After enjoying himself alone in Club for quite some time, Yuta packed up his things and left the Club Activities room.
To prevent anyone from passing by and curiously entering during the School Festival, Yuta needed to lock the door.
Just as Yuta was about to pull out his keys, he heard a voice full of tenderness and sorrow call out to him from nearby.
"Excuse me, is there a girl named Takanashi Rikka here?"
That one sentence brought Yuta, who was still reminiscing about the lingering warmth on his fingertips, back to the present.
Yuta subconsciously scrutinized the woman in front of him; she had black hair like the Takanashi sisters and the same blue-green eyes as Rikka.
There was no doubt; it was unnecessary to say who this woman was.
Facing his future mother-in-law, Yuta felt a bit guilty; he was Rikka's boyfriend, so he was naturally guilty.
"She's... not here right now..."
"Is that so..."
Mrs. Takanashi merely smiled slightly upon hearing this, a deep sorrow barely concealed within her smile.
Then, she extended a beautifully wrapped small bag to Yuta with both hands, "Then... could you please help me give this to her?"
"Um..."
Yuta immediately recognized that it contained a bento box.
He really wanted to tell Mrs. Takanashi to give it to Rikka herself, as Rikka would surely be very happy, but Mrs. Takanashi probably saw through Yuta's thoughts and, with a bitter smile, continued to offer the bento in her hand to Yuta.
"It's alright... I'll be leaving soon, and I suppose she still doesn't want to see me right now..."
Upon hearing this, Yuta dazedly accepted the bento.
Seeing Yuta take the bento, Mrs. Takanashi seemed satisfied; she bowed slightly to Yuta and then turned to leave.
Yuta wanted to call out to her, and he also wanted to return the bento to her and tell her to find Rikka herself to have a good talk, as Rikka would surely be very happy.
But after countless times of wanting to speak but holding back, he realized what he truly should do now.
Holding the bento box in his hands, Yuta went to the sports field and sat under the school's ginkgo tree, which was already full of autumn yellow leaves, silently lowering his head.
At this moment, he felt the bento box in his hand, which was already slightly cool, yet he could sense a trace of warmth emanating from this small bento box, as well as an immense heaviness, so heavy that he almost couldn't hold it.
The wind rustled through the treetops, and golden leaves fluttered down, like dead butterflies, falling powerlessly to the ground.
He needed to make a decision.
For Rikka, for himself, and even more so for Rikka's mother...
Yuta, sitting under the ginkgo tree, watched Nibutani, Rikka, and the others discover him and gradually approach.
He was ready, ready to make Rikka face reality.
Nibutani and the others came before him, telling him it was time to go on stage, that many people had arrived, and to cheer on this and that.
In Yuta's ears, he heard nothing; rather, these noisy words reminded him even more of Toka's immensely heavy entrustment from last night, and the cruelty of reality he had witnessed.
"Rikka... take off your eye patch."
The sudden words plunged everyone into silence.
"Yuta, do you want to see the Evil King's True Eye? No, you can't, if it's not activated during battle..."
"Rikka, you've had enough!"
Rikka, who had initially thought Yuta still wanted a small reward, had actually intended to lift her eye patch to let Yuta see, after all, it was Yuta.
But in the next second, Yuta let out a loud roar, startling Rikka.
"Yuta... what are you doing..."
"Rikka... can you please try to be more normal? The Evil King's True Eye, the invisible boundary line, they don't exist at all!"
Rikka fell silent, and Nibutani and Koushou beside her also fell silent.
Even Fang Wuwei stopped speaking.
He looked at the bento box in Yuta's hand and already understood what had just happened.
He had no intention of stopping it; letting Rikka realize the cruelty of reality first might not be a bad thing, so his choice was to keep quiet.
The autumn wind blew in gusts, and only the rustling of leaves remained in the world.
"Yu... Yuta, what are you saying..."
"I said! Rikka, stop being a chuunibyou! The Evil King's True Eye, the invisible boundary line, everything you pursue, whatever it may be, how could it possibly exist?!"
Yuta suddenly stood up and grabbed Rikka's arm, enduring the heartache in his chest as he roared, forcing Rikka to accept reality.
"Accept reality, Rikka, no matter how much you search, no matter how hard you try, things that don't exist simply don't exist.
You understand that yourself, don't you?!"
"No! That's not right! You... you're not Yuta!"
Rikka never expected Yuta to treat her this way.
With her long-standing chuunibyou mindset, she believed that the Yuta in front of her must be an imposter.
But in truth, she understood that the Yuta before her was truly real.
Why would Yuta be like this...
Her voice had begun to tremble; the person who had always been by her side, who had always supported her, was now... denying everything about her.
"Hey, hey... Togashi-kun, you..."
Nibutani, seeing the bad turn of events, thought, if the young couple was like this on their first day of dating, what would the future hold?
Just as she was about to step forward to mediate, a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
She turned her head and saw Fang Wuwei shaking his head at her.
"This is their business... Besides, there's nothing bad about it, is there?"
Nibutani was momentarily stunned by the question.
As a retired chuunibyou, she naturally understood that since chuunibyou could be called a "disease," it would inevitably affect one's life.
Given that... it seemed there really was nothing bad about it.
While Nibutani was stopped by Fang Wuwei, the matter between Yuta and Rikka was far from over.
Yuta held Rikka's hand, forcing her to recognize reality, to understand the cruelty of reality, to understand that fantasy was ultimately just a beautiful bubble, no matter how beautiful or pretty, it would burst with a single poke and simply did not exist.
"You say your Evil King's True Eye is so powerful, can you really destroy heaven and earth? You say you want to find the invisible boundary line, can you really find it?!
Rikka, you understand, don't you, that these things simply don't exist!
What's so bad about reality, what's so bad about recognizing and accepting reality!
You still have your sister and mother who love you!"
"I'm not listening! I'm not listening! Yuta, you must have been misled!!!"
Rikka felt that the Yuta in front of her was incredibly strange, yet also familiar... just like her sister, the Saint Healer, so heartless...
But she loved Yuta dearly; she was unwilling to believe that Yuta, who had always accompanied her, would do such a thing.
She preferred to believe that Yuta was just acting impulsively, so she snatched her arm from Yuta's hand and covered her ears with both hands, unwilling to listen to Yuta's words anymore.
But Yuta's next action completely broke her defenses.
Seeing Rikka cover her ears, and knowing that verbal attacks were no longer effective, Yuta took out the bento box made by Takanashi's mother and put it into Rikka's arms.
Rikka subconsciously loosened her hands and caught the bento in her arms.
Just as she was confused, Yuta's voice came again...
"Rikka, this is a bento your mother carefully prepared for you!!"
Rikka's mind instantly buzzed... Mother...?
Seeing Rikka suddenly calm down, Yuta also calmed down, but his resolve remained unchanged.
He just spoke to Rikka, sentence by sentence, in a gentler tone...
"Your mother just came to find me... She's a very gentle person.
She found me and asked me to give this bento to you... Do you know, you've deeply hurt your mother, and now she doesn't dare to see you.
She's afraid you still don't want to see her..."
Mother...
That figure, that gentle figure, appeared in Rikka's mind.
"Rikka... Toka might not have told you, but Toka is going abroad very, very soon, to study at the main branch in Italy and won't be able to stay with you anymore, so... your mother will come to live with you in her place..."
To make Rikka understand reality, Yuta revealed this news.
He wanted Rikka to understand that she was no longer alone now; besides herself, there was someone else who had to be responsible for her.
Rikka fell silent... Tears welled up in her eyes, and she no longer argued.
Nibutani and Koushou exchanged glances, both with eyes full of sorrow.
Only Fang Wuwei, at this moment, was thinking that perhaps in a while, he should visit the Takanashi old home and see the long-deceased Takanashi father again.