Chapter 40 – I-I’m Gonna Get Eaten!?

“S-Sen…pai…”

“If you don’t shut your mouth this instant, I’m going to reach the limit of my patience—”

“That’s enough!”

“…Wha!?”

Having found an emotional pillar in Shinta, the beast lurking inside Kaoru-senpai was beginning to awaken. She had unconsciously poured strength into the bamboo sword in her grip. She was right on the verge of exploding with rage at the junior in front of her.

“What are you doing, Senpai?”

“Shinta-kun…”

Her vision was narrowed by anger. Kaoru-senpai finally noticed Shinta’s presence when he grabbed her arm. The moment she heard his voice, her surging fury rapidly subsided.

“That’s way past the level of anger you should be directing at a junior. Just calm down a sec.”

“S-Sorry. I apologize for frightening you too, Shinjo.”

Coming back to her senses, Kaoru-senpai bowed her head to both of them. Sayaka, despite trembling, couldn’t accept that apology.

“Why… is this happening…?”

Sayaka found it hard to accept the reality unfolding before her eyes. To her, Nakamura Kaoru-senpai was someone worthy of respect above anyone else. She couldn’t accept that the person she worshipped so much would apologize to her or to a piece of trash delinquent. Let alone falling in love with a delinquent. That was far too detached from her ideal image of Nakamura Kaoru-senpai.

“This isn’t my Onee-sama. This isn’t…”

“…I’m honestly happy that you respect me as your senior. But, Shinjo, I am not the pure and spotless person you think I am. I make mistakes. I lose my temper just like I did now.”

“………”

“And above all else, everyone has their own reasons for falling in love. So, won’t you please stop denying that?”

“Guh!?”

Kaoru-senpai tried to gently correct her junior’s misguided ideal image of her. It was apparently too difficult for Sayaka to accept. She ran out of the dojo with teary eyes.

Left behind, Kaoru-senpai cast a somewhat sorrowful gaze.

“Shinjois a junior who adores me more than anyone else in the Kendo club. She’s also somewhat like a little sister to me.”

She wore a somewhat pained expression as she recounted this. She had subconsciously cared for her more than the other juniors. Having the person she loved insulted by someone like that brought a rush of both anger and sadness.

Seeing her fleeting profile, Shinta opened his mouth with an awkward expression.

“I’m kinda sorry about all this, Senpai.”

“Why are you apologizing? You are not at fault in the slightest. If anyone is, it’s me. I am a pathetic senior who can’t even manage her own junior.”

Saying that, Kaoru-senpai looked even more depressed at her own inadequacy.

Honestly, with his dense head, he had no idea what the right thing to say was in this awkward atmosphere. That was exactly why he tried to cheer her up in his own way. He honestly spoke his current thoughts.

“But, um… I was happy. Seeing you say that you genuinely liked me, Senpai…”

“Shinta-kun…”

“Don’t worry. No matter what the people around us say, I’m not going to tell you to give up, Senpai. Just like I promised from the start, I’ll give a proper answer to the three of you who fell for me. I will do it without dodging the question…”

He was well aware that he was spouting some incredibly cheesy lines. Just earlier, Senpai had proudly and majestically declared her love for him no matter what Shinjo said. There was no way he could say something as irresponsible as “You should find someone better” to a girl like that.

“………”

Despite swallowing his embarrassment to say those words, there was no reply from Kaoru-senpai.

(Huh… Why’d she suddenly go quiet?)

Feeling a sense of unease at Kaoru-senpai’s sudden silence, he looked beside him. His expression cramped.

“Haa… Haa… Haa…♡”

(C-Crap. She’s clearly about to go on a rampage in a totally different sense!?)

The next instant, it was faster than Shinta could tell her to calm down. Faced with the explosive agility she had forged as the Kendo club’s ace, Shinta was pushed down without a chance to resist. He was right on the verge of being eaten by a beast starved for love.

“How do you expect me to endure after hearing a line like that!?♡”

“W-Wait!? What happened to the girl who was heartbroken over her junior just a few dozen seconds ago!?”

“That and this are separate matters♡ Right now, it’s just you and me in this dojo. This is clearly… a revelation from God telling me it’s okay to attack you!!”

“Like hell there’s a revelation like that!?”

(Crap, crap, crap! At this rate, I’m seriously gonna get eaten in a sexual sense!?)

Looking at Kaoru-senpai’s expression, it was glaringly obvious that she wouldn’t back down with half-hearted persuasion. That was exactly why Shinta had no choice but to pull out this card.

“A-Actually, I was thinking about asking you out on a date after school tomorrow, Senpai! So could you please hold back for now!!”

Kaoru-senpai’s hands, which were right in the middle of stripping off his upper school uniform, stopped dead.

“Ohh, to think I’d receive such an invitation from you… I feel like I’m dreaming♡”

“S-So let’s hold off for now. Right, right, right?”

“Mmm… I suppose it can’t be helped.”

Shinta had managed to stop Kaoru-senpai’s full rampage by a hair’s breadth. As if to double-check with him, Kaoru-senpai brought her face close and whispered.

“I’m really looking forward to our date tomorrow, you know♡”

“……Yes.”

Shinta stared off into the distance. He thought that he might just end up getting eaten tomorrow after all. Besides, if he was going on a date with Senpai, there was no way Ichizu and Miina would stay quiet about it.

(Oh God… Please let tomorrow just be a normal date without things getting messy.)

Shinta prayed to God for such a thing, but there was no way a wish like that would come true. No, on the contrary, an even more complicated development was being prepared for him.