Holder of the Ultimate Skill of Carelessness

[How did I end up in this situation...?]

I surveyed the mess before me. What kind, you ask? It's the mess of the room in front of me. A broom, shoes, tissue box, or even a knife, and many more objects were scattered messily on the floor. I had to be extra careful to walk in between. You know what? You could die just from falling in this death space. [And this was supposed to be cleaned a few days ago, wasn't it?]

I looked at the culprit, who immediately avoided my gaze. "Kirisu-sensei, how did you mess up this room?"

"C-Confused. W-What kind of question is that?"

"My wording may be impolite, but you should understand it."

Kirisu-sensei groaned. "It just kind of did..."

I still wasn't satisfied, of course. "What could you possibly mean by that? Are you saying that this happened because of your talent for messing up spaces?"

Kirisu-sensei seemed somewhat offended, even though she had no right to be. "Impolite. The answer to your question is cannot be measured logically."

"...You do have a point. There's no way someone could mess up every corner of their room this badly after just a few days of cleaning."

"I thought you were a well-mannered student before this..."

I frowned. "Where did I go wrong? I'm just stating the fact that you're a messy person!"

Just after finishing the cooking session with Mahiru, I stumbled upon Kirisu-sensei asking for my help into her room for something. Naturally, as a kind neighbor and student I was, I followed her instructions to provide her with whatever it was that she needed, and that I could provide. This. This is what she wanted me to ask for help with. Cleaning up the unnatural mess she caused. 

"Well, whatever," I gave up searching for the reason, snatching the knife on the floor into its place. "Let's just clean it up again."

"...I'm sorry," Kirisu-sensei mumbled as she did the same to the other items.

"That's not needed, but I ask you to try to think more about the cleanliness of your surroundings."

Kirisu-sensei nodded wordlessly, but just a few seconds after that, "Nhn?!" she groaned in pain.

"Kirisu-sensei?" I rushed over to her at once, who was now crouching down, then squatted down myself and looked at her leg. "...A needle, huh? Please be still, I'll pull it out quickly."

"Y-Yes," Kirisu-sensei complied, keeping her legs in place.

The needle was not big, as needles should be, so Kirisu-sensei wouldn't experience much pain. It was the same if I pulled it out of the sole of her foot quickly. I quickly pulled it out. As expected, Kirisu-sensei didn't react at all.

"A-Are you done?" Kirisu-sensei stammered. Her voice was a bit nervous.

"Yes," I showed her the bloody needle. "You feel the pain? Even if not, it should at least be covered in a plaster or some kind."

She tried to move it, a worried look on her face. "...It doesn't hurt." She stood up, using her uninjured leg to do that as much as possible. The wound was trivial. It seems Kirisu-sensei was rather timid. "...I think I have a plaster."

"Want me to get it?" I stood up too.

"I can do that myself."

I shrugged. 

It took some time, but not too long to clean the apartment room.

I was forced to realize that Kirisu-sensei had an absurdly careless nature, leading me into thinking that as the reason her room could be this messy. She had almost, or had, in fact, fallen over more than a dozen times during our attempts to clean her room 'till now. Whether it's a sprain, bumping into things, or slipping. How does that work, honestly? Does she have an Ultimate Skill of Carelessness or something?

After everything was tidy, Kirisu-sensei said "What do you wish for?"

I was a little out of it when I heard the question. "What do I wish for...? In exchange for this, you mean?"

"Obvious. What else if not that?"

I thought about it for a moment. "...I don't think I have anything to ask of you."

Well, my true desire is to ask her to be my girlfriend, but obviously that's not possible. And I have no intention of forcing her to be conscious of my MILF fetish or anything like that. [—not so soon.]

"How about if I cook you some food?" Kirisu-sensei suggested.

I shuddered. [She's terrible at cooking, isn't she?]

[No, let's put that aside for a moment.] To start with, other than the possibility of harming my tongue, what else would I gain by accepting her offer? It might not sound like a big deal to anyone else, but I'll get the possibility to teach her to cook!

Yep, that's it.

I want to raise her flag if possible, you know?

With a faint smile, I responded. "I would love to try it."

***

"Yeah, this is inedible."

I didn't need to test it in my mouth to decide that. That food— no— that horribly flavored black thing on the ill-fated white plate would definitely mess up my stomach if I consumed it.

"Preconception," Mafuyu-sensei countered. "It's just the appearance that's terrible."

"Have you tried it?" I looked at her skeptically.

She returned my gaze with confusion. "What for?"

I facepalm. "To find out if it's tasty or not, of course... Before that, what is this food? No, let me rephrase that, what is this thing?"

"It's just meat..."

"Meat... that has been turned into charcoal," I wrinkled my forehead deeply. "No matter what you say, I won't be eating it."

Kirisu-sensei's scowl deepened. "You're really ungrateful."

"At this point, I don't care anymore. How do you plan on finding a husband with that capacity?"

"That has nothing to do with this, doesn't it?!"

"I guess..."

Kirisu-sensei reacted in annoyance. "You're becoming so disrespectful now."

"I'm sorry," I scratched my head. "Guess I have a bad habit of getting carried away easily. It never did me any good in my circles, see."

Kirisu-sensei was silent, not knowing what to say for a while. "How about the attitude you've shown so far? Even if it's just for a day..."

"It was to avoid this from happening, obviously."

Perhaps I seemed like a bored man with my passivity. I barely had any will of my own. I find that fact nauseating and dull myself. [That's probably why I decided to engage with them.] I had that thought, though not for certain.

Granted, one of my main goals after arriving in the city was to build up as many connections as possible, and enjoy the fruits of those connections respectively. But before that, I didn't really care about such things. I wasn't friendless, or anything, but I clearly had very little interest in building friendships. I think it's because of my nature, which is self-centered by nature. That being said, I came to the city for many reasons.

"I think I would change, though," I faced Kirisu-sensei, causing her to inexplicably widen her eyes slightly.

"...Admirable. You can ask Sensei for support if there's anything she can do."

I was a little bit confused but, "I'll be sure to remember that."

***

Monday, March 11th, 2024

5:00 PM

Yoshikawa-kun helped out again with my mess. It seems that even he was shocked by the recklessness I normally create... But even so, he changed his personalities so quickly and so much that I couldn't help but be taken aback. Why did he become so disrespectful all of a sudden like that? ...Well, I knew he didn't mean anything bad by it. In his own way, he's concerned about me. I must truly be more careful in the future. I wouldn't like to show my embarrassing side so much to my student, after all.