Right, good point. Let's see what Nina's up to.

Fusei Kakuna was leaning against the wall when Nina left the building. When he saw her, he straightened his stance and stepped toward her.

"Nina-chan," he said in his strong yet soft tone. "Just the person I was waiting for."

"Fusei," she replied, then stammered out a hasty "-senpai. You were waiting for me?"

Nina could feel her face growing hot. Fusei smiled in response, and she had to look away from him the sparkles were so bright.

"Do you mind if I walk with you? There are some things I'd like to talk with you about."

"Sure," she said, perhaps a little too quickly.

They started walking. Nina's eyes were drawn to the way Fusei's legs stretched.

Should they be, though? she wondered. This guy wasn't just attractive, he was supposed to be attractive. The sparkles that surrounded him whenever she looked at him, the sexy voice whenever he spoke, the way every other girl looked at him. This was an anime, and whoever wrote it wrote Fusei as this ridiculously beautiful man who automatically attracted a ton of female attention. She had to wonder, was she actually attracted to him, or was she being **** to respond the way the writer wanted her to?

She knew she was in an anime. She had that awareness, and with that came free will, something that the other bewitched young women didn't have.

The real question was what happened when she looked past Fusei's charm. Would he, by his personality and character, be the sort of person that she, by her personality and character, would even want to be attracted to?

"So I suppose you want to know why I chose you to be the one to join me. Why your voice was the one I think the Council should hear."

"I would like to know," she confirmed. At the club meeting, she hadn't really said or done anything that made her stand out. She knew about the Fourth Wall, sure, but how could that have anything to do with it? It's not like Fusei knew about that... did he?

Maybe it was the Old Nina. Perhaps she had expressed opinions that Fusei found memorable. But she herself couldn't remember anything about her life before this morning.

"Today, you were different," he said. "I have a good idea of what all of you are like, and everyone performed at practice today the way I expected. Everyone except you. You know what that tells me, Nina-chan?"

That I'm not the same person you knew before? she thought. To Fusei, though, she only shook her head.

"It tells me that something new has happened to you, that you've become something new." His eyes bore deeply into hers. "So you're the one whose ideas I cannot pass along. You are the sole unique voice among the club. I don't know what your voice has to say, but I'll trust that it will be good for the Council to hear."

Oh. That made... too much sense, actually. Nina wasn't the same person he had known, so of course she wasn't behaving the way Old Nina would.

"Your trust was misplaced," she said finally. "If anything, what I've become has fewer opinions than the person I was yesterday."

He paused for a moment, then nodded. Nina could tell from his facial features, his skeptical frown and furrowed brow, that he was not nodding in understanding, but in acceptance.

Then he broke into a glorious smile. "Well, I'm not giving up on you just yet. There's still three days until the meeting. Let's see if this new you can build opinions to voice by then."

Fusei's endearing qualities were getting difficult for Nina to ignore. Not only was he attractive, he shared at least one common interest with her, and he was being remarkably kind and confident in her.

She smiled. "You got it. To be honest, I'm kind of curious to see what I come up with."

Another thought crossed her mind. Marco. He was the one who had helped her figure out that this was an anime in the first place. Twice, the two of them had had accidental encounters of a perverted nature. In all likelihood, that meant the writer had decided he was the hero of this story, while Nina was either the heroine or one of Marco's numerous potential love interests. Didn't that mean she was supposed to be fighting for his affections?

Well, screw that noise. As a self-aware being, Fourth Wall or no Fourth Wall, she wasn't going to play a role that some hack cliché-ridden writer had thrust upon her. She could damn well pursue Fusei if she wanted to, or she could be totally independent if she wanted to be. That's what being a person meant.

"I must admit, I'm curious about the new you as well. I'd be interested in getting to know you better, and helping you get to know yourself, Nina-chan."

Was that meant to sound so flirtatious? She certainly thought so. Perhaps she was wrong about what genre this was. Instead of a straightforward romance or harem series, what if it were a reverse harem? One where she was the real main character and there were multiple guys vying for her affection, instead of herself being one of many girls falling for the lead. Or maybe Marco was just a red herring or someone destined to be rejected or even just an inciting incident whose only purpose for existing was to let her know they were in an anime.

But what if today wasn't an isolated pair of incidents? What would happen if Nina tried to pursue Fusei, only for more incidents to keep happening with her and Marco? Would Fusei believe her if she said they were accidents?

"I too look forward to you getting to know me, and vice versa," she said finally. If he didn't believe her, then he wouldn't believe her, and there was no way to help that. She was going for it, at least giving it a try.

So... Now what? Fusei was there foe now, but all of her instincts from Old Nina were telling her she would be home soon. She was going to lose her chance... Should she just trip now and see what happens? Did anime logic work if you trip on purpose?

But I'm not an anime character, she told herself stubbornly. I'm a real person who happens to be in an anime at the moment. I am going to act like a real person and-

While she may have been the one distracting herself this time, for what it's worth, she didn't trip on purpose.

Almost the instant she started to fall, Fusei looped his arms around her stomach to stop her mere inches from the ground. Nina was not oblivious to the angle of his hands; had she fallen even a fraction of a second slower, his hands would have been on her chest. A second faster, and they'd be on her skirt.

"Thank you," she breathed, sincere if a bit disappointed. This was only one event, but it seemed like Fusei, in addition to being a beautiful gentleman, was not an accidental pervert.

After he helped her back to her feet, he asked, "Are you okay?"

"I am, thanks." She chose her next words carefully. "So, do you want to wait for the meeting on Friday, or would you prefer we start getting to know one another sooner?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I have no problem with sooner. Did you have anything specific in mind?"

Shit. She didn't actually know anything in the area, not even her own home. And other than skateboarding, she didn't actually know his interests.

"No," she said. "I would say I'm open to anything."

He thought for a moment, putting a finger to his jaw. "Keimi is in town tomorrow. Would you like to go see her with me?"

Nina wasn't quite sure who Keimi was, but she could see no reason hot to. "Sure."

By this point, they had arrived at Nina's house.

"It's a date, then," were his parting words.