'Th-then… doesn't that mean Nijika, Ryou and the others' relationship with Hikigaya-kun is like this too?'
Face flushed red, breathing quick and shallow, Kita Ikuyo covered her eyes with both hands, staring fixedly through her fingers at the shocking scene in front of her that she just couldn't look away from.
'T-this is kind of a bit too exciting, isn't it?'
'So many girls all tangled up with just Hikigaya-kun alone?'
Actually it wasn't just Kita Ikuyo who was utterly stunned, Ijichi Nijika and the others were also greatly shaken.
Among this whole group, only Ichinose Honami had ever personally experienced this before.
Looking at it, everyone in Kessoku Band seems to be very close with Hachiman, but in reality the one who's closest, Gotou Hitori, has only barely had a taste, and Nijika, who interacts with him the most in class, also stops her steps there, too embarrassed to put it into words.
"Didn't Hachiman say he was going to talk with Landlady-san about buying the apartment? This is how he's talking?", Yamada Ryou's face was slightly red, but she still rubbed her chin as she observed Asou Miyuri in Hachiman's arms, giving the overwhelmed Hachiman a big thumbs up.
She had originally thought Hachiman might not be able to handle the pressure of so many people from their band, that his relationship with Nijika was so ambiguous exactly because he couldn't bring himself to make it official with her, but seeing this scene now, she realized she had severely underestimated Hachiman.
Forget just their four girls in Kessoku Band, even adding on two more bands probably wouldn't be any problem at all.
"Uhh… she's not Landlady-san's daughter, right?", Ijichi Nijika looked at Asou Miyuri, whose expression seemed already so lost she couldn't control it anymore. While feeling unbearably shy in her heart, she also faintly worried that Hachiman might have done something wrong.
Hachiman shouldn't be the kind of person who would deliberately go seduce the landlord's daughter just to buy an apartment, right.
She did trust Hachiman a lot, but this girl...
At the same time, Hachiman slowly let go of the Kaede–Suzu sisters and Asou Miyuri in front of him, and had Horikomo China help support their limp, still not-quite-satisfied bodies over to the edge of the bath to rest.
Ichinose Ayano and Ichinose Marika, who had already been waiting impatiently, hurried to take the Kaede–Suzu sisters' place, one on the left and one on the right, each giving Hachiman a kiss on the cheek.
They were both wearing shared-feeling bracelets and shared-feeling collars, but their constitutions were a bit more special, and they wanted even more to feel Hachiman's affection directly.
Only after personally feeling their master's incredibly heavy love to their heart's content could they be satisfied for the moment and stop craving their master's affection.
"Nijika, you all came over? Since you're here, then come soak together."
Hachiman pulled Lala, who was massaging and kneading his back, into his arms, gently bit Lala's heart-shaped tail, and only after Lala stopped being so nervous did he rub Ichinose Ayano and Ichinose Marika's heads, look over at Ijichi Nijika, Gotou Hitori and the others, and wave at them.
There was nothing to say about Bocchi-chan, and actually Nijika was someone he could eat up whenever he wanted. Their resistance mainly came from shyness, they wouldn't really reject him.
Ryou had been hopping around at his side this whole time, every now and then selling Nijika out a bit, so she probably knew he had thoughts about her too.
He had just not expected that Kita Ikuyo would also come over.
So bold?
"G-gulp!"
Sensing Hachiman's gaze falling on her, Kita Ikuyo's whole body went stiff, and she started to regret her bold words just now.
'So this is Kessoku Band's secret? '
No wonder Nijika had kept stopping her from coming over just now.
'I'm sorry, Nijika! I misunderstood you! Is it still in time if I go back now?'
"Heh! Heh!"
Looking at Kita Ikuyo's pleading gaze directed at her, Ijichi Nijika silently shifted her eyes away, refusing to meet her line of sight.
She had already reminded her many, many times just now, if Kita wouldn't believe her, what could she do.
At a time like this, even she herself felt super awkward, let alone going to help Kita.
But at most, Kita was just going to be a bit embarrassed, she didn't need to worry about anything worse happening.
After all, Hachiman's relationship with her was better. If he really wanted to have bad thoughts and do something, he could have done something to her long ago.
Kita's figure seemed even a tiny bit worse than hers, and she wasn't that familiar with him either, so why would Hachiman make a move on Kita.
Same gyaru, same outgoing and lively personality, it would make more sense for Hachiman to make a move on the better-built Marin instead.
The chances of Hachiman going for Ryou were still higher than for Kita. Although Ryou was a bit lacking in shame, her figure and looks were both really good. When she shut her mouth and didn't talk, she was a super cool beautiful girl.
Ijichi Nijika avoided Kita Ikuyo's gaze, her eyes sweeping across Kita Ikuyo's chest, and secretly peeking at the bodies of the girls present.
Most of the girls around Hachiman seemed to have really good figures.
Kaede, Suzu, Lala, Honami, Ayano, Bocchi-chan…
Among all the girls in class, she was the only one who was especially petite and delicate. Oh, and Gabriel.
"???"
Kita Ikuyo sharply noticed Ijichi Nijika's fleeting glance, and her pretty face tightened.
'What does that mean?'
'What does Nijika mean by that?'
Yamada Ryou was staring without blinking at Ichinose Ayano and Ichinose Marika, who were currently being like cats licking their owner, clinging to Hachiman.
She stared at the black collars on the necks of Ichinose Ayano and Ichinose Marika, and the silver bracelet on Lala's wrist, then reached out and touched the matching collar on her own neck.
So the use of this thing really wasn't that simple.
If they were to activate the shared-feeling function right now.
"H-Hachiman… um… a-are we going to, be together too?"
Unlike Ijichi Nijika, Kita Ikuyo, who had suddenly fallen silent, Gotou Hitori, who had long since regarded Hachiman as the one and only good friend in her entire life, shakily came up to stand before Hachiman.
She looked at Lala, who also had long pink hair and was sitting in Hachiman's arms, smiling cheerfully at her. Her gaze kept darting away, not daring to look straight at her, as she stammered in a small voice.
The moment Hachiman had told her he wanted to keep her, she had already fully prepared herself mentally for their relationship, especially since she had known before that Hachiman's relationship with the elf princess Iris and Sakurase Shino and the others was not ordinary.
Even so, seeing so many girls she usually knew all gathered around Hachiman now still shocked her, and made her uneasy about what was going to happen in a bit.
If it were just Hachiman alone it'd be great, but with so many girls together like this, she really didn't know what she was supposed to do.
Usually Nijika was always so proactive, how come she wasn't coming up to chat with Hachiman now? She'd even wanted Nijika to properly demonstrate for her how you were supposed to do it the first time.
"Bocchi-chan, you don't need to be nervous. You girls just came over here to soak in the bath, and just happened to run into them."
Hachiman let out a small breath. Seeing Ijichi Nijika and the others all shy and not daring to come closer, he could only temporarily put a pause on his bath with Lala and the others, and smile as he comforted Gotou Hitori.
"But if you really can't calm down from how nervous you are, you can come help me scrub my back."
He knew Bocchi-chan wasn't used to such a big scene with so many people, and he didn't want to make things hard for her.
But most of the time, there would be other girls around him, and Bocchi-chan needed to get at least somewhat used to that, so he didn't tell her to leave either.
If she was this nervous just from everyone bathing and soaking in the tub together, what would they do when Kessoku Band held a celebration party later?
After all, when the band held a celebration party, it definitely wouldn't just be Nijika and the others, there'd also be big sisters like Nijika's older sister, PA-san and so on.
"Scrub your back? Okay!"
The moment Gotou Hitori heard that she only had to scrub his back and wouldn't be sitting in Hachiman's lap, getting stared at with looks of envy and jealousy from everyone, she hurriedly nodded and agreed.
Her sense of security skyrocketed as long as she was by Hachiman's side, and with Hachiman's body enough to block everyone's line of sight, she definitely wouldn't be that nervous anymore.
As long as she could ignore the never-ending sounds coming from Ichinose Ayano and the others.
"Hi, Bocchi-chan."
Lala leaned against Hachiman's chest, breathing lightly, then turned her head to look at Gotou Hitori, who had swum around to Hachiman's back, blinked, and then flashed her a bright, energetic, and enthusiastic smile as she greeted her.
"L-Lala, h-hello…"
Gotou Hitori replied on reflex, but the moment she saw the dazzling sunny smile on Lala's face, she immediately lowered her head again.
It wasn't that she didn't like girls like Lala who would actively come over to greet her. Although she was very nervous and not really used to it, she also really liked girls who didn't look down on her and were willing to come say hi to her.
Meeting Hachiman had been the luckiest thing in her life.
When she was by Hachiman's side, everyone would warmly say hi and chat with her. In all the time she'd been with Hachiman, she'd gotten to know more friends than in her entire life up till now.
It was just that sometimes the girls around Hachiman were a bit too enthusiastic, and she couldn't quite handle it. Maybe only Hachiman could manage this many girls.
Gotou Hitori quietly lowered her head and scrubbed Hachiman's back for a while, when she suddenly noticed Lala's black tail snap taut and straight, then go limp and droop down again.
The heart-shaped tip of the tail floated softly in the water as the hot water flowed by.
Ichinose Ayano and Ichinose Marika, who were wrapped around Hachiman on the left and right, also stopped their movements and lay down limply on Hachiman's shoulders, not moving anymore.
"Ayano, Marika, you two go rest for a bit first. I'm going to talk about some things with Nijika and the others."
Hachiman lifted his hand and gently stroked Ichinose Ayano and Ichinose Marika's heads, kissed them, then sent them over to Kaede and Suzu.
Even with their constitutions, their resistance to him being this weak, they shouldn't have been this exhausted all at once, but with Nijika and the others here, it really wasn't that convenient. It would be better to wait until Nijika and the others had gone to sleep before going wild again.
"Yes, Master."
Ichinose Ayano and Ichinose Marika had no objections. They each gave him a reluctant kiss on one side of his face, then obediently left.
But before leaving, Ichinose Ayano glanced at Ichinose Honami.
"Honami."
She wasn't familiar with Ijichi Nijika and the others, and had no reason to stay and listen in, but Honami was different, she could stay.
There were already quite a lot of girls around their Master now. Even if the Ichinose family was big and united as one, they still had to keep an eye on the rivals around them.
"Mm…"
Ichinose Honami silently nodded, took a deep breath, and under Ijichi Nijika and the others' gazes, came over to Hachiman's side with a red face, taking over Ichinose Ayano's spot and hugging Hachiman's arm tightly.
Changing shifts and taking turns with Ayano and Marika like this wasn't unfamiliar to Ichinose Honami, they had all seen each other's embarrassing sides.
The only unfamiliar thing was doing it in front of Nijika and the others.
But thankfully, Hachiman's relationship with Nijika and the others hadn't reached that level yet, she could still just act a bit affectionate.
She wasn't as obsessed with Hachiman as Ayano and the others, and had no interest in experiencing something that thrilling in front of Nijika and the others.
"What's wrong? Nijika, why aren't you saying anything? What did you come here to find me for?"
Hachiman gently tugged Gotou Hitori from behind him to pull her a bit forward, hugging Gotou Hitori with one arm and Ichinose Honami with the other, smiling as he looked at Ijichi Nijika, Kita Ikuyo, Yamada Ryou and the others, who had maintained their silence and didn't dare speak.
He had never really tried to hide the girls around him; they basically all knew he was a playboy.
But from the looks of things now, Nijika and the others' ability to accept this was still not as strong as the main girls from the inside world. Even though Nijika had already had plenty of intimate contact with him together with Marin and Yumiko, she was still so embarrassed she couldn't say a word now.
Socially anxious and introverted, energetic and lively, kind and understanding… they were all pink-haired big-breasted girls, yet all with three different personalities.
Staring at Hachiman holding Ichinose Honami and Gotou Hitori in his arms, with Lala also sitting in his lap, arms looped around his neck without letting go, Ijichi Nijika's eye twitched slightly, and she really didn't feel like talking.
As expected, Hachiman still liked girls with good figures more, right. Among all those people just now, only one girl she didn't know was on the petite side.
Kita Ikuyo, whose relationship with Hachiman wasn't as close and who didn't know as much about him yet, didn't have as many thoughts as Ijichi Nijika.
She just stared in utter shock at Lala, who was still sitting in Hachiman's lap, and tried her best to swallow quietly, terrified that she'd get pulled over to take over the baton and play overtime.
Even if she didn't want to live that boring normie life anymore, and that was why she'd chosen to follow the very cool Ryou's lead and join the band,
And even if the rock band life she'd never experienced before was definitely very fun and fulfilling,
This, this was a bit too.
"We just wanted to come ask where you'd gone, Hachiman, we didn't expect you to use magic to secretly hide over here."
Yamada Ryou glanced at the completely mute Ijichi Nijika and Kita Ikuyo beside her, and spoke up, explaining the reason the few of them had come.
"Although we'd already guessed you'd very likely be hiding here, Hachiman, we still never expected you to be so completely unrestrained with them."
This bath was private, and the hot water also looked like it was flowing, but normal people still wouldn't be playing around this outrageously, right, actually pulling this many girls in to bathe with him together.
Judging from the way they looked, they were all willingly, even extremely proactively doing this.
Considering Hachiman's usual personality, he probably hadn't used power or money to pressure them either.
Yamada Ryou felt she had way underestimated Hachiman, in every aspect.
"Then Ryou, you still dare to come over? Aren't you afraid I'll pull you in to be the same as Bocchi-chan and the others?"
Hachiman was a little surprised by how calm Yamada Ryou was.
Bocchi-chan needed no explanation, and Kita knew nothing.
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