On the second floor of the station, Ayanokouji Ren leaned against the railing and stared down at Matsuzaka Satou below.
The girl had pink hair tied into two buns, fair skin, and a small, delicate figure.
Her doll-like face made people want to cherish her, and it also made Ren feel that she looked somewhat familiar.
His memories slowly matched together.
“So it really is her.
But she looks so short.
Has she not reached the age she was in the original work yet?”
As you can see, he had arrived far earlier than expected.
Basically, he had been here before she even reached the station.
After realizing the usual patterns of transmigration and anime worlds, he knew there was an eighty-percent chance this Matsuzaka Satou was the character from an anime he had watched before.
So he seriously thought back on this character and finally remembered.
She was a yandere.
Roughly speaking, that meant someone with psychological issues whose behavior was harder to predict and far crazier than ordinary people’s.
To put it simply, she was more aggressive.
She could kill.
But honestly, Ren, who had lived two lives, did not feel particularly worried about someone like that.
After all, aggression was built on the gap in strength.
Matsuzaka Satou might be a dangerous yandere, but her methods were still limited to the level of an ordinary person.
At most, she would use a knife…
A knife?
Ren decided that after going back, he absolutely had to wear a stab-proof vest.
After all, he planned to collect [Disgust] and [Anger] from this yandere who would be living with him.
Was it really appropriate to face that without any armor?
Then there was [Love] and [Joy]…
But Ren remembered that, in the original work, Matsuzaka Satou seemed to have some kind of emotional comprehension disorder.
The only person she ever loved was a little girl named…
something.
It felt like she was a lolicon.
And judging by the situation, that little girl probably had not even been born yet.
Should I turn into a little girl?
Ren felt sick just thinking about it.
Absolutely impossible.
So collecting emotions from this person seemed really difficult.
Maybe he should just give up?
The system suddenly sounded a notification.
[Matsuzaka Satou, Sorrow +1.]
Ren froze and turned to look.
Sure enough, [Sorrow] was floating above Matsuzaka Satou’s head.
The most important thing in life was never to give up too easily.
Ren stared at the floating [Sorrow] and nodded.
It did not seem that hard after all.
All he had to do was abandon a girl whose parents had died when she was little and whose life had been miserable in an unfamiliar city for half a night.
Just like that, he easily obtained [Sorrow].
Ren beckoned from a distance, and [Sorrow] instantly entered the system storage.
They had not even met on the first day, and the progress was already one-seventh complete.
All he could say was that girls really did have a lot of little emotions.
After the auntie and Yanami Anna, Matsuzaka Satou once again helped Ren prove this point.
But suddenly, Matsuzaka Satou started answering the phone again.
Ren watched her constantly nodding, her expression also changing again and again.
[Ayanokouji Yumi, Fear +1.]
The system sounded another notification.
Ayanokouji Yumi was the name of Ren’s mother.
So he instantly knew that his mother was worried and had called to ask about the situation.
Ren moved his finger again, and [Fear] successfully entered storage as well.
And just as the system had said, after the first successful emotion collection, the fifty-meter space restriction was lifted.
Even if the other person was currently in the Arctic, it still worked.
“But that’s not what I’m missing.”
Putting down the spare phone, Ren turned on his other phone.
The moment he entered the main screen, a flood of missed-call notifications popped up.
They were all from his mother.
There were a few from his father too.
Then there was the family landline, one call every minute.
It seemed his mother had given the order, and the family butler had to keep calling until the phone went through.
After hanging up on the butler, Ren took the initiative to video-call his mother.
However, the signal on the Arctic side was terrible, so it took quite a while for the call to connect.
As expected, he was scolded harshly.
She even said that when they came back, he would have to face the wall and reflect.
Ren accepted the criticism expressionlessly, then said the line he had prepared.
“I don’t like her.
I did it on purpose.
Poor relatives are so annoying.”
“?”
His mother on the other side of the call was clearly stunned.
His father was too.
Then Ren got scolded again.
She even said that when she came back, she would spank him.
“What do you want from me, then?
Do you think she’s more important than your own son?”
Ren pretended to be hysterical.
His mother froze again.
His father did too.
But this time, she did not scold him.
His father did too.
Ren summarized it into one sentence.
When Mom comes back, she’ll take you to a psychiatric hospital to see a doctor.
“Mm, sorry.
I know I was wrong.”
Ren surrendered at the speed of light.
A psychiatric hospital?
Even if someone beat him to death, he would never go!
“I’ll go pick her up right now.”
After collecting a pile of [Anger], Ren hung up the call.
This was really difficult.
Even after all that, he still had not managed to obtain his parents’ [Disgust].
But for some reason, his heart felt a little warm.
There were still about two months left before the emotions he had stored earlier expired.
Although there was still plenty of time, Ren did not want to keep provoking his parents like this.
Otherwise, some readers might start calling him a beast.
His gaze fell on Matsuzaka Satou on the first floor.
…
Matsuzaka Satou answered the phone again.
“Satou-chan, sorry, sorry.
Ren has already arrived at the station.
He’ll come pick you up very soon.
I’m really sorry for making you wait so long.”
On the other side of the phone, big sister’s voice carried obvious guilt.
Satou could feel that she was not lying.
Her mood improved a little.
“It’s fine.
As long as he’s okay.”
Satou showed a faint smile.
There was no special meaning behind it.
It was simply a smile made to match the situation.
“Are you really fine…?”
Ayanokouji Yumi’s voice sounded a little hesitant.
Then she suddenly said, “Satou-chan, don’t hang up later.
Let me listen to what Ren says to you.”
“Also, don’t let him know I’m still on the call with you.”
“?”
She wants to eavesdrop on our conversation?
A puzzled expression appeared on Satou’s face.
But she did not ask why.
She only paid attention to the fact that she could not say anything wrong next.
“Okay.
Then I’ll put the phone in my pocket.”
After Satou finished speaking, she had just put the phone into her pocket when a shadow fell over her head.
She looked up and saw a boy standing in front of her.
He was more than a head taller than her, with blond hair and golden eyes.
He was very handsome, but his expression was calm and cold.
Satou could not imagine what this face would look like laughing loudly.
Just like how she could not imagine it for herself.
“You’re Matsuzaka Satou?”
The boy’s tone was even colder, without the slightest respect toward an elder.
After all, judging by height and age, no matter how one looked at it, he should have been the older brother or someone of an even higher generation.
“Yes.”
Even though her nephew called her by her full name, Satou did not get angry.
She only nodded.
“You must be Ren, right?
I’m your auntie.”
Satou introduced her own identity.
Ren did not respond.
“Did you know?
In Japan, people often call women old enough to be grandmothers ‘auntie’ out of politeness, while women of auntie age are usually called ‘big sister.’ But you’re younger than me, so I should call you little sister.”
But Satou did not respond either.
She had found a loophole.
“So you admit I’m in the auntie generation.
Then just call me auntie.
You don’t need to be polite about it.”
Ren clicked his tongue.
“Big Auntie or Little Auntie?”
“Little Auntie, I guess.”
Satou tilted her head.
For some reason, the first title felt a little rude.
But for now, nothing strange had happened, so she did not know what big sister wanted to eavesdrop on.
Except that Ren really was a little cold.
It almost felt like he was angry at her.
“But this is our first time meeting, and judging by today’s arrangements, shouldn’t I be the one getting angry?”
Satou muttered inwardly.
But in truth, she did not have much feeling of anger, or rather, the concept of anger.
After all, to get angry, something important to you had to be hurt first, right?
But Satou felt that she had never had anything important.
So she could not be hurt, and naturally, she would not get angry either.
“Fine.
Let’s go, Matsuzaka.
Ren glanced at Satou, his gaze landing on her skirt.
He was not looking at her legs.
Nor was he looking at the path she had taken.
He had simply noticed that when Satou put her phone into her pocket earlier, the screen seemed to still be on the call interface.
Did he see it wrong?
Ren was puzzled.
“Call me auntie, okay?
Or Little Auntie.”
Satou seemed oddly fixated on this.
But Ren ignored her.
He walked ahead with both hands in his pockets and did not help Satou carry her suitcase.
His arrogant attitude perfectly displayed the demeanor of a spoiled young master.
If it had been someone else, they would probably have felt disgusted already.
But Satou obediently dragged her suitcase and quickly followed behind him.
Only, as she looked at his back moving faster and faster, with no concern at all for whether she could keep up, even Satou could not help feeling confused.
“Does he hate me?”
“But then again, what does being hated feel like?”
She was not pretending.
Matsuzaka Satou really was a little like a blank sheet of paper.
Satou was a very popular girl.
Gentle, cute, sexy, and good at studying.
Her clothes were not particularly flashy, yet she always attracted everyone’s attention.
Teachers and classmates all liked her.
But Satou had never felt any rich emotions from them.
Even when they chatted together.
Even when they ate together.
She could not feel anything beyond “ordinary.”
It was as if anyone could be the person chatting with her.
No matter who it was, it was all the same.
There was no special person.
She had always lived an empty and simple life.
Although she had the five senses of a normal person, she felt that she lacked the most important factor of being human.
That was the fact that, ever since childhood, she had never truly loved anything.
Without love, how could there be disgust?
How could she understand being hated?
That was what Satou had always believed.
Standing by the roadside, waiting for the car Ren had mentioned to arrive, Satou suddenly raised her head.
Her voice was hoarse but gentle, very distinctive in tone.
“Do you hate me?”
That was the kind of person Matsuzaka Satou was.
If she did not understand, she asked.
The question she had asked most often in the past was, “Do you know what love is?”
This was the first time she had asked something like, “Do you hate me?”
But Ren did not speak.
Satou quietly waited.
Until the car arrived.
It was a black car, very new, very stylish, and very long.
The emblem on the hood was a large double-M inside a rounded triangle.
Satou did not know what kind of car it was.
However, she noticed that all the pedestrians by the road turned to look.
A few young men even shouted loudly.
“It’s a Maybach!”
Maybach?
Was that the brand of the car?
Satou did not know much about luxury cars.
But she could tell that big sister’s family really was rich.
Ren opened the car door and signaled for Satou to get in.
Satou sat down on the genuine leather seat.
Unlike the seat she had lain on in the station earlier, the back seat inside the car was so soft she almost sank into it.
There was also a pleasant perfume scent inside the car.
Compared to before, it was practically the difference between heaven and earth.
Ren also got in and waved his hand.
The driver knowingly started the car.
The Maybach left the station and headed toward the elevated road.
That was the route they had to take to return home.
“My luggage?”
But as she looked at the changing scenery outside the window, Satou suddenly froze.
She had been too focused on the luxury car’s interior.
Only now did she realize that Ren had never opened the trunk at all.
He had gotten into the car at the same time as her.
Did the driver help put it in…?
“I threw it away.”
Ren’s face was ice-cold.
Satou froze.
“I know Mom brought you into the family, but let me tell you this.”
Ren stared into Satou’s pink eyes.
Afraid she would not hear him clearly, he even leaned close to her ear.
Although his voice was quiet, he spoke each word clearly.
“Pauper, don’t dirty my car.”
…