I Was Reincarnated as the Villain in an NTR Eroge, but Since I Don’t Actually Want to Be a Villain, I’m Just Going to Live Normally - 28-29

Chapter 28: Then, in Order to Be Reborn…

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The next day, Saturday, at my apartment.

“Alright, that should do it!”

From last night until today, I had been cleaning and organizing my room. I put all the accessories I used to wear—earrings, rings, and so on—into a box and stored it deep inside my dresser. I also sorted through all the flashy clothes I used to wear. Things like the tough-looking rider’s jacket I wore back when I was Akira Kuze, or the loud sukajan with gaudy embroidery… I figured I wouldn’t be wearing those anymore, so I stuffed them all away in the depths of the dresser as well.

By the time I finished going through everything, the entire day had passed. I had way too many tough-looking clothes, so organizing them ended up taking almost half a day. And the reason I was doing all this was because of the conversation I had with Yukishiro yesterday.

『Then wouldn’t it be better if you stopped dressing like that first?』

『…Huh? You mean, my appearance?』

『Exactly. I mean, Kuze-kun, your appearance is completely that of a delinquent boy, isn’t it? If you really are a serious person now, shouldn’t you stop dressing like that? I think that alone would have a big effect on your image.』

It wasn’t until Yukishiro said that that I finally realized it. When I really thought about it, the number one reason everyone disliked me was probably because my appearance made me look nothing but a delinquent. It was such a blind spot that I had completely forgotten to consider it.

Up until now, I had been following the old Akira Kuze routine, wearing earrings and rings every day, and putting on flashy clothes and shoes. But there was never any real reason for me to wear those intimidating things. I had only worn them because Akira Kuze had worn them before, and it became a habit I followed without thinking.

“Hah… Of course no one would believe a guy who looks this intimidating if he suddenly said he’d become serious. Why didn’t I realize something so obvious sooner?”

I sighed as I muttered that. If I wasn’t planning to continue the villain act anymore, then the first thing I should have ditched was this overly villainous appearance. It was kind of dumb that I didn’t notice until Yukishiro pointed it out, but… Well, I realized it early enough, so I guess that was fine.

And that was the reason I packed away all the accessories and flashy clothes I had been wearing until now. It felt refreshing to have all the earrings and rings gone from my ears and fingers, though it did feel a little weird since I had worn them for so long. But I figured I would get used to it. At any rate, it felt like the first step toward becoming a serious person.

“But this alone isn’t nearly enough. There’s still a lot more I need to do.”

Even if I removed my earrings and rings, my current appearance was still that of a perfect villain. Blond lion-like hair and sharp, intimidating upturned eyes. So I needed to get rid of both of those villainous features too. As for my scary-looking eyes, I already had an idea for something that would help. I planned to buy it later at the department store. And as for this blond hair…

“Alright. Now that I’ve finished sorting my stuff… I should head to the barbershop next!”

So I headed out to say goodbye to this villain-making blond lion hair, planning to go straight to the barbershop near the station. And after that, I’d go to the department store to buy that item.

Alright! Today, I’m going to get rid of this villain-like appearance once and for all!

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Chapter 29: Sighing in the Morning Classroom (Shizuku’s POV)

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The following Monday. In the classroom that morning.

“Haah…”

I sat at my seat and let out a deep sigh. The reason I sighed like that was, of course, because of that incident that happened last week. Last week after school, I went home together with my friends, and one of those friends ended up bad-mouthing Kuze-senpai. And then Kuze-senpai overheard it.

I panicked and tried to explain myself, so I went to talk to him, but then my emotions suddenly burst out and I couldn’t control myself and ended up crying. And because I suddenly started crying like that, I was sure I had troubled Kuze-senpai a lot… To trouble my senpai like that—what a hopeless kouhai I was. Haah…

But, well, it couldn’t be helped that I cried. Because Senpai said something like that to me… I felt really bad about troubling Senpai, but he was also part of the reason I cried. Senpai said something like, “It’s fine if Sakurajima wants to bad-mouth me too.” If he said something like that, of course it would make me sad.

Because the real Senpai was definitely not the kind of awful person who deserved to be bad-mouthed by everyone. Senpai saved Mii-chan, and he always treated even someone tiny and plain like me with so much kindness. And even when my skirt had flipped up and my panties were showing, he casually pointed it out. He was a very gentlemanly senpai.

A kouhai like me could never say bad things about such a kind, wonderful senpai. But Senpai smiled and said that awful line—“You can say whatever bad things you want about me”—so… that made me sad and I cried.

But I also understood that Senpai said that for my sake, because I spoke differently from my friends and he didn’t want me to get glared at or ostracized within my own group. Because Senpai was a kind person…

Murmur murmur…

“…Hm? It suddenly got noisy. What’s going on?”

While I was thinking about Kuze-senpai, murmuring voices suddenly drifted in from the hallway. There were lots of girls’ voices. And right after I noticed the restless voices, one of my girl friends came rushing toward me.

“Sh-Shizuku! Big news! You’ve got someone here to see you! He’s waiting in the hallway, hurry and go!”

“Eh, someone here to see me? Who could it be?”

“I-I don’t know, but he’s a second-year senpai! A super good-looking guy!! I didn’t know you knew someone that handsome, Shizuku!”

“Eh? A super good-looking senpai? Is it Kakeru-senpai?”

Hearing that, I immediately stood up and headed toward the hallway. And when I stepped outside, someone spoke to me right away. The voice belonged to a very familiar second-year senpai.

“Yo, Sakurajima.”

“…Eh? Ah—Kuze-senpa…i?”

It was Kuze-senpai. Apparently the person who came to see me was him. So I turned toward the direction of the voice, but the moment I did, I completely froze. Because the one standing there was Kuze-senpai… But… But…!

“E… eeeeh!? Wh-What happened!? W-What’s with that look!?”

The person standing there wasn’t the usual Kuze-senpai with his blond lion-mane hair and intimidating delinquent aura. Standing there was Kuze-senpai with neatly trimmed short black hair and round, stylish glasses. The neat short black hair suited him incredibly well, and the round glasses were stylish and matched him perfectly. To put it simply… There was a very cool second-year boy standing there.

N-Now I understood why the hallway had been filled with excited girls earlier.

“What do you mean ‘what’? Remember, we made a promise last week, right? That I’d start making an effort so people around me wouldn’t hate me anymore? So as the first step, I graduated from the delinquent look. So, what do you think? Do you think this changes my impression a bit?”

“Eh… Ah, y-yes! Um… I-it looks really serious and you look really cool…!”

“Haha. Yeah? That’s good to hear.”

While I stared at Kuze-senpai’s appearance, I replied while feeling my heart pound.

Wait… Pounding? Why?

“Hm? What’s wrong? Your face is all red, you know?”

“Fueh!? M-My face is red!?”

“Yeah. Did you catch a cold? If you do, I can take you to the infirmary.”

“N-No, no! I-I’m fine! I’m not sick or anything!!”

“Is that so? Well, if you say you’re fine, then that’s fine.”

Apparently my face was completely red. It was so embarrassing having Kuze-senpai see me like this…! B-But… Why? Why did I start feeling like this?! Why did just looking at Kuze-senpai make my heart pound this much…?

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