Pure Route in a Netorare School

I silently led Takagi out into the corridor.

With one hand, I held him by the collar of his jacket as if he weighed nothing.

Behind me, Ayaka followed, clutching the camera tightly to her chest.

The moment we appeared in the main building…

Students immediately started turning to look at us.

“What’s going on?”

“That’s Takagi-sensei…”

“Why is Kurisaki leading him?”

Whispers quickly spread through the corridor.

But I didn’t care.

I reached the teachers’ office and, without letting go of Takagi, opened the door.

Silence fell inside immediately.

Several teachers raised their heads at the same time.

Nakamura-sensei was among them.

She was the first to notice Ayaka.

“Sakurai-san?..”

Then her gaze shifted to Takagi.

And finally — to me.

I spoke calmly:

“I apologize for the intrusion.

But I have a recording that requires the immediate attention of the school director.”

Takagi jerked.

“Don’t listen to him! This student attacked me!”

I didn’t even look in his direction.

“The recording starts before I entered the room.

It shows everything.”

The teachers’ office fell into heavy silence.

A few minutes later, the director entered the office.

The elderly man listened attentively to everyone in turn.

I handed him the camera.

Ayaka stood silently beside me.

When the director asked her if she confirmed my words, the girl took a deep breath.

“Yes.”

After a short pause, she added:

“And…

I also need to confess something.”

Everyone looked at her.

Ayaka lowered her head.

“A few weeks ago, I stole something in the store.

It’s true.

Today I was planning to go to the owner myself, apologize, and accept any punishment.

I don’t want to hide anything anymore.”

The office fell silent again.

The director looked at the girl for a long time.

Then he said calmly:

“Thank you for saying this yourself.

We will discuss the rest later.”

He turned to one of the teachers.

“Call the police immediately.

And notify the Board of Education.”

Takagi turned completely pale.

For the first time, real fear appeared on his face.

The next few hours turned into an endless series of questions.

Police officers arrived.

They cordoned off the storage room.

They seized the camera.

They requested recordings from the school’s internal surveillance cameras.

They questioned all participants in the incident one by one.

Me.

Ayaka.

The director.

The teachers who first saw us in the teachers’ office.

They reconstructed the events literally minute by minute.

Takagi still tried to justify himself.

He changed his testimony several times.

But the more evidence appeared, the more obvious it became that his version was falling apart.

By midday, the news had already spread throughout almost the entire school.

Lessons in several classes had to be postponed.

In the corridors, people were only talking about the police arrival.

It was at that moment that the door to the office where Ayaka and I were waiting for the questioning to end opened carefully.

Hayato entered first.

Then Mio.

Then Yuki.

And finally Rin.

The moment Hayato saw Ayaka, he quickly walked up to her.

“Ai…”

He stopped a step away from her.

“Are you okay?”

Ayaka looked at him for a few seconds.

Then, for the first time in a long while, she allowed herself to relax.

“Hmph…

Of course.

Don’t think I’m that weak.”

But her voice still trembled betrayingly.

Hayato didn’t say anything.

He simply placed his hand gently on her shoulder.

Mio breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank god…

We were so scared.

When they said the police had arrived…

I thought something terrible had happened!”

“Idiot…”

Ayaka snorted quietly but didn’t push her away.

Rin exhaled in relief.

“Good that it’s all over.”

Yuki stood silently a little behind the others.

Our eyes met for just a moment.

She gave a barely noticeable nod.

Rin also shifted her gaze to me.

There was only one question in her eyes.

“And this was done by Kurisaki-kun again…”

I simply looked away calmly.

Inside, only one thought arose.

“Another storyline route has been changed.”

The police car slowly disappeared behind the school gates.

The schoolyard gradually became quiet again.

The students had long since returned to class, although today’s lessons resembled endless discussions about what had happened.

I sat on a wooden bench near the director’s office.

Finally, the door opened.

Ayaka came out first.

She looked tired.

After several hours of questioning, her usual arrogant mask had almost disappeared.

Hayato followed.

The moment he saw his sister, he immediately walked up to her.

“Ai…”

She raised her head.

For a few seconds she simply looked at him.

Then she unexpectedly looked away.

“Hmph…

Don’t look at me like that.

I’m fine.”

Hayato only smiled weakly.

“Good.

The main thing is that you’re okay.”

Mio couldn’t hold back first.

“Ai!”

She hugged the girl tightly.

“We were so scared!

When they said the police had arrived…

I thought something terrible had happened!”

“Idiot…”

Ayaka snorted quietly but didn’t push her away.

Rin exhaled in relief.

“Good that it’s all over.”

Yuki stood silently a little behind the others.

Our eyes met for just a moment.

She gave a barely noticeable smile.

Just a tiny bit.

But it was enough.

It seems…

The red button on her phone hadn’t been pressed for nothing after all.

I was already about to leave when I heard a voice behind me:

“Kurisaki.”

I turned around.

Hayato walked up to me.

For a few seconds he was silent.

Then he bowed deeply.

Genuinely.

Almost ninety degrees.

“Thank you.”

I looked at him calmly.

“For what?”

“For Ai.”

He raised his head.

Genuine guilt was visible in his eyes.

“If not for you…”

He didn’t finish.

I understood the rest.

“I should have been there.”

But that wasn’t the case.

In the original story…

He didn’t know anything at all.

I just shook my head.

“Don’t think about it.

The main thing is that she’s okay now.”

Hayato nodded slowly.

“Still…

Thank you.”

He bowed slightly again and returned to his friends.

I watched him go.

“A good guy…

No wonder all the heroines fell in love with him.”

I had already taken a step toward the exit when I heard another voice.

“Hey…”

I turned around.

Ayaka was standing a few meters away from me.

She habitually crossed her arms over her chest, but now it looked more like an attempt to hide her embarrassment.

“Don’t think…

That I’m in your debt now.”

I involuntarily smirked.

“I don’t.”

She clicked her tongue quietly.

“And yet…”

Silence hung for a few seconds.

Then she said almost inaudibly:

“Thank you.”

Having said that, Ayaka sharply turned around.

“Let’s go, Hayato!

And don’t dawdle!”

She walked quickly toward the exit.

Hayato only smiled guiltily at me and hurried after her.

I remained alone.

The schoolyard was once again living its ordinary life.

As if nothing had happened.

I took out my phone.

Opened my notes.

My fingers quickly typed out a few lines.

✅ Yuki route — intervention successful.

✅ Ai route — intervention successful.

I stared at the screen for a few seconds in silence.

Then I added one more line.

Result: two key plot events removed.

I involuntarily smiled.

In the original game, these two events alone took almost two weeks of gameplay time.

The first choices.

The first flags.

The first affection points.

The player spent hours building relationships, fixing mistakes, and reloading saves.

But I…

In just two days, I simply crossed these events out of existence.

It turned out that the next two, or even three, weeks of the original scenario no longer existed.

I put the phone back in my pocket.

“Now…

Sakurai will have the easiest harem route in history.”

I smiled quietly.

Almost all the obstacles had disappeared.

Yuki would no longer face harassment in the alley.

Ayaka would not fall under Takagi’s influence.

If everything continued like this…

The original protagonist would be able to calmly get closer to all the girls.

That was exactly what I wanted.

Wasn’t it?

…

I stopped.

A strange feeling appeared in my chest.

Heavy.

Unpleasant.

Suddenly, Yuki flashed before my eyes.

How she silently applied the bandage to me.

How she clutched the phone with the red button.

How she smiled quietly this morning.

Then…

Rin.

Her sincere “thank you.”

Her trust.

Ayaka.

Her trembling voice.

And the quiet:

“Thank you.”

I slowly closed my eyes.

“Strange…”

Just recently, I had perceived them exclusively as game heroines.

But now…

They no longer seemed like mere characters.

They were real.

Alive.

And unexpectedly…

I didn’t want to simply take them and hand them over to Hayato.

This thought arose on its own.

Quietly.

Almost imperceptibly.

And that only made it scarier.

“…Does Hayato really need all of them?”

I froze.

Then I smiled involuntarily.

“So that’s it…

It means even I am starting to be consumed by greed…”

For the first time since appearing in this world, I caught myself thinking something that had nothing to do with saving people.

And that was what scared me the most.