Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de - Volume 3 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

“Oh, I see the Lolicon Knight’s decided to grace us with his presence today!” Tomoyo snickered as I walked into our club room the next day after school.

“Shaddup,” I snapped. “And don’t call me that! You shall address me only as the Knight of Knights!”

Unfortunately, Tomoyo wasn’t the only one with a sarcastic grin on her face this time around.

“So, Juu was a lolicon this whole time? Boy, he’s just a boatload of trouble, isn’t he?”

“Yes, I would have to say that ‘the Lolicon Knight’ is a much more suitable title for Andou than any of the ones he’s come up with so far.”

Ugh! I was being mercilessly teased from all directions. I did my best to come up with something, anything I could say to defend myself, but before I had any good ideas, Chifuyu trotted up to me.

“Andou, look, look,” she said, pointing at her own head. I looked, and to my surprise, I found that she had her hair tied up in pigtails. “Cookie did my hair for me.”

“Oh, cool,” I replied. “Looks like you two are the fastest of friends again, huh?”

“Yeah. Hey, am I cute, Andou?” she asked, looking up at me with hope in her eyes.

Yeah, she was ridiculously cute. Her cuteness levels were so high, I’d have to crush my scouter if I were holding one. Could any hairstyle possibly suit a little girl better than pigtails? I think not!

“Yup, you sure are,” I replied in complete honesty. I got a bashful smile from her in exchange.

“Okay, then...Andou? Do you like me?”

“Huh...? Err, I mean, yeah? I guess?”

“Okay,” said Chifuyu with a nod, followed by a mischievous smile. “Then you really are a lolicon!”

What followed could be more or less characterized as the four of them surrounding me and chanting “Lolicon! Lolicon!” over and over and over again. Gaaah, fine! Call me a lolicon! See if I care!

Eventually, though, they got tired of making fun of me and Chifuyu spoke up again. “Hey, Andou? How old were you when you graduated elementary school?”

“Huh? Umm, twelve. Pretty sure most people are twelve when they graduate, actually.”

“Twelve... I’m ten, so I have two more years. That’s so long...”

It was easy enough to surmise that Chifuyu was in a hurry to graduate from elementary school, and that knowledge sparked a pang of worry within me. Oh, right. I’d totally forgotten, but we never got a clear answer for why Chifuyu wanted to drop out of school, did we? I sort of assumed that the whole Kuki affair had something to do with it, but if it’s still on her mind, then maybe I was wrong?

“Hey, Chifuyu? Do you hate going to elementary school or something?” I asked tentatively.

Chifuyu cocked her head in confusion. “No. I like school. It’s always really fun, and I have lots and lots of friends. Cookie and I aren’t fighting anymore either.”

“O-Okay, so... It’s not like you don’t want to go to elementary school or anything?”

“Yeah. Why?” she asked, turning the question back around on me without hesitation. She didn’t seem to be trying to lie to me or cover anything up.

Huuuh... That’s weird. I was so sure that something had happened to make her hate school. I just had to get to the truth of the matter, so I decided to press onward with my questioning.

“In that case, why did you decide you wanted to drop out of school the other day?”

“Oh, that,” Chifuyu said, then hesitated for a moment before continuing. “I thought that if I quit elementary school, I could go to high school instead.”

For a second, I thought I must have misheard her. She thought she could go to high school? “You mean, like...this high school? Senkou High?”

Chifuyu nodded bashfully. “Yeah. I don’t like being the only one who’s not a high schooler. I wanted to be a real club member, like all of you.”

We were a five-member club. I’d always thought of us that way, and I think everyone else was right there with me. But as far as the school’s records were concerned, the literary club had only four members in total. Needless to say, Himeki Chifuyu’s name was not present on their official list.

“B-But then,” I stammered, “why’d you play hooky the other day...?”

“Because I wanted to study.”

“To study? Wait—you mean you took the day off school so that you could stay home and study instead?”

“You said that I couldn’t drop out of elementary school, so I thought I could skip some grades instead.”

“Skip some grades?!”

“I thought that if I skipped a few grades, I could be a high schooler.”

Wow! This girl can really think outside the box! The rest of the story followed pretty logically: there was no way she’d be able to skip grades if she was learning the same things at the same pace as everyone else, so she thought she could self-study at home and speed on ahead instead.

“But it didn’t work...” added Chifuyu, a little downcast. “All the stuff I tried to learn was too hard, so I stopped.” In the end, her plan to self-study her way into high school had ended in discouraging failure after a single day, which was why she’d shown up for club like always that afternoon, I guess.

“Chifuyu... So, just to be sure I have the record straight, nothing bad happened to you at school or anything?”

Chifuyu blinked. “Not really.”

“S-So, you seriously just wanted to go to high school instead?”

“Yeah,” replied Chifuyu without a hint of hesitation.

“Oh, come ooon,” I droned, slumping into my chair and staring up at the ceiling. “I feel ridiculous for getting all worried now.”

A moment later, though, I found myself grinning. A quick glance around confirmed that everyone else was smiling as well.

“That’s just so Chifuyu, isn’t it?” said Hatoko.

“Looks like we haven’t really gotten a handle on how she thinks yet, huh?” added Tomoyo with a chuckle.

Chifuyu, meanwhile, puffed out her cheeks and pouted. “It’s not funny,” she mumbled.

We quickly stifled our laughter. Right, duh. Of course it’d be rude to laugh about something like this. Chifuyu only did all this stuff because of how badly she wanted to keep spending time with us, after all.

“A question, Chifuyu,” said Sayumi. “Is your power hard for you to bear? Awakening to it out of nowhere, having to hide it from the outside world—is all of that too much for you?” Sayumi was smiling, but the look in her eyes was exceedingly grave.

“Mm mm,” Chifuyu grunted, shaking her head. “It’s okay. I have all of you, so I’m fine. Andou, Tomoyo, Hatoko, Sayumi—if you’re with me, everything’s fine.” She paused for a moment, then added, “Oh, and Kudou too,” as an afterthought.

“Is that so?” said Sayumi with a dry chuckle. “Really, now... It would seem I’ve been underestimating you, Chifuyu.”

“Also...I’m glad I got my power,” said Chifuyu, clutching Squirrely to her chest. “With World Create, I can come here from my school right away. I was getting tired of walking before I got my power, so it worked out perfectly.”

Oh, right. I guess Chifuyu did have to walk here whenever she came over to hang out back in the day. As a natural consequence, she arrived later than the rest of us and had less time for club stuff.

“Making lots of stuff to play games with is fun too,” Chifuyu added. “Like when we played tennis, and cosplayed, and played with the guitar. I always wanted to play lots of different games with everyone.”

She wanted to play with us? Not gonna lie, that feels pretty nice to hear.

“Huh,” I said, casually pondering what Chifuyu had told us. “That’s interesting. It almost sounds like World Create was a power specifically designed to grant your wishes.”

“Yeah. I think that’s right,” agreed Chifuyu. “It’s fun, so everything’s all okay,” she added, flashing a victory sign at the rest of us. I seriously doubt that she was aiming for it on purpose, but honestly? She somehow made the gesture look really cool.

I was starting to think that, just maybe, Chifuyu was the most emotionally tough out of all of us. When I really looked back on it, her innocence, her purity, and her relentless positivity had helped us out of constant rough patches. She never seemed to think deeply about much of anything, and yet she had the most uncanny ability to see through to the heart of all sorts of matters.

“So, I’m guessing that by now you’ve given up on getting admitted to high school early, Chifuyu?” I asked.

Chifuyu frowned. “I don’t wanna, but yeah. I can’t quit, and studying’s hard. I wanna play with Cookie more too.”

“Gotcha,” I said with a nod.

“But that’s fine. I’ll catch up with you eventually, even if I can’t go to high school.”

“Huh...? What do you mean by that?”

“I can’t catch everyone else, but I can at least be in the same grade as you, Andou.”

What on earth is this kid talking about? Andou Jurai: sixteen years old, with a birthday right around the corner. Himeki Chifuyu: ten years old, with no birthdays coming up until next year. Normally, I wouldn’t even have to say this, but closing the age gap between us was completely impossible! I mean, unless I got put into cold sleep or Chifuyu got aged up by The Thankful Death!

“I’ll be twelve when I graduate elementary school, so...two more after that...right. I’ll catch up with you in four more years, Andou.”

In four years? So, when she’s fourteen? What? Even if I did somehow stay the same age for the next four years, I’m sixteen right now! We wouldn’t be the same age at all! What’s the deal here?

The other members of our club were obviously just as confused as I was—or at least, they were, until Sayumi nodded and said, “Oh, of course. I understand now. He he he—yes, indeed, you’re just four years away.”

“Oh! Oooh! I get it now! Yeah, that checks out,” said Tomoyo.

“H-Huh?! What does?!” exclaimed Hatoko. “Tomoyo, fill me in!”

“It’s simple, really. It’s just that...” Tomoyo leaned in to whisper in Hatoko’s ear, and I couldn’t hear the rest of their exchange.

“Hmm, hmm... Oooh, now I see! Hee hee, that’s true, isn’t it? They’ll be in the same year, all right!”

“Wh-What the heck, guys?! Would someone please clue me in already?!” I shouted.

The high school girls all just snickered, but Chifuyu at least opened her mouth. “In four years, I’ll be an eighth grader.”

An eighth grader.

The eighth grade...

...Eighth grade syndrome.

“That means I’ll be in the same grade as you, Andou. After all, you’ll always be a chuuni.”

I paused. Her words sank in. And, finally...

“Pfff!”

...I erupted in laughter. Yeah, okay. It all makes sense now.

“You’re darn right you will, Chifuyu!” I declared, springing up from my chair and raising my arms up before me, milking the giant cow with all my might. “For my name is Guiltia Sin Jurai, and no matter how many epochs, no matter how many ages pass us by, I shall forever wait for you upon the throne of the great chuuni lords!”

I grinned the coolest, most haughty and arrogant sneer of a smile I could manage, and Chifuyu nodded happily. “Yeah,” she agreed.

“Oh my god, get real, chuuni-boy,” Tomoyo sighed with an exasperated shrug.

“What can I say? Juu really will be a chuuni forever,” added Hatoko with a grin.

“‘Epoch’ and ‘age’ are more or less synonymous, by the way, so your expression was redundant. It’s like asking someone for their PIN number,” noted Sayumi. I just knew she was trying to ruin my groove on purpose.

And so, the literary club was called into session for a perfectly normal day of activities.

All right—what shall we play today?