"What do you mean 'feeling guilty'? Hachiman hugged me for a bit, it's nothing. I've done more intimate stuff in front of Yumiko before, you know," Ijichi Nijika glared at the worryingly well-meaning Yamada Ryou. To be honest, she really did feel a bit guilty.
Theoretically she could say that. The scene in the classroom where she 'rewarded' Hachiman before was way more intense than today.
But some things are fine to do in front of Yumiko, and awkward to do behind her back.
"More intimate stuff? Nijika, you haven't already—", Yamada Ryou stared at Ijichi Nijika and suddenly made a hand gesture.
'Isn't what happened today intimate enough? How far have Nijika and Hachiman gone?'
"No, we haven't! Ryou, don't jump to conclusions!", Seeing Ryou's blunt gesture, Nijika's face grew even redder, her pretty pale face blooming with a flushed glow.
She didn't have time to dispel Ryou's ugly thoughts, and hurriedly turned to look at Hachiman, who was holding Gotou Hitori.
"Hachiman, you too! Stop touching her! Yumiko's already outside!"
"What does Yumiko being outside have to do with it? We didn't do anything shameful. Just open the door. Bocchi did well tonight and deserves a proper reward."
Hachiman stroked Gotou Hitori's smooth long hair with one hand, and lightly scratched Gotou Hitori's rounded chin with the other.
"Hehehe… it wasn't that great really…"
Gotou Hitori, hugged in Hachiman's arms and praised while being petted on the head, protested modestly but couldn't hide how much she was enjoying it. She floated on cloud nine.
Even with her social anxiety, Gotou Hitori hadn't lost the desire to shine, to be liked.
Normally timid, but when praised she brimmed with pride.
Hachiman and Gotou Hitori's personalities were similar in many ways, so Hachiman knew how to deepen his rapport with Gotou right now.
Later, when Bocchi, Nijika, and Ryou got closer and practiced more, they wouldn't need his invisible presence on stage to bridge gaps, but Bocchi could always ask him for a reward after every successful show.
"…Then take off the bracelet on my hand before rewarding me."
Ijichi Nijika looked at the feigning Hachiman and the Gotou who was completely under his control, lifted her hand to show the silver bracelet on her wrist, and glared at the three of them with a flushed face.
Opening the door for Yumiko was fine, and Hachiman rewarding Bocchi was fine too.
But could he please unfasten this silver shared-feeling bracelet first?
Ryou's black collar and Nijika's silver bracelet seemed to have the same effect, neither could be casually removed.
However, Ryou's black collar could switch off the sharing function; her bracelet had no way to shut it down.
Now she was sharing the sensation of Bocchi being petted on the head and chin by Hachiman, and her whole body felt off.
Why would Bocchi enjoy a reward that treated her like a pet, and look so pleased about it?
"Ryou?"
Ijichi Nijika suddenly noticed Yamada Ryou had come up beside Gotou Hitori and, together with Hachiman, was touching Gotou Hitori's head. Her vision went black for a moment.
If Ryou wasn't going to help her, at least don't join Hachiman in tormenting her?
"Now I'm curious… can you really share every kind of feeling? Hachiman, if you touch different parts of Nijika and Bocchi, will they feel it at the same time?", Yamada Ryou calmly withdrew her hand and looked at Hachiman with curiosity.
"Of course. You can try it too. But this bracelet is different from the collar, your feelings will also be shared with Bocchi."
Hachiman smiled, nodded, unclasped the shared bracelet from Nijika's wrist, and handed the empathy bracelet to Yamada Ryou.
"Hmm… I can't tell the difference between the collar and the bracelet this way, but it's still weird," Yamada Ryou put on the shared bracelet and pinched the flesh on Bocchi's arm; immediately she felt the force of her own pinch in her arm.
But this level of sharing could be done with the collar too.
She couldn't experience what Bocchi felt when Bocchi shared her feelings, though.
She wondered if this thing could share any feeling? Was there no limit?
If she were asleep, would Bocchi's sensation wake her? Or would she have a dream influenced by Bocchi?
Would pleasure erase physical pain? Or would it be painful and pleasurable at the same time?
"You four stop playing and open the door! I'll go open it!"
Seeing she was the only one anxious while the others played, Nijika was nearly furious, but she couldn't do anything to the three of them. She angrily glared at Hachiman, Gotou Hitori, and Yamada Ryou, then went to open the restroom door.
"Yumiko's here, she's here!"
"Finally opened the door?"
Miura Yumiko and Kitagawa Marin, who had been waiting outside for a while, walked into the restroom and looked dubiously at Nijika's still-flushed pale pretty face.
"Did Hachiman just do something bad to you, Nijika?"
"No! There were so many people outside and in here; Hachiman wouldn't dare do anything naughty to me."
Nijika's heart leapt and she hurriedly waved her hands to explain.
"Yumiko, why don't you say it was Nijika and the others doing something bad to me?", Hachiman stopped rewarding his beloved Bocchi and rolled his eyes at the accusing Miura Yumiko.
"Nijika doesn't have your p*rverted taste. In class she always wants to do it, wouldn't she be even more excited here?"
Miura Yumiko looked at Hachiman, whose hands rested on Gotou Hitori and Yamada Ryou's heads, and couldn't help pursing her lips.
Everyone knew Hachiman could use an invisibility spell; he wasn't worried about making noise in the restroom and being found out.
However, saying that made Hachiman unflustered, while Marin and Nijika flushed even more.
How shameful for them.
Yumiko worried they were being taken advantage of by Hachiman, and yet they promised to pull Yumiko into rewarding him later…
"P*rverted tastes?"
As Nijika and Marin were too embarrassed to speak, Yukinoshita Yukino entered the restroom with Yuigahama Yui, Hayase Saki, and Narahashi Miki.
As soon as she came in she heard Miura Yumiko mention something about p*rverted tastes, it seemed to concern their Service Club president Hachiman.
That made Yukino put up her guard to see if she could find any fault in Hachiman.
"Ahem! I meant Hachiman's always cutting class and the teachers don't like him," Miura Yumiko, seeing Yukino and the Service Club members enter, immediately changed the subject.
Their private special relationship with Hachiman could be talked about quietly, but not in front of others.
You can't make those things public. If Yukino misunderstood Nijika and Marin as bullying Hachiman, that'd be troublesome.
"We were just discussing where to hold tonight's celebration for the show's success and Bocchi's welcome party."
Ijichi Nijika quickly shifted the topic; she didn't want Yukino to probe their relationship with Hachiman.
"I originally thought of going to an izakaya to eat, but there are too many people outside, it's hard to arrange…", As she spoke, Nijika genuinely felt conflicted.
She expected Marin and the others to show up, but Hachiman had brought a lot of people and she didn't know how to arrange it.
Although the girls supporting from outside were mostly masked and hatted, many were clearly from their school, same masks and caps, even the wrist guards and collars matched.
She didn't even want to complain about how Hachiman managed to hook up with so many girls. There were already three gals like Yuina in their class, and even her and Yumiko and Marin rewarding him wasn't enough.
Even if she and Marin wanted to eliminate other competitors and help pair Yumiko with Hachiman, whether they could do it or not, if Yumiko faced Hachiman alone she'd probably ask them for help within a day.
"You don't have to worry about Iris and the others. They came after eating and will go home after the show," Hachiman, sensing what Nijika fretted over, petted Gotou Hitori's head and explained.
Sakurase Shino, a weak succubus who keeps to herself, wouldn't appear in crowded livehouses.
Kaede and Suzu have strict parents; Rurikawa and Tachibana are nobles who wouldn't rashly come to such chaotic places.
Iris, Aegis, and Lumilia, being elf princesses, have no interest in mingling like this.
So even though tonight's band performance didn't really involve them, they came to experience the vibe of fans supporting an underground band up close.
After the show and the experience, Iris and the others would go home and wait for Hachiman.
"I'll be the same. I'll go home after the show," Yukinoshita Yukino also didn't want to stay. She only came to check whether Hachiman had handled Nijika's request properly.
She believed she didn't contribute to this band assignment, and even if Hachiman and Gotou joined the celebration, there was no way she'd shamelessly attend.
"Huh? Yukino, you're not joining the celebration?", Nijika stared blankly at Yukino and the others. She had just worried there were too many people to arrange, and now suddenly almost no one would attend?
"Uh… if you aren't going, I won't either…", Hearing Yukino, Yuigahama Yui awkwardly looked to Hayase Saki and Narahashi Miki and echoed softly.
Honestly she wanted to go. If the club president joined, it'd be easier for a new member like her to fit in. She could pay for her own share.
But she wasn't close to the president, only to Yukino. If Yukino didn't go, she'd have no one to chat with.
"…", Hayase Saki didn't know what to say; she and Narahashi Miki could only look imploringly at Hachiman.
She wanted to attend the celebration and Bocchi's welcome not just for free food, but to spend time with the president.
She'd even arranged to come see the performance with Miki to have an excuse to stay over at Miki's house tonight; she told her mother she'd sleep at Miki's.
But with Yukino, the vice president, not going, how could she and her friend boldly stay behind?
Although Yukino couldn't expel her, she usually followed Yukino's lead and watched Yukino's expressions.
"The celebration tonight is also the Service Club's welcome party for Bocchi. It's not mandatory. If you want to join, join; if not, don't."
Hachiman looked at Hayase Saki and Narahashi Miki's pitiful, small, undernourished expressions and sighed. Athletes like them are already under pressure and often miss out on food.
"You don't need to worry about too many of us bothering Nijika. Yukino, you took the club funds, right? Just handle the payment later."
"I could just hand you the club funds now," Yukinoshita Yukino's attitude was cold; she had no intention of joining this so-called celebration-welcome.
She didn't know what Hachiman's motives were for wanting her there, but it surely wasn't good. Walking away decisively was the right choice.
"Really not coming? But your sister seemed like she wanted to go."
Seeing Yukino stubbornly unmoved, Hachiman nudged toward the door behind her.
"My sister?", Yukinoshita Yukino froze and turned sharply to the doorway.
Leaning on the doorframe, a tall black-haired figure who looked very like Yukino smiled, Yukino's sister, Yukinoshita Haruno, had been caught eavesdropping.
"Hello, Yuki-chan~"
"What are you doing here? Aren't you very busy?", Yukinoshita Yukino frowned and spoke coldly to the black-haired woman who looked very much like her.
Unlike Ichinose or Rurikawa's families, the Yukinoshita household had more than one daughter. Besides Yukino, there was her older sister Haruno studying at Chiba University.
Yukino hadn't told her sister she was coming here, how did Haruno know?
No matter how Haruno learned of it, a sister who shouldn't be here had appeared, and that couldn't be a good sign.
"You can watch the band here, why can't I? It's the weekend, Yuki-chan, you have to rest a bit even if you're busy~"
Yukinoshita Haruno smiled, unfazed by her sister's cold tone, then turned to Hachiman and Ijichi Nijika and introduced herself.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.