I've Barely Started School and I've Already Met the Legendary Manga-Adaptation Prince? / Sakakibara, From Today On, You're My Best Partner!

She simply felt disgusted by and wanted to distance herself from the people mentioned in the diary. At the same time, she could not understand why she would come to like someone like that in the future.

After thinking it over, her immature self concluded that it was all because she lacked sufficient mental discipline.

Then she recalled her kendo teacher's teachings about devoting one's heart to the sword and believed that she possessed great talent in kendo.

It was just that she had been frail back then and felt that, with her body, it would be difficult to achieve anything in kendo. In the end, she had chosen Iai Quickdraw, a sword technique born of vengeance that emphasized killing with a single strike.

Although she had now made some progress in practicing Iai Quickdraw, she had neglected the more important cultivation of her mind.

"Once my body gets a little better, I'll return to my teacher and continue training."

Katsura Kotonoha thought this to herself and decided to cast aside love and become a swordswoman devoted to the sword.

With that in mind, Katsura Kotonoha took out her beloved blade. Maintaining the rhythm of Ripple Breathing, she began steadily sharpening her sword with a whetstone—and honing her own state of mind as well.

Because of that, she did not notice the newly refreshed comments right away, nor the LINE Group mentioned within them.

Meanwhile, Miyauchi Hiyage was recalling the name he had seen in the group chat.

Menma.

Her real name was Honma Meiko, the female lead of the classic tearjerker anime Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day.

In the story, she had drowned five years before the plot began. Yet five years later, for unknown reasons, she appeared as a ghost before the depressed male protagonist, Yadomi Jinta, setting off a series of events.

However, the girl who had appeared in the group chat was clearly no ghost.

Although that drowning incident five years ago had left her with lingering health problems and prevented her from attending school like a normal person, at least she was still alive and well in this world.

As for who had caused the worldline to shift?

Naturally, it could only have been Miyauchi Hiyage, the transmigrator.

"Who would've thought that Anohana took place so close to my home?" Miyauchi Hiyage shook his head as he recalled what had happened back then.

His home was located in Asahigaoka, a small village on the edge of the mountainous region in central Saitama Prefecture.

Beyond the mountains behind his home lay Chichibu City in western Saitama Prefecture—the setting of Anohana.

More precisely, the mountain beside the secret base where the protagonists of Anohana had played around as children was Miyauchi Family land.

Back when he was still in sixth grade, Miyauchi Hiyage's cheat had not yet arrived, but he had already become the undisputed king of the children in Asahigaoka.

Even kids five or six years older than him were willing to listen to him because he always came up with new things none of them had ever seen before.

That was also why Miyauchi Hiyage had been able to find people in the village willing to film videos with him so easily later on, simply by carrying a camera.

In short, that year, after spending spring selling the village children on the idea of "all the fruit you could ever eat" and launching a fruit-tree-planting campaign, Miyauchi Hiyage started leading people to "inspect" his family's land in the summer.

This time, his pitch was: "Those mountains will definitely be my territory in the future. By rounding things up, that makes them everyone's territory too. So we need to figure out what value they have, develop them together, and then everyone can benefit from them."

And so, Miyauchi Hiyage kicked off the grand summer era of mountain climbing.

One day, after his lively group had played from morning until evening, they reached the final mountain during their "inspection." Just as they were about to descend through Chichibu City and take the train home, they encountered Honma Meiko, who had slipped into a river and was on the verge of death.

Fortunately, Miyauchi Hiyage had deliberately brought plenty of outdoor emergency equipment when he left home.

Under his command, the Asahigaoka climbing team successfully rescued the unconscious Honma Meiko, called emergency services, and got her to the hospital, where she was eventually saved.

Because of this, everyone who took the train back to Asahigaoka late that night was basically beaten by the adults at home.

As the organizer of the climbing trip, Miyauchi Hiyage was grounded for the entire summer and could only stay home obediently to look after Renge, who was not even a year old at the time.

Later, Honma Meiko's parents came personally with lavish gifts to thank them for saving their daughter's life and informed them of Honma Meiko's current condition.

When he learned that the drowning had left her with so many lingering ailments, Miyauchi Hiyage had even wondered whether this was the consequence of defying fate.

At the time, Miyauchi Hiyage had asked the person who pulled Honma Meiko from the river to write her a letter, telling her to rest well and inviting her to visit Asahigaoka once she had recovered.

Unfortunately, even by the time Miyauchi Hiyage's golden finger activated, Honma Meiko's health still did not allow her to be away from home for too long.

After being grounded for an entire summer, Miyauchi Hiyage began filming videos the following year under the banner of revitalizing Asahigaoka's economy, keeping himself overwhelmingly busy.

Even when he was not filming, the little cuties around him clung to him all day. The two little girls from the Koshigaya Family and his little sister Renge followed behind him all the time, calling him Big Brother Hiyage. He felt too embarrassed to abandon them to visit another girl, and as time passed, he gradually forgot about Honma Meiko.

After all, saving Honma Meiko had merely been a coincidence. He was not the kind of person who demanded repayment for a favor. Knowing that she was still alive was enough; there was no need to force his way into her life.

It was only because he had seen Menma's name in the group chat that he remembered the incident.

"Although I've completely changed the plot of Anohana, Menma still got a diary... I wonder whether she can use Ripple Chi Kung to nurse her body back to health."

Miyauchi Hiyage muttered to himself, then mentally reviewed his encounter with Honma Meiko to make sure he had not left behind any flaws.

"As long as her comment doesn't appear in the diary, I don't need to worry about her. Even if her comment really gets selected by the Diary, I can just make up some future events and probably fool her."

Having sorted out his thoughts, Miyauchi Hiyage finished preparing for school the next day and planned to get a good night's sleep so he could greet his high school life in peak condition.

Had He Run Into the Legendary Manga-Adaptation Prince on the First Day of School?

The next day, in this season of blooming cherry blossoms, Miyauchi Hiyage officially became a high school student in the Toyonosaki Academy uniform.

The class assignments had naturally been released long ago.

Miyauchi Hiyage had already checked the information on his classmates, and his luck was excellent.

Whether it was Aki Tomoya, Eriri Spencer Sawamura, or Kato Megumi, none of them had anything to do with him.

In short, he had been assigned to a completely ordinary background-character class that had no role at all in any anime.

Miyauchi Kouka, Kato Megumi, and Aki Tomoya, on the other hand, had been assigned to the same class.

Thinking about how Aki Tomoya had directly confronted the head of academic affairs in order to screen an anime during the school festival, Miyauchi Hiyage felt that class was bound to be lively even during their first year.

His second sister would probably enjoy that class's atmosphere.

With that thought in mind, Miyauchi Hiyage arrived at the door of his second sister's apartment, called to hurry her along, and waited outside.

While his second sister was still dawdling, the neighboring door opened first.

A beautiful blonde girl with golden eyes appeared before him gracefully.

When she saw Miyauchi Hiyage, the blonde beauty froze slightly.

Why was the girl next door dressed in men's clothes?

After taking a closer look, she realized that although the two resembled each other, they were indeed not the same person.

Miyauchi Hiyage's features were more angular, and his gaze much sharper than Miyauchi Kouka's. He looked considerably more heroic.

Miyauchi Hiyage politely greeted her and explained who he was.

Once Shiina Mahiru learned that he was Miyauchi Kouka's younger brother, she politely said, "Please take care of me," before gracefully saying goodbye and leaving.

Watching her departing back, Miyauchi Hiyage withdrew his Stand.

When he noticed the neighboring door was about to open, he had separated a rice-grain-sized fragment of Yellow Temperance's main body and placed it near the corner of his mouth. Even if anyone noticed it, he could claim it was jelly from breakfast that he had failed to wipe away.

"Her breathing is normal, and she can't sense the Stand. Verdict: ordinary person."

Since she was an ordinary person, there was no need to concern himself with her for now.

He could just let her continue along the original plot. There was no need for him to worry about the heroine of a pure romance series.

After waiting quite a while longer, Miyauchi Kouka finally finished getting ready.

"If you're late often in the future, then your allowance might also arrive late."

As Miyauchi Kouka begged for mercy, the two headed together toward the nearby Toyonosaki Academy.

"Don't talk about our family at school. If anyone asks about Asahigaoka, push everything onto your sister Kaede. Don't drag me into it, or you know what'll happen," Miyauchi Hiyage nagged his second sister along the way.

He had originally wanted to tell her to keep a low profile in class and not draw too much attention to herself.

But after thinking about it, she was in the same class as Aki Tomoya. Could she possibly stand out more than that super otaku who had absolutely no concern for other people's opinions?

There had to be a reason he could be called one of the school's three most famous people alongside Eriri Spencer Sawamura and Kasumigaoka.

After arriving at school, Miyauchi Hiyage parted from his second sister at their classroom doors, casually found a window seat, and began observing his classmates.

As expected of a crossover anime world. Even though the class was full of background characters with no plot relevance, their average looks were still far above those of the students at his high school in his previous life.

For example, the boy seated beside him looked somewhat like Kento Yamazaki, the famous manga-adaptation prince from his previous life, when viewed from the side.

Thinking of the roles that manga-adaptation prince with his somewhat awkward acting had "ruined"...

Higashikata Josuke, L, Oreki Houtarou, Saiki Kusuo...

Forget it. Better not think about it, or he might not be able to stop himself from punching this new classmate he had yet to meet.

Miyauchi Hiyage cleared his throat and took the initiative to greet the mini Kento Yamazaki.

"Hello, I'm Miyauchi Hiyage from Saitama Prefecture. Please take care of me."

The mini Kento Yamazaki seemed surprised that someone had approached him first and turned toward him.

His face did look much more agreeable from the front, though his complexion was somewhat yellowish. It seemed this new classmate was not in very good health.

"I'm Sakakibara Kouichi. I'm from Toyama Prefecture, though I've studied in Tokyo since I was little. Please take care of me."

"Sakakibara... Kouichi. Could you tell me how it's written in kanji?" Miyauchi Hiyage asked as he took out a pen and paper and wrote down his own name first.

With Japanese names, knowing only the pronunciation made it difficult to know which kanji to write.

Just like Hiyage and Kouka: their names had originally been pronounced the same but written differently.

It was only after the two siblings grew older that their pronunciations were adjusted somewhat to distinguish them.

After Sakakibara Kouichi neatly wrote down his name, Miyauchi Hiyage studied it carefully before smiling, nodding at him, and once again saying, "Please take care of me."

Returning to his seat, Miyauchi Hiyage tilted his head slightly toward the window, making others think he was admiring the blooming cherry trees outside.

At the same time, his mind began racing at full speed.

Sakakibara Kouichi was not a common name.

In fact, he had noticed the name while looking through the class assignments before, but he had not thought much about it at the time.

But now, seeing that side profile, which bore a seventy percent resemblance to the manga-adaptation prince, he could not help sinking into thought.

Back when Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! had been popularized by Kyoto Animation, Takanashi Rikka's eyepatch-wearing chuunibyou image had been all the rage. Around the same time, another similarly styled eyepatch-wearing girl had also become popular.

However, compared to the cheerful atmosphere of the chuunibyou set, the atmosphere around that other eyepatch girl was much stranger.

Beneath Takanashi Rikka's eyepatch was merely a decorative colored contact lens, but beneath that other girl's eyepatch was a genuine "Doll's Eye" capable of seeing death.

Misaki Mei, the heroine of the horror mystery novel Another.

And Sakakibara Kouichi was the male protagonist of that story.

As he recalled, aside from being adapted into an anime, Another had indeed received a live-action film adaptation, one made not long after that manga-adaptation prince's debut.

Was that why they looked so alike?

Miyauchi Hiyage recalled the plot of Another.

He remembered that in the anime, the story should have taken place during the male lead's third year of middle school, when he transferred from Tokyo back to his hometown because of his family's work.

But clearly, the plot had now deviated somewhat. According to Sakakibara Kouichi himself, he had attended school in Tokyo all these years.

"Is something wrong with the story itself, or has the timeline been pushed back until after high school?"

He could not confirm it yet.

Still, he had plenty of time in the future to learn whatever he wanted from his deskmate.

Besides, he had happened to see Takanashi Rikka's name in the Chat Group last night. Using her as an opening to bring up Misaki Mei would not seem abrupt.

Sakakibara, From Today On, You're My Best Partner