Chapter 10 – Akira’s Pursuit

“Nevada-kun!”

Bang! Akira slammed my desk and glared at me. Of course, I stayed perfectly calm, reading my light novel.

“What? Did I do something to offend you?”

“Is it true you went on a date with Sudou Karma?”

“Who told you?”

“It’s spreading all over SNS that you two went home together.”

“Well. Yeah, we did go on a date. We ate crepes together.”

“C-c-crepes~~~~~~!?”

Was it really that shocking? Akira immediately searched it up on her phone and checked Sudou Karma’s account.

“This one!”

“The shoulder barely showing in the corner is me. Make sure to like and repost it.”

“Nevada-kun, you cheater!”

We aren’t even dating, so cheating doesn’t apply in the first place.

“Cheating, he says.”

“Putting the Moonshadow Goddess aside?”

“But the opponent is the love-fallen angel, right?”

The classroom filled with hushed whispers. Apparently I was being viewed as a scumbag simultaneously going after both the Moonshadow Goddess and the love-fallen angel. Even though I wasn’t dating either of them.

“You want to go on a date?”

“Nevada-kun, please don’t talk to any girls other than me.”

“No way.”

“Instant rejection… Why!?”

“First of all, you’re acting way too much like a girlfriend when we’re not even dating.”

“Then I like you! Please go out with me!”

“Declined.”

“Please, I’m begging you!”

“I’m terribly sorry, but no.”

“I’ll withdraw all my savings!”

“You’re the type who gets involved with a guy and ends up in hell.”

She seems like she’d fall hard for a host. Or end up with an abusive boyfriend. The type who says “It’s my fault” and doesn’t blame the man.

“Nevada-kun? You’ve been transferring schools so much you don’t know left from right, right?”

“Well. Yeah.”

“I’ll show you around. So keep your after-school schedule open.”

“I’m not playing basketball anymore.”

“Do you dislike sports?”

“I like them, but actually doing them myself is another story.”

I hesitated a little.

“Don’t let the love-fallen angel fool you! She’s only teasing you!”

“I know. She doesn’t actually like me.”

I had roughly sensed it from the side-eye rejection vibe. Of course, more than that as well.

“I’ll be the only one who loves you. Nevada-kun wants to be loved by me too, right?”

Her eyes glittering intensely, she continued her passionate speech. Personally I couldn’t say yes or no. I didn’t have the confidence to casually say “I don’t really care” here.

“You want to date me?”

“I want you to make me your girlfriend. I’ll earn all the money.”

Hey now. That kind of desperate attitude is the biggest reason men pull away.

“Should we kiss right here?”

“It’ll get us called in by the student guidance office, so stop.”

“Nevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kunNevada-kun”

Way too many times.

“Um… Moonshadow Goddess…-san?”

Someone actually called Tokoyami Akira by her nickname.

“What is it?”

“You like Fushimi-kun?”

“I love him.”

“I… I see…”

Some of the girls were clearly creeped out. It was probably impossible for them to comprehend that the cutest second-year, the Moonshadow Goddess, was this madly in love with me. I found it incomprehensible too.

“Don’t be fooled by the love-fallen angel. I love Nevada-kun the most in the entire world.”

“Hey, Eri.”

“What?”

“Why are you kissing me?”

“Because I like you.”

“It’ll get us called in by the student guidance office.”

“Anyway, no one notices what I do.”

Right now in class, while the Moonshadow Goddess was interrogating me, the fact that I was kissing Sabakutani Eri wasn’t being perceived at all. It was strangely natural.

“You like me too?”

“More like, you’re the only one who can see me, so I don’t have any other choice, right?”

Fair enough.

“If Nevada wants, we can even do it inside the school~”

No thank you.

“Are you even listening!? Nevada-kun!”

“I wasn’t listening at all.”

“You mustn’t give in to the love-fallen angel’s temptation, okay? Because the one who loves Nevada-kun the most in the world is me.”

“Heh~”

In Attenborough terms, it’s basically “So what?” Truly the strongest response.

“Nevada-kun doesn’t want to see blood either, right?”

“Of course not.”

Is bloodshed even possible in the first place? Wouldn’t the police get involved? I don’t know how the police in Yanagihara define these things.

“Anyway. So. After school is reserved for me, right?”

“Suure~”

The buzz in the classroom grew even louder. The fact that the Moonshadow Goddess was obsessed with the transfer student was becoming a huge rumor. And it spread throughout the school in seconds.

“Tragic news: Moonshadow Goddess is head over heels for the transfer student” or something like that.

“He’s going after both the Moonshadow Goddess and the love-fallen angel.”

“How much good karma did he rack up in his previous life?”

“I was a love-fallen angel fan though…”

First-year representative: love-fallen angel.

Second-year representative: Moonshadow Goddess.

“Hm? What about third-year?”

“Mwah♡ Nevada’s kisses are so sweet.”

“You’ve got some nerve doing that right in front of Akira.”

“Is this netorare?”

More like netori, isn’t it? Akira hadn’t noticed that Eri was passionately kissing me at all. She loved me so much, loved me so deeply, that she was telling me I should date her, completely unaware that the guy she was confessing to was currently making out with Eri.

“By the way, you’re wearing a nurse outfit today.”

“It’s cosplay, though.”

She really owns all kinds of clothes. The fact that she comes to school in cosplay alone proves Eri’s mentality is straight-up monstrous.

“By the way, the third-year representative is called Takamine Yuika.”

I see.

The one and only flower on the highest peak, huh.