A Late Bloomer's Powerful Restart ~My Second Life Starts at a Prestigious School Where the Gender Ratio Is Totally Off, and for Some Reason, All These Talented Girls Get Attached to Me...!?~

Chapter 27.1: The Heroine and the Villainess

The break was over. Since I hadn’t really gotten proper rest, I forced my heavy body to get up that morning, cracking the whip on myself.

I could keep up with classes, but helping Tsukimi Kagurazaka with her studies too was starting to push me to my limit.

“Wow, you look really tired today~?”

“If Tsukimi picked things up faster, I’d actually get some rest, you know.”

“Sorryyy.”

“Sleep is important. Lack of it raises the risk of all kinds of diseases.”

Kano gave me the kind of opinion you’d expect from a doctor.

Still, it wasn’t that I hadn’t slept enough hours. I’d gotten a decent amount. Too much long sleep actually increases mortality risk too, so honestly, it seemed more like the quality of my sleep had just been terrible.

I probably needed a change of pace somewhere.

For once, at lunch today I decided to take a walk alone around the school grounds.

The grounds of Teimon Academy were extremely large, and the gardens were beautifully maintained.

I walked until I reached a quiet, empty area and sat down on a bench.

When I closed my eyes, the scent of flowers, the sound of the fountain… and a gentle breeze felt really pleasant.

“A failure like you dares to disobey what Morozumi-san says?”

“……I’m sorry.”

That voice was…?

Suddenly, the conversation between some girls reached my ears.

I’d been completely relaxed, but now something annoying had interrupted.

“You’ve always been like this. If it weren’t for Hana Saion, you wouldn’t even be able to speak. You’re just a mole that’ll spend its whole life in its burrow, huh.”

One of them was Amane Mishina. I didn’t know the other three very well, but when I cross-checked with Tsukimi’s information, they were most likely girls from the Nanamiya faction.

And the redhead standing in the middle of them must be Riko Morozumi.

“You know it, right? The timid Shika Nanamiya won’t lift a finger. Sasa Kanaka isn’t your enemy. No one is coming to save you. You’re done for.”

At Morozumi’s words, her followers giggled.

Probably because no students usually came this far out, they showed no sign of noticing me at all.

But I was surprised. There were people who knew about Shika’s true timid nature.

Well, she isolates herself because she doesn’t want people to know she’s an otaku, but it doesn’t seem like she actually hates interacting with others, so someone who’s known her for a long time might be aware.

No wonder she’s able to hold the Nanamiya faction together… She must have been close to Shika since way back.

“…………Say something already!”

Mishina was pushed down and landed hard on her backside on the rough dirt near the fountain.

Did they really have to go that far!? I didn’t know the details of their relationship, but this was excessive.

I thought about jumping out, but my feet stayed rooted to the spot.

I knew that rushing in to help right away was the right thing to do… yet my rational mind stopped me, saying I should think calmly.

Openly clashing with Morozumi wouldn’t lead to any real solution. Worse, it might make her see me as an enemy and start spreading baseless rumors about me. If I were the only one dragged into it, that’d be one thing, but I couldn’t let Sasa or Kano—who were already involved enough—get caught up in trouble because of me.

“Aww, look at you suddenly falling over… how vulgar.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Hah! The problem is that you have the exact same face as that thieving cat! Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had to suffer humiliation because of her…!”

The phrase “the same face” made it clear that the “thieving cat” Morozumi was talking about was Mishina’s twin older sister.

But what did “thieving cat” even mean here?

It seemed Morozumi’s real grudge was directed at Mishina’s sister… which meant her actions right now were just taking it out on the wrong person.

Damn it… I hated how useless I felt, unable to move. Weren’t you supposed to leave past regrets behind?

“If you’re going to hate someone, hate your own sister…!”

Morozumi and her followers left the area, leaving only Mishina behind near the fountain.

I couldn’t just leave a girl in a dirty uniform like that, so I walked over to her.

“You okay… Mishina?”

“Huh? Kashiwado-kun… you saw all that?”

“Yeah. You should change quickly… And what Morozumi did went way too far. If you report it to a teacher—”

“N-no, please don’t…!!”

Trembling, she hugged her chest with both arms to cover herself and shouted while slapping my hand away.

“No one would believe me anyway.”

“Why are you so sure of that?”

In the first loop, she had been the same way. She couldn’t believe in herself and was trapped by her past.

It was surely because of the deep grief from losing her twin sister.

Was she still chasing after that shadow even now?

“…There are already rumors, so you know, right? That I’m the defective twin.”

“They’re just rumors…”

“It’s the truth.”

—Why would she accept it so easily?

I knew just how great her sister had seemed in her eyes. But that sister wasn’t here to save her anymore, so she had to move forward herself.

I could guess what she was afraid of.

She probably… didn’t want anyone else to know what had really happened to her twin sister.

If she clashed with Morozumi and a teacher got involved, people would start asking why Amane Mishina had been able to enroll, and why the more excellent twin hadn’t… It would all come out.

There was no need to hide it… but maybe she herself still couldn’t accept it.

“…You’re not asking. Why Morozumi-san hates me so much.”

“I’m not interested.”

I understood that Mishina didn’t want to talk about it.

So I deliberately acted like I didn’t care.

When I did, her eyes widened for a moment… then she let out a small sigh, as if a weight had been lifted—

“…Thank you.”

That was all she said before walking away ahead of me.

She must have been wary of me too.

Of course she would be—some guy who had watched the whole thing and only appeared after Morozumi left.

“…!?”