Vol. 1 Chapter 21 – All-Out Attack Strategy

The holidays ended, and the long-awaited school life resumed.

Thrilling math classes, lunch breaks spent with my two friends, and even the mid-term exams looming just around the corner.

Fulfilling days! Rose-colored youth! How wonderful life is!!

Lost in a melancholy that required such forced positivity, I spent my time in the classroom as if dead.

“This area comes up often on the common tests, and I’ll include it on next week’s exam too, so make sure you memorize it properly.” (Toida-sensei)

Toida-sensei, our homeroom teacher who also taught world history, said from the lectern.

I didn’t want to think about next week’s exam at all.

My grades had been on a steady decline since peaking right after enrollment.

While they initially hovered barely around average, now it was considerably faster to count them from the bottom.

What’s more, the exam rankings were posted for the entire student body to see—a special kind of hell.

The more I thought about it, the more depressed I became, falling into a vicious cycle where I couldn’t focus on class.

By the time lunch break arrived, I had class-changed from a ‘Giant Slug’ to a ‘Rotten Corpse’.

However, amidst all that, the one thing I could feel good about was that Asahi-san and Hino-san were acting normally towards each other.

“Ayaka~, let’s go eat~!” (Hikaru)
“Don’t rush me… I’m still packing up…” (Ayaka)

I had worried there might still be some lingering ill feelings, so I felt a wave of relief.

However, judging from Asahi-san’s message that arrived the day before yesterday, nothing had fundamentally been resolved yet.

I still felt that Asahi-san was dealing with some kind of problem.

Although I had encouraged her skipping, as someone who had gotten somewhat involved, I couldn’t deny a small desire to help resolve the underlying issue.

That said, I was ultimately just a gaming buddy she’d known for about a month.

I had no way of knowing the detailed circumstances, and if she told me to mind my own business, that would be the end of it.

If I were the kind of person who could maneuver skillfully enough to find out, I wouldn’t be living this gloomy otaku life right now.

In the end, no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t make any headway, and the day’s classes ended.

After school, I quickly left the classroom to head over and help Ichiru-san again today.

As I left the school building and walked towards the main gate—

“Hey, did you see the guy at the main gate?”
“Yeah, yeah. He was super hot.”

I happened to overhear a conversation between two girls walking from the opposite direction.

“He was tall too, looked like he could be a model or something.”
“I’ve never seen him on campus, maybe he’s a college student somewhere? If he’s someone’s boyfriend, I’m jealous~… I want a handsome boyfriend like that too~…”
“But wasn’t the weird shirt he was wearing kinda off?”
“Totally! What was up with that?”

The two chattered excitedly as they passed by me.

…I had a really bad feeling about this for some reason.

Praying that it was just needless worry, I headed towards the main gate again.

However, that prayer was instantly shattered.

There he stood, in front of the main gate where students finishing classes were coming and going.

A tall man, leaning against one of the gate pillars.

Twenty years old, a sophomore at Toutei University.

Hobbies: gaming and programming. Favorite Shout: Fierce Force.

Asahi Hikaru’s older brother—Asahi Taiju was here for some reason.

Just as I wondered if he was here to pick up his sister, Taiju-san looked up and our eyes met.

“Oh, there you are!!” (Taiju)
“Uh, hi… What are you doing here? In a place like this…” (Reiya)
“What do you mean, what am I doing? I was waiting for you.” (Taiju)
“W-Waiting for me? Why…?” (Reiya)

I searched my memory, wondering if we had made any plans, but I couldn’t recall anything.

Of course, we hadn’t even exchanged contact information, so that was natural.

“Well, how should I put it… like an all-out attack strategy… or maybe starting with the outer moat…” (Taiju)

That phrase sounded familiar, like I’d heard it somewhere before…

“Anyway, I’m thinking I want to get friendly with you. We have common interests, after all.” (Taiju)
“O-Oh…” (Reiya)
“Well, standing around talking here isn’t great, so let’s go somewhere. Ah, speaking of which… your part-time job is at an eatery, right? I’m suddenly feeling kinda hungry—” (Taiju)
“…Do you really want to get in touch with Ichiru-san that badly?” (Reiya)

Since he was being so roundabout, I decided to cut straight to the point.

“Wh-wh-wha… What are you talking about!” (Taiju)
“It’s pretty obvious when you’re being that blatant…” (Reiya)

Besides, it was clear he’d fallen for Ichiru-san at first sight when we met last time.

“I-Idiot! B-Blatant!? Like hell I’d fall for Mizumori-san at first sight, desperately want to get closer to her, and think about winning you over first!!” (Taiju)
“Well, I didn’t go that far, but…” (Reiya)

At this point, it was beyond blatant.

“But still, wanting to get close enough to ambush me here like this… one wrong step and you’re a stalker, you know…?” (Reiya)

I’d seen plenty of people fall for Ichiru-san before, and quite a few had tried to win over her cousin—me—first.

However, he was the first one to actually come all the way to the school.

“R-Really!?” (Taiju)
“Some people would probably see it that way.” (Reiya)

Had he really not considered that possibility? Taiju-san started sweating profusely, like a waterfall.

He seemed like a simple person, probably not bad, and since he was Asahi-san’s brother, I didn’t want to be too harsh.

However, if asked whether it was okay to let him get close to Ichiru-san, honestly, it was quite iffy.

He had incredibly high base stats, but it felt like he had too many unnecessary special abilities loaded onto him, making him a difficult character to use…

“P-Please, keep this strictly confidential…!!” (Taiju)
“Whoa, hey… Don’t do that here…” (Reiya)

I stopped Taiju-san, who looked like he was about to perform a full dogeza.

“This is all the fault of reality not displaying choices!!” (Taiju)
“Okay! I get it! Just please, lift your head!” (Reiya)

The surrounding students were starting to notice, wondering what was going on.

I really didn’t want to attract unnecessary attention two days in a row.

After that, I spent some time calming him down, and somehow managed to get Taiju-san settled.

“S-Sorry… I got a little too worked up…” (Taiju)
“Seriously, give me a break…” (Reiya)

We finally took a breather in a deserted spot a short distance from the main gate.

“Anyway, if you want to see Ichiru-san, why don’t you just go alone? She’ll welcome you anytime as a customer.” (Reiya)

Besides Taiju-san, there were plenty of other male customers who frequented the place hoping to see Ichiru-san.

She wouldn’t think anything special of it if one or two more showed up now.

If anything, she’d probably be genuinely happy about the increase in customers.

“No… going alone is, kinda… how should I put it…” (Taiju)
“What is it?” (Reiya)
“It’s lonely, isn’t it…?” (Taiju)

H-How pathetic…

His patheticness was so overwhelming that even his rugged features started to look a bit disappointing.

I wanted my initial assessment of this guy back.

“Well, I guess just bringing you along is fine… as long as you promise to spend money.” (Reiya)

However, Taiju-san appearing before me here felt like some kind of revelation.

“R-Really…!?” (Taiju)
“Yes, but… in return, I have a favor to ask, or rather…” (Reiya)
“Y-Yeah! What is it! I’ll do anything!?” (Taiju)
“Could you tell me a little bit about Asahi-san?” (Reiya)

Prying further might be meddling.

But Taiju-san appearing before me here today felt like some kind of revelation.