"No, no more!"
"Let me rest a bit… just a bit! Five minutes!"
"Uuu… Healing magic, that's cheating…"
.
.
.
.
[3 A.M.]
A few hours ago, the arrogant blonde girl who had loudly proclaimed to drain him dry was now deeply asleep. Traces of sweat still lingered faintly on her forehead, and a few strands of messy hair stuck to her lips, silently speaking of how fierce the battle had been.
Kaito let out a light sigh.
'The path of man. Finally, I have opened the door to a new realm.'
Unfortunately, the gap between the two was too great. And with the girl experiencing this for the first time, it was like a farmer holding a shotgun encountering Raditz who had just arrived on Earth. The result was obvious.
And this was even with him using spiritual power to help the girl recover her strength.
Looking at the exhausted sleeping face of Yumiko in his arms, Kaito smiled silently and closed his eyes as well.
.
.
.
.
'Ugh…'
'The sunlight is so bright…'
Miura Yumiko was awakened by the scorching afternoon sunlight.
She opened her eyes in a bit of a daze, the lingering fatigue wouldn't go away, making her want to sleep a bit more.
Her jade-like arm, completely bare, unconsciously groped around, but found nothing.
'Eh?'
'Where's my big boyfriend?'
Yumiko instantly became a lot more awake.
After giving away the most precious thing she had, girls would usually feel more insecure, craving the company and affection of their lover.
If at this moment, they encountered a cold-hearted scumbag who just pulled out and left, it wouldn't be surprising if they swore off love and sealed their heart in concrete.
But Kaito was clearly not that kind of person.
Click!
The door opened, and a familiar figure appeared in her vision.
The handsome boy, picturesque as ever, walked in carrying freshly cooked porridge. A light pink apron tied around his waist added a touch of everyday warmth to his beauty.
"How was your sleep?"
"It… it was fine…", Yumiko's small face flushed slightly. She instinctively pulled the blanket tighter around herself, covering the large expanse of fair skin exposed.
Even though they were already intimately familiar, small things like this still made her shy.
Kaito didn't mind. He placed the red date porridge in front of her, "Try it. How does it taste?"
Red dates nourish and replenish blood, very suitable for Yumiko, who had lost a lot of blood last night.
The porridge was cooked just right, the rice grains soft and sticky. One mouthful, and her whole stomach felt warm.
Yumiko was deeply satisfied. Her previously weak body slowly began to warm up, like drinking ginger tea on a freezing day. Her spirits were lifted.
Even though she had said she didn't mind Kaito and Bocchi doing something, if they had really gotten together, Yumiko would've still felt sour inside.
But now, that thought was gone.
There was no helping it. The firepower she endured daily was just too strong. One person simply couldn't handle it. Absolutely couldn't.
For the sake of her physical and mental health, she could only let Bocchi suffer. She'd take the blame and curses herself.
———
[Monday]
Today was the day of their first test since enrollment.
Stepping into the classroom, the usually noisy and chatty classmates were unusually silent. Everywhere she looked, students were clutching textbooks in a last-minute cram session.
Feeling the much more solemn atmosphere compared to usual, Togawa Sakiko was, for once, a little relaxed.
'It is finally here.'
Whether there was a test or not didn't matter much to Sakiko.
But what did matter, was the scholarship behind it.
Shuka Academy was formerly a private aristocratic school. Wealthy and generous.
Take this test, for example, the first place scholarship prize was a whopping 200,000 yen.
With that money, she could quit her tedious part-time jobs and free up more time to look for band members.
Then she'd quickly make her debut, become commercially successful, rise to fame in one shot, and escape financial crisis.
By that time, she could also throw aside useless concerns and boldly pursue the boy she liked.
Sakiko had great confidence in her grades.
When she was still the young lady of the Togawa family, she had undergone many years of elite-style education.
Music… tea ceremony… flower arrangement… even equestrianism, a skill rarely used in modern society.
The Togawa family had been committed to cultivating her into a top-tier, all-around talent.
From childhood to now, Sakiko had always maintained the top spot in her grade. She was the Togawa family's brightest pearl, and the universally recognized "child from someone else's family."
Her grades at Shuka were undoubtedly among the very best.
So, sooking out the window in a certain direction, the blue-haired girl's gaze gradually turned determined.
'Very soon.'
'Kaito-kun, wait for me.'
———
This test would take two days.
The difficulty was moderate. Not easy to the point where just having hands was enough, but not hard enough to make you want to bite your pen out of frustration.
When Kaito finished and left the exam room, it was just 4:30 p.m.
'Wonder how Yumiko and Bocchi are doing now…'
Shaking his head, he was about to head to the clubroom to wait, but after taking only a few steps, he saw a familiar figure at the corner not far away.
Old-fashioned pink tracksuit, matching pants with a dark gray pleated skirt. Such despair-inducing fashion sense, you'd be hard-pressed to find a second person like this in all of Shuka.
"Bocchi?", The sudden voice made the pink-haired figure freeze entirely.
She turned around timidly, glanced at him, then quickly lowered her head and muttered in a small voice:
"K-Kurumizaka-kun… g-good afternoon…"
"Good afternoon."
Kaito walked up and stood next to her, raising a brow, "Finally not hiding anymore?"
Maybe it was because of the incident at the Gotou house, it had left a deep shadow on the pink-haired girl.
Anyway, Bocchi had been deliberately avoiding him and Yumiko these past few days.
Head down in class, vanished the second class ended, and even skipped club time after school.
"Uuu…", Bocchi's little face turned even redder.
She recalled that embarrassing scene from a few days ago, and even her chest felt slightly hot. Her heart's little deer wanted to bash itself dead.
Seeing she was about to retreat into her shell again, Kaito didn't press her. He changed the subject, "By the way, how did today's exam feel? Were the questions hard?"
"S-Still okay…", Talking about this, Bocchi's tone lifted quite a bit.
The effect of the Light Blessing spell was amazing, it was like turning on a buff that doubled learning efficiency. Problems she couldn't understand before, now she could grasp easily.
The only pity… was that such a powerful buff had a time limit. It wore off this morning.
Still, two days of review gave her a huge boost in academic power, like a young swordsman in a martial arts novel breaking through in the heat of battle, fighting back from the edge and beating the test boss to a pulp.
"A-Anyway, thank you very much, Kurumizaka-kun, for your help," Of course, the polite Gotou-san hadn't forgotten her true benefactor.
A 90-degree bow—perfect form.
Her careful and cautious appearance made one really want to bully her.
"Just a thank-you and you think that's enough?"
Kaito said seriously, "Don't you have something more practical as a reward?"
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