He had transmigrated.
And the way he transmigrated carried a kind of raw, primitive aesthetic.
On his way home—having just bought instant noodles, sausages, and eggs to reward himself with a hearty meal—Takumi suddenly heard the piercing blast of a horn behind him. When he turned around, he saw a runaway truck bearing down on him, as if roaring: "Time to reincarnate into another world, boy!"
He was brutally struck, sent flying, crashed to the ground unable to move, then caught again by the truck's second pass—his skull crushed on the spot, and just like that, he transmigrated.
It probably felt something like a watermelon smashed to bits by a baseball bat—splattering everywhere in a wet mess. Though honestly, Takumi wasn't entirely sure he had really died that miserably. What he did know was that, in that final instant before losing consciousness, he clearly saw the tire swelling larger before his eyes, along with the screams of the crowd around him and the clicking flashes of cell phone cameras.
Anyway, enough of that. This isn't some gore forum, so there's no need to discuss this kind of R-18 topic.
In short, after transmigration and rebirth, he discovered that he seemed to have replaced the existence of someone who bore the same name as in his previous life: Takumi.
Incidentally, he figured this must have been a bodily transmigration rather than a soul one, since details like his height, build, and even moles hadn't changed. He was still wearing the exact same clothes he'd had on before—clothes that even carried the marks of tire treads and red-and-white sticky stains. Everything was exactly the same.
'Speaking of which… that dried red-and-white mess—don't tell me that was my brain?'
After arriving here, Takumi found himself with a two-story detached house complete with a small yard. The household's only bank card carried an eight-digit balance, with the password stuck to it on a little scrap of paper. The cardholder's name? Takumi himself.
Digging through documents at home, he guessed he must have crossed into some parallel world. The original Takumi of this world—whom he had replaced—was practically identical to him, save for being a bit thinner. And just like in his previous life, he had lost his parents early, slipping neatly into the standard webnovel orphan cliché.
During his investigation, Takumi also discovered that the original Takumi actually had the habit of keeping a diary. Most of it was just trivial records, but it sketched out a rough portrait: a dropout who stayed home, living off his ample savings, carefree and reclusive, playing games and watching anime. In other words, someone nearly cut off from society—meaning Takumi didn't have to worry about dealing with relatives or friends after crossing over.
"Seriously now, what kind of normal person writes a diary?"
After carefully investigating the house and grasping the situation, Takumi couldn't help but mutter this while holding the diary left behind by "the other him."
In any case, there was probably no going back.
Though his life had been inexplicably swapped out, since there was nothing he could do, he might as well live on in this new role.
And really, looking at his new circumstances—no parents, no family, no social ties, a fat bank account, and even a house—it all seemed just a little too perfectly arranged.
"Could it be that I'm actually the protagonist of a novel, carrying some grand mission and about to make my mark?"
Takumi—who in his previous life had been nothing more than a failed web author living alone in a rented apartment—couldn't help letting his imagination run wild.
"Well then, generally speaking, a transmigrated protagonist is supposed to get some kind of cheat. Let me think… If this were a typical Webnovel setup, it would probably be a system. Of course, the best kind would be a check-in system. After all, most of the systems you see in webnovels are pretty embarrassing—the kind that feel more like glorified bed warmers than actual cheats. So then… is there a system? System, are you there? System? Lady System? Mister System? …Hmm, seems like nothing."
He tried calling out to the system in various tones and poses, but received no response at all—only himself, standing there in the middle of the room like an idiot, shouting this and that.
"All right then, looks like there's no system. At least for now, this is a pure slice-of-life setting with no cheats at the start. That's fine too. Fighting and killing gets tiresome—plain and simple is the real way to live."
Finally realizing how stupid he looked, Takumi coughed lightly and stopped. He walked upstairs to the second floor, to the gaming room the original Takumi had meticulously set up. Skirting around the different models of game consoles lined up on one side of the room, he stepped up to the computer by the window, pressed the power button, and began searching for news and basic historical knowledge of this world, trying to understand his new environment.
By the way, although Takumi could understand and speak English in his previous life, he had never used it with the same ease as he did now. Not only that—when he searched for information in other languages, whether French, Arabic, or anything else, he understood them perfectly and could pronounce them flawlessly.
"So that's it—my cheat must be the ability to speak every language in the world?"
Somehow, this doesn't feel all that useful…
But for now, there was no need to dwell on that. After carefully investigating, Takumi confirmed that this world wasn't all that different from the one he came from. Overall, it still seemed to be a peaceful, everyday world, with no traces of anything supernatural.
There were no news reports of man-eating monsters lurking in the shadows, no Fuyuki City plagued by exploding gas pipes, no Umbrella Corporation, no Miskatonic University. The sun wasn't rapidly aging, nor were mysterious things flying in from beyond the solar system. That's right—it looked completely normal, an utterly ordinary world.
Well… though it was possible there could be all kinds of things secretly at work behind the scenes, all in all, it still seemed like the kind of world where ordinary people could live their whole lives in peace.
With that in mind, Takumi went on to check domestic news in Japan—and there, bold on the screen, he came across the name: Shuchiin Academy.
Shuchiin—wasn't that the setting of Kaguya-sama: Love is War? That early-stage romance masterpiece, later-stage yakisoba comedy, the one hailed as a "romance little giant"?
Got it. I've crossed into a two-dimensional world!
Takumi had to admit, he was getting a little excited now.
He kept searching, and soon enough found mention of the Shinomiya Group. That was enough to be sure: this world was the creation of that damned thief Akasaka. And though the later arcs of Kaguya-sama: Love is War became increasingly bizarre and disappointing in the eyes of many fans, Takumi couldn't deny it—actually stepping into an anime world was more than enough to excite him.
No—not enough to draw a conclusion yet. Better investigate further.
First, check whether there's a private Toyogasaki Academy or Sōbu High School… Hmm, no results. Looks like the diligent heroines Yukinoshita and Kasumigaoka aren't part of this world. Well, they've already had plenty of screen time anyway—maybe this world just doesn't need them.
Next… Suimei University of the Arts? That one does exist. If it has an affiliated high school, then does that mean Sakura-sō might also exist here?
And there's this "Guitar Hero" craze trending online… which means little Bocchi is in this world too.
So does that mean I've crossed into some kind of crossover anime universe? And judging from the setup, is it specifically the slice-of-life crossover kind?
Shutting down the computer, Takumi sat back in his chair, sinking into thought as he sorted through the clues.
First of all, his parents had died early, and he'd transmigrated into another world—replacing someone who was almost identical to himself.
Now he had a language cheat, a small villa, and a huge bank balance to ensure he would never lack food or shelter. And since the person he replaced had practically no social circle, the obstacles he'd face living in this world had been reduced to the bare minimum.
And then this world turned out to be full of two-dimensional anime girls—very likely one of those slice-of-life crossover fanfiction universes straight out of Syosetu.
Didn't that mean he was destined to become the protagonist of a two-dimensional harem series?
Sure, the lack of sisters due to Syosetu's rules was a bit of a shame, but from here on the story was bound to unfold in a thoroughly fan-pleasing way, with all kinds of "benefits" pouring in one after another.
Wow… the more he thought about it, the more this new life actually seemed worth looking forward to.
As much as he wanted to act aloof, Takumi had to admit it: he was, in truth, a guy who liked the lewd stuff. Inevitably, his mind wandered to things that—if written out—would immediately get flagged and deleted.
Already, he was imagining himself as the main character of a slice-of-life harem series, picturing all sorts of suggestive scenarios. He even found himself wondering whether a whole crowd of readers might already be watching him right now, eagerly waiting to see how he would conquer each and every beautiful girl.
But that was for later. Right now, the most important thing was to get a full handle on this house, to be prepared for anything.
He had already grasped the basics of his household situation and more or less searched through the house, figuring out the layout and arrangements. But out in the yard there was still a small shed that looked like it was used for storage, and he hadn't checked it yet. He decided he'd take a look in there shortly.
After that, once he had the household thoroughly mapped out, he could use the computer to study the surrounding streets, then head out for a walk to get a sense of his neighbors. In short, he needed to gather all the information he could. For Takumi, this was practically second nature. Even in his previous life, if he was going somewhere, he'd always investigate first—whether it was a new place, a movie, or an anime. He'd check the cast list, the voice actors, the director, the writer—anything he could find. And even if much of it turned out to be utterly useless information, he never tired of it.