I Was Reincarnated As the Hated Scummy Best Friend in a Gal Game and the Protagonist Is Useless

61

17, Sakiya Tanigawa Clouds Over

—Crash.

The glass shattered right before my eyes.

One of the fragments sliced my cheek.

“I found you, you’re Sakiya Tanigawa, right?”

“Don’t mess with me, you b*stard!? This is the Master’s car, isn’t it!? Hey, you little girl, are you listening!?”

“I was the one who asked first, you know.”

“Ugh…!?”

The woman reached through the broken window and unlocked the car door.

All I did was wait in the car for the Master, who said he was going to meet a relative’s child late at night. Why must I experience such terror…?

“Help… Master…”

“You’re kind of annoying.”

“!?”

My neck was restrained by her right hand.

I couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

Who is this woman I’m meeting for the first time…?

Am I going to be killed?

I struggle in vain, but the woman doesn’t flinch.

“Just be quiet for a bit.”

“Wha…!?”

A straight punch flew and buried itself in my cheek.

In the dead of night, a demon climbed into the car.

—

“Ah, ahhh!?”

“Calm down, Sakiya!”

“D-Dad…?”

“You dropped your cup… It’s okay, they’re not here anymore…”

Dad said, comforting me with an embrace.

My heart began to settle, and the flashbacks faded away.

Watching over me, he started to dispose of the large shards from the coffee cup I had dropped and broken.

“You’ve developed a trauma to the sound of breaking things… Take a rest for a while.”

“…I’m sorry.”

The man I once called Master, I now call Dad.

Maybe that’s normal.

But I liked calling him Master, and I always called my father that.

However, since that day when I was beaten by the chestnut-haired twin-tailed girl while calling for Master’s help, and groped by a man with menacing brown eyes, the trauma remained. Every time I uttered the word Master, I would recall the demon, and I sealed away that term.

Since then, the relationship between Dad and me had been strained.

I had no friends or mother, but having Master was enough to make me happy.

Those days abruptly ended because of those demons.

The admiration and hope I held for Gifts.

The future I envisioned, working in the Gift-related industry.

All of it turned to hatred for Gifts after becoming a victim.

Even if I were saved by someone with a Gift, I doubt my views would ever change, I think to myself.

And so, my elementary school life of just going to school, studying, and returning home came to an end.

It was six years without making any friends, but maybe something will change in middle school.

With hope in my heart, I donned my new uniform and headed to school.

“Why… the heck!?”

At the school gates, I spotted the last people I wanted to see.

A group of five, chatting away as if they were the best of friends.

Two of them caught my eye.

A girl with chestnut twin tails, a beauty mark just below her eye.

A guy with a nasty look, his crude laughter on display.

Just seeing her made me feel like throwing up everything in my stomach.

Looking at him, goosebumps spread all over my body, and I started to tremble.

I can’t stand it… being in the same school as these people…

Why, how did it come to this?

It’s pointless to let it bother me.

But I couldn’t help it.

Frozen in place, the guy turned around.

He had me in his full view.

With a crescent moon-shaped grin, he opened his mouth.

“Too bad, so sad for you.”

Mouthing the words, he and the group headed into the school.

Once they were out of sight, I could finally move again.

It was Akechi Hidetaka, the demon my father’s sister had taken in.