Disclaimer
The following is a fan-based Fiction.
To Love-Ru belongs to Shueisha, Saki Hasemi and Kentarou Yabuki
Please support the official release.
The Start of Something Special
The following morning after the ghost investigation in the abandoned building…
"W-what?!" Haruna yelled she was just told of what happened in the abandoned school building. "You all found aliens, and one captured Lala and an alien girl named Yami?"
"Yep." Risa said and Mio confirmed with a nod.
"H-how did you get out of there?"
"Hiroto-kun saved the day." Risa answered with a grin, looking at said boy, who is pretending to read, ignoring the girl.
"Akatsuki-san saved everyone?" Haruna looked at Hiro and turned back. "How?" Lala and Yami were aliens that were super strong while Hiro was just a normal human, or is he?
"Hiroto-kun had a gun that shoots stuff that makes people stuck and he dodged the tentacles like a super cool spy." Mio explained. "He then used paper spray on the gun and hit the big alien's eye."
"Which freed Yami and Lala, they all kicked butt." Risa finished and Yui stood up from her seat, walking towards Hiro, the three girls stared at them.
The reincarnate noticed. "Can I help you Kotegawa-san?" He asked politely.
"I am confiscating your gun and pepper spray." Yui said and Hiro raised his eyebrow up at her request.
"But Hiro saved us with those items and their nonlethal, it's for self defense." Rito argued.
Yui's cheek turned pink and frowned but she shook it off, literally. "Yes, I am thankful but as the head of the discipline committee it is my duty to confiscate dangerous items, regardless of intent or design, they are weapons." She said, pointing at Hiro.
"But…" Rito struggled to retort but Hiro raised his hand, stopping his friend.
"Even if I wanted to hand them over to you, I can't, that pepper spray was emptied, I threw it away, and the gun is at Rito's home. It needs to be cleaned and Lala promised to teach me how to do that later." Hiro replied neutrally.
"Yep!" Lala confirmed, knocking the sails out of the strict girl's boat.
"Oh." Yui cleared her throat. "W-well, as I said before, such items are forbidden from school."
"Even though it saved us?" Hiro remarked with a hint of sass in his words, smirking.
Yui briefly glared before clearing her throat again. "Do not bring them to school." She said before walking back to her seat right as the next period started.
Yuuki Ringo, Rito and Mikan's mother, was finally home, she had some work to do in Japan, with only a little bit of free time to visit her kids. Mikan was quite shocked to find her mother home but quickly got over it, and was happy to see her. They talked, briefly catching up on recent events and then Mikan explained about the recent addition, Lala.
"So, Mikan, tell me about Rito's new friend, Akatsuki Hiroto I believe?" Ringo questioned, recalling the conversation she had with her husband over the phone when they were both on break. Saibai mentioned meeting Akatsuki Hiroto during their son's birthday, which intrigued Ringo, the only friend she knew Rito had was a Saruyama Kenichi, so hearing Rito having another friend was a pleasant surprise.
"Oh yeah, Rito and Akatsuki-san met each other during the earlier parts of their first school year, it was also when Lala came to our planet." Mikan started. "He is a nice guy, he's smart, and reliable. It's reassuring to know Akatsuki-san is there to help Rito deal with whatever crazy, literally out of this world stuff that happens during school." Ringo smirked and Mikan didn't like it. "What is it?"
"Oh nothing.~" Ringo sipped her tea, hiding her smirk, fully aware it was pointless to hide but it irked her daughter nonetheless. "I just noticed that this is the first time you praise a guy that wasn't your father or your brother."
Mikan's cheeks turned pink at the implications of her mother's words. "Okaa-san…" She gently chided and crossed her arms. "It's not world shattering for me to finally talk about something positive involving a boy that isn't family, Hiro is..." She paused, realizing her mistake.
"Hiro…?" Ringo said and smirked even wider. "Ara ara, to think you reached to that point in your relationship with him."
Mikan blushed and opened her mouth to fix the misunderstanding. "Its-
"We're home!" Lala said, interrupting the embarrassing conversation, which gave Mikan the excuse to leave.
"Ah hey!" Mikan greeted her brother and Lala, but then she blushed, seeing Hiro, remembering her mother's teasing a few seconds ago. 'Out of all the days he could visit…' The girl shook her head and grabbed her brother's arm, dragging him to their mother.
"M-mom?" Rito stuttered, surprised to see his mother home.
"Oh! Hello Rito!" Ringo said, smiling wide.
Hiro and Haruna stood by the front door for a few minutes, uncertain how to join in without ruining the atmosphere, the two looked at each other feeling out of place. Hiro knew Rito and Mikan's mother doesn't visit often, even during holidays, so this moment with Ringo could be precious. While Haruna just felt awkward and unprepared to meet the mother of the boy she liked.
Eventually, Hiro pointed his thumb at the front door and Haruna nodded in agreement, understanding his intention. They both peaked their heads into the room. "It looks like we might be in the way, so…" Haruna trailed off.
"We'll come back another day." Hiro finished and they walked toward the exit.
"Wait a second." Lala intervened, stopping the two.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know my mom was going to be home…" Rito said.
"Its oka-
"Hold on a second!" Ringo interrupted, appearing almost out of nowhere, grasping Haruna's shoulder. She inspected the girl, muttering some words about Haruna's shape and figure, her eyes shining like a star.
Hiro suddenly remembered a particular habit Ringo had in the manga…
"I need to have a closer look!" Ringo yelled, pulling Haruna's uniform by the shoulders, unbuttoning her clothing. Hiro looked away while Rito moved with a bright red face.
"CUT IT OUT!" Rito pleaded, out of embarrassment of potentially seeing Haruna nude and the fact that his mother was trying to strip the girl he had a crush on.
Her son's words snapped Ringo out, and she quickly apologized. "And, um your name is…"
"Ah…" Haruna fixed her clothing. "My name is Sairenji Haruna." She glanced away, her cheeks turning faintly pink. "I'm in the same class as Yuuki-kun."
Ringo noticed the look Haruna had and leaned closer to the girl. "Ah… Perhaps…" Her next words were too soft for Hiro to hear but judging from Haruna's red face, it was likely about Haruna having feelings for Rito.
"Huh? What? Were you talking about me?" Rito questioned, confused.
Ringo muffled her giggle with her hand. "You certainly are popular aren't you Rito." She said much to Rito's confusion, while Hiro and Mikan were amused as well.
"I… I just remembered that I have something to do so I'm going home!" Haruna yelled, dashing to the front door.
"Sairenji-san?!" Rito blurted out, surprised by Haruna's sudden leave.
The door slammed shut.
"Even though she came all the way over…" Rito cried overdramatically.
"I see…" Ringo giggled. "It looks like things are getting pretty interesting here."
"It sure is." Mikan added in with a grin
"You two only know half of it." Hiro commented, getting their attention.
"So you must be Akatsuki Hiroto." Ringo said.
"Yes." Hiro confirmed and bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you." Ringo bowed as well and visually inspected the young man. Unlike female models, Ringo doesn't get as handsy with guys, unless it was her husband.
From what the fashion designer could tell, Hiroto is skinny but fit. Years of experience told her that Hiroto worked hard to get where he is now. His hairstyle was short, clean and stylish, it was similar to some male models she worked with in the past. In her personal and professional opinion… Hiroto was a good looking young man, of course not as good looking as her handsome boy, but she can see Hiroto attracting a few cute girls…
Ringo glanced at Mikan, remembering their earlier conversation and hid her smirk with her hand, then she turned to Rito.
"Rito!" Ringo said, getting her son's attention. "As I've told you before, the worst thing a man can do to a girl is make her cry." She lectured.
"Why are you talking about that all of a sudden…?" Rito asked.
"The only thing needed to satisfy a girl's heart is a boy's kindness." Ringo said. "Just don't forget that."
"O-okay…" Rito said, still confused but understood his mother was trying to teach him something important.
"Mom, it looks like Rito still doesn't get it." Mikan pointed out with an amused smile.
"Fufu… It sure does." Ringo agreed with an all knowing smile and turned to Hiro. "That goes to you too, so try to remember that too."
Hiro nodded. "Understood." He said with a nod, comprehending Ringo's wisdom.
'So this young man gets it… That's good.' Ringo thought with a small smile, Hiro unknowingly checkmarked something in her mental list. "Thank you for being Rito and Mikan's friend."
"Thankfulness works both ways, I'm glad to be their friend." Hiro replied and they both nodded in agreement.
Afterwards, they all go to the airport. Ringo had a busy schedule and was glad to have met Lala, Hiro and Haruna despite how brief it was.
"Ah, before I forget." Ringo said, leaning into Hiro. "If you can, please try to include Mikan to whatever fun events you, Rito and Lala-san get into. She might get a bit lonely since Rito is now likely going to be busy with Lala." She requested.
"Okay." Hiro promised but something felt off with the way Ringo's eyes glinted when he accepted.
"Thank you." She said before turning to Lala, whispering something to her.
Lala looked dazed, staring at Ringo leaving, waving her hand goodbye at them.
"... Troublesome isn't it?" Mikan said.
"It sure is…" Rito rubbed the back of his head. "Mom didn't even have time to do anything else in Japan."
Mikan breathed out of her nose and gave her brother an amused smirk "No… I was talking about you."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Rito then turned to Hiro. "Do you know?"
"Nope." Hiro shrugged and Rito turned to where his mother disappeared in the crowd, missing his friend winking at his sister with a smirk.
Mikan softly giggled briefly before stopping, wondering what her mother said to Hiro and sighed at the memory of her mother's teasing suggestion.
The next day, Haruna was curious to meet Yami, so Risa and Mio asked Lala if she knew where the alien assassin would be, which led to Lala asking Hiro if he knew. Since Hiro, in Lala's words, was "Yami-chan's friend."
Hiro, while ignoring the amused looks from Risa and Mio, guessed Yami was somewhere nearby the public library.
So Hiro, Rito, Lala, Haruna, Risa and Mio, went to the library afterschool, finding Yami on a bench nearby underneath a tree, reading some magazines. Coincidentally, she was reading magazines of clothing that Ringo designed.
Eventually, this led to the group shopping for clothes for Yami to wear. Said girl declined but Risa and Mio ignored her, Hiro suspected it was because they wanted to dress a cute girl up.
Rito blushed at the sight of underwear for girls muttering in surprise that there is underwear on display as well and Hiro sighed. "It's not a big deal, some men's shops do the same thing."
"Yeah but…" Rito failed to retort, looking at the underwear, blushing.
'With Rito's reactions like this, I sort of regret but also am glad I came along with the 'plot'.' Hiro thought. Rito can get too nervous at trying to do anything romantic or 'intense'. Which is kind of stereotypical for a harem protagonist but it's pretty stagnant when trying to develop a relationship. Hiro could potentially give his friend the push forward in a relationship, unlike Momo who would likely only pile more girls on and potentially pressure him.
"Yami-Yami, over here!" Risa called out, holding out a pile of clothing for Yami to wear nearby a fitting room.
Not even in a minute, Lala stepped to the curtain. "Not done yet Yami-chan?"
Hiro stepped forward. "Lala, she just got in there, not everyone puts on clothes as quickly as possible." He said. "Just be patient, you don't want to open the curtain and expose Yami with little clothing in front of everyone." Everyone, even Yami's, cheeks turned pink at the last point.
"But I want to see how she looks!" Lala said, and right on cue, the curtains opened, revealing Yami wearing tomboy looking clothing, her face slightly pink.
It looked good but it's not quite what Risa and Mio want Yami to wear for her first clothing on Earth.
They spent about half an hour trying out clothes while Hiro and Rito waited outside, sitting on a bench.
"Well, what do you think, Hiro?" Risa asked, elbowing him for some reason.
"It's…" Hiro observed Yami in her new clothing, her golden hair was tied into long twin tails, she was wearing a short sleeve shirt and a flowery short skirt, the clothing made her look…
"Cute." Hiro blurted out without thinking, Yami blushed and so did Hiro, realizing what he said.
They missed Risa and Mio smirking at them.
'No wonder why you kept ignoring the girls at school, turns out your standards were too high for them.' Risa smugly thought, she and friend wiped their smirks off right as Yami turned to them.
"... Is it really okay if I don't pay?" Yami asked Risa and Mio.
"Of course it is! It's a gift.~" Risa replied and Mio nodded.
"Okay…" Yami's cheeks turned pink. "Thank you…" She said, shyly.
"Wasn't that nice Yami-chan?" Lala beamed.
"Well well, there are a lot of cute girls here." A man interrupted.
"Hey hey, why don't you come play with us?" Another man said and they all turned to the source.
Hiro saw three guys, either in their late twenties or early thirties that were trying to look younger than they actually are and failed, especially the oldest looking guy with the shades on top of his bandana for some reason. What's the point of wearing them like that?
"What's with these fools from the last century?" Risa scoffed, expressing a surprising cold edge to the creeps, she had the same thoughts as the reincarnate.
"Whatever, let's have some fun." The guy with the thick ugly eyebrows and beanie said, ignoring Risa, the creeps circled around Yami.
"This one is short and cute." The chubby guy in the hoodie and baseball cap said, likely trying to undress the alien assassin with his mind.
"Stop!" Rito blurted out, and the trio of losers stepped back scowling at the orange haired teen.
"Hm? Who are you?"
"I won't say anything bad!" Rito said, standing in front of Yami. "Stop before you get yourself hurt!" Hiro then stepped in front of them before the creeps would misunderstand.
"What he means is that, looks are deceiving, make the wrong move, you're in a world of pain with her…" Hiro clarified and warned.
"Oh really?" The guy with the shades scoffed. "Or maybe you're just not manly enough to handle her." He said, misunderstanding Hiro's warning.
"Yeah skinny guy probably is too quick for her." The chubby creep said.
"He must always be on the bottom, poor cutie doesn't know what it's like for a man to be on top." The beanie guy suggested with a smirk.
The reincarnate rolled his eyes at their insults, maybe their college dropouts? Might explain their arrogant and stupid attitude. Losers likely never grew up.
"He could beat you." Yami suddenly said, stepping forward and Rito fearfully stepped out of her way.
"What?" The guy with the shades said.
"He's tougher than all of you."
Hiro's eyes widened and he mouthed. 'What are you doing?!'
"Yeah, and he looks much cooler than you, he'll look even better when he is your age." Risa added in, remembering how Hiro took down the aliens.
"Stop provoking them!" Rito whispered, trying to prevent a fight from breaking out.
"Is that so?" The man with the shades scowled, grabbing Hiro's blazer and the other two gathered around him. "Let's see about that-" He raised his fist.
Hiro, right before the punch was thrown, he grabbed the hand on his blazer, he twisted and pulled as hard as he could, dragging the man into his chubby friend. He felt something at the back of head, he ducked, realizing the guy with the ugly eyebrows tried to punch his head, only to be avoided completely and overextended his punch.
Then the reincarnate literally kicked his butt, pushing the beanie guy into the others. The guy with the bandaid on his nose, dodged his friend, the beanie guy and chubby man collided head first and groaned in pain on the ground.
The older looking guy ignored his friends. "You little-" He swung his right fist again, but Hiro dodged and punched him with his left hand, hitting the cheek. "Ow!" The creep tripped over himself from the hit and slammed into the nearby bench face first on the metal railing, knocking himself out.
"Look-" Lala tried to warn but it was unneeded, Hiro felt he already knew.
The chubby guy ran to Hiro, aiming to tackle the 'teen' only to be blasted by pepper spray, followed up by Hiro kicking his shin full force, tripping the guy into the concrete. He grasped his shin with one hand and the other was furiously trying to wipe the pepper off his face to no avail. He secretly had another pepper spray, he just omitted the full truth from Yui about it.
The thick eyebrowed guy was last, he threw his bag quickly, but Hiro caught it and immediately swung it back in the middle of the eyebrow guy's charge. The creep caught it with his stomach and his face got hit by pepper spray. He cried in pain, trying to rub it off with his shirt but then Hiro uppercuts right on the chin, knocking him out.
…
Hiro stood there with his fist pointed up, trying to process what he had just accomplished.
"WOW!" Risa said as she and Mio stood by Hiro in admiration.
"Good job Hiro!" Lala complimented and Rito smiled, impressed by his friend's fighting prowess.
But all their praise went to deaf ears as Hiro was struggling to comprehend how he had accomplished all of that.
If he recalled the manga correctly, there were no pages involving those thugs in a fight, he had no foresight on how they would fight and yet somehow… He knew what moves those creeps were about to do before they did them… What's going on?
Meanwhile Yami was analyzing him. The alien assassin intentionally goaded the ecchi people to fighting Hiroto, to see if his accomplishment back at the abandoned building was luck, it seems like it wasn't.
But she felt confused as Hiro was, she noticed how he moved like he knew what the next guy was going to do, not because he was faster. Not only that but for some reason she felt oddly satisfied with the results. Earlier she felt irritated when they insulted Hiroto, then she felt pleased when she insulted the ecchi people and when the strange Earthling took them down.
…
Maybe she just likes ecchi people being taken care of…
Every payback Run had attempted today has failed! Lala was unphased by the extremely spicy sandwiches, she got herself naked in front of Rito, but in a way she did not want at all! It's the end of school today, this is her last chance.
'Since it's come to this, I'll just smack her once and run!' Run planned as she lifted clumsily the giant mallet. "Heave-ho..." She muttered to herself, standing up with the tool raised, leaning against the wall and a second later, she turned the corner.
Only to find her beloved's friend, Hiroto Akatsuki right in front of her. Because of the momentum of the large mallet and how close Hiroto was, Run fell right into him.
"Kya!" She cried, the mallet slipped out of her hands, hitting the ground nearby with a loud thump and the two fell over.
Hiroto coughed "Are you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah." Run answered, she pushed herself off of Hiroto and opened eyes, finding her face very close to him. She was grasping his shoulders, Hiroto was hugging her torso, her breasts were pressed against his chest. Their position was intimate. The two froze, staring directly into each other's eyes, their cheeks turning red.
"Uh…" Hiroto muttered.
"Hiro, Run-chan, are you two okay?!" Lala called out, she and Rito walked over to the two. Her voice snapped the two out of their stupor.
Run quickly stood up from Hiroto and ran away, turning the corner, after turning another corner, she stopped and leaned against the wall. She held her chest, remembering the feeling of her heart racing when she was close to the black haired boy. 'What was that?!' Run wondered before she shook her head. "Probably just embarrassment…" She muttered to herself.
She likes Rito afterall, of course she would be embarrassed to be close to anyone but the guy she loves. At least she didn't fall on top of a pervert like the Principal…
In the following day, Oshizu somehow entered Haruna's body, which would explain a lot of her odd behaviors.
"How's it look, Mikado-sensei?" Lala asked, hearing that the nurse had finished analyzing Oshizu in Haruna's body.
"I've checked everything, but… To be honest." Mikado started.
The alien doctor explained that even with advanced equipment and science, there is still a lot she doesn't know about spirits.
Mikado showed her scanner. "Spirits emit a different wavelength pattern than a normal living human, that's all we know so far."
While everyone else looked at the scanner, Hiro saw Oshizu was leaving, he grabbed her shoulder. "Where do you think you're going?" He asked.
"I don't know…" Oshizu admitted and frowned even deeper with Haruna's face. "Sorry, I was panicking, I'm causing trouble for Haruna-san…"
"It's okay, we'll figure it out." Hiro said, assuring the ghost and everyone gathered around them.
"We'll have to figure it out soon." Mikado added. "Based on my scanner, Sairenji-san is slowly losing her consciousness…"
""What?!"" Everyone gasped.
"Oshizu-san, give us every detail of how you ended up within Sairenji-san's body, what happened that led to this?" Hiro questioned, taking the lead.
"Uh well…" The ghost recalled the events in a little bit more detail best she could.
"You're scared of dogs huh?" Hiro knew this but wanted to be sure.
"Yeah…" Oshizu shivered.
"A dog barked and scared you, right into Sairenji-san…" Hiro repeated, emphasizing his words.
"Mhm…" While Oshizu was wincing at the memory of the dog, she didn't notice everyone else having the same revelation from these details. Hiro and Risa stared at each other, the girl was behind Oshizu.
Hiro nodded and so did Risa, who slowly leaned into the ghost.
"WOOF!" Risa barked, imitating a dog.
"KYA!" Oshizu screamed, her spirit suddenly leaping out of Haruna and flew right into Hiro.
Hiro stumbled back into the nurse.
"Eh? What happened?" Haruna asked, Risa then groped her and her reaction was normal, it was truly Haruna but…
"Where did Oshizu go?" Lala asked, looking around.
"Are you alright?" Mikado said, inspecting Hiro.
"Uh yeah but… I'm not Hiroto-san… It's me, Oshizu again but in his body." Oshizu admitted with a sigh.
"How does it feel to be inside a guy?" Mio asked and partially teased.
"A bit weird, but-huh?" Oshizu felt like something was pushing her, Hiro's body briefly shivered. "Wah!" Suddenly the ghost found herself flying out of Hiro's body and the reincarnate yelling.
"Hiro are you alright?" Rito asked.
Hiro patted himself. "I think so… That was weird…"
"How did you unpossess Hiro?" Lala asked the ghost.
"I don't know… Unlike Haruna, it felt like I was pushed out somehow." Oshizu admitted.
"So Hiroto-kun somehow pushed you out?" Mio said, looking at said boy.
"I think so."
"How did you do it Hiro?" Lala asked.
"I don't know… I just felt her enter me and I didn't like it…" Hiro shivered at the memory, its cold water splashed into him.
"Well, with that taken care of, I believe you should all return to class, Oshizu-chan, you can stay with me." Mikado advised.
The students then all leave the infirmary, returning to class. While the alien doctor looked at her scanner. The special wavelength and the numbers were much higher than before for some reason, it was a lot more than when she scanned Oshizu in Haruna's body. Was it from how scared Oshizu was from the sound of barking? But her scanner wasn't near her when she got out of Haruna or Hiroto.
"This is… Hiro's home?" Rito said he, Lala and Mikan stared at their friend's house.
"It's so small…" Lala said, frowning.
"And old…" Mikan added.
It was a small house made of worn out wood, paper doors and cracked rooftops.
The door slide opens, and they see Hiro there, he was surprised.
"Oh, y-you're all here?" Hiro stuttered.
"Yeah…" Rito said.
Earlier, the three wanted to give Hiro's family some nice food Mikan cooked as thanks, it's also to meet Hiro's parents and to see their home. Their friend in the past has not talked much about his home and certainly didn't mention that his family is poor…
"Well…" Hiro shrugged. "Come in." He said.
The three entered the house, Hiro gave them a brief tour, there was the living room that was also the dining room, the big bedroom for his parents, Hiro had his own bedroom, there was the bathroom, and kitchen, that was about it.
Hiro's parents were kind, his father was a mechanic and his mother was a hair salonist, jobs that were okay, but not too good. They were accommodating, uncaring of their home's state, indifferent to Lala being an alien.
'Hiro paid for the taiyaki…' Mikan remembered the day that they met Yami, but the money they gain isn't as good as her parents. 'And yet Hiro acts like it's not a big deal?' She then touched the yellow ribbon on her hair.
"I wasn't certain what to give you, Rito and Lala just told me to make a really good effort in choosing a gift. So after some deep thinking I thought these would be good for you." Hiro explained.
It was a really nice gift that Mikan cherished to this day. How much did it cost?
"Look." Rito said, breaking his sister's thoughts, pointing at the calendar in the kitchen, there was a red marked circle, it said it would be Hiro's birthday, which is a week away from now.
Seeing this they knew what they had to do.
"Thanks for taking me to the arcade for my birthday." Hiro said, unlike Rito, he was aware of what his friends were doing and was thankful.
"Of course, it's the least we could do." Rito replied with a good hearted smile.
"Yeah, you did a lot for us." Mikan added. It was true, Hiro had done a lot for them the best he could, either by labor or advising his friends.
"I'm guessing Lala might be doing something with my home?" Hiro's spot on guess made Rito sigh and Mikan simply smiled.
"Yeah." Mikan confirmed, she knew Hiro would figure out what their plan was.
It was a decent plan considering the short window they all had on preparing Hiroto's birthday.
Lala needed time to do something big for Hiro's home, so Rito and Mikan planned on taking Hiro to the arcade and shopping to get him new nice clothing for his birthday.
Hiro and Rito eagerly played the new arcade shooter game together with Mikan spectating.
"Wow Hiro, you got a good aim." Mikan praised, seeing the new high score Hiro made, the number was so high, she had a feeling even Rito would struggle trying to rise past it.
"Thanks." The birthday boy replied, entering his name. "It's all from using the sticky gun Lala made and practicing at your home."
"It would explain how you nailed that one alien right on the eye." Rito commented.
They then played a fighter game against each other, but Rito ended up winning mostly because Hiro refused to have an easy win.
But after many losses, the reincarnate was a bit put down and the Yuuki siblings could sense it.
"Uh, maybe we should play something else?" Rito offered, Hiro looked at the fighting game and a mischievous idea formed when he looked at Mikan.
"One more round with you." Hiro said, facing Rito with a smile.
"O-Okay…" Rito reluctantly complied and entered the coins into the machine.
Not even a second after the fight started, Hiro made his character step back and he turned to Mikan. "Mikan, rapidly press the buttons with me!"
The brunette was surprised but quickly shook off her stupor and dashed to Hiro's side. She rapidly mashed the kick button while Hiro moved the character and mashed the punch button.
"Ack wait!" Rito playfully pleaded.
"No mercy!" Hiro cried out and Mikan giggled.
With the two people mashing the buttons together, Rito had no opening to counter attack effectively due to the game not being designed to prevent spamming. A few seconds later, Hiro and Mikan win the fight.
"We did it!" Hiro and Mikan high fived, laughing while Rito was being a good sport, happy to see his sister and friend happy.
"Oh look, it's Yami-san!" Mikan said, waving her hand on the alien assassin. "Hello!" She got the said girl's attention, who was eating taiyaki.
"Akatsuki Hiroto, Yuuki Rito and Mikan." Yami greeted them.
"What are you doing?" Hiro asked.
"Reading and eating taiyaki." Yami replied, simple and straight to the point. "What are you doing?"
"We're going shopping in the mall for Hiro's birthday." Mikan answered. "Want to come along?"
"... Birthday…" Yami recalled how she went shopping before. "Sure."
"Great!"
"So what about this?" Hiro asked, raising a black and white shirt with a brand of a video game.
"Looks good." Rito complimented.
"It's okay, but you could choose better options, don't hold back just because you're not paying for this." Mikan said.
"Uh… I guess but, honestly, I wore used detailed clothing or handed me downs for so long, I don't know what looks good nowadays." Hiro admitted, he didn't have much knowledge about trendy fashion.
"True…" Mikan only remembered Hiro wearing clothing with some brand on it most of the time.
"Do you have a good idea what is nice to wear nowadays?" Rito asked his sister, since personally, Rito didn't care much of how he looked, except for a certain purple haired girl… He only wore what his sister and mother recommended but his personal recommendations might not be compatible with Hiro.
"Yeah." Their mother was very supportive of using her card to buy their friend nice clothing, even advising Mikan on what clothing Hiro should wear.
"Is this good?" Yami raised a plain black bomber jacket and a plain black hoodie, Mikan nodded in approval.
"The hoodie is nice for a lot of clothing, but for the jacket we just need pants and a shirt that goes well with it…" The imouto scanned the area, looking at the clothing, trying to mentally picture Hiro in them. Her mother advised that plain clothing is more versatile for someone to wear and with how Hiro looked, plain clothing is more suited for him.
Almost an hour and a half later, Hiro came out of the store wearing a black bomber jacket, a tan colored shirt and blue jeans, looking good while carrying bags full of new clothing.
Yami went to buy more snacks for them to eat, while Hiro, Rito and Mikan went into the mall's photobooth machine taking photos together doing various poses.
"Okay, one more photo." Hiro said, pressing the pen on the screen to select what kind of photos he wanted to do.
"Yeah." Rito agreed, stepping back, giving his friend space.
Suddenly, Yami appeared, removing the curtain. "I brought the snacks…" She stopped, Rito's forearm was pressed against her chest.
…
"Sorry-" Yami grabbed Rito's jacket, Rito somehow quickly slipped out of her grasp but bumped into Hiro, who bumped into Mikan.
A second later, Rito was running through the mall, avoiding an angry giant hair punch from Yami while Hiro pressed his hand against the booth's wall stopping himself from falling over the girl.
"Are you okay?" Hiro said.
"Yeah." Mikan said, her cheeks slightly pink and a second later Hiro's cheeks turned into a similar shade, realizing the position they were in.
The reincarnate is accidentally doing a kabedon…
The two stared at each other, blue meeting gold brown eyes.
…
Hiro quickly corrected himself and stood up properly, clearing his throat, trying to calm his heart. "I'll make sure Yami doesn't kill Rito." He said, leaving the photo booth and grabbing the bags, moving on from what just happened.
After Rito received a brief painful punch from Yami, the three went back to the Akatsuki household and it looked almost exactly the same, only the roof looked new.
"After all this time, Lala only fixed the roof?" Rito groaned, perhaps mostly due to the bruise he got from Yami before she left.
"That remains to be seen…" Hiro said, skeptical of his home's appearance, he slowly walked up to the door, unlocked it, and slid it open.
"Surprise! Happy birthday!" Hiro's parents, Zastin, and Lala, yelled, throwing confetti at him.
"I knew it, you made the house bigger on the inside." Hiro grinned. It's almost the size of the Yuuki Household and it looks so much nicer now.
"Yep! It's the least I could've done! You helped me so much in the past!" Lala said.
"Yeah, you helped us a lot." Rito added.
"We spent a week selecting what furniture and decorations to get." Hiro's mother, Akari, said.
"Zastin-san helped me repair the roof." Hiro's father, Masato, said, both he and Lala's guard grinned.
"This is for you." Zastin handed Hiro an envelope, he opened it, it was a check and he got…
The reincarnate just stared.
"What is it Hiro…?" Akari stopped, staring at the paper in Hiro's hand. Masato leaned over his son's shoulder and upon seeing the gift, he also stared in silence.
"I think you broke them…" Mikan said with a sweatdrop.
"How much yen is in that check?" Rito asked.
"It's only a little bit more than what the Princess gets from her parents in half an Earth year." Zastin said. "Queen Sephie sent it as thanks to Hiro for being one of Lala's few genuine male friends."
"Lala's mother sent it as a gift… What do you mean by a genuine male friend?" Mikan asked.
"Other than myself and Ren, Princess Lala never truly had a male friend, those who approached her only wanted to gain a favor from Princess Lala rather than real friendship. That is why Queen Sephie is so thankful and had me give Hiroto-san this gift."
"Yep, mama was happy that Hiro is my friend!" Lala added, smiling wide. "They deserve a lot of money!"
"How much yen exactly?" Mikan wondered.
"Oh, it's…"
…
""WHAT?!"" Both Rito and Mikan yelled.
Afterwards, everyone enjoyed their slice of cake, chatting and bonding together.
Hope you liked the chapter! Sorry for the long wait!