Reincarnated as the Protagonist of a Legendary Depressing Eroge – I Paired Up My Two Childhood Friend Heroines to Avoid the Bad End, But Their Possessiveness Completely Broke Through the Limits

Episode 05: Reincarnation / Winter

My consciousness grew thick and murky, melting away like ink spilled into an aquarium.

It was a memory from a distant winter day.

The legendary depressing game, Bitter Kiss.

This game wasn’t the kind that hooked players with over-the-top violence or cheap erotic scenes.

What it had was nothing but endless struggling inside a bottomless pit of “mud.”

The harder you tried to chase happiness, the more the weight of fate crushed you, and the girls you were supposed to love had their dignity stripped away second by second.

Through the screen, I heard their screams over and over.

By the time I finished one full playthrough, my mind was completely worn out.

Even after I grew up and lived scraping by at the bottom of society, gulping down muddy water,

the freezing scent of that Bitter Kiss winter was the one and only “hell” that would never fade inside me.

◆

“…Big brother… Big broooother!!”

A voice like rolling bells rang right beside my ear, sharp and carrying a hint of irritation.

The vibration hit my eardrum.

It was far too raw, far too real.

I forced my heavy eyelids open.

The first thing that jumped into view was an unfamiliar ceiling.

Cheap wallpaper, a little sun-faded, with the edges starting to peel.

Then the smell tickling my nose—savory miso soup—and the wintry morning air mixed with cold dust.

“Wake uuup! We’re gonna be late, big brother!!”

Right after that, an explosive shout burst right next to my ear.

“Whoa!”

A sudden jolt.

The warm feather comforter was yanked away roughly, and I bounced clumsily on the bed.

The winter cold stabbed my whole body, slapping against my bare skin without mercy.

I shot upright.

On shaky legs I stumbled to the window and wiped the fogged glass roughly with my palm.

In that moment, the “weight” that had been sitting on the edge of the bed let out a startled yelp and tumbled onto the floor.

“No way…”

All the air left my lungs.

Outside the window.

Rows of rusted reddish-brown warehouses lined up along the sea.

Roofs of soot-stained houses clinging to the steep slope.

And beyond them, towering over the dull-colored sea like it was straddling it, a massive iron bridge.

This was Mio City. The stage of the legendary depressing erotic game Bitter Kiss.

The low sky, the tilt of the utility poles, the sharp shadows in the back alleys.

Every single detail matched the “game background” in my memory perfectly, without a single mismatch.

“Oww… Hey, big brother, don’t just jump up like that! I went flying!”

The girl on the floor rubbed her butt, puffed out her cheeks, and glared at me.

Above the head of the girl who called herself Mio, a translucent plate-like thing was floating.

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
Target: Keiji Kageyama’s sister Mio (Kageyama Mio)
Grade: 6th year elementary
Birthday: August 16
Blood type: A
Height: 148 cm
Favorability: Unmeasurable
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

—Kageyama Mio.

My little sister, from the memories of the protagonist before reincarnation.

But I didn’t remember any little sister like this existing as a sub-character in the Bitter Kiss I played in my previous life.

The only memories left were the stomach-churning ones from playing through the utterly hopeless endings of the two childhood friend heroines.

I stood there in a daze, and my vision swayed violently.

I tried to sort through my confused head, but I realized the “past” I could recall was strangely lopsided, and a chill ran down my spine.

Memories of my own family, of elementary school days in this Kageyama house.

Those everyday memories were hazy and blurred, like old film bleached white.

Yet.

Only the fragments of that horrific, eye-averting “future” waiting for the girls named Yoru and Rena were burned into my brain with vivid, crystal-clear resolution, like news footage from this morning.

I had died. And then I was reincarnated.

“Big brother? …Hey, are you really okay? Your face is completely white.”

Mio stood up and peered into my face.

Clear “worry” colored her eyes.

It wasn’t any pattern from a game standing image.

The irises deep in her pupils trembled faintly, reflecting my confusion, and the edges of her eyebrows dipped just a little.

That tiny shift of emotion in a fraction of a second.

—It was real.

This wasn’t some set made of data.

It was a living, breathing hell where blood flowed, breaths were taken, the winter cold actually stung the skin, and the time called “tomorrow” flowed on with cruel certainty.

A sensation like every hair on my body standing on end washed over me.

I never wanted to come back to this world.

Just one playthrough had left my stomach aching and my mood gloomy for days.

And yet, I had become part of this hell.

Every single move I made could decide the “fate” of those two childhood friends.

“…Big brother? What’s really wrong? Come on, stop making such a scary face. We’re gonna be late for school, you know?”

Mio’s hand touched my trembling arm.

“If something’s bothering you, you should talk to a trustworthy adult, okay?”

My still-elementary-school little sister looked at me with worried eyes.

It felt warm.

If this really was the world of that game and the timeline matched my memories, I should be a high schooler right now.

But the uniform I was wearing wasn’t a high school one.

—First year of middle school, winter.

That meant I had reincarnated three years before the game’s starting point.

Right around this time, the family of the heroine Yoru should be just about to cross the breaking point.

Her mother Saya was sinking her own body into the mud to protect her daughter, and rotten desires were soaking into the house.

In the original “high school arc,” when we reunited, Yoru’s heart was already damaged beyond repair.

But right now, there might still be time.

The “knowledge” I had wasn’t just strategy data.

It was an advance notice of the “crimes” and “tragedies” that were about to happen.

“…I’ll get changed right away.”

I sent Mio out of the room and, with shaking hands, slipped into my uniform.

The me in the mirror was still a slender middle schooler who hadn’t fully grown into an adult.

When I dashed out of the house, the winter sea wind sliced into my cheeks like a blade.

Breathing out white puffs, I ran down the slope.

Every time I turned a corner, the scenery locked in as a “game event background,” and my heart rate shot up with abnormal heat.

The school entrance.

As I changed my shoes, a presence lined up beside me.

“Good morning, Kei-kun.”

The moment I heard that voice, it felt like all the blood in my body flowed backward.

One of the childhood friends from my memories.

A translucent plate-like thing was floating above her head too.

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
Target: Yabuchi Iyo (Yoru)
Grade: 1st year middle school
Birthday: December 12
Blood type: AB
Height: 155 cm
Favorability: 50
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She shook her glossy black hair and wore her usual gentle, graceful smile.

But now I could “see” it.

The fingertips holding her textbooks. They were wrapped painfully in layer after layer of bandages.

And the instant she passed by me, something overpowered the smell of the sea breeze and hit my nose.

Cheap cigarette smoke and the lingering stench of a middle-aged man—like rotten eggs.

In the original story, in the winter of first year middle school, Yoru sold her body to men.

That was the beginning of the tragedy.

“…Good morning, Iyo. Um, what happened to your fingers?”

Just speaking took everything I had.

Iyo’s eyes wavered for a split second, but she quickly pasted on a thick, icy smile.

“These? I was clumsy with some housework. Don’t worry about it, Kei-kun. …Anyway, are you ready for today’s quiz?”

It was a lie.

She wasn’t looking me in the eye.

While keeping up the friendly attitude of a childhood friend, she was drawing an impossibly strong line to keep me—someone from the “clean world”—from stepping even one foot into her “mud pit.”

She was the only one in this town swallowing the filth and smiling so she wouldn’t dirty me.

—Lunch break.

I had already reached my limit.

If I just kept worrying about Iyo like this, would she really stop selling herself?

While I couldn’t escape that thought, the words Mio had said that morning flashed through my head.

That’s right.

It was no exaggeration to say that as a middle schooler, I had almost no way to save them.

I had to talk to some reliable adult.

Cursing my own powerlessness as a “child,” I headed toward the staff room.

I had to tell someone—an adult—about this “abnormality,” or she really would—

I reached the door of the staff room.

In front of it stood a woman in a white coat, carrying such a huge stack of printouts that her face was hidden.