After watching Horikita Suzune's figure disappear around the corner, Shikime Natsu turned and headed back inside his dormitory.
The dishes on the table had already been cleared away by his maid, Horikita Suzune — no supernatural assistance required on his end.
What came next was... waiting for Sakura Airi, he supposed. After all, there was still the Seven-Day Plan to get through.
Not that Shikime Natsu minded in the slightest. If anything, framing it as a series of objectives to clear had done something rather effective to his brain — he was, by nature, exactly the kind of person who found it impossible to leave a quest unfinished.
Right at that moment, his phone buzzed in his pocket.
He pulled it out. The sender was exactly who he'd expected.
[Sakura Airi: Natsu~ How did Suzune do? Do you think... she passed your best-friend screening?]
Reading that message, the smile in Shikime Natsu's eyes deepened.
So the intelligence Horikita Suzune had gathered really had come through Sakura Airi. His guess had been right on the money. Though — he hadn't quite anticipated that Sakura Airi would start quietly pulling strings behind the scenes like this.
He tapped out a reply.
[Shikime Natsu: Of course. She passed.]
Sakura Airi's response came back almost instantly.
[Sakura Airi: That's great~ So now that she's officially Natsu's friend... does that mean Natsu can start properly pursuing Suzune? Right? Right?]
A smug, all-knowing little emoji followed the words.
Naturally. After all — any girl with a CG attached to her was not someone Shikime Natsu planned to simply pass by. Even accounting for Horikita Suzune's notoriously prickly personality. Though, in fairness, the Horikita Suzune of today was considerably less sharp-edged than she'd been at the start — still prone to the occasional cold exhale, but manageable enough.
What did give him pause was Sakura Airi herself. Just yesterday, she had been quietly agonizing over her status as his second girlfriend — and yet here she was, not only unbothered by the idea of him pursuing Horikita Suzune, but apparently offering active assistance.
Before he could think too deeply on that, another message from her popped up.
[Sakura Airi: By the way... Natsu, I really want to come see you, but I won't be dropping by your dorm today, okay? I've got some important things to take care of — like gathering allies and whatnot!]
Gathering allies?
Shikime Natsu raised an eyebrow.
What was that supposed to mean? And who exactly was being recruited — Horikita Suzune? Hasebe Haruka?
He decided not to dig into it.
Girls always had their little mysteries between them. Pressing for details would only ruin the fun.
[Sakura Airi: Don't worry though, Natsu~ Even though we only got to spend the morning together today, that still counts as the Day Two unlock! As for Day Three tomorrow... hehe, Natsu better look forward to it~!]
Day Three, huh.
The possibilities were frankly too numerous to narrow down — Shikime Natsu had no real way of predicting it. So he let it go. He'd find out when the time came. Sakura Airi was clearly trying to build suspense, but truthfully, he preferred the surprise of the actual moment over whatever anticipation she was trying to manufacture. The thrill of the unknown could wait.
His gaze drifted to the time displayed on his phone.
Still fairly early. He and Horikita Suzune had just finished eating, but by the general rhythm of school life, this was still the window for club activities — too early for dinner. Nobody was coming to find him.
With that decided, Shikime Natsu opted to go on the offensive.
He would head to Keyaki Mall.
You never knew who you might run into there.
Having made up his mind, he gave his clothes a quick straighten and headed out.
---
Keyaki Mall was as packed as ever — most students who didn't have club activities inevitably ended up gravitating here to fill the time.
Shikime Natsu drifted without any particular destination, letting his gaze wander idly over the storefronts.
And then — his eyes caught on three figures not far ahead.
Three girls, fashionably dressed and impossible to miss.
The signature gyaru aesthetic. Bold, vibrant, the kind of presence that drew eyes even in a crowd.
Karuizawa Kei. Satou Maya. And Matsushita Chiaki.
Almost at the exact moment Shikime Natsu spotted them — the three of them spotted him walking toward them.
The instant their eyes met.
Matsushita Chiaki, who had been leaning toward Karuizawa Kei mid-conversation, happened to sweep her gaze forward — and locked directly onto Shikime Natsu's pale gold eyes.
She froze.
A beat later, as if she'd just touched a live wire, she yanked her gaze away in a rush of visible flustered panic.
And across that fair, usually composed face of hers — a faint blush bloomed, barely perceptible but unmistakably there.
Obviously.
She was remembering that dream. The ridiculous, incredibly vivid dream she'd had.
In it... she and Shikime Natsu had been remarkably close. The two of them working together, striving to help Class D rise to Class A — and then, that morning in the dream... something had happened. Something she really should not be thinking about. The memory of it was still etched into her mind with crystal clarity, and it made looking directly at him feel physically impossible.
In all honesty, it had been quite a while since Shikime Natsu had properly run into this particular trio.
Same school. Same dormitory building, even. But different classes, different daily orbits — and with all the various girls he'd been spending his time with, their paths simply hadn't crossed in a meaningful way for some time.
It was Satou Maya — the most outgoing of the three by a wide margin — who shattered the silence first.
"Oh! It's Shiki-san!"
Her eyes lit up instantly. A brilliant smile spread across her face and she threw her hand up in an enthusiastic wave.
"Over here, over here!"
Shikime Natsu smiled and walked over.
"Long time no see, you three."
His gaze moved across each of them in turn.
Satou Maya was exactly as he remembered — radiantly energetic, the collar of her uniform open just a fraction, exposing the elegant line of her collarbone. Those blue eyes of hers were lit up with the particular brightness of someone looking at the person they liked.
Karuizawa Kei, standing in the middle, was a different story.
She was visibly... constrained.
After the incident at the gymnasium, Shikime Natsu had told her plainly — if she ever found herself in trouble, or if anything came up, she could come to him any time.
For Karuizawa Kei, in the grip of fear and helplessness at that moment, those words had been nothing short of a lifeline.
But afterward — once the worst of that fear had receded — she'd found herself tangled up in uncertainty. He had said she could rely on him. And yet... for a reason she couldn't quite put into words, she'd hesitated. Gone back and forth. And in the end, done nothing.
And then the hesitation had stretched on — until now. Until this unexpected face-to-face.
Karuizawa Kei's expression was slightly off. Her eyes kept darting — wanting to look at him and then not daring to, wanting to say something and then not knowing where to start. That usually-impeccable performance of strength and vivacity that she put on for the world seemed to simply... fail her, here in front of him.
As for Matsushita Chiaki — she was making a valiant effort to appear normal, but those eyes of hers kept drifting toward Shikime Natsu against her will, betraying the turmoil underneath.
Satou Maya, blazing with the enthusiasm of a girl completely oblivious to the nuances unfolding around her, noticed none of it.
To her, at this particular moment, the entire world seemed to contain exactly one person.
"What brings you out here, Shiki-san?"
She leaned in slightly, her tone warm and familiar.
"Nothing in particular. Just wandering around," Shikime Natsu answered easily, then turned the question back. "What about you three? Anywhere you're headed?"
"We were just planning to browse around aimlessly ourselves."
Satou Maya blinked, then looked at him with a face full of barely-contained expectation:
"But now that we've run into you..."
"Why don't we find somewhere to sit together? Have a bit of a chat?"
Shikime Natsu glanced at Karuizawa Kei and Matsushita Chiaki, and smiled.
"Won't we be... intruding on your girls' outing?"
"Of course not!"
Satou Maya dismissed the idea immediately, then turned to the other two with a pointed, almost desperate look:
"Right? Kei? Chiaki?"
Karuizawa Kei snapped back to herself and gave a quick nod, managing a small, somewhat strained smile.
"Ah... yeah. Of course not."
"As long as Shiki-san doesn't mind."
Matsushita Chiaki gave a quiet little nod as well, her voice slightly subdued:
"Yeah... it's fine."
With no objections from any of them, Shikime Natsu smiled and spoke generously:
"In that case..."
"Let me treat the three of you to some dessert. I know a place nearby with pretty decent sweets."
At that, Satou Maya immediately clasped her hands together with an expression of undisguised delight.
"Really?!"
"Thank you so much, Shiki-san!"
---
A few minutes later, the four of them arrived at a dessert shop with a pleasantly refined interior.
Shikime Natsu chose a window booth.
He let each of them order whatever caught their eye — and before long, the table was covered in a colorful spread of sweets and drinks.
"Don't mind if I do~"
Satou Maya scooped up a generous spoonful of strawberry parfait and brought it to her lips, her expression melting into pure bliss.
"Mmm~ So good!"
After a few satisfied bites, she set her spoon down, fixed her gaze on Shikime Natsu across the table, and kicked off the conversation:
"You know..."
"It really has been ages since we last properly hung out with you, Shiki-san."
"What have you been up to lately? You seem like you've been really busy?"
Shikime Natsu took a sip of his iced coffee and smiled.
"Nothing too hectic, really. Mostly just hanging out with some friends, wandering around, taking care of odds and ends."
"Friends?"
Satou Maya tilted her head, the faintest trace of a pout in her voice.
"We count as friends too, don't we, Shiki-san?"
"If we're friends... then you have to make time to come hang out with us every once in a while."
"Otherwise we'll get lonely."
Coming from Satou Maya, words like that — blunt and laced with just a trace of something warmer — sounded completely natural. Not a hint of self-consciousness.
Shikime Natsu gave an easy nod.
"Alright."
"If I have the time — definitely."
While Shikime Natsu and Satou Maya carried on their animated back-and-forth, Matsushita Chiaki, seated beside them, had gone unusually quiet.
She had a fork in hand and was technically eating her cake — but her mind was somewhere else entirely.
Those pretty eyes of hers kept drifting, against her will, toward Shikime Natsu.
Stealing glances at him. Taking in the clean lines of his profile. The unhurried, composed way he carried himself when he spoke.
Every time it seemed like he might turn and look in her direction, she'd jolt into action — eyes snapping away, suddenly deeply absorbed in the view outside the window, or in the cake on her plate.
The whole performance was, frankly, not subtle.
Karuizawa Kei wasn't in much better shape.
She chipped in occasionally — a word here, an agreement there — but far more of her attention was quietly devoted to watching Shikime Natsu from the side.
This unusual double-act of subdued distraction was, eventually, too conspicuous for even Satou Maya to miss.
She was still talking to Shikime Natsu — but her peripheral vision had been quietly keeping tabs on her two best friends the whole time.
Normally at gatherings like this, both of them were incredibly lively. Karuizawa Kei especially — she was practically the designated mood-setter of their little group.
But today?
They'd both gone strangely muted. And that subtle, furtive way they kept sneaking looks at Shikime Natsu — what was that about?
A small, uneasy jolt went through Satou Maya's chest.
A vague, inexplicable sense of alarm began rising from somewhere deep inside her.
Could it be...
Had something happened between these two and Shikime Natsu while she wasn't looking?
Surely not, right?
The three of them were basically inseparable at school. If something like that had happened, there was no way she'd have been completely in the dark.
And yet...
Every instinct in her body — that subtle, inexplicable feminine sixth sense — was telling her the opposite. That Matsushita Chiaki and Karuizawa Kei were definitely hiding something from her.
And whatever it was, it definitely had something to do with Shikime Natsu.
Satou Maya narrowed her eyes slightly.
She ran some rapid mental calculations.
If... if Chiaki and Kei had both really fallen for Shikime Natsu...
Then fine. They could all just become his girlfriends together. That way, the three of them would still technically be a set.
Not that she'd have thought this way before the Harem Permit had come into effect, of course. Prior to that — even among best friends — asking her to simply hand over the boy she had feelings for would have been an act of genuine cruelty. She'd had a spirit of fair competition, and still did, in a way. She simply wanted more of Shikime Natsu's attention and affection than anyone else. Being his girlfriend was one thing — being the girlfriend he liked most was another thing entirely, and that was what she was after.
Having reached this comfortable internal conclusion, Satou Maya gave a deliberate little cough.
"Ahem..."
She nudged Matsushita Chiaki lightly in the arm with her elbow, grinning:
"Chiaki, stop just eating in silence."
"Shiki-san is treating us — you could at least say something."
Called out without warning, Matsushita Chiaki startled.
"Huh? I..."
She lifted her head — and found herself looking directly into Shikime Natsu's pale gold eyes, a faint trace of amusement glinting in them.
In that instant, the dream came flooding back in full.
Piled on top of all the scattered, messy thoughts that had been running through her head for the past several minutes.
Matsushita Chiaki's brain simply... short-circuited.
Every polite, meaningless thing she'd prepared to say evaporated without a trace.
What came out in its place was a question she hadn't even realized she was asking until it had already left her lips:
"Um..."
"Shiki-san."
"Are you... currently dating Kamuro-san?"
____
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