Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/822139843121925685/episodes/822139844050959625
“Hey, Senpai… I… I’ve fallen for you.”
Karen confessed her hidden feelings, her composure slightly steadied.
“Fallen…”
Why?
The first thing I felt wasn’t joy, but confusion.
Because I’d always believed Karen was doing all this for me out of guilt or gratitude… that she owed me something.
So, faced with the utterly unexpected words “I like you,” I couldn’t hide my bewilderment.
“It was… surprising, wasn’t it?”
“…Yeah, surprising. Like… like me? Karen likes me…”
I was so shocked I found myself muttering unconsciously.
“Um… is it really that surprising?”
“Well… yeah. Can I ask you something? Karen… why do you like me?”
“Why… I wonder why I came to like you, Senpai.”
“Even you don’t know?”
“…No.”
After a moment’s thought, Karen slowly opened her mouth.
“The way I see it, when you genuinely fall for someone, the reasons are just made up afterward, you know? ‘Because they’re kind,’ ‘Because they’re cool’… That’s how you rationalize it. Because you don’t want to think of yourself as a shallow person who fell for someone without a real reason…”
“Th-that… Isn’t that a bit twisted?”
“Ahaha, I think so too… But isn’t that just how everyone is, really~?”
Karen said this with a resigned air, pushing her wheelchair.
“So, Karen, you don’t have a reason for liking me?”
“Well… I guess not. But if I had to come up with a reason for liking you… maybe it’s because you’re Senpai…?”
“…Isn’t that kind of avoiding the question?”
“No, no, it’s not!”
Karen puffed out her cheeks slightly—
“Because this means… ‘I like everything about Senpai’!”
She declared it in a bright tone.
“Oh… I see…”
I was taken aback by such a direct declaration of love.
Karen couldn’t help but notice my reaction—
“Huh? Are you blushing, Senpai?”
She immediately started teasing me.
“Ugh…”
“Senpai, you’re usually so brave and cool, but when it comes to love, you suddenly get all cute~”
“That’s not true… I don’t think.”
“No, but seriously, haven’t you been acting more girly than me since just now?”
“What can I say? I’m not really used to girls… In my past life, I was all about sports…”
You might think being in the soccer club would make you popular, but in my case, there were just too many good-looking guys around. Girls never gave me a second glance.
Just remembering it makes me sad, man.
“Eh…! R-Really?! …Huh.”
Karen’s eyes widened in genuine surprise.
“What? Is that so surprising?”
“Well, since it’s you, Senpai, I just assumed you were super popular in your past life… But if that’s the case, I’m glad!”
Karen beamed a bright smile.
“Well then, I guess I have to take the lead with a Senpai like that…! You know what? Lovers always go to a hotel first!”
“Thanks for that totally wrong piece of knowledge. And first off, Karen and I aren’t lovers, okay?”
“Eh…! You didn’t accept my confession then?!”
“When did I accept it? Who said I accepted…? I—”
“—Waaah! But please don’t tell me the answer to my confession! I’m not ready yet…”
“Eh, right… Then why did you confess in the first place…?”
“It was… the mood? The atmosphere?”
“That’s basically like a fake confession for a dare or something…!”
“No, it’s not…! I’m serious. But… I just haven’t prepared myself to hear the answer yet…”
Karen lowered her gaze slightly—
“So… Senpai. Until I’m ready, please wait without breaking, okay?”
In the depths of Karen’s eyes as she said this, something dimly lit lurked.
Ah, right.
The conversation had been so bright, I’d forgotten.
“It was all our fault… that you were broken. You tried to save us, died, tried to save us again, died, died, died, died, died, died, died, died… aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa… I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything. I’m sorry I could only watch you break down. I’m sorry, I’m sorry… Please don’t break any more… Senpai…”
These were the words Karen blurted out when we met a little while ago.
Karen back then was clearly insane.
Could it be… even while having bright conversations like just now, Karen was still carrying that same darkness inside her heart… all along?
I cautiously turned my gaze toward Karen—
“Hm? Is something wrong?”
—Karen was smiling brightly, frighteningly so.
What on earth… was Karen thinking?
I couldn’t understand at all.
But even so, I didn’t have the courage to ask Karen directly… and I fell silent.
—That was when it happened.
A flashy-looking high schooler appeared from around the corner and, the moment he saw Karen, twisted his face.
And then—
“Hey! Karen! I’ve been wondering where you’ve been lately, and here you are!”
He suddenly yelled.
Wh-what…?
Looking closely, this guy seemed familiar… like I’d seen him somewhere before.
“Hey, Karen… who’s this?”
“Um… he’s like my stalker. I think his name was Takasaki something-or-other.”
Takasaki…
Come to think of it, I remember a character like that in that gal game.
He appears as the stalker of the heroine the protagonist is trying to win over, and the protagonist has to save the heroine from this guy.
In other words, Takasaki is basically the stepping stone or villain in gal games…
But… why show up at this exact moment?
Just as I was wondering that, Takasaki stormed up to Karen, looking furious.
“Why haven’t you been coming to school lately?!”
“Haa… I think that’s entirely up to the individual.”
“Everyone’s worried about you! Yet you keep skipping school for some guy… Just come back already!”
“—Some guy?”
The next instant, Karen’s aura shifted completely.
The bright atmosphere from moments before turned so tense it felt like it could snap at any moment.
“K-Karen…? What’s wrong, all of a sudden?”
Takasaki clearly looked confused and took a step back.
“Nothing’s wrong, nothing’s wrong. I just got annoyed because I felt like someone spoke badly about you, Senpai.”
“… Is that guy really that important to you?”
Takasaki shifted his gaze to me.
Then, he frowned.
“Pfft… It was just a coincidence he tumbled upon you guys almost getting run over. Some loser got carried away dreaming about something and saved you, that’s all.”
Takasaki slowly approached me, reaching out her arm—
“—Hey, you can stalk me all you want, but—if you’re thinking of doing anything to Senpai, you’d better stop.”
Slap! Takasaki’s arm was knocked away.
Karen had stepped between Takasaki and me.
“Wh-what the hell?! I was just thinking of Karen’s best interests—?!?”
Takasaki suddenly choked on his words.
The reason was simple.
Karen shot him a gaze that could kill, and he couldn’t bring himself to say another word.
“Hey, Takasaki-san. If you try anything on Senpai again… you know what’ll happen, right?”
“Bu-but…”
“Got a problem with that?”
Karen’s gaze grew even sharper, cutting off Takasaki before he could retort.
Even he seemed to realize the futility of it now, flinching back.
“Senpai saved my life. If you try to hurt Senpai… I won’t forgive you.”
“G-got it…”
Takasaki seemed genuinely intimidated by Karen, taking a step back to distance himself from me.
But his eyes still refused to give up.
Takasaki, though clearly scared, tried to argue back at Karen.
“H-Hey, Karen. Think about this properly. Just because you owe him a favor, is it really okay to waste your precious high school life on this guy? Hanging out with other friends, club activities… You’ve got plenty of things to do, right?”
“Huh? For me, serving Senpai is my top priority. Besides, how I use my own time is my personal freedom, isn’t it? I’d rather you not meddle too much…”
“Y-Yeah, but still… Wait! Could it be that this guy is using his injury and the favor he did to force you guys into taking care of him? Yeah, that must be it!”
“Huh…? Isn’t that a bit of a stretch…?”
Karen was deeply confused.
But… a few seconds later, she was smiling like a child who’d just thought of a mischievous plan.
“Hehe, so you think I’m reluctantly taking care of you, Senpai, because I owe you a favor…?”
“Ah, yeah… that’s it…”
Then, Karen grinned widely—
“Too bad. That’s a misunderstanding, you know? Because I—I like you, Senpai! That’s why I’m here with you like this!”
The next moment—Karen hugged me from behind.
“Huh?! Wha—what the—?! Ka, Karen… wh, why?!”
“Huh? What’s so weird about hugging someone you love?”
Karen teased Takasaki, smiling.
Then, Takasaki’s face flushed bright red—
“――Damn it!”
He spat out his parting words and stormed off somewhere.
“…What was that? What just happened?”
“I don’t know either.”
Why did Takasaki, the villainous stepping stone, show up at this exact moment?
If it was just a coincidence… well, that’d be nice.
I couldn’t help but suspect something was behind it.
“But Senpai, don’t worry. I’ll make sure you never see that person again.”
“…Huh? Ka-Kare? Are you planning something… outrageous?”
“Hehe? What do you think?”
Kare just kept smiling brightly.
…Um… Stay strong, Takasaki.
I clasped my hands together in my mind.
“—Hey, we’re at the hospital!”
After chatting with Karen for a while… we’d arrived at the hospital before I knew it.
“Thanks for pushing the wheelchair all the way here, Karen.”
“Not at all!”
Karen replied brightly, then—
“Ah! Come to think of it… there was one thing I wanted to ask you, Senpai…!”
She pressed her hand to her mouth as if suddenly remembering something.
“What is it? As a thank you, I’ll answer anything I can…”
“Really?! Then, thank goodness!”
Karen cleared her throat with a cough.
—The next instant, the light vanished from Karen’s eyes.
Simultaneously, all emotion drained from her expression, and the surrounding air thickened into something oppressively heavy and cold.
Finally, Karen fixed her gaze on my eyes and asked.
“What exactly is… the ‘All Heroines Die’ ending?”
“Huh…”
Why… does Karen… know that phrase…?
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