RMSGE ` 12

Chapter – 12

The Third Heroine—Minakawa Hitomi

(Kīn-kōn-kān-kōn)

“Phew—finally over, huh…”

The school bell rang, signaling the end of the last class of the day.
I’d been thinking this ever since I reincarnated, but class is way too boring.
I mean, I already went through high school in my past life, and on top of that, Ougou Kaito’s brain is so good that the lessons feel about as challenging as doing basic addition.
Even English, which I struggled with in my past life, I’ve now mastered and speak like a native.
Actually, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that English is Ougou Kaito’s best subject.

So, as things stand, I sometimes find myself dozing off during class.

“Still, Ougou Kaito really is ridiculously overpowered…”

Now that I’ve become him, I can clearly see—he’s at a level where you wonder if there’s anything he can’t do.
He looks good, has great athletic ability, and on top of that, his brains are insane.
No wonder he was the villain who tormented countless players…
His stats are off the charts—seriously surprising.
Honestly, I’m pretty grateful for it though.
Apart from the terrible reputation, everything else is fantastic.

But I was thinking—money-wise, I’ll probably never have to worry for the rest of my life, and I don’t even really need to come to school.
I could get by without graduating high school, but well, I might as well go.
Besides, if I dropped out, I’d just have more free time and nothing to do, which would probably make things even more boring.
And more importantly, Kaoru’s at school, so I can’t exactly quit.

As I was thinking about all that, someone called out to me.

“Ougou-kun!”

The person who called my name in a somewhat forceful tone was, surprisingly, a cute girl.

And that girl was the third heroine—Minakawa Hitomi.

Oh right, that’s how it was… She’s serious, hates injustice, and is incredibly assertive.
That’s why she was the only one who could stand up to Ougou Kaito.
That really takes some guts.
Well, in the game, that very trait got her targeted in the worst way… by Ougou Kaito, of course.

Anyway, what does Hitomi want? She looks a bit annoyed.

“What is it?”

“‘What is it’? Seriously… The teacher just said today’s the deadline for submitting notebooks, didn’t she? Were you not listening again?”

Saying that, Hitomi placed a stack of notebooks she was holding on my desk for me to see.
Ah, I totally didn’t hear that…
I was dozing off during class after all.
I guess I have to submit my notebook.

Thinking that, I looked at the notebook Hitomi had placed to check the subject.

“Sorry, it’s about the notebook, right? Hold on a sec.”

“Honestly… Even when you first enrolled, you—… Wait, huh?”

Hitomi seemed really surprised by my words.
Probably because me apologizing was completely unexpected.
Well, before I reincarnated, Ougou Kaito had been ignoring her outright, so I guess that’s only natural.

Leaving Hitomi standing there stunned, I took out my notebook.
Even though I dozed off, I’d made sure to take proper notes, so that part was fine.

“Here you go. Sorry for being late.”

“Eh? Ah, thanks…?”

When I said that and handed over my notebook, Hitomi’s eyes went wide with shock. Well, that’s only natural.
Wait, why is Hitomi thanking me? That part I don’t really get.

“I’m late anyway—want me to carry those for you?”

“Huh? What are you really thinking!? That’s kind of creepy…”

Of course she’d react that way… Well, it’s certainly not like Ougou Kaito.
But I’m not Ougou Kaito, and I need her to get used to that, so it can’t be helped.

“I’m not thinking anything. I just said what came to mind.”

“But before, you used to ignore me, didn’t you? I talked to you so many times, and you brushed me off every single time.”

Yeah, that’s true. It wasn’t me, but Ougou Kaito was like that.
She’d asked him multiple times to hand in his worksheets, but he completely ignored her, and eventually the teacher had to come and collect them herself.

“Ah, sorry about that too. I had some things I was dealing with…”

That’s not actually a lie.
At the time, Ougou Kaito had his sights set on Kaoru and was thinking about how to win her over, so he wasn’t paying attention to anything else.
There’s no way I could say that, of course.

“I-is that so. Well, fine. Just make sure you behave properly from now on.”

“Well, I’ll try my best—within reason.”

“That’s good enough, I suppose… And besides, this is my job, and it’s not that heavy, so I’ll handle it myself. Thanks for the concern, though.”

“I see.”

“Yeah, well then.”

“Right.”

With that, Hitomi turned around, tilted her head in confusion, and walked away.
From Hitomi’s perspective, it must have made no sense… because the person who was ignoring her just the other day had suddenly changed.

“Alright, I’ll head home too.”

Thinking that, I left the classroom and found Kaoru waiting in the hallway.
She hadn’t gone home yet?

“Kaoru? Why are you here?”

“Kaito-kun, can I walk home with you too?”

“Well… but…”

“No?”

When I hesitated, Kaoru looked up at me with those eyes.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, but I don’t think it’s good for you to be seen with me…”

“Then how about this…”

What Kaoru handed me was a large black mask and a pair of fake glasses.

“Eh? What’s this?”

“If we both wear these, no one will recognize us, right? I thought it’d be fine that way.”

I mean… unless someone got really close, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell who we were.
And there are quite a few guys with blonde hair like mine in this school anyway.
Wait, did Kaoru prepare these herself…?

“Um, Kaoru?… Did you bring these on purpose?”

“No, I didn’t prepare them. Hiroshi-san gave them to me during break today.”

“Eh? Why would Kirara?”

“Yeah. She said that with these, it’d be okay for me to walk home with you. I don’t really know the details either.”

…What is Kirara thinking?
No, knowing Kirara, she was probably being considerate because of what happened on Friday.
I won’t call it unnecessary—honestly, it’s a huge help.

“Well, with these it should be fine. But are you sure you don’t need to walk home with Yamazaki today?”

“Yeah. Makoto was all ‘Time to grind!!!!’ and the moment class ended, he dashed out of the classroom with his friends and ran all the way home. He said they’re going to play online games together once he gets home… FPS games, apparently. And it seemed like Hiroshi-san had already made plans to walk home with someone else today, so I would’ve had to go home alone anyway.”

“I-is that so…”

Well, when I played games in my past life, Yamazaki definitely gave off hardcore gamer vibes.
Though, I always thought Kaoru didn’t have many male friends but had plenty of female friends… I guess I won’t ask about that.

“Yeah, that’s how it is.”

“Well then, let’s walk home together.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Kaito-kun.”

“Sure.”

And so, after putting on the masks and fake glasses, we started walking together.