The bus ride towards school was quiet since they had to sit away from each other, aside from Tohru who stood nearby Ruby. Arata felt a little relaxed the entire time it was quiet. To be honest, he never had much quiet time on his own ever since he had been transferred in this world. Perhaps he should take himself on a date. Then again, he still needed to make sure he could get as much dates as he could since the event was still active. Living this life was fun when it was just a game; living it for real needed real time management and plenty of rest.
He almost fell asleep when the bus reached the school. He got off of the bus and waited for the girls. Needless to say, a lot of eyes had found their ways to pierce through the halls just to get a glimpse of the school king, Arata Hamasaki. Walking with women with different statures and walks of life, he seemed to be quite an all-in-one man.
Of course, the seniors had to take their leave before the second-years finished walking Cora to her class. Soon, his collection dwindled to two: Attori and Yukari. With them walking on their corresponding side of Arata's body, the people along the hallways made a wider space for Arata to pass. Not that he needed them to do so.
As he entered the classroom, he caught Keiko turning away from the door. It was as if she did not want to get caught looking. Despite the distance that was created between them, Arata still regarded Keiko as a close friend of his. It was only a week since they last saw each other, but it had felt like a very long time for him. Not that because he missed her a lot; it was more like he was still so worried about her mental state.
However, he kept quiet and worried a lot more about the dates he needed to finish the event. Six more for six days sounded plausible, but with club meetings, it restricted his planning. He needed to avoid a penalty, so he thought of ditching meetings for other days.
'Maybe it should be helpful if I just take note of things.' He pulled out his phone and opened the calendar to schedule his escapades. Before he could finish, he noticed that there was a shadow casted in front of him. He looked up and saw his girlfriend standing behind his desk.
"Arata, live practice is cancelled today. You should go home first..." She smiled at him, but her eyes were saddened by the news.
"Ah, do you mind if I do?"
"Are you... going to attend to that again?"
The player twitched and was caught off-guard by the 'that' she meant. Then it dawned to him that Attori was asking if he was going to meet with another girl. He ended up being a dating deity to the mad girl after all. He only nodded in response.
She smiled and clapped her hands together. "Then good luck! But you have to reserve your lunch with me today!"
"Sure, let's have a lunch date." He smiled and nodded again, this time, more enthusiastic than earlier.
Attori pranced back to her seat, with Arata keeping his gaze at her back. Soon, he felt the weight of Keiko's gaze. He turned to her, and she made a weak smile. The player felt obligated to smile at least, even though he was planning to talk to her. For now, he would like to push unimportant businesses to the side and focus on the event. He would have plenty of time afterwards anyway.
The day flowed into lunch time. He was with Attori by the cafeteria. There were spaces outside the building, and that was where they were taking their lunch. There were other people, but they had chosen distant chairs from the couple.
Since the player had let her in his secret, he ended up asking for her for the schedule. He had no formulas and cheat sheets with him, but he knew the ones he had to work on. Attori pouted for not being chosen in his initial plans, but she managed to score two days in the revised plan. Arata could not help but to spoil her and watch her getting all happy about it.
After-classes had come like the day was flowing fast. Arata said goodbye to his girlfriend and decided to walk Yukari and Cora back home. However, his gaze stayed on the panorama of the park. Cutting the walk short, he asked them to go on ahead.
Making his way to a familiar spot, he found Tohru with her carton drink on her hands. The girl looked up at him and smiled at him.
"Look who's here." She chuckled before sipping the last bit of her juice.
"I figured I haven't been here with you for a while. Are you still training pipsqueaks like me?" Arata laughed out as he walked to her side. The chain date notifications had started but he paid no attention to them rather than closing them as soon as they came. He joined her in the cemented bench next to the bushes. "Is there something with this place? You said you're always here when you don't have practice..."
"Perhaps yes, perhaps no." Tohru hummed as she got up to round up some sticks for their training. "Just here because it's quiet."
"How was it? You and Ruby?" The player followed her around with his gaze. He watched her turn to him with a slight blush. "You must be enjoying yourself a lot when you're with her."
The athlete only turned her head to the side. She pouted and looked away. "Nah, I just like teasing Ru. She gives in the way I want my victims to, and she makes the reactions I like so— there you have it!" She waved her hand towards Arata. "It's not like we're really intimate like best friends anyway...
"Arata"—Tohru called him as soon as her voice trailed, her mood shifting—"about the birthday party, you think you can help me with something?" She hummed as she made noises of hesitance and indecisiveness. "It's not like I'm putting too much effort for it, but... I don't want to take it for granted..."
"Ask away, Tohru."
"You said you'll help me get a job at Imperial Kitchen, right? Do you think I can earn enough just so I can buy something for her?" She then laughed out as if finding it ridiculous. "Ah, this is really going way NOT how I want it..."
The guy laughed as he picked up the stick nearest to him. He used it to invite her to a fight like a gentleman with a real saber. "Let's talk after the practice. If you win, then I'll help you get an advance paycheck."
Tohru raised a brow and had her stick ready. She tapped it against her palm like a baseball bat. "Oho, really? You think you'll win easily?"
Arata had his additional items equipped aside from the speed socks so he was fearless. "Come at me!"
Then again, the practice was nothing like what happened on his first Challenge. Tohru had made successive hits against him. If only he was more prepared with tactics, he could have shown off in front of her. He could dodge and block just fine, but he was lacking the combos and the accuracy to have his hits connect.
Blow after blow, it was like fighting against a female barbarian in a MMORPG! The poor swordie such as Hamasaki Arata was being dominated by the stage boss Hamada Tohru. Her stick was like the club that would deal blunt damage on him. Her HP did lose chunks and chunks at every successful hit, but she was able to whittle his HP just the same. Even if he blocked her attack, she could still scrape 1 or 2 HP off of his bar. After a rally of blows and parries, Arata won... but not with flying colors. He only had 10 HP when they finished; a few more seconds he would have lost.
[You have completed your training! Your Dodge rate is now 40%! Congratulations!]
Since it was a practice, Tohru did not faint after losing. She only laughed out loud and sighed at her defeat. "This is a cheat! You must be cheating!" However, she was enjoying it rather than being offended.
'Of course, I'm cheating. My victory relied on my items.' He laughed with her. 'Next time, I should use skill books first before trying to fight her.'
"Dammit, I really enjoy it when I'm when you! Whaaa, so this is what Ru meant!" Tohru laughed out again, but her face flared with a blush. She tried to hide it, but she only pursed her lips that were controlling a grin into a smile. She lowered her head and sighed. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to admit."
"Makes me feel like you're only hanging out with me because you heard from Ruby that I am good." The player chuckled before humming in a mischievous manner. "You know, how good I am with something else, right?"
Tohru flushed redder before whacking Arata with the stick she was holding. However, those were swift, light whacks. "O-Of course, I know that! What made you think I forgot?!" She continued hitting him and chuckled senselessly. Her eyes almost sank into her closing eyelids, being unable to hide it. She soon dropped her arm and the stick.
She hooked her hair behind her ear. "So how does it go? Do I simply ask or... do I...?"
Arata covered his mouth with his hand. He had to stop his mouth from blurting something out that would turn her off. However, he could not help but let laughter escape from his lips. 'Who thought she would be so cute like this?' He brought his gaze at the direction of the pocket where his phone was. 'This is not in the plan, but I guess either way, I still get a Cosmos Crown after this, right?'
Tohru noticed the weird actions of the man. She pouted and walked towards him, and leaned to the side as if looking for his line of sight. After finding it, she smiled foxily towards him again. The blush on her face did not disappear, but she went back to her jerk attitude. "Eh, aren't you getting a little too excited?"
"Hm? Sorry, I just... this is the first time I saw you do that." He cleared his throat. "I haven't shown you the hotel I was talking about before, right?"
"Oho, okay." She almost squirmed. "VIP?"
"Sure."
[You just pulled off a stunt! Your gift: VIP room promise, gave a boost of 20 to Affectionate Jerk Hamada Tohru's Date Meter! Congratulations! It is now at 100/100! Why don't you go for a Kiss?]
[You have fulfilled the secret request: defeat the tyrant! Each request will give you a chance to get a second event scene! You have 40% of the required secret requests! Good luck!]
She walked over and pecked against his lips, her arms circling around his neck. Her grin had grown quite more mischievous than before. "Shall we?"