Chapter 14

"Say Yan-kun…"

Wu Yan almost choked to death when he heard Hinagiku.

Eyes still stuck on the book but his reading speed has clearly slowed down. He told her straight.

"You can call me Wu Yan, or simply Yan, just don't append a kun to the end. We chinese are like this, so if you do that it's going to sound so silly."

"Oh? Hmm, it seems so, I heard that Chinese likes to be referred to by their first name. Then I guess I will just call you Yan and you can call me simply as Hinagiku."

Letting go of her previous grief with him, she smiled at him. She just thought that he's surprisingly easy to get along with once one spends some time with him.

He nonchalantly nodded, the two hasn't realised it but in Japan, to call each other on first name basis is something only those very close to each other would do so. For instance, those who spend all their time together, childhood friends or couples to list just a few.

And here we have two people who just met for not longer than an hour and they're already on first name basis.

The two of them don't particularly mind it. He doesn't mind it because in his country, even rivals call each other like this. Meanwhile she's just being casual as usual completely not noticing this. Even in the original work when she first met Hayate, she called him Hayate-kun as well.

And through their conversations, time slowly ticked on. After one hour, he finally managed to finish the last book.

Going over the content inside his head once more, he nodded satisfyingly. He closed the book and stretched his back.

She's veritably shocked at this scene.

"You.. You finished?"

"Yep, finished! Even if I haven't finished, I won't read since one hour has already passed."

Completely losing track of time she awkwardly smiled. But it has only been a while, now she's really curious.

"You really finished all the books? And I mean all of them!"

What she hasn't lost track is that during this one hour, she has done nothing but talk with him, and he responded to her while reading. She didn't realize this before but now she felt that what he's saying is unfathomable.

Can one person really remember dozens of books with 2-3 cm thickness within an hour, while talking to another person? If it were you, would you?

"Damn right I remember all of them!"

He felt amused at her face which looks like she just saw a ghost. Sure he was talking with her during the study session just now but compa- wait, scratch that, no need for previous comparison. With Impeccable memory he only needs a glance to remember the text. Thus, he's not feeling any pressure at all.

"Don't lie to me, if you can't pass the test later, you're going to lose to me. Although I haven't thought of what to make you do."

She's feeling guilty at diverting his attention when he was reading, despite not doing it on purpose. Should he bring this up as an excuse she would have accepted it.

He kept insisting that he has accomplished the task so she started doubting him.

"I know you won't believe me, the book's right here, why don't you pick a few questions and shoot."

Pounding his chest, he looked completely confident.

Curling her lips, she picked a book up, picked questions randomly from a few pages. Her original nonchalant facial expression slowly turned into one of astonishment.

For 5 minutes, she kept changing the subject but he still shot her questions down like an ace.

She started feeling numb from his response.

Putting down the book she dejectedly dropped her head.

"It's my lost…"

"But the test hasn't started has it? Why admit defeat now?"

Feeling much schadenfreude, he felt refreshed from toying around with a 2D shoujo but more importantly it's because of the sweet favor he won from her.

While acting a little like a sore loser, she protested boisterously.

"You already memorized the whole thing, do we really need to guess what's the outcome of the test?"

"Oh? So now you believe I can pass the exam?"

"Yeah, I do, who would have known you're a genius, no, a monster, you managed to retain so many content within an hour. I really wonder what your brain is made out of."

Bitterly laughing he retorted.

"What's up with genius and monster, I just have a good memory, does this really warrant being called a genius?"

"Good memory? This isn't just good, it's super good, ridiculously good, world record breaking kind of good, is this still not monstrous?"

She just rolled her eyes at him, almost giving him heart arrest. Kaichou sama's charm cannot be underestimated…

At that moment, he just waved his hands to dismiss this subject.

"If you can bet you can pay, say it, what will you have me do?"

She stared at him, putting him on the spot.

Though he wants to make her do this and that, but he's sure if he said those things she will cut him down where he stands.

Laughing it off bitterly he changed the subject.

"That, I don't know yet, but if I made up my mind I will tell you."

She just tilted her head to the side and then waved her hands.

"Well, just take it as me owing you a favor, once you've thought something up, come find me."

"Sure sure…"

Shrugging his shoulders he just concurred.

"Then, let's go find a teacher to administer the entrance exam, with your abilities it should be a piece of cake."

"Yeah!"

He excitedly nodded, he's grown tired of school life. But not this time, in addition to the missions, this is the legendary Hakuo Academy, and this is a world within a 2D anime. In this noble academy, he can surely enjoy a wonderful lifestyle like no other….

He's already starting to psyche himself up.

Looking at the excited guy, she nodded with content.

"Let's go, I will bring you to a teacher, oh just so you know, she's my sister."

He went rigid as stone.

Oh fuck….

I forgot about her…

"What's the matter?"

Noticing a change in his face she questioned him.

He rolled his eyes and awkwardly responded.

"If it's the teacher at the gate you're talking about, I think I've already met her, so you don't have to introduce her to me."

She suddenly recalled it.

"Right, it's her turn to guard the gate today, so she should be there."

Probably because she saw how he's being odd, she further pursued him.

"Why? Is something wrong?"

Twitching his lips he just put on a fake smile.

"Hmm… how should I put it, because your sister has a personality like…. like a little bit eccentric. She came at me without giving me a chance to explain and she wouldn't listen, she kept pursuing me you see, so I…"

A sense of foreboding creeped up on her.

"What happened…?"

Sighing, he continued.

"I tied her up and just left her to rot!"

"…."

Facepalming she showed a fed up expression.

"Urgh… My sister is still the same…."

He remained speechless except for a few dry laughs.

...

"Zzzzz…"

At the gate, both of them are looking at the ground. He is trying to hold his composure with twitching lips while she's showing a '井' character on her temples, her veins are bulging signaling that she's very close to snapping.

On the ground, Yukijji's sleeping in the position when he left her last time. Map shoved into her mouth, tied up into a sushi roll. Except, her eyes were tightly shut and there's a snot bubble increasing and decreasing in size according to her breathes.

Although she has her eyes closed and was gagged. From her face, one can tell she's actually smiling…

This piece of… she's actually sleeping… and she's having quite a nice dream at the same time as well…

Hinagiku's '井' characters increased much more, and the veins started to pulsate. Inhaling deeply she tightened her fist.

Sensing a whoopass, he quickly stepped back to the fringe and blocked his ears. This is to avoid being dragged in by her upcoming beating.

"Oneeeee-ccchhhaaannn!!!"

"Baaammm!!!"

With a loud explosion, followed by another loud boom and a surpressed yelp, a bunch of noise kept echoing out from Hakuo's gate. It scared away the people who was planning on spectating.

He looked at this pitiful scene and drew a cross inside his heart.

God bless your soul, crazy sister….

Why draw a cross inside his heart and not using the hand? Nonsense, his hand is still blocking his ears…

After turning the place upside down, it was peaceful once more….

"Sis! When are you going to get your act together, please for the love of god change your character!"

Impatiently she plead of Yukiji who has bruises in the form of buns all over her head.

"But… someone tied me up… I tried calling for help with all my might. And it was so boring, so…I decided to take nap…."

Looking wronged she complained, if one were to ignore the bruises on her head perhaps one could feel sympathy for her.

"Who told you to chase people away without asking their purpose properly. You call that being a gate keeper?"

Resisting the urge to unleash her fury once more she can't help but get infuriated once more.

Sighing she helplessly told her.

"Sis, the guy was just here to apply for enrollment. What's more Hakuo has a very tight security, how would it be that easy to infiltrate? Except those that come targeting the students, there's really no good reason to infiltrate."

"Nobody knows for sure!"

She protested.

"If he used enrollment as an excuse to get into the school what then? Won't I still get my pay cut."

"That didn't mean you can just lash out without trying to talk it out…"

She roared back at her.

"I don't give a shit, as long as there's a risk it might affect my pay, I will end them!"

Her fury-o-meter spiked, she snapped at her.

"You better watch it!"

Her body jolted and her eyes started turning into circles.

She just breathed out and barked at her.

"Right now, this person is here to enroll, so start preparing the enrollment test, right now!"

She could only nod in a dumbfounded manner with her body still shaking. He wondered if she really did register what Hinagiku said.

Calming herself down she turned around and brought her sister towards him. Yukiji could only follow her dejectedly.

Looking at this scene where the usual role is reversed, he can't help but sigh for her sake.

It must have been tough on you, Hinagiku. With such a sister, feeling stressed is very normal!

(End of the Chapter)