Chapter: 11. Do you want to duel with me at night?
After Kanade left the school building with Nagi, he finally sighed in relief.
It was spring on campus.
Petals of pink cherry blossoms danced in the air, lifted by the gentle breeze.
On their way to the new dormitory, there were few people to be seen.
For a long time, it was just Kanade and Nagi on the road.
The only sounds echoing in their ears, apart from their footsteps, were the faint heartbeats they felt through their interlocked hands.
This scene made Kanade’s thoughts involuntarily drift back to the past.
It reminded him of the morning years ago when he became a junior high school student.
He had also walked hand in hand with Nagi along a street filled with cherry blossoms.
This made Kanade feel incredibly lucky in his heart.
He never expected that after so much time had passed, he could still hold hands with his childhood friend in the same way.
After several years of study and experiences, Kanade had come to realize even more the gap between him and Nagi back then, which could be described as a significant difference.
For childhood friends like them, with such disparities in social status, even after years of not seeing each other, they could still maintain such a close relationship.
Kanade felt a deep sense of gratitude for the current situation.
But unlike back then, he was no longer the boy who was obsessed with his own shortcomings.
Although holding hands in front of others made him feel shy, in the current moment alone with Nagi—
Thinking this, Kanade unconsciously tightened his grip on Nagi’s left hand.
Even though he felt shy and didn’t dare to look at Nagi’s face, from the firmness in his palm, he understood that the girl beside him didn’t have any aversion to his attention.
This filled Kanade’s heart with joy.
“Kanade-kun, you’ve grown up…” Nagi’s gentle and melodious voice floated into Kanade’s ears with the breeze.
“Yeah, um… you too, Nagi… have grown up…”
Kanade discreetly glanced at Nagi walking beside him.
Her figure was now more voluptuous and impressive compared to the past; even though it was covered by the Ark Academy uniform, it could not hide the astonishing and towering peaks in front of her.
Moreover, those strikingly prominent curves moved softly and bouncily as she walked, making them impossible to ignore.
For boys of this age, simply watching Nagi move normally felt incredibly captivating.
Kanade managed to pull his gaze away from those rounded forms.
Unbeknownst to him—
All of this was Nagi’s deliberate intention.
She had chosen a bra with uncertain support and walked with her chest raised.
It was all to test whether Kanade’s preferences were still the same after all these years.
As Nagi observed Kanade’s slightly flushed cheeks, she felt the growth of the boy before her with her palm.
In the past, he was the childhood friend she either looked up to or looked down upon, but now she had to lift her head slightly to see his face.
At the same time, Nagi acutely experienced the difference in male and female physiques; Kanade, who had now become a high school student, had not only grown taller, but his hands were larger compared to before, visually contrasting with her delicate and slender fingers.
What’s more, the boy who used to be shy and wanted to let go whenever she held his hand had now become someone who would actively take her hand.
After all these years, the boy never turned into someone she disliked… except for that aspect of him that seemed to be possessed by the “God of Ecchi” and turned into a lucky pervert.
Thinking of this, Nagi decided to take the initiative to bring up a topic.
“By the way, did Kanade-kun just have an argument with that… Shishido classmate?”
“… No, it’s not like that… it was just a… joke.”
It seemed that Nagi had accidentally overheard the argument he had with Shishido in the hallway earlier; after all, his voice had been quite loud, and it wouldn’t have been surprising for her to hear.
Facing Nagi’s question, Kanade, not wanting her to worry, forced himself to tell a lie.
Not good at lying, he couldn’t help but look away as he spoke.
“But I think I heard something about ‘dueling’ at night…”
At Ark Academy, if students from the Special Class wanted to spar, they could apply for permission to use the “No. 2 Gymnasium” at night.
Kanade understood that he couldn’t reveal the truth about the “Special Class” and didn’t want to involve Nagi, so while apologizing to himself for the lie he was about to tell, he replied:
“That… was just talking about ‘a card game’.”
“A card game?”
“Yeah, it’s the one that’s been really popular lately… the one where you shout ‘Duel Start’…”
As he answered, he discreetly observed Nagi’s reaction.
He saw Nagi reveal a doubtful expression upon hearing that.
—Was it really too forced?
—After all, Shishido’s tone at the time had been pretty serious… If it was just a regular card game, he wouldn’t have used that kind of tone…
Just when Kanade thought his lie might have been exposed…
“Kanade-kun… did Shishido invite you to play a card game at night with that strong tone?”
“Eh?”
“Kanade-kun and Shishido… is it that relationship that’s been trending among boys lately?”
Nagi’s cute cheeks were tinged with a light blush.
She carefully looked up at Kanade.
“No, no, no, although I don’t know what’s popular among boys lately, I think there must be some misunderstanding…” Kanade quickly replied.
“Clearly, it’s a relationship that involves ‘a night duel’!”
“Where did you learn such vocabulary?!”
“Kanade-kun, you’ve grown up…”
“I’ve never hated the word ‘growing up’ as much as I do now.”
“Shishido seems to really hope to have a ‘night duel’ with you…”
“Why use such strange phrasing!? Who taught you these things, Nagi?!”
“Hehe, naive~ A so-called high school girl usually thinks about things like this… You know, Yukino-chan taught me to respond this way to you.”
“Alright, next time I see Yukino, I’ll give her a good talking-to.”
“So, Kanade-kun, can you have a night duel with me?”
“Pfft—!? Nagi, do you know what you’re saying?!”
“?” Nagi pretended to act innocent and tilted her head: “I just want to play a card game with you at night…”
“… Yeah, if I have the chance next time… I’ll also join you for a card game, Nagi…” Kanade suddenly felt a hint of disappointment in his heart for some reason.
“Okay, it’s a promise~ I’m really looking forward to it~ a night duel with Kanade-kun~”
“Pfft— Ah, um, yeah…”
It was so good that there was no one around.
If someone heard that he was looking forward to a “night duel” with the girl before him, it would definitely be taken as being overrun with desires and being unable to control his instincts—he’d be seen as a pervert.
Feeling anxious, Kanade didn’t notice that the corners of Nagi’s mouth were subtly rising.
She paused for a moment as if waiting for some opportunity before asking again:
“But it looks like Kanade-kun isn’t very willing to duel with Shishido, is that right? Why?”
With his nerves slightly calmed, Kanade inadvertently relaxed his guard.
He revealed the sensitive and vulnerable part of himself that he had been hiding.
“Reason… that… Kanade said involuntarily in front of the girl he had trusted the most since childhood: “Because of lack of talent, I suppose…”
—Compared to Shishido, who ranked in double digits, it felt like he was just an ordinary person who couldn’t even awaken “talent.”
Although Kanade had always acted indifferent in front of others.
But as a young man in the vigorous phase of adolescence, how could he not care about being looked down upon?
The person Kanade wanted to become was someone who wouldn’t be ashamed to stand beside Nagi.
If he was regarded as an irredeemable waste by others, then that would mean Nagi, who matched with him, was also a waste, right?
This was something he had always been extremely concerned about.
But the reality before Kanade was—he really seemed to lack talent.
“… Kanade-kun.”
“Ah, sorry for saying something so strange all of a sudden—”
Just as Kanade was reacting and wanted to apologize, he was interrupted by Nagi.
“—You don’t need to apologize, Kanade-kun! Rather, I’m very grateful that you’re willing to talk to me about these things…” Nagi revealed a faint smile.
“Also, I don’t think you’re someone without talent…”
“As long as you want to do it, you can definitely achieve it.”
“Because I’ve been with you since childhood.”
“So if I say this, it absolutely can’t be wrong!”
“Nagi…”
“However—” Nagi said while gently covering the back of Kanade’s hand with her free hand: “Even if you really don’t have talent, that’s okay~”
“Because, no matter whether you have talent or not, as long as you can continue to live in this world, that’s enough for me.”
“So, it’s okay for you to rely on me a lot~”
—————–
“W-Why are you still holding hands after leaving the Special Class area?!”
Not far from Kanade and Nagi, Fuko was secretly following them.
“They’re clearly just ordinary childhood friends, not even in a romantic relationship—”
Seeing the close figures of the two, Fuko, gritting her teeth, accidentally overheard parts of their dialogue—
(“Kanade-kun… at night…”)
(“… kun… with that strong tone… at night…”)
(“… hope… night duel…”)
(“Kanade-kun… their heads always think of such things…”)
(“At night… well teach it well…”)
…
“Tsukimi-san!? I never expected that honest Tsukimi would actually want to…” Fuko, only able to catch snippets, fell into unprecedented chaos.
Though she wanted to tell herself it was all a misunderstanding.
But looking at their intimate interactions, her woman’s warning bells rang loudly.
“N-No, what if those two really are going to live in the same dorm…”
—That bad woman actually used her shameless and provocative body to entice my Kanade-kun into a night duel…
Fuko, risking discovery, stealthily followed closer.
Just to clearly hear their conversation and find evidence that this childhood friend had seduced Kanade away—
(“But… whether Kanade-kun has talent or not…”)
(“As long as you can continue to live in this world… it’s enough.”)
…
“Isn’t she an incredibly good woman?!”
