The morning sun invaded the guest suite of Futaba Mansion, filtered by high-quality linen curtains.
Kaito opened his eyes. His body was rested. His spine, for the first time in days, didn't feel like a condemned architectural project. The mattress was a cloud of orthopedic support. The air conditioning kept the room at a crisp 21 degrees.
"If I stay very quiet," Kaito thought, staring at the ornate plaster ceiling, "maybe the universe will forget I exist and I can live here as a luxury ghost."
Unfortunately, the universe had an excellent memory and a sadistic sense of humor.
BAM.
The bedroom door wasn't opened; it was breached.
Fia entered, already in her physical form, bouncing with an energy that should be illegal before 10 AM.
"WAKE UP, SLEEPING BEAUTY OF THE HOODIE!" she shouted, pulling the curtains open and letting real light blind Kaito. "THE MIRACLE HAPPENED! QUANTUM PHYSICS WORKED! COME SEE!"
Kaito covered his head with the goose-down pillow. "Quantum physics has worked for billions of years, Fia. It's not news. Close the curtain."
"No! Get up! The 'Convergence of Souls' event was successfully completed! We have only one Futaba in the living room! And she is making coffee!"
Kaito paused. He lowered the pillow slowly.
One Futaba. Singular.
This meant the end of the mission. The end of crisis management. The end of awkward conversations about underwear and internet photos.
It meant peace.
Kaito got out of bed with surprising speed. "I'm coming."
He dressed quickly, putting on his own clothes, returning the borrowed t-shirt, and went out into the hallway. The smell of freshly brewed coffee—real coffee, not the dirty water he made—guided the way.
Upon entering the living room, the scene was one of disconcerting normalcy.
Mai Sakurajima was sitting in an armchair, reading a script. Fia was now rolling on the Persian rug, murmuring about the softness of the fibers.
And in the open kitchen, with her back to him, was Rio Futaba.
She wore the navy blue sweater and skirt Kaito had made her buy. Her hair was down but well-combed. She wore glasses.
Hearing Kaito's footsteps, she turned.
There was a moment of silence. Kaito analyzed her with the clinical gaze of someone looking for glitches in the Matrix.
She adjusted her glasses. The gesture was Rio's. But the posture... her shoulders weren't hunched. She looked him straight in the eye, without averting her gaze to the floor. There was a firmness in her chin that belonged to Reo.
"Good morning, Tanaka," she said. The voice was calm, lacking the excessive shyness of the original and the defensive aggression of the other. It was a mix.
"Status?" Kaito asked, getting straight to the point.
Futaba smiled. A small but sure smile.
"Integrated," she replied. "I remember everything. I remember sleeping in your room and crying. I remember posting the photos. I remember last night's conversation."
She placed a cup of coffee on the counter and pushed it toward him.
"And I remember you said I was a lifetime maintenance problem."
Kaito took the coffee. "I said it was an inefficient friendship policy. Don't twist my words to sound sentimental."
"Whatever," she said, using his phrase against him. "Thank you, Kaito. For bringing me back."
"You're welcome. Now, if you'll excuse me, my mission is over. I'm going back to my apartment, expel Fia back to her dimension or the closet, and sleep until next year."
He took a sip of the coffee. It was perfect.
"Ah, about that..." Fia began, getting up from the rug and going to the exit door.
Kaito felt a chill. "What now? Is the coffee poisoned? Is the world ending?"
"No!" Fia smiled, and it was that used car salesman smile. "But the System issued a 'Post-Arc Celebration' notification! It is a mandatory tradition in all group narratives!"
"I don't follow traditions," Kaito said, trying to bypass her.
"A date!" Fia shouted. "A Group Date to Celebrate Futaba's Unity! All of us! Walking! Eating! Laughing! Taking pictures in purikura booths!"
Kaito stopped. He looked at Mai. Mai was smiling behind the script.
He looked at Futaba. Futaba was blushing slightly but nodded. "I... I would like to go out. As myself. For the first time."
Kaito looked at the door. Freedom was three meters away.
"I pass," he declared. "Have fun. Send pictures. Or don't. I don't care."
"Kaito..." Mai said, lowering the script. "You didn't hear the most important part of Fia's proposal."
"Which part?"
Fia puffed out her chest. "The part where the 'Mission Hero'—meaning you—sponsors the celebration as a gesture of magnanimity and leadership! In other words: YOU PAY!"
The silence that followed was broken only by the sound of a vein pulsing on Kaito's forehead.
"I... pay?" he repeated, voice dangerously low.
"Yes!" Fia clapped. "Lunch! The movies! Snacks! Transportation! It is the leader's tribute to his support harem!"
"I don't have a harem," Kaito said, logic battling fury. "I have a collection of financial and emotional parasites. And the answer is no. Absolutely not. My bank balance is still recovering from the ice cream and the new TV."
He took a step toward the door. "Goodbye."
"Hold him!" Mai commanded, rising from the armchair with the agility of an action heroine.
Before Kaito could process the order, he felt hands grab his arms.
Futaba, using her new confidence (and maybe the repressed strength of days of stress), grabbed his left arm. Fia, using divine strength (which was cheating), grabbed his right leg.
"This is kidnapping!" Kaito protested, trying to break free without hurting them (which was inefficient). "This is a violation of human rights and my freedom of movement!"
"You lost your rights when you accepted being the protagonist!" Fia laughed, hanging onto his leg like a concrete koala.
"Mai, control your subordinates!" Kaito appealed to higher authority.
Mai walked up to him, stopping right in front of him. She fixed the collar of his t-shirt, smiling sweetly.
"Kaito-kun," she said. "You have two options. Option A: You come with us nicely, pay for lunch, and complain as much as you want. Option B: We drag you to the city, screaming that you are a pervert who tried to run away without paying child support for the three of us, and you pay for lunch anyway."
Kaito looked into her eyes. She wasn't bluffing. Mai Sakurajima was an actress. She could cry on command in the middle of the street and destroy his life in seconds.
He looked at Futaba, who held him with determination. Looked at Fia, who was biting the hem of his pants.
He did the math.
Cost of lunch: Approximately 5,000 yen. Cost of destroyed reputation and potential imprisonment: Incalculable.
"How..." Kaito relaxed his body, giving up the physical fight, "...damnably, financially, catastrophically troublesome."
"That's a yes!" Fia celebrated, releasing his leg.
"Wallet," Mai ordered, extending her hand.
"Why do you need my wallet?"
"To ensure you don't run away while we go to the bathroom," she explained, taking the wallet from his back pocket with the dexterity of a pickpocket. "I keep custody of the funds. You keep custody of our happiness."
Kaito watched his wallet being confiscated. It was the end. He was a hostage of his own good deeds.
"Where are we going?" he asked, defeated, as Futaba finally released his arm but stayed close to block the escape route.
"Enoshima!" Futaba decided, her eyes shining. "I want to go to the aquarium. I've never been there. I thought it was... childish. I want to see the jellyfish."
"Aquarium..." Kaito calculated mentally. "Expensive tickets. Overpriced tourist food. Crowds. Humidity."
"Let's go!" Fia shouted, pushing him from behind toward the door.
And so, Kaito Tanaka was expelled from the comfort of air conditioning, dragged into the scorching Sunday heat, surrounded by three pretty girls who were determined to bankrupt his savings in the name of friendship.
As they walked to the station, Kaito looked at the irritatingly blue sky.
"I should have let the time loop continue," he muttered. "At least in the loop I didn't spend money."
"Stop grumbling, Kaito," Mai said, linking her arm with his. "Think of it as an investment in memories."
"Memories don't pay rent."
"But they pay the soul," Futaba said, walking beside them, smiling at the sun.
Kaito looked at her. The girl who yesterday was two, broken and sad, was now one, whole and smiling.
He sighed. A long, suffering, but... resigned sigh.
"Whatever," he said. "But if anyone asks for ice cream again, I declare bankruptcy."
"I want ice cream!" Fia and Futaba shouted at the same time.
Mai just smiled as they walked arm in arm.
Kaito closed his eyes and kept walking, accepting his fate as the official ATM of Adolescence Syndrome.
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