Leave a comment

With the party ended, I’m finally freed from this place. So much happened, so I feel really exhausted. Turned into a resting perch, suddenly went mad and all that.

「What will you do now?」
「Let’s just gather at your place. I don’t plan on meeting other people after this.」
「Same with me. It’s better to be with people you can have fun with than with boring folks.」
「You seem quite unfazed despite witnessing me snap.」

In most cases, people would be nervous when talking to me or keep a good distance away. Just like Nagatsuki over there. I’m surprised that the others seem fine.

「We’ve had prior experience with Kaoru, you see.」
「If we didn’t stop you, you honestly might even rival the Kaoru from that incident.」

That’s scary. Also, what the heck happened for her to get that mad? I’m used to seeing her angry at Hadzuki, but I’ve never seen her actually snap. Actually, I don’t want to see it.

「Kotori, how about you?」
「She was in the wrong for making Kotone mad.」
「Personally, I don’t care as long as I’m not affected. Though the present demon is much scarier than the old goblin, that’s for sure.」

Kotori, sorry to say this, but I just got pissed off on my own. Momo just came at the wrong place at the wrong time. And Minadzuki doesn’t care, huh. Still, what do you mean demon? Did I really look that scary?

「We’ve got some hardy people here, it seems.」
「We have a delicate one here, though.」

Hadzuki points to Nagatsuki. He charged at me so much before and yet he’s all jittery just after seeing me mad once, pathetic.

「Will things be alright with a successor like this?」
「You’ll just have to jostle them up for another year, I guess.」
「I’ll make best efforts to be as uninvolved as possible.」
「Stop the useless chatter, let’s move before the troublesome people arrive here.」

Nagatsuki’s situation ended up being deemed useless. Now then, Nagatsuki has been slowly exposed to Aya’s true nature, so he should start seeing her in a different light like in my case. I’m sure that he’ll be in for an unsettling surprise at the after-party.

「Now then, I’ll be heading home first.」
「See you there later~!」

After this, I went off to find mother and got called by people on the way, but I just gave vague refusals and slipped away. I’d be late for the after-party if I carelessly chat around, after all.

「Mother, it’s about time to leave.」
「Is it that late already? Fun times truly pass by quickly. Let’s have another long chat at a later time.」

It’s nice that she has such a beaming smile while ending their conversation, but it’s probably best not to ask what they talked about. Not that I want to hear the Fumidzuki, Nagatsuki, and Kisaragi mothers discussion anyways.

「Looks like you had a lot of fun, mother.」
「That’s right. It seems like Madam Nagatsuki has been through a lot as well. There were many things she couldn’t talk about in this venue. We’ve made a promise to meet at the usual cafe some time.」

I see the owner getting more stressed. There are some times that they talk about things beyond the normal exposé, after all. And since he’s a father himself, it likely makes him reflect on a lot of his actions. It’s an unneeded stress, though. Since the husbands of these three are just on another level.

「Incidentally, what exactly did you do, Kotone? It really surprised me when Shimotsuki’s young lady warned me in a hurry.」
「I just lost my mind and snapped.」
「What exactly happened…」

I don’t really want to talk about it, though. Since it’s hard to explain. Me getting pissed off this time was due to a very personal reason that’s not related to Kotone. After all, the Kisaragi family and the Kouenji family aren’t related in any way.

「More importantly, about later. I need to change and heat the cook pot before everyone arrives. What else do I need to do…」
「For you kids, the main event starts here on out, does it?」
「Of course.」

The party was the main event for me as a proper lady. But as an individual, the after-party is the actual main event. More importantly, will the apartment’s surrounding area be alright? They seemed to be pretty concerned about it, after all.

「Uwah, it’s worse that I thought.」
「There’s no helping it, with you kids being who you are. If anything happens, it won’t just end with a stern scolding.」

It’s just as mother says. We didn’t put enough thought on our plan. The security companies didn’t hold anything back. I wonder how many companies there are collaborating? All I’m sure of is that it’s not only mine.

「It feels really out of place. Normally it’s deserted here, but now there’s too many people.」

I can see that they’re still taking care to blend with the surroundings, but this isn’t a place where a lot of people gather in this time frame. They’re practically announcing that something’s about to go down here.

「But with this, no one should even dare to think of acting foolishly. After all, anyone looking suspicious will be immediately captured.」
「It’s a big nuisance to the regular folk, though.」

I can only pray that no innocent passerby will be suddenly surrounded and dragged to who knows where. On the contrary, wouldn’t the security guys get reported? I really don’t feel like covering for them if that happens.

「We’ve arrived, Lady Kotone.」
「Thanks for the lift. Well, I’ll excuse myself now. See you later, mom.」
「See you at the cafe again.」

Her not saying “at home” really paints a picture about our household situation. I don’t know if she’ll take Rin’s warning seriously, but I really hope mom doesn’t ask me to come home wherever father is around. Maybe I should start doing weight training.

「Kotone, over here!」

I appreciate Akira escorting me after I left the car, but isn’t this overdoing it? I only need to ride the elevator and go to my room from here.

「It’s amazing, this situation.」
「And who exactly caused this situation to happen? With three companies working in tandem, it’s gone really large scale.」

I guess they coordinated with the security companies in charge of the other 12 families. After all, it’s not like they can just let any random company assist. And if they did terrible work here, the families might switch to another security company. S̲h̲i̲t̲, this actually is pretty important.

「Ah, also, there’s no increase in participants. Nagatsuki’s little brother refused, you see.」
「Why are you casually trying to add more!?」

I thought it would be more interesting that way. When causing a mess, you have to commit to embracing the chaos. I am reflecting a bit, but I have no regrets. I’ll go even further, actually.

「Do you plan on escorting everyone like this?」
「Naturally. Who knows what people will say if we treat you all differently?」

Well, that’s a good point, but there’s probably only one person who’ll complain about being treated differently than how I’m treated. The others would probably run to my room regardless of security.

「Akira, what do you think of the 12 families of my age range?」
「Aren’t they the same as the other kids? You should be the only one special, in my opinion. Am I wrong?」
「In that case, let’s destroy that illusion of yours today.」
「You’re giving me a terrible feeling about this.」
「Don’t worry. They’ll just shake the bodyguards off and run wild.」
「That’s a major problem for us, though!?」