The Goddess Needs A Break!

"There was no doubt in my mind something like that was going to happen."

Eiji was trying to stifle a laugh as he observed Takei holding up a bag of ice to his forehead.

When Takei and Akari threw their dodgeballs at the same time, Akari managed to dodge his ball while Takei was unlucky in that endeavor.

However, being simply eliminated by the dodgeball wasn't the problem here.

Akari had mistaken her grip strength and thrown an incredibly fast curveball which resulted in a ball-shaped bruise on Takei's forehead.

She was excited that she had won the confrontation at first, but her enthusiasm quickly disappeared as fast as it had came.

Akari saw Takei's motionless body on the ground and let out a glass piercing shriek.

In a hurry, she ran over to him and discovered the large bruise on his head.

Differing from her usual demeanor, Akari was in a state of panic as she tried to patch the unconscious Takei up.

Eventually, the teachers arrived on the scene and rushed Takei to the infirmary.

Luckily, the nurse diagnosed him with a minor concussion and told him to rest his body for the rest of today.

That meant that he would have to inevitably miss a lot of the sports festival, and also forfeit all of his events that he was registered for.

Since Takei had no ambition to do them in the first place, he could really care less if he had to forfeit.

However, there was another big problem.

Akari was refusing to leave the small room that he was residing in.

Somehow, she had convinced the teachers to let her nurse him.

In the end, the goddess's influence prevailed and they were left together for a large amount of time.

She tended to every little thing for him, which made Takei feel bad for making her do so much work for him.

After a lot of convincing, Akari had left the room for a short mental break since she was with him the whole day.

As a condition however, Eiji had to watch over him until she came back.

Now back to the present, Takei sullenly stared out of the window next to his bedside.

"I was uncool today, isn't that right?"

Takei mumbled to no one in particular.

Sitting on the other side of the bed, Eiji wryly smiled at the rare sight of Takei expressing his emotions.

"I don't think that's quite right. I think a lot of girls enjoy spoiling their significant other when they're down in the dumps.

"We're not dating."

"This again..."

Eiji facepalmed at how Takei still had enough energy to refute him.

While Eiji was trying to pierce through his infinite wall of denseness, Takei kept denying that they were dating.

He was purely doing it out of respect for Akari who had yet to make an official move on him.

Even though he knew about her feelings, pursuing them was another matter.

Seeing the complicated expression on Takei's face, Eiji sighed at the slow change between him and Akari's relationship.

This guy is too dense for his own good... I think some intervention is in order.

Once he decided on a plan to put Takei into motion, Eiji enacted it right away.

"You know that the status quo will change soon, right?"

Eiji deduced that the only way to push him forward was to give Takei a warning of the upcoming future events.

"She won't just wait for you."

"I know."

Even though Akari had boundless amounts of patience and kindness reserved for Takei, he knew that he shouldn't be taking advantage of her so much.

Once the gears started turning in Takei's head, Eiji decided to activate the second part of his plan.

"There could be another guy that comes along and swoops her from under her feet, y'know?"

To add another unsure variable was a surefire way to get Takei's anxiety to build up.

Although this was in the grey area for morality, Eiji wanted Takei to be happy so he did it with good intentions.

Not even mulling over it for a second, Takei fiercely answered him back.

"I won't let that happen. I'll make her mine, I promise. Once everything is set up on my end, I'll definitely make my move."

After Takei explained what was going on with his end, Eiji finally smiled and slapped him on the back.

"Go get em' tiger!" Eiji chuckled. "Well, I think it's my turn to go. I'm getting a gut feeling that someone is about to arrive."

Giving his farewells, Eiji quickly left the room and was replaced by a divine goddess soon after.

"Did anything happen?"

Akari saw the determined look on Takei's face and inquired as to what put him in this mood.

"Nope, nothing. Just some guy talk."

Since Takei didn't want to make her more worried than she already was, he decided to brush off the topic.

Akari could tell that he was trying to hide something, but she didn't push the topic since she sensed that Takei didn't want to talk about it.

"Anyways, you should be leaving soon. The last event is starting in a couple minutes."

As Takei had stated, the 400-meter dash would be starting in a few minutes.

Akari was nominated by her class to run in it, but she refused due to Takei being incapacitated.

"I refuse. I'll stay here and nurse you back to health."

As he had expected from the start, Akari briskly denied his suggestion.

"I'll be fine. I'm feeling a lot better already."

"But..."

Since Takei could sense that Akari was on the verge of conceding, he decided to go for the finishing blow.

"I'll come and cheer you on."

"Deal."

Forgetting that she was the one who dealt such an injury to him, Akari gleefully accepted his proposal.

"However, you need a guardian to watch you..."

"What am I, two-years-old?

Takei had instantaneously retorted to Akari's outrageous statement.

"Ah, whatever. I'll get Eiji or Rikka to watch over me."

"That sounds great, I'll make sure to win first place and knock your socks off!"

Now that Akari was pumped up, there was no stopping her.

Takei warmly smiled at the adorable little goddess in front of him and urged her to get to the area for the runners. He told her that he would be there soon, so the guest of honor needed to be there before him.

Akari knowingly nodded and left the room after making a peace sign with her two fingers.

Seeing her uplifted mood, the edges of Takei's mouth just so ever slowly crept up.

Akari Tanaka, that would sound nice.

---

Akari's Final Affection Meter: 70 -> 78%

Oh my stars, has the heroine power grown exponentially.

Serious-san: She's pretty happy since Takei said he is going to cheer her on.

Sugar-san: I'm pretty happy as well!