Chapter 2: If Emi would sleep with me…

Ishikawa Yuka sneered inwardly.

She possessed all the knowledge of Love 100% that the in-game Ishikawa Yuka never had.

Continuing to cling to Nozuyama Hiroki like the original owner did would undoubtedly be the most rotten move that led straight to destruction.

The main story of the game starts from senior school. Although there’s no direct depiction of it, the setting states that Yuka met Nozuyama Hiroki in elementary school, fell in love at first sight, and then stuck to him under the title of “fiancée.”

As clearly written in the setting — “met in elementary school” — it truly is the first time they meet from their perspective. But from their earlier conversation, it was also obvious that both families already knew each other.

Between Japan’s top-class business conglomerate, the Nozuyama Zaibatsu, and the long-established Ishikawa Group with global business presence, it was only natural for the families to know one another.

And with the ambition of merging the two giant conglomerates, both sets of parents were delighted at the prospect of Yuka and Hiroki’s union, and temporarily granted them the status of “fiancée candidates.”

Although not officially engaged, the original Yuka held that title and only became even more obsessed with Hiroki, chasing him relentlessly and eventually driving him to dislike her.

Hiroki only tolerated her because of his parents’ orders.

Once he entered senior school and met the newly transferred heroine, he fell in love, and when Yuka repeatedly tried to sabotage their relationship, he finally resolved to make her lose everything.

In Hiroki’s route, Yuka doesn’t die, but the Nozuyama family exposes illegal actions within the Ishikawa Group, pushing the company to the brink of bankruptcy.

As the owning family, the Ishikawa family takes full responsibility, all assets are seized to repay debts, and in the end, burdened with massive debt, they end up homeless on the streets.

That is the ending of Hiroki’s route.

The key point here is that Yuka fell in love with Hiroki at first sight and clung to him desperately, and that both parents actively pushed them into a “fiancée candidate” relationship.

A young Yuka’s obsession with Hiroki was probably obvious to all adults. If they could marry the children off, it would become the perfect opportunity to merge the Nozuyama Zaibatsu and the Ishikawa Group — birthing an enormous mega-conglomerate.

The adults were simply using children’s feelings for their own dirty schemes.

But what if she, Ishikawa Yuka, didn’t fall in love with Hiroki at first sight? Would the parents still be so enthusiastic? At the very least, they could no longer use “the children like each other” as an excuse.

Even if the parents wanted to force an engagement, as long as Yuka clearly stated she didn’t like him, the argument “children’s wishes must be respected” could be raised.

There was absolutely no way she, Ishikawa Yuka, could ever fall for someone as “full of himself” as Nozuyama Hiroki.

In her own imagination, this guy was nothing more than an obstacle preventing Yuka from getting close to the heroine! So now, she needed to fully express to Mrs. Nozuyama and her own mother: she didn’t like Nozuyama Hiroki at all.

That should temporarily crush their absurd fantasies about engagement.

“Do you not even understand basic manners when talking?” Instead of stepping aside, Yuka lifted her chin slightly and spoke with open disdain.

“Huh? What did you say?” Hiroki’s eyes sharpened as he tried to intimidate her with a low voice. Unfortunately, no matter how much a little kid tried to act fierce, his high-pitched tone only sounded laughable.

“Didn’t hear me? Are your ears not working, or is there something wrong up here?” Yuka lightly tapped her own temple with her finger.

“You little—! Do you know who I am? I’m Nozuyama Hiroki!”

“Oh, oh.” Falling for such an obvious provocation — so he really is just an arrogant little brat…

What on earth did the in-game Yuka ever see in him? …Well, perfect. Since this self-important idiot took the bait so easily, she might as well make him look stupid.

“As the young heir of the Nozuyama Zaibatsu, about to enter Ouka Academy, yet you can’t even practice ‘ladies first’? Someone with no personal ability at all, who only relies on his family background to act all high and mighty, bullying someone weaker and younger — and a girl at that — aren’t you ashamed? Don’t you think you look absolutely pathetic right now?”

“—! You—!” Hit right in the sore spot, Hiroki’s face flushed red and he raised his hand, trying to slap her.

It seemed he still remembered he wasn’t supposed to hit girls, so he planned to settle it with a slap instead of a punch. But how could Yuka just stand there and take it? A preschooler’s slap would never land on her.

“Heave-ho~”

“Huh…?”

She easily dodged his hand, and at the same time hooked her foot around his ankle. The arrogant little prince fell straight on his rear, looking utterly confused.

Even though her physical body was back to being six years old, as long as she didn’t shut her eyes in fear, it was impossible for punches, slaps, or kicks from a child this age to hit her.

At this stage, the physical gap between boys and girls wasn’t significant — dealing with Hiroki was child’s play.

“You—you little—!” Flushed and humiliated from both missing the slap and being tripped, Hiroki scrambled back up.

“You didn’t even cry when you fell. Amazing~” Yuka deliberately teased him in a childish tone.

“D-damn it!” This time he swung his fist at her, and again, Yuka dodged with ease. Wahahaha! What’s wrong, Mr. Arrogant? Is that all you can do?

“Hiroki! That’s enough!” A stern woman’s voice cut through the air.

Crap! Mrs. Nozuyama was here too! Did she go too far just now? Her plan was to break the flag with Hiroki, so she provoked him on purpose, but if she accidentally created a different flag, that would be bad.

She shouldn’t have gone so far as to offend the Nozuyama family. If their parents didn’t see, fine — but doing it right in front of both families might have been a bad idea…

“I’m so sorry, Yuka-chan. I will scold Hiroki properly. Can you forgive him this time?”

“…Huh? You know me?” In Yuka’s memories, this should have been the first time she met Hiroki’s parents. Why…

“Yes. I’ve heard rumors about you for a long time. But I didn’t expect you to be such… a lively little girl.” Mrs. Nozuyama smiled gently, but her eyes held curiosity.

“Uh… you flatter me…”
(Yuka internally: That wasn’t praise at all!)

So that was it… Families with long ties and children of the same age naturally talked about each other’s kids… And since her mother was with her, adults easily guessed she was the Ishikawa heiress.

“I don’t mean to blame you,” Mrs. Nozuyama continued, “It’s true Hiroki has been spoiled by us and grown a bit arrogant… A child like you, who can directly point out his flaws to his face, is very rare indeed. …Oh! Mrs. Ishikawa, why don’t we let our Hiroki and Yuka-chan get engaged? Don’t you think that would be a wonderful idea?”

“Eh!?”

Wait! What are you talking about!? She provoked that arrogant brat specifically to break this flag, and now she’s about to become a fiancée candidate? Wouldn’t that make everything pointless?!

Why was this happening? Where did she go wrong? Adults are truly filthy creatures!

She didn’t like Hiroki at all. If she simply stopped saying “Hiroki-oniisan” all day, her parents shouldn’t force anything. So why did Mrs. Nozuyama suddenly bring this up?

Was this the so-called “force of the world”? No matter how she struggled, she would be pulled back onto the main story line?

“I absolutely refuse!” Yuka and Hiroki shouted at the same time.

Oh… she never expected the day would come when she agreed with this arrogant brat…

But since both clearly said no, that should—

“See? You two are so in sync. It’s sudden, and you may feel confused at first, but after spending time together, feelings will naturally grow.” Mrs. Nozuyama smiled like a fox.

What nonsense was this woman spouting? Developing feelings with Hiroki? Dream talk should be spoken while asleep!

In her heart she was a man — how could she ever… even if she died once and became a girl, she would never!

…Oh wait. She actually did die once and become a girl…

“Mrs. Nozuyama… Yuka is still frightened, and this is too sudden…” Mrs. Ishikawa tried to refuse politely.

“Yes~… but I really think it’s a great idea…” Mrs. Nozuyama seemed unwilling to let go.

Amazing! She never expected her own mother would step in to refuse! In the game, her parents always enthusiastically pushed for the engagement to merge with the Nozuyama Zaibatsu — but now the stance seemed the opposite.

“Alright, I understand this isn’t something to decide right this instant. Let’s talk about it again next time.” Mrs. Nozuyama finally relented.

“Haah…” Yuka let out a breath of relief.

She had avoided being branded a “fiancée” on the spot… for now. Maybe. She wasn’t sure. The game had no depiction of Mrs. Nozuyama being so proactive. Was this backlash caused by actions the game never accounted for? Or was it the world’s “corrective force”?

“You just wait!” Hiroki shot her a vicious glare.

“Oh, how scary.” Yuka replied casually.

“Tsk!” Hiroki clicked his tongue dramatically and was pulled away by Mrs. Nozuyama.

Wait! He just cut in front again! Whatever happened to “ladies first”! …Forget it, whatever.

“But mother, I thought you would welcome marrying into the Nozuyama Zaibatsu — why did you refuse?” Yuka couldn’t help asking. This concerned her own “survival strategy.”

“Well… with you being such a wild child, how could I possibly send you to the Nozuyama family!” Mrs. Ishikawa massaged her temples, sounding troubled.

“Ah… well… that’s true…” Yuka agreed inwardly. A young lady who had just been fighting a boy definitely wasn’t suited to marry into an ancient, strict, noble conglomerate family like the Nozuyamas. She raised both hands in approval… The real odd one was Mrs. Nozuyama openly proposing the engagement.

After that, Yuka and her mother completed the mostly-symbolic entrance interview for Ouka Academy and headed home.

****

“Oh? Mrs. Nozuyama said that?” At dinner, Mrs. Ishikawa told her husband about the events of the day. Of course, she omitted the “physical conflict” between Yuka and Hiroki — even telling her husband about that was too embarrassing.

“Kids being lively is fine,” Mr. Ishikawa said casually.

“Husband! It’s because you always spoil her that Yuka turned out this way!” Mrs. Ishikawa scolded him.

Uh… here we go again. But rather than a fight, it was more like her dad getting lectured… According to Yuka’s memories, her mother wasn’t originally so irritable — had menopause arrived?

“Children grow up. Liveliness now will become elegance later. Besides, the project we’re working on with the Nozuyama Zaibatsu — if the two kids could marry, cooperation could deepen.

It’d be a great benefit to both families.” Mr. Ishikawa said, changing his tone.

Crap! Her father was a supporter of the engagement!? If he continued like this, wouldn’t she run straight into the bad ending of bankruptcy!?

“Father! Please don’t joke about such things — even as a joke, no! I hate that person. In father’s eyes, are my feelings meaningless? Am I just a tool for political marriage?” Yuka immediately put on a wronged yet stubborn expression.

“A-ah~ no, no, Yuka, how could daddy do that~? Don’t be angry, okay? Good girl.” Mr. Ishikawa panicked instantly.

Too easy… She’d heard before that the daughter was her father’s weakness — but this dad couldn’t even be called a “weakness,” more like a marshmallow, softer than the cliché fathers in light novels.

“Then you must promise: you cannot arbitrarily decide my fiancé, and don’t bring up engagement again — especially not in front of outsiders, not even as a joke!”

“Yes, yes, daddy understands. Yuka will marry daddy instead, right?”

Huh? What nonsense was that? What was this idiot dad thinking? Who wants to marry you…

Oh… right. He was expecting the typical child reply, like “I want to marry daddy~!” or “I want to marry mommy~!”

How dumb… Inside, she was clearly an adult! Well, not a very old one… did he think she’d actually say that?

“(peeks secretly)…”

“(peeks secretly)…”

Hey! Stop secretly looking at me! There’s no way she’d ever say “I want to marry daddy”!

“Anyway, you absolutely cannot mention marriage to the Nozuyama family again — not even as a joke and definitely not where anyone might hear!”

“Okay okay, daddy won’t say it, don’t be upset.”

Sigh… Did he actually understand? Or did he just think she was throwing a childish tantrum and brushed her off?

“I’m finished eating.” Yuka decided staying longer was pointless and left early.

She returned to her room with the maid Emi. After getting ready, she prepared to sleep.

“Yuka-ojousama, are you going to rest?” Emi asked.

“Hmm~… only if Emi sleeps with me…” Yuka joked casually, while secretly watching Emi’s expression.

“…………” Emi’s expression was blank, her eyes filled with resignation and “You’re saying dumb things again.”

Ah~ she understood. When father was secretly glancing at her earlier, this was probably the expression she had too… She could understand a little of her idiot dad’s feelings now.

She should treat him a little nicer from now on…

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, ojousama. I’ll take my leave.” Emi bowed and exited the room.

Once Emi was gone, Yuka sank into deep thought. Her goal in this world of Love 100% was to enjoy a beautiful yuri life. But she couldn’t just drift along. Today’s clash with Mrs. Nozuyama had made that clear.

Whether it was the world’s force or something else, every time she tried to stray from the original plot, there seemed to be a power dragging her back onto the “correct path.”

So she couldn’t live passively — she needed to actively, thoroughly break all death flags while creating conditions for a yuri ending.

What should she do next? How should she act?

Her thoughts tangled endlessly, and at some point, Yuka drifted into sleep.