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Kusuki Happiness Enterprises' conspiracy had become yesterday's clouds and smoke.
When Asagi Aiba opened her eyes the following morning, what greeted her was the familiar ceiling of her apartment bedroom.
And... the dazzling sunlight streaming through the window.
?
Staring blankly at the dust motes floating in that sunlight, Asagi slowly produced a small mental question mark.
As an outstanding student at Saikai Academy, despite having a well-paying part-time job at the Management Corporation, she'd never once skipped class or been absent without reason.
So for Asagi, when she normally woke in the morning, the sun outside was never this bright, and her surroundings were never this quiet. Her phone alarm should have gone off on schedule.
Unless...
Seemingly connecting certain dots, Asagi turned her head to look beside her.
The young man's familiar face instantly filled her vision, his light brown pupils reflecting her own slightly bedraggled post-sleep hairstyle as he stared at her unblinkingly.
"You're awake?"
Bokue's arm wrapped around the girl's waist beneath the blanket, pulling Asagi into his embrace with slight effort.
Waking up to see the person you love first thing in the morning—this was undeniably quite romantic.
However, Asagi wasn't buying it at all, pursing her lips with narrowed eyes.
"Stop. First tell me what time it is?"
"About... nine-thirty in the morning."
Bokue stated the time precisely.
Tch—
She knew it!
Asagi's mental expression twitched before she asked again.
"And my alarm?"
"I turned it off for you."
Bokue's answer came with complete confidence.
"You went to bed so late last night. Making you wake up early today seemed pointless—better to just rest at home for the day."
"Well, thank you so much..."
Asagi pressed her palm to her forehead helplessly.
True, they'd gone to bed very late last night.
But why didn't he mention why they'd stayed up so late? Huh?
It was all because a certain someone suggested they "try a different route," then kept endlessly restoring her HP and MP while simultaneously unleashing unlimited output. In the end, they'd gone from seven or eight in the evening straight through to past three in the morning.
If she hadn't completely collapsed at the end, Bokue would've wanted to continue.
Honestly... and he had the nerve to call it "making it up" to her! Pure and simple "eating your cake and having it too!"
You got all the benefits, didn't you!
"Whatever, if I'm skipping, I'm skipping..."
Asagi draped her arm across her forehead, sighing softly with resignation as she muttered to herself with pouted lips.
"I'll just say I wasn't feeling well and needed to rest today."
"What do you want for breakfast?"
Bokue propped himself up and asked.
Though he'd also only gone to sleep at three in the morning, he showed none of Asagi's post-all-nighter grogginess. He was the picture of vitality.
After all, for Bokue, sleeping was like eating—whether he felt tired or hungry depended entirely on whether he wanted to.
But Asagi simply rolled over to face him, wrapping the blanket tighter around herself with only her eyes peeking out as she responded in a muffled voice.
"Don't want anything..."
"Hmm?"
"I'm going back to sleep, dummy."
Asagi rolled her eyes slightly, briefly extending her neck from the blanket to yawn widely before immediately retreating back inside. Her voice carried even more drowsiness now.
"It's only nine-thirty. Since I've already skipped today, might as well rest properly. You ever hear the saying 'sleep late, ruin your morning; wake early, waste your whole day'? Anyway, I'm going back to sleep—probably get up around noon. So forget breakfast. If you've got time, Bokue, grab me some Turkish kebab rice from the shopping center downstairs around lunch. Haven't had it in a while &...%..."
Those few short sentences seemed to exhaust all the girl's remaining energy. She didn't even finish before her eyelids started fighting each other, and toward the end, even her words became mumbled and unclear.
Then she just fell asleep on her own.
Emmm, guess she really is exhausted.
After briefly considering, Bokue still pushed back the blanket and sat up from the bed.
Well, though it was still a while until noon, he might as well head downstairs and wander around.
Maybe he'd run into a certain nightmare girl again like yesterday?
For some reason, Bokue suddenly recalled encountering Eguchi Yume at the shopping center entrance yesterday.
❁❁❁❁
The scene shifted. When Bokue followed his intuitive guidance down to the shopping center entrance, a quick scan revealed no sign of Yume.
However, the shopping center entrance seemed unexpectedly lively today.
Pretty strange—despite being mid-morning, the entrance had already attracted massive crowds. The congestion level rivaled Friday evenings after dinner.
But today was a weekday, wasn't it?
Could the shopping center be running some kind of promotional event?
No, that didn't seem right either.
After all, if the mall were running promotions, they'd definitely have speakers at the entrance blasting advertisement loops.
This definitely shouldn't be some kind of spotlight-filled anime concert.
'Giligili~ love Forbidden boundary line Even if it's G-level difficulty~'
And that familiar voice...
Feeling like he'd already figured out the truth, Bokue raised an eyebrow slightly. His feet left the ground as he slowly rose into the air, using elevated perspective to look over the crowded heads blocking the shopping center entrance toward the central area.
Then he successfully spotted a certain Leviathan Satan who appeared to be conducting a Magical Girl Levi-tan world tour concert.
Serafall used ice magic to create faint frost mist around herself, a slowly rotating hexagonal ice crystal above her head scattering dazzling prismatic light in all directions. Her ever-present star wand was being used as a microphone.
Bokue: "..."
Huh?
Almost the instant he spotted Serafall in the crowd, her gaze likewise noticed the young man's arrival.
The next second, she vanished directly from the surrounding spectators, appearing before Bokue in the blink of an eye.
"Wow~ Bokue-kun, what brings you here? Could you have been attracted by my concert too?"
"Just happened to be passing by."
Bokue caught the pouncing magical girl as they slowly descended back to ground level.
"More importantly, running a concert in a place like this—you're basically obstructing public traffic. Won't the mall actually complain?"
"Ahaha, well..."
Serafall hid her star wand behind her back, laughing somewhat awkwardly while glancing at several panting yet helpless security personnel near the shopping center entrance.
Clearly they'd already attempted to stop this concert. Unfortunately, their dispersal speed couldn't match the rate tourists were gathering. In the end, they'd exhausted themselves while helplessly watching the crowd grow larger.
"Actually, I originally came looking to hang out with you, Bokue-kun. But while passing through here, some magical girl fans approached asking what character I was cosplaying, and I couldn't resist showing off a little, hehe..."
And then it directly evolved into a full concert, right?
Bokue thought to himself.
"Oh right, speaking of which—is that little girl following you, Bokue-kun?"
Serafall seemed to suddenly notice something, pointing in a direction behind Bokue.
Hmm?
Bokue turned to look where she indicated, spotting a small figure peeking out from around the corner by the elevator hall he'd descended from earlier.
It was Eguchi Yume.
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