Act 14: Scene 2

Left with no other choice, the redhead pulled out the camera that she brings with her everywhere, before hitting the record button.

If she can't help him by stopping those other students, then she'll do this to ensure that they won't get away with harming her classmate!

Back with Akito and the Class C delinquents, they continued to kick and stomp at the magenta-haired boy for about ten full seconds before stopping for a moment to look at their work.

Low groans were the only things that came out of Miyake's mouth afterwards. He could still move, but the pain was still too much for him at the moment so he remained in his place. Oh, and he could already tell that one of his eyes is going to be swollen after this, because one of their kicks got him good in the face.

"Hehe. Did you really think that you had a chance, Miyake?" one of his adversaries said arrogantly.

Despite the agonizing pain that he felt everywhere, Akito still managed to flash a little grin. "H-Hardly. It's three-on-one... you three can't even take me one-on-one."

That quickly got under the skin of the other Class C student. He grabbed Akito by his collar and dragged him back up, forcing him to support himself on his feet.

"The hell are you saying, punk?" he grabbed the beaten boy's collar, and brought him closer.

Airi continued to record the scene that was happening before her, but that didn't stop her from praying for Miyake's safety. The state he was in was already bad enough. Miyake was eye-to-eye with his enemy now, only a few centimeters apart. The other student looked as though he was going for the kill, but Akito looked back at him with a defiant glare.

"You three... are cowards."

The Class C student was furious, but "I'd choose my words carefully if I was you, Miyake. You might not be able to say anything at all when we're—"

He was cut off from his words when Akito reared his back and delivered a massive headbutt to his jaw, causing the teen to let go of the beaten boy as he quickly nursed his jaw.

"You talk too much," Akito snorted, putting up his fists in a sloppy stance before punching the other two students who were concerned for their classmate after that headbutt.

"Please run away, Miyake-kun!" Airi shouted in her mind out of worry. She didn't know how, but her classmate managed to sneak a decisive blow that gave him an opportunity to retaliate. But instead of running away as he should have, he stayed right where he was and prepared to fight.

"You've done it now!"

Akito was unable to react in time to defend himself against a joint attack that targeted his stomach, forcing him to cough uncontrollably while kneeling over in pain. He was then kicked away, sending him rolling a few meters.

And so began another barrage of stomps and kicks from the Class C students who were now angrier than ever. They put in a lot more strength in their legs, completely eliminating any possibility of Akito fighting back with how relentless they were this time. They even added some punches to the mix, kneeling down and slugging the poor boy in the face a few times.

About a minute later, they finally stopped their assault.

"That's enough," the 'leader' told his classmates after getting a good look at the state that Miyake was in. "I'm sure he learned his lesson by now."

The magenta-haired boy couldn't move at all for a few moments, because his body was hurting all over. Bruises appeared all over his skin, and some parts even began to swell. His lip started bleeding as well, but he was still conscious and aware of his surroundings..

Despite that, Akito was still able to say something, although it came out in a low and raspy voice as a result of the beatdown he received.

"Is... that what you all think? I... did something wrong? Remind me... who dragged me all the way here again... and beat me up for no reason?" he asked, managing to assume a sitting position despite the pain in his upper body. Akito also began to laugh, as if he was amused with how these people conducted their train of thought, like the bunch of idiots that they were.

One of his adversaries didn't like the sound of what he said and prepared to give the poor boy another beating, but was stopped by his classmate.

"No, don't fall for it. That's all he can do right now, anyway," the 'leader' told his classmates before looking around if someone saw them. Fortunately for them, nobody was around and it didn't seem like no one was coming out of the building's back door. Still, it didn't mean that they should remain in this place. "We better get out of here."

The two other students with him nodded. After taking one last look at Akito's pitiful state, the three hurried out of there before they could be seen. The magenta-haired student of Class D couldn't do anything but watch them run away, and it's not like he could even do something in the first place.

From her hiding spot, Airi heaved a huge sigh of relief. She was just about to panic when those other students said that they were leaving, fearing that they would notice her and realize that she had been recording them the whole time. Luckily, they ran away in the opposite direction, which brought a great sense of relief to the girl.

Now that they were gone, Airi stopped recording and turned her attention towards Miyake, who managed to drag himself to the wall of the establishment, leaning against it while groaning in pain.

She could come out of her hiding spot right now and help her classmate, perhaps by wiping the blood from his mouth and nursing a bit of his injuries.. Or she could leave now and continue on her way to the library. She already recorded what just transpired, so her job was finished. She could just walk away and not look back, leaving Akito here...

Between leaving and helping her classmate, Airi chose to do the latter.

The girl emerged from her hiding spot and quickly approached Akito, kneeling down to his level. The boy seemed to have recognized who she was and looked relieved upon seeing her. Airi quickly brought out a hanky that she brought with her and wiped the blood off his lips. She turned her attention to the bruises on his body, but didn't have an idea on how to deal with injuries... so all she could do was kneel there, completely unable to help her injured classmate.

"I'm so useless...! I can't even help one classmate out of his misery!" the girl cried in her thoughts, feeling displeased with herself and how she couldn't do anything while Miyake was in pain.

However, she wouldn't have to stare at him helplessly for very long.

"Is someone there?"

The back door of the building then opened as a man walked out, looking confused. The man was sure that he heard various voices back here and wanted to check if there was something going on outside.

At first glance, Airi quickly recognized him as the person who owned the establishment from her past visits to this place, and she was quickly filled with immense joy. She would be able to help Miyake-kun after all!

Tomose, who was the owner of the Heaven on Earth sentō, then turned his head to see Airi and her classmate who was leaning against the wall in a pretty bad state. "Woah, what the hell happened to him? Is he alright?" he asked out of concern.

"P-Please... Please help him," Airi pleaded with teary eyes.

~XoX~

It was the start of the month, and the start of many things for Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. It's the start of a new month of school, a new month full of headaches, a new month of exams, but most importantly, a new month of receiving their designated point allowance from the school administration.

He was currently walking to class with the girl who recently became his roommate last Friday, Amasawa Ichika. Unlike him who was wearing the official school uniform, Ichika wore a purple hooded jacket over a simple pink shirt, along with pants and white sneakers. All in all, she had a casual appearance compared to the students of the school, which was fitting for her status as a 'guest'.

"Senpai, are you excited for today?" Ichika asked the young man walking beside her.

"It depends on what you mean by 'excited'," he answered in his typical monotone voice.

No. He was not excited. He could never be excited for another day of headaches, but it's not like he could do anything about it.

This day was also gonna be worse than many other days, for sure... considering the revelation that came into light last week that involved his 'growing' relationship with three of his classmates. Kushida, Matsushita, and Karuizawa all took turns kissing him in front of their classmates, not caring even if they were caught in the act.

It only showed that those girls were romantically interested in him, not that he didn't know that already, but their classmates were a completely different story.

Actually, he wouldn't be surprised if the whole school now knew of what happened. With how talkative his classmates can be, they might as well announce it through the intercom that Kushida, Matsushita, and Karuizawa kissed him and let the whole school hear of it.

"Excited to see your girlfriends again after the weekend, I mean~" Ichika teased.

"They're not my girlfriends. We see each other practically everyday, so there is no need to get excited about anything," he sighed.

Well, they weren't his girlfriends yet, that's for sure. But they will be, eventually. It was still a question how would he be able to convince his heroines of a harem ending, especially when Kushida is so possessive of him, but it's what the system wanted, right?

"Come to think of it, none of them have sent me a message or called me since last week... not that it bothers me, but I wonder what they're up to. They've been strangely quiet since Amasawa arrived..." he thought.

Yeah, now that he thought about it... it is weird that none of the girls have contacted him at all ever since the past Friday.

Ever since he started high school here, there has never been a day where one of his heroines didn't contact him through a simple message or a call. The girls who did so the most were Kushida, Horikita, and Karuizawa. But none of them did either of those things throughout the weekend.

He had no concrete reason as to why that was the case. The most likely one though would be that they are planning something and they were keeping it a secret from him. Another would be that they are suspicious of Ichika because of her... actions towards him last week and now they want to investigate her.

Of course, in the end, he might just be worrying for no reason. It's not like it was a requirement for those girls to call or text him everyday. The situation simply made him curious, is all.

"If you see them everyday, then why don't you date one of them, senpai? You spend most of your time with them, and most of them have kissed you already like Kushida-senpai, Karuizawa-senpai, and Matsushita-senpai~"

"I can't and don't want to go out with one of them," Kiyotaka shot down Ichika's suggestion as quickly as it came out.

Ichika's smile widened out of interest. "Oh? Is it because you don't want to hurt one of them?"

"Think what you want," he deadpanned, although he knew full well that what his kouhai said was true.

"Senpai, there's an easy solution for that, you know?" the girl giggled for a few moments before sending him a wink. "Instead of dating one of them, why don't you just date all of them? That would solve your problems, wouldn't it?"

"If only it were that easy," he sighed.

Although his knowledge about dating simulators and visual novels wasn't that vast, Kiyotaka knew that a 'harem route', or an ending wherein every girl wins and no one gets rejected, was possible. He was completely sure that the system itself wanted that harem ending, simply because of its overpowered skill that activates whenever his heroines are sad.

The only thing is, how exactly would he be able to pull that off in real life, with his own heroines. Not to mention, Kushida would immediately reject that notion because she's possessive and wants him to herself. Karuizawa also has a possessive streak but thankfully, she's not crazy like Kushida.

He can't say the same for the other girls, but it's clear that they also wouldn't accept him going out with multiple girls at the same time. While cases of romancing multiple girls in real life could happen, it was looked down on generally.

At the moment, he had no way of working towards that end goal.

After they reached the classroom a few minutes later, both Kiyotaka and Ichika became the victims of everyone's attention. The young man expected this, and could only hope that it's not as bad as the whole school knowing... but it still sucked that he was now the center of attention.

His heroines were already there as well... Horikita, Kushida, Matsushita, Karuizawa, and Sakura were all staring at him. He was never one to get nervous from other people, but when you have four girls (Airi is still pure of heart, thank God) who are all staring at you with unknown intent in their eyes, it was hard not to.

Despite that, Kiyotaka still knew that he had to go to his seat because he didn't want to stay here and stick out like a fish out of water. Maybe if he sits down, his classmates would just ignore him and go about their business... at least he hoped so.

At the same time, his four heroines stood up from their seats and began to walk towards him. He was already preparing to be interrogated by them because they must have lots of questions. Plus, they were surely waiting for the whole weekend to be over for this to happen, right?

"Well, so much for hoping. This is gonna be a long conversa— huh?"

Much to his surprise however, the girls ignored him completely and went straight towards his roommate instead, who was sitting right next to the door.

They all surrounded Ichika, possibly with the intention of asking his roommate about who she is and her... actions last Friday.

While he was confused at his heroines' behavior since they just ignored his presence as if he wasn't there, Kiyotaka wasn't going to comment on it. This was a clear chance for him to be left in peace for as much as he can before another shitstorm takes place...

However, he wasn't going to be left alone so easily.