I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

Still with his head thrown back, Tachibana Kanade stared at him wide-eyed, completely bewildered, unable to react for a moment.

After standing there stunned for a moment, she slowly raised her fair hand and touched the spot where she had been flicked.

Perhaps because the skin was too delicate, the spot touched by the fingertips quickly turned red, and pain spread along with a slight heat.

It really hurts.

Although he didn't use his full strength, it was definitely not the kind of playful flick on the forehead that men and women flirt over. His entire brain felt like it had been violently shaken, as if a shockwave had passed through it...

Did this person treat her so harshly because he didn't care about her?

But I didn't do anything wrong...

His gaze gradually changed, and Tachibana bit her lip with a slightly aggrieved expression, pressing her palm lightly to her forehead, like a kitten that had been drenched in the rain. She didn't complain about anything, but just sat there with her ears drooping and her eyes watery as she stared at him, looking like she was about to cry at any moment.

Anyone who is human, anyone with a conscience, can hardly withstand such a pitiful gaze for three seconds—the former Tenkuji Yu couldn't even last a second; he had barely bitten his lip before he immediately surrendered.

Unfortunately, the man before him was vastly different from the one before. He showed no remorse whatsoever; instead, he laughed maliciously, flicking his fingers with a satisfied expression.

Meeting her aggrieved gaze, Tenkuji Yu put away his expression and shrugged innocently: "Don't blame me, to be honest, my brother and I have wanted to do this to you for a long time."

"...You two are siblings?" Ignoring the pain in her forehead, Tachibana Kanade blinked in surprise. "So, Sora is also..."

“That’s right, she also instructed me to ‘if Xiaozou dares to continue saying discouraging things, give her a good beating,’ and I just did as she said.”

Yuu Tenkuji sighed, "Although I'm reluctant to lay a hand on a girl, I have no choice. My sister's request is more important... So blame Sora. She's the mastermind behind it all."

But you just said "the two of us, brother and sister"...

Tachibana Kanade pursed her lips with a subtle expression. She wasn't good at making sarcastic remarks, so she simply kept quiet.

Time changes many things. The causal relationships entangled in him by hundreds of world lines seem to have left indelible marks on him in this world, flowing along with the long river of time...

The evidence is their shamelessness, which is beyond words.

At least the ones Tachibana Kanade had ever met possessed a basic sense of shame, unlike now…

Are you thinking about something very rude?

Sky Temple looked over with a smile, its tone very kind.

"N-nothing..."

Tachibana Kanade shook her head stiffly, lowered her small hand from her forehead where the pain had subsided, and helplessly pinched a strand of silver hair from her cheek, avoiding his gaze.

Even though they were surrounded by a dark tide and all was quiet, there was a leisurely atmosphere between them, like a tea party. The tension and regret of their impending farewell seemed to have never existed.

Tenkuji Yuu suddenly sighed.

"Seriously, don't act like I've bullied you..."

That's the truth...

Tachibana dared not speak, fearing he would be flicked on the forehead.

“I just want to tell you that it’s worth it for you to do this, for Qiong and for me.”

"What's the value of being flicked on the forehead?" After holding it in for a long time, Tachibana Kanade finally couldn't help but ask.

Yuu Tenkuji chuckled and ruffled her hair: "No, it's about acknowledging the efforts you've made and always remembering the value of someone working so hard for our future."

Beneath the palm, the girl raised her eyes in surprise.

"If it weren't for you, none of this would have happened."

"No one would evolve from an ordinary ghost into a solitary traveler who travels back in time just for a high school student who should have died long ago."

"No one accumulates hundreds of failures just to change their fate and achieve someone else's happy ending."

"No one would willingly destroy themselves; we must also give new possibilities to a future where there is no light at the end of the tunnel."

Tenkuuji Yuhei looked into her eyes, his voice softer than a gentle breeze brushing against her hair.

"Thank you for giving me the chance to save my brother. In a way, you are our benefactor"—this is what Qiong asked me to tell you.

"..."

Tachibana Kanade was speechless, her small mouth slightly open as if she wanted to say something, but she fell silent because her thoughts were too chaotic and she could not organize her words.

After a long while, she bit her lip and gently shook her head, as if trying to deny the heavy sentiment of gratitude.

"I didn't..."

With his thumb hooked around his middle finger, Tenkuji slowly raised his hand toward her forehead.

Tachibana Kanade fell silent again, gazing at him quietly and forlornly with her pale golden eyes that shimmered with moisture.

Tenkuji Yu remained unmoved, her gaze still calm, as if a rational monster was hidden within those smiling eyes.

"Sorry, it doesn't count."

"Because no matter what, Qiong doesn't want you to disappear on your own, and I also have something I need to thank you for."

"Even so, you are still just a stranger to me who I have just gotten to know."

"so……"

With a gentle exhale, Tenkuji Yu straightened his back and met her gaze with a calm expression.

"If disappearing is the best option for you, then I won't say anything more."

"Thank you for being with me all this way for my future—that's all I can do to say goodbye."

"If there hadn't been a shortage of time, you would have deserved me to say thank you three hundred times, Tachibana Kanade."

Tachibana Kanade stood frozen in place, the light in his pupils trembling slightly, reflecting his figure.

However, she quickly moved aside as if trying to escape, the shadow under her long hair concealing her expression.

Tenkuji Yu persisted, staring intently at her dim eyes beneath her long eyelashes, his expression even more serious than before.

"Finally, let's make a promise."

He suddenly said.

She didn't look at him like before; instead, her delicate pink fingertips, resting on her lap, twitched slightly, making a tiny reaction.

Yuu Tenkuji didn't miss this detail, and as if she had agreed, she continued:

"Our journey is not over yet, and this trial has only just begun... Qiong also said that she doesn't know if my future has changed. Even if the system problem is solved, whether I can survive past the end of high school is still unknown."

Her ears twitched slightly, and she anxiously raised her head, her small face displaying an expression more determined than anyone else's.

"No way! This time it'll definitely work—!"

"Why don't you stay and witness this?"

"Huh?"

Tenkuji Yu's eyes were gentle as he lightly smoothed her slightly messy hair, just as he had done to her countless times in the past.

"Stay and watch me pass this trial, witness me find happiness."

He smiled and said softly, "Don't you think you have a better option, Zou?"

"Yu..."

Even though I know that this tenderness doesn't come from love, and is perhaps just his acting.

Kanade Tachibana instinctively grasped his hand. The familiar warmth welled up in her throat, but it was also accompanied by a strange bitterness, leaving her speechless for a moment.

"I……"

As she hesitated to speak, Tenkuji slowly withdrew his hand from her soft palm, jolting her back to reality and preventing her from indulging in the illusion he had created.

He continued, "Even if the me you've met is not the same as the me now, 'Tenkuji Yu' is not the kind of person who doesn't repay kindness."

"So I will grant your wish."

"My wish?"

Under Tachibana Kanade's questioning gaze, Tenkuji Yu smiled narcissistically.

"That's right, I just hope I can live to be a hundred years old and live a happier life than anyone else, right?"

She was taken aback for a moment, then couldn't help but purse her lips and let her eyebrows and eyes curve into crescent moons.

"Yes, that's right... I didn't know about this kind of thing."

Yuu Tenkuji shrugged innocently: "It's because Sora taught me so much stuff that I still haven't fully digested it all."

Tachibana Kanade nodded in realization: "She showed you the records I left behind, right? No wonder you knew so much..."

While the two were chatting, the mysterious force seemed to give out, allowing the black tide to completely engulf the teaching building below.

The familiar campus has long since disappeared, leaving only the rooftop, which resembles a small island in the ocean, about to be swallowed up by the dark sea.

Even so, when their eyes met again, the two paid no attention to the surging darkness around them, their eyes only seeing the faint smile on each other's lips.

He asked, "So, you're going to make a promise with me?"

She tilted her head slightly: "It's not choosing to disappear, but choosing to stay and witness your happy future?"

"Yes, it's a very tempting offer, isn't it?"

Tachibana thought for a moment, and her expression gradually relaxed.

As if she had let go of some worries, the confusion and loneliness that had been casting a shadow over her face had somehow dissipated into a helpless arc, gently hanging at the corner of her mouth.

She tilted her delicate and flawless face up, her silver hair falling naturally over her shoulders, her pale golden eyes clear and bright, like golden sand shimmering at the bottom of a lake, reflecting her own image clearly.

"Well, if you had said so earlier... I might have been able to agree."

Tenkuji Yu frowned slightly: "Is it too late?"

Tachibana Kanade nodded, her expression somewhat relieved, but her tone still carried an apology.

"I'm sorry, I should have told you this from the beginning... After last year's fireworks festival, 'I' myself ceased to exist in this world. Once reincarnation begins, this remaining part will completely disappear."

“And I have no power to reverse this process, just as a dead person cannot bring themselves back to life. This is my last time.”

In other words, all his previous agreements and persuasion were in vain.

Because no matter what, the future of Tachibana Kanade's disappearance is unchangeable; this is the fate she herself chose.

But in the very end, she still couldn't bear to part with the time she spent talking to him, couldn't bear to tell him the truth that she couldn't stay, and couldn't bear to say goodbye so soon to him who had tried so hard to persuade her.

The period of unbridled behavior, which had been absent for hundreds of years, should come to an end at this time.