Anime Crossover: The Losing Heroines Have Become Witches

Chapter 562 557: A Bath Means Battle Mode!

"It's almost like a dream."

Hitori held a cheap McDonald's paper cup of cola, her fingertips pressed tightly against the icy surface, the straw trembling slightly at her lips.

Fine bubbles rose through the black liquid. The girl watched the unfamiliar streetscape flashing past the window, her thoughts drifting gently along with it.

She wasn't actually very good at dealing with change. After entering high school, despite having worked hard to prepare, the disappointment of failing to make her 'high school debut' hung over her heart like a mist—at that time, she felt she had already tried her best, so why didn't the world respond at all?

Gradually, that unease mixed with a small amount of self-abandonment, making her shrink smaller and smaller until her world consisted only of that tiny stroke at home.

Three months ago, she probably wouldn't have dared to even think about sitting in a place like this, drinking cola, surrounded by such gentle scenery and warm people. Change had come too fast, like a dream; she often felt flustered because she was too happy, as if everything would shatter if she wasn't careful.

She stole a glance at the boy opposite her, who was buried in his burger with single-minded intensity.

Hitori's heart trembled slightly, her fingertips unconsciously tracing circles on the cup.

—It's all because of him, right?

"What's wrong?" Suddenly, the other person's voice rang out.

Finding her peeping noticed by the other party, the girl immediately lowered her head. For some reason, her face felt a bit hot, and she pretended to take a focused sip of the bubbly cola.

The sweet bubbles popped on the tip of her tongue. The impact of the carbonic acid while she was unprepared made her heart give a 'thump.'

"N-nothing... this cola is really cola-ish..." the girl answered stiffly, and then, because of her foolish words, she couldn't help but want to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

I'm such an idiot! What on earth am I saying! Now I'm going to seem like a strange kid in Asakura's eyes...

But Asakura didn't seem to mind—after all, Hitori was originally that kind of introverted and slightly abstract girl—he just looked at her with a beaming smile.

"By the way, you remember what we talked about earlier, right?"

"What?"

"The fact that we aren't going home tonight."

"Oh, right."

The girl nodded: "Are we going somewhere? Like a live house? Or is there a new urban legend to investigate?"

At the thought of some urban legends she had read, Hitori's scalp tingled, but she still tried to summon her courage and said: "I-I'll do my best!"

"There's no such plan, but if you want, Hitori, we can check right now." Asakura took out his phone and connected to Ryunosuke's app, ready to search for any urban legends nearby.

Hitori shook her head like a rattle: "I-I don't have that kind of interest! Ah... a live house would be fine..."

"Ok, let's go find a nearby live house to crash!" Asakura said enthusiastically: "I'll go prepare the Erhu."

"Isn't there a more gentle way to enter?!"

The girl clutched her head and muttered in a hopeless, small voice: "Please don't, I feel like I'll be shot full of holes by everyone's gazes..."

"Just kidding."

"I-I see... Well, Asakura-kun is a person with common sense, so he shouldn't do anything strange..."

"Actually, what I need to prepare is a Suona."

"The 'joke' part was just the instrument?!"

"After all, whether it's an Erhu or a Suona, getting hold of them in Japan is quite troublesome."

"That's not the issue here, is it?"

"Is it? But those are the only two instruments I know. If we don't use the Erhu or Suona, the only options left are the tambourine, maracas, castanets, and the triangle..."

Those sound like things you'd use at a Karaoke... though I've never been to a place like that. Hitori thought to herself.

"F-forget it, for a live house, STARRY is more than enough. I don't have any desire to go to others for now!"

To dispel Asakura's thought of barging into someone else's live and dominating the world with a Suona, the girl quickly said: "M-more importantly... how about we rest early today... Asakura-kun has been driving all this time, you must be very tired, right?"

"Well, since Hitori says so..."

Asakura rubbed his chin and then asked: "But before that, I still want to ask—Hitori, how do you see me?"

"Eh? How do I see Asakura-kun?"

Hitori immediately began a brainstorm in her head.

Why would Asakura ask this question? No, I mean, how should I answer! Say 'pretty good'? No, wouldn't that feel super dismissive? If I say Asakura is a 'good person,' he might get angry; even though he really is a good person, he seems to dislike being called that. In that case, should I use a more casual and joking tone and say 'friend'? But if someone as gloomy and terrible as me unilaterally considers him a friend, would he be repulsed? Wait, aren't Asakura and I in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship? Can that kind of relationship count as a type of friend? Ugh, I don't understand it at all...

"Sorry, my question was too vague."

Seeing Hitori turning into a 'swirly-eyed' mess again, Asakura knew her old habit of overthinking had returned. If he didn't speak up, this kid might get depressed on her own and turn into a pink slug again.

"Then I'll change it to a more relaxed and simple question: Hitori, do you like me?"

"E-ehhh?" Hitori's train of thought was interrupted, and upon hearing Asakura's new question, her entire face turned red. Her brain seemed to jump to the edge of a crash.

How is this 'more relaxed and simple'! If anything, it's much harder!

If it were just a choice between liking and hating, it certainly wouldn't be hating.

But would saying 'I like you' just like that be too abrupt? Clearly, she used to subconsciously avoid Asakura when she saw him.

But in fact, she really did care about him.

Asakura made her feel warm, but at the same time, he made her see how small and clumsy she was. Every time he got close, she was afraid of revealing too much of her thoughts; every time he distanced himself, she started to get anxious about whether she had done something wrong.

How exactly do I view Asakura?

Perhaps Asakura is the kind of person who makes me want to get close, yet also makes me want to hide away.

Just like the sun—so warm that I am incredibly attached to it, but he is too bright; looking directly at him makes me unable to stop the tears from flowing.

"Do you hate me?" seeing that the girl hadn't answered for a long time, Asakura asked.

"Absolutely not!" Hitori immediately shook her head violently: "T-that one point, I-I can be certain of!"

"Do you like me?" Asakura pressed.

"...... I like you."

The girl lowered her head and spoke in a small voice that was almost inaudible.

"I see. That's great. If you had said you didn't like me at this point, Hitori, I might have been sad enough to destroy the world."

Asakura nodded with satisfaction: "In other words, you saved the world, Hitori!"

"The world... is so cheap..." the girl grumbled.

She looked at Asakura with a bit of a grudge, saying in a tiny voice that was half-complaint and half-spoiled: "And if I didn't like you... I wouldn't have let Asakura-kun... kiss... Wahhh, that... Take advantage of me."

I'm not that kind of easy girl!

Although she didn't say it out loud, her meaning was clearly conveyed to Asakura.

Consequently, the look in Asakura's eyes as he watched the girl became even more tender.

"It might be a bit sudden, but Hitori, do you know what those luxurious buildings that look like castles occasionally appearing on both sides of the road while we were driving today are?"

Asakura asked the young girl.

"Theme parks... they feel a bit too small... maybe game centers or something?"

The girl guessed, tilting her head.

"No, they are actually hotels," Asakura replied with a beaming smile.

"They're actually hotels?" Hitori nodded in realization: "As expected, you really can learn new things by going out more..."

"In addition, we're staying in that kind of hotel tonight."

"Really?"

The girl's eyes lit up. Although the old guesthouse by the seaside with its folk-inn style was a nice experience (provided there was nothing strange there), she still subconsciously wanted to go somewhere a bit more luxurious.

"Once you're finished eating, we'll get ready to head out. No need to rush, just eat slowly; after all, there's still plenty of time tonight."

"Sorry, I'm actually not very good at dealing with carbonated drinks..."

"Hitori, do you not usually eat fast food like McDonald's?"

"I feel... the people who come here are all quite normie, everyone has companions... I don't dare come in by myself." Hitori replied timidly, but then her expression became boastful: "But after forming a band with Nijika-senpai and the others, we go to izakayas for celebratory banquets after lives, and occasionally I go to fast-food restaurants with them, especially with Ryo-senpai..."

"...I'll ask just in case, but who pays?"

"The sentiment between friends is priceless."

It seemed Hitori was the one paying.

"—BY Ryo-senpai."

"Occasionally, I also worry a bit about your social situation, Hitori."

"Th-then there's no need to worry," the girl revealed a pitiful yet cute smile: "Because I... don't have friends..."

"..."

Doesn't that make it even more worrying!

☆

"Oh, so this is what the inside looks like..."

After following Asakura to the hotel, Hitori was surprised by the decorations inside.

Although you couldn't tell from the outside, the feeling inside was less 'luxurious' and more... pinkish?

"However, the 'Love hotel' on the sign makes me a bit curious..."

Hitori, who didn't have the concept of 'suggestive' in her head, looked curiously at the decorations in the room. Like a cat that had found a cardboard box and successfully crawled inside, she narrowed her eyes: "Though the lighting is also a bit pinkish and feels a little strange, the light is very dim... it gives me a strange sense of security."

"This is the room number, and here is the key card." After checking into a room at the counter, Asakura handed the spare key card to the girl and led her to that room.

The moment the door softly closed, the world seemed to be cut off from the outside.

The room was filled with a faint floral fragrance and soft lighting. The light strips on the ceiling seemed to have been intentionally tuned to a gentle pink, making everything look hazy and dreamlike. The walls were light beige, adorned with several nameless illustrations where the figures were as blurry as a dream.

The bed was huge, enough to let a person sink into it completely. Several artificial rose petals were scattered on the snow-white sheets. The curtains were so thick that even the city lights outside couldn't penetrate, leaving only that bit of ambiguous light indoors—because it was a fairly expensive hotel, the sheets and such were quite clean, with no strange stains on them.

In the corner of the room was a small refrigerator, and on a glass table stood two wine glasses and an unopened bottle of sparkling wine (opening it would incur an extra charge).

The television's standby light glowed silently, and even the air was so quiet it felt a bit excessive.

"W-what a great room... but isn't the bed in this room a bit too big?" Hitori sat down on the bed, enjoying the soft sensation while asking Asakura curiously.

"That's not the case."

Asakura waved his hand, saying as a matter of course: "Because I'll be sleeping here too."

"I see, it would be more suitable for two people...... E-ehhhh?!"

Hitori finally realized what Asakura meant, and she instantly froze like a statue.

It seemed the information had exceeded the limit her brain could process, so her already precarious and overburdened mind simply crashed.

"No need to be surprised to this extent, right? Weren't we staying in the same room at the inn before?" Asakura said jokingly.

"B-because that was sleeping on tatami... and Nadeshiko-san was there too..."

"Do you hate it?"

"...I don't... hate it that much."

"Hitori, do you want to take a bath first?"

"The topic changed too fast?!" The girl lay on the bed, revealing a piteous expression.

"If you're not going, I'll go first."

"O-okay..." Like a newly hatched little quail, the girl curled into a ball on the bed in embarrassment.

"Although it sounds a bit like playing hard to get coming from me," Asakura looked at the girl and asked seriously: "If you want to refuse, now is your only chance. After a man takes a bath, he enters battle mode!"

"Is bathing some kind of strange switch?!"

"So, do you refuse?"

"I..." Hitori looked at Asakura, completely flustered, but still managed to say: "I want to change... I want... to be someone who can stand by Asakura-kun's side... so... even though it's sudden... no... it really is extremely sudden... but, this is fine..."

The girl's watery sapphire-blue eyes gazed at Asakura. Her body trembled slightly like a newborn fawn, but even so, her gaze was just like when she stood on stage for the first time (not counting the Mango Mask incident), with no intention of backing down.

"Please let me... become a mature woman."