As the setting sun slowly descended, Yuta, Nibutani, and Fang Wuwei arrived at the Club Activities room to begin the final cleanup.
A new association had already booked this room, so they had to clean it up today. Isshiki Makoto had gone to pester Koushou, Totsuka was nowhere to be seen, and Ikenouchi Maki... it was said that her master had assigned her many training tasks, and she had just left with a tear-streaked face.
It took a long time to clean up. Looking at the tidy and empty activity room, Yuta felt a surge of emotion... It was just gone, like that.
Empty shelves, an empty room, and his empty heart.
"Forget it... If I think about it carefully, it seems we didn't really have any Club Activities anyway."
"Yeah, besides the flash mob, this was just a fan club after all..."
Watching the setting sun, Yuta and Fang Wuwei were quite emotional. Although Club was established for such an absurd reason, and even Fang Wuwei had joined in a daze, it was undeniable that there were too many beautiful memories worth cherishing here.
Fang Wuwei leaned by the window, watching the afterglow of the setting sun spread across the earth, and asked Yuta,
"Yuta, do you plan to join any other association?"
"Me? ...Me? Maybe, yes... What about you? The Kendo Club?"
"That's hilarious, those guys now walk around me when they see me... Besides, I plan to start my own association..."
"Oh, good luck with that."
Yuta instantly lost interest and turned the conversation to Fang Wuwei.
"What about you, how's the drama club?"
"Hmm? Hmm... I went to take a look, at least. But... the president there is a very passionate senior.
He keeps saying things like, 'Let's create something only we can create,' or 'This is the possibility of a new era!' It's a headache."
"Ah... there are people like that."
Yuta thought Fang Wuwei disliked such people, so he echoed her complaint.
"No, I don't dislike passion, but even though I don't dislike it, when I hear such words, I still think, [Wow, that's Chunibyo]."
This sentence caught the attention of the present Yuta...
"Is that considered Chunibyo?"
Hearing this, Fang Wuwei looked out the window. Someone was hiding alone outside reading a book, someone was walking normally but suddenly turned around to look behind them, and someone else was just chatting ordinarily, but no one knew what they were actually talking about.
"Although... it might be different from Chunibyo. How should I put it, it's like being tightly bound by the idea of [I am different from others, but only I have realized it, so I am special]..."
Don't you think, Togashi, haven't you and I both graduated from Chunibyo? And then we thought, [I want to be an ordinary high school student in high school], and that's how we became who we are now?"
"That's true..."
"But then, isn't that just us living up to our own imagined image of an [ordinary high school student], and then being tightly bound by that idea again?"
Yuta understood. Fang Wuwei had told him something similar a few days ago, very, very similar.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"...No, nothing. I just think that, in the end, people are always afflicted with a certain illness."
......
"Yuta... I'll ask you again, what is Chunibyo?"
As everyone fell silent, Fang Wuwei, who had been leaning by the window, questioned Yuta. The present Yuta was still too confused.
"I asked you this question before, haven't you understood yet?"
Yuta remained silent, shaking his head...
"Yuta, everyone says things like, 'Chunibyo, how embarrassing,' hoping never to recall that past, never to think of it again.
But even if you seal away that memory, will that strange self from back then just disappear? Will the self who always fantasized about being watched, the self who set a role for himself and completely immersed himself in it, truly cease to exist...?"
Fang Wuwei shook his head, and Yuta followed suit.
"People sometimes boast, dreaming of a world that suddenly changes, dreaming of becoming the only powerful person in the world, even going so far as to search for these works everywhere, fantasizing everywhere, and incorporating them into their reality, imagining a distant future in their minds, imagining stories that could never exist happening to them...
It never stops. No matter how mature or worldly a person becomes, they will always have such thoughts, won't they? Yuta, just be honest. You keep saying you've graduated from Chunibyo, but are you really not Chunibyo anymore? Do you no longer acknowledge yourself?"
Yuta couldn't refute this, and neither could Fang Wuwei... When they watch movies or TV shows now, or read magazines, or even see cool things in reality, they'll imagine in their minds, 'If only I had these abilities or things.' Or, they'll imagine themselves as unique existences in this world, that the world wouldn't turn without them, how important and powerful they are... But they are just ordinary high school students, just ordinary people. Without them, the Earth would still spin.
...Although the Earth actually wouldn't spin without them, they don't know that.
This is a process of self-cognition.
"...Yuta, do you understand now? This is the illness called 'excessive self-consciousness' that constantly erupts, continuously grows within a person's heart from birth to death, and even if it shatters countless times, it will constantly recur and can never be completely cured. It's a bit sad, a bit shy, but also very cute.
Having this so-called illness means you acknowledge yourself, you understand how important you are, you understand your worth... This is a life called [Self] that no one can avoid..."
Fang Wuwei's voice was extremely infectious, making Yuta's heart throb.
"Yuta... People are Chunibyo their whole lives, Yuta."
Fang Wuwei looked at Yuta and shook his head. Fang Wuwei, standing nearby, also sighed softly.
"This isn't a profound question, Togashi-kun, you're just too naive... I'm leaving first."
"I'm leaving too, you take your time thinking."
Fang Wuwei and Fang Wuwei left together, leaving Yuta alone in the empty activity room, staring directly at the setting sun outside. He suddenly closed his eyes and could see a huge dark spot...
............
"I say, telling Togashi-kun so much all of a sudden, can he handle it?"
"Don't worry, Yuta isn't someone who's easily defeated. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to be Chunibyo. I estimate he'll be chasing his wife a thousand miles tonight."
"Woah, chasing his wife..."
The two walked side by side through the school and suddenly passed a beautiful girl with super long blonde hair whom Fang Wuwei had never seen before, making her take another look.
After they brushed past her, Fang Wuwei still felt, 'Why does she look a bit familiar...'
Totsuka, seeing Fang Wuwei and Fang Wuwei together, looking somewhat 'sweet,' suddenly felt a surge of stifled anger and an uncomfortable sensation from somewhere, making her chest feel heavy...
Totsuka was not someone who was good at enduring. Unable to contain her anger, she immediately punched Fang Wuwei in the back of the head.
"! Junior high school brat!!"