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Disclaimer: I don't own Tokidoki Bosotto Roshiago de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san or any of its characters...
"8:32… still a bit early, but I need to take a bath before everyone else. It's a hassle to have to wait for everyone to be done…" Masachika sighed as he checked the time on his phone, before promptly getting out of bed.
As much as she wanted to stay here the night before, he told Yuki to go back to her room after their nightly activities were done, pointing out that she's been sleeping here a lot more often recently and that someone could see her if she continued sneaking around at night and in the morning.
Although she felt disappointed, Yuki understood and left his room after they were finished, but not before kissing him on the cheek. This allowed him to have a peaceful sleep and to wake up without anything that can bother him, especially his sister.
On that note, he'll begrudgingly admit that letting Yuki sleep here isn't a bad thing, it's her subsequent teasing and jokes when they wake up that's the problem.
Masachika sniffed his arm for a bit, before groaning in disgust at his own smell.
"I definitely need the bath more than breakfast right now. That little gremlin made me stink of sex after last night. Does she even get tired or what?"
Shaking his head in exasperation, he grabbed a fresh set of clothes from his dresser and set out for the showers.
"If I can sneak to the bathroom without anyone else getting near me, they won't think of anything suspicious—"
"ALL THAT YOU'RE GOOD FOR IS FOLLOWING YOUR MASTER'S ORDERS, RIGHT?!"
That sudden shout shook the entire house to its core, as if it was intended for every single resident there to hear. The tone and choice of words alone conveyed anger and frustration, which immediately spelled trouble in his mind.
"What the hell…?" he mumbled, raising an eyebrow at the very familiar voice as he immediately ran down to where he heard it.
Upon reaching the scene, he saw that everyone else had gathered by the lounge. There, Alisa was breathing heavily while glaring at the person in front of her, who happened to be Ayano. The maid bore her usual stoic expression, but the red mark on her cheek was something impossible to ignore.
"Did Alya just…?"
Apart from them, Yuki stood in front of her servant in a protective manner, with Sayaka by her side. On the other hand, Chisaki and Maria stood before Alisa like an iron wall, preventing her from getting near Ayano.
"Что с тобой не так? Are you really incapable of making decisions for yourself?!"
Alisa continued to shout at the maid, who remained quiet throughout it all.
From where he was, Masachika couldn't believe that Alya would do something like this.
Wasn't he the one whom she had a problem with? Why would she even slap Ayano in the face? The same Ayano who only wished to be a loyal and helpful servant more than anything!
No. There can't be any justifiable reason for this.
There's no way in hell that Ayano would ever do something that's intended to make Alya angry, but what could have happened then?
Everyone else seemed to be unaware of his presence because their attention was directed towards Alya, so Masachika quietly approached the girl who was standing by the sidelines like a spectator.
"Miyamae-san, what's going on?" he asked, almost desperate for some answers.
"Ah, Kuzecchi…" Nonoa acknowledged his presence with a wave, having an uneasy look on her face herself. "You're not gonna like this. Kujou-san was shouting at Ayano-chan just now. And then… she hit Ayano-chan in the face…"
His eyes slowly widened in disbelief, "...what?"
The girl was about to tell him more, only for her to pick up a strange scent from him… a kind of scent that was completely new to her, but something she wouldn't mind knowing about.
"You smell weird, Kuzecchi. What have you been doing up there?" she asked, sending him a look of confusion. "Busy with something?"
"Er… just doing some early warm-ups in my room," he quickly formulated a response to that question before Nonoa could say anything. "Is that all that's happened?"
"Yeah, it just happened. Me, Sayacchi, and Yukicchi were still eating a while ago, so we didn't exactly see the slap but we got them to separate. And then Masha-senpai and Chisaki-senpai hurried back inside the house to help us keep Kujou-san away from Ayano-chan…"
At the same time, Maria Kujou finally found the voice she needed to speak up, after being left in a state of shock from Alisa's actions once again.
First, her outburst towards Kuze and Suou… and now she was going off on someone else.
Just what is going on with the elegant and respectful Alya whom she used to know…?
"Just calm down for a moment, Alya-chan!" she asked, pleading for her sister to stop. "Why did you hit Ayano-chan?"
"Kimishima-san was telling me that I shouldn't work today… because according to her, I'm too 'stressed' to work properly!"
Alisa glared at Ayano, whose stoic expression only served to make her angrier.
"How can you even say that? Of course I feel stressed from everything, but that doesn't mean I can slack off! I don't know what's going on in your head, Kimishima-san, but I want to go home! I can't afford to be unproductive for even a second!"
All Ayano could do was bow her head respectfully. "I apologize for speaking out of turn, Alisa-sama. I simply thought that you needed to rest, so I made the suggestion that I can cook for everyone alone today while you can retire to your room."
The silver-haired girl narrowed her eyes. "Who gave you that idea? Was it Kuze-kun? Or was it Suou-san?"
"Neither Masachika-sama nor Yuki-sama had any say in my actions. Please do not blame them, Alisa-sama."
"Then I wonder what went through your head to make you think that I can't work properly… have you seen my efforts, Kimishima-san? If you somehow forgot, I'm the only one here who prioritizes getting back to Japan over anything else!"
This time, Yuki spoke up in defense of Ayano and took a step forward to show her stance.
"Alya-san, it's true that your priorities are in order. There isn't anything wrong with your work and you've been as productive as ever. But because of what you did to Ayano, who was only concerned for your state of mind, you unironically proved her right."
"So because of this one little incident, you think that I should take a rest, Suou-san? Только через мой труп."
"Suou-san doesn't mean anything bad, Kujou-san. She is worried that something else that's similar to this could happen in the future. If anything,"
Alisa narrowed her eyes. "It won't. As long as nobody tells me what I should do, because I already know what I have to do. I don't need anyone to tell me anything. You can do what you want, but don't involve me in it."
A rare look of anger took over Yuki's features, which is quite surprising considering the aura of elegance and poise that she normally had.
"You say that, but I have a feeling that you might have another moment like this in the future. What's stopping you from lashing out like this on Sarashina-senpai? Miyamae-san? Taniyama-san? Or even Masha-senpai? Of course, that's also including me."
"I have enough sense of reason not to repeat this incident with anyone else, but you're a different thing entirely. After all, you're the reason why we're here, Suou-san."
In an effort to stop this whole issue before it escalates any further, Maria placed her hands on Alisa's shoulders and pushed her away until they were by the door, far from where Yuki was.
Who knows what could happen if they stay within the vicinity of the other person?
"Alya-chan, please stop already! We must not fight amongst each other. We're already in a desperate situation, and all of this fighting and arguing won't do anything to make it all better. Разве ты не можешь послушаться голоса разума?"
"So, I'm the villain of this situation then? Everyone is telling me that I'm wrong and that I'm too volatile to even work properly, when all I want is to go home?"
She tried to scoff at the ridiculous notion that she herself came up with but deep down, Alya couldn't help but think about her own actions lately… and how they could come across as villainous .
"Why is that?! Why am I the wrong one?! Is it because I'm not like everyone else?!" she tried to deny those thoughts in real-time, but they were starting to get to her. "Is it because I'm different?! Is it because I want to be back home over anything else?!"
"You are not the villain, Alya-chan! In fact, we're all worried about you. We're worried because this isn't you, and you know it. You're not like this! Can't you see it? You're not wrong because you're different. Okay? Listen to me, please."
Alisa's eyes widened when Masha enveloped her in a warm, comforting hug. This action made her feel torn inside, completely clueless on what to do next. Nonetheless, this accomplished their goal, which was to calm her down from her angry fit.
Believing that the problem was resolved, Chisaki heaved out a huge sigh of relief.
"You know, you can be a real piece of work sometimes, Alya-chan. But still, you should apologize to Ayano-chan. Regardless of your feelings, you shouldn't have raised your hand against her because she didn't do anything wrong. This is exactly what Kuze-kun was telling us about back then…"
Kuze-kun… Kuze-kun… Kuze-kun…
As if it was a trigger word, hearing his name made Alisa forget about everything else in an instant.
His name alone was enough to remind her of something important back then which she could never overlook. Something she couldn't find it in herself to get over. Something she could not accept for any reason.
That day, when she felt betrayed by the person who supported her the most.
"...if we were to fight amongst each other, it can escalate quickly. We can't have that, when all we have is each other. For now, we should leave this matter here and focus on—"
"If you're telling me that I should listen to him , then you can forget it. He's a good-for-nothing idiot and all of you aren't different because you listen to him!"
Alisa uttered those words while her hair shadowed over her eyes, before pulling away from her sister's embrace.
Without another word, she stormed out of the house before anyone could say anything in response, leaving a helpless Maria who could only cry out for her from where she is.
"W-Wait, hang on…! Alya-chan?! Alya-chan!"
She tried to will herself into following after her sister but for some reason, Maria didn't feel like she had the strength to do so. Her legs didn't want to go anywhere, and she felt greatly discouraged after what Alisa just did.
"This is going on for too long…" Sayaka pushed her glasses up while shaking her head in disappoinment, breaking the uncomfortable period of silence between them.
Chisaki scratched her head furiously. "Seriously, I can't figure out what's going on with her."
Nonoa decided to put in her two cents, still visibly shaken from the quick yet natural shift in Alya's demeanor in a snap.
"From the looks of it, I'd say Kujou-san seems more on edge than usual, Sarashina-senpai."
In all her years of observing other people, she can safely say that Alya's case was the most bizarre of them all.
Meanwhile, Yuki turned to face her maid and clicked her tongue at the visible red mark on Ayano's cheek.
"Ayano, are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine, Yuki-sama."
"Come on, let's get that treated with some ice."
Ayano shook her head, "There is no need to be concerned with me."
"I wasn't asking."
Ignoring Ayano's claims, Yuki dragged her towards the kitchen to find an ice pack before the mark on her cheek becomes a bruise.
Sayaka left the scene next, followed by Nonoa, in order to do their daily check-up on the available resources. They still have to proceed with today's tasks, after all.
This left Chisaki and Masha, as well as Masachika, who were all still trying to process what just transpired.
"Masha-chan, you know she's your responsibility, right?" asked Chisaki after a moment of silence.
"I know that…"
"Then you need to fix this before it gets out of hand. Because this is getting ridiculous."
A serious expression was etched on Chisaki's features while she spoke, no doubt feeling frustrated after this unresolved issue.
The group's leader finally left as well, and now Masha and Masachika were the only remaining people there. However, the girl didn't even notice his presence because her mind was full of… other things right now.
Masachika silently observed Masha up until she left the lodge, to which he noticed that she tried to get rid of her sad expression by masking it with her usual smile.
However, he could easily tell that it was nothing more than an attempt to reassure herself.
"I'll leave her for a bit and go to her later," he thought to himself, turning around to head to the bathroom as he originally intended to.
Masachika had a gut feeling that she's going to need some company.
Translation notes:
- "What is wrong with you?"
- "Over my dead body."
- "Can't you listen to reason?"
MINASAN, YONDE KURETE ARIGATŌ! AISHITEMAAAAASUUUUU! *starts playing air guitar*
-Lance