Kyosuke could do nothing but watch as Komatsu’s greedy little hands worked their way around Madoka’s back and shoulders. Not while Hikaru was sitting right there. What would she think if he all of a sudden made an outburst like that? But still! For Komatsu to touch her in such a way was definitely causing his jealousy to rise and spike!
“Isn’t this such a fun game, sempai?” Hikaru enthusiastically said, distracting Kyosuke from the sly side glance Madoka gave him and the cheeky smile on her lips. “Oh! I hope you get to give me a massage like that!”
Just as he missed the flicker of an expression on Ayukawa’s face, so too did the young esper completely miss the conspiratorial glance shared by four other people in the room. Though he did momentarily catch Kurumi whistling and twiddling her thumbs while staring innocently up at the ceiling, it just made him more wary of whatever practical joke she’d thought to pull on him later on. Probably a question of some sort, which meant he absolutely could not let her win a round!
“You’re better at this than I expected,” Ayukawa said.
“You’re too kind! Too kind!” Komatsu said. “But my goodness, there’s so much tension back here! I would almost think you were worried about something!”
“Eh?!” Hikaru gasped. “There’s no way! No way would anything worry her! She’s far too strong and capable to be worried about anything!”
“That’s time!” Kurumi said, clicking on the stopwatch. “Two minutes, on the dot!”
The next round began, and Kyosuke could feel a strange tension in the air. Almost as though whatever Komatsu had just been talking about had leaked out into the room. He kept on glimpsing over towards Ayukawa - Had she really enjoyed that shoulder rub? Was there something worrying her after all? He was barely even paying attention to the game anymore, which meant it was absolutely no surprise at all that he lost.
“Well done, Hikaru!” Hatta said with a small applause. “Time to draw a penalty card, Kyosuke!”
Hikaru looked coy and shy, even batting her eyes at him. There wasn’t much doubt in his mind about what she wanted. She wanted the kiss on the cheek or the shoulder rub, but the chances of that coming up again weren’t that great, surely. He gulped and flipped the card over -
“Oh no! Please don’t tickle me, sempai! I couldn’t take it!”
Tickle her? For one minute? In front of Ayukawa? Somehow that was worse than the kiss or a shoulder rub, because knowing this girl she’d be rolling around all over the place trying to get away from him! What sort of hellish penalty had he fallen into this time?!
“Brother, please begin!” Manami said. “We’re all quite eager to get on with the next round.”
Ah! What should he do! They were all staring at him expectantly! How could he best get out of this! Where would be the best place to tickle her and not make it look dirty? This sort of thing - This sort of thing!
Which is right about when the lamp in the corner fell over, making rather a loud noise in the process. Nothing to do with a spontaneous bout of uncontrolled telekinesis, no sir!
“Oh dear. That looks like quite the mess,” Ayukawa sighed. “Nothing else for it. We’ll have to clean it up before we can continue.”
Somehow he was a little bit relieved by that particular development. Kyosuke really didn’t think he could survive another round of this particular game!
<hr>
In a different round with less players, Manami flipped over the top card of the penalty deck and stared at the round’s winner instead of the text. It was peculiar, really. She hadn’t really paid much attention to these two before, but they were rather fun to hang around with.
“Any question, huh?” Hatta said thoughtfully, even stroking his chin in deep thought. Any question? Oh, goodness, how embarassing! He could ask just about anything and she’d have to answer! “Let’s see… Aha! Your brother! How is he progressing with Hikaru and Madoka?”
“Not at all!” Manami huffed. About her brother? It was strangely disappointing that it wasn’t about her instead. “My stupid brother waffles so much he makes Buridan’s ass look decisive. If he saw a car about to hit him he wouldn’t know whether to dodge left or right, never mind making up his mind between -”
“Eh?!” Kurumi gasped. “What do you mean? He likes Madoka as well? How greedy!”
“Another cupcake?” Komatsu offered.
“Always!” Kurumi said, greedily scarfing it down without a second thought. Greedy was he indeed? Mister Pot paging Mister Kettle…
“I don’t think he’s greedy,” Manami said. “I just think he’s wishy-washy and can’t make up his mind between the two of them. He likes them both and doesn’t want to hurt either of them -”
“Which means that in the end he’s going to wind up hurting both and dating neither!” Hatta concluded. “Buridan’s ass seems like an apt description. He’ll stand between two bales of hay, move for neither and starve!”
“It’s kind of sad in a way,” Komatsu said. “I mean, if only he could make up his mind one way or the other he could achieve a little bit of happiness. If things stay the way they are, he’s doomed to misery!”
Both boys gave a simultaneous weary sigh that Manami almost thought sounded rehearsed. Which was a ridiculous idea; why would they rehearse something like that? She was also a little impressed they apparently knew what Buridan’s ass was. Maybe these two were smarter than she’d given them credit for? Maybe they were full of other pleasant little surprises as well?
“No way!” Kurumi suddenly said. “My brother may be an indecisive idiot, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something about it! I’ll just hypnotise him into -”
“No hypnosis!” Manami interrupted. “It’d just wear off and leave him no better than he was before!”
It looked very much like Komatsu wanted to say something, but stopped and stared at Hatta with a quirked eyebrow. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head just now about that hypnosis thing. Hopefully they would think it was just some stupid joke or something like that. The last thing she needed right now was to dig up roots and move elsewhere because Kurumi couldn’t keep her big cupcake full mouth shut. Especially if it took her away from -
“Well, to be honest, I had a different idea,” Komatsu said. “See, we just need to give him a bit of a nudge to make him see sense…”
<hr>
To step back still further in time, two boys were huddled around a pack of white cards with markers in hand, grinning like a couple of idiots.
“Bow to the winner and congratulate them on winning,” Hatta said as he carefully wrote out those very words on the blank card before him. “How’s that?”
“Perfect!” Komatsu responded with a quick thumbs up. “I think that’s all we need. We’ve got opportunities, and we’ve got some spacers to diffuse tension and draw out anticipation.” Holding up a packet of blank cards he added, “And we’ll bring some blanks for after we’ve got the wheels greased and sown some seeds of interest, in case a new game with different penalties will work later.”
Hatta nodded. “If we’re going to go for that later we’ll probably want to have them write some of the cards.”
Komatsu chuckled in anticipation, nodding his head. Then he furrowed his brow and tapped his chin while deep in thought. “Still, what about Kyosuke, Hikaru and Ayukawa?”
That was an issue the two of them had been avoiding, but it looked like there was no way around it. They couldn’t put off figuring out that particular point forever, and now was the best time. Hatta folded his arms contemplatively, and nodded with his eyes closed. “True.” He really couldn’t think of anything else.
For several moments both were silent. The issue was rather a thorny one, and neither was particularly certain on what exactly they really wanted either.
“On the one hand, our pal Kyosuke isn’t scared of the way Madoka the Pick can trash small gangs single handedly, or the way she’s such close friends with Hikaru,” Komatsu idly remarked.
“I don’t think he’s the type that would be bothered by that sort of thing. Of course, while both are really hot and Hikaru keeps throwing herself at him, he’s too indecisive to make any attempt at really going anywhere with either,” Hatta added with a nod.
“So…” Komatsu declared thoughtfully, “let’s see if we can exert a little pressure on the threesome, maybe get Kyosuke to man up and commit to one choice, or alternatively see if we can get Madoka and Hikaru to seriously consider sharing one more thing as part of their friendship.”
Hatta gave a little laugh. Well, why hadn’t they thought of that sooner? There was just one small problem, unfortunately. “Still, Kyosuke’s really hesitant on the girls. How much time are we going to waste if this horse never gets the nerve to take a drink?”
Komatsu thought and nodded his head. “We leave it to fate!” He grabbed a deck of regular playing cards, shuffled it quickly and fanned it out in his hand. “Pick a card, and that’s how many times we’ll fully commit to trying to push Kyosuke together with the girls.”
Hatta reached out toward the cards, but paused to ask, “If it’s still nothing after we’ve made our try, Hikaru and Madoka are fair game?”
Komatsu nodded. “Of course! With the understanding we back off if our pal ever mans up. Although having said that, it’s likelier that pigs may fly!”
Hatta drew a card and flipped it over… The seven of hearts. Seven times they’d try to help their good buddy out. Seven times and then they could make their own play. Well then! This little trip looked like it would be quite a lot of fun for all concerned!
- Time for the first proper attempt! Kyosuke is locked in a small dark room with one of or both of the girls.
- Madoka thinks that the two perverts are up to something, but can’t figure out what. She confronts the pair.
- Kurumi decides that if she can’t hypnotise her brother, she’ll just hypnotise someone else instead! That wasn’t vetoed at all!
- The perverts continue to work their magic on the twins.
- Something else
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