The morning after the simulation ended.
Toru woke up from a deep sleep and took out the phone he had received as a reward yesterday.
The model was quite old-fashioned, a keypad phone from more than ten years ago, or rather, a phone for seniors.
"Was Rei afraid that Dad is getting old and wouldn't know how to use a smartphone?"
Toru felt strangely conflicted.
He was not old enough to get Alzheimer's yet.
"The password, I remember it's 0714…"
After entering the birthday and unlocking it.
The screen background was a photo of him and Kitahara Rei together.
She looked to be about six years old.
It made him a little nostalgic.
In reality, only a few hours had passed, but in the simulation he had lived and studied for a hundred years.
The last time he saw a photo of his daughter as a child, a very long time had already passed in between.
The phone did not have many functions.
Aside from recording, time announcements, and on the screen, there was only one email.
Even the most important phone function, calling, did not exist.
However.
Toru was certain that as long as he sent an email, this simple time machine would take him to another timeline.
Besides that.
He also noticed a small detail.
This phone did not display battery level.
That meant one thing.
The battery inside it most likely used controllable nuclear fusion technology.
A top-tier application from the simulated timeline, at least a hundred years in the future, before the Third World War.
Toru was not feeling suicidal.
He turned the phone off and put it into the storage locker.
After washing up, he put on warm clothes and got ready to go to school.
Even though Toru had dominated the world in the simulation, commanding storms and shaping history.
In reality, he still had to go to school.
Mainly because staying home alone was pretty boring.
He would rather go to school and tease Bocchi-chan for fun.
————
During the noon break.
"Kitahara-kun, here, your bento…"
Gotoh Hitori cautiously came to Toru's seat and handed him the bento she was holding.
Bringing bento lunches was something Bocchi-chan was already very used to, but today she was unexpectedly a little clumsy.
The reason was simple.
'After so many simulations, Kitahara-kun must already know I'm a filthy girl.'
Ever since she realized the truth about the simulator last night, the sense of shame had spread like the Big Bang, rapidly expanding and filling her weak, pitiful heart.
Bocchi-chan worried about this the entire night, and her dark circles became even worse.
"Thanks. By the way, is the money I gave you for meals last time still enough?"
Toru smiled as he took the pink bento box.
"It's still enough."
"Ryo-chan didn't borrow money from you? She usually loves bullying you the most."
"N-no." Bocchi-chan shook her head vigorously.
"Really? You're not lying to me?"
"Ryo-san seems like she's not short on money lately."
While opening the bento box, Toru muttered to himself inwardly.
That's strange. Hitori didn't get extorted by Ryo. What on earth happened in this world?
Did I end up on another timeline?
Toru gestured for Hitori to sit beside him and eat together.
The two of them were often stuck together, and everyone in the class was already used to it.
Although they did not know why Toru would take a liking to the plain, hunched-over, poorly built, dark-circled, bangs-covering-the-eyes Gotoh Hitori, who had a whole pile of flaws.
Still, the girls had some self-awareness.
Who Toru liked was his own freedom.
Besides.
Rather than letting the male idol get close to a beautiful girl, it was better to let him rot in Bocchi-chan's arms.
After all, Gotoh Hitori did not seem threatening at all.
In the class, Bocchi-chan was far from the only girl who regarded Toru as a white moonlight in her heart.
The reason they could tolerate her sticking to Toru every day was probably because…
This child was harmless to both humans and animals, not someone who looked capable of capturing their male idol.
"Hitori, speaking of which, has Kessoku Band decided on the demo for the song to submit to the music festival?"
Halfway through the meal, Toru suddenly asked.
He recalled details from the simulation. Around this time, Ryo-chan should have been slacking off at home.
Inspiration was a mysterious thing.
"N-not yet."
Gotoh Hitori also recalled some things.
But there were slight differences between reality and the simulation.
Kitahara-kun had not yet become their manager.
Should she ask for his opinion?
After thinking for a few seconds, Bocchi-chan threw that thought away. She did not have enough courage to make decisions on behalf of everyone in the band.
————
Their guesses were not wrong.
Yamada Ryo had taken the day off today. The [Undetermined Riot] music festival was Kessoku Band's first time stepping onto a major stage.
The scale was far greater than the live they had participated in during Christmas. Thousands of people would gather at the preliminary venue.
When officially performing, there could even be tens of thousands.
Inside a café in the afternoon.
Miss Ryo sat in a corner seat, feeling somewhat melancholic.
Through the simulation, she had copied more than twenty songs, all masterpieces created by another version of herself in the simulation, but they could not be used directly.
It would be discovered as abnormal.
At this stage, Yamada Ryo was not prepared to expose the fact that she possessed a simulator.
A trump card kept at the bottom of the box could not be used lightly.
If possible, Miss Ryo wanted to rely on her own ability to win over Toru, rather than cheating.
If it really came down to it, she would use the simulator to turn things around.
Suddenly.
Somewhat noisy voices nearby caught her attention.
"Renka… think about it, why would I lie to you? I really did obtain a cheat ability like in novels. Look at my eyes, they're red, right? That's the symbol of a vampire, and these little fangs too."
'Vampire?' Yamada Ryo glanced sideways slightly.
She wanted to know just how chuunibyou someone had to be to say something like that.
Hm?
Unexpectedly pretty.
The girl speaking had a pair of clear silver-white twin tails and was wearing the uniform of a nearby private girls' school. Her face was delicate and cute, her height about that of a middle schooler. Lolicons would probably like her.
Sitting opposite her was a girl with black stockings flowing like a waterfall, dressed in a luxurious kimono. At first glance, she gave off the impression of a traditional Yamato Nadeshiko, and also somewhat resembled a Hina doll.
A Western doll plus a Japanese doll, East meets West, the overall style was oddly strange.
"They're not colored contacts? And… you already had little fangs to begin with, didn't you?" Renka tilted her head as she asked, her tone unhurried.
"Ah, I've already explained it so many times, they're not colored contacts." Kagarino Kirie puffed out her cheeks.
She came today to resolve the issue with the simulator, not to bicker.
Ever since the last activation, the simulator had not responded for several months.
It said it was still waiting for its cooldown.
She was almost bored to death.
"Even if you say that, what am I supposed to do about it?"
You say something like that, who would understand?
Renka had specially taken a day off today, and yet her good friend only wanted to ask about this silly problem.
"I've run out of inspiration. I need to use it for material."
"The novel you wrote last time, did it end?"
"Yeah. Three volumes in total. Sales were okay, I guess."
After Kirie finished speaking, she shook her head and looked straight into the other girl's eyes. "Renka, what I want to talk about isn't light novel stuff."
She got dragged into her rhythm again.
Renka was very good at changing the topic.
"The simulator you mentioned, could it be unusable because of a certain person?"
Renka thought aloud.
"Who?"
"Your lover, that Kitahara so-and-so."
...
Yamada Ryo held her coffee cup and froze in place.
She suspected she had heard wrong.