I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

"It wasn't me who did it, don't blame me for things happening in parallel universes... I was just thinking, you're not actually falling for me, are you? You want to go on a date with me to the amusement park and ride the Ferris wheel again, right?"

"Don't flatter yourself, I haven't stooped that low yet."

Kasumigaoka Utaha waved her hand dismissively. Judging from her unhurried and unpretentious attitude, she really hadn't fallen for him yet.

Even if someone takes off their clothes in a fit of pique, it's just an impulsive act of venting their resentment... right?

Before Tenkuji Yu could even relax a little, Kasumigaoka Utaha rested her chin on her hand, her captivating ruby-like eyes slightly narrowed, and gazed at him with a beaming smile.

"Although I don't know if that day will ever come, what if I really, unfortunately, and painfully fall in love with you?"

“I’ll let you know, Yoyo-kun.”

"By that time..."

Seeing his slightly frozen expression, she said in a light, ambiguous voice, "If you dare to refuse, I'll drag you off the building with me. How about we recreate the classic?"

"..."

Even though he was in his own room, facing the girl sitting casually on his bed, Yuu Tenkuji could only remain speechless.

—Senior, you can't just carve these classics!

Chapter 135 You're overthinking it, Miss Shiyu

Let's turn back time a little.

As Kasumigaoka Utaha walked briskly through the Black Lily Academy, she had just made a promise when a figure backlit by the light swooped down like a bomber.

Before she could react, the wireless earphone hidden in her hair was precisely snatched away by a bird's beak and flew into the blue sky.

"What is that?!"

Kasumigaoka Utaha suddenly stopped in her tracks, covered half of her ear in astonishment, and looked up at the sky—she was only wearing one earphone, and although it was now gone, thankfully, she wasn't missing a piece of flesh from her ear.

She quickly realized that the other party's only target was her earphones.

Under the bright morning sunlight, the murderer who had stolen her earphones circled in mid-air, as if waiting for her to catch up, and did not fly out of her sight for a long time.

Kasumigaoka Utaha squinted, barely managing to make out the petite, lithe, golden figure through the scattered sunlight.

"This is... a canary?"

She suddenly realized: "You must be Asuna Yuuki?"

The canary didn't answer her, perhaps because it couldn't because it had the earphones in its beak—after she finished speaking, it turned and flew away.

It wasn't fast, otherwise it would have already disappeared while Kasumigaoka Utaha was still in a daze.

"Should I follow?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha hesitated for a long time, glanced in the direction of the school gate, and finally decided to follow the canary that looked like Yuuki Asuna.

Only after confirming that the other party intended to lure her into the fencing club did she feel a little relieved and loosen her grip on the teddy bear toy in front of her chest.

This is probably not a trap, but rather something they want to tell me but can't say directly, so they use this method to notify me.

Besides, Asuna Yuuki is Yuu Tenkuji's girlfriend, and she had discussed with "herself" in her notebook how to get into the trial space to help—it's much safer than Itoko, who just joined her side, right?

With a touch of nervousness, Kasumigaoka Utaha watched Canary fly into the half-open clubhouse door. Instead of following her in immediately, she slowed her pace and cautiously pushed the door open to peek inside.

"Excuse me..."

The large clubroom was filled with various fencing-related equipment and facilities in the corners, and the floor was covered with green mats. A faint, stuffy smell lingered in the air.

The lights were off, and the curtains were all drawn. Only the morning light filtering through the curtains and a corner of light from outside the door illuminated the dim interior.

The canary was flapping its wings in the center of the classroom, its headphones on the ground, seemingly calling for Kasumigaoka Utaha to come and pick them up.

She pursed her dry lips and took a deep breath of cold air.

Then, without slippers, she stepped directly onto the soft cushion and closed the door behind her.

Ka!

A barely perceptible sound of a lock being put on caused Kasumigaoka Utaha to pause in surprise and turn around abruptly.

—The door is locked?!

Before she could rush over to press the doorknob to verify her guess, a bright light shone from behind and hit her cheek.

Kasumigaoka Utaha turned her gaze back to the center of the classroom, and once again froze upon seeing the scene before her.

"you……"

The canary disappeared, and in its place appeared a beautiful girl with long flaxen hair.

She picked up the earphones from the ground, smiled apologetically, and handed them to her, saying, "I'm sorry, the situation forced me to bring you here this way."

Kasumigaoka Utaha took the earphones, frowned, and asked, "Yuuki Asuna... why are you appearing at this time? And how did you transform from a bird into a human?"

"That's a long story." Asuna Yuuki gave a wry smile, seemingly calculating the time in her mind. After a slight pause, she spoke, "First of all, haven't you recalled your memories from before you came into this world?"

"What's wrong now?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha could sense that the other person was like a husband who was having an affair while on a date with his wife. He didn't do much before getting straight to the point, and his attitude was noticeably impatient.

Does her transformation have a time limit, and when the time is up, something flashes red light on her chest?

"It's just a confirmation. The most important thing is Yu-kun. You haven't regained your memories... so there shouldn't be any problems."

Asuna Yuuki shook her head: "But it seems you've also gathered quite a bit of information. Even if this is our 'first meeting,' we don't really need to introduce ourselves, right?"

Kasumigaoka Shi** felt that she was saying that she was just a harmless minor character, but now was not the time to over-interpret.

"Indeed, let's skip the pleasantries and just tell me the information from your side."

"You've really helped me a lot by getting into character so quickly." Asuna Yuuki breathed a sigh of relief, then her expression turned serious. "Because of a certain rule in this world, we appear in different ways at different times—we retain our memories when we're in animal form, but we lose them when we're in human form. And if we go to find Yuuki in animal form, we'll disappear from this world the next day."

"The next day... why are you still here?" Kasumigaoka Utaha remembered that Tenkuji Yu had said that Canary had approached him during his morning run yesterday, but had been scared away by Itoko.

“Someone helped us and bought us some time.” Asuna Yuuki pulled a piece of paper from her mouth and looked intently at Kasumigaoka Utaha. “She said that she is Kasumigaoka Utaha from another timeline, and she has come to pledge her loyalty.”

Kasumigaoka Utaha took the note blankly, and after a long while, she belatedly opened her mouth wide and shouted incredulously, "Huh?! A... a pledge of allegiance?"

“Yes.” Asuna Yuuki smiled somewhat awkwardly, her gaze sweeping over the girl before her with a complex expression. She briefly read the contents of the note: “‘I can sacrifice my last bit of strength to open a back door for you, allowing you to reunite with him sooner and suffer less—the price is that if he ever decides to make a move on him, you can turn a blind eye and pretend you didn’t see it. It’s just a matter of having one more person in the harem; the scheming can wait until when choosing the main wife. If you go back on your word, I curse you.’”

"..."

As soon as she finished speaking, Kasumigaoka Utaha fell into complete silence. Her slender shoulders trembled slightly, and she clenched the paper in her hand tighter and tighter until it was almost crumpled into a ball.

She was screaming in her heart.

—That awful other me, stop 'thinking' about others like that so casually!

I'm not you. I haven't even met the prerequisite of liking him, let alone becoming one of his girlfriends. What's the point of you helping me get in touch with him without my consent?

Why can't you just disappear altogether?!

It was like this during the Heavenly Voice event, and it's like this now during the note event. How much of your power do you still have left to use?!

"call……"

Not knowing whether to feel ashamed or angry, she felt her ears and cheeks burning hot, and even deep breaths couldn't calm the heat lingering in her chest. She could only force herself to calm down.

However, Asuna Yuuki, who was standing in front of her, had already seen through the subtle changes in her expression.

As if she had realized something, she sighed helplessly, and a sharp glint of malice flashed in her eyes—once everyone else knew about this, he would be pinned down on the sofa and given a good dressing down, right?

Of course, this is on the premise that we can successfully overcome the current difficulties.

"...I roughly understand the reason."

The crumpled note in her hand had disappeared without her noticing. Kasumigaoka Utaha gathered her long hair behind her back and said to Yuuki Asuna nonchalantly, "So, that guy gave you a strategy guide and some other information he wanted to give us?"

"It's mainly you guys. We can't do anything else besides relaying messages."

Asuna Yuuki said in a deep voice, "You probably know this too, right? To avoid the system's surveillance, we have to talk in a closed space like this. So please tell Yu-kun what I'm about to say in a room... cough, a classroom or something with the doors and windows closed, so the system won't hear it."

Kasumigaoka Utaha glanced at her speechlessly.

This guy is already on guard against me now... Does he really think that the two of them will spark something if they have a conversation in the room?

If I had more time, I really wanted to tell her about what happened in her memories, to see if she would still think she liked that womanizer...

"First, please find us as quickly as possible in the next cycle, whether in animal or human form. Natsukawa-kun should be able to tell him how to restore us. Before that, do not explore Toyosaki Academy. We must wait until we have all gathered together."

Kasumigaoka Utaha frowned slightly. She had many questions she wanted to ask, but she chose not to interrupt her because of her serious gaze.

"Secondly, before our memories were altered and we were transported into this world, we met the girl next to Yu-kun once—she should be someone with a very close relationship with the system, and she is a very high threat and danger to us. Yesterday, when I tried to approach Yu-kun, I felt that I would be shot down on the spot, so I flew away without doing anything."

"I don't know what role she plays in this world, but in short, please don't let your guard down around that girl."

After speaking, Asuna Yuuki suddenly paused, then sighed with some regret: "Is it time...? Although I've said everything I needed to say, I still feel like something's not quite right. Is this a side effect of being a kept woman for too long?"

"It's just that the wrong person was notified, right?" Kasumigaoka Utaha crossed her arms, pondering what she had just said, and casually remarked, "If I were him, I could give him a farewell kiss right now."

Asuna Yuuki gave a wry smile: "I won't do that. After all, I haven't recalled my memories of dating him yet."

"You wouldn't do that, but someone else would, right? Maybe they're already passionately kissing each other right now."

"...No, that can't be, right?"

Asuna Yuuki's face froze instantly, as if she had imagined something ominous. Her eyes involuntarily glanced towards the door, and she felt an urge to rush out and stop someone.

However, there wasn't much time left, and she couldn't do that anymore.

There's no other way but to trust Natsukawa Masuzu's integrity...

For the first time, Asuna Yuuki realized that she was surprisingly lacking in the ability to trust others.

"Finally, please pass on a message to Yu-kun for me."

She looked at Kasumigaoka Utaha, setting aside any unnecessary thoughts, and smiled gently.

"We are all waiting for you to come back to us."

"I will work with you to get everything that belongs to us back."

The voice trailed off.

By the time Kasumigaoka Utaha came to her senses, she had vanished from the classroom like a wisp of smoke.

……

Yu's room at Tenkuji Temple.