Tsuki Tsuki Vol 9 Epilogue

Epilogue

A slightly chilly morning. For some reason my bed was really warm today and a sweet fragrance was tickling my nasal cavity, moreover there was a soft sensation on both sides of my body.
…Could it be, someone snuck in?
Mhm~ Judging from the warmth at my sides, it seems that it were two people.
Well, probably Elni and Nazuna. It wasn’t strange for them to snuck into my bed because it was cold. That might be okay on a holiday, but today was a school day. I should give them a proper warning.
Thinking so with my slightly vague mind, I opened my eyebrows, whereupon
“Ah, morning, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-kun.”
I met Hijiri’s eyes to my surprise.
…Was I still half-asleep? While I inadvertently doubted my own eyes, I became concerned about the other person on the bed and timidly s.h.i.+fted my gaze.
“Fufu, good morning, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama.”
“I turned around and there’s she!?”
“…s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama, why do you only give that reaction to me? That is really rude. It hurt me a bit. Please kiss me as an apology.”
“No, no, I’m sorry for that, but anyone would get surprised by that. What are you and Hijiri doing so early in the morning? Why are you here?”
Actually, wasn’t this situation strange?
An unbelievable sleeping together with the two of them.
Hijiri’s elastic and voluminous b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Kaorun’s flexible and beautiful b.r.e.a.s.t.s. I thoroughly felt the softness of their b.r.e.a.s.t.s and when I asked about the circ.u.mstances while agitated, Hijiri replied peacefully.
“Actually, after consulting with Luna-san, we’re taking turns in waking you up now. Yesterday it was Luna-san’s turn, so today it’s mine. There’s still a bit of time to spare, so you can still sleep, you know?”
“Please rest amidst our warmth, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama.”
“Uhm, I wouldn’t be able to sleep from the excitement though…”
My cheeks were certainly hot. But taking turns with Luna to wake me up, huh. One of my questions was cleared, but while straightening up my upper body, I faced Hijiri and spoke out my other question.
“Hey, I know that you came to wake me up, but why are you laying in bed with me?”
“That’s, ehm… Your sleeping face was so cute.”

“It just made you unintentionally feel naughty, like myself, right?”
“N- Not at all! Don’t group me together with you, Kaoru-san! I was certainly a bit excited, but s.h.i.+n.o.bu-kun looked cold, so, well, I just wanted to warm him up!”
“…Incidentally, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama, Hijiri-chan might be saying so, but until moments ago she was drooling spellbound while saying ‘s.h.i.+n.o.bu-kun’s sleeping face is so cute. I want to pet his head too’.”
“K- Kaoru-san! Stop! Don’t tell him that!”
Hijiri turned bright red at once. That behaviour was quite cute. While smiling faintly, I tried to get off the bed right away, but before that, Kaorun grabbed the sleeve of my clothes and raised a voice to stop me.
“Please do not run away, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama. I hope you will stand your man here. Please accept the fact that a lover or two are sleeping together with you with your big heart.”
“…Lover?”
Hearing Kaorun’s words, I tilted my head again.
I didn’t quite get it, but ever since the day I promised to support Hijiri, Kaorun frequently spoke out the word “Lover” and upon hearing that, Hijiri always blushed for some reason.
Not knowing the reason, I faced Kaorun with my head still tilted.
“Just for the record, I don’t have the finances to sustain a lover, you know?”
“I, I’ll earn the money, so no problem!”
Flus.h.i.+ng her cheeks for some reason, Hijiri interjected at once. In regards, Kaorun giggled roguish and cracked an usual joke.
“a.s.suming that Hijiri-chan sustains s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama, then it makes him a pimp. Engrossing himself in playing around with the money Hijiri-chan earned, he would do nothing but play pac.h.i.n.ko and horse or boat races.”
“Hey, that’s rude. Who are you calling a pimp. Either way, if I became a useless guy like that, you‘ll surely stop me, right?”
“…I might enjoy pac.h.i.n.ko together with you, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama.”
“Hey! Get a grip!”
“Calm down, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama, not taking my half-heartedness into account, there will not be a problem as long as you properly earn money, right?”
“…I might rely on you too for money.”
“s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama! Please pull yourself together!”
“Well, calm down, Kaorun. my half-heartedness aside, there won’t be a problem as long you work properly, right?”
“Uhm, when you copy my line here, you perfectly sound like a pimp, you know?”
When we joked around like that, Hijiri giggling leaked a voice and looked at us softly… with a smile like a blooming flower.
“As expected, it’s fun with you, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-kun. Because we were apart, if only for a short while, I’m really happy now. Can I always stay by your side from now on?”
“…I can’t leave you alone after all. I’ll properly keep my promise. But well, you know… It’s about time I get changed, so could you two leave the room?”
I suddenly became embarra.s.sed. Midway in my sentence, I averted my gaze to cover it up, whereupon Kaorun started to teasingly poke my cheek and Hijiri smiled with “You’re so cute, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-kun”.
—It was a little bit different morning from usual. My eyes fell on two precious existences. People I didn’t want to let go. Hijiri and Kaorun, who smiled radiant and beautiful while the morning sun showered them.
I deeply desired to become even stronger than now, so that I could protect them forever and would never have to let go off them. Becoming strong enough to support them, that was my deep desire…

Lunch break at school. While the chit-chat of my cla.s.smates reached my ears, I saw Minami approaching me with her lunch box in her hand.
Probably because Hijiri was busy lately, Minami, who usually ate lunch with her, enjoyed the lunch together with Machina and me these days.
However, today Hijiri too surprisingly was following after Minami in my direction.
There Minami and Machina each tilted her heads puzzled.
“Huh? Gogyou-san, you have time for lunch today?”
“You have to prepare for the election, right? Can you waste the time?”
“Actually… I decided not to run in the election.”
Hijiri continued her words a bit awkwardly.
“Probably because I collapsed at school, the president and the others were kind of relieved when I told them my withdrawal. They said I shouldn’t worry about it. But I still feel bad, so I plan to help out as much as I can. So I might be busy for a while, but at least we can eat lunch together.”
“…You didn’t want to be president, Hijiri?”
Machina interjected doubtful, whereupon Hijiri shook her head a bit and replied.
“I once again noticed that there’s something more important than becoming president. I have my family job, club activities and…”
While faintly flus.h.i.+ng her cheeks, Hijiri looked at me.
“I don’t want my time with s.h.i.+n.o.bu-kun decrease anymore.”
The moment Hijiri said so clearly, Minami showed an envious expression with “Somehow you two got even closer than before…” and Machina rested a hand on my shoulder with “Aren’t you glad you can be with Hijiri”, whereas Asada cried purposefully with “I’m happy too”.
…Mh? Wait a sec. When did the pervert appear?
While I was a bit surprised, Asada placed his hand on my other shoulder by mimicking Machina and changed his tone into a weird one for some reason.
“Nanjou, looking at your face, it seems like you got rid of your hesitation. Your eyes are no longer clouded. Guess my efforts paid off as well.”
“Hey, why are you sounding like an old man? And your efforts… Just what did you do?”
“Thanks for asking. I was about to leak a hazardous weeping if you had ignored me without asking.”
Stopping with his weird tone, Asada threw out his chest with pride.
“The last few days I kept working hard to weaken the influence of Gogyou-san’s fan club, so that you two can stay together. I asked my friends… to go around and specially show the junior girls photos or movies of you cross-dressing.”
“…How dare you?”
“Well, you see, it was more effective than I thought. There are lot of girls that enjoy your cross-dressing and some girls switched over from Gogyou-san to you, which perfectly weakened the fan club. Also, Katou was getting worked up over creating a fan club for you. I’m proud that my friend got so popular.”
“Hahaha, you’re such a hilarious guy… See me behind the school building later.”
“Not for a… love confession, I guess? I’m sure you want to beat the h.e.l.l out of me. But if it’s you, I don’t mind! Do what you want!”
Asada wriggled his body disgustingly.
It was so bad that I inadvertently wanted to cover my eyes, but when I considered that he did it for my sake, I just couldn’t get angry.
“Asada… Thank you.”
Saying my thanks with a whisper, I let my gaze wander over everyone, whereupon Asada raised an overly lively voice with “I’ll eat together with Nanjou too!” and in the end the pervert joined our lunch time. Amidst our chit-chat during the lunch, Asada opened his mouth with “Reminds me,”.
“You withdraw from the student council election, right Gogyou-san?”
“Yes, that’s right. Sorry…”
“No, no, there’s no need for you to apologize.”
When Hijiri showed an awkward expression again, Asada hastily shook his hand, then crossed his arms and frowned.
“But with Gogyou-san withdrawal, there are now just candidates with only diligence as their redeeming features, though we have to wait for the official announcement. I’m not one to say, but I’m not impressed. They’re all not suited for the president position.”
While speaking these words, Asada disgustingly rested his hand on my shoulder again.
“Hey Nanjou, why don’t you run for the position? If you show them your forte, the cross-dressing, all the girl’s votes should be yours.”
“…I really gonna smack you.”
When I glared at him lightly, Asada mumbled “It would be fun with you as the president though…” disappointed, then he suddenly looked at Machina and said abrupt with a serious expression.
“…Nanjou, what do you think of Orangelo-san as the president?”
“Eh? Me?”
While Machina widened her eyes, as her name was suddenly mentioned, Asada said with still a serious face.
“Orangelo-san is popular with the students, a beauty, a Queen and has charisma…Wouldn’t it work?”
“You casually called me a Queen just now, didn’t you? I’m not like that. And while I’m somewhat interested in the student council, someone like me surely won’t be elected.”
“Mh? That’s not true. I think you can pull it off.”
Machina dropped her shoulders unconfident. Resting my hand on her head, I showed a smile.
Just like Asada said, Machina was popular with the students. And she was surprisingly attentive. I believed she would look good on the stage as the student president and when I pictured it inside my head,
“If you’re up for it, Machina-san, then I’ll help too. I’m sure you’ll make a good president.”
“I agree with Gogyou-san. You’re kind, Orangelo-san. So you really will be a good president.”
Hijiri and Minami each nodded in agreement with me.
Upon that, our cla.s.smates curiously approached us, as they overheard us,
“Orangelo-san is running for president?” “Then I’ll support you!” “I’ll give my full support too!” “I want Orangelo-san to become the president.” “And have her step on me.” “And scold me.” “Scorn me.”
and all rooted for Machina with such warm words.
Well, there were some abnormal ones mixed in, but without her usual combination of getting tricked and then retorting, nor getting angry,
“…I’ll think about it.”
Machina quietly replied so somewhat sadly…

After school on the same day. I arrived on our home road together with Machina as always, but apparently she was thinking about something. While walking, she pressed her index finger against her cheek and frowned faintly.
While watching that behaviour with a side-glance, I softly opened my mouth.
“Could it be, you’re pondering about running in the election?”
“…Yeah. It’s sounds interesting to be the student president. Besides, my sister started a part-time job to study about society, so I would like to join the student council as a kind of study too, but my election seems unlikely.”
“What, you’re not confident? If you plan to run for it, I’ll help you with all my might. I’ll make a cool campaign speech for you.”
“Don’t do magic tricks like Nazuna.”
“Leave it to me. I have an idea. It seems that Elni can play the guitar and Luna the piano, so I’ll take them to school and let them play at the campaign speech while I rock the house with my voice. And if you sing during your own speech too, it’ll be perfect.”
“I think outsider like Elni and my sister will be thrown out right away?”
…She didn’t give her usual tricked&retort combo today.
Apparently she was seriously pondering about it. I stopped my jokes and changed my tone into a serious one.
“Well, you can leave the campaign speech to Hijiri. I’ll work backstage. Let’s ask Asada for help too. He has a surprising amount of connections. I’m sure he’ll be helpful. And if we even add the cla.s.s rep Katagiri-san and Minami, we’re all set. If everything goes well, you might get elected.”
“…That would be nice. I’m really interested in it. But…”
Suddenly stopping her feet, Machina faintly clouded her expression.
“The other day, my father replied with a letter on a rare occasion.”
Lightly biting onto her lips, Machina timidly looked into my eyes after a short hesitation.