#42 Troublesome situation

"Thank you for accepting our offer, Walker-kun!" Manabe said while holding my hand.

We were currently sitting at the table and she was sitting right in front of me while her friends were next to my right and left. Definitely harem dream for most of the teenagers, however, unfortunately, I am not a teenager anymore, if it was past me I would perhaps get embarrassed. After all, if one overlooked their personalities then they could be considered as beauties, of course, they still paled in comparison with girls like Ichinose, Horikita and even Karuizawa.

Now that I think about it, I never saw in this school any plain/ugly looking girl. It almost feels like this school was built by the perverted government. Or maybe they are geniuses and this is all part of the plan to train those teenage boys some restraint.

"Walker-kun?" Manabe called out to me. I guess I spent too much time in my thoughts but it will at least make me look like I am being overwhelmed by this entire situation.

"Oh- sorry, I was thinking about something" I gave them apologetic smile while scratching back of my head with my free hand.

"Hmm, Meanie, thinking about something else when you have 3 girls around you..." Manabe said while pouting, trying to look sexier.

"Who said I wasn't thinking about you girls?" I threw them a light smile and all 3 of them genuinely blushed which left me bewildered.

Aren't you the ones who are trying to seduce me? Why are you acting all embarrassed like that...

"Umm Felix-kun, we would like to solve the problem between us and Karuizawa peacefully but she doesn't even want to confront us. I know that we were pretty harsh on her before but she could at least give us a chance" Manabe said while caressing my hand.

"I see..." I nodded at her words.

"You see, we want to know who Karuizawa-san is to you and if you can help us solve this problem. Oh! I hope you don't mind me calling you by your first name. I just wanted to say it aloud since it's a pretty cool name."

"I see, Karuizawa-san is just my classmate and you are free to call me however you want. If you really want to apologize to her and solve this conflict with a sophisticated method then I might be able to help you"

"Really?!! Could you do that for us and Karuizawa-san, please~?" Manabe stood up, locked my hand in her both hands and leaned closer to me with sparkling eyes.

"Oh- o- of course. There is no problem. I can leave you a message when I will think of a plan how to get Karuizawa to confront you" I intentionally staggered while talking and even loudly gulped when I saw her so close to me. I didn't forget to wear a silly-embarrassed smile while saying that.

"Nice! Here you have my contact information. We will have to go back to our rooms but you can contact us anytime you want if you ever have a desire to hang out with us" Manabe handed me a paper with her contact, stood up with her friends and winked at me as they were slowly leaving.

I waved at them with a friendly smile but immediately after they turned around and their backs were facing me, the smile I previously had completely disappeared and was replaced by cold expression.

Before they completely disappeared from my view I saw them giggling about something. If I were to take a wild guess it would be something 'Men are so simple, hihi'.

If I play my cards right, I can kill two birds with one stone. Making Karuizawa mentally much stronger and blackmail Manabe and others. Although I still don't know how useful they will be, but having a few eyes inside the other class is always a good thing.

But for that to happen I will have to make some changes to Karuizawa. If Manabe and the other 2 girls group up to bully her, she won't stand a chance even if she will have the resolve to fight back, not to say that there is still that Rika girl who could make it 4 against 1 in the worst scenario.

I started to go back to my room while thinking about this issue.

Seeing how they didn't mind getting a little bit more intimate with me shows that they really hate Karuizawa to the core.

I arrived at my destination and entered my room, I saw that no one was inside. Recalling who are my roommates made me think that they are probably playing games at the arcade and they probably won't return until late at night.

With that in mind, I took my phone and I dialed Karuizawa's number.

"...Yes?" It took her some time to accept my call and even then, she answered with a slight delay.

"Hi, would you like to come to my room, Kei-chan?" I went straight to the business.

"WHA-! Y- your room?! Why?!" She started shouting in embarrassment.

"Why is it that you always yell during the call? Yes, my room. My roommates aren't here and I would like to discuss something with you, it's about Manabe and others" I complained while taking off my school jacket.

"...Alright, I will come" I heard her take a deep breath before answering.

"Good, come here in 30 minutes. I still have something to do. Oh- and by the way, take a towel with you, you might find it useful."

"What?! Why towel?! What do yo-" She started yelling again but this time I was fast enough to end the call before my eardrums popped off.

Hirata would definitely dislike what I am about to do but I am not a nice person. I believe in words an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It might create some kind of cycle of hatred but I am no benevolent person to try actually stop that. My opinion is that everyone who has enormous hatred for someone should make their own judgment and not to let others influence them. As long as it will make them happier or satisfied then I think that violence is good. Why think about others when your own life is so short? As long as you don't regret your actions, you made a good decision, no matter what other people think.

I took off all of my clothes and went to take a shower. That's the main reason why I also told her to come in 30 minutes.

After 20 minutes, I finally exited the bathroom with only a towel covering my lower part of the body.

*sigh* I can't help myself from taking long baths since it always refreshes my mind. I sighed in relief and then got ready to dry my hair but I was interrupted by someone knocking on the door.

It's been only 20 minutes, Karuizawa shouldn't be here so early. Did my roommates come back? I thought while walking towards the door.

When I opened the door just a little to look who it was, that person swiftly wide opened the door and quickly entered my room and then even more quickly closed the door behind them. Thanks to my reflexes I was able to avoid having my nose broken by the door.

" *sigh* Do you have any idea how hard it was to get here without getting noticed by others?!" Karuizawa complained to me aloud with her eyes closed while leaning her back on the door.

"You are here earlier than I said..." I completely ignored her complaints and said in an annoyed tone.

She also noticed my tone so she opened her eyes and turned at me and it was at that moment...

"Aaaah! Why are you half-naked?!" She screamed while covering her eyes, her entire face was covered in red.

"Because I just took a bath? That's why I said to you to come in 30 minutes. You are here 10 minutes earlier and you are still screaming at me" I said without showing any embarrassment.

"Sorry, I will wait outside!" She quickly bowed down and wanted to leave but I stopped her before she could open the door.

"Why leaving when you are already here? Wasn't it hard to get here without getting noticed?" I said and turned around to go take my clothes from the wardrobe.

She was absent-mindedly looking at my back for a few seconds before she woke up.

"Now that I see your scars much closer and in a better light...They don't look like man-made scars." She asked with a curious expression.

"You have good eyes" I shortly said while dressing up my t-shirt.

...

"...Are you going to keep watching or will I have to finish dressing up at the bathroom?" Although I wasn't feeling any shame being around her half-naked, her steady gaze still made me feel uncomfortable.

"Ah! Sorry!" She blushed even more and finally turned around.

...

"So...Why am I here?" She asked me, still with a slightly red face.

"Manabe and others want to take it to another level with you... That means the physical level" I said and watched her changes in expression.

Upon hearing my words, she looked shocked but she didn't seem shaken too much by this information, at least compared to her old self a few days ago.

"W- what do you think I should do?" She asked me with pleading eyes.

"You should do whatever you want as long as you won't regret it. I didn't call you here just to tell you this information, if that was the case I could just send it in a message."

"...do whatever I want?" She mumbled and then looked up at me and I continued explaining.

"If you want to solve it with violence or peacefully...that's your decision but you are here right now to learn at least basics of the basics of self-defense" I explained.

"What? Wait, you want me to use violence? Isn't that forbidden by the school? And even if I somehow could, how can I learn anything within a few hours at most?" She immediately bombarded me with questions.

"I am not forcing you to use violence but saying that it's forbidden is laughable. Weren't you bullied at the school where bullying was forbidden too? Also, I said "basics of the basics", you will be able to learn that in a few minutes and if you are talentless then 1 hour at most but it will still be enough to protect yourself against them. I also recommend that we start with your 'training' as soon as possible because I have no idea when my roommates will come back."

"..." She remained quiet and just resolutely nodded her head.

We started with a few counter-attacks in case she would be at a disadvantageous position. For example: When being restricted by someone from behind, stomp on his feet or jump and hit his chin with your head.

I also showed her how to properly throw a punch or kick someone without hurting yourself. Sometimes she had a problem to follow my movements out of fear, perhaps it reminded her of her past but she still continued trying and overall she wasn't really bad.

...

After around an hour, we were finally finished with our training and even though it was only an hour, she was all sweaty and had problems with breathing. Should I teach her bits of that weird technique for stamina training? I will think about it after seeing how she deals with Manabe.

"As I said...isn't that towel useful now? I joked a bit while watching her catching her breath.

"haaah...shut up, I can't go...anywhere like this. I will...take a shower here" She looked at me hatefully and she even had to take pauses between her words.

"I don't think that's a good idea. My roommates can come back at any time, we are already lucky that we were able to finish the training but what will happen if they will come back while you will be bathing? Don't you think that it will be pretty hard to explain? After all, they still all think that you are dating Hirata-kun." I said with an uneasy expression.

"I don't care! It will be your problem to solve!" She quickly grabbed her towel and went to the bathroom but before she closed the door she looked at me suspiciously and said

"Don't you dare peek!" With that said, she slammed the door shut.

I just watched all of that with a weird expression. I just helplessly smiled and shook my head.

....

"Can you lend me your spare clothes?" I heard her voice behind the doors

"Huh? Why?" I asked her.

"My clothes are all sweaty, how can I use them when I just bathed?" I had a feeling that she had rude thoughts about me after hearing my question.

"Tsk, fine but don't forget to give them back" I said and took some random clothes from my wardrobe.

I knocked on the bathroom's door and she lightly opened the door and I put my hand with clothes into the little gap left between door and wall.

"Thanks" She quickly took the clothes from my hand and closed the door, almost crushing my hand in the process. What the hell...Is she still angry at me for this training? I thought while circling my wrist.

After a minute she exited the bathroom, fully dressed in my clothes but it was still visible that she just had a bath from her wet hair.

"Can you go now?" I quickly asked, I kept having a bad feeling and it wasn't going away, instead, it was only nearing, that's why I was urging her to leave.

"Hmph! I hope you didn't peek" She was suspicious after seeing my uneasy expression.

"Don't worry about it. I swear but you should already leave, I have very bad feeli-" Before I was able to finish my sentence I was interrupted by the sound of the unlocking door.

For fuck's sake. I threw an annoyed look towards the door and I saw that Karuizawa started to panic a bit.

The person opened the door and Ike was the only one who walked in.

"Hi, Walker-kun! I have just tried what you sai-" When he saw me he greeted me but he froze when he saw the unexpected visitor.

"Karuizawa-san?!" He looked at her wet hair and then he kept on looking between us with a bewildered face.