As finished products went, I figured they were more than good enough.
Obviously, none of them fit perfectly, but Ishinoo had collected them for his hobby, which meant the party dresses were actually good quality.
And the three of them, though they were so stupid I sometimes forgot this, had never looked bad in the first place. Once they changed into the outfits Sera Pendragon had prepared, they started drawing attention in front of Ikebukuro Station.
Ishinoo was probably smiling from beyond the grave.
The problem, however, began with Shirogamine.
From the moment we met up, she had been making a deeply dissatisfied face, and I ended up listening to an endless stream of objections, or rather complaints, from her. Indo, for that matter, had not exactly stayed quiet either.
“It’s hard to move.”
That was Yukine Indo’s first impression. She had been shifting her feet constantly for a while now. True enough, the hem of her white party dress was long, and it looked like it was wrapped around her lower legs. Apparently, that was what she disliked.
“Sera, wasn’t there anything with a shorter hem?”
“Couldn’t be helped.”
When Sera dealt with Indo, her tone turned into something like a grown-up soothing a child.
“You said it was a pretty proper party. And besides, all dresses are hard to move in.”
“Then I want something more like yours, Sera.”
Indo grabbed the hem of Sera’s dress. Her black dress, which looked like mourning clothes, had a pointlessly wide skirt. It also had a lot of frills and other decorative crap.
As someone with absolutely no knowledge of fashion, my personal opinion was that it might have been a little too girlish—but I was wise, so I decided not to say that out loud.
“This one’s hard to move in too. Seriously.”
“It is?”
“It is. And I chose from white dresses that would suit you, Yukine. You like white, right?”
“I like white.”
“—Wait. Then what about my outfit?”
Shirogamine cut in from the side.
“This—this thing. Why this design?”
As for Shirogamine’s dress, it was probably the one drawing the most attention from the people using Ikebukuro Station. It was red. It also showed a lot of skin, and the hem was short. It was obvious that she was extremely, violently unhappy about that fact.
“This may cause people to misunderstand what sort of person I am! Though I am such a beautiful girl, was I not supposed to possess a rather modest charm? Look, my knees are showing this much! At this rate, I’m going to get scouted as a model! Why did you think this dress suited me, Sera? Explain in detail.”
“Aki, your self-esteem is as insane as ever. I’m almost jealous... But, well, about that...”
Sera faltered, then looked back at me. She was staring at me with an accusing look.
“Mr. Yashiro said to pick that one.”
“Huh?”
Shirogamine opened her mouth so wide her jaw looked like it might fall off.
“My apologies! In that case, the story changes completely. I’m honored! Master, you have a surprisingly good eye! I was in a bad mood until just now, but I’m cured. How do I look?”
“Yeah. I think that’s about what you deserve.”
I affirmed it wholeheartedly.
“I picked a design for beginners. Shirogamine is bad at this, so she’s not at the stage where she gets handicaps yet. You’re nowhere near it. That would be presumptuous. As for Indo and Sera, I figure having something that hard to move in should make for just the right kind of practice. Probably.”
“Huh?”
“Practice?”
While Shirogamine’s face clouded over, Indo reacted quickly.
“Are we training now?”
“Of course we are. You came properly armed, right?”
The three of them looked at one another, then glanced around each other’s waists. They were wearing party dresses, but they were also carrying swords. Shirogamine even had an old, well-used buckler fastened at her side. From the outside, we probably looked like a fairly hilarious cosplay group.
“Good. Last time, we did practical combat where you launched surprise attacks one-on-one, but that wasn’t very fun, was it?”
“No.”
“I see. Was the problem that I was simply far too active last time? After all, during that encounter, against the man in the suit who possessed that vicious handgun, I delivered two, perhaps even three, brilliant strikes—”
All three of them gave more or less the answers I had expected, but I decided to continue anyway. Listening to Shirogamine was a waste of time.
“So I reconsidered and decided you needed a little more stimulation.”
I had never been a teacher in the first place, so I had no idea how I was supposed to teach. I had no choice but to feel my way through it. Basically, I was taking the methods my master had used on me and trying them out with slight adjustments.
Tonight’s menu was one of the practical-combat training drills I had been forced to do plenty of times.
“We’ll do a many-on-one practical exercise starting from a state where both sides are hostile. It’s extremely thrilling, and since you can try technique after technique one after another, it’s fun. Finding people to fight on the street takes time.”
“...Yes. Um.”
At some point, all three of them had fallen silent, but eventually Shirogamine slowly raised her hand.
“Master, where exactly are we going tonight? I was told this would be a social-studies field trip.”
“Lord <Storm Coffin>.”
I pointed at the tallest building in sight. Against the cold night sky, glaring lights blazed brilliantly. If you did not know the circumstances, it would probably just look like an ordinary office building.
“His castle is in there. As Demon Kings go, he’s probably the strongest one around here. At the very least, he’s on a completely different level from <Amber Briar>. And apparently, he’s holding a little party tonight.”
I looked over the three of them in order as they made baffled faces.
“Meaning what we’re doing is simple. We’re going to rampage around and liven up the party.”
“Yes, Master!”
Shirogamine’s answer was always so refreshing it pissed me off. She probably was not thinking about anything. Or maybe she seriously thought this would be easy for her.
If so, she was terrifying.
Indo was looking up at the building without expression, and Sera had gone visibly pale, her cheeks twitching.
This was going to make for just the right training for the three of them, I thought.