So I’m a Fish, So What?

Ah, hello hello hello!

The super duper ultra smart Violet-sama here!

….Or that’s how I usually like to introduce myself, but I’m starting to doubt whether that’s true.

I mean, that Sachi who has always acted the role of a strict and blunt honor student back in Japan is now acting like a totally different person!

How is it even possible for a newborn baby to display such a range of emotions wider than my own?!

And can such a person really work as a spy?

Wouldn’t she like… get exposed the very moment her disguise is put to the test?

Or is the issue on my side here?

Perhaps my standards are too high…?

Well, guess I’m gonna have to find the answer to that question in the future.

It’s not like I actually have a choice in this matter, y’know?

Sachi is the one who’s most suited to take the role of a spy in my plan, after all.

If it was because of her natural charisma before then it’s also because of her buggy reincarnation skill now.

That Leader skill is basically a passive Heretic Magic skill that doesn’t consume anything while letting her unconsciously brainwash everybody around her in return.

The only counter I can see to it is Heretic Nullification, but I doubt even that would hold after she puts on a few levels.

I’m fully immune to its effects, by the way.

Its influence is way weaker than ruler skills, let alone the Chaos Bringer title.

Leave that aside, there’s the fact that the elves as a race are inherently way too arrogant for their own good.

Too arrogant to believe that a baby would pose a danger to them– especially after they kidnapped and imprisoned it till its adulthood.

So in reality, Sachi’s infiltration of the elf village isn’t actually all that dangerous.

After she’s in, she should be safe as long as she doesn’t interact with the elves more than necessary….

Huh?

Wait, doesn’t that mean that my doubts and worries are completely unnecessary?!

She doesn’t have to be the fantasy agent Bond or something as ridiculously good as that.

She just needs to reduce her presence and interactions with the elves while safely growing up!

It seems my choice isn’t wrong, after all.

As expected of me, I truly am a genius!

Mentally giving myself a pat on the back, I refocused my attention on the strange human cub.

“Well, I would like to hear your introduction, but you can’t really do that now, can you?” I asked gloatingly, gesturing towards her tiny body. “Not to mention you don’t even have a name yet.”

She just stared at me with confusion in her eyes, and a hint of… indignation? Should be an illusion.

Not gonna lie, being born as a fish was quite the handicap at first.

But now that I witnessed Sachi’s powerless state, I’m actually glad that was the case.

If I was reborn as a human, elf, or even a demon, everything would’ve gone differently.

Not only would I have lost my 9 months’ head start, but I would’ve also had to go through the entire childhood phase again.

That would’ve sucked!

But that doesn’t stop me from gloating at my fellow reincarnations’ misfortune now, does it?

For instance, I mentioned the existence of the system and the Telepathy skill the moment I saw Sachi, yet I didn’t.

‘Cause where’s the fun in that?

Turning this one-man drama show into a double-sided negotiation would instantly drain 90% of the fun.

“Since we can’t have a normal conversation at the moment, I will take this chance to give you a quick rundown first.” I started, a malicious grin unconsciously making its way to my lips.

Sachi seems to have noticed it though, as I visibly saw her body shivering.

“For reasons unknown, everybody in our class was isekai’ed into this fantasy world. And by everybody, I mean EVERYBODY. Even Ms Oka is here.” I stressed my words. “However, there was a time difference between each subsequent reincarnation.” I paused, letting her take in my words. “You are actually the last one, and with a large time difference at that. The one right before you is already in their mid-thirties.”

….Sorry, but not sorry.

There’s just no freaking way I’ll pass up on getting some sweet reactions out of this naive version of Sachi!

And I sure as hell aren’t the only one who wants to see this.

I betcha a hundred– no! I betcha a thousand years of lifespan D is intently watching us right this very moment!

Luckily, I already have a relatively realistic story made up for when I wanna prank some poor reincarnation or just to deceive them.

It’d be an insult to my unparalleled creativity if I don’t make use of it when it’s due time!

I just hope D is recording this.

“I would’ve loved to congratulate you on becoming a manga protagonist, I really would– But unfortunately, I have to be the bearer of the bad news.” I sighed. “You’re really not in a great spot at the moment… In fact, if it wasn’t me who found you first, you would’ve most likely been killed already.”

I watched her gasp in shock as panicked confusion quickly overtook her face.

Holy shit, why does this feel so wrong yet so enjoyable at the same time?

Is this what D pursues? If so, then she might really be onto something!

“The first was Natsume. Just like your typical manga protagonist, he went on to become a Hero, slay the Demon Lord, and all of that cliché stuff. However, his illusion of being special was broken when the second reincarnation showed up.” I sighed dramatically. “Natsume was already an egotistical asshole back in Japan, so you can imagine how he reacted to that.”

Although Sachi nodded in understanding, I got a feeling she didn’t fully realize just how serious such a situation would’ve been if it truly happened.

I don’t blame her though, she’s still that pure Japanese highschool girl in essence.

For her, not much time has passed since the day we were listening to Ms Oka’s lecture in the classroom.

Only special flowers like me and Kumoko can adjust our mentalities in record times.

Others would either break down in terror and die or live long enough to collect their pieces and begin anew.

“Natsume then did a big oopsie by publicly shunning the second reincarnation, and all the humans followed him in doing so since… Well, since he was the hero and all. Long story short, our edgy manga protagonist number 1 became the Demon Lord and went on to start a decade long war that caused the death of thousands of both humans and demons for revenge! Yikes.” I explained with a groan.

The exaggerated number of casualties seems to have finally broken Sachi’s happy little fantasy and snapped her back into character.

With each word coming out of my mouth, her expression noticeably hardened until all of her panic, confusion, and curiosity were completely hidden under a calm and collected guise.

She stared at me intently, her eyes urging me to continue my story.

“The personalities and actions reincarnations that came after that were… diverse, to say the least. Some of them went on to be Heroes like Natume, others joined the demons. Both contributed to reigniting the flames of war regrettably.” I shook my head sadly, as if overcome with grief. “There were a select few who chose to remain neutral or went on to do their own thing though. This is the group I belong to, by the way.” I remarked.

Hmmmm.

Sachi’s expression hardly changed since I started speaking about war and death, so this prank just became a whole lot less interesting.

Maaannn, she just had to snap back into the honor student persona the moment I started to really get into the act.

Boring.

Let's give it one last attempt.

"Due to the long term conflict that accompanies the birth of a reincarnation, the people of this world, no matter what race they belong to, banded together and drafted up an agreement of sorts that determines how to deal with a reincarnation upon discovery."

This was enough to calm down that last bit of restlessness in Sachi's heart.

Does this silly girl believe that would be a good for reincarnations...?

Such an agreement would only contain the options to control or remove the reincarnation if it was drafted back on Earth, let alone  this magical fantasy world.

"There are a lot of rules and regulations, but it all boils down to two final courses of action. Either the reincarnation is killed or a slave collar is attached to their neck." I sneered.

As I watched her face get overtaken by despair, a sinister smile unconsciously forced its way onto my face.

Somewhere down the line, I started feeling pleasure off of other people's despair.

More specifically, I feel great destroying their hope.

Or rather, it feels great to destroy anything.

Ahhh, I better end this quickly and rush back to Allieus before I'm overtaken by this impulse.

I should focus more on copying Kusama's reincarnation skill.

The earlier I get it, the more secure my plans would be, after all.

“I went out of my way to become a guardian of the reincarnations, to let them live under my protection until they are able to depend on themselves in this cruel world....!" I started off on an passionate speech until I abruptly stopped. "...Or that’s what could’ve happened if all that nonsense I said was true.” I playfully mused, taking out a can of coke from my Spatial Storage.

My sudden interruption along with the unexpected shift in atmosphere caused Sachi’s brain to momentarily crash.

She just blinked at me with bewilderment, apparently not comprehending what I just said.

Time out!

Okay, this is starting to get real weird right now.

It’s definitely impossible for me to read a baby’s emotions this accurately.

And it isn’t like I was some kind of top tier psychiatrist before– In fact, I didn’t care much about anyone’s emotions except for my loved ones.

The only explanation I can find for this… is my emotional sensor.

It seems that her Leader skill might’ve worked against her when it encountered my emotional sensor, allowing me to accurately read all of her emotions through the unconscious mental waves she emits.

That’s great, actually!

It would mean that I’m the nemesis of all Heretic and Mental attribute users.

Not only are their attacks useless to me, but I can even utilize the emitted soul fluctuations to read their emotions more accurately.

I wonder if I could take that to a deeper level and read their thoughts or something like that, but that's very hard to put into action.

There’s no loss in trying it out anyways– if my hypothesis is correct, that is.

“Think about acquiring the Telepathy in your head, Class Rep. A voice will ask you to confirm, and you should agree.” Deciding I've had enough fun for now, I instructed Sachi to acquire the ability to communicate.

There are no strict prerequisites for acquiring the Telepathy skill, so the skill point cost is low for everyone.

And reincarnations are usually born with a huge number of skill points, so we can all get the Telepathy skill for communication as soon as we are born.

The reason why I say ‘usually’ is because there are exceptions to every rule, of course.

Kumoko was born with an abysmal number of skill points and I was born with zero.

Technically speaking however, Kumoko is the only reincarnation that was unable to acquire Telepathy the moment she was born.

I could use Telepathy even back on Earth, so I’m considered an exception of an exception.

“H-Hello?” An immature girl’s voice meekly sounded in my head.

Contrary to what I expected, her voice was very similar to that of hers in our previous lives.

Maybe your voice while using Telepathy depends on what you subconsciously believe you sound like…?

Sachi can’t speak out loud in her current baby state, so maybe her subconscious still regards her previous life’s voice as her own.

Appraising Sachi once more let me confirm the addition of Telepathy to her status.

So it was indeed her talking right now.

“Yo. How does it feel to speak directly using your thoughts? Liberating, isn’t it?” I chuckled.

“I-I guess so…? Uh-hm, should I address you as Ito-san like I used to or do you prefer the other name you told me?”

“I would prefer it if you used Violet, though it’s fine if you slip up and use Ito until you get used to it.” I waved a hand dismissively.

“Gotcha. Violet-san it is then.” Sachi repeated, more to herself than me. “So can you please reiterate your words once again? I lost you at the end there.”

“Except for the part about everybody reincarnating in this world and me being neutral, everything else was nonsense I made up.” I chuckled.

“I see…. And why exactly would you make something like that up?” Her words were as calm as she could be, but I could clearly sense the displeasure building up inside her.

“‘Cause it’s fun? Duhh.” I blurted out without any hesitation, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

“....”

Unfortunately, little Sachi didn’t seem to share the notion.

“If you have anything in mind you can freely ask away– limited to today only.” I urged her, ignoring her exasperation.

“....Can I get the real version of that story first?” She requested cool, deciding not to voice her irritation.

“Sure. Basically, we were in Ms Oka’s class when something killed us– all of us. Then our souls were thrown into this world for reincarnation. It’s been 9 months since that happened.” I explained patiently.

“I’m assuming we were in the process of being conceived during that time, but then there’s a logical issue here. Why or how exactly are you already a teenager right now? Does our death actually have something to do with you?” Sachi pressed on, her sharp eyes trying to peer through my very soul.

“Oh no no no no. I’m totally innocent here.” I shook my head while theatrically raising my hands in surrender. “The reason why I retain both my body age and appearance has something to do with this world’s special setting, you see. I started out as a baby just like you.”

“...I will take your word for it until proven otherwise.” Having no choice, Sachi chooses to temporarily concede.

Yeah, she isn’t showing much reaction anymore.

She’s perfectly got her character together now.

“I would like to know how you were able to locate me after we were supposedly thrown into another world, and why.” She asked nervously.

I guess it’s about time we move onto the negotiation phase then.

---