Time to Show the Dignity of a Forty-Year-Old Mind...

"Th-that's not the kind of relationship we have...."

The instant the words left me, Koga-san rose from the bed behind me and came to my side.

"Suzu-hi~. Koga Suzuha of StarsFlow, the angel who wants to be praised by everyone!"

"As Izumi just said, I was invited over to her house, so here we are together."

"Y-you forced me into inviting you...."

"Hm? What was that?"

"N-nothing."

"Do you have a chair I could bring in?"

"C-can't you just s-sit on the bed back there?"

"...Hnn."

A horror game in front of me, and Koga-san right beside me. There was no way my nerves were going to hold. Just having her next to me was already making my body curl in on itself, and the bed wasn't so terribly far away. Surely that was the better option.

"Then my voice won't come through well on stream."

"I-it's fine! Y-you just have to r-reassure me when I get s-scared!"

Koga-san said she'd sit beside me for the stream's sake, but I refused without a second's hesitation. I mattered more than the broadcast. Obviously.

"...I just have to sit behind you, right?"

"Huh?"

She said it lightly, then slowly opened the door and stepped out. What was this ominous feeling?

"Hup."

And as if to prove the feeling right, Koga-san came back in carrying one of the chairs from the dining table.

"U-um, Koga-san...?"

"Hup-cha."

Thud. The chair came down. Right behind me.

"There. Sitting behind you."

"Eep!"

Koga-san's breath brushed the nape of my neck. The crawling sensation made me jerk backward in surprise.

"Wah?!"

My head collided with hers.

"K-Koga-san?!"

A crash rang out behind me, and worried messages started racing up the chat. They only stayed in my head for a moment.

"K-Koga-san! Are you okay? I, I, I..."

I yanked off my headphones, scrambled out of the chair, and looked back. The chair had caught on the bed on the way down and toppled; it lay on its side instead of upright. Koga-san was clutching her head, eyes squeezed shut.

"Uuuu..."

Her low groan reached me, and my mind went pure white.

"Huuu..."

"Uuu, I-I'm sorry. I think that prank was too much..."

"Waaaaaah...!"

"I-I-I'm really okay, Izumi! I didn't get hurt at all. Not even a little."

"I-I'm sorry, hic. I-it's all me, I get startled by the lightest little pr-prank, I'm a s-stupid idiot, hic. I-I only ever cause t-trouble for people, huuuk."

"No. This was my fault. I knew you'd jump, and I still pulled a prank like that. I'm sorry."

"Huuuk, n-no. It's all because I-I'm an idiot..."

Since being reborn, I had somehow grown more emotional than I ever was in my past life. Remembering that life, I'd assumed my mind would still be more or less the same. Instead, the me of now was fragile enough to cry over the smallest things. Was this that female-hormone business, or whatever they called it...?

"...I-I'm sorry."

"No, well. This one was entirely my fault..."

Put simply, I was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mortified. Koga-san kept comforting me, insisting she wasn't hurt at all, and it still took ten minutes before I could stop crying. Sobbing like that in front of another person. Tch. So much for the dignity of a past-life man with the mental age of someone in his forties.

Fortunately, while I fell apart, Koga-san had given the stream a brief explanation in my place and muted the mic.

"I-I just got so s-startled, seeing you clutching your h-head like that..."

Honestly, in that moment my head had gone blank white, and the tears were already pouring before I noticed them. Koga-san got up right away and told me she was fine, but the sight of it only made everything surge harder—the pathetic picture of me, unable to take even a joke. I couldn't take a joke, so Koga-san had nearly gotten hurt. Which meant I was a sorry excuse for a person who couldn't even take a light prank. Which meant Koga-san had nearly gotten hurt. Which meant I was a sorry excuse for a person who couldn't even take a light prank. A Möbius strip of logic, and I had cried for ten whole minutes over it.

This is so damn embarrassing.

Koga-san had to be completely sick of me by now. This collab was definitely the last.

"Izumi! You're thinking something weird again, aren't you?"

"Y-y-yes?!"

"That face is exactly, 'Koga-san must be disappointed in me. This collab is probably the last one...'."

"I-I'm not!"

How did she know?!

"I told you. This was entirely my fault. Don't go feeling guilty over nothing."

"But..."

"Aaah, seriously! Then we promise to collab regularly, once a month! Then you've got nothing to worry about, right?"

"R-really...?"

"...Ugh. Y-yeah! It's a promise."

"Heh, ehehe..."

"Haa, honestly..."

"Huh?"

"It's nothing..."

Thank goodness. I didn't have to lose the first friend of this life.

"All right. We should get back to the stream."

"W-we should."

"And for now, I'm sitting next to Izumi."

"...Eh?"

What did that...?

"It makes sense, doesn't it? If I suddenly talk to you from behind again, are you confident you won't jump?"

"Th-that's..."

Honestly, I wasn't. I was already going to be shaking from the horror game. If someone spoke from behind me on top of that, I would actually die.

"If I talk to you from the side, that almost certainly won't happen. And if you get startled mid-game and start to tip over, I can catch you."

"Y-you could catch me just fine from the b-bed, too..."

"Sorry, but my arms won't reach."

Tch. Of all things, Koga-san being the shortest of us had to be what tripped me up here.

"...You just thought something rude again."

"I-I didn't!"

How did she know?!

"Well, anyway. For this offline collab, my seat is next to Izumi."

"...O-okay."

I want to cry....

"Huu, huuu..."

"We haven't even started, and you're already that scared?"

Koga-san was watching my rigid, wound-up self with open worry on her face. She was the one who had made me play this.

"B-but even the waiting screen is s-scary..."

The screen you sat on before Dawn Never Breaks even began was dark and dank enough to knot your stomach just from looking at it. Blood ran across the floor as if that were only natural. Flies seethed over a rotting corpse, and a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠zombie with veins standing out all over its body glared straight out at the player beyond the glass. The audio was so real that whenever a screech cut through—something like nails on a chalkboard—I couldn't help jumping. And I wished she would appreciate that having her pressed up against my side doubled the tension.

"I-I-I'm not gonna c-cry!"

My tear ducts, having already emptied themselves once, were perfectly dry. Heh. A body that could no longer cry over a mere horror game? M-my body was shaking, sure, but that was only because this game poked at a human being's innate fear. I couldn't help it.

"I'll bet an Arcana Shooter highest-difficulty endurance stream that Izumi cries."

"K-Koga-san?!"

Arcana Shooter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was a bullet-hell shooter about a player exploring the whole world alongside beings out of fantasy. Chat caught fire the moment Koga-san so much as named it, because the game was, quite literally, built for a long endurance stream. Even on the lowest difficulty, the patterns were pointlessly brutal. The real reason it had gotten famous, though, was controls so garbage you had to wonder whether it was actually a modern release. People said that merely clearing the final stage on the lowest difficulty was already on par with beating a high difficulty in any ordinary bullet hell.

An endurance stream of that game's highest difficulty. In other words, Koga-san's declaration was no different from guaranteeing that I would absolutely cry.

"Hmph. F-fine, then. I-I'll show you I'm s-s-serious, too..."

Zombie groans and the desolate sound of rain poured out of the headphones and rang against my ears. The calm before the storm. I wasn't going to bother arguing, one message at a time, with a chat that was certain I would cry. Whether they were the scrubs, or I was—the result would say it.

"S-s-shut up!"

Still, being scared enough to shake is something I can't help....