I was Thrown into an Unfamiliar Manga

A muscular man landed on the ground in what’s commonly known as a “superhero landing” pose, and completely ignored me standing behind him as he strode toward Sasha.
“You’ve done something quite amusing, my daughter.”
From the earlier use of the word Papa, and now this conversation, it seemed the two of them really were father and daughter.

Unlike the Russian machos I’d encountered during the day, both of them kindly spoke in Japanese, so I could understand what they were saying.
Should I say it’s just like a manga world that they’re weirdly considerate only in this kind of situation?
“Papa, you’re supposed to be in Russia. What are you doing here?”

“Fufu, I just happened to be in Japan on some personal business. But when I heard that the Black Yasha had appeared in Tokyo, I dropped everything and rushed over.”
Sasha’s expression twisted strangely at those words.
“Why would the Black Yasha suddenly show up?”

Then Sasha’s father shook his head as if in disbelief and brushed back his hair.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t know, my daughter. The Japanese man you hired as a bodyguard today is none other than Fuma Kotaro, the legendary contractor who vanished ten years ago! One of the Seven Warlords, just like me!”
He shouted those words at full volume, clearly excited, then turned to look at me.

“Come! Black Yasha! That night 18 years ago! The unfinished duel, today at last we—huh? Who are you?”
Unable to keep up with the constantly shifting ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) mood, I replied with an awkward look.
“Uh… I’m Kim Yu-seong.”

“…Do you happen to know a man named Fuma Kotaro?”
“No. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that name.”
“……”

The atmosphere suddenly grew cold.
Sasha’s father had probably mistaken me for this Fuma Kotaro guy.
I had no idea where that misunderstanding had started, but apparently, that guy must look a lot like me.
Anyway, I’d only followed Sasha out of worry when she said she was going alone, but if her father showed up personally like this, I could rest easy.

Though I did flinch a little at the hot-blooded shounen-style entrance.
After giving the two of them a quick goodbye, I decided to head home.
“Well then, I’ll be going now. Uh… Sasha, you take care too.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”
As I waved and said that, Sasha nodded, accepting my farewell.
I gave a slight bow to Sasha’s father too, who still looked like he’d been left dumbfounded, and was just about to leave—

“Wait a moment, boy.”
Suddenly, Sasha’s father called out to me.
Wondering what it was about, I turned around to see him staring at me with intense eyes.

“I get that you have nothing to do with Fuma Kotaro. But then how did you defeat Boris, one of my personal guards? You, who doesn’t even know who the Black Yasha is?”
Apparently, the large Russian man I fought earlier on the street was Boris.
Scratching my head, I replied as a thought occurred to me.

“If you happen to meet him again, could you pass along my apologies? I seriously thought he was a kidnapper, so I didn’t hold back at all when I hit him.”
“Hooh. You didn’t hold back, you say.”
Sasha’s father took a step closer, as if he’d heard something interesting.

“Could you perhaps show me that strength of yours?”
“Eh? What do you—”
Just as I was about to ask what he meant, Sasha’s father had already closed the distance and threw a punch at me.

KWAANG!!
“What the hell are you doing?!”
I reflexively used my backpack to block the attack, but Sasha’s father only grinned savagely, clearly pleased by that.

“Interesting.”
“Kh!”
Gritting my teeth, I threw aside the backpack I had used as a shield and hurriedly took a backstep.

The attack just now had turned all ten manga volumes inside into scorched trash before I even got to read them.
Considering the money I got from Sasha earlier, it was just a drop in the bucket—but as someone who loved manga, I felt a surge of rage.
But Sasha’s father didn’t intend to give me even a second to counterattack, and furiously swung both fists again.

A relentless barrage of sharp strikes came from all directions—top, bottom, left, right.
If I waited to see them, I’d be too late, so I had to move first by reading his shoulder movements and dodging or deflecting every punch.
No sooner had the twelve-hit combination ended than he twisted his waist into a powerful spinning back kick.

I barely managed to block it by crossing my arms, but the impact sent me stumbling backward.
As I staggered, Sasha’s father threw off the leopard-print fur coat he’d been wearing over his suit and muttered:
“Fun.”

Easy for you to say—on the receiving end, it was a nightmare.
So I shouted back with all the pent-up frustration in me.
“Why the hell are you doing this to me?!”

Sasha’s father replied as if I’d asked something painfully obvious.
“Because you’re an incredible uncut gem.”
…Uncut gem?

I didn’t understand what he meant, but Sasha’s father continued to explain:
“A high schooler who’s had no combat training whatsoever, taking down one of my personal guards barehanded with just physical prowess and fighting instinct? Anyone would call that a joke. But you’re a genius. A true genius who’s born once in a hundred years. And you can believe it—because I, the strongest in the world, say so.”
Then, with a greedy smile, he said:

“Join me, boy. I’ll help that demonic talent of yours blossom to its fullest.”
At that moment, hearing this classic hot-blooded recruitment speech straight out of a battle manga, I was certain of one thing:
This manga, Scramble Love, was not a pure romance series after all.

***
Ever since I was thrown into Kim Yu-seong’s body, I’d been building muscle every single day without rest—just in case.
The reason was simple: Scramble Love had been serialized in Shounen Jump.

To be honest, I’d had my doubts.
No matter how much the author advertised it as a “pure love comedy,” the plot up until now had been way too normal for something that reportedly sold ten million copies.
If it had been a different magazine, maybe it would’ve made sense—but in Jump, where the big three pillars are friendship, effort, and victory, it was practically impossible to hit ten million sales with only a pure love comedy.

Especially in Jump, where fierce competition means that any series ranking in the bottom of the postcard surveys for a few weeks in a row gets axed early.
But I’d heard that Scramble Love survived that jungle-like kill-or-be-killed system to the very end and delivered a clean conclusion by tying up all the foreshadowing from the first half.
If it didn’t survive just on being a pure love comedy—if the author had eventually given in to editorial pressure and shifted to a battle manga halfway through—

Then everything made sense.
‘Something did feel off.’
Up until now, I’d thought my abnormal muscle growth was just a comedy boost for a gag character in a romcom.

But if this was actually a sign of the series drifting into battle manga territory, it gave me chills.
Because the result of bulking up so much was that I was now getting scouted by a suspicious-looking man who screamed danger.
This is bad.

Honestly, I already knew my peaceful school life was a lost cause the moment I befriended Rika at the start of the semester.
That was a choice I’d made, fully aware of what might follow.
But I didn’t expect the original work’s battle manga drift to come back and bite me like this.

At this point, screw the plot—I had to start worrying about my life.
As I stayed lost in thought and silent, Sasha’s father seemed to mistake that for me considering the offer, because he followed up with more realistic terms.
“If you become a scholarship student at our Easter Egg Company, we’ll cover all your tuition and college fees, provide a house and a car, and even women if you want.”

…To be honest, it was a tempting deal.
According to what Sasha said earlier, Easter Egg Company was one of the most powerful corporations in the world.
So this was basically him saying they’d take me in.

But accepting that offer right away, without knowing more about this manga’s world, felt far too reckless.
Worst-case scenario, if this guy turned out to be the final boss of the story and got taken down by the protagonist, the whole company might go up in smoke overnight.
Well… considering he’s the father of one of the main heroines, maybe that’s taking it a bit too far.

I thought over everything carefully, but no matter how I looked at it, accepting his offer now would bring more risk than reward.
And the more this world shifted into a Jump-style battle manga, the safer it would probably be to stay close to the protagonist.
That’s the unspoken rule in these kinds of manga.

After deep thought, I made my decision.
“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll have to decline.”
The moment I said that, the look in his eyes changed.

“I see. Then die.”
What kind of person jumps straight to murder over rejection?!