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 47: Gap Moe!?

(Ohhh… so it was Kagurazaka, huh.)

Right after I got back to the dorm room, I kept replaying that scene in my head.

Even though she looked super slim, she was actually really strong—she lifted that heavy luggage like it weighed nothing. No doubt about it… I’d definitely seen her face before in my previous life.

Even if three people in the world had the exact same face, I was still 100% sure it was her.

—Black Ninja.

That was the name the public gave to the mysterious woman who solved the famous stalker case—the first time Limona’s misuse ever came to light.

She didn’t get called Black Ninja just because she dyed her hair black, wore black-rimmed glasses and a black suit, and never once cracked a smile.

That stalker incident was actually the very first time people figured out how Limona could be abused.

But what shocked everyone even more was that the female stalker and the male victim had literally zero connection whatsoever.

She just had really sharp eyes. From the weird way the stalker was moving her fingers, Black Ninja figured everything out and cracked the case.

Later on, Kurumi Kano explained the real truth behind the incident.

The culprit had been obsessively in love with her childhood friend, but somehow that fixation got completely wiped from her memory and ended up pointed at a total stranger.

And that turned out to be a symptom of Centrohm disease—a nervous disorder that had only recently started spreading.

After that, an anti-future-tech activist group was formed… and Kagurazaka joined them.

There was this video that went viral worldwide: her instantly taking down a guy who tried to kidnap Kano while she was working as a bodyguard.

On top of that, she was a total genius at manipulating big data too.

Anyone who tried digging into her real identity ended up getting reverse-tracked and doxxed themselves.

She had skills that easily outclassed even the top future-tech engineers… basically a natural enemy to every technician out there.

Insane reflexes, top-tier intel gathering… and completely anonymous.

That’s how she ended up being called “Black Ninja.”

(The kids absolutely adored her, though.)

But still… what the hell could’ve happened to make someone like her turn against future technology?

I thought back to that completely emotionless face she always wore, and the question just kept getting bigger.

Right now, though, there wasn’t even a hint of that vibe. Heck, the other day she was super excited because the latest equipment got installed at the Western-style sweets shop.

So… maybe something’s gonna happen to her from here on out?

In my previous life, yeah, she definitely became super popular—but since she was part of the anti-future-tech movement, she was basically an enemy of Taiki Kashiwado from the Kokonoe conglomerate.

…A girl who’s great at making sweets would probably be way happier as a patissier anyway.

◇◆◇＜Third-person perspective＞◇◆◇

The person walking along the road at dusk was Hikari Otowa.

The brand-new 22-year-old teacher who just started at Teimon Academy—fresh, full of energy.

Today she’d gone pretty far out to meet a friend from her university days, and now she was on her way back from the station.

“Is that… Kashiwado-kun and Kanaka-san…? Wait… are they… on a date!?”

Seeing how far ahead modern kids were moving, she felt a little gut-punched.

Hikari Otowa’s love life was currently at a complete standstill… Having come from an all-girls high school, she kinda regretted not enjoying her youth more up to this age.

“Are they fighting about something…?”

But when she saw them talking really seriously to someone hidden behind a truck, she started wondering if there was some kind of trouble.

She was a teacher too… it was her job to protect the students, so she steeled herself and decided to head over.

…Except she didn’t actually have to.

She watched Taiki and the others wave goodbye to whoever it was and walk off, so she let out a relieved breath—guess she’d gotten the wrong idea.

“Must’ve been someone they know.”

Right at that moment… she spotted a familiar face around the corner up ahead on the sidewalk.

“Nishito-sensei…? What’s he doing over there?”

Nishito wasn’t waiting for anyone or anything—he was kinda lurking in the shadows.

He gave off this total “secretly watching someone” vibe, and then he pulled a small box out from inside his jacket.

“Nishito-sensei… smokes, huh.”

He took out a white stick and put it in his mouth.

It didn’t really match the usual kind, gentle, smart-looking Sō Nishito at all.

No question—it had to be a cigarette, Hikari was convinced.

“Ugh, am I seriously getting gap-moe from this…? Am I that easy… wait, huh?”

While she was busy feeling down about how weak she was when it came to romance, she noticed something weird: even after all this time, he still hadn’t lit it.

Then… he just popped the whole thing—still in his mouth—right into his mouth and swallowed it.

“W-Wait… no way… that’s… a cocoa cigarette!?”

The white stick wasn’t tobacco at all.

And at the same time, she realized.

Yeah… he was such a huge sweet tooth that he’d casually eat cocoa cigarettes on the side of the road.

“Nooo… gap-moe overload～～～”

Hikari suddenly remembered there was a Western sweets shop pretty close by, and she secretly decided she’d bring him some sweet treats to give him soon.