“So the first thing is to befriend Fukuna once again?” Tahiko asked aloud as the pair headed to school.

“It’s to befriend her for the first time.” Amasa responded. “I already told you, you weren’t friends in the first place.

“Well, since you’re the expert, then I’ll follow your lead.” While Tahiko had made plenty of friends in his lifetime, those were all done under the camaraderie of teaming up to survive. A lot of it had situations where one was impressed by the skill of the other, or grateful that they were standing by each other’s side. So he felt that only someone like Amasa could show him the way here.

“Um, sure.” Unfortunately, she was not good with making friends either. On the bright side, just because she didn’t have any friends did not mean the girl had no idea on how it worked. She could at least observe other people in their surroundings.

Upon arriving in class, they were greeted yet again with the usual sight of Fukuna chatting with a bunch of people. She was quite a popular girl, so it was no surprise that some people wished to spend some time with her before classes were to begin.

“I suppose I should go talk to her now.” He said, beginning to make his approach. Amasa then stopped him, for this was apparently a big mistake.

“There’s too many people around, it’s pointless.” She told him.

“Ah, so I need to pick the right time.” He understood that. It was liking lying in wait for a wild beast to arrive in a position that was favorable for oneself. Tahiko had done that dozens of times where he had to wait multiple hours, if not days to be able to slay a powerful creature. “So then our first break period should be the time to pounce.” Learning of how things went around here, it seemed that girl was least busiest at that time. At least when she wasn’t going to his table.

So they waited until then for him to make his move. There was now only one more problem. “What is my next move?” The boy asked as he prepared himself to go to that girl’s desk.

“Just talk to her?” Amasa wasn’t sure if there needed to be anything else for her to tell him. “And be nice of course, but you already are so I wasn’t worried about that. Just be yourself.”

“Now that is something I can do.” He felt a surge of excitement as he walked on over to Fukuna’s desk. “Hello, I’m here to talk to you.”

“Ah, so now you’re coming here to talk to me.” As it turned out, Amasa had completely misjudged the girl’s feelings based on her actions. While admittedly she was less enamored with him after seeing him save another person’s life. That wasn’t the issue as to why she had been avoiding him, nor was the risk of demons going after her a thing on her mind. In fact, she hadn’t even considered that being a problem.

Instead, Fukuna had gotten upset with him on a completely much more mundane reason. She had gotten upset that he never came to her for completely casual and personal things. All this time leading up to this point had been her taking issue that he kept sticking around Chisa or wanting to hang out with Amasa who seemed to want nothing to do with him. Of course the only time he ever went to her was to ask for help in saving someone’s life. Not a bad thing, just that she wished it wasn’t the only time he came to her.

“From the tone of your voice, it seems I’ve upset you greatly.” He responded. “That I have to deeply apologize for, whatever it is I’ve done poorly.”

“It’s not like I need you to be sorry.” She spoke to him as the boy bowed his head. “All that really matters is you do something about it.” In her mind, she was thinking more of making it up to her by at least giving her some time alone with him. Some generally normal things that teens do with each other.

However, he took that to mean something different. Given the way Amasa told him that she’d publish him if he did something stupid, clearly that should also apply with Fukuna too.

“Then let me make it up to you.” He said, then proceeded to get down on all four limbs. At first, the people thought he was going to do one of those beg for forgiveness type known as Dogeza in Japan. Of course, he had no clue on what that was, so he did the other thing that was only on his mind. “Now, you may rest your feet onto my back.”

“What?” Fukuna was a bit in awe, and very embarrassed he would offer such a suggestion. “Why?”

“Is that not a way to punish me?” He asked, to which then Amasa stepped in to put a stop to this.

“Get back up.” She scolded him and dragged the boy out of the classroom. “What is that all about? You really are an idiot.”

“I’m sorry, but I assumed that she wished for me to receive punishment.”

“And what made you think that she’d want that specifically?” She shuttered to think of his reasoning. Something like that would be more akin to some real inappropriate role play in the bedroom.

“I’ve already mentioned how she reminds me of the princess.” And that princess of his would sometimes get mad at him for the smallest of reasons. Of course, he chalked it up to her being strict, but realistically she just wanted an excuse to make him do certain things. “So she would make me kneel before her to be used as a footrest. Oh, and sometime if I really messed up. She’d tell me to take off her slipper and l-”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” Now even Amasa was feeling red over the thought of the things he had to do. Whoever this princess was, she was a very sick girl. “Look, she’s not a princess. At most in this world, she’s upper class, but she’s definitely not royalty.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” He asked. Most of his dealings had been with those types of people. Either that, or with knights who were more concerned with killing and not being killed.

“It’s really not that hard.” Even someone like her knew some options they could go with. “Just stop making things awkward and simply ask her, ‘hey, do you want to hang out somewhere’. It’s that easy.”

“I suppose that is what she did to ask me to go to that mall.” He got an idea now.

“And please don’t forget to make it something you both like.” She told him before they reentered the classroom. “She’s just a high school girl, so try to leave out the knight side of you.”

“Will do.” Though he was not confident in coming up with something that would fit the both of them. Honestly, it was hard for the boy to consider something that was not a part of his knighthood. And of course, he didn’t know high school girls all that well either outside of Amasa. And judging by her actions, she was a bit on the atypical side of things.

“Back for round two I see.” Fukuna greeted him, now newly upset with him causing her such discomfort in front of the entire class. Now she was worried people were going to think she was into that kind of thing. “You better not mess it up this time.” At this point, this conversation was not going in any realistic manner. It was more that they were putting on an act just to get through the process correctly. Which for Tahiko, was important to learn as he continued to live here.

“Ahem.” He cleared his throat, preparing to try something new. “Fukuna, I’d like it if after classes were finished. That perhaps the two of us could go… Somewhere… Together?” He had not planned out at all where to go or what they were to do. How could he, when the boy had not knowledge of the public space of their town.

“Yes, I will!” She excitedly accept his offer. Fukuna didn’t care how his delivery went. All she wanted was for him to finally actually ask her out on a date. Even if that wasn’t at all what he had in mind.

“There’s that feeling again.” He muttered to himself. It was that killing intent once more. Was there another demon in their midst?

“Don’t worry about it.” She knew he was troubled due to his knight senses. However, it was simply all of the other boys being jealous of him. “I’ll see you after school then.” Fukuna spoke in a bubbly and bright tone as he returned to his desk.

“Well aren’t you smooth.” Amasa greeted him with a sarcastic response that he didn’t pick up on.

“Thank you.” He accepted the insult as if it were a compliment. “Now, all I have to do is figure something out to please the lady. Is there any cool sights a like your age likes?”

“I’m sure you’ll find out on your own.” She provided no help for him on this measure. At this point, it was up to him, seeing as it would be pointless to simply live to please Fukuna’s tastes.