"The next day went by normally, Yuuji and Lala went to high school together as usual; Mikado-sensei told Lala she had an extraterrestrial package waiting for her, which turned out to be a pregnant alien assassin cat that went into labor, interrupting her assassination, and ended up falling in love with Saruyama only to decide to leave so he could be happy after sensing his rejection; they all had lunch together, Yuuji slept through the afternoon classes, Lala woke him up when it was time to leave, and they went home together.
In short, a normal day.
The only difference was that throughout the entire day Lala was extremely excited, causing confused reactions from everyone around her.
But despite all the questions, Lala decided to keep it a secret, simply smiling when asked.
They knew Yuuji would know the reason, but they also knew that trying to get the information out of him would be useless, so they moved on to the next target.
Rito's usual stuttering and blushing revealed that he knew what was going on, but somehow, by the end of the day, he had managed not to reveal anything despite Risa and Mio's efforts to get the information out of him.
They had even tried using Haruna to get him to talk, but Rito managed to resist, surprising everyone.
"Although Yui was also acting a bit strange today" Yuuji thought.
Strange in the sense that she would look at Rito and blush from time to time for no reason.
"Did I create some kind of romantic situation for them last night that advanced their relationship?" Yuuji guessed. "Looks like Rito's love life is going smoothly."
"Yuuji, Yuuji, why are you walking so slow? Hurry up and help me decide."
"Well, we have several rooms, so I really don't know" Yuuji replied.
"Then the room next to Yuuji's" said Lala.
"Impossible, that's Yami's room."
"Oh, what about the one in front then?"
"That one's fine."
"Alright, decided!" she said, satisfied, about to do one of her usual crazy things.
Lala simply walked into the room across from Yuuji's and closed the door behind her, not letting anyone in.
The silence that followed even made Yuuji think for a second that this was one of Lala's efficient inventions.
He was wrong, the next second, various construction sounds started coming from inside, some so fake that Yuuji immediately realized Lala probably chose them for fun, and whatever she was doing was definitely nothing even remotely close to actual Earth construction.
After nearly twenty minutes, Lala came out of the room looking tired, shoulders slumped and sweat on her forehead.
She grabbed the tail Yuuji had been holding for several minutes, which was still cold thanks to Cool, and drank it in one gulp.
"Pwaaah" she said with satisfaction. "Thanks. Want to see my room?"
"Of course I do" Yuuji nodded, he hadn't been waiting there for nothing.
Without hesitation, Lala opened the door and let Yuuji into another world.
Well, maybe not that exaggerated, but the place was definitely incredible.
Although it looked exactly like her room at Rito's house, which Yuuji had already seen before, that didn't stop him from being surprised.
The room was dozens of times larger than before she modified it, the walls and floor were made of some material Yuuji didn't recognize, with pink tones all around the edges.
In the center, against one wall, there was a huge bed that could fit at least ten people, worthy of a princess, and directly in front of it, against the opposite wall, there was a computer embedded into the wall with far too many buttons covered in symbols Yuuji didn't recognize.
It was the kind of computer people in the past would call futuristic and people in the future would call retro.
Finally, there was a huge closet door that Lala opened to show that it was even bigger than the room itself, filled with tons of clothes and accessories.
Yuuji ignored the question of why she needed it if she had Peke anyway and looked at the last, or rather the remaining, features, one of the walls had several other doors leading to unknown places.
"Where do these doors lead?"
"The one on the right leads to my laboratory" Lala explained.
"And the rest?"
"Nowhere yet, they're for when I need another facility. What do you think?"
"Well, this place is amazing" Yuuji admitted.
It looked like a mix between a retrofuturistic aesthetic and an alien princess's room, which was such a specific style that Yuuji had no idea beforehand how much he would like it.
"Hehe, I knew you'd like it, Yuuji" Lala said proudly. "Want me to do the same to your room?"
Yuuji was about to accept, but then thought of something else and shook his head.
"No need" he said. "Though Yami might like it, we can ask her later."
"What if I do it now and surprise her?"
"...Alright" Yuuji replied after thinking for a moment.
Without waiting even a second, Lala completely ignored her newly built room and headed straight to Yami's.
Right after that, the previous process repeated itself, but this time with Yami's room.
Once Lala finished, Yuuji immediately went in, more curious about this one than Lala's.
"...Yuuji, aren't you more excited about this than my room?" Lala complained with a small pout.
Yuuji leaned in and gave her a small kiss on the lips.
"Don't worry, I had already seen your room before, so I wasn't that curious, but I do want to see what you did with Yami's."
Lala touched her lips. "So kisses can be used like that, how cunning" she murmured as if she had lost a battle before quickly recovering.
"Well then, let me show you" she said proudly, acting like a presenter. "Of course, I improved her bed to be like mine, only in gold and black, I think it turned out pretty well."
"Yeah, it looks pretty cool" Yuuji nodded.
The bed was a mix of two opposites. Its roughness made it look like an ordinary bed rather than something luxurious, but its massive size and the golden designs across its structure revealed its true quality.
It created a combination of roughness and elegance that fit Yami quite well.
Also, unlike Lala, whose personality is very defined, Yami was still discovering that part of herself we call personality.
Not long ago she had told herself she was a real person, but she didn't truly believe it, so things like having preferences or a real personality were only just beginning to develop.
Because of that, her room had been extremely basic before, with only the necessary furniture and nothing special. Using that as a base, Lala took on the challenge of creating various custom furniture and other things she thought Yami might like, like a bookshelf with regular books and manga, or a tech area with everything from a smartphone to virtual reality glasses.
Yuuji looked at everything in surprise.
"If you can make smartphones, why do D-Dials still look like flip phones?" he asked.
"Because I think they're cuter" Lala replied naturally.
"...Alright. And what about that door?" Yuuji decided not to question her logic and instead pointed at the ominous door that looked like a final boss room in an RPG.
"This is..." Lala said mysteriously, opening the double doors wide to reveal, "The dungeon."
"That's it?" Yuuji reacted in disappointment upon seeing what looked like a huge grassy field, like an old operating system wallpaper.
"Hehe, Yuuji, don't be too surprised" Lala smiled with a hint of mischief. "Mona."
"Right away, Lady Lala."
"What?" Yuuji watched as, after Mona's response, the entire environment changed, turning into a small white room, no bigger than the room before the modifications.
"This is..."
"A simulation room. It can recreate all senses in the universe, since I don't know how many Yami has. It can create any kind of scene completely realistically, and everything will feel real. Although..." the scene changed again, turning into a dark cave, a deafening roar echoed as Yuuji looked toward the source, a massive two-headed green monster, "it's mainly used as a combat training room. What do you think?"
"Well, it's amazing, but..." Yuuji hesitated, since Yami was trying to leave her life as an assassin behind, he wasn't sure if she would like a room dedicated to doing exactly that, even if it was just for fun.
"I like it" another female voice said before he could finish.
A golden blur passed by him at high speed and cut the massive figure in two with a single strike, each half falling separately.
"Yami, when did you get here?" Yuuji asked.
"A few minutes ago."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"I was listening to the explanation" Yami replied.
"Yami, what do you think of your room?!" Lala asked excitedly.
"I'm not sure."
"???"
"I don't know most of these things, so I don't know if I'll like them" Yami explained. "But I think I'll try them anyway."
"And... what about this?" Yuuji started.
"What about it?"
"Well, you're trying to leave your life as an assassin behind, right? Is this okay? It's basically made so you can kill without remorse since it's fake."
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)