I Was Reincarnated as a Mob in a Completed School Rom-Com Manga, and When I Tried My Best to Cheer Up the Broken Losing Heroines, I Realized I Had Surpassed the Original Story - 5

Chapter 5: On the Brink of Explosion

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I stood there in a daze in front of the bookshelf, stunned by an unexpected question from my sister’s friend.

“Judging from that reaction, you really do know about it…Don’t you?”

“How do you…?”

“I think I’m in the same situation as you, Onii-san… I kinda felt that way during our phone call yesterday, and just now I became sure of it.”

Koganezaki-san spoke while pressing a hand to her forehead as if she was deep in thought.

“Th-Then, Koganezaki-san, when did you regain your past-life memories!?”

“During the fourth period yesterday…”

“The same as me…”

“Also, you can just call me Kirari. Ever since my memories came back, I’ve been weirdly resistant to this name. My surname in my past life was Tanaka, you know? It’s way too big of a rank-up all at once…”

“O-Okay…”

The shock was so big I accepted it without thinking, but I only realized after I responded that, across two whole lifetimes, I had never called any girl other than my sister by her given name.

“Onii-san, let’s work together. Not just about this unbelievable situation, but I’m also worried about the heroine as a fellow Amakoi fan.”

“I’d be happy to have your help.”

“Then let’s immediately exchange the information we each have.”

Kirari moved closer, sat down, and patted the floor to prompt me to sit as well. After revealing our past-life memories to each other, we learned that we had lived in the same era in our previous lives and that we had both died in our teens. However, the places we were born and raised were completely different, and the only thing we had in common was that we had both been huge fans of Amakoi.

Then, as if saying “now here’s the real topic,” Kirari cleared her throat—“Ahem”—and spoke.

“So, Onii-sa… Kazuto, who was your oshi?”

“Eh…You’re suddenly dropping the honorific and using casual speech…?”

“Well, if you include our past lives, we were the same age, right?”

Right—though in our past lives, she had been one year older than me.

“W-Well, that’s true…”

“So? Who was your oshi!? Depending on your answer this could start a war, but I can’t proceed unless I know!”

Kirari slid her knees forward to close the distance, and a soft, pleasant scent drifted over and tickled my nose. Overwhelmed by her intensity, I hesitated for a moment before deciding to be honest.

“I-I didn’t really have an oshi… I liked all of them because each had her own charm…”

The moment I finished, she clicked her tongue and made a face like she had just bitten into a bitter bug.

“What is that, a group fan (箱推=box oshi)!? The only right choice should be Princess Nazuna only, right!?”

“So that means Kirari is an Akaboshi-san oshi…”

“Uh, yeah, obviously. Princess Nazuna is literally an angel. Actually, a god!? I still can’t believe I exist in the same dimension as such a precious being!”

With her rapid-fire speech, the image I had of Kirari until just a few minutes ago completely collapsed in my mind.

“Well… Akaboshi-san was definitely charming.”

Suddenly, Kirari grabbed both my shoulders.

“Kazuto… Let’s save Princess Nazuna together!!”

Her strength—and the closeness—made my heart jump for two different reasons.

“S-Save her? How…?”

“Well… We’ll think of that now,  but the original story had scenes like that, you know?? So I’m very worried about her! I don’t think we can leave her alone…”

I understood the sadness in her downward gaze all too well.

“Yeah… I thought the same thing…”

“Then I’ll leave it to you. Whether we can save the princess depends on you, Kazuto!”

I was briefly captivated by her straightforward blue eyes, but then I noticed something was off.

“Wha…!? Leave it to me?! Kirari, you’re not going to help?!”

While I panicked at the sudden delegation, she flushed red and shifted her gaze downward.

“Because for me… She’s too precious… I can’t look directly at the princess. If I see her, I think my eyeballs will explode… Of course I’ll help think of strategies, but the execution part is on you, Kazuto…”

Just then, the door opened along with my sister’s voice.

“Hey, how long are you two going to stay here? Moe is getting bored, y’know—? Wait, huh, what are you two doing…?”

Moe stood frozen in shock, her eyes clouded over like black mist. From her point of view, seeing her friend with both hands on her brother’s shoulders while they stared at each other… Well, it was understandable she’d get the wrong idea.

“N-No, this is…”

Before I could stumble through an excuse, Kirari hurriedly jumped in to help.

“Uh—this is just because Kazuto said his shoulders were stiff, so I was giving him a massage! Right, Kazuto…?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s right, haha… Kirari’s really good at massages…”

“Heeeh… A shoulder massage while facing each other? That’s new. Also, in such a short time you two are already on a first-name basis…”

Her voice was noticeably lower than usual, and the expressionless look on her face radiated intense pressure. Since Moe was usually gentle, she was the scariest of all when she got truly angry. Kirari, being her best friend, probably knew that—because she trembled in fear just like I did.

“My little sister, calm down and listen! We just got excited talking about a manga we both like!”

“Y-Yeah, Moe!? You know my tastes better than anyone, right? Kazuto is totally outside my strike zone!”

Hearing that, Moe’s assassin-like expression instantly softened into a cute smile.

“Ohh, well if that’s the case you should’ve said so earlier~! I almost came up with like a hundred different torture methods for Onii-chan.”

I managed to breathe a sigh of relief after narrowly escaping danger, but I pretended with all my strength not to have heard the terrifying words that came out of her mouth.

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