I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

"How long are you going to keep running away? How long are you going to keep pretending to be a rational coward?"

"Lying to your girlfriend is what you call being responsible?!"

"Answer me, Yuu Tenkuji!"

"..."

The coats that connected the two fell to the ground, and the winter snow continued to accumulate cotton-like dirt.

The cold wind tousled her long hair, but her dark blue eyes shone with an inextinguishable light in the snow.

His piercing gaze was like the sun reflecting off the snow, so intense that Yuu Tenkuji subconsciously looked away, and even his answer lacked the confidence he had before.

"I'm just making the right choice."

"Only lucky people can turn mistakes into successes, but I've never been very lucky. So I can only try my best to stay on the right path. Even if I make mistakes or go astray occasionally... as long as I don't get the right goal wrong, at least I won't make any big mistakes that I'll regret. So where's the mistake?"

"Of course that's right. After all, I've had that thought before."

Yukino Yukinoshita smiled helplessly, seemingly having calmed down.

Before Tenkuji Yusatsu could catch his breath, the girl suddenly turned his face back.

His eyes widened in terror, his face devoid of any smile, and he spoke coldly, word by word:

"Don't play such childish jokes on me. Who do you think made me so different from before?"

"You, who told me that 'sticking to being right isn't a good thing, and that truly wise people choose to uphold their own justice while remaining flexible and adaptable,' should understand this better than anyone else."

Choices that seem correct in the past and present may become lifelong regrets in the future!

As if she had vented all her anger, she finished speaking these words heavily, and the anger and rage gradually dissipated from her flushed face.

Their eyes met, their sharp, knife-like gazes flashing, then slowly, ripples of sorrow and tenderness spread across their faces.

Her fingers slowly and reluctantly slid down from his cheek to the corner of his mouth, finally falling limply to his side.

"...Stop deceiving yourself. Think about what you really need, okay?"

As she passed by him, Yukino Yukinoshita opened the French windows, letting the warmth of the heater melt the snowflakes on her shoulders.

Stepping inside, with her back to him through a window, she suddenly spoke again.

"Actually, there is something I'm afraid of too."

"..."

Even though he stood there dumbfounded and didn't answer, Yukino Yukinoshita continued talking to herself:

“I’m also afraid that you’ll rekindle those lost feelings, and then, because you don’t know how to handle this complicated relationship, you’ll just leave all of us.”

Yukino Yukinoshita knew he was the kind of person who would do such a thing—

As long as it's for their own good, as long as the excuse of "setting them free" exists, this idiot will do such a thing.

So she turned around, stared at his expressionless profile, and said this pleadingly:

"Swear to me that no matter what happens in the future, you won't do it. Okay?"

"..."

The snow was still falling, as if it were about to engulf the entire city of Tokyo in a giant, pale white wave.

The biting wind, seemingly carrying even greater power, rushed towards the boy who stood silently on the balcony.

He seemed to be buried in snow.

The vow was frozen solid under the snow before it could even be uttered.

Chapter 188 The Vow Under the Snow

After the snowy night was cut off, the snow on their coats and hair melted in the warmth of the living room heater after they went inside.

However, the atmosphere was like the cold wind blowing into the room from outside the window. A cold silence spread in the corner. The two sat facing each other on the sofa, their heads down as if they were deep in thought. Neither of them looked at the other first, nor did they have any desire to start a conversation.

Yukino Yukinoshita was calming her anger and sorrow, and having said everything she needed to say, she didn't know what to say to Yuuki Tenkuji next.

As for Tenkuji Yu, he wasn't intimidated by the girl's heartfelt roar, nor was he afraid to ease the atmosphere due to guilt or cowardice, so he decided to handle it calmly.

He was really thinking about things.

Thinking of Yukino's unwavering determination to preserve that memory even at the cost of standing against her beloved younger sister.

Imagine the moment when Asuna Yuuki, filled with anger and joy, turned the will she had been pursuing into a sword and stabbed at him.

Thinking of how Natsukawa Masaki had tested and attacked him several times, and how he finally smiled at himself in front of the extinguished campfire and said that he would make him never leave him.

Thinking of the words Yukino Yukinoshita said to him while holding his face up, and the resolute look in her eyes as she agreed to his ridiculous request without hesitation.

Thinking of Yui Yuigahama, thinking of Kasugano Sora...

He thought about many people and many things.

Yukino Yukinoshita was right; she accurately guessed her deepest thoughts.

—If everyone regains their memories of their relationship after the mission is completed, the feelings he had the system withdrawn will also inexplicably return.

Faced with this dilemma where no one can choose their own path, before they hurt each other, before they hurt themselves, before things escalate further...

Yuu Tenkuji might simply take Kasugano Sora away from Chiba City, or even leave Japan altogether, to settle down in a third-tier city in his previous life's homeland, change his name and identity, and restart a completely new life that belongs only to him, without a system or a girlfriend.

He believed that love was not something so hard to give up.

Time can wash away all separations and wounds. Anyway, the longest I've been with them was only about two months. It should take about a year to forget them, right?

At that time, no one will like him anymore, and no one will show disappointment, pain, sadness, or confusion because they have become his girlfriend.

That's the kind of decision a real man makes.

Since we can't handle it, we should discard it all.

He certainly understood that this was the worst kind of irresponsibility—but a short pain is worse than a long one, and being ruthless is better than being sentimental, isn't it?

...Then she said that it was all self-deception.

This is not the future that Yuu Tenkuji truly wanted; it's just a True Ending that he thought was clever and took it upon himself to think of things for them.

Even without him, the pain wouldn't disappear in that kind of world; the only advantage was that he was spared the trouble of dealing with emotional issues.

Even if we're being optimistic and not worrying unnecessarily, none of the things he's worried about will happen. The only person who will regain their memories is Yukino Yukinoshita. The fifth mission will be successfully completed, and they will break free from the system and live a wonderful life...

Can he date and marry Yui Yuigahama without any psychological burden?

He was able to decisively refuse Yukino Yukinoshita and the others, and ignore Yukino Yukinoshita who wanted him to take responsibility at this moment, simply because doing so was the most correct thing to do, and wipe away all the things that had happened in the past.

...Just as she said, Tenkuji Yu is not qualified to do that.

The saying goes, "Things shouldn't happen more than three times," but he made the same mistake four times.

He fell in love with his mission target four times in a row, and struggled and suffered because of it, but he didn't regret it from the bottom of his heart.

In short, he deserves to be in this dilemma.

They've all become their heroes, yet now they want to back out using the excuse of being cowards, pretending to be victims...

Forget about becoming a strong, upright man that his sister can be proud of; he doesn't even deserve to be called a human being. Even a primitive man could step on his face and curse, "You're not even human!"

Therefore, I can only question my own heart once again.

Tenkuji slowly closed his eyes, enduring the pent-up restlessness and unease in his chest, forcing himself to calm down and ask himself a question.

In that brief moment of mental blankness, the words spoken by a certain gray-haired witch involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

Nothing is absolutely right! Don't be afraid of change; your life belongs only to you, not to anyone else!

Her skirt swayed, revealing her smooth thighs to her subconsciously opened eyes.

"I'll go make some tea... After you've made the tea, give me your answer."

As his consciousness returned from his thoughts, Tenkuji Yu listened to her calm voice, now completely devoid of anger and gentle only towards him, and watched her figure disappear into the distance.

Without a doubt, Yukino Yukinoshita is a good girl.

In terms of size, although the front armor is slightly flat, its shape, color, and elasticity are all impeccable.

Not to mention her irresistible fair skin, slender waist, and long legs; anyone would want to lick her until their bones break.

Not to mention her personality, she is cold on the outside but warm on the inside, independent, confident, virtuous and intelligent, yet she does not lose the shyness and fragility unique to young girls.

And many of the minor issues that were criticized in the past have been changed by him during the time the two have been together.

The current Yukino Yukinoshita, apart from her habitual coldness towards outsiders, has almost no flaws that would make her annoying. Even her arrogant and vain appearance gives people a strangely cute feeling.

In the end, she was still able to set aside her possessiveness for her boyfriend and give him a wake-up call, making him face his ex-girlfriends.

It was as if she didn't care that he was juggling multiple relationships, pushing him forward from behind and denying his options to turn around, run away, and reject everything.

Of course, I want to have someone all to myself. But most importantly, it's still that person I'm hopelessly in love with!

As long as the other person is happy, it doesn't matter what happens to oneself—whether it's him or her, they will naturally understand that they both have this foolish mentality.

...However, even so.

Even if it means harboring ugly and selfish thoughts, even if it means being despised by all women in the world.

Even if it went against his once proud devotion and his once upheld sense of justice.

Yuu Tenkuji could no longer deny his desire to possess his girlfriend entirely now, and even if he forgot about the future.

“Yes…” He clenched his fists, a self-deprecating yet relieved chuckle escaping his lips.

"She agreed to be my girlfriend, I've hugged her, kissed her, and touched her all over. So it doesn't matter what she thinks, whether she hates me or likes me, or whether she remembers any of it. She has to belong to me for the rest of her life..."

"I am such a selfish bastard."

Giving up on someone you love is something only a fool who thinks he's a hero would do.

Now, Yuu Tenkuji, who was never a hero to begin with, no longer wants to be a fool.

He wanted to be a clever scoundrel, to like the girls who liked him; to rekindle the faded memories with a beautiful color that no one could take away.

Perhaps this decision will become a mistake he will regret in the future.

But to paraphrase what Araki-sensei once said—

So-called enlightenment is abandoning the bright path that should be followed and resolutely stepping into a thorny wilderness for the sake of something important that one is unwilling to give up.