"Did you do that on purpose?"
"I never said that." Kyousuke maintained his relaxed tone, but reminiscing about that incident brought back a certain satisfaction.
The sheer joy of outwitting others with intelligence was something he never forgot.
When he was weak, he used his brain to protect himself.
Now that he was strong, he no longer needed such tactics.
Even someone like Kisaki Tetta could easily handle small-time troublemakers.
"That was amazing!"
Eriri uttered words she rarely ever used.
It was incredible—something she had never even considered as an option.
Although Kyousuke didn't explicitly admit it, she could tell—it was all part of his plan.
It wasn't about seeking help from teachers or parents.
It wasn't about silently enduring. Instead, he used a method that any child could have executed.
This guy was definitely not normal!
No third-grader should have been able to think of something like that.
Getting beaten up, crying on the way home, and even trying to hide the evidence—that was normal.
"So, was that the moment you came up with something like One Punch Man?"
His method wasn't the traditional shonen manga way, but it worked.
He pulled himself out of bullying—became his own hero.
Was this just something he did for fun?
Kyousuke... was truly an anomaly.
If only back then, Tomoya had been more like Kyousuke, we wouldn't have ended up like this.
Thinking about it, Eriri lowered her head in disappointment, lost in memory.
Everything that guy did—none of it changed anything!
Pulling her legs up onto the couch, she turned to face Kyousuke directly, sitting cross-legged.
Her small face was serious as she scrutinized this overly exceptional boy, not only in looks but also in mind.
"What's wrong?"
Kyousuke, still immersed in his game exploration, felt a bit uncomfortable under her gaze and instinctively touched his face with a finger.
"Do you want to hear my story?"
Hearing her solemn words, Kyousuke put down the controller.
"No, no, no! Just listen normally."
Seeing Kyousuke switch into his fully focused, attentive mode, Eriri hurriedly stopped him.
Even the unpleasant emotions from recalling her past were thrown into disarray.
'Was this guy a devil?'
Thinking that, Eriri began to speak softly about her past:
"Taki Tomoya, my childhood friend, whom my family and I dragged into the otaku world."
"Though calling him my childhood friend is a stretch—we haven't spoken since third grade."
"When we moved up to third grade, several new boys joined our class."
"Tomoya and I were excited to be in the same class again. Whenever we had time, we would enthusiastically discuss games, manga, and video games."
"And then, the nightmare began."
"Despite being a beautiful girl with an outstanding family background, I was also a half-Japanese otaku who spent most of my time with boys."
"All these elements became weapons for the new students to mock and attack us."
"Yes, the bullying started."
"Graffiti on the blackboard filled with nasty rumors about us, shattered game discs, the whispers of the other girls…"
"I chose to run away. At school, I never mentioned otaku-related things, distanced myself from Tomoya, and integrated into the more socially mature girls' circle."
"Pretending to have abandoned my otaku interests, I easily became someone they admired."
"Running away was shameful but useful. My appearance and background alone made me one of the 'elite' students, and those bullies no longer dared to target me."
"But unlike me, who chose to escape, Tomoya chose to fight back."
"During lunch breaks, he played anime songs; he promoted manga to everyone, regardless of whether they knew him or were interested; he even hijacked class meetings to talk endlessly about otaku culture—so much so that even the teacher couldn't stop him."
"Getting his stuff confiscated, being called to the principal's office, even getting physically attacked by other boys—none of it made him back down."
"His one-man war ended with his victory. In fourth grade, he was elected class president by 'no vote.' The boys who once bullied us could no longer oppose him."
"Then Tomoya invited me to return to the otaku world he had built, but I refused."
"I was afraid that my hard-earned peace would be shattered, that I'd be ostracized again, that my new friends would abandon me. I severed ties with Taki Tomoya, and to this day, I haven't spoken to him again."
As her story concluded, Eriri lifted her head and looked at Kyousuke.
"Do you think I was wrong?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, she nervously fidgeted with her fingers.
"Can I speak now?"
"Are you an idiot?!"
This jerk really had no sense of timing! Frustrated, Eriri upgraded his status from 'that guy' to 'this jerk.'
"Haha, don't be so tense."
Chuckling, Kyousuke waited until her gloomy expression eased a bit before continuing.
"Setting aside whether you were right or wrong, after hearing your story, I can't shake the feeling that Taki Tomoya was actually the one bullying his classmates."
"Huh?" Eriri was confused.
Wasn't she and Tomoya the ones who were bullied?
"Wasn't he? By my understanding, bullying is about forcing one's will onto others."
"It doesn't matter if it's active malice from the aggressor or something the victim is forced into."
"Those bullies drew humiliating pictures on the blackboard—you didn't want to see that, did you?"
"Of course not! Do you know how disgusting those drawings were? Part of the reason I worked so hard on my art was to prove how terrible their skills were."
"Exactly. But Taki Tomoya hijacked class meetings to rant about otaku culture—weren't your classmates and teachers uninterested in that?"
"…"
Eriri's blue eyes widened in shock.
This guy's thinking was completely abnormal! Why had she never noticed this perspective before?
"Those kids gossiped about you behind your back—you didn't want to hear that, right?"
She nodded silently.
"But Taki Tomoya forcefully recommended manga to everyone at school, even those who weren't interested."
"Doesn't that sound familiar? He wasn't an evangelist—he was a colonizer, spreading his 'faith' whether people liked it or not."
Hearing 'colonizer evangelist,' Eriri couldn't help but laugh.
As a British-Japanese girl, she had heard her rebellious father ranting about history countless times.
This guy… why doesn't he write books?
Oh, right—he was planning to write novels.
"Besides, what's this 'no-vote' election? What otaku kingdom? Maybe everyone was just scared of him, pretending to like what he recommended to get him off their backs."
"If they truly respected him, why wouldn't they vote?"
As she recalled scenes from her past, Eriri started to see things differently.
Had their classmates truly embraced otaku culture, or had they just been intimidated into pretending?
This thought shook her.
"How did you figure all this out?"
"I just compared what the bullies did to what Taki Tomoya did—it's pretty obvious, isn't it?"
At that moment, a voice called from outside:
"Lily, Hojou-kun, dinner is ready."
Their conversation was interrupted by Sayuri's warm call.
"Come on, let's eat. Just don't get your hopes up about my mom's cooking."
As Eriri naturally spread her arms toward him, Kyousuke smirked.
"As you wish, my princess."
"You jerk!"