Reborn With The Milf "Harem" System

The rooftop was a graveyard of silence. The wind dragged loose papers across the tiles, their corners snapping like brittle bones.

Saki stood near the edge. Her outline looked almost human in the moonlight, but the details betrayed her, shoulders hunched too sharp, her head twitching in stutters, hair hiding half her face. The night clung to her like tar.

Rika's hand tightened around my sleeve. "Renji… she's—"

"I know," I cut in, eyes never leaving Saki.

The System's whisper bled into me, cold and precise:

> [Warning: Saki's corruption at 91%. Critical threshold approaching.]

[Stabilization required. Emotional sync mandatory.]

Saki lifted her chin. Her lips pulled into a smile that was all teeth and no warmth. "Sensei…" Her voice cracked, layered — part her, part something else. "Why… didn't you save me?"

My jaw locked. Fifty years of soldier's scars told me what that question meant. This wasn't just a haunting. This was the wound that killed her, festering, replaying, binding her here.

Behind me, Mayumi shifted, voice low, taut with fear. "She's gone, Renji. That's not—"

"Quiet," I snapped, taking a step forward.

The air warped around her, pressure sinking into my chest like the rooftop itself wanted to push me back. My 16-year-old frame trembled, but the man inside, the one who'd marched through hell more times than he could count, refused to budge.

I raised my voice over the storm. "Saki. Look at me."

Her head jerked, eyes glowing a fractured red. And for the briefest second, I saw it — the girl beneath the corruption, drowning.

I clenched my fists. "I'm not here to let you vanish. Not like this."

The rooftop groaned, shadows thickening, and Saki's body shivered as if torn between running to me and tearing me apart.

---

The moment I stepped forward, the rooftop shifted. Shadows spilled outward from Saki's bare feet, stretching like ink in water, snaring tiles, climbing walls. The air turned viscous, hard to breathe.

Her voice split in two, a trembling whisper, and a guttural growl that shook the steel fence.

"Don't… come closer—"

"—KILL HIM—"

The darkness lashed. A spear of shadow snapped from the floor, aiming straight for my chest. My soldier's instincts fired before my teenage body could falter. I twisted aside, the blade slicing fabric and skin, hot blood licking my ribs.

"Renji!" Rika screamed from behind, but I threw a hand back. "Stay back! Both of you!"

I gritted my teeth and forced my voice into steel. "Saki! You think I'm afraid of your pain? I've carried worse. You won't scare me off."

Another lash came thicker, sharper, like claws. I caught it in both hands, my palms burning as the shadow writhed, trying to burrow into my skin. The System's warning pinged in my skull:

> [Corruption attempting sync override.]

[Countermeasure: Emotional anchor required.]

I dragged the shadow closer, step by step, as if reeling in a beast. My eyes locked on hers. Through the red glow, I saw the shimmer of tears.

"You wanted your sensei to protect you? Then let me protect you now!" I roared, slamming my knee into the rooftop to anchor myself. The impact cracked tiles.

Her body shuddered. For a heartbeat, the red in her gaze flickered. She whispered, broken and soft beneath the growl:

"Sensei…?"

The shadows convulsed violently, as if panicking, and lashed out in a frenzy — dozens of tendrils clawing for me at once. I braced, teeth bared, ready to break through or break apart.

---

The shadows struck all at once.

I braced for impact but instead of tearing through me, they swallowed. My boots scraped against the rooftop, and then the world shattered.

The night sky ripped open like wet paper. Concrete dissolved under my feet. Rika's scream cut off in a flash of white.

And then...silence.

When I blinked, I was standing ankle-deep in black water. It stretched forever, a horizonless ocean under a starless sky. The only sound was the ripple of my steps and the faint drip-drip-drip of unseen leaks.

> [System Notice: Your body has weakened.]

[You are inside: Trauma Domain.]

[Warning: Survival not guaranteed.]

System: Please be careful....Renji!

I exhaled slowly, my breath fogging in this frozen place.

That's when I saw her.

Saki stood in the distance, knee-deep in the same black water, her body flickering between flesh and shadow. Her uniform was torn, blood dried into the fabric. Her hair hung wet and heavy.

But what froze me wasn't the sight.

It was the ground around her.

Paper cranes. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. Each one folded and unfolded endlessly, wet with black water, their wings breaking, reforming, breaking again. The closer I looked, the more I realized they were bleeding.

Her voice carried over the still water, two tones layered together.

"You weren't supposed to follow me here…"

I stepped forward. The water swallowed each step with a sucking sound. "You wanted someone to follow you, didn't you?"

Her head twitched, tilting. Half her face was hers, a trembling, tear-streaked girl. The other half split into a ragged maw of shadow, teeth where there shouldn't be teeth.

"No one helped me. No one ever will." Her voice cracked, echoing like it came from the bottom of a well. "They watched. They let me fall. They laughed."

The paper cranes fluttered violently, their wet wings slapping against the water. They formed a storm around her, slicing at the air like razors. One slashed across my cheek, hot blood mixing with cold water.

The System's voice hissed in my skull, distorted:

> [Trauma Construct Manifestation: Hopelessness.]

[Countermeasure: Anchor required. Anchor required.]

I raised my voice against the storm. "Saki, I don't give a damn about the ones who let you die. I'm here now. And I won't let you rot here alone."

Her one human eye shimmered. But the shadow side of her face snarled, and a dozen paper cranes twisted into blades, shrieking as they shot toward me.

I clenched my fists. This was it — her world, her rules. If I broke here, she'd never crawl out of the dark.

So I lowered my stance, teeth bared.

"Then I'll fight your pain until you can believe me."

The storm of cranes descended.

---

The cranes swarmed. Shadows folded into wings, wings into blades, until the rooftop became a storm of tearing paper and shrieking air. They cut at us, slicing through sleeves, skin, hair—tiny wounds, dozens, bleeding like her memory wanted to mark us all.

Rika cried out, shielding Aika with her own body. Reina's flashlight fizzled dead in the storm. Even Mayumi's fists, swinging like hammers, barely shredded a fraction of the paper.

But I kept walking.

Each step was a fight through the storm. Each breath dragged knives down my throat.

And then I reached her.

Saki stood at the center, her hair rising like black fire, her uniform flaring in a wind only she commanded. One eye was a pit of endless dark. The other, wet, red-rimmed, trembling, still a girl's.

"Why… didn't you help me…?" she whispered, her voice breaking the air.

My hand shot out, catching hers. Cold stabbed me deeper than any blade. But I held on.

"You're not alone anymore," I rasped through blood in my mouth. "You don't have to keep falling."

Her head twitched, jerky, inhuman. Shadows pulled at her, tugging her away. But her fingers clenched mine. Just barely.

Rika stumbled forward, tears burning her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around us both, crushing Saki between her chest and mine.

"Please," Rika sobbed. "Don't stay in the dark anymore."

For a breathless second, Saki didn't fight. She let herself be held. Her shoulders shook. A sound left her lips that wasn't a shriek, wasn't a curse. Just a sob.

Her voice cracked, fragile, broken.

"…can I?"

The rooftop stilled. The paper storm froze mid-air, hanging like suspended ash. Even the wind held its breath.

Her body flickered, half-girl, half-shadow. But in that fragile hug, she was almost whole.

And then—

The gravel under our feet split. Black water surged up through the cracks, flooding the rooftop in a rising tide. It swallowed the paper cranes, swallowed the night sky itself, until we were waist-deep in an ocean of memory.

Saki clung tighter, but her form rippled, her eye glowing darker.

The System screamed inside my skull:

> [Corruption Threshold Critical.]

[Anchor Unstable.]

[Warning: Entity dragging host into Trauma Core.]

The hug wasn't enough. She wasn't letting go. She was pulling us with her.

I gritted my teeth, clinging to her as the water dragged us down. Rika's scream warped as bubbles swallowed her voice.

And then the rooftop was gone.

Only the black sea remained.

---

The fall had no bottom.

The rooftop was gone, the school gone, even the night sky ripped away. All that was left was the black sea, ink that clung to our bodies, cold that crawled into our bones.

Rika's scream warped into silence as the liquid swallowed her mouth. I gripped her hand, refusing to let go, the other hand locked on Saki's trembling fingers.

The System shrieked inside me:

> [User pulled into Trauma Core.]

[Corruption World: Manifested.]

[Warning: Exit uncertain.]

Shapes floated in the water, paper cranes soaked in blood, desks snapped in half, shards of window glass turning slowly like dead stars.

And then the ground appeared. Not stone, not earth. Just endless paper, wet and black, folding and tearing beneath our feet as we staggered upright.

Saki stood in front of us, whole now. Her body no longer flickered. Her uniform was torn the way it had been the night she died, blood dried into the fabric, knees scraped raw. Her hair clung wet to her cheeks, and both her eyes, both were hers. Red-rimmed. Desperate.

But the shadows still clung to her back, whispering, dragging, begging her to stay.

She looked at me. Then at Rika.

"…it hurts," she whispered, voice breaking like glass. "It never stops hurting. I screamed, but no one… no one came."

Her shoulders shook. Her hands balled into fists. "I didn't want to die. I wanted… someone to stop it. To stop them. To stop me from falling."

Rika staggered forward, tears streaming down her face. "Saki… I should've… I should've done more."

Saki's face twisted, pain, guilt, love, rage—until it all broke in a sob. She collapsed forward, arms flinging around both of us, crushing us in a hug so cold it burned.

I held her tighter. My voice rasped low, steady, soldier's steel forced through a boy's throat. "You're not alone anymore. You don't have to scream forever. Let it end with us."

The shadows shrieked. They writhed, clawed, tried to pry her away. But she clung tighter.

And then her breath warmed. Just for a second. Her voice, tiny, trembled in my ear.

"…I'll be back, Sensei."

The words cracked something deep inside me. And then—

Her body dissolved. Not like a monster, not like ink. Like light breaking apart. Her warmth lingered for one heartbeat in our arms, and then she scattered into a thousand drifting motes, vanishing into the air like fireflies.

The black sea buckled, then collapsed. The corruption world shattered like a mirror, sucking the shadows back into the cracks of reality.

We slammed back onto the rooftop, gasping, the night air burning sweet in our lungs. Rika collapsed against me, sobbing into my chest. Mayumi and Reina were already at our side, dragging us into the circle of their trembling arms.

The rooftop was empty. Silent.

Only the faint scent of paper and the ghost of a girl's last words lingered in the cold night air.

The System flickered, almost reverent:

> [Trauma Core Resolved.]

[Witness Released.]

[Sync Bonus: +20%.]

[Total Emotional Sync: 90%.]

But even as the numbers settled, I kept staring at the space where she'd been, my hand still tingling like hers was still in it.

Because she hadn't said goodbye.

She'd promised she'd be back.