Kurumi's School Life Reincarnation: A Sweet and Bitter Love Triangle!?
During an after-school piano session in the music room, Kurumi suddenly finds herself transported to another world. She arrives at 'Kurumi Academy,' a slightly peculiar high school, retaining only the memories of her original life.
Enrolled as a first-year student with the same name, Kurumi Hazakura, she begins a new life full of heart-pounding and exciting events with new friends, all while thinking she used to be a normal high schooler with no special powers.
The most popular boy in class, T
Kurumi's School Life Reincarnation: A Sweet and Bitter Love Triangle!? - Kurumi, who has wandered in, and Takuto, smiling.
Before she knew it, the sound had changed.
The chords her left hand had been tracing just moments ago wavered softly and vanished.
Huh? What...
No, that's not it.
The sound didn't change.
The world did.
Kurumi blinked rapidly.
Just moments ago, she should have been in the music room after school.
Facing the old grand piano, playing her mother's favorite piece.
But.
Where... is this?
Outside the window was a landscape she didn't recognize.
A massive walnut tree stood solidly in the courtyard.
Beyond it, a white school building she'd never seen before.
Even though the sky was the same sunset color as before.
Her fingers trembled.
She pulled her hands away from the piano keys.
She looked at her own hands.
On the ring finger of her right hand, a small callus. A tiny hardened spot, proof of all those years she'd kept up with the piano.
It was there, just like always, and yet—
"Why..."
Her voice came out hoarse.
Absently, she touched the right side of her hair.
A small hairpin shaped like a walnut.
Was I... wearing this?
She was sure she hadn't had it when she left the house this morning.
And yet, her fingers traced its shape on their own.
It felt so natural, as if it had been there all along.
She stood up, and dizziness washed over her.
The music room walls were a pale cream color, cracked here and there.
The floorboards creaked beneath her feet.
Old chairs stacked in the corner of the room.
The curtains were a little dusty, filtering the sunset into a soft blur.
She didn't know any of it.
None of it.
Then she noticed a name engraved on the piano.
"Capella."
The old gold letters, coated in dust, glinted faintly.
Capella...
The moment she murmured it, another wave of dizziness hit.
Frightened, Kurumi bolted out of the music room.
The hallway was dim.
The lights flickered on and off.
It smelled of old wood.
Only the sound of her shoes pattering against the floor echoed back, which only made her anxiety swell.
She didn't know where to go.
She just ran.
She turned a corner, and then—
Thud.
She crashed into something.
No, someone.
"Whoa!"
A loud crash as they fell.
Kurumi lost her balance too and landed on her backside.
"Ow, ow... huh?"
She looked up. A boy was sprawled out, nearly flattened beneath her.
His smooth brown hair swayed, bangs falling over his eyes.
His bright brown eyes, slightly downturned, blinked rapidly as he looked at Kurumi.
"Whoa, you startled me!"
He shouted, then broke into a broad grin.
When he smiled, his eyes narrowed into crescent moons.
"You're a transfer student, right? Am I right?"
Kurumi's mind went completely blank.
Transfer student?
How could he possibly know that?
And this uniform...
He was wearing a navy blazer with checkered pants.
The Kurumi Academy emblem gleamed on his chest.
"Oh, sorry! For crashing into you out of nowhere. I'm Honda Takuto. Class 1-3 at Kurumi Academy. And you?"
With that, Takuto sprang to his feet and offered Kurumi his hand.
His hand was ridiculously big.
Much larger than hers, but it looked incredibly warm.
"...Um."
The words wouldn't come.
She was scared.
Anxious.
But not taking his hand felt even stranger, so she gently placed her hand in his.
Takuto shook her arm up and down vigorously. Apparently, it was meant to be a handshake.
"Ahaha, nice to meet you! You're totally panicking, huh? Don't worry, everyone's like that at first."
Faced with that brightness, Kurumi felt the tension drain out of her.
She had no idea what kind of expression she was making right now.
She felt like she might cry, but the tears wouldn't come. She probably looked weird.
"I... wonder if I can go back. To my world."
She murmured it quietly.
Takuto's face turned a little serious for a moment, then he smiled again right away.
"Well, we haven't found a way back yet."
He said something incredible so casually.
"But it's okay! This world's not so bad once you get used to it, and you've got me! C'mon, let's go shopping!"
Without waiting for a reply, Takuto pulled Kurumi by the hand and strode off.
They left the dim hallway of the old school building and stepped out into a glass-walled connecting corridor—the Arch Bridge.
Suddenly, the view opened wide.
The white walls of the new school building, and the sports ground beyond.
The sky had already turned a deep orange.
"Kurumi Academy gets a crazy number of transfer students every year. Like, it's totally normal. Fifteen to twenty people a year, isn't that wild?"
"That many..."
Kurumi murmured.
That meant... there were lots of people just like her.
"And for some reason, I've kinda become the go-to guy for looking after new students. Man, it's tough being popular!"
Takuto said it jokingly.
But there was a hint of pride in his voice, and he sounded genuinely happy about it.
Once they crossed the connecting corridor, a sign reading "School Store: Konara-dou" came into view at the entrance of the new building.
Takuto headed straight for it.
"Sugi-san! Two walnut sweet buns!"
The old man minding the store—Sugitani Toshio—handed over two buns with a smile.
Takuto thrust one at Kurumi.
"Here, my treat. It's a Kurumi Academy specialty. The school symbol is a walnut, you know. Did you see the dark red emblem? That's it. It's all over the campus. Even the school festival is called the 'Noisette Festival'—apparently, that's French for 'nut.' Your name's Kurumi, right? Doesn't that feel like fate or something?"
Kurumi, kurumi, kurumi.
When she opened the bun's wrapper, a sweet scent wafted up.
Inside, it was packed full of chunky walnut paste.
Fate.
Maybe so.
But at the same time, she felt a faint unease.
Why had she ended up at an academy with the same name as her?
And this walnut hairpin was strange, too.
But—
"...It's good."
The moment she took a bite, she almost burst into tears.
Sweet, soft, and just the right warmth.
It reminded her a little of the walnut cookies her mother used to make.
"Right? Right? A face that's about to cry looks a little better after a sweet bun, doesn't it?"
Takuto laughed.
He looked at her and grinned.
It was an infectious smile.
He watched Kurumi stuff her cheeks with the walnut bun, looking satisfied.
By the time she finished eating, Takuto was pulling her by the hand again.
"Okay, next stop: the staff room! Gotta get you processed."
The staff room was on the first floor of the new building.
When he opened the door, a faint smell of ink drifted out.
Her homeroom teacher, Umehara Kousuke, was a mild-mannered man in his mid-thirties.
"Ah, you must be Hazakura Kurumi-san. We've been expecting you."
A shiver ran down Kurumi's spine.
Expecting her?
On the desk lay a set of textbooks, gym clothes, indoor shoes, and a neatly folded Kurumi Academy girls' uniform.
All the paperwork needed for enrollment was already complete.
Her tuition and living expenses had, for some reason, "already been arranged."
It was as if they had known from the very beginning that she would come to this world.
As she accepted the documents, Kurumi's fingers trembled.
"...Is this... really for me?"
"Yes. Kurumi Academy is quite accustomed to accepting transfer students. We even have a special scholarship program. You have nothing to worry about."
The teacher spoke kindly, but Kurumi's anxiety didn't fade.
Leaving the staff room and walking down the hallway, Takuto spoke up.
"I'll be waiting in the classroom tomorrow morning! Class 1-3, at the very end of the new building. Well, I'll come get you anyway."
Saying that, Takuto took Kurumi's hand in both of his and shook it vigorously.
Seriously, this guy really liked shaking hands.
"Well then, see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Kurumi-chan."
A straightforward smile with nothing hidden behind it.
Inside Kurumi's heart, the part that had been cold until just now grew a tiny bit warmer. Just a tiny, tiny bit.
The sky had already gone dark.
After parting ways with Takuto at the school gate, Kurumi found herself standing alone in front of the old school building once more.
She just couldn't shake the feeling.
She climbed the creaking stairs and returned to the music room.
The room was pitch black now, with only a thin sliver of moonlight streaming through the window.
She stood before the piano.
"Capella."
The old grand piano.
She gently traced its surface with her finger.
That's when it happened.
Illuminated by the moonlight, she noticed a tiny pattern on the side of the piano.
It wasn't just a scratch.
It was a strange crest, almost like the shape of a walnut.
Kurumi felt her heart pound.
What is this?
Does it mean something?
She had no answer.
But Kurumi thought to herself.
Maybe this piano, this academy—maybe none of it is just coincidence.
Her name being Kurumi.
The walnut hairpin in her hair.
Everything, absolutely everything, was strange and frightening, but also just a little bit—just a tiny bit—thrilling.
Outside the window, the giant walnut tree—the Great Walnut—swayed in the wind and whispered.
Starting tomorrow, a new life would begin here.
She was full of anxiety, but when she remembered Takuto's smile, she felt like she could move forward, just a little.
Leaving the music room, Kurumi headed for her new room.
The moonlight cast a pale blue glow over the hallway.
This was the end of Kurumi's long, long first day at Kurumi Academy.
Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.