Marriage Battle Royale: Stop Courting Me, You Overpowered Reincarnators!
Namba Ren is twenty-nine, single, and painfully ordinary. No cheats. No special talents. Just a steady job at a trading company and a friend who won't stop dragging him to marriage parties.
But the moment he steps into Dining Bar Luscher, "ordinary" goes out the window.
Because this isn't a normal matchmaking event—it's a mixer for *reincarnators*. People who lived entire lives in another world, died, and came back to Japan with their overpowered skills intact. Fire magic. Time rewinding. Grav
Marriage Battle Royale: Stop Courting Me, You Overpowered Reincarnators! - The True Nature of the Null Field, and the Story of the Two Who Kept Knocking on the Door
Corpo Minase, Room 201. The lights were off.
The door sounded again.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Ren ignored it. He stayed slumped against the wall, knees pulled to his chest. His phone lay face-down. He'd lost track of how many hours had passed since he'd declined every call.
The room was dark. Only the streetlights outside filtered through the thin curtains. That was enough.
"Namba-san."
A voice through the door. He recognized it—the owner of those long silver locks and golden eyes. Hikawa Akane.
Ren didn't answer.
"I know you're in there. I know you're there."
Another knock. Harder this time.
"My skill, Voix du Cœur—the ability to read minds—doesn't work on you. It never has. Even now. I can't hear your heart's voice."
Ren buried his face in his knees.
"But."
A beat.
"I know you're suffering right now. This isn't my skill. My skill has nothing to do with it. It's because I've been watching you all this time—that alone is enough for me to know."
Something stirred inside Ren.
（Watching me, huh.）
He couldn't laugh. But he couldn't deny it either. It was true that Akane had been watching him. Annoyingly so. Absurdly so.
On the other side of the door, Ren couldn't move.
Should he go out? Should he stay? He didn't even know which was right.
"Namba-san."
A third time. This time, her voice trembled slightly.
"Please open the door. I'm begging you."
Then—another sound came from the hallway.
Thud. Scrape.
"...Shinomiya-san, why are you here!?"
Akane's voice cracked in surprise.
"If you're coming, I'm coming. That's all."
Dark green short hair. A heterochromatic gaze—left eye red, right eye silver. Shinomiya Shu stood in the hallway, holding a cardboard box.
"Why do you have a cardboard box!?"
"All the evidence. External unauthorized access logs to the PC. Recordings of direct interviews with the accounting staff. It's all in here."
Akane froze for a moment.
"...Evidence?"
"I'll say only this—I'm worried about you too."
Shu spoke flatly. Akane tried to apply Judgment Line—Shu's skill that discerns lies from truth—to his statement, and her expression shifted.
"...No red line."
"Of course not. Because I'm telling the truth."
"That's...you're being far too honest!"
"The absence of a red line means exactly that."
Akane went bright red and fell silent.
Shu set down the cardboard box and stood before the door.
"Namba-san. I need you to listen."
Through the door. A quiet voice.
"The embezzlement case—you're innocent. There's evidence. Logs show unauthorized access to an account under your name. You didn't do it. This is certain—I can say it with no red line."
"......"
"I also know you've been carrying everything alone, trying to protect someone. I know all of it, and I'm still saying this. Open the door."
Inside the room, Ren's hand moved.
Slowly, he stood. His legs wobbled. Hours pressed against the wall had stiffened his knees.
He turned the lock.
He opened the door.
The fluorescent light of the hallway was blinding. He squinted. There they stood—Akane and Shu.
The moment Akane saw Ren's face, her expression changed.
Eyes swollen from crying. Disheveled hair. A face worn down by three days of exhaustion.
Akane moved before words could come.
"...Honestly. What a handful."
And she hugged him.
Ren went rigid. He couldn't move. He couldn't say anything.
Akane's shoulders trembled faintly.
Shu watched, and tilted his gaze slightly toward the ceiling.
"...I'm also inconvenienced when you're gone. Things don't stay in order."
He muttered it in a near-monotone.
Ren looked up.
"...You're making a really weird face while trying to comfort me, you know that?"
Shu's brow moved, just slightly.
"No red line."
"I know."
Ren was smiling. It wasn't a good smile, but he managed it.
And with that, the air between the three of them shifted, just a little.
＊ ＊ ＊
Shinjuku Sanchome. Fourth floor of a mixed-use building.
When they opened the door to Dining Bar Lucerne—the venue Marriage Connect rented out twice a month—warm air and the amber glow of indirect lighting greeted them.
At the counter, Tsubaki Shiori sat alone.
She was cracking a crème brûlée with her spoon. A crisp snap.
"You came, Sample-san."
"You're still using that name?"
"Force of habit."
Still smiling, Shiori took a bite of the crème brûlée.
The three of them sat down at the counter. Shiori set down her spoon and began to speak.
"The reason Marriage Connect invited you to the party, Namba-san. The real reason."
A beat.
"Within a few meters of you, Namba-san, reincarnators' Return Skills—abilities carried over from a past life—weaken. In some cases, they're completely nullified. We call this unique constitution the Null Field."
Ren froze.
Akane slowly widened her eyes.
"The reason Hikawa-san couldn't read your mind. The reason Shinomiya-san's lie detection never once reacted to your words. The reason reincarnators felt a strange sense of relief near you. All of it—this is why."
Shu spoke quietly.
"...I see. So that's why my red line never appeared for Ren."
"Your skill was weakened, so the accuracy was likely degraded."
Ren was silent for a moment.
"...So I'm not just someone with nothing. I'm someone who erases what other people have?"
"Yes. You are the only existence that can nullify skills."
She said it plainly.
Ren took a beat.
"...Is that supposed to be good news or bad news for me? I can't decide."
Shu let out a rare, soft breath of amusement.
"That's the most honest thing you've said all day."
And then—it happened.
Bang—!!
The door of Lucerne flew open.
Three men entered. In suits. The same faces as the ones from the company meeting room. They were Remnant Circle—the radical faction among reincarnators who believed past-life powers should be actively used in the present world.
"Come quietly."
Man A fixed his gaze on Ren.
"We'll use that Null Field. If you refuse, everyone here—we'll pick up where we left off."
Ren instinctively tried to back away.
In that instant.
Akane and Shu stepped forward simultaneously.
The two of them stood in front of Ren.
"...Move."
"I refuse."
Akane's voice dropped low. Her usual "desu wa" tone was gone.
"We're inside the Null Field. Our skills are weakened. I know."
Shu said calmly.
"Even so, we're not moving from here."
Man A laughed.
"What can you do without skills?"
"We'll do what we can."
Akane stepped in.
A past life as a swordswoman—her body remembered the movements. She grabbed Man B's arm. Twisted. His balance broke. She pinned him against the wall. No skill, bare hands. But it was a sure move.
Man C tried to move.
"Stop right there."
Shu said coolly.
"If you move now, you'll step on the cardboard box at your feet. You'll fall. That's all."
Man C looked down. The cardboard box—the one with all the evidence—was right in front of his feet.
For a moment, Man C's movement stopped.
In that gap, Shu closed the distance.
Man A tried to head toward Ren.
"...Tch."
Ren nearly backed away. His legs moved. He tried to run.
But he stopped.
（If I run—I'll be alone again.）
Akane was in front. Shu was in front. With their skills sealed, the two of them were still in front.
Ren took a step forward.
Not backward—forward. To stand beside them. In the center.
Man A stopped moving.
Ren looked straight at him.
"I'm telling you I don't want to. That's all."
"......"
The standoff continued for a while.
Man A looked at Man B. Looked at Man C. Man B pinned by Akane. Man C unable to move in front of the cardboard box. And three people facing him head-on.
"...We'll withdraw for today."
He spat it out. The three headed for the door.
Just before leaving, Man A turned back.
"There won't be a next time."
The door closed.
Silence returned to the bar.
From behind the counter, a small clink.
It was the sound of Shiori setting her spoon on the plate.
"...I was eating even during the fight, so I managed to finish it all."
She said it with a smile.
Akane and Shu turned to look at Shiori simultaneously.
Both of them wore identical expressions of disbelief.
"...Shiori-san, weren't you scared?"
"Inside Sample-san's Null Field, my skill weakens too, so I was scared. But it was delicious."
"Those two things don't go together!"
Ren couldn't help but retort.
A while later, Ren spoke to Shiori.
"...I haven't forgiven you for calling me a test subject first thing, you know."
He said it with a half-lidded glare.
Shiori's face turned serious for the first time.
"...I'm sorry about that."
Akane immediately cut in.
"You should have said that from the start!"
"Seriously."
For the first time, a genuinely light atmosphere flowed between the four of them.
＊ ＊ ＊
On the way home. On the platform for the Nakano-bound train, the three stood in a row.
The night wind was a little cold.
Ren spoke, still facing forward.
"Today...thank you."
His voice was slightly hoarse. He couldn't say it well, but he said that much.
Akane's face reddened faintly, and she spoke while still facing forward.
"I'll stay by your side from now on, Namba-san. Even if my skill can't read you."
"...Same for me."
Shu said it shortly, beside her.
Akane immediately turned around.
"Don't lump yourself in with me, Shinomiya-san!"
"I believe that's for Ren to decide."
Akane was speechless.
Ren looked back and forth between them.
"...Just let me sleep tonight, at least."
The train arrived.
Ren got on. The doors began to close.
Ren turned around.
He gave them a brief smile. No words. That alone was enough.
The train began to move.
Akane and Shu, left on the platform, stood side by side and watched the train recede. Neither said anything.
Akane became aware of Shu beside her.
Shu became aware of Akane beside her.
The train grew distant.
Only the two of them remained on the night platform.
Akane sighed.
"...'That's for Ren to decide,' he says."
"It's the truth."
"I know that!"
Silence.
Neither said anything more.
＊ ＊ ＊
That night, Corpo Minase, Room 201.
He turned on the lights and collapsed onto the futon.
Ren picked up his phone. Akane's messages were marked as read. Shu's too.
（Today, I feel like I stepped forward for the first time.）
For seven years, he'd been afraid of getting deeply involved with people, watching everything from a distance. It started with a marriage hunting party, and then a baffling week had passed.
Even so—tonight, Ren had stood in the center.
Thinking it was a strange thing, Ren set down his phone.
He closed his eyes. He felt like he could sleep. For the first time in a while.
Then, his phone vibrated once.
It wasn't LINE. It was an email.
Sender: Unknown
He opened it. A single line.
"I've obtained detailed data on the Null Field. Next time, I'll come see you in person. —MC Representative"
Ren stared at the message for a while.
MC Representative—the head of Marriage Connect, Mika.
The person who had never once shown herself at the parties had finally made a direct move.
"...You've gotta be kidding me."
Ren muttered toward the ceiling.
His sleepiness had vanished somewhere far away.
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