
I play for hours without end, savoring the potentially endless time I have on my hands. The day quickly passes by, and as visual novels tend to be long, it would be unfathomable – impossible, to even finish in one go. They can go up to 50 hours on average, as per my experience anyway.
My desire to finish the visual novel gets interrupted when my stomach grumbles. As a natural response, my hand comforts it.
“I’ve gotta eat.”
Going downstairs, I see that Nakatani had prepared dinner.
Time went by so quickly, huh.
Grabbing the food, I go upstairs with my food, not even looking at it, with my glass of water on my left hand.
Opening the door, I push the keyboard forward so I can eat while playing. Honestly, the rest of the day goes just as one would expect. I finish my food, deliver them down, go back to my computer, and when it was late, I went to sleep.
…
..
.
Next day(?)
My alarm goes off, which makes me rise to my feet. Immediately, when grabbing my phone to turn off the alarm, I search for the date.
May 20XX.
“Hahaha… it’s still looping.”
I put it back on the table.
“If yesterday would be what I would consider Saturday, then I deserve to make a Sunday, don’t I?”
After all, it just isn’t fair to be forced to go to school for more than 5 days a week.
With my plans predestined, I go to our group chat and tell them I’m going absent again. Without waiting further responses, I boot on the computer and turn off my phone.
“Hell yeah, I’m going for all the routes.”
Booting up the visual novel, I go to Load. When I did, I was surprised.
“M-My save file is gone.”
Just as I was about to panic, the truth sinks in, and I calm down right on the spot.
“What did I expect? I can’t expect everything that I did to carry over to the next day, when the next day isn’t actually the next day.”
But really, that’s no problem.
Unfortunately, in Visual Novels, you can’t skip text you hadn’t seen yet.
“Back to square one, but no matter.”
I search for a heavy item around my room and settle with my phone. It seemed to have decent weight, so I place it down the spacebar and all the text and sprites are on fast-forward.
“I’ll make use of this time to prepare breakfast.”
The rest of the day goes as expected. After reaching the point where I left off, I continue reading until night, with some eating or bathroom breaks. The day passes by in an instant, and when it was late, I went to sleep.
…
..
.
The Next Day(?)
My alarm goes off, I wake up. I check the date, and it beholds me.
“May 20XX.”
Hmm… don’t feel like going to school.
So, much like the day before, I repeat what had happened. I tell them I’m absent, I get my food, go to play, rinse and repeat. The day repeats just as I had spent it yesterday.
…
.
.
2 Days Later(?)
I was on the computer doing the usual routine, eating my food on the computer and playing my visual novel.
“Dang, this one’s really long, huh?”
In the past few days that have passed, the waiting process gets more arduous and arduous, and I get a little less invested each time. I was still waiting for the text to reach the point where I was yesterday, so I ended up spacing out and focusing on the not well reflected image of me on the computer. There, I see that I wasn’t enjoying that much anymore.
That can’t be… I’m hooked in the heroines and the story… yet despite that, why do I feel so…
“Hmm, what’s this feeling?”
Disappointed? Is that it? I don’t think so… that word doesn’t quite fit what I’m feeling.
I ponder and ponder, but I still couldn’t quite find the right word. Then I look in front of the screen again.
If I’m not enjoying this to the fullest, then what’s the point?
Taking my phone, I stop skipping the dialogue and exit the visual novel. Afterwards, I stare at the ceiling for some time, contemplating what I’m supposed to do now.
This time loop sure is taking its time, huh. I wonder when it’ll end.
“Even then, I have no way of knowing, so I’ll keep checking my phone.”
I close my eyes, breathe heavily, and exhale.
“Maybe I should go outside.”
Going down the stairs, I noticed I’d been in the same clothes for the past few days. From that realization, I feel disgusted by myself, so I take a bath.
…
…
.
Fresh from the bath, I take fresh clothes from my wardrobe and some gray denim shorts, then hang the wet towel on the clothesline.
“Alright, well prepared.”
My stomach grumbles.
“I’m hungry.”
Looking outside, I see that one of the repeat meals that Nakatani had provided me.
“I… want something different to eat.”
What should I do with this food?
I contemplate the act of throwing it… but even if let’s say that Nakatani sees that and ends up seeing her hard work in the trash. That… just doesn’t sit right with me. Not even seeing. I don’t want to do that at all.
So instead, at the very least, I wrap my meals in plastic and put them in the refrigerator for it to reset the next day.
“I’ll just buy myself something.”
I snicker.
Maybe I can buy something expensive since everything resets anyway.
“Should I go to a restaurant?”
I go down the stairs holding my wallet while I think. Reaching the door, I go out and finally get to open the wallet.
Gleefully counting the coins and bills while I walk, I notice that the resulting amount was less than I had before.
“8,105 yen…”
I think I’m missing around a hundred yen. Did I mistake it?
While I walk and count, I spot my favorite spot in the whole wide world.
“The bench and the vending machine.”
I take a seat and start counting seriously.
- 2000. 3000. 4000…
Counting the bills first and the coins second, the end result was-
“8, 105 yen.”
So I didn’t miscount. But I swear I had more, so did I perhaps drop the 100 yen coin somewhere? Or perhaps I had 8,105 yen and not 8,205 yen.
“Urgh… I feel like I’m obsessing over a trivial thing.”
But it’s the fact that it’s trivial that makes me want to think about it more.
“Had I spent anything at all these past few ‘days’? Wait, would that actually matter? Wouldn’t everything reset?”
Thinking about it, I believe the only thing that carry over is my memories. The rest reset.
“Wait, if I think about it… if my body resets… that includes my brain and the brain stores memories. So, it would be weird that only a section of the brain remains the same. But it’s just that…”
Memories are tough to argue with because of how they can be presented. Sometimes they can be presented as an individual thing that can be separated from the body, like describing a soul.
“I need more solid evidence.”
Recalling certain changes in my body, I remember clearly that I smelled bad a while ago.
If my body truly resets with each passing day, then that would mean my state would be only roughly 7 hours of a past record of myself. In each and every day, I took a bath, so for it to accumulate into the stench that I was earlier is already considerable proof that my body did not reset.
“Okay… if we’d confirmed that my body doesn’t reset… can I also assume that other things do not reset?”
Then I peer at my wallet.
“Hm… I’m not sure. My computer definitely resets. My phone also resets, since it wouldn’t even show the date.”
I have to test this.
Standing from the bench I think of where to eat.
“Certainly not feeling like buying something from a convenience store. I feel like eating an actual meal.”
Then I remember the maid cafe I’d went to that one time which makes me drool.
“Ehe ehe ehe~ maybe going there could be nice.”
Now with a destination in mind, I march forward feeling oddly energized.
“I’m scared they might eat might wallet... I’ll order a light meal when I get there.”
On the way I open my phone and suddenly remember.
“Oh yeah, following any series is pointless, because they won’t update any further than the month of May.”
So, I keep it in my pocket once again and heave a heavy sigh.
...
..
.
Arriving upon the front of restaurant, I take a good long look at it. The store’s name was plastered at the top, containing both the kanji for flower and strawberry, the restaurant’s large window and walls were clearly modeled after the name, boasting the colors of pink and sakura blossoms being predominant possibly being an intersection between the flower and the pink strawberry.
From the corner of my eye, I see the menu standee beside the door. It looked like this:
Food
Omurice - 1,000円
Curry Rice - 1,000円
Spaghetti - 900円
Sandwich (Egg, Ham, or Tuna) - 600円
Cake - 700円
Pudding - 700円
Parfait - 800円
Drinks (Hot/Iced)
Black Tea - 700円
Green Tea - 700円
Chamomile Tea - 800円
Earl Grey Tea - 800円
Fruit Tea - 800円
Milk Tea (Matcha, Sakura, Caramel, Vanilla, Chocolate) - 800円
Specialty Milk Tea - 1,000円
“Hadn’t seen this before. Geez, these prices are high!”
Is it worth it?
In an attempt to justify my spendings, my mind conjures up images of cute maid girls with cat ear headbands saying ‘Nya’ every opportunity they could get. It can be cringe at times, but I yearn for it!
“That’s all that matters.”
Opening the door, the door chime goes off and immediately upon the first step, a girl with long, gray, silky hair wearing cat ear headbands. It’s almost like my mind was read.
“Welcome to Hana Ichigo, Master! Would you like to take a seat?” she asks me.
Her arm stretches over pointing to the countless seats. There were a few people around my age in casual wear too.
“Sure,” I answer.
“Right this way please!”
Following her lead, I close attention to the details of her uniform. I can see the black ribbon with white outlines protruding from her black maid outfit. There’s nothing more but frills on her skirt from what I see, though there’s no way I can confirm if there’s more since her hair blocks my view. After all, it’s simply the usual black and white maid uniform, but this time, there were strawberries and flowers on the front of the skirt.
“Here!” she says with a gleeful attitude.
“Thank you.”
I take a seat where she points and hands me the menu like the one I found in front of the door.
“Hmmm...”
It didn’t take me long, since I’d already decided on what I wanted.
“One omurice and one caramel milk tea, please.”
“Would you like your milk tea hot or cold?”
“Cold.”
“Noted! Would you like anything else, Master?”
“Nope, nothing. Oh, can I ask for your name?”
“That would be Nekonyan!”
That’s totally an alias. Well, I have no problem with that.
“Nekonyan, can I ask about the Specialty Milk Tea, since it caught my eye; what is that?”
“Ah, our Specialty Milk Tea is the Hana Ichigo’s signature drink! It normally mixes strawberry and whatever floral theme that we’re following. This month, it’s lavender!”
“I see. Do you guys rotate certain flowers around months or random?”
“Ahaha, I believe it’s all randomized.”
“That’s all, thank you for answering my questions.”
She bows her head and goes to prepare my meal. While I wait, I once again look outside the window.
“Everything will repeat. Everything will reset.”
I take out my wallet to prepare my payment.
But my body doesn’t reset. So that begs the question-
“What truly resets right now? And more specifically...”
Why do those things not reset when compared to others?
“Right now, I’m at a loss due to how little I have.”
Opening my phone, I check the group chat and it’s the boys chatting about mundane things as usual.
“Maybe I should get a picture of me and the maid. That ought to make them jealous.”
I keep my phone and continue looking at the people walking outside.
“… I assumed this time travel shenanigan is due to the Sci-fi genre possibly related to Arisu and the gang.”
Recalling such events of her mentioning timelines, it appeared to be so.
“Man, to think that Sci-fi extended its range outside of its own world.”
As I thought there must be nuances in how genres interact, it can’t be a simple hierarchy with Slice-of-Life being at the bottom and Hentai being at the top.
“If I try to change the genre right now, can I break free?”
The thought was tempting and I wanted to try it.
“Author, what’s the genre at play, right now? What is the Overruling Statement?”
Note: The Overruling Statement declares that the ruling genre is Slice-of-Life. |
“Wait. It’s not Sci-fi?”
END OF EPISODE 52
Thank you for the chapter