CH 66

Rather than a Rarity, More Like a Pervert

“That vice president looks a little like Kanau-kun, doesn’t he?”

Alice, who was walking next to me, muttered and then laughed.

“I don’t think they’re bad, those glasses.”

Alice looked at me and smiled softly.

I walk with Alice along the school route to get home in the sunset, the surroundings are tinged with orange.

“I’m annoyed because he looks like someone.” When she said that to Yurizono-san, she looked unhappy.

But now she looks happy.

Why is she happy? The vice president tried to confess her feelings to me.

He backed down this time, but he seems to be ready to try again.

I’m going to say no to her no matter how many times he confesses, but if I accept his confession, will she be okay with that?

Am I an idiot? What am I thinking? Alice’s thinking of me.

I think the vice president is a great person, serious and polite, but also has courage and charm.

The old Alice would have denied the vice president without question, wanting to monopolize me. I’m sure she would have complained about the vice president a lot.

But Alice today doesn’t reject the vice president out of hand, she’s thinking of me and trying to acknowledge him.

This is undeniable growth.

And yet I’m…

“Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

I couldn’t help but shiver at the scream that came from behind me.

Alice was also surprised and her eyes darted.

I turned around with Alice.

“Amaneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Yanomiya-san came running toward me, raising her voice and bloody-eyed.

“Amaneeeee! There’s a giant stag beetle! There’s a giant mulberry!”

Yanomiya-san, who is running as fast as she can, is shouting and waving her hands in the air in between her ragged breaths.

A giant mulberry? In a city like this?

She ran up to me with a hawk, put her hands on her knees, and repeatedly gasped for air.

She then looked up before she could even catch her breath, looked up at me with shining eyes, and spread her hands.

“It’s about two meters long! I asked him if it was a stag beetle and he said no, but it’s a stag beetle!”

“…?”

Two meters? A two-meter stag beetle? No, before that, if I asked the stag beetle a question, will it answer?

No, no, no, that’s not going to happen.

Yanomiya-san is not the kind of girl who tells lies.

“The stag beetle said, ‘You’re Minazuki Amane friend, Kuu-chan!’ When I asked him how he knew, he said that ‘Kuu-chan is popular in the insect world because she’s a kind girl!’”

Yanomiya-san waved her hands in the air and explained frantically.

Hoho, it’s a stag beetle that talks a lot.

The giant stag knows me and also knows Yanomiya-san’s nickname, Kuu-chan.

And the black hat with the giant stag beetle appliqué that Yanomiya-san is wearing.

I said to someone.

『A girl named Kuu-chan likes insects, especially stag beetles. So if there’s anything like a stag beetle badge, I’d like to buy it as a souvenir.』

I said something like that to the person, who listened to me in silence.

The next day, on my way back to my hometown, he gave me a black hat with a stag beetle appliqué and a pin badge with a beetle or stag beetle on it.

It’s made by a friend of mine, and he wants me to give it to Kuu-chan.

He said so.

“Amane! Look at this!”

Then Yanomiya-san turned on the spot and showed her back to me.

Yanomiya-san is carrying a deformed knapsack in the shape of a stag beetle. The knapsack also had a variety of deformed insect badges attached to it.

“‘Ku-chan is a good girl, so I’ll give you this!’ When I told him that I shouldn’t take things from strangers, he said ‘It’s okay because onii-chan is a stag, not a person!’  He said he had promised Amane that he would give it to me. So he gave it to me. When I thanked him, he said, ‘Kuu-chan is a good girl!’”

Yanomiya-san was overjoyed as she showed me her knapsack.

There was no doubt about it.

“O-Onee-chan, this is…”

Alice’s face twitches and she mutters.

Alice seems to have noticed. The identity of a two-meter stag beetle.

“H-Hey, Kuu-chan, where did that stag beetle go?”

I bent down and asked Yanomiya-san.

Yanomiya-san, who was showing me her knapsack, turned around and looked at me.

“I said, ‘Amane is back,’ and he said, ‘Thank you!’ and ran off! Stag beetles can fly, but he ran! It’s so fast! I chased after the stag beetle and found Amane!”

Yanomiya-san waved her hands in the air and frantically explained.

“I-I see…”

I nodded when I heard those words.

The giant stag was looking for me, and Yanomiya-san follows after it. And she found me.

So that means――.

“It’s nearby!”

I shouted and looked around.

Because Yanomiya-san, who was chasing a giant mulberry, got to me. It means that the giant stag beetle is already nearby.

As I predicted, there was a black object sticking out from behind a telephone pole.

“Ah! There it is!”

Yanomiya-san, who was looking around with me, spotted a black object sticking out from behind a telephone pole and raised her voice while pointing.

“Quack, quack, quack, it seems I’ve been spotted.”

A gigantic stag beetle emerged from behind the pole, laughing and giggling.

Rather than a giant stag beetle, it looked more like a monster in the shape of a stag beetle.

“You found out that onii-chan is a giant mulberry.”

The stag beetle monster muttered with a sigh and bent at the waist, perhaps trying to crouch down on the spot. The stag beetle, however, was unable to crouch down due to the outer skin covering its entire body and was shaking and trembling.

“Kuu-chan, giant stag beetles are rare. Among them, onii-chan is the world’s largest one. If anyone finds me, I will be captured for sure. That’s why I want you to keep it a secret.”

The stag beetle monster talked to Yanomiya-san while trembling from the waist down as if he had given up crouching.

“Yes! I get it! I’ll keep it a secret!”

Yanomiya-san, who had been showing the knapsack to the stag beetle monster, turned and looked up at the stag beetle monster and nodded broadly.

If people find him, he’ll certainly be captured, but it’s probably because it’s a pervert.

“Onii-chan is going to visit Amane’s house, will you go with me?”

“Yes! I’m going!”

The stag beetle monster proceeded to talk on its own.

No, well, I don’t mind.

But I didn’t expect Kanau-kun to come. Moreover, he wore a disguise that would make Yanomiya-san happy and even brought a souvenir.

He probably came because I called him and said I wanted to see him, and he went the trouble of making up a reason to deliver a souvenir to Yanomiya-san so that I wouldn’t mind.

I don’t know if he’s clever or clumsy.