Mai and Masashi both go back to their apartment.

"I shouldn't have pushed her like that. She wanted to talk to Shouko-chan but I pushed her into trying to talk to me." Mai says.

"It's not your fault. Kaede is actually very determined to do this. I'm sure that even while she was talking to you she was forcing herself a lot. She's determined to do this no matter what. At least when we were there I was able to get a health potion to her in time."

"Yeah, at least there won't be any physical issues after that."

"Exactly."

"I still feel that I shouldn't have pushed her."

"It's not a big deal. Try to talk to her tomorrow again. I'm sure she'll be able to talk to you without any issues."

"I hope so."

"I didn't get the chance to ask Sakuta about Shouko-chan calling him."

"Kaede is sick and all you're worried about is Sakuta's love life?" Mai says to him in a reprimanding tone.

"She's perfectly fine. She has Sakuta taking care of her and after the health potion any physical injury she could've had is gone."

Mai just sight in defeat as they walk to their apartment.

Masashi opens the door and Mai says, "Masashi, do you want to go to our beach house next weekend?"

"What brought that up?

"Well, I'll be getting busy with the shooting for the movie soon so I thought that we should go on a few dates before that happens. I don't think we would be able to hang out much when the shooting starts."

"We will sleep together every day."

"I know but that doesn't mean that we'll be able to go on dates," Mai says with a pout.

"Anything for you, bunny. I'll get the place ready."

Masashi suddenly gets a text from his security guy and furrows his brows at that text.

"What is it?" Mai asks.

"It's nothing, it's from my security guy. He's telling me that our security detail caught another paparazzi snooping near your house."

"I see…" Mai says before continuing, "And since when have we had a security detail?"

"Since the time your agency found out about us, why?"

Mai says with a twitching face, "And were you ever planning to tell me about it?"

"Didn't I already tell you?" Masashi feigns ignorance since there's no way that he could forget with his [Eidetic Memory].

That night Masashi was yelled at and given a lecture about communication between couples for hours before Mai finally decided to take pity on him and go to bed with him.

But not before forcing him to tell her how much the security detail cost and making him agree to let her pay for half of it.

Being a national star comes with the perks of having a good amount of money. Not as much as Masashi but still a pretty good amount.

Masashi just reluctantly agreed, knowing that money will never really matter to either of them once they start going to different worlds.

…

"You see Sauta-Kun, I believe that life is a series of trials to make you a kinder person," Shouko tells Sakuta as they're standing at the beach.

"How so?"

"I live my life hoping to become a kinder person with each passing day."

Sakuta wakes up with tears in his eyes the next day.

"Shouko-san…" He whispers softly.

He gets up and checks on Kaede. Thankfully she's perfectly fine without any problems.

'I guess that medicine that senpai fed her was really effective.'

He goes to school and hangs out with Futaba and Kunimi.

The trio spends their break in Futaba's club room with Mai and Masashi.

Masashi finally gets the chance to ask Sakuta about the stuff with Shouko.

They go out for a walk while talking.

"What's going on with 'Shouko-chan' and 'Shouko-san'?"

"It's nothing. After I got that letter I called the number of the middle-school Shouko-chan to ask if she was the one who left that letter.

"She didn't pick up at that time."

"I see."

"Then she called back when we both got back from the beach and you went back to your girlfriend.

"By the way, I have to say, you are whipped."

"I have no shame in admitting that. She's the most important person in the world to me. There may be some things that require compromise from my side. I would give them up without a second thought.

"And I know that when the time comes, she'll also do the same for me. Not that I'd ever let her have to compromise on anything for me."

"That kind of love really makes a single guy like me envious, you know senpai?"

"I know, but don't sell yourself short. You already have someone who loves you and is apparently able to travel through either parallel universes or through time. And she does that just to meet you."

"You seem more optimistic about this than me senpai."

"I am. I am very optimistic about this."

After school finishes, Sakuta goes to Benny's, the place where he works part-time with Koga and Kunimi.

Kunimi doesn't have a shift today so it's just him and Koga taking care of the place.

Sakuta is mostly absent-minded for his shift, worried about Kaede's situation.

"Senpai, Is something wrong?"

"Not really, I was just thinking if I could use you to get more tips from the customers somehow." Sakuta gets defensive and lies.

"You're terrible at lying, y'know? If you're free, help me out with the keg."

Sakuta messed around with Koga for a while.

"Man talking to you always cheers me up."

"We're not getting back together senpai."

"I know, you're not emotionally mature enough to be with me honestly."

"Now I'm steamin'."

…

When Sakuta got back home, he saw Kaede talking on the phone.

"Onii-chan. Welcome back."

He stutters a bit, "Th-Thanks. I'm home."

"Are you talking to Mai-senpai?" Sakuta asks Kaede.

"I'm talking to Man-san. She apologized to me for yesterday. I'm telling her that it's nothing. It was for the best in the end. I can now talk to her on the phone without any problems."

Kaede talked to Mai for a little while more and Sakuta changed into comfortable clothes.

When Kaede hangs up the phone she says to Sakuta, "Onii-chan, I'm done with the plan."

"What plan?"

"The plan to go outside with Onii-chan. Mai-san and Masashi-nii-san helped me make it."

"It involves a lot of breaks but that's because Masashi-nii-san insisted on that. Mai-san even agreed to let me borrow the cute outfits that she modeled in previously."

"That's good, wearing cute outfits is good motivation to go outside."

Later that day Mai and Masashi showed up for dinner and Mai handed Kaede the outfits as Masashi cooked dinner for the four of them.

The next day when Sakuta gets back home from school he sees Kaede wearing a cute dress with a white top and a pink long skirt.

"I'm ready to go out today Onii-chan."

"I see. Are you sure?"

"I am very sure."

"Did you take a break?"

"I did."

"Alright, next up is wearing the shoes." Sakuta says handing Kaede her shoes.

"Are they not your size?" He asks as he sees Kaede with a complex expression.

"No, this just feels very new to me."

"I see. Next up is recharging your Onii-chan power, right?"

"Yes," Kaede says and hugs Sakuta tightly.

Kaede holds on for a while before Sakuta asks, "How much longer will you recharge Kaede?"

"Five minutes."

"If you're scared, you can take a break and call it a day. You can try to go further tomorrow."

"No! I'm Sacred! I'm scared of staying this way! I'm terrified that I may stay this way forever."

"Is that so?"

"I love staying home, and going outside scares me but never being able to go out is much worse!"

"I'm going to open the door Kaede," Sakuta says as he walks ahead with Kaede sticking to him.

Sakuta opens the door and asks, "Do you see what's ahead Kaede?"

"No, my eyes are closed."

"I see. Let's take it slow. One step at a time."

After a few steps Kaede asks, "Are we there yet?"

"Not yet, Kaede." Sakuta takes another step.

"Now?"

"Not yet." Another step.

"Wait, O-Onii-san. I changed my mind. I can't do this anymore." Kaede gets cold feet at the last moment.

Sakuta decides to push her a bit and takes a few more steps.

Kaede ends up letting go of him and stays there as he takes the next few steps.

She gets startled and opens her eyes.

Kaede realizes that she's already out of the door and is a bit dumbstruck, "Onii-chan, we're…"

"Yeah, we're outside."

"You played me?"

"I played you."

"I-I," Kaede breaks down crying on the ground.

Sakuta gets scared and hugs Kaede, "H-Hey Kaede?"

"I'm sorry I lied." He rubs her head in an effort to calm her down.

"T-That's not it. Y-You've got it all wrong. I'm just happy. I'm happy I made it outside."

Kaede spends the next few minutes crying in Sakuta's arms.

Masashi walks away from the side as he realizes that Kaede wouldn't need any more health potions like last time.

He was worried that something similar would happen and she would get sick so he was ready with a health potion.

…

November 10th

"After that, Kaede gradually started taking small steps into the outside world. The next day She got to the elevator. The day after that she was able to get out of the apartment."

"She even had dinner with me and Mai at my place. She loved my game room and started coming to my place basically every other day." Masashi said.

"The Four of us and Mai-senpai's sister Toyohama-san hit the neighborhood park and other places."

Futaba says, "The two of you look like a bunch of sis-cons. You have spent the past 15 minutes doing nothing but talking about Kaede."

"I have no regrets loving my little sister."

"I have always wanted a little sister and Kaede fills that place in my heart."

"Well whatever, I'm truly happy for you."

"Thank you," Sakuta and Masahi both reply to Futaba.

Futaba just rolls her eyes at the two people's antics and turns to Mai to talk about their own thing.

As the lunch break ends the four leave Futaba's club room and go to their own classes.