Saki smiled at me after Hayato slunk away, a smile that still had a trace of the shy, bespectacled girl I'd first met months ago. The "new her", polished hair, touched-up style, confidence stitched into her posture, wasn't a mask. It was growth, yes, but the old Saki was still in there, peeking through when she let her guard down.
"Lucien," she said softly, almost whispering, "thank you. Again."
This wasn't the first time.
Back before she remade herself, Saki used to get cornered by upperclassmen, shoved toward stairwells, pushed to take jokes too far. I'd stepped in then, the same way I did now. blunt, unrelenting, unwilling to let anyone turn her into prey. Maybe that was when she started looking at me differently. Maybe that was when I started looking back.
"You don't have to thank me," I told her. "You shouldn't have to."
Her eyes flickered down, embarrassed but glowing. "I… I just feel safe when you're around."
Safe. The word both soothed and stabbed.
Because the system pulsed faintly in the corner of my vision.
[Target Affection: +2%]
I clenched my jaw and forced it away. This wasn't for points. This was real.
That's when Saki invited me out.
"Lucien, do you… want to go to karaoke with me?" she asked, fiddling with the strap of her bag.
The system flashed...
[Quest Progression Triggered.]
When I saw the nervous hope in her eyes, the way she tried to act casual but kept stealing glances, I couldn't say no.
So that night, we went.
The city glowed with neon as we walked side by side. The karaoke box loomed over a busy intersection, bright signs advertising cheap drinks and all-night songs. Inside, the corridors were dim and humming, the sound of muffled voices and laughter leaking from behind closed doors.
Saki booked us a room, her excitement bubbling in nervous giggles. "It's been forever since I sang in front of anyone. Don't laugh, okay?"
I smiled back, but inside, my chest was a battlefield.
Because as the door clicked shut behind us, the system pulsed again:
[Quest Update: Isolate the Target.]
[Reward Multiplier: Active.]
The room smelled of cheap air freshener and sticky carpet, exactly what you'd expect from a late-night karaoke box, but in the small rectangle of space we carved out, the world thinned to just the two of us.
Saki had picked a corner seat and tucked her legs under her like she was still a child, the way she used to when we tried to study together in the library. Her fingers trembled a little as she scrolled through songs.
I let her choose. Letting her pick felt like the smallest kindness I could offer that wasn't poisoned by the system.
We sang badly. We laughed at how badly we sang. She insisted on a ridiculous pop song halfway through and dragged me into a duet, her voice bright and a little out of tune. When I missed a line, she elbowed me and giggled that high, unaffected laugh I remembered so well. It was ridiculous and perfect.
Between songs she talked; the words came easier than I'd seen them in months. She told small things, about a girl in her class who always ate curry for lunch, about a stray cat she named "Miso," about how she still sometimes dreamed in the margins of textbooks. Her shoulders relaxed around the edges of anecdote like a knot finally loosening.
"Lucien," she said at one point, voice soft, "do you ever regret helping me change? I know it was… a lot." She touched her hair absently.
"No. I don't. You deserved to be seen."
She blinked at that, and there was that tiny, almost embarrassed smile, the one that always made the rest of the world recede. She leaned closer to read the lyrics on my phone and brushed my knee with her hand. The contact was feather-light, accidental-seeming, but the system saw everything.
My vision tinted for a heartbeat with numbers and icons I couldn't make myself care about and then, mercifully, nothing. I breathed like I'd been holding it and let the warmth of her laugh fill the small room.
We ordered drinks, nonalcoholic for me, something fizzy for her, and shared a plate of greasy fries that stained our fingers. At one point, she reached across the table without thinking and took my hand like she was checking if I was real. Her fingers fit around mine in that way that makes your heart do something stupid.
The menu chimed.
[Affection Update: Yoshida Saki — 90%]
[Affinity Status: Loves Host]
[Quest Timer: 5 Hours]
I nearly dropped my phone. The system's voice was clinically neutral, like a ledger: affection quantified, time remaining. Ninety percent. Loves Host. The words did not feel clinical in my throat; they felt like a blade I was trying to swallow whole.
Saki's head turned up, eyes bright. "You look pale. Are you, are you okay?" Her hand squeezed mine, a small, grounding pressure.
"Oh," I said, and managed a smile I hoped didn't wobble. "I'm fine. Just... cold draft in here, I guess."
She laughed, a soft sound, and let go of my hand, though the warmth lingered on my skin. We sang another two songs back-to-back by ridiculous request; she dragged me into a slow one near the end that had lyrics about staying together until morning. The irony of the line made my throat close.
Every laugh she gave, every little confession she offered, added weight to that percentage glowing in the corner of my sight. Ninety. Almost everything. Close enough that if the system was a cruel mathematician, the sum would soon be complete.
And all the while the timer kept falling.
Time has a way of becoming visible when you're waiting for catastrophe. The numbers ticked down like a heartbeat: 05:12:42… 05:12:41… I tried to read the song lyrics aloud and force my mind onto something ordinary, but the edges of the room began to feel like glass. If the system wanted consummation, it would look for privacy. Isolation. A moment where doubt could be softened with warmth and consent blurred into inevitability.
Saki sang the final chorus with her eyes closed, hands curled around the microphone. When she opened them, she looked at me as if the rest of the room had vanished.
"Lucien," she said quietly, and it was both a confession and a question, "I'm really glad you've always been here for me. You're… important to me. More than I can say."
My chest squeezed so hard I nearly couldn't breathe. The words were simple, true, and terrible. They made my whole body want to move in one direction, to protect, to pull her into something honest, and they also made the system pulse like a viper tasting blood.
I wanted to hold her and tell her everything: about the menu, the curse, the countdown. I wanted to refuse the path the system carved for me with every fiber of my being. I wanted to be noble. I wanted to be the man she deserved.
But the numbers over my vision kept sliding down, implacable: 05:12:30… 05:12:20…
[ :) ]
I swallowed and let the music wash over us again, letting the warmth of this stolen hour press into the hollow the system had left in me. For now, we had laughter, fries, and the small, human miracle of two people not yet broken.
The timer kept ticking.
Saki's laughter echoed in the cramped room, softer now, as though the songs had burned away some of her shyness and left her glowing in its wake. She leaned back, cheeks flushed from soda and singing, and I caught myself staring longer than I should have.
[Affinity Surge Detected.]
[Yoshida Saki — 92%]
I forced my gaze away, tracing the patterns in the sticky tabletop, trying to remind myself this wasn't about numbers. It was about her. About the girl who used to sit alone in the library, who once whispered to me that she didn't think she'd ever be "enough" for anyone. If the system thought it could corrupt that memory into a stepping stone for its own ends, it was wrong.
Saki tilted her head. "Lucien? You're doing that thing again. The thinking face."
I blinked at her, startled. "…Thinking face?"
She giggled. "Yeah. The one where you look like you're trying to solve the world's hardest riddle. I used to see it in the library when you read philosophy books, you pretended you understood."
The memory disarmed me. A genuine laugh slipped out, "Guilty," I admitted. "I never got through half of those books."
She smiled, then lowered her voice, softer. "I liked watching you try."
The system surged:
[Affinity: 93%]
I exhaled and stared at the blinking timer, then at her. She deserved the truth. She deserved me resisting this.
When our time ran out, Saki gathered her things, still humming from the last song. She looked radiant in the dim hall light, like the world had finally remembered she existed. And then she looked at me with that same small, dangerous hope.
"…It's still early," she said. "Do you… want to keep hanging out?"
My pulse hammered. The system pulsed harder.
[Quest Update: Create Private Setting.]
I swallowed. There were excuses on the tip of my tongue, polite refusals, coward's exits, but they withered when I met her eyes. She wasn't just asking for company. She was offering trust.
And the system was coiling around it like a predator.
"Yeah," I heard myself say, voice steadier than I felt. "Why don't we go back to my place? It's quieter there."
Her eyes widened slightly, a flicker of surprise, and something else, before she nodded, smiling shyly.
[Affinity: 95%]
[Quest Progression: Accelerated.]
[Timer Adjusted: 2 Hours]
My apartment was quiet, dimly lit, smelling faintly of coffee grounds and detergent. Saki stepped inside with careful curiosity, as though entering someone's private orbit was an act of reverence. She kicked off her shoes and padded into the small living room, where she sat neatly on the edge of the couch.
Her hands twisted in her lap. Her eyes darted once, twice, before fixing on me.
"Lucien," she said. Her voice trembled, but her gaze did not. "I need to tell you something."
I sat opposite her, though every part of me wanted to close the space between us. "What is it?"
She inhaled sharply, like diving into cold water. "I… I like you. No..." She shook her head, steadied herself. "I love you. I've loved you since before I changed anything about myself. Even when I was just… that awkward, quiet girl you had to rescue. You saw me. You protected me. And tonight, sitting there with you, I realized… that hasn't changed. I don't want it to."
The words hit me like a blow and a balm all at once. My chest burned with everything I'd never let myself imagine: that this, this exact moment, could ever be real.
[Affection Update: Yoshida Saki: 99%]
[Final Condition Pending: Consummation Required.]
Her love, raw and unfiltered, had been turned into a metric. A percentage. An equation with a final answer waiting.
But for me, it wasn't numbers. It was her.
I reached across the couch, fingers brushing hers. She gripped my hand tightly, as if afraid I might pull away.
"I… love you too," I said, the truth trembling in my throat. "I've wanted this, wanted you, for longer than I can admit."
Her eyes filled, relief and joy breaking across her face in a way that made every ache in my body worth it.
[Host Affection Threshold Achieved.]
[Final Directive: Host must initiate physical intimacy.]
[Consummation unlocks Total Synchronization.]
Her hand squeezed mine again, pulling me back to her warmth, her reality.
"Lucien…" she whispered, leaning closer, the faint scent of her shampoo brushing against me. "Can I stay tonight?"
The timer flickered at the edge of my vision. The system pressed its demand.
And all I could think was: I asked for love. Pure love. And now that I finally have it, the curse wants to devour it.
The bedroom door creaked open, revealing the small, unassuming space: a bed with sheets slightly askew, a lamp casting a soft amber glow, the faint scent of cedar from an old dresser mixing with the detergent clinging to the air.
Saki paused at the threshold, her breath catching, her eyes flicking to mine with a question she didn't voice. I wanted to spill everything, the curse, the system, the way it warped her love into a game, but my throat closed around the words. Instead, I tugged her gently inside, the door clicking shut, sealing us in a space that felt both sacred and cursed.
...
[Affinity: 100%. Consummation Achieved. Total Synchronization Unlocked]
I pulled the blanket over her, tucking it around her small frame, and lay beside her, my arm curling protectively around her waist. Her breathing steadied, a soft, almost imperceptible sigh escaping her as she settled into a deeper sleep.
[Tutorial Quest: COMPLETE.]
My chest constricted. The words were written like some shiny badge of honor, but to me, it felt like a tombstone.
Saki stirred faintly in my arms, nestling closer with the simple trust of someone who believed in me. She was warm. Human. Her soft breaths tickled the hollow of my collarbone. That was real. Everything else, the numbers, the neon chimes in the corner of my vision, was a sickness.
[Rewards Granted.]
[Strength: +5]
[Speed: +5]
[Endurance: +5]
[Skill Unlocked: Mana Perception (Dormant).]
A rush hit me, sharp and electric, like a dozen bolts threading into my veins at once. My muscles tensed; my lungs burned as if I'd swallowed fire. The world sharpened at the edges, the hum of the lamp overhead became a distinct vibration, the rise and fall of Saki's breathing broke into layers of rhythm I hadn't noticed before.
When the menu faded, a new icon shimmered faintly: a grayed-out branch of options under [Targets]. Beside Saki's name: Yoshida Saki, Affection: 100% - [Bound].
And beneath it, a new directive blinked, patient as a predator:
[Next Quest: Acquire Affection from Partnered Target.]
[Penalty for refusal: Host termination.]
I tightened my arm protectively around Saki, though that protection felt like the cruelest irony. She sighed in her sleep, a small, contented sound that almost undid me.
This... this was what I wanted. A girl who loved me without strings, without systems, without numbers. And yet the curse had claimed even that, tallying up her love like points in a ledger.
I buried my face in her hair and closed my eyes, forcing myself to focus on her warmth, the faint scent of shampoo and the human miracle that she was still here, still real.
If the system thought it could reduce this to a tutorial, it was wrong.
The true fight was only beginning.