Birthday Boy~

Today was the big day, the 16th of September which meant it was big brother's birthday. I leaped out of the bed as soon I opened my eyes, and ran to the hall, now knocking frantically on his door. Then I proceeded to open it while yelling.

"Wake up sleeping beauty! It's time to celebrate your birthday!" Kazutora just shook awake, dazed at the whole ruckus I was making. He looked so adorable I jumped onto the bed for the sole purpose to hug him.

"Where did all this energy come from?" He questioned, still probably too tired for his brain to function properly.

"I'm excited since this is the first birthday we are going to celebrate with you," I mentioned while smiling widely from one ear to the other.

"Happy Birthday Tora!... Now let me shower my big brother with affection." I said cuddling into him.

"Are you planning to be this clingy the whole day?" He questioned as I nodded my head in agreement.

"If it's not bothering you of course." Didn't want him to feel too uncomfortable, but then I added it as a joke.

"Gonna cling to you like a koala to a eucalyptus." I giggled at the thought of that, but then another idea hit me.

"Maybe we should buy an additional cake, although I baked one yesterday it doesn't seem to be enough for the number of people we invited." We asked Senju, Yuzuha, Hakkai, Mitsuya, Keisuke, and Chifuyu to come over, of course, there were also those two dudes Chome and Chonbo. I had no clue why Kazutora was still keeping them close, or why they were following him around in the first place. Did he consider them as friends? Because of their similar experiences? I had no clue, but there was no reason as of now to keep distrusting them.

"You're right, one cake probably won't be enough, let's ask mom to buy an additional one." We walked downstairs while holding hands, and mom and dad made sure to shower Kazutora with good wishes and congratulations as soon they saw him.

"What's wrong Kazu-chan?" I heard mom's concerned voice shortly after I sat down, looking to the side I realized my brother had teary eyes. Was he so happy it brought him to tears?

"Hug attack!" Was my secret weapon, and soon the parents joined in our cuddle pile. Cupid also seemed to have understood the assignment, so he jumped onto brother's lap and once the crowd dispersed, he furthermore climbed the table and licked Kazutora's tip of the nose gently. In a blink of an eye, mom whipped out her phone and snapped a photo for herself.

"Perfect wallpaper material." Once we ate our breakfast I was reminded that my 50 stat mark was reached.

"Do I have to deal with the growing pains again?" I guess for the system and their stats to not rip my body, it needed to strengthen my muscles in a more artificial manner. Though perhaps it was easier for me to deal with the pain now, than later. You never knew how the system would try to screw you over the next day.

"Warning! Body modification in progress, please remain cautious under this procedure." Was it a warning to not overuse my body functions today, because something potentially could go wrong?" But there was another message right after.

"Your body will receive pain for the next 24 hours." I knew this was coming. Despite the nuisance, I went to school regardless.

But once I went to the school bathroom on a break the most bizarre thing took place.

"Additional message? It couldn't be another strange mission in a school bathroom setting right?" I opened it carefully but it was just a normal notification saying.

"Body materialization in progress." What the hell could this even mean? I stared at this dumbfounded until a creature popped out from thin air, causing me to scream.

"Aghhh!" Upon closer inspection, this thing looked like a cyberpunk pixie. It was mostly in the shade of blue, looking like a robot, but had a small pair of wings at the back.

"Greetings player~" This thing even spoke, with an almost robotic squeaky voice.

"From now onward I can offer assistance to you in this form, so please grant me a name for easier communication."

"You really need to do it, when I'm trying to take a piss?" Like wasn't there a more optimal time to do this? Like after school? An emoji was sent as a response to my question.

"ψ( ` ∇ ´ )ψ" No wonder the system looked like a fairy, it sure was sly as one. I decided to just roll with it.

"Since you seem to be in cahoots with Cupid... I will give you the name... Venus."

"Venus accepted, archiving the name to the system." It was weird to hear such messages being spoken, rather than read.

"So what is this strange upgrade good for?" There must have been some benefits right?

"Instead of reading your messages and waiting to inquire about the content, we can directly read it to you, in case you are too occupied at the moment." Was their answer.

"That's all?" I asked perplexed.

"At the time? Yes." Wow, I was amazed.

"It's nothing but useless, thanks." But maybe I could find other functions that could be possible to perform.

"How about... is it feasible for you to take out a Pixie Dust and aim it at my victim in case my hands are restricted of movement?" Since it already happened once, it would be good to have it as a possible option.

"We can't." Of course, it sounded too good to be true.

"Just return back to your original form...please." Having something so small buzzing around you and distracting you with their flying sounded just irritating.

Once the classes were over I went to the practice room, we decided to practice for 1 hour before I would drag Yuzuha and Senju to my house for the party.

Kisaki knowing full well that Hinata would be present decided to tag along, but to his sheer disappointment, it looked like Hinata dragged a tail along.

"Oh, Takemichi... what are you doing here?" I asked as his cheeks blushed lightly when he admitted.

"I wanted to spend some time with my girlfriend, so I asked her to tag along. You don't mind do you?" I saw Kisaki crumbling his pages in anger, I shook my head and invited him over inside. While Kisaki just packed up his stuff and excused himself, mentioning that he forgot to take care of something.

"What is his deal?" Takemichi asked, I guess he could feel the anger aimed at his person, somehow. I reckon he didn't realize who he was dealing with.

"I wonder," Hinata said, while I mentioned.

"Don't mind him." We then headed to the practice room and to be honest Hinata was already amazed by our progress.

"You guys are taking it very seriously, suddenly I'm pumped. It feels like we could even play something at the cultural festival." My ears perked up.

"Oh that is an awesome idea, maybe we could make a cover of something... but I'm not sure about the memorization of lyrics." We let that idea float in the air for a while before we returned back to playing. But once we finished we bid our goodbyes to Hinata, Takemichi, and Emma and proceeded to my house.

"You look quite tired," Yuzuha noted as I decided to stretch in the middle of the road.

"My whole body is aching, but I won't let it stop me on such an important day." Once we walked inside I spotted all the decorations that mom prepared for the day.

"Wow, such detailed handiwork." I just slowly clapped as the two girls behind me giggled at my reactions.

When everyone invited arrived we sang for Kazutora while bringing in the cake, once we were cutting it, people started to give their share of presents. Nothing was as grand as what I bought, yet Keisuke was amazed at the new guitar that Kazutora received. As they were talking about it, we three girls took cuts of the cake on plates and plopped on the sofa, I wasn't sure why but it seemed we were the center of attention all of sudden, when Chifuyu came over he tried to sit on the floor but Senju clapped her lap.

"You really want me, to sit there?" She nodded while smiling, I grabbed Kazutora and let him sit on my lap following Senju's explanatory example, but Keisuke basically begged him to switch places.

"No," I said holding my brother closer, but then he proclaimed.

"But as the birthday boy, I want to sit on Yuzuha's lap." She was taken aback by his request but essentially said.

"I can't say no to the birthday boy, such are the rules." Betrayal.

"You guys ganged up on me, how could you?" Mitsuya just laughed while saying.

"I never thought I would see Baji whipped so much for a girl, what did you even do?" That was a good question.

"What, you want to know the secret of my trade?" Hakkai sensed danger and pulled Mitsuya into a protective hug, before I could react Keisuke just plopped on my lap.

"What do you also want me to feed you?" Thankfully he was too manly to agree to this request in such a huge crowd of people or I would have dug up my own grave. After consuming the cake Kazutora had the fine idea of going to karaoke, which brought me flashbacks back to Mikey's birthday.

So off we went, truly enjoying ourselves by singing, dancing, and chatting.

"So what do you think about your birthday, are you satisfied?" I asked once my voice was too hoarse from all the constant singing.

"It's better than the last ones I had that's for sure." I just patted his head, it was nice to see him smile so brightly alongside his friends.

Once the day was nearing its end I was shocked to find out no missions came to disrupt my peace, was it because of me hitting the 50 stat mark? But then right on cue, a mission did come, but something more long-lasting.

'Would you rather create Michi Hirabayashi merch or Mikey Sano merch?' I looked at the specifications because it seemed tricky, somehow I had a hunch that there was a certain catch to it.

"I need to distribute it?" I read up, do I ask the system for the quest details? I retreated to the toilet at home because the party seemed never-ending. People were playing board games together but I decided to pass because of exhaustion.

"Tell me, how much merch do I need to create and how many people do I need to distribute it to?"

"You need to create 3 different pieces, and give them to 3 different people." Having this in mind I managed to knock into Keisuke on the way out.

"Is something wrong? Maybe you should catch up on sleep." Was his suggestion, which I would gladly take upon, but first I needed to ask him a serious question.

"Would you like to get a Michi figurine or body pillow?" We stared at each other for a hot take, and that's when he decided to yell.

"Go to sleep!" And he pushed me into my room. Talk about rude I wanted an honest answer but decided that making my own merch sounded more exciting, as for who would get the honors to receive it, I could think about it later.