Heart of the Infiltrators
(Senran Kagura x Male Reader)
Chapter 34: Jumbled Turn
"I'll be sure to spread the news about this… development once I get back to the apartment," came Haruka's voice over the phone, lacking any of its usual playfulness, "Let's just hope that Imu hasn't riled everyone up for a witch hunt."
Sitting on a bench at a bus stop, Homura continued to rest her head on a hand as she tiredly replied, "Thank you… I'm sorry that you were brought out for nothing."
"Homura~," replied Haruka in a tone that made it clear she was smiling, "I'm happy to provide support anytime, even if it just means I'm standing at a train station for half an hour."
Pulling up her eyes to look at her companions, who were looking between all the various restaurants in the general area, the tanned girl let out a quiet snort before saying, "It's the same with me to you."
A pleased sound rang out from the other end of the phone before Haruka chipped, "Now go sit yourselves down with our boy-toy and win him over… There'll be a bonus if you get Asuka too."
Homura straightened her back as her head flinched upward before she stared down to her phone to slowly question, "Our?"
"If you win, I'm expecting you to share~," cheered Haruka before the call was ended with a beep.
Feeling slighted that she didn't even have time to retort against her friend's jab, Homura stood silently and blinked a few times. Still, when she tried to bring herself to call Haruka back to try and offer some sort of improvised retaliation, Homura realized that she didn't even have anything to clever to say. But what she could do instead, if she won over the young man and Asuka, was make a show of her next greeting to flaunt the pair. Then, when Haruka eventually made her move to tease or seduce the two, Homura would step in and make it clear that she had no intention to share. Though there would be resistance, likely followed by Haruka getting her way, there would be some satisfaction with the show of defiance. Plus, if she really wanted to take it far…
Just as Homura's revenge fantasy was getting a bit too intense, assuming a dirty look onto her face, the young man walked up to her from behind and began to say, "We found a-," but had surprised the girl, who'd let out a yell and launched into the air in response. Amidst her flailing, she hit her head on the bus stop awning above her and fell back to the ground with a loud crash. Once Homura stood up, settled herself, and began to grumble incoherently, the young man continued, "We found a place to talk."
In response, Homura's arm launched up and grabbed him by his gray overshirt to pull him close to her and groaned, "Don't ever sneak up on me like that ever again…"
"Sneak?" uttered the young man. Not one to accept undeserved fault, his eyes narrowed as he grumbled right back, "You told me that, once we found a place, I had to come find you right away. Was there a secret clause in that statement that I didn't catch?"
With a shake of her head, Homura whispered to herself, "Such a dickhead…"
The young man mumbled in an equally quiet voice, "That isn't new. Yes, I'm a dickhead, but it's time for a new topic." He made a shocked face and clapped both of his cheeks as he continued in a monotone voice, "And, would you look at that?" before pointing to a restaurant on the far corner, "It's a New Topic."
Homura followed the young man's finger with her eyes before she found what he was pointing at and promptly felt her jaw drop to the concrete below. While she'd been talking on the phone with Haruka, the rest of her group had decided that they wanted to confer in a café called New Topic, adorned with a black and white neon sign with a large poster of posing butlers overhead. The tanned girl turned back to the young man and asked in a quiet voice, "You aren't being serious, are you?"
Offering a small shrug of sympathy, he stated, "It was the tamest option in the immediate area."
"Dare I ask what the other options were?"
Lifting a finger with each theme, the young man answered frankly, "Aside from the butler café, there was a cowboy-themed saloon, a samurai pizza place, a pirate playpark… a maid cafe, of course… what else-, ah, and then there was a post-nuclear apocalypse family restaurant…" After a moment of silence between the two, with Homura just staring at him with the most dumbfounded look on her face, the young man nonchalantly added, "It was a close vote… I wanted the pizza place since its prices were a bit cheaper but-"
"You're being serious," stated the girl.
"Very."
Homura crossed her arms, "Who voted for the butlers?"
"Asuka and Murasaki." After a moment of being stared at with the expectation that there was more to say, the young man concluded, "Just Asuka and Murasaki."
Homura felt her face fall before she growled through her teeth, "That's two votes."
"Yes."
"So, what about Yumi and Miyabi!?" screeched the girl.
"Yumi wanted the maid café, something about it being a more discreet-looking environment, and Miyabi wanted the pirate playpark…" The young man stood silently for a moment before adding, "She said the skull and crossbones' design was cool… and, to be fair, it was."
Homura's eyes narrowed as she asked in a low voice, "Why didn't you or anyone else change your votes then…? Or would you rather go to a butler café than a maid or pirate place?"
Matching the aggressing girl's body language and tone, the young man crossed his arms and stated plainly, "To change one's vote is to admit defeat. Neither Yumi, Miyabi, nor I would dare do such a thing."
"But you are defeated," Homura seethed with growing agitation, "Asuka and Murasaki won the vote."
"But we don't need to admit it."
The tanned girl held her head for a moment before she mumbled, "I hate you sometimes…" Once a few seconds passed by, she raised her head back up and tiredly said, "I love you, don't get me wrong… But I really hate you sometimes…"
Turning around to rejoin the group, the young man passed a smirk that was split between humor and shame back at her, "You'll hate me even more when I tell you that we're going to have to go Dutch on the bill."
Thus, after quietly joining back up with them, Homura followed the group into the butler café. There was a five-minute wait, which gave them plenty of time to enjoy the smooth black and white color scheme with small variations of hues popping out in a couple of corners. Even the staff had a bit of variation to their well-tailored butler uniforms, with little different colored roses, glasses, and other accessories popping out with bright colors. Overall, the place gave a sophisticated appearance while also giving some slight variation. Though, the elegant atmosphere was made mostly by the personalities who manned the restaurant.
"Hello, good ladies and kind sir," said one such individual who passed by the waiting area a few times, each time giving a curt bow.
When the group was finally being guided to their table, another offered, "Nevermore honored have we been than with beautiful flowers like all of you," before he quickly took notice of the young man, "Not-, not to demean your… evident masculinity, gracious sir…!"
The young man stared at the boy, who looked to be a year younger than him, before replying, "No, no. I want to be a beautiful flower too."
While his coworker awkwardly walked away, the host stopped by the designated table, gestured to it, "Please, all of you enjoy yourselves to the fullest extent," and stood by while everyone sat themselves into their chairs. Once everyone seemed comfortable, he pulled out a rose from within his suit, placed into a vase at the table's center, "Your server, Alfred, will be here for you shortly, kind ladies…" and was about to walk away before frantically adding, "And kind sir! Apologies, we don't get many men coming in and my greetings are typically practiced-"
The young man calmly raised a hand, "I don't mind being a lady today."
Offering only a nervous smile in return, the host quietly retreated and the group was left to wait for their server to come and greet them. After a moment, Asuka looked to the young man as he quietly sat across from her and asked, "So, are you just going to keep teasing the staff or…"
The young man quickly raised up a hand in his defense, "I'm trying to have a bit of fun," before shaking his head and craning it forward, "These last few days have been so… I don't even know the right words right now. I can't think." With a bit of sway, he straightened himself while prodding a finger to the side of his forehead, "I feel like I'm about to blow a gasket with all the crap that keeps coming up." After wiping a hand over his eyes, the young man concluded, "At this point, I'm just waiting for the next big twist to come and kill me."
"Well…" Yumi murmured from next to him as she turned to look into the boy's eyes, "if Miki and Sato are the only…" before quieting herself since they were out in public, "ones… then you should be just fine going forward."
"I'm doubtful but I'll still hope for it."
"I still can't believe Miki came out in such a way," commented Miyabi from the young man's other side before she arced her head around to the rest of the group, "To think… if he decided to save the issue for another day…" A thought occurred to her and she couldn't help but ask the boy, "If he didn't reveal himself to you… would you have urged us to let him go?"
"Definitely not," answered the young man in a low voice. Surprised by his immediate answer, Asuka let out a quiet and sad grunt of acknowledgement. Feeling the need to justify himself, the young man was about to add, "Him coming out to me proved that he was earnest, especially when he warned me about Sato-," but was cut off when the brunette raised a hand with a forced smile.
"But, if he didn't come out, you wouldn't be able to be sure if he was a threat or not." She paused to nod her head a few times, "I can understand that," before looking at him, "It's sad but I can understand that…" and then sighed, "Besides, we were already planning to… do whatever needed to be done…"
As the table fell to silence, Homura took a loud breath into her nose before commenting, "Let's just be glad that it didn't," she emphasized the last word, "come to that. We're lucky that Miki opened up and that's that," and reached over to one of the folded menus leaning up against the vase at the table's center, "For now, let's fill our stomachs and talk about more pleasant things."
The young man squinted his eyes at her, "Do you remember why we're still here?"
"I do."
His eyes squinted even more, "And you call this a more pleasant subject?"
Homura shrugged, "I'd say that talking and sorting out our situation, romance-wise, is much more pleasant than talking about the prospects of Miki being one of… them."
"Point taken," mumbled the young man before he turned his eyes down to the table's surface. The girls leaned their bodies forward in anticipation of what he was going to say next. Then, after letting a slight shiver run down his back, the boy mumbled, "Alright, pressure's on," and switched to a level volume, "I'll speak frankly with you guys," and then raised his head up to look them all in the eye.
Everyone continued to look at him, wondering what he was going to say next, before their server, an average-looking college student with long hair tied back into a formal ponytail, arrived and asked, "Kind greetings, ladies and sir! I am Alfred and I shall be waiting on your every demand today. Today's specials are-" before he was quickly interrupted by Murasaki.
"Don't lie. Your name isn't Alfred."
Thrown off by his script having been broken, the man stuttered a few times, "Aha-, Mm-, You-, certainly, miss," before clearing his throat and bowing his head, "You certainly aren't wrong. That, in all truth, is just the name given to me by this…" After a moment of nervous fidgeting, the server turned his head around with apparent fear. Then, before anyone could ask questions, his eyes bulged out after making eye contact with something through the window to the kitchen. Shaky and inelegant, the man started again, "FAMILY! That is my name with this family and I am so happy to have it!" and raised his notepad, "Drinks, anyone-, ladies and sir!?"
Miyabi let out a quiet groan, "Oh boy," before ordering, "We'll start with waters. Once you get back, we'll have decided." Without another peep, the man zipped from the table to the back of the dining room and stopped before the kitchen door. Though nervous and hesitant, he eventually disappeared into it with a bit of lag to his step. After a brief moment of silence, Miyabi turned to everyone else, "He seems new. Be quick and to the point."
Yumi peered from around the young man and asked the woman, "Shouldn't we be a bit more slow and understanding with him? To help get him a bit more… at ease?"
"At this point, I'm pretty sure he just wants us to eat and disappear so that he can forget about his fumble," retorted Miyabi.
Wanting to refocus the conversation and forget about the strange sense of familiarity that he felt with the server, the young man tapped his fingers on the table as he spoke with great emphasis, "An-y-ways~…" and pointed a finger at Murasaki, "Go ahead."
The girl, who had just picked up a menu, took a second to register the order before her head shot straight up. Feeling an onslaught of anxiety, she quickly stammered, "What? I'm doing what now?"
The young man sucked in his lips before he minded his patience and stated, "Last night… or this morning, I don't remember the time," before he began to periodically nod his head, "you came up to me, said some strange things that I'm pushing off until we're done here today, and then declared that you wanted to come along with everyone else. Was there something you wanted to say?"
Without a hint of hesitation, a bunch of glowing eyes from the rest of the girls narrowed on Murasaki, causing her internal anxiety meter to skyrocket. She lowered her head and stammered a few incoherent things before bumbling, "Y-, y-, I, yes, I do-, I want-, want to, yes, I do, really, I do want to-, yes-, I'm go-, going to tell you…" and dared to look up. Seeing the terrifying auras that simmered from her rivals, Murasaki nearly retreated from the restaurant then and there.
Seeing her growing weakness, Homura decided to seize the opportunity to try and scare off one of her rivals with a devilish grin, "Go ahead… say it. Tell us what we all know… enter yourself into this fray~."
Asuka, feeling competitive but not picking up on the terrifying bluff that everyone was catching up, started to speak in a low voice, "Yeah~, go ahead and tell him," before it cracked and she sputtered, "and… just tell him so that we can…" and then turned to Homura, "Wait, why are we encouraging her to confess?"
While the brunette got a noogie from her friend, Yumi salvaged the still frightening atmosphere with a groan, "Tell this man your feelings. Go ahead and enter into the court," before raising a finger, "But you'd best be careful. Not just of us…" and pointed it at the young man, "Him too."
The boy, slowly getting terrified by their antics, took a bit of offense to her last statement and mumbled, "Be careful of me? Look at whose talking right now," before a calculated glare from Yumi quickly silenced him.
"She's right, you know," growled Miyabi as she stood up, alarming all of the restaurant patrons and staff who were observing the scene from as far back as they could. The woman patted the young man's shoulder, stated, "He may seem forward and honest," before she hissed, "but he's actually ve-ry~ dangerous when it comes to women."
"I'm dangerous?"
Homura released Asuka and popped her head up close to Murasaki, who let out a surprised yelp, "Take a close look at him… you see that dickhead-"
"Back to the dickhead thing? Again?"
"-right there?" Once the target of her ire gave a panicked nod, Homura stepped from her spot and began to pace around the table, "He has done absolutely nothing since we've started to work together… nothing perverse and nothing that would insinuate his mad desire for our bodies-," before shouting, "KNOW WHY!?" causing the restaurant to jump.
Murasaki squeaked with a quiver, "W-, w-, why…?"
While Asuka was leaning onto the table and rubbing her sore head, the young man felt his eyelids droop, "I feel like I'm about to be insulted…"
Homura rounded her finger to him, "Because all of his perverted energy is welling up! Right now, as we speak, it's growing on an exponential scale!"
"I knew it," grumbled the young man as he gently lowered his forehead into the table.
Yumi also began to pat his shoulder, "It's only natural when one hangs out with so many members of the opposite sex. Tension builds, urges grow… soon enough, he won't be able to hold himself back anymore… And who knows who'll be his first target."
"Why am I being treated like a predator?" came his muffled voice.
Miyabi rounded the table and grasped onto Murasaki, "Think about it… If you confess now, you'll be entering into targeting range for those perversions… ALL of those perversions." She pointed a finger into her underclasswoman's face, "Can you handle that? Would you be able to handle him ravishing you day and night? Every morning an… assa-, assault…"
As she began to envision what she was proclaiming to the red-faced Murasaki, Miyabi's brain began to go haywire as it pictured her own potential encounters with the young man. She wondered about what would happen if they started dating and whether or not he would demand those kinds of depraved sexual acts from her. Just thinking about it put her brain on the fritz and left her a quietly bumbling mess.
While sparks and smokes were blowing from out of Miyabi's ears, Murasaki gulped down a breath of air, got a hold of herself, and boldly declared, "If-, if-, if it comes to that…!" before exhaling to growl in a low voice, "I will endure what I must…"
As Miyabi was continuing to dance on the verge of having a seizure from her previous train of thought, everyone else stared at Murasaki incredulously. Asuka's and Homura's jaws had dropped in amazement that the girl was not only holding her ground but also even daring to say such things out loud. On the other hand, the only thing reflecting the surprise in Yumi was her eyes as they narrowed on her new rival. Amidst all of that, the young man's brain was looping Murasaki's words and implications like feedback into a microphone.
Crumbling a bit under all of the disturbed stares, the purple-haired girl raised up her hands, "Why are you all giving me those looks! If anyone," and then proceeded to point both of her hands at Miyabi and Yumi while talking to everyone else, "you should be eyeballing- no! You'd be safer if you kept an eye on them!" She stammered a few more times before waving her hand to the young man, "E-, even when, even when compared to his level of lust and perversion-"
"I resent your accusation," grunted the young man.
"-those two," and then Murasaki gestured back to Miyabi and Yumi, "are the biggest deviants here! The only one who can top their lusty vibes is Haruka, though that's not much of a contest in the first place!"
Just then, like a bat out of hell summoned by the previous demonic energy, a tiny old woman scampered straight out of the kitchen, stomped up to the group with bouquet of flowers behind her back, and slammed her fist into the table, "What scandalous behavior are you brats going on about over here!?"
Jumping in surprise and repressing Murasaki's last statements, the young man tried to stammer an explanation, "Ah-, you see, sorry, we were talking about an issue-," before he was quickly swatted in the face by the bouquet. While it didn't hurt even slightly, since the assortment of flowers had no thorns, there was still an inexplicable feeling of confusion and shame that rang through him, "Oh."
"No excuses!" barked the tiny woman before she turned her wrath towards the girls, "And you little harlots!"
Asuka stood from her seat defensively with Homura moving to her side. Once the elder began her advance with the bouquet raised like a sword, the brunette began to stammer, "Please, ma'am! We're sorry, we're sorry! We didn't mean to disrupt-," but was quickly cut off by the flowers smacking into her face before they were rounded into Homura's. After a moment, the same feeling of shame that only a veteran grandmother could inflict flooded into the two of them, "Oh…"
Miyabi was swatted next, though there was no effect since she was still in the middle of a meltdown. Not one to back down despite the immense pressure, Yumi raised her arms up combatively and called to Murasaki, "Hold your ground! She can't possibly take us both out!"
However, after a brief silence, the girl turned her head to find that her purple-haired rival was missing. Yumi turned her head around and about before her eyes rested on Murasaki, who was sitting outside of the café with her back to the window. Then, just as she remembered the fact that she was in danger, the most powerful shinobi in Gessen Academy turned around only to find the flowers slapping straight into her face. Again, they didn't hurt at all. Yet, as the shame flowed through her, Yumi still found herself sitting back down into her chair with a look of defeat.
Blowing a tired breath of air onto the bouquet, the tiny old woman rested it behind her back, waved one of her arms, "I hope the lot of you have learned your lesson," and jabbed a finger towards the lot of them, "Keep that inappropriate language out of here."
Looking at her with a mix of confusion and lingering remorse, the young man questioned, "Was all of that really necessary?"
"Theatrics keep my business alive, boy," retorted the old woman before she stole a sly glance at his face. Though she was about to turn around to make her way back toward the kitchen doors, she suddenly paused, did a doubletake, and locked her eyes back onto the young man. Then, with all of the suspicion in the world, she squinted at him and grumbled under her breath, "I've seen you before."
In response, he tilted his head, "You've… seen me before?"
"You're the cretin…" growled the old woman, "The one who was running a foul mouth in front of the train station the other day, right? Last week, I'd say?" Before the young man even had a chance to try and recollect what she was going on about, the woman turned to the kitchen and screeched, "SUGI!"
Raising a hand to defuse her raised voice, the boy started to say, "Madam, I'm sorry to say that I really don't know what you're talking about…"
"Don't play coy, brat," barked the woman, "It was Wednesday! I remember it clearly! You said the S-word twice in front of the train station! And now," before she smirked towards the kitchen as a loud thumping could be heard, "it's coming back to bite you~."
Just as the young man was about to further question her, the kitchen door slammed open and, much to the boy's great surprise, Takatsukasa stomped on through before straightening the charming little red bowtie on his butler outfit and cracking his knuckles, "Lady Victoria?"
The old woman sucked in a frustrated breath, quickly turned around, and thundered, "LADY VICENTIA!" while stomping her foot, "IT'S VICENTIA!" Having blown up all of her energy, the old woman had to take a moment to catch her breath, to which Takatsukasa approached and gently patted her on the back. Once she could speak again, she grumbled "That's seventeen times… today alone." She began to count her fingers, "It's not Victoria, Toriana, Victor, Vicky, Tori-, NONE OF THAT!" and slammed her fist into the table again to growl, "Vi-cen-tia…! Go on, say it!"
Convinced that all of the drama that was happening was some bizarre comedy show that the restaurant was putting up, some of the other patrons began to laugh and snicker from the theatric comedy taking place before them. Amidst all of that, the young man's face twisted in further confusion as the baffling scene continued. At one point, Miyabi regained her senses, rounded the table to pat him on the shoulder, and quietly said, "I blanked out and now there's some sketch going on while I have this weird feeling of guilt inside me. What did I miss?"
The young man turned to her and raised a finger before stopping himself. After a moment, he just said, "I don't even know where the hell to begin…"
Once he uttered that last sentence, Vicentia whipped her head around and declared, "You dare swear again!? In my own restaurant!?"
Takatsukasa's eyes finally rested on the young man for the first time and they promptly bulged out in surprise while the boy in question squinted his eyes at the old woman, "Wait, I did what?"
"You swore again!" declared Vicentia.
Rewinding back a few steps, the young man grunted and countered with a stern, "Hell is a noun and a place. It's used in plenty of religions around the world. I wouldn't count it as much of a swear."
"But you used it like one," retorted Vicentia.
The young man shrugged, "Well…" before throwing up his arms, "you got me there."
The silently raging old woman before him stared silently for a moment before calling out, "ALFRED!"
The server from earlier quickly came back around in a panicked scurry and asked, "Yes, Lady Vicentia?"
"Did they order anything?"
He shook his head fervently, "No, ma'am. Just waters, that's all-"
"SUGI!" barked Vicentia before she pointed at the group, "Escort them out. If they resist or threaten to cause trouble, you know what to do."
Casting a conflicted glance at the young man while taking a heavy breath, Takatsukasa only took a second to shrug and step forward, "Will you make it easy?" while silently hoping that no questions would be thrown his way.
Knowing that there was no point to arguing, the boy nodded and stood from his seat. Just as he was walking to the door, Vicentia declared to the restaurant, "If I had my cane on me, I'd be throwing them out, myself! Yet, it is my grandson, that great oaf there, Sugi, who will be saving us from that disrespectful brat!"
Still very convinced that everything was just some strange entertainment, the patrons throughout the restaurant gave a lighthearted applause. Tempted to give a middle finger out of spite, the young man let out a sigh and continued towards the exit. Trailing behind was the girls and Takatsukasa, who suddenly spoke in a low and quiet voice, "Don't tell anyone at school."
Barely registering the words, the young man turned around and asked as everyone else passed by, "Repeat?"
Takatsukasa menacingly pressed his face closer with dark and narrowed eyes, "Do not, under any circumstance, mention this to anyone at school." Then, seeming to figure that threatening someone wasn't the appropriate way to ask for a favor, he straightened himself and requested in a quiet and awkward voice, "I don't think I could stand it if any of those pompous asses knew I worked here."
"Ah," grunted the young man before he turned around, "your secret's safe."
"Especially not to Miki."
The young man remained silent for a moment before he commented, "Again… your secret's safe."
"I'm begging you. Don't tell anyone."
Exhaling a breath of hot air, the young man fully turned around and hissed, "I'm not interested in your interests or kinks. You want to dress up as butler and do the roleplay, that's not my business… even if I'll be silently judging you behind your back from now on." He raised up a hand, "I won't be voicing my judgements but I'll still be judging you."
Seeming to be satisfied, if a bit insulted, Takatsukasa watched as the young man and his group finally exited the café before turning around and retreating back to the kitchen while his grandmother continued to theatrically thank all of the patrons for their patience. Greeting the ejected group at the exit, Murasaki left her place by the windows and quietly mumbled, "That old bat was scary…"
Shaking his head and gesturing for everyone to follow, the young man looked to see if there was some place else where he could settle his conflict with the girls. Then, just as he began to walk down the sidewalk in silence while glancing around for the next place to go, an epiphany struck him: he just had to tell them his response to their feelings. His original idea was to go into a restaurant, commune with them, and answer them all while coming off as earnest as possible. In a way, it made sense. One of the ultimate symbols of trust in fiction was to eat at the same table and the same food.
Though, in his circumstance, that was stupid. Never mind how uncomfortable the situation would be with random strangers all around, how would taking them out when the young man wasn't even paying for their meals going to prove his earnestness? If anything, it would just have the opposite effect. They could view it as him trying to keep them quiet by putting the pressure of an audience on them. As he lifted a closed fist and pressed it against his forehead, the young man began to beat himself up for taking such a route without planning it through… a terrible habit that he had been picking up lately. So, as the girls closely trailed behind him, he sucked in a breath, stopped in his tracks, and turned around to say, "I'm going to reject all of you."
As though a mirror had just been broken somewhere, all five of the shinobi froze midstep. None of them blinked, twitched, or even dared to breath as the word 'reject' was bouncing around in their heads. Then, being the first to snap out of it, Yumi shook her head and craned her head forward, "I'm sorry to say that I may need to hear that again… Could you-"
"I'm rejecting you," stated the young man in a voice that sounded like it wanted to be cold as steel, though it was more filled dejection and grief than anything else, "You and everyone else."
Being the next to snap out of it, Homura raised a shaky hand as she put on a forced smile and said with a twitch in the corner of her lips, "H-, hold on, hold on… don't you remember yesterday? When we talked about that whole… impressions of other people thing?" She gestured to herself and the other girls, "With whatever result that may come of this, we'll explain to everyone else that whatever happens… happened and that they'll just need to live with it," and then pointed to the young man, "Their trust in you won't be impacted…" before spreading up her arms and spreading them out, as though she were presenting a celebratory occasion, "so all you need to do is pick one of us and then… boom!"
"I remember that talk," stated the young man as he averted his eyes, "My answer remains no."
While Murasaki hung her head and let out a high-pitched groan, Asuka charged forward with teary eyes and gripped the young man's shoulders to shake him back and forth, "But why! Why, why, why, why, why!"
With his head swing back and forth from the girl's intense shaking, the boy could only dizzily reply, "I can't ta-a-a-a-alk-, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!"
Stealing a glance at Miyabi, who had once again frozen up and remained unresponsive, Yumi let out a gloomy sigh before she approached Asuka from behind and rested a hand on her shoulder. Though it took a few more seconds for her to stop, the brunette eventually did let her grip on the young man slink off. In a cool and understanding voice, Yumi turned to the young man to question, "If you don't mind my asking, could you tell us why you aim to reject all of us?"
Crossing her arms and pouting her lips, Homura grumbled, "If he says something about not wanting to make the situation awkward, I'll be more than a little irked…"
After regaining his sense of balance and keeping a wary eye on Asuka, fearing that she may pounce again if left unchecked, the young man raised two fingers and said, "Two reasons: one, I'm an indecisive piece of shit."
"There it is," hissed Homura as she clenched her teeth.
Narrowing his eyes on her, the young man replied, "I'm sorry for that but it's the truth." After a quick moment of thought, he gestured to everyone, "I mean… all of you are wonderful. I'm just going to be frank about it and say that all of you are wonderful in your own ways." He gestured to Asuka, "You're innocent and sweet with true selflessness, from all that I've seen," and then to Homura, "You're more open and honest than most people I know. Even if it's a sharp and frustrated comment, you never hold back." Straightening up as the young man's fingers rounded to her, Yumi didn't suppress the smile on her face as he said, "You're the definition of ladylike. You're soft and comforting while firm in your principles." After another second, he pointed to the still unmoving Miyabi, "You're the strangest yet most well-balanced example of extremely cool and cute at the same time. You being taller than me amplifies both of those things," before finally settling onto Murasaki, "and you're the prime example of cute and casual. If there was ever a day I'd want to laze around and do absolutely nothing productive for the sake of relaxation, you'd be the go-to."
Though she was still upset by the rejection, Murasaki shyly averted her eyes and said in a quiet breath, "I'm cute…?" and then whispered with a small smile, "I'm cute…"
Reeling in his pointer finger, the young man stuck up a second and stated, "But that's only the half of it. In fact, I'd say that, in terms of sway, that matter makes up about a quarter of why I'm not making a decision between the lot of you."
Yumi and Asuka tilted their heads in suspicion while Homura slowly murmured, "Alright… you've got our interest," and proceeded to wave her hand around, "C'mon, don't leave us in suspense. Just tell us the other reason or reasons…"
"Just one other reason," whispered the young man. He took another breath and scratched at the back of his neck as a strange bit of anxiety began to eat at him. After a moment, he stated, "I won't lie, it's a bit awkward to talk about…" and clapped his hands together a few times, "I-"
"You have an STD?" questioned Miyabi with wide eyes as she seemed to suddenly crash back into reality. While everyone twisted their heads around in surprise to eye her, she continued in a semi-delusional state, "It's okay. There must be vaccines for those. We can get you in and cure you."
"That's not how it works… at all," mumbled Asuka as she silently began to question whether or not Hebijo Academy had a proper sexual education system in place.
"Both not how it works," reiterated the young man, "and completely wrong, seeing as I haven't done the… happy blanket dance with anyone… ever." He threw up his arms and said, "Look, I'm-," and stammered, "I was raised polygamous. That's the thing I was going for."
Three dots of silence hung in the air as all of the girls blinked before tilting their heads with a simultaneous, "Eh?"
The young man further elaborated, "While my parents-," as he skittishly waved his hands around, "my parents were married only to each other and didn't have any other partners… While there was that, my grandfather had two wives and the whole family is raised on this principle of… ah, how to word it…" before throwing them down and tiredly stating, "Basically, it comes down to… If you love someone, go ahead and love them. Love someone else too? No reason to hold back, provided your already established partner is cool with that person too… It's… that kind of thing."
While Homura's eyes began to glow, feeling the seed of an opportunity sprouting within her head, Yumi gave a slow shrug of her shoulders and asked, "I-, pardon me, I'm not sure if there's something about being polygamous that I don't know about but…" Once her words died in her throat, she lowered her head in thought before raising it again, "If you don't mind my asking, what does that have to do with your reason to reject all of us?"
Giving a slight shrug, the young man gestured to all of them, "Well, by the look and sound of it, none of you really come off as the… sort who'd be okay with several partners. In fact…" Clenching his teeth together nervously while making an increasingly uncomfortable face, he raised up a palm defensively, "and I should say that I mean no offense when I say this, but" and pointed to both Yumi and Miyabi, "but that reasoning goes double for you two… Again, no offense… but you two come off as the… competitive and possessive sort… And, hey, if you keep it under control, no harm and no foul…" After another moment, the young man said, "But, still, those kinds of traits generally mean… not polygamous nor cool with that kind of relationship…"
Homura peeked her head past Yumi with a sly expression on her face, "So, what I'm getting out of this is that you're not selecting one of us because you want more than one of us, perhaps?"
Feeling as though he'd been grossly misinterpreted, the young man shook his head and stuttered, "No! No, no, no, it's not like that! It's just-," but was cut off once Homura crept forward and shoved a finger towards his lips.
She teasingly began to stammer with her cheeks heating up, "No need to be ashamed. If that's how you were raised, then that's how you were raised. In fact," before she rounded over to Asuka, "I imagine a compromise could be struck between myself and another person…"
Unaware of the fact that her best friend was exploding on the inside, Asuka just craned her head back and peeped, "Why're you looking at me like that…?"
Realizing that control of the situation was starting to get torn from him, the young man tried to butt in, "Hey, hold up, hold up, hold on, hold on! There's uncleared air! I need to clear it! Let me clear it!"
Ignoring him as her face glowed redder and redder, Homura began to say, "Asuka, you know what I'm getting at! Think about it: he's polygamous and wants two-"
"It's not about that!" cried the young man.
"-and you want him, right? Well, I want him too and I wouldn't mind sharing with you."
At first, Asuka jumped with tomato-red cheeks, "What!? No, no! Please, you shouldn't force yourself to compromise-, I mean, if that were his issue, I wouldn't say I had a problem-, you're-, you are my best friend, Homura, don't get me wrong…" Then, after a few seconds of actual consideration, she just wrapped her arms around herself and said, "But, I mean, this kind of situation needs more time to… develop, to be talked about and considered! I just-, I don't know-, are you-, not to call you a liar, but are you being serious?"
Homura nodded repeatedly with eager eyes, "Definitely! I'm definitely serious!"
Staring with wide-eyes and realizing that Asuka was actually considering Homura's proposition, Murasaki began to shake her head with absolute determination, "But then that's no fair to me! I don't have anyone to share him with so what am I supposed to do if he wants another partner!?"
Homura barely glanced at the purple-haired girl, "Feel free to get talking with Miyabi or Yumi or someone else."
After passing a glance at Miyabi, who had beads of sweat rolling down all across her face, Murasaki turned to Yumi. The older girl was thumping a hand against her forehead in wonderance of whether or not there was a way to salvage the situation at hand and didn't seem to even acknowledge any attempt to get her attention. So, after a few waves and mumbles, Murasaki realized that she was completely on her own.
While she had been doing that, the young man was eyeballing each of them in complete confusion, wondering why they were still so determined for his affection even after he announced how he was raised. In his mind, there was no way that even a single woman would get so determined for him… yet, there in undeniable plain sight, were two women who were striking a deal to start a polygamous relationship with him, for what they thought was his sake, though he knew Homura's ulterior motive, while three others were panicking about what to do next. Even without saying anything aloud, he felt extremely arrogant and ahead of himself for even thinking about it.
Then, breaking his train of thought, Murasaki suddenly spouted, "There's only one way to make this fair!"
Snorting haughtily out of her nose and casting a smirk towards Asuka, Homura shrugged her shoulders and asked, "And… why should we care about making this fair?"
Murasaki puffed her cheeks in frustration with her eyes turning watery, fearing the course of action that she was about to take. Yet, when she considered letting go of the one boy whom she had a genuine crush on, she suddenly straightened herself out and took a challenging step forward. She took in a large breath of air and loudly declared, "LICK AND KEEP RULES!"
Reacting before anyone else even had a chance to even understand what Murasaki just said, Miyabi threw her fist into the air, "AND I SHALL BE THE VICTOR!" before surging forward. Before he even had a chance to twitch a finger, the woman had tackled straight into the young man and brought them both down to the sidewalk.
Homura's face fell, letting out a, "Huh-, what!?" as a full second had finally passed since Murasaki's initial declaration. Then, just as she was beginning to catch on, Murasaki and Yumi had also dogpiled into the fray.
While the young man resisted and called out for help to passersby on the sidewalk, who all were deciding that whatever was happening was none of their business, Asuka called out, "HOMURA!" and turned the girl toward her, "We need to act right here, right now! The first one to kiss him gets to keep him!"
Homura, still not fully comprehending the situation breathed, "Right here, right now?"
"Right here, right now," repeated Asuka with eyes narrowed with urgency, "If either of us kisses him, I'll-, I will, we will agree to share!" before she began to advance, "WE'LL FINISH THIS!"
Matching her friend's expression as the young man continued to cry out for help in the background, Homura tightened her face and cracked her knuckles, "Yeah…" before she stomped towards the group, "We're finishing this here and now…"
As a pair, the two dived with their heads first into the scuffle, pushing and pulling at the other girls to make sure that no one else got to the young man's lips first. Amidst all of the lunacy, the boy could feel the weight of five grown women struggling around on top of him while he desperately covered his face with both hands. He knew that his resistance would be fruitless, considering that each of the girls were stronger than him on their own, yet the fear of losing his lip-chastity was too much for him to willingly surrender.
Then, at some point, someone had gotten ahold of the bow which held up Asuka's hair and it all came loose. Shortly after, the same thing happened with Yumi and Homura. Throw in Murasaki's long strands that were already covering a portion of the young man's body and he was soon buried, blinded, and disoriented by all of the loose hair. Unable to see anything and figuring that the girls were equally disarrayed too, the boy thought that he could try and use the opportunity to get away.
But, much to his surprise, dismay, and guilty pleasure, he felt a couple soft pairs of lips strike against his own at the very moment he moved both of his hands to pull himself out. Then more pairs came in, followed by another. Then, light flooded his vision as everyone stood up and threw their hands up victoriously with the impression that they'd each won.
Asuka was cheering to Homura, "We did it! We did it!"
Homura, who figured that the celebration was for her own kiss, said cheerfully, "Yup! Good thing I got in there quick!"
Yumi was holding her cheeks, smiling with her eyes closed while Miyabi was marching around in circles, completely ecstatic from the prospect of winning. Off to the side and sitting on her knees, Murasaki was covering her lips to treasure the feeling for as long as she could before commenting, "I won… I won…"
Of course, after listening to one another and taking notice of each other's behavior, everyone paused and passed confused looks. Then, with the message getting silently transmitted to one another, everyone began to either take heavy breaths or glare into the sky before they looked to the young man, who was curled up on the sidewalk with narrowed eyes.
While they were sitting around without any sound getting exchanged between them, an officer on the other side of the street called over, "You kids are taking up the sidewalk! Save the roughhousing for later!"
Yumi waved apologetically to the cop while Miyabi nervously edged her way to the young man and asked, "Ah… you wouldn't happen to know who… k-, kissed… you first, would you?"
Glancing back up at her with his lips sucked in, the boy could only shake his head and rest it back onto the cold sidewalk where he hoped death would take him at some point in extremely near future.
None of them had to say that the situation was significantly more complicated than how it started out, even if they'd gotten some pleasure out of it.
