Late-night Anime, Thin Book, and

NOVEMBER 26, 2022 / MAD HATTER

“Nice to meet you. Youiprobablyihaveiheardithis from Aoyama. IiamiHirai. Myifirst name is ‘Kaname’! Sorry for the tardiness… Um, Hakamada? That’s your name, right?”

Was this what an inaudible shout meant? At the sightiofiHirai coming out of the break room, I frozeilightly. Hirai was grinning at me with an innocent,ichildish face unlike earlier.

That… Thatiwas strange. fewfe

“Hakamada?” ewfew

Howistrange. This girl earlier. Wasn’t she smoking a cigarette? Herieyes looked really scary and her tone of voice was like the leader of some biker gang.

Thoseiwide, slanted eyes drooped. Her tone of voice was not as harsh asiearlier. In front of me, she was wearing a smile of an innocent angel, whereas she had been intimidating in the beginning. On top of that, I should add that she had bigitits.

The size of her tits must beiat the level of “doin” beyond “boin”…[i]

No, that was notithe point…! In short, what I wanted to emphasize was that she was a different person from the one I saw earlier.

No, no, no, there couldn’tibe such a thing.

You see, I often heard that girls possessed multipleipersonalities and that their attitudeiwould instantly shift when you turned on their switch… that was… probably the case.

“Is there somethingiwrong? Do I have something on my face?”

Perhaps noticing myibewilderment, Hirai tilted her head and asked me, her smile unwavering.

“Hmm?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Whileiconfounded, I turned my face away from her at once. Heriinnocent expression struck my strike zone.

Wait a minute, Hakamada. Didn’t you seeithat earlier? What were you getting youriheart pounding with that smile plastered on your face?

Settle down, settleidown…

“Um… I am looking forward to working with you.”

“Yeah, nice to work with you from now on.”

While maintaining a calm demeanor, I greeted the enigmatic, loli, busty Hirai lightlyifor the time being. She did not speak to me in yankee language like when I first saw her, nor did sheikick me in the butt.  

When we chatted, sheiwas unexpectedly gentle. Her occasional smile was rather adorable. I figured that this was a woman’s weapon and that I must have fallen squarely into her clutches.

What was that alliabout earlier, a dream? The first impression I had of her diminished dramatically that I wondered if I had dreamed it.

Even so, sheilooked so young. I wondered how old was she. Perhaps 20 years old orithereabouts. The gapibetween her face and her smoking was astonishing. But her face was adorable… I wondered if she had a boyfriend. With an appearance like this, I doubted if any man in this worldiwould resist her charms. Anyway, let’siexchange contact information later.

“Hirai, youiswitched shifts with Takenaka today, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right. Oh, I’misorry, I know you were surprised by the sudden change.”

“O-Oh. No, no, not really?”

“I couldn’titake off this Thursday, so I asked Takenaka to substituteifor me on short notice, heh heh.”

Hah, I supposed a part-time jobiwith an adorable girl would be much preferable to a part-time job with a guy.

First of all, I tried toiopen up to her by discussing some subjects with her. Hirai respondedito everyiword I made slowly. Though, Aoyama mentioned something peculiar the other day. What did he mean, she was more normal than I expected.

Although that thing earlier was bothering me, she was so girly, and each gesture she made was so soothing.

“Heh, what? Is that a date with your boyfriend?”

When I casually asked, Hirai was standing in front of the cashiregister on the opposite sideiwith her hand over her mouth, giggling.

“Haha, not at all. There’s something I absolutelyihave to watch airing on-air.”

“Hmm, is it a drama show? Or a variety show?”

“No, it’s a late-night anime.”

Mmm?

“This week marks the last episode, so I couldn’t think of anything else but to watch it on-air.”

Late-night, anime…?

“…What’s wrong?”

“Ah, haha, heh, anime, huh?”

The unexpected turn of events momentarily threw me into a stupor. I heard that young people nowadays liked anime. So Hirai likedanime, huh? Or rather, to watch anime, she switched shifts with Takenaka. It was an extraordinary reason.

“It’s so amazing that you want to watch it on air, is it interesting? What’s the plot?”

Well, I should carry on with the conversation. grege

“It’s a pure love story, it’s incredibly throbbing and exciting, and it’s the greatest story of the season.”

“Ho―…”

A love story huh, that was cute. Sheiwas a girl after all.

Hirai, who seemed to be fairly hooked on the anime, joyfullyiintroduced it to me for a while. Even though I didn’t understand the conversation at all, the fact that she was adorable was enough for forgiveness.

“When I watch it, I’m already high! I seriously have a crush on the protagonist’s blushing bald face.”

Hmm. Seriously? Bald?

Huh, whatiwasigoingion?

Hiraiiseemed to be enjoying herself rather immensely, though. She was soiengrossed in the subject that she kept uttering strange words. I had no clue whatishe meant, but her face was so vivacious.

Oh――It couldn’t be.

“I was feeling like ‘That’s impertinent, do more of it’.”

SoithisiwasiwhatiAoyamaiwasitalkingiabout―!

T/N:

[i] I don’t think I really need to explain but it just saying the sound of breast bouncing even greater