So You've Become a Villainess: an (Otome) Isekai Raising Project

[O] A reliable, familiar maid
[O] Did I hit my head? I feel strange


"Did I hit my head? I feel strange..." Your speech is slow and slurred. You might have a concussion.

<Sensible> "Good decision. We should play along with the scenario while we get our bearings."

"You took a dreadful tumble off a horse, Young Mistress Claudius." You recognize that voice. It's your maid. Your ever-reliable maid, the only person you trust with your tender secret heart.

A techno-blue popup appears in your mind's eye.



You blink it away and gaze upon the face of a maid. Autumn Lovelace, to be exact; the ever-busy, ever-loving combat maid of Grace Claudius. But something's off. Autumn had a hair covering bonnet and NPC face in Our Bloody Valentine and Fall from Grace. The Autumn before you has an anachronistically fashionable bob cut with blunt bangs, smiling, fox-like blue eyes, and a pair of (anime small) red-rimmed glasses. If anything, she looks like...

"Chiaki?"

Autumn smiles knowingly. "My name is Autumn, Young Mistress Claudius. A spirit must have entered you during that tumble, you were never one for the Wa tongue." The twinkle in her eye is unmistakably Chiaki's.

You grab her tightly and cry ugly.

She pats your back. "There, there Young Mistress," she says soothingly into your ear. "It's okay. You're okay. Let it all out."


You hold fast to her until your torrent of emotions downgrades to a light shower.

"Is it really you?" You ask.

"It is I, Autumn Lovelace, Young Mistress." She hugs you close to her. "My soul has traveled through time and space to be by your side."

"You always had a flair for the dramatic, Chiaki."

"And you still have no art in your soul, Young Mistress Acchan." She smiles that impish smile at you and there's no room left for doubt. "I thought you wanted to play along more."

"Nah," you say. "Isn't the original line 'get your hands off me, you filthmonger'?"

"In Our Bloody Valentine," she says. "Wasn't Fall from Grace going to start one month before the academy?"

"It did. How'd you get here?"

"Heart attack from overwork," Chiaki says. "A fun-sized goddess let me pick a world to reincarnate in for living a righteous life and I picked this one. How about you?"

"Hit by a truck on my way to orientation."

Chiaki winces. "Oof." She blushes and scratches her cheek. "Geez, I guess I really was born to take care of you, huh? Since I'm doing it in another world."

You hang your head in shame. "Sorry for being a fuck-up."

She pinches your cheek. "Hey. You're not a fuck-up. You're a hot-headed sports maniac, get it right."

You giggle. "Awright, Awright, let go~"

She does so. "So, did you get into the U?"

You grin. "Full ride athletic scholarship."

Chiaki hugs you. "I knew you could do it!"

"...Fat lot of good that does me here, though," you say.

"Right," Chiaki says. "Did you see a goddess when you died?"

"Nah, just a VR-looking OS."

"Did it say Transmigration Protocol?"

"Yeah, actually."

"Oh," Chiaki says. "All you have to do is beat the game as yourself without getting a bad end. Pretty simple, really."

"As myself?"

"Since you're Grace Claudius now, you life her life, make her decisions...and deal with whatever ending you get."

You flash back to your playthrough, but this time through Grace's eyes. Your hands and feet burn with phantom pain, you gag and retch as your heart pounds it's way out of your head.

"Young Mistress? Young Mistress?! ACCHAN!"

You're underwater again.


You wake up to an unfamiliar ceiling and a sinfully cozy bed. Chiaki's at your side, checking your temperature with a crystal wand.

"Bad trip, Young Mistress?"

"...I'm good," you say.

"Fall from Grace must've been hardcore," Chiaki says.

"And how," you say. "She...I turned into a vampire and the Prince brutally put me down."

"Vampire, huh? Guess Lily couldn't control herself on Grace's Bad End." Chiaki winces again. "So that must mean Lily Valentine's the Shiori-type in FFG."

"Shiori-type?" You ask. What's a kinda-common Japanese name have to do with vampires or the heroine of Our Bloody Valentine?

"From Tokimeki Memorial's Shiori Fujisaki," Chiaki says. "The main, canonical capture target you woo to get the game's True End."

You sit up with a start. "Wait, huh? To win the game, I have to win the heroine's heart?"

Chiaki adjusts her glasses. "Or die trying, presumably."

"Isn't she supposed to end up with one of the guys?"

"They made the yuri subtext between Grace and Lily text, I guess."

You rub your temples. "No wonder I messed up, I didn't even see her as a capture target.

Chiaki smiles. "Well now you do. Now lie down, you're a growing girl and you have a concussion."

You frown. "Growing girl? The hell do you mean?"

Chiaki whistles a tune and an old, turtle shell mirror floats into her hand. She holds it up to you and you see what she means.

Staring back at you isn't the charmingly scruffy, sporty tomboy you were in life, but a fair-skinned little girl with platinum ringlets, a cross-shaped scar on her forehead, and sharp golden eyes.

You slap your forehead with a dainty hand. "Right, fuck. I'm Grace Claudius."

Chiaki giggles. "Grace Claudius at age 12, to be exact. Right around the time she met the Dramatis Personae of Our Bloody Valentine."

"And around the time she was betrothed to Prince Alteisen." You hug yourself and shiver with fear.

Chiaki hands you the biggest, fluffiest stuffed animal in your bedroom fiefdom, a fox dressed up like a miko. You grab it from behind and sink into the fluffiness of its goose-down tail.

"This is a good opportunity," Chiaki says. "It appears that you're being given ample time to stack the deck in your favor." She touches your temples and her eyes go glassy. You see command line text running across her irises.

She blinks and nods to herself. "Done. I've got a grasp on your Psychegraph and the parameters of your transmigration." She ruffles your hair. "Your Stress is really high, girl. Were you not taking care of yourself?"

You silently pout.

"We can talk about it when you're ready," Chiaki says. "In any case, you're not the all-conquering goddess of Sports Day anymore given your new age and body, but your Athletic Actualization and grade's still pretty great."

<Sporty> "Damn straight it is!"

"Your Artistic side's a little weak, your Self-Actualization's pretty strong, everything else is solid. Now to woo Lily Valentine, you're going to need to get your Intellectual, Artistic, Charismatic and Athletic Actualization Scores to 150 or better, while also keeping your Self-Actualization at 110 or better and lowering your Destrudo to at least 30."

You scrunch up your now baby face. "Huh?"

"You have to be nigh-legendarily brainy, artsy, flashy and sporty, have great common sense, and not let yourself get too emo."

<Sensible> "That sounds pretty challenging."

<Sporty> "A challenge? Woo-hoo!"

<Emo> "An impossible challenge? Ufufu..."

You hop out of bed, ready to take on the world. "Well what are we waiting for?! Let's get this breeeeeohgodmylegs..."

The world flips you ass-over-teakettle and you collapse into Chiaki's waiting arms.

She shakes her head, chuckling. "Let's get you some bedrest first."


[Riot Vote: When's your birthday? Day/Month is exactly like the Gregorian Calendar]
[ ] Write-in

[Weekly Activity: What do you plan to do this week?]
[ ] Study (Brainy++, Sporty-)
[ ] Paint (Artsy++, Sensible-)
[ ] Exercise (Sporty++, Flashy-)
[ ] Play Dress-up (Flashy++, Brainy-)
[ ] Socialize (Sensible++, Artsy-)

"-ng Mistress."

The bed is soft and fluffy. You don't think you've slept on a bed so comfy since you went on vacation with your family to Okinawa. A small gift for winning a full sports scholarship to College.

"-oung Mistress, it's time to get up." The voice was more insistent now.

"Don't wanna," you say, burying your head beneath a pillow. It's like leaning against a giant marshmallow.

"Ugh, Acchan you really need to get up."

"Five more minutes Chiaki," you answer back. Your eyes go wide open as you realize where you are, who you're speaking too.

"Chiaki!" You suddenly rush over and hug your friend, too overcome at the thought yesterday wasn't a dream. Your friend was really here with you again! Unfortunately you misjudge just how much smaller your new body is, and so instead of pulling her back onto your wonderful bed, you fall over the side taking your maid with you.

You fall into a tangle of limbs making it difficult to get back up, something not helped by the way you refuse to fully let go of Chiaki, as if she might vanish if you do.

When you're both back on your feet, Chiaki places a hand on her head. "Well at least you're up now," she declares, looking for some silver lining. "Hopefully it doesn't take that every day." You blush, embarrassed about your childish reaction.

"What now?" You ask.

Your maid adjusts her red-rimmed glasses. You still can't get over how they don't fall off with how small they are. They aren't even resting on her nose really. "That's up to you Young Mistress. I only ask that you remember that certain events are almost upon us, so you should prepare yourself accordingly."

You nod along. It's so nice to have Chiaki with you. And while you feel a little guilty that it meant she died too to be with you, being together with your friend makes it easier to face what comes next.

"That sounds like a good idea," you agree. You were always the sort to throw yourself into whatever task was right before you. Chiaki also helped you to make sure you weren't forgetting important stuff. It wasn't that you weren't smart, but you had a habit of forgetting when homework was due or when exams were coming up.

<Sporty> "You've got a whole place to explore! Hell you probably have one of those enormous lawns with all that nice grass. It'd feel great to run over!"

<Sensible> It'd be better to prepare some court etiquette, we don't know the first thing about how to carry ourselves as a noble-

<Sporty> "People respect strength right? We should just train. We know how to do that well-

<Sensible> Noblewomen can't just go off and run off! Besides, everyone will be watching more closely with our head injury.

<Emo> "We're doomed no matter what we do, so what does it matter what we choose?"

"Might I suggest getting dressed for a start?" Chiaki suggests.

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea," you agree.


You stare at your closet wide-eyed. You've heard of walk in closets, but this was bigger than your whole room back at home!

"The Claudius family is one of the richest in the kingdom," your constant companion Chi-Autumn explains. "Besides for one of your stature it would be considered a faux pas to wear the same dress in a week, let alone the same day."

"I probably have a dress for each day of the month!" You exclaim looking at the large number of dresses and gowns in front of you.

You knew from dialogue in game your family was rich, but the developers put all their effort into the Academy and fleshing out the various love interests, less on background assets. Honestly despite the game selling point being able to play as the villainess, you don't think they even changed up her canon outfit for the game, even her vampire form was just wearing a stained and ripped variant of her typical clothes.

Still looking at the wide arrange of clothes in front of you was evidence enough that the world was larger than just the developer's art asset build. For some reason that filled you with some hope. If there was plenty of stuff the developers didn't cover, maybe one of those was a way out of this mess than the ridiculous stats Chiaki said you had to keep!

You were going to find a way through this!

<Sporty> "Just try hard enough and you can get through anything!"

<Sensible> "Perhaps work smarter not harder?"

"Let's start with this?" You point out a light blue dress with ruffles.

"An excellent choice Young Mistress, the color really brings out your eyes," your maid says approvingly.

Normally you wouldn't ever wear that sort of thing, but you suppose it's different now that you're actually yourself anymore.

'Just think of it as cosplaying!' You tell yourself. It would be far from the first time you dragged Chiaki with you to a convention dressing up as your favorite characters. You can feel your eyes light up at the idea. This was like having access to a high class wardrobe of custom fit dresses for your favorite character. In any other situation you'd never forgive yourself for passing up this opportunity.

Your maid helps you slip into the blue dress, and it's a little more fun to have Chiaki be the one to help you change into something rather than having to convince her to join you. It's nice…but you think you can do better…


"Somehow I thought you'd be … less enthusiastic about this Young Mistress," your maid observed.

You'd already swapped through a half dozen sets of clothes. Even the simplest of them was way more high quality and a close fit than anything you'd worn for conventions!

"There's no way I'd be able to afford any of these back home," you explain excitedly. And your closet was certainly not short of elegant dresses.

You noticed your choice of gown grew a bit more elaborate with each outfit, but you couldn't help it! It was like finding out that your budget for a convention was unlimited. Who wouldn't want to try everything if they could buy whatever they wanted? And each dress you tried on was even better than the last!

"It's just that you never seemed to favor clothes like this?" Your maid noted.

"I wear plenty of different styles when cosplaying," you defend yourself, grasping for reasons to defend your behavior. "Anyways, I'm…a noblewoman now. Grace Cladius is one of the most highly ranked ladies of the Kingdom, it wouldn't do for her to be seen looking anything but her best."

Chiaki giggles, giving you a warm smile at your reaction. "Far be it from me to object to Young Mistress looking her best."

You preened as you looked at your reflection. Your latest choice was a gorgeous red dress with a poofy skirt, with lots of frills and lace. It came with a cute little hat with a flower centerpiece surrounded by small ribbons.

"Besides, like I do anything at half effort Chiaki. You know my motto! 'FULL EFFORT, FULL THROTTLE!'

Besides you'd said you'd put your full effort into it so you did! You had no doubt if you had worn *this* to the anime convention last year you'd have won first prize. You objected to the idea of someone winning just because they were cosplaying a fighting game where the women basically wore bikinis.

Your friend rolls her eyes. "If only you put this much effort into studying."

You crossed your arms huffing. "I'll have you know I got into college on a full scholarship. I'm plenty smart."

"I thought you said it was a sports scholarship Aachan," your friend teases.

"I could have managed that too if I wanted, who needs two full scholarships?" Chiaki just giggles again.