A youth story of a passerby at the end of the world

"I see."

The boy turned around and shouted to the students, "Move those obstacles over there, the person outside wants to come in."

"Yes~"

"Yes Yes."

Uesugi Genshin didn't wait long at the East Gate. The gate opened, and a head popped out, looking around. When he saw the corpse in the distance, he was so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth. After confirming that it was the body, he opened the gate and made way for him.

"Come in, you're really amazing."

"Thank you for the compliment," Uesugi Genshin replied simply.

Upon entering the stadium, the situation was immediately apparent. A quick glance revealed no familiar faces, but there were quite a few people, probably around two or three hundred.

Several people and the bespectacled boy from before gathered around.

"Are you a student from another school?" After all, the clothes were clearly uniforms.

"Yes, my friend's older sister is supposed to go to school here, so I came here to pick her up."

She? She looks like a girl.

"How's it going outside?"

"Oh no, some streets are completely deserted. Many people must have gone into hiding."

There will always be some people who are a little behind on the news, because they don't care, are busy, or are too lazy to check the news. On his way here, he could still see those people walking on the street without caring at all.

Well, the price of realizing things too late...

By this time, it wasn't just a few people surrounding Uesugi Genshin; more people who were interested gradually gathered around.

"Over at the station?"

“Even if the tram is still running, it’s not very safe at this time. Do you want to gamble?” Uesugi Genshin raised his voice so that everyone else could hear.

"What should we do then?" they discussed among themselves.

"By the way, you're here to find someone. You can check if the person you're looking for is here." Or maybe they're already dead.

"Hmm." Uesugi Genshin called out, "Excuse me, is Sakurajima Mai here?"

"Miss Sakurajima Mai, your sister asked me to pick you up."

"Is Mai Sakurajima there?"

Several shouts went unanswered, but a murmur of discussion arose.

"Sakurajima Mai? The one from our school?"

"Ah, that's the one."

"Hey, someone's here to pick her up?"

"I didn't see her. She must have died outside."

"Ha, nobody's answering."

Uesugi Genshin asked again, "Does anyone know where she is?"

"Um, it seems like Sakurajima didn't go to school today," someone in the crowd said.

"Ah, it seems so."

"She's not here."

The person who spoke was probably Mai Sakurajima's classmate.

Come to think of it, I forgot to ask, what grade is Sakurajima Mai in...?

He vaguely remembered that after Mai Sakurajima announced her retirement, she continued her acting career for a period of time due to some pre-arranged contracts. She basically did not attend school in her first year of high school, and the story begins when she is already in her third year.

The consequence of missing a year is that the class has become fixed, and this fixed structure is not easy to change. Everyone feels secure because they have a place in the class, and they all stay in that place, struggling to maintain their position within the class.

Therefore, Mai Sakurajima, who is always late for school, will inevitably be seen as a difficult person to deal with, and it is only natural that she will be isolated.

And since she is a celebrity, people will naturally care, but they cannot or dare not approach her casually.

If you actively try to talk to her, you'll attract attention. And if you attract attention, people might say bad things behind your back, like "How annoying!" or "What a smug guy!" That's the current situation for those who slipped through the net of compulsory education, and Uesugi Genshin is pretty sure that this will happen.

No one would risk being ostracized in class, since there would be no chance to make amends if they did, and everyone was well aware of that.

Ultimately, although the students here say things like "I'm so bored" and "Is there anything fun to do?" every day, none of them are genuinely seeking any change.

"Really? Do you know why she took the leave?"

"Uh... the class monitor should know, right?"

"Ah, it seems to be because of work or something?"

"..."

So it seems we've come up empty-handed.

Things have gotten complicated again.

Uesugi Genshin stared silently at the brown wooden ceiling.

"Is Azusagawa Sakuta here?" He asked another question, using a name that most people, or rather most people, were unfamiliar with. He was probably also a student at Minebara High School.

"Here," a lazy voice came from the crowd.

"Um, what can I do for you?" He stepped out from the crowd.

With his brown, tousled hair and brown eyes, as well as his very handsome figure, and the fact that he has a very cute younger sister, he is a formidable figure with the qualities of a brother-in-law, even though he seems like a "boring" person.

"Do you know Makinohara Shoko?" Uesugi Genshin's next question transformed him completely, like a lazy cat suddenly turning into a lion.

There are pictures here, which can be viewed after the updated version

Chapter Twenty-Eight: I Was Just a Kind Passerby

“Makinohara… Shoko.” From a moment of dazedness to a ferocious expression in the next instant, Azusagawa Sakuta’s change of expression was simply divine.

"Do you know Miss Xiangzi?"

He looked serious and excitedly moved so close that he could see his eyelashes clearly; his voice even startled the students next to him.

"Zichuan, calm down." The voice came from a short girl who was about 155 cm tall and wore glasses. The white coat she wore over her school uniform was very eye-catching, and her upright posture made her look somewhat cool.

Uesugi Genshin remembered that her name was Futaba, but he couldn't remember whether it was her surname or given name. However, he remembered one thing very clearly: she was a genius who could talk about quantum mechanics without hesitation.

There are pictures here, which can be viewed after the updated version

"Sakuta, what's wrong?" Two more people arrived. One was a boy who had just asked the question. He seemed to be Sakuta's friend and had a similar aura to Hayato Hayama. He was a sporty and sunny boy. The other was a girl who seemed reluctant and was standing very close to the boy. She was probably his girlfriend or something.

"Who are you?" he asked in order to recall the names of the supporting characters he had forgotten.

"Rio Futaba," the girl replied calmly.

"I am Kunimi Yuuma, Sakuta's friend, and this is my girlfriend, Kamiri Saki."

Oh, another person named Saki. Is this name popular?

The girl named Risaki turned her head to the side, seemingly unconcerned. No wonder Kunimi Yuuma took the initiative to introduce her.

"Anything is fine with this. You...you just mentioned Ms. Shoko, didn't you?" Sakuta Azusagawa asked eagerly.

Only a handful of people could make him so anxious, and his first love was one of them.

Uesugi Genshin nodded firmly and said, "Yes, I said it, Makinohara Shoko."

Do you know Miss Xiangzi?

The force and boldness of the impact made Uesugi Genshin take a few steps back, which also prevented their conversation from being overheard by unrelated people.

"Yes, I know you, just like I know you, Sakuta Azusagawa."

“Me? I don’t know you.” Sakuta Azusagawa was taken aback at first, then denied it.

"Is such that."

Rio Futaba, standing nearby, gradually frowned, while Yuuma Kunimi listened intently to the story about his brother.

"So where is Ms. Shoko now? Is she safe?" Sakuta Azusagawa asked the question that concerned him most.

"I don't know. By the way, are your scars still there?" Uesugi Genshin asked in return.

This sudden question made Rio Futaba's expression turn serious, and Saki Uesato also turned to look at them. She disliked her boyfriend's strange friend intensely because of that scar, which had also ruined her boyfriend's reputation at school.

“The scar? The scar disappeared a month ago, and at the same time... Miss Shoko also disappeared before my eyes.”

"What's going on?" This part of the story wasn't in the original work.

But if the world had changed, the story of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai probably would never have started.

According to Sakuta Azusagawa's account, Shoko Makinohara said goodbye to him a month ago.

"...Sakuta, the future has changed, you're alright now..."

On that beach, Sakuta Azusagawa, who regularly goes for walks hoping to run into Shoko Makinohara, watched helplessly as she disappeared the next second.

"I see." Uesugi Genshin understood somewhat.

"So your scar is gone?"

Sakuta Azusagawa lifted his shirt, revealing his smooth chest. "She disappeared. So, Ms. Shoko, what happened to her? What do you know?"

Uesugi Genshin changed the subject, "In that case, let me tell you a story."

"A was feeling down on the beach because of his sister's cyberbullying and the scars that suddenly appeared on his body. A girl appeared and comforted the dejected boy, becoming his pillar of support and the object of his secret crush. Because she was wearing a high school uniform, the boy was encouraged to enroll in that high school, but he never saw her. It was as if she had never existed in the school."

Sakuta Azusagawa roughly knew that this was referring to himself, because the previous experience was what he had gone through. Rio Futaba also knew, because Azusagawa had told her about it.

"Later, he found a girlfriend at this school. On a rainy day, he met a girl who was hesitating about whether to adopt a stray cat in a box. She was now in junior high school and her name was Makinohara Shoko. Afterwards, A helped Shoko adopt the cat and allowed her to visit it anytime. As time went by, they gradually became familiar with each other."

Girlfriend? Sakuta Azusagawa felt a little unreal. Would he have a girlfriend in the future? No, this is just a story. What about the girl Shoko?

"Suddenly, for a while, the girl Xiangzi stopped coming. A didn't pay attention because his relationship with his girlfriend was getting warmer. Then one day, a girl knocked on the door. It was the girl who had comforted him that year, his first love. She had gone to college and had nowhere to stay. She wanted A to let her stay. His girlfriend didn't say anything, and A agreed."

"When A accompanied his sister to the hospital for a check-up, he ran into Xiangzi, a girl in a hospital gown. It turned out that he hadn't seen her for a while because she had a congenital heart disease. As she got older, the burden was increasing, and she probably wouldn't live to go to high school."

...He regularly accompanies his sister to the hospital, that's correct, so we're talking about him, and also his heart condition...

"After that, A would come to see the girl every day, hoping to put her mind at ease during her last moments. During this time, the girl, Shoko, gradually fell in love with A. Suddenly, the girl who lived at his house said that she hoped he would go on a date with her in Enoshima on Christmas Eve a few days later, but A's girlfriend was also going on a date with him that day."

"What a two-timing scumbag..." Rio Futaba thought to herself, speechless.

"This made A hesitate for a moment, but he quickly overcame his hesitation. His current girlfriend was definitely more important than his first love, that's what he thought. At this time, the girl Shoko's heart condition suddenly worsened, but A was helpless."

"This is also the girl's goal, because A was originally going to die on Christmas Eve on his way to Enoshima to meet his girlfriend. So as long as she sets the date in Enoshima, A, who will definitely choose his girlfriend, will not die."

!

"After his death, the doctor found an organ donation form in his pocket, and his heart was transplanted to a girl named Shoko who urgently needed a heart. Because he was already dead, the doctor cut open his chest without any hesitation, leaving three scars on his body."

! !

"Shoko, who survived, wanted to share her joy with A, who had been taking care of her, but she was very saddened to learn that the heart that saved her was A's, who had already died.

Although she could have entered the same high school as A-kun, gone to university, and lived a good life—this was the life Shoko in this world would have experienced—the person she most wanted to tell, the person she most wanted to share her joy with, was no longer there.

"So... Makinohara Shoko went back to the past and found the past A-kun, whom we'll call B-kun. Makinohara Shoko comforted the dejected B-kun on the beach where he was being cyberbullied by his sister and where scars had suddenly appeared on his body."

!!!

"This, this isn't saying..." Sakuta Azusagawa's eyes widened.

"This..." Rio Futaba pondered, while Yuuma Kunimi seemed to understand something as well.

"You've noticed, haven't you?"

"The rest of the story is the same, but on Christmas Eve, B realized that if he didn't go to Enoshima, both Shokos would disappear. He just wanted him to die. So he ran to Enoshima, and just like his fate, an out-of-control car was about to hit him. But... he was pushed away by his girlfriend, who also knew the truth. His girlfriend died, and her heart was transplanted to Makinohara Shoko. Makinohara Shoko survived, but B, who lost his girlfriend, cried uncontrollably."

"When B couldn't forgive himself, Azusagawa Shoko appeared. She decided to change the past again, as long as her lover wouldn't suffer so much, as long as he could be happy. So she decided to change the past again... That's C's story."

"Wait, wait, what are you saying? Shoko Azusagawa?" Kunimi Yuuma's girlfriend, Saki Kamiri, retorted sharply.

"what happened?"

"Azusagawa! Shoko! Don't you think something's wrong?" Saki Uesato exclaimed loudly, her expression incredulous.

"You're only just realizing this? And isn't this a story?" Uesugi Genshin said nonchalantly, glancing at the expressionless Futaba Rio and the thoughtful Kunimi Yuuma.