Ch.14Eri, Launch

Indeed. There was a corpse lying right there.

A disheveled young man was lying face down. From his already cold skin color, I could tell he was definitely dead. You didn’t need to be a forensic expert to know that.

And his entire face was distorted. Could a person even make such an expression? It was astonishing to see.

Yes, it was identical to Arigiri Shota’s first event. Arigiri Shota had died in the same way.

Except, the dead person wasn’t me.

“Kyaaaah!!”

As students screamed, chaos erupted around us. No one expected something like this to happen in Emoshita, a peaceful small city.

Police officers quickly arrived on the scene.

“Everyone step back!!”

“Official police business!”

The officers immediately dispersed the crowd.

“…!”

“…”

Umi and Eri seemed to be in shock as well. They were ordinary high school girls. They couldn’t help but feel terrified by this scene.

However, one guy was different. I shifted my gaze.

Sasitsu was observing the corpse and the surrounding scene with cold eyes. He seemed to be analyzing why this incident had occurred. What a cool-headed guy. As expected of a cool guy.

At that moment, Sasitsu turned his gaze toward me.

Staring.

Sasitsu was staring at me intently. Our eyes clearly met.

But it was brief. Sasitsu turned his gaze away again. Something felt unsettling.

Anyway, right now I had people to take care of.

“Let’s go. Everyone.”

I pulled Umi and Eri away.

“…Okay.”

Umi spoke in an unusually weak tone.

“Yeah.”

Eri also responded while looking at the ground.

——–

I took them to a nearby park. A peaceful park. It was a good place to forget the horrific scene we had just witnessed.

Clunk!

I inserted 100-yen coins and got some drinks. Simple café lattes.

“Here. Drink up.”

I handed the drinks to Umi and Eri who were sitting on the bench.

“Ah… sorry.”

Umi tried to take out some coins, but I waved her off.

“It’s on me. You came to save me on the rooftop, after all. Consider it payment for that.”

I said while sipping my canned coffee.

Ah… drinking canned coffee makes me crave a cigarette. But I’m a minor here. Damn it. It wasn’t my body craving nicotine, but my mind. Well… I was a heavy smoker in my original world.

“Shota. You’re so calm.”

Umi said.

“Yeah. Are you okay?”

Eri looked at me with curiosity.

“I was shocked too. But… at the same time, I felt relieved.”

Well, I should comfort them as the older one here.

“Umi and Eri are safe now. That’s all that matters.”

I said while patting their heads.

“……”

“……”

For a moment, Umi and Eri stared at me with blank expressions.

Oh. Was it uncomfortable that I suddenly patted their heads? They’re not going to sue me for sexual harassment, are they? I suddenly became extremely nervous.

“Shota… are you naturally like this? Or are you doing this intentionally?”

Umi stared at me and asked. Naturally? What does she mean?

“I mean… it’s amazing how you can do things like this so casually…”

Eri also exchanged meaningful glances with Umi.

Well, they didn’t seem to be upset. Good… it didn’t look like I’d be dragged to the police station again.

——–

Anyway, after drinking the canned coffee, they seemed to have calmed down a bit.

“I’ll contact you later, Shota. Don’t ignore my texts, okay?”

Eri waved at me.

“Let’s go to the dojo, Shota.”

Umi said.

“Ah. Right.”

I was planning to go to the dojo every day anyway. Umi and I walked toward the dojo.

——–

I spent one session at the dojo after school.

When Asuna saw Umi and me coming together, she smiled slyly.

“Now you two are always going home together. Ohoho. How nice.”

Asuna seemed to have some strange misunderstanding.

“No, we’re not!!”

Umi protested, but she still stayed close to me. Strange. Normally, she would have stomped off to her room in a huff.

“Hey!! Good to see you!! We’re going until night today!! I’ve prepared a proper training schedule until the competition!!”

Gonzaemon immediately greeted me.

“No. After school starts, I’m planning to do just one session and go home.”

I said. I couldn’t stay until night anymore since things would get busy.

“What… already losing your beginner’s spirit!!”

Gonzaemon immediately put me in a headlock.

“Aaah!! It hurts!! Master!!!”

I tapped out right away. I surrender!! I surrender!!

Well, thanks to Ms. Asuna’s intervention, Gonzaemon released the headlock.

After that, I trained for an hour.

Gonzaemon clearly intended to have me compete in this summer’s tournament. Because of that, even one session was intense.

I had continuous matches with the other students.

Whoosh-! Thwack!!

With a clean head strike, I won a clean point.

“Point!!! Well done!!”

Gonzaemon nodded and said.

“…He’s really strong. Shota is.”

One of the students I had faced said with a cheerful smile.

“Yeah. It hasn’t even been a month, and he’s scoring points against Murata.”

Other students chimed in.

These guys are good people. I knew that well.

‘Usually people get jealous of someone who achieves results quickly.’

It was like that when I first started getting paid for my serialization. The envy from aspiring creators my age was intense. That’s why I quit social media. Since then, I’ve lived without paying attention to social media. Like Gonzaemon’s disciples, they all seemed like cheerful sportsmen.

“Curious.”

At that moment, Gonzaemon tilted his head.

“I certainly have strength beyond human limits. You can only describe it as curious.”

I immediately joked.

“Don’t get cocky.”

Bonk!

Gonzaemon gave me an affectionate knock on the head.

“You didn’t come to the dojo yesterday… but your skills have improved dramatically. As if you’ve been constantly sparring.”

He’s really sharp, this old man. He was definitely an expert when it came to swordsmanship.

I did have some realizations after yesterday’s fierce battle with Geruruk.

“Anyway!! We’ll keep up this pace!! We’ll make the name of Kiryu Dojo known at the summer tournament!!”

Gonzaemon shouted.

“Uoooooh!!”

“We can’t lose either!! Fighting spirit!! Fighting spirit!!”

“Power of perseverance!!!”

The other students knew how to get into the mood.

And so, the session ended in a passionate atmosphere.

After showering in the dojo’s shower room and changing clothes, I headed home.

Ding!

At that moment, I received a text.

‘When are you coming home?’

It was from Eri.

“Hmm…?”

Why is she suddenly sending me this kind of text? I wondered.

‘I’m waiting at your house.’

Eri said.

“Huh?!!”

What nonsense. My mother is at home too.

Anyway, since Eri didn’t seem to be lying, I hurriedly headed home.

——–

“Ah. Shota. Welcome back.”

Eri was really at our house. She was drinking tea in the living room, chatting with my mother.

By the way, she was wearing quite revealing casual clothes. A midriff-baring t-shirt and tight hot pants. Her figure was clearly visible because of it.

Like Umi… they all had amazing physical development.

“Hey. Why are you here…”

“My, Shota. You should have told me about your pretty girlfriend. Not bad, Shota.”

My mother said.

“No, she’s not exactly my girlfriend…”

Apparently, she had sweet-talked her way into our house by claiming to be my girlfriend.

“Don’t be shy.”

My mother laughed.

“Mrs. Arigiri! It was nice chatting with you. Now, Shota. Shall we go upstairs?”

Eri immediately linked arms with me, trying to go up to my room.

“Hohoho. Take your time. You can stay for dinner too.”

My mother said.

“Oh my! Thank you!!”

Eri smiled.

Gyaru trait) Friendly to everyone.

Well, I couldn’t turn away a guest. Eri had already won over my mother. I had no choice but to hang out with her.

———

“Wow… so this is a boy’s room?”

Eri looked around my room with sparkling eyes.

“A boy’s room… more like an otaku’s room?”

Eri said, observing the state of the room.

Well… the room had been decorated like this before I possessed this body. Arigiri Shota was an otaku. Well, I liked these series in my previous life too, and it was too troublesome to clean up anyway.

“It’s a hobby.”

I said casually as I sat on the bed.

“It’s fine. My brother is an otaku too. I’m used to it.”

Eri said with a smile.

“Ooooh!!! The cliché of a gyaru being kind to an otaku!!!”

As a nerd myself, I couldn’t help but get excited about this cliché situation.

“Hahaha. What’s that?”

Eri laughed and sat right next to me.

Yes. She casually sat on a guy’s bed. Hey… isn’t she being too unguarded?

Then, Eri started rubbing near my thigh. Wait. What is she doing?!

“Stop.”

I immediately swatted her hand away.

“Tch.”

Eri puffed her cheeks, pretending to be upset.

“Anyway, what are you planning to do visiting here in the evening?”

I asked Eri.

“Hm? I just wanted to see Shota, that’s all?”

Eri tilted her head.

Hey. Saying things like that makes guys misunderstand. Is she into me? Like that.

I was unfazed because I was mentally 25, but if my brain had been that of a teenage boy, I would have confessed at light speed and been rejected just as quickly.

“Let’s read manga together. I like manga.”

Eri smiled and crawled across the bed to grab a manga from the bookshelf. Due to her crawling posture, Eri’s position became similar to a cat pose. Naturally, her voluptuous swaying backside was visible to me. Really… kids these days develop too well, it’s frustrating.

“Ahem…”

Honestly, as a man, I couldn’t help but react. My lower body used the “become hard” skill.

“Let’s read this!! We don’t have this at my house!”

Eri brought the manga and moved closer to me.

Then, Eri noticed the change in my pants area. Yeah, there was no way she wouldn’t notice something bulging out.

“Heh… so Shota is a man after all?”

Eri smiled mischievously and poked my side.

…I wanted to die of embarrassment.