NOVEL NEXT Chapter 21 – Her Greatest Challenge Yet
Gigachad Kangaroo vs Virgin Demons
(Source) https://metro.co.uk/2016/02/08/roger-the-buff-kangaroo-is-back-and-more-muscular-than-ever-5669058/
I'm sure as hell not messing with him and his hood ☠️
But in all seriousness, I did keep in mind Demons shrugging off normal military armaments. Yet I still wrote that scene, that's all I will say. Think what you will.
Edited: 17/8/22
Chapter 21 – Her Greatest Challenge Yet
A shadow hung over XYZ Highschool. Over the weekend, many students contracted a plague. When they returned, lessons seemed to drag on longer than usual as their eyelids struggled to remain open. They all suffered from the plague of Monday Blues, and only with the ringing of the school bell were they finally freed from their torment. Jumping out of their seats they quickly gathered in their little cliques to discuss the latest interesting topics.
Amidst the after-school unwinding, Hikari trudged into the student council room. Her eyes widened, wrinkling the dark circles around them when she spied a surprising scene. The council room was never the neatest, stacks of unfinished documents would pile up haphazardly as the council juggled Magical Girl duties with council work.
Those unending stacks were sorted neatly into labelled boxes. Only one person would do this. Hikari shook her head, this gave her more things to mull about. As if she did not rake her brain over that person enough.
“Good day.” Mai strolled in. Hanging her bag on the side of the table, she sighed contently, “It’s good to be back, constant night duty is tiring.”
“You’ve been busy,” Mai noted the boxes.
“No, it wasn’t m—”
Mai thumbed through several documents, with each paper, her countenance grew darker. Finally, she asked Hikari. “You could have waited for us to help with these. Did you really have to wear yourself out completing the urgent forms?”
“I didn’t do this, it’s Misaki-san.” Hikari straightened out the story. It warmed her heart to hear the hint of concern behind Mai’s accusatory tone.
“Oh. . . Sorry for assuming,” Mai apologised.
There was an awkward pause between them. Mai, wanting to gloss over her mistake, asked, “Why do you look so exhausted? Your eyebags are nearly as bad as last week.”
The last few days for Hikari, beginning from the encounter with Lust and her admission of her interest in Yui, suffice to say, were rough. The figure of Yui cemented itself even more into her mind, torturing her with uncertainty. Hikari struggled, she did not know if she even like Yui or if it was just because of the things they did when Yui was under the influence of the Lust mana. What if she confessed to Yui, would Yui reciprocate those feelings? If Yui accepted, what would she do? What if her parents disapproved? What if they cannot be together? What if. . .
“Ah! I see.” Mai made the connection after comparing Hikari back then and now. Suppressing the urge to smile, she said. “You should take care of yourself, Shirokana-senpai. I heard that always acquiescing to his demands would make him lose interest in you.”
“What are you talking about?” Hikari could not be more confused.
“Your new boyfriend, of course,” Mai said as a matter-of-fact, grilling her leader for more information. “You didn’t tell me much back then, I’ll get it out of you this time. Have you two kissed yet?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend!” Hikari protested but her overactive mind conspired against her. The memory she desperately wanted to bury surfaced.
. . . Yui slept. She approached. Leaning over, their lips overlapped. . .
“Kya~! You did!” Mai let out a girly squeal when she saw Hikari’s blush, destroying her elegant demeanour in the process. This Magical Girl truly loved her gossip, pushing further, “Did you have your first time?”
. . . Yui spread her legs apart, giving her a perfect view yet a cloth blocked everything. She watched transfixed at the display. When those slender dripping fingers were offered to her, she opened her mouth and allowed them in. . .
“Kyaa~! Kyaa~!” While usually the taciturn type, the steam rising off Hikari’s head caused Mai to have an uncontrollable silly grin.
The squeals snapped Hikari out of her memory. She made a mental note to change her table as it served as a constant reminder of what they did together, she would not be able to get any work done.
Mai opened her mouth to extract more information from Hikari when Keiko plodded in.
“. . . Good afternoon,” Keiko greeted the others with a yawn, looking every bit as exhausted as Hikari. She staggered over to her seat and plopped herself down, resting her head on the table.
Mai’s smile grew bigger when she drew parallels between Keiko’s and Hikari’s exhaustion. Even though she knew their reasons would be different, mischievousness bubbled within her. Unable to restrain herself, Mai did something she rarely did, she teased them, “Hara-senpai, were you up all night, like Shirokana-senpai, thinking about your new lover?”
“Mai-san! Do not make me repeat myself, I don’t have a love—” Hikari blustered. But her protest froze when Keiko, with her tired head cradled between her arms and her eyes shut, mumbled a sleepy yes.
.
.
.
“eh?”
“Kyaa~~!”
“Zzz”
Both displayed their astonishment in their own way. Unfortunately, Mai was denied her chance to interrogate Keiko when the door swung open again.
“Hey,” Aya greeted, tossing her bag into an empty chair. After sitting down, she kicked back, balancing on two legs with her arms behind her head.
“Imai-senpai, Imai-senpai, listen.” Unable to contain her excitement, Mai was bursting to tell Aya of her new discovery. “Shirokana-senpai and Hara-senpai go—”
Her words were cut short by Hikari’s deadly stare, literally. Hikari had infused a tremendous amount of mana into her glare in preparation to shoot a laser beam from her eyes if she spoke further.
“Oh, I see, that’s good.” Aya nodded along not even paying attention to the conversation, her mind clearly somewhere else.
Hikari sighed as she looked at her squad of Magical Girls, Keiko sprawled over the desk, Aya brooded over something, and Mai visibly deflated from the lack of interest Aya showed. It had been nearly a week since the four of them gathered together, not since the big battle against the Witches of Hate and Envy. She certainly did not expect their long-awaited meeting to be like this, but at least they were together again.
They were supposed to complete the leftover council work today. But since a certain someone had already finished it for them and with nothing pressing at the moment, Hikari decided to initiate some small talk, relaxing the mood and catching up with her friends.
Her primary conversation partner turned out to be Mai, who snapped out of her pity party, Aya and Keiko were clearly not in their conversational mode. Because of Mai, Hikari took great care to steer the conversation away from anything about love. Their topics ranged from the new trainee teachers that would arrive next week, to Dr. Lilian’s new dyed hair, to the recent lack of Demons in the area, whatever struck their fancy.
Hikari could not remember the last time they had just spent some downtime together. It could be argued that neither Keiko nor Aya were chilling together with them. As Keiko drifted between waking and dreaming, Aya occasionally chimed in with a useless uh-huh not following the conversation at all. Still, it was the thought that counts.
The topic drifted over to Lust with Mai voicing her usual disgust for Lust. At the mention of Lust, Aya perked up, she had some important information that could turn the tides in their favour. “About Lust, I believe she’s a student in our sch—”
Before she could continue any further, she noticed Hikari giving her an almost imperceptible shake of the head, then nudging it in Mai’s direction. Aya got the hint, telling Mai now would be counterproductive, especially when there was a possibility of it being incorrect. What would happen if Mai hunted the wrong person, Aya did not want to think about the possibility.
“What about Lust?” Mai asked, curious about anything related to her hated Witch.
“Ahem, speaking of Lust—” Hikari tried to divert Mai’s attention but a knock interrupted her. The door opened to reveal the devil herself.
Even after all this time, Hikari was not prepared. Her entire body froze when Yui stepped in. Keiko, however, had an entirely different response. Sitting straight up, joy radiated off her face as a wide smile found its way upon it. Her tiredness was a thing of the past and if she had a tail, it would be wagging.
Thankfully, no one noticed their bizarreness, their attention was directed to the newcomer. Mai and Aya greeted Yui calmly and asked why Yui had come. Yui held up several sheets of paper, each filled with names and signatures. “I’m here to ask if you could endorse me to be the next student council president. If the current council gives their support, it’ll be extremely beneficial for my campaign.”
Upon hearing Yui’s request, Keiko gave her approval immediately. Mai and Aya, however, were not so decisive, taking some time to decide.
“Ya did help us a lot and the work ya did was good.” Aya considered, “I guess it’s fine if it’s ya. Yay, I don’t need to run for pres anymore.”
“Eh, Aya-san, you’re withdrawing? Is that necessary?” Hikari asked. Do I want Yui as president? I don’t know.
“Yeah, the only reason I ran was ‘cause none of the other guys looked like they're good. If Misaki is running to be Pres, I don't need ta.” Aya explained.
“What about you, Shirokana-kaichou?” Yui sauntered closer to Hikari. As she lean over to place the paper on Hikari’s table, Yui tugged on her shirt in an attempt to fan herself, giving Hikari a brief glimpse of purple. “Going around collecting these is sweaty work.”
Hikari swallowed, facing away from the sight, lest lewd memories returned. “I-I h-have no problem vouching for you."
“Misaki-senpai, were you the one who organised the boxes?” Mai asked, getting a nod from Yui. “Then I have no reason to reject your request.”
"On that note, thank you for the help with the leftover documents.” Hikari bowed her head, keeping her eyes off Yui's breasts.
"No need to bow, Shirokana-kaichou, it's no problem at all," Yui said and pass out the paper for them to sign. The entire time as Yui moved about, Keiko was sneaking some peeks, though she did not dare to look straight into Yui’s eyes.
Aya, Hikari, and Mai signed their names easily enough. But when it came to Keiko, she wrote something extra before scratching it out once she was sure Yui read it. No one noticed the little interaction, except for another person who had been watching Yui’s every movement. Yui thanked them again before leaving.
-
Yui ducked into an unused classroom. In the background, she could hear the faint laughter and chatter from the various ongoing club activities. There was no human traffic in the area, all the clubs were on the lower floor. From the quiet corridor, the patter of hurried footsteps signalled the approach of a bubbly Keiko. A smile naturally tugged on her lips when Yui saw her little rabbit bouncing over in excitement.
But when Keiko was within arms reach, she came to a screeching halt. Shifting her weight between her legs, she did not dare to look up at Yui. It was like all her eagerness had been suddenly sucked out leaving her a nervous mess. The change from excitedly chasing after Yui to acting so docilely could only be described as very Keiko-like.
“How have you been?” Yui, ignoring Keiko’s bashfulness, reached out and patted her head. Keiko opened her mouth several times but kept silent in the end, enjoying the calming patting.
“Didn’t you want to give me something?” Yui asked. Keiko nodded her head, resulting in her hair being messed up by Yui’s hand. Yui combed through Keiko’s hair with her fingers, arranging them back before retracting her hand and allowing Keiko to speak.
Keiko took a deep breath. Once she psyched herself up, Keiko raised her head, looking straight at Yui. She might get brutally rejected for her misreading the situation but she still asked, “Would you see an exhibit with me? I managed to get the last day, I heard there’ll be a big ceremony.”
Time stood still, Keiko had her hand stretched out, two tickets clenched tight in them. Yui was a little surprised, she did not expect her little rabbit to be the one initiating a date. Only when a gust blew through and the door rattled, did time restart.
Yui saw expectation and hope glittering in Keiko’s clear eyes. After such a display of courage, how could Yui possibly refuse? Yui leaned over to the slightly shorter Keiko, taking a ticket and pecking her lips in the process. “Always.”
“Eep!” Keiko squeaked. Her hands covered her mouth to protect them from further sneak attacks.
I succeeded! I asked Misaki-san out! Misaki-san said yes! She could not believe it, her body trembled as her vision swirled and her ears turned red. It seemed like the whole room was swirling, heck, even the door trembled was trembling with her.
Without even saying goodbye Keiko skipped out of the room, leaving behind a Yui who was both amused and bemused at the same time as the footsteps became fainter.
-
The setting sun casts its crimson rays into the living room of the mansion. Scattered all over the table were research materials and pouring over them all was Yui. Four magazines levitated around her as she referred to them and scribbled down some notes.
“Is everyone ready?” Yui asked Miyu who popped her head in.
“They’re ready. Sebastian and Sofi have led the masks to their positions and the rest are standing by. We can head over to the meeting.” Miyu replied, taking in the war zone unfolded before her. “Onee-chan, Did something happen?”
“You could say that. I’ll tell you about it when we get back.” Yui massaged her temples and organised her research materials. She bought them from a convenience store on her way home, earning a strange gaze from the cashier in the process. She did not blame him, anyone would stare if they saw a person buy a copy of every single dating magazine in the shop.
When she asked Feeu out, no matter how confident she looked, the fear of screwing up the date outweighed everything else.
After all, this would be her first ever date, even for a fabled Witch of Lust, the thought gave her butterflies in her stomach. Yui had spent the weekend developing her magic tools to keep her mind off the upcoming date. But Keiko’s boldness inspired her, she no longer had an excuse. She needed to face her fears, especially after examining the exhibit ticket.
Everything on the ticket was ordinary except for the date which stood out to Yui.
Wednesday
The same day as Feeu’s date, what a dilemma. Yui contemplated rescheduling with Feeu, after all, Keiko had gone through the entire trouble of getting tickets for the last day. But it did not sit right with her. There was no logical reason to it, it just irked her somehow. And so she decided to just date them both.
Impossible? I’m the Witch of Lust! I’ll make it possible!
Like that Yui’s first date transformed into a double date.
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