The shrine had gone quiet again.
After a long silence,
Amamiya Yoru finally spoke.
"Hirakawa-sensei."
She hesitated.
Like she didn't know if she should ask.
Hirakawa didn't rush her.
"If you've got something to say, just say it."
She looked straight at him.
Then—
"Do you dislike chuunibyou?"
A pause.
"Or do you think it's stupid?"
Hirakawa answered immediately.
"No."
No hesitation.
No joking tone.
Just a simple, firm denial.
"Then why are you asking?"
She didn't respond.
Just stared at him.
Waiting.
Alright.
He got it.
After a moment, he sighed softly.
"I don't have any problem with it," he said. "And as for whether it's funny—"
He thought for a second.
"Not in a mocking way."
"More like… it's interesting."
He tilted his head slightly.
"How should I put it?"
"Everyone goes through something like that."
"Everyone?"
She frowned.
Suspicious.
"More accurately," he corrected, "everyone has gone through it."
"Really?"
"Of course."
He nodded without a trace of doubt.
At this point,
He already understood.
Why she asked.
Why she hid it.
Because—
Chuunibyou was called a "disease" for a reason.
To "normal people," it wasn't normal.
It was strange.
Different.
So people labeled it.
Mocked it.
Rejected it.
And Amamiya Yoru
Didn't want to be "different."
She was gentle.
Considerate.
The kind of girl who would suppress her own wishes just to avoid troubling her mother.
A girl like that
Was naturally sensitive.
Too sensitive.
She could feel how others saw her.
And because of that,
She was afraid.
Afraid of being treated like an outsider.
Afraid of being laughed at.
So she hid it.
Buried it.
Pretended it didn't exist.
But now,
It had been exposed.
And she was thinking—
Will he reject me too?
Hirakawa looked at her.
Really looked.
At the worry in her eyes.
Then he spoke.
"It's not a big deal."
His voice was firm.
Certain.
"No one is completely free of it."
He gave a small smile.
"For example—me."
"You?"
"Yes."
Who hasn't had a phase like that?
Even Hirakawa Tetsuya
Had once been like that.
In his previous life,
He had believed he was special.
Imagined having powers.
Thought maybe,
When his hand went numb,
It meant he could control electricity.
He had used an umbrella like a sword.
A coat like a cape.
And in winter,
He'd breathe out white mist and call it "dragon's breath."
And sometimes,
He'd think about things like:
Where life came from.
How the universe began.
Why his consciousness existed in his body
Instead of someone else's.
Ridiculous?
Maybe.
But also
Something almost everyone had experienced.
So now,
Looking at the girl in front of him,
He couldn't laugh.
Not at all.
Because one day,
When she grew up
And looked back at this time,
It would become a memory.
A slightly embarrassing one, maybe.
But also
A warm one.
"So," he concluded, "even teachers had that phase."
"And it doesn't make you strange."
"It just means… you see the world in your own way."
Silence.
Her expression softened.
The tension in her eyes slowly melted—
Replaced by something brighter.
"Really?"
"Really."
"It's not strange?"
"It's not."
"It's something everyone experiences?"
"Yes."
Silence again.
She lowered her head.
Thinking.
He didn't interrupt.
Didn't rush her.
Because he knew
This kind of thing
Couldn't be forced.
After a while,
She looked up.
But this time,
Her eyes were a little different.
Still hesitant.
But no longer as afraid.
"But—"
She bit her lip.
"I'm already in high school."
"Other people don't… still act like this, right?"
"So I'm still weird, aren't I?"
He didn't answer immediately.
Because
She wasn't wrong.
Chuunibyou usually faded by middle school.
If it continued into high school,
People would call it childish.
Immature.
So hiding it
Was her way of protecting herself.
And honestly,
There was nothing wrong with that.
Revealing everything about yourself
Didn't always bring kindness.
But still,
He didn't want her to feel ashamed.
So he thought.
Carefully.
Then answered—
"Compared to others…"
"your imagination just stayed with you a little longer."
He met her eyes.
"And because of that—"
"your world is more interesting than theirs."
A pause.
"That's all."
Silence.
Then—
Her fingers tightened slightly.
Her gaze wavered.
"I see…"
After that,
She left.
Head lowered.
Walking quietly back toward school.
Hirakawa didn't expect his words to change everything.
Words alone rarely did.
But still,
They mattered.
Because maybe,
From now on,
She wouldn't hate that part of herself as much.
She had suppressed it for too long.
Hidden it behind her "good girl" persona.
And that pressure
Had to go somewhere.
That little "threat" earlier?
That wasn't malice.
It was
A signal.
A cry for release.
Because even chuunibyou
Wants to be accepted.
Especially someone as sensitive as her.
And for her,
There was no better person than a teacher.
Because guiding students
Was exactly what teachers were meant to do.
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