Witch and Mermaid - 4

"Everybody has something they'd rather not say…Same goes for me." "Like the reason you're so desperate to find the owner of those notes?"

"That's one, yeah…" After a brief silence, her words continued. "…There are

things that I want to tell you right now, but I can't." "…And what is that?"

"I can't tell you. Not now." "Why?"

"Who knows?"

"Not now means…One day?" "..."

"Come on, say something~" "…Shut up."

"Aotsuki-san." "What?"

A cool fall breeze blew past us, making her hair shake. The comfortable wind carried over a sweet fragrance, which made my heart skip a beat.

"Let's just give it our best. We only get one chance at our first culture festival in high school."

Aotsuki-san blinked a few times, only to hide her face behind her notes. Even without seeing her expression, I could tell. Her ears were red.

"...…Yeah. I'll try my best. Obviously." And so, the lunch break of the following day. "Hello hello, it's the culture festival hero!" "What drugs are you on, Yafune~ Lol."

I went to the school store to buy my lunch, and when I returned to the classroom, my classmates all broke out in laughter.

"I mean, I was asked by that Namiki-senpai, you know? Can't exactly sit on my butt like that~"

"You were always pretty close with Namiki-senpai, right. I'd love to have a shot, so introduce me next time~"

"Yeah, not happening. He's always lovey-dovey with his girlfriend."

"Ehhh, what a shame. Maybe they'd break up if I seriously went for him~ He's like so my type."

Are you trying to break between those two lovebirds? Girls are friggin scary.

"Anyway, I really suck at rejecting someone else's request~ We've known each other since middle school, so he might just leak some embarrassing secret of mine if I don't comply~ Lol"

"Ehh, that sounds super interesting~ I really wanna hear about some of your embarrassing stories, Yafune~"

I was aiming for a quick joke for the matter, and yet I felt my chest hurt with pain. Calm down. I was only bullied in my first year of middle school. In my second year, I had already changed myself. No person here should know about my past.

"Anyway, this being the case…Aotsuki-saaan, let's start working on the manuscript!"

Using this great duty bestowed upon me as a pretense, I called out to her in front of everyone. However, since this was the very first time, I couldn't help but be nervous after all. Then again, we could just go over it when it's just the two of us. But, then people would become suspicious of us when it came to the actual day of the play. That's why, doing it openly from the very start is the best.

"Hey, Aotsuki-san, how far are you right now?"

I bet that there's people listening in on our conversation right now. So, might as well get it over with.

"That…that doesn't have anything to do with you."

Aotsuki-san was clearly feeling awkward to suddenly act like we never talked, despite us talking almost every day at that park, and it showed in her voice. Despite me wanting to help her, she's the one saving me instead. I suppressed the sharp pain in my chest, and laughed.

"Don't be like that~ I'm the culture festival hero, you know? At least tell me your progress, will you?"

After she carefully searched for the right words, she gave an awkward response.

"…I still…haven't finished a proper script…G-Got a problem with that?"

I could see several script books in her hands. It's not that she wasn't doing anything, but rather that she worked through several attempts, but couldn't achieve the quality she was hoping to arrive at. It seems like she's a bit of a perfectionist.

"I definitely want to bring in this witch girl character, but having one person play two roles is just too difficult…Not to mention that I can't make all the tools needed either…"

I see. So because she doesn't have any allies to help her, she's the only actor, and is forced to limit the play. For a beginner, this is probably impossible to deal with.

"Then, how about I take up a role myself~" "…Are you serious?"

"Super serious. I always wanted to participate in a play~" "Remembering the phrases must be rough…I don't care if you regret it."

"Ehh, don't be like that. My friends from middle school are coming to visit, so I definitely wanna show off. It'd be lame otherwise."

I kept it as light-hearted and cheerful, talking to ensure that no bad mood could be born in the classroom.

"I don't think you need to be so desperate about that." For a second, the Queen's cold voice filled the room. "Also, Yafune. Do you really plan on helping that girl?" Gami sat a bit further away from us at her seat, munching on her sandwiches, only to get up and approach us.

However, I kept up my fake smile.

"I mean, you heard about it, right? Namiki-senpai tasked me to become the culture festival hero~"

"Can't you just ignore that?"

"Don't be like that, Gami~ How about you join us? You'd definitely take the spotlight."

"Of course I would. But, I can't be bothered about that kind of thing. Also, she was the one who said she'd take care of it all on her own."

"Don't say that. You're such a beauty, Gami, you need to show off." "..."

Well, I don't think that my words particularly accounted for much. But, more than words, it's just important to keep up a smile.

"Idiotic. Just do what you want." Gami said, and left the classroom.

The second the door closed behind her, the atmosphere in the classroom grew more soft.

"…So anyway, I'll take care of a role myself, Aotsuki-san~" "…Are you sure about that?"

"Of course, of course. It's decided. So, what kind of motive does the play have?"

The great premise is that the notes are the basis for the story. But, you can't act that out at this rate, and in order to properly put that into a play, it's probably easiest to overlap it with a fairytale.

"When talking about a story with a witch, why don't we go for Cinderella or Snow White…But, with two people it's pretty much impossible."

You need a prince for either of those, as well as a step-mother, older sisters, and like seven dwarves.

"Hey! Would someone be willing to help out by playing a role? We're recruiting over here!" I tried calling out to everyone with a cheerful voice, but…

Absolute silence. Nobody's even looking over at us. Yeah, I figured as much~

"Sakanaaa! Help me out, my good friend!"

"Bring back a cute girl when you try to ask me for that. I don't feel that way towards you~"

"You bastard." "But, I don't mind." "Eh?"

I thought that he'd say no either way, so hearing a yes coming from him was honestly shocking. The others around me showed a similar reaction.

"I mean, this'll be my first culture festival in high school, you know? I'd rather do something fun than nothing at all. I just didn't want to be glared at by Gami, so I stayed silent until now~"

He said it like it was nothing, but honestly speaking, I figured that was the

case. Since Gami can't stand Aotsuki-san, nobody tries to go against her. Without Gami, I'm sure that many people would have actually offered to help. That being said, there's no signs of them getting along anytime soon. It's not like Aotsuki-san is exceptionally toxic towards Gami, but the opposite is the case.

I get how they must feel, not wanting to be involved. They don't want to go against the all-mighty god. I can't protect anybody as soon as they are hated by Gami.

"Ahh, but, if I'm going to participate, then I want a role that makes me look cool and stand out. Anything but that, like buying stuff or helping with the script is too much of a pain! I'll let you two handle that~"

"You're actually the worst, huh!?"

"How about you're just thankful that I'm offering to help out? Just give me the role of the prince, alright! Do your best for the script~" Sakana waved his hand at me, and walked back to the ring of girls surrounding him.

Of course, these girls immediately joined in the fun with 'Ehh, Sakana-kun will play the prince~?' and 'Now I'm looking forward to it~' and so on.God dang it, why do I have such a guy as a friend. Can't I just get some friend characters you see in light novels?

"Anyway, we have a witch, a girl, and a prince. So…Cinderella?" "…A love story is a bit…"

"Why?"

"…Because…I can't say any of…those lines…" "You can't say them?"

"It's nothing…I'm saying that I don't want to embarrass myself." "I see~ So then, The Little Mermaid?"

"The Little Mermaid?"

"In there, the little mermaid barely talks, right. There is some love there, but it's more of a tragic love, so no embarrassing love scenes…"

"…I see…!" Aotsuki-san's eyes started sparkling with hope.

…Looking at her like this, her expressions sure never stop changing, huh. Despite her choice of words being sharp and harsh, her expressions give her this youthful feeling, and I think it's very cute. Why did I never realize that… I see, because it's bright here. Before, we only talked in the dark and dimly- lit park. Beneath the light of the classroom, I can now get a proper look at her face.

Her serious gaze dropped down on the notes in front of her, and even such a simple action had been utterly entranced. When I snuck glances at the people around us, there were people who were giving off an aura along the lines of 'Huh? Aotsuki-san is actually pretty cute?', which makes sense, as she's a beauty. Of course, the person in question had no idea of this, and just formed a fist with her hand.

"I feel like…I can do this now…I'll try my best."

Just as she said, she worked really hard to finish the script until the following day. So far, she only filled her own notebooks with her ideas, but now she typed everything on her PC, and handed me the paper to 'read it'.

During recess, I ran my eyes over it, and once classes ended for the day, when everybody else had already left the classroom, the two of us stayed behind. I used that time to give her my impressions.

"I think the script is great. Though I didn't expect you to finish it in one day."

"Being forced to do all the roles myself was the breaking point after all. Now that I got more actors available, and the motive, it was much easier to write."

"That's amazing. Arranging the novel parts of the diary into The Little Mermaid…it doesn't seem like this is your first time writing."

"Not really…It's my first time writing, but I do >hate< reading books in the first place."

"Eh, you hate it?"

Why does it feel like her words didn't match at all?

"Eh…Ah, well, there's a lot of things you can hate in this world, right." "What a cynical way to look at it."

"S-Shut up."

"But, I do think that your script is great."

With The Little Mermaid as the basis, the diary entries were properly incorporated into the script. It is still a yuri story, but since we only have one actor available, it was arranged that the witch was actually a male magician.

—During a certain summer, the Little Mermaid encountered the magician Shell. The two then proceed to meet every single day at the beach, and they open up towards each other. They talk, and the magician shows the Little Mermaid a lot of his magic, as the days go by. Eventually, the Little Mermaid becomes attracted to the magician. However, the magician thinks that the Little Mermaid actually has feelings for the prince.

One day, the Little Mermaid decides to take a step forward, and approaches the magician, saying 'Won't you grant my wish?'. In response to that, the magician hands the Little Mermaid magical medicine, still under the wrong idea that the mermaid's wish is to be together with the prince.

As a result, with the power of the medicine, the Little Mermaid turns into a real princess, and the fiance of the prince. Not to mention that the magician adds a side effect where she can't express her feelings of love for anybody but the prince.

Finally, the day of the marriage arrives, but the Little Mermaid still can't get over the magician. The magician shares similar feelings for the mermaid, and regrets that he couldn't convey his feelings, so he heads over to meet her.

They are reunited. Right as their hands were about to touch, they are captured by the country's soldiers (which aren't on stage, but we'll find a way to deal with that), and are separated because of the prince's orders. They both swear to eventually find each other again, and properly express their feelings—and that's the end.

It's a bit of a sad story, but both the notes as well as the original The Little Mermaid are tragedies after all. It's a romantic fantasy set out to make you cry. Though it seems like the notes are rather forgotten, Aotsuki-san made sure to add certain phrases from the original in her play.

"…! R-Really?"

Oh, she seems happy about being praised. How cute…The way her eyes lit up there, if only she showed that kind of smile towards the others from our class, they'd surely welcome her as well.

"So then, I'll use this as the manuscript, and go learn my phrases."

"Yeah, that sounds good…But, what about Sakana-kun? You gave him the script this morning, right?"

"He went to play around with girls like always." "...…Will he really be fine?"

"W-Well, I'll have him join for sure next time. He seems to be willing to help out at least, so we gotta take what we can."

Though, there's a big chance he'll just go 'Can't be bothered, practicing is boring', and leave us again.

"Alright, then let's start."

It was our first attempt. We both had the manuscript in hand, reading our phrases out loud. Since we didn't have any prince here to play the role, I took over. That's fine and all, but…when it came to Aotsuki-san as the mermaid, well…Might as well play through it until the end.

"Phew…"

After we finished the last line, Aotsuki-san let out a satisfied sigh. She was sparkling, like she had laid her heart out.

"Yafune-kun, you're not half bad. You might make it in the theatre club."

I do act on a daily basis after all. 24/7, real time ad-lib. Though, I do take a break at home.

"How was I, Yafune-kun? What about my acting?" She looked at me in excitement, expecting some praise, if I had to guess.

"..."

"W-Wait a second, why are you looking away?" "Can I be honest with you?"

"Of course. I want to hear what you really think." "It was super awful."

"Wha?! That bad!?"

It looked like Aotsuki-san was struck by lightning.

"I mean, your voice was barely audible, and it was shaking like crazy."

"I-I couldn't help it, I barely do any acting like this, and I rarely talk in general…!"

"Your speaking was really monotone as well, and yet you were brimming with confidence, it's actually pretty fun."

"Y-You're still not done!? Aren't you going too far now!?"

"Well, it's only this school's culture festival, so it doesn't matter much."

"What are you talking about? If we're going to do it, only perfection is acceptable! I just have to speak up louder, right! I'll look up some voice training methods online!"

"I see. Just hope you make it in time for the culture festival."

"M-Making fun of me…! Just watch, I'll make your jaw drop, Yafune-kun!" "That's my reward for helping you?"

…Huh? We're talking just fine, aren't we. Oh crap, this is actually pretty fun. Even though there's nothing fun here, I find myself smiling. How long has it been since I genuinely enjoyed talking at school like this?

"Practicing the acting is important as well, but we also need to focus on other preparations. Like costumes and all that. What about that?"

The following day after classes ended, as we were in the middle of our second practice session, I felt the urge to ask that. Since the culture festival is on the 10th and 11th of November, we barely have a month to prepare.

"I'll do something about that. I'm not too bad when it comes to needlework." She ran her fingers through her hair, showing an arrogant smile. "I'm not a good-for-nothing or anything. Definitely not."

"Do you still feel pissed about the fact that I called your acting bad? That's kinda funny."

"Shut up! Also, what's that tone for?" She raised her head, looking down at me. "I bet that you think of me as some clumsy and useless girl, right?"

"Of course not. You seem really good at sewing after all. Not to mention that you wrote the entire script on your own with no help whatsoever, so I can only admire that."

"If you want to call me a loner, then just do that!?"

"Anyway, you also need to take care of stage props, and the bigger backgrounds."

"Right…Not to mention that I need the materials for the costumes, so I should probably use the day tomorrow and go shopping."

"Go shopping…All alone?"

"Who else would be able to tag along?"

"The person right in front of you? Or am I some ghost?" "...Eh?"

What's that reaction for? Is that such a shocking idea? "You're…coming     with      me,      Yafune-kun?" "…........... Huh?"

Wait, now that she repeated my words, I actually showed the same reaction. "I mean, after all I'm…"

Hm? What am I towards her? We're not in a relationship that we're friends. So then, am I some time-limited helper? An ally? Would that be an adequate way to describe our relationship? I don't hate Aotsuki-san or anything, but I want to draw a proper line. If some Senpais at our school started to bully her, I won't save her. I probably couldn't save her. I just want to offer her as much help as I can, limited to the culture festival right now.

For that, I used Senpai's help. I can't risk my own position. That's something I can't back down from, and that probably won't ever change. Not after everything I did to 'change' myself. It's only logical to always treasure yourself the most. Wanting help from someone, or wanting to help others, it's all just greed.

Then, what if I went against Gami? How would the others from the class see me? I shook my head, and continued my words.

"…Anyway, I'll tag along. Can't have a girl like you carry all the heavy stuff. But, might as well invite Sakana as well. The more people the better."

In the end, Sakana skipped out on practice again today, but when I sent him a message regarding the shopping a response came right away.

'Sorryyy, I got other plans for the weekend. Got invited by some girls I knew since middle school. Feels great being surrounded by cute girls all over.

Aren't you jealous!'

Haha. If there was ever a battle royale happening in this class, I'd kill him first.

"Sakana ain't coming."

"I see…So, it'll be just the two of us?" "...…"

Aotsuki-san gently tilted her head as she looked up at me. I don't think she's doing it on purpose, but that kind of gesture makes it really easy to misunderstand. I tried to remain calm, and continued.

"So then, let's meet up tomorrow in front of the train station?" "Yeah…Ah, actually, tomorrow is no good!"

"Eh?"

"L-Let's meet up on Sunday…okay?" "Sure…?"

"Then it's decided."

I didn't have much of a problem with it, but I wonder why. Maybe she just remembered some important business? I thought it was weird, but I ignored that.