Chuuko demo Koi ga Shitai! Vol 2 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Why’s everybody in the Library?

The time passed by like  the wind during last Friday I completely cut down my ties with Eve.

I didn’t see Ayame on where we were supposed to meet up at,  so I messaged her, then..

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (=゜ω゜)”

Apparently she screamed using symbols.. She woke up right after getting my text message.

Which means she woke up pretty late.

“You wake me up for the first time!! (・∀・ )”

Did you know how to use Emoji too??

Ayame was panting while walking in the class she collapse in to the desk her twin-tail seems that it tired too…

Hatsushiba approached Cotton and pat her back while asking “Cotton, what’s the matter?”

“Eh…”

When she lifted her face, the whole class started to buzz, as if a certain bubble had bursted.

Ayame’s face was not different from usual, not that she ever put on any make up or had any bruises on her face.

It’s just that her eyes were moist, which was even worse without makeup.

Because of this, she seems even more like a gangster that just finished a gangfight in the morning.

“Scary…” “That’s not makeup, right?” “Did she had a fight in the morning with someone?”

The rumors started to pick up a spark and spread around.

I passively refused her accusations, but my hierarchy in the class doesn’t have any influence, even if I said something, all they replied were “uh ok.” And just cut out my sentence.

And if they suddenly got curious and asked me “Why do you know so much about Ayame?” It’ll become a mess.

“It doesn’t seem that bad.” “Yeah, it shouldn’t be that serious of a problem.” Me and Tozaki could only try to suppress the fire and calm the class down humbly, but truly we don’t affect anything since our words just went briefly through their heads.

Rumors usually leaned itself towards the more interesting part of the story. The reason that the stories are easier to believe in is like a seesaw bending down towards the heavier side, the more interesting part is the most believed in. But the truth matters little to normal people.

The person wants to believe whatever he wants, and that belief becomes a rumors. Even if we looked through god’s eyes and see the one and only truth, humans are humans and we perceive somethings differently and make our own beliefs. The truth is always more than one.

Still, what did Ayame do to have her eyes so sagged and weary?

“Ahh! I’m late~~~~!”

There is one more person who approached the room as if almost late. The whole class yelped in surprise again.

I turned around to look, in my heart wondering what could be the trouble again, and saw that Eve’s facial expression had also changed.

SHE’S NOT WEARING THE BLACK MAKE UP anymore. Even if the make up is still as thick as ever,  but just the black makeup being gone is already enough to see the grand difference.

Her honey-colored skin changed to tan-like color, which makes it look much more healthy.

How should I call it, looks like a retro gal just went through a complete 180 change into a modern Gal.

“Eve, did you change the makeup on your face?” “Looks much cuter!” “Next time teach me how to do such a makeup.”

The group who is close to Eve encircled her.

Eve herself, after she finished greetings to her friends. Her face turned right at me.

…wait, don’t tell me

“That black makeup is something I can&rsquo

;t take.”

Did she change her makeup because of me? It’s not my fault right?

Eve starts to approach me.

“Seiichi~ I tried to change the way I did my makeup, isn’t it great?”

“…asking me whether it’s beautiful or not.”

I could only say that it’s at least better than black makeup. But that straightforward answer would led me to get judged by the other girls in class. Like, “You’re saying Eve before is not beautiful?” something like that.

It seems that the best way to answer is “a little cuter than before” or “it blends in ok.” But this girl is one of the person who I don’t want to compliment no matter what.

“Uh… Not bad…”

“Right!!? I feel relieved, thanks Seiichi!”

Why did she change her makeup? Is she trying to frustrate me?

That possibility is unlikely, maybe her way of thinking changed or something like that. I can’t be the sole reason she suddenly decides to change her makeup right? She smiles with satisfaction before returning to her seat.

At lunch break, we four sit down to eat our bento, not in the club room, but the classroom.

This is our plan to eradicate the rumors about Ayame. By letting her do normal things, such as in the evening break, she stays in her class like a normal person.

Just that should change her status in the class to quite an extent.

Still… The people in the class still fears her and our class has an unusually low amount of people.

But if we eat like normal like this everyday. I think people will start to feel that Ayame doesn’t cause any problem or say anything dangerous

We just started a new semester for a month, so this is the time of patience.

While we were eating rice, Ayame explains to us why her eyes are that of a panda’s.

“Oh, the DN that Aramiya told me about is very fun.”

“Oh, you played it already?”

“Yeah, its very fun. I bought it last Friday, and marathoned through it.

DN is the short word for ‘Destiny Night’, a genre in eroge.

“That game takes up to 60 hours, that means Ayame, you…”

“Yes, since Friday I almost never slept.”

I once told her that in class its better to not talk about Eroge, but she was kind enough to use a short version of the name to talk with me. It must’ve been because she really likes this game.

But wait, did she play the eroge since the morning of schoolday? I also did it sometimes, but is that a really good idea? I was the person who told her about this game, so I shouldn’t say this but, are you a little too addicted? I’m a little afraid so.

“Hm? Are you two talking about movies?” “Watching movies throughout the weekend?”

Tosaki and Hatsushiba asked, determined to join the conversation.

“No, try guessing.”

The both of them tilt their heads in confusion for a moment, before realizing that we both didn’t mention the full name of DN. Hatsushiba and Tozaki’s eyes went small to a dot.

“…Eh, is Ayame going to-“

“Cotton, don’t tell me-“

Now that I see it, these two doesn’t know Ayame’s new hobby.

One part of it is because Ayame never mentions Eroge in front of these two.

“The reason you changed your hair style, and do these crazy thing is because of this?”

Tozaki nodded to himself, content with his answer.

Before this, Tozaki was dragged by Ayame to ask about my preference. Thinking about it now really brings back memories.

If I lied back then about preferring movies or something else. Maybe she will go down a whole different path. But that doesn’t matter, I got someone as a fellow Eroge fan.

But the more important thing is.

“That guy was very cool right?

I said quietly, Ayame’s face brightened up.

“Aramiya thinks so too! That guy was so cool, like when he turned his back to the screen his abs-“

“Like when he put his life on the line with the sword.”

“Yes! He knew that if he uses the power he will die, but he still fought for his higher up=”

As I thought.

We talk in the same language!

Even if Hatsushiba and Tozaki still has the ‘what the hell is going on’ face, it doesn’t matter!

“Oh, now that I think about the second chapter.”

‘Destiny Knight’ may be an eroge, but I prefer to call it fantasy.

True that there are cute girls popping up in game. But this game is different from the game where you just feel more intimidating with your girl.

That’s why I think the game is unique in its own way, and its popularity is rising constantly.

The problem is that my one and only Otaku friend like Tozaki doesn’t play games like those.

“I don’t like fantasy, I prefer school love comedy.”

Tosaki told me that before, so I have no one to talk with.

I could go and argue with other people on the internet, but we all know that with great popularity comes equally great hate. I found many people Dramatizing the game, which I don’t really talk to. I also don’t want to talk too much as to tolerate listening to frustrating things. I want to talk without anybody interfering.

I never thought the best person to talk to is Ayame!

“That character peaked on the third chapter, I really liked the heroine.”

“But I think that the character became very dark on the third chapter though.”

“That’s why the character peaked! Before that she was so lame.”

Its so fun talking to her.

Even if it only lasts for a while on lunch break, adding to the fact that we need to pretend to talk about movies, but I didn’t think that talking about eroges could be this fun.

To be real, I want to say the character’s name and talk even more, but looking at the location we’re talking it couldn’t be done. Even if our classmates are far away and we  if we talk quietly no one should hear us.

“But the next Episode is almost out now, you can prepare your wallet.”

“Really? I really want to play it now.”

Ayame is starting to become one trustable Otaku friend.

If this girl was a boy it would be even better, its not like I’m sexist and think that only men play these types of games, but when talking to a man it is easier to talk about the lewd scenes than talking with a girl, which I am still hesitant to bring those scenes up.

But if its Ayame, even if we can’t talk on the level of me talking to Tosaki, at least I don’t have to be that careful. Usual this girl asked me to teach many things from the Eroge.

“Hey hey, what are you talking about~? Oh? Ayame-chi, why is your eye so dark? Has it been panda-like since morning?”

Sweet sweet sound went right into my ears.

It was Eve who has just returned from buying bread from the local store, and has came and interfere with our group.

Wait, Ayame’s eyes were panda-like since morning, didn’t she look even though they were sitting near each other?

“What?”

“oh, so scary~ Like those criminals. Do you have any old records of criminal activity?”

Ayame seems a obviously frustrated about Eve’s interference, her eyes turned up, and her face turned into the leader of a bike gang. Even I want to run away.

I told her not to make that face, why does she look at everybody who came and say hello as an enemy?

“And what does it matter to you? I’m just eating my lunch like normal, get lost.”

 

Ayame, why are you so brainless, don’t find trouble with the most popular girl in class. The people around us starts to whisper to each other already!

 

“Hey, Ayame.”

 

“But, but she…!”

 

Looks like Ayame has her reason to not like Eve too. So she doesn’t hide her hate at all.

 

“Well, you went straight into the fight since morning. You really like to use your muscles, Ayame-chi. Did you do this since forever~?”

 

“Ha? Who gave you the permission to call me Ayame-chi.”

“Eh, its not that much of a problem. Take the joke. You can call me Eve-nieng(TL note: no idea what this means) if you want.

“Ni-nieng? Is your brain cells not functioning properly? No, I won’t call you anything!”

“Hm, Ayame-chi is really shy. I tried to play with you!”

But this bitch is also annoying.

Even though no one in class ever dared to mess with Ayame, but this bitch doesn’t back down.

“Enough, go away already.”

“Eh, Seiichi, say something~ Ayame is so scary~ She’s going to kill me!”

“Don’t drag me into this, she won’t kill you.”

“Boo… It can’t be helped then, if something happens to me, it’s your fault.

Eve said that and waltz away.

Tsk, what does that bitch want? No, the most important thing is..

“…Ayame, I told you that when there is someone in the class, don’t talk like that.”

“She seems to be guilty, but that behavior just came out naturally huh.

If she doesn’t’ fix this behavior, other than the rumors spreading even further, it will increase too.

And then school was over in a flash.

It was my cleaning duty this week, so we divided our work to clean the school. One group will sit in my line and Tosaki is still cleaning his room. Hatsushiba and Ayame went ahead to the club room.

“…”

It seems Tozaki has something on the corner of lips, but won’t talk. I don’t know if he’s not resolute or what.

“Um, do you want to say something?”

I opened the conversation while carrying 2 trashcans to the dump with Tozaki.

“Oh…”

“I saw you making faces since a while ago, just say what you wanna say.”

“Well, it’s about Ayame’s rumors. Actually there’s a new- wait.”

Tozaki stopped abruptly just before he went down the stairs, then pulled me close to the wall to hide from something. He placed one finger on his lips and the other hand pointing up the stairs. I strained my ears to hear 2 people talking loudly on the stairs.

“So the rumors that Ayame went around crazily is true?” “She did sideline for a long time, I think she’s done it before?”

Another rumor with no basis.

Ayame never once did a sideline but to be honest there was once a time when I once believed so too.

The people, girl, who were talking continued for a while before going away. Probably due to boredom.

“That’s what happening, there’s a new rumor again.”

“Is this new?”

“Well, it’s worse than before.I think of it more as a continuation, a sequel, of the rumors before.”

From then on while we walk to throw away the trash, we heard another rumor.

“I heard she beat up a woman so bad that she was put in hospital.” “I heard that she’s still in the hospital room even now.”

“Some say that she hasn’t even woken up yet.”

I can’t really rebuke about her using her muscle, since she could probably make a man fly through the air for about 2-3 metres in a single punch.

I only heard about boys getting hurt, but never about girls getting hurt. Or did the rumors start to worsen> I never heard about her killing anyone, I did heard that someone was carried to hospital, but never hospitalized longer than a day.

“I heard she shows no mercy to either boys or girls…” “Did she argue with them.” “No, I mean her body on top of them and y’know…”

The rumors kept growing.

I won’t say that I know about Ayame too much, but I never heard about Ayame preferring girls. Even if she likes the female character in a eroge game. Hmm, maybe it’s possible she actually likes woman more than men?

Why do they need to start the rumors today, I almost believed them.

“I heard that she entered a yakuza gang…”

“I heard that she made a bike gang all on her own.”

This is obviously fake, how could it be possible in the first place?

If I made up a story about Ayame taking care of 5 gangsters, my sister will probably at least nod. But that should be about Songo’s situation.

“Really?” “Bullies will be bullies.” “I thought after dying her hair she will be a little more peaceful.”

In the group of people who were listening to the rumors, Eve was also chatting playfully among them.

“Woah really? Is it that bad?”

“Yes, that’s right, Eve~ If you’re targeted by that girl, you’re in deep trouble.” “Next time you’ll get killed!” “Or she will beat you up so hard that you can’t have a baby!?” “It might be even worse than that~”

“Don’t worry, I’m ready for everything!”

“Wow, Eve, you’re very bold!” “Ayame’s group is a little too arrogant.” “Hatsushiba is also very annoying lately.”

Suddenly they gossiped about Hatsushiba.

“Do people really believe the rumors this easily?”

I have a sneaking suspicion that someone started this baseless rumors. But no matter what, isn’t this a little over the top? Try getting to know the real person and talk with her for 5 seconds and you’ll know the truth about her personality.

“Aramiya, people looking at Ayame now and you may not believe it, but people who looked at Ayame before may actually believe so. It was like this in middle school.

Tozaki replied effortlessly/

The reality after we threw away the trashes. People exchanged rumors and it spread like some form of reliable news. Even if we try to stop it, but the rumors were too fast. And there are many people who believes in it. Which makes it even worse. Like pouring salt in the start of the waterway.

So in conclusion, the rumors are:

-Crazy

-Bullied a girl until she was hospitalized

-Can eat both male and female

-Is a member of a Yakuza gang.

These rumors around Ayame start to spread around the school.

Tosaki and I finished our duty and went back to the club room where the girls are waiting.

“If we don’t stop this it’ll get worse. We can’t even control the rumors about Ayame before, now it has gotten even worse.

“If these rumors spread around, it will get out of hand… Can we really diffuse the bomb?”

Tozaki and I went to the clubroom with low esteem. The council president from before and her two lackeys came in with an arrogant face.

“Hello there Ara-whatever and Bla-Bla-Saki.”

How could she only remember half of our names.

“Aramiya and Tozaki.”

“Boy’s name doesn’t interest me. I don’t want to waste my resources with useless information.”

“Oh, ok. And why do you come to our clubroom.”

“Yes, I went to talk with those two a little.”

“Hmm? What did you talk about?”

“I don’t see the reason to tell you… But I went to ask for help in the school council, but she refused.”

“Why did you ask those two again after they refused last time?”

“They both look as adorable as a Lily. And their connections between themselves are very sweet. Is there any other reason than that?”

She closed her fan like some kind of princess. Made an annoyed face too.

How did she become the school president? Did she give out money? If it was me, I won’t vote her no matter what.”

“By the way, I heard about some rumors involving Ayame-san.”

“…You got a good ear.”

“I’m the student council’s president. If something were to happen to the students, of course I will know of it.”

If you could please get rid of the rumors it would be a great help.

“Do you know who was the person releasing the news?”

“Too bad that even I do not know. If it was you boys spreading it, it would’ve been much easier. I would’ve sent polices after you without delay. But if it was a female student it would be quite hard to decide.”

“If you want to make a joke, know the limits.”

I smiled dryly just in case, but it looks like it wasn’t a joke.

“I, as the president, have a secret plan to look into this rumor’s truth about Ms.Ayame, Because just by hearing it hurts my heart.”

“Oh really? Such a noble mission you have there.”

“Yes, to me, ladies are something to be protected and cared for. I… have a bigger mission waiting for me, I became the president just for that. Hihihihihihihihihihihihihihi………”

She smiled disgustingly.

“Just you wait, my ladies, I will build paradise for you soon. HIHIHIHIHIHIHI….”

“President, you’re having a nose-bleed.”

One of her lackeys picked up a tissue and wiped the president’s nose.

…I realized at last that this person has gone half-nuts.

“I’m sorry for my over excitement right here. I shall excuse myself now, Bla-bla-miya and Toza-something.”

Oh, so she does remember our names. I don’t want her to call us by our full names so I’ll let this go.

“You’ve got guts talking to the president so directly like that.”

“What should I be afraid of talking to the potato? Sometimes I feel that I’m weird since I’m talking to a plant life.”

“You’re quite critical. Well, we’ve gotta accept that she’s a decent person seeing that she went through all the trouble to help someone that everybody hates or fears.”

Looks like Tozaki has a positive impression on the president.

Well, but she’s Tozaki’s type, small breasts and black hair.

People can’t look at someone who’s their ideal type in a bad way too easily.

But if he’ll get the reward for being nice to her is another problem.

“Right now the rumors are getting worse.”

We were back to the club room shortly after, discussing the new rumors flying around.

“How could this be!? How can people believe it so easily!?”

Looks like Hatsushiba also heard about it and is getting frustrated.

“We really can’t help it, some says she could 1 vs 5 bullies, does sidelines daily. 30,000  per night and you’ll get it. And the last one about beating someone to the brink of death.”

Ayame’s pupils minimized to a little spot.

“Si-a-side lines? Every night!? 30,000 per guy!? Do they really believe it?”

Haven’t you already realized!?

I glanced at Tozaki, who played dumb and looked away. He was the my usual news provider, why didn’t he tell Ayame?

Ayame followed my line of sight to Tozaki, and glared him as if she was a very pissed giant.

“Wait wait, I heard it from someone else, like Matoba! And he said he also heard it from the other class! Really, it’s the truth!”

“Tozaki, could you find the source already?”

“I think the rumors are flying around too fast. It probably has already flowed right back to the person who started it. And things are also getting complicated. This rumors suddenly pops up in random conversations all of a sudden.”

Hatsushiba’s body shook.

“I-I’m sorry Cotton, it was because I spread the falsified news in middle school that things had come to this. I never knew that it would be this bad…”

“Nevermind, Yuka was also forced to do it, right?”

What a beautiful friendship, I could imagine lilies floating around in the background.

“Ok, to wrap this up, the rumors about the sidelines aren’t true, but the ones about taking out 5 bullies are hard to deal with since you really did it, am I correct?”

“Y-yeah, it was in middle school.”

Tosaki, hearing it made his face go pale.  “Wait, she really did it?”

“Ok first, let’s find any correlation about the rumors and what you actually do. Do any of these new rumors has anything you’ve done recently?”

“No? I don’t even know what they’re talking about.”

“Ok, then about the first thing, ‘going around doing sidelines everywhere’.”

“What the hell is this!?” Hatsushiba yelled in frustration.

“I don’t know where this rumor stemmed from. But the source itself may not be too truthful in the first place. I think this is a problem of news reporting from the start.”

“When spreading rumors, adding a little truth into it makes it just much more believable. Even if 9 out of 10 are lies, as long as 1 out of ten is the truth, then you could easily persuade the others to believe you.”

Truly a professional at the subject. Hatsushiba must have lots of experience with this matter.

But she must feel quite guilty inside, looking from her expression.

“If you’re saying it’s the game of news spreading, I don’t know how we could solve it.”

“Did you go with some kind of weird group composed of both male and females, or enter some ominous restaurants?”

“Well, I could think of some cases where I find troubles myself.”

She could think of some, must’ve been when she went into the trouble to help someone or something similar.

Just thinking how complicated it would be to find the source is already hard enough.

“Ok, to the next one. About beating up a girl till she fainted.”

“I never beat up anyone that hard.”

“How about the person you beat up getting sent to hospital?”

“…now that I think of it, there was once this girl who tried to prank me so I pushed her away. Turns out she fell down and I found her the next day with a short arm cast.”

Hatsushiba also added

“Yeah, I remember that happening in middles school.Though I can’t remember her name I think some people found her using her right hand normally after. Like she’s actually not that injured, just pretending to.”

Poor Ayame, getting tricked by not only Songo, but also other people.

But will something all the way from middle school really matter here? I don’t think that’s a very strong possibility. Or is the problem from the rumor about arguing fiercely with someone?

Still, looking at the speed the rumors are spreading around, I think something is amiss.

“Next one, devouring both man and woman.”

“I DON’T EAT HUMANS”

“No no, I mean devouring as in, um, something else…”

I told her the meaning, and Ayame’s face went beet red.

“W-what are you talking about? Are you sexually harassing me!?”

“No! Why don’t you know about anything!”

“Shut up, how do you expect me to know about something like this?”

It’s not wrong, but I’m getting pinned on as the bad guy here for telling her!

“Ok, so this has nothing that relates to you.”

“OF COURSE!”

“Ok, the last one. About how you enter the Yakuza hideout. Did you go to any weird buildings that may start this rumor?”

“I can’t think of any, I don’t enter weird buildings.”

“Then how about buildings that aren’t yakuza-related, but seeing it may make you believe that Yakuza gang lives inside?”

“Yakuza… Gang……………………………….oh.”

‘oh’ what?”

“…Is there something that might be similar?”

“How could I help it? My father is the president of a building construction company. I still enter the building till today.”

“Construction company… Don’t tell me.”

“You’ll probably understand after I give you the picture, the front gate is something like this.

Ayame touched her phone and opened the photo.

The entrance to the building looked intimidating, the Company’s name is written with a Brush font in a grand way that wrote ‘Tanaka Group”

I understand now.

No matter how you look at it, it looks just like a Yakuza hive. I know now why people see it like that.

No matter how legal the company is, but “Group OO” looks like a real Yakuza group. I know that speaking it in this way is quite impolite. But this alone is enough to spark a rumor. Even if I heard that Yakuza nowadays try not to be seen by the public.

“Oh shit…”

At least every rumor is a sequel to the old one and nothing new.

This isn’t going to be easy. Like how even porn games has spelling mistakes.(TL note: I don’t get this reference at all.)

We couldn’t think of any good plans, only a brief summary that all we could do is slowly break apart the rumor spread. And we then adjourned the meeting. Its close to time to go home, so we went out of the club room before the bell rang.

“Oh, that’s…”

When we reached the school entrance, Hatsushiba gazed far out towards a certain person with a scary face.

I followed her gaze to see Eve standing there, smiling confidently. Hatsushiba sure has a quick eye.

What is that bitch doing there though?”

“Yay~”

She made a peace sign with her fingers and came towards us, not recognizing our animosity towards her. What kind of person can’t read the atmosphere?

“What’s the matter, you all seem so down?”

“Oh, a little…”

“Or is it about the super rumor about Ayame-chi? It’s quite spectacular~ So is this rumor true? I secretly want to know the truth too.”

Ayame made a frustrated face. She must be thinking of how to respond.

I don’t know what I told her this noon is working or not. At least she stops making that scary face, which is a good sign. But it’s not like she will start to join the Eve group, maybe she doesn’t know how to deal with Eve.

“There’s nothing true in it.”

Hatsushiba faked a dreadful smile to Eve and spoke intimidatingly. Hatsushiba, you’re as equally scary as Ayame.

“But Ms.Eve, Do you know why the fake rumors are spreading around? You look like a person who knows about these things.”

“Eh, I just came to this school how could I know anything? Common sense.”

“Really? It’s no use shying away from us.”

“I told you I don’t know, these things I’m not very good with. I don’t even understand what it means. But, as the old saying goes, no chicken no eggs? I think.”

It’s ‘No fire no smoke’ you idiot.

But the one about Yakuza isn’t strange considering the situation. It does persuade people to misunderstand, but her old rumor about Ayame made it even more believable.

“Hmm…. Really? Reallyyyy~~~~…”

Hatsushiba glared with a cold shoulder.

Ayame seeing Hatsushiba changing so drastically flinched back and Tosaki’s face went pale like a boiled chicken. Seeing her like this, even if he loved for a hundred years it would still be quite terrific.

“Ok, Yuuka believes you, but still, if you do something to hurt Cotton, Yuuka won’t forgive you.”

She said coldly.

A part of it, must’ve came from her Seiiyu rank, but just listening is already enough that she’s serious both inside and out.

…If back then when she went to research about Ayame’s rumor and said ‘stop talking with Ayame’ in such a voice. I might have nodded without knowing.

“Oh, it’s nothing much. I won’t do something like that. Ayame-chi is the one who is glaring at me. I’m starting to get chills up my spine.”

But Eve doesn’t seem affected. When she went in to talk with Ayame she doesn’t seem to fear anything too.

Not only that, she starts to walk right up towards me without even glancing at Hatsushiba.

“Even if you see me like that, I’m actually a very innocent person? On the other hand, do you want me to help you with this problem? We can work together to stop the rumors from spreading~~”

“Did you just say innocent? Fine, whatever ignore that. Important thing is, you want to help?”

“Yes, how about it?”

Eve’s face didn’t change a bit. Her two hands making a suspicious looking peace sign. But her fingers makes a crab-like turn.

I think its true, if Eve who(from the rumors) is an enemy of Ayame were to officially help us erase the fake rumors, it should have some good effect.

“…What’s the deal? You wouldn’t do it for free, would you?”

But I’m sure it’s not without consequences.

I’m not so optimistic as to believe this girl is going to help us like some sort of saint.

“Sure, the deal is that when Seiichi is at school, he must do everything I ask him to. That’s the deal, how about it?”

Eve said while leaning on my body.

“It’s not like I will only order you around. That would be weird, in fact, I will find something for you to enjoy too.”

She leaned her breast and waist to me harder. What’s with those huge breast!? It’s making me sick!

Even if she didn’t put on black makeup, I could still smell the faint scent of synthesized chemicals from her face. And the smell of shampoo from her hair.

Her leaning against me is making me uncomfortable in a bad way. I really want to push her away from my body.

‘Don’t come near me you three dimensional bitch!’ Is what I would really like to say, if I could even say it here in the first place.

“Get away from him!”

But it turns out someone else did the talking for me— it was Ayame, she tore Eve’s body away from min and stood between us two.

Her face wasn’t the usual scary one.

It was full on Gangster mode, like when she was fighting with Songo. I would’ve peed my pants if I saw her in the night, and Tosaki would’ve begged god for mercy.

“If Aramiya was to be your slave, I’d rather have the rumor stay as it is, gossip all you want, but you aren’t getting him!”

“Grrr….. What permission does Ayame-chi have to decide for Seiichi, it’s not like you’re couples or anything!”

“T-That’s true… BUT YOU AREN’T HIS GIRLFRIEND EITHER!!”

“Not that I ain’t his girlfriend. Me and Seiichi have by far passed that line of mere couples a long time ago!”

Ayame and Hatsushiba swung their faces toward me. Their expressions were scary as hell.

“What do you mean by passing any sort of line! Stop making things up, what could we even do when we’re in primary school!?”

We talked normally back then until the love letter incident happened, that was all. We’re not so close as to warranty any sort of possible relationships, but she may be viewing me as her slave.

“…”

Instead of Eve pouting, she seems to be confused.

“I think it’s weird…”

“Your brain is the only thing that’s weird.”

I’m starting to get tired of playing by this girl’s rule.

“To summarize, you are not allowed anywhere near Aramiya forever! You’re troubling other people!”

Ayame stood tall in front of me as if to protect me, and stared down Eve.

“Ughh…. You want to do it like this~? You ain’t his girlfriend either.”

Even after the declaration, Eve doesn’t show any sign of fear whatsoever. I don’t know if she’s stubborn or very courageous.

She observed Ayame intently and stared back at her without letting down.

If I place some special fire effect behind them it would fit perfectly.

“If you insist on ordering Aramiya around, you won’t be allowed near him from now on. If you don’t stop it I’ll-“

She didn’t finish her sentence and stopped her mouth.

“You can do it like that, I won’t care if the rumors get any worse, ok? To be honest seeing Ayame like this, I’m starting to believe that the rumors are true.”

“What…!”

“The bad girl stamp is already half stuck to you, and it won’t go off easily. How pitiful.”

“Are you-!!!”

“Oh, I’m scared, I better run away before I’m killed.”

Eve finished her sentence, waved her hand, and ran away.

Ayame was standing in the exact same place, chewing her teeth and glaring at the back of her enemy. She’s clearly showcasing her hate for Eve.

At night after I finished my part time job, I sink myself to the bathtub and try to think about how to get rid of Ayame’s baseless rumor.

If it was easy I wouldn’t be struggling in the first place… it’s just like cutting weeds, no matter how much you cut it, as long as the root isn’t taken care of, the plant will grow again. And eventually it will spread its seed around the place.

And we don’t have anything akin to a weed-killing chemical… hah, so troublesome.

After the bath, I went to the kitchen, then start to pour the milk. While that, I heard sounds of someone descending down the stairs.

It was Kiyomi, my little sister. She made a gruesome face once she saw me, seriously, not a cute sister at all.

She doesn’t say anything, and grabbed the milk from my hand and poured them into her own glass.

“…What are you looking at? Ugh, Disgusting, what if I get pregnant from you staring.”

“Would it kill you if you for once don’t scold me the moment you see my face?”

“Just being related to a burnt tomato is already terrible enough. If I was a super hacker I would’ve hacked the house registry that you’re my brother a long time ago.”

If I had access to future technology I would’ve programmed the Eroge’s little sister package into your brain too…

“Ugh, you disgusting damn virgin!”

She’s like this at home, but once she’s at school, her personality changes so much it’s like she’s wearing a thick mask.

Sometimes her try nature shows, but not so much to the point of triggering unwanted rumors.

But if it was Ayame, the rumor would’ve flared from bad to worse in no time.

“Oh, you’re both here? I see that your final exam is near, do you have any problem with following the teachers?”

My mom who was just sitting in front of the TV in the living room a while ago walked inside the kitchen.

“I’m faring ok, mom.”

In not so bad to fail a test so easily, just passing the average mean should be doable. Even if I’m not very versatile in English, I should be ok.

The problem is that there’s someone who’s going to be mad at me for getting an average score.

“I don’t need to read anymore, I’ve got it all under control.” Kiyomi said confidently. Well, when she took the school entrance exam she did pretty good, so she shouldn’t face any problem.

Originally my sister is the lazy type, and chose her high school based on the fact that it’s close to home. The truth is that I prefer her to be away in a better high school.

Like when I decided to enter Mikage school,

“I was planning to go to that school! Never mind that, you move to some other city and get educated there, just go! Just go someplace else!”

That’s how she reacted…

My sister is just that kind of person, but when she’s at school, she’s fully intent on hiding her true nature. You could call her the play safe type.

She’s pretty cunning, and also smart. People probably can’t see her for who she really actually is.

“Hmm?”

I suddenly realized something. Kiyomi heard me and turned her face to me. I didn’t mind her though.

But because of you, I now have an idea.

“Seeing you both as confident as this is good. But don’t get cocky, if you don’t review you will forget what you read.”

Kiyomi and I listened to our mom’s lecture while drinking our milk until we drained the whole glass. We cleaned the glasses and went up back to our rooms.

“…I heard about some suspicious rumors about Ayame.”

I thought that this girl will return to her room quietly, but she just need to start a conversation.

“Sounds baseless and totally fake, don’t mind it.”

“Then do something about it.”

“I’m finding a way to, but I must thank you for making me think of an interesting idea.”

“Hah? What are you talking about! I’m going to puke if you continue.”

Kiyomi went into her room after dropping that.

I just can’t help but think, ‘that’s not a cute sister at all.’

Now that it’s Tuesday, the sky was bright and the breeze were chilly.

After the fourth period, we four moved to eat lunch at the school garden.

I’m a little hurt, yesterday we were just sitting like normal in the room for a day, and now we need to run away as if accepting that the rumors are true. But if we are all the way out here, we will still be visible to the people up in the building. Which will give Ayame a positive impact.

One more thing, we could talk about things that we usually couldn’t talk in class too.

“Sigh… we are going to take the midterm soon, by the way, the test on period four, how much did you get? I got 74.”

While everybody was devouring their lunch boxes and bread, I opened a conversation.

“Do I really need to answer?”

Tosaki said in low-esteem.

“If you want to.”

“I got 68, but what’s the average score here?”

“I heard Saki got 94, if we took the scores and made an average, you’ll probably fall from the average.”

Saki is the man who gets high when the average is high and low when the average is low. Like a good average meter of the class.

“Oh shit… but whatever. As long as I don’t fail the midterm, everything will be fine.”

Tosaki replied.

To me, I don’t want that high of a score, but if I get lower than average. I’ll get banned from my hobby.

Because Kiriko knows all my scores, hiding them is useless.

“Its because you keep on playing those porn games that you’re getting those horrendous score.”

It’s like I heard that sentence flying through the wind.

But I won’t concede to that.

Playing eroge and getting low score, how does that equate to the eroge being at fault.

No.

The person who got the low score is the one at fault, not the game.

Parents love to push responsibilities on other things that are easier to understand. So that they will have an easier time to understand what they think is happening.

But even if I explain that, they won’t accept it or say that I’m a game addict.

The world of adults is very infuriating.

So I am obligated to get a score that is higher than average. So that they won’t say those ridiculous crap.

Yeah, this will turn into a case of  ‘thank you eroge for giving me good score.’

But the truth is that, even if I get a higher score after starting to play Eroge, the people around me will never say ‘we must thank the eroge!’.

This world isn’t fair.

But the reason of people motivating themselves is their own problem. If people don’t insult other’s reason of doing something, this world would be a much better place.

“How about you, Hatsushiba?”

When I asked, Hatsushiba made a confused face and answered shyly.

“Yuuka got 82 points… But Aramiya-kun, do you have anything to say?”

“You look pretty normal but your score is quite good. Also adding to the fact that you’re not usually in class.”

“Hehe…. I just review the lessons many time. Sometimes I asked for my friend’s notebook to read. Mama also told me that if my scores get worse, she’ll stop me from being a Seiiyu..”

Seeing her like this, she must have had a lot of pressure on her back home. She’s really similar to me.

But if I told her that Hatsushiba’s Seiiyuu job is on the same level of importance as my Eroge, she’ll get mad.

“Ok, and you?”

I turned my face to the important target, Ayame.

The problem is her score.

“U-Uh… I got 91.”

“What!? More than me!?”

Wait, I thought that this girl has low grades. She did skip classes…

“I-if you read it inversely…”

What is she trying to say…

“Why are you telling your score based on the upside down paper, Cotton!”

“Eh, then you got 16?”

Tosaki answered, realizing what was going on. So it’s like that, huh.

“Hey, that’s so little!”

Wait wait, the average score is about 70+…

And you got 16!?

Really, Ayame’s situation is much worse than I thought. I think that even if it was Ayame, she should get like 40 points at least.

But how did she get such a number?

“U-uh. On grade 10, I haven’t learned a single thing is school, so…”

“Even through all that, you still managed not to repeat the year.”

But in Grade 11, the same miracles won’t happen twice.

“This is serious…”

Tosaki made a suspicious face to me.

Might be because I never asked something along the line of “hey how many points did you get?”.

“Aramiya, why did you ask our scores?”

“I guess the intro is too long, well, from here on I’m going to tell you about my idea of getting rid of Ayame’s rumors.”

Ayame stretched her neck towards me. I didn’t get to the point earlier, so I should tell them now what I am planning.

“To explain step by step, as far as I see it. No one who’s smart is getting bashed and gossiped as Ayame is now. And even if there is, it won’t be as believed, don’t you think so?”

“Yeah, like our class leader Hosoe. Even if people gossiped, not so many would believe it.”

Hosoe is the smartest girl in class, every time she took the test she always gets full marks. I hear that on the day that she was going to enter High school. She was sick, and she was sick again on the other test day. So she wasn’t able to enter the school she wanted. She ended up being known as the girl with no luck. (According to Tosaki)

“And why do you thinks it’s like that?”

When I asked, Tosaki muttered back.

“Uh… well… because she doesn’t look like a person who would do something like that, right?”

“Yes, and why do we think like that? It’s not like getting good grades equate to being smart, but smart people won’t do something as foolish as doing a sideline. And also won’t be violent, its not like he or she is worried about their parents or about their own future, rather they just don’t want to put themselves into trouble. Of course this isn’t always the case, but the image of a smart person is made from both the person and the people observing them.”

Ayame’s face went pale.

“Do the others view me as a cheap body seller!?”

“Well, you’re pretty dumb. And you also jumped class and find trouble with others. The basis personality of a stupid person.”

But seriously, you don’t know? It must mean that you really don’t care about your own rumors at all, don’t you.

“U-uh, that…” Hatsushiba tried to help out her friend, but she couldn’t say a word.

“It’s who you choose to be from now on that’s important!”

“…yeah…”

The supposedly soothing words from Hatsushiba’s lips only serve to widen the wounds further.

But the main point is what I am going to say from now on, this is not a time to be grieving over the past.

“I’m not finished yet, from now on if Ayame increases her scores, the rumors may suddenly start to dissipate. Like, ‘oh, she’s actually it that stupid, maybe those rumors weren’t true after all…’. Something like that.”

“But then we can’t fix the old rumors about her doing it?”

“For now let’s just leave it at that.”

I also once accidentally believed that she did it, and it brought me quite a pile of trouble.

“For now the new rumors are popping up like weeds all around. We need to build a wall to keep them out first. And that wall is Ayame’s midterm score. It won’t we a very high wall, but we can worry about pulling out the weeds later after we put up the wall.”

The rumors about Ayame had rooted itself in very deep.

So we must do this step by step, since we don’t have any reliable weed-killing chemicals at our disposal.

“One more thing, looking at your condition now it’s not too hard to imagine your midterm. But if you fail the final it will become a serious problem and you will be locked in school over the summer break to fix your grade.”

“I really don’t want to worry about the summer break now, but I don’t want to spend my summer break at school, summer break is suppose to be spent eating ice cream in an air-conditioned room whilst playing games.”

Tozaki nodded his head in agreement.

First things first, coming to school in summer break is a no no for me.

School holiday is meant to be spent playing eroges from morning to night.

This break I can open the air-conditioner, eat those icy cold ice creams and play porn games.

This is what I call, holiday of a true teenager.

“If I must come to school over the summer break, will Aramiya come too?”

“No way. If I stay over the summer all my game time will be gone. Listen, this summer a big fantasy game like ‘Destiny night/zero’ is going to be put up on sale. If I must come to school over the summer to fix my grades, then I can’t start right from the morning.”

I said that and Ayame immediately showed a hopeless expression and smashed her seat. I told her to forget that habit since it could cause misunderstandings. But since this garden is not so crowded I guess it’s not that much of a problem.

“Wait! I never knew that fixing your grades requires you to give up summer!?”

“Just looking at your reaction is enough for me to know that you haven’t been listening in class at all. You can’t run away from this like you jump blades too…”

If Ayame wasn’t able to play these games, then I would also be in trouble.

Even if I finished ‘Destiny night/zero’ I wouldn’t be able to talk about it. It would turn into, ‘hey Ayame, have you played ‘Destiny night/zero’ yet?’ Sort of situation.

I don’t want to keep anything about the game to myself with no one to express it to, and Ayame is the only person who is also going to play the game and understand what I mean.

“Oh, that game releases on summer? That’s going to be quite nasty.”

Tosaki said without putting too much weight in. Well, he’s not a fan of fantasy games so he doesn’t really understand my feelings.

I tried to persuade him to at least try out the game, but his stubbornness is too much so I decided to stop. The more you force people to do something the more they will refuse.

“So in conclusion your grade is our first priority, not only are the rumors at stake, but your free time during the holidays is too.”

And become the person who listens to me discussing about my game to.

“Yes sir!”

Ayame nodded, her eyes sparkling with determination.

The power of eroges to motivate people is truly stunning.

“And how are we going to do that?”

Hatsushiba bent her neck and asked.

Well, there aren’t many ways to improve…

“There are no shortcuts, we’ll start by visiting the library after school to study together.”

Oh I see, but when I was with Hatsushiba, there was a piece of paper containing a curse written on it coming back to me, well the past is really sweet… even though the event had just happened one month ago.

Then I enter the library with Tozaki who’s looking blunt, Hatsushiba who’s looking cheerful and also Ayame who’s looking anxious.

This library inside the school building next to the gym seems to be totally soundproof so we cannot hear any sounds from the outside. These include the noises from the school field and the echoes from the gym that are unable to reach our eyes.

It’s an environment that seems to be designed for people to concentrate.

“Is there anywhere that four of us can sit together?”

While Hatsushiba who’s talking with a quiet plain voice and looking for places, then one male student glimpses at us.

Then that guy’s face turns pale as if he has seen a ghost before being hurried to pack away all his stationery and leave the library with panic… is that guy alright?

Maybe he’s just assuming that we’re coming to cause any troubles and probably he might have thought that there’s going to be a sideline scene right here.

The proverb stating that escaping as a wing, knowing to escape as a tail, during when I was ignorant, if I had seen something like this I would’ve been velvety to escape as well.

“…Argh,”

Ayame also realizes when she faces like this. It must be regarded as a price exchanging with being self-indulgent previously.

“There’s no need to think much,”

“Alright…”

I spoke just only as loud as Ayame could hear and then we walk towards a four people table that’s unoccupied.

It seems pretty obvious that those people over there are glimpsing at us distrustfully as if trying to question us that what on earth are we doing here.

I feel a bit annoyed but I’m able to handle it in order to cover my tempered face so that we can sit down and talk happily.

But Tozaki, why don’t you act more energetic, you think that the people give you the smile meaninglessly. Don’t you see the good meaning like from Hatsushiba at all?

“Alright, where shall we start?”

I speak quietly and Hatsushiba raises her hand a bit.

“Well it must be the contemporary literature right? Cotton is still using a peculiar language,”

Then Ayame suddenly says out loud as if she’s trying to oppose.

“Really?”

“Yes,”

Hatsushiba nods without any hesitation.

That’s really extraordinary, even if I also thought that Ayame uses peculiar language as well.

“You must understood the main points of the question first otherwise no matter if it is mathematics or English subject, Yuuka thinks that it’s pointless to read.”

“Starting from there or what…”

“For a thousand mile path there must be a first step, Cotton,”

We can only hope that it’s only one thousand mile.

We may have to talk to each other that initially where Ayame is up to about knowing the situation.

I and Hatsushiba try to pick up a reading comprehension task on a contemporary literature since grade 7 to 10 from the bookshelf in the library for Ayame to do.

It turns out that she’s at about grade 9 level.

Well, she got accepted to this senior high school but also another, this school’s grade boundary isn’t that high.

“Umm… what does this mean?”

Ayame, who’s doing the task, asks Hatsushiba.

“What, you don’t understand right here? Why? How come? This is a junior high school task don’t you know?”

Hatsushiba is being harsh remorselessly.

On the other hand, Tozaki who’s sitting next to Hatsushiba becomes pale once again. Maybe he has found a hundred-year romantic story so he becomes dull again.

But I do understand why Hatsushiba secretly cannot tolerate sometimes. It’s because Ayame has a problem with comprehensive skills.

“It seems that you probably won’t be able to do handle the questions in the midterm exams already,”

Once I’ve said like that, Ayame suddenly becomes flabby.

But we didn’t come here to make her feel desperate like that. The reason why we’re here so that we can realize ourselves and set a reasonable clear target from now on.

“If we focus on contemporary literature like this, there’s no way we can make it in time. For your midterm and final this semester, you have world history, Japanese history, health studies, computer studies and your free elective subject is art am I right? It would be better if you focus on those memorizing subjects so they’ll help you more effectively.”

“Memorizing? I’m not really confident…”

“It’s not about being confident, memorizing is about listening, speaking, reading and writing so that they can absorb into your brain. Once you have memorized until you’re familiar, even if it’s a mathematics subject then you’ll be able to remember it.”

When memorizing independently by reading only won’t help remembering that much.

“Use your eyes, ears, mouth and hands to help you remember in the long-term. This method may be quite roundabout but I think this is the most effective way.”

Ayame nods together with saying alright it’s like this. But actually, doing like what I’ve just said may be a bit difficult especially staying inside the library where you cannot utter a word.

“And also did each of you jotted down from what the lecturer said that ‘this part will come up in the exam’ as well?”

“Oh, well I did too,”

“Yuuka also noted down as well but some days I didn’t attend class. In that case, I asked from my friend but there may be some missing details as well.”

“I didn’t,”

I do know about this already.

But if Tozaki and Hatsushiba are here then there shouldn’t be any problems. These people have many friends from outside class anyway.

“For the midterm exam, Shido will set the exam based on world history, Matsuda will set the exam based on Japanese history, Itsuki will set on health studies, Itsumi will set on music, and Kahara will set on computer studies. Itsuki, Itsumi and Kahara teach our class anyway so there’s no problem, but Shido and Matsuda do not teach our class. Can you please go ask any friends who study with these two teachers that what do these teachers based the questions on something like that?”

“…Oh,”

Hatsushiba’s eyes glow a bit, looking surprised.

Did I just say something awkward or not?

“This is just creating a boundary for what you need to remember only. It would be too much if you have to read the entire details when you’re still not familiar with memorizing. Hence, we’ll have to create a boundary at the narrowest as possible and memorize only from there. Once you’re familiar with mathematics and English, you’ll be able to do some physics. Another thing, this is not just preparing for midterm only but also final as well.”

“Awesome, you’ve really planned this much ahead, if it’s about which teacher set which question paper, Yuuka wouldn’t know either,”

Hatsushiba says with full of impression.

“You must take it seriously once you’ve planned, Ayame also need to write the notes from the board into your book too from now on. Tadokoro who teaches mathematics wipes out the

Chapter end