The new normal was unbearable.
Kaito's apartment, once a sanctuary of apathy and silence, now had... a presence. Mai Sakurajima was not a loud guest. On the contrary, she was almost frighteningly quiet. She moved through the tiny space with a ghostly grace, trying to take up as little room as possible, as if afraid that if she made too much noise, Kaito would stop perceiving her too.
For Kaito, that was almost worse.
He was on his beanbag, his throne. He was trying to play an RPG, but he couldn't concentrate. Every little sound—the clink of a teacup being set in the sink, the turn of a page of one of Kaito's books she was reading—was a reminder of his lost peace.
"Do you need anything?" Her voice came from behind him.
Kaito gripped the controller tightly. "No."
"I was thinking of trying to make dinner," she offered, her voice soft. "I saw you have rice and eggs. Again."
"I like eggs."
"Nobody likes eggs that much, Kaito."
He could feel her standing there, wanting to interact. Wanting... to be useful. It was exhausting.
"KAITO!" Fia's voice, which had been silent for almost a day, suddenly blared in his head, making him jump. "DINNER! IT'S THE 'WIFE-MADE DINNER EVENT'! THAT'S SSS-TIER BONDING!"
"Shut up, Fia," he thought back, growling. "And she's not my wife."
He turned on the beanbag. Mai was there, looking small in one of his old t-shirts she was using as pajamas. She looked like a normal, pretty student. A normal, pretty, and completely invisible student who was now permanently attached to him.
The logic of the situation was terrible. He was, now, a 24/7 caregiver. If she wanted to eat, he had to buy it. If she got sick, he had to take her. If she wanted... anything... it was him. This wasn't "troublesome" anymore. It was a maximum-effort logistical nightmare.
He had to fix this.
His logical mind scoured the meta-knowledge he had. In the anime, Sakuta's solution to Mai's invisibility was a high-level act of social defiance: screaming a love confession in the schoolyard. It was emotional, it was dramatic, and it was, in Kaito's opinion, the most embarrassing and logistically stupid thing a human could do.
He would never do that. It was too much effort. It was too "protagonist."
No. There had to be another way. A loophole. A logical solution.
Sakuta Azusagawa didn't solve it alone. He had help. He had a source of information.
The science girl. The Adolescence Syndrome expert who explained everything with quantum physics.
Rio Futaba.
"Right," Kaito said aloud, standing up from the beanbag. The decision was made.
Mai jumped, startled by the sudden movement. "What?"
"I'm going out," he said, grabbing his hoodie.
The panic was instant on her face. She rushed over and grabbed his arm. "Out? Out where? You can't! Kaito, you can't leave me alone! What if... what if you can't see me anymore? What if you come back and I'm not here?"
He looked at her hand on his arm. Her dependence was a weight.
He let out the most tired sigh of his life. "Then you're coming. Let's go."
"But... where?" she asked, scrambling to put on her shoes while he waited at the door.
"We're going to find the only person in this world who can understand how troublesome this situation is."
Class 3-1 was empty, except for a few students cleaning. Kaito walked right past them.
"Kaito, wait!" Mai hissed beside him. "You can't just storm through the school? Where are we going?"
"Science lab," he muttered, heading up the stairs.
The science club room was at the end of a quiet hallway. The plaque on the door said "Science Club."
Kaito didn't knock. Knocking was an unnecessary effort. He slid the door open with a squeak.
The lab was full of expensive equipment and dusty sunlight. And, on a stool in the middle of the room, a girl in a lab coat, with dark hair in a messy bun and glasses, was staring intently at a beaker of bubbling liquid.
"We're closed," she said, without looking up.
"You're Rio Futaba," Kaito stated.
The girl finally looked up. Her expression was analytical and bored. "Yes. And you're Kaito Tanaka. The apathetic transfer student who sleeps through every class and has a perfect score in physics. What do you want? I'm not recruiting club members."
"I have a quantum physics problem," Kaito said flatly. "An observer who collapsed a person's wave function to zero."
Rio stared at him for a long second. "Is that a poetic metaphor for depression, or are you speaking literally?"
"Literally," Kaito said. He gestured to the empty space beside him. "Say hello to Sakurajima Mai."
Rio looked at the empty space. Her eyes narrowed. "I don't know any Sakurajima Mai."
Rio sighed and pushed her glasses up her nose. "Look, Tanaka-kun, I don't have time for your delusions."
"Tell her her lab coat is stained," Mai whispered beside Kaito, sounding annoyed.
"She says your lab coat is stained," Kaito repeated, emotionless.
Rio froze. She instinctively glanced down at her left hip, where there was a faint coffee stain that she was sure Kaito couldn't see from his position.
He pointed at the air. "She's standing near your desk right now, judging your equipment. And I'm here, Futaba-san, because I need a solution to re-anchor her to the world."
He moved closer to her desk, his expression the closest to "serious" he could manage.
"And," he concluded, "it has to be a solution that doesn't involve me screaming my feelings in the schoolyard like an emotional idiot."
Rio Futaba looked at the empty space where Mai supposedly was, then back at Kaito. A small, analytical smile played on her lips.
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