Chapter 40  : Loneliness

Seiji had a serious attitude as he explained his viewpoint, and the content was unbelievably scary.

"It… couldn’t be? How could there be people like this?" Being the most simplistic, Mika was the first to unconsciously reject Seiji’s conclusion.

"My previous self was exactly like them." Seiji looked directly at her, "To the past me, all other people were items that could move, and were separated into only two categories: useful and worthless… You should know this well."

Mika instantly remembered back to that brooding, dark fat otaku from before and trembled.

After hearing all this from Seiji, she finally remembered that apart from perverted lust, there seemed to be an abnormal light in that fat otaku’s eyes.

"Now I’ve already realized my mistakes, and everything in the world is different to me. It can finally be said that I’ve become a normal person." Seiji smiled towards Mika.

"But… they still haven’t realized. As I used to be the same type as them, I can see their true nature, but for others… It would probably be incredibly difficult for others since they’re so beautiful and outstanding, and they don’t seem to get into any trouble of any sort. That’s why you can just treat all this as my own personal fantasy; it’s up to you if you want to believe me or not."

"Senpai…" Hoshi clenched his teeth, wanting to say something, but he stopped himself.

"You need to make your own decision, Hoshi… Amami." Seiji gazed directly at his junior while voicing Hoshi’s name out loud.

"Perhaps this is a little cruel, but you need to think this out for yourself, Hoshi… You can recognize if my words—as well as more important things—are valid… These are things about your sisters that you’ve always been thinking about before, both consciously and unconsciously. Of course, avoiding the problem is one method of dealing with it, but those who avoid the truth will eventually end up being swallowed by it. I don’t wish for you to become… a sacrifice like that."

Hoshi remained silent.

Mika also stood there wordlessly.

Chiaki appeared contemplative for a while before she seemed to have a sudden epiphany.

"I just realized… those twin senpais have never shown their true selves to anyone before, right? They’re excellent at hiding their true feelings; as long as they’re in front of others, they’re always acting! No wonder ever since meeting them, I felt that something was off about them."

"Chiaki…" Mika looked at her friend.

"They… truly have excellent acting techniques." Chiaki laughed, but condescension appeared in her eyes, "I… can’t stand such actors though."

Seiji sighed.

"Forget about it; let’s stop here. If we talk any more it’ll be like we’re viciously gossiping about others behind their backs."

"Senpai…"

"Hoshi, you need to beware of your sisters. That’s the last piece of advice I can give you… Beware of them until they realize their own mistakes, or expose their true selves…"

Hoshi Amami lowered his head, and his beautiful face showed a conflicted expression.

"I… can’t accept this… Senpai, telling me all this… I have no idea what I should do…"

Seiji looked at him and smiled gently.

"Even though I hate having to use such a cliché phrase, all I can say is this: do what you want to do. You can choose to believe me, ignore me, or even stop being friends with me; it’s all up to you."

A trace of pain crept into Hoshi Amami's expression.

On one side was his sisters that he had been living with for more than ten years; even if he wasn’t close to them, they were still family… However, on the other side was his senpai that he had known for only a few days but idolized to the extreme… Just how was he supposed to choose?

And so, everyone finished their lunches in silence.

As they watched Hoshi Amami leave, Chiaki looked at Seiji.

"Perhaps… he won’t be talking to you anymore."

Seiji smiled thinly; his thin smile contained a lonely feeling.

A few seconds later, he turned around and stopped, watching the petite figure disappear from view.

Seiji sighed. The period where he’d been idolized by a junior was so short, and it was difficult for him to make another otaku friend.

However, he chose against loading and repeating this day.

No matter how many times he experienced this day, he would still say the same things, because those were his true feelings.

There was something seriously wrong with those twins.

But… it probably didn’t have anything to do with him anymore…

Seiji felt like things would end like this. Hoshi Amami would stop being friends with him, and the twins probably wouldn’t appear in front of him anymore.

Unfortunately, reality often worked differently from people’s expectations.

…

During afternoon classes, Seiji inspected the new [gifts] option in his system.

Just as he had anticipated, he received an award for each gift he received in real life. For example, the five love letters he previously received increased his points by 7, with three 1s and two 2s.

The love letters gave him varying amount of points, so it meant that the "quality" of the letter mattered as well—in this case the amount of love contained within each letter.

The higher the "love" of the letter, the handsomer the reward.

Also, Seiji could say a person’s name and pull up a gifting list in his system. The gifting list contained information cards he could purchase. The information cards had information regarding the gifts each girl liked, and they ranked from levels 1 through to 9. The highest rank, 9, required the most points to unlock the information about the girl’s gift, so he believed it was probably the most important gift information the system could provide and the gift that would be the girl’s favorite.

For instance, when he said Mika Uehara’s name, the system listed nine information cards that he could exchange for, from levels 1 through 9. However, when he said Chiaki Wakaba’s name, the system only listed information cards up to rank 7. From this, Seiji concluded that he could only purchase information at the level equal to the target’s favorability rating towards him.

Seiji wanted to try things out and exchange for a gift information card, but he couldn’t waste any points to spare currently—he needed to save as many points as possible for the [Bullet Time] skill.

Trading points for gift information cards that contained the target’s gifts she wanted the most… Wait a second, wasn’t this akin to "mind reading?" Seiji had a sudden realization.

He didn’t doubt the ability of his system; since it even had the power to save and load, mind reading wasn’t anything special anymore. Besides, being able to see beautiful girls’ favorability ratings towards him was already a type of mind-reading; now, however, he was able to view their favorite gifts as well.

Just how deeply could these [gifts] "mind read?"

Seiji thought about it a little, but he eventually decided not to think too deeply into it.

During a break between classes.

Mika and Chiaki went to the girls’ restroom together.

"Are you still thinking about what happened during lunch break?" Chiaki asked her good friend.

Mika looked at Chiaki and nodded.

"I know that you must have received a huge shock, suddenly seeing such an unfamiliar side of the person you liked." Chiaki smiled, "That was indeed a bit scary; just being by his side I could feel his chilly emotions… I think that I would pee myself if I was the one being insulted by him like that."

Mika’s expression froze solid.

"What… what are you saying!?" Hearing her friend use such a phrase, the pigtailed girl’s face flushed deep red.

"I’m just saying the truth—do you have the confidence that you wouldn’t pee yourself?"

"I… I don’t know! Stop talking about that!" The red-faced Mika glared angrily at her friend.

It was supposed to be a serious topic, but her tomboy friend ruined the atmosphere with those titillating words of hers.

Well, that was Chiaki’s goal to begin with.

"Relax, no need to be so serious. Even if I say that, it probably won’t be easy for you to accept, since that scene just earlier would leave too deep of an impression," Chiaki shrugged. "But… I feel like Seigo’s… Seiji Haruta’s intended to prove that he was just a normal person after all. He had been too perfect before this, to the point where… I thought he was a bit fantastical. Even if he seemed a little scary earlier, I still feel like it makes him seem more like a living person."

"Chiaki…"

"Mika, people always have their faults, including the person that you like. It could even be said that taking so long to display a fault of his was incredible already," Chiaki chuckled. "Besides, if you analyze it more deeply, this fault of his… might not even be much of a fault."

"Oh?" Mika blinked.

"Carefully think about what he previously said: if those twin sisters were so similar to the previous him, then when he was so angrily insulted them, he was actually angrily insulting the worthless him from before, right?"

With a deep expression in her eyes, Chiaki glanced at her friend.

"Just like you were doing to the old him as well."

"Er…" Mika was stunned.