Chapter 39: I Think I Can Still Be Saved!

…

Option A or Option B?

Brothers, tell me, what should I do?

…

What? Choose A?

I knew it! So you guys are the real perverts!

Exhibitionist! Disgusting! Hentai!

…

Huh? Choose B?

Have you all lost your humanity? Murder, this is murder!

Hey, Officer, someone here is encouraging me to commit a crime!

…

See? Even you recognize this is a tough choice.

But Himekoji Akito had to choose!

Become a despised pervert? Or become a cold-blooded, cruel murderer?

Himekoji’s choice was—

It could only be A!

No choice…

So, please, never put something like murder in the options again, okay?! That’s terrifying!

…

And so.

Faced with Rikka’s question, Himekoji Akito answered with the exact same one.

“Want to see?”

He said quietly, his voice lonely.

He raised his head, his gaze deep.

Those eyes looked beyond the girl, beyond the city’s red and green neon lights, beyond the noisy, shapeless night wind. His vision aimed towards the farthest, highest, highest, farthest, utterly pitch-black, unreachable night sky.

Yet, those unfathomably deep, black eyes of his were darker than the night itself.

Perhaps very few could read the emotions that surged like tides within the deep well of Himekoji Akito’s pupils at this moment —

Because it was despair. Life without love! Life without meaning!

Damn the System! Curse it to hell!

…

“Hmm?”

Takanashi Rikka tilted her head slightly.

Wow! Such a cute reaction, perfectly matching her adorable face!

Meanwhile, on the other side—

Himekoji Akito’s two hands, decisive and resolute, moved towards his belt. With a shhhhk, he pulled down his pants.

Wow! Such perfectly perverted behavior, perfectly matching the title of ‘Pervert’!

The April wind, for some reason, suddenly felt a lot colder…

Right before her eyes—

Himekoji’s uniform pants and underwear, holding hands like star-crossed lovers, flew down together and landed, tangled around his innocent, bewildered, helpless ankles.

A few sexy leg hairs waved defiantly in the night breeze, refusing to be unseen.

And slightly above them was Himekoji Akito’s ‘little brother’, timidly keeping his head down.

Hey, you guy. A full-grown eighteen centimeters and still shy?

How sad. At such a moment, Himekoji Akito could only find faint comfort in this perverted humor, this perverted way.

But… how could he possibly continue the ‘conquest’ after this?

Who should he ask? Who could he ask?

Anyway, absolutely no clue!

…

“Ah!”

Even an ice-cold, expressionless chuunibyou beauty like her! In the face of such absolute perversion, no amount of coolness or stoicism mattered!

The girl let out a terrified scream, perhaps too shocked. She lost her footing and suddenly tipped backward over the balcony railing. Oh no…

Fall event!

“Huh? Ah—!”

Immediately following was the girl’s scream, part two, even higher pitched and more horrifying!

“Hey!”

This time, even Himekoji panicked!

If Takanashi Rikka fell to her death because she was scared off the building by his perverted act? Then wouldn’t Himekoji Akito have managed to do both the god-awful things from the A and B options?

Pervert AND murderer…

Then he might as well have just chosen B in the first place! What was the point of gritting his teeth and enduring all that humiliation?!

So don’t actually fall! Unlucky girl!

“Hey, hold on!”

Luckily, Himekoji reacted fast. The moment the accident happened, he shot forward, instinctively grabbing the girl’s hand, just barely in time.

He leaned over the railing, the upper half of his body straining dangerously far outside the balcony.

“Are you okay?”

Himekoji Akito gasped for breath twice before asking, his voice sounding somewhat drained.

For a moment, he truly felt cold fear.

Unknowingly, his back had already become drenched in cold sweat.

“Of course I’m fine! Human, who do you think you are speaking to?”

The girl was clearly struggling, suspended in mid-air. If Himekoji dropped her hand now, she’d surely fall to her death. Yet even in such a critical moment, the little chuunibyou couldn’t stop being obstinate and pretending.

Himekoji had no time to argue with her. Rescuing her was the priority. He reached out with his other hand and grabbed her wrist.

“Hold tight!”

Wait… wait!

Hmm?

What was it now?

Himekoji frowned, it wasn’t the time to be willful.

“You… you put away your weapon first!”

The girl’s face, which had been expressionless before, suddenly flushed bright red. That blush looked particularly glaring on her fair skin, as white as if it could reflect light, and even the pitch-black night couldn’t hide or conceal it for her.

“Wea… weapon?”

Himekoji lowered his head in confusion.

Then—

It became awkward…

It was mentioned earlier, Himekoji was lying on the guardrail to catch Takanashi Rikka, who was about to fall down and die.

Well, but something not explained clearly before was—

The guardrail was made of marble pillars placed one after another, or it could be simply understood as having empty spaces in the middle between the pillars…

So, Himekoji’s little brother naturally slipped through the gap, sticking out beyond the guardrail.

As the saying goes, the scenery outside was better that way!

However, this “sticking out” seemed to have caused some minor problems…

Because Takanashi Rikka, who was tightly holding Himekoji Akito’s hand while hanging mid-air, got… touched by Himekoji Akito’s restless little brother!

Yes! Touched!

Anyway, that strange and coincidental position was hard to describe in detail with words.

I could only ask everyone to imagine and understand it themselves.

“It… transformed!”

At one point, the girl’s voice suddenly showed a bit of fear.

Turned out, that thing had changed from soft to hard, growing thicker and longer, like a sharp sword clamping tightly and menacingly against the girl’s cheek.

So, Himekoji Akito felt even more awkward.

Cough, cough… sorry about that, this was truly out of his control!

You know, that guy was eighteen centimeters long, so it acted out and wouldn’t obey, relying on being long and hard…

Hope you understand!

Himekoji Akito put on a smile uglier than crying, lowered his head, and offered his sincerest and most earnest apology to the girl dangling mid-air.

“Cuu… curser!”

“Huma… human, do you know who you’re messing with?”

Takanashi adorably puffed up her cheeks and issued a threat that wasn’t threatening at all, like this.

…

So, let’s all step into the scene interpretation part now, please listen to the question—

Q: What rhetorical device did classmate Takanashi Rikka use here? And what was its effect?

A: The chuunibyou device. This chuunibyou rhetoric was used brilliantly! It perfectly covered up the girl’s bashfulness and embarrassment at that moment.

Review: No problem!

…

Huh? Speaking of which, was the girl’s shyness and embarrassment really covered up?

Well, since all of you say so, we’ll count it as yes…

In any case, when Himekoji Akito only managed to pull the girl back to the upper balcony after using all his strength, a prompt from the System unsurprisingly rang out at the perfect moment—

[Rikka Route Failed!]

Hold on! I think I can still be saved!

[Saika Route Begins!]

Sigh!

He let out a long sigh.

Himekoji Akito squatted down painfully, hugging his head in despair, feeling beyond gloomy.

Oy, I don’t want to pursue a boy!

By the way, when saying this, someone forgot to properly put his pants back on.

So, at that moment, someone’s little brother was still shamelessly exposed and looking energetic.

And, while this someone was complaining irritably, it suddenly shook twice, seeming to agree with him.

Though maybe not…

Sigh!