Early in the morning, way, way too early for any 3 year old, Arima Mana shook awake. Glancing at his sister, Kana, sleeping softly on the other side of their shared room, Mana stretched himself out on the bed as he slowly came to terms with being awake.

The sun wasn't even completely out, the dawn only at the earliest portions of breaking. Mana sighed silently to himself.

Today is… Mana hesitated. The day of the playdate. He'd be meeting Aqua and Ruby later, along with the president's wife, Miyako. Probably, he'd see Ai too. Mana had mixed feelings about the playdate. In fact, he didn't really plan for it to happen.

He'd considered it, for sure. He thought about it. He could've made it happen in multiple ways. He could've asked his mom to connect them, much like how it happened 3 weeks ago.

The easiest way would be saying that he's curious about child actors other than himself and his sister and saying that he'd heard his sister had met another child actor would've been enough. He could've also called strawberry productions, and as long as the president or his wife answered, it would've been enough.

Honestly, Mana wasn't really planning on doing much more than his impromptu line during their shooting. His plan to help Ai was more or less simple. After getting his role to be Ai's character's little brother, he decided that by targeting her greatest insecurity, he could hopefully push her to think more about whether or not she was really lying with regards to saying "I love you." to her kids. Then, he'd make a few anonymous calls to the police and maybe the president about the dead doctor Goro, and hopefully that would be enough to increase Ai and Strawberry Production's wariness to save her life.

If all else fails and Ai still dies, well, at least he knew who to report. He wasn't one of those isekai protagonists who had gigachad powers and could save anybody, after all. If Mana could just excaliblast the Hoshino twins' father and Ai's stalker, well, he would. If there were no witnesses.

Anyway, the plan was nothing complex at all. It was pretty much a two step, maybe three step plan, all of it controllable, at least on Mana's end. After that, he could go to sleep knowing he'd done his part to help her.

Well, none of those 'what-ifs' mattered, since his mom initiated the playdate herself. And so Mana found himself in a more difficult position.

There were so many difficult factors to consider here. First of all, should he even get more involved? Any more could risk his new mother, his new sister, or perhaps even himself. No matter how distant, this was dealing with multiple murderers, after all.

Second of all, and perhaps more worryingly, did he even have a choice here?

The Oshi no Ko series was clearly about the darkness of the entertainment industry, yes, but it was an undeniable fact that the supernatural was involved. Reincarnators, like in the case of Aqua and Ruby, clearly existed. And, well, Mana himself, although Mana personally thought that a different term would be better for him.

Alien. Foreigner. Isekai protag. Those words suited him more than the simple reincarnator. Indeed, he was a reincarnator by simple virtue of being reincarnated, but unlike Aqua and Ruby, he came from beyond. Beyond their world. Beyond the Oshi no Ko world. A true-blue isekai protagonist.

From Earth. The "real" world. The world where Oshi no Ko was a mere series by the masterful writer, Akasaka Aka taking place in the same world as the Kaguya-sama series.

In fact, after he did confirm the existence of Kaguya-sama characters in this world, simply by googling the Shinomiya corporation and the publicly available family tree (Mana isn't a stalker, he promised.), Mana confirmed the existence of Shinomiya Kaguya herself. In one photo, he'd even spotted a young girl following her who looked like she could have grown up to become Hayasaka Ai. He'd even gone so far as to personally confirm the existence of the Shirogane family.

And so comes the true issue, the dilemma with being an isekai protagonist that Mana always thought isekai protagonists would have wondered more about.

Why am I here?

Everything boils down to that question. How weird is this coincidence that Arima Mana was born in exactly the perfect time, the perfect year, to be the same age as the Hoshino twins? How strange is this coincidence that he was born to the exact family who would, perhaps even could have contacts with the Hoshino family, through child roles in a movie of all things? How exact is it that the director was looking a child actor to play the role of Hoshino Ai's little brother, right in the space to tell her that he loved her, especially when in the Oshi no Ko that Arima Mana remembered, both this role and his very existence weren't even hinted at or mentioned?

Reincarnation itself, well, religious views aside, there could be some scientific explanation for it. Perhaps the children Aqua and Ruby had both developed some kind of childhood multiple personality disorder and instead of viewing it as another aspect of their personality, they simply view it as their past life. And it was some super big coincidence that the people they imagined to be their past selves were people that really existed. Or at least, similar to them. It's very much a stretch for it to simply boil down to very deep and complex chance, but well, lots of things can happen by chance. The mechanism of evolution itself happens by chance. Mana could recall Aqua believing he could eventually find out the mechanism for that someday.

But how many coincidences should there be until you finally consider how improbable everything is? There were too many things that aligned too well. Too many coincidences. It reeked of supernatural and divine intervention in way too many ways.

Something, or perhaps even someone brought Mana here. Just as someone had reincarnated Aqua and Ruby.

There were too many unknowns. Who knows if the mysterious entity who reincarnated the twins also reincarnated Mana? What if there were other reincarnators, or worse, other isekai protagonists?

Mana could also remember something specifically worrying. Someone told Ruby about Goro and Ai's death. Someone actively stirred the pot to set not just Aqua on a warpath, but Ruby, too.

Fans like Mana in his previous life speculated it was the god Yatagarasu due to the heavy crow imagery and supernatural elements, but, and Mana admitted this was a bit of a stretch here, but what if that was the work of another isekai protagonist who wanted Ruby to join Aqua for revenge?

It truly was a stretch. But Mana couldn't help but acknowledge the possibility that there were multiple entities in this, multiple players in this game. Whether it was Yatagarasu the god himself, some other supernatural entity in some form, or perhaps even scientific chance and circumstance, Mana had to be ready to make the most of it.

Mana shook awake from the heavy thoughts plaguing him as his sister shifted, muttering something incomprehensible in her sleep. Mana checked the sun again. Dawn had already arrived and the sun was in the sky.

His mother would wake up soon.

With a tired sigh, Mana stood up and prepared to do his morning routine.

On the little chair he used to prop himself up to reach the sink so that he could comfortably brush his teeth, Mana gazed at his reflection.

Ugh, no 3 year old should look so tired early in the morning.

As the toothbrush glided across and around his childish baby teeth, Mana couldn't help but think about Hoshino Ai once more.

Mana does indeed love Hoshino Ai. He was a fan of her character in the Oshi no Ko series, a fan of both her facade as an idol as well as a fan of her as a troubled individual who struggled with genuine love and being honest. He could relate. He's had similar ambitions of going into the entertainment industry, even if it didn't seem likely in his previous life. That's why he went in so early, so immediately the instant he had the chance in this second life.

"What if you were reborn as an idol's kid?" Sarina's voice echoed in Mana's head as he snorted. Well, not an idol's kid, he thought, but close enough.

But does he love love Hoshino Ai? As much as he loved his friends in his previous life and his family in his previous life?

Well…

Mana thought to Arima Kana and Arima Miura. How about them? Did he love love them?

Mana sighed. For some reason, he couldn't stop thinking about Akasaka Aka's series.

Could he love fictional characters from manga or anime? Truly consider them real people, with hopes and dreams and thoughts and actions and choices? To be real, living, breathing existences, complex and deeper than literary tropes? To be more than just characters on a stage in a series for the enjoyment of the reader?

'Regardless of whether my past life saw them as fictional, I can't allow myself see them the same way.' Mana thought to himself. 'In this world, they are real and genuine people, and I can love them. Right?'

The questioned lingered in his thoughts for a bit longer as he finished his brushing and rinsed everything off.

'Hoshino Ai. We seem to be more similar than I previously thought.'

Mana hopped off the stool, finding his mother already up and preparing breakfast. His usual smile came to his face easily.

"Good morning, mama."

Mana lies once more.

Wow. A Mana chapter, finally. I guess Mana really wanted to share his worries to all of us now.

Mana got really worried when he googled it and found that Kaguya-sama characters existed too. He then kind of wanted to use them for his plans, sort of like getting close to Kaguya Shinomiya and asking her to protect Hoshino Ai, but like, Kaguya's still too young. And cold. The Shinomiya group would devour Hoshino Ai. Perhaps if it was highschool Kaguya, he could worm in, but at her youngest and coldest to the outside, it was much too dangerous.

In other words, I had plans to use the Kaguya-sama characters, but after researching, I had to conclude that timeline wise in general, it doesn't fit. And so Mana is even more worried since he lost a potential supporter that could save Ai that he knew he could rely on.

Let me know what you guys think of Mana, please! I know at least some of you were wondering what was happening underneath all the fluff I've been force feeding you HAHA

Edit: lots of minor edits, tons of mistakes and autocorrect stuff that ugh whatever

As expected of Oshi no Ko fans.

Speaking of Oshi no Ko fans, I'm very happy with all the new fanfics, both here in ffnet and in AO3. I love reading Oshi no Ko fanfics HAHA

Just like Mana, I will lie too! There will be even more Oshi no Ko fanfics.

This lie will become genuine, too.