On the way back to Tokyo from Kyoto, Furukawa Hirozawa and his three friends were unusually silent, a stark contrast to their cheerful mood on the way there. This trip to find their youth had left all four of them depressed.
Furukawa Hirozawa stared out the car window, his mind elsewhere, often not even realizing what he was looking at.
Memories flashed through his mind like a kaleidoscope.
Occasionally, the corners of his mouth would involuntarily curve upwards.
His friends watched the expression on Furukawa Hirozawa's face, a bitter taste in their mouths.
This feeling was truly extraordinary.
They were happy for their brother's good news, but at the same Time, they felt pity for their own misfortune and a sense of melancholy. They couldn't help but feel that fate was so unfair. They were all otaku who hung out together, so why was Furukawa Hirozawa the only one who found happiness?
But as soon as that thought emerged, he quickly suppressed it.
Everyone was already so unlucky; at least Furukawa was a spark that had been preserved. It was a good thing, after all.
When Furukawa Hirozawa came back to his senses, he realized that the three people around him didn't seem particularly happy.
"What's wrong with you guys? You look glum."
"Damn it!"
Kinoshita immediately jumped up and locked Furukawa Hirozawa in a tight headlock. "How dare you say that! You're the only one who found happiness!"
"Ah~ No, no... I can't breathe."
Furukawa quickly patted his hand.
Kinoshita then released him.
Gasping for fresh air, Furukawa Hirozawa finally looked up, glaring at Kinoshita. "You're getting married soon, what's there to be unhappy about?"
"I'm getting revenge for Hayamikawa and Yamada!"
Kinoshita again put him in a headlock.
"Yes, beat him to death!"
Yamada and Hayamikawa cheered him on from the front.
...
"Cough, cough." Furukawa Hirozawa, recovering, covered his neck with both hands and dry-heaved twice. "You almost choked me to death."
"But I'm not much better off than you guys. I don't even know if I should go look for Junna."
"Of course you should!"
Kinoshita immediately jumped up.
"Didn't Junna's mother make it clear? She went to Tokyo for you."
"That was many years ago. So many years have passed, and a lot could have happened in between," Furukawa Hirozawa mumbled.
His heart pounded uncontrollably.
The initial excitement upon hearing the news slowly turned into fear.
He simply couldn't believe there would be a second miracle in the world.
Some things, once missed, might be gone for a lifetime.
"Idiot!"
Kinoshita raised his hand and chopped Furukawa's head.
"Ah, ouch, ouch..."
Furukawa Hirozawa clutched his head, looking at him resentfully. "If you do that again, I'll hit you back."
"The one who puts it off until tomorrow is an idiot!" Yamada egged him on from the front, quoting a famous line from "proposal daisakusen."
"Exactly!"
Hayamikawa also encouraged him, "Since you're the only one among us with hope, how can you not try?"
He had already obtained Junna's current address from her mother, but Furukawa Hirozawa had lost his courage.
This was probably what they called 'one burst of energy, then weakening, then exhaustion.'
"Let's go now!" Kinoshita urged.
"Are you crazy?" Furukawa Hirozawa raised his bloodshot eyes, looking at Kinoshita as if he were a lunatic.
"Good, now's the Time, strike while the iron's hot! Let's go!" Hayamikawa shouted.
"No!"
...
After returning to Tokyo, Furukawa Hirozawa completely lost the courage to find Yukitake Junna.
He immersed himself in work and playing games.
About a week later, Kinoshita and the others brought it up during a casual chat.
"Hey, Furukawa, did you ever go look for Junna?"
"Hmm... I'm pretty busy," Furukawa Hirozawa said.
"Are you an idiot?!"
"I'm getting married next month," Kinoshita handed the invitation to Furukawa Hirozawa. "I want to see your Junna at the wedding, okay?"
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
Furukawa Hirozawa retorted, "But, congratulations, Kinoshita."
"Thank you. But please, you absolutely must win Junna back. If you don't act soon, Junna might be snatched away by someone else."
"She might already have been snatched away, okay?" Hayamikawa interjected from the side.
"A person who isn't honest at all will miss out on true love." Kinoshita patted Furukawa Hirozawa's shoulder meaningfully.
He looked up, squinting at the distant sunset, a melancholic expression on his face. "Like me, for example."
"Is that true love?"
Furukawa Hirozawa retorted,
"Those were just fleeting encounters, okay?"
...
But they were right. No matter what, he should still meet her, especially since he already knew her address.
Perhaps Junna's mother had already told her about this over the phone.
Wouldn't Junna laugh at him if he still procrastinated?
He remembered how Junna used to call him a 'fussy man' in high school, always indecisive, not liking sports, lacking initiative...
A warm current surged through Furukawa Hirozawa's chest, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily curved into a smile.
With a do-or-die resolve, Furukawa Hirozawa finally mustered the courage on the weekend to find Yukitake Junna's address in Tokyo.
He knocked on the door, and a girl wearing a strawberry-patterned apron appeared at the entrance.
The other person froze for a moment.
"Haoze-kun?"
Junna had her hair tied back with a vertical hair clip. Compared to her high school days, Junna was much thinner now, and she had grown into herself. Her face had lengthened slightly, and she exuded a ladylike aura.
The only things that hadn't changed were her big eyes and her beautiful smile that appeared whenever she saw him.
He remembered something an old guy on the Pokeni forum once said: "You'll never know how much a girl who smiles every Time she sees you likes you."
Furukawa Hirozawa felt his limbs go numb.
Chills ran through his body, as if he had been struck by lightning.
When they finally met, he realized that Time seemed to have never passed. Although Junna had changed quite a bit, seeing her still felt like Furukawa Hirozawa's memory of her.
"Long Time no see, Haoze-kun," Yukitake Junna smiled.
...
She invited Furukawa Hirozawa into the house and even treated him to dinner. They chatted and teased each other, as if nothing had ever changed, and they had never been apart.
This atmosphere intoxicated Furukawa Hirozawa with happiness.
As they were about to say goodbye, Yukitake Junna suddenly remembered something. She quickly jogged a few steps to the bedroom, pulled open a drawer, and took out an invitation, handing it to Furukawa Hirozawa.
With just one glance, Furukawa Hirozawa's vision went dark, and he almost fainted.
It read:
[Haoze-kun:
Hope you are well.
Since you moved to Tokyo, I haven't been able to contact you.
I'm getting married on August 27, 1996. If possible, please make sure to attend.
Because to me, you are a very important friend in my life.]
"I thought I'd never be able to send this invitation. I was hesitant about writing it," Junna said with a shy smile, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
Her exposed ear was slightly red.
"After much consideration, I decided to write it anyway, even if I could never contact you and this invitation might never reach you.
Because..."
Junna looked up, silently gazing at Furukawa.
After two seconds, she smiled and said, "Because we're the best of friends."
"Mm." Furukawa Hirozawa nodded. "The best of friends."
He didn't know why, but when he forced a smile, his mouth felt incredibly bitter.
Furukawa Hirozawa dared not look at Yukitake Junna the whole Time, only wanting to escape this place as quickly as possible.
"Um, Junna," Furukawa Hirozawa hesitated, then carefully asked, "What kind of person is he?"
"Eh?"
Junna paused, thought for two seconds, and then replied with a smile:
"He's someone who, like you, really loves game."
"Oh, does he have Time to spend with you?"
"I'm very busy too. Don't let my delicate appearance fool you; I'm a surgeon at a hospital.
Actually, I think playing game is pretty good, at least better than messing around outside.
People who love playing game probably won't cheat after marriage.
I'm content as long as his heart is with me," Yukitake Junna said with a smile.
"Well then, I'll take my leave now."
"Okay, be careful on your way. Please make sure to come to my wedding."
"Mm."
Furukawa Hirozawa nodded and silently left the place.
He had no recollection of how he got downstairs, how he got into a taxi, or how he returned home.
When he came to his senses, he was already lying in bed.
"Damn it..."
Furukawa Hirozawa covered his eyes with his hand, gritting his teeth in pain.
"The one who puts it off until tomorrow is an idiot..."
...
"Yes, good, good, I understand. Thank you so much. I hope it sells well." Aoki Haruhi hung up the phone and sat down in his chair, a wide smile on his face.
Ghibli had just called. "princess mononoke" was finished and scheduled to be released in August of this year.
Next up was the promotional process.
Since the movie's release date was set, Pokeni could finally start pushing.
The game development for "princess mononoke" was progressing very well. Aoki Haruhi himself was keeping a close eye on it, and it should be fully completed and verified by August.
Then it would be released around October.
This would perfectly capitalize on all the movie's profits. The dual linkage of game and movie was sure to bring in a huge amount of revenue.
Aoki Haruhi's face lit up with a smile at the thought.
As the second half of the year began, good news just kept pouring in.
A month ago, Nvidia's 3D graphics card had been successfully developed.
Samples and trial desktop computers had already been packaged and shipped.
Nvidia's product—the GeForce 256—
was built using a 0.22-micron process, featuring four rendering pipelines and 23 million transistors, with a clear advantage in high resolutions.
What truly made the GeForce 256 shine was its support for a hardware T&L engine.
The T&L function, which handled coordinate transformation and lighting processing, had previously been heavily reliant on CPU calculations.
With the T&L engine integrated into the GPU, it effectively freed up a significant amount of CPU processing power.
The T&L engine was especially friendly to game applications, and coupled with Nvidia's strong emphasis on driver development even before the GeForce series, this GeForce graphics card product from Nvidia gained extremely strong Time dominance.
It was equivalent to being three years ahead of the current world.
And all of this, in large part, was thanks to Aoki Haruhi.
Since the 3D graphics card had been successfully developed and hardware support was sufficient, the shooting project could now begin.
After "princess mononoke" was completed in August, Shinji Mikami and his team would take a vacation, travel, and relax. Upon their return, the shooting game project would be put on the agenda.
Moreover, the Tokyo Game Show was about to be held in July, and Pokeni had also received an invitation. This Time, Aoki Haruhi was well-prepared, with all his projects being trump cards.
Whether it was "princess mononoke," "the witcher 2," or the sequel to "Pokemon 3D World," they were all enough to make him steal the show at the Tokyo Game Show.
Hmm, good. At this thought, Aoki Haruhi couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from curving upwards.
Why were all the good things happening at once?
...
"President."
Just then, a knock came from outside.
He looked up and saw that it was Gen Urobuchi.
"Hmm, is something wrong?" Aoki Haruhi asked.
"Well, I'm getting married in August, and I'd like to request your presence, President."
Gen Urobuchi bowed and placed the wedding invitation on Aoki Haruhi's desk with both hands.
"Eh?"...
Aoki Haruhi was completely stunned.
Who would have thought that a rough man like Gen Urobuchi would actually have a wedding day?
He even got ahead of Shinji Mikami.
Aren't you only in your twenties?
Getting married so early?
The key thing was—
Which girl was so unlucky as to end up with Gen Urobuchi?
Aoki Haruhi was completely baffled.
"Okay, okay, I'll definitely give you a big white envelope." Aoki Haruhi was quite shocked, no less than the impact of the end of the world.
"Congratulations, congratulations. I wish you a happy marriage."
"Thank you, President."
Gen Urobuchi nodded happily. "Then you stay busy, I'm going to work."
With that, Gen Urobuchi left the President's office.
Leaving Aoki Haruhi sitting in his chair, utterly bewildered.
"Terrible."
"Too terrible."
He looked up at the window, wondering if the sun had risen from the west today.
"I never thought a person like Gen Urobuchi, who looks like a murderer, would actually have a girl who likes him."
"Who would dare marry someone with such a twisted mind?"
"President, please don't be so narrow-minded, okay?" Ayase Akane, who had just come in to deliver coffee, overheard Aoki Haruhi's soliloquy.
HR-chan angrily set the coffee cup down heavily in front of Aoki Haruhi, splashing a few drops of coffee onto the President's face.
You're trying to rebel, aren't you?
Aoki Haruhi immediately jumped up from his seat.
"Please don't say that, okay?
Even Urobuchi,
Even Urobuchi."
Ayase Akane tilted her head, thinking for a long Time, apparently unable to figure out what kind of girl could accept him.
Urobuchi himself was actually okay, but the things he wrote were truly extremely dark and twisted.
Which one better reflected the real Urobuchi: the one he was in everyday interactions, or the one in his writing?
Ayase Akane shook her head, not daring to think about such a terrifying thing anymore.
"Even Urobuchi!"
"Also has the right to be happy!"
Ayase Akane said decisively.
Aoki Haruhi had thought he would be single his whole life.
However, Urobuchi Gen didn't get married in his previous life either.
The timeline in this life must have gone seriously wrong!
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