Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 15 - Chapter 1.10

CHAPTER 1 STORY 10

Surprise

My heart was leaping with joy at the prospect of being reunited with Elaina after so long in Qunorts, the Free City, when suddenly, I was struck with an idea.

“Wouldn’t Elaina be happy if I brought her a surprise present or something?”

The present I prepared for her was some ordinary bread.

If I were to list Elaina’s favorite foods, bread would be the only thing on the list. It was a cheap gift, but the requirement for a present isn’t to spend a lot of money, it’s the thought behind it! The best gifts are gifts that will make the recipient happy, rather than gifts that are merely expensive.

And so I had decided to give her a present, but…

“The timing is tricky…”

What timing would make Elaina the happiest? After all, Elaina was a person who ate bread when she was hungry. She also ate bread when she had free time. As if bread was her first priority, it was in her nature to attract bread to her around the clock. It seemed like, no matter when I handed her my gift, she’d say, “Oh, thanks,” as she added it to the bread she’d already bought for herself. Then my present wouldn’t have any meaning.

This is a real head-scratcher…

“I overheard your dilemma.”

As I was puzzling over this problem, my little sister, Mina, suddenly appeared without any warning. I was a little bit startled.

“…Where did you come from, Mina?”

“I am always watching over you, Big Sister.”

“…Ah, I…see…”

“Stop making that face.”

“What kind of face am I making?”

“An openly disgusted face.” Then Mina deliberately cleared her throat and looked down at me. “You seem to be troubled, Big Sister. May I assume you can’t figure out when to give Elaina her present?”

“Huh, you know about that?”

“Yes. I always know what’s going on inside your head, Big Sis.”

“…Ah, I…see…”

“Stop making that face.”

“What kind of face am I making?”

“An emotionless face.” Then Mina turned away from me a little bit and said, “If you’re having trouble giving her your present, I could offer you some help. I’ve got a good strategy.”

Oh-hoh!

“A strategy?”

I asked again with tactless frankness, and Mina chuckled and tossed her hair proudly, then said, “Do you know what it is that brings someone the most joy when they’re given a present, Big Sister?”

“What?”

“Try thinking about how you would feel if you got a present from me.”

“I would generally be pretty happy about getting something from you, Mina.”

“……” Mina suddenly turned her face away. “That’s not what we’re talking about right now.”

“Huh…?”

But when I thought about it again, I still couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was that made someone happy when they got a present. I ended up puzzling over it for a while.

“Hmm…?”

I don’t catch on quickly.

After watching me think for as long as she could stand, Mina finally shrugged, and with open disappointment, she let out a single sigh, then said, “You’re hopeless, Big Sister.”

After a generous pause, with a very self-satisfied expression, she said, “It’s the surprise.”

“What exactly is a surprise?”

Once again, I demonstrated my ignorance as I asked Mina that question, but my little sister readily explained, “People are usually happy when they get a surprise, Big Sister. You need to sneak up on her, and after you surprise her, give her the present.”

“…Sneak up, and then hand over the present…”

Oh-hoh!

…Sounds perfect!

So to that end—

“She doesn’t look busy…”

I had set my sights on Elaina, who was loitering aimlessly in a café. I was approaching from behind. If you’re going to surprise someone, I believe this is the most standard method.

As I crouched down and slowly crept toward her, I recalled my conversation with Mina.

“Big Sister. When it comes to surprises, if you want the most effective method, there’s nothing better than this,” she told me.

“You approach from behind and go, ‘Guess who?’ right?” I replied. “I see, that makes sense. You used to do that to me all the time, Mina, until just a little while ago.”

“That’s not what we’re talking about right now.”

“You stopped doing that recently, didn’t you? Why?”

“Shut up.”

At any rate, there could be no doubt that using this method was the best way to make the other person happy. I crept up unnoticed and approached Elaina’s defenseless back.

Slowly, so slowly.

And then—

—when I had only one step left to go—

“For some reason, I can smell bread.”

“……!”

—Elaina suddenly turned around.

Well!

I hid myself in a panic. I’d been planning to surprise her, but I’d gotten surprised myself, losing everything. The operation was a failure.

“…Huh? Must have been my imagination…”

Ultimately, Elaina then started reading or something.

But there was no way I could give her the bread once things had turned out that way, right?

So I decided to try again on another day.

The following day, I prepared some different bread and gave it another go.

This time, I decided on a different strategy. Instead of approaching from behind, I was going to leap out from a hiding place to surprise her.

But—

“Huh…? I can smell some sort of…mellow aroma coming from over here…”

Why on earth was this happening? Elaina immediately reacted to any person carrying bread. She quickly approached the hiding spot where I was concealing myself.

This plan was a failure, too.

“……”

There were a few things I think I more or less managed to figure out after failing twice, but even after that, all my tactics ended in utter defeat.

Whether I tried hiding behind something, or approaching from behind, or watching her from a distance, no matter what I did, Elaina got wind of me, just because I was holding bread.

“Huh? I sense there’s bread in this area…”

Consequently, no matter how well I hid myself, she immediately suspected something. She never discovered me, because every time, I just narrowly managed to escape, but even so, I was never once able to give her the bread.

Elaina noticed me every time I was already holding bread.

What in the world is going on here…?

“Uuugh…this is never gonna work, is it…?”

Eventually, I was at a loss for what to do, and I sat on a bench and let out a sigh.

I can’t keep doing this!

I sat there sulking.

“It’s rare to hear you sighing. Did something happen?”

Just then, Elaina suddenly appeared from somewhere. As she did, she broke into a grin. “Something smells awfully good, huh?”

“Where did you come from, Elaina?”

“I always appear wherever there is bread.”

“……”

What does that mean…?

“Is something bothering you?”

Well, now that you ask, there is something…

“Ah, well, you see, I—”

I was about to run my mouth and tell her that I was greatly perplexed because I had decided to give her some bread as a present but couldn’t find the chance to give it to her, when I stopped myself.

After all that sneaking around trying to give her a surprise, if I disclosed my plans to the target now, it would lose all meaning, wouldn’t it?

Even worse than that…

…it turned out that…

“By the way, Saya, do you think I could have a piece of that bread?”

…I was exposed.

Elaina just chuckled as she stared intently at the bread. As I wondered how on earth Elaina had developed her sense of smell, she pointed at the bread in my hand and tilted her head again as she asked, “Just one. Would that be all right?”

“……”

Well, it wouldn’t be a surprise anymore, but I figured, since I was originally planning to give them to Elaina anyway, it was fine, really.

“Go ahead, please. Never mind just one—have them all.”

In the end, I didn’t pull any little tricks or anything; I simply handed the bread over to Elaina.

“Thank you very much.”

Elaina broke into a smile again. I had wanted to make her happy and had devised a clever little surprise, but as long as Elaina received bread, she was happy anyway.

After that, Elaina and I ate the bread together and enjoyed a brief rest.

Well, I guess I didn’t need to surprise her after all!

Shortly thereafter—

As we were stuffing our cheeks with bread, Elaina frowned and screwed her face up as if she was hesitating to say something.

She mumbled, “That reminds me, recently, I’ve been getting the feeling that someone has been watching me…”

“That was probably me.”

“Huh?”

[Publication Information] Twitter Post Story

[Author Comments]

This is a bonus story I posted on Twitter, and in terms of chronology, it fits somewhere around Volume 5.

Off-topic, but Tomoyo Kurosawa, who plays the role of Saya in the anime and drama CDs, is such a perfect match for the freewheeling Saya that sometimes I feel certain Saya herself is in the room with us. Really, whenever I hear her work, I enjoy Miss Kurosawa’s voice acting so much that when I’m writing the manuscripts for the drama CDs, my pen often produces scenes where Saya appears.