Chapter 50: Relatively Calm

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“…Nakanishi-kun, do you have a minute?”

After the fourth-period lecture, right as I was thinking about going to directly negotiate a discount with Mahiro, I was unexpectedly called out by Naegi-san of all people.

Talk about a surprise.

However, I was naturally fully aware that this wasn’t going to be some sweet, sweet business. Would it be sour, or perhaps bitter?

“What is it?”

“U-Umm, there’s a club drinking party coming up soon, and…”

“!”

What a coincidence, I couldn’t even argue if someone called this sheer plot convenience. Now that I thought about it, Naegi-san had also joined the exact same club.

“Because there’s a really suspicious atmosphere floating around, I think you should warn Mahiro-san, too…”

“What do you mean?”

Wait, she namedropped Mahiro instead of Temari?

“Yeah, well… It seems like there’s someone in the club who is targeting Mahiro-san.”

Whoa there. Because Mahiro went to a different university, Sasou-kun’s intel obviously hadn’t covered things this far… However.

“Huh, Mahiro, you say? Is that girl actually relatively popular?”

“Well, she’s definitely beautiful and has that untouchable ‘flower on a high peak’ aura… Wait, seriously? You’re really okay with someone else taking Mahiro-san away from you, Nakanishi-kun?”

“Hah? Why the hell would I be crying over someone else taking Mahiro?”

“…”

I mean, seriously, there was no way Mahiro and I could ever end up in that kind of relationship now.

First of all, if my cock still had lingering feelings for Mahiro—I mean, if I still had lingering feelings for her—I never would have confessed to Naegi-san in the first place.

I was so over her that not even my dick would’ve pitched a regretful tent dripping with pre-cum.

…Or so I had thought, but an unbearably awkward silence had already settled between us.

It was probably best to swallow my true feelings, much like making sure a load of thick white liquid didn’t catch in my throat.

“Well, even if someone is targeting Mahiro, it’s not like they’d forcibly get her drunk and assault her, right?”

“I’d like to think so, but the senior targeting Mahiro-san happens to be someone with a rather nasty reputation…”

“Nasty reputation?”

“Yeah. I heard they, um, absolutely love… filming sex tapes…”

“Shouldn’t you just tell Mahiro that directly?”

“I did tell her to be careful, but I don’t have hard proof, and since it’s a drinking party for Mahiro-san’s birthday, I can’t push the issue too strongly.”

Is that how it works?

I mean, unless your chastity wasn’t all that important to you, shouldn’t you have attended university drinking parties with a certain level of resolve? In a sexual sense, obviously.

Then again, if the very first drink of the night had been, “Let’s start with some wakame liquor,” anyone would have been thoroughly creeped out.

The only way I could think of to avoid that was shaving yourself completely bald down there.

And once the drinking party began, there was no turning back. It would end with everyone chugging a tadpole-filled white, cloudy liquid as the grand finale.

I supposed the extra protein might have helped prevent a nasty hangover.

The only downsides were that it tasted awful and was hard to swallow.

…Thinking about it that way, wasn’t it actually relatively healthy?

Setting those thoughts aside for the moment.

“Come to think of it, I heard Temari and Mahiro are the guests of honor for this party, but could it be that Temari is just a bonus extra?”

“…I don’t think, that’s the case.”

Ah, the way her eyes had darted around gave it away—Naegi-san had been terrible at lying too.

I see.

Since Mahiro and Temari were practically best friends, Temari had only been invited along to keep Mahiro from getting anxious and deciding to skip the party.

Poor Temari.

But if that was the case, then even if Temari had absolutely no sense of danger, I felt like things would somehow work out for her anyway.

“Understood. Well, the only person from that club I know that Temari gets along with is some senior named Yoshizaki, though.”

“…Eh?”

The moment I brought up that senior’s name, Naegi-san looked surprisingly shocked for some reason.

“Did something happen with that senior?”

“U-Um, by Yoshizaki-senpai, you mean Yoshizaki Mie-san, right…?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Is she close with Temari-san?”

“You didn’t know? They were talking pretty amicably. It felt like Temari thought of her as a reliable senior.”

“Eh!? …Did you talk to Yoshizaki-senpai too, Nakanishi-kun?”

“Yeah, just a little. Though it seemed like she didn’t bother remembering my name on our first meeting.”

“No way…”

I had no idea why, but Naegi-san was completely astounded at the fact that Temari was close with Yoshizaki-senpai, and that I had spoken to her.

“Why are you reacting with such surprise?”

“Eh, I mean, Yoshizaki-senpai is famous, isn’t she…”

“Is she? I’ve never even heard her name before, what is she famous for?”

“…In the yuri sphere.”

“Huh? …Huh?”

Naegi-san’s words, confessed as if she were backed into a corner, didn’t sound like a lie at all. If anything, she was looking at me with a gaze that practically screamed, ‘How could you not know?’

“During last year’s freshman welcome party, she was the person Anbe-senpai listed as a ‘person of interest’ to watch out for… You were with me, Nakanishi-kun, so you heard it too, right? Rumor has it there are even people in our department who fell victim to her.”

“…Seriously?”

Crap, I had absolutely no interest in strangers who swung the yuri way, so that intel didn’t even remain in the furthest corners of my memory.

“There’s no clear proof, admittedly… but even I never imagined that Temari-san would join the very club Yoshizaki-senpai was in… I joined alongside her just in case to ensure Temari-san wouldn’t be put in danger, but no matter how much I explained it to her, she wouldn’t take me seriously.”

“So that’s the whole story behind why you joined the same club, Naegi-san. Makes sense.”

“By the way, since when did that senior and Temari-san get so close…?”

“I don’t know the specifics. Is it possible that you’re just overthinking things, Naegi-san?”

“Yoshizaki-senpai fundamentally never remembers anyone, and she never talks to them. She keeps everyone at arm's length and acts completely indifferent. The only people she ever speaks to are the girls she's set her sights on because they fit her exact type.”

“…”

I was seriously shocked out of my mind.

I had no idea how things had come to this, but did that mean Temari… had been targeted by Yoshizaki-senpai?

So she had only talked to me to keep an eye on me? She definitely hadn’t seemed to remember my name.

……

I don’t get it.

Could I even call this a crisis for Temari’s chastity at this point?

Well, it might have been safe to put it that way when it came to Mahiro, but then again, that girl had already been plenty experienced in that department.

I couldn’t help feeling my sense of urgency regarding her was a little lacking.

Even so, if the rumors Sasou-kun mentioned about it being a “hookup club” had been strictly in the yuri sense, then what the hell was I supposed to do?

There were guys officially enrolled in it too, weren’t there?

A depraved orgy where yuri, casual rape, red miso, white miso, and utter bullshit were all thrown together into one chaotic melting pot was something I desperately wanted to avoid, long before any actual s**t hit the fan.