[Chapter 30: A pessimistic shoujo heroin and a Chuuni's words of assurance.]
Seeing Mocha-san's reaction to how I performed Operation [BETA] in front of her, she seemed to be very disappointed in me.
'So, even operation BETA still wasn't convincing enough, huh? As expected of someone who figured out I'm not a normal person from the moment we met.'
As you know, my goal was to be the perfect shadow hero. To do that, I must first become the perfect side character, and seeing Mocha-san's feedback, I took operation [BETA] as another failure.
It was also right after I demonstrated my operation BETA just after our talk about how to be like me (acting like a generic student character) but Mocha-san was actually referring to my socialization skills that I didn't know I was good at in the first place.
That's why I connected Mocha's disappointment to my [BETA] character act.
You may be wondering, why do I hold so much regards in Mocha-san's opinion of my generic student character act?
Going back to the first moment we met, where we accidentally bumped into each other.
Remember me talking about how I didn't notice her, thinking my ["Presence Detection"] was off? I was genuinely surprised that I didn't notice her in that moment. [Note: "Presence Detection" is just intuition.]
Most of the time, my "presence detection" is always accurate, however, not sensing her in that incident that we even collided with one another must means she has a weak presence.
That must mean she was an expert at being an irrelevant bystander. The power I was trying so hard to harness as to be the perfect side character, the other side of the coin of my shadow hero roleplay in hiding myself as "Phantom", the hero who lives in the shadows.
That's why I admire her for being a natural at it, in fact, she might have more talent at it than my whole months worth of training.
So, in holding Mocha-san's opinion in high regards, I marked Operation: [BETA] coming in short just like when senpai saw through my act, but performed even worse than it did yesterday.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some time passed and the next bell rang ending P.E perion. Which means it was already time for recess.
Because of Operation [BETA] coming in short in my standards, by standards I meant basing it with Mocha-san's reaction, I returned to how I was acting before.
The perfect side character act that I honed during summer break along with Ayaka and interaction with Haruka-san. Because, I think it was the most effective one so far for blending in with the crowds.
The reason I turn back was because the more I try out my last night [Generic Student Character] research, the more Mocha-san got disappointed at me.
It was just a night of research after all, compared to the month's worth of training, it should be the superior of the two.
...
When the school nurse arrived. She was surprised to see all these students loitering around the clinic. Seeing as they are people weren't needing treatment, the nurse freed the room and sent them out.
Mocha-san who was the only one with a valid reason was the only person that was allowed to stay. Although everyone was kicked out of the infirmary, I stayed.
The school nurse allowed me to stay because I was the one to help Mocha-san and get her here. So consider it as a reward of sort and assign me in guarding her as she rest.
Normally I would just decline and head back but, I was tired from carrying all those people so I took the opportunity to rest.
While Mocha-san was laying on the bed, I sat there on the chair that's besides her, pretending to read a book because it looks cool.
As she lays on the clinic's bed, lots of thought are running through her mind.
'He's staying...? I guess he's not too bad of a person like I thought.'
She covered her face with the blanket.
'I wander if I'm doing this right... Nothing seems to be going my way.'
Looking back at everything that happened until now. Nothing seemed to be going as Mocha-san intended it to be.
'I thought I had just found a shoujo like prince, but it turns out he was a Demon Playboy Prince.' She wallows in regret, internally screaming at the universe. 'Give me back my bread from our first encounter!'
From our first meeting, Mocha-san saw me as a male lead candidate, then turned into delinquent and now she's under the impression of me being some kind of player.
'I promised myself to get closer with everyone but I just ran away.'
She regrets referring to when she ran away during lunch break.
'When I finally got a fried. I tried to impress her and ended up embarrassing myself in front of everyone... I shouldn't have played after all...'
She regrets joining volleyball.
'And when I did finally find the courage, it just back fired on my face quite literally...'
She regrets being courageous, referring when the ball hit her in the face.
'It feels like the world just doesn't want to see me succeed. Haha...'
Mocha-san felt a sense of total defeat, as nothing has gone in her way all day long.
"Hey, Y-Yukiya-kun"
She suddenly, nervously tried asking me about something.
"What is it?" I inquired about what she wanted to say.
"Do you really think I can make it(friends)?"
'Is she talking about blending in with the crowds again?' I pondered and concluded.
I don't know what she was talking about so I assumed it was my side character act.
I then gave a brief and casual reply, and told her.
"Sure." I said confidently with a casual smile.
'You already look super normal to not get detected by my "Presence Detection", so I can say you have a high affinity of looking irrelevant to the plot.' [Basically thinking Mocha has a talent to be a background character.]
Mocha-san had a slight smile.
'Even if those words are lies, I'm a little happy to hear that.' she thought as she tried to hold on to her ideals.
Mocha-san believed that I was just trying to sugar coat my words, taking it as words from a playboy. But still, even if those words are a lie, she still wanted to hear those words of encouragement as she desperately clung to her goals and ideals of wanting to get along with everyone.
'I wonder how Hitomi and the others are doing after I left... Without me around, there's no more person holding the team back, so I'm sure they are doing just fine now... I shouldn't have tried in the first place...'
Mocha-san's expression worsens under the sheets, the more she got unsecured, thinking about how she held her team back whe she played on the court.
As she hid herself behind the blanket, she asked me something.
"Yukiya-kun. Do you think I did that poorly? (when I was playing volleyball on the court)"
'I wanna hear it straight if I was really that terrible or not.'
She wanted to ask me for a spectator's opinion, looking for how did she truly looked when she played inside the court.
'Is she asking for an opinion on how she looked as a side character?'
Again, I thought the topic was still about acting like a side character so I relate my reply on that as the base for my response.
"Hm... I didn't think you did too bad at all."
I said it in a calm and collected tone as if saying what a dumb question to ask, complimenting her ability of having potential as a background character.
"Thanks."
She thanked me, thinking.
'I know I'm still listening to lies, but I guess lies can also be a form of comfort as well. But still, it won't change the fact that I held everyone back.'
She didn't believe me and thought I was just pitying her with kind words. However, she wasn't angry even if those words were to turn out to be lies. But I wasn't necessarily lying.
"Say, Yukiya-kun. If I was in your team, would you take me in?"
"?"
I tilted my head from her out of the blue question.
'What am I even saying right now. We're practically strangers, and I'm definitely over sharing.'
Mocha-san realizes she was being too familiar, sharing too much and gets embarrassed about it.
'Is she talking about joining in if I ever wanted to start an organization?'
Is what I assumed, thinking she wanted to join in on my chuunibyou roleplays.
I had a small grin and said.
"Sure. I'll even welcome you personally if the time arises."
'Having someone to roleplay with is never a bad thing.' I nodded.
Hearing those words, even with her doubts, she can't help but blush by my willingness to accept to her request. As if saying, I'm ready to take responsibility of her if she ever got no where to go.
The door slides open and the one who opened it was Class Rep Hitomi-san, and the rest of our classmates who were in the same team as Mocha-san when they were playing volleyball.
And it seems like they really wanted to say something.