Chapter 32: The Tenth Playthrough (3)

Rei Furuya grasped the outstretched hand of Kagemitsu Morofushi.

"Okay, let's go back together," he said with a smile.

Now that I've decided to survive this loop, I need to start figuring out how to solve the problems.

We must never allow a repeat of the tragedy of "the lessons of the past are still fresh in our minds."

"Thinking about the butterfly effect?" Morofushi Kagemitsu asked, turning around.

Rei Furuya leaped down the slope as lightly as a cat: "Hmm, there's also the matter of world line convergence. I'm quite familiar with the butterfly effect, but I'm not very clear about world line convergence and predetermined fate. I need to study it carefully."

The sun had just risen, and it was exactly 5:30 a.m. They had plenty of time to get back to school for morning training, so they weren't in a hurry and continued chatting as they slowly descended the mountain.

The atmosphere of the conversation is much more relaxed now.

"Hmm... I don't really understand things like world line convergence, and fate seems a bit more complicated, but I do know a little about the butterfly effect." Morofushi Hiromitsu smiled. "So, I think there shouldn't be any problem with what Zero just said to me, right?"

Rei Furuya turned to look at his childhood friend.

“Because I will absolutely trust Zero, I can work just as hard as Zero to maintain the original development and prevent a big butterfly effect. I will be very obedient and won’t cause trouble for Zero.” Morofushi Kagemitsu looked at him seriously and said, “So, if I forget again next time, Zero must tell me again. No matter how many times, I will believe Zero and fight alongside you.”

Rei Furuya paused for two seconds, then complained helplessly, "But one time, Hiro completely ignored me and even sneaked out by himself in the middle of the night to try and catch Tomokazu."

Morofushi Kagemitsu: "..."

Morofushi Kagemitsu coughed awkwardly, "Because I didn't want to drag you into my dangerous affairs... Of course, I don't think that way anymore. We're even now, right? So, neither of us can do anything that abandons the other again."

“Okay.” Rei Furuya agreed with a smile.

But what if you forget everything again, forget our promise, and become Hiro again, abandoning me in the beginning and the end?

Morofushi Kagemitsu smiled contentedly and walked closer to him, saying, "I know what Zero is worried about, but the situation is different now. I have my memories now, I know the consequences of everything, and I will never do such a thing again. Now I can fight against the world and fate with Zero, so I'm actually quite happy now."

“We’ll definitely graduate from the police academy together this time, and we’ll definitely make a second save point. That way, Zero can finally relax a little,” he said.

"Yes, I will." Rei Furuya nodded with a smile.

However, he didn't actually have that much confidence.

Based on his understanding of the system, after giving him such great hope, it should soon destroy that hope and then collect his feelings of despair.

There might also be despair among the viewers watching them; this is the system's favorite trick.

Just like when he first explained to Hiro that he started the second playthrough in less than an hour.

Unfortunately, he will never be so desperate again. Even if he had to go through it all again, he would be able to pull himself together. He has prepared for the worst.

Therefore, he is now more vigilant than ever before.

However, Furuya Rei did not give up hope or make the best plans; he would not give up even the slightest chance of success.

As Hiro said, the current situation is different from every previous one.

Although the system has started playing dead again, making it impossible for him to determine whether Hiro's memory is due to them preventing him from wasting energy by reloading save files after clearing them, or because Hiro has died too many times and he has seen him die too many times.

But he can't test this kind of thing, and he'll never let it happen again.

However, since the incident has already occurred, we need to think about how to resolve it.

This time, Hiro also has memories, memories from five whole cycles, including the memories of his fifth cycle where he tried to maintain the status quo until September 13th... In addition, he forced the mastermind to know those things, so the situation is different this time, and the possibility of success is indeed greater than ever before.

As Rei Furuya gazed at the cherry blossom forest under the sunrise, a sense of hope welled up within him.

There are also large swathes of cherry blossoms on the mountain, stretching from the mountainside to the foot of the mountain. The blooming cherry blossom forest is very beautiful and dreamlike.

However, when Morofushi Kagemitsu passed by a certain place, he suddenly froze. His blue eyes, which were originally full of gentle smiles, suddenly shrank, as if he had been pulled into a very terrifying nightmare in an instant.

“Hiro…” Furuya Rei immediately grabbed his hand, startled by its icy temperature. She quickly clenched it with her own warm hand, then stood in front of her childhood friend and called his name louder, “Hiro, Hiro! I’m here, I’m fine, Hiro, look at me, I’m really fine.”

As Morofushi Kagemitsu gradually came to his senses, he realized that what was in front of him was not the broken corpse of the blond youth, but his childhood friend who was perfectly healthy and looking at him with worry and self-blame.

He couldn't help but look at the cherry blossom grove behind the other person. The pebbles on the ground were clean, and the fallen cherry blossom petals were still soft and white, with at most some pinkish color. It was not the cherry blossom grove that was illuminated by moonlight and stained with scarlet blood that night.

"Zero!" He couldn't help but reach out and hug the blond youth in front of him tightly. His teeth chattered from the cold, and he suddenly felt the emotions he had been suppressing due to his worry for his childhood friend erupt uncontrollably again. "Really, really, I don't want to see your corpse again... Why could you commit suicide so recklessly time and time again? You clearly said you would never commit suicide! Zero, you liar!"

"I'm sorry..."

Morofushi Kagemitsu interrupted him: "Stop saying sorry, stop comforting me. It's Zero who's dying and reincarnating again and again, isn't it? It's Zero who's suffering the most, isn't it? If Zero could be kinder to himself, I wouldn't be so heartbroken and angry. You know perfectly well that you're only acting recklessly because you think I don't remember! If you're worried about me, then stop taking your own life so lightly! Even if you don't die, it will still hurt a lot, won't it? Even if you really reach the point where you can't die... why don't you think about other less painful ways to die?"

After unleashing his fury, Morofushi Kagemitsu calmed down a bit, but he didn't regret giving him such a harsh scolding.

He even really wanted to beat up his bastard childhood friend, but he couldn't bring himself to actually do it.

"Zero, pay more attention to your own feelings. I'm really worried about you." He hugged the blond youth tightly and said with heartache.

“…Okay.” Furuya Rei sighed silently, looking down at the falling cherry blossoms around him, lost in thought.

He didn't expect that after everyone became ghosts, they wouldn't be confined around his corpse, but would follow him around, so no matter where he ran to commit suicide, he would be seen.

What he didn't expect was that Hiro, who possessed the memories and quickly deduced his movements based on his familiarity with him, would even track him down to the cherry blossom grove at the foot of the mountain and find his body...

“However, I can actually explain the manner of your deaths.” Rei Furuya gently patted his childhood friend’s back to comfort him. “Firstly, I was worried that the save points would suddenly respawn after you died, so I didn’t dare to delay the loading time at all. And then…”

“Hiro, it’s precisely because I don’t take my own death lightly, so as not to become numb to it, and because I know the preciousness of life, that I choose a way of dying that involves pain,” he said earnestly.

Morofushi Kagemitsu was stunned and couldn't help but look up at his expression.

The blond youth smiled, his eyes bright and resolute, even more so than the sunlight behind him.

"I need the pain of each death to feel the importance of life and the reality of being alive. I must never be numb to death, and I must never despise life," he said.

Morofushi Kagemitsu looked at him, wanting to speak but not knowing what to say.

He simply felt that the person in front of him was indeed as dazzling as the sun, and he was powerless to stop him.

Just as Zero could never stop him from becoming a policeman.

*

Because the incident had taken up a lot of time, the two of them ended up running back to school. Morofushi Kagemitsu, still wearing his pajamas, had to rush back to change.

However, when passing by a cherry blossom tree in the school, Morofushi Kagemitsu suddenly stopped.

Rei Furuya turned his head and saw him carefully catching a cherry blossom with both hands.

A complete cherry blossom with five petals.

Rei Furuya paused for a moment, then subconsciously looked up at his watch to check the time, only to find that it was exactly the time when he and Hiro had spotted that cherry blossom on their way to morning training.

This time, it was Hiro who caught the cherry blossom.

"Zero, make me that cherry blossom pendant again this time." The young man with upturned blue cat eyes smiled, took his hand, and placed the cherry blossom in his palm.

Rei Furuya snapped out of his daze and slowly tightened his grip on the cherry blossom.

“Okay,” he said.

*

With a two-and-a-half-hour break at noon, Furuya Rei planned to take the opportunity to go to the library.

He was going to look for books about world line convergence and time, planning to study them carefully after lunch.

Morobuchi Kagemitsu naturally followed him.

As for the other three people...

Although the fight between Furuya Rei and Matsuda Jinpei didn't cause the five of them to become familiar with each other as quickly as before, perhaps due to their chemistry, their relationship gradually improved, though not to the point where they could immediately team up.

Especially Matsuda Jinpei and Furuya Rei.

Matsuda Jinpei was very unhappy because he was suddenly stood up by Furuya Rei last night, so he secretly challenged him to a fight again during training this morning, at the same place as last night.

Rei Furuya agreed, thinking that since they wanted to make the most of this playthrough, Matsuda's dentures should be removed again.

"There are so many..." Morifushi Kagemitsu was shocked as he looked at the huge pile of books on the table.

"It's alright, less than I expected. I still need to find a way to get a computer to look up information." Furuya Rei felt it was a bit too little.

"Isn't that computer in the archives okay?" Moribushi Kagemitsu picked up half of the books, preparing to carry them back to his dormitory.

"Well, I'm a little worried that if other people see this, it might cause some kind of butterfly effect." Furuya Rei took a few books from his pile and put them in his own, then easily carried them out.

Morofushi Kagemitsu smiled helplessly: "Alright."

All the borrowed books were placed in Furuya Rei's dormitory. After finishing his work, he only had half an hour to rest.

"Hiro, go get some sleep. You didn't sleep much yesterday, did you? Aren't you tired?" Furuya Rei looked at his childhood friend, who seemed to have no intention of leaving at all.

"Does Zero want to sleep?" Morofushi Kagemitsu asked, tilting his head.

“…If I say I won’t sleep, you won’t sleep either, right?” Furuya Rei sighed.

"Hehe." Morofushi Kagemitsu chuckled, then quickly became serious and hesitated, "Actually, I'm more concerned about the butterfly effect. I wonder if what I did this morning went well?"

He scratched his cheek a little embarrassed and worried: "Although I made a big promise before, it's so hard to act like I don't know anyone at all and start getting to know them from scratch. Do I really have acting talent? Does that seem strange?"

Rei Furuya paused for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"What—" Morofushi Kagemitsu's face flushed red. "Zero!"

"Haha, sorry, but don't worry, Hiro is perfectly normal." Rei Furuya laughed as he sat down next to his irritated childhood friend. "It's okay. Actually, there's no need to be so afraid of the butterfly effect. I'm no longer obsessed with eliminating all the butterflies and making sure things follow the original trajectory."

Morofushi Kagemitsu recalled that the actions he made in the later playthroughs were getting bigger and bigger, and realized that this was indeed the case, which made him relax a little.

Rei Furuya continued, "The butterfly effect is indeed terrifying, but it is not entirely uncontrollable; we cannot escape it."

“And even if we follow the original trajectory exactly, it won’t make a difference, because the original world line… the predetermined fate was that you would all die, so no matter what I do, you will all die when the world line converges in the end,” he said in a low voice.

“zero…”

“It’s alright, because I will definitely change that world line, so it’s okay.” Rei Furuya smiled at his worried childhood friend. “So we can’t ignore the butterfly effect, but we can’t be afraid of it either. There are ways to control and utilize butterflies.”

“Yes! I believe in Zero!” Morofushi Kagemitsu nodded.

"Oh, right, there's one more thing. Can Hiro see this? It's right here." Rei Furuya took out his phone and pointed to the distorted black clock icon in the group chat.

Zhu Fujingguang carefully leaned closer to check several times, then shook his head in disappointment: "No, I can't see it."

Rei Furuya clicked into the group chat in front of him and then opened the group member list.

However, Morofushi Kagemitsu could not see either the chat history or the member list.

"In my opinion, Zero was just pretending to tap and draw on the phone, but the phone screen was actually still on the homepage and hadn't been touched at all," he said.

Furuya Rei wasn't too surprised. So far, no matter which world it was, this group chat could only be seen by the four people in the group.

However, because of Hiro's special circumstances, he still wanted to give it a try.

"But it's really great." Morofushi Kagemitsu said in a low voice, "It's so good that Zero had this group with him when I knew nothing. It would be even better if I could thank everyone in person."

“Sure.” Rei Furuya winked at him.

Morofushi Kagemitsu: "?"

For the next half hour, Rei Furuya acted as a relay between his childhood friend and the group members, relaying each other's words and enabling them to successfully converse.

As he expected, his childhood friend, who exuded a gentle aura, immediately won the favor of the three boys and girls in the group. When thanked, she was shocked and flustered, saying no, no, no, actually they were the ones who had been taken care of all along. She was as nervous and awkward as if she had suddenly met a friend's parent.

The smile in Furuya Rei's eyes never faded.

Rei Furuya considers himself lucky.

Because he met so many wonderful people.

He felt that was the greatest luck he had ever had.

*

At 8 p.m., Morofushi Kagemitsu, having finished his shower, came to find Furuya Rei with his pillow in his arms.

Rei Furuya opened the door and was startled: "Hiro, are you sleeping with me tonight? But isn't the bed a bit too small?"

After all, they are no longer little kids who can squeeze into a bed to sleep. Although the beds at the police academy can fit two adults, they are not comfortable to sleep in.

Most importantly, he wasn't planning on sleeping tonight, or Hiro would find out!

"Is it not okay?" Morabushi Kagemitsu looked at him dejectedly, even his upturned, round blue cat eyes drooped.

Jianggu Ling: "..."

Rei Furuya: "Of course!"

Morofushi Kagemitsu smiled and placed the pillow on the bed, while Furuya Rei covered his face in frustration and faced the wall in repentance.

"Hmm? The cherry blossom pendant is finished?" Morofushi Kagemitsu turned around and saw the familiar cherry blossom pendant on the table, his eyes lighting up immediately.

But before he could pick it up, Rei Furuya took the cherry blossom pendant first.

"Hiro, I put a locator inside. Are you sure you want to wear it?" the blond youth asked him earnestly with an extremely serious attitude.

“Of course, but I didn’t know Zero got the locator so quickly.” Morofushi Kagemitsu took the cherry blossom pendant from his hand, praised it as beautiful, and then tilted his head to look at his childhood friend with a smile: “So, what kind of locator does Zero want to choose?”

Jianggu Ling: "..."

Rei Furuya was shocked: "So Hiro, you were serious?!"

Morofushi Kagemitsu raised an eyebrow: "Does Zero think I'm joking?"

Jianggu Ling: "..."

Rei Furuya obediently stuck something that looked like a button on the inside of his watch, then fiddled with his childhood friend's phone, handing over all his future whereabouts to her.

Morofushi Kagemitsu smiled with satisfaction, his eyes crinkling: "Then we're even again~"

Rei Furuya slumped over his desk and mumbled a frustrated "hmm." He felt like he was completely under his childhood friend's thumb, but at the same time, he felt incredibly warm and happy inside.

"Wow, that was fast. Zero actually read so many books while making cherry blossom pendants and working on the locator? Can he understand them? Hmm... they seem a bit complicated."

Rei Furuya looked up and saw his childhood friend looking at the book that was half-open, with the other half of the pages being held down by his arm.

"It's alright, I can understand some of it." Furuya Rei straightened up to show him, and then took the notebook next to him. "I also made some notes and some deductions and guesses."

Morofushi Kagemitsu took the notebook, glanced at it, and without saying anything about the contents, simply closed it and said, "So, Zero, are you still going to continue reading? Aren't you planning to go to sleep?"

"Now?" Furuya Rei glanced at the time. "It's not even nine o'clock yet. It's still early. Let me finish reading this book first."

“Zero.” Morofushi Kagemitsu placed his hand on the book in front of him, looking down at him intently. “How long has it been since you had a good night’s sleep?”

Jianggu Ling: "..."

Rei Furuya guiltily looked away.

This absolutely cannot be said aloud; if I do, I'll definitely get scolded.

"Go to sleep now, Zero." Morofushi Hiromitsu sighed. "There's always more to do than never. Maintaining good physical and mental health is the most important thing. You can't possibly read through all the materials in one night, can you?"

"I know, I'm aware of the situation, I won't let myself get so tired that it affects my work," Furuya Rei quickly waved his hand to explain. "Besides, I have a sparring match with Matsuda tonight, so I'll start today—"

“Sleep, Zero.” Morifushi Kagemitsu smiled.

Jianggu Ling: "..."

Rei Furuya withdrew his hand and obediently placed it on his lap, sitting down properly: "Okay."