Chapter Text
“Good morning, little bro!”
The black-haired boy in question frowns slightly as he awoke from his interrupted sleep. His eyes squinting and blinking as it tried to adjust itself to the blinding light that suddenly pours into the room as his sister grins at him beside the open window. He groans as he closes his eyes again and trying his best to ignore the blinding sun.
“It’s 9 already. Come one, I’ve prepared breakfast for you,” his sister smiles as she props up the foldable table on his bed and placed a bowl of porridge and a glass of water on top of it.
She must have noticed the grimace on his face as she smiles sadly and her voice grew softer, “I know that you’re getting sick of these meals but… please?”
He hated when she uses that voice. She knows that he could never push her whenever she speaks in that voice as her blue eyes widen on purpose. Wordlessly he stood up and reaches for the spoon, feeling lighter at the relief look on her face.
Even if the porridge is light and tasteless, he could find himself getting nauseous the more he ate it. Often, he had to stop swallowing as he could feel bile rose against his throat. He could see his sister pretending not to pay too much attention to him, opted to look at the tv showing advertisements of her favourite games but he could see her eyes darting towards the trash can near the bed now and then.
What could have usually been a 15 minutes meal took him 45 minutes to finished.
“Thank you, nee-chan…”
She smiles but didn’t say anything as she continues watching the television, “Oh, the sequel is coming out soon. I should place an order soon.”
He sighs as he relaxes on the bed, “You’re going to make me play that game again? At this point, I could just recite the dialogue at the top of my head.”
She laughs, “I wouldn’t be surprised. You always have a good memory.”
“Next spring…” his eyes dimmed a little in contrast to the bright cheerful advertisement on the television. His sister notices this as her hand touches his thin hand.
Her mouth curves in a smile but he could see her eyes glistening with tears, “I’ll place the order so that we could play together next spring, okay?”
“Okay…” he forced a smile on his face. “Let’s play together.”
Even if he knows that there will be no more spring waiting for him.
They say that small, minuscule action could change the whole course of action. A butterfly flapped its wings and somewhere in the world, a tornado was formed. To him, the example was a bit too exaggerating.
That is until the day he slips and knocks his head on the table.
Even though he didn’t knock his head as himself. No, he knocks his head like another person.
To be exact, he knocks his head as Kageyama Tobio; the main villain of the otome game he used to play with his sister, Royal Lover.
It feels he just wakes up from a long dream as the memories of his past life rush inside him. Memories filled with a wide court filled with excitement as well as a white environment with empty feelings.
“Young master Tobio! You’re awake!”
Tobio.
Right, that’s his name now.
Tobio finds himself faced with an army of maids, each of them with a look of fear in their eyes except for one; a blonde maid who looks genuinely worried as her large brown eyes seems to sparkle with tears. She closes her eyes and clasps her hands together like in prayers.
“Thank god you’re okay! I was so worried, young master!”
The girl whom Tobio now recognizes as Yachi Hitoka; one of the maids in the Kageyama mansion is full-on bawling now which caught Tobio off guard.
He remembers the maid as a minor character in the game. A sensitive and pushover maid who was always bullied by Kageyama Tobio even though all she did was being worried for Kageyama Tobio’s horrible attitude. Seeing her now crying in relief for her bully, Tobio could see that she is a genuinely kind character.
“Um, it’s okay, Yachi-san. I’m fine.”
Tobio couldn’t help but feel slightly offended at the shocked and almost scared look on all of the maids as soon as Tobio said that. Yachi in particular seems to have frozen and trembling before she suddenly kneeling so fast, she could have made a new record for the fastest dogeza if this is Japan.
“D—did the fall really affect you that bad!? Oh my god, forgive me, young master! I would leave the mansion right and now if you want and I’ll even take out the guillo—"
“No, no, it’s fine!” Tobio immediately stood up from his bed and it was then he notices how short he is as he could easily reach the kneeling Yachi. “I’m the one who got careless so um—please stop kneeling.”
It doesn’t seem to help as Yachi’s face seems to pale even further and seems to faint before being held up by the other maids, “Yachi-san! Hang in there.”
Tobio could only sigh deeper as he could feel a headache forming in his head. Looking at the other maid, he ignores their flinch and speaks, “Um, if you’d please, bring Yachi-san to see the doctor before she sustains more damage.”
“Y—yes! Tobio-sama!”
Tobio-sama…
It feels weird to be called by a fictional character name.
He pinches the bridge of his nose before resting on the bed once again and closes his eyes, “My head hurts…”
“You did knock your head at the edge of the table.”
Tobio yelps as he looks at the source of the voice from the door. An older boy with curled brown hair dressed smartly is looking at him unamused. His crossed arm and his cold glare immediately alerted Tobio of who he is.
Oikawa Tooru; the first prince of the country. One of the Royal Lover capture target who is known for his charming and friendly nature that hides his more calculative and dark side. The Earth magic user.
And Kageyama Tobio’s fiancée.
Tobio immediately stood up and bows a little, “Oi—Oikawa-san! I apologise for my imprudence ngh—!”
He immediately regrets his decision to stand up as his head throbs so bad that he loses his footing. Before he could fell, he felt a strong arm wrapping itself around his waist, preventing his fall as the arm stabilise him.
Oikawa clicks his tongue as he scowls at Tobio and yet his arm is still around his waist as he scolded, “Are you stupid? Don’t move so suddenly.”
Here’s the thing.
Tobio doesn’t have much experience with either man or woman. The only place he spent most of his time is at the gym, hospital or his home. That being said, physical contact is even rarer for him.
Hence why he couldn’t stop the blush on his face and the incoherent stutters at the close proximity between him and the handsome prince, something that said prince seems to notice as he raised his eyebrow at him.
“What’s up with you? Did you get a fever too when you fell?”
Time seems to move in slow motion as Oikawa’s hand slowly moves towards his forehead. At that moment Tobio was reminded of the time he first played Royal Lover with his sister who squeals now and then at ‘moe’ scenes. Meanwhile, all he could focus on are completing the game 100%, collecting all the trophies and all the endings.
But sometimes, in one of the romantic scenes, he could distantly hear a ‘doki’ sound from his heart.
Like right now.
“Tobio?”
Oikawa blinks as he looks at the motionless body of his fiancée in his arms. Shaking the younger boy a little, Tobio still doesn’t show any sign of consciousness and Oikawa sighs before he carefully carries the boy back to bed and tucking him under the blanket. He sighs as he looks at the sleeping face of his fiancée and recalled what he had just witnessed outside the room just now.
The Kageyama Tobio is being considerate of his maids and acts with courtesy.
‘Strange…’
Ever since he was betrothed to the younger boy, all he could think of is what a pain his future spouse is.
Arrogant, proud and clingy, Kageyama Tobio really rubbed him the wrong way from the first time they met each other. The way he treated the people around him also irks him but as the fiancée of one of the most powerful Duke in the country, there’s only so much he could do to control him. What’s more, with the magic Kageyama Tobio has, it wouldn’t do any good to provoke the boy. He knows the advantage of being married to the powerful Kageyama family; his influence as the future King could only grow throughout the country through this marriage, he was sure that he could even surpass his father’s influence.
And once he achieves that, Kageyama Tobio would no longer be useful to him.
Yet what happened just now…
Oikawa shook his head. No, it must be a fluke from hitting his head too hard.
Kageyama Tobio could never be anything else but a spoiled brat.
“What’s this?”
“A game, obviously,” she smiles mischievously as she held up the box. “You should try it out! I finished it and got the main love interest.”
He sighs as he slumps on his bed, “I’m not really interested in those kinds of stuff.”
“You’ll never know unless you tried, you know?” she gently holds his hand and put the box on top of his hand. “And I promise you, all the capture targets here are S tier! Even the main villain actually looks really attractive,”
“Too bad that he would always die in all of the endings.”
Tobio opens his eyes.
That dream, or rather, memory was from so long ago. He could still remember the stinging smell of medicine and the blinding white surrounding during that time, the only colours during that time coming from his sister. He could still remember the smell of sweet flowers from his sister’s perfume.
‘But she’s not here now…’
Tobio clenches his fist on the blanket and took a deep breath to clear his throbbing head.
The pain only serves to remind him that this wasn’t a dream. Somehow, he has been reincarnated into an otome game as the villain.
The villain who would die soon at the end of the game.
Tobio shudders as he remembers Oikawa’s cold eyes. Back then, he loved playing the Oikawa Tooru route due to the convoluted story of the young prince but he did feel disturbed now and then at how cold and sometimes cruel way he treated his fiancée.
Then again, it wasn’t like Kageyama Tobio was totally undeserving of that treatment.
In the game’s timeline, Kageyama Tobio is the main bully of the hero; physically and verbally assaulting the hero as well as flaunting his rare dark magic.
Magic.
Opening up his palm, Tobio focuses on emitting the power from inside himself. Magic plays an important part in Royal Lover game as a family position is determined by their magical abilities. The Kageyama family are known for their water magic and yet Kageyama Tobio was born with dark magic which is as rare as light magic that the hero possesses. Hence one of the many reasons Kageyama Tobio started harassing the hero.
Opening his eyes, a swirl of dark magic appears from his hand. Unlike the other four elemental magic, dark and light are seemingly vaguer. From the game, Kageyama Tobio uses his magic a lot to destroy the hero’s item of possession as an act of bullying.
During that time, though it annoys him whenever Kageyama Tobio did that, it did come to his mind that it was quite a tame bullying given how powerful dark magic is according to Royal Lover lore. While dark magic is capable of destroying stuff, it was also able to physically hurt someone in contrast to light magic that could heal someone.
Closing his palm and dismissing the magic, Tobio stood up and look out the window. He squints a little as the sunlight peeking through. He couldn’t help but gasps in wonder as he looks out to the beautiful garden outside
Now that he thinks about it, how long has it been since he last stood up on his own without anyone’s help?
If he’d look at the mirror now, he would have seen his eyes sparkling just as bright as the sun outside. Before his mind could catch up, his feet had already moved on their own to the outside of the room. Slowly his steps grew faster as he couldn’t keep the grin off his face at the feeling of solid ground under his feet before the ground changes into the soft feeling of Earth.
How long has it been since he steps foot outside?
The bright sunlight is no longer blinding as Tobio took a deep breath and enjoys the warmth coming from the sun.
How long has it been since he was exposed to the sunlight?
And his body—never had moving feels so good as he gently moves his toe against the soft ground. Grinning to himself, he starts to sprint before he jumps with all his might. Just like so long ago, the feeling of his feet leaving the ground while his body went against gravity for a few seconds… it’s exhilarating.
As his feet meet the ground again, he took a deep breath of the fresh air and took a good look and his feet, his hand and each of his fingers as he imagines a ball at the palm of his hands.
He can… play volleyball again.
“Tobio-sama! Why are you out here in barefoot?”
He turns to see Yachi, still pale-faced and yet her brown eyes are filled with worry for him instead of being concern about herself.
“Yachi-san… are you okay now?”
“Ah, yes—but that’s not important!” the girl actually seems to overcome her constant nervousness as a tinge of sternness can be heard in her voice. “Your wound was hard enough to leave a scar on your head. You should rest more.”
“Ah,” Tobio gingerly hover his fingers over the scar barely hidden by his short fringe. He shrugs, “It’s just a scar anyway.”
“Eh?”
“More importantly, Yachi-san,” he ignores Yachi’s confused look as he can feel his mouth wobbling, barely containing his excitement. “Do we have a volleyball here?”
In this game, he was doomed to die no matter what ending the hero gets. In around five more years, once the main event of the game begins, it was fated for Kageyama Tobio to be executed or murdered, based on what kind of route the hero would choose.
But until then, with this healthy body, he could finally play again the sports he loves. He could think about his fate later.
“Um, Tobio-sama, what is volleyball?”
They stare at each other in silence, one in nervousness while another sporting a blank look before his eyes widen in realization.
Oh, right.
There’s no volleyball here.
Oikawa sighs as he looks at the empty room.
“What’s up with that brat today?”
Once when Kageyama Tobio got a paper cut, Oikawa almost wanted to bury himself deep into the Earth with how clingy Tobio gets as he whines over the tiny cut on his finger. The boy could destroy a vase his size with just a flick of his finger and yet a paper cut makes it seems as if he’s dying?
But even if he didn’t care much about the younger boy, he did fell unconscious because Oikawa accidentally pushes him a little too hard when the boy is clinging too closely to his arm. Before the boy regained consciousness, Oikawa had already prepared himself mentally for how annoying and bratty the boy would be with him once he wakes up. Certainly, he would use the accident as an excuse to keep Oikawa close to him.
But nothing of that sort happens.
And now he has a missing fiancée at hand.
“Give me a break…”
“Oh, are you looking for Kageyama?”
He turns to see his childhood friend, and knight in training, Iwaizumi Hajime looking at him with amusement in his eyes, “If you’re looking for him, he’s outside right now.”
Oikawa raise his eyebrow, “Outside?”
Tobio rarely went outside, preferring to stay inside unless it is to follow after Oikawa outside.
“If you’re that curious, you should go outside,” Iwaizumi grins, “There’s an amazing sight outside.”
“…amazing sight?”
Kageyama Tobio is a clingy brat who flaunts his gist to everyone to establish his superiority over others. The one who would smirk and laugh cruelly as he pours tea over them.
And yet now the very same Kageyama Tobio is smiling brightly as he seems to fly.
No, not flying.
Tobio is falling.
“Tobio!”
He knew that his feet wouldn’t be able to reach the boy in the few seconds they have, but he knows that his magic is strong and fast enough to save the boy.
In a split second, the Earth formed into a human-like shape and with grace, catches Tobio before the boy could drop to the ground, carrying him bridal style in its arm. Tobio’s blue eyes widen in surprise as he looks at the Earth golem who gently puts him back to the ground. Ignoring Iwaizumi who is calling his name, he ran towards the younger boy and held his face in his hands.
Tobio seems to stiffen as Oikawa carefully scrutinize his face. Aside from the scar on his forehead, there doesn’t seem to be other injuries.
Oikawa breathes in relief before anger overtook him as his hand drops down to Tobio’s shoulder and he shakes the boy slightly, “What the hell were you thinking, Tobio!?”
“Oikawa…san?”
“You hurt yourself just a few moments ago and then you decided that dropping down from trees is a good idea?” Oikawa grits his teeth as his hand unconsciously clench tighter on Tobio’s shoulders. “Give me a break here… I know that you’re strong but…”
“Oikawa-san…”
Oikawa’s eyes widen as he realizes what he had just done. Even if he was a prince, to raise his voice and touching a duke so carelessly, especially a duke who is his fiancée—it’s unthinkable, “I—”
“Um, I appreciate the concern, Oikawa-san but I’m not in any danger just now,” unlike the bright smile he had before, Tobio has an awkward smile on his face as he nervously scratches his cheek. “I’m just testing just now, you know? I haven’t been moving much so I wanted to test my agility.”
Oikawa blinks, “By climbing and jumping from a tree?”
Tobio was silent for a while before he tilts his head, “I have magic?”
The two of them stares at each other confusedly for a while before a loud laugh interrupts the silence. Iwaizumi is still chuckling as he casually drapes his arm on Oikawa’s shoulder, “You know, Kageyama has been doing that for more than 5 times now before you came.”
Upon hearing that, Tobio’s face grew red, “I—Iwaizumi-san, you saw that!?”
“I heard Yachi-san screeching like she seen some ghost but lo and behold, all I could see is a certain Duke playing with a tree,” Iwaizumi has a fond smile on his face as he looks at Tobio for a moment before it disappears just as Oikawa was about to question Iwaizumi regarding the look on his face towards his fiancée. “Speaking of which, where is Yachi-san?”
“Ah, I ask her to find a ball for me.”
“A ball? What for?” Oikawa interjects before Iwaizumi could ask further.
Tobio opens his mouth before he stops and seems hesitates as a strange look crosses his eyes, “Uh, it’s just a game I’m thinking about…”
“A game?” Oikawa crosses his arm as he looks at the boy’s nervous face that seems so unlike himself. “The accident really did quite a number on you, huh? Your brain seems to be working even weirder than usual.”
“Oikawa!”
Tobio doesn’t seem to mind those biting words as he looks at Oikawa with determination in his blue eyes, “Oikawa-san, I know that you don’t like me and I apologise for how I acted before.”
Oikawa was startled and even Iwaizumi seems to be in shock as they look at Tobio with wide eyes as the younger continued, “But it’s okay, I won’t get in your way anymore. You can even annul our engagement if you want, Oikawa-san.”
Iwaizumi could feel his friend stiffening like a rock the more the younger spoke but the boy doesn’t seem to notice as he smiles innocently, unaware of the impact of his words, “I’ll be leaving you alone from now on, Oikawa-san. Thank you for being patient all this time.”
Before Iwaizumi could say something to relieve the situation, Yachi appears with what seems to be a handball in her hand, “Tobio-sama, here’s the ball you requested.”
“Oh, thank you Yachi-san,” bowing a little, Tobio turns and ran towards the blonde maid, leaving a confused Iwaizumi and a still stunned Oikawa.
“Iwa-chan…” Oikawa blinks as he slowly seems to comprehend the situation. “Did I just get rejected by my own fiancée? The one who had always been clingy and obsessed over me? That fiancée?”
Iwaizumi sighs, “Huh, maybe when he knocked his head, he finally realizes how shitty you actually are.”
“Mean!” Oikawa’s face grew red as something akin to childish anger appear on the young prince face, a face Iwaizumi hadn’t seen in a long time. “Who does that brat think he is? Suddenly rejecting me like that I—”
Oikawa stomps his feet a little, creating a tiny bump on the ground, “That Tobio-chan—as if I could annul our engagement! I still need his family’s name and his magic and—”
“Tobio-chan?”
Oikawa pouted and turn his head, “Well it fits him, no? Compared to his usual smile, his smile just now…”
It was pure, childlike and at that moment, for the first time, the usual hatred he felt towards the boy is gone, only leaving…
Nope.
“Heh, how naïve, Tobio-chan,” Oikawa suddenly smirks as rest his hand on his hip and starts laughing. “You thought that playing hard to get I would fall for you? As if! If this is the game you want to play, then I’ll make sure that I’ll be the last one standing!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Iwaizumi groans but a small smile appear on his face as he looks at Oikawa’s posture. The boy had always exuded confidence despite being only twelve. But as Iwaizumi walks behind the boy, he always exudes such cold and lonely feelings.
“That’s a good look on you, Tooru.”
Oikawa looks at him weirdly, “What are you talking about now?”
“Nothing,” Iwaizumi shook his hand and pat his friend by the shoulder. “Let’s go find your fiancée before he makes his maid have a heart attack for the 15th time today.”
Oikawa scowls but he doesn’t he doesn’t refuse.
Iwaizumi thinks Oikawa didn’t even realize the genuine smile on his face as he talks about his fiancée.
Oh well, it’ll be Iwaizumi’s secret alone.
According to his grandpa, from the moment he was born he had always been entranced by volleyball. He would get his tiny chubby hand on the volleyball the moment he saw them and wouldn’t let it go, a foot that his sister always laughs at to this day whenever she retold the story for the nth times. Replicating the volleyball is nothing to him.
Oikawa Tooru and all the other capture targets would soon focus their attention on the hero. Meanwhile, he could do his own thing by establishing volleyball in this world and thus he wouldn’t be involved with the game’s event. By that, he won’t risk being executed or murdered during the final graduation event.
Killing two birds with one stone!
‘Let’s do this, Kageyama Tobio.’
He will live to his heart content in this world; the way he couldn’t in his past life.
And no destruction flag could stop him.