Chapter 168. Drive Back

Momo came over with a calm smile and decided to give me a light kiss on my cheek. My whole face turned red at her boldness right in front of her mom, and she giggled lightly at my flustered expression. I then noticed that she wasn’t the only one chuckling. I looked over at Shunji to see that she was smiling and chuckling at me as well. “I see…” She said to me with a knowing look. I was confused and a little afraid of what she did see, but stayed quiet to not bury myself.

The rest of the plane ride was much more lighthearted. We explained our own experiences about school, but there was only one problem. “So what did Denki do next!?” Shunji said with a large smile while talking to Mina explaining our exam together. The problem was most of it was the girls explaining things about me, and talking me up to Shunji. Momo started it with explaining in more detail about what happened in the forest, and how I rescued her.

Then Himiko started yelling about how she fell in love with me that night, and how fast I ran off to help Momo the second I heard her in danger. It was basically just stories of me, and I was about to die from the embarrassment. That only seemed to egg the girls on, by sharing more and more embarrassing things I may have said or done. I buried my head into my hands, to help hide my shame but from the evil giggling that I heard from Nemuri, it didn’t do much.

After an excruciating plane ride, it was finally over. I sighed from relief of having my life stopped being talked about. Everyone else was in high spirits though. All of the girls were enjoying sharing their personal stories of me with each other, Nemuri was enjoying my shame and embarrassment, and Shunji was happy, but I couldn’t read exactly why.

We left the plane, and walked into the terminal, where we made our way into the parking garage soon after, while I was trying my best to avoid the glares of death coming from the guys that we passed. We eventually got to the large limo that we came in with. There was just one thing that confused me a bit. “Are we taking you to our school as well?” I asked Shunji as the other girls were getting inside.

Shunji looked at me a bit teasingly. “We did discuss this a bit, but I guess you were trying your best to not listen in.” She finished with a slight chuckle at my blushing expression. “I don’t live too far from the school, so after you all are taken back, I can just drive myself home.” I nodded in understanding at her, and followed right behind her as the last one inside the limo. Nemuri was driving us again, and as we pulled out onto the highway, I noticed that all of the girls were sleeping soundly.

I was confused about what happened all of a sudden, but I heard Nemuri speak while lowering the partition. “I was wondering when it would happen.” She said with a slightly somber tone. I looked at Nemuri with confusion, she must have felt my gaze, and explained to me what she was talking about. “Those girls stayed up later than I did worrying about you while you were passed out.”

I sighed from that piece of information that the girls didn’t think pertinent to tell me. I quickly covered them all up with some of the blankets that Toru brought with her to travel. I smiled at them with so much love that filled my thoughts. They all cared about me so much, and they proved that time and time again. I then heard chuckling from beside me. I turned to look at Shunji smiling at me. “Is it selfish of you to bring happiness to my daughter and all of her friends like this?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

I stared at her while thinking of what she meant. “Yes… Love can be selfish, that is just human nature, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a good kind of selfishness.” She said her last little bit while pointing at a seat apart from her to speak to me more. I did as I was told, and waited for her to talk more. “I have heard from my daughter of your lack of confidence… I wanted to test that, but I can see that you have grown from what she had described to me while you were not listening.” She finished that last bit with a laugh.

I blushed a bit as she talked a bit more seriously. “That is good… You must be confident. That is the most important part of business… To not compromise, and not allow yourself to be pushed around.” I nodded in understanding of what she was trying to tell me. She then gained a slight teasing smirk at me. “Because if you marry into this family… You must show back-bone to become a Yaoyorozu.” I was startled at what she just said, and quickly looked at Momo’s sleeping face.

I gained a smile while looking at her, but then the thoughts of marriage gave me angst. It’s not like I wouldn’t want to marry her, but we were both young. ‘Is that just an excuse…?’ I then frowned while thinking about what would be best. ‘I told Momo to be less caring of doing things perfectly in a fight, but now I’m going against my own teaching by only wanting to do what would be best for everyone.’ I sighed while holding my head with one hand.

“I’m sorry… I’m just a little unsure when that would be a good time… We still haven’t told the class about us… When do I say that, and then do I marry them all at once? Do each get their own separate weddings? What about the other parents? Your husband? What would-” I then stopped myself and shook my head with a defeated smile. “Sorry… That kinda made my head spin.” I sighed while scratching my head while dodging Shunji’s gaze.

“Look at me.” She said calmly, and I couldn’t help but follow the Queen’s command. I looked at her calming smile that reminded me so much of Momo. “That is something that you must discuss amongst yourselves… That is not a decision for you to make on your own.” I stared at her for a bit and began to chuckle at her simple answer that I already talked about with Momo and Kyoka, about being open with what we want. I already knew the way, my head was just spinning too much to remember. “Thank you.” I said to her with a large smile on my face from the joy of being accepted, and helped so much from her.

She giggled a bit while covering her smile with her hand. “Thank you… I’ve never seen my daughter so happy.” My smile grew knowing that Momo really was happy with me, but got a sudden tingle down my spine as my 6th sense went off. My head snapped back over to Shunji to see a chilling smile that Momo sometimes wore. “Be sure to treat her correctly… For your own safety.” She gave a small chuckle at my re-kindled fear of her as I nodded fervently.

The rest of the drive was long enough for me to drift off myself. Before I knew it, we were already back at school. I looked at the massive building that felt so nostalgic now. I felt like I had been gone for so long. I yawned as I groggily woke up from Nemuri speaking in a louder tone to wake us from returning ‘home’. “Alright everyone! We made it back!” Nemuri sighed after saying that from what I assumed was relief of getting us back in one piece after all of what she saw of me. I saw the other girls waking up themselves and smiled at how cute they all were in their half-asleep states.

The limo stopped as the girls and I stretched ourselves awake. I got out of the door first to take a breath of fresh air, while stretching my legs. I sighed from all that had happened myself. So much has been happening constantly, but this weekend was a lot all at once. It was the exact opposite of a vacation. Now that it was all over, and school was starting up again tomorrow, I wanted to just rest with all of the girls, and just relax with them all.

I was snapped from my thoughts by the sudden attack from behind. I looked down to see a pair of arms hugging my stomach. I smiled from knowing who they belonged to. “Hello Himiko.” I said while petting her hair from behind as she was essentially playing the guess who game with me. She giggled a bit as she rubbed her head into my back. It wasn’t long until the other girls came out of the limo as well.