Volume 6, Chapter 4: Turned into a mob character, Part 2

“You, why aren’t you following me diligently. If I’m walking alone while talking I look like a fool.”

“………”

Two days later, I encountered Matsuri again.

How strange…… I changed my route home, so how did I still meet you?

“Anyway, just come over here.”

“Ehhh~……”

Was Matsuri capable of learning? She grabbed my hand this time and started walking. After walking for a while, I was brought to the back of the PE equipment room where people didn’t come at all.

“This place will do. Really, it was all because you’re such a dullard. Don’t get lost this time.”

“Okay, got it.”

I didn’t get lost.

“How is it? Are you Surprised? I made it into Takamine.”

“Eh…… yes.”

I was really surprised. It might just be me, but shouldn’t you have said that line when I met you on the first day of the year? Anyway, I already knew that Matsuri was the transfer student even before I met her.

“I was going to enter in junior high, it’s true, but I felt like the events were progressing too quickly, so I got Dad to get me in.”

“……events?”

“Ah, it’s alright. Because you’re a mob character, it’s okay if you don’t understand anything, you know? Upupupu, it’s sad to be a mob character.”

“Mob?”

“Fufu. To be able to speak like this to a mob character, it’s certainly a really good simulation. I don’t discriminate, even against mob characters. I will add you to my group.”

“………”

“Ah, right, you’ll be an easy mark for a spy. It’s quite annoying. Certainly, the timing is different, but I should end up in the same cla.s.s as Kouki-kun due to the heroine correction.”

Matsuri who spouted all those interesting things… didn’t end up entering our cla.s.s.

It was possible to transfer in from outside with appropriate connections and donations, but our cla.s.s was fixed for the year, and it was impossible to join the cla.s.s unless one was an amazingly talented person like Yuuki-kun.

In short, Matsuri’s academic ability was insufficient, and ended up in the regular cla.s.s.

And also, there was a rumour being spread.

After all, I’d made a video beforeー someone making a racket after climbing over the outer wall of Takamine school, and after I showed that to Kouki-kun who’d burst out laughing, it seems that some other people in other cla.s.ses had seen it.

Then, on the first day of the transfer,

[I am Sakurazaki Matsuri from the suburbs. Please take care of me.]

With a self-introduction that could have been accompanied by a ~yaruuun~ noise, people who’d watched that little animation were straining their abdominal muscles. Matsuri was truly a sinful child.

“Mob character, tell me. You know Kouki-kun and Handsome-kun, don’t you? Why is Kouki-kun by Kako’s side?”

Hearing Prince-kun’s full name for the first time in a long while, my body twitched and trembled. Is this becoming a trauma at the level of the soul……?

“Umm? Aren’t the two of them fiancées? Isn’t it alright, for a beautiful couple?”

“Haaa? Mob child, what kind of joke are you trying to make? There is no way that that villainous daughter is a beauty. I don’t know what you’re thinking.”

“Is that so?”

Kako might be easily misunderstood. To me, though, the inside of Matsuri’s head is in a completely different dimension.

What the world is a Mob? Is it a technical term? I guess she heard that Kako was a villainous daughter.

“That’s right. Besides, Kako had drawn herself away from Kouki-kun, so shouldn’t their relationship not be that great?”

“……Are you familiar with Kako?”

“It’s well-known.”

“……Ah, is that so?”

“That’s right, and now, Handsome-kun.”

*twitch*

“Why is he so thin? He’s supposed to be getting slimmer in the second year of junior high. Was it because I remembered the events, that they came early? But, I think it was a lucky turn. I didn’t expect him to be so cute since his elementary school days.”

“………”

Such improper talk…… Although I agree that he’s cute. ……ah, Onzada-kun sent me an email.

“If I can successfully solve the problem here, I can bring the events up ahead of time. Ah, but he’s not a junior high school student now, so I can’t get rid of the vengeful spirits. Well, although it started early, there’s no common ground, so I can’t advance. Hey, mob character, do you know of [Onsa-kun] who’s three years older than you? He’s a boy with a wild feeling.”

“I don’t know him.”

Eeh~…… Onzada-kun, do you also want to go to Dad-chan’s ramen shop? Didn’t we have it just two days ago? Did you like it a lot?…… and, send.

“What, you’re no use at all. Well. He should be the son of a priest in a temple”

“Hey hey”

“More than that, about Kako. Her behaviour is different up until now…… perhaps. Yeah, that’s surely right. She also has ‘memories’. Because this story is a staple.”

“Hoho”

I’v gotten lots of emails from Onzada-kun this year. Because he was in junior high, when he wanted to eat it he went alone, but when he was with me there were a lot more service.

…… Ah, I did it again. That’s why I said that it would only be okay when I turned 20.

“There seems to be a need for me to teach you a little…… Mob character, can you prepare a dead animal?”

“……N? Kagoshima Wagyu sirloin is good?”

“Why are you suddenly thinking of putting such high cla.s.s meat in the shoe locker!?”

“I got it as a Christmas gift, but I can’t eat it yet.”

“n.o.body ever gives such stupid presents!?”

…… But I have it.

Most of it ended up being processed and eaten with my family or distributed to the employees, but it seems that I made a mistake thinking about consuming only the filets and sirloin because it was a gift.

There’s still a lot of it in our company’s freezer.

“Ah, oh well. You should go and spy on and grasp Kako’s weaknesses. I have something else to do for now. Fufu, I’m looking forward to it.”

“…………”

I didn’t quite get it, but there was something about Kako……?

Having said everything that she wanted to say, Matsuri skipped away as if flying, and left.

“What was that……”

It has nothing to do with me, please leave me out of your gossip……

“……That girl, what does she want with me?”

＊＊＊

“Fufufu, watch me, Kako.”

Matsuri grinned while looking at the white plastic bag that I’d brought.

Inside of it was the dead bodies of some mice I’d bought at the pet shop yesterday. But it wasn’t for hara.s.sing Kako by putting it in her shoe locker.

After all, in Takamine, the personal lockers for shoes and luggage couldn’t be opened without a keycard.

Then, what use was there for the rats?

Matsuri seemed to have [No clue] apart from what they were usually used for, but it seems she’s not stupid.

Takamine wouldn’t allow a student without the academic ability to transfer regardless of how large the donation was in the first place, so Matsuri had to have more than just these hobbies.

Matsuri was contemplating the current situation.

In the memories of her past life, when someone was reincarnated as the main character of the game, she knew that there was a possibility that they weren’t the only [Reincarnator].

Although she thought that events were advancing quickly because her memory had returned, but given that Matsuri hadn’t involved herself yet, it seemed natural to think that there were other [Reincarnator] involved.

Who benefitted in this situation? Matsuri who thought that only Kako benefited, and believed her to be the [Reincarnator].

Perhaps, in order to force the heroine to act to generate an event, Kako would [make up] being bullied.

Kako would try to use it to cause the heroine Matsuri to fall into a trap.

Because Matsuri was the legitimate heroine, she thought that it was her right to attain the harem end which was the ‘selling point’ of the game.

Those who disturbed this would not be forgiven.

Kako in the game was jealous of Matsuri, who was making friends with Kouki, and would make sarcastic remarks about her out of jealousy, and repeatedly hara.s.sed her. Although she denied it even when there was a conviction event, Kouki believed in the heroine Matsuri, and dissolved his engagement with Kako who refused to admit to her crimes.

If Kako was a reincarnator, then in order for her to be framed for a crime that she couldn’t avoid she would desperately need to get the alibi of a friend.

Perhaps, since she was recently secluding herself somewhere after school, it wasn’t wrong.

Then, what should she do……?

“If I can’t think of anything, I just have to start some trouble.”

Everyone was free to enter and leave the locker rooms according to their cla.s.s and gender, but since some people would change clothes inside, there were no surveillance cameras.

Matsuri entered the locker room while grinning, and threw out everything in her locker, trampling the still-warm corpses underfoot.

Her new textbooks, shoes, etc, were all covered in blood. There were many things that she hadn’t used yet, but she would be able to buy new ones again as soon as she asked for them from her father.

And as her brand new packages got soiled, Matsuri’s position as the ‘victim’ should be set in stone.

Matsuri intended to let the suspicion for this be gradually guided onto Kako.

There was no need for other evidence. On the contrary, there was no evidence, so if Matsuri put on a show, she wouldn’t get there. Matsuri herself also didn’t intend to make a fuss about Kako being a criminal.

The only people who could open the lockers other than herself was a teacher or someone like Kako who was able to influence teachers in the game.

A clever person…… for example, Kouki, would be able to conclude the ‘answer’ for himself, and it was enough that he started to distrust Kako for having her own way.

“The rest of it……”

In the setting of the game, it was said that Kako liked a certain character, so she would drop a pen with that mascot character to seal the impression.

“If I repeat this a few times, Kouki would have acc.u.mulated enough distrust in Kako and begun to have interest in me, and his favor level should increase. It’ll be good for him and me~”

If the nuisance didn’t exist anymore, then the event with Handsome would be able to proceed.

If the two of them, Kouki and Handsome, were simultaneously captured, the capture of other characters would be possible, and the [18-Restricted] events need not begin in high school but rather from middle school.

Imagining a sweet erotic event with Kouki, she couldn’t suppress a smile, and Matsuri left the locker room with her face hidden in her hands.

Although this is unrelated, do you know of the story where the land gets ‘purified’ right after a demon pa.s.ses by?

This is because when the demon is nearby, carca.s.ses of those who were murdered would decay into nothing, and instead of generating disasters from the miasma, a hungry demon would eat up all of the miasma.

But that was only the case for Lesser Demons and Greater Demons.

If there was a higher-ranking demon there, what would happen……?

That day, Yuzu happened to pa.s.s by.

There was no particular meaning in that, just that she was a little hungry and entered the shop. Even if she ate human foods, the Demon wouldn’t be satisfied, but it was better than nothing.

“……Eh?”

As Yuzu pa.s.sed by, the dead mice decayed to the bone in a matter of seconds, and ‘miasma’ began to leak out of the locker that was now only slightly soiled.

And that miasma, was instantly absorbed into Yuzu, whose belly was empty at the time.

“………”

Yuzu who unintentionally picked it up felt sorry for the owner, and went home with a sour face.

Early the next morning, Yuzu came to the locker rooms with an item for her apology, and put her hands on the locker, gently murmuring.

“…[Open]…”

And as the students started school, a disturbance began with a smell.

However, it wouldn’t be right to call it a terrible smell.

While Matsuri was hiding her grin behind a look of fright, she and the teachers were gathered in front of the locker, and the teachers were talking to one another.

“Sakurasa-san, can I open your locker?”

“Yes.”

And, upon seeing the thing that was in the locker, everyone was stunned.

There, a T-bone steak that was still steaming hot was scattering a wonderfully fragrant smell on an iron skillet.

“……Sakurasa-san, it’s not okay to put such things in your locker.”

“Wh-th… hara.s.sment!”

“Why would anyone hara.s.s anyone else by putting a steak in a locker!”

The boys had their appet.i.tes stimulated by the smell of the steak and the girls were disgusted at having the smell of grilled meat on their clothes, but they both nodded at the teachers’ words.

“Now, come to the staff room.”

“Noooooooooooooooooo, I’m the viiiiiiiiictiiiiiiiiiiiiim”

“Your locker can only be opened by either you or a teacher, so come quickly!”

And so, just like that, transfer student Matsuri Sakurasa received a strict reprimand within her first week, and her parents called while her teachers monitored her during the semester.

Also, due to the requests of some of the students, a yakiniku set meal was added to the cafeteria the following week.

Author’s Notes:

Writing about meat makes me want to eat meat.

Next time: the story of the ramen shop.