266 Kindergarten?

"Hana, can you imagine?"

A glint of longing shone in Elf's eyes as she spoke with excitement.

"Once this game is completed, with the artwork, music, and dub... how very fascinating it will be?"

Listening to Elf, Muramasa imagined the scene for a moment.

Although she had only encountered one game, which was 'Your Name.', she decided to amplify that intriguing feeling and immerse herself in the work she was currently writing.

Her eyes instantly sparkled!

"It seems like... I can't wait..." Muramasa mumbled and quickly picked up her pen and wrote once more.

"..." Homura was speechless.

"Elf... You've only boosted Muramasa's already high spirits." Homura said, looking helpless.

"Well, it's not a big deal!" Elf laughed. "We're not going to school anyway. Staying up a bit longer won't hurt."

"That's not good..." Megumi shook her head. "Everyone's bodies are still developing, so it can have a significant impact."

"But that's how writers are, right? If they get excited and have inspirations but don't write them down as soon as possible, it'll be different and much worse if they wrote it at a later time." Elf responded.

Her words did make sense.

"Don't worry!" Elf waved her hand. "We won't write too late."

"So... you're not going to have breakfast either?" Homura asked with a smile.

Upon hearing that, Elf hesitated for a moment.

It was no ordinary breakfast, but after a brief moment, she shook her head.

"No, we'll eat when we wake up."

Since there was nothing that could persuade them, Homura suggested.

"Well then, you don't need to go back to your house after you're done writing. I'll prepare a guest room for you. You can stay here tonight."

Muramasa didn't react, but Elf nodded in agreement.

"Alright." Homura got up.

"Senpai!" Nayuta spoke up and raised her hand. "I'll stay here too..."

"You suddenly decided not to procrastinate and started working? It feels a bit unreal..." Homura's lips curled slightly. 

"..." Nayuta fell silent.

"Nii-san, I also—"

"Nope." Homura interrupted her. "In the first place, I didn't plan to let Elf and Muramasa stay up late. But, no choice, Muramasa's nature is like this. Once she starts writing, she doesn't care about anything else. If you as the youngest also plan to stay up late, we might as well all stay up late together. Then we'll see what kind of work staying up late creates."

When he said that, Elf's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

Forcing oneself to stay up late, as Sagiri intended to do, was indeed counterproductive.

Take Muramasa as an example. If she felt she couldn't create a good story, she wouldn't write at all.

Elf was the same. If she wasn't in the mood right now, she wouldn't bother staying up late.

"So... if you're confident that you can stay up late and create good work like Muramasa and Elf, you can stay..." Homura said, scanning everyone in the room.

Only Elf and Muramasa were still sitting, while everyone else had gotten up.

Homura nodded in satisfaction.

"Let's go. Right, Elf, you can sleep in the room next to Mashiro's when the time comes."

Following that, all the girls helped him tidy up the working room a bit before returning to their respective rooms.

===

The next morning.

Elf had said she wouldn't have breakfast, but Homura didn't intend to leave her and Muramasa out, so he left two baskets of steamed buns in case they woke up.

Meanwhile, Homura and the girls were walking to school.

"Who knows when Elf and Muramasa went to bed?" Eriri asked.

"Around two-thirty in the morning." Homura gave an accurate answer. "Even though the soundproofing is good, it's still possible to hear the noise from the next room."

"They wrote until that late?" Utaha exclaimed. "Muramasa is just as I expected, but I never thought Elf would stick with her till the end."

"Well, Elf is Muramasa's first friend..." Homura laughed. "Don't be fooled by Elf's habit of teasing Muramasa; their relationship is much better than it seems."

"Just like Utaha-senpai and Eriri." Megumi suddenly commented.

"Hmph, who's on good terms with this woman?" Eriri acted tsundere.

"Ara? I think I get along quite well with Sawamura-san." Utaha smiled. "Whenever I'm with Sawamura-san, I always feel delighted~"

'Isn't that because you enjoy teasing Eriri?'

Both Homura and Megumi thought the same thing, but aside from that, the relationship between Utaha and Eriri was indeed excellent; they just refused to admit it.

One tsundere and one schemer, admitting their good relationship was indeed quite challenging.

"Hmm? Is that the sound of 'Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss'?" Homura wondered as he faintly heard a song playing.

The three girls looked puzzled, but they knew he had keen ears, so they didn't ask. After walking a bit further, they heard a song playing clearly.

The three girls exchanged glances, each showing confusion in their respective eyes.

"Why are they playing 'Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss' so early in the morning?" Eriri asked.

"Indeed, it doesn't sound like the live version and more like the original recording..." Utaha added.

"Let's take a turn and find out." Homura shrugged, noticing an unusual sound of footsteps. "Could it be middle-aged ladies doing square dancing?"

Hearing his words, the three girls had perplexed expressions. What on earth was happening? This was getting eerie!

"Why not middle-aged men?" Eriri retorted, looking displeased.

"Why argue about this? Besides, wouldn't middle-aged men be even weirder?" Homura rolled his eyes. 

Imagining middle-aged men dancing to the part where the lyrics say—'Let's try something fun', all of them shuddered.

As they reached the corner, all four suddenly stopped.

"Are you all mentally prepared?" Homura took a deep breath.

"Yes, Homura-kun." Megumi nodded.

*Whoosh!*

They all quickly peeked around the corner.

""A kindergarten?!""

The four wore a surprised expression.

Indeed, inside a kindergarten courtyard, a young female teacher was dancing the final part of the 'Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss' dance.

"What's going on? Is she performing for the students?" Utaha had a puzzled expression.

"It doesn't look like it..." Eriri shook her head. "It seems like she's teaching them how to dance?"

"This kindergarten didn't switch morning exercises to the dance of 'Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss' did they?" Megumi found this kindergarten's activities rather strange.

"Kids!" The female teacher exclaimed. "We already went through the breakdown of these dance moves yesterday! Did anyone forget?"

""NO!""

"Great! Next, let's dance together with me!" The female teacher smiled cheerfully.

Soon, 'Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss' played on the kindergarten's loudspeakers once again.

'Now that I think about it... Why is this kindergarten starting so early?' Homura thought, puzzled.

This kindergarten was even earlier than his own school.

What was going on?

With that in mind, he signaled to the three girls, and they immediately walked over to investigate.