Author: SS Samurai | Original Source: Syosetu |
Translator: rm31439 | English Source: Re:Library |
“I can see…”
“Really? How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Seven.”
“You’re really able to see, are you…?”
Sakura curiously surveyed her surroundings.
Other than Kanata, there were chairs, a table, the bed, a corridor leading to the kitchen and bath, a clock… and much more in the apartment, some things not very different from Japan, though others were items unique to this world that she saw for the first time.
“…We’ve really come to another world, haven’t we…?”
“That’s right. There’s tons of things I’d like to show you. Like Loukis’ castle… it’s incredibly pretty.”
Kanata was in great spirits. He showed a radiant smile while he was talking to Sakura, as if he was the one who had been healed.
“Nevertheless, that appearance of yours, Kanata… It looks like light clothing some noble’s son might wear.”
“Right? Though your outfit is similar, Sakura. How about you take a look in the mirror at the washbasin?”
“Just for the sake of caution, could you come with me?”
“Hm, let’s go to the bathroom, then.”
Joined by Kanata, Sakura stood in front of the washbasin. Reflected in the mirror, she found herself, clothed in what looked like the garments of a young lady.
“Kanata… This is me!?”
“It sure is. Magarigi Sakura in the flesh, without her glasses. You look a lot like Mika-nee1. Oh, but your hair- and eye-color take more after your father.”
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this was the first time Sakura saw herself in a mirror without her glasses. Usually, she was wearing super-thick spectacles. Without those misshapen, special lenses, her visual acuity was insufficient.
“Eh-heh-heh… I resemble Big Sis…?”
“Yep, very much at that.”
While Sakura seemed embarrassed at Kanata’s words, inwardly she was on cloud nine. To think that she’d resemble her sister, a girl of quite some beauty. Up to this point, Sakura had considered her own appearance boorish, far different from her older sister.
She was starting to think that her being able to see, was actually a dream.
“This must be a dream, Kanata. Someone like me… could never be as beautiful as Big Sis… Besides, I can’t see without my glasses. And that I’d wear clothes that expose the shoulders like this, plus a skirt shorter than my school uniform. To begin with, that there’d be magic… Moreover, you’d never call me cute, Kanata… It’s a dream, I’m clearly dreaming…”
When she said that, Kanata grabbed her hand somewhat strongly.
“You can feel my hands, can’t you? This isn’t a dream.”
“No! This is just the feeling of you trying to wake me up after I dozed off in class… Wha-.”
This time, Kanata pinched her nose.
“You do feel me pinching your nose, right?”
“No! Dis is what you always do for waging me ub… Eeek!”
This time, Kanata was lifting Sakura up in a princess carry. Only, he had omitted the part of picking her up, and instead directly teleported her into his arms.
“How’s that? Are you awake now?”
He gazed at her face. Their eyes met.
In her shock, Sakura felt as if her heart would jump out of her throat. For some time, she stayed silent, but then she came back to her senses.
“I… I’m awake, I’m awake! This is reality, right? I get it, so please put me down!”
“Gotcha.”
Kanata very gently lowered Sakura to the floor. Inwardly, she felt some remorse, seeing it might’ve been nice to stay in his embrace a bit longer.
“At any rate… I really thought I was dreaming. Just being able to see makes such a difference, doesn’t it?”
“Yep, that’s true. On that note… isn’t there anything you want to see? If you don’t have any wishes, we can go give our regards to Mr. Loukis and then have a look around the city and the castle together. Other than that, there’s also magic and my teleportation.”
“Things I want to see…”
Sakura thought about various things. If she were to voice her honest thoughts, she’d likely say that she wanted to keep looking at Kanata’s face. However, that would’ve been too embarrassing, so for the time being, she was about to go with Kanata’s idea, but then thought better of it.
She had remembered something. And that thing was…
“I recalled something I would like to see, Kanata. The clothes I’m currently wearing, is this clothing that you asked for as a replacement? Or are these the ones I wore the very first time?”
“Those are the ones I requested.”
“Right… I’m a bit curious about the ones from the start… You don’t happen to still have them? A single set would be enough.”
“Oh? Sure… I’ll get them.”
Kanata teleported the magic bag into his hand. From there, he took out a set of clothing and handed it to Sakura.
“Kanata, I’d like to try wearing these again, so could you leave the changing room? If you peek… I’ll stop speaking to you.”
“Right. Gotcha.”
Kanata left the changing room, as he had been asked to, and waited for Sakura to change her clothes. Then, once she gave him the signal that it was okay for him to look, he timidly entered the room.
“K-Kanata~…”
There was Sakura, with her face red, frantically trying to cover her chest and pushing down her skirt. She was also standing with her toes facing inwards2.
“Wha-… just what is this?! You can see my chest! M-Moreover, if I don’t watch out, you can even see my panties…! This really looks like clothing one of these lewd girls from mangas and light novels would wear… You didn’t look, right, on the day when I wore this outfit? You didn’t ogle me, did you? You didn’t stare at my panties and boobs, right? Right!?” Sakura asked Kanata in a loud, accusatory voice.
Her eyes had gotten somewhat teary, likely due to the great deal of embarrassment she was experiencing.
“Ah… uhm… I tried to avoid looking as much as possible, but…” Kanata replied with an apologetic expression, while scratching his chin. “Still… I apologize for accidentally shooting you glances every now and then… Of course, I wasn’t ogling you… I would never look at my childhood friend in that manner…” he continued speaking in a hurry, as he saw Sakura’s expression gradually growing darker. “It’s not that you’re not attractive, Sakura, if anything, I got curious since you look so much like Mika-nee, but I did my best not to look… so, no good?”
Finally, once he was done talking, Sakura slowly started to speak.
“…Pervert… Leave. Now!”
“Huh?”
“I would like to change into the clothes I was wearing earlier, so would you kindly leave the room, Mr. Lecher?”
“Oh… sure.”
Kanata obediently left the changing room once more.
TL notes:
I’m not sure if I should laugh at their interaction here or pity Kanata for always catching flak, no matter what he does. I get that it’s all part of her Tsundere personality, but Sakura’s reaction still feels needlessly harsh at the end. Kanata was responsible to make sure nothing happened to her while she was stumbling around blindly, so what was he supposed to do? Completely ignore her while she keeps bumping into things?
Footnotes:
- While I try to localize honorifics to my best ability, I feel like I need to keep this one in the original, lest I lose to much of its meaning/subtlety. While it wouldn’t be too bad for Kanata’s “Mika-nee/Big Sis Mika”, Sakura will use a combined/shortened form of Ayumu with the suffix (as Ayu-nii) in future chapters. If you know a better way, feel free to comment.
- Not sure about this sentence. The original is 内股気味にもなっている, and while 内股 can mean “inwardly facing toes”, the 気味 (“sensation”, “feeling”, “tendency”) after it feels weird. So maybe it’s about something she’s feeling on her inner thighs?