed like it was just a prank.

Nevertheless, she seemed like that type of person who would sleep anywhere… Naturally, I was curious as to how she could sleep in the princ.i.p.al's office to the point where drool started to come out, but I also wanted to ask her about Amaniji-senpai's whereabouts.

Since she's sleeping here, she was probably a member of the club too.

Alright, let's discuss this with the others.

"Well, it'd bad if we left her with her drool hanging, so it's probably for the best to wake her up. Additionally, she might know something about Amaniji-senpai's whereabouts."

Since she was still sleeping, I was, for the time being, speaking to the others in a quiet voice.

"Yuuta, you first. She might be an enemy."

From her downcast face, Rikka was indicating 'not me'.

She was invoking her 'shyness' skill.

…This was in spite the fact that just a few moments ago, she said, among other things, that I shouldn't be the first to go.

"Yeah, yeah, this is a task for Hero. I don't know any spells that can awaken a sleeping person. I'm an offensive specialist, so I'm no good at support magic."

Shichimiya skilfully avoided the responsibility of waking her up.

Or rather, she was saying that I was a support-type hero who only knew spells with effects such as waking a sleeping person up…

A hero like that's sort of pathetic…

Still, I guess it'd be weird if a useful spell like that didn't exist.

"Well, I thought that the female division would be better suited for such a task, but… I mean, it's not like I mind, but…"

In any case, it was a pity that the princ.i.p.al didn't suddenly return and exclaim, "Hey hey! It's no good to drool in the sacred princ.i.p.al's office! No good at all!", or something like that. Looks like it's up to me to wake her up.

I moved closer to her.

I felt really deplorable since my girlfriend was right next to me, but after looking at her face closely, as expected, her drool seemed to make her look - no, maybe the drool only seemed cute since she was cute. Either way, drool or no drool - I thought that she was cute.

I considered shaking her awake, but I decided against it, as she may have been aversive to having another guy touch her without any warning. Instead, I decided to wake her up by whispering to her.

"Umm, excuse me. Drool's hanging from your mouth."

"……"

There was no response. It seemed like she was sleeping deeply.

Time to try again. This time, I'll be a bit louder.

"Um, excuse me! Drool's hanging from your mouth!"

Twitching this time, she quickly got up.

As she was getting up, she pulled out a handkerchief that looked like it was prepared in advance (it seemed like something like this has happened to her before) and wiped her drool off her face. She then turned her face towards me, blinking as she double-checked her surroundings.

After all that, while she was still blinking at me, she opened her mouth to speak as if she suddenly remembered something.

"…Oh? Has my alarm rung, or have I become an Amura?[1]"

"I totally understand why you would say the former, but the latter? What kind of dreams are you having!?"

All of a sudden, she said something silly. I couldn't help but retort.

I have a quick wit, if I may say so myself. A salute to my straight man spirit.

"…What, so it wasn't my alarm. Well then… Zzz…"

"No wait, please wait a minute! Please don't feel relieved and go to sleep!"

"Hehe, don't worry. I was only saying "zzz"."

"You were saying it!? Why would you say something like that in the middle of the conversation!?"

"Hehe, it was a joke. Yeah… thank you very much for waking me up. So, you are? And, what is it that you want from me?"

She was pretty much doing things at her own pace.

What's up with her? Who is this person…!?

As she stretched her body, she stared at the three of us, alternating her gaze between us one at a time.

"Err… I'm Togashi Yuuta. Umm, and you are?"

I got so swept up by her pace that I ended up giving my normal self-introduction.

Her power to set the pace was terrifying.

"Ah, so you're Yuuta-kun. So Yuu-chan then. Nice to meet you, and please treat me well~."

…She instantly decided on calling me by the same nickname that Amaniji-senpai gave to me.

But, then again, it's not like it's a bad nickname.

And, from the way you've phrased it, it seems like you know about me?

Still, I'm a bit hurt that you didn't answer my question…

"And you two are?"

Slanting her head, she shifted her gaze behind me.

Her voice seemed to be directed at Rikka and Shichimiya, who were standing in front of the door peeping at the situation.

Shichimiya was the first to step up in response to those words.

She moved to the left of me.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Shichimiya Satone. However, that's just an alias - my true name is Sofia Ring -"

"So Satone-chan then! Nice to meet you, and please treat me well~."

It was interrupted.

The battle of an airhead's pace VS resisting being swept up by her pace has ended in Shichimiya's defeat!

It seems that this girl may be quite skilled. Even Shichimiya was stupefied by the sudden interruption.

At last, it was now Rikka's turn. However, Rikka stayed hidden behind Shichimiya and me as she introduced herself.

"I'm Takanashi Rikka. Please treat me well."

Bowing her head, it looks like she more or less managed to introduce herself properly.

Looking earnestly through the gap between Shichimiya and me, the girl gave Rikka a child-soothing smile,

"So you're Rikka-chan! Please treat me well~."

and said that as she, while seated, politely bowed her head.

Then, after raising her head, she once again gave a sweet smile.

"Me, I'm a second year, Tsuyuri k.u.min. And I'm a member of the drama club - ah, no, that's not quite right. I'm a member of the Eccentric Drama Club, so please treat me well!"

Tsuyuri k.u.min-senpai spoke with a relaxed tone.

You could feel that her tempo was oozing out of her from various places. In addition, like I expected, it seems that she was a club member.

Nevertheless, her name's Tsuyuri? As a surname, Tsuyuri definitely makes the list of rare names.

Is our school a treasury of rare names or something?

Or, was our princ.i.p.al admitting people into the school based on names taken from the entrance exams and interviews… It's troubling how plain my name was around here.

"Eh? No response? That's going to make me cry…"

With her head tilted in puzzlement, which definitely wasn't giving off the impression of being on the verge of tears at all, was Tsuyuri k.u.min-senpai.

Turning my gaze towards Shichimiya, it seemed that she was feeling sad from being cut off before, as her face was downcast and was teary-eyed. Poor Shichimiya…

Rikka was invoking her 'shyness' skill once again, releasing her aura from behind me with no consideration of me at all.

It appears that I was the only one who could reply.

"Ah, err, same here, please treat us well too. Um, we were told to come here by Amaniji-senpai. Do you know where she is?"

"Since its Hideri-chan, she should be arriving shortly? Yeah, that's right, Hideri-chan did tell me about you guys!  She was talking about how great things were since an amazing person was joining us. Right, right, just like the rumours say, to me Satone-chan definitely does seem amazing!"

"Eh, me!? Nyahaha, I mean, I'm the Magical Demon d.u.c.h.ess after all!"

Although she was astonished by the sudden turn of events, Shichimiya had a look of relief on her face, as she was finally able to give her usual speech about her character's setting.

In addition, as a result of being praised so suddenly, she was laughing to hide her embarra.s.sment.

It seemed that she had bounced back from being depressed and was, above all else, happy.

"Eh, that's amazing! Since you're a demon d.u.c.h.ess, does that mean you live in a place like a castle?"

"No no, to be a demon d.u.c.h.ess, I cannot live in luxury, so I had the castle sold. Presently, I reside in an apartment."

"Is that so? What a serious Demon d.u.c.h.ess-san."

As if it were normal, she agreed with what Shichimiya said.

How shocking. Were you accepting a setting like that as normal!?

Doing things at her own pace… or more precisely, she's an airhead. On top of that, she seemed like a weird person.

How should I put it - she was weird to the extent that it made sense as to why she's part of the same club as Amaniji-senpai.

When you think about it carefully, Tsuyuri k.u.min-senpai was also scouted by Amaniji-senpai, so it was sort of a given that she would be weird.

"Um, Tsuyuri-senpai -"

"Ah, there's no need to call me Tsuyuri, k.u.min is fine. Well, it's fine if you call me Tsuyuri, but after saying Tsuyuri a lot, wouldn't the 7th of May[2] be confusing?"

I was cut off by Tsuyuri-senpai - er, k.u.min-senpai - to be corrected on how I should be addressing her.

There didn't seem to be any ill will, but it's likely that she had either some sort of speech interruption skill or was the type who didn't really listen to others much.

Then again, just like k.u.min-senpai says, repeating Tsuyuri a lot really does seem to erode the date the 7th of May from my mind.

I signalled my understanding with a small nod, before returning to what I was trying to say before.

"Um, in that case, I'll call you k.u.min-senpai then. Well, k.u.min-senpai -"And, as soon as I said that, I heard the door open.

Shifting my attention to the door that was vigorously opened, I saw the person that I had been looking for.

Overwhelmingly rich in colour.

As the others would say, a cl.u.s.ter of aura.

She was so distinct that her existence was radiating with prominence.

The uppercla.s.sman, Amaniji Hideri, cheerfully strutted into the office.

"Man, I'm beat! I met with the student council, but they could only say normal things. Don't they understand that I can't do normal - eh!? Yuu-chan's here!? Oh, and DevTru Rikka-chan too! Thanks SO much for coming!"

Amaniji-senpai was in high spirits after seeing Rikka, but she didn't prostrate this time to greet us.

Although Rikka was hiding behind my back, she couldn't hide herself from Amaniji-senpai as she came from behind me. Still, since it was a normal greeting, it was baffling as to how energetic her greeting was.

"And - are you perhaps the person Yuu-chan talked about? The person who might help us out?", said Amaniji-senpai, placing her finger on her chin as she stared at Shichimiya closely.

Her stare (or her aura) overwhelmed Shichimiya, causing her to become frozen.

"…No way! There was still someone this outstanding at our school!? Where have you been hiding until now!?"

Shichimiya got praised again.

I'm not sure why, but she was popular.

Well, then again, I brought her along with me since I thought that she was someone who Amaniji-senpai would be absolutely pleased with.

Apparently, it seems that I've brought along the right person. And, as if she was waiting for Amaniji-senpai to say those words, Shichimiya flashed a posed look.

"That's, that's right!", said Shichimiya with a raised voice.

"My dark scarf is charged with magic power - it's glistering with the destructive energy of the Demon d.u.c.h.ess! As you wished, the Magical Demon d.u.c.h.ess, Sofia-chan, is here!"

This was the second time that I'd heard that speech today.

Naturally, her arms were crossed in a daunting pose. She didn't forget to smile and laugh "nyahahahaha" either.

"Yeah, you're definitely great! Thanks for that unique greeting! On top of that, your name's cool as well. Well, in that case, I'll call you Sofia-chan, and you can call me Rainbow Hideri-san!"

"Hmm, no thanks, that sounds terrible☆"

…Unlike Rikka, she outright refused!

She was wearing her usual soft grin, and yet she clearly turned Amaniji-senpai's offer down.

As expected, Amaniji-senpai was devastated.

"DevTru Rikka refused to call me that as well… that name, is… is it really that bad…?"

She was really depressed.

I was tempted to console her over the nickname, since I've also had a similar experience (this too was part of my dark history, so I'm not going to talk about it. Even now, I could still recall how my mother looked at me at that time), but the name was way too eccentric for me to follow-up on.

Plus, I also refuse to call her that.

"Now, now, Hideri-chan, it really is quite a mouthful to say. That's why it's my privilege to call you Rainbow Hideri."

"But if that's the case, then how come I feel like that you've never called me by that name before!?"

"Eh? Ah, it's because the name's really long. That's why I call you Hideri-chan."

"……"

Could it be that k.u.min-senpai was actually even more eccentric than Amaniji-senpai…?

"Ha, I guess you can compromise on the nickname like k.u.min. However, Sofia-chan, if it's possible, please call me by something that feels daring."

Recovering, Amaniji-senpai had a smile on her face as she said those words flamboyantly.

It made her seem really cute.

"Understood. Let's see… then, how about Hid Eri-san[3] -"

"It's daring - or more accurately, you just wanted to cut her name in in name, didn't you!?[4]"

Since the name was so excessively daring, my bad habit accidentally resurfaced again.

Guess there's no longer any doubt as to me being the prince of retorts.

As expected from Yuu-chan!

Then again, if I look at this from another perspective, it could be said that everyone else was playing the funny man… that would be really astonishing!

"Really? Well, how about Sun Dried-san[5]?"

"The imagery of the rainbow, the thing that definitely shouldn't be left out, was cut!?"

"In that case, Rainbow-san then."

"It's actually daring this time!"

"Jeez, you're so picky! Fine then, I'll just call her Hideri-san!"

…It seems that due to me, Amaniji-senpai ended up with a normal nickname.

However, it seemed that seeing our back and forth had placated her, as she didn't voice a complaint about being given a normal nickname. In addition, her mouth was loosened.

"Hahaha, yeah, that's fine. Since I'm your uppercla.s.sman, I'll tolerate a being called name like that. Besides, this is our long-awaited meeting after all."

As she said that, Amaniji-senpai moved towards the centre of the room - in other words, she moved towards what seemed to be for the princ.i.p.al's private use only, the princ.i.p.al's desk (I'm not sure if it really is called that).

And, standing in the most prominent place in the room, a place where she could look over everybody - she closed her eyes and vigorously nodded.

"Yeah! Everyone's here! In that case, let's start the club activities for the "Eccentric Drama Club" right away!"

It was so sonorous - just like how a real actress would announce it.

She also had a splendid sparkle-like smile.

Just from that expression, I could sense how overjoyed Amaniji-senpai was about being able to perform club activities.

As I turned to my right to look at Rikka, she seemed to be overflowing with motivation, nodding along to Amaniji-senpai's announcement.

Rikka doesn't seem like that type of person, but maybe deep down she actually longed-for things like club activities.

Rikka's definitely changed from when she's first entered school.

I think she's been changing in various ways ever since we started dating.

As for me – it was the same as well.

Various things have happened since starting school, and she's gained mult.i.tude of new experiences, so I'm sure that she's changed quite a bit - naturally, since I'm the one saying it, I think that she's definitely been changing for the better.

In the beginning, she really hated studying for Maths, but now she's improved so much at it that she's now able to avoid a failing grade. On top of that, she used to be the type of person who wouldn't talk to anyone in the cla.s.s at all, but now she's an active member of the cla.s.s performance.

Well, she only talks to Kanzari-chan, but still.

Even if it's just to Kanzari-chan, when you think about it, it still was a really good change.

Rikka's definitely maturing.

Although she was a chuunibyou patient, she was moulding us into her world -

"Yuuta? Wait, sorry, my bad. Yuu-chan, what's wrong?"

"Are you angry!?"

"No, not at all, it was just a joke. I wouldn't get angry over a name like that. It's just that I felt a really strong gaze from Yuuta."

"You stressed it as if it was some kind of new phrase… never mind. You're a bit excited."

"Yeah, I want to play the leading part!"

…She was way more enthusiastic about this than I imagined.

A short distance to my left, Shichimiya appeared to also suddenly be in high spirits, as she stood imposingly with her arms crossed. Although she was giving off the aura of someone who was playing a leading role, it was pointless since it didn't seem like she was going to be given such a role. After all, she was only here as a helper.

I casually shifted my gaze towards k.u.min-senpai's direction - and she was sleeping.

Her sleeping - it felt like that was the thing characterising k.u.min-senpai.

As expected of k.u.min-senpai. She was really nonsensical.

What kind of play can you perform with a member like that - I'd like to say that I'm excited for the play, but I can't help but be anxious.

[1] This sentence is an untranslatable pun. "watashi no arāmu natta" (わたしのアラーム鳴った), or "has my alarm rung", was 'repeated' again by k.u.min, "watashi, amurā ni natta" (わたし、アムラーになった), or "have I become an Amura". An "Amura" is a term for young girls who imitate the dressing style of Namie Amuro, a longstanding J-Pop artist.

[2] k.u.min's surname, 五月七日, can be read either as Tsuyuri (つゆり) or (and much more commonly) 7th of May (ごがつなのか).

[3] A pun lost in translation. Shichimiya breaks the kanji for Hideri's name (旱) into Hiboshi (日干).

[4] Another pun lost in translation. The phrase思い切った, what I've loosely translated as daring, can be split as 思い[通り] (doings things as one wants) and 切った (to cut).

[5] A third pun lost in translation. This time, Shichimiya adds the first kanji of her surname (天) into the mix, turning the nickname into, as a literal translation, Sun Dried (天日干し). Yuuta then retorts by saying how Shichimiya left out the second part of her surname (虹) which translates as rainbow, which is a word which is almost synonymous with Amaniji-senpai (or at least her physical appearance).