Chapter 57: You Can't!
The lights were on, the fluorescent white light shining brightly.
This was not a dream, not an hallucination; it was that "online dreaming" experience, so real that every detail was terrifyingly clear. Because he had experienced it before, he knew.
Hachiman stood up and walked to his desk.
A green-covered diary lay on the table. He opened it; the handwriting was his own, a bit scribbled, but every stroke was recognizable. He flipped to the most recent page.
[August 8th, today is my birthday. I didn't expect so many people to pay attention. Karuizawa gave me a necklace, Matsushita gave me glasses, Kamuro gave me a fountain pen, Sakayanagi gave me a cake, Kushida gave me a diary.] Hachiman's finger paused on the page.
Birthday. It had already passed.
He continued reading.
[Ichinose gave me a fountain pen on behalf of the class, Horikita didn't give a gift. But she borrowed a book for me from the library, "Humiliated and Insulted." On the bookmark, she wrote: "I learned from Karuizawa that you wanted to read this book recently, and I just happened to borrow it, so I brought it for you. By Horikita Suzune."]
[I finished this book. It's very good. But the bookmark has been stuck in it, and I haven't taken it out.]
Hachiman's finger paused on the words "bookmark." He was about to turn to the next page when a voice came from behind him.
"You are always so nostalgic after coming back here."
Hachiman turned around.
Horikita Suzune was standing at the door. Not the Horikita Suzune he knew, but the one from his dreams—more mature, calmer, and gentler than the one he knew. The "Big Horikita."
"You're here," Hachiman said.
Big Horikita walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. Her movements were natural, as if she had been in this dormitory many times.
"You dreamt of me again." Big Horikita's lips curled slightly. "Or should I say, did I dream of you?"
Hachiman looked at her and was silent for a second. "What's the difference?"
"There is no difference," Big Horikita said. "We met, anyway."
"Those things you said to Suzune in the bathhouse just now," Big Horikita's voice was very light, "I heard them all."
Hachiman's finger tapped lightly on the cover of the diary.
"You are her. She is you. If you heard it, she heard it."
Big Horikita did not deny it.
"She is right," Hachiman said. "She has embarked on a path different from the novel I knew. I don't know if it's correct or not, but she feels it's quite good."
Big Horikita looked at him. "And what do you think?"
Hachiman was silent for a few seconds. "I think it's not bad either."
Big Horikita's lips curved slightly. "That's good," she said.
She stood up and walked to the window, looking at the pitch-black night sky outside. Hachiman stood behind her, watching her back. It was exactly the same back as Horikita Suzune's, but softer and more composed.
"Do you have something you want to tell me?" Hachiman asked.
Big Horikita did not look back. "It's not that I want to tell you; it's that I want to inform you."
"Inform me of what?"
"For you, there's no need to rush; you will know the answer soon." Big Horikita's voice was very soft.
But Hachiman frowned slightly.
"However, in the previous diaries, I didn't record that Horikita gave me a gift," Hachiman said.
Mm. That was the difference in the contents of the diary this time.
"So you suspect that the future has changed? I should say, if there was an influence in the past, then the future will change accordingly," Big Horikita said. "After all, what we are doing now is interfering with the past."
"..." Hachiman.
He didn't quite understand Big Horikita's words.
However, at this moment, white light surged from all directions, swallowing her figure bit by bit. Hachiman reached out to grab something, but his fingers passed through the white light, touching nothing.
"Wait—" Hachiman said, "You haven't told me—"
Big Horikita's figure became more and more blurred in the white light.
'It seems the plan failed. You can't keep him.'
A voice, heard once before but completely unfamiliar, seemed to ring out not far away.
Then, the white light completely swallowed everything. Hachiman opened his eyes abruptly.
He realized he was back on the road to the dormitory again.
"..."
So, superpowers or whatever—they were still too advanced.
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The day after the Sports Festival ended, the school returned to its normal routine.
Classes, breaks, lunch, after school—everything was exactly the same as before the Sports Festival. But some things had changed. Occasionally, someone would stop in the hallway, look at the test scores on the small blackboard, and discuss them in low voices.
Class A: 1666 points, Class B: 625 points, Class C: 650 points, Class D: -270 points.
These numbers were laid out right there; no one could ignore them.
Hachiman did not go straight back to the dorms after school. He leaned against the window of the teaching building corridor, his mobile phone in his hand, the chat box with Kushida Kikyo on the screen. He typed a line, looked at it for two seconds, and sent it.
[Are you free after school? There's something I want to talk to you about.]
After sending the message, he waited for a while. The reply came quickly.
[Yes. Where should we meet?]
Hachiman thought for a moment.
[At the railing. Five o'clock.]
[Okay.]
Hachiman put his phone away and walked out of the teaching building. The setting sun pulled his shadow long, casting it onto the ground, silently following him.
Hachiman soon arrived at "Kushida-san's scenic spot."
But Kushida-san had arrived even earlier.
When Hachiman arrived, she was looking out over the railing. A faint sea breeze blew towards them. It made people feel that even the "little angel" Kushida-san occasionally had such melancholy moments.
However, perhaps hearing his footsteps, she turned her head and smiled at him, making people feel as if they were bathed in a gentle spring breeze.
"Hikigaya-kun," Kushida said, "What's so mysterious?"
Hachiman walked over, rested his left hand on the railing, and was silent for two seconds.
"There's something I want to tell you," Hachiman said.
Kushida looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
"I can dream of the future," Hachiman said.
Kushida's smile stiffened. She looked at Hachiman, a flicker of surprise flashing through those wine-red eyes. Then her expression changed slightly, as if asking, 'Are you joking?'
"What did you say?" Kushida's voice was a bit dry.
But Hachiman's voice was calm.
"Some changes have occurred in me. As you know, you can no longer hear my inner thoughts, but something special has happened. That is the dream I just mentioned.
It's not an ordinary dream. It's a very real dream where every detail is as clear as if I were awake," Hachiman's voice was calm. "I can see things from the future. Not everything, just fragments. Fragments about people related to me."
Kushida was silent for a long time.
"So," Kushida began, her voice lowering, "can you see my future?"
Hachiman glanced at her. "Not everything. Only fragments. And it's not necessarily accurate. For example, I actually knew a long time ago that you would give me a green-skinned notebook.
Because that's something I knew from the future," Hachiman said.
"..." Kushida was speechless at this.
However, this matter sounded absurd, but if one thought about it from the perspective of a transmigrator, it wasn't impossible. He was already a transmigrator; being able to hear his inner thoughts was already outrageous enough, and now he could dream of the future. The supernatural phenomena surrounding this person were piling up one after another, so much so that she was almost getting used to it.
"Have you told anyone else?" Kushida asked.
"No," Hachiman said. "You are the first."
Oh. The first, huh.
The first. This word swirled in her mind and then sank down.
Kushida suddenly looked at Hachiman, her wine-red eyes filled with a kind of confusion. Because she suddenly felt that Hachiman telling her this wasn't seeking help or sharing a secret, but simply feeling that she should know.
Because she was Kushida Kikyo, the person who could accept all his strange aspects.
This thought made her feel quite good, but she didn't show it.
"Why tell me?" Kushida asked.
Hachiman thought for a moment. "Because you already know enough. One more or one less makes no difference to you."
Kushida looked at him, her lips twitching slightly. "Are you praising me or insulting me?"
"Stating facts," Hachiman said.
Kushida stared at him for two seconds, then sighed softly. "So, what did you dream about?"
Hachiman was silent for a second. "Horikita."
Kushida's brows twitched slightly.
"The Horikita in the dream is different from the current one. More mature, calmer, and gentler," Hachiman's voice was very soft. "She said some things. About the future. About me. About herself."
Kushida's expression flickered. Because she remembered that Horikita had specifically sought her out for consultation, and she had thought that she (Horikita) had suddenly become enlightened.
"So, Horikita-san's changes lately," Kushida's voice was very soft, "is it because she also dreamt it?"
"I think so," Hachiman said. "But she didn't tell me."
Kushida was silent for a few seconds.
She looked down at the railing. But a thought was spinning in her brain—Horikita Suzune might like Hachiman. This thought had been there since the holidays, ever since Horikita stopped her in the hallway and said, "About emotional matters." But Horikita herself probably hadn't realized it yet, or she had realized it but didn't dare to admit it. Kushida opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed the words back.
Hachiman was currently dating Karuizawa. Although it was "learning experience," dating was dating. She shouldn't say such things at this time; it wasn't the right time, and she had no position to do so.
"Then who else did you dream of?" Kushida changed the subject.
Hachiman glanced at her. "Only Horikita for now, but in the most recent dream, I feel that something might change."
Oh. So that's how it is.
Kushida understood; perhaps he felt a glimmer of confusion and was asking her.
No. Kushida quickly denied that. Because Hikigaya wasn't the type to ask her for guidance.
Then it must be... that he learned intelligence from the future he encountered that he couldn't handle smoothly.
"So, what do you want to say?"
"From the dream, I know that three years later, I'm still here," Hachiman said.
"In other words, you didn't transmigrate back?" Kushida was a bit surprised.
You have to know that one of the reasons she rejected Hachiman initially was that the other party was a transmigrator, so he might leave. Her personality was actually quite paranoid; she felt that if she really fell in love with a member of the opposite sex, then surely... she hoped they could end up together. Not end halfway.
Then what was she? She didn't like that.
"The intelligence I got is like that, but it seems the future will also change," Hachiman said. "For example, Horikita has changed. In the future I saw, Horikita didn't give me a birthday gift, but afterward, it changed."
"..." Kushida.
'Isn't this just because Horikita also probably had the same dream of the future as Hikigaya?'
So she was able to change.
But looking at it this way, Horikita Suzune was also quite malicious, because Kushida felt that Horikita had long known what she (Kushida) was going to give Hikigaya.
What a hateful person. Horikita Suzune was indeed an eternal enemy.
Thinking this, her phone vibrated. Kushida took the phone out of her pocket and glanced at it. There was a new message on the screen, sent by Wang Mei-yu.
[Kikyo-chan, where are you? I'll come find you.]
Kushida glanced at the time and put her phone away.
"Hikigaya-kun," Kushida turned around, "thank you for telling me these things. Although I can't give you more advice right now, if you want to chat, feel free to come to me anytime."
Hachiman knew that this news was indeed quite hard for Kushida to handle. In the original work, Kushida didn't like Horikita, and now, Kushida had to interact with Horikita; the two were
in the same camp. However, talking to Kushida about Horikita's future self was indeed a bit cruel.
And he didn't really want her advice; rather, he just needed to find someone to talk to. Of course, he could have talked to Karuizawa, but he always felt that some topics involving Big Horikita really weren't suitable for conversation with Karuizawa.
Hachiman thought this to himself.
Hachiman looked at her and nodded.
And so, Kushida left that spot.
After parting ways with Kushida, the sun had already set for the most part; only a touch of orange-red light remained in the sky. The streetlights on both sides of the walkway turned on one by one, casting his shadow on the ground, flickering long and short.
Hachiman put his hands in his pockets and walked toward the direction of the shopping street. After all, he still had to eat at this hour.
But when he reached the entrance of the shopping street, his footsteps slowed down.
A person was standing at the entrance of a flower shop. Long silver hair hung over her shoulders; she was wearing her student uniform, but paired with gray stockings.
And in this school, Hachiman only knew one person who wore gray stockings.
He saw that girl tilting her head slightly, looking at the flowers displayed at the entrance of the flower shop. The sunset fell on her, making her profile appear exceptionally gentle. Her expression was calm, a faint smile on her lips, as if she were looking at something very interesting.
And this person was Shiina Hiyori.
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