In a slightly charred state, I start walking toward the karaoke place.
This was after being harassed by the Apocalypse activist old guy and having the creepy young guy blow up.
“This always happens when I go out with Friday. If it weren’t for Her Majesty’s orders, I would’ve died about ten times by now.”
When we were drinking soup at the ramen shop, or watching capybaras at the zoo, the fine folks of the Apocalypse Opposition Party attacked us just like this.
“There really are a lot of people who want the world to end.”
I try to imagine the feelings of the people who ended up joining the Apocalypse Opposition Party. Right. Everyone has their reasons. Surely, something painful happened to make them feel that way.
So, I should be kinder to them—
Just as I thought that, my phone let out a ping. I saw an image sent by Suzuhara-san. It was a picture of the girls in my class dressed as maids.
In the group, Suzuhara-san was also dressed as a maid, making a shy peace sign.
And a short message was attached:
[Don’t let your eyes wander to other girls, okay?]
I stuffed the phone back into my pocket for now.
“Anyone who wants to end the world… I have to kill every single one of them!”
I will protect my Aoharu.
With strong determination, just as I took a step to cross the street—
I got hit by a truck.
The world ends, and we shall be governed in happiness.
Words like that were written on the side of the truck; it was like a propaganda van.
After rolling over and over and over on the ground, I stood up and yelled:
“Fine!! I’ll take you all on!!”
“I feel like I understand ‘high school girls’ a little better now,”
Friday says in her usual low-energy voice.
After that, we sang at karaoke, ate crepes, and rolled balls at the bowling alley. Now, we’re just wandering aimlessly through the shopping district.
“Madarame-san, your clothes changed at some point.”
“Friday, you looked cuter than usual, so I thought I should dress up too.”
“Your hair was charred.”
“I wonder why…”
As we have this conversation, a man in a hood with a knife rushes at us from the side. I grab his arm, twist it, punch him in the stomach, and drop him on the spot.
This guy is probably just a part-timer hired by the Apocalypse Opposition Party.
“Madarame-san, did something happen?”
“No, nothing at all~”
I walk beside Friday with a nonchalant face.
“By the way, I guess it really is true.”
“What is?”
“That thing about Friday stopping the end of the world.”
“Well, yes. Since I am the ‘Friday’ (Shumatsu) of the week, I am stopping the ‘End’ (Shumatsu) of the world.”
TLNote: This is a Japanese pun on the word Shumatsu
“…………”
“I don’t so much bend the laws of the world as I make reality ‘fuzzy.’ I call this ability ‘Fuzzy Navel.'”
“Conversations with Friday are sometimes really difficult…”
Since she’s basically expressionless, I can’t tell how serious she’s being.
But the words that followed were surely the truth.
“I am well aware that what I carry is very important to people. That is why I have been staying quietly at the tailor’s shop all this time.”
But lately, she’s been going outside with me and doing various things.
“It was very fun. Madarame-san, thank you very much. Since you must be busy, it is fine if today is the last time you play with me. From tomorrow, I will have Rabbi play with me again.”
Friday says “Let’s go home.”
“I have a curfew, too.”
“Friday, you have a curfew?”
“I don’t. I just tried saying something high school girl-ish.”
It was probably Friday’s own kind of joke, but her side profile as she tried to head home looked somewhat lonely.
So, just as a game center came into view, I said:
“If you’re a high school girl, wouldn’t you take Purikura (photo booth) pictures!?”
And so, for the finale, we took Purikura together.
Friday tried making a horizontal peace sign and worked hard to make a slightly funny face.
Since she’s a girl whose ups and downs don’t show, I don’t really know if she was enjoying herself.
But, holding the printed Purikura with both hands, she nodded.
“Yes. I am cute.”
It seems she really did enjoy being a high school girl.
On the way home, Friday kept looking at that Purikura, holding it dearly.
Walking beside her, I think about Friday. Surely, stopping the end of the world all by herself carries incredible pressure, and there are people like the Apocalypse Opposition Party attacking her, so she’s been hiding in the tailor’s shop all this time… There must be moments when she gets a bit blue or naive, or feels envious of those around her. I imagine her feelings.
So, when I walk her to the front of the tailor’s, I say to Friday:
“If there’s anything you want to do, let me know. I’ll go along with anything.”
Friday turns around and nods.
“Thank you. If there is something I want to do, I will tell Madarame-san.”
“Yeah. I understand how it feels to be targeted by bad guys and have to hide all the time, and how that makes you feel bored.”
“I will try to make requests that can be done inside the tailor’s as much as possible, so as not to trouble you, Madarame-san. If I go outside, people who want the end of the world will target me, and you might have a hard time, Madarame-san.”
After Friday says that, she opens the door and is about to enter the tailor’s as if it’s finally goodbye, but she stops, lets go of the doorknob, and looks at me again.
She looks diagonally down, acting a bit fidgety. And then, she says:
“Actually, I remembered one thing I want to do.”
“Sure. The request is coming a bit early, but go ahead.”
“I want to go to school.”
“…………I did say ‘anything,’ but that’s a heavy one.”
She went straight for the request that makes her the easiest target for the Apocalypse Opposition Party.
Plus, even if she goes to school, there’s definitely no way she’s on the resident registry.
While I’m thinking this, Friday looks down shyly, her cheeks turning red.
Wait? Could Friday always make that kind of expression?
While I’m wondering that—
“Iiiiii… want to go to school and experience Aoharu!”
“Eh, wait, eeh!?”
“I want to ride double on a bicycle! I want to buy snacks on the way home!”
“Wait, hasn’t your character changed!? Weren’t you doing the whole ‘inorganic and expressionless’ thing!?”
“To be honest, I’ve always wanted to… f-f-f-fall in love! At a school festival… a refreshing, sparkling Aoharu! That kind of thing!”
“I’ve heard that desire somewhere before, though!?”
But I try to stay calm for now and say to Friday:
“Friday, Aoharu requires a partner. You can’t just admire it and go to school.”
Then Friday, with a “hmpf” face, looks toward the horizon and says:
“……Madarame-san is fine.”
“Huh?”
“…………Madarame-san… should be… my partner!”
“Hnh!?”
“Madarame-san… took Purikura with me… and made me think I wanted to do Aoharu… so I think you have… a responsibility!”
“So that’s how it is!”
“I want to go to school and try doing Aoharu with Madarame-san!”
It feels like things are about to get complicated, so I try to reason with Friday.
“I have my own Aoharu currently in progress, you see. Aoharu is certainly refreshing and very good, but if two Aoharus collide, the ‘heart-throbbing’ turns into ‘heart-straining,’ or something like that…”
“I-I don’t understand!”
Friday shuts her eyes tight and says:
“I’ve never been a high school girl, so I don’t know what Madarame-san is talking about! But I want to understand, so I want to go to school and do Aoharu!”
“N-No, well—”
I try to make various excuses to steer Friday away from coming to school. But as I do, Friday’s eyes start to tear up—
When I happened to look up at the night sky, the nuclear missiles were wobbling like crazy.
I had no choice but to say it.
“Alright, let’s do it! Let’s do Aoharu together!”
The next morning, I sat in my seat, lost in thought.
For now, I promised Friday we’d do Aoharu, and she went back into the tailor’s last night. But is it really okay for Friday to come to school?
First of all, she definitely doesn’t have a resident registry, and her age as a high schooler is pretty suspicious. While worrying about how she’d even transfer in, there’s also the problem of the Apocalypse Opposition Party attacking once she does. It’s full of problems.
Besides, even if she says we’re doing Aoharu together—
“Morning.”
Suzuhara-san enters the classroom and sits in the seat next to me. Then, while looking away shyly, she says:
“How was it?”
“Eh?”
“The photo from yesterday.”
She’s talking about the image of her dressed as a maid.
“It was… really cute.”
“I see.”
“I’ve looked at it many times.”
“…………Baka.”
Suzuhara-san’s reaction makes my heart won’t stop throbbing. And since my heart is throbbing anyway, I try asking her:
“Suzuhara-san, if a guy you’re interested in was being really friendly with another girl, what would you think?”
“Eh?”
Suzuhara-san looks uneasy and says:
“I’d hate that. It would be hurtful…”
“R-Right! Exactly!”
It’s no good.
I have to find another way to entertain Friday. Even if I let her go to school, it should at least be a different one from the high school I attend—just as I thought that…
A sharp woman in a pantsuit entered the classroom and stood at the teacher’s podium.
“Hello everyone. Since your homeroom teacher has gone on sick leave, I will be the homeroom teacher for this class for a while.”
She pushed up her glasses.
With the suit and glasses, she looked like she had a very intelligent style, but I knew exactly who she was.
“Please call me Shirakawa-sensei!”
Yes, it was Captain Shirakawa.
“The subject I’ll be teaching is Math! I’m super smart, after all!”
She pushed up her glasses again.
“And by the way, I’ve brought along one transfer student!”
The whole class buzzed with “Another one in such a short time?”
Of course, the one who entered the classroom was—
School Uniform Friday.
Friday looked at me and made a small peace sign. When I pretended not to see, she repeated the peace sign over and over.
I had no choice but to give a small thumbs-up.
Suzuhara-san looked at me with a face that said, “Eh?”
As a painful feeling washed over me, I muttered:
“My Aoharu is in a major crisis!!”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
TLNOTE: The novel suddenly turned into Haruhi lol
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