CH 69

Chapter 69: A Lazy Saturday For Two

TL: Akabane

***

When I woke up in the morning, Igarashi was already awake. Lying on the bed, Igarashi was reading a photo book of art works she had taken from my bookshelf with serious eyes. For some reason, her profile looked fragile, yet beautiful. I quietly approached her, peeked into the book from behind, and called out to her.

"Did you find anything that caught your attention?"

"Kyaa? Tokiwa! I was so surprised...!"

Igarashi, startled and impatient by my voice, hurriedly closed the book. It was as if she was hiding the book from me. Igarashi looked somewhat uncomfortable and kept her eyes down.

"I won't be offended if you read it without permission, so read whatever you want."

"Eh? Umm. Thank you. But I'm done."

Igarashi got up from the bed and put the art book back on the bookshelf. But somehow she seemed to be glancing at the book.

"I don't mind if you want to borrow it."

"...Uh, no. It's not that much. I don't care. Anyway..."

Igarashi softly refused my proposal. Then she suddenly spun around on the spot and asked me.

"How about it? The jersey? Do they look good on me?"

"It's not bad. It's kind of cute. It's a good."

"More than Ayashiro?"

Wow, she's asking a really tough question.

"For breakfast, I'll have salt ramen carbonara, right?"

"Ah! You're fooling around! Hey, hey! Which one of us is cuter? Hey, hey!"

I made breakfast for the three of us, half ignoring Igarashi who pecked me on the cheek and flirted with me.

"Tomoe, breakfast is ready, wake up!"

Igarashi woke Mashiba up. Then we sat down at the table to sip our salted ramen carbonara.

"It's just plain delicious...are you a good cook?"

Mashiba praised my cooking. But this dish...it's just salted ramen noodles boiled in milk, so I don't think it's really cooking.

"I'm good at following recipes, but I'm not good at arranging, improvising, or making things on time."

"I think Tokiwa is going to force his wife to do all the cooking and housework in the future."

Igarashi smilingly gives me a terrible evaluation.

"You're so rude. I'll at least take out the trash and clean the bathroom properly."

In the previous world, and I'm very sorry to say this, Igarashi had by far the greater share of the housework burden. I think I was spoiled by her care. But looking back on it now, I think I couldn't help but be happy about it.

"I only did the easy housework! Riri! He's definitely a bad man! I feel sorry for women who marry him."

Well, when you put it that way, that may be true. After all, I had not been able to make Igarashi happy in the previous world. I have many things to reflect on in my married life. I'll have to work on those things soon. After breakfast, we naturally decided to spend some time together, but Mashiba fell asleep due to her hangover. Unfortunately, we were not in the mood for flirting like yesterday, so we decided to play a video game we had recently bought. We had bought a variety of software, but what Igarashi chose was an RPG.

"Good luck playing! Don't worry! I'll be right beside you cheering you on!"

"This is for one player...?"

"I don't like competitive games because I'm weak. But I like to watch from the side."

"Well, that's okay."

In my previous world, I had never played video games with Igarashi. If I had that kind of time, I would have sex. Or do some painting or architectural design. Igarashi would just stand by and watch, smiling. Igarashi didn't have any hobbies that were really hobbies. She spent her time beside me, smiling, but was she having fun with that?

"Tokiwa! That's it right there, MP recovery!"

"This heroine's outfit is cute, isn't it?"

"Why is it that a girl in light clothing has a higher defense than an uncle in armor?"

"Tokiwa! According to the strategy site, there's a treasure chest on the right!"

"What? What's with the attack miss now! Tokiwa's so clumsy!

The site says that if you clear this event, you'll be cheated and invincible!

"It says that the strongest character is this little girl. Let's raise her! You'll feel like a mommy!"

"What? What's with the see-through walls of the building? Illegal building?!"

"No, that's just a problem with the camera work."

And so on and so forth. It was annoying to say the least, but it was lively and fun. Then the game reached its climax, the heroine and the hero kissed happily, and the ending was reached. By then the sun had already set.

"Ufufu! That was fun!"

Igarashi said with satisfaction as she stretched.

"Indeed it was. Unlike the movie, I was able to immerse myself in the story."

"That's right! I got so emotionally involved with the heroine, it was crazy! I almost cried."

She didn't look at all sad, though. I've never seen Igarashi cry while watching a movie or drama. I had heard that girls cry easily, but Igarashi never did. She is always smiling. Or, as she did yesterday... she would smile in a glamorous way. Is that the only kind of face I know?

"As expected, I stayed here too long. Tomoe, wake up. I'm going home."

Igarashi took off her jersey, changed into her original clothes, and woke Mashiba up. Then I walked them both to the station in Shimokita.

"Thank you very much for your help. I will not forget this favor until the next life, so please don't tell Hagiri about yesterday's blunder..."

"Yes. Good luck."

From Mashiba's point of view, that drinking abomination seems to be out. Well, savvy-types don't vomit, do they?

"Well, see you next week. Bye."

"Oh. See you. Bye."

Then Igarashi and the others entered the station and soon disappeared from sight. It was a strange feeling. It had been fun playing with them in the room. And yet I felt unreasonable for having to say goodbye. We were married in a previous world. There was never supposed to be a good-bye between us. Time had rewound. So what should have been there is not here. It was a day when I realized once again that this was my punishment.

Then Sunday. I was in Harajuku with Kirin-san. At a cafe overlooking Takeshita-dori, we were talking about the results of the blind date we had previously had.

"Eh. Three virgins have disappeared from this world."

"Right. We've lost three virgins."

""Kanpai!""

We are the men and women who drink alcohol in the daytime in cafes. But alcohol is cheap in the daytime... We just want to drink!

"But I can't believe they scored a goal during GW."

"Fufufu! I taught the boys and the girls how to do the lost virgin thing, you know. Don't you dare to take advantage of my matchmaking auntie, Kirin! Fufufu!"

Kirin-san, wearing a body-conscious, erotically cute one-piece dress, is smiling with pride. Yes, that's right. Each of the Santenami had a girlfriend, and they all had sex during GW. Isn't it amazing to have a 100% success rate of couples at a party? If she did some kind of relationship consulting, Kirin-san would be able to make a living doing just that.

"Well, thanks to that, those guys have calmed down a bit, which is helpful for us. Well, their love affairs and bragging about having sex are annoying...very annoying!"

During GW, Santenami is having a lot of sex, and if they're free, they're having sex in their rooms right away. Even so, their grades are not getting worse, and their math skills are even brighter now that they have a girlfriend, or so Yuzuriha admits. Their life must be fun.

"Speaking of which, I heard from those guys. I heard that the girls are nursing school students. I heard that Kirin-san is also a nurse."

"Yes, that's right. Their school and the hospital where I work are in the same group. That's how I met them."

"The angel in white, huh? Is that just right for caring people like them?"

"Yeah. I think it's definitely a good idea. Nurses, you know. I think nurses tend to take care of people of the opposite sex. If the other person is serious, it goes well, but if it's a bad guy... it's not so good..."

I feel that she is speaking from her own experience. There is a hint of darkness in her eyes. It's probably best not to mention it. So I change the subject.

"The town of Harajuku is..."

"Oh, don't give me that complicated intellectual talk. I don't like that kind of talk. Talk about something silly."

"Oh, I don't like that kind of intellectual talk. So, about the circle camp the other day..."

I talked about how I met Igarashi again at the camp and how much fun we had. I didn't want to talk about sea fishing or the Circle Crash (physics).

"Amazing! We met again right after that! Was it fate that brought you two together? But I'm glad you were able to make up! Of course, at that rate, you had sex, right? Reconciliation sex burns!"

"I didn't...."

"...What? Seriously? Wow..."

Kirin-san looks at me with very disappointed eyes.

"I don't mean sex or anything! There's no need for it! I still have a lot to think about that guy!"

"Grass. Hollywood-kun, grass for that crap, grass! Well, she's probably a virgin, and I don't know why you feel like you don't have to rush, but it's still grass."

"I don't mean grass...actually, I mean..."

I told Kirin-san about Friday night. I told her that we had almost crossed the line when we were interrupted. In retrospect, I think that was a good thing. Too much momentum is not good.

"Grass! So much grass! Haha! Hey, sorry! Kukukuku. Oh no, that's how it happens! That's hilarious!"

It seems that Kirin-san was having a good time with this. She was really smiling happily.

"But she's still a virgin, huh? Then it's a good chance for you! Hollywood-kun!"

"Eh?"

Kirin-san then declared with a smug look on her face.

"The trick to making love with a virgin is! You have to have sex with them and swamp them!"

"Grass. That's not even a word."

"But I think sex is the most important thing. Girls are very attracted to boys they've had sex with."

Is it really true? Even after dating and having sex with Igarashi in the previous world, for a while, I didn't feel like she was attracted to me at all. She would let me have sex with her, but I kind of felt a sense of distance for a while.

"So Kirin-san misses Kekai-senpai?"

"Umm. Not really? I'm on the good side with Kekai-kun, but I'm an exceptional girl. I like sex, but I don't really miss him."

"You say you're an exception. That's a very dubious thing to say, isn't it?"

"Well, there are very few like me, so it's okay. Haha."

Isn't that so? Wasn't Igarashi in the previous world that rare type? If Igarashi is the same way now, even if we have a physical relationship, it may not last as long as I thought. Thinking of that makes me a little scared