Once Akari crossed the finish line, there was a thundering applause.

Everyone in the audience was thrilled to see her speed up and pass Helena.

It was a true show of surpassing one's limits, and everyone knew that Akari gave it her all.

Feeling exhilarated by the atmosphere, Akari raised her hand and began to wave to all of her fans.

Takei was equally excited as she was, but he managed to reign his feelings in and control himself.

"She really did it..."

Even though Takei knew that she had a high chance of winning, he was still very happy that she managed to do it.

Once the volume of the crowd had slightly subsided, the announcer revealed the (obvious) winner to everyone.

"Akari Akazawa wins the 400-meter dash!"

After the announcement, the crowd once again roared for their champion.

Seeing the slightly troubled smile on Akari's face, Takei wryly scratched his chin and prayed for her well-being.

"I can't help you with this one, good luck."

Laughing to himself, Takei began to head home early in order to prepare for the goddess's ascension.

***

On the way home, Takei went to the grocery store and picked up a few items.

Since Akari was giving her best during that race, he wanted to do something nice for her.

Even though his cooking wasn't as good as Akari's cooking, Takei intended to show his appreciation one way or another.

Before leaving the school, he had texted Akari that he was going home early. To which she hesitantly agreed, since Akari wanted to go home together with him.

Swallowing up the increasing guilt within him, Takei told Akari that it was for something important and that he needed to do it right away.

It wasn't entirely a lie, since Takei did believe this task to be very important.

After seeing the determination in Takei's heart, Akari finally yielded and allowed him to do as he pleased.

Takei looked at the clock that was in the kitchen and estimated that Akari would be home sometime within the next hour.

She was busy attending to all of her fans and adorers, so he still had some time to cook something up.

Since there wasn't much time left, Takei decided to go for a classic rice and chicken dish with some fermented sides.

It wouldn't take him that long, since there was already rice cooking in the rice cooker and the chicken would only take a few minutes to cook at most.

For the fermented sides, he would use the leftovers from last night since Takei was short on time.

He grabbed his bluetooth speaker and played some calming lo-fi music on it, as he prepared all the ingredients to make the dish.

In order for him to become a chef mentally, Takei put on his trademark black apron.

Entering the zone, Takei was on autopilot as he grabbed whatever was necessary with efficient movement and fast reflexes like a pro.

Several dozen minutes after cutting, tasting, and seasoning; Takei had finished cooking their dinner.

Almost as if fate had willed it, the front door opened and small footsteps began to enter the household.

Yuuto was at work, while Flora was out with some of her girl friends to have a girl's night out. On the other hand, Airi was pulling an all-nighter at her friend's house as they played video games to try and beat a record.

My family really is never home nowadays, huh...

Finally realizing the obvious, Takei was surprised that it suddenly became that way.

Although the realization had hit him like a truck, he had no time to think about it due to the quickly approaching footsteps.

Using the process of elimination, it could only be one person.

Akari entered the room with an exhausted expression as she looked at Takei with a wry smile.

"Traitor."

"That's the first thing you say to me?!"

Akari believed that Takei left her in order not to deal with the crowd, which was partially correct.

Moving out of the way, Takei let the entire scene of the kitchen enter Akari's vision.

As evident by the slight gasp, Akari was shocked that Takei had cooked all of this food.

"So you left early..."

"...To make dinner for you. It's the least I can do for you taking care of me and you giving your best during the race."

Although Akari was still in her dirty gym uniform, she ran and jumped into Takei's embrace with happy tears in her eyes.

"Thank you... thank you so much..."

Nuzzling her head into his chest deeper by the second, Akari let Takei feel her unbridled gratitude.

Seeing the (not-so) rare DereDere side of Akari brought a big smile to Takei's face.

"I can always do this whenever you want though? Even though your cooking is better than mine, I gave it my best."

"That's fine! I love your cooking, please don't ever stop. If you keep thinking otherwise, I'll keep on reminding you that you're amazing."

Once Takei began to get self-deprecating about his cooking, Akari immediately rebuked him for it.

It seemed to have worked, since Takei began to get embarrassed about her praise.

He wanted to divert the situation, so Takei approached a different topic.

"Um, how about you go get cleaned up and then we can go eat dinner?"

It was this point that Akari realized that she had been hugging him with her dirty clothes that she had been wearing all day.

"I'm sorry!"

She immediately backed off and put some distance between them.

"I must've smelt really bad, I'm so sorry. I should've realized..."

Bowing incessantly, Akari looked extremely remorseful.

Takei was starting to get flustered as well, so his brain automatically began to enact some countermeasures.

"Actually, you didn't smell at all! You smelled really nice, almost like roses..."

Without even realizing what he said, Takei sputtered out an incredibly dreamy line.

Once Akari heard it, her already crimson red face began to increase a couple shades more.

Seconds later, Takei finally realized what he had just said.

"..."

Now, his brain was without a doubt entering meltdown mode.

To escape the situation, Akari grabbed the extra clothes that she had brought with her and declared that she would go take a shower real quick.

Takei creakily nodded with hollowed eyes as a response.

Before entering the bathroom, Akari turned around and faced Takei.

"Hey, Takei? I have one more thing to tell you."

He was surprised that she decided to tell him now out of all times, but Takei responded either way.

"Yes?"

A serene smile appeared on Akari's face as genuine praise escaped her mouth.

"That apron really suits you."

With that last line being said, Akari escaped to the bathroom with a triumphant grin on her face.

Needless to say, dinner was eaten with a slightly awkward atmosphere that night.

---

Akari's Final Affection Meter: 84 -> 90%

We're in the endgame now.

Serious-san: So this is the last chapter for the sports festival arc?

Sugar-san: Yep, next chapter begins the [REDACTED] arc which is the last arc of the volume.

Author-san: Hey, who censored the arc name???