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Summer Phantom – Part 03

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Translator: Kell

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“I’m marrying that man?!” Ruri, sitting with one knee up in her father’s study, shrieked.

Her father was silently tugging at his handlebar mustache like an elite soldier. Then suddenly he pulled out a folding fan from his pocket and slapped Ruri’s knee with it.

“Ouch!”

“A young woman shouldn’t be sitting like that. Have you no shame? Fix your posture!”

“No! I hate you!” Ruri objected instantly.

Taken aback, her father turned to the side. “Odd,” he whispered. “Kazuya would have immediately listened. I have no idea how to deal with this girl…”

“Did you say something?”

“Don’t be so grumpy. You’re ruining the pretty face you got from your mother.”

“…”

“Just calm down and listen. The man you met in the hallway is Mushanokouji. Don’t you remember him? He was Yasuhiro’s best friend in the military academy.”

Silence fell. Ruri’s father, the backbone of the Kujou family and a key personnel in the army, looked fearfully and saw his daughter pouting, wearing a scowl.

“Ruri? Miss Ruri? I can’t read her face either…”

Stressful events flashed rapidly through Ruri’s mind.

Back when she was younger, whenever she was playing house or studying with her adorable younger brother Kazuya, her brother Yasuhiro, who was ten years older than her, and his friends, would sometimes ruin the quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

When they were students, they would gather in her brother’s room night after night to drink and make merry, engage in heated debates about the future of the country, and play with Kazuya, who just happened to be walking down the corridor, lifting him up in the air and then dropping him, resulting in injuries. They would get drunk and sing, arms around each other’s shoulders, laughing at obscene stories. Ruri would often break out in painful rashes in the middle of the night.

One time one of his brother’s friends lifted her up in the air, rubbing her head, saying, “Is this your sister? So adorable!” and Ruri shouted, “I hate you!” which earned her an earful from her brother.

Once the memories subsided, Ruri felt dizzy.

“I will not marry a stranger who is ten years older than me.”

“He seemed eager, though.”

“What?!”

“Yasuhiro promised to give you to him if he doesn’t find a wife. He warned him that you were unruly, but he said he didn’t mind at all. Your brother wants to finalize things before the man changes his mind. You’re already seventeen. You’re getting on. It doesn’t matter to whom, just get married. I believe Yutaka said the same thing.”

Yutaka was her second eldest brother, a rather peculiar man with a large build whose hobby was inventing things. Right now he was in the middle of some kind of experiment using an electric generator in the back room; sometimes the sound of something exploding, the smell of burning flesh, and the sound of him coughing violently reached all the way to the study.

“F-Father.”

Ruri stood up and took a power stance. The sadness and anger she had bottled up inside made her black hair rise. Her father’s handlebar mustache quivered.

“A-Actually, I was asked today if I would be interested in becoming a teacher at the school,” Ruri said nervously. “They said a new age would mean new things to learn and teach.”

Her father sniffed audibly. “Women need not bother themselves with these things. I will tell the school myself that you’re not interested.”

Tears formed in Ruri’s eyes. “I won’t listen to brawny men who just marry someone without their consent!” Her voice was trembling from rage and sorrow.

Not wanting to show her tears, Ruri lifted up a stone bookend. Suddenly sorrow overpowered rage, and she threw the bookend, causing thick dictionaries to fall to the floor.

“Stop that, you rampaging maniac!” Her father snapped. “Ow!”

Ruri stormed out of the study.

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That night.

Ruri was at her desk, sobbing in frustration. Her father and brothers were in the large room in the middle of the samurai residence, having a drinking party with their guest Mushanokouji. It sounded like Ruri’s marriage was already settled; her family was telling the guest to take care of Ruri, asking him to discipline her well, and how the first step was the most important for women.

Ruri was shaking as she clutched a pen. She was writing a long letter to Kazuya at this very moment.

“Dear Kazuya. How are you? It’s me, your adorable sister. Get this. Father is so mean. And your brothers as well. How are they mean, you ask?”

The more she wrote, the more she became frustrated, and she started writing down every single detail.

When she shared how she was asked about becoming a teacher, she remembered that Kazuya was in Europe. If she were to become a teacher, she wanted to wear western clothing, so she made a shopping list.

“I want three blouses made of white cotton. With cute collars. And a checkered collar. Leather shoes, dark brown, with accessories on the tips. Socks with embroidery and a glass pen. And ink, of course. And, uh…”

Thinking about pretty things somehow calmed her down, which also reminded her about the letter that Kazuya sent. It mentioned that he had made a little friend. So she decided to send something in return for the stuff she wanted Kazuya to buy, a nice light-blue kimono that she used to wear when she was younger.

I think it’s in storage… There was also a pink obi I’m sure.

Ruri walked down the dark hallway and opened the sliding door to the storage room. She flicked on the miniature light bulb. Then, as she reached the top of the shelf and stood on her tiptoes, it suddenly turned dark.

A huge shadow was blocking the light from the lamp. A large man with a beard. It was Mushanokouji. His shadow loomed over Ruri, and she froze in fear.

Mushanokouji smiled at her. “Is this what you wanted?”

“I don’t need any help. I can get it myself.”

She tried to refuse his help, but his hand was already on the kimono.

“Thank you,” Ruri said bitterly.

“Don’t mention it!”

Mushanokouji turned to leave, but then stopped. His gaze went down to the kimono in Ruri’s hands.

“Miss Ruri,” he gasped. “That kimono…”

“Yes?”

“Uh, never mind. It’s nothing.”

Mushanokouji’s square, bearded face turned red for some reason, and he left the storage room in a hurry, plodding down the corridor.

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“The vase, Kujou! The vase!”

“Ow, ow, ow! Stop it, Victorique. You’re like the rampaging maniac around here. I can’t take it anymore!”

Back in Sauville, a kingdom in Western Europe, far away in a foreign land.

In the second-floor corridor of the empty boys’ dormitory at the majestic academy, Victorique, her rosy cheeks puffed out in anger, was kicking Kazuya’s shin with her tiny, enamel boots.

Kazuya jumped up and dashed into his room. Victorique, having decided that the cold corridor floor was where she belonged, did not try to enter Kazuya’s room, even for a moment, as if there was some kind of invisible barrier there.

“The vase,” Victorique muttered in a low, husky voice tinged with sadness. “I’m bored.”

Kazuya had taken refuge by his desk, rubbing his sore shin.

“It’s gonna show up after this,” he said.

“It better disappear right away.”

“It will, as soon as it appears. You’re such a handful, you know that? If my sister sends me more candy, you’re not getting any.”

Victorique’s eyes widened in surprise, and her glossy, cherry lips started quivering.

“I’m sorry,” Kazuya quickly added. “I didn’t mean that. I’ll give you some, so don’t give me that look. I call foul!” He sighed. “I’ll continue reading, then. That weekend, my sister and her schoolmates went to the biggest department store in the city.”

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