I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

That's why, after several dates, Yukino suddenly disappeared without a trace, pushing the stage to the brink and forcing herself and him to tear away all pretense and wishful thinking to pursue the 'real thing' they wanted.

She was prepared to either lose everything or change everything.

"Truly remarkable." That was all Yuu Tenkuji could say. "Perhaps it was because you gave me this answer that I was able to fully understand my own feelings at the last moment."

From the vacation home to the train ride home, from her deleting all my contact information to our arranged date at the amusement park.

Yuu Tenkuji looked at himself, focused on making a beaded bracelet, and saw the resolute light flashing in his eyes, as if he no longer had any lingering affection. He quietly clenched his fist.

"Yukinoshita, you are my first love."

The young woman turned her head and quietly gazed at his focused and gentle profile.

"Because it was my first love, I didn't know what the right choice was."

"Because it was my first love, I wanted to make every detail as perfect as possible."

"Because it was my first love... when the time came to say goodbye, I didn't have the courage to promise to change everything. I could only make what I thought was a strong and dashing decision, like a patient on the verge of death."

Looking back, all I can see is how immature I was.

But Yuu Tenkuji doesn't dislike that version of herself.

He turned his head and met the eyes of Yukinoshita Haruno beside him.

"I'm sorry, I told a lot of lies back then."

To avoid worrying her and to let her forget herself in happiness, Yuu Tenkuji ultimately bid farewell to her first love with a lie.

Looking at his own struggle from a third-person perspective, he found it somewhat amusing, yet couldn't help but admire that cowardly fellow.

—After all, he simply doesn't have the courage to give up what he loves right now, does he?

"I know, and I can tell, that you did it not voluntarily."

Unexpectedly, Yukinoshita Haruno answered very decisively.

She saw all of his struggles and pain, and how pathetic he looked as he forced a smile, so naturally she couldn't bring herself to say anything to blame him.

"Little Youyou, you've done more than enough!"

So she declared so resolutely, and then held his head to her chest, gently comforting him.

"At least before saying goodbye to you, I had never thought the future was as rosy and full of happiness as I did that day."

"Thank you... for working so hard for me all this time."

The scene shifts to an amusement park where fireworks are in full bloom.

With bright fireworks exploding around him, Tenkuji Yu buried his head in her fragrance and softness, his slightly lonely expression quickly turning into helplessness and a bitter smile.

"What an unexpected girlish heart, Haruno-neechan."

Yukino Yukinoshita hummed proudly twice: "Of course, you're a girl in body and soul, aren't you?"

Tenkuji Yu straightened up again, grasped her warm and delicate hand, and watched with her the two people running under the night sky.

Without saying another word, they simply watched quietly as the moment of parting approached.

As expected, the bracelet shattered, and the beads scattered at Yukino's feet. She instinctively bent down to pick them up, but her fingers slipped through the cheap beads.

After standing there stunned for a while, she muttered helplessly and dejectedly the words she had just heard: "I'll make another one for you tomorrow, as a way to commemorate our relationship moving to the next stage..."

Then, still full of resentment, she continued, "Tch, not to mention that I won't remember anything tomorrow, our relationship is moving to the next stage, does that mean we're going back to square one? What a word game, huh? Tokyoites are all liars after all..."

Yuu Tenkuji didn't want to just sit there and take the blame; he had to at least drag the culprit down with him.

"There's nothing I can do. The system has sealed my mouth, and I don't have the power to prevent it from erasing your memories. That's all I can say for now."

He made a lot of sense, but as the most willful girl in the world, Yukinoshita Haruno chose to ignore his reasoning and relentlessly pursued him with puffed-up cheeks.

"Then why did you just leave me in the hotel and walk away? Did you take advantage of the fact that I would lose my memory the next day and just walk away without doing anything? Do you know that every time I think about this, my dignity as a woman suffers a severe blow!"

Tenkuji Yu's cheek twitched; he had already seen through her plan to make a scene in this warm yet melancholic atmosphere. He wanted to remain silent and pretend he hadn't heard, but he couldn't help but loudly defend his innocent self:

"It would be terrible if I did it! Why should I be blamed for cherishing and liking someone?"

Yukinoshita Haruno glared back defiantly, her tone like a flame in ice, calm yet filled with a burning anger.

"Why should I? Because at least before I lost my memory, I was still your girlfriend!"

"A girl takes her boyfriend to a hotel, they've even showered, and she's all ready for a romantic first time. But when she comes out of the bathroom, she finds that her boyfriend has disappeared, saying he's going to buy something, and he's left her alone in bed all night—anyone who hears this will point their finger at you and call you a scumbag! A virgin! Impotent!"

“Yang…” Tenkuji Yu was speechless, subconsciously taking a half step back, then gritting her teeth and pretending to be strong, she said, “Didn’t we all say there was no other way? You should understand my situation back then. I was so heartbroken and in so much pain, I was practically crying as I said goodbye to you. How could I possibly be in the mood to do anything with you?!”

"Besides, do I look like the kind of guy who'd have casual sex after a breakup?"

"Huh?" Yukinoshita Haruno's eyes narrowed, her true intentions revealed. "Then why did you sleep with Yukino?"

Tenkuji Yu blinked in surprise: "Huh? What...what did you do?"

"Of course it's that kind of thing between lovers." With a questioning gaze fixed on his face, Yukinoshita Haruno crossed her arms and snorted coldly, "You haven't remembered how you dated Yukino, have you? Well, when you do, I'll settle all the scores with you from beginning to end!"

With a cruel sneer, she lightly ran her fingers through her soft, highlighted curls: "Hmph, depending on the situation, I might tie Yukino to a chair and make her watch us have our first time."

Her expression was already shocked enough, but after hearing what she said, Tenkuji Yu slapped herself on the face, muttering a mix of pain and helplessness:

"No, are you settling scores with me or with your sister...?"

"Let's calculate it together, after all, back then you'd be tied to the bed by me."

"Don't say such a smug thing in such a disgusting tone..."

Just as their conversation was drifting further and further away, becoming increasingly adult-oriented...

The young man, leaving the hotel alone, walked forlornly towards the station. In the shadows where no one could see him, his face contorted with a pained expression, as if he wanted to cry but couldn't. He suppressed his emotions and spoke calmly:

"Task settlement".

The moment the words left his lips, the world was shrouded in a deathly gray silence.

Apart from the two 'ghosts' standing aside, watching everything with wide eyes, everything that could move—the clouds, time itself, the breeze—ceased to a standstill at that moment.

Until the deep black light swept across, pulling the entire world, including the boy, into an invisible abyss.

Yuuki Tenkuji held Yukinoshita's hand tightly. When she came to her senses, she found herself standing in a desolate, ruined world where nothing existed.

"here it is……"

Chapter 172 It Begins with a Lie, It Ends with a Lie, Until the Two Obtain the Real Item

Yukinoshita blinked, seemingly doubting whether there was something wrong with her eyes.

After all, after the entire world was magically tinged with gray and then completely paused, in the blink of an eye, they found themselves in a strange space that was less desolate and more filled with words like 'despair' and 'emptiness'.

With just one glance, a chilling loneliness that seeps into your bones greets you.

The gray ruins spread out like a chessboard before my eyes, and strange particles like debris floated in the air: the sky was dim and dark, its color even deeper than that of an overcast day, yet it was still some distance from night.

Like a city that has been rebuilt and then completely destroyed, stripped of all life, it stands there lifelessly.

Yukino Yukino was speechless for a long time until the boy in front of her looked around in astonishment. Only then did she come to her senses and look at her younger lover beside her.

Where am I?

"Something like the system space?" With her memories synchronized with her past self, the current Tenkuji Yu was seeing this world for the first time, but she quickly calmed down. "'I' just mentioned 'mission settlement,' which means there's a settlement process after completing a mission… It should be done here."

"I see..." Yukinoshita Haruno nodded as if in realization, then tilted her head and asked him, "What does the mission mean? Does the system issue a mission to make me fall in love with you, and now that it has accomplished its mission, it will erase my memory while giving you the reward?"

With just a few clues, she could guess the truth with remarkable accuracy—no wonder she's his girlfriend.

Tenkuji Yu was deeply impressed, and then, under her seemingly calm but subtly stern gaze, he helplessly shrugged and explained.

"The system gave me only one task—to become Yukino Yukinoshita's rented boyfriend and fulfill her wish. Falling in love with you along the way and becoming your true lover are all my own choices."

“I don’t want to erase your memories either, but until now, I haven’t been able to protest against the system’s rules.”

After saying that, he sighed, revealing the same gloomy expression as the boy in front of him.

Yang Nai's expression immediately softened. She tiptoed and gently touched his head. The discomfort she had felt earlier had vanished, replaced by a heart full of pity.

"After all, your superpowers were given to you by the system... As an ordinary high school student, you've already done enough, Xiaoyou."

Tenkuji Yu was somewhat uncomfortable being treated like a child, but he couldn't easily avoid it, so he could only let her touch him more and more enthusiastically, while he turned his gaze to the person in the center of the field who was talking to the system.

His memories are being unlocked with every word and action of the boy.

"Task settlement begins."

The system announced this on its own.

Then the screen lit up, showing everything that Yuuto Tenkuji and Haruno Yukinoshita had experienced, played back in slideshow format.

The boy sat there, like a snail without its shell or a warrior without its armor, and as various fragments of memories flashed by, he muttered to himself with a blank smile.

Watching this scene side by side with his girlfriend, Yuu Tenkuji couldn't help but feel his ears burning, as if his vulnerable side had been brutally exposed.

He couldn't help but defend himself: "I'm not actually that sentimental. It's just that I was deeply deceived by that system back then. I always thought that after this mission was over, it would be goodbye forever, and I felt hopeless and confused about the future..."

"Shut up, I'm watching carefully." Yukinoshita Haruno didn't turn her head, her gaze remaining focused and gentle on the muttering boy beside her, but she was utterly impolite to him. "Why are you in such a hurry to defend yourself? I'm not going to look down on you like that. Rather, I'd like to see you on the verge of tears a little longer, it's so different from your usual cool and collected self..."

Yuu Tenkuji was speechless, then felt a deep sadness: "...Is my girlfriend really this sadistic? She actually wants to see her boyfriend cry."

"Don't you think that's your most authentic, least pretentious self? A side of you I've never seen before," Yukino Yukinoshita said softly, with a faint smile in her voice. "Since we met, you've seen my ugliness and helplessness countless times. Now it's just a matter of switching sides, so stop complaining so much."

As she said this, she gripped Tenkuji Yu's hand slightly tighter, passing on her warmth.

"...Okay, just don't tell anyone after you've read it."

No longer clinging to that pointless pride, Tenkuji Yu sighed and faced her own weakness with equanimity.

Yukino Yukinoshita said lightly, "I can't guarantee that~ It depends on your future performance."

"Hey……"

At this point, the system finally finished playing the flashback scenes and announced that the settlement was complete.

The boy, who was only about four months younger than him but looked much more immature, finally calmed down.

He asked the system a few questions, and when he mentioned that the "Five Light Orbs" could grant any wish, Yukinoshita Haruno turned around in surprise: "Five Light Orbs? That means..."

“Hmm, it must be you guys.” Tenkuji Yu was equally surprised, but since she knew much more than her, she quickly deduced the answer herself, “It’s because after the five light orbs were collected, the system thought I would wish for it to disappear completely, so it decided to take a desperate gamble and create this final trial, right?”

"If that's really the case, then you've exceeded the system's requirements... If getting a girlfriend can earn you a Light Jade."

As Yukino Yukino casually remarked, she heard the boy questioning the system again, and the pain of her dying struggle wiped the smile off her face.