114 Act 18: Scene 8

Just the sight of Honami's crying face was enough to light a fire inside Kiyotaka, even if he didn't know it. He didn't even acknowledge the notification that just appeared and he didn't care that it was the reality-warping skill that he dreaded. All that mattered to him right now was comforting Honami and in order to do that, he had to find Chihiro.

Giving the pink-haired girl a nod, Kiyotaka continued on his way to look for the runaway Class B student.

On the bright side, Chihiro didn't get very far and it only took about a minute for him to find her. He managed to locate her behind the school gymnasium, sitting behind a tree while hugging her legs close to her chest. She had not stopped crying at all, and all he could hear from her was her sniffles every few seconds.

Kiyotaka slowly walked up to where she was, allowing himself to be detected by the girl with his audible footsteps. When she realized that she wasn't alone, Chihiro quickly looked back and prepared to run away again, thinking that it was Ichinose who found her here. However, when she saw that it was only the guy who was with them earlier, she remained in her place and continued to cry.

He stared at her for a moment. At least she didn't run away from him, which would have made things more troublesome if she did. "I have no idea what you feel towards Ichinose right now, but I'm here to tell you that she didn't mean to hurt you."

"If she didn't mean to hurt me, then Ichinose-san should have told me the truth," she replied in a voice that was loud enough for only him to hear.

Okay, she was willing to hold a conversation with him as well, which is also good. Also, it doesn't seem like she was going to run away anytime soon. Now he can proceed without worrying about anything else.

He shrugged. "She didn't know what to do. She said that she's never experienced being confessed to in her entire life, until now. Earlier today, she actually asked me if I had been confessed to before."

"Of course you've been confessed to," she slowly turned her head again to look at him. "You're that guy, right? Ayanokouji-kun. I remember your name now. A lot of my classmates have been talking about you and how three of your classmates fell in love with you."

Kiyotaka resisted the urge to sigh at his growing popularity. "While that's true, she then asked me what I did as a response to that. I wasn't able to give her a clear answer, and she looked disappointed more than anything. Even though I've experienced getting confessed to, I don't really know what to do afterwards."

Chihiro frowned slightly out of confusion. "You couldn't give Ichinose-san a clear answer? W-What does that mean?"

"It's too complicated to tell you. Just know that the outcome wasn't as disastrous as what happened earlier with you and Ichinose." Upon being reminded of what just transpired earlier, Chihiro turned her head away, feeling tears welling up in her eyes again. "Knowing her intentions now, I think Ichinose was trying to ask for some advice from me. In her mind, she must have thought that if I had rejected someone, she could copy what I did so that she wouldn't have to hurt your feelings. But because I wasn't able to give her an answer, she went with the smartest thing she could think of."

"She invited you here and asked you if you could pretend to be her boyfriend," Chihiro stated, putting the pieces together before she shook her head sadly. "That doesn't change anything. She could have been honest and just told me what she really felt. I'd still be hurt, but not as much as being lied to."

"Believe it or not, Ichinose really didn't mean for you to get hurt. It's because you were her friend that she tried looking for a way to turn you down without hurting you."

"Well, it's better to get hurt by the truth than live with a lie," Chihiro answered sharply, before her demeanor turned sad again. "I wasn't even expecting her to accept my feelings. I was already prepared to be rejected because we haven't even known each other for long. It's only been about a month since we met..."

He tilted his head curiously. "You were expecting to be rejected yet you still went ahead and sent her a letter stating your intention to confess to her?"

"I... I just thought that... if I keep my feelings bottled up any longer, it could be a bother and I didn't want that. S-So I thought I should... act on them to get it over with."

He then walked closer to where she was. Thankfully, Chihiro still remained in her place and had no intention of running away. "You didn't hope for a positive reply from Ichinose?"

"O-Of course I was," she sniffled. "But I knew that there's always the big chance of her turning me down, so I prepared myself for an eventual rejection."

"You did an admirable thing, Chihiro. You faced your feelings head-on and steeled yourself for whatever answer you might have gotten. Ichinose might have made a mistake in how she handled your confession, but there was nothing wrong with what you did at all. You can at least be proud of that," he commended her.

She shook her head and smiled sadly. "It was useless in the end, though. My feelings weren't accepted and I wasn't rejected, either. Instead, Ichinose-san tried to make a fool out of me."

Kiyotaka sat down on the ground right next to her, which she didn't seem to mind at all. "Why not talk to Ichinose herself about this? I'm sure if you reveal your side of the story to her, you'll feel less hurt from all of this and be able to get some closure for yourself. In return, she'll tell you her side and apologize properly for her mistake. I'm sure she understands now that she was wrong, and she'll definitely do her best to make it up to you."

"Truth be told, I don't know if I can face her properly tomorrow... without remembering what happened today. I-I don't know if I can even forgive her that quickly... even though there's a part of me that wants to..."

If this was any other time, Chihiro would be willing to talk to Honami about what happened and reconcile with her afterwards. But this was something that hurt her on a personal level, something that she can't just forget in a snap.

Taking a deep breath, it seemed like the girl had finally calmed down after crying her eyes out until now. "I-I guess I can understand now why she tried to lie to me, but it doesn't change how much it hurts..."

Kiyotaka only stared at his companion while she let out her feelings. He remembered what Honami told him earlier, and that was to find her friend. Obviously, it also meant that he would have to tell her once he does. Now that he had found Chihiro, he could easily contact Honami and tell her where they were so that the leader of Class B could find them, but the blonde's words just now had kept him from doing so.

Chihiro doesn't want to face Honami this soon. Honami wanted him to find Chihiro so she could apologize.

Two different actions, yet a plethora of possible consequences no matter what he chooses.

Kiyotaka thought about what he should do for a moment, wondering who he should side with.

And of course, he went with the action that made the most sense.

He took a deep breath. "If that's what you feel, then I'll tell her to give you some space until you're ready to talk to her."

Chihiro's eyes widened slightly as she heard him say those words. She slowly turned to him, a mixture of confusion and surprise etched on her face. "R-Really...? You're... not going to tell me to make up with her because this was all just a big misunderstanding?"

"Why would I do that?" he turned to face her whilst raising an eyebrow. "You're clearly hurt by what she tried to do, and you don't want to talk to her for a while. That's a completely normal reaction as far as I'm concerned, and you deserve to have time to yourself so you can sort your own feelings out."

"Y-You..." she whispered. "Why are you even helping me? You're not involved in this at all, Ayanokouji-kun. It's between Ichinose-san and I..."

Kiyotaka shook his head. "Wrong. I got involved the moment she tried to ask me for advice. I'm not a fan of how she tried to handle this situation with you, either. That's why I didn't want to play along with her 'pretend-to-be-my-boyfriend' scheme. It's a good thing you happened to be there when she was trying to ask me, you know?"

"You're right..." she muttered, turning away to hide a small blush from him. "Thank you, Ayanokouji-kun."

"Don't mention it. You should leave now, though. When you ran away earlier, Ichinose had every intention of chasing after you to explain everything and end the misunderstanding between you two. But I stopped her by explaining to her what she did wrong. I doubt she would stay put, though. She's probably running around, trying to look for you. If you want to avoid her for a while, you better get going."

"O-Okay..."

Chihiro nodded shyly and began to stand up so she could get going, only for her body to move in a completely different way out of impulse. Instead of standing up, she threw her arms out and wrapped them around Kiyotaka in a hug. She leaned against him in a desperate hunt for warmth and comfort, almost to the point of throwing herself at him.

The move completely surprised Kiyotaka and made her turn towards her, wondering what got into her that made her hug him like this. Now, if it wasn't for him shifting his weight evenly, she would have tackled him to the ground. Still, what exactly made her hug him out of nowhere?

Before he could say anything though, Chihiro had realized what she was doing and she immediately pulled away from him as a result. She had stopped crying at this point, and the sad look on her face was replaced by one of complete embarrassment.

"T-That's just my way of thanking you...!" she squeaked out, before quickly getting up on her feet and running away from him. However, compared to what happened earlier, she didn't run away because she was hurt. This time around, Chihiro ran away to hide the flustered look on her face from the young man who went out of his way to comfort her.

As he watched her leave, all Kiyotaka could think about was the puzzling behavior that she displayed. Several questions immediately filled his mind, with most of them wondering what made her hug him. Is it because she felt thankful towards him for helping her? Is it because he was the only one there? Is it because she accidentally fell towards him? Kiyotaka might never know...

[Special Event 'The Failed Rejection' has been cleared! You unlocked a Bonus Route for completing this Special Event!]

...until several new notifications from the system appeared in front of him.

[You gained 5 Affection Points with Shiranami Chihiro!]

[Chihiro Route has been Unlocked! You can now see 'Heroine Status' with Shiranami Chihiro!]

"What the hell?" he voiced his thoughts aloud. Of course, he knew that the whole issue with Honami and Chihiro was part of a 'Special Event' that's about his own heroine because it was a confession towards her...

[Your current status with Chihiro has changed to 'An Unexpected Development'!]

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Achievement: 'Someone from the Other Side'! You gained +100 in Aura!]

...but he never would have thought that it would lead to him 'unlocking' yet another 'route' instead of just raising Affection Points with Ichinose, and this time it was someone whom he didn't think would be one of the girls that he would end up with. Wasn't it made clear that she liked Ichinose? Or did she move on from her already? Wait, does Chihiro even like boys? Since she had confessed to Ichinose, then she must be only into girls!

And yet, those notifications were telling a completely different story.

"I didn't even see her 'Heroine Summary' earlier, so I had no way of knowing that she'd also be a heroine... did the system deliberately prevent it from being shown?"

Hmm... it would make sense, though. After all, he did find out recently that his eroge superpower truly had a mind of its own. It wouldn't be crazy to think that the system prevented him from seeing Chihiro's 'Heroine Summary'. There's even a certain passive skill of his that enabled him to discern the 'Filler Characters' from 'Potential Heroines' and the fact that it didn't work earlier was only proof that the system had intervened.

"Menu," he whispered, making the world around him stop as the familiar sub-menus appeared before him. He quickly chose [Heroines' Status], which showed a list of the girls whose 'routes' he had unlocked up until now.

[Heroines' Status]

[Sakayanagi Arisu ☞]

[Nanase Tsubasa ☞]

[Horikita Suzune ☞]

[Kushida Kikyo ☞]

[Matsushita Chiaki ☞]

[Sakura Airi ☞]

[Karuizawa Kei ☞]

[Ichinose Honami ☞]

[Shiina Hiyori ☞]

[Chabashira Sae ☞]

[Amasawa Ichika ☞]

[Hasebe Haruka ☞]

[Himeno Yuki ☞]

[NEW!] [Shiranami Chihiro ☞]

"It's true, then..." Kiyotaka stared at the newest addition to that long list of heroines for a few moments before opening Chihiro's section so he could read what was stated within it.

[Shiranami Chihiro: 'Conflicted but Thankful Schoolmate']

[Relationship Status: An Unexpected Development]

[Affection Points: 5/100]

[Heroine Summary: Chihiro is a young woman with blonde hair and bluish-violet eyes, somewhat androgynous, and GAY. A student of Class B, she was infatuated with Honami, one of your heroines and tried to confess to her because she is GAY. However, she was hurt in the process by the person she liked, who was clearly NOT GAY. She feels thankful to you for talking to her and essentially comforting her after the heartbreak she just went through, causing her to hug you even though she is GAY. As someone who swings the other way, it is up to you to make her fall for you and make her NOT GAY.]

"That's... a pretty bizarre summary," the young man commented, reading through it in one go before closing it right away along with the menu itself, turning the world back to normal. There wasn't anything useful in Chihiro's summary by the way, just... a general description of who she is and what she's like.

And the system refers to her as a 'bonus route'? Some bonus route this is... more like another wave of headaches that he would have to deal with in the coming days.

"Well, I've already gone through thirteen of them up until now. One more can't possibly hurt, right?" he thought to himself. In a sarcastic manner, of course.

The worst part about this? Chihiro was far from being the last heroine whose 'route' he will unlock, but oh well. So far, he has managed to live with the fact that more than ten girls have their eyes on him, and he has been doing well so far.

"Ayanokouji-kun? Is that you?"

"Ichinose," he acknowledged upon turning around and seeing the pink-haired leader of Class B. The girl whom he left alone earlier so he could search for Chihiro after she ran away. "I thought you were gonna wait for me to bring Chihiro back so you could apologize to her?"

She stared at him for a moment, before she shook her head. "I didn't want to stay put. I wanted to look for Chihiro-san as well. It was my mistake that she ran away in tears earlier."

"And did you find her?"

"Not at all," she shook her head again, this time with a sad smile on her face. "When I saw you here, I thought you might have found her, but it looks like I was wrong."

"What do you want to do now, then? Gonna keep on looking for her?"

Honami didn't answer right away. Instead, she seemed to be deep in thought before gesturing for him to follow her. Kiyotaka was curious at what she wanted but nonetheless, he followed after her as the two began to walk away from the gymnasium.

"I've been thinking about everything you said to me earlier, Ayanokouji-kun... and after a while, I realized something important."

"Which is...?"

"I was wrong on how I approached this whole situation. I didn't respect Chihiro-san's feelings, when she went out of her way to make a letter for me and even mustered up the courage to tell me what she felt. But I was selfish. I didn't want to hurt her, but all I did was try to run away from my problem and turn to you for help. That was my mistake. Is love really this complicated?" Ichinose muttered.

Although that was a rhetorical question on her part, Kiyotaka couldn't help but respond in his mind.

"You have no idea..."

"Because of this... I don't know if we can go back to how things were," Honami sighed. At this point, she couldn't even cry anymore, but the pain of possibly losing one of her friends remained. "I'd still want to be friends with her, but I don't know if Chihiro-san feels the same. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't want to have anything to do with me after this."

"That depends on her," he nodded in agreement. "That being said, I don't believe Chihiro is the type to hold a grudge against someone, even if I don't know her personally. She'll come around and you two will be friends again."

"Still... I've decided to follow what you said to me. I should leave Chihiro-san alone for a while, at least until she's ready to talk to me again. No matter how long it takes, I'll wait for her to be ready and when that happens, I'll answer her with complete honesty. It's the right thing to do after everything bad I did today."

"Don't place the blame solely on yourself, Ichinose," he reached out with his hand to pat her head softly, making her blush at his action. "You hurt your own friend, that's true, but you never wanted that to happen. What happened was only a product of your own cluelessness. It's not like you wanted to hurt her deliberately, don't you agree?"

"Yeah..." she murmured, as a small smile formed on her face after what felt like an indefinite time of being sad and gloomy. "Thanks for today, Ayanokouji-kun. For teaching me an important lesson and for coming along with me for such a ridiculous request."

[You gained 35 Affection Points with Ichinose Honami!]

"It's okay. Although I'm sorry if you feel that I acted like a jerk earlier." After he was done patting her head, the young man bowed slightly as an apology. "I told Chihiro about what you were planning to do without even consulting you about it."

Ichinose blinked a couple of times, as though he had said something odd, before she chuckled. "There's no need for you to apologize, Ayanokouji-kun. I understand why you did it and now that it happened, I'm glad you did. Things would have been worse if you didn't. But now, it's my turn to help you. Your class is still searching for a witness to Miyake-kun's case, right? I'll spend the whole day tomorrow looking with a few of my classmates."

Kiyotaka shook his head in amusement. "You don't have to go that far, but I can speak for the rest of my classmates that we appreciate the help."

"The pleasure is all mine," Honami giggled as she noticed that the dorm buildings were just nearby. "Now, I think I should be getting back to my dorm. A lot of things happened today for me, and I'd like to have an early rest to clear my mind from it all. What about you?"

"I wish I could have an early rest too, but I still have to be somewhere for a while," he replied, hiding the fact that he also planned to head back home to his own dorm unit. The girl was right when she said that a lot of things had happened today for her, and he didn't want to add to that by revealing that he lived on the same floor as her.

"Well, you will eventually. Once Miyake-kun's case is over, that is." Honami continued to laugh to the point that she had to hide her amusement by covering her mouth. "I suppose I'll see you whenever?"

"I suppose so."

"Bye, Ayanokouji-kun!" she waved her arm at him as she began to walk towards the dorm buildings, leaving the young man on his own.

As Kiyotaka watched her leave, he turned his attention to the sun that was setting in the sky, shifting his attention to another topic entirely. The school week is now over, and the weekend is about to start tomorrow.

Starting tomorrow, there will only be two days left for them to gather whatever evidence they need in the upcoming hearing regarding Miyake. And up until now, none of his classmates have made any progress in that regard, except for maybe Suzune and Kikyo. Thanks to the former's plan regarding one Shiina Hiyori, they now had separate pictures of the three suspects.

Miyake had confirmed that it was indeed those three who attacked him on that day, making the entire class celebrate about being able to get one over their rival class. However, they were quickly snapped out of dream when it was unanimously agreed upon that mere pictures of the three Class C students can't be considered as evidence.

They still lacked something that can be used to prove Miyake's innocence with no complaints from every other party and until now, they had no leads.

"Except we do have one piece of evidence that can change the tide of the battle in a snap. We've had it since the beginning."

Turning his attention back to the dorm building, Kiyotaka noticed that Ichinose was already out of sight, which he took as his opportunity to get home to his dorm unit.

"Sakura, the whole class is counting on you to do the right thing."

Number of days before Akito's trial: 2