Hikaru Naruse climbed out of the pool.
He stood by the edge for a moment, letting some of the water evaporate off his body, then dried off the rest with a towel.
Swimming class was over, which meant school let out for the afternoon.
It was right then that a voice came from his right side.
“Naruse.”
He turned his head to find Ai Morishita standing next to him, holding two ice creams.
One vanilla, one chocolate.
The girl gazed at Hikaru Naruse.
Though her face still didn’t show any particular expression, the way she held out the ice cream was perfectly natural.
“Here.”
“Hm?”
Hikaru Naruse blinked in slight surprise, then reached out and took the chocolate one.
He said with a grin,
“You’re giving me ice cream—you’re not going to make me pay you back for something again later, are you?”
“There’s nothing I want to eat right now, so we’ll talk about it later.”
After handing one to Naruse, Ai Morishita started eating the other herself.
“Fair enough.”
Naruse felt like he’d already figured out how to get along with Morishita.
Sure, this girl’s behavior was a bit unexpected, but once they’d become friends she was actually pretty thoughtful—it wasn’t a bad deal at all.
Tearing open the wrapper, Hikaru Naruse took a bite.
The rich, sweet chocolate flavor slowly spread through his mouth, and his mood lifted a little in spite of himself.
“Naruse, I’m going to explore the school in a bit.
There are still some places I haven’t been these past few days.”
Ai Morishita spoke in that flat tone of hers while eating her vanilla ice cream.
“Do you want to come with me?”
Hikaru Naruse thought it over.
Aside from his physical training, he hadn’t really spent much time exploring the campus these past few days.
Although he had a rough grasp of the school’s overall layout from his memories of his past life, that information had, after all, come from an anime and a novel, and there might be some differences from the actual environment.
“Sure, let’s go take a look around.”
Stepping out of the swimming hall, they found that most of the students had already finished their afternoon classes and activities.
The two of them walked side by side along the path leading deeper into the campus, the distance between them sometimes close, sometimes far.
What Hikaru Naruse didn’t know was that at the very moment he and Ai Morishita left the gymnasium, another person was quietly making her move as well.
Yamamura Miki.
Since she’d made up her mind to do this, she was going to take the first step.
Yamamura Miki wasn’t good with words, but she wasn’t the type to torment herself by going back and forth over things.
After taking a deep breath, the girl carefully closed the gap toward the two figures ahead of her.
She really did have a natural advantage in this regard—because her presence was so faint, basically no one would notice whether her behavior was suspicious.
Keeping a distance of about twenty-some meters, she silently trailed behind Hikaru Naruse and Ai Morishita.
The two of them walked down a stretch of path, cut through a strip of greenery, and then arrived in front of a school building on the west side of campus.
Hikaru Naruse and Ai Morishita came to a stop, seemingly discussing which direction to head next.
Yamamura Miki stopped too, hiding behind a large tree and poking half her head out to secretly observe the two of them ahead.
But it was at this moment that something unexpected happened.
Ai Morishita, walking beside Hikaru Naruse, suddenly paused mid-step, then whipped around, her eyes locking straight onto a certain corner behind them—precisely the direction where Yamamura Miki was hiding.
“?”
“Naruse, someone’s following us from behind.”
“Huh?”
Before Hikaru Naruse could even process what was happening, he saw Ai Morishita already break into a stride, suddenly dashing off in the direction behind them.
She was fast, like a leopard that had spotted its prey.
Just as Naruse still hadn’t figured out what was going on, Ai Morishita quickly emerged from the trees—and in her hand…
she was dragging along someone’s arm.
“?”
Sweeping a glance over the other person’s appearance, Hikaru Naruse compared it against his memories and immediately identified who she was.
Yamamura Miki—a girl who seemed to have a low presence, but who had a fair amount of screen time in the original work’s third-year arc.
Hikaru Naruse confirmed her identity, then turned his gaze to Ai Morishita.
“What’s going on?”
Ai Morishita glanced at the girl she’d caught, then looked back at Hikaru Naruse.
“She was following us.”
Yamamura Miki’s body visibly trembled at those words, and her already-lowered head dipped even further.
“Following, not following—what does it matter.”
Naruse thought for a moment, then a faint smile appeared on his face.
“This is the same route students take back to the dorms anyway.
Maybe she just happened to be going the same way as us.”
“We’re all classmates, so let her go first.”
“Oh.”
Ai Morishita shot Hikaru Naruse a look, and though a bit puzzled, in the end she let go.
The next moment, Yamamura Miki—like a prisoner granted amnesty—rubbed the arm that had been gripped, then raised her head to look at the boy before her.
“Actually…
Morishita-san wasn’t wrong.”
“Oh?”
Hikaru Naruse suddenly felt a bit curious, because judging by his memories, Yamamura Miki shouldn’t have been the type to do something like this.
“I really was following you, Naruse-kun, but I…
it was to thank you.”
“Thank me?”
Hikaru Naruse raised an eyebrow slightly, the corner of his mouth curving into a smile.
“Because of the plan you proposed, Naruse-kun, we all know about the hidden rules now.
That’s a really important thing for the class, isn’t it?”
“Uh, you don’t need to go out of your way to thank me for something like that.”
Though Naruse didn’t quite believe this reason, he went along with what she said anyway.
“It was all just for the sake of the class’s efforts.
So now that you’ve said it, is there anything else?”
Yamamura shook her head, but then, remembering her task, she worked up her courage again and spoke.
“Um, what are you two doing right now?”
“Naruse and I are just wandering around.”
Ai Morishita spoke up of her own accord, then sized up Yamamura Miki.
For some reason, even though she’d looked so serious just moments ago when she’d “caught” her, now a faint smile appeared on her face.
“Do you want to come along?”
She made a move that Hikaru Naruse hadn’t anticipated—inviting Yamamura Miki along.
“Can I…
really come with you?”
“Of course.”
Ai Morishita seemed to have already made up her mind, then turned her head to look at Hikaru Naruse.
“What do you think, Naruse?”
“Works for me.
The more the merrier.” Naruse shrugged, not minding in the least.
“Good.”
At that moment, Ai Morishita suddenly turned to face Yamamura Miki.
“Since you’re coming along too, then you have to pay a friend fee.”
“A—a friend fee?”
Confusion filled Yamamura Miki’s deep teal eyes.
“Yes.
Naruse likes fruit juice, and I like strawberry milk.”
“If you’re going to tag along with us, then naturally you have to give something up.”
Ai Morishita’s tone was perfectly ordinary, but the content of what she said sounded like bullying.
Naruse rubbed his forehead a little helplessly, and just as he was about to speak up and put a stop to this, he heard Yamamura Miki suddenly raise her voice.
“Okay, I can buy them!”
“…”
Naruse turned his head to glance at Ai Morishita, only to find a smug, self-satisfied look on the girl’s face.
…This girl.
“Then it’s settled.”
It was just two cans of drinks anyway.
The duo became a trio, strolling and browsing their way through the school.
As they passed several school buildings, a familiar glow suddenly flashed across Hikaru Naruse’s field of vision.
The system had issued a new comeback task, and a few lines of text popped up.
[At thirty-six, you happen to think back on your ex-girlfriend from high school.]
[Back in high school, the two of you came together through a twist of fate, only to be forced apart later for certain reasons.
Years after graduation, you recall her face once more, and your heart is filled with wistful regret.]
[So make up for that regret—it’s never too late!]
[Emotional Comeback Task has been issued: Establish a romantic relationship with Kei Karuizawa.
Reward: Mindset Repair Card ×2, Charm +2.]
“???” Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: DanMachi: