“I’m home.”
Nadeshiko called out toward the empty house, not expecting any response, and threw herself heavily onto the bed.
The empty home.
The white tile floor had been cleaned spotless.
Plain wooden furniture sat with only a few daily necessities on top.
Apart from that, there was the large bed Nadeshiko was lying on.
There was no other trace of life in the entire house.
It was as clean as a commercial apartment in a sales office.
You couldn’t tell at all that it was an ordinary girl’s home.
Though Nadeshiko wasn’t an ordinary girl either.
To Nadeshiko, this place was only a temporary foothold.
It was a shelter where she could rest briefly after an exhausting day.
More importantly, no one knew she lived here.
Whether classmates, colleagues from [Night Theater], or even her former teammates, none of them knew she had privately purchased this property.
Here, she could briefly take off her own masks.
The mask of Fox Mask.
The mask of Nadeshiko.
When she was alone, she was actually more pessimistic and negative.
Some baseless powerlessness always lingered in her heart, leaving Nadeshiko no choice but to wrap herself in the blanket and hide from everything outside.
“There are times when I get this tired too.”
A person could only feel exhausted in a place where they could truly relax.
Nadeshiko sighed and opened the Villain Role-Playing System.
There were no flashy pages.
The cursor simply and faithfully displayed her current Villain Points, yet it brought Nadeshiko an enormous sense of oppression.
Just thinking of those punishments made a physiological urge to vomit rise in her.
She steadied herself and checked her current Villain Points.
Most of them came from today’s confrontation with the two magical girls.
The Villain Points were still in surplus, far above the number that would trigger punishment.
That let her set her mind at ease.
Perhaps in order to urge the user to diligently play the villain, this system would deduct varying amounts of Villain Points at the beginning of every month.
Once the Villain Points fell below a set value, it would trigger a plot punishment.
Nadeshiko knew the varieties of punishment all too well.
Nothing more than a teammate’s ability suddenly going out of control and dragging her into an illusion to be tortured to death thousands of times, or being burned by eternally burning flames yet unable to die…
All kinds of physical horror plus mental horror punishments.
During the two-year monster rampage period in the past, she had already experienced almost all of them.
She really didn’t know how she had endured it.
Was it just for that tiny sense of justice in her heart?
Or because she couldn’t bear to see her former teammates in pain?
Nadeshiko shook her head hard, dispelling her wild thoughts.
“I should think about how to compensate Rakuraku first.”
After all, today she had well and truly beaten that person up.
She rolled over, opened LINE, found Rakuraku’s chat window, and started typing with a clatter.
——
“Rakuraku… Rakuraku? Are you feeling unwell?”
Rakuraku came back to herself and saw her mom looking at her with a face full of concern.
“You suddenly zoned out halfway through eating. Is the food not to your taste?”
“Haha… I just got a little carb coma!”
Rakuraku forced out a smile, quickly finished the remaining food in her bowl, put her hands together, said “I’m full!”, and then dashed upstairs.
“This child, why does she feel so strange lately?” Rakuraku’s mom asked the dad beside her.
“Teenage girls more or less all have their own secrets. We as parents can only properly support her.” Dad collected Rakuraku’s leftover bowls and chopsticks and said to Mom.
“I just hope it isn’t becoming a magical girl, or falling in love…” Rakuraku’s mom looked toward Rakuraku’s room.
Rakuraku thump-thump-thumped upstairs, closed her room door, then leaned against the soft cushion and let out a heavy sigh.
“Cheer up… Rakuraku.” She hugged her knees and said softly to herself.
“I clearly felt like I had already gotten used to life with being a magical girl, but today I feel especially exhausted. Is it because of Fox Mask?”
She recalled Fox Mask holding back against her today.
She seemed able to feel Fox Mask’s hesitation even from that icy mask.
“Or is it because of Nadeshiko-chan?” She thought again of her recent close interactions with Nadeshiko, those moments that made her heart skip.
Thinking of that, her face flushed red again.
“Ding-dong—“
The phone covered on the bed sent a notification reminder.
Rakuraku unlocked her phone and discovered it was actually a message from Nadeshiko.
“This weekend, is Rakuraku free? I want to go out and play with you.”
Nadeshiko-chan… is asking me out?!
Rakuraku held the phone in both hands, her eyes sparkling as they reflected the message on the screen.
“I’m free, I’m free! Where does Nadeshiko-chan want to go?”
She quickly typed a line.
Almost instantly, Nadeshiko sent back,
“How about Seika Tower? I happen to have two tickets.”
Nadeshiko-chan, did you buy them specially for me?!
Another wave of emotion rose in Rakuraku’s heart.
She hurriedly typed a reply.
“Of course that’s fine! I’ve always wanted to go to Seika Tower once!”
It was pretty strange when she said it.
Although Rakuraku was a locally born and raised native, she had never gone to Seika Tower even once.
“Then tomorrow morning at eight, see you at the school gate.” Rakuraku could almost imagine the gentle expression on Nadeshiko’s face as she typed that sentence.
She was so happy she almost jumped up, forgetting the little exhaustion from just now.
Being able to go out and play with Nadeshiko-chan, what did those tiny worries even count for?
Rakuraku hugged her phone and excitedly rolled around on the bed.
The carefully arranged bedding became a mess.
“I definitely… have fallen for Nadeshiko.” After exhausting herself, the girl looked at the warm-colored lamp on the room ceiling with a completely red face and thought in a daze.
“And it’s the kind of like where I want to become lovers.” she murmured.
What should I wear tomorrow?
Cute style?
Or something a little more mature?
Rakuraku leaped up from the bed, walked to her wardrobe, and started picking among the dazzling array of clothes.
After all, Rakuraku was a current high school girl, and at the same time, because of commission income, she was half a little rich lady.
The clothes in her wardrobe were set after set, all carefully arranged in dust covers and lined up neatly on the racks.
“Actually, I’m more looking forward to what Nadeshiko will wear…” Rakuraku’s hand rested on the rack as she started imagining tomorrow’s Nadeshiko.
Thinking this way, she realized she really knew very little about Nadeshiko.
She didn’t know what Nadeshiko liked to eat, and she didn’t know Nadeshiko’s clothing style either.
Nadeshiko was like an angel who had descended into her life, yet there was still a layer of distance between them.
Like a fogged-up glass window, making it impossible to see clearly.
“Tomorrow, I definitely have to close the distance with Nadeshiko-chan!” She pumped herself up again, clenched her fists, and cheered herself on.
So today, she should sleep early first.
Rakuraku didn’t want to go out with Nadeshiko tomorrow with a puffy face.
Staying up late was a high school girl’s greatest taboo.
She hung the chosen clothes on the nearby hanger, planning to make the final choice tomorrow morning, turned off the light, and lay on the bed.
See you tomorrow, Nadeshiko. she said to herself in her heart.