Hikigaya and Kasumigaoka remained on the rooftop for almost twenty whole minutes.
The longer the silence stretched, the more suffocated Hachiman felt.
He already had a girlfriend. Yet here he was, spending his precious lunch break with the famously beautiful, black-stockinged Kasumigaoka-senpai.
Hachiman, oh Hachiman… you truly are the lowest of the low.
As he silently scolded himself, his only comfort was the fact that Yukinoshita hadn't happened to see this scene. Otherwise, explaining why he was alone with Kasumigaoka would've been an absolute nightmare.
"Air-kun, is the task done yet?"
Her calm voice was followed by the light tap of her foot against him.
Ugh! Kasumigaoka-senpai, please stop poking me with your black-stockinged foot! My already fragile sanity can't handle that kind of teasing!
"…Almost, almost."
He answered miserably, struggling to keep his eyes from wandering to her legs. His fingers, however, didn't stop moving across the screen of her phone.
Why? Why was he the one doing these tedious Genshin Impact daily quests? This was her account, her responsibility!
Fine. Whatever. He'd play the laborer role.
But of course, fate wasn't about to let him off easy. The country she had chosen for her dailies was—of all places—Mondstadt. The same region as his.
And to make things worse, the dreaded quest appeared once again: "Language Exchange—Talk to Ella Musk."
Every single time, it was the same! Blindly picking dialogue options, only to get them wrong again and again. What did people expect from him? He wasn't a Hilichurl! How was he supposed to understand the nonsense Ella Musk spouted to those creatures?
As Hachiman grumbled internally, his pitiful expression naturally caught Kasumigaoka's attention. She watched him carefully for a few moments, then suddenly spoke.
"My first time… is Air-kun dissatisfied with anything?"
…?
Hikigaya's finger slipped on the screen. Huh?
My first time?!
Kasumigaoka-senpai! Please stop saying things that can be so easily misunderstood! For the love of all things holy, clarify! Say "My first time having someone do my Genshin dailies for me," not "My first time," like we're in some cheesy late-night drama!
"…The quest is finished. That should be good enough."
After much suffering, Hachiman finally completed the daily commissions. He exhaled in relief, immediately trying to hand Kasumigaoka's phone back and make his escape.
This woman was terrifying. Truly terrifying. At any moment, she could throw out an outrageous line and send his blood pressure skyrocketing.
Being friends with a girl like this? Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Better to find another target.
But Kasumigaoka clearly wasn't done with him yet. She crossed her long, stockinged legs gracefully and, without lifting a finger, refused to take back the phone.
"The in-game side quests are also entrusted to Air-kun."
"…Eh?"
The memory of that quest log filled with little red dots came back to him, nearly making him collapse on the spot.
Still, he forced his expression to remain neutral and tried to dodge. "Side quests have lots of interesting stories, Kasumigaoka-senpai. It'd be a shame if you missed them."
Doing those tedious side quests again? Ugh. She was trying to kill him. Please, have some mercy on poor Hachiman!
Kasumigaoka arched an eyebrow, displeased. "So you took my first time, but you don't want to take responsibility for what comes next…"
"…"
I told you already! Stop turning everything into a lewd-sounding joke, Senpai!
She waved it off with a sigh. "Since lunch break is limited, I'll let it go this time. I'll have you do them when we have more time later."
Her arms folded neatly under her chest, lifting her figure as she regarded him coolly. Then she added, as if casually assigning him homework:
"However, while there's still time, you can clear this period's Spiral Abyss for me. And don't stop halfway—it needs to be a full clear."
"…Eh? You want me to clear the Spiral Abyss for you?"
"It's not 'help,'" she corrected flatly, adjusting her exaggeratedly perfect chest with a hand. "It's you clearing it for me. Please mind your wording, Air-kun."
You can't even clear it yourself, and yet you're putting up this act like you're above asking for help.
Fine. If you wanted me to do it, you could've just asked directly.
But… as a member of the Service Club, Hachiman had a duty. He couldn't just reject someone's request outright.
"Got it. I'll clear it for you."
He sighed inwardly, recalling how he'd accidentally touched her foot earlier that morning. Consider this… atonement.
Not that he was bowing to Kasumigaoka-senpai or anything! Of course not. He just figured that compared to endless boring side quests, the Spiral Abyss at least offered some semblance of gameplay.
Opening the Spiral Abyss, his eyes widened at the lineup.
Eula. Yelan. Shenhe. Yae Miko. Raiden Shogun.
A full roster of beautiful, mature women.
Where were the male characters?
This was shocking.
Other than the non-limited characters, she hadn't pulled a single male; the ones she did have were untrained, unloved—basically gathering dust in her roster. Kasumigaoka-senpai staring at a team full of women made Hikigaya briefly—and absurdly—wonder if she was a lesbian. Then he mentally slapped himself. What did that have to do with him, anyway?
At first glance the Spiral Abyss looked stable. Full-star targets should've been manageable, right? But within minutes his confidence disintegrated.
"The attacks never crit… and isn't a few thousand damage way too little?" he groaned, thumb slamming at the screen like a man trying to coax life from dead pixels.
Except for Raiden Shogun, everything looked tragic. Eula, Yelan, Shenhe, Yae Miko—beautiful lineup, terrible numbers. It was like watching a floral arrangement trudge through sand.
"You're already struggling after just starting? Air-kun, are you too lame to even begin?" Kasumigaoka observed with that bored amusement she reserved for other people's catastrophes.
"W-what does that have to do with me?" Hikigaya replied, exasperated. "Senpai, your account's cultivation level is the problem!"
She clicked her tongue, mildly displeased. He noticed the tiny annoyance and caved instantly—coward by default.
"It's not your account, Senpai—it's me. I'm weak. I couldn't full-clear your Abyss. Totally my fault, okay?" he blurted, offering the only apology his pride would allow.
"If you're weak, practice more. Play more. Your skill will improve," she said, unimpressed but not unkind. Translation: keep going.
Hikigaya felt the noose tighten. How could he possibly want to continue tormenting himself on that account? He scrambled for an escape route. "Um—if it's on a phone, I'm really bad. I usually play on PC. On a computer I'm okay, but I don't have it here—"
Kasumigaoka's eyes flicked, thinking. She stroked her chin. Then, calmly as if proposing a weekend plan, she said: "How about… you come to my house this weekend? I have a computer in my room."
The words hit him like a dropped piano.
"W-what?!" Hikigaya's face rearranged itself into various shades of panic. She wanted him… at her house? Alone? With a computer? The implications were not lost on his overactive brain.
"That's inappropriate!" he spluttered.
She laughed—a little, sharp sound. "I thought you were strong, but you're the type who gets scared. Are you afraid of failing to full-clear?" She tilted her head, amused. "Or maybe Air-kun is pure and has never been to a girl's house before? Tsk tsk—how pathetic."
Pathetic capital city. Hikigaya felt his youth collapsing.
"No—it's not that. Look, I… I already have a girlfriend," he blurted, the words tumbling out like an emergency parachute. His head dropped as if bravery had its own gravity. "So, sorry, Senpai, I can't go to your house."
Saying it felt like ripping rotten fabric—immediately freeing but embarrassing as hell. He'd rather wrestle a math exam without a calculator than explain this, and yet he'd volunteered the truth.
Kasumigaoka's smile froze, then sharpened. Her delicate brows rose, and she fixed him with a stare that was both curious and predatory in the way good critics are when they discover a new subject.
"You actually have a girlfriend?" she asked, slow and small, like she was unwrapping a secret.
"Yes." Hikigaya nodded too quickly.
Kasumigaoka's eyes narrowed, not in anger but with a scholar's interest. She shifted slightly so their faces were closer; the rooftop air tasted suddenly too thin.
"Which girl, specifically?" she asked, voice a whisper that carried the weight of intention. "Is she pretty? Sweet? Does she—how long have you been together? Have you told her everything? Do you plan to go to the same university? Will you marry her eventually? Will she be the only one? Heh heh—"
Her interrogation rolled out, half-razor, half-curiosity. She was not vicious; she was methodical—Kasumigaoka had the cruelty of someone who enjoyed dismantling stories to see the mechanism inside.