Volume 2 - CH 2

[Anti-Gift]

“Yo, I’ve always seen you alone, what are you doing all by yourself!”

A few days after I started elementary school, some idiot came up to talk to me when I was pretending to be asleep at my table.

Who cares about making friends.

With my Gift, I can just make everyone do whatever I say just like Emi.

“Shut up……, [Go back to your seat!].”

“Don’t be so cold, man. You will waste that cool face of yours you know.”

“Ha?”

My [Dominating Decree] didn’t work!?

Strange, I was sure I properly used it on him.

Don’t tell me, there’s a limit on how many times I can use my ability?

“Oi, you there.”

“Eh? What’s wrong Akechi-kun?”

I called over a boy who was walking by my seat.

“[Convince this guy to go back to his seat will you].”

“Come on, you are troubling Akechi-kun right. Let’s get back Juumonji-kun.”

“It’s fine right. I talked to all our classmates but I still haven’t gotten a chance to talk to this guy yet after all.”

“But you are troubling him.”

That’s weird, my ability is definitely working.

So that means I still have my ability.

“[Well, fine. You can go now].”

“……”

With the effect of the first command gone, the boy walked off.

“Tsk….., [Give me 1000 yen.]”

“Wha, you are mugging me now!? You are one funny guy.”

“…….”

What’s so funny about it.

This guy, is he unknowingly nullifying my Gift!?

Since I tried it twice already, that must be the case.

In a word, this guy has some kind of [Anti-Gift] ability huh.

“Hmm, you are interesting.”

“Not as much as you.”

” ” Hahaha ” “

Both of us started laughing.

“Hey, will you be my friend?”

“Ohh, where did your earlier annoyed look go. Alright, let’s be friends! I’m Juumonji Takeru.”

“Akechi Hideyori, nice to meet you Takeru.”

Ahh……I thought my school life would be boring but it’s plenty enjoyable, isn’t it.

I want to mess up this guy’s life so bad.

Do you know how much you’ve hurt my pride when my Gift didn’t work on you!?

I will have you do your best to entertain me now.

My dear self-proclaimed friend (lol)

——————

“Haa Haa……”

Once in a while, I would see the original Hideyori in my dream.

This time it was the encounter between me and Takeru.

In the game, it was the start of the tragedy that would mess up the lives of Takeru and the heroines.

If this encounter hadn’t happened, the entire series of [Breaking the Chain of Sadness] may not have happened at all…….

Juumonji Takeru was truly useless.

Even among fans of the game, some still consider his incompetency to be extraordinary.

I mean, he initiated a conversation with Akechi Hideyori himself.

He was the one who invited all those tragedies into his life and of those around him…….

The elementary school will start tomorrow.

And just like how it went in the game, I will probably be in the same class as him.

——————

“Hideyori-kun, you seem down today.”

“You can tell……?”

“I can.”

Even though school starts tomorrow, Emi is still at my house as if it’s her most natural place to be.

so far, I would definitely see her at least once every three days…….

It was super embarrassing when Emi’s mom happily looked at us all smiling while saying something like [You two sure get along]…….

“You’re worried about school…..?”

“Of course I do……..”

“I’m anxious too……when I think that I might not be in the same class as Hideyori-kun, I just couldn’t sleep.”

“You really are hopeless huh……”

Here I am worrying over how we might lose our lives in ten years, I’m surprised this girl is still anxious about the silliest thing…..

“You are mean Hideyori-kun! We might be put in different classes you know, DIFFERENT CLASSES!”

“Well, yeah. Just why are you so worried about that in the first place……?”

When someone repeats themselves like [An apple is an apple] then I don’t know how to reply either.

I guess Emi’s vocabulary still belongs to a child huh.

“I’ve just noticed this recently but Hideyori-kun doesn’t treat me that nice at all! You are indelicate you know, indelicate.”

“That’s not true. If Emi doesn’t have anyone to marry when you grow up then I would marry you, no question asked. You are that important to me, you know.”

“Eh? Really? Then let’s get married right now.”

“That’s just plain impossible at our age right…….we would be able to when we grow up…….,”

[[……it would be nice if we can survive until then though.]] 

I halted myself before I said that out loud.

“……I’m sure that a fateful encounter is still waiting for you, Emi.”

“……it already happened though.”

“What’s that?”

“IT’S NOTHING!”

Sometimes, Emi does act like she’s older than her age.

Also, perhaps because I’ve played a lot of romance visual novels, I become more talkative than usual when Emi brings up stuff like that.

It’s only my guess but I will probably end up in the same class at Takeru……

Is it possible for a Takeru X Emi ship set sail I wonder?

I think I saw in the visual fan book that the draft for the second entry of the game had a plan to promote Emi to a heroine.

The playerbase hated that so the dev ended up scrapping it though.

As a result, far from upgrading her to a heroine, the appearances of Emi were cut out a lot in the second game.

Incidentally, Hideyori continued to play a major role in the series, as an antagonist of course.

“……Hideyori-kun is hiding something from me right?”

“You think so?”

More like I’m practically full of secrets.

“If you want to say something then say it.”

“Right……”

I want to just say that I want to live in a way that the staff who are practically the god of this world won’t come to hate me for the time being but that wouldn’t make any sense to her though…..

“When school starts, you can’t do mean things like making people cry or betraying them okay.”

“Is that how you think of me Hideyori-kun? Do I look like such a terrible person?”

“I’m kidding.”

Even though her actions in the game came from my command, it was all performed by Emi.

I just hope that the game won’t force the correction on itself and make her do all those terrible things.

“By the way……I want to see Hideyori-kun do that again.”

“That?”

I have a bad feeling about this……

“Let me see your [Magic] Gift again!”

“…..sure,…..but why?”

“I mean……Hideyori-kun brought up my fateful encounter after all………”

“?”

I’m not sure how that is related to my Gift in any way but if she wants to see it then I guess I will just do it again.

It would be bad if I don’t use my Gift from time to time and my [Dominating Decree] disappeared on me before I knew it after all.

“Then I’m going to use a marble today.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“Tantadah”

While humming a BGM, I cover the marble in my hand with my fingers.

“Alright, I’m going to replace the marble in my hand with an eraser.”

“That’s impossible you know.”

“Very well, I’m going to use my Gift now. Tadadum–”

After that self-BGM, I immediately applied my Gift on Emi.

“[Forget everything from this moment until I say [OK].]”

“……”

Emi’s eyes turned empty.

Just looking at her is already making me feel incredibly guilty.

I put the marble inside Emi’s pocket, grab an eraser from the desk and hold it in my hand.

“ [OK]. “

“…….ehh, but a marble can’t turn into an eraser you know.”

“It already happened though.”

Saying so, I showed her the eraser in my hand that used to hold the marble.

“Eh!? No way!? How!? Where did the marble go!?”

“The marble’s already teleported inside your skirt’s pocket.”

“That’s impossible.”

“As I said, it already happened.”

“Ehh……there’s no way…..it’s here! The marble’s here!”

The guilt from using my [Dominating Decree] to trick her to think that it’s just [Magic] is incredibly heavy.

There’s a possibility that it might cripple Emi’s mind so I don’t want to use it that often too.

“Magic~nya.”

“What?”

“……”

She didn’t get it after all huh……

The generation gap felt even more real to me now.

“Amazing, you are amazing Hideyori-kun! It’s like you’re a real wizard!!”

“He, Hehe.”

Rather than being a wizard, the ability itself feels like a curse to me though……

“Can I keep this marble and eraser?”

“Y, Yeah……sure.”

I planned to use that new eraser at school but since it will help elevate my guilt of using [Dominating Decree] on her a little, let’s give it to her.

I’m really too kind to Emi huh……