After Mikan and Rito leave, you go upstairs, do your homework quickly, and then take a bath, relaxing after the long day. Your mind wanders as you soak in the hot water, naturally drifting towards the scene in your head of Lala appearing in the bath.

Six days remain before Lala arrives. Six days of preparation is all you have. It feels both too short to prepare and too long to wait. But it's the time you have, so you don't bother wasting time wishing it was shorter and longer, and instead once again go over your plans.

There are several obstacles to getting Lala, which is your only concern at the moment because once you have her you'll have plenty of time before her sisters arrive and nearly 200 credits to work with. Getting Lala is the only important goal right now.

First, you need to make sure you are the first to meet Lala. It's not critical, but failing to do so will certainly make things more difficult. Thankfully, you know where she'll arrive, and you have a rough idea of when she'll arrive. Getting into Rito's bathroom at the right time won't be too hard to pull off. Now that you've reconnected, coming up with an excuse to be in there is easy. Your current plan is something along the lines of pretending your shower is broken after deliberately getting covered in mud or something and asking Rito to use his shower.

Though, strictly speaking, this is not your only option. Lala spends some time on Earth before warping into Rito's bathroom. In fact, she spends some time in this very town, considering the short range of her teleportation device. You aren't sure how long she's here- the anime shows her spaceship crashed in front of the school when classes end, but the manga doesn't mention it at all. But it's likely at least a few hours. You could possibly find her before she teleports, and take things from there. Or maybe you could redirect her teleport? You weren't sure where to even start with that, but it was worth investigating later.

Second, once you do run into her, you need to grab her attention. It's not enough to be an Earthling she just met. You need to make a good impression, enough of one so she latches on to you. You're not too concerned about this one. Between your meta knowledge, your social skills, and even your shared Charmian heritage, you're positive you can do this much. So long as you accomplish the first task of meeting her before she meets Rito.

Third, you'll have to deal with Lala's bodyguards that are chasing after her; Zastin and two more aliens you forget the names of. If Lala teleports, Lala's companion Peke will follow soon after, and Zastin and the others will follow her straight to Lala. You don't think you can prevent that from happening, so your options will be to talk your way out of the situation, or somehow get her away. Talking is obviously your strong suit. It won't be easy to rectify the situation with just words though, as they're duty bound to return the runaway princess Lala back home.

Thankfully, you don't need to worry about actually being in danger. Probably. Lala could take them on easily if she decides to actually fight them, and Zastin isn't one to kill indiscriminately. And even if you fail, you'll just look bad rather than suffer any significant harm.

Lastly, and potentially least importantly, you have to prevent Rito from accidentally confessing to Lala. If you accomplish the other goals, then this one should be a non-issue. Emphasis on should. You're not entirely sure how bullshit Rito's Harem Protagonist Luck is and if he could never meet Lala and still accidentally confess to her. But you'd rather not test it, which is why you're hooking him up with Haruna. If Rito confesses to Haruna before Lala shows up, then he'll have no reason to try to confess to her the morning after Lala's arrival and accidentally confess to Lala instead.

You sigh and sink deeper into the bath. You have so many different things to worry about, and such limited tools to handle them. Thankfully, you did save some Credits in your starting build, meaning you had options for more upgrades to purchase to aid you. But you only have 23 Credits, enough for one decent purchase, so you'd have to choose carefully.

In the end, you purchase Communication Talent. It applies to too many of your goals too well to not get, and serves as a multiplier to skills you're sure you'll be using a lot of. Better to get it early to squeeze as much potential out of it as you can.


Communication Talent shows it's worth the next day in class. You don't bother doing more than pay half attention to class, just enough to jot down some basic notes. Most of your attention is on your classmates instead, training your ability to read people by observing them. You were already good at that, but now things seem so much clearer.

As you watch your classmates things start clicking into place. The way that girl sitting a few seats away shifts in her seat through class wouldn't have been worth noting before, but now you recognize it as the product of a wandering mind. Furthermore, you can tell, despite sitting behind her, that she keeps glancing at a boy who sits in front of her, obviously being distracted by thoughts of him.

And you can also tell that the boy knows she's staring. He tenses up whenever she does, though it's subtle enough that the girl doesn't notice. But his back is stiff and tense and he keeps lightly scratching the desk or his notebooks with his fingertips, which you can now identify as a nervous tick. He knows she's interested in him, and he doesn't like it.

You also glance back and notice Rito staring a hole into the back of Haruna's head, completely failing to be subtle. Though, on the bright side, you can tell he is doing what you told him to do, actually observing her and not just getting lost in imagining a version of her in his fantasies. He's just being very obvious about it.

You manage to make eye contact with him and send him a flat stare, eyes glancing between him and Haruna before you imitate his expression and then glare at him once again. He seems to get the gist because his expression becomes sheepish and he's more subtle after that.

By the time lunch ends, you are certain of two things. First, you could make a career being one of those assholes who pretend to be able to reach out and contact loved ones but are really just cold-reading and manipulating people. Or any other kind of con artist, really.

Second, you need a new training method. About half an hour before lunch, you realize that you aren't improving anymore. There's only so much information you can get out of observing a bunch of teens, and without something more difficult to train on, you can't improve your skills.

Like yesterday, and like most days, you eat lunch with Haruna, Mio, and Risa again. The four of you chat amicably for a while as you eat your lunches. A quick check shows that Rito is still watching, so you decide to give him something to work with.

"I looked up that horoscope app from yesterday you know," you say during a lull in the conversation. "I was curious if it was actually something harmful, or just really poorly made. Turns out, it was the latter, at least as far as I could tell. But you know, it did bring a question to mind." You give Haruna an evil grin. "What made you want to download an app that gave you predictions on your daily romantic prospects? Is there perhaps a boy you're interested in, and you wanted to see when the best time to confess to him would be?"

"Eh?!" Haruna exclaims, caught off guard by the sudden question.

"Oh? Is that what that app was for?" Mio asks with an amused and evil grin to match your own.

"Is our little Haruna growing up?" Risa asks, joining you in the teasing. "Perhaps she's growing interested in pervy things?"

"It- it's not like that!" Haruna protests, her face quickly growing red as she becomes flustered and embarrassed. "I just-"

"So who's the special boy you have your eye on?" you interrupt her.

Haruna's eyes meet yours, but only because you spoke and asked her a question. She immediately averts her eyes, not wanting to make eye contact. But then you see them latch on to something behind you for just a moment, and her face grows redder before she tears her gaze away and points it downward.

"Oooh, is it Aki-kun here?" Risa asks in an excited tone.

"It's not Saitou-san- I mean it's not anyone!" Haruna says, trying to cover her slip up, but it's too late.

"It sounds like it is someone to me," Mio adds. "Ah, but you didn't have to reject Saitou so strongly." She reaches over and pats you on the arm. "There there Saitou, there are plenty of fish in the sea."

For a moment, Haruna looks aghast, but then you let out a snort and shake your head. "Oh, no, how terribly heartbroken I am now," you say in monotone, a smile on your lips to indicate you're joking. "My long and secret love, thrown so casually aside. I will never emotionally recover from this moment."

Risa and Mio laugh at my antics, and Haruna pouts, but there's a smile tugging at her lips. "You guys always tease me," she complains.

The conversation moves on normally from there, questions about love forgotten, and your goal achieved. All that was left was to see how Rito did with your little gift.


After classes let out, you make your way to Rito's desk as the other students shuffle out of the classroom, on their way to their clubs or just leaving school if they don't have one. Rito stiffens slightly, his eyes darting nervously at the few remaining people in the classroom. He's nervous about your conversation being overheard, which is reasonable. So you don't say anything and just jerk your head, indicating he should follow you.

He nods and stands up, and the two of you silently slip out of the room and into the halls. You join the throng of students in the halls, Rito dutifully following you as you lead him to your destination.

"Why the roof?" he asks as you climb the stairs to said location.

"No one will be there," you reply. "And a couple other reasons." He doesn't say anything to that. The roof isn't off-limits or anything, but it isn't all that common for people to go up there either. There isn't really a reason to. If you need a quiet spot to be alone there are plenty of other places that don't require going up an extra flight of stairs and couldn't be seen from adjacent buildings. Sometimes people have lunch up there, but at this time of day, it should be empty.

Sure enough, it was empty and the two of you are treated to the sight of the wide open sky, an expanse of blue with only a handful of small clouds to fill it. You step up to the fence surrounding the roof. It isn't a tall chain link fence like you see in a lot of anime. Instead, it's just a waist-high fence made of rectangular metal rods.

Rito stands next to you as you look down on the small crowd of students leaving through the front gates. From up here, you can hear the murmuring of their conversations, all blending together into a quiet rumble rather than distinct voices.

"So," you say, finally breaking the silence. "Did you do what I suggested?"

You see him nod out of the corner of your eye. "I did. It was…new. I realized that you were right. Most of the time I was imagining a version of her in my head that didn't exist. I stared at her, but never looked at her."

You smile. Rito was definitely capable of being a pretty good dude. In canon, he was just in a crazy situation and didn't have the emotional maturity to quickly come to terms with it, especially since he was already target-locked on Haruna. But even with just a little bit of guidance, guidance directed at Haruna, he's maturing quickly.

"And what did you find?" you ask, turning to look at him.

"I think I fell in love with her all over again," he admits. "I mean, I still like her for the same reasons. She's pretty and the kindest person I've ever met. But it was the little things I came to like about her. Like how she writes her notes with precise and gentle strokes. Or how she'll tuck her hair behind her ear when she's trying to focus, only for it to almost immediately fall back into place. Or the way she pouts and laughs and expresses herself so clearly, holding nothing back. I love everything about her."

In your opinion, he got a little too observant and didn't focus on quite the right things. But he had grown past the stage of fantasizing about her, and he seemed much more confident than he did before.

You nod approvingly. "Good enough. Though there was one specific moment I wanted to test you on. During lunch, I asked her a question. Tell me what you observed, and then try to guess what I asked her."

Rito is silent for a moment, his brow furrowing. You spot movement out of the corner of your eye and look down to see the Tennis club exiting the school building and heading to the courts after having changed. Haruna's blue hair is easy to spot amongst the crowd.

"You mean when she was all flustered, right?" Rito asks for clarification. You nod, and he continues. "She blushed and was embarrassed, that much was obvious. You shouldn't bully Haruna like that!"

You roll your eyes. "What's a little teasing between friends? Sawada-san and Momioka-san have teased her much more. And I did it for you. She was embarrassed, you say? Did you notice anything else?"

"I think she looked at me?" he adds, uncertainty clear in his voice. "It was just for a split second, so maybe I imagined it, but I thought our eyes met."

You smile. She had looked at him, which was the exact reaction you were hoping to get out of her. "As a reward for noticing, I'll confirm that she did indeed look at you," you tell him. "Like you said, it was only for a moment, but the first thing she did when I asked her my question was look at you."

You look away from the Tennis Club and look at Rito, who stiffens at the sudden eye contact, nervous. "Now, put the pieces together. I asked her a question, one that embarrassed her but was just some harmless teasing, and one that unconsciously drew her eyes towards you for just a moment. What do you think I asked her?"

The sound of tennis balls hitting rackets and bouncing off the court echo through the air as the Tennis Club starts playing and doing drills. Rito's eyes drift away from yours and he starts watching them play, below. You don't have to look to tell that he's watching Haruna, the tension in his shoulders fading slightly.

"I-I don't know," he says, mumbling slightly. "I mean, you could have asked her anything. It could have been an embarrassing moment in junior high, or maybe something about her grades-"

"It wasn't anything like that," you cut in firmly. "You know what I asked her." He tenses and remains silent, which only confirms your suspicions. "You know, but you're too afraid to admit it. You don't even dare give it a second thought, writing it off as delusions. But do you want to remain afraid forever?"

His grip tightens on the rail we're leaning on. "No," he admits.

"Then dare to dream," you reply. "What did I ask her?"

Rito doesn't reply immediately, instead taking a deep breath to calm himself. You can easily see how nervous he is, but there's a spark of hope in his eyes. He finally turns from Haruna and looks back at you. "Did you ask…who she liked?"

You grin at him. "I did."

A series of emotions flicker over his face. Excitement, nervousness, surprise, and more. He turns away, looking at Haruna down below once more.

"...me then?" he asks, his voice barely above a whisper. "She likes me?"

"So it seems," you confirm. "I mean, she didn't admit it, but all signs point towards that being the case."

"But why me?" he says, his voice louder and confusion clear. "I've always liked her, but what reasons could she possibly have for liking me?"

You shrug. "Well, why not? You're a nice dude. You're caring and attentive and you are always helping other people. Those are admirable traits. I don't see why she wouldn't like you."

"But she- she's so much better than me!"

"She isn't," you say, tone a little harsh. "You were paying attention to her today, right? Forget the fantasy of her you've built up inside your head. Is the Haruna you observed today some angel? Some larger-than-life figure? Or is she a cute and nice, but normal, girl?"

You see him struggle with that one, his brow furrowing as he attempts to view Haruna more objectively, not through the lens of his affection. How the pillar he had put her on slowly crumbles as he faces reality.

After a few moments, he sighs, his body relaxing. "She's better than a normal girl," he grumbles. But you can tell that he understands your point.

"Sure, sure, but the two of you are the same," you insist. "So there's no reason why your crush couldn't be mutual, right?"

"If that's the case, then why hasn't she said anything?" he asks.

"Why haven't you?" you point out. "Same reasons, probably including things going wrong when she tries. Tell me, has there ever been a situation where she seems like there was something she wanted to tell you, but something interrupted her, or she changed her mind?"

His eyes widen in recognition. "It was the same for her!" he realizes. He turns to rush away, but you were ready for that and you grab his wrist.

"Where do you think you're going?" you ask calmly.

"To confess! If things keep messing up, then I just have to push through!"

"Yes, that's a good lesson to take from this, but pushing through obstacles doesn't mean rushing. She's in the middle of practice right now, are you going to interrupt that?"

He stops. "Oh. No, that wouldn't be a good idea."

"Exactly," you reply, letting go of him. "Just have a little patience and listen to me. I have the perfect plan."


By the time the clubs are finished the sun is starting to set, casting the sky in orange and purple as it dips below the horizon. You're leaning against the wall of the school building near the entrance, waiting.

A few students pass by, but you ignore them. It's not until your lunchtime friends appear that you call out to them. "Hey you three," you greet Mio, Risa, and Haruna.

"Saitou-san?" Haruna responds as the three of them stop and you walk up to them. "What are you still doing here? I didn't think you were in a club."

"I was helping a friend do some studying," you give your prepared answer easily. It's even close to the truth if you stretch the definition of 'studying' a bit. "More importantly, Honekawa-sensei asked me to grab the two of you, Momioka-san and Sawada-san. He said there was something he wanted to talk to you about before you left."

Mio frowns and Risa sighs. "Ah man, and here I was looking forward to going home quickly." She turns to Haruna. "You go on ahead Haruna, we'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay!" Haruna replies cheerfully. "Bye!" She gives the three of you a wave and walks off, headed to the gate.

The other two start heading back into school, but you stop them. "Hold on a moment, there's something else," you say, buying a couple more seconds to make sure Haruna is out of earshot. "I actually have a confession to make. That was a lie, the teacher doesn't want to see you. I just needed to get you away from Haruna."

Mio's eyes narrow, but Risa picks up on things quickly. "You're up to something then?"

You grin. "Follow me and you'll see. I promise you'll enjoy it."

"My, so forward," Risa says with a teasing grin. "But I can't say I hate that kind of thing. Alright, let's go. You've stroked my curiosity."

"You mean stoked?" you ask as you start heading towards the spot you picked out beforehand.

"Nope," she replies with a wing. Mio giggles in response, and the two of them follow you.

There's a spot near the school gates that is mostly hidden from view but allows you to peek around the corner and see the spot where you told Rito to wait. As you approach it, you raise your finger to your lips, silently telling the other two to be quiet. You get the feeling that they have a rough idea of what's happening because both are grinning and they nod in agreement.

As you get closer, you hear Rito's voice. "-bush you like this, but there was something I wanted to talk to you about."

"It's no trouble at all Yuuki-kun," Haruna replies. You peek around the corner and see the two of them standing in front of the gate, the beautiful sunset behind them. You feel Mio and Risa crowd around your back as they peek as well.

"Oh my god, is he finally going to do it?" Risa whispers. You shush her, straining to hear what the two of them are saying.

You're starting to feel a little excited yourself. Is this about to go smoothly? Is your plan going to succeed? You look around. There's nothing that you can see that was likely to interrupt them. You told him to be direct, and not to waste time building up to it, and so long as he does, it should work. You can see that Rito is nervous, but there's determination in his eyes.

"Sairenji-san, the truth is, I-" he starts to confess but…

A car drives by the road behind him, driving through a puddle you hadn't noticed and splashing Rito with the water, absolutely soaking him.

All five of you are stunned at the sight, and you're positive you're not the only one wondering where the hell that puddle came from when it hadn't rained all day.

You sigh. The mood had been ruined. But now you knew how strongly the universe would oppose-

"No," a quiet but clear voice broke the silence. All of you look at Rito in surprise. His clothes and bag are dripping wet, clinging to his body. But his expression, rather than being dejected or annoyed or anything like that, was even more determined than before. He hadn't given up.

"Y-Yuuki-kun!" Haruna called out, snapping out of her surprise. "You're soaked!"

"That doesn't matter right now!" Rito exclaims, raising a clenched fist. "Over and over I've tried to tell you, only for something like that to happen! I'm not going to let it stop me this time! I don't care that I'm soaking wet or if something tries to stop me again, I'm going to make my feelings clear!"

You're behind Haruna, so it's hard to get a read on her, but you can see how she froze at those words. Risa lets out a quiet "Oh?" and you find yourself tense with anticipation. You didn't expect this amount of determination from Rito, but in hindsight, maybe you should have.

"I like you Sairenji!" Rito declares. He's blushing, and it's clear that he's embarrassed and nervous, but he's standing up straight and he isn't hesitating. "I've liked you since junior high! So, please go out with me!" With those last words, he bowed awkwardly, bending his waist almost ninety degrees.

A stunned silence once more falls over all of you as the shock settles in. Rito did it. He overcame the odds and his fear and he actually confessed. But that didn't mean it was over. Haruna had yet to reply. Your attention shifts over to her, gauging her response. You know she likes him, but would she be willing to accept that in these bizarre circumstances?

She's frozen in place, processing what Rito just so boldly declared. Right as you start to worry that things are about to go poorly, she seems to snap out of it, relaxing her tensed shoulders and taking a deep breath.

She takes a tentative step forward, and you feel Mio grab your arm and vibrate in excitement as she watches. Risa seems similarly excited, bouncing slightly.

Haruna takes two more slow steps, putting her in arm's reach of Rito. Then she places a hand on his shoulder and lifts him up. Rito looks confused but doesn't fight it. You can't tell what expression Haruna is making, which only builds the mystery and anticipation for you and the others.

"Rito-kun," she says, surprising everyone by using his given name instead of his family name. "You don't need to bow like that. I'm… I'm glad you told me, even with what happened. I…" she trails off, nervousness clear in her voice. But she shakes her head and straightens her back. "No, you were brave, and I have to be as well. I like you too, Rito-kun. I would be happy to go out with you."

Rito's face lights up and the two of them embrace. Rito immediately pulls away, apologizing for his wet clothes, but Haruna doesn't even seem to notice. Seeing that your mission has been accomplished, you back off, a smile on your face.

"I didn't expect Rito to be so…manly," Mio comments in a quiet voice as the three of you withdraw, giving the new couple some privacy.

"It was uncharacteristically bold of him," Risa agrees, turning her attention to you. "How'd you manage to make him like that?"

You shrug. "Honestly, not much," you answer, not even trying to pretend you didn't have a hand in arranging that. These two girls were smart enough to pick up on that. "He always had it in him, he just needed a little push."

"Is that so?" Risa replied, not sounding totally convinced but not really pushing the matter either.

"I'm glad someone gave him that push," Mio added. "Now they can finally stop pining for each other."

"Our lunch group is gonna get bigger though," I comment. "Rito will likely join us, Haruna won't want to ditch."

Risa shrugged, but Mio grinned. "That just means we can tease both of them. And now that the cat's out of the bag, we can tease them about how long it took for them to get together."

You and Risa laugh in response to that, looking forward to your normal lunchtime antics.


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This is the story-only edit of a Quest I run over on Questionable Questing! If you'd like to participate in the Quest and vote on decisions the character makes, head there!