Chapter 21: The Fifth Playthrough (2)

Rei Furuya suddenly sat up in bed, his expression strange.

No, that's not right. If Gin had also been reborn, he couldn't possibly be alive and well until now.

If Gin had also been reborn with him, if Gin had truly preserved his memories and reloaded the game with him, then his life would definitely not be as peaceful as it is now... Well, actually it's not exactly peaceful, but it's still much better than Gin's.

So, he was the only one who obtained the power that the organization had been researching for at least half a century to reverse time and go back to the past, and even to repeatedly die and reload saves to revive people who were already dead.

Although it sounds incredible, this is the most likely guess.

The only thing that's puzzling is, if it really is the organization's power that allowed him to be reborn and even reincarnate again and again, what exactly are they planning to do?

With that level of power, controlling the entire world wouldn't be difficult for the organization. So why was it ultimately destroyed by them? Why is the power now being poured into him alone, without any other action?

If the organization really discovers that Furuya Rei can die and rewind time, he definitely won't be able to spend two months peacefully at the police academy.

In these cycles of reincarnation, although he was busy saving his unfortunate friends, he never gave up investigating the organization, but he never found anything wrong.

The most likely answer is that the power that caused his death and rewind time was indeed related to the organization, but it was not under the organization's control. For some reason, he was chosen to... to play this game of despair versus hope.

Whether the other party's goal is to extract world energy from his repeated cycles of hope and despair, or is simply a game they find interesting, remains uncertain.

Perhaps both are true; they are not contradictory.

Rei Furuya rubbed his temples.

Even if we temporarily set aside that untouchable existence, the organization's affairs are of utmost importance.

If the organization can really develop such a thing, what will happen when he returns to that time 7 years later?

We need to prepare well in advance.

Even if he had to do it all over again, he would definitely destroy the organization once more.

This time, however, he will not let anyone leave his side again.

Is this a game between God and the devil?

Just wait and see, he'll definitely end up with a happy ending where everyone survives.

*

“Zero, the injury on your face is so obvious, the instructor will definitely notice.” Morofushi Hiromitsu looked worriedly at the profile of his childhood friend beside him.

"It's okay, just say I accidentally fell down," Furuya Rei said with a smile.

"No, this is absolutely unbelievable, isn't it?" Morofushi Kagemitsu said helplessly.

The two walked under the cherry blossom tree, talking and laughing.

A gust of wind suddenly blew, and the cherry blossom tree swayed in the wind, with a shower of cherry blossoms falling on the two of them.

Rei Furuya looked up and saw a complete five-petaled cherry blossom slowly falling.

He didn't reach out to take it, but continued walking forward side by side with his childhood friend, their gazes drifting away from the cherry blossom.

And so, the five-petaled cherry blossom brushed past the blond youth and quietly fell into the roadside soil.

Rei Furuya remembered that in his early days at the police academy, he hadn't caught any five-petaled cherry blossoms here, nor had he said anything strange to Hiro.

This is also a butterfly.

Rei Furuya didn't catch the cherry blossom.

He killed the butterfly.

*

[0. The fifth time I've loaded the save file and started from scratch.]

1. At 2 AM on April 1st, I got into a fight with Matsuda under the cherry blossom tree and went to Hiro for treatment. During morning training, I became acquainted with Hagi and the squad leader.

2. On April 5th, during the first pistol training session, we worked together to save Instructor Onizuka. That night, we went to the rooftop to talk with Matsuda about why he entered the police academy to become a policeman.

3. On April 30th, I was defended by the class monitor twice in a row, and together with others, I learned that the class monitor had a girlfriend. That night, we gathered together and saw Natalie's photo.

4. On May 1st, during Arrest Techniques class, I fought the class president, who had a ten-game winning streak, in the dojo. After losing, I was lectured about not being soft-hearted. That evening, I encountered a gang of armed robbers at a convenience store and worked with everyone to solve the problem.

5. On June 1st, we had a social gathering, went out to play, drank, and sang karaoke.

6. On June 13th, after heavy equipment training, Hagi and Matsuda were invited to join the Public Security Bureau and were assigned to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit's mobile squad. While investigating a case, Hiro and the squad leader encountered a vehicle accident, and the five of them worked together to solve the problem.

Time passed day by day, calendar pages were crossed off one by one, and events happened one by one.

Rei Furuya dared not be careless in the slightest until the dangerous incident on June 13th was successfully passed safely.

More than two months later, he was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, and all his anxiety and tension turned into joy and hope.

He succeeded.

His idea is correct.

This is indeed the most promising method.

Morofushi Kagemitsu was carefully cleaning the small shards of glass off his childhood friend's blond hair, asking him worriedly if he had been injured in the car accident. He had no idea that the other person was thinking that if something happened again, he would commit suicide again, repeating the cycle of killing himself and all the butterflies.

"Seriously, that really scared me to death." The blue-eyed youth said helplessly, "Zero, do you know how I felt when I watched you and Hagiwara's car fly over the cliff? Especially when you almost failed to make it, I even stopped breathing. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my mouth. Don't scare me like that next time."

Date Wataru and Matsuda Jinpei nodded vigorously in agreement.

"I feel like I've been experiencing all sorts of incredible things ever since I met you guys. These past two months have been more exciting than the first twenty years of my life," said Date Kou, covering his forehead.

"I did say you were driving with the intention of going to the heavens, but I never imagined you would actually take Zero with you one day. Hagiwara-kun, is your next journey to the stars and the sea of ​​the universe?" Matsuda Jinpei stared at his childhood friend with dead fish eyes.

Kenji Hagiwara smiled and winked: "Haha, don't worry, everything's fine, isn't it? Sometimes stepping on the gas isn't a problem."

"Okay, I'm fine, really fine. It's time to go back, the instructor will scold me." Furuya Rei pushed away the classmates who were surrounding him, and even spun around to show that he was really fine, strong enough to even fight Matsuda Gorilla.

Matsuda Jinpei: "?"

The instructors didn't know the full extent of the dangerous things the five men had done. Even the instructor's beloved Mazda, which he had bravely injured, was temporarily overlooked. Therefore, instead of being punished and scolded again, the instructors praised them for their meritorious service in saving lives.

After the instructors left satisfied, the five men looked at the Mazda's shiny but dilapidated side and began to worry.

"What are we going to do? We have to fix the Mazda before the instructor finds out, or we'll definitely get yelled at." Kenji Hagiwara leaned against the white Mazda, stroking it tenderly. "If he finds out, the instructor won't let me touch it again, right?"

"You knew about it too?" Ida Kou still gets chills thinking about it now. "The way you drove, I thought you had a grudge against this car."

"But Hagiwara is really amazing." Morofushi Kagemitsu couldn't help but exclaim again, blinking his blue cat-like eyes curiously, "Did you guys often do that kind of backflip? Who taught you?"

Matsuda Jinpei rolled his eyes: "Yeah, Hagi used to do these dangerous driving stunts all the time, and he figured them out all by himself."

Rei Furuya said thoughtfully, "So that's how you drive a car. I've learned something new."

The other three: "?"

Morofushi Kagemitsu panicked slightly: "Wait? Zero? You're not really going to learn it, are you?"

Kenji Hagiwara immediately burst into laughter, excitedly throwing himself at Rei Furuya and putting his arm around his shoulder, saying happily, "If you want to learn, Furuya, I can teach you anytime! Let's go racing! After what happened today, I think you have the talent, Furuya!"

"Let's wait until after graduation." Rei Furuya smiled. "Police academy students aren't allowed to drive outside. This was a special case, which is why the instructors didn't scold us."

Yes, in the original story, Hagi also said that he would take him racing after graduation.

However, that person died in the line of duty a month after graduation, and Furuya Rei learned his driving skills entirely on his own.

However, he was indeed inspired by Hagi, which opened the door to a new world for him.

If Hagi can live on, the two of them will probably be able to go crazy racing together in the future.

"Oh right, let's take a group photo to commemorate today!" Kenji Hagiwara took out his phone, skillfully switched to selfie mode, and took a group photo of himself, the blond young man he was riding with, and the "gloriously wounded" Mazda behind them.

"Snap—"

Kenji Hagiwara glanced at the photos and was very satisfied. He then turned around and pulled other people to take photos together as souvenirs.

Rei Furuya stood there for a moment, thinking. He seemed to recall something like that, and his stiff body slowly relaxed.

He kept photos from his police academy days among his secret files until his death, and he would sometimes stare at those photos in the quiet of the night.

Kenji Hagiwara is someone who loves taking photos and is very good at it, especially taking pictures of beautiful people and beautiful scenery.

He said it was about discovering and preserving beauty, but in reality, many of the photos he took were funny ones, or even memes, leaving behind many photos of the five of them from their police academy days.

Matsuda Jinpei was surprisingly skilled, probably because he had filmed with his childhood friend a lot.

However, being skilled doesn't mean being cooperative; he was even resistant. Then, Kenji Hagiwara said it was such a waste of his handsome face, but he still dragged him along and took a picture with a sour face.

Wataru Date and Hiromitsu Morofushi felt it wasn't appropriate to take a photo in front of the "evidence," but in the end they couldn't resist Kenji Hagiwara's insistence and took a photo together in front of the dilapidated white Mazda.

Watching them joking and laughing together, a smile unconsciously appeared on Furuya Rei's face.

He took out his phone and snapped a picture of the four people over there.

June 13th passed safely; no one was injured.

This shows that the butterfly effect can indeed be controlled, and that he has indeed grasped hope.

It is indeed worth commemorating.

"Furuya, come here quickly, let's take one last group photo of the five of us~" Kenji Hagiwara waved to him.

"Here you are." Furuya Rei put away his phone and ran over with a smile.

*

Midnight.

The police academy dormitories were mostly dark and quiet, with the lights off.

But this is far from the time for Rei to rest.

He recently shared his fifth playthrough's safe progress in the group chat, and is currently organizing and reflecting on the relevant reasoning.

Even though we've safely passed June 13th, we can't relax yet; there are still four months until graduation.

According to the statement that the autosave feature was mentioned at the beginning, the save point is named "Police Academy Under the Cherry Blossoms," which means that the next save point is likely to be the day of graduation.

If they just stay like this until the second save point appears on graduation day, he won't have to reload from the very beginning when he entered the police academy, and everyone will at least be able to survive until graduation.

As for the butterfly effect that will inevitably occur after graduation, caused by his alteration of everyone's predetermined fate of death... we'll talk about that later. Right now, the most important thing is to survive the police academy period safely.

Rei Furuya sat at his desk, his fingers tapping lightly on the surface in a rhythmic pattern during breaks in his thoughts.

Two more months have passed in his world, and since he killed all the butterflies, everything is currently peaceful.

But the three people in the group were different.

[1. Subaru Natsuki: From Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-, currently on his fourteenth playthrough, and has died fourteen times.]

[2. Shinpei Ami: From "Summer Revisited," currently on his eighth playthrough, and has died eight times.]

[3. Homura Akemi: From *Puella Magi Madoka Magica*, currently on her sixth playthrough, has died zero times.]

4. Rei Furuya: From "Detective Conan," currently on his fifth playthrough, and has died five times.

It failed again.

Rei Furuya looked at the information that the three boys and girls had calmed down and compiled, and with a bit of a headache, he lifted his hair to support his forehead and fell into thought.

No, their world is too unpredictable and ever-changing, and obtaining information is also very difficult. It would be really difficult for them, who are still teenagers, to do everything perfectly.

Often, the information Rei Furuya obtains from them is incomplete and untimely. In addition, the flow of time in their respective worlds is different and completely unpredictable. Even if they want to help, they cannot always react immediately and arrive at the scene.

He might just fall asleep, and a month would pass in one of the children's worlds, and then he would die.

He might have been watching anxiously for a month, but only one day had passed in a child's world, and nothing had happened.

Aside from offering some suggestions and helping to think of solutions, all Rei Furuya could do was chat with the three children to ease his tense and desperate emotions.

In comparison, Rei Furuya's world is indeed the most leisurely and safest right now.

Fearing any butterfly effect in this loop, Rei Furuya ultimately abandoned his plan to delve into the darkness and become an information broker ahead of time, and did not obtain anything that a police academy student should not have.

He hesitated for a long time before finally deciding not to put the locator on those four people.

If we're going to do it, we have to do it to the best of our ability; no developments that deviate from the original plan are acceptable.

So Furuya Rei had a lot of time to organize the information of the four people in the group, make relevant inferences and plans, and then analyze and organize the things in those three worlds one by one, listing them neatly in a table and sending it to them, which was of some help.

This is what he did over the past two months in his fifth playthrough.

And the most important one—

He perfectly portrayed his 22-year-old self until he graduated from police academy.

This time, however, he truly saw hope for success.