Copyright
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Hajime Kamoshida
Translation by Andrew Cunningham
Cover art by Keji Mizoguchi
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
SEISHUN BUTA YARO WA BUNNY GIRL SENPAI NO YUME WO MINAI Vol. 1
©Hajime Kamoshida 2014
Edited by Dengeki Bunko
First published in Japan in 2014 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo.
English translation © 2020 by Yen Press, LLC
Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kamoshida, Hajime, 1978– author. | Mizoguchi, Keji, illustrator.
Title: Rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai / Hajime Kamoshida ; illustration by Keji Mizoguchi.
Other titles: Seishun buta yarō. English
Description: New York, NY : Yen On, 2020. | Contents: v. 1. Rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai
Identifiers: LCCN 2020004455 | ISBN 9781975399351 (v. 1 ; trade paperback)
Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.K218 Ras 2020 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004455
ISBNs: 978-1-9753-9935-1 (paperback)
978-1-9753-1253-4 (ebook)
E3-20200407-JV-NF-ORI
“We should kiss.”
She was always teasing me like that. But not long after she said those words, she disappeared.
You could say this is just a typical love story. Me. A girl. Girls. That’s all there is to it, really.
1
One day, Sakuta Azusagawa met a wild bunny girl.
It was the last day of Golden Week.
A brisk twenty-minute bike ride brought him from his apartment to Shonandai Station, where the Odakyu Enoshima Line, the Soutetsu Izumino Line, and the Yokohama Municipal Subway intersected. The station was surrounded by a sleepy suburb with few buildings of any real height.
Keeping the station on his left, Sakuta made a right at the light. From there, it was only another minute to his destination—the library.
The bike rack was only half-full, so he parked and headed inside.
Sakuta came here a lot, but the distinctive hush inside always put him slightly on edge. His body tensed up a bit as he stepped inside.
It was the largest library in the area and was always pretty busy. Just past the entrance was a stand full of magazines and newspapers. Sakuta spotted a familiar older gentleman scowling at a sports paper. His favorite team must have lost.
As he passed the lending counter, a row of study desks came into view, almost all occupied. High school students, college students, even grown-ups with laptops.
Sakuta barely glanced at them. He headed for the shelves filled with hardback copies of modern novels. His eyes traced the spines arranged in alphabetical order, scanning the section of books that started with yu. His search forced him to look down. He was five foot eight, and even the tallest shelves only came to waist height.
He soon found the book his little sister had asked for. The author’s name was Kanna Yuigahama. It was called The Prince Gave Me a Poisoned Apple. If he remembered correctly, this book had come out something like four or five years ago, but his sister had enjoyed one of the author’s other books and was determined to read through the rest of her works.
Sakuta reached for the somewhat tattered spine, pulling the book off the shelf.
Looking back up, he intended to head straight for the lending desk—but then he caught sight of her.
A bunny girl, standing there between the bookshelves.
“……”
He blinked several times. Apparently, he wasn’t seeing things. She was clearly real.
Glossy black high heels on her feet. Long legs in black stockings sheer enough that he could make out the color of her skin beneath. Above that, a black leotard that emphasized her figure—slim but curvy—and created a noticeable, if not especially dramatic, valley up top.
White cuffs provided a bold accent at her wrists, and she wore a black butterfly tie at her throat.
Without the heels, she was probably five foot five. Strong features plus a bored expression gave her a mature charm and ennui he found very attractive.
At first, Sakuta assumed someone must be filming this. He checked around but couldn’t see a TV crew anywhere. She was here by herself. Lost and alone. Incredible. A genuine wild bunny girl.
Naturally, she stood out like a sore thumb in the library on a regular afternoon. Totally out of place… In fact, Sakuta could only come up with a few places that might be considered a bunny girl’s natural habitat. Vegas casinos or shops of ill repute, perhaps? Either way, bunny girls definitely didn’t inhabit the local public library.
Surprisingly, that wasn’t even the most shocking thing going on here.
This girl was wearing the most attention-grabbing outfit imaginable, yet no one was looking at her.
“What the…?” he said aloud.
A nearby librarian shot him a glare that clearly said, “Shh!” Though he respectfully bobbed his head in response, he couldn’t help but think he wasn’t the one most deserving of reproach.
But the terrible truth was already sinking in.
Nobody cared about the bunny girl. They paid her no attention, raised no fuss, and did not even seem to notice she was there.
Ordinarily, if a girl in this stimulating bunny outfit walked past, even that student wrestling with the Six Codes of Japan’s legal system would have glanced up. The old man with the sports paper would have pretended to keep reading while stealing glances. And the librarian would have come over and politely suggested a change of attire.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
It was like she was a ghost only Sakuta could see.
He felt a bead of sweat run down his spine.
As he watched in horror, the bunny girl took a volume from one of the shelves and headed for the study corner in back.
On the way, she leaned in, staring right at a college girl’s face—and stuck out her tongue. Then, she put her hands between a businessman and his tablet, waving it up and down as if verifying he couldn’t see her. When neither of them reacted, she smiled, seemingly satisfied.
She then took a seat at the v
ery back.
There was a college guy buried in research across from her. He never noticed her. She noticed the front of her leotard starting to sag and gave it a quick tug back in place, but still, the college guy failed to react at all. Even though he was looking right at her.
After a while, the student finished his research and got ready to go, as if absolutely nothing was out of the ordinary. Then he left—again, like nothing at all unusual had taken place. He didn’t even try to glance down at her cleavage as he passed.
“……”
Sakuta hesitated for a moment but then sat down in the seat the college guy had vacated.
He stared directly at the bunny girl across from him, examining the soft curve of her bare shoulders. They moved faintly with each breath she took, a weirdly compelling sight here in the library, symbol of everything serious and dedicated. Sakuta felt like he was losing his mind. Maybe he already had.
After a few minutes, she glanced up from her book, and their eyes met.
“……”
“……”
Both of them blinked twice.
Her lips parted first.
“What a shock,” she said. There was an impish flair to her voice. “You can still see me.”
That made it sound like nobody else could.
But to Sakuta’s ears, these words rang true. At that very moment, even as outlandish as her presence was, there still didn’t seem to be a single other person who had noticed she was there.
“Well, then.”
She closed her book and stood up.
That should have been the end of it. He could have reduced the entire event to a funny anecdote to tell his friends later. But Sakuta couldn’t let it go that easily.
Because he knew who she was.
She went to his school, Minegahara High. A third-year student, a year ahead of him—his senpai. He even knew her name. Her full name.
Mai Sakurajima.
That was the identity of the bunny girl.
“Um.”
Just before her bare back vanished into the shelves, he called after her.
Mai stopped and shot him a questioning look over her shoulder.
“You’re Sakurajima, right?” he asked, careful to keep his voice low. “From third year?”
“……”
A flicker of surprise crossed her face. “If you know that, then you probably go to Minegahara?”
She sat back down, looking him over.
“Sakuta Azusagawa, Class 2-1. The same Azusagawa as the highway rest area chain. Saku is bloom, and ta comes from taro.”
“I’m Mai Sakurajima. Mai from Mai Sakurajima and Sakurajima from Mai Sakurajima. Mai Sakurajima.”
“Yeah, I know. You’re famous.”
“Right.”
She seemed to lose interest. Resting one cheek on her hand, her gaze drifted to the window nearby. She was leaning forward just enough to emphasize her cleavage. Sakuta’s eyes were dragged to it. A sight to behold.
“Sakuta Azusagawa.”
“Yes.”
“Let me offer you a warning.”
“A warning?”
“Forget what you saw today.”
He opened his mouth, but before anything could emerge, she spoke again.
“If you tell anyone about this, they’ll think you’re crazy, and you’ll be forced to spend the rest of your life labeled a lunatic.”
That was a fair warning.
“Also, never speak to me again.”
“……”
“Say yes if you understand.”
“……”
When he said nothing, Mai looked annoyed. But this soon faded, replaced with the ennui from before. She stood up, put the book back on the shelf, and headed for the entrance.
Not one person she passed paid Mai any attention. Even as she sailed past the lending desk, the librarians just kept working in silence. Only Sakuta was left unable to tear his eyes off that pair of lovely stocking-clad legs.
Once she was completely out of sight, Sakuta slumped on his desk.
“Forget?” he muttered. “How can you forget that outfit?”
Bare skin from the open shoulders down to her chest. When she’d leaned on her elbow, deepening the valley. The pleasant smell lingering in his nostrils. Her soft voice, just loud enough that only Sakuta could hear. Those clear eyes, looking straight into his. Every part of that was hitting Sakuta’s erogenous zones and getting him very worked up.
He was afraid if he stood up, people around him would notice.
It seemed he’d be stuck at this desk awhile.
He had a lot he wanted to ask Mai. But he was forced to save those questions for another day.
2
The next morning, Sakuta awoke from a strange dream. He mostly remembered being crushed beneath a pile of bunnies.
“Take a hint! Those were supposed to be bunny girls!” he grumbled as he tried to sit up. “Mm?”
But this didn’t go as planned. There was a significant weight on his left shoulder, pinning him to the bed.
He pulled the covers back and discovered the cause.
There was a girl in pajamas curled up next to him, her arms wrapped around his left arm. Sleeping peacefully. Pulling the covers back must have made her cold, because she cuddled up even closer to him.
This was his sister, Kaede. She would be fifteen this year.
“Wake up, Kaede. It’s morning.”
“But it’s so cold…”
She didn’t seem like she was moving, so he picked her up and got out of bed.
“Damn, you’re heavy!”
Kaede was five foot four, rather tall for her age, and she’d been growing rapidly lately. The heft in his arms made it very clear she was no longer a little girl.
“Half my weight is made up of my feelings for you!” she protested.
“Do you even hear yourself? I hope the other half is medicine for the headache you just gave me. Also, if you’re awake, get up already.”
“Ugh.”
Grumbling, she let him put her down. Her face had really matured a lot over the last year, and there was a serious gulf opening up between the way she looked and the way she acted. What would have been a totally normal level of physical contact for siblings a year ago was definitely making Sakuta uncomfortable now.
“It’s really time you stopped crawling into bed with me.”
Probably also high time she stopped wearing hooded pajamas that looked like a panda.
“I came to wake you up, but you wouldn’t get up, so it’s really your fault.”
That sulky face made her look younger than she was.
“Fine, but you’re still too old to be doing stuff like that anymore.”
“Oh? Am I getting you all hot and bothered?”
“Sisters don’t work like that.”
He rapped her forehead lightly and left the room.
“Ah! Wait for me!”
After he made breakfast for both of them, they ate together. Sakuta finished first and got ready for school.
“Take care!” Kaede said. She saw him off with a smile, but he left the house alone.
He started yawning before he even made it out of the apartment complex. The day before had been far too stimulating, and he’d had a lot of trouble drifting off. Waking from a weird dream was never a good way to start the day.
Yawning again, he made his way through the residential streets. There was a single bridge he had to cross on the way. As he neared the station, the buildings around him grew taller. It grew more crowded, too—everyone was heading the same way he was.
He eventually reached the main road, waited for the light, and crossed at the crosswalk. As he passed business hotels and consumer electronics shops, the train station finally came into view.
All in all, the walk took about ten minutes.
His destination was Fujisawa Station, located in the heart of Fujisawa, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture. Clumps of students and office workers on the way to
school or work streamed by.
On the station’s first floor were the Odakyu Lines. Incoming trains bound for Shinjuku and trains stopping here to head back toward Katase-Enoshima. On the second floor were gates for the JR Tokaido and Shonan–Shinjuku Lines.
Sakuta joined the throngs headed up the stairs but turned away from the JR gates.
He went down a thirty-yard connecting passage that led to the Odakyu Department Store. Not that he was planning to go shopping. This early, the store was still closed. He turned left at the shuttered doors, into the other Fujisawa Station.
The Enoshima Electric Railway. Enoden for short—den being the first sound in the Japanese word for electric railway. It was a single-track railway that stopped at thirteen stations on the way to Kamakura—about a thirty-minute ride.
Sakuta flashed his commuter pass and was through the gates just as the train pulled in. The train was green, with the window frames in cream—kind of a retro look. Trains on this line were short, only four cars long.
Sakuta walked down the length of the platform, entering the front car.
Short, medium, and tall, there were a lot of passengers in uniforms. The rest wore business suits. Before he moved here, Sakuta had assumed this line was for tourists, but plenty of locals used it for their daily commutes.
Sakuta grabbed a spot by the door.
As he did, someone spoke to him. “’Sup.”
The boy who joined him while stifling a yawn was quite handsome—if there were a rumor that he was repped by a famous male idol agency, it’d be very believable. He had sharp-edged features and, at a glance, could be somewhat intimidating, but the moment he smiled, that impression vanished, leaving only the face of a friendly child. This appeared to be a huge hit with all the girls.
His name was Yuuma Kunimi. A second-year student and a starter on the basketball team. And he had a girlfriend.
“Sigh…”
“That’s no way to greet someone.”
“That pleasant smile of yours is the last thing I need this early in the morning. Instant depression.”
“For real?”
“For real.”
They chatted about this and that. Eventually, the departure bell rang, and the doors closed.
The train heaved itself into motion, traveling at a speed so slow it always seemed like it must still be getting up to speed. Before it ever did, though, it began slowing on the approach to Ishigami Station.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Volume 1 Page 1