The S-Class Mage is a Gyaru!?-Chapter 76: Arcane Jungle, Part Three

The library’s quiet except for the scratch of my pen against paper and Haruka’s humming. She’s bent over our runic diagram. We already finished most of the work but now she’s just adding little flourishes to, in her words, "make the drawings pop".

I’m trying to focus. Really.

But every time she leans forward, I remember how she looked yesterday morning - on her knees, hungry eyes fixed on Akari’s-

I sigh.

[Couldn’t they have done that literally anywhere else? Fuck.]

"Ohhh... You know, if we connect these two lines here," Haruka points at the paper, her fingers trailing over the ink, "the resonance should be stronger. What do you think?"

What do I think?

I think her boobs are almost *too* big, honestly.

"Nao-chan?" She waves her hand in front of my face. "You still with me?"

"Yeah." My voice comes out rougher than intended. "The, uh, the lines. Right."

Her grin spreads slow and wicked.

"You sure? ’Cause you’re looking at my titties again~"

Heat rushes to my face. My tail wraps so tight around my chair leg I might need bolt cutters to get free.

"I’m not-"

"Can’t blame you though. They’re pretty great." She stretches, making her uniform strain. "Wanna touch ’em?"

"The DIAGRAM," I practically snarl. "Please."

Her laugh draws glares from nearby students.

"Fine, fine. But the offer stands!" She winks. "Especially since we’re gonna be working together so much~"

I seriously consider throwing myself through the library window.

Instead, I grab my ruler and start measuring line angles with military precision. Maybe if I focus hard enough, I can forget about yesterday morning entirely.

"Your ruler’s upside down."

"I hate you."

"I don’t think you do~"

---

Two hours later, we’re basically done.

Even Professor Chen would have to admit our array’s pretty much perfect, especially with Haruka’s "aesthetic improvements" (or a bunch of hearts and stars that she continues to swear somehow make the project better).

The library’s clearing out. Sun’s setting outside, painting everything gold through the windows. A few students are passed out at their desks, textbooks making decent pillows I guess.

I start packing up my perfectly arranged supplies, three pens (color-coded for different types of runes), two rulers (one for straight lines, one for curves), and my notebook where every page is dated and labeled. The sight of my own handwriting next to Haruka’s chaotic scrawl makes my eye twitch.

Just as I reach for my bento (today’s stickers are tigers doing cartwheels), Haruka catches my wrist.

"Ayyo, wait up!"

Her hand is warm. Really warm.

"What?"

"Wanna hang out?"

I blink at her. Once. Twice.

"... Why?"

She’s still holding my wrist. I could break free easily - these arms aren’t just for show - but I try not to do that. No need to be mean, Mom always says.

"Because it’s fun? Because you’re cute when you’re grumpy? Because I’m bored?" She counts off on her fingers with her free hand, grinning up at me. "Take your pick, babe!"

"Pass." I finally pull away, ignoring how cold my wrist feels now. "I have no interest in watching you and Nakamura swap spit."

"What? No!" She laughs, the sound bouncing off the library’s high ceiling. Someone shushes her. She ignores them. "I meant just us. Like, we could get food or whatever. I know this place that does amazing ramen-"

"Just... us?"

I raise a brow so high it almost hurts.

"Yeah!" She bounces on her toes, making her uniform do interesting things. "Unless you’re scared~"

"Of what? Your tits crushing me to death?"

The words are out before I can stop them. Heat floods my face so fast I’m surprised my ears don’t catch fire.

[Did I actually just-]

But Haruka just throws her head back and cackles, drawing more glares from the studying zombies around us.

"Oh my god, she makes jokes! Quick, someone call the newspaper!"

"Ugh."

I hate this girl.

Her grin gets wider, showing perfect teeth.

"So? Ramen? I’m buying~"

I should say no. Should go home to my tiny feynal parents and their endless curry and their dating sim suggestions. Should stick to my routine of workout, study, sleep, repeat.

Instead, I hear myself say:

"... Fine."

I’m not too sure what it is that gets that response out of me. Maybe I’m eager to break the cycle or something. But, my mouth says that before I can even process what I’m saying.

Her smile could power New Tokyo for a week. Maybe two.

"Yes! Operation ’Get Nao-chan to Have Fun’ is officially launched!"

"I’m already regretting this."

"No you’re not~" She starts shoving her stuff into her bag with zero organization. Notebooks, pens, and what looks like three different types of lip gloss all jumbled together.

I watch her pack, wondering what the hell I’m doing. This isn’t part of the plan. Wasn’t supposed to be hanging out with gyarus who make out in my gym and draw hearts on runic arrays and have stupidly perfect smiles.

"Ready?" She bounces up, bag slung over her shoulder.

"I guess."

"That’s the spirit!" She loops her arm through mine like we do this every day. "You’re gonna love this place. I swear, the noodles are like enchanted or something. It’s like..."

As she drags me out of the library, chattering about magical ramen and promising to "blow my mind," I have one crystal clear thought:

[What the fuck am I doing?]

---

{Haruka}

First it’s the ramen spot, where Nao stares at the noodles like they’ve personally offended her. I wasn’t lying when I said they were enchanted. They dance!

She tries to eat them with perfect chopstick form while I’m slurping away, and the look on her face when some broth splashes her nose? Priceless.

"The noodles are unnecessarily athletic," she mutters, and I nearly choke laughing.

Next half hour, I drag her to this dessert cafe I love. Everything’s cat-themed, which makes her ears go flat against her head.

"This is fucking discriminatory," she growls, staring at her tiger-striped ice cream. But she eats every bite.

Adorable.

We hit up the arcade after that. Turns out my grumpy tiger’s got a competitive streak a mile wide. She starts off acting all nonchalant but as we get going, she starts to absolutely destroy me at every fighting game, then gets weirdly intense about the crane machines.

When I win, I throw my hands up.

"WOOHOO! Gotcha!"

"Congrats. Ya want a trophy?"

"Actually..."

I kiss her cheek just to see what happens.

"Waaa!?"

She shorts out like a broken spell, ears straight up, tail puffed out.

[Hehe... Worth it.]

By the end of the day, I’ve got her trying on clothes at my favorite shops ("These high heels are a safety hazard"), testing magical makeup at the beauty store ("Why does it need to sparkle?"), and even dancing at this cute little karaoke spot ("I do NOT sing").

She does sing, by the way. Some hardcore rap song about destroying your enemies, complete with perfect choreography. Who knew?

When Akari texts that she’s done with student council meeting she was invited to (or in other words: done railing Lily in the council room), I find Nao in the middle of a very serious discussion with the karaoke machine about its "sub-optimal sound engineering."

"Yo!" Akari bounces in, all blonde hair and energy. "Ready to- oh shit, it’s the tiger girl!"

Nao straightens up to her full height, which is actually pretty impressive. She is tall as hell.

Her tail goes rigid, ears forward, every muscle tensed like she’s about to throw down right here.

"Nakamura," she practically growls, walking forward slowly.

I can almost hear battle music in the background.

"Sup!" Akari, naturally, is completely unfazed. "Love the outfit!"

Nao glances down at the cute crop top I talked her into, then back up with murder in her eyes.

"One day," she says with deadly seriousness, "I will surpass you."

Then she turns around and walks out with military precision.

I turn toward my bestie.

"See?" I nudge Akari. "Isn’t she just the cutest thing?"

"Oh my god, bitch, you’ve got it bad."

"Shut up." But I’m grinning. "Did you see her little tough girl act? With the growling and everything?"

"You’re literally giggling about it and, uhm, I find that problematic. She like, nearly broke me in half."

Like Akari wouldn’t like that.

"She did! She tried so hard! And did you see those abs in that crop top? Uh, they kill me!"

Akari raises an eyebrow.

"You spent the whole day with her, didn’t you?"

"Maybe." I watch through the window as Nao power-walks away, somehow making even that look like a military operation. "But come on, you have to admit she’s adorable when she’s trying to be scary."

"I mean, yeah, can’t deny that."

See!?

I literally can’t stop smiling, remembering how Nao’s ears twitched every time she tried not to laugh at my jokes. How she pretended not to have fun while absolutely demolishing every high score in the arcade.

And, a thought sneaks into my brain...

[Wonder if she’d kill me if I kissed her for real...]