Chapter 179, Seventy-Third Cycle (9)
Today is January 16th, but tomorrow is January 24th, that's what everyone says.
This was also the day that Professor Agasa chose for Conan Edogawa to go to school.
Rei Furuya rubbed his temples, roughly understanding what the current flow of time was based on.
It's 10 PM now, and Conan Edogawa, who has been out all day, has finally returned home. Kogoro Mouri has added another achievement to his list, and it's related to Yoko Okino.
Therefore, the current time flow only follows the plot around the protagonist Conan, roughly one case, one plot, one point in time, such as the first time going to school.
Rei Furuya could have foreseen what would happen next.
He created a new private document in his phone's notes app and began writing:
On January 13, there were two incidents: a roller coaster murder and the kidnapping of a chairman's daughter.
January 16th, Yoko Okino's locked-room murder case (tomorrow)
January 24th, transfer school (tomorrow) (tentative)
After writing the third point, Furuya Rei added "pending" to the end.
He always felt that even on his first day of elementary school, Conan Edogawa wouldn't have a peaceful life.
After finishing writing in the memo, Rei Furuya stood silently in front of that eerie calendar again.
Even though everyone confirmed that "tomorrow" is January 24th, the calendar shows the normal January 17th immediately following today, January 16th, followed by normal January 18th, January 19th... but "the day before yesterday" is still the strange January 13th. No one seems to think anything is wrong with the two days that are missing in between.
He stood there thinking for more than ten minutes, temporarily suppressing the absurd unease in his heart.
While not being able to remember the date is indeed a big problem, it's fine as long as you find out what "tomorrow" is and what you need to do from those who are in tune with the world's rules in advance.
The problem now is that everyone is worried that his time perception is malfunctioning. Even though everyone tends to believe him, they can't help but worry about him.
For example, you would definitely want him to see a psychologist to see if it's his problem or the world's problem.
Rei Furuya doesn't object to seeing a psychologist; if it puts their minds at ease, that's fine. But the problem is... the psychologist won't work on him. No matter what the test results are, none of them will completely believe it, so what's the point of seeing a psychologist?
Moreover, he hasn't fully figured out the matter yet and is still extremely vigilant. Going to see a psychologist now is definitely not a good decision.
Rei Furuya sighed silently.
Well, let's see. Right now, no one will suggest seeing a psychologist. He needs to figure out the rules first, and hopefully he can find solid evidence.
Rei Furuya didn't choose to sleep this time. He was dressed neatly, sitting upright in his chair, holding his phone, his eyes always on the calendar and clock, quietly waiting for midnight to arrive.
He picked up his pen, slowly but firmly crossed out January 16th from the calendar, circled January 17th, and put a checkmark over January 24th.
The clock on the wall ticked away, and the breeze from the slightly open window made the calendar flutter and rustle softly. Occasionally, the sounds of cars and pedestrians could be heard outside, not loud in the middle of the night, but quite noticeable.
"Tap, tap, tap, tap..."
The seconds moved little by little, approaching the midnight mark, until they finally overlapped completely.
"despair."
It's midnight, it's the next day.
Rei Furuya was completely focused, not even blinking, but even so, in the blink of an eye, just as the clock struck the next "tick," everything changed.
On the calendar, the dates January 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 were not erased, but were crossed out with a black pen, finally stopping at January 24.
On the phone, the date instantly jumped from midnight on January 16th to midnight on January 24th.
Rei Furuya sat stiffly, feeling the chill instantly rush from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Ten seconds later, he got up and walked to the calendar, pointing out the calendar he had photographed the night before and comparing it with the one on the wall.
After comparing them, he asked in a dry voice, "Noah's Ark, what's the date today?"
Noah's Ark, who had been quietly accompanying him and simultaneously broadcasting to the others who couldn't come, said, "January 24th is the day Conan Edogawa goes to school."
"What was yesterday's date?" Furuya Rei asked again.
"January 23rd," Noah's Ark said.
"Don't you remember telling me that January 16th is immediately followed by January 24th?" Furuya Rei took a deep breath.
Noah's Ark paused for a moment, seemingly surprised, and then said, "I checked the chat history, but it's not there. We said January 16th followed by January 17th."
"..." Furuya Rei paused for a moment, "How many days have passed since... January 16th, the day we first discovered I couldn't remember the date?"
"Seven days," said Noah's Ark.
Noah's Ark's voice also sounded a little nervous: "Don't you remember what happened yesterday again?"
Rei Furuya remained silent for a very long time this time.
He clenched and unclenched his fist repeatedly, saying nothing more. Instead, he picked up his phone and searched for news from the past few days before finally joining a group chat.
Everyone in the group already knows about his situation from Noah's Ark and is anxiously asking questions and offering comfort.
And an explanation.
According to them, Rei Furuya has been forgetting what happened every day since he lost track of the date on January 16th, and they have to explain it to him each time.
The seven-day calendar crossed out on the wall wasn't done by anyone else; it was crossed out by Rei Furuya himself, though he simply didn't remember it.
Has he lost his memory?
Rei Furuya sat at the table, pressing his fingers against his brow.
No, this is probably the real "seven days later".
Perhaps it would be a transition like, "A week later, Conan Edogawa reports to Teitan Elementary School."
However, the plot doesn't go into detail about what happened during that week, so we'll skip directly to the beginning of the story.
Even though everyone remembers those seven days as real, and can recount every single detail, they still remember them vividly.
Even the lowest point.
They said that because of "amnesia" and not being able to remember the dates, Rei Furuya has been staying quietly at home these past few days and hasn't gone out to do anything.
Rei Furuya checked the house and found that seven days' worth of food had indeed been consumed.
If he hadn't been certain that his perception was correct and that he already knew there was something wrong with the world, he probably would have seriously doubted whether he was ill.
But that's impossible. Others affected by the world's rules might not notice, but Rei Furuya would quickly realize something was wrong once he calmed down.
Perhaps because he was a bug, although there were signs that his items had been used, no surveillance footage from any location recorded any trace of him.
Apart from the five people in the group, no one else found it strange that they hadn't seen him for seven days.
Even when Hiro came to bring him food and visit him, there was no photograph to prove it; only their oral recollections.
Rei Furuya didn't know how to explain it to them for the time being, so he temporarily accepted the diagnosis of "intermittent amnesia" without refuting it. He only said that he was going to conduct an experiment, and then went out to buy surveillance cameras and install them in his room.
After leaving the house and making sure that others could see him and that his image could be seen on the security cameras, Furuya Rei went home, turned on his computer, and started writing in his diary.
January 24th.
In my mind, yesterday was January 16th, and today is January 24th.
Everyone else says seven days have passed, but I clearly didn't sleep last night and watched the time jump directly from January 16th to January 25th.
I didn't lose my memory; it's just that the time flow in this world is malfunctioning. The plot has undergone a time jump, and I'm the only bug.
Noah's Ark was with me last night, witnessing everything, but it doesn't remember.
Let's try recording it tonight.
...
After finishing writing in his diary and locking it away, Furuya Rei finally had the mood to check on Conan Edogawa's situation and opened his notes app.
The memo remains unchanged from yesterday.
This is also one of the reasons why Furuya Rei is definitely the one with the world in trouble; otherwise, the memo would definitely have been modified.
On January 13, there were two separate incidents: a roller coaster murder and the kidnapping of a chairman's daughter.
January 16th, Yoko Okino's locked-room murder case (tomorrow)
January 24th, transfer to another school (seven days later) (to be determined)
Conan Edogawa has already transferred to Teitan Elementary School and has met some of the Junior Detective League kids.
However, he didn't get into trouble at school. Instead, he bumped into Kogoro Mouri, who was following someone, on his way home from school.
However, nothing bad happened that day.
Rei Furuya squinted.
Is today's plot simply about Conan Edogawa transferring schools? Or is it the start of a series of stalking cases in addition to the transfer?
It's not unusual for a case to take several days.
However, if the world's timeline is flowing normally during the events of this case, then his experiment cannot be conducted.
*
At midnight, Rei Furuya held up a camera and watched the time slowly transition from January 24th to January 25th.
He sighed, turned off the useless camera, and went into the group chat.
[Zero: Yesterday was January 24th, today is January 25th. Yesterday I bought surveillance cameras, wrote in my diary, and chatted with you guys...]
This was the first time since they first discovered he couldn't remember the date that he remembered two consecutive days' events, and the others instantly became excited.
The following January 26th and 27th followed a normal flow of time for Rei Furuya, and the case involving Conan Edogawa was also coming to an end.
Rei Furuya updated the clue in his memo:
January 24th, (seven days later) transfer to another school, the Red Demon Village Fire Festival Murder Incident (1)
January 25, the Red Demon Village Fire Festival Murder Incident (2)
January 26, the Red Demon Village Fire Festival Murder Incident (3)
After updating his memo, Rei Furuya went to write in his diary.
After finishing writing, he held up the camera again, as if he had expected, waiting for midnight to arrive.
After midnight, the date changed to February 1st.
The camera was working properly and clearly captured how January 26th turned into February 1st, but no one found it strange.
Everyone thinks it's perfectly normal that yesterday was January 26th and today is February 1st.
The diary entry stopped on January 26th.
Rei Furuya rubbed his temples, confirming that the current flow of time had two different modes, completely without any pattern, and was only related to the cases set in the plot.
His experiment was half successful; he had at least figured out some of the rules and relaxed a bit, but others couldn't resist.
【Zero Observation Diary】 has sparked a heated discussion.
In their view, it was because Furuya Zero had finally been "normal" for three days, but then started forgetting the dates again.
Although he didn't lose his memory this time, it's still very worrying.
If they simply can't remember the date, 99% of them trust Rei Furuya. The remaining 1% are uneasy because they worry that if something goes wrong, it could cause serious problems for Rei Furuya, so they must doubt and then confirm his safety.
However, with the addition of intermittent amnesia, they really began to worry about Rei Furuya's mental state.
Although the trust level is still as high as 90%, the remaining 10% of concerns can no longer be tolerated or ignored.
Rei Furuya has already gone to the hospital for X-rays and a physical examination. He is in good health and there is no damage to his brain.
If there are still any problems, then it would be limited to mental and psychological state.
However, this issue is very sensitive, and they have been struggling with it until today without telling Furuya Rei, because they are worried that Furuya Rei will think that they do not believe him and that this will hurt him.
But this can't go on forever. What if something goes wrong when the organization goes on a mission?
This is already a critical period for Rei Furuya, and there are very few things that can harm him now. He is almost omnipotent, strong and rational, and can always start over even if something happens. The only thing that can destroy him is his mental state.
They discussed it for a long time, and the possibility that the system was setting a trap was not small. Furuya Rei's death was definitely the most difficult one among them.
They do believe Furuya Rei's statement, and of course wish they were the ones with the problem, but they also have to consider other possibilities.
What if?
They wouldn't dare gamble on even the slightest possibility.
I always feel I have to try every method before I'm satisfied, and now all that's left is a therapist...
The group decided to try asking Furuya Rei what he thought about seeing a psychologist. They chose Morofushi Kagemitsu as their representative to go to Furuya Rei. They listened nervously and cautiously as Morofushi Kagemitsu finally said those words to Furuya Rei.
“Zero,” Morofushi Hiromitsu said softly, “Should we… try seeing a psychologist?”
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