Kasou Ryouiki No Elysion

Volume 3: Chapter 2

Quickening's Silence

Part 1

The next day, Sunday noon, by the front door of the Tenryo family's home.
The interphone sounded on time, and Taiga opened the door.
"Good day to you, Taiga-kun."
With a modest red cardigan on top, Haya wore a neat long skirt that covered her up to her ankles. She bowed with a meek smile.
"Although we don't have much time today, I'll do my best to raise Taiga-kun's performance... hey, what's up with that expression of yours."
"Sorry. Hearing your polite tone puts me in a bad mood..."
"You looking for a fight?"
After Taiga's extremely rude words, her mask of 'well-brought up lady' immediately disappeared, her true domineering young lady's expression appeared instead. Her personality switch's speed was as terrifyingly fast as ever.
"It's been a while since I met you in that mode. I thought my hearing had gone wrong."
"You really are a rude guy... I did it just in case because you have a little sister. The more people know about it, the harder it is to silence them in case of an emergency."
Well it's been already half-noticed... but he preferred not to say it. He heard no hesitation in her voice as she said these dangerous words. Taiga invited Haya inside.
"If it's Fuyuki then she's in her room. Well, she probably won't come out so you don't have to worry."
He told her the day before about the study session and she's been acting sullen since then.
After what happened by the beach, he couldn't face her squarely or try to calm her down; he stalled it for too long and the actual day of the study session came.
"Fine then. There's no time, let's start at once. Your room should be fine."
"Nn? Isn't living room with a lot of space better?"
"Don't be stupid. It'll be no good if your little sister comes in the meantime."
"That's only for you..."
Since there was nothing in particular he wanted to hide, Taiga took her to his room obediently.
As they walked down the corridor, Haya looked around as if she's seen something unusual.
"Hmm, that's a pretty nice house. Must have been just as expensive."
"Enough to blow away our savings. And here we are, my room."
"...quite bland."
Just as Haya said, the room was too neat for something people lived in. What caught her eye was the table in the middle and the Japanese sword that was hung on the wall.
Not only weren't there many things there. Everything seem neatly prepared, and the sword seemed ready to be drawn at anytime——that's the impression she had. She wondered just what kind of life the boy has been living up until this moment.
"I don't bring in many things, and I have no hobbies."
"And that sword? Isn't collecting fake swords also a hobby?"
"Ah—... that's the only thing I enjoy, something like that."
Were he to say that it's the real thing, she might have been excited about it. Although he wanted to see the look on her face as he told her that, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
"Come out Iora."
〈"Understood."〉
The terminal lit up and Iora was projected into the air. She's been wearing glasses with black rims she once had on before and hit one of her hands with the pointing stick she held in the other.
〈"Today's strict teaching session. Prepare yourself dammit."〉
"Iora's also in the teacher role today?"
"She's strangely motivated today. It's not really a problem either. So... ah——?"
It happened when she tried to sit down on the floor.
He saw her stagger and as she started falling down, Taiga immediately reacted and caught her.
"Hey, you all right?"
"I'm just a little dizzy. No need to worry... geez, for me to fall down after just one all-nighter..."
〈"Master, so you were tired because of yesterday after all...?"〉
"I'm okay so don't make that face. Come on Taiga, how long are you going to support me."
"Ah, sorry."
"Brother—, I brought something to drink. I'm ente..ri...ng..."
As Taiga tried to move away from Haya, at that very moment the door has been opened wide with a lot of force.
Fuyuki appeared with cups on top of a tray, she slowly lowered her gaze. There, Taiga was gently (from Fuyuki's perspective) embracing Haya.
"F-Fuyuki... t-this is, um.. an accident."
Taiga broke into cold sweat as he made an excuse, Fuyuki looked down with a lovely and yet spine-chilling smile. Then she put the cups aside from the tray and——
"Wwwhhhhaaaaaaatttttt are you doooooooooooingggg you idioot Brotherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!"
"Ogouhh?!!"
With a loud *dang* sound the tray has been smashed into his head.
By the way, Haya has fled into the corner of the room when the tray was swung up. She suddenly collapsed before, but her escape was quick.
"Seriously... I decided to check on you after all. Even though there's Little Sister nearby, you bring another woman to your room, moreover you're all over each other you shitty Brother...!"
She continued to hit Taiga with the tray time after time even after he fell on the floor. It was just a tray so it didn't hurt that much, but a loud sound rang out in his head every time he was hit. After she satisfied her urge to beat him up, Fuyuki corrected her posture and turned around to Haya. She made an obvious fake smile.
"It's been a while, Kiritou Haya-san. We haven't met since the Reaper incident have we?"
"Yes indeed. I have been in your care back then."
Haya instantly put on her façade and smiled softly. They both smiled but it didn't reach their eyes... that probably wasn't just his imagination.
"President must be too busy to teach Brother today, are you not preparing for exams as well? You can go back if you like? Little Sister will be the one teaching instead."
"Thank you for your consideration. But he's my junior who is in the same specialized subject course, also... it might sound rude, but Imouto-san seems somewhat unreliable."
"...hee."
Although she was told 'go home' by Fuyuki in a roundabout way, Haya's eyebrows didn't even twitch and the graceful mask remained on her face. Even so, it seemed like she was waging her a war, maybe she decided to take her on.
"...they are too alike."
He murmured it absent-mindedly, causing the line of sight of the two to pierce through him.
"Can you not say something that rude? Don't compare me with someone so intimidating and black hearted, it's vexing."
"You are being rude as well miss... but I agree with some content of what you said. I don't like people who cling to their family members like this."
"Is that so. What a coincidence."
"Indeed."
The girls showed each other a radiant smile, but Taiga who was watching from the side broke into a cold sweat.
It was rare for Fuyuki to show hostility openly (the case from day before must have fueled it), but for the façade-mode Haya it was also very rare. Normally she would have laughed it off to deceive the other party.
Just as he thought about that, he saw Iora beckoning him from the edge of his field of view. Taiga focused on listening to her while trying not to catch the other two's attention.
〈"Are these two on bad terms dammit? I have no memory of them being acquainted at all."〉
"They must be incompatible. Look, they're somewhat alike."
〈"I see, so this is what they call an aversion to their own damn kind."〉
Their appearance was alike as well (the long Japanese-style black hair). I wonder why does that atmosphere feel similar——Taiga thought.
"Taiga-kun, since there is no time to waste let's start immediately. Ah, Imouto-san please return to your room, you will interfere with studying."
"Is that so. Then I shall go back when I finish drinking this coffee, it would be a waste to let it cool down after taking an effort to bring it here."
For some reason Fuyuki brought three cups of coffee, she said that and took one cup of coffee in her hands and sat down next to Taiga,.
The way Haya looked at Fuyuki as if seeming to relay that she was being a nuisance, she sighed and turned towards Taiga once again.
"Let's focus on avoiding failing and focus on the weak subjects. First is modern languages."
〈"Let's go super strict today."〉
And like this with one person getting in the way which wasn't in the plan, the 'anti-failure study session of Tenryo Taiga's' began.
〈"...getting fucking wasted on the very first problem. That's surprising."〉
"Shouldn't you start over from elementary school?"
He started to feel insecure at the very beginning.