Wednesday morning.

I knocked on Mitsuba's door. After waiting five minutes for a response, I knocked again a little harder.

Since he pulled frequent all-nighters playing eroge, I thought he might still be awake now. I guess he actually went to bed last night.

The only reason I'm visiting him so early is so I can collect his cards after the deal we made last night. However, I had no choice but to leave empty handed after nearly witnessing a graphic scene last night.

I yawned, getting tired of waiting for him. Another five minutes passed before I knocked again, this time with even greater force.

"Seriously, school starts in an hour and he's still not awake...?"

As I mumbled to myself, the door rattled open. A drowsy Mitsuba emerged from his room, looking ready to attack me viciously after waking him from his slumber. However, upon seeing my face, he flashed a lecherous grin.

"Best friend Takanori-san!"

We weren't best friends and never will be. Mitsuba laughed strangely with a proud look in his eyes. What was he so chuffed about?

"Morning."

"Man, if you were anyone else, I'd kill you for waking me up this early. But thanks to you, I got to spend the entire night talking to Emica-chan!"

So that's what he was so proud of. He talked to a girl he liked for an extended period of time.

"It sounds like you had a lot of fun."

I bet Yogen didn't. Well, I guess this is revenge for her always teasing me.

Though, a part of me felt a little stung that she held a conversation with Mitsuba for so long. When I called her last night to confirm the details of our plan, it didn't even last ten minutes. The call was probably over in less than three.

"Anyways, I'm gonna get ready for school, so wait out here for me, aight?"

Just as Mitsuba was about to leave, I grabbed his shoulder.

"Actually... I came here to borrow your cards."

"O-oh, yeah... my cards, ha ha..."

Mitsuba laughed, not sounding all that pleased. Grabbing two green boxes that resembled toolkits, he handed them to me.

"Well, I fulfilled my part of the deal!"

"Thanks."

With that, he closed the door. These boxes were heavy... I opened one and rifled through the cards.

To my surprise, Mitsuba took extremely good care of them. All of them were in mint condition, double sleeved, and sorted by rarity, grade, and clan. It was the complete opposite of what I expected, since both him and his room always looked messy and unkempt.

"Alright, I'm ready!"

Me and Mitsuba set off to the station so we could catch the train to school. On our way exiting the dorm lobby, we ran into Yukimura, who just finished his morning workout.

"Yo, Yukimura-san!"

Mitsuba ran over to his friend and they started talking. Yukimura seemed to look tired from the midterms.

"Hey."

"Dude, guess what happened?!"

"What?"

"I got a girl's phone number!"

"No way. Which girl was stupid enough to you that?"

"Don't call her stupid! She's super smart!"

"Who cares, just cough up who it is!"

Yukimura raised his fist, scaring Mitsuba into answering.

"Eek! It's Emica-chan of A Class!"

"Huh?! You mean the same girl that you keep spouting on about in the group chat? That Emica?"

"Hey, you call her Yogen-san! Only I can call her Emica-chan!"

"Dude, I don't care, there's no way this happened. This is the biggest fake news of the century bro."

"I have proof my man! Proof!"

"Show it to me then!"

Mitsuba pulled out his phone and called her, putting her on speaker.

"Hiya, Jun-kun~. What's up with calling me so early? Did you miss me that much? Just when I was about to take a shower too."

A rush of blood squirted from Mitsuba's nose. Yukimura's jaw dropped hearing her voice.

"Did... did she just call you Jun? What the hell is happening?! Is the world ending? Argh, I can't believe I got suspended while you got a girl's phone number!"

Yukimura couldn't even hide his surprise, screaming his frustrations out. It seems Yogen also started calling Mitsuba by his first name too.

"Ara, is Yukimura-san with you right now?"

"O-ooh! Hello Emica-chan! He didn't believe me when I said I got your number, so I called you to prove him wrong, heh."

Mitsuba wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand.

"You technically got my number off Boya-san though... well, I guess that doesn't make a difference in the end, fufu."

"Boya? Who?"

"Your classmate, Takanori Yuuto. Don't you remember him?"

Suddenly, Yukimura shot his eyes at me and rubbed his temples with strained disbelief.

"H-hey, don't expose me like that!" Mitsuba cried.

"Hold on, you got her number off Takanori? Ya friggin' fraud!"

Mitsuba ended the call in a panic before facing the wrath of Yukimura's choke lock. After roughhousing Mitsuba, Yukimura turned to me.

"Oi, how the hell did you get an A Class girl's number?! Why'd you keep this a secret from us, huh?! Where's your sense of bro code?"

I quietly looked away, not wanting to get involved. Thanks for making my life even harder, Yogen...

Just before I could answer, I noticed Yukina descending the staircase. I used this as a chance to escape answering, approaching her as she came down. However, my body started feeling nervous as I got closer and closer.

By the time she saw me, I awkwardly averted my eyes and kept to myself. After yesterday, I didn't have the confidence to face her at all.

I kept thinking to myself, how could I let Yogen get away with that?

I should've done more to help... just like when Yukina bravely stood up for me in front of the class.

And here I thought our relationship was improving... way to screw it up, Yuuto.

While I was lost in my thoughts, two warm hands covered my eyes from behind. I flinched, gulping nervously.

"Guess who?"

The sweet scent of strawberries wafted into my nose. I knew who this was immediately after hearing her silky voice.

"Y-Yukina? What are you...?"

Expressing my confusion, Yukina slowly peeled away her slender fingers from my face.

"You guessed correctly."

I looked over my shoulder. Yukina was leaning forward with a closed eye smile. A long strand of her soft pink hair fell over her shoulder, making this pose look more seductive.

"Uh... good morning."

I was completely lost for words. I thought she didn't want to talk to me? Yesterday, she wasn't replying to any of my messages. What's with this sudden change in attitude? While I felt scared, I also wanted to take this chance to mend things.

"Good morning. I've never seen you up at this hour, Yuu."

"Well... that's because I usually go to school much earlier in the mornings. Today I was gonna go with Mitsuba-san, so..."

"He didn't wake up that early, huh?"

"Nope. Well, I think Yukimura-san's gonna come with us too now..."

"Then, is it okay if I join?"

"Yeah, of course."

Why did I sound so excited...

"Great!"

"So, uh, Yukina... about yesterday..."

Just as I forced myself to utter the topic I wanted to discuss with her, Mitsuba suddenly called for me.

"Takanori-san, what's the hold up? Are ya coming or not?"

"C-coming..."

I panicked, rushing over. Yukina followed suit.

"Yo Kazuraba-san, you joining us?"

"Yep."

"Aww, sweet! I've always wanted to walk to school with a girl before!"

Even though it was an embarrassing thing to say, Mitsuba said it with no hesitation. If I said something like this, they'd call me a loser, but since it was him, they thought it was a dumb joke and laughed instead.

We exited the dorm, with Mitsuba and Yukimura leading the way. Me and Yukina followed behind them. On our way to the station, Yukimura pulled out a set of flash cards and began mumbling to himself as he flicked through them.

"What exam you got today?" Mitsuba asked.

"Biology. I feel pretty confident about it."

"You'll smash the sex ed questions on it!"

"When did you make those flash cards, Yukimura-san?" Yukina asked.

"Yesterday. Sakigamiya-san helped me make them after school."

No wonder Yukimura seemed less grumpy today. He got to spend time together with his crush.

"That's nice of her."

"Yeah... she's a busy person, so I'm grateful she took some time out of her day to help me. I'm gonna put these flash cards to good use!"

"Good luck on the test by the way."

"Heh, thanks."

Receiving encouragement from Yukina, Yukimura rubbed the bottom of his nose and looked fired up to learn. Mitsuba didn't want to distract his friend's concentration, so he stayed quiet.

I was wondering something however.

"Yukimura-san. Can I ask a strange question?"

"Huh? What is it?"

"Are you aware of the rumours surrounding me?"

"Of course. They don't scare me though, since I'd win in a fight against you regardless."

Yukimura thought using his brawn rather than his brain. I expected this cocky answer, but I wanted to confirm it.

"Do you believe in them?"

"That you hit Shimizu? I mean, if you did, that'd be pretty sad. I heard you also knocked out Ritaka. Is that true?"

"Ritaka-san? The dude that hangs with Machida-san's group in B Class?" Mitsuba chimed in.

"Yeah. He's a little diving rat, that guy!"

Ritaka played football during break times with the other boys. It seems Yukimura was complaining about Ritaka's dirty style of playing.

"I didn't hit Shimizu-san, but I did hit Ritaka-san." I said.

Even though I wasn't proud of it, when Yukimura grinned and offered me a fist bump, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I bumped his fist with mine.

"Yo, Takanori my guy! Where did you hit him?"

"I think his face. I'm not sure really. Everything happened so fast..."

"Still though, even if you hit Shimizu, I'd forgive you for it cuz you slugged that little rat to the ground!"

"I told you, I didn't hit her..."

I sighed quietly to myself.

"Yea I know, it's just an example. Besides, what's so wrong about hitting a girl? Kazuraba could kick me in the balls right now and get away with it, but if I even put just the tip of my finger on her, everyone would condemn me. Where's the gender equality in this?"

"Um... Yukimura-san, shouldn't you be revising?"

Yukina, who had been uncomfortably dragged into our topic, pointed this out to him. Yukimura panicked and went back to checking his flash cards. Then, to shift the flow of the conversation, she asked me a question.

"Yuu, I've been wondering... why are you bringing two toolboxes to school?"

I glanced at the two heavy boxes I was holding while walking. I honestly forgot I was carrying them for a moment.

"Oh... right, it must look weird. These boxes belong to Mitsuba-san. Inside are his cards, which I'm borrowing."

"That's right! Two whole boxes of my premium collection, baby!"

Mitsuba chucked in some English to make his cards sound like they were worth more than what they actually are.

"Wow! What kind of cards do you have in there?"

Yukina seemed to be impressed by it however.

"All the shiny rare cards you could ever want! We have RRR to VR to SP to SVR! Any card you need, name it, and I'll have it!"

For once, he was telling the truth. Just from briefly flicking through his collection, I could tell he had any card someone could need for their deck.

"Actually, Takanori-san, you never told me why you needed my cards. It's a weird thing to borrow, don't you think?"

"I guess, but these are going to be crucial for what I'm planning."

Before I could explain further, Yukina jumped in on my behalf.

"Basically, Yuu's making his own training group for the upcoming war!"

"And Yukina's helping me."

I felt a little embarrassed that we were finishing the end of each other's sentences.

"Huh? Ha ha ha ha ha! That's a joke, right? Right?"

Mitsuba continued to laugh by himself.

"Eh? Why's no one else laughing?!"

Mitsuba's grinning face dropped as he realised both of us were completely serious about it.

"Oh... you guys are actually going to do it?!"

"Yes, we are."

"But why would I join your group when Sakigamiya-san and Matsushita-san's group exists? Making an alternative group to them sounds like a great way to piss them off. Who's gonna join the group led by a woman beater?"

Mitsuba shrugged us off immediately. Yukina didn't look sure how to answer his very solid argument. Did his serious demeanour throw her off?

He did raise some good points though. There was no reason to join my group because another one already existed. The only way an alternative would be viable is if people became unhappy with the current group, but from what I've seen and heard, our classmates are fine with it.

In addition, that group would be vastly more popular because it's led by the class representatives instead of me, who's swarmed in negative rumours. It's only natural for them to choose the group led by the person they perceived as better. However, since the person in front of me was Mitsuba, I didn't have to raise any points about me being a better cardfighter to get him on my side.

All I had to do was use his shallowness against him.

"Matsushita-san is an ikemen."

"I'm an ikemen too!"

No, you're not.

"Mitsuba-san, let me ask you a question. Do you really want to join the group led by the ikemen? You'd only be reinforcing his status if you did, right?"

"Well... Sakigamiya-san's there too! So it's not like it's completely Matsushita-san..."

"Have you been to one of their sessions before?"

"Nope. My deck's already good enough, I'll smash it in the war!"

The less he knows, the more I can lie.

"Oh. You know, the majority of people who went to their group were girls. Nearly all of them were begging for Matsushita-san's help."

"H-huh?! How many girls we talking?!"

"The girls in Sakigamiya-san's usual friend group. So, maybe about seven or eight."

"Woah... and they all wanted Matsushita-san's help?!"

"Yep. Conversely, all the boys present were vying for Sakigamiya-san's help."

Saying this caught Yukimura's attention.

"That damn Matsushita! How dare he use these innocent training sessions as a way to seduce the girls in our class! He's gonna end up dating them all and cheating on them! We gotta stop him Takanori-san!"

I didn't have to do much. I planted the ideas and let Mitsuba's own grand imagination create the fear for him. One of the last things he would want is a future where Matsushita has a harem before he does.

"That's right, I agree."

"But... how?!"

"It's simple. We can't show support to what he's doing. By joining his session, you're indirectly letting him get away with this. Obviously, you cannot confront him directly about this, because the class will turn on you like how they did against me, so the alternative option is to fight him using passive methods, such as not joining his group. However, that's difficult because we still need to prepare for the war, and just a few people dropping out won't be enough to shake up their group. In other words..."

Mitsuba's eyes widened. It was like the answer had finally hit him.

"We'll undermine their group by making our own. By joining my training group instead, you get all the benefits of their session, while protesting against the ikemen. I'm the dictionary definition of a loser. You won't have to worry about me having secondary motives. All I want to do is help people improve at playing Vanguard, unlike Matsushita-san. Once the group starts to pick up, people will notice the alternative and see it as a valid option to go to, thus making them lose more members. Eventually, all the girls will leave once they realise what Matsushita-san's all about."

Mitsuba looked like his mind had been blown.

"You mean... you created your own training group to stop supporting Matsushita-san?!"

"If you want to put it that way."

I'd successfully managed to appeal to Mitsuba's slimy side.

"Mitsuba, you're not an idiot are you? Screw the ikemen! Join Takanori's group. I bet you'd learn more from that big 3 loser than the braindead ikemen."

Yukimura also encouraged him to join me.

"Hell yeah I'll join! For the sake of the girls in our class!!"

I felt bad for Yukina who had to painfully watch all of that. She quietly listened to us, understanding what I was doing to get Mitsuba on our side.

"When are you holding it? I wanna be there."

"I'm doing it during break, lunch, and after school."

"Woah, you're even more thorough than those guys too."

"I don't think training after school only will be enough. We can't get lax because our enemies are D Class. I've seen firsthand that they've got some fierce competition."

"Alright, I'll come help out with my expertise!"

Mitsuba acted like he was a good cardfighter, but I heavily doubted that. I'll bite for now though, since he plays Overlord. It'll be easy for him to upgrade his deck into something strong.

"Sure thing."

"Oh, you know what this reminds me of? Ichinose-san vs Machida-san! This is E Class's version of their dispute! The noble Takanori faction fighting against the oppressive Matsushita faction!"

"Glory to the loser faction!!" Yukimura cackled.

"Yeah, glory to the losers!!!" Mitsuba screamed.

"You guys... I'm right here, you know..."

During our long conversation, we eventually arrived at the train station.

"I'm going to buy lunch, I'll be right back."

Yukina went to the konbini inside the station. I glanced at Mitsuba and Yukimura, who were heading to the platforms.

"I'm going to get something for breakfast. You guys go on ahead."

"Alright, we'll wait for you and Kazuraba-san!"

As they disappeared, I quickly headed to the konbini where Yukina was. She looked like she was lost. I quietly approached her.

"Yukina."

"Hm? Yuu, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to get breakfast."

"Ah, okay."

Just as Yukina began to move, I stopped her again.

"Wait... I want to talk to you about something."

I desperately tried to muster the same courage I had earlier when I tried asking her about yesterday. However, no words came out. I stood there awkwardly, making a fool out of myself.

"What's the matter? You're not acting like you're usual self today."

I took a deep but strained breath. It wasn't ideal to talk about it in public, but this was the only private moment we had so far. I didn't want to lose my chance talking to her.

"Sorry... a lot of things are on my mind. It's hard to keep track of everything."

"You've been through a lot. We can go through them one by one. There's no need to rush."

"That's... not what I mean. I mean... it kind of is, but..."

The longer I stalled, the more likely we'd be late for the train. I had to hurry up and get to the main problem.

"Yesterday. It's about yesterday... during lunch time."

Before I could say anything else, Yukina hugged my arm, pressing her chest against me.

"Y-Yukina?!"

I gulped in shock.

"I-I've never been to this train station before!"

"H-huh?"

I was so flustered, her words didn't register in my head. All I could focus on was her warmth that was spreading throughout my body as she clung to my arm with a shy expression.

It was really cute...

"I've never taken the train to school before... I take the bus."

Yukina quietly whispered the truth. I guess that made sense, since I take the train regularly but I've never seen her before.

"R-right... so... uh..."

"That's why... I don't know where anything in this shop is. Could you... help me?"

The way she looked at me with upturned eyes made me feel guilty to say anything but "yes".

"O-of course. You want to get a bento, right? They're down there."

I weakly pointed at an aisle next to us. Yukina nodded vigorously and walked over, dragging me along as she clung onto me.

"H-hey, you can let go... if you want..."

I mumbled my discontent, but I honestly didn't mind that Yukina was holding onto me. I felt safer with her arms linked around mine.

Once we reached the vast rows of bento boxes, Yukina let go of my arms to choose one to buy. A lonely feeling washed over my arm, but in the end, this was for the best.

For a moment, I started feeling weird and acting strange. I can't let small things like this get to me...

"Are you still going to get something for breakfast?"

Yukina had finished picking one out. As expected, it was a kid's bento.

"Yeah."

I checked out the baked goods. I glazed over the options before choosing to get a cheese bread. We purchased our items and left to get the train. On the way, I ate my food, while Yukina neatly put her bento away into her bag.

"Took you two long enough! I was dying by myself!"

Once Mitsuba saw us, he rushed over and grovelled to his feet in despair.

"Isn't Yukimura-san here with you?"

Mitsuba shook his head and pointed at Yukimura talking to Sakigamiya.

"He turned traitor to the cause! Damn it!"

"The cause is against Matsushita-san, not Sakigamiya-san..."

"But still! He ditched me for a girl!"

"That does suck."

I helped Mitsuba up.

"However, you were bragging to him about getting Yogen-san's number this morning. You can't blame him if he's trying harder to get closer to Sakigamiya-san so he won't fall behind."

"Well, I guess that's true... actually, speaking of Emica-chan, after I called her last night, I went to watch some videos when I came across this sick ad!"

Me, Yukina, and Mitsuba sat down on the bench while waiting for the train.

"Basically, it's a "how to get girls to chase you" programme!"

I stared at him blankly. Yukina didn't look impressed either.

"Eh...? Why did you get an advert about that, Mitsuba-san?"

Yukina coldly questioned him.

"Huh... who knows?!"

He's definitely searched up how to make a harem before or something, this degenerate...

"Anyways, after watching this long presentation about it, I decided to join the programme!"

"Mitsuba-san... this sounds like a scam. How much did you pay to be apart of it?"

Yukina continued the conversation, both in half-disgust and half-curiosity.

"Pay? Ha! Imagine paying for dating advice! Ha ha ha..."

This idiot definitely blew some his points on one of those suspicious love guru sites before.

"This time, I got it for free! All I did was answer a quick survey and enter my name and email address. Boom."

"Your email's probably compromised now. You'll start receiving scam emails and chain letters."

"Ha ha, see my dear Kazuraba-san, that's where I played one step ahead of them. I entered a fake name and a burner email!"

"But they can still trace that burner email back to you, can't they?"

"I have a VPN!"

"You really did cover all bases, huh?"

"When it comes to personal information online, I use twice the protection and three times the precaution!"

The fact he had to jump through so many hoops for an obvious waste of time was the most ironic part of this. If "twice the protection and three times the precaution" actually worked, he would've realised this was a scam straightaway and not click on the link.

I might have no social skills at all, but even I can recognise that a "programme" that's "free" is probably going to give the worst, most bare bones advice on dating, all while thinly veiling it as scientifically proven to trick dummies like Mitsuba to sign up.

"What convinced you to sign-up then?" I asked in morbid interest.

"Ahh, during the presentation, the guy talking was painfully relatable. No girls ever looked at him or paid attention to him, always treating him like a second choice. Whenever he could hook up with a girl, it only lasted a couple of weeks. He wasn't laid for like... I dunno, a couple of years? It was really lame."

How was this guy relatable if Mitsuba was still a virgin himself?

"Anyways, one day, while at a bar, suddenly a bunch of girls became interested in him because he and his friends were mucking about and writing dumb stuff on his shirt. One girl leaves her name and phone number on his shirt, which causes the rest of the girls to do the same thing! Soon enough, all these hot girls are talking to him and flirting with him!"

This story sounds faker than my lie to convince Mitsuba to join my side.

"So when the dude gets home wasted and covered in girl's phone numbers, he thinks about how he can duplicate this effect. So he does some research and finds out about this: the bachelor effect!"

I don't think this is real. Mitsuba's signed up for a heap of rubbish.

"Basically, this has to do with female psychology! In the past, when we were unga bunga cavemen, the females would want strong partners in order to survive. To figure out who the best partner was, they started to look at which man was surrounded by the women because that usually meant they were a good choice for a partner. This is known as female competition, as they'd compete for his affection in order to make him their boyfriend!"

I was surprised Yukina didn't leave her seat right there and then. She just stared at Mitsuba with the most cold and disappointed look on her face.

"The best part is, these primal instincts still exist in girls today. That means if a man is surrounded by a bunch of women, the bachelor effect will attract more females, and female competition will make the girls compete to make him their partner! It's so simple, yet so effective!"

I decided to pop his delusional bubble.

"If you're surrounded by girls who all blatantly like you, you'll have to choose one eventually. You can't realistically have a harem and expect all the girls to be happy with the situation."

I suddenly felt sick talking about this topic.

The growing image of him swayed in my head.

I could feel my gut wretch at the thought.

"Yuu... your face went pale. Do you want me to get you some water?"

I hid my face in my hand and shook my head.

"I'm fine... don't worry about me. It was... probably something in that cheese bread..."

I lied through gritted teeth. I didn't want to let anyone know about...

The image fades and reappears.

This topic was too close for comfort.

You're the worst...

I tried taking deep breaths to calm my burning chest.

Yukina grabbed my bottle from my bag and pushed it against my lips.

"Yuu, drink."

She helped push the water down my uncooperative throat.

"Slowly... slowly."

Eventually, after a bit of struggling, I could swallow down the water.

"Thanks, Yukina..."

Mitsuba looked confused at what just happened.

"Takanori-san, what was that all about?"

"I'm never buying konbini cheese bread again..."

I continued to lie about the real reason over my nauseating freak out. I couldn't let them know about...

"Scary... I think I'll stick to the onigiri."

At least Mitsuba seemed to buy it. Yukina had a sceptical look on her face.

Before Mitsuba could continue spouting on about this programme, the train arrived.

Me and Yukina stuck close together, while Yukimura and Mitsuba had been forcibly split up due to the packed carriage. Yukina probably followed me because this was her first time on a GEN train.

While clambering around, we found two spare seats near the back. Sitting down, I decided to say some reassuring words to her.

"The train ride makes you feel pretty sleepy."

"Oh, really? I've been having insomnia the past few nights... it might be nice to drift away on the tracks."

Yukina shuffled closer to me, so that our arms were touching.

"If I do fall asleep... can I use your shoulder as a pillow?"

I wanted to look away in nervousness, but my eyes were stolen by her captivating gaze.

"If you want."

The train started to move.

As our hands kept bumping into each other, I could only think about one thing.

Yukina looked really beautiful today.