EPISODE 47 – Beyond the Surface
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Beep. Beep. Beep.

The alarm from my phone sets off from the table beside my bed.

“Urgh… I still want to sleep.”

But unfortunately, the weekend is still quite a few days away.

To my dismay, I get up and rub my eyes. Still a bit sleepy, I turn off the alarm with a blurry vision. Afterwards, I fold my blanket.

“It’s not as bad as it used to be. I’ve got friends. I can always look forward to them.”

Going down the stairs, I see a breakfast neatly prepared for me.

Nakatani must have made some for me again.

I sit down and dig in.

“I swear, that girl is too good for her own good.”

Doing the usual things, I finish my food, take a bath, pack my things, and go to school. Walking along the usual road, I await the meeting of my fated one.

When I spot her beauty, I simply could not help but revel in her beauty. I am a mere mortal in the eyes of the beauty of this creation! That’s right.

“My precious vending machine by the park.”

I take my wallet out of my bag and slip in a modest 100-yen coin followed by 2-10 yen coins.

Clank.

The melon soda falls down and I pick it up.

Psh.

I open the can and sit down on the bench and watch the background. The air blows calmly which aids in setting up the mood.

Sip.

These days… I’ve been pretty relaxed. No pressure of anything. No constant chase of becoming a protagonist. I’ve been paying attention to the background more often too.

“Is this the effect of being a Slice-of-Life protagonist?”

That reminds me, I should take care not to grip my can too much or it’ll explode.

That’s kind of one of the side-effects of the genre. Anything can become explosive, so I have to be careful of how my handle drinks more often.

“Hey Kibe!” a sudden voice calls out to me.

“GYAH!”

Startled by the sudden call, I accidentally press my can and it explodes in my face.

“Damn it.”

Then I look at the person.

“BWAHAHAHHA! DID THE CAN JUST EXPLODE?! AHAHAHA!” a girl whose face was familiar laughs at me.

“Rude much?”

“Sorry! Sorry! Hey, you gotta admit that was hilarious! Put yourself in my shoes for a moment.”

“Hm, I guess you’re right.”

Who is this girl again? I know I’ve seen her before and I think I interacted with her.

“Hey, why didn’t you give me a call or text? That’s so cold, you know!” she tells me with a cute pout.

I wanted to identify her first, but I had to answer her immediately.

“I’m kind of busy these days, couldn’t find the appropriate time. I apologize for that.”

“あ、そそ。” (Ah, I see.)

Then I notice her outfit was pretty fashionable with her cleavage quite revealing. I hadn’t seen someone else of the gyaru archetype, so the memories start kicking in.

Tagawa Miku. The one who helped us reclaim our rightful rooftop… which was lost to the student council.

“So how have you been?”

I progress the conversation naturally.

Now that I think about it… what kind of story does a gyaru like her belong to?

The first thing that pops in my mind is a cosplayer, but that was only because of a certain anime that recently premiered with a certain gyaru. Actually, I could only really think of her belonging to a Rom-com or a Slice-of-Life genre, possibly leaning more into the latter.

“Nothing too special~ Only been going to places with my fellow gals~”

“Oh? Can you tell me more about it?”

“Hmm, nope!”

“Huh?”

“ヒ・ミ・ツだよ~” (It’s a secret~)

“Wh-Why?”

“We have class in a short while, it isn’t really the best time to extend the conversation now, is it?”

“You got me there.”

“I’ll tell that to you the next time we see each other.”

She stands up, walks up a few steps forward, and turns around.

“Hopefully, you’ll get to see my other friends too!”

With a wink, she runs to school.

“Hm…”

That actually made me blush. She’s big-breasted, but even then she made me blush… gyarus are scary. This is why a man like me accepts all sizes, even if I have strong preference to the flatter ones.

I look all over the mess that spread over me.

“Man… I really wanted to drink, but I’m not in the mood anymore…”

I try to look at the surroundings and search for protagonists to identify for fun. But I mostly identified the more mundane ones, which highlighted the strong possibility of being in the same genre as I am.

“Sure is less diverse today.”

I’ve been seeing less and less of other protagonists. It must be the nature of different stories that separate us. It’s going to be harder searching for different genres this way.

Sip.

Finishing off the last of my can, I toss it toward the trash bin, and it lands perfectly.

It should be fine… I’m not looking for other genres in the meanwhile.

“Well, I suppose it’s time to go to school too. Wouldn’t want to be late either.”

..

.

I arrive at school.

The usual things happen. I goof off with my fellow Slice-of-Life protagonists, with the occasional chaotic nature of the genre present. In fact, Masaru shot out a laser from his mouth from getting his lunch stolen by Katsuro. Takashi, on the other hand, pulled out a rocket launcher and blew up the hallway. Wild things. This carries on throughout the whole day.

But as I mentioned earlier, my encounters with those of differing genres have decreased a lot. The constant effect of the Overruling Statement at play. It makes me wonder how the people I’ve encountered are, so I decided to go give them a visit.

..

.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

It was dismissal time. Everyone was packing their bags, including them.

Masaru stands up and goes to me.

“Hey Kibe, we’re planning to go to market after this. Wanna come with?”

“I can’t, not this time. I have to go and accomplish something, sorry.”

“It’s fine really. You can just come next time. I’ll go tell the others, okay?”

“Thanks. Take care now and have fun.”

“Likewise!”

They leave the classroom.

By this point, shouldn’t have Arisu and the gang travelled in time? I haven’t seen them in class at all.

Going to the club room, I see if I can confirm my suspicions.

Please, please, please. I pray to God that they aren’t here anymore. I REALLY don’t want to pay my debts to Arisu, well that was the reason why I kept racking favors anyway.

Opening the door, I brace myself. Inside the clubroom, there I see three overworked people.

So they haven’t left… am I seriously going to have to pay my debts…

However, what worried me more was that Yuu did not once come to greet me. It gave me an idea that something was off. It made me recall that one time Arisu asked me odd questions.

Is that perhaps related to what’s going on right now?

Gently closing the door, I approach an Arisu endlessly coding. Her face was stuck to the computer and she wasn’t even blinking. Disturbed by it, I tap her shoulder.

“H-Hey…”

But she kept on typing.

No, this is unhealthy.

I become a little too hasty and shake her shoulders.

“Hey! Snap out of it! You have eyebags!”

Eventually, she gives in to my pleading and falls dead silent on the chair. She stares at the ceiling expressionlessly. I’d never seen her this way.

Trying to be gentle, I tap her cheek. All of a sudden, life returns to her eyes and she stands upright.

“The research will progress!” she utters abruptly.

No one aside from me reacts.

“Uh, Arisu… are you okay?” I query.

Her head sways left and right.

Still a bit light-headed.

I hold her hand, put my other hand behind her back as support, and make her sit back in her chair. Kneeling before her, I see the distressed state she’s in.

“Calm down. Take a break,” I advise.

“M-Monkey? Is that you, Monkey?”

Yeah, this is classic Arisu.

“Yeah. Do you want me to make you something? Tea?”

“That’s quite alright, I can make it myself.”

I stand there as she goes through the step-by-step process of making tea. Along the way, she notices me.

“What are you still doing here? Did you need something? Or did you come here to pay your debts? Unfortunately, I cannot lend you aid nor receive your aid. We’re currently busy.”

“I came here to check on you guys.”

Without answering my question, she pours tea from the kettle and into the fancy cup with a saucer below it. She brings the kettle and cup along with the saucer to her station. She first takes a sip and looks at me straight.

“We’re not here playing around. If you don’t have any important business, then please leave.”

“No. I’m not leaving. How can I after seeing you in this state?”

“I thought we only had a business relationship?”

Arisu can be incredibly cold. But even so…

“Yeah, we do. We don’t have to like each other and I’m not trying to raise your perception of me, but I’m not heartless. I can’t help with anything going on, because I know it’s not my field of expertise. But at the very least, let me hear what’s going on. I have that right since I’m a member of this club, no?”

She’s speechless. Even I’m surprised by what I just said. Normally, I would have struck her with a cold remark, but I simply didn’t feel that it was the appropriate time.

What’s going on with me? Is the effect of becoming a Slice-of-Life MC this drastic?

She mumbles to herself and sighs.

“You’re relentless.”

“I-Is that a problem?”

“No, it’s admirable.”

She clears her throat and her back relaxes.

“Okay… I know I’m being hasty when I say this, but weren’t you guys hyping up your research about time? What happened? It’s been a while.”

“About that… things were going great. We studied the state of the timeline, fluctuating here and there, but it was within the expected range. Like taking into account the various black holes in the universe, it was to be expected.”

I nod and she continues.

“We were able to construct a time machine already. Our research was supposed to involve our success in the research of travelling between time periods. We needed to continuously monitor the state of the space-time continuum and once we confirmed that it was perfectly stable, we’d travel.”

“If it was unstable, what would happen?” I ask.

“Let’s say we set the dates exactly as they are. Due to fluctuations, there’s a good chance we’re a day, a week, or even a month off. If it was unstable, we would transport years, decades, or centuries off from our set dates. Anyways, we were supposed to go travel until suddenly a few weeks ago, alerts sounded the violent fluctuations. It’s been hectic and hasn’t once calmed down.”

Hm, could that mean someone’s messing with the space-time continuum? That’s a frightening prospect. But then again, if you consider the chaos of having numerous protagonists with each their own shenanigans in Japan, it’s natural to assume that fluctuations are going to be violent.

“There are spikes here and there and we’ve decided to postpone our research. Right now, we’re consulting with our fellow research colleagues to see if we can find the source. We haven’t found any leads, so far…”

“That’s tough. That must be why the other two are working hard at it, right?”

“Exactly. The current situation is that we don’t solve the reason for these violent spikes… something much worse than the discontinuation of our research, but rather, some dire consequences on how the timeline progresses henceforth.”

“I can see why you’re all so stressed now. I got the picture.”

“Yeah, that’s the gist of it.”

“Sorry to intrude you again.”

“Think of it as nothing. I was supposed to take a break sooner or later anyway.”

I stand up as I realize there’s nothing I could really do to help their case.

“I wish you luck, I hope everything turns for the better,” I tell her as I open the door.

She sips her tea and does not respond.

I close the door behind me.

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s not how their story was supposed to progress.”

It’s not like I know their plot or anything, but a gut feeling.

“So something really is going on behind the scenes.”

Could there actually be someone else out there who’s doing such drastic actions?

..

.

Back in the Science Club Room…

I sigh.

“This is isn’t our best day.”

To remedy my stress, I take a sip from my chamomile tea. It relieves stress. As I rest, my computer flashes red and I take a look.

“Oh god.”

My heart rate increases, but I retain my calm composure. I peer upon the monitor and my eyes widen upon this discovery. I have to call the others.

“Yuu! Toshiaki! Did you see?!”

They all remain seated, but they answer me.

“Yes.”

This is bad. What’s going on?!

“The timeline is going left and right, but it always manages to go forward. Wh-Why is it starting to curve backward?!”

END OF EPISODE 47

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