"Finally, I'm home."
When Shirai Mio returned home, she looked as though all the strength had been drained from her body.
The targets on the three System panels, plus Rita fanning the flames from the sidelines, were enough to give her a splitting headache even without any missions.
The whole day had nearly wrung her dry.
And by "wrung dry," she meant her brain matter. Nothing weird.
"It's just a shopping trip. Is there really any need to be this exhausted?" Rita asked from the side, taking obvious pleasure in Shirai Mio's utterly undignified state.
As an observer, Rita could tell at a glance that the little kouhai named Isshiki Iroha seemed to have certain ideas about Shirai Mio. But in Rita's opinion, the one who deserved more attention was Kato Megumi, whose presence was so faint.
While they were shopping, Rita would always unconsciously overlook Megumi, only for the girl to end up beside Shirai Mio whenever Rita least expected it.
That alone would have been one thing. The problem was that Rita kept getting the feeling Megumi had seen right through her thoughts. Every time Rita tried to strike up a conversation to keep Megumi away, Megumi always managed to dodge it with uncanny precision.
Seriously, just how many people had their eyes on this white-haired little bitch?
Why did it feel like Mio could go out shopping once and run into several of them?
Rita had the distinct feeling she had still underestimated Shirai Mio.
Then again, were there really that many lesbians in Japan?
Or had these girls originally been straight, only for Shirai Mio to turn them gay?
Whatever thought had crossed her mind, Rita, who had been sitting on the sofa, suddenly shifted a certain distance away from Shirai Mio.
Shirai Mio stared at her in confusion. "What's wrong with you? Am I really that scary?"
"No. I just suddenly thought of something scary, that's all."
As she spoke, Rita moved back to Shirai Mio's side. Thinking about it more carefully, she had never exactly been all that straight to begin with. Even if Shirai Mio did turn her gay, how much gayer could she really get?
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The next morning.
The wonderful weekend was over, and restless Monday had arrived once again.
Shirai Mio had barely walked into the classroom when, before she could even sit down, someone called her out into the hallway.
The person who had called her out was a first-year girl. The girl had yet to say anything, but from her bright-red cheeks and nervous expression, it was obvious what she wanted to do.
"Senpai, please accept this." The girl handed Shirai Mio a letter, then turned around and ran away.
The students nearby had long since grown used to scenes like this.
Besides the letter the girl had just given her, Shirai Mio had also found two love letters in her shoe locker when she changed shoes that morning.
And from the looks of them, both seemed to have been written by girls.
There was no need to think too hard about the cause. It had to be the rumors about her. Though to be fair, the part about her liking girls could not really be called a rumor.
After returning to the classroom and sitting down, Miura Yumiko teased, "Now that you're a senpai, you've got even more little fangirls."
"Oh, stop making fun of me." Shirai Mio stuffed the letter into her desk drawer as she spoke.
The targets on the System panels were already enough to keep her busy. Where would she find the time to date little fangirls on top of that?
By now, she had started to get an idea of how to raise multiple conquest ratings at the same time. What she needed to do was raise everyone's conquest rating toward her to ninety-nine.
The person with the highest conquest rating toward her at present was Shiina Mashiro, who had already passed eighty.
Next came Yuigahama Yui and Yukinoshita Haruno, both of whom had already passed seventy.
Shirai Mio genuinely had not expected Yukinoshita Haruno's conquest rating to rise so quickly.
The ones she needed to pay attention to now were the people whose conquest ratings sat somewhere in the middle, such as Isshiki Iroha and Yukinoshita Yukino.
Both of their conquest ratings were around thirty.
There were now two choices before her. One was to avoid interacting with them as much as possible from now on and keep their conquest ratings below fifty.
The other was to raise their conquest ratings toward her.
If this had been in the past, Shirai Mio might have chosen the first option.
But now, she would choose the second.
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That afternoon, after school.
It was time for club activities again.
Shirai Mio, who often wandered around visiting other clubs, did not run off anywhere this time. Instead, she obediently stayed in the Art Club room and took part in that day's activities.
Strictly speaking, she was teaching Isshiki Iroha how to draw.
Isshiki Iroha had joined the Art Club purely out of interest and had never learned how to draw before.
So Shirai Mio needed to teach her some of the basics, and this was also the perfect opportunity to raise Iroha's conquest rating.
Of course, what she was raising was Isshiki Iroha's conquest rating toward her. That was still somewhat different from affection, so raising it was not as simple as Shirai Mio had imagined.
Shirai Mio rested her head on Isshiki Iroha's shoulder and let out a soft sigh. What would happen if she managed to conquer Isshiki Iroha before she raised Iroha's conquest rating high enough?
She told the System what she was wondering.
"Nothing would happen, because I'm the Reverse Conquest System, not the Conquest System," the System replied lazily.
"Can't you just remove the word 'Reverse'?"
"Of course not. If I removed it, wouldn't you clear the game on the spot? Besides, it's not like I can remove it just because I want to."
"Fine."
Pulling back her wandering thoughts, Shirai Mio noticed that Isshiki Iroha's cheeks had gone faintly red, and even the lines in her sketch had become strangely distorted.
Only after freezing for a moment did Shirai Mio realize that she had unconsciously leaned against Iroha.
"So my little kouhai gets embarrassed this easily." Shirai Mio whispered softly beside Isshiki Iroha's ear.
"I-I'm not blushing!" Isshiki Iroha protested in a low voice.
That was what she said, but both the expression on her face and the tone of her voice had already betrayed her completely.
Shirai Mio did not continue teasing her. After sitting upright again, she returned to acting as Isshiki Iroha's private drawing instructor.
Once the club president announced the end of club activities, Isshiki Iroha finally let out a quiet sigh of relief.
In the past, she had never reacted particularly strongly when she was around Shirai Mio. Recently, however, she had no idea what had changed. Whenever she stayed beside Shirai Mio, her gaze would drift toward the other girl on its own, and she would grow nervous and shy whenever Shirai Mio came close.
She truly had never imagined that one day she would react this way to another girl.
No, no. Even if she really did have some special feelings for Shirai Mio, she had to be the one taking the initiative. If this kept up, wouldn't she simply become someone Mio could toy with however she pleased?
Which raised the real question: how exactly was she supposed to take the initiative?
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