The Story Where I, the Strongest Mercenary, Was Reincarnated as a Bullied Introverted High School Student ~ When I Was Freely Enjoying My School Life, for Some Reason the Girls Around Me Started Glancing at Me~

“Sigh…”

Yamashiro, who had been silently watching, let out a big sigh and stood up from her seat. She then sat in the empty seat next to me and whispered.

“…Fushimi, I’ll apologize for the fact that when I consulted with those girls, it got spread throughout the class. But you were the one who sent me weird messages and caused this in the first place. If you brought your girlfriend here, this outcome was inevitable, wasn’t it?”

Apparently, Yamashiro hadn’t intended to spread it to the class. The three gals had probably spread it on their own when Yamashiro had come to consult with them.

“…I’ll apologize as well since I misunderstood. I thought Yamashiro was part of their group. Turns out you were a victim too.”

Hearing my words, Yamashiro tilted her head.

“…Group? Victim? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Knowing what was about to unfold, I said only that and turned my attention back to Char.

“No matter how many times I see it, it’s really terrible~”

“The worst, disgusting~”

“Being hated for this is understandable~ lol.”

I received a round of abuse while they deliberately cast contemptuous glances at me. Then Char also raised her voice as if agreeing.

“Yes, really! Everyone’s right! To send messages like this, he must be ‘a person with a bad personality who’s disgusting and wretched’!”

“That’s right! You should break up with such a terrible guy!”

“Look, Fushimi! Char-chan is disillusioned too~!”

While everyone around expected Char to break up with me, Char, who seemed to be waiting for the right moment, spoke to Kanzaki.

“By the way, Kanzaki-san. You use a very nice smartphone.”

“Huh? I think it’s just a regular Xphone? Besides, everyone uses this.”

“That’s right, it seems over 70% of people in Japan use this smartphone. Actually, my grandfather was involved in its manufacturing.”

Char said that and smiled sweetly. Of course, it was a lie. In reality, Char herself had been involved in the core development of the Xphone. Char, who was also an excellent engineer, was on the board of directors at the technology company April, the manufacturer, without ever showing her face. The reason she could remotely extract data from Kanzaki’s and the others’ smartphones was because she knew the phone’s specifications inside and out.

Still holding Kanzaki’s smartphone, Char placed it on the desk screen-up so that everyone around could see.

“I heard from my grandfather that Xphones actually record vast amounts of data internally. Did you know that?”

As if performing for everyone, Char pressed the side buttons for volume and power in a specific sequence several times, and a black window appeared on the screen. Seeing this, mainly the male students got excited.

“A-awesome! A hidden command!?”

“Yes. It’s set up so that Xphone officials can review internal data.”

Char continued explaining in front of the fascinated students.

“Location information, of course, as well as time, latitude and longitude, altitude and movement speed, and… the touchscreen records the ‘fingerprints’ of whoever operated it.”

Saying that, Char displayed fingerprint data largely on Kanzaki’s smartphone screen.

“Smartphones are often used in crimes, so to cooperate with police investigations, they’re set up this way so that we can tell who operated them.”

“Come to think of it, I’ve been hearing a lot lately about criminals being caught because of smartphones.”

“These are Kanzaki-san’s fingerprints, they’re beautiful~”

“Hey, that’s embarrassing! Stop it~ lol.”

Kanzaki seemed to think Char was just playing around a bit. Everyone around was laughing similarly.

“Well then, shall I borrow Jinta’s smartphone too?”

“Don’t go too far, okay?”

“I’m just conveying the truth.”

I immediately handed Char my, or rather, Fushimi Jinta’s Xphone right in front of everyone. Char quickly performed the same operation and displayed the fingerprint data.

“The date of the message you showed me in the image earlier was July 24th, 2030… Oh, how strange! Fingerprints that aren’t Jinta’s were detected on the same date!”

“…Huh?”

Char displayed the fingerprints full-screen on both mine and Kanzaki’s smartphones and placed them side by side so that they could be compared at a glance.

“Oh? What a coincidence again! These fingerprints seem to be the same as Kanzaki-san’s!”

Before anyone knew it, Char’s public exposure had begun. Finally realizing the seriousness of the situation, Kanzaki turned pale and raised her voice.

“Huh!? Wait, wait! What are you doing without permission!”

“My apologies, I’ll return Kanzaki-san’s smartphone now. Well, then.”

Char continued operating my smartphone on the desk so that everyone could see.

“The location where Jinta’s smartphone was during the time the messages were being sent to Yamashiro-san that day was… right here. Oh? It doesn’t seem to be Jinta’s house.”

Char became obviously more theatrical. Actually, what was with that tone of voice anyway? When she enlarged the display on the smartphone map, several female students started murmuring.

“Isn’t that area around Kanzaki’s house…”

Yes, Fushimi Jinta had foolishly entrusted his smartphone to Kanzaki.

Kanzaki had approached Fushimi and had somewhat forcefully pressed him, saying “A loner like you wouldn’t know how to ask a girl out, right? I know more about Momoka than you do, so leave it to me!” He had unlocked it and handed it over. Then when the smartphone was returned to him the next day, the sent messages had already been deleted from Fushimi’s phone, and Fushimi Jinta had become hated by the entire class without understanding what had happened.

What a foolish story.

From the circumstantial evidence, one classmate voiced what everyone was thinking.

“So that means it was Kanzaki who was sending messages to Yamashiro from Fushimi’s smartphone?”

The expression that had been laughing cheerfully just moments before had completely changed.

Kanzaki began breaking out in cold sweat while her eyes darted around.