The final push.

“Everyone, test results were posted!” a student announced to the classroom.

Kaede turned from him to Leo and Reiko sitting behind her.

“Wanna go see?” Leo asked them.

“Yeah!” Reiko answered, standing from her chair. “Gods, I’m nervous. I don’t think I did my best this time…”

The three of them walked out of the classroom and down to the first floor, where the notice board would have the midterms results posted for everyone to see.

“Well… You had a lot to worry about during that time, right?” Kaede asked.

“Not like my parents are going to accept that excuse,” Reiko sighed. “Come on… top 5… top 5…!”

“Ahaha…” Leo laughed awkwardly.

On the way there, they met up with Valerie and Angela. The girl with the dyed red hair looked at her and asked in Japanese, “Test results?”

“Yes, you too?” Kaede asked.

“Yes.”

They approached the board, getting past the many students already checking their own scores. Kaede’s eyes glanced to the top of the poster and she saw her name there with a perfect score.

“Hah? A perfect score? They give those?” she heard a student mutter.

“Near perfect sure, but full marks? Did she cheat?” another said.

“Even second place is like 10 points below.”

“So she was a smarty pants, huh?”

Kaede’s lip quivered and her legs began to grow weak. It was always like that. She never understood why they made test scores public. It only resulted in things like that. She screwed up. She should’ve just aimed for an average. Not like she was getting anything out of school anyway. Now people were talking behind her back.

“Kaede, congrats,” Leo said, giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder that made her heart jump. “Top of the school, huh? That’s amazing.”

“It’s nothing really…” she said, looking down. “It’s all thanks to my Gift, anyway.”

“What are you talking about?” Angela said, eyes on the board still looking for her name. “We know our Gifts aren’t worth crap if you don’t hone them, right? Isn’t getting a perfect score while barely trying an achievement in itself?”

“…” Kaede’s mouth hung half-opened. She looked at Leo, and he chuckled and gave her a nod of agreement.

“Ah! Angela’s saying something insightful!” Reiko laughed.

“Okay, now that’s just rude,” the blonde scoffed in mock offence. “See that score? I placed 49 out of 100! I’m smarter than half the school,” she said, puffing her chest proudly.

“Thirty… four? Is it thirty four?” Valerie asked Reiko, pointing to her name.

“Yeah, thirty four,” Reiko answered.

Valerie was using Japanese to speak more and more, even if she said things wrong most times.

“45? Wow. I didn’t think I’d score that high,” Leo said, blinking in surprise. “Well, considering everything.”

“Kaede-chan and I helped you, so now I’m offended you didn’t score higher!” Reiko pouted and playfully pulled on Leo’s ear to admonish him. Kaede almost panicked about it before Leo’s laugh made her remember he didn’t feel pain.

“Well, excuse me, Mrs. Third Place,” he said teasingly. “And you were worried about your scores.”

“…I’m not satisfied, but I’ll take it, all things considered.” Reiko nodded to herself.

“So I’m the lowest score out of us five?” Angela asked. “Well, whatever. Let’s go eat.”

The others agreed, so Kaede had to hurriedly gather her courage and speak. “A-Actually, Reiko, could we… eat together? J-Just the two of us? I… want to talk about something.”

She caught Leo looking at her intently. She knew he had a Gift like Lucia-san’s, even if not as strong. How much could he read of her intentions, she wondered. Lucia-san had already figured her out, which was something of an uncomfortable thought, and Mrs. Wisler probably knew everything from the beginning, which was just outright creepy.

“Hm? Sure,” Reiko nodded without hesitation. “Sorry, this seems important,” she told the other three. “See you guys later,” she waved and walked with Kaede to the backyard.

They found the most secluded spot they could, far from prying ears. That was under a lone tree at one of the corners of the yard formed by with the concrete walls that bordered the school space. They sat down and got their lunch boxes, prepared by Leo, as always.

The smell was exquisite, but this time it made Kaede think more about him, and that in turn made her more nervous. But there was something bothering her, and she needed to get it out. Everyone kept telling her to stay true to herself, so she just needed to say it, right?

…

…

But what if that made her relationship with Reiko take a turn for the worse? She was the only girl her age she could have a proper conversation with. If… if they fought because of something she said…

“Out with it, girl,” Reiko said, sounding casual and taking an octopus-shaped sausage to her mouth. “Say what you want to say.”

“…” Kaede took a deep breath and steeled her resolve. “You know I heard you having sex with Leo in his room, right? Why did you get louder when you heard me calling out to him?”

“Guh!” Reiko flinched, and the pepper she was holding with her chopsticks fell back into the lunch box. “D-Did we get louder?” she asked, trying to laugh it off.

“You did,” Kaede said.

“W-Well, you know… It… felt… good?”

“…I see. It felt to me like you were trying to show off. Sorry! I got it all wrong!” She bowed deeply, both in regret and to hide her face.

She got it wrong. Kaede thought they were trying to show her how good sex was, but they were just too into each other to even care. Her face was heating up and making her dizzy from the embarrassment of asking such a stupid question.

“…Urgh! I can’t do it! Yes, I was trying to show off!” Reiko said, hiding her face in her hands. “I just thought that you’d try to be more proactive if you got a little jealous or something! I don’t know, it was just something that occurred to me in the heat of the moment! I’m not the most logical when… when… you know…”

…

THEN SHE GOT IT RIGHT! THEY WERE SHOWING OFF!

“Reiko! Do you have any idea how much sleep I’ve lost over this?” Kaede said, shaking her friend by the shoulder to relieve some stress. “I… I did get jealous! I did get… horny,” she admitted, lowering her voice even more at those last words. “I… I want a boyfriend too, okay!? Is that so weird!?”

“Of course not! Even girls younger than us want boyfriends! It’s natural to want someone that treats you nicely and whom to share things with!” Reiko said.

“So you get it, right? How jealous I get when I see you and Leo being so cute together? I want that for myself, too!”

“Then ask him out,” Reiko said, suddenly turning serious. “Ask Leo out.”

“…”

“Or is there another guy you like?”

“…No, I like him,” Kaede admitted. “But…”

“No buts. Ask him out.”

“He’s YOUR boyfriend. How can you say that so casually?”

“Because I want to see you two making out.”

“HAH!?”

“You’re my friend. You’re cute. Your tits are bigger than mine. Your waistline is perfect. I want to see you making out with my boyfriend. More too, if you’re up for it.” Kaede’s brain was in overdrive. Her face felt like it was on fire. Did… Did Reiko really just say those things? “Those are my honest feeling. That’s what I’m into. So what about you? What do you want to do?”

“…” Kaede bit her lip and clenched her fist around her chopsticks. “I want to go out with Leo, okay? He’s cool! He’s handsome! Of course I’d want to!”

“Then go ask him out. Go on a date with him. Angela technically broke up with him, so she can’t tell you not to do it. Normally, I’d be the only one who could be opposed to it, but I’m not.”

“W-What if he says no?”

“You won’t die if he says no,” Reiko shrugged. “But he won’t turn you away.”

“H-How do you know? It’s not like I’m…”

“Did you not hear what I just said? You’re cute, you’re sexy, you’re smart. Leo thinks so too.”

“D-Does he really?”

“Yeah, so let’s go!”

“…Let’s go? Where?”

“To Leo! You’re gonna ask him out now.”

“Haaah!? Now!?”

“Why not? Otherwise you’re wasting time, right?”

“…” That last thing, at least, Kaede would admit was logical. “A-Alright! I’ll go ask him out!”

“Yes! Hype yourself up! He’s gonna say yes, you’ll go out on a date and take pictures of you making out and send them to me!”

“Yes! Wait, what!?”

“Let’s go!”

Reiko closed her lunch box, stood up and started the match with a big grin on her face, dragging Kaede by the wrist.

This girl was nuts!

But… Speaking so freely felt liberating.

“…so the beauty of the uppercut is… that when you hit the chin, it… shakes… shakes? Yeah, shakes the brain and makes people… dizzy,” Valerie explained in slow, broken but understandable Japanese, all the while making the motions of an upward punch, touching her chin and shaking her head. “Victoria says even a light brush can be deadly if it hits the right spot.”

“The last thing I’d call a punch like that is beautiful,” Leo laughed. “But I can tell you’re excited about it.”

The redhead grinned. “It was easy to master the form, but… finding the proper… opening to use it is difficult. There’s so much to MMA. It’s not just form and… technique, but mental mind games too. And the danger of knowing that a mistake means getting hurt is a huge adrenaline rush!”

“Isn’t it? Isn’t it!?” Angela nodded enthusiastically. “Haaaah, finally someone gets it!”

Valerie was getting much better communicating in Japanese. No one at the house but Leo spoke Spanish, of course, and he only did it when necessary to explain vital things to her. Watching Angela and Valerie having a proper conversation, even with Valerie’s broken Japanese, was heartwarming. Actually, perhaps she was speaking with more fluency than usual because she was mostly using terms she learned at the gym. She could say ‘sandbag’ in Japanese, but still didn’t know how to say ‘fork’.

Valerie was seriously into learning to fight, especially with her goal being Angela. And the blonde was happy to see the Spaniard growing in strength. Soon their spars wouldn’t be as one-sided. Turns out these two would’ve hit it off far sooner if they could speak to each other.

“Leo!” Reiko’s voice coming from the door to the rooftop called their attention. Leo, Angela and Valerie turned to her, seeing Kaede walking behind her.

“What did you do?” Angela asked him.

“Nothing. I think,” Leo answered, genuinely thinking back to the previous days to see if he had done something to anger his girlfriend.

“Leo, Kaede wants to talk to you!” she said and quickly stepped aside, giving Kaede a grin and a little push on the back.

Leo looked at her. Her face was red, her body was shaking and her eyes were unfocused. It almost looked like she might pass out at some point. Her nerves were that severe and it made him worry, so he did what he could and smiled gently and reassuringly.

“Yeah? What is it?”

“L-L-Leo…san,” Kaede started, swallowing hard. “G-G-G-Go on a date with me, please!”

“A date? I’d love to,” Leo said, nodding casually but with a now bigger smile. “Where would you like to go?”

“…”

“…”

“Did… did you just say yes?” Kaede asked.

“Um… yes?”

She turned to look at Reiko, eyes wide with shock. “H-He said yes!”

“Told you! Hahaha!”

The two girls suddenly hugged and jumped several times. Leo could only watch in stunned confusion.

“So Kaede’s making her move now, too?” Angela sighed. “It was about damn time.”

Valerie didn’t comment, but she had a complicated and troubled expression on her face.

“So, um… Yeah, where would you like to go?” Leo repeated his question, which made the two friends stop jumping.

“I… didn’t think this far ahead,” Kaede said, turning to Reiko with eyes pleading for advice.

His girlfriend grinned confidently. “There are a few shops that sell manga, light novels and anime merchandise on Naha. And didn’t you want to check on some shops there too, Leo? The boat ride’s not long.”

Kaede eyes shone at the idea. She looked at Leo, silently pleading for him to say yes. And yeah, Reiko was right. He did want to check on some things in the mainland. “Okay then, we’re going to Naha.”

But… Kaede found the courage to ask him out, huh? He could tell some of that courage was brought by… other needs. He supposed everyone needs a push.