KAI'S POV:~
The blinding white didn't fade into the afterlife. It faded into adorable pocket monsters' posters.
My eyes snapped open. I wasn't on the asphalt; I was in my childhood bed. I scrambled up, my center of gravity completely off, and nearly face-planted into the carpet. I rushed to the full-length mirror.
Ten years old.
Jade-black hair, wide eyes, and a face so innocent it was practically a biological weapon. I pinched my cheek. Pain. Real pain.
I didn't scream. I didn't panic. A slow, chilling smile stretched across my face.
I had died. And I had reloaded the save file.
My previous life had been a waste. I spent half of it being a doormat and the other half learning to manipulate too late. But now? I had the mind of an eighteen-year-old sociopath inside the body of an adorable child.
I looked at the clock. 3:00 PM.
My stomach gave a treacherous growl. Right. Biology still applied.
I crept downstairs, moving with a silence I hadn't mastered until I was sixteen in my last life. The kitchen was the target. I spotted the fridge, reached for the handle—
"Nice try, shrimp."
I froze.
I spun around. Karen. My older sister, 15. She was leaning against the counter, arms crossed, radiating that terrifying 'big sister' energy I had forgotten about.
"I... I was just..." I stammered, instantly pitching my voice up an octave.
"You were about to steal my pudding," she said, deadpan. "Mom left lunch on the table. Eat that."
I looked at the table. A soggy sandwich. I looked back at Karen, deploying the 'Starving Puppy expression'(new). I widened my eyes, let my lip wobble just a fraction. "But Onee-san... I'm still growing. Do you want me to stay short forever?"
Karen didn't even blink. "Yes. It's easier to bully you that way."
Tch. She was immune. I forgot she was one of the few people who hated me back then, others were my bullies.
Although she's also kind of a bully.
"Fine," I sighed, dropping the act. "But I'm taking an apple."
"Alright. Bring some juice to my room. My friends are over."
"Okay." maybe I'll get some valuable assets too.
She looked at me suspiciously, and left.
I grabbed the tray of juice and snacks, composing myself. In my past life, I ignored my sister's friends. Gotta think what to do this time.
I knocked on her door.
"Come in!"
I pushed the door open with my hip. Karen was at her desk, but two other girls, both absolutely stunning, were lounging on her bed amidst a sea of textbooks.
I scanned them instantly.
Girl A: Blonde hair, blue eyes, open posture. Bubbly, emotional.
Girl B: Black hair, glasses, reserved. Smart, observant.
I knew them from my past life, but their names were a hazy blur.
"Here's the juice, Onee-san," I said, my voice soft and polite.
"Hello, Kai! How are you?" the blond one chirped, a friendly smile on her face. Her name... it was right there, on the tip of my tongue, but it stubbornly refused to materialize.
"Say something, Kai," she teased, her smile widening as she looked at me.
I averted my gaze, a blush (surprisingly easy to summon now) creeping up my cheeks. "I'm fine," I mumbled, My eyes darted around, taking in the scene.
"Careful, he's a brat in disguise," Karen muttered, not looking up from her math homework.
"Don't be nervous, kai." the blonde chirped.
Other one gave a small, polite wave. "Hello, Kai."
I walked over to place the tray on the bed. My eyes locked onto a bowl of chocolates sitting between them. I didn't ask for one. Asking is for amateurs.
Instead, I set the juice down and let my gaze linger on the chocolate for exactly two seconds—long enough to be noticed, short enough to seem polite—then I pulled my hand back as if restraining myself.
"Go ahead," blondie said immediately, just as predicted. "You can have one."
I looked at Karen. "Can I?"
"No," Karen said automatically.
"Oh," I said. I let my shoulders slump. Just a millimeter.
Alright, I know i shouldn't be this greedy for just a chocolate but... Maybe because I'm in my child body I feel like eating it even more. Yeah that's it.
"Oh, come on, Karen!" Blondie grabbed a chocolate and held it out to me. "Don't be so strict. Here, Kai. Open up."
I hesitated, looking at the sweet, then at her. I opened my mouth. She popped the chocolate in, her fingers brushing my lips.
It tastes much better than when I was an adult
"See? Harmless," she giggled.
"You spoil him," Karen sighed, rubbing her temples. "Kai, get out before you get cavities."
"Hey Karen Onee-san, when you're free, can you help me study too? My tests are-"
"No."
Good, now they'll think that I'm an innocent brother neglected by his big sis.
"Hey, Kai, why don't you study with me?" the black haired one offered, her voice gentle.
Karen immediately perked up. "Eva! I agree you're good at studies, but that doesn't mean you waste your time right before exams."
The blond one, rolled her eyes. "Oh, Karen, you take exams too seriously. Kai, you can totally study with me if you want."
"By the way, what's your name, Blonde Onee-san?" I asked, tilting my head, my most innocent expression firmly in place.
She looked at me, a flicker of demotivation crossing her face. "I come to your house often, and you don't even know my name?"
"Please tell me now! I promise, I won't forget this time!" I insisted, batting my eyelashes for good measure.
Karen, turned from her textbook, a look of utter disbelief on her face. "Hey, what's this? You never talk to your Onee-san so nicely!"
Blondie one, meanwhile, seemed to be melting under my adorable onslaught. She sighed, a small smile playing on her lips. "Lucy. And listen, I'll be angry if you forget my name this time, cutie."
Uggghhh, it's way too cringy.
"He's cute when he tries, though. Besides, I don't mind helping him study. What's one more genius in the making?"
That's wrong. I'm always cute.
Karen huffed, a theatrical sigh escaping her lips. "Fine, just don't distract him too much. And Kai, no complaining if Lucy makes you do extra problems!"
I didn't even ask them to help me, yet they themselves adviced it. It seems I really am adorable.
Honestly, I had no plan to get tutoring from anyone, but should I take tutoring from one of them?
By doing this, I could get closer to them and eventually..., Anyway, the offer is tempting, but it's way too time-consuming.
Come to think of it, seducing sister's friends is risky."
"Onee-san, I don't want to trouble them. So, I'll rather study by myself." That way, I'll be able to get even better.
"So you're fine with troubling me?" Karen countered, one eyebrow raised in that exasperatingly superior way older sisters have.
I let out a sigh—a long, dramatic exhalation that rattled my small lungs. "Fine. If you don't want to teach me, I'll just study all by myself in the dark."
Internally, I was grinning. The 'test' was a complete fabrication. If elementary school actually had a test that could challenge me, I'd eat my own shorts. I just needed an excuse to create a narrative.
"Also," I added, pitching my voice to sound wounded yet dignified, "I don't like studying with strangers."
I didn't wait for a rebuttal. I spun on my heel and sprinted to my room, my tiny footsteps thudding against the floorboards.
Strangers.
That word probably stung. Did they feel bad? Oh, absolutely. But that was the point. Children are impulsive, emotional creatures who say hurtful things without a filter. To play the part, I had to be a little monster. Later, I'd offer a tearful, snot-nosed apology. That emotional rollercoaster—cruelty followed by vulnerability—is how you forge an unbreakable bond.
I always liked children; perhaps I was even a little jealous of their unburdened existence. They remained untouched by the superficial allure of beauty or cuteness in others, and that, to me, was their greatest, most liberating charm. Oh, how I wished I could avoid being captivated by such fleeting aesthetics myself.
Coming back to the main topic, Manipulating older girls would take time, a delicate dance of calculated vulnerability and feigned innocence. I figured a few days would be enough to lay the groundwork. But while I was meticulously setting the stage for my eventual loss of… innocence (ahem), what was I supposed to do in the meantime? Because, newsflash, I was ten years old. Which meant I was condemned to attend elementary school every single day. The horror! How was I going to pass the time there? I didn't even have a mobile phone.
And let's be clear: when it came to manipulation, I wasn't so low as to start on ten-year-old girls. I wasn't a lolicon! Ugh, but what else could I do? I was stuck in a body that couldn't reach the top shelf of the refrigerator without a step stool. My options were… limited.
Then, a brilliant idea, a tiny spark of genius in the vast wasteland of my prepubescent existence, ignited in my mind.
*Knock, knock*
The neighbor's door swung open. Standing there was Charlotte's mom, wielding a smile so bright it violated several international treaties on blinding weaponry.
"Kai-kun! What a pleasant surprise!" she chirped, radiating the warmth of a nuclear reactor.
"I'm fine, Aunty, thank you! Is Charlotte Onee-san home?" I asked
"She is! Charlotte! Kai-kun is here!" she yelled into the depths of the house.
A muffled voice floated back, sounding utterly bewildered. "What? Why?"
Charlotte. The girl next door. In public, she treated me like I was invisible. In private? Her obsession bordered on a federal crime. In my past life, I was genuinely terrified of her possessiveness. But now? I had bigger fish to fry.
"Go on in, she's in her room," her mom said, ushering me inside. "I'll bring you two some juice!"
"Thanks, Aunty! You're very kind." One must maintain appearances, even when one's ulterior motives are as thick as a triple-chocolate fudge cake.
Charlotte's family was undeniably well-off, rich enough to own a PC even in these digital dark ages.
But no, I wasn't here to butter her up for money.
And no, I certainly didn't come here to seduce her either. So the question lingered: why was I here? Because of her computer. As I'd already established, I had no intention of wasting most of my days stuck in elementary school. Therefore, my immediate goal was to find scholarships that would grant me admission into a prestigious school, allowing me to skip grades and accelerate my escape from this juvenile purgatory.
I stood before her bedroom door. The Lion's Den.
"Can I come in?"
"It's open."
I pushed the door open. The room smelled of vanilla and expensive perfume. Charlotte was sitting cross-legged on her bed, controller in hand, eyes glued to a TV screen.
Thirteen years old. Flaxen hair that looked like spun gold, poker-straight and meticulously groomed, cascading down her back, shimmering under the soft light filtering through her window.
Her caramel-colored eyes, framed by long lashes, were fixed on the screen. Her face was strikingly beautiful, a face anyone would call stunning. She was thirteen, three years my senior.
Come to think of it, why was I even scared of her in my past life? The thought was almost amusing.
"So," she said, pausing the game and turning to me with a slow, Cheshire Cat grin. "You came to me? Voluntarily?"
She slid off the bed and began walking toward me. Her movements were slow, deliberate. Like a shark that just spotted a seal falling off a boat.
So… should I pretend to be afraid, just like I genuinely was before? But even after she caught me, she'd likely just hug or embrace me, which, frankly, wouldn't be unpleasant now. I'd actually enjoy playing along with her.
However, at this moment, I was a little busy. That's why…
"Charlotte Onee-san," I said firmly, holding my ground. "Do you want me to never come to your room again?" I asked with a straight face.
She froze mid-step. Her playful smirk faltered into contemplation. "Well... I doubt don't think you will come to my room again after this anyway, so it will be better if I—"
"I will come again," I interrupted.
Her eyebrows shot up. "Oh? And what's the real reason you're here? Missed my beautiful face? Finally realized I'm the only one who truly appreciates you?"
"I wanted to search something in your computer."
"I knew it!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in mock exasperation. "You only want me for my hardware!"
"If you let me use it," I said, dropping my voice to a serious whisper, "I will visit you often. In return... you can do whatever you want to me."
The air left the room.
"Really?" she whispered, her eyes widening, the pupils dilating dangerously. "Whatever I want? And you won't tell anyone?"
Wait. What exactly is she imagining?
Before I could clarify the terms of service, the world spun. I was lifted off my feet, rotated 180 degrees, and slammed into her chest.
I braced for impact—a bone-crushing hug, a pinch to the cheek. Instead, her hands dove into my hair. She didn't just ruffle it; she aggressively scrubbed my scalp that left my carefully styled jade-black hair a complete mess.
"You think you can just waltz in here, make demands, and bribe me with yourself?" she laughed, messing up my meticulously styled fringe.
She released me, leaving me looking like I'd just stuck a fork in an outlet.
"Fine," she smirked, settling back onto her bed, eyes now fixed on her computer screen, though a smirk still played on her lips. "Fine. You can use the computer. But you owe me."
"Owe you what?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant, even as my internal gears whirred. This was going perfectly.
She turned, her gaze piercing. "You'll find out," she said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Consider it… an open tab." Then, with a flick of her wrist, she gestured to the desk beside her bed, where a clunky, beige monitor sat humming softly.
I scrambled to the chair before she changed her mind. I booted up the browser, my small fingers flying across the keyboard at a respectable 30 WPM.
According to the knowledge of my previous life, there is a school which fulfills all my requirements~Kagamioka Elite Academy.
The name, even now, sent a familiar shiver down my spine. Not of fear, but of… inevitability. In my previous life, before the sudden, jarring reset, Kagamioka wasn't just a school; it was the school. The pinnacle. A mythical beast of an institution whose graduates seamlessly transitioned into elite universities, then into boardrooms, research labs, or the upper echelons of politics and entertainment. It was the place where the future was quietly, meticulously shape
But there was a sliver of an opening, a tiny, almost imperceptible crack in that impenetrable wall: the "Quantum Leap Scholarship." In my past life, I knew it existed, a rare, almost legendary program that supposedly allowed Kagamioka to pluck true genius from obscurity, regardless of financial background. I vaguely recalled hearing it was perhaps two per year, making it six in total at any given time. Not much, but enough for someone like me.
My fingers, disproportionately small for my memories, flew over the keyboard of the old desktop computer in my room.
"Kagamioka Elite Academy Quantum Leap Scholarship." I typed the characters, the search bar auto-completing as if the algorithm itself knew my deepest desire.
The official website was sleek, almost intimidatingly so. Professional photos of impossibly bright-eyed students, state-of-the-art facilities, testimonials from beaming alumni. Deep within the 'Admissions' section, under a tab I had to click through several layers to find, was the Quantum Leap Scholarship.
There it was. Six students admitted annually, two for each grade level. And crucially, it explicitly mentioned "age flexibility" for candidates demonstrating extraordinary capabilities. That was my loophole. A 10-year-old applying for the 8th grade. Utterly insane by normal standards, but within Kagamioka's own, self-created parameters, it was possible.
My gaze honed in on the "Next Examination Date." It was 2 months away. Enough time.
Then, the syllabus. It was broken into three daunting written parts and one final viva.
Maybe this much was enough for now.
I turned off the computer.
"Done?" Charlotte said.
"For now," I said, pushing away from the desk.
She closed her manga, a thoughtful look on her face. "You know," she murmured, leaning down until her face was inches from mine. "You said I could do whatever I want, right?"
My stomach did a traitorous backflip.
"Yes," I squeaked.
A slow, predatory smile spread across her face.
"Well then," she whispered. "Let's start with this..."