I Time-Leaped Back to High School with My Childhood Friend–Turned–Wife, But I Don’t Know Why We Returned to the Past. Also, My Wife as a High Schooler Is Kinda Sexy.

“…Um, Senpai. You don’t need to worry about it that much.”

“…Aizawa.”

“Really, I was just embarrassed about being seen by others. There’s no deeper meaning. Also, I already received your meager pocket money this morning. I can’t in good conscience let you grab the arm of a super beautiful girl that costs 100,000 yen per hour for touching.”

“See, there you go immediately turning it into a joke. I hate that about you, Aizawa.”

“Well, the initial touching fee starts at 5,000 yen, is that okay?”

“What’s with this girl, is she some kind of polite extortionist Uzaki-chan?”

Aizawa laughed brightly, saying “What’s Uzaki-chan?”

That’s exactly the reaction. You’re exactly like that annoying female junior.

You don’t have breasts as large as hers, but the vector was the same.

You’ve bounced back as if your embarrassment earlier was a lie.

What is this, your incredible ability to destroy the atmosphere?

Are you suffering from some disease that compels you to turn romantic comedies into just comedies?

Earlier, that was the flow where the male side asks, “Hey, this might just be my imagination, but…” You’re a one-person love war contractor, setting landmines and then removing them yourself.

Geez, I hate that kind of thing! Be straightforward even if you’re a girl!

If you like someone, it’s okay to just say so! Otherwise, you’ll end up dragging this love for the rest of your life!

Though I might not have the right to say this, having already made you drag it out!

“…Aizawa, I’m sorry. Actually, the invitation to hang out was a lie.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I wanted to have a proper talk with you.”

This is no good. If I let Aizawa take the lead in this conversation, it’ll turn into a quagmire.

In fact, her future self has proven that.

I need to take the initiative and end this here.

Having made up my mind, I deliberately broached the main topic on the way to Ibaraki Shopping Center. I confessed to her why I had suddenly invited her to hang out today.

Aizawa raised her face. With several students still watching our interaction, she gave me a passionate look.

But—

“Senpai. I’m telling you, my time is expensive, you know?”

“There you go making jokes again.”

“What are you going to do without the ability to pay? But it’s fine. Since I had some extra income today, I’ll treat you. Let’s have fun, okay?”

Why, why is this so difficult? She seems determined not to reveal her true feelings to me.

When stubbornness reached this level, it became almost beautiful in a way.

But I was not the high school student who was constantly toyed with by her anymore. I was not the cowardly and dishonest me who spent those gray youthful days.

I was the me who had grown, experiencing various things over ten years—

I’ll make you tell me the truth today, even if I have to force it. I’ll make her speak properly from her own mouth about what she’s been hiding all this time.

“Aizawa. This isn’t a joke. It’s a serious conversation. Listen.”

Earlier, I had grabbed her arm and made her flustered. I won’t make the same mistake.

I stepped forward in front of Aizawa and looked directly at her face.

“Ah,” she groaned and tried to step back. However, my other foot closed that gap.

One step, then another step, I cornered Aizawa each time she retreated.

Eventually, she reached the edge of the road—leaning her back against a residential block wall, she looked up at me, who was half a head taller, and finally lost her escape route.

Aizawa tried to escape by looking down. To prevent her from escaping, I closed the distance further.

The so-called wall slam.

I placed my arm above Aizawa’s head, making her look up at my face, and moved close enough that she couldn’t move, but without actually touching her body.

I think I was not quite touching her body. To others, this would look like I was trying to seduce Aizawa.

But that’s okay now. Even if others misunderstood, I wanted to talk to her properly.

About the real Aizawa.

About her genuine, truthful self.

About the feelings for me that she had been hiding.

I wanted to draw these out from her no matter what.

“Aizawa. If I’m misunderstanding, I’m sorry.”

“…W-w-what’s going on, Senpai! This is a bit scary! I mean, your face is close, or rather, I can feel your breath.”

“Aizawa.”

“Also! You know! You smell of sweat! Hey, what’s wrong with you? Don’t you use antiperspirant spray? Geez, sweaty men aren’t popular! I’m an angel so I’ll forgive you with a smile, but this is also sexual harassment!”

“Aizawa. It’s okay. Just answer my question honestly.”

Brown eyes peering into my face. My face was reflected in them.

A skinny, short, unremarkable me. But perhaps because my inner self was that of an older man, the face of the boy in those eyes had a strange intensity that didn’t seem age-appropriate.

Aizawa’s cheeks turned bright red, and her strongly-styled hair, like a cat’s, bristled. Her hunched shoulders moved backward, pushing up her small chest.

On her collarbone visible from the collar of her uniform shirt, drops of her tension formed.

I can do it. I can do this. I can properly draw out her feelings.

I whispered that in my heart and made up my mind.

“…Aizawa.”

“Y-yes!”

“I might be wrong, but—”

I held my words a bit.

Was it because she anticipated what I was about to ask?

Was she unfamiliar with this kind of situation?

Or was it because she actually had feelings for me?

Aizawa was looking at me with her face so flushed that it seemed even breathing was difficult.

She waited for my next words with a yearning gaze.

In my thirty years of life, I’ve known only one girl who waited for my words with such a face.

In my second year of university, returning from a karaoke after-party.

Talking until the last train on the station platform, and still not having talked enough. Unable to contain the sadness of not being able to properly talk until then, and the love welling up anew seeing her, I grabbed her hand and pursued her that day.

Aizawa was showing me the same face as Chiho that day.

It was the face of a maiden in love, waiting for a confession from a man.

There’s no mistake. If so, what I need to ask is just one thing—

“Aizawa.”

“…Y-yes.”

“Have you time-leaped from the future?”

“…Huh?”

So Aizawa was indeed a person from the future who came to destroy the relationship between Chiho and me.

No, perhaps the Aizawa who lived at the same time as us came to the past with some kind of power.

I don’t know much about that, and I don’t think it’s necessary to differentiate.

What’s important was whether she was trying to twist our relationship. Whether she was trying to alter the future to her advantage.

That’s all.

The rest can come later.

Setting aside my embarrassment, I asked Aizawa if she had time-leaped. And I pressed further.

“Hey, that’s right, isn’t it, Aizawa! Actually, you’re the Aizawa from 2021 like me, and you’re trying to alter the history of this high school era to create a future that’s convenient for you, right? Hey, that’s it, right?”

“W-w-wait a minute, Senpai! What’s this about time-leaping? The topic is so out of nowhere that I can’t follow!”

“That’s it, right! Tell me that’s it! What were you planning to do by returning to this high school era? What were you going to do?”

“No, I’m telling you! I don’t understand what you mean!”

“You wanted to somehow change our relationship, right! You were actually in love with me, right! So you went back to the past to redo history, and this time you wanted to create a future where you’d marry me—or something like that, right! Or at least, weren’t you thinking of creating a future where we’d date?”

“!!!”

Aizawa’s expression froze. Though already as red as a boiled octopus, her face heated up even more like a tomato.

This reaction.

So Aizawa really did come to this era…

“Oof!?”

The next moment after I became convinced, I froze and couldn’t move.

Before I knew it, Aizawa’s thin, delicate leg had been inserted between my legs, crushing my exposed vital point that no man can guard against.

At the same time, a rage identical to the one on her face rose from Aizawa’s shoulders.

No doubt, this is…

“Sen-pai?”

“A-Aizawa…san?”

An unmistakable demon!

It was undoubtedly the countenance and spirit of an asura consumed by rage!

What?! Why? Why is this happening?

I don’t understand, but Aizawa is extremely angry.

For some reason, she’s angry at me.

I didn’t do anything, right? I didn’t ask anything weird, right?

I just asked if she had time-leaped, so why is she so furious?

“You’ve been blabbering incomprehensible things! What on earth are you saying?”

“Huh? No, well… I mean, I was asking if you came from the future.”

“How! Why! Would you think! That I, this perfect little devil junior, would appear that way to you! Is it Haruhi’s influence? The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’s influence? I don’t know which, but—there’s no way time-leaping is possible!”

“Eep!”

With Aizawa’s leg still pressing against my important area, she forcefully grabbed my collar. What a thing. I never knew she had such a violent side.

Well, I was trying to act cool, but honestly, the current Aizawa was scary. She was making a genuinely angry face that I’ve never seen before.

What’s going on?

Did I do something wrong?

“It seems like Senpai’s brain has been boiled by heat stroke.”

“N-no, that’s not it. I’m serious—”

“I don’t really care either way. But for joking about this cute, dedicated, and beautiful junior who’s too good for Senpai, saying I came from the future or that I time-leaped—you’ll have to take responsibility for that, okay?”

Oh, this is bad.

It’s Aizawa’s full-power prank mode triggered by anger. I’m done for.

By the time I thought I should escape right away, it was already too late.

With my collar still in her grasp, I was dragged into a back alley by Aizawa with tremendous strength—