Chiaki really is living up to her name… an autumn(aki) full of troubles...
Even after being reborn into another world, Harutaki was still playing with bad puns that would’ve gotten him fined back in his old life. Slouched in the classroom, which was still sparsely filled so early in the morning, he stared vacantly at the blackboard, mind replaying the request his sister Chiaki had made of him before he left the house.
“Um, excuse me…”
A light double tap on his shoulder jolted him out of his daze. He turned—and blinked.
Wasn’t this Akihisa?
They’d talked just fine yesterday, so why was he shrinking back like a spooked animal today?
“What’s up?”
“U-uwah!”
Handsome, sure. But so rude…
Akihisa grumbled inwardly, yet still forced himself to muster courage. The handsome normie had stolen his otaku friend’s seat, and it was his duty to lodge a complaint:
“You’re… you’re sitting in Hoshikawa-san’s seat. Could you maybe—”
“Tch. Akihisa, don’t tell me you don’t recognize me?”
The words left his mouth before he realized. Of course—his sisters hadn’t recognized him right away either. Expecting Akihisa, socially inept as he was, to do any better was a stretch.
He dug out a textbook, flipped to the first page, and jabbed at the neat kanji on it.
“I. Am. Hoshikawa Harutaki. Got it?”
“U-uwahhh!”
Don’t squeal like a startled pig, Akihisa.
And really, was it that terrifying to learn he was Hoshikawa Harutaki?
Harutaki shot a polite smile to the classmates who’d been disturbed by Akihisa’s shriek, managing to leave several girls blushing in his wake. Then, tugging on Akihisa’s sleeve, he drew him close and whispered:
“Hey, was that really worth such a reaction? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“B-because I am seeing a ghost!”
Akihisa pouted, then quickly realized how rude that sounded. He backpedaled, flustered: “I mean… I just didn’t expect you to look like this.”
“Like this?”
“Like Murai Ren and his crew—no, even more of a normie than them!”
For some reason, the more Akihisa spoke, the more worked up he became. Finally, he slipped into the infamous turbo-speed speech unique to hardcore otaku:
“You’re stupidly good-looking, okay? In an anime, you’d be the guy with a harem of gorgeous girls all falling over themselves for you—not just the childhood friend who’s already head over heels, but also some sudden transfer student beauty who falls for you at first sight. No, no, scratch that—you wouldn’t even be a harem protagonist, you’d be the #1 heartthrob in a shoujo manga, the type of guy whose face alone makes girls scream—”
“Stop, stop—”
Harutaki cut him off before the sermon could get any faster, rubbing his temples.
“Are you a girl who reads stuff made for girls?”
“What kind of question is that? Of course not. Well, maybe one or two masterpieces that went mainstream. Stuff anyone could enjoy, regardless of gender. Like—”
“Cough. I didn’t ask for recommendations.”
Honestly, this guy could talk to himself for hours.
“What I meant was—if you’re not a girl, then why did you squeal like a wild boar the second you saw me?”
“W-wait. Did you just call me a wild boar, Harutaki?!”
Ah, so he can catch the important parts. Good for you, Akihisa.
The approving look on Harutaki’s face left Akihisa strangely conflicted. Why did this feel like being scolded by an older relative?
“So anyway, you weren’t kidding yesterday when you said you were going to start dating?”
“Of course not.”
Akihisa kneaded his pudgy cheeks, embarrassed.
“I thought you were just joking. You’re the guy who only plays sister-themed galgames, after all.”
“Only plays?”
Harutaki clicked his tongue, wagging his finger.
“My horizon is the stars and the sea.”
“…What, you planning to save some commoner like me from the evil nobility?”
Akihisa quipped right back. “Speaking of nobles, don’t go picking a fight with our class ojou-sama, Reinhard(haru)-sama.”
“Especially with Nogami-san and her crew…”
He shrank into his seat, gesturing nervously toward the front right.
Harutaki followed his gaze until his eyes landed on a girl with chestnut-red hair flowing to her shoulders.
Her playful side ponytail softened her look—until his gaze lowered, meeting the upward tilt of her rose-colored phoenix eyes. His body stiffened.
Alarm bells blared in his mind. Like a mouse spotting a cat.
So… the old Harutaki had been very afraid of this Nogami girl?
He didn’t understand why. He hadn’t even interacted with her. From where he stood, even her sharp, predatory gaze didn’t ruin her features. If anything, it added to her allure.
Noticing his lingering stare, Akihisa’s jaw dropped. He glanced between Harutaki and Nogami, then gulped hard, clinging to a desperate hope:
“You… you didn’t fall for Nogami-san, did you?”
But before Harutaki could answer, Akihisa panicked.
“No, no, you mustn’t go near her. Don’t let her notice you. Don’t let her take an interest in you; in fact, it’s best if she doesn’t even know you exist!”
If Harutaki’s own nerves had been like a mouse before a cat, then Akihisa’s reaction was outright “seeing a ghost.”
“She’s really that scary?”
Harutaki wasn’t stupid. From Akihisa’s tone, his fidgeting, the fear etched into every movement—it was clear Nogami’s tyranny extended far beyond what she’d shown at yesterday’s class meeting.
Everyone knew middle and high school were hotbeds of bullying. For outcasts like Akihisa—or the old Harutaki—being targeted was a nightmare. No one would stand up for them.
“It’s not about scary or not. Nogami-san’s the type of person who’s…”
Akihisa struggled for words, then mimed a knife to the throat.
“…the type where, once she sets her eyes on you, your life is over.”
That reminded him of what happened yesterday, just before the final bell. He hesitated—should he tell Harutaki? Nah. With their low profiles, Nogami-san probably forgot them already.
…Except Harutaki wasn’t low-profile anymore. Not at all.
With his looks—and that faint air of maturity polished from his previous life—he stood out in this high school like a golden coin gleaming among stones.
“Well… aside from Nogami, are there any other cute girls around here?”
Deciding the topic of bullying was too heavy, Harutaki veered toward lighter waters.
“Dating a girl whose head’s full of cake and cream wouldn’t be so bad.”
Thus spoke Reinhard.
Among guys, no matter the world, cute girls were always the best topic of conversation.
“…Funny. Weren’t you the one who said the school’s beauty rankings on the forum were boring?”
Akihisa gave him a sidelong look, smug. Then, mimicking Harutaki’s tone from that day, he teased:
“‘As long as I have my little sisters, that’s enough.’”
“Quit it, I was being serious.”
“Hah… you don’t actually think those girls at the top would ever look at guys like us, do you?”
“Incorrect.”
Harutaki shook his head and reminded Akihisa with a smirk.
“Even with just a little grooming, my level of handsomeness is already leagues beyond your reach, Akihisa.”
“Oi, you bastard!”
The otaku didn’t actually get angry. Instead, he clenched a pudgy fist and gave a mock swing, playing along with the joke.
Then, dropping the playful act, he suddenly grew serious.
“You mean it?”
“Of course.”
“Then let me, your former comrade-in-arms from Comic Con, Tazaki ‘Takibei’ Akihisa, offer my lord some strategic counsel.”
He rubbed his chubby cheeks and lowered his voice as if he were sharing classified intel.
“Nogami and her gang? Total landmines—no, nuclear bombs. As for beauties, Class 1 has the Sakuramiya sisters, Class 2 the Asano sisters. But I’ve never heard of anyone successfully confessing to them…”
After mulling it over, Akihisa’s spirit deflated like a pricked balloon.
“Even the upperclassmen from the sports clubs got rejected outright. Guys like us don’t stand a chance.”
“Mm. What about Shihou-san?”
Rather than chase after girls from other classes he hadn’t even met, Harutaki figured that aiming for someone in his own class would be easier.
Besides, Shihou’s graceful demeanor and gentle composure yesterday had left a strong impression on him.
In both his past life and this new one, she might be the most outstanding girl he had ever met.
“I heard she already likes someone, you know?”
Oi, what’s with that pitying look in your eyes, Akihisa?
Harutaki sighed, too drained to even retort, and instead pressed the point:
“Is that information reliable?”
“Hmph. I’m an otaku who spends half his life lurking on BBS boards and SNS. You think I’d pass on fake news?”
…Not that he was entirely confident.
The rumor hadn’t come from firsthand sources; it was just something he’d read on the school’s anonymous forum. But with so many people saying the same thing, it was probably true.
“Anyway, if you’re aiming for Shihou, you should know she’s from Kyoto, right?”
“Yeah.”
Harutaki nodded. The fact that a Kyoto native had come all the way to “enemy territory” Tokyo for school had always struck him as odd.
“Well, word is she transferred here to chase after the person she likes. Apparently, a senior in third year.”
“I see…”
Harutaki rubbed his smooth chin, lost in thought.
“Planning to give up?”
“No.” He shook his head. Then, to Akihisa’s shock, he asked, “Did Shihou-san ever actually succeed in winning over that senior?”
“N-no… I don’t think there were any rumors like that…”
Akihisa blinked, completely unsure what Harutaki was getting at.
“You’re not…?”
“Relationships can end, you know. Even marriages can end in divorce. And she’s still single.”
Akihisa: “???”
“Which means… she’s single now.”
At that, Akihisa panicked.
“W-wait, that’s—that’s NTR!”
So this guy’s a pure love advocate, huh.
Harutaki thought to himself.
Not that he wasn’t a pure love warrior, too. It’s just that the love he was sworn to protect was his own.
“Hold on, I just remembered—in male-targeted romance stories, isn’t the handsomest guy never the protagonist? It’s always some side character, or worse, the blond-haired villain!”
“Oi, oi, oi, oi—when did I become some NTR blond villain!?”
Harutaki retorted in exasperation.
“Tell me, is Shihou-san someone’s girlfriend? Someone’s fiancée? Just because she liked a third-year, does that automatically make him the protagonist? If she chose to date me instead, wouldn’t that simply be her own decision?”
“Well… I-I guess that makes sense…”
“Then where exactly is this so-called NTR?”
That made sense, but…
Akihisa frowned. Something about this didn’t sit right with him. All those anime, manga, and light novels he’d consumed were screaming wrong, wrong, wrong!
And yet… Harutaki’s logic was airtight. Shihou-san was single. Pursuing a single girl wasn’t a crime.
As Akihisa wrestled with the contradiction, Harutaki’s sharp gaze scanned the classroom.
By now, with the time creeping toward 9.00 for the first period, more students had filled in. Spotting Murai Ren chatting with two friends nearby, Harutaki saw his chance. Perfect timing to break into Murai’s social circle.