Altered March Week 1: Rooftop Jealousy and the First Victim
Let's rewind time a bit, right after Taiga dragged me off.
"Wh-what's this? Arikiri-kun... knows Taiga?"
"Nah... doesn't seem like it."
"Then did he catch the eye of that delinquent?"
The students whispered about the major incident right before homeroom. Not only had Taiga shown up at school, but she'd dragged off one of the guys right away.
"Boy...friend? Could be something like that."
At one girl's wild speculation, Umi and Eri reacted immediately.
"Th-there's no way she's his girlfriend! What charm does that guy even have?"
Umi tried to play it cool.
"Hey, Umi. Your voice is shaking."
Eri teased her.
"It's not!"
Umi desperately tried to keep up her haughty act.
"Anyway, if she's dragging him off and he's not her boyfriend, that's even worse."
Eri steered the conversation.
"What do you mean...?"
"If she just picked him at random, that'd be lucky... but it could be in a worse way."
Eri said.
"Speak plainly so I can understand."
Umi's voice grew urgent on its own.
"Delinquents take what they want by force. Their world's basically the animal kingdom."
Eri said. She didn't really know much about delinquent ecology herself—just stuff she'd overheard.
"T-take by force?"
Umi's face flushed bright red.
"She just happened to come to school, and maybe she took a liking to Shota. Dragged him to the rooftop to... eat him up."
Eri said.
"Wh-what shameless talk...!"
Umi shouted.
"Shota said he's never dated before... so she'd take his first time right here."
Eri said.
"H-how do you know Shota's never dated?"
Umi latched onto the side detail.
"Oh, we texted a bit last night. He's fun, that guy."
Eri said.
I... I've never even texted him.
While Eri wasn't looking, Umi's heart burned black with jealousy.
In truth, she'd tried to text him. But her pride held her back. Sending the first message felt like losing. In the end, no texts came yesterday. Umi had typed and deleted hundreds of times before giving up.
Anyway, that wasn't the point.
"Honestly... relationships that start with bodies aren't unheard of, right? Shota might end up liking Taiga like this. Boom, couple formed."
Eri said. She was talking big about "body-first relationships," but Eri had no experience with guys either. She just wanted to act tough in front of her same-sex friend.
"B-body...?"
Umi's language center short-circuited at that.
"Shota gets devoured. Totally wrecked by the delinquent. What a tragedy."
Eri said matter-of-factly. The source was highly suspect, but Umi couldn't even think to call her out.
"No way!!!!"
Umi yelled. She wasn't interested in Shota or anything!!! But imagining his first time with another girl made her chest feel strangely tight.
Th-this is like... volunteer work!!!
Umi seemed to have lost track of her own thoughts.
Sh-Shota's first time with some worthless guy like him? I'll do it myself! Then a worthless guy like Shota can make that his life's achievement, right? Ahh... so worthless!!
Panicking so hard she'd lost grip on her own reasoning, that's what Umi had become.
Clunk!
Umi dashed to the cleaning closet and grabbed a broom. It could double as a weapon and wouldn't break easily. Umi had trained in kendo too—she could rescue Shota from a delinquent's clutches, no problem.
"I'm heading to the rooftop."
Umi declared.
"...Heh. Umi, you're so bad at being honest."
Eri laughed and grabbed an identical broom.
"I'm gunning for Shota's virginity too, y'know? Let's go."
Eri grinned.
"Eri..."
Umi stared at her.
"I'm not losing to you."
Eri smiled.
Without Shota knowing, the two girls' friendship deepened. And just like that, they charged toward the rooftop.
Back to my POV.
Clunk!
The door burst open noisily, and in came the black gal and the white gal duo: Umi and Eri.
"Shota!! You okay?!!"
"Your clothes... aren't off."
They'd come to check on me. Surprisingly loyal, these two. Honestly, I was impressed.
"Tch."
Taiga clicked her tongue, annoyed at the interruption.
"Let him go right now!!! Wh-what, getting your face that close... you were gonna kiss him?!!"
Umi shouted, her face beet red.
No. It was obviously just a collar grab. Girls in high school, man. They tie everything to romance.
"What kiss!!! You perverted bitch!!!"
Taiga yelled back, her face flushing too.
"K-kiss..."
Taiga's face turned like a ripe tomato. Now that it was pointed out, she kept glancing at me self-consciously.
Delinquent character trait: weak to this stuff. Total chuuni cliché. Predictable, but that's what made it good.
"P-perverted girl?! Who's calling who that?!!"
Umi fired back strong. It was a sloppy shouting match. My balls tightened in sympathy.
"Hmph. Bunch of nobodies... ruined my mood."
Taiga tossed her hair and handed me her phone. A smartphone with a cracked screen. Kinda... prejudiced to say it, but peak delinquent vibe.
"Punch in your number. I'll hit you up later. Don't pick up, and I'll come to your house."
Taiga said.
In the end, I entered my number like signing a bodily harm waiver.
Beep-boop-beep!
She immediately called to confirm my phone rang—thorough as hell. Tough cookie...
"Later."
With that, her business done, Taiga headed down from the rooftop.
-------
Anyway, homeroom was about to start, so Umi, Eri, and I started heading down too.
"How the hell do you know Natsukawa Taiga?!!"
Umi yelled.
"Uh... yeah? Bumped into her on a night walk... something like that?"
I couldn't talk about monsters yet, so I fudged it.
"When she saw your bare chest?"
Eri said.
"Why do you keep tripping over shirtless stuff?"
I shot back immediately.
"Pffft-haha...!"
Umi burst out again at "shirtless." At this point, it was her trigger.
But Umi pulled herself together.
"You... into girls like that? You could've just ignored her, but you were chatting all friendly."
Umi asked out of nowhere.
"Yeah, she's super pretty, right? Total babe. Objectively."
I said.
Wham!
Umi and Eri immediately kicked my shins. Umi got the left, Eri the right.
"Shota-chin, what about us? Babes?"
Eri deployed gal mode right away.
"You're both goddesses."
I said seriously. Not a lie—they were objectively hot. If my insides weren't a 25-year-old dude, my heart would've pounded all day. It still fluttered a bit now.
"Yeah right, goddesses. Bullshit."
Even as she said it, Umi's lips curved up to her ears. She's weak to compliments, huh.
"Here, goddess blessing."
Eri laughed and patted my head.
"Ooooh... feels like my whole body's purified..."
I leaned into Eri's touch.
"Bullshit. For real. Hehehe."
Eri laughed while messing up my hair.
-------
And so the school day began.
Taiga... just quietly listening to class.
That surprised me. She was pretty well-behaved. Classes weren't too hard. Math, English, PE—piece of cake. I'd boosted my scores to top tier before possessing this body. Time for these Japanese kids to taste Korean pre-learning heat. I grinned thinking about topping midterms.
But subjects like social studies would need work. Especially history. Never studied Japanese history seriously, so I'd have to memorize some. Science too.
"Alright, this problem... Aiueo. You solve it."
The teacher said.
"Yes."
Sashitsu came up and solved it coolly.
This game's teachers... only call on the protagonist.
Game mechanic. Answering right in class boosts academics or charm. Protagonist raises human stats in daily life, grows relationships to power up—that's the core.
Yeah... classes, relationships, monopolize 'em all.
I secretly cheered for the protagonist. If he didn't grow, clearing the game was impossible. No carrying by allies here.
For example, ally Umi was lightning attribute, weak to wind. Taiga was fire, weak to ice. Attributes never changed. Hit the weakness, and fights got tough.
But protagonist was different. He could switch Psychorobo attributes. All-rounder handling any robo. Protagonist had to carry ass or game over.
I... didn't awaken to Psychorobo powers.
Honestly, I was sidelined. Total scrub. Protagonist had to do it all.
Yeah!! That's it!! Aiueo Sashitsuseiso!! Or Sassis for short!!!
Anyway, the first day after opening ceremony wrapped up.
-------
But things didn't end peacefully.
"Hit you up later?"
Eri said with a smile.
"Shota!! Come to the dojo later!!"
Umi cut in, yelling.
As we walked home together-ish, I faced a shocking sight.
A human corpse lay smack in the middle of the path home. No wounds, but the face was horribly contorted.
March Week 1—the incident happened.
Just not targeting me.
Someone else got killed by monsters.
"Kya啊啊啊啊!!!!"
A student screamed, and police came running.
Emoshita City's bizarre death cases had officially kicked off.