Suizenji Mizuki. She was one of the main heroines of this game. And her childhood friend, Honouji Kou. He was the person I had been looking for at the entrance ceremony.

“What!? A girl!? No way!?”

But when I saw him at the entrance ceremony, his appearance was that of a girl. Huh…? Not “he” but “she”!? What was going on!? Did he have a crossdressing fetish…? No no…that couldn’t be it…!?

“Is something wrong, Toyokazu-sama?”

“Ai, there’s something I need you to investigate urgently…”

When I was in trouble, Ai was extremely reliable. She had somehow become capable of almost anything involving intelligence gathering and such. I felt bad for using her, but I wanted to rely on her here.

“What would that be?”

“I want you to investigate Honouji Kou…san from Class 3.”

“Understood. Honouji Kou-sama, correct? Please wait a moment.”

“Wait!? Hold on!? I don’t think I mentioned what about her to investigate…”

And a few minutes later─

“I’ve finished investigating ☆.”

“That was fast!?”

“Being fast is a lady’s refinement.”

“What kind of refinement is that…”

“So what you wanted to know was her three measurements? From the top, they’re 70, 6─”

“No, that’s not it! Who said I wanted you to investigate that!? And how did you even find that out!?”

“That is…”

“That is?”

“A secret ☆.”

The wink was cute, but it clearly wasn’t the right timing for it…? W-well…whatever…

“Is Honouji Kou…female?”

“What are you stating the obvious for?”

“She’s not…crossdressing or anything…?”

“No. She’s not. She’s completely female. Don’t tell me you’re doubting my intelligence capabilities?”

“No…it’s not that I doubt you, Ai…”

I doubted Honouji Kou’s gender because from the perspective of someone who had played the game, it was impossible… In the game, he was male. Moreover, he was a scumbag who made moves not only on his childhood friend but on other heroines too…?

“Then…do you know if she’s…Suizenji Mizuki…san’s childhood friend?”

“I do know. Honouji-sama and Suizenji-sama are childhood friends. There’s also another person, Kazanari Fuuka-sama, who appears to be a childhood friend of both of them.”

Kazanari…Fuuka…? She didn’t appear in the game…did she?

“Is there anything else you’d like to know?”

“N-no…not right now…”

“I see. If you’re going to make a move on them, please make a move on onee-chan or me first.”

“I’m not making any moves!”

After that happened…I thought about various things. Maybe there was someone else with the same name as Honouji Kou? Or maybe content I didn’t know about was added after I died? All sorts of things…

In the end, I couldn’t come up with an answer…

♢♢♢

Originally, an event was supposed to happen today. An event where Suizenji Mizuki would be harassed by men making unreasonable complaints on her way home from school. Her childhood friend Honouji Kou would happen to pass by. In the game, choices would naturally be displayed at that time. And depending on the choice made then, it would determine who would assault Suizenji Mizuki.

The choices at that time were two: 【Help】 【Abandon】

If you chose to help, Honouji Kou would tell Suizenji Mizuki that he helped her because he liked her, but Suizenji Mizuki could only see Honouji Kou as just a childhood friend. She would tell him she had someone she liked. Then Honouji Kou, unable to accept that, would become enraged, you could say? Anyway, it would develop into him forcibly raping Suizenji Mizuki.

If you chose to abandon her, it would develop into the men taking turns raping her without rest…

Either development you chose would lead to an erotic scene…

Anyway. To prevent such a development…I didn’t know what would happen now that Honouji was female, but as soon as school ended, I hurried to their classroom.

“What!? They left!?”

“Yeah. Our class ended early for some reason.”

Suizenji-san and Kazanari-san had already left.

“Th-then what about Honouji-san…?”

“Honouji-san? She…”

“Kou? Kou didn’t have any stuff to pack either, so she probably went home too…?”

A different classmate told me that. I thanked them for the information and hurried to chase after the girls…

♢♢♢

And then…when I rushed to where Suizenji and the others were…

What I caught sight of was…

“Hurry up and stand! I’ll punch you aga──gwah!?”

A tough-looking man grabbing the arm of a female student who was crouched over holding her stomach, trying to force her to stand up.

And Suizenji-san and the female student surrounded by tough-looking men.

It was obvious at a glance what kind of situation this was.

After recognizing that much, I proceeded to take down the tough-looking men to the ground, putting thinking aside for later. They were just tough-looking but didn’t put up much of a fight. Well, it was easy since Ai was sniping with rubber bullets from the shadows…

I wondered when Ai had prepared such things… W-well, I guess I’ll chalk it up to “because it’s Ai” this time too… While thinking such things, I tied up the men and sent a signal to Ai. Yuusuke-san’s associates would come right away.

And then…I immediately recognized that the crouched female student was Honouji Kou-san. Suizenji-san and the others were worriedly staying close to Honouji-san.

Looking at the three of them, I could tell they got along well. She was probably a different person from the Honouji Kou in the game…

Anyway, I called out to the three of them, “Are you okay?”

“Wait, my heart didn’t just skip, did it!? I’d fall for him at this rate! But I’m a guy!? No no no! Don’t be ridiculous! Oww…”

Honouji-san suddenly shouted something incomprehensible. I could only be bewildered by this.

“What are you saying, Kou?”

That was Kazanari-san, wasn’t it? I thought the same as what Kazanari-san said.

“Kou…did you maybe get hit in the head too…?”

I thought the same as what Suizenji-san said as well, but apparently she hadn’t been hit in the head.

“Then why…are you saying you’re a guy again… Don’t tell me your chuunibyou is acting up again…?”

“That’s why I said you should moderate your gaming…”

“You guys are just saying whatever you want!”

Wait…what did Kazanari-san say…? Saying she was a guy…?

Normally this might be dismissed with words like chuunibyou. There might also be gender identity disorder… But somehow, an indescribable feeling arose within me.

It led to one hypothesis…

Could it be that Honouji-san was…a reincarnated person like me…?

That’s what I thought.

But…right now…

“Um…anyway, are all three of you okay…? Don’t worry about those men. The police will be here soon.”

First, I had to take Honouji-san to the hospital.