episode_0068

During that time, I focused on getting close to the protagonist of this game. I needed to get close to him to intervene in this incident. To do that, I didn’t have to go through embarrassing lengths; I got close to him in a very simple way.

“Hello!” “Oh, hey, so you’re the one Taro mentioned.”

It was through connections. The Taro mentioned here was a kid who became my fan during summer vacation when I was on a losing streak in mini-games. I happened to meet him on the street, and when he said he knew Hiro, I asked him to introduce us. It was clear how this social network was built on connections.

After getting acquainted with Hiro, I brought up topics he’d like. I rotated through conversations about games, soccer, and girls.

“C-c-cool! You’re a man who knows his stuff!” “Ha ha! You know your stuff too, Hyung?” “I guess I do!”

We became friends immediately. This wasn’t so much about connections as it was about my good skills. ‘How many people have I met in the army?’ With so much experience, it wasn’t hard for me to get close to a mere high school student.

After getting close, I immediately tried to set up a meeting with Haru.

“Ah, right. When can I meet the person you like, Hyung?” “Ahahaha. Haru seems to be having a tough time lately. It might be hard to introduce you.”

He made such a strange excuse and was reluctant to introduce me to Haru. What? Not even asking her and just saying it’s hard to introduce her? Even without that reason, I could tell by looking at Hiro’s eyes. He seemed unwilling to introduce Haru to me. Thanks to that, I ultimately failed to get an introduction to Haru.

‘Tsk, this is troublesome.’ My original plan was to get close to both of them, then curb the perverted teacher while twisting the NTR event as much as possible to create an event that would link Hiro and Haru. Naturally, getting acquainted with both of them was important. So I tried to get an introduction, but…

‘Damn it, it’s not like I said I’d NTR her, so why is he acting so difficult?’ No, I would have understood if I had suddenly asked to meet Haru out of nowhere. From the start, Hiro was the one who brought up Haru as a dating consultation, and I even gave him advice, yet he was still acting like this. And the consultation itself was frustrating.

“At times like that, just make your move on the girl!” “No. Wouldn’t the girl dislike that?” “Well, she’ll usually push back once, but after that, if she still doesn’t like it, then she really doesn’t. Be careful…” “That’s not it, can you even do something like that to a girl?” “Huh?” “No. That’s a crime.”

As expected of an idiot pushover masochist, he had Confucian boy-like thoughts. Besides this:

“Why can’t you go to a gyudon restaurant for a date?” “Eh, if she says she’s going out with a friend, shouldn’t you just let her go?” “Well, she might be training with her coach late at night.”

I despaired that such a bastard was the protagonist. Seriously, I don’t care about anything else, but where on earth is there an opposite-sex coach who provides private training late at night? You human!

‘Instead of giving her to a bastard like that, should I just take her myself?’ Perhaps that’s why, as the consultation neared its end, I couldn’t help but grit my teeth and think something like that. Of course, I had to put that thought aside, considering the reward from Miyuki’s time. Moreover, I thought that the protagonist of an NTR game couldn’t be just anyone. In many ways.

So I decided to slightly revise my plan. ‘Forget the male protagonist, I’ll conquer the heroine first.’ To do that, I looked at the TIP on the screen.

[TIP 1. Something good might happen if you go under the bridge on a rainy day?]

All I could do was wait for a rainy day. Thinking that, I waited for it to rain for several days. It started raining about two weeks later.

—The rain lashed down!

Along with the rain, massive thunder rumbled in the sky. One might think it was a typhoon, but surprisingly, it was just heavy rain. I looked at the rainy scene outside the window, then turned my gaze to the screen.

【STATUS】 [Haru] [Corruption: 15%] [Lewdness: 0%] [Developed Areas ▼] [Capture Progress: 20%] [Salvation Progress: 0%] [Scenario Progress: 10%]

Over the past two weeks, Haru’s corruption had risen considerably. That probably meant the situation wasn’t good. Thinking that, I decided I absolutely had to find Haru today.

“Takuya. Mom said she’s coming to pick me up today. Do you want to come too…” “Ah, sorry, I have something to do today.” “Really? Okay. Then let’s go together, Momiji.” “M-me? Is it o-okay if I go with you?” “Of course! And there’s something else I wanted to talk about…”

Abandoning my plans with friends, I put on my rain gear and scoured the neighborhood to find Haru. To be precise, I only searched bridges, but there were over ten bridges near this neighborhood, and half of them were places where you were only safe *if* you were under them during a typhoon, which made it take even longer.

‘I don’t think I searched this thoroughly even when I was on search missions in the army.’ How much time passed while I thought this, searching under bridges?

“Pant, pant… Finally found her.”

In the distance, under a bridge, I spotted a blue-haired beautiful girl squatting, wearing the most dejected expression in the world. Upon seeing her, I wondered how to approach, then got a hint from my sweat-soaked clothes. I immediately took off my rain gear, shoved it roughly into my bag, then completely drenched my clothes and body in the rain before urgently running under the bridge.

“Huff! Huff! Ugh, of all days, I had to forget my umbrella… Oh? Someone’s already here.”

Then I acted like a student who had run urgently due to the heavy rain.

“Oh, yeah. Hello?”

Haru seemed quite flustered seeing me suddenly enter under the bridge. Well, I understood. If I were radiating such a dejected aura and someone suddenly entered, I’d be flustered too.

“Wow. Hello. Ugh, the water… Haha. It’s raining a lot today, isn’t it?”

Of course, I acted as if I didn’t know anything. As I wrung out the water from my soaked clothes and spoke, she also nodded and said,

“Ah, it is.”

Given that she nodded while looking at her surroundings, it seemed she hadn’t been paying attention to her surroundings until now. I calmly sat down next to her and said,

“Then, I’ll join you for a moment while the rain subsides.”

“It’s not mine anyway. Do as you please.” At her words, I laughed and said,

“Haha. Thank you, Nuna.” “Nuna?” “Ah, weren’t you a high school student? Then you’re my Nuna.” “Well… okay…”

At my words, Haru nodded as if it didn’t matter. At that sight, I grinned inwardly and thought, ‘Alright… now, what kind of story should I use to get close?’ How to talk my way into getting closer to this person who looked like a wounded cat.

***

Haru wasn’t feeling well today. No, to be precise, she hadn’t been feeling well for the past three days.

“Sigh… Haru. Your performance in this competition was really bad.” “I’m sorry…” “Sigh… It’s fine. Do better next time.” “Yes…”

It was natural. She had performed poorly in the competition she had been selected for. Because of that, there was a lot of talk both behind her back and to her face, and at the same time, her period had started, making her mood like a rollercoaster, swinging between despair and even deeper despair, causing her considerable stress. No. If it were just because of this, it would have been fine.

“Hey, Haru, are you okay? You look down.”

I was already annoyed, but seeing that clueless face made me even more annoyed. She had clearly been expressing her affection for him, but this dense person hadn’t noticed and kept treating her only as a friend. And that greatly annoyed Haru.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” “Just say something, at least…” “Ah! I said don’t worry about it!” “No. Why, even when I’m trying to say…”

Thanks to that, Haru had a huge fight with Hiro on her way home today. After that big fight, on her way home, she calmed down to some extent, and once she was able to think rationally, Haru realized what she had done. She hadn’t understood Hiro’s desire to comfort her, only complained and got angry. And because of that, Haru felt self-reproach. She definitely didn’t want to do that…

‘Sigh… Why am I like this, really…’ She knew the reason. Seniors who badmouth her, a clueless childhood friend, parents constantly demanding good grades, and a lecherous physical education teacher who kept staring at her. All of this became stress for Haru. No, to be precise, all this stress had accumulated little by little and then exploded. She knew. She needed rest right now. But until now, her rest had always been playing games with Hiro or reading comics at his house. In a situation like now, after fighting with Hiro, those places were inaccessible. That’s why she was in the midst of self-loathing, under the guise of resting, at this bridge where she had many fond memories of playing with him often, when…

[Huff! Huff! Ugh, of all days, I had to forget my umbrella… Oh? Someone’s already here.]

…a man wearing clothes that didn’t suit his age entered under the bridge.