"Come on, I'll carry you."
Nakano Yu's words entered her ears. Such a simple sentence, yet it struck Miura Yumiko's brain powerfully, and her cheeks immediately turned red.
He, he, he… what did he just say?!
Carry, carry me?!
What does that mean? Does this Nakano Yu want to… carry me home?
Her brain was working at full speed, and the flood of information instantly caused a real storm in Miura Yumiko's head.
"Hurry, I'm in a rush to get home and cook."
Seeing Miura Yumiko hesitate, Nakano Yu urged her.
He had already checked; Miura Yumiko's injury was serious, and staying here would only make it worse.
He also couldn't use his authority-power over Miura Yumiko, because the authority of the God of War required a kiss as a prerequisite for using it over others. Considering Miura Yumiko's character, if he had suggested that, he would probably have been immediately labeled a pervert.
If he left this girl here, she probably wouldn't be able to get home even if she stayed all night. Helpless, Nakano Yu decided to carry her.
"Th-this…"
Hearing Nakano Yu's voice, Miura Yumiko flinched and returned to reality, lightly biting her lower lip, unsure whether to allow Nakano Yu to carry her home.
"If you don't get on, I'm leaving."
Miura Yumiko still hesitated, but Nakano Yu pretended to be impatient and stood as if he was going to leave.
Seeing this, Miura Yumiko panicked. Caring no longer for anything else, she leaned on one leg and climbed onto the young man's back.
As soon as she climbed on, Miura Yumiko felt the warmth radiating from Nakano Yu. That warmth, like the sun, made Miura Yumiko feel incredibly safe.
"Sorry."
The young man murmured quietly. After that, he held her with both hands behind him and stood up.
"Mmm!"
Feeling the touch on her back, Miura Yumiko's face flushed. Instinctively, she wanted to straighten up, but Nakano Yu pinched her.
"Don't move! If you fall again, not only will your leg get hurt, you could hit your head too!"
Hearing that, Miura Yumiko forgot her embarrassment and quickly pressed against Nakano Yu's back, while opening the umbrella she was holding.
After asking for directions to Miura Yumiko's house, Nakano Yu carried the girl, and she held the umbrella. This strange combination moved along the road through the night rain.
Lying on Nakano Yu's back, Miura Yumiko looked at his handsome face with a strange gaze, not even knowing what she was thinking.
Suddenly, Miura Yumiko noticed that the clothing on the young man's shoulder was already soaked from the rain. She quickly moved the umbrella, wanting to shield Nakano Yu, but her body unexpectedly twisted, causing another pinch from him.
Because of this, Miura Yumiko's cheeks, which had just calmed down a little, blushed again. In the cold rainy night, the girl's cheeks were surprisingly hot.
"Don't move! Just hold the umbrella for yourself."
After warning her, Nakano Yu continued. It was already exhausting enough for him to control his strength so as not to hurt Miura Yumiko, and this girl was still giving him trouble.
Listening to Nakano Yu's words, Miura Yumiko obediently straightened and said nothing, but her heart was filled with mixed feelings.
Originally, she had thought her friends would come pick her up, but what she hadn't expected was that they were eating dessert. Miura Yumiko had just received answers from those so-called "friends."
They had said they were busy and didn't have time to come for her, advising her to call her family.
But did that so-called busyness mean leaving her alone at school and then going to have fun?
If so, then they really were quite busy.
As for why Miura Yumiko didn't ask her family to pick her up, she knew that perfectly well. Even if she had called her parents and cried to them about being injured and not being able to go home in the rain.
Even then! They would have only given a few superficial words of concern and then said they were busy with work and that she should figure out how to get home herself.
Such things were nothing new to Miura Yumiko.
If it weren't for Nakano Yu, she would probably have stayed in that pavilion very late tonight before she could even go home.
"Hey, Nakano, you're actually not bad when it's just the two of us, it's just your words that are a bit stiff sometimes."
Suddenly, Miura Yumiko started talking to the young man.
"You're not much better, Miura. Usually it looks like you get along with everyone, and yet something like this happens."
Faced with Miura's teasing, Nakano Yu replied without any concession.
Hearing that, an expression of dissatisfaction immediately appeared on Miura Yumiko's face, and she murmured:
"I just… met the wrong people. In any case, I will definitely never be with them again! Two ungrateful girls!"
"Oh? That's for the best too."
Hearing Miura Yumiko's tone, Nakano Yu let out a sigh of relief, seeing that she was no longer sad about her friends. He had never been good at comforting girls, especially regarding their relationships with others.
For the Five Sisters, if someone made them unhappy, Nakano Yu would always give that person a few solid hits so that they would be unhappy too. But in the case of Miura Yumiko and her friends, Nakano Yu could hardly say anything; he was just an outsider.
The two of them occasionally talked, mostly Miura Yumiko asking Nakano Yu about himself, and Nakano Yu answering, such as questions about cooking at Nakano.
Soon they arrived at Miura Yumiko's house.
When they reached the front door, Nakano Yu noticed the lights inside were off and couldn't help but frown.
He was curious why Miura Yumiko hadn't asked her parents to pick her up, but now it seemed she was also a child lacking love.
By then, the rain had already stopped, so Nakano Yu helped Miura Yumiko get down.
"Here's some bruise ointment, Miura-kun. Apply it later and it'll work quickly."
While Miura Yumiko wasn't paying attention, Nakano Yu took out a small bottle of spray from his system space. This had been developed by Nakano Maru's medical research institution. It wasn't mass-produced and therefore not on the market, but it had an extremely good effect, so it was used for the Nakano family's private use.
After all, among the Five Sisters, Yotsuba was always jumping around and often got hurt, so Nakano Yu kept a few bottles in his system space.
"Hm, thank you, Nakano-kun."
Taking the spray, Miura Yumiko didn't make a big deal out of it. In her mind, it was just a bottle of medicine, nothing expensive.
"I'm going now."
After doing all that, Nakano Yu didn't linger. He turned to leave, but after just two steps, Miura Yumiko suddenly called out to the young man behind him:
"Wait! Nakano-kun!"
"What is it?"
The young man stopped and turned, seeing Miura Yumiko leaning against the wall, her face flushed with embarrassment. A sweet, intoxicating atmosphere spread through the night.
"…Um, if what I said earlier was serious, how would Nakano-kun respond?"
After a long silence, Miura Yumiko clutched the hem of her skirt, gathered her courage, and asked.
Hearing Miura Yumiko's question, Nakano Yu smiled and said that famous, shocking sentence:
"Of course you can. After all, my dream is to give a home to all the girls in the world!"
"Ha?! You… hey? Where did you go?"
Miura Yumiko, who had been shyly waiting for Nakano Yu's answer, heard this, her expression changed, and she looked up in the direction where Nakano Yu had been standing, only to suddenly realize that the young man who had just been there had already disappeared.
"Nakano…"
Looking at the empty street, Miura Yumiko put her hand on her chest, and a strange feeling of loss rose in her heart.
What had happened to her?