My System: An Evolved Computer I Made With My Unique Ability—

"Satoshi?" She asked in a low tone, fidgeting as she entered the room. For some odd reason, she was still a bit flustered even though this was her third time invading Satoshi's personal space. He may be sleeping but the mere thought of him being in the same room as she was made her quiver.

It was only for a split second but Satoshi managed to feign sleeping as soon as Shiroi entered the room. A moment later, he started berating himself for his actions. 'How could I pretend to sleep when she was right there? What if she says something out of nowhere and we're awake?' Satoshi's thoughts ran like clockwork, tightly shutting his eyes and evening his breathing so it would seem like he was still deep in slumber.

"Why aren't you waking up... Satoshi?" Shiroi continued, on the verge of tears. This always happens but this was the first time Satoshi became aware of it. Sniffling, Shiroi started wiping off the stray tears that streamed down her cheeks. "Please, you have to wake up." She pleaded with her wavering voice.

Satoshi couldn't help but gulp as guilt overcame him. He'd missed the perfect timing of telling Shiroi that he was already awake, and because he backed down, there was no turning back. Right now, he was at the point where Shiroi shouldn't find out that his sleep had already concluded. If she knew, who knows how embarrassed she'd get?

Touch.

Gently, Shiroi reached out her hands and patted Satoshi on his head, almost making him flinch. Fortunately, Satoshi was mindful of his every action so he was able to catch himself right at that moment. Still, it felt incredibly weird for Shiroi to be patting his head. It's not like this was the first time she did so, but it was still weird nonetheless.

"Yesterday, I passed the superhero license exam. I was very nervous, but I did my best. I wanted to catch up to you no matter what." Shiroi began, still resuming her touch on Satoshi's ruffled hair. "You... you were strong Satoshi, even back then when you didn't have your superpowers. At one point I even dreaded the thought of you awakening your superpower because if that were to happen... there was no way I'd ever catch up to you."

"I... I've always looked up to you, Satoshi." Shiroi fidgeted. "Even when we were kids, I always thought that you were pretty cool. You didn't have a superpower but you can stand up to anyone."

"Nee~ remember when you stood up to our upperclassmen who were trying to bully me? They may be girls but they had the advantage due to their superpower. Back then... I still couldn't fully control my superpower so I was always hesitant to use it... and yet you protected me. All this time you protected me."

"And now here I am, with my superhero license. It's thanks to you that I was able to achieve this. It's BECAUSE of you that I became who I am now. I'm always grateful, Satoshi... that's why you have to wake up, so I can repay all my debt to you."

"I... Honestly Satoshi I..." She started muttering.

Satoshi gulped.

He felt a lump in his throat— his saliva swallowed at the wrong timing. It was the worst possible timing, and Satoshi could feel a hiccup coming out of his mouth. He tightened his core, his lungs, and tried not to utter a single sound as the hiccup was slowly coming out. Satoshi tried to hold it in as much as he could... but it was to no avail.

"I... I like y—"

Hiccup!

"..."

"..."

Pause.

"Ah!" Shiroi exclaimed after the pause which occurred right after the hiccup.

As for Satoshi, he continued pretending to sleep. Of course, if it had been something else, he would've been caught right then and there. But as luck would have it. It was just a hiccup. Even a sleeping person could hiccup from time to time. Some even talk or walk down the stairs when they're sleeping so hiccuping is not too far from the norm. Satoshi heaved a sigh of relief.

'What was she about to say? What is it? Come on Shiroi! Why did you stop midway!' Satoshi screamed in his mind.

.....

A few minutes ago.

Kana Kuroe seemed to have the same brainwaves as Shiroi since she also thought of visiting Satoshi before she headed to the agency where she was an intern. Satoshi was the very first friend she could make in the USA so she was also worried that he had been sleeping for three days. Even though exhaustion played a huge part in his current condition, Kuroe was still concerned. What if he doesn't wake up? What if something really did happen to him during his dungeon exploration alone? Kuroe started overthinking and after three days, she couldn't hold back anymore.

She had to visit Satoshi no matter what!

As usual, because of her awkward self, she lingered in front of the Midoriyama Residence for a couple of minutes, dithering whether she should ring the doorbell or not. Her inner introvertive self was resurfacing once again and she couldn't bring herself to ring the doorbell.

'Sigh~ this always happens.' She said to herself, staying right in front of the gate to the Midoriyama Residence in hopes that someone inside would notice her.

Fortunately, someone did notice her. It was none other than Ayumu whose eyes wandered towards the entrance and saw a figure there. Upon checking who the person was, she realized that she was one of Satoshi's classmates so she immediately opened the door and waved.

"What are you doing there? Come on in." Ayumu warmly welcomed her, urging her to come inside and to not be shy.

In response, Kuroe silently nodded, her wordless gesture conveying her gratitude. As if walking on eggshells, she went inside the house, muttering a soft "pardon the intrusion" before exhaling all of her nervousness out of her system.

"You're Kuroe, right? Thank you for taking care of our son in school." Ayumu formally said before she gently smiled at Kuroe for the second time. "If you don't have anything to do, why don't you stay for breakfast?"

Kuroe nodded. "Thank you. Um... is Satoshi okay?"

Hearing their son's name, Ayumu and Tatsuki both shook their heads as their smiles were replaced by a frown. "It's been three days and he hasn't woken up." Ayumu continued.

This time, it was Kuroe's turn to be confused. The mind-reader she was, she already knew that Satoshi was awake. Without further ado, she headed upstairs to where Shiroi was. She also knew that Shiroi was upstairs because she could read her mind.

It was actually one awkward moment for Kuroe since she could sense Shiroi's uncertainty from way downstairs. It was obvious that she was planning to confess, and Kuroe didn't know what to feel about the matter.

p When she entered Satoshi's room, she wasn't surprised to see Shiroi extracting her hand from Satoshi's hair. That's because Kuroe had already read what was in Shiroi's mind and one of them was the thought of patting Satoshi's head. She didn't tell her outright about it though since that would just make Shiroi uncomfortable.

Instead, Kuroe went inside the room without speaking another word.

"Ah, Kuroe, you're here," Shiroi said with a forced smile on her face.

Kuroe waved her hands towards Shiroi, fully aware that Satoshi was actually already awake. As if on cue, Ayumu called for Shiroi downstairs, asking her if she'd be willing to help out in preparing breakfast. Shiroi agreed, and she immediately went downstairs.

Seizing her chance, Kuroe then folded her arms in front of her before she cleared her throat. This time, Satoshi flinched, and Kuroe put on a smirk on her face as she went up to Satoshi's bed. As far as she knows, Satoshi is actually ticklish on the sides. She intended to take advantage of it.

'Let's see how long you can pretend.' Kuroe said to herself.

Kuroe then leaned in and whispered at Satoshi's ears. "Do you wanna build a snowman~" She trailed off, but Satoshi just wouldn't budge.

At this point, Kuroe was ready to pin Satoshi down and give him a tickling of the lifetime. After inhaling a deep breath, Kuroe positioned herself and grabbed Satoshi by the side, running her fingers and poking him to the point that he squirmed.

Satoshi was too shocked to react, to say the least, and his facade kept him from blurting out a chuckle. He started curling up, trying to hold back his laugh while trying not to move too much. But that just encouraged Kuroe even more and she started increasing the intensity of the tickle.

"All right, fine, I lost." Satoshi wheezed, but Kuroe was merciless, she didn't stop tickling Satoshi.

"Hah! You think you can fake sleep, huh? Think again." Kuroe continued, gritting her teeth.

Satoshi spat out saliva as a chuckle finally came out of his mouth.