Chapter 142 – Recuperation

Many things had happened after the whole fiasco at the mall that day.

Firstly, Erika and her followers were punished for their heinous acts.

The serious act of trying to harm others was almost enough to throw them into juvenile detention for a short amount of time, but Takei graciously pardoned them because no harm was done in the end.

It was then decided for them to do several dozen hours of community service in addition to taking a class about becoming a good citizen.

Of course, Araki was included amongst this group of evildoers who had to repent for their sins.

Secondly, Takei and Akari were commended for their bravery and quick thinking by the police and Takei's grandparents.

Although, Akari wasn't too amused when she learned the specifics of Takei's plan where he intended to be a sacrifice.

That resulted in a whole lot of pouting from Akari and a verbal declaration of a one-week long dessert ban.

Unsurprisingly, that dessert ban caused Takei to be extremely depressed, so Akari reduced the sentence down to three days.

Thirdly, the parents of Erika and Araki showed up in-person to apologize for their children's foolish actions.

Takei tried his best to refuse any compensation that they were trying to give him, but they were incredibly persistent about it.

In the end, it was decided that Takei would receive a small amount of money as a form of apology from the parents.

Even though they called it a "small" sum of money, it was nowhere close to Takei's definition of small.

In short, he was a bit stacked now as a teenager who didn't work, so he wouldn't need to look for a part-time job anymore.

Currently though, Takei was lying in his bed recovering from all that had happened in the past couple days.

Ayame and Akihiko had tried to take care of him as much as they could, but they still had work to go to.

That left Akari to take care of him in the meantime.

The door to his room slowly opened and the goddess herself walked in with a tray of food and drinks on the side.

"Here, I made lunch for you~" Akari cheerfully said. "Today's menu will be a hearty meat bowl with rice and egg in order to rejuvenate you. There will also be some miso soup on the side with some green tea to wash it all down."

Takei could feel his mouth salivating at the sight of the meal, so he got out of the bed and prostrated on the ground.

"Thank you for being so generous, my oh so beautiful goddess."

Akari was startled at what Takei was doing out of nowhere, but she quickly began to blush once she realized what he was saying.

"Oh, you..." Akari happily muttered. "Flattery won't get you anywhere in that dessert ban though."

Takei's startled face revealed everything that she needed to know. "Guh..."

Once his plan fell apart, Takei sat up normally and retrieved the tray from Akari. "Seriously though, thank you for the hard work you put in to take care of me."

Akari now had a gentle expression on her face after she saw how meaningful Takei was trying to be.

"It's no problem. I'm just getting ready for the real thing."

"Real thing?"

"No, it's nothing."

Takei wasn't sure what she meant by the "real thing," but it would be blatantly obvious to anyone else that she was talking about being a housewife.

"It's been a couple days since the incident," Takei began to say. "I'm pretty much okay now, so you don't have to be so overprotective anymore?"

It had been about two days since the incident happened, so Takei believed that was more than enough time for his recovery, although Akari thought differently.

"The bags under your eyes and the evident wrinkles on your forehead say something different," Akari pointed out. "It's obvious that you haven't been able to sleep well after everything that had happened."

She was indeed correct about the fact that Takei hadn't been able to sleep well ever since the incident.

The large amount of paperwork and testimonies that he had to do, including the argument over the compensation, ended up forcing Takei to use a considerable portion of brainpower.

Even when he did go to sleep, Takei would often relive the chase that happened which automatically activated his flight or fight instinct that would instantly wake him up.

Making a cute X sign with her two index fingers, Akari shook her head and ruffled Takei's hair. "You're recovering and staying in bed until I say so. Nothing strenuous whatsoever!"

Takei smiled in response to Akari's motherly side showing so prominently. "Yes, yes. I fully understand, miss Akari."

"Do you really?" She asked, while also pinching Takei's cheeks.

Takei struggled to say a coherent sentence as a result of that. "Yesh, showwy for worrying yuu!"

"If you understand, it's fine..." Akari sighed. "Go ahead and eat the food then. I want to hear your opinion!"

Doing as the goddess instructed, Takei scooped up an equal portion of rice, meat, and eggs and put it into his mouth.

After chewing for a few moments, Takei grinned and placed his hand on Akari's head.

"You did good, it tastes amazing," Takei praised. "If you got any better at cooking, I'd be worried about scouts trying to recruit you for cooking jobs."

Akari giggled at Takei's comment and wrapped both of her hands over Takei's other hand that he wasn't using.

"It's okay, Akari's exclusive cooking is only to be eaten by Takei!"

*Gulp*

No matter how many times Takei saw this passionate expression of the goddess, his heart would never ever be able to endure this type of cuteness and allure that she was giving off.

Some things just never change, Takei thought as he looked endearingly at his cute girlfriend.

—

New Idiot Coupler Meter: 50 -> 55%

Pack up your bags, seriousness. Sugar is back in town!

Sugar-chan: Woohoo!

Serious-san: ...

A/N: R-18 won last poll. By a landslide. I am speechless.