The gazes were focused on me and Reiko. More specifically — the composition of a scary-looking second-year boy forcing a first-year girl into a dogeza.
Toward that scene, Reiko went "Hehehe~" and let out a triumphant laugh while still in dogeza.
"Fufuuun, how about that? If you can endure the rumor of forcing a female junior into a dogeza, then go ahead and endure it——! At this rate, Senpai will be socially dead!"
Can she really endure the fact that her current dogeza is being recorded and publicized...?
While thinking that, I turned off the recording mode on my phone. Hearing the sound, Reiko looked up with a puzzled expression.
"You said it yourself earlier, but smartphones really are convenient. They can easily record what you say too. Alright, I’ll write an article titled ’First-Year Class B’s Black-Bellied Girl’! Uploading the video will make it perfectly credible!"
"I’m sorry, I’m really, really sorry, please forgive me. Look, I sell myself as a friendly character, right? Suddenly turning into a black-bellied character would cause problems both for school life and club activities..."
"Fine. Then go buy me some coffee. It’s on you."
"Uuuuuuuu...! Yes, with pleasure~! Uoooooh! Also Senpai, I’m really glad you seem to have recovered!"
She instantly canceled the dogeza and sprinted off at full speed. A few seconds later, the angry shout of a PE teacher from the student guidance office echoed.
Of course — running at full speed down the school hallway would obviously get you yelled at.
"Was that Haga? You sure treat such a cute girl roughly."
"I wasn’t that harsh with her in the beginning either."
It was just that — her cheeky tone, her endless energy, and her perfect level of airheadedness.
Combined together, she had become something like an indestructible game console in the newspaper club that you could mess with roughly without breaking.
Of course, we made sure not to go too far.
Even when treating her roughly, we didn’t do anything that would genuinely anger her, and she never did anything that would genuinely anger us either.
No one wants to seriously anger or sadden someone they know——
’Aaaah... Nooo... I can’t take it anymore...! Someone... help me... please...’
’Too late! After stepping on me so much, defiling me so much, and you still say help!? Are you saying I should help you because I’m a heroine of justice——!’
——For a moment, a game screen flashed in my mind.
The sight of her defeated and violated by a Monster Villain, with her transformation undone, being defiled by a crowd of onlookers.
No helping hand was extended. No dramatic awakening of new power for a comeback. She would simply fall into ruin. Her broken mind would wear a blackened costume, shed tears of blood, and beat to death the very people she was supposed to protect with her fists — and she would eventually appear before Sacred Saber.
——It was just a game. Not reality.
——At least, not yet.
——But it was definitely one of the possible endings for her in the original story.
My chest felt heavy.
At the fact that if I didn’t intervene, no matter which route, only ruin awaited her.
And more than anything—— I couldn’t completely deny the part of myself that was itching, thinking Why hasn’t it started yet?
"...What’s wrong, Shusawa? Are you still feeling sick?"
"Ah, no. I’ve just been having a lot of bad dreams lately and haven’t been sleeping well."
Yes, this was like a dream.
A prophetic dream that hadn’t become reality yet, but the time when it would was drawing near.
Understanding that, I quietly looked at my palm — and at the tentacles writhing deep inside.
——The turning point would probably be the next battle.
The protagonist of the original story, Alter, had been defeated by Sacred Saber in the previous game. From that experience, he judged that he couldn’t win in a one-on-one fight. After observing her, he would attack the school.
He had seen the battle in the prologue — the fight against the Poison Monster Villain — and became convinced that no matter how cornered she was, she would never abandon ordinary people.
And above all, there were the combat abilities of Saber and Knuckle.
They were certainly strong, but they lacked wide-area attacks.
As a result, they would be unable to eliminate all the combatants attacking the school, have hostages taken, and watch courageous students who resisted get killed right in front of them. They would be violated while being confronted with the reality that they couldn’t protect anyone.
Therefore, if I was going to protect them, I needed to lend a hand at that timing.
But there was a problem.
Could someone like me, who could only use tentacles, really intervene in that battle?
No — more fundamentally, was there even a reason for me to do something like that?
I had simply remembered knowledge from a game. I wasn’t forced to do anything. So why should I deliberately join a losing battle?
Yes. Helping the Sacred meant joining a losing battle.
No matter how strong or overflowing with justice they were, they would lose. Even if I helped, could I overturn that defeat? Someone like me, who could only handle tentacles?
If I was going to do something like that, it would be much better to bet on the winning side.
Contacting Alter when he attacked the school and helping him violate the Sacred would be far easier. Plus, with a clear path to victory, I could make better use of my previous-life game knowledge.
In my mind existed efficient strategies for defeating the Sacred and flowcharts for collecting erotic scenes. If I opposed the Sacred, even as a tentacle user, I would have more than enough winning chances.
I wasn’t particularly the type to burn with justice, and I didn’t particularly care if people I didn’t know got killed.
Therefore, I should choose the option of ravaging the Sacred together with Alter.
I should choose that.
"...Hey, Niekawa. Can I ask you one thing?"
"Hm? Yeah, sure. What is it? Do you have some kind of worry?"
Niekawa sat on a random desk and urged me to continue. I chose my words carefully and spoke slowly.
"It’s like... a choice between two options. One has high difficulty and is troublesome, the other has low difficulty, is easy, and has good returns. I know myself that I should choose the latter, but..."
"You can’t stop thinking about the former?"
I nodded.
Honestly, I was angry.
At the fact that someone as beautiful and straightforward as Sacred Saber had only ruin waiting in her future. At the onlookers who, without helping her, would press her and use her as an outlet for their desires.
Even though I knew it was a boomerang, I couldn’t help but feel pissed off.
She was working hard for you people, wasn’t she? And yet you’re the ones who will ruin her?
I wanted to punch all those idiots and see a future where she could keep smiling. I didn’t want to dirty Leas’s smile — the one where she looked so genuinely happy when someone was saved.
——But I also couldn’t deny the dark desire that said precisely because of that, I want to defile her.
Because she was so beautiful and hard to defile, the urge to cover her in filth definitely existed inside me.
Besides — fundamentally speaking, a tentacle Monster Villain saving the Sacred was the height of arrogance.
What was a tentacle monster whose only ability was restraining women and children and violating them according to his desires even dreaming about? Pretending to be a hero of justice? It didn’t suit me at all.
It would be far easier to just follow my impulses than to do something so reckless.
Moreover, if I handed my previous-life game knowledge to the protagonist, there would be nothing to fear. The Sacred, with their weaknesses exposed, would be ravaged and violated without being able to resist. And maybe, just maybe, I could get some scraps.
It was easy, and it would satisfy my desires — see? Shouldn’t I choose this option?
"...Since I don’t really understand the situation, I can’t say anything too profound, but..."
Niekawa seemed to understand that I was being deliberately vague. He furrowed his brow and tried hard to comprehend.
"From what I’m hearing, it sounds like you’ll regret either choice, right? Then why don’t you imagine what would happen if you didn’t choose one option, and think about which one you would regret more?"
"Which one I would regret more...?"
"Yeah. You’re hesitating on the high-difficulty, troublesome option because there’s some reason for it, right? If you throw away that reason and go with the easy path — would you really feel at ease afterward?"
Would you be crushed by regret after throwing it away?
Would living while being crushed by regret really be easier?
Wouldn’t that path be far, far more painful than choosing the difficult one?
I had no response to those words.
As I twisted my face and fell silent, Niekawa hurriedly waved his hands.
"Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying ’so you should choose the high-difficulty option.’ Your life is your own. It would be wrong to let others dictate it, right?"
If it’s baggage you can throw away, then throw it away quickly.
But if there’s something you absolutely don’t want to throw away, then isn’t it fine to struggle and carry it?
With those words, Niekawa turned his back to me.
I called out words of thanks to his back, then leaned back in my chair and looked up at the ceiling.