Anime, Girlfriend Shokuhou Misaki.

"Anyway, it's up to the two senior students to decide how to do it; it doesn't matter to me."

"However, I am very grateful to both of you regarding the matter of the Bladebreakers among the terrorists."

"Thank you!"

After leaving those words, Makoto Haramura didn't say anything more and left directly.

"Humph--"

"Dao Hua, this junior is quite good at sophistry."

With a dissatisfied blink, a small smile appeared on the corner of Kintokuhara's mouth.

"But isn't the junior very sensible?"

Elegantly removing her glasses, Toudou Touka slowly wiped them with a glasses cloth, a faint smile on her face.

She had just thought the situation was about to get out of control.

Unexpectedly, Makoto Haramura thanked them for that matter in the end, didn't he?

"He was faking it on purpose, wasn't he?"

"By the way, you have a lot of opinions about Haramura-kun."

Seeing the sullen look on Kintokuhara's face, Toudou Touka couldn't help but chuckle.

"Anyway, there's already a reasonable explanation, isn't there?"

"If you're still not satisfied, you have one more chance to take revenge yourself."

Her best friend was the only daughter of the Guide Yuan Consortium.

She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but my best friend doesn't like to put on airs and is a very easy-going person.

Otherwise, I, an orphan, wouldn't have become such good friends with her.

But ordinary girls might still throw a little tantrum sometimes.

Even though my best friend is usually very generous, she's a little angry right now, which is perfectly normal.

"Hmph, who would do something so pointless for something like this?"

"Besides, I also want to be part of the delegation. I won't do something that would cause me trouble."

The two girls sat there quietly discussing a topic they would never normally discuss.

It was clear that the conversation started as a reference for the enemy and a way to repay his junior, but later the topics became increasingly off-topic.

But one thing these two girls never thought about was...

The prerequisite for developing a liking for someone is to develop an interest in them.

……

Buildings line both sides of the road, adorned with colorful lights, while black cars speed along the asphalt.

The surrounding street scene rushed past.

Stella sat in the passenger seat, looking at the man's profile in the driver's seat, playing with her hair with her fingertips, as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.

"You can say whatever you want to say."

"It doesn't need to be like this."

Driving the car he'd hitched a ride in that morning from Shinomiya Kuro, Makoto Haramura glanced at Stella's appearance out of the corner of his eye and said with a hint of helplessness.

This is not the present time.

Stella has been like this ever since she finished giving her statement and set off for the hospital where Ayatsuji Kaito was.

Stella is still the same as before, even though she's been discharged from the hospital.

"Is it really okay to ask?"

Stella twirled her hair with her fingertips even faster, and an unnatural flush appeared on her face.

"Of course, if you don't ask clearly, you probably won't be able to sleep tonight."

Makoto Haramura chuckled.

The bed he shared with Stella probably had screws that weren't tightened enough; whenever Stella moved on the top bunk, his bed would shake along with her.

Stella often woke him up in the middle of the night by shaking him like this.

Sometimes he didn't know what Stella was twisting and turning on top of, but he didn't dare to ask or look.

"would not."

Stella stubbornly insisted in a low voice.

Stella thought she had hidden it well for so many days, but Makoto Haramura exposed it so directly, making Stella's already rosy cheeks turn even redder.

"Then I'll ask you, and you must answer truthfully."

"I will definitely answer truthfully."

Makoto Haramura repeatedly affirmed this.

Given the current situation, he didn't think Stella could ask him anything he couldn't answer.

At least for now, at this moment, Makoto Haramura appears very calm.

"Were you angry with me just now?"

"Because that...that bastard wants...want to see my naked...naked body."

"Of course."

Without even a second's hesitation, Makoto Haramura gave an affirmative answer.

Honestly, he thought Stella would get some answers.

This is the result, and he was even a little worried about it.

"No matter what, you've already..."

"This means that you at least have a good impression of me."

"I wouldn't say I like him that much, but I definitely have a good impression of him."

Before Haramura Makoto could finish speaking, Stella interrupted, looking at him with hopeful eyes.

(I……)

At this moment, he truly wanted to take back the arrogant words he had uttered just a second ago.

He thought that Stella had already launched such a fierce offensive today, so she shouldn't attack again, at least not today.

But I didn't expect the attack to come so quickly and so directly.

The straight punches were almost hitting his face.

"I……"

He had only just uttered a single syllable, and before he could finish speaking, he swallowed the rest of his words under Stella's intense gaze.

Under such scrutiny, he couldn't bring himself to say anything perfunctory.

At this point, pretending not to hear will only hurt this innocent girl's heart.

"Yes."

Completely cornered with no way to escape, Makoto Haramura nodded reluctantly.

It wasn't that he was unwilling to reciprocate Stella's feelings, so he forced himself to do it.

He just hadn't figured out how to respond yet.

But that was just recently.

He thought about many things in that instant.

Even the unreliable suggestion that Xijing Ningyin had once given him came back to mind.

In the end, he finally figured it out.

There's no point in just thinking about things from the perspective of the future. It's impossible to solve problems in advance. You have to do it first, and once the problem actually happens, then you can deal with it.

This is the kind of behavior that Makoto Haramura should have. When has he ever been so hesitant and cautious before?

"Yes, Stella, I have a very high opinion of you."

Chapter 077 Dreaming, Trash

The following day, at the Ayatsuji Itto-ryu dojo.

Actually, calling it the next day is a bit of an exaggeration, since it's already evening and the afterglow of the setting sun is scattered on the ancient Japanese buildings, giving them a unique charm.

"Senior, did you really only send your dojo away for two years?"

Standing at the entrance of the dojo, Kurogane Ikki's brows were deeply furrowed.

Although the scenery in front of us is beautiful and refreshing.

Sunset glow, wooden buildings, scattered casually on the ground, and maple leaves that are half green and half red.

But what seemed out of place was this dilapidated temple.

The sect that symbolizes Ayatsuji Ittō-ryū is already teetering on the brink of collapse, seemingly about to fall at any moment. The wooden walls are covered with cracks and breaks, and cigarette butts, snack bags, beer bottles, and other miscellaneous items are scattered around the entrance.

The yard was overgrown with weeds, some as tall as a person. The anti-corrosion paint that should have been applied to the wooden blocks had also peeled off, revealing the original color of the wood underneath.

This level of decay is so severe that saying it's been abandoned for two years is an understatement; it would take at least ten years or more for it to reach this state.

“After they seized the dojo, they did not make any repairs to it.”

"They even vandalize things carelessly every time they come, which is why the damage is so extensive."

Ayatsuji Junse said through gritted teeth.

In the past two years, she has come here countless times to challenge others, trying to take back her family's dojo.

Every time she arrived and saw the destruction these guys caused to her home, her anger would escalate even further.

"This time, I, Ikki, will help you take back the dojo."

"But whether you can protect your family's dojo after that depends on your own efforts."

He casually summoned his spirit armor, casually hoisted it onto his shoulder, and said calmly to Ayatsuji Junse.

"What others take from you will always belong to them; only what is yours will always be yours."

His presence here is because he made a deal with Ayatsuji Kaito, Ayatsuji Junse's father, yesterday.

However, his deal with Ayatsuji Kaito was only this one.

"I know……"

Ayatsuji Junze nodded calmly.

"In short, I am very grateful to Haramura and Kurogane for their help to our family."

She didn't listen in on the conversation last night; she just waited outside the ward.

However, after Makoto Haramura and Stella left, when he went into his father's room to find him, his father said with certainty that the territory would be taken back.

(But I just don't know what my father meant by that regretful expression.)

"That's good."

"Let's go in."

"Stella, you two hurry up too."

Looking at Stella and Shizuku Kurogane who were whispering behind him, Makoto Haramura sighed helplessly.

The offensive intensified last night.

When he woke up in the morning, Stella, who was only wearing black underwear, was riding on his back, her hands groping his stomach.

And he had a dazed look on his face, touching it while muttering things like, "So this is what a man's body is like," and "His abs are so hard."

If it weren't for his strong willpower, a bloody incident would have occurred this morning.

"understood."