Chapter 2 – Mana is Special

“Huh? You’re calling me Mana… not my full name… i-is that okay? And you’re not… bothered by it?”

As if our positions had switched from earlier, Mana’s face turned red as she took a step back from me.
It didn’t feel like she was actually upset. This was clearly just embarrassment.

“? Like I said before, bothered by what? More importantly, let’s hurry up and head to school together, yeah?”

Feeling good about having the upper hand with such a beautiful girl, I pretended not to notice anything once again and said that, casually taking Mana’s hand in mine.

“Ah!”

“Hm? Wait, did you not want me to?”

“N-no, I don’t mind!”

Her pale skin flushed bright red, Mana blurted out her response.
This is dangerous. This is actually kinda fun. …At this rate, building a harem might be a piece of cake, right?
This world seems to have a polygamous system, so if we’re thinking logically, Mana shouldn’t have any aversion to harems either.

“That’s a relief. Well then, shall we go, Mana?”

“Y-yeah.”

…I said “let’s go,” but where exactly is the school? I have absolutely no idea how to get there.

“Yuuto? What’s wrong?”

“This is embarrassing, but which way is the school again?”

“Huh? D-did you forget?”

“A-ahaha, yeah, that’s right.”

Is this going to seem suspicious?

“Sorry, okay? You’re the only one I could rely on, Mana, so I asked you, but was that bad?”

Having memories from my previous life made saying something this disgustingly sweet incredibly embarrassing, and my face turned red despite myself.

“I-I’m the only one?”

Then, maybe because my face was red from embarrassment, Mana’s face also flushed as she asked that with some kind of frightening look in her eyes.
What is this feeling? Mana looks exactly like my type. So there’s no way I should find her scary, so what is this?

“Yeah, that’s right. You’re… I mean, you’re the only girl I can rely on, Mana.”

Saying “boku” as a first-person pronoun gave me such intense goosebumps that I stopped.
This situation was already a bit much without adding “boku” to it.
I could probably get used to this oblivious act pretty quickly, but I felt like I’d absolutely never get used to that first-person pronoun.

“R-really? Really, just me? I’m… special?”

“Yeah. You’re special to me, Mana.”

“Y-yeah. I-I also think you’re special, Yuuto.”

Her cheeks flushed, Mana said that looking happy.
Did I just land her? Is this harem member number one?

“I’m the only one who’s special to Yuuto… ehehe, Yuuto, let’s go to school. I’ll show you the way.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“Leave it to me.”

And so, I walked toward school holding hands with Mana.
…I can feel so many eyes on me.
If this were my previous life, those gazes would definitely all be directed at Mana, but not now. Every single one of these stares is aimed at me.
Am I actually pretty good-looking? Getting stared at this much as a middle schooler, that’s gotta be what it means, right?
Since everyone in this world seems to have high attractiveness standards, just being stared at is making me feel bashful.

While I was thinking about that, Mana clung to my arm, pressing the small, not-yet-fully-developed swell of her chest against me.

“…Yuuto said I’m the only one who’s special to him. So it’s fine.”

She murmured something in a low voice.

“Hm? What’s up, Mana?”

Even as my face grew hot, I hid my inner turmoil and asked.

“N-nothing, but… d-don’t you mind?”

Is she talking about this situation where she’s clinging to me?
I think normally, guys in this world get such intense disgust just from girls talking to them that they break out in goosebumps or something, so that’s probably what she means.

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“M-me clinging to your arm like this.”

“It’s warm, and I like it?”

“Huh? O-okay. Th-then, is it okay if I stay like this?”

“Of course it’s fine.”

“…Hey, Yuuto.”

“What?”

“You’re not letting other girls do this kind of thing too, right?”

Along with an inexplicable pressure, those words from Mana entered my ears.

“N-no. Of course it’s just you, Mana.”

It’ll be different in the future, but right now it really is just Mana, so I said that.

“Right. …If you ever cheat on me with another girl, I’ll never forgive you.”

“Huh? Yeah. Right.”

Even though she was this close, for some reason I couldn’t make out what Mana said at the end there.
But if I said I couldn’t hear her even though she was this close, it would make it seem like I wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying, so I gave a vague response and nodded.
I can kind of guess what she meant from the flow of the conversation anyway.