“This is trouble… At this rate my position as the class’s popularity queen will be usurped.”
“Huh? You’re not remotely popular so why’s it matter to you?”
“Please stop giving such blunt responses in that deadpan way! I have a future you know!”
“Oh, my bad. It just slipped out.”
“Urgh! I feel extraordinary danger from that Corone. An obstacle surely blocking my road to superstar. Kukuku, I must eliminate her promptly.”
Mihaneya makes a smile like a mob character in chapter one about to get owned.
“Eliminate…? What exactly are you gonna do?”
“Fufun, for starters, this morning I got in a fight with mom, so as revenge I’ll force the bitter green peppers she spitefully put in my lunch, into Corone’s lunch.”
That’s way too petty a harassment…
“Ah, but we should properly eat that ourselves and say ‘Sorry, mom’ so let’s not do that.”
What a good kid.
“What is it, Dai-chan? You’re looking at me like ‘You’re just bluffing, you can’t actually do anything.'”
That’s creepily word-for-word accurate.
“D-Don’t make fun of me! I’ll show you just how nasty I can be… Let’s see… Oh, I know! I’ll soak some rags in milk and stuff them in her shoe locker… Kukuku, that’ll make her not want to come to school…”
Oho, that’s surprisingly devious for Mihaneya.
“Ah, but wasting drinks is bad so I’ll just leave a small probiotic drink next to her shoes.”
Quite the grandma-like consideration there.
“But the most direct and easiest to understand would be facing her directly. I’ll go confront Corone and make her cry, so just watch! …Coroneee, I need to talk to youuu!”
Somehow this feels like the same flow as with Houjou yesterday…
Well since it’s easygoing Corone, there’s no chance Mihaneya would get made to cry or anyth–
“Sniff…uwaah…”
“What the heck happened!?”
“I-It’s just…when I said let’s compete to see who can make the other cry first…Co-Corone started reciting ‘Gon the Fox’ and it was so sad…totally unfair…”
Don’t bawl from a kids’ book recital in high school…
“Nyahaha, too bad Mihaneya.”
Corone pops out from the crowd and comes over looking amused.
“Uu…meanie. Just you watch…I’ll make you bawl one day…”
“There there, no crying. Here, have some candy.”
“Woow, thank you!”
Mihaneya’s expression changes in an instant.
“Man, you’re too easy…”
“Fufun, it seems Corone is quite a good person after all, so I’ll refrain from making her a target for now.”
“I dunno what’s going on but thanks I guesss~”
In high spirits, Mihaneya triumphantly holds up her index finger.
“Even if Corone-san is considered an amazing talent, she’s still a newcomer. To quickly rise to stardom, there are others we need to defeat. Daikyō-san, would you mind joining me during lunch break?”
And she declared it with a triumphant look on her face.
“Today, I will conquer one of the corners of Ten Sai —Awayuki Tera-san.”
5
Awayuki Tera.
That name rang a bell somehow.
Unrelated to being one of The Teio Ten Sai, I felt like I’d heard it somewhere before… Well, makes sense a high schooler of top-class talent nationally might get media coverage or something…
“We’re here, Dai-chan. Crouch down a bit please.”
While lost in thought, seems we’d arrived around class 2-7.
“That’s not enough. Lower…even lower…”
“Why’re we sneaking peeks like this… I don’t wanna do this weird stuff…”
“Fufun, don’t you get it? If we’re caught scouting, it’ll seem petty. I wanna knock her down coolly like [Huh? Didn’t even know about you] y’know.”
Damn petty…
Crouching with Mihaneya in the hall, I stick just my face out the window to peek into the classroom.
“There, that one. Sitting by the window with silvery hair.”
Following Mihaneya’s lead, I looked and–
“–!?”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
I was at a loss for words.
It was as shocking as when I first saw Corone.
I felt her looks were unnaturally beautiful…same as back then.
But the direction was decisively different.
From Corone I sensed an otherworldly divinity, an aura brimming with vigor and radiance.
In contrast, I felt no [life] whatsoever from this Awayuki.
Skin so pale it seems ill. Eyes gazing somewhere far away. An expression devoid of any emotion.
It’s not just cold.
If I had to sum it up in one word, [empty]… There was absolutely no dynamic information coming from her.
Is she even human…? …Sorry, but that was my honest first impression.
“Wow, so that’s one of The Teio Ten Sai… I can tell at a glance she’s on a different level.”
“Fufufu, indeed indeed.”
For some reason Mihaneya puffs her chest proudly.
“Why’re you acting all smug…”
“Fufu, one mustn’t begrudge praising their rival.”
Ugh… The hell…
“So…what exactly is that girl talented at?”
“Ah, well you see…Tera doesn’t actually have any specific talents.”
“What? Huh?”
That was a surprising response from Mihaneya.
One of The Teio Ten Sai has no talent…?
“Well, it’ll be faster to show you rather than explain… Oh, seems some friends are going over to Tera.”
“Tera, let’s eat lunch together!”
As Mihaneya said, a trio of girls called out to Tera, and the moment she nodded they combined four desks together. Then after everyone opened their bentos, one of the three suggests to Tera:
“Oh, your bento has an egg roll too! Can we trade for mine if you want?”
“Sure.”
Tera answers expressionlessly and straightforwardly, contrasting with the other girl’s excitement as she holds out her egg roll.
“Hehe, I actually made this myself y’know. I added a secret miso flavor. I have a little trick with cooking them too, it’s one of my confident dishes!”
“What a coincidence, Tanaka. I also happened to make egg rolls myself today.”
“Ooh, I’m super excited for Tera’s homemade cooking!”
The one seemingly named Tanaka happily pops Tera’s homemade egg roll in her mouth.
“Itadakima–”
But her expression changes immediately after.
“Wh…at…”
Stunned, Tanaka sits there eyes wide open.
Did it…taste that bad?
Shaking unsteadily, Tanaka grabs her head.
“Ah…strange? Compared to this…somehow the egg roll I made feels like it’s on a completely different…no, it might not even be considered food… Oh I see, maybe I accidentally used crap instead of miso…”
She’s saying something outrageous!
“It’s delicious…unbelievably delicious…freaking delicious… And I might’ve used crap in my egg roll…”
No way! And your reaction to lost confidence is way too unique!
“Ah, but it’s so delicious I don’t even care…I’m so glad to be Tera’s friend!”
C’mon, she’s seriously tearing up a bit… To think it moves someone’s heart this much over a single egg roll…
I see, so Tera’s talent is cooking–
“Noooo!”
A sudden scream echoes through the classroom then.
It came from the girl sitting next to the egg roll girl Tanaka.
“W-What’s wrong, Kondo?”
Looking puzzled, Tanaka asks the girl called Kondo, who starts speaking hesitantly.
“Um…it’s a bit embarrassing but…the bento alone wasn’t enough so I bought some bread from the school store too. But our school store is total chaos, a warzone, so maybe oba-chan didn’t hear my order right… I’m sure I asked for a brioche but when I opened the bag, there was a male anglerfish inside!”
What kind of school store sells crap like that!
“W-What do I do…I really really…can’t eat male anglerfish no matter what… If it were female I could but…”
What a weird fixation! Not even Kyoto Sea Origins Mountain Resort makes weird rules like that!
“Ahh…what do I do. The sashimi pack hasn’t been opened yet so I could probably return it, but store policy says only 5 minutes for live goods returns… Checking the receipt timestamp…just 30 seconds left…no way I can make it in time!”
Clutching her head over baffling made-up rules, a hand plops down on the anglerfish girl Kondo’s shoulder.
“Leave it to me.”
The moment she said that, the girl standing up–
Whoosh!
“Huh…?”
Blew past Mihaneya and I peeping from the hall like the wind.
Di-Did she just run by…that was Tera right?
Before I can fully grasp her insane speed–
Zoooooom!
The Tera Bullet doing a magnificent cornering maneuver to return flawlessly to the classroom.
Wh…at!
“Made it…in time for the exchange.”
“Oh…thank you…thank you so much, Tera!”
Deeply moved, Kondo chomps down on the handed brioche.
“Wh-What was that freakish running just now…?”
Forget the speed itself, her form was flawless.
Well I’m a total amateur so I can’t say if it was truly perfect, but her arm movements, leg lifts, everything seemed comparable to the athletes you see at the Olympics.
What’s going on…? If it’s not cooking, is Tera’s talent sprinting–
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! ”
What is it this time…
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