Volume 2 - CH 1.1

Chapter 1 – Summer Vacation for the Ex-Hero and Ex-Witch

Part 1

“So hot…”

The room was practically boiling.

The AC in my room broke down and it’d take two more days before they finished repairing it.

There was a limit on how much you could do to ward off the heat with just a fan. In the first place, the thing only blew the hot air around instead of making it cooler. It was like pouring water onto a boiling stone.

One week had passed since the final exam and I somehow managed to avoid any red marks again.

I wasn’t a member of any club, so I had no club activities to attend. Even though I had plenty of part-time jobs, I still had a lot of free time, for some reason.

But, I still didn’t have the will to drag my feet outside because it was too hot to do anything. Then again, my AC was dying, so staying inside my room was hell on earth too. Not to mention that they said that this summer was hotter than usual.

“I can’t take this anymore…”

I left the room, went to the living room and turned the AC on.

I shoulda been doing this from the start. To be fair, until a while ago, I’d been sleeping.

“I-I’m alive…”

The cold breeze cooled down the sweat that had been sticking closely to my skin.

Ah, it felt good. I should grab an ice cream or something to make it feel better.

And so I did, as there were some in the fridge. I turned on the TV to find out that there was a baseball game going on at Koshien. The rule was runner on second, bottom ninth inning. The score was three to two and it was currently the fourth inning. Things were heating up. As I was watching it while gulping on my ice cream, the bell rang. (T/N: I’d love to understand what the baseball mambo jumbo means, but when I tried to look it up, I didn’t understand a thing.)

“Jeez, what the hell. We were just getting to the good part…”

It was currently summer break, but mom was still working and dad was out of town.

In other words, I was alone at home and I was the only one who could answer the door.

When I opened the door, there was a beautiful girl with a familiar face standing there.

My childhood friend, Kirishima Hina.

“Hello, hello~ Am I bothering you?”

Hina looked at me as she waved her hand.

She was wearing a short sleeved shirt and a pair of shorts, so it showed a lot of skin. Her big breasts and meaty thighs were especially noticeable.

This appearance was poisonous to a healthy teenager like me, so I coughed and averted my gaze away.

“Yes you are, I’m busy with Koshien.”

“Since when are you part of a baseball team?”

“Busy watching. They were just getting to the good part.”

“Huh… I never knew you would be this excited about watching a sports match.”

Said Hina, disinterestedly.

I found sports matches interesting. They were the places where people could show off their skills and fight each other using their skills. Unlike war, there wouldn’t be any casualties, so they could fight to their heart’s content.

Though, if I were to tell her that, I doubt that she’d understand.

“You don’t have clubs today?”

“Nope. It’s too hot. We aren’t crazy enough to run in this heat.”

Hina barged into the house without any care while fanning her face with her hand.

When I looked at the TV, the game was already over.

Great, I missed everything.

It was over in the fourth inning too, so someone must’ve hit the homerun.

“Alright, I’ll be watching TV while you’re getting ready.”

Said Hina as she sat down on the sofa while operating the TV remote.

“What? Getting ready? For what?”

“Buying swimsuits. It’s about time you buy a new one, right?”

“Swimsuit?…”

When I tilted my head, Hina shrugged her shoulders in exasperation.

“Didn’t we plan to go to the pool? Tomorrow is the day…”

“…Ah, right.”

Right, we planned something like that. We originally planned to go to the beach, but because of financial problems, we settled with the pool instead.

By we, I meant the people who went to karaoke together at the time; Me, Shinji, Hina, Yuuka and Shiina.

Thinking about Shiina’s inclusion, I smiled. Was this what they called parental affection?

“Now that you mention it, I need a new swimsuit, yeah…”

My old swimsuit was too small for me to wear and wearing the school swimsuit for the occasion felt wrong.

“I knew it would be the case. That’s why I’ll be dragging you out with me!”

Said Hina with a big smile. She seemed especially happy today, good for her.

After changing my outfit and finishing getting ready, I went back to Hina and she pushed me from behind.

“Alright, let’s go. Time is of the essence!”

“Stop pushing me, the swimsuits won’t run elsewhere!”

“They will! People will buy them and they will disappear!”

“If that’s your concern, won’t the good ones be out of sale already since early summer?”

Come to think of it, it was rare for her to buy a swimsuit just before the D-day.

She was the kind of girl who’d finish preparing for everything a week before that.

“…The swimsuit I bought last year doesn’t fit me anymore.”

Seeing through my thoughts, Hina whispered to me with a slightly red face.

“Huh? You haven’t grown that much, though…”

After saying that, my gaze moved to her chest.

I didn’t need to touch them to know that they were at least a size bigger than last year.

“Where are you looking?!”

“T-Time! Violence is forbidden!”

Hina snorted and left the house ahead of me.

I put on my shoes and followed her behind.

“Woah, the heat is no joke…”

The protection of the AC was gone and I was scorched by the hot air.

Normally, I’d just go back inside after feeling this kind of heat.

“Just bear with it.”

“Oh, well.”

But since I was with Hina, I thought that enduring this kind of heat once in a while was fine.

*   *   *

We went to a nearby shopping mall.

It took ten minutes by bike to get there from our houses. Normally, we could get there easily, but in this scorching heat, it was practically a torture. Hina, who was in a good spirit when we left, looked a little vacant on the way. The heat even drained the energy out of the normally high tension track club member. This world was dangerous…

Once we got into the shopping mall, though, the AC made us feel alive again.

“Since we’re going to buy swimsuits, we need to go to the second floor, right?”

“Mhm… But I want to take a break first. Let’s go to a coffee shop.”

At Hina’s suggestion, we went to take a break at a coffee shop inside the mall.

I ordered an iced tea and Hina ordered a parfait.

When her parfait came, her eyes lit up immediately. She took out her phone and took pictures out of it.

“It looks so good!”

The clicking sound of her phone’s camera continued. Seriously, how many pictures did she want to take? After a while, she put her phone down with a satisfied look and began to eat the parfait with a spoon.

“Tasty~”

“You ate lunch before coming here, didn’t you? You’ll get fat if you eat too much.”

“I have a separate stomach for sweets! Besides, I’ll burn the calories at my club activities, so I’ll be fine!”

“Well, I can see you burning a lot of calories running under that kind of heat…”

“Today’s heat is just abnormal, though. I wonder if tomorrow will be this hot too?”

“You really are used to this by now, huh?”

They didn’t have their club activities today, but normally the track club would practice every day during the summer break. 

“I’m not. I almost got a heat stroke the other day.”

“Are you okay? Practicing outside sounds more dangerous after hearing you say that.”

“I mean, it isn’t like practicing inside the gym is any better. They said it feels just the same.”

By the way, her skin looked darker than the last time I saw her.

Looking closely, I could see a tan line on her arm.

“What? Stop staring at me.”

“I’m just trying to appreciate your tan.”

“Ugh… I’m wearing sunscreen, but the sun is still too strong…”

Hina sighed.

When we were talking like that, my phone shook.

It was a RINE from Shiina.

[We’re going to the pool tomorrow, right?]

Ah, she remembered about it, it seemed. Unlike me.

[I don’t have a swimsuit and I don’t know what to do…]

That was the thing she sent me.

In short, she wanted me to help her pick a swimsuit for her.

I waited for her to send another text, but that was all of it.

As usual, a woman of few words.

Well, since we were at it, might as well.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hina, can I call Shiina here?”

When I asked, Hina blinked her eyes and asked me back,

“…Why?”

“That girl is having trouble choosing a swimsuit for herself.”

I showed her Shiina’s RINE message.

“Hahaha! Sure! Call her here.”

Since Hina gave her permission, I called Shiina here.