"Was there something else you needed, senpai?"
Dinner was over. Sengoku Chihiro and Hiratsuka Shizuka had already gone back next door to drink, but for some reason Haruno hadn't gone with them—instead she'd followed Mio back to her room.
She was sitting on Mio's bed, watching her with a smile.
"It's nothing. I just felt like resting in your room for a bit, kouhai."
Mio didn't buy such a flimsy excuse for a second. She had a nagging feeling this bad woman Haruno was up to something.
Thinking back on Haruno's behavior earlier, a strange idea suddenly popped into Mio's head.
Could Haruno be waiting around for her to trigger a mission?!
Haruno didn't know the System existed, but she'd more or less figured out that Mio sometimes had to do certain things against her own will.
Come to think of it, that possibility really did exist.
If that was the case, then Haruno was in for a long wait—even Mio herself never knew when she'd trigger a mission, let alone Haruno.
She'd already triggered two missions today. Without a luck boost, two missions in one day already meant she'd been lucky.
The odds of triggering a third were basically nil.
Which meant Haruno was just doing all this for nothing.
Letting Haruno hang around wasn't really a problem in itself, but Mio genuinely wasn't used to having someone watch while she worked.
She hesitated, then got up and walked over to Haruno. "Senpai, could you do me a favor?"
A flicker of contemplation crossed Haruno's eyes at the words—gone in an instant, so fast that even Mio didn't catch it.
From past experience, Haruno knew that if Mio actually needed her help, her expression definitely wouldn't look like this, without even a hint of resignation.
Clearly, this white-haired little kouhai just wanted some excuse to send her on her way.
Still, to Haruno, whether it was genuine or not didn't really matter.
"Sure. What is it you need, kouhai?"
"All you have to do is sit there and let me push you down once."
"No problem. But I want a reward."
"Eh?! What kind of reward?" Mio had assumed Haruno would go along with it like usual—she hadn't expected her to start demanding a reward this time.
"Let me think~" Haruno made a show of pondering, then said, "It's Valentine's Day today. How about a kiss from you, kouhai, as the reward? What do you say?"
At Haruno's words, Mio suddenly felt a pang of regret over why she'd gone looking for trouble in the first place. But she'd already said what she said—it was just a kiss, and it wasn't as if they hadn't kissed plenty of times before.
"Fine."
Mio walked up to Haruno, pushed her down onto the bed, then followed her down, pinning her beneath her, and kissed her on the lips.
Wait—she hadn't actually specified where the kiss had to be, had she?
Never mind. It was already done, so there wasn't much point thinking about it now.
For a moment, the room filled with an atmosphere that could only be called "charged." Sadly, that mood didn't last long—Haruno's phone started ringing. It was Chihiro, calling to ask when on earth she was coming over.
"Just wait—I'm coming over right now to drink every last one of you under the table!" Haruno said, deadpan.
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"Yawn~"
Looking at the illustration she'd just finished on her computer screen, Mio let out a lazy yawn. It was eleven at night now—time to get some sleep.
Only, Mashiro still hadn't come over. Did that mean she was still drawing?
Puzzled, Mio got up, left her room, and went to stand outside Mashiro's door.
She gave the door a light knock, and heard some faint rustling sounds from inside.
After a good while, Mashiro's voice finally came. "Come in."
Pushing the door open and stepping into Mashiro's room, Mio immediately spotted Mashiro seated at her computer. She looked no different than usual, and yet Mio couldn't shake the feeling that something was a little off.
"Oh, right—how come I don't see Rita around?"
"Rita, she went next door to sleep."
"I see." A flicker of puzzlement crossed Mio's eyes. Rita had been going over to Chihiro's place to stay a lot these past few days. She'd been perfectly settled in here before—so why go next door?
It was a bit strange, but Mio didn't dwell on it. She just said to Mashiro, "You should get ready for bed too."
"Okay."
Mashiro nodded obediently. Once Mio had left, she pulled a manga out from under her pillow.
Rather than a manga, it would be more accurate to call it an erotic doujinshi.
That's right—what Mashiro held was the study materials Rita had specially prepared for her.
There were other, better study materials out there, but Rita knew Mashiro loved reading manga, which was why she'd chosen doujinshi as the study materials.
Every position, every type, every kind of play imaginable—it had them all.
Rita had actually been a little torn at first over whether to hand these study materials to Mashiro. That was until she saw Yukinoshita Haruno.
Faced with a rival on Haruno's level, Rita realized that if Mashiro didn't act soon, she might never get the chance later on.
To keep that from happening, she'd ultimately decided to give Mashiro the study materials after all.
After finishing the last few pages, Mashiro carefully tucked the study materials away into her little drawer. She was starting to get a vague idea now of how that sort of thing was done.
But it still wasn't enough—and there just wasn't much time left tonight, so she'd have to wait until tomorrow to keep reading.
Over in her own room, Mio was messing around on her phone when she heard the door open and instinctively looked toward the entrance.
There she saw Mashiro walk in, dressed in her pajamas.
At the sight of Mashiro, Mio plugged her phone into the charger and said, "Mashiro, you're finally here. Any later and I might've fallen asleep first."
Looking at Mio lying on the bed, the scenes from those study materials suddenly surfaced in Mashiro's mind.
By now, Mio had long since grown used to being watched by Mashiro. This time, though, for some reason she got the feeling there was something a little dangerous in the way Mashiro was looking at her.
Mio asked, cautiously, "Mashiro, you... aren't you going to sleep?"
"I am!"
As much as she wanted to try out those things from the study materials with Mio, Rita had said that sort of thing wasn't to be done carelessly—the mood had to be built up just right first.
As for how exactly to build up the mood, Mashiro didn't really understand. She'd just have to go ask Rita about it tomorrow.
Lying down beside Mio, breathing in the scent that was uniquely Mio's, Mashiro soon drifted off into dreamland.
Mio, who'd been a little worried at first, quietly let out a breath once she saw Mashiro fall asleep.
As expected, someone as innocent as Mashiro wasn't likely to be thinking about anything like that. It had probably all just been her imagination.
Already a little drowsy to begin with, Mio too slipped into dreamland not long after she relaxed.
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