She said, “It’s fun, like an after-school club.” I don’t know what an afters choolclub is, but she seems to enjoy it, so I do, too. It makes quite a racket, though, so I think her boss scolds her.
Now I was doing it in front of someone else for the first time. I was worried I might scare Miss Kiyori. Still, I was eager to show off the fruits of my daily training.
I planted both my feet and then lifted one leg up high. I stomped that foot, then did the other side. I scooted forward, dragging my heels. Then I opened both palms toward the heavens, and after that I moved one hand to my belly button.
“...What are you doing?” Miss Kiyori cocked her head in confusion.
I had a bad feeling that maybe I had done something wrong, but I answered, “Sumo.”
“Huh? That was sumo? I guess I don’t really get it. That is, I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“Miss Haru says that this is the basic sumo greeting...so when I go upstairs, this is the first thing we do.”
“To each other?”
“Yes.”
“You mean, with a straight face?”
“With a straight face.”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Uh, sorry. But when I imagine it, I can’t help but—sorry. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!” She apologized over and over but nonetheless kept laughing. I must have really tickled her funny bone.
Maybe it’s not for combat after all? But I was happy I got Miss Kiyori to laugh.
“You two really are a lot of fun, huh?” she said, wiping the corners of her eyes.
If both Miss Haru and Miss Kiyori think it’s fun, that’s a reason to continue. I think I’ll keep working on my sumo for a bit longer.
“Mr. Sumo...err, sorry. Mr. Jaysohlbrother.”
“Umm, you can call me Sumo. I’m used to it.”
“No, please let me call you Mr. Jaysohlbrother. Otherwise there was no point to me learning your real name.” She said it over again, looking straight at me.
Miss Kiyori has such a beautiful face. (Of course, Miss Haru does, too. Oh, and Miss Lupe.) I used to be a total stranger to anything to do with women, so it hit me again how much my life has changed in the past few months after meeting these girls. It all started when I fell in love with Miss Haru at first sight and shamelessly followed her to the brothel.
“Mr. Jaysohlbrother.” Oh right, Miss Kiyori was talking. She called my real name again and then stopped for some reason, smiling as if to gloss it over. “You really love Miss Haru, don’t you, Mr. Jaysohlbrother?”
The only thing I don’t like about Miss Kiyori is how she sometimes hits the nail right on the head and stabs you with it.
“Huh? Uh, umm.” I had no idea how to answer, so all I could do was wipe away the waterfall of sweat pouring down my face. But no matter how much I wiped, my temperature kept rising. It was as if I’d turned into a big mangameat.
“...I like that about you,” Miss Kiyori said softly. She hit the nail on the head again, but for some reason, it seemed like this time she stabbed herself, and she pressed her hands to her heart. “You’re so single-minded and pure. The emotions you show are always so clean and fresh. For the longest time I’ve been trying to be more like Miss Haru, but maybe I should be aiming to be more like you.”
She looked up at me bashfully, biting her lip as she smiled. She was bright red. “I love you, Mr. Jaysohlbrother.”
Then she cast a spell that stopped time. Even my breathing and heartbeat stopped, so I rushed to inhale.
I had no idea how to react. That wasn’t a stabbing at all. Or rather, it was such an impossible blow that my head turned to mush.
“Sorry to say something so weird out of nowhere like that. What I love about you is how serious you are about Miss Haru. I just want to watch you, with that passion, cook; it’s not as if I want you to turn my way.”
She told me not to think too hard about it. I don’t think I can think very well in this state, anyway.
“I don’t want to interfere in your emotions, and my ideal relationship with you is the one we have right now. I just really wanted to tell you how I felt. I’ll probably be defiled again, so at least before that happens, I just...”
I didn’t really understand her confession. But between wondering what she meant by “defiled” and the fact that, come to think of it, she had said she wanted to get stronger, I got the feeling she was trying to do something different from normal Sister work, something totally unexpected, and it made me strangely nervous.
But it didn’t seem like a subject I could broach. As I was hesitating, she finally clapped her hands in front of her chest as if to close the conversation.
“Anyhow, sorry to be weird. It’s hard to put your own feelings into words, isn’t it? Even though you should be the closest to them, they’re so easy to lose sight of. Hee-hee.”
I completely agreed. I often lose track of what I’m trying to say. Even then, my heart was pounding and my brain wasn’t working right.
“Huh?” Miss Kiyori cocked her head and then sniffed the air. “Mr. Sumo—err, Mr. Jaysohlbrother! Your meat!”
“Ack.” I forgot I was still grilling the meat. Hurrying to take the burned lump off the heat, I touched it with my bare hands and dropped it. I nearly turned my hands into mangameat. “Ow, that burns...”
“Are you okay, Mr. Jaysohlbrother?”
Miss Kiyori cast healing magic on me. I’ve heard it’s pretty expensive if you request it in the usual way, but she turned down my offer to pay. “You always give us a discount, so this is the least I can do. More importantly, I guess that meat has gone to waste, huh?”
I picked the charred mangameat up off the floor. I couldn’t very well serve it anymore. But I couldn’t imagine throwing it away, either.
“If I scrape off the outer layer, I think it can still be eaten.” I put a knife into the meat. From beneath the burned crust appeared juicy flesh of the right color.
“Oh, looks great. I’m glad you could save it.”
Yes, for the two of us to eat, it was just fine. It didn’t matter that it got a little dirty. “I can transform anything into a tasty dish. Even if the food is dirty or damaged, it doesn’t mean you have to give up on it.”
“You’re right. Under the charred exterior the meat is grilled brilliantly.”
“The important part is what’s inside. And cooking can be a metaphor for all sorts of things. A little issue is actually no problem. Yeah.”
“It might actually improve the aroma. And all that juice looks delicious.”
I was trying to say in a roundabout way, in response to Miss Kiyori’s mention of being defiled, that no matter how defiled she was, she was still beautiful, but either because I didn’t express myself well enough or because she was really hungry, she interpreted it as just more commentary on the meat.
But whatever, that’s fine. I’m sure the meat was happy to be called delicious-looking.
“Would you like to have some before you go? I can’t serve it to a customer, so you don’t need to pay anything.”
“What? Really? I just might...”
“Yes. I’ll season it now.”
I performed the seasoning-from-high-above technique I learned from Miss Haru.
“Does that have some special meaning?” Miss Kiyori asked with a straight face, and once again, I wasn’t sure how to answer.