Chapter 11: Second Playthrough (6)

“Well then, I’m going out with Natalie.” After saying that, Ida Kou suddenly remembered something and warned them, “Don’t let me find out you’re following me!”

"Haha, how could that be? Interrupting someone's date is a sin against heaven!" Kenji Hagiwara waved to the two of them. "But, if you don't know where to go on a date, feel free to call me anytime~"

"Go on your date without worry, class monitor. Have fun!" Morofushi Kagemitsu said with a smile.

"Damn it! That bastard, the winner in life!" Matsuda Jinpei rubbed his head, which had been punched by Date Wataru, indignantly.

"It's raining..." Rei Furuya reached out and caught the drizzling rain.

He looked up at the class monitor and Natalie, who were holding hands and walking away in the rain, and fell into deep thought as he watched their backs.

"It's okay, they have umbrellas. It's just a light rain, it'll stop soon. Let's go, let's go, Furuya." Kenji Hagiwara pulled him back.

He smiled and reassured the blond youth, who had been on edge since last night: "The class monitor and the others will be fine. Nothing has happened in the past month, has it? So they'll get through today safely too. Let's give them some time alone as a couple."

Matsuda Jinpei, who really wanted to follow, couldn't help but say, "But aren't you guys really curious about how the class president gets along with his girlfriend? I feel like their way of getting along might be a bit unexpected! The class president is so gentle and obedient in front of his girlfriend..."

“I’m really curious.” Morofushi Hiromitsu smiled and put his hand on his childhood friend’s shoulder, then smiled at Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji, saying, “But, Zero and I have other things to do next.”

The valley nodded.

Today, they arranged to meet with Morofushi Takaaki for a meal.

It's been almost a month since Tomoyuki was arrested, and the case is basically resolved. Morofushi Takaaki's visit this time was just to handle the final formalities.

The two brothers were too busy catching criminals last time to have a proper chat, so they decided to meet today.

As for why Rei Furuya went along too...

“The last time I brought Zero to meet my brother was back in high school, right? Back then we said we wanted to be police officers.” Morofushi Hiromitsu walked and laughed, looking very happy and excited. “Now we’ve actually made it into the police academy, and my brother said he wants to celebrate with us and thank Zero for taking care of me all this time.”

"It's always Hiro who's been taking care of me," Rei Furuya said helplessly.

"Besides cooking, there's nothing else I can do to help Zero, right?" Morofushi Hiromitsu thought for a moment, "At most, I can add a guitar and music."

At this point, Morofushi Kagemitsu couldn't help but laugh, teasing his childhood friend who seemed to be perfect at everything.

"Because Zero is completely bad at cooking."

"How about Hiro teaches me how to cook?" Furuya Rei replied naturally.

Morofushi Kagemitsu nodded happily: "Great, Zero is finally willing to learn cooking properly. Actually, there are a few tricks to cooking..."

When Furuya Rei talked to the group about the future, he only mentioned some key points. He didn't say anything about his specific work as an undercover agent in the Black Organization, or even what Bourbon's style was like, or the existence of Amuro Tooru, who had superb cooking skills.

After calming down, Furuya Rei still wanted to present a normal Furuya Rei in front of them, rather than Bourbon or Amuro Tooru.

Others also seemed afraid of touching on his sore spots, so they generally didn't bring up the future and tried to get him to focus on living in the present with them by his side.

Rei Furuya sometimes gets annoyed by their excessive caution and worry about him, and sometimes he thinks it would have been better if he hadn't told them, because now he's made them so sad and worried...

“That should be it.” Morofushi Kagemitsu’s eyes sparkled as he pulled Furuya Rei toward the coffee shop across the street.

Furuya Rei could gradually see Morofushi Takaaki sitting by the window, and he suddenly felt a little nervous and scared.

He knew that this was the lingering fear that the 29-year-old Furuya Rei had of Morofushi Takaaki, because the 29-year-old Furuya Rei didn't know how to face Morofushi Takaaki after losing his younger brother.

Hiro died right before his eyes, yet he couldn't save him, thus depriving Morofushi Takaaki of his last remaining family member.

Even during the final battle, when he met with Morofushi Takaaki under the identity of Furuya Rei instead of Amuro Tooru and spoke frankly with him, Morofushi Takaaki did not blame him and even comforted him, he still could not calm down at all.

Even if time were to rewind to the present, and he were to stand before the still very young Morofushi Takaaki as a 22-year-old police academy student named Furuya Rei, even with the smiling Hiro standing right next to him, Furuya Rei couldn't help but care.

"Don't be shy, what would you like to drink?" After a brief greeting, Morofushi Takaaki handed the menu to the two people opposite him, thoughtfully but politely sizing up the blond youth next to his younger brother.

[Brother, I made a friend in Tokyo! His nickname is Zero! He's super cool, right!]*

[Brother, this is Zero, the one I told you about before, my best friend, Rei Furuya. He wants to be a policeman just like you!]*

Morofushi Takaaki has always felt guilty for not being able to be by his younger brother Kagemitsu's side. Fortunately, he has such a good friend by his side, who accompanied him as he grew up. Now, they have even become police officers together, investigated the truth about their parents' murder, and caught the culprit. Kagemitsu's psychological problems seem to have been completely resolved...

Morofushi Takaaki's expression was usually cold, calm, and rational, but at this moment, he couldn't help but let out a faint smile.

He was happy that his younger brother had such a good friend.

It seems he can finally rest easy.

*

Halfway through his coffee, Rei Furuya's phone, which was in his pocket, started vibrating incessantly, attracting the attention of the Morofushi brothers sitting next to him.

He apologized, and after Morofushi Takaaki said it was okay, he took out his phone, opened the chat app with the unknown icon, and entered the group chat that only he could see.

Upon seeing the chat content, the blond youth froze instantly, his purplish-gray pupils shrinking sharply.

Furuya Rei quickly scrolled through the chat history to the very beginning.

[Shinpei Net: It seems the enemy has discovered my ability to revert to a previous state after death.]

[Shinpei, a netizen: There are still marks left on my arm.]

It all started when Shenping, a netizen, dropped a bombshell in the group chat.

Then, there was Homura Akemi's collapse after starting her second loop.

Homura Akemi: We were all fooled by Kyubey!!!

Homura Akemi: Witches are magical girls in disguise! We'll all eventually become like that! All the witches who kill were once magical girls protecting the world! We've all been used by Kyubey!!!

[Homura Akemi: Besides, when we initially signed the contract to become magical girls, we were already dead! We had become Soul Gems! This body is just an empty shell! Can we still be considered human like this?]

[Homura Akemi: Why? Why did it turn out like this? This isn't the magical girl we wanted!!!]

Homura Akemi: She cried and begged me to kill her, saying she didn't want to become a witch.

Homura Akemi: I went back in time to start over in order to protect her, but why, why did I end up pointing a gun at her? Why did I shoot her?

Homura Akemi: I killed her with my own hands.

Finally, the number of times Subaru died and reloaded after his name suddenly changed from 11 to 12, and people in the group discovered that he had died and reloaded again.

Subaru Natsuki: I failed again.

[Natsuki Subaru: I failed again! I failed again! I failed again! I failed again! I failed again! I failed again!]

Subaru Natsuki: Everyone is dead.

[Natsuki Subaru: Live on, live on! Why do you let someone like me live?! Why do you have to fight for someone like me?! I'm the one who killed everyone!!!]

[Natsuki Subaru: Sloth! Hahaha! Sloth! I really am so lazy! It's all my fault! Everyone died because of my advice! Because of my carelessness, my arrogance, and my laziness, this tragic situation has occurred! It's all my fault!!!]

[Natsuki Subaru: If I weren't here, would everyone have avoided dying so soon? Did it hurt? It must have hurt a lot. Did you hate it? You must have hated it a lot. I'm so sorry, so sorry, so sorry. If it weren't for me, would no one have died? Is it all because I came into this world?]

The three of them calmed down a bit and remembered that there was still one survivor in the group chat.

[Mr. Fangtani, be careful! 】

[This is too much of a coincidence. We all had an accident at the same time. How could it just be a coincidence?]

[You might be next!]

Rei Furuya suddenly stood up.

"Sorry, I have to go now!" Furuya Rei said as he dialed Date Wataru's number and ran outside.

"Zero?" Morofushi Kagemitsu stood up in surprise, realizing something, and quickly reached out to grab him. "Wait! Zero!!!"

However, he was a step too slow and failed to catch the blond youth. After a moment of surprise, he immediately turned back to look at his brother.

“Go, Kagemitsu.” Morobu Takaaki met his gaze.

The young man with upturned blue phoenix eyes slowly said to his younger brother, "To have one true friend in life is enough; in this world, we should treat each other with the same heart."

*

Rei Furuya was anxiously talking to Kenji Hagiwara on the phone when he was suddenly stopped by a red light halfway through his run.

He was expressionless and was about to rush directly into the busy road, but he changed his mind because of his childhood friend following behind him.

He could let it go on himself, but he couldn't let Hiro get into danger.

“Zero! What’s wrong? What happened?” Morofushi Kagemitsu looked at him with concern.

"The squad leader and Natalie are in trouble!" Rei Furuya's hand, holding his phone, bulged with veins. "I can't get through to the squad leader. Matsuda and Hagi are at the shopping mall on the next street. They said there was a robbery at the bank next door, and the squad leader and Natalie seem to be inside!"

"It's the butterfly effect!" he said through gritted teeth.

"Because we caught Wai Shouyi ahead of time, Wai Shouyi's story made the news, and those thugs saw this criminal arrested near the police academy. Therefore, they canceled the plan to rob the convenience store near the police academy and skipped this step of the drill to go straight to robbing the bank! As for the squad leader and Natalie, they met up for a date because I told them about the future. They were probably planning to withdraw some money from the bank to go out and have fun. Just like their predetermined fate, they ran into those robbers again!" He explained the whole thing quickly and clearly.

This is the butterfly effect, a cruel joke of fate, and the omnipresent malice of the world.

"It's alright, don't rush. Impatience is a big no-no." Rei Furuya took a deep breath. "It's only one street away from us, very close. If we rush over to help now, as long as the five of us work together, the squad leader and the others won't be able to..."

"Boom—" The deafening explosion interrupted Furuya Rei's words. A scorching wave of fire crashed down from behind him, completely burning away his brain and the last shred of composure.

Rei Furuya's pupils contracted sharply, and he turned around abruptly to see that the coffee shop they had just come from had been completely engulfed in flames.

"Brother!!!" Morofushi Kagemitsu rushed into the sea of ​​fire without hesitation.

"Wait! Hiro!" Rei Furuya suddenly reached out to grab him, but failed.

"hiro!!!!!"