[BOOK☆WALKER Exclusive Bonus SS] The Legendary Cherry Tree Becomes a Vacant Lot

(Please enjoy this short story after finishing the book.)

At our Seigyo Academy, there is a legend quietly passed down among the students.

The legend of the legendary cherry tree.

The word legend appeared twice. Suspicious. Or rather, it comes full circle right back to being shady. But legends are usually like that, so I've decided not to think too deeply about it.

Anyway, it's said that if you confess your feelings under that tree, the success rate becomes 99.9%.

High. That probability is way too high.

I actually want to know who the remaining 0.1% who failed are.

No, what even is 99.9%? Rather than a legend of romantic fulfillment, it's a guaranteed-hit skill. This isn't the accuracy rate of some thick-eyebrowed sniper; they're definitely exaggerating.

But if you think about it carefully, our school used to be an all-girls school.

It becoming co-ed was a relatively recent development, meaning the vast majority of its long history was as a girls' school. Assuming the legend started during the girls' school era, there were only girls. Only girls and other girls.

...That's just Yuri.

Rather than cherry blossoms, the Yuri scent is way stronger.

Of course, the reality probably wasn't that simple, but when you imagine how the legend was formed, your thoughts naturally slide in that direction.

—Anyway.

That legendary tree was unceremoniously and swiftly chopped down shortly after we entered July.

"...They really cut it down."

"They really cut it down, huh..."

After school.

I, Sawa Ryogo, and my childhood friend, Segawa Mio, had stopped in front of the tragically brutalized stump.

What had been the legendary cherry tree until just a few days ago was now merely a reserve pile of lumber.

"Well, it was getting old."

"But still, isn't it a little sad?"

"I guess so."

I couldn't deny it.

Even for me, it was a tree I had seen countless times since entering this academy. Regardless of the legend's authenticity, it was something like a landmark.

"I wonder what the people who want to confess their feelings from now on are going to do?"

"They can just do it somewhere else."

"That's not the issue here."

Mio puffed out her cheeks in a pout.

"The atmosphere is important, you know?"

"If the atmosphere alone could raise the success rate, no one would ever struggle with this..."

"It totally raises it."

She declared it as fact. Despite seeming to have zero basis for it, Mio continued with a serious face.

"Because, you're conveying your feelings to the person you love, right? A place that gives you courage, or a place that becomes a memory, aren't things like that important?"

Hearing that, I thought about it for a second.

Certainly, she might be right.

Even if a 99.9% success rate was an exaggeration—if you thought of it as a place where someone conveyed their feelings to someone else, I could understand it holding a special meaning.

"Well, I get how you feel."

"Right?"

Mio smiled happily, then,

"If I were to confess to you again, Ryo-chan, I would've liked it to be here."

She muttered softly.

"...Eh?"

"Doesn't it somehow remind you of when we were in kindergarten?"

Kindergarten—the day Mio and I made our 'Mawwiage Prowmise'.

Thinking about it now, we were getting way ahead of ourselves. Skipping romance entirely and jumping straight to marriage. There was no procedure or anything. Toddlers sometimes possess a genius-level ability to take shortcuts.

I couldn't help but smile wryly.

"We didn't care about the success rate of confessions back then, did we?"

"Yeah. The world was much simpler. It was a sudden proposal, and even a kiss..."

"Thinking about it calmly, it's pretty crazy."

"What is?"

"Kindergarteners talking about the future, you know?"

"That's true."

Mio let out a soft chuckle. Like a blooming flower. I've never actually seen a flower bloom like that, but it was a smile that made you think that's exactly what it would look like.

Then, Mio closed the distance between us by just half a step.

Just half a step.

But a very significant half step.

It was too close for the distance between childhood friends, and too far for the distance between lovers. In other words, it was the most nerve-wracking distance.

Mio's cheeks were completely red.

With a soft smile on her face, she spoke.

"Is the 'Prowmise' we made back then... still ongoing?"

It was a quiet voice. But the destructive power of its cuteness was more than enough.

I almost lost my words for a second, but I managed to hold my ground and face her seriously.

"I—"

I tried to answer properly, without dodging the question—it was at that exact moment.

"A fallacy."

Suddenly, a third party's voice interrupted us.

Mio and I turned around at the same time.

Standing there was Fuyutsuki Niina.

Since when was she there? Or rather, from where was she watching? And why did she look so incredibly displeased?

While a barrage of question marks floated in my head, Niina nonchalantly said, "Ah, my mistake."

"Not a fallacy. A phallus."

"Hey. Don't ruin a perfectly good mood with a dirty joke right out of the gate."

I retorted in exasperation.

"Also, that makes absolutely no sense... what fallacy?"

Niina looked back and forth between us and spoke in a tone that sounded utterly bored from the bottom of her heart.

"I meant that it's a fallacy to think anyone could bear watching a virgin boy and a virgin girl try to have a Decent Romance."

"You're so twisted..."

"Who was it that twisted me?"

"............Well, it definitely wasn't me, right?"

No matter how you looked at it, it was Niina. And the reason I distanced myself from a Decent Romance, and the reason Mio—

"I was so close, too..."

—ended up like this, was all because of her.

No, this is scary. As always, this "Fallen Angel Mode" is...

Mio's eyes looked less like a maiden in love and more like a predator that had just let its prey escape. Just a moment ago she was on a straight path of pure love, but she had taken a sharp turn and plummeted straight off a cliff.

However, Niina didn't seem to care in the slightest.

"Oh my? Are you angry that I interrupted your precious confession scene?"

"Read the room."

"I read it, which is exactly why I stepped in to interrupt."

"Why?"

Then, Niina answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Because, I knew Ryogo-kun was just going to say, 'Let me think about it a little more' anyway."

"Is that true!? Ryo-chan!?"

Mio whipped around to face me with incredible momentum.

"Ah, well..."

I smiled wryly. If possible, I wanted to deny it with all my might. But unfortunately, Niina's prediction was spot on.

"Because in kindergarten, Niina made that Prowmise too..."

I couldn't give an immediate answer as to which of the two I would pursue a romance with yet. That might be indecisiveness, or it might be me running away.

Even so, it wasn't just my promise, but a precious Prowmise for the two of them as well, so I wanted to think about it seriously.

"...Sorry."

When I said that, Mio puffed out her cheeks just a little, then smiled and said, "Nope."

"I'm used to waiting."

A summer breeze blew past us right at that moment.

"Ah...look!"

Mio pointed at the stump. Looking closely, a tiny sprout of green was peeking out from the roots.

"A new bud."

The cherry tree was supposed to have been cut down. But it seemed this wasn't the end for it.

"It's stubborn, huh."

"It is. Just like me and Niina-chan."

"...Yeah."