Chapter 1

In an untidy and windblown garden where the branches and leaves stretched around the whole area, was a little girl who stood alone.

Her name is Tsubaki, a girl who will turn four years old this year.

With black hair that was at shoulder-length and hair bangs that were neatly arranged unlike a child, except for her drop-shaped eyes, every part of her small face was well balanced. She is a girl with lovely looks as it is.

However, Tsubaki had a very different part of her that separated her from any of the other children that was at the same age as her. That is, she’s born with the memories from her previous life.

In her previous life, Tsubaki was an office lady that worked in a general corporation’s secretarial section. Born and raised in the countryside in North Kanto, she grew up surrounded by her relatives packed with their detestable countryside’s characteristics. Halfway in her life, she ran away to Tokyo. Within the workplace, she successfully obtained an employment. She withstood the sexual harassments she got from the executives of her job by completely ignoring them, a trait she got and was stuck with her ever since childhood.

Nevertheless, in the end, she died.

She guessed that she might have been in a hit-and-run sort of situation, a bright flash shone on her after she died to which she assumed that she got ran over by a speeding car.

To further prove that she had died an unjustly death, she was reincarnated and started life as a newborn, again.

That is why when she opened her eyes, she was met with an unfamiliar ceiling.

At first she thought she was on the hospital’s bed. And from the feeling of pain she got when she tried to moved, she thought it was because of the injuries from the car accident.

However, at the time when she was embraced by a beautiful woman, she began to notice that something was wrong.

Of course, she would find it strange when a woman that was approximately the same height as her was carrying her in the woman’s embrace so easily.

What’s more, the name she was called by the woman, was not her name.

Her tone when talking to me is as if she was talking to a baby… Could it be– Her complexion began to turn pale.

Slowly, she began raising her hands so that she can see them to try to confirm her doubt, and what she had met were her tiny, little hands.

At the beginning, she thought that she was in a vegetative state and was just seeing a dream, but when she tried hitting the railings from the baby’s cradle with everything she’s got, she felt the very real surge of pain.

Without a dream’s particular characteristics of sudden scenes change, a day slowly changed when she waited and — Ah, this is reality.– She began to understood.

At first, she was bewildered and caused troubles for her mother, but over time she gradually became familiar with the environment she was surrounded in, and some way or another she can came in terms about her previous life and live peacefully until now.

Four years have passed ever since the day she was reincarnated. For Tsubaki, who had never been outside the premises of her home for the entirety of her childhood, was once again viewing the carps swimming in the pond and was also sunbathing in the garden.

While she watched the carps gulping down the scattered fodder, together with the water, sounds of someone walking along gravel resounded behind her and she realised that the sound was getting nearer and nearer. She had thought that the servant had come and was calling for her because the time of the day was getting close to noon. With that in mind, she didn’t need to wait for the servant as she stood up and faced towards where the sound of crunching gravel was.

But never did she think that the one who was coming towards her was not a servant, but a girl who looked about the same age as her. The girl looked at Tsubaki with an indifferent expression on her face as she muttered, “She’s quite unlike the Tsubaki in the game…”

Tsubaki had seen this girl from somewhere before and she felt that this girl resembled someone. She the tried to recall from her memories of this life and her past life.

Suddenly, the girl in front of her called out her name and Tsubaki stopped pondering at once and looked at the girl’s eyes.

“Is your name Tsubaki?”

“Yes, it is.”

When the girl heard Tsubaki’s answer, her eyes started to shine. She began squealing and jumping up and down from the spot.

Hearing the girl’s peculiar high-pitched squealing, Tsubaki wanted to cover her ears. She didn’t know why this girl suddenly became excited over hearing her name. At the same time when Tsubaki was in motion of moving her hands to cover her ears, the girl began saying something incredulous.

“So that means this really is [Koi Hana]’s world! I already thought about this when I heard my name was Kurahashi Mio at that time!… But you really are pitiful, huh. To be driven away in this detached place. Maa, the parent and children together will only have a future where they’ll die anyway. You better sit still and be quiet as I make you my stepping stone so that I can be tied together with Kyousuke-sama, okay? Please wait for me, Kyousuke-sama!”

In an instant, when the girl in front of Tsubaki said the words [Koi Hana] and that her name was “Kurahashi Mio”, a certain memory of her previous world in Tsubaki’s brain vividly began clearing up.

A memory which told her that the world she had been born in was a Shoujo Game’s world called [Koi wa Hana no Gotoku Sakihokoru], shortened to [Koi Hana]. (TN: [Love bloom like a flower], [Love Flower])

The girl in front of her did not resemble someone because the girl is that someone herself, so there’s no one to be compared with. The girl is the main heroine in a shoujo game that she once played in her previous life. It’s natural if Tsubaki had a recollection of the girl because Tsubaki saw the girl’s picture during her childhood when Tsubaki played the game.

The name of the girl in front of Tsubaki who bluntly said those cheeky words is Kurahashi Mio, Tsubaki’s little sister from a different mother and the girl who will have the Love Pattern unfold for her in a decade together with the Heroes.

Tsubaki already found it strange at the time that she had been born together with her memories of her past life still intact.

Still, after realising this fact, she had always thought of herself as a normal girl who was born in a normal household.

Because her mother in this world is a beauty with slender figure, though she has never seen her father even once after she was born, she always checks herself in front of a mirror as she grew up and was certain that in 8 or 9 cases out of 10, she will grow up as a beauty too. My life ahead will be an easy life– thought Tsubaki optimistically.

But never did she thought that she had been reincarnated inside a shoujo game’s world. She always heard from her mother and the servant that her father was busy with work, never even knowing how he looks like, and Tsubaki herself had never been allowed to go beyond the garden. All of these situations that had happened made it impossible for Tsubaki to understand on circumstances she was surrounded with.

Actually, Tsubaki thought that the house that she resides in was the main house. For anyone who would see a house surrounded by a wide garden, never would they think that this was a detached place.

In the first place, her mother always called her [Tsubaki-chan], though the only servant who worked here always called Tsubaki as [Ojou-sama]. There was no one who called her with her family name so Tsubaki never had a chance to learn about it.

Besides, the Tsubaki from the game always had her hair bangs hang over her eyes. With her hair bangs like that, she carried a gloomy, dull, and an uncanny impression. It was not possible to expect that from her current face.

Though she always had a feeling of deja vu whenever she meets with her mother, at that time the area below her eyes got darker and can’t really explain the feeling of familiarity. That’s why Tsubaki never imagined that [Koi hana]’s Kurahashi Tsubaki was she herself. But now, she had finally realized it.

From the many shoujo games that I have played in my previous life, to think that this kind of fate was chosen for me– Tsubaki started to be at loss.

Furthermore, if Tsubaki’s memories are correct, then she should be the villainess that will eventually die in the end of the game.

Tsubaki tried to reach out deep back into her memories, and tried to remember the original work [Koi hana]’s settings.

If I’m not wrong, then [Koi wa Hana no Gotoku Sakihokoru] was a shoujo game where the stage is set at a private school, Takamine Academy, where rich children attend to.

Tsubaki remembered that this was a generic shoujo game that can be found almost anywhere with a story setting that can be found in any shoujo game made.

The only thing that had set this shoujo game apart from its other similar games, is that this game was made famous because of its bad aftertaste.

Firstly, regarding Tsubaki’s setting in the game. Kurahashi Tsubaki in [Koi Hana] is Kurahashi Mio’s, heroine of the game, big sister from a different mother. She is the villainess that will hinder Mio’s love path. The rival and the villainess of the game always got hate from the players. But, Tsubaki’s case was a little different. It’s because there were a lot who sympathize on Tsubaki’s upbringing.
First, Tsubaki’s mother is the daughter of a large enterprise. One day, she fell in love, love at first sight, when a man visited the company for business reasons.This man was Tsubaki’s father. But in spite that the man already had a lover, he made Tsubaki’s mother drunk on alcohol and assaulted her. When she told him that she was pregnant one day, he took her away to forcibly marry her.

Tsubaki’s grandfather and uncle, who were opposed on the idea of the marriage, reluctantly gave them permission when they heard that Tsubaki’s mother was pregnant.

Though it looked like it was supposed to be a happy marriage, by the time Tsubaki was born, everything had changed suddenly.

Tsubaki’s father did not break up with his lover. In addition, he had a child with that lover, and so that the lover thought that she should not trouble him, she gave birth and raised the child alone. That child was named Mio.

Since then, Tsubaki’s mother became more and more suspicious of her husband. After thoroughly investigating her husband’s suspicious behavior, Tsubaki’s mother began pressing questions on her husband, hoping to get an honest answer out of him.

And the husband answered quite boldly, that the one he loves, even to this day, was his old lover and also the child that they both had.

Tsubaki’s mother, who had a very beautiful appearance and figure, was very prideful due to her upbringing like a princess from the start. She couldn’t tolerate the fact that her husband had betrayed her, and also the fact that there was someone who really didn’t truly love her, she gradually became ill-hearted.

Since then, the husband left and never came back home, and that made the fragile heart of the wife became all the more shattered. As time went one, the situation slowly approached a horrible ending.

In the end, her mother who couldn’t bear with it anymore and ended her own life… and the first one to discover this was her daughter, Tsubaki.

From that day onwards, Tsubaki has never opened her heart to anyone and secluded herself. She began to hate her father, the one who had driven her mother to a corner like that. She also hated his other lover, the one that her father truly loved, and also to their child, Mio, who had a loving father and a caring mother. She hated this family.

And that was Kurahashi Tsubaki’s upbringing story, the child of a mother who was wronged and died unjustly. The players who had realized this and understood her, they began sympathizing with her. “Tsubaki was not in the wrong then!” the other players would say because it was clear in front of them that she was also a victim.

Tsubaki would just end up as poor, misunderstood villainess at this point.

However, because of the twists and turns from the twisted consequence, Tsubaki had an obsession for Mio the point that it was really abnormal and kept on assaulting her in any way possible.

With her mother being the daughter of a fairly large enterprise, her grandfather and uncle, who very much regretted that they gave Tsubaki’s mother and the ungrateful man the permission to get married, raised and spoiled Tsubaki as recompense for their mistake. As she grew up, with the authority that was given to her by her grandfather and uncle, she used this authority to torment Mio’s everyday life again and again.

For some reason, Tsubaki was always present at the meeting place for capturable characters. She used her followers to splash water on Mio and damaged any of Mio’s belongings as she pleased. There were also more persistent and malignant things that she had done such as abducting and confining Mio, and won’t let her go to the place where capturable characters can be met with, and so on.

Also, she believed that she can make her father’s new family feel guilty towards her by using the family name Kurahashi, and she stubbornly refuses to use the Mizushima family name, even though the family had already taken her in.

Eventually, Tsubaki asked her grandfather and made the company that her father was in go bankrupt, and successfully made Mio’s family suffer out in the cold after knowing the death of Mio’s mother.

Especially mentioning Tsubaki, who always appears at the meeting place with the capturable characters. “What, you think it’s the capturable character? Too bad, it’s Tsubaki~”. It was a surprisingly bad joke where one can feel the production team’s intent of annoying the player. What’s more is that this scene was randomly generated so it can’t be predicted at all.

Tsubaki could not allow for Mio to experience the feeling of happiness, and that obsession had become her reason to live. That’s why, no matter who it was, Tsubaki will always appear when you pick a character that you want to capture, and they were thorough enough to change the content of harassment by the change of the capture character. There was also that time where she had put a tsukkomi, Just where the hell do these production teams get their motivation from!? In front of the TV screen.

What’s more is that which any of the characters that you try to capture, the ending scene will always be Tsubaki committing suicide

I believe that there are no other games like this which truly is bad for heart.

After watching all of the endings, Tsubaki thought, Why don’t you lot might as well make a Tsubaki Capture ending too! She would always think like this back in her previous life.

Furthermore, if Mio is not in any sort of romantic relationship with any of the capturable characters at the end, Tsubaki will appear suddenly while Mio was recollecting the fleeting memories of the three years that she spent in the academy on the rooftop on the day of the graduation ceremony. When this scene occurs, a conversation will begin.

“I hate you who took away the place where I rightfully belong to! That is why now, I will take everything from you!”

After saying that, she tackled Mio off the the ground and pushed her along with her off to the edge of the rooftop where they both plummet down to the ground rapidly and came the Double Suicide ending.

Even the normal ending had no hope at all, or rather, it was a bad ending! It’s not normal at all!

Tsubaki remembered the game’s content from her previous life and started to tuckered out because she kept put on the tsukkomi in her head. But when she remembered something, she began calming down. If I’m not wrong, then there should be a more safer route– to which, she began digging up her memories once more.

In there, she remembered that [Koi Hana] was a Double Heroine system where there was the half-sister Kurahashi Mio and the scholarship student from a normal household Natsume Touko, the second heroine that can be selected. Mio’s gameplay started in middle school, because there were plenty of valuable events many of the players played Mio as their first heroine, and after they had a taste of how irritating Tsubaki can be, after the ending, players who started to become serious in playing the game began to pop-up one after another.

In contrast to Natsume Touko, she started out in high school and the difficulties were remarkably much lower than Mio’s.

Touko, who dreamed of becoming a painting restorer, enrolled at Takamine Academy’s high school division as a scholarship student. She wanted to enter Takamine Academy’s Art Department where the more famous restorationist teachers, it’s history, and various connections pertaining to the field of restoration. Especially with the Art Department’s high pass rate, when it comes to the general examination test, people without talent or ability can not pass. That’s why she came and took the high school examinations test with the aim of entering the Art Department as an internal student.

Although Touko’s family came from a humble background, her father was a director of a listed company so they were more prosperous than any of the ordinary salaryman household. But as expected, it was impossible to pay the tuition fee for Takamine’s high school division and the university department so she persuaded her parents to enrolling as a scholarship student, and that was Touko’s background and setting for the game.

Actually, Touko had met with Kyousuke when she was in her third year of middle school, and she also had that feeling of meeting him again.

Thus, if Touko were to be chosen as the Protagonist, Tsubaki wouldn’t make her appearance except in a specific route, and the game can be cleared relatively peacefully with the other capture targets. That specific route was called Mizushima Kyousuke’s Route, Tsubaki’s cousin from her mother’s side of the family.

Kyousuke too was the same as Tsubaki, he lost his mother when he was still a child. Growing up without much exchange with his father, he distracted himself by sharing his loneliness with Tsubaki, who was the same as him. Putting it simply, it was codependency.

After losing his mother, the adults only showed mourning on the surface, and because of the fact that his father was so obsessed with his work to the point that he didn’t have his family in mind, Kyousuke began having a feeling of distrust with other people and got spoilt by the servants who had pitied him. He grew up with a great arrogance Ore-sama bastard personality, and the only one who he trusted the most was Tsubaki, who was also similar to him in a sense.

In the first place, the one who had deeply influenced the negative changes of Kyousuke’s personality was Tsubaki herself. There was a side where he was being dragged down by Tsubaki’s negative emotions. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Tsubaki had brainwashed Kyousuke.

And the one who had managed to do something about it was none other than Touko. Kyousuke slowly opened his heart towards Touko because of her cheerfulness and somewhat airheaded personality. After this, they later on became lovers, and that’s when Tsubaki began on making an appearance.

She really is a Yanderu. No it’s not a typo, she’s clearly a Yanderu. Not a Yandere.

Calling Kyousuke a betrayer, Tsubaki pointed a knife to Kyouse and Touko. When seeing Tsubaki swing the knife– Tsubaki remembered how she barraged the skip button in her previous life at that part.

At the end, covering Kyousuke, Touko was stabbed and died, and that was Kyousuke Ending 1. There were also other alternate endings. When Kyousuke was the one who got stabbed and died, that was Kyousuke Ending 2, and in the case that both Kyousuke and Touko escaped and ran away, and that Tsubaki realized that she can’t kill him, filled with despair from Kyousuke’s betrayal, she ender her own life, and that was Kyousuke Ending 3.

After seeing all of these endings, it’s finally the true ending.

Touko, who was stabbed, was saved and was rushed towards the hospital. When she opened her eyes, she looked at her hand and can see Kyousuke grasping her hand. After she had regained consciousness, he told her about Tsubaki’s suicide. By the way, in Ending 1 and 2 Tsubaki will suicide too, no matter what. She didn’t have an ending where she could survive. Tsubaki could not help but think that the productions staff were way too thorough.

By the way Tsubaki is not coming out in any of the other routes. Naturally it’s because she didn’t have any hatred towards Touko.

That’s why, when choosing Touko as the protagonist and clear a route besides the Kyousuke’s Route, it was really peaceful. “Ah, this was a Shoujo Game.” This is became the natural reaction when players remember the game’s concept.

By the way about the Kyousuke’s Route in Mio’s part. In that part, Kyousuke sees Mio as an enemy at the start and has no other feeling towards her other than hatred.

Who would blame him? His attitude towards her was justified seeing that she was the child of the woman who caused the death of her aunt.

However, after some exposure, Kyousuke gradually became attracted by Mio’s natural kindness and was moved by her strong will. But he knows that she is from the family that can also be said as an enemy of the Mizushima family, and his cousin Tsubaki’s half-sister.

After Mio and Kyousuke got together, and as result of worry after worry, the two decided to elope as soon as they graduated.

And while Tsubaki tried to stop the two from eloping, she couldn’t do anything. She was shook off and the two lovers ran away. With the rejection from Kyousuke, Tsubaki was in despair and had cut her own life away.

This was the rough content of [Koi Hana] which Tsubaki had played in her previous life.

Tsubaki wanted to cry, but there were no tears, when she realized that she was reincarnated as Kurahashi Tsubaki, the one who had no choice but commit suicide in the end of every path the player takes.

But, Tsubaki herself doesn’t have any will to acting for Mio’s sake.

Here, Tsubaki wondered why the setting in the game was different from the present, and asked Mio who was still had a gleeful expression on her face.

“What do you mean by this being a detached place?”

Hearing this question, its as if Mio had heard an idiotic question asked by an idiotic person. She had a condescending look upon he face as she smugly answered Tsubaki’s question.

“Isn’t that obvious? Because me and my mother are living inside the main house. Who Father loves are only me and my mother you know. And the proof is that you lot got chased away in this distant and remote place. Also, all the servants are taking care of us in the main house.”

Mio told Tsubaki as if it everything that she had said were right and was very obvious.

However, Tsubaki felt something was amiss there. Why did Mio and her mother lived in the main house while in the game she previously played, they lived inconspicuously?

In spite the game’s setting being different, Tsubaki wasn’t able to understand Mio’s attitude, which she looked like everything that had happened were a given.

Looking at Tsubaki who kept silent, Mio has misunderstood and thought that Tsubaki was in shock because she wasn’t loved by her own father. Satisfied when looking at Tsubaki, she returned to the main house after saying what she had wanted to say.

Quietly watching Mio’s retreating figure, Tsubaki was in bewilderment because of the differences in the game’s setting.

But, Tsubaki began to calm down when she remembered that she was still 4 years old.

Tsubaki remembered that in the game, her mother died when she was at 5 years old.

It is a fact and no doubt that this world is [Koi Hana]’s world. Nonetheless, because of the setting differences, she began to catch sight of odd things.

First, Mio and her mother who stayed inconspicuously in the game, for some reason, lived comfortably in the main house. Furthermore, Tsubaki and her mother got driven to a distance place. And above all, she can’t imagine her fragile beauty mother to change to became the raging woman like in the game.

Also, about her being reincarnated, it was very likely that Mio was also a reincarnated person.

And the most important point from all of that, is that there was almost no possibility for Tsubaki to become the crazy, psychopathic Tsubaki that was introduced in the game, also Tsubaki doesn’t have any will to die at all.

Based on those, she considered that this world would not always progress forward like it was in the game.

If so, then there is no mandatory power and it is possible to change the future, maybe the game’s essential parts did not change, but if there are possibilities then there is worth in trying it.

What’s more, from the conversation before, Tsubaki felt that she would never can come to like Mio.
She thought that because she is the Heroine, everything will go as she wants. Because she is the Heroine, she looked down on others.

Like hell I’m going to let my cousin (not met yet) to be taken away with a woman like that! I won’t let you take away my peace! Tsubaki determinedly thought and grasped her fists strongly.