I somehow managed to spin my feelings into words.
"But that person insists they don’t need any help... What do you think I should do?"
"Frankly, is there any obligation to help someone who says they don’t want to be helped? If it were me, I’d be like ’Then do whatever you want!’ and quickly put distance between us."
A straight fastball right down the middle.
When I couldn’t help but open my eyes wide, Reiko chuckled softly.
"But Senpai Shusawa wants to help them, right? You want them not to fail, and that’s why you’re troubled?"
"...Why do you think that?"
"Because if you think about it normally, you’d just abandon them and be done with it. In the first place, Senpai isn’t a justice man, so abandoning them would be normal for your character. And yet you’re troubled — meaning even if they refuse, you still want to help them, right?"
Is that wrong?
Faced with that question from my junior, I couldn’t continue.
Because those words had indeed hit my feelings exactly.
"Then you can think about all the other stuff after you help them! Ah, for now you should properly consider whether they really need help, or whether you might end up being a burden instead. If you help on your own and end up dragging them down into a big failure, that could happen too."
"...Yeah."
In short, do what you want. But properly think about the other person.
Properly consider whether what you want is just self-satisfaction, and if you think it’s necessary, then help.
Thinking about it, it was only natural. I wondered what I had even been worrying about.
"Sorry. I was overthinking things a bit."
Or perhaps the impulses welling up from deep in my chest had been guiding my thoughts. There’s no point in doing that, so just violate women already.
——No, that was just an excuse.
In the end, a Monster Villain was the enlarged form of the desires of the human who became the medium. Then the impulse to violate this woman, to humiliate her, was also something I had possessed.
"It’s fine. It’s not like I listened to your consultation out of kindness."
Huh?
Before I could voice my confusion, Reiko activated the recording app on her phone and slid closer to me.
"Now, spill who this person you want to help is! The newspaper club’s secret weapon, Senpai Shusawa who has the legend of even scary-looking delinquents answering his interviews just by standing behind him — who is the person he cares about this much? Man, woman, a homo-homo flow, or a proper romantic feeling? Now, what is your answer!"
——Is this girl really one of the Sacred transformation heroines of justice?
I thought about brushing her off lightly as usual, but it was a fact that I had been helped. It wouldn’t hurt to give a little service.
"It’s Leas Lot. She helped me before, so that’s why."
Half truth, half lie.
I couldn’t possibly say that I knew Sacred Saber’s true identity, and the reason I knew was previous-life game knowledge. There was no way she would believe me if I talked about that.
But it was also a fact that I had been helped by Leas, so Reiko looked surprised for a moment before nodding in understanding.
"Ah... Leas-senpai, huh... Yeah, even if you say you want to help, I can only see a future where she refuses..."
"Even from your perspective as someone who seems close to her?"
"Yeah, well... Somehow her vibe of ’this body is entirely for someone else’s sake!’ is way too strong. I think she could look after herself a bit more... Still, Leas-senpai, huh? The difficulty is high, Senpai Shusawa. She is beautiful, though."
"When did this become a conversation about me targeting Leas... Well, not in the sense of her as a woman, but I get that the difficulty of whether I can even properly help her is also ridiculously high."
While chatting like that, I casually looked out the window at the school grounds.
I hadn’t particularly intended anything special, but thanks to that I was able to notice "it" first.
——The presence of a man with flowing white long hair standing in front of the school gate.
His punkish fashion based on black with belts wrapped around key parts of his body made him look like a cosplayer or the vocalist of a visual kei band. The tribal tattoo carved from his right eye to his cheek was probably another factor.
But the air he carried — it was screaming that he was definitely not something like that.
That was inhuman.
Someone that humans could do nothing about.
The Diabolic — the "Black-and-White Demon King" Alter Native.
The protagonist of the Sacred series — and the enemy of the transformation heroines.
"Senpaaai? What’s wro—— Senpai Shusawa! Please evacuate quickly!"
Reiko’s words and actions, which had been relaxed from the flow of the earlier conversation, suddenly became urgent the moment she looked directly at Alter.
She was a Sacred, and even if she was a novice, she was someone who fought. The moment she saw him, she must have understood.
He was on a completely different level from the Poison Monster Villain we had seen a little while ago. He had a human form, but that was a genuine monster.
I, too, having become a Monster Villain and gained tentacles — having the experience of fighting the Poison Monster Villain — could sense his strength.
——I cannot win against that.
My tentacles would be completely meaningless.
That understanding transmitted to me, and without thinking my body froze, wanting to prostrate itself and say Please give me orders, great Diabolic-sama——
"Senpai! Hurry!"
——But.
The firm voice of my junior revived my wilting heart.
While pressing down on my pounding heart through my clothes as if crushing it, I looked at Reiko.
"Ah—— yeah! You’re right... What about you!?"
"I’ll—— go back to my classroom once and then evacuate. I’m popular in my own way, so if I’m not there everyone might start looking for me~."
She laughed lightly, as usual.
But her legs were trembling slightly.
Yes, there was no way she wasn’t scared.
She must have understood at least as much as I had felt.
But—— my junior Haga Reiko, the transformation heroine of justice Sacred Knuckle, chose to confront it.
Even though she could have easily escaped if it were only herself, she still decided to fight in order to protect the students of the school.
Honestly, I couldn’t understand how a normal female student until she received the power of the Sacred could make such a decision.
My previous-life memories had skipped over everything about why they fought or what feelings they had when confronting the protagonist as "trivial."
But I couldn’t think that the feelings of the girl smiling desperately in front of me were worthless.
The difference between me, who upon first witnessing a Diabolic had the options of fleeing in fear or submitting, and her was like heaven and earth. Honestly, I found her dazzling.
Therefore.
——The reality that only a future of defeat awaited such a girl.
——The story that would allow only an ending where her feelings were defiled and her heart was broken.
That drove me far more strongly than fear or impulse.
"Got it! I’ll evacuate right away—— don’t get involved, junior!"
"...Understood! I’ll run quickly and evacuate quickly, so don’t worry!"
Reiko twisted her smile a little guiltily and then dashed out of the newspaper club room.
However——
"...The first-years are on the first floor, you idiot."
I watched my junior running up the stairs from the club room door and smiled bitterly.
Doing something like that in a place I could see — it seemed she was also quite at her limit.
That was exactly why.
"When a younger girl is desperately getting fired up, there’s no way I can just give in to desire, run away, or suck up to him."
Fear was still swelling in my chest.
But even so..... I made up my mind.
All that remained was the timing.