Monday morning.
"Hmph hmph hmph~"
Akira hummed a light tune while busy operating a spatula in the kitchen early this morning. His mood was hovering at the absolute peak state.
"Yawn~" Hirokazu Nagano stepped out of his bedroom while letting out a massive yawn, rubbing his bleary eyes. "Akira, what are you prepping? Breakfast on the table is already set, right?" Nagano pointed toward the neatly arranged stack of food.
"I'm preparing a bento for lunch," Akira answered casually without turning his head away from the stove.
"Hmm?" Nagano took wide strides to approach his nephew's back, peering at the two lunch boxes lined up neatly across the counter. "Oh~ so that extra container is specifically prepared for Yukino-chan?" Nagano launched into his classic teasing routine.
Akira let out a defeated, weary sigh, staring at his uncle. "Uncle Nagano, please stop spouting such bizarre things. My relationship with Yukinoshita is completely, purely innocent."
Ever since Nagano caught them shopping for cat supplies last Saturday, the middle-aged man had been relentlessly searching for subtle openings to probe into his nephew's romantic life.
Nagano narrowed his eyes knowingly. "In that case... is this bento for the girl you were happily texting late into the night a few days ago?"
The movement of Akira's hands arranging the side dishes instantly froze mid-air for a brief second.
Catching sight of that precise reaction, Nagano burst into hearty laughter, patting Akira’s shoulder. "Haha! My guess hit dead center!"
"Whatever you say, Uncle. I'm heading to the bathroom for a second." Akira quickly tossed the final side dish into the bento, stepping away from the kitchen to evade further interrogation.
Nagano cast a sideways glance toward the sweet-patterned lunch box crafted by Akira, which was clearly bought specifically for a female. The middle-aged man shook his head with a determined smirk. "Haaah... this kid genuinely makes me anxious. As a benevolent uncle, I must provide a little assistance."
Nagano pulled a bottle of ketchup from the refrigerator, focusing his full concentration to draw something across the surface of the bento's rice. Once finished with his masterpiece, Nagano wrapped both bento boxes inside their cloth covers, presenting them right in front of Akira who had just stepped out of the bathroom. "Here, I’ve already helped tidy them up for you."
"Ah, right. Thanks a lot, Uncle Nagano." Akira accepted the bundle, then cast a quick glance at his wrist watch. Because he had squandered too much time prepping extra dishes, his departure window was incredibly tight. "My time is rapidly running thin. I'll just grab a sandwich along the way for breakfast. I'm heading out now, Uncle!"
"Sure, be careful on the road!" Nagano locked a thin, knowing smile onto his face as he watched his nephew sprint hurriedly past the apartment doors.
To cut down his travel duration, Akira decided to operate his new Kawasaki Ninja 400 motorcycle, which had just been delivered on Sunday, to travel to school. After securing his vehicle at a rental parking slot near the transit station—at a distance slightly removed from the academy grounds—Akira took a casual walk along the sidewalk toward the main gates.
"Morning, Kato," Akira greeted the moment his eyes caught the silhouette of a bob-haired girl walking a few paces ahead of him.
The girl turned her body around, locking a thin, remarkably sweet smile onto her lips. "Morning, Kitahara-kun."
"Hmm?" As the physical distance between them rapidly collapsed, Akira suddenly blinked his eyes, noticing an unusual detail across the girl's face. "Kato, your appearance today... seems to look slightly different?"
Megumi concealed both of her hands behind her back, struggling to regulate her tone of voice to remain perfectly flat and calm like usual. "Really? In what way does it look different to Kitahara-kun?"
Ordinarily, Megumi never bothered to apply a shred of makeup when traveling to school, fully aware that her presence was paper-thin and nobody would ever notice. However, due to a massive sequence of interrogative lectures from her sister, Hiromi, last night, Megumi ultimately decided to try applying a thin layer of light cosmetics this morning—a decision that had caused her mother to fuss intensely at the breakfast table earlier.
Akira tilted his head, scrutinizing Megumi's face intently before delivering an honest response. "You look... significantly more beautiful?"
Megumi swiveled her face toward another direction. "Hmm... Kitahara-kun is remarkably skilled at smooth-talking, isn't he? No wonder you're well-acquainted with so many beautiful girls at this academy." Even though her words sounded like a flat retort, the corners of her lips curving slightly upward couldn't conceal the true warmth inside her heart.
"I'm entirely serious, I swear I'm not smooth-talking you!" Akira frantically waved his hands in panic, scrambling to provide a genuine explanation.
***
The two stepped into the first-year classroom together. However, the exact second Akira settled his frame into his chair, Togashi Yuta suddenly leaned across toward his desk with a highly confidential posture. "Um... Akira, can you step out to the corridor with me for a brief second?"
Akira knitted his brows in confusion. "Hmm? Oh, sure."
The two walked out toward a relatively quiet segment of the corridor. Akira leaned against the balcony railing. "What's the issue, Yuta? Why call me out so secretly like this?"
"Y-You... please help me check this over..." Yuta presented a pink envelope decorated with a pink heart sticker over the flap closure. The boy's face was already flushed completely red from sheer embarrassment.
*Hiss...!* Akira instantly shivered in horror. A cold draft of pure panic sliced down his spine, causing him to reflexively take three wide strides backward to establish a safe boundary.
Ebina Hina, who happened to be passing through the corridor clutching her assignment notebooks, abruptly halted her tracks. The glass-wearing girl reflexively clapped both hands over her mouth, emitting a mystical, incredibly bizarre chuckle. "Hehe... hehehehe..."
Akira waved his hands frantically with a highly anxious expression. "No... no, Yuta! We are indeed close friends, but regarding a relationship of *that* nature... I'm incredibly sorry, this is absolutely, completely forbidden!"
Yuta, realizing his body language had triggered a catastrophic misunderstanding, instantly shrieked in panic as his face flushed an even deeper shade of red. "You’ve got it all wrong, you idiot! This love letter was written specifically for Rikka! I called you out here purely because I wanted your assistance to check if there are any flawed grammatical structures or sentences inside it!"
"Fiuh~ You should have stated that from the absolute start!" Akira let out an incredibly long sigh of relief, taking custody of the pink envelope from Yuta's hands. "But come to think of it, why did you suddenly think of asking me for love letter proofreading?"
Yuta scratched his blushing cheek, averting his canggung gaze. "Well... aren't you and Kato-san currently officially dating? That’s why I assumed you must possess a vast amount of experience regarding romantic affairs like this."
Akira stared at Yuta with a highly probing look. "Kato and I? Who exactly has been spreading such misleading rumors to you?"
"Eh? Wasn't that the information circulated by Yuigahama-san from the adjacent class?"
'Damn it, that dango-haired troublemaker Yuigahama! Just you wait for my retaliation!' Akira subtly scribbled Yui Yuigahama's name into a mental notebook of minor grudges, intending to track down some extreme dango pastry recipes to prank her later at the club.
After providing a sequence of tactical guidelines regarding the theoretical science of romance based on his past-life knowledge to Yuta, the two finally stepped back inside the classroom. However, the moment their feet crossed the threshold, the domestic atmosphere inside had transformed into an absolute uproar.
In the center of a dense cluster of students, Ebina Hina was frantically narrating with an impassioned expression, occasionally darting highly bizarre glances packed with wild imagination toward Akira and Yuta’s approach.
"Yuta!!" Takanashi Rikka suddenly sprinted toward Yuta's position, her eyes already welling up with tears. "The Master of Dark Flames is an absolute contractor bound by a blood oath to my Eye of the Wicked Lord! You... you are strictly forbidden from signing another forbidden contract with the Shadow Monarch!"
"Um... Rikka, listen to me first, it's completely not what you're imagining..." Yuta quickly guided Rikka away to straighten out her wild chuunibyou delusions.
Meanwhile, at Akira's desk.
The exact second the youth landed his weight into his chair, a palm suddenly tapped his shoulder from behind. Akira turned his head, finding Shirogane Miyuki staring at him with a gaze packed with absolute, genuine sympathy.
Miyuki cleared his throat lightly, adopting a wise countenance. "Ehem... Akira, my apologies for previously misunderstanding your character traits last week. But rest assured, as your friend, I vow that I will absolutely not discriminate against your sexual orientation."
"Don't be ridiculous! There's no way you actually believe that crazy rumor too?!" Akira wanted to weep from sheer frustration.
Miyuki tapped Akira’s shoulder resignedly, pointing his index finger toward a cluster of popular girls at the corner of the room. "The thing is, whether I believe it or not is entirely irrelevant anymore, Akira. What matters is... the gossip regarding your 'forbidden relationship' has already systematically spread across the entire classroom due to Ebina-san's analysis."
Kato Megumi, sitting next to Akira, cast a sympathetic glance his way. "I think Ebina-san was simply getting far too excited with her imagination. Kitahara-kun shouldn't take it to heart too much."
Akira stared at Megumi with a deeply touched gaze. "Waaah, Kato! You truly are the absolute best person in this world! You genuinely are my saving Goddess Megumi!"
"Your praise is far too overkill... I don't qualify to be referred to as a goddess or anything," Megumi replied, turning her face away as a sudden flush of pastel pink painted her cheeks.
***
The lunch recess bell finally resonated loudly.
"Kato, this is for you." Akira presented a sweet-patterned bento box—which had been prepped early this morning in his apartment kitchen—to Megumi.
Megumi accepted the container, looking slightly startled. "Eh? I half-assumed Kitahara-kun had entirely forgotten about your promise last week."
"How could I forget? Since I’ve made a promise, I am guaranteed to always fulfill it." Akira locked a proud grin onto his face.
Megumi slowly unwrapped the cloth cover and lifted the bento lid. However, the exact millisecond the container opened, her eyes froze completely stiff over the rice surface. A massive heart shape drawn thickly with deep crimson ketchup was displayed right at the center of the bento.
"Um..." Megumi’s hand movements instantly locked mid-air.
Noticing a sudden, drastic shift across the girl's countenance, Akira panicked. "What's wrong, Kato? Is there an issue with the bento's menu?"
"No... it's nothing," Megumi answered with rapid movements, directly snapping the bento lid shut tightly again. She cradled the container against her chest, staring straight into Akira’s eyes. "Kitahara-kun, how about we enjoy this lunch up on the school rooftop instead?"
Akira, who was completely oblivious to the fact that the ketchup artwork was the work of his mischievous uncle, nodded obediently. "Sure, let’s head up there."
The two teenagers walked in absolute silence through the corridors toward the rooftop stairs. Megumi walked with her head slightly lowered, deeply immersed in her internal thoughts regarding the hidden intentions behind the heart shape on her bento. On the other hand, Akira walked with a completely blank stare purely because his stomach was far too empty to engage in conversation.
Fortunately, the awkward, strange atmosphere between them didn't drag on for too long.
"Kato-san...! Kitahara-san!" A male shout, completely out of breath, suddenly boomed from the rear corridor.
Akira halted his pace, turning his frame back. "What's the issue now, Aki-kun?"
Aki Tomoya came to a halt a few paces before them, his breathing heavy and erratic. "Hah... hah... I intentionally went to your classroom to look for you! But your classmates mentioned that you two suddenly headed out together!"
Megumi tilted her head slightly, staring in confusion at the otaku. "Is there... an issue with that, Aki-kun?"
"Hah?!" Tomoya instantly shrieked hysterically, his eyes widening perfectly toward Megumi as if she had just uttered a criminal statement. "Of course that is a massive, fatal issue! You two are my chosen primary male and female leads for the new game project! By story structure, Kato-san's presence is supposed to be ultra-thin and weak, how on earth can you directly go have lunch one-on-one with the male lead in the very first chapter of the story?! You’re supposed to..."
Tomoya spoke with highly expressive body language, stepping forward to approach them with a face flushed bright red as his saliva splattered into the air.
"That's enough!" Akira cut off the sentence instantly, his forehead knitting into a sharp, infuriated frown. From the absolute start, he had thoroughly disliked Aki Tomoya’s trait of forcefully imposing his selfish desires onto others. It was only because they were in different classes and rarely crossed paths that Akira had chosen to ignore it. But seeing how this otaku dared to shout at Megumi directly in front of him, the absolute limit of Akira’s patience was officially depleted.
But now that Aki Tomoya was relentlessly disturbing their peace, Akira had absolutely zero intention of remaining amicable or holding back in front of him.
"Kato and I have already explicitly declined to join your circle from the very beginning, and we possess zero interest in creating some bishoujo game. Where on earth did you secure the confidence to dictate our lives like this?" Akira stepped forward, closing the physical gap between them.
Kato is Kato—a real human being, not some fictional lead blueprint for your game project! Whether her presence is thin or not is entirely her own business to carry, not something to be defined by your selfish character designs!
"I... I..." Tomoya instantly felt an invisible, suffocating pressure radiating from Akira’s frame. His confidence dissolved into nothingness, and his tongue went completely stiff, unable to formulate a single counter-argument.
"Kano-san..." Tomoya pivoted his gaze, staring at Kato Megumi with a desperate look as if imploring her to help persuade Akira.
However, Megumi merely returned the stare with an incredibly serene gaze, displaying absolutely zero intention of offering a shred of assistance or defense.
"Furthermore, let me clarify once more, her name is Kato, not Kano! You can't even memorize her actual first name, and yet you brashly claim her as your main heroine? Ridiculous!" Akira darted a freezing look at Tomoya.
"But... but... Kitahara-kun, Kato-san, please join my circle! I am truly begging you!" Driven into a complete corner, Tomoya directly bent his upper body into a deep, ninety-degree bow before them.
"How tedious. Kato, let’s get out of here," Akira said, turning his frame toward Megumi.
"Um," Megumi nodded in absolute obedience.
Akira directly locked his grip around Megumi's wrist, leading her away to immediately leave the corridor where Tomoya remained bowing completely alone. Tomoya could only stare blankly at their retreating backs. His right hand extended briefly into the air as if wanting to halt their departure, but ultimately, not a single syllable managed to escape his lips.
***
The school rooftop area.
"Ah... sorry about that..." Once his adrenaline had fully receded and the atmosphere turned quiet, Akira finally realized that his palm was still tightly gripping Megumi's wrist. He quickly released his hold, scratching his cheek in deep embarrassment.
"It's fine," Megumi replied, shaking her head gently as her facial expression reverted to her signature flat countenance.
"I got a bit too emotional just now, my bad if my actions caught you off guard," Akira noted, feeling slightly apologetic.
Megumi stared intently into Akira's face, her lips curving into a remarkably thin, sweet smile. "No, actually, I thought Kitahara-kun looked incredibly cool when you spoke firmly like that just now."
Akira flinched slightly, a sudden flush of pastel pink warming his cheeks upon hearing the honest praise. He cleared his throat loudly to mask his canggung state. "Ah... in that case, we should probably hurry up and finish our lunch."
"Um."
The two sat side-by-side across the long rooftop bench. Once Megumi unwrapped the cloth cover of the bento box Akira had crafted, the girl suddenly presented her pair of chopsticks right in front of Akira’s face.
Akira blinked his eyes, staring in utter confusion at the chopsticks. "Kato, what's the meaning of this?"
"Last Monday, I took the initiative to feed Kitahara-kun. So, I believe it’s only fair that it’s Kitahara-kun's turn to feed me this time," Megumi stated in an incredibly calm voice, as if requesting such an intimate act was the most logical thing in the world.
Akira swallowed hard with immense difficulty. "A-Alright then..."
Akira’s gauze-wrapped fingers slowly assumed custody of the chopsticks, pinning down a meatball drenched in teriyaki sauce from inside the bento, and carefully guided it into Megumi's small, parted lips.
"How is the taste? Do you like it?" Akira inquired with high interest, awaiting the evaluation from his makeshift food critic.
Megumi chewed her food slowly, then stared straight into Akira’s eyes. "Yes, I like it very much."
***
A corner of the school rooftop, slightly cloaked by the heavy shadow of the concrete wall.
*...The two stared at one another, their frames wrapped in a deep, profound warmth.*
Kasumigaoka Utaha was currently leaning against the concrete partition, staring sharply at the two teenagers on the long bench from afar. Her slender fingers moved agilely, scribbling that exact melancholic line into her novel notebook.
But at the precise millisecond Utaha placed a period at the end of her sentence, a translucent, shadowy silhouette abruptly materialized in the air right behind her back. The unseen entity moved with lightning velocity, ripping the physical paper sheet clean out from Utaha’s notebook, instantly absorbing and concealing it within its own energy core.
*FLASH!*
Simultaneously, a mysterious burst of a vibrant pink light flashed directly before Utaha’s eyelids. The sudden displacement of foreign energy caused her to reflexively snap her eyes shut tightly.
After a brief wave of silence passed, Utaha slowly parted her eyelids once more. She stared blankly down at her open notebook, then cast her gaze out toward the sprawling Chiba sky with a thin, highly satisfied smile.
"Ah... this truly is an incredibly flawless concept material for my continuation novel..." Utaha murmured softly to herself, completely oblivious to the fact that her detailed memories regarding Akira and Megumi's interaction just now had been systematically manipulated by an uncharted anomaly.