COTE: Collect All the CGs Chapter 190 190: Best Friends for Life

Novel: COTE: Collect All the CGs Author: MikuDayo Updated: Jun 16, 2026

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Now reading: Chapter 190 190: Best Friends for Life from COTE: Collect All the CGs, a Comedy novel by MikuDayo.

After watching Horikita Suzune's figure disappear around the corner, Shiki Natsu turned and headed back inside his dormitory.

The dishes on the table had already been cleared away by his maid, Horikita Suzune — no supernatural assistance required on his end.

What ca next was... waiting for Sakura Airi, he supposed. After all, there was still the Seven-Day Plan to get through.

Not that Shiki Natsu minded in the slightest. If anything, framing it as a series of objectives to clear had done sothing rather effective to his brain — he was, by nature, exactly the kind of person who found it impossible to leave a quest unfinished.

Right at that mont, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

He pulled it out. The sender was exactly who he'd expected.

[Sakura Airi: Natsu~ How did Suzune do? Do you think... she passed your best-friend screening?]

Reading that ssage, the smile in Shiki Natsu's eyes deepened.

So the intelligence Horikita Suzune had gathered really had co through Sakura Airi. His guess had been right on the money. Though — he hadn't quite anticipated that Sakura Airi would start quietly pulling strings behind the scenes like this.

He tapped out a reply.

[Shiki Natsu: Of course. She passed.]

Sakura Airi's response ca back almost instantly.

[Sakura Airi: That's great~ So now that she's officially Natsu's friend... does that an Natsu can start properly pursuing Suzune? Right? Right?]

A smug, all-knowing little emoji followed the words.

Naturally. After all — any girl with a CG attached to her was not soone Shiki Natsu planned to simply pass by. Even accounting for Horikita Suzune's notoriously prickly personality. Though, in fairness, the Horikita Suzune of today was considerably less sharp-edged than she'd been at the start — still prone to the occasional cold exhale, but manageable enough.

What did give him pause was Sakura Airi herself. Just yesterday, she had been quietly agonizing over her status as his second girlfriend — and yet here she was, not only unbothered by the idea of him pursuing Horikita Suzune, but apparently offering active assistance.

Before he could think too deeply on that, another ssage from her popped up.

[Sakura Airi: By the way... Natsu, I really want to co see you, but I won't be dropping by your dorm today, okay? I've got so important things to take care of — like gathering allies and whatnot!]

Gathering allies?

Shiki Natsu raised an eyebrow.

What was that supposed to an? And who exactly was being recruited — Horikita Suzune? Hasebe Haruka?

He decided not to dig into it.

Girls always had their little mysteries between them. Pressing for details would only ruin the fun.

[Sakura Airi: Don't worry though, Natsu~ Even though we only got to spend the morning together today, that still counts as the Day Two unlock! As for Day Three tomorrow... hehe, Natsu better look forward to it~!]

Day Three, huh.

The possibilities were frankly too nurous to narrow down — Shiki Natsu had no real way of predicting it. So he let it go. He'd find out when the ti ca. Sakura Airi was clearly trying to build suspense, but truthfully, he preferred the surprise of the actual mont over whatever anticipation she was trying to manufacture. The thrill of the unknown could wait.

His gaze drifted to the ti displayed on his phone.

Still fairly early. He and Horikita Suzune had just finished eating, but by the general rhythm of school life, this was still the window for club activities — too early for dinner. Nobody was coming to find him.

With that decided, Shiki Natsu opted to go on the offensive.

He would head to Keyaki Mall.

You never knew who you might run into there.

Having made up his mind, he gave his clothes a quick straighten and headed out.

---

Keyaki Mall was as packed as ever — most students who didn't have club activities inevitably ended up gravitating here to fill the ti.

Shiki Natsu drifted without any particular destination, letting his gaze wander idly over the storefronts.

And then — his eyes caught on three figures not far ahead.

Three girls, fashionably dressed and impossible to miss.

The signature gyaru aesthetic. Bold, vibrant, the kind of presence that drew eyes even in a crowd.

Karuizawa Kei. Satou Maya. And Matsushita Chiaki.

Almost at the exact mont Shiki Natsu spotted them — the three of them spotted him walking toward them.

The instant their eyes t.

Matsushita Chiaki, who had been leaning toward Karuizawa Kei mid-conversation, happened to sweep her gaze forward — and locked directly onto Shiki Natsu's pale gold eyes.

She froze.

A beat later, as if she'd just touched a live wire, she yanked her gaze away in a rush of visible flustered panic.

And across that fair, usually composed face of hers — a faint blush blood, barely perceptible but unmistakably there.

Obviously.

She was rembering that dream. The ridiculous, incredibly vivid dream she'd had.

In it... she and Shiki Natsu had been remarkably close. The two of them working together, striving to help Class D rise to Class A — and then, that morning in the dream... sothing had happened. Sothing she really should not be thinking about. The mory of it was still etched into her mind with crystal clarity, and it made looking directly at him feel physically impossible.

In all honesty, it had been quite a while since Shiki Natsu had properly run into this particular trio.

Sa school. Sa dormitory building, even. But different classes, different daily orbits — and with all the various girls he'd been spending his ti with, their paths simply hadn't crossed in a aningful way for so ti.

It was Satou Maya — the most outgoing of the three by a wide margin — who shattered the silence first.

"Oh! It's Shiki-san!"

Her eyes lit up instantly. A brilliant smile spread across her face and she threw her hand up in an enthusiastic wave.

"Over here, over here!"

Shiki Natsu smiled and walked over.

"Long ti no see, you three."

His gaze moved across each of them in turn.

Satou Maya was exactly as he rembered — radiantly energetic, the collar of her uniform open just a fraction, exposing the elegant line of her collarbone. Those blue eyes of hers were lit up with the particular brightness of soone looking at the person they liked.

Karuizawa Kei, standing in the middle, was a different story.

She was visibly... constrained.

After the incident at the gymnasium, Shiki Natsu had told her plainly — if she ever found herself in trouble, or if anything ca up, she could co to him any ti.

For Karuizawa Kei, in the grip of fear and helplessness at that mont, those words had been nothing short of a lifeline.

But afterward — once the worst of that fear had receded — she'd found herself tangled up in uncertainty. He had said she could rely on him. And yet... for a reason she couldn't quite put into words, she'd hesitated. Gone back and forth. And in the end, done nothing.

And then the hesitation had stretched on — until now. Until this unexpected face-to-face.

Karuizawa Kei's expression was slightly off. Her eyes kept darting — wanting to look at him and then not daring to, wanting to say sothing and then not knowing where to start. That usually-impeccable performance of strength and vivacity that she put on for the world seed to simply... fail her, here in front of him.

As for Matsushita Chiaki — she was making a valiant effort to appear normal, but those eyes of hers kept drifting toward Shiki Natsu against her will, betraying the turmoil underneath.

Satou Maya, blazing with the enthusiasm of a girl completely oblivious to the nuances unfolding around her, noticed none of it.

To her, at this particular mont, the entire world seed to contain exactly one person.

"What brings you out here, Shiki-san?"

She leaned in slightly, her tone warm and familiar.

"Nothing in particular. Just wandering around," Shiki Natsu answered easily, then turned the question back. "What about you three? Anywhere you're headed?"

"We were just planning to browse around aimlessly ourselves."

Satou Maya blinked, then looked at him with a face full of barely-contained expectation:

"But now that we've run into you..."

"Why don't we find sowhere to sit together? Have a bit of a chat?"

Shiki Natsu glanced at Karuizawa Kei and Matsushita Chiaki, and smiled.

"Won't we be... intruding on your girls' outing?"

"Of course not!"

Satou Maya dismissed the idea imdiately, then turned to the other two with a pointed, almost desperate look:

"Right? Kei? Chiaki?"

Karuizawa Kei snapped back to herself and gave a quick nod, managing a small, sowhat strained smile.

"Ah... yeah. Of course not."

"As long as Shiki-san doesn't mind."

Matsushita Chiaki gave a quiet little nod as well, her voice slightly subdued:

"Yeah... it's fine."

With no objections from any of them, Shiki Natsu smiled and spoke generously:

"In that case..."

"Let treat the three of you to so dessert. I know a place nearby with pretty decent sweets."

At that, Satou Maya imdiately clasped her hands together with an expression of undisguised delight.

"Really?!"

"Thank you so much, Shiki-san!"

---

A few minutes later, the four of them arrived at a dessert shop with a pleasantly refined interior.

Shiki Natsu chose a window booth.

He let each of them order whatever caught their eye — and before long, the table was covered in a colorful spread of sweets and drinks.

"Don't mind if I do~"

Satou Maya scooped up a generous spoonful of strawberry parfait and brought it to her lips, her expression lting into pure bliss.

"Mmm~ So good!"

After a few satisfied bites, she set her spoon down, fixed her gaze on Shiki Natsu across the table, and kicked off the conversation:

"You know..."

"It really has been ages since we last properly hung out with you, Shiki-san."

"What have you been up to lately? You seem like you've been really busy?"

Shiki Natsu took a sip of his iced coffee and smiled.

"Nothing too hectic, really. Mostly just hanging out with so friends, wandering around, taking care of odds and ends."

"Friends?"

Satou Maya tilted her head, the faintest trace of a pout in her voice.

"We count as friends too, don't we, Shiki-san?"

"If we're friends... then you have to make ti to co hang out with us every once in a while."

"Otherwise we'll get lonely."

Coming from Satou Maya, words like that — blunt and laced with just a trace of sothing warr — sounded completely natural. Not a hint of self-consciousness.

Shiki Natsu gave an easy nod.

"Alright."

"If I have the ti — definitely."

While Shiki Natsu and Satou Maya carried on their animated back-and-forth, Matsushita Chiaki, seated beside them, had gone unusually quiet.

She had a fork in hand and was technically eating her cake — but her mind was sowhere else entirely.

Those pretty eyes of hers kept drifting, against her will, toward Shiki Natsu.

Stealing glances at him. Taking in the clean lines of his profile. The unhurried, composed way he carried himself when he spoke.

Every ti it seed like he might turn and look in her direction, she'd jolt into action — eyes snapping away, suddenly deeply absorbed in the view outside the window, or in the cake on her plate.

The whole performance was, frankly, not subtle.

Karuizawa Kei wasn't in much better shape.

She chipped in occasionally — a word here, an agreent there — but far more of her attention was quietly devoted to watching Shiki Natsu from the side.

This unusual double-act of subdued distraction was, eventually, too conspicuous for even Satou Maya to miss.

She was still talking to Shiki Natsu — but her peripheral vision had been quietly keeping tabs on her two best friends the whole ti.

Normally at gatherings like this, both of them were incredibly lively. Karuizawa Kei especially — she was practically the designated mood-setter of their little group.

But today?

They'd both gone strangely muted. And that subtle, furtive way they kept sneaking looks at Shiki Natsu — what was that about?

A small, uneasy jolt went through Satou Maya's chest.

A vague, inexplicable sense of alarm began rising from sowhere deep inside her.

Could it be...

Had sothing happened between these two and Shiki Natsu while she wasn't looking?

Surely not, right?

The three of them were basically inseparable at school. If sothing like that had happened, there was no way she'd have been completely in the dark.

And yet...

Every instinct in her body — that subtle, inexplicable feminine sixth sense — was telling her the opposite. That Matsushita Chiaki and Karuizawa Kei were definitely hiding sothing from her.

And whatever it was, it definitely had sothing to do with Shiki Natsu.

Satou Maya narrowed her eyes slightly.

She ran so rapid ntal calculations.

If... if Chiaki and Kei had both really fallen for Shiki Natsu...

Then fine. They could all just beco his girlfriends together. That way, the three of them would still technically be a set.

Not that she'd have thought this way before the Harem Permit had co into effect, of course. Prior to that — even among best friends — asking her to simply hand over the boy she had feelings for would have been an act of genuine cruelty. She'd had a spirit of fair competition, and still did, in a way. She simply wanted more of Shiki Natsu's attention and affection than anyone else. Being his girlfriend was one thing — being the girlfriend he liked most was another thing entirely, and that was what she was after.

Having reached this comfortable internal conclusion, Satou Maya gave a deliberate little cough.

"Ahem..."

She nudged Matsushita Chiaki lightly in the arm with her elbow, grinning:

"Chiaki, stop just eating in silence."

"Shiki-san is treating us — you could at least say sothing."

Called out without warning, Matsushita Chiaki startled.

"Huh? I..."

She lifted her head — and found herself looking directly into Shiki Natsu's pale gold eyes, a faint trace of amusent glinting in them.

In that instant, the dream ca flooding back in full.

Piled on top of all the scattered, ssy thoughts that had been running through her head for the past several minutes.

Matsushita Chiaki's brain simply... short-circuited.

Every polite, aningless thing she'd prepared to say evaporated without a trace.