Isagi closed the bedroom door with a soft click, the sound echoing in the already quiet house. The hallway lights were already off; only the faint glow of the bedside lamp he'd turned on upon entering remained...
He tossed his backpack into the corner, peeled off his jacket and t-shirt, leaving him in sweatpants and the thin tank top he wore to sleep. His body was still warm from the shower and the walk home, muscles relaxed yet carrying that pleasant post-game tension. He lay down on his back, arms behind his head, the pillow sinking under his weight.
His phone was in his right hand, screen lit, but he wasn't really scrolling. He just stared at notifications without reading them: a dry "I got home safe" reply to his girlfriend, a flood of fan stories tagging him from the game, some dumb memes from the Teikou group that Kise had already forwarded. Nothing held his attention.
His mind was elsewhere.
The train ride home had been… strange. In a good way.
He'd had simple conversations with the girls about school and everything else, catching up after a week without seeing each other in person. The entire time, he felt a warmth rising in his chest—the resonance the temple god had promised. It wasn't just attraction. It was something deeper, as though each of them filled a different part of him, and together… together they made sense. They made him feel complete in a way he had never felt before.
It was an indescribable feeling.
He rolled onto his side, the phone falling onto the mattress beside him.
…One thing he had noticed was that Momoi wasn't his soulmate? She clearly had a crush on him, but there hadn't been the same resonance he felt with the other girls, which he found quite surprising. He had even considered the possibility that she might be one… Well, she could very well be, and the resonance simply hadn't activated yet or something like that. He couldn't rule it out completely…
Alya, Maria, and Marin were already confirmed as his soulmates. Yuki and Kaguya too—he had met them earlier, and the reaction had been unmistakable.
Hm? How so?
Well, when he got home, Kaguya was already waiting for him. She had sent a limousine to pick him up, wanting the two of them to have dinner together and spend some time as a couple.
They walked hand in hand, exchanged kisses, and she seemed dangerously addicted to kissing him.
During dinner, they talked a lot about feelings. At one point, she even said that if he won the Inter High, she would give him a present… clearly trying to motivate him.
He couldn't help but think:
She was probably planning to use his fame as the genius of Japanese football to placate her own parents… and, in the future, officially turn him into her son-in-law.
Wealthy families always came with that kind of political maneuvering, after all.
Besides, he still didn't know how to bring up the idea of dating more than one girl.
I mean, since they were already in a relationship and talked about practically everything, he had subtly mentioned polygamy in some countries, commenting how, in certain cultures, it was seen as relatively normal.
But Japanese culture was far stricter in that regard.
Although… there were certain contradictions.
For example, there was greater cultural tolerance, in some contexts, for married or committed men to hire sex workers—something that, socially, was often treated differently from emotional involvement. Still, that varied greatly from person to person and generation to generation…
Compared to Brazil, where reactions tended to be more direct and passionate, it all seemed… peculiar to him.
And precisely because of that, he still wasn't sure how or when he should bring the subject up with Kaguya…
In any case, he wasn't in a hurry to form a "harem." Since they were true soulmates, he believed that, in the end, they were destined to be together. Besides, he had Kaguya to help him deal with typical teenage hormonal impulses. Although they hadn't gone very far yet, sometimes the situation got harder than he would like—especially when things stopped at some hotter make-out sessions…
Anyway, he was much more focused on football and making money.
He wanted to build a stable professional career and accumulate enough wealth to live in luxury. In today's world, money and status were clear forms of power. Of course, as a footballer, he would become super famous, and fame had its unpleasant side. Still, if managed well, it could become a tool rather than a burden…
But setting that future aside, he remembered the encounter with Yuki after dinner with Kaguya.
When he got home, he found not only Yuki but also Kuze and Oreki talking with his parents. They had come to congratulate him, and honestly, the mere fact that Oreki had overcome his own laziness to accompany the two siblings was already quite a surprise.
Still, he ended up having some interesting moments with Miss Suou… and with the young otaku behind the mask.
When he met her in person, he felt that same familiar resonance he had already experienced with the other girls, and clearly she felt it too. So much so that her advances became noticeably bolder afterward. He spent a good while drinking and celebrating with everyone until just a short time ago, when they finally left. After that, he went upstairs to his room…
And now here he was, lying in bed, thinking about his day off tomorrow…
Maybe he should go to a library.
Come to think of it, since he was reborn in this world, he still hadn't made time for something he loved in his previous life: reading calmly.
The idea quickly solidified in his mind.
Without hesitating any longer, he decided that was what he would do.
But first, he needed to sleep.
After saying good night to the girls, he slipped the phone under his pillow, pulled up the blanket, and lay down, adjusting himself until he found a comfortable position.
Because of the accumulated fatigue—after all, he had played ninety intense minutes that day, practically carrying the team alone once again—his body felt heavy.
It didn't take long for sleep to claim him.
.
.
.
.
.
The next morning, after waking up, having breakfast, and going to the gym as usual, he spent some time with his parents. In the afternoon, he finally decided to do what he had planned the day before: go to the library alone instead of going out with Kaguya or his "friends." He wanted that time just for himself.
It had already been about twenty minutes of pedaling since he left home.
The urban landscape around Ōmiya Station, where the JR lines, Tobu Urban Park Line, and New Shuttle intersected, appeared before his eyes. It was a busy area, known as Saitama's main transportation hub, yet it still preserved quiet suburban pockets. As he passed the station on his left, Isagi turned right at the traffic light and, in less than a minute, reached his destination: the library.
He parked his bicycle in the nearly full rack and headed toward the building.
Simply because it was the largest library in the area, there were a great number of visitors.
When he reached the circulation desk, his eyes drifted toward the tables that filled most of the interior. High-school students, university students, and working adults stood out, laptops open in front of them…
There were even some students from Ichinan…
While absentmindedly recognizing the presence of those students, Isagi pulled his cap even lower to hide his face. With his recent fame, a lot of people wanted his autograph, and he really didn't want to be bothered. Moving quietly to the hardcover contemporary romance shelves, he leaned slightly and scanned the alphabetically organized rows. He was looking for a book that started with "Yu." Compared to his height, the short shelf barely reached his waist.
He soon found the book his mother had asked for. It was written by Yuigahama Kanna; the title was The Prince's Poison Apple, released four or five years ago. She liked the author's previous work and had decided to collect them all.
Isagi picked up the rather worn book from the small shelf. It was exactly at that moment, when he raised his head to take it to the circulation desk, that it filled his vision.
A bunny girl was standing between the bookshelves.
"…"
He blinked several times, unsure if it was an illusion or something else, and registered her appearance and existence.
She wore shiny black high heels. Her legs were wrapped in slightly sheer black stockings that revealed the tone of her skin. Likewise, a black leotard emphasized her curves, and although her chest was modest, her cleavage was prominently displayed. White bracelets adorned her wrists, accentuating the look, and of course, a black bow tie was tied around her neck. Removing the height of her heels, she was about 165 cm tall. Her refined face carried a slightly bored expression, and an adult-like apathy flowed through her.
At first, he wondered if some kind of filming was taking place, but when he looked around, there were no adults who appeared to be TV crew. She was completely alone, seemingly lost. Surprisingly, she was a wild bunny girl.
Of course, her presence filled the early-afternoon library. "Out of place" would be the term…? The only places Isagi could think of that were inhabited by bunny girls were Las Vegas casinos and slightly shady restaurants, but in any case: she was out of place. However, the real reason for Isagi's surprise was something entirely different. It was that, despite wearing such eye-catching clothing, no one was looking at her.
"What the hell?"
He couldn't hold back his voice, and a nearby librarian shot him a look, telling him to be quiet. As he waved apologetically at the librarian, he thought: No, no, there's someone else you should be worrying about.
But that in itself was what Isagi's strange conviction had solidified. No one was concerned about the bunny girl: there wasn't even a suppressed disturbance from ignoring something, no sign that anyone had noticed her.
Normally, if they had such a stimulating bunny girl next to them, even the student clutching a statute book with a furrowed brow would have looked. The old man reading the newspaper would continue pretending to read while sneaking glances, and the librarian would have to politely reprimand her with something like: "Those clothes are a bit…"
This was strange. It was clearly strange. It was almost as if she were a ghost that only Isagi could see.
A trail of cold sweat ran down his back.
Ignoring his discomfort, the bunny girl picked up a book and headed to a study corner inside the library. On her way, she looked into the face of one student and stuck out her tongue, waved her hand between a worker's face and his tablet PC as if to confirm he couldn't see her. When she realized they wouldn't react, she smiled with satisfaction and then took the empty seat farthest ahead.
The university student in front of her didn't notice her. Even when she adjusted the chest area of her leotard that had slipped a little, he didn't react at all. Even when she should certainly have been right in his field of vision…
After a while, the student gathered his books and began preparing to leave. Then, as if nothing had happened, he left—and in doing so, he didn't glance at the girl's chest.
"…"
After worrying about it for a while, Isagi sat down in the seat the student had just vacated. He stared fixedly at the bunny girl. At the curves of her arms flowing from bare shoulders, the pale skin of her neck down to her breasts, the strangely sensual and delicate movements that accompanied each of her breaths. Despite being in a library, which should have given him an impression of diligence, it felt as though his mood was taking on a strange tone.
No—his mood was already strange enough.
After a while, his eyes met hers as she lifted her gaze from the book in her hand.
"…"
"…"
The world seemed to freeze for a second.
It was as though something invisible had stretched a thread between them—thin, electric… inevitable.
Her eyes widened.
Isagi's did too.
"Eh…?" escaped her, almost in a breathless whisper.
Isagi's heart raced.
No—not raced.
It exploded.
BUM.
BUM.
BUM.
Each beat reverberated through his chest as though someone had kicked a ball straight into his sternum. A sudden heat rose up his neck, spreading across his shoulders, his chest… straight down to his stomach.
It was that feeling again.
…The bunny girl brought her hand to her own chest, fingers pressing against the leotard as if trying to calm her own heart. But more important than that—she was his soulmate too!?
Silence.
For half a second…
They both blinked twice, and the girl was the first to open her mouth.
"This is a surprise…" Her voice carried a mischievous energy: "You can still see me…"
Her comment sounded as though she had expected other people not to be able to see her. But that was probably the right way to interpret those words, because none of the people around had noticed the existence of the girl—who was like a mass of discordant sensations…
"In that case."
The girl closed the book and stood up. Normally, this would be the point where they would part ways, and he could later talk about how he met a strange person. But Isagi had a reason to avoid simply separating: what bothered him was the fact that he knew the girl. She attended the same school as him and was in her third year at Ichinan High School. He knew her name too—her full name.
Sakurajima Mai.
That was the bunny girl's name.
More than that—she was his soulmate…
"Um…" He called out softly to the pale back that was turning away. She stopped and asked "What?" with only her gaze. "You're Sakurajima-senpai, right?"
He kept his voice volume in mind as he spoke her name.
"…" Mai's eyes showed surprise for an instant. "If you're addressing me like that, you're a student from Ichinan High School?"
Mai sat down again and looked directly at Isagi. Because of the cap, she couldn't see his face clearly, only met his eyes… and felt that inexplicable urge to get closer, to want to stay near.
What held her back was her own situation.
With that, she ended up standing to leave, despite the strange ache squeezing her heart.
Was she… in love?
Impossible…
When he lifted the cap and revealed his face, Mai immediately blushed. A warm sensation coursed through her entire body.
She knew him.
That was the captain of the football team, the ace who had been treated as a genius of Japanese football in recent days, ever since the start of the Inter High. Even though she wasn't much of a sports fan, even she had heard of him...
Isagi took a deep breath, realizing the situation had gone completely off the rails, but that was exactly what made everything even clearer. The resonance, the heat, the immediate shock… there was no doubt left. He pushed the cap back, revealing his full face, and leaned slightly forward, trying to keep his voice low so as not to attract the attention of the few readers around.
"I'm Isagi Yoichi." A short pause. "My name means 'a pure spirit that moves forward'… or something like that. My parents thought it suited me."
Mai blinked.
Once, twice, three times.
There was a mixture of surprise, embarrassment, and… enchantment. An almost imperceptible gleam passed through her eyes as she mentally repeated his name. Yoichi. Pure spirit. It was… ironic, considering how he had just caught her invisible to the entire world, dressed as a bunny girl inside a public library.
She looked away for half a second, as if trying to reorganize her thoughts, and only then met his gaze again.
"I know who you are." She admitted, her tone low, almost embarrassed. "The 'genius of Ichinan.' The captain who's been destroying everyone in the Inter High. Even I, who doesn't follow football, ended up hearing about you."
Isagi scratched the back of his neck lightly.
"…Yeah. A lot of people have been talking lately."
Her eyes dropped to the book on the table, then to her own hands, as if trying to maintain some composure. But the truth was that Sakurajima Mai's heart was beating too fast, out of rhythm and chaotic.
And she could barely understand why.
"My name is Sakurajima Mai." She finally introduced herself formally, lifting her chin slightly in the typical posture of an experienced actress, though at that moment it couldn't hide the vulnerability in her gaze. "My name comes from 'cherry blossom island,' but… I've never been that graceful."
Isagi almost laughed.
"I disagree."
Her eyes widened, clearly not expecting that.
He continued, perfectly calm:
"Sakurajima-senpai suits cherry blossoms. The name fits you."
Then he added, as if it were a simple observation: "It's beautiful. And gentle."
Mai brought her hand to her chest.
That strange warmth pulsed again. It wasn't just the resonance. It was the way he spoke. The direct yet calm manner. The compliment without any intention of impressing—simply… genuine. It left her defenses fragile.
She took a deep breath to regain control.
"You're… surprisingly honest." Her gaze softened. "And polite, it seems."
"I try."
"…And you succeed, apparently."
Silence.
Not an uncomfortable silence, but one that seemed to pull the two closer, as if the air between them had grown too heavy, too charged, too meaningful.
Mai was the first to slightly turn her face away, breaking eye contact before it burned them both alive.
"So…" She crossed her arms, the black leotard following the movement and unintentionally emphasizing every curve of her body. "You can see me."
"I can." Isagi answered immediately.
"And that doesn't strike you as strange?"
"It does. But I don't mind—why would I complain about seeing a beauty like Sakurajima-senpai dressed as a bunny?..." He said without hesitation.
Her lower lip trembled for an instant.
Mai took a deep breath, trying to maintain composure. Her face was too warm, and she felt it clearly when she touched her own cheek.
"…Do you talk to all girls like that?"
That was all she managed to ask, unaware that her own voice had become lower, almost husky.
Isagi tilted his head, thoughtful for a second.
"No." Then, with disarming sincerity: "Only to the ones who make my heart race."
Mai's heart lurched so violently that she almost lost her breath.
It was irrational.
It was too fast.
It was impossible.
And yet… so real that it hurt.
She looked away, pressing her arms against her chest as if trying to contain the tremor.
"You… shouldn't say things like that to your senpai."
"…Sorry, I ended up being a bit indelicate. But could you explain to me what's going on...?"