Super·Seri·ous (Two-Part Chapter)

So, if I hadn't made that phone call at noon, would Sakura have been completely taken advantage of?

Kushida Kikyo laughed in exasperation.

"The photos were taken, and although... although Asakusa -Asakusa kun didn't do anything to me other than taking the photos, and said she wouldn't use them to threaten me..." With her head down and clutching her skirt, Sakura Airi whispered, "But... I'm still a little scared..."

Fear of being threatened, fear of being exposed, fear of having one's privacy held by others.

So...

"Are Kushida and Asakusa- san a couple? Could you please ask him to delete the photos?" Turning around, Sakura Airi spoke her request to Kushida Kikyo, whom she trusted most.

Of course she hadn't forgotten about it; the reason she hadn't brought it up earlier was simply because she couldn't find a suitable opportunity to bring it up.

But since we need Kushida's help, we have no choice but to ask now.

Yes, it should be fine...

... Yeah, right.

"Boyfriend/girlfriend...?" Kushida Kikyo's cheek twitched slightly, her tone rather elusive.

Sakura Airi keenly sensed the change in the atmosphere, and she lowered her eyes and whispered:

No, isn't that right?

"Because, because I could smell Asakusa's scent on Kushida, and he also smelled like Kushida, and then I heard Kushida's voice on the phone he answered at noon, so I assumed you two were dating..."

She explained in a low voice, raised her head, and continued:

"Since you're not boyfriend and girlfriend... Kushida, is there something Asakusa- san has caught on you?"

Kushida Kikyo: "..."

I miscalculated.

I've been too careless and lax lately.

Not only did they stop disguising themselves when entering and leaving, they also failed to properly deal with their body odor.

Even Sakura Airi could smell this scent; could the others have noticed it already?

No, it won't.

If others discover it, they will definitely try to find out indirectly, and in most cases, they have already washed themselves and changed their clothes to confirm the smell.

I've just become more and more lax these past few days.

I need to be more careful in the future.

But that's a matter for later. Right now, the most pressing issue is figuring out how to appease Sakura Airi.

... Seriously, it's all that guy's fault!

There's no need to do unnecessary things.

If you see it, you see it, why take a picture!

Kushida Kikyo was seething with hatred, but the timid eyes of Sakura Airi seemed to be urging her on, constantly putting pressure on her.

So annoying!

I should have just admitted we were boyfriend and girlfriend!

Having already denied being in a romantic relationship, how am I supposed to explain where the smell came from?!

... Got it.

Suddenly, Kushida Kikyo had a flash of inspiration and had an answer in her mind.

"...Yes." She lowered her head, revealing a slightly forlorn expression, acknowledging the source of the 'weakness': "Didn't Chi and the others fail the midterm exams?"

"No one had any points to draw, but we couldn't just stand by and watch our comrades die."

"Even so, 1.2 million isn't a sum everyone can come up with." She raised her right hand and grabbed her left arm, pursing her lips. "He used that to his advantage, leveraging his relationship with Ichinose, to threaten me. He said if I didn't become his mother, he would make Ichinose find a way to drop out of Hirata!"

As soon as she finished speaking, only Kushida Kikyo's voice echoed throughout the room.

Especially in Sakura Airi's ears, only one word kept echoing.

'Mom,' 'Mom,' 'Mom'...

'He threatened to make me his mother.'

Sakura Airi: "???"

She had always thought she would hear some unspeakable secrets, like being filmed doing something inappropriate, or having something private seen on her.

But Sakura Airi never expected that the coercion would involve something like this!

The leverage used to threaten them is very reasonable. Thinking about it carefully, it was indeed Kushida Kikyo who took the initiative to make the phone call, which is why Asakusa Toru and the Ichinose came to Class D together.

... After thinking about it carefully, Sakura Airi realized, oh, she actually seems to have met Asakusa Toru before.

She hadn't realized it before, but now that Kushida Kikyo brought it up, she remembered that there really was such a thing.

After all, it was Ichinose who negotiated the contract terms on home turf, while Asakusa Toru seemed to have been just playing cards behind the scenes with those few people all along.

She didn't dare look up at strangers much, and honestly, she couldn't remember.

However, that mattered nothing compared to the content of the coercion.

"... Mom, Mom?!" Sakura Airi repeated the word, her voice trembling.

"Hmm." Kushida Kikyo nodded slightly and continued to fabricate slanderous words about someone, "Asakusa, actually, well, has always lacked maternal love."

"His psychological problems became even more apparent after he enrolled in this boarding school."

Kushida Kikyo sighed softly and said:

"... That's why he did something like threatening me to become his mother."

She wasn't lying; Asakusa Toru did indeed lack maternal love.

Silence fell in the room again. Sakura Airi's brain was overloaded; she was trying to comprehend this unbelievable situation.

Recalling Asakusa Toru's calm, collected, and handsome face on the rooftop, and remembering his effortless manner when he toyed with her, Asakusa Toru Sakura Airi simply couldn't imagine Asakusa Toru calling Kushida Kikyo" Mom."

"Um, that..." Driven by curiosity, Sakura Airi asked cautiously, "How exactly... I mean, how did he ask you to be his 'mother'...?"

This was actually a question she wouldn't normally ask; it was a question that might have crossed a line slightly.

But perhaps it was because she was in her own dorm, in her own room, sitting on her own bed, and because Kushida Kikyo was genuinely approachable, and because she was incredibly curious.

Curiosity erased the sense of distance, and it prompted her to ask the question.

"..." Kushida Kikyo's body visibly trembled. She bent over, biting her lip with all her might from an angle that Sakura Airi couldn't see.

She was trying not to laugh.

That's so interesting!

Spreading rumors and nonsense is more interesting than you might imagine!

The fact that the other person was asking her in a serious tone about the specifics of the situation made it even more amusing.

She suddenly began to understand the feelings of writing in Diary.

No wonder the Diary are always so cheerful; it's precisely these kinds of rumors that contain a tiny bit of truth but are completely wrong that are the most interesting!

Looking at Sakura Airi's stunned expression just now, and listening to her changing breathing rhythm, the more Kushida Kikyo thought about it, the more she wanted to laugh.

In Sakura Airi's eyes, Asakusa Toru has now truly become a staunch believer in Freud's ideas.

In short, it's all because of the Oedipus complex!

No, no, I can't think about it anymore, or I'll burst out laughing.

That would mean all our previous efforts were in vain.

"It's... it's just..." Kushida Kikyo straightened up, raised her head, and wiped away the tears that welled up in her eyes from trying to suppress her laughter. She said haltingly, "I want to... give him a hug... I want to lull him to sleep... I want to pat his head and praise him..."

Kushida Kikyo couldn't take it anymore. As soon as she finished speaking, she bent over again, buried her head between her legs, and refused to look at Sakura Airi's expression.

She felt that if she actually saw Sakura's expression, she definitely wouldn't be able to hold back her laughter.

"..." Sakura Airi's expression was very strange. She raised her hand to cover her pretty face and began to imagine the scene that Kushida Kikyo had described.

Asakusa Toru took the initiative to pull Kushida Kikyo into her arms, and Asakusa Toru lay obediently in her arms like a baby...

This is just too much...

"So, Kushida smells like Asakusa- san, is it because he often hugs him?" She twisted her body, asking a question that didn't actually need confirmation.

"... Hmm." Kushida Kikyo forcefully swallowed the laughter that was welling up in her throat, drawing on her usual Angel acting skills from her classes to suppress her laughter. "Only in this way can he feel the maternal love he lacks."

Sakura Airi blushed slightly, feeling ashamed of her previous misunderstanding.

As expected, Kushida is Kushida. Only Kushida would so reluctantly become the mother of a male high school student her own age for the sake of her classmates...

If it were me, I definitely couldn't do it.

Holding Asakusa like a baby in her arms and then trying to lull her to sleep is just too embarrassing.

Waaah...

As Kushida Kikyo described, the already vague impression of Asakusa Toru in Sakura Airi's mind was quietly shattered, and a different shape was gradually outlined under Kikyo's mother's description.

"Ahem." After coughing lightly twice to clear her throat, Kushida Kikyo, regaining her composure, intended to end the increasingly erratic topic.

She hadn't forgotten at all why Sakura Airi had come to her for advice.

It was just a photo taken by some guy who had a restless hand, wasn't it?

To be honest, when she first heard about this, her first reaction was to tell that guy to just delete the photos.

Isn't she enough?!

But upon closer reflection, Kushida Kikyo realized something was amiss.

Why wasn't anything done to Sakura Airi?

Whether it's the implied meaning in her words, her attitude towards Asakusa Toru, or her reaction after lunch break.

Kushida Kikyo could clearly sense just how utterly clueless this little coward was.

They were really well protected by those unfashionable glasses.

However, glancing at Sakura Airi's expression at that moment, Kushida Kikyo felt inexplicably annoyed again.

No, why should I? She was all pfft-pfft, and she even knelt down and pressed her handprint! She was terrified, afraid he would actually do something.

Trembling with fear and timidity, his legs quivering.

Not only were they taken advantage of, but they also lost all face.

Although she managed to win back the lost face later, the loss was irreversible.

How come Sakura was so lucky? She just happened to make a phone call and was let go without doing anything.

She disagreed.

Kushida Kikyo's possessiveness and jealousy began to clash.

"..."

Without a doubt, after a brief moment of deliberation, the latter emerged victorious.

"Sakura wants him to delete the photos he took, right?" Kushida Kikyo steered the conversation back on track, saying, "Asakusa- kun and I aren't boyfriend and girlfriend, so it might be difficult for me to ask him to delete the photos."

Sakura Airi's face showed obvious regret.

But before she could lower her head, Kushida Kikyo added, "However, it's not like I'm completely without a solution."

Upon hearing this, Sakura Airi quickly asked, "Yes, what method is it?"

"I mentioned earlier that Asakusa -kun is actually someone who lacks maternal love, right?" With an incredibly 'kind' smile, Kushida Kikyo's hand silently rested on Sakura Airi's shoulder. Feeling her slight tremor, the corners of her mouth curled up even more. "Tell me, if Sakura were to become Asakusa -kun's mother, wouldn't that give him a reason to delete those 'mother' photos that shouldn't exist?"

She was spouting complete nonsense.

Chapter 160 Super Serious (Two Chapters Combined)