Chapter 44: The prototype appeared.
Morofushi Sora'aki's social circle is really small. Apart from strangers, it can be said that Morofushi Sora'aki knows—or is familiar with—the people around him.
In his Home World, he was familiar with his family and Rei-nii, but he only met his brother's contemporaries once or twice. Morofushi Sora'aki was not familiar with the latter, because he deliberately avoided them.
In his Good Friends World, he only pays attention to his two best friends, namely Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei.
Just as one would deliberately avoid being in the same class as older brother's close friend in their Home World, in the Good Friends World, Morofushi Sora'aki originally planned to avoid two people who looked very much like his older brother.
However, by a twist of fate, they still came into contact.
Compared to his older brother, whom he had only met twice but never had any in-depth conversations with, now, in this café, after communicating with his close friend's counterpart, his older brother from another world, Morofushi Sora'aki was able to realize just how similar they were.
They were so similar that Morofushi Sora'aki almost forgot that the person opposite him wasn't his older brother.
In that instant, Morofushi Sora'aki suddenly understood—not the literal meaning of rote learning—but the true meaning of Hagiwara Kenji's earlier statement.
Hagiwara Kenji told him not to get close, but to wait for the other person to take the initiative, and not to deliberately reject them.
Although, in Matsuda Jinpei's words, it was practically teaching Morofushi Sora'aki how to "fish" for love—in reality, when this method was actually applied to Morofushi Sora'aki, it turned out to be the complete opposite of fishing.
If Morofushi Sora'aki doesn't approach and the other party doesn't take the initiative, then there will be no connection between the two, and it has nothing to do with "fishing". However, once Morofushi Sora'aki chooses not to refuse, then after actually making contact, he will realize that it is difficult for him to dislike these familiar people's counterparts.
Because despite their different experiences, they are essentially the same kind of people—clean and dazzling, capable of doing things that Morofushi Sora'aki doesn't understand but still finds impressive.
Morofushi Sora'aki doesn't care about people who are unrelated to him, but these people, if they don't get close to him, that's fine, but once they choose to approach him, they can't possibly be unrelated to him anymore—even if they don't know him at all, or even if he doesn't exist in this world.
"Hagiwara is so cunning." Having figured this out, Morofushi Sora'aki suddenly uttered this remark on his way home.
Hagiwara Kenji, who was pondering how to face his older sister's "interrogation" when he got home, was full of questions: "Huh? What did I do this time?"
Matsuda Jinpei chimed in from the sidelines, "Wow, this guy can't even remember what he did? Just how many bad things have you done, Hagi!"
"I didn't do anything at all—right, Sora'aki-chan?!"
"It's alright, I don't dislike this kind of cunning." Morofushi Sora'aki said cheerfully. "However, if I accidentally say something wrong in the future, don't blame me."
The question mark above Hagiwara Kenji's head looks like it has been completely materialized.
"But to be honest, Raki, what you said at the end... was quite subtle." Matsuda Jinpei clicked his tongue.
When parting ways with the Morofushi brothers, although the two of them never mentioned it from beginning to end, Morofushi Sora'aki took the initiative to deny it: "Don't worry about me, I am indeed not your brother... In fact, if I said I was your brother, it would be unfair to many people."
In response, Matsuda Jinpei honestly said, "I didn't really understand the meaning of that sentence."
"I just said it casually." Morofushi Sora'aki explained lightly. "It doesn't have any special meaning."
The other two: "..."
"Personally, I don't mind revealing the answer, but I find it very interesting to see Hagiwara and Matsuda guessing in various directions like this." said Morofushi Sora'aki. "I'm actually looking forward to you guys guessing the answer."
The other two: "..."
Morofushi Sora'aki genuinely didn't mind; otherwise, he wouldn't have said things like "this world is a game" and "my family is in another world" at the beginning.
However, since the system always sends him away in deserted places, the system is probably concerned about whether there are any restrictions.
"I don't mind, but there's one… well, I can't say who I'm concerned about." Morofushi Sora'aki thought for a moment: "Maybe by the time you guess the answer, I won't be able to see you anymore."
The other two: "...!"
Matsuda Jinpei frowned and said, "White Crane?"
Morofushi Sora'aki: "The white crane repays its debt of gratitude?"
The White Crane's Gratitude is a Japanese folktale that describes a white crane transforming into a human to repay a debt of gratitude. However, the benefactor reveals the crane's true identity, forcing the crane to leave.
There are several versions of the story, but the meaning is roughly the same.
Matsuda Jinpei clicked his tongue: "Isn't this too much trouble for you?"
As they talked, Morofushi Sora'aki reached the door of the house. After parting ways with the two, Morofushi Sora'aki was able to return home without any hindrance this time.
Upon returning home, Morofushi Sora'aki immediately got up and sat at the dining table, asking his father, who hadn't yet gone to work, a question: "Dad, do you still remember Yuri?"
Father Morofushi looked puzzled: "Who?"
"Brother—Hiromitsu-nii's elementary school classmate in Nagano." Morofushi Sora'aki said. "I remember that the kid wasn't feeling well when we moved."
Father Morofushi didn't have Morofushi Sora'aki's memory ability, so since his child said so, he believed him and began to seriously recall the situation before the move.
"Um…it's been a while. If you're curious, Sora'aki, can I contact Nagano?" Father Morofushi hesitated.
Not getting an answer there, Morofushi Sora'aki didn't care much. However, a few days later, when Morofushi Hiromitsu returned from his day off, Morofushi Sora'aki got the answer to this question at the dinner table.
"Speaking of which, I ran into a classmate I used to hang out with back in Nagano a couple of days ago." said Morofushi Hiromitsu with a slightly nostalgic tone. "Time really flies."
"My brother's classmate in Nagano?" Morofushi Sora'aki repeated.
"Hmm, you probably don't know Sora'aki—" At this point, Morofushi Hiromitsu suddenly remembered his younger brother's hypermnesia and hesitated, "Maybe I mentioned it when we were at home?"
Morofushi Hiromitsu simply stated the other person's name and asked his younger brother, "Her name is Yuri, Tomori Yuri. Have I mentioned it before?"
"My brother's classmate, he was sick when he was in elementary school." Morofushi Sora'aki bit his chopsticks.
"…Ah, so I really did mention it?" Morofushi Hiromitsu said with a smile, "She told me that the day she fell ill, Dad was supposed to take us on a picnic. But Dad took the day off, so the picnic was postponed."
"As it turned out, she had an appendicitis attack that day. Fortunately, the school teacher took her to the hospital in time, and she almost died because of the lack of timely treatment."
If we had gone on a picnic that day, and there were no cars around and the road was quite far, something might have happened by the time we got to the hospital.
"She said that she had just had a fight with her father that day and had a brush with death, so she had a deep impression of the situation." Morofushi Hiromitsu said gently. "It was also because of this incident that she decided to become a doctor, and she is currently studying very hard for her exams."
Morofushi Sora'aki blinked and replied, "Congratulations on her survival."
"That's a little rude, Sora'aki." As he said this, Morofushi Hiromitsu didn't look too serious and smiled as he instructed, "In this situation, you should say, 'Congratulations on your recovery. You look great. That's wonderful.'"
Morofushi Sora'aki puffed out his cheeks, but did not refute.
It was clearly his older brother who didn't understand what he meant.
Watching his younger brother leave after finishing his meal, Morofushi Hiromitsu hesitated before looking at his parents: "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, Hiromitsu." Mother Morofushi said cheerfully. "It's probably just that Sora'aki is going through his rebellious phase."
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..."
Morofushi Hiromitsu: Is the rebellious phase something to be happy about?
Father Morofushi asked, "Are you going to make red bean rice?"
Mother Morofushi patted Father Morofushi's arm: "What are you talking about—"
Seeing this scene, Morofushi Hiromitsu silently picked up the last mouthful of rice from his bowl.
At times like these, he really felt like he was superfluous.
"I'm full!" Morofushi Hiromitsu swallowed his rice, clasped his hands together, and followed his younger brother out of the table.
Morofushi Sora'aki's hypermnesia is currently incurable by medicine. Since the pressure brought by the memories cannot be reversed, he can try to organize his memories, similar to the memory palace in the TV series.
This was also a bit difficult for Morofushi Sora'aki. Other patients didn't know, but he himself felt it was very inconvenient and easy to get confused.
The only fortunate thing is that he doesn't have much emotional pressure. His negative emotions aren't too strong, so they don't have a significant impact on his memory, and he doesn't feel pain from recalling unhappy things.
The reason why other people with hypermnesia suffer so much is because they cannot forget the sad, embarrassing, and painful things in their lives.
In short, it took half a year, from taking a break in the first year of high school to the start of the second year, before Morofushi Sora'aki finally stepped into [Rouman Academy] again.
The classmates were still the same few people, and being away for half a year could easily cause communication barriers—fortunately, the person sitting behind him didn't seem to have this problem at all.
"Oh! Long time no see, Morofushi." After noticing that Morofushi Sora'aki had returned from his leave of absence, Nozaki Umetarou unhesitatingly pulled out a monthly magazine from his bag: "I've already collected half a year's worth of magazines and other comics for you here—I'll bring them to you tomorrow, or you can just come to my house tonight!"
It's as if the six months of leave of absence never existed.
No, this is clearly going too far! The other students in the class who were paying attention to this scene unconsciously synchronized their thoughts once again.
Morofushi Sora'aki did not refuse, but after going to the Nozaki's house, he unexpectedly saw a female classmate with two ribbons in her hair.
"Hello! My name is Sakura Chiyo!" Sakura Chiyo clenched her fists, a little nervous and a little curious, because she had heard about Morofushi Sora'aki from Nozaki Umetarou.
Sakura Chiyo, 17 years old, 145 cm tall, has a crush on Nozaki Umetarou, who is 190 cm tall. She is also a fan of Yumeno Sakiko (Nozaki Umetarou). Due to various accidents, she is currently Nozaki's assistant in coloring out his comic.
As for how Nozaki Umetarou introduced Morofushi Sora'aki... that was purely a coincidence.
A while ago, Nozaki Umetarou tidied up his room and unexpectedly found a draft from six months ago. Sakura Chiyo was a little curious, and Nozaki Umetarou didn't stop her and showed it to her.
The story is a short tale about a haughty, aloof young lady who longs for romance. Just as the plot reaches its climax and Sakura Chiyo eagerly turns the page—the female protagonist drops out of school! The story abruptly ends!
Sakura Chiyo held the comic, which could only be described as a terrible ending, her hands trembling: "...So what happens next?! What about the promise between the young lady and the male protagonist?!"
"Ah, because the model for the young lady has taken a leave of absence from school, I haven't had any inspiration for the time being, so I haven't continued drawing." Nozaki Umetarou replied casually.
Thus, Sakura Chiyo learned of the existence of Morofushi Sora'aki.
Now that they've met, Sakura Chiyo is filled with anticipation for the real-life inspiration for the kind and gentle young lady in the comic—
Morofushi Sora'aki compared the heights of the two people in front of him and asked Nozaki with a puzzled look, "You like children?"
Sakura Chiyo instantly turned to stone and shattered into pieces.