Chapter 1: I'm a Bit Too Extreme
(Note at the beginning: This story is set as a soul-transmigration into the adult Hikaru Kamiki. Past plot events remain unchanged. If you don't have a "mental cleanliness" fetish regarding protagonists, feel free to enter.)
(The manga timeline is a mess—even Akasaka-sensei seems confused—so the timeline in this story shall prevail.)
(Brain storage area: [Deposit brain here])
--- Story Divider ---
Wait, where the hell am I?
Hikaru slowly sat up from the stone steps, looking at the unfamiliar grove before him. He felt "ten out of ten" confused... and had a massive headache.
His head felt like it had been placed on a millstone and ruthlessly crushed. Forget being split in two; Hikaru felt like his brain had turned into mush. The moment he opened his eyes, he was in the middle of some remote mountain forest. Before he could figure out the situation, a paralyzing, throbbing pain surged through him, leaving him slumped on the ground for a good ten minutes before he could regain his senses.
Hikaru lightly pressed his temples, pursing his lips as he surveyed his surroundings.
Tall trees, moss-covered stone steps, damp soil, dew dripping from above, the midsummer buzz of cicadas, and a faded vermillion torii gate.
Combined with the state of his head, it looked for all the world like he'd been jumped and clubbed from behind.
"Who's out to get me? Wait, I need to check if my kidneys are still there."
Hikaru lifted his shirt. Finding no surgical scars on his belly and feeling like all his internal organs were present and accounted for, he relaxed and let out a long sigh of relief.
"Come to think of it, this doesn't look like northern Myanmar." Hikaru walked up a few steps and stood by a massive pillar. "What was this called again? A... Torii?"
"Wait! Isn't this a Japanese thing?! From that island country?!"
Hikaru's expression shifted drastically.
How does one take a nap and end up on an international tour?
He froze, suddenly realizing he'd noticed something strange earlier. He yanked his shirt up again.
He hadn't paid much attention a moment ago, but looking now, there was a glaring problem!
"Where did my smooth, one-pack 'jade' belly go? Why was it swapped for eight little blocks?"
Feeling the alien sensation radiating from every corner of his body, Hikaru immediately realized... this probably wasn't his body.
Deducting from that fact, this probably wasn't his original world either.
He couldn't help but let out a bitter smile. "Is this the so-called 'transmigration'? What category would I fall into? Soul-transmigration, I guess?"
Despite having a bit of a flighty personality, Hikaru was remarkably good at accepting reality. He embraced the fact with ease.
Truthfully, it wasn't like he had a choice... forced by the situation, he had to submit.
Feeling a phone in his pocket, Hikaru pulled it out. He studied it for a moment, thinking the face reflected in the screen looked somewhat familiar. The phone unlocked automatically via facial recognition.
The various symbols inside made his head spin. A closer look confirmed it was all Japanese. Fortunately, Hikaru had once been a genius student with the gift of a photographic memory. A foreign language was nothing; he'd self-taught his way to mastery long ago. He checked the time first, thought for a moment, and clicked an app icon with the letters "yaho!"
It looked familiar, like a browser, but shouldn't it be called Yahoo? The icon was different, too.
Whatever, as long as it worked. Hikaru opened the news interface and searched for the information he wanted.
To his disappointment, this was indeed a parallel world. The news was filled with strange figures he'd never heard of.
"Diplomat Fujiwara made a public statement at yesterday's press conference, solemnly declaring his stance to actively participate in..."
"Friday Magazine recently published a gossip report regarding internal friction within the Shinomiya family. According to reliable sources, there are constant clashes among direct lineage members. Notably, the report was voluntarily deleted by the magazine half an hour after publication."
"Democratic Party leader Trump gave a speech on the streets of New York. According to polls, over 90% of registered voters rated his term as 'excellent,' suggesting a re-election probability exceeding 80%."
Hikaru frowned. What was this? What kind of world line was this? It was a mess.
He recognized these hiragana characters, but why didn't they make sense when put together?
"Is this a world from some work of fiction?" Hikaru grumbled. "It looks like someone took things I recognize, scrambled them, and stitched them back together. Even the timeline is completely off."
Time had rewound several years; it was back to 2018.
However, it was broadly similar to his original world—at least he was still on Earth—which made Hikaru feel quite relieved.
Since he was here, he might as well settle in. Getting to know the state of the world was never a bad thing.
With that thought, Hikaru simply sat down on the ground, switched to a more colorful browser, and continued scrolling through the news.
As he scrolled, he felt something was off.
"B-Komachi Dome Performance approaching! Popularity explosive! Tickets hard to find! ...Search XXX on Twitter, few tickets remaining, buy now."
"The Idol in the Dome! Creating history? Or self-humiliation?!"
"Shocking! The top idol from B-Komachi—Ai. The place where she disappeared four years ago was here..."
The news smelled like clickbait, but the effect was undeniable. It shocked Hikaru so much he dropped his phone on the ground.
"Ai... B-Komachi... Ai Hoshino..."
His eyes slowly widened...
This was actually the world of Oshi no Ko?!
Seeing those familiar names, he finally recalled his memories from before he blacked out.
Before losing consciousness, wasn't he reading the manga of this very series?!
Memories came flooding back like a tide, and Hikaru finally pieced together the cause and effect of his transmigration.
To summarize: After binge-watching the April anime season, he felt unsatisfied and pulled an all-nighter to finish the original manga (Note: the manga wasn't finished yet in his time). After finishing the manga, for the sake of his beloved Ai, he engaged in a heated online debate with thirty-six different netizens. He had flamed them all into oblivion, feeling high-spirited and triumphant.
As he relaxed, his hand slipped, and mineral water spilled onto his laptop screen.
Then, that no-name brand laptop simply exploded.
Thinking back now, it was truly a tragic tale.
"But I still can't accept it!"
Hikaru slapped his thigh and stood up from the stone steps again.
"I thought there would be more plot for Ai later in the manga, but she really just stayed dead! Every scene left is just a flashback. Couldn't they give her more screen time?"
"Who wants to watch a waifu war? Uh, a waifu war... actually seems okay? I didn't go in for the shipping, but it got pretty intense as I kept reading."
"Aqua, my scumbag Aqua, who will he choose in the end? Without a doubt, I'm Team Akane. But looking at the recent chapters, Kana Arima's screen time is increasing again. It won't be a Kana victory in the end, will it? Or will the 'manga-only' heroine suddenly surge ahead? No, anything but that!"
"Ai, woohoo, my Ai-chan. Why did Doga Kobo spend so much effort on Ai? Using an hour to build the character only to kill her off immediately. Though the artistic effect was great, I just can't get over it!"
"If possible, why couldn't she have a better ending? Hikaru Kamiki, you really deserve to die!"
"I. Want. To. Kill. You. A. Thousand. Times. And. It. Still. Won't. Be. Enough!" Since he had traveled to this world, he couldn't just let it go! He had to change all the tragedies before they happened!
Hikaru stuffed his phone back into his pocket, a resolve as firm as steel appearing on his face.
He would change everything! He would grind the mastermind behind every tragedy—that scumbag among scumbags, Hikaru Kamiki—into ashes!
Hikaru Kamiki, as a notorious piece of trash, had committed numerous atrocities.
Around age 12, he had a son, Taiki Himekawa, with Airi Himekawa.
Around age 15, he had twins with the 16-year-old Ai Hoshino. The death of Goro Amamiya was also suspected to be linked to him.
He secretly manipulated the obsessive fan, Ryosuke, revealing the address of Ai Hoshino's new home, which ultimately led to Ai being stabbed to death on her 20th birthday.
A pervert naturally had a perverted life creed. He believed in a cult-like philosophy: only when talented women died because of him could he feel the value of his own life.
Hikaru Kamiki had a face very similar to the grown-up Aqua—a head of gorgeous blonde hair paired with eyes as blue as lake water. Without the two black stars in his eyes, he would look like just a bright, cheerful boy. But once those black stars appeared, he looked incredibly sinister—an obvious villain.
Wait, this character had no screen time in the anime and only appeared in a few frames of the black-and-white manga. Why was his impression so vivid...
And there was a sense of familiarity... as if he had just seen him.
Why did he feel like he looked so much like the reflection of himself on the phone just now...
Hikaru suddenly thought of a terrifying possibility, and cold sweat began to pour down his back. With trembling fingers, he opened the camera and switched to selfie mode.
In the small phone screen, a blonde man in a leather jacket with clear eyes slowly appeared, looking nervously out of the screen.
"Holy shit!"
"I'm Hikaru Kamiki?!"