The day after the First Taketsuru Otherworld Survival Strategy Meeting—
Meiko and I were currently hiding at a distance, secretly observing Taketsuru.
At the moment, he was sitting alone on a bench beside the pond in Heidan University’s central courtyard.
It was lunchtime once again, right after second period had ended.
Usually, Taketsuru would come eat with me at the cafeteria.
But today, he had casually said he “had something to do” and split off on his own.
That was when Meiko suddenly appeared, grabbed me by the arm, and insisted we follow him.
And thus, we had ended up here.
──────
“Taketsuru Yuu”
48 hours, 12 minutes, 40 seconds remaining until summoning to another world.
※ At this rate, he’ll die due to complications involving women.
※ Despite appearances, he’s an incredibly devoted man.
──────
And as for why Meiko and I were currently crouched behind cover like suspicious stalkers—
…Actually, why were we doing this?
Once we had followed him this far, I had naturally intended to walk up and talk to him directly.
However, Meiko had stopped me by insisting, “Hiding at times like this is the normal thing to do.”
If we wanted to know why he came to the courtyard, couldn’t we’ve just asked him normally?
Then, right in front of our covert hiding spot, Taketsuru suddenly looked up.
A woman had just appeared within his line of sight.
The two exchanged greetings, and immediately began chatting with the kind of casual familiarity that only came from years of knowing each other.
“Yo, Yuu-kun. Doing good?”
“Yeah. Glad to see you’re doing well too, Sumire-neesan. Looks like you’ve actually been eating properly.”
“Ahaha! I’m not old enough to be worried about like that, brat. You’re getting cheeky.”
The one laughing and talking with Taketsuru was a beautiful short-haired woman who looked slightly older than us.
A master’s student? Or maybe a doctoral candidate?
She looked to be somewhere around her mid-twenties.
Hallucination.
Do your job.
──────
“Niwashita Sumire”
Age: 23
Year: First-year master’s student
Favorite phrase: “Overthrowing one’s superiors”
──────
That last piece of information really wasn’t necessary.
Well, I supposed it couldn’t be helped.
It was a hallucination, after all. Expecting subtlety from it was probably too much.
While I was quietly lamenting the hallucination’s bizarre priorities, Meiko muttered beside me in an even more detailed voice.
“Niwashita Sumire. Twenty-three years old. First-year master’s student. She’s Taketsuru-kun’s older childhood friend and also his first love. More importantly, he’s basically been in love with her continuously ever since they were kids. On the other hand, Niwashita-san seems to see him as little more than a younger brother. Apparently she recently broke up with a boyfriend she’d been dating for two years because they clashed over future career plans. Birthday’s November fifth. Blood type AB. Favorite phrase: ‘Overthrowing one’s superiors.’”
If there existed a human being more informative than the hallucination itself, then what exactly was the purpose of the hallucination anymore?
Yeah.
This thing was definitely unnecessary.
Most of the time it was just intrusive, inconvenient, and profoundly abnormal.
If I compared the pros and cons objectively, the cons overwhelmingly outweighed the benefits.
And just as I began seriously considering the “Hallucination Abolishment Theory,” the hallucination suddenly flared up again as if desperately trying to prove its usefulness.
──────
“Niwashita Sumire”
Favorite scenario: Older girl × younger boy pure romance
──────
Again.
I really didn’t need that information.
Meanwhile, Niwashita-san—who, according to the hallucination, loved pure romances between older women and younger boys—had just opened her lunchbox beside Taketsuru’s—
and then immediately darted her chopsticks toward his food.
“Stealing one of your fried chicken pieces, Yuu-kun!”
“Ah! Sumire-neesan! The hell!?”
“Hehe. Delicious.”
Completely unaware that Meiko and I were spying on them from afar, the two chatted cheerfully while eating together.
Apparently, they had both prepared lunches specifically so they could eat together today.
They even stole side dishes from each other’s bentos.
Honestly, they looked absurdly happy.
“So,” I whispered quietly, “what exactly is the point of this spying operation, Meiko?”
“We’re figuring out whether Niwashita-san is really connected to Taketsuru-kun’s future death.”
“You can determine that just by watching?”
To me, all I saw was a guy and a girl happily sharing lunch together.
But perhaps Meiko—
with her terrifyingly sharp insight—
could see something deeper.
“When someone dies because of romantic complications, there are a lot of possible patterns,” she explained seriously. “For starters, there’s the possibility that Niwashita-san gets dragged into the otherworld transfer too, right? So we need to properly analyze their relationship. Then we can prepare countermeasures for both possibilities: the version where she gets involved, and the version where she doesn’t.”
She crossed her arms proudly.
“This is for your sake too, Gouto-kun. So this absolutely isn’t voyeuristic spying as a hobby.”
For some reason, Meiko seemed strangely motivated to solve the entire Taketsuru Otherworld Problem using her own intelligence-gathering abilities.
As expected of her overwhelming perceptiveness.
With Meiko involved, the Taketsuru Otherworld Crisis really did feel solvable.
A childhood friend far more reliable than any hallucination—
that was Nekoyanagi Meiko.
Seriously, this hallucination was becoming increasingly unnecessary.
And perhaps because it sensed my growing disrespect, the hallucination suddenly erupted again in a frenzy of text.
──────
“Taketsuru Yuu”
48 hours, 09 minutes, 11 seconds remaining until summoning to another world.
His cause of death will stem from romantic conflict.
However, the fundamental root of that conflict is his unresolved feelings for “Niwashita Sumire.”
Two days from now, he’ll be transported to another world while possessing a modest amount of otherworld knowledge.
There, he’ll personally experience the kindness of many people, the cruelty of that world, and the brutality of battle itself.
At the same time, he’ll receive affection from multiple women.
However—
even after receiving the love of numerous women, the feelings that continue to remain within his heart are his lingering love for Niwashita Sumire.
He already understands that Niwashita Sumire doesn’t view him romantically.
That’s why he never confessed his feelings to her.
And somewhere in his heart, he had already resigned himself to the belief that they would never end up together.
Thus, without ever expressing his feelings to her, he’s transported away.
In that new world, he gradually forms emotional bonds with several women.
Yet no matter how sincerely he tries to face them, he can never completely erase Niwashita Sumire from his heart.
And that lingering attachment gradually awakens jealousy within the women who believed they had connected their hearts to his.
After defeating the Demon King—
will he abandon them all and return to Niwashita Sumire?
Did he never truly intend to remain in this world?
Were the promises he spoke that day ultimately lies after all?
Those doubts continue to grow without limit.
And eventually—
after Taketsuru Yuu defeats the Demon King and lowers his guard—
madness drives a blade into his back.
“Even if you’ll never belong to me… I don’t want you belonging to anyone else.”
BAD END 4
“If we can’t have you, then we’ll kill you… and die with you.”
──────
“So apparently that’s the situation.”
“At this point it’s less Appraisal and more like an official setting document or something…” Meiko muttered. “Also, the fact it says END 4 means he apparently avoided three other death routes already.”
Perhaps because I had called it unnecessary, the hallucination now seemed desperately committed to proving its own usefulness.
It was like a clingy lover sending walls of text the instant you tried to break up with them.
Not that I’d ever experienced something like that personally.
Though Meiko claimed it was “surprisingly common.”
Well, whatever.
The important information had become clear.
“So basically,” I summarized, “Taketsuru is going to spend these next two days doing absolutely nothing about his feelings, then suddenly get transported to another world before he realizes it. After that, he’ll accidentally assemble a perfectly functional harem.”
“Apparently, yeah.”
“And then after agonizing over never confessing properly, he gets stabbed in the back by his harem members and dies.”
“For now, maybe we should just tell him to keep watching his back after defeating the Demon King.”
That was enough information for me.
I abruptly stopped hiding, thrust myself out from cover, and shouted toward Taketsuru at full volume.
“I’M DISAPPOINTED IN YOU, Taketsuru!!!”
“Wha—!? Gouto-kun, what are you DOING!?” Meiko shrieked in panic.
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