My daily life in various anime crossovers can't possibly be this sci-fi.

Jiang Jinghua turned to look at Nishikino Maki in surprise.

On her dignified and beautiful face, her slightly narrowed eyes curved into crescent moons with a smile. To prevent herself from laughing out loud, she gently covered her mouth with her right hand.

"To be able to say something like that without batting an eye..." Maki said with a smile, "You really have improved in every way since we first met."

"..." Jiang Jinghua was a little unsure how to respond.

"I've never thought about wanting to be with people," Maki said, looking at the two people chatting happily with their fingers intertwined not far away. "I've never had any particularly close friends growing up. Of course, when it comes to specific business matters, I have quite a few like-minded comrades. It's not that I'm unpopular or afraid of socializing; I just simply hate chatting with people."

"Aren't we just chatting casually right now?"

"No, this isn't just casual conversation. I have something important to tell you."

Maki turned her head and looked directly into Jiang Jinghua's eyes with her clear, watery gaze.

"Aside from those scum who give up on themselves, I believe there are no useless people in this world. There must be things in this world that no one but you can do. Just because you haven't encountered them yet doesn't mean they don't exist."

"Of course, this is just a baseless belief and speculation. However... from the naked apes who ate raw meat and drank blood on the grasslands, humans have gradually evolved into what we are today. Isn't a large part of the driving force behind this evolution precisely baseless beliefs and speculations?"

"..."

“You should know better than me just how great the power of belief can be, right?” Nishikino Maki laughed again. “After all, you come from that great country, you know.”

“…Well, maybe.” Jiang Jinghua replied noncommittally.

However, no matter what, using such examples to argue for such an insignificant little problem is a bit too... something else.

what

Chapter 101, Section 101: Honoka's Psychological Research

at the same time.

On Honoka's sickbed.

"Haa...uh-huh."

Honoka yawned sleepily.

"Are you sleepy?" Minami Kotori asked.

"...I'm sleepy," Honoka said, squinting. "Even though chatting with Koto was fun..."

"It's okay. If you feel sleepy, go to bed early. After all, Guoguo is a patient right now."

"...I'm fine, thank you." Honoka smiled.

……

a little worried.

Thinking this, Minami Kotori unconsciously tightened her grip on Honoka's pale little hand.

It's been like this since just now. The responses are noticeably less enthusiastic, always using phrases like "Hey," "Oh," "Um," or "And then?" There's absolutely no sign of them initiating conversations. Even stranger, the frequency of their use of honorifics has increased significantly…

"Okay, I'm going to sleep now... Ah, wait!" Honoka seemed to want to say something, but quickly stopped herself.

"what's up?"

"...It's nothing. I thought about the potential risk of infection, so I decided against it. Sorry for saying something strange." Honoka's smile was gentle and polite.

"As for contagiousness, I asked Uncle Nishikino before," Kotori said. "He said that according to the current information, this variant is not very contagious, so it's okay."

"Is that so..."

"So, is there something you need?"

"Uh, it's nothing... it's just..." Honoka's cheeks flushed bright red, and her voice became hesitant, "Could we... like when we were little..."

"What? I thought it was something serious." Minami Kotori smiled helplessly. "Of course! Mom brought over the pajamas before, so it's no problem at all."

"Ah, uh, eh?" Honoka exclaimed in surprise, "W-Is it okay? Won't the bed be too small?"

"I think it's acceptable... Hey Honoka-chan, you were the one who suggested sleeping with me, weren't you?"

"Ah, that's true... Well, thank you so much." Honoka said with a straight face.

……

That's what's so strange about it.

"Eh? It's okay, it's okay! We're all girls anyway, and we've done this kind of thing so many times when we were little! What's the big deal! Please, please..." This should be Honoka's normal reaction.

"You've been behaving strangely since earlier, Honoka." Minami Kotori's expression turned serious as she looked directly into Honoka's darting eyes. "Is something on your mind? If there's anything bothering you, be sure to tell us!"

"It's okay, it's okay! I'm perfectly fine now!" Honoka shook her head as fast as a spin dryer. "More importantly, Koto, you should go change your clothes!"

"..."

After that, using the excuse that "Honoka is going to rest," she made Yasuhiro and Maki leave the room.

Next, it's time to go to bed, turn off the lights, and sleep.

Although the lights were off, Kotori could still see Honoka's sleeping face thanks to the visibility provided by the moonlight.

It looks just like a small animal.

My sleeping posture was surprisingly well-behaved; I didn't move around or talk in my sleep. Was I really tired, so I fell asleep quickly?

...although the snoring was still as loud as ever.

Kotori reached out and gently stroked Honoka's short hair.

What is Honoka thinking right now?

……

The next morning.

Good morning, Jinghua Jun. You're up so early.

Honoka Kousaka, still sleepy from waking up, greeted Jinghua Jiang, who was using a computer on a table in an empty hospital room.

"Correction, it's not that I got up really early." Jiang Jinghua calmly typed on the keyboard, "It's that I didn't sleep all night."

"Huh? Did you stay up all night?" Honoka exclaimed softly. "What are you doing?"

"It's nothing, just practice questions from the campus network." Jiang Jinghua closed the software window that was filled with various complex 3D graphics and lines of code. "Doing more questions will earn you more credits. SCIC credits are quite useful."

He stood up and walked over to Honoka.

"But what about you?" Jiang Jinghua said, "How are you feeling?"

"Ah... I feel great!" Honoka's mood instantly soared as if a switch had been flipped. "I wasn't seriously ill to begin with, and after a good night's sleep, I feel even better! I feel like I'll be able to be discharged soon!"

"That's wonderful." Jiang Jinghua nodded. "So, what about Love Live... have you been paying attention to it?"

"What? Why does everyone keep asking me this kind of thing?" Honoka puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction. "Kotori kept asking me this over and over in bed last night. It was so annoying!"

"In bed?! Ah... cough cough, it's nothing." Jiang Jinghua coughed twice. "So, you mean you don't care anymore?"

"That's it!" Honoka shouted, "It's just that we had really bad luck!"

Suddenly, as if she had remembered something, she quickly lowered her voice.

"So even though I was eliminated in the first round of the preliminaries, I have absolutely no regrets." Honoka smiled and shook her head. "I'll just try harder next time."

"Hmm... okay. That's the best way to think about it."

Jiang Jinghua did not continue asking questions, even though there were indeed many things he wanted to ask.

Honoka's tone just now was clearly abnormal.

Especially when the topic of Love Live was brought up, she was practically bursting with anger. But afterwards, she consciously calmed herself down...

Although I don't consider myself to have much knowledge of women's psychology, at this point, Honoka Kousaka's disguise had become so clumsy that even someone like me could see through it.

"So, Honoka, what brings you here?" Jiang Jinghua asked.

"...It's nothing." Honoka shook her head. "I went out of my way to trouble you to stay with me, so it's not strange for you to come and say hello in the morning, is it?"

"There's nothing strange about it. Thank you."

Honoka nodded slightly and quietly left the room.

Watching Honoka's departing figure, Jiang Jinghua couldn't help but frown.

Perhaps I should ask Minami Kotori a little. The two of them can sleep in the same bed, so they definitely know each other better than I, a half-baked person.

Go and exchange the information you currently possess with her, and then make a judgment and a decision on the next step.

Jiang Jinghua stood up, switched the computer to sleep mode, walked out of the ward, and headed towards the ward where Kotori and Honoka had rested the night before.

what

Chapter 102, Section 102: Something Only I Can Do

"Jinghua-kun, you said you think Honoka looks strange?" Kotori said with some surprise when asked about Honoka.

"Hmm." Jiang Jinghua nodded, and said with concern, "His behavior and tone are clearly not normal."

"..."

Minami Kotori lowered her head and gently bit her lower lip.

“I have that feeling too…” Minami Kotori said softly. “She must be thinking about something, right? At least that’s what I think. I’ve tried asking her, but no matter what, she won’t tell me.”

Kotori reached out and gently wiped the corner of her eye.

"It would be terrible if he were just pretending, acting like nothing was wrong, but actually being troubled by that matter..."

Jiang Jinghua wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that Nan Qinli's tone seemed to carry a hint of a sob.

"As her childhood friend, Qinli, you should be able to think of a way to persuade her, right?" Jiang Jinghua asked.

“Of course I tried to do that. But she… didn’t seem to care at all. She always said she was in a good mood and there was nothing wrong with her,” Kotori Minami said.

"...That's strange. This isn't like Honoka at all, is it?" Jiang Jinghua was completely puzzled. "She should be the kind of person who immediately finds someone to vent to when she has a problem, until her mouth is dry, right?"

"Maybe……"