The Irregular at Magic High

Chapter 19

"...This is the Public Moral Committee HQ, right?" 

That was Mayumi's first question after descending the stairs. "That was quite the unexpected greeting." 

"What, this is all because of you, Mari. No matter how many times Rinchan reminds you or how much A-chan begs you, you still haven't cleaned up the place." 

"I object to your hurtful and inaccurate description of the situation, Mayumi! It's not that I don't want to clean up, but that I haven't started yet!" 

"As a woman, you should pay more attention to this." Mayumi narrowed her eyes as she squinted at Mari, who hurriedly turned around. "It's not like I don't want to... Ah, that." 

Upon seeing Tatsuya busily examining a terminal's internal condition after removing the protective cover, Mayumi displayed an understanding expression as she nodded.

"So it's because he's been put to good use already." 

"Meh, just so." Mari's back was still facing Mayumi as she replied, just as Tatsuya closed the protective cover and turned around. 

"Chief, the inspections are complete. The damaged parts have already been replaced. There should be no more problems." 

"Good work." Mari nodded quickly, but maybe he was reading too much into it, because

Tatsuya thought he could see sweat beads on Mari's temple. Cold sweat. "Eh... So you address Mari as Chief, which means we have successfully recruited you." 

"I thought I never had the right to refuse in the first place..." 

Tatsuya didn't even look at Mayumi's teasing expression, and deadpanned his response. Mayumi looked like she disapproved of Tatsuya's attitude. She placed one hand on her hips, raised the other forefinger, directing her most displeased gaze towards him as she was about to unleash her most exaggerated attitude to voice her objection. 

"Tatsuya-kun, isn't your response to your older sister simply too rude?" ...In short, the way Tatsuya framed his response was because he didn't have an older sister. If he admitted this aloud, Tatsuya felt that the situation would only grow worse, so he did not verbalize it.

 No matter where it started or where it ended, it was so archetypal that no real response was possible. If anything, Mayumi's attitude towards him was overly casual, Tatsuya thought to himself. He had entered this type of situation with similar impressions in the past, and managed to sidestep the issue every time. This time however, Tatsuya somehow felt that he was unable to do so. 

"President, just in case, I want to clarify one thing with you." 

"Hm, what is it?" 

"We met for the first time just before the enrollment ceremony, right?" It goes without saying that meeting for the first time might constitute an overly familiar attitude, not to mention all the additional meanings behind those words, as Mayumi's eyes widened upon hearing them. However, they quickly reverted to their normal size and narrowed even more, to the point that her expression could only be described as "wicked". Tatsuya finally realized what a terrible move he made. Just before, Mari had a very similar facial expression, now that Tatsuya thought about it. So, this must be what people mean by birds of a feather flock together, Tatsuya thought as he wished he could escape reality.

"Is this how it is... Ho ho ho ho ho." Tiny devil would be a perfectly appropriate description for that smiling face. "Tatsuya-kun thinks that we've met before, right? And the day of the enrollment ceremony must be our fateful reunion!" 

"No, wait, President?" Exactly why were the tensions rising so quickly?. "A long time ago we might have met once, then thrust apart by cruel fate, only to be united by destiny once more!"