And so time passed, Saturday arrived, and the long-awaited meeting between Itsuka-kun and Tobiichi finally came to pass.
I was on [Fraxinus], watching their date while geared up in armor and weapons so I could move quickly if anything dangerous happened.
"By the way, this world was a changed world all along. I really had no idea."
"Isn’t it more surprising that you even know that...?"
"Ahaha...."
I had explained the whole situation to the other crew members, Miss Maria, and Marina, which was why we were having this conversation.
Marina asked how I’d managed to keep my memories after hearing everything, and explaining that took some serious sweating on my part, but it was a relief that she believed me in the end.
Honestly, if it had been anyone else, they probably would’ve written it off as a lie.
"You say that, but the abilities you’ve shown, Hai, are fantasy enough already."
"Exactly. Sealing spirits and artificial spirits, storing things in empty space, summoning them back out again. From a normal person’s perspective, that’s all fantasy."
"...Fair enough."
Maybe they could believe me because my very existence was already nonsense.
Nodding at Miss Maria and Marina’s words, I looked at the central monitor.
On the screen, a plaza in Tengushi City was displayed.
"Thank you for inviting me today, Itsuka-kun."
As Tobiichi, dressed neatly in casual clothes, said that, Itsuka-kun stared at her blankly.
"Look at that. He’s totally dazed."
Crack!
At Itsuka-kun’s reaction, I heard something breaking beside me.
Glancing over, I saw the commander grinding her teeth like she was about to crush them.
And with that ferocious aura spilling off her, it looked like the spirit of jealousy had possessed her.
The commander’s sharp look was a little scary, so I turned back to the monitor.
"Itsuka-kun?"
When Tobiichi called his name again, tilting her head at his silence, Itsuka-kun finally scratched his cheek and spoke.
"Ah, no, I should be thanking you. But since we’re in the same class, could you stop using honorifics? Please?"
"Ah! O-okay! No, wait... okay."
"Wow, that’s adorable. I’m getting goosebumps."
Was that really the Tobiichi I’d known?
It had been the same when I’d secretly listened from the rooftop last time, but she felt so unlike the Tobiichi I knew that I got chills all over.
Honestly, since every time Itsuka-kun and Tobiichi met, it usually ended with Itsuka-kun getting dragged around, seeing them be considerate of each other like that was a little frightening.
"That much?"
"Marina, if you think about the pre-change Tobiichi Origami Hai talked about before, it’s absolutely possible."
"Yeah, from the way you describe her, she was basically an extreme pervert stalker chasing after Shido."
See? Even Marina and Miss Maria admitted that the Tobiichi from the old world was a pervert stalker.
I am absolutely not the weird one here.
"That’s the Origami I know!"
"Oh, really?"
When Itsuka-kun accidentally called Tobiichi by name, the commander’s icy voice came from beside me.
I’d noticed from the grinding teeth that she was already in a bad mood, but now it was obvious she was seriously irritated.
She keeps denying it, but the commander is definitely a brocon.
"Ah, ah! Sorry! It just slipped out, because, um... your name is pretty!"
"Thank you... My mom and dad gave it to me. If you want to call me that badly, that’s fine. Origami is okay."
"Shido is fine for me too."
"T-that can come after I get used to it...."
Crack!
"I really can’t watch this."
The lollipop she’d somehow gotten into her mouth was completely crushed by the commander’s teeth.
And considering Kyohei Kannazuki wasn’t acting up at all, it was definitely best not to provoke the commander right now.
"So what are you going to do today?"
"Let’s see...."
As Itsuka-kun tried to decide on a destination, the choices appeared.
In order: watch a romance movie at the theater, go shopping, or go to a motel with a strange line.
"Everyone, vote!"
"No, what is that last one?"
Since that last line was exactly the kind of thing that could get someone socially exiled, I was inwardly suspecting Miss Maria, the [Fraxinus] AI, when she spoke up in an irritated voice.
"Hai. Let me say this again: the choices have nothing to do with me."
"Ahem. I wasn’t thinking anything."
"...."
I could feel Miss Maria’s stare somehow, but I ignored it and cast my vote too.
That made the final choice number 2.
"Hmm, that’s reasonable enough."
"Number 1 is tempting to throw away too, but going somewhere you can’t even talk right from the start is a little...."
"Compared to that, number 2 is versatile and classic. There’s no girl who hates shopping!"
At the words of Kawagoe and Minowa, the commander nodded and relayed the choice to Itsuka-kun.
"Shido. It’s decided. Number 2—"
But Itsuka-kun cut her off in the middle.
"Wait a second. There’s a choice I want to try."
With that, Itsuka-kun took Tobiichi to the last option: the motel.
"Emotional readings are becoming unstable!"
"She’s freaking out right now!"
At Miss Maria and Marina’s report, the commander slammed her hand on the desk and shouted.
"Of course she is! What are you thinking, Shido? Explain yourself right now!"
"A-alright...."
From a normal perspective, that was definitely a weird choice, but since I knew exactly what the Tobiichi from the original world had been like, I couldn’t help thinking it wasn’t wrong at all.
That is, as long as you were operating under the premise of the original-world Tobiichi.
"S-sorry! I took a wrong turn! This way!"
"Ah, so this wasn’t it!"
Itsuka-kun quickly claimed he’d taken a wrong turn and led Tobiichi somewhere else.
"I thought this would definitely be the right answer for Origami...."
"No, how does that even work?"
"Surprisingly, commander, if it were the Tobiichi from the previous world, that would’ve been right."
"Huh!?"
"If they’d gone in, Itsuka-kun would’ve been eaten alive."
"...."
When I told the truth from the side, the commander’s face twisted strangely.
It was the expression of someone who absolutely did not want to believe it, but also couldn’t help believing it anyway, and the two feelings were fighting each other.
After making that face, the commander collected herself, sighed, and gave Itsuka-kun instructions.
"...Anyway, number 2. Go shopping."
"Okay."
"Haa.... So what happened to Origami’s favorability? I hope it didn’t drop too much."
At the commander’s order, which seemed to have drained all the energy out of her because of my comments, the crew checked the affection meter.
"Well, that’s the thing...."
"The emotional readings changed, but the favorability seems to have gone up a little...."
"See? I told you."
"...Hah."
The commander let out a dry laugh, apparently too stunned for words, and pressed her temples with her fingers.
She probably had a headache, and looking at her like that made me feel a little sorry for her.
"Shopping, huh. Where to?"
"Hmm, let’s see...."
"Everyone, choose."
The next set of choices was a select shop, in other words a clothing store where they could dress Tobiichi up; a pet shop where they could hang out together; and a back-alley pharmacy stocked with aphrodisiacs and female arousal drugs.
"No, option 3 is clearly aimed at the Tobiichi from the previous world."
"...Just what kind of person was Origami back then?"
"A hardcore pervert stalker."
The Tobiichi from the previous world could be summed up in exactly those words.
"No, this is the only real option here."
Itsuka-kun was saying that because he’d experienced it firsthand.
"That’s not the kind of date I know...."
"Seriously, what did Shido go through in the previous world...."
At Itsuka-kun’s unhesitating choice, Miss Maria and Marina marveled, while the commander could only stare blankly at the monitor.
It was a mishap caused by the fact that she had no memories of the previous world.
If the commander had those memories, she wouldn’t be reacting like that.
"Isn’t Origami basically aphrodisiacs, and aphrodisiacs basically Origami?"
"...Hah-hah."
At Itsuka-kun’s mutter, the commander went completely slack and collapsed into her seat.
"Commander, don’t think about it too weirdly. If it were Tobiichi from the previous world, she’d probably have gone happily and bought a bunch of different aphrodisiacs."
"...That’s the previous world. No matter what, things should be different in this world."
Feeling sorry for the commander, whose voice was completely drained, I took a [Blessing of the Deep] out of my inventory and tossed it to her.
"What is this?"
"It’s called [Blessing of the Deep]. If you drink it, it’ll ease mental fatigue."
The main purpose of the liquid in the blue bottle with the ornate engraving was restoring FP, but it also had the effect of relieving mental fatigue when drunk, so I gave it to her.
The commander eyed what I’d handed her suspiciously from every angle, then opened the cap and drank it down.
Blue energy washed over her, and her complexion improved a lot.
"Oh, that’s a pretty strange taste. And my headache’s gone too."
"See?"
When I shrugged and said that, the other crew members started looking at me hopefully too.
"Hai, could I have some too...?"
"Ah, I’m so sleepy after all that overtime...."
While I was hesitating for a moment, they were already expressing it with their words and actions, so I handed one out to everyone.
While I was doing that, Itsuka-kun and Tobiichi had already entered the back-alley pharmacy.
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