If I told you the chapter's title it would be a spoiler.

CHAPTER 4: If I told you the chapter's title it would be a spoiler.

Henry walked around the class, looking for people who wanted to talk, but he emanated such an aura of coolness and superiority that he simply left every other student in shock. This is what he told himself every time someone he approached looked the other way. There was a curious group of people that wanted to speak to him before, but it seemed as if getting openly attacked by Chiharu and flying through the classroom had somehow affected this. The people weren't any less curious, it was the opposite of that in fact, but they were a lot more cautious or possibly scared.

"I guess I'll have to talk to Rohou, granted he's not busy doing normie stuff like 'socializing' and 'avoiding prolonged eye contact'. But at least I'll have an excuse to talk to... that girl. I still don't know her name even though she's the first member of the harem." Henry continued his delusions, talking to himself out loud in the middle of the classroom and not helping his chances of people approaching him.

He reached the back of the class and noticed something that he had somehow missed despite being able to easily look at the whole class from his seat considering its moderate size: Rohou and the girl were gone! They must have left the class at the beginning of lunch break, maybe to explore some obscure parts of the school like the cafeteria. Henry was scared at the possibility that the two were sharing some kind of intimate moment. Rohou had already started to steal his role as the protagonist, he couldn't let the two get any closer. He would even settle for being the supporting character of a boring slice of life manga if it meant not letting Rohou be the protagonist of a romantic comedy!
Laughter brought Henry back to Earfh, and for once he wasn't the subject of it. A group of girls were having a relaxing chat as they ate their lunch. Their desks were moved closer together to comfortably fit all of their boxes, cutlery, and brightly colored cloth. Henry knew the cloth was called furoshiki, used to wrap the bento boxes and make them easy to carry. But this information was entirely irrelevant to the plot and Henry was just thinking about it to show off.

He approached the girl that he thought laughed the loudest and seemed more friendly. She had half a buzz cut on one side and a wave of curly, white hair on the other. She also happened to be the one with the larger chest.

"Sorry, do you know where the boy and the girl sitting in the corner of the class went? The boy is called Rohou, but really, I just want to know about the girl."

The girls' conversation abruptly stopped, and their faces lost their glee.

"I don't, sorry..." She replied quickly, avoiding any eye contact and leaving Henry in silence.

“Ah yes, a kuudere.” Henry thought to himself.

"It's a shame you didn't see them." He said, grabbing an empty chair and bringing it to the desks. "Mind if I sit with you?"

"A bit." Another one of the girls said. But she was the only one to say anything. The others simply nodded.

"My name is Henry!" He said as he sat down, turning his chair backwards for some reason. "What's your name?", he asked the 'kuudere'.

"...Hajime Pika."

"What a cute-sounding name. Mind if I call you Haji-tan?"

"Verily..."

"Listen, I was looking to expand my harem, and since I've already found a tsundere, a kuudere would make a perfect addition!"

Slowly, Hajime's head turned away from him. Henry appointed such a "cutesy" reaction to her archetypal nature, more as a self-defense mechanism than true belief, but in reality, the girl had turned the other way to silently mouth the words please help me to her friends.

"Hey... Henry? Now that I remember, I think I heard the girl you're looking for saying your name as she left!" A savior spoke up to rescue her friend.

"Really? Why did she leave then? Do you know where she is?"

"School's roof." She rapidly answered.

"It's a bit far... Is it open to the students?"

"Of course! I think you should go, I'm pretty sure the girl was saying she wanted to talk to you directly."

"Then I shall climb to the school's top and please the damsel's request." Henry stood up. He suddenly felt a spike of energy, as if someone had poked his heart with a needle, or secretly kicked his leg under the desk. Nonetheless, he rushed out of the class.

The four girls were left in shock by the sudden encounter, as if a bear had just passed by them and walked away.

"Is she really on the roof?" Hajime asked.

"Of course not! I don't even know who he was talking about! Why do you think I kept saying the girl?"

Henry the blissful ignorant ran up the school's stairs to reach their end. The roof was the school's fourth floor, or third if you consider the first floor as the ground floor, or fifth if you consider the basement the first floor, or second if you consider the first floor as a ground floor but also don't consider the roof a floor and merge it with the one below, you get the gist. Finally, Henry came to the end of his climb and reached the roof's wide door. A bright light beamed down from the door's square window. He pushed the pole-shaped bar that functioned as a handle, but nothing happened. He didn't want to admit it, but somewhere in the darkest part of his unconscious mind he did have the suspicion that the girl had lied to him, but he couldn't understand why. He was about to leave in defeat, when he noticed a small sticker attached to the door with a kanji that he could recognize as "pull". He grasped the bar with both hands and pulled the door open, moving a few steps back and rushing around it to leave before it automatically closed on him. The roof wasn't very large, and a suggestive fence of metal surrounded its borders. There she was, sitting on said border, with her head gently pushing on the fence as she looked to the horizon, the girl. She had a different hairstyle, stature, and face from what he remembered, but at this point Henry would've accepted anything that meant those girls didn't lie.

"Did you want to speak to me?" Henry approached her.

The girl must have been lost in her world, as she was taken by surprise by his words. Her widened eyes revealed a dark blue iris. A landmass of black hair sprung from her head, braided as if to seal its explosive power, thinning as it descended down her back and past her waist. Her head jolted away from the fence, leaving a square mark on her left cheek.

"Ah! H-hear watto aru yuu dooingu?" She said in the closest thing to English she had.

"I... can speak Japanese. I spoke to you in Japanese just now."

"Hai nou. Yuu aa Henri, furomu my curasu."

"Oh, we're from the same class ...Which means you've heard my presentation, which was in perfect Japanese! Why are you trying to speak English?!"

The girl suddenly laughed. Her head swindled left and right, and her shoulders bounced rhythmically with her voice. Yes, only the shoulders.

"Ohayou!" she smiled.

"G-good morning to you too?"

"No, you're from Ohayou!" She spoke now in her native tongue.

"Oh! Ohio! Yes, I know, it sounds similar to how you say good morning in Japanese."

"Is it always sunny there?"

"It's... just regular weather."

"Oh, but I don't know if I'd like it there. If it's always morning I wouldn't be able to sleep."

"No, it's not... Eh, I'm sure you wouldn't like it regardless."

"But the morning glories would always be in bloom!", she said, herself blooming like the flowers she spoke of.

"I guess they would. Do you like plants?"

"I love them!"

"What's your favorite one?"

"Potatoes, ‘cause I can eat them."

"...I meant flower."

"But potato flowers are poisonous!"

"No... Ok, let's just start this from scratch. Ehm. Hey, is there a flower that you really like?"

"Figs!"

"That is still not a flower!"

"It's an inverted flower."

"I give up. What is your name?"

"Momoko Ronnou." She saluted him.

"And what are you doing on the roof?" He asked, having given up on the notion that there was a girl that wanted to speak with him. Don't worry, he was used to it.

"Birdwatching, sir!" She produced a pair of heavy looking binoculars from under her skirt.

"Uh. That's not what I expected from a Japanese high school girl. Also, why are you calling me sir?"

"I'm sorry lieutenant!"

"Not what I meant."

"Today the birds seem more lively than usual, colonel. Look at that pair! A sparrow and a peacock!"

Momoko handed the binoculars to a very intrigued Henry and pointed him to a secluded spot in the school's yard. The girl Henry was looking for stood at the other end of the lenses, talking to a boy.

"What a great find, General Momoko!" Henry grasped the lenses. "What seems to be the situation here?"

"If I may, admiral. I think the sparrow is attempting a mating ritual on the peacock, but she looks unimpressed."

Henry couldn’t hear what the boy was saying, but he looked stressed. Suddenly, the boy turned his head to the ground, closed his eyes, extended his clenched fists down his body, and spoke up. There was no need to hear his words. The message was as clear as the drops of sweat running down his forehead. Time resumed a second later, as the girl clapped her hands and answered with an awkward smile. The boy ran away.

"That's what you get!" Cheered Henry. "Trying to mess with my harem, will ya?!"

"Are you also a peacock, chief?"

"I think I'm more of a proud bald eagle." Henry lied.

"You'll never get the peacock then." Momoko answered with a self-sufficient smile.

"You don't know that! Didn't you say that boy was a sparrow? We could make some weird peacock-eagle hybrid."

"The parrot failed, didn't he? You need feathers that outshine the peacock!"

"I thought only male peacocks had bright feathers."

"I know nothing about birds."

"At any rate, I need to get to her."

Henry rushed away, aiming for the schoolyard and getting lost a couple of times on the way. But thanks to his determination, ingenuity, and asking a teacher for directions, he managed to find the door that led outside. He walked a bit to get to the secluded place where she stood, but, yet again, the girl had morphed. Only this time, her look was a familiar one.

"Oh hey, it's the tsun—"

The spot they were in was secluded not simply because it was in the yard and far from windows and doors. It was also the case that in this specific spot the school's walls formed a dented shape. Having walls surround you on three out of four sides meant that there was a lot of shade. From Henry's point of view, Chiharu stood in this spot surrounded by a dark aura. Her face was darkened by the shadow, bar from her shining red eyes.

"Chiharu-sama." Henry brought an arm to his chest and kneeled.

"That's better than what you were about to say, but I don't want you to kneel... You can keep the -sama. What do you want?"

"I was looking for someone else." Henry slowly stood up, careful not to make any sudden movement. "Why are you here?"

"Me?" She looked elsewhere. "...I was doing strength training."

"Chiharu-sama, believe me when I tell you, you don't need any more strength." He patted his cheek.

"Shut up! Why do you even care?!"

"You're right, I don't." Henry said, just a few seconds before finding himself buried underneath the dirt from his chest down.

"Oh well, I'm going back to class." She dusted her hands off.

"Wait! You can't leave me here!"

"But it's what you deserve."

"No, you don't understand! There's something I need to tell you!"

"What is it?"

"You need to come closer for me to tell you."

Chiharu was skeptical, but she walked next to him.

"You're still too far! You need to squat down."

"Ugh, what is it?!" She fell into Henry's trap.

"I can see under your skirt."

And Henry was freed from the hole, thanks to a powerful kick to the chin that flung him a few meters into the air. He made a popping sound as he left the hole.

The school's bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch break and the end of the gag.

"Don’t talk to me ever again." Chiharu turned around and began walking away.

"Wait! N-no, for real this time!" Henry had to specify before Chiharu's hands reached his face. "I don't know the way to the class! I spent most of the lunch break just wandering the school and I'd like to avoid repeating that. I-I can follow you from a distance if you want."

"That would make you even creepier! Just walk behind me, but don't say a word."

After a minute of walking in complete silence, Henry and Chiharu reached the class, surprisingly before the teacher showed up.

"Chairman Henry!” Momoko had arrived in the class long before them, “You went to look for a peacock and came back with a T-rex!"

"Why a T-rex?" Even though Momoko was the one assigning animals to people, something compelled Chiharu to ask Henry instead.

"I feel like explaining you would be a mistake."

Saving him from any unfair punishment, the girl™ entered the class at that moment, together with Rohou.

"Peacock girl!" Henry pointed at the peacock girl.

"Peacock?"

"It's because of your bright feathers." Momoko explained.

"I'm starting to like this less and less." said the T-rex. I mean, Chiharu.

"I don't have... Should I dye my hair green and blue?" The girl stroked her long hair.

"You can be an androgynous peacock later! Where have you been?" Henry was impatient.

"It's my bad." Rohou spoke up. "We were coming back from the cafeteria, but I was careless while we were walking and a second-year girl ran into me as we turned the corner, making all the papers she was holding fly everywhere. We lost some time helping her."

"Can we make him a pigeon? Or a seagull? Or maybe a rat!" Henry discussed with Momoko.

"What's with all the birds?"

"Oh, I lost the meaning of the metaphor a long time ago."

"I want to be a secretary bird!" Riku suddenly appeared.

"Enough with the birds! I wanted to ask you your name!" Henry got closer to the person who won't be referred to as the girl™ for much longer. "We even met this morning but I'm still clueless."

"My name? You're right, I never told you. I'm..." Suddenly, she stopped. Hinting a smile, her expression changed to look more dastardly, malicious, vainglorious, and other safe-for-work alternatives to bad words. "Something that you should know about me," continued the one who unfortunately will still be called the girl™, "Is that I'm a big fan of adventures. Since you seem up to the task, why don't you try to figure out my name by yourself?"

"Rohou, what's her name?" Henry turned his head about forty degrees to the left.

"Stop!" The girl put a hand on Rohou's mouth before he could have a chance to talk. "Everyone!", she screamed at the class, "No one is allowed to tell this boy my name! It will be very bad if he discovers it because... because... Ah! He's a stalker!"

"What?!"

"Yeah! He wants to use my name to figure out where I live and steal my socks!"

Murmurs started to whirl around the room.

"Surely the class won’t actually believe her without any proof." Henry built up confidence.

"I believe her." Hajime the kuudere, who had been sitting in awkward silence next to Henry, decided to speak up.

"C-c'mon guys, you can’t be serious!" Henry tried to save what little face he had left. "Think about it, why would I ever steal her socks? If I get to the point where I can break into her house, I'm obviously going for the panties!" Henry failed.

"I'm going to call the police in advance." Hajime took out her phone.

"It's a hypothetical scene!"

"Perfect! Now no one will want to tell you my name or look at you." The girl™ triumphed.

"Fine!" Henry gave up. "I'll accept your challenge, but the reward better make it worth it! ...I guess I'll just call you harem queen in the meantime."

"Gimei Besshou, nice to meet you." Gimei quickly gave up on her adventure.

“What’s with all this ruckus?!” The teacher suddenly entered. “You can’t do as you please just because I’m a minute or two late. Everyone, to your seats.”

The class quickly returned to order and the lesson started.

“Gimei Besshou, uh?” Henry mumbled.

POSTFACE

- PURPOSEFUL DISINFORMATION a.k.a. GLOSSARY
Kuudere: A character, yet again usually female, who suffers from alexithymia.
-sama: One of the many reasons why the Japanese language is hard: an honorific. This one is used when a subject is referring to their emperor, when a slave is referring to their master, or when an overly self-centered person is referring to themselves. Technically speaking, everyone in the story is using honorifics, but they have been omitted because I’m not writing those over and over again. Unless it's funny, that is.
-tan: You don't need to know this one.