Chapter One Hundred: Working Hard for the Boss’s Happiness

By rights, Teruhashi Kokomi had taken the initiative to keep her distance from him, sparing him a great many jealous looks and letting him rest properly with his head on the desk during breaks, while at night he no longer had to deal with message after message. It should have been a happy thing.

But the moment Aoki Tsukasa thought about how all of it had been achieved through yet another misunderstanding, he felt as though life itself had lost all hope. What if Teruhashi Kokomi went and spread his business around again...

Aoki Tsukasa felt a chill crawl across his scalp.

After glancing at his study skill and seeing that he was only six experience points short of level four, Aoki Tsukasa obediently settled down to listen to class. By tomorrow at the latest, he would break through to level four.

As for Saiki's invitation to the kendo tournament? Aoki Tsukasa had not accepted. The kendo club was not as though it had no one but him, and most importantly, after speaking to Busujima Saeko like that last time, he still had not figured out how to face her.

Sora had been crying so hard her eyes were red and swollen before, and even now she still acted as though she did not want to talk to him at all. It made him deeply realize that if he wanted to keep playing the role of a delinquent, there were many things he simply could not control. If he got too close to others and made them worry about him every day, that was not a good thing either. Aoki Tsukasa hated nothing more than causing trouble for other people.

Besides, rather than fretting over all that, it would be better to become the strongest delinquent as soon as possible. Then he would be free of all burdens and able to do whatever he pleased. That would be far more satisfying.

"System, how can I become the strongest delinquent?" Aoki Tsukasa asked as he rested his chin on the desk and watched the teacher write math problems on the blackboard, solving them absentmindedly as he spoke.

[Please do not worry. At the proper time, the system will automatically issue missions. All the host needs to do is level up properly, keep exercising hard, and maintain combat strength. If the host wishes to strive onward, you may also try becoming the number one delinquent in Chiba first.]

Number one in Chiba? Aoki Tsukasa sighed. He could not exactly bring a group of people to the gates of the rival school and shout, "I am going to be number one in Chiba. Anyone who is not convinced can come out and fight me," could he? It was said that if you shouted outside Suzuran High School, hundreds of delinquent students would come pouring out, each one more proud of the school than the last. Rumor had it that when some gangsters went there to make trouble, they were nearly beaten to death and did not even dare seek revenge.

Those students could fight among themselves, or even fight outsiders, and nothing much would happen. But the moment anyone tried to smash Suzuran High's signboard, they became united beyond belief... And then there was the legendary Housen High School, said to be a whole school full of bald heads! Aoki Tsukasa touched his own head and felt that he still was not strong enough.

And besides, if he really went around picking fights with every other school just to become the so-called strongest delinquent, Aoki Tsukasa did not think he was that bad after all. Surely the system did not want that sort of thing either.

"Well, I guess I can only wait." To be honest, Aoki Tsukasa was not all that anxious. He still had three years of high school ahead of him, and in just two weeks he had already become a big shot capable of taking on more than a dozen people. Give him another year, and he might genuinely be able to charge single-handedly into an entire delinquent gang. If the system was not giving him missions now, then it must be because it thought he had not reached that stage yet.

Come to think of it, after I graduate from high school, will I end up becoming a superhero? The kind who can punch a hole straight through a person...

Aoki Tsukasa was suddenly gripped by the absurd image of himself becoming like the character Tiger from that TV drama, surviving hundreds of slashes without dying and sending people flying with a single punch. Frightened, he hurriedly shook his head and forced his attention back to his studies.

Looking at the so-called "hard problem" written on the blackboard, Aoki Tsukasa only felt that things were becoming easier and easier.

He merely rested his chin in his hand and thought for a moment, not even needing to work through the steps on scratch paper, before writing the correct answer, 66, down on the page. In a bit of idle amusement, he doodled the number 66 into a cartoon face, then cleverly turned the sixes into little eyes shaped like swirls, making it look like a character with no sense of discomfort at all. Proud of his artistic skill, Aoki Tsukasa finally endured until the bell rang.

Thinking about the practical training that Matsuyama Iwao had arranged for him tonight, Aoki Tsukasa found himself rather impatient.

If he did well, would Matsuyama Iwao give him a raise or something?

Amid the noisy end-of-school bustle, Aoki Tsukasa slowly packed his schoolbag.

"Boss, want to go play pool together?" Maeda Tiger asked while gathering his things, lifting his brows at Aoki Tsukasa.

Aoki Tsukasa waved a hand. "Sorry. I need to go home and rest a bit, cook for my little sister, and I still have things to do tonight."

Maeda Tiger nodded with some regret. "Guess that's that then... Oh, right, Boss, you have to watch the TV drama Underworld Tempest tonight! They got to the part where Tiger goes to rescue the heroine, Reiko. It has to be exciting."

"No, I refuse!" Aoki Tsukasa shook his head decisively. For some reason, whenever he looked at the Tiger in that drama, he always felt that if that guy were bald, it would give him a deeply ominous sense of deja vu.

How could something like that be worth watching? A drama this unrealistic, this unscientific...

Aoki Tsukasa patted Maeda Tiger on the shoulder. "Did you return the protection money?"

"Yeah." Maeda Tiger gave a small grunt, his expression somewhat regretful. "Really not going to think about it..."

"Protection money?" Aoki Tsukasa frowned.

"No, the drama..." Maeda Tiger tried once more, but seeing Aoki Tsukasa looking at him with obvious displeasure and even making a gesture with his fist, he immediately shut his mouth and obediently stayed quiet.

Aoki Tsukasa waved goodbye to Maeda Tiger and left the classroom.

Meanwhile, in the classroom, Teruhashi Kokomi was, for reasons known only to her, the last one still packing up. Looking at the empty room, she stood up and walked over to Aoki Tsukasa's seat, staring blankly in a daze.

Her expression was a little dejected. "I still couldn't summon the courage to ask Aoki-kun about the truth... What I did today must have made him think I really hate him."

"Ah..." Teruhashi Kokomi sighed, feeling a little sad that she seemed to have drifted even farther from Aoki Tsukasa.

Then she noticed a sheet of scratch paper lying by the corner of his desk, perhaps something he had forgotten to put away, and curiously reached out to pick it up.

"A smiling face?" Teruhashi Kokomi looked at the crude cartoon head drawn on it, with the eyes turned into spirals and a dazed expression, and her eyes suddenly lit up.

Aoki-kun must have found class very difficult to follow, which was why he drew such a cartoon on his scratch paper! And the reason the eyes were drawn like spirals must be because he had listened so hard that he had gone dizzy!

Maybe... I should tutor Aoki Tsukasa in his studies! The mock exams are almost here, so he must be worried too!

Teruhashi Kokomi felt as though she had grasped the key to everything. Carefully, she tucked the scratch paper into her bag and, without realizing it, let a smile bloom across her face.

"Kokomi-chan, what are you doing?" The voice of her friend, who had been waiting at the classroom door for quite some time, startled Teruhashi Kokomi. She hurriedly turned around and flashed an open, bright smile. "Nothing at all, I'm coming now. Are we going to the coffee shop today?"

"Sure, sure, let's all go to that one..."

Teruhashi Kokomi and several other girls set off along the usual road home after school, though the smile on her face grew brighter and brighter without her noticing.

"Oh ho..." Maeda Tiger and Matsusaka Daibu were just about to go find Fujiwara to play pool when they saw Teruhashi Kokomi passing by with a smile, and the two of them could not help making impressed noises.

Watching Teruhashi Kokomi's departing figure, Matsusaka Daibu suddenly patted Maeda Tiger's shoulder with a thoughtful air. "Hey, Tiger."

"I told you not to call me Tiger. It makes it too hard for me to tell the drama from reality!" Maeda Tiger rubbed his bald head, thinking of the red hair he used to have, and snorted. "The strongest man in my eyes right now is Boss Aoki."

"That doesn't matter!" Matsusaka Daibu leaned close to Maeda Tiger's ear and said in a low voice, "Do you remember how Teruhashi seemed really disappointed in Boss today?"

"Huh?" Maeda Tiger looked completely lost.

Matsusaka Daibu said in exasperation, "Look at Fujiwara—he's about to get a girlfriend, and what about Boss?"

Maeda Tiger slapped his palm in sudden realization. "You mean..."

"Teruhashi must definitely like Boss, and a girl like her is obviously impossible not to like." Matsusaka Daibu wore a confident smile. "I've decided. Let's call Fujiwara over in a bit. We need to work hard for Boss's happiness!"

Maeda Tiger nodded vigorously in agreement, excitement written all over his face. "You're right! If Boss can get together with Teruhashi Kokomi, then Teruhashi Kokomi knows tons of super cute girls!"

"For example..." Matsusaka Daibu grinned with a flushed face, so excited he was practically drooling. "Matsuko from the class next door?"

"And Aiko, the second-year upperclasswoman..." Maeda Tiger, too, blushed as he sank into a fantasy.

The two of them linked arms and wandered down the hallway, blushing and snickering to themselves. The innocent girls passing by were so frightened that they turned and fled, not daring to go down the stairs and head home until they had reached the far end of the corridor.