Epilogue 1: Say Hello to the New Love Interest!

It was two days later, on Wednesday. Yuichi was walking to school with Aiko.

“Hey, how are your injuries?” Aiko asked in concern.

“They’re in the realm of okay, I think,” Yuichi said. His left arm was capable of moving again. It was a little sore, still, but he could more or less use it. His right leg had already healed completely the day before. The damage he inflicted on himself with furukami was relatively easy to recover from. Maybe despite surpassing his limits, he had still kept enough power in reserve to accelerate the healing.

“It’s all back to normal after everything that happened. It almost feels unreal...” Aiko looked around in disbelief as they walked through the school gate.

The events Kanako and Makina had set in motion had sent a shockwave through the whole school. Yet, the impact didn’t seem to have lasted at all. They’d been given Tuesday off, but now that the school was back to normal, it was as if nothing had happened. About the only people affected were the clubs that used the gym, who couldn’t use it again until repairs were complete.

The incidents of the day before had been written off as a prank played by the students who’d stayed at the school because of the fog. The chaos had continued late into the night, but when the teachers — who had been in a deep sleep for some reason — woke up, they had gotten everything under control. They obviously couldn’t have just held classes the next day as if nothing had happened, so the students had been given the day off; however, with no lasting issues in sight, they’d been told they’d resume normal classes on Wednesday.

“It seems like not many people even remember what happened,” Yuichi commented. Very few people seemed to remember how the other world had begun to merge with theirs, or that they had been forced to play that bizarre game. The ones that did remember couldn’t prove it, so they just gradually stopped talking about it.

“This is the world’s ability to normalize itself!” Mutsuko announced, looking somewhat surprised and somewhat gleeful.

According to Monika, this had really been a small-scale incident in the grand scheme of things. Outers sometimes triggered huge disasters in which thousands of people died.

But even in those cases, since most of humanity shared the same worldview, they usually just wrote it off as something more “plausible,” like a large earthquake or a hurricane.

Which meant that Outers had caused the deaths of thousands many times before, all for the purpose of their own amusement.

I talked pretty big, saying I’d pound them all into the dirt, but I don’t know how to do it, Yuichi thought.

For now, he’d just have to help Monika collect the Divine Vessels. It seemed like there were quite a few Outers involved in that war, after all.

“What’s with the foreboding expression?” Aiko asked with a frown.

“Huh? Do I have one? Sorry...” Yuichi said. He hadn’t realized he’d been scowling, but he apologized anyway. His anger towards the Outers must have been showing on his face.

They arrived in the classroom, and after a while, the substitute teacher showed up. The man said that Makina hadn’t arrived yet.

Yuichi figured she probably wouldn’t come back. She likely had no more use for the school.

Class proceeded as normal. After class, Natsuki approached Yuichi’s desk.

“Club?” he asked.

“Yes, but would you accompany me for training afterwards?” she asked.

“Oh? The occasional morning visit isn’t enough for you?”

“If I don’t do something, I’ll end up the same way the next time this happens.” Natsuki sounded strangely sulky. She must have felt sensitive about being swatted aside so easily by Makina.

“Hmm, I don’t know how I feel about you getting too strong...” Yuichi murmured, feeling hesitant about the idea of making a serial killer stronger. “But okay.”

He decided to trust Natsuki. She had laid low with the serial killing since she’d started sparring with him, and he couldn’t remain suspicious of her forever.

As they were talking, Aiko arrived, and the three of them headed off for club together.

“I wonder why we’re all just sitting here, doing nothing,” Yuichi muttered impatiently as he sat in the club room, bored to death.

“I guess because we don’t have a topic yet,” Aiko offered. Since the club was Mutsuko’s, they couldn’t do anything without her there.

Natsuki had a surgical tool catalog open and was poring through it with great interest.

“...going off on your own path?” Yuichi asked her.

“What’s your opinion on disposable-tip scalpels?” Natsuki asked, casually.

“Am I supposed to have an opinion on disposable-tip scalpels?” Yuichi didn’t even know such a thing existed before now.

“Personally, I think there’s no need to be fixated on scalpels!” The door burst open, and Mutsuko strode in. “If any blade will do, how about some sabers? C’mon, Yu wanted them earlier, so I prepared a few sets!”

Mutsuko marched up to the whiteboard and plonked the large bag she was holding onto the table.

“I didn’t want them,” Yuichi said quickly. “I’m never going to wear those things.”

“Aw, but you wanted them earlier!” Mutsuko cried.

“If you’d had them then, I would have used them! I don’t actually want them!”

“C’mon! Behold, the dull shine of this blade!” Mutsuko unleashed the saber attached to her forearm, causing the blade to extend along her arm with a clink. It could have been a toy, except the blade in use gave off a cold, sharp glint. “I remodeled it from last time! By adjusting the angle of the edge, I’ve given it 30% more cutting power!”

“So? Do the remodels give you the ability to sheath the blade once it’s out?” Yuichi looked at Mutsuko, eyes as cold as ice.

“Nice one, Yu... you hit me right where it hurts,” Mutsuko confessed. “True, that’s the saber’s lone weakness... but objecting to every little thing makes you sound like a brother-in-law, you know! You should be a man and not sweat the little details!”

“It’s not a little detail! And if that’s its weakness, you shouldn’t unsheathe it that casually!”

“Fine! If you insist, I’ll make it retractable!” Mutsuko said with a pout.

Once that conversation seemed to be settled, Yuichi turned his eyes towards the entrance of the room, where he had sensed someone watching them for a while. It was Kanako, who was peeking in at them through the wide-open door.

“What’s wrong, Orihara?” he asked.

“Um... I’m not sure if I’m welcome...”

“Come on in. We don’t mind.” It was perhaps presumptuous for Yuichi to speak for them all, but he couldn’t imagine why any of them would mind.

Kanako stepped in, apologetically. With all that had happened, it was only natural that she’d be self-conscious, but he hoped that that would resolve in time.

Maybe it would happen if they just interacted like normal. Yuichi looked at Kanako again, then did a double take.

“Love Interest III” was now the label above Kanako’s head.

That made her the third one, after Aiko and Natsuki. Yuichi didn’t understand why this was happening.

Kanako timidly entered the room and sat down next to Yuichi. “Yuichi, I’m sorry about before. Do you want to go out again sometime? To, um, finish what we started...”

Aiko’s eyes went wide, and Yuichi watched as she bolted to her feet. “C-Could I come with you? It’s just for research, right? There’s no reason you have to be alone, right?!”

“Noro, I’m sorry. It’s date research, so we really need our space...” Kanako hugged Yuichi’s arm, pressing her generous breasts showily up against it.

“A d-d-d-date?! Th-Then I’ll go on a date with Sakaki, and you can watch what we do! Yeah, that’s for the best! That lets you get objective research done!” Aiko cried.

“Noro... what are you talking about?” Yuichi asked, baffled.

“Noro, I really am sorry,” Kanako said. “I’m more interested in subjective research.”

Her response seemed to paralyze Aiko.

“Sakaki, there’s a medical tool trade fair called Medix coming up. Do you want to go with me?” Natsuki asked. Even she seemed to be joining in now.

“Takeuchi... you’re really still thinking about scalpels?” Yuichi asked.

“Ah! As your big sister, I’m not sure how I feel about you becoming a playboy, Yu!” Mutsuko declared.

As annoyed as Yuichi was about all of this, he was soon to find out that this was only the beginning.

He had no idea that even more annoying potential love interests were still waiting in the wings.