“……No matter how much they seem like real people.”
Xiao Chun Miura muttered to herself.
“This isn’t the Reality World after all.”
……She had to survive here.
Once Kanzaki Sou entered another Heroine’s Personal Route, no matter how much she thought about it, it would be useless.
Whether it was them or the System, no one would give her any special protection just because she was a few lines of code that didn’t belong here—she hesitated because they acted like real people, but they would never realize that falling in love could affect someone else’s life or death.
……The right thing was to prioritize “holding out until the day I’m sent back to the Reality World.”
Everything else here was unimportant.
Xiao Chun Miura carried her Student Bag and walked down the stairs of the Teaching Building to the lower floors.
There were still a few students in the corridor, but they were all walking in small groups, and no one paid attention to Xiao Chun Miura.
She mustered her courage and tried to talk to a group of girls, wanting to ask where the Library was, but they completely ignored her.
They didn’t even turn their heads.
She was so choked up by this that she remained dejected until she left the Campus Gate.
Being introverted by nature, gathering the courage to talk to someone was already a huge effort.
Even knowing the other party wasn’t a real person, Xiao Chun Miura still felt a bit hurt.
—Because of that, she “incidentally” gave up on her plan to check out the Library in advance today.
***
“Next……where should I go?”
In the end, after finding the school’s exit and passing through the spacious Plaza and main gate, Xiao Chun Miura stood at the front gate, staring at the completely unfamiliar Street before her, feeling lost.
“I have to go somewhere……right?”
“System?——Are you there?”
Realizing she still didn’t have a place to stay since coming to this world, Xiao Chun Miura started to feel troubled again.
The System, as usual, didn’t reply.
She couldn’t possibly not even have a Home……
Hmm?
——Home?
Xiao Chun Miura quickly felt around her clothes.
Nothing in the pocket of her Uniform Jacket.
Skirt—the pocket of the Skirt……
Ah, the Skirt’s pocket is here—but there’s nothing inside either.
She looked around.
Students were still streaming out from the Campus Gate.
She slung her Student Bag over her shoulder and walked toward a quiet corner by the main gate.
“……Ah, found it. Is this it?”
In the inner pocket of her Student Bag, she felt a soft Cloth Pouch.
On the outside of the pouch was a hard Card—Xiao Chun Miura’s Student ID.
“……Just a Student ID?”
“Is there any way to know where my Home is?”
Squatting on the ground in distress, Xiao Chun Miura suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
“——Phone?”
……Not long after, she dug her Mobile Phone out of her Student Bag.
It was an older model with a small screen, but after turning it on, Xiao Chun Miura immediately opened the Contact List.
Fortunately, there were still a few Contact Numbers inside, labeled as Father, Mother, and so on.
Staring at the long string of realistic-looking numbers, Xiao Chun Miura decided to give it a try and dialed.
“Xiao Chun?”
“Eh, Mother!”
——She didn’t expect the call to actually go through.
A strange woman’s voice came through the phone, and Xiao Chun Miura got so excited her voice went up an octave.
“Why are you calling at this hour?”
On the other end, Xiao Chun Miura’s Mother asked in a puzzled tone amidst background music and chatter.
“——It’s about the time you should be getting out of school, right?”
“Ah, yeah!”
Is that TV noise?
Faced with this suddenly appearing Mother, Xiao Chun Miura didn’t know what to say.
After all, she had no idea what kind of relationship she had with her family.
If she said something uncharacteristic of Xiao Chun, it could lead to a lot of troublesome questions.
She hesitated, but remembering her reason for the call, Xiao Chun Miura cautiously spoke.
“Mother, I think I’m lost……”
“……”
“Ah?”
After a brief bout of noise, her “Mother” sounded confused.
“Xiao Chun, where are you right now? Are you okay?”
A clearly worried voice came through the Mobile Phone’s microphone.
“Ah, I’m fine. I just don’t know how to get Home now—after school, the teacher had us do some social activities……so when we were dismissed, I realized I didn’t recognize this place at all.”
Speaking fluent Japanese, Xiao Chun Miura tried to organize her next words as she spoke.
“I’m sorry, Mother, for worrying you.”
“……As long as you’re okay. If you’re lost, can you use your Mobile Phone’s Navigation? Just follow it and don’t go to places with few people, Xiao Chun.”
The voice softened after hearing her daughter’s apology, the words so warm that Xiao Chun Miura felt a pang in her heart.
But she still had to continue, since she needed to find her way Home.
“Mm……But Mother, I don’t remember our exact Address……”
“I’ll send it to you now. Next time, remember it, okay?”
However, to Xiao Chun Miura’s surprise, her Mother didn’t react unusually to such an outrageous statement.
If it were another parent, they’d probably scold their child a bit—like when adults lecture kids for not knowing their own Home Address.
When preparing this excuse, Xiao Chun Miura was ready to be scolded.
—But instead, her Mother let it go gently, which left her slightly surprised.
“Alright, I’ve sent it. Xiao Chun, use Navigation to get Home with the Address—send us a message when you arrive. Mother is still dancing—”
“Oh dear, who are you talking to on the phone……””Our precious daughter, darling……”
“Beep beep beep beep beep——”
Then, Xiao Chun Miura heard such a conversation over the phone.
Her eye twitched.
***
“……Huh?”
What is this?
So Mother isn’t at Home?
……And Father isn’t there either!
They were even dancing together?!
Where are they?!
Xiao Chun, just what kind of family do you live in, with what kind of parents?!
Staring in disbelief at the now-dark Mobile Phone screen, Xiao Chun Miura was overwhelmed by shock from the call.
***
Even though the phone call left her stunned, at least her goal was achieved.
Following the Address her Mother sent, Xiao Chun Miura input it into the Navigation app and successfully made her way to her own House.
Even the location system here operated normally—and the Navigation app’s interface looked no different from the real world.
It adjusted the display based on her real-time direction and updated the distance to the destination.
The more she experienced in these few hours, the more this place felt like the Reality World.
Xiao Chun Miura looked at the ordinary two-story detached House with the “Miura” House Nameplate and sighed softly.
She used the Key found in the Cloth Pouch to open the door.
Holding the door, she looked inside, her heart pounding.
It clearly wasn’t her Home, but from now on, she would be living here.
This sense of novelty made her subconsciously imitate “how she should act,” and she quietly spoke a classic line.
“……I’m home.”
The House was silent.
Only the entrance light responded to her words, lighting up with a soft, warm glow.