...The next morning.
Rinto woke promptly at 6 a.m., washed up, and started on breakfast and bentos.
He'd slept on the living room sofa.
That battered thing was already pancaked—and worse, it had served as the battlefield for his first rock-and-roll showdown with Momoka; the friction had ripped through its thin cotton stuffing halfway through their bout.
So as he cooked, the sight of that cotton-bursting eyesore really grated on him.
"Maybe it's time to take my would-be father-in-law's advice and move..."
Rinto himself could tolerate the hassle, but he genuinely wanted Momoka to live more comfortably.
Summer was also closing in fast, and the weeds in the yard were taller than a person—clearing them would take time and serious effort.
To stop Momoka from sprinting out of the bath to leap into his arms every time she spotted bugs or a snake, he decided moving was for the best.
But to do that, he had to deal with Niijima Sae—the SIU prosecutor and big sister of their student council president.
How was he going to convince that terrifying onee-san to keep their cohabitation under wraps...? He needed a plan.
...Thud.
While he was stir-frying, a small hedgehog bumped gently into his back.
Miss Shrimp-Celery—no, Miss Iseri Nina—had slipped out of his room and was hugging him from behind.
She'd slept in his room last night—only after resisting his insistence multiple times.
She'd even invited him to sleep beside her, but he'd escaped by claiming his single bed was too narrow for two.
Honestly, it was. His room was just a guest room; the real master bedroom upstairs was Momoka's, with a noticeably bigger bed.
Lately, he'd usually ended up in Momoka's room—and sometimes they just slept together there.
Looking around now, he saw traces of their various "battles" all over the house... which suddenly made him reluctant to move.
As for Nina's ambiguous hug, Rinto barely reacted. He kept cooking, shifting his arms to cover her hands whenever the oil spat, shielding her from getting burned.
After a while, Nina lifted her head from his back like an android freshly recharged.
"Good morning. It smells amazing... Are you making bentos for school? Why so many?"
Rinto: "Morning. That's breakfast—for you, me, and Momoka."
"The bentos are extra. One's for a classmate who pays for it, one's for Momoka, and one is for you."
Lately, the fridge had been emptying at record speed—but that actually made Rinto happy.
He liked cooking.
Feeding his roommate and his girl-friends filled him with quiet joy.
Hearing there was a portion just for her, Nina's eyes sparkled with gratitude and she pressed her cheek warm against his back again.
A moment later, she murmured, voice muffled:
"You and Momoka-san... are that kind of relationship?"
"Yes," Rinto answered without hesitation.
He had no intention of hiding it from Nina. No need to.
In fact, he felt grateful to her.
"We've lived together three months, but only officially started dating recently. I confessed; she accepted... and then we did it right away."
"It's thanks to you that I met Momoka and fell for her. Thank you—I really will be your lifelong friend."
"..."
Nina didn't answer.
She only tightened her arms around his waist and fell silent.
From her point of view—allowing himself a little vanity—Rinto could understand the complicated swirl of feelings.
The boy who saved her life was now with the artist she loved second only to life itself.
Two wonderful things together should have made her even happier.
So why... why did it hurt?
It was normal for Nina to feel crushed; tears wouldn't be strange.
But honesty came first. Rinto wouldn't lie to the girls who mattered—at least not after they'd shared their deepest secrets.
"I'm sorry," Nina whispered after swallowing her tears.
Her voice went obedient and small, back to the shy, sensitive girl she usually was.
"If only I hadn't forgotten you... If I'd remembered right away and come to find you, things wouldn't be like this, right? We could've come to Tokyo together, met Momoka-san together... It's my fault. I'm sorry."
Rinto neither accepted nor rejected the apology.
She'd done nothing wrong. There was nothing to apologize for.
He couldn't promise what they might have been if Nina had remembered him right away back then.
But he had no regrets about meeting Momoka after coming to Tokyo—only gratitude toward Nina.
Nina knew how pathetic her thought sounded—
as if remembering him sooner would've guaranteed they ended up together, with Momoka never entering the picture...
Timing really was everything. What was done couldn't be undone.
Then a new hope lit in her eyes.
"Are you still doing Phantom Thief work? I saw the request channel—heard you took down a teacher who was physically punishing students."
"Yeah. Still at it," Rinto said, as straightforward as ever. "And I've got a team now. Several people like me awakened their abilities. We formed the Phantom Thieves and act together."
"—Really!?"
Hope surged through Nina.
Ever since she'd remembered the Metaverse with Rinto, she'd imagined how perfect it would be to fight by his side—
to change the hearts of bullies and help those who suffered, just like she had.
So her next words were obvious:
"I want in! Let me join the Phantom Thieves—I can do anything—"
"Shh, don't shout."
Rinto bent down and pressed two fingers gently to her lips.
The feel of his larger, firm fingers on her soft, springy lips sent a jolt through Nina; her cheeks flushed scarlet.
Wait—according to those late-night novels she read with Hina, wasn't this where she should lick his fingers...?
Completely inexperienced, Nina panicked internally!
Rinto's next line only made her imagination run wilder.
"Momoka still doesn't know I'm a Phantom Thief. It's complicated, so keep your voice down."
"…Right. You skirted it yesterday, too... Momoka-san doesn't know... She doesn't know..."
A dark, sweet feeling swelled inside Nina:
Superiority.
Like a sugary poison, it seeped into every fiber of her being.
Rinto's girlfriend—who'd lived with him for three whole months—didn't know his biggest secret.
But Nina did.
He'd even said she was the only one who remembered him. She was the one who'd kept the "forever" promise.
Nina's bitterness cleared in an instant—her unhappiness wiped clean.
"…I'm fine with it."
Chasing that instinct, her heart pounded.
She hadn't awakened a Persona yet, but this boldness felt even bigger than that. She grabbed his hand.
"I can be the other woman. When I came to Tokyo, I'd already decided I'd be with you no matter what."
"Your girlfriend is Momoka-san, and yeah, it's complicated... but better her than some stranger. I don't mind being your mistress—like a daring Phantom Thief romance—your assistant or whatever."
"Nina…"
That mix of humility and self-mockery completely disarmed Rinto.
He was weak to this kind of confession; every instinct screamed to scoop her up and hold her.
...But, embarrassingly, he'd heard similar declarations before.
After a moment's agony, he decided to gently tell the wide-eyed Nina the truth:
"Well... actually, Momoka isn't even my official girlfriend. She's technically an affair partner too… To be fair, she drunkenly took my virginity first, which made my two official girlfriends pretty unhappy. To get back at me, they trapped me and monopolized me for a whole day after."
Nina: "...?...??? (・◇・)??"
The innocent Miss Nina's brain short-circuited on the spot—like a cat watching its own galaxy explode—her consciousness blasting straight into space.
...
At this point, Rinto had to admit it—he was definitely a leg man.
Momoka, that rock-and-roll onee-san, wasn't into skirts at all. She usually wore shorts with tights or thigh-highs, sometimes even fishnets for her gigs.
Her hot, tomboyish look was incredibly sexy, forcing Rinto to admit—again and again—that he'd first fallen for both her face and her figure.
Still, Nina's pure, innocent style had its own charm.
Pleated skirts were truly a gift to humanity, and when paired with Nina's white socks, they became even more divine.
It made Rinto regret not having been in junior high three years earlier—he could've admired more cute, innocent girls like Nina back then.
Nina: "Your gaze is so lewd… It was the same back in the Palace—you almost got seduced by that Shadow woman who flirted with every guy she met. Pervert."
Nina's sharp blue eyes narrowed, her icy stare cutting right through him.
But instead of pulling away, she stretched her legs out on the sofa—almost like she wanted him to look.
She didn't have Momoka's long, curvy elegance, but her healthy, youthful energy had its own appeal. Rinto pressed his hands together in silent thanks for the view.
Nina gave an exaggerated huff and kept going, all tsundere:
"After I remembered you, I wanted to come to Tokyo right away. So I had a huge fight with my dad."
"I was already furious about how he handled the bullying thing. This time, I said I'd run away again if he didn't let me go."
The truth was, there'd been a big misunderstanding.
When Nina accidentally fell into the Metaverse, she was missing for days.
Then Rinto entered the Palace to rescue her, but its strange structure delayed them even longer.
All in all, Nina had vanished for over a week.
Her father—obsessed with appearances—had no choice but to file a police report.
But just as the police started investigating, Nina reappeared safely on the day school resumed—rescued by Rinto after he changed the Palace ruler's cognition.
So when Nina came home safe, well-dressed, and perfectly healthy... her father's reaction practically wrote itself.
Nina herself couldn't remember much—only that she'd been trapped somewhere terrifying, and someone had saved her.
Naturally, that sparked a massive family conflict. And with Nina's stubborn streak, there was no backing down.
Not long after, the girl who'd bullied her—whose heart had changed thanks to Rinto—knelt down at school and tearfully apologized.
Rumor had it the bully was your typical haughty ojou-sama, switching boyfriends like outfits and bragging about her college boyfriend to everyone.
So when someone like that—rich, popular, and shameless—publicly knelt before Nina and confessed, it caused a huge scene.
But as with many of Rinto's past targets, even if guilt drove the apology, those around them weren't about to let it stand.
The whole thing blew up, especially since Nina had been hospitalized earlier with a head injury from the bullying.
The school couldn't just sweep it under the rug—they ended up staging a fake "mediation" to close the case quietly.
"...Actually, I was ready to forgive her. When she knelt and apologized, I wasn't angry anymore."
Nina's ocean-blue eyes were clear and calm, revealing a deep, resilient heart.
But the pressure beneath that calm ran terrifyingly deep.
She could forgive the bully, but she demanded the truth be acknowledged—especially the school's negligence and inaction.
That crossed the school's red line, and things escalated fast.
The bully's powerful parents refused to let their daughter's record be tarnished, pressuring the school to bury it.
And worst of all, Nina's own father sided with them.
That was the final straw.
"He said it was 'for my own good.' Wanted me to write a reflection, accept the school's 'internal resolution,' and call it just a misunderstanding—nothing serious, just a little spat settled with a handshake."
But that wasn't right. A quiet flame burned fiercely in her eyes.
"I didn't do anything wrong. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I don't care what the school does—but for that man to refuse to stand by me, to trade my pain for convenience... I can't call someone like that an educator."
"It was then—when I decided to fight back until the end—that I met the other me. She helped me remember everything, and suddenly, everything made sense."
That was Nina's whole story. Now, she smiled—brightly, freely.
Seeing Rinto again had turned all her confusion and fear into conviction and gratitude.
She knew now she'd done nothing wrong—and she'd keep walking forward without compromise.
Nina took Rinto's hand, her slender fingers interlacing with his.
"I told my dad if he didn't let me move to Tokyo, I'd run away for real this time. Eventually, my mom and sister convinced him to let me go—as long as I studied at a prep school and aimed for university on my own."
That was a deal Nina could accept.
She didn't hate school or studying—those had nothing to do with being bullied.
She wasn't being reckless or emotional; she was actually very clear-headed about what she liked and what she wouldn't tolerate.
Under those terms, her father rented her an apartment, gave her living expenses, and allowed her to leave school and move to Tokyo.
Rinto listened quietly, taking in everything she'd been through.
It moved him deeply.
He turned his hand over, gripping hers firmly.
"I support you. You're incredibly strong, Nina—and you're definitely not wrong."
"...Hehe~♥"
Nina's grin lit up the room, her tiny fang flashing adorably.
After breakfast with her, it was finally time for Rinto to head to school.
He'd wanted to skip class to help Nina pick up her apartment keys and check out the place, but this time, Nina was the one pushing him out the door.
"You should go to school! You've always wanted a normal life, right? Back when we were stuck in the Palace, you said you'd dreamed about retiring and going to school forever."
"Now your wish finally came true—so enjoy it! I can handle myself, don't worry! Go on, go!"
Rinto: "But what if you get lost again? And you're so tiny—you're seventeen, but you still look like a middle-schooler. What if someone kidnaps you—Ow! (';ω;｀)"
Miss Nina, baring her little fangs, kicked him squarely in the shin. It actually hurt.
Her stubbornness was unbeatable—Rinto never stood a chance.
Still, he couldn't help worrying that she might get swept up by the chaos of Tokyo—
Momoka: "I'll go with her, okay? Happy now?"
While Rinto and Nina argued, his first and foremost mistress finally woke up.
Scratching her messy hair and wearing the new tights she'd put on last night for him to rip off, Momoka came lazily down the stairs.
Her narrowed eyes shot him a frosty glare—for skipping out on his "duties" last night.
Then she gave Nina a once-over, checking if the girl had secretly received that "attention" instead.
But seeing Nina's innocent expression, Momoka doubted it.
Satisfied she hadn't been cheated on, she smirked and placed her hands on her hips.
"I'm off this morning, and I'll work the crepe stand this afternoon with Subaru. Nina, if you're free, come hang out."
Nina: "Momoka-san… O-of course! Thank you so much!"
Back to her shy, timid self after yesterday's emotional storm, Nina suddenly realized she was standing before her idol—the one she adored almost as much as life itself—and instantly turned into a blushing fangirl.
Momoka, secretly pleased, puffed her chest out with pride.
"Alright, stop grinning and go wash up," Rinto said dryly, shoving her toward the bathroom.
Their easy familiarity was something else entirely from Nina's innocent fluster.
Normally, he'd follow Momoka in for a shared morning bath—but now that she'd agreed to look after Nina, he could head out with peace of mind.
Nina waved at the door.
"Bye-bye~! Be careful… and you look super handsome in that uniform! Tokyo really is something!"
After blurting that out, she blushed to the ears, laughed, and dashed back inside.
"…If I'm this easily flattered, something's definitely wrong with me," Rinto muttered, scratching his neck, not sure if he was embarrassed or happy.
And soon enough, once he met up with the Yoshizawa sisters, he'd have to explain everything all over again to his two "official girlfriends."
Life's challenges never ended—Rinto sighed dramatically, feeling utterly Versailles.