Genocide Online
Chapter 158 – Ichijouji Reina’s Daily Life – eight
“Reina!” Mai shouted as soon as I left the mansion grounds. She and Yuuki seemed to be waiting for me in front of the mansion’s gates… That was quite surprising, “Do you wanna walk to school together?” She asked.
“I don’t mind it.” I answered. Immediately after I said that, she quickly moved to my side and hugged my arm as we started walking.
After a small while of silence though, Mai said, “Uhn… Reina.”
“What is it?” I asked her.
“Well… Is anything troubling you?” She asked back.
“Were you worrying about me?” I asked her while stroking her head. I wonder if I was behaving in a suspicious way these days? Or perhaps… She noticed something when we met up with the twins online? It’s not impossible…
Mai made some strange noises instead of answering my question, so I figured I’d answer hers, “Well, right now things are…” Never mind that, she looks really strange right now, “Are you okay?” I ended up cutting my reply short to ask that.
“E-eh!?” She replied while making a very weird expression. She seemed to be kinda out of it, so I stopped stroking her head in order to look at her properly… She kept on staring at my hand that left her head just now, what’s happening here? Is she too sleepy or something? “I-I-I-I-I’m okay! No problems here!” She then said.
“I see…?” Was my reply. It was a bit obvious that she was hiding something though, and she kept on staring at my hand… Maybe she didn’t like me caressing her head much?
Then, Yuuki suddenly started laughing, “What are you laughing at, Oda!?” Mai shouted at him.
“Well, it’s just…” He tried replying, but he couldn’t stop laughing, so he couldn’t make a coherent sentence.
“Stop laughing!” Mai screamed. Seems like their usual shenanigans are starting again. The day has barely started and we’re already going through this ‘ordinary’ event. It’s not a bad feeling.
“B-but your expression is so…” Yuuki tried to say something, but he still couldn’t stop laughing, so he was unable to finish it.
“It’s not that weird!” Mai shouted at him.
“Yeah, no, not, just… Well, try not showing it to other people much?” Yuuki managed to finish his sentence this time… And then he also used his hands to pull his cheeks and make a weird expression of his own.
“You little… I’ll show you!” Mai then started trying to grab his hands to make him stop with the strange expression, but he wasn’t letting her get too close, so she wasn’t able to get rid of his grimace… His height advantage must be really troubling Mai right now.
“I’m feeling sorry for you, so I’ll give you some milk on lunch break to compensate.” Yuu told her while holding back his laughter.
“Don’t you dare!” Maria exclaimed.
“Yeah yeah, I definitely won’t.” Yuu said while giggling.
Maria’s struggle made me remember my recent bout with the Perverted Gentleman. I’m not strong enough to win against him on raw strength, but Inoue’s help is usually more than enough to compensate for that. I wonder why I wasn’t able to overpower him at that time…
As I thought of that though, I suddenly heard a voice I knew say, ‘Ah…’ turning around towards it, I ended up seeing Hannes and his friends looking at me, Yuuki and Maria, “Good morning.” I told them.
Hannes seemed to be a bit frozen in place, but his friend, Kellin, started laughing… I wonder what caused that. Is it ‘normal’ for a friend to just start laughing out of nowhere like that?
“Come on, you wanna tell her something, right?” Eleanor said to Hannes, who after a small while, started walking towards me.
“Do you want to tell me something, Hannes?” I asked him.
“Don’t call me like that when we’re not in the game…” He replied.
“Oh, right… Then, Masaki?” I said. I’m more used to their game names, so it’s a bit hard to remember to use their actual names when we’re not playing… I should be more careful with this.
“Well, it’s fine. Come with me a bit, I gotta clear some debts with you.” He told me.
“… Is this some form of extortion?” I asked.
“I-it’s nothing like that!” He hastily replied. It seemed to be fine, so I following him to an alley. Masaki’s friends seemed to be anxious about something, while Yuuki and Mai still seemed to be doing their usual thing, “Well, uhn… You see…”
“What is it?” I asked him, who didn’t seem to be saying anything. He also kept avoiding my gaze and looking everywhere else instead, so he seemed a bit suspicious.
“I mean, uhn… You okay?” He asked me.
“Where did this come from?” I asked him back.
“I mean, you were attacked…” He then said.
“Oh, you mean the thing at Belzenstock? I’m fine… Were you worried about that?” I replied. It was a bit surprising to hear him say this kind of thing.
“D-d-don’t get cocky! I was just worried if someone other than me was able to kill you!” He hastily replied… So this was all my misunderstanding? For some reason it reminded me of the ‘tsundere’ characters that mom liked. It had something to do with how they kept making excuses for their actions. I didn’t quite understand what this ‘tsundere’ meant, but Masaki’s current behavior felt similar to it, “Don’t go thinking that I’m trying to get close to you or anything!” He then said.
“So… You don’t like being with me? Even though we already ‘played’ quite a bit together?” I asked him while tilting my head. For some reason he seemed to be frozen with his mouth open for a few seconds after I said that though.
“I-I hate you!” He replied after a small while.
“Such a shame, I like you after all.” I told him.
“H-h-hey! J-j-just wait for me! I’ll get you tomorrow on the event!” He replied. To think the event was tomorrow already, I must have missed the e-mail from the development team, “And don’t you try to run away!” He then said.
“Of course I won’t. Let’s ‘play’ again.” I told him, and after we promised to ‘play’ on tomorrow’s event, he went back to his friends… He is quite the fun person.
As I walked towards Yuuki and Mai though, I could overhear some of Masaki’s conversation, “Well, uhn…” Masaki said.
Kenji then started laughing, “You really can’t be honest, can you!?”
“Shut up…” Masaki replied.
“Well, at least she agreed to it.” Nozomi said.
“Yeah, congratulations, Masaki.” Sakura told him.
“You really don’t hold back, do you…?” Masaki said while dragging his feet away. I couldn’t overhear them anymore after this.
After reuniting with Yuuki and Mai, I was surprised that they were still at it, but I suppose that’s just like them.
