Unlimited Ambition

And so, lunchtime passed in silence.

After that, I said, "I have some other things to do," and left. The atmosphere between the two girls then changed slightly.

"Sayaka...do you like Light?" Madoka asked shyly at the end.

Sayaka nodded without saying anything.

"So...did he confess?" Xiaoyuan asked next.

Sayaka shook her head, but still didn't say anything.

“This won’t do—Wright is so popular, if Sayaka doesn’t try harder…” Madoka trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. Sayaka looked quite embarrassed.

"Thank you, Madoka." Sayaka still smiled nonchalantly. "You don't need to be so concerned about me. In the end, these things depend on yourself. And I'll try my best."

"……But……"

"Haha... It's nothing, let's go back to the classroom. We'll be late if we go any later."

And so, Sayaka and Madoka went back together. But they didn't see me again until the first class of the afternoon. It seemed that I really did have something to do, just as I had said.

"I've been wondering about this for a while now. It's true that you're using the power of a magical girl. But to my recollection, I've never made a contract with you. And I don't know of anyone else capable of making a contract with a magical girl. So…"

What exactly are you trying to say?

Inside Homura Akemi's strange dormitory, a pendulum shaped like a battle axe swung incessantly, while numerous monitors on the walls played footage of my past relationships with several other girls...

“You’re not from this point in time, are you?” I asked.

"That's right, so what?" Homura Akemi's voice remained unchanged, still icy cold.

"I have a few questions for you," I said. "Witch's Night is coming in a few weeks. Will we be able to get through it safely? What will become of Sayaka, Kyoko, and Madoka? And you... Homura Akemi, what happened between you and me?!"

"..." After listening to my question, Xiaoyan was silent for a while, then stood up and walked to me with a blank expression.

What are you doing—

Before I could finish my sentence, I received a heavy slap from Homura Akemi...

Chapter Thirty-Two: No progress at all after all these years

"Do you want to die once?" Homura Akemi looked at me with a very serious expression. Then she said this.

"Are you crazy?" Anyone would feel bad after being hit like that for no reason. Even the very good-tempered person I'm playing right now is no exception.

"You know it yourself." Homura regretted saying that as soon as she did. Know what? I didn't transmigrate here like her (Homura's perspective). So it's impossible for me to know.

"Hmph..." Homura Akemi snorted softly after figuring it out, then turned to leave. But I grabbed her hand.

"Explain clearly, what exactly happened?" I asked Xiaoyan very seriously, stating the question I already knew perfectly well. Afterwards, Xiaoyan turned to look at me.

"Do you really care?" Homura Akemi looked at me expressionlessly. "To you, magical girls are just tools for fighting monsters, right? Why care so much? If it breaks, just replace it with a new one, isn't that enough?"

"No, that's not it!" I retorted loudly. "Those children are already suffering so much doing this kind of work. How could I possibly treat them like props?! I genuinely want to help them!"

Xiao Yan gritted her teeth, seemingly moved by my words, but in the end she still didn't say anything and looked at me indifferently.

"So, please tell me, what exactly happened after that?" I asked Xiaoyan again.

"I told you that before. But... you're a liar, a heartless, emotionless liar." Homura looked at me like that. "Do you think everything is part of your plan? Do you think we magical girls are like idiots, at your beck and call—like toys to be played with—a devil? Compared to those monsters, you're the devil, you're the one who deserves to die!!!" At this point, Homura exploded again, and an automatic pistol was pointed at my forehead. Then, time stopped.

"Press it... No, no, if he dies, I will also die because of the curse, and then I will have to reincarnate again... Damn it!" In the end, Homura Akemi managed to control her emotions and put away the pistol.

Then, she was met with a slap—much harder than the one she'd landed before. Immediately followed by another. Homura Akemi froze for a moment, then saw me, attacked by the curse, on the verge of death.

"I'm not faking it." She said this with great difficulty, then raised her head and looked at Xiaoyan with fearless eyes.

"Damn it..." Unable to refute it any longer, Xiaoyan turned around and ran away.

"It was all an act, he was a liar... Why, why did I... Damn it, I really, I deserve to die..."

"My mind is being seriously shaken," Xiaoyan said as she ran.

"...Is it raining?"

After that, I stood up, shook my neck, and sensed that Xiaoyan had run away before leaving her room, which had now become another world. Then, looking at the sky where it had started raining, I muttered to myself.

Then she opened the umbrella.

When school let out, Madoka and Sayaka waited at the school gate, looking at the heavy rain with a hint of helplessness. Madoka calculated that at this hour, her stay-at-home dad was probably at the supermarket, and her career-driven mom was likely still working overtime. Her younger brother was only three years old. It seemed the chances of her being picked up by her family were less than zero. Sayaka, on the other hand, didn't care. After becoming a magical girl, her constitution had improved many times over; getting a little rain, or even catching a cold... wouldn't matter to her.

And so, just as the two girls stood at the entrance of the school building, caught in a dilemma...

"Why don't we just grab our backpacks and run away quickly? My house is closer, so you can stay at my house tonight, Madoka," Sayaka finally suggested.

"...Well, that's the only way." So, Madoka reluctantly agreed to Sayaka's suggestion. But, as a proper helper, how could I let the girl I had a contract with, and the girl I was about to sign a contract with, run away in the pouring rain?

So, quite naturally, an umbrella was handed to them: "Sorry, I only got one umbrella. Sayaka and Madoka, you two can make do with one umbrella." I said to the two girls.

"Huh? But what about you, Wright?" Xiaoyuan asked.

"It's okay. Don't let my appearance fool you, I'm actually quite healthy," I said with a laugh.

At that moment, Sayaka suddenly felt that Madoka was completely unnecessary. If it were just the two of them, they could have walked home together under the umbrella. It would have been a very romantic event, one that would have boosted their bond and affection. But Madoka ruined it all.

But Sayaka immediately felt embarrassed, because thinking like that was so selfish. How could she treat the little round-faced girl like that? Sayaka felt ashamed for a moment.

And so, we walked on in silence. Eventually, I grabbed my schoolbag and ran away. Sayaka, however, ended up bringing Madoka and Sayaka to my doorstep.

"Huh? Isn't this Wright's house? Why is it here?!" Madoka noticed it when she was downstairs at the dormitory building; this wasn't Sayaka's house at all. At first, Madoka just assumed Sayaka had changed dorms and didn't think much of it. It wasn't until she reached the apartment door that she started to remember. When Sayaka took out her key and opened the door, Madoka looked at this place she had visited a few weeks ago and finally remembered.

"Well, as you know, I made a contract with Light and became a magical girl. So we're living together for now. You have to keep it a secret from me at school, okay?" Sayaka closed her umbrella and then clasped her hands together in a pleading gesture.

"What?! Is that so? Then when I asked you in school if you were dating him, you said that to me..."

"..." Sayaka was so embarrassed at this point that she wanted to disappear into the ground. At that moment, I, wearing a yukata and drying my wet hair with a towel, opened the bathroom door and came out.

"It's just to make it easier to take care of Sayaka and teach her things as a magical girl. It's not what you're thinking," I told Madoka...

Chapter Thirty-Three That evening

That night, the girl with the round face stayed at my house. Under normal circumstances, something interesting might have happened. But unfortunately, it wasn't just one girl staying; it was two. And my relationship with both of them hadn't progressed to the point of a threesome. So, in the end, something—no, not nothing happened. Around 11 p.m., a peeping tom with long, straight black hair appeared by my bedside, pulled up my blanket, and I, who had been pretending to be asleep, woke up instantly.

"What are you doing here? Don't scare people so late."

Perhaps I should be thankful for the habit of sleeping in pajamas that I developed after coming to this world. At this moment, I haven't embarrassed myself. Speaking of which, in other worlds, when I slept with the girls under the same covers, I was always completely naked.

That's about it. Although I didn't have any physical relationship with Homura Akemi in any of the time loops, we did have some hugging and cuddling. Back then, in the third... well, maybe the fourth time loop, I almost pushed her down. So, even though I'm wearing pajamas now, because I wasn't a very good sleeper, several buttons were undone, resulting in a slightly revealing glimpse of my private parts. This made Homura Akemi blush a little.

However, she's lived for several decades... Although she's still a virgin, she's really having trouble resisting this level of seduction.

In the end, I felt something was off. There were two other girls sleeping in the bedroom next to mine. If I were to be pushed around by the girl with the long black hair now, and then caught in bed together, it would be impossible to explain myself. So I carefully straightened my clothes, at least making sure I wasn't showing any skin. The girl with the long black hair across from me then reluctantly withdrew her greedy gaze.

"Is Madoka here with you?" Homura Akemi coughed twice, feigning embarrassment, before revealing her purpose. So, it was still about Madoka after all?

"Yes, is there something you need to talk to her about?" I asked in return.

"You want to make a contract with her and turn her into a magical girl?" Homura Akemi then asked.

"Well... how should I put it? I did talk to her about it, but in the end, it's up to her—" I had barely finished saying that when Homura Akemi grabbed my collar.

"No, don't do anything to her." Homura Akemi stared intently into my eyes before saying these words.

"What are you talking about?!" I was taken aback for a moment, then clearly "figured it out."

"After this—no, I should say before this, in the world before this, Xiaoyuan and I made a contract…and then, something bad happened, right?" I asked urgently.

Homura Akemi did not speak.

"Is it because of this that you went to the trouble of using your time-traveling abilities to return here, hoping to change everything?"

Homura Akemi remained silent.

"I see. I'm sorry to have troubled you." I sighed softly, then reached out to stroke Homura Akemi's hair, but she brushed my hand away.

"Don't touch me." Homura Akemi took a step back, then looked at me with unusual vigilance: "I won't listen to any of your explanations anymore. You shameless madman."

"It seems... you and I didn't have a very good relationship before," I said with a wry smile.

Homura Akemi snorted, acknowledging my statement. Then, unable to contain herself any longer, she added, "Because in the previous timeline, you killed Madoka in order to fight against Witch Night."

……

"Is...that so?" Hearing Homura Akemi say that, all I could do was sigh. This girl is too naive! Before I could even say anything, she'd already revealed her trump card. If she'd run into someone with ill intentions, she'd be nothing but dust by now, wouldn't she?

“If…if it’s a witch of the level of Witch Night…then…” I stammered, “Indeed, if it’s Witch Night, then everything you said could be true.”

"You admit it?"

"Indeed, I admit it..."

Homura Akemi looked at me with utter disbelief: "Why don't you keep lying to me?!"

"I never lie." (The biggest lie in this book has appeared.)

Finally, Homura Akemi still wore that incomprehensible and unacceptable expression, then shouted, "Bastard!" before turning and leaving.

"How ridiculous." I shrugged, muttered something under my breath, and then lay back down on the bed, ready to sleep.

Then, in the middle of the night, my extremely sharp reflexes alerted me to notice the door to my room suddenly open. Immediately afterwards, Sayaka, dressed in her pajamas and clutching a pillow, appeared in the doorway.

Hey! If you're going to raid at night, at least pick a better time, you idiot! Madoka is right next door! If you turn over and can't reach her, she might wake up, you idiot!

I screamed that in my heart, and then I felt something soft and yielding beside me, followed by Sayaka's arms around my waist. Then came my first kiss… well, okay, we both lost that. But then I heard Sayaka say, "Since things have come to this, you have to take responsibility for me." I finally couldn't hold back anymore.

Wake up—just don't scream. As for taking responsibility, I'm wearing pajamas, and I absolutely guarantee there's no "beep" or anything on the sheets. Sayaka can't sue me even if she wants to, hahaha…

But I didn't do that in the end. Instead, I opened my eyes and hugged Sayaka. I remained very quiet and didn't say a word.

To make it easier for people with long, straight black hair to spy on me, I didn't install curtains or anything like that in my room. And looking around, there weren't any other tall buildings opposite my floor, so I didn't have to worry about being spied on (by anyone other than people with long, straight black hair). Therefore, the moonlight was quite nice tonight, shining in and illuminating Sayaka, making her look exceptionally beautiful.

"What exactly do you want to do?" I asked, gently stroking Sayaka's chin.

“I like you—the kind of liking between a man and a woman. Light…hold me.” Sayaka closed her eyes after saying this, looking completely at ease.

I'm starting to feel a little tempted... As for the options, is it beast or worse than a beast...?

Chapter Thirty-Four: Sorry, Sayaka

“I like you very much too, Sayaka.” I gently hugged Sayaka and then draped the blanket over her.

"But I'm sorry, I can't accept that."