ANIMT - Episodes 48-49

ANIMT - Chapter 48. Day of the Culture Festival

I Got An Extra Six Months of Life Expectancy, And Now It’s My Time

The Cultural Festival was finally here. Blessed with refreshing autumn weather over both days, the Cherry Blossom Festival was a roaring success. There was a good turnout, surprising for a school located so deep in the mountains.

On the first day, the number of class plays and performances was small, leaving me able to spend the day rather free of obligations. I intended to go visit the Magical Girl Cafe with Kitora, but he ran away so I ended up going by myself.

Wearing a short, dark blue, one-piece dress with a pointy hat, Kokomi tried her best to serve the customers, and I couldn’t help but ask myself whether this was moe. I mustn’t have been the only one, as I spotted several customers taking pictures of her without asking permission.

The cakes and tea they served were delicious, and the sight of them being brought to the seats via a combination of levitation and movement magic was superb.

After that, Kokomi and I had some free time to enjoy the performances and stores of other classes. For some reason, I was too ashamed to ask Kokomi, “Will you please put on your witch outfit again? I want you to take a picture with me! Please, please, please, please!” Apart from that, the first day went off without a hitch.

Then came the second day.

I concentrated on the play, where I did my best to operate the Shiratama puppet without making any mistakes. The number of people in the audience exceeded our expectations, easily filling the entire auditorium to capacity.

Kitora, who had only begun practicing with us at the last second, performed his role fantastically. His feats of wind attribute magic elevated the play to another level, making it a true spectacle to behold. The praise he received did nothing to change his attitude, though. While Kitora was holding a normal conversation with some classmates (albeit a brief one), he noticed me smiling and lightly hit me on the head. He is such an irrational and unreasonable person.

After the performance, I looked over a few customer satisfaction forms. Even from a small sample of them, it was clear that our play had received a relatively high evaluation. Perhaps the “Best Class Award” was not out of reach after all? As the name implied, the winner of this award would be decided by vote, and these forms were an excellent indicator of our chances of winning.

Time passed by in the blink of an eye, and all that remained was the cleanup and the evening festivities before I knew it.

The general public had left, and the lively atmosphere that possessed the school waned slightly. Looking out a nearby window, the curtain of darkness had descended over the school. Artificial lights illuminated the school grounds. And in the corner of a hallway, I stood in a relatively secluded area.

I bowed to the person before me while offering him a particular item.

“I’m sorry, Yamadori-kun! I cannot participate in the Sakura Survival with you!”

Staring at the toes in my unreliable shoes, I was nervous and waited for his reaction.

I really should have told him sooner, but I kept putting it off, hoping for a better time to break it to him and ended up dragging myself along right up to the last hour before the Sakura Survival was due to start. Finally finding a little bit of courage, I called out to him in the middle of the clean-up and was finally able to give him my reply.

But he will surely be angry at me for making him wait so long and then turning him down.

I was so scared of how he would respond that I tensed up and was about to flee, when Yamadori-kun said in a gentle voice, “Look up, Nobana-san. I had a feeling that you would refuse. Don’t be sorry.”

When I tenderly lifted my face, he looked as he usually did, with a fresh, inviting expression on his face. But, with a slightly regretful lowered eyebrow, he took the badge back from me.

“I’m sad that you rejected me, though. I had been thinking it was a dead end since I handed this over to you, and I feel much better now that you have clearly rejected me. In fact, I’m sorry I bothered you.”

“Uh, no! I’m sorry I took so long, and I’ve also sorry I couldn’t join you… ”

I was surprised by his graceful and easygoing attitude, but I couldn’t stop apologizing and was about to bow my head again when Yamadori-kun gently stopped me.

“I’m just glad you gave it serious thought and found an answer. Anyway… ”

He fiddled with his badge and flashed me a mean, evil smile. I had never seen him make such an expression before.

“Nobana-san, you must have invited someone else, don’t you? If that’s the case, I’d better go grab the paired badge from the student council and find another partner. We have about half an hour until the student council closes the sign-ups.”

“Eh… ”

“By the way, I saw him heading behind the training building. He was carrying some garbage, so he probably headed to the garbage area. He hasn’t come back yet, so I guess he’s probably just slacking off around there. I don’t think anyone would be mad at me if either of us left since we’re already in the final stages of cleaning up.”

When Yamadori-kun lifted his mouth, my cheeks flushed red because he had hit the bulls-eye. It felt like he saw through me completely.

I stopped apologizing and smiled with a, “Thank you.”

This was a thank you for a few things, including for him expressing how he felt towards me.

“Bye, Yamadori-san! Um, also, uh… ”

“Yeah. There’s the closing ceremony and the after-party and all that. See you later!”

He waved at me in a strange manner, just as he always did when we parted after class, and I returned the gesture.

Turning away abruptly, I headed off at a full sprint down the hallway.

It must have been the wind playing tricks, but I thought I heard Yamadori-kun say, “Just now, I think I played that a little too cool.” However, I pretended not to have heard anything.

Thank you very much, Yamadori-kun.

* * * *

After stopping by the temporary tent that acted as the event coordination center, obviously run by the student council, I headed towards the place where I was expected Kitora to be.

In my sweaty palms, I held two cherry-red badges.

By the way, the person who handed me these badges was a senior staff member in charge of the reception desk at the tent. I was worried that it might be a nuisance for her if I registered at the last moment, but she said, “Oh, no! Mitsuha will also be in Sakura Survival? Yes, yes, yes! We have tons of badges leftover, so please participate!” He welcomed me with open arms.

While chatting with her, I couldn’t help but think about Hiiragi Yukino, the Vice President of the student council. A few weeks ago, after the rooftop incident, she filed for a leave of absence and disappeared from the school and the dormitory.

Kusaka-sensei was the one who let me know, and apparently, the reason she gave for her absence was “a deterioration of her health” and that she needed to undergo treatment.

The length of the leave of absence was undecided, and since it was a sudden request, Kusaka-sensei had a hunch that it might have something to do with her mother or the institute. He still felt that he wanted to get involved with the institute for my sake, so he dared not tell me that he had confronted Hiragi-san, and reminded me that he could not share the entire story with me.

… It would be a lie if I said that I didn’t care about what Hiiragi Yukino-san was up to now. However, now that I had achieved my goal of finding out the truth of my death, I could concentrate on enjoying the rest of my time.

“… ”

Having almost arrived at my destination, I suddenly stopped to catch my breath. I then righted my posture and reached out towards the moonlight pouring down from the sky.

The countdown on the back of my head read: “62 days remaining.”

Exactly two months to live.

I silently cast my eyes down as if to surrender to the waves of inexpressible emotions, different from the melancholy or loneliness I was familiar with, that welled up inside me.

The sounds of insects and students’ laughter slowly faded from my hearing.

“I am… ”

Feeling truly isolated from the rest of the world, I was about to mutter something from my subconscious.

“… What are you doing, standing here?”

It was a familiar voice that snapped me back to reality.

I opened my eyes and was met with a golden color that shone brighter than the moon, even in the dim light. I quickly dropped my outstretched arm and turned to face Kitora as he walked up to me.

“… It’s nothing, okay? The autumn sky and the full moon is just too beautiful. I couldn’t help stretching out towards it. It feels like I could catch the moon.”

“Don’t lie. You wouldn’t think of something so emotional, would you?”

“Ugh, what do you know about me? I was just thinking about the whitish round moon, which looks so delicious, like a white marshmallow, and before I knew it, I was reaching out towards it.”

Throwing out a deceptive, flippant remark, I could see his brow wrinkled in displeasure. However, he did not say anything more about it.

“Well, let’s put that aside. Actually, I was just looking for you, Kitora. I want to ask you to accompany me.”

“… I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a pain in the ass.”

“Don’t say that! Here.”

I held out a hand, the one I had tightly clenched all this time, before me. Taking a look at the two cherry blossoms blooming in the dark night, I could see his eyes widen a little.

“Sakura Survival Participation Badges. Let’s go out together, Kitora.”

“… Quite a while ago, you were invited by a guy from our class, Yamadori. I see you have both badges though… Huh?”

“Yeah. I feel sorry for him, but I’ve already turned him down. Because… ”

I glanced furtively between Kitora’s face and my palm.

I had a cherry badge just like these two that I had stowed in my desk drawer for a long time. The first thing that came to mind every time I would take it out and stare at it was the sight of Kitora from the other day.

I was so embarrassed having him see me receive that badge that I cried myself to sleep that day in the infirmary. He had of course come to check up on me, but turned his face away and waited until I stopped crying. He then escorted me back to the dormitory, walking ahead of me without looking at my red, swollen eyes or my ugly face. As we returned, he never went beyond a certain distance in front of me and whenever I stopped, he would stop. But he never looked back.

What I remember of that day… is neither his handsome face nor his striking golden eyes… but only his bright red hair and back.

I remember it all, but the way he looked, more than anything else, calmed my troubled heart.

Maybe the reason why I am able to smile and enjoy the cultural festival without feeling miserable now is because you made me cry so much.

I feel deeply sorry for Yamadori, but I wanted to participate in the last event of my high school life, the Cultural Festival, with Kitora.

No matter the situation, I want to be paired with Kitora.

So now, I’m presenting my badge to you like this.

As much as I’d like to convey my earnest thoughts, saying something like, “Well… I’ll only ever have one partner, and that’s you Kitora!” is way too embarrassing to say sincerely.

“It’s a free-for-all, for fun, but it’s the last event, so why not go out and win anyway? I’m also interested in the gorgeous prizes! If you want to play seriously, it has to be with the partner you are familiar with, right? Let’s use our teamwork to beat the other participants to the punch.”

“Hmm!” He scratched his head as he processed all of those reasons, his face betraying how seriously he was thinking about it. Then, with a rough motion, he snatched a badge out of my hand.

“We’ll split the prize. Don’t drag me down with you!”

“Don’t you dare pull me down either!”

The conversation was reminiscent of the first round of our magic mock battle tournament, and I couldn’t help but let out a wry smile.

Unusually, Kitora seemed to be in a good mood as well, and the corners of his mouth slightly relaxed as if he had been affected by the conversation somehow. I couldn’t place exactly what it was that made my heartache, though.

“Come on, don’t dawdle. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Yeah!”

----Let’s forget about the difficult things now and enjoy what’s right in front of us. After the festival ends, winter will soon arrive. When the freezing wind blows, and the snowflakes dance and scatter in the sky, I don’t know how many more times I will be able to smile like this… while beside you… so…

I started walking side by side, with the tree leaves rustling in my ear. A smile was plastered all over my face, a smile I could never be embarrassed of.

----

Chapter brought to you by The Patrons.

RW: askinkov90

ED: Purplemen101

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ANIMT - Chapter 49. Extra: Between the Curtains of a Certain Boy and a Young Lady

I Got An Extra Six Months of Life Expectancy, And Now It’s My Time

“Miss. It’s time for your session with the tutor. If you don’t go back to your room, he will get angry again.”

A young, innocent-looking boy, dressed in black, tight-fitting clothes, spoke in a calm voice at the base of a large cherry blossom tree.

It was not yet the season where the trees would go into full bloom, but the majestic green foliage was nonetheless magnificent. Some of the newly budding cherry blossoms fell with the leaves.

“Oh, you’ve become so boring, Ume. I’m busy enjoying this view. I don’t feel like taking a boring class.”

The boy called Ume sighed at the plight he faced. He could not count how many times he had repeated similar exchanges with this girl. And the outcome that followed was always the same.

“Come up here, Ume. If you use levitation magic, it won’t take you very long. If you enjoy the scenery with me, I’ll consider taking a class afterward.”

“… Promise, okay? He will be very angry if you skip class again… ”

“… I will, I promise. So please come up here quickly.”

The boy muttered, “You’re a lady, aren’t you?” but his cheeks relaxed and he smiled at her very un-lady-like attitude.

The boy would make a request, the girl would give a condition, and the boy would cave and accept. It was a strangely transactional interaction, but it was just a part of their daily routine.

These were the premises of the Sakuramiya family, a prestigious magical family. The large, white, western-style mansion has a large, well-kept garden, and the top of the largest cherry blossom tree was the favorite spot of the eldest daughter of the Sakuramiya family, Sakurako.

Whenever she was having a bad day, she would typically come here to escape her troubles.

This time, she had run away from her studies because of the tutor she did not get along with. Sitting on a thick tree branch with her feet dangling in the air, wearing a cochineal dress rolled up, she looked nothing like a proper lady.

The boy sitting next to her listened to her complaints about how the tutor lacked a sense of humor in her teaching. He listened with a soft smile on his face. A soft summer breeze blew, hinting at the autumn that lay in store. As it caressed the pair, it scooped up the hair of the boy.

Despite his high aptitude for magic, the boy’s hair remained lustrous and black, unchanged from before his awakening. It was exceedingly rare for a magic user’s hair and eye colors to not change significantly as a result of awakening their magic power. In Ume’s case, his hair color did not change in the slightest, but his irises turned to a sweet honey.

The boy, who possessed such strong magic power, suffered gruesome wounds in his past. He used to hate his eyes so much he wanted to gouge them out.

“Hey, are you serious, Ume?”

“Yes, I’m listening, my lady.”

This all changed as a result of this lady saving him. She laughed and praised him, saying, “Your kind eyes, their honey color, your hair, and your warmth… They are perfect for you.”

The boy no longer hated himself. Of course, he was grateful to the Sakuramiya family for rescuing him from his terrible situation, adopting him, and allowing him to live a life filled with warmth. Therefore, in order to repay his debt of gratitude, he put his all into helping the family in their research of forbidden magic.

Apart from his debt to the Sakuramiya family as a whole, the boy was also deeply grateful and affectionate towards Sakurako-san personally. She was the one who literally kicked him out of his despair, where he was fixated on his past with empty eyes.

Today, in the bright sunshine and clear air, he was able to smile carefree because of her, the boy thought.

Therefore, even if it meant listening to this young lady complain about something he had heard so many times, he would not slack in the slightest.

“This teacher is especially hard-core... and you don’t like his educational style… right?”

“That’s right. You’re listening to me, aren’t you?”

Sakurako sniffed as she shook her distinctive golden vertical rolls of hair.

The man who was currently employed as a tutor by the Sakuramiya family was serious, nervous, and overly formal. In addition to standard subjects like Japanese and mathematics, Sakura had several tutors across various fields, like business administration, etiquette, and other extracirricular courses. That was on top of her magic lessons, which included practicing.

Basically, this young lady was a maverick and unconventional student. Her personality was like water to the male tutor’s oil. They did not mix.

“I don’t think that sitting and listening for hours on end, and with such uninteresting lesson content, can possibly stimulate a student’s desire to study. Especially when it comes to magic, studying should be more fun! That’s why I’m going to make the best magic school in the world! It’ll incorporate practical and creative magic classes, and all the students are going to be proud to be there.”

“Stimulating their desire to study? That will be difficult, won’t it?”

“Oh? I already have some ideas.”

Sakurako boasted and puffed out her chest, which was already well developed for her age.

“I’ll have the students play magic games. We’ll create a team system and foster rivalry between the teams. That way they will learn how to use magic and how dangerous it is, and by competing with each other, they will improve their skills and learn how to work together. Most importantly, it’d be a super fun way to learn, right?”

“I see. That’s very… ladylike? Mm, no, it’s more aggressive… perhaps belligerant? Ah! It’s a very exciting idea.”

“You think so? I’m glad we’re on the same page, Ume.”

The boy was used to talking to her like this. Leting his speech wander, reading for her reaction, before committing to saying whatever made her happiest. Anyone else would shy away from upsetting her when face-to-face with those intense, ruby-red eyes.

“But if that’s what you want to do, we’ll have to work out a whole lot of rules.”

“… We can think about that later. But I’ve already decided on the name of the big show-down match.”

“Oh, what did you have in mind?”

“Sakura Survival! This game will be a real eat-or-be-eaten affair, with students fighting to survive and win. I called it survival and combined it with cherry blossoms! Cool, right?”

“Sakura Survival, huh?”

The boy managed to keep a smile on his face, but inwardly he was wowed. The boy had forgotten just how exuberant the young lady could be when she got going.

The boy may not have had a more tame name in mind, and Sakura Survival certainly sounded fitting for a game that would become a core experience of such a magical school. But even if was only a game, it might not be approved by the Magic Education Committee.

The boy interrupted softly, “I think we should reconsider. The name is truly wonderful, but it would be more suitable for a more outrageous scene.”

“A more outrageous scene?”

“It reminded me of something I’ve wanted to do at a Cultural Festival! I remember that event you described. It was a mix of many things, and sounded like a lot of fun… I thought the name would be more appropriate for something like that.”

“… You do have a point.”

“The name of the event you have in mind should be something like ‘Mock Magic Battles’ or something like that.

The boy’s honey-colored eyes narrowed as they caught the midday sunlight pouring through the leaves. He did not know how many years it would take for her to realize this vision, and in fact he even doubted if it were even possible to pull off, but he would do everything he could to make it come true.

“That may be so. Okay, I’ll make a note of it in my idea notebook under the name ‘Magic Mock Match’. I’ve adopted your idea, aren’t you happy, Ume?”

“Yes, I am honored… Well then, Miss.”

The boy lightly tapped his watch.

“Shall we go back to your room now? I’m sure you’ve already enjoyed this view enough. You have your lesson, you know.”

“… I still don’t like it.”

“Don’t say that. If you listen carefully to those lessons you dislike, you may discover something new. I think that the spirit of not being afraid to tackle anything will be useful in creating an ideal school. Besides, it seems like your tutor is troubled and trying to learn how to make the class better, so why not give it a chance?”

“Troubled? Make the class better? Please explain what you mean.”

“Your tutor asked me before, ‘What are Sakurako-san’s favorite things to do, and what are her hobbies? If I made the class more interesting, would she be more motivated to study with me?’”

“… So, what did you say?”

“The young lady is surprisingly sweet-tempered and cute. I also said that your hobby is collecting stuffed animals.”

Sakurako was mortified to have her embarrassing hobbies revealed, but the boy smiled and relaxed his soft face as he added, “I’m not a fan of the things you do, but I’m a fan of the things you don’t do.”

“When I told him that, he mumbled something like, ‘I see. Today, the magic class will be different from the other ones, and you might be able to experience the ‘fun’ that you sought.”

The decision was made, and it went in the boy’s favor. Sakurako, who had been unexpectedly intrigued by what kind of lesson she was going to experience, leaped off the branch and slowed her fall with magic.

With the leaves caught in her hair, she stared up at the boy.

The expression on her face showed that she was frustrated that the boy had ultimately won in the end.

“… Ume. You’re a very good teacher. You genuinely care, and when you talk, its like your words wrap around my mind.”

“Is that so? Then, in the future, shall I become a teacher of magic at a school run by a young lady? But then again, I’m not the type of person to be a teacher, so I’d rather be a janitor or a dorm caretaker. It’s easier and more suited to my nature.”

Sakurako’s red, moist lips lifted up in a sneer at the boy who was still sitting on the branch and boasting.

“Until then, if you keep me by your side, that is.”

“What are you talking about? It’s a given that you will remain by my side. Cherry blossoms and plum blossoms always bloom together.”

“Miss, to be precise, the plum blossoms often bloom first. I guess in some regions, they may bloom at exactly the same time… ”

“Come on already! I’m going to class as fast as I can!”

Sakurako, her face as red as her eyes and lips, flipped up her dress hem and left the place at a fast clip.

After seeing her off, the boy said with a chuckle, “I’ve completely won today, haven’t I?”

Then he gently stroked the rough tree trunk and ruminated on what the young lady had just said. Deep-down he felt he would be happy staying with her for as long as time permitted, in any way he could.

Three days after this day.

Three days after this day, someone would break into the Sakuramiya house. When they would eventually meet again, the boy would have lost the color of the eyes he grew to love and would look like a completely different person.

But what they did not know at this time was that this conversation they had would most certainly be realized in the future.

----

Chapter brought to you by The Patrons.

RW: askinkov90

ED: Purplemen101

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