Finding this body's apartment should have been relatively easy.
'Huh?'
He stopped beneath a streetlamp and narrowed his eyes at the student card in his hand.
[NAME: XXX]
[AGE: XXX]
[GENDER: MALE]
'XXX? Am I a porn site? What the hell is this?'
He practically glued the card to his face, squinting at it from every possible angle.
'She called me Mi-Noo. I'm supposed to be called Mi-Noo!' He blinked.
'Wait a minute.' His eyes narrowed further.
'How can I even read this?'
The story he had just stumbled into was unmistakably Korean. The names, the architecture, the language, everything.
'I shouldn't be able to read Korean. I shouldn't have understood a single thing they were saying.'
Yuuto stared at the card for several long seconds.
'Haaaaaaaaah…' He lowered it with a sigh.
'I guess this is more complicated than simply reincarnating into an NTR manga.'
He slipped the card into his pocket and pulled out the cash he had found on himself.
'Suppose I'll find a motel nearby.'
Fortunately, that part proved easy enough.
Before long, Yuuto was sitting on the edge of a cheap motel bed, staring out at the city through a dusty window.
'This place is strange too.' It resembled a normal city at first glance. Apartment buildings. Convenience stores. Train stations. Neon signs.
But the longer he looked, the less sense it made.
'Some of the street names are Korean. Some are Japanese. Some are in English. Half the others look like they've been smudged out.'
He leaned back against the wall.
'And I can understand all of them.' Yuuto took out his phone and scrolled through the contacts.
There was almost nothing there.
'No parents. No classmates. No landlord. Nada. Zilch.' Only one name remained.
Sae-Hyun.
'Why the hell did Mi-Noo only have her number?' He tossed the phone onto the bed, 'Whatever.'
A grin slowly spread across his face.
'It was still fucking awesome.'
He flopped backward onto the mattress.
'I got to kick an NTR bastard in the balls five minutes after reincarnating.' His grin weakened. 'Though I guess it technically wasn't NTR. Mi-Noo and Ji-A were never actually together.'
Yuuto yawned.
'Semantics.' He pulled the blanket over himself, 'I'll figure everything out after I sleep.'
'And…'
He recalled it. That message box that appeared before him.
[Calculating rewards <3…]
'Wonder what's that all about.'
A few hours later, a shrill ringing tore through the room.
'EURGH! W-What?!' Yuuto jolted upright, nearly falling off the bed.
The phone vibrated beside him.
'A call?' He rubbed his eyes and reached for it, 'Sae-Hyun is the only contact I have. Is she calling to threaten me? Press charges?'
He frowned.
'Good thing I recorded the whole thing. Shi-Hoon threw the first punch.'
Yuuto looked at the screen.
[CALL FROM: SHIZUMORI NODOKA]
'Who the fuck is that?'
He opened his contacts to look for that name, and there it was.
Shizumori Nodoka.
Written neatly between two blank spaces.
'A Japanese name?!' Yuuto stared at it, 'That wasn't there last night. I know it wasn't!' The phone continued ringing.
He let it ring for several more seconds before finally answering.
"Hello?"
["KAZUYA!"]
'AH, FUCK!' Yuuto ripped the phone away from his ear.
["WHERE ARE YOU? WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!"]
'School? Wasn't Mi-Noo in college? And who the hell is Kazuya?'
Yuuto took a slow breath.
'I'll play along until I know more.'
Normally, he would have dismissed it as a wrong number. But wrong numbers do not spontaneously appear in someone's contacts overnight.
Especially not after a reincarnation.
"I'm… not at home."
["What?! Are you serious? Where are you, then?"]
"A motel."
Silence.
["A motel?"] She repeated.
"I was visiting my uncle from abroad."
["You have an uncle abroad?"]
"Yes."
["What's his name?"]
Yuuto stared at the wall.
"Ben."
Another silence.
["I have never heard you mention an Uncle Ben. Were you bitten by a spider, too?"]
'Yes, but I never got superpowers from it.'
Nodoka sighed through the phone.
["Which motel are you at? I'll come get you."]
Yuuto looked down at his wrinkled clothes.
"…Sure."
"Jeez. A motel doesn't suit you at all, Kazuya."
Nodoka marched beside him, wearing the uniform of a traditional Japanese school. Around them, dozens of other students in matching uniforms flowed toward a large school building.
She was a pretty girl with long dark hair, expressive eyes, and enough irritation in her voice to suggest that scolding him was already part of her morning routine.
"And did you even shower?" she continued. "What happened to your clothes? Where's your bag?"
"Ah." Yuuto searched for an answer, scratching his hair, "A dog stole it."
Nodoka stopped walking.
"A dog stole your schoolbag…? What are you, 12?"
"Yes. Not sure how old I am right now, though."
"What does that even mean… Then, did it take your change of clothes, too?" She grumbled.
"It was a very determined dog."
She stared at him.
Yuuto stared back.
Nodoka eventually sighed and resumed walking.
'So there's a school here now.' Yuuto studied the unfamiliar streets around them.
The Korean signs from last night had mostly disappeared, with Japanese signs taking their place.
Even the architecture looked subtly different.
'It's like a few worlds mixed into one.'
He looked at Nodoka.
"We're friends or something, by the way?"
Nodoka nearly tripped.
"UGH! Did you hit your head so hard that you forgot your own childhood friend?!"
'Childhood friend.'
Yuuto nodded thoughtfully.
'That sounds dangerous.'
"Oh. Right. Of course." He gave her an awkward smile, "No way I'd forget my childhood friend."
Nodoka narrowed her eyes at him.
"You're acting really strange today."
"Uh. Sure."
What Yuuto did not know was that this exact setting belonged to another NTR story.
Pet Life.
Soon, a shameless student named Ozaki would approach Nodoka from behind and lift her skirt in public.
The original Kazuya would dismiss it as harmless teasing. He would ignore Nodoka's complaints and even defend Ozaki, despite secretly harboring feelings for her.
Ozaki would repeat the behavior with other girls.
Again.
And again.
Until everyone around him stopped treating it as abnormal.
Later, Nodoka would accidentally leave her underwear inside her locker. She would return to find them inside her locker, only to discover that Ozaki had already found them first.
He would use them to blackmail her, raping her in the locker room. Naturally, since this is an NTR story, she'd start to feel good as it happens.
As matters currently stood, the scenario appeared unavoidable.
Yuuto Sakurai had no idea he had entered another NTR story.
He knew none of its characters.
None of its events.
And none of what was about to happen.
After all, not even he could have read every NTR work in existence.
And in NTR stories, information was power. Many betrayals happened behind the protagonist's back, carefully concealed until it was far too late. Pet Life was very much one of them.
"Haaah," Nodoka sighed. "Seriously, you're impossible toda—"
"WHITE!"
Her skirt suddenly flicked upward.
"WHA?!"
Nodoka shrieked and slammed both hands behind her, her face turning scarlet.
A grinning boy sauntered past them.
Yuuto slowly turned his head.
'Who's this ugly motherfucker?'
"Shizumori!" the boy called over his shoulder. "If you wear white every day, Mizuno's going to lose interest!"
He laughed and continued down the road, lifting another student's skirt as he passed.
"THAT DAMN OZAKI!" Nodoka clenched both fists, "He has no dignity! No delicacy! Nothing!"
She glared at his retreating back.
"Let me make this perfectly clear. I hate guys like him!" Her attention remained fixed on Ozaki until he vanished into the crowd.
Then she suddenly turned toward Yuuto.
"And don't you defend him again, you hear me? He's a disgusting lecher!" She yelled at him, while Yuuto watched Ozaki disappear.
"Yep. Sounds fair." Yuuto nodded without much delay.
Nodoka blinked.
"…Huh?"
"What?" Yuuto replied.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"You're awfully agreeable this morning."
"I mean, you're right." Yuuto tilted his head, "He just lifted my childhood friend's skirt in public. Why the hell would I defend him?"
Nodoka stared at him.
Once.
Twice.
Then looked away.
"G-Good." She muttered weakly. A faint blush crept across her cheeks.
Classes began soon afterward.
Then another lesson followed, then another.
Three hours into the day, Yuuto sat at his desk, doing his best to study as though he had not been dropped into a reality that changed nationalities overnight.
At the front of the classroom, Nodoka read aloud from a passage at the teacher's request.
One hand held the book.
The other remained pressed firmly against the back of her skirt.
"Very good," the teacher said. "Now, Mizuno, translate the next section."
Meanwhile, Nodoka could think about only one thing.
'Haah… It's awfully cold down there.' She tried not to move. 'Please don't let anyone notice.' She thought.
Thankfully, the lesson ended without incident. The instant the bell rang, Nodoka slipped out of the classroom.
'If someone flips my skirt now, I'll die.' She walked through the hallway with extreme caution, looking left and right for any sign of Ozaki. Her hand placed on her skirt, stopping it from flipping.
'How could I forget my underwear after swimming practice? Of all things!' She groaned quietly. 'If Kazuya finds out, he'll call me clumsy again. Or a blockhead.'
Then she paused.
'... Though he hasn't exactly been a pillar of stability himself today.' Nodoka entered the locker room.
Yuuto's words resurfaced in her mind.
|"He just lifted my childhood friend's skirt in public. Why would I defend him?"|
Her steps slowed.
'That's what he said.' Heat crept into her cheeks, 'That sounds so unlike Kazuya. He'd usually excuse this since he and Ozaki are friends. Though, I suppose… I didn't hate hearing it.'
She shook her head furiously.
'No. Forget that. My underwear has to be here somewhere.'
Nodoka hurried toward her locker.
She pulled it open.
Her eyes widened.
"YES! I FOUND IT!"
She clutched the missing garment to her chest and sighed with relief.
'I'm saved.' She thought, as she soon put both of them on.
A few minutes later, she emerged into the corridor feeling as light as a feather. She had barely taken ten steps when she noticed a crowd gathered around one of the windows.
'Hm? What happened?' Nodoka approached and looked outside.
Her eyes widened.
'HUH?!'
Ozaki was being escorted across the school courtyard by two police officers.
His hands were cuffed behind his back.
"Damn, Ozaki got arrested?"
"What are we going to do about the swimming club?"
"I heard somebody recorded him harassing girls."
"UGH, FINALLY." A girl shouted, "That pervert deserved it!"
"Ozaki… got arrested?" Nodoka stared through the glass. She soon returned to the classroom shortly afterward.
Yuuto sat at his desk, resting his chin against one hand, looking like the pinnacle of casual innocence.
Nodoka quietly sat behind him.
By the time classes ended, rumors about Ozaki had spread through the entire school.
Yuuto and Nodoka walked home together beneath the orange afternoon sky.
"So…" Nodoka began.
Yuuto glanced at her.
"Ozaki got arrested."
"Yeah. Good stuff." Yuuto shrugged.
She hesitated.
"I thought he was your friend, Kazuya. Aren't you upset?"
Yuuto continued for several steps before looking back.
"Nope. I was the one who called the police."
"H-HUH?!" She hurried after him, "You did?! Why? What did he do?"
"He lifted your skirt." Yuuto glanced at her.
Nodoka blinked rapidly.
"I also recorded him doing it to several other girls." Yuuto continued, "And apparently the police found more on his phone."
"Still…" Nodoka fidgeted with the strap of her bag, "I think having him arrested was a little excessive, Kazuya."
"I mean, he embarrassed me, but… To call the police on him?" Nodoka muttered as she looked to the side.
"I told you already, didn't I?" He looked directly at her.
Yuuto had no way of knowing Ozaki was an NTR antagonist. He had no way to prepare.
However… He possessed one quality that the original protagonist never had.
"He messed with my childhood friend."
Nodoka's breath caught.
"Of course I wasn't going to let him off the hook."
She took an involuntary step backward.
Yes. That quality is… Common sense!
Her cheeks turned bright red.
"O-Oh." She lowered her gaze, "I-I see…"
For a moment, they continued walking in silence.
Then Nodoka squeezed the strap of her bag.
"H-Hey, Kazuya?"
"Yeah?"
"Would you…" She swallowed, "Would you like to come to my house today?" She murmured weakly.
'Hm.' Yuuto scratched his hair, 'Good idea, actually.'
"Sure."
Nodoka's face lit up before she hurriedly looked away.
Meanwhile, Yuuto tucked his hands into his pockets.
'I need somewhere to sleep anyway.'
In many NTR stories, the protagonist helped build his own downfall.
He ignored the warning signs.
Excused the obvious.
And stood aside while someone else crossed every boundary in front of him.
Kazuya had done exactly that. Letting Ozaki get his way after sexually harassing the one he cares for.
Yuuto, however, had merely acted like a good friend.
And apparently, even that was enough to destroy an NTR plot.
Yuuto claimed he never got any superpowers after being bitten by a spider. But in a story like this, behaving like a decent human being was a superpower in itself, so it would seem.
But would it be enough for what came next?