Sakuya: ......So, you're telling me to take
this to its room?
Kei: Yes... please.
A favor from Sakuya-san in my time of need.
Normally carrying around a heavy camera equipment case, Sakuya-san has more strength than a typical man.
Thinking back, even my mom reserved large scale room remodeling for times when Sakuya-san came over.
Sakuya: Well, okay, but this isn't much different from looking after a drunkard.
Kei: That's mean. Uzuki-san saved my life......
Sakuya: All the same, to run outta juice and collapse after running out into a hallway, with no regard for her personal limits, she's not much different from a stone-cold drunkard.
Sakuya: It's good enough that it happened in this hallway. But imagine if her juice lasted a bit longer and she collapsed in the road...
Kei: Wah, that would be trouble.
Sakuya: You think? If a high school girl is found collapsed on the street the day after news of a murder, just think what the poor, bewildered news delivery boys'd have to deal with.
Kei: ............
Sakuya: What's with that look?
Kei: The part where you show concern is missing.
Sakuya: That's not it at all. Hanging out a disgrace like that'll trouble her the most, after all - so...
Kneeling at her side, Sakuya-san slips a hand under her knees and her back, lifting her up like you might a princess.
Though they're both beauties, and the background probably fit for a painting, both prince and princess seem oddly out of character.
Sakuya: What's with the stare?
Kei: Umm, I was just thinking, I've never seen someone carried like a princess in real life.
Sakuya: ......You know, I'm perfectly fine with grabbing her by a hand, leg, or her neck and dragging her.
Kei: I'm sorry. I won't say it again.
It looks like they (or at least one of them) aren't too fond of being assigned the role of the prince and princess set. They don't get along, after all.
Sakuya: Phew, I'll at least spare her some woman's sympathy and refrain from dragging her by the legs. Since she's in a skirt, it would probably get quite ugly, anyway.
Kei: Please, just carry her like you are now.
Sakuya: Yes, yes, as you command, your highness. Though such labor be beneath thee, I leave the drawn sword in thy care.
Kei: ......I'm carrying Ito?
Sakuya: My hands are full, here. But we can't just leave that dangerous thing lying around forever, can we?
Kei: I suppose so, but...... (TN: In the period dramas she so likes to watch, a traditional samurai would despair the thought of anyone other than a sword smith touching their weapon.)
Sakuya: Sheath it and bring it.
Kei: Ah, okay, umm...... how should I do this?
As I lift the Ito no Tachi from its clattered position on the floor, the profoundly heavy weapon sends a faint chill up my spine.
With this sharpness and weight, if it slipped from my hand, it would probably take my leg with it - as I think that, I just can't take it anymore.
But, unable to go with that sentiment in this predicament, first I rearrange it on the floor, and keeping safety first and foremost in my mind, decide to set it in its sheath.
Unfortunately, I left a fingerprint by pinching the edge, so she'll probably get mad at me later, but in this state of nervousness, I just can't help it.
Somehow finishing my tampering, I scamper after Sakuya-san, already a distance up the hall, and hear her leak out a grumbling complaint as I take position to her side, behind her.
Sakuya: Bah, not that I have any place to say, but she's quite a bit heavier than she looks, you know.
Kei: Really?
Sakuya: Muscle's ten to twenty percent heavier than fat, after all.
Kei: It's that heavy!?
If I were about twenty percent heavier, that would make......
......An amount I can't really tell others about.
Yet, to speak of Uzuki-san's musculature, she can use this profoundly heavy Ito like a part of her body, so it's only natural.
But, thinking of Uzuki-san bulging with muscles. somehow I'm not sure I like the idea......
Continue...