Novel Bin Chapter 9
Welcome to Underground
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That evening, after narrowly escaping from world\'s darkness, Touka-chan is taken to Amanoiwato by Kaburagi-san. They walk down the few steps that connect the path between high-rises to the basement, and then Kaburagi-san opens the door with the CLOSED sign hanging on it, with Touka-chan remaining timidly behind her the whole time. Generally, middle-school girls don\'t usually enter closed, unknown shops in the middle of the night. Since it seems like a bad thing to do, Touka-chan may be experiencing feelings of guilt and anxiety. However, it seems that because Kaburagi-san is far too imposing a figure, Touka-chan obediently stays behind her and enters the shop. Touka-chan made a strained expression and seemed tense.
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I’m also nervous. To create the proper mood, I had dressed formally in a long-sleeved white dress shirt and black vest and had swept my hair back. Every day for 10 days I received special training from Kaburagi-san so I could greet these two beautiful ladies with a sour expression pasted on to my face. Well, I say greet, but really I just lifted my head a little at the sound of the doorbell from my position behind the counter and stopped polishing the wine glass that was in my hand.
According to Kaburagi-san, the shape of my face is "not bad" but that the thing; I don\'t have enough of a presence nor enough experience to be \'master of the bar\', but I guess it can\'t be helped. I\'ll have to compensate for it by being taciturn and having a bitter expression. Yes, I\'m the tight-lipped master of the bar that guards the entry point of the secret organization…!
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"Bar-master, I\'d like to introduce you. This is Hasumi Touka-chan, a potential ESP\'er. She hasn\'t decided to join the organization yet, but for now, I was hoping you could make something we can warm ourselves up with. We got caught in the rain, you see."
I silently nod, stop what I was doing, serve them hot coffee with milk and sugar on the side, then head to the back of the store. Pretending that I was listening to a wiretap, I eavesdropped on them with my psychokinesis while I was heating up the bath in the back.
Touka-chan put a lot of sugar and milk into her coffee, took a few sips, then breathed out a sigh. Kaburagi-san gives a small smile while elegantly holding her cup.
"I apologize for being rude before, you\'re actually a good person, aren\'t you? Does that person also, umm, can they also stop time?"
"No, the bar-master isn\'t an ESP\'er, he just manages and supplies the base. He knows about us though. I talked about this while we were in the car, but there are only two ESP\'ers, me and the boss… well, if Touka-chan joins us, there\'ll be three."
"Is it absolutely necessary for me to join your secret organization?"
Touka-chan asked in a mutter while her body shrunk and with both hands wrapped around her coffee cup. Hmm… well, somehow, it seems that she\'s not interested in joining. Kaburagi-san puts her arm around Touka-chan\'s shoulders and gently embraces her. While softly stroking her head, she says,
"If you really don\'t want to, you don\'t have to. The world\'s darkness only targets ESP\'ers, so if you want you can ask the boss to get rid of your ability and return to being an ordinary person. We will respect your choice, even if you choose not to fight."
*Umu*. Touka-chan is the kind of girl who will let out a sincere sigh as she eagerly watches the \'Nichiasa’1 mahou shoujo anime every week, so it\'ll be disappointing if she says that fighting is scary, as I think she will. It\'s a shame, but I don\'t want to force her. I should also give up on transplanting [Nenrikin] into her. Amaterasu is a \'white\' secret organization, after all.
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"I…"
Perhaps gaining a sense of relief from being warmed by Kaburagi-san\'s body temperature and being cuddled up together with her, Touka-chan stared at her coffee and hesitantly whispered without any self-confidence, then said a little louder,
"I want to help people. I want to be like a cool and cute magical girl. And, I want to be told *arigato*. Just that one word is plenty. However, I realized something. In order to help people, there must be people who are suffering. That means I wanted people to suffer. I, I, I wished for such a horrible, horrible thing…"
"Un…"
I get it. There\'s a mental conflict in this middle-school student\'s pure and innocent mind. Because she\'s not yet an adult, she not able to deal her troubles and find a solution. She\'s just an active middle-school girl experiencing adolescence, after all.
"I want to extinguish these ugly worldly desires, so I\'ve decided to carve a statue of Buddha while reciting sutras in order to attain enlightenment."
"Un…?"
I don\'t get it. This middle-school girl\'s (philosophy).
"I\'m different now, you know. Today, everything became clear. When Kaburagi-san approached me, I was really happy. I was happy even when you said that it was fine if I didn\'t fight. Surely any reason to help will do. It\'s definitely not wrong to help people. Besides,"
Touka-chan raised her face and looked directly at Kaburagi-san.
"if, as you say, the world\'s darkness is the embodiment of humanity\'s desires and hunger for power, as a Buddhist, I should put an end to that greed. I will fight."
Kaburagi-san suddenly tightly hugged Touka-chan after hearing her speak so decisively. I would\'ve also rushed out and hugged her if I wasn\'t playing the part of the strait-laced bartender. Isn\'t she an excellent child?! Is this Buddhism?! I love it! (My brain shut down).
However, my brain wasn\'t shut down for too long. I surveyed the situation and at the right time I started making my footsteps noisy, *katsu-katsu*, in order to alert them that I was returning to the front of the store.
"The bath is warm."
I say only that, and then I open the counter door and leave. I did it! I did it, Kaburagi-san! I was able to say it without hurting my throat! No, seriously, that was good. It\'s a short line, but it\'s hard for me to have such a harsh voice , and if I had hurt my throat or stumbled over my line, I don\'t know what I would\'ve done.
Kaburagi-san leads Touka-chan by the hand and quickly leaves the counter, making for the back of the store. My acting is far worse than Kaburagi-san\'s, who can easily walk around without blowing her cover. As she left, she stealthily gave me a wink, so I stealthily gave her a thumbs-up in return. I\'ve got a good feeling about this. I continue to shoot the \'home video\' for us to watch later.
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Amanoiwato has a changing room/bathroom behind the counter that\'s connected to my living space. They don\'t need to worry about being seen. Because of my previous agreement with Kaburagi-san, I\'m not allowed to peep on them changing clothes or in the bath, so I only listen in on them. I can hear the sound of clothes rustling as I strain to listen to them in the changing room.
"By the way, why do you dress like that?"
"Fufu, it\'s beautiful, right?"
"Oh, yes."
Kaburagi-san\'s voice is full of pride. One of the virtues of Kaburagi-san is actively boasting of her beauty.
"But Touka-chan is also pretty. I\'ve always wanted a cute little sister like Touka-chan."
"That sort of thing, I… eek!"
"You see, you have such pretty hair, you know. Hmm, it\'s a nice style too. But there\'s some room for improvement on your makeup and underwear choices."
Uh-oh? Seems like we\'ve started some \'girl talk\'. I\'ve feel like maybe I\'ve heard about women using bathing together as a way to deepen their friendship somewhere before? What was it called; Yuri? Kimashi2?
The sound of clothes rustling stops, after which comes the sound of footsteps, *peta-peta*, and the sound of water. It seems they\'ve entered the bathroom.
"But I don\'t have a good sense of style like you do. I also don\'t have enough courage to wear something as beautiful as what Kaburagi-san wears."
"You have cultivate things like a sense of style and courage so that they\'ll improve over time. Even I, when I was Touka-chan\'s age, was a potato-faced fatty, you know? I had to make myself cute and beautiful. Touka-chan can keep up with the challenge. If anyone laughs at you, I\'ll send them flying."
"Ok, but please be gentle, alright?"
*Ah~*, a budding relationship between a beautiful woman overflowing with confidence and a beautiful girl without any self-confidence. It\'s the best. Eavesdropping on something like that, I\'m the worst. But it\'s fine.
Currently, Kaburagi-san - Japan\'s foremost \'plastic surgery beauty\' - and Touka-chan - the beautiful Buddhist girl with childish underwear - are getting into the bath and \'flirting\' while naked.
"Kaburagi-san, do you have any songs you like? I have a favorite song that I sing when I take a bath every day."
"*He*, what kind of song is it?"
I promised not to peep into the bath. I promised, but they won\'t find out I was peeping if I keep it a secret. If I do, it doesn\'t matter if I peep or not. I can see a wonderful pink room with Touka-chan completely caught off-guard and forced into a yuri situation if I manipulate my psychokinesis a little bit. No, it\'s wrong to peep on middle-school girls. It\'s wrong, but… honestly, I\'m a little aroused3.
Hehe.
It\'s fine already, let\'s watch. Just a little bit…
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"Buddha\'s teachings \'Heart of the Prajna-Paramita Sutra4\'"
⋯⋯⋯.
sho- ken go on kai ku- do is-sai ku yaku.
Sha ri shi shiki fu I ku- ku- fu I shiki
shiki soku ze ku- ku- soku ze shiki.
Ju so- gyo- shiki yaku bu nyo ze.
Sha ri shi ze sho ho- ku- so-
Fu sho- fu metsu fu ku fu jo- fu zo- fu gen ze ko ku- chu-
Mu shiki mu ju so- gyo- shiki mu gen-ni bi zes-shin I
mu shiki sho- ko- mi soku ho- mu gen kai nai shi mu I shiki kai
mu mu myo- yaku mu mu myo- jin.
Nai shi mu ro- shi yaku mu ro- shi jin
mu ku shu metsu do- mu chi yaku mu toku I mu sho tok\'ko.
Bo dai sat-ta e han-nya ha ra mi ta ko
shim-mu kei ge mu kei ge ko mu u ku fu
on ri is-sai ten do- mu so- ku gyo- ne han.
San ze sho butsu e han-nya ha ra mi ta ko
Toku a noku ta ra sam-myaku sam-bo dai.
Ko chi han-nya ha ra mi ta ze dai shin shu ze dai myo- shu
ze mu jo- shu ze mu to- to- shu no- jo is-sai ku shin jitsu fu ko.
Ko setsu han-mya ha ra mi ta shu soku setsu shu watsu
Gya tei gya tei ha ra gya tei hara so- gya tei.
Bodhi sva-ha- ka han-nya shin gyo!
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I\'m in a Buddhist state of mind as I prepare the hot chocolate for after the bath.
Wow, and lust is quite a formidable enemy, you know?
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Footnotes:
1: A discontinued block of Sunday morning kids\' shows that went from 7am-9am. There are now only three shows; \'Pretty Cure\', \'Kamen Rider\', and \'Super Sentai\'. This page from TV Tropes is all I could find on it ⇒
2: Yuri is a genre that features girls in romantic (and often sexual) relationships with other girls. Kimashi is internet slang and shortened version of \'kimashita wa\', used when girls are being oddly intimate with each other. Origin of \'kimashita wa\' ⇒
3: Bad MC, entering loli-con (someone who has a fetish for young girls) territory. Remember, doing anything remotely sexual to/with an underaged person is a crime!
4: This is the same \'Heart Sutra\' as in the previous chapter. I\'m using the phonetic Japanese transcription I found on this website (which also has the English translation) ⇒
Here\'s your fanservice, you pervs