The next day, the library was quieter than a tomb.
If the tension before the "Duel of Silence" had been heavy, the atmosphere now was suffocating. Rito and Haruna sat at the librarian's desk, ostensibly sorting through return slips, but neither had spoken for twenty minutes.
Every time Rito shifted in his chair, Haruna flinched. Every time he stood up to reach for a stamp, her eyes darted instinctively to his lap before snapping away, her face burning a furious crimson.
She remembered. Rito knew she remembered. The heat, the pressure, the wetness soaking through her clothes in the dark... it hung between them like a physical barrier.
"Sairenji..." Rito started, his voice low.
"I'm going to check the reference section." she blurted out, standing up abruptly. Her chair scraped loudly against the floor. "Please... stay here."
She was running away again. Rito sighed, leaning back in his chair. His "honest" approach had made progress, yes, but it had also terrified her.
'She thinks I just want her body,' Rito thought, bitterness gnawing at him. 'She thinks I'm just a pervert King collecting trophies. I need to make her understand.'
BAM!
For the second time in two days, the library doors were thrown open. But this time, it wasn't an angry alien boy.
"Rito-kun~!"
"Rito~!"
Run and Lala burst in, bringing a whirlwind of color and noise into the dusty silence. They were holding bento boxes, their faces beaming.
Run reached him first. She didn't hesitate. She wrapped her arms around Rito's neck from behind the chair, pressing her cheek against his.
"We brought lunch!" Run chirped, her voice bubbling with the new, unstoppable confidence she'd found on stage. "Shitori-san gave me a break from interviews! Being an idol is busy, but a wife has to feed her husband, right?"
Lala bounced over, pulling up a chair. "And I made special space-octopus wieners! They actually move!"
Rito smiled, leaning back into Run's embrace despite himself.
"Thanks, you guys. But we're kind of working..."
"Oh! Haruna-chan!"
Run spotted Haruna, who had frozen near the encyclopedias, clutching a book to her chest like a shield. Run disentangled herself from Rito and skipped over to her friend, her face glowing.
"Haruna-chan! Did you watch the broadcast?" Run asked, her eyes sparkling. She grabbed the hem of her uniform blouse. "I know you saw it on TV, but look! It's even prettier up close!"
Run lifted her shirt.
There, on her pale, flat stomach, the Golden Heart Seal pulsed with a warm, steady rhythm.
"It feels so warm," Run whispered, looking down at it lovingly. "It connects me to Rito-kun."
"Me too! Me too!" Lala giggled, running over and lifting her own shirt. "Look, Haruna-chan! If we stand next to each other, they pulse in sync!"
Lala stood next to Run. Sure enough, the two golden hearts on their abdomens began to throb in perfect unison, a magical resonance of their shared bond with Rito.
"See?" Lala beamed. "We really are sister-wives now! It's like we're a set!"
Haruna stared.
She looked at the glowing mark on Run's skin. She looked at the matching one on Lala. She watched them giggling, comparing the intensity of their "engagement", completely united in a world she couldn't touch.
The reality of it crashed down on her.
It wasn't just a silly alien title. It wasn't just a weird living arrangement.
They had marks. They had shared something profound and physical with him that she hadn't. They were inside the circle, glowing with his light, matching each other.
And she... she was just the girl holding a book, standing in the dust, watching from the outside.
"You..." Haruna's voice was a whisper, thin and trembling. "You both... really belong to him."
"Yes!" Run nodded happily, completely misreading the mood. "And Rito said—"
Clatter.
The book slipped from Haruna's numb fingers and hit the floor.
"I... I have to go."
Haruna didn't run toward the exit this time. She turned and bolted deeper into the library, toward the heavy iron door of the Archive Room, the place where they kept the oldest, darkest records, and where no one ever went.
"Haruna-chan?" Run blinked, her smile faltering as she watched her friend disappear into the shadows. "Did I... did we do something wrong?"
Rito stood up so fast his chair clattered to the floor. His face wasn't cool or calculated; it was pale with panic.
'She's crying. I made her cry again.'
"I... I have to go after her!" Rito stammered, looking between his confused wives and the dark doorway.
"Rito?" Lala asked, her antennas drooping slightly.
"I'm sorry, you guys! I know you made lunch, but..." Rito clenched his fists, his feelings bubbling over. "I can't let her be alone like that! She looked so sad! I have to tell her... I have to fix this!"
He didn't wait for permission. He didn't strike a pose. He just sprinted past them, tripping slightly over a book pile in his haste but catching himself, plunging desperately into the shadows of the archives after the girl he loved.
…
The Archive Room was dark, smelling of dust and forgotten history. Rows of metal shelves loomed like skeletons in the shadows.
Rito ran down the center aisle, his breath hitching in his throat. "Sairenji!"
He found her in the furthest corner, huddled against a stack of old yearbooks. She wasn't sobbing loudly; she was crying with that quiet, heartbreaking silence that hurt Rito more than any scream. Her shoulders shook, her face buried in her hands.
"Sairenji..." Rito panted, slowing to a halt.
"Don't come closer," she whispered, her voice thick with tears. She didn't look up. "Please, Yuuki-kun. Just... go back to them. Go back to your wives. They... they match. They glow. They belong with you."
"I'm not going back," Rito said. He took a step forward, his hands trembling at his sides. He wanted to be cool. He wanted to be the confident King he'd seen in his dreams. But right now, he was just Rito, and he was terrified of losing her.
"Why not?" Haruna choked out, finally looking up. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her lashes wet and clumped together with tears. "You have a Princess. You have an Idol. They're beautiful, and bold, and... and they have that mark. I'm just... me. I'm just the girl who shelves books. I don't fit in your world."
"That's not true!" Rito blurted out, his face flushing hot. "You... you're the reason I even come to school! You're the reason I try so hard!"
He fell to his knees in front of her, desperation stripping away his composure.
"I know I'm greedy!" Rito admitted, his voice cracking. "I know it's shameless! I have Lala, and I have Run, and I know how bad that looks! I know I should pick one and let you go find someone normal and nice!"
He grabbed her shoulders. Haruna stiffened, her teary eyes widening in surprise.
"But I can't!" Rito cried, his face burning scarlet. "I saw... I had a dream where I didn't say this. Where I let you walk away because I was too scared. And I hated it! I hated that world!"
"Yuuki-kun..." Haruna breathed, stunned by his intensity.
"I don't want a harem just to have girls," Rito stammered, looking deep into her wet eyes. "I want it because... because it feels empty without you. The King... the seals... none of it matters if you're crying in a dark room because of me!"
He was shaking. He was sweating. He looked completely uncool.
And to Haruna, he looked perfect.
"You... you really mean that?" she whispered. "Even with them... you still want me?"
"I want you," Rito said, his voice dropping to a husky whisper as his "honest" nature flared up again. "I want you so much it hurts."
Haruna didn't pull away. She looked at his flushed face, his desperate eyes, and the raw honesty burning there. The wall she had built, the wall of "he belongs to them", crumbled.
"Yuuki-kun..."
She leaned in.
It wasn't an accident. It wasn't a trip.
Rito closed the distance. He tilted his head, his heart hammering against his ribs like a jackhammer, and pressed his lips to hers.
It was clumsy at first, a collision of teeth and lips, but then it deepened. Haruna gasped, and Rito took the opening. He kissed her with all the pent-up frustration and love of two lifetimes.
His tongue swept into her mouth, tasting salt from her tears and the sweetness of her breath. Haruna froze for a split second, then melted. Her arms flew around his neck, clutching him desperate and tight.
They kissed fiercely in the dusty dark. Rito pushed her back against the yearbooks, his body pressing into hers. He felt her soft chest crush against him, her legs tangling with his.
And just like in the main library, his body reacted instantly. He grew hard against her thigh, the 9-inch proof of his feelings pressing insistently through their clothes.
Haruna felt it. She felt the heat, the hardness, the sheer desire he had for her.
She broke the kiss, gasping for air, her face steaming. A string of saliva connected their lips before snapping.
"Y-Yuuki-kun..." she panted, her eyes swirling with confusion and arousal. "You're... hard again."
Rito buried his face in her neck, hiding his burning face against her hair clip. "I told you." he mumbled into her skin, ashamed but unable to stop holding her. "I can't help it with you. I'm sorry. I'm the worst."
Haruna looked down at him, this boy who was supposedly a Galactic King, currently hiding his face in her shoulder because he was too excited.
A small, shaky smile touched her lips. She lifted a hand and gently stroked his hair.
"You are the worst." she whispered softly. "But... I think I'm the worst too. Because... I don't want you to stop holding me."
Rito looked up, hope warring with his embarrassment. "Sairenji... does that mean...?"
"I... I can't say yes to everything yet." she said, glancing down at his stomach where she knew he didn't have a seal, but his wives did. "I'm not... brave like Lala-san or Run-chan. I can't just... join a harem today."
She leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek, quick, shy, and sweet.
"But…" she whispered, her face turning pink. "You can... keep trying to convince me. Okay?"
Rito beamed, a genuine, blinding smile that lit up the dark room. "I will! I promise, I'll make you happy, Sairenji!"
He hugged her again, spinning her slightly, completely forgetting that they were cutting class, covered in dust, and that his "problem" was still very much poking her hip.
*****
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