Sorry. It's been a while. I've been pretty busy, but that's no excuse for this way overdue update. Sorry to keep you hanging. Oh, just in case you need a recap, I have one right here:
Keima Katsuragi, who is trying to stop the Archaic - a bunch of Fallen Goddesses, has tried to get Shouko and her patron Diana on his side. After getting captured, Keima agrees to a date, where they go to a park. Keima gained her trust through a sly use of words and won over Diana. Sadly, Yuuji finds him and Shouko acting chummy with each other, which is where we left off.
That's all I have to say. I might update Role Reversal next, then a TCOGK chapter. No idea when that'll happen. Still bombarded with work. Side-note: Someone's been writing "Notice me, Senpai!" on all of my stuff. Should I be scared?
Disclaimer: I don't own either Baka to Test or TWOGK. I'm making no money from this.
Enjoy!
Chapter Forty: Shouko, Yuuji, and ESBs
"Akihisa and Shouko!?" cried Yuuji, stunned. Shouko and Keima were frozen as well. Internally, Keima sighed. How stereotypical. Of course Yuuji had to be nearby just after Keima had broken through Shouko's defenses. Her old love might freeze her heart again. Hopefully Yuuji wouldn't scare her away. "Why are you two cuffed together?"
"Because I'm in love with him, and I don't want him to leave my side," Shouko strongly declared, removing all doubt clouding Keima's mind. She really had gotten over Yuuji. She really had fallen for Keima. While he wasn't looking forward to the repercussions, the fact that he had her smitten with him was very beneficial in coercing her into cooperating against the Fallen Goddesses. A nice little love boost for Diana's powers didn't hurt either. His relief instantly turned into grief as she held up her taser, sparks flying off her signature weapon. "'Till death do us part."
"...I'm really happy for you," replied Yuuji, a legitimate smile on his face. Keima could tell it was real: he himself was a master of facades, so he would've instantly identified Yuuji's happy expression as a fake had it been one. Instead, Keima felt joy radiating from the red-head... accompanied by a bit of grief, if the slight twitch of his mouth was anything to go by. "Take care of my childhood friend, Akihisa-"
"You're in love too," interjected the romance-obsessed yandere, pocketing her stun gun and pointing an accusing finger in the tall man's direction. He said nothing in reply. Keima said nothing too, sticking to just nodding his head in slight admiration. It took great friendship - or a good amount of stalking - to be able to read emotions that unnoticeable. Even the Capturing God would have assumed that it was caused by something else like stress. To be able to pinpoint the exact cause wasn't something to ignore. "We'd love to help you with that."
"..." Yuuji refused to reply. Keima, while sweat-dropping at the fact that he was mercilessly dragged into something he had no intention to be a part of, decided to support his date and nod, placing a hand on the taller man's shoulder. Yuuji looked at it and smiled.
"I may have to take you two up on that."
XOXOXOX
"Kami Nii-sama!" cheered Elsie, jumping onto the bespectacled boy as he entered Akihisa's apartment. She squeezed him with a bone-crushing hug, almost causing the poor guy to suffocate. "Oh, we missed you so much!"
"Okay," said Keima half-heartedly, more interested in how his charges were doing in his three-day absence. He needed all of his combatants to be in tip-top shape, both mentally and physically. "Where is everyone-"
"Keima!" cried a high-pitched voice. Before he could turn around to look, he felt a soft body press against his, slim creamy arms wrapping themselves around his abdomen. Judging by how non-shy and non-tsundere the voice was, he inferred that the female clinging onto him at that moment was Kanon Nakagawa: the girl that shocked Japan with her confession. "I missed you, honey! Oh, where's your PFP?"
"Well I'm glad to see that you're doing fine, Kanon. As for all of my PFPs, they're in Shouko's custody," replied Keima, turning around to face the pink-haired idol. She gave him a warm smile; he gave her a smirk in return. Deciding that the superstar was doing fine, he turned over to the smaller and shier girl behind her. "I'll get them tomorrow. Are you doing fine, Shiori?"
"Y-Yeah..." replied the bookworm, clutching "Steel Heart" in her hands. "Just o-one thing, though-"
"Katsuragi!" bellowed a very agitated female. Keima recognized that battle cry. He made sure to duck to avoid getting his head bashed in by the scythe that came careening towards his face a moment earlier. Keima did another 180 and faced the angered girl who stood next to Elsie. "Just what the hell happened? Did you get captured by the Archaic or something? Damn it, Keima; you need to be more careful. You worry us... baka."
"Haqua, please put away your tsun-tsun for a while," said the Capturing God, ticking off the devil. "Anyway, as you all would like to know, I was captured by Shouko. Apparently, Diana talked to her about our situation. Shouko was unsurprisingly jealous. Aside from that, Diana has agreed to help out, so-"
"That's good," said a less familiar voice, cutting Keima off. Just what was up with all these consecutive appearances!? Keima turned again for the sake of the interjecting girl. Her identity wasn't too surprising, since Keima did need to talk to her, but it was already really late. Unless Keima was going to escort her to her house, she's be stuck in his. "We do need Onee-sama's strength when we plot against the Archaic."
"Mercury..." muttered Keima, looking at the bespectacled beauty. She tossed some of her jet black hair over her shoulder and put a hand on her hip as she gave him her business look. Keima made sure to do the same. "I assume that you're on the same page as us."
"Yes," replied the Goddess, halo floating above her head. Pushing her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose, she continued. "Haqua over here explained it all to me. We must strike back, Keima. I think a more offensive attack would be best. After we're done smacking those Fallen Goddesses out of their Hosts' bodies..."
"...I'll fill in the gaps," said Keima. Fallen Goddesses leached off of the negative emotions of their hosts. If Keima were to remove those feelings, the Archaic won't have any footholds to grasp. They'd be forced to change back from their Spirit-corrupted selves. Of course, the Archaic were immensely stronger that the Goddesses, even if it was only because their Hosts didn't receive Keima's complete love. "Now all we have to do is get Shouko and Diana on board, and the only way to do that is to grant Shouko one last request."
XOXOXOX
"So who have you fallen for?" asked Keima, sipping his juice as he and Shouko listened to Yuuji's problems. He smiled ruefully. Instead of plotting against the Archaic, strengthening the bonds of his team of Goddesses and demons, or playing games (the latter was at the top of his concerns list), he was lending his Conquest expertise to a person that he didn't really know because of the whim of a girl that he wasn't really in love with only to please a Goddess that he wasn't really on good terms with. Yay.
"Is it Yuuka Koyama? Last time I checked, she had a crush on you and you rejected her," conjectured Shouko, probably wanting to add "and I would've killed you if you didn't". "Have you changed your mind or something?"
"Like hell," Yuuji said, smirking. "I still stand by what I said to her after she confessed: she's pretty creepy. Just look at how she treated that Nemoto guy." Keima had to agree. The bespectacled protagonist was glad that Yuuka's Conquest was quick and simple. He didn't want to risk having to cross-dress again (though it was very popular). "I'm falling for-"
"-Yuuko Kinoshita," Shouko interjected, causing Yuuji to face fault. As Keima wondered if Yuuji's face got stuck to the table, Shouko continued. "Whenever you visited, you'd always give her a good look. It almost got to the point where I'd be forced to poke your eyes out." After she said that, Yuuji thanked whatever being ruled the universe that the slightly psycho Shouko wasn't in love with him anymore.
"It's Hiromi Nakabayashi, okay?" concluded the red-head, managing to recover from his face fault. Shouko just stared and sipped at her drink while Keima processed the information. Hiromi Nakabayashi. According to some leisurely research he did on his female schoolmates while waiting for a game to load or something, she was the energetic and confident Class Rep of 2-E who specialized in organization and leadership. Tends to get cocky and arrogant when victory is close. Formerly in love with Toshimitsu Kubo, she is currently single. She seemed perfect for Yuuji, even though energetic and lazy never really meshed together. "I was... charmed by her personality when we fought against her class. We talked a bit in the following months, but there's no progress. Any suggestions?"
"We need you to talk to her right now," stated Keima, throwing his juice-deprived box into the garbage can. "Luckily, school's going to start-up tomorrow, so we have the perfect chance."
There was a problem with having to set up a Capture for someone else. You had to know your status with the other person, and since Keima wasn't Yuuji and he hadn't really been observing the red-head closely enough, Keima now needed to see how Hiromi viewed Yuuji...
...and if he had to change that view.
XOXOXOX
"Yo, Nakabayashi," greeted Yuuji, waving a hand at her. Hiromi gave him a curious look, and with an expression that showed her concluding that the sneaky red-headed dastard didn't have anything up his sleeves, she smiled and waved back. "You up for some small talk?"
"Sure. Why not?" replied the Target, putting a hand on her hip as she took a more casual stance.
From behind a nearby potted plant, Keima and Shouko observed the conversation. Keima had to admit that Yuuji picked all the right topics to talk about. He talked about how her class was doing, if they had any plans for any upcoming wars, and if she had anyone she was aiming for. Thanks to that line of questioning, Keima was able to gather a lot of information. It seemed that the young Sakamoto was on good terms with 2-E's class rep. There was only one problem; she only saw Yuuji as a colleague. A fellow class rep. A smart tactician. A person that she had no interest in pursuing. He needed to become more prevalent in her life. Oh well. It wasn't a problem too big for the Capturing God.
Before Keima could signal for Yuuji to cut the conversation short, he and Shouko - who was too busy admiring Keima's cute visage - were roughly pulled up by a pretty big-sized kid. Keima
tried to escape, tugging at the guy's hand, but the student had an iron grip. Shouko was too occupied with blushing at how close her captor had placed Keima and her. Keima sighed as he internally noted two things: 1.) Don't count on Shouko for help if she was in a lovey-dovey mood. 2.) A potted plant wasn't very good cover. Hiromi Nakabayashi pursed her lips, the smile that Yuuji enjoyed looking at crumbling away. Coldly, she looked at Yuuji and asked, "Just what is the meaning of this, huh, Yuuji?"
"Hiromi, I-"
"No... you don't have to answer that," interjected the normally cheery girl, pointing at the big lug of a student and snapping. At her command, the student - probably a 2-E pupil - tossed the both of them into the tall red-head, bowling them all over. "All these questions were to prepare for an ESB, weren't they? Well I'll jump ahead then. I, on behalf of 2-E, wage war on 2-F. See ya, Sakamoto." Without another word, Hiromi and her lackey walked away, leaving the three left to wonder just what went wrong. Dusting themselves off, they picked their disappointed selves up and walked back to their classroom to prepare for the upcoming war.
"You were a bit too heavy on the 'plans for upcoming wars' topic. A slight glance over would have been enough for me to work with. I knew I should have fed you your lines," said Keima, slightly ticked off. Time was of the essence. Negative feelings that the Archaic's Hosts had for him would only increase as time went along, and as their hate for the bespectacled boy increased, the Fallen Goddesses' power increased as well. He needed to strike while they were around the same power level as the Goddesses, or else he'd be seeing a lot of godly grease spots in the near future. He needed to hurry, and that meant hurrying up the Conquest. Then again, who said love couldn't be found on the battlefield. "Oh well. We'll just have to make new plans. The Conquest of Hiromi Nakabayashi has begun!"
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