Chapter 161: A Beginner Trial Period from the System

Himekoji Akito sighed in relief.

Thank goodness, anyway, at least… no, seriously, really good!

The first-ever lodger in his life, Shiina Mashiro, was safe and sound!

Thinking this, Himekoji surveyed the room again—

Clothes, underwear, books, and manga lay scattered everywhere. The carpet was nowhere to be seen. The room looked like a tornado had hit it.

Wait!

Could this be…

Darkness suddenly swallowed his vision. Himekoji even had a strange feeling he might faint…

If it wasn’t a burglar, then there was only one explanation.

Pause, hold on.

Even though he’d mentally prepared himself for how troublesome this clueless girl could be, seeing this scene with his own eyes was still a bit too hard for Himekoji to process.

So, he desperately tried to find some barely acceptable reasons.

Ah, right! She’d only just returned to Japan!

That was information Himekoji had learned about the girl yesterday.

So—

It must be because she wasn’t used to life in Japan yet!

But… What sort of country has a culture involving playing “tornado game” in your own room?!

—Or maybe, just a slightly bad sleeping habit?

No, slightly? This was beyond “slightly”! It was downright awful! Terrible!

After all, Shiina Mashiro had slept right under the table…

—Oh! It must have been an alien invasion!

Still wouldn’t work. That explanation lacked any sense of reality.

—In that case, this was just a dream! Yes, he was definitely still asleep!

Ah, of course! Exactly! That was the most likely possibility.

Himekoji, convincing himself with his own explanation, agreed with this logic. Nodding to himself, he slowly backed out of Mashiro’s room.

Hand behind his back, he closed the door, took a deep breath—

The dream was about to end! Any moment now!

Bracing himself mentally, Himekoji opened the door again—

Huh…

He blinked once, then blinked again.

And so—

Ten seconds later, Himekoji looked up at the ceiling with sheer emptiness in his eyes.

Naturally, the room remained exactly how he’d left it: a state hard to believe anyone actually lived there.

Mashiro was a bit unusual, but Himekoji had always thought she was just kind of airheaded.

Plus, unlike others who loudly scolded or overreacted to his perverted behavior, she had actually praised him for it.

Initially, Himekoji had even hoped that this different girl might become an oasis for his weary soul…

Well, sorry, please forget that last sentence! Pretend he never said it!

“…God, what did I do wrong? Is this punishment for being a Pervert?”

To send such an unbelievably terrifying creature of nature to torment him!

While his spirit crumbled toward despair, Himekoji still searched for gaps among the clothes and underwear littering the floor. Stepping carefully onto the empty spots, he made his way towards the table.

For a mentally and physically healthy high school boy, the sight of a girl’s scattered clothes was painful, especially the brightly colored underwear – they were distractingly conspicuous.

Even trying hard not to look, his eyes kept drifting towards them.

Crouching down by the table, Himekoji called out cautiously.

“Ahem… Miss Shiina? Could you please wake up?”

No reaction.

“Hey… hey.”

“……”

Only the sound of soft, even breathing.

“I’d be really grateful if you got up~~”

“……”

Himekoji had no choice. He tried tugging gently at the edge of the blanket. But Mashiro had a surprisingly strong grip on it, resisting his pull. He gave up and started shaking her shoulder.

“Hey~~ it’s daylight now~~ it’s morning~~”

“…Morning won’t come again.”

“No, no! It is morning already! So stop talking scary stuff like that, hey!”

Mashiro lifted her face from the pile of clothes and underwear. Her sleepy eyes stared blankly into the air for a full minute before finally focusing on Himekoji.

“Good morning.”

Himekoji forced a smile onto his face.

“……”

However, Mashiro didn’t react to Himekoji’s forced friendliness at all. The girl blinked her hazy eyes slowly, and the very next moment, buried her tousled head back into her “nest.”

“If you stay asleep, it’ll be the death of me~~! It’s bad to be late on the very first day of living together!”

“…I understand. I’ll get up.”

“Huh? Surprisingly reasonable?”

How things unfolded turned out much simpler and easier than Himekoji had imagined.

Mashiro’s expression was still utterly vacant, but she obediently started crawling out from under the table.

The bedsheet and clothes draped over her slid down her milky-white skin—

First revealing smooth, pale shoulders, then delicate arms, a chest lacking noticeable fullness, a narrow waist like a gourd, and the beautiful curve of her hips… all, completely and totally, entered Himekoji’s line of sight…

Wait, she slept naked?!

Instantly, first thing in the morning, something set his blood boiling!

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

A scream loud enough to make you wonder if someone had just peed blood in agony echoed out. Its originator was Himekoji Akito.

…

Hold on… his own reaction…

Himekoji suddenly realized something felt off. As a seasoned Pervert, his reaction shouldn’t be so exaggerated, right?!

It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen a naked girl before!

Don’t act like a bashful little boy already! Have some shame!

“You’re noisy.”

Mashiro looked troubled as she rubbed her eyes.

“Hold on! Y-you! You!”

“What?”

“What do you mean ‘what’?! Put some clothes on! Why are you completely na––ked?! What species even are you?!”

Thoroughly shaken, Himekoji mustered every ounce of remaining rationality in his body. He managed to spin around, summoning superhuman willpower to face away from the naked Mashiro. Don’t look! Don’t listen! Don’t think!

Himekoji Akito did it! He performed the sacred pose known as ‘Facing the Wall’!

“I wonder why?”

Mashiro asked him instead.

“Don’t ask me! Think about it yourself!”

“Back in the bathroom…”

“Yeah? Then?”

“…I took the clothes out.”

“Right, good, then you just needed to put them on.”

“I took them all out.”

“Whoa, wait! Stop! You didn’t need to take everything out!”

“…I thought maybe that would be enough.”

“What kind of logic is that?! Hey! And stop talking like it’s someone else’s problem! Clothes! Put on clothes! Anything! Put something on right now!”

Just the awareness of Mashiro’s completely bare body behind him made it impossible for Himekoji to remain calm.

Saying this, Himekoji dug a Mizuki High uniform from the chaotic heap of clothes at his feet and tossed it back to Mashiro.

The rustling sound of fabric being pulled reached him from behind.

His heart felt like it was about to explode.

Damn, what a thoroughly pure pervert he really was!

Himekoji, facing away from the girl, grimaced.

The one and only thing worth feeling relief about—

First thing in the morning, the System apparently hadn’t started working yet.