'I originally thought that since Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina hasn't come back for so long, and there were so many people in the Servant Club, I could probably slip by tonight.'
'Who would've thought that not long after Ryou teleported to the family restaurant, I'd be teleported over as well.'
'What is even more unexpected is that this so-called "serving dishes" actually means serving myself. The menu we signed our names on was the menu Hikigaya-kun ordered.'
'Ryou, Nijika, Bocchi-chan, why didn't any of you say you played this big with Hikigaya-kun!'
"Actually, it was Ryou who recommended you to me, so I let you come first."
Hachiman looked down at Kita Ikuyo and Yamada Ryou, whose tender skin was set off by strands of red rope, making it look dazzlingly fair and smooth. He gently pinched both of their cheeks and told the truth without hesitation.
Normally, the family restaurant really did serve in order. But since Yamada Ryou asked for Kita Ikuyo to come together, he naturally agreed.
Eating sooner or later was still eating anyway. Putting Ryou and Kita together wasn't bad at all.
Even though in the original story Ryou was Kita's senior, someone Kita admired, now Kita had skipped admiration altogether and directly realized Ryou's scummy nature.
"Ryou?"
Hearing Hachiman's answer, Kita Ikuyo's eyes went wide as she stared straight at Yamada Ryou, who was almost right in front of her.
Ryou had only come in a little earlier than her, right? Didn't that mean Ryou sold her out to Hikigaya-kun the moment she came in?
Not even a moment of hesitation?
"Didn't we already agree before coming in? I'd ask Hachiman for money later, and I'd give you ten percent."
Seeing Kita Ikuyo looking at her, Yamada Ryou explained.
"I never agreed to that!"
"Backing out at a time like this? Fine then, I'll give you twenty percent. No more than that."
"That's not the problem here!"
Realizing that Yamada Ryou thought she was refusing because she wasn't happy with the cut, Kita Ikuyo felt like she was going crazy.
Ryou was actually saying things like this right in front of Hikigaya-kun. Hikigaya-kun wouldn't think she was some vain girl who sold her body for a bit of money, would he?
"Alright, Ryou, stop teasing Kita. It's her first time."
Hachiman smiled as he looked down at Kita Ikuyo, whose snow-white skin was flushed red, her whole body tensed up unconsciously. He picked up a translucent slice of fish resting on Yamada Ryou's fair thigh, lightly dipped it in the sweet sauce near her delicate collarbone, and brought it to Yamada Ryou's mouth.
From the way Kita Ikuyo only looked at Yamada Ryou and instinctively avoided making eye contact with him, it was clear she wasn't really that angry. Raising her voice at Yamada Ryou was just a way to vent her nervousness and unease.
Of course, Yamada Ryou's personality really was scummy, so Kita Ikuyo was definitely speechless toward her.
"I'm not teasing her. I really am going to take the money. If she's not happy with it, then I just won't split it with her."
Unlike the tense and flustered Kita Ikuyo, the calm Yamada Ryou didn't care about her situation at all. When Hachiman fed her the fish, she opened her mouth and ate it without hesitation. After savoring it carefully, she sighed in admiration.
"Mmm, it's pretty good. What kind of fish is this? I don't think I've had it before."
"I'm not too sure either. I heard Lala say it was an edible fish her younger sister Nana once gave her. Seeing that the newly built family restaurant was empty today, she cleared out a lot of ingredients she'd been storing in her warehouse for a long time."
Hachiman shook his head. Lala's sisters, Momo and Nana, had given her lots of gifts, and even Lala herself couldn't remember exactly what kind of fish this was. She only knew it tasted good.
"An alien fish, huh? As expected of you. Eating alien food while playing with alien women. That's real rock and roll…"
Hearing that the fish came from the alien princess Lala, Yamada Ryou couldn't help licking her lips again and sighed sincerely.
Hachiman clearly stayed at school most of the time, yet he played with women from school, outside school, other worlds, and even other planets. Now he was enjoying food offered to him in the club while continuing to play with women all by himself.
No wonder Hachiman was so amazing. When it came to having fun, Hachiman, you were the real pro.
"???"
Looking at the utterly serious Yamada Ryou, the corner of Kita Ikuyo's mouth twitched as she suddenly understood why Ijichi Nijika was usually so helpless when dealing with her.
'How did this get connected to rock?'
Even though she didn't know much about rock herself, you couldn't possibly define rock as just eating, drinking, and having fun, right?
"Kita, you try some too. It tastes pretty good," Hachiman smiled helplessly and used the same method to pick up a clear, crystal-like slice of fish and bring it to Kita Ikuyo's mouth.
"Uh… thank you, Hikigaya-kun…", Looking at the fish in front of her, which seemed to give off a faint fragrance, Kita Ikuyo slowly swallowed and opened her small mouth, gently biting Hachiman's finger.
She didn't really agree with Ryou's idea of selling her, let alone for just ten or twenty percent.
But now that she herself was already a dish at Hikigaya-kun's mouth, eating some alien fish together with Ryou probably wouldn't hurt.
Being treated as a dish and… and served on the table in a family restaurant, this feeling was really hard to put into words. She needed to eat something to calm down.
"Ryou, I just had Shion transfer one million yen to you as pocket money a few days ago. How did you spend it so fast?"
After feeding Yamada Ryou and Kita Ikuyo another bite, Hachiman wiped his damp fingers, then lowered his head and took a bite of Yamada Ryou's cheek, continuing the earlier topic.
Even though one million yen wasn't that much, Ryou didn't really have many places to spend money. When she was rich, she ate and drank a bit more nicely. When she was poor, she just ate weeds.
Even if she needed to buy the six-string bass Kita Ikuyo had bought by mistake, and spent a bit more on food and drinks, it shouldn't have been possible to burn through that money in just a few days.
"O-one million yen in pocket money?"
Hearing this, Kita Ikuyo was shocked. She only knew that last time Yamada Ryou sold Ijichi Nijika, she seemed to have gotten some money from Hachiman. She never expected it to be that much.
That was one million yen. Even in her double–civil servant family, she never got that much pocket money.
But thinking about it carefully, if Ryou only gave her ten percent, she'd only get one hundred thousand.
Selling herself for one hundred thousand… that was kind of… no, no, she never said she was selling herself.
"I actually went to other live houses to watch shows recently. The leader of the popular band SICK HACK, Hiroi Kikuri, got drunk and accidentally damaged some of the live house equipment, so I lent her the money."
Since Ijichi Nijika wasn't here, Yamada Ryou didn't hide anything and directly said where the money went.
"I watch their band a lot and know them well. Even though they're pretty popular and have decent income, the leader always drinks while performing and often breaks equipment, so they're really poor. Their apartment is terrible, and sometimes they even go to Nijika's sister's place to mooch off the bathroom."
"When she spends all the money and can't pay it back, we can have her repay it with her body."
"Or even have the other two girls in her band help pay it back together."
"???"
Looking at Yamada Ryou calmly saying such shocking things, Kita Ikuyo's small mouth fell open, and she didn't know what to say anymore.
Had Ryou gotten addicted to selling people?
Not only did she sell her own bandmates, she was even planning to sell an all-girl band from outside to Hachiman?
Hachiman was also a bit stunned, 'You can do that?'
'As expected of you, scumbag Ryou.'
"For now, let's not talk about that. It's not time to push them to repay yet. Hachiman, reimburse me first. Otherwise, next time I run into other bands, I won't have money to lend them."
Yamada Ryou thought about it and felt that she was basically working for Hachiman, so she couldn't keep fronting the money.
"Fine. I'll reimburse you this time. But don't do this kind of thing again. I'm worried you'll get beaten up."
Hachiman fell silent for a moment, then agreed to reimburse Yamada Ryou, but didn't recommend she keep pulling this kind of move.
If Nijika found out about this, she would definitely go after Ryou. Even the girls Ryou had tricked might band together and target Kessoku Band.
"Heh! As long as I sell fast enough, I'll have all their dark history in my hands. How could they resist me?"
Yamada Ryou pouted, not thinking there was anything to worry about. She wasn't forcing anyone. People like Kita and Nijika were all tsundere types who complained but still came along halfway willingly.
"Doesn't that make your heart race, Hachiman?"
"Doesn't the mermaid princess Meroune have an idol agency under her? If the agency uses money to sign them, they won't be able to resist us at all."
"When there are more rock bands joining, we can have them all form one huge rock collective with us."
"After performances at night, we can throw celebration parties together. Everyone gets drunk, goes wild together until the next afternoon, and no one even gets out of bed. Just imagining it is super rock, super cool!"
"..."
Looking at Yamada Ryou, who he couldn't tell anymore whether she was joking or seriously planning this, Hachiman and Kita Ikuyo exchanged a glance, both feeling speechless.
'A rock band turning into a rock collective?'
'Several girls' rock bands turning into a rock idol collective made up of several girls' bands?'
Honestly, her bold idea did make him a bit tempted.
But these things weren't so easy to pull off.
Even if he didn't care about the cost of failure, he couldn't just recruit people randomly. He'd have to find suitable partners like Yamada Ryou and the others, people who genuinely loved rock and could play it for a lifetime.
"By the way, Hachiman, aren't you going to put the bracelets on us? Or are you planning to eat first and play later?"
Knowing that Hachiman wouldn't be easily convinced, Yamada Ryou didn't push that matter and instead asked curiously, looking at Kita Ikuyo, who was meeting her gaze.
They all knew about the silver empathy bracelets.
But those bracelets were always kept by Hachiman, and only when playing would he let them take turns wearing them.
Now that both she and Kita were lying right in front of him, why wasn't he putting the bracelets on them? If they didn't wear the bracelets, wouldn't the girls outside be unable to use the empathy cuffs?
Even though the empathy cuffs couldn't replace real contact with Hachiman, they were still better than being alone with your own sensations.
"The bracelets are on Chisato and Takina right now. We'll have to wait a bit," Hachiman shook his head.
"On Chisato and Takina? They haven't left yet?"
Yamada Ryou froze when she heard that and immediately turned her head to look around.
The surrounding tables were all a mess and hadn't been cleaned up yet. It was obvious the family restaurant had served many rounds already. Hachiman had eaten many meals before them.
But right now, there weren't any other girls in the family restaurant. Not only were there no girls to be seen, there weren't even any intelligent robots working.
Yamada Ryou kept looking around, until the corner of her eye suddenly caught a flash of platinum blonde and jet black. She immediately shifted her body and turned her head toward the table where Hachiman was standing.
Seeing the platinum-blonde hair tied with Nishikigi Chisato's red ribbon faintly appearing by the table, she finally realized.
No wonder Hachiman chatted with them for so long after they came in, calmly eating and talking with them, without any intention of eating Kita first or having her demonstrate something for Kita.
She had thought Hachiman figured it was Kita's first time and wanted to chat more with the nervous Kita to ease her tension.
Turns out Chisato and Takina hadn't left at all. They'd been… after being eaten clean by Hachiman, now it was Chisato and Takina's turn to eat…
"Then hurry up and call Nijika and Bocchi-chan in too. And Kitagawa and Miura. They came with us and are waiting as well."
After realizing this, Yamada Ryou immediately urged Hachiman.
Since Chisato and Takina had already been taken care of, there was no need for them to hesitate anymore.
Everyone came together, so they could all go together. Anyway, none of them had undergone Hachiman's magical girl development ritual yet.
There were so many people in the Servant Club now. If they kept waiting, they'd probably be waiting until dawn.
"W-wait! Hikigaya-kun, don't call them!"
Hearing Yamada Ryou actually wanting Hachiman to keep serving dishes at a time like this, Kita Ikuyo was startled. Forgetting her embarrassment, she hurriedly pleaded in a low voice.
"Can you call Nijika… Bocchi-chan and the others in a bit later?"
"Hikigaya-kun… p-please… eat me and Ryou first…"
Even though it wasn't just the two of them right now, with Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina under the table, she still didn't want Nijika and Bocchi-chan to come in so quickly.
Maybe she'd get used to this kind of thing in the future, but right now she wasn't used to it yet.
"Alright, then I'll eat Kita and Ryou first."
Hachiman looked at Kita Ikuyo, whose snow-white skin was tinged with a faint blush from extreme shyness, making her look lovely and enticing. He smiled and nodded, satisfying Kita Ikuyo's wish.
"Thank you, Hikigaya-kun…"
Seeing that Hachiman didn't call Nijika and the others in, Kita Ikuyo let out a big sigh of relief.
Even though she was still very embarrassed, compared to being surrounded and watched by Nijika and the others, this was already much better.
However, Kita Ikuyo's feeling of relief only lasted less than ten minutes.
"Ryou! Don't suddenly call my name at a time like this!"
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