To make a long story short, I did eventually manage to escape the gut-churning danger zone that was class 2-B’s room. Seeing their maid café wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy Mio’s curiosity, though, and she ended up leading me all around the school on a grand tour of the festival’s offerings. On the bright side, she didn’t steer us toward any other restaurant-style attractions where we’d be obligated to hang around for a set period of time, sticking instead to exhibits that we could leave whenever we wanted.
“Hmm...” Mio hummed to herself as she took it all in. She seemed rather impressed by all the various items, art pieces, and cultural-club research projects that my peers had chosen to put on display.
You’d think that Mio had a remarkable variety of interests, judging by how indiscriminate she was about the things she stopped to look at...but to me, having had plenty of time to watch her by then, it sort of felt like she wasn’t really focusing on any of them. Her mind seemed to be somewhere else entirely.
“Ahh, that was great!” Mio exclaimed, pausing to stretch as we stepped out of yet another classroom.
“Hey, Mio?” I said.
“Hmm?”
“Are you nervous?”
“Am I... What?”
Makina’s performance was scheduled to start at two in the afternoon. That moment was rapidly approaching, and the closer it came, the more Mio lost her cool...or at least it seemed that way to me, anyway.
“I guess...I might be. Maybe I am,” Mio replied. She seemed puzzled, narrowing her eyes for a moment. It was almost like she was asking herself how she felt. “Hey, Yotsuba? Is there somewhere nearby where we could take a break for a little? Somewhere there won’t be anyone else around, I mean.”
“Umm... Yeah, I think so! This way,” I replied.
I took Mio by the hand and set off, making my way through—and fleeing from, more or less—the crowds of excited festivalgoers. Eventually, we arrived at a landing at the top of a staircase. That landing featured the doorway to the rooftop and basically nothing else whatsoever.
“The roof’s off-limits during the festival, so I don’t think anyone else is going to bother coming all the way over here today,” I explained.
“Hmm. Sounds good,” Mio replied. She smiled as she took a seat on the stairs. “Come on, don’t just stand there. You should sit down too.”
“Oh, sure!”
I sat down next to Mio...and a moment later, I heard a very long, deep sigh from beside me.
“I really didn’t think you’d call me out. Not that directly, anyway... Was it that obvious? Am I just an open book, or what?” Mio asked.
“Umm, not really,” I said. “It was just a hunch, honestly. I don’t even know why I thought you were nervous...”
“Oh, I was talking to myself just now, not to you. No need to answer me.”
“Whaaat?! Come on!”
Was she really...? I was so sure she was talking to me! Why is communication always so dang hard?!
“Gotcha! I was just kidding. You’re really fun to mess with, Yotsuba.”
“To mess with?!”
“Yup. You make it easy. Heh heh!” Mio chuckled in a weirdly childlike sort of way before reaching over and mussing up my hair.
“Wha— Hey?! Mio?!” I yelped.
I tried to push her arm away reflexively, but she dodged away from my grasp with ease. She was toying with me, in more ways than one...until suddenly, she was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. Someone was climbing the staircase.
“It’s okay,” I said to Mio. She’d jumped with surprise, her shoulders shuddering slightly, but I knew exactly who was on her way to meet with us. I just hadn’t mentioned it, that was all.
“Well, here I am, Hazama,” our visitor said as she ascended the staircase.
“Huh?” grunted Mio. “Aren’t you the maid from earlier...?”
“That’s correct, Mio Kuruma,” said Koganezaki. She turned to me next, her mouth set in a frown and her eyes displaying all the interest you’d express toward a random rock you happened to notice lying by the side of the road.
Oh, good! She’s treating me the same way as always!
“You know who I am...?” said Mio. “I’m guessing that means Yotsuba told you what’s going on?”
“Y-Yeah,” I replied. “I asked her for advice when I was trying to figure out how to get you into the school. She did say no, but still.”
“And you expect her to be on our side, why?”
“She is, trust me! You wouldn’t think it just looking at her, but she’s actually really helpful and reliable and stuff! Right, Koganezaki?”
“Why exactly would you ask me to vouch for myself?” Koganezaki replied before crossing her arms and heaving a sigh. She had, incidentally, swapped her maid outfit for her usual student uniform, which was kind of a shame. Not that our school’s winter uniform didn’t suit her super well too!
“It’s pretty hard to believe that she’s nice when your word is the only proof I have, Yotsuba,” said Mio.
“Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?!” I wailed.
“That I might be deceiving you, presumably,” said Koganezaki. “Which is fair enough, considering how much of a sucker you can be at times.”
“That’s what you meant?!” Thanks for the helpful clarification, I guess!
“I don’t particularly need you to trust me,” Koganezaki continued. “That said, since I’m aware of your presence here and the circumstances surrounding it, there’s every chance that if you’re exposed, I could end up being caught up in the inevitable fallout. I refused to help, yes, but I know perfectly well that if she ends up being questioned, she could easily end up accidentally implicating me anyway with some harebrained half-truth or another.”
“Oooh, yeah. I can definitely see that,” said Mio.
“Wow! Mean!” But also, it sort of sounds like she’s going to help us after all? She really is the nicest! This is exactly why I always end up relying on her! At the end of the day, Koganezaki’s number one!
“Oh, right!” Mio added. “I forgot to ask for a picture earlier. Can I take one now?”
“I’m off the clock at the moment, so no, you may not,” Koganezaki bluntly replied.
Heh heh heh! Classic Koganezaki—but I know that if I asked her, she’d totally say yes! After all, she’s an incredibly hospitable person at the end of the day! She’s got a chilly attitude, sure, but I know she loves me to pieces deep down!
That said, I didn’t actually end up asking. I didn’t want to make it look like I was showing off how well we got along to Mio, after all...which was the only reason. I definitely wasn’t worried about how depressed I’d get if she did shoot me down after all. My motivations were most definitely not that tragically pathetic.