Vol 1 Chapter 7 – A Line of Well-wishers

The day had finally come.

It was the day I would be discharged from this hospital.

When they learned I was leaving, my attending physician, the nurses from all over the hospital, and even nearly every single patient admitted here swarmed my room.

I especially talked a lot with Ayano, both of us checking on how the other was feeling.

“You get out of here soon too, Ayano.”

“I will! I want to get to the school where you are right away, Kisaragi-kun! Please wait for me!”

Like a handshake event for a popular idol, Tachibana-san and Sakurai-san expertly handled the steady stream of well-wishers.

“Alright, Kurokawa-sama, your time is up. Please move away from Yuuma-sama immediately. There are others waiting.”

“What! We have to say goodbye already? That was too fast!” Ayano threw a fit.

“We even gave you a little extra time since you’re his friend! You should be thanking us!” Sakurai-san, slightly annoyed, pulled Ayano and led her out of the room.

“Noooo! Don’t pull me and Kisaragi-kun apart~”

“Yes, next person, please.”

“It’s finally my turn, is it! In the first place, this is my hospital, so it’s absurd for me to wait in line! Honestly…”

The next person to arrive was the Ojou-sama with blonde hair in vertical rolls.

The girl with the dynamite body who had declared herself my future wife in the large bath.

Tenjouin Amane.

“Tenjouin! Come to think of it, I heard the only reason I could get into this hospital was because you put in a good word for me… Thank you.”

“O-Of course! For you, Yuuma-sama, something like this is a simple matter! Oho, hohoho.”

Tenjouin’s reaction was a little more skittish than usual.

Seeing this strange side of her, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hey! Why are you laughing!?”

“Oh, I just thought maybe you were blushing. And I thought that was cute… If I made you feel bad, I’m sorry.”

“C-Cute… If you say things like that… I… I’ll be so happy I won’t know how to react…”

Tenjouin’s face turned bright red as she looked down.

“Hey, Tenjouin. You okay?”

I tried to get a look at her face, peering up at her from below.

“Kyaaah! Please don’t look, it’s embarrassing…”

She whipped her blonde vertical rolls from side to side, pushing me away.

Each time Tenjouin shook her hair, a pleasant scent wafted over.

This has to be the smell of expensive shampoo…

“Tenjouin-sama, any further action will be considered an attack on Yuuma-sama and you will be subject to removal.”

The voice that stopped her came, surprisingly, from Sakurai-san.

Her eyes were sharper than usual, and her voice was low.

“Hmph! To call this head-shaking, born from a maiden’s pure feelings, an attack! Do you have no heart?”

“No, I don’t deny a maiden’s pure feelings, but your actions toward Yuuma-sama are excessive. Frankly, I cannot comprehend your behavior! What would you do if you ended up scratching Yuuma-sama’s face?”

For the first time, I saw Sakurai-san show open anger toward Tenjouin.

Seeing this side of Sakurai-san for the first time, I couldn’t help but hold my breath.

“Hmph! This is why meatheads are so troublesome. There’s no way a little thing like this would scratch that face of Yuuma-sama! Can’t you even understand that?”

“That is your judgment, is it not? I am speaking from an objective point of view!”

Their argument grew more intense.

For now, my bed separated the two of them, so they couldn’t get physical, but it seemed like only a matter of time.

Normally, Tachibana-san would step in to stop them, but the line of my well-wishers was longer than expected, and she was swamped.

It looks like it’ll be difficult for Tachibana-san to mediate…

“Your name is Sakurai-san, was it? Do you have any idea what it means to defy me?”

“Who you are is irrelevant. My job is to protect Yuuma-sama, and that is all. To protect Yuuma-sama, I will fight, even if the opponent is an army. That is my mission!”

“Oh, how gallant. But if I were so inclined, I could make you disappear in an instant, you know? Were that to happen, I’m sure you would realize just how paper-thin that mission of yours truly is.”

Tenjouin-san provoked Sakurai-san.

“Your threats won’t work on me. I haven’t trained this hard for nothing.”

“Is that so… Then perhaps you’d care to prove it.”

Tenjouin brought her hand up to her shoulder, as if to snap her fingers.

“Fine by me. Come at me whenever you’re ready, missy!”

The auras of a dragon and a tiger materialized behind them as the two glared at each other.

“W-Wait! Stop! Stop! Both of you, don’t fight!”

I rushed to get between them.

It’s a pathetic thing to admit, but I couldn’t imagine winning against either of them.

So my attempt to stop them came out as a rather pitiful, frightened plea.

“Yuuma-sama… please rest assured. I will eliminate the target over there immediately.”

“That’s my line! I will exterminate this pest! Someone like her is not worthy of Yuuma-sama!”

In the end, my intervention was in vain, and the mood between them grew even more hostile.

The animosity between these two might be more serious than I thought…

“You two, get along! This is a hospital! I don’t like people who cause trouble for others!”

I said it a little forcefully.

This was a private room, and it wasn’t as if anyone else was inside, so there was no worry about bothering other people.

But if the two of them fought, one of them could get hurt, or they might break something in the hospital.

That would cause trouble for all sorts of people.

That’s what I was worried about.

And so I tried saying it forcefully, but…

Upon hearing my words, the two of them suddenly froze like statues.

Gradually, however, looks of tragic despair began to spread across their faces.

Seeing them like this, I started to worry in a completely different way than before.

And then the two of them, their eyes welling with tears, closed in on me.

“No! Please don’t hate me! I’ll never go against what you say again, Yuuma-sama! I’m begging you! I’ll do anything, so please forgive me!”

“Yuuma-sama! I’ll never fight again, so please don’t hate me! Please! If you hated me, it would be too painful… I’d die!”

I was bewildered by their sudden change.

The two of them clung to me desperately, sobbing.

“Eh… I mean, to get this upset…”

“Yuuma-sama… I’ll do anything for you, Yuuma-sama! So please, don’t hate me…

Waaaaah…”

“hic… Me too! I’ll do anything I can, so please don’t abandon me!”

Seeing them like this, I was wracked with guilt.

Do they really fall apart like this just from me saying I don’t like it?

Finally noticing this catastrophe, Tachibana-san came to check on the room.

“W-What’s the matter, Yuuma-sama? What on earth is this situation…!?”

Tachibana-san was flustered, unable to process the scene before her.

It was rare to see her like that.

I briefly explained what had happened up to that point.

Even as I explained, the two of them kept sobbing, which made things difficult.

“Yuuma-sama, that was a rather cruel thing to say, wasn’t it…”

Tachibana-san gave me a reproachful look.

Ah, so Tachibana-san is on their side…

After that, I had to desperately console the two of them until they stopped crying.