Kore wa Zombie desu ka? Vol 6 Chapter 2.5

VOLUME 6

Chapter 2: Part 5

After I paid Haruna back with a sharp blow, her ahoge was now protruding out of a lump atop her head. She was now sitting on her knees in the entranceway, tears welling up in her eyes.

“So, what in the world gave you the idea of doing this?”

“The gloomy necromancer… I heard it was her birthday…”

Haruna looked apologetic for her actions, but I still spoke to her strongly like a parent scolding his child. Yuu was standing by, drying her shining silver hair with the bath towel.

“So you were playing mean pranks on her out of jealousy?”

“Hueh? No, not at all! I was doing this for the gloomy necromancer…”

“So you reduced my jeans to a wet, holey mess for Yuu’s sake? Also, didn’t you say something about making this the worst day of her life or something?”

“That’s what a birthday is for!”

“Exactly what the h.e.l.l do you think a birthday is?!”

“Birthdays are days where you celebrate your life until that day.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“The masou shoujo are always risking their lives fighting the Megalo. So, for us, it’s really lucky to be able to survive for a year. You could say our fortune is at its highest at that point! But then, the only direction your luck can go is down… so… the masou shoujo tradition is to try and force your luck down on your birthday.”

“What an obnoxious tradition… I guess I should expect no less from the masou shoujo.”

Well, I guess if she was trying to help Yuu celebrate her birthday in her own way, then I can’t blame her too strongly for that…

As usual, Haruna went around doing things that made it hard to tell if she liked Yuu or not…

“So, don’t you have something you’d like to say to Yuu?”

“Sorry.”

After seeing Haruna so teary-eyed down there on the floor, I really didn’t feel like scolding her further. But just as I was trying to figure out what to do next, the doorbell rang. Good timing.

Before I could even answer the bell, the door shamelessly flew open and a smiling bespectacled guy came into the house.

“Yo! Here I am!”

Orito was carrying some huge package as he came in, and I also saw Tomonori silently standing next to him, wearing a pretty girly chiffon one-piece dress.

“Hey there. Welcome.”

“Aikawa… why do you look like that?”

I swear, Tomonori looked almost like a girl in that dress. Anyways, she asked me that question while glancing at my tattered jeans.

“Also, what’s up with that thing on your roof? Looks like a Rolls Royce hood ornament or something.”

Orito pointed his thumb out the door, still carrying that big package. It seemed that even if the magically warped s.p.a.ce had disappeared, the lawn decorations were still there.

“If that’s all that you found strange outside, that’s honestly a relief to hear. Anyways, the answer to all your questions is simple. ‘You don’t want to know.’”

Haruna jumped up just as the two new arrivals came in.

She probably didn’t want anybody else seeing her kneeling on the ground and getting scolded like that. She put both hands on her hips and gave them her usual bratty smile, acting like nothing had happened.

“It’s like lying under a table and having a red bean mochi fall into your mouth!” (1)

“Aren’t you combining two idioms there…?”

“Hueh? Okay, it’s like a gold coin falls on you while you’re sleeping.”

“I think that’s also a combination of two idioms…”

No, that one exists.

… Really? Okay then. I scratched my head a bit and turned my eyes away from Haruna. Haruna looked up at me with a scowl and narrowed eyes.

“You doubted me, didn’t you? Apologize!”

“Haruna-sama, I humbly apologize from the depths of my heart.”

Well, it seemed that the whole gang was here now, so we headed for the living room. We opened the door, and…

Bang! An uncountable number of party crackers went off. It seemed that opening the living room door would trigger all the crackers at once. It was like the guillotine trap that Haruna had set on the front door.

A ponytailed beauty stood inside the living room, clapping and welcoming Yuu in.

Both Orito and I clutched at our chests when we saw the warmest smile Sera had ever given. A smile from a pretty girl was like a biological weapon… how exactly could these smiles be so d.a.m.n powerful?

But, that’s a relief. Sera was in the living room, not the kitchen.

“Congratulations!” I imitated Sera and began to clap.

“Congratz~~” Tomonori gave Yuu a pearly-white smile and clapped.

“Yuu-chan, congratulations.” Orito looked at Yuu, wanting some applause himself, but she ignored him.

Haruna was looking the other way entirely, but I saw she was bringing her fingertips quietly together.

“Sera, looks like Yuu wants to have nabe for dinner. I bought some meat for shabu shabu, so could you start getting things ready? I… have to go change out of these clothes.”

“Shabu shabu…? We have a cake though…”

“Yuu said she wants to eat it, so that’s enough, right?”

“That’s… true.”

“What’s shabu shabu?”

Haruna c.o.c.ked her head slightly to the side. Orito went up to her with a disgusting-looking smirk and whispered something into her ear.

Haruna’s face flushed bright red…

“You trying to get me to take off my panties?!” (2)

Haruna rushed over to me and dealt me a fierce kick in the knees. G.o.ddammit Orito, stop teaching her things she really doesn’t have to know!

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) A j.a.panese idiom meaning “unexpected good fortune.” The issue is that usually you either say “red bean mochi fall into your mouth” or “red bean mochi fall from the table.” You don’t combine the two.

(2) Kinda strangely, no-panties shabu-shabu restaurants exist in j.a.pan. You get served by waitresses who are not wearing undergarments.