Chapter 2: The Decisive Battle is on Friday
Friday seemed a bit bewildered by her first time at school, but she gradually started to blend in.
Friday attending classes; Friday playing volleyball in her gym clothes; Friday cleaning the classroom after school.
She also seemed to have learned that girls hug each other often, because whenever break time rolled around, she would hug the girls she’d befriended for no particular reason.
And, whenever there was something she didn’t understand, she came to me.
“Madarame-san, what is homeroom?”
“Madarame-san, should I raise my hand more during class?”
“Madarame-san, I’m going to make my skirt even shorter!”
Suzuhara-san sat to my right, and Friday’s seat was to my left. Naturally, since Friday, the new transfer student, had been attached to me from the start, Suzuhara-san eventually asked about it.
It happened during lunch break.
“Are you two… acquaintances?”
I answered her question.
“Friday lives near where I work part-time, so I guess you could say I know her face, or something like that.”
“I see. So you have a part-time job, Madarame-kun.”
“It’s more like helping out with small things. The other day I wore a mascot costume for the shopping district, and next week I’m participating in a gateball tournament just to cheer everyone up.”
“…………”
For a moment, Suzuhara-san looked like she didn’t know how to react.
“Well, working is a good thing. I have a part-time job too.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. Though I don’t put many shifts in.”
“What kind of job is it?”
“It’s… kind of like a dry cleaner’s? I make things clean.”
I imagined Suzuhara-san surrounded by white shirts. Suzuhara-san and white shirts—it was a very good combination.
“Anyway, that’s how it is with me and Friday. She hasn’t really attended school much before, so she’s relying on me since I’m a familiar face.”
“I see, I see,”
Suzuhara-san said.
“So you only met Friday-chan through your part-time job?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, that’s okay.”
Suzuhara-san said this with a look of relief on her face. She’s so cute. The best.
“So Madarame-kun and Friday-chan are just acquaintances. You aren’t in a relationship where you go on dates or exchange intimate messages.”
“Exactly.”
But it was at that exact moment.
“Madarame-san.”
Friday approached us and spoke.
“Like the other day… on that weekend night, when it was just the two of us—”
“Let’s go over there for a second!”
I dragged Friday out of the classroom and over to the connecting corridor. Friday looked puzzled, but once we were alone, her energy spiked again.
“Madarame-san, I want to go out with just the two of us again!”
“Look, you’re already enjoying the ‘high school girl Friday’ thing, aren’t you?”
“Yes. School is fun every day. But the feelings I had when we hung out the other day… I feel like they were something different. Both make my heart bounce, but when I’m alone with you, Madarame-san, it’s more… like this… Anyway, I want to confirm that difference, so I want us to hang out again!”
“That’s it! That’s the classic ’emotionless girl just discovered feelings’ move! It’s a low blow! I’m weak to that kind of thing, but still!”
“And—”
Friday continued, ignoring my words.
“Somehow, when I see you getting along with Suzuhara-san, Madarame-san… my chest… it hurts.”
“Ah~ that’s not good, that’s really not good! That kind of thing is truly bad!”
“What is this feeling? What should I call it?”
“You definitely know! You’re just trying to trouble me!”
Friday made a perfectly composed, deadpan face.
“Well, that last part was a joke… but it’s true that my chest hurts…”
As she said this, Friday tugged on my sleeve.
“I really want to have an Aoharu with you, Madarame-san!”
“Wait, hey!!”
“Aoharu, Aoharu, Aoharu!“
“Your character is changing too much!!”
At this rate, my two Aoharu worlds were going to collide, and my youth would explode.
Just as I was wondering what to do,
I looked out the window and reflexively cried out.
“W-Why!?”
A truck was driving onto the school grounds.
I thought the face of the man driving looked familiar from the shopping district, and then, when the truck stopped and someone climbed out of the passenger seat—
It was Her Majesty.
“M-my refreshing youth… is about to be occupied by people who are ‘Gothic and Classic’…”
Leaving Friday in the hallway, I dashed down the stairs toward the school grounds.
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Her Majesty was on the field, briskly barking out orders.
The driver and the people who had been in the back were unloading steel pipes and construction materials. They were all familiar faces—the people from the Yomizaka Town shopping district.
When I asked what on earth she was doing, Her Majesty said:
“I’m thinking of launching a rocket.”
“Um, I’m not following you at all.”
“There’s a school festival coming up, right?”
Apparently, the principal had made a request to the shopping district, asking if they could provide a memorable event for the high school festival.
“There’s the Yomizaka Town Museum, right?”
It was a brick-built museum that served as the symbol of our town.
“Now that you mention it, they do have rocket parts on display there.”
“I thought I’d assemble them and make it fly.”
“…………”
“Space development is a matter of national prestige. As The Majesty, I have a duty to develop space before America does.”
“No, but… isn’t launching a rocket a bit difficult?”
Isn’t this a bit too far-fetched? I thought, but Her Majesty was full of confidence.
“My citizens are excellent. There is no problem.”
As Her Majesty spoke, one of the older men unloading the cargo smiled at me warmly.
It was Suzuki-san, someone I’d played baseball with for a shopping district gig.
“I’m working as a laborer at a town factory now, but ten years ago, I was part of a national space exploration project at Tanegashima.”
He explained that the project had faced budget cuts, and he had left the national agency.
“But you know, I could never give up on the dream. I wanted to launch a rocket. And then came this story from Eli-chan. Everyone here is just like that. They all used to work for amazing corporations, or they were engineers serving the country like me.”
The older men looked a bit bashful.
“For the final act of our lives, we wanted to challenge ourselves to launch a rocket one last time.”
As I looked at the faces of these men, my eyes started to sting with tears.
They were all once elite engineers who had seen their dreams crushed and ended up at small town factories. Yet, those hot emotions were still smoldering in their chests, and now they were trying to challenge themselves again.
I wanted to support them with everything I had. But—
“Why are you starting a completely different ‘moving story’ at my place of learning!?”
“Alright, everyone back to work!”
Her Majesty clapped her hands, and the men went back to unloading.
I felt the tension leave my shoulders.
Good grief, I thought.
“Your Majesty, you’re as sentimental as ever.”
“I wonder.”
“Did you come all the way to school for Friday’s sake?”
Her Majesty watched the passionate older men work with a nonchalant face, until she eventually said, “Twenty years.”
“I wonder what it feels like… to stay hidden by the Tailor for that much time, quietly protecting the world.”
Apparently, from the moment Her Majesty met her, Friday had been a silent maid who showed no emotion.
But—
“The face she’s showing you now… might be the real Friday.”
“I guess so. This has turned into a really nice, heartwarming conversation, and I’d love to go along with that vibe, but—”
I really felt like making things fun for Friday to make up for everything she’d endured. However—
“Things are going really well between me and Suzuhara-san! I mean, I know making Friday happy for the sake of the world is important, and Friday is cute too, and I’m happy she says she wants to have an Aoharu with me, but I have my relationship with Suzuhara-san to think about, so what am I supposed to do!?”
When I asked, Her Majesty put her hand to her chin thoughtfully. Then, after her expression cycled through seven different changes—furrowing her brows, looking up, and so on—she muttered:
“…Figure it out yourself.”
“Huh?”
“…………Those are the kinds of things you’re supposed to figure out on your own.”
“Eeeh!? Wait, that’s so unlike you, Your Majesty! Usually, you’re an absolute monarch who decides all my feelings for me. Like, [Madarame, you want to eat beef and peppers. Good, today is Chinese food].”
I grabbed Her Majesty by the scruff of the neck and shook her back and forth.
“Say something definitive here too! I’ve developed such a subordinate mindset that I rely on you for everything whenever I’m in trouble!”
“That’s not good! Not good at all!”
“You have plenty of life experience, right!?”
I sought an answer from Her Majesty about what to do when two Aoharu collide. But after another thoughtful gesture, she muttered again:
“How should I know…?”
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