Autumn Festival ✽ Hopping Lunar Rabbits of the Moonlight | Rabbits and Horns - 4

[healingbonds]

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Minutes later


Hajime: The tea is ready~ ♪


Souma: Yes. Thank you. You serve tea quite beautifully.


Nazuna: Is this okay, Kuro-chin? Aren’t food and drink banned in the dojo?


Kuro: It’s fine. If you spill some tea, we can just clean it up. It’s what kids do.


Hajime: Ah... I-I’m sorry! Was I not allowed to?


Kuro: No, you’re fine—though it’s not recommended, either.

I was thirsty from training with Kanzaki, anyway, so this is perfect. Rules should be changed flexibly according to time and place, you know?


Souma: Look at that. “Ra*bits,” don’t you think Kiryu-dono is so manly ♪


Kuro: Why do you look so proud, Kanzaki?


Tomoya: Ahaha. When your senpai is cool, it makes us kohai happy.


Nazuna: ...I see. Sorry I’m not that cool, then.


Hajime: Nii~chan, you’re really cool... ♪


Kuro: Er~, ahem. I’m glad you all get along, but I’m gonna sort stuff out for now.

Nito. Tsukinaga gave you a ton of money for taking part in [Judgement], too?


Nazuna: Yeah. ...Did he give you money too, Kuro-chin? Leo-chin invited us both when we were chatting in class, after all~?


Kuro: Yeah. Tsukinaga, he gave me a whole safe as a reward, too. On my way home yesterday....

I was in a hurry because I was about to be late picking up my sister, so I only checked it later at home.

I thought my eyes were gonna pop out of my skull. I’ve never seen so much cash.


Nazuna: Ah, so you also got all that money just like that, Kuro-chin?


Kuro: Yup. I was all nervous when I checked it—it added up to exactly one million yen.


Hajime: One millio

....


Nazuna: Ah, sorry! Kuro-chin, can you avoid mentioning a specific sum of money? Hajime will go into shock.


Kuro: Y-yeah...?

Anyway, I thought it was some kinda mistake, so I tried to get in touch with Tsukinaga to confirm, but.

Even if I call, he won’t pick up his smartphone at all.

So I wound up spending the whole night thinking stuff over, and now I’m sleep deprived. Yaa... wn ♪


Souma: I see. I have never spoken to this Tsukinaga person, so I do not really understand, but why did he hand you such a great sum of money?


Kuro: Who knows? Tsukinaga was always unconventional, but....

I think he’s been a bit out of control ever since he returned from his long period of truancy.


Nazuna: Yeah, I’m worried.... I’m glad and relieved he’s back, but. A lot of things happened last year—nothing’s “the same as before.”


Kuro: ...Anyway. Nito and I received the exact same reward.

Which probably means it’s unlikely that he gave us all this money by some accident.

Tsukinaga had something in mind when he gave us a milli... a lot of money.

Even though all we’re doing is taking part in [Judgement]. In a poor country, there’d be guys willing to kill for that kind of money.


Souma: Hm. [Judgement.] ...It has been a while since I last heard that name. If I remember correctly, these were held quite frequently last year?

Are they holding one again?


Kuro: Yeah, looks like it. But [Judgement] is basically an internal conflict within Knights, so we’re not supposed to be too involved.

Geez. What the hell is Tsukinaga thinking.... Yeah, there’s no point in us gathering and putting our heads together without him. We need to interrogate the guy.


Nazuna: But we can’t seem to catch Leo-chin. So we’ve hit a dead end~?


Kuro: Well... he comes to school pretty often nowadays, so if we’re lucky, we’ll see him tomorrow in class.

More importantly, what we need to figure out now is how to deal with the money that we’ve been given.

I think anyone would assume we’ve gotten a bit too much money....

So we should probably return it all to Tsukinaga, and have him pay us the regular performance fee for a DreamFes.


Mitsuru: ....


Kuro: ...But Tenma, you’re dissatisfied with that, right?

That’s why you couldn’t agree with everyone who said, “this much money must be a mistake, let’s give it back to Tsukinaga”?


Mitsuru: Because.... We’re always short on money, and can’t stand on fancy stages. I was feeling sad about that.

Everyone else, all our senpai are doing amazing things on sparkling stages.

I thought, if we have this money, we can do the same thing. This is what we’ve always wanted.

I don’t care if it’s a mistake, or if you’ve been given too much money.

Is it really the right thing to be a “good boy” and return the activity funds that we finally got our hands on?

I can’t accept that at all!

...But. Taking the money and running around with it was still bad. I apologize.

I’m sorry. I got hot-headed and didn’t know what to do.


Tomoya: Mitsuru... I’m proud of you. You learned how to figure out what you did wrong, and apologize for it ♪


Mitsuru: Nn~? Tomo-chan, what are you to me? A father?


Nazuna: ...Alright. I understand what Mitsuru-chin wanted to say now. Thanks for sorting stuff out, Kuro-chin.


Kuro: No problem. I was panicking from getting a ton of money out of nowhere, too; I’m glad you guys could worry with me.


Souma: Hm. It is a difficult issue. But regardless of the situation, I believe the first thing you need to do is figure out what this Tsukinaga is thinking.

You can decide what to do with the money later. Even if you leave it alone, it will not melt away and disappear.


Kuro: ...You sure are calm, Kanzaki. I forgot you're a rich boy too; you must be used to seeing this much money.


Souma: No. I simply control myself, trying to keep my mind as serene as a polished mirror and still water. But I am still young, and cannot really act up to my ideals.

Nothing good will come from panic. I think you should solve your problems one by one, just like you always do.


Kuro: You’re right. ...Every once in a while you really teach me a lesson too, Kanzaki.

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