"Hayato-kun is already amazing! Yesterday, he couldn't do any of this at all."
"Right, Sis?"
After saying that, she sought outside support to make her argument more convincing.
"Well, I was a little harsh."
Seika looked extremely perfunctory during her break, turning her gaze elsewhere, but there was indeed a hint in her tone of speaking up for Ishikawa Hayato.
Nijika had long since gotten used to her sister's attitude and immediately turned to Ryo.
"Ryo, be gentler with him!"
Faced with these two consecutive blows, Ryo, who had just looked very satisfied with her own harsh critique, froze for a moment, blinked aggrievedly, then turned to Ishikawa Hayato.
"How could Nijika say that about Ryo?"
Unexpectedly, Ishikawa Hayato quickly walked over and stood in front of Ryo protectively.
"Eh, eh, eh!?"
Nijika foolishly checked everyone's expressions around her. She hadn't said anything wrong just now, right? She had been speaking up for Ishikawa Hayato, hadn't she?
"People need to keep enduring hardship to grow. Besides, perverts don't get hurt. A pervert's mental health bar is infinite!"
With an extremely proud tone, Ishikawa Hayato turned to Ryo.
"Please guide me with an even harsher attitude!"
Pervert?
Seika, standing to one side, was full of question marks after hearing Ishikawa Hayato's words. What had happened to this kid after he went out earlier?
Why did he suddenly seem like a completely different person?
She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
Then she perked up a little and paid closer attention to what was happening here.
Ryo pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket, wiping the tears of emotion from the corner of her eye with one hand while patting Ishikawa Hayato's shoulder with the other.
"Mm, very good. I'll make you the strongest keyboardist in all Japan."
Nijika felt exhausted. Was her band cursed or something? Ishikawa Hayato had been so normal when he first arrived, but now...
Weirdos, perverts...
What would come next?
Still, seeing that the two got along reasonably well, she breathed a sigh of relief. And it seemed Ishikawa Hayato would soon be able to play with them too. It felt like the band was gradually taking shape.
That was great.
Ishikawa Hayato stepped off the train and spotted Ishikawa Jinpei from far away as soon as he came out.
The two men of the Ishikawa family met each other's eyes from a distance before coming together.
Ishikawa Jinpei walked over with the air of a good brother, draping an arm around Ishikawa Hayato's shoulder.
"Yo, how's the harem coming along?"
Hearing the man's mocking tone, as though he were waiting to see him make a fool of himself, Ishikawa Hayato curled his lip disdainfully.
"Good evening, Dad. Today, a girl stared at me for a long time with an intense, profound gaze."
Ishikawa Hayato disdained lying. He only ever told the truth.
Kita Ikuyo really had stared at him—for a long time.
"Stared for a long time..."
Ishikawa Jinpei and Ishikawa Hayato left the station and headed home, their arm-in-arm silhouettes moving toward the lights of countless homes.
As he walked, the head of the Ishikawa family kept thinking, his brow slightly furrowed as he continuously listed various possibilities.
Ishikawa Hayato silently watched his dad. The guy's expression went from confusion, to tension, to panic, until even his hands began to tremble.
He didn't even need to think to know what was going through this man's head.
He spoke first.
"Your next line is, 'Go apologize! Go apologize at their house right now, before they call the police!'"
"Go apologize! Go apologize at their house right now, before they call the police!"
Ishikawa Jinpei said it half a beat slower than Ishikawa Hayato. Having had his line stolen, he wore the unfortunate expression of someone who had eaten a fly.
Ishikawa Hayato smiled smugly.
"At the next family meeting, I'll suggest to your mother that we cut your allowance."
Ishikawa Jinpei shamelessly used an outside tactic. The smug smile promptly shifted from Ishikawa Hayato's face to Ishikawa Jinpei's.
This father and son proved with facts that smiles did not disappear—they merely changed owners.
And Ishikawa Hayato, who originally did not rely on allowance and had barely received any, only had a pitiful few coins left in his pocket after buying a keyboard.
He touched his pocket and made up his mind.
"If Mom approves it, then I'll..."
Ishikawa Jinpei raised his head higher and higher.
"I'll cling to her feet and never let go until she changes her mind! I swear it in the name of my perversion!"
Ishikawa Hayato spoke with utter conviction. No one who knew him would take his words as a joke.
"You little brat, get lost!"
Their shouting drew the surrounding neighbors out.
When the two arrived at their front door while apologizing and greeting everyone, they found Ishikawa Shizuka standing there with her hands on her hips.
"I'm sorry!"
Ishikawa Hayato immediately lowered his head in a solemn apology without hesitation.
The reaction startled Ishikawa Jinpei, who was still hesitating beside him. Did this guy have no dignity at all?
After going to his sister's place to study music theory and related knowledge, it was already very late.
Ishikawa Hayato returned to his room in satisfaction. Upon opening the door, the first thing he saw was a poem written in Chinese characters.
'From tomorrow onward, be a happy person... From tomorrow onward, correspond with every relative. Tell them of my happiness.'
He had written it in elementary school calligraphy class. When the teacher suggested writing down a sentence they liked, he wrote out this poem and kept it for himself.
Every day, he looked back on it and asked himself whether he had done it, whether he had made his family and friends feel happy too.
Today, without a doubt, had been another happy day.
"Tomorrow, I'll keep charging down the road of perversion!"
Ishikawa Hayato strolled lazily to his bed and flopped down. On bedding filled with his own scent, his body and mind both felt so at ease that he did not want to move.
But Ishikawa Hayato had not stopped thinking yet.
"No... I received so much advice today. I need to correct every single issue and greet tomorrow with an even more perfect perverted attitude..."
The next moment, his eyes flew open. The two characters for "pervert" flashed across his left and right eyes respectively.
"Crack open the books!"
Deception
"This is a pervert's farewell kiss. I'm off."
As always, Ishikawa Hayato straightforwardly expressed his affection to his family, then picked up his bag and prepared to leave home.
"Wait, big brother."
Hibiki came running over in her slippers with a patter of footsteps, holding out a piece of paper. Judging by its appearance, it was the one Ishikawa Hayato had given her before.
"I found a dessert shop. Treat me after school."
She stuffed the note into Ishikawa Hayato's hand.
Seeing his little sister silently clench her fist, Ishikawa Hayato knew he could not brush this off.
He took out his wallet to check how much was inside, then swallowed and tearfully tucked the note into it.
To reiterate, he was the most pathetic transmigrator ever. He actually had to calculate whether he could afford to treat his little sister to dessert.
"I still have band practice today. How about the weekend?"
Only after seeing her brother check his wallet did Hibiki remember that he had already spent all his savings on musical instruments. The anticipation in her heart immediately fell away, and she held out her hand.
"Forget it. Give it back."
"No. There's no regret in a pervert's choices. When do you want to go?"
Without the slightest concern for his nearly empty wallet, Ishikawa Hayato declared righteously.
As a pervert, there was only advancing, never retreating!
Hibiki's tone lifted as she said lightly, "Then tomorrow~"
"OK."
Ishikawa Hayato made a hand gesture and coolly walked out the door.
After reaching the main road near school, Ishikawa Hayato casually looked around, searching for an exceptionally conspicuous pink figure.
For someone with social anxiety, she actually dared to behave differently from everyone else. That was also what he found interesting about Gotou Hitori.
Or rather, this girl was hopelessly clumsy. She wanted to change, but could not find the right approach—or she went too far and only made herself shut down even more.
She was very much worth teasing.
That pervert thought so.
And today, he was very lucky. Among the sea of beige school uniforms, he successfully spotted an especially conspicuous patch of pink.
Today was his lucky day.
Ishikawa Hayato did not call out to her directly. Instead, he quickened his pace and approached Gotou Hitori, only speaking once he was close.
"Gotou-san."
Hearing someone call out her surname, Gotou Hitori did not realize they were looking for her.
Her first reaction was to curiously glance around, looking for someone else with the same surname as her.
But when she secretly turned her head and saw a cheerful, handsome guy who had left a deep impression on her standing behind her, looking at her with the curiosity of someone observing a small animal—
Aaaaaah!!!
Startled, Gotou Hitori let out a silent scream. Her whole body went rigid as if pulled straight, and she covered her face while trembling.
A moment later, she came back to her senses. Without caring about the students constantly passing by around them, she desperately lowered her head in apology.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't notice you, I'm really sorry!"
Mm... If it were anyone else, getting such an exaggerated apology on the street, especially somewhere so crowded, would probably be a little awkward.
But who was their protagonist?
Ishikawa Hayato!
Let alone this much—even if someone broke into a samba dance right here, he could keep up.
"Alright, alright."
He waved a hand to show it was fine and said with a smile.
"Let's go to school together."
"Ah, okay."
Before you continue