Chapter 26: Chiarai Shigeo

Author's note: In this chapter I use the code names described in chapter 250.

This was a beautiful day for a date. Chiarai made sure to arrive 30 minutes before the actual date time and waited in front of the station. As he waited, Chiarai ran through his plans for the day.

Then he heard some whispers. He turned towards the sound, and he saw a girl wearing the Itan High School uniform. That's weird, it's a Sunday. The girl walked towards him and as she got closer, Chiarai smiled. It was his date.

"I-I know you're going to be early," his date said.

"Why are you wearing the school uniform?"

His date looked down. "I tried to find the cutest clothes to wear, but I don't have it. All I have are normal clothes. Mediocre, average, lame...but this, the school uniform...thisis the clothes that make you fall in love with me, so…" The blush had seemingly encompassed his date's whole body.

There was a silence. Chiarai's date looked at his amused face and started panicking. "Ah, ah, ah, this is also super lame, huh? Surely you don't want to walk alongside this kind of loser, right? Why don't we reschedule the date? Or even rethink the relationship?" His hands moved in a wide arc, so rapidly and quickly a commoner would see a thousand hands.

For Chiarai though, there were only two hands. He grabbed both of them. Two soft hands, shaking. He looked straight into his eyes. "You're beautiful no matter what you wear, Hitomi."

[delusion break]

"Hitomi had such crippling low self-esteem, when there's no need for that. It brings up the parental feelings in me," A said.

Everyone from B to F nodded. "We all felt that, because we know Hitomi was so wonderful and shouldn't have so much self-loathing."

"Hang on," G said. "This is the same style as B and F's delusion. The delusioner consoles the self-doubting Hitomi."

"It's different," F said. "My delusion has Tadano-kun-chan, while A has Hitomi, and B didn't even give it a name, just 'Tadano in maid costume'."

"But you're right in the fact that there's always a reassurance for Hitomi," C said. "Because when Hitomi has very low self-esteem, it's kinda cute."

"But it's not cute when Tadano Hitohito has it," B said.

"Eh?" G asked.

"Yeah, it's super annoying when Hitohito, the guy who somehow got the Goddess to date him, thinks he's worth nothing," A said.

"When we all know Hitohito had his own charms, his own specialties, and very much a worthy person for his lover," D said.

"Stop it," G said.

"Just like how Hitohito embraced his inner pervert, so too he should embrace his own qualities," E said.

"Stop it," G said.

Everyone else pointed to G. "You should make a delusion where there's a confident Tadano, then make it a reality," A said.

[break]

"That sounds wonderful," Komi said. "So it's a group of friends cheering on each other? It's like me with Sasaki, Kato and Rumiko. I don't understand why you're so reluctant to explain your group."

"Because what they did with Hitomi, they did it with other girls," Tadano said.

Komi's eyes widened.

"I know it's creepy, but it's...harmless. We always remind each other it's a delusion, and that one should not act upon the target of the delusion."

Komi remained silent.

"And nobody else imagined anything with you except me," Tadano said. "Please don't hate them."

"I don't know about other girls, but I'm fine with it," Komi said. "What...did you imagine about me?"

Tadano's head started to spin. It's already hard enough talking about the Delusion Group, but talking about his own Delusions? Why not have him read from his novel?

"I can't say it," Tadano said. "Not today."

"Will you be able to tell me someday?"

"Someday."

Komi nodded. "That's enough for me."