The True Endgame

"It is true that I am used to gates and bowing servants, but such a casual way of life is not bad! I am truly looking forward to my time with you. All I am worried about are my maids. They are rather attached to me, so I am not sure how they will cope without me," Alice explains.

"A princess beloved by her people?"

"You could say that! Though, I think they may just like me because I always try to do as much as possible on my own when it comes to cleaning, so their jobs are admittedly easier when I am around. I do not believe that my parents will be as lax with them."

"Speaking of cleaning…" Ryouta opens the door just a crack to look through and make sure that he cleaned. He promised Serra and Ca.s.sandra that he would clean before Alice got here, but he has completely forgotten whether he actually did or not. Thankfully, he did.

He breathes a sigh of relief and wipes some sweat off his forehead.

"Is everything alright, my hero?" Alice asks when he turns back around to face them.

"Ah, yeah. Just had to check something. Anyways, ladies first," Ryouta says, pushing the door the rest of the way open and giving her a playful bow to welcome her. The same bow gets extended to Serra.
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What he doesn"t expect is to get something in return from Serra, and that something just so happens to be her hand brushing against his crotch as she walks by.

She looks back at him and grins when she sees the red of his cheeks.

"You"re something else, Serra," Ryouta says under his breath as he starts bringing in all of Alice"s luggage.

He was right about being low on s.p.a.ce. His living room already feels cluttered from Alice"s suitcases, and he has a feeling that she packed her clothes and any other items in them really tightly given how heavy they are. At least he doesn"t use much of his closet, so there should be enough s.p.a.ce in there for all of her clothes. He hopes.

Wait, but if Ca.s.sandra and Serra join in on Alice"s plan… he might be in trouble. Not only is his savings account going to take a ton of abuse, but there just isn"t enough s.p.a.ce in this apartment for all of their clothes! Then there is the fact that he is supposed to tell his landlord about anybody staying for more than two weeks, and if he doesn"t, he is sure that his nosy, elderly neighbors won"t hesitate to tell on him. He might just have to put his foot down, as hard as that might be and as much as he may not want to, and tell Serra and Ca.s.sandra that they can"t stay.

Well, it"s not like he knows they are going to try to stay in the first place. He"s just a.s.suming that.

"Oh, great! My hero, Serra just told me that she texted her parents and her mother will be dropping off her clothes and headset in the lobby!" Alice tells the increasingly-concerned Ryouta.

Then his phone vibrates in his pocket.

He looks at it and sees that Ca.s.sandra was able to get out of work early and is on her way over with her own clothes. He probably should have waited until she was over before telling her about Alice staying over for six months.

The last text he gets from Ca.s.sandra is her telling him that her phone is about to die and that she"ll be over soon.

Well, too late to put his foot down. He"s either going to get evicted for having four people living in an apartment meant for one, get kicked out for noise complaints because he knows for a fact that his neighbors hate young people having fun, or he"s just going to run out of money and become homeless.

"My hero? You look as if you are on the verge of death! You did not even look so ghastly after your fight with my kidnapper," Alice says.

"Just… thinking about logistics," Ryouta says. "I have no idea how the four of us are all going to last in here."

Then a horrifying thought pops into his mind.

What about the bathroom?

His apartment only features a single bathroom! With three girls sharing the apartment with him, just how impossible is getting any bathroom time going to be? The positive aspect of this situation is that he knows he"ll be forced to take better care of himself on a daily basis as he wouldn"t want his girlfriends thinking that he is disgusting, but at what cost? His bathroom – a man"s bathroom is meant to be something sacred. It is a place of solitude free of judgment and worldly concerns. But now? Now he has a feeling that he will finally truly understand the internet memes about girls leaving hairpins everywhere, bathrooms becoming cluttered messes after girlfriends move in, and finding hair everywhere.

Take all of those problems and multiply them by three, and that is why Ryouta looks like a ghost right now.

"Ah! You look so cute!" Alice says.

Ryouta turns around to look at what she"s talking about and sees Serra standing in the doorframe to his bedroom wearing one of his shirts. While his clothes would likely look normally sized on Ca.s.sandra and potentially Alice, when Serra wears his clothes, they look adorably oversized on her.

Serra signs to the two of them telling them that girlfriends are supposed to wear their boyfriends" oversized shirts.

The invasion of his apartment is happening faster than he thought it would. The most devious of his girlfriends is already establishing beachheads and claiming territory! Soon, Alice"s mobile corps will be advancing on the beach and laying heavy fire by opening her suitcases, and then it is only a matter of time before Ca.s.sandra brings reinforcements and airdrops hairpins and scrunchies!

Ryouta and his legions of hard cider bottles and bags of chips will not be able to last under such a powerful and sustained a.s.sault. Their defenses will be breached, and without reinforcements, it is only a matter of time before he is brought to his knees and forced to surrender.

There will be no reinforcements, hope, nor escape.

It"s already happening.

Serra reaches into her pocket to pull out a scrunchie, but then drops it and has to bend over to pick it up.

However, she is very slow in picking it up, fumbling with it a few times.

There is hope after all.

No, this is not hope for Ryouta and his armies, but it is the kind of hope that could start a new religion: the church of Serra.

While she"s bending over, his oversized shirt hangs down and gives him the perfect view down into the shirt to see her modest b.r.e.a.s.t.s hanging down in it. What makes this sight truly glorious is that he discovers she also removed her bra when switching into his shirt.

Ryouta feels like a traitor. While his armies are in desperate need of him, he raises his hands into the air and volunteers to serve the enemy instead.

Serra looks up directly into his eyes with a smug smile. She knows exactly what she"s showing him. Going by how his eyes are transfixed on the gap between the shirt and her chest, she wins.

Alright, maybe living with three other girls won"t be as bad as he fears it will be as long as he gets sights like this every now and then.

Life is great and the church of Serra has gained a new and devout follower.

"My hero has such l.u.s.tful eyes. To stare at a girl"s chest with the eyes of a ravenous beast – you are a monster, not a hero!" Alice calls him out.

Ryouta shakes his head to break free from Serra"s trap. "I – it"s okay because we"re dating," he tries justifying it.

Fortunately, Alice seems amused and laughs at his answer. "It is alright, my hero. Just make sure to let me experience that monstrous side of yours at times as well, yes?"

"I"ll see what I can do."

Then somebody knocks on his door.

Is Ca.s.sandra already here? There"s no way that she got over here that quickly unless she has suddenly developed superspeed or a miracle happened and there was no traffic on the way over. It would take more than a miracle to make that happen, though.

Ryouta walks over to the door, opens it, and is immediately greeted by a smaller body leaping up against his and wrapping their arms around his neck!

He has no idea what"s going on. Who is this strange person now nuzzling their face against his own? All he can see is the side of her head which is covered in brown hair.

"Ry-ou-ta! We"ve finally reunited!" a feminine voice happily declares. "I knew we"d be together again someday! I never, ever, ever, eeevvveeeerrrrrrrrr gave up!"

A feeling strikes him telling him that he knows who this is, but he just can"t place her. She seems familiar but—

"Oh! Serra, you"re already here?" she says, looking at Serra and then signing to her behind Ryouta"s back.

Serra looks shocked to see just who the girl is clinging to Ryouta.

"My – my hero, is this one of your friends, perhaps?" Alice asks.

The girl looks at Alice and smiles wide. "Nope! I"m his wife! Well, I"m not his wife yet, but I will be! And he"s my hero, too! He saved my life, have you heard? We"re destined to be together!"

Wait.

Ryouta puts two and two together.

"I knew you were super familiar when Serra showed me a picture of her boyfriend! I was so stupid to brush that feeling off. How could I not have realized who you were? You b.u.mping into me the other day let me see you in person, and that"s when I knew you were my Ryouta!"

"Ai… Aiko?" Ryouta asks.

"That"s me!"