Chapter 016

The Lady Tasting Tea ⑨ (Unabara Sorano)

Update Time: 2011-NOV-15 20:34:42

"Ah! I can't take it anymore!"

In the School Garden, there is a loud scream that catches people's attention. This kind of behavior is quite rare in the common area shared by the five prestigious girls' schools.

"Miss Tachiki, please lower your voice! We are drawing too much attention!"

"You! Explain to me why we have to work overtime at this time! Why is the magazine company so strict? It's definitely because Japan's school year always starts in the spring! Yes, that must be it!"

"Even if you say that..."

The two noisy people in the School Garden are actually the exclusive photographer and her assistant for a famous fashion magazine in Academy City. As a city mainly composed of students, fashion magazines are naturally very popular in Academy City. The teenage fashion magazine published by their magazine company is one of the best.

The purpose of these two people appearing in the School Garden is to find material for the magazine company's annual supplement "Freshmen". As the name suggests, "Freshmen" is a publication that invites new students from various schools to serve as reader models.

It was not easy for their magazine company to obtain permission to enter the School Garden of the five schools. Therefore, the magazine company attaches great importance to this opportunity, which has increased the pressure on the two people gathering materials.

To be honest, it is not surprising that the magazine company is putting pressure on them, because the magazine company itself is under great pressure. After all, the five prestigious girls' schools in the School Garden are all remarkably influential. If they mess up this rare opportunity, it will not only be a matter of losing face. It is believed that their magazine company's competitors are eagerly anticipating this scene.

Tachiki can naturally feel this kind of pressure. She knows that this year's "Freshmen" School Garden album will be the most critical, so she has been prepared for it.

"Miss Tachiki, calm down... I think the progress is good now."

"You don't understand anything."

Tachiki glares at her assistant irritably. As she said, her assistant didn't understand where the problem was.

In her plan, it would be best to invite one new student from each of the five schools to serve as a reader model for a special issue, and select one as the focus. Of course, this idea is too idealistic, and she also has other backup plans. But overall, it should demonstrate overwhelming excellence and uniqueness. After all, the School Garden is too special, and even making an issue slightly above the normal level can be considered a failure.

So, the focus is the key.

Actually, she has successfully invited three students, all of whom are very ideal. However, none of them seem to be suitable as the focus. The difficulty lies in the fact that the level is already too high, and it is difficult to highlight the focus. And if she lowers the level and chooses one of these three students as the focus, she feels unwilling.

If she can find a student who is better than these three, all the problems will be solved. But even she herself does not have much hope for this.

Therefore, as the deadline approaches, it is understandable that she becomes more and more anxious and vents her frustration in a crazy way.

At this moment, like an inspiration, Tachiki hears a slight exclamation. Looking in the direction of the exclamation, she sees a girl.

In an instant, it is like a beam of light shining into the darkness. All her inspiration and passion are completely ignited in that moment.

"Tachiki Kaoru[1]? Photographer? Never heard."

(Damn Russian man!)

Suppressing the urge to curse, Tachiki puts on a smile. As a representative figure of young fashion photographers and one of the rising stars of fashion designers in recent years, when has she ever been treated like this?

Although the other side's attitude makes her extremely unhappy, she also has to admit that the other side does have the qualification to not regard her highly. Not for other reasons, but because the other side's identity is the number one authority of Academy City's gravitational theory, a famous physicist. She had heard of his name even when she was still in school. For Tachiki, who spent her student years in Academy City, she naturally has some admiration for such a famous scientist. In some ways, Tachiki is actually quite happy to unexpectedly meet this physics authority in person.

The problem is that the other side's personality is really hard to compliment, and the idea of asking for an autograph is thrown out of the window.

"The headmaster has already told me about your plan. I think you should talk to her in person."

(Nonsense! If it weren't for the possibility that you, as a teacher, might interfere, I wouldn't have the time to look for you!)

Tachiki smiles and listens while cursing in her heart.

In a small square of the School Garden, Tachiki saw a girl. A girl wearing the Tokiwadai uniform, flying in the sky.

Originally just a little attention, but deeply attracted in that moment. It was like what she had been looking for had been waiting for her here all along.

Inspiration and passion, both erupted completely in that moment. She even completely forgot the purpose of her trip, just chasing the source of this inspiration and passion all the way to Tokiwadai.

To her delight, according to the information provided by Tokiwadai, the girl she noticed happens to be this year's freshman. This is simply too perfect. At this time, she absolutely cannot lose her temper.

However, she never thought that the girl would be a student of such a famous scientist — of course, considering that Tokiwadai students have always had a prominent reputation in academia, this doesn't seem to be too surprising. She just hopes that the other side's personality is not as difficult to deal with as her teacher.

"Excuse me."

A gentle and beautiful voice comes, immediately conjuring up the girl's personality.

"Ah, you're here. Meet this photographer, someone should have told you the details, right?"

The girl follows her teacher's advice and bows gently to Tachiki.

"Hello, nice to meet you, Miss Tachiki. I am Unabara Sorano."

Yes, it's her, the girl who lit up all her inspiration. Just like the impression her outstanding appearance gives people, she is a quite gentle person. It's hard to imagine that she is actually the disciple of the Russian man with a bad temper and personality.

However, even if she sees it with her own eyes, it's hard to believe that such a female really exists in this world.

Almost no one knows that Tachiki is not a professional photographer. From high school to college, she majored in fine arts and art design. The reason why she gave up her major and engaged in photography was just out of her hobby. Her experience in fine arts makes her outstanding in grasping the beauty of people.

The girl in front of her almost simultaneously touches the extreme of feminine beauty in both rational and emotional aspects. That kind of natural artistic conception cannot be created by human effort.

Even the best painter cannot create a figure that is equal to the girl in front of her. Tachiki can definitely be sure of this.

"Hello, Unabara-san. You should have heard about the purpose of our magazine's visit, right? I wonder what your thoughts are?"

"Well... to be honest, I'm not very interested. I don't know much about this and I'm afraid I won't do well."

This answer of clear refusal surprises Tachiki. Generally speaking, shouldn't girls be very interested in this kind of thing?

"No, no, no. Unabara-san, 'Freshmen' is different from our regular publications, and it doesn't require such high professionalism, so don't worry about this part too much. You just need to show your most natural side, and leave the rest to us."

"Even so..." the girl still hesitates, seeming to have a hard time making a decision, "What do you think, Oleg Dmitrievich?"

(Oh no!)

Tachiki cries in agony in her heart.

She was worried that it would turn out like this. The harsh Russian man probably doesn't even have any interest in her industry, right?

"Give it a try," the Russian man suddenly says.

Huh? Did she hear something strange just now? It seems that the Russian man is on her side?

"Why?" Sorano is also surprised.

"There are many reasons if you really want to know. For Tokiwadai, it's a good opportunity for publicity. Honestly, Tokiwadai is always misunderstood, as if all the students are fictional characters detached from reality. That's not this opportunity to change this misunderstanding is also the headmaster's idea. Otherwise, the headmaster would have directly refused it."

Now that she mentions it, it's true. Tachiki remembers the outside evaluation of Tokiwadai students — almost all of them are either high and mighty young ladies or geniuses who are difficult to approach, as if they are all figures that outsiders find it hard to get close to. To be honest, Tachiki herself thought so before today.

But in fact, these rumored young ladies also chase fashion trends, gather to discuss current popular things, and even struggle with the contradiction between their love of sweets and weight gain. Although some of them are quite willful, they are just common problems for girls of this age.

Everything is different from outsiders' impressions of them, but it is more real and easy to approach.

They are just a group of real middle school girls living in reality, no more special than other girls. This can only be truly understood after actual contact.

Being able to think from the perspective of students, the Russian man in front of her is still a teacher after all.

Tachiki smiles silently. It seems that she has overlooked too many things while always thinking about making a unique special issue. She will talk to the editor-in-chief about making some minor modifications to the original plan.

But ultimately, the key still lies in the girl in front of her.

"Indeed..." the girl nods in agreement.

"That's right. But bullshit!"

Tachiki is almost shocked. She never thought that this Russian man would suddenly curse in front of his student.

When she thought he was a successful standard scholar, he showed his harsh side. When she thought he was harsh, he showed his side as a teacher. Now, he is like this again, and her feelings towards him are like a pendulum, swinging back and forth.

This overly characterful teacher is silent for a moment, then continues, "What I said earlier was not false, but the most important reason is not in those aspects. Sorano, what do you usually do in your free time?"

"Huh?"

Perhaps because of the unexpected question, the girl seems unable to react.

"Don't you realize it? Let me tell you. Apart from normal school hours and sleeping, you spend nearly three hours a day reading papers, nearly three hours calculating, and the remaining time is only enough to maintain normal relationships with your classmates. If you encounter weekends, you often read physics papers and do calculations and verifications for even more than ten hours in a row, and then record your own opinions, right?"

Tachiki is speechless. According to this statement, this girl is really active to the point of being somewhat pathological. She can hardly believe that there are people who can live like this.

"How do you know..."

"I've been paying attention to you for a while. Besides, Unabara is my junior, so how could I not know about this? Your enthusiasm has increased a lot after passing the 'Theoretical Minimum', and I can understand that. But listen to me, I can say with certainty that this kind of approach is of no help to improving for anyone at your level. I know this is your passion, but..."

The Russian man pauses for a moment and seems to be preparing his words.

"You stubborn, go do something that girls at your age should do!"

That's it.

The Russian man's irritable temper makes him difficult to grasp. But if you exclude his temper, you will find that he is actually a very simple person.

He is just that kind of pure mentor who thinks only of his student's well-being, nothing more.

[1] Footnote by the translator: Written as "立木 薫" in Japanese Kanji or "たちき かおる" in Hiragana.