Part-1 Ch-09 Ep-01

 ――The new year had begun, and on January 1st, New Year’s Day, Maki and I went together to a nearby shrine for the first shrine visit of the year.

I dropped my offering into the box, brought my hands together, and then glanced sideways at Maki.

Her expression was utterly serious. She was quietly murmuring something over and over, though I couldn’t tell whether it was a prayer or something else entirely.

It was almost like she was reciting a Buddhist sutra, and honestly, it was a little frightening. As for her offering, she had put in a thousand-yen bill. No, at first she had tried to throw in a five-thousand-yen bill, and I had desperately stopped her, forcing her to downgrade it to a thousand.

“That’s way too extravagant, isn’t it?!”

“Don’t stop me! At this point, I have to rely on the gods too! Do you have any idea how I felt spending New Year’s Eve?!”

What on earth is going on with her?

That kind of desperation, like she’s clutching at straws. Is her life on the line or something?

There are probably personal differences when it comes to how much people offer, but in my mind, the standard amount is five yen, for the sake of “good connections.”

I was genuinely curious what she was praying for with such lavish spending, but I was too scared to ask. At this rate, she looks like the type who would keep drawing fortune slips until she got a great blessing. This isn’t a gacha game.

To begin with, the heroine, who is supposed to be the protagonist of this game, shouldn’t rely on anyone or become attached to anyone. She neither rejects those who approach her nor chases after those who leave.

That said, she does sometimes close the distance too quickly, or engage in physical contact, or display other suggestive behavior. That is supposed to be the personality of the protagonist in this otome game.

From the outside, it looks like an awful character setting, but most otome games are like that, so there’s nothing to be done. After all, she has to capture the male characters.

So what exactly is it that Maki, who is meant to be the protagonist of such an otome game, wants so desperately that she’s going this far?

World domination?

Without exaggeration, you could say this world is already in her hands. Is there anything that doesn’t go her way?

That being said, I also have something I’m determined to accomplish this year.

“The progress of Maki’s relationships with the capture targets.”

That is my New Year’s resolution, and the goal I have to achieve. I spent this winter break desperately thinking about it too, trying to figure out how to spark her interest. I considered a “decoy strategy,” where I would approach the capture targets like Kagami-kun, but somehow it doesn’t feel like it would work.

I tried imagining myself acting as a decoy not just for Kagami-kun, but for each of the other capture targets as well, yet I couldn’t picture it going well at all.

If anything, I can easily imagine her grabbing me while I’m getting close to a capture target and angrily yelling, “Which is more important to you, me or that guy?!”

And that mental image is probably accurate. Women’s feelings are complicated. I find myself clutching my head, wondering whether the protagonist in the game was this devoted to her childhood friend.

If anything, I even feel like that if I do absolutely nothing, Maki will simply follow her own feelings and go capture whoever she wants on her own.

Somehow, this girl seems even more carnivorous than she is in the game. And tougher, too.

“All right, come on, Mari, let’s go buy more fortune slips. I’m not stopping until I get a great blessing. And protective charms too.”

“Y-You’re really fired up, aren’t you…”

“Of course I am. Come on, we’re in the way of the other worshippers, so move. Anyway, Mari, don’t let yourself get separated from me.”

She grabbed my hand and dragged me through the crowd. Our hands stayed linked as she pulled me all the way to where the fortune slips were being sold.

Watching Maki’s back as she strode ahead, tugging me along, I began to worry whether she planned to spend this entire year like this too. That would make me very happy, but it would also be a little troubling.

Being with me won’t change the situation at all. 

Thinking that this year, too, might not follow the game’s storyline makes this feel like a rather troublesome start to the year.