“――kun, I’m going to change the sheets now.” 

While I was delirious with fever, I heard the familiar voice of a nurse.

I was gently rolled over, and the sheets were pulled back from one side.

“Okay, I’m going to roll you over again.”

This time I was rolled onto the other side, and she finished changing the sheets without me ever having to get up.

“…Thank you very much.”

“Oh, did I wake you up? Sorry about that.”

The nurse lowered herself down and met my gaze.

I gave a weak smile.

“No, it’s fine.” 

“The doctor will be here soon, so if you can, try your best to sit up, okay?”

“…Yes.”

“While we’re at it, I’ll take your vitals too. We’ll start with your blood pressure, and I’ll also take your temperature at the same time, so excuse me for a moment.”

She fastened the blood pressure cuff around my arm, then lifted my other arm and slid the thermometer into place.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m a little groggy.”

“Right. It’s cold today, isn’t it?” 

“…Very cold.” 

Until the blood pressure measurement was finished, our casual small talk continued.

For me, it was an important ritual to confirm that I hadn’t died today either.

“Are you eating properly?”

“Not really.”

“You need to try to put some weight back on.”

“Yes.”

“If the treatment goes well, you’ll make it in time for your middle school entrance ceremony.”

“…Yes.”

When I glanced out the window, snow was falling.

I no longer had much hope for the transplant surgery that had been postponed so many times.

A dry cough escaped me, forcing me to bend over.

The chills wouldn’t stop.

The electronic beep of the thermometer.

The color drained from the nurse’s face as she pulled it out.

“Wait here for a moment, okay?”

The nurse ran off, thermometer in hand.

Unable to bear the cold, I pulled the blanket over my head.

◇◆◇ 

When he woke up, Toudou Mizuki jolted upright as if startled.

Looking around, he found himself in his usual bedroom.

Outside the window, it was still dark, and right beside him, his aide Mikado Rei was sleeping softly.

Mizuki exhaled slowly, then lay back down on the bed with a soft thump.

“Mizuki-sama…”

Perhaps he’d woken her. Rei shifted closer.

“It’s still early.” 

“Umm.” 

“Did you have a scary dream?” 

“…Umm.” 

“It’s all right.”

He was pulled into Rei’s voluptuous chest.

As she stroked his head like a child, Mizuki tried to resist for a moment, but quickly gave up and let himself relax against her.

“It’s all right.”

The winter of his third year of middle school.

In a traffic accident with an autonomous bus returning to its depot, Toudou Mizuki recalled something like memories from a previous life.

An unfamiliar world, an unfamiliar country, an unfamiliar self.

Memories he had no recollection of ever living.

And yet, for some reason, he was able to accept them without resistance, as though they truly had once been his own.

Fragmented, faint memories.

They were tiny fragments, so small he couldn’t even remember his own name.

Perhaps they were nothing more than strange hallucinations produced by a brain on the brink of death. There was no way to prove they were memories of a past life.

Even so, they were enough to change Mizuki’s values.

Women, once objects of fear, now no longer unsettled him in the slightest.

Even Mikado Rei, his aide, someone he’d hardly ever seen back in middle school, now slept beside him almost every day.

“Mizuki-sama…”

Rei, who had been stroking his head, pressed herself against him this time, nuzzling close as if seeking affection with her whole body.

“Mornings are still cold, aren’t they?”

Saying that, Rei used the cold as an excuse and buried her face against his neck.

Then, just like that, she sucked at his neck.

Leaving marks like this had recently become one of Rei’s daily habits.

“Rei-san, not again…” 

“Looks like you’ve been bitten by a nasty mosquito again.”

Rei pulled her face away and let out a small chuckle.

It was an expression she would never show outside.

Ever since they’d promised to keep living together after graduating high school, Rei’s expressions had grown far gentler than before.

“I’ll go prepare the bath. I’ve gotten you rather dirty.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Rei raised her upper body, and the blanket draped over them slipped aside.

At the same time, Mizuki’s pale body was exposed to the air.

Rei’s gaze fixed on him, as if drawn there against her will.

“…?” 

“Rei-dono?” 

Just as Rei was about to get out of bed, she shifted her position and pressed her body onto Mizuki instead.

Then she gave him a bewitching smile.

“It seems we have more time than usual today. Please allow me to defile your body just a little longer.” 

◇◆◇ 

Shirayuki Academy is one of the national high schools built during the Meiji period.

There are several co-ed schools in Tokyo besides Shirayuki Academy, but it is particularly famous as the first school to introduce the class hierarchy system, and has since produced many notable figures.

This class hierarchy system assigns students to classes based on various social scores: female students are primarily sorted according to productivity scores, while male students are assigned based on credibility scores.

And the class Toudou Mizuki was placed into—Class K—was supposed to be the lowest-ranked class, made up of new students with low scores.

“Good morning!” 

The moment Mizuki entered the classroom, the girls greeted him in unison.

One boy to roughly thirty girls—that was the normal gender ratio in a typical Shirayuki Academy class, and in Class K in particular, due to class transfers, the ratio had become 1:45.

“Morning.”

Mizuki returned the greeting with a friendly smile and headed toward his seat in the center of the classroom.

As he sat down, he spoke to the student in the seat beside him.

“Nene-chan, you really did great yesterday.”

“E-eh? Ehehe! I-I just got lucky!”

Kaminari Nene grinned sheepishly. 

Admitted through a sports recommendation, she had experienced a national championship in volleyball back in middle school and boasted an impressive height of 178 centimeters.

She usually tended to hunch over as if trying to hide her height, but having just excelled at the sports festival, she was holding her chest high from the very start of the day.

“Hey, Mizuki-kun. Mind if I ask you something?”

The one who called out to him was Houjou Noa.

The eldest daughter of the Houjou family, one of the prestigious lineages known as the Eighteen Founding Houses, currently held sway over nearly thirty percent of Class K through her faction.

“Yeah, what is it?” 

“We were thinking of having a get-together after school to celebrate the sports festival. Are you free, Mizuki-kun? Of course, if it’s inconvenient, we can postpone it.”

For a first-year class ranked at the very bottom, it was said to be the best record in the school’s history.

Thanks to that achievement, a buoyant, almost giddy atmosphere hung over the classroom.

“Um… well…”

Mizuki instinctively turned his gaze to Isshiki Shizuku, the class representative.

She, too, was the eldest daughter of the Isshiki family, one of the Eighteen Founding Houses, and from Mizuki’s perspective, it was necessary to keep a balance.

“Before Mizuki-sama arrived at school, I’ve already obtained everyone’s consent.”

Before Mizuki could even ask, Shizuku smiled gently.

Noa immediately picked up where she left off.

“For now, everyone’s in. We’re thinking of using this classroom as the venue, and we’ve already gotten permission to do so.”

“I see. Okay, then I’ll join too.”

“Thank you. Everyone will be happy to hear that.”

A genuinely delighted smile spread across Noa’s face.

Then, almost at once, her smile wilted, giving way to a puzzled expression.

“…What’s with that bandage?”

Reflexively, Mizuki reached up to the bandage on his neck.

“Um… it looks like I got bitten by a bug.”

“Huh…”

Noa’s gaze moved, as if she were surveying the classroom.

Then she quickly turned back to Mizuki and smiled.

“It is the season when pests start to multiply. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out as well.”

Her eyes weren’t smiling.