Act 17: Scene 2

Seriously? That's what she wanted to ask him? This felt like a humorous attempt to get his attention more than anything. That or she just wanted to bother him since their teacher wasn't here.

"Do whatever you want. What do you need my permission for?"

She grinned before leaning closer so she could whisper her next words to him. "Well, it's because I'm under your care, isn't it?"

"Good thing you still know when to keep your voice down."

Ichika simply giggled at the expression on her senpai's face before another person made their way towards the two of them. And from the sight of her eyebrow twitching madly, it's clear that this person wasn't in the mood for a tea party of any sort.

"Amasawa-san, would you mind keeping your distance from Kiyotaka already?" asked Karuizawa, who inserted herself in between Kiyotaka and Ichika to keep them away from each other.

"Oh, don't be so jealous, Karuizawa-senpai. I was planning to leave the classroom anyway," Ichika laughed in amusement before sending a wink towards the blonde girl. "Enjoy having some time with Ayanokouji-senpai to yourself~"

Barely able to hide her giggles, Ichika then skipped away happily and headed out of the classroom, leaving behind a frustrated Kei and a blank-faced Kiyotaka.

Kei gritted her teeth in frustration. "That girl... urgh, she gets on my nerves every time she opens her mouth."

"I wonder how she can just sit in our classroom and then leave anytime she wants... she did the same thing yesterday," Chiaki muttered curiously as she approached her two classmates. "Could she be a relative of someone who works here?"

"Don't know, don't care. I just don't like her being around Kiyotaka. It feels like she's up to something every time," she huffed whilst crossing her arms.

Chiaki sweat-dropped. "You're really doing a poor job of hiding your jealousy there, Karuizawa-san..."

"So what if I am? Don't tell me you're not bothered by that girl?"

After hearing that question, Chiaki's mind went back to the moment when they first talked to Ichika for the first time, which was only a few days ago.

Not only her, but there were three others who joined her in questioning the younger girl. They tried to get some answers from her to sate their curiosity and to find out how she is connected to Kiyotaka but unfortunately, it didn't end the way they wanted it to.

For Chiaki, well... let's just say she wasn't able to recover after what Ichika brought up in front of everyone else.

A blush took over the girl's features, before she cleared her throat to calm herself. "Well, I am. I can't really deny that, but I'm not gonna cause a scene in front of everyone just because I'm not comfortable with Amasawa-san around."

"Ahhh, whatever!" Kei whined in frustration before giving Kiyotaka a serious frown. "Kiyotaka, you should stay away from that girl. I don't trust her one bit."

"Calm down, Karuizawa. You're letting someone who's younger than you by one year get to your head easily," he told her while at the same time, he was thinking about what the younger girl had in mind. "I trust her not to do anything that will attract attention."

Kei pouted at him before looking away with a huff, displeased that the young man wasn't even taking her seriously. The girl even looked like she could cry at any moment...

He immediately saw the look of distress on her face and winced. Not wanting to risk the system activating and triggering that overpowered skill that can warp reality, Kiyotaka immediately stood up and reached out to pat her head, which made her eyes widen in surprise.

"Don't worry about Amasawa. She just gets a kick from teasing other people. I suggest you just do your best to ignore her."

The girl's cheeks turned pink at his gesture, as she looked down in a pointless effort to hide her embarrassment. That being said, Kei definitely looked like she was enjoying the comforting feeling brought by the headpat.

"You know what would make me feel better?" she mumbled.

"What?"

"If... If you start calling me by my first name from now on, then I'd feel better."

He raised an eyebrow. "You want me to call you by your first name?"

"Well, I've been calling you Kiyotaka since last week, so it's only fair that you do the same for me!" she snapped, forgetting that she was even embarrassed in the first place.

He scratched the back of his head and shrugged to himself. At least she didn't ask for something crazy like kissing her in front of everyone, which would have been worse.

"If that's what you want, Kei, then who am I to deny it?" he told her.

Kei's eyes widened in surprise, as if she couldn't believe that he actually did it despite her insistence. It didn't take long before her cheeks flared up once again out of embarrassment, and then looked to the side with a shy smile.

[You have gained 10 Affection Points with Karuizawa Kei!]

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Achievement: 'The First Name is Sacred'! You gained +5 in Charm!]

Kiyotaka only sighed at seeing the two notifications that just appeared and didn't even bother dismissing them, letting both disappear naturally.

Well, he has called her by her first name now. One of his heroines at that, and he successfully prevented the system from activating because of her being sad. That's a good thing, especially after the system 'talked' to him yesterday...

However, now he was wondering if he'll have to call his other heroines by their given names from here on out. Knowing how Kikyo is like whenever she feels jealous of another girl is already a big red flag for him. Not only her, but Suzune could also be displeased with this new development because, well... that girl can get easily jealous as well.

Actually, you know what? All of his heroines can easily get jealous of one another, barring a few exceptions. Tsubasa, Hiyori, Airi, and Honami are too pure-hearted to even be jealous of anyone while Sae isn't 'madly in love' with him yet for her to be even jealous. However, Kiyotaka definitely felt like Sae is the type of woman to be angry if her man was being taken away. Her mood swings in class don't happen for no reason, after all.

This is how it's gonna be then? He'll be more surprised if he isn't the subject of a tug-of-war between his heroines at this point because of how jealous they can be. Hopefully, it doesn't get to the point where they'll turn into bloodthirsty yanderes as a sign of their feelings for him.

Please, system-san, don't make that a reality. For Kiyotaka's sake.

"W-Well, it's a good thing that you're not that hard to convince!" the blonde girl exclaimed, bringing him back to reality. "I thought you'd be stubborn about it or something which would have been annoying..."

"Calling someone by their first name isn't really a big deal for me."

"Oh dear, now I feel that I'm being left behind... even though I was the one who gave you your first kiss..."

As he heard those words, Kiyotaka turned to their other companion, who was looking away in order to hide her face from them as if she was feeling left out. However, it was quite obvious that this was only an act to get his attention.

And it worked.

"Do you also want me to call you by your first name, Matsushita?" he sighed.

The long-haired brunette smiled to herself, feeling pleased that she managed to get his attention with almost no effort at all.

"Well... I guess that wouldn't be such a bad idea, would it? After all, we're already familiar enough with each other. Right, Kiyotaka-kun?" Chiaki asked, putting more emphasis when she said his name.

...yep, he called it.

Because of that, Kiyotaka wasn't surprised at her request and simply shrugged once more. This also means that he should be prepared for when Kikyo and Suzune find out about this, especially in the former's case.

"I suppose you're right, Chiaki."

A big smile appeared on Chiaki's face as soon as her name left his mouth and a healthy blush took over her features. Surprisingly, the young man found this to be a beautiful sight to see that it made him blush slightly as a result.

If he had to be honest, Chiaki was very beautiful. There's no question about it. In fact, he could say that she's a good contender for the title of 'prettiest girl in the classroom' and it wouldn't be crazy if she won that award. There was just something about this girl that radiated elegance above everything else, which actually makes her stand out among his female classmates.

Ironically, her 'heroine summary' stated that Chiaki prefers to hide her abilities from everyone else to avoid putting attention on herself. It didn't say anything about hiding how beautiful she is from other people though, and most of their classmates acknowledge it.

[You have gained 10 Affection Points with Matsushita Chiaki!]

After a few moments of silence, Chiaki smirked and sent a wink at the person whom she had her eyes on for quite some time now.

"Ara~ I like how sensible you can be, Kiyotaka-kun."

Brushing her bangs to the side, Chiaki leaned down and planted a sweet kiss on his cheek before pulling away almost immediately afterwards.

Kiyotaka stared at her in surprise, while Chiaki only smiled. He didn't expect her to kiss him out of nowhere but then again, it's not like she had anything to hide from their classmates. They had a front-row view of the kiss she gave him last week, after all.

Her eye twitching in annoyance, Kei gritted her teeth at the scene that's happening in front of her. It only became worse when Chiaki turned towards her with a smug look on her face.

"You're not getting ahead of me, Matsushita-san!" she growled.

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it, Karuizawa-san?" Chiaki smirked.

Kei didn't answer her. Instead, she turned her attention towards Kiyotaka and grabbed his face, before leaning closer towards him with a huge blush on her face.

The 'Masterpiece' didn't do anything to stop Kei as her lips descended upon his own in a loving kiss, even though the rational part of his brain was screaming at him to do it. He only stared at the girl and didn't do anything more than that, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy the sensation of her lips. This is only the second time that they had kissed, yet it felt just as good as the first time.

After a few seconds of keeping their lips together, Kei pulled away with her face as red as a tomato, but didn't look like she regretted her actions one bit. She bore an embarrassed look for a while, before slowly coming to terms with what she did and found herself becoming happier as a result.

And so, the young man became the victim of two kisses from two of his heroines and the worst part is that it didn't stop there.

Or is it?

"Is it because I enjoy this or is it just because I know that resisting it is futile? Or is it because of the system, as always." Kiyotaka asked himself, questioning his own helplessness when it came to his heroines.

After taking a moment to get over her embarrassment, Kei immediately turned her attention towards her 'love rival' and flashed a smug look of her own.

"Heh. Bet you can't do the same as me, Matsushita-san."

Chiaki merely smirked in response, unaffected by the taunt.

"Ara, I think you forgot that I was Kiyotaka-kun's first kiss, Karuizawa-san. Shall I provide a demonstration?"

The smug expression on Kei's face vanished right away and was replaced with a look of panic that was masked with anger, especially when the brunette went in front of Kiyotaka and grabbed his face as well, looking like Chiaki was about to do the same thing as she did.

And once again, Kiyotaka remained in his seat, unable and unwilling to do anything against what the girl had in mind. It's like he was a sponge that was ready to absorb anything that was thrown at him.

"D-Don't you dare...!" Kei warned, looking as if she was about to blow a fuse.

Just before she could lean in to close the distance between them, the brown-haired girl giggled to herself and shook her head, feeling amused upon seeing the angry look on Kei's face.

"Oh, very well... I shall hold back on kissing him for now. I don't want to put too much pressure on you, Karuizawa-san," Chiaki teased with a smirk. "I only hope that you won't forget how I did it first before anyone else."

"Ugh, so what if you were Kiyotaka's first kiss? I can kiss him better than you!" Kei groaned.

"Hm, and how do you know that? He hasn't given his opinion, has he?" Chiaki replied. "Plus, I kissed him while we were at the bath together, which was both of our first kisses. It's something that he'll never forget and it's something that I'll never forget~"

Even though she knew that her classmate/love rival was only doing this to elicit a reaction out of her, Kei couldn't help but fall victim to it.

Chiaki did make a point, though.

What she did at the bathhouse was something that shook everyone there to the core, and even Kiyotaka admitted that he enjoyed his first kiss with her. The fact that it happened in an incredibly steamy setting only made it better. It truly was a first kiss that he would never forget.

Still, Kei refused to give in and defeat so easily.

"Kiyotaka, who's the better kisser between us?!" she asked the only person who could give them a clear answer on who was superior.

Kiyotaka only gave them a deadpan look and remained quiet, knowing that whoever he picks from the two of them will cause the other to be mad and he didn't want to find out what would happen if that was the case. He kept quiet even when Chiaki joined in and asked the same question

"Oh, just end me now..." he said in his mind as the two girls continued to invade his personal space like it was nothing.

Meanwhile, many of the boys in Class D sent glares towards the young man out of jealousy, all while wondering how he could be so lucky when it came to the girls.

First Kushida-chan, then Matsushita, and then Karuizawa... all of them have shown that they were interested in him romantically.

"That lucky bastard..." was the collective thought in all of their minds.