Learning to Live (Ayanokoji SI-Waifu Catalog) (Patreon)

Chapter 13

(Four days later)

With the irrefutable evidence we now had, the rest of our classmates in Class-D had all breathed easier and things had overall had gone back to normal. Now we were just waiting for the day of the trial so we could present our evidence and finally get our points.

Our class had been informed by myself and Honami that Sudo’s altercation was probably planned by the other class so they were warned to stay out of trouble for the time being, at least until the trial was over.

When Sudo had asked for the identity of the person that had given us the evidence, he had only been informed that the person wanted to remain anonymous which while not liking the response accepted anyways and didn’t ask again.

And speaking of Airi.

“Good morning Kiyotaka-kun~” Airi said cheerfully as she came up to my desk and greeted me with a smile.

“Morning Airi. I love the new look.” I greeted her back with a small smile not surprised at the gasps I heard immediately following that as Airi wasn’t wearing her glasses today and had even done her hair like her idol persona giving her a completely different look than her normally shy self.

“T-thanks.” Airi shily said with a cute blush growing on her cheeks. “Umm Kiyotaka-kun, can you a-accompany me to the mall this weekend? I want to get my camera checked as it just stopped working all of a sudden.” Airi asked nervously while fidgeting slightly.

“Sure Airi.” I nodded in agreement. “I’m guessing that you don’t want to go alone huh?”

“T-thank you. And yeah.” Airi nodded shily looking extremely relieved at my answer.

‘So, it’s time to deal with that rabid fan huh?’ I thought a little darkly still debating on whether I should just kill the fucker or stamp and sell him even if I won’t receive any credits for it.

“Umm Kiyotaka-kun? Are you alright?” Airi asked while looking at me with a worried look on her face.

Willing those thoughts away I offered Airi a nod. “Don’t worry Airi I’m fine.”

“Airi-chan! Omg, you look amazing!”

Our brief talk came to an end when Haruka and Kei suddenly pulled Airi away and begin bombarding her with questions due to her new look. I only shook my head in amusement only smiling at the panicked look Airi sent me before she was surrounded on all sides by a gaggle of girls.

When class ended for the day, I was dragged away by Honami who looked really nervous and led to behind the school building. Then turning to face me she told me that someone had confessed to her and she didn’t know what to do as she didn’t want to hurt the person’s feelings and wanted my advice.

“So, just to be clear you don’t hold any feelings for this person?” I asked with a raised eyebrow while inwardly thinking. ‘So Universal Calibration is responsible for this huh? Could it be the same girl? No, impossible. That girl has already been Stamped.’

Honami shook her head rapidly while looking at me nervously. “No, I don’t. I actually…” Honami turned her face away with a blush. “Already like someone else.”

Blinking I raised my eyebrow higher in curiosity. “I see. Then it’s rather simple, no? Just answer honestly. Confessing puts someone’s feeling out there and the right thing to do is to give those feelings a proper answer and not hide away from them.”

“I understand.” Honami nodded her head turning to face me again. “That’s what I thought too but I just really wanted to hear your input since I really value your opinion Kiyotaka-kun.” Honami said with a smile before a blush grew on her cheeks and she went back to looking nervous again.

“Actually Kiyotaka-kun, c-can you wait here while I resolve this? There’s something I want to con- ‘ahem’ tell you.” When she finished talking Honami couldn’t even look at me anymore and was now facing the ground while her fingers played with the hem of her skirt nervously.

“… Of course, Honami.” I answered after a moment finding myself curious at such a question. ‘Ooh, is she about to confess perhaps?’

“Thanks, Kiyotaka-kun~ I’ll be right back.” Honami smiled then walked away while I stared at her retreating back silently.

No matter what I tried, the thought of a possible confession never left my mind and I found myself eagerly anticipating such a conversation.

Would I feel something at a proper confession? Or was I even worse off then the original Kiyotaka when it came to the feelings of the heart?

“Umm Kiyotaka-kun? Are you alright?”

The voice of Honami came from in front of me making me blink and look up to notice that indeed the girl was now back making me wonder how long I was lost in my thoughts.

“Sorry about that Honami. Just lost in thought.” I said shaking my head and finally ridding myself of my previous thoughts. “Anyways, you wanted to tell me something?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Umm, yes.” Honami nodded her head rapidly going back to being nervous. “You see, I umm…”

I closed my eyes for a second and cleared all emotion from my face. A second later I opened them again to suddenly see Honami now a lot closer to me with her hands clasped against her chest and looking up at me with a blush.

And just like that my concentration broke and I felt my heart beating loudly. ‘Wow, she’s gorgeous.’

“I… I really like you Kiyotaka-kun!” Honami suddenly exclaimed loudly with her eyes closed. “In fact, I think I’m in love with you!”

I felt the world freeze around me for a second as her words slowly registered in my mind. Blinking I couldn’t hold back the urge to subtly pinch my arm to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. When I realized I wasn’t, the only thing that came out of my mouth was a quiet.

“What?”

Hearing my mumble Honami only turned a deeper shade of red than she already was as she opened her beautiful blue eyes and looked up at me in embarrassment.

“U-umm I know that was too sudden and you probably don’t even feel the same way but I just couldn’t hold it back anymore.” Honami admitted with her eyes lowering in sadness interpreting my current reaction as a rejection.

“E-ever since we first met, you have become someone very precious to me. Someone that I can always count on to have my back. You are always helping me without asking for anything in return and to be honest when you’re with me I feel like I can do anything.”

“I just ask that we please continue to be friends after this even if you don’t feel the same way about me.” Honami was now crying softly with a small trail of tears running down her cheeks as she finished pouring out her heart to me.

‘She actually did it. Even though she’s already captured, Honami still confessed. Someone actually properly confessed to me.’ I thought in a daze trying to process everything that had happened not noticing how my heart had calmed and was no longer trying to beat out of my chest.

I instead just stared at Honami silently with slightly wide eyes. ‘I should say something. Damn it, what am I doing? Just say something goddammit!’

I apparently took too long to respond as Honami’s face turned really sad all of a sudden with her tears now coming down faster than before. Then she turned around and tensed her muscles getting ready to take off in a sprint.

Realizing I had fucked up I was quick to grab ahold of her hand with a firm grip preventing her from leaving and turning her around to face me again as my face took on a look of slight remorse.

“Wait! Please! I’m sorry I didn’t say anything! I was just too shocked to come up with a proper response.” I pleaded not letting go of her hand.

“I-it’s alright. I sort of did spring this up on you.” Honami muttered still not daring to look me in the eyes.

“No, that’s no excuse! Especially after the advice I gave you just minutes ago.” I said with a shake of my head before taking a deep breath and looking at Honami. “I do have an answer for you.”

Ignoring the way Honami started suddenly fidgeting in place I thought about the proper words to say to her and cursed myself as nothing came to mind so I just decided to wing it.

‘Strange. All the anticipation I was feeling earlier is gone.’

“I’m not very good with words but I hope my actions will be able to convey my feelings properly.” I muttered softly finally getting Honami to tilt her head up and look at me with her eyes still full of tears.

Taking my chance, I leaned my head down and gently held Honami’s cheek with my free hand and pulled her into a kiss with the last thing I saw before closing my eyes being Honami’s surprised face.

I held the kiss for a while with Honami responding after a few seconds to my relief. Breaking the kiss, I leaned my head back for a bit just to get a proper look at her pretty face and gently wiped the tears away from her cheeks with my thumb.

“K- Kiyotaka-kun… D-does that mean?” Honami asked in a whisper never taking her eyes away from mine, her face red and unconsciously leaning her head into my palm.

“Yes.” I whispered in return feeling a strange sort of calmness wash over me. “I love you as well, Honami.” I continued glad that her tears had finally dried out and a blinding smile had replaced her sad look.

“Would you please go out with me?”

“I w- ‘sniff’ would love to~” Honami said with a tear escaping her eye that was immediately wiped away by my thumb yet the smile never disappeared from her face.

With the confession out of the way I was suddenly pulled back into a kiss by Honami as the world around us disappeared.

My inner thoughts though were another matter.

‘I guess I really am broken. I at first thought that the reason I didn’t feel what is described as love when Kei confessed to me was due to her not confessing directly but now… With Honami pouring her heart out to me and telling me that she loves me face to face?’

‘I can’t help but feel…disappointed.’

‘Other than satisfaction at finally getting a true confession and making Honami officially my woman, I feel absolutely nothing. No warm feeling in my chest, no butterflies in my stomach and no inexplicable reason to shout in joy with all my heart.’

‘I wonder…can I really feel the emotion called love?’

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The days that followed went relatively normal with the only thing changing between Honami and I being the amount of physical contact between us had increased by a lot which raised some eyebrows.

Honami had decided to keep our new relationship a secret for now, so thankfully I didn’t have to break Airi’s heart yet. Not that I would ever let her go of course but that was just my possessive side rearing its head again.

When Sunday arrived, I headed out of my dorm room and made my way to a small café where my I had agreed to meet Airi.

“Still can’t believe Sakura-senpai had the courage to ask you out on a date. Going by how she behaves like a mouse most of the time, it took me by surprise. Hihihi she must be really infatuated with you Senpai~” Ichika commented in amusement as she skipped to my side. She had taken it upon herself to accompany me part way there before leaving to continue spying on Class-C.

“She’s one of the few girls in this school that I actually like, so of course she has potential. She just needs one more little push before she will be ready.” I answered the question she was really asking, that being ‘what’s so special about her?’ While I admit Airi won’t really bring a lot to the table right now, that didn’t mean she couldn’t learn in the future if I empowered her correctly.

“Huhuhu well you know best Senpai~” Ichika giggled as she started walked backwards giving me a curious look. “By the way Senpai, when are we getting out of this boring place again?”

Sighing at her question I thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that my answer still hadn’t changed. “The answer hasn’t changed. At the end of the year.” I finally responded looking down at my hand and making a fist feeling how little my power had grown in the small amount of time I had it.

“My power still has much room to grow and I don’t feel comfortable leaving just yet as I have no idea where we might end up or if it’s hostile or not. Our next world will all come down to luck unfortunately.” I continued in a whisper after making sure only Ichika would hear me.

“Sounds good to me~ Anyways Senpai I better go or Sakura-senpai might get jealous if she sees us together hihi.” Without saying goodbye Ichika suddenly took off leaving me alone and just at the right time too as I could see Airi just a bit ahead of me.

“Kiyotaka-kun! G-good morning~” Airi greeted me happily as soon as she saw me. “Thanks for agreeing to come with me again.”

“Morning Airi.” I raised my hand in a greeting as well. “And I told you, I’m happy to help.”

With our greetings out of the way we headed to the mall with Airi happily chatting along about anything that came to her mind while I listened just feeling happy at how far Airi had come from the shy girl she once was. Before reaching the camera repair place Airi suddenly became nervous again and hid slightly behind me.

I had to try my hardest myself in order to keep my cool and not just snap the head of the fucking guy who was currently leering at Airi right now. I was sure my Stress Defense was currently struggling to keep my emotions in check seeing as I only had it at the Resistance level.

Putting a hand on Airi’s shoulder I gave her a look of reassurance and she sighed in relief before stepping up to the clerk and letting him know what she needed.

“Now I just need you to write down your contact information so we can call you when your camera had been repaired.” The guy said with a disgusting leer making Airi flinch back in disgust and causing her to unconsciously get closer to me.

Having enough of the man I took a step forward and took the pen from the guy and wrote down my contact information. “When everything has been handled, please call me instead.” I said without any emotion on my voice.

“B-but that’s-” The guy never got to finish as I set the pen down and slid the paper back to him.

“There are no rules stating otherwise, so there should be no problem.” I said not even deeming him with a look anymore and turned back to Airi. “Let’s go Airi.” Not waiting for her response, I grabbed her hand and led her out of there before I truly lost my cool and killed the son of a bitch in cold blood.

Airi didn’t say anything at my abrupt action and silently followed me.

‘Just a few more days. Just a few more days and then that bastard will be no more even I if I would prefer to kill the guy instead.’ I repeated silently in my mind over and over not even noticing that I had led us to a small café.

“Umm Kiyotaka-kun? Are you okay?” I heard Airi suddenly mutter making me stop in my tracks and turn my head towards her.

Seeing her worried face, I let out a sigh realizing that what I had done. “Sorry about dragging you away like that Airi, it’s just that guy was making me angry the way he was looking at you.”

“O-oh! D-don’t worry Kiyotaka-kun, I didn’t mind at all. I actually wanted to thank you for helping me out of that situation.” Airi said with a blush taking over her face and giving me a small smile. “As you know I’m not very good with people and that guy kind of disgusted me to be honest.”

“I see. Then I’m not sorry for doing that then. However, Airi I want you to promise me to let me accompany you if you ever have to see than man in the future. I really didn’t like the way he was looking at you.” I requested of the girl with a serious face.

Airi’s face only got redder as she slowly nodded her head. “I-I promise.”

“Good.” I said with a nod before looking where we had ended up. “Do you want to have a drink with me while were here? My treat.”

“Ah umm y-yes. I would like that very much.” Airi said with her head now facing the ground.

I let my dark thoughts fade away for now and instead focused on the now and enjoyed the rest of the day with Airi. Soon that asshole would get what’s coming to him anyways.