Reincarnation

My name was Kenta Yamamoto. I was a twenty-year-old “nice guy” whose years without a girlfriend equaled my age, and I worked part-time at a home improvement store.

That day too, I finished my shift and went home.

When I returned to my parents’ two-story house in an ordinary residential neighborhood where I lived with them, I heard my little sister Akane calling from upstairs.

“Welcome home, Onii-chan. I’ll do the usual, so come to my room later, okay?”

The moment I got home, my sister spoke to me.

I changed into loungewear in my second-floor room and went to her room.

Inside, posters for otome games covered every inch of wall space, and merchandise filled every empty spot on the shelves. A large-screen TV sat in the middle of the room, and Akane was playing her current favorite game, “Otherworld School Story.”

It was a typical otome game: the female protagonist raised her parameters, triggered events based on those values, branched into individual routes for three romance targets, and reached that route’s ending once you cleared it.

“Then sit next to me and watch, okay?”

Because it was Akane’s request, I couldn’t refuse, and day after day I’d been made to watch her play. Thanks to that, I’d become annoyingly familiar with the game even though I’d never played it myself.

“Alright, I think I’ll go with the Prince’s route today.”

Akane raised the parameters to aim for the Prince’s route. It looked like it was going smoothly, but once the villainess appeared, the difficulty spiked all at once.

“Ugh, she got in my way again. Josette seriously pisses me off.”

Josette was the villainess’s name. No matter which of the three routes you pursued, she showed up in the same way and interfered.

“Aaah. It turned into a bad ending. She seriously pisses me off.”

The Prince’s route had a lot of events involving Josette, and many of those included an element of luck, so even if you knew the content and replayed it over and over, you could still end up with a bad ending.

The next day, I had work off, and Akane’s school was off too.

“Today, you’re going to go with me like you promised.”

Akane said that and dragged me out of the house. We were headed to a venue holding an event for “Otherworld School Story.” She’d gotten a pair of tickets by sending in the in-game survey, and since she had no one else to invite, she’d invited me.

When we entered, it was mostly women, and I immediately regretted coming somewhere I clearly didn’t belong.

The event was a voice-actor talk show, followed by a handshake session. As soon as the handshake session started, Akane lined up for the Prince’s voice actor. I didn’t feel like shaking hands with a male voice actor, so I lined up for the villainess’s voice actress—the only female voice actor attending.

Her villain performance in the game had been great, but maybe because she was a newcomer with low name recognition, there weren’t many people in line. My turn came quickly, and I stood in front of Josette’s voice actress.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. It’s rare for a man to come to an event like this.”

She spoke to me. She looked about my age—pure-looking and cute.

Her clear, sweet voice was nothing like her villain performance in the game, and my heart jumped.

“Your acting really stood out in the game, and I ended up liking you for it. I’m rooting for you. Please keep doing your best.”

I said that and shook her hand.

“Thank you. Keep cheering for me, okay?”

After that, I waited for Akane in the lobby.

A while later, she came over.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Onii-chan. Since he’s the most popular, it took forever for my turn to come around.”

“Good work. Let’s go home.”

We started heading home.

On the way, as the two of us crossed at a crosswalk, a truck that ignored the light came straight at us.

“Akane! Watch out!”

I moved to shield her, but both of us were hit, and my consciousness faded.

“Kenta… to die like this is pathetic.”

“Did I… die?”

“That’s right. Originally, only your sister was meant to die. I didn’t expect you to shield her. For reasons, I cannot revive you, so I will reincarnate you into the same world as your sister. Since you weren’t supposed to die in the first place, I suppose this is an apology… I will give you this device.”

“Um, what is it?”

A human-shaped shadow wrapped in light handed me a tablet-like device.

“This is a convenient device that can order products from the store where you worked. However, you will need an appropriate amount of money to order anything. The price will be displayed on the device, so check it later. In your new world, call yourself Kent. Now, go.”

Dazzling light enveloped me, and my awareness drifted away.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a classroom. Students were taking lessons in uniforms with vivid, almost primary colors—completely outside my common sense.

(That uniform… it’s the uniform from “Otherworld School Story,” isn’t it…?)

For some reason, everyone was wearing the in-game uniform. And when I looked around, I saw a familiar face.

(That’s the villainess, Josette…?)

As I stared at Josette’s long silver hair, she noticed my gaze and shot me a sharp glare. I hadn’t listened to a word of the lesson, but when class ended, Josette came over to me.

“You… Kent… was it? Do you have a moment?”

She led me behind the school building.

“You’re a commoner, and yet you stared at me—an unmarried daughter of a duke. Isn’t that insolent?”

“I’m sorry. If I made you uncomfortable, I apologize.”

In the game, Josette was the daughter of a duke. If I really was a commoner like she said, it was terrifying even to imagine what kind of unreasonable punishment I might receive.

“An apology isn’t something you can simply offer and be done with.”

She raised her hand to slap me, but for some reason she lost her balance and nearly fell.

I panicked and reached out, but we both lost balance and toppled over. We ended up embracing, and our lips overlapped.

And one of my hands was on Josette’s chest. I squeezed without thinking, and a soft sensation pressed into my palm.

We froze like that, but then Josette jerked back away from me.

“W-what do you think you were doingsh… doing?!”

“I don’t even know what to say… I’m really sorry.”

I apologized over and over.

“Enough. It seems I was the one at fault for trying to slap you, so we’ll pretend this never happened.”

“Thank you.”

Before I could finish, Josette’s face turned bright red, and she ran off with a hand pressed over her mouth.

“Um… did she forgive me…?”

I went back to the classroom, but Josette’s seat was empty—as if she’d left early.