What comes to mind when you think of an entrance ceremony?
If you were an average Japanese person, it would be cherry blossoms blooming as if to celebrate a new beginning for students in their fresh uniforms.
That was exactly what came to my mind.
‘Sakura’ is a plant deeply familiar to Japanese culture.
The sight of beautiful flowers blooming across the trees has fascinated people since ancient times, and grand banquets were held beneath them.
I love sakura quite a bit.
The petals swaying in the wind possess a beauty that makes me forget to blink, and the sight of the scattered petals dyeing the ground in a carpet of cherry blossoms is gorgeous, yet melancholic.
A banquet with familiar faces under such a moving landscape would be a moment of pure happiness.
This might just be a personal quirk of mine, but I also love the fresh green trees.
The greenery, standing modestly in a quiet, open space, makes you feel nostalgic, as if an era has come to an end.
Now, it can be said that sakura are generally beloved by the Japanese, and they are equally beloved in eroge and galge.
There are various game titles with ‘Sakura’ in the name, important events occur under the cherry trees, and sometimes it’s even used as a heroine’s name.
Sakura also appears in Magical★Explorer.
The protagonist heads to school from the nearby dorms, walking down a road lined with cherry blossoms.
“Haa…”
They hadn’t even bloomed when I checked on them a few days ago.
Apparently, they couldn’t withstand the sudden heat of the last few days and had finally burst into brilliant bloom.
The sakura planted on the left and right sides of the road were in full flower, making me want to stop and take a closer look.
Yeah, I’d love to enjoy the view.
In reality.
Yes, if I had the time.
“To think something like this would happen…!”
With the cherry blossoms right beside me, I continued hurrying along.
I had certainly left the house with plenty of time to spare.
Two hours ago, Marino-san and Nee-san left early because they were preparing for the entrance ceremony, and an hour ago, Ludi and Claris-san left early because they apparently had somewhere to be.
By the time I left the house, even if I walked slowly, I should have arrived with plenty of time to spare.
But how did it actually turn out?
The path you absolutely must take to get from the dorms to the school was completely devoid of students.
Well, it was already time for the entrance ceremony to start, so it would be weird to see students lingering here anyway.
It might be inevitable to say this couldn’t be avoided.
I ran into an old man who had hurt his leg; could I really just ignore that and go to school?
“It’s pretty different from the protagonist, huh…”
The protagonist of the game Magical★Explorer receives an email from a beautiful heroine, bumps into a beautiful heroine holding a piece of toast in her mouth at the entrance ceremony, and starts laying the foundations for his harem.
Meanwhile, I’m the hero of an old man’s story.
But I know I did a good deed and he was incredibly grateful, so I don’t feel bad about it.
Rather, it’s rewarding.
“Now, what time is it?”
In the message from Marino-san, the words “I understand, come without rushing” were accompanied by a ton of heart marks and an illustration that looked like a failed attempt at making contemporary art look cute.
Averting my eyes from the deeply unsettling illustration, I checked the time displayed in the corner and groaned.
“And my intention was to destroy all the flags…”
The first time the protagonist and Takioto Kousuke meet in Magical★Explorer is on the day of the entrance ceremony.
After bumping into the toast-in-mouth beautiful heroine, the protagonist, who overslept and lost track of time, picks up the handkerchief of a beautiful girl.
Later, when he sees the cherry blossoms, he remembers the cherry-colored panties of the beautiful girl.
Yes, the erotic CGs begin.
The hero, having snapped back to reality, heads to school, but the gates are tightly shut.
Takioto Kousuke appears there.
Although they team up to jump the gate, they are caught by a sub-heroine teacher and get lectured.
That was supposed to be the flow.
I had intended to ignore this event.
I had no intention of being late.
“Uhm, how should I put it?
Is this fate or something?…
Wait, why does having something like fate tied to another guy sound really weird?”
I muttered involuntarily.
Just beyond my line of sight was a boy who looked like he didn’t know what to do.
He was just staring in a daze at the closed gates.
He had short, dark hair, neither handsome nor ugly, and a slightly cute but otherwise mediocre face.
Furthermore, he managed to wear the school uniform properly without ruining its original design and was carrying the school-recommended bag.
That perfectly normal vibe—there was no doubt.
He was the protagonist of the game.
With a bitter smile in my heart, I walked over to his side.
And I deliberately sighed.
“Aaah, it’s closed.”
I muttered as if talking to myself and kept staring at the gate.
Then I turned to the protagonist.
“Yo!
You’re a freshman too?”
The protagonist of Magical★Explorer looked at me and opened his mouth in surprise.
Well, I understood his feelings.
He understood from my words that I was a freshman.
However, precisely because I was a freshman, he must have felt uncomfortable with my appearance.
Even though I was a freshman, I had my blouse unbuttoned, my shirt untucked, my tie loosened, a tie pin in my breast pocket, and a massive scarf hanging around my neck. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
By the way, Takioto Kousuke in the game looked like this too.
Although there’s a difference between a scarf and a shawl.
(What’s with this frivolous guy…?)
He must be thinking something like that right now.
It was written all over his face.
I thought the same thing.
Why was this guy dressed so sloppily even though it was the day of the entrance ceremony?
In my case, I could have just called it outright rudeness.
“Y-yeah.
That’s right.”
When he said that, I nodded.
And I placed my hand on the tie pin, which was color-coded according to the school year.
“As you can see, I’m a freshman too.”
Even though he couldn’t see it, I said it anyway.
He murmured, Fuee~.
I involuntarily laughed when I saw that.
If it were a beautiful girl, I would have fallen in love, but unfortunately, he was a guy who had the proper equipment down there.
Well, he had a neutral face that you tend to see in eroge, so he was a little cute?
Well, what should we do from here on out?
Now that it’s turned out like this, let’s go with the same flow as the game.
I didn’t hate that full-body aromatherapy teacher who gets mad when we jump the gate; on the contrary, she was my waifu.
Isn’t it a reward to make her mad?
That being the case.
Let’s do that first.
I wanted to say it at least once.
Well, it’s a bit weird to use the exact same line as Takioto Kousuke from the game, but I’ll forgive myself because that line is just too painfully cool.
And above all.
That line was also a declaration that I would definitely achieve my current goal.
Yes, it was something that had to be achieved to guide all the characters of Magical★Explorer to a Happy End.
I smiled and raised my thumb.
“I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I?”
Slowly, I pointed my thumb at myself, placed my free hand on my hip, and puffed out my chest.
Alright, here I go.
To the protagonist of Magical★Explorer, the man who would eventually reach the position of the strongest in the world, Hijiri Iori.
I proclaim it here and now!
“My name is Takioto Kousuke!
The man who will become the strongest in this Tsukuyomi Magic Academy!”