◆◆◆ Of All People

After watching Lieselotte and company finish drafting the paperwork to officially foster Fiene, Endo Aoto saved the game without a word. Once the console and TV were shut off, Kobayashi Shihono’s living room was silent—or it would have been, if the sound of her sniffling wasn’t echoing through the room.

“I’m so glad. I’m sho glaaahd!” Eventually, tears and snot leaked out as Shihono spoke.

“I’m glad too,” Aoto said, handing the girl a box of tissues. “I’m impressed you managed to hold out this long, Kobayashi.”

Shihono took the box and pulled out five or six tissues. She vigorously wiped down her face and then blew her nose. Now that she’d finally quelled the waterworks, she looked up at the boy next to her with red eyes and smiled in embarrassment.

“Thanks! I tried really hard not to cry! Can you imagine how much of a letdown it would have been if they’d heard me sniffling at a time like that?!”

As the two girls had sworn their sisterhood in game, Shihono had begun crying even earlier than Fiene had. She’d been desperately fighting the urge to sniffle and had somehow managed to keep her voice steady. Yet the whole time, her face had been soaking wet with tears.

“I still don’t get whether or not it was that emotional of a scene, though.”

In contrast, Aoto’s expression was the pinnacle of serenity, though he tilted his head curiously as he asked his question. Seeing how different Shihono’s reaction was had him worried that he’d lost the ability to emote or something.

“It’s just... I dunno. This is the first time I truly felt like we have the power to change their fates. After all, we did!”

“Oh, I get it. The game always lets you influence the main heroes to some degree, but this is the first time we’ve gotten real adults involved, huh?”

“That’s right. Having Fiene adopted by the Riefenstahls without marrying Bal was totally impossible in the base game.”

Magikoi was an otome game: things other than romance were outside of its scope. No matter how earnestly Fiene prayed for familial or sisterly ties, they were never meant to be. Seeing that turned on its head caused Shihono to reach for another tissue to wipe her eyes with.

“And when I saw Liese-tan and Fiene smile like that, it hit me right in the feels. I’m just so, so glad it worked out. I’m so happy!”

Shihono buried her face in her hands and crumpled up.

Aoto now understood just how unbelievable and moving the previous scene had been. He quietly patted her on the back to soothe her as she sobbed.

In the game, Fiene and Lieselotte had been heroine and villainess. Outside of the Reverse Harem Route, they were rivals that never saw eye to eye—and that was an understatement. They fought to the death in some routes: sometimes Fiene would die, and other times Lieselotte would die. The two were fundamentally incompatible beings.

Yet now, they were sisters who loved one another so dearly that it had the prince quaking in his boots. What could that be if not a miracle brought on by Aoto and Shihono?

At long last, Shihono finished crying and looked up. Aoto was there waiting for her with a wet sports towel that he kept in his bag out of habit.

“You should cool off your eyes,” he said.

“Thanks.” Grateful for his thoughtfulness, Shihono took the towel and draped it over her eyes.

“Can I pull out an ice pack?”

“Sure. Er, I mean, thanks. Seriously, thank you so much for all of this.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve bawled at your house twice already, so I can’t even say we’re even. You still get one more good cry before we settle the score.”

Shihono slouched onto the sofa and took the ice pack Aoto handed her. As she pressed it against her puffy eyes, she couldn’t help but laugh at his words. Now that she thought of it, their roles had flipped from the last two times.

“By the way,” Aoto said, “you don’t find out that Fiene and Lieselotte are cousins in the game until after Lieselotte is already dead, right?”

He asked the question casually in an attempt to reset the mood. Shihono nodded with her eyes still covered.

“Yup. Usually, Fiene ends up filling Liese-tan’s shoes once she dies. They find out while she’s still alive in the Reverse Harem Route, but even then, it’s after they beat the witch. Looking back on it now, that ending is basically exactly what Fiene’s mom’s family was after, huh?”

The epilogue of the Reverse Harem Route contained a scene where Duke Marschner welcomed Fiene and her mother back to the family after she and her friends saved the world.

The text read, “And so, where once all had thought the girl to be a commoner, Fiene rose to become a fine princess loved by all.” But now that the two of them knew House Marschner’s true colors, it looked more like Fiene was being played.

“Fiene ends up being the savior of the world with the crown prince, the first daughter of a marquisate, a knight destined to be the future marquis, an elite priest, a boy genius mage, and a shady teacher in her back pocket. That’s just a threat to national security,” Aoto said with a sigh.

Shihono slipped off the towel and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Right? And then she becomes a pawn to her mom’s old family...”

The Marschners would either enact a coup or puppeteer the kingdom from the shadows. Knowing this, the two of them clammed up with furrowed brows.

“So the kingdom really is in peril after the Reverse Harem End,” Aoto said to himself.

“For real,” Shihono agreed.

The two of them nodded solemnly.

“I...I want all of them to live happily,” Aoto said after a pause.

His earnest prayer was met with an understanding expression from Shihono. She nodded.

“I know we started all this without understanding much about the whole ‘gods’ thing, but I still really want everyone to be happy. Something in me is shouting, ‘Just you watch! I’ll figure out a way to guide everyone to happiness!’”

In turn, Shihono’s determination was met with a deep nod from Aoto. They’d been groping in the dark up until this point. Aoto in particular hadn’t even known much about the game.

Still, before they knew it, the duo had grown fond of every single one of their otherworldly friends. Empathy drove them to wish for their friends’ happiness from the bottom of their hearts.

“Let’s keep doing our best!”

Shihono thrust out her dainty white hand with a smile, and Aoto gripped it in a firm handshake with his own calloused and tanned hand. A warm silence filled the air.

“I know!” Shihono said, instantly overwriting their moment. “Let’s go out tomorrow to celebrate!”

Aoto tilted his head, unsure of what she meant. She happily shook his hand up and down and continued on.

“Let’s go have a nice meal to celebrate Liese-tan and Fiene formally becoming sisters! We can take the day off from playing the game!”

The corner of Aoto’s lips twitched upward, but he immediately forced it back down. While he was momentarily excited about being invited to what sounded like a date by the girl of his dreams, he couldn’t bring himself to let his happiness show. If he could, then his one-sided crush would have gone places long ago.

“Yeah, it’s good to go out every now and again,” he said. “Summer break is gonna end after this upcoming weekend too.” Although his expression was cool and his voice was calm, it was almost too calm. He was so unnaturally placid that it betrayed his true feelings.

“All right, let’s do it! We’ll meet up outside tomorrow!”

Shihono’s happy declaration almost drew out a smirk from Aoto. He barely held it in and nodded along.

“Heh heh, it’s a date!”

Alas, Shihono teased him with a mischievous smile that struck him through the heart. Aoto could do nothing but look at the floor to hide his blushing face. The play-by-play caster who spurred on the love of others had completely lost his ability to speak.

————

A boy in a sports club spends the greater part of his life wearing a tracksuit.

Aoto may have been part of the Broadcasting Club now, but he was still a baseball player at heart. It followed that he had absolutely no understanding of fashion. To be perfectly frank, he thought it was commendable that he wore any clothes at all with how ridiculously hot it was outside.

Still, at the very least, he should have put more effort into dressing himself for a date with his crush. Overcome with regret, he hung his head.

Aoto’s outfit was made up of a sportswear-branded T-shirt, capri jeans, sandals, and a shoulder bag. That was it.

On the other hand, the girl he saw hurrying toward him through a crowd of people did not match him at all. Shihono looked unfathomably cute. Usually, she wore her hair in simple styles, but today she’d twisted it into a chignon. She was wearing a white sleeveless blouse with a rounded collar and a striped cardigan. The sky blue skirt that came down to her knees paired nicely with her heeled black sandals, and she had a basket bag in one hand. All in all, she gave off a neat, graceful, and adorable impression.

Even from afar, Shihono was practically sparkling. Aoto cursed himself with all his being for throwing together a random outfit.

“What the heck? She’s so cute. Why is Kobayashi so cute? What am I supposed to do?”

Aoto mumbled to himself in a daze right before Shihono caught up to him. When she arrived, she seemed flustered and surprised. Her movements were a bit jittery.

“Huh, uh, um, h-hey, Endo. Uh... Sorry for making you wait.”

“No, I got here too early. We still have five minutes until the time we agreed on. Besides, it must have taken you a ton of time to dress yourself up. That means if anyone’s actually late here, it’s me.”

Aoto looked serious, but Shihono had no idea what he was trying to say. Slightly troubled, she just smiled back at him.

Truthfully, the boy had been standing there for fifteen minutes, so he was verifiably not late. Of course, judging from Shihono’s complicated hairstyle, carefully chosen outfit, and the touch of makeup she wore, her date preparations had absolutely taken a long time. Still, that didn’t make Aoto’s words any less ridiculous.

“In fact, I should be the one apologizing,” he said. “I can’t believe I’m casually wearing normal clothes when you showed up looking this cute. I should just go die.”

While Shihono was lost in confusion, Aoto had somehow managed to twist his logic all the way to death. Startled, she tried to refute him.

“What? I don’t get it. Anyway, Endo, you’ve got a great build, so you still look, um, cool with simple clothes,” she said, bashful.

“Are you an angel?” he asked.

“Angel?! Oh jeez, stop teasing me!”

Shihono grew more embarrassed by the second and frantically shook her head. Aoto stared at her, burning the perfect image of angelic beauty into his eyes.

“You’re cute. Super cute. Kobayashi, you’re already cute when we hang out normally, but today you’ve broken the upper limit to become a literal angel.” Despite the incoherent words coming out of Aoto’s mouth, the boy was as serious as could be.

“...Really? Do you really think I’m that cute?”

To begin with, Shihono had done her best to make Aoto think she looked cute. Putting his penchant for exaggeration aside, receiving unfiltered compliments from her date had left her far less troubled than she let on.

“I do. You’re the cutest girl in the whole world.”

That declaration got a shy but blissful smile out of Shihono.

“Ugh, that smile... That smile is too powerful! What are you, a goddess? Oh, you are. Hold up, I get to walk beside a girl this cute? Is that allowed? Yeah, no, I definitely should’ve dressed nicer. Not that I have anything better at home.”

Aoto slipped into play-by-play mode, causing Shihono to stare at the floor with her hands on her cheeks. After a brief moment of hesitation, she looked back up at him and made a suggestion.

“Uh, um... Then maybe after we eat, we can go look at some clothes for you to wear on our next date?”

“Thank you very much,” Aoto said, instantly leaping at the offer. They’d gone from a mere celebratory lunch to a meal plus shopping—with another date lined up, to boot.

“Okay,” Shihono said, “with that out of the way, let’s go eat! It’s almost time for our reservation!”

She pushed through the lingering embarrassment with enthusiasm. She turned her back on the awkward mood and fled the scene by power-walking toward the train station.

The day prior, the two of them had made a reservation at a café there that served sweets and pasta. There was still a decent amount of time before they needed to be there, but no harm could come from being early.

Just as Aoto began chasing after Shihono, a mass of people flooded out from the ticket gates. A packed train must have arrived. He began to worry that they might lose each other in the crowd when a voice suddenly called out.

“Eve!”

“Eek!”

A tall man wearing sunglasses had rushed ahead of the pack and grabbed Shihono by the arm. Aoto tried to hurry over to where they were, but was stopped by a wave of people.

“Wha— Hey! Let go...” Shihono turned to face the man but her tone was meeker than usual.

The man stood dumbfounded. He peered at her for a moment and then tilted his head.

“...You’re not Eve?”

“What are you doing to her?” Aoto said, prying Shihono away. He’d finally caught up, and he glared at the suspicious man as he pulled the girl into his arms. His scowl caused the man to let go without incident.

Aoto looked him over, still glaring. The man was roughly 185 centimeters, since he was close to Aoto’s height. His face was on the smaller side, which made his giant shades stick out suspiciously, but he was handsome and had long limbs.

The man was dressed in a summer jacket and leather shoes that looked like they came straight from a fashion magazine. Frankly, he looked like he’d be rich and popular. He wasn’t your average creepy weirdo.

Still in Aoto’s arms, Shihono looked utterly perplexed. A hint of embarrassment caused her to shift her gaze to the earth.

“I’m asking you what your deal is,” Aoto said with a low voice. He was starting to get angry at how the man simply stood there, bewildered.

“Oh,” the man said. “I’m sorry. She looked so much like Eve—my lover, and so I just...”

The man bowed. To be fair, Shihono had been turned with her back toward the man when he’d grabbed her. She and Aoto breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that it had just been a case of mistaken identity. Aoto’s hands loosened their grip.

“But as faint as it is, I swear I could smell Eve. Still, this world doesn’t have the requisite ties or numbers. Could she have stumbled into a fate without me? No, impossible. That can’t be. But maybe...”

The man began rambling to himself at a rapid pace. Aoto suddenly reevaluated him as a creep and once more tightened his hold around Shihono.

“Smell?” the girl asked. “That’s so gross. Do you mean we use the same shampoo or something? I used a little bit of perfume today, so maybe that?” Shihono looked disgusted. Her repulsion was written all over her face.

On the other hand, Aoto’s cheeks were beginning to redden. She’d brought his attention to the nice smell wafting up from in his arms. It was a bit late, but he was finally growing conscious of how close they were.

“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant!” the man said, taking a step back and shaking his head. He paused his self-reflective mumbling to try and explain. “I’m sorry for causing you even more trouble. I was mistaken. It’s been so long since I’ve seen her that I’m lonely, and I think I was a little out of sorts.” He bowed again.

“So basically, you were trying to hit on her?” Aoto asked. “If you’re so innocent, then why don’t you leave us alone?”

“I wasn’t!” the man exclaimed, his head jerking up from his bow. “I would never do something so rude! I don’t have any want or need to hit on girls. Look, I know I was acting suspicious, but trust me!”

The man furiously shook his hands as he made his excuses.

“You see, the thing is...” He trailed off and then glanced around. The wave of people that had flooded out the gates was gone. There were still people all around, but they were all indifferently walking past them or fiddling with their phones.

After confirming his surroundings, the man slipped off his sunglasses. His newly exposed face was perfect—his beauty was breathtaking. His lighter complexion begged the question as to whether one of his parents came from abroad. He was so gorgeous that it seemed unlikely that he’d ever need to hit on anybody; surely his androgynous charm could win over anyone his heart desired.

“Hm?” Aoto said, cocking his head. “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

“Kuon Kirise,” Shihono muttered after a pause.

That’s right! the boy thought. He’s that famous actor!

Aoto stared at the beautiful man in shock. The man seemed relieved that Shihono had recognized him, and once more donned his sunglasses.

“That’s right,” he whispered. “Considering my position, I can’t go around flirting with people, so I want you to believe me. I really just mistook you for someone else.” The man bowed his head again.

Aoto wasn’t the type to blindly believe someone just because they were famous, but it seemed reasonable that a stunning guy like him wouldn’t need to hit on someone in the streets. Now calmer, he finally loosened his grip on Shihono.

“I see. Well, we’ve got places to be,” Shihono said quickly. Her voice was hardened and she bowed to take her leave.

Aoto gently stopped her with his arm and curiously asked, “Are you sure?”

Had either of his sisters run into a TV personality that they could name on the spot, they surely would have been more excited. They might have even asked for a picture or autograph.

He could hardly believe that Shihono would walk away from such a rare opportunity. However, she looked totally unaffected.

“I don’t care. Plus, we’re actually gonna run late at this rate.”

Before Aoto followed in her footsteps, he glanced back at Kuon Kirise and bowed goodbye. Although Aoto couldn’t tell what kind of expression he was making under his sunglasses, he could tell that the man was still watching Shihono. That, paired with his strange words from earlier, clung to the back of Aoto’s mind.

————

What the heck was I thinking, hugging her like that?! But she was so slender and smelled insanely nice, and the way she looked up at me was super cute! Argh, forget food or water, the sensation of holding her is enough to keep me going!

Aoto’s head was a swirl of disordered thoughts. He managed to walk into the café, take a seat, order, and make small talk with Shihono, all without letting it show. However, he’d been on autopilot the whole time, and his mind was still replaying their chance meeting with Kuon Kirise and the feeling in his arms that had accompanied it.

He finally regained his sanity when his food was served and he took a bite. The squishy texture of hot eggplant splattered in his mouth.

Aoto had ordered an eggplant Bolognese. He hated eggplants. He would go so far as to describe cooked eggplant as his Achilles heel. He was utterly dumbfounded as to how on earth he’d managed to order something he hated so much.

Exasperated by his muddled brain, Aoto gulped down some water and began speaking to distract his taste buds.

“I wonder what all that was about? You know, with the actor.”

Shihono chewed on both her salad and the question. She understood as little of what happened as Aoto did, and her decision to leave had been an instinctual one fueled by fear. Now that she’d calmed down, her mind was exploring the possibilities that lay behind their encounter.

After wiping some dressing off her lip with a paper napkin, she took a sip of water. Finally, she answered.

“Well, I’m not sure what the whole ‘Eve’ thing was about. But it’s pretty weird that we met Kuon Kirise, of all people, huh?”

Shihono’s question was meant to be rhetorical, but Aoto hadn’t even noticed the presence of the possibilities she was exploring. She noticed his puzzled gaze and clapped her hands together in epiphany.

“Oh, I guess you wouldn’t know,” she said. After Aoto nodded, she explained, “I think that Kuon Kirise might have something to do with Magikoi. I mean, I say that, but I guess you could kinda sorta argue that he doesn’t, and that I’m overthinking things... It’s like a ‘Hrm...’ type of thing.”

The way Shihono picked her words made it clear that even she wasn’t completely sure what she wanted to say. Aoto munched on his pasta, as baffled as he was when he had been listening to Kuon Kirise’s rambling.

“Um,” Shihono said, “you know how Magikoi has that one God Route? The hidden one.”

Aoto nodded, swallowed, and then replied, “The one where you can romance the god that only shows up as a bodiless voice in all the other routes, right?”

In every other route, a god called out to Fiene when Baldur died. He would say, “Don’t cry, my dear girl,” and then Fiene would awaken to her true powers. Once the player achieved every ending in the game (including Normal Ends and Bad Ends), this god would appear as a potential love interest in a hidden route.

Aoto knew of this storyline’s existence, but had no idea how any of this connected to the matter at hand.

“That’s the one,” Shihono said. “Fiene’s mom comes from the Marschner duchy, which is distantly related to the royal family, so they deus ex machina Fiene to be able to hear the Voices of the Gods. After that, it’s just a normal route where she falls in love with a god. At the end of the route, the god whisks Fiene away to his own world, which looks a lot like modern Japan... Did you already know that much?”

Aoto looked somewhat surprised and shook his head.

“Oh, well, that’s how it is,” Shihono said. “Anyway, the god is this college student who goes to W University. He’s a total hottie who works as an actor in his spare time and is named Kuon.”

“Wait... They just ripped off Kuon Kirise’s bio.”

“Exactly. They say it’s just a coincidence, but the CGs look like him too. Most people think Magikoi just modeled the character after him without permission, and the game got a lot of buzz with his fans because of it. They were all, ‘A game where I can go out with Kirise is so godly. The devs who made him a god are gods too!’”

They could still write all of this off as a coincidence or mere chance, but...

“From what you’re telling me,” Aoto said, “it sounds like our mysterious connection to the world of Magikoi might have something to do with what Kuon Kirise said earlier. If we pair the two together, I feel like there might be something big under the surface.”

A chill ran down his spine as he finished speaking. Shihono nodded quietly.

“Yup. I’d be completely sure if he’d said ‘Fiene’ instead of ‘Eve,’ but all I feel right now is this weird, lingering discomfort,” Shihono said, wistful.

Aoto shut up with a grave face. Two concerns bounced around his brain. The first of his fears was a worry that their attempts to save their beloved game characters would be interrupted. The second was anxiety that came from the thought that a remarkably desirable man like Kuon Kirise might further involve himself with them—or more precisely, with Shihono.

“By the way,” Shihono said casually, “you’ve been totally avoiding all your eggplant. Do you not like it? Or are you the type of person to save your favorite food for last?”

Naturally, the answer was that Aoto did not like eggplants. However, some part of him felt like that would be uncool to admit, so he shut up and moved his fork. By the end of lunch, he’d eaten all his eggplant.