Act 9: Scene 3

Kiyotaka hoped that his next words could calm her down. "Oh, she's a friend who regularly comes over to my house."

"She comes over to your house?" she glared even harder at him. Unfortunately, it appears that what he said didn't seem to help her calm down at all. If anything, it only made her angrier. "It sounds like you're close with this girl..."

"Where's the system when you need it?" he rolled his eyes internally.

Despite his 'success' with his heroines, he was still a socially awkward teenager who had little to no experience with conversations like this. If only his superpower provided him with the three choices at a time like this, the situation wouldn't spiral out of control and Kushida wouldn't blow up...

"She doesn't come over because of me. It's because her best friend lives in the same house," he sighed.

Kikyo continued to narrow her eyes at him, having a feeling in her gut that there's something that Kiyotaka was hiding from her. She felt that there was more to this 'Nanase' girl than what he's saying.

"Tell me more about this 'Nanase'," she demanded, wanting to know about this new 'rival' as much as she could.

The first thought Kiyotaka had was to refuse her but thought better of it. If he becomes defensive, then the girl's response would definitely be unpleasant, and who knows how the system would take it?

"She's a year younger than me, and she's best friends with the son of the man who took me in."

"And what do you think of her?"

"She's not bad company, that's for sure. The questions she'd ask at every turn can be too much because she gets curious easily, but it didn't really bother me. She also helps out with household chores even though she doesn't live there. And even though I've only known her for about a month, I already see her as someone that I have to look after."

After giving her his answer, Kiyotaka noticed that Kikyo was staring at him in surprise, as realization slowly struck him.

"That wasn't what I had in mind. Why did I say those words?" Kiyotaka asked himself in confusion.

For some reason, he felt that it wasn't the system dictating his actions this time. It's more like he himself had those thoughts in mind the whole time, and he intended to say those words the moment Kikyo asked him that question about Tsubasa.

"Do I really feel that way towards her?" he mused.

Huh. Who knew that his own thought process could interest him like this? Although it may be likely that the system caused him to be this way and it's not really a conscious change.

In other words, Kiyotaka is indeed going insane... kidding.

[You have gained 20 Affection Points with Nanase Tsubasa!]

[You raised Affection Points despite being far away from a designated heroine! You gained +2 in Aura!]

His eyes widened for a quick second after seeing that notification, before putting on his usual expression once again. It didn't stop him from feeling surprised, though, because this was something that never happened before.

"Seriously? Even though we're far apart?" he asked himself as he stared at the notification regarding Nanase.

You know what, he really shouldn't be surprised by the system at this point. Of course it would be capable of increasing Affection Points with his heroines even if they're not nearby. The moment he talked about Nanase, it was already guaranteed that...

~XoX~

"Achoo!" Tsubasa sneezed while she was heading to her classroom. "Was someone talking about me?"

The girl shrugged and continued on walking, as she thought of her senpai whom she had to bid farewell to about two months ago. It definitely felt different whenever she went to Eiichiro's house nowadays because he wasn't there anymore, but it's nothing she couldn't handle.

It was only a temporary goodbye, anyway. It's not like she won't see him again, because she'll be going to the same high school as him after she's done with middle school.

And then, all of a sudden, a smile made its way to her face as she felt a wave of immense joy filling her up.

Tsubasa wondered why she couldn't stop smiling right now, when she was only thinking about Kiyotaka who must be busy at this very moment.

"Senpai..." she mumbled to herself.

Yeah, she definitely felt happy and oddly jealous as well for some reason.

Of course, since she had no idea what jealousy felt like, Tsubasa didn't notice it. All that mattered to the young girl was the growing joy inside of her.

~XoX~

"You seem to think of her as someone more than a friend..." Kikyo grumbled, realizing that there might be someone who's a bigger threat to her than Suzune herself.

"Well, of course I do. She's my kouhai. Naturally, I have to look after her because it's my duty as her senpai," he said as if it was the most obvious answer in the world, only for him to realize what he did. "I did it again... where did that come from? Am I doing that unconsciously?"

Just as Kikyo was about to ask him another question, the voices of some other students from a nearby table caught their attention because it looked like it involved their class...

"Hey, could you guys be Class D students, by chance?"

A group of boys gathered around the table where Horikita and her study group were seated. Almost immediately, Sudo didn't like their presence but hid his growing anger behind a simple frown.

"So what? Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, no, there's no problem. I'm Yamawaki, from Class C. Nice to meet you," The student named Yamawaki chuckled. "I have to say, I'm glad that they separate the classes in this school by ability. That way I don't have to study with losers like you."

"The hell you say?" Sudo's anger flared. He was just about to stand up only for Onodera to grab him by his shoulder and keep him in his seat.

"Don't get mad. I only told the truth. I wonder... if we happened to fight, how many points would you lose? Oh wait, you guys have so little points left, don't you? In that case, you'd be left with nothing."

The red-haired teen glared at him for a moment, before clicking his tongue in annoyance. "Tch. You're not worth it."

While Onodera smiled proudly at his moment of maturity, his other classmates were surprised that he didn't lash out in anger which would have been his expected reaction. However, this was good because if he picked a fight with these students, then there would surely be consequences.

"Really? Sounds to me that you're just scared," Yamawaki taunted.

It wasn't Sudo who spoke next, but rather Horikita.

"You're right. We don't know how many points we'll lose if that happens. Sudo-kun may even be expelled as a worst-case scenario. I don't particularly mind that you're bad-mouthing us, but you're in Class C, correct? I don't think there's something that you should be bragging about," she said.

Yamawaki continued to flash a mocking smile. "There were just errors of calculation in placing Class C and A. But you guys in D are on a completely different level."

"That's quite an inconsistent standard of measurement. The way I see it, everyone outside of Class A is lumped together, including you."

Yamawaki stopped laughing and now glared at Horikita.

"You know, for a defective student, you're pretty sassy, aren't you? Did you think you could say whatever you like just because you have a cute face?"

Suzune took a sip from her cup of tea. "Thank you for your desperate and irrelevant statement. I was never concerned about my appearance much, but after being praised by you, I must say I feel rather uncomfortable."

"Tch!" Yamawaki wasted no time and stomped over towards their table. Sudo was ready to stand up and defend his classmates should something happen, but Yamawaki's classmates quickly pulled him back before something could happen.

"Hey, you're letting them get to you. If we're the ones who start fighting, then word will get around and we'll be the ones in trouble."

Yamawaki contemplated his actions for a moment, before he stopped in what he was about to do. Instead, he went back to mocking the students of Class D.

"You do know that you'll be expelled if you fail the next test, right? I'm looking forward to seeing how many of you get kicked out," he grinned smugly.

Suzune looked as disinterested as ever. "Unfortunately for you, no one from Class D will be expelled. Before you worry about us, though, perhaps you should worry about your own class. You are clearly wasting your time here."

"Hahaha! Us, fail? Don't joke around," one of the other Class C students joined in on the fun.

"We're not studying just to avoid failing. We're studying so we can improve our test scores. Don't lump us together with failures like you," Yamawaki added.

"Says the guy who'd rather run his mouth than open a book," Ken snickered.

Yamawaki grimaced, as he didn't take kindly to that insult. "Why don't you put your money where your mouth is? I bet you can't even get a passing grade in the exams! Let's have a bet with our points, unless you're too scared about getting a failing grade!"

The red-haired student from Class D only rolled his eyes and went back to eating his lunch. Now he understood why Kayano stopped him from picking a fight with these guys. "You're pathetic."

Not only Yamawaki, but the rest of his classmates from Class C all felt insulted from that and in that moment, they momentarily forgot all about keeping their composure so that they don't cause trouble and draw attention towards them. In that moment, all that mattered to them was making the red-haired punk from Class D pay for what he said and remind him that he was the defect around here...

"Okay, that's enough. Stop right there!"

...until the voice of a female student shouted at them, stopping Yamawaki and his classmates in their tracks.