But who knew her body would show such strange symptoms, what on earth is wrong with her?
"Honestly... Chika and I are both worried about Haruna, and Haruna's eyes are only on your Hikigaya-kun," Seeing Seirenji Haruna still staring dazedly at Hachiman's retreating back, Momioka Risa shook her head and, leaning close to her ear, teased with a grin.
"How did Coach Hikigaya's instruction feel just now? Wasn't it great? I swear, Haruna, you were almost lying in Coach Hikigaya's arms."
"Risa, don't keep saying that. If Hikigaya-kun misunderstands, that won't be good."
Only then did Seirenji Haruna notice that Hikigaya-kun had been touching her thigh during instruction; she hurriedly covered her burning cheeks with both hands and ignored Momioka Risa's teasing.
Although the training guidance was very effective and Hikigaya-kun wasn't taking advantage of her, she had let him touch her without hesitation, would he think she was too frivolous?
At the time she didn't know what she was thinking; she just watched Hikigaya-kun knead her arms and thighs.
"If you like him, you like him, that's not something to be ashamed about. I'm not a disciplinary committee member; I'll support you, not block you," Seeing Haruna get shy again, Momioka Risa chuckled and patted her chest to promise.
She wasn't interested in romance and hated bothersome boys.
But since Haruna liked Hachiman that much, she still wanted to help her somehow.
Haruna had liked Hikigaya for so many years and hadn't even had a chance to confess. With Haruna's personality, she might keep pining forever.
"Um... Chika-senpai, may I ask, what's your relationship with Hikigaya-kun? Just now he seemed to call you by your name, Chika-senpai?", Thinking of the disciplinary committee, Seirenji Haruna slowly lowered her hands from her cheeks and, hesitantly, looked toward Kitamura Chika.
Close instruction can be excused as calm coaching and Risa's teasing can be ignored, but Chika-senpai's relationship with Hikigaya-kun was really curious.
"Uh... well...", Kitamura Chika looked a little embarrassed and averted her eyes when Haruna asked.
She didn't mind others knowing about her relationship with Hachiman; originally she wanted to rally the tennis club's pretty girls to compete with the girls' swim team and secure Hachiman.
That way she could eat from both the tennis club and the disciplinary committee. After all, the disciplinary committee wasn't exactly a club but was full of pretty girls, and she could call them in when things got tough.
But looking at the pure-hearted Seirenji Haruna, she felt too embarrassed to say she was obsessed with Hachiman's looks and couldn't live without him.
"Hm?", Seirenji Haruna, seeing Kitamura Chika avoid her gaze with a guilty expression, blankly looked to her friend Momioka Risa.
Had she said something inappropriate or sensitive? Why had Chika-senpai suddenly stopped answering?
"Don't worry, Haruna. Chika-senpai, the rest of the tennis club, and I, we'll all root for your romance!"
Momioka Risa didn't reveal anything; she just gave Haruna a hearty pat on the shoulder and said sincerely.
Although Risa had learned from Chika that Hachiman was great in every way, his only flaw was his fickleness; the girls secretly involved with him were more outrageous than rumors suggested.
But Haruna had liked Hachiman for a long time, she wouldn't give up easily.
Anyway, since Chika-senpai wanted to keep Hachiman for the tennis club, if Risa and Chika worked together, maybe they could really make Hachiman Haruna's boyfriend.
———
[On the Field]
Hachiman left the tennis court and went to the track team's practice to chat with Shizuku and the track-team girls she wanted to introduce to him.
Even though getting Shizuku would almost complete the "Slave of Desire" quest, the remaining Sugisaki Kasumi was in his class, so he could handle that anytime in class.
Still, Shizuku only liked him because he saved her, he couldn't assume she'd definitely fall for him.
No choice, talk first, build rapport.
He didn't have to do the quest, but the "Slave of Desire" quest had updated again and again; he figured the reward must be great and wanted to try.
Even if he didn't finish that quest, the track team had many other 2D Heroines that could trigger quests; he wasn't in a rush.
His eye caught many typical 2D Heroines in the track team, Amane Hisajo, Mizuki Miki, Nimeme Minori.
Unsurprisingly, sport clubs with many girls were the usual hotspots: girls' swim team, track team, volleyball, gymnastics, etc. Sports clubs like soccer and baseball were mostly boys.
There were still plenty of girls in cultural clubs like tea ceremony, literature, and art.
"Huh? Almost forgot about her."
Hikigaya had been talking with the track team heroines for a long time. As club time neared its end and he was about to leave, he noticed a nervous figure pacing the edge of the field, glancing left and right.
A cute long-haired girl he recognized but who didn't recognize him, Yotsuya Miko.
———
Yotsuya Miko, a first-year in high school, was utterly ordinary among the gorgeous girls at Sobu High.
Lately she had encountered something strange.
A few days ago she suddenly saw something on the street, some kind of vengeful spirit or monster; let's call them ghosts and specters.
This world had Elf Princesses, mermaid divas, and other popular 2D races, so it wasn't shocking that ugly, abnormal ghosts and specters existed.
What was odd was that no one else could see those ghosts, only she could.
At first she could only see them on her way home; she thought maybe they only came out at night.
If that was the case, staying at home at night would be fine, nobody else could see them, and if she pretended not to see them she might be safe.
But this morning she found a terrifying ugly specter blocking her front door.
Imagine, on a happy morning heading to school, a monster with a gaping maw and rolling eyes is staring at her at her own doorstep.
She was nearly scared into cardiac arrest, and after recovering she pretended she was late for school and ran away.
After a full day of observation and thinking, she realized the ghosts weren't absent in daylight, they simply didn't appear inside Sobu High.
Previously she was at school all day so she didn't notice; on weekends she'd been lucky and no ghosts entered her house, so she'd assumed they didn't come out by day.
After borrowing a telescope from a classmate, she could see many ugly, terrifying ghosts outside Sobu High, big and small, some human-like, some not at all.
Sobu High seemed to have something that frightened them; ghosts never approached the school. This peculiar shelter seemed to exist only at Sobu High.
Realizing this, she didn't join a club but stayed on campus after school, wandering the crowded playground and delaying going home.
She couldn't risk meeting a ghost on the way home. If her guess was right and they entered other people's homes, they could enter hers too, she might well see ghosts at home.
The thought of those things entering her house and leaving her nowhere to hide made Yotsuya Miko shiver.
She had planned to ask the demi-humans in the demi-human class for help.
Although they were from another world and might not necessarily deal with ghosts, or might not even see them, they still had magic and were far better than an ordinary girl like her with no way to cope.
But luck was against her today. She couldn't find any demi-humans; she'd heard the Elf Princess and others had come in the afternoon but left soon after.
Demi-human students had backgrounds and private lives; the mermaid diva was a world-class idol, the Elf Princess often visited public and political events, and dragons and vampires often skipped school.
They were all hard to find, and even if she told her friend Hanafune about the ghosts, they'd be powerless.
"Hey Miko, what's wrong? Still upset? Going for a walk won't fix things. Want to go get dessert?"
"N-no... let's go get dessert."
A cheerful voice full of energy came to Yotsuya Miko's ear. She snapped back to herself and forced a smile at her friend Yurikawa Hana.
Yurikawa Hana, her good friend, an energetic foodie who seemed all chest.
Maybe she'd eaten so much she even attracted ghosts, fortunately, once they entered Sobu High those ghosts stopped following.
But it was almost closing time, club activities were ending, and she couldn't force her friend to sleep at school.
If Sobu High's protection only worked by day and not at night, that would be bad.
Hana, like everyone else, couldn't see the ghosts. She didn't know whether telling Hana would make her believe, and even if Hana believed, she wouldn't be able to do anything.
Rather than make Hana live in fear like her, Miko preferred to face those ghosts alone.
As she reluctantly prepared to leave the school, leaving the shelter of Sobu High, she suddenly saw several track girls gossiping around a boy ahead.
She didn't know most of the track girls well.
But that boy... He seemed to be the Service Club president who was close to the Elf Princess; rumor had it he was on good terms with the mermaid diva too.
"Hm? Miko?", Yurikawa Hana noticed her friend hesitating and was about to say something when she saw Miko staring fixedly at someone.
Following Miko's gaze, she saw Hachiman surrounded by several track beauties. Turning back to Miko, Hana's face dawned with understanding.
'Oh~ I see~ now I get it~'
No wonder Miko had been acting off all day, borrowing a telescope, dragging Hana out for a walk after school.
"Um... excuse me, Hikigaya-kun, do you have a moment?", Not noticing her friend's misunderstanding, Yotsuya Miko hurriedly took small steps with Hana toward Hachiman, anxious as she looked at him.
She'd tried before to find the Service Club president who was close with the Elf Princess, but hadn't succeeded, rumor said Hachiman skipped class often and only showed up briefly.
Unexpectedly, as school was about to end, she found him.
"Sure, I have time. What is it?", Hachiman, who was about to leave, looked surprised at the girl who'd come up to him.
Yotsuya Miko, known from "Mireuko-chan", was someone he'd heard of before aiding Iris. This world had 2D demi-humans; in the countryside there were even yuki-onna and other creatures, so ghosts and specters in the city weren't strange.
But he had never seen any specters, and he hadn't bothered the girl who hadn't awakened her yin-yang sight.
Though Miko, who had to endure fear and pretend not to see ghosts while trembling, was very cute and painfully shy, he liked her.
Maybe the original author thought that too, so initially Miko was just an ordinary girl who could see ghosts but could do nothing but pretend not to. But once a fictional character became real, you couldn't only think of the angst.
Miko really lived daily in fear and couldn't sleep well.
Given that Miko could see ghosts but had no way to deal with them, she could have been an 2D Heroine if not for broadcast limits.
So far, he hadn't encountered any grudge spirits; he'd never even seen an ordinary harmless ghost and couldn't truly sympathize with Miko.
"Um... er...", When Hikigaya asked her what she wanted, Miko froze and stammered.
She had simply wanted to ask for help, when she saw Hikigaya it was like clutching at a straw and she'd run over.
But being close to the Elf Princess didn't mean he could solve her problem. She wasn't even sure the Elf Princess could handle ghosts.
Saying "ghosts" in front of so many people.
"Hello Hikigaya-kun, I'm Yurikawa Hana. This is Yotsuya Miko. We're going to get dessert, are you free?", Seeing her friend's courage evaporate after three seconds, Yurikawa Hana jumped in, inviting Hikigaya to join them.
"P-please, Hikigaya-kun, are you free? We'll treat," Hearing Hana's words, Miko realized her friend might have misunderstood her reason for approaching, but at that moment she couldn't deny it, so she quickly went along.
No matter whether Hikigaya could deal with ghosts, she just wanted to leave school.
She'd ask Hikigaya later, privately, once they were off-campus whether he could see those specters.
"No need to treat me. If you have something to ask, I can go out with you and we can talk."
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