Ch.40Storm Premonition (1)

“What are you deciding on your own? Huh?”

Taiga immediately put on that tough-guy expression unique to delinquents.

“I’m not deciding anything on my own. I assigned it that way because Shota and I are close and compatible.”

However, Umi was also in a significantly powered-up state. She met Taiga’s gaze head-on.

Umi… has gotten stronger. The uncomfortable attitude she initially had when facing Taiga was completely gone. A woman in love becomes stronger… is that really true?

“W-well… what do you mean by ‘almost dating’?”

Surprisingly, Taiga was the one who quickly dropped her hostile attitude. She seemed curious about that point.

“Oh, that?”

Umi smiled and kissed me on the cheek.

“I confessed to Shota. And Shota didn’t reject me. We even slept together in the same bed yesterday, right?”

Umi immediately emphasized our relationship.

“W-what… did you say?!!”

Taiga shouted loudly. It was enough to make nearby customers turn their heads.

“No… stop using such misleading language.”

I restrained Umi.

1. Didn’t reject: That also meant I didn’t accept. The confession was basically on hold.

2. Slept together in bed: We maintained our chastity.

It was innocent. Innocent… right? Anyway, I explained to Taiga.

“Why didn’t you reject her?!!”

Taiga turned her anger toward me instead.

“Huh? Well… Umi isn’t a bad person. But right now I have things to do… we agreed to settle things by high school graduation.”

That’s what I said.

Honestly, Umi was a really good woman. She was incredibly pretty and had a great figure, which was already a passing grade, and she was also kind-hearted.

Everyone agreed to wait three years, but… could we really endure for three years? That was the question.

“You’re… more permissive than I thought.”

Taiga said.

She was surprisingly old-fashioned about romance. That’s right. She was. Even in the game, her affection level rose slowly. Many people liked Taiga because of that gap in her character.

“Then… would you accept if I confessed too?”

Taiga asked.

“Huh?”

What nonsense is this?

“This thieving cat… showing her true colors!”

Umi immediately shielded me.

Hey… Sasith? I could use some help here. I immediately sent an SOS to Sasith. We’re connected by sugar cubes at this café, right?

However, Sasith was just sipping his coffee while looking out the window.

More precisely, he was entranced by his own coffee-drinking.

“Hmm… such a crude taste.”

Sasith merely smirked at his coffee. This damn chuunibyou child.

“Fine. Then let’s have Shota decide. Who do you want to be paired with?”

Taiga asked.

“Shota. Answer carefully, okay?”

Umi said.

“………”

Answer? That was already decided.

I gazed at Sasith with meaningful eyes.

“I’d like to go with Sasith.”

That’s what I said.

“ARGHHHH!! Why does Sasith come into this?!”

“That’s so cowardly!!”

Umi and Taiga immediately got angry.

In the end, we agreed to decide on the team assignments when the time came.

After that, we roughly planned our schedule. But honestly, I wondered if we really needed to come to a café just to decide this.

———-

Anyway, after that, I headed straight to the kendo dojo.

Tang-! Tak-! Puk-!!

“Point!!!!”

“Well done!!!”

The unique heat of the kendo dojo could be felt. I love this. This feeling.

Though I originally learned kendo for survival, I had now completely become a kendoka.

“Good!! Shota!! That was a sharp strike!!”

Gonzaemon said, tapping my head with his shinai.

“I’m looking forward to the summer tournament!!”

Then, Gonzaemon laughed heartily.

Well, honestly, I had now attained strength that put me among the top students at the dojo. It wasn’t that the other students were weak.

‘Is it because of fighting monsters…?’

Due to having real combat experience where losing meant death every night, my battle sense, or whatever you’d call it… had become sharper than ever before. It was also thanks to my strength stat increasing from leveling up and spec improvements.

“You’re getting stronger and stronger. It’s almost scary.”

Gonzaemon said as he removed his men mask.

“By the way, can I join your trip during Golden Week?”

I asked.

“Of course. You’re already like my own child. You’re definitely welcome to come. Umi wants that too.”

Gonzaemon said.

“Where are we going?”

That’s what I wanted to know first.

“Hakone. An acquaintance runs a hot spring there.”

Gonzaemon said.

“Ah!! E*angelion!!!”

As an otaku, that’s all I knew about Hakone. Right. NERV headquarters was located there.

“You even know such an old anime. That came out when I was young.”

Gonzaemon seemed surprised by this.

“One must master the classics to enrich one’s life.”

That’s what I said. Though I wasn’t wearing glasses, I made a gesture of adjusting them.

“Anyway!! There are training facilities there too! We’ll do basic training together there!!”

Gonzaemon seemed to have already planned the training schedule.

“Ehh…..”

Going on a trip just to train was a bit… honestly, I couldn’t say I didn’t feel some resistance to the idea.

At that moment, Ms. Asuna intervened just in time.

“Honey. Young people should be allowed to enjoy themselves.”

Ms. Asuna said with a chuckle.

“Hmm? But the training….”

Gonzaemon muttered with dissatisfaction, but then Asuna punished his temple using the grip strength of her hand.

“W-wait… ow…!”

Gonzaemon’s body immediately trembled. The strength to subdue an adult man with one hand… what exactly was Ms. Asuna? I was filled with terror.

“Shota, don’t worry about it… just focus on getting closer to Umi, okay?”

Ms. Asuna smiled sweetly.

“Ah… yes.”

I nodded.

——–

The schedule changed a bit after that. Since Umi had also declared she would be semi-living with me, she immediately headed to my house with me.

With Eri and Umi sitting on either side of me, I was writing.

“Phew…..”

I’d written about two episodes. The response wasn’t bad. The number of subscribers was growing quickly, and the retention rate wasn’t bad either.

Congratulations on the manga adaptation! Congratulations on the anime adaptation! Honestly, I wasn’t hoping for that much, but I was confident I could earn activity funds and living expenses with this. From the beginning, it was the extreme of mainstream fiction, stuffed with trending tags.

‘Well… writing a masterpiece is difficult, but with practice, I can write a decent work.’

I had built up experience as a web novel writer in my original world. I could quickly produce decent works. Since my routine was writing three chapters daily, I wasn’t getting tired as much as I expected.

‘That said… I want a cigarette.’

But I was a minor. Using cigarettes to change my mood wasn’t possible.

“Hey, Shota. Why don’t you take a break?”

Umi said, repeatedly kissing my cheek. Umi loved kissing. She was always sucking or licking some part of my body like a leech in a field.

“Want to touch my breasts?”

Eri immediately caught what I wanted. Eri slightly lowered her school uniform collar, emphasizing her chocolate-colored large breasts.

“Here, touch mine too.”

Umi also revealed her chest, not wanting to lose out.

“Do I have to give my impressions again?”

I asked.

“Of course.”

Umi nodded with a sweet smile.

Can’t be helped. I immediately put my left hand between Umi’s cleavage and my right hand between Eri’s cleavage, kneading their breasts.

“Ahh… this is healing.”

I felt a warm and soft sensation. It was like having attachment dolls. Anyway, that’s how it was. I understood why children buy things like slime and fidget with them all the time. It calms the mind and body.

Anyway, with the power of breasts, I finished writing my third episode.

“Um… Shota.”

After finishing writing, Umi lay down on the sofa with her stomach down.

“Before… you said you wanted to sleep using my butt as a pillow, right?”

Umi said.

“Ah…..”

I just said it as a figure of speech, but she took it literally.

“Want to… use it as a pillow?”

Umi immediately lifted her short skirt. There was an incredibly soft-looking butt.

I immediately pressed my face against it and buried my nose.

“W-wait… your breath… nngh…!”

Umi squirmed a bit, but I fully enjoyed her warmth.

Ah… this is healing.

Soon after, Eri intervened and began appealing her own butt as well. In the end, I had to work to comfort Eri too.

———–

After that, after fooling around with Umi and Eri for a while, I went monster hunting with Sasith. Despite everything, both Umi and Eri went back to their homes, as staying over two nights in a row would be too much.

‘Somehow… it feels lonely.’

The bedroom bed looked strangely wide.

‘No… what am I thinking?’

I immediately shook my head. Without me realizing it, Umi and Eri were encroaching on my daily life. I was being tamed.

Anyway, thanks to the grinding paying off, I had reached level 8. Leveling up was really painfully slow.

It was so slow that it reminded me of an RPG I played before. It brought back memories of running around the wastelands of Kalimdor following terrible quest lines just to level up a little bit.

Ah… I can hear it. The BGM of Orgrimmar…

‘Damn… I envy Sasith. He just has to do dungeons and his level rises quickly.’

It’s like we’re playing different games.

Well, there was no point in being envious. Doing what I could do was the best option.

‘And… the Apocalypse. I need to keep an eye on them too.’

Even though they were small fry, there was a mountain of things to worry about.

And then Sunday came.

Ding dong-!

My eyes opened earlier than expected, so I got up and was doing my weekend morning routine. The doorbell rang while I was sipping my morning coffee.

Click!

I immediately opened the door.

“You have spare keys anyway. Do you really need to ring the doorbell?”

I asked Umi and Eri, who were standing at the door.

“I want to feel the emotion of a girlfriend visiting early on the weekend!!! You really have no sensitivity!”

Eri shouted.

“Me too! Me too.”

Umi immediately agreed with those words.

“Well… come in. I’ll make you something to eat.”

That’s what I said.

However, they both stopped me. They were holding grocery bags.

“We’re going to cook.”

Umi said confidently.

“Shota, just sit down.”

Eri also said with a strange pressure.

Well… can’t be helped. I’ll watch their cooking show.