Chapter 3: Ai Hayasaka: Love Is War #1

Ai Hayasaka throws a deck chair into the bath and prepares to have a relaxing soak. The two wireless speakers are kept far away from the edge lest they fall into the water, but she can still hear the ambient noises coming from them, the sound of birds and waves crashing to the shore.

It is a calming and peaceful experience, something she had been trying to do for a while. But her entire workload has become rather demanding lately. Kaguya-sama still wants Miyuki Shirogane to confess to her. Ai Hayasaka wonders how long this would continue.

But for the time being she doesn't want to think about all that stuff. It had been a tasking week and it's been so long since she had a nice soak. The university's lifestyle centre came with a bathhouse and though at first, she thought it would mean sharing her private alone time with other students at campus, she quickly figured out that this late there would be no one around to pester her about, which meant she didn't have to use her gyaru persona to perform the usual social interactions.

She wasn't really looking forward to do that.

"Yo."

Ai Hayasaka lost her composure and before she could look for the source of that particular sound, she was already halfway falling into the water, having slipped from the edge as she had been carelessly checking the temperature with one foot while smiling to herself like an idiot.

When she came back to the surface, her blonde hair wet and her blue eyes searching for the voice of the person she is now planning to kill, she saw him. Hachiman Hikigaya was here, at the same bathing pool, though he was far away at the other side.

Wait a second, that meant;

"You saw me naked?"

"What do you mean naked. You are wearing a bathing suit."

Oh right, she had taken that added precaution just in case.

She had been certain there would be no one around this time, but in the unlikely event that there was, her bathing suit would provide her with a modicum of modesty. From the looks of it this small piece of clothing saved her pride and dignity from being tainted by the luscious gaze of that rotten human being.

"Why didn't you announce yourself?"

"Announce yourself? What am I? A king?"

This was bad, the guy was using logic to fight her and from the looks of it he had her on the back foot. This won't do. And also he was kinda right. He wasn't a king. He was a nobody. On the other hand she was a trained maid of the Shinomiya household and the personal valet of Kaguya-sama. Surely she had the upper hand.

Though saying stuff like 'announce yourself'… what was up with that, she thought, feeling a bit embarrassed about what she said, just a moment ago. She was really beginning to sound like Kaguya-sama. She didn't know how to feel about that. But those kind of thoughts could be dealt with another time.

"I mean why didn't you say you were here already."

"I have learnt through past experience to keep quiet when a lady is carrying a heavy object. You had a deck chair with you and you threw it in the pool. What the hell! For a second I thought it was gonna hit me."

"It should have hit you. Then I could have some peace and quiet. God!"

Ai Hayasaka didn't want to do this now, but somehow this golden opportunity had presented itself and she wanted to make the most of it, even though she felt deeply embarrassed with her state of undress. But he was right. She was wearing a bathing suit. It was not like he had seen her naked.

But he has seen her make those idiotic smiling faces when she was checking the bath water with her foot and splashing it all around like some little kid playing in the swimming pool. How embarrassing, she thought. And he has caught her unawares in a state of vulnerability.

Truly, Kaguya-sama had been right. This person needed to be looked into and that's what she had been doing for the past couple of weeks, but to no avail. All the information she had were limited and gathered from the university data banks. In other words it was worthless.

But like she said, this was a golden opportunity to make him talk. After all, what kinda guy would think twice before answering the questions asked by woman clad in a bathing suit, soaking wet and dripping in sex appeal - No one, that's who, she told herself.

"So, Hikigaya-kun was it?" she changed her tone and slipped into her gyaru persona, though she noticed her inability to play with her hair to truly sell the role. "What made you come to the bath at this time and hour? Were you hoping to catch a glimpse of some pretty lady, someone you like maybe?"

"Not really, no." He didn't look taken with her personality shift. He talked to her like he had been talking before. "I think it's the same reason as you. I thought nobody would be here at this time and I could have a peaceful soak. The boy's dorm doesn't have a bathtub."

"That's because most boys take showers, silly." She threw some of her man-eater persona into the mix to make him uncomfortable. "I mean not that I have a lot of experience with men." She held up her thumb and index finger in a circle which didn't completely touch. "Just some, tehee~"

"Good for you. Though I have to say, those who brag about their sex life, generally don't have any."

Hayasaka almost broke her character, but she ground her teeth and put up a shallow smile. Her lack of experience with men was a sensitive topic. She remembered the time she was rejected and the time she stomped her foot on the ground like a petulant child.

This won't do, have to say something to put him on the defensive.

"What do you think about my swimsuit?"

"…its okay, I guess."

"What, don't you think it's cute? Or are you mixing this up with lingerie? Sorry, but that's the kind of stuff I only were in the bedroom." She went the extra mile and gave a wink to sell the point.

Gotcha, she thought happily. She had succeeded in her attempts. Hachiman Hikigaya quickly averted his gaze, but being a guy he couldn't help but sneak a look or two at her direction.

Suddenly, Ai Hayasaka didn't know what to do. Like Kaguya-sama she too had a sheltered upbringing. She too didn't know how to deal with men when they looked at her like that.

Even though she was in the water and clad in a bathing suit, she covered her breasts with both her arms and glared at him while blushing furiously.

"Hey stop looking!"

"But you told me to look."

"I asked you how my swimsuit looked."

"I thought it was a bathing suit."

"It's the same thing!"

"But not lingerie?"

Check mate.

Hachiman Hikigaya had broken down her carefully crafted persona brick by brick and now she was back to her original self, the woman who was tired with her day to day duties and had come here to the bathhouse at the lifestyle center wanting to relax.

"Look, just shut up and ignore me. I will do the same." She said in a deadpan voice dripping with her usual snark. Not that he would know. She was the one tasked with knowing him, not the other way around.

"Not before I know your name." This time his voice held a curious edge.

"Why do you want to know? Can't I be just another university student you saw naked in this huge campus?"

"You are not naked. You are wearing a swimsuit. Bathing suit, I mean." He collected himself. "Sorry, I have been in the water for a while. I think I am growing lightheaded."

"Well don't count on me to save you. I would rather see you drown. That would solve the whole problem."

No Hikigaya meant no longer submitting a detailed report about this rotten dead fish eyed bastard to Kaguya-sama first thing in the morning. That would easily decrease her work load. She couldn't wait to go back to the simpler stuff like helping her confess to the boy she liked. No, wait it was the other way around.

Now she was growing confused. Maybe the heated water of the large bathhouse was getting to her and making her lightheaded as well. Wait, isn't that what he said. Now she had to say something entirely different.

"My name is Ai Hayasaka."

She didn't know why she told him her name.

"It's good to know my stalker's name."

Wait.

What?

"I wasn't stalking you!"

It was a lie.

Ai Hayasaka didn't care

"Well what would you say you were doing, following me around for the last couple of weeks?"

"I was following orders."

"Whose?"

"Kaguya-sama's -" Hayasaka quickly clamped a hand over her mouth. She had divulged too much information. Now she was seriously wondering whether she should kill him or not. He was already saying he was feeling a bit lightheaded. All she would have to do was keep him here and let him drown. And the other most important thing she had to do was keep her mouth shut.

"Hey, why are you not talking?" He asked.

"…"

"Well if you don't speak up, I would have to go with the obvious."

Hachiman Hikigaya fixed her with those rotten dead fish eyes, his mop of black hair sticking to his scalp, droplets of water falling down from his jaw-line occasionally. He struck a rather handsome figure, cute like a drowned pigeon. But of course he had to open his mouth and ruin the effect,

"You, Ai Hayasaka are a yandere stalker of mine, who is either in love with me or in love with this Kaguya person you mentioned. Whatever the case may be, I don't want to know. But I am a bit concerned with the lengths to which you are willing to go to satisfy your romantic urges. I mean look at the present situation!"

He made a wavy gesture with his arms, trying to encompass the two of them in the otherwise empty bathhouse. "You came here, clad in that cute swimsuit, armed with that deck chair, clearly to assault me."

"I didn't come here to d-do t-that!"

Ai Hayasaka had never felt this much embarrassed in her entire life.

"Then explain the deck chair."

She had no way out of this, unless she did the obvious thing and screwed logic.

Yes, that would be her plan of action from now on.

"I don't have to explain anything to a guy who has seen me naked!"

"Again with that. I told you, I only saw you in a bathing suit. Besides," he looked to the side, unable to meet her annoyed gaze all of a sudden. "I'm the one who let it all bare."

"You mean-"

"Yes."

Kaguya Shinomiya read the report which Ai Hayasaka submitted the next day. It was about a person of interest for the student associate body on campus. Hachiman Hikigaya was his name. It wasn't exactly a thorough report, not up to the standard, but Kaguya didn't mind. In fact, as far as she was concerned, less is more beneficial in this particular matter.

"So you think he is not a threat?" Kaguya asked.

"No. He is a lesser life form. You don't need to concern yourself with him, Kaguya-sama." Ai Hayasaka lied once more.

"If you say so," Kaguya closed the file and thought nothing of it.

She then looked up at her personal valet with all the hauteur of a disgruntled child. "What was that stupid footnote at the end? That's highly unlike you Hayasaka!" she blushed.

"Sorry, I included that in the report, Kaguya-sama but I thought it was relevant as most of the other details." Hayasaka replied sarcastically.

"He finds blondes wearing blue swimsuits attractive." Kaguya repeated the last line in the file. "How in the world did you figure that out?"

Hayasaka blushed and played with her hair. "…Through extensive research, Kaguya-sama."

The rest was left unreported because she didn't want to shatter the innocence of her mistress. Needless to say, Hachiman Hikigaya was a person to be reckoned with. He was a liar, a manipulative person, a quick thinker… and someone who wore broadshorts to the bathhouse.

Tch, Ai Hayasaka thought, what was up with that.

Needless to say, she couldn't stop herself from blushing.

A/N: Now this was a biggie (2300+ words)

This chapter couldn't have been possible without "nidaime kiroi senko", "Clipsus", "Turchetti", "Volfy790", "AnimeisNice", "WinterWritting", "Noth-Iyv", and three other guest reviewers (please give me your names in future so that I could mention them.)

Thank you for suggesting such a wonderful character. I hope I was able to do justice to the character, especially with the personas. And I also incorporated the voice of the narrator to an extent in, 'It was a lie'. Tell me what you think? Was it an okay chapter?

At first I was writing about Hayasaka stalking 8man using her four different personas, but I thought most of you won't get it and it would turn out boring, so instead I wrote this. Maybe that could be a future chapter, who knows.

As always please leave the names of the girls you want in the reviews or PM me.

Now for those of you who want chapters with the already suggested female characters, here are the options:

Option 1: Chitoge Kirisaki – Nisekoi.

Option 2: Makise Kurisu – Steins;Gate

Option 3: Rio Futaba – Rascals Don't think of Bunny Girl Senpai.

Option 4: Rin Tohsaka- Fate

Option 5: Mordred Pendragron – Fate

Please pick any of the above or suggest a female character of your liking in the review or through PM.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.

Leave lots and lots of reviews, follow and fave.

Won't betray your dreams.