Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Doujin's Male Lead Was Me All Along

"Ahhh~~~"

Hot breath spilled across his face, moistening his earlobe.

"Just like that... faster, it feels so good, I can't hold on anymore~~~~"

"Ahh!!!"

It was like a fountain erupting violently, as though it could drench the entire scene.

A handsome young man lay drenched in sweat, a fair-skinned, completely naked, supple body draped over him.

Their gazes met, as if both could still feel the lingering afterglow that hadn't fully faded from each other's eyes.

"We'll be together forever, right?"

The woman, beautiful as a dream, gently caressed the young man's face.

"Yeah. We'll be together forever."

He answered her just like that.

The woman broke into a seductive smile.

Then she reached out her hand.

SHUNK!!

A blade plunged into the young man's chest, and blood erupted instantly.

The young man seemed frozen in shock, staring blankly at the woman. But the bewitching beauty's expression had twisted into something hideously savage, as she wrenched the knife out and drove it back in again, and again.

Blood splattered endlessly.

"Why did you lie to me!"

"Why did you lie to me!"

"You promised it was only me — you promised it was only me!!"

...

【AM 7:00】

【June 19th — Monday — Location: Sakurato.】

"That dream again!"

A boy with a mess of bedhead let out a wail of despair first thing in the morning.

He glanced at the phone in his hand and roused himself from the not-particularly-spacious rental apartment.

Pulling back the curtains revealed morning light streaming in and tall cypress trees outside.

Wind seemed to rattle the window frame, and even the birds perched outside were struggling to keep their balance.

The boy scrubbed at his disheveled hair, then got up and pulled on his short-sleeved summer school uniform and a pair of black trousers, draping his tie loosely around his neck.

He made his way to the bathroom and washed up in a brisk, mildly impatient routine. Staring at the clean-cut, handsome face in the mirror, he let out an ill-timed sigh.

"Looks like I really am stuck in this world..."

Incredible as it was, he had to accept the facts — he had transmigrated.

And it had already been a full week.

Lin Mo... no, the boy who should now be called Oreki Gen had transmigrated into a completely unfamiliar world — not even a country he recognized, but the Cherry Blossom Nation itself.

He had no idea what he'd done to deserve this.

It had only been a week ago. A classmate had sent him a "mysterious" compressed file, telling him there was something good inside and that he should check it out.

Well, hot damn — the moment he unzipped it, he discovered it was the legendary doujin!

It was called "His and Their Tomorrow."

Oreki Gen had been absolutely furious at the time, but in the spirit of research and academic inquiry, he'd opened the doujin and, well, yes — he'd definitely read the whole thing.

After finishing it, he realized the whole thing was false advertising at its finest!

Sure, there were plenty of scenes that set the blood pumping, and no shortage of varied, eye-catching heroines. But at its core, it was a single-male, multi-route harem doujin. The classic "nice guy" protagonist drifted between girl after girl, and thanks to said "niceness," ended up having indescribable relations with every single heroine.

But the endings? Deeply satisfying — and almost too brutal to look at.

Multi-route endings where, in every single route, the male lead paid the price for his "kindness." The heroines all discovered that they weren't the only woman he'd been with, and each tried every means to claim him for herself. When they finally realized his supposed niceness was really just being scum, they offed the male lead in a different scenario each time.

The author — who should have been focused on the steamy scenes — had instead lavished painstaking detail on these parts.

The highlights included, but were not limited to, the iconic scene of the male lead being dismembered.

The iconic scene of being decapitated.

The iconic scene of being preserved, perfectly intact, in a vat of formaldehyde...

And after finishing this doujin, before Oreki Gen could even retch, he'd transmigrated.

And became the doujin's male lead!

What kind of joke was this?! Wasn't this just sending him to his death?!

Oreki Gen still remembered the first words that had echoed through his mind upon arriving in this world.

【Welcome, Host, to the beautiful world of "His and Their Tomorrow"~】

Beautiful, my ass!

【The Host may freely choose an exploration mode: if you choose to pursue the heroines, you will receive a continuous stream of various rewards.】

【Of course, if the Host chooses not to pursue any heroine, you will simply live an ordinary life — uneventful and without a single ripple.】

The former meant challenge. The latter meant giving up.

And so Oreki Gen chose to give up without a shred of hesitation.

What else was he supposed to do?! Pursue these heroines? That would just send him down the exact same path as the doujin! Pursue, screw, then get slaughtered.

He wasn't ready to end his fresh, vibrant life in such a pathetic way. So the follow-your-heart Oreki Gen had now been transmigrated for a full week, during which he had stubbornly dodged every last heroine, avoided all contact, steered clear of anywhere they might show up — the moment he spotted one, he bolted. Turned on his heel and walked the other way.

Life wasn't exactly colorful, but at least he was still alive and well.

One week was enough for Oreki Gen to get a rough grasp of his situation. He was a second-year student at Sakurato High School.

His family home was out in the countryside, and he was renting a room here in Sakurato.

One consolation was that the family seemed quite well-off. Through a good amount of farmland and annual crop sales, they could afford to give him a fairly comfortable living environment. He couldn't say he was lonely, exactly — it was just that having to watch his back every single day took a bit of a toll.

Had a little sister. Had an apartment. Both parents perpetually busy. Barely any friends. And his... equipment... impressively long.

Finished with washing up, he shouldered his school bag, put on his shoes, and left the apartment.

【Ding~】

His phone seemed to have received a message.

Oreki Gen, waiting at the bus stop, squinted at the already-blinding sunlight, then opened his phone.

【Oreki Gen will find 1,000 yen on the bus.】

What?

Was this some kind of prank text?

Oreki Gen opened the message but couldn't find the sender's number. When he backed out and tapped into his messages again, the text had already vanished.

What the hell?

Before Oreki Gen could figure it out, the bus had already pulled up in front of him. He got on.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Monday morning bus was nearly empty — there was even an open seat.

Oreki Gen walked over to the seat and was just about to sit down when he noticed a 1,000-yen bill lying quietly on the chair!

The boy picked up the bill and sat down. Though the message had disappeared, the reality of actually finding 1,000 yen instantly made something click. This might be one of the system functions he hadn't figured out yet.

Could it be that these messages — these mysterious texts arriving out of nowhere — were actually some kind of precognitive ability?

Oreki Gen didn't give in to wild excitement, because this precognition had come too abruptly. No warning signs, no buildup — there was no telling whether it was a good thing or bad. One thought of the doujin world's many gruesome endings was enough to keep Oreki Gen on his guard.

All the way until he got off the bus.

There was still some distance to school, and he needed to grab a sandwich for breakfast first.

But just before entering the familiar bakery — 【Ding~】

Oreki Gen fished out his phone again. Another message from an unknown contact had appeared.

【Oreki Gen will not be able to buy his beloved tuna sandwich.】

What the hell?

Half-believing, half-doubting, Oreki Gen walked into the bakery.

"Hi, I'd like one tuna sandwich, please."

But the cashier behind the counter gave him an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, we don't have tuna sandwiches today. Would you like to try a different flavor? The others are delicious too~"

It was really gone?!

Tuna sandwiches weren't exactly a bestseller at this shop, but they weren't unpopular either — and today they just hadn't made any?

Combined with what happened on the bus, none of this could have been arranged by someone in advance. After all, arranging something this trivial would be incredibly difficult — how could there just happen to be an empty seat on the bus?

How could this bakery, so early in the morning, just happen to be out of tuna sandwiches? And how was it the exact flavor Oreki Gen loved, of all things?

"Sir? Would you like something else?"

The cashier's voice broke through Oreki Gen's thoughts. The boy snapped back to reality and managed a weak smile.

"Then I'll take a ham one."

"Sure thing~ Here's your ham sandwich~"

Sandwich in hand, Oreki Gen had completely lost his appetite.

He walked toward school, turning it over in his mind — what did all this mean for him? There hadn't been any system notifications or anything...

What the hell was this stupid phone trying to do?

Oreki Gen didn't know, but he was beginning to sense that after one peaceful week, something was quietly starting to change.

Arriving at the crowded school gate, countless youthful figures appeared before him.

Spirited boys with beaming grins, and girls in summer uniforms and black pleated skirts with black knee-high socks — together they painted the quintessential picture of youth.

And then, in the corner of his eye, Oreki Gen caught a flash of something entirely different.

Like a streak of brilliance slicing across the sky.

It was a tall, slender girl with a cold, imperious countenance. The indifference in her gaze reduced everyone around her — beside her or before her — to nothing more than meaningless background scenery. She was as proud as a phoenix perched atop a paulownia branch, and was the one true unattainable flower of Sakurato High School.

Sakuraba Mitsuki.

It seemed impossible not to let your gaze linger on this singular girl, and yet no one truly had the courage to approach someone like her.

A dazzling existence — merely laying eyes on her was enough to scorch your vision. Getting closer would only illuminate your own mediocrity.

And Oreki Gen instantly dropped his head, trying to submerge himself in the sea of students, wanting to put even more distance between them despite already being far away.

There was no other reason. Because Sakuraba Mitsuki... was one of the doujin's heroines. And in Sakuraba Mitsuki's route ending, Oreki Gen was carved into ninety-nine pieces by her, then reassembled.

Just thinking about that ending sent a chill crawling down his spine.

One look at her aura and you knew she was absolutely ruthless. Over the past week, there had been plenty of opportunities for contact to happen between them, but Oreki Gen had dodged every last one. Today would be no different...

【Ding~】

Oreki Gen froze. Why was a message coming now?

He hesitated, but opened his phone anyway. The text displayed itself clearly.

【Oreki-kun's lips are so pretty. They look delicious, too. Surely there's no harm in having a taste?】

??

!!

What?!