After club, me and Katsumi met up with Nora and Yukina in E Class as planned. Things were still awkward between me and Yukina, so I opted to help Nora research cards for his new deck.

This left Katsumi and Yukina to practice against each other, and continue their fight that had abruptly ended today. In the end, both girls got a win against each other. Katsumi the first time, Yukina the second time.

As me and Nora decided on a new deck build for him surrounding Hengist, one glaring issue popped up. Where were we going to get the cards to upgrade our decks?

Of course, I didn't think much of it at first because I was going to buy them online or at our local card shop, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised both of these methods were unreliable.

Firstly, there was the cost to consider. We had a tight budget to work with, and some of the cards we needed were quite expensive. As a result, we wouldn't be able to buy all the cards that everyone needed. We would have to either have to skip on some cards or use a budget option, which would weaken our decks.

Secondly, there was availability. It was unlikely our locals would carry cards from older sets, and good promos were expensive and hard to come by. This one was a lesser issue, because availability wasn't an issue online.

Thirdly, and most importantly, time wasn't on our side.

Basically, almost all my issues with locals could be solved if I just buy off the internet, because next-day delivery existed. The problem here is that next-day delivery was a premium cost we couldn't afford. If we chose free delivery, there was no guarantee our cards would arrive on time.

Not only that, we needed the cards now to practice our decks with them. We had three days until the war, which means we needed to use all that time to experiment on decks. If we get the cards the day before, we wouldn't be able to do sufficient play testing to decide what works and what wouldn't, so it'll stifle our chances of winning.

In the end, everything came back to our lack of points to spend. That's why we needed a way to get cards without having to spend a single point. Fortunately, I knew just the person for this task.

The collector of E Class and high rarity hoarder, Mitsuba Jun.

When I returned to the dorms after our training session, I went to Mitsuba's room and knocked on his door. About five minutes later, Mitsuba opened it. He was in his pyjamas, and his pants were worn half-haphazardly. It was almost like he had just put them on.

We exchanged blank looks at each other.

"Mitsuba-san, I-"

"No."

He slammed the door shut in my face. Even though I expected this reaction, I couldn't help but sigh. I knocked on the door again.

"Mitsuba-san, hear me out..."

"I don't want anything to do with you, Takanori!"

From the other side of the door, I could hear faint rustling and Mitsuba shouting at me to go away. It seems he didn't trust me anymore either because of the rumour. I wasn't going to give up though.

"I wanted to talk to you. It's important."

"Don't care, don't wanna listen. Get away from my room or else I'm reporting you to Fumio-san for unsolicited harassment!"

Even if he stubbornly denied me, I had the ultimate weapon which he couldn't resist against.

"I was only going to ask you a question..."

"I'm not answering!"

"So... you don't want Yogen-san's phone number?"

I heard the clatter of a chair and the hurried footsteps of Mitsuba as he swung the door wide open. This time, only his boxers were pulled up. His pants fell around his ankles.

"Takanori-san, Takanori-san, come on in, come on in! You should've told me about this sooner!"

I don't know what I was more disappointed in. The fact Mitsuba was so shallow, or the fact Mitsuba was so desperate.

With some caution, I entered Mitsuba's dark and dingy room. It was like a pigsty's in here... everywhere I looked, there was dirt and filth in every corner. He couldn't keep anything organised except his desk. Next to his PC was a half-eaten packet of chips, a bottle of lotion, and a box of tissues.

Mitsuba's computer proudly displayed what he was viewing before I rudely interrupted him. It was images of his favourite gravure idol, Aozaki Aoko in... questionable poses. On closer inspection, I noticed that Aozaki and Yogen looked scarily similar.

That would explain Mitsuba's recent obsession with her lately. While he usually fawned over Ichinose or Yukina, he suddenly began going crazy over Yogen in the group chat for seemingly no reason. It's how I got the idea to offer him her number, since I knew he didn't have it.

"Hey, hey, hey, stop looking at my secret stash! That's for my eyes only!"

Mitsuba ran over, pants pulled up, and shut off his monitor. He then turned on the lights and closed the curtains, as if to give me the impression he was actually normal.

"Secret stash...?"

"Y'know, the special sauce. Finding those images of Aoko-chan were really hard!"

I didn't know a thing about gravure models, so I had no idea if the images Mitsuba had were actually worth anything.

"Sauce...?"

"Never mind that. You have Yogen-chan's number, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do."

Mitsuba plopped in his chair, sitting like a king. I simply kneeled on his floor.

"Woah, woah, get up you idiot! You're sitting on my Gucci belt! That costed me millions!"

I didn't notice, but I had accidentally positioned myself on his overly expensive accessory. I stood up and picked it up, holding it carefully as to not damage it further.

"O-oh, sorry..."

"Gyaaaaaaa! You're making it lose it's worth just from touching it! Takanori, drop it, drop it!"

In a panic, I let go of his belt, and Mitsuba caught it.

"Ah, thank goodness... you didn't break the buckle..."

As if it was his child, Mitsuba hugged the belt close to him. In the first place, he should've taken better care of it... leaving it on the floor like it was worthless was asking for disaster.

"Anyways, back to business. Yogen-chan's number. Now."

I sat down and took out my phone. Mitsuba's eyes shone with lust as he kicked himself out of his chair to sit by my side. I scrolled to the bottom of my contact list, where Mitsuba began frothing at the mouth at the sight of her number.

"O ho ho ho ho... Yogen-chan's number... you really have it! How?! When did you get it?! Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

Mitsuba tried snatching my phone off me. I pushed him away lightly.

"Hey! Weren't you going to give me her number?!"

"I'll give it to you under one condition."

With those words, Mitsuba straightened out the Gucci belt in his hands with a fierce scowl. He suddenly had the energy of a delinquent.

"Don't mess with me, Takanori. I'll whip you if you don't give me her number!"

This is getting ridiculous...

"If you resort to violence, you'd become just as hated as me. You don't want that, do you?"

With that threat, Mitsuba put down the belt and returned to his flowery self. Thankfully, it was easy to make Mitsuba calm down. He cared about two things after all: girls and popularity.

"Oh damn, no way am I gonna end up like you. I don't go around beating girls for fun. I beat my meat over girls for fun instead!"

What the hell was he saying? I shook my head.

"Can you hear me out on my request? You don't have to do anything. I just need to borrow something of yours."

"Don't tell me... you want my Aoko-chan stash?!"

"What? No. I want to borrow your Vanguard collection."

Mitsuba looked over his shoulder to the shelf on the wall. Suddenly, multiple binders that were tucked away fell to the floor.

"Oh... is that it?"

"Yeah. If you let me borrow your Vanguard collection for the war, I'll give you Yogen-san's number. How does that sound?"

"Man... Takanori-san, I had the completely wrong idea about you! You're such a cool guy! You're my new best friend!!!"

Mitsuba threw himself at me, crying tears of joy. I pushed him away, not wanting his degeneracy to rub off on me.

"Just how much does Yogen-san's number mean to you...?"

"Everything! I can finally flex on the other guys that I got the number of the girl of my dreams! Yogen-chan's gonna be my first female contact! Yahoooooooooooooooo!" Mitsuba screamed and jumped for joy.

This was his first phone number from a girl? I was genuinely surprised, since he's amazing at socialising. Even a loner like me managed to get four girl's phone numbers. I'd imagine Mitsuba would have more than me, but I guess I was wrong.

"But... I'm so jealous! Why did Yogen-chan give her number to a loner like you?! When did you manage to talk to her?! How can someone so unpopular get her number before me?! I've never seen you two together before either! It's no fair!"

Even though I was right in front of him, Mitsuba didn't hold back shouting his frustrations at me.

"Unless... that's a fake number...!"

His mind was going to wild places. Mitsuba scrambled to his card collection and huddled around it, hissing at me.

"Call. The. Number. Let me hear her on the other end. Then I'll let you borrow my cards."

"Fine then."

I called Yogen and put the phone on speaker. It rang three times before she answered.

"Moshi moshi, Boya-san! Sorry for replying late, I just got out of the shower, fu fu."

This was terrible timing... Mitsuba began nose-bleeding, and gave me a giant thumbs up in approval.

"Bo~oya-san? Are you there?"

With a teasing voice, Yogen called out for me again. Suddenly, Mitsuba's approval turned into furious anger. Did he suffer from bipolar disorder or something?

"Ara~ perhaps... Boya-san is having lewd thoughts about me right now? You know, all I have wrapped around me is a thin towel...~"

I had to protect her chastity from a ravenous beast like Mitsuba. I switched the phone off speaker mode and pushed it against my ear. Mitsuba flashed a death glare at me, raising his belt.

"Yogen-san... um..."

"It seems poor little Boya-san couldn't hold it in anymore. Were you painfully waiting in anticipation for my call? Is that why you made the first move?"

With every bewitching word she spoke through the phone, I could imagine her whispering it into my ear as if she was actually there.

"It's... not that. I just want to tell you... I gave your phone number to my... friend."

"Best friend."

Mitsuba tried to correct me, but there was no way I was going to call him my best friend.

"Aww... so you didn't want to talk to me?"

"Not... particularly."

"By the way, I heard someone else's voice in the background, Boya-san. Is there someone else with you right now?"

I could see Yogen smile smugly in my head as she said those words.

"Well... yeah. Do you want to talk to them?"

"No way~ I wanna talk to you, Boya-san~"

"I see..."

"Especially about our plan. I'll need some extra points from you to complete the purchase."

"How much?"

When I asked that, Mitsuba immediately began approaching me.

"I'll need 50,000 points to cover the rest. The surveillance footage that we're looking for is worth 200,000 points in total, so I'm giving you a good deal here."

I only had to pay a quarter in the end, huh? Though, Yogen didn't have 150,000 points on her. Even if she did, she'd go broke from spending that many points.

"Who else is pitching in?"

Hearing that, Mitsuba gasped in shock and gave a dirty look at me. I think he was getting the wrong idea...

"That's observant of you~ don't worry about it. I cashed in some favours I had saved up."

"Why are you going so far for me..."

I trailed off as Mitsuba's fist was shaking in anger.

"Well, school would be more fun if you could do things however you pleased, wouldn't it, Boya-san?"

"I suppose..."

"And like I said. The more I do for you now, the more you'll have to do for me later."

So this is what she meant by cashing in favours. She's helpful to others so she can receive it back.

"I see. I'll transfer it later tonight then."

I kept the wording vague as to not trip suspicion on Mitsuba. However, it was the opposite effect, as he looked ready to beat me with the belt.

"Alrighty~ I'll call you after dinner then. Bye bye, Boya-san."

Yogen ended the call. I put the phone down and sighed.

"Are you... are you using Yogen-chan as some sort of prostitute, you woman beater?!"

Mitsuba's rage was let out all at once. He unleashed his whip at me, but I barely managed to dodge it.

"You've got the wrong idea, Mitsuba-san."

"Wrong idea?! You two were talking about price right now! You have her number because you pay for her body! You must have nudes of her right?! If you do, let me see it! Let me see the sauce!!"

This was bad. If Mitsuba roared any louder, his neighbours would send a noise complaint, and we'd get in trouble with Fumio. I didn't need to deal with more problems, so I made up a lie on the spot to calm him down.

"No, it's not that... you see, I paid Yogen-san to give me her phone number."

This would give the impression that I did this for his sake, which would keep Mitsuba happy. If I told him that she pushed it on me so we could plan a meeting this weekend, he'd freak out and try to kill me.

However...

Mitsuba was at my feet, sobbing into my legs. What the hell...?

"Takanori-san... you're such a good man... you were willing to spend 50k points... just for her number... you brilliant capitalist... you're amazing... you're the best best friend anyone could ask for! Thanks to you, I finally have the courage to ask her out... that's right, I'm going to ask out Yogen-chan right now!"

Slowly, this situation devolved further and further by the second. I had to stop Mitsuba, but it was too late. He punched Yogen's number into his phone and called her.

"Yogen-chan... it's me, Mitsuba Jun. How are you?"

To my surprise, he struck up a fairly normal conversation with her, even though he was crying in happiness moments earlier. Mitsuba moved from my feet to his bed, sitting on the edge confidently with a smirk.

"Ha ha, Takanori-san gave me your number. Don't worry, I didn't try searching the internet for your number or anything."

He definitely tried searching for her number.

"Yeah. Of course, I mean, who'd be dumb enough to do that?"

You would be.

"Right? Man, you're really charming. Hey, can I ask something?"

Mitsuba gave me a scummy grin. I wanted to bury my hands into my face and sigh exasperatedly over his current actions. It could only end in disaster.

"Yogen-chan... do you want to..."

I looked away, unable to handle the massive cringe attack I was experiencing right now. I shouldn't be here to watch someone's love confession. This was way too intimate for me to handle.

"Do you want to call each other by our first names?"

Mitsuba's scummy grin turned into regret, sweat and tears. He chickened out at the last second... this guy.

"Ah... okay... I understand..."

That depressing tone doesn't sound good. Did she reject him on the other side?

"No, no... I get it... yeah... of course. Sorry to cut it short... but I've got... stuff to do. Yeah, yeah, you know... homework."

We don't have homework though...

"Yeah... bye bye... Emica-chan."

Wait, what?

Mitsuba ended the call and jumped on his bed. From the bottom of his lungs, he screamed like a banshee in celebration.

"くぁwせdrftgyふじこlp!!!!!!!!"

I covered my ringing ears. His celebration cheer could make someone become deaf. It seems he was trying to hold in his excitement over her saying yes by sounding depressed.

Moreover, I'm still shocked that she gave him permission... they barely knew each other, right? This was absurd.

"Emica-chan... Emica-chan... Emica-chan..."

Mitsuba muttered her name again and again, before dropping his pants. Turning on his monitor, he sat down in his seat, blissfully unaware I was still here.

"Emica-chan... Emica-chan... Emica-chan...!"

He then started to pull down his boxers while lustfully calling for her name. His hand reached for the pump of lotion.

Seeing how this would take a dark turn, I took my exit before I could become traumatised by Mitsuba's Yogen obsession.

Once outside, I realised I forgot to take his Vanguard collection. Since I didn't want to return to that cursed room, I'd have to get it off from him later.