So whether this plan could be carried out depended on whether the enemy was stupid enough.
"In other words, you were acting with Mei today because you wanted to confuse the people watching her?"
Perhaps because she cared too much about Mei, Kiana's little brain had a rare flash of brilliance as she asked excitedly.
"Of course."
Gwen nodded, somewhat surprised by Kiana's performance, and said approvingly:
"A flower raised under oppression quickly becoming intoxicated after encountering the nourishment of love looks perfectly normal, doesn't it?"
"Friendship works too!"
The tuna declared that if it was Mei, then she could do it.
"But at a time like this, love is more convincing than friendship."
Gwen raised one finger and gently wagged it.
"After all, the ones who kept hurting this flower were those former friendships..."
"..."
She instinctively wanted to refute him, but after opening her mouth, Kiana realized she seemed to have nothing to say. The ahoge atop her head slowly drooped in silence, flopping weakly against her hair until it disappeared from sight.
"Phew..."
After a long silence, Kiana finally let out a long breath and looked at Gwen.
"Although I have to admit that what you said makes a lot of sense.
Before that, though, explain your background to me properly."
Realizing that she seemingly lacked the power to change anything, Kiana spoke fiercely—
Mei's safety would be protected by me!
"As for my identity..."
Although he believed that Kiana would obediently cooperate with him for Raiden Mei's safety,
Gwen had no idea what Kiana's attitude toward Schicksal would be without outside interference, so he still chose to put on the guise of an outer member of Anti-Entropy—
Besides, while this tuna had not become stupid yet, who knew whether she might let something slip and sell him out?
Although he had scanned the area and found no one-armed hero lurking nearby, Gwen still chose to play it safe to prevent some irrational middle-aged man from jumping out and causing trouble.
After learning Gwen's identity, Kiana relaxed slightly, though before going to sleep, she still waved her little fist and warned him:
"For Mei's sake, I'll cooperate with you this once.
But don't get any crooked ideas, or I won't let you off!"
Clearly, her relationship with Mei was only one of "I help you, you give me boxed lunches," yet for some reason, Kiana still said those words.
"Classmate Kiana, although I know you care deeply about Mei, please remember that I am Mei's boyfriend now."
Gwen selectively ignored the words spoken by this tuna, who still had a fairly accurate sense of herself, due to his past-life attempt at Kiana's sexual orientation being Mei. Smiling, he said something that made Kiana fly into a rage.
"This guy..."
Watching the bedroom door slam shut with a bang, Kiana pursed her lips. Though she had wanted to condemn him some more, she returned to the room where she had slept a few days ago—
Since Gwen was not short on money, the apartment he rented was quite nice. It had more than one bedroom, including one that Kiana could move into directly.
Although she had been indignant just moments ago, the instant she touched that soft bed, Kiana felt the exhaustion of a busy day flood into her mind. Before long, she fell into a dream.
Next door, although it was already late and Gwen had long since bid farewell to the terrible lifestyle habits of his past life, he still did not go straight to sleep—
Plan B
In the darkened bedroom, Gwen sat with his eyes half-closed, but he was not preparing to sleep. One hand tapped softly, as though keeping time with some melody.
Gwen's other hand rested against his chest, clutching a necklace.
At the end of the necklace was a miniature music box, delicate enough to resemble a work of art.
Theoretically, no matter how skilled the craftsman, it should have been impossible to make something less than half a finger joint in size function as a real music box.
Yet the tapping fingertips of his other hand showed that Gwen could hear a beautiful melody coming from the exquisite little object in his palm—
And in truth, that tiny object, which looked like nothing more than decoration, really was continuously playing its melody—
Back when he had just injected the Hyper-Evolution Factor, discovered his system, and solved his survival problem, Gwen had been exploring the ruined Fire Moth base when he accidentally found this necklace, as exquisite as a work of art.
Although it was not right to casually take someone else's belongings, after searching everywhere and finding no information about the necklace's owner, and receiving no answer from Prometheus, Gwen hesitated for a long time before taking the necklace he liked so much.
Some time later, Gwen discovered that the tiny music box was not merely delicate in appearance. It was performing its intended function, repeating a tune at an extremely low volume.
During his time at the Fire Moth base, this necklace and the melody within it had become the only diversion in Gwen's dull life.
Fortunately, the necklace had survived the battles in the back mountains of Kozukuri Town. Later, after it was sent to Schicksal, Schicksal's people had carefully preserved it for Gwen, allowing it to remain by his side to this day.
Amid that faint yet incomparably beautiful melody, as heavenly as celestial music, Gwen slowly drifted into sleep with his eyes closed...
Early the next morning, when the bleary-eyed Kiana pushed open her door, she found Gwen, who had finished his morning training and was drying his wet hair—
"Hm?
You got up so early?"
Still half asleep, Kiana asked casually, only for Gwen to reply:
"What else?
If I slept late and woke late like you, would I be capable of carrying out a mission like this?"
Although he knew the tuna had not yet entered her slacker phase at St. Freya, that did not stop Gwen from raising the difficulty a little for Kiana.
"...I... I was just too tired yesterday, so I woke up late today...
And I work out too, okay?"
For a moment, Kiana was so thoroughly shut down that she even forgot to use the "this young lady" self-reference she always had on her lips. Her gaze drifted as she muttered without much confidence.
"Alright, stop mumbling. If there's a chance later, I'll bring you along when I get up early."
Seeing Kiana like this, Gwen smiled slightly and pointed toward the bathroom.
"There, the things you used before are still inside. Just keep using them."
—Thanks to Gwen's habit of generally buying two sets of everything, Kiana had not even been left without a toothbrush when she stayed over last time, which made things much more convenient.
"Once you've eaten and drunk your fill, remember to clean up. I'm heading out."
After finishing breakfast, Gwen saw Kiana still looking as though she wanted more. He did not rush her, merely standing up as he said:
"If possible, try not to act any differently from usual—
If possible, I would still prefer to fool Cocolia and take Mei away directly."
"Come to think of it..."
Now that she was no longer affected by that inexplicably rising emotion, Kiana realized something.
"What if we fail to fool that vixen Cocolia?
We can't just let the plan fail and surrender without a fight, can we?"
"Then we can only activate Plan B."
Gwen shrugged.
"What's Plan B?"
Kiana blinked and asked curiously.
"Completely dismantle ME Corp.—"
Gwen said with a smile:
"No matter how capable Cocolia is, she can only prepare her experiment on ME Corp.'s territory after seizing it.
As long as we completely dismantle ME Corp., all of Cocolia's preparations will collapse without a fight.
Then, whether we apply for reinforcements to wipe out Cocolia completely or escape directly, things will be much easier."
The last time he transformed while in poor condition, Gwen had barely managed to fire Ultimate Light Arrow: Storm and instantly kill Ganesha, only to fall unconscious afterward.
But Gwen had not been standing still—he was confident that the current him could still retain some combat ability after blowing up ME Corp.
Besides, relying solely on violent demolition was only a last resort. He still had Schicksal's support and Prometheus to help him.
"Gah?"
Hearing Gwen's so-called "Plan B," Kiana was so incredulous that she even made a strange noise.
"How else did you think I had the confidence to take on this mission?"
Gwen rolled his eyes at the dumbfounded Kiana, chuckled, picked up his coat, and headed out—
Today, America's beautiful young man still had to continue dating Japan's fallen young lady.
As the days passed, the couple act between Gwen and Raiden Mei went from deliberate and awkward at first to incredibly practiced. They increasingly resembled a real couple, while the fat-and-thin duo assigned to monitor Raiden Mei noticed nothing strange. They only felt that the damn American was truly good at deceiving young girls.
The spring breeze of March drifted slowly past. As it stirred a young girl's budding heart, it also carried time toward the end of March. Spring break at Japan's various middle schools came to an end one after another, and classes gradually resumed. Senba Academy was no exception.
However, to the surprise of many students who had not seen Raiden Mei for an entire spring break, yet had often mentioned her because they always treated her as a topic of conversation, the fallen young lady who had been pushed ever closer to the "gloomy girl" they called her through their constant exclusion and bullying last month now sat calmly at her desk, as if nothing from the previous semester had ever happened.
"As expected of a criminal's daughter. Her skin is really thick."
"So, shall we continue?"
"Continue!
I can barely stand breathing the same air as someone like her."
The students who had been the main force behind persecuting Raiden Mei last semester whispered among themselves, preparing to continue their righteous cause of driving the criminal's daughter out of school.
"Quiet down, everyone. Quiet down, please. I have something to announce."
Amid the somewhat disorderly noise in the classroom, the class's homeroom teacher walked onto the podium and knocked on the desk, quieting the noisy room.
"The American Transfer Student"
At this moment, some sharp-eyed students had already noticed the handsome boy who had followed the homeroom teacher to the classroom and was now waiting outside the door.
"Look, it's a handsome guy!"
"Wow, really! Could he be a transfer student?"
"Probably..."
As the students whispered on little notes after considering a certain possibility, the homeroom teacher's words confirmed the truth. Nearly half the girls, who could barely be called young ladies outside school, straightened their backs one after another, wanting to leave a good impression on their new classmate.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Gwen, and I'm from America."
Gwen did not enjoy singing, dancing, rap, or basketball, so his introduction was remarkably brief and clear. Yet the looks that outright crushed every boy in the class made the female students extremely patient.
However, the next action of this transfer student from America made many students' expressions change abruptly—
After briefly introducing his name and origins, Gwen did not follow Far East tradition by introducing his hobbies and such. Instead, he carried his backpack directly to one of the few empty seats in the classroom and sat down with complete ease.
What changed the students' expressions was not Gwen's unconventional behavior—
Eccentric transfer students were not exactly an unusual topic among Far East middle school students, and Gwen was from America after all.
No matter what they thought of this American transfer student, these students, whose families had at least some connections, would not reveal it openly.
What changed their expressions was the person beside that empty seat—
The person who was completely out of place with the atmosphere of the entire class—Raiden Mei.
Whether they had dated before or had been single since birth, these students who had never eaten pork but had seen pigs run could all tell from the interaction between Raiden Mei and Gwen as he unpacked his things that the two definitely shared a relationship they knew nothing about.
"...
Classmate Gwen is from America and may still be unfamiliar with many things in Japan.
From now on, I hope everyone will help Classmate Gwen become familiar with the campus and integrate into the class..."
The homeroom teacher had originally intended to cover for Gwen's "rule-breaking" behavior, but upon seeing this, she could only swallow her original words, offer a dry explanation, and begin the first class meeting of the new semester—
Even though she had not originally been Raiden Mei's homeroom teacher, this teacher had heard about the former young lady's experiences.
And judging by Gwen's behavior, he was clearly very familiar with Raiden Mei.
For this American transfer student whom the dean of students had placed in her care, the teacher naturally hoped he could smoothly integrate into the school.
Before you continue