
“World of endless happiness... what are you talking about? What is this? The afterlife?” I ask, waiting for her response.
“I mean it as is. Sadly, I think my friends must be wondering where I am, so I’m afraid I must leave. Bye, Takayuki-san~”
“Wait!”
She turns her back against me, yet she ignores me.
“Wait I said! Give me a clearer explanation!”
Since she didn’t seem to be in any hurry despite what she said, I run after her and touch her shoulder to get ahold. Only then, she faces me.
“Geez, Takayuki-san! Learn to take a hint! I don’t need to explain everything to you, do I?! It’s not that hard to figure out what’s going on. Wouldn’t hurt to use your brain a little, you know?”
Ah, she got me there. But I really don’t see the point of refusing to address the issue. I mean, I’m not really playing detective here. Though, with those words, she made it clear that the conversation was over and I, at least had the courtesy, to respect those social cues.
“I see, m-my bad,” I say as I let go of her shoulders.
After that, she continues on her way, without another word or look.
“Why won’t she just tell me...”
But agonizing over that won’t get me anywhere. Everything is telling me to solve it, piece-by-piece and maybe I should just take that offer.
Before that, I want to find a place to lay down and gather my thoughts.
“Let’s return to the classroom, for now.”
...
..
.
I’d returned to the classroom just as I said and rest on my seat. Taking out my notebook, I use a pencil to write down and voice out my thoughts.
The month is there, the year is there... but the day isn’t.
Scribble. Scribble.
That phenomenon stays consistent with everything. When the Secretary of the Student Council, told me the date, she’d told me the same thing, where the day was somehow blurred out.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Odd. Really, really odd.”
There’s also the fact that the protagonists I see nowadays are of the same genre.
Scribble.
I encircle that statement and make a tangent connecting to the previous point I stated.
Could there be a connection between these two? It’s also pretty possible that those are separate things with different catalysts, so I don’t want to jump into conclusions.
“Ambiguous date... that’s somewhere in the month of May.”
Could this be what Arisu meant when she saw the timeline going haywire? Somehow, I feel it has to be related. Though, there’s a more important thing to ask.
“Why is it like this?”
Ran knows. How does she know such obscure phenomena exists? She said that the boys had experienced these ‘periods’ before.
“Could it be that the Slice-of-Life genre has something to do with this?”
“Oi, you seem to be too deep in thought, Kibe,” someone speaks behind me.
I receive a pat in the back.
“Wha-”
Seeing in front of me, it was Katsuro.
“You have to learn to relax, we’re already in school where we already do plenty of thinking,” he tells me.
I close up my notebook in accordance with his advice.
“Perhaps you could learn to think.”
“No thanks. I’m fine with being an idiot! I’ve heard that the smarter people are, the greater the tendency for sadness, so I’m fine with being ignorant.”
“Oh yeah? Can you be ignorant about the gun I’m holding?”
He looks left and right, focuses on the hand on my notebook, looks under my desk, and finally, behind my desk, then he returns.
“Silly Kibe, you’re not holding a gun,” he chuckles.
“Really, now?”
Raising my right hand off my notebook, I put them behind my back and grab as if something was there. Afterwards, I pull it out and voilà! A gun!
“Think fast!”
“A-”
Bang.
The bullet shoots directly to his heart. It doesn’t actually pierce him though, but he ends up coughing blood, then faints to the ground.
Chaotic Slice-of-Life members have a broken ability to be able to pull out stuff from behind, whether it’s their own stuff is beside the point. It can pull what they want to have at that time. I hadn’t made a name for it yet.
“If I could use it in a fight, that would be a nice ability. At least, I wouldn’t need to bring a backpack to a fight every time.”
As if I could win in a fight, anyway. I have no fighting capability whatsoever.
Before I knew it, the other boys had come back from lunch.
“Hey, Kibe,” Masaru calls out to me, “Did what you needed to do?”
“Yeah,” I tell him.
“What the heck Kibe, why aren’t you coming home with us?!” Madoka complains.
Is no one going to address our dead friend on the floor?
“I’ve got a life outside you people, you bozos,” I reply.
“Katsuro. Floor,” Takashi utters.
“Did the guy lose a stand-off against you?” Madoka asks me.
“Not really.”
“You knocked him out for fun?”
“Yes.”
“Nice.”
The boys carry on to their respective seats, stepping on the dead guy in the process. Soon, the teacher arrives, and class begins.
I’ll think about it later... I wouldn’t be able to focus if the teacher is talking.
...
..
.
7:00 PM, At Home
I was eating dinner with Nakatani. We had rice, miso soup, tsukemono, yakizakana, and tempura, which I noticed, if my memory didn’t fail me, was what we had last week, or something around that.
Munch. Munch. Munch.
I also paid attention to the lesson earlier. It was a retreading of the same lesson.
I’m aware the teachers often repeat the things, so that it sticks, but it felt way too repetitive, or at least, it felt like the same things were said. However, again, I cannot trust my memory because I barely pay attention to them.
I look at the lunch and then at my little sister enjoying the food, she worked hard to prepare.
“Hey, Nakatani, did Tetsuo say something good, yesterday? You seemed worked up.”
“Hmmm... that’s kinda vague, onii-chan. Why are you asking?”
“Oh nothing, just pure curiosity. Like, did he say anything that made your heart flutter?”
“Hm? Pretty subjective. But whatever Tet- Taketa-kun makes my heart flutter! But I don’t know why.”
Oh my pure naive sister...
“Fine, then I’ll ask a different question. Nakatani, what did we have for dinner yesterday?”
I gulp and await her answer.
“We had okonomiyaki yesterday, didn’t we?”
She looks at me.
“Y-You’re not joking with me?”
“Hm? Why would I joke around, onii-chan?”
“Fair point, I guess.”
I take a glance at the time. It moves, just as usual.
Hmm...
...
..
.
We finish our meals, and I gather the plates and bowls, then I put them by the sink.
“Nakatani, I’ll leave these to you, is that alright?” I ask.
“I’ll do it!”
“Thanks. I’m going to my room. Good night,” I say as I climb up the stairs and into my room.
Jumping onto bed, I boot up my phone and open my group chats on LINE.
It’s a damn shame that the LINE contact of Kasumi is gone, but at least with that I find confirmation.
“I don’t need to ask for the date anymore. I know what’s going on. Somewhat.”
The timeline is stuck on the month of May 20XX and it seems to be jumping from one date to another.
I recall a specific set of words that she says.
“... you boys.”
That means that the other boys know about it. Only by her testimony, of course. I have no way to verify that.
I see the boys bantering lively in the chat.
“Maybe I should ask them?”
Typing in the group chat, I type out my question.
“Hey, do any of you guys notice anything familiar with the dates? Like the day repeating itself from last week?”
The chat abruptly silences and after a minute, three dots appear which tell me someone is typing. Eventually, the message is sent.
“What are you talking about, Kibe? You must be sleepy. There’s nothing wrong going on, you must be imagining things,” Madoka tells me.
“Even I would think what you said is a bit outlandish,” Masaru types, “Are you okay?”
Which is then followed with a sticker of a magical girl anime character tilting her head from a famous series currently airing with a speech bubble saying ‘大丈夫?’ (Are you okay?)
Typical of Masaru.
“Yeah, you guys are right. Maybe I’m just sleepy,” I tell them, “Good night, everyone.”
I don’t wait for any reply and turn off the internet and then my phone. I stand up on my feet to turn off the light, then place the phone to my desk beside the bed.
Alarm is ready, so there’s no need to worry.
“I really wish this is all in my head.”
Everything should go back to normal tomorrow. Hopefully, what caused these phenomena ends.
Tucking myself in my own bed and making myself comfortable, I close my eyes and sleep.
...
..
.
The Next Day(?)
My alarm sets off playing the usual tune of my favorite anime opening.
I wake up and get up with haste. Phone in my hand, I turn off the alarm, and hurriedly check the date.
“Ahahah... You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
The date was yet again, nowhere to be found.
“The calendar-”
I meet the same fate.
“You’ve got to be joking with me.”
Don’t tell me... is this like-
“Endless Eight?!”
I shake my head.
“No. No. We don’t need to be so dramatic about it.”
We can see this as a good sign. I can do what I’d always done without any consequences.
When I thought ‘without any consequences’, a series of lewd scenarios flood my head.
“N-No, maybe not those. Even I have a line I don’t wanna cross.”
Though I can get away with fondling ehhehehehehhe….
I snicker.
“Hey, wait a minute. I’d been going to school for well over 5 days now. Where is the weekend?”
No. No. No. That can’t be.
“I’m not going to school without my deserved break.”
If everything is repeating, then I already went through the lessons at school anyway. I wouldn’t be missing a single thing.
I need a break from society. From interacting! For that reason…
“I’ll be absent today.”
I text on my group chat and tell them I’m sick. I no longer wait for their response.
If Nakatani asks, I’ll just tell her the same excuse. She bought it well last time.
“Speaking of Nakatani, I need to eat the food she prepared for me downstairs.”
Going down the stairs I find a repeat meal with a glass of water. I bring them with me as I go up and into my room. I then arrange them by my computer and I sit down for the day ahead of me.
While I can go and investigate the looping, I want to make the most of this free time.
“I can finish the visual novels I always wanted to finish!”
Since I was pretty much caught up with my series due to my long absence, I sought new ones and what better than to indulge in visual novels.
To me they are the highest form of media!
“Visual novels. The quality of art akin to a light novel, voice acting from an anime, and the static nature like a manga! It has all the elements it needs to be a full ride!”
Not to mention, the majority of them are finished, so you don’t need to wait. You get a full pack. Plus sex scenes!
“I can’t wait!”
I begin scrolling and something immediately catches my eye.
“Oh! Since everything is on repeat, I can also spend money like there’s no tomorrow!”
Never would I have thought this opportunity would come.
However, before I could indulge, a faint reminder of losing Kurata’s contact weighs on me.
“It’s not like I have to solve this problem, do I? This was probably caused by a protagonist somewhere out there. Maybe Sci-fi? Maybe Arisu and company have relations to that.”
It has nothing to do with me.
“The issue will solve itself in due time. It’s not in my role to step in and save the day. After all, right now…”
I’m a Slice-of-Life Protagonist.
“The whole point is to take it easy.”
And that’s exactly what I will do.
My visual novel boots up to the starting screen. Showing the usual disclaimer that all characters are 18 and above.
Click.
END OF EPISODE 51