Emiya smiled. "Don't worry about it. It's no trouble at all. It's settled. I'll come pick you up in a few days."
Without giving Takashi Natsume any chance to refuse, he left together with Erina Nakiri and Hisako Arato.
The next second, the three of them returned to the Food Wars! world. The landing point was exactly where Emiya expected it to be.
Erina Nakiri's room.
That confirmed his guess.
If he left a world from a specific location, he would reenter that world at the same spot. It wasn't some fixed bathroom or bathtub rule.
That realization put him at ease.
"Alright," Emiya said. "You two should rest as well. I'll bring Takashi over on the fourth day for breakfast. Remember to leave us a back door."
Erina Nakiri patted her chest. "Don't worry. I'll handle it."
Emiya paused, then added, "It might not just be Takashi and Nyanko-sensei. There could be others."
Erina immediately understood. A hint of envy crept into her voice. "You mean... you're going to another world again?"
He nodded. "I don't really have anything else to do."
Erina thought about it and felt even more envious. "Your life really is exciting."
Emiya didn't deny it.
Before gaining his superpower, he'd thought his ordinary life running a convenience store was fine. It was simple. A little dull, maybe, but comfortable.
After gaining his power, that feeling changed.
Traveling between different worlds wasn't bad at all.
He was already starting to look forward to the next journey.
Human nature worked that way. It never stayed the same.
After saying goodbye to Erina Nakiri and Hisako Arato, Emiya didn't return to his own world. Instead, he wrapped himself in his Psychic Ball and went straight to a new one.
As before, his vision flashed.
Then he arrived.
Unfortunately, the landing spot was still a bathroom.
A Japanese-style bathroom.
Emiya stared at his surroundings, feeling conflicted. What exactly was wrong with his ability? Out of three trips, he'd landed in a bathroom twice.
Did he have some kind of fate with bathrooms?
If this kept up, he was going to get into real trouble sooner or later.
What made it worse was that there was a short-haired girl inside, just about to take off her clothes.
She froze, staring at Emiya with wide eyes, mouth open, clearly on the verge of screaming.
Emiya instinctively prepared to use his Psychic Hand to cover her mouth.
Before he could act, the girl sprinted toward him like she was running a hundred-meter dash and grabbed his shoulder.
She was instantly bounced away by the Psychic Ball.
Even so, she didn't show any fear.
Her eyes shone with a bright, almost dazzling light.
"An alien?"
Emiya froze, then shook his head.
"A person from the future?"
He shook his head again.
"A psychic."
This time, he nodded.
He was a psychic. That part was correct.
But what was wrong with this girl?
She wasn't scared at all. Any normal girl would have panicked if a stranger suddenly appeared in her bathroom.
So she wasn't normal.
Emiya's guard went up as he looked her over.
The girl stood confidently in front of him and said something that caught him completely off guard.
"Please be my boyfriend."
"...Huh?"
Emiya was stunned.
Girl, you have problems.
Who confesses like this? That wasn't how love at first sight worked.
He immediately raised a hand. "Hold on. Let's calm down first. At the very least, we should introduce ourselves."
"My name is Emiya. As you can see, I'm a psychic. And I'm from another world."
"Oh, another world?" the girl said brightly. "I'm Haruhi Suzumiya, a first-year at North High School."
"Haruhi Suzumiya..."
Emiya paused, then understood.
No wonder.
He knew about her. During junior high, she'd gone through a phase of constantly changing boyfriends.
She accepted almost every confession. The longest relationship lasted a week. The shortest ended in five minutes.
The breakup reason was always the same.
"I don't have time to date ordinary people."
And this girl was obsessed with aliens, time travelers, and psychics.
"Oh?" Haruhi stroked her chin when she noticed his reaction. "You know me? Am I so famous that even people from other worlds have heard of me?"
Emiya smiled wryly and nodded. "In a sense, yes."
"Huh? Why?" Haruhi asked.
"Why what?"
"Why would someone from another world know about me?" she pressed. "I've always thought I was special. But to my parents, and to everyone else, I'm just a strange, self-centered girl. I shouldn't be any different from an ordinary person. So why would someone from another world know me?"
"So you're self-aware," Emiya said.
"Don't treat me like an idiot," Haruhi replied. "You still haven't answered my question."
"It's a long story."
"Then make it short."
"Come with me."
Emiya snapped his fingers.
In the next instant, he brought Haruhi Suzumiya back to his house.
Her vision flashed, and she found herself in an unfamiliar room. She walked to the window and looked outside.
Blue sky. White clouds.
If she remembered correctly, it should still be night in her world.
That meant-
"Another world?"
"To be precise," Emiya said, "this is my world."
He turned on the TV, found The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and pressed play.
It was an older anime. He didn't have the manga or novels, so the anime was all he could show her.
Haruhi wasn't shy. She sat on the sofa, crossed her legs, and watched intently.
Emiya sat beside her, feeling like he was revisiting part of his childhood.
After a few episodes, Haruhi seemed to grasp something.
She turned to him.
"I get it now," she said. "So I'm just a character in an anime, right?"