Chapter 243 - 243: Date A Live!

Hayase Kinue's home.

"Um… are you really sure about this?"

"Kagami-kun?"

"It's totally fine, Moe-sensei."

"Please, step on me all you like!"

At that moment Tsushima Kagami was lying face-down on the sofa in Hayase Kinue's living room.

Tsukuyomi Komoe stared down at him with obvious hesitation as he gave her a cheerful thumbs-up.

"Then… I'm getting on, okay?"

"Come on!"

Komoe swallowed hard, then clenched both fists in front of her like she was psyching herself up.

Slowly, she climbed onto the sofa.

Her small foot, still wrapped in a white sock with a frilled cuff, inched down toward Kagami's back.

An instant before it touched him, something occurred to her.

She froze with her foot hovering in midair, her cheeks going pink.

"Um… that is…"

"Should I take the socks off?"

Kagami twisted his head around and grinned up at her.

"No need!"

"If anything, it's better this way!"

Komoe nodded, still looking worried.

Then the hovering foot came down onto his back after all.

The moment the weight pressed in, the muscles under it went loose and warm, and a soft groan slipped out of him.

"Hey, quit making weird noises!"

Douraku Utage, standing beside the sofa, sounded stern enough, but her voice carried a thread of embarrassment and a thread of anticipation.

Her face was red too as she steadied Komoe with one hand while scolding Kagami at the same time.

Kagami looked over at her and smiled.

"Sorry, Yan-sensei."

"It just feels so good, I couldn't stop myself—"

"Enough, don't say another word!"

Utage turned her red face away.

Kagami called back over his shoulder to Komoe.

"Moe-sensei, put both feet on."

"Then… I'm really stepping on you now, okay?"

With that, both of Komoe's white-socked feet came to rest on his back.

She stretched her arms out for balance.

Once she was steady on top of him, a delighted laugh bubbled out of her.

Then the worry came back into her face.

"Is it… is it too heavy?"

Kagami turned his head and gave her another thumbs-up.

"Not heavy at all."

"Please step on me all you like!"

Nearly toppling from his movement, Komoe flung her arms wide and complained.

"Stop moving, okay?"

"I'm going to start."

"Please do."

And so Komoe began marching in place on his back.

"Heave-ho, heave-ho."

"Is this hard enough?"

"A little harder, please?"

"Heave-ho, heave-ho."

"Like this?"

"Just like that."

"Okay, I'll keep going, then."

Through the white cotton socks, her feet gradually found a rhythm along his back.

She had started out terrified of falling; now she was settling in.

Before long she was showing off, hopping and bouncing across his back.

Watching from the side, Utage found herself itching to climb up and try it too.

"Yan-sensei, why don't you come up and try as well?"

Kagami spoke up again.

"Huh? Wouldn't two of us be too heavy?"

Utage hesitated.

"It's nothing. Both of you are the small, cute type of girl."

"Ten more of you wouldn't be heavy!"

Kagami said it with his eyes shut, savoring Komoe's back-stepping service.

"You, you, you…"

"How can you say something like that to your teachers?"

"Huh? Was I wrong?"

He opened his eyes and looked up in genuine puzzlement at Utage, who by now had faint steam practically rising off her head.

"It's… it's not exactly wrong…"

"Then please lend a hand too, Yan-sensei."

"Moe-sensei can't reach every area on her own, after all."

"Then… I'm coming up too?"

"I can hardly wait."

"You're not allowed to say I'm heavy."

"There's no way Yan-sensei could be heavy."

After a moment's hesitation, Utage nodded.

Then she climbed onto the sofa.

Komoe stopped and caught her hand.

"Careful now."

Utage nodded.

She was just lifting her foot the way Komoe had when Kagami spoke up again.

"Oh, right."

"Yan-sensei, could you take your socks off?"

"Didn't you just say you liked the socks on?"

Utage frowned down at him.

"Well, I just want to feel the difference between with socks and without."

"Please?"

"Fine, fine."

Utage thought it over, sighed, and said nothing more.

With a touch of shyness she peeled off her black over-the-knee socks.

She laid both socks over the back of the sofa, and only then, still hesitant, lowered one foot onto his back.

"Kimochi!"

"I told you to stop making those gross noises!"

"Sorry."

"It's just that Yan-sensei's feet feel really good."

"I told you to stop talking!"

"Then I'll shut up."

Once she was satisfied he really wasn't going to say anything else absurd, Utage steadied herself on Komoe's shoulder and planted both bare, smooth feet firmly on his back.

"Here, Yan, just copy me."

"I'll take the upper half, you take the lower."

Komoe showed off her balance, moving as easily as if she were on flat ground, and set her white-socked feet pressing down in a steady rhythm once more.

Utage followed her lead, arms around Komoe's waist, alternating her bare feet left and right in a slow, careful tread.

Once she'd found her footing too, Kagami started calling out a cadence.

"One, two, one! One, two, one!"

The two of them fell into step with his count.

Then he began speeding it up, slowing it down.

It was like a dance game—the two of them accelerating, decelerating, moving up, moving down, occasionally crossing paths.

All three of them were having the time of their lives, and the giggling of Komoe and Utage drifted through the room again and again.

"All right, you two be careful."

"Don't go and trample Kagami into an injury."

Hayase Kinue had come over with a plate of fruit.

She speared a slice of yellow peach with a toothpick and brought it to his lips.

"Thanks, Kinue-nee."

Kagami took the bite with a smile.

"Want more?"

Kinue smiled and offered him a strawberry.

He shook his head, grinning.

"I'm good. Not really a convenient position for eating."

Kinue laughed, knelt at the edge of the sofa, and popped the strawberry into her own mouth.

Then she simply looked at him.

"Ahem."

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

Still smiling, Kinue said, "Kagami-kun only got back from the shoot yesterday."

"And today you're not sleeping in at home."

"You're not out with Shizuku, either."

"Instead you came here."

"You didn't come just to chat with us, did you~"

His expression froze.

Then he laughed, helpless.

"Caught me."

"I've got a problem, and I don't know who to talk to about it."

"It's all right. We're adults—we'll take whatever Kagami-kun has to say."

"So go ahead and tell us."

A moment ago Kinue had been teasing him. Now, seeing that sudden look of helplessness and confusion on his face, something in her ached.

She leaned in and gathered his head against her chest.

Then she stroked his hair, gently.

"For something to push Kagami all the way to asking us for help…"

"It must be something truly painful."

By now Komoe and Utage had stopped moving their feet entirely.

They just sat down on his back, wanting to hear what was troubling him.

"That's right. Kagami is my student, after all."

"Understanding how you're living and helping you solve your worries is part of my duty as a teacher."

"I'll definitely counsel you properly!"

Komoe rested a hand on the back of his head as she spoke.

Utage, beside her, kept kneading his lower back with her hands while she added her piece.

"I may not be your homeroom teacher."

"But when it comes to listening to the troubles of adolescent boys, I have plenty of experience!"

"So go on, say it to all three of us!"

"Well, if you insist…"

All three of them turned their eyes on him at once.

Kagami drew a deep breath, as if arranging the words in his head.

"Yesterday, after the shoot wrapped, on my way back…"

"When school let out, Seika suddenly handed me a ticket to a concert."

"Mm. And then?"

Kinue, Komoe and Utage asked it together, curious.

"Then, at the Manga Research Club, Sayuri gave me a movie ticket."

"Mm. And then?"

"On the way home, I ran into Shizuka, and she gave me a ticket to the amusement park."

"Mm. And then?"

"And after I got home, in the evening, Shizuku said she wanted to go see a movie with me tomorrow."

He finished and lifted his head to look at Kinue, wearing the face of a man awaiting sentencing.

"So just go with them, what's the problem?" Utage said first, from her seat on his back.

"That's exactly the problem."

There was real pain in his voice.

"Four tickets, four invitations—all of them on the same day."

"The same day?"

Kinue seemed to grasp it then, and covered her mouth with one hand.

"Yes. Tomorrow."

Kagami's voice was thick with regret.

"I took them without checking the times. I figured they were all offered in good faith and I couldn't turn any of them down."

"Then I got home, looked at them, and every single one was for tomorrow!"

"So cancel three and go with one. Simple."

"You can make it up to the others another time."

Komoe thought it over and offered that.

"The problem is that I already said yes to all of them. Tomorrow is the day."

"Backing out now and going with only one person feels pretty awful, doesn't it?"

He glanced hesitantly at Kinue beside him, then back at Komoe and Utage behind him.

"So what you want is…"

A sly glint flickered through Kinue's eyes.

"To keep all four at once?"

Kagami was silent for several seconds. Then, slowly, he nodded.

Komoe and Utage both clapped their hands over their mouths in shock.

A smile crept up the corners of Kinue's lips.

"Kagami-kun, you really are a greedy one."

"I just want…"

"I want everyone to be happy."

"What's wrong with that…"

His voice lacked conviction.

"Oh?"

Kinue's smile deepened.

"Then tell me—what's the method for making everyone happy?"

"I…"

"That's exactly why I came to ask."

"Is there any way to date four people at the same time?"

Kinue didn't answer right away.

She picked up a freshly brewed cup of tea and studied him through the curling steam.

It was the look a teacher gives a student who has done something wrong.

"Kagami-kun."

"Do you understand what you're asking?"

"I do."

He lowered his head.

"You…"

"You really are an idiot."

Kinue sighed.

"Did you bring the tickets?"

"I did, I did."

He started to get up to pull them out.

Only then did he remember Komoe and Utage were still sitting on his back.

The two of them scrambled off him and settled at one end of the sofa.

Kagami fished four tickets out of his shirt.

All three women leaned in over them at once.

Yukinoshita Shizuku's movie was at ten in the morning.

Sayuri's movie was at ten fifteen.

Seika Ijichi's concert was at ten thirty.

Hiratsuka Shizuka's amusement park outing was at eleven.

"The timing really is tight, isn't it."

Komoe and Utage said it together, laughing.

"But they all seem to be in the same district."

"The concert hall, the cinema and the amusement park are all a short walk apart."

"You're right."

Komoe and Utage caught it too.

"Which means…"

All three turned to him and spoke as one.

Kagami realized it as well, and swallowed with some difficulty.

"Which means dating all of them at once is actually possible?"

"Despicable."

"To think Kagami-kun was this sort of person."

"I really misjudged you."

The words were condemnations, but all three wore the same teasing, glittering smiles.

"Is this… actually doable?"

There was hesitation in his voice.

He might have been asking them; he might have been asking himself.

"What if I get found out?"

"If you get found out…"

Kinue deliberately dragged the words out.

"Then you do a dogeza."

Komoe and Utage nodded along.

"If a dogeza were enough to fix it, this would be easy."

Kagami's face twitched.

"Or else…"

Kinue's tone turned more serious.

"You turn down the other three and go with just one."

"Pick the one you most want to be with, and give her a proper day."

Kagami fell silent.

How could he abandon the rest and keep only one?

And right then, an absurd thought surfaced.

Hadn't he decided that even in the face of their fury, he was going to be that scumbag?

That this harem was getting built no matter what?

If he couldn't even manage his schedule for a measly four people, what was he going to do later, with so many more?

What harem was he going to build then?

So… he would treat tomorrow's dates as a trial.

The trial of the scumbag!

His gaze hardened.

If he could pull it off and slip through, that proved he had the makings of a scumbag.

If he couldn't slip through… well, he'd figure something out afterward.

Truly—had heaven not given birth to me, Tsushima Kagami, the way of the scumbag would be one long night through all the ages!

Sever the old shackles of yesterday; only today do I know that I am me.

I am the Wannabe Scumbag. I am the Wannabe Scumbag.

Goo-goo ga-ga.

At that thought, something surged in him like a river breaking its banks.

He could practically feel every platelet in his blood cheering and dancing.

That round of self-hypnosis had worked on him like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart.

Like a Heart Mirror long clouded with dust, finally wiped clean.

Reflecting his true self.

My heart and my deeds are clear as a bright mirror; everything I do is justice!

He had accepted their invitations.

So he could not let them down.

He had only one goal.

To solve the equation called "how to make everyone happy."

Kagami's nerve was swelling, surging, exploding!

He drew a deep breath, turned to Hayase Kinue, Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage, and spoke with earnest eyes.

"I beg the three of you—help me!"

All three snorted with laughter.

"You really are hopeless."

Komoe wheeled over a small whiteboard.

It was the one Kinue normally used for notes.

In black marker it read: "Buy milk," "Return books to the Library," "Supermarket Saturday afternoon."

Kinue picked up the eraser and wiped the household errands away.

Then she took the black marker and drew a timeline across the board.

And the three of them proceeded to war-game every possible version of tomorrow right in front of him.

Watching the schedule and action plan fill the whiteboard denser and denser, Kagami's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

The equation called "how to make everyone happy" was about to be solved!

He spent the whole morning being lectured by the three of them, running through rehearsal after rehearsal.

In the end he left Hayase Kinue's home with a great deal learned and his confidence brimming over.

Afterward, Kinue, Komoe and Utage sat together.

They were still looking at the whiteboard, at the plan they'd drafted for him: [Operation Simultaneous Multi-Date!]

Komoe murmured, "Say… does this count as corrupting Kagami-kun?"

"Well… he did ask us over and over."

"And we're on break right now, so we're really just neighbors."

"It doesn't count as a teacher-student relationship, does it?"

Utage said it with a guilty edge to her voice.

Kinue picked up her tea, gone cold by now, took a sip, and turned the question back on the two of them.

"Would you rather Kagami-kun be more devoted to one person?"

"Or a little more unfaithful?"

Both of their faces stiffened.

"Um… that is…"

"What does devoted mean, exactly?"

Komoe asked it suddenly.

But her expression said she'd understood perfectly well all along.

She simply hoped to hear an answer from someone else's mouth that differed from her own.

"Devoted means devoted to one girl and one girl only," Kinue said, smiling.

"And refusing every kind of social contact with any other girl from that day forward."

"Which means… Kagami-kun could never play with us like this again?"

For reasons she couldn't name, tears began to gather at the corners of Komoe's eyes.

She glanced at Utage, whose face had turned just as sad, then at Kinue, who had asked the question in the first place.

"So… so that's how it is…"

Komoe lowered her head.

Utage spoke up beside her.

"And so what if Kagami-kun is unfaithful?"

"Could the three of us really compete with all those girls around him, bursting with youth?"

Kinue laughed at that.

"I never imagined I could have a boy as splendid as Kagami all to myself."

"As long as… as long as I can stand at his side, that's enough for me."

Komoe and Utage nodded slowly, thoughtfully.

____

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