Chapter 416: One Hundred Wings

He wanted to question the System properly, but the System was sleeping soundly and wouldn’t wake up no matter how much he called out.

After struggling for a long while, Himekoji finally decided to forget about it!

Since the world turned weird after he woke up from sleep, maybe it’d return to normal after another nap?

Anyway, Himekoji realized that racking his brain alone wouldn’t solve anything. So he’d just calm down and wait patiently for the System to wake up.

He shook his head, clearing away all those unnecessary thoughts.

While walking back to the classroom, Himekoji even accepted a few simple tasks—tasks that weren’t even perverted for someone like his current self.

One of those tasks was—

Swapping the signs on the male and female changing rooms and filling the lockers in the girls’ changing room with his own semi-naked posters.

He had no idea where those posters came from. They just appeared in his hands after accepting the task. There were so many, a huge stack that would definitely be enough.

After glancing at them briefly, Himekoji’s face flushed red.

“This… this has definitely been photoshopped, right?”

Even though he thought his own body looked decent enough, he knew that depended on who he was comparing himself to. Against those skinny guys in his class, sure, he had nothing to worry about. But if his opponent was the poster version of “Semi-Naked Hunk! Ultra Masculine! Super Ultimate Fitness! Photoshop-Enhanced Himekoji”…

“Hmm…”

Himekoji checked that no one was around, secretly unbuttoned his collar, and peeked inside.

Then he looked at one of the posters again to compare carefully.

“I guess it’s time to start working out…”

Rubbing his chin, Himekoji murmured thoughtfully.

After that, he got to work.

……

“Done!”

He sneaked into the girls’ changing room smoothly. Using the empty lunch break time, Himekoji carefully stuck his handsome posters on every locker door.

It didn’t take much effort at all.

The most time-consuming part was adjusting the angle and lighting of each poster as he stuck them on.

He wanted every girl to see the best version of him when they came inside, took off their uniforms, and prepared to change into gym clothes or even a school swimsuit.

He hoped the moment they opened the lockers and saw such dazzling “fan service,” they’d gasp something like “Ooh~” in pleasant surprise.

“Well… that was quite satisfying…”

Himekoji let himself fantasize for a bit.

Of course, he made sure to ignore the embarrassing parts while doing so. That was pretty much his instinct now.

If you couldn’t even ignore your own shame, you had no right to call yourself a pervert!

Also, he had to admit it was much more enjoyable to pick and choose which tasks he wanted to do!

Do whichever one he wanted; skip whichever he didn’t feel like doing.

For the first time ever, Himekoji even found himself feeling… motivated while doing a task.

When it was finished, Himekoji kept one poster to take home, planning to frame it in his bedroom to admire slowly.

That System’s photoshopping skills really were something else.

……

Afternoon classes hadn’t started yet. When Himekoji returned to the classroom and saw Nanami wasn’t there, he went out again to lean on the hallway railings and look around.

He was searching for Nanami.

The only bento boxes still in his hands were Nanami’s and Mashiro’s.

Everything else had already been delivered.

Hiratsuka-sensei’s was placed directly in her office. Similarly, Kasumigaoka’s was left neatly on her desk without disturbing her.

He’d found her actually… lying down asleep when he went to look for her.

Did she have no sense of being a student at all?

Though, Himekoji wasn’t really in a position to complain about others…

……

Nanami wasn’t on the sports ground, not at the snack shop, not in the cafeteria, and not in the garden.

Where else could she be during lunch break?

The Rooftop?

That seemed like the only place left.

Himekoji immediately looked up toward the rooftop direction.

“Huh?!”

She really was there.

But what shocked him wasn’t just that his guess was right.

It was because he saw Mashiro on the rooftop too.

Nanami and Mashiro… together?

He rarely saw them hanging out together at school—especially not at such a sensitive time like this.

The day after they’d both… slapped him one after another.

Of course he’d take notice.

What were they doing?

He couldn’t see clearly from his position; he just vaguely felt like they were talking.

But if they were talking… what could they be talking about?

The more he thought about it, the more anxious he felt. He went back to the classroom to grab Nanami and Mashiro’s bento boxes and quickly headed toward the rooftop.

He’d actually planned to skip class that afternoon to deliver Mashiro’s bento to her hotel… he hadn’t expected her to be at school today.

But now that he thought about it, she couldn’t take leave forever. Besides, it had been over a week since the online buzz about Mashiro started; the discussion was gradually calming down. Most fans had finally shifted their focus back onto the manga itself.

……

Several students sat scattered here and there on the rooftop.

For any school, rooftops were popular spots—always top choices for chatting, confessing feelings, making out… even the occasional violent confrontation.

Naturally, quite a few students gathered there during the lunch break.

But when most of them spotted Himekoji, a wave of whispering broke out before they started… scrambling to leave one after another.

Something like this wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Himekoji laughed awkwardly to himself.

There was no other way around it. After all, the Toyonoshi Academy rooftop witnessed him activate the Perverse Choice System many times. One could even say he had… quite a record there.

Students avoiding him was understandable.

If anything, they actually helped him out. In no time, the rooftop completely emptied out. Only Himekoji (who’s watching Nanami and Mashiro) and Nanami and Mashiro (who’s pretending not to see Himekoji) remained.

“Ahem…”

Himekoji stepped forward and cleared his throat softly, trying to make himself noticed.

It didn’t work.

The two girls stopped talking the moment he approached and silently packed away their recently finished Bento.

They’d already eaten!

But even so, Himekoji was determined to give them his Bento.

That was his stubbornness. No, wait—it was to gain energy!

“B-Bento…”

When he finally spoke, his voice faltered on the very first word. All nerves.

Maybe that was understandable. After everything that had happened, Himekoji truly hadn’t figured out how to face Mashiro and Nanami.

He was such a clumsy newbie at this stuff.

Mashiro instinctively reached out for the Bento Himekoji offered. It was pure habit.

Habits run deep.

“Hey! Didn’t you just eat?!”

Luckily, Nanami beside her grabbed her hand just in time.

“Ah, right.”

So Mashiro pulled her hand back and patted her own little tummy.

“It’s still full.”

“I-It’s fine! You don’t have to eat it! But at least, please accept it!”

“What a waste!”

Hearing this, Nanami frowned instantly. She was frugal by nature, absolutely opposed to any kind of waste.

“Ah, well… you could eat it as a snack later…”

That was the best excuse his frazzled brain could offer.

“Heart-shaped Bento?”

Nanami glanced at the Lunchbox Himekoji held out, spotting its heart shape. Her eyebrow twitched faintly.

“Two Heart-shaped Bentos? So you really just decided we’re your… your wings?”

The word “wings” instantly brought back the previous night’s disaster caused by the System. Burning shame flooded him. The stinging memory of both girls slapping his cheeks rushed back, making Himekoji’s face flush right then.

“N-No!”

He scrambled to explain.

“It’s not two. There are ninety-eight other Bentos just like this.”

What he meant to say was:

The Lunchbox just happened to be heart-shaped, it wasn’t a “Heart-shaped Bento” with special meaning! He’d made so many for so many people; it definitely wasn’t romantic!

But flustered and desperate to get the explanation out quickly, Himekoji cut out most of what he meant, trying to be brief and clear. He succeeded at brief. Clear? Not so much.

The result was a classic case of making things worse by explaining.

Nanami looked ready to explode!

“You… you!”

She pointed at him, too furious to even form words.

“Akito. Mean.”

Even the usually quiet Mashiro puffed out her cheeks and voiced her displeasure.

It took Nanami a moment to catch her breath. Glaring at Himekoji, her fierce expression was mixed with hurt and resentment.

“You… you! You didn’t just want two wings! You wanted a hundred wings!”

…