Synesthesia.
It is said to refer to the phenomenon in which, when one of the five senses is stimulated, that sense draws out stimulation in another domain.
*
The weather was cool, not yet summer. A woman with her hood pulled up walked down a street where the streetlights had just begun to turn on, humming to herself.
A sweet hum with the power to make anyone walking the street turn their head.
Though every passerby nearby looked back at the hooded figure, none of them could even guess who she was.
That she was H, active as a solo idol.
And it was not because they had facial recognition disorder that they failed to recognize one of the most popular idols of the moment, even with her hood up. The entire situation had been brought about by her superpower.
The power to distort another person’s vision by letting them hear the sound that came from her throat—to interfere with synesthesia.
It was not widely known, because this was a world where even a high degree of application and strength in one’s superpower did not carry that much meaning, but she was one of the few people who could confidently be called among the greatest superpower users.
Han Yeseul of H.
A person who, in a sense, could be said to have been born into the wrong world was advancing while making full use of her superpower; for ordinary people, there was no way they could possibly know that the hooded figure was Han Yeseul.
However, unlike the people who had fallen victim to Han Yeseul’s superpower, the girl who had trained her own power strongly enough not to be easily swept up by someone else’s superpower suppressed the irritation boiling up inside her as she followed and said,
“So why did you drag me out again?”
Naturally, Yu Inna had neither the desire nor the motivation to go outside with Han Yeseul.
Their homeroom teacher had given them a card in exchange for going out, but there was no way a girl who lived for the joy of going to the house of the girl she liked every day, cooking for her, and spending her own money would willingly leave Erika just because she had a chance to eat for free.
However, Han Yeseul had subtly hummed in front of her and threatened, “If you don’t come with me now, I’ll butt in like this every day, you know?” so she had been forced to come out.
“Hmm... To be honest, I came out to see who was beside the person who’ll become my friend, and what feelings that someone had toward my friend, while also giving them enough time to finish their business over there. But now that I’ve roughly figured out what kind of feelings you have~ I’m just taking my time heading back so they can finish everything.”
Homosexuality is commonly considered taboo. Women cannot bear children together, and a world where children are not born can only head toward ruin.
The reason people despise and loathe those who love the same sex must be the will of humans to continue the species.
The idol’s words, saying she had grasped Yu Inna’s feelings, should normally have felt threatening.
But Yu Inna moved on with only a small complaint about the fact that Erika had not brought her phone today, so she could not contact her now, and a strong question as to why Han Yeseul was interfering with her time with Erika when she could simply warn her later.
—Because from the very beginning, she had never hidden her feelings from anyone.
Some said Yu Inna was compassionate. Some said Yu Inna was far too meddlesome. Some said Yu Inna was foolish.
All of those words had been said after seeing what Yu Inna did for Erika. Every affectionate action Yu Inna took toward the person she loved was interpreted differently by others.
“Influence” was that kind of superpower. An ability that made other people unable to properly maintain the standards they had held, causing them to look favorably upon everything about Yu Inna.
It was similar to, yet different from, Han Yeseul’s ability to earn others’ goodwill through her voice.
Though the woman did not know exactly what Yu Inna’s superpower was, because their abilities were similar, there were things she could sense.
“People like us are like that. The world is far too convenient for us, so we can’t help but become interested in people our abilities don’t work on.”
Yu Inna immediately thought of Erika upon hearing those words, but the person Han Yeseul had in mind as she spoke was someone else.
The boy who had solved the stalker problem that had erupted around her.
The deductive ability with which he quickly identified the culprit when she showed him things like threatening letters, and the boldness with which he subdued the culprit when they charged at him with a kitchen knife.
“Sorry, but I’ve decided to love only one person in this world.”
And even after hearing a song mixed with her power, he had still shown pure devotion, saying he would love only one woman. To her, he was already the perfect man.
If she had met Erika first, perhaps it would have been different, but to her, who was interested romantically in a boy with the appearance of a prince from a fairy tale, Erika belonged to the “other” side.
The other side that carried not affection, but the expectation that perhaps they could become equal friends, like other people.
“Honestly, if Miss Erika is fine with it, I don’t mind leaving things alone... but it seems like only one person’s feelings are far too intense. Enough that I want to interfere.”
A being with a superpower that could manipulate others as she pleased was attached to a girl who might become her friend. Naturally, she had no choice but to keep that being in check so she could not get any closer to her friend.
Not because of love, but out of goodwill toward the girl who might become her true friend.
The time when the sun had vanished and darkness slowly draped itself over everything. When the woman who drew the world’s attention turned around, what she saw was a girl steeped in darkness, her eyes gleaming eerily.
“Sorry, but between us, you’re nothing, so don’t even think about butting in.”
“And if I refuse?”
It was a deserted road. The faint tone that had been mixed into her words each time she spoke disappeared, and Han Yeseul’s voice was firm, but Yu Inna instead spoke with a slight smile.
“Who knows? But I’ll tell you one thing. If you think the world will go the way you want just because you’re a little popular, you’re mistaken. —I know how to break through superpowers.”
“There’s no way such a method exists...”
“Ever since I was little, I’ve been searching only for a way to pierce the hardest superpower in this world. ...If I fight you, it’ll definitely become annoying, so I don’t want to fight. That’s why I’m saying this here, where that girl can’t hear. Don’t step forward. Unless you want to fall after losing every bit of glory and honor you have.”
The sense of dissonance that came from hearing such chilling words spoken with a smile.
At the sight of the girl, who strangely suited the darkness, Han Yeseul searched for something to say for a moment, but before she could, the girl passed by her.
“Then, since we’re done shopping, let’s hurry back. She’ll be waiting the whole time for me to cook for her.”
“...Let me ask you one thing. Why don’t you call her by name, even though you act so familiar with her?”
That girl.
If she regarded her fondly, one would think she would call her by name, yet she kept calling her only “that girl” and never said her name. At Han Yeseul’s question, the girl looked up at the night sky for a moment with a slightly bitter tone.
“Because she told me not to. Told me not to call her name that familiarly.”
Now that Erika had lost her memories, it was an incident only she remembered.
It was not something she could tell anyone about in detail. Especially not someone who was trying to take an interest in Erika.
“The counseling should be just about over by now.”
*
I thought I knew how important the protagonist’s position was in the world of a dating sim, having played a few of them myself.
A superhuman being who, no matter what trauma a heroine had, would approach her, unravel that trauma, and win her love.
But after listening to my homeroom teacher, I had no choice but to realize that my thinking had been too shallow regarding just how incredible the protagonist would be in a world that had become close to reality.
“Mm, you know that you and Lee Seora tied for first place on the entrance exam, right? Unlike now, Kim Haneul’s grades were a little below those of an average student, but starting from the final exams in the first semester, his grades gradually rose, and from the second semester onward, the three of you all started getting perfect scores. Because of the three of you, the teachers complained to me so much about how hard they had to think to make questions with proper discrimination.”
A growth speed that allowed him to reach the level of naturally scoring 100 in every subject within a single semester.
“What’s even more impressive is that he didn’t achieve those grades by focusing only on studying. He enthusiastically helped the previous student council president from the time she was a candidate so she could become president, resolved the stalker incident involving Miss Han Yeseul, who came with you, and though I can’t tell you the details, he also made it possible for a student who couldn’t come to school because of their parents to attend again. He handled many things like that at the same time. That’s why there are quite a lot of teachers who like that student.”
An overwhelming speed in handling problems, participating simultaneously in incidents that occurred in multiple places during the same period and bringing all of them to good conclusions.
“And because of that, so many girls in the school said they liked him and rushed at him. You have no idea how flustered I was when I saw a long line forming in front of our class on Pepero Day. When I saw that and told them it was class time, so they should go back to their classrooms, they shouted at me, ‘Teacher, are you trying to confess to him too?!’”
Even reaching a situation where it could be said he had captured most of the female students in the school. Just from my homeroom teacher’s story, I could clearly feel how incredible and frightening the protagonist of this dating sim was.
But there was something strange about the protagonist’s story. Usually, in a dating sim, a character liked by all the female students does not become the protagonist. Maybe if he were a rival fighting over the heroine, but not the protagonist.
Naturally, the protagonist also usually does not move around to capture multiple female students, but only the heroines. There are cases where girls have one-sided crushes on him, but normally, the number is not that large.
‘This is strange.’
But the protagonist of a dating sim was so popular that people lined up for him on Pepero Day? I may not have played that many dating sims, but was there ever a dating sim protagonist that popular?
“In the second year, honestly, aside from the commotion you caused because you were connected to him? I don’t think there was anything special. To be precise, except for the fact that he stepped forward during this student council president campaign too and helped the current president get elected.”
Even the sharp decrease in incidents after becoming second-years.
If that was not because the incidents decreased, but because the protagonist was no longer searching for incidents.
And if the reason he had been involved in all kinds of incidents in the first year was because the protagonist of this dating sim had been searching for [someone].
And if, after becoming a second-year, he had identified [someone], so he no longer needed to capture unspecified people and therefore stopped creating further incidents.
“This won’t be easy...”
“Hm? Do you still like him, by any chance?”
Playable character — protagonist.
Perhaps the opponent I must compete against in order to escape this world is the protagonist. To be precise, perhaps I can only leave this world by doing something before the protagonist does.
I do not know what that something is. It might be finding the true heroine, which is common in dating sims, before he does, or it might be achieving the true ending first.
What matters is——
This is still only a guess, and I must not believe it until I obtain evidence. Adding the seasoning called certainty to my conjecture would have to wait until after I meet Kim Haneul tomorrow.
The woman with short gray hair whispered to me with an expectant look on her face.
“I’ve told you everything I can, so will you tell me what you promised to tell me now?”
[Tip: If an event heroine’s affection for you decreases, you will no longer be able to receive events related to her.]
...A warning that popped up the moment I was about to make a rough excuse.
As expected, this system bastard—isn’t it alive?
While questioning the system, whose timing was always strangely precise, I chose what I should say as the excuse I had promised to give the teacher.