"Yes! We are Yuki Rito's classmates. Also, he had been taking a lot of leaves, so we came to hand down this pamphlet the teacher asked us to deliver." Kotegawa Yui got right to the point, even though she wanted to leave after seeing Mikan's happy face.
The girl asked her nicely, and she was dragged to Rito's room, where he was lying on the bed and appeared to be suffering from a fever as well, to have a drink.
'So he is ill. Then did he get ill easily, to have 5 leaves in a single month like this?' Kotegawa doubted a little about her own thoughts.
"My brother tends to fall ill very easily; from last year. And this time his fever lasted two days with above 100 degrees, so he is still feeling rather weak."
Mikan was rather mature for her own age group. She was therefore sensitive to other people's feelings and could sense Yui's perception of Rito.
Hence, as Rito's little sister, she could only change her opinion by telling Rito's condition beforehand.
"Oh! Then we must not disturb his rest." It was Haruna, who had been hearing Mikan seriously for all this time, as she was in a different class in middle school and had heard how Yuki Rito got God's punishment for destroying that field.
That time, she really got angry about it.
And they exposed the guy with the support of another teacher and a girl from the next class who had witnessed the guy who destroyed the field taking it out on Rito for his soccer skills.
However, Rito left after that and only showed up for the exam, so none of them had an opportunity to apologize to him.
During those days, Rito underwent a number of tests because his fever was getting worse and his body was becoming weaker.
However, they found nothing, which also caused Rito's parents to become a little concerned about their child.
Even Mikan was worried sick about him, and she went to see Rito on a daily basis.
Rito always seemed to be smiling, but the numerous injections and drips that were continuously placed in his blood veins caused his hand to become numb and the dark vein lines to become more noticeable.
However, even during that time, her brother smiled softly as usual, as though to reassure her that he was fine and did not need to worry about it at all.
However, he was blind to the fact that his smile was forced, so for all that time he was unable to realize that his acting was already wrong from Mikan's perspective.
'It's alright! Don't force it, idiot.' Mikan always wanted to say, but all she could do at those moments was swallow her words.
"Rito! I am coming in. Look!" Mikan opened the door as he was speaking, and three of them noticed Rito sitting on the bed, looking weak, and working on something.
"Eh!" Rito, who was working on math, felt stunned; after all, at a time like this, Mikan usually spent her time making something good, so he did not see her coming to meet him.
"Rito! I did say to rest, right?" Mikan's eyes twitched. Since Rito was in a condition where he could hardly raise his hand to write, she did not think he would be able to stand and get the book from his desk, which was a little farther from his bed.
She also could not imagine him getting out of bed to get the notebook and everything.
"Haha! I..." Rito was about to make some excuse when he found two more girls entering his room, and memories from either life made him remember the names of these two beautiful girls from reality and the female lead character from the anime [To Love-ru.].
'The real Haruna Sairenji & Yui Kotegawa.' Rito, who has memories of Yui Kotegawa and Haruna Sairenji from the anime series, was a little taken aback when he saw two of them. He had seen them several times before, but this time he was seeing them in a completely different way, with memories of past lives.
"Kotegawa-san, Sairenji-san. I am sorry for greeting in dress-up, like this." Rito, rationalizing his thoughts, looked at two girls and spoke.
His calm tone, with a tired look, put Kotegawa and Haruna in a weird mood.
They could tell with a glance that the boy in front of them was really sick, though in class he never showed this kind of weak side of his.
"It's alright. Yuki-kun. We were just here to hand out some printouts from the class." Haruna remarked as she stood next to his bed, staring at him in this manner, wondering if she could ever be of assistance to him in the future.
"Yes! Also, take your time resting. We will help you out later on to cover it up." Kotegawa concurred, believing that this might be the first time she had seen Rito's actual self up close and that her preconceived notions about him had only hurt her state of mind.
Therefore, the only way a girl of her age could at this time show him that she was sorry was to cover for his error by helping him in class.
Well, to be honest, she was being pretty immature about it.
However, this was the first time she had ever felt truly sorry for her own behaviour and thoughts, so it was the most sincere thing she could have done for Rito.
"Thank you! I will." He spoke.
When Kotegawa's eyes landed on the problem Rito was solving, her thoughts went a little blank because she knew the chapter he was working on was already far ahead of what the class was currently studying.
'Trigonometry basics in the first month. Is he really that ahead of class, or has he left the other chapters out?' Picking up Rito's school-printed book, Kotegawa noticed that the previous chapter had been marked with marker pens and that other problem-solving assignments appeared to have been resolved.
"Ehhh..." Rito was shocked, but he had no justification for stopping the girl. The girl's expression went silent, which for some reason seemed to be quite satisfying.
"Kotegawa-san." Haruna felt surprised by Kotegawa's reaction. Mikan had a similar reaction as well, but Rito's smile gave her the impression that he was more than happy to let Kotegawa see what he was doing.
"You are already halfway through the school's first-year course. So, don't rush things and take some rest already. Also, I am also just one chapter behind you, so I will catch up to you in no time." Kotegawa really put some hype behind her last words.
"So, don't be this hard on yourself. You are barely able to write, then just relax a bit." She spoke it from her own experience, having done something similar in her past; she could tell that Rito was also desperate to have gone through all that stuff in such a short amount of time.
"I will." Rito also felt the same. His former self was destroying his body if not for the memories of his past life merging.
As for why, he was able to walk.
His proficiency of [Self-healing.] skill increased, which made him pick up the book and start working on his mathematics, something he really did not think that deeply about, and it was similar to self-reaction.
[Physical Development Program.]
Skill: [Self Heal Level 1 (0/300)] [Strenuous Effort Level 0 (2/100)] [Iron Will Level 0 (20/100)]
Note: By repeating the process of acquiring the skill, hosts can increase their proficiency and even level them up in the process.
Note: Host can also clear a dungeon to increase a set amount of proficiency of each skill.
Kotegawa left after that. Despite Sairenji Haruna's departure, Mikan received a call from the Saiba and ultimately requested their assistance. Since Haruna's house was close by, she informed them to go, stating that she would remain here with Rito.
'This is really awkward. Mikan, I can take care of myself too.' Rito wanted to yell, but at this point, he did not mind being accompanied by a stunning girl like Sairenji.