...
After our date, I helped Nia get her room set up the way she wanted.
The next morning, I woke up to find an extra mop of hair in my bed, this one silver. Fortunately, I had used Helel some time ago to make my bed larger, so having four people on it wasn't impossible anymore.
As I stirred, so did the girls. Kurumi, clad in the same black nightgown she always wears, regained her senses first. "Morning, Issei-kun."
Natsumi, clad in dark green pajamas, let out a cute yawn. "Morning, Issei."
Nia, clad in only dark blue panties and a bra, groggily groaned. "Morning already? Let me go back to sleep, boy."
"Mornin'." I say to them all. "And Nia, either you get up with us, or miss breakfast."
She merely groans again. "Fine."
"Good, we need to get up early so Issei-kun and Natsumi-chan can have enough time for their day out." Kurumi says.
The green haired Spirit's face turns crimson as she remembers our plans. "Yup, now let's go you guys." I say, pulling myself from the mass of bodies and hair. I've got a girl to take out today!
—————
As Issei-kun prepared breakfast, I pulled Natsumi and Nia into another room.
"So what's this about, Kurumin?" Nia asks, having also taken to Issei's nickname for me. Though apparently, he got it from her in the light novel.
"I merely wanted to ask you both something." I say.
"What?" Natsumi asks, tilting her head.
"How do the two of you feel about Issei-kun?"
"Wha?" "Huh?" Both of them reel back in surprise.
"I just want to know how the both of you feel about him." I say simply. It's not hard to figure out they have feelings for him, but I want confirmation, from them.
Neither talks for a long while, until Natsumi decides to break the silence. "I... I really like Issei." She says, quietly, her face beet red. Nia looks at her with mixed emotions. "I didn't have a good life, many people telling me I was ugly. But Issei... he didn't just think I was beautiful, but cute as well..." She fidgets a bit, hesitating to continue speaking. "I admit, I was a bit surprised that he knew about me from the light novel in his world, but he didn't use that knowledge to take advantage of us. Instead he wanted to help us." She pauses again. "I... I care a lot about Issei. He helped me out a lot, so yeah, I guess I like him."
I look at her, a bit wide eyed. She spoke all of that from the heart... "What about you, Nia-san?" I ask the grey haired girl.
She merely lets out a long sigh. "I dunno how I feel about him." She says, rubbing her neck awkwardly. "He and you guys helped save me from those windbags a few days ago. He's a really nice guy that obviously cares a lot about us, despite only knowing us through a light novel..." She trails off. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that he's a fun guy to be around and I suppose I like him... kinda. I still don't really know."
"I see." I process all of this information for a moment, before coming to a conclusion. "Very well, then. You both have my blessing."
" "What?" " They both ask, in unison.
"Issei and I may be a couple, but I don't mind if you join." I say, leaving no room for misunderstanding.
"Y-You mean... like a harem?" Natsumi stutters.
"I mean... I guess that doesn't seem so bad..." Nia says, uncertainly. "Never thought I'd end up in some kinda harem situation, though..."
"Are you even sure he'd be fine with that?" The green haired Spirit asks.
"I don't see why not. He's let you sleep with us for a while now, and he didn't complain about Nia-san's presence this morning." I explain.
"...That's fine." Nia says.
Natsumi lets out a sigh. "I agree,"
"Good." I smile. "Natsumi-san should tell him how she feels on her date today." She tenses as I say this, becoming incredibly nervous.
"Nattsun." Nia says, calling the short Spirit by a nickname. She turns and looks at Nia. "You've got this."
"...Okay." She says quietly with a nod. "Thank you both."
Nia and I merely smile at her as we return to the dining room, awaiting breakfast.
—————
After finishing breakfast, Natsumi and I got ready for our date. She came out wearing her outfit from Ren Dystopia, interestingly enough. A black, longsleeved hoodie, adorned with stars. Gold ones along the collar, and white ones on the center. She also has on a yellow undershirt, held on the shoulders with straps. Beneath the oversized hoodie is a short black skirt, and below that are striped, black and white thighhighs. Her hair is tied into a low ponytail that rests on one of her shoulders, held with star harclips. On her feet are short, brown boots. All in all, she looks really fucking cute.
I'm wearing the same outfit from yesterday.
"Natsumi." I catch her attention. She's clearly super fucking nervous, due to her fidgeting. "You looks really cute."
"T-Thanks."
"Have fun you guys!" Nia shouts, without looking up from the table. She's began drawing again and hasn't stopped since after breakfast.
"Remember to take a break, you've lost a lot of muscle in you hands, Nia." I warn her.
"Oh don't worry, I'll be fine." She waves me off.
I merely shrug. "Be back before-" Kurumi begins to tease us, but I interrupt.
"Sunset. Don't worry about that." The time Spirit merely giggles. I motion towards the door with my head, as I look at Natsumi. She nods as we leave the house together.
—————
Not long after we arrive at our destination. "An arcade?" Natsumi asks.
"Well, seeing as how we've whooped each other's asses in Mortal Kombat, I figured we should try some new games and see what they've got here." I reason.
Natsumi smiles a cute smile as we enter. I look around and am surprised to see old arcade cabinets. One in particular catches my eye. "No way." I say, deadpan.
"What is it?" My date asks, as I walk over to... "A fucking Guilty Gear arcade cabinet! I knew the series was kinda old, but I never knew they made arcade cabinets!" That's right, plastered all over it is Guilty Gear.
"Guilty Gear?" She asks.
"A really good fighting game series which I, unfortunately, never played. But I did become a big fan after I binged the entire series' soundtracks for a month, without end." I explain, feeling giddy at the thought of us playing. "You up for it?" I ask.
Natsumi nods and grins competitively. The next hour and a half is a blur of kick-ass rock soundtracks and furious button mashing.
"My hands hurt." Natsumi says, as we stop playing.
"Mine are numb." I say. I look around and see a DDR machine. "We've tired out our hands, why not our feet next?" I ask, pointing to the dance machine.
"You're on!" She all but shouts. "I've always wanted to play one of these!'
I let out a bark of laughter. "Guess we've both gotten to play games today that we've wanted to for a while." I say with a smile as we go to the machine.
DDR was never a game I thought I'd play, or enjoy playing for that matter, but I did. Sounds cheesy, but maybe I enjoyed it was because I wasn't playing it alone? We don't spend too much time playing it, but both of us do pretty well. We ended up being pretty evenly matched.
—————
We both leave after a half and hour of dancing, both of us sweaty. "Say, you wanna grab a snack after that workout?" I ask, as we walk through the city.
"Sure." She smiles.
"Alright then, follow me. I've got a place in mind."
Nothing interesting happens on our walk. That is, until we near the place we're going. As I turn a corner, so does another person, who I promptly crash into.
"Ah!" "Whoa!" I, and another masculine voice, say as we crash into one another. Due to my Spirit body, I don't fall, but he does.
As he did, he dropped his bags of groceries. "Ah, sorry about that, man. Lemme help." I say, bagging the food for him.
"Ah, it's okay, I should've watched where I was going." He says.
"So should I. Let's call it both our faults, yeah?" I ask, as we both stand up.
"Fine by me." He says, as we both look at each other and I finally notice who I've run into. Blue hair, amber eyes.
What are the chances of me literally running into Shido Itsuka?
I hand the shorter guy his bags back. "I don't think anything broke, thankfully." I say.
"That's good." He says with a sigh of relief.
"Are you okay, Issei?" Natsumi asks from beside me.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I shrug her off.
"Onii-chan!" I hear a feminine voice cry nearby.
"Kotori?" Shido asks, turning around. I see a girl with long red hair, tied in twintails with white ribbons running up, with a few more bags.
"Geez, you should slow down next time, Onii-chan." She pouts at him.
He awkwardly chuckles. "Sorry, Kotori."
She notices us. "Hm? Did you make some friends, Onii-chan?"
"Er, no. We kinda ran into one another." He explains.
"Yeah. Thankfully, no one got hurt." I say, hoping to calm her.
"Well that's a relief. You need to be more careful, Onii-chan! And you as well!" She says pointing at both of us,
"Er, sure." I say, hesitantly.
Kotori then notices Natsumi. "Oh? Are you out with your sister, too?"
"HUH?!" Natsumi shouts, recoiling. "He's not my brother, he's my boyfriend!" She shouts.
"Eh? Really? But you look like you're my age!" Kotori says.
"Age is a fickle thing that often doesn't matter, so long as it doesn't get you jailed." Bit of a controversial take, I know it's gonna ruffle some feathers. "Besides, the two of us don't resemble siblings at all."
"Onii-chan and I don't look alike, yet we're siblings." Kotori points out.
"Fair enough." I shrug. "Anyways, sorry about running into you, man." I say to Shido. "I'm Sahashi Issei, nice to meet ya. This one is Natsumi." I hold out my hand while nodding my head towards Natsumi, to point her out.
"Oh!" He seems to realize what's going on as he takes my hand and shakes it. "I'm Itsuka Shido, and this is my little sister Kotori."
"Well, I'll let you both get back to doing what you were doing, see ya." I say as Natsumi and I begin to walk away.
"Yeah, see you." Shido says. He's a bit awkward, but even I can tell he's a nice guy.
"Be sure to say hi if you ever see us!" Kotori shouts, causing me to stop. "Onii-chan needs some friends!"
"Kotori!" He chastises.
I merely chuckle. "Will do." Natsumi and I begin walking once more as the siblings go the other way. "Well, I certainly didn't think I'd run into the protagonist today."
"Protagonist?" My green haired date asks.
"Of the light novel."
Her eyes widen as she seems to understand. "That was the Shido you were talking about?"
I merely nod. "His sister also is one of us and the head of the group that helps him to seal us in canon." Thankfully, since we both can control our power now, Kotori wasn't able to sense us.
"Her? Really?"
"Split personality, or something along those lines. But enough about them, we're here." I say, looking ahead at...
"Wasn't this the cafe you took me to when we met?" She asks.
I shrug. "I thought it'd be fitting." We both walk inside and have a lovely lunch. I'll really have to take Kurumi here sometime, she'd love it!
—————
After our food break, we continue walking around the city. Natsumi stops midway, looking at something.
"A doll shop?" I ask, as she stares at the dolls in the window. "You wanna go in?" I ask. Natsumi turns and looks away with a blush, yet nods all the same.
We go inside and find all sorts of dolls and stuffed animals. It's kinda weird, actually. At least, I think so, having never been to a place like this.
Natsumi and I look at the shelves of dolls for a while, until one catches her eye. A simple teddy bear. One, I should note, is the same color as my hair.
She stares at it for a while, but turns away. I don't let this go, though. "You like that one?" I ask. She blushes and shyly nods. "Well, let's get it, then."
Her head spins incredibly fast as it whirls around to have her wide eyes meet mine. "R-Really?"
"Yeah. C'mon, let's buy it."
—————
A few minutes later, Natsumi and I leave the store as she clutches the bear to her chest with one arm. "H-Hey, Issei?"
"Yeah?" I ask, looking down at her.
"Do you remember when we met those two earlier, and I said I was your g-g-girlfriend?" She asks with a fierce blush.
"Yeah."
"Would you mind if I was your girlfriend too?"
As she asks this, I stop moving and stare her in the eyes. "You like me?" I ask.
She smiles. "How could I not, after you helped me so much? After you've been so nice to me?"
I stay quiet. I had a hunch, but... "I..."
"I talked with Kurumi-san earlier. She knew I liked you and said it was fine for you to have a-a harem." She stutters out.
Okay I did not see this coming, but... I suppose I should have, huh?
"Natsumi." I say, walking to her, as I gather my thoughts. "I like you too." Her eyes light up as I say this. Hell, her whole face lights up in joy.
I bend down to the short girl and hug her gently. "I wouldn't mind you being my girlfriend as well."
"I-Issei..." She says, shakily.
I pull back and we stare at one another, both of our arms on the others' torso, as our faces end up drawing closer. Soon, they meet and we share a kiss.
After what seems like an hour, we part and stare at one another, neither of us able to hold back our smiles. Natsumi also wasn't able to hold back her tears, it seems.
I gently wipe her tears away with my hand as I stand straight again. "Shall we, girlfriend?" I ask, holding my hand out.
"Of course, boyfriend." She happily takes my hand, a massive grin on her face as she holds both my hand and the bear tightly.
"Thank you Issei."
"For what?"
"For making me happier than I've even been."
"...You're welcome, Natsumi."
We begin to walk home, slowly yet happily.
Hand in hand, all feels good with the world.
Though, I do see a flash of yellow in the corner of my vision as we walk...
Not that it matters right this moment.
—————
AN
I've been listening to nothing but Guilty Gear OST for weeks now and have no idea if there actually are Guilty Gear arcade cabinets, though there probably are.
I'm actually listening to X2's OST while writing this. Order Sol's theme is such a banger! (GET DOWN! GET DOWN!)
If you want to know what Natsumi's outfit looks like, you can see it at the top of the chapter in Wattpad.
Was the date fun to read? Now our protagonist has two girlfriends! How shocking! (not really)
Also, I bet no one was expecting Shido to show up here. It makes sense, we are in Tengu City, so there always was a chance, even if it was slim to none.
Next time, date with Kurumi? Or will Mayuri make her move? Who knows?
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and look forward to the next!