I Reincarnated as a Mob Character in a Romcom Manga—After I Kept Comforting the Third “Fanservice” Heroine When She Got Dumped and Cried, I Feel Like She’s Started Directing Some Seriously Heavy Feelings at Me - Chapter 33 & 34

Chapter 33: The Fanservice Heroine Gets Attacked

Side: Chloe

“…What do you want? Do you have some kind of business with me?”

I made sure my voice didn’t shake as I spoke to the biggest guy there—the one who looked the roughest and most dangerous.

At my words, the boy let out a short snort of laughter.

His sticky, crawling gaze dragged itself slowly over my body.

“Ooooh, man. I’ve seen you plenty of times in magazines, but seeing you in person is on a whole different level. You’ve got one hell of a body. Ninety-five centimeters, H-cup, right?”

The moment the upperclassman pointed at my chest and laughed, the other boys burst out laughing along with him—crude, vulgar laughter that made my skin crawl.

Damn it—just like I thought.

A bunch of lowlifes who were only after my body.

I’d dealt with plenty of nasty pick-up attempts before, but this situation was on an entirely different level of danger.

Even if I tried to shout, this was a remote corner of the massive school grounds—somewhere neither students nor teachers ever came.

Determined to avoid the worst possible outcome, I carefully played my next card.

“Yes, that’s correct. But you didn’t come all this way just to confirm that, did you?”

“Obviously not. I mean, just look at the situation. You really don’t get it? Getting called out to a place like this—why don’t you try imagining what’s gonna happen to you next?”

“…!”

I clenched my teeth, my face twisting despite myself.

“…I see. So that’s how you talk to other people. You really sound exactly like a rapist. Just listening to you makes me sick.”

When I spat that out, the big guy clicked his tongue.

“Don’t get cocky, you bitch—!”

He swung his right hand up.

That instant, I threw my school bag to the ground.

I grabbed his wide-open left arm, stepped in fast, and swept his legs out from the outside.

“—!?”

Before he could even understand what had happened, a clean outer reap slammed him into the ground.

The other boys burst into noisy confusion.

A few of them moved to rush me, but I snapped sharply,

“Don’t move!”

At the same time, I pulled a metal pen from my uniform’s chest pocket, holding it in a reverse grip, and jammed the tip right up to the fallen boy’s right eye.

This wasn’t some normal pen.

Because I was constantly targeted by perverts and creeps, I always carried a metal self-defense tool—a so-called tactical pen.

If I swung it seriously, it could even smash a car’s windshield.

“—Hii!”

The big guy let out a short scream.

I locked his throat tight with my left arm and shouted with everything I had.

“Take one step closer and I’ll gouge out his right eye! Even a woman like me can do that much easily! If you don’t want to watch your buddy get his eyeball dug out, then slowly—back the hell away from me!!”

The sharp, shrill threat in my voice made the boys freeze, gulping hard.

As if to show I meant it, I slowly brought the tip of the pen closer to his right eye.

That alone was enough.

The big guy started trembling like he was about to piss himself, his legs flailing uselessly.

“…Hah. Pathetic. You really thought you could just smack a woman once and she’d obey you? Too bad. I’m not that cheap.”

I whispered it into his ear, making sure the feeling of defeat sank deep.

And at that exact moment—

Crunch.

I heard footsteps behind me.

I instinctively tried to turn around—

And then—

Something cold and white flashed.

It pressed straight against my throat.

My mind went completely blank.

“Ooooh. I figured it, but you really move well for a girl. You made me let my guard down a bit the other day. Still, that judo or aikido or whatever you’re using only works when the other guy’s unarmed, right?”

—That voice.

The sleazy guy I’d twisted up back then—!

The moment I tried to turn my head, the large survival knife pressed under my chin gleamed even colder.

“Easy there. Don’t move. Drop the pen first.”

Ordered in a calm, almost casual voice, I tasted bitter defeat as I let the pen fall from my hand.

The big guy stood back up, glaring at me with pure rage.

Forced to my feet as well, I was made to face that burning stare head-on.

“Hey, Kasajima. One hit only. Don’t go full force. With your strength, you might actually kill her.”

The sleazy guy behind me—if I remembered right, his name was Goro Jogashima—said that, and the knife was pulled away from my throat.

At that exact moment—

An impact slammed into my left cheek, like the world itself had exploded.

A sharp sting ran through my face, and the inside of my nose filled with a rusty smell.

More than the slap itself, what humiliated me was the fact that this violence had been planned—used deliberately to make me submit to trash like them.

I pressed a hand to my burning cheek and glared at the boy in front of me.

Seeing that, his face twisted even further with rage.

“You piss me off, you bitch—! I hate women like you the most! Women who keep acting tough even when it’s come to this!!”

“That’s enough, Kasajima. And don’t forget—I’m number one here. You get that, right?”

The next instant, something was shoved into my mouth again, as if they were forcing the situation into my head all over.

From behind me, the sleazy guy’s voice grew thick and sticky.

“Now then, Chloe Mitsushima-kun. You really made a scene a few days ago. Thanks to that, I had no choice but to use some rougher methods. Can’t let my reputation take a hit, after all. So, since I’ve got lots of friends, we decided we’d all get along and share you.”

Share.

That single word carried a level of seriousness only people accustomed to cruelty could have.

As much as I hated it, my hands started to shake.

The sleazy guy—clearly someone who knew exactly how to scare women—leaned closer to my ear and muttered in a low voice.

“I don’t actually hate strong women, you know? Watching a woman like that get played with by men—while she cries and begs for mercy—now that gets me insanely turned on!”

The moment he said it, the sleazy guy grabbed my chest hard with his free left hand—the one not holding the knife.

The pain was brutal.

He squeezed my breast with enough force to leave bruises, crushing it mercilessly.

Even though I didn’t want to, a muffled cry of agony leaked out through the gag, and tears welled up in my eyes.

“Kukuku…”

Laughing sadistically, he took his time groping my chest, kneading it thoroughly.

“This is just the beginning. The real fun starts now,” he whispered creepily into my ear.

“From here on out, you’re going to have a pretty rough time. Even if you want to pass out, you won’t be able to. Even if you want to forget, you won’t. You’re going to stay with us long enough for it to burn itself into your memory. Now then—shall we move to the party venue?”

Fun.

At that single word, the boys’ eyes gleamed with raw desire and anticipation.

Once again, crude laughter echoed through the air.

Chapter 34: The Pitiful Fanservice Heroine

“Hmm… she’s late. Did things get complicated…?”

I stood in front of the school gate, checking the time on my phone as I waited for Chloe.

She’d said she’d reject him in seconds, but it had already been twenty minutes since she headed toward the old building.

I’d never confessed to anyone, and no one had ever confessed to me either, so I didn’t really know how these things usually went.

Still, maybe this kind of thing was supposed to take some time.

With nothing else to do, I slipped my phone back into my pocket and looked up at the sky.

Today, it was a dull, lead-gray color, like it might start crying at any moment.

It had been about three weeks since “I” remembered my life before reincarnation.

Back then, my entire world had consisted of riding a wheelchair just outside the hospital, feeling the wind for a short while as if it were some kind of special event.

But now, I stood here on my own two legs—walking, moving, going wherever I wanted.

I’d studied while lying on a hospital bed.

Entrance ceremonies, graduation ceremonies, school festivals, sports days—those had all felt like distant festivals held in some faraway country I’d never get to visit.

As for food, everything I ate had been bland porridge or side dishes so tasteless that even someone like me—who barely knew any other food—could tell they were bad.

To me back then, “living” had simply meant “my body is still functioning.”

It hadn’t meant meeting someone like this.

It hadn’t meant waiting for someone.

And it definitely hadn’t meant laughing or crying together with someone else.

Come to think of it, the “me” from my previous life was just… way too pitiful.

It was only after I got this healthy, fully functioning body that I finally felt real sympathy for who I used to be.

I couldn’t even go to school properly.

I didn’t even get many chances to walk around on my own two feet.

What did I look like to other people back then?

And the parents who stayed by my side the entire time—what kind of eyes had they been looking at me with?

Apparently, that “me” was already dead.

So if I could make one wish, I hoped my parents had completely forgotten about me by now—and were living freely, without being tied down anymore.

If anyone had seen the old me back then, I was sure they would’ve all thought the same thing.

Pitiful.

Thinking back, I’d felt something similar the first time I tried to comfort her.

She’d spent an entire year desperately trying—throwing herself into it, risking everything, using her body and her charm.

And in the end, she still got rejected.

Back then, she’d cried so hard it felt like she’d never be able to stand back up again.

And watching that—

For the first time in my life, I’d thought it about someone other than myself.

She’s pitiful.

Thinking back on it, she’d always been kind of pitiful in the original story too.

She was supposed to be free-spirited, powerful, sexy, and tough.

And yet, again and again, she threw herself at Nayuta Yaohara with everything she had—fully prepared to risk it all—only to receive cold, dry responses every single time.

There was that scene in the middle of the story where she pushed Yaohara down while wearing nothing but her underwear.

Back then, instead of thinking that’s hot, I’d just felt miserable watching it.

It was so painful, I could barely bring myself to look.

She was the one who confessed her feelings most honestly.

The one who put her body on the line the most.

She probably worked twice as hard as any of the other heroines.

And yet, just because she was “the fanservice heroine,” it was treated as obvious that she wouldn’t be chosen—

When you really thought about it, that was way too cruel.

Yeah… maybe the reason “I” supported Chloe Mitsushima wasn’t just because her toughness and energy gave me the will to live.

Maybe it was also because she was pitiful.

“I want to live. I want to live. Someday, I want to be healthy and walk freely through the world.”

I’d wished for that so desperately it almost drove me insane—and still, that “me” ended up dying.

“I like you. I like you. Someday, I want to walk hand in hand with you as lovers.”

She’d fought through the heroine race with that wish in her heart—and still, Chloe Mitsushima wasn’t chosen.

Pitiful.

So pitiful…

Even after I’d gotten to know her, even after we’d become close in our own way, I’d thought that about her again and again.

Well, maybe any fanservice heroine flooding the world of romantic comedies would look pitiful if you thought about it that way.

But still—

In this rom-com world, she was probably the one who ended up with the most unfair, most unfortunate ending of all.

A cold drop suddenly splashed against the tip of my nose, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Oh—so it finally started raining, huh.

I looked up at the lead-gray sky and thought that.

Somewhere right now, the boy who’d been rejected by Chloe Mitsushima, who’d lost the love of his life, might be leaning against the shadow of a warehouse, crying under the same sky.

Just like Chloe had back then.

As I quietly hoped that whoever had been rejected would recover as soon as possible and someday find happiness with someone else—

“Eh? Onii-sama?”

I heard my little sister Eru call out to me from behind, and I turned around.

She was standing there with her eyes wide, surrounded by a few classmates wearing armbands—probably members of the middle school student council.

Looking closer, Eru was holding fire tongs and a trash bag, so she was clearly in the middle of campus clean-up duty.

“O-Oh, Eru. Are those the student council members with you?”

“Yes. I’m part of the Beautification Committee. We regularly pick up trash around the campus together with the student council. And what about you, pathetic going-home-club member? Are you already heading home, hunching your shoulders in loneliness?”

“…Yeah, sorry about that—being a lonely going-home-club member. For your information, I’m waiting to meet a girl right now. We’re going shopping for ingredients for omurice she’s going to make for me tomorrow.”

I lifted my chin slightly as I answered.

“Keh!”

Eru spat out a sharp, dismissive sound.

“Hmph. Onii-sama, you’ve been completely ensnared by that boob demon. Listen carefully—the only reason I’m not trying to drastically destroy your relationship with Chloe-san is because you’re a lonely, gloomy introvert who’s basically guaranteed to die alone at this rate. I think it’s better for you to have at least one person you’re close to. That’s pure sibling love, you know?”

“Ohoho, look at you showing such beautiful sibling affection, my dear little sister. And you’re right—if I’m friends with Chloe Mitsushima, that means I technically have about a hundred ‘friends of friends,’ you know?”

I declared that with a smug face, even though I didn’t really understand what I was saying myself.

“If I die, Chloe’s friends will come by out of obligation as ‘friends of a friend’ and at least bring condolence money. Rejoice, sister—even if I die, my funeral expenses will be covered thanks to Chloe. So make sure you never sleep with your feet pointing toward her, alright?”

“T-That’s absolutely nothing to brag about—and you’re saying it so proudly!? Onii-sama, don’t you feel lonely saying things like that…!?”

“If I got lonely over stuff like this, I wouldn’t qualify as a gloomy loner.”

“Grrr… even knowing you’re my brother, this is just pathetic…! Truly pathetic and sloppy! That’s exactly why you don’t even notice when you drop things, Onii-sama!”

“Huh? Drop something?”

At that word, I froze.

Eru reached into her uniform pocket, pulled out a handkerchief with a familiar pattern, and held it out toward me.

“This was lying around near the old club building. It’s your handkerchief, isn’t it, Onii-sama? Honestly… your little sister had to kindly pick it up and bring it all the way here for you.”

The old club building.

Those words alone made my heart stir in a very bad way.

That handkerchief—

It was the one I’d reflexively handed to Chloe when she was crying her eyes out after getting rejected, right around the time I regained my memories from my past life.

She’d bought a brand-new one to return it later, so this one was never supposed to be back with me.

“Eh? Onii-sama, what’s wrong? Was it not yours?”

Eru looked at me, puzzled.

I didn’t take the handkerchief.

Instead, I asked quietly.

“Eru… how long ago did you go near the old club building?”

“Huh? Um… about ten minutes ago, I think.”

“Was there anyone else around?”

“There couldn’t have been. Besides us, no one ever goes there. It’s one of the most deserted spots on campus. …By the way, Onii-sama, why were you asking about the old building?”

Thump.

My heart clenched unpleasantly.

No way.

No way…

Chloe’s flashy looks and great body already made her a magnet for all kinds of creeps.

That love letter—calling her out to such a deserted place in the first place.

The fact that my handkerchief—something she must’ve had—was lying there.

The fact that nearly twenty minutes had already passed since she was supposed to come back.

And Eru’s statement that there had been no one around the old club building—

All of it connected into one horrifying picture.

“Eh, Onii-sama? What’s wrong? Your face looks scary.”

A horrible feeling—nothing more than a really bad premonition—began filling my head.

This was supposed to be a school rom-com world.

Stuff this dark wasn’t supposed to happen here.

…Or so I’d thought.

But was that really true?

Was it really possible that in this world, nothing painful, nothing tragic—nothing that made you want to look away—could ever happen?

If that were the case—

Then why was this handkerchief lying near the old club building?

Before my worst fears could fully take shape, I grabbed Eru by both shoulders.

“Eh—? O-Onii-sama…?”

“—Eru, stop joking around and listen carefully. I’m going to the old club building right now. You coordinate with your student council and bring teachers there. Not female teachers—get multiple strong teachers, the kind who supervise sports clubs. Big, muscular ones. Got it?”

As I spoke urgently, Eru’s eyes darted around in shock.

“I’ll skip the details, but if my guess is right, Chloe might be in danger near the old club building. So move fast. Please.”

“O-Onii-sama, what do you mean? What do you mean Chloe-san is in danger!?”

“I don’t know everything either. But I’ve got a really bad feeling. Listen—this is an absolute promise between us. I’m counting on you.”

“Eh!? O-Onii-sama—!?”

Ignoring Eru’s near-scream, I took off running toward the old building, throwing myself forward with everything I had.