Venomous Tongue Chapter 40

Title: The Real You

The two defective public moral officers, Sakaki Sui and Hiwa Arina, walked around the school while eating.

The crepe was extremely cheap, being only 100 yen, but it tasted much better than its price suggested. As we walked around the school, I noticed that the festival appeared to be mainly focused on food. There were crepes, cakes, yakisoba, takoyaki, cafes, and food stalls. They were cheap too. It didn’t look like they were trying to make a profit.

So I thought it was a great festival for people who like to eat.

“Where is big brother horse?”

I was suddenly approached by an elementary kid.

“Ah, a horse. A horse, huh? Was he wearing a horse mask?”

“Mm.”

Makoto seemed to be getting famous. How horrible, stealing the heart of an innocent kid like that. And on top of that, there was a picture of Makoto on a poster of a coffee shop.

Makoto was shown everywhere and it got annoying. Kinda like a meme. A Makoto meme. Cultural information was being transmitted through the horse mask as a medium.

“Do you want to go see this horse?”

Arina spoke politely. Her tone of voice was so different from the one she uses when talking to me. I had no idea why it was different. If you can speak in a beautiful voice like that, why not do that all the time? I’ll record your voice and post it on a video site. Then I can heal people all over the world. And then I can make a butt load of money with the ads. For the record, I’m not a money worshipper.

The child nodded.

“Then let’s go.”

Eh? You’re really going?

As if reading my mind, Arina pulled on my ear and whispered,

“——Follow.”

To be frank, my balls shrank.

For one such as I, who loves wholesomeness, obscenity is an evil. But for this scene, it’s a necessary evil. They shrank with a whoosh.

And as such, I became a servant and took the lead in escorting her to year 2 class 2.

Recently, I’ve noticed that Arina is extremely blunt with people her age.

She has a certain amount of respect for seniors, and the same goes for strangers as well. The people she gives the hardest time are those in her age group and some of her juniors. No, it’s more like anyone who’s a student that Arina tends to be blunt with.

Just because I understood it doesn’t mean it changes anything. But it is information that could help us analyze her psychological state. I think that Akakusa-sensei could give us an answer. Akakusa-sensei is one of the people who know about Arina’s two personalities.

As it happened, I also know about her dual personalities. The Arina in front of me is the Hiwa Arina which emerged a few years ago.

Akakusa-sensei asked me to fix up her tone and attitude. To put it a different way, “I want you to bring back Arina’s original personality.” Retracting current Arina and bringing back base Arina. But I don’t know if this is right.

An issue of good and evil.

Does her base personality want to regain control?
Does her base personality want to disappear?
Did her base personality wish for her current personality?
What does her base personality want to do?
Does her current personality want to paint over her base personality?
Does her current personality want to bully her base personality?
Does her current personality want to stay?
What does her base personality want to do?

Are the two personalities in conflict?

So close, yet unknown all the same. So close, yet so far.

I know Arina better than anyone else in this school. I can certainly be proud of that. But underneath her surface, everything was unknown.

After all, who is she?

I called Makoto as we arrive at our class.

“Here’s your fan.”

Makoto still wore his horse mask, aloha shirt, and shorts. A toy hatchet was now in his right hand. His entire character was becoming blurry. He has a tendency to confuse different cultures with each other.

“Yah yah! Welcome to the cosplay coffee shop!”

Makoto welcomed us with open arms. He seemed to be enjoying himself quite a bit. The classroom was filled to the brim with cosplayers. Niwatari Tsuru’s one-piece military uniform was especially conspicuous. It was a Western-style military uniform with blood red and jet black accents. It looked so good on her I couldn’t help but let out an “Ooh.”

Hearing me, Tsuru came over.

“Oh, it’s Sui. Ah, Arina-san! I’m going to see the fashion show! I’ll be there for sure!”

“E-ehh. Thank you.”

“Fashion show, huh~?”

“Couldn’t really care about Sui though.”

“Ehh. What if I’m dead?”

I apologize.

As I was getting depressed, I felt a gaze from the corner of the classroom.

The person I saw was Mimori Ruka.

I remembered. Mimori Ruka had asked me to do something for her.

Ruka was in love with Makoto. I haven’t heard the specifics, but the fact was that she was in love.

I was supposed to bring Makoto closer to her, but I completely forgot.

Ruka wore a kimono, giving her a feminine Japanese look. She had an old-fashioned air to her, so it fit perfectly.

She seemed to say “Come here” with her eyes, so I casually went over there.

“Sup.”

“Sui, have you forgotten?”

“It’ll be fine. Just leave it to me. I’ll make sure Makoto sees Ruka’s feminine side.”

“Hey, you do not have to be so dramatic.”

I called out to Makoto.

“Hey, horse. Miss Japan^[1] is tired. Take care of her.”

“Roger that! Kimono lady, please come this way!”

The horseman called over to the kimono woman, who blushed and walked over. She protested by whispering, “How sudden…!” even though she looked happy. Was this the so-called tsundere trait? There wasn’t much of it though.

When Makoto took her by the hand, Ruka held up her thumb to signal “good sign”. I knew she was a tsundere.

---

A few minutes had passed after we left the classroom.

Arina kept fidgeting. If I were to ask her, “Do you need to pee?” she would 100% kill me. And then blow up my grave.

A few minutes later, she was still acting a bit off, so I opened my mouth.

“Why are you so fidgety?”

“I-I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You’re fidgeting a bunch.”

“No, I’m not, cockroach egg.”

“If you need anything, feel free to tell me. I’m a generous person.”

“—show.”

“Wut?”

“…I s-said… it’s the f-fashion show…!”

“Ah, so that’s what it was. Go on! Show off!”

Arina gnashed her teeth at me.

Why are you grinding your teeth at me?

Arina looked back and glared at me.

“Don’t ever come to it.”

“No problem/ I’ll keep the school safe. Stretch your wings out to your heart’s content.”

“I-I’m surprised you’re so supportive.”

“We have a friendly relationship, ya know. I’ll at least support you.”

“That’s gross.”

“It’s a relief to hear you say that.”

“Then, I’m off.”

“Okay.”

Well, I was, of course, going to secretly attend. I couldn’t wait to see the surprise on her face.

Without hesitation, I took off my armband and stuffed it into my pocket.

“Let’s do this.”

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Notes:

[1] This was originally “nihon bijin-san” which comes out to be something like “Miss Japanese beauty” but that felt pretty awkward

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