"Sora-kun..."
"Sora-kun..."
The two Angel-samas spoke at the same time. Their voices were equally sweet and gentle, indescribably pleasant to the ear.
After speaking simultaneously, the two Mahirus turned their heads in unison to look at each other.
"You go first?"
"You go first?"
"..."
"..."
This was followed by an identical silence. The synchronization rate perfectly reached one hundred percent.
Looking at the two Angel-samas in front of him, Sora understood that a third Angel-sama likely wouldn't appear:
"It's just the two of you?"
The post-rewind Mahiru replied softly: "I've checked everywhere. There's only one pre-rewind me in the restroom."
Good news.
Although time was continuously looping, new Angel-samas wouldn't keep appearing endlessly. There was no need to worry about Angel-samas being everywhere eventually.
Bad news.
There were only two Angel-samas in total, so "super-sizing" the experience wasn't possible...
"Sora-kun, what exactly is going on?" The pre-rewind Mahiru covered her skirt with her hands, her pretty face flushed red, looking over nervously. "Why... why is there another me?"
Sora quickly realized the situation:
"Mahiru, you only have memories from before the rewind?"
The pre-rewind Mahiru gently furrowed her delicate eyebrows: "Um... what does 'before the rewind' mean?"
"As I thought, she doesn't remember."
It seemed the pre-time-rewind Mahiru only possessed the initial memories.
"I was in a hurry to come out earlier, so I didn't explain it to her." The post-rewind Mahiru looked up and said softly, "Sora-kun, I'll make a trip to the convenience store to buy some disposable items. I'll leave the explaining to you."
After all, they were a girl's intimate items. Having Sora go to the convenience store to buy them would truly be somewhat embarrassing.
"Eh?"
The pre-rewind Mahiru, whose pretty face was already flushed, nervously took a half-step back. She shamefully lowered her head to look at her toes, completely not daring to raise her head and meet anyone's eyes.
"Understood." Sora readily agreed. "Leave it to me."
"I'm counting on you, Sora-kun."
The post-rewind Mahiru softly thanked him, then quickly headed to the convenience store.
"Mahiru, listen carefully while I explain..."
Sora began to softly explain the causes and consequences.
"Time rewind... It's already the third loop?"
"But I don't have any impression of it at all..."
"Could it be that I'm not me, but merely a false existence?"
"..."
The pre-rewind Mahiru covered her skirt with her hands, listening earnestly to the explanation. Her expression was visibly somewhat dazed, even starting to question her own existence.
Sora didn't expect Angel-sama to actually ponder the philosophy of the ego and the id. He decisively reached out his right hand and gently pinched Angel-sama's soft, flawless, delicate cheek.
"Does it hurt?"
"Sora-kun... it hurts..."
The pre-rewind Mahiru looked up pitifully. Her face, pinched like that, looked super cute.
"If it hurts, then it's real." Sora released his right hand and said seriously. "You are thinking, you can feel pain, you feel confused and uneasy. Therefore, you are the real and unique Mahiru."
"A time loop is an extremely special event to begin with, so two Mahirus existing simultaneously is entirely possible."
"In my eyes, Mahiru is Mahiru, absolutely not a false existence."
"..."
After listening to Sora's comforting words, the uneasiness and confusion in Angel-sama's heart indeed lessened significantly. She gently pursed her pink, moist lips:
"What did Sora-kun and the other me do in the restroom? Why were you so vague and ambiguous just now?"
Sora: "..."
You're clearly going commando under that skirt, a super embarrassing state. Stop fixating on those details!
"It was nothing really..."
Sora tried to gloss over it.
"Something's fishy." The pre-rewind Mahiru widened her beautiful eyes, staring intently at him. "Sora-kun, explain it clearly, quickly."
Sora hesitated for two seconds, quickly deciding to tell the truth.
"Then I'll tell you..."
Right now, the most important thing was to brainstorm and find a way to break the time loop. He really couldn't hide anything.
"Ehhhh... I actually... with Sora-kun..."
The Angel-sama in front of him felt her face burn hot. She shyly averted her gaze, then quickly puffed up her pink cheeks.
(S-So mean!)
(The person who kissed Sora-kun wasn't me, but the other me... Does this count as me cuckolding myself?)
Even though she knew perfectly well that the other person was another version of herself, the pre-rewind Mahiru inevitably felt jealous.
"Sora-kun is so perverted!"
"I didn't..."
"Idiot! Huge idiot!"
"..."
As they spoke, the post-rewind Angel-sama jogged back holding the items.
"I bought the items." The post-rewind Mahiru exhaled softly, handing the items to the other Mahiru. "Go to the restroom and change into them first."
"Thank you..."
The pre-rewind Mahiru's pretty face flushed red. She softly expressed her thanks, then turned and carefully walked towards the restroom.
Thanking myself feels so weird...
A moment later.
The original Mahiru, equipped with new gear, walked out of the restroom. The flush on her face hadn't completely dissipated, but the cautious, nervous expression from earlier was gone.
Sora went to the vending machine, bought three drinks, and then looked at the two Mahirus:
"Let's go. We'll find a place to sit down and discuss this slowly."
"Okay..."
Leading the two Angel-samas to a bench, the two Mahirus, just like in the previous loop, simultaneously chose to sit on Sora's left and right sides, once again drawing envious stares from passersby.
Sora unscrewed a cap, took a sip of his drink, and began to speak:
"Now let's brainstorm and try to break the time loop as quickly as possible."
The pre-rewind Mahiru held her drink with both hands and softly voiced her thoughts:
"I watched a movie before called 'The Butterfly Effect'. The male lead in it could travel through time, but every time he went back to the past, it would cause the future to collapse... Could it be that we did something specific that caused time to fall into a loop?"
As expected of the same Angel-sama, their thoughts were exactly identical.
"I was thinking the exact same thing." The post-rewind Mahiru said softly. "During the first time rewind, we didn't ride the roller coaster. But during this rewind, Sora-kun and I rode the roller coaster, and our seating positions didn't change... I wonder if it had any effect."
"We'll know if it had any effect in a bit." Sora opened his backpack and took out a notebook.
"Let's first discuss other possibilities. We'll write down all the possibilities we can think of, and then use the control variable method to screen them one by one until we break the time loop."
"..."
Time quietly slipped away.
In the blink of an eye, they reached the time node before the loop.
"Sora-kun..."
The two Mahirus looked up simultaneously, their expressions tense.
As everyone knows.
A person cannot step into the same river twice. If the time loop ends, it's highly likely that one of the two Mahirus in front of him will disappear.
But the two Mahirus before him were both living, breathing people. Regardless of who it was facing a future where they might disappear, they would definitely be super nervous.
"..."
Sora took a deep breath, extended his hands, and held the hands of the two Angel-samas, one on the left and one on the right.
The three fell silent, quietly absorbing the warmth from each other's palms.
A few seconds later.
The dizziness struck again. Sora only felt his vision darken slightly, and the next instant, he found himself back in the roller coaster queue once more...