A/N: I felt bad about being unable to continue my previous projects, so I decided to write a bunch of chapters for this one before uploading anything. This is a spinoff for 'God's Blessings on this IRL World', this time with Aqua as the main heroine. I'm uploading this on June 7, since it's Kazuma's birthday. Happy birthday Kazuma!

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Volume 1: Maidenless Reincarnation (I Will Seriously Try If I Get A Girlfriend)

Chapter 1: Blessing This NEET With A Beautiful Classmate!

Part 1

My classmates used to come to my house to give me notes, handouts and homework I needed to submit.

As time went on, my classmates stopped coming. I guess they got tired of wasting their time delivering homework to a NEET.

That changed when one day, a beautiful girl wearing my school's uniform appeared on my doorstep.

"Satou-san! I came to bring you your homework! Please start working on it immediately!"

Her name is Mizuhara, and she was a girl in the same year as me, from a different class.

"...What do you want?"

"I came to bring you our homework! Since we're classmates and all!"

"...Huh?"

I said, with a puzzled look on my face.

"Ehh?! You forgot already?! It's me, it's me! It's your beautiful classmate! Don't you know me?!"

I did know her, because she was the most popular girl among the first year girls.

I also knew that she wasn't my classmate at all.

"...We're not in the same class."

"Stop kidding around, Satou-san! Just take your homework and work on it diligently, like a good student! Even Hiki-NEETs need to do their homework, you know! I'll wait for you to finish and I'll submit it to my… I mean, our homeroom sensei tomorrow! Aren't I nice?!"

I instantly figured out her motives.

She wanted me to do her homework for her.

Her name was even written on the homework papers she was trying to shove off on me. Is she really this stupid?

Her scheme might have worked if we were in the same class, but there was no way it'd work on someone from another class.

She probably heard I was a NEET and looked up my address in the class register. What amazed me was that she had the guts to pull through with this obvious scam of hers and came all the way to my house.

I was about to close the door in her face, but I thought of a better idea.

"Ah… You're Mizuhara-san, right? I remember you since you're so pretty!"

"Wait, my scam actually worked?! I mean, sure thing, Satou-san! Pardon the intrusion!"

She really is an idiot, huh?

There's no other way to explain this.

I thought this to myself while letting her inside my house.

"You sure are sociable for a NEET, Satou-san! I thought that you'd be intimidated by a beautiful girl like me…"

She had the nerve to call herself a beautiful girl.

I mean, she wasn't lying, but normally most girls are more modest about their appearance.

Then again, that kind of fake modesty is annoying as hell, too.

I took the homework papers and pretended to not notice that all of them had her name written on them.

I even found a scrap piece of paper inside that detailed her plan on how to get me to do her homework for her.

This kind of stupidity is impressive in its own way.

"So? Do you understand the questions? If you have any questions, just ask!"

If she was desperate enough to make a random NEET do her homework for her, I doubted she could answer any questions I had for her.

Not like I needed any help, anyway.

I understood the material for the most part.

But for what I had in mind…

"Wow! You sure work fast! And you're good at math! Look at all those numbers!"

She said, as I filled up the Japanese language section with random algebra equations.

"And I'm done!"

After a few minutes of scribbling down random nonsense, I completed my task.

"Ohhh! Are you, like, some kinda genius?!"

"Heh. Yes, I am! I'm allowed to stay home because the school recognizes my genius, and has given me permission to study in the comfort of my own home!"

"That's amazing?! I found a golden egg?! If I get this guy to do my homework every time, I'm set?!"

I can hear you, you know.

"Thanks for your hard work, Satou-san! I'll come back tomorrow and we can do the same thing, OK?!"

"Sure thing!"

I gave her a smile while escorting her out of my house.

"Bye, bye now!"

"Bye bye!"

Once I closed the door, I smirked to myself.

"...What an idiot."

Part 2

"Y-You tricked me! You damned Hiki-NEET! Who do you think you are, tricking a beloved idol like me, huh?!"

An angry Mizuhara appeared on my doorstep the next day.

I knew that she was popular, but calling herself a 'beloved idol' was just too conceited.

"I wonder what you're talking about…?"

"Don't play dumb! I got treated like an idiot by the sensei because of you!"

That's because you are an idiot.

"Oi, you're the one who tried to trick me first."

"...I-I don't know what you're talking about?"

She averted her eyes and started fidgeting.

"You think I'd fall for such an obvious scam?! You must think I'm brain dead, huh?!"

"B-But I heard that Hiki-NEET are burnouts who have their minds numbed by all the lolicon anime and porn they watch!"

"I'm not a Hiki-NEET!"

"You smell like one!"

"Well, you smell like a dirty scam artist! I should report you to the police!"

"Wah! I'm sorry?! Don't do that?! Anyway, just let me in already! You need to take responsibility for what you did!"

I held her off as she tried to push her way in my house.

She's damn persistent…!

"Ara… isn't that the eldest Satou child? What's he doing with that girl?"

"Did she say 'take responsibility'...?"

The neighbors outside started gossiping as they looked at Mizuhara causing a scene at the front door.

Mizuhara smirked upon seeing their reactions.

"...Take responsibility for doing me!"

"Shut up! You really think a shut-in like me can do that kinda stuff?! Whatever, just get in!"

To prevent her from creating a bigger scene, I dragged Mizuhara inside.

She stumbled in and dropped her bag near the shoe rack.

"Ow! You don't need to be so rough with me!"

I let her go as she fixed her uniform.

"So, why don't we get to work now? It's not good to procrastinate!"

I yanked her collar before she could walk into my living room.

"Hold on, how can you just casually walk in like you own the place, huh?! And you really think that I'll do your homework for you? You must really think the world revolves around you just because you have a pretty face, a nice chest, and the perfect figure!"

"I'm pretty sure you listed off all the reasons why I should get what I want. You got any juice?"

She went over to the kitchen and started rummaging inside the fridge. I yanked her collar back again.

"Oi, stop doing that! You'll end up choking me?!"

She rubbed her neck after I released her collar.

"I'm not doing your homework for you!"

I crossed my arms, standing my ground.

"Tch… You sure are tough for a NEET… I thought all NEETs are susceptible to a beautiful girl's charms…"

That's because her rotten personality overshadows her good looks.

"Hah? You think I'd just let you walk all over me just because you have flawless skin, vibrant eyes and soft-looking lips? You underestimate me!"

"Again, you keep giving excellent reasons why you should give me what I want."

She confidently smirked, while flipping her hair.

"No, actually, give me a good reason why I should help you, or else I'm kicking you out."

The confident look she had on her face immediately shattered. She started getting all teary, her lips trembling.

"T-The sensei said that the homework I handed in was so bad, they're considering kicking me out of the school! It's all your fault, you know?!"

Our school was pretty prestigious and famous for being an elite school. I could see them expelling someone who submitted the homework answers I gave Mizuhara. I went all out in coming up with the worst answers, after all.

"...So just go ahead and submit your homework normally without me messing it up for you. If you do it normally, they'll see that you're not some crazy person who writes math equations in the Japanese language section of your homework."

"Wait, you did that…? No, more importantly, um… This isn't the first warning they gave me. Since the school year started, I failed every quiz, every test and I didn't do any of my homework. If my next homework submission is bad, they might actually expel me!"

"...You deserve to be expelled."

"You're so mean?!"

I pushed her face away after she started trying to pummel me with her fists.

"How did you manage to get into such a prestigious school in the first place?"

"Ah… I got a recommendation letter from my drama club advisor."

"...I hope you enjoy expulsion."

"You're actually so mean?!"

She got in with a recommendation while I had to study hard for the entrance exam.

I didn't even want to study in this tryhard school. My homeroom sensei from middle school made me apply, on account of my good grades.

"If you keep failing your tests, even if I do your homework for you, they'll still kick you out for being an irreparable failure, you know?"

"Don't worry about that! I have a plan! You see, homework grades are worth 30% of our final grade! As long as I get a good homework grade, they have no reason to kick me out! That's how a NEET like you manages to not get expelled, right? You make your parents pick up and drop off your homework for you!"

This girl knows too much!

Ever since my classmates stopped coming by, my parents took over their job of picking up homework I needed to do, then dropping it all off to my homeroom sensei by the end of the week.

I did the bare minimum in order to stay enrolled.

I didn't want to stay enrolled, but my parents threatened to stop giving me an allowance to buy games if I dropped out of school.

"I get how you can stop yourself from being expelled now."

"Great! I'm glad you understand!"

"I'm still not helping you, though."

"Why?! I don't understand!"

"I don't benefit from helping you at all! What do I get out of this?!"

"Please! You're my only hope?!"

I pushed her away again as she started crying and trying to grab my clothes.

Even though she was a beautiful girl, I didn't want her going near me after I saw how hopeless she was.

Such beauty is wasted on her!

"I don't get it. Don't you have friends or something? Why are you depending on a NEET like me?"

"...You really think I want my friends to know about my bad grades? I have an image to maintain, you know!"

So she didn't care about maintaining that image around me, huh?

"I still don't see why I should help you. There has to be something in it for me."

"...You're not expecting me to do some lewd stuff for you, right? Stop it. That's impossible. It'll never happen."

She gave me a disgusted look.

"I never said that. I know… How about money?"

There was something I needed money for. I doubted that this girl had any money but…

"Eh? That's all you want? What a petty guy. I guess your parents don't give you that much allowance since you're a useless NEET right? Fine, how much do you want?"

She took out a wad of bills from her wallet. How did she have this much money?!

"...3,000 yen and I'll do your homework."

"Fine… Here, take it!"

She took out the bills and held it out for me to take.

"But if you trick me again you owe me three times the amount in interest!"

What a strict condition.

Part 3

This time, I answered the homework questions properly.

Mizuhara was fiddling around with her phone and playing some gacha game.

"Gah…! Come on, I've been rolling forever! When is the pity system gonna kick in?! I want that Ultra-Rare cabbage!"

After three hours or so, I finished the homework for Mizuhara.

I didn't notice since I was focusing, but Mizuhara had fallen asleep with her head on the living room table where I was doing my homework.

I looked at her closely.

She had long black hair that looked glossy and soft. She was a classic Japanese beauty, but she had nice curves that was apparent even through the baggy cardigan she was wearing.

…She looks like an Ultra-Rare beauty if she shuts her mouth.

And this beautiful girl is all defenseless in the house of some guy she just met, when his parents weren't home.

Lucky for her, I'm not the kind of guy who'd take advantage of her vulnerable state.

At the same time, it would also be rude to a lady if a man didn't try something while she was defenseless.

So as not to insult Mizuhara, should I try something?

I inched closer and looked at her closely.

…Those pretty lips were hurling insults at me before.

Mizuhara shifted in her sleep, then her eyes opened.

She saw me staring at her closely.

"Yo."

I said, while raising my hand in greeting.

"Gah! This HikiNEET is about to assault me in my sleep?! How dare you!"

"Well, I thought that it would be rude if I didn't try anything. Won't you be insulted if I didn't at least try something while you were asleep?"

"You watch too much anime, you gross otaku!"

Maybe she had a point.

She looked down at the homework I finished and her mood shifted instantly.

"Seems like you finished everything! Good job, Satou-san!"

Thank god for her short-term memory.

"I didn't do it for free."

I held my hand out.

She smiled uneasily and looked away.

"Um… You see, I spent a lot of money on gacha earlier. If I give you 3,000 yen now, I'll run out of gacha budget for the rest of the month."

Just how much money did she spend on pulls in the few hours she was playing?

"It's not my fault you have such poor impulse control. Now hand it over."

"Tch. So stingy…"

She regretfully handed me my hard earned money.

After putting the homework away in her bag, she stood up.

"It's getting pretty late, so I'll get going now."

"Good riddance…"

"What was that?"

"Good night, Mizuhara-san!"

I roughly pushed her out to the door and slammed it in front of her before she could say anything else.

I wasn't happy about wasting so much of my spare time with that girl, but at least I gained a fair bit of money for my troubles.

It wasn't enough to earn me a Triple-A game, but I should be able to buy some good pay-to-win items in the MMO I was playing.

While I was preparing to go upstairs to play that MMO, the front door opened.

My little brother, Kazuto, came in, looking confused.

I felt a bit awkward around him since we weren't as close now as we used to be.

Normally, he ignored me when he saw me, but this time he started a conversation.

"...Nii-san, it could have just been my imagination, but did a girl just leave our house? She seemed quite pretty, too."

"Oh? It seems that Kazuto's at an age where you start noticing pretty girls?"

"...! It's not weird for me to notice an attractive girl, right?! Stupid nii-san! Don't tease me when you're just a NEET!"

He started blushing and insulting me to hide his embarrassment.

After taking his shoes off at the doorway, he ran upstairs and slammed the door to his room.

He was easy to fool since he was just a kid.

Then again, Mizuhara was about my age and she was easier to trick than he was.

I went upstairs to my room and played the MMO for a bit.

In this game, I was known as 'that lucky bastard who always gets the rare loot'.

For some reason, my luck is really high, as if I'm favored by the RNG gods.

After making my guild members salty, and chatting with my protege Dark+Angel for a bit, I logged off from the game.

I didn't grind as many hours in the MMO as I used to.

That was because I had to use this time for something even more important.

I went over to Mico Mico douga and saw that my favorite streamer just went live, just on time.

I smiled when I saw a blue haired girl on the screen waving to the camera.

"Hello, my cute followers! It's your favorite Arch-Priest, Aqua! Bless!"

She winked and put up a peace sign.

Aqua was a new streamer who had been gaining a lot of fans recently.

I was one of the first to find her, an original member of the Axis-cult, as we liked to call ourselves.

Innocent, funny, beautiful, charming…

Aqua was unlike any of the girls I knew! She's special!

"Today I have a gacha pull stream scheduled… But… Sorry, my cute followers! I made a mistake! I spent a lot of money on pulls earlier, so I don't know if I can make any pulls on streams. Sowwy~!"

The donations started pouring in, as my fellow Axis-cultists emptied their wallets for Aqua.

Those idiots…

That's not nearly enough money to spend on our goddess!

I emptied out my bank account and sent donations to the beautiful Aqua. I got money from Mizuhara anyway, so I didn't need to worry about going broke.

"E-Ehh…?! Everyone… You're sending so many donations! Wahhh… No, this is too much… Do you really love Aqua this much…?!"

Yes we do, Aku-tan!

That modest and cute expression as she's surprised by the amount of donations she's getting from her dear followers… It's too heavenly!

The other streamers in this website are just fake, gold digging whores who only care about manipulating otaku for their money.

But Aqua is different! She's not like other girls!

"OK-maru! Now that I have enough funds… Let's start the gacha streak! IKZ! Gah…! A shitty pull right from the start?!"

I chuckled at her reaction and started spamming 'www' in the chat.

Two hours went by with Aqua not having any luck with her gacha.

"Uuuu… How unfortunate. Alright, since I didn't get an Ultra-Rare pull tonight, I guess I'll have to do a punishment game. What do you want me to do, my dear followers?"

Those degenerates in the chat started spamming a bunch of lewd requests.

Those bastards…! Don't they see that Aqua is troubled by that?!

"...Girlfriend ASMR… Take off your wig and do a real face reveal… Show your boobs… Show your butt… Come on guys, what's with these weird requests?! Hmm… Do some exercise? Well, I guess that's harmless enough…"

…!

Since Aqua is an innocent girl who doesn't know any better, she fell for such an obvious trap!

These bastards are taking advantage of the newbie streamer!

"Let's see… Well, I have an exercise ball here. Maybe I can use that?"

I was about to send a donation to warn her, until I saw her take out an exercise ball.

…Let's wait to see where this goes.

She sat on the exercise ball and started bouncing.

"This is a good way to train your hips, right? I'm not an expert, though. Sorry, is it fun to watch me just bouncing up and down…?"

Of course it is!

I immediately started recording the stream as Aqua started bouncing on the blue exercise ball.

"Wah… It's like doing squats, but you can do way more since you're bouncing on the ball. Whew, this is quite the workout… Eh? Is it lewd? Why, what's wrong with what I'm doing?"

She looked at the live feed and saw what it looked like when she was bouncing on the exercise ball.

"Y-You perverts….?! You're gonna get me banned! I'm gonna have to delete this from the archives now!"

It's a good thing I recorded it.

There's probably going to be a lot of clips going around of the incident anyway.

I bet her follower count will double after those clips circulate.

"Geez! You guys are so mean! Alright, I'm gonna end the stream now. I'm so embarrassed! Anyway… Thanks for watching, my dear followers! God's Blessing to my Wonderful Fans! Love ya!"

After giving a cute wink to the camera, she ended the live feed.

Aqua was… Cute as always!

Plus, she gave us that treat at the end.

"..."

I replayed the recording of Aqua bouncing on the ball.

I zoomed in on her face, which was flushed due to the exercise she was doing.

If you can't see the ball, it looks like she's blushing while riding on something else…

"..."

I reached out for the box of tissues.

Part 4

The next day, I had an unwelcome surprise waiting for me outside my doorstep.

"Good afternoon, Satou-san! I came by for our homework session!"

I stared at Mizuhara who was smiling at me.

I thought that yesterday would be the last time I'd see her.

"...What are you on about?"

"Eh? Well, the sensei praised me today for my homework, so if I don't hand him the same quality of work the next time, he'll get suspicious. I can't have him think that I'm a cheater, you know!"

But she is a cheater.

"No. Go away."

"Is this the right way to treat your classmate?!"

"We're not even in the same class!"

I tried to close the door on her, but she stopped me by grabbing the door.

She's unexpectedly strong.

"I'll pay! I'll pay you the same rate! I got a lot of money from my work last night, so I can afford it!"

What kind of work does she do that gives her a lot of money just from one night?

As I thought, all highschool girls in the real world are just sluts!

They're nothing compared to my goddess Aqua!

I was about to push her away, but I remembered that I spent all my money donating to Aqua.

I could use the money…

I tried to weigh the good and the bad in my head, but I couldn't deny that I needed more money.

Even though I was a NEET, I had an expensive lifestyle.

I didn't know where she got the money, but 3,000 yen a day wasn't bad. If these homework sessions became a regular thing, I could accumulate a fair bit of money.

Money that I could use donating to Aqua!

"...Fine. But the rate stays the same at 3,000 yen, got it?!"

"I got it! Thanks, Satou-san!"

She pushed past me and ran to the living room.

She placed her bag down on the living room table and took out the homework for me to do.

Before sitting down, though, she said to me,

"I didn't say this yesterday, but isn't it rude to not serve your guests any drinks? Even if you're a NEET, you should still have some basic manners!"

"Yeah, yeah…"

I went over to the kitchen and prepared some tea.

"Here."

I placed the tea cup in front of her once I quickly boiled some hot water and steeped a tea bag on it. I didn't really care, so I just hurried up and made it.

"What? No snacks? Where's the cake? I would have settled for some cookies, too."

"This isn't a damn cafe!"

IRL girls are just unbearable.

Still, she's paying me money, so I should put up with her rotten attitude.

She took the tea I gave her and sipped it.

"...It's lukewarm."

She complains so damn much!

Then again, I didn't spend any effort on making the tea. I guess I didn't boil it long enough.

I ignored her and started to do her homework.

I wanted to finish it right away, so I could go back to playing games.

Plus, Aqua had an early stream today and I didn't want to miss it while I was doing Mizuhara's homework.

After an hour and a half, I was able to finish the homework.

I finished it thirty minutes before Aqua's stream started, too. I was quite happy with myself.

"I finished it."

"Oh, good job."

She accepted the homework without checking it. Either she trusted me not to repeat the trick I played on her, or she was too lazy to review the answers. I lean towards the latter.

"Alright, you can go now."

"Fine, fine. I'll go. I'm quite thirsty, though, so give me another cup of tea before I go."

I sighed but headed over to the kitchen, not wanting her to repeat her speech about my inability to entertain guests.

I remembered her complaining about serving lukewarm tea, so I made sure to boil the tea at a higher temperature and for a longer time.

"Here."

I handed her a cup of tea. She muttered a quick 'thank you' before gulping it down.

Her eyes widened and she spilled out a whole mouthful of tea.

"Oi?! What are you making that mess for?!"

"It's too damn hot?! What the hell?! Are you trying to burn my tongue off?!"

"You were complaining about it being lukewarm last time?!"

"I gulped it down because I thought it would be lukewarm again! Gah, my throat hurts!"

I looked at her uniform. It was soaking wet and stained from the tea she spit out.

"...Do you have any spares or something?"

"No, I don't."

I sighed and stood up.

"I guess I'll get you a spare shirt."

"Hold it. Let me pick the shirt."

"Huh?"

I squinted my eyes at her, wondering what she was up to.

"...Knowing a pervert like you, you'll probably do something weird to the shirt if I don't come with you. This is a rare opportunity to get a beautiful girl to wear your shirt, after all."

"Do I really come off as such a disgusting freak to you?"

She didn't answer, only tilting her head as if she said something obvious.

"...Fine. Pick your own shirt, then!"

I didn't want to waste any more time and led her up to my room.

She said that she wanted to make sure that I didn't get any weird ideas, yet she was casually following me to my room.

She really must be stupid.

"...Here it is."

I opened the door and let her in.

Her first reaction is to raise her nose up and start sniffing the air.

"...It smells surprisingly decent here. I expected to smell the scent of human garbage and failure."

I gritted my teeth, enduring her insults.

I just wanted her to pick a shirt and leave.

I opened the closet and showed her my wardrobe.

"...They're all lame. It's a typical otaku's wardrobe!"

She said, while looking through my various tracksuits and anime shirts.

"Just pick anything out already!"

"Oh, this one actually looks good!"

She pulled out a shirt that had the logo of the game I liked to play.

It was a limited edition shirt that they gave out at the event. Thanks to my luck, I was one of the five people lucky enough to receive it.

I even got one of the developers to sign the shirt in one of the events.

Since it was an expensive shirt, the material was good and they made sure that it would look fashionable even to those who aren't fans of the game.

Such a shirt is wasted on Mizuhara, but she didn't seem interested in any of the other shirts I had.

"Listen, that shirt is special to me, so be careful with it! Also, make sure to wash it when you get home!"

"I'm surprised you want me to wash it. Wouldn't you want the scent of a beautiful girl on your clothes?"

I couldn't deny that it was a tempting offer, but there's no way I'd tell Mizuhara that.

"...Wash it thoroughly."

"This guy is really so rude… Anyway, leave the room so I can change. And no peeking!"

I left the room and waited for her to change.

After a few minutes, the door opened and Mizuhara came out in a panic.

"Gah! I almost forgot that I have something important to do! I'll be late!"

She pushed past me and ran downstairs.

I followed after her.

"...You're gonna be late for work or something?"

"Yeah, something like that! Anyway, I'll come by the same time tomorrow, got it?!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

I shooed her off as she took her bags, wore her shoes and ran out the door.

This time, Kazuto just happened to come in again a few minutes after Mizuhara ran out.

"...Nii-san, I saw the same girl from yesterday run out of our house. And she was definitely wearing your shirt! Nii-san, what are you doing with that girl?! Don't tell me you're somehow dating a beauty like that?! A NEET like you?!"

"You have such an overactive imagination, Kazuto."

"No, I definitely saw her!"

I ignored Kazuto and headed up to my room.

Aqua had an early stream, so I excitedly booted up my PC and went to Mico Mico Douga.

The stream was about to start in thirty minutes. I talked to some of the other fans in the chat. There were a bunch of curious newbies who came over from the bouncing ball clips.

Sure, you want your favorite streamer to succeed, but it's also kind of annoying when there's a bunch of casuals and newbies in the chat.

Aqua was usually pretty punctual, but she was a few minutes late for this stream.

Suddenly, the stream went live and Aqua came on.

However, she was sweating and panting, and she wasn't even sitting on her chair yet.

"...Is it live? S-Sorry everyone! I had to rush over here! Let me catch my breath… Water… I need water… Gah! My tongue!"

The chat was laughing at Aqua's antics, but I just stared at the screen, motionless.

Aqua was wearing my shirt.

It was undoubtedly the limited edition shirt. It even had the dev's signature.

Furthermore, she was wearing the uniform skirt from my school.

The voice was different, but I could hear traces of it when I listened closely.

If you took away the blue eye contacts, the face was the same, especially since Aqua wasn't wearing her usual makeup this time. She probably didn't have time to apply it.

If I imagined her with black hair, this girl was undoubtedly Mizuhara.

"Sorry about that… My tongue got burnt because um… This waiter from the cafe I went to served this really hot tea! What a jerk! Anyway, let's start the stream!"

I stared at the screen, in complete shock.

My Aqua… My perfect goddess…

…Her real identity is actually that scammer who makes me do her homework.

I looked to the side and saw the tissue box. After last night's activities, it was nearly empty.

Fantasizing about Aqua… No, Mizuhara…

I covered my face with both palms.

"Fuuuck myyy liiiiifee!"

There was a banging on the wall, from Kazuto's room.

"Oi, nii-san, keep it down!"

My whole world crumbled in front of me.

Chapter 2: Blessing This NEET With Facts and Logic!

Part 1

Mizuhara was Aqua.

That bitchy girl who tried to trick me into doing her homework ended up being the streamer I admired.

Give me a full refund of all those donations, you bitch!

Are you telling me that the money Mizuhara paid me for doing her homework ended up going back to her when I donated to Aqua?!

What's most important is that the Aqua I saw on stream was nothing but a fake!

I thought that she was an innocent, quirky gamer girl, but she turned out to be an annoying bitch who likes to scam people!

This is what I get for trusting a real girl!

Maybe those Vtuber fans over at /fg/ had a point…

IRL streamers are worthless!

I spent the rest of the night having a personal crisis.

The next day…

Just like she promised, Mizuhara showed up.

"Sup, Satou-san! Ready for another day of getting exploited… I mean, cooperating with me to do my homework?!"

If nothing else, she's easy to read.

I doubted that she was playing some long game, approaching me with the knowledge that I was a fan of her streams.

She lacks the brain capacity to end up being some kind of secret mastermind.

"..."

I didn't greet her and stared blankly at her.

"...What's with the sour look? Oh, you're worried about your precious t-shirt, right? Don't worry, I washed it thoroughly like you asked. Here."

She took out a shopping bag from some famous clothing store. My t-shirt was inside.

When I took the bag, she took that opportunity to push me aside and come into my house.

She made herself at home, throwing her school bag on the couch and slipping her legs under the living room table.

"Phew! I had a busy day at school today! Ah, of course, Satou-san doesn't really know what I mean by that, right? Being a NEET and all!"

I took out my shirt from the bag and saw that she cleaned it properly.

I went over to the living room, carrying the shirt with me.

"You know, Mizuhara-san, this t-shirt is actually one-of-a-kind, you know?"

She stiffened a bit, then slowly turned to face me.

"R-Really? How so?"

"I got this from a game event, and only five people were lucky enough to receive a limited copy of this shirt. I was one of those people."

"W-Wow! But if there's five copies of that shirt, it's not really one-of-a-kind, Satou-san…"

"I'm the only one who got it signed by the head developer!"

"W-Wow! You're so lucky, Satou-san! Haha… And It's really amazing how the signature stayed there even after I washed it?!"

"I used a very good permanent marker after all!"

"You're so smart!"

Mizuhara was sweating a bit, but it didn't seem like she had caught on yet.

"A-Anyway, Satou-san, shouldn't you be serving some tea?"

"Oh, that's right."

While I was boiling water for the tea, I noticed Mizuhara looking at me from behind, as if trying to ascertain if I knew anything about her secret streaming life.

I could just go out and tell her, but I wanted to see her squirm a bit.

After I served her tea, I took out my phone and looked through my playlist.

She was still sipping her tea when I played Aqua's first original single.

"We are Fantastic Dreamers!"

Mizuhara spit out the tea again.

How many times is she going to do that?

"E-Eh? What song is that, Satou-san?!"

"Oh, this? Shouldn't you already be familiar with it? It's your first original single, after all."

We stared at each other.

"Eeeek?! S-Stalker! There's a stalker after me?!"

She scurried away from me in fear.

"What do you mean stalker?! You're the idiot who wore my shirt, and even wore your uniform skirt in the stream yesterday! How did you expect me not to figure it out?!"

"I should have known that you were a fan of me! You're a filthy, disgusting otaku, after all!"

"Is that really what you think of your fanbase?! Just to let you know, I'm not a fan anymore!"

"I don't want you as a fan, anyway! You probably don't even donate to me!"

"...By the way, my username is 'RNGod'."

"My top donor?! Please don't leave me?!"

I shook her off when she grabbed my leg and started crying.

"Unbelievable… To think that my idol would be an idiot like this… There's nothing real and genuine in this world anymore! There's no innocence, no modesty! I'm in despair! This world that tricks men like me into giving their money to fake women has filled me with despair!"

Mizuhara stood up and grabbed my collar, then proceeded to shake me.

"Oi! At least promise me that you'll keep this a secret! Please?!"

I shoved her back to stop her from shaking me with that surprisingly strong grip of hers.

"...I'm not some creepy stalker, you know. I don't care about leaking your secret."

"R-Really? Could it be that Satou-san is a good person?! You're not some despicable, amoral excuse of a human being?!"

"Is that really what you think about me?!"

"Well, if you're allowed to think that I'm some idiot, then I'm free to think whatever I want about you, right?!"

We were both exhausted from screaming at each other, so we both sat down to catch our breaths.

Once we were a bit calmer, we resumed our conversation.

"...Will you really promise to keep my secret?"

She looked up at me, this time, there was a serious look in her eyes.

"Why would I go out of my way to waste my time exposing your stupid secret? I'm not one of those freaks who get a kick out of canceling the careers of internet personalities."

"If that's the case, why did you go out of your way to expose me like this? You really scared me, you know?!"

"I wanted to see you panic."

"So you are one of those freaks!"

"Ow! Oi, I don't know if you realize this, but you're really strong, you know?!"

She started choking me with those strong hands of hers.

Once she let me go, she said,

"So… What now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… About our homework arrangement?"

"My rate is gonna go up to 5,000 yen a day."

"Hah?! You want 5,000 yen a day?! That's the daily wage of some-part time jobs, you know?! And our sessions only last for one to two hours!"

"You're an up and coming streamer who is doubling her follower count everyday! I know you can afford it!"

"This guy… You really are seeking to exploit me!"

I smirked, knowing I had the upper hand. I said,

"Oi, what I'm doing can get me expelled, you know? If I get expelled, then my parents will just see me as a useless NEET!"

"...But you are a useless NEET."

"...I'm still enrolled, so I'm still getting an education. As long as I stay enrolled, I can't be a NEET."

Mizuhara glared at me, but she gave out a deep sigh.

"...Fine. It's not like I have a choice. And plus I can afford it."

I pumped my fist at the prospect of earning even more money.

Part 2

Strangely enough, after I revealed that I knew about her identity, my interactions with Mizuhara didn't change.

She came over every day for me to do her homework for her.

If there's one thing that changed, instead of calling her by her last name, I started calling her Aqua.

At first, I did it to tease her and get a rise out of her, but after some time, I got used to calling her Aqua.

She was annoyed at first, but she got used to it, too.

"Oi, Satou-kun…"

"What is it, Aqua?"

About two weeks had passed and we were having our usual homework session.

"You said that I was a fake streamer who was lying to her fans… Why are you still donating to me?"

She smirked when she raised her phone and showed a screenshot of my account sending her a donation.

"Well, you're entertaining especially when you play games. Your luck is atrocious, so it's funny to see the RNG screw you over every time."

She pouted and took the phone away.

"So you're just hate watching, I see. Well, at least I know that my haters probably all look like you. I can take solace in that!"

"Oi, don't make me a poster boy for your haters!"

I went up to pinch her cheeks.

"Gah… Wah! Sowwy, sowwy!"

Somehow, I ended up having these kinds of casual interactions with Aqua.

Meanwhile, Aqua's follower count and numbers kept growing.

It was only a matter of time until she became a top streamer in Mico Mico douga.

My position as the top donor was soon overtaken.

Since I knew who she really was, I didn't really feel compelled to donate as much anymore.

That was because if I wanted to tell her something, I could just tell it to her face.

"Oi, Aqua, that stream last night was pretty funny."

"...It was supposed to be a serious stream, though."

"Seeing you trying to be serious is what makes it funny."

"This guy…!"

I ended up giving her my criticisms and advice while I was doing her homework.

With Aqua constantly coming over, I couldn't lie to Kazuto anymore.

My parents were rarely home, so they had no idea, but Kazuto, even with his club activities, sometimes came home just in time to see Aqua leaving.

"...Nii-san, tell me who that girl is already!"

One day, after three weeks of Aqua coming over, Kazuto decided to confront me about it.

"Fine, I'll tell you. She's someone from my school who is failing her classes and wants me to do her homework for her. She's paying me money in exchange."

I didn't care about preserving Aqua's dignity, so I just told it exactly how it was.

"W-Who would have known that such a serious looking black haired beauty would be an idiot. You're not lying, right?"

"I wish I was."

"So, she's not your girlfriend, or anything?"

"Of course not."

"That's right! There's no way such a beauty would date nii-san!"

Even though it's true, it's still annoying to hear.

"But still… If she just wants you to do her homework, why is she staying here to wait for you to do it? She could just go out and play in some cafe with her friends or boyfriend and come back to get the homework from you."

I was about to answer, only to find that I couldn't come up with anything.

He was right. There wasn't really any need for Aqua to stick around and watch me do her homework for her.

If anything, she was a distraction since she always struck up a conversation with me.

If we didn't end up talking so much about her streaming career and other random subjects, I could actually finish her homework an hour or so earlier.

"...I guess she's just too stupid to realize it."

"Wow, that's kind of sad."

The next day, after Kazuto brought this up with me, I asked Aqua about it.

"You do know that you can just leave and come back to get your homework, right?"

"Eh? Why would I do that? I like hanging out with Satou-kun, though?"

She said, tilting her head to the side.

"...I see."

That was her answer.

Part 3

"Kazuma, Kazuma! Help meee!"

Somewhere along the way, she started calling me by my first name. I can't pinpoint exactly when, but it became a normal thing before I even realized it.

About two months had passed. It was December and I knew why Aqua was coming over to me in a panic.

"I need help for the final exam of the semester!"

It was about that.

Aqua's homework grades were good, but her exam and quiz scores remained poor.

Apparently her senseis were getting suspicious of her.

"If you want to get a good score, how about doing your own homework for once?"

"...Eh? Will that really help? I was wondering if you can somehow do my exam for me."

"And how am I supposed to do that?!"

Did she expect me to sneak to school like some ninja and somehow do her exam for her, undetected?

If I had the motivation to do something like that, I wouldn't have stayed home all this time.

"Listen, the only way to raise your score is to study and do your own work."

"...That sounds like a pain."

She pouted and pressed her forehead on the living room table.

"Fine! Then help me study, Kazuma!"

She stood up and pointed a finger at me. There was a red mark on her forehead, where she rested it on the table.

"...The rate will increase to 7,000 yen."

"W-What?! Oi, you're pushing your luck, you know?!"

"What do you mean? It's one thing to do your homework, it's another thing to help you with your homework and prepare study lessons for you, too. Plus, I assume that our session times will increase."

"...This guy is so stingy."

"Oi, I know you can afford it! You make way more from donations, don't you?!"

"I invest my money on equipment and on the streams themselves! I also use up so much money on gacha pulls and buying the latest games, you know?! Plus the mic upgrades and PC upgrades I got weren't cheap!"

I crossed my arms and sighed.

"...Fine. It'll stay at 5,000 yen, but you'll have to do the homework yourself. I'll only guide you from now on."

"Uuu… Fine."

She reluctantly agreed to my terms.

From that day on, I went from doing her homework for her to becoming her tutor.

With Aqua staying longer for our study sessions, Kazuto finally had a chance to meet her.

He let out a squeak of surprise when he saw Aqua in the living room with me.

"...Hm? Is this your brother, Kazuma?"

Aqua said, using Kazuto as an excuse to distract herself from her studies.

"U-Um, nice to meet you!"

"Hehe… He's cute unlike his NEET brother!"

"Oi, focus on studying."

"Ow!"

I hit Aqua's head with a ruler to get her to pay attention to the problems I made for her to solve.

While Aqua was focusing on her work, Kazuto pulled me aside to the kitchen and said,

"...You two seem awfully close now, nii-san."

"Is that what you call close?"

"She calls you by your first name!"

"She's not really the type to care about things like that. Besides, I'm not just doing her homework for her anymore, I'm her tutor now."

"...Well, if you say so."

Kazuto gave up and sighed. He got himself some juice from the fridge then headed to the living room.

He picked up the remote and turned on the TV.

"...Oi, we're studying here, Kazuto."

"Oh, sorry. But I have this show I really wanted to watch today…"

I remembered Kazuto talking about some show he wanted to watch. He was all excited about it the night before.

"Well… We're studying here, so…"

"Kazuma, why don't we just move to your room?"

"Eh?"

"I feel kinda bad intruding here. If your brother wants to watch TV, then let's just move?"

Kazuto's eyes widened and looked at me, waiting for my response.

"...Well, I guess that can work."

Kazuto's mouth dropped and he said,

"Gah! I accidentally gave nii-san an assist! I don't want to be his wingman!"

"...What's your little brother talking about?"

"I have no idea. Just ignore him."

I led Aqua up to my room.

It wasn't even the first time she had been there, so I didn't think too much about it.

Rather than thinking that a girl was going to be alone with me in my room, I could only think about how I'd have to endure Aqua's usual annoying ways in my own room.

I didn't really see Aqua as a girl.

I brought up a low table and we set up the books on it. I resumed my lesson, with Aqua trying her best to follow along.

"...I just don't get it. This doesn't make any sense!"

After an hour of studying, Aqua looked like she was about to give up.

I sighed while sitting on my computer chair, swiveling around.

"Go ahead and take a five minute break."

"...Finally! I'm gonna get some juice. Want anything?"

"Get me some juice, too."

While Aqua went downstairs to raid my fridge, I turned my computer on from sleep mode.

I was browsing Mico Mico douga in my last session. I saw Aqua's page, at the 70,000 followers she now had.

Over time, Aqua's streaming quality improved.

It wasn't just from her equipment, her usage of OBS and other streaming programs also improved over time.

She even learned how to edit videos and make clip compilations for her channel. Apparently, she did some work editing her own music video for Fantastic Dreamer, too.

When Aqua came back, I asked her,

"Hey, Aqua, how did you learn how to edit and use OBS?"

"Well… I tried to look up a guide, but it didn't really help. So I just tried to experiment on my own and figure out what works."

I went up to the books on the table.

Then I pushed them off the table.

"Eh?! What are you doing?!"

"It seems you're not gonna learn by reading these books or listening to me lecture you, so let's try a different approach."

I cherry picked some problems from a math book, but I disassembled them into manageable pieces.

Instead of having her solve difficult questions all at once, I let her piece together the required knowledge on her own and develop her own sense of logic on what works.

Then, once she developed an instinct for it, I gave her the full, complicated questions you'd see on a test.

This time, she was able to solve them.

"Whoa! That worked! How did it work?!"

Aqua was getting overwhelmed with all the lessons and instructions that tried to get her to see the big picture.

But Aqua was the type of person who learned better by doing things on her own. She was a creative type, essentially.

If you gave her the tools to figure out how to draw, she can draw that big picture herself and understand how it works in the process.

With these hands on types, you shouldn't teach them. You should give them the resources they need to teach themselves.

"I guess you're not really dumb, Aqua. Maybe the classes are holding you back?"

I read somewhere that it was important for a tutor to be supportive, so I tried giving her some encouragement.

I wondered if it had an opposite effect, since Aqua just stared at me for a while.

"Heh, I guess so! Maybe I'm a genius after all!"

"Don't get carried away."

"Ow!"

I brought her back to earth by lightly hitting her head with a ruler.

Part 4

After three weeks of lessons, it was time for the exam period.

Aqua got increasingly nervous until the day of the first exam.

"K-Kazuma, I'm scared?!"

She was trembling as she looked over the notes I prepared for her.

"That's a good thing."

"How is that a good thing?!"

"Were you ever scared of taking an exam before?"

She thought about it, then shook her head.

"Not really. I didn't really care because I knew I'd fail them anyway."

"If you fear failure now, that just means that deep down, you know that you have a good shot to succeed. The absence of the fear of failure also means the absence of the possibility of success. That's why you should embrace that fear and use it as a source of motivation."

"That… Actually makes sense."

She stopped shaking and let out a calming breath.

"If you want a good way to deal with pressure during the exam, just imagine all the things that could go wrong, then imagine everything that could go right. Then imagine the most likely scenario, of all the things that will go wrong, and all the things that will go right. That's how the world works. For everything that could go wrong in life, there are also things that will go right. Hard work won't help you achieve your dreams, but it will help you achieve a sustainable reality."

Aqua stared at me again for a long time. She had been doing that a lot recently.

I looked away from her and coughed, which seemed to shake her out of her trance.

"Alright… I think I can do this now!"

I let out a sigh of relief. I invested so much time into teaching Aqua that I'd hate to see my efforts go to waste.

If she was gonna put in that much effort, I wanted to see her succeed.

"Alright, go home and get a good night's sleep. That means no streaming."

"Uuu… I hope that I don't lose interest by taking a week off to focus on exams. I've gained a lot of momentum by streaming everyday without breaks…"

This would be the first time since she started streaming that Aqua was going to take a break. She was pretty anxious about it, but I convinced her to take a week off to focus on her exams.

"...Just think about all the viewers you'll get on your return. Plus, there's all kinds of haters who are spreading a narrative that you're some high school dropout NEET, right? If you take breaks during the time when students normally have exams, then it'll convince those people that you're a proper student."

"I guess an otaku like you knows how the minds of those creeps work. Alright, I guess I'll just focus my all into barely passing those exams!"

"Focus on getting a good grade!"

I walked her down to my front door and watched her leave. As she was walking away, she stopped to turn to me and wave her hands around, with a big grin on her face.

I let out a small smile and waved back at her.

Kazuto went up behind me and watched Aqua leave.

"..."

He was staring at me silently.

"...What?"

"Nii-san, are you actually that dense? You do know that there's a good mood forming between you two right now."

I sighed and went back inside. Kazuto followed me.

"I'd rather not have a middle schooler trying to teach me about girls."

"Well, I've dated in the past. You haven't."

"Urk!"

That dealt more emotional damage than I thought it would, hearing that from my little brother.

"So what are you trying to say? Aqu… I mean, Mizuhara likes me or something?"

"I said that you two have a good mood. I don't think she loves you or even has a crush on you, but girls are sensitive to this kind of stuff, even an airhead like Mizuhara-san."

"What does that even mean, a good mood?"

"Girls fall in love in two ways. One is that they see a hot guy and instantly fall in love with their physical features."

"I hate hot guys! Curse those ikemen!"

I let my natural hate for ikemen get a hold of me and instantly cursed them.

"Oi, calm down. These sorts of romances don't really work out in the end. It'll result in one or two dates, but unless they're really compatible, it doesn't really work out in the end. After all, just because you like how someone looks, it doesn't mean that you'll like their personality. And the longer you know someone, the more you can see what their actual personality is, and what's fake."

I thought about how I was hardcore simping for Aqua the streamer before I found out who she really was in real life. I suppose that was what Kazuto was talking about.

"But the second way a girl falls in love often leads to better results. It starts out with a good mood. They find a guy they get along with. They get friendly with each other, and if it works out, that good mood can escalate to romance. Lots of guys reach this step and confess right away, only to get rejected."

"Ah, you're talking about the infamous friend zone."

"I guess that's what incels call it."

"You're calling me an incel?!"

Kazuto proceeded to ignore me and went on,

"Anyway, most guys sense this good mood and wrongly misinterpret it as romance. This good mood should be an incubator for romance, not a sure-fire way that you'll get a girl if you confess prematurely."

"What do you do at this stage, then? If you don't act fast, then girls will lose interest in you, right?"

"If they lose interest, then it just wasn't meant to be. You see, some guys try too hard to impress girls, and that just scares them off. It sounds cheesy, but the best method is to just be yourself."

"Ah… That's how I know I'm talking to a middle schooler. Your idea of romance is still too naive."

"I've dated and kissed a girl before."

"You fucking normie! Die!"

I started strangling my brother.

"Gack…! Oi, just let me finish…! Gack!"

I let go of him and let him finish what he was trying to say.

"...Is it really that strange that not every girl will like you for who you are? Are you saying that you have the ability to fall in love with every girl you meet?"

"Well… I guess not."

"If that's how it is for you, then why should it be different for girls? There's girls who will fall in love with you, and girls who will only want you as a friend. Sure, there's manipulative girls out there who only want to use you, but there's just as many guys out there who are manipulative bastards as well."

"...So, what are you trying to say, in regards to me and Mizuhara?"

"I'm saying that since there's a good mood around you and Mizuhara-san, you should watch out for any signs of romance developing between you two. It's not every day that a guy like you even reaches this stage with a beautiful girl like her, you know. You have nothing to lose."

"Hold on… I don't even like Aqua like that. What makes you think I want her as a girlfriend?"

I didn't really see Aqua as a girl or someone I wanted to date. I admit that we got along, but she annoyed me more often than not. I didn't really feel like I had a crush on her or anything.

"...Like I said, you literally have nothing to lose, nii-san. A NEET like you will probably never get this chance again, at least while you're still in high school. In any case, if you get an opportunity like this, why don't you take advantage of it for the life experience alone? You can't seriously think that you're gonna be a shut-in NEET forever, right? You should try to enjoy your youth while you still can."

I looked at Kazuto, who was waiting for me to respond.

"Pretentious little twerp… You seriously think that you just said something smart, didn't you?!"

"Gurk! Oi, I'm more experienced than you in life! A guy like you who spends all his time playing games should just shut up and listen to me!"

I choked this little brother of mine who was trying to lecture his big brother.

Chapter 3: Blessing this NEET With A Christmas Date!

Part 1

After her first day of exams, Aqua came by to my house looking tired.

"...Good work."

"Un…"

She came in and laid her face down on the couch.

I looked away since her butt was raised and I saw a flash of blue shimapan.

"How was it? You had Math on the first day, right?"

"...I think I did alright. I don't know! Gahhh!"

She sat up and took out books from her bag and laid them out on the table.

She opened a textbook and started reading.

"Oi, what are you doing?"

I closed the book when she started reading.

"Eh? I'm reviewing, what do you think?! Let's see… the water molecule is made out of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, otherwise known as H20…"

I snatched the book away from her and placed it in her bag.

"It's actually detrimental if you overwork your brain while you're in the exam period. Just trust in all the study sessions you had and let your brain digest everything. A lot of learning is subconscious, you know? It's like how you grow muscles from exercising. You'll never grow muscles if you don't give your body time to heal."

"...What does a NEET like you know about exercise?"

"Apparently more than you!"

"Hoh? Should we have a push-up contest, then?"

She looked confident, which worried me, but I didn't want to back down from a challenge.

"You're on!"

We went into a push-up position and started the contest.

"...Gah."

Twenty push-ups was my limit.

"Bwahaha! You're so weak, Kazuma! As expected of a NEET?!"

Aqua was still easily doing push-ups. She could probably go on forever if she wanted.

"...How are you so strong?"

I said, rubbing my sore arms.

"You think I was just born with these good looks? Well, I guess genetics does play a part in it."

"...I guess you're fit, then?"

I looked at her body, but I couldn't really tell since she always wore a cardigan and blazer since it was winter time.

"You checking me out, Kazuma?"

She smirked when she saw me examining her body.

"Of course not, idiot. Anyway, if you're exercising and all, you should actually do things like that instead of studying during the exam period. It'll help reduce your stress and also clear your thoughts. Sitting on a desk all day and studying will just give you brain fog and make you mentally exhausted. You want to be in peak condition while you're doing exams."

"...Kazuma, you sure do know an awful lot about studying even though you're a NEET."

"I got into this elite school without a recommendation, you know?"

Of course, all my studying went to waste since I became a shut-in, anyway.

"So, if we're not gonna study, what should I do?"

"I don't know. Go home, relax, take a nap, or something."

"That's boring, though. Let's just hang out, then, if we're not studying."

I blinked, unsure what to do. Aqua and I mostly spent our time studying, we never really did anything else outside of that.

"...Well, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. Got any movies to watch, or something? Ah, you'll probably have lots of anime movies, right?"

"I'd appreciate it if you stopped generalizing me like that!"

"So you don't have any anime movies?"

"Do you want Ghibli stuff, or something else?"

I glanced away as Aqua gave me a teasing smirk.

It made me uneasy how she was able to read me too well sometimes.

I took out all the blu-rays I had and she sifted through them, looking for one that caught her eye.

"What's this one about? A Familiar Battle In An Unknown Place?"

"It's about a man whose family got murdered, but the court determined that the killer was declared clinically and legally insane, so he was sent to a corrective facility instead of serving time in prison. The man is eager for revenge and a mysterious organization gives him the chance to pursue it. They fly him over to an undisclosed location, a wide forest in the middle of nowhere, and tell him that his family's killer is in that same forest, equipped with a handgun. The main character is also given a handgun, as well as a GPS tracker that will let the organization find him, and also monitor his vitals. He's essentially given a chance to have a one-on-one duel with the killer, pretty much. When he asks the organization why they're giving him this chance, they say that it's an experiment to see which side of justice will prevail, personal justice or legal justice."

"Oh! That sounds exciting! Let's watch the movie, then!"

We watched the movie, which was about one hour and forty minutes long.

I made some popcorn and we sat together on the couch while watching the movie.

Aqua didn't have any sense of personal space, so our shoulders were touching the whole time.

After the movie was over, Aqua turned to me with a blank look.

"...I don't get the ending. What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"The main character didn't even see the killer! He chickened out and ran away! But when he came back to the base, the organization told him that he won anyway?!"

"Once the main character entered the unknown forest, he realized for the first time what it means to be in a life or death situation. Remember, he was just an ordinary salaryman before his family was murdered. It was also the first time he held a gun, or was expected to take another human life. Then, when he saw the corpse of a dead wolf while exploring the forest, he realized that even the mightiest beast can lose their lives just as easily as the lowliest bug. All sense of morality, justice and human rationality left him and he became nothing more than an animal who wanted to preserve his own life. So he ran away, back into the comforts of civilization."

"...Why did he still win the duel, though? What happened to the killer?"

"The main character didn't realize it in his panic, but the killer was the one who killed the wolf. However, the wolf dealt a lethal wound to the killer and the killer died from blood loss while he was running away. That's why in the end, they showed a trail of blood and human footprints heading away from the corpse of the wolf."

"I still don't get it! They were hyping up the duel between the main character and the killer the whole time, but they never even met! The main character never even fired his gun! What kind of shitty, anti-climactic ending is that?!"

"It's a movie that attempts to show an interplay between the traditional themes of conflict in fiction, to prove that the many types of conflict all blend together into a fundamental truth about human existence. It starts out as man vs. man when they show the main character's family struggling against the killer, only to eventually die, then it becomes man vs. society when the justice system fails to bring justice for the main character's family, then it becomes man vs. nature when the killer dies to the wolf, and man vs. self when the cruelty and uncaring aspect of the natural world makes the main character abandon his own ideals and rationality, in favor of obeying his latent base instinct for survival. In the end, a fundamental truth about human existence is revealed when man is stripped down to an animal of instinct, rather than a person of rational thought. This is depicted by the animation when the movie starts out with clean, highly produced animation that eventually starts to get rougher and more bare-bones as the movie ends."

"...I thought the studio simply ran out of money towards the end. Is that what it is?"

"I guess you don't like the movie?"

"Not at all. Put on a Ghibli movie next! I want something fun!"

"Alright. Let's watch Grave of the Fireflies next, then."

"You really think I don't know what that movie is about?! Are you trying to make me depressed, or something?!"

In the end, we just ended up watching a brain dead variety show on TV.

Part 2

Aqua was in a better mood the next day when she came over.

We were sitting on the couch, with Aqua being too close for comfort again, when she told me about how the exams went.

"Hehe! I have a feeling I aced the Japanese literature test!"

"Oh? I thought that was your weakest subject?"

"By coincidence, they made us write an essay about the types of conflicts in fiction, and I remembered what you talked about. I made an essay about that stupid movie we saw and wrote down all that non-sense you told me. Anyway, I made it all smarty-pants sounding, so I'm sure I aced the test!"

"...So you just plagiarized me?"

"W-Well, it's not like they'll know?! I mean, you never wrote the exam, so…"

"They're probably gonna make me do the exam at some point, or else I'll have to repeat the year. If I get the same essay, then I'll have to come up with a different idea, you know?!"

"Urk! Sorry! I didn't know you'd take the exams, too?!"

I was only being allowed to stay home because I was still maintaining my grades.

Sure, I lost a lot of marks from being absent all the time, but I was able to stay afloat because of my homework grades and exam grades.

Well, I should have been more clear to Aqua about that. I couldn't exactly blame her.

"It's fine, whatever."

"...You're not mad?"

"Not really. The goal here is to get you to pass the exams, anyway."

Aqua smiled. She looked down at her fingers, which she was twiddling together on her lap.

"...You're really helping me out a lot, Kazuma."

I shrugged and glanced away. I couldn't help but think about what Kazuto said, about the good mood forming between me and Aqua.

"Well… You're paying me, after all."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Hey, Kazuma, do you mind if I ask a personal question?"

"W-What?"

"...You're so smart and all, so why are you choosing to stay home all day?"

I sighed and scratched my head.

"...It's a stupid reason."

"I don't have any high expectations, so I won't be disappointed!"

It was insulting, but I took some kind of strange comfort in that.

"Back in middle school, well, I had this childhood friend. We promised each other that we'd marry and stuff, you know, when we were younger. However, I saw her one day riding in the back of the bike of some delinquent senpai. I guess I got in a bad mood, and that bad mood lasted until highschool."

"...So are you telling me that you took the entrance exams to an elite school, only to immediately become a NEET afterwards? Are you actually stupid?"

She gave me a blank look of disbelief.

"My parents and senseis were pressuring me to enroll in this fancy school because I had good grades in middle school. I didn't really care, so I just went along with it. I got in, but I stopped coming to school after a few weeks or so, because none of it really interested me. The classes were boring, the curriculum was repetitive… I don't know. I guess I didn't really see much of a purpose in it all."

"...But there's more to school aside from classes and studying and stuff, you know?"

I turned to her, asking with my eyes what she meant.

"I mean, look at me. I'm not smart like you, but I'm trying my hardest to make sure the school doesn't expel me for my bad grades. I'm trying my best to stay in school, not because I like studying and learning and all that. I'm staying there because being with other students your own age is fun! Plus, I have a lot of really cool friends!"

I scoffed at that and shook my head.

"That's what a typical normie would say, alright. Playing video games is way more fun! I'm playing this MMO right now, and I'm the guild leader of the top guild in the game. That's way more fun than going to school!"

"Don't you like playing multiplayer games because you get to interact with like minded people? That's why you like playing in a guild, right? How is that any different from me going to school to have fun with classmates and friends?"

I opened my mouth, but I couldn't find a way to retort.

Aqua was actually winning an argument against me?!

"...I doubt there's anyone at school that I can get along with."

"We get along, don't we?"

"Well, I guess. But it's not like you're going to stick with me all the time while we're in school, right? You have your own friend groups and all."

I used to think that friendships lasted forever, but I grew apart from lots of friends, even my childhood friend.

I could see Aqua ignoring me while we were at school. She was popular and all. She probably wouldn't want her image to suffer by hanging out with a shut-in like me.

"...If you want, I'll stick around you so much that you'll eventually get sick and tired of me."

"..."

"What's the matter? Oi, Kazuma, it's rude to not answer when people are talking to you, you know!"

"You really are an idiot. I should start calling you Baqua."

"Hah?! Even when I'm trying my best to console a pitiful NEET?! Oi, be grateful for my efforts!"

Only an idiot can say embarrassing stuff like that without any hesitation.

Part 3

Before the start of the winter break, the test results would be revealed to the students.

When I woke up at the usual time, around noon, I checked my cell phone and saw a message from Aqua.

"Success!"

The message was followed by a bunch of obnoxious LINE stickers.

I let out a sigh of relief. I spent so much time tutoring her that I became invested in her success.

"Good job."

I texted back and put my phone away, heading over to the kitchen to fix myself some instant ramen.

I took the bowl of ramen to my room and logged on to the MMO to do my usual grinding.

I got a message from my protege, Dark+Angel.

"Oi, leader, you haven't been online as much. Don't tell me you got a life now?"

I frowned, annoyed by my protege's words.

"I got a tutoring job in the afternoons and sometimes evenings."

"Y-You riajuu! You've betrayed us all!"

"Oi, I still need money to sustain my gamer lifestyle, you know?!"

"Just ask your parents to buy energy drinks and pretend you need it for all-nighters for studying!"

"My parents aren't stupid like yours."

"Whatever. Just be sure to be free for Christmas eve. There's gonna be a big event and all."

"Of course I'll be free for Christmas eve."

"Yeah! Of course you will! You stinky loner!"

I closed the messenger, pissed off by my protoge's provocations.

I joined the other members of the guild in the daily grinding, to make sure that we maintained our top position in the leaderboards.

I lost track of time doing this, since my playing time began to decrease ever since I had to start tutoring Aqua.

I was broken out of my gaming trance when I heard my phone ringing. It was Aqua.

"Hello?"

I said, answering the phone.

"Oi! You lazy NEET! Get up from bed already and open the door! I've been ringing the doorbell for five minutes now! The neighbors are looking at me!"

I logged off from the game and went downstairs to open the door for Aqua.

She had a pissed off look at the start, but she couldn't stop herself from giving a big grin.

"I passed! I passed!"

She jumped up and down with her arms spread wide.

"Congrats…"

"Heh… The senseis were still a bit suspicious since my homework grades are better than my exam grades, but my Japanese literature essay score was so good that they just chalked it up to me having test anxiety, or something. I have to speak to my advisor about managing anxiety or whatever, but at least I won't be accused of cheating!"

"Alright, alright. Just come in. Those neighbors who were watching you are whispering among themselves now."

They probably thought that Aqua was my girlfriend or something. I didn't really care what they thought, but it would be a pain in the ass if my parents caught wind of the rumors, so I stepped aside and let Aqua come in.

Aqua was way too familiar with my home now. She grabbed some juice from the fridge and sank herself into the sofa with a relaxed sigh.

I joined her and she stuck to her recent habit of sticking her shoulder to me.

"Well? Well? Aren't you gonna praise me more, Kazuma?"

"...I already said congrats, didn't I?"

"I worked hard, didn't I?! You need to worship me more!"

"Why should I worship you? You don't actually believe you're a goddess, right? That's just the setting you made up for your streamer persona."

"Tch… This guy sure knows how to ruin a good mood."

"W-What do you mean by good mood?!"

"Huh…?"

I panicked a bit when Aqua used the term that Kazuto was talking about.

"N-Nothing. Anyway, if you want me to congratulate you, I will, but don't expect me to start worshiping you or whatever."

"Well, I was just joking about that, anyway. I'll stop joking around now. Say, I kinda wanna reward you, Kazuma!"

"I thought you said that you'll stop joking around."

"I'm serious!"

"Reward me how? You're gonna give me an end of the year bonus?"

"...Well, I guess I can do that, but that's not fun! Or rather, if I'm gonna spend money on your enjoyment, I wanna benefit from it, too!"

"Doesn't that mean that you want to reward yourself?"

"I'm the one who passed the exams, so of course I want to reward myself, but I also want to reward you at the same time."

"...I don't get what you're trying to say."

She sighed and took out something from her bag. She handed them to me. They were a pair of movie tickets.

"That stupid movie we saw, what was it… A Pointless Battle in the Middle of Nowhere, right?"

"A Familiar Battle in an Unknown Place… At least get it right!"

"Yeah, that! Anyway, I figure that you like the movie, and I heard that the same director who made that movie made another movie, so I bought tickets for it to celebrate!"

I looked at the tickets, at the screening date.

"...Aqua, it says here that the show will be on Christmas eve."

"Yeah! Of course, you'll be free, right?"

"What's with that 'of course'?"

"So… You won't be free?"

"Well, I promised my guild friends that I'd do an event."

"...Kazuma, you're really passing up a movie date to play some Christmas eve event in an MMO?"

"..."

It sounded incredibly sad when she put it like that.

"Fine, I guess I'm free."

"Heh! I thought so!"

"I'm surprised that you're free, Aqua."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I mean, it's Christmas eve and all…"

She had a blank look, so I sighed and spelled it out for her.

"You know, shouldn't you be doing some romantic things with your boyfriend during Christmas eve or something?!"

I was thinking that there was no way a girl who looked like Aqua didn't have a boyfriend or two.

"Oh, that's what you meant. Nah, I'm single."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, that's so."

And that was how I ended up making plans with a girl for Christmas eve.

Part 4

"Surprise, children! Your parents managed to get a day off for Christmas eve! We bought cake and chicken! Eh, Kazuma, where are you going?"

My parents surprised us by coming home early. Usually they came home late at night, exhausted, and left early in the morning, the next day.

The corporate slave lifestyle is something I desperately wanted to avoid.

I was on my way out of the door, wearing my street clothes and a coat, when I saw them.

"...Erm, I have plans already."

"If you're buying some game, can't you just order it online? It's cold out, you know?"

"I think it's too late to take a train to akihabara, Kazuma."

I couldn't exactly fault them for having this impression of me, but it was still annoying.

Kazuto came up behind me with a dark look in his eyes.

"Mom… Dad… The impossible has happened. Nii-san managed to get a date with a girl on Christmas eve."

My parents looked at Kazuto, then at me in disbelief.

"Kazuma! I don't approve of you using your allowance money to engage in compensated dating!"

"Just think about the factors that lead girls to sell their bodies! Don't you feel sorry for them?!"

They really think this way about me, huh?!

Kazuto was the one who cleared it up for me.

"No, no, I know the girl he's going with. If anything, she's the one who's paying him."

"M-My son has become a gigolo…"

"Well, I suppose it's better than becoming a NEET forever…"

Kazuto took out his phone and showed it to my parents. He also exchanged LINE information with Aqua and showed them Aqua's pictures.

"Furthermore, she looks like this…"

"Kazuma, my boy! What sorcery did you use?!"

"We're not religious, but I still don't approve of the use of black magic in this household!"

I left before they could get even more crazy with their accusations.

I arranged to meet up with Aqua in front of the movie theater.

I walked down the streets with snow blowing towards me. There were couples all around, creating a lot of excited noise. There were Christmas songs blaring from every store you passed, as well as Christmas lights illuminating the streets with green, red and yellow. Each store had a different variation of Christmas it was trying to portray. I guess it shifts around to the type of product they were trying to sell.

When I made it to the movie theater, I saw Aqua standing in front of a frozen water fountain. Snow was falling around her in a violent slant, the strong falling snow mixed with wisps of loose snow blowing around, like the frosted breath of an invisible giant.

She was wearing a blue coat and a pink scarf around her neck. She was also wearing a white wool knit cap.

When she saw me, she took a gloved hand from her pocket and waved with a big grin on her face.

"You could have waited inside."

I said, running up to her.

"There's a lot of couples inside, so I thought that you'd die from embarrassment if you walked in alone."

"I'm not as much of a loser as you like to think I am."

"Why don't you go inside, then? I'll follow you."

"Let's just go inside together!"

"Heh."

She had a victorious look on her face as we both walked inside together.

We let the heater inside thaw our skin and bones a bit, as well as the snow sticking to our clothes and shoes, before continuing to walk inside.

There was still some time left before the start of the movie, so we bought popcorn, drinks and some candy.

We were prematurely eating our snacks in the cafeteria area while waiting for our show to start.

"Got any plans for the break?"

Aqua asked, while shoving a handful of buttery popcorn she mixed with bits of Meiji chocolate in her mouth.

"Not really. I guess I'll just play games."

"Oh wait, why did I ask a NEET what he's planning to do on a break? Everyday is a break for you, right?"

I shot her an annoyed look and she laughed.

"Very funny."

"If you don't want me to tease you about being a NEET, then why don't you come back to school after the break?"

"...You're still on about that?"

"I really do think that you're too smart to just spend your time at home, letting your brain rot playing vidya games all day."

"It's not like I can just come back to class after missing all that time. Everyone will look at me like I'm some freak."

"But you are a freak."

"Oi, shouldn't you be encouraging me?!"

She chuckled and threw popcorn at me. I opened my mouth and caught it.

"Just come up with a lame excuse. Say that you were sick or something. That's probably the excuse your parents are using right now."

"You think people will fall for it?"

"I'll collaborate on your story. I'll even hype up your return. 'Ah, that Satou-kun who's been gone for a while is coming back! I volunteer at the hospital so I've been seeing him around there. Let's make sure to welcome him back'!"

"...I'm surprised you can come up with a semi-realistic scenario."

"Right? Well, I gave it some thought."

"...Why do you care so much about me coming back to school, anyway?"

"Well, I'm thinking it might be fun. And besides, you can teach me better if you're caught up to the curriculum. There were some parts you weren't sure about and couldn't teach me about because you don't attend classes, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"If you want a reason, then I guess I'm doing it for my sake?"

"What a selfish girl…"

She threw another popcorn at me, but I couldn't catch it this time. She gave the bag to me and I took a handful on my own.

"...So? How about it?"

"I guess I'll think about it."

After spending a bit more time chatting, it was time to head to our movie.

We already ate through most of our popcorn, though.

Part 5

After the movie was over, we headed outside.

The snow was still going strong, but it wasn't as heavy and slanted this time. They floated down from the sky in a lazy, lovely descent, at the same languid speed that marketing teams like to depict snowfall in Christmas cards and gift wrappings and such.

We found ourselves walking to the city square, where couples were circling around, as if they were pulled there by a magnetic force, around the big Christmas tree set up in the middle of the square. The Christmas tree was an illustrious, resplendent monument to festivity and commercialism, a big, plastic pine tree covered in synthetic lights and glitzy artifacts, depicting childhood nostalgia in the most sterile and generic way. It was crowned by a glowing star of Bethlehem rising above a prominent cardboard cutout of an energy drink company's mascot, the commercial avatar of the highest bidders among the many sponsors clamoring for a prominent spot on the tree.

I never really got the point of going somewhere just to see something. Maybe back in the day, before the advent of cameras and ways to store information and upload it to the internet, it was necessary to physically go to a place and see a notable sight in order to experience it, but these days, such activities are only limited to normies, who feel the need to validate their existence by gathering around noteworthy events, where other normies are gathering around.

When I mentioned this to Aqua, she just laughed and said,

"Cope much?"

After having had our fill watching the big tree and the lights, and listening to English Christmas songs that half of the Japanese youth here couldn't even understand, we went over to the vending machines in the square and got some hot coffee to thaw our insides, which got flash frozen as soon as we stepped out of the warm movie theater.

I grabbed the hot coffee and pressed it against my cheek. It was cold enough out here that you start to worry a bit about hypothermia.

Even in this modern society, with its technological advances, I guess the whole man vs. nature thing is still relevant.

We started talking about the movie while we were enjoying our canned coffee.

"That movie sucked even worse than the other one! I don't get it! Does that director only make confusing movies?!"

The movie we watched this time was a Sci-fi movie called Catching Time. It was set in Japan, many years in the future. In the future, there was a huge spacetime crisis that would devastate the world. There were tears in spacetime forming around the world, forming like sinkholes after an earthquake. If you fell into one, you might find yourself in a lightspeed descent through spacetime until you were no longer material.

The main character lived in a bubble with a gravity well that protected the inhabitants inside from the spacetime crisis outside. The inhabitants were kept in a time loop and whenever the loop got reset, so would their crops and resources and biological age. They were immortal in this bubble. However, the main character got tired of the repetitiveness and decided to free himself from his prison.

"...So, the movie ends with the main character escaping from the bubble, but he fell into one of those spacetime tear thingies. But then he ended up in the same place, in the bubble again?"

Aqua said, with a confused look on her face as she tried to understand the ending of the movie.

"Yeah. He was too indecisive in escaping and time moved forward outside of his bubble for thousands of years. When he fell into a spacetime tear, it shifted him into the past and future, but his time spent in a time loop became so ingrained in him that it essentially became his existence, so no matter where he traveled in time, he always ended up in the time loop he tried to escape."

"...I still don't get it."

"I guess it's just trying to say that there is no past and future and that reality is fixed in the present, so you should spend it doing what's important, instead of wasting time. You should chase time instead of just trying to catch it."

"Why couldn't they just explain that in simpler terms! So you're telling me that the main character is just a lazy NEET, huh?!"

"Well… I guess it's also a social-commentary about the NEET phenomenon in Japan…"

That was why I felt like I was being targeted the whole time I was watching the movie.

"Well, it was fun watching with you, anyway, so whatever."

She said, shrugging and smiling at me, while drinking her coffee.

"..."

"What is it?"

She noticed that I had gone quiet. I reached into my pocket and took out a gift-wrapped box.

"Here. I guess it's your reward for passing your exams."

Aqua blinked several times, then accepted the box.

"T-Thanks."

"Y-Yeah."

"...So, can I open it?"

I nodded. She carefully unwrapped the box, but I told her that she could just rip it. I didn't wrap it myself, the department store clerk did. Aqua ripped the wrapping open and opened the box.

There was a hair ornament inside. Aqua took it and examined it, then she laughed when she recognized it.

It was a hair ornament with two small balls attached to a bigger one, two hydrogen balls and one oxygen ball.

"...I don't think I would have gotten the joke if you never tutored me."

She smiled while she put the hair ornament on, tying her hair at the back into a loop.

"Does it look good?"

She said, while turning her head to show off the ornament.

"Yeah. It looks good."

"Sorry, I didn't get you a gift."

"You got the tickets."

"I guess I did!"

After chatting a bit longer, we noticed that it was getting late, so we decided to head home.

"I'll be seeing you at school next semester, alright, Kazuma?!"

She yelled out to me, as I was walking away to my house.

"Yeah, maybe."

I gave a vague wave, not promising anything, but not denying anything.

When I got home…

"How did it go, Kazuma?!"

"Why don't you introduce us to her, Kazuma?!"

"Did you become a man tonight, nii-san?!"

I came home to a barrage of questions I didn't want to answer.

Chapter 4: Blessing This NEET With A New Year's Shrine Visit!

Part 1

My guild members were not happy that I skipped out on the big Christmas event.

Some were even calling for me to resign as the guild leader.

Dark+Angel in particular had a lot of things to say about my absence.

"Y-You're a fake gamer! If you were busy on Christmas Eve, it can only mean one thing! You somehow got a date, didn't you?! You even have a tutoring job now… Next you're going to say that you're going back to school!"

I was considering taking Aqua's advice and heading back to school, but they didn't need to know that. Instead, I said,

"I was depressed that I didn't have a Christmas Eve date, so I spent the night crying by myself."

"I-I'm sorry that I called you a fake gamer."

I somehow managed to convince them by giving them a story that's more pathetic than spending Christmas Eve playing an MMO.

Aqua had a lot of streaming to catch up on, since she missed a week during the exam period.

She did a marathon during the rest of her winter break to make up for it.

It was a bit weird not having her around in the house, since I had gotten used to her coming over everyday.

I watched all of her streams, though, so it felt like she was still around anyway.

Around New Years Eve, Kazuto was teasing me about Aqua not coming around.

"Heh… I guess you screwed up on the Christmas Eve date, huh? Mizuhara-san isn't showing up anymore!"

He seemed awfully proud that he was able to tease me again.

He didn't have much fodder to tease me with whenever Aqua came around. He always got all quiet and was on his best behavior whenever she came over.

Did he have a little crush on her, or something?

"Well, she's busy and all…"

"Keep telling yourself that, nii-san!"

While Kazuto was teasing me, my phone started ringing.

He immediately shut up, because he knew that there was only one person outside of our family who'd call me.

I looked at the caller ID and saw it was Aqua. I answered,

"...Hello?"

"Oi, Kazuma! Got any plans tomorrow?"

"...I was just planning to play games."

"Why do I even bother to ask?! Anyway, my stream marathon is over, so do you wanna visit the shrine? You know, for the first shrine visit of the year and all."

Kazuto let out a gasp of disbelief.

"Yeah… Alright. Which shrine are we visiting?"

"I bet you're hoping we go to a local, smaller one without a lot of people, right?"

I could already tell that she was giving a smug grin on the other end.

"...You're gonna make us go to a popular one with a lot of couples, right?"

"It's part of your rehabilitation! You need to get used to being around people if you're going back to school, right?"

That last part caught Kazuto's attention.

After confirming our meet-up spot, I hung up the phone.

"Tsk… Just when I thought it was over… A shrine visit, and she's even making you come to school! She probably wants to spend more time with you in school, right? Damn it! How can one man have all that luck?! It's not fair!"

"...I don't get why you think I'm so lucky."

"Hah?! Do you think that all the other NEETs in Japan have a beautiful girl like Mizuhara-san hanging around with them and trying to rehabilitate them?! Of course you're lucky!"

"Oi, I'm unlucky enough that I ended up as a NEET in the first place!"

"You ended up as a NEET because you gave up way too easily, didn't you?!"

He let out a sharp exhale.

"So, are you going to school?"

"...I don't really know. It feels like I'm losing something if I go just because Mizuhara told me to."

"...No, you've already lost by becoming a NEET."

He refused to let up on that.

"Anyhow… Christmas Eve date and now a New Year's shrine visit… nii-san, aren't you two practically dating at this point?"

"...? I don't think so? I mean, why would I date her in the first place."

"Nii-san… Don't tell me you're still saying that you don't see Mizuhara-san as a girl?"

"Well, rather than a girlfriend, isn't she acting more like a close cousin right now? Mizuhara strikes me as the type to not think about her actions too much, the type to go on a whim. Such an impulsive person like that probably doesn't even think about romance. She'll invite a guy to watch movies with her because she feels like it, and she doesn't care that it's on Christmas Eve. She's probably dragging me out to a shrine visit as a way to encourage me to go to school, or something along those lines."

"...The scary thing is that I can actually see her doing that. You still haven't answered the question, though. Do you still not see her as a girl?"

"Why does it matter what I think?"

"...Why… Because you're the one involved with her?!"

"No, I mean, even if I am interested in her, hypothetically, of course, why does that matter? If she doesn't like me back… And let's be real, why would she see me that way… I'll just get rejected and then things will be awkward between us."

Kazuto looked at me with an unreadable expression for a while.

"I see… You don't need to say anything more, nii-san."

He sighed and stood up from the couch.

He gave me one final look, then went upstairs.

Part 2

Like Aqua promised, she chose the most popular and crowded shrine around the area to visit.

We had to take a train to the city to get there.

Aqua wasn't wearing a kimono. She said that she was too lazy to wear one. Instead, she was wearing the navy blue coat she seemed to like, leaving the front open since it wasn't as cold as it was on Christmas Eve. She was wearing a comfortable looking red sweater underneath.

She was also wearing the hair ornament I gifted her, pulling her hair back in the same loopy hairstyle.

"Yo! Long time no see, Kazuma! Hahaha!"

When we met up at the train station, she slapped me on the back, then gave me a goofy grin and a hearty laugh.

Kazuto was getting ahead of himself talking about romance and stuff. The reality was that Aqua still greeted me like how a middle aged salaryman greets their coworker.

"How was your streaming marathon?"

I said, keeping my voice down in case there were people who heard me.

"...It was the first time I did a marathon like that. Do you know how exhausting it is to deal with otaku on a daily basis? It's like dealing with a thousand clones of you…"

"Then it should have been a good experience, right?"

"Huh? Where did this self-esteem come from?"

She said, raising her brow.

"...In any case, is it really fine to call your fanbase a bunch of otaku?"

"But that's what they are! By the way, you need to explain otaku logic to me! Here I am, spending all my free time during the winter break streaming for them, and yet there's still some idiots saying things like 'Oh, I bet she's only streaming long hours during winter break just so we don't suspect that she has a boyfriend. This is just a ruse to throw us off'. Like, what's up with that twisted logic?! And when I didn't stream when I was taking exams, those same otaku said things like 'I bet she's not streaming so she could spend time with her boyfriend'. I just don't get it!"

"...If they had any semblance of social intelligence and common sense, do you think they'd be otaku in the first place?"

Aqua blinked. She hung her head, forced to agree.

"...Fair point. I just don't get why everything is a ruse to them, and assume that I'm lying to them. They always have some kind of conspiracy theory available, even when I'm just telling them the truth."

"When a person feels like society has betrayed them and cast them aside, of course that person will inevitably develop trust issues. A lot of your otaku fans are like this. The more a fan gets invested in you, the more defensive, irrational and possessive they get trying to protect their little pocket of happiness in the world. This kind of obsession is how they display that they care, and the more they care about you, the more they attempt to bring you down or demonize you whenever they think you might betray them. This is because they're used to being hurt by others, so they're protecting themselves in case you end up hurting them in the end. It's a self-defense mechanism, that's all it is."

"...Well, it's so damn annoying! They're so damn paranoid and pathetic, but they still go around with an air of superiority and insist that their baseless opinions are right. Like, at least have some self-awareness, you know?!"

"If you get annoyed by those types of people, just remember that someone who is actually confident in themselves, and is in a good place in life, doesn't feel the need to project any kind of superiority over other people, especially in an anonymous place like the internet. Everyone who acts like that wants you to think that they don't care about anything and that you're the one who's being too sensitive if you have an issue with the way they're acting. It's all unjustified bravado."

"Phew…I guess you're right. Maybe I should just ignore them."

It seemed that I got Aqua to cheer up a bit just by talking to her about her problems with her otaku fanbase.

I didn't think that streaming was all that hard until I started talking to Aqua. And she wasn't even a full-time streamer who depended on streaming for a living.

Sure, there were harder ways to earn a living out there, but it wasn't exactly as easy as some people think it is.

"By the way, Aqua, why did you want to be a Mico Mico douga streamer even though you seem to hate interacting with otaku and obsessive fans? You were even a singer before you debuted as a streamer. Utaite like you tend to draw the most obsessive otaku, you know?"

I almost wanted to tell her to be careful of obsessive fans who go too far and try to doxx their favorite streamers and even stalk them in real life, but I didn't want to ruin the mood with that kind of depressing talk.

"I told you this before, I think. The reason why I was able to enroll in an elite school like ours was because I got a recommendation from my drama sensei…"

I did remember that. I was annoyed by it, too, since I didn't get any kind of recommendation letter and had to take the entrance exam like everybody else.

"In middle school, I really loved performing in front of people. I was always the lead role in musicals, plays and I was always the star of the cultural festival! Ah, maybe I should give you some videos of some of my cultural festival performances! I was the lead singer of this band, you see."

So Aqua was already an entertainer ever since middle school. Somehow, I could easily imagine that happening.

"Anyway, since our High School doesn't really value the arts and performances as much and focuses instead on academics, I kind of needed a creative outlet, you know? I'm not a complete normie, so I know all about Mico Mico douga culture, and internet culture in general and all that."

It did kind of strike me as strange that Aqua got all my references about gaming, anime and obscure otaku trivia. She wasn't the most knowledgeable by any means, but she was at least familiar with the basic stuff.

"I made an account and started out making some cover songs. A few of them made it to the top ten daily rankings of popular videos."

"Yeah, I remember your cover of Omoide wa Okkusenman made the top ten. That was when you started gaining fans, right? That was before you started streaming, though."

She had a nostalgic look on her face when I mentioned that song.

"You really dug deep into my archives, huh?"

"Well, I guess…"

I glanced away when she started giggling.

"From then on, I really got into streaming and Mico Mico douga culture in general. The money from donations and stuff was a nice incentive, too."

"But you still don't like dealing with stinky otaku all day, right?"

"Of course not!"

We spent the rest of the train ride shittalking her more obsessive fans.

Part 3

After the train ride, we made it to the shrine.

There was a sickening amount of couples around. I could deal with the families making their visit, but the couples pissed me off.

They already had their monopoly on Christmas Eve, but they weren't satisfied with that. They just had to go and show off their happiness again on New Year's day?!

Not to mention that they had Valentines Day, White Day and a bunch of other stupid special days to celebrate their status as couples.

I get that this damn country wants to raise the birth rates, but that's not how you should go about it!

It's not the couples who aren't copulating, they're doing way too much of that already!

You need to focus on the lonely NEET staying at home, because there's a bunch of stupid couples everywhere!

You can't even enjoy the festivities of Christmas without going outside and seeing couples showing off their affection for each other. That's really what's causing the NEET phenomenon!

Why don't they make an official holiday called NEET day, huh?!

If you have any source of income, are in education, or if you consider yourself to be in a romantic relationship with someone, then you are mandated to stay at home for a day. Then, all those NEET who stay shut in all day are encouraged to come out and enjoy some government sponsored anime and game events, things that NEET will enjoy.

That way, the NEETs can socialize with each other and get used to going out of their house, without having to be worried about the judgemental stares of self-important couples and normies.

"...Kazuma, why do I sense that you're having some despicable thoughts right now?"

Aqua said, glancing at me with suspicion in her eyes.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Liar."

After we made our prayers, we tried our luck drawing fortunes.

I didn't want to tell her what I prayed for, but Aqua readily told me that she wanted more donations from her otaku fans in the new year.

She's greedy, but at least she's honest.

"...How could this be?"

Aqua made us draw some academic fortunes, since she was trying to convince me to come to school. She was hoping to motivate me with them. I wasn't really the superstitious type, so I didn't really care for it, but I still went along with the flow.

I drew a great blessing on my fortune, while Aqua drew a curse fortune.

"...Let me buy another one."

She finally got a moderate fortune after buying several lots.

After we were done with the usual shrine activities… There wasn't a lot to do, but the long lines made it seem like there was a variety of things to do… We went over to some of the food stalls nearby to get food.

We ended up getting some baked sweet potatoes. We took them to a bench and munched on them, refueling the calories we lost standing around in lines for a good hour.

While we were eating, a group of girls that looked to be our age kept glancing at us.

When Aqua noticed them, she squinted her eyes, then she stood up and waved at them.

"Hey!"

She called out to them excitedly.

The girls smiled and approached Aqua.

"Mizuhara-san! It was you after all!"

"We had trouble deciding if it was you or not because… Um…"

They glanced at me, who was sitting with Aqua.

I see.

They saw the dull-looking guy sitting beside Aqua and thought that it couldn't have possibly been her.

I stood up, ready to go away for a bit and give Aqua some time to talk with her friends, but Aqua grabbed my arm before I could go.

"Hey, do you girls know Kazuma? He goes to our school!"

They looked at each other.

"...I can't say I do?"

"Is he a senpai?"

"He looks like a third year… Why is he here? Shouldn't he be studying for college entrance exams?"

I'm a first year like you lot. Is it the dark circles under my eyes that make me look like a third year stressing out over their exams? Anyway, aren't you too judgemental?

I wanted to say all this, but I kept it to myself.

"Actually, you probably don't know him because he's been in the hospital all this time! I know about it because I spend my time volunteering at the hospital a lot! He's gonna start coming back to school this semester, so I hope you get along with him!"

With Aqua's endorsement, the girls immediately shifted their view of me.

Furthermore, she actually went ahead and used that stupid excuse!

I couldn't ignore the fact that the story made Aqua seem like some kind of saint who volunteered her precious time taking care of the sick, too.

"Ehh?! Is that so?! Poor Kazuma-san… It seems you've been through a lot!"

"I hope you can make an easy transition to school life!"

"Ah, how about we make a welcome event for Kazuma-san in the school group chat on LINE?"

I turned to Aqua, who just winked at me.

Is it actually possible that I can have a normal school life?!

"Ah, it'll be easier if you all exchange contact information with him, right?"

"Good idea, Mizuhara-san!"

Scary… Having the most popular first year girl on your side is scary!

The girls left after a few minutes of chatting with Aqua, with me chiming in a few times to avoid the awkward fate of silently standing around without contributing to the conversation.

They waved to the both of us before leaving.

I now had the contact information of three girls I just met saved in my phone…

"I-Is it this easy to pick up girls?!"

"...What do you mean? As long as you're not some shady public pick-up artist, most girls will give you their numbers if you're familiar enough with them, and if you ask without any obvious ulterior motives, you know?"

"Do they expect me to call them and text them and stuff?"

"Hah? No, don't do that unless they text you first. Collecting numbers is like a social status badge, you know? Think of it as forming treaties with different people. Even if you never actually use their number, the fact that you have it saved up in your phone carries a lot of social weight."

"...I don't get it. That seems stupid and really abitrary."

"Well, you are a loner NEET, but this is kind of common sense for most people. Ah, don't go around randomly texting those girls for dates or any lewd stuff, got it? The news will spread instantly and there's nothing I'll be able to do to save you."

"I'm not that socially inept!"

After finishing up our sweet potatoes and throwing the oily wrapper it came with in the trash, we started heading towards the train station, ready to head home after a successful shrine visit.

While we were walking, I asked Aqua,

"...So, what happens now? I come back to class and I instantly become a popular normie?"

Aqua chuckled at that, probably imagining me as some popular kid in class.

"Is that what you want, Kazuma?"

"Well, who wouldn't want to be adored and respected by their peers?"

That's why a lot of those wish-fulfillment isekai novels are popular, right? There's always that scene where a reincarnated hero is celebrated in the Adventurer's Guild once the Guild Receptionist reveals their insane starting stats… That kind of cliche that otakus love.

"Well, with me endorsing you, it's not like you'll be unpopular…"

She said, putting a finger to her bottom lip, pushing it up as she pursed her lips together.

"So I'll be invited to karaoke and love hotels and stuff?"

"Where did the love hotel part come from… What do you think that normies do after school, anyway?"

"...I don't know, drink liquor and have sex?"

She sighed and walked up in front of me, with an unimpressed look on her face.

"It's because you have all sorts of fantasies and expectations about normie life that you're too afraid to pursue it. It's not that exciting, or scandalous. Normal people spend their time in the same, boring way loners spend their time, except they do it outside and are healthier for it."

"...I don't really get what's so admirable about being normal, anyway?"

"You got a big smile on your face when those girls gave you their numbers, didn't you?"

"Hm… By the way, Aqua, you keep talking about the normal way to live life, but I know that you're a lazy slob who spends way too much time on the internet."

This is the same girl who tried to get a NEET to do her homework for her, after all.

"W-Well, the people at school think I'm a normie, so that's good enough, OK?!"

She went up to poke my chest several times before I sighed and walked ahead of her.

We went to the station and took the train home.

Part 4

When I got home, I announced to the guild that I couldn't participate in as many raids and events anymore because I wanted to go back to school.

Dark+Angel was furious at my announcement.

"What the hell is all this about?! Don't tell me… You touched grass and touched ass?!"

"...What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you went outside and got laid!"

I did go outside, but it's not like I got laid.

"Look, shouldn't you be happy for me since I'm trying to make my life better?"

"Hah?! Are you trying to show off your happiness to us now?! You traitor!"

I couldn't exactly say anything back, since I was just cursing out those couples at the shrine.

"I don't think going to school is going to make me happy. In fact, I'm having way more fun playing around with the guild all day, without having to worry about anything else. School seems like it'll just be a pain in the ass."

Even Aqua, the one who was trying to convince me to go to school, hated the studying part of school and used to spend all her time away from school pretty much living as a shut-in, not that different from how I did things.

Well, I guess the difference is that she went to school and endured all those pain in the ass things like studying, while I just stayed home all day to play games. She somehow found a balance, Aqua of all people.

"...If you understand that school sucks, then why are you so determined to go back? Playing games all day will make you much happier!"

"Because too much artificial happiness will make it so that you can't feel happy living life the normal way anymore, I guess?"

Just like how a good meal is always better than just drinking a protein shake, the chemical highs you get from playing video games all day isn't a good substitute for the ordinary happiness you can get by going out and actually living your life.

Well, it still gave me pangs of self-hatred from thinking like this. It's not easy to force yourself to have a complete shift in your way of thinking, after all. I felt like a massive hypocrite.

Still, Aqua made me see the light, in a sense. I wanted to try living the kind of life she had.

"I-I know what this is about. You're simply backed up and feeling horny, is that it?!"

"Huh?"

"You think that you can go to school and get a girlfriend? You have those kinds of delusions, don't you?!"

She wasn't exactly wrong, so I didn't respond.

"I-If I send you some nudes or something… Will that make you give up on going to school?!"

Allow me to explain.

Dark+Angel is someone you call a gamer girl.

As a rare breed of gamer who belongs in the female species, the guild was almost torn apart fighting for her attention when they discovered her existence.

Upon seeing her potential to mobilize the troops towards a specific goal, I recruited her as my protege, and under my tutelage, she was able to use her naturally wily nature to seduce… I mean, encourage the guild members to get along.

Now this same protege of mine was offering to send nude pictures of herself to me…

"...I refuse."

"Hah?! T-This is a rare opportunity, you know?!"

"The last guy you reportedly sent a nude to disappeared from the guild and hasn't logged on ever since. The common theory among the guild is that the authorities found him in the possession of lewd pictures of an underaged girl. In short, he was arrested for his crime of having your loli nude pics."

"...You think I'm a loli or something? You wish. No, I didn't tell you guys this, but that guy got too obsessed with me and started stalking me IRL after I gave him my nudes, since he wouldn't stop begging for them. He told me something about how only 17.8% of people stay to become his friend, and that he did the empirical calculations to end up with that number. I felt bad for him, so I ended up sending him my nudes… But I learned my lesson after that. He got arrested for stalking me, though, so that part of the rumors are right."

"You said you learned your lesson, so why are you telling me that you'll give me your nudes?"

"W-Well, I have a feeling you're different from that guy! I know you well enough to know that you won't end up stalking me. I mean, it's kind of creepy knowing you'll bust a nut to my tits every night but… I just really want you to stay active in the guild!"

If she's saying that I'll bust a nut every night… Is she that confident in her body?!

I leaned back against my seat, staring at the in-game messenger tool we were using.

While I was debating with myself, I thought about Aqua's smug face if she found out that I made a deal with some e-girl about not going to school, just because she sent me some nudes.

No way am I going to risk giving Aqua that kind of ammunition to use against me!

Besides, I had a feeling that I shouldn't encourage this kind of risky behavior from Dark+Angel.

If she developed a habit of spreading her nudes around to guys just because she felt sorry for them, or wanted a favor from them, I couldn't imagine that it would end well for her.

"Sorry, I can't."

"...I see."

I could see that she was typing on the other end, but she kept deleting whatever it was she was typing. She stopped typing when I started to type on my own.

"I mean, if you want to exchange nudes, we can do that. I'm still going to school, though."

"You asshole!"

And that was how I lost my position as head of the guild.

...

...

Next Volume: School Grumble