Waka Hangout~

Upon awaking the next morning, the first thing I took notice of was the tiny calendar that was resting at my desk, basically screaming at me, not really, that today was already the 30th of October. Meaning I only had today to prepare what was to come tomorrow morning. I was already freaking out on the inside, couldn't believe the time passed so quickly and I had to face something I was dreading for the past couple of months.

Never did I have to directly involve myself before in the other fights, considering no one's life was really threatened, but this time was different.

So to take my mind off the depressing thoughts, I started to look thru my phone. And found out I received a bunch of texts from everyone that was at the festival yesterday. The praises were for either the festival's kissing booth or our girls' rock band performance. Even Mr. Nomura, my teacher let me know how the principal was overjoyed by our success.

I tried to respond to everyone, thanking them for their kind words, knowing how much fun they had, made me somehow warm and fuzzy inside.

But there was one text that was standing out from the rest.

"I'm looking forward to tasting your lips again, and soon." Was this a possible threat from Ran? And this gem was followed by.

"Are you coming to our son's fight? You know to cheer him on?" Did he believe this was like coming to your child's football practice?

"Is this really something you should encourage? Take responsibility for your child." I primarily wrote it as a joke and I wasn't expecting an answer to come right away, being fully aware of Ran's long sleeping schedule.

But being reminded of this small fact prompted me to change his nickname in my contacts to something else.

"Sleeping Beauty." Totally fitting indeed. I gave myself a chuckle, stretched, and walked down the stairs for my usual food intake.

Most of the talk was surrounded around the events from yesterday and of course, mom was delighted when she got to know Souya actually did participate in the kissing booth like she wanted to.

Once we finished eating and we siblings helped mom with the dishes, she went back with me to my room, wanting an update on my progress on other matters.

"So how is it going? Have you found someone that has the skill you were searching for?" I shook my head reminding myself of the fact.

"No one had any speaking skills higher than A." So Kisaki must have been really lucky to snatch one for himself, which made me wonder if I would have better luck in checking out some stats on politicians instead. Perhaps I could manipulate Tora back to sanity?

"Don't worry mom, I will figure something out." She suggested having a family meeting so we could figure out something together with older brother. But I was skeptical, perhaps I would have better results by speaking to him during the fight. Him cracking under pressure? Was that a possible strategy I could use?

"Michi, I'm happy you're trying your all to help your older brother, yet I wish that you would sometime take better care of yourself. Too much stress isn't good for you, who knows maybe you could end up in the hospital again because of it." She did have a solid point, it also made for a pretty reasonable warning.

"Okay... I will figure out a way to deal with the excessive levels of stress." Since I had training with Wakasa, I could ask him how he himself dealt with it.

Mom kissed my forehead and once she left, I started to prepare for today's workout session. This time I decided to take my motorcycle there, for convenience's sake.

As soon my foot stepped inside the gym I went to my pretty instructor and asked.

"Say... how do you deal with stress?" He blinked at the sudden question but answered nonetheless.

"Just don't give a shit." Considering his often-tired look, I could certainly tell that's the method he was using all along.

"Is that really the advice you want to give someone in my situation?" He must have realized what I meant and quickly corrected himself.

"How about you just knock Keisuke out and tie him to your bed or something? He can't possibly die inside your room under your supervision." Fair point, but I could see such actions putting a strain on our relationship, and I didn't want to see that occur.

"You're not wrong, but Keisuke will most likely throw a fit, escape and run straight into danger. But the biggest obstacle in that plan would be, how would I explain this to my parents. Holding a guy in my room like a hostage against his will?" My parents were aware of the system's existence and me obtaining some whack-ass powers at times, but I never mentioned to them anything about me knowing anything regarding the future.

"So that's the stuff you omitted." Yes, so Wakasa was truly the only person that was aware of the whole extent of my story. A mission suddenly popped up.

'Would you rather hang out the whole day with Takeomi Akashi or Wakasa Imaushi?' I looked at my instructor and quickly asked.

"Do you have time to hang with me? I just thought it would be better to waste time with someone to distract myself from what's to come tomorrow." I got my answer, and he agreed to help me out and I would get 3 points for that endeavor. Sweet.

We cut the chit-chat short and started with the training instead, but in the middle of it, I was questioned.

"So how strong are you planning on becoming? Every time I see you your strength improves significantly. When are you planning to stop?" I just merely admitted.

"I will become so strong, even Mikey won't have an easy time against me, gotta raise my mom authority so if he ever does something stupid I can stop him." It must have sounded bizarre to Wakasa, so he sought out additional information regarding that topic.

"Wait... lemme get this straight, by mistake you changed Mikey into a toddler and your first instinct was to go to Ran Haitani to pursue help on the matter? And he treated baby Mikey as his own son?... This is the most ridiculous shit I heard in my life. What did you even feed the guy, for him to be acting like this?" I just stood there, frozen in place.

"Ummm... love?" I wasn't sure what answer he was expecting. But then out of the blue, a thought hit me.

"You think he is capable of raising someone else child like his own?" Wakasa just facepalmed since this conversation took an unexpected turn, for the worse.

"What are you even talking about?"

"Like imagine, me getting together with another guy but he runs away at the news of pregnancy, and Ran welcomes me with open arms, would he raise the kid as his own?" Wakasa proceeded to smack me in the head.

"What are you even thinking about at this age?" Oh, right sometimes I forgot my current age.

"Right I'm 13, at times I have this strange thought it being about time to get married, and then I see my mirror reflection and remind myself I'm still in middle school... how about you, have you found a girl you fancy?" Wakasa got fiercer with the training.

"Where are those thoughts even steaming from?"

"My brain must have been fried by reading too many Reddit posts in the past... yeah."

"The hell is Reddit?" We left that topic at that.

We proceeded with the exercise not getting distracted by any other discussions, but once we wrapped it up, I looked at my phone, and a new message from Ran awaited me.

"Mikey takes after me, I'm a proud father knowing that my son is a leader of a gang." I read, getting a side-eye look from Waka.

"You two are ridiculous." But rather than disagreeing my brain decided the best action to take was.

"Mikey deserves two loving parents." I even fake sobbed for them dramatics.

"Have fun playing house with that guy." Was his only response, but I could tell he was begging me not to involve him in this family circus. My clever brain decided it would be a good idea to ask Ran for advice, his response was nothing but suspicious.

"I know the perfect way to get rid of stress, come over to my house, and I will show you a fun activity or two~" There was a winking emoji at the end.

"Wakasa... this is totally sus, and I'm not imagining it right?" It only took him a quick glance to agree with me.

"If I were you, I wouldn't trust this guy in the slightest." I wonder if part of it was due to our age difference.

"Aye aye captain!" I said while saluting to Waka, his reaction being rolling his eyes at me.

We decided to go to a nearby restaurant for a meal, we discussed further details that took place within the manga, and in turn, I got to know some shocking information.

"Are you for real? For him to be a time traveler as well."

"You weren't aware?" Wakasa asked as I shook my head.

"I had no chance to finish the manga, I guess this information would have come out eventually. Yet not like knowing any of this will change anything." The only important thing was saving everyone.

"Sometimes I ponder about... Mikey seems to have really bad luck... I wonder if I could win a fight against him just because of this single aspect." Considering every stat probably mattered in a fight. Who knew maybe I could win by some wacky coincidence of a bird popping onto Mikey and obstructing his vision, but Wakasa didn't seem to like this strategy.

"Won't you feel better about yourself by winning just based on your strength, agility, and endurance?" Hey being witty in a fight was also important.

"Whatever... beating him up right now isn't necessary." But in two years, it may be essential. Totally enough time to stack up those stats.

"But Waka... I'm worried, what if I grow enormous muscles? And become known as Muscle Michi?" He started to laugh just at the image alone.

"See it from the positive side, you may lose your harem because of it." Thanks, Wakasa, this comment totally didn't make me feel any better in the slightest.

I looked up on the system's screen and I was informed that there were still a couple of hours left to complete the mission, however, only now did I realize there was a certain distance I needed to maintain at all times to not fluke it and when I informed Wakasa of the fact he didn't seem happy. Yet I had this brilliant idea.

"Oh let's hang out at your house, what do you say?" Which did ensue.

At his place we were watching TV until I became restless and demanded some hugs from the man, everything was nice and dandy until someone started to repeatedly ring and knock on the door.

"I'm coming." He said quite annoyed under his breath, but I refused to let him go. He sighed even more irritated but I was carried to the door, hanging on him like a koala.

"We bought some beer." We heard Takeomi say, Benkei standing behind him.

"I knew something was going on between you two." I agreed with him only to add.

"Precisely, partnership in crime, we are trying to do the biggest heist in history so they can make a movie about us called Ocean 8." Yes, Waka can totally pass for a generous woman.

"Why do I have a feeling you are thinking about something weird?" I gasped impressed by Wakasa's intuition.

"Wow, I was actually wondering how you would look in a dress... talk about intuitive." Takeomi laughed, perhaps forgetting about his recent accusations because he just wanted to drink with his buddies. Yet later he tried to chase me away, but I stood my ground, I wouldn't pass 3 additional points before the fight.

After a few hours of drinking, I could see why Takeomi thought it was a good idea for me to not be around. He completely lost himself in the alcohol consumption and was piss drunk. He could recognize his two friends and staying at Wakasa's apartment, but somehow down the line, he must have forgotten about my existence because he believed I was some random stunning woman he never met before.

At first, I was taken aback by his flirting, but afterward realized it was top-tier blackmail material.

I took some selfies where he tried to kiss me, and made some recordings. I was so excited to see his dreadful face once he sobered up causing me to cackle like a villian.