Yesterday night was the longest and slowest night of Rion and Kotomi Amami’s lives .
Everything they built was destroyed .
But a new ray of hope shone through their despair .
They sat in their grandparents’ yard, watching the night sky . In their hearts, they felt a peaceful calmness which they had never felt before .
Rion, we made so many mistakes .
Kotomi, we did so many foolish things .
Foolishly making so many mistakes, doing wrong by so many people, seriously hurting the most important person… it wouldn’t be enough no matter how much they apologized .
They… were finally able to see just how ugly and terrible their past selves had acted .
They felt awful, regretful, sad, pained, and yet . . . a burden had been taken off their shoulders .
It was as if they'd been released from an invisible dark cage and were able to see the endless sky again .
The sky wasn’t anything new to them .
It was something they possessed before, but abandoned unknowingly . Only now did they finally see it again . . .
It was as if they had truly returned home .
Ah, so it had been like this .
Ever since that day when they stumbled upon their father’s secret, they . . . lost their way .
They discovered a dark and narrow alley, believed that it was the correct path, and continued walking down it .
If they had persisted in walking down that path, it was likely they would have remained lost forever .
However, someone found them and pulled them back onto the path to home .
One person withstood the terrible agony of digging up his own past scars and reached his large hand out to them .
Another person withstood all the terrible things they had inflicted on him and reached a much smaller hand out to them .
This is the wrong road; come over to our side!
Being pulled along by the large hand and the small hand, they finally . . .
Rion . . .
Kotomi . . .
We’ve . . . returned .
The lost sisters finally recognized their own misdeeds .
The two lost little girls finally returned home .
. . .
Seiji merely glanced at the twins before he continued walking without missing a beat .
The bandages on Rion and Kotomi’s faces slightly dampened their beauty, but apart from that, they didn’t seem too different .
The biggest difference was their eyes .
Even though he only caught a brief glimpse of them, Seiji saw a clear light shining in the twins’ eyes .
Maybe they wouldn’t be able to make a complete turnaround so quickly, but they’d still made a good start .
Anyway, it didn’t have anything to do with him . He no longer had anything to say to them .
Seiji silently walked in between and past the twins .
"Seigo Harano . . . " a voice spoke up .
"We hate you . "
"Since you defeated us so utterly . "
"That’s why . . . "
"We’ll become stronger . . . and prettier than before!"
"Just like you . "
"And then we’ll surpass you . "
"And then we’ll surpass you . "
"Finally, we’ll overturn things and defeat you!"
The twins’ voices quavered with emotion as they took turns to speak .
Doubtlessly, this was something akin to a revenge declaration .
However, it didn’t sound dark at all; instead, it sounded bright .
Seiji smiled . "If you can come, then come . No matter when, I’m always happy to accept a challenge . . . Just like I said before, I’ll play with you anytime . Even though you’re older than I am, I’m your senpai in life experience . As former scum, I’ll wait for you . . . my senpais that are also former scum . "
He left them with that sentence as he walked off .
Rion and Kotomi’s faces were now covered in tears .
They only had one sentence left in their hearts that they couldn’t say, wouldn’t say, didn’t dare to say, but they would say eventually one day: "Thank you . "
. . .
*Ding!* Seiji received yet another notification from the system as a block of text appeared in front of him .
[A female character now has a connection rating that’s 50 points higher than their favorability rating, so your [connections] option is now available . You may now inspect all connection ratings of all characters with over 50 favorability/friendship/connection points . ]
[Two female characters have a connection rating that’s 50 points higher than their favorability rating; you’ve received the special reward of [Item Duplication card!]]
[A male character has a connection to you of over 100 points, and you’ve already received his character reward card . His character reward card has now been increased in level!]
Connection rating?
Seiji raised his eyebrows in surprise .
‘Something wondrous has come out again . You’ve been quite active today, system of mine . ’
Two female characters with a connection of over 50 points . . . This could only be talking about the twins .
Just what exactly did that sentence mean? What exactly was . . . a connection rating?
Seiji was curious about his new option .
He returned to the classroom .
"How did it feel, Seigo? Receiving the forbidden love confession from your middle school junior! Allow me to interview you . . . Eek!!"
Chiaki greeted him with an evil grin, but instantly received a merciless blow, causing her to collapse onto her desk .
Chiaki greeted him with an evil grin, but instantly received a merciless blow, causing her to collapse onto her desk .
Mika and all the other students were shocked into speechlessness .
Yep, everything was peaceful and calm today in Year 1, Class 5 .
There were a few minutes remaining before class started .
Seiji held complex emotions towards Hoshi’s prank on him, but he still needed to check out his system’s new options .
Seiji opened up his system’s menu .
First, he checked the [connections] option .
According to the system’s explanation, a connection rating meant how strongly a boy or girl was connected to him, and it usually had a direct relationship to favorability or friendship rating, but it was also independent .
Typically speaking, the connection rating would increase in tandem with favorability and friendship rating, but there were also exceptions .
Seiji understood it as a classic example of the two main characters of the anime Naruto .
Before Naruto and Sasuke finally made up with each other, their favorability towards each other . . . whoops, friendship towards each other definitely would have had a low value, but their connection to each other would be strong .
Hmm . . . at least from Sasuke’s angle, his connection rating to Naruto must have been at the max! It was probably so high that Sasuke wanted to kill Naruto .
After Seiji suddenly thought about Hoshi, he felt like he could understand Sasuke’s feelings a little bit better!
*Cough cough . * Seiji veered himself away from that line of thought .
At any rate, this was what connection rating meant . Now that he understood it, if he looked at it more closely . . .
Mika’s connection rating with him was similar to her favorability rating towards him . Chiaki’s connection rating was higher than favorability rating; in conclusion, both of them seemed normal .
Hoshi . . . er, Seiji decided to skip over him .
Rion and Kotomi Amami . . . both of their favorability ratings were about 30, but their connection ratings… were both over 90!!
Seiji squinted at the number for several seconds to make sure it was real .
That was right; it was over 90!
This number was even higher than Chiaki’s connection to him! They were at the same level as Mika!!
Was this . . . two female versions of Naruto!?
No, no, that didn’t feel right!
Was this . . . two female versions of Naruto!?
No, no, that didn’t feel right!
Then . . . two female versions of Sasuke?
It still didn’t seem right!
Seiji’s thoughts were thrown into disarray .
Okay then, mix it up; two female Sasukes with Naruto’s connection rating!
That was much better . . . not!!
What the hell was with his chaotic analogy!? An endless barrage of comments flew through Seiji’s mind .
But he still couldn’t think of any better way to understand this .
He really wanted to ask someone for help regarding this matter!
Seiji sighed deeply . ‘Forget it . . . this probably isn’t something that’s bad anyway . ’
Seiji finally decided to leave this matter alone .
‘Let’s take a look at the actual rewards . ’
Two female characters with a connection rating 50 points higher than their favorability led to him receiving a reward called the [Item Duplication card] .
When Seiji looked at this in his [items], he was stunned!
‘Wtf, this is . . . a godly card!’
It had no effect on skill activation or ability learning cards . But it could duplicate precious one-time items like [encouraging heart]; in short, it was basically an extra copy he could use at any time he wanted!
Really . . . an excellent reward .
Duplication . . . Seiji couldn’t help wondering about those twins . Did he receive this as a reward because he reached the condition required, or was it because he reached the condition with the twins?
This was something only the system would know .
Seiji was still filled with complex emotions as he finally took a look at Hoshi Amami’s [character reward card] .
Although he was mentally prepared for any possibility, he was still shocked when he read the card’s effects!
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