Chapter 3

“Man, I’m getting stared at like crazy.”

Ryuichi muttered under his breath while stifling a huge yawn.
The second-period classes had just ended, but every single break time, he could feel gazes fixed on him. Having a vague hunch about who was behind those looks, Ryuichi let out a sigh.

“From the protagonist, huh…”

He had no concrete proof, but he figured it was a safe bet.
The name of the protagonist in this world was Souhei Shinozaki. If you said he looked like someone you’d mistake for a background character, that would be about it… well, but that’s basically how protagonists usually are.

“Guess I’ll hit the restroom.”

As he muttered that and stood up, he could definitely feel the gazes again.
He threw a quick glance over as he walked out of the classroom… and locked eyes straight with Souhei. It seemed pretty likely that all of this was a side effect of Shizuna talking to him earlier.

“…Phew.”

While taking care of business, Ryuichi re-evaluated the situation of this world.
The current timeline was still April; if memory served, the main plot was supposed to kick off right before summer vacation. Just before summer vacation started, Ryuichi and Shizuna would get involved with each other, and over the long break, Shizuna would be thoroughly molded into a woman after Ryuichi’s own tastes.

“People really change, don’t they?”

Shizuna’s appearance was the picture of a traditional Japanese beauty, yet she possessed a scandalous, ultra-lewd body that defied her pure image. Once summer vacation ended, a girl like that would dye her hair blonde and even alter her clothes right to the absolute limit of school dress code.

Whether the original artist was just that talented, both versions were drawn beautifully. That said, Ryuichi’s personal preference leaned overwhelmingly toward the current Shizuna. Before recovering his memories, he had liked flashy women, but his revived self preferred a pure-looking girl.

“Well, not that it has anything to do with me.”

The plot’s ignition before summer vacation meant that Shizuna and Souhei were scheduled to start dating around that same time. The incomplete sentence Shizuna had started earlier—about how Souhei wasn’t like that—stemmed from this very reason. She hadn’t realized her own romantic feelings for Souhei yet.
Having finished up and stepped out of the restroom, Ryuichi walked down the hallway while students cleared a path to avoid him. It was a familiar sight, but sadly, Ryuichi had already gotten used to it.

Even so, there were naturally some people who still dared to talk to him.

“Yo, were you taking a dump?”
“As if.”

A flashy-looking male student of the same caliber approached Ryuichi the moment he returned to the classroom.
His name was Makoto Fushimi, a fellow outcast who shared a similar wavelength. When he called them outcasts earlier, Ryuichi and Makoto both actually possessed decent academic stats. For some reason, their basic specs were surprisingly high.

“Isn’t it super rare for Rindo to talk to you? Did something happen between you two?”
“Not a damn thing happened.”

Ryuichi replied with an expression that practically screamed how bothersome the question was.
He could have expected anyone else to let it slide, but Makoto was bound to ask something like this. Given how bizarre it seemed even to their own inner circle, Ryuichi and Shizuna were still viewed as having zero connection.

“If you managed to score with her, I was hoping to pick up the scraps, you know. There aren’t many babes like that in our grade.”
“You never change, do you…”

Makoto was living entirely driven by his lower half, Ryuichi thought, but since he had been the exact same way until just recently, he couldn’t really mock him. Just to clear the air, there really was nothing going on between him and Shizuna, so he had nothing special to report.
Makoto seemed to gather from Ryuichi’s demeanor that nothing was actually going on and dropped the subject.

“By the way, Ryuichi, there’s a party at that club coming up soon. What are you gonna do?”
“…Ah.”

“That club” referred to the place where Ryuichi had first met Chisa.
It was a shady sort of party where a large crowd of guys and girls regularly gathered… well, you could easily imagine the kind of suspicious event where people took home whoever caught their eye on a whim, or sometimes hooked up right there on the spot.

“Nah, I think I’ll pass for a while.”
“Seriously?”

Makoto’s eyes widened in utter disbelief at Ryuichi’s response. It made it crystal clear how Ryuichi was viewed at this stage, but ever since regaining his memories, he had lost all desire to frequent places like that.

“You, the sex-fiend extraordinaire? Are pigs gonna fly tomorrow or something?”
“That’s way too insulting, seriously.”

Makoto laughed and apologized, saying my bad, my bad.

“I dunno, your vibe’s changed or something, man. I think your old self was fine, but your current self is better in all sorts of ways, y’know?”
“Chisa said the exact same thing to me.”
“I knew it. Anyone who knows you well would say that, wouldn’t they?”
“…Hm.”

It wasn’t like his way of speaking had changed, and since you can’t really perceive your own aura or vibe, it was hard to say for sure. Even if Makoto was just a friend met through impure motives, hearing the exact same thing from him as Chisa meant the atmosphere Ryuichi gave off must have genuinely shifted.

“Well, anyway, let me know if you end up wanting to go, alright?”
“Got it.”

I’m definitely never going, though, he swallowed those words down.
Time ticked by until the end of the school day. Because he had been slumped over his desk sleeping even after home room started, Ryuichi was already the only one left in the classroom.

“…Could somebody have woken me up… well, fat chance of that happening.”

If he were a total stranger, he wouldn’t want to talk to someone looking like Ryuichi either, so in a way, that reaction was completely justified.
Picking up his school bag—which contained zero study materials—Ryuichi stood up, when his eyes accidentally drifted toward a flower vase. It held some lovely flowers, but the vital water meant to nourish them had turned murky and filthy.

“What on earth has the day-duty student been doing?”

Changing the flower water was basically the job of the student on day duty, but whoever was assigned today apparently hadn’t bothered. It was possible they simply forgot, so jumping to conclusions wasn’t fair, but Ryuichi sighed and picked up the vase anyway.

“…Huh? Shishido-kun?”
“Hn?”

Just as he picked up the vase and headed out to change the water, a totally unexpected encounter awaited him. Shizuna appeared carrying her school bag, looking surprised as she alternated her gaze between Ryuichi and the vase.

“Weren’t you heading home?”
“Ah, yeah. I forgot something… What are you doing with the flower vase, Shishido-kun?”
“Looks like the day-duty person forgot to change the water. These guys wouldn’t want to sit in dirty water, so I figured I’d take care of it.”
“………”

Shizuna’s eyes widened to their absolute limit at Ryuichi’s words. Ryuichi himself thought it was completely out of character—or rather, he had literally never done anything like this before in his life. That was precisely why being looked at with such a gaze made him feel slightly uncomfortable.

“Is it a crime for a guy like me to do this kind of stuff?”
“Eh!? N-No, not at all! I just thought it was unexpected, that’s all…”
“You were thinking it, though.”
“I’m sorry…”

Ryuichi chuckled at Shizuna as she apologized so honestly.
He walked right past Shizuna’s side toward the water fountain area, but lo and behold, she set her bag down and followed right after him.

“Why are you tagging along…?”
“Just… feeling like it, I suppose?”

This is a pain in the neck, Ryuichi thought, yet he allowed her to trail along.
Arriving at their destination, Ryuichi set the vase down and rolled up his sleeves. His sun-tanned skin and thick, powerful arms came into view.

“………”
“………”

Neither of them said a word as a blanket of heavy silence settled between them.
After replacing the murky liquid with clean water, the flowers somehow looked as though they had regained their vitality. Displaying a satisfied grin as if he’d accomplished a real task, Ryuichi noticed Shizuna staring at him with a dreamy, vacant look yet again.

“…Rumors really aren’t reliable at all, are they?”
“Rumors?”
“Mm. People say you’re the number one delinquent since the school opened, or that your conduct is peerless in its wickedness… they say all sorts of things.”
“They aren’t exactly wrong, though.”

The rumors whispered about him weren’t particularly incorrect. It was simply that Shizuna didn’t truly know Ryuichi yet. She could only say things like that precisely because she had no idea what kind of things he had done or how he spent his days.

“…Still, I think Shishido-kun is a very kind person.”
“Cut it out, I’m nothing like that.”
“Fufu, I’ll just think whatever I want, then. Truly unkind people wouldn’t do something like this.”
“!? “

I am seriously losing my rhythm here, Ryuichi thought as he scratched his head.
To instill just a tiny bit of wariness—or perhaps to remind her of what kind of person he actually was—Ryuichi cornered Shizuna against the wall.

With a sharp thud, he planted his hand right beside her head—the classic kabedon.¹

“S-Shishido-kun…?”
“Don’t trust me too much, you know. I can’t guarantee I won’t end up devouring you.”

Ryuichi flashed a smirk like a mischievous bad boy.
However, right then and there, something bizarre happened. Instead of running away, Shizuna’s cheeks flushed red as she stared straight back into Ryuichi’s eyes without blinking.

“…Ah.”

Right at that moment, Ryuichi recalled a certain setting.
Shizuna was indeed a girl who would eventually be violated by Ryuichi and break down, but deep inside her lay a dormant talent for extreme masochism. It was precisely awakening that trait that triggered the manga-like developments later on… but Ryuichi shook his head, thinking surely not.

“Anyway, I’m heading home now. You better scurry back home too, got it?”
“Y-Yes…”

I feel like I just pushed a really dangerous switch somewhere… Ryuichi pondered to himself as he walked his way back home.