The final bell rang, and players spilled through the school gates in loose clusters.
Normally, parents waiting to pick up their children were a common sight, but that had nothing to do with the players.
The Reincarnation Game assigned every one of them the same background: orphan.
During the last instance, whether it was Makoto Nishikado, Yukinoshita Yukino, or Hikigaya Hachiman, they'd all trudged back to the orphanage after class.
Today was different.
Scattered among the waiting parents, more than a few players spotted familiar faces.
"Mom!"
The Akizuki sisters cried out in unison and broke into a sprint toward a figure standing in the crowd.
Their mother, Akizuki Kayoko.
Unlike her daughters, who'd been reduced to eight-year-old girls, Kayoko looked exactly as she did in the real world: a woman who couldn't have been past her early thirties, beautiful and composed, though her clothes had been swapped for something out of the Naruto universe.
"Marina! Airi!"
She threw her arms wide and pulled both girls tight against her.
When Makoto walked up behind them, her eyes went red. Tears spilled over. "Makoto! You're here too... thank goodness. Thank goodness!"
She'd been terrified since the moment she arrived. The Reincarnation Game's rules had nearly sent her into shock. Before she could even collect herself, Konoha officials had shown up at her door, telling her they'd found her children and that she should come to the school.
And then, just like that, her daughters were standing in front of her. And Makoto.
The tension she'd carried all day finally broke.
A full month without seeing them in the real world, and they'd reunited in another one entirely.
The Akizuki sisters weren't the only ones finding family in the crowd.
"Mommy!"
Eriri threw herself into the arms of a woman who shared ninety percent of her features, though with purple hair and dressed in a kimono. Sawamura Sayuri, her mother.
"My, my. When was the last time Eriri clung to me like this?" Sayuri laughed softly, squeezing her daughter tight.
She might have been the mother of a high schooler, but Sayuri was a veteran otaku in her own right. The concept of being transported to another world sat far more comfortably with her than it did with Kayoko.
"Mom!"
Mouri Ran dragged Suzuki Sonoko along, bounding over to Kisaki Eri with barely contained joy.
Her parents had been separated for ten years, and she'd spent all of it living with her hopeless father. Without her around, god only knew what state the man would devolve into.
Kisaki Eri, bespectacled and radiating an effortless blend of cool elegance and sharp intelligence, looked down at her daughter's grade-school form.
Something maternal and rare softened her expression. She crouched and swept the miniature Mouri Ran into her arms.
"Mother."
Haruno and Yukino approached the Yukinoshita couple side by side and bowed.
The formality said everything. Their family didn't do warmth the way the others did.
"As long as you're both safe." The Yukinoshita patriarch offered a gentle smile.
The couple looked nothing like their real-world selves. No tailored suit on him, no high-end silk kimono on her. Both wore civilian clothes, plain and unremarkable. Yet even dressed down, Mrs. Yukinoshita carried herself with an aristocratic grace that no outfit could erase.
Where the father was warm, the mother simply gave a quiet "Mm."
Then she walked straight past her daughters toward Makoto.
"Makoto-kun, Is this where your power comes from?"
Yukino's fists clenched at her sides, her gaze turning to ice.
I have to get stronger.
Makoto smiled. "Would you like to give it a try yourself, ma'am?"
As he spoke, his eyes drifted across the scene of mothers and daughters reuniting around him, and a thought crossed his mind for the hundredth time: anime mothers really did defy aging entirely.
And was it just him, or... did the mothers actually look better than their daughters?
The corner of Mrs. Yukinoshita's mouth curved upward. "You flatter me."
She'd only been in this world a day, but like her eldest daughter Haruno, she'd already gathered intelligence through every channel available.
Start training to be a ninja at forty? You've got to be joking.
Please.
Those who hadn't found their parents in the crowd, Kasumigaoka Utaha and Miura Yumiko among them, couldn't hide the disappointment flickering in their eyes.
"Let's head home and process everything for now," Makoto said to Mrs. Yukinoshita. "There'll be plenty of time to talk later."
This instance's mission was the Konoha Crush, and Naruto and Sasuke were only eight this year. That meant they'd be stuck in this world for a solid four or five years.
Mrs. Yukinoshita gave a slight nod, hands folded neatly at her waist, and dipped into an elegant bow. "Then we'll take our leave."
She turned and led her husband and both daughters away.
"Makoto!"
Kayoko caught his sleeve. "Come live with us. We don't have to worry about the police here, right...?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You have a house in this world, Auntie Kayoko?"
She nodded and pointed toward Konoha's main gate. "It's small, but the four of us can squeeze in."
The Reincarnation Game is surprisingly generous, he thought. Even arranged housing.
Nearby, Eriri had just learned from Sayuri that the system had given her mother a house too. A flicker of delight crossed her face.
No more orphanage.
She glanced sideways at Kasumigaoka Utaha and Katou Megumi, cleared her throat, and put on her best reluctant expression.
"So... if you two are willing to help my mom with the housework, I suppose I wouldn't be opposed to letting you stay."
Classic tsundere.
Any other day, Utaha would have fired back without hesitation. But this time, the literary girl offered Sayuri a polite bow. "Thank you for having us."
Given the choice between a proper home and bunking with a crowd of boys at the orphanage, the answer was obvious.
Megumi followed suit, thanking Sayuri with a quiet smile.
Eriri's gaze slid toward Aki Tomoya, who stood nearby, clearly wanting to say something but holding back.
"Sorry, Tomoya." Sayuri beat him to it, her tone gentle but final. "Our place is on the smaller side. Four people is really the limit."
The smile froze on his face, then wilted into something bitter. "Yeah... that's too bad."
With no other option, he fell in with Kinoshita Kazuya, Hikigaya Hachiman, and the rest of the boys, trudging toward the orphanage.
Meanwhile, Yuigahama Yui, Ichinose Chizuru, and the other girls whose mothers hadn't appeared were visibly torn.
"We have to live with these guys?" Miura Yumiko didn't bother hiding her disgust.
Chizuru, as a veteran player, had shared the orphanage with Makoto and Hachiman during the previous instance. But there had been fewer people then, and plenty of space between them. Bearable enough.
With this many people packed in, physical contact with the opposite sex would be unavoidable. Their bodies might have turned into grade schoolers, but their minds were still high schoolers.
Makoto's eyes lit up when he heard Miura's complaint.
He called out to Yukino, who had already walked some distance away:
"Hey~ Miss Ally of Justice who firmly believes she's absolutely right... you're really not going to help them?"
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Every 50 Powerstones = 1 Bonus Chapter.
(And I'll publish the moment it hits another 50, no waiting for the next day)