Hello, everyone!

I'm back and I bring you another one of my one-shots (well, it was supposed to be a one-shot, but I kinda decided to split it into two chapters), this time dedicated to Jun Nagase. I know she isn't the most popular character in th TWGOK fandom, but I hope you'll enjoy this fic nonetheless.

Before you dive in, there's a few things to mention.

First, this is a standalone story, unrelated to my The World Not Only God Knows series.

Second, I didn't forget about the The World Kanon Only Knows. It'll be obviously delayed a bit because of this, but I'll get to writing it soon.

Third, as usual I tried to stay true to the manga, which made designing this fic a bit difficult. That's one of the reasons why it's so long, but I guess it'd be better to talk about this after you're done with the first chapter.

Lastly, I dedicate this two-shot to my brother, who's one of the favorite KamiNomi character is Jun. :)

Enjoy!

(* * *)

The god of conquests leaned back in his throne and stretched his arms before surveying his small kingdom, otherwise known as his room.

Some parts of his domain remained unchanged. His gaming chair no. 3 was still there, even if it was already past its prime and so were six wide-screen monitors and row of consoles, supplemented by an emergency power generator. Unchanged was his single cabinet, full of latest games or games too important to keep them in the other room that served as his primary game storage. In place were the few posters, a desk and a bed, while the dark curtains prevented the weak March sunlight from interfering with his conquests.

Thus, on first glance the life of Keima Katsuragi didn't change at all and was the same as 2 years ago, when he had first met Elucia de Lute Irma, an adorable though ditzy and clumsy devil from hell, posing as his half-sister and a high schooler. None of that held true right now however – Eri Katsuragi was now not a devil, but a full-fledged human and his genuine sister.

And she wasn't a high schooler anymore. Neither of them was, as both of them had graduated from high school very recently. Eri was very proud of the fact, apparently forgetting that she was only able to do this with Keima's help.

However, Eri wasn't the only one who had changed.

Keima turned off his games, got up and walked to his window, before pulling the curtains aside and opening the window wide, bathing his room with light and letting the fresh air in. Only when one knew Keima's previous habits and could look closer with proper lighting, one could notice subtle changes in his life.

Unlike 2 years ago, when Keima would game all day long, keeping his domain hidden in darkness illuminated only by his monitors and even attracting crows to his room, this time his room was well-lit most of the time. Keima was quite an organized person, so nothing in his room was ever out of place, but his attitude towards the real kept him from keeping anything aside from his gaming equipment and games clean. It was different now, as Keima's room was quite clean and there were even some flowers on the desk and windowsill.

His clothes closet was replaced with a bigger one as he had more clothes now (it was mostly others who chose them for him though) and his desk was littered with stuff. It was related to games, but more to designing games than playing them. Moreover, there was a set of framed pictures. One showed Keima and Eri, while another portrayed them with their parents. Third pictures had Keima and several teenage girls during a shrine visit or some festival – all of them wearing yukatas. The fourth picture showed Keima with one of the girls from the previous photo – the one with shorter brown hair – in winter clothes. Finally, the fifth and latest picture showed the recent high school graduation ceremony.

Keima grabbed the only thing on the desk that was directly related to playing games – his trusty PFP – and walked outside of his room, not bothering to close it. He walked by Eri's room, its door ajar just like his. Her room was much more messy than his though with various stuff, including music books, lying all over the place and with walls covered with many posters, some of them overlapping themselves. Eri herself was not there however. Probably out with some of her friends or enjoying some rāmen in Narusawa.

Keima walked downstairs, but the place was empty. Dad was obviously out of town, though this time fortunately not out of the country, but where was mom? The riddle solved itself when Keima walked to the living room and saw a sheet of paper. It was another "Eri and Mari are out shopping" message completed with cartoon drawings. He could swear he could hear people in the house 10 minutes ago, so they had left very recently. That meant there won't be anyone here for an hour or two. Keima sighed, before he sat by the table and started playing.

Now that his life was no longer spent being forced to court real girl, searching for goddesses and saving the worlds Keima had enough time to catch up on his gaming and rarely had the need to go on a gaming binge that required multiple monitors. Thus, he spent a lot of time gaming in other places, like parks, the living room like here, or even Eri's room. Actually, he was spending quite a lot of time in his little sister's room. He had thought that Eri would like to spend more time with other people in her new family, especially with Keiichi, as she had only met him recently. However, Eri seemed to spend a lot of time with Keima instead. Maybe he underestimated the affection Eri had for him. It was certainly more than he deserved...

The funny thing was, while Keima still preferred to game alone most of the time, he actually liked if they were people somewhere nearby. Of course not any ordinary real people... but his family or... friends. This was proof of how much he had changed. He sighed again, thinking what his life had taken him for the last 2 years...

And then he heard the doorbell ring.

Keima raised his head. It wasn't the café bell, but the one from the regular entrance, so it wasn't a customer.

Who could it be? Chances were it was some annoying salesman. Then again it could be Tenri. Or Shiori. Hell, it could be half of 2-B pencils members for all he knew – they had been here at least twice since the graduation. Keima sighed once again, before he stood up. Whoever it was, it was his responsibility to answer the door.

He walked to the door, but not before the bell rang for the second time.

"Yes, how can I help-" Keima started, but trailed off when he saw who was the visitor. It wasn't any salesman or 2-B pencils or any of the goddess hosts. It wasn't even Chihiro.

It was Jun.

Jun Nagase, the beginner teacher at Maijima Private High School.

What was she doing here?

"Katsuragi-kun?" Nagase asked, almost as if Keima was the last person she expected to meet here.

"Nagase... sensei?" Keima played along, mostly because of his own surprise.

The continued to look at each other for a moment.

"Umm... may I come in?" Nagase asked.

"Please," Keima let her in.

"Pardon me for intruding," the young woman uttered nervously as she took her shoes off. She was around 24 years old, but she could easily pass as Keima's peer, especially since she was acting like a flustered teenage girl at the moment.

"Um, where is everybody else?" Nagase asked as they entered the living room.

"My mother and sister are out shopping and father is out of town working," Keima explained, "so if you have business with any of them..."

"Well, it would be better if your mother was here" Nagase started, "but my business is with you, Katsuragi-kun,"

"I see," Keima stopped another sigh, "please take a seat then," Keima pointed to one of the small sofas by the table. He had a rough idea what Nagase wanted, especially after this comment about his mother. "Do you want something to drink?" he asked. "We server good coffee."

"Yes, please," Nagase responded politely as she sat down.

"I'll be right back," Keima said and walked to the café section of the house, not seeing that Nagase followed him with her eyes and smiled fondly.

Taking proper care of guests, she thought, Katsuragi-kun sure had changed a lot.

She pulled out a set of documents and some papers from the briefcase she had brought with her and browsed through them. Then she tried waiting for a minute, but patience wasn't really a strong suit of her. She preferred to act as soon as possible and when she was unable to do so, she became nervous. Well, Katsuragi had always been one of the few students who could make her nervous, so it was nothing new. She started to look around, as she had never been here before. She knew that Katsuragi had been living here for over ten years now and it seemed a rather normal house – certainly not something that would explain the gaming frenzy the boy exhibited. Or used to exhibit.

"Here you are," Keima appeared next to her suddenly, startling her and putting two cups of coffee on the table. Either she was lost in her thoughts a little too long or he had made this coffee really fast. Perhaps it was some quick and cheap sort of coffee?

"So," Keima started as soon as he sat down, "what brings you here, sensei?"

Nagase straighten herself and coughed.

"Yes, my purpose today is mostly career counseling."

Keima didn't reply immediately. It was obvious Nagase wasn't here for the coffee and cookies or to catch up, but he wasn't expecting that. Moreover, Nagase wasn't wearing her regular teacher clothes or any formal jacket. She was wearing a slightly plain brown sweater that somehow suited her character well and complimented the color of her hair and eyes as well as long black skirt.

However, it wasn't time to admire clothes.

"Career counseling?" he repeated. "What kind of a ridiculous idea is this?"

"Isn't that a bit rude?" Jun furrowed her brow, "it's common for teachers to give career counseling to their students. It's common sense, right?"

"No it's not. I'm not a high school student anymore," Keima didn't even bat an eyelash, "and you're not my teacher anymore... and it's not like you've ever been my homeroom teacher, right?"

Jun bit her lip at that. Katsuragi-kun was right. A good part of her last year as a university student had been spent thinking about going back to Maijima high Private School as a full-fledged teacher and being there for the students. And somehow most of her expectations had been connected to Katsuragi-kun. She had promised to go back and make him stop playing games She would be lying if she said she didn't hope to become his homeroom teacher when she had applied to Mai-High after graduating.

Alas, despite her sincerest efforts and the intercession by Nikaidō-senpai, it hadn't come out to be. The principal deemed Jun too hot-headed to put her in charge of the first years and too inexperienced to take care of the third years and properly prepare them for the exams. Thus, Jun had ended up teaching second years, while Katsuragi-kun had become a third year.

Jun disliked that outcome and, for some reason, Nikaidō-senpai didn't like it either, saying something about quitting her job. It was weird. Why would you quit a job when you're 25? And if Nikaidō-senpai wanted to quit so badly, why didn't she quit in the end?

And most important of all, why was the relationship between Nikaidō-senpai and Katsuragi-kun so... weird? The last time Jun had seen those two interact it was Nikaidō-senpai harassing Katsuragi-kun to the point of kicking him during PE! And Katsuragi-kun certainly hadn't been fond of senpai back then. However, that last year, it had been obviously different. I mean, the hostility between senpai and Katsuragi-kun lessened considerably. But that hadn't been all. Jun hadn't been able to pin-point it, but somehow she had realized that whatever hostility had remained wasn't really there. It hadn't been just for show, letting her conclude that Nikaidō-senpai and Katsuragi-kun were on rather good terms right now.

Somehow that particular thought irked Jun, but she couldn't understand why. Teaching was basically an occupation to make friends with students, so wasn't this great? Moreover, Katsuragi-kun had seemed to change a lot. Of course, he still played his games, but less so and he got along better, once again not with everyone, but it was still a giant progress. When one looked into the boy's eyes one could sometimes see the distant stare, some touch of melancholy or some sparks of joy over some game... but now one could also see awareness and concern for his friends. And more often than before, his gaze was focused and aiming at the real world here and now, instead of his games.

Was all this Nikaidō-senpai's doing? Jun had asked her senior that before, but hadn't been able to get a clear answer. Moreover, Nikaidō-senpai seemed just a little bit... flustered? Anyway, was this why Jun felt envious?

Oh, Jun knew that what she felt was envy, but she wasn't clear about the reason for it. She reckoned that it was because Nikaidō-senpai had managed to reach out to Katsuragi-kun before Jun herself could. Stealing her achievement if you will. Or maybe she was jealous because Nikaidō-senpai seemed to be able to get along with Katsuragi-kun well and Jun didn't.

Yes, this was an issue for the younger teacher. As a teacher she was supposed to be friends with Katsuragi-kun, yet she had failed at that. Maybe it was because she had been bothering him too often. She couldn't be his homeroom teacher and had next to no classes with him, but that didn't mean she couldn't talk to him. And thus it started...

This personal war of theirs.

Again and again Jun would appear in front of Katusragi and try to reason with him. It wasn't the worst strategy out there – Katsuragi-kun was a logical person after all – but the results were meager. And every little bit of progress cost her dearly. Katsuragi-kun was a really calm person and Jun was an optimistic full to the brim with positive energy, but during an actual confrontation it turned out they could wear each other down. Thus, those clashes of theirs always turned into a big fights. Of course they didn't try to punch, strangle or claw at each other, though Jun sometimes had to suppress a weird desire to put Katsuragi-kun into a choking hold. Even weirder and stronger was her desire to tackle him to the ground.

Anyway, they never really hurt each other physically, didn't call each other names and didn't use foul language. They did, however, insult each other views once or twice and particularly long arguments could be loud.

However, the bottom line was that while she had done her best and Katsuragi-kun had changed the net result was that she had failed to keep her second promise.

The promise to make him stop playing games.

But she hadn't been beaten yet! She could still fight and win and she'll do it, just like Jumbo Tsuruma had taught her!

What had Katsuragi-kun said just now? That he wasn't in high school and she wasn't his teacher anymore? Let's see...

"Didn't you just call me 'sensei' a moment ago, though?" she crossed her arms over her chest and Keima made a weird noise. Was it a hiss or a gasp? And why would he make it?

"So what? It's common courtesy to use such titles," he responded, his composure wavered just a tiny bit for some reason, "besides I already received career counseling."

"Not from me," Jun retorted.

"Like I said, you're not my teacher," Keima crossed his arms over his chest as well, "why do I have to put up with something as bothersome as career counseling for the second time?"

They eyed each other, neither made any reckless moves, but neither backed back. Jun was nervous. She was well-aware that she was a guest here and kind of intruding. If she pushed too hard now, Katsuragi-kun would simply tell her to leave and she wouldn't be able to argue with that. Now, even a normal person could tell this wasn't a talk between a teacher and a student. It was a combat between enemies. Well, sort of enemies. Both of them could tell they had some respect for the other party, probably tied to the fact that they could match each other in an argument.

And this was why Jun believed she still had a shot at this.

"Let's not be hasty here," she started with a friendly smile, "what I want to do is for your benefit, Katsuragi-kun. Can you at least listen to what I have to say?"

Keima was thinking. The good news was mother wasn't home. If she was it would be much worse. The bad news was that this development definitely seemed like trouble. And while career counseling couldn't be too bad, he was sure Nagase would try to start another battle of her "stop playing games" campaign at the first opportunity.

The old Keima would simply tell her to get out. So much for that...

"Fine," he said, reaching for his cup of coffee, "speak your piece."

Jun smiled brightly and relaxed. While Keima didn't exactly like her boundless optimism, thinking it was way over the top, he did prefer to see Jun like that – smiling and with purpose, instead of being anxious, scared or uncertain. Making girls capable of experiencing happiness was the point of exorcising loose spirits, wasn't it? But Jun wasn't in possession of such a spirit anymore... yet her switch to a happy mood affected him more than he had expected.

Why?

Jun's voice interrupted him before he could further ponder about it.

"The main reason I'm here, Katsuragi-kun," the brown-haired woman started, "is because I learned you don't plan to enter any university," she looked him in the eye. "Is that correct?"

"Yes," Keima replied.

"Could you tell me why have you decided on that?" Jun asked. She took care not to insinuate anything. She didn't want to suggest he was a NEET or lazy.

"It's not uncommon thing to do," Keima replied indirectly, "a lot of graduates don't enter any university."

"That's true," Jun seemingly agreed, "some of them are not suitable for university. Some want to enter, but simply fail. And some merely don't believe in their current skill and wait for the next opportunity in the upcoming years. They're the so-called ronins."

Jun paused for a moment, but continued when Keima didn't offer any comment.

"However, you aren't any of those, Katsuragi-kun," she said, putting in front of him a copy of a document Keima had already seen, "provided you actually try, you posses the best academic ability in virtually any subject you choose. I believe you're the best student our school had in a long time. Possible best student ever."

"Wrong," Keima held up the copy of his results, "I bet there were students better than me."

He had expected confusion or an argument. He hadn't expected for Jun to chuckle.

"What is so funny?" he asked.

"Katsuragi-kun," Jun started and Keima furrowed his brow. The way she had said his name just now... it sounded almost affectionate, "you don't think I'm that stupid, do you?"

"I don't follow," he said, his perfect poker face in place.

"I'm not talking about this sloppy marks," Jun pointed to his final high school test results, "no, I'm talking about when you really try... you see, I've seen your previous tests and I know you a bit already. I know what you're capable of Katsuragi-kun," she finished, seemingly happy with herself.

"You think I could do better than this?" Keima asked, but he already knew what Nagase's answer would be like.

"I think you're a genius," she said. "Whether it's a natural talent or a self-taught skill, you could've obtained perfect score in all theoretical and practical tests if you tried... and it would come to you easier than passing the tests at all for average students... no, Katsuragi-kun. You might be many things, but you're not stupid and you're not lazy."

Keima grit his teeth a little. This was worse than he had thought. He had always tried for perfect scores in regular tests because that allowed him to game at school. However, the final tests weren't important, so he took those exams half-assedly, just doing well enough to not worry mom. Yet, Nagase saw through this.

"I don't need better marks," he responded, "and what's your point anyway? That I could enter any university I want? I know that. But I don't want or need to go to university."

"Then what do you plan to do in life?" Jun asked. "Somehow, I don't see you working in a bakery. Two years ago I'd say you'd be fine living with your parents or being a NEET, but I doubt it now... so what do you want to do?"

"Game design and testing," Keima replied immediately. He had expected Nagase to be surprised, but her reaction surprised him instead.

"But that requires studying at a technical university!" the teacher objected, obviously prepared for his decision.

"No, it doesn't," Keima replied.

"Yes, it does!" Nagase repeated.

"Listen," he leaned over the table, "I know what you want to say. And if I were any other person, you'd be right. But I'm me. You've no idea what I know about games."

"Impress me," Jun challenged. Neither noticed what her line was implying, nor that she leaned closer as well.

"I've played over ten thousand dating simulation games and plenty of others," Keima said quickly, fearing Nagase would interrupt him, "you might not know this, but I run a website about games with great success. On the Internet I'm called the "god of conquest". There's no second person like me on the planet when it comes to dating sims. I'm contacted by companies when they want advice on making games. I could be assistant for any game-related business, being it a game company, a game shop or an amusement park."

"Then why not prove it by going to university?" Jun asked.

"Because I don't need that. University is just a big waste of money and time," Keima said. He was surprised yet again. He had expected Nagase to not believe him. To argue with him. At the very least he had expected her to be insulted, because she was university graduate herself. Yet it didn't seem like it was the case. "Look, there's this gaming company in Narusawa City. All I need is to go to them, prove to them that I'm the "god of conquest" and the job I love is as good as mine."

"I didn't know about your... qualifications," Nagase said, "and I didn't know you've already had your eye on a company."

"You didn't seem too happy about this," Keima noticed, "why is that? Is it because you realize I don't need career counseling from you?"

He had to admit. Back during her conquest, Nagase had been really fragile overall and her confidence could be shattered easily, even if she could restore it later. Right now, however, she displayed a considerable poker face as well, not reacting too much, even though it was clear to Keima that his words hit the mark.

"Or," he continued, not sure why, perhaps it was the need to get to the bottom of this, that obvious issue that was between them, "are you disappointed that I chose a career that is related to games?"

Jun could feel her stomach churn. She was used to people shooting her ideas down, but with Katsuragi-kun it was different. She had never met anyone quite like him. It was as if he was a being from another dimension. In that case it was only natural he was occupying her mind a lot, right? Aaah! What was she thinking about?

"That may be," she replied, "but my point is that your potential is much more than that! Think about it Katsuragi-kun! Think how much you could help if you-"

"So you're saying I should become a doctor and save lives instead?" he questioned.

"Yes, for example," Jun admitted, happy she got her point across.

"Do you even know why I play games so much?" he asked and continued before Jun could reply. "It's because I consider it my duty to save the lives of game heroines-"

"Who aren't even real!" Jun shot back. "What good comes from that? Aside from your own enjoyment?"

It was Keima's turn to feel anxious, his eyes narrowing. Two years ago he'd just laugh in Nagase's face, but nowadays he wasn't so sure. He had come to realize that her point was partially correct – real might be a crappy game, but there was no escape from it. It had also proved it could provide very satisfying playthroughs. The thing was that one had to face the real directly instead of trying to win it easily.

And Keima had decided to give it a try, essentially putting a powerful weapon into Nagase's hands.

"So should all gamers and game developers do something else or simply disappear from the face of the Earth, is that what you're implying?"

"No," Jun replied, somewhat surprising him, "it's just... I don't know why you don't realize there's so much more things people can be doing!"

"I love games," Keima stated simply, "you might hate them, but I thought you of all people would understand my passion. How would you react if any school refused to hire you unless you stop watching wrestling first?"

From outside it was a really relevant question. Keima didn't raise his voice either. But inside he was troubled. Why did he say that? He wasn't trying to hurt her, after all. He just wanted for her to understand. Furthermore, why was it so important for Nagase to understand? It was his world, not hers. Their worlds were very different...

Then again, maybe they weren't...

Back then during her conquest Nagase had tried to change him. She had sought events with him, while Keima had tried to change the route to anything but the teacher route. It had been those conflicting agendas that had blinded them both from seeing the truth. However, now Keima didn't have her to worry about making Nagase angry or trying to make her fall in love with him. Maybe that was why he did notice that the two of them were actually similar. They were both hot-headed, at least when their favorite topic of games or wrestling were discussed.

They were both passionate.

Idealistic.

Stubborn...

He was brought back from his musings by Jun's soft whisper.

"I see..."

Keima blinked.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"I just imagined if I could work as wrestling commentator or something... and then I imagined people trying to talk me out of doing it," Jun explained slowly, her head downcast, "I guess I see your point..."

"Did... did you just... concede?" Keima asked. He didn't receive a hit on his head with a hammer, so why did it feel as if he did?

"I guess I just did," Jun admitted, her expression becoming more gloom by the second.

What else could she say in this situation? She had no more arguments. Did she even want to have them?

Keima was quiet for a few seconds, a strange idea sprouting in his mind.

"Am I not a problem child?" he asked and Nagase chuckled softly.

"Of course you are..."

"Then why are you going easy on me?"

Jun raised her head, eyes widened a bit.

"Well," she spoke slowly, "I guess I don't have anything I could convince you with and-"

"I'm not talking about today," Keima said, "I mean not only about today. You have been going easy on me for some time now."

"What do you-"

"If I'm a problem child then you should be more strict with me than with anyone else... but you aren't," Keima explained, "take Ayumi for example. Her final exams."

"Takahara-san's?" Jun barely followed. "What that got-"

"Ayumi might have academic potential, but she had forgone it long ago. She would rather focus on running and work only on her essential subjects," Keima pushed up his glasses, "yet, somehow she got grades as good as Miyako."

Jun shook her head. What they were even talking about?

"A final score is not that accurate to-"

"I'm not talking about the final score," Keima interrupted her, forcing Jun to lean back a bit, "I'm talking about her exact points on her exams."

"You don't know those! We don't show students their exact-" Jun objected, but stopped for a bit. Her memory wasn't that good, but she vaguely remembered the scores of those two girls and it was just like Katsuragi-kun said. No, before that...

"H-how do you even know about this?" she asked in shock.

"I have my methods," Keima avoided the answer, before continuing, "but that's not important. The thing is: you were able to force Ayumi to study hard. And I know how much effort you put in to convince her. I was there to see it, after all. You can be very persistent and convincing when you need to, so why," he looked her right in the eye. "Why did you not do the same with me? Did you conviction waver? No, I don't think so. You're just going soft on me. Why?"

To that Jun had no answer. Obviously she wasn't going soft on him... was she? Then again, maybe that was the reason she was here. She had gone soft on him, so she felt the need to go on the offensive, even if Keima was not in high school anymore.

She went on the offensive, hoping to do... what? Now that she looked at it, Katsuragi-kun was right. This entire 'career counseling' business was a lost battle before it started and deep inside Jun already knew that... so why was her purpose here?

She tried to think about it, but her mind went blank. Thus, in the following emptiness she relied on her gut instinct instead.

"I... just wanted to help Katsuragi-kun, I guess," she said before she even noticed her mouth running.

"I don't need help!" Keima exclaimed. It felt as if they were running in circles.

"You do," Jun said softly, catching his attention.

"I've already told you-"

"It's not about your career," she interrupted him this time, making him raise his eyebrow, "it's not about games either... I guess, I want to make Katsuragi-kun... happy."

Once again, the full meaning of those words was lost on both of them, but Keima did object.

"I'm happy," he insisted.

"No, you're not," Jun denied his words automatically. It was as if there was a whole new part of her that was suddenly brought to the surface and looked at the situation from some distance. "I can somehow see it. Katsuragi-kun is not troubling others anymore... Katsuragi-kun is the one troubled instead... troubled by others..."

Even if all that was Nagase's bluff, then she had to notice his reaction – the shock and panic written all over his face.

Jun was shocked herself. She could see and feel that Katsuragi-kun was gloomy, but how come she hadn't noticed that before? What kind of shitty teacher was she? And she had thought he was actually doing pretty good back when...

She blinked as she remembered something.

"What about Kosaka-san?" she asked and there was not mistaking it – Keima inhaled sharply and a dark shadow came over his face. "Um, Katsuragi-kun?"

But Keima wasn't listening. It was his turn to remember something. He remembered the last year and half.

He had gone out with Chihiro. The start hadn't been stellar, but Keima had been determined, to make the normal girl happy and had been certain he was capable of doing so. Of course, things had been rough. Real-life dating was very different compared to games and his relationship with Chihiro had already been damaged from the start. Yet, Keima still tried. His happiness hadn't been a real concern for him. His priority had been Chihiro's happiness. He had owed her that. She had deserved this happiness. Thus, he had done his best and he had even managed to make Chihiro shine more than ever before.

And that was his undoing.

The guy was above average and rather handsome, but still he had been relatively normal. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of his was that he had been a vivid fan of 2-B pencils. Quite soon it was obvious he had fallen in love with Chihiro.

Keima at first had been suspicious and dare he say jealous, yet several weeks later the reality of the situation had dawned on him. Chihiro wouldn't cheat on him or break up with him, but it had been obvious the guy had caught her interest as well. It hadn't been a match made in heaven, but it was good.

That had been when Keima had decided. It hadn't been about his happiness. It had been about Chihiro's. So he had taken a gamble. It had been risky. It could destroy his feeble friendship with Chihiro – he didn't want for them to stop talking to each other, after all. But he was Keima Katsuragi. And he owed Chihiro Kosaka his best effort. So he had done his very best.

And he had succeeded.

Chihiro was now happy with that guy. Happier that Keima could make her. And they were still friends. It had been his greatest success.

Except he was now alone. It had hurt. It had hurt a lot – Keima had loved Chihiro after all – but he had convinced himself that he didn't deserve Chihiro. He had done too much, even if most of that had been done with good intentions. He hadn't have time to wail though. He still had other priorities.

Tenri.

The idea was simple. He had wanted to make his childhood friend happy, if she would still have him. Once again it had been a perfect idea.

But it was too late...

Tenri had already found someone and she had been planning to go study in another prefecture soon.

This time it hadn't hurt as much. But it still had hurt.

With his next priority – Ayumi – it had hurt worse. Nearly the same scenario as with Tenri had happened, to such an extent that Keima had been sure the real world was mocking him.

Of course, the next priority would be the other girls he had wronged, but all the routes were blocked. He couldn't possibly go out with Kanon now that her career had spiked again. Yui was already out of the country, seeking freedom from her mother in the United States. And as for Tsukiyo and Shiori... he just couldn't... Those two just had gotten out of their respective shells and the last thing Keima wanted to do was to destroy their friendships by going out with one of them.

It's not like he had failed. The girls had moved on and were happy. So why did it feel as if he had failed?

It's not like he was alone now. He still met with those girls from time to time and he was the "god of conquest" – it wasn't as if he had been looking-it wasn't as if he needed a girlfriend...

So why did it feel as if-

"Katsuragi-kun?"

He blinked, focusing back on when and where he was. However, it wasn't Nagase's voice alone that brought him back – it were her hands that she placed on his cheeks, an obviously worried expression on her face.

"Are you alright?" the young teacher asked.

Keima's face which was pale just now suddenly turned red and Jun could practically feel his skin heating.

"Do you have a fever?" she asked, one hand moving to feel his forehead, brushing his hair away in the process.

"I'm fine!" Keima half-shouted moving back in panic. Jun blinked twice, before she retreated her hand, the exact same thought running through their minds.

What was that just now?

Jun shook her head. It wasn't the time to think about that! She had to help Katsuragi-kun!

Especially, because Katsuragi-kun was definitely not fine. Just a moment ago he was looking really bad. His eyes were empty and it wasn't like back when she had first seen them – it wasn't as if Keima was looking at her from another world. It was more like if he wasn't there at all... His face had been kinda pale and there was this dreadful, yet sad aura around him.

In short, he was looking kinda... dead.

There was certainly something wrong with him... and she was hell-bent on finding out what it was.

"No, you're not fine!" Jun objected, a fire of determination appearing in her eyes. "What is it, Katsuragi-kun?"

"It's nothing," Keima said, but knew it was a futile effort. As much as he wanted to deny it, he wasn't as good at hiding things as he once had been. And Jun was one of the people that knew his ways, so she could read him fairly well.

"Don't play games with me! It's clear that something is bothering you!" she insisted in a very non-teacher manner.

Keima bit his lip. He could see that Nagase was serious about this – the fact that she was using arguments beside her teacher authority was a proof of this.

He should just tell her to leave. It was his house after all. He was just opening his mouth, but Nagase beat him to it.

"Is it a matter of the heart?" she asked, using the previous topic as her cue.

"W-what?" Keima was taken aback.

"Is it a girl problem?" Jun rephrased, apparently thinking Keima hadn't heard her correctly.

"O-of course, not!" Keima denied. "What would you make think that!?"

"Between your reaction to me mentioning Kosaka and your stuttering just now?" Jun asked rhetorically.

The main reason she had asked about Kosaka had been because she had vaguely remembered Chihiro and Katsuragi being close at some point. Like boyfriend and girlfriend close. Jun didn't know why that thought bothered her.

"It's none of your business!" Keima half-shouted. He didn't care that he was rude. He hoped that Nagase will be distracted by his language and tone. No such luck.

"On the contrary! You of all people should know I care for everyone, so it's obviously my business!" Jun retorted.

"And did it ever occur to you this is why people ignore you and talk behind you back!?" Keima barked back. He was essentially being an extreme asshole here – he was the one who had told Jun to stay true to her ideals, after all.

So he was kind reaping what he sow right now...

Then again... why was he resisting? Shouldn't he just let her try to help and let her see for herself? And what if she could actually help him?

No, she couldn't help him and letting her try was just a waste of both his and her time.

Yeah, that was definitely why he was resisting.

"I don't believe you, Katsuragi-kun!" Jun shook her head. "You of all people should know that won't work on me. This isn't like you at all!"

Keima blinked. Nagase wasn't furious or angry with him. The only reason she was irritated was because she knew he could do better than that.

That made him wonder... how does one actually make Nagase angry? Keima had a lot of experience angering girls. Ayumi, Kusunoki, Haqua, Chihiro, Tsukiyo and Diana among others. The problem was he very rarely wanted to make girls angry. Of course, in dating sims one could use 'hate' to generate 'love' and Keima seemed to make girls angry often, but that was mostly when he wasn't meaning to.

And with Jun in particular... he had wanted to make her angry during her conquest and had failed miserably... Well, right now he kinda did make her angry, but this was only adding fuel to her flames of passion.

"You're annoying," he tried, but Jun only crossed her arms over her chest and put one leg over another, clearly indicating this level of argument didn't even require her response.

"Okay, let's say it is a girl problem," he admitted.

Jun blinked.

"Did you just... concede?" she asked, clearly surprised by the reversal of roles, "...Katsuragi-kun?" she added after a moment.

"It's not like you can help me with that stuff anyway," Keima continued, completely ignoring her question.

"And why is that?"

"You've never had a boyfriend before, have you?"

Jun gulped at that. Katsuragi was right. She had been single all of her life. It wasn't as if she was ugly... No, she had gotten enough stares to know that, but her personality was kinda off-putting. Katsuragi, on the other hand, had at least two girlfriends: Kosaka and the purple-haired one Jun had seen before.

This was the point where she should just step back, but she didn't. Apparently, she wasn't being driven by her regular optimism or stubbornness right now.

"You don't know that!" she stood up, challenging him.

Keima paused for a second. He was actually guessing, so it was possible Jun had a boyfriend before. But not matter.

"I've got more than one girlfriend before," he changed his strategy, "I have muuuch more experience with romance than you do!"

"I've noticed," Jun said back, smiling, although that had more bite than she intended, "you can get a girl, but you can't keep her, right?"

Keima should stay calm, but that remark hit home, so he stood up as well, an irritated expression on his face.

"Is that how you're trying to help me? By belittling me?"

"Admit that I can help you and then I will help you," she leaned closer, hoping to force him to step back, but both of them were too stubborn and too into it to back down.

"And what will you do then if I admit it?" Keima asked. "Are you going to teach me how to pick up girls?"

"You don't need such a skill... besides, I think you're fairly proficient at that," Jun smirked and Keima's eyebrow twitched. "How about I teach you how to take better care of yourself and your appearance, like your hair?"

"My appearance is fine!" Keima replied and Jun had to admit. There was nothing wrong with how he looked.

Wait, why did she think that?

"B-but you clearly don't know how to take care of a girl!" Jun tried in panic, leaning even closer in an attempt to hide her shaken composure.

Keima laughed.

"Are you going to teach me how to organize a date then?" he asked. He saw Nagase's hesitation and thought he was winning, so he continued. "Will you teach me how to compliment or... kiss a girl?" he added before his brain caught up with him.

Wait, why did he say that?

Panic was written all over his face, but Jun didn't see that – she was fighting her own panic attack. Just right now she felt a sharp pain at the back of her head and she felt something. Like a distant memory of sorts. It filled her with warmth.

And if this wasn't enough she kinda imagined kissing Katsuragi-kun.

She brought one of her hands to her chest, where she felt a dull ache. It felt as if her ribcage was being squeezed, trying to fill the sudden sense of emptiness.

They both came to their senses and looked at each other, but could not mask the shock and other emotions running through them.

It was Jun's turn to retort and she covered her panic by putting on a front.

"Me? Teaching you how to kiss?" she questioned, making sure to make her voice sound arrogant. "Is kissing your teacher a dream of yours, Katsuragi-san? Is this why you were paying me so much attention when I was a trainee? Is this your strategy? Playing hard to get?" she mocked.

"You're not my teacher!" Keima barked back, his face becoming red from anger and... more anger. "Besides who'd want to kiss such a diehard overzealous real woman like you!?"

"Right back at you," Jun shouted. "What girl would want to kiss such a creepy weirdo nerd like you!"

"You'd be surprised," Keima retorted before he could bite his tongue.

"Are you talking about the girls from your games?"

"And what if I am?" Keima challenged. "I have my own ideal world and I don't need anyone from the real world!"

"It sounds to me as if you're lying," Jun called his bluff.

"And it sounds to me as if you're jealous," Keima upped the ante.

Jun said nothing to that, but she narrowed her eyes, pursed her lips and glared at Keima and he glared right back.

At this point neither of them could think calmly. Neither of them would be able to tell how did it come to this and how did they end up trading insults in such a rude way. Even weirder, while they were angry, it wasn't really a big all-consuming wrath. It felt more like common irritation, mixed with respect of all things. There were both frustrated and despite their conversation it only continued to build up, as if it required a different outlet than a heated argument.

Yet, to be able to rile each other like so, to be able to turn something trivial into such a discussion. Where did all of this energy and determination came from to result in such face-to-face showdown? They were close to each other now, leaning over the living room table, separated by nothing but several inches of air.

To an untrained eye it would seem that they were just glaring at each other, but the tension in the air was palpable. It was like two thunderclouds looming over with so much voltage built up that even as good an insulator as air might not be able to prevent the sparks that could set of a mighty thunderbolt.

However, that threshold was still ahead of them, so no sparks flew yet, resulting in a stalemate.

They were both stubborn, so, even in a ridiculous situation like this they refused to step back.

However, out of arguments, they couldn't move forward either.

They were both sworn believers of ideals. Different ideals. Similar, yet different at the core. No matter how one looked at it, their ideals couldn't mesh. Because of that the air between them could just as well be a brick wall. There was no way for the two of them to get any closer that that.

No simple way at least.

It was like nuclear fusion. For it to occur two atoms have to get close enough to each other in order to fuse into a bigger atom. Alas, due to the Coulomb's law the atoms were repulsed from each other. Under normal circumstances they could not ever touch.

There was a way, however.

Speed. Momentum. Energy.

If the atoms acquired enough energy they could overcome the repulsion force and collide. That momentum was a double-edged sword, however. A collision at such high energy levels wouldn't be gentle. No, the collision would be loud and rough. It would be an explosion, it would be a crash with such power that the only thing it could result in was damage and destruction.

Yet, when the collision between Keima Katsuragi and Jun Nagase, two opposing, unstoppable and immovable forces happened, there was no destruction.

Because, despite all the energy, all the anger and all the differences in opinion, when their lips met, they didn't repel each other, but melted instead. They merged together, perfectly fitting against each other in what was the gentlest clash in history.

And it was far from damaging.

In fact, a nuclear fusion is all about creation, as smaller atoms disappear and something new – a greater central atom – is created and a tremendous amount of energy is released. And something similar happened here – gone was the invisible wall between the two people. Gone were two clashing ideals on a collision course. Or rather they were still there, but they were different now. They were connected, forming a bond. A relationship. Two opposing forces clashed and something new and far greater – a marvelous feeling – was born in that moment.

Keima and Jun continued to kiss for several seconds, overwhelmed by the amount of energy that was released by their clash. They had no idea what spark started this, where all this passion, all this energy came from. It's not like like they had been unconsciously frustrated and building this energy for each other for months now, right?

Finally, they separated and looked at each other, but, surprisingly they didn't see anything new – despite the obvious differences of age and gender, their faces were looking oddly similar. The same hair color. The same brown eyes. The same expression. The same passionate fire in their eyes.

Or maybe it was their own fire they were seeing inside the eye of the other person?

How was this possible? How did this happen? What did that mean?

The only way they could answer those questions was through learning. Through gathering of information and experiences. Through teamwork. And so they let their lips clash again, this time more roughly and proceed to teach each other what this new thing was all about. Soon, hands joined the lips in curious exploration as Jun and Keima were drawn closer to each other, testing how much similar and complementary their differences were. Never before was teaching such a pleasant and fulfilling experience.

However the environment was far from optimal.

"Blasted table!" they both said in unison when it became obvious they couldn't get close and comfortable without climbing on the stupid piece of furniture or breaking it into pieces.

"My," Keima started, but stopped to clear his suddenly hoarse throat, "my family could be back any minute," he said.

Jun nodded in confirmation, not able to trust her own voice at the moment.

"So... we might want to... umm... do the counseling elsewhere," he finished and his mind did a double take. What did I just say?

"Um, lead the way please," Jun said quietly, before her own brain forced her to do a reality check. I told Katsuragi-kun to do what now?

Somehow neither of them could bring themselves to object and somehow Keima led Jun to the only place that could offer them privacy.

(* * *)

Okay, that was the first chapter. The second one (around half as long as this one) is already prepared and will be probably posted in a day or two.

So...? What do you think? Was it good, believable and enjoyable to read or not so far? Let me know in your reviews!

As for my comments... as I said it was rather difficult to put Jun and Keima together like this, especially in a setting when Jun is not aware of the stuff Keima had done. Thus I needed a lot of words to steer the situation into where I wanted it, since I had the kissing scene prepared already. Connecting those two parts was a really exacting.

Furthermore, staying true to the manga meant I had to do something about Chihiro and the solution I chose made part of this chapter much sadder than I originally planned. This is a view on Keima I don't describe often (at least not to that extent), but it was kind of refreshing and certainly added to Keima's character development. Not that Jun didn't have hers too.

The final result isn't as perfect or concise as I originally planned, but still I'm satisfied with how it came out.

I think that's all for now, so stay tuned for the second chapter.

See you later!