I will be uploading the companion pieces here instead of within Misplaced Soul Rewritten itself just so I don't confuse myself and accidently upload the wrong thing in the wrong location. And besides, I do remember promising more omakes. Leave suggestions if there is a certain event you want to read about from the story that is written from a different character's perspective. I'll do my best to fulfill those requests.

Side stories: Souji's Thoughts

Chapter 17 Interlude

Souji awakens slowly, slowly opening his eyes before he decides it's too much of a hassle and closes them again to block out the light of the morning sun as it trickles into the bedroom through a small opening in the window.

"Not today," he thinks to himself before burying his face back into his pillow.

He normally wasn't the type to lounge around in bed after waking up, but it wasn't like he'd be allowed to leave the room while he still had the measles. And besides, laying still felt good for his aching body. Nuzzling his warm pillow gently, he gets comfortable again before he realizes that his actual pillow isn't actually as soft as what he's laying his head on. The events of the evening before suddenly flashes through his mind along with her voice.

"It's lonely to suffer by yourself, right? Go ahead and sleep. I'll still be here when you wake up."

His eyes shoot open as he burns red. His head immediately vacates his spot on the "pillow" (or should he say "pillows") as he nearly leaps across the room to put distance between himself and the person he fell asleep on. Shizuka never stirred at his actions and continued snoozing away. She had always been a surprisingly heavy sleeper when she did fall asleep.

Then he wonders why he was so hasty to take his face off of her bosom because he remembered that he clearly had permission, even if temporary, to use her breasts as a pillow. And so he decides to take advantage of this fortuitous situation and readjusts himself so his head is, enjoyably, back on her soft chest. While he listens to her even breaths, he thinks back to the day he met her.

Shizuka was a tiny little thing when he first saw her. She was still small in stature now but back then, she looked like a living doll.

He remembers that he was still reeling from the hurt after being left behind by his sister when he felt her eyes staring at him. He had turned towards where he had felt her gaze only to see her flinch before quickly ducking behind a wall. In the end, he was sure that the only reason they even greeted each other was because Kondou-san had picked her up and placed her in front of him.

They really didn't talk much after that. In his early days at Shieikan, he spent most of his time on performing chores and getting beat up by the older students, so it was understandable that he really wasn't in the mood to make friends. Yet, he found her following him mutely day after day like a ghost.

He didn't understand why, and he still doesn't understand to this day, why she kept following him. He was mean to her and he called her names. At first, he just thought it was because she was too dumb to understand a hostile situation, but that thought was quickly debunked when she smartly vanished every time before his bullies arrived. So he decided that the reason she wouldn't leave him alone was because she was lonely. After all, from what he was able to gather, most people thought that she was just a myth and that the young daughter of Kondou-san didn't really exist. He decided to believe that she didn't really want to be his friend and was just following him because he was one of the few people that did know she existed.

But then she cried over him one day after he got beaten so hard that he emptied his stomach on the floor. She had scurried in immediately after the older students had left to attempt to treat his wounds. Not wanting to be touched, he yelled at her and pushed her away. But she didn't back down and wrestled some bandages onto him (in such an unimaginably tidy manner that it looked like a doctor wrapped his wounds) and when he went to yell at her again for touching him, he found that he couldn't. He couldn't because she was crying over his injuries.

So he just ended up asking, "Why are you helping me?"

"Because it was the right thing to do," she answered him, speaking to him for the first time since he arrived at Shieikan. He wanted to laugh cruelly at her naïve answer.

The next time she did anything of any note was a few days later. Instead of attempting to hide (she really did suck at hiding and it was amazing that most people never even noticed her) while following him around, she just brazenly followed him around out in the open. He had originally thought it was annoying how she tried to hide while following him but now, he'd give anything for her to revert to her previous methods of stalking him. She annoyingly stuck her nose into everything he did and he couldn't chase her off no matter what he did.

And then that lunch incident happened. Like an idiot, she didn't flee when the older students arrived to bully him. Like an idiot, she called attention to her tiny self and defiantly stood up to his bullies for him.

Like an idiot, she shredded her hands with a broken bowl just for him.

Begrudgingly he decided at that moment that he doesn't hate her so much anymore and that she wasn't really as annoying as he originally thought her to be.

His walk through memory lane then pauses when he feels her move slightly beneath him and he finds himself disappointed when she continues to sleep. However, at the same time, he finds that actually enjoys watching her sleep up close. Out of all the things he could like about watching her sleep, he discovers that his favorite thing was the way her long lashes fell against her porcelain face when her eyes were closed and relaxed.

And then he wonders how it all happened. How his affection for her turned into these feelings. How he went from just simply loving her the same way he loved Kondou-san to being in love with her. It was such a subtle transformation that he didn't even notice it until it was too late.

He had decided when he figured out his feelings for her that he wouldn't tell her or anyone out of fear that he would frighten her off and ruin their relationship. But it was getting harder and harder as he began to desire her more. He found that he didn't want to just be her best friend anymore.

There were nights where he had dreams that she was his lovely wife. There were nights where he dreamt of holding her, kissing her, and being intimate with her. He wanted her to be his. He wanted to be the man to give her children in the future.

He then decides as he is laying on her bosom that he wasn't going to hold back anymore. Of course, he wasn't going to straight out tell her his feelings for her right away. The moment he recovers from the measles is when he is going to test the waters; to figure out how she feels about him before making his move because he was already too far gone to restrain himself.

He was already at the point where he would rather die than see her in the arms of another man.