Yari no Yuusha no Yarinaoshi (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter Pr

Prologue: Before Traveling to Another World 

“Motoyasu, do you like me or Ikuyo more?!” 
“Huh? Umm . . . Oh! My cell phone is ringing! I’ll be right back!” 
Momiji had just confessed her feelings for me. I gave her the shake and got out of there. 
“Wait! Motoyasu!” 
After all, I liked her and Ikuyo pretty much the same at that point, so I still couldn’t really decide between the two. 
Momiji had come over to my place to talk that evening. 
I just couldn’t bring myself to dislike Ikuyo, who sat next to me in class at school, even though I’d heard that she was encouraging others to bully Momiji behind my back. Ikuyo was supposedly their ringleader. Actually, it was true that Ikuyo was bullying Momiji. But it wasn’t that she was the ringleader. It was just that others around Ikuyo had noticed and joined in without her knowing, and so it snowballed into a particularly nasty case of group bullying. It was all just a matter of bad timing. 
But talking and hanging out with each other is something girls are supposed to just naturally do, right? I wanted them to all get along. Bullying is disgraceful. That’s why I addressed the issue head-on. That should have resolved it. The other girls admitted they had been wrong and apologized to Momiji. That should have fixed the issue. So why had things turned out this way? 
Would it have been better to date my friend, Ikuyo, or the sheltered princess, Momiji? 

—Ikuyo (classmate) 
—Momiji (princess) ? 

But I wanted to be with Ikuyo too. As a third-year university student, I’d dated my fair share of girls. I fully realized that this was my most complicated romantic situation yet. I’d just naturally gotten along with girls during my time in junior high and high school. And of course, I’d never seen them fight with each other like this. Everyone got along. They all respected each other. 
But when it was time to go to university, I turned over a new leaf and moved to Tokyo . There, I started my new life—new romances. I’d yearned for new experiences, but now I missed the girls that had seen me off so graciously after high school. 
It was one of those girls that had introduced me to online games too. And I ended up getting into them way more than she ever did. There was another game called The Magical Lands that got me really hooked too. It had an angel girl in it that I absolutely loved. Sure, angels might not have been real, but they were still my ideal type. Girls were all angels, right? 
Those were the good ol’ days. Why was romance so much more difficult now than it had been back then? I sighed. On days like this, I just wanted to spend all day absorbed in online games to relax and destress. 
“Is it so selfish of me to want to enjoy spending time with everyone?” 
The problem with the friend, Ikuyo, was that she was too pushy. She made me think of the kind of women who force guys to marry them. She would show up at my place and start cleaning. And she’d throw away my stuff without even asking. I’d found one of my things she’d told me she’d thrown away once when I went to her place, though. When I asked her about it, she said she took it home because throwing it away would have been a waste. 
On the other hand, the princess, Momiji, always seemed to just happen to show up at places I went. Something about it made me feel like she was stalking me. It was probably just my imagination. Yeah, it was definitely just my imagination! Neither Ikuyo nor Momiji was the type that would do something like that! 
“Oh no! I’m going to be late!” 
I took off running to the place where I was supposed to meet someone. 
After I’d finished my classes for the day, I went on a date with some girl I’d hit on recently. Then I headed home. I lived in an apartment by myself, but when I got to the entrance, I could hear some kind of commotion coming from inside. 
“What are you doing in Motoyasu’s apartment?!” 
“That’s what I want to ask you, Ikuyo!” 
I heard a loud crash, like something was breaking. I opened the door in a hurry to see the two of them right in the middle of a scuffle. I was sure I’d locked the place up, so how had they gotten in? 
“A rich girl like you can get plenty of guys other than Motoyasu! Just give up, Momiji!” 
“I only have feelings for Motoyasu! He’s my prince! You could never make Motoyasu happy!” 
“That’s not up to you to decide!” 
“Stop it, you two!” I shouted. 
I stepped in and pulled them off of each other. 
“Motoyasu?!” 

“Motoyasu!” 
Having finally noticed that I had shown up, they both seemed to calm down. 
“Motoyasu, you tell Ikuyo! Tell her that we’re dating!” 
“You’re wrong! Motoyasu is dating me!” 
Oh, come on! Why were these two always fighting?! If they kept acting like this, I’d never be able to take all the girls out on group dates! They were way too assertive. I couldn’t handle it! 
“Let me make this clear. I’m not ready to devote myself to dating any one, single person. I don’t even want to think about that kind of thing at this point.” 
“No way.” 
Momiji was at a loss for words. She backed away several steps. Ikuyo’s eyes opened wide when she noticed Momiji was off guard and she grabbed a knife from the kitchen. 
“What are you doing? Stop!” I yelled. 
“This is your fault, Motoyasu! It’s your fault things turned out like this for me! In that case — ” 
Ikuyo turned and ran toward Momiji. I was ready to grab the knife from her. That’s when I felt a stabbing sensation in my side. 
“Huh?” 
I turned around to see Momiji holding on to a knife sticking out of me. I felt a sharp pain, and an unbelievable amount of red liquid came gushing out of my side. 
“Ha! I’m sure you just got back from a date with some other girl anyway, right? If Ikuyo or some other girl is going to steal you, then I might as well just kill you. Then I can die too, and we can be together in heaven! Ahahaha!” 
Momiji laughed like some kind of broken toy and slowly pulled the knife out of my side. Ugh. The wound felt like it was on fire. I could feel myself gradually losing strength. 
“Ikuyo, help — ” 
I immediately turned to Ikuyo and asked for help. She had been standing there dumbstruck, but she came back to herself and rushed over to me. Then she thrust the kitchen knife into my chest. 
“ ——— ” 
I let out an inaudible scream. My body trembled as blood gushed out. I could feel the warmth inside of me dissipate and slowly turn to coldness. 
It . . . It hurts! Somebody . . . help me! 
“If anyone is going to be with Motoyasu in heaven, it’s me! You can feel free to die and go to hell, Momiji!” 
“You’re the one that’s going to hell, Ikuyo!” 
“You think so? Just so you know, I’m the one that killed him.” 
“He’s still alive! Hold on, Motoyasu! I’ll put you out of your misery!” 
Momiji thrust her knife toward my neck. 
“I won’t let you interfere! I’m the one who’s going to be with Motoyasu!” Ikuyo shouted. 
“Do you really think you can beat me?!” 
The two of them continued their scuffle, now with knives in hand. I held a trembling hand to my chest and reached out with my other hand in vain as my eyes glazed over. 
Was I . . . going to die? Why? Why had things turned out like this? All I wanted was to get along with everyone and have a good time! All of the girls I had dated before had stuck with me in the end. We’d all gotten along and enjoyed our schooldays as friends, and I did my best to make sure everyone was happy. So why? Why had it turned out like this? What had I done wrong? What had been different this time? And then it hit me. 
The Ikuyo I knew wouldn’t have done this. Momiji was kinder than this too. But I hadn’t let myself believe they felt so strongly for me. I should have made it clear to them. I should have told them I had lots of female friends and that all of them trusted me, and I trusted them. I should have told Ikuyo and Momiji to trust in me too so that we could all just enjoy life. 
I messed up. I really messed up. If I ever had another chance, I would choose to believe. Girls were all angels. It was my fault for failing to gain their trust. 

All of this happened just before I was summoned to another world, which turned out to be nearly identical to an online game that I had played obsessively.