CH 31

I Raised a Flag

Translated by HamletJr

Edited by

“G’morning~!”

Mihorin arrived soon after, followed by Akarin.

She was almost late.

“―Akari, your hair clip is out of place again. Come here, I’ll fix it for you.”

“Ah, ahaha~. Thanks, Mihorin! Just as I’d expect from my wife!”

“Don’t say such ridiculous things. Geez…”

Mihorin let out a sigh, but she happily began to fix Akarin’s hair.

Holy moly, my favorite idols are playing around with each other right before my very eyes…

What on earth is this spectacle… I’d even give up my human rights for this precious occasion.

“This is it…!”

Hasumi excitedly tugged at my sleeve as she muttered under her breath.

Don’t worry, I see it too.

It’s so dazzling, I think I’m about to go blind.

Thus, everyone was now present and accounted for at our rendezvous point.

If it was just me and Rinka like before, weird rumors might start spreading around, but with this many people, I’m sure there won’t be any problems.

Each and every one of the girls here were exceptionally cute and beautiful, so I was in a really good mood.

For a moment, I thought about taking off my glasses to disguise myself, but Rinka quickly moved to stop me.

“―Rinka, I told you, my eyesight isn’t actually bad.”

“Y-You can’t… You can’t show your true face to anyone else. If you show everyone that kind of face, then… J-Just please, don’t…”

Rinka whispered, looking at me with a pleading look in her eyes.

“That kind of face,” huh… Ah, now I see…

So my face is so bad, it can’t be shown to other people.

That’s why she wants me to keep my glasses on, I guess… Can I cry now?

For the record, I myself don’t really know what my face looks like.

When working as Shion, I find myself surrounded by so many popular, good-looking actors that I honestly don’t even want to look at my own face.

Most of the good-looking actors who saw my face said something like, “I-I can feel my self-confidence slipping away…”

It seems like they were all shocked that a face as bad as mine was able to compete at the forefront of the entertainment industry.

There’s also the possibility that someone might link me to Shion if I were to show my real face, so I’ll just follow Rinka’s lead here.

“Alright. I’ll stay in my regular appearance.”

“S-Sorry for being so selfish…”

Rinka apologetically uttered those words to me.

No, it’s when you apologize to me that I feel the most depressed.

Seriously, it’s a good thing Akane doesn’t look like me, huh…

If a DNA test was ever conducted, it might come out that the two of us aren’t actually blood-related.

Perhaps, the only reason Akane is involved with me even though she doesn’t like me is because I’m family, so if she finds out that I’m not, she’ll probably kick me out of the house.

To test out my theory, I’ll try telling that to her as a joke sometime soon.

With those ridiculously stupid thoughts in my mind, I boarded the train along with everyone else.

◇◇◇

“Hasumi, the bag you’re carrying looks really heavy. I’ll carry it for you.”

As soon as I got on the train, I held my hand out to Hasumi, offering to carry her bag for her.

“T-Thank you, Suda-kun… Ehehe, you’re always so kind. There’re lots of books in there, so it might be heavy.”

As I held Hasumi’s bag in my hand, it was now Rinka’s turn to hold her hand out towards me.

“Ritsuki, that must be heavy, right? I’ll carry that bag for you.”

“Rinka-san, you’re tearing my pride into shreds here… I mean, sure, you’re probably stronger than me, but please just leave it to me.”

When Rinka did a characteristic “cool guy” move again in an attempt to protect me, I felt my heart flutter. However, my manly pride compelled me to hold onto the bag instead of handing it to Rinka.

Looks like the only thing I’m popular with is this bag, huh? (Epic joke)

But still, this is pretty bad. I’m going to end up getting captured and turned into one of Rinka’s harem members at this rate, just like in a gal game…

Nah, that’s ridiculous of me. I was a mob character before all this.

I’d even probably be just a silhouette of a person in the game, unplanned and unaccounted for… At least make my sprite coloured, please.

“Are you okay, Suda-kun? Isn’t it really heavy?”

“You don’t have to worry, Hasumi. This is just like carrying a slightly bigger than average chihuahua.”

“I don’t really understand that comparison, but… Thank you!”

Hasumi smiled, letting her beautiful eyes show from under her bangs.

But on that note, this bag is certainly a bit heavy…

As I thought those things in my mind, I saw that Shiorin had approached Rinka.

“Rinka-sama, is there anything discomforting you?! For your sake, Rinka-sama, I am willing to do anything in my power to help you!”

“―I-I’m fine, Asamiya! I’m A-OK, so don’t approach me all excited like that…  Everyone’s looking…”

“‘Don’t approach me…?!’ R-Rinka-sama, do you hate me?!”

“I-I don’t hate you! I’m telling you, I don’t hate you, so stop looking like you’re about to cry! H-Here! You can come as close as you’d like!”

“Thank you very much! Ehehe~, I-I’ll be putting my arms around you then~”

So heavyyy~!

Shiorin’s feelings are the heaviest one here~!

If the two were to be put on a scale, the weight of this bag would only amount to a mere hamster…

Shiorin, wake up!

Akarin and Mihorin are so shocked to see a side of you, their best friend, that they’ve never seen before!

Also, Rinka is staring at me and her eyes are practically begging me to help her!

“N-Nice… Now that Rinka-san is occupied with Asamiya-san, Suda-kun is back to being all by himself…!”

Clutching her fists for some reason, Hasumi muttered those words as she stood right beside me.

Wait, what? Do you really want me to stay as a loner that badly?

It’s true that I’d also be panicked if someone who I thought was a loner too suddenly started making friends.

Don’t worry, Hasumi. If I make some friends, I’ll be sure to introduce you to them too…!

We shall graduate from being loners together!

The train shook and swayed down the tracks as I internally resolved that to myself.

◇◇◇

―I stopped in front of a large two-story house, which was a five-minute walk from the Sakuragi-cho station.

“This is the studio.” I said.

Rinka and the Synchronicity members all tilted their heads to the side in confusion.

“Ritsuki, rather than this being a studio, isn’t this just a house? And a pretty nice one at that, with a huge gate out front. Is this our new home together? You know Ritsuki, I wouldn’t mind even if we lived in a run-down apartment as long as I have you.”

“Stop talking nonsense; the studio is in the basement.”

I shrugged off Rinka’s joke as I inserted my key card into the gate.

This girl is so determined to protect me, a societal misfit, that she’s even willing to live together with me.

I swear, she’s going to fall in love with a no-good man one of these days.

Or rather, she’s going to make me into one of those worthless types.

On a side note, your fanatic lover Shiorin is glaring daggers at me like she’s going to kill me, so please stop saying such weird things, okay…?

The gate opened in response to my keycard.

When everyone saw that, they shouted in surprise. “Wow~!”

When I pulled out my keycard, letters appeared on the screen above the keycard slot.

“Welcome, Xion”

I rushed in front of the screen as fast as humanly possible, covering the letters with my back as I broke out in a cold sweat.

Holyy… I registered my stage name on my keycard…

That was a huge blunder on my part, but fortunately no one seemed to notice as they were all captivated by the opening gate.

Excited, they peered beyond the gate and into the property.

“Alright everybody, head on in! Just keep looking forward! Like a kangaroo that can only go forward!”

“I’m not sure I understand that analogy, but okay! Let’s go!”

Trying to hide the letters on the screen that wouldn’t go away, I naturally led everybody’s gaze away from me and urged everyone to go inside, with Rinka leading the way.

Wait… Could there be even more items inside the house that could give me away as a Personia member…?!

Nah, that can’t possibly be true.

We haven’t used this studio for a while, plus there’s a rule that requires members to take their personal belongings home with them.

And so, with this huge flag raised by my internal deliberations, we entered the gate…