Chapter 14: Third Playthrough (2)
"I feel like I'm dreaming," Date Wataru thought.
Otherwise, why would he have seen Natalie outside the police academy? And why would he feel like crying?
I can't cry in front of Natalie, that would be too embarrassing.
He rushed over, hugged his girlfriend, and spun her around in the cherry blossom tree. When he got angry and started hitting someone because his classmates were copying their funny hugging, Date Wataru finally remembered everything.
Oh right, he was told about the future last night.
That future where four out of the five died, that future where Natalie died for him, and even that future where Natalie's parents died in a car accident on their way to pick up their daughter's body.
That's why he went on a date with Natalie today, since he had the day off, wanting to truly feel her presence.
Just looking at his lover's smiling face makes Date Wataru feel genuine happiness, and even the wind and rain become gentle and romantic.
So when the robbers rushed in with guns, pointing their dark gun barrels at them, Ida Ko's mind went blank for a moment.
He instinctively used his tall frame to protect his lover behind him, recalling what the blond youth had said to him the night before.
【die】
Death is still a very distant word for a 22-year-old young man who has just entered police academy and is full of vigor.
"Bang--"
But he is indeed going to die now.
Matsuda and Hagiwara, having discovered he had been shot, could no longer contain themselves and rushed in.
"No……"
Don't be impulsive! No matter how skilled you are in combat, Matsuda, you can't fight against so many armed thugs!
"Bang bang bang—"
Under Ida Wataru's bloodshot gaze, the two youths also collapsed.
His brain was tingling, and Ida's ears were filled with the violent curses of the kidnappers, the panicked screams of the hostages, and Natalie's desperate cries.
Date Wataru is very good at his studies; the only one in the entire school who can beat him is Furuya Rei.
He could clearly tell that the situation was beyond saving, and he knew he was going to die.
But what will happen to Natalie if he dies? And what will happen to Natalie's parents if she commits suicide for him?
If he dies, what will happen to his father, with whom he just resolved their misunderstanding and unresolved issues last night? His father is no longer a policeman; he's quite old, and his body is so frail and easily bullied…
If he dies, if he, Matsuda, and Hagiwara all die, then what will Furuya do, who is reborn and will do everything in his power to save them?
What will happen to that incredibly earnest, surprisingly soft-hearted, and extremely sentimental blond youth?
Their deaths were an unimaginable blow to Furuya, and Date Wataru knew almost without thinking that he would choose to die and rewind again.
However, Date Wataru and the other three were actually very wary and suspicious of the unknown entity that could cause Furuya Rei to keep dying and rewinding.
What if Rei Furuya doesn't manage to go back in time this time, and actually dies?
There's really no way to prove this kind of thing.
They couldn't afford to gamble with this human life.
so……
"Furuya...live on...you must live on..."
At this point, Date-kun could no longer see clearly. In his gradually darkening and blurry vision, he could only see two similar golden heads trembling.
One was his lover, and the other was his friend. Being able to say goodbye to them properly before he died was a kind of luck.
It is said that hearing is the last function a person loses before death.
Then Date Wataru heard Furuya Rei's trembling voice as he promised to live, and he also heard Natalie's heart-wrenching, desperate, and piercing cries.
When he regained consciousness, he was already a ghost without a physical form and unable to feel pain.
"Don't cry, Natalie..." The tall, black-haired ghost squatted beside his own corpse, helplessly reaching out to gently stroke his grieving lover, but his hand passed right through her.
Date-sensei was speechless for a moment and could only slowly withdraw his hand.
Rei Furuya suddenly stood up slowly.
Date-soon immediately turned to look at him, afraid that he might do something foolish.
But no, although it was obvious that the blond youth was filled with self-blame, guilt, and pain to the point of despair, he still tried very hard to calmly and rationally scan his surroundings, observing all the details to gather information and think about something.
Date Wataru sensed something was wrong. Why was he observing all this at this time?
There is only one answer.
"Wait! Furuya! You promised me you'd live well!" Date Wataru jumped up, forgetting he was a ghost, and tried to grab the blond youth's shoulder but missed, instead meeting the stunned Onizuka instructor's gaze.
"Instructor..." Date Wataru felt a pang of guilt and sadness, but immediately reacted, raising his voice, "Instructor! Stop Furuya! He's trying to commit suicide!!!"
Onizuka Hachizo couldn't hear him at all, his incredulous gaze shifting back and forth between the corpses of his students.
Ida Hang anxiously circled around them until he saw Natalie suddenly reach for the gun on the ground.
"Wait! Natalie!! Stop!!!" Date Kou lunged forward to stop her, but couldn't reach her.
Fortunately, Natalie's actions were stopped by Rei Furuya.
"No, this last bullet is for myself."
Date Wataru, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, instantly felt another surge of anger, and blurted out, "You actually prepared in advance to save yourself one last bullet?! You're really something, Furuya! Did you plan this all along?!"
"And I promised the class monitor I would never let you die." The blond youth slowly pulled the gun out of Natalie's hand.
"You promised me you would live!!!" Date Kou was furious.
"I also promise you, I will definitely rescue Sergeant Date." The blond youth continued to make his vow.
“Next time, I will absolutely not let anyone die again,” he said.
The blond youth didn't seem to be making a vow to Natalie or anyone else, but rather to some terrifying being unseen by others, or simply to himself.
In short, it's as if this is something I have to do, but it has nothing to do with anyone else.
"Bang--"
Ida was very close; he was almost overlapping with the gun barrel in front of him.
Therefore, he clearly saw the golden bullet spinning as it entered the golden head.
Then, in an instant, a horrifying crimson hole was carved out, turning a living person into a corpse.
Ida Ko was stunned.
He saw countless drops of blood spraying into the air, passing through his head, and then splashing onto the white wall behind him, creating yet another picture of death.
He saw that Natalie's blank, incomprehensible face was also splattered with a few drops of blood.
He also saw that the instructor, Onizuka, cried out in grief to Furuya and then stumbled over to check the blond youth's vital signs, but quickly gave up trying to save him. His back looked as if he had aged decades in an instant.
Ida Wataru felt as if he had died again, like a ghost.
*
Metropolitan Police Department Police Academy, student dormitory, 5:30 a.m.
Ida Wataru woke up with a start.
Even after a full ten minutes, his fingers were still trembling slightly, unable to escape the suffocating pain and despair he had been experiencing in his dream. Before his eyes, it was still the bank filled with crimson blood and cold corpses.
The tall, short-haired young man wiped his face hard, took some time to tidy himself up, and rushed out to attend the morning training before being late.
He decided to go and ask those people directly.
Although his memories were gradually fading and blurring over time, making it impossible for him to test their authenticity with any objects, the images of the moments before and after his death were so vivid and unsettling that he couldn't simply dismiss them as a dream and forget them.
"Did you have any strange dreams last night?" Date asked.
"A dream?" Matsuda Jinpei nodded. "I did have a dream."
Ida Ko's eyes lit up.
"I beat that blond bastard to a pulp in my dream yesterday, turning his head into a pig's head!" The curly-haired youth swung his fist, a smug smile on his face.
Date Wataru's smile froze: "..."
"Dream? I don't think so." Kenji Hagiwara smiled, tilted his head, and winked. "I slept soundly last night without being disturbed at all. I didn't even know that Jinpei ran out to fight and knocked out his dentures."
Matsuda Jinpei: "Hey!"
"Ah, I did have a bad nightmare last night..." Morofushi Kagemitsu's smile was a little forced, as if he didn't want to talk about it anymore.
"Really?! What kind of nightmare was it?!" Date Wataru exclaimed excitedly. "Was it a dream about the future?"
However, if Morofushi also knew, it would mean that he had also died once?
Then... in that dream world, didn't they all die? How desperate must Furuya have been at that time?
"The future?" Morofushi Kagemitsu was stunned for a moment, then shook his head with a smile. "No, no, what I had was a nightmare about the past, about things from my childhood."
Ida Kou was utterly disappointed and began to doubt whether he had really made a mistake.
If what was said in the dream is true, then the other people who died should also have those memories, right? Why is it that only he has those memories now?
When your memories and perceptions don't align with those of everyone around you, or even the whole world, and you're the only one who knows those things, it's easy for others to doubt you.
"Did you have some strange nightmare last night, class monitor?" Furuya Rei looked at him curiously. His innocent, droopy eyes, clear purple pupils, and delicate baby face made him look nothing like a 22-year-old adult; he was full of youthful energy.
He blinked and tilted his head, asking, "What kind of nightmare was it? About the future? Can you tell us?"
Furuya doesn't seem like someone who possesses those memories at all...
"No, it's nothing." Date Kou scratched the back of his head and laughed. "Forget it, there's nothing to say about that kind of future, it's just a nightmare."
"If it's just a nightmare, don't worry about it," Furuya Rei said with a smile, patting him on the shoulder.
“Yes.” Date Kou perked up again. “Alright! Let’s continue training! Onizuka squad! Assemble!”
*
One month later.
Although he said he didn't care, Ida Airi was still a little concerned.
Even after a whole month has passed, he still has that nightmare from time to time.
The better his relationship with those four people was, the more he cared about them.
Even while cleaning, he couldn't help but keep an eye on the blond youth over there.
"Excuse me, Matsuda, could I borrow your dustpan for a moment?" Furuya Rei turned around and nudged Matsuda Jinpei.
"Here you go." Matsuda Jinpei handed it to him, then suddenly laughed, gesturing mischievously, "Hey, Zero, remember to come back to me after you're done!"
Rei Furuya paused for a moment, then burst out laughing, before giving it a deadpan rating: "So boring! Two points!"
"Hey, hey, hey! This should be a zero score, right?" Matsuda Jinpei said, then couldn't help but laugh.
Ida Wataru watched with satisfaction as the relationship between the two improved, and his previously somewhat depressed mood lifted as a result.
As he walked over, he overheard their childhood friends jokingly saying that they were starting to get jealous of the two's relationship.
Just as Ida Wataru was about to join the conversation and joke around, he heard a group of girls on the other side of the fence shouting at Kenji Hagiwara, telling him not to forget the mixer this weekend.
Ida Wataru, who has a girlfriend, didn't pay any attention until someone suddenly said that.
"Remember to bring a few handsome guys with you! Like that blond foreign guy over there!"
Ida Ko's face darkened instantly. He turned around abruptly and said in a deep voice, "Who are you calling a foreigner?"
Kenji Hagiwara quickly smiled and pulled back the angry Wataru Date: "Alright, alright, they didn't mean any harm. You scared them away. They misunderstood you as an instructor because the squad leader really looks like an instructor!"
"Honestly, they always label people so easily just based on their appearance." Date Wataru was still very annoyed.
Having a blonde, blue-eyed mixed-race girlfriend, Kou Date knows very well how painful it is for Natalie to experience exclusion and being judged by appearance, so he tries his best to help Rei Furuya reduce some of that.
Morofushi Kagemitsu also joined in trying to calm the class president, who was inexplicably very angry. Since the cleaning was finished, they decided to go have lunch together. However, when they turned around, they found that their childhood friend, who was the center of attention, had no reaction at all.
"Zero?" Morofushi Kagemitsu noticed that the man was looking at the laundromat owner who had driven to the police academy to change clothes with a terrifying expression, and a sense of doubt immediately arose in his heart.
However, upon hearing his call, the blond youth's expression instantly returned to normal, and he ran over with a smile: "Coming, coming, Hiro, what do you want to eat for lunch today?"
Morofushi Kagemitsu gave the owner of the outhouse laundry shop a strange look. Before he could figure it out, his childhood friend pulled him up to chat with the other three, temporarily forgetting about the incident.
However, at lunchtime, something else happened.
It started when two people sitting at the table next to them suddenly started talking about learning English.
Those were students in their class who had always struggled with English, so they jokingly suggested that Rei Furuya teach them.
"Furuya must speak excellent English, right? You can tell just by looking at him!"
"Um...it's alright," replied Rei Furuya, whose English was perfect.
Because of his family environment, his English is indeed very good.
"Haha! Just as I thought! No wonder he's a blonde mixed-race kid! That's great, I've heard that mixed-race kids are all good-looking and smart, and Furuya is a handsome guy and a genius!"
"Furuya's English must be better than the teacher's! I'm so envious, I wish I could be born with English skills too~"
Date Wataru abruptly stood up, strode over, grabbed the person with a toothpick in their mouth, and said in a dark voice, "Hey! Don't judge a book by its cover! Besides, not everything is innate! Furuya's excellence is the result of his own hard work, and it can't be explained by simply saying he's born that way or that he's a genius! Don't deny his own efforts!"
Ida Wataru always had a terrifying aura; apart from his four close friends, no other student in the school was afraid of him.
This time, the two quickly admitted their mistake and apologized, saying they wouldn't do it again. Only then did Date Wataru change his expression, pat them on the shoulder with a smile, and say, "Good, you understand. Be careful next time." Satisfied, he walked back to continue eating.
Suddenly, a very sly smile appeared on Kenji Hagiwara's face as he lowered his voice and moved closer to Wataru Date.
"Hey, class monitor, you don't actually like Furuya, do you?" he asked.
"Huh?!" Date Wataru, who had just sat down, almost jumped up.
"Pfft cough cough cough cough cough cough—" Rei Furuya next to him choked and coughed loudly.
Morofushi Kagemitsu was completely stunned. He didn't even bother to check on his childhood friend as usual. Instead, he stared at Hagiwara Kenji with his mouth agape.
Only Matsuda Jinpei showed a dead fish-like expression that said, "Here we go again."
"It's okay, no need to hide it, I don't care about this at all!" Kenji Hagiwara even smiled and gave a thumbs up.
"How could that be! I have a girlfriend!" Date Wataru quickly replied.
The air suddenly became still.
Then, the four people, who had been stunned, suddenly jumped up, grabbed his shoulders, shook him wildly, and screamed.
"What?! What did you say?! Class monitor, you have a girlfriend???"
Date Wataru: "..."
Date Wataru, with deadpan eyes: "So why are you so surprised? Do I look like someone who would have a girlfriend at all?"
Kenji Hagiwara went berserk: "But! But class president, you... you didn't tell us anything!!!"
Matsuda Jinpei exploded: "Exactly! Damn it! When did you secretly get a girlfriend all by yourself?! You damn winner in life!"
Ida Wataru was speechless: "When...did I have a girlfriend before I met you guys? You didn't even ask."
To be honest, it's rather strange that these four handsome and capable men don't have girlfriends yet.
"Class monitor! Class monitor! Do you have a photo? Let us see!" Kenji Hagiwara started pestering him to see what his girlfriend looked like.
"Yes, I do, but I'll have to wait until I get back to the dorm tonight to show you on my phone," Ida Kou said helplessly. "Alright, alright, you guys are too excited. I'll introduce Natalie to you next time I have the chance."
“Natalie?” Morofushi Kagemitsu was taken aback.
“Yes, Natalie is also of mixed race, with very beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes,” Date explained. “Natalie, like Furuya, is often misunderstood because of her appearance, so I couldn’t help but get a little excited before.”
"I see!" Kenji Hagiwara exclaimed in realization, but then showed a slightly regretful expression.
Rei Furuya, unable to contain himself any longer, punched him: "You just want to stir up trouble, don't you?"
"Hehe~" Kenji Hagiwara laughed, pretending to be stupid.
In fact, as the class leader, Date Wataru has always been taking care of everyone.
He is a very passionate and righteous person, and he is also very protective of his own. He has helped not only Furuya Rei, but also many other people over the past month.
But as expected, Ryouya Zero still had the most.
Perhaps it was because Furuya Rei really looked like an overly well-behaved top student, coupled with his outstanding grades and unique appearance, that Date Wataru couldn't help but pay more attention to him.
That's why, during the arrest technique class the next day, Rei Furuya lost to him for the first time because of his hesitation and soft heart, which made Wataru Date so angry.
He directly reprimanded him in front of the whole class, telling him that he couldn't always be gentle with people, especially not to hesitate when dealing with criminals who couldn't be persuaded by words, and that only by being strong enough could he consistently uphold justice.
(Matsuda Jinpei shouted incredulously, "Class President, who are you calling gentle and indecisive! Have you forgotten that he knocked out one of my dentures on his first day of school!?")
“Failed justice will not only arouse doubt and unease in others, but it will also put your own life in danger.”
Date continued to reprimand Furuya Rei earnestly.
At that moment, he remembered that dream again.
“Remember this, even a policeman only has one life.”* He said earnestly.
"Mmm!" The blond youth nodded obediently, looking like he had listened attentively, which made Date Hang very gratified.
Then, he gradually became embarrassed, and after calming down, Date Wataru quickly pulled him up from the ground and apologized.
Rei Furuya doesn't really look like someone who came back from the future at age 29 and went through several reincarnations; he looks like an ordinary 22-year-old police academy student.
Although he was indeed excessively outstanding, he was still clueless, naive, and immature, not the all-powerful Furuya Rei of his dreams.
Perhaps he's overthinking it.
Ida Kou couldn't remember when the nightmare happened. The peaceful and happy school life of the past month gradually lessened his fear of the dream, and the last trace of doubt was completely put aside at this moment.
Looking back now, although I can't remember much, I feel that many things in reality are different from what happened in the dream, so it probably really was just a dream.
That's right. No matter how you look at it, that kind of future is too bleak. It's more like a nightmare. How could it really become a reality?
Five people died and four of them died. Even for the police profession, which has a high casualty rate, this is really too outrageous.
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