Snacks Made by Mei

In the evening, in the classroom after school was over, Kouro who had been flipping through the book of programming with a serious expression then closed it and put it away in his bag.

After greeting some of his friends, Kouro returned to the dormitory and got ready for things such as bathing and so on to meet Mei.

Yesterday, Mei had invited him to go to her place half an hour later than usual.

Kouro didn't think much of it anyway as today wasn't a holiday it was possible that Mei was busy.

After finishing his bath and putting on his casual clothes neatly, Kouro then held the worn and broken bamboo sword that he had placed next to his bed.

Staring at the state of the bamboo sword, Kouro could only sigh,

"I need to buy another, stronger practice sword. This bamboo sword is already very damaged, if I continue to use it while practicing alone, it will definitely break. "

Fortunately Kouro had ordered a durable iron sword from an online store a few days ago, he remembered that it would arrive tomorrow.

It was not the weapon he had prepared to face the Honkai Beast, it was the sword Kouro would use when practicing alone in the dormitory.

Ordinary weapons couldn't be Honkai energy carriers after all and the sharpness of the weapon wouldn't be enough to break the Honkai Beast's defenses.

With the iron sword he could practice Hokushin Itto-ryu swordsmanship more freely than with the bamboo sword.

As for practicing swordsmanship with Mei, of course he still used a bamboo sword.

After all Mei was still an ordinary person at this time using an iron sword was still too dangerous, so using it while practicing together was not a wise move.

And when Kouro sneaked into the Senba academy without being caught with more advanced techniques--

...

"I made this snack for you, see if it suits your taste."

Mei took out a dessert called Strawberry daifuku wagashi, from her lunchbox.

The outer layer was chewy and soft mochi, then inside was strawberries coated with sweet red bean paste and chocolate.

It seemed like Mei had specially postponed her previous meeting time to prepare this.

Seeing four pieces of Strawberry daifuku in a box slightly larger than an adult's palm, Kouro was surprised and looked into the girl's eyes.

Her gaze was deep with a soothing smile and tenderness.

"What's wrong? Did you have dinner, is your stomach still full?"

Seeing that Kouro did not directly taste the Strawberry Daifuku but only looked at her made Mei ask with some concern.

"No, I haven't had dinner yet, so I'm a little hungry."

Kouro shook his head, he picked one up and brought the sweet to his nose.

"The smell is really refreshing... " Kouro murmured with a small smile before taking a bite of the daifuku in his hand.

*Munch*

He felt the chewiness and softness of the mochi as he chewed, right after which the sweetness of the chocolate and the fresh and sour flavor of the strawberries exploded into his mouth.

His body seemed to stop and Kouro's pupils dilated.

For Kouro who had only eaten special foods that had no flavor since childhood, the sweetness contained in this daifuku melted his numb tongue.

Moreover, these sweets are special because they are made by Mei with hard work and love. Not only did the daifuku melt his tongue, it also melted his heart.

He even wished that someday, he could eat Mei's cooking without pressure and live at ease.

After seeing Kouro eat her strawberry daifuku, Mei felt a little nervous.

Although she was confident in her cooking skills, she still felt a little worried.

After all, it was her first time making sweets for a friend let alone a boy.

After all, there was a possibility that men and women's tastes were different, right?

This is what makes her nervous whether her sweet treats will really satisfy Kouro's taste buds?

"It tastes... " Kouro's eyes moved, his dilated pupils had returned to normal, he turned his head to look at Mei with a genuine smile.

"It tastes really good, thank you."

Thanks to this Strawberry Daifuku and the feelings Mei contained in it, it gave Kouro another reason to become stronger.

In the original plot, Mei who awaken to become a herrscher would not have been destroyed as an enemy and died because she was one of the protagonists.

But now with him being a variable makes the plot not absolute.

Kouro doesn't want the future to change for the worse because of him, nor does he want to preserve the original future, he just wants to make a better future.

Kouro's words of gratitude have a deep meaning.

If he were to reproduce his current expression and behavior in class, then all of his classmates would definitely be very excited and might even produce some sort of fanatical fangirl to the yandere level.

However, in Mei's eyes, this gratitude was not as simple and pure as she imagined.

Mei felt that in addition to the gratitude, the pressure on Kouro did not seem to diminish but rather increase.

Kouro was indeed well-behaved, his series of words and behaviors from the beginning until now were without any problems.

Even his soft tone of voice and smile that contained a lot of meaning made Mei feel that Kouro wanted to confess his love to her.

But Mei didn't feel so, she was very sensitive to other people's emotions because of her previous experience.

She could sense that Kouro had no ill intentions towards her but had many good intentions as if she and Kouro had been friends for many years.

It was just that it was suppressed by something that made Kouro's behavior in Mei's eyes a little strange.

In yesterday's swordsmanship practice, Mei decided that this strangeness came from an unknown pressure and a desire to become stronger.

No ordinary person would practice swordsmanship for up to two hours at a time.

This might be strange in Mei's view but not to Kouro.

In the view of him who often squeezed his own potential insanely, the training time he did yesterday was not too long.

But in Mei's view only a master swordsman could do it.

Mei thought about it from the start and she was somewhat unable to understand it, why would Kouro be willing to come to chat with her specifically, was it purely to make her less lonely?

It was strange that Kouro and she had no bond in the past... but the two of them quickly became close which made Mei feel happy.

"I can see that you're exhausted from yesterday's training, I apologize for that, Mei-senpai. How about we take a walk outside together to get some fresh air. " Kouro said while taking another sweet in Mei's lunch box and eating it.

"Men and women going out together at night, isn't it a bit like a date?" Mei said with a slight blush.

Although she was shy, Mei did not refuse, she had heard that going for a walk was one way to relieve depression.

Th-this didn't mean she was looking forward to dating Kouro, okay!

"Just taking a walk to spend time with friends, but if Mei-senpai thinks like that I won't reject it. " Kouro said frankly while shrugging his shoulders without noticing Mei's face was so red that it was even emitting smoke like a steam train.

"Huh? Mei-senpai your face is so red! Did you catch a fever due to fatigue? Shall I take you to the hospital?" Kouro asked worriedly, he even touched Mei's forehead with both of their faces very close.

"I-I'm fine! I told you not to use words like that to a girl you just met!"

Mei's eyes seemed to roll in a strange cute animation style while hitting Kouro gently.

"Ouch! I'm sorry Mei-senpai, you don't have to hit me like that!" Kouro said with a pained expression as if Mei's punch was very painful.

In Kouro's mind, it wouldn't be bad to have a girlfriend like Mei who was caring, independent, and gentle.

But unfortunately he wasn't planning to have a girlfriend for now.

They then unconsciously looked at each other before laughing together.

"Haha!"x2

Maybe now Kouro wasn't interested in love, but maybe in the future.