Reborn as the Man Who Takes Away the Protagonist’s Beloved Childhood Friend

Fear is indeed scary

As the evening passed into night, we finally received a response on Kanzaki-san’s phone.

“Hmm, this Tachibana person was forced to resign as a coach at the previous school due to inappropriate relationships with the opposite s*x.”

“Does that mean…”

“Did he have inappropriate relations with students?”

“Yes, and she’s even pregnant. How can she continue coaching under these circumstances… Did she manage to hush it up by paying a large sum of money, or did she make her listen? I don’t know.”

No matter how much money was paid, can such a thing really be overlooked in reality? Is this also because this world was originally an erotic game, so nonsensical corrections are being applied? This is no joke.

“Is it as you suspected? It seems Towa-kun also had a hunch.”

“Is that so?”

Asked by Kanzaki-san, I nodded.

It was only a faint sense of discomfort, but the way he looked at Ayana was suspicious. Not as a student, but as a woman… Those eyes that looked at her purely as the opposite s*x would be fine, but they were undoubtedly eyes that saw her as a means of satisfying desires.

“I see…”

For a moment, Kanzaki-san’s expression seemed frightening, but it quickly returned to normal, with a smile on her face.

“Let’s at least inform the teacher tomorrow, shall we? I will do what I can.”

“What can you do?”

“Yeah. I won’t let her escape with money; I’ll thoroughly block off all escape routes.”

It was a fierce expression, like hunting prey.

Honestly, I don’t know what Kanzaki-san can do, but considering the situation with my family and how quickly this information came to light, I might really end up doing it.

“But Kanzaki-san, why go that far?”

“Oh. I asked Ayana-chan when Towa-kun was in the bathroom. Apparently, he tried to make a move on Ayana-chan. The lover of my dear sister’s son. That’s unforgivable, right?”

I felt a shiver down my spine from those piercing eyes. There are people in every world with such terrifying backgrounds. It may be a world that ordinary people like me can’t imagine… If my mother values Kanzaki-san, I should refrain from fearing her as well.

“…Oh, did I scare Towa-kun a bit?”

“Oh, no… that…”

I decided to stop being scared, but I was truly frightened. Seeing Kanzaki-san’s apologetic eyes, I thought she was kind, but at the same time, I vowed not to make her an enemy in various ways.

“If you do something to Towa-kun, I’ll deal with Eshi-san.”

“What do you mean by ‘deal’!?”

Kanzaki-san’s expression changed abruptly, making me unintentionally smile. Well… there may indeed be a scary side to her. But right now, she is undoubtedly a reliable ally.

“Thank you, Kanzaki-san.”

I expressed my gratitude for her help, even though we had only met recently. Kanzaki-san blushed and, for some reason, embraced Ayana. She then fell over as if to push Ayana down, but Ayana seemed to understand something and laughed as she accepted Kanzaki-san’s embrace.

“…Ayana-chan, this is dangerous. Even though he’s younger, I find him attractive.”

“He’s Towa-kun. I understand your feelings, but he’s my husband, you know? So, please don’t get it wrong.”

“Seducing someone else’s partner is exciting, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry.”

Ayana’s face briefly looked serious, but… I’ll pretend I didn’t see it. From there, Kanzaki-san stayed with us until my mother returned. Despite being considerably older than us, Kanzaki-san had a sisterly vibe in her appearance and atmosphere, which felt refreshing.

Whenever Kanzaki-san visited, we would have dinner together. Today, it was unusual that Kanzaki-san drank quite a bit, and my mother ended up being the listener, which was a reversal of roles. However, alcohol isn’t good, right? I learned from the scene in front of me that when you get drunk, you can blurt out things without thinking.

“Sister~! Towa-kun’s smile was so dangerous! I forgot my age and was totally charmed!!”

“Oh my… What’s this about? Did he really have such a nice smile?”

What’s a nice smile… I’m not quite sure about that myself. For some reason, Ayana vigorously nodded in response to my mother’s question.

“That smile was already captivating to the opposite s*x! …Oh, Towa-kun, you can’t show that smile to anyone but me!”

As Ayana clung tightly to me, Kanzaki-san blurted out something. Perhaps it was due to the alcohol and her heightened mood, but those words seemed to have offended my mother.

“Sister! I want Towa-kun too! Please, sister–“

“Huh?”

“…I’m sorry.”

Even though her face had turned red from the alcohol, she instantly turned pale, offering a beautiful bow. From the angle of Ayana and me, I couldn’t quite see my mother’s expression, but judging by Kanzaki-san’s reaction, she must have looked quite scary.

After that, Mr. Kanzaki continued drinking until he fell asleep. It was almost like watching another mother, which made her smile, but she wished the woman wouldn’t expose her butt and scratch so vigorously… though her own mother did that occasionally too.

Since Mr. Kanzaki was in this state, he couldn’t go home and ended up staying the night. Ayana was originally planning to stay the night today, so now there were four people in this house. Some might think four is not many, but in this house where it had always been just her mother and herself, four felt like a lot. However, it wasn’t unpleasant; perhaps somewhere deep down, she had been seeking the liveliness of having more people around at home.

“I see, so Coach Tachibana said that.”

“Yes… It might be hard to believe since I only heard it through word of mouth, but I want you to keep it in mind for the students of this school.”

The next day was perfect as there were still preparations for the sports festival. Ayana and I immediately decided to inform our homeroom teacher, Mr. Endo, about what we had heard from Mr. Kanzaki. While we believed the information from Mr. Kanzaki to be reliable, to a teacher who didn’t know about it, it might be uncertain. However, it seemed our homeroom teacher was not the type to outright deny things.

“I understand. There is no confirmation yet, but if both Yukishiro and Otonashi are saying so, I can’t ignore it.”

“…Really?”

“What’s with that expression? Isn’t it natural for a teacher to want to believe what the students say?”

… Ha, it seems our homeroom teacher is indeed reliable. It’s understandable why everyone in the class likes him…

“Above all, I don’t like good-looking guys. They’re the enemy, the enemy.”

… That’s just how he is, our teacher.

When we sighed together with Ayana at the teacher who spoke of handsome men as villains, a female member of the track team entered the staff room.

Glancing around and about to leave, she was called out to by the teacher.

“What’s up? What’s wrong?”

“Um, well… Have you seen Mari… Uchida?”

“Uchida? I haven’t seen her, but how about you two?”

When asked, Ayana and I shook our heads as well.

We had stopped by here before helping out today, so we hadn’t shown up on the school grounds. It was natural that we hadn’t seen Mari… but hearing what we had from Mr. Kanzaki yesterday and seeing her searching for Mari, I felt an indescribable unease.

“That’s odd… Tachibana said he had something he wanted Uchida to help with and took her, but she hasn’t come back yet.”

“!”

“…I see.”

It seemed my bad feeling had hit the mark.

Ayana and I exchanged glances, and she seemed to have thought the same, as Mr. Endo, who had been listening to us, immediately changed his expression and stood up.

“Coach… What on earth…”

“hahahaha, you won’t know until I say it, right? Uchida is still just a child.”

As he said that and touched his chin, causing Mari to shudder in fear. She had headed to the gym with Tachibana after he said he needed help during the break. They went into the storage room in the gym because there were things to use for practice… and the situation escalated to this.

“…Please stop joking. We need to get back to practice quickly—”

She tried to break free by force, but she couldn’t shake off his muscular body. Instead, she was overpowered and brought down on the mat. Being covered like that made Mari finally understand clearly what was about to happen to her.

Initially, Mari wasn’t the type to be suspicious of people, and even after receiving a message from Ayana to be careful around Tachibana, she never thought such a thing would happen at school.

“It’s okay. You’ll be fine soon.”

“No… No! Let go!”

Tachibana, who had looked kind before, now seemed terrifying, and Mari cried for help, but the door was closed, and since the gym wasn’t in use, there was no one around… It seemed there would be no one coming to help. When she thought it was all over, the door of the warehouse suddenly opened with a loud noise.

“!?”

A bright light shone into the dark warehouse.

Both Mari and Tachibana were surprised by the sudden turn of events. The door to the gym was supposed to be locked, so Tachibana was puzzled as to why it opened.

“Ah… Ah…”

Aside from the shocked Tachibana, Mari felt a sense of relief at the sight.

Although blurred by tears, she could still make out the silhouette. It was someone she knew well, someone she practiced with in the schoolyard, and someone she looked up to as a senior. Breathing heavily from running, Asouka, who had rushed there without the hat she usually wore during practice, glared at Tachibana and spoke.

“…Hey, what the hell are you doing!”