Chapter 10: A Day Before Breaking The Ice.

A day had passed since Tenka casually announced Kentaro's date plans like it was some classified military op. But now, instead of waking up in a sterile Halycon med bay, Kentaro found himself tangled in the soft sheets of his bed. 

Unfortunately, the comfort wasn't helping. 

This was the Friday before Saturday, or as modern media like to call it. DATE DAY. For Kentaro. It was more like DOOMSDAY. 

No matter how long he stared at the ceiling, nothing made the idea of going out with Serica feel any less terrifying. His thoughts were in an emotional blender. His pillow was soaked with silent dread. 

Why did I agree to this? I'm not date material. I'm barely functional as a human. 

Then. 

"KEN! ARE YOU AWAKE?!" 

The voice boomed through the apartment like an air raid siren. Some of the nearby neighbours began banging on the walls to shut up Kentaro, but since it wasn't him, he couldn't do anything about it. 

Kentaro winced under his blanket. 

"She's screaming at the door. Again. Great, my neighbours officially hate me." 

After a slow crawl and a silent prayer, he staggered out of bed. The mirror did not treat him kindly, bags under his eyes, hair everywhere, and a soul clearly not prepared for romance or conversation. 

He got ready then headed outdoors where Tenka stood waiting, arms crossed, expression halfway between judgment and concern. 

She blinked. 

"Jeez, Ken. Did you get hit by a truck or just anxiety?" 

He rubbed the back of his neck, sighing deeply. 

"What do you think, Tenka? I've never done this before. A real Date. With an actual girl. Once that could freeze me solid if I mess up." 

Tenka's lip twitched. Then broke into a smirk. Then into a full grin. 

"C'mon, Kentaro. It's just a little outing. A Stroll. Ice cream. Bonding. Maybe Death." 

He squinted. "...What was the last one?" 

"Nothing." She spun around like she hadn't just threatened his life. 

Kentaro groaned. "You're the worst coach for this." 

He began walking toward the station, shoulders slumped. 

Behind him, Tenka chuckled softly before calling out, "Wait, Ken! I was kidding. Mostly. Okay, just a little bit." 

"Too late," he muttered. "I already wrote my will." 

By the time they reached the college gates, Kentaro was at least walking like a functioning human again. Tenka had immediately merged into a crowd of familiar students, holding court like usual. Kentaro, on the other hand, hovered awkwardly near the edge of the group, a satellite with no orbit. 

Until a voice cut through his thoughts. 

"Yo! You look like you've been through a war zone." 

Kentaro turned to see a guy his age with messy spiked hair, sharp eyes, and the kind of confident grin that only belonged to people who lived on energy drinks and blind optimism. 

"…Uh, yeah. Long night." 

The guy held out a hand. 

"Name's Tengen. You look like someone who just got voluntold into something stupid." 

Kentaro blinked, then shook his hand. "Kentaro Takamiya. And yeah, you nailed it." 

Tengen laughed. "Same here, bro. These crowds? Not my vibe. You want a drink before class?" 

Kentaro hesitated for half a second. 

Then, realising there were worse things than soda and a new company, he nodded. 

"Sure. I could use one." 

Both Kentaro and Tengen made their way toward the vending machine, just a short distance away from the main crowd. As they walked, Tenka, still knee-deep in a conversation with one of her friends, casually glanced over her shoulder to check on him. 

She spotted Kentaro standing beside someone new, smiling, and even laughing a little. Her smile formed instinctively...but something about it twisted slightly. 

"Making new friends, huh? Leaving me behind already?" She muttered under her breath, half joking, half not. 

Still, instead of calling out, she simply watched for a moment longer. Then, wordlessly, Tenka excused herself from the group and began to trail after them, just close enough to listen, not close enough to interrupt. Something in her eyes was unreadable, curious... guarded... maybe even protective. 

"So, Kentaro, what do you like to do?" Tengen asked, scanning the drink options. 

Kentaro rubbed his neck, trying not to sound like a hermit. 

"Umm... honestly? I'm kind of boring. I read a lot, and when I go out, it's usually with Tenka." 

Tengen paused at the name, eyes lighting up. 

"OHHH? A girl, huh? I saw her with you earlier. Yo-you're smooth!" 

Kentaro chuckled awkwardly, already sensing where this was going. 

"Ha... yeah. She's my childhood friend. We've been in the same school and overall been around each other forever. 

Tengen looked impressed. "Man, that close for that long? And here I am getting ghosted after two texts..." 

Kentaro laughed. "She's always been around. I thought she'd go off and study history after graduation, y'know? 

It's her thing. But..." 

He paused, eyes drifting to the floor as if replaying that moment. 

"The day after we graduated, she showed up at my house, unannounced, and said she was enrolling in the same college... because she didn't want to leave me behind. 

Tengen blinked. Then smiled. 

"Dude. DUDE. What! How are you not dating her?!" 

His voice definitely wasn't quiet. Several heads turned, including Tenka's. She froze for half a second, eyes narrowing, watching the two boys from afar. 

Kentaro's face flushed crimson. 

Tengen started whistling like nothing happened. 

Tenka stared at them expectantly. 

Kentaro kept his head down, pretending the drink label was written in an alien language. 

Tenka blinked slowly, gave a tiny shrug, and turned back around, resuming her conversation as if nothing had happened. 

Tengen leaned in again, this time quieter. 

"My bad, too loud. But seriously, why not, man?" 

Kentaro hesitated, unsure of what he was even feeling. 

"I… I don't know. It's just… I've never seen Tenka like that. And I think maybe… she hasn't seen me like that either." 

"NOO—bro, you have to try!" Tengen slapped the side of the vending machine with the energy of a motivational coach. "I mean, I'm no love guru or anything, but if she ditched her dream subject to stay by your side? C'mon, man. That means something, right?" 

Kentaro blinked, frozen in place. His brain felt like it had hit a loading screen. 

"Wait… is he actually, right?" 

"Well, maybe I mi—" 

"KEN!" 

The voice cut through his thoughts like a blade through soft tofu. 

He flinched. 

Tenka. 

"Let's move! First class is about to start!" she called out, waving one arm like a traffic controller. 

Kentaro sighed in overwhelming relief. 

Thank God for last-minute saves… 

He turned to Tengen with an apologetic grin. "Guess duty calls. But hey, catch you later?" 

Tengen gave him a double thumb-up. "Def! Go be a legend, bro!" 

Kentaro jogged over to Tenka, who was already smirking. 

"New friend, huh, Mr. Closet?" she teased, nudging him with her elbow. 

"Hey, he's not bad. Bit of a Shogo-type though," Kentaro muttered, half-laughing. 

Tenka raised a brow, amused. "Wow. You really do attract chaos. It's like you've got a 'weird best friend' magnet lodged in your skull." 

As they walked into the main building, the morning crowd buzzing behind them, Tengen stood still near the vending machine, sipping his drink. 

His cheerful expression faded. 

His eyes, now narrowed and unreadable, stayed locked on Kentaro's back. There was no smile now. Only silence… and something else. 

Something unreadable. 

"YO TENGEN, LET'S MOVE!" 

A voice jolted him, one of his classmates slapping his back. 

Tengen flinched. "Ah, yeah, yeah. Coming." 

He walked off… but his gaze lingered, just a moment longer. 

*

As Kentaro and Tenka continued down the hallway, her group of friends peeled off toward their respective classes, leaving the two alone. 

Kentaro glanced over his shoulder for the third time. 

"…Ken. Why do you keep looking back?" Tenka asked, tilting her head. 

"I… think someone's following us," he said. 

Tenka rolled her eyes. "It's a hallway, genius. Other people exist." 

Suddenly— 

"Hey, soft landing." 

"AHHHHHH!" 

Kentaro screamed like a haunted cat, diving behind Tenka like she was a human riot shield. 

She stumbled back, her hand already halfway into her bag, ready to use whatever was inside as a last-ditch weapon. 

"…KIRA?!" Kentaro yelped. 

Kira, standing behind him with her trademark tilted head and neutral gaze, blinked. "Yes, Mr. Soft Landing." 

Tenka's eyes immediately narrowed. 

Kentaro's widened in panic. "Umm, hey. What… are you doing here?" 

Kira stepped closer, eyes locked onto his. 

"Am I not allowed to talk to you?" 

Kentaro's throat went dry. "N-no! I mean yes, yes, you can! It's just, uh…" 

"Oh. I guess I'll call the police, then. About what you did," she said, already pulling out her phone. 

Kentaro dropped to his knees. 

"Wait wait wait. I apologized for that! It was an accident!" 

Tenka blinked. What the hell was she talking about? 

"…What did he do?" Tenka asked carefully, trying to piece things together. 

Kira stared at her blankly, as if just noticing her presence. 

"Oh. Another mistress?" she said calmly. 

"HUH?!" Kentaro blurted out. 

Tenka's face turned scarlet. "W-who are you and what do you mean, mistress!?" 

Kira placed a finger to her chin. "He landed on me. Headfirst into my Chest. We are now… bonded." 

Kentaro covered his face with both hands. "Please… stop talking…" 

Kira continued. "As his future wife, I forgive him for the incident. A husband must be given room to fail." 

Silence. 

"WHAAAAAT?!" 

Both Kentaro and Tenka yelled. 

The hallway erupted. Heads turned. Students stopped mid-step. Phones were already being pulled out. 

Kentaro stood between them, panicked. 

"Listen, I slipped on paper and—" 

"SHUT IT, KEN!" 

Tenka snapped, fire in her eyes. 

Kira gracefully stepped between the two, spreading her arms as if shielding Kentaro. 

"Enough. I'll take responsibility for him. You may duel me later, if necessary," she said as if this were some ancient clan standoff. 

Kentaro just wanted to sink into the floor and cease existing. 

While Tenka and Kira were locked in a spirited (and increasingly ridiculous) argument over the "chest incident" and "future husband", Kentaro did what any sensible man in his position would do. 

He escaped. 

Slipping quietly into the lecture room mid-chaos, he slipped into the fifth row like a ninja dodging social landmines. Moments later, as fate would have it, the battlefield followed him in. 

Tenka stormed in first, still huffing, muttering things like "I swear I'll apply for a restraining order" under her breath. Kira followed next, smug as ever, taking the seat on Kentaro's right like she was claiming her throne. Tenka plopped herself on his left, arms folded, eyes narrowed. 

So there he was, sandwiched between two ticking time bombs dressed as women. If someone had asked how his Friday was going, he might've said "dangerous." 

Kira leaned in slowly, just enough to let her breath tickle Kentaro's ear. 

"You smell like embarrassment." 

He twitched. 

Tenka immediately shoved her back with a sharpened glare. "Can you not exhale like a villainess? It's creepy." 

"Mm? I thought you liked creepy. Isn't that why you follow Kentaro like a shadow?" Kira responded, voice sweet but dipped in venom. 

Tenka flared, but then Kentaro caught something. 

A soft flicker. 

On Tenka's left hand, just under her glove, a small glowing ring pulsed faintly, twice red, once green. 

He blinked. That's new. 

He remembered what Haruka had told him once in passing: "The commander has a temperament regulator. A mood sync ring. Helps stabilize her operational zones." 

Right… So that's why she's so different when she's at Halcyon. When the ring is glowing red, she's in Commander Mode, serious, sharp, untouchable. 

But now, it was flickering… green? 

He looked again at Tenka, how she puffed her cheeks, how she scolded Kira like a protective big sister fighting for territory, how she refused to make eye contact with him when their knees touched. 

It wasn't Commander Tenka right now. 

It was just Tenka. 

The girl who, for some unknown reason, had followed him into college. The girl who always packed an extra melon bread just in case he forgot lunch. The girl who once beat up a bully in elementary school for stealing his juice box. 

"…Does she actually see me like that?" Kentaro wondered, eyes quietly drifting between her pouty glare and the blinking ring on her hand. 

The thought lingered. 

He didn't have an answer, but for the first time, he started to wonder if maybe Tengen had been onto something after all. 

The rest of the school day passed in a blur. 

Lectures came and went. Assignments were thrown onto digital boards. Tengen cracked dumb jokes that made half the class groan. Tenka kept side-eyeing Kira whenever she got too close, and Kira, well, she pretended not to notice, but the smirk never left her face. 

Kentaro? 

He was just trying to survive. 

By the time the final bell rang, he'd forgotten half of what the professors said. His mind was already wandering somewhere else, somewhere colder, quieter… and more terrifying. 

Tomorrow. 

The "not-a-date" with Serica. 

The sun had long since dipped below the buildings by the time Kentaro found himself walking the dim streets home, hands buried in his pockets, backpack swinging at his side. 

His footsteps echoed lightly against the concrete, but in his mind, it was silent. 

Why am I nervous? 

She's just a girl. 

I've talked to her. Fought for her. Saved her life, even… So why does this feel harder than all of that? 

He sighed, glancing up at the night sky. 

Maybe because she's not like Tenka. 

Tenka, who always filled the silence with jokes or snarks. Tenka, who could read him before he even spoke. With Serica… it was unknown territory. A fragile line between closeness and collapse. 

His fingers brushed against the edge of his anchor without thinking. 

Tomorrow's not just about fun, he realized. 

It's about keeping her stable. Keeping her human. 

And if he failed— 

No. He couldn't afford to fail. 

The tension in his chest tightened. 

Then… something shifted. 

A faint sound, just a shuffle. Like a boot against gravel. 

Kentaro paused. Glanced over his shoulder. 

The street was empty. 

His breath caught for a second… then let out. 

Get a grip. You're just paranoid. 

He picked up the pace, disappearing into the night's glow. 

- 

As Kentaro finally reached his apartment, the door clicked behind him with a quiet thud. 

He dropped his bag, kicked off his shoes, and collapsed onto his bed face-first. 

Tomorrow. 

He'd saved Serica's life. He'd survived Cradle. He'd stood up to bullets and blizzards. 

But somehow… 

This felt harder. 

His heart thumped like a warning. 

Don't screw it up. 

She's counting on you now. 

And as he stared at the ceiling, one thought echoed louder than the rest. 

"Please let tomorrow go well."