Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de - Volume 13 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: In the Battle’s Aftermath

About a year had passed since we’d fought our final battle. It was the decisive clash between me and Kiryuu—the ultimate showdown between Guiltia Sin Jurai and Kiryuu Heldkaiser Luci-First. That battle was truly the culmination of everything that had happened in our story up to that point...and it was a climax that defied description, no matter how hard I tried.

Words could not do it justice. Prose could never depict it. It was such an outlandishly over-the-top battle that your only choice would be to describe it in a brief, vague summary form, or otherwise to cut the scene entirely and only discuss it in retrospect. It was a battle the likes of which had never been seen before and would likely never be seen again. The chances of another conflict even remotely living up to it were simply nonexistent.

Seriously, though, what a fight! Looking back now that it was all over, it almost felt like the whole thing—my battle with Kiryuu, the Spirit War’s existence on the whole, the fact that we had ever possessed absurdly potent supernatural powers, all of it—had been a dream.

Anyway, that was all over now, and another year had come and gone. All sorts of stuff had happened during that year...and over the course of it, I’d started going out with a certain girl.

“She sure is late...” I muttered to myself. It was the afternoon of a day in our summer vacation, and I was waiting at the bus stop where we were supposed to meet, staring at my watch and heaving the occasional sigh.

I was a third-year in high school now, and I was making the most of the very last summer vacation of my secondary education. Well, making as much of it as I could, anyway—studying for my entrance exams and going to cram school didn’t leave me with all that much free time to spare. My day-to-day life was steeped in academics, but today, I was taking a break to go out with the very first girlfriend I’d ever had.

It would also, in fact, be our very first date. As such, I’d dressed way more stylishly than I normally would (in an outfit that my older sister had chosen for me, needless to say) and arrived at our meeting place thirty minutes ahead of time...only to wait around for forty minutes without any sign of my date showing up. I’d tried texting her a few times, and so far, all of those messages were still marked as unread.

“Late to our first date, really...? What the heck is she doing? The bus is due any minute now. I hope she’s not in trouble or anything...”

I didn’t have to worry for much longer. Just a short while later, I spotted a girl walking along the street in the distance. She was making her way toward me, her pace slow and leisurely. She wasn’t making any effort to hurry up at all, from what I could tell. In fact, she was walking in such a calm and composed manner that you’d never think she was running late looking at her. This was, to be fair, pretty much par for the course for her.

Even after noticing me, my girlfriend didn’t pick up her pace at all. All I could do was shrug and run over to her instead, calling out her name as I approached.

“Hey, Chifuyu!”

Chifuyu was wearing a sort of cutesy dress and a big, broad-brimmed hat. She was also toting a large backpack, and she was clasping her ever-present stuffed animal, Squirrely, in her arms.

“Mnh. Andou. Morning,” Chifuyu said as she noticed me. If she knew she was late, she certainly wasn’t letting it show.

“Morning, Chifuyu. You’re late, you know?” I replied. “And you weren’t picking up your phone at all! I was worried something might’ve happened to you...”

Chifuyu pulled her smartphone from her pocket, and a very slight look of shock came across her face as she checked its screen. Apparently, she hadn’t noticed that I’d been trying to contact her. She had a habit of putting her phone into silent mode so it wouldn’t wake her up while she was napping, and this time, it had come back to bite her.

“Sorry, Andou,” Chifuyu said, her gaze dropping to the ground. “I got ambushed and ended up late.”

“A-Ambushed?! By who?! Or what?!”

“By the sandman.”

“Ahh... Okay, I get the picture. Nothing you could do about that,” I conceded as my shoulders slumped with dejection. It was just so classically Chifuyu, there was nothing else I could say.

“What’s wrong, Andou?” Chifuyu asked.

“Nothing, really—just a little deflated, that’s all. I feel like a moron for getting all excited and showing up a half hour early,” I explained.

“You were excited?”

“Ah... Umm, well...”

“Excited for our first date?”

“That’s, uh... That’s not it, exactly...”

“It isn’t?”

“I... I mean... Oh, for the— Fine, yes! Yes, that’s right, I was! I was stupid worked up over it, okay?! I was so excited and nervous that I barely slept a wink last night!” I shouted, abandoning all pretense and just laying it out for her to see.

“Oh,” Chifuyu said with a slight blush and a satisfied smile. “You’re cute, Andou.”

“Bwaugh?!”

Agggh—a fifth-grader just called me cute. What even is this emotion I’m feeling? It’s like the weirdest mix of embarrassment, irritation, and excitement all at once...

While I was busy writhing in the clutches of an emotion totally unknown to me, the bus trundled its way along the road toward us.

“Andou, the bus is here,” Chifuyu said as she took my hand. It was a bit embarrassing, but I returned her grasp, and the two of us ran back to the bus stop together.

“Andou?” said Chifuyu. “I didn’t sleep much last night either.”

“Huh...?”

“I was too excited for today,” she explained with a smile that was downright enchanting. It was a preposterously adorable, dangerously charming expression indeed. I was, without question, the luckiest man in the world to be with such a pure and charming partner.

It was the summer of my third year in high school...and I had begun a relationship with Himeki Chifuyu.

We’d chosen a local water park as the destination for our date—the same one we’d been to almost exactly a year prior during last year’s summer vacation. We’d had Kuki with us that time, of course, which made this the first time that Chifuyu and I were here as just the two of us.

“Oh man! This kinda takes me back,” I muttered as I glanced around the lobby. We were lined up at the ticket booth, waiting to pay for entry. “Remember how we came here last year with Kuki? Actually, speaking of Kuki, how’s she been lately?” I asked.

“Normal,” replied Chifuyu.

“Gotcha. Nothing beats normal, I guess. Oh... By the way, did she say anything about our date today?”

“Umm... She said it was ‘out of the question’ and that ‘going to the pool alone with him would be totally shameless.’”

“Yeaaah...figures.”

That wasn’t much of a surprise, considering how violently opposed she’d been to our relationship back when we’d first told her we were dating. She seemed to have reached a sort of quiet acceptance of it recently, but it only took the slightest prompting for her to start meddling and dictating restrictions for us all over again.

“So, what did you say to her?” I asked.

“I asked if she was trying to force me to stop being her friend, and she changed her mind right away.”

“Should’ve guessed...”

That was just a straight-up threat, huh? I was suddenly feeling a lot of sympathy for Kuki. She could be a bit of an overprotective helicopter friend, sure, but ultimately, Chifuyu held absolute authority in their relationship. The balance of power was precariously one-sided.

“Was it really a good idea to force the issue like that? For all we know, she might be watching us from somewhere right now,” I said.

“It’s fine,” Chifuyu insisted. “I said that if she follows us, I’m through with her.”

“You’re sure giving her plenty of chances to end your friendship, huh...?”

What are you, a grade schooler? Oh, wait. Right. You literally are.

“Hmph... Andou,” Chifuyu said with a sulky pout, “no talking about other girls when you’re with me.”

“Huh...? O-Oh, sorry. Not even Kuki, though?”

“No.”

“O-Okay, then. I’ll cut it out.”

“Mnh. Good,” Chifuyu said. Her pout shifted to a satisfied smile.

Man. It sorta felt like we’d been this way consistently ever since we started going out. It was like she held the reins in our relationship—or, more bluntly, like she had me completely whipped. The fact that I, a high school boy, had had the initiative thoroughly seized from me by a grade school girl struck me as pretty darn sad...but on the other hand, I could also look at it in a more positive light by saying I was like a heroic knight having the selfish princess he was sworn to protect leading him around by the nose. Actually, wait, I like that a lot. It sounds so much cooler that way.

Anyway, while I was preoccupied by all that nonsense, we reached the front of the line. I bought a pair of tickets from the woman at the counter—one at the price for high schoolers and the other at the price for elementary schoolers.

“Okay, then. Here’s your ticket, and here’s the ticket for your little sister,” the receptionist—who seemed like she was very thorough about her work—said as she handed our tickets over.

Chifuyu’s expression suddenly darkened. “No, I’m not,” she huffed.

I had just...just the worst feeling about where this was going.

“I’m not Andou’s sister,” Chifuyu repeated.

“O-Oh, is that so?” the receptionist awkwardly replied. “Are you a more distant relative, then, or...?”

“I’m his girlfriend,” said Chifuyu. She stood tall and proud as she straight-up declared it, and oh boy, did that ever make the receptionist look uncomfortable. I, meanwhile, could feel a waterfall’s worth of cold sweat pouring down my back. “Andou and I are dating.”

“Uh...”

“We’re in love.”

“...”

“We’ve even kiss—”

“Ahhh, my sister! She’s my sister! You were right, we’re totally siblings! Sorry about that, she’s been going through a real precocious phase lately! Okay thanks bye!”

Around the time the color drained from the receptionist’s face and she started reaching for the phone on her desk, I grabbed Chifuyu by the hand, rattled off an excuse, and fled into the park at top speed.

“Come on, Chifuyu... What were you thinking?” I emphatically whispered. “We promised that we’d pretend to be siblings when we’re out in public, didn’t we?”

“Mngh...” Chifuyu grumbled. She didn’t seem satisfied at all. “But I’m not your sister.”

I didn’t know how to reply to that, and the look of bitter frustration on her face tugged fiercely at my heartstrings. Still, there was no way that a high school boy dating an elementary school girl would receive anything other than a poor reception. The only legal prohibitions regarding this sort of thing were about adults being in relationships with minors, apparently, so two minors like us dating wouldn’t technically be an issue in that regard, but the people around us most definitely wouldn’t look upon our relationship anywhere near favorably. I would, without question, be written off as a lolicon scumbag.

That was exactly why only an extremely small number of people knew about our relationship. If I could’ve had my way, I would’ve loved to have been more open about the two of us being together, but society, its rules, and the world at large disagreed. Moreover...

“Sorry, Andou... I’m being selfish.”

...Chifuyu herself was no longer immature enough to not understand all of that.

“Let’s just put up with it for a little longer, okay, Chifuyu?” I said as I patted her gently on the head.

“How long is a little?” asked Chifuyu.

“Uh... Until you’re in middle school, or somewhere around there, I guess? Actually, no...that’s probably out too, on second thought. It might be a better idea to wait till you’re in high school after all...”

“That’s...really long.”

“I-I mean, sure, but considering we’ll be together forever, I’m sure it’ll feel like it goes by in the blink of an eye!”

“Together forever?”

“Yeah. A six-year age gap will feel like nothing before you know it.”

“Together forever...”

A faint blush spread across Chifuyu’s cheeks as she muttered quietly to herself, savoring the sound of those two words. I got the sense that she was fantasizing about something for a moment, but before long, a trace of anxiety came across her face.

“Hey, Andou...?” Chifuyu murmured. “Will you mind when I’m an adult?”

“Huh...? Wh-What’s that mean?” I asked.

“Will you still love me when I’m not a grade schooler?”

“Will I— Of course I will,” I said. I asserted it very definitively. “I’m pretty sure I already said this back during the cultural festival, but I’m not a lolicon. Remember?”

Lolicon: an abbreviation of the term “lolita complex.” Per its original meaning, it referred to individuals who are sexually attracted to immature girls from the ages of nine to fourteen. That attraction was not a permanent one—the moment a girl became a woman, a lolicon’s love for her would vanish into nothingness.

“I don’t love you because you’re a grade schooler, Chifuyu. I love you because you’re you.”

“Yeah...I know,” Chifuyu said with a little nod. “I’ll put up with it. Us dating can be a secret until I’m a bit older.”

“Great. Thanks, Chifuyu.”

“Hey, Andou?” Chifuyu said, gazing up at me as she fidgeted with the hem of her outfit. “I want a reward for being patient.”

“A reward...?”

“A kiss.”

“Pff!” I did a spit take. Chifuyu, meanwhile, was still staring straight at me. “W-Wait a second...”

“I want a kiss, Andou. Here and now.”

“A-Are you serious...?”

“Yeah. You haven’t done it even once since the first time...”

“Okay, but, I mean, that was, well, you know...”

“Do you hate me?”

“O-Of course I don’t! I don’t... But, like...”

“If you don’t kiss me now, we’re through.”

“Wha—?!”

“We’re through. I made up my mind. If you don’t kiss me right now, we’re breaking up.”

Chifuyu doubled down on her absurd demand, and I had no clue what I was even supposed to do anymore. I quickly glanced around the vicinity. We’d just passed through the entryway to the park, and while there were a decent number of people around, most of them were focused on hurrying in toward the attractions, so nobody was paying any real attention to us.

Could this actually work out...? Nooope, nope nope nope, hold it right there. Whether or not you’d get away with it isn’t the question here! There’s definitely something wrong with this! Why should I have to kiss her in a place like this? It’d be downright embarrassing, for one thing, and I was hoping that our first kiss after we started dating would be somewhere a little more, you know, romantic... But then again, maybe being decisive and just going for it would be the manly thing to do here? Is that what she wants from me?

At the end of my bout of mental anguish, I finally decided to resolve myself and do what had to be done. But then...

“Kidding,” said Chifuyu. Then she stuck out her tongue at me.

I blinked. “Huh?”

“I was kidding. I didn’t mean any of it. I was just teasing you.”

“...”

“I wouldn’t kiss you in a place like this. I’m not that stupid.”

I let out a long, looong sigh as I slumped to the ground on the spot, too exhausted to remain upright.

Yeah. Okay. She really does hold the reins in this relationship, no question about it.

“We can kiss some other time,” Chifuyu muttered in a quiet, somehow suggestive tone before holding her arms out toward me. “Hey, Andou? I’ll wait for the kiss, so for now, carry me.”

“C-Carry you?”

“Yeah. Carry me.”

“I mean, sure, I guess.”

“I’ll be your sister today, and that means you have to spoil me like a real older brother would. So...carry me,” Chifuyu said, blushing slightly once more.

She was acting far too cute for me to deny her request, so I scooped her up in my arms without a second thought. “Alley-oop!” I grunted.

“Is this okay? Am I heavy?” asked Chifuyu.

“Nah, it’s fine. You’re super light.”

“Good. Hee hee!” Chifuyu giggled.

I could feel her breath on my neck, which was a weirdly ticklish sensation. I felt her not particularly substantial weight in my arms, as well, and while that involved touching her waist and rear end as a matter of course, it didn’t feel weird in the way you might expect. Mostly, I just keenly felt how precious she was to me—a feeling that filled my heart to its brim.

“Okay, Andou. Full speed ahead.”

“You got it! We’re gonna have a blast today, Chifuyu!”

“Yeah!”

And so, I set off into the water park with my beloved girlfriend in my arms.

Honestly...is it really okay for me to be this happy? I wondered, saying a silent prayer that this wouldn’t all turn out to be just a dream.

Thousand Winters Route: The End

About a year had passed since we’d fought our final battle. It was the decisive clash between me and Kiryuu—the ultimate showdown between Guiltia Sin Jurai and Kiryuu Heldkaiser Luci-First. That battle was truly the culmination of everything that had happened in our story up to that point...and it was a climax that defied description, no matter how hard I tried.

Words could not do it justice. Prose could never depict it. It was such an outlandishly over-the-top battle that your only choice would be to describe it in a brief, vague summary form, or otherwise to cut the scene entirely and only discuss it in retrospect. It was a battle the likes of which had never been seen before and would likely never be seen again. The chances of another conflict even remotely living up to it were simply nonexistent.

Seriously, though, what a fight! Looking back now that it was all over, it almost felt like the whole thing—my battle with Kiryuu, the Spirit War’s existence on the whole, the fact that we had ever possessed absurdly potent supernatural powers, all of it—had been a dream.

Anyway, that was all over now, and another year had come and gone. All sorts of stuff had happened during that year...and over the course of it, I’d started going out with a certain girl.

“Thanks for waiting, Juu!”

“No problem. Shall we?”

“Sure!”

It was a summer vacation afternoon, and I’d just met up with Hatoko at her house. We were on our way to a nearby park for what you’d probably describe as a hike or a picnic, depending on your perspective. It wasn’t much of a destination, and we wouldn’t have to travel far at all to get there, but technically, this was still our very first date.

“It’s such a nice day out, isn’t it?” Hatoko said as we walked along the hiking trail by the riverside.

“It is, yeah. Oh, right—I can carry that,” I added, reaching for the bag Hatoko was holding.

“O-Oh, no, it’s fine! It’s not that heavy,” Hatoko protested.

“Come on, just hand it over. Think about how lame it looks for a guy to be walking empty-handed with a girl who’s carrying a bunch of stuff.”

“Well, umm... Okay, then. Thanks,” Hatoko said as she handed me her bag. As she passed it to me, our hands happened to touch for just a moment...

“Ah!”

“Gah!”

...and we both jerked away reflexively with a pair of startled yelps.

“S-Sorry,” I said.

“N-No, I’m sorry too,” replied Hatoko.

“Right... Wait, what’re you even apologizing for?”

“Well, what are you apologizing for, Juu?”

“Oh. Fair enough...”

“Yeah...”

That rapid-fire exchange was followed by a few seconds of silence...

“Pff!”

“Ha ha ha ha!”

...after which both of us burst into spontaneous laughter.

“Ha ha—I guess we’re really not used to this, are we?” I said.

“We sure aren’t,” Hatoko agreed.

Hatoko and I had met when we were little kids, and we’d been together ever since. We’d gone out together plenty of times, and we’d been close enough for our hands to brush against each other on many occasions as well. Now, however, it only took the slightest touch for both of us to end up getting all awkward. We’d been closer to each other than anyone else for ages, but somehow, every little thing we did together felt fresh and new now.

“By the way, Hatoko,” I said, “have you, y’know...told your parents about us?”

“No, not yet... What about you, Juu?”

“Nah...me either.”

The Andou and Kushikawa households were very close—close enough to go on a family vacation together every single summer. My parents and hers had known each other since we were in kindergarten...and in a weird way, that closeness made telling them that we’d started dating a ridiculously embarrassing prospect. The fact that everyone in the equation knew each other so well made everything so, so much harder.

“Honestly, though, we might not even have to bother telling them,” I said. “Like, it’d feel just as weird to keep it secret on purpose, and I have a feeling they’ll figure it out on their own pretty soon one way or another.”

“Yeah... Actually, when you put it that way, I think my parents might’ve figured it out already,” said Hatoko.

I gulped. “Seriously?”

“I’m not so sure about my dad, but my mom seems like she’s caught on. She had this big smile on when I told her I was going out today, and... I don’t know, she just gives off this really strong impression that she knows, I guess.”

“I think I get that... Actually, I’m kind of in the same boat. I think my sister’s caught on too.”

“Machi has?”

“Yeah. She’s been, like, weirdly nice to me lately? I’ve caught her smirking at me a bunch of times recently too.”

Up until recently, whenever I talked on the phone in my room, she’d be banging on the wall and telling me to shut up before I knew it. Lately, however, she wouldn’t make so much as a peep when I was chatting with Hatoko. Then, whenever I’d run into her after leaving my room, she’d say something like “Sure was a long call, huh?” to tease me. I didn’t think she was actually eavesdropping on me or anything like that, but I got the sense that she’d sussed out what was going on from the changes in my attitude and tone and stuff. I guess there’s just no pulling the wool over your sibling’s eyes in the end.

“You know, maybe we should go ahead and tell them after all,” I said.

“Yeah, maybe we should,” Hatoko agreed.

“It’s kinda embarrassing and all, but if I’m gonna have to have a really serious conversation with your parents someday anyway, I may as well think of this as a warm-up for the real thing...”

“Huh...? Wh-What do you mean, a serious conversation?”

“Well, like, I have to go through all those formalities if we end up getting married, right? Just because we’ve known each other forever doesn’t mean we can just brush past—”

I slammed on the brakes and cut myself off mid-sentence, but I was very late on the draw, so the damage was done. Hatoko’s face was beet red, and I had a feeling that mine was a similar shade.

“I-If we get married...?”

“No, I mean... I-It was a hypothetical, y’know?! I’m not saying we should get married right now or anything! I was just thinking, hey, maybe things might go in that direction sometime in the future or something...”

“I-I know! I know!” Hatoko said with a frantic nod before giving me a smile. “But also...I’m glad. It’s nice to know that you’re thinking about these things too.”

The gentle smile on her face made me feel so profoundly bashful, all I could do was look away from her. “You’re thinking about these things too,” she’d said.

Agggh, come on! How can a single word make me feel like I’m about to die of cardiac arrest?!

“Hey, Juu?” Hatoko said, stepping a little closer even as I turned away from her. “Can, umm... Can we hold hands?”

“Y-You don’t have to ask every single time,” I muttered. I didn’t turn back toward her, but I did hold out my hand, which she grasped after a moment of awkward hesitation.

“Hee hee!” Hatoko quietly giggled.

I could feel a grin starting to spread across my face, which I tried for dear life to hold back. We’d held hands plenty of times over the course of our long friendship, but now, the heat of her palm felt special in a way it hadn’t before—more special than anything else. I was, without question, the luckiest man in the world to be with such a kind and adorable partner.

It was the summer of my third year in high school...and I had begun a relationship with Kushikawa Hatoko.

The grass of the field before me swayed gently in the summer breeze. There were quite a few people in the park already, possibly since it was summer vacation and all. Parents were playing catch with their kids, pet owners were throwing frisbees for their critters to catch, a few elementary schoolers had apparently come all the way out here to play games on their phones...and a few of what seemed to be couples were around as well.

We found a nice, shady spot beneath a tree, spread a plastic sheet out on the ground, and kicked off our shoes before sitting down on it. At that point, Hatoko opened up the bag she’d brought along for the trip.

“So, umm... I-I made a boxed lunch for us,” said Hatoko.

“H-Huh?! You did?! Really?!”

“Juu...you don’t have to pretend to be surprised. There’s no way you didn’t realize,” Hatoko said with a sigh.

And, I mean, yeah. I sure had. The moment she’d shown up with a bag, I’d assumed that there was a lunch for us inside. In fact, it was pretty obvious that Hatoko would make lunch the moment we decided on having a picnic in the park.

“You know how when people go on dates in manga and TV shows, there’s usually a scene where the girl surprises the guy by revealing that she brought a boxed lunch with her? Well, when you really think about it, it’s weird that the guy wouldn’t notice, right?” I said.

“It sure is. A lunch for two takes up an awful lot of space, and it’d be pretty hard to carry one around without anyone noticing,” Hatoko said as she pulled the container out of the bag and opened it up for us. Well, containers, really—there were actually two of them.

One of Hatoko’s lunch boxes contained sandwiches—at a glance, I saw some made with eggs, some with ham and lettuce, and some with potato salad in them—while the other box was filled with an assortment of side dishes. Besides the standard lunch box fare like rolled omelets, fried chicken, bacon-wrapped asparagus, and so on, the second box included a portion of Hatoko’s signature meat and potato stew (heavy on the meat), which was one of my favorite dishes she made on a regular basis.

“Oh, dang! This all looks really good!” I said.

“Hee hee!” Hatoko giggled. “All right, Juu! Let’s dig in!”

I was more than happy to do just that. The two of us said our thanks and started eating.

“Oh, here, Juu! I brought some barley tea for us too.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“So...wh-what do you think?”

“Of the food? It’s great! As tasty as always.”

“Really? Oh, good.”

“Especially the meat and potato stew. It’s weird—that’s supposed to be the most homey dish there is, right? But lately, your version of it’s started feeling more familiar than my mom’s. It’s homier than the food I literally eat at home.”

“I-I’m not quite sure if I should take that as a compliment...”

We kept chatting away, and eventually, we finished our meal. Hatoko had packed plenty of food, but it was all so tasty that we polished it off in no time.

“Ahh, I’m stuffed! Think I might’ve had a bit too much,” I said.

“I’m glad! Seeing you enjoy it makes all that cooking feel worth the effort,” replied Hatoko.

“All right! Seems like a good time for an after-meal break,” I said.

Hatoko poured us each another helping of barley tea, and we sat back to relax for a moment. I ended up idly glancing around the area, and my gaze soon fell on another couple sitting on a sheet they’d laid out on the grass just like we were. I didn’t know if they felt emboldened because there weren’t that many people nearby or what, but they were very flagrantly flirting it up without regard to the fact that they were outdoors. Then, the next thing I knew, the guy lay down, resting his head in his girlfriend’s lap. I was witnessing a real-world lap pillow.

I took in a sharp breath, tearing my eyes away from them out of pure awkwardness—and I met Hatoko’s gaze in the process. She seemed to have been watching the same couple I was, and she’d looked away at the same moment.

Uncomfortable silence followed until, finally, Hatoko seemed to gather her resolve and opened her mouth. “H-Hey, Juu?” she said. “Do you, umm...want to try that too?”

“Th-That? You mean, like, resting my head in your lap?”

Hatoko gave me a bashful nod.

“Well, umm... I’m not not interested, I guess...”

“Then...go ahead,” said Hatoko, pushing through the embarrassment that her vivid blush was making all too obvious. She turned toward me and sat up straight, almost like she was putting her thighs on display. “If you want to try it...you can lie down on my lap, Juu.”

“Wha...? F-For real?” I stammered. My heart was pounding out of my chest. This borderline irresistible temptation had come from so far out of left field, it was making my head spin. I gulped, wavered, and gave in. “Okay... H-Here goes.”

I slowly, carefully approached Hatoko, hoping all the while that my heart wouldn’t literally explode. I lay down on the sheet, then rested my head atop her thighs.

Holy crap, they’re so soft! What the heck?! I mean, like, crazy soft! This is what Hatoko’s thighs feel like? She may have always been slender, but, like, it was in a way where certain parts of her end up actually having a surprising amount of volume when it comes down to it, not to mention she’s always felt soft in terms of, like, her whole general vibe, so I always sort of figured that she’d be soft to the touch as well...and now her thighs are proving me right!

The seconds ticked by in utter mutual silence. I was lying on the most comfortable pillow I’d ever experienced, but there was no way in hell I’d feel even the slightest bit sleepy given the circumstances—far from it, I was as awake and alert as I’d ever been. Hatoko, meanwhile, was fidgeting restlessly from what I assume must’ve been nervousness, shame, or both. Every time her thighs moved, I could feel their softness on my head more clearly than ever.

I decided to shift my positioning a little, hoping it would help me calm down...

“Eeek!”

...and the moment I did, Hatoko let out a shriek.

“J-Juu! Y-Your breath is tickling me...”

“Gah! S-Sorry!” I yelped, reflexively sitting up.

I had, unfortunately, forgotten something extremely important. My childhood friend—which is to say, my girlfriend—was surprisingly well-endowed. She didn’t wear very revealing clothing, so it was sort of hard to tell most of the time...but long story short, she had a lot going on underneath those clothes. Not that I’d ever seen her wearing anything less than a swimsuit, of course.

Anyway, the point is that lying with my head in her lap meant that there was a certain obstacle right above me, and sitting up rapidly from that position meant that I’d plowed my face right into it with a mighty thwump. That’s how I learned that, even through her clothes...Hatoko’s underboob was way softer than even her thighs.

“Hyeek!”

“Wha— Gah! S-Sorry!” I shouted. Hatoko’s wordless shriek had snapped me back to reality, and I tumbled away from her, sprawling on the ground in an ungainly heap. “Sorry! I’m seriously so sorry, Hatoko!”

“I-It’s fine...” said Hatoko. “I was just a little surprised, that’s all.”

“What? But I—”

“W-Wait! Don’t turn back toward me just yet!”

“Huh...?”

“I-I, umm... I mean, what happened just now, um, bumped things out of place... I’ll fix it, just give me one second!”

“R-Right... Seriously, sorry.”

Bumped what out of place...? There’s only one answer, right? What else could’ve been dislodged in a sort of way she’d have to fix?

Say, how out of place are we talking, though? How do you fix something like that? My imagination was running torturously wild conjuring up images of what might be happening behind me.

“Okay, it’s fine now,” Hatoko eventually said.

I turned right around and gave her an apologetic bow. “I’m so...so sorry,” I said.

“I-It’s fine! Doesn’t bother me at all,” Hatoko replied.

She was as kind and tolerant as ever, but I felt so bad and awkward that I just couldn’t bring myself to look up at her. A very uncomfortable moment of silence fell over us. I searched for the right thing to say, but the words just weren’t coming to me...

“Hee hee!”

...until Hatoko burst out in laughter. “You know, dating’s a lot harder than I thought it’d be!” she said. I didn’t know how to reply. “It’s like all these things I took for granted up until now feel like the biggest deal all of a sudden. The more I try to act naturally, the less naturally I actually end up acting.”

“Yeah... I get that,” I said.

“But you know...”

Hatoko paused to crawl in my direction. She sprawled onto the ground, resting her head on my thighs this time. She’d turned the lap pillow routine right back around on me.

“I’m really happy right now,” she said, beaming up at me from her place atop my lap. “All the little things that I took for granted before feel so special now, and I’m enjoying every bit of it. I’m seeing all sorts of sides to you that I’d never noticed before too.”

“Hatoko...” I muttered. I gently stroked her hair, and she closed her eyes, most likely out of a sort of happy embarrassment. “I’m having the time of my life too. I always thought that no one could be more relaxing to hang out with than you...but lately, you’ve become the person who makes my heart pound harder than anyone else.”

It took quite a lot of nerve to swallow my embarrassment and admit that. Hatoko gave me a smile in return.

“Let’s stay together forever. Okay, Juu?” my former childhood friend and current girlfriend proposed.

“Sounds good to me,” I replied. It was the best suggestion I could’ve asked for, and I didn’t hesitate to affirm it.

Honestly...is it really okay for me to be this happy? I wondered, saying a silent prayer that this wouldn’t all turn out to be just a dream.

Pretty Pigeon Route: The End

About a year had passed since we’d fought our final battle. It was the decisive clash between me and Kiryuu—the ultimate showdown between Guiltia Sin Jurai and Kiryuu Heldkaiser Luci-First. That battle was truly the culmination of everything that had happened in our story up to that point...and it was a climax that defied description, no matter how hard I tried.

Words could not do it justice. Prose could never depict it. It was such an outlandishly over-the-top battle that your only choice would be to describe it in a brief, vague summary form, or otherwise to cut the scene entirely and only discuss it in retrospect. It was a battle the likes of which had never been seen before and would likely never be seen again. The chances of another conflict even remotely living up to it were simply nonexistent.

Seriously, though, what a fight! Looking back now that it was all over, it almost felt like the whole thing—my battle with Kiryuu, the Spirit War’s existence on the whole, the fact that we had ever possessed absurdly potent supernatural powers, all of it—had been a dream.

Anyway, that was all over now, and another year had come and gone. All sorts of stuff had happened during that year...and over the course of it, I’d started going out with a certain girl.

“Your time is up. Pencil down, please, Andou.”

I heaved a sigh, put down my mechanical pencil, then slumped over onto my desk. Meanwhile, Sayumi scooped up the mock exam answer sheet that I’d done my best to fill in completely.

“Feel free to relax while I grade your test,” said Sayumi.

“Got it,” I replied. “Oh—actually, I’ll get us something to drink while I have time.” I added, slipping out of my room and making for the kitchen.

A week had already come and gone since my final summer vacation in high school had begun, and now that I was a third-year student with entrance exams on the horizon, I’d spent that week hitting the books day in and day out, never pausing for even a moment to go out and have fun. I wasn’t going to a cram school like some test-takers though—I didn’t need to. After all, I had the most exceptional home tutor you could ever possibly ask for.

“Sorry about all this, Sayumi,” I said as I stepped back into the room and handed her one of the glasses of barley tea I’d poured. “You would’ve finally had a chance to enjoy yourself this summer, but here you are using it to help me study instead.”

“There’s no need to concern yourself with that. I’m helping you because I want to,” Sayumi replied.

Ever since summer vacation had begun—or, really, ever since we’d become a couple—Sayumi had watched over my studies like a hawk. This hardly even bears saying at this point, but she was a multitalented academic wonder who’d fought for—and frequently claimed—the top spot in her class’s academic ranking all throughout her high school career. The college she was now attending continued that streak of excellence, as it was a prestigious institution known for its students’ remarkably high average grades, and Sayumi had been accepted there by recommendation. She hadn’t actually had to take the school’s entrance exams as a result, but I was confident that if she had, she would’ve easily passed them with flying colors.

“It’s just that considering you’re on summer vacation too, you might’ve wanted to, er... Well...” I muttered.

“To what?” asked Sayumi.

“To, umm...go on more dates and stuff,” I tentatively admitted, extremely conscious of the blush spreading across my face.

For a moment, Sayumi’s hand came to a stop, hovering above my answer sheet. A gentle smile came across her face.

“No need to concern yourself with that,” Sayumi repeated. “It may not be immediately evident, but I am, for the record, quite enjoying myself. Spending time with you, in your room, is worthwhile on its own. Moreover,” she added, her voice taking on a mischievous, slightly sulky tone, “I was under the impression that these get-togethers were our version of at-home dates. Was I the only one who felt that way?”

All I could manage in reply to that was a very awkward smile. My sheer embarrassment wouldn’t let me produce much else. Sayumi, on the other hand, snickered as she returned to grading my test. Once again, the room was silent aside from the sound of her pen scratching across the paper.

“S-So, how’d I do?” I eventually asked.

“I’m still only partway through, so I can’t say definitively...but so far, you’ve done quite well,” Sayumi replied.

“Seriously? All right!”

“Your grades have improved remarkably, Andou. I’m genuinely impressed.”

“Well, of course they would. I’ve had a great teacher, after all.”

“All I’ve done is assist you. The fact of the matter is that ever since you became a third-year, you’ve applied yourself to your studies with incredible zeal. Your sister told me recently that even on days I don’t come over, you’re practically glued to your desk, immersed in your work.”

“I mean, sure, but I’m a third-year. That’s totally normal when you’ve got entrance exams coming up, isn’t it?”

“Perhaps, but not when your mock exam results all but ensure you’ll be accepted to your college of choice already—which is the case for you, isn’t it? You seem oddly driven, considering...”

“W-Well, y’know, you can’t get complacent about stuff like this, right?”

“Andou...”

Suddenly, Sayumi’s hand came to a stop once more. She straightened her posture and turned to face me.

“I intended to feign ignorance about this...but I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to bring it up after all.”

“Huh...? B-Bring what up?”

“Andou...you’re planning to take the exam for the college I attend, aren’t you?”

I took in a sharp breath and stiffened.

“Yes, I thought so,” Sayumi said with a sigh.

“H-How’d you know...?”

“It was rather obvious.”

A slightly strained smile spread across Sayumi’s face. All I could do was break eye contact. She was right about everything—I had been secretly studying to take the test for the college that she was going to. I’d thought that I’d done a pretty good job of hiding my intentions, but Sayumi was clearly not so easy to fool.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Sayumi.

“Because...I thought that if I did, you’d try to stop me,” I admitted.

Sayumi’s college was one of the most prestigious universities in the country. I could raise my grades by a stunning degree and still have only a slim chance of being accepted, at best. If I wanted to make it happen, I would have to study like my life depended on it.

“I see,” said Sayumi. “In that case, allow me to ask you a different question: Why do you want to attend the same college I do?”

“Why do I...? D-Do I really have to say it out loud?”

The answer was obvious. What other reason could I have possibly had for wanting to go to the same school as the girl I loved and was dating?

“He he he! My apologies,” Sayumi chuckled playfully. “Another question, Andou: Why do you think I decided to feign ignorance regarding your little plan?”

“Huh...?”

“I did so because I thought it would be nice if my suspicions were correct,” she explained. Her voice was calm, and it was somehow blissful as well. “I knew that I would be overjoyed to learn that was why you were studying with all your heart and soul...and I ended up indulging in the fantasy that such was the case.”

“Sayumi...”

“I have no intention of stopping you. I’m nowhere near tactless enough to stand in the way of a man’s resolve. I would have preferred to stay silent about it until you decided to tell me your intentions yourself...but if you really do plan to aim for a more prestigious college, then we’d be better off adjusting the schedule and content of your studies to match your new ambitions.”

Sayumi seemed almost apologetic about how she’d broached the subject, but the way I saw it, I was the one who needed to apologize to her. I’d been prioritizing my own petty sense of pride over practicality. After all, the sooner I started studying for the test I actually intended to take, the better.

“I believe in you, Andou. I know that you have what it takes to succeed...and I’m looking forward to enjoying my campus life with you starting next year.”

Sayumi sat down beside me and took my hand in hers. She laced her fingers between mine and looked me right in the eye, her gaze full of trust and expectations.

“I won’t let you down. I’ll do everything I can!” I declared.

Sayumi gave me a smile in response. I was, without question, the luckiest man in the world to be with such a smart and beautiful partner.

It was the summer of my third year in high school...and I had begun a relationship with Takanashi Sayumi.

About thirty minutes later, Sayumi had finished scoring all of the tests I’d taken.

“Your grades have improved on the whole...but if you want to be admitted to my college, you’ll have to improve your score a little more than this. As for what we’ll study next...I believe we should focus on Japanese, to start.”

“Japanese, huh...? I’ve never been great at that one,” I sighed.

“Your scores in the memorization-focused classical Japanese sections of the test weren’t bad by any means, but the issues began to arise in the modern composition section.”

“Right, that’s the problem. Just memorizing stuff’s easy enough if you put the time in, but when you hit the modern section, that doesn’t fly.”

“Perhaps, but the reading comprehension skills that modern Japanese asks of you are applicable to all other subjects—and, extending a little further, said skills will be helpful in your day-to-day life as well. They aren’t something that you can master by simply studying for a day, but that’s precisely what makes it the sort of knowledge that will serve you for a lifetime...or so they say, but for the time being, let’s set aside that sort of idealistic rhetoric and focus our attention on more expedient means.”

“W-Wait, really?”

“Really. There are certain techniques that will allow you to raise your score on a modern Japanese test, and I’ll be teaching you those instead. With them at your disposal, I believe you won’t have to worry about passing the Japanese portion of your exams.”

“Seriously?! I-Is it really that easy...?”

“Allow me to be blunt, Andou: Standardized testing in Japan is a field in which technique, rather than knowledge, reigns supreme,” said Sayumi. She really wasn’t mincing words. “Think of test taking as a game in which those who study and earn points efficiently are the victors. A game, yes—that might be the perfect perspective for you. Looking at your tests in that light, I believe, will make it much easier for you to stay motivated.”

I just sat there, quietly listening to her.

“Of course, specializing too fully in test-taking techniques may be undesirable, in the sense that it puts the cart before the horse in regard to the actual goal of education...but considering the current state of your grades, this is no time for us to be impractical. Prepare yourself—I intend to drill every single test-taking technique that I’m aware of into your mind,” Sayumi said with a broad smile. She couldn’t have been a more reliable tutor, but at the same time, she was kinda scaring me a little. “Now then, aside from Japanese... Hmm. As far as English is concerned, your difficulties with pronunciation are causing you to miss otherwise easy questions. Losing those points is truly a waste. Math-wise, I’d hope we can raise your problem-solving speed on the whole, and there are no tricks when it comes to that—you’ll simply have to master it. As for biology...it seems you had difficulties applying Mendel’s laws. Questions like the one on this test turn up quite frequently in the National Center Test, so you’ll have to master that as well. Those aside...”

At that point, Sayumi came to a brief halt. This time, I couldn’t read the look on her face at all.

“...you received a perfect score in ethics.”

“Heh heh!”

“Explain yourself, Andou. A full score? How?”

“Heh heh heh heh!”

“When I selected the questions for these practice tests, I pulled them from a variety of sources in an effort to match your current level of skill in each subject. Ethics was the one course that I’ve never personally taken, and lacking any expertise, I simply copied last year’s National Center Test’s ethics exam verbatim...and you got a perfect score on it.”

“Heh heh, ha ha ha ha!”

“I suppose you have told me about how much you enjoy ethics, come to think of it,” said Sayumi. She sounded about thirty percent impressed with me and seventy percent exasperated beyond belief.

Ethics was indeed both my best and most beloved of school subjects. I liked it so much that I’d done a ton of self-study in the field during the summer vacation of my second year in high school, even though it’d had nothing to do with any of my summer homework. Now that I had my entrance exams coming up, I’d buckled down and studied even harder...and as a result, it seemed my wealth of ethical knowledge had reached new and unprecedented heights.

“A friend of mine who chose ethics as an elective told me that you can easily score an eighty percent on the National Center Test’s ethics exam with just a little memorization...but anything past that becomes quite difficult,” Sayumi noted.

“Well, yeah,” I replied. “That test is all four-answer multiple-choice, so it’s surprisingly easy. I can pick out the right answer for those questions at a glance these days... Ah, just in ethics, I mean. Not the other subjects.”

“I cannot fathom how you wound up with such superhuman talent in this single, specific subject... But in any case, considering it’s the one subject that I’m not capable of teaching you, I suppose I should consider myself lucky. My college’s admissions department places great weight on the social studies segments of the National Center Test, so being able to earn a significant number of points from ethics gives you a distinct advantage.” She still didn’t seem totally satisfied with my inexplicable ethics talent, but it looked like she was done pressing the subject for the time being. “Now then, Andou—it’s time for us to go over the questions that you got wrong.”

“Sounds good.”

We always made a point of going over all questions that I’d missed the very same day I took a practice test. That was standard practice for prospective entrance-exam takers. It was a great way to clear up any misunderstandings I’d had while also making sure that I didn’t forget about and repeat mistakes that I’d already made.

“I’m going to borrow your computer for a moment, if you don’t mind. I’d like to make a note of your scores on these practice exams,” Sayumi said as she produced a USB drive from her bag. She’d been keeping a complete record of all my grades in an Excel spreadsheet ever since she’d started helping me study. The idea was that it would be easier to stay motivated if I could see how my grades had improved over the course of time in numerical and graph form.

“Go ahead,” I said. Her request had startled me a little, I’ll admit, but I tried to make my reply sound as natural as possible.

No need to worry—this’ll be fine, I told myself. I’d known that this could happen, so I had made sure that my computer would be perfectly prepared when the time came. All the data that I’d rather not let anyone see was hidden away in places where nobody would ever look for it, and Sayumi was far too reasonable and understanding of a person to go plumbing the depths of my hard drive for no good reason...or at least, that was the idea.

The truth is that I’d been led astray by my own complacency. I’d believed that I’d prepared myself to perfection, and as a result, I’d let my guard down. The fact that I was worn out from all those mock exams certainly didn’t help my snap decision-making abilities either.

What I’m getting at here is that a certain fact had slipped my mind. I’d completely forgotten what I’d been looking up online the night before, and by the time I put the pieces together...

“S-Sayumi, wait a—”

...it was already too late. Sayumi was frozen solid, her eyes glued to my computer’s monitor. I hadn’t bothered shutting it down last night, and it had gone into sleep mode with my research still pulled up—meaning it was now on full display, front and center. Specifically, the screen displayed a web page—an internet search engine—with the results of a single-sentence query still pulled up.

girlfriend boobs how long until touch

“U-Umm... M-My apologies, Andou,” said Sayumi.

Please, no. Stop. No apologizing. This would be so much easier if you’d just punch me out.

Agggh... I wish I could just drop dead. That’d be so much easier than dealing with this shame! Even her finding porn or an eroge or something would’ve been better than this! The most pathetically delicate part of my male mind had been put on full display, and pure, overwhelming humiliation was tearing my heart to pieces.

“I-It’s all right, Andou. I’ll pretend I never saw anything,” Sayumi said in a painfully kind, consoling voice. It seemed she couldn’t stand to watch me plummet into the pits of despair.

Unfortunately, having her comfort me in such a mature sort of way just made me more depressed than ever. “L-Leave me alone...” I muttered.

Ugh. This is the worst. She’s definitely super grossed out now. Sayumi had dedicated an incredible amount of her free time to helping me with my studies, and there I was, spending all that time acting like a leering creeper. And of all the ways for her to find out...

“I’m...glad,” said Sayumi, her voice so faint, it seemed she’d had to battle her own shyness to say the words at all.

“Huh...?”

“W-Well, perhaps that isn’t quite the right way of putting it, but in any case, I’m not bothered. It’s a perfectly natural desire for an adolescent boy, I suppose you could say... And I, umm...I won’t deny that I have some interest in the area myself... Wh-Which is to say that you can rest assured you aren’t the only one who’s been thinking along those lines.”

“Sayumi...”

“Please...don’t make me elaborate.”

Sayumi turned her back to me, though not before I noticed how brightly she was blushing. It was such a cute gesture, I could barely stand it.

“Andou...do you want to touch me?”

“Huh? I, uh...”

“He he he!” Sayumi chuckled as she watched me stammer incoherently. “Well then, after you’ve passed your exams with flying colors, I’ll be happy to oblige.”

“Wait...really? You’re okay with that? That’s like a promise straight out of a hentai, you know?”

“It’s the least I can do. If offering up my body provides you with the motivation you need, then I see no reason to hesitate,” Sayumi replied. Her expression was perfectly deadpan, but there was a very slight waver to her voice that told me she was desperately holding back an awful lot of embarrassment.

“Ha ha... Well, I don’t think any guy would ever fail to rise to the challenge after hearing something like that from his girlfriend,” I said. My own laugh had come out a little strained as well. “Okay then, Sayumi—seeing as I’ve already humiliated myself, I figure I may as well make a request while I’m at it.”

“A request?” Sayumi repeated.

“Right—one that’ll help keep me motivated through my studies.”

“W-Well...as long as it’s nothing too perverse.”

“It actually isn’t at all,” I said truthfully.

I wasn’t planning on asking her for anything dirty. That sort of thing could wait...well, until my tests were over, anyway.

“Isn’t it about time you started calling me by my first name?” I said. “I mean...we’re dating now, right? It feels kinda weirdly formal for you to keep calling me ‘Andou’ all the time.”

“Oh...” said Sayumi. “Y-Yes, I suppose that’s fair. I’ve thought that I should reassess what I call you on a number of occasions as well, but I haven’t been able to find the right timing to make the change.”

“In that case, why not do it today? In fact, why not right now?”

“Th-That’s rather abrupt, isn’t it? This is something I’ll have to prepare myself for, in a mental sense... A-And besides, Andou, you’re hardly one to criticize when it comes to being affectionate. You never stopped speaking to me like I’m your club president even after I became your girlfriend.”

“Huh? W-Well, what am I supposed to do? You’ve always been someone I look up to... I don’t want you to think I’m taking you for granted by cutting too loose.”

“Oh, honestly—what on earth are you talking about? You’re supposed to be my boyfriend, so you needn’t act so demure. I wouldn’t mind in the least if you were more intimate. There’s absolutely no need for you to concern yourself with respect or formality with me.”

“Oh, like you aren’t minding your manners literally all the time.”

“That’s just a facet of my personality.”

At the end of our bickering, we took a moment to collect ourselves, then faced each other once more. Both of us had ended up sitting in a stiff, formal posture on the ground—it just felt like the right thing to do, somehow. The air was weirdly tense, but finally, we managed to speak up.

“I love you, Ju...Jurai.”

“I...I love you too, Sayumi...”

The moment the names left each of our mouths, intense, burning shame overwhelmed us, and we broke eye contact in unison. A few seconds later, however, we burst into spontaneous laughter.

“I think we’ll both need a little more practice,” Sayumi—my beloved girlfriend—bashfully admitted.

“Y-Yeah... True enough,” I replied. It seemed it’d be a while longer before our relationship could exit its awkward phase.

Honestly...is it really okay for me to be this happy? I wondered, saying a silent prayer that this wouldn’t all turn out to be just a dream.

Colorful Bow Route: The End

About a year had passed since we’d fought our final battle. It was the decisive clash between me and Kiryuu—the ultimate showdown between Guiltia Sin Jurai and Kiryuu Heldkaiser Luci-First. That battle was truly the culmination of everything that had happened in our story up to that point...and it was a climax that defied description, no matter how hard I tried.

Words could not do it justice. Prose could never depict it. It was such an outlandishly over-the-top battle that your only choice would be to describe it in a brief, vague summary form, or otherwise to cut the scene entirely and only discuss it in retrospect. It was a battle the likes of which had never been seen before and would likely never be seen again. The chances of another conflict even remotely living up to it were simply nonexistent.

Seriously, though, what a fight! Looking back now that it was all over, it almost felt like the whole thing—my battle with Kiryuu, the Spirit War’s existence on the whole, the fact that we had ever possessed absurdly potent supernatural powers, all of it—had been a dream.

Anyway, that was all over now, and another year had come and gone. All sorts of stuff had happened during that year...and over the course of it, I’d started going out with a certain girl.

“Uggggggggh, I’m never, ever, ever, ever, ever getting this dooooooooone!”

Tomoyo let out a bizarre half scream, half moan as she kicked and flailed ineffectually atop her bed. The setting of this spectacle was Tomoyo’s room, and as I watched the locale’s primary resident writhe in agony, clutching her well-used hug pillow all throughout her miserable tantrum, all I could do was heave a sigh. I’d been stopping by Tomoyo’s place just about every day since summer vacation had begun, and while I would’ve loved to say that I’d been doing so for the sake of at-home dates...the truth was a little more complicated than that.

“It’s never-ending... Never, ever ending... I keep working and working, but it’s still not doooooone...” Tomoyo moaned as she crawled all the way under her covers. It sounded like she was reciting some sort of ancient curse.

You’d think that she was talking about her summer homework being never-ending...and you’d be wrong. I mean, partially wrong—she hadn’t so much as touched it, in fact—but that wasn’t the point at this particular moment. Rather, my girlfriend was agonizing over a looming deadline.

“I’m never finishing the manuscript for volume two! I’m so, so screwed... I’ve only got a week before it’s due, and I’m not even halfway dooone!”

Were these the wails of an aspiring author who’d self-imposed a deadline and was too proud to let herself fail to meet it? Not this time, no. They were, in fact, the wails of a newbie author suffering under the curse of her very first actual, genuine, set-by-someone-else deadline.

It all started just a little while after our final battle had reached its conclusion. One day, Tomoyo had gotten a phone call from a publisher that ran a rookie-author-of-the-year competition she’d submitted a story to. They had not, unfortunately, called to tell her that she’d won...but they did inform her that one of their editors had really taken a shine to her submission, and they were hoping she’d be willing to send them a revised version with the intent of getting it published in the long term. In short, she’d been picked up for publication out of the loser’s bracket.

And so, the debut of Kanzaki Tomoyo—pen name: Yugami Hizumi—was confirmed. The contest entry that would become her series’ first volume had already been revised, she’d already finished proofreading the final draft, and an illustrator had already been picked out. All she’d had left to do was wait until the book was published.

Now, however, there was something else for her to take care of: writing the second volume that would continue her story. That, unfortunately, had proven to be much harder than Tomoyo had been counting on.

“Oh, get a grip,” I said as I pulled the covers right back off her. Somebody needed to deliver some harsh truths to her, and apparently, that someone would have to be me. “Throwing a fit’s not gonna get your manuscript done, is it? Write! Get over there and get to work already!”

“Ugggh... You’re such a meanie, Juujuu...” Tomoyo moaned, glaring at me and on the verge of tears.

Incidentally, “Juujuu” was the nickname Tomoyo had taken to calling me recently. As to why she’d started calling me that, well...frankly, I’d rather not talk about it.

“Juujuu... It’s over for me. I’m so tiiired. I don’t wanna wriiite. I don’t wanna have to wooork. Write it for me, Juujuu, pleeease.”

“I’m already busy doing your summer homework, in case you’ve forgotten,” I replied.

“Booo,” Tomoyo jeered. She spent a moment pouting at me like a little kid, then sighed heavily. “I never thought writing a second volume would be this tough. I’d heard that lots of people put everything into their debut novels and end up with nothing to write about in the sequel, but I didn’t really think it’d happen to me... I guess this is the second-volume wall they always say you have to break through. Man, this sure is one of those problems that only pros know about! Only pros end up suffering like this! God, being a pro is just so hard sometimes!”

So...are you trying to be obnoxious about this, or what?

“Okay, but is writing a second volume really that hard?” I asked. “You seemed like you were doing great back when you started working on it.”

“I was, back then...but.”

“But what?”

“I was making such good progress that I thought I might as well take a little break to work on the story I’m writing for fun. Then I ended up getting way more into that one instead, and before I knew it, the second volume’s deadline was just a week away...”

“So this is completely self-inflicted!”

“Oh, shut up! I know, okay?!” Tomoyo snapped—which was, frankly, totally unreasonable of her. “Look, Juujuu,” she added in a sort of chiding tone, “you know how sometimes the publication date for light novels gets pushed back?”

“Well, yeah.”

“And you know how sometimes when that happens, it’s super obvious that it’s the illustrator’s fault that the volume got delayed?”

“Sure.”

“And sometimes that illustrator spends the whole time posting stuff that they drew for fun on Twitter or streaming themself drawing on Niconico?”

“I mean...I can’t say that never happens.”

“Well, I always wondered how the hell anyone could have the nerve to do something that shameless...but now that I’ve had my debut, I finally get it. Creating something as a hobby is so much fun. When your work’s driven you into a corner, the temptation to work on something you’re not doing as a professional instead is just so intense...”

“Nice excuse. Now get writing.”

“Ugggh, I know, okay?!” Tomoyo snapped once more.

This time, though, she finally hauled herself out of bed. I thought she was going to head over to the desk where she kept her laptop...

“Hey, Juujuu...?”

...but instead she made her way in my direction, leaning in so close to me that our faces were practically touching.

“I can’t get motivated. Charge me up.”

“Charge you...? Like, how?”

“Gimme hugs,” Tomoyo rather shyly muttered. Her tone was shy, to be precise—her overall attitude was as forward as could be, and she even spread her arms wide open in a “come on, hurry up” sort of gesture.

“This again? Seriously...?” I sighed.

“I wanna hug! I wanna hug! I wanna hug! Gimme hugs, or I’m done! I won’t do any work anymore! Then it’ll be all your fault if I don’t finish my book on time! A series that should’ve been a light novel legend’s gonna get canceled thanks to you!”

“Okay, fine,” I said with a sigh. She was approaching the far reaches of obnoxiousness, but I gave in anyway and gave her the hug she wanted.

I wrapped my arms around Tomoyo, squeezing her gently, and she responded by grabbing onto me and returning the hug with as much power as her kinda-spindly arms could exert. She buried her face in my chest as well, more or less grinding it into me. I couldn’t quite tell if she was trying to sniff me, mark me with her scent, or some combination of the two, but judging by the stifled chuckle she let slip out, she was enjoying herself immensely either way.

“Heh... Heh heh... Heh heh heeeh...”

“Satisfied?” I asked.

“Uh-uh. Not yet. This isn’t enough. A hug can’t get me motivated on its own.”

“Well, what else do you expect me to do?”

“Hey, Juujuu...? Say you love me.”

“Huh?”

“You haven’t said it in ages! And when you stop saying you love me all of a sudden...I get worried about whether or not you really do.”

“Wait...but that’s not even true. Like, I literally said it yesterday! A ton of times too—you wouldn’t let me hang up the phone until I said it enough to satisfy you. My sister was listening in, you know? Do you have any idea how bad things got after I finally hung up...?”

“Th-That was yesterday! Yesterday! You have to say it every day!” Tomoyo grumbled. For all her sulking, she was still being as clingy as ever in a physical sense. It all came together into a downright adorable whole that I was completely powerless to resist. I just had to bite the bullet and accept the fact that I was a slave to her charms.

“I love you, Tomoyo,” I said, swallowing my shame and baring my feelings for her to see.

“Really...?” Tomoyo asked.

“Yeah. Really.”

“How much do you love me?”

“Like friggin’ crazy.”

“If I died, would you follow me?”

“You bet I would.”

“Hee hee... Me too. I love you too, Juujuu! I love you to itty-bitty pieces! If you died, I’d die too for sure!”

I was getting some severe secondhand embarrassment just listening to Tomoyo, and she kept gushing like that for what felt like almost a minute or so before finally, reluctantly releasing me from her hug and making her way to her desk.

“All right! Thanks, Juujuu! I’m all charged up and ready to write now!”

“Glad to hear it. Get to work, then.”

“You have to give me more hugs later if I do a good job, okay?”

“...If I feel like it.”

“Oooh, are you embarrassed, Juujuu? That’s so cute!”

“Oh, shut up! Hurry up and do your job already!”

“Okaaay,” Tomoyo cheerfully agreed before finally—finally—getting to work for real.

I, on the other hand, was so mentally exhausted I collapsed to the floor. I was, without question, the luckiest man in the world to be loved so intensely by my partner... Okay, on second thought, maybe there were actually a few questions worth asking there after all.

It was the summer of my third year in high school...and I had begun a relationship with Kanzaki Tomoyo—but, like, a version of Kanzaki Tomoyo who was so egregiously out of character that some part of me had to question if she was really Tomoyo at all.

It hadn’t been like this back when we first got together. Back then, since we were both so preoccupied by the idea that we’d started dating, we’d end up sitting together in awkward silence too flustered to think up a conversation topic, or we’d have the most ridiculously over-the-top reactions to something as simple as our hands brushing against each other, or we’d get comically worked up over something as benign as an indirect kiss. Our relationship was, for a period, as innocent as could be...but that had only lasted for a moment.

Before I knew it...Tomoyo had gone full dere. I’m talking zero to dere in an instant. Her dere side had grown at a terrifying speed, to a terrifying degree. She was as dere as dere could be. Like, seriously, zero percent tsun, one hundred percent dere. It was like she’d tossed the whole personality she’d displayed up to that point into the trash in favor of going so thoroughly dere that it actually freaked me out a little. It was so bad I was seriously considering calling her Dereyo instead of Tomoyo.

It all started with the Juujuu nickname. Once she’d crossed that fateful line, it was like all the affection she’d kept bottled up over the course of her life came exploding out all at once, all directed straight at me in the sappiest way possible. She was taking every opportunity to match outfits with me in any way she possibly could, she’d call me up on the phone every single morning to whisper sweet nothings, and she’d started getting way touchier and clingier than she’d ever been before.

It’s not that I wasn’t happy about her being super up-front with her love and affection for me, to be clear! It’s just that if I said it wasn’t also a little bit obnoxious, I’d be lying. The phone calls were particularly hard to deal with—we would talk for hours on end, and when things were finally wrapping up she’d be all “Oh, no way, I’d never hang up on you! You have to hang up on me!” Then when I hung up, I’d get another phone call moments later where she’d go, “Why’d you actually hang up on me? Do you hate me?”

Agggh, give me a break!

For real, though, I hadn’t seen this coming at all. Who could’ve imagined that Tomoyo, of all people, would end up like this when she started going out with someone?

“I did it, Juujuu! It’s time! Hugs!”

Thirty minutes of actual, serious work later, Tomoyo spun around on her chair to face the floor table where I was doing summer homework (hers, not mine).

“You ‘did it’...?” I repeated. “You mean you finished the chapter you were working on?”

“Nah. I finished writing one new line.”

“Then you didn’t do squat! You’re only one line farther than you were when you started?!”

“Hah! You’re underestimating writing, Juujuu. Before I could even start writing that one line, I had to proofread everything that I wrote last night, and I ended up deleting a bunch of parts that I didn’t like anymore. I’m not one line farther than I was before—I’m a bunch of lines back from where I started.”

“That’s so, so much worse!”

“Okay, but while I was working, I came up with a really awesome name for a character!”

“Is that why you’re smirking at me? Because you came up with a single name...?”

“It’s basically the best name you could ever possibly give a Japanese character, but that means I can’t actually use it in this story. This one’s a full-on classic fantasy without any Japanese elements, so it wouldn’t fit the setting at all. I’ll have to keep it in my back pocket for my next work... Oh, actually, I know! We can use it as our kid’s name!”

“Jumping the gun, much?!”

“Oh, but I guess this feels a little like a boy’s name... Or really, it’s definitely a boy’s name, for sure... Okay, no choice! I’ll have to come up with a girl’s name too on the double!”

“No, you won’t! That’s not even close to what you should be thinking about right now!”

I did everything I could to talk Tomoyo’s train of thought back on track, but it seemed that she’d used up every bit of focus she had to offer. She ended up slumping back listlessly in her swivel chair.

“Ugggh... Nope. Can’t do it. I’ve got no drive. Battery’s drained,” Tomoyo groaned.

“Already, seriously? That was barely even a half hour...”

“Aaand that means it’s time to get flirty!”

I didn’t even have the time to question Tomoyo’s seriously flimsy argument before she’d more or less thrown herself at me. I caught her—because, like, what else was I supposed to do?—and she ended up essentially curled up on my lap like a cat. She had, once again, activated full dere mode.

“Heh heh, heh heh heh! Love you, Juujuu!” Tomoyo cooed.

“Glad to hear it,” I replied.

“Hey, Juujuu? Gimme smoochies!”

“What? No.”

“Awww, why not? Meanie!”

“Give it a rest. Look, I just... I don’t really like being that casual about that sort of thing, okay?”

“Hmmph! Don’t care! Shut up and smooch me! Smoooch!”

“Gah! Cut it out, moron!”

Tomoyo closed in on me, lips pursed, but there was just no way I’d be in a kissing frame of mind considering how stupid and unromantic the situation that had led us here was, so I braced my hands on her shoulders and kept her firmly at arm’s distance. It probably would’ve been a really surreal scene to witness from an outside perspective, but to us, it was a deathly serious struggle.

For a moment, we were caught in a total deadlock...but that’s when a noise rang out from outside Tomoyo’s door. I could just make out the distinctive thumping of somebody climbing up the stairs.

I barely had time to gasp before Tomoyo sprang into action at an almost stupefying pace. She leaped away from me, brushed the wrinkles out of her clothing at mach speed, and slammed back into her chair.

“Tomoyo, Andou? I brought you some snacks and drinks!”

“Like I said, Andou, this is no time to be slacking off! Go grab me that light novel I just mentioned from my shelf, okay? I want to check a few things in it for reference. Come on, hurry up! You know how close we are to my deadline, right? I’m an established pro in the industry now—they’re not going to cut me the sort of slack that an amateur would get! Missing a deadline’s out of the question, so hurry up and— Oh, mom!” Tomoyo said, looking up from her computer and acting as if she’d only just noticed that her mother had stepped into the room.

“Hee hee hee! You certainly are giving it your all, aren’t you?” Tomoyo’s mom said with a pleasant smile. She stepped over to the table I was sitting at and set down the drinks and slices of cake that she’d brought for us. “Thank you again, Andou. I really appreciate how you’re always helping Tomoyo out with her work.”

“Nah, it’s fine... It’s not like she’s forcing me to help or anything,” I replied.

“You too, Tomoyo! I hope you’ve been telling Andou how grateful you are for his help.”

“O-Oh, stuff it... Of course I have,” Tomoyo bluntly grumbled. She was so curt, it was almost like she’d gone back to her old self for a moment.

“I’m sorry about this, Andou,” Tomoyo’s mother quietly added as she leaned in toward me. “Tomoyo just doesn’t know how to be honest about her feelings. I’m positive that deep down, she loves you to pieces.”

“Uh... Right.”

“Mom! I can hear you! Quit butting in, jeez! A-And don’t go getting the wrong idea, Andou!” Tomoyo yelped.

“...Right.”

“For crying out loud... You’re done, right, mom? Give us some space, please!”

“Hee hee! If you insist.”

Tomoyo all but pushed her mom out of the room and slammed the door behind her. Then, the moment we heard her descending the staircase, the tension visibly drained from Tomoyo’s body. Everything about her—even her expression and the look in her eyes—just went slack, all at once. She sprawled out onto the floor, once again ending up lying in my lap.

“I love you, Juujuuuu!”

“This...is...exhausting!” I shouted.

I just couldn’t take it anymore. She was almost disturbingly affectionate with me these days, yes, but Dereyo only made an appearance when the two of us were alone. Whenever someone else was in the picture, she pivoted on a dime and went full tsun instead, up to and including going back to calling me Andou. She stuck to me like glue when we were in her room, but she wouldn’t even hold my hand when we were walking around outdoors. It was like...just total tsundere stuff, in the classical sense of the term: When other people were around, her tsun side came out, and when it was just us, she went dere instead.

“Look, Tomoyo...can’t you, like, work on this or something?” I asked. “The U-turns your personality takes these days are so sharp, they’re seriously gonna give me whiplash at this rate.”

“Sh-Shut up, okay...? I can’t help it! I mean...it’s embarrassing,” Tomoyo muttered with an abashed blush. “I just can’t act all flirty in front of people... Not even my mom. I mean, like...when it’s just the two of us, I end up looking like a total ditz, right?”

“Oh, so you know...?”

“Yeah, I do!” Tomoyo shouted. Her expression grew grim. “Every once in a while...I come to my senses, right? I step back and take an objective look at myself...and I think ‘Oh, god, that’s creepy.’ It’s honestly hilarious—I’ve always been the sort of person who makes fun of girls who can’t think about anything other than their boyfriends, and now I’m one of them! But...” Tomoyo added, a slight tremor working its way into her voice, “I just... I can’t help it. There’s nothing I can do to stop myself. I love you so, so, so much...I can’t hold it back!”

I didn’t say a word.

“Just spending time with you makes me so happy I can’t even deal... I wanna touch you, and hug you, and kiss you, and mess around with you literally all the time... And you’re, like, always so chill and blasé about it and stuff? And I start worrying if I’m the only one who feels this strongly about us... So I end up thinking that I have to make it even more obvious that I love you, or you’ll end up getting sick of me...”

“Tomoyo...”

The reason I’d ended up acting relatively chill about our relationship was because Tomoyo’s affection had been so overwhelming. Having someone come at me that aggressively, paradoxically, made it really easy for me to keep a cool head. It was like I knew on some level that if both of us went full dere we’d completely lose control, meaning that it was my responsibility to stay calm and keep things reasonable for both of our sakes.

Apparently, however, my calm and collected act had just ended up making Dereyo go to even greater extremes. Her excessive affection was just a manifestation of the anxiety that she felt deep down. I was starting to feel really pathetic, honestly. How could I let myself make the most important girl in the world to me worry, of all things?

“Tomoyo,” I called out. A dark and dreary shadow had fallen over her, but she still looked up when I called her name—and the moment she did, I pressed my lips to hers.

I stole a kiss, as simple as that. The softness of her lips had me spellbound in an instant, and while she jolted with surprise at first, she soon wrapped her arms around me and pulled me even closer. It felt like our kiss lasted for an eternity, and yet at the same time, like it only took a split second before our lips regretfully parted.

“I love you, Tomoyo. I love every part of you, no matter how you act.”

“Ah... Aggghhhhhh!” Tomoyo moaned as she pressed her face—which was as red as a boiled lobster—into her hands. “D-Dummy... Wh-What was that? I-I wasn’t ready... Agggh...”

“Are you seriously getting embarrassed now? After all that...? You were all over me literally a second ago.”

“W-Well, come on... It was so sudden, you caught me off guard... And it’s been ages since the last time too.”

“Has it, really...? Pretty sure it was just the day before yesterday.”

“I-I mean it’s been ages since you kissed me! And it feels like it’s been a while since you said you love me on your own too. It’s like I always have to go out of my way to ask you to say it lately...”

“Yeah, uh...that’s just because you ask for it all the time. It has to be just the right time for me to say it naturally, and you always end up asking for it before I get the chance, basically.”

“I-I know! I know, but still...” Tomoyo sulkily moaned.

I gave her a pat on the head. “You don’t have to worry, okay? I really do love you. It’s all fine.”

“Yeah...”

The next thing I knew, Tomoyo had flung herself at me all over again. This time, her flying hug was so intense it sent us crashing backward onto her bed.

“Hee hee, hee hee hee! I love you, Juujuu! Let’s just do this all day today, okay? We can spend the whole day hugging and cuddling!”

“Or...you could do your work. Like, please, do that. I’m begging you.”

“Hmmph. You’re such a meanie, Juujuu! If all you’re gonna do with your lips is complain, then I’ll just go ahead and put them to much better use!”

“I said I’m not into that stuff when the mood’s not right, didn’t I?!”

Tomoyo was bearing down on me again, but I shut her down with a well-aimed flick to the forehead. She let out a little yelp and glared daggers at me, but it wasn’t long before both of us cracked up in unison. I couldn’t really say if we were flirting, fighting, or both, but one way or another, we spent the afternoon together in our own unique sort of way.

Honestly...is it really okay for me to be this happy? I wondered, saying a silent prayer that this wouldn’t all turn out to be just a dream.

World Alight Route: The End