V2Ch13: Red summer festival

Posted on May 6, 2022by Soafp

Translator: Soafp

The summer vacation, which had been filled with various events, was coming to an end.

　Starting with an unexpected pool, the GPEX competition turned out to be more exciting than expected. And the distance between me and the goddess, which for some reason had shortened.

　For me, who had done nothing but study and training during the summer vacation last year, those two events were a big burden. I didn’t know it myself, but my mother asked me, “Are you okay?” She was worried about me. Apparently, fatigue was showing on my face.

　It was not only the event, but also the change of environment. An air-conditioned room, a crowded city, living with a new family, the school with the Goddesses. The fatigue was the result of a combination of factors.

　For these reasons, I moved up my plans to visit my grandparents in the countryside, where I was supposed to stay for two nights and three days during the Obon vacation.

　I was healed by the nature and the unchanged grandparents that I could not see in the city.

　Nothing had changed over there. Well, there is no way that things can change in just three or four months.

During the Obon vacations, my parents came to greet me with Kanon.

Although Kanon was a bit nervous because she was their stepdaughter, my grandparents loved her as if she were their own grandchild. In just a short time, they became completely comfortable with Kanon, and she stayed overnight with them. She wanted to see the school I went to, so I showed her around the countryside.

The time I spent with Kanon was very comfortable. Perhaps somewhere in my heart, I was longing for something like spending time with my family.

　I was healed both mentally and physically, and I was full of motivation.

　After returning to the city, I worked energetically.

　First, I increased the number of days I worked part-time.

　I resumed running and muscle training, which had been my daily routine while I was back in the country. It had been a long time since I had moved my body with all my might, and apparently the feeling was still there. I felt restless unless I was moving.

“You seem to be in good shape.”

Kuromine told me that.

　Kuromine seemed to be in good spirits as well. During the summer vacation, she spent her days studying while working part-time and leaked that Kanon was persistently asking her out.

Next, I put a lot of effort into games.

I played GPEX, which I had not logged on to since the Goodnight Party. Before I knew it, my motivation had been restored. The moment I connected to the discordo, Aoyama and Mahiro, who were chatting with each other, noticed me and called out to me to go to the battlefield.

[Hey, aren’t you getting better even though you haven’t been playing?]

[I thought so too. What happened?]

　I was in surprisingly good shape. After playing for a while, we chatted about nothing else. Aoyama was approached from many places after the tournament and invited to participate in the tournament again.

Finally, like a student, she mustn’t forget her studies.

My homework was finished before the Bon Festival, but I will not neglect my studies for the future. With a reference book in hand, I solved the problems.

　This was also going well. I guess spending time over there must have been a refreshing change of pace. The refreshing effect cannot be underestimated.

　I haven’t decided what I am going to do with my life yet, but I am planning to go to college here. After that, I haven’t decided yet.

However, I would like to eventually live in the countryside. I thought again after returning there, but it seems that living in the countryside is more suitable for me.

　In this way, I spent a full day in the middle of the summer vacation.

　There were no incidents. There were no errands that seemed like errands.

　Then, the months passed and it was the end of August. The day of the summer festival, the biggest and last event of the summer vacation, arrived.

　The morning of the summer festival.

　It was the worst awakening of the day. It had been a long time since I had a dream about the old days, and the tension was low. I didn’t need to see it at a pinpoint timing.

　I got dressed in a bad mood and had a late breakfast.

　The meeting place with my classmates is in front of the station. We meet in the evening and all go together as it were.

“….You don’t look so good?”

Kanon looks at me uneasily.

Spending the Obon vacation together has brought Kanon and I closer together. We are now friends enough to casually go back and forth to each other’s rooms and play games in my room after returning here.

“I had a bad dream.”

“Dream….You’re not a kid anymore”

“I know. I’m pathetic.”

“Get excited. It’s a summer festival after all.”

　That’s right.

　It would be a shame not to enjoy the summer festival.

Kanon’s tension has been high for a few days now. She was going to the summer festival with her classmates, and she couldn’t contain her excitement. She was complaining that she had invited Kuromine to go with her, but she had refused.

“But I really envy Onii-chan’s life you know”

“Envy?”

“Because today you are going with Akazawa-senpai. Just going to the pool with Tsukiyo Onee-sama and Shirase-senpai is enough to make the people at the school curse you with jealousy, and then there’s the Red Goddess. Now if only you had something to do with the Blue Goddess, you would have your goddess collection completed.”

I’m already acquainted with that girl because I attended the convention with her.

I responded with an affectionate smile to Kanon, who expressed a fair opinion as a student of Tenkain. Objectively speaking, she is probably right. After transferring to a new school, she must think I’m a very lucky person to have met all these goddesses one after the other.

　After finishing the meal, I slowly began to get ready.

　The summer festival that I will be attending is a nationally known festival that attracts a large number of people.

　The highlight of the festival is the fireworks display. The spectacle of large flowers blooming in the night sky is a sight to behold.

　This is not the first time for me to participate in this festival. I have been to this festival many times when I was a child. When I was a child, the beauty of the fireworks used to make my eyes sparkle.

　I have many memories of summer festivals.

　In those days, my childhood friends were always next to me. My mother was busy with work, so I was always taken care of by her parents. It is a nostalgic memory now.

　I have never been to the school since I became a junior high school student.

　Needless to say, the reason was because of that woman.

I was made an outcast because of Akazawa’s manipulations, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that she had bet her life on making a fool out of me. Rather, the summer festival in the first year of junior high school was the beginning of all this. When she bragged about how much fun she had at the summer festival as soon as the summer vacation was over and the second semester started, I suffered a severe mental breakdown.

　At that time, I was preparing to go to the summer festival, but I was not invited. Among the group I was always with, I was the only one who was not invited.

　She was very prepared. She told the group that she had invited me but I had turned her down, and no one thought it suspicious.

　This morning’s dream was exactly what happened.

　As I was getting ready, remembering the bitter memory, before I knew it, it was time to leave.

“Then, I’ll go ahead fist”

I call out to Kanon.

In the room, Kanon was wearing a yukata. It was a cool yukata with hydrangea on a light blue background. She had ordered it on the Internet the other day. The yukata looked good on Kanon, and I was with her when she picked it out.

By the way, I am not wearing a yukata, but my everyday clothes. I used to get excited in yukata. Akazawa’s mother was addicted to making me wear a yukata, and she used me as a dress-up doll.

“Do you like this yukata?”

“It looks good on you.”

“Ehehe thanks, Onii-chan”

　It looks really good on her. As a brother, I am worried about her being picked on.

“If you see me over there, don’t ignore me, okay? I want to introduce you to my friends.”

“I know. Be careful, Kanon.”

“Roger that.”

I left the house. It’s a little earlier than the meeting time. Kanon’s friends are gathering at my house, so I don’t want to get caught in the middle.

　I walk slowly to the station.

　When I arrive at the station, there is already someone waiting for me there. The girl with red hair, who stood out more than anyone else, noticed my presence.

“Aah, Nijitani-kun!”

　My face tightens at the sight of Yuuhi Akazawa waving to me with a smile.