Maidens of Cygnus - Volume 5 - Chapter 7.3

In the Cabinet while going home from school, Alisa asked Marika about the state of the progress of her homework without delay.

“...Asha, what do I doo~.”

Alisa’s fears, unfortunately, didn’t end as unfounded worries.

“We studied together during the training camp, so it’s not like you’ve made no progress at all, right?”

They had secured some proper study time in the training camp’s schedule. Marika, who at that time slipped out to pay a visit at their room, was taught by Alisa in the general subjects.

“That’s...”

However, surprisingly, Marika had basically not touched her homework for the specialized subjects. All the more surprising, or perhaps shocking, was that Marika seemed to have forgotten she hadn’t started her own homework.

“...Come to my room when we get back. I’ll help you out, so let’s finish it together.”

Though Alisa’s tone turned a little harsh, that couldn’t be helped.

They briefly went to Marika’s apartment and then headed to Alisa’s.

Alisa’s house is a detached building built on the garden of the Juumonji Family’s house. Although small, the building was fully equipped with a bath, toilet, kitchen, and more, and the whole house was given to Alisa.

When Alisa opened the door of the detached building, there were girl’s sandals placed there, neatly arranged. They were not Alisa’s footwear. Alisa knew at a glance who had come from the main house.

“...Someone from the Family?”

Marika asked with a voice that showed her hesitation.

“It’s Kazumi-san. Don’t mind her, come on in.”

Alisa answered Marika’s question while taking off and arranging her shoes. She had no doubt that those sandals were the ones her half-sister Kazumi wears when she comes here.

Marika took off her shoes while saying “I’m coming iin...” in a low voice.

The two went into the apartment and Kazumi, in casual clothes, came out of the bathroom. Alisa wasn’t surprised because she comes to use the bathroom in the new attached building more often than she uses the one in the main house.

The relationship between Alisa and her half-sister is not bad. Kazumi has a reserved personality so they don’t spend much time together. But unlike their half-brother, who is the same age as Alisa, she never treated Alisa poorly. Rather, ever since she came to this house, Kazumi, despite being two years younger and being an elementary schooler at the time, was careful about not making her newcomer half-sister uncomfortable.

“Ah, sorry Alisa-san. Thank you for letting me use the bath.”

“I’ve said this before, but you don’t need to worry about it. You keep everything tidy. Feel free to come at any time.”

“Okay. Marika-san, good day.”

Kazumi politely bowed to Marika, enough that it wouldn’t come across as snide. It is already evening, but it seems she avoided saying ‘good evening’ in order to not make Marika worry.

“Kazumi-chan, sorry for intruding.”

Marika also lightly bowed, to the extent it would not be impolite. Marika and Kazumi don’t know each other very well, but they had met enough times to greet each other by name.

“Are you going to study?”

They usually only exchanged a brief greeting, but today Kazumi asked that while looking at the bag Marika was carrying.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Alisa replied to that question.

“What’s the matter?”

Then, as Kazumi seemed to find it difficult to say something, Alisa tried to get her to speak.

“Umm, I’d like you to teach me a little too... Will you let me study with you?”

Alisa slightly opened her eyes in surprise at this unprecedented request.

“— Mina, is this okay with you?”

“Eh, ah, of course.”

After checking with Marika, Alisa smiled at Kazumi.

“Yeah, let’s study together. Just ask for anything you need.”

An enchanting smile, even for those of the same sex, beautiful rather than cute.

As Kazumi blushed a little, only her tone was composed as she replied “Okay”.

◇ ◇ ◇

Once it became dinner time, Kazumi carried meals for two together with Alisa from the main house, addressed Marika with “Take your time”, and returned to the main house.

Sitting at the dinner table were Kazumi, her father Kazuki, her mother Keiko, and her adopted brother Yuuto. Katsuto had yet to return home from work.

“Kazumi, why did you want to study with Alisa today in particular?”

Yuuto asked Kazumi at the table.

Even Kazuki, though he pretended to be unconcerned, was unable to curb his curiosity and stole a glance at Kazumi.

“Because Alisa-san looked like she would teach more carefully than Yuuto-onii-san.”

Kazumi replied to Yuuto with the same calm attitude as always.

“I won’t deny that, but what’s the real reason?”

Yuuto declared that that answer was merely a façade for the public.

“What I said is also true. But it certainly wasn’t the primary objective.”

For a girl in her second year of middle school, she uses somewhat formal wording. This is a digression, but perhaps Kazumi, as usual for her age, wants to imitate adults.

“That ‘primary objective’ or whatever, what is it?”

“What kind of person Marika-san is, that’s what I wanted to know.”

Kazumi readily revealed her hidden intentions at the third question in a row.

“You want to find out Tookami-san’s character?”

“Yes. This is my older sister’s closest friend we’re taking about. As her family, I believe wanting to know is only natural.”

Kazumi said ‘my older sister’ and ‘as her family’ without getting especially roused.

To this, even Yuuto had no choice but to nod and say “You’re right”.

◇ ◇ ◇

On Wednesday, Alisa showed up to the Crowd Ball Club’s activities for the first time in a while.

The temporary court on the sports grounds was unfortunately removed. Under the cloudy sky, Alisa rode an electric scooter from school heading to the courts on the other side of the station.

Alisa apologized to Club President Hatsune, who had already arrived and was doing warmup exercises, for her absence the week before. She had notified that she would be absent because she was going to the Magic Arts Club training camp, but she decided this morning to apologize again.

Hatsune smiled and replied “There’s no need to apologize”. Then, looking happy, she said “because of your team’s efforts, we might get more new members next year” with a smile.

She worked up a sweat in Crowd Ball during the morning and returned to First High to have lunch at the cafeteria.

She joined Marika and Mei who had been waiting for her in the cafeteria. Also, Hiyori practiced Crowd Ball with her, but since she had different plans, they split up at the locker room.

“So, about that process in that magic.”

As Mei put the bento she brought from home on the table and sat down, she brought up the topic, as if saying ‘this cannot wait’.

Alisa also placed bento boxes for two on the table. Needless to say, it’s one for her and one for Marika. Recently, Alisa has completely turned into a ‘girlfriend’.

“By that, you mean the unknown process in ‘Bodily Forging’, right?”

Rearranging her posture to listen to the discussion, Alisa asked for confirmation, just to be sure.

“Yeah, that one.”

Mei nodded with a ‘What else could it be?’ expression.

“I’ll start from the conclusion. My brother thinks it’s related to ‘time’.”

“Time...? Is he of the opinion that there is a factor of ‘time’ in magic?”

Alisa asked back, with an expression that, rather than half in doubt, was 90% doubt. Next to her, Marika was making a vacant face. Something completely unexpected was said so her understanding has probably not caught up yet.

“I thought the accepted theory was that abilities that manipulate time, such as time stop or time travel, don’t exist?”

“Even if you can’t manipulate, you can record. Even memory, if you change your perspective, is preservation of time... that’s my brother’s opinion.”

“Eh? Eh? Memory is time? Time preservation?”

It seems that Marika is getting increasingly confused.

“If you mean ‘preserving’ the ‘time’ you experience as information, then sure, maybe we can say that memory is ‘time preservation’. But if that’s what you’re saying, photos and videos become time preservation as well.”

Unlike Marika, Alisa had a rational reaction. Alisa rebutted Mei’s point with a logical argument.

“I understand that you two find it impossible to believe. If there is an influence of ‘time’ in magic, then modern magic theory, which classifies factors into the four great systems and eight major types, may be completely discredited from its very foundation.”

Mei didn’t argue back at Alisa and nodded with a ‘right, right’.

“At first I couldn’t believe it either. But!”

Mei, for some reason, assumed a pose like an actor on stage, while still sitting.

At this point, Alisa felt like she knew what was coming next.

“I heard from my brother that he used a limited time rewind magic! He healed my brother with that magic! With this, there is no room for any doubt, right!?”

Mei’s eyes were not looking at Alisa. She was ecstatically gazing into empty space.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about this for some time.”

Marika joined the conversation here, with a strangely cold voice.

“Mei, your family doesn’t follow any weird religions, right?”

“How rude. My family and I are traditional Buddhists. As long as it’s the Heart Sutra, I can recite by memory.”

Mei objected with a serious look.

Hearing that, Alisa muttered “That’s incredible...” in a low voice. Marika said “Heeh~” in surprise.

Did she sense something from that honest response?

“...Anyway, I didn’t understand what you meant with ‘time’ either.”

The ‘heat’ disappeared from Mei’s expression.

“Isn’t time... time?”

“Mina, we can’t perceive ‘time’ itself. It is only when something changes that we understand that ‘time has passed’, don’t you think?”

Alisa gently argued against Marika’s comment.

“But we can measure time!”

Marika countered back, with a sense that she was getting slightly irritated.

“That’s just us observing the change in the clock.”

“Let’s stop with abstract arguments like this. There will be no end to it. Leaving that aside, about ‘Bodily Forging’...”

Mei terminated Marika’s and Alisa’s quarrel, or rather, game of catch with words, and returned to the main topic.

“There is no doubt that the process that was unidentified was, as you’d expect, just for recording. There are no harmful side effects, so there’s no issue with using it to your heart’s content, that’s the conclusion my brother and I reached.”

Mei’s conclusion was, not only for Alisa but also for Marika, more positive than they expected.

Alisa and Marika exchanged glances.

“...At any rate, this doesn’t change the conclusion from last time that there is no risk, right?”

“Yes, there are no risks outside the scope of ordinary magic.”

Mei nodded with confidence to Alisa’s reminder.

“Got it. Thank you, Mei.”

“You’re welcome.”

The mood was somewhat similar to ‘and that’s the end of it’, but the three peacefully ate their respective bentos from then on.