Chapter 24
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This is an additional weekly chapter, powered solely by @Noldere. You can thank them for that. 😁

 

After they ended the call, Mayumi sent Amaya a message.

(M)- Hey, is everything okay? You went oddly quiet there by the end.
(Am)- Oh, it is. I just got really embarrassed. 😳
(M)- I see. May I know why? It’s okay if you don’t wanna talk about it.
(Am)- I went to an all-girls boarding school for powered people, so I barely had any interactions with
           boys during the past three years. Suddenly, one tells me that he can almost ‘feel’ me naked, so it
           was a bit much for me. I know that it’s not quite like that, but still. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t
           think Asahi is doing something wrong or anything like that.
(M)- Wait, you’re… 😮
(Am)- A virgin? Yes… 😑
(M)- That’s surprising, given how attractive you are. Have you tried fooling around with the girls in your
         school?
(Am)- I did. I kissed a couple girls, but it really wasn’t for me. Also, thank you for the compliment… 😳
(M)- You’re welcome. If you ever need to talk about this stuff, or anything else for that matter, I’m here
         for you. 🤗
(Am)- Thank you. 😊

Mayumi smiled, and got up from her chair. ‘She’s so cute. School for powered people, huh? I’m not surprised.’

As she thought that, she saw Asahi approaching her door. “Fumiko is coming over for dinner and a sleepover. What do you wanna eat tonight? Let’s cheat with the Store.”

She walked towards him, and gently pulled him to her embrace. “I could really go for an authentic Sicilian Pizza.”

He gave her a light kiss. “Okay. On another subject, how are you feeling about our group? Is the fact that they have powers giving you any anxiety?”

She shook her head. “They are nice people, and I like talking to them. I wanna invite them to come here this weekend so they can meet Fumiko.”

He smiled. “I think so too, and Fumiko probably will as well.”

She smiled brightly as they left to the living room.

 

After a nice meal, the three of them played some games, and had a short sex session, where Mayumi just watched, playing with herself.

As they shared a post-sex cuddle on Asahi’s bed, with Fumiko in the middle, Asahi spoke. “Oh, right, forgot to show you something. You didn’t see it because it wasn’t in the video.”

He made the enchanted cleaning device appear on his hand, then pressed it.

Seeing the sweat on his body instantly vanish, and smelling that post-shower refreshing scent from him, the girls’ eyes lit up.

He handed it to them, and when each of them used it, a satisfied smile appeared on their face.

Fumiko then pinched his cheek. “You had this since your sci-fi adventure and didn’t share.”

He chuckled. “I only used it once, when I got home, then forgot about it. I swear.”

With a smile on her face, Mayumi raised her torso and slapped his butt. “If there is one person in this world who can’t claim forgetfulness, it’s you. You have a System that can remind you of anything you want.”

[ She is not wrong. ]

Fumiko pointed at the System screen. “You have been found guilty. The fine is ten kisses, each.”

He sighed. “Well, since I have to…”

He then showered them with kisses and tickles, which although were not part of the fine, he claimed it to be a bonus service of the ten kisses package.

As they cuddled once again, Asahi spoke. “Are you two free tomorrow in the afternoon?”

Hugging Fumiko from behind, Mayumi replied, smiling. “Absolutely.”

Fumiko nodded, smiling. “Cleared schedule.”

Asahi blushed, displaying an embarrassed smile. “Will the two of you come with me to my therapy appointment? I’m really anxious about it.”

Mayumi crawled over Fumiko and him, embracing him from behind. “Always.”

Fumiko embraced him as well. “Of course.”

He basked in the warmth of that moment.

 

Next morning, Asahi and Mayumi had their second class with professor Kimathi. What Asahi had said about tampering expectations, seemed to have been in vain.

Isla was an incredible teacher. Her analogies and examples were incredibly easy to understand, and her slide presentation was immaculate.

The day progressed nicely, with his second time at the Drawing & Painting club being surprisingly uneventful, they just went to a nearby park to draw. Some of the girls mildly flirted with him, but nothing serious.

He already had decent drawing skills, so he didn’t need a crash course or anything.

After he got back home, the time for them to leave for Asahi’s therapy appointment arrived.

Fumiko drove them in her car, an economical dark-red sedan, which looked a bit out of place in the building where they lived. Although she could easily afford a better car, she saw no point in it, since she didn’t use it all that much.

They arrived at an office building in Shibuya, where several small companies, a few therapists, and medical doctors with private practices had their offices.

The therapist’s reception looked like one would expect, with a man in his mid-twenties as the receptionist.

Since it was by appointment, they were the only ones there.

They greeted the receptionist and sat down.

With Asahi in the middle, each of the girls held one of his hands. He felt quite anxious, but holding their hands dampened that feeling quite a bit.

He caressed their hands with his thumbs. “Thank you for coming with me.”

Mayumi smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Fumiko caressed his thigh. “If you hadn’t asked, we would have offered to come, but we thought it would be better if it came from you.”

He smiled and gave both of them a light kiss.

A few minutes later, a man in his early thirties opened the office’s door from inside, leaving with a downcast expression, but a faint smile.

After another five minutes, the receptionist told him that he could go inside.

Asahi looked at the girls, took a deep breath, and got up.

Entering the office, he saw a modern décor, with quite a few diplomas on the wall.

On a couch chair, there was a woman in her late 40s, wearing social clothing. She was slightly chubby, with a gentle and pretty face, and a beauty mark under her left eye. Her silky hair was tied in a bun.

She was holding a notebook and a pen. “Hello, Kinoshita-kun. Please, have a seat.”

He sat on the large couch right across her couch chair.

“What may I help you with?”

Slightly anxious, he tapped his right index finger on his thigh. “I had a pretty rough time growing up, but recently my life turned around and it’s pretty great now, and I’m having a really hard time accepting it. It’s a mix of feeling like I haven’t earned it, and at the same time, being scared that I’ll wake up and it’ll all be gone.”

She nodded, writing on her notebook. “I noticed you tapping your leg out of anxiety. Are you anxious because this therapy thing might not work, or worse, it will work and you don’t deserve it?”

He sighed. “Both.”

“Would you mind talking about how it was for you growing up?”

He looked up, then looked at her. “I’m an orphan. I was found as a baby with a gash on my head, almost dead, inside a dumpster. Growing up, my best-case-scenario was to be ignored. I was almost raped, lived for a couple years on the streets, stabbed, shot, had way more than my fair share of broken bones due to beatings, so on and so forth. I was never adopted, and had to pretty much support myself.”

“You said that recently your life turned around, mind telling me how?”

He scratched his head. “I somehow got into Tokyo U on a scholarship, which put me in a really fancy building, where I ended up being roommates with the girl that changed everything for me. For the first time in my life, someone treated me as an equal, without pre-conceptions or judgement. For the first time, I felt at ease around someone, felt wanted and cared for. That was right on the day we met, a little over two months ago.”

“How is your relationship with her now?”

“We’re extremely close, and also recently added a sexual component to it. We have another friend, that is in the same relationship with us, whom I’m also really close to, and care immensely for. She also supported me a lot, even though we only met around a month ago. It’s close to what people describe as a polyamorous relationship, but we prefer not to label things. They’re both waiting for me in the reception.”

As she wrote in her notebook, she displayed a pensive expression. “Can you expand on your scholarship? How did you actually get it?”

“I placed 97th on the national exam, and was selected for one of those community outreach scholarships. Since I was probably the one with the best grades and test placement, I was given the one spot that put me in that fancy building.”

“You said that you supported yourself. What kind of job did you have?”

“I did some odd jobs, but mainly washed dishes at a restaurant throughout high school.”

She tapped her notebook with her pen. “Are those all the changes in your life?”

He shook his head. “I started working out, taking care of myself, had a growth spurt, and look like a completely different person now. I also started taking self-defense classes, and recently started to write my own novel. With that novel, I’m already earning three times what I did with my dish-washing job.”

“Do you have a picture of how you looked like before?”

He nodded, and pulled out his phone. “The is me, the day I met Mayumi, the girl who changed my life.”

Her eyes widened. “I see. May I have a minute to think?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

Looking at her notes, she furrowed her brow. Tapping twice on her notebook, she asked. “Did you give your all in the things you’ve done so far?”

He looked at her with a confident look. “Absolutely.”

“And, how were you feeling when you arrived at that fancy building? Before meeting Mayumi.”

He sighed. “Like I was at my last at bat, because I had no more energy left to fight against life. If things kept going the way they were before, I might have ended up killing myself down the line.”

“In that picture, you had a genuine smile, albeit a bit awkward. Do you remember how you felt before you fell asleep that night?”

He nodded. “Scared, to the point that I almost cried. That day was so great that I had a hard time even believing that it happened.”

“I see. And how has been your daily life since then?”

“Incredible, to say the least. I eat properly, have a lot of fun, and feel wanted and cared for every single day.”

She wrote on her notebook, looked at her notes, and nodded. “Although it’s an early diagnostic, and I would like to have more sessions to have a more in-depth exploration of your past, you are most likely suffering from a form of whiplash, and a mild remnant of depression.”

He raised his right eyebrow. “Whiplash?”

“Have you seen those stories in the news where someone poor wins the lottery, or comes into a lot of money somehow, and they completely destroy their lives?”

He furrowed his brow. “Yeah.”

“That happens because their brains can’t handle the sudden shift in their reality. In your case, life taught you to think that you had to give everything you had just to survive. But suddenly you were able to relax, have fun, not have to worry as much about your next meal, or even if at all. When you see those people burning through their money, it is because they want to enjoy it while it lasts, because life taught them that being poor was their default state. However, you seem to have been taking a more productive route, which is a really good thing.”

He raised his right eyebrow. “That’s it?”

She nodded. “You thinking that there is more to it, is also part of life programming you to think that things should be as hard as humanly possible all the time.”

He leaned his head against the couch, staying silent for a bit, then letting out a long sigh.

She circled a couple things on her notes. “Having a hard time accepting that?”

His eyes widened, and he raised his head. “Is me struggling with accepting things, a way for my brain to insert some of what I perceived as normal into my life?”

She nodded. “It is.”

He grabbed his head, supporting his elbows with his knees.

After half a minute or so, he raised his head and took a deep breath. “Can you start seeing me as a regular patient?”

“Yes, I can. I’d recommend once a week, if you are comfortable with that.”

He nodded. “That’d be great.”

“You can talk to my assistant after we’re done here. Now, can you start again from the beginning?”

He then spent the rest of the session talking about his childhood.

Although he knew that he had one more problem, he couldn’t really explore it without inconsistencies in his statements, which was his reluctance to trust Trish. But weirdly enough, he felt that it was also tied to what she had just told him.

 

He left the office with a pensive expression.

The girls immediately got up from their seats and walked towards him. He hugged both of them, feeling a little more relaxed than when he came in.

After setting up a weekly appointment with the help of the assistant, the three of them left.

Seeing that Asahi was still processing the session, the girls didn’t ask anything, and stayed silent all the way home.

As they entered the apartment, and closed the front door, Asahi held their hands and brought them to the couch.

Still holding their hands, he told them how the session went.

After he finished, Mayumi raised a question. “Don’t you want a second opinion before sticking with her?”

Asahi smiled. “But I already got it. Please, tell them what you told me.”

[ Her assessment is 92.7% accurate, which is highly commendable for an Earthling. ]

Mayumi furrowed her brow. “If you know so much, why can’t you help him?”

Fumiko smiled. “Because the System judged actual therapy to be more effective in the long run.”

[ Correct. Unfortunately, I am unable to explain my calculations within your lifespan, since you are only aware of an infinitesimal amount of the variables that I take into account. And please, do not be offended, I would have said something similar to the most intelligent and knowledgeable creature in your universe. ]

Mayumi sighed at Fumiko. “Sometimes I forget that compared to you, I’m a dumb-dumb.”

Asahi Furrowed his brow. “Excuse me, but I’m the dumbest one here, don’t even try to take my post.”

[ He is correct. He is the most intellectually challenged Earthling in this apartment. ]

He looked at the screen. “Wow, did you need to use that wording?”

The girls started laughing.

After spending some time with the girls, and eating a snack, he went to his room to work on the first draft for their game.

As he was writing, he received a message from Tomoko, the woman who took his virginity.

(T)- Hey, how have you been?
(A)- Really well, how about you?
(T)- Great, the divorce is done. I hope you understand why I kept our contact to a minimum.
(A)- Of course, we had a fling for a weekend. That’s not the type of person you go to when you’re going
        through a divorce.
(T)- Good. Now, are you free this Saturday?
(A)- I am, but only during the morning, and I probably won’t be able to do another weekend-long thing,
        at least not any time soon.
(T)- I saw on the news what happened at Tokyo U, with that famous woman becoming a professor and
       starting a huge contest. I imagined that you wouldn’t have much time. Saturday morning works for
       me; how about 8am at your place?
(A)- Sounds good to me.
(T)- See you then.
(A)- See you.

He immediately texted Mayumi and Fumiko.

(A)- Fujiwara-san is coming to my room at 8am on Saturday.
(F)- Did you just slot a booty call in the morning, because Mayumi wants to invite your group to come
       here Saturday?
(A)- Hey, I’m a busy guy.
(M)- Ask her If I can watch it live next time. 😏
(A)- Yeah, I will…

He laughed and went back to writing.

A bit lost in his writing, he suddenly noticed Mayumi’s hand in his peripheral vision.

She put a plate with a delicious-looking sandwich on his table, alongside a can of juice.

As he took off his headphones, she gently caressed his face. “It’s almost midnight, and with the way you focus, I’m pretty sure you haven’t eaten anything.”

He got up, and pulled her in for a kiss. “Thank you. Actually, I finished a couple minutes ago, and was looking it over one more time. Wanna be the first one to read it?”

She smiled brightly. “Yeah, of course. We don’t have first period tomorrow anyways.”

He gestured for her to sit on his chair. “I can do some modifications while you read as well.”

She sat down, and spun on the chair. “Then I’ll wait for you to eat.”

He smiled, pulled his secondary chair, and sat down to eat.

After he finished eating, they went through what he wrote for their game.

Aside from asking questions about his thought process and making a few suggestions, Mayumi was quite pleased with it, especially for a first draft.

She kissed his cheek. “Great job. You put some little twists there that surprised me a little bit.”

He smiled. “Thank you. Wanna sleep here with me tonight?”

She nodded with a smile, and gave him a light kiss.

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