Extra

by Stayrr

Third

32. NEET Dating Sim Game 1-32

A 30-year-old NEET is reincarnated into the body of an otaku that choked to death on instant noodles. As he comes to grips with his new life, he realizes that this world is subtly different from Earth. The denizens of this world are far better looking, and this new world also possesses futuristic technology as well as mysterious Yin Yang masters! After reincarnating, he realized that he was endowed with a miraculous game-like system, which enables him to increase his own stats and transcend the limits of the human body. This system even has a game-breaking ability to save and load in real life! In this new world that's akin to a 2-D game, he just wants to enjoy life and head for a glorious future… However, he is quickly embroiled in a complex plot. Can he unlock his true potential and utilize his system to break the shackles that confine him and discover the truth about his previous body's circumstances?

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NEET Receives a Dating Sim Game Leveling System #Chapter 1 - Cast of characters (organized by order of appearance) - Read NEET Receives a Dating Sim Game Leveling System Chapter 1 - Cast of characters (organized by order of appearance) Online - All Page - FREEWN

Chapter 1: Cast of characters (organized by order of appearance)

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24

Translator note: There are many, many spoilers in this. I translated the cast of characters how the author wrote them, read ahead at your own risk! historical

One more time, just for emphasis: BEWARE SPOILERS! Read ahead to the next chapter which is chapter 1 if you started from this.

Seiji Haruta (Male): The main character of this novel. The original Seiji was a NEET that had been exiled from his family. When Seiji transferred to Genhana High School, he used the alias of Seigo Harano.

Mika Uehara (Female): Seiji's landlord's daughter. Was once stabbed to death by Takao Yamamoto, then saved by Seiji's save/load ability. She likes Seiji.

Takao Yamamoto (Male): A blond bully at Genhana High School that was seriously injured by Seiji during an attempt at murder. Later taken away by Okubo Yoshiaki and transformed into a zombie, and finally slain by Seiji.

Rika Amami (Female): The store manager and owner of the confectionery store that Seiji works at. She gave Seiji a button that burst from her shirt.

Natsuya Yoruhana (Female): A young mistress/scion who is the student council president of Genhana High School. The first Yin Yang Master that Seiji meets. She won a duel against Okubo Yoshiaki with Seiji's assistance.

Hitaka Shuho (Female): Genhana High School's student council vice president. One of Natsuya Yoruhana's Spirit-branded retainers. She acts cold towards people she doesn't know well, and is unskilled at communication.

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Rana Kirin (Female): Natsuya Yoruhana's second Spirit-branded retainer. She's a middle school girl that enjoys wearing cat ears, and is affectionate towards Seiji.

Kazufuru Ooike (Male): Genhana High School's student council secretary. He believes himself to be better than others, and his target is to make Natsuya Yoruhana fall in love with him.

Kahei Watari (Male): Seiji's classmate, a delinquent. Saved by Seiji during an incident.

Takashi Kobayashi (Male): Seiji's classmate, a delinquent. Saved by Seiji during an incident.

Chiaki Wakaba (Female): Mika Uehara's best friend. A tomboy in the drama club. After meeting Seiji through Mika, she became Seiji's good friend and received his assistance with the matter of her ex-girlfriend.

Hideya Aizawa (Male): The tennis club captain. Defeated by Seiji in a tennis match.

Shiina Shiho (Female): The vice president of the drama club. Strict yet gentle, she works hard in maintaining the drama club. Her special abilities include hitting people with books and forceful retorts.

Anya Saigenji (Female): The drama club president. The legendary person who revived the drama club. She has a habit of "capturing" students. Often lectured by Shiina.

Shika Kagura (Female): Possesses the "Reaper's Curse" that will bring misfortune to everyone around her. She became Okubo Yoshiaki's temporary Spirit-branded retainer and ended up dying. Seiji saved her, and she became Seiji's adopted sister.

Kaho Miyamoto (Female): Seiji's classmate. A fat otaku girl that was helped during P.E. class by Seiji. She worked hard to lose weight, and wishes to become friends with Seiji. Excellent at cooking.

Mayuzumi Amami (Female): Rika Amami's cousin. The creator of the super popular anime "Honey Candy Girl." Her pen name is Peach-sensei, and she has severe androphobia. Her cousin Rika encouraged her to have a date with Seiji at the school festival.

Cat-loving Flying Fish (Female): Seiji's only spectator for his live streams. A NEET otaku girl. Seiji's younger sister.

Kaede Juumonji (Female): A young mistress from a mafia family. Saved (?) by Seiji while being chased by her father's subordinates. Fell in love with Seiji at first sight. Currently working as a nurse at Genhana High School.

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Hoshi Amami (Male): Rika Amami's nephew. Seiji's junior from work at the confectionery store. A boy who has a cute and lovely appearance. He once committed suicide due to his family problems. Seiji saved him using the save/load ability. He worships Seiji.

Rion Amami (Female): One of Hoshi Amami's older twin sisters. Secretly abuses her younger brother. Controls and blackmails other people at school. Later defeated by Seiji, and begins to change herself for the better.

Kotomi Amami (Female): One of Hoshi Amami's older twin sisters. Secretly abuses her younger brother. Controls and blackmails other people at school. Later defeated by Seiji, and begins to change herself for the better.

Michirou Juumonji (Male): The leader of the Juumonji mafia group. Kaede Juumonji's father. He wishes to befriend Seiji.

Zankita Juumonji (Male): Michirou Juumonji's eldest son. He loves fighting. He challenged Seiji but was defeated, so now he's resting in a hospital.

Hisashi Juumonji (Male): Michirou Juumonji's youngest son. A true otaku who's also skilled in other areas. Has similar interests as Seiji, and they became friends.

Karen Miyamoto (Female): Kaho Miyamoto's older sister. She has unbelievable I-cup breasts. She wishes to have a better relationship with her younger sister.

Yui Haruta (Female): Seiji's older sister. The person who exiled the original Seiji from his family.

Saki Yoshizawa (Female): An editor working for Thunderbolt Literature. Mayuzumi Amami's good friend that got to know Seiji through Rika's introduction. Currently helping Seiji to publish his novel.

Haruka Shimizu (Female): Chiaki Wakaba's ex-girlfriend. A student at Koaki High School. Has complex feelings for Chiaki.

Tetsuo Sakaki (Male): Haruka Shimizu's younger cousin. The ace member of Koaki High School's karate club. Has an arrogant personality. After angering Seiji, he was knocked unconscious by him.

Kyosuke Akanishi (Male): The karate club captain of Genhana High School. Was once under the control of Rion and Kotomi Amami. Has now been freed.

Mai Houjou (Female): Natsuya Yoruhana's maid. The former student council president of Genhana High School. Took good care of Seiji and Shika.

Okubo Yoshiaki (Male): Natsuya Yoruhana's duel opponent. He tried to take advantage of Shika Kagura's "Reaper's Curse" but was foiled by Seiji. He couldn't accept his loss in his duel with Natsuya, so he attempted to kill everyone by blowing himself up. Finally defeated by Seiji.

Ayami Himiki (Female): The judge presiding over Natsuya Yoruhana and Okubo Yoshiaki's duel. She has a husky dog Spirit-branded retainer.

Yukari Asamiya (Female): A first-year high school student at Genhana High School. Gave Seiji many love letters and tried confessing to him but was rejected. She resolved to start from being friends with him.

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Chapter 2: Dating Sim Game System

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24

Lin… No wait, now he was known as Seiji Haruta.

Seiji knew that he had hit the jackpot.

After reincarnating into this body, he had been experimenting with this system that he inexplicably received.

Since the functions of this system were similar to most dating-sim game systems, he just called it the 'DS system' for short.

What were the functions of this DS system?

Well, any gamer that's played a dating-sim game before should know the basics. Although each dating-sim game had its individual quirks, there were some common characteristics found in most of them.

One was conversation options.

When talking to one of the primary characters—for instance, a beautiful girl, three conversation options would appear at various points, and one would definitely improve her feelings towards you, while one would decrease them, and the other one was neutral and had no effect.

Then, there was the conversation memo.

Whether it was the main character's conversations with everyone else or the game text, everything could be viewed again on the dating sim's memo. This meant Seiji was able to look at the record of his conversations with everyone!

Next was the ability to inspect his own stats and check someone's current level of friendship or affection towards him.

After Seiji reincarnated, whenever he talked to a girl whose appearance was above average, he could see their current opinion of him, and he was also able to check his own stats.

[Academics: 5 - Rubbish—with this level you'd be the worst even in elementary school!]

[Physical ability: 5 - Rubbish—even a loli elementary schooler could defeat you with a single kick!]

[Art: 9 - Low level—it barely counts as having some minor ability to appreciate beauty, hmph!]

[Music: 10 - Low level—can understand some popular music, but you're still basically an idiot.] historical

[Communication: 2 - Garbage—trying to communicate with others is like insulting them!]

[Charisma: 0 - Even a pile of dog poop on the roadside is more attractive.]

…

The descriptions next to his statistics were painful to look at, but that wasn't important—because Seiji still retained memories from his new body, he could only lament that the original Seiji truly deserved the outcome of choking to death on instant noodles in a tiny apartment.

All his classmates looked down on him, the school bullies picked on him, the prettiest girl in school insulted him, his childhood friend kicked him away, his younger sister slapped him, his older sister forced him to leave home, and his adoptive mother treated him coldly… Okay, these memories were far too painful. Seiji didn't want to go through them anymore; just remembering them once was distressing enough.

Along with stats came the ability to level them up. For example, academics could be raised with options like [go to cram school, [study at home, [hire a tutor, et cetera, while physical ability had options like [exercise at home, [jog in the morning, [workout at the gym, et cetera.

Other than that, there were also CGs and video playbacks, which could replay some scenes of him interacting with girls; almost like a type of album.

But all of the above wasn't really that special.

The last function was the one that Seiji found the most astounding and the most gamebreaking—even if he didn't have any of the above abilities, he could subvert the entire world with just this ability!

It was no joke!

Because the final ability of the dating sim system was…

Saving and loading!!!

This game function was the most ordinary of all; after all, every game came with this function.

But, for this ability to appear in real life, heavens… This cheat was truly broken!

After reincarnating, Seiji spent the majority of his time experimenting with this final ability; at first he was astounded, then he was overjoyed, but now he was starting to feel slightly scared.

As long as he saved a file beforehand, it didn't matter what he did afterwards; all he had to do was load the saved file, and he could start all over again with a clean slate!

He could already imagine it: he could do anything wicked that he wanted, and after the police caught him, he could just load the file, and it would be like nothing ever happened.

This was akin to a gift from the Devil!

Although Seiji didn't think that he was a hero, he definitely wasn't an evil person either, so those wicked ideas only flashed through his mind briefly before he sealed them away and decided to set some rules for himself that he definitely would never violate.

After opening this Pandora's Box, he closed it immediately, using all of his self-control to prevent himself from opening it again, and he had finally managed to calm himself down with great effort.

'Well, let's just go with that,' Seiji thought.

At this moment, he silently opened up the load menu, before choosing the first save file and returning to that time.

His entire world turned dark momentarily, before becoming light once more.

He was still in the same room, but it was now early morning instead of late night.

This was his first save file, and it was also the one immediately after his reincarnation.

Let's just start from here now—a new life after reincarnation.

First, he needed to clean up the instant noodles that choked this body to death…

His room was 30 square meters, furnished with a shower and bathroom, and the rent was 5000 sakuras every month.

That's right—sakuras, not Japanese yen.

After Seiji reincarnated, at first he thought that he was in Japan, but later he discovered that this was actually a parallel world; the entire world map was significantly different from Earth's, and history had changed significantly.

The European pioneers had fought a series of wars which lasted for several hundred years against the Native Americans, so both Europe and America's development had stagnated, while the Asian Huaxia Empire became the world's only superpower.

But seventy years ago, a large continent arose from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and the ancient civilization which dwelled on it had attempted to conquer the entire world. Eventually, the war ended up in a stalemate as they were pitted against the allied armies of the entire world. Ultimately, they signed a peace treaty, thus becoming the world's second superpower.

What the hell was all of this!?

Seiji's face could only distort when he learned the fantasy-like history of this world.

Not only that, the military equipment in this world made his eyes sparkle; apart from conventional weapons, such as guns, tanks, and cruisers, there were also robot warriors, single-pilot mechs, flying castles, and biologically engineered living giants—technology that he had only seen in sci-fi manga before.

Even though there was no apparent magic or superpowers to be seen, Seiji believed there may be something under the surface—it's just that ordinary people were incognizant of the true situation.

Okay, so this was a new world that seemed as if it had come out of a 2-D manga.

And the most obvious part about this being similar to a 2-D world was that compared to Earth, the average boys and girls were much better-looking, with well-proportioned bodies and a multitude of different hair and eye colors!

For example, the landlord's… daughter that was currently standing in front of Seiji.

She had large amber eyes, a small and exquisite nose, cherry lips, and her silky black hair was braided into pigtails. Her hairclips were dark red, and she was wearing a beautiful sailor-style school uniform. She had an ample chest, and she was wearing white stockings on her fair thighs, which seemed especially tender. The distance between her miniskirt and the white stockings created a mesmerizing territory filled with the attractiveness of youth.

If this had been Earth, 100% of guys would stare at her as she walked down the street, and she'd be able to do cosplay or be a fashion model without makeup—a top-class beauty! But in this world, it seemed that she was only above average.

"You fat pig! You're already behind on rent by half a month—when are you going to pay up!?"

When the pigtailed beauty opened her mouth, insults spewed out instantly, and her expression was filled with contempt and impatience.

Seiji could only smile wryly inside; after all, whose fault was it that his body's previous owner attempted to * her in their first meeting? It was only natural that she would have such a negative impression of him.

Seiji sighed helplessly. There's nothing wrong with being an otaku, but if you act as disgusting as the previous owner of the body, even without being an obese otaku, it was only natural that all his friends and family would abandon him.

"I'm so sorry, Miss Uehara. Please give me two more days; I'll come up with enough money for you."

Seiji kneeled on the floor and lowered his head in a formal apology.

Even though all of this was the previous Seiji's fault, since he had obtained this body now, he couldn't complain; he might as well attempt to fix things.

The girl whose name was Mika Uehara was stunned for an instant; this was the first time she had ever seen him being so confident and sincere. Before, it always sounded like he was mumbling every word, and every sentence was sexually harassing, which made her feel disgusted.

She hated having to talk to this fat pig, but she was worried about her kind and gentle mother having to collect rent from him. Unfortunately, her father died young, so she needed to become strong on behalf of her mother and to protect their family!

And seeing this fat pig acting so sincere for the first time, she was slightly moved.

"We've already given you such a long period…"

"I know, it's my fault, but I really don't have any money right now. Give me two days' time; I'll sell some of the things in this room and give you the rent." Seiji raised his head and gazed directly into her eyes.

Just looking at that chubby face made Mika Uehara feel disgusted again, but that sincere look was something she'd never seen before, which piqued her curiosity.

She took a look around the room; just two months after moving in, this guy had made it into a pigsty: CDs, games, fast food trash, drink bottles, and a huge amount of dirty tissues were everywhere…

Just by observing her glancing around and her expression, Seiji knew what she was thinking, and it was also expressed by the three conversation options that suddenly appeared in front of him.

[A: You'll get your money anyways, so get the hell out!]

[B: I know that my previous actions made it difficult for you to trust me, but please give me one last chance!]

[C: I really don't have any money, I'm begging you!]

The correct answer was obviously B.

"I know, I was very rude to you before, and it may be difficult for you to trust me. However, I've self-reflected on my previous actions, and I've decided to start living a new life; please give me one last chance!"

Seiji bowed his head once again in a sincere request.

Ding!* After making his choice, he heard a sound in his mind.

This was the game system telling him that he had successfully raised her friendship level!

"O… Okay, one last chance." Mika Uehara pouted with her lips. "I… I'll come back in a week."

He requested two days, but this girl gave him a week.

"Thank you so much!" Seiji thanked her in a clear, deep voice.

"You're welcome…" Hearing such sincere gratitude, Mika Uehara felt for an instant that this fat pig didn't seem as disgusting as before.

Her departure meant that he wouldn't be evicted, so the corners of Seiji's mouth curled upwards in a small smile.

Then, he immediately went to the bathroom to wash himself.

He washed his face, took a shower, cut his messy hair, shaved all his facial hair, and put on the cleanest clothes he could find.

Ding ding ding!* A brand new fat pig has now arrived!

Even though he was still obese, he was now a relatively normal-looking chubby person instead of a fat otaku that everybody hated; his charisma stat had even increased by five points as proof of this.

Just taking a shower improved charisma from 0 to 5—just how uncaring was the previous person about his appearance?

Well, Seiji didn't wish to dwell on the previous person's self-serving lifestyle, so after cleaning himself up, his next task was cleaning the room.

He threw away all the trash, organized all the things that were still useful, and made a pile of what he could sell.

Let's do the important stuff first before finishing the final organizing and cleaning later.

Seiji ate some snacks that he found in the room for breakfast, before gathering up a huge bundle of CDs and games to sell and walking out of the room with them.

Outside, the sun shone brightly.

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Chapter 3: Working

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

After he had sold everything that he could to the second-hand games shop, Seiji finally received a sum of money that was sufficient to pay off the rent.

But it was only enough for the rent. After he paid, he would have little money left over, and if he didn't think of something soon, he would run out of money within three days after paying the rent.

The original Seiji truly deserved what he got. Originally, his family gave him enough living expenses for half a year's worth of rent and food, but this guy wasted it all in two and a half months; he didn't even consider the implications of lacking money to buy food!

If Seiji wanted to comment on the previous person's ridiculous actions, he could rant endlessly for three consecutive days and nights… Let's just forget about it.

The original Seiji also stopped going to school a long time ago, and Seiji didn't intend to go back to school either. Currently, he was completely free every day, so he decided to find a job first, thereby making enough money to ensure that he didn't starve.

Truthfully, although there were various methods to obtain money through saving and loading, Seiji didn't intend to use his cheat that way; he didn't want to wantonly use his power.

So, in the end, he decided to get a job. However, with such a fat body that lacked any skills, what could he possibly do? If he went to places such as restaurants, any normal manager probably wouldn't hire him.

Seiji contemplated deeply before finally thinking of a solution.

There was a street filled with businesses nearby, and it seemed that a number of stores were employing people to stand in full-body costumes to attract customers, so Seiji felt like this job would be suitable for him.

After all, you wouldn't be able to see him!

His fat body, low attractiveness, and the wretched atmosphere around him… as long as he hid inside a full-body costume, none of that would be a problem!

These costumes only contained children's dreams, not a fat otaku!

But could he really obtain a job?

Well, in his previous life, he had already passed the tests to become a government worker, so Seiji felt like he should make an attempt.

But at the first store, he was rejected instantly—where was his resume?

Even a job like this needs a resume… fine, he'll return home and prepare one.

Then, the second store wasn't hiring.

The third one wasn't either.

As for the fourth store…

The fourth store was just putting up a sign to hire a costumed employee!

And the store manager was a great beauty!

"Oh my! Just when I put the sign up, someone already came."

The woman was around thirty years old, slightly foxy, with permed brown curly hair and a majestic chest. She dressed like an office lady, with form-fitting formal clothes, a short skirt, black stockings, high heels; her entire body oozed with sex appeal.

Especially when she clasped her hands against her chest—the moment where her chest jutted out almost caused Seiji's lower half to have a reaction.

If this had been the original Seiji, he probably would have started sexually harassing her already.

Seiji forced himself to control his expression, without exposing even a hint of being a lowlife—after all, that would incur a destructive amount of disgust.

The woman took his resume and looked at it for a minute.

"You're still a high school student, so why are you applying for this full-time job here?" historical

After she said this, the options appeared—

[A: None of your business b*tch!]

[B: Because of some personal reasons, I've temporarily dropped out of school, and need money now.]

[C: For the beautiful you.]

Obviously, the correct answer was B.

"Because of some personal reasons, I've temporarily dropped out of school… And currently, I could use the money. Please hire me, the salary at first… it can be lower than usual."

He chose the most honest and polite option, and he made a great effort to request the job with sincerity.

Ding!* [Friendship level has increased!]

"Well… According to your resume, you have no work experience. This is indeed a problem; although this job appears easy, it still requires a certain degree of patience and skills." She rubbed her chin hesitantly.

"I'll give you half of the normal salary at first; if you don't do a good job, you'll be fired immediately. If you perform well, I'll give you the normal salary after one week. Will you accept these conditions?"

"I accept!" Seiji instantly agreed.

And so, he acquired a job.

The beautiful store manager's name was Rika Amami.

It was a confectionery shop—one that sold various desserts, cakes, and drinks. Their store costume was the lucky mascot of a popular anime, and they'd apparently acquired licensing rights to advertise with it, so the full-body costume was created with great care, which meant that it was quite popular with many children and even some teenagers passing by.

The full-time job's hours were from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon, and 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

After one day on the job, Seiji discovered that this job was much more difficult than he expected.

First, it was a huge drain on his strength mostly because the costume was stiflingly hot; even with the store manager being considerate for him and putting some bags of ice inside, after a while, he'd get soaked in sweat.

Besides that, there were more mischievous kids than he was prepared for, and they often kicked or hit the costume; even though it didn't hurt, if he wasn't careful he'd trip, and that was a huge problem.

Making money wasn't easy anywhere…

Although it was quite tiring, he had to persevere, so he treated it as losing weight.

The next day, before Seiji went to his job, he sought out Mika to pay his rent.

Mika Uehara was surprised at how fast this guy paid his rent. In addition to this, her sharp senses told her that the fat guy in front of her seemed slightly different from the fat otaku before.

Did he really self-reflect and change his ways? She held a trace of confusion as she watched him leave, but she forgot about it quickly.

Who cared? After all, she received the rent money!

Seiji arrived punctually to his job every day, and he stopped eating snacks and fast food, instead buying his own ingredients to cook.

As he was single for 30 years in his past life, even though he wasn't a skilled cook, it was no problem to feed himself, and it also saved him money.

Waking up and sleeping early, working hard, and eating healthily.

Just by living a normal life like this, his stats were gradually increasing!

One week later.

"Thanks for your hard work, Haruta-kun."

In the afternoon, after he finished his job and changed back into his regular clothes, the manager Rika Amami handed him a cup of iced coffee.

This was the first time!

"Thank you as well… you've also been working hard." Seiji took the coffee and had a taste—it was pretty good.

"This is your salary for the past three days." With a smile, the beautiful store manager handed him an envelope.

Seiji opened it and took a look.

"It seems a bit much."

"Just count it as reward money; you were better than I thought you'd be."

"Thank you…" Seiji gratefully took the money.

"Haruta-kun, I didn't feel like it was appropriate to ask before, but actually I'm rather curious; why was it that you dropped out of school?"

"This…" Seiji smiled wryly, "it's because… well… I was quite terrible in school before."

"I think Haruta-kun is a nice boy, a hard worker, and very polite." Rika blinked in confusion.

"That's because I've reflected deeply on my actions and decided to start a new life. But my actions in the past cannot be erased."

"Haha, you're just a student, but you seem to have quite the story."

"It doesn't matter if you're a student; life is about living." Seiji replied lightly.

This wasn't a conversation option—it was his personal realization.

"It has nothing to do with male or female, young or old, life treats every person the same way; you may not receive anything for your efforts, but if you don't do anything and give up on everything, then life will give up on you."

This comment moved Rika, and the words he said so lightly seemed to have deep philosophy behind it, especially coming from a youth.

Ding!* [Your favorability rating has increased.]

Seiji took glanced at the system while sipping his coffee, but he almost ended up spitting it out!

With just one sentence he had actually gained 10 favorability points with the beautiful store manager!?

He worked his hardest for an entire week, and he only obtained 10 favorability points from that!

He was speechless—it was truly difficult to comprehend what women were moved by.

Because of these 10 points he suddenly received, the store manager now viewed him as a "friend" in the system, meaning that Rika Amami was no longer treating him as a mere employee.

Although Seiji felt it was pretty nice, it was of little significance—after all, he didn't intend to go out with this store manager.

After finishing his coffee, he took his leave.

Seiji then bought some ingredients from the supermarket, before heading home.

The sky was darkening, and the air was slightly stifling, indicating that it was about to rain, so he increased his pace.

When he was almost at his apartment, he could make out some strange sounds.

"Why are you rejecting me!?"

"Let go, pervert!"

The second voice sounded like a girl that he knew, and a notion flashed through Seiji's mind, so he quickly saved a file in the system.

Then, he followed the sound and saw a student with dyed-blonde hair and a western-style school uniform pushing the landlord's daughter against the wall and slapping her face while ranting angrily.

"You made me lose face, you stupid *! It's an honor for me to want you! You were * around everywhere so happily, but I didn't even care and wanted you to be my girlfriend but you actually rejected me—you shamed me in front of everyone!"

Under this blondie, Mika Uehara was struggling fiercely, her cheeks were tear-streaked, as well as red from being slapped.

"Stop… I didn't…" She desperately tried to shout, but the blonde-haired student covered her mouth.

"You're still saying you didn't, everyone says so…"

Smack!*

A clean hit with his foot.

Seiji secretly approached the blondie from behind and kicked him straight in the back of his head, causing the blondie to fall down instantly.

Mika Uehara was surprised for an instant as the blondie slumped to the ground, but then she noticed the huge figure in front of her.

"Are you alright, Miss Uehara?" Seiji reached his hand out to her.

Mika Uehara just stared at him in shock.

"That hurt, you bastard…" Somehow, the blondie had stayed conscious after taking the heavy kick, and he struggled to get up.

Smack!* Another ruthless kick.

With a cold expression, Seiji accurately kicked the blondie's lower half.

It seemed like blondie's eyes were about to bulge out of his forehead, and with a strange shriek, he fell over in the fetal position on the ground, convulsing madly—it was clear that he wasn't able to stand up anymore.

"Let's get up, Miss Uehara. Would you like to call the police?" Seiji spoke once more.

He didn't give a damn whether or not he severely injured the blondie; if something really happened, all he had to do was load again.

Perhaps due to his confident appearance, Mika Uehara felt a sense of safety, so she took his huge hand and let him pull her up.

"You…you bastard, do you know who I am…" The blondie glared at him viciously.

"A * hoodlum who didn't get what he wanted." Seiji frowned and thought about kicking blondie again in the face, but he considered that bloodying him would frighten Mika, so he said instead, "Miss Uehara, let's call the police after all."

"No… no need…" Mika Uehara hesitated for a while before weakly saying, "he's my classmate…"

Appeasing him wasn't a good method. Seiji took a look at the spiteful expression on blondie's face and was utterly convinced that there would problems again later down the road, but since the victim was saying this, she must be worried about something else.

Well, if they weren't going to call the police, there was no need to stay here like idiots. Seiji quickly pulled Uehara away from this location.

The apartment wasn't far from here, and Mika lived on the first floor, since she was the landlord's daughter.

Seiji brought her to the door, noticing that she couldn't even put her key into the keyhole properly because her hand was shaking so hard.

"Let me." Seiji took the key from her hand and opened the door for her.

"Where's your mother, the landlord?"

"She's not here today…" Mika said weakly.

"Give her a call, then drink some hot water. You should listen to some music; you'll feel better after you calm down." Seiji said.

Considering the impression that the original Seiji had left her with, he decided not to go in with her, and he turned around to leave.

"Wait!"

Suddenly, Mika called out to him.

He turned around, seeing a pitiful expression on her face, and he noticed that she was still trembling.

"How about you… come in for a while?"

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Chapter 4: Escort

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

Mika Uehara felt like there must be something wrong with her head.

Even though the incident just now was somewhat frightening, and she wanted someone to comfort her, why did she… how could she invite that fatty to her home?

Even though he seemed to have changed himself, and he did indeed help her, in the end, he was still a fat otaku…

Her heart was filled with apprehension and agitation.

Fortunately, her worries were unfounded.

After Seiji Haruta was invited inside by her, he acted proper and without a hint of vulgarity—it could even be said that he was calm and reserved.

She poured him some tea, before going to wash her face and change her clothes. When she returned, she saw that he hadn't moved and was sipping tea silently.

'It seems like… he's a good person.' She thought about how he saved her in the nick of time and felt embarrassed at her earlier suspicions.

"Your face… is swollen." Seiji looked at her before asking, "Is there a first aid kit? I can tend to your wound."

Mika handed over her first aid kit, and Seiji took a look inside. He then used the cotton swabs and disinfectant inside to gently wipe her face, before applying medicine and band-aids.

Neither of them spoke during the entire process.

The comforting silence finally calmed Mika's heart.

"It's not very serious; it should be fine after a good night's sleep." Seiji gently informed her as he shut the first aid kit.

"Thank you…"

The room fell silent once more.

"That guy really was your classmate?" Seiji broke the silence.

Mika's face darkened as she inclined her head in agreement.

The blondie was her classmate, and he was also the son of some major company's CEO who had donated a lot of money to their school, which meant that no teacher dared to contradict him—he was truly a school bully.

Actually, she was tempted to call the police in the earlier incident, but remembering that guy's background, which she and her mother were powerless against, caused her will to waver.

"Haruta-kun, I… what should I do?" Mika Uehara was just an ordinary high school girl, and she didn't know how to deal with this type of situation. historical

Seiji didn't have any good ideas either; after all, school bullies weren't that easy to deal with.

"There are three methods." After contemplating in silence, he finally spoke up.

"First, give him a harsh lesson he won't ever forget, so that he's terrified of you. Second, find someone in school that's even stronger than him, and request their protection. Third, transfer schools."

Mika Uehara remained silent for quite a while.

"Are these really the only methods?"

"Judging by his character, I don't think he's going to give up on you, and if something serious happens, it'll be too late for you to call the police, so these are the only three methods." Recalling the blondie's expression, Seiji felt that he was truly human scum.

Mika Uehara remained silent.

She didn't realize how serious the situation had gotten until Seiji had calmly pointed it out to her. Now she had come to the startling realization that she had been forced to the brink.

The first option wasn't something she was able to condone. The third one would place an undue burden on her mother. The second one was the only possible solution for her…

"I know that in school, he seems fearful of the student council president… but, I've never even spoken to the president before."

"If your student council president is trustworthy, then request aid from him. You should tell him the difficult situation you're facing, and plead for his assistance." Seiji advised her seriously: "Lowering your head to others is much better than having something unfortunate happen to you."

Everyone had their own pride and wanted to live without relying on others, but in reality, that was almost impossible—everyone would have a time when they need to request aid from others.

Mika Uehara was silent again for a significant amount of time, before she finally nodded in agreement.

"Fine, I'll go and talk to the president tomorrow."

So, she had finally decided on a plan of action.

"Thank you, Haruta-kun. If it wasn't for you, I might have…" Mika Uehara thanked him sincerely.

She discovered that this fatty, whom she had previously despised before, had suddenly become cute in this moment.

The fat youth had a simple and honest smile as he scratched his cheek somewhat awkwardly.

"It's no big deal; I was just passing by."

He sat and talked for a while longer, but eventually, he rose and bade farewell.

After he left, he glanced at his system and found out that Mika Uehara's favorability rating towards him had shot up by an entire 50 points! It was almost enough to pass the level of "normal friends," meaning that she was almost a "good friend" with him already.

As expected, saving the damsel in distress is the classical method of grinding favorability rating points.

When he returned to his room, Seiji turned on the computer out of habit.

The original Seiji spent the bulk of his living expenses on a high-spec computer, so this computer was capable of many functions. This week, in addition to playing games on it, Seiji was also doing some research on the internet.

And the result was just as he expected: things from his previous world, such as stories, manga, anime, and movies were absent from this world.

Since he had been transported to another world, he should bring some of his old world's culture with him!

Although that's what he thought at first, he quickly realized that without a cheat-like photographic memory, there was no way for him to reproduce the classics.

Seiji sighed. Why was he only a normal fan, instead of an obsessed expert…

Since he didn't have the ability to reproduce them, Seiji decided to give up and enjoy the products of this world.

Currently, he was watching the most popular 3-D video in Sakura Island, the place he lived in.

In the dreamlike artistic scenery, a beautiful girl with long, straight black hair was wearing a fancy eastern-style dress, dancing vividly and singing melodiously. Her every action and every smile was able to tug at people's heartstrings, and she had a magical allure to her that could hook onto people's souls.

Ever since finding this video, Seiji had been repeatedly watching it for several days, and he felt like he was missing something if he didn't watch it at least three or four times every day! He even felt the desire to put it on endless repeat!

After he had finished watching the video, just as he was about to go cook himself some food to eat, there was a soft knock on his door.

As he opened the door, he was greeted by the graceful figure of a beautiful pig-tailed girl.

"My mother cooked this—it's a bit too much for me, and I can't finish it, so… would you like some?" Mika Uehara was holding a lunchbox and seemed slightly bashful as she said this.

Alright, there was still plenty of time to have a heart-to-heart chat with this beautiful girl.

…

The next day, when Seiji got up and finished his morning routine, there was a soft knock on the door again.

After he opened it, Mika Uehara walked into his apartment like she belonged there, carrying a piping-hot breakfast.

After chatting for an entire evening last night, she discovered to her surprise that she actually shared some common interests with the fatty, and she now viewed him as her good friend.

Although she found this somewhat unbelievable, the reality was, whenever her mother wasn't by her side, she could only feel some semblance of security while being by this fatty's side.

And Seiji Haruta definitely seemed to have truly changed his ways—it was almost like he was a wholly different person from that disgusting fat otaku that moved in here!

Why was it that he underwent such a huge change? She asked him out of curiosity, but he only smiled enigmatically.

"There was no special reason in particular—you'd laugh if you knew."

Although this type of answer only fueled her desire to find out, if he didn't want to tell her, she couldn't force him. However, unbeknownst to her, her interest in this fatty inexplicably increased.

Yesterday morning, she would've found the notion of eating breakfast with him inconceivable, but this was something she personally requested last night.

She would make breakfast for him as long as he escorted her to school.

Seiji didn't feel like he was strong enough to protect anyone, but he had the cheat ability to save and load, so all he had to do was save first, and if something did happen, load another file.

He was a cheat, so he felt utterly fearless!

After eating breakfast, they left together, and seeing Mika hopping and skipping in front of him, Seiji's eyes became somewhat unfocused.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing… I just suddenly remembered back to going to school like this together with my older and younger sister."

Last night, Seiji told Mika some basic information about the original Seiji, such as why he was no longer attending high school, and why he was living alone. Although it wasn't particularly detailed, it was sufficient enough for Mika to gain a greater understanding about his situation.

"Do you want to go back and visit them?"

"Yes, but not now—I've just started changing myself." Seiji smiled wryly, "I want to improve even more, only then… will I have the courage to face them."

Seeing the fatty depressed, Mika smiled slightly.

"You can do it! You've already changed so much, haven't you? As your landlord, I give you my assurance!"

"The landlord should be your mother."

"I'm her representative!"

The fatty and the beauty laughed and chatted as they walked down the street bathed in warm sunshine.

In the end, blondie never appeared, and Seiji successfully brought Mika to school.

As she walked inside, last night's fear and anxiety began to surface again, and she was scared that she would suddenly see blondie's vicious face. Unconsciously, she looked back and saw the huge form of Seiji still standing there, smiling gently as he watched her.

"Good luck." She felt like she could hear his encouragement.

Suddenly, she felt a lot braver.

She looked forward, raised her head, and walked swiftly towards the math building.

'Now, it all depends on how she interacts with the student council president.' Seiji thought silently as he walked back to the apartment.

If the president was willing to protect her, that would be the best case scenario, but if not, Seiji couldn't think of any ideas other than having Mika transfer schools.

Seiji was still too weak; even the son of a major company's CEO was someone he was helpless against. Honestly, although he could thrash that scumbag or even kill him, but what then? When blondie took revenge, or when the police caught him, he had the ability to load any previous save file and start over, as if nothing had ever happened.

But he wanted to see the future, not repeat the past over and over again.

Silently, Seiji checked his own stats.

[Academics: 18 - A bit low—no longer elementary school-level. You have the ability of an average middle school student.]

[Physical ability: 14 - Low level—no longer at the level of being exhausted after running two steps, but still pretty low.]

[Art: 12 - Low level—just enough to appreciate porn on the internet.]

[Music: 11 - Low level—you can understand some popular music, but you're still barely different from an idiot.]

[Communication: 21 - Medium-low—around the average level of a normal adult, but slightly mature… just slightly!]

[Charisma: 15 - Low level—just a fatty with a shabby appearance.]

…

In this week, his stats had increased significantly, and he could feel himself changing noticeably. Combined with his experiments when he first reincarnated, it seemed that his stats aren't only physical, they also raise his abilities.

After checking all his available options for raising his stats, Seiji made a decision.

From today onwards, he would work hard to level up his stats!

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Chapter 5: Exercise

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

The dating sim system's options for increasing stats were quite wondrous.

If the conditions weren't fulfilled, the option would be grayed out and unselectable. For example, the [morning jog] option to raise [physical ability] couldn't be selected unless it was actually morning. But in the morning, it would light up and could be chosen.

If he selected an available option, Seiji would have a strong urge to do what he just chose, and if he forced himself to go against it, the option would turn gray again, and the relevant stat would actually decrease!

On the other hand, if he followed his urge to finish what he chose, after a certain amount of time, the urge would disappear, and his stat would increase.

In conclusion, it was quite a convenient function and was especially suitable for the lazy.

The stat that Seiji wanted to raise most right now was of course [physical ability]. He didn't have to work today, so it was a perfect time to utilize his system.

After he returned to his apartment, he chose the option to [exercise at home].

Then, his mind was suddenly filled with an urge to do warmup exercises, and his brain automatically heard a fast-paced "one, two, three, and four…" His body then instinctively started to move, and his mind was wholly focused on exercising…

…

Plop!* Seiji made a sound like he was just coming out of a swimming pool, and in truth, his whole body was completely drenched. Every pore was oozing sweat, and his sweat-soaked clothes emitted a foul odor.

After panting heavily, he glanced at the time.

Whoa, he had actually exercised without resting for three whole hours!

What the hell, this option must be bugged! When he experimented with it before, it wasn't at this level!

What could have caused the change—was it because his stats were higher than the first time he tried it? Or was it because he was seriously intending to exercise this time?

Seiji couldn't figure out the answer as he lay collapsed on the floor, paralyzed with exhaustion.

Although it was quite hard on his body, the effect was evident; his physical ability stat had instantly increased by two points already.

Two points wasn't an insignificant gain. Despite his physical ability stat increasing several times when he had first started working, after that it had stagnated, and it completely stopped increasing no matter how much he worked. For three hours of exercising to increase it by two points… it was truly astounding.

If he could increase his physical ability stat by two points every time he exercised, then wouldn't Seiji become a super athlete in before long…? No, it couldn't possibly be that easy, could it?

After lunch, he took a long nap.

In the afternoon, Seiji used the [exercise at home] option again, and he felt the unstoppable urge to exercise once more…

It was now evening.

Mika Uehara had spent an especially long day at school, and she finally returned home accompanied by her good friend.

After entering her home, she relaxed completely, jumping on her sofa and rolling around on it.

The president was so cool!

After hearing her circumstances and listening to her request, the student council president instantly took action, giving the blondie a stern lecture and warning.

This resulted in the blondie avoiding her for the whole day.

While the blondie's family was quite powerful, they were insignificant compared to the president's family; the president's warning should be more than enough to pacify him.

Having successfully received the student council president's protection, Mika Uehara felt quite relieved.

And now that she was at home, she thought about the person who gave her the idea, feeling a sudden urge to share her joy and success with him.

She was the type to act on her feelings, and besides, he lived right upstairs.

Mika Uehara walked upstairs to the second floor and knocked on Seiji Haruta's door.

It took quite a while for the door to open slowly, and the face behind it appeared exhausted.

Mika Uehara jumped in surprise.

"What happened, Haruta-kun!?"

"Nothing, I was just exercising…" Haruta's words seemed to lack energy to the extent which it seemed like he was just a husk of himself.

"Exercising?"

"I'm off from work today, so I exercised in my room and sweated tons. I just finished showering."

"Oh…" She nodded, suddenly noticing that his figure seemed slightly smaller.

Of course, he was still fat, but… it seemed like he was slightly skinnier than this morning?

It must be her imagination, right? Just working out in your room couldn't possibly be this effective.

"How about your situation?" Seiji asked.

Mika Uehara recalled why she came here and happily told him what had happened.

"That president seems like a good person."

"Yep, she's the coolest! I'm also going to join her fan club!"

"…Her?"

"Yeah, the president is a girl; she's beautiful, gentle, and really cool!" It was as if stars were sparkling in Mika Uehara's eyes.

The mental image that Seiji had of a respected family's scion instantly collapsed.

At first, he felt like it didn't matter, but the next minute, he felt like things wouldn't end this simply.

It was because the president was female.

If the president was male, with a powerful family backing him up, warning that scumbag to keep his distance from a girl would most likely cause him to stay away out of fear. However, with the president being a girl… Having a girl warn that type of scumbag was likely to cause him to want to rebel against the warning even more.

Seiji could only hope that his worries were unfounded.

"Even though the president has acted on your behalf, you should still be cautious for the time being."

"Yep! I returned home accompanied by a friend." Mika nodded, before showing a trace of shyness, "but… about going to school…"

"I can take you, however…" Seiji smiled slightly.

"I know, I'll take care of your breakfasts!" Mika showed a brilliant smile.

Click!* Seiji heard the sound of his system saving the picture as a CG.

He never imagined that he'd be able to see this type of smile in 3-D!

A life filled with enjoying daily pleasures—that was the kind of life he wanted!

After Mika left, Seiji returned to his room and took a good look at himself in the bathroom mirror.

There was no mistake; he was definitely skinnier. Although he didn't know what his weight was, he had definitely lost at least 2.5 kilograms.

This efficiency was terrifying!

With this speed, if he kept up the exercise routine for a week, he could have a normal person's body shape, or maybe even become fairly strong… But wouldn't this scare everyone around him?

In one week, turning from a huge, fat otaku into a strong youth… This would be such a great difference— it would be perfect for a weight-loss advertisement!

Should he decrease the speed a little?

Then, when he thought about what was possible, Seiji decided that he would exercise with all his might!

There were so many strange and wondrous things in this world anyway, so becoming thin in one week shouldn't really be such a big deal.

And after using the system's option to exercise twice, Seiji had discovered that he actually enjoyed the feeling of increasing his stats after a session of hard work.

Leveling was so fun; he just couldn't stop himself!

The next day.

Seiji woke up at the crack of dawn and chose the [morning jog] option after leaving the apartment.

"Oh oh oh oh oh!" Seiji felt a sudden urge to run to the edge of the world, and his brain was filled with nothing but the thought of running on endlessly!

He didn't know what happened afterwards, or for how long he ran for, or where he went, as when he realized what was going on again, he was standing in front of his apartment, soaked in sweat, panting like a dog in summer heat, his expression looking similar to a dead fish.

Just standing there for a few seconds caused a puddle of sweat to accumulate by his feet.

"I… I'm almost dying…" He shakily headed for the stairs and didn't even notice that a beautiful lady was observing him from close by.

"Ha… Haruta-kun?"

"Hm?"

Seiji turned his head around, and a mature young woman came into his view. She was well-dressed, ample-bosomed, had short dark red hair, and a delicate, pretty face. Her amber eyes, which were the same color as Mika Uehara's eyes, were intently fixed on his face.

"Good morning, Mrs. Landlord."

This person was Mika Uehara's mother and the landlord of this simple apartment, Nozomi Uehara.

"Good morning, Haruta-kun, were you… just out for a morning jog?" Nozomi walked over with a slight smile on her face.

Seiji nodded lightly.

"I'm soaked in sweat, so it's embarrassing to be seen by you."

"Not at all, Haruta-kun… you're working so hard—it's no wonder Mika said it was like you have become a different person."

Of course, Nozomi remembered Seiji from when he first rented an apartment. The way in which the former lowlife otaku looked at her made her feel revolted. If it wasn't for the fact that she lacked tenants, she would never have accepted him as a renter.

But now, the fat young man in front of her was completely different: his eyes seemed clear and calm, his words steady and reserved, and he was filled with the smell of someone who had been exercising seriously instead of a strange, perverted stench.

"I know that I used to be… quite awful, so I have been changing myself, and I hope it's not too late." Seiji smiled wryly, "I was rude to you before as well, Mrs. Landlord. I hope you'll be able to forgive me."

He was truly different; the fat otaku from before never would have said something that sounded so sincere!

"No, I should also ask for your forgiveness—my attitude before… also wasn't the best." Nozomi bowed and spoke sincerely.

"Also, thank you very much for helping my daughter. She told me that if it wasn't for you, then…" Remembering back to what she heard from Mika, Nozomi's face was filled with fear.

If this boy hadn't appeared at that time, then Mika might have…

"It was nothing; I was just passing by. I think any man would do the same thing in that situation." Seiji scratched his cheek awkwardly, "Uehara… Miss Mika also thanked me already, so you don't need to be so formal with me."

"Honestly, I'm truly grateful to you." The young mother bowed deeply.

Seiji could only accept her gratitude.

"Mrs. Landlord, were you waiting here to thank me?"

"Mm… No matter what, I wanted to thank you personally." She stood up straight again. "My daughter Mika is probably just getting up now, and she mentioned that the two of you have a promise."

"Yes, she brings me breakfast, and I take her to school. I think it's a pretty good deal." Seiji kept scratching his face.

"Just a deal?" Nozomi covered her smile: "From what I can see, Mika seems to be quite happy."

Seiji was rendered speechless at the young mother's joke, and after some awkwardness, he said that he needed to hurry up and take a shower before hastily escaping upstairs. historical

'Oh, he's gotten so much cuter. And… he seems a bit skinnier and more handsome?' Nozomi thought, while watching Seiji go upstairs.

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Chapter 6: Miracle

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

What could happen in a week?

For Mika Uehara, every week seemed ordinary: maybe there was a new magazine she wanted to read, or a new episode of a program she liked, or she would go out shopping once with her friends; but in her life, extraordinary events were uncommon.

However, in the past week, she had deeply ingrained into her mind that miracles could indeed happen within the space of a week.

That was right—a miracle!

It happened right in front of her, to that formerly fat otaku, Seiji Haruta.

At first, she discovered that Seiji Haruta had begun exercising.

Even on the days when he was working at his full-time job, the fat youth kept exercising unceasingly—he jogged every morning, exercised in his room each night, and he was almost always caked in sweat.

In the beginning, Mika Uehara was moved. After a while, she became impressed as it was obvious he was taking it seriously—even though it must have been difficult, he never gave up.

If she had to work a full-time job, could she still be able to keep exercising every day? She truly didn't know the answer to that question.

However, on the fourth day, she suddenly discovered that he had changed greatly.

And when she finally noticed the change, she felt that she had been blind before for failing to notice!

Seiji Haruta, that otaku whose weight was definitely over 100 kilograms before, had become skinnier after exercising for only a few days.

Not just a normal level of skinnier—it felt like he reduced himself by almost an entire layer!

His stomach that once jutted out had disappeared.

His formerly flabby arms were now muscular.

And his chubby face and neck were now contoured.

When did it all start?

No, he was changing every day. It was just that for some unknown reason, she had been too ignorant to notice!

"Haruta-kun seems to be getting more and more handsome." If it wasn't for her mother coincidentally saying this, she probably would've stayed ignorant, lost in her own delusions.

And then the fifth day, the sixth day, and the seventh day passed…

In the evening, when she opened her door, she was greeted by a handsome guy with a shy smile. He had a cool and bright face, a strong and well-built body, a slightly messy hairstyle that seemed carefree, and wore a jacket and jeans, which caused Mika Uehara's eyes to become completely unfocused.

This was Seiji Haruta, the fat otaku?

No matter what, she was unable to connect this clean, manly, handsome guy in front of her with the otaku in her memory, who liked to shut himself in his dark room and wear filthy clothes. The otaku who reeked of mysterious stenches, had a protruding beer belly, and unkempt, ragged hair with a dreadful expression in his eyes.

There was no mistake; this was a miracle!

A true miracle!

It took only one week.

The fat otaku, who stood right before her, had transformed magnificently!

"Miss Uehara? Umm… Do these clothes look that bad on me?" Seiji nervously tugged on the clothes that he had bought just earlier today. historical

Because his body shape had changed so much, his former clothes wouldn't fit him anymore, so he was forced to go shopping for some new clothes. Of course, they were all cheap ones.

"No… not at all!" She finally regained her senses, and her cheeks flushed deep red: "They don't look bad at all… my apologies for not inviting you in, please… please come in!"

Seiji nodded lightly before following her in. Although it wasn't his first time here, since the landlord had formally invited him to eat dinner together this time, he was somewhat nervous.

Nozomi Uehara had invited him as she felt that expressing her gratitude verbally was insufficient, so she decided to treat him to a good meal to show her gratefulness.

Seiji felt like all this was rather unnecessary; if they truly wished to thank him, the easiest method would be to give him a discount on the rent. Of course, he felt too embarrassed to say that out loud.

Okay, at least he got the opportunity to eat together with the beautiful mother and daughter pair, so he couldn't complain.

"Welcome, Haruta-kun… Oh my, you've become quite handsome." Nozomi Uehara came out of the kitchen, and her eyes began sparkling when she noticed the sturdy youth.

Even if she had sharper senses than her daughter and was mentally prepared, she could only mentally exclaim at the fat youth's magnificent transformation that was a veritable miracle.

The shadow of that fat otaku from just two weeks ago was completely gone now. Just what had happened to this young man for him to have changed so much?

"I just lost a little weight, that's all." Seiji scratched his face awkwardly.

Even he felt disgust at the way he was pretending how this had happened. Even though he had expected this to occur, when he actually saw his own changes, he was shocked at how strong his system really was. But there was no helping it; in front of his elder, no matter how difficult it was for him to act, he still needed to keep up the pretense that this was just "ordinary" weight loss.

That's just not possible!

Mika Uehara felt like yelling that out loud. Right now, there was a mishmash of emotions in her heart, and she wasn't sure what she was feeling.

The dreadful appearance of that fat otaku, and the clean, cool appearance of this handsome boy in front of her kept swirling around in her mind. She just couldn't decide what to make of it.

So miracles were indeed possible.

The ugly duckling was capable of turning into a majestic swan.

That was when she had appeared to realize one of life's maxims…

Dinnertime.

Nozomi and Seiji were chatting happily.

Although Seiji was an NEET in his past life, he also used to be an acceptable government worker, so he knew how to entertain guests. If he made an effort, he wouldn't let those conversing with him feel bored.

Nozomi was slightly shocked inside; she didn't expect that she'd be able to have such a deep conversation with Seiji, considering that he was still a youth. Right now, he felt more like an adult her age.

Mika ate in silence. It wasn't that the other two were leaving her out of the conversation. It was that her indecisiveness caused her to be unable to talk, but every so often, she snuck furtive glances at his face, and the light red blush on her face didn't fade.

"Haruta-kun, how long do you intend to remain absent from school? Actually, you should be able to go back home and continue going to school, right?" Nozomi brought up a sensitive topic.

Seiji was surprised for a moment.

"Well, I've been considering it recently as well, but… really, my previous mistakes were incredibly severe. Even though I've decided to change myself, I think it may be difficult for them to accept me if I decide to return in my current state."

'They might find it difficult to accept him for another reason.' Mika silently thought to herself as she listened intently. After all, anyone that once knew him would definitely find his current state inconceivable.

"Then what do you intend to do?" Nozomi propped her chin up on her hands and stared directly into Seiji's eyes, showing the appeal of a mature woman.

"I still don't know yet. Maybe… I can find a new job—one with a higher salary—and then buy some gifts for my family…"

His body type was normal now… Okay, both his body type and appearance now had improved to "not bad," so now he didn't need to wear a full-body costume anymore. Looking for a better job was definitely viable now, especially considering that it would allow him to save up some money.

"How considerate of you—I'm sure that your family will be delighted to see the way you are now." Nozomi nodded.

"Surely you jest."

"I'm not joking—you've become so handsome now. Haven't you already noticed that Mika's been blushing this entire time?"

"Mom!" Mika was suddenly ambushed by her mother teasing her, and her face became even redder as she shrieked in a tender voice.

Seiji could only smile awkwardly.

"By the way, that blondie… no, that hoodlum actually dropped out of school. Isn't that great news, Miss Uehara?"

"Call me Mika!" She wasn't happy about always being called Miss, so she unconsciously said it out loud. Immediately afterwards, she noticed what she had said, and her face turned bright red to the roots of her ears.

In Sakura Island, calling someone directly by their name was considered quite intimate—only family members or close friends would do this.

She was just being teased by her own mother, and now she immediately let Seiji call her own name! Mika truly felt like she was digging her own grave!

"It… it's just that if you call me Uehara, it's confusing to know who you're talking about, so… so that's the only reason!" She didn't even know what she was saying anymore.

"Oh my, oh my…" Nozomi glanced gently over at her daughter acting shy.

Cough!* Seiji forced himself to fake a coughing fit: "Well, for it to all end like this is the best we can hope for."

Two days ago, Mika told him that the blondie had suddenly dropped out of school because his father's company went bankrupt, and his family was no longer powerful, thus causing him to be too ashamed to stay at school anymore. Besides, his family was apparently forced to sell their home to pay their debts, so they had moved away as well.

Did all of this have something to do with the student council president? Neither Seiji nor Mika knew the answer to this, as this was all they had to go on.

"Mm… That is wonderful…" Mika considered it calmly and thought about something else that would happen, which caused her to turn slightly unsatisfied.

"Mika, were you thinking that it's nice that you won't have to be scared, but Haruta-kun doesn't need to take you to school anymore, so you were disappointed?" Nozomi didn't pull any punches with her daughter and continued to tease her.

"Not… not at all!" Having her inner thoughts pointed out, Mika felt a mixture of anger and embarrassment, and her face turned a deep red hue while her eyes became slightly teary.

'Even… even if he lost weight, even if he was more handsome, he's still an otaku. I… I absolutely won't fall in love with him, humph!' She desperately tried to conceal her inner feelings in her heart.

"Ha… haha, auntie sure loves to joke around…" Other than laughing foolishly, what else was Seiji supposed to do?

And so, the bountiful, delicious meal ended with an ambiguous atmosphere.

Not long after, Seiji took his leave.

Right after he left, Mika instantly jumped on her mother like an angry kitten.

"Mom, what are you saying in front of him!?"

"I don't think I was wrong, hehe…" The young woman covered her mouth as she chuckled, showing her profound experience in life.

"Everything was wrong! I'm not…"

"Then why was your face so red—look, it's still red even now."

"I'm… I'm just angry!"

"You're not honest with your feelings at all. You're my daughter; of course I know what you're thinking." Nozomi gently touched her daughter's cheek before saying, "Haruta-kun used to be quite a terrible person, but now he's changed to become much better, and he even saved you. Besides, he didn't mind protecting you for all this time; it's only natural for you to be moved."

Mika shyly lowered her head and twiddled her fingers.

"But from your mother's perspective, Haruta-kun is trying his utmost to change himself; he might not even be interested in you… And your mother has a premonition—this may only be the beginning. Perhaps he'll become even handsomer… Hehe… no matter what Mika thinks, if you're serious about it, you can't let this opportunity escape."

"Mom…" Mewling like a kitten, Mika tugged on her mother's shirt, "Just… what should I do?"

"Think about it yourself; just don't do anything overboard—boys… even good boys have times when they become beasts. Just remember to be careful about this."

"Mom…"

It seemed that the beautiful mother and daughter's secret conversation was going to continue on for quite some time.

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Chapter 7: Protection

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

It was a new day.

As usual, Seiji went out for a morning jog and returned home after working up a sweat.

After washing up, he prepared to make his own breakfast. Truthfully, he was slightly disappointed that breakfast wouldn't be provided for him every morning by a beauty.

Just as he was thinking this, there was a knock on his door.

"Miss Uehara?"

The pigtailed beauty pouted upon hearing this.

"…Mika?"

She finally showed a smile of satisfaction.

"For you!" She handed him the lunchbox that was in her hand.

"Oh, but this…"

"She… she already got used to making them, so she made one extra out of habit… that's what mom said this morning!" Mika looked away from him and showed a hint of shyness, "so there's breakfast for you today as well, and in the future… well, we'll probably make breakfast for you occasionally."

"Thank you so much, but wouldn't this be too much trouble…"

"It's no trouble at all; it's just food for one extra person. In… in exchange, if there's some work that requires physical strength around our house, you need to come help out!" She looked back directly into his eyes.

Seiji was surprised for an instant, before a gentle smile suffused across his lips.

"Thanks… I will."

His smile was breaking the rules with how dazzling it was, ahh! Mika felt like her face was burning up again.

After talking to her mom last night and confirming her feelings, she felt as if she was no longer able to look at Seiji normally anymore. Every time she did, she felt nervous inside, and her heartbeat seemed to increase severalfold!

Just hearing his voice and seeing him smile would make her cheeks heat up.

Ahhhhh—she couldn't take this anymore!

"I… I'm going to school!" She turned around and scurried off, leaving Seiji with the impression of her back and those twin pigtails swaying in the air.

"Be careful!" Seiji was slightly concerned she would trip.

Then, he returned back to his room to enjoy his breakfast.

When he opened the lunchbox, Seiji paused; he had noticed that the food inside was evidently different from before as every dish seemed to have been made by someone inexperienced.

He realized instantly that the previous breakfasts must have been made by the landlord, and this one must have been cooked personally by Mika Uehara!

He could envision that pigtailed girl waking up at the crack of dawn and clumsily cooking under the instruction of her mother.

The eggs were slightly burnt, the squid was twisted into a strange shape, and this cucumber… just how did she cut it into something that looked like it was an ingredient for dark magic?

Seiji sighed deeply.

He didn't have the ability to eat this type of breakfast calmly.

Mika Uehara was walking down the sunny street.

'He's probably eating his breakfast now… I wonder what he's thinking.' Her heart kept pounding as she thought this.

"Ahh—Mom… she forced me to cook for him personally, but this will be exposed instantly… it's so embarrassing!" She touched her own cheek and found that it was burning.

"I… I admit, I do like him a little, but this is so… direct. Urgh, it's all mom's fault!"

Nozomi Uehara sneezed as she washed dishes at home.

No matter how embarrassed Mika was, she had already made the breakfast, so there was nothing she could do.

'I hope that he'll like it…'

This was the first time in her life that she made food for a boy, humph…

As she was lost in her thoughts, a figure suddenly darted out from a nearby alley.

The figure had filthy clothes, messy dyed-blonde hair, and bloodshot eyes.

"It was all because of you, you fucking b*tch!" Blondie was viciously glaring at the girl in front of him; he felt like he had fallen down into hell because of his family going bankrupt, and he had lost all sense of reason.

All because of this * in front of him, he had lost everything!

He was going to take revenge!

He was going to fuck this b*tch up!

He was going f*cking to kill her!

Mika Uehara was terrified by the malevolent aura emitted by blondie, and her mind was frozen with fear; however, before long, she instinctively turned around and shouted for help.

"Help! Someone save me—"

"Don't run, you fucking b*tch!"

While cursing, blondie brought out a glimmering dagger and chased after her.

He was very fast and managed to catch up to her swiftly.

Mika Uehara despaired upon feeling the blondie behind her catching up, but then a familiar figure abruptly appeared in front of her.

"Haruta-kun… Seiji!"

Seiji, who was crossing the street, opened his eyes wide in astonishment at this scene, before immediately rushing over.

"Mika!"

He had to get there in time!

But it was too late.

Blondie reached Mika just a few steps before Seiji did, and he viciously stabbed his dagger into her back.

Splurt!* Bright red blood gushed out incessantly.

Mika's expression froze at this instant, while Seiji felt an icy feeling from the depths of his heart, followed by absolute rage.

"Bastard!" He roared and kicked the blondie with manic fury.

Smack!*

Blondie was toppled over, and he dropped his dagger.

But it was too late.

Seiji caught Mika, who was collapsing, and saw her blood spreading quickly on her back.

In his arms, she blinked and looked at his face.

Ahh! Her body felt unnaturally cold.

Mika Uehara felt like she saw many things, and then nothing at all, and the last thing she saw was the anxious, worried face of a young man.

He went to all that trouble to become handsome; why was his expression so negative?

She wanted to smile at him, but she wasn't able to, and something wet dripped out of the corners of her eyes.

The boy's face was twisted; all his features were distorted and filled with endless self-regret and pain.

It's not your fault… don't have such an expression, Haruta-kun… no, Seiji.

Thank you for coming to save me.

She opened then closed her mouth, trying her best to say the words she wanted to express the most.

"Was breakfast… good?"

Then she saw nothing but darkness.

"Ahhhhhhh! Damn it!!"

Seiji hugged the bloody girl and began roaring uncontrollably.

It was only by a few steps—not even five seconds!

This incident which should have been over already instead led to this terrible ending!

Reality was definitely the worst game there was!

However…

Luckily, he still had save files.

Load!!

The world around became dark, before lighting up once more.

Seiji was in his room, sitting on the bed.

It was earlier this morning, when he had just woken up.

In case of emergencies, Seiji would save a new file whenever he woke up.

This time he definitely wouldn't allow the tragedy to repeat itself!

He didn't go for his usual morning jog; instead, he waited silently in his room.

At the same time that he remembered, there was a knock on his door.

When he went to open it, he saw a girl carrying a lunchbox for him.

There was no dagger, no blood, and she was still safe.

"Haruta-kun… your eyes are a bit red—is there anything wrong?" Mika Uehara was concerned about him.

"Nothing, just some dust in my eye." Seiji smiled and blinked, "what about you—do you have something on your mind?"

…

On her way to school, Mika couldn't help sneaking glances at the boy beside her.

She wanted to go to school after giving him breakfast, but after receiving it from her, he adamantly insisted on keeping his promise to continue escorting her to school.

She couldn't convince him otherwise, so that was how it ended up.

Was his insistence on escorting her after receiving breakfast a roundabout way of telling her he didn't want to be in her debt? Thinking this, Mika felt slightly disappointed.

Suddenly, a figure dashed out in front of her.

He had filthy clothes, messy dyed-blonde hair, and bloodshot eyes.

"It was all because of you, you fucking b*tch!"

Mika Uehara was terrified by the malevolent aura emitted by blondie, and her mind was frozen with fear, but instantly, a huge shadow protected her from the front.

It was Seiji Haruta.

He stood firmly in front of her, just like a thick wall.

He was waiting for this bastard.

"Mika, stand back and call the police." He whispered to the girl. "Leave this guy to me. I will protect you."

He remembered the sight of her soaked in blood and silently vowed that he would never allow time to repeat itself!

"Get the hell out of my way!" Blondie roared madly as he lunged at Seiji with his glimmering dagger.

Seiji fearlessly countered his attack, using both hands to grasp firmly onto blondie's wrist which was holding the dagger, as his right foot aimed for blondie's crotch and kicked out with devastating force!

BAM!* As they collided, there was the sound of something breaking.

Blondie's crazed expression had abruptly frozen.

Then he screamed as if he was dying.

I'll never tell you that you succeeded the first time, so I had to load once.

I'll never tell you that in order to defeat you without getting injured, I had to load twice.

I'll never tell you that in order to take advantage of this perfect chance of claiming self-defense and crippling you for life, thus leaving you functionless down there forever, I had to load three times.

I came back to this scene a total of six times!

Seiji viciously knocked over blondie as he was shrieking madly and making inhuman sounds!

Mika Uehara watched all this with her mouth wide agape.

She was unable to comprehend how this boy, who was just a weak otaku not long ago, was able to fearlessly block someone so malicious.

And there was no way for her to understand why his movements were so accurate as he defeated blondie.

The only thing she could see was his thick shadow, and his words rung incessantly in her ears.

"Stay back, Mika. I will protect you."

Something hot flowed out from her heart, burning her chest, scorching her entire body, and almost causing her to shout out loud.

She shouldn't be like this; she should be calmly observing the situation and worrying if he was injured or not.

But she could only stay where she was right now and feel the impact of blissful fortune upon her.

Her legs were shaking, and something hot was oozing out of the corner of her eye.

Ahh!! She couldn't deny it any longer.

At this very moment, Mika Uehara was utterly certain that she had completely fallen in love with this boy named Seiji Haruta.

…

After that, everything progressed as expected.

The street-side surveillance cameras recorded everything. Blondie was the one who was intended to harm someone, and Seiji only acted in pure self-defense.

In that sort of situation, for a boy who wasn't knowledgeable in martial arts, accidentally giving the attacker such a permanent injury was understandable.

In fact, for him to be able to calmly and accurately stop the crime was incredible already.

And so, Seiji Haruta was judged to have committed no crime; not even his guardian was required for him to leave the police station. Blondie, however, had been charged with attempted murder.

And with this, the incident had finally come to a conclusion.

……

It was a brand new day.

Mika Uehara held a lunchbox and was about to knock on the door.

But she hesitated, putting the lunchbox down and taking out a hand mirror to check her appearance once more.

If her mother could see her, she would definitely smile wryly and say: "This child, you already checked your appearance several times before going out today."

Okay, perfect.

She touched her chest and attempted to subdue her frantic heartbeat, before raising her hand to knock on the door.

At that moment, the door suddenly opened.

"I felt like you might have been standing outside." He smiled at the girl who was now frozen solid.

"A… argh! Don't scare me like that!"

"Haha, sorry." Seiji took a good look at her face and felt a sense of relief in his heart. "Good morning, Mika."

She had a faint red tinge on her cheeks as she looked at him, and she somehow felt as if he was feeling the same way. A brilliant, alluring smile of peerless beauty gradually suffused across her face. historical

"Mm… good morning!"

The girl who was smiling radiantly in the early morning sunlight seemed as if she could brighten the entire world.

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Chapter 8: Meeting

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

Mika Uehara should not have to face any more danger now.

There was nothing more than a scary story behind that brilliant smile; it almost seemed perfect this way.

After he had brought Mika to school once again, Seiji mulled things over on his return journey.

It was good that this fiasco had ended.

However, there were some aftereffects. First, it seemed that he was bound by the promise to escort Mika to school.

Second, Mika Uehara's favorability rating towards him had surpassed 90—his system told him that she would instantly agree to be his girlfriend or even have sex with him if he asked!

Not only that, even the landlord Nozomi Uehara had a favorability rating towards him of over eighty, and if he asked her to have sex, apparently she would consider it seriously…

'Haha, this is like a complete walkthrough… Hey, this is no time for me to act like a capture target god!' Seiji reined himself with great difficulty.

He didn't have any useful abilities that a capture target god would have, like causing his targets to lose their memories. In fact, Mika Uehara's deep feelings towards him were troublesome for him by itself.

He liked Mika, but it was only to the extent of an adult that was friendly with a child; it wasn't to the point of love. Just thinking about having to deal with her sincere feelings was something that gave him a headache.

Forget about it; he would just take things as they come. As a thirty-year-old virgin otaku in his past life, he was clueless on how to deal with a high school girl's love…

…

"You want to change jobs?" The confectionary shop's manager Rika Amami's eyes widened in surprise.

"Yes, I would like a higher salary." Seiji awkwardly scratched his face. After all, directly telling any boss that he wanted to change jobs, even if she was just his manager, made him feel awkward.

"I'm so grateful to you, Store Manager, for taking me in during one of my most difficult times, but I want to earn more money as fast as I can, so…"

"Alright then, you can work inside the store. Your salary will be increased by fifty percent, and if you do a good job and work overtime often, there'll be extra reward money." Rika Amami said cheerily.

"Oh… this…" Seiji didn't expect her to use this tactic.

"Do you still think it's too low?"

"No, it's pretty good." Seiji scratched the corner of his mouth: "I just thought Store Manager would get angry…"

"It's only normal to desire a higher salary, especially after you have become so handsome. I thought that you'd want to take off your full-body anime costume sooner or later." Rika had a knowing expression on her face.

Just like the Uehara mother and daughter pair, this store manager was also a witness to the miracle.

A flabby fatty had changed into a strong, handsome guy in the short span of one week; she was absolutely flabbergasted as well. Luckily, she wasn't familiar with the original Seiji Haruta's otaku lifestyle, so the contrast wasn't as evident to her.

Rika could only sigh in envy when she thought about how difficult and slow it was for her to lose weight. This youth who was in front of her was unrecognizable as the same person from one week ago.

It was perfect timing, though, as the store's business was getting better and better, and she had wanted to hire some more workers. She absolutely wouldn't let go of this polite, hard-working, and handsome guy!

"I'm not really that handsome… anyway, thank you, Store Manager. I'll take my work seriously."

And thus, he went from a full-body costumed employee to working inside the store.

Clad in the store uniform, this fresh, energetic newcomer's appearance instantly attracted the eyeballs of many female customers inside.

Rika's eyes were shining as well; even though she had expected it, she still didn't realize that the store uniform would look so great on Seiji Haruta. With his good looks and body shape, he was undoubtedly ranked number one in terms of appearance among the store employees!

Even if there were only four employees…

As the other employees had below average appearances, Seiji stood out among the crowd, and no matter where he was standing, that slightly bashful smile was the focus of female attention.

The store idol… no wait, the store hunk will be you!

And thus, time passed by quickly as they worked busily.

Later that evening, Seiji received a phone call from Mika.

Mika: "S… Seiji, are you free?"

Seiji: "Sure, what is it?"

Mika: "The president found out about what happened yesterday, and she asked me about the details. After hearing them… she said she wanted to meet you."

Seiji: "Oh? That student council president wants to meet me? How come?"

Mika: "She said that she knows you…"

Seiji: "What?"

Mika: "She said she knows you, but you probably don't know her… anyway, she would like to meet and chat with you."

Seiji rubbed his chin and was rather curious. Just who could this student council president possibly be?"

Seiji: "Okay then. When does she want to meet?"

Mika: "If it's alright with you, she said she'd like to meet tomorrow afternoon in the business district at the confectionary store called 'Divine Taste.'"

The 'Divine Taste' confectionary store… that was the place he worked at! Was this an innocuous coincidence, or was it…

Seiji: "Alright, but you know I need to work tomorrow, so it has to be after 5:00 pm."

Mika: "Okay, I'll let her know."

After hanging up, the pigtailed beauty had a complicated expression on her face while she was laying face-down on her bed.

Her first time calling him was actually to talk to him about another girl… Mika Uehara felt like a deflated balloon.

Also, she detected a sense of danger.

The student council president had said that she was familiar with Seiji Haruta—what was that about?

She was grateful to the President-sama, who had coolness, beauty, and gentleness combined in one body. She almost seemed like a goddess—the idol of the entire school as well as Mika herself. And that was why she was worried about the president contacting Seiji… after all, the president's attractiveness was at the level of an alluring witch!

In conclusion, what if Seiji fell in love with the president? It would become a huge obstacle to her love!

Rolling rolling rolling rolling! She was so indecisive that she could only roll around on her bed.

"Ahhhh! What should I do!?"

Seiji could hear some strange noises coming from downstairs.

Seiji had no clue as to what Mika was thinking just then. He held curiosity towards the true identity of the president.

By stating that she knew him, she had, of course, meant that she was familiar with the original Seiji. However the original Seiji… would only leave nothing but destructive impressions behind.

Because she had known the original Seiji and his true personality, she had become curious after learning about the good deed he did for Mika, and she wanted to meet him and confirm his change. After all, it was only natural for her to react like that.

Seiji shook his head; he didn't want to overthink things. Anyway, he would find out everything after the meeting.

…

The next day.

Seiji worked his usual shift until the afternoon. After his shift had ended, he changed out of the store uniform, before walking out of the employees' back exit and walking back in the front door.

"Haruta, why aren't you leaving?" His male coworker was mildly surprised.

"I'm meeting someone here."

"Haha, I know, it's a date, right?" Seiji's coworker instantly had an enigmatic expression on his face. "Our store's sweets are quite good… but I think instead that you should let her see you hard at work. Girls like that sort of thing, and you look good in your uniform, even if I don't want to admit it, haha."

"She's not my girlfriend, Tanaka-senpai." Seiji smiled wryly.

Tanaka-senpai, as well as all his other coworkers, were all nice people, but they liked to joke around too much. historical

"Oh, so she's your future girlfriend. Relax, we'll all help you out; if you need some special service, ask away!" Tanaka winked at him before he went to attend to some other customers.

Seiji could only smile helplessly. He then walked towards a table and sat down at a window seat, resting his chin on his hands.

"Hey… that boy over there is quite handsome."

"Where? Oh yeah, that one—he looks like he could be a television star."

"He must be waiting for his girlfriend. How cute! I also want a boyfriend like that…"

A couple of new customers chatted whilst they walked in, and Seiji Haruta overheard them whispering about him due to his excellent sense of hearing.

With his physical ability constantly increasing, Seiji had discovered that his sight, hearing, and other senses all seemed to be becoming increasingly sharper.

Especially sight—as an otaku, his sight was rather weak before. However, with the exercise options, his sight had improved tremendously, to the point where he no longer even needed glasses.

This was no longer at the extent of "exercise"; this was more like "cultivation"!

Seiji eagerly anticipated what he would become as his stats kept increasing. In addition, he was currently only grinding his physical ability stat, yet it already had such an effect. What would happen if he improved his others?

His lips reflexively tilted upward as he imagined his future abilities.

"Look, look! He's smiling!"

"He must be thinking about his girlfriend… how cute! He must really love her; she really is lucky!"

Click.*

'Hey, hey, hey! That last sound was the sound of a camera, right? It must have been! Comments are fine, but don't just take pictures without permission! Hmph, I should sue that person for infringing my privacy rights!' Seiji's face darkened.

"And you insist that you're not waiting for your girlfriend when you're just sitting there, smiling stupidly at nothing; it's truly intolerable." Tanaka brought him a menu.

"Just give me a glass of orange juice."

"Everyone is curious who you're waiting for, so why don't you tell us? Oh, also, the store manager said that if you're willing to let us know, she'll give you a free tiramisu cake."

Seiji's face darkened even more.

"I definitely won't do that. Besides, won't you find out anyways just by waiting?"

"Hmph, stingy."

'Was that stingy? Was it really?' Just as Seiji was wondering that to himself, a familiar person walked into the store.

It was Mika Uehara.

She was still in her school uniform and radiated an innocent and cute aura. With her well-developed figure filled with the sexiness of youth, she was undoubtedly an above average beauty.

But her spotlight was completely stolen away by the subsequent figure that entered.

The next girl was wearing the same school uniform, and her long black hair reached her waist. She had snow-white skin, sensual eyes, red lips, and a full bosom which seemed like it was precariously close to bursting out of the school uniform. Her butt was prominent and pert; in combination with her short skirt and black stockings, everything about her was the highest level of sexiness!

But the girl with such a devilish figure had an angelic, untainted face and held a righteous expression. Her eyes had a sharp gaze to them which stopped any male nearby from thinking impure thoughts. It was as if she had an aura of holiness surrounding her.

But the most noticeable thing was that this girl carried a short sword sheathed in a black and scarlet scabbard—according to Seiji's memories of his past life's manga, this sword was called a kodachi!

'Hey, isn't having a sword in public against weapon control laws?' Seiji thought silently to himself.

Beautiful, cool, and righteous, but… something seemed odd about her.

This was the first impression that Seiji Haruta had of the famed student council president.

Mika Uehara glanced around the shop, instantly finding Seiji. She smiled at him brightly and walked over.

The student council president also met Seiji's gaze, and her eyes widened in obvious surprise.

"Seiji, did you wait long?"

"Not at all, I was only waiting for a short while."

Just as he stood up to welcome the two girls and led them to their seats, he abruptly noticed that his table had become the center of attention for the entire store.

Not only were many customers watching in stunned amazement, even Tanaka and the other employees were standing motionless in surprise.

It took quite a while for time to begin turning in the store again.

"That girl is unbelievably beautiful! But… why is she carrying a sword?"

"Even though that sword seems to suit her appearance, it's still a little weird…"

"The other one is pretty cute as well… By the way, which one is his girlfriend?"

Everyone was whispering furtively to each other.

"Seiji, this is my school's student council president, she…" Mika Uehara began an introduction.

"My name is Natsuya Yoruhana." The black-haired girl interrupted Mika and looked directly at Seiji, an indescribable light flickering within her eyes.

"I almost became your fiancée, Seiji Haruta."

"Huh?"

Chapter 9: Come to our school!

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

The words of the black-haired girl, Natsuya Yoruhana, the student council president, shocked the table into silence for a lengthy period of time.

"Erm… hi." Seiji's face twitched, "I'd like to ask… what did you mean just now?"

"It was exactly what it sounded like." Natsuya Yoruhana gazed searchingly at his face and smiled slightly: "But that was something from a long time ago."

Seiji's mind was teeming with questions. He glanced at Mika beside him and discovered that she was still sitting there, stunned, with her mouth wide agape and eyes fully widened.

Cough cough.*

He forced a coughing fit.

"Well… it looks like we should really have a good chat, mm… Miss Yoruhana, you and Mika should take a good look at the menu first and choose something to eat."

He had finally alleviated the tense atmosphere. As the two high school girls looked at the menu, Seiji sighed inwardly.

This president sure didn't act like how most ordinary people would.

"President, that drink is specially for a couple to drink together…"

"Eh? Couples together… in a public location… Hmph, how shameless!"

Natsuya's thoughts were indeterminable as her cheeks flushed slightly red, and her clear, righteous expression suddenly became purer.

Just as Seiji was observing her with mild surprise, the black-haired girl's expression instantly regained its indifference.

Perhaps she was one of those legendary ladies that never went out?

Seiji had never expected that he would meet such a character in real life.

Okay, maybe a sword-carrying lady's appearance wasn't all that strange in this world filled with 2-D elements?

After everyone had ordered some food, the table fell silent once more.

"Miss Yoruhana, don't you intend to explain anything further?" Seiji broke the silence yet again.

"There's really not much to say. Honestly, the incident was from a long time ago and doesn't have much meaning towards your current self." Natsuya took a deep look at him: "Even though it was an unforgettable childhood memory for me, you've never even met me before, so we've never communicated. I admit that I spoke slightly too rashly, but it was just a venting of my emotions."

"Oh…"

"If I surprised you, I apologize." Natsuya smiled gently. "This meeting today was because of my wish, so I appreciate that you accepted my invitation. Also, by meeting you here, in addition to giving my memory a face I can associate your name with, it is also an opportunity for me to thank you."

"Thank? I don't think that I've done anything before that Miss Yoruhana needs to thank me for."

"You risked your life and protected my classmate, Uehara-san, an important student of our school, so that deserves my gratitude as the student council president."

Natsuya's smile was replaced by a serious expression. "Thank you very much, Seiji Haruta. You protected a high school girl and prevented a huge scandal at our school. Our school—Genhana High School, owes you a debt!"

She formally lowered her head in seriousness as she finished talking.

"President…" Watching this scene, Mika was rather moved.

"No need to be so polite; I just did what I should have." Seiji smiled,

"Anyway, it's President-san that done the bulk of the work. After all, you were the one who protected Mika. Otherwise, if that guy had made a move at school, I… would have been powerless."

Ding!* The system indicated that her favorability rating towards him had increased.

"I just did what the president should do… Ha, this is the exact same as what you were just saying." Natsuya lifted her head, and she smiled again.

At this moment, their desserts arrived.

"This store's sweets are quite delicious—you should have a taste." As an employee, Seiji naturally gave them some recommendations.

Both Mika and Natsuya used their spoons to try a bite, and their eyes instantly lit up.

"It's really delicious!"

"It seems good… I've never tasted this flavor before."

The three of them happily ate together.

"Actually, Miss Yoruhana, I have something on my mind. Um… I heard that blondie's family's company suddenly went bankrupt, did… did you do that?"

"It wasn't me. Although I had already made preparations to do that if he didn't heed my warning. But without me moving a finger, that company suddenly went bankrupt." Natsuya shook her head.

"So it was just a coincidence?"

"In my opinion, yes. Unfortunately, he focused all of his hatred on Uehara-san, which is why he ended up committing such a crime."

Natsuya sighed deeply.

"And I actually didn't expect… If it wasn't for you, Haruta-kun, something truly regrettable may have happened."

Actually, if it wasn't for the fact that Seiji had the ability to save and load, everyone would be regretting what had happened.

So Seiji could understand the president's frustrations, as something that she thought was already over had suddenly turned into a bad ending; those capricious twists of fate were difficult for anyone to accept.

"It's all over now, and Mika's safe; that's enough for me."

"Yeah, I'm so grateful to both of you. President, Seiji… because of you guys, I didn't…" Mika thought back to the incident, and a teardrop formed in the corner of her eye.

The table fell quiet again, but this time there was a gentle atmosphere permeating throughout the silence.

"Haruta-kun, you're currently living by yourself and you've dropped out of school. You need to work to support yourself, right?" Natsuya changed the topic of conversation.

Seiji smiled wryly and nodded.

"Our school is indebted to you—if it's okay with you, I'd like to give you some assistance… If you can't go back to your original school, why don't you consider transferring schools to Genhana High School?"

"Eh?"

Mika widened her eyes in surprise, and Seiji was also stunned.

"Your previous mistakes are of no significance, as the current you seems like a good person to me. You shouldn't be wasting your time like this; you should go to school and study diligently." Natsuya was serious about this.

"If you need to work, our school also allows part-time jobs, and I can introduce some nice jobs to you that can help with your living expenses. If you're willing, I can take care of all the procedures for you, and your guardian doesn't even need to get involved. So, what do you think?"

After Natsuya said this, the conversation options appeared—

[A: I don't want to go back to school, it's not necessary, thank you.]

[B: Can I really do this? Of course I'd like to go back to school…]

[C: This is an important decision; I need some time to consider it.]

Since the conversation options had appeared, it meant that it was related to her favorability rating. And judging by the importance of these options, it was probably worth quite a few points.

'This was probably the critical decision starting off the student council president's route… if there was such a route,' Seiji commented inwardly.

"Seiji… President-sama's idea seems like a good one…" Although she was shocked by the president's sudden proposal, Mika couldn't contain her excitement. Naturally, she had instantly realized that this was a wonderful chance! "Our school is pretty nice, if you come… it'll definitely be great!"

She imagined herself going to and returning home from school together with him, being in the same classes, eating lunch together, and being in the same club or activities. She desperately wanted him to agree to Natsuya's proposal!

Seiji glanced at Mika and noticed that her expression was filled with expectation for him to say yes.

Hmm… it seemed like this choice would seriously affect two girls' favorability ratings towards him, as well as their future routes.

Seiji thought about it seriously.

After a while, he came to the conclusion that that he had no reason to refuse.

His main goal after reincarnating was to enjoy his new life. And going back to school again felt much more exciting than continuing to work.

Even though he had the soul of a thirty-year-old adult, and going back to high school was a bit shameless, it was still fun!

The only worry he held was that he would have increased contact with Mika, so she might fall even further in love with him. But maybe it was too narcissistic of him to think that, and perhaps the opposite would occur as well.

As a virgin otaku, Seiji had no confidence in his ability to get along with girls.

And so, the answer he chose was B.

"Can I really do this? Of course I'd like to go back to school again… but I made some serious mistakes before; if news of this spreads, then it might be a bad influence on your school."

Seiji expressed his desire with a hint of nervousness.

"As long as you want to, then there's no problem! If you're worried about rumors, there's a method…" Natsuya smiled widely, "you can change your name."

"Eh?"

Seiji and Mika both widened their eyes in astonishment.

"According to the law, young people that have committed a crime or made serious mistakes in the past but show signs of reformation are allowed to temporarily use a fake name. This is in order to help them adapt to a new life. As long as they receive permission from the relevant school or workplace, they are free to start anew." Natsuya folded her arms, causing her plump breasts to bulge out slightly; Seiji had to admit that it was quite the impressive sight.

Seiji restrained himself to the utmost extent from staring at those killer mounds, while he inwardly thought: 'There were these sorts of laws in this world? Wasn't this world way too convenient!?' historical

Well, it was not like he was a legal expert in his previous life. Perhaps there were similar laws in his old world that he didn't know about?

Anyway, since it was the first time he had ever heard about such a strange law, it almost felt like it was created just for him…

"So listen carefully, Haruta-kun. Your current appearance is quite different from before, right? If you changed your name and transferred to a new school, nobody would recognize you, so naturally there wouldn't be any negative news spreading around." Natsuya spoke in a tone filled with confidence.

"That's right… if Seiji changed his name, with the way he was before, anyone that knew him before would probably… No, they definitely wouldn't recognize him— I'm sure of it!" Mika Uehara said adamantly.

The change in Seiji Haruta was just too big!

Anyone that previously knew the fat otaku would definitely never imagine that he had now turned into a handsome boy, and if it wasn't for the fact that Mika was the landlord's daughter and personally witnessed the change in him, she wouldn't have recognized him either or believed her own eyes.

Because his change was definitely a miracle!

"Besides… if Uehara-san is willing to help out, we can even make the process even more perfect." Natsuya glanced at Mika.

"Me?"

"Yep, if Haruta-kun changes his name, instead of choosing a random name, it would be more convincing if he had a family background. For example, if he changed his last name to 'Uehara,' and we said that he's your older cousin, it would add an extra layer of protection. Of course, this is only if your family consents, Uehara-san."

Seiji was speechless.

Mika was shocked momentarily before her heartbeat increased to maximum speed!

Let Seiji change his name to 'Uehara'!?

If she had the same last name as him, they would have to pretend that they were close cousins. She would have the perfect excuse to do various things with him, and her face began burning as she pictured this in her mind.

'I'm willing!' She shouted passionately in her heart.

"Oh… This is all a bit too much; it'll be troublesome for Mika and Miss Landlord." Seiji smiled wryly and decided to avoid this route.

'It's no trouble at all!' Mika wanted to shout this out loud desperately, but as her final shreds of female pride prevented her from doing so, she kept her silence with a reddened face.

"Okay then, we can just change the name. What do you think, Haruta-kun?"

"Miss Yoruhana has considered all of the details. I'll just listen to your suggestions."

"Okay then, it's decided." Natsuya looked at the youth, her eyes shining,

"Welcome to Genhana High School, Haruta-kun."

"Thank you… I'm so grateful for this opportunity you've given me to start anew, Miss Yoruhana, no… President Yoruhana." Seiji looked at her and smiled, "I promise that I will not disappoint you."

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Chapter 10: It seems like he's become more handsome again

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

"I believe in you as well."

How stunning!

Natsuya Yoruhana's smile was more than enough to cause any young man to have endless fantasies, and Seiji's heart jumped as well. If it wasn't for his self-awareness and experience from his previous thirty years of life, then he might have made the mistake of thinking she was trying to flirt with him.

In reality, however, it was probably nothing more than small unconscious movements by her.

Mika Uehara panicked slightly as she saw that the President-sama was unknowingly releasing that bewitching charm of hers again. Countless boys and girls had lost themselves to Lady Natsuya Yoruhana's unintentional movements and had become enraptured.

That included herself.

There was no helping it; the president was just too beautiful!

Her looks were cheat-like, and her figure was even more ridiculous. Although her family background was illustrious, she wasn't arrogant and haughty—beauty, coolness, righteousness were all combined in her, and she was the epitome of perfection!

Mika nervously watched Seiji's face and noticed that although his eyes seemed to admire her, there was no trace of love, which caused her to sigh in relief.

At that moment, another suspicion arose in her mind: if he wasn't moved by even the likes of the president, then just who could move his heart…

A girl in love's heart was indecisive and confused, like Mika Uehara's current state.

At that moment, a melodious piano sound rung out.

"Excuse me." Natsuya took a cell phone out of her school uniform pocket and received a call.

"Okay… Got it."

After such a short phone call, Natsuya showed an apologetic expression to Mika and Seiji.

"I'm very sorry, something's suddenly come up, so I need to leave. Haruta-kun, do you have anything else to say about transferring schools?"

Seiji shook his head.

"Then I'll start the process for you tomorrow. You should give me your phone number now, so I can contact you if I need anything."

"Okay."

Seiji and Natsuya then exchanged phone numbers.

After that, Natsuya took her leave and bade farewell.

Seiji and Mika remained seated as they watched her leave and noticed a luxurious black car coming to pick her up the moment she exited the store.

He didn't have a chance to ask her what that sword was about…

Seiji was actually quite curious about that kodachi that Natsuya Yoruhana carried around with her, but there wasn't an appropriate moment to broach the subject during the entire conversation.

"President Yoruhana… seems like an amazing girl in every aspect." Seiji sighed with emotion.

"Yeah, the president is so great… If you absolutely must find a flaw with her, the only one is that she's so outstanding some people don't even dare to talk to her." Mika laughed, "Such as my previous self. If it wasn't for this incident, I think… I wouldn't have talked to her on my own even until graduation."

Seiji nodded sagely. He could understand the feeling; for someone who was too outstanding, there were those that chose to silently avoid them.

Nobody spoke for a while.

"Anyway, no matter what she was thinking, I'm very grateful to her for giving me this opportunity to return to school." Seiji smiled, "And… we'll be classmates in the future, Mika, so please take good care of me."

"Oh… Mm! Please… please take good care of me as well!" Mika's face flushed red as she lowered her head.

Meanwhile, in the luxurious car.

"Milady, did the one from the Haruta family… agree?" Sitting across from Natsuya Yoruhana was a girl with bright red hair and a sharp glint in her scarlet eyes. She was wearing the same school uniform.

"Yep, he seemed quite delighted to be able to return to school and was happy to change his name." Natsuya gazed outside the window as she spoke.

"Doesn't he have any resolve to protect his own family name?"

"Currently, he probably doesn't even know the true meaning of the 'Haruta' family name, even though I had hinted at it right from the beginning. It seemed like he had no idea, nor did he show any curiosity or desire to inquire more about it."

"Hmph, what a shallow man."

"Maybe not. His eyes were sincere, his actions resolute, and everything he said and decided upon seemed like it had some degree of forethought; he's definitely not an ordinary person. I think that… maybe it's not that he didn't think about it, he just didn't want to think too deeply about it. And as for the mistakes he committed before, which were severe enough for his sister, Yuiyume Haruta, to force him to leave home, unless he manages to receive Lady Haruta's forgiveness, nothing related to the 'Haruta' name will have any meaning to him. As it's meaningless, there's no need to think about it. He only needs to take the chances that lie before him. Although he may not be thinking far ahead for the future, it could be said that he's quite decisive at taking the correct action."

The interior of the car remained silent for a while.

"Then what does Milady think he was thinking?"

"Ha, Hitaka—what you really want to ask is whether or not this character known as 'Seiji Haruta' is of any use to us, right?"

The red-haired girl fell silent upon hearing this.

Natsuya Yoruhana did not speak as well, as she thought about how to express her thoughts.

"The current him is completely different from the previous him, in both looks and personality. If it wasn't for the fact that evidence says they're the same person, I… no, anyone would think that these are two completely different people." Lady Yoruhana slowly stated.

"But after seeing him personally, I saw just a slight glimpse of the elegant demeanor of a young master from the Haruta family, just like when he was little. So, I'm also quite curious just what it was that he encountered… Let's leave the past alone for now, as I'm beginning to suspect that the fall into depravity of this young master from the Haruta family may have been caused by external factors. And now, his enormous change may be due to the fact that he's finally free from the 'external factors,' and he has rediscovered his earliest, truest self."

Natsuya had just given her an abundant amount of information; the girl named Hitaka needed some time to digest it all.

"Then, does Milady believe that Seiji Haruta will be very useful to us?"

"He has the potential to be enormously useful to us, but it hasn't been that long since he changed, so it's not that easy to say yet." Natsuya chuckled lightly, "If he remains in his current state, or if what I believe is correct, then this young master Haruta will create a terrifying whirlwind in society. Just this possibility alone was worth me personally inviting him to our school. Not only that, he truly did save Mika Uehara and prevented the school from having a huge scandal, so it was only proper that I aided him."

The car quietened down again. The luxurious black car soundlessly drove off into the dark night.

…

The next day, Seiji received a call from Natsuya, who asked him about his personal information.

On the subsequent day, when Seiji was taking Mika to school, they had almost reached the school when they saw a girl with short auburn hair and scarlet eyes with a sharp glint in them. This girl, who exuded a heroic aura, came to take his documents containing personal information.

"My name is Hitaka Shuho, and I am the vice president of the student council. I've received your personal information documents, so please go back home and wait for the news."

She seemed to have a cold attitude, but according to Mika, this vice president treated everyone this way.

Another week passed.

Natsuya Yoruhana called him again, saying everything was completed successfully, and that he would be able to go to school as a transfer student from next Monday.

That night, Mika Uehara brought a male high school uniform for him.

While it was within his expectations, Seiji still felt that the lady president was truly capable in getting things done. From start to finish, she had only called him twice; he only had to give them some of his personal information, and she managed to take care of everything else!

He didn't need his guardian, he didn't need to return to his old school to say goodbye, and he didn't even need to go meet with Genhana High School's principals… This was far from what any normal student council president would be able to pull off; it was evident that she had used some of her personal connections.

There must be a motive behind her trying her utmost to help him transfer schools.

Seiji had considered this already, so naturally he had thought about what could be going on. It was just that there was no use in paying attention to her ulterior motives for now.

The next week, Monday.

After coming back from his morning jog, Seiji washed up and put on the Genhana High School uniform. He stood in front of his mirror to comb his hair.

Mm, not bad.

Maybe it was a bit narcissistic, but in Seiji's eyes, didn't the boy in the mirror seem a bit too handsome?

He wasn't the type to often look in the mirror, so every time he looked in the mirror, after "cultivating" all this time with his system, he would always feel like his appearance had improved.

At first, he thought he was mistaken, but his constantly increasing charisma stat proved that this was all real. And the strongest evidence of all was that everyone's attitudes towards him were gradually changing, and the number of girls that came to the confectionary store just to see him was increasing daily as well…

Would it be a problem if he kept getting handsomer? historical

Maybe he deserved a beating for worrying about this, but Seiji was seriously frustrated.

While it was nice to be quite handsome, if he was overly handsome, then strange things would begin to disturb his daily life.

But there was no helping it—even though he was only concentrating on increasing his physical ability stat, his charisma stat kept improving alongside it, to the extent where it surpassed even his physical ability stat!

Well, this must be attributed to the fact that his body had already inherited excellent genes beforehand. According to the original Seiji's memories, his younger and older sisters were both S-class beauties, and he should have been a hunk as well to match the rules of genetic inheritance.

The way that fat otaku looked in the past was truly unnatural. Once again, Seiji sighed at how truly self-deserving the original Seiji was; he had even wasted his own handsome genes.

After the self-reflection, Seiji finished his preparations and left his room.

Mika Uehara sat on the couch in her home and waited in nervous silence.

Even though walking to school together with him had already become a daily occurrence, she found it difficult to slow down her racing heart every time.

Because… because Seiji Haruta was becoming increasingly handsome!

Mother's premonition had been true; Seiji had continued exercising every day even after he gotten skinnier. His body shape was getting stronger and sturdier, and his entire person seemed healthier and brighter. Every inch of his body seemed like it was subtly evolving.

If the Seiji who had just become skinnier was at the level of a normal handsome guy, then the current Seiji had already evolved to become idol level.

It was no joke!

Mika Uehara truly believed that the current Seiji could land a job as a television star without even needing to put on makeup!

Ahhhh—why did he become so handsome? And why was he still getting handsomer by the day!? It put too much pressure on her!

The little girl within Mika's heart was screaming in frustration.

Today was the first day that Seiji would go back to school.

At first, she was delighted that he would be able to attend school together with her, but currently, that joy was now tainted by frustration.

The current Seiji was definitely a ticking time bomb for the female students at Genhana High School.

Although her crush was now going to school together with her, he had become far too handsome. The other girls at school would definitely have their eyes on him.

Mika felt unsure what to do! She was waiting for immediate advice on this topic.

Her countless frustrations were vented by a melancholy sigh of depression.

Nozomi Uehara watched her daughter silently.

Well, she could understand how her daughter was feeling because… even her heart beat faster at Seiji's appearance lately!

That handsome boy's gentle smile was turning him into a lady-killer.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

Mika suddenly lifted her head up, jumped off the sofa and almost tripped on the floor.

"C… coming!"

"Mika, your bookbag! Lunchbox!"

"Oh… oh…"

Mika hurriedly rushed to open the door as she gathered her things.

Outside the door was a boy who had sunlight shining down on his shoulders, which added an even gentler aura to that well-chiseled face of his, giving his faint smile the beauty of a picture drawn by a master artist.

"Let's go."

Chapter 11: Transfer student

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

School was a stage.

Kazufuru Ooike inspected his appearance and clothing one last time and gave a practiced smile in front of the mirror before he left home.

Compared to those ordinary folks who wasted their valuable youth, he discovered the true nature of school life early on, and he dressed smartly every day in order to spend each day at school perfectly.

Just like an actor on stage, he would show off his dazzling appearance, graceful elegance, and eloquent communication, thus giving the audience a deep impression as well as raising his own fame and status.

As for finding yourself? Youth? Enjoyment? Haha, they were the shallow ideals of foolish and ordinary people who understood nothing about reality. The future was just a hazy fog to them—what else could they do besides wasting their time here?

Kazufuru Ooike saw reality for what it was long ago and had made detailed plans for his own future. To him, school was the prelude and stepping stone to society, and he intended to stand at the top of this comparatively simple enclosed society in order to have a head start when he entered society for real.

Naturally, an excellent impression and outstanding grades were necessary. The next step was to obtain a position in the student council. However, his highest goal was… an exceptional partner!

And who could match the student council president, Natsuya Yoruhana?

As he walked into the school and sighted her feminine figure, the corners of Kazufuru Ooike's mouth arced upwards, and he went over to greet her familiarly.

"Secretary Ooike and President Yoruhana… the sight of them together is just like a painting…"

"Both of them have top-class grades and appearance, and they're both elites that entered the student council as freshman students—they're just too perfect!"

"Are they really not going out with each other?"

Listening to the whispers around him, a sense of pride welled up in Kazufuru Ooike's heart, but he carefully hid his feelings, remaining impassive as he continued his conversation with Natsuya.

Most people in school knew that Natsuya Yoruhana was from a rich and powerful family, but they didn't know the full extent of her family's wealth.

However, Kazufuru Ooike was different. Although all his knowledge came from browsing the internet, that alone was quite shocking.

He didn't understand why a lady of her level was studying at Genhana High School. Doubtlessly, this was an incredible chance for him—maybe even an once-in-a-lifetime chance!

As long as he succeeded in gaining her affection, he could reduce the number of years where he had to work hard by at least thirty years!

The moment he realized this, he worked hard at getting closer to this brilliant and beautiful lady from an illustrious family. And currently, he was one of the closest males at school to Natsuya Yoruhana.

Almost every student at school recognized the two of them as a perfect couple, and based on the president's attitude towards him, Kazufuru Ooike also believed that.

Until today.

"That person will transfer into your class today, so please take good care of him, Ooike-kun."

Natsuya Yoruhana's sentence as she smiled stirred dark emotions within Kazufuru Ooike's heart, but of course he didn't allow it to show.

"I will."

Seigo Harano.

This was the name that gave Kazufuru Ooike the deepest impression recently, because in order to allow him to transfer to Genhana High School, Natsuya Yoruhana even went to the extent of using her family's connections.

As a student council member, he also helped with part of the process and saw the picture on the documents.

Seigo Harano was a good-looking handsome boy.

This caused Kazufuru Ooike to feel a sense of danger.

The picture could have been doctored; perhaps the real person wasn't as handsome in real life. He could only silently console himself this way.

Year 1, Class 5.

When Ooike entered the classroom, he found that the new transfer student who was about to arrive had become the hot topic of class.

"I heard the new student is a boy—it'll be nice if he's handsome!"

"Eh, it isn't a girl?"

"I wonder why he's transferring at this time of the year."

"I heard that the President used her connections to allow him to join; maybe he has some relation to the President?"

"Perhaps he's a young master from a rich family?"

Ooike maintained his smile as he greeted his friends, and when they asked him about the transfer student, he only smiled politely in response.

Suddenly, the entire classroom fell silent.

Ooike followed everyone's lines of sight and saw the two people he expected.

Kahei Watari and Takashi Kobayashi.

The first boy had an imposing height of 1.9 meters and was slightly chubby. His eyebrows were thick and bushy, and he carried a dark, severe expression.

The other boy had dyed-purple hair and was wearing earrings. He had thin lips and slanted eyes. Pale cotton bandages were wrapped around his hand, and his expression was cold and antisocial. historical

They were the famous delinquents of Year 1, Class 5.

Legend has it that both of them had the incredible record of having individually defeated seven or eight hoodlums before, and when they acted together as partners, just their glares alone would scare any low-level hoodlums.

Even though there were countless legends about their fights outside of school, they had never acted up inside of school before. However, this wasn't due to fear—it was more likely that they couldn't be bothered to act.

Every time they appeared together in class, their fearful atmosphere caused everyone to unconsciously stop talking, hence the uncanny silence which currently permeated throughout the room.

They didn't care about their fellow classmates' reactions at all, and they kept chatting to each other as they walked towards the corner of the classroom.

"How was… last night?"

"I only defeated eight… not many."

"I only took out thirteen myself, not enough at all."

"Let's continue tonight."

"Alright."

The simple conversation they had with each other was scary to the point where anyone who heard it felt their heart rates rapidly increase.

Only when they sat down at their seats and closed their eyes in order to rest was the classroom's atmosphere able to relax, and conversation gradually started up again.

'Hmph, morons.' Kazufuru Ooike mentally snorted at them.

He looked down upon these hoodlums that acted tough but already belonged to the dregs of society. Although he was forced to admit their skill in violence did give others a forceful pressure that was difficult to resist.

Not long after, the bell rang.

The class's teacher, a glasses-wearing unmarried woman who was twenty-nine years old, walked into the classroom, her face blushing deeply.

"Erm… everyone should have heard already that there will be a new student joining us today."

After that simple explanation, she gestured to outside the door, and her movement was sultry enough to the point where it seemed like she was flirting.

A boy walked into the classroom.

As he walked in, everyone in the classroom sucked in their breaths simultaneously.

The new student was tall and handsome, with a pretty face, clean-cut short hair, and a slightly shy expression… Even though he was wearing the same western-style school uniform as everyone else, he somehow managed to give off a charismatic impression, as if he were a noble at a banquet!

In the short time that he walked from the classroom door to the classroom podium, time seemed to slow down.

Just about all the girls in class had their moods markedly improve in just these few seconds, while almost all the boys had grim looks on their faces.

What the hell! Why did such a handsome guy come here!?

To be fair, if he was only a normal handsome guy, the boys wouldn't have minded so much. However, since the person in front of them was clearly a S-rank super handsome guy, the boys were battling with complex emotions.

"Hello everyone, I'm Sei… cough, Seigo Harano. I transferred at this time due to various reasons, so please take care of me from now on."

Seiji smiled gently at everyone.

Cough, he was a bit nervous and he had almost accidentally said his real name.

Suddenly there was a huge commotion in class, and the volume was all caused by the girls.

"So handsome! Hey, don't you think he looks a bit like the star Hidemi Kimura?"

"Eh? I think he's more like Mitsuaki Kaneshiro?"

"He's tall, handsome, and has a great atmosphere about him. I can't take it anymore…"

"He's even more handsome than Ooike-kun!"

When Kazufuru Ooike heard his name randomly being compared to the transfer student, his face started twitching, and his heart also twitched as well.

Kazufuru Ooike's hope was futile—not only was the new student a handsome youth, he was a supermodel-level idol-like handsome youth that greatly surpassed his picture!

He instantly realized why the president had spent so much effort on helping this person transfer schools. Unfortunately, his newly acquired understanding made him sink even deeper into the abyss.

Apart from him, there was one other whose feelings had fallen deep into the abyss.

It was Mika Uehara.

Even though she had already expected it, when Seiji's transfer was met with as much excitement as she expected, she still felt unhappy.

Yep, absolutely unhappy.

She pouted with her mouth, and muttered in her heart: 'Humph, what's with all this commotion? He was nothing but a disgusting fat otaku not long ago.'

Ironically, her own feelings almost completely overlapped with one of the school idol's feelings, student council secretary Kazufuru Ooike.

The teacher arranged for Seiji to sit in the empty seat in the corner, and he happened to pass by Mika's seat as he walked there.

She looked at him, and he glanced back at her and smiled.

Then, he sat down at his seat and greeted the students around him quietly.

Two of them didn't respond to him, so Seiji assumed that they were most likely the two delinquents that Mika instructed him to stay far away from—Kahei Watari and Takashi Kobayashi.

Since as long as he didn't bother them, there wouldn't be any problems. After all, Seiji had no reason to meddle in their affairs.

Currently, he was enjoying the feeling of immersing himself in school again.

Only after experiencing the cruelty of society did he truly understand just how precious the days in school were.

At the beginning of class, he opened his system, and noticed that the option [go to classes at school] which had been grayed out all this time was finally available for selection. He instantly decided to select it. Then, he was overwhelmed by a desire to study and learn, and he was able to fully concentrate. He didn't pay attention to anything other than the teacher and the blackboard…

After class.

Right when Seiji recovered from his [studying] status, he noticed that he had been completely surrounded by his classmates.

And the only ones surrounding him were girls!?

They chattered endlessly. With the fragrance of perfume and other good smells coming from their bodies, Seiji was slightly overwhelmed by all their questions.

"Harano-san, why did you transfer at this time of year?" This was a normal question.

"Harano-san, what kinds of things do you like?" This was a roundabout question.

"Harano-kun, do you have a girlfriend?" This was such a direct question.

"Harano-kun, are you straight or gay?" This one must be into boys-love…

…

"Okay, stop!"

After Seiji struggled for a while, a clear female voice suddenly rang out, which caused the girls to settle down.

Seiji looked at the speaker, and saw a tall, well-proportioned "handsome boy" with soft silver-gray medium-long hair and a bit of an invasive smile enter the crowd of girls.

"Free talk time is over now—the remaining time belongs to his official owner. Please back off now, thank you!"

"What are you talking about? His… his official owner—that's not it at all!" Mika Uehara shyly disagreed with what this "handsome boy" just said.

"How is he not yours? He transferred schools because of you, and you live together. You even come to school together, right?" The "handsome boy" flashed a mischievous smile.

After a momentary silence, all the girls were shocked and stared at Mika with their eyes widened!

"That's not it at all! He's… the president… he… he's just a renter at my family's apartment!" Mika Uehara panicked upon seeing everyone glaring daggers at her, and she blushed furiously in embarrassment. In fact, she was so flustered that she started spouting out gibberish.

"Renter? Is it really just that? You know, you guys…"

"I'm begging you, Chiaki, stop going on! Everyone's misunderstanding!" Mika tearily begged her friend.

Seiji smiled wryly.

"You must be Chiaki Wakaba, right? Mika's best friend—she's mentioned you before."

"Oh, so you directly call her Mika, do you? Hehe…" The tomboyish beauty in male clothes smiled with deep meaning. "That's right, I'm Chiaki Wakaba. I'm pleased to meet you, Seigo Harano." She took a handsome posture before she reached her hand out to shake his hand. If it was an ordinary person doing it, it might seem pretentious, but it didn't seem off at all when she did it; it was almost as if such handsome movements were patented by her.

"Pleased to meet you." Seiji smiled in return and shook her hand.

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Chapter 12: Please become my friend!

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

The tomboyish beauty that loved to wear male clothing, Chiaki Wakaba, was the ace member of the drama club. Therefore, she was quite famous in certain circles.

With pressure coming from her, the chattering girls reluctantly left until only Chiaki, Mika, and Seiji remained.

"Seigo Harano… not bad for a fake name, but I still think your original name sounds better." Chiaki said in a low voice and smiled at him. She knew about Seiji's real name and situation through her best friend, Mika Uehara.

Seiji scratched his face.

After personally meeting this best friend of hers that Mika had told him about beforehand, he finally understood some of the things that Mika had previously said.

Why did blondie have his eyes on Mika? Other than her outstanding appearance and attractiveness, there was also the fact that blondie had seemed to have heard some rumors and had come to a misunderstanding.

Then the next problem was the origin of these rumors. And why did they spread in the first place?

Mika believed that it was because she had an excellent friend with high charisma. As this friend of hers was quite popular with certain female student cliques, it caused Mika to become the target of jealousy as she was quite close to Chiaki.

"It just can't be helped. As Chiaki's truly beautiful and has her own unique charm, many girls are secretly in love with her…" That was what Mika told him at the time with a wry smile.

As one of the best friends of this famous, charismatic tomboy prince, Mika became the target of vicious rumors fueled by jealousy.

School was a bit simpler than adult society, but some nastiness was still unavoidable.

"Harano-kun, can you drink alcohol?"

"Huh?" Seiji blinked. "I'm still underage, and I believe you are as well."

"Don't be such a drag—as Mika's best friend, I'd really like to have a drink with the hero that saved her!" Chiaki smiled and licked her lips: "There's plenty of alcohol at my place—you should come on over!"

Her tiny action in tandem with her words made her seem quite devilish.

Seiji raised his eyebrows and was just about to retort, when he was suddenly interrupted.

"No! Sei… Er, Seigo can't drink alcohol!" Mika interrupted the conversation, "You as well, Chiaki. I've said it many times—you should stop secretly drinking!"

"Alcohol is one of the greatest joys in life. You won't miss out if you try it a bit earlier!" Chiaki smiled seductively, "And if you get drunk, you can do some even more interesting things…"

"What interesting things are you talking about!?" Mika forcefully denied her. "No is no. Alcohol is something that's not good for you."

"Ugh, fine." Chiaki had a regretful expression.

"Drinking juice will be fine." Seiji smiled, "If you have free time, you can come to the shop I work at—the sweets there taste delicious."

With him leading the conversation skillfully, they began talking about everything. historical

The pigtailed beauty, the tomboyish prince, and the idol-like handsome boy… the three of them chatting happily seemed like it was a scene out of an idol drama.

However, such a beautiful scene was unappreciated, even hurtful, to certain people.

Such as Kazufuru Ooike.

Witnessing this scene, the clogged feeling in his heart increased even further. Mika Uehara wasn't anyone special, but Chiaki Wakaba was a well-renowned and popular girl at school, and even Natsuya Yoruhana appreciated her talent.

He had tried his best to make friends with Chiaki Wakaba before as well, but she used skillful methods to reject him politely.

And now, that Seigo Harano was having a conversation with her as if they were old buddies.

He absolutely couldn't stand it!

But what could he possibly do?

Although some dark ideas popped into Kazufuru Ooike's mind, he firmly pushed them away.

In every instance, he always defeated his opponents directly from the front. Regardless of whether it was looks, elegance, grades, or sports, he would always defeat them fairly, and he never cheated or used any dirty tricks whatsoever.

He believed in his own excellence—apart from his family background, every quality of his was upper-class!

Judging by his appearance, Seigo Harano seemed like a strong opponent.

But so what? He, Kazufuru Ooike, could defeat him as well, just like all the others!

…

During all the classes in the morning, other than chatting with Mika and Chiaki, Seiji had become acquainted with some other classmates.

But he could only smile wryly at the fact that the only ones who treated him warmly were the girls. In fact, none of the boys proactively came to talk to him, and if he tried talking to any boy, any response he received was either indifferent or clearly distant.

It seemed that there were downsides to having such a good appearance as well.

What should he do about this?

It was already time for the lunch break, and as Seiji considered his problem and stood up from his seat, he noticed a male student with short brown hair, glasses, and a delicate face walking over.

"Hello, Harano-san."

"Hello."

"I'm the student council secretary, Kazufuru Ooike, and President Yoruhana specially ordered me to take good care of you after you transferred here." Kazufuru nudged his glasses upwards, "After a morning of classes, do you feel like you are having any troubles? If you feel like you can't understand the classes or if there's some other problems, I would be glad to assist you."

Seiji took a good look at this above-average handsome guy who embodied the very image of an excellent student.

"W… what is it?" Kazufuru felt uncomfortable being stared at like this.

"Can you help me with any trouble?" Seiji's mouth arced upward.

"Er… yes, if I'm able to be of help." Kazufuru nodded. Since the president had made a request, he had to at least look good on the surface.

Seiji suddenly stepped forward and suddenly grabbed his hand.

"Please become my friend!"

This one sentence resounded clearly throughout the whole classroom.

All the surrounding students turned their heads around to look, surprise evident on their faces.

Mika, who was on her way over towards them, froze in her tracks, and even Chiaki was stunned.

The entire classroom fell into an eerie silence.

After an indeterminate length of time, he foolishly responded with a confused, "Huh?"

…

The school courtyard.

Kazufuru adjusted his glasses again and tried to organize his thoughts, but he found that his brain still wasn't working properly yet.

In front of him was the cheerful Seigo Harano, the still-shocked Mika Uehara, and Chiaki Wakaba who was smiling ambiguously.

All four of them had brought their own lunches, so to the others, they looked like a perfect scene of two boys and two girls eating lunch together.

"Harano-san…"

"You can just call me Harano, or even just call me Seigo. I'll just call you Kazufuru as well, bro."

'Who wants to be your bro!?' Kazufuru Ooike's face twitched, and he almost said that out loud, but he barely managed to restrain himself.

"Man, I thought I wouldn't be able to make any male friends. I'm glad that I met someone as welcoming as you, Kazufuru bro. Here, as a sign of our friendship, I'll give you this green pepper from my lunch."

"I hate these!" Kazufuru wasn't a picky eater, but he considered green peppers to be the green work of the devil, so he unconsciously rejected it.

Wait a moment, that didn't seem like the most important thing right now?

"Don't worry, it tastes really good. After all, this green pepper is specially made; it was cooked by my gentle and beautiful landlord." Seiji remained smiling.

"Seigo!" Mika couldn't bear watching it anymore, "Stop being picky!"

"Is that the only part you want to comment on?" Chiaki took a sideways glance at her friend.

Kazufuru suddenly felt tired of it all.

"Harano-san, just what are you up to?" He sighed and looked straight into Seiji's eyes.

"Nothing at all." Seiji retracted his mischievous smile that he was faking and said lightly, "Just as I previously stated, I'd like for you to be my friend."

"…Why?"

"Isn't it obvious—it's quite hard for me to talk to the other boys." Seiji forthrightly stated the root of the problem. "They're jealous or can't stand the sight of me—at any rate, I'm having trouble getting along with them. So I need a sufficiently strong enough stepping stone. And you, Student Council Secretary, are obviously a popular and excellent student. You're the best choice, Kazufuru Ooike-san."

Seiji's revelation was far too direct, and the other three students were completely shocked.

It took quite a while for Kazufuru Ooike to regain his senses.

"So you're saying… you're taking advantage of me?"

"You're partially correct. Yes, I want to be friends with you—that wasn't fake at all." Seiji smiled again and gave him an omelet from his own lunchbox, "You'll accept a new friend, won't you, Student Council Secretary Ooike-san?"

"What if I refuse?" Kazufuru stared directly at Seiji.

"Well, it won't be a big deal. At the very most, I'll just act disappointed in front of all our classmates, and I'll also tell President Yoruhana about my disappointment as well." Seiji shrugged nonchalantly.

Kazufuru Ooike's face kept twitching uncontrollably.

He could already imagine what a commotion the scene from earlier must have caused, and if he refused Harano, and Harano exaggerated it in front of the class, this would become a huge problem, and in the end, it would damage his status.

Not to mention, there was also President Yoruhana…

As he kept thinking it over, Kazufuru found that he had no other choices.

"You… you're quite something." In the end, he looked at Seiji and stated coldly, "As you wish—I shall become your friend, but we still aren't friends."

His statement was obviously self-contradictory, but it was understandable as well, and Seiji definitely understood what he meant.

"I'll treat you as my friend, and I'm confident that you'll change your opinion of me." He reached his hand out with a smile.

Kazufuru Ooike looked at his hand for several seconds before he slowly extended his own hand out and shook Seiji's hand lightly.

Mika Uehara, who was a spectator for this entire scene, was still in shock, while Chiaki Wakaba's eyes glittered with an indescribable light.

As Kazufuru ate his lunch, he couldn't help but feel like he had been pulled into some sort of strange trap… but it was still acceptable.

Just let me see who you truly are, Seigo Harano.

After lunch, Kazufuru used the excuse of being occupied with student council matters and left them.

After she watched the student council secretary leave, Mika Uehara turned her gaze towards Seiji, with an expression begging for an explanation.

"It's quite simple, really—I didn't want to be left out of everything by all the boys in class, so I forcefully took advantage of the student council secretary." Seiji truthfully told her his intentions.

The personal relationships in school could become a big or a small issue. He came to school in order to enjoy daily life, not to become a lone wolf, so even if his method was a little overbearing, he had to ensure own place in school first.

Mika Uehara nodded half-knowingly.

"That was… brilliant." Chiaki Wakaba smiled as she assessed him, "I thought that you'd find yourself in great difficulty… if it became like that, Mika and I would still stay by your side. But you were able to break through it on your own—nice."

Even though the method was slightly underhanded.

But to be able to see the true nature of that excellent student who always wore a mask and to successfully take advantage of him, Seiji was definitely gifted.

Seigo Harano… no, Seiji Haruta, wasn't a simple person at all.

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Chapter 13: This world isn't one that only cares about appearances!

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

For the remainder of lunch break, Mika and Chiaki took Seiji around to explore the school.

Genhana High School covered a vast amount of ground and had a middle school section as well as a high school section, although the two sections were mostly separated apart from some shared facilities.

"Haha, seeing those tender juicy middle school girls isn't an easy task, but if you beg me, I can tell you just how to meet them!" Chiaki smiled impishly.

"Stop talking nonsense, Chiaki—what are you saying, tender and juicy…"

"It sounds attractive, but I can't afford to be thought of as a pervert right now, so let's talk about it later." Seiji rubbed his chin.

"What!? Seigo?"

"Ha, I was just joking."

Seiji felt that compared to Mika, the slightly devilish Chiaki was easier to have a conversation with.

Mika Uehara was still stuck between her mischievous friend and the otaku that was gradually coming out of his shell, so she found it difficult to keep up with them.

As Chiaki teased Mika, Seiji took a look at the schoolyard, when he suddenly noticed a petite girl looking in their direction.

The girl was wearing a middle school uniform, and she was quite short, with thin, spindly limbs. She had an exquisite face and large eyes with heterochromia—the left eye was green while her right eye was blue. She also wore a pair of huge cat ears which were swaying cutely in the wind, leaving Seiji with a deep impression.

She looked at Seiji, and Seiji wordlessly looked back at her.

Suddenly, she ran off and shrouded herself in the shadows of the nearby trees, disappearing in an instant.

"Was she a first-year middle school student? And the way she was dressed…"

That was how Seiji spent his lunch break.

After the last class in the afternoon, a boy with short pointy blonde hair and sharp features—which made him seem like a cosplayer for a hot-blooded anime—walked up to the podium.

"As everyone already knows, the school festival will be held at the end of this month, so we should decide now on what topic our class will be doing."

As he talked, Seiji asked one of the students beside him and learned that the blonde boy was the class representative, Koji Hoshihara.

"I've gathered some of the ideas from the students, and I'll write them on the blackboard now—if there are any other recommendations, please go ahead and say them now. Afterwards, everyone will decide the topic by voting."

A school festival… this was a classic scene from any manga about school life. Seiji's interest was piqued by this.

Class Representative Hoshihara then wrote on the blackboard: haunted house, coffee café, confectionary store, play, and miniature theater. Every option seemed ordinary to Seiji, as they were all common options seen at every school festival.

After writing down all the possible projects, the entire class began lively debating which option to choose.

Just as they were coming to a conclusion and the atmosphere was quieting down, a clear voice suddenly rang out.

"Harano-kun, even though you transferred in just today, you shouldn't remain silent at such a time. Why don't you let everyone know your opinion as well?

It was Kazufuru Ooike.

He took advantage of the timing, and everyone's attention instantly focused on Seiji.

Was this assisting him or an attack against him?

Seiji glanced over at his "friend" and smiled.

"Sure. After hearing everyone's discussions, I have an idea of my own as well." Faced with gazes of the entire class, Seiji's face did not show a hint of either panic or nervousness and spoke his thoughts eloquently: "I believe that a confectionery store would be a good choice. This seems to be one of the more popular options, but the students against it mostly believe that it's too difficult to make the sweets due to the lack of equipment and ingredients. As it happens, I have a method to take care of those issues, since I currently work at an outstanding confectionery store.

"We could just obtain our desserts from there, and then give our customers those desserts directly from the store. I can take care of the price negotiations, and I'll be able to get a discount for us. Besides, we should be able to make the simple desserts ourselves, and our supply will be assured if both sides make the desserts.

"Also, I would recommend turning the confectionery store into a cosplay cafe as well, with the main theme of the anime that's been hugely popular lately: "Honey Candy Girl." If necessary, I can even contact the creator of this anime and obtain the permission to use the copyright…"

Seiji described his idea with a well-organized thought process.

The entire classroom was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Uh-oh! It seemed that he wasn't careful and had accidentally used speaking techniques from his previous life as a government worker—did he make it too boring? Seiji felt himself breaking into a cold sweat.

Kazufuru Ooike mentally sighed.

That was excellent improvising! Although he expected that something of this difficulty level wouldn't be too hard to deal with, it was still…

Clap clap clap.* As his "friend," Kazufuru gave the brilliant speech his applause.

Soon after, the girls all began clapping, and the boys could only follow the momentum and clap along.

"I think Harano-san's idea was pretty good," Class Representative Hoshihara agreed and looked around at the whole class, "how about we go with his idea? A cosplay confectionery store!" historical

The class began heatedly debating again, and the girls strongly indicated their approval for the idea. Due to the girls' passion, the boys could helplessly agree.

This was mainly because that "Honey Candy Girl" was indeed quite popular these days and was viewed as one of the trademark creations of Sakura Island. It was especially well-known among teenagers.

The full-body costume that Seiji had worn for his first job was a mascot from this anime.

And Store Manager Rika Amami was actually related to the creator of that anime; the creator had even found part of the inspiration for that anime from Rika Amami!

So that was why he was confident that he could obtain the copyright permission from the creator through the store manager. However, since this was only a temporary confectionery shop for the school festival, going through all the formalities probably wouldn't be necessary.

In the end, when the class went through with the voting, the cosplay confectionery store overwhelmingly won against all the other options, and thus, Year 1 Class 5's school festival topic was decided upon.

"Now that the discussion is over, we'll decide on the specific tasks for everyone tomorrow. Everyone can go to their club activities now," the class representative ended the discussion.

The students all got up and left slowly in pairs or small groups, while Mika and Chiaki approached Seiji.

"Seiji, are you going to work?"

"Nah. I want to get to know the clubs at school," Seiji smiled, "could I request the two of you to be my tour guides once more?"

Naturally, the answer he received was "of course."

Seiji also wanted to grab Kazufuru to go along with them, but that guy had used the student council as an excuse to leave again.

Well, there were plenty of chances to train him in the future… no wait, maybe he should say improve Kazufuru's impression of Seiji instead.

With Mika and Chiaki leading the way, the three of them went to the tennis club first, as this also happened to be the club Mika was a member of.

"Our school's tennis club is a bit weak—we don't have the skill to compete nationally… Usually, we just relax and have fun." Mika awkwardly told Seiji about her club, "I just play for fun myself."

"She says she's only a casual player, but she's actually the second best player in the club. She's actually quite competitive, you know?" Chiaki spilled Mika's secrets again.

"Not… not at all, I… I just play at my own pace!" Mika's face flushed slightly red.

"The second strongest… that's great. Then who's the best? The tennis club captain?" Seiji said.

Mika nodded.

"The captain is by far the strongest—he almost made it to nationals this year."

The tennis club captain's name was Hideya Aizawa.

He was an above-average good-looking guy with light green hair. In reality, though, his greatest goal wasn't getting into nationals, but he instead focused his attention on the most beautiful freshman girl in the tennis club, Mika Uehara.

Earlier, when he had heard rumors that the school bully had his eye on Mika, he became quite unhappy, but that was all. Ultimately, he lacked the courage to confront the school bully.

But for some reason unknown to him, the school bully received a stern lecture from the student council president, and then he mysteriously dropped out of school.

Aizawa felt like he still had a chance!

Having caught the attention of the school bully, his underclassman was surely frightened by the experience. If he took good care of her during this time, and then picked a good time to confess to her, he should be able to make her his girlfriend.

But the situation was different from what he had expected. Mika didn't seem like she was feeling depressed at all during club activities, and she treated him more distantly than before, making him feel like all his previous efforts had gone to waste.

Why was that?

Today, when he saw Mika Uehara leading a boy who was so handsome that it hurt to look at him to school, he understood.

Seigo Harano, the transfer student in Year 1 Class 5, was already acquainted with Mika Uehara before transferring here.

Every girl in the tennis club had sparkles in their eyes after seeing this handsome boy!

And all the boys, including Aizawa, felt an incredible sense of pressure.

For the first time, all the tennis club boys felt like they had a common enemy, and when Mika Uehara borrowed a tennis racket and loaned it to that guy in order to have a practice match with him, their enmity reached a peak!

Why was there a scene from an idol TV drama here at their club!?

Just about all the female members were using their cell phones to film this scene, and all of them were blushing fiercely. Those girls usually liked to act untouchable, but now they were all agog over this one boy—what was up with this!?

Especially Mika Uehara, who was having a practice match with him—that look in her eyes, her body language, and her expression all seemed so flirtatious. Even an idiot could tell that she had feelings for the new student!

This beautiful underclassman of his had never acted like this in tennis club before, but now it was like she was giving herself away for free, trying her utmost to catch that guy's attention…

What a b*tch!

Aizawa's mind was filled with anger; it was as if he had seen the world for what it truly was and witnessed the cruelty of fate.

No!

He refused to accept, or even admit it.

Who cared if that guy was a supermodel-level handsome guy!?

He was going to use his ability that was almost enough to reach the nationals to let that guy know this world wasn't only about physical appearances!

"Harano-san, you probably won't be able to go all out when playing with a girl." Aizawa had a smile on his face as he approached them, "Your footwork is pretty good; I think you could be rather talented—how about practicing a little with me?"

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Chapter 14: You're only at this level?

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

Judging by his expression, the tennis club captain's intentions were obvious.

Seiji had never expected that one day he would receive enmity from other males due to his handsome appearance. He just didn't know what to make of it.

Alright, he was already mentally prepared for it after seeing the boys' attitudes earlier in class.

He should probably reject the invitation to play… but judging from the captain's expression, as well as the hostility being emitted by all the other boys, Seiji felt like it wouldn't be that simple to reject his invitation.

On the other hand, it was true that he wasn't playing seriously with Mika. He was only having some light exercise with Mika. Since his physical ability stat had already surpassed 60, he was slightly curious to see the full extent of his ability if he played seriously, and he wanted to compare himself to the captain that had "almost made it to nationals."

After mulling over it for a few seconds, he nodded his head in agreement.

"I don't know if I'm really all that talented… but I can't go all out against a girl, so if the captain is willing to teach me some tennis, I'd be more than happy."

Aizawa was surprised that he had accepted his invitation so willingly.

The other boys watching this felt their enmity increasing even further!

"You should 'teach' him to the best of your abilities, Captain!"

"Show him what tennis is truly about, Captain!"

"It's time to show him your real power, Captain!"

Many people got agitated to the point of shouting out loud before they immediately felt the hostile glares of the surrounding girls upon them.

"What are you saying to a first-year student that's only a beginner?"

"Are you guys just jealous? How awful…"

"That's why the boys in our club are…"

The girls made numerous negative remarks, which caused the boys to suffer yet another critical hit on their already injured hearts as well as rubbing salt into their wounds.

As Aizawa regained his senses, he looked at the other male members that had never been so energized as a team before, and he smiled faintly at them, giving a huge thumbs-up.

"Captain!!!"

The boys all felt like they were crying inside.

'…It seems like I'm the bad guy here?' Witnessing this spectacle, Seiji was speechless.

"Seigo, are you really going to play against the captain?" Mika was slightly concerned about him.

"Mm, it's a rare chance for me… Don't worry, I'm just trying this sport out—this isn't a competition or anything." Seiji smiled at her confidently.

"But… I've never seen the captain looking so serious before…"

Upon hearing this, Seiji coughed awkwardly and remained silent.

Mika exited the practice field, while Aizawa entered the field, and they faced off against each other.

"You can serve first." Aizawa posed in a way that he felt was quite gentlemanly as he tossed the ball to his opponent.

Seiji had an average serve.

Aizawa chased down the ball, and as if he was performing, he swung his arm grandly, and his racket made a booming sound as he returned the serve!

The tennis ball arced upwards in the air, landing about three or four meters to Seiji's side, instantly bouncing away.

"Perfect!" All the boy students were sighing in praise.

"Heh, Harano-san, how was that ball just now? If you think it's a bit too difficult, I can go a bit easier on you." Aizawa tried his best to not sound pretentious.

"It was alright." Seiji said faintly as he caught the ball that Mika tossed back to him, "You don't need to go easy on me, Captain—feel free to play however you like."

As he said this, he served again.

Aizawa returned it once more, and this time the ball landed even farther away from Seiji!

And then, just as everyone thought the ball would bounce unanswered again, Seiji suddenly increased his speed and accurately returned the ball before it flew out of bounds!

'Ha, although he increased his speed, but… it's still useless!' Aizawa triumphantly shouted in his heart as he returned the ball beautifully yet again.

This time, Seiji wasn't able to catch up to the ball, so Aizawa scored again.

"Ah, I apologize. I thought you would be able to keep up—it seems like I overestimated you. From now on, I'll be careful to go easier on you." Aizawa's eyes glinted with a mocking light as he spoke.

It was evident that he was trying to conceal his delight, but his words and attitude gave him away. This was obvious to everyone observing.

He was enjoying the feeling of beating a newbie!

"What's this, the captain had this kind of personality…"

"I already thought he was a bit too flirtatious. I never thought his true personality was even worse than that."

The girls kept muttering secretly to themselves—all of them were thinking how unfair it was for the freshman.

'Captain, we'll never forget your sacrifice!' The boys, who could barely make out what the girls were saying, felt their hearts trembling.

Next to the practice field, Mika Uehara was already beginning to pout.

She had already felt before that the captain seemed unreliable, and this time her impression of him was utterly ruined.

'Humph, he's bullying Seiji—how despicable!'

"There's no need to be angry—just watch the show quietly." Chiaki Wakaba, who had been watching silently up until now said, "That's your hero—do you really lack confidence in him? I doubt he's got all those muscles for nothing. In my opinion, he's probably not even using half his strength yet."

On the field.

"I said there's no need to go easy on me, Captain," Seiji enunciated each word clearly as he opened up the buttons on his western school uniform: "You can play however you like. I'll… also treat you well."

As he spoke, he slowly took off his western school uniform and placed it outside the practice field before he opened up the buttons on his shirt as well, along with taking off his tie.

"Wow! So handsome!"

Upon seeing this scene, all the girls started shrieking madly, and their eyes sparkled with excitement as they repeatedly took pictures with their phones!

Mika Uehara's face reddened as well, and she silently held up her phone…

Urgh! Aizawa felt like he had suffered a huge blow, and his mouth twitched. Not only was this guy milking his handsome face, now he was taking off his clothes!

'Who cares if he's tall? Is it really that amazing if he has good muscles!?' Aizawa cursed inwardly.

While he was cursing inside his heart, Seiji served the ball for the third time.

'Humph, it doesn't matter how handsome you are—you still suck at tennis!' Aizawa used his full power to return this serve.

This time, Seiji's speed increased even more! He accurately swung and returned the ball.

Smack… smack… smack… The tennis ball kept going back and forth, and it actually seemed like they were equally matched.

Aizawa became increasingly astonished as they continued playing. Aizawa's opponent wasn't just showing off his looks after taking off his clothes, but he was actually going all out instead, and he had increased his speed to a level where he could return each ball!

Aizawa was using tennis techniques, while Seiji, a beginner, was returning all his balls purely with reactions and speed!

The tense rally continued for several minutes.

The tennis club members were also astounded as they kept watching, as they had discovered that Seigo Harano was keeping up with the captain purely with his astounding physical ability!

"You're amazing, Harano-san!" The girls praised him enthusiastically.

"Who cares if he has good stamina? There's no such thing as endless stamina, and the captain will win in the end!" The boys were all complaining.

But, unexpectedly for the boys, the first one to make a mistake due to fatigue was Hideya Aizawa.

After the stalemate situation persisted for around seven or eight minutes, Aizawa finally slipped and missed the ball. He could only stare helplessly as his opponent scored.

"He scored!" Cheers arose from beside the practice field.

Mika Uehara was so overjoyed that she started jumping up and down before she noticed that everyone was looking at her, which made her feel somewhat awkward.

Seiji smiled and looked at his opponent.

"Captain, should we still continue?"

"Of… of course!" Aizawa ground his teeth as he stood up.

It was only a slight mistake. Aizawa's opponent had used up far more stamina than him, so his opponent would undoubtedly be the first one to fall!

And so, the tennis ball started flying back and forth again.

A few minutes later, Aizawa was the one who lost the point, and he had a look of shock on his face. His expression was unwilling as he wasn't able to accept the outcome.

"This isn't possible…"

A few minutes later, Aizawa lost a third point.

"This won't…"

Aizawa lost a fourth, fifth, sixth, and finally a seventh point…

…

"Pant… pant… pant…"

Approximately half an hour later, everyone observed in silence as the sweat-covered Aizawa struggled to catch his breath. His expression was akin to a dead dog's.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Seigo Harano wasn't even breathing heavily.

There was a stark contrast between their current conditions.

Was he a monster!!??

This guy had been exercising strenuously for over forty minutes now, returning each ball accurately with various movements. Even though he had not missed a single ball, he wasn't even breathing heavily. In fact, he had barely sweated either—just how monstrous was his stamina!?

All the boys couldn't believe what they were seeing!

Seiji scratched his face awkwardly.

"I feel like we've been practicing for a bit too long. I'm getting tired—how about we stop now?"

Even though that was what he was said, nobody believed his words! It was apparent that this was nothing but an excuse to end the practice.

Although Aizawa was reluctant for it to end like this, he understood that there was no way to bridge the wide gap in points anymore.

His physical ability wasn't even close to his opponent's level.

While his tennis techniques that he held great pride in had helped him, his opponent's overwhelming stamina had utterly crushed him! historical

No matter what techniques he used, or how much force he struck the ball with, his opponent always managed to accurately return the ball; it was like he was facing a wall, not a human!

Ever since he had learned how to play tennis, he had never felt such a sense of defeat.

But even if he didn't want to admit it, a loss was a loss. If he acted like a sore loser, he would only shame himself even more.

After remaining silent for a long while, Aizawa finally gritted his teeth and nodded slowly.

"Let's stop here."

"Captain—" All the boys were crying inside for their captain.

"See, like I said, you didn't need to worry." Chiaki had an expression like she'd already seen through everything, but even she was taken aback by Seiji's excellent stamina.

Mika's face was slightly red as she nodded quietly.

And in the end, this was all that an almost-national-level player amounted to.

Seiji actually felt rather unsatisfied. He felt as if he hadn't yet used his full potential, but unfortunately, his opponent had already fallen far behind him.

Seiji decided to forget about it. At least he had learned that his physical abilities were now significantly better than a normal person's. If he received another opportunity in the future, he could test himself again.

After Seiji left the practice field, he accepted the towel and water Mika handed him, and he wiped his sweat with it and drank some water.

After that, he ended up being surrounded by all the girls!

"Harano-san, your stamina is amazing! What exactly is your workout routine?"

"Harano-san, your muscles are so strong—can I squeeze them?"

"Harano-san, join our club—this older sister can teach you everything!"

Seiji felt dizzy upon listening to their endless chatter.

Ding!* Suddenly, there was a light sound, and he saw some words appear in front of him—

[There are now five females that have a favorability rating of over 90 towards you, and the [action points] system is now available. You can use various [actions] to obtain [action points]. The [items] system is now available; you may use your action points to exchange for various items and use them].

New system options!?

Seiji was shocked and felt the urge to check it out instantly, but it was inconvenient for him to do so at this moment.

After he had finally managed to deal with the gaggle of girls, with Mika escorting him, he broke out of the group and escaped.

After leaving the tennis club.

"Haha, their eyes were like wolves'!" Chiaki laughed, "Why didn't you join right then and there? Judging from their actions, you could probably start a harem after joining tennis club!"

"Chiaki!" Mika glared at her as she caught up to them, "What nonsense are you saying!"

It wasn't nonsense… Seiji could only smile wryly to himself. There were five girls that currently had a favorability rating of over 90 towards him! Apart from Mika, that meant that there were at least four female club members that were willing to have sex with him if he asked, and all he did was play some tennis there!

Should he say that there were many sluts in the tennis club, or was it that mega-handsome guys have always had it this easy?

"That was some pretty good exercise, but it doesn't seem suitable for me." Seiji shook his head. Honestly, he felt some regret, but if he actually stayed in that club, he was afraid that…

"Sigh, what a pity…" Chiaki shrugged, "Then where would you like to go visit next?"

"Mm… how about the drama club? I'd like to check out your club, Wakaba."

"Ok!" Chiaki chuckled lightly, "Our club has many cute kids in it—I think you'll love it!"

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Chapter 15: Today was a black lace day?

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

On his way to the drama club, Seiji secretly checked his system.

In his new [actions] menu, there were several options which included [write a diary, [play basketball, [sing, [dance, [draw, and [work]. Each category required a certain amount of stats as a prerequisite. For example, the [write a diary] option required him to have an academics stat of 15 or higher.

And according to his system's explanation, if he chose options from here, he would obtain action points.

His action points could be utilized in the new [items] menu, where he could exchange them for useful items. For example, there was a [favorability rating increase card, which could be used on a girl. As the name suggested, it would double the rate of increase for favorability rating, and it lasted for one day.

Another choice was the [physical ability—track and field activation card, which had the ability to open up some more specific options available to him in the [physical ability] category as well as giving him a bonus to any track and field activities…

After briefly browsing through his system, Seiji felt rather excited inside. He felt like his system's functions had greatly improved!

Although he could barely restrain his desire to try out the leveled-up system, he still had to visit the drama club.

The drama club had a huge classroom as its clubroom.

"I thought that you would use the auditorium for your club activities."

"The auditorium isn't allowed to be used for just anything, and besides, we don't only perform there."

"Where else do you perform then?"

"Outside, of course. We perform for elementary school kids and kindergarteners as well as performing for the elderly in our community. Sometimes, we also have exchange visits with other schools."

"I see…"

As they chatted, the three of them entered the drama clubroom.

Wakaba!* A thick book came flying towards Chiaki.

In the blink of an eye, Seiji had moved in front of Chiaki and reached out, catching the book with a loud "thud" sound. historical

"Eh?"

"What?"

When he returned to his senses, Seiji was briefly surprised at his own superhuman reactions. Even Chiaki, whom he had protected, the girl that threw the book, and all the other students that witnessed this scene were all momentarily stunned.

After several seconds of silence, the clubroom burst out into uproar.

"Wow!" Someone exclaimed in amazement.

"That was so cool! Who is he?"

"That was the first time that the drama club vice-president's book toss attack has been blocked!"

"Amazing! That was just like a scene from a movie!"

One person even started clapping.

Seiji felt really awkward and looked back at Wakaba for assistance, but he discovered that the tomboy in male clothes was blushing slightly.

"I now understand why Mika fell for you…" Chiaki said in a tiny voice.

"What?" Seiji didn't hear her clearly.

"Nothing. Your reactions are quite something."

Chiaki took the book from Seiji's hand with a joyful expression and walked towards the still-stunned brown-haired ponytailed girl with willowy eyebrows and light yellow eyes.

"Vice Prez, your ultimate attack has been countered—how do you feel?"

"What the hell! Did you just call that an ultimate attack!?" The ponytailed girl unconsciously retorted as she took the book back, "Why are you returning so late, Chiaki Wakaba? We already said that we were going to discuss the program for the school festival today!"

"You can just discuss it among yourselves. It doesn't matter what program or what character—I, Prince Wakaba, shall perform it for you all." Chiaki smiled seductively as she walked up to the ponytailed girl and lightly raised the girl's chin.

The ponytailed girl's face reddened, but then her expression immediately turned strict, and she slapped away Chiaki's hand angrily.

"Don't get cocky, first-year! I admit that you're pretty good at acting, but you still have a long way to go!"

No matter how you analyzed it, those words seemed quite haughty.

Chiaki shrugged nonchalantly.

"Haven't you guys come to a conclusion yet? Where's the club president?"

The ponytail girl's expression darkened.

"I bet that chick went 'hunting' again, right? I mean, last week she said it wasn't necessary to rush and prepare for the school festival. She wanted to capture something called the 'legendary creature' first. I figured she might not even come to the clubroom today." Chiaki smiled with a knowing expression

"Ahhh!! That freaking president! What is she treating this important once-a-year activity as!?" The ponytailed girl seemed to be angered past her boiling point, and she shouted with all her might—it seemed as if she was about to undergo a transformation.

Seiji and Mika that had been observing this could only have ambiguous expressions.

"Don't mind her—she's always like this." Chiaki waved her hand casually at her two companions.

"By the way, who are these two?" The ponytailed girl returned to her senses and instantly calmed down.

"This is my good friend Mika Uehara, and this is Seigo Harano, her boyfriend that just transferred to our school. This couple's here to observe us!"

"He… he's not my boyfriend! Chiaki, stop talking nonsense!" Mika's face reddened again.

"This is the Vice President of the drama club, Shiina Shiho." Chiaki ignored the vice president's haughtiness: "People also call her 'Demon Face' Shiina…"

"What the hell's with demon face!?" She was ruthlessly attacked by the book once again!

"Haha, you… get along really well with each other." Seiji could only smile faintly.

"You're welcome to observe us if you like. My apologies for this idiot member's unbecoming behavior, but our drama club consists of mostly normal people—please don't misunderstand." Vice president Shiho had a serious expression on her face as she explained.

'Wasn't this equal to admitting that some of the members weren't normal?' Seiji thought to himself.

"Harano-san, you're a transfer student? What sports club were you in at your previous school?" Shiina's eyes were shining with curiosity.

"Oh… I've never been in any clubs before."

"How is that possible? Your body is in great shape, and your reactions are excellent—I'd believe it even if you said you were the ace of some sports club."

"I just do some daily exercising…" Seiji scratched his face and began to feel awkward.

Shiina Shiho obviously didn't believe him, but she didn't press him further.

"You seem excellent—you're more than welcome to join our drama club at any time. You're also welcome as well, Mika Uehara. I've heard about you from Wakaba before."

"Y… yes."

"If you want to observe, as long as you don't bother our members, you can do whatever you want. Right now I need to take this idiot with me for a few minutes—is that fine?"

"No! I don't want to get lectured; save me, Mika—"

"Shut your mouth!"

After using the book to stop Chiaki in her tracks once more, Shiina dragged Chiaki towards one side of the classroom, while Seiji and Mika could only watch on wordlessly.

"She's… such a strong-willed upperclassman."

"I've heard about her from Chiaki before; even though she's a bit strict, she's a nice upperclassman, and she's a great actress herself. She also takes good care of her underclassmen, and the entire drama club is mostly run by her."

"A strict, yet gentle vice president… then the president…"

Before he finished talking, the clubroom's door was violently opened.

"Everyone! Your President has returned victorious… Oh my!"

Before the girl who suddenly opened the door was able to finish her words, a book flew towards her at lightning speed and accurately smashed against her head!

After the book bounced off its target, Seiji just happened to catch it again.

And with everyone watching, the tall girl that got hit wore a dazed expression as she slowly collapsed to the floor.

"Demon Face's ultimate attack… increased in power again…"

"Pre - si - dent -"

Shiina Shiho's entire body seemed to be infused with anger, as she took one step at a time towards the tall girl, and her words seemed to contain an unspeakable amount of complaints.

"Before I pass judgement on you, do you have anything else to say?"

The president let out a small whimper before saying, "Shiina, for you to… transform into a demon… It's all my fault, so even… even if I lose my life at your hands, I still… love you!"

The tall girl who seemed to hold the prestigious position of the drama club president lay motionlessly on the floor and looked upwards with tears in her eyes as she sighed affectionately.

Even though she was tall, she had a body shape that was comparable to a supermodel's. Her short orange hair was naturally curly, and she had thick eyelashes, a high nose bridge, and slightly deep-set eyes that were blue. She had the beauty of someone that seemed like a mixed-blood.

Her pose and her lines… Even though the scenario seemed a bit comical her full-hearted performance made it quite moving.

Unfortunately, her next words completely ruined the atmosphere.

"Eh, today you're wearing black lace?"

The scene instantly froze over.

Everyone quickly came to the realization that the president's head just positioned under Vice President Shiho's skirt…

Shiina Shiho slowly revealed a smile that contained a vast amount of killing intent.

"I pass a death sentence upon you."

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Chapter 16: He could only awkwardly smile… what the hell!

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

"W-wait a moment!"

Once the president detected the horrific killing intent radiating from Sheena, she jumped up in panic.

"I apply for a delay in execution! Sheena, there's a reason why I'm late today. Have a look—this is the result of my 'hunt' today!"

She pulled in a short girl who was standing outside the clubroom, and pushed her in front of everyone.

"See!"

Everyone instantly fell silent.

"Wow!" After a short moment of silence, the classroom once again broke out into uproar, but this time, it was purely due to their appreciation of beauty.

Even Seiji was momentarily shocked.

The girl in the middle school uniform was petite yet full-figured. She had an exquisite face with no blemishes and snow-white tender skin. Her hair was jet-black and silky-smooth with cute bangs hanging down on both sides. Her eyebrows were thin and elegant, and her nose was small and delicate. Her large and clear eyes sparkled with a soft light, and her luscious lips were the color of cherry flowers… As she stood there shyly with a poetry book in her hand, her beauty was indescribable.

She was an undisputable, super S-rank beauty.

This girl was the second such beauty that Seiji had met—the first being the student council president, Natsuya Yoruhana.

And if Natsuya Yoruhana's beauty could be described as an alluring mix of seductiveness mixed with purity, then the beauty of this girl was comparable to the beauty of an untouched snow field—pure and detached from ordinary people.

A girl with sufficient beauty to move an entire country—that was the type of girl that she was.

"Wow, so pretty! Is she a middle schooler? Where did the president find her?"

"She's just like a porcelain doll—so beautiful! Who is she?"

A multitude of excited voices arose once again in the clubroom.

"Heh heh, I'm great, aren't I?" The drama club president had a self-satisfied smile as she spoke: "Even though I still wasn't able to find the legendary creature, I coincidentally discovered this one, so I instantly decided to capture her!"

'Capture… Does she think this is Monster Hunter or Pokémon?' Seiji was rendered speechless as he heard the president's words.

The Vice President Sheena Shiho looked at the beautiful girl who was currently expressionless, and then ended up sighing.

"President…"

"Praise me, Vice President! This way, our club will…"

"How many times have I told you to not kidnap our underclassmen!?"

The accurate and powerful book attack once again arced through the air, leaving a trail behind as if it was a sword!

And so, Anya Saigenji, the drama club president, was executed by the vice president for kidnapping a middle school girl, at the age of…

Just kidding.

This president was actually quite something; when she took the position of president in her first year, the drama club had so few people that it was in danger of being abolished. In just one year, she had revived the entire club! And after another year passed—that is to say—the president was in her third year and it was now the present time, the drama club was already one of the ten biggest clubs in Genhana High School.

It was possible to make a movie out of the entire experience, with her as the main character. Even a 24-episode anime or television drama could be produced. For any normal student, the president's life experiences were way out of the ordinary.

And this legendary club president had just one bad habit that outsiders didn't know about—kidnapping… No wait, finding talented students, and forcefully bringing them to the drama club!

"About one-third of the club members were brought back here like this by her, including me." Chiaki Wakaba was grinning as she explained the situation to Seiji. "At first, I intended to check out every club beforehand, but halfway through, the club president met me, and she captured me and dragged me over here just like with this girl. Well, it just so happened that I was a bit interested in acting, and this seemed like a fun place, so I decided to join."

'So that's what "hunt" and "capture" meant. It seems like the president was treating finding new members as a game like playing Pokémon in real life!' Seiji could only inwardly comment to himself as he watched the club president being forced to sit in a corner and receive the brunt of Vice President Sheena's lecturing, which was akin to a raging thunderstorm.

"When I heard Chiaki telling me about this before, I thought she was joking…" Mika Uehara spoke with a trace of disbelief: "Doing such a thing… isn't she ever punished?"

"In her first year, the president had a debate with the student discipline committee, and she emerged victorious from the debate. This means that as long as there are no official complaints, the student discipline committee won't interfere with anything she does."

Hey, this was too much information to take in!

Seiji and Mika awkwardly exchanged looks with each other before they glanced back at Chiaki Wakaba, who was still grinning widely. Finally, they looked around the clubroom at all the other members who were taking this scene for granted, and… all they could do was awkwardly smile?

'Smile, what the hell?!!!

'Wasn't this almost at the level of a crime!? And she even had a freaking debate with the student discipline committee and had managed to win!?

'Was there something wrong with this school's student discipline committee!? They actually had a debate with a first-year student and had lost pitifully!? What on earth!!' Seiji's inner commentary continued like an unstoppable torrential downpour.

"Chiaki… before, I had always thought that you were rather unique and willful, but now… I've learned that I was wrong—my apologies." Mika's worldview had suffered a huge blow.

Don't give up on common sense so easily, Miss Uehara!

Seiji rubbed his mouth that was twitching uncontrollably, and he turned around to look at the other side of the clubroom.

The middle school girl that was brought here by the president was sitting quietly on a chair by the window and reading the poetry collection that she had brought with her.

A light gust of wind blew in, and the gentle breeze lifted a few strands of her hair upwards.

If a picture was taken at this moment, the scene captured would be more than sufficient to enter a photography contest.

The president who brought her here was currently receiving a lecture, and perhaps all the other club members were too awestruck by the girl's aura of purity, so nobody went over to talk with her.

Seiji thought about it briefly before he walked over.

"Hello."

The girl didn't respond to his greeting.

Seiji scratched his face and crouched down in front of the girl, staring directly at her face.

"I'm Seigo Harano, a freshman in high school that transferred here just today. Right now, I'm checking out the drama club. Which grade are you in? If it's alright with you, could you tell me your name?"

After several seconds had passed, the girl finally responded.

"A fool is a fool—not because of ignorance, but because of his own lack of knowledge." A soft and gentle voice responded in a clear and calm manner to his question.

'Huh?' Seiji blinked in confusion.

As he attempted to grasp the meaning of the girl's sentence, the conversation options appeared—

[A: What are you talking about? Are you insulting me?]

[B: Sorry, I don't understand what you mean.]

[C: Wise people are wise—not because of their knowledge, but because of their desire for knowledge.] historical

Option C seemed philosophical, so it had to be the correct choice.

"Wise people are wise—not because of their knowledge, but because of their desire for knowledge." Seiji said lightly.

Ding!* [Favorability rating has increased!]

The girl's eyebrows arched upwards, and she finally took her large eyes off her book and focused her gaze on Seiji.

"Have you also read Taylor's poetry before?"

"Er… yes… a few." Seiji thought to himself that he knew who Tagore was, but who the hell was Taylor!? After acting so pretentious just earlier, though, he couldn't say that he had no clue who Taylor was!

"What's the distance between you and me? First, you must ask yourself what the distance between our hearts is."

Again!?

This time no conversation options had automatically appeared.

'Come on, system, give me some help!' Seiji mentally urged the system to no avail.

Seiji broke out into a cold sweat, but he had a sudden flash of inspiration.

"The farthest distance between us… is when I'm right in front of you, but you don't realize… I love you."

'Man, what an embarrassing thing to say!' Seiji thought to himself. He only copied something he had read on the internet before in his previous life, but he didn't know if this world had a similar phrase.

Hearing his answer, the girl's watery eyes opened slightly wider.

"That wasn't a poem by Taylor… But… it was… pretty good."

She closed her poetry book.

"Kagura…"

"Hm?"

"My name is Kagura… Shika Kagura."

Her voice was soft and gentle and also contained a slight hint of coldness, but it wasn't something that would make anyone feel uncomfortable—it was just like snow on a sunny day.

"Shika Kagura… is it?" Seiji scratched his face, "It's a beautiful name."

The girl looked directly at his face.

"Seigo Harano… what do you need me to do?"

"Eh?" Seiji blinked in confusion. "No… I don't need you to do anything; it's just that I heard you were forcefully taken here, so I thought that you might be feeling somewhat uncomfortable."

Shika Kagura tilted her head slightly.

"You thought I might be uncomfortable, so that's why you asked for my name?"

"Yeah…"

"Strange person."

'Was that really strange!?' Seiji felt exhausted; it was difficult to hold a conversation with this girl—their wavelengths just weren't compatible!

"I thought that if someone talked to you, it would help you calm down… but it seems that I was probably just an annoyance—you were always calm to begin with."

He wasn't skilled at dealing with girls that were interested in literature, and after he had confirmed that she wasn't nervous or feeling uncomfortable here, he already felt like retreating.

Perhaps some people thought that the difficult-to-approach type combined with a S-rank appearance made the ideal goddess, but Seiji wasn't very interested. If even having a normal conversation was difficult, then forget about it.

Shika Kagura was silent for a few seconds.

"Were you… trying to console me?"

"I suppose."

"I see…" Shika Kagura nodded. "Seigo Harano… is a good person."

She suddenly had the impression that he was a good person?

Seiji was clueless on how he should to respond to this. Thankfully, just as he was contemplating his next words, he heard footsteps approaching.

Turning around, he saw that it was Sheena Shiho, followed by Anya Saigenji who seemed rather dizzy.

Finally, someone was here to rescue him! Upon seeing the duo, Seiji mentally sighed in relief.

"They're the president and vice-president of the drama club. If you're interested in this place, why don't you have a chat with them?"

As he said this, he waved his hand and walked away.

Shika Kagura watched him leave wordlessly.

"He seems… rather special…"

Her soft words faded into the wind.

Finally, she retracted her gaze from his figure.

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Chapter 17: I don't really like poems

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

"Seiji, what did you say to that girl?"

When he returned to where Mika and Chiaki were standing, Seiji was instantly peppered with their questions.

"I just wanted to ask her name and grade to start a conversation with her, but I failed." Seiji shrugged.

"Did you really fail? It seemed like you were getting along pretty well." Chiaki blinked innocently, "Mika was even getting jealous."

"Not at all!" Once again, Mika was the unwitting target of her friend's teasing, but her face was indeed slightly flushed red.

"I just… felt like she was really cute, but she had a cold aura about her. It seemed that it would be difficult to talk with her, so… I was impressed with Seiji being able to talk with her so easily."

"No, it wasn't easy at all," Seiji sighed lightly, "I just wanted to greet her, but she immediately quizzed me on two poems… I almost wasn't able to follow up."

"But that means you were still able to respond—amazing!" Chiaki gave him a thumbs-up, "In my opinion, for girls that love literature, as long as you can converse about her favorite topics, it's relatively easy to capture their heart. If you make a sincere effort, maybe you can even get her phone number!"

"Forget it, I really can't deal with her type." Seiji smiled wryly before realizing what Chiaki just said. "Why would I want a middle schooler's phone number!? Chiaki, you sound so certain… Do you usually…"

Chiaki Wakaba's expression suddenly became unnaturally stiff, and then she conspicuously looked away while whistling.

Seiji and Mika were rendered speechless upon seeing Chiaki's reaction.

Unfortunately, the two leaders of the drama club failed to convince Shika Kagura to join.

While Shika Kagura was indeed beautiful, her personality was entirely unsuited to be on stage, so the president had wasted her effort in 'capturing' Shika this time. historical

Anya Saigenji didn't seem disappointed at all, though—it seemed that she derived the most joy from the process of hunting down potential members.

"Chiaki's good friend, Mika Uehara, and transfer student, Seigo Harano—are the two of you interested in joining the drama club!?"

With her eyes sparkling, Anya Saigenji directly questioned the two observers.

"I'm in the tennis club…"

"I still want to check more clubs out—I haven't made a final decision yet."

"Acting is really fun! Why don't you try on some costumes first? I'm sure that you'll awaken a new passion!" Saigenji eagerly began trying to tempt the two of them to join.

Smack!* The vice president who disagreed with deceiving students in this way stopped her with a book again.

"We're about to begin our club activities—feel free to watch." Sheena Shiho smiled amicably to the two of them before sighing: "By the way, could I trouble you guys to take care of that girl the Prez dragged here? She's quite cold to us, and she won't even tell us her name… Maybe she's angry at us…"

"No… you guys just didn't pass her test." Seiji answered reflexively.

"Huh?" Sheena was confused.

"I just chatted a little with her… From my perspective, I don't think she hates you guys, nor does she care about being dragged here… she'll probably leave automatically once the time comes."

"Oh…" Sheena nodded, unsure of whether or not to believe him.

"Harano-kun, were you able to learn her name!?" Anya was quite perceptive.

Seiji nodded.

"Amazing! Please tell me her maiden name!" Anya suddenly put her face up close against Seiji, and her blue eyes were sparkling in anticipation.

Her actions resembled those of a certain rich girl with long and straight black hair from the anime called Hyouka; they were only missing her adding on the phrase: "I'm curious! I want to know!"

She was close enough for Seiji to smell her fragrant scent, and he unconsciously took a step backwards.

"Her name… erm… even though I'd really like to tell you, I'd better not."

"Don't be like that—tell me!" Anya forced herself closer again.

Smack!* The vice president restrained Anya yet again.

"If she doesn't want to tell us her name, then we shouldn't ask any more." Sheena dragged the president away by her shirt's collar, "We can let you take care of that girl, right?"

Seiji nodded.

The drama club finally began their activities.

Seiji and Mika were careful not to disturb the members as they explored the clubroom.

"These costumes are made with care."

"The scenery backdrops and stage props are quite impressive as well—it seems like much thought was put into their designs."

The atmosphere in the clubroom also impressed them—although it was disorganized and chaotic earlier, the moment they officially began club activities, they all turned serious, making them seem like the major club they were.

Seiji and Mika unconsciously felt affected by their attitude, and they started feeling bad about being idle, thinking that it was incongruous with the club's atmosphere.

"It's so different from the tennis club…" Mika sighed.

"Do you think it's better in here? How about changing clubs, then?" Seiji said.

"I… wish that our club would be a little more serious, but if they were all as serious as Wakaba's club, then it would seem…"

Although it seemed like a waste if they weren't serious enough, it was a lot of pressure if everyone was too serious. Seiji could understand Mika, since this was something that many students would think, even if it was self-contradictory.

"Seigo, how about you? Do you want to join the drama club?"

"Well, I'm a little interested in acting, and Wakaba's club looks pretty lively, but I still need to go to work, so it might not be possible for me to participate in club activities as seriously as I'd like." Seiji shrugged.

"Is that so…"

The two of them observed for a while longer, before Mika glanced at the middle school girl who was reading her book silently.

Seiji gazed briefly in her direction as well and exchanged glances with Mika.

"I think we've observed enough—let's call her and leave together."

Mika nodded in agreement.

Seiji walked back over to Shika Kagura again.

"Kagura-san, if you don't intend to join this club, how about leaving together with us? Let's not disturb their club activities any longer."

Shika Kagura lifted her head and lightly glanced over at the boy in front of her, before she closed her poetry book and stood up.

She was surprisingly obedient… Seiji scratched his face.

He indicated to Mika that they should leave now, and they said goodbye to Wakaba and the others as they left the drama club together.

"Seigo Harano, do you still need me for anything?"

When they reached a practice field, Shika Kagura suddenly asked a question.

"Er… no, you can go wherever you want." Seiji looked deeply at this unique girl with a cold aura and said, "Although I'm not from the drama club, I'd still like to apologize on their behalf for taking up your time. That president… even though she's a little eccentric, she's a nice person at heart. Please don't mind her."

"I know," Shika Kagura answered lightly as she looked up at the setting sun. "Appearances may be a disguise, actions may be faked, and you may see nothing but hypocrisy. Only the heart is true."

"…Another one of Taylor's poems?"

"No, that was from Lee Yuan."

'A Chinese… no, Huaxia poem?' Seiji blinked.

"Actually, I don't really know much about poetry. I was just lucky earlier when I was able to respond to your poem." He honestly informed the girl.

Kagura was silent.

"I'm sorry if you felt like I was deceiving you," Seiji smiled wryly, "but I didn't have any bad intentions—if you don't mind the fact that I know nothing about poems, we can still be friends."

She remained silent.

He supposed this was how it was. Seiji didn't mind being ignored or rejected as this was commonplace for him.

"I don't need friends," she spoke up in her soft voice, "I… don't like poems either."

Once again, her words were like bubbles that disappeared in the wind.

"Oh…" Seiji was surprised.

Before he was able to figure out what she meant, she turned around and left.

Seiji and Mika speechlessly watched her silhouette depart.

"She's… rather unusual." That was Mika's opinion.

"Yeah…" Seiji was a bit concerned about her, but it was obvious that she wanted to be by herself, so he couldn't chase after her.

'She doesn't need friends… this could be seen as a middle schooler's immaturity, but what could she mean when she said she didn't really like poems?' Seiji mulled over her words for a while, but he eventually decided to give up.

Either way, he was unlikely to meet her very often, since she was a middle schooler.

"Seiji, do you still want to look at any other clubs?"

"Nah, that's enough for today. I'd like to go home now—how about you?"

"I'll go home as well with you."

As he left school together with Mika, Seiji ceased thinking about the previous events. His mind was filled with anticipation regarding his new system options!

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Chapter 18: In order to obtain items, it's time to grind grind grind!

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

After Seiji returned home, he eagerly opened up his system and checked his new options with great anticipation.

[Play basketball] required him to have teammates and opponents; [sing] and [dance] both required an audience; and [write a diary] and [draw] were the only options which he could select immediately, provided that he had prepared the necessary materials beforehand.

Seiji instantly went out and purchased a notebook.

After returning home with the notebook, he sat in front of his desk and chose the [write a diary] option that was now available for selection.

Suddenly, an urge welled up within him to record everything that had happened to him throughout the day in the notebook, and his memories about everything that had happened today became crystal clear.

He followed his urge and began to write briskly in his notebook.

Since it was his first day as a transfer student, there were numerous things to write about. When Seiji finally finished, thirty minutes had already passed.

Ding-dong!* Seiji heard a new sound from his system that he was certain he had never heard before.

Seiji immediately checked his system and found that his [action points] for exchanging items had increased to 2.

In the [items] option, the lowest cost for anything was the [physical ability—track and field activation card, but even that required 20 points. Obviously, it wouldn't be possible to acquire any [items] in the near future.

After using [write a diary, the option was grayed out again; it seemed that he wouldn't be able to grind for points by constantly repeating the same action.

'If I want to obtain many action points quickly to trade for items, I can only do different actions…' Seiji rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Wasn't the system basically forcing him to develop himself in a balanced manner?

'Even though this is obviously a dating sim system, it seems that the more I take advantage of it, the less of an otaku I become!' Seiji commented to himself.

After reincarnating, he had been spending all his free time on working or exercising with his system. Wouldn't that make others think that he was a bright, handsome boy that loved to live life to the fullest extent and exercise his body?

What had happened to his original self that was supposed to be an otaku!?

Truthfully, the tedious nature of work combined with the great increase in his physical ability stat, which put him at a level far beyond the average human, caused Seiji consider using his save and load ability to make some money and temporarily stop working and training. This was to just enjoy being an otaku in this world for some time.

But with the new [actions] option appearing, along with the attractive [items] option, this thought was instantly banished from his mind.

"Alright, System—you win! I'll do it; I'll work hard!" Seiji said forcefully.

Well, leveling his stats was relatively enjoyable, and with the help of his dating sim system cheat, he could discover the true limits of his growth potential.

Of course, as an otaku, his favorite hobbies remained the same, so he decided to prioritize improving areas related to his hobbies if possible.

Right now, there were relatively few options in the [actions] and [items] menus, but Seiji believed that as long as he fulfilled certain hidden conditions, more options would become available.

Maybe even options like [write a story, [draw a manga, and [create a game] would appear in the future!

Although he didn't have the ability to reproduce the most successful products from his original world, he could always create his own—with the power of his system, anything was possible!

Rather than reproducing works from his original world, he preferred to create new stories, and it would feel great if they were his own! He almost felt like he could already taste the joy of creating his own story.

Naturally, he had to begin from the basics.

Seiji went out again, and purchased some sketching pencils and an artbook as required by the [draw] option, which also needed an art stat of at least 15 points.

Perhaps due to the poor quality of his drawing, his art stat had only increased by a measly 1 point after Seiji had performed the action.

He learned something else: even with different options, he could obtain a different amount of stats. He theorized that it may have something to do with his base stats, or it may be related to the equipment he used while carrying out the action… Maybe the stat gain depended on the overall quality of his [action].

Then, did that mean if he increased the quality of his [action, he could receive an increased amount of stat points?

Seiji felt like this was possible, but he would need to wait until tomorrow to experiment with those options again.

After using [write a diary] and [draw, the four options still available to him were:

1. [Play basketball] (prerequisite of 20 physical ability, 15 communication)

2. [Sing] (prerequisite of 15 music, 15 academics)

3. [Dance] (prerequisite of 15 music, 20 physical ability, 20 charisma)

4. [Work] (prerequisite of 20 communication, 20 physical ability, 20 academics, 20 charisma)

Basketball wasn't something he'd be able to choose without a team and opponents, and working would require him to go to the store. As for choosing to sing or dance… should he ask Mika to be his audience?

Going over to her place and asking her to watch him dance or listen to him sing—what kind of idiot would do that?

However, it seemed like a great waste to not make use of these options, and unlike basketball, he only needed a minimum of one other person as a spectator.

Seiji kept mulling it over, and as he unintentionally glanced at his high-spec computer, he had a sudden flash of inspiration.

What if it didn't have to be a person next to him? Could an audience on the internet work?

In Sakura Island, live-streaming was already quite popular, and with this high-spec computer and the internet speed in his apartment, it should be quite easy to become a live-streamer!

Seiji became excited at the prospect of live-streaming, and just as he was about to sit down in front of his computer, his stomach started growling.

Alright, he would begin live-streaming after eating first…

Several minutes later…

Cat-loving Flying Fish was the internet username of a true otaku girl.

She hadn't been a shut-in for a long time yet, as it was due to a certain recent incident that she stopped interacting with the outside world.

Even though that incident didn't cause any physical harm to her, and the aggressor was eventually caught and punished, the wounds in her heart made it difficult for her to go outside and interact with other people.

Her older sister and her good friends were all quite worried about her, but none of them forced her to do anything, and her psychiatrist also agreed that she should rest at home for the time being.

Without anything to do, she had fun every day at home by going on the internet, playing games, watching anime, and reading manga…

Ironically, these were all the favorite activities of the person who caused those scars in her heart before!

Just thinking about that made Flying Fish feel disgusted, but she didn't want to let go of her hobbies. It would be akin to admitting defeat if she gave up her own favorite hobbies just because of that person!

There was nothing wrong with being an otaku or her own hobbies; the only one in the wrong was that person. That was what Flying Fish believed wholeheartedly.

Tonight, she was surfing the web.

She logged on to her favorite streaming site, and after seeing that her favorite streamers weren't online, she randomly decided to scroll to the bottom of the page and look at the newest streamers.

Rather than following the most popular streamers, she preferred those that weren't very popular, as long as they had their own unique personality and style.

Of course, there were scarcely any streamers that met her requirements, and the few that she discovered previously gradually became popular streamers themselves.

Maybe she had a talent in discovering popular streamers?

After she realized this, she began to enjoy finding unpopular streamers even more.

She pulled the page to the very end, to the pitiful streamers that only had one or two spectators.

Flying Fish chose the ones that she liked, and once she decided that she didn't like it, she chose another one, repeating the process endlessly.

Finally, she clicked on a streamer who had a broadcast named "I Only Need One Spectator."

"H… hello!"

Right after entering his stream, she saw a boy nervously greet her while wearing a silver half-mask on his face.

"Cat-loving Flying Fish… thank you so much for coming. If you could spend a few minutes at my stream, it would be a huge help for me." His slightly odd-sounding voice had obviously been modified by the computer to disguise his true voice.

"Haha…" Flying Fish couldn't help but chuckle lightly.

This was the first time she'd ever seen a streamer like him. He was obviously shy and nervous, which made her feel like he was quite cute, too.

Even though he was wearing a silver half-mask which revealed only the lower half of his face, she could still tell he was rather handsome by the features that were revealed. In addition to this, he had a strong, well-shaped body. His physical appearance was probably much better than most male streamers.

"Oh… I'm going to start singing now, and then I'm going to dance. I hope that you can watch till the end."

And thus, this streamer with the broadcast titled "I Only Need One Spectator" began singing the theme song of "Honey Candy Girl," one of her favorite animes!

Flying Fish smiled as she watched the boy who still appeared to be quite nervous.

In all honesty, his singing ability was mediocre. He was neither terrible nor amazing, nor was he able to inject sufficient emotion into his singing—it was just normal singing at the level of a middle schooler singing karaoke.

The song wasn't long, so it was over quickly. The boy seemed incredibly happy after performing.

"Thank you for listening to the entire song. Now I shall dance for you, erm… feel free to go ahead and laugh. I can't see you anyways."

"Haha!" Flying Fish laughed out loud for the second time.

Since the boy had succeeded in making her laugh out loud twice, she decided to follow his stream. She also gave him some "apples," which were a type of online currency used to reward streamers.

"Thank you for the apples, but I don't need these. All you have to do is finish watching me perform." The masked boy seemed to be surprised at getting rewarded, and he flashed a brilliant smile.

His smile was alluring. Flying Fish couldn't help thinking to herself that he must be an attractive boy in real life. If only he was willing to take off his mask… historical

On the stream, the masked boy turned on some music before he begun to dance to the music. Overall, it was a fairly simple anime dance.

At first, his movements seemed stiff, but he gradually relaxed, and sometimes, he even exaggerated his movements on purpose.

After his dance was halfway over, Flying Fish was already covering her mouth, laughing unstoppably.

This boy was just too cute and adorable!

"Why don't you take off your mask, handsome?" She couldn't resist typing to him.

"Oh, that's no good. I'm actually quite shy, generous beautiful girl!" He replied.

Flying Fish almost collapsed onto her desk.

"How do you know that I'm a beautiful girl?"

"Of course it's my sixth sense!"

"You're amazing! I really am a beautiful girl; the type that could become an idol."

"Let's become idols together!" The boy pointed to the sky as he performed a half-split and shook his hips vigorously.

Flying Fish laughed out loud for the third time.

The boy finished dancing and breathed a sigh of relief as he returned in front of his camera.

"Ah, thank you for watching my entire performance. I'm going offline now."

"Eh? You're not going to stream for a bit longer? I can help you increase your followers!"

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary. I only need you." The boy smiled sincerely at her.

Even though Flying Fish thought to herself that he was probably just being polite, she still felt her heart skip a beat—his smile was just too charming.

Ahh—why wouldn't he take off his mask, damn it!

"I hope that you'll come watch me tomorrow as well. Goodbye." With that, the boy left and the stream turned dark.

'Did he really leave just like that?' Flying Fish was confused, but the boy's distinct personality gave her a deep impression.

'Tomorrow… let's come watch him tomorrow again at the same time.' Flying Fish had a small sliver of expectation in her heart.

…

"Whew! I finally did it successfully." Seiji took off his silver mask and breathed a sigh of relief.

Thanks to that nice person named "Cat-loving Flying Fish," he was able to finish grinding the [sing] and [dance] actions and managed to gain 2 action points.

Even an internet spectator counted as an audience. It seemed that his theory was indeed correct.

However, live-streaming wasn't consistent—he couldn't be sure if he would have any spectators tomorrow.

'A first-rate streamer can make millions, while a nobody gets nothing.' He commented to himself inwardly. After he had begun his stream, it took almost thirty minutes to get a spectator, and he was on the verge of giving up.

'I hope… that beautiful girl will come tomorrow to watch me as well.'

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Chapter 19: P.E. class

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

It was Seiji's second day after transferring, and the class he was looking forward to the most was P.E., the last class of the day.

He didn't intend to astound everyone in P.E. class, although he could probably do so if he tried.

After playing against the tennis club captain, he had already understood that his physical abilities far surpassed normal students, and that he had the potential to be outstanding at any sport.

So, if he didn't want to stand out, what was his intention?

It was to watch, of course!

Currently, although the weather was slightly chilly, the school hadn't transitioned to its winter uniform yet, so the P.E. class was still using the summer sports uniform.

Heh heh… it should be easy to understand after that explanation.

In Sakura Island, girls wore the same thing as some anime from his previous world—a white T-shirt with bloomers underneath!

Just the thought of all the girls wearing that P.E. class was enough to get his blood boiling!

Witnessing such a sight in 3-D was the apex of any gentleman (otaku)'s desire.

It would be flat heresy to claim otherwise!

The day passed quickly, and it was finally time for the class he had been anticipating eagerly.

Seiji had finished changing at Mach speed, and he was already waiting at the exercise grounds before anyone else.

When the girls had finished changing and came out in small groups, he felt like he was ascending to heaven…

All those lovely white necks and arms.

And all the various-sized breasts that ranged from full to almost nonexistent.

Not to mention the firm, peachy butts that were covered by tight shorts.

Ah… it felt good to be alive!

Seiji put great effort—a truly monumental amount of effort—into hiding the fact that he was almost in nirvana.

It was mentioned previously that compared to Seiji's original world, people had better looks on average, and this world had certain elements which resembled a 2-D world.

This caused Seiji to feel like everything in front of him was a real-life version of an anime, thus causing his heart to pound rapidly.

Due to how moved he was by the heavenly sight, he didn't even notice the fact that someone was stealthily approaching him.

"Harano-kun, you're about to get a nosebleed!"

Chiaki grinned broadly as she placed her hand on Seiji's shoulder.

Seiji finally regained his senses and turned around to look at her.

"Why are you still in the boy's uniform?"

"Oh my, are you disappointed?" Chiaki stuck her tongue out at him and did a sexy pose: "If you want to see me in a girl's uniform, I'll wear it for you if you come to my home…"

"Oh… it sounds like some type of special service—forget about it."

"Sigh, I got rejected again—do I have zero charisma? How about I throw Mika into the deal? She'll definitely agree to show you her sports uniform, and I have plenty of other clothes in my house as well!"

"Don't just sell out your friends like that! And just what type of place is your house!?" Seiji forcefully commented.

Chiaki kept chuckling bawdily.

"You're a really strange person, Harano. Weren't you a scumbag otaku before? After becoming this handsome, normally you should become a playboy, but you restrain yourself without concealing your bad points."

Even though she was smiling casually, her eyes flashed with a serious glint.

"Just what type of person are you, Seiji Harano?"

This was probably what she had wanted to ask yesterday.

After she said this, the conversation options appeared—

[A: I'm simply me—stop bothering me.]

[B: I don't know either —I only swore to stop being useless.]

[C: I'm just an otaku.]

Seiji considered the options carefully before making his choice.

"I'm just an otaku. Even though I changed myself and have become handsomer, I'm still an otaku, and I enjoy things that otakus like. Compared to before, my hobbies didn't change; what changed was the way I deal with things and my moral principles. I'll use all of my willpower to follow my new principles and not fall back into depravity like the useless person I was before."

After saying that, Seiji smiled sincerely at Chiaki.

"In conclusion, I have slightly more backbone than before as an otaku."

Ding!* Favorability rating increased!

Chiaki retracted her casual smile.

"Just… slightly? It's not ordinary for a person to risk his life fighting to save a girl that used to call him disgusting. I can't even begin to imagine what you experienced for you to change so much."

Seiji smiled and was about to say something when he was interrupted by a female voice.

"Chiaki! Why are you walking so fast? Wait up for me." Mika Uehara approached them while complaining.

After she caught up, she discovered the strange atmosphere between Seiji and Chiaki.

"Er… what happened?"

"Nothing much. We were just admiring the scenery, right, Seigo?" Chiaki slapped Seiji's shoulder.

Unlike before, she didn't call him "Harano-kun," but called him "Seigo" instead.

"Ah, yeah. The scenery is wonderful." Seiji's smile became even gentler.

"What scenery?" Mika looked around in confusion.

This was the scenery. Seiji snuck a look at Mika's long, creamy-white legs.

Chiaki squeezed Seiji's shoulder with a mischievous grin. 'So you understood what I was talking about, heh heh.'

…

The students had all arrived, but their homeroom teacher was overseeing class instead of the usual P.E. teacher.

"Sasaki-sensei said he had something to do today, so I'm here in place of him," said their homeroom teacher, a 29-year-old unmarried woman who was named Keiko Satou.

And thus, P.E. class began.

Seiji was hesitating whether or not he should excel in class today and draw everyone's attention.

He didn't actually enjoy attention, but he somehow managed to increase the favorability rating of a large number of girls towards him in the tennis club yesterday, thus unlocking several new options in his system. If he grinded even more girls' favorability ratings, then there was a possibility he would gain new options yet again.

After deliberating over it, he decided against it.

He had barely discovered his recently unlocked options, and he hadn't been able to fully take advantage of it yet, so it would be far too greedy to desire more. Besides, he didn't feel comfortable doing things that were against his nature. Finally, the boys in his class already had a negative impression of him—if he kept standing out, something strange or unexpected may occur.

It was better to keep the relationships with everyone in his class balanced.

After class had begun, the first activity was a two-person warmup. Seiji instantly chose Kazufuru Ooike, without giving him a chance to reject, in order to avoid the danger of being alone at the end of pairing.

Kazufuru's expression was grim, but he could only accept—after all, what else could he do as Seiji's 'friend'?

After the warmup was long-distance running. It was a fairly usual activity with a substitute teacher.

Seiji ran in the middle of the pack for the duration of the entire run. historical

Honestly, this was a first for him, as he experienced the difficulty of going easy on everyone in sports.

After one lap, most of the boys had begun breathing hard, but he didn't feel a thing. He could only pretend to have breathing difficulties as he kept running. And close to the end, he was forced to further reduce his pace, in order to prevent himself becoming the leader of the pack. He also had to copy everyone's panting, and he had to attempt to act naturally exhausted. The whole process could almost be described as torturous.

When all the boys finished, there were still a few girls running. The one at the very end was the fattest girl in the class.

She wasn't nearly as fat as Seiji used to be, but compared to the other girls in class, she was definitely the least attractive.

She could barely catch her breath as she swung her head around, and her hair was ragged and wild. Her sweat and drool were also flying everywhere—it definitely wasn't a pretty sight.

"Urgh—that Miyamoto… She's still so disgusting…"

"Her running is so terrible—why doesn't she just give up?"

"Hey, she's trying her best! Don't say that!"

The boys were gossiping with each other.

Seiji frowned in discontent.

Suddenly, the fat girl tripped and fell over with a resounding smack, which sent dust flying everywhere.

"Miyamoto?" The other girls that hadn't yet finished running turned around and immediately went to go check on her out of concern.

The homeroom teacher also ran over together with some of the other girls.

After a minute, the substitute teacher Satou-sensei's voice rang out: "Miyamoto injured her foot. One of the boys come over and carry her to the infirmary!"

"What?"

"I definitely don't want to carry that Miyamoto."

"You'll be flattened, haha."

Seiji's frown deepened.

He didn't want to hear their chitchat anymore, so he walked out in front of everyone.

Instantly, everyone's eyes were gathered on him.

"Oh my, the hero has arrived." Chiaki quietly praised him, but nobody heard her other than Mika who was standing next to Chiaki.

As everyone stared, Seiji briskly walked towards the group of girls were standing over Miyamoto.

"Harano-san, can I ask you to do it?" Satou-sensei had an anxious expression, and when she noticed that it was the new transfer student who volunteered, her countenance changed slightly.

"Not a problem." Seiji smiled at her and all the other girls.

Then, he went over to the weeping fat girl and carried her. Contrary to the expectations of the others, he didn't carry her with his back…

Instead, he princess-carried her!

"Miyamoto-san, right? This is my first time speaking with you." Seiji smiled at the stunned girl in his arms: "Please wait for just a moment—your personal ambulance will take you to the infirmary immediately."

Then, he started running whilst carrying her.

"Wow!"

"Amazing—a princess-carry!"

"That's the first time I've ever seen a princess-carry in real life, and he can even run while doing it!?"

"Harano-san is so cool, and he's so strong!"

All the girls instantly fell in love with the valiant youth.

And once again, all the boys had incredulous expressions on their faces.

"No way! Just how much does Miyamoto weigh!?" One boy exclaimed in surprise.

In reality, almost all of the boys were thinking that to themselves and were mentally comparing their own strength to Seiji's. Soon after, they all came to the realization that they wouldn't be able to accomplish what he had just done.

"Harano-san is so cool—he volunteered to carry her!"

"I think I'm in love with him—I want him to carry me like that!"

"Me too, me too! I'd love to be carried like that!"

The girls kept chattering endlessly, and even the homeroom teacher's face was flushed slightly red.

In this type of atmosphere, the boys could only remain awkwardly silent.

This included Kazufuru Ooike, whose expression was grim.

He had actually wanted to step out and help her, as it was an excellent chance to improve his reputation, but he had used up a lot of stamina when running earlier, so he hesitated—if he tried carrying her but failed instead, he would only lose face.

He couldn't imagine that Seigo Harano still had such great reserves of stamina remaining.

'I truly lost this time…' Kazufuru Ooike reluctantly thought to himself.

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Chapter 20: You can't conceal that otaku scent of yours!

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

Kaho Miyamoto's heart was pounding rapidly.

She had never imagined that she would be princess-carried one day, and by such a handsome boy to boot!

It shouldn't be this way, right? A prince-like boy like him should be carrying a princess-like girl, not a disgusting otaku girl like her!

Kaho Miyamoto was self-aware of her own appearance being on the ugly side, and along with being a loner whose interests were different from most, no matter how you looked at it, she was at the bottom of the rung.

And as for Seigo Harano who was carrying her, even though this was only his second day in school, his appearance and body shape was A, and he had a gentle personality and was polite. All the girls had excellent opinions of him, while the boys seemed rather jealous.

The difference between her and this shining fellow who was top-class in everything was like that of a mountain and a valley—they shouldn't have had any contact with each other in the first place.

Nevertheless, she was currently being princess-carried by him.

When she had accidentally injured her foot earlier, she had thought that today was an unlucky day, but perhaps today she was fortunate after all?

While Kaho Miyamoto's heart was all aflutter, they reached the infirmary.

The infirmary nurse was a friendly woman in her 40s that had plenty of experience in treating this type of injury, so her injury was quickly treated and bandaged. Kaho was then informed that she should rest her foot for the next two days.

After that, the nurse allowed Kaho to rest on one of the beds, before she hurriedly departed from the infirmary to attend to another task.

"Does your foot still hurt, Miyamoto-san?"

"It… doesn't hurt as much anymore. Thank you, Harano-san."

Kaho lowered her head after glancing at the boy who was worried about her.

"I'm sorry… I'm probably so heavy… my apologies for all the trouble when I'm such a disgusting girl…"

Seiji frowned upon hearing her words.

"Look here." He put both his hands in front of her.

"Mm?" Kaho reflexively raised her head.

Smack!* In front of Kaho, Seiji slapped himself hard on the hand, and the sound resounded clearly through the infirmary room, startling her.

"Give yourself more credit—you haven't done anything wrong, so why are you lowering your head?"

Seiji smiled at the girl who felt a mixture of shock and confusion at his action.

"Yes, you're rather fat and somewhat disgusting."

Kaho Miyamoto felt like she had received a critical hit. historical

She couldn't help but think, 'Was there anyone that would say it so directly like you!?'

Even if she was fully aware of the truth already, it would still hurt if someone else said it out loud.

"But, so what?" Seiji continued. "Your weight means nothing to me. I could carry you and run for 100 kilometers if necessary, and as for you being disgusting… sorry, but I'm already used to someone that's 100 times more disgusting than you are."

"Oh…" Kaho Miyamoto's eyes widened in amazement.

Someone 100 times as disgusting as she was—who could that possibly be?

"I'm talking about myself," Seiji pointed as his own chest, "more accurately, the person I previously was until not long ago."

"…Huh!?" Kaho's astonishment further increased.

"It's true—just a month ago, I was even fatter than you, and I was also uglier than you. I had fallen to the utmost depravity; I was basically human scum, a walking pile of garbage." Seiji shrugged casually.

Considering the state of the original Seiji, it wouldn't be an exaggeration no matter how much he insulted himself.

But to Kaho, it seemed utterly inconceivable—how could this possibly be!?

"Harano-san…"

"Do you think I'm lying? I'm definitely not. You can go ask Mika Uehara if you don't believe me—she's quite knowledgeable about how depraved I was before. My depravity even led to me being chased out of my own home, and currently, I'm living on my own and have to work to support myself."

"What… what!?" Kaho felt like her world was turning upside-down.

Could all this be true!? It truly didn't seem possible!

But there was no reason for him to make all this up—a normal person wouldn't denigrate himself to this degree!

And if all of this was real, was it something to say out loud so easily!? Wouldn't a normal person want to desperately hide his own dark past!?

Kaho Miyamoto felt dizzy thinking about it all.

"Well, none of that was really important." Seiji lightly passed over the subject.

They're super important, okay!?

"I just wanted to say that you aren't heavy at all to me, nor are you disgusting, so you don't need to apologize to me. If you were helped by me, all you need to say is 'thank you,' don't you think?"

Seiji smiled gently.

A light breeze blew the window curtain open, and a ray of sunlight illuminated his handsome face, increasing the radiance of his brilliant smile.

This scene etched itself deeply into Kaho Miyamoto's heart.

A part of her that had been numbed for so long suddenly awakened.

"…Why?"

"Hm?"

"Why… were you able to change yourself so greatly? If… you were really like the person you said you were?" Kaho gripped the bedsheet tightly.

"Well…" Seiji scratched his face. "Actually I prefer to keep that private, but I may as well do you a service. Not long ago, I almost… choked to death on some instant noodles."

Kaho who was listening to him seriously felt like she heard something incomprehensible.

"Huh!?"

"I almost choked to death on some instant noodles." Seiji repeated while pointing at himself again. "Does it sound funny? Well, it really happened. When I almost choked to death on the instant noodles, it was like I saw my entire life flash before my eyes, and I was able to observe myself from a bystander's viewpoint. That's when I finally discovered the truth: that this guy was so terrible, I should get rid of him. However, I didn't end up dying and coughed up the instant noodles. That's when I realized that I must change myself, and thus I began exercising, set new life principles to live by, and did my utmost to follow them. Actually, I didn't expect to become this handsome—I only intended to lose some weight. I'm not used to being a handsome guy at all—all those attractive girls surrounding me makes me feel rather nervous." Seiji shrugged again.

Kaho heard a story that sounded like a fantasy to her, and her eyes remained wide open and round throughout.

At the end, she began giggling.

"What's with this… such a haphazard thing happening… It's the first time I've ever heard someone saying how handsome they are. It's a little sickening… but you really are quite handsome, Harano-san."

She laughed to the point where tears were flowing out.

It felt like something within her heart had been shattered and dissolved into a liquid that was releasing itself from her eyes.

Seiji just watched her as he smiled.

"This is my secret—even Mika and the others don't know about it. Please let it remain a secret for me."

Something moved in Kaho's heart.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I don't have the courage to tell them something this shameful."

"Then why… did you tell me?"

"Because you're the same type as me," Seiji said sincerely, "just like my previous self, you're fat, an otaku, and not good-looking at all. Oh, and by the way, I'm still an otaku—I only just became a little more handsome."

Upon hearing this, Kaho giggled—she couldn't stop herself from laughing again.

"How did you know I was an otaku?"

"I can sense my kind—you can't conceal that otaku scent of yours!" Seiji pressed against his forehead, while pointing to her in an exaggerated pose copied from an anime.

"Don't say it like you're someone from a shonen manga who sensed an enemy, ok!?" Kaho commented reflexively.

The two of them looked at each other and broke out into laughter.

"I don't have any otaku friends currently, so will you be my friend, Miyamoto-san?"

Seiji stretched out his hand.

Kaho looked at his large hand, and her expression was fluctuating rapidly. After a long period of time, she slowly shook her head.

"I can't… not now… Harano-san, you stand out too much. You're a prince now, even if you used to be the person you just described to me. I don't have the confidence to be by your side yet."

"Is that so…" Seiji retracted his hand regretfully.

"But, I'll work my hardest." Kaho smacked her lips, and her eyes sparkled with the light of conviction, "I'll do my best to reach where you are, and when that time comes…"

'Please allow me to reach out to you, my beloved… prince on a white horse.'

…

Seigo Harano had already left.

Everything that just happened seemed as if it were a dream.

But the secret that Kaho Miyamoto kept deep within her heart reminded her that it was no dream.

This was the first time since she was born that she truly fell in love with a real-life boy.

This was the first time since she was born that she truly felt glad to be alive.

This was the first time since she was born that she felt like she could achieve her dreams.

The gods that had ignored her for fifteen entire years may have been waiting for this moment to give her hopes and dreams to reach for.

"Harano-kun… I won't… make you wait long."

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Chapter 21: Peach

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

He was rejected… was it because he had become too handsome, or did he ask at a inopportune timing?

After leaving the infirmary, Seiji felt rather helpless.

It was obvious that Miyamoto was a nice girl who just lacked self-confidence. If she gained self-confidence and lost some weight, she would probably be a cute girl.

Even if she didn't lose weight, as long as she gained self-confidence, she'd be a great otaku friend.

Sadly, he was rejected.

Because Miyamoto wasn't considered as a "beautiful girl" by his system, Seiji wasn't able to view her favorability rating towards him.

'I hope she doesn't hate me. Perhaps my story was too unbelievable for her to handle.' Seiji thought to himself.

He was rejected, he was rejected, he was rejected… important things should be repeated three times. historical

He had only wanted to make a friend with whom he could discuss otaku topics. Seiji sighed helplessly. Although Mika and Chiaki were both nice, neither of them were interested otaku topics.

The school didn't seem to have a club related to otaku activities either—he had already looked into it.

Then just where was he supposed to release all the otaku energy that was gathering inside him!?

Anyway, with Genhana High School being such a large school, why weren't there at least a few otakus that created clubs for their interests!?

Just as he was pondering over the matter, he had a flash of inspiration which caused him to stop walking.

'Is this… the part where I should be creating my own club?'

He suddenly felt like all the resistance blocking his clogged feelings had disappeared.

…

After P.E class had ended, class representative Koji Hoshihara led a class meeting for assigning everyone various tasks for the school festival's preparations.

Koji's apportioning of the tasks was fair and reasonable, so they only discussed some small details before finalizing the plans.

"Harano-san, your task is extremely important. I hope that you'll be able to discuss things with the confectionery store swiftly and successfully."

"No problem, Class Rep, I already called the store manager last night and asked her about it—she's quite happy to help us. I'm going to work tonight, so I'll discuss the other details with her then."

"Oh, wonderful—as expected of Harano-san!" Koji thought about it for a while:

"After you talk to her again tonight, can you give me a call and tell me about the situation? I want to know as much as possible."

"Sure." Seiji exchanged phone numbers with Koji.

As the class representative of Year 1 Class 5, Koji Hoshihara was a reliable person who was clearly the type that was accustomed to leading. He was one of the people in class that was well-respected by both the boys and the girls and was also one of the only boys that didn't feel any jealousy towards Seiji.

Seiji felt quite fortunate that his class rep was a person like Koji, otherwise he'd have an even more difficult time in class.

Unluckily, Koji was only thinking about managing the situation in a more convenient manner, and even though Koji wasn't biased against Seiji, it didn't seem that Koji intended to become friendlier with Seiji either.

"Seigo, are you going now?"

"Yeah, I'm going to the sweets shop now—how about you guys?"

"I… don't feel like going to tennis club today. I'll just go home with you." Mika said.

"I'm going to drama club—we need to practice our program for the school festival."

After Chiaki left, Seiji and Mika also departed from school and started walking home.

"How's… the tennis club doing?"

"I don't know, but I doubt the atmosphere will be very good today."

"Sorry…"

"Seigo… Seiji, you didn't do anything wrong," Mika sighed, "the club's always had similar problems before, and after seeing things there yesterday… honestly, I've been considering leaving that club."

"Mm… it doesn't seem like that club is suitable for you."

"But even if I leave that club, I don't know what club I'd want to join…" Mika sighed once more, as she turned around and looked at Seiji: "How about you, Seiji—what club are you interested in?"

"Mm…" Seiji rubbed his chin thoughtfully: "When I was chatting with you during lunch, I asked if there were any club activities for otakus, right? You said there weren't any. That's why I was thinking about creating my own club."

"You want to create your own club?" Mika was momentarily stunned.

"I'm an otaku after all—I'd like to be together with fellow otakus that share my interests." Seiji smiled, "Of course you're welcome to join in as well—even if you aren't an otaku, you also enjoy watching some animes and we can chat about it together."

"Oh…" At this moment, Mika felt a distance between her and the boy in her heart.

Although she did enjoy watching some animes, and she would also watch some idol videos online occasionally, she wasn't a fully-fledged otaku like Seiji.

Ever since Seiji had changed himself, she was getting along pretty well with him, but his true essence was that of an otaku, while she had ordinary interests.

This made Mika feel a sense of panic.

"Do you know what the requirements for me to establish a club are?" Seiji asked.

"Oh… it probably it requires a minimum number of people, and then you have to apply to the student council." Mika buried her complicated feelings deep inside her heart as she answered his question sincerely.

"As expected, the number of people is the first hurdle…" Seiji rubbed his chin thoughtfully: "Maybe I should do something like send out a summons…"

"Summons?"

"Put up an advertisement on the bulletin board, and search for students with similar interests."

"Will… that work?"

"I don't know, but at the very least I have to try." Seiji rubbed his chin as he considered it carefully.

Even though it was rather bothersome to create a club, it would be an excellent method of enjoying his newfound youth, wouldn't it?

But anyway, he had to take care of the school festival first.

…

At the Divine Taste confectionary store, Seiji chose the [work] option from his actions menu after changing into his work uniform. He then began working with smooth and experienced movements.

He remained fully occupied until 7:30 in the evening.

After he finished his shift, Seiji went to the store manager's office instead of changing out of his work clothes.

Rika Amami was already waiting for him there.

As usual, she was well-dressed. She wore a suit that showed off her excellent figure, and in tandem with her black stockings and beautiful legs, she was oozing with sex appeal.

What surprised Seiji was the fact that there was another woman in the store manager's office.

The other woman was wearing a cap that covered her medium-length silvery-brown hair. She wore a gray sweater with black sweatpants, and her chest was just as ample as the store manager's. She sat on the sofa with her legs tucked to her chest like an elementary schooler would, and she had a despondent aura about her.

"Harano-kun, you've arrived."

The fact that Seiji was using a fake name was supported and known by the store manager, so all his coworkers changed the way they addressed him as well to mitigate any potential problems.

"Before we talk, let me introduce someone to you—this is the author of "Honey Candy Girl," her pen name is…"

"Peach-sensei!?" Seiji's eyes instantly lit up.

His voice suddenly rose an octave, which seemed to frighten the cap-wearing woman. She trembled violently as she retreated further into her own embrace.

"Yep, she's known as Peach, and she's also my younger cousin," Rika Amami sighed, "she hasn't been outside for a long time, so I dragged her out here today to talk with you."

"I never imagined that I'd be able to meet Peach-sensei! Your story is wonderful!" Seiji felt like his otaku portion's passion had been ignited, "I've watched every episode of your anime, and I even wanted to buy the special edition. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough money… Oh, would it be alright to ask for your autograph?"

He approached her as he talked.

The woman in the cap named Peach kept retreating from him.

"D… don't come over!"

Seiji was instantly petrified as if he had been stricken by a curse.

Rika Amami sighed deeply.

"My apologies, Harano-kun. My cousin here has severe androphobia."

"…Oh?"

This was the first time that Seiji was hearing about this legendary phobia in real life.

He hurriedly took several steps away from her, and as if she was reacting to his presence, she seemed to loosen up.

'Wow, it was actually real?' Seiji looked at the store manager inquiringly.

"This isn't a secret or anything—just about everyone that is familiar with her knows about it. She's always attended girl-only schools in her childhood, and because of an incident with a boy in college, she developed androphobia. To be honest, it wasn't that bad of an incident—it was just normal miscommunication. However, I underestimated her tolerance. As it was lacking, she became an otaku. From there she embarked upon the path of an author." Rika explained.

"Oh…" Seiji nodded understandingly. "My apologies for scaring you, Sensei," he said to the woman.

Peach adjusted her body on the sofa.

"No… I'm… sorry."

Her voice was so gentle—if she could talk without stuttering, he was sure that she would sound amazingly attractive.

"Since Sensei is here, do you wish to talk about obtaining the copyright permission?" Seiji then turned towards Rika: "Since she has androphobia, we could have just talked about it over the phone." Seiji felt like a matter such as his class borrowing the theme of "Honey Candy Girl" for the school festival was on a large enough scale to justify the presence of the author, though.

Rika Amami had a serious expression as she looked at him.

"Actually, I have a suggestion. You can receive the copyright permission from Peach, and the store will give you its full assistance in helping your class for the school festival. There's just one condition."

"What is it?" Seiji felt an ominous premonition.

"I want you to have a date with Peach on the day of the school festival."

"…What!?"

Chapter 22: Snail and sparrow

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

Seiji was shocked at the unexpected request.

"Have a… date with Peach-sensei?"

"Even though I called it a date, it's more like just showing her around your school, grabbing a bite to eat, watching some students' shows and so on." Rika folded her arms before continuing, "Currently, she can't deal with adult men at all. While little kids and elementary schooler boys are okay for her, they don't help with curing her androphobia at all, so right now she needs to get used to middle school and high school boys. You've been working here for quite some time now, and I feel like you're a trustworthy and reliable person who can deal with most situations. The timing was perfect with your school festival, so I requested your assistance in order to help her familiarize herself with boys your age. It would also help her get out more and talk to real people—killing two birds with one stone, so to speak."

Seiji rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Just experiencing the school festival… will that really help her cure her androphobia?"

"I don't know; it's just something I want to try." Rika unfolded her arms, "Are you willing to do it? Is a young man such as yourself willing to have a date with a stranger in the once-a-year experience of the school festival?"

"…What if I refuse?"

"Then we'll just have to reconsider the copyright issue and the store's assistance."

Seiji scratched his face as he thought about it.

"By the way… what does Sensei herself think of all this?" He turned to Peach, "Sensei is someone I don't know at all, and of course Sensei doesn't know me either—for two strangers to go to a school festival together, is it really alright?"

Rika also turned to look at her cousin.

Peach remained silent for a long time before she finally spoke up.

"Actually… I'm… afraid. But, I… trust Rika… and the boy she believes in. As I am now… even if I don't get married, I can live by myself. But, if this goes on… I can't draw male characters… I don't want myself to be limited to female characters forever!"

She slowly raised her head as she finished talking.

Bangs covered half of her forehead, but he could still tell that she had an alluring face which bore some resemblance to Rika's. In fact, her facial features were even prettier than Rika's, even if her skin didn't seem quite as healthy.

However, the determination behind her words was what moved Seiji the most.

That was the determination of a manga author!

After being moved by her determination, Seiji smiled.

"Alright, if Sensei says so, then as her fan, of course I should support her."

He turned towards the store manager, Rika Amami.

"I accept your condition!"

Rika smiled upon hearing this.

"Thank you, Harano-kun."

"You don't need to call me Harano here." Seiji turned towards Peach again: "Since Sensei is bravely facing her phobia, I feel it's impolite to keep using my alias in front of her. My real name is Seiji Haruta, and various circumstances have led to me using an alias for the time being. The store manager knows about this as well."

Peach widened her eyes slightly as she looked at her cousin, who subsequently smiled and nodded in affirmance.

"I want to be honest with Sensei, and I feel like giving her my real name can strengthen the bonds of trust between us. Oh… but I'd still prefer it if you could use my alias when talking with other people."

Peach nodded lightly.

"My real name is… Mayuzumi Amami," she said in a soft voice as she lowered her head again, "please take good care of me… Haruta-kun."

"I should be the one saying that—it's truly an honor for me to speak with Sensei. By the way, is it alright to ask for an autograph now?"

Rika Amami laughed.

"Why don't you just give him an autograph, Mayuzumi? This guy here's a true otaku."

And so, Mayuzumi Amami gave him an autograph.

After that, the three of them discussed some details about the school festival, and they quickly finalized the details.

Seiji bade farewell and left after the details were concluded.

"What do you think, Mayuzumi—this boy's quite a nice one, isn't he?"

"Mm… it feels like… he's sparkling."

"What kind of feeling is that? Forget it; I can guess what you mean." Rika smiled,

"Apparently, he was an awful guy before coming to work for me, but I haven't seen a hint of awfulness. If he truly changed himself to that extent, I think that he could be quite useful to you as you want to change yourself as well."

Mayuzumi nodded as her cheeks flushed slightly red.

"I'm looking forward… to my date with him."

On the way home.

Seiji checked his system and found that the [work] option had increased his action points by 4.

'The [work] option gives me so many points—it's a pity that I can only use it once per day, and it's not like I go to work every day.'

When he reached his apartment, he immediately used the [write a diary] option.

This time, it took him 20 minutes, and he gained 1 action point.

'As expected… I'll gain a different amount of points depending on the quality of the action performed.'

Then, if he wanted more points, it meant that he would have to develop himself in a balanced manner and grind all his action options simultaneously. Alternatively, he could choose to focus on a few specific actions and improve the quality of the actions performed.

'Should I be a generalist or a specialist… a difficult choice.' Seiji rubbed his chin contemplatively.

Well, he didn't need to make a decision immediately, so he decided to carry on as usual for the time being.

He decided to [draw] to gain another action point. Finally there was [sing] and [dance] still available for selection… It seemed that it was time to start streaming.

Cat-loving Flying Fish was repeatedly refreshing the streaming site.

'Is he not going to appear today?' Cat-loving Flying Fish thought disappointedly.

'Hmph, letting down your only follower—what kind of streamer are you!?'

Just as she thought this, the stream named "I Only Need One Spectator" appeared.

She hurriedly clicked on it and was greeted by the sight of the boy with the silver mask again.

"Hey, beautiful girl by the name of Flying Fish, were you waiting for me?" He smiled while asking her.

"Who was waiting for you!? Humph!" Flying Fish sent a bunch of angry emoticons to express her dissatisfaction.

"Sorry, I was late tonight due to work. In order to express my sincere apology, you can request any song you want me to sing, but I can't promise that I'll know how to sing it."

"Then what's the point, stupid!" Although Flying Fish was complaining in her comments, her mouth was arching upwards in real life.

"It's a good test of our compatibility—maybe the song you want is the one that I just happen to know how to sing?"

"Who wants to do a compatibility test with you, silly!?"

"Don't say that—I'm at least the most handsome boy in my class!" The boy posed in what he believed to be a cool posture.

Flying Fish sent him a string of emoticons indicating she was looking down on him, but she was actually laughing in front of her screen.

"Do you have any special requests, oh beautiful girl? If you don't, I'm just going to start singing! This is a special service just for you—do you really want to waste it?"

Flying Fish sent him another stream of "I look down on you" emoticons, but she was actually thinking about it.

She had a sudden flash of inspiration and remembered a children's song.

That was one of her favorite songs when she was little, but it wasn't a particularly popular one.

Its name was "Snail and Sparrow."

He definitely wouldn't know this one.

Deep within, she harbored a slight intention to give him a song he probably wouldn't know. She typed the song's name with a slight smile.

On the other side of the screen, when Seiji saw his only follower's song request, he was momentarily surprised.

This wasn't a very popular children's song, but it was one that he just happened to be extremely familiar with.

To be specific, it was one which the original Seiji was familiar with.

He didn't think that he'd be able to meet someone who had the same interests as the younger him… He didn't think too deeply of it—even if "Snail and Sparrow" wasn't a particularly popular song, it wasn't particularly strange to meet an internet user that was familiar with it either.

"I know this one. It's… a children's song from long ago, right? I'm pretty familiar with it."

Hearing the boy in the stream say this, Flying Fish was shocked.

He actually knew it!?

"It seems like we're quite compatible, beautiful girl known as Flying Fish!" The boy chuckled before he cleared his throat and began to sing.

His singing was still nothing special.

However, Flying Fish felt touched somewhere in her heart and listened to him attentively.

For a moment, she felt like she had returned to her relaxing worry-free childhood.

In her childhood, "he" was there as well, although that person was nowhere near as much of a bastard as what he eventually became.

Why did that person become like that? Flying Fish didn't want to think about that anymore; she just quietly reminisced about the past.

The song ended.

"Okay, beautiful girl named Flying Fish, did you recall any childhood memories?"

The boy seemed like he could see right through the screen to her, "I remembered my own childhood… How nostalgic…"

Even though it wasn't his own memories, it was still quite touching, and it also triggered his memories of being a child in his original world.

Both of them remained silent for a while. historical

"Okay then, it's dance time next. Just like yesterday, feel free to laugh if you like!"

Once again, his had such an awkward dancing pose that it instantly pulled Flying Fish out of her memories and drove her into a laughing fit once again.

"Alright, the dance is over now, so that's it for the performance. See you tomorrow!"

"Wait, you're leaving again!? Why aren't you continuing to stream? You won't get any followers this way!" Flying Fish hurriedly typed to him.

The silver-masked boy rubbed his chin.

"Just like the title of my stream, I only need one spectator."

"Why!?"

"Well… it's a little difficult to explain. I don't really know how to say it…" Seiji thought about how to fool her. "I don't really want to become a streamer, I just… want to give a single person a little joy in his or her life. This is because… I hurt many people in the past. Even though I've worked hard to change myself, I don't think it'll be easy for those I hurt to accept me. I don't dare hope for their acceptance either, and honestly, I don't even have the courage to appear in front of them… But, I was thinking that I should do something to atone for the pain I've caused others before. I know that I'm only doing this to make myself feel better, but this is all I can do now. I only need one spectator, and I'll leave instantly after my performance. It doesn't matter if I'm laughed at, insulted, looked down upon, or even if people see me as a clown. I just want to do this; there's nothing more to it. Hey, beautiful girl known as Flying Fish, did I bring you at least some joy? If so, then that's enough for me."

On his stream, the boy was smiling sincerely at her.

"See you again tomorrow—if you have the free time."

Then, the stream shut off.

Cat-loving Flying Fish had a blank expression on her face.

"What's with this guy that's doing it just for himself…"

However, she was also slightly moved.

Someone who had made mistakes in the past began streaming awkward performances, solely in order to give joy to another person, not for the purpose of seeking monetary compensation or popularity.

Even though it was only to make himself feel better for his own self-satisfaction.

But it could be said as well that this was his way of seeking self-redemption.

"…I wish that person could see this boy."

Even if that person saw him, he probably wouldn't pay any attention.

If that person truly regretted his actions even a little, her older sister wouldn't have forced him to leave home.

Nor would she be at the extent of never being able to forgive him.

"Seiji Haruta…" Flying Fish muttered that name that she would never forget or forgive.

"You can just go and rot in a corner somewhere where nobody can see you. Someone who doesn't understand the concept of regret doesn't deserve redemption."

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Chapter 23: The legendary creature

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

'Whew… I hope I can keep fooling her.' Seiji sighed after commenting inwardly.

He should have known that running off right after the performance would arouse the suspicion of netizens. He should've thought of an excuse beforehand, but he could only ad-lib as he didn't think to prepare one.

He hoped that Flying Fish would accept his excuse. If she didn't accept it, feeling that his story was too ridiculous, then it couldn't be helped.

Should he give up on the [sing] and [dance] actions?

It seemed like such a pity, though… He was sorely lacking in points, and he felt a burning desire to buy an [item] and use it.

'Well, let's observe the situation for a little longer.'

…

Because Seigo Harano had successfully obtained the confectionery store's cooperation and had even acquired copyright permission from the author, Year 1 Class 5's program was assured. This meant that everyone could go about their preparations with peace of mind.

Koji praised Seiji's ability to complete tasks in front of everyone, which slightly improved Seiji's prestige in class.

Only Mika and Chiaki knew the real price that Seiji had to pay for everything.

"Well, it wasn't actually a price—in fact, you could say that it's a rare opportunity. After all, there are countless fans who would be willing to pay money to spend a day with Peach-sensei at the school festival!"

During lunch, Seiji ate his prepared lunchbox as he chatted with the two girls.

Kazufuru Ooike had hastily fled to God-knows-where. Tsk, Seiji really needed to train… no, convince him.

"But…" Mika wanted to say something but paused abruptly.

"She wants to say that this means you won't be able to go with her for the school festival, and that she's disappointed." As usual, Chiaki had seen right through her friend.

"T… that's not it at all! It's just… the school festival is a once-a-year event, and… it should be more relaxed and enjoyed together with friends!" Mika's face turned beet red.

"What's the difference? The only friends that would go together with Seiji are us two, right? And in addition to helping out with the confectionery store for our class, I also have to prepare for the drama club program, so I probably won't have any spare time." Chiaki grinned at Mika.

"Er…" Mika couldn't think of a suitable retort.

"I never said that I wouldn't be with you guys." Seiji blinked, "You guys can come with me and Sensei, and we can check out the school festival together—how about it?"

Mika and Chiaki were both speechless.

"Well, I suppose that's true. Mika, can I get an interview about how you're feeling right now?"

"Don't ask me!"

The haughty kitten was angered.

As usual, Seiji ignored this situation. He had a delicate relationship with Mika currently, and as long as Mika hadn't confessed seriously to him yet, he preferred to keep pretending to be ignorant. He was simply friends with Chiaki.

In order to change the topic, Seiji suddenly remembered something.

"By the way, Chiaki, that day when we visited drama club, what was the 'legendary creature' that we heard about? I was curious but forgot to ask."

"Oh, that?" Chiaki blinked, "actually that's one of the legends of our school—a mysterious middle school girl who pops up occasionally. Apparently, she's ultra cute, has heterochromia, and likes wearing cat ears."

"Oh?" Seiji was surprised for an instant.

That description sounded familiar.

"The strange thing is that there are no girls in the entire middle school section that have heterochromia, not to mention anyone that typically wears cat ears. Even if she wears contact lenses and cat ears only when she's out having fun. Although people who have personally seen her have searched the entire middle school section, they still weren't able to discover her identity!" Chiaki described it as if it was an urban legend. "That's why this girl has become a legend at our school known as 'the wandering heterochromia cat-eared middle-schooler,' although it's a little lacking to become one of the seven wonders of our school."

"I've heard about this legend as well… according to my upperclassman in tennis club, it started only this year, with the recent batch of new students." Mika added.

"That's right. Our drama club president was very interested in this legend and wanted to capture the real creature after hearing the story, but just as you saw before, she's failed every time."

'They're really treating this girl like a legendary Pokemon!?' Seiji was rendered speechless.

"This legendary creature… er, girl, I think I saw her once before." Seiji said hesitantly.

"Really!? When?" Mika and Chiaki were astounded.

"On the first day I transferred here, I coincidentally saw her after lunch during the time when you were taking me around to tour the school grounds." Seiji recalled the previous incident. "Just like you described, I saw a very cute girl with heterochromia that was wearing cat ears… She was wearing the middle school uniform and was short and petite, like a first-year middle school student… She scurried off so quickly that she disappeared instantly."

"Why didn't you tell us at that time!?"

"She disappeared before I could tell you; I thought that she was just an ordinary girl who enjoyed cosplaying." historical

"It's already out of the ordinary for a middle school girl to enjoy cosplaying!" Chiaki forcefully commented. "Darn it, I didn't even get to see her—I also want to see that legendary creature!" She lifted her head to the sky with an expression filled with regret.

"Chiaki loves cats…" Mika explained.

"I see." Seiji nodded sagely.

The two of them calmly observed the tomboy in male clothes who was wallowing in a sea of regret.

After classes were over, in the afternoon.

Seiji was just about to go home together with Mika, when he received a call from Natsuya Yoruhana.

"Harano-kun, can you swing by the student council room? There's something important I need to say to you."

After some momentary confusion, Seiji agreed.

"What's the matter, Seigo?" Mika and Chiaki came over.

"The student president wants me to go to the student council room… by the way, where is that?"

Mika and Chiaki looked at each other awkwardly.

"Oh right, student council…" Before they were able to say anything, Seiji thought of someone.

"Secretary Ooike!"

Kazufuru Ooike felt a sudden chill run down his spine just as he was leaving class, and he instinctively increased his pace, but a large hand clasped firmly down on his shoulder.

"No need to walk so quickly, brother!"

'I'm no brother of yours!' Ooike's mouth was twitching violently.

"Is… something the matter, Harano-kun?"

"Actually, I just received a phone call from Miss President—she wants me to go to the student council room. I was wondering if you could take me there…" Seiji was all smiles.

"But I'm going home now…"

"Oh? You always need to go to the student council room for work, but right when I need someone to show me the way, you're going home? Are you deliberately trying to make things difficult for me, hm!?" Seiji maintained his smile and grinned with his eyes narrowed: "I'm so disappointed in my friend… Perhaps I'll even complain about it when I see the president…

Kazufuru Ooike's expression changed upon hearing this.

"Okay, I'll take you…"

"That's more like it… Oh, my bad, if you have something you need to go home and do, go ahead. I can find the way myself, and I won't complain to the president."

"…No, I didn't have anything important." Ooike could only helplessly adjust his spectacles.

Seiji then bade farewell to Mika and Chiaki before he followed Kazufuru Ooike, who led him away from the classrooms.

On the way, Seiji tried making conversation, but Kazufuru ignored all his attempts.

The student council room was in another building that had a respectable thick wooden door, giving it an aura of authority.

"This is it."

"Oh, thanks. Feel free to go home now." Seiji waved friendlily.

Kazufuru furrowed his eyebrows, and he abruptly halted after taking two steps.

"Why did the president want to see you?" He turned around and asked.

"Ah, so you finally asked—I thought you actually didn't care." Seiji smiled, "Honestly, I don't know either, but it's probably not something you need to be jealous about, so relax, Secretary."

Kazufuru Ooike remained silent for a while before he walked away.

Seiji rang the doorbell.

The door opened automatically after a moment.

"So this was an automatic door…" He walked into the room, observing his surroundings.

The room was filled with items which were fitting for the atmosphere of an office.

Various file drawers and storage cabinets lined the wall, and a huge desk stood in the center of the room. Upon the desk were several computers, along with what seemed to be a printer and a scanner, while a few authentic leather chairs were placed around the table.

There was another large desk beside the window. A computer monitor, a stack of well-organized documents, a tea set, and a kodachi rested on it… And the student council president Natsuya Yoruhana was sitting on the swivel chair behind the table.

"Welcome to the student council room, Harano-kun." Natsuya stood up and asked,

"Would you like tea or coffee?"

"Oh… it's not necessary, I'd be scared of having the president personally pour tea or coffee for me." Seiji half-joked.

Natsuya smiled faintly.

"You don't seem to actually be scared… tea is fine then?" She picked up an electric tea kettle on a smaller round table and poured a cup of hot tea.

With her looks, even the sight of her pouring tea was one that people would appreciate.

'Being able to see a beauty like her would be one of the special benefits of joining the student council,' Seiji thought as he watched the scene.

"Here."

"Thank you."

Seiji received the tea and had a sip, finding that the temperature was just perfect, and the tea's flavor was quite strong. Even an ordinary person like him that didn't understand anything whatsoever about tea could detect that this tea was of high quality.

"I'm sorry for asking you to come here on such short notice, but it's for a truly important matter…"

"Does it have something to do with our previous matters?"

"Yes… and no…" Natsuya's face was serious as she looked directly at Seiji.

"Takao Yamamoto has vanished."

"…Who's that!?"

Chapter 24: There's no legendaries in this game!

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

Natsuya Yoruhana firmly pursed her lips and remained silent.

Seiji racked his brain upon seeing her expression.

"Oh, that blondie." He finally managed to remember him.

Takao Yamamoto was the name of that blondie whose ability to have children was crushed by him. He hadn't even bothered remembering the name of that worthless scum.

"That guy disappeared? What's going on?"

Although his injuries were extremely serious, it wouldn't be something so easily cured, would it? Seiji wasn't very familiar with this world's medical capabilities, but he found it difficult to believe that blondie would be able to get out of the hospital so quickly.

"He left the hospital, and neither his family nor the police have been able to locate him. Normally speaking, he shouldn't even be able to walk with his injuries." Natsuya said lightly.

"That does sound strange… are you worried that he'll come seeking revenge on Mika or me? Is that why you're letting me know?"

Natsuya Yoruhana remained silent for a few seconds.

"This is one reason, but… actually it doesn't have much to do with you guys anymore." She sighed as something glittered in her eyes; it seemed like she had just made an important decision.

"Seiji Haruta," she formally said his real name out loud, "how much do you know about 'Yin Yang masters'?"

Yin Yang Master? (Note: this is one of the top-ranked most popular cell phone games in Asia.)

That game doesn't have legendaries at all!

He suddenly remembered his inability to discover any legendary creatures in that game during his past life, and Seiji almost felt like covering his face.

"Haruta-kun?" The perceptive Natsuya noticed the slight change in Seiji's expression.

"Ah… nothing… you said 'Yin Yang masters,' right? Did I hear correctly?"

Natsuya nodded.

"About that… I can only think of what I've heard before in games and manga; are you asking about that?" Seiji was doubtful.

"Of course not." Natsuya Yoruhana folded her arms with a serious expression on her face, "I'm asking how much do you know about real-life 'Yin Yang masters' that exist among us?"

The atmosphere changed.

Seiji furrowed his eyebrows.

In reality, he expected that something like this might happen when he had first learned about the history of this world.

The original Seiji's memories also had some portions which were hazy and even mysterious.

But he didn't expect that such a thing would appear in front of him so quickly.

He finished his tea and set the cup down.

"Do Yin Yang masters… really exist?"

"If you're asking that question, it seems that you know nothing about this subject." Natsuya Yoruhana continued to stare directly at Seiji's face: "Even though you're from the Haruta family, you know absolutely nothing about this subject?"

Seiji remained silent for a while.

"Honestly, I do have some strange inexplicable childhood memories, but that was a long time ago, and I might have been mistaken since I was only a child."

"So that's how it is… I suppose it's only natural you would think that way. As far as I'm aware of, you were considered to have no talent, so you were never taught about it."

Natsuya relaxed slightly and blinked.

"Yin Yang masters really do exist."

She reached out her hand as she spoke, and the kodachi on the table suddenly began shaking and flew into her hand!

"Just like the ones you've read about in mangas and seen in animes, we conceal our existence from society, and we have the ability to control spirits to use various powers. But unlike those fantasies, us modern Yin Yang masters fight mainly against humans, not demons. Nor do we do anything like protect the balance of Yin and Yang or defend humanity. Instead, we use our powers for personal benefits, and protect our status in society."

Seiji took his eyes off the kodachi that mysteriously flew to her hand, thinking that he had finally understood why she carried that around.

"It sounds… realistic."

"Yes, we're realists; it's not romantic at all." Natsuya smiled as she let go of the kodachi.

Before the kodachi dropped to the floor, it paused in midair as if something invisible was grabbing it and began flying again, while leaving a faint red trail that condensed into a mysterious marking.

"We choose to conceal ourselves from society, as this will maximize the benefits that we can obtain from our power in addition to minimizing the number of threats we face. Ordinary people that don't know the existence of Yin Yang masters are easier to manipulate. And, of course, an existence that isn't recognized to exist can't be judged by the law. Therefore, the number one rule that we Yin Yang masters abide by is to conceal ourselves from society. Any information that exposes us will be instantly destroyed, distorted, or smoothed over, no matter where it comes from. Those that intentionally try to expose us to the public will face the full force of our retribution."

Seiji nodded in understanding.

In some of the mangas he had read in the past, main or side characters with superpowers would always conceal their identity for some contrived ridiculous reasons. But in the real world, people concealed their identities for a simple, realistic reason—personal benefit.

Compared to being exposed to the public eye, it was much more advantageous to remain hidden—that was all there was to it.

"Do you feel like your fantasies are being destroyed?" Natsuya asked.

"No, I just feel like… this is how reality is." Seiji shrugged. historical

"Even though you're just an otaku."

"It's exactly because I'm an otaku."

Natsuya and Seiji glanced at each other for a moment, before both of them broke out into laughter.

"What of it? Yin Yang masters exist, and they're a secret society that uses their abilities to maintain their own status and authority like bastards, but so what? For those of lower social status, just about everyone in the higher echelons are considered bastards—what's the difference between the ones at the top?"

"You have a magnificent ability to see through things, Haruta-kun."

Natsuya summoned the kodachi that was twirling around in midair back to her hand, and those reddish rune markings faded away.

"As for normal people, maybe they will just resolve things normally. But as for us… since we aren't bound by the law, disputes between us aren't settled by the law either… we aren't able to use normal ways to decide things."

Seiji raised his eyebrows.

"Then, how do you settle things?"

"Duels between Yin Yang masters." Natsuya said in a calm voice.

However, her eyes indicated that she wasn't as calm as she appeared on the surface.

"Under certain rules that we Yin Yang masters abide by, we will duel with each other in order to determine a winner."

"So… it's like an all-or-nothing gamble?"

"That's right, and just like I said earlier, Takao Yamamoto's disappearance might be the beginning of a new duel—a duel involving me as one of the Yin Yang masters."

Seiji felt a chill. Duel… this word sounded rather barbaric when used in real life.

"…Why?"

"As I mentioned previously, Takao Yamamoto's injuries shouldn't have allowed him to be up and about already, but he disappeared… only one security camera captured his back as he was walking by himself." Natsuya continued to explain the details of what had happened. "It's quite obvious that a Yin Yang master has intervened. Takao Yamamoto was under the control of a Yin Yang master rather than walking off using his own power. He's a hoodlum scumbag with a strong grudge against me, as well as a former student of Genhana High School. I can only imagine that someone must be targeting me by using a Yin Yang master to take him away."

Natsuya sighed deeply.

"This is my problem. Originally it shouldn't have had anything to do with you, but… Haruta-kun, you're also from a Yin Yang master family, not to mention one of the 'seven major families'—a collection of the oldest and strongest Yin Yang master families. One of your family's ancestors is the strongest Yin Yang master in Sakura Island's history that even ordinary folk know about—Seimei Kamijou!"

Seiji was astounded.

What the hell was this situation?

Seimei Kamijou? Is that the Seimei Abe of this world!?

"Since the family name of 'Kamijou' was renowned to the extent that anyone with the name was considered to have mystical powers, your family decided at some point in time to change their last name to 'Haruta,' and only the strongest Yin Yang masters within the family are allowed to use the true family name of Kamijou."

Seiji had no clue what his expression was anymore.

"Even though you were already kicked out of your family, you're still a 'Haruta,' and you have a direct connection with this case, so I think there's a chance you may end up getting involved in this again somehow." Natsuya showed an apologetic expression. "Haruta-kun, I admit that when I helped you transfer schools here, I thought about my personal benefit, but I never expected such a thing to happen. I must truly apologize."

Natsuya Yoruhana bowed deeply towards Seiji.

"Please be on guard from now on, and contact me if you notice anything strange happen around you. I'll also arrange some protection around you and try my very best to not let you accidentally come to any harm."

Seiji finally returned to his senses and looked at this young lady who was lowering her head towards him.

"Don't be like that, President. Even if they're targeting you, I have a connection with this incident as well, so I'm not exactly innocent, am I?" He smiled gently. "I was the one who severely injured that guy, so if he transforms into something strange and comes looking for revenge, I'll face him head on."

Seiji said it with such confidence mainly because he had the ultimate cheat that could take care of any situation.

He had the ability to save and load repeatedly! If they truly had any ability, then bring it on!

When Natsuya Yoruhana heard his confidence, it seemed like he had enough courage and resolve to face anything head on!

"Seiji Haruta…" She slowly stood up with a smile of relief: "…Thank you."

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Chapter 25: Spirit-branded Retainers

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

"Why are you thanking me?"

"For your understanding…" Natsuya averted her eyes, "I thought that you would have some complaints…"

"Oh, right… can I still complain now?"

"You'd better not."

The two of them looked at each other again, and they both smiled.

"Let me introduce you." Natsuya Yoruhana looked behind Seiji, causing him to reflexively turn around as well. The legendary creature… no, girl was standing there!?

The short and petite middle schooler wearing large fluttery cat ears was watching him with her mysterious heterochromia eyes. Seiji hadn't even noticed when she had appeared in this room and stood behind him!

"She's one of my guardians as well as one of my Spirit-branded Retainers. Her name is Rana Kirin. On the surface, she's a first-year middle school student that enrolled this year, but she's a student in name only and has never attended any classes, for the supposed reason of being sick. She's actually one of my Guardian Retainers, and she often patrols the school grounds. She also goes to class on occasion, but without letting anyone notice her." Natsuya Yoruhana explained.

"Oh… hello." Seiji greeted the middle school girl named Rana. Her ears quivered before she suddenly jumped up and hugged him without saying anything. She then rubbed her face against Seiji's face! Seiji was startled as her refreshing body scent wafted into his nose.

"W… what's this?"

"It seems like she really likes you." Natsuya blinked, "Rana almost never gets so close with anyone—you're the only one I've ever seen her act this way with on the first meeting."

"I should feel happy… right?" Seiji glanced at the petite girl who was hugging him.

She had actually closed her eyes while hugging him—it seemed that she had the intention to rest on his body!

Seiji tried to move his hands and carefully hug the girl's body, which gave him an incredibly soft feeling. Rana wriggled and made a sound resembling a kitten's purr, before she snuggled in his arms quietly again.

"Wow…" Natsuya was astounded, "Even though she does that to me as well occasionally, this is her first time meeting you…" She had a complicated expression on her face, as if she was witnessing her beloved daughter fall in love with a complete stranger.

"I think… it's not our first meeting?" Seiji told Natsuya about seeing Rana on his first day after transferring.

"This means that she might have been paying attention to you all this time…" Natsuya voiced her thoughts out loud, "I wonder why…

"Why don't you just ask her directly?"

"Rana basically doesn't talk. Although she'll obey my commands, and sometimes even act spoiled to me, she doesn't talk." Natsuya smiled wryly, "I originally intended to have her watch out for your safety, but it seems like I don't need to even give her that order anymore." Her expression was like a mother who was witnessing her daughter attempt to obtain a boyfriend.

Seiji was confused as well. Rana's inexplicable friendliness wasn't something that could be explained by merely his handsome appearance… Was this a hidden effect of his charisma stat?

In all honesty, the true reason was of no importance—Seiji only felt a fatherly affection for the girl resting in his arms. Even though he didn't want to admit it, his true essence was that of a middle-aged man already!

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Oh, what should I do now?"

"You don't need to do anything. I originally intended to introduce Rana to you before finishing our conversation, but it seems like… Why don't you just sit down for a little while?" Natsuya said rather helplessly, before suddenly glaring at him: "I don't think you're this type of person, but just in case, I will warn you: Rana is my Guardian Retainer, so don't get any ideas about her! She's quite powerful… as am I, do you understand!?"

"Yes, Madam President!" Seiji could only respond to her in a serious manner. "By the way, what exactly is a Spirit-branded Retainer?"

"A Spirit-branded Retainer is someone with spiritual power that signs a contract with a Yin Yang master…In manga, Spirit-branded Retainers are typically some sort of demons or spirits, but real-life Yin Yang masters will have contracts with humans that possess spiritual power and utilize the powers of demons, spirits, spells, and so on to increase their Spirit-branded Retainer's power, while the Retainer fights for their master."

"I see." Seiji nodded in understanding. "You… probably have more Retainers than just Kirin, right?" historical

"It's not strange that you were able to guess… you're correct, the vice president of the student council, Hitaka Shuho, is also my Retainer. With my current abilities, I can only maintain two Spirit-branded Retainers," Natsuya stated.

"How many Spirit-branded Retainers can a person have?"

"As long as your spiritual energy is sufficient, in theory, you can have an infinite number, but in reality… Your family's strongest ancestor Seimei Kamiaki had 12 high-ranked Retainers, 72 mid-ranked Retainers, and 856 low-ranked Retainers. The amount that he could control far surpassed any other Yin Yang master in history; nobody has ever broken his record."

"Spirit-branded Retainers have rankings?"

"Of course they do. Their ranking is dependent on the level of spiritual power and type of energy the Retainer possesses, along with the Yin Yang master's spiritual power and summoning spell strength. Spirit-branded Retainers are separated into high, mid, and low ranks, and there's huge power differences between each rank."

"Then what ranks are Kirin and the vice president?"

"…Mid-level low-ranked Retainers." Natsuya's expression seemed awkward, but she immediately straightened her expression: "This… is already considerable! People in the modern day lack spiritual power, and the average Yin Yang master has greatly decreased in ability as well. My spiritual power would be considered as outstanding among my peers! My spells and summoning ability are also excellent; I'm top-ranked within my family for my age group…"

"Erm… President, you don't need to explain in such detail." Seiji's tugged at his lips,

"I know nothing about Yin Yang masters to begin with, so I have no clue about whether you're weak or strong, but if you make such an effort to defend yourself, it'll make me feel like… you're covering for insecurities?"

Natsuya Yoruhana's expression stiffened as her face flushed red.

"F… fine." She seemed to lose the will to continue with this topic.

Seiji felt like the whole scenario was quite amusing. It seemed like even the president, whom everyone believed to be perfect, had her own small imperfections as well.

They remained silent for a few seconds again.

"Would… you like some more tea?"

"Please, I'd like another cup."

Moments later, Seiji was carefully sipping his tea while sitting on the sofa and holding on to the middle schooler named Rana who had fallen asleep while cuddling him. He let out a sigh of contentment as he appreciated the complex flavor of the tea.

After enjoying the high-quality tea, he turned his gaze back towards the president.

"I have another question: what's with Kirin's ears and eyes?"

"Those are real. Due to her high compatibility rate with the cat demon spirit that I combined her powers with, she developed such an appearance. As long as she wants to, though, she can cancel their combination and revert to a normal appearance, but she seems to prefer this appearance for some reason." Natsuya shrugged. Suddenly, she thought of something and stared at Seiji: "I've heard that otakus really love her type…"

"…Haha, that type is really attractive; they're just so cute!" As he said this, he suddenly noticed that the kodachi by Natsuya's side was quivering violently, and he hurriedly exclaimed: "But I swear I won't do anything, I swear!"

After saying this, he hastily changed the topic: "So it's a physical phenomenon due to combining with a spirit… If their compatibility rate was even higher, in theory, at the maximum, wouldn't her body change like a transformation?"

"…Yes, but that would be quite dangerous. There is a risk of her soul being damaged, so it's absolutely forbidden," Natsuya said in a serious tone of voice.

Seiji nodded sagely.

"One last question: it's… been determined that I have no ability to become a Yin Yang master, right? Then, is it possible for me to become a Spirit-branded Retainer?"

Natsuya Yoruhana was surprised momentarily. "In theory, anyone can become a Spirit-branded Retainer. But… you have no spiritual power, so it's almost impossible for you to become one."

Seiji nodded again in understanding.

"Why do you ask?"

"I just wanted to see… since it sounds romantic to become someone's familiar and fight just for that person." Seiji chuckled, "Otakus have their fantasies, you know."

Natsuya remained silent at that.

After that, the two of them didn't mention the topic of Yin Yang masters. Although Seiji desired to gain a deeper understanding of Yin Yang masters, he figured that since he didn't have the talent for it, it would only increase his frustrations. Natsuya would probably inform him of any important information anyway.

In this instance, Natsuya had told him out of her personal honor, not because he needed to know. He wasn't a Yin Yang master to begin with—he was basically an ordinary person in her eyes—so it would have been acceptable for her to treat him as one.

It was likely that Natsuya Yoruhana had told him of her own volition because she was concerned and apologetic towards him, which showed her compassionate nature. It would be inappropriate if he kept digging for information, and it would increase the risk involved for both of them.

About fifteen minutes later, Rana finally opened her eyes, stretched, licked Seiji's face, and hopped onto the floor before vanishing instantly.

"She really is like a cat."

'If Chiaki knew about had just happened, then she'd probably be bursting with jealousy!' Seiji thought as he bade farewell to Natsuya.

Not long after he departed, a red-haired girl arrived at the student council room.

Natsuya took her eyes off the documents on her desk, and looked at her friend as well as familiar with a sharp glint in her eyes.

"Make your report… Hitaka."

Chapter 26: Fighting

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

Seiji was unsurprised after learning about the hidden side to this world, as he had already expected it long ago.

He just didn't anticipate that he'd find out this quickly.

Yin Yang masters… Spirit-branded Retainers… Recalling his body's memories after learning all this increased the mystery.

'Man, the original Seiji must have been truly hated; it's been so long and my family hasn't even contacted me.'

Even if the incident with blondie that required him to go to the police station and him transferring schools didn't require his guardian either time… his family would probably know about it, right?

Seiji was uncertain. With the sins that the original Seiji committed before, it wouldn't be strange for them to completely ignore him.

If he wanted to truly enjoy life, he felt like a harmonious family relationship was necessary, and… he also felt like he should make it up to this body for taking it over. Seiji really wanted to reconcile with his family.

But the original Seiji was so terrible! What he did in the past before… honestly speaking, if Seiji had a brother like him, maybe he wouldn't be able to resist killing him!

Since even he didn't think the original Seiji was forgivable, he had no idea how to obtain forgiveness.

But he couldn't just keep waiting. Even if it was inadequate, he should at least attempt to make up with his family, right?

Especially after learning about his family being a Yin Yang master clan… Seiji felt like he should initiate contact with his family.

But just thinking about how to do it gave him a heavy feeling in his stomach.

'Forget it, let's just wait a little longer,' Seiji sighed inwardly.

…

The next few days were rather uneventful.

Preparations for the school festival progressed normally.

Mika formally quit the tennis club and felt conflicted over what new club to join.

Chiaki was busy rehearsing for the drama club's school festival program. Supposedly, they had daringly created an original script, and the actors' performances were critical to its success.

Seiji continued improving his [academics] stat every day at school, while grinding action points after school.

On Thursday afternoon, he used the excuse of 'checking things out' to grind his [play basketball] option at the basketball club and obtained 3 points along with crushing the basketball club members' pride into dust and increasing the favorability ratings of the spectating girls.

Judging from the atmosphere, it would be impossible for him to return to the basketball club… As well as that, rumors about the collapse of the tennis club were circulating rapidly around school now. This, combined with the recent incident at the basketball club, could propel him into infamy. historical

In the evenings, he continued to successfully grind [sing] and [dance] with just one spectator.

His only follower named Flying Fish seemed to have believed his ridiculous excuse about why he was doing it. Although it made him remorseful, he was also inwardly relieved that she persisted in watching his performances. Also, the two of them began chatting about various topics and found that they coincidentally shared many interests in common, so they became increasingly friendlier with each other.

The last class on Friday was home economics, and the topic was cooking.

Seiji was in a group with Mika, Chiaki, and Kazufuru Ooike, whom he had forcefully recruited. The food that they made tasted average.

However, there was one group who cooked food at a level which evidently surpassed the others.

It was Kaho Miyamoto's group.

The fat girl that typically lacked presence was shining with such brilliant splendor when it came to cooking! Even though they were only making some common dishes, she actually gave them the taste of a 5-star hotel chef's cooking—even the teacher praised her endlessly.

Seiji finally understood why she wasn't isolated in class and had some female friends, even though she was an introvert who wasn't good looking.

'What's this… don't you have an ability you can be proud of? You oughta be more self-confident,' Seiji sighed to himself mentally.

Just as a faint sense of pride welled up within his heart, Miyamoto seemed to notice his gaze, and she met his eyes.

Seiji smiled at her while giving her a big thumbs-up.

Miyamoto immediately turned around again.

This was a blow to Seiji.

After class, he worked like usual before he returned home.

Then he performed all his available actions to grind points, which finally gave him enough points to purchase the item Seiji wanted all this time!

[Physical ability—fighting activation card, which required 35 points!

Honestly, he felt that spending 35 points for an [activation card] was a bad deal, since there was another [activation card] for [physical ability—track and field] which only required 20 points.

After finding out about the hidden facets of this society, though, Seiji felt like he should prioritize increasing his combat ability.

'35 points… I really hope that you're worth the price, my dear system…' Seiji muttered as he made the exchange.

A card that fit into his hand instantly appeared in front of him in a flash of light. There were many stick figures in the process of fighting drawn on it, and each stick figure had a different martial arts pose.

Seiji lost himself in looking at the card for a while before he regained his senses and carefully chose the [use card] option.

The card instantly disappeared into a white light that drilled into his brain.

At first, Seiji had a headache, then it felt like something was dissolving and being forcibly poured into his brain.

This continued for an unknown period of time. When Seiji regained consciousness, he found that he had collapsed onto the floor. His hands were clutching his head, and his temple was still throbbing violently.

'That was rather uncomfortable…' He stood up slowly: 'But…'

Seiji looked at his hands and suddenly punched the air.

Whoosh!* His fists caused a small but fierce gust of wind to arise!

Seiji continued punching several times, and each punch was powerful; it felt like his waist, back, and legs were properly applying force to each punch, and he was able to easily use his entire body with each attack. Indeed, it seemed as if he was already at that level!

Finally, he ended with an explosive whirlwind kick. It was literally as if a small tornado had occurred in his room.

"This was worth it! Hahaha!"

Seiji couldn't restrain himself anymore and broke out into laughter while looking at his hands, feet, and body.

Even though there was no apparent change on the surface, he felt completely different.

It was as if a switch had been turned on in his brain. He now had a natural understanding of how to properly utilize his body's muscles and energy!

Although Seiji was unsure what level he was at compared to a real martial artist, or whether he was still a novice in martial arts, he definitely felt like he was more than twice as strong as he was before!

Before, it took him six tries in order to seriously injure blondie without receiving any injuries himself, but now he could probably do it in one try. He could even make blondie permanently handicapped; it would be extremely easy to cripple him for life!

As expected of a card that required 35 points! Not only was it worth its value, it was an absolute bargain!

'Excellent quality as expected of the system.'

Seiji sighed in wonder as he checked his system again, then, to his astonishment, he noticed that in [physical ability, [actions, and [items, new options had appeared once more!

[Physical ability] now included the sub-category of [fighting, which had its own stat, in addition to options like [self-training, [mock duel, and [wilderness training] to improve it…

[Actions] now had [exhibit martial arts, with a prerequisite of 40 physical ability and 25 charisma; [empty-handed combat practice, with a prerequisite of 40 physical ability and 25 communication; [do a heroic deed, with a prerequisite of 50 physical ability, 25 communication, 25 charisma… and so on. All of these also required the [fighting] sub-category to have been activated.

The [Items] category now included [Ultimate skill—Cannon Fist] for 50 points; [agility technique card—Snake Style Footwork] for 45 points; [defense technique card—Sparrow Flight] for 45 points; [throwing technique—Spinning Throw] for 50 points; [suppression technique card—Bone-Shattering Hit] for 40 points… and so on.

Seiji's mouth kept twitching as he scrolled down the list.

'Wow…'

So activating the [fighting] option was just the beginning…

Disregarding the new options in [physical ability] and [actions, just all the new items alone were enough for him to get dizzy over.

If he exchanged for all those new technique cards and used them, he would doubtlessly transform into a human weapon!

And was this all that his system had?

Of course not!

Seiji began to feel that his system wasn't nearly as simple as he had originally thought—okay, even if it wasn't simple to begin with, he had now come to the realization that this was an endless grind!

'Just activating the [fighting] option is like this… If I activate the other options, it'll probably be the same way…' He rubbed his temple.

'Alright, system, you successfully astounded me,' Seiji thought as he closed his system menu.

'Let's just end things here today and figure the rest out tomorrow.'

He felt like taking a shower, surfing the web, then resting for the night.

However…

There was a restless urge within his heart that he had to release.

Seiji thought about his new available options.

'Let's go out for a walk instead.'

He didn't really feel like grinding for points; he was just too excited and wanted to move his body.

He put on his jacket and left his apartment.

Outside, it was a cool and dark autumn night.

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Chapter 27: Monster

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

Why did things become like this?

Kahei Watari panted heavily as he sprinted furiously at maximum speed. His face was drenched in sweat, and the sweat included both normal sweat from strenuous exertion as well as cold sweat from fear.

The purple-haired youth next to him, his good friend Takashi Kobayashi, was in a similar condition, and his expression was filled with confusion and fear as he ran desperately.

They were pursued by a nasty bunch of brutes in suits. They all had ferocious expressions, and most of them were brandishing metal poles or even stun guns, which radiated a fearsome aura.

It was clear that they were on a completely different scale from teenage hoodlums.

If Watari and Kobayashi were caught, they would definitely be thrashed badly if not killed outright. The beating would almost certainly be severe to the extent of at least some broken bones, and there was even the chance of being permanently crippled.

'Why did it all happen?' Watari forced his brain to work with great difficulty as he focused his eyes on the girl running in front of him.

That's right—it was all because of her.

He had just come out of an internet café together with Kobayashi when he saw a man in a black suit struggling with this woman. The very slight sliver of justice he possessed as well as his overly hot-blooded nature prompted him to ambush the man and save her.

But without even a chance to say anything, another man in a black suit appeared out of nowhere, then a whole bunch… and things turned out like this.

Other than telling them to hurry up and escape, that woman didn't have the chance to tell him anything.

Just who was she? What trouble was she in? Watari had no clue whatsoever.

He and Kobayashi were only ordinary delinquents, and all he did was protect a woman to fulfill his sense of justice, doing a rare good deed!

They were currently running down a street filled with businesses, and all the passersby watched them sprint past with bewildered expressions, ignorant of what was currently transpiring.

Just as they ran through the entire business section, a black car appeared from the street corner. With the sudden sound of rubber screeching, it braked at the intersection and some more men in black suits rushed out of the car and blocked their way before the car even came to a full stop!

The girl in the lead attempted to change direction, but it was too late. The three people escaping had slowed down due to the car's interference and they were quickly captured.

Watari and Kobayashi instinctively tried resisting, but two hulking men approached them and instantly knocked them over with a punch and a stun gun.

"S… stop, they… they have nothing to do with me…" The girl said as she desperately attempted to catch her breath.

She was wearing a jacket and a leather skirt that showcased her excellent figure. She had curly blonde hair, sky-blue eyes, and a soft oval-shaped face… even though she was also covered in sweat, it could still be seen that she was an above-average beauty.

"Let them… go…" She said to the man with the vicious-looking scar. Upon hearing this, he coldly strode towards her and ruthlessly slapped her on the face!

"This is a lesson from our leader." The scarred man said icily, while he indicated towards the others that they should teach a lesson to the boys sprawled on the ground.

And so, Watari and Kobayashi, who were lying motionless on the ground, suffered a brutal beating!

Upon witnessing this brutal scene, the expressions of the pedestrians underwent a drastic change. Most hurriedly left, some watched from far away, the few honorable ones called the police, while a small number of reckless ones secretly filmed the beating with their cell phones.

"I said… stop!!!" The girl covered her face where she was slapped, and she shouted with tears in her eyes.

The scarred man merely watched her coldly.

Seeing the two boys that had defended her were receiving an increasing number of injuries, the blonde girl ground her teeth.

"I get it…" It seemed like she finally gave up on something important as tears incessantly rolled down her face, "I…"

"Oh my…"

A voice filled with resignation interrupted them.

"Misters… I don't know exactly what's going on, but beating someone like this in public, not to mention there's so many of you beating up on two teenagers, there's gotta be a problem with that, right?"

The person to whom the voice belonged to was a boy wearing the mask of a cute character from an anime.

He was tall and muscular, but it was still evident that he wasn't very old yet. It was a strange feeling as his appearance in the anime mask was rather comical, which conflicted with the serious nature of the situation.

The blonde-haired girl was stunned, while the scarred man frowned.

As the boy approached, a black-suited man blocked his way and reached out to grab him.

Boom!!!*

A resoundingly clear smack was heard by everyone.

It sounded like a bag or a balloon had suddenly been popped by a mischievous child.

The man who was over 1.8 meters tall and weighed more than 100 kilograms was knocked about two meters back and heavily fell to the ground!

In that instant, everyone was stunned.

Nobody had ever imagined that they would see a movie-like scene in a real-life scenario.

"My apologies… I don't have much experience with fighting, so it's difficult to control my strength." The boy retracted his fist before he continued striding forwards.

Everyone came to their senses again.

Another two black-suited men approached him, disregarding their fallen companion, and flanked him with a pincer movement. One man wielded a metal pole while the other was armed with a stun gun, and they attacked him without uttering a single sound.

Their movements were swift, and their attacks had great force behind them.

But the boy was even faster.

He suddenly took a step backwards and dodged both their attacks, before he spun around with natural-looking movements, jumped up, and kicked!

Boom! Boom!!*

A sound that was almost like an explosion echoed out again.

As the boy landed lightly, the two men simultaneously fell over and fainted just like the first, without even putting up a struggle.

Some spectators gasped out in awe—

"That's too amazing-"

"Is this a television drama? This is too unreal…"

"What makes you think it's a TV drama? Do you see any cameras!?"

More people started recording this with their cell phones, while some youngsters with high typing speeds even began blogging!

Three of his companions were defeated with only a single blow. This caused the scar-faced man's expression to change.

He was quite clear about the skill level of his companions: while it wasn't exactly like they were all boxing champions, each of them individually should suffice for handling a bunch of low-level hoodlums.

However, in front of that mysterious boy wearing that ridiculous mask, they were the ones that seemed like low-level hoodlums.

Just as his expression was changing, another wave of black-suited men rushed at the boy.

Boom!* A beautiful uppercut.

Smack! Pound!* A brilliantly executed empty-handed attack to disarm his opponent, followed by an elbow that almost pierced through a black-suited man's chest.

Smack! Pound! Boom!* He stole a metal pole and struck someone's head with it, before he broke another man's arm, and used a merciless knee attack to disable the other one.

Pound! Smack! Pound! Smack!* A right uppercut straight to the face, a left kick to the shin, with his left hand blocking attacks as his right leg suddenly kicked over two people.

…

By the roadside.

There was a pack of unconscious men in black suits behind him that had all collapsed on the road.

He continued walking onwards without a single injury on him!

This scene was a huge impact to all the remaining men.

The scarred man's mouth dropped open.

He suddenly realized who this boy might be.

This boy might be that person with "special abilities" that their leader wanted to recruit so badly that he would even sell out his only daughter!

How ironic…

But he still wasn't completely certain. historical

The scarred man stopped his few remaining companions from going up to attack him and took out something from his suit.

After seeing what it was, the bystanders started shouting panickedly!

"A gun… he has a gun!!!"

"This is dangerous—let's run!"

"Did anyone call the police!? Why haven't they come yet!?"

That's right, it was a gun.

One of the weapons that human civilization has invented, and the strongest weapon that ordinary people could acquire.

'Let's see if you're really that person with "special abilities…"' The scarred man's mouth twisted into a strange smile as he aimed for the boy with his gun.

But suddenly, he noticed that something was flying towards him.

It was a metal pole!

Before he could react, the metal pole accurately knocked the gun out of his hand, and the force of the impact also broke his finger.

The scarred man glanced at the gun flying away for an instant, but when he turned back around again, that ridiculous mask was already right in front of him!

"So fast…"

As expected, this person was—

Boom!*

A fist that felt as heavy as a hammer hit his chest.

He retreated several steps in order to keep his balance, but it took about three or four meters for him to stabilize, while his leather shoes even scuffled up some sparks against the pavement!

Rip!* The back of his suit also ripped open.

The heavy blow, which was unlike anything he had ever taken before, felt like it exploded within him!

He noticed that he was groaning in a low voice while a trail of blood flowed out from from his mouth.

Had… he ever tasted this feeling before?

He had been a boxing champion before.

He had also been an underground fighting champion as well and had fought for huge quantities of money.

Never from any of his opponents had he ever taken… such a blow that felt like an explosive!!

"Haha…" The scarred man's face distorted, and his vision was blurry, but he still made an effort to raise his head and look at the boy.

What kind of… monster was behind that ridiculous anime mask?

"Wonder… ful…"

Then he fell unconscious. The scarred man collapsed onto the ground listlessly.

The masked boy—Seiji—secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

The moment he saw the scarred man reach for a gun, he instantly decided to load back to before the fight, and as he defeated the scarred man's companions, this time he kept a metal pole and used it at the perfect timing to resolve the dangerous situation.

"He actually had a gun… that wasn't what I wanted to fight."

He had just wanted to test his luck and grind against some low-level mobs; he didn't want to attract the attention of a huge group of men in black suits!

But there was no helping it. After he recognized that the two boys being beaten up were his classmates, he felt like he was obliged to help them.

According to his memories… they were called Watari and Kobayashi?

Seiji sighed. Delinquents were just too talented at attracting trouble.

'Well, you were lucky that this time I came and saved you,' Seiji thought to himself as he looked at the two of them who were moaning on the ground.

Then, he looked at the remaining black-suited men.

Alright, who could tell him what he should do to resolve this terrible situation!?

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Chapter 28: Director, the script is wrong!

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

If this was some sort of mystical fantasy cultivation world, Seiji could just slaughter them all, then wash his hands and walk away without a care in the world. However, this was a modern society. If someone died, it would become a serious matter.

Well, that was unless he had the power to cover it all up, but he didn't.

So, should he knock out all the remaining black-suited men before leaving?

In all honesty, it wasn't a bad idea, and it was the only idea he currently had. He could just pretend to be a masked hero of justice. historical

But even though he was wearing a mask and he purposefully lowered his voice when speaking, there was still a possibility of his identity being discovered, however unlikely.

Only comics would have a situation where a masked superhero could completely fool everyone about his identity with just a mask and a tightsuit!

There were many ways to find out someone's identity in real life that were difficult to deal with.

And he would prefer to be able to go back to his normal daily life after this…

Seiji remained motionless as he mulled this over in his mind. However, to the remaining black-suited men, after defeating the scarred man with the gun with a single punch, it seemed like he was coldly gazing at them with an aura of danger surrounding him.

All of them believed that after being threatened by a gun, he would completely lose his temper! After all, street fights with and without guns were at completely different levels.

In such a situation, they didn't think it would be strange if the masked boy instantly started thrashing all of them.

Even the bystanders were looking on with bated breath, and they nervously watched what the masked boy would now do…

"Please… please wait!"

Just as everyone expected violence to break out once more, a girl's voice rung out.

It was the curly-haired blonde girl.

"Please… please stop fighting. They've already lost… is it alright if you just let them go?" She nervously begged the boy.

'What's going on?' Seiji looked at the girl with a confused expression that was concealed by his mask. 'Wasn't she the victim? Why was she requesting mercy for these guys? Was she some legendary saint?'

Perhaps she had perceived his doubt as the blonde-haired girl glanced at the black-suited men.

"They… they're all my father's subordinates. This all happened because they were trying to catch me… they were just following orders. I… I know that you were being threatened by a gun, and you must be very angry… but, please believe me—they're actually not as bad as you think…"

The blonde-haired girl glared at the remaining black-suited men, took a deep breath, and her expression suddenly distorted.

"What are you standing around idly for—hurry the hell up and kneel, idiots!!!"

Instantly, those black-suited men reflexively rushed up into an orderly line and kneeled together in synchronized unison using the classic dogeza style.

"Apologize to this gentleman, bastards!!!" The blonde-haired girl had a severe expression as she gave them another order.

"We're truly sorry!" The men shouted together, causing a sound that reverberated throughout the night sky.

All the bystanders looked on with their mouths wide agape.

Hidden by his mask, Seiji's expression was no different.

The entire street became dead silent—it was possible to hear a pin drop.

A cold breeze blew down the street.

"That's… that's how it is." The girl ran her fingers through her messy hair: "I apologize on their behalf to you as well. I hope that this will quell your rage. If necessary, we can also compensate you… but I'd need to talk to my father about that first."

Seiji finally returned to his senses.

'Director, wasn't this the wrong script!!?' He couldn't stop himself from mentally commenting on this ridiculous situation. He didn't even know what his current expression looked like. Fortunately, the mask concealed his true expression from the others.

He eyes flicked back to the blonde girl, who seemed to have made a sincere request. He then turned to look at the remaining men, who were deferentially prostrating themselves to him in a neat row. It took him over ten seconds to finally figure out a suitable reply.

"Oh… I'll accept your apologies then… since the situation is like this…"

He turned around and looked at Watari and Kobayashi; their mouths were wide agape, mirroring the expression that the bulk of the bystanders had.

"What about those two boys?"

"They were accidentally involved in this incident…" The girl explained the events that had previously occurred.

"I see, then you should compensate these two kind-hearted fellows…" Seiji spoke in a righteous tone.

'Man, so in the end it turns out this was all just a family dispute,' Seiji sighed inwardly.

"Indeed… my deepest apologies." The blonde girl bowed deeply to him.

"There's no need to say it to me; just apologize to those two, and take them to the hospital. Remember to pay off all their hospital fees, and give them proper compensation." Seiji waved his hand casually.

"Yes! We… I'll make them do that," the blonde girl answered respectfully.

Seiji nodded lightly.

"I'm gonna leave now; you guys take care of the rest, and don't give anyone else any trouble."

He waved his hand again and prepared to leave without giving any clues to his identity, like leaving his name behind.

"Oh… um…" The blonde girl seemed like she wanted to say something.

"What else is there?"

Seiji looked back behind him, when he realized that he just did the pretentious action of leaning his head back 45 degrees to look at her.

"Um… this… may this girl… know your name?"

The curly-haired blonde girl's face was flushed red, and her eyes were sparkling. She was nervously playing with her hands, and her expression seemed like that of a shy girl trying to make a boyfriend.

Seiji was rendered speechless upon seeing her demeanor.

What the hell!

Lady, wasn't this too much of a difference from the impression you gave just now!?

A few seconds ago, you were a person of authority ordering those black suits about—what was with this abrupt change in pose and expression!?

And she even addressed herself as "this girl" in the third person… Seiji felt like goosebumps were erupting all over his skin!!

Seiji's brain was racing like a river that had burst from its dam, and his thoughts were unstoppable.

"Ah… er… I… don't have any name." He finally managed to suppress his tumultuous thoughts with great difficulty, and said something. "I'm just a passerby that stuck his nose in where it didn't belong; there's no need to remember me."

Then, he turned around and left as he waved.

"…So handsome…" The blonde girl watched his silhouette gradually disappear with hearts popping out of her eyes as she murmured to herself.

Even though she didn't see his face, Kaede Juumonji believed that he must have an absolutely charming face beneath that mask.

It was no fantasy; it was her instinct as a woman!

Tall, strong, handsome, and gentlemanly… he seemed to be perfect in every way.

That was the type of man that Kaede desired!

Unfortunately, he didn't want to tell her his name.

Well, it couldn't be helped. After all, this was him merely passing by and saving some random people. The incident was of such a small scale that it didn't even merit him leaving his name behind.

Ah… amazing, wonderful.

If he didn't want to give his name, then she'd just have to find him by herself, and then…

"M… Miss, what should we do now?" A black-suited man lifted his head and asked her weakly.

Kaede was extremely displeased at being interrupted in midst of her fantasies.

"Of course you should be helping these idiots that have fallen unconscious!! Do I need to teach you each and every little thing!?"

"Of course! Sorry!"

Like little chickens being ordered about by a mother hen, the remaining conscious black-suited men leaped up and tended to their injured companions.

"…It feels like, we had it all wrong…"

"Yeah…"

Kahei Watari and Takashi Kobayashi had managed to crawl up and stand. They inspected their sore bodies, while commenting on this situation to each other.

What the hell was all this!?

"How are your… injuries? In a moment, we'll take you to check them out at a hospital." Kaede had noticed them getting up: "My apologies for your unfortunate injuries. You have my gratitude for being willing to assist me… Your hospital fees as well as compensation… I'll have my family prepare it for you."

"Ah… there's no need—we weren't that seriously injured." Watari and Kobayashi exchanged glances, and both of them silently agreed that neither of them wanted anything more to do with this girl.

"That's not acceptable—that gentleman requested me to do so, so you must accept," Kaede said in a serious tone.

'We were basically just carried by him… Well, if he didn't appear to save us, we probably would have been beaten until we fainted by the roadside,' Watari thought to himself, admitting his own weakness.

As he had expected, only the strong could become heroes.

Suddenly Watari noticed that his friend Kobayashi had a hesitant expression.

"Takashi, what's the matter?"

"Oh… not much, I just feel like that person's figure and sound seemed a little familiar to me." Takashi Kobayashi reflexively answered him, as he tried searching for who it was in his mind.

'Could he be… was it really him?'

"What did you say?"

A low-pitched female voice caused Kobayashi to return to his senses, and then he saw the blonde girl with an almost fanatical expression staring at him!

Smack!*

The blonde girl fiercely gripped Takashi Kobayashi's shoulder.

"You said… you felt like you've seen that person before? Then, could you please… explain in detail, okay?"

Even though she appeared to be smiling, there was a fierce atmosphere about her.

Takashi Kobayashi was completely frightened; he never imagined that a girl would have such an aura around her!

"O… okay."

"Achoo!" Seiji suddenly sneezed inexplicably while on his way home. (Note: Asians believe that sneezing means someone is talking about him/her behind his back.)

"The wind is cold tonight…"

He checked his system. Even though the incident didn't really fit the scenario, at least he was able to successfully complete the [do a heroic deed] option, which gave him the unexpected windfall of a whopping 15 points.

Not only that, his system also mentioned [for successfully defeating an enemy with a gun without a gun yourself, you've gained 10 bonus points, and the new card [limit break technique—Bullet Time] is now available and discounted for the limited period of one week!]

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Chapter 29: Newcomer

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

[Bullet Time]… Just the name of this technique made it sound like a godly ability.

Filled with expectation, Seiji opened up a more detailed description of the ability.

[Limit break technique—Bullet Time]… According to the system, after he had exchanged for this card, his body would awaken an ability that could reach the limits of human potential.

Specifically, in dangerous situations, such as when he was threatened by gunfire or about to be run over by a car, all the limiters on his body's physical ability would be removed, and he'd enter an adrenaline rush mode. This would slow down his perception of time, which would enable him to make ultra-fast reactions in order to avoid imminent danger.

A godly technique! This was definitely a god-level technique, and most importantly, it was a life-saving ability!

Seiji wanted it more than anything.

Even though he had the cheat-like ability to save and load, he was greatly concerned about what might occur if he died before he had a chance to load!

What would happen if he suddenly died before he could load? Would he automatically load the newest save file, or would he truly die? He didn't know, nor did he wish to experience the truth. After all, what if he died for real?

So, it could be said that this was currently his only weakness.

Due to this, when he had noticed that the scarred man intended to take out a gun, he instantly decided to load. He had managed to time it perfectly, so that he was able to knock the gun away before the scarred man could react and fire!

But what if he didn't see it coming? For example, if an enemy was sniping at him from a long range…

Also, what about getting poisoned? Or being ambushed while he was asleep? If he thought about it carefully, there were actually numerous situations that were difficult to deal with.

After he had considered all the possibilities, this [Bullet Time] ability seemed even more valuable.

Even though it wasn't powerful enough to guarantee complete safety, it was probably adequate for dealing with many dangerous situations that he wouldn't be able to deal with otherwise.

It was time to buy! He absolutely must exchange for it!

The price for it was… 75 points! And this was after the system gave it a "one week only" discount! The original price… was an incredible 150 points!

As expected of a [limit break technique]… It seemed that being able to push a human body to the utmost limits wasn't cheap at all.

"I just received 15 points, and with a bonus of 10 points, that's 25. So I need to earn 50 more points in a week in order to buy it while it's on discount." Seiji murmured to himself.

For 50 points, he could obtain 28 points from grinding [sing] and [dance] for seven days. Was it possible to earn 22 more points by working?

"Working gives me 4 points each time, so I can get enough after 6 days' work. It should be possible." Seiji felt confident about it after doing some simple math.

"But it's still cutting it close… These points… if something happens, I won't have enough. Hmm… I need to devise a method to obtain more points."

… historical

It was currently Saturday morning. This Saturday morning marked Hoshi Amami's first day at work.

He was working at his aunt's confectionery store, Divine Taste, where she was both the store manager and owner.

In reality, Hoshi had some reservations about working for his own family, but because his older sisters were strongly opposed to the idea of him working—even though he wanted to—the only place they agreed to compromise on and allow him to work at was his aunt's shop. Even this compromise required desperate arguments on his part.

Hoshi couldn't help but sigh as his thoughts turned towards his older sisters.

Even though they had their individual problems, generally speaking, they were all quite nice to him.

However, he was already in ninth grade, and like many teenage boys, he desired a certain degree of independence. Unfortunately, his older sisters were too "nice" to him!

Hoshi was grateful to them for taking care of him ever since he was a baby. But he was already a third-year middle school student, and his sisters were still "spoiling" him every way possible—it was to the extent that it seemed rather strange to him!

Even though he was "spoiled," he also had to obey many of his sisters' limits, and he possessed zero privacy. Not only did his sisters know about his favorite type of girl as well as where his porn stash was hidden, they even knew about how many times he did it a week with his hand… It was just too much for him!

Not long ago, he had finally worked up the courage to confess to a girl that he'd been interested in for a long time, but he had been rejected with the sentence: "I prefer a manlier type—Amami-kun, you're a little…"

Hoshi had suffered a huge blow due to the nature of this rejection. After being depressed for a whole week, he had finally decided to change himself!

He wanted to improve his manliness as well as independent spirit, and he felt like working was an excellent way to begin. It would also enable him to earn some pocket money. After all, as a mild otaku, his hobbies required some money.

However, sisters were strongly opposed to the notion of him working, and it took desperate resistance on his part in order for them to finally agree to this compromise.

In the store's changing room, Hoshi changed into the store uniform while silently encouraging himself to be confident.

'My aunt said I can do a good job, and all my seniors are nice people… It's no problem; I can do it!' He stood in front of a mirror and repeatedly chanted words of encouragement mentally.

The mirror reflected a skinny boy with thin, long eyelashes, soft and gentle cyan eyes, and dark reddish-brown hair that was shiny and sleek. His full lips were a light shade of red… He was so beautiful that didn't appear to be a boy at all!

When he was younger, Hoshi felt like he had no problems with his face. However, as he grew older, he gradually realized that his own appearance had a critical flaw—he looked too much like a girl!

After realizing this, he slowly became cognizant that some situations he was already accustomed to—such boys who would blush when seeing him, a large commotion whenever he walked into the men's restroom, all the other boys avoiding looking in his direction when changing clothes for P.E. class, and even receiving the occasional love letter from boys he didn't know… All of those were actually abnormal occurrences!

With such a beautiful face and skinny body shape, it was only natural for him to be seen as feminine.

But that was of little importance.

From today onwards, he was going to work hard to change himself!

Hoshi neatly adjusted his uniform.

At this moment, the changing room's door opened.

"Morning… oh? A newcomer?"

"Y… yes!"

Hoshi turned around and looked at who it was. His eyes instantly became like round saucers.

So handsome!

The person who came in was a tall, handsome boy, whose muscles were bulging beneath his jacket. He had a gentle smile on his face, and his entire person seemed bright and sunny.

Hoshi was stunned… he had never seen such a handsome boy before.

Even though it may sound narcissistic, apart from on TV and in magazines, he had never seen a prettier boy than himself before! And this was the first time in his entire life that he had admitted defeat in the looks department. Plus… the other boy seemed so manly!

That was right—not only was this boy prettier than him, the other boy didn't seem feminine at all—only handsome.

He… had… basically Hoshi's ideal appearance!

"Hm… you must be the newcomer that the store manager mentioned; you're her nephew, right?" The handsome boy strode over to his own locker and began changing as he watched Hoshi with a hint of amusement: "She described your appearance perfectly—you really do look like a girl."

Hoshi felt like he had just been stabbed.

Did… even his aunt view him that way? He could only smile bitterly.

"Oh? You seem to really mind?" The handsome boy seemed to detect Hoshi's disappointment and arched his eyebrows while also taking off his T-shirt and jeans, revealing his strong muscles all over his body.

"My apologies… but since it's something you are also aware of, then you just need to work hard and face it. Stand tall and be spirited! If you're distressed about it and get depressed all the time, people will think you're even more similar to a girl."

The handsome boy smoothly put on his work uniform as he talked and organized his appearance neatly in a practiced manner before he flashed a brilliant smile at Hoshi.

"Let's begin working, newcomer!"

"Oh… yes! Senior!"

Hoshi reflexively answered him loudly and followed his handsome senior out of the changing room.

It wouldn't be long until Hoshi learned that this handsome boy's name was Seigo Harano, and that he was the number one most popular employee at the Divine Taste confectionary store!

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Chapter 30: Ace

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

The time period from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon on a Saturday morning was always a battle for the employees of the Divine Taste confectionery store.

There was normally an abundance of customers on the weekend, not to mention the fact that Store Manager Rika Amami always stocked new products each Saturday. Some older sweets on the verge of expiring would be temporarily discounted as well, so the store would always be packed with customers, unless some uncontrollable factors like bad weather intervened.

This Saturday morning was bright and sunny, and the air was crisp and cool. It was perfect weather for going out, so as expected, the store became a hellish battleground.

"Table 6's customer has been waiting for too long!"

"Are the sweets for table 8 not ready yet!?"

"Table 1 needs more napkins—hurry up and bring some more!"

"Table 10's customer has finished eating and left—go clean up the dishes!"

"Table 5's customer has knocked over a cup of juice—hurry up and wipe down the table!"

…

Hoshi Amami kept hearing incessant commands at a dizzying pace through his store's headset.

The store appeared orderly on the surface, and as customers queued up in a patient manner to be served, the servers were responsible for taking orders, bringing sweets to the tables, wiping tables down, and cleaning up the dishes. Meanwhile, the cashiers would politely smile and greet the customers warmly…

But only the store employees knew from the rapid-fire pace of commands given in their headsets that everyone's workload was at the limit!

Not only were the bakers preparing confectioneries nonstop, the servers were busy dealing with a whirlwind of tasks without the customers noticing. It was at the extent where, if anything happened, the entire store would be plunged into chaos.

Hoshi knew that as a newcomer it wasn't necessary for him to do an excellent job on the first day; as long as he didn't increase the burden on the other employees, it would be acceptable.

But even that was difficult!

He had never imagined that a server would have to pay attention to so many small details and situations, as he had zero work experience before.

For example, taking orders when dealing with customers of varying personalities required different attitudes, or else he risked unintentionally offending the customer. Also, some customers were hesitant and took too much time deciding what to order, while others spoke so fast that it was difficult for him to write down the order…

In summation, Hoshi felt like he was on thin ice as none of his seniors had any time to teach him.

Just what should he do? How should he do it?

When his aunt Rika Amami noticed his confusion, she only said one sentence to him.

"Pay attention to Harano-kun—just follow his lead."

"Harano-senpai…" Hoshi remembered this sentence and searched for his figure.

Seigo Harano had an overwhelming presence within the battlefield of the store.

"Here are the orders for tables 3 and 15."

"Here are the dishes I cleaned up from tables 10 and 12."

"Table 7's customer has enough store points with us to exchange for a complimentary item. Please prepare it at the front register."

"Here are the desserts for tables 8 and 9."

Every sentence he uttered in the store headset sounded reliable and steady and helped to counter the anxious atmosphere. He was just like an ace veteran soldier who remained stoic in the face of enemy gunfire.

In the store, he was indisputably the fastest working and most efficient server. He always managed to swiftly note down the customers' orders, instantly clean up their leftover plates, and deliver the most desserts to the tables.

While doing all this, he didn't show a trace of fatigue, and a gentle smile was ever-present on his face.

All the customers saw only his calm, collected side, and just this alone drove many girls to become his enthusiastic fans.

As for the other store employees, there was one part that they universally admired: his reliability!

As long as it was Harano doing it, they definitely didn't need to worry. He always accomplished his task to a higher standard than anyone else!

Suddenly, someone started crying inside the store.

It was a little girl at table 2; she had abruptly started crying for some unknown reason. Her young mother tried her best to calm her, but her attempts were met with failure.

The crying echoed throughout the entire store and attracted everyone's attention.

This was a disaster!

Even though Hoshi Amami had never experienced such a situation before, he understood that this was truly terrible for the store.

The entire store's atmosphere was disrupted by her crying, and the customers found it difficult to savor their desserts. Although her crying had nothing to do with the store, that was just human nature.

If it wasn't taken care of, the store's hard-earned popularity would plummet rapidly!

But even the girl's mother wasn't able to hush her crying, so what could they possibly do!? historical

"A little girl is crying!"

"Harano-kun!"

"Leave it to me."

There were only three sentences mentioned about this incident in the headset.

Hoshi witnessed Harano-senpai finish handing out the desserts he carried with the tray in his hand before he headed over to table 2.

"S… sorry, she's…"

The young woman with a fair complexion that was the mother didn't seem like she had much experience dealing with crying children. She seemed helpless for ideas, and when she saw Harano walking over, she realized that she'd inconvenienced the store, so she had an awkward expression.

Seiji smiled gently at the young woman.

"Your daughter is really cute—what's her name?"

"Haruna…" Upon seeing such a handsome server smile gently at her, the young woman became slightly flustered, and her face flushed red.

"Haruna… that's a good name."

Seiji kneeled in front of the table and faced the crying girl.

"Haruna-chan, look at me!"

Seiji extended his hands and did some strange movements to attract her attention.

"I'm gonna cast a magic spell now! But if there's the sound of crying, the magic spirits won't come… So, Haruna-chan, would you mind not crying for the time being?"

His gentle demeanor combined with the interesting topic and warm smile caused the crying girl to open her eyes wide and slowly stop crying.

"Alright! Haruna-chan is awesome—the magic spirits will come now that you've stopped crying! Take a good look…"

Seiji smiled as he quickly performed some sleight of hand.

A brilliantly decorated chocolate figure of an anime character appeared in his hand!

"Wow-" The girl was astounded at the anime chocolate that seemed like it had appeared out of thin air.

"See, this is a present for you from the magic spirits because Haruna-chan is such a good girl!"

Seiji handed the anime chocolate over to the little girl.

The little girl's eyes sparkled brightly with excitement as she took the chocolate figure with her tiny hands and inspected it with awe.

"Haruna-chan, remember that you shouldn't cry! Since the magic spirits dislike the sound of crying, if you always cry, they'll stay far away from you," Seiji spoke in a soft tone, "but if Haruna-chan smiles frequently, they'll come visit you more often—your mother can confirm this as well…"

Seiji indicated with his eyes to the young woman that she should agree with him as he said this.

"Oh… oh, yeah, that's right, Haruna…" The young woman, who had gotten a little too absorbed in watching Seiji, finally returned to her senses and agreed with him as she gently talked to her daughter while looking at Seiji with an expression full of gratitude.

The girl had completely stopped her crying now, and there was a joyous atmosphere between mother and daughter again; it seemed that the store had emerged victorious from their battle.

"Wonderful!"

"As expected of Harano!"

"Too cool! He's so handsome that even I feel like I'm falling in love, damn it!"

"Tanaka-senpai… could I ask you to stay a little farther away from me in the future?"

Their communication channel was all abuzz.

After Hoshi Amami had witnessed and listened to this incident, he respected Seigo Harano more than anyone else he had ever respected.

The beautiful boy's heart was filled with excitement as he observed the smiling Seiji continue working.

"Senpai is amazing…"

He was literally perfect!

Hoshi Amami's heart was filled with adulation.

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Chapter 31: Your femininity is at the max!

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

Seiji breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the last large group of people depart from the store. The store's rush hour had finally finished.

Even though he wasn't physically fatigued, having to concentrate on work for such a long period took a great toll on his mind.

Today was yet another normal day of work at the confectionery store. Although today was a different experience, mainly due the new employee.

Hoshi Amami.

The store manager's nephew was a beautiful boy that didn't look like a boy at all—he was one of those "cute boys".

If it wasn't for the fact that Seiji heard about him from the store manager beforehand, Seiji would've definitely mistaken him for a girl.

There were probably many customers that mistook him as a girl in boys' clothing as well. Some customers had even commented to him on how their store had finally hired a female server, even if she seemed rather inexperienced…

Seiji could only explain the truth in every instance. Some customers were shocked upon learning the truth, while others were strangely excited upon hearing the truth, and their eyes glinted with an indescribable light.

Typically, Seiji was the biggest attraction in the store, but today, Hoshi Amami also attracted a great deal of attention. However, the female customers that had figured out Hoshi's true gender kept looking back and forth between Seiji and Hoshi with glittering eyes.

Even though Seiji was reluctant to admit it… those female customers were probably "that" type.

Seiji wasn't opposed to otaku girls, since he was an otaku himself and didn't mind homosexuality either, but it still felt awkward for him to become the target of an otaku girl's BL fantasy.

He could only try his best to avoid the subject in his mind.

As for Hoshi Amami… Seiji felt like Hoshi wasn't into that either, but his appearance was just too feminine… There was no other way to describe it; if he dressed in a girl's clothing, he'd be a perfect trap!

As expected of a world with 2-D elements… even such a character was present in real life.

Seiji was unsure whether Hoshi had noticed the special treatment he was receiving from the other employees due to his status as the store manager's nephew and his appearance. Since Seiji had noticed Hoshi's frustration, Seiji took care not to treat him differently from anyone else.

Eventually, there was a brief lull in their work. Seiji then took the initiative to start a conversation with Hoshi.

"Hey, hard worker, how're you feeling?"

"Ah… Harano-senpai!" Hoshi had just finished bringing a tray of sweets to a table and smiled at Seiji, "Senpai's been working hard as well. I… I'm fine, I'm getting used to it even if it's a little tiring!"

He lifted his hands and clenched his fist by his face in a cat-like posture as he finished talking.

'It's actions like that which cause people to consider you as girlish!' Seiji exclaimed mentally.

"Alright then, the most important thing is to be spirited and enthusiastic. If there's anything you don't understand about work, you can ask me, or you can ask the others as well."

"Okay… got it! Senpai… actually, I do have a question—can I ask it now?"

"Of course."

After hearing Seiji's affirmation, Hoshi took out a small notepad and pen before he asked him some questions regarding small details in work while he took notes in a serious manner. historical

Seiji was influenced by Hoshi's serious attitude and answered each question thoroughly.

A pretty boy conversing with a tall and handsome boy—the scene of the two of them standing side-by-side was just like a painting; the female customers especially felt like it was fortunate for them to have visited this store!

"Those two boys look perfectly suited for each other!"

"A gentle and handsome Senpai with a pretty Kouhai that needs his protection… Heavens, it's too beautiful to behold!"

"Just this sight makes me want some extra confectioneries!"

The girls' eyes were ravenous, and they looked as if they could devour them down.

They chatted excitedly among each other while the "click click" sound of cell phones capturing pictures was clearly audible.

It seemed that the Divine Taste confectionery store would become even more popular than ever before… This didn't escape the notice of Manager Rika Amami, whose mouth arced upwards as she had a devious expression of "mission successful".

'Let's increase Haruta-kun and my cute nephew's bonuses, hehehe!'

The lull was only momentary, so Seiji and Hoshi had to go back to serving the customers again.

With guidance from Harano-senpai as well as the other employees, Hoshi felt like he was gradually getting accustomed to the job, and he wasn't as nervous compared to when he first started doing the job this morning.

However, incidents often occurred once you let down your guard.

Hoshi was bringing two desserts to a table when a little kid suddenly ran out of nowhere and startled him, causing him to slip. As he slipped, the two desserts on his tray flew up into the air!

'Ah… darn it!'

He had made a mistake!

Just as he was lamenting over his clumsiness, his fall was halted by something, and two large hands took his tray from him and with a "whoosh" sound, caught all the utensils and sweets that were still in midair!

This whole process took only a few seconds, and many people witnessed it.

As Hoshi Amami tripped and was falling backwards, Seigo Harano just happened to be nearby and instantly dashed to his side, using his chest to block his fall as well as catching both plates of desserts successfully with incredible reflexes!

It was literally a scene from a movie.

All the customers and employees that witnessed this scene were stunned before they lauded him with praise after recovering their senses.

"Amazing! Someone is actually capable of doing all this!?"

"I've only seen such things in movies before… I never imagined that I'd see someone to it in real life!"

"That was spectacular! Nothing landed on the ground!"

Clap clap clap…* Some customers even broke out into applause.

"Amami, you alright?"

"Ah… I'm fine…" Hoshi stood up and finally regained his senses: "T… thank you, Senpai."

"That's good then… Go exchange these sweets in the kitchen since we shouldn't be giving these to the customers anymore, and be careful not to slip anymore," Seiji instructed.

"Okay…" Hoshi's face was slightly red as he took the tray and walked off.

Some of the female customers were secretly worked themselves into a fervor at this sight.

"Hey, did you see that!?"

"Yeah, yeah! That was wonderful…"

"I wasn't able to get a picture, damn it!"

They were all thought to themselves that they needed to show gratitude to God for gifting them such a beautiful scene to etch into their memories!

'I was saved by Harano-senpai… even like that he could prevent an incident… He's just too amazing!' Hoshi was even more impressed than before.

He secretly wished to be endowed with just 10% of Harano-senpai's coolness.

But it seemed difficult.

Senpai's body shape appeared so strong and sturdy; it was a stark contrast to his own petite and fragile body.

Just what should he do? Even if he couldn't become like Senpai, he wanted to improve himself at the very minimum.

…

It was finally time for their break.

Seiji felt more eyes than usual on him today, which made him feel vaguely uncomfortable…

While he was resting in the back-room, he noticed that Hoshi Amami had tagged along as well.

"Amami, you're also resting at this time?"

"Yes, Senpai."

"Oh, then let's eat our lunchboxes together."

The store provided its employees with simple lunches, and the taste wasn't too bad.

They sat opposite each other in the rest area for the employees.

Seiji gulped a swig of water and began eating, while the beautiful boy in front of

Seiji kept his head lowered, and his chopsticks remained motionless.

"What's the matter, Amami?"

"Senpai…" Hoshi slowly raised his head and looked directly at Seiji as his eyes sparkled: "Actually… I… want you!"

Cough!*

Seiji spat out the half-chewed food in his mouth.

"Er, Senpai!?"

"What did you say!? Silly!!"

"Oh?" Hoshi realized the inappropriateness of his previous words, and his face instantly burned up.

"Ah… er, that's not it, that's not it, that's not it!" He stood up with a completely red face and accidentally knocked over the table as well as a cup of water in his furious denial.

"Ahh, sorry!"

"Alright, that's enough! Stop for a moment!"

When Seiji scolded him, Hoshi froze solid.

"Calm down… I'll get a rag to wipe this with." Seiji sighed.

"Oh… sorry…" Hoshi lowered his head in disappointment.

A minute later, after the table was wiped clean again, they sat themselves down again.

"Senpai…"

"I know that you probably just made a mistake with your words. You don't seem like the type to…"

"I'm not!" Hoshi shook his head vigorously.

"Then, what exactly did you mean?" Seiji began eating again.

"I meant, I want… to become someone like Senpai," Hoshi said weakly, "Senpai… is really manly and can do anything well, but I…"

He swallowed his saliva and told him about the impact he suffered recently to his heart.

"If that girl likes manlier boys… then it wouldn't be strange at all for her to reject you." Seiji directly said that out loud.

Stab!* Hoshi felt like he had just been sliced by a knife.

"Your height is lower than average, your body is petite, your face is pretty, you lack presence, your voice is soft, plus your general demeanor makes you seem girlish… Your femininity is basically at the max! It's at least 100 times stronger than your masculinity." Seiji relentlessly continued his fierce attack.

Stab!* Hoshi suffered yet another blow.

"I feel like that girl saying that you weren't manly enough was already being too indirect with you. I think that perhaps she felt like if she was together with you, then you wouldn't be boyfriend and girlfriend, but two girlfriends instead. Not only that, but maybe she'd even think that you were more feminine than she was!" Seiji ended with a finishing blow.

Stab! Stab! Stab!*

Hoshi felt like he had been pierced all over as he slumped over lifelessly on the table.

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Chapter 32: Could you become my sisters' boyfriend!?

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -

'Ah, that sure felt good!'

Seiji felt like he had exacted revenge as he saw the newcomer lying prostrate on the table. Well, that was the consequence of startling him earlier.

"You want to become like me? Physically speaking, it's a bit difficult… With your body shape, even if you work out at a gym, it's probably impossible to hope for any noticeable effects within a short timeframe," Seiji said in a confident tone. "In my opinion, if you want to change yourself quickly, you should start with your state of mind."

"Senpai…" Hoshi slowly lifted his head with tears in his eyes.

"You think so as well, right? That's why you're working here, isn't it? You're on the right track, but you need to pay more attention to small details. Firstly, you need to change your girlish behavior, and act more spirited. You also need to have more presence."

"Senpai… is right." Hoshi sat up again and wiped his nose as he took out a notepad and diligently wrote down Seiji's advice.

"But… anyway, why do you have those habits of yours? Even if you have the appearance of a girl, your family wouldn't raise you as one, right?" Seiji asked a question that was lingering in his mind while he ate.

Hoshi's hand abruptly froze, and his expression distorted.

"Actually… I have two older sisters, and they're twins…"

Hoshi slowly began to inform Seiji about his family life. He spoke about how his beautiful and excellent sisters "spoiled" him, how his parents just allowed his sisters to do whatever they liked; about the things that always happened to him, his realization of the truth as he matured and his resistance, his sisters' suppression of him, and his desperate struggling…

Seiji didn't pay him much attention at first, but he eventually began to slowly sympathize.

What a life Hoshi had!

To summarize it simply, Hoshi Amami's life was almost identical to that of a capture target from an otome game, minus any 18 rated portions or anything overly intimate. The only difference was that his sisters only held familial love towards him and placed a huge amount of restrictions on him as well as training him thoroughly.

Although the way in which his older sisters treated him technically counted as spoiling, Seiji strongly felt that these twin sisters were ultra-sadists who were intentionally trying to raise their younger brother into becoming a masochist trap!

What cruel witches they were…

"You've… had such a hard life, Amami-kun. It must have been rough for you." Seiji gave his condolences.

"Senpai-" Hoshi Amami was delighted as felt like there was finally someone that understood him!

His friends and classmates only saw the external beautiful appearances of his twin elder sisters and their excellence. They were even jealous of the "spoiling" he received from them, but none of them knew just how rough his life was.

If possible, I want two sisters that are more normal— Hoshi Amami's very soul desired this more than anything.

"I think you've discovered it at well; you've become like this due to your sisters' training… er, over-spoiling. Uh… how about you live separate from your sisters for a while?" Seiji asked cautiously.

"Even just getting them to agree to let me work took a great deal of effort," Hoshi smiled wryly, "if at all possible, I'd like to live separate from them as well, but… I don't know how. Even if I had some idea they'd be sure to stop me…"

Seiji fell silent. "Do your best and keep on living, Amami-kun."

That was all he could say.

"Senpai…" Hoshi was stuck for words.

Suddenly, he thought of something, and his eyes began to sparkle as he gazed at the handsome face in front of him with excitement.

"Senpai, do you… currently have a girlfriend?"

"Oh?" Seiji had an ominous premonition. "For the time being… no," he replied.

Hoshi Amami instantly stood up.

He didn't have the spare time to ponder on why an outstanding boy like Seiji didn't have a girlfriend; he could only grasp this chance gifted to him by the heavens!

"Then, Senpai… please become my sisters' boyfriend!"

"…What!?"

"As long as Senpai becomes my sisters' boyfriend, you can control their behavior! I'll finally be free!!"

Seiji was completely stunned.

Hoshi's eyes continued to sparkle.

"Senpai, if it's you, you can definitely do it! My sisters always say the boys they see are all good-for-nothings: either the boy isn't handsome enough, or his body shape isn't good enough, or there's a problem with the personality or too immature… But you… you're so perfect that you'll definitely meet their standards!" Hoshi exclaimed animatedly.

'I'm being praised, right? But why don't I feel happy about it!?' Seiji thought inwardly.

No, wait, that wasn't the most important part! historical

"Wait a moment! Calm down, Amami-kun!" He raised his hand to halt Amami's speech: "Although I have various things I want to say, but first—the most basic part —your sisters are twins, so that means two girls, right? And I'm just one person!"

"That's right!" Hoshi didn't notice anything odd about the situation at all.

Seiji looked at Hoshi with a strange expression and remained silent.

'Damn it, his junior's brain didn't exactly work too well!? What should he do!?'

When he finally noticed Seiji's strange expression, Hoshi calmed down and figured out how typical people would view this situation.

"Oh… Senpai, were you worried about that? It's not a problem! They're twins, and they've said before that they only need to share one boyfriend between them!" Hoshi revealed a brilliant smile.

'No problem!? That's just what you think!!'

Seiji didn't even know what to say anymore; he felt helpless against his junior whose thought process didn't seem to abide by common sense.

"Okay then… let's just say that your sisters are fine with sharing a boyfriend! Even if I meet their standards as well, that doesn't mean that I need to go become their boyfriend," Seiji sighed, "the current me doesn't have any time to spare on getting a girlfriend."

"What!? Why!?" Hoshi was shocked.

"I'm not as perfect as you think. I was chased out of my home, and I have to work wholeheartedly in order to support myself." Seiji finished the last bite of his lunch: "Our break time is almost over; you should finish eating soon as well."

"Er… Senpai?" Hoshi was confused.

"As for my situation… everyone in the store knows already, and we still have a few minutes, so I might as well tell you."

Seiji poured himself a cup of water and took a sip.

"Just a while before, I was still a depraved otaku…"

…

Today was the first day of their younger brother Hoshi Amami's new job.

While he was working, it was just helping out at their aunt's store, so the scenario was barely acceptable.

However, the twin sisters Rion Amami and Kotomi Amami still felt greatly uncomfortable.

The sensation was difficult to describe. It felt as if a dog that they had painstakingly trained to be obedient suddenly broke free from his leash and wanted to get rid of his master, breaking free from their control.

That was right—control.

Their little brother actually had the courage to break free from their grasp! How dare he!!

"Hey hey, Kotomi Kotomi, we should definitely punish our little brother somehow, don't you think?"

"Yep yep, Rion Rion, we definitely need our little brother to realize what a terrible mistake he's made!"

The twins were lying on their bed together in an intimate position, with both hands clasped in each other's hands. They were a tall and slender pair of beautiful twins that were curvy in all the right places, and their breasts were especially full.

They both had dark reddish-brown side ponytails. Rion wore hers on the left, while Kotomi wore hers on the right. They had identical facial features with thin eyebrows, cyan-colored eyes, and soft red lips. Their expressions were seductive as they clasped each other's hands with their twin mounds tightly pressed together…

If this scene could be glimpsed by a boy, especially those that were into yuri, it would definitely become a precious memory!

But alas, this was in the privacy of their bedroom, so nobody else was present to witness the scene.

Enjoying their sisterly intimacy was one of their favorite things to do; it even surpassed even one of their greatest joys in life—training their cute younger brother.

But, even though it didn't matter as much, they had still spent many years training him, and he was a cute toy that was the source of great enjoyment over the previous years. How could they possibly allow him to break free from his leash?

They absolutely had to tighten the leash and collar him, so that he was forced to acknowledge that they were his absolute masters.

Hey, wasn't that how life was? Oh dear, foolish brother…

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