Disclaimer
The following is a fan-based Fiction.
To Love-Ru belongs to Shueisha, Saki Hasemi and Kentarou Yabuki
Please support the official release.
New School Year, Same Old Students
Hiro knocked on the door, he heard a faint voice and some footsteps. The door opens revealing Mikan.
"Hello Hiro, welcome." Mikan greeted him.
"Hello Mikan, hope I didn't keep everyone waiting." Hiro said and Mikan shook her head.
"No, we just finished setting up the table." She said as they walked into the living room.
Nearby the TV is Lala and Rito kneeling near the table with paper, notebooks and more studying materials. With Rito's terrible score from the last math test and Lala's bad score in the writing test, piled up with the final exams on the horizon, Hiro suggested that they form a study group together. The three of them should be able to cover each other's weaknesses and support each other to make it through the last hurdle of their freshman year.
Initially, Lala suggested bringing Risa, Mio and Haruna, but the only two boys declined. Rito wanted to avoid showing his score to his crush, Hiro knew Risa and Mio might cause a ruckus rather than help study. Plus Hiro is not in the mood for Risa and Mio flirting/teasing him again.
"Hiro, how do you know which formula to use?" Rito asked.
"I kind of think of the math problem as a puzzle, every time I see the X or the Y in the problem regardless of what order, I know to use this formula to solve it, you just have to look for the patterns in the problem, like this…" Hiro explained.
"Yeah he's right, that's what I do too!" Lala commented and Rito's eyes shined, the problem finally clicked for him.
"Oh~!" Rito said.
Half an hour later the reincarnate found himself being the third wheel in the group as Lala mentored Rito on how to do math, with Rito complementing Lala and the Alien Princess finds herself flustered. Not wanting to interrupt their bonding session, Hiro decided to silently look for Mikan as he noticed she wasn't in the kitchen.
Hiro walked upstairs, gently knocking on Mikan's door. "Mikan, are you there?" He asked, not wanting to open the door at a terrible moment like every ecchi harem anime, plus it's polite.
"Yeah, you can come in." Mikan called out faintly from the otherside of the door. With permission, Hiro entered the room, finding a nice organized room with stuffed animals in one corner. It's pink, cute and kind of stereotypical for a girl her age. While she is mature it makes sense for her to act her age in some ways. Mikan was on her desk with a notebook, she was likely studying as well. "How is the study group going?"
"I found myself becoming the third wheel as Rito and Lala flirt, I mean bond with each other." Hiro joked with a straight voice, and Mikan smirked at his 'slip up', getting his joke.
"Yeah, I figured as much." Mikan said.
"What hint did you have?"
"Live with them long enough you can learn the typical events that occur in this house." Mikan explained. "At least twice a week, I have seen and heard the two of them 'flirt' with each other." The Protagonist's imouto pursed her lips. "How is your studying?" She asked, showing some concern for the lone high schooler.
"I'm good, I mostly did this to help Lala and Rito but also in case I have some holes in my knowledge. Since they are helping each other, with hard work and decent discipline, they should be ready to get high scores in the final exams."
"Or at least pass the exam." Mikan commented, aware of Lala's airheadedness, and her brother's busy days recently.
"Definitely." Hiro quickly replied and Mikan let out a gentle breath that sounded almost like a laugh from his reply. "How's your studies?"
"It's good, while I do have some issues with some of the problems, I should be able to figure it out before the exams start." Mikan said.
"Maybe I can help?" Hiro offered.
"Sure."
The reincarnate walked over to Mikan's desk, seeing the math problems she was dealing with and instantly recognized the problem. "Oh, I know what you need to do."
"What is it?"
Then Hiro explained the process to Mikan, helping the young girl learn. A few minutes later Hiro was welcomed by the heartwarming sight of the young girl's eyes shining in realization, just like Rito.
"Oh I get it now, thanks Hiro." Mikan said with a smile.
"No problem." Hiro nodded and Mikan stared at him with a contemplative look.
She knew Hiro didn't want to ruin Lala and Rito bonding together through homework but even though Hiro is smart, it would be a waste for him to not study for the final exams since he came all the way, it would be bad if he had a low score if he was too busy helping or avoiding ruining the atmosphere between her brother and Lala.
The imouto twisted a strand of her hair with a finger, her cheeks lightly pink, suddenly feeling shy for an unknown reason but nonetheless, she was still determined to help. "If you want, you can study he-
"YOU'RE CLOTHES ARE DISAPPEARING!" Rito yelled from downstairs, interrupting Mikan and startled the two.
"I guess I should check if they need some help." Hiro sighed with an amused grin at Rito and Lala's antics.
"Peke likely ran out of batteries, I'll get Lala's clothes." Mikan said smiling as well, she and Hiro are used to this.
They passed the exam, and are able to graduate into the same year To Love-Ru Darkness takes place in…
Knowing what's to come soon, Hiro finished jogging his extra few miles, feeling exhausted, his body was trembling, and he felt the pulse of his heart beating in his head. Sure it was an extra few miles but he didn't feel like this before when breaking his limits…
He's thirsty…
Hiro slowly raised his water bottle with shaky hands, opened the cap and raised it to drink, only for the bottle slip out of his hands. The exhausted reincarnate moved to catch the bottle before it spilled too much refreshing water, but he was too slow and fatigued from his jog.
But small golden hair wrapped around the bottle, preventing a massive spill. Recognizing the hair, Hiro turned towards the source with a small grin, seeing Yami with a book in her hand and now his water bottle on the other.
"Thanks Yami-san." He said as the assassin handed him back his water.
"No problem." Yami said and Hiro immediately took large gulps of water, unaware that Yami was staring at him. "Why do you run to the same locations almost every day after school?" She asked. She had noticed how Hiro often ran in the past when she was coincidentally reading nearby
Hiro lowered his bottle and faced the curious Alien Assassin. "I do it so I can increase my stamina and stay in good physical condition for running or any other activity. Do you not exercise?"
Yami shook her head. "I have done combat training but I have never done anything for the purpose of raising my stamina."
"But it wouldn't hurt to increase your limits right?"
"I hardly ever found myself out of breath even in an intense battle. The one time I tested my stamina, I spent all day running but never found my limit."
"..." Hiro just stared. "Wait, so… Your body always fit?" He realized.
"Yes, other than my height, my body has mostly stayed the same."
"..." Hiro blinked. 'Whatever she has… I want it' He thought as he lightly glared at Yami, recalling the junk food she often snacked on.
The first day of their second year…
"Time has really flown by…" Hiro muttered to himself, recalling how surprisingly spread out the crazy events were. In the manga, in hindsight it was pretty quick for them to be in their second year before even finishing the series.
Hiro entered the school gate, coincidentally walking side by side with Haruna, mostly due to how cramped the gate was with the mob of students pouring through. After the horde of students broke apart, Hiro decided to greet Rito's crush politely.
"Good morning Sairenji-san." Hiro said.
"Good morning Akatsuki-san." Haruna replied. "Have you seen Yuuki-san and Lala-san?"
"No, they might be late…"
"That's not good."
"Lala's quick and strong, with her they should be able to make it." Hiro assured and Haruna nodded with a smile.
"Right."
The two entered the school, seeing some old but also new faces. Some of the freshman boys stared at Haruna's appearance in awe while some of the freshmen girls stared at Hiro, they all whispered and gossiped.
Hiro sighed hearing a freshman girl whisper. "Is that guy single?" a bit too loudly. He just got back! Come on, are the majority of the boys in this town so undateable for the girls?!
The reincarnate switched to his indoor shoes, he glanced at the school gate, hoping to find pink or orange hair in the crowd, and the thought of his friends made him pause, realizing something.
Did Lala fix the clothing problem in her teleporter?
"KYAAAAAAA!" Haruna screamed, a loud slap echoed and Rito yelled in pain.
Nope.
In class during the cleaning… Hiro only sighed as he couldn't do much to mitigate the amount of typical ecchi harem stuff that happened around the protagonist as Risa and Mio messed with Lala's tail. Then Ren got into a scuffle with Rito, Yui tried to break it up, Run appeared and hugged Rito. Rito who, for some reason, got overwhelmed, ran into Lala, knocking off Peke and…
"Salacious!" Yui yelled, it was a bit of a surprise for Hiro to hear, it's not the typical word she would say when seeing something lewd.
With the ordeal fixed, class started and sensei requested to pick a class representative.
Yui was eager for it and so was Lala, the former clearly wanted to do something against the 'shameless' behavior Rito and Lala tend to get into, not realizing how inevitable it is for those two, while the latter thought it sounded fun.
Hiro thought of warning Lala of the responsibilities but then realized, Lala can make her own choices and if she somehow got the role, then the experience of leadership in school might help her a bit with becoming the Queen of the Galaxy. It wouldn't hurt… Much…
He is not voting for Lala.
Lala heard everyone's desires in class, however Lala decided to simply start creating the item to satisfy everyone's desires. Knowing Lala's inventions, while they haven't done much damage or chaos last year, she is far from consistent nor is she exactly patient when it comes to testing so Hiro simply hovered nearby Lala and Haruna.
"Uh Lala, you mind explaining what the item you are making?" Hiro asked, hoping Lala's plan isn't going to be chaotic.
"It will meet everyone's wishes!" Lala replied, clearly hyper focused on building her device, Hiro and Haruna sweatdropped at the answer.
"Can you please elaborate?" Hiro asked.
"I'll just show you!" Lala said, slapping a dark blue diamond shaped button with pink heart eyes over Hiro's jacket.
"Wait! Lala remember what we talked about-
But the Alien Princess paid him no mind as she moved to hand Haruna a heart shaped button with white swirly eyes until Yui intercepted her, grabbing the button, while Hiro removed his button.
The strict girl reminded Lala about not being able to use non approved items in school, even though it was seemingly a simple button, at least until it transformed Yui's clothing to something more revealing…
Wow…
The button in Hiro's hand started to pull him, so he let go and the button flew towards Yui, before dropping to the ground. It seems that the button only worked when attached to a person, likely male. As for the female button…
"W-W-WHAT IS THIS?!" Yui screamed in confusion and embarrassment, while Rito was stunned, his face red, staring at the girl in shock. "WHERE DID MY CLOTHES GO?!" No doubt her scream is going to attract attention, not wanting Yui to be humiliated, Hiro marched up to the girl, who saw his approach and raised her fist. "Don't look you pervert!" Yui yelled, swinging a decent punch but Hiro leaned his head, dodging it, getting close. "What are you-"
With Hiro's hand inside his jacket sleeve, he ripped the pink button off of Yui without making direct contact and Yui's school clothing returned. As he suspected, the button for girls only worked in direct skin contact it seems.
"Oh…" Yui patted her clothing and hugged herself, worried her clothing would suddenly disappear again. She looked at the reincarnate. "T-Thank you…" She said sincerely.
"Of course." Hiro replied with a nod before turning to Lala who was explaining what her 'Peke Badges' do to Rito and Haruna. "Lala." He said, tone serious and dry, bringing Lala's attention to him.
The Princess seemed a bit shocked by his tone, so were Rito and Haruna, they had never heard Hiro like this before.
"Remember what we talked about, don't go rushing so quickly and headstrong to make stuff that might not even work. At least not without asking or explaining, I know you are eager to help or make people happy with making inventions but sometimes you can have the opposite effect than intended, remember?" Hiro said and Lala stared at him silently, processing his words.
Lala frowned for a split second before giving him a shaky smile. "Oops~! Sorry, I forgot…" She apologized.
"You might want to apologize to Kotegawa-san for the transformation." Hiro suggested, pointing at said girl and Lala nodded, walking over to Yui.
"Sorry about that, I was just excited to help." Lala said and Yui blinked in surprise at her change in demeanor.
"Of course, I accept your apology." Yui accepted with a bow and Lala turned to the reincarnate.
"Lala, the guys weren't literal about it, they likely meant being closer to girls socially, they wanted to date the girls but some of them don't have the guts to try, the best way to solve that would've been giving them advice on how to approach a girl." Hiro calmly lectured. "As for the uniform idea, you would need official approval from the Principal, which you should not do because that guy is the biggest pervert your parents would never approve of… And you should know if the majority of the female students agreed to that idea, not just two, Risa and Mio are quite shameless girls."
"Oh…" Lala said, as she, Rito, and Haruna stared at Hiro in awe,
"Hiro, you should run for male class representative!" Rito said with a wide smile. "You would be great!"
"Yeah!" Lala added in with a smile.
"You do have good qualities of being a representative." Haruna commented much to Rito's slight envy.
"..." Hiro stared at Lala and Rito briefly, thinking about the many things they go through in his memory of the manga. "I think I have enough on my plate."
"Huh? What plate?" The words flew over Lala's head.
"He meant his time, that his time is full like a plate with no room left." Haruna clarified.
"What are you busy with?" Rito asked.
"With school work and trying to mitigate the chaotic life you and Lala have like every few weeks, becoming class representative would get me exhausted…" Hiro moaned, Lala giggled at this rubbing the back of her head and Rito sighed.
"That's a good point…" Rito agreed.
'That's a shame, you probably could've been a good representative…' Yui admitted to herself, considering what Hiro had just done, he seems very mature.
The male representative of Class 1-A became representative of 2-A, although surprisingly, Hiro had a single vote, Lala admitted she did that and many girls sighed, realizing that Hiro might've been a better male representative, until Hiro told them that he had no interest.
Haruna won the female vote. Hiro deduced it is because Lala didn't seem like a good choice, and Yui was rumored in the school to be way too strict. Haruna was representative last year, the majority of the students in Class 2-A knew her the most, and she did a decent job, all things considered, no wonder why she won.
It also helped that Hiro voted for the girl as well for his own sanity, not wanting to deal with either of the 'two evils' throughout the year.
Two days later, Hiro and Rito walked back home together.
"You remember my kouhai, Tachibana-san?" Rito asked.
"Yep." Hiro replied. It was strange to him, he had never heard of this guy before, was Tachibana only shown for a single chapter or two? Or it might be something the manga has never shown.
"Well, he would like you to help."
"What is it?"
"Something about romance." Rito answered and Hiro sighed. Maybe the guy thought Hiro had some good advice with girls.
"Alright, I'll help." Nonetheless, Hiro will help this guy.
In the following morning…
"Yuuki-senpai, Akatsuki-senpai!" Tachibana greeted with way too much excitement for Hiro's liking.
"Rito said something about needing my help with romance, I'm not really experienced in that but I am willing to help." Hiro said and Rito's kouhai frowned at his statement but shook his head, giving Hiro a smile.
"Good! Akatsuki-senpai you are just the man I need, I want you to ask the girl I like if she has a boyfriend."
"Alright, who's the girl?"
"Let me show you two." Tachibana said. "Follow me!"
The two second years followed the boy to the tennis court, knowing Rito's luck, Hiro had good suspicion as to who Tachibana was interested in.
It was Haruna.
"Thanks a ton Akatsuki-senpai!"
Hiro observed the area, they were outside the school, in between the tennis courts and the main building, it's not too exposed, so asking the question right now might not be too embarrassing.
Rito's thoughts were preoccupied with something else…
"So who do you like, Sairenji-san?" Hiro asked.
"The person I like?" Haruna said with a blush. "I… I like you."
"Oh…" Hiro lifted up Haruna's chin, the girl blushed even redder "In that case…" He leaned in-
'NOOOOOO!' Rito mentally screamed, censoring the mental image, trying to smother the hypothetical betrayal and pain.
Hiro is his friend! He has never expressed any interest in Haruna, he would NEVER DO THAT!
Rito took a breath and recovered, turning around finding Hiro already approaching Haruna! He bit his thumb in anxiety, mentally telling himself that Hiro isn't the type of guy to take someone's love away from his friend, even though Rito didn't tell Hiro that he liked Haruna… Therefore in Hiro's eyes, Haruna might be free… To… Date…
'PLEASE DON'T LET IT BE TRUE!' Rito mentally prayed, part of him wanted to run and stop Hiro, but on the other hand, he wanted to hear Haruna's answer! What to choose?!
"Excuse me Sairenji-san, can I ask you a personal question?" Hiro question, going straight to the point.
"Uh, okay, what is it Akatsuki-san?" Haruna said.
"Is there somebody you like in this school?"
"Huh?!"
"Don't worry, I'm not asking who, I'm just asking if there is someone…" Hiro explained, not wanting Haruna to panic. "Its normal to have an interest in somebody in this school."
"Oh, uh…" Haruna's face turned red. "Y-Yes, there is someone…"
"Alright." Hiro moved to whisper to Haruna about Tachibana but she turned around and ran.
"I'm sorry, I have something to do!" Haruna said, running away from the reincarnate.
'Right… Rito and I are friends, which was probably why she was embarrassed, especially if she had the fantasy of Rito wondering about her.' Hiro guessed and turned around to see Rito, somehow crumbling into dust or was that his imagination?
"Senpai?! What's wrong Senpai?!" Tachibana yelled seeing Rito 'turn into dust'.
The following morning, unlike Rito, Tachibana recovered quickly, admitting that he found a new love towards someone in the discipline committee, and wanted Hiro to ask, so he gave Hiro a shove, wishing him luck.
Hiro only stumbled a single step forward before regaining his balance, he nearly fell on Yui, that would've been a massive headache to deal with in the morning…
Hiro glanced back with a glare. "No shoving…"
"Uh… Hai Senpai…" Tachibana said sheepishly.
Afterwards, Yui reluctantly admitted that she didn't have any interest in any guy, especially a pervert, which made Tachibana reluctant to approach the girl, since he was by her definition, a pervert. Plus he didn't want to be dated by pity or reluctance, so he changed his mind. It was surprisingly mature for such an excitable guy.
Thankfully Tachibana didn't approach Rito or Hiro about romance afterwards. Although in some days, Rito has mentioned about Tachibana asking Rito to join the Soccer Team again.
There were rumors about ghosts in the old school building, Hiro had no doubt it was that girl, Mursame Shizu or Oshizu, although there might be aliens hidden in there too for some reason…
Lala, Risa, and Mio talked about searching for ghosts, Haruna tried to enforce the rules but…
"You're coming with us too!" Risa declared, pointing at the reluctant class rep.
"EH?!" Haruna screeched, knowing that scary stuff activates her fight or flight instinct, Hiro felt that letting Haruna be dragged along to find ghosts would be too much for the poor girl, especially since he can do something.
"Momioka-san, Sairenji-san is afraid of scary stuff like ghosts, you shouldn't force her to come with you." Hiro intervened.
"Really? You're afraid of ghosts?" Mio asked and Haruna nodded.
"Y-yes…" Haruna confirmed.
"Ghosts aren't real, I just thought it would be fun to imagine and search the old school building." Risa said. "You don't have to go if you don't want to."
"O-okay."
"Ghost or no ghost, searching the old school building does sound fun." Lala said. "I still want to go."
"Me too." Risa and Mio agreed.
"Rito, Hiro, want to come along?" Lala offered.
"Sure." Hiro said, wanting to be there if the girls got in trouble with some aliens.
"Well I don't…" Rito stared at Haruna, who stared at him and Rito's cheeks turned pink. "Actually, yeah sure!" He said.
'He likely agreed so he could show Haruna he isn't afraid…' Hiro privately deduced, knowing his personality.
Hiro had a small flashlight in case of emergencies, Lala borrowed it since she was leading the group, Hiro and Rito were at the back.
The 'young' man stared at the frying pan in Rito's hands.
"Rito, where is your sticky gun?" Hiro whispered, his personal self defense weapon was held in his hand, hidden in his school bag.
"I forgot, I left it at home." Rito admitted, rubbing the back of his head and Hiro sighed.
"Well, logically there should be no problem today."
"Logically?"
"Rito, have you ever recalled anything logical happening in the past?"
"... Right…" Rito sighed, recalling the crazy misadventures.
Clack.
"What was that?" Lala asked. "Did someone break some wood?"
"Didn't sound like it was from our group though…" Hiro pointed out.
"Yeah he's right." Risa agreed.
Creak
Everyone turned to the sound, it came from the room nearby.
"Someone is approaching the door." Risa said.
"No way! This couldn't be an actual… G-Ghost?" Mio said, stepping back from the door.
"Who's there…" Hiro asked, stepping in front of the group, as the footsteps slowly got closer and closer to them.
"It's me." A faint but familiar voice said from the door. Hiro lowered his hands, recognizing the voice.
"Wait is that-" Rito started.
"Yami-chan?" Lala said and right on cue, the blonde girl opened the door. "Yami-chan!" She cheered. "What are you doing here?"
"I came here because there are a lot of old books here and I wanted to read them." Yami explained.
After some introductions, Risa and Mio hugged Yami like she was a cat. Seeing how uncomfortable Yami looked, Hiro briefly wondered how Risa and Mio would react to Mikan. Good thing they didn't join the study group last month, Mikan wouldn't get her studies done with those two.
Hiro frowned, it felt that they were being watched, he turned to one direction of the hallway and Yami reappeared in front of him in a blink, staring in the same direction. "Something or someone is here." Yami said.
"You!" Yui yelled, appearing out of the corner of the hall. "School regulations state that there is no trespassing allowed here!"
"Aw, it's just Yui." Lala said nonchalantly about the school discipline committee member.
"What's that supposed to mean?! Don't talk to me in such a dismissive way!" Yui said, irritated by Lala's reaction before turning to Hiro with a glare. "And Akatsuki-san, I thought you were better than this! Why did you join them instead of stopping them?" She said, pointing at Hiro.
"If you spent long enough with Momioka-san, Sawada-san and Lala in class, you would understand how difficult it would be to stop them other than physically tying them up. I figured it would be better to be there to prevent major injuries or get them out of trouble." Hiro continued.
"How thoughtful~. You are right, but I certainly wouldn't mind being tied up by you Hiroto-kun~." Risa vouched and flirted, making almost everyone blush. "I would behave~."
"W-Well, it would've been more effective if you held your ground and stopped them!" Yui said but was soon ignored.
"Hehe, I was really scared." Risa lighty giggled.
"Yeah, turns out there really isn't a ghost." Mio said, but its clear the two girls were still nervous.
"Leave…" A voice said, it sounded like it came from anywhere.
"Eh?"
"Leave…"
"Leave…"
"Leave…"
"Stop calling out in that horrible voice!" Yui said, accusing Lala for the mysterious voice.
"It's not me." Lala said.
Hiro took a step forward. "It could be another person in here-
Crack!
The wood under his foot broke, he heard a scream and Hiro barely managed to grab the nearby door, preventing himself from falling into the newly made hole.
"Hiroto-kun are you okay?!" Risa asked, seeing Hiro almost dangling over the hole, eventually he found some stability with the remaining edges of the floor.
"Yeah, I'm good so far." Hiro replied, observing everyone on the same floor, only Yami, Risa, Mio and himself didn't fall.
"W-what should we do?" Risa said, staring at the massive hole.
"Everyone fell down there…" Mio said, stating the obvious out of shock.
"It looks as if the floor was rotten, or perhaps it was that voice…" Yami deduced, before using her hair to grab Hiro towards herself.
"Woah, you're an alien too?" Risa said, noticing the feat.
"Yes."
"HEEEY Lala-chi! Yuuki-kun!" Mio yelled towards the hole, hoping to get a response.
"How deep is that hole?" Hiro wondered.
"L-Lets go check the stairs we passed by earlier!" Risa said, grabbing Hiro's arm.
"Yami-Yami, come on!" Mio said, grabbing the assassin's collar.
""Yami-Yami?"" Both Hiro and said girl repeated in confusion.
"Great, where are those stairs again?" Risa questioned.
"It's too dark to be able to tell." Mio replied, squinting her eyes. "Do you have another flashlight Hiroto-kun?"
"No, Lala took my only flashlight." Hiro answered, then he stiffened, somehow feeling someone is staring at him in a certain direction, he turned to one end of the hall, and so did Yami.
"Hiro, Yami-Yami, what's wrong?" Mio asked, noticing the two.
"Something is off again…" Hiro said.
"... I have the same feeling from earlier again." Yami said before glancing at Hiro, raising her eyebrow.
"What?!"
The nearby stool shakes, and several objects started to fly towards the group.
"AHHH! It's a ghost!" Risa screamed and Yami's arm transformed to a blade, slicing the objects to pieces.
"What are you? Show yourself." Yami demanded, glaring down the hall. Hiro stood by her, his sticky gun still in his bag but ready to draw when necessary. Then the two noticed the presence was gone, perhaps by the time Yami sliced those objects. The assassin's hand turned back to normal. "Spirits… I really don't understand, but there is certainly something in this building that needs to be checked."
"Definitely…" Hiro agreed.
"Indeed!" Risa said, groping Yami's chest "But this also needs to be checked too!" Mio flipped up Yami's skirt.
"Yeah, this needs to be checked thoroughly~." She said, her glasses gleaming.
"Hey, get off of her!" Hiro intervened, pulling Risa's collar, he then grabbed Mio's hand and lowered Yami's skirt, he stared at the two pervert gremlins, flustered by their actions. "You two are lucky you are girls, if you were guys, Yami-san would've crushed you immediately, she hates ecchi people."
Said girl cleared her throat, her cheeks turning less pink, regaining her composure. "He's right…" Yami said, however, her usual cold but cool stoicism was dampened since she was partially hiding behind Hiro like a scared child.
"Aw, you're jealous you don't get to touch such a cute cool girl?" Risa taunted with a smug smile.
"No." Hiro replied flatly as he could, even though a small part of his brain was envious, he is aware of Yami's seemingly perfect skin and it felt very soft back at Mikado's. But he didn't want to give them fuel for more teasing, unfortunately Risa and Mio's faces implied that his response did nothing.
"Sure~."
Eventually they found the stairs, but before they could go down, Hiro felt the presence again, and so did Yami.
"Please stop." Yami said and Hiro grabbed the sticky gun in his bag, ready to draw again.
"What's wrong?" Risa asked and the fire extinguisher started to shake, like the wooden stool earlier. The old emergency tool started to float, Risa and Mio hugged each other. "KYAAA It's the ghost again!"
"The same trick won't work twice." Yami's hair turned into a thin blade, quickly closing the distance, cutting the fire extinguisher, releasing the outdated fire suppressant powder.
Eventually, the white dust cloud disappeared, and beneath the now empty extinguisher was a person covered in powder.
"A completely white person?" Risa said.
"Even if completely invisible, we will still be able to see you like this." Yami stated the obvious.
"Then he was the ghost? He did all of this?"
"What are you and why are you doing this?" Yami questioned with an intense red glare.
The 'invisible' man ran away. "Save me everyone!" He yelled.
"Everyone?" Yami repeated.
"Gufufufufu." Someone said from above. "Foolish ones, you should have obediently left…"
Hiro glanced at the nearby classroom door, his gut telling him something was coming in that direction-
Suddenly, a tentacle wrapped around Yami, Hiro leaped over the nearby tentacle that came from the door, Risa and Mio were wrapped together. Something big falls through the ceiling, its weight causes the old floor to collapse, taking Hiro down as well.
Crash!
Hiro landed on the first floor hard, he coughed from the impact and dust. He looked up to see an octopus-like, one eyed large alien with a shell on its head, staring at Yami in its grasp, laughing.
"Hiro?!" Rito said, surprised to see his friend, helping Hiro stand up.
Yami looked queasy for some reason, why?
""Help!"" Risa and Mio screamed.
Something inside Hiro urged him to move.
A tentacle moved to grab Hiro but he was already a step ahead of the alien, rolling backwards, the tentacle slammed through the floor.
Another tentacle whipped around towards Yui but Lala pushed her away, getting grabbed instead.
"Let me go!" Lala yelled and the alien simply laughed, showing off his sharp intimidating teeth.
Hiro couldn't help but notice how weirdly erotic the way the tentacle was wrapped around Yami and lightly blushed.
Yami transformed her hair to a blade but a tentacle touched her cheek then the blade wavered like wet paper all of a sudden. The tentacle around grabbed Lala's tail, weakening her. Her cry was erotic but the tense situation made it almost completely unnoticed.
Seeing the two strongest people in the group in trouble, Rito charged with his frying pan but the alien knocked him away.
"Don't be so reckless that thing is bigger than you!" Yui chastised out of concern.
"Ugh, but if we run away…" Rito groaned as Hiro helped him stand up.
"Kukuku…" Someone giggled ominously from the other direction of the hall. Everyone looked and saw a crowd of aliens approaching them. "You're not running anywhere… Hehehe-"
Hiro drew his sticky gun and fired.
"HE HAS A GUN?!" The alien screamed, they all tried to avoid but only ended crashing into each other, still in the line of fire.
"I'm stuck!" An alien cried.
"Watch where you're grabbing!" Another yelled. "Only my girlfriend can touch there!"
"You don't have one!" An alien retorted.
Hiro stopped firing, most of the aliens are all stuck together, to the floor and the nearby walls, they are blocking the path but they can't move.
"Pull us out!"
'We're trying!"
The untouched aliens in the back are struggling to free the trapped ones, they also can't slip through. His stomach suddenly turned, it was a bit similar to the feeling right before Lala's father attacked him.
"Look out Hiroto!" Risa screamed, Hiro glanced and rolled forward, avoiding the tentacle, it continued to move towards him.
Hiro fired at the tentacle, sticking it to the floor but it quickly broke free with the old wooden floors still stuck to it. It swung but Hiro somehow backflipped over it, avoiding the attack and landed, immediately firing at the source but the alien blocked the sticky projectiles, using a table as a shield, protecting their eye.
"Wow…" Mio gasped, as everyone stared at the student fighting in awe of his feats. Hiro continued to fire hitting some of the tentacles near the alien's body until the gun hissed out air, it's out of ammo, he quickly grabbed the refill canister.
"He's out of ammo, get him!" An alien from the other end of the hall cried out.
A tentacle moved and Hiro dodged it, stepping back, but he sensed another behind him, it's a pincer maneuver!
"Hiro!" Rito yelled, pushing his friend out of the way. 'He is our best chance to free Lala and Yami!'
"Yuuki!" Yui cried out as the tentacles captured Rito.
"Wrong person, but I can still catch that slippery- Huh why is it hard to move?" The alien said, they now noticed their tentacles are either stuck together or stuck to their body. "What?!"
'Hiroto wasn't wasting ammo, he was firing to limit the alien's movements when it shielded itself with the table.' Yami deduced. 'But it's not good enough… Sticky weaponry won't take this down, he likely has pepper spray but…'
'I can't get close, I would be too vulnerable but I'm too far away to use the pepper spray!' Hiro mentally growled in frustration, he looked at the pepper spray, and the refilled sticky gun, staring at the barrel, an idea clicked. He then sprayed into the barrel of the gun, emptying the pepper spray.
"What is he doing?" Lala wondered.
"You are messing with Lala-sama's invention!" Peke cried out.
The tentacle alien lowered its makeshift shield, using its one free tentacle to swipe but Hiro side flipped over the grab, landing smoothly and fired, hitting right on the alien's large singular eye.
"AGHH IT BURNS!" The alien cried, letting go of the hostages, trying to remove the sticky substance to no avail. "I can't see!"
"So that's why you pepper sprayed the gun!" Lala realized.
"Lala, Yami, please finish this fight!" Hiro said before collapsing from exhaustion.
"Understood." Yami said with an intense glare towards the blinded alien
"No problem!" Lala said, smiling wide at the aliens trapped on the other side.
In the end, they were taken down with ease, none of them put up a fight. Yami was certainly aggressive and violent towards the tentacle alien, there are several cracks on its shell and painful but non lethal looking cuts all over.
"Hiro, you were awesome!" Rito said with genuine admiration.
"You did pretty well." Yami added.
"Geez Hiro, where did you learn how to do that?" Risa asked with a wide smile.
"You were so cool Hiro!" Lala complimented. "Flipping and dodging it was like you knew what they were going to do before it happened!"
The princess was actually right on the spot, Hiro was able to avoid the tentacles because of his instinct or something, warning him what was going to happen before it did. He's not certain what or how. Including how the hell did he do all those flips?
When he was 'younger' he may have attempted a side flip in the past but he never did a proper flip where his legs were completely above his head, he only did it partially because he was scared of hurting himself. It almost felt like muscle memory, even though it technically wasn't and there were no past life memories of him doing acrobatics before.
Lala stretched. "There were a lot of ghosts to fight."
"They are not ghosts, they are visitors from outer space like us." Yami corrected.
"Aliens?"
"T-That is correct." An alien groaned out, they explained how their home planets were downsized, in perfect timing, Mikado entered the hallway and introduced the aliens to who they just messed with.
The aliens cowered at the two, afraid of being killed, even though they just lost the fight and are still alive. Fear can really cloud judgement a lot…
"W-wait, then what about that black haired kid with the scary blue eyes?" An alien pointed out.
"Y-yeah, he was so tough to catch and his gun hurt a lot!" The tentacle alien said, still crying from the spray.
"Could he be the legendary assassin Kuro?!" Another alien yelled.
""What?!""
"No he is not." Yami said shutting down the gossip. "They may both have black hair but if it was Kuro you all would've been taken down immediately."
"Akatsuki Hiroto-san here is just a normal earthling." Mikado said with a giggle.
"""NORMAL?!"""
Afterwards, Mikado had some connections for the aliens to find a home and a job. Then Oshizu made her debut… Everyone except for Mikado, Lala, Hiro and Yami ran from the sight of a real ghost, the aliens hid and the humans left the building. The four remaining people introduced themselves to Oshizu and promised to visit her later.
In the following morning, Mikado observed Class 2-A's Gym period, seeing Akatsuki Hiroto outside, stretching with Rito.
"Hm…" Mikado pondered from the window, recalling the students and the aliens describing the events in the abandoned school building. From what she heard, Akatsuki Hiroto pulled off an impressive feat against great odds. He did what Yami and Lala were unable to do without his help.
It's strange though, she can understand how Lala was able to get caught despite her heritage, it's likely the girl holds back a lot of her strength out of fear of hurting others, even her enemies but Yami is different. Very few are able to get the drop on Golden Darkness, the fact that Yami got captured where Hiroto, a seemingly normal human, was able to avoid and even fight is interesting…
Author's notes:
Sorry it took a while, been busy recently with family this Christmas and new year. Not much to say about this chapter other than, I hoped you all liked it. What Manga Arcs or chapters are you excited for Hiro in the future?