Chapter 63 Destiny's partner
Emi was traumatised by the incident with the girl and unconsciously kept her distance from Yuri’s class.
After all, fate - the law of cause and effect - is real, isn’t it? In a surprising turn of events, Emi is reunited with Yuri Fujiyoshi, the person who gave her a shock in her humdrum youth.
It’s autumn, half a year has already passed since the beginning of her youth, when she first encountered Yuri and the cherry blossoms were falling and coloring the azure sky. Emi’s first summer as a high school student was full of events, but she consumed it by watching anime and going out with her (same-sex) friends, so she decided to enjoy her youth to the fullest in autumn, and built an unseasonal campfire in her heart.
Autumn events may seem more subdued than those in the summer. However, there are a lot of events organised by the school.
Of course, this often includes athletic events such as gymnastics, which Emi is not very good at.
The first big event in autumn that an indoor person like Emi, who has a hobby of culture, can enjoy participating in is the cultural festival, the temple of youth.
It’s a fantastic time for crazy incidents and sweet romantic comedies, and above all, it’s the best place for cultural clubs to show off and perform. It’s a big event.
The manga club that Emi belongs to is no exception to this rule, and they spend their busy days until the day of the festival making the club magazine and preparing the exhibits.
After six months of getting used to the class, Emi wanted to participate in the preparations for the show and get to know her classmates better.
Because the club is so free, it’s full of ghosts and students who may or may not be in the club. The number of members of the club is rather large, but it was discovered during the preparation stage that there was a shortage of people, which was an unforeseen tragedy. If the student is clever enough, he or she will pretend not to know and run away. But Emi, who couldn’t refuse the wishes of her seniors who rubbed their heads on the floor. So she went along with the preparations with seniors until the end. She ended up taking on the role of a loser.
“Otomezaki Emi-chan, I’m really sorry! I really don’t want to miss Otoya’s band performance! I’ll be back as soon as I’m done, so can you hold onto the club magazine for me for a little while?”
“Oh, but …… I’m not very good at touting or peddling or anything like that. ……”
“It’s all right! I’ll buy up all the unsold ones as the manager’s responsibility! The money you save from your part-time job will eventually come back, but if you miss it this year, you’ll never get to see Otoya live in uniform again. -!”
It was only a short while ago that the head of the comic club, with his glasses, asked Emi to help him out with an unsold club magazine that was completely untouched.
Emi, dressed in a gothic Lolita vendor outfit, exhales a sigh in the corner of the corridor as she holds the club magazine for two.
Emi is disgusted with herself for playing a bad character.
If Emi was a more sociable and cheerful girl, she would be able to deal with the club magazine that her seniors thrust upon her before the band performance was over. They’re not sure how difficult that would be for the shy and quiet Emi. It seems that the inventory has doubled.
“This is not how I imagined the festival to be……”
Emi walks down the corridor, taking care not to disturb the people passing by. The usually cold, inorganic corridors are decorated with unusual wallpaper and decorations, creating a warm, happy atmosphere. Heat and energy are everywhere, and the room temperature seems a little higher than it should be.
Although almost intoxicated by the unusual atmosphere of the crowd of students and students from other schools, Emi finally managed to get out of the passage in front of the maid cafe, where the current JK is authentic - Emi doesn’t know what is authentic. Emi doesn’t know what it is, but she finally got out of the passage in front of the maid cafe.
Emi slapped her messy outfit back on and took out her hand mirror to comb out her messy fringes.
She opens the home screen to check the time, wondering how long it will be before the band finishes playing. The time is now on the desktop screen, where two furry cats are napping on top of each other, without any hint of geekiness.
Anyway, when it comes to a band performance at a school festival, it is inevitable that there will be encores, and it is unlikely that the performance will be finished on time.
Emi is not going to argue with that, though, because not going according to the program is one of the best parts of a school festival.
With these thoughts in mind. Emi half-turned around to see if she could find somewhere to take a break, and then she saw it. She blinked her eyes, to see if it’s real or not.
Her long, black hair, shining lustrously in the sunshine, bounced across Emi’s vision. It was as pure as ink - unadulterated and magnificent, tied in two by a ribbon of pure white ruffles and golden bells.
The soft black skirt and the whipped cream ruffles around her shoulders and breasts made Emi realize that she was a student at the school - a girl who wore a maid’s uniform to tout her services. She is a student of this school.
Emi just passed by a maid cafe a few minutes ago, and the design is slightly different from the apron dress she saw there. The maids of the high school girls, because of the shame hidden deep in their hearts, or because of the guidance of the public morals committee, the skirt length is long, and there is no flashy movement like the hem of the skirt rolled up.
Emi is sure it’s because they’re unwilling to work as maids because they’ve decided on something they don’t want to put on by majority vote or something.
The girl in front of Emi- well, She doesn’t need to express more words.
The girl Emi had been looking for since she met her in the cherry blossom season - Fujiyoshi Yuri - did not give dappen the sour atmosphere.
It’s as if she is truly enjoying wearing the maid’s uniform.
She is proud of herself for taking the form of a maid.
It’s hard to put into words, but there was an overwhelming sense of confidence emanating from the girl in front of Emi.
Emi is pushed back by a mysterious energy, but the unreal situation unfolding in front of her causes her to step on a tatara.
The girl of her dreams, Fujiyoshi Yuri, who she had perceived as unreachable and distant, was offering a copy of a book to the students passing through the corridors.
The book is simple compared to Emi’s club magazine, but it is bound with more than enough care for an individual to have made it. Of course, it would be wrong to even compare the quality of Emi and her friends’ club magazine, as it is bound by an outside company that collects the club’s funds.
There were a lot of things to be concerned about, but Emi scolded herself for being scared, and Emi stepped out again.
If Emi hesitates now, she might be interrupted again, like before.
Shaking her Gothic Lolita outfit, Emi walks up to Yuri. Noticing Emi’s approach, Yuri flipped her maid’s uniform and turned her body towards her.
She was wearing a lovely apron dress decorated with pure white frills and pink ribbons, and she was looking at Emi with a puzzled look on her face.
A sense of tension prevails, as if time has stopped, and a strange atmosphere is created between Yuri and Emi.
The only people who could sense this atmosphere were the two people who created it, Yuri and Emi.
The students around them are not paying attention to the confrontation between the high school maid and the gothic lolita JK, but are enjoying their own cultural festival life.
How long had it been since they had faced each other?
In reality, not much time has passed.
For Emi, though, the few tens of seconds between the moment they faced each other and the moment she took a full breath in and let it all out felt like hours.
“It’s now or never! It’s not that I don’t have a lot of time to think about what to say, but I’m sure I’ll be able to do it.”
“The seventh class, Fujiyoshi, is it?
“Yes, but……”
Perhaps not fully grasping the situation, the tone of voice that came out of Yuri’s mouth was not a husky male voice, but a cute anime voice.
Emi approaches her, but she doesn’t know how to connect with her.
This is another bad habit of Emi’s. She thinks that the conversations she has in her brain every day can be carried out in real life.
Her heart is racing and her breathing is ragged, but somehow she manages to keep it normal.
“I’d like a copy of that book, too. How much is it?”
She took her wallet out of her pocket and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.
This was Emi’s limit.
“……Oh, a customer!? I was surprised. You were staring at me with such intensity that I thought I had done something wrong!”
She is aware of what Emi usually does, and with a relieved look on her face, Yuri gives a soft smile and says, “Nihehe.”
Yuri unrolls a furoshiki (wrapping cloth) in Japanese shades that would not match her maid’s uniform by any stretch of the imagination, and pulls out a copy of a book from inside. It’s a thick book, reminiscent of the yellow telephone book sold by a certain weatherman, which she lifted with ease, carefully held back with both hands, and then presented to Emi with a flowery smile.
“Here you go, that’ll be two hundred yen.”
“Oh, thank you, …… It’s a lot cheaper than I thought.”
“Really? Well, it’s not like we’re thinking about profit or loss or anything. It’s just a school festival.”
She hugged her copy of the book, which was too thick to be called a copy, and folded her back.
“We’ve made so much for this day and it’s not selling at all!”
“So, is that so?”
However, even Emi’s club magazine has yet to sell a single copy, so she may not be in a position to speak for others.
At modern school festivals, doujinshi may not be in great demand.
“You know. It’s not like anyone is going to pay attention to a smelly homecoming club girl like me in a maid’s uniform doing promotional work. I’ve been asked to take pictures, but no one was interested in me.”
While saying that,Yuri rolled up the hem of her skirt.
In recent years, personal information has been leaked due to the rapid spread of social networking services and free phone apps among students, so it was supposed to be forbidden for individuals or groups to film or record the school grounds during the festival without permission from the school.
Did this classmate in a maid’s uniform let someone else, a complete stranger, take a picture of her? Her own image.
“Of course you refused to be filmed, didn’t you?”
“I was turned down for a photo shoot at a maid cafe there, so I was very keen to get a shot……”
With an embarrassed chuckle, Yuri squeezes and unravels the two knotted tassels.
Emi’s bad premonition came true, and her head was in her hands.
How could a high school girl be so low on consciousness?
“No, you can’t! I don’t care how hard you ask, it’s too easy for a girl to give up filming!”
“It’s all right, it’s all right. …… I’ll cover my eyes with my hand.”
“You’re making it look even worse!”
Emi’s shout draws a lot of attention and she covers her mouth with her hand.
“I’m sorry …… But please be careful next time. You’re a lovely girl, Fujiyoshi-san.”
“By the way, I’ve been wondering… How do you know my name?”
Yuri looks at Emi with a puzzled look on her face.
“Oh no! Because of my impatience, I seem to have made another unnecessary mistake.”
“uhh…a friend of mine from the club was talking about Fujiyoshi-san, so I just listened……”
“Club?”
“Yes, I belong to the manga research club. Here, if you like.”
In order to cover up Emi’s mistake, she handed Yuri a copy of the club magazine that she had been holding onto.
If she gives them away for free, the amount sold will be different from the actual number sold, but it doesn’t matter, because the remainder of the sales that were pushed to Emi will be paid out of the manager’s pocket money since he’s going to Otoya band play.
As Yuri flipped through the club magazine, Emi followed her curiosity and opened the phone book, or copybook, that she had purchased from Yuri.
“It is so thick. It makes me wonder how many people draw it.”
Emi was curious to see what kind of pictures high school students draw outside of club activities.
With this in mind, She put her finger on a page and opened it up.
“What the…?”
(Note: Get fujoshi’d)
Emi couldn’t help but make a strange noise at the unexpected sight that spread out in front of her.
A naked, handsome man was panting with a look of extreme pleasure on his face.
The background was almost completely white, and there was no sense of perspective on the page, but the bouncing sweat and distorted expression gave it a strange sexiness.
After a few moments of admiring the scene, Emi turned to the next page.
This time, a different handsome man shows the same pleasure-drenched face as before.
Emi was familiar with this level of sensuality, having been exposed to such manga under the influence of her brother.
Emi stared at the scene on the next page and, without saying a word, slammed the book shut, her face turning red.
Yuri looked at Emi, who was panicking because she couldn’t process the sight that came into her eyes, and Yuri shook her shoulders while hiding her face with the club magazine.
Eventually, she glimpsed her face through the edge of the magazine and ran her fingers over her mouth, smiling and relaxing the corners of her mouth.
“Ohh…? is this your first time reading it?”
“I-i am a fan of GL and NL. I’m just a little surprise”
(Note: NL(nonke love)=straight love, LGBT slang for “straight” in Japanese) (TQ to springlila)
It’s not like Emi hasn’t been exposed to any creative works that deal with affectionate expressions other than yuri and NL.
In the club, there are some seniors who say that roses are the best, and draw only roses, and there are also classmates who call themselves a hybrid of roses and NL, like Emi, who likes both yuri and NL.
Anyway, Emi is a member of a high school club. If a manuscript containing a clearly R18 description is found in the club room, it will immediately become a problem, and even if it is not, the unspoken understanding of the school’s manga research club is to avoid crossing dangerous bridges as much as possible, so manuscripts that explicitly depict genitals or liquids are basically not leaked at school.
Of course, the copy of the book that Yuri drew was sold with the permission of the school (although Emi doesn’t know how far the school went to check the book, as it was very thick). It was not explicitly sexual, but it was just a little too stimulating for Emi.
“Heeeee, I like yuri too. -I’m a bit of a self-absorbed narcissist, though.”
Emi giggles at Yuri’s joke.
Emi met her for the first time during the cherry blossom season, and she has been interested in her ever since.
Emi thought she was unreachable and distant. Emi doesn’t know why. It’s as if they’ve known each other for a long time, and they can talk normally.
A girl in a gothic Lolita outfit from the manga club clasps the hand of a girl in a maid’s outfit from the homecoming club.
The clamour of the crowd, the sound of footsteps in the crowd, all fall on deaf ears.
A false silence, devoid of disturbances, engulfs the two of them, and a world of their own is created.
If this were between a man and a woman, or between two people of the opposite sex, they might call it a fairy-tale encounter of destiny.
But for Emi, and of course for Yuri, it never crossed their mind that it would have been better if the person she was sharing this encounter with had been a boy.
There are people who say that the feeling of love has nothing to do with race or gender.
There are those who say that even if a person is in the heat of puberty, there can be a pure friendship between a man and a woman that does not involve lust.
In the same way, there is no need to assume that the person she is drawn to by fate is the opposite sex, the person she will spend the rest of her life with.
Even if the person she felt drawn to is same sex but there is no chance that they will ever be the one she commited to.
They will never equate this encounter with the many other encounters they have had in the past.
“You may already know this, but… I’m Fujiyoshi Yuri. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Emi Otomezaki. Ms. Fujiyoshi, I look forward to working with you.”
Now that Emi thinks about it, she probably had some special feelings for Yuri at this point.
She doesn’t know if it was so-called infatuation or love or something like that. It may have been pure affection, simply a fraternal love from a longing to be a friend.
In any case, it is an unmistakable fact that the existence of Yuri Fujiyoshi was strongly imprinted in Emi Otomezaki.
-Afterwards. Emi and Yuri walked around the school together, selling out Emi’s club magazine and Yuri’s personal magazine before the end of the day.
The two of them gradually deepen their friendship.
As fate would have it, they are placed in the same class when they change classes for the second year, and meet Sayaka Sadogashima, a quiet, quiet girl who loves books.
The three of them, including Sayaka, spend their days modestly, not trying to stand out unnecessarily, but enjoying their youth as much as anyone else.
Until that awful transfer incident that hit the whole class.
(Note: Otomezaki Emi background story is finish)
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