Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Novel 1

by Torako

I didn’t have the strength to search again, so I resigned myself to sitting on the bench. As I sat on the bench, I found a piece of paper.

  “I went off to the demon world. I’ll be back shortly.”

  I had seen that handwriting many times in our study group. It was Rikka’s. Going to the demon world? Seems like she went back to that haunted house again. I waited on the bench while drinking my tea.

  After twenty minutes had passed and there was no sign of her coming back, I began to worry.

  “That’s strange… Maybe I should call her cell phone…”

  I pulled out my cell phone and looked up her information. I gave her a call, but I got a “could not reach” message. I immediately tried again, but the same message rang in my ear.

  “My cell phone has reception, but I wonder if Rikka’s does….”

  The third call had the same results. I was starting to get really really worried now.

  Going to the demon world….where is that? Damn it, where did she go….

  Since I couldn’t reach her, I decided to call Isshiki. On the fifth ring he picked up.

  “Oh, hey man. It’s me. Sorry to bother you, but have you seen Rikka? She was here just a while ago…”

  “Takanashi-san went astray? Well, we haven’t seen her once since we left. Right guys?”

  I could hear the guys around him confirm that.

  “Looks like we haven’t seen her.”

  “Oh, sorry to bother you. If you see her, please call me. Thanks!”

  “Ah, got it! Will do.”

  As I hung up, I tried to gather myself. I was about to lose it. Ah, where did she go when she left this note?

  I was wandering around the bench thinking to myself when I heard a voice speak to me.

  “What’s wrong? You’re walking around strangely.”

  The person who saw me walking around was Nibutani.

  “Ah, Nibutani. Why are you by yourself?”

  “My friends went on the roller coaster, so I thought I’d take pictures. Look over there.”

  “That’s not a typical Japanese way of phrasing that, but I get what you’re saying.”

  As I gave my rebuttal, I looked where she was pointing. Sure enough, the coaster was starting to climb to its high point.

  “I thought I could get some good pictures from here. I’m not comfortable riding roller coasters, so I became the cameraman instead. But why are you alone? I thought you were with Takanashi-san.”

  “Well, Rikka left a little while ago and hasn’t returned…”

  “Hasn’t returned?”

  Nibutani had a puzzled look. I tried to think of a better way of explaining the situation to her, but I couldn’t think of one. I don’t want to think about it, but, but, it would be grave if she were kidnapped… I couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the whole situation.

  “She left behind this letter so I wasn’t worried at first but…. I can’t help being concerned…. So I was thinking about where she could have gone….”

  I showed Rikka’s note to Nibutani.

  “Seriously…. This has got to be… chuunibyou….”

  Her face changed drastically to hate. Of course she’d react like that…. While I was thinking I screwed up by showing Rikka’s note to her, Nibutani pulled out her cell phone and began talking in a different tone.

  “Oh, Chinatsu? Sorry. Something came up that I’ve got to take care of, so I can’t take any pictures. Yes, it’s just a little errand. I’ll be sure to cook some barbecue with you later. Yeah. Bye!”

  “Huh? What are you doing?”

  “What do you mean? Shouldn’t I help search?”

  I thought a miracle had occurred. I would search for Rikka with Nibutani? Sorry, I would search for the chuunibyou patient with the person who hates them? It sounds foolish.

  “You know, I am the class rep. Even if she never recovers, I won’t stop searching for her. That’d be foolish for me to even think about doing. You understand? Got it?”

  “Ah, Ahhh” Guess I had a strange look. Really, anyone who had heard that conversation would be as lost as I was.

  “You know, what you said earlier is still on my mind. Why do you hate chuunibyou Nibutani?”

  “I can’t answer that now.”

  Of course. Well, she could just hate them. It wasn’t nice for me to ask something strange when she agreed to help search for Rikka.

  “Sorry. You seem to have a strange hatred for them, so it was just on my mind. Thank you for helping. Now let’s go search!”

  After I said that, Nibutani appeared to be in thought. While playing with her bangs, she replied,

  “You know, let me ask you the opposite question. Why do you want to protect chuunibyou patients? Didn’t you want to die in agony?”

  As she was thinking, she added her own question to answer mine. Protect, huh? Well, I don’t think it’s amusing itself, but somehow I feel I want to protect Rikka. But I have no intentions to protect chuunibyou itself. It’s a really difficult concept to explain.

  “I have no plans to protect chuunibyou the disease, but that doesn’t mean I hate it. Sure I want the past me to die sometimes, but I also want to apologize to the people I inconvienced.”

  “Well, why do you spoil Takanashi-san then? You said to me previously that she should be cured quickly. She’s just running away from the real world into a delusional world. While I don’t know why or when she escaped, it’s got to be something like that. There’s no meaning to what she’s doing.”

  There’s no meaning. Those words stuck deep into my head.

  “While I don’t think I pamper Rikka…….maybe she does use it as an escape. From tomorrow onward, I’ll be serious towards her. I don’t know why she got into chuunibyou, but I do know she thinks she gained abilities. Well, maybe she thinks she recognized them later?”

  “…hmm”

  Nibutani sounded disinterested as she heard me talk.

  “…Is that so? You’re something if you think about chuunibyou like that. For me, thinking that way would be impossible. Abilities and such, I couldn’t do it… Ah…that Darkness T-shirt is quite interesting on the other hand.”

  “No it’s not! How did we move to a subject that wants to kill me via embarrassment?! And then, and then, how do you know about it?!”

  “It shows through your overshirt. You’ve been found out every time you wear it.”

  Seriously… She’s got to be lying… What a let down.

  “Look, you know it too. Chuunibyou should be cured, right? As soon as someone has those kinds of thoughts, they should be cured quickly so that they won’t happen again. They won’t have a lot of dark history, but they’ll have plenty of light history.”

  “Light history…. I knew it, after saying something like that, could you also have had chuunibyou?”

  “Huh?”

  Crap. I got out of hand about 5 seconds ago. That response felt like I was shot with an MK5. The usual Nibutani-san, our class rep, our class king that I adore is no longer there. I could feel her sadistic side come out.

  “Oh, you really want to die painfully, don’t you? Let’s see how painful of a death I could make it for you, alright? Now then, what page shall I read from your Dark Notebook? How about from chapter 5 where you wrote your dark poem? It was at the height of your evil eye form of chuunibyou, wasn’t it?”

  “Damn it… stop it… Class King… I’m sorry….!”

  I apologized to the deceased class rep who fell into hell and became a dark demon. She’s really clever at planning which stories to talk about. What could I say in this situation……

  “Class King huh?” Nibutani repeated the nickname we gave her with a sigh. It was clear she was astonished by that name. She appeared to give up and turned towards me.

  “….I’m only saying this for your sake. Don’t misunderstand me. I did not have anything like an Evil Eye.”

  So I noticed. But I didn’t have an Evil Eye even though I suffered through chuunibyou too.

 
“Eh, is that so? So you were also ill at one time…” That’s surprising. Not that she fell ill, but that I would notice something like that.

  “Honestly, I guess my joke fell flat from how you replied.”

  “What era are you from?!”

  Fell flat… incidentally, that term refers to any reaction. Fall. Flat. Just how old is that term. I need an explanation.

  While cursing Nibutani in my head, she continued, “That reply grinds my gears!”

  And again she shifts us in time. I don’t know why, but she continued onward being serious.

  “At that time I didn’t give any effort. I didn’t care about friends, clubs, and or other various things. The only one who understood me was Shichimiya. But now it’s different. Now I see you spoiling Takanashi-san when she doesn’t give any effort. Honestly, I think she’s a coward. Well, I think you could compare her to how I used to be, but it’s a bit different. Regardless, we definitely need to search for her. It may be a bother for me, but I won’t give up on her.”

  Nibutani said she didn’t give any effort. I’m not sure what she meant by that phrase, but I can relate to the time when I fell ill. So this is why she hates chuunibyou patients. It’s how she thinks they feel.

  I continued our chuunibyou discussion emphasizing that our way of thinking isn’t that different. “Is that so? Incidentally, I too didn’t give much effort back then. That’s not to say I’m using a lot of effort to get rid of my dark history though.”

  You know, anyone else could have found me, but I’m glad that it was Nibutani, she who shared a similar past. That part, I’m sure of. She’s a sympathizer like I am. But I’m not sure she’ll sympathize with anyone who’s got chuunibyou now though.

  “Huh? Oh, apart from that, what should we do? Don’t you want everyone to help?”

  “Huh? How would that work?”

  “If I just talk to Chinatsu about it, everyone would know about the situation quickly? How about it?”

  I was a bit hesitant. “I want everyone’s help, but… I don’t want to be a bother to our class.”

  “…….Weren’t you already one with those rumors? Well, you know, Takanashi-san is our classmate. If we find her soon, everything will be alright. You look depressed; that’s not usual for you. Well, then I’ll get everyone to search for her. We’ll keep it a secret from Ms. Tsukumo.”

  Nibutani was the best Class King, as well as class rep, ever. This must really take a lot of effort for her. Her words from a while ago flickered in my head.

  “Thank you. Well, I’m relying on you. If you find her, please let me know!”

  After saying that, I dashed towards where those ladies bikes were earlier. I heard Nibutani from behind.

  “Ah, alright. Before I forget, that ‘Class King’ was a bit of a surprise. I really liked it!”

  After parting with Nibutani, I quickly went to a bike storage rack and got a simple bike (the strongest ladies bike) and began searching around the park. Five minutes later I noticed something.

  “Ah, I don’t know Nibutani’s phone info….”

  I had already covered a lot of distance. If I find Rikka, I hope it’s near someone so they can pass the message. If one of them finds her, they’ll have to contact me via Isshiki.

  “Ignoring that, where is she….?”

  I went around the attractions looking for her a bit recklessly, but I couldn’t see her. En route, Nibutani called me. Everyone was notified and asked; no one had reported seeing her.

  It felt like hours since I began searching. I kept pedaling, but it felt like this road would never end.

  “She couldn’t have gone towards the mountain, could she?”

  There was a mountain that neighbored Cycle SportsCenter. I couldn’t rule out the chance that she meant there when she said she was going to the demon world. But there was no where to leave from. I noticed a lot of “No Entry” signs.

  “I feel like this is a clue.”

  I wasn’t confident that she went up the mountain. It’s so wide and spare; it would be difficult to search through. If I tried to search there, it could be hours before I find her or hear anything. I was starting to run out of gas and yet I kept on pedaling.

  Our meeting time was shortly approaching. The situation’s dangerous as is, so I’ll keep searching a little more. My impatience was really starting to grow.

  But that mountain looked very suspicious. Since everyone is spread throughout the park, it’s the one place that no one reported from. No one had looked there. Everyone had looked throughout the park without finding any traces of Rikka, so I headed towards the mountain a bit unsteady.

  On my way I found a clue. Something where if you saw it, you’d instantly associate it with Rikka. She must have dropped it en route.

  It was a white eyepatch.

  I picked it up and confirmed that it was Rikka’s. Across from it was a “No Entry” sign. There were tracks heading towards the mountain.

  “Did she leave here?”

  I didn’t know why anyone would leave, but I had a hunch it was Rikka who left through here leaving her eyepatch behind. I stuffed her eyepatch in my pocket and began heading up the mountain to search for her.

  “When she said demon world, is this the demon world she meant…….?”

  I could easily tell no one had been up the mountain in a while. The tracks were horrible. So much plant growth and dim lighting. It’ll be difficult to search here.

  I don’t know why I was so worried, but my body just moved on its own. She’s got to be here somehow. Anxious. Impatient. Those and other emotions were going through my head and I couldn’t think clearly. Regardless, I had a feeling I should find Rikka soon or else.

  “RIKKA!”

  I yelled loudly, but there was no response. I kept yelling loudly as I searched for her. I walked a little bit further when I found a bright spot.

  There was Rikka looking up at a tree.

  Thank god… She came here….

  “Rikka! What are you doing?!”

  “Yuuta…….?”

  Rikka looked at me langishly. Her eyes were a bit red and looked inflamed. It must have come from scrubbing her gold eye while it was sparkling.

  “You really worried me! What are you doing here?”

  “……”

  She didn’t respond to my words. She still looked a bit languished as she looked down.

  “What’s wrong? Was there something here?”

  Blank eyes looked at me as Rikka spoke in a tiny voice.

  “…..I was supposed to go to the demon world.”

  “Huh…. What do you mean? Don’t you usually head there?”

  She’s said a few times that she was heading to the demon world. Usually it’s when we’re studying and she wants to escape. Not so today. Today, I got the sense she really wanted to head to the demon world.

  “Usually, I don’t go there… A while ago my father was in this world, thus I wanted to be here. But now, my father is in the demon world.”

  “Your father?”

  She had told me yesterday about her living situation and how she lived by herself. When she first told me about her relationship with her folks I really hated her parents, but I never could have imagined it was like this. I got the impression that Rikka really loved her father.

  “My father also had powers like I do.”

  “…..Is that true?”

  “My father…. isn’t here. He said he went to the demon world, but never returned. He said he would definitely come back.”

  “…….”

  I couldn’t think of anything to say. Well, I couldn’t say anything. I wanted to hear about these things Rikka had hidden. I want to know more about her.

  “That’s why I took over for him and inherited his powers. With the Devilish Truth Stare, someday I will go to the demon world.”

  Rikka continued in an uninterested voice. As she spoke, I remembered something Isshiki had told me about the time when she was in middle school. Suddenly he
r character changed overnight.

  “But I still can’t go there. Regardless, I really really want to see my father. I thought I could do it, but maybe it’s impossible after all.”

  I don’t know how much of this is truth, but if it’s true, then everything makes sense.

  “I see. ….. That’s really disappointing, but I’m sure you’ll be able to go one day.”

  I don’t know the details of what happened or why that gave her chuunibyou, but I can’t deny her desire to go to the demon world. I too would think like that if I were her. If that person isn’t here, then they must be in the demon world.

  “…. When I was in middle school, I was overlooked. I wasn’t close to anyone in this world, wouldn’t you agree? That’s how I know what you feel when you say you want to go to the demon world.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Of course, I wasn’t talented at using my powers either. Ha ha! It was impossible for me to use my flames of darkness.”

  Everyone has events that happen to them. Those events are the reason some people get involved in chuunibyou. It enchants them, or it protects them, or so on.

  “…….My contractee thinks I can go to the demon world….I trained my Devilish Truth Stare power to be the best I could do, but I still haven’t found him. It’s been months and months. A very long time since I saw him…. But now Yuuta is here. That’s why I wanted to meet my father today.”

  “You give too much credit to your contractee.”

  That’s why she’s now a chuunibyou patient, isn’t it? That’s why these powers have meaning to her.

  It’s really the opposite of what Nibutani said. For example, if a person becomes a chuunibyou patient to make themselves escape from reality, I don’t think it’s bad as long as they recognize it. Thus chuunibyou has some meaning for that person. It’s essential for their being.

  I hadn’t thought about this until now, but it’s true. Each person develops chuunibyou for their own reason and thus it means different things for each person. Since everyone is different, then you have to consider their reasons in any discussion about cures or even the disease itself. Since their significances are different, then so are their meanings. For me, it was enchantment.