You Old Coot, You're Finally Going to Teach Me the Flame-Manipulation Technique, Huh?

Five minutes later, two bottles of drinks slammed onto Mikage Touji's desk with a dull thud.

"Oh!"

Mikage Touji's eyes lit up like never before. He sprang to his feet and took Kamuro Masumi's hands in his.

"Masumi, so this is your type!"

"W-what are you doing? Why are you suddenly calling me that? Let go of my hands!"

Kamuro Masumi's face flushed. Her legs, which had been swinging, lowered without her noticing, and she quietly edged closer to the seat in front of her.

Mikage Touji released her hands. "It's nothing. I just suddenly thought you were cute."

"Huh? What kind of nonsense are you talking about?!"

Nearby, Shiraishi Asuka propped her chin on her hand and watched the two of them interact with a smile.

After learning the proper way to handle Kamuro Masumi, Mikage Touji started putting it into practice.

"Masumi, I order you to memorize fifty vocabulary words every day, learn two Japanese Literature passages by heart, answer ten difficult science questions, and then complete two social studies exams."

"..."

Several veins bulged on the back of her hand. A vein popped on her forehead as Kamuro Masumi said, her face dark, "Don't you think you're getting a little carried away?"

Thirty seconds later, after taking a kick to the butt, Mikage Touji silently added a new entry to his Kamuro Masumi Operation Guide:

Before use, be sure to figure out Kamuro Masumi's true limits. Otherwise, you will suffer a devastating blow.

After stretching out her limbs, Kamuro Masumi felt a little less annoyed. She said coldly, "If there's nothing else, I'm leaving."

"Wait!"

Mikage Touji shook his head firmly and pointed a finger at Kamuro Masumi. "There's one last thing."

"Are you ever going to stop?!" Kamuro Masumi exploded.

Mikage Touji held out one of the lunch boxes.

"Let's eat together. This time, it's not an order. It's a request."

"Th-this..."

Kamuro Masumi's gaze fell on the lunch box held out before her. She instinctively tried to take half a step back, but her toes seemed nailed to the spot.

"As for what I called you, forget it if you don't like it. It was my fault for calling you that without getting your permission."

Mikage Touji stuffed the other bottle of drink into Kamuro Masumi's hand. "Tell me what you want me to call you, and that's what I'll call you from now on. For now, please have lunch with me."

Kamuro Masumi turned her head away. Her fingers unconsciously tightened around the bottle he had just put in her hand as she looked out the window. The white clouds were still drifting lazily across the sky.

"Call me... whatever... you want."

"Hm?"

Mikage Touji leaned closer. "What did you say?"

"I said, call me whatever you want!" Her voice suddenly rose by an octave.

"Got it. Keep your voice down. I'm going deaf."

"Aren't you already deaf? Also, I don't want this one. I want the lunch box with the octopus sausages!"

"Fine, fine. You bought the lunch boxes, so you're the boss."

The next few days, Mikage Touji lived a peaceful and fulfilling life.

During the day, he sparred wits with Morishita Ran in class, grabbed lunch wherever was convenient, and then wandered around school. After class, he studied with Shiraishi Asuka at the library and occasionally checked in on his good buddy's daily life. In the evening, if he had any leftover bread crumbs, he went to the shore to feed Wild Pigeon. At night, he trained his abilities until he was mentally exhausted, then slept until morning, never letting his fatigue carry over to the next day.

Even Hoshinomiya-sensei said he seemed perfectly normal!

"Very impressive, Kamuro-san. At this rate, we can get ready to wrap up your exam prep tomorrow. No, today!"

In the library, Shiraishi Asuka put down Mikage Touji's workbook and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Kamuro Masumi glanced at her own workbook, where there were only slightly more circles than check marks, then at Mikage Touji's, which had only a few check marks. Though she had never cared about grades, a strange sense of crisis rose within her.

"Why are you improving so much faster than me when we're studying together?" Kamuro Masumi asked, sounding a little disgruntled.

"Because Kamuro-san is amazing. Maybe she's a genius."

A small hand slipped out beneath the table and settled over Mikage Touji's. Long, slender fingers gently traced his hand, making it itch right down to the depths of his soul.

Mikage Touji turned his head and met her serene gaze.

[Hasn't your attack frequency been a little too high these past few days?]

[Has it?]

Mikage Touji caught Shiraishi Asuka's restless hand in his.

[You're about to empty my health bar!]

[...]

Mikage Touji received no reply from the owner of those eyes. At that moment, she was too flustered by the sudden feeling of someone taking her hand.

Ripples stirred in her clear, still-water eyes. She blinked rapidly, her gaze darting all around Mikage Touji. Her little hand rested obediently in his, occasionally making a brave attempt to pull free. She looked as if she wanted to leave but couldn't bring herself to do so.

Not good! My health bar!

After taking another devastating hit from Shiraishi Asuka's cuteness, Mikage Touji let go of her hand.

At this rate, he was going to get knocked out by how cute she was.

No, he needed to find somewhere to recover some health and regain his composure.

Otherwise, he'd become a rogue ninja from the Land of Light and convert to the White Stone Cult on the spot.

"I can't be a genius. I know my own limits."

Forcibly steering the conversation back on track, Mikage Touji opened the notebook Mashima Tomoya had given him, trying to hold his attention fast with the accumulated wisdom of humanity through the ages.

"But I want to know the answer to that, too." Mikage Touji held the notebook in one hand, but his eyes kept wandering toward Shiraishi Asuka as if they'd been unlocked.

Shiraishi Asuka seemed to notice, too, and edged closer his way, whether intentionally or not.

"Have you been secretly studying at home?" Kamuro Masumi asked, looking at him as if he were trying to study her into the ground.

"How could I? Don't I talk with you every night?"

Realizing he couldn't redirect his attention, Mikage Touji decided to fight magic with magic and focus on Kamuro Masumi beside him.

She had a pretty face, but she always wore an annoyed expression. Poke her a little and she'd fire back twice as sharply, but she had a surprisingly kind heart...

"True..." Kamuro Masumi's eye twitched as she recalled the bizarre videos Mikage Touji shared with her every night.

"Good buddy, have you really not considered making Tokyo University your goal? Maybe having a goal is what makes the difference."

"Who are you trying to fool? I've been studying since elementary school, and I'm sick of it! Also, I don't mind you calling me that, but could you not do it in public?"

Kamuro Masumi shot Mikage Touji a sidelong glance, utterly dismissive of studying.

Mikage Touji's words piqued Shiraishi Asuka's curiosity. She leaned closer and asked, "Is Tokyo University your goal, Kamuro-san?"

A faint, distinctly feminine fragrance drifted into Mikage Touji's nose, yanking his attention back like a sharp slap to a spinning top.

"No—or rather, I don't really know either." Mikage Touji held his expression steady and gazed at the distant white clouds.

"Then what do you plan to do in the future, Kamuro-san?" Shiraishi Asuka seemed very interested in the subject. "With your abilities, if you graduate from Class A, there's a good chance you'll get an exemption-based admission offer from one of the Three Great Houses..."

Almost every student leader graduating from Class A at Advanced Nurturing High School each year received an exemption-based admission offer from one of the Three Great Houses.

Mikage Touji wasn't the leader of Class A. Well... at least not officially, though he wasn't far off.

"No rush. Graduation is still a full three years away. The truth is, I'm going through a period of uncertainty. I don't know what I want to do in the future either. What about you, Shiraishi-san? At your current pace, you have a good chance of getting into one of the Three Great Houses."

"Me?" Shiraishi Asuka gazed at Mikage Touji, her eyes shimmering. "Well... I don't know what I want to do in the future either. Maybe I'll figure it out later."

Mikage Touji's heart leaped. The whole world seemed to fade to gray, leaving only the one splash of color before him.

"..."

His defenses breached, he stopped trying to dodge. He steeled himself and reached out, gripping Shiraishi Asuka's little hand more firmly than before, enclosing it completely as he stared intently into her visibly flustered eyes.

[Let's go down together! Let's see whose health bar empties first!]

[...]

Shiraishi Asuka didn't answer. Her calm, unhurried breathing, like a gently flowing stream, immediately grew heavier. Her lips grew redder, and a strange atmosphere spread between them, as if even the air around them had thickened.

At last, Shiraishi Asuka, her face flushed pink, surrendered and withdrew to her original spot.

"Kamuro, what are you holding?"

Kamuro Masumi, who had been glaring at Mikage Touji, spotted something and miraculously drew his attention back.

"Oh, this? It's a notebook from Mashima-sensei." Mikage Touji looked calm, but he was nearly done for. He let go of Shiraishi Asuka's little hand again.

"..."

"Didn't you say you didn't have one?" Kamuro Masumi asked irritably, her voice unconsciously returning to its usual volume.

"Shh—!"

Mikage Touji stopped flipping through the notebook and took another look at the yellowed pages. Then he realized, "Oh, right. I forgot about this."

With his attention fixed on Shiraishi Asuka the whole time, he'd forgotten the notebook was even there.

So this notebook really was that useful?

You old geezer, you're finally willing to teach me the Flame Creation technique, huh?

Shiraishi Asuka, who hadn't said anything for a while, came back to herself and smoothed her tousled pale-gold hair.

"Kamuro-san, would you mind letting me take a look?"

Mikage Touji closed the notebook and handed it to her without saying more.

The Shiro-Gate was trustworthy!

"That stiff Mashima Tomoya actually gave you special tutoring? So you really are the class leader, aren't you?"

Kamuro Masumi clicked her tongue in annoyance. After more than a month, she'd gotten to know their homeroom teacher. To put it nicely, he was conscientious; to put it less nicely, he stuck strictly to the rules.

Now Mashima Tomoya had gone and given Mikage Touji his personal notes because he was worried Mikage Touji might fail the Midterm Exam. That clearly didn't fit the impression the students had of him.

"That's right."

Shiraishi Asuka flipped through the notebook as she spoke. "It has the approaches to solving many uncommon problems, as well as quite a few study methods."

At last, Shiraishi Asuka remembered there was someone else she needed to tutor.

"If possible, could I ask you to make a copy for Kamuro-san? It should help her grades."

"Of course. Just don't damage it."

He didn't particularly care about the notebook, but it had come from Mashima Tomoya and contained years of his hard work. It was common sense to take care of things other people gave you.

"Good buddy, do you want one?" Mikage Touji asked with a teasing lilt. "With this, you might even consider Tokyo University."

"Could you stop bringing up Tokyo University?"

Kamuro Masumi gritted her teeth. She was almost immune to Mikage Touji calling her his "good buddy" now. Couldn't he think of a nicer nickname?!

After a difficult struggle, Kamuro Masumi finally made up her mind, her expression shifting back and forth. "I'm not interested in studying right now, but make me a copy anyway."

Maybe she'd turn things around someday. Then she could bring Mikage Touji down a peg.

To be honest, she'd always resented Mikage Touji calling her his good buddy in front of everyone.

Just imagining Mikage Touji's humiliated expression made Kamuro Masumi feel energized.

"Then it's settled." Mikage Touji picked up the notebook and handed it to Kamuro Masumi. "It's in your hands. Make a copy, then remember to give it back."

"Got it." Kamuro Masumi took the notebook and put it in her schoolbag. "I'll return it tomorrow."

Once they were done, Mikage Touji sat in his seat and held his pen beneath his nose. His gaze wandered as he silently recited the Calm Heart Mantra, slowly restoring his reason, which had fallen to rock bottom.

It looked like Mother Shiraishi was low on health, too. She hadn't teased Mikage Touji again since then and was sitting quietly in her seat.