Author's Note: This story is a result of a combination of reading too many Isekai otome game stories and playing the NDS Tenipuri School Festival game. ^^;; Enjoy at your own risk.
Ikemen, ikemen everywhere! I'm so going to get a nosebleed at this rate! Oh sorry, that's not the way to introduce a story, is it. Anyway, I was just an ordinary girl who was suddenly placed into an extraordinary situation. What's the situation, you ask? Well, I happened to be in what appeared to be an otome game, and one that I was very familiar with, at that.
This was the Prince of Tennis School Festival game in which the protagonist was a student in charge of helping out at a festival stall for whichever of the schools you chose. She would then talk with and have encounters with the handsome tennis players of the school and end up having the one she interacted with the most confess to her at the end.
As for why I suddenly found myself in the game, I had no idea. My first thought was that this was a dream after I fell asleep playing the game, but after pinching myself a few times and smelling the aroma of food cooking at the stalls, I realised that I was actually there. It was the day of the opening ceremony and seeing Atobe on stage almost made me faint. It was not so much his good looks, which were certainly considerable, but the fact that the people I thought were fictional were walking and talking literally before my eyes. Everywhere I turned, I saw familiar faces that I had only seen in the manga or on the TV.
What in the world was going on? I had a surge of vertigo and almost fell, but someone supported my arm.
"Are you all right, miss?" came a familiar voice.
"I'm fine—"I replied reflexively before turning to look at the guy and being stunned speechless.
The young man looking down at me in concern had a ridiculous hairdo. Black hair cropped short except for what looked like two feelers just touching his eyebrows. His handsome face more than made up for that though. "You don't look so well," he added, his brow creased in concern. "Shall I escort you to the infirmary?"
And here it is! The "escort to the infirmary" trope! If I was going to have an event with someone, I would much have preferred Niou or Shiraishi, but maybe that was asking too much. "Er, I-I'll be fine just resting at the side there," I managed to squeeze out an answer.
"If you say so," replied Oishi with a shrug.
He helped me to a bench by the side and then left to get me a cup of water. As expected of Seigaku's Mom! His personality would be perfect, if it wasn't for certain quirks when it came to barbecuing meat and that weird hair. Me? Shallow? Very much, thank you. I wouldn't be a fan of otome games otherwise.
Anyhow, what was I going to do now? Since I was already here, I might as well enjoy myself, right? And see if I could encounter any of my favourite characters as well. I glanced down at my clothes. I appeared to be wearing some sort of generic sailor uniform. I didn't have a mirror on me, but I assumed I looked like myself. Well, at least my face felt like how it usually did and my shoulder-length dark brown hair was up in a ponytail. Right. Utterly normal. I was totally background character material.
That was good in a sense. I could interact with the characters and they wouldn't remember me afterwards. Probably. I didn't know how long I would be in this situation, but according to the game, the festival lasted for two days. The protagonist should already have gone on at least one date with her chosen boy by this time, so any unattached boys were probably safe to talk to. I rubbed my hands in anticipation and couldn't keep a grin off my face.
Well now, where should I head to first? The top of my list of favourite characters was Niou Masaharu, a grey-haired trickster from Rikkai, followed closely by Shiraishi Kuranosuke, an overly handsome Osakan from Shitenhouji. They were very popular characters in the franchise, so I was expecting them to be mobbed by girls. I guessed I would just try my luck and see anyway.
I stood up just as Oishi returned with a paper cup of cool water. "Thanks," I said, accepting the cup from him. "I'm much better now."
"That's great," he replied, looking relieved. "Well, I have to get back to my stall. We're selling cotton candy in the square over there. You could pay us a visit if you're passing by."
"Sure thing," I nodded and waved as he left. The two stalls I wanted to visit were also outdoors, so I would certainly be passing by. Getting a glimpse of the famous Tezuka wouldn't be too bad either.
I made my way to the outdoor stall area. The place was more spacious than I expected, with lots more stalls than the game had. Well, of course, this festival had more than just the usual schools participating. It might be harder than I thought finding the stalls I wanted.
Or so I thought before I was accosted by a flirty fellow with orange hair. "Hey, pretty lady, would you like some monjayaki?"
If I wasn't wrong, Shitenhouji didn't have a stall, so the three participating members were split among the Kantou schools. Shiraishi was posted to Yamabuki's monjayaki stall. Perfect! "M-maybe just a look?" I told him, trying to look past Sengoku and into the stall.
"Sure, sure, you're welcome to look all you want," he said, preening a little.
Not at you, dolt! I retorted mentally. You're handsome too, but just not my type! There was a cute black-haired kid and a couple of plain-looking boys manning the stall, but no sign of Shiraishi. What a pity. Maybe I could come back later. I excused myself by saying I wasn't hungry yet and left the stall.
Where was the Rikkai game stall? I wondered, looking left and right, almost bumping into an ultra-tall guy wearing metal geta, of all things. "Oops, sorry about that," he apologised quickly.
"Ah, no, I wasn't looking where I was going," I demurred. I had to tilt my neck up really high to see his face, but it was worth it. Chitose's brilliant smile nearly blinded me as he waved and walked away.
Blinking rapidly, I took deep breaths to slow my heart rate and resumed looking for the stall I wanted. I'd never get there with all these encounters! Or rather, if a random encounter had me almost hyperventilating, I might just faint if I met one of my favourites! That wasn't good at all. Keep calm, keep calm, I kept telling myself. They're not real, this is just a dream. A hyper-realistic lucid dream, but it was just a dream in the end.
Finally, I heard the sound of tennis rackets being swung and headed in that direction. Aha! Found it at last! But my heart sank when I saw the queue of shrieking girls. Man, this dream was way too realistic, even in situations like this. Not only that, there was no sign of Niou either. The ones manning the stall were a curly-haired boy and a stern-looking man with a cap.
Ugh. I had the worst luck. Neither of the guys I wanted to see were where they were supposed to be. The thought suddenly came to me that maybe they were showing the protagonist around? If that was the case, I would be completely out of luck. Perhaps I should just wander around and see whoever I could. Seeing any eye candy right now would probably heal my soul. Consoling myself with that, I headed for the indoor stalls.
The first one I chanced upon was Seigaku's cafe. Aha, a glimpse of the cheeky rookie and resident genius would be nice. Alas, a glimpse was all I got from in between yet another long queue of screaming girls. That was the problem with the popular ones, I grumbled to myself. "Indeed," came a deep voice beside me. "I can't even enter my own stall at this rate."
Not expecting an answer, I was dumbfounded for the second time that day as I stared up at a tall, bespectacled young man. These random encounters were really bad for my heart! For some reason, his glasses were hiding his eyes even in real life. It had to be physically impossible, but no matter which angle I looked, there was a reflection in the way. It was frustrating, and I finally realised somehow that he was staring back at me. "I-is there something on my face?" he asked.
"Uh…apart from your glasses, not really… Ah, I'm sorry for staring. I'll be leaving now," I quickly said and attempted to disappear into the crowd. That action was easier than expected with all the other girls in the way.
Was there any stall that didn't have a long queue? That sounded like an impossible question. Even the haunted house was popular. I sighed and made my way to the least crowded part of the grounds. That happened to be the fountain. Finally, some peace and quiet. This was the confession spot for the protagonist, but that was only going to happen tomorrow so it was probably safe for now. I sat down by the fountain and sighed. In the game, the protagonist could visit any stall she wanted without queuing, well, apart from the ludicrously huge Hyotei "cafe", that is, but this reality wasn't so kind. I was no protagonist and the background characters were noisier than I expected. The whole place was also horribly crowded and I wasn't a fan of crowds in the first place.
This "dream" was turning out to be more of a nightmare. Maybe I should just have let Oishi escort me to the infirmary in the first place. "Oh? What's so good about that egghead?" came a drawling voice.
I stiffened upon recognising that voice. No way! Why was he here of all places? Then I remembered that he didn't like the heat or crowds either. Slowly turning around, I came face to face with a grey-haired young man regarding me with a slight smirk on his face.
"Wh-what do you mean?" I stuttered.
He rolled his eyes. "I came all the way here to escape the heat and was forced to listen to someone's grumbling. I would have gone elsewhere, but I don't feel like making the effort to. I was here first anyway," he said, making a shooing motion.
My hands flew to my mouth. Had I been complaining aloud? How embarrassing. I could feel heat rising up my own face as I stared at his face. Here was the solo encounter I wished for and I was already annoying him! "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," I apologised.
Niou waved his hand in response. "You mentioned something interesting. What's this about a protagonist and background characters?"
"Uh, did I say that?" My eyes darted to and fro, but kept returning to his face.
His eyes narrowed and he took one step forward. "Are you saying I heard wrongly?"
Whoops…what should I do? Would the story go off the rails if I told him how things were supposed to go? I was torn between continuing the conversation and not spoiling the sequence of events. If he was here alone, then maybe the protagonist had chosen someone else? Would that mean he was "safe" to talk to? As much as I wished that was the case, I couldn't let my guard down. I had better go elsewhere with some excuse although I would hate to leave.
As these thoughts sped through my mind, he was still studying me, his head tilted to one side. "I don't recognise that uniform," he said finally. "Which school are you from?"
"I'm from Okinawa," I lied smoothly. "I heard about this event from some friends and flew all the way over here."
His eyebrow rose. "That's a long way to come just for this festival."
I laughed nervously. "Yeah, that's what my friend said too when I told her I was coming. She told me to take lots of pictures of the handsome guys here for her. And well, it turned out to be harder than I thought, but I should really be charging back into the fray."
I tried to move away, but he stepped forward again and blocked my path. The fountain was behind me, so I couldn't turn around. "Uh… Excuse me?"
"I still have some questions for you," he said with a grin. "Don't be in such a hurry to leave."
"I really don't know how I can answer you," I replied, shaking my head. "I was just rambling a bit. Must have been playing too many otome games."
"Ah, so you're one of those otaku? Were you imagining you were in some isekai story or something?" he asked.
That was hitting too close to home! But maybe I could just play along and make him think I was delusional. I wasn't actually sure myself whether I was in fact hallucinating though. Ah, whatever.
"That's probably it, yes. I wouldn't really call myself an otaku per se though." Despite myself, I didn't want to give him a bad impression. Darn my weak will.
"Ok, let's say you're right. Who's the protagonist in this situation then?" he asked.
"There's supposed to be a girl helping out at each of the schools," I confessed. "She's supposed to become close to one of the members of the tennis clubs and have them confess to her at the end of the second day."
"That's interesting…does she have a name?"
I shook my head. "The player can name her whatever they want."
"That makes things more complicated," he said with a frown. "Would you recognise her on sight?"
"What? Why do you want to find her?" I was flabbergasted. His interfering with the story would surely make things go awry! I had to stop him somehow! "A-anyway, I was just imagining things, so it's not real. Thanks for talking to me. I had fun. Bye!"
I attempted to dash to the side, but he caught me by the wrist. Dang! I forgot how fast they all were. A nonathletic girl like me could never outrun a national-level player anyway.
"C'mon, I'm playing along with your story here, so you play along too, ok?" he said with a crooked grin.
Those good looks had to be illegal! Police, someone, anyone! Slap him with a fine and cart him off to prison right away! Argh, my heart was beating too fast and I couldn't think straight.
"Let go of her right now!" came another familiar voice.
Oh great. What now? I turned to look and regretted it instantly. Too shiny! From the tips of his perfectly coiffed hairstyle to the soles of his perfectly fitted tennis shoes, Shiraishi stood there in the flesh, pointing at Niou and ordering him to let go of me.
It was too much. My brain short-circuited and my vision went black.