Chapter 2. Maybe dreams aren’t always meant to come true.
Chapter 2. Maybe dreams aren’t always meant to come true.
Chapter 2. Maybe dreams aren’t always meant to come true. CHAPTER 2 Maybe dreams aren’t always meant to come true.
Masachika trudged along his weary way home with an indescribable sense of loss. Even though he’d originally stopped by the park for closure, the moment he got a conclusion to his past love, he was overcome with an unbelievable feeling of isolation and didn’t know how to deal with it. Despite getting the closure to move forward with his life, he realized that he couldn’t stop thinking about the past, even though he had numerous other concerns he needed to sort out involving Alisa and Maria.
“Sigh…”
Even the road he was walking down was a path often used by Masachika Suou in the past. It reminded him of the time he had sprinted down this street one day on his way home, propelled by excitement and embarrassment from Mah kissing him good-bye on the cheek. After finally making it home, he had sneaked into his room through the back porch to make sure his grandparents didn’t see how giddy he was.
Now Masachika arrived home and reflected on past memories as he opened the gate and went around to the back porch…and that was where he found Yuki wearing a school swimsuit and sitting in an inflatable pool clearly made for children.
“…What are you doing?” he asked, looking at her wearily. More important, he wondered why she was even there in the first place. She’d never said a word to Masachika about stopping by that day. Perhaps she was nothing more than an illusion. But the moment Masachika placed a hand on his forehead and closed his eyes to consider the possibility, his face was soaked with cold water.
“Pfft?!”
He reflexively wiped his face and opened his eyes to find Yuki pointing a water gun right at his head, her lips curled impishly in a grin.
“…Seriously. What are you doing?” asked Masachika once more. Yuki snorted smugly, shifted her gaze to the summer sky, and spun her water gun around her finger like some sort of hotshot detective.
“Don’t worry about it, bro. I’m just giving in to my more childish side for a change.”
“Your ‘childish’ side?”
“Yep. I’m trying to get that adolescent rush. Know what I mean?”
“ Adrenaline rush. Don’t try to make what you’re doing sound cool,” he growled with a reproachful glare. He then briskly walked over to his sister and immediately began rubbing her head aggressively, messing up her hair.
“There’s some bonus serotonin for you.”
“Oooh! I can feel the happy hormones oozing from my bodyyy! …Wait. What in the world am I doing here?”
“How can you ask me that with a straight face? That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“What was I doing … ? Argh! My head … !”
“Were you brainwashed? Hurry up and remember already.”
“Guh … ! Hff … ! It was at that moment I remembered it all. This world is the world from the otome game I was playing right before I died.”
“Nobody asked you to remember your past life.”
“Yuki…Suou … ? Ngh … ! No … ! That can’t be! I was reincarnated as a villainess?!”
“Oh, wowww.You were a villainess this whole time?”
“I remember everything now… I played the spiteful husband who picked on the heroine with her older brother.”
“Oh, is Ayano the main character?”
“Precisely, my dear brother. Ayano Kimishima is the heroine of this world, aka the protagonist of The Dark Noble’s Infatuation: All of the Beautiful Yandere Men Are Obsessed with Me !”
“Can I get all the names of the male characters she can choose from? I need to kill them.”
“Hikaru Kiyomiya.”
“Hmm… I surprisingly don’t really know how I feel about that.”
“Yuushou Kiryuuin.”
“He’s just evil.”
“Ouji Hachioji.”
“Isn’t that supposed to be a student council president in the next town over? And what kind of name is that?”
“And the secret character…Sakuya Sarashina.”
“I don’t know who that is, but that sounds like a last boss if you ask me. This is one of those stories where you can play the last boss’s route after completing all the other routes, right?”
“Brother, the time to slaughter has come. Start by killing the hidden character.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t. You should probably just keep that character hidden.”
“What? But the world will be destroyed if you don’t defeat the secret character…”
“Definitely sounds like the last boss to me.”
“Oh, but if we’re following the source material, then you’re supposed to have a fan-service scene today where you accidentally see some boobs, which causes copious amounts of blood to shoot out of your nose until you die of blood loss. So I guess you’re not supposed to be the one saving the world.”
“What a disappointing way to go. Today’s the day, huh?”
“Yep. Now go dry off your face. You look like a wet dog.”
“And whose fault is that?”
After lightly smacking his sister on the head, Masachika took off his shoes, stepped up onto the porch, and walked through the tatami-matted room with slumped shoulders.
Sigh… I’m exhausted already.
Masachika headed to the bathroom while using a handkerchief to dry the water dripping from his hair. The air was still in the hallway past the tatami-matted room, and there was no sign of anyone else being around. It was only natural that his grandfather wouldn’t be home, since he was walking the dog, but his grandmother didn’t seem to be there, either.
Did Grandma go out today…?
He tilted his head curiously, opening the door to the bathroom…only to find himself standing face-to-face with his completely nude maid, Ayano.
“Sorry.”
He promptly closed the door. The entire exchange lasted for one point seven seconds, an impressive display of Masachika’s godlike reaction speed.
Why don’t you ever make any noise?!
He screamed internally. From the looks of it, Ayano appeared to be in the process of wrapping a towel around her body, so why didn’t the fabric at least make a rustling sound? Despite knowing that he was shifting the blame, Masachika still couldn’t help but scowl in frustration at the maid who was silent even at times like this.
Wait! Is this the fan-service scene she was talking about?!
Yuki knew that Ayano was in the bathroom, which was why she had led him here. It was unfiltered malice. That entire ridiculous conversation about the nosebleed was all foreshadowing for this as well.
In other words, yelling or panicking would be exactly what Yuki wanted, so the smart thing to do would be to casually walk away as if nothing had happened…
But before Masachika could even finish that thought, the door before him silently slid open.
“Good afternoon, Master Masachika. Please come in. Don’t mind me.”
“Seriously?! I do mind!” shouted Masachika, unable to handle how willingly she invited him in while hardly covering up with her towel.
“If anything, you should be bothered by this more than me!”
“ … ! Oh, right. You have my sincere apologies.”
Ayano promptly began drying Masachika’s wet chin and hair with the towel that was wrapped around her body…unsurprisingly, revealing herself to Masachika in the process.
“No, I’m not talking about my hair!”
He immediately leaped back and averted his gaze.
“Are you stupid?! Have you no shame?!”
“Master Masachika, it may not look it, but I am working extremely hard in order to overcome my embarrassment.”
“Could you not?!” he pleaded before sprinting back to the tatami-matted room like a scared rabbit. After landing on the floor, he clutched his head tightly and began to groan. His cries were short-lived, as he was soon interrupted by the cackling of a demon, prompting him to lift his head and shift his gaze in the direction of the noise.
“Oh, wow. It looks like you cheated death. I’m impressed.”
“…”
Yuki was sitting in the inflatable pool with her legs crossed and a grin on her face, staring into the house. Masachika silently turned his back to her, since it was obvious that she was going to make fun of him, regardless of how he reacted.
“Hey, come on, bro. What’s wrong? Can’t get the image of Ayano’s birthday suit out of your head?”
“…”
“Hello? Can you hear me? Stop ignoring meee.”
“…”
“Whoopsie-daisy! Oh no! My boobs popped out of my swimsuit!”
“…”
Why did she think that was going to make me turn around? wondered Masachika. She understands I’m her brother, right?
But he fought through the strong urge to point that out and decided to sulk on the floor instead.
“…Tsk! Looks like a little nip slip isn’t going to be enough. I guess seeing me half-naked in a school swimsuit isn’t nearly as enticing as seeing Alya braless in a white T-shirt at the beach!”