Kaguya’s cheeks grew warm. Her face, however, went white. “Well… You see…”
You could hear a pin drop. Despite the silence, everybody’s attention was riveted on Azuma and what he was going to do next. Was today the day that something finally happened? Kaguya was painfully conscious of the hushed expectation filling the room.
But she didn’t have time to worry about that right now. She needed to come up with an excuse. A good one and quickly. Preferably something of the witty variety.
“I—I was just saying how much I like your cooking, Captain Azuma.”
This was not her finest moment.
“Yes, that’s right. I was just saying how much I love Captain Azuma’s cooking! In fact, I was looking forward to it so much that I couldn’t stop myself from jumping to my feet.”
“Y-you do? Well, I’m glad to hear that, I guess.”
Azuma looked confused, but he sounded vaguely pleased. Apparently, he believed her. Although…it was a little worrying that he was so easy to fool.
“Just don’t go expecting me to start playing favorites with the menu, Kaguya.”
“Absolutely not. I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“But I bet you’re expecting an extra-large portion, right? You’re going to have Major Mirai in tears again at this rate.”
Charon’s food, necessities, and other such needs were provided by the Combat Support Branch. Since Kaguya joined them, the amount of food they were going through had skyrocketed. If they tried to skimp on the portions, however, Kaguya’s performance out in the field suffered instead. Mirai was close to tearing her hair out when it came to ordering their supplies.
“Portions are, well… Never mind. Forget about that for now. Why were you sleeping in so late, Captain Azuma? You usually wake up right after Rindou.”
Rindou was the barrack’s earliest riser.
“Were you up late last night or something? There’s a first time for everything, I guess.”
“Y-yeah…”
Azuma laughed in a somewhat self-deprecating manner as he headed toward the kitchen, turning his back on the rest of them in the hall.
“I started thinking of everyone…from Charon…”
Kaguya didn’t need to be told to know who he meant by “everyone.”
She plopped herself down on the sofa. The past members of Charon, the ones who had died. That was who, probably. Azuma and the other current members of Charon weren’t the only ones who had survived the hero attack six years ago. There had been older members. A whole ragtag pack, at least, of adolescents and children.
And all of their deaths had been for the sake of some experiment being carried out by the Extermination Bureau—or at least by the organization that went by that name.
Kaguya’s mind wandered to thoughts of the Director and Sakura. Haru was probably also remembering past friends and colleagues whom she had witnessed die in front of her eyes.
The slightly somber atmosphere that descended upon the room was interrupted by the sound of the refrigerator door opening. Despite being the one to bring up the subject, Azuma himself seemed fairly nonchalant.
“It looks like summer is finally almost over, doesn’t it? It was a long one this year.”
“For me, it passed in the blink of an eye…”
“That’s not very funny…”
Kaguya knew he was right, but to her, the fact that she had been asleep for a whole month seemed fairly trivial.
“Speaking of which,” Kaguya said, completely changing the subject. “You seem tired, Captain Azuma. Instead of making lunch, why don’t we all go somewhere instead?”
“Somewhere? You mean like out to eat? What brought that on all of a sudden?”
“Why not? It’s good to get out every now and again. We’ll just ask Major Mirai to foot the bill.”
“The poor major…,” Haru said, staring off into the distance. It didn’t seem like she was against the idea, however. “Fine, what should we eat, then? What sounds good to you, Kaguya?”
“I mean…I know it was my suggestion, but honestly, I’m having trouble coming up with any good ideas.”
“Well, make sure it’s something where there’s a limit on how much you can eat. We don’t want a repeat of last time when we went for bottomless soba, and you finished off one hundred and fifty-three bowls. You put the rest of us off our food.”
“That was actually quite low, I’ll have you know. I only stopped because Major Mirai begged me to in tears.”
“Poor Major Mirai,” Haru said once again.
“What do you mean by a place where there’s a limit on how much I can eat?”
“Anywhere without free refills or all-you-can-eat options.”
“How about Italian? All those carbs should be filling.”
The girls began making arrangements among themselves, completely ignoring Azuma and Rindou. One place had good pasta. Another was too expensive, so it wouldn’t be fair to Major Mirai. One also had healthy options. And so on and so forth.
After some chatter, Koyuki finally turned to speak to Azuma and Rindou.
“So it’s decided, then. We’re having pasta today.”
“Don’t we get a say in the matter…?”
“Okay, what did you want?”
Azuma gave it some thought, but after ten seconds, he still hadn’t said a word. It looked like he couldn’t come up with any ideas, either.
“All right, then. Pasta it is—”
“Aren’t you gonna ask me what I want?” Rindou said, complaining, although he was probably only doing so for show.
“I already know you’re just gonna say protein.”
“What kind of a meathead do you take me for? But…yeah, you’re right.”
He had only interrupted them for the sake of banter.
Pasta it was, then.
“Ah…!” As Rindou began to rise to his feet, Azuma made a little exclamation as if he had just remembered something. “Ice cream parfaits.”
Everyone turned to stare. That cute little phrase was not at all what they had expected to come out of his mouth.
“Ice cream…parfaits?”
“Yes… There was this place I saw a little while ago. I kept thinking that I wanted to go, but before I knew it, the time just seemed to slip away.”
“Really? I’m curious to see what kind of place would catch your interest, Captain Azuma…but to be honest, my heart is already set on pasta today.”
“No, I don’t want to make everyone change plans now.”
It sounded like Azuma wasn’t that dead set on parfaits after all. He just wanted to bring it up.
“Well, how about this, then? The next time we go out to eat, we’ll prioritize wherever you want to go,” said Kaguya.
“Oh? Is that a promise?” Azuma asked her.
“Of course it is. Have I ever made a promise I didn’t keep?”
“Not that I can think of off the top of my head. Honestly, it’s hard to picture you breaking a promise.”
“You see?”
Kaguya grinned, a little satisfied with herself. A smile made its way to Azuma’s lips as well. Maybe her grin had rubbed off on him. Either that, or he was just keeping her smile company.
“All right. I trust you won’t break your promise. But don’t forget about it, either!”
“Don’t you sweat it. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s remembering stuff.”
“We’ll see about that,” Azuma teased, taking the lead and exiting the room first.
Koyuki followed, and then Rindou, and then Haru. Purely by coincidence, Kaguya happened to bring up the rear.
As she watched them from behind, a stray thought floated into her head.
Of course I won’t forget.
How could I ever forget a promise that I made to you?