Tokyo Rebirth: Start From Picking Up Sayu

Hokkaido, Asahikawa City.

In a cafe near the station.

"Win~!"

Sayu shouted excitedly, a faint look of relief appeared on her cute little face.

"Sayu-chan?"

Masaka Yuko, who was sitting opposite, tilted her head and wondered, "What are you looking at?"

"Eh~? It's nothing. You don't need to worry about it, Yuko."

"But you look very happy. Did something good happen?"

"Well..."

Sayu thought for a moment, then smiled slightly and said:

"Hmm~ How should I put it? I saw something that made people angry, but fortunately it was resolved in the end, so it's a good thing~"

"Something that makes people angry?"

Masaka Yuko blinked twice and couldn't help but be curious, "What is it specifically?"

"Well, Yuko, you won't be interested."

"How do you know if I'm interested or not if you don't tell me?"

"I just know it anyway, so I won't tell you."

"It's too much! Why is it like this~~~?"

Ignoring his friend's aggrieved expression, Sayu happily picked up the sweet matcha on the table and played with his phone while drinking it.

Click "Follow" on the "TYPE-MOON" account and enter the message bar.

Searching through many private messages of greetings, chats, and confessions, a reply with a meeting time came into view.

"If it's five o'clock in the afternoon on December 7th, I think I should be free to meet you."

After double-checking the chat history, Sayu swiped the screen to return to the main interface, and then put the phone on the table.

He raised his head inadvertently and saw Masaka Yuko staring directly at him.

"?"

Sayu couldn't help but feel a little confused about this and asked: "Yuko, what are you doing? Is there something on my face?"

"It's you, Sayu-chan."

Even if someone noticed her gaze, Masaka Yuko did not panic. Instead, she asked directly: "Who were you chatting with just now?"

"Huh……?"

"After all, haven't you been checking your phone repeatedly since we arrived at this store?"

"ah……"

Sayu was stunned for a moment, and then said with some embarrassment: "I'm sorry, Yuko. I obviously came out with you, but I kept looking at my phone..."

"About this~~~"

Masaka Yuko's eyes rolled for a moment, then she leaned forward slightly and put her arms on the table, and asked tentatively:

"If you are really embarrassed, Sayu-chan, tell me who you are in contact with~ Could it be that you have a boyfriend?"

"--How can it be?"

"Uh-huh, answer in seconds!!"

"It's not what you think."

Sayu waved her hand to deny, "Anyway, I was just browsing SNS, not my boyfriend."

"I see……"

Yuko Masaka couldn't express her disappointment, but she agreed with confidence. Her eyes stayed on her face for a moment, and then she showed a somewhat lonely smile.

"Well~ Since you said that, Sayu-chan, I won't ask any more questions. However, I finally saw your smile again today, and I feel like it's been a long time..."

"……Huh?"

Sayu blinked unconsciously after hearing her words, with a confused expression on his face: "Well, what does Yuko mean by this?"

"That's the literal meaning, although you may not have noticed it yourself..."

Yuko Masaka held her cheek with one hand, and her voice flowed out with a sigh.

"But Sayu-chan, you haven't been in the right state lately, and I'm actually worried about that. So it's great to see your smile again like today~"

"...?"

Sayu's eyes flickered slightly, and then he pretended to be cheerful and replied: "How could such a thing happen? I feel like I am just like usual."

"Different."

The other person shook his head slowly but firmly.

"Because I've always been by Sayu-chan's side, I know it very well. Recently Sayu-chan feels like she's gone back to the past... and that's not right either."

Masaka Yuko looked directly into her eyes while trying to choose the right words.

"To be specific, Sayu-chan has not only been unable to smile at all recently, she also has a melancholy feeling. She often looks out the window alone in a daze, and doesn't even respond to you."

"Well……?"

"It's useless even if you look like "Did I do that?" "

"..."

Facing his friend's scolding, Sayu unconsciously lowered his eyes, pressed his hands on the books on the table, and was speechless for a moment.

Just as the other party guessed, she is indeed a little different from before recently, and she is always thinking about something.

However, that is not something that can be told to the other party.

It’s not just Yuuko, but even her family can’t tell her.

In other words, even telling them would not help.

Because no one will believe her and no one can help her.

So she could only hide it silently in her heart and bear it alone.

As if aware of her embarrassment, Masaka Yuko did not pursue the issue and took the initiative to change the topic.

"Okay, okay, I'm just talking casually, Sayu-chan, you don't have to answer me... By the way, let's talk about something else, right?"

Her eyes wandered around, and finally landed on the book in the girl's hand, and her eyes lit up slightly.

"Ah~! Speaking of which, Sayu-chan, you seem to be carrying a copy of "Numa Man" a lot lately, right?"

"...Hey, that's right. Is there any problem?" Sayu raised his gaze and asked.

"Nothing, nothing~have you finished reading this book?"

"I've finished reading it."

"Is that so? Can you tell me the story behind it?" Yuko Masaka asked in a cheerful tone.

Sayu tilted his head slightly, looking alternately at the book in hand and the other person's face. After thinking for a while, he said, "Yes, yes, but if you are interested, I can actually lend you the book."

"Well, that's good, but not yet. After all, the exam is coming next month, and I don't dare to be distracted at this time. So~"

Masaka Yuko put her hands together in front of her face and asked, "Just to satisfy my curiosity, Sayu-chan, can you tell me about it first?"

"I'm not bad...then what do you want to know?"

"Let me think about it. Look, didn't we talk about it when we were at Disneyland last time? For example, the shadow will replace the original body and live on."

"Well, that's right."

"So what happened in the end? What happened to the protagonist in the book, Higa?"

"It's not Higa but Hikaru. The protagonist's name is Sagimori Hikaru, right?"

Sayu smiled helplessly, paused and said, "As for what happened to her...she probably died."

"died??"

Masaka Yuko opened her eyes in shock.

"Yes."

Sayu stretched out a hand, gently stirred his sweet matcha with a straw, stared at the vortex that appeared in the cup, and slowly said: "The ending is that the protagonist finally sinks into the furnace."

"Wow...what kind of inexplicable plot is this? Where is Hizuru-chan's shadow?"

"He is also dead. He was killed by the protagonist himself from the beginning."

"What is this all about..."

Yuko Masaka's interest suddenly dropped sharply, "To write such an anticlimactic development, what on earth was the author thinking?"