-er?

 

“Whoa… what was that?”

“Don’t worry, you just fell asleep, that’s all.”

“Oh yea, that’d actually make sense.”

“Yea..”

“...”

“...”

“Who the hell are you?”

“Me? Oh, no, don’t mind me. I’m just one of the creators of this novel.”

“...” Amongst complete darkness suspended in a void of nothingness, stood a disappointingly not menacing figure of a caucasian man. After a closer look, I could tell that he was sort of similar to me in appearance. Short, but messy dark hair, non-existent muscles mass and eyes tired of existence casting a terrifyingly hollow gaze.

“Creator… of this novel? What is this all about, man?” I’m not sure I comprehend everything that’s happening around me at the moment.

“Yup. Since this is all just your dream, breaking the fourth wall like this shouldn’t ruin the immersion for the readers too much.” ... I still have no idea what he means. “I guess you could just think of me as your dreamworld alter-ego. The impersonation of the weeb inside you.”

“Huh…” So this is that filthy otaku I was bowing down to before and begging him to return. Guess that worked. Though that’s not exactly what I’d meant.

“Something wrong?” He asks as if it was all a perfectly normal phenomenon.

“I mean, yea, but I’m so confused right now I don’t think I can express myself, really.”

“Understandable. But fear not. It’s all but a dream and I’m here to help.”

“Help?”

“You’re still struggling to fully understand the situation you found yourself in, aren’t you? I’ll be your guide then. Or a therapist, rather.. If you ever feel uneasy in this new setting, just come meet me here.”

“And by here, you mean… In the dream?”

“Exactly.”

“Okay… so what am I supposed to talk with you about?”

“Anything you want to. Though I’d recommend things regarding what’s going on and what you guys have to do in order not to break the world again. You can use me as a device to review your plans.”

“That… actually seems quite helpful. Thanks, I guess.” I’m not so certain about all this, but it seems like this guy is on our side.

“Although we’re talking about a cliche-packed light novel, coming up with a coherent script is no easy task. You may find your intuition to be wrong at times, especially if you don’t consider the story as a whole. Sure, it’s all about the cliches, but you can’t possibly jam all of them into a single plot. Think as if you were the one writing your story. What tropes would you have to sacrifice so that the plot would make sense and be interesting? Consider how your actions limit the rest of the story and try to work around it. If you make a blunder, it might not be apparent at first, but it can come back to bite you in the future. And there are no save-points here.” I stand there dumbfounded, listening to his monologue, trying to comprehend what he’s saying. “That’s why…” He slowly approaches me and puts his hand on my shoulder like a parent giving advice to his son that’s about to go on his first date with a real, 3D girl. His eyes were still devoid of life, but soon became kind and full of compassion. “Be sure to visit me often, it’s lonely here in your head. Not too much of Saki-chan here either.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whoops, excuse me, I might’ve said too much. Anyways, stop by for advice every once in a while. I’ll be waiting”

“...”

He sends me off with a generous smile and walks away slowly, disappearing in the darkness gradually. 

Man, there’s something definitely wrong with me. I’m dreaming about another version of ‘me’, that’s also my ‘creator’ (whatever that means) that wants to help ‘me’? That’s some inception stuff going on here. 

Before I have the chance to mull over what just happened, the darkness starts changing to light and I feel my consciousness coming back…

 

…

 

“I’m sooooo, so sooooryyyyyy!”

“Eh, I get that you can be scatterbrained, but we’re kind of in an emergency situation right here. Please, use your head from time to time.”

“ I know, I know, this won’t happen again, sooooryyyy~” Hayato begged for our forgiveness after completely forgetting the plan we settled on yesterday. He put his hands together and head down perfectly impersonating a clumsy waifu apologizing to the protagonist. Impressive for someone who’s watched like 3 animes in his life.

“It’s alright, don’t worry!” Saki tried reassuring him that he wasn’t the one in the wrong. Though it was indeed, mainly his fault. “We couldn’t possibly predict we’d wake up in the same spots as yesterday, and not in our beds, right, Hiro?”

“True, but you’d expect your friend to answer at least one of the 10 calls from you, especially if we all knew we needed to stay in touch at all times.” I’m reffering to the fact that since me and Saki woke up in front of our houses again and Hayato was nowhere to be found, we figured out he also must’ve woken up in the same place as before, so on the school grounds. 

Our plan was to meet up in front of my house, but since something unpredictable like this occurred, it was only natural to try and contact this moron over here. It turned out both of us had his phone number in our 'new' smartphones, so we tried contacting him that way.  He, however, decided not to check his phone even once.

“The most important thing is that we managed to find each other! What an amazing reunion!” Hayato’s doing his best to lighten up the mood, but I just ignore him. He is right that we’re lucky to actually have met in the corridor just before the homeroom classes though. God knows what he was up to before we showed up.

“I just thought that… that…” He’s clearly struggling to come up with an excuse. “Oh, right! I was about to go look for Gotou-san!

“All right, fine, whatever.” It’s still early in the morning and we didn’t get much sleep, so I’d much rather just stop there than to argue more.

“Good thing that the time came back to normal…” Saki pointed out.

“Yeah, for now. But since none of us has seen Gotou-san I’m afraid it might break again soon.” I speak my concerns out loud.

“Her being absent doesn’t line up with the ‘script’, right?” Saki surely does learn this otaku stuff fast.

I answer with a short ‘yup’ and try to guess what would be going through Gotou-san’s head now. It doesn’t really matter if she’s involved in these rom-com shenanigans or not, her not coming to school today seems obvious to me after what happened on the rooftop yesterday. 

“Okay, that sounds like a great plan!” Hayato’s over exaggerated reaction brings me back to Earth.

“Sorry, I got stuck in my thoughts. What's the ‘good plan’?

“ I thought that I’d try asking Toyokawa-sensei about Gotou-san’s address. Since she’s not here today, I could convince Toyokawa-sensei that I just want to lend Gotou-san my notes from today’s lessons. That way, we’d know where to look for her.” Saki explained her simple, yet genius idea.

“Told ya it’s a great idea!”

“Yea, it might actually work. Good job, Saki!”

“...Thank you.” Saki blushed and was about to hug me, but seeing me response to her actions with an uneasy expression reminded her that we shouldn’t be doing things like that here. Not only would it attract unneeded attention, but more importantly, would be a heresy in terms of a rom-com’s story progress.

“Hehe…” Hayato must’ve noticed the awkwardness that built between us in that instant and only managed to laugh nervously while putting his hand on the back of his head. He’s seriously too good at being an anime girl. If I didn’t know he was a guy… N-nevermind.

After a few more cringe-worthy seconds, the school bell rings, announcing the beginning of todays’ lessons, starting, as usual, with the homeroom class. Me and Saki part ways with Hayato after making him swear on his manhood that this time he won’t ignore the plan and that all three of us will be meeting here on the next break. Hayato disappears into the next-door classroom labeled as ‘2-2’ as we head for the empty seats at the back of the '2-1' classroom.

We take our seats after greeting with our ‘classmates’. The three guys that were fired up about wishing me all the worst yesterday were surprisingly calm today. Did they get over it so fast? Or maybe they just decided to ignore my entire existence? Either way, I’m not complaining.

Gotou-san’s seat was still empty, as expected. However, there was also not a trace of her textbooks or utensils, which caught my attention. She must be the type to take them home to review every day. The Main Girls™ usually fall into one of two categories - They’re either clumsy, loud and terrible at studying, or they’re elegant but with an almost non-existent personality. Those are usually geniuses. Gotou-san is definitely the second type. Her taking her stuff home and studying would make a lot of sense in the narrative.

Whoever, or whatever did this to us sure knows a thing or two about school harem rom-com setting. Which is oddly specific, but I can’t just not appreciate it. Even if we’re clearly being played with.

I try to act naturally before the teacher comes. I silence my phone, organize the stuff on my desk and brace myself for another portion of pure otaku cringefest. Saki decided to do the same. Okay. Nothing too strange happening for now… Or at least so I thought…

“Good morning everyone! I hope you had great summer holidays~” 

“Good morning, Toyokawa-sensei!” All class as one, answer enthusiastically.

“You guys, I told you not to call me that! It’s Hi-de-ko-sensei~” Jesus Christ, I nearly choked on my own saliva because of the cringe… wait. Doesn’t this whole dialogue seem familiar? Also, why is she asking about our holidays on the second day of school?

“Hiro…” Saki turns around to face me, visibly troubled.

“Yea, I also noticed”

“Oh, and before we start our homeroom, I have an announcement to make!” Toyokawa-sensei continues her speech. “A new transfer student will be joining our class starting today… or rather, she would, but I think she’s absent today… I hope it’s nothing serious…” Our class teacher was about to once again introduce Gotou-san to us, there’s no doubt. I quickly check the date on my phone.

“I knew it.” I say quietly enough not to be noticed by the teacher, but loud enough for Saki to hear me.

“What is it?”

“It’s ‘yesterday’. Look at the date.” I discreetly show her my phone screen so that she can confirm what I’m saying.

“The 1st of September… You’re right! What’s going on?” Saki’s amazement changes to confusion almost instantly.

“I don’t know. But at this point, nothing will surprise me anymore. But the reality is that we were sent back in time. That’d also explain why we woke up in the same places again.” I deduce on the spot.

“What do we do?” Saki asks while Toyokawa-sensei announces the beginning of the homeroom and starts writing on the board. Neither me, nor Saki pay attention though. We have more important things to focus on.

“I guess it’d be best to wait the lesson out and report the situation to Hayato. I doubt he’ll notice it’s ‘yesterday’ ” I tell in a mocking manner.

“That’s true.” Saki smiles vaguely, probably trying to lighten the mood a bit. I smile back and suggest both pretended to be invested in Toyokawa-sensei’s monologue until the bell rings. 

 

…

 

The homeroom class went on and on to the point that I was impressed by Toyokawa-sensei’s politician-like skill to talk about nothing nonstop for like half an hour. The fatigue in my body has finally built up to the point it was hard for me not to take a nap. It’s only natural, considering that, in theory, I slept for about 5 hours, which felt more like 2. So the time must’ve been still broken before we woke up, huh. Now however, I could swear it slowed down way beyond its normal pace. There’s no helping it. I’m sleep deprived and am currently sitting through one of the most boring lessons of my life. I imagined coming back to school, now that I got used to college, would be a piece of cake, but boy, was I wrong.  

I do as any bored to death student does and check my phone in hope that it will somehow magically trigger the school bell… How the hell has it only been 10 minutes since the beginning...? Am I so tired that my perception of time got this badly distorted? Doesn’t seem improbable. It’s a similar feeling to watching a bad anime. You wish the episode was already over, so that you can drop the series with no self-shame, but when you check the time bar on the video it turns out you’re not even halfway through.

“Hey, Hiro” Saki’s whisper wakes me up from my half-awake contemplations. This time, she only turned her head slightly so as not to be noticed and scolded by the teacher.

“What is it?”

“Do you also feel like… This lesson is going on forever?” Turns out me and Saki were thinking about the same thing in the end.

“Yea, I just checked the time and it’s only been 10 minutes.”

“I know, I also checked… But… isn’t that TOO weird?”

“What do you mean?”

“No matter how boring the lesson is, there’s just no way for this to be normal. I mean…” She’s right that it’s unnervingly strange… Wait, don’t tell me… “Since ‘yesterday’ the time sped up when something went wrong, ‘today’ it could potentially slow down.”

“That might actually be the case.” I agree with Saki. 

“Plus, I don’t know whether you noticed, but…” Saki stopped her sentence and instead of continuing it, she turned to her right. An uncharacteristic, NPC-like student was sitting there, at the desk next to Saki, in front of the empty Gotou-san’s desk. 

“Hey, can I borrow an eraser? I left mine at home.” Out of nowhere, she asks her the most anticlimactic question ever. The girl’s reaction however, wasn’t normal at all.

“Ssssssuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeee, ttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyoooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.” What?

“Thanks.”

“Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppprrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.”

The girl was… speaking so slowly that it reminded me of that scene with a slot in Z*otopia. Or actually no, it was way worse than that scene. It felt as if-

“... Everyones’ actions also slowed down.” Saki faces me once again and finishes her sentence from before. I get it, she wanted to show me what’s going on, instead of telling me, so that I understood what she meant and didn’t question her sanity.

“I’d rather say they almost stopped completely… She took like a minute to say two short sentences.” The weird thing is that until now, I didn’t notice Toyokawa-sensei to be in slow-motion. Is she not affected for some reason?

I turn my gaze to the blackboard to confirm.

“...!” I’m shocked at the sight I see. Toyokawa-sensei who a mere minute earlier was speaking and writing on the board without a smallest hindrance, was now standing there with her hand up like a mannequin that someone had way too much fun assembling. Upon closer look, I could tell that she was in fact moving. But very, VERY slowly.

“... But why?” Baffled just as much as me, Saki asks. “Did we do something that’d cause problems? We are following the script, right?”

“ WE are, that’s correct.” This time, I don’t think the time malfunction is our fault.

“So why is this happening?”

“Because there’s someone else that doesn’t play their role correctly.”

“...You mean Hayato’s done something again?”

“Surprisingly, no. Probably not.” Even if he did something stupid, the early episodes don’t focus on the Trap™ that much. That means, me and Saki are the ones ‘on screen’ and our actions are the most important for the coherence of the story. As long as Hayato doesn’t light the school on fire, he should get away with doing pretty much whatever he fancies. 

I mimic Saki-s tactic from before and ‘show’, instead of ‘tell’. I guide her sight towards the empty desk on my right.

“Gotou-san…”

“Exactly. She shouldn’t be absent. Since it’s ‘yesterday’ again, she should've come to school. Toyokawa-sensei should’ve introduced her, and finally, I should’ve talked to her and arranged the meeting on the rooftop. The Main Girl™ is the essential character in this part of the story.”

“So the time slowed down because she isn’t following the script herself?”

“That’s correct. Or at least, I can’t think of a more logical reason.”

Saki started mulling things over again, putting her hand on her chin. After a few seconds, or what felt like a few seconds at least, she spoke up.

“Wouldn’t that mean that she’s not involved directly in what’s going on?”

“Huh?” A brave theory escapes Saki’s mouth.

“‘Yesterday’ our actions broke the time and ‘today’ it’s hers. Wouldn't that make us all equal in the grand scheme of things?”

“Saki… Are you suggesting that Gotou-san might be in the same situation as we are, and is actually our ally?” 

“...”

“You guys!” A sudden shout from the corridor interrupts our analysis. It didn’t sound slowed down however. The voice also wasn’t an unfamiliar one. “There’s something wrong.”

“Hayato!” We shout back, surprised seeing him in our classroom door and completely forgetting that we’re in the middle of the class. Fortunately for us, everyone has already become so slowed down, that there was no reaction whatsoever to our outburst.

“Come on, Saki.” I get up from my chair, deciding that at this state of things, no one will notice that we’re gone.

“Ah, right.” She hurriedly takes her phone from the backpack just in case and gets up as well.