I Thought I Was Dead After Getting Stabbed While Protecting a Girl From a Random Attacker, but a Goddess Gave Me a Special Reward and Brought Me Back to Life in My Original Body—Now, All These Girls Are Coming on to Me!?

Chapter 8.1: Childhood Friends Are Not Reserved

The noisy lunch break ended, and time moved on to the afternoon classes.

As expected, the classes right after lunch made me extremely sleepy…

The warm April spring weather made me feel like I could travel to dreamland at any moment.

But if I fell asleep here, I might get labeled as a delinquent student from the first day… I endured, I endured.

I looked around the classroom to distract myself, but as expected, no students seemed to be dozing off… wait, there was one.

The guy who scolded us earlier with a strong tone for being noisy, Shuji Kuroki, was the one.

I thought he didn’t need to match his appearance and behavior so perfectly…

The teacher saw him like that but showed no sign of waking him up. As expected from a school that prides itself on freedom, it’s like, “If you sleep and get left behind in class, that’s on you.” Scary… I was glad I didn’t fall asleep…

I fought off sleepiness and somehow got through the afternoon classes, safely reaching the end of the school day. That was close… a victory by the skin of my teeth…

Now, I had a big goal for after school.

I thought she’d show up soon…

“Hey, Ryu. You’re joining the baseball club, right? Are you going there starting today?” I thought, looking outside the classroom, when my friend sitting in front of me, Shinya Takeda, spoke to me.

“That’s the plan. Though I don’t think I can do full-on practice yet,” I replied.

“Then how about grabbing some food after club activities?” Shinya suggested.

“Oh, sounds good. What time do you finish?” I asked.

“I think I’ll be done by seven,” Shinya answered.

“Then is it okay to meet at the main entrance around that time?” I proposed.

“Cool, that works! See you later then!” Shinya said.

With that, Shinya dashed off coolly. Maybe guys like him are what people call “cool.”

As Shinya left, I saw Makoto Hiragi and Kanade Sumeragi coming toward me. I’d already told them I was going to club activities after school today, so they might be coming to say hi before that.

I raised my hand to respond to them, but Koki Nishino stood in my way, blocking me. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about clearly, but maybe he was trying to get revenge for not being able to ask them out at lunch. Well, jumping in from my side would be a bit tactless. I decided to stay quiet this time.

Just as I thought that, it happened.

“Ryu! I’m here!” called out my childhood friend, Yuna Yamamura, peeking in from the classroom door.

“Huh, isn’t that Senior Yamamura!?” someone exclaimed.

“The one who took down upperclassmen left and right during the club introduction!?” another added.

“She’s the 【Prince】, right!? Why is she in the first-year classroom…?” a third voice wondered.

That Yuna, already treated like a Madonna among the first-years… and even called 【Prince】, the same nickname as in middle school.

This was unexpected…

Yesterday, when I told Yuna I was returning to school and checking out the baseball club, she said, “I know the baseball club captain through the dojo, so want me to introduce you?”

I thought, what kind of influence does she have when even the baseball club has her dojo’s students? But since she offered to connect us, I casually accepted the offer. I really accepted it. I wanted to hit the me from back then with a bat.

I never imagined her name would be this well-known as a second-year.

If people found out she was here for me, I might stand out in a bad way again. It seemed like everyone hadn’t yet connected the name “Ryu” to me.

Alright, I’d act like I had nothing to do with this and slip out the opposite door from where Yuna was, then quietly meet up with her and head to the club…

Or so I thought.

“Senior Yamamura! What brings you here?” Koki Nishino called out.

“Who are you?” Yuna asked.

“Pardon me. I’m Koki Nishino. If you have any business, I can assist you,” Koki offered.

“Oh, no… oh, there you are. Hey, Ryu!” Yuna shouted.

Don’t do unnecessary things, Nishino!

Thanks to him, I had no choice but to respond…!

Sigh… well, as I live my school life from now on, my connection with Yuna would eventually come out. It’s just a matter of sooner or later. Not that I was ready for it, though!

“H-Hey, Senior Yamamura, thanks for today…” I said nervously.

“What’s that, Ryu? You’re acting creepy,” Yuna replied.

“N-No, I just thought I’d show respect to my great senior…” I explained.

“Stop it. That attitude gives me goosebumps. I’ll ditch you,” Yuna warned.

“…Alright, alright, Yuna,” I conceded.

“That’s better,” Yuna said, smiling with satisfaction.

Then, Koki, with a shocked expression, asked me, “Uh, Minase-kun, are you acquainted with Senior Yamamura?”

“Well, yeah. We’ve lived near each other since we were kids…” I answered.

“In other words, a childhood friend,” Yuna added.

Her words caused a wave of astonished gasps to echo through the classroom, as if it shook the room.

I had a feeling the second round of interrogations would start tomorrow… It seemed I wouldn’t get a peaceful school life anytime soon.

“What, you were worried about that?” Yuna asked.