Chapter 98: Connections

Yesterday night was the longest and slowest night of Rion and Kotomi Amami's lives .

Everything they built was destroyed .

But a new ray of hope shone through their despair .

They sat in their grandparents' yard, watching the night sky . In their hearts, they felt a peaceful calmness which they had never felt before .

Rion, we made so many mistakes .

Kotomi, we did so many foolish things .

Foolishly making so many mistakes, doing wrong by so many people, seriously hurting the most important person... it wouldn't be enough no matter how much they apologized .

They... were finally able to see just how ugly and terrible their past selves had acted .

They felt awful, regretful, sad, pained, and yet . . . a burden had been taken off their shoulders .

It was as if they'd been released from an invisible dark cage and were able to see the endless sky again .

The sky wasn't anything new to them .

It was something they possessed before, but abandoned unknowingly . Only now did they finally see it again . . .

It was as if they had truly returned home .

Ah, so it had been like this .

Ever since that day when they stumbled upon their father's secret, they . . . lost their way .

They discovered a dark and narrow alley, believed that it was the correct path, and continued walking down it .

If they had persisted in walking down that path, it was likely they would have remained lost forever .

However, someone found them and pulled them back onto the path to home .

One person withstood the terrible agony of digging up his own past scars and reached his large hand out to them .

Another person withstood all the terrible things they had inflicted on him and reached a much smaller hand out to them .

This is the wrong road; come over to our side!

Being pulled along by the large hand and the small hand, they finally . . .

Rion . . .

Kotomi . . .

We've . . . returned .

The lost sisters finally recognized their own misdeeds .

The two lost little girls finally returned home .

. . .

Seiji merely glanced at the twins before he continued walking without missing a beat .

The bandages on Rion and Kotomi's faces slightly dampened their beauty, but apart from that, they didn't seem too different .

The biggest difference was their eyes .

Even though he only caught a brief glimpse of them, Seiji saw a clear light shining in the twins' eyes .

Maybe they wouldn't be able to make a complete turnaround so quickly, but they'd still made a good start .

Anyway, it didn't have anything to do with him . He no longer had anything to say to them .

Seiji silently walked in between and past the twins .

"Seigo Harano . . . " a voice spoke up .

"We hate you . "

"Since you defeated us so utterly . "

"That's why . . . "

"We'll become stronger . . . and prettier than before!"

"Just like you . "

"And then we'll surpass you . "

"And then we'll surpass you . "

"Finally, we'll overturn things and defeat you!"

The twins' voices quavered with emotion as they took turns to speak .

Doubtlessly, this was something akin to a revenge declaration .

However, it didn't sound dark at all; instead, it sounded bright .

Seiji smiled . "If you can come, then come . No matter when, I'm always happy to accept a challenge . . . Just like I said before, I'll play with you anytime . Even though you're older than I am, I'm your senpai in life experience . As former scum, I'll wait for you . . . my senpais that are also former scum . "

He left them with that sentence as he walked off .

Rion and Kotomi's faces were now covered in tears .

They only had one sentence left in their hearts that they couldn't say, wouldn't say, didn't dare to say, but they would say eventually one day: "Thank you . "

. . .

*Ding!* Seiji received yet another notification from the system as a block of text appeared in front of him .

[A female character now has a connection rating that's 50 points higher than their favorability rating, so your [connections] option is now available . You may now inspect all connection ratings of all characters with over 50 favorability/friendship/connection points . ]

[Two female characters have a connection rating that's 50 points higher than their favorability rating; you've received the special reward of [Item Duplication card!]]

[A male character has a connection to you of over 100 points, and you've already received his character reward card . His character reward card has now been increased in level!]

Connection rating?

Seiji raised his eyebrows in surprise .

'Something wondrous has come out again . You've been quite active today, system of mine . '

Two female characters with a connection of over 50 points . . . This could only be talking about the twins .

Just what exactly did that sentence mean? What exactly was . . . a connection rating?

Seiji was curious about his new option .

He returned to the classroom .

"How did it feel, Seigo? Receiving the forbidden love confession from your middle school junior! Allow me to interview you . . . Eek!!"

Chiaki greeted him with an evil grin, but instantly received a merciless blow, causing her to collapse onto her desk .

Chiaki greeted him with an evil grin, but instantly received a merciless blow, causing her to collapse onto her desk .

Mika and all the other students were shocked into speechlessness .

Yep, everything was peaceful and calm today in Year 1, Class 5 .

There were a few minutes remaining before class started .

Seiji held complex emotions towards Hoshi's prank on him, but he still needed to check out his system's new options .

Seiji opened up his system's menu .

First, he checked the [connections] option .

According to the system's explanation, a connection rating meant how strongly a boy or girl was connected to him, and it usually had a direct relationship to favorability or friendship rating, but it was also independent .

Typically speaking, the connection rating would increase in tandem with favorability and friendship rating, but there were also exceptions .

Seiji understood it as a classic example of the two main characters of the anime Naruto .

Before Naruto and Sasuke finally made up with each other, their favorability towards each other . . . whoops, friendship towards each other definitely would have had a low value, but their connection to each other would be strong .

Hmm . . . at least from Sasuke's angle, his connection rating to Naruto must have been at the max! It was probably so high that Sasuke wanted to kill Naruto .

After Seiji suddenly thought about Hoshi, he felt like he could understand Sasuke's feelings a little bit better!

*Cough cough . * Seiji veered himself away from that line of thought .

At any rate, this was what connection rating meant . Now that he understood it, if he looked at it more closely . . .

Mika's connection rating with him was similar to her favorability rating towards him . Chiaki's connection rating was higher than favorability rating; in conclusion, both of them seemed normal .

Hoshi . . . er, Seiji decided to skip over him .

Rion and Kotomi Amami . . . both of their favorability ratings were about 30, but their connection ratings... were both over 90!!

Seiji squinted at the number for several seconds to make sure it was real .

That was right; it was over 90!

This number was even higher than Chiaki's connection to him! They were at the same level as Mika!!

Was this . . . two female versions of Naruto!?

No, no, that didn't feel right!

Was this . . . two female versions of Naruto!?

No, no, that didn't feel right!

Then . . . two female versions of Sasuke?

It still didn't seem right!

Seiji's thoughts were thrown into disarray .

Okay then, mix it up; two female Sasukes with Naruto's connection rating!

That was much better . . . not!!

What the hell was with his chaotic analogy!? An endless barrage of comments flew through Seiji's mind .

But he still couldn't think of any better way to understand this .

He really wanted to ask someone for help regarding this matter!

Seiji sighed deeply . 'Forget it . . . this probably isn't something that's bad anyway . '

Seiji finally decided to leave this matter alone .

'Let's take a look at the actual rewards . '

Two female characters with a connection rating 50 points higher than their favorability led to him receiving a reward called the [Item Duplication card] .

When Seiji looked at this in his [items], he was stunned!

'Wtf, this is . . . a godly card!'

It had no effect on skill activation or ability learning cards . But it could duplicate precious one-time items like [encouraging heart]; in short, it was basically an extra copy he could use at any time he wanted!

Really . . . an excellent reward .

Duplication . . . Seiji couldn't help wondering about those twins . Did he receive this as a reward because he reached the condition required, or was it because he reached the condition with the twins?

This was something only the system would know .

Seiji was still filled with complex emotions as he finally took a look at Hoshi Amami's [character reward card] .

Although he was mentally prepared for any possibility, he was still shocked when he read the card's effects!