Finally, it’s the long-awaited day four, the day that we can relax and enjoy.

   Before the three of us left our room, I told Miyahara to not try his luck at the test of courage and go ask Takayama for some alone time as soon as possible. Shimazaki agrees with me.

   ‘But, what will we talk or do when we’re alone?’

   See, this is the difference between a popular guy and an unpopular guy. When pressured into asking a girl out, the unpopular guy’s first question will always be ‘But what if she says no?’, since he has low to no confidence. The popular guy, on the other hand, just radiates with confidence and has better questions to ask.

   ‘Well, she’s a member of the tea ceremony club, so you could ask her about stuff related to it.’ I suggest.

   ‘Or you could try to get her to talk about herself so that you can know her better.’

   ‘Just don’t talk to her about the weather.’

   In case you’re wondering, yes, I’m speaking from experience.

   ‘Or suggest a game of word chain.’

   ‘Got it.’ Miyahara nods nervously.

   After breakfast, Miyahara goes to Takayama while walking like a robot. Oh boy, this does not look good.

   ‘T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-Takayam-m-a, is...is it…um…’

   ‘Um, are you all right Miyahara-kun?’ Takayama couldn’t hep but ask.

   ‘Pardon me.’

   I get up and smack the back of Miyahara’s head like how I would smack a broken television. Thankfully, that did the trick.

   ‘Takayama, do you want to spend some time with me after this? Just the two of us?’ Miyahara finally asks.

   ‘...! Oh, all right. If you’re fine with me.’ Takayama seems to be taken aback, but agrees to hang out with Miyahara in the end.

   After they left, Oomori and Yui immediately charge at me and start spouting gibberish.

   ‘@%&*@%^&!@$^?’

   ‘!@**&%@%^)?:$@?’

   ‘Would the two of you calm down? I don’t speak alien.’

   They then take a few deep breath before restarting.

   ‘That scene just now. Does Miyahara has a crush on Shizuku?’ Oomori asks.

   ‘Are they…are they going on a date?’ Yui asks excitedly.

   ‘Yes and yes.’ I simply answer.

   ‘You think it’ll go well?’ Shimazaki asks me.

   ‘No clue. It all depends on Miyahara.’

   At this moment, I receive a message from Ichika to hang out.

   ‘Sorry guys, I can’t hang out with you as well. I got a date too.’

   ‘Uuuuuh, with whom?’ Oomori asks nosily.

   ‘With Ichika.’

   ‘Is that so? Well, good luck.’

   ‘Thanks.’

   Ichika asks me to find her at the training room where we previously sparred, so that’s where I go.

   ‘Sorry for making you wait.’ I tell her the moment I got inside.

   ‘No worries. I was the one who asked you out, after all. By the way, was I in the way of you plans for today?’

   ‘Not at all. I didn’t make any, anyway.’

   ‘Is that so? That is great, then.’

   ‘So, what will do here?’

   Ichika shows me a bright smile. ‘We will train, of course!’

   Yup, typical Ichika.

   And so, that’s what we did. It’s tiring, and it’s frustrating to keep losing to her, but honestly I don’t mind one bit. You’ll understand why if you ever get to see the way she moves when she fights.

   Maybe it’s because she’s well versed in the sword-style passed down by her family, or maybe it’s just her. She’s so graceful when she’s executing each and every move it’s like she’s dancing. There’s simply no words good enough to describe it. Simply calling it beautiful is an insult to her. It’s so mesmerizing that I don’t mind watching it forever, if it isn’t for the fact that I’m at the receiving end of it.

   After I got blown away for the twelfth times, I stop her and ask for a break. While I’m catching my breath, Ichika suddenly becomes very depressed.

   ‘Hey, what’s wrong?’ I immediately ask her.

   ‘My…my apologies. I have asked you to “hang out” with me, but all we are doing is train. This is no different from what we usually do. You must be thinking that I am very boring.’

   ‘Not at all. You chose training because that’s what you love to do, right?’

   ‘Why, yes.’

   ‘D…Hanging out with each other is all about doing the thing one or both of us likes. It’s a great way to get to know one another.’

   Notice that I didn’t use the word “date”. Now, I know this is one, Ichika probably thinks so too. The thing is, she’s very pure, so I don’t know how she would react to that word. I don’t want this precious atmosphere to be ruined by her becoming one of those violent tsunderes.

   ‘But, there must be some other way for us to “hang out”…’

   ‘It’s fine, it’s fine. I mean, you get to do something that you like, I get to train more, everyone’s a winner. If you’re bothered by it so much, next time we’ll be doing what I like.’

   She smiles at that. ‘Like cooking?’

   ‘Yeah. Previously, all we did were exchanging recipes, right? We could take things one step further and have a cook-off.’

   ‘So, it is like…cooking a meal together…’ Ichika blushes all of a sudden.

   ‘Uh, yeah. That’s what it is, I guess…’

   Man, that blush is contagious. Now I’m blushing too…

   ‘Anyway, enough small talk and let’s get back to training!’ I try to do something about this awkward atmosphere.

   ‘I would love to, but I am afraid this is all the time I could have with you.’ Ichika says after checking the time on her phone.

   ‘Huh? Why?’

   As if on cue, I got another mail, this time from Sakuya. She too, wants to spend some time with me and wants me to come to the open field where we cook our meals.

   ‘Um, did you guys had an agreement to take turn and spent time with me or something?’

   ‘Correct. We drew lots to decide the sequence. I was the first.’

   ‘Then that means Mashiro is the last one, not that it matters. Incidentally, did you guys had a talk on how to spend time with me?’

   ‘We did not. Why do you ask?’

   ‘The thing is, Sakuya-senpai asked me to go to the place where we cook our food.’

   ‘...I wish you luck.’ Ichika says while giving me a salute.

   I sigh and got out of the training room. Before meeting Sakuya, I took a quick shower at the shower room and changed into a fresh set of uniform. Naturally, I did this after I text her to wait for me.

   When I reach the place, she was nowhere to be found. Just when I was about to call her with my phone, I hear her voice from behind me.

   ‘Akira-kun, over here~!’

   I look behind me and found her sitting under a tree while with a mat placed on the ground.

   I go to her nervously. ‘So, what are we making today, senpai?’

   She looks at me with a confused look. ‘What do you mean?’

   ‘What do you mean “what do you mean?”? You told me to come here, right?’

   ‘Yes, but it’s not to get a lesson in cooking from you.’

   Hearing that makes me breath out a sigh of relief. My longest one so far.

   ‘Senpai, next time you give me a text, please be more specific. I think I lost a few years of my life after receiving that text of yours.’

   ‘Yes, yes, I’m sorry for scaring you like that. Now, how about you lie down?’ Sakuya says while patting on her lap.

   ‘Huh?’

   ‘Come on~, you get to enjoy a lap pillow here~. Or are you too shy for it?’ Sakuya shows me her mischievous smile.

   ‘All right, I’ll do it.’

   And so, I lie my head down on Sakuya’s thighs. So this is the legendary lap pillow. It’s indeed wonderful.

   ‘How does my lap feels?’

   ‘It’s soft and…’ I let out a yawn unconsciously. ‘very comfortable…’

   ‘That’s good to hear.’

   ‘So, senpai. Are we just going to sit down like this until the hour’s up?’

   ‘Pretty much. The last few days was quite hectic for you, weren’t they? So it’s better to take a break.’

   ‘Well, if you insist…’

   I guess dates are not all about going somewhere and have fun. This kind of quiet date exists too.

   ‘By the way, why isn’t anyone coming here? I was expecting someone would be playing volleyball here, or something.’

   ‘I asked them to stay away from here until lunchtime. It would disrupt our alone time, after all.’

   ‘And they just agreed?’

   ‘Being a student council president has its perks, you know.’

   ‘What an abuse of authority.’

   ‘Like I said, I wanted to spent some time with you, and it would ruin the moment if someone was here.’

   I wanted to say there are other spots available around here, but decided to keep quiet. She’s the one who chose this spot, so we’ll be hanging out here.

   ‘So, how was the training camp?’

   ‘It was nice, I guess. I manage to learn a lot of new things to help me in future combats.’

   ‘Did you have fun?’

   ‘Well, mostly.’

   ‘Mostly?’

   I tell her about what happened during and after the marathon, about the scene I had with Takagi and Ueno.

   ‘Oh, my. That’s…unfortunate.’

   ‘The worst part is, I don’t know how to make up with them.’

   ‘Well, you could give them some time to calm down first. But remember, don’t take too long or things might become worse.’

   ‘Okay.’

   In our remaining time, all we did was talk. Our school, our training, our conversations we had with our friends, anything that we could think of. I guess there’s a lot of ways to spend time during a date.

   ‘Well, look at the time. It’s Mashiro-chan’s turn now.’ Sakuya says when she heard the alarm ringing from her phone.

   ‘Thank you for this, senpai. I had a great time.’

   ‘Even if all we did was had a chat?’

   ‘Even so. I think it’s nice to just talk with each other.’

   ‘Your big sister is glad. I had lots of fun too.’

   ‘Maybe we could do this again sometimes.’

   ‘Yes, maybe while cooking~.’

   ‘Um, I’m the only one that will do the cooking, right?’

   ‘Who knows~.’

   On that scary note, I left Sakuya and go to where Mashiro is, once again teleported by the Destroyer with the teleport magic. At this point, he’s pretty much our chauffeur.

   Mashiro had him teleport me back to my room at the dorm.

   ‘Thank you as always, Sogdrul.’ Mashiro tells the Destroyer.

   This is great. I could finally stop calling him the teleport Destroyer.

   ‘Why are we at my room?’ I ask Mashiro.

   ‘Mashiro wants to try some video games that you’ve always been playing.’

   ‘Well, if that’s what you want…’

   So we sit down in front of the television I bought and turn on both the television and my game console, the Planetarium Sphere 14 (or PS14 for short).

   ‘What genre do you want to play? Horror? Fighting? Puzzle? Shooter?’ I ask Mashiro while looking through my collection of games.

   ‘Fighting game sounds nice.’

   ‘Alright.’

   I insert the disc into the console and hand over one of the controller to her. When I sit right next to her, she immediately crawls to my lap.

   ‘...Um, Mashiro? I’ll have difficulty in seeing if you sit in front of me.’

   ‘This is a strategy.’

   ‘Uh-huh.’

   Well, someone refuses to be honest. Oh, well.

   We start to play a few rounds. I didn’t bother to go easy on her, so the matches are pretty much one-sided. Mashiro tried to cheat by making attempts to headbutt my chin and moving more vigorously to block my view. Unfortunately for her, all of her plans failed, and I won all the rounds.

   ‘Wanna go for another round?’ I ask her after my fifteenth wins in a row.

   ‘...After I got better at this.’

   She vows to get a television and a PS14 just so she could practise her gaming skills and get back at me. We wanted to play some more, but the hour’s up and it’s lunchtime, so we go back to the camp with Sogdrul’s help.

   Mashiro says she’ll be joining her classmates, so I go to join mine. Right on time, Miyahara and Takayama came back from wherever they were.

   Both of them look pretty flustered, even Takayama, who’s usually the embodiment of calmness. The other three who did not go on a date tried to grill us with questions, but I told them to wait until we ate lunch.

   After a meal of pork cutlets and rice, Oomori, Yui and Shimazaki get down to business. They drag the rest of us further away from our classmates and begin the questioning.

   ‘So so so, who’s gonna start first?’ Oomori asks.

   ‘I guess I will.’ I say after looking at the other two.

   The both of them look at me gratefully.

   So I told them about how I went to a date with the three girls.

   ‘Wow. Not only you spend time with the vice president, but also the president and Mashiro-tan? Someone’s been busy!’ Oomori claims.

   I merely shrug. ‘Enough about me. All right you two, spit it out.’

   They are too shy to talk about what happened in front of each other, so Shimazaki and I had to drag Miyahara to a secluded spot, while Yui and Oomori drag Takayama to another.

   ‘So, what happened? Why did the both of you looked so embarrassed?’ Shimazaki asks Miyahara.

   ‘Well, I kind of asked her out.’ Miyahara answers.

   Shimazaki and I took a while to process that.

   ‘And, what did she said?’ I ask.

   ‘She…she said “if you’re fine with me”…’

   Wow. Just wow. I told him to spend some time with her and he ends up confessing. Not only that, she said yes.

   I look over at the girls. Oomori and Yui are covering their mouths with their hands and trying very hard not to squeal. Meanwhile, Takayama’s face is redder than a tomato’s.

   ‘So, you guys are a couple now.’

   ‘Pretty much, yeah. That was so scary…’

   ‘Well, you did it anyway. Good job. I’m proud of you.’

   ‘Me too.’

   ‘Yeah. Thanks guys.’

   Fast forward to the test of courage. After our dinner, all of us are to gather in front of the base and take turns drawing out a paper that has a written number on it from a box. Those who drew out the same number will be a pair.

   Man, I hate this event. In the anime, this is the scene where Yuuji and Yui got intimate after being paired up, and there’s nothing I could do about it since it’s up to “luck”. I guess he’ll be having the spotlight this time.

   Miyahara and Takayama look quite nervous, probably worried that they will be paired up with a random stranger than each other.

   ‘Number 36! Who’s number 36?’

   ‘I got number 52! Anyone got the same number?’

   As the line diminishes, there are more and more pairs that appeared. I saw Iwata paired up with Nishi-senpai from the cooking club, while Ueno is with a burly-looking girl. As for Takagi, he’s standing awkwardly all by himself.

   Miraculously, Takayama and Miyahara somehow got paired up. They were so happy they hugged each other, only to quickly separate after getting catcalls.

   Oomori is next, and she set out to find her partner after she got a number. I was quite surprised to see that her partner is Takagi, who could not believe his luck. I sure hope he’ll make things work.

   Next is Shimazaki. When it was his turn, all the girls who are not paired up yet look at him expectantly.

   He looks at the number written at the paper. ‘Number 254.’

   The person with the same number is a girl, and boy was she overjoyed. The other girls look at her enviously, some even wanted to trade their numbers with her, but the girl’s having none of it.

   ‘Must be nice to be popular.’ I say to Yui, who’s next in line.

   She chuckles. ‘Aren’t you pretty popular yourself, Kagenashi-kun?’

   ‘Oh yeah. I’ve forgotten.’

   Yui got 82 and declares it loudly. No one went to her, so she goes to the people who are still without partners.

   I search for Yuuji. Strange, he’s already partnered up with a guy.

   ‘It’s your turn, Akira-kun.’ Sakuya who’s holding the box tells me.

   ‘Oh, sorry.’ I reach my hand into the box.

   I look at the paper I drew out. There’s a 82 written on it.

   Huh?

   I notice that the girls in my harem are looking at me expectantly. Ichika was already standing next to Sakuya, while Mashiro ran here when she saw it was my turn. All three of them already drew their numbers, so they must have expected to be paired up with me.

   I showed them my number. All three of them had a look of disappointment.

   I then go to Yui and show her my paper.

   ‘Well then, looks like I’ll be in your care, the popular Kagenashi-kun.’ Yui tells me with a smile.

   I laugh sheepishly. ‘Likewise.’

   Well, looks like even luck is on my side this time.

   The route for the test of courage involves passing by a cemetery built to bury the corpses of the soldiers who died in previous wars, and then pass through the forest. After that,each pair is to come back to the base.

   After everyone’s finally being paired up, the test of courage can finally begins. All of us just lined up randomly and wait for our turn to depart.

   All this while, Yui is quietly chanting prayers, her face as white as a sheet of paper.

   The thing is, Yui is afraid of ghosts and everything supernatural related, despite the fact that she’s from a family of priests. In case you’re wondering, ghosts do exist in this anime, so Yui has every right to be afraid.

   When it’s finally our turn to depart, Yui couldn’t stop trembling.

   ‘Um, Kiryuu? What’s wrong?’

   I already knew the answer, but I had to ask it anyway, since I’m not supposed to know.

   ‘Well, I’m afraid of spirits…’ she answers with a tiny voice.

   ‘Look, everything will be alright, okay? I’m here for you, after all.’

   Yui is too freaked out to listen to me. I just hope things will get better.

   We soon reach the cemetery, and its creepy atmosphere is not helping Yui to calm down at all. Suddenly, I feel bold, so I ask Yui whether she wants to hold my hand.

   ‘But, my hands are all sweaty…’

   ‘Don’t worry. So are mine.’

   I take a look at my hand. It’s completely dry.

   Yui looks at it too and chuckles. ‘You’re a terrible liar, Kagenashi-kun.’

   ‘Either way, may I?’ I reach out my hand to her.

   Yui smiles and takes it. Her hand is indeed sweaty from her all acting nervous and scared, but who cares? I’m holding a girl’s hand!

   Since I’m a left-hander, and Yui’s a right, if something did pops up we could use our dominant hand without any issue. Ever since we start to hold hands Yui stopped being scared, although she’s a bit jumpy at every single things she hears.

   ‘Aren’t I pathetic?’ Yui asks me all of a sudden. ‘A girl from a family of exorcists, being afraid of spirits.’

   ‘What’s so pathetic about that? Everyone has something they’re afraid of.’

   ‘But, I need to keep it together, or people might suffer from my incompetence.’

   ‘Look Kiryuu, you don’t have to do this alone. You have friends, right? So rely on them.’

   ‘I tried. But, they’re always so overprotective, and tell me to go behind them as soon as things got tough.’

   Yup, sometimes having overly nice friends will cause this. You wanted to protect your weaker friend, but ended up being an obstacle to her growth.

   ‘Then, how about next time there’s a spirit-related mission, you go with me?’ I suggest. ‘I’m not that strong, so there’s a high chance that I can’t take care of everything myself.’

   ‘Well, since you offered, it would be rude to turn it down. Please take care of me when such a mission is available.’

   ‘Yeah. Leave it to me.’

   ‘You’re mistaken about one thing, though.’

   ‘What’s that?’

   ‘You’re strong. That I can guarantee.’ she shows me her bright smile.

   Aaaah~, so healing~.

   ‘Well, I guess the theory will be tested soon enough.’

   ‘Quite.’

   We pass through the cemetery with Yui being much calmer than she was before. When we reach the forest, it seems like she’s forgotten about her phasmophobia.

   RUSTLE, RUSTLE

   ‘Eek! W-what was that? Was that a ghost?’

   Never mind.

   The worst part is, I can’t even calm her down with the classic ‘there’s no such thing as a ghost’ line, because there’s such a thing as a ghost in this world.

   ‘Look, Kiryuu-’

   RUSTLE

   ‘Nooo, it’s right in front of us~!’

   ‘It’s just another pair of students.’ I calmly point out.

   ‘Oh.’ she stops struggling. ‘Sorry about that.’

   ‘It’s okay. Just…calm down, okay?’

   ‘...Yes.’ she says while being embarrassed.

   Eventually, we pass through the forest and come back to the base. Yui freaked out for around twenty times, otherwise she’s fine.

   ‘...Please keep my hysterics a secret from our friends.’ Yui pleads when we got back.

‘Sure.’

   When the cool kids are all gathered, they immediately try to comfort Yui.

   ‘Are you okay, Yui? Did you get scared?’ Oomori asks her.

   ‘No, Kagenashi-kun was there with me, so I was fine.’

   The others couldn’t believe their ears and look at me.

   ‘It’s true.’ I lie in a straight face. ‘She was very brave.’

   They don’t look convinced at all, but decided to let it slide for Yui’s sake. Meanwhile, she looks at me gratefully.

   While we’re chatting, more and more pairs have returned. I noticed there’s a lot of boy-girl pairs that are holding hands and look very happy, so I guess their love have blossomed.

   I look at Oomori. She looks very indifferent, so Takagi probably failed to impress her. Poor guy.

   Sakuya, Ichika and Mashiro were all paired up with girls, so there’s no danger of the same thing happening to them. Even so, they looked quite jealous that Yui get to pair up with me, and didn’t come to talk to me as soon as they were back.

   After the test of courage is finally over, I quickly went to take a shower and go back to the bedroom. The events for today took a toll on me, so I just want to sleep.

   On the next morning, we have our final meal of breakfast at the camp, and fetch ride on buses to go back to the Academy.