When I Started Capturing the Academy Princesses, Things Turned into a Battlefield - V2 Chapter 27: Days of Confusion, Doubt… and Utter Panic

Chapter 27: Days of Confusion, Doubt… and Utter Panic

The cultural festival was just around the corner—

In fact, it was happening this weekend.

Preparations were in full swing, and Himegasaki Academy had already started turning into something else entirely. Decorations were popping up, classrooms were transforming into mini attractions… The whole place had that festive buzz in the air.

Naturally, the students were fired up.

Excitement crackled through every hallway.

And me?

I was still very much trapped in a spiral of confusion and emotional chaos.

Actually, no.

It wasn’t just confusion or hesitation anymore.

I was living each day in fear—

Like a terrified woodland critter, quietly trembling inside.

“!”

As I walked down the hallway, I suddenly felt a gaze on me.

I turned around instinctively.

“…Again?”

Off in the distance, a group of students who had been whispering and stealing glances vanished like smoke.

Yeah.

This had been happening a lot lately.

Wherever I went, I could feel it—

The glares.

The silent pressure.

Some packed with jealousy, others seething with quiet hostility.

And every time I turned toward them, the whispers would start…

Followed by a hasty escape.

And the reason?

So stupidly simple it almost hurt.

I was hogging the attention of all four Princesses.

That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

Just that one fact was enough to earn me the ire of the entire student body.

From the upperclassmen to the underclassmen—

The jealousy was universal.

I’d tried to play it off by saying I was just tagging along with Ayane, since she’s close to them…

But even I knew that was a pathetic excuse.

Still… it’s not like I could just go around telling people the truth.

“Yeah, so uh—I got confessed to by all four Princesses and I’m currently keeping them on hold.”

Yeah.

Try saying that out loud and see how long it takes before someone throws a desk at you.

I could already picture myself tied to a stake, getting pelted with chalk.

So yeah… I’d been operating in full stealth mode.

Constantly alert. Always scanning my surroundings.

Not just drowning in confusion anymore—

Now I was also shivering with paranoia, ready for some jealous ambush at any moment.

“Oh hey, it’s Yuma-kun.”

Just as I was silently fuming about all the dirty looks, someone called out to me.

“…Tsuchiya?”

It was Misuzu Tsuchiya.

“You’re pretty popular today, huh.”

“I’d like to unsubscribe from this popularity, please.”

“People in my class keep talking about you, you know? Everyone’s super curious about what’s going on between you and the Big Four.”

We hadn’t talked much since Shiranui’s confession—

But lately, Tsuchiya had been coming up to me more often.

To be honest… it felt a little awkward.

I mean, I hadn’t done anything wrong exactly.

But she did say she was cheering for me and Shiranui…

And now things were, well—messy.

Her collapsing mid-confession?

Yeah, that image was still burned into my memory.

“You should just hold your head high. It’s not like you’re doing anything shady, right?”

“I mean… yeah, I know that, but still.”

“You’re so weirdly serious about this kind of stuff. Why not just own it? Brag a little!”

“Please. That’s how you get assassinated.”

“Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic… but honestly? Not impossible.”

Tsuchiya let out a quiet giggle.

…She seemed to be doing fine.

Honestly, there was a time I half-expected her to leap out from the shadows and deck me.

But nope.

No ambushes so far.

She’d been acting totally normal—just like any other friend.

“Hard to believe, but the cultural festival’s almost here.”

“Yeah.”

“So… who’s the lucky girl, Mr. Popular?”

Tsuchiya already knew everything.

After Shiranui’s confession, she’d been absent for a while.

Once she recovered and came back to school, we finally had a chance to talk—

And I ended up spilling everything.

“Wow. Not just Tsubasa-chan, but you’ve got four Princesses waiting on your answer? Must be nice living the dream, huh.”

She said that with the flattest expression imaginable.

Scared the life out of me.

But after that?

Nothing.

No drama.

She kept talking to me like always—

No cold shoulders, no frosty stares, no bitter edge to her voice.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“…Decided, huh.”

“What is it?”

“Oh, nothing. I’ll just be watching from the sidelines with a big cheerful smile. That’s all I can do now—wait and see what choice you make.”

…Okay, what kind of emotional evolution is this?

She used to be so into Shiranui.

Could it be…

She’s actually let her go?

Ever since that day, neither of us had brought it up again.

And honestly?

It felt like bringing it up myself now would just be rubbing salt in the wound.

“What’s with that face?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Really?”

“…I’m just surprised by how you’re reacting, that’s all.”

The moment I said that, it looked like she got what I meant.

“After everything, I did a lot of thinking too. In the end, I decided not to give up. Or maybe… I just couldn’t let go. Yeah, I was totally crushed at first—but those feelings never really went away. Even now, I still get frustrated when things don’t go how I want. But lately… I’ve started thinking maybe that’s okay too. Maybe I can live with that part of myself.”

Tsuchiya kept going.

“Once I came to that conclusion, I realized—there’s not much else I can do. Throwing a tantrum or trying to mess things up would only make Tsubasa-chan think less of me. And honestly, sabotaging stuff after a confession? That never ends well for anyone. So now, I’m just gonna watch quietly and see how it all plays out.”

…Yeah.

Kinda hard to play the sabotage card when the guy hasn’t even given an answer yet.

That little “no interference” promise?

It honestly lifted a huge weight off my chest.

Just hearing her say that made things feel a bit easier to breathe.

“I said I’d just watch from the sidelines, but after hearing all that… Can I give you one piece of advice, Yuma-kun?”

“…Advice?”

“I don’t think love is something you ‘choose’ or ‘agonize over.’ When you treat it like a decision, it doesn’t last. And the moment you hit a rough patch, you’ll start thinking, ‘Maybe I picked the wrong person.’ You’ve heard it before, right? People don’t choose to fall in love—they just fall.”

…That one landed hard.

Yeah—back when I fell for Tsuchiya, it wasn’t because I thought it through.

There were no pros and cons, no strategy.

One day, I just realized… I couldn’t stop looking at her.

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“No need to thank me. But—”

Tsuchiya gently placed her hand on my right shoulder.

“I said I’d support you, and I will. But if I’m being honest… I’d be kinda happy if you picked someone other than Tsubasa-chan. That way, I could be the one to cheer her up. And maybe—just maybe—I’d finally unlock the Tsuchiya Route. Sad girls are easy targets, you know? All soft and vulnerable.”

Man, this Goddess really doesn’t know when to quit.

“Well… it’s not like I want to see Tsubasa-chan heartbroken, either.”

“…”

“Yuma-kun. I don’t know how this’ll end, but just so you know— If you make Tsubasa-chan cry, I will curse you.”

“A-Ah… okay.”

With her hand still resting on my shoulder like some divine judgment,

I quietly made my way back to class.

◇

“All right! That’s a wrap for today!”

A voice rang out through the classroom as the sun dipped toward the horizon.

Late afternoon—time to pack it up.

Lately, every day after school had been all-in on cultural festival prep.

Our class had gone with the tried-and-true option: a café.

With Yamada, the resident heartthrob, and Kazama—one of the school’s reigning Princesses—in the lineup, we were basically guaranteed a packed house.

Group work wasn’t exactly my thing.

But I was way too much of a coward to let my reputation sink any lower,

So I’d been showing up every day like a model student.

“—!”

As I walked down the hallway, finally heading home…

I ran right into Arisa Hikawa.

Panic mode: activated.

I immediately turned on my heel to retreat—

“Stop right there.”

“Y-Yes ma’am.”

Her icy voice froze me in place.

“You seem well, Yuma Kanbara.”

“Y-Yeah, thanks to you…”

After Kanon’s confession, Hikawa had passed out cold—

And then vanished from school for a few days.

Now she’d finally made her grand return.

But unlike Tsuchiya, she hadn’t said a single word to me.

Sure, I could feel her glare slicing through the air from across the classroom like a sniper scope—

But she never actually approached.

Honestly, out of all the Princesses, I’d pegged her as the most likely to straight-up deck me.

So yeah, I’d been living in a constant state of quiet fear.

“How long has it been since we last spoke?”

“U-Uhh, can’t really remember.”

“Perfect. Because I’ve got something to say to you. I’ve calmed down, you see. I’m very calm now. Like… extremely calm.”

…Okay, what is this?

“I came to realize that it’s a sister’s duty to think of her little sister’s happiness. That the right thing to do… is to support her love life with an open heart.”

Oh no.

She’s saying things.

Things I absolutely don’t trust.

There is no way I’m buying this miraculous character development.

This is the same girl who practically had a GPS chip installed on her sister—

And now she’s going, ‘Go chase love, little bird’?

Yeah. No.

“What’s that face for?”

“Just… having trouble believing any of this.”

“As you should. It’s all a lie.”

So it was a lie!?

“But jokes aside—I didn’t come here for small talk. Even I’m swamped with cultural festival prep, you know. Being student council president and all.”

“R-Right.”

“So let’s cut to the chase.

What are you planning to do about that little matter of the confession?”

Hikawa’s eyes sharpened—like a hawk locking onto prey.

She knew everything.

She’d been right there when Kanon confessed.

And apparently, she’d also been in contact with Tsukihi since then.

“At home, Kanon-chan’s been a total mess. The closer we get to the cultural festival, the more fidgety she gets.”

“…”

“She’s just so cute when she’s nervous. That anxious-but-hopeful look on her face? Honestly, I’m kinda jealous of myself for being the only one who gets to see it.”

…Why are you bragging like that?

What even is that angle?

While I stood there trying to process that weird flex,

Hikawa let out a quiet sigh.

“You’re still undecided, huh.”

“…Pretty much.”

“Well, at this point, all we can do is wait for your choice. Also, just to be clear—since you look like you’re bracing for impact—I’m not planning to do anything crazy. If something happened to you, Kanon-chan would be sad. And I don’t want to see her cry.”

“That’s… honestly a relief.”

And it really was.

For the first time in days, I felt my soul unclench just a little.

“Oh, one last thing—I almost forgot. If you reject Kanon-chan’s confession… I’ll bury you in the mountains.”

“!?”

“But if you do decide to date her… I’ll bury you in the cemetery instead.”

“SO EITHER WAY I’M GETTING BURIED!?”

Hikawa just laughed, clearly having the time of her life.

“Do your best not to give me a reason to bury you.”

…Pretty sure I’m already on the hit list either way.

“Well then.”

As she turned to leave, she placed a hand on my left shoulder.

It was gentle—yet somehow heavy. Warm.

Like it carried real weight.

…Yeah.

Time’s almost up.

The days of hesitation, anxiety, and full-blown inner meltdowns were finally drawing to a close.

The cultural festival—the grand finale—was about to begin.