The night was silent.

The bus route I used had reached my destination. It takes fifteen minutes walking from there to arrive in the apartment. The walk from the nearest bus stop was quiet, and our room was in the eleventh room. Two bedrooms, a dining room and a kitchen. Enough space for the two of us.

I reached for the door to the apartment. I could feel Yukino's presence. She still woke up. Even Though it was midnight. Slowly, I opened the door and stepped inside. I didn't want to bother her.

But Yukino came out of her room. She was in her pajamas, looking at me.

"You came pretty late." Yukino talked to me.

"Yeah, I took a little detour before coming home."

"You didn't hurt or anything, right?" She asked me. She nodded stratified when she realized there was no wound in my body.

I walked inside and approached her while giving her a box of pudding.

"Eat some?" I offered to eat together.

"Fine."

Yukino and I went to the living room and ate some pudding. We didn't talk too much, but I feel better after what happened a few hours ago.

Okita Souji was most likely the person from the organization. She used a famous name, Okita Souji, a renowned name for Japanese. A genius swordmaster from group Shinsengumi. She didn't look like that, but her mana alone was quite powerful.

And she knew about the project he was in. But, there was no other person besides him that was saved in that mana explosion. But, from her name, I kinda knew where she came from. She most likely came from another division with different experiments.

I thought it was 'Heroes Clone.' 'Heroes Clone' was the project to make a clone of a hero from the past. They took several samples, but they modified their genes, but in the end, the project failed. Even the clone didn't have any gender until age five. Still, no matter what the research did, the clone always became a woman, which was different from the division vision.

The experiment was closed. So I never thought I would see one of them.

 

"Breakfast is ready," Yukino told me after I was done with my morning routine. She made a pure Japanese menu. Sliced salmon, miso soup with tofu and spinach on the side. This rich girl can do anything.

She was a smart, beautiful and, of course, rich girl. Even cooking was something she could do. Her shortcoming was that sometimes she glares at me with cold eyes. Maybe not just to me, but to the majority of people she talks to.

I sat down in front of her, then ate. Yesterday was quite peaceful. Even though there were some issues at the end of the day, I prayed that today may also be peaceful.

At least, I got a vacation on Sunday. I received a message from Sae-sensei to get some rest. Hearing that made me feel relieved. I didn't want to work every day after all. I finished reading all of the reports given by Sae-sensei.

I didn't have any particular thing to do, but there was something that I was really curious about. It was all about culture… The culture was pretty much the same until the 90's before it started to change. There were several iconic manga or anime in this world, but they are also didn't have all of them.

"Yukino, I'm going to the store book?"

"I'm coming too…"

"Eh, really."

I was kinda taken back since I did not expect her to want to go together with me. Changing the shoes at the entrance, we went outside.

The weather was kinda nice. Thick clouds were spreading across the sky. So I didn't feel hot, but feeling a bit chilly. I went to a big department store, something that wasn't expected by Yukino. She thought I would go to a nearby bookstore, but I wanted to go to a big store to find out.

"I go there…" I pointed at the manga and light novel area. While Yukino was going to another book area.

I kinda disappointed since, for most manga or light novels, I tried looking not here. Most new manga and light novels were something I never know about. But, if I thought about it more carefully. This world had many characters from the story in my previous world, so it would be weird if there were manga or novels with the same stories.

"Maybe, I need to go to a more specific bookstore."

When I tried to find out from my smartphone. I had another notification in my head. There was a notification at my map feature. The system was easy to use. I didn't have to use my hand or my finger to do anything. The system would move as my mind wanted it to do. I could see the status from the girl and saw the map just thinking about it.

On the map, I could see the picture of one of the quintuplets, Ichika Nakano. I could leave Yukino since I knew someone from TSSD was following us. It was a young girl with a green jacket and grey jeans. She had pinkish hair with weird accessories to tie her hair.

So I messaged Yukino and left the bookstore. I didn't have to search for Ichika for long since she was still in the nearby area. Since all of the events always had something bad happen, I felt urgent to arrive as fast as possible.

At the place of my destination, there was Ichika with a man that was much older than her. The situation was different in my mind, so I didn't know what to do. I mean, they talked to each other like they knew each other. Also, Ichika looked kinda, happy or excited.

I didn't know how to approach this, but I still thought something bad would happen to her since this was an event.

Did it better for me to greet her?

Oh, they were moving. Hm… Maybe better for me to just follow them. I could hear some of their conversations since they were walking in a crowd. For, I could catch that they were talking about another audition after she failed one. They were meeting another girl, but much older than Ichika. When they tried to enter the building, I felt really wrong.

I mean, for I heard even just a little, it was just like a bad hentai plot. So I called her.

"What are you doing here, Ichika?"

Hearing that, Ichika stopped, and she looked around until she saw me.

"Saku-kun."

The two other girls and the older man flinched a little when they saw me. But the man's face relaxed when he realized I was just a youngster.

"What are you doing with such a suspicious man?" I asked her again.

"Who are you calling a suspicious man! What a rude boy? That's why youngsters this day…"

The man had an expression of displeasure on his face. Ichika tried to calm him down and pull me out.

"He is not a suspicious man," Ichika told me with a low voice.

"Really, but he looked like that." I gave her my opinion.

"Eh, he is not like that. Fuuu…" Ichika breathed away before continuing with determined eyes.

"I never told anyone other than my father, but I really want to be an actress. Today, I failed the audition, and this man saw my audition and said that I was good enough for another try at another audition."

"But, you know, that kind guy is something I often see when I am abroad. They deceived a young girl into becoming an actress but worked in another place."

"Eh, like what…?"

"Drugs and prostitution."

Ichika's face paled when she heard what I said. Since she knows that I came from abroad may be weighing my word.

"But…"

"Hey! What are you doing? If you slow, the scout will leave soon!" The man talked with a high note. He tried to make Ichika make a rush decision. Ichika flustered when hearing that. Her face showed that she wanted to go.

'Flick' I flicked her forehead.

"Kya", Ichika screamed with a cute voice, and her hand in forehead rubbed it with eyes looking up at me in a cute way. She was surprised at what I was doing.

"Calm down. How about asking your father first?"

"Ah, that's true." Ichika calmed down and took her phone and called her father.

"What are you doing! We are late!"

"Ah, she called her dad to receive his permission."

"Ck… the two of you just wasted my time. You can't be successful if you slow like this. Follow me, girl."

The man clicked his tongue and went away with the girl following him.

"Ah…" Ichika, who was still on the phone, wanted to stop them, but I held her hand, so she stayed at her place. She glared at me, saying that I was the wrong one here.

And her phone connected to her father.

---------------------

"Really---really---thank you."

Ichika bowed her head while saying her gratitude to me.

"It's fine. We are friends, after all. So, of course, I help you out."

I replied to her while enjoying my drink. It was a nice Vanilla Latte at one big chain coffee shop in Tokyo. It was popular in recent years and competed with an international coffee shop.

"Even though I doubt your effort. You still helped me. I'm really sorry." She once again apologizes to me.

"You just got heated in a moment, but I am glad I was there to help you."

"Really… That was really a fortune."

Ichika was told by her father that the man company had a reasonable reputation. Still, there was a bad rumour circulating them. The rumour was about them close to a gang or have some prostitution ring. Ichika paled when hearing that. She felt gratitude, so she took me to this coffee store and treated me as thanks.

 

Ichika Nakano felt indebted to you.

Affection + 30

 

"Really, you are always helping us like this… this feels really fated…"

Ichika said it with a blush on her face, then smiled warmly. It was a smile that takes my breath away every time.

A combination of a warm smile and blushed face made her look really beautiful. If this is a game, that smiling face must be a worthy scene with CG.

"So, what are you doing?" Ichika asked me.

"I went to the bookstore in that department store, but I didn't find what I was looking for..."

"Bookstore? That was surprising."

"Eh, why… I like reading, you know… manga or novels."

"…are you going alone?"

"Ah…"

When Ichika asked that, I remembered the girl I left alone. I saw my smartphone full of messages and some calls.

"Hm… I am in danger." I said with a gloomy voice.