Reincarnated Into a Delinquent Manga… Where the Genders Are Reversed and Everyone’s a Girl - Chapter 23: Feels Familiar, But I Can’t Remember

Chapter 23: Feels Familiar, But I Can’t Remember

I was sitting in perfect seiza.

Honestly, it was so perfect it even surprised me.

But in this atmosphere, there was no way I could sit any other way.

“…”

“……”

Across from me sat Mikoto Shirane, perfectly composed.

She set her teacup on the table, took a sip, and murmured, “It’s just cheap tea, but.”

“Really… nice place you’ve got here…”

“No need to hold back. You wanna call it a den of demons, don’t you?”

“…No.”

Bullseye.

On the wall behind her hung several modified school uniforms—tokkofuku.

Some of them, dyed white, were stained red.

I decided it was better not to dwell on why.

To fill the awkward silence, I picked up my own teacup and took the quietest sip I could.

“You go to Shibakata High too, right, Shirane-san?”

“Sure do. And you’re Takuma-kun, yeah?”

“Guess we’re both wearing the same uniform, huh.”

“And we’re the same year, ain’t we? Drop the creepy ‘Shirane-san’ and just call me Mikoto.”

She stuck out her tongue like she was annoyed.

“…Seriously, thanks for earlier. My sister’s hopeless with directions. Gets lost all the time. I usually have to go out looking for her, but today she was really hard to find…”

As thanks, Shirane—Mikoto—served me a plate of chestnut yokan, apparently her favorite treat.

But her eyes looked… sad.

Hard to tell with those narrow, slit-like eyes, yet somehow, she carried a lonely air about her.

For some reason, it made me feel oddly guilty.

I took a bite.

Sweet, rich… and really good.

Amid the peaceful, laid-back atmosphere, a faint unease gnawed at me.

—Mikoto Shirane. Where have I…?

It was like trying to recall a newspaper article I’d skimmed days ago—vague, fuzzy, yet stubbornly lodged in my mind.

Was she a character in Fist?

No… I couldn’t place her.

I hadn’t been a hardcore reader anyway. If her name only came up once or twice, there was no way I’d remember.

Maybe I’d just passed her in the halls.

Or maybe I was imagining things entirely.

Totally possible.

Either way…

The chestnut yokan was amazing.

◇

Watching Takuma Takamure’s back as he walked away, Mikoto Shirane felt a strange warmth stir inside her.

Maybe it was because this was the first time she’d ever really talked to a boy since entering high school.

Either way, her heart felt… warm.

“…He’s a good guy.”

She murmured softly under the fading sunset.

Her thoughts drifted back to her little sister.

The jolt of panic she’d felt when she saw her precious little sister walking home with some unknown guy—wearing a Shibakata High uniform, no less—still hadn’t quite faded.

Once Takuma’s figure disappeared completely, she turned and stepped back inside.

But she wasn’t alone.

Someone was waiting—wearing a white tokkofuku stained with blood, smiling like she’d just returned from a pleasant night out.

“Geh, Mom!”

“Well, well, has spring finally come for my Mikoto?”

“Don’t lump me in with you and your man-chasing. Takuma-kun’s just a good guy who brought Yu home safely.”

Her mother, likely fresh off another fight, stood there in her blood-stained uniform—without a single scratch on herself.

That carefree, almost mocking attitude—like she was humoring a child’s tantrum—made Mikoto’s mood plummet.

She brushed past her without another word, headed straight to her room, and slammed the door shut behind her.

Still in her uniform, she collapsed face-first onto her bed.

“…Haa…”

Her legs kicked lightly at the air.

Yes, Mikoto Shirane was very much a maiden at heart.

—But she wasn’t just a maiden.

The phone in her skirt pocket began to ring.

Her expression hardened as she answered the call.

“Shirane-san, we’ve recruited Saito from second year.”

“Good. Now go after Endo next.”

“Got it!”

Mikoto Shirane.

In the manga, she’d been nothing more than a background character—taken out by Yayoi Akagi before she ever had the chance to shine, gone in a single panel.

But maybe because of Takuma’s influence… she was now quietly tightening her grip on the school from the shadows.

Her faction already controlled nearly a third of Shibakata High.

To have built that much power in just a few short months since entering the school—yeah, that was all Mikoto’s raw talent.

The current power balance at Shibakata was split three ways:

Minato Myougi sat at the bottom.

Mikoto Shirane held the second spot.

And yet, almost no one even knew her name.

She understood perfectly well—if Yayoi, standing silently behind Minato, ever decided to act, her entire faction would be crushed in an instant.

That’s why she operated from the shadows.

Building her network in secret, so that by the time anyone realized what she’d done… it would already be too late.

Mikoto stretched a hand toward the ceiling and let out a quiet sigh, her cheeks faintly flushed.

“Takuma-kun, huh…”

Even Mikoto Shirane didn’t really know much about Takuma Takamure.

To her, he wasn’t “that guy from the Myougi Faction”—

He was simply “the kind boy who helped my little sister… and just so happens to be my batchmate.”

A good impression, to say the least.

Without either of them realizing it, Takuma’s very existence was already bending the story’s path.

A background character who was supposed to fade away early on had, because of him, risen to become a major player.

“…He doesn’t hate me, right? No… he even came all the way to my house, so he can’t. Maybe he thought my tokkofuku was weird… but he goes to Shibakata, so it should be fine.”

Mikoto buried her face into her pillow and squirmed, her white hair spreading like a messy halo, the tips of her ears flushed crimson.

“…Could I actually end up… dating him…?”

She imagined it—

Walking hand in hand with him.

Him smiling gently at her, and then, just like in a dream—

“DAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!”

She screamed into the pillow.

What the hell was she thinking!?

One irregular element had shaken everything.

What kind of ending this would lead to… no one yet knew.