There is something wrong with my infinite flow teammates!

This is a machine that sells cheap drinks, the most expensive of which is only 300 yen. Yukino carefully scanned the dazzling array of drinks from top to bottom, but her expectant eyes gradually turned into some disappointment.

Although there are a wide variety of products, whether it is carbon dioxide or tea, there is still no one I want. I remember that when I was a child, I often drank an imported brand, which seemed to be called jasmine tea...

Who gave it to me? My sister, right? Should I ask her where she bought it?

But when this thought arose in her heart, she shook her head and turned to walk into the dessert shop.

The waiter's energetic and sweet greeting reached her ears. Yukino nodded in response, then walked to the window seat and sat down gently.

Although I liked desserts when I was a little girl, as I grew older, I gradually lost interest in highly sweet foods, so today I ordered a matcha cake that was not very sweet.

After returning the menu to the waiter, she turned her head and looked at the pedestrians outside the window in a daze.

"What's wrong? Aren't you very happy?"

While mumbling to herself, Yukino noticed a couple walking slowly hand in hand across the street. They were wearing the school uniforms of Sobu High School, and judging from the color of the girl's bow tie, they should be first-year students.

The girl had a very cute baby face, but she felt a little shy holding her boyfriend's hand and walking home in public, and her blushing face was very cute.

The boy is also very handsome, and judging from his appearance, he should be a very gentle person.

Yukino stared at the couple in a daze, as if... that strange sense of déjà vu came again, as if she had also had the experience of shopping with her boyfriend?

But the next second, a trace of bitterness flashed in her pupils. Where did she get a boyfriend? She had never even touched a boy's hand since she was a child, right?

No, I have never had any friends since I was a child. When I was in school, I listened carefully in class and studied quietly after class. After school, I would go home and play with my sister or the big black cat at home.

Big stupid cat...

The girl's eyes gleamed with reminiscence, and then she suddenly burst out laughing.

She recalled the time when her stupid sister snatched the black cat from her arms when she was a child. Her sister wanted to force it to take a bath, but before she could react, the stupid sister's crying could be heard from the bathroom.

I remember that was the first time I saw my sister cry. Since then, she was often beaten by Black Cat and cried. This situation continued until she was in junior high school.

About the cat at home...

The girl's eyes softened. It was her only playmate and a part of her life. If she hadn't had it when she was a child, she would have been very lonely and might even have suffered from depression.

I remember when I was a child, I often fantasized that I could understand what cats said, so the cat at home became the object of persecution.

At that time, I was very immature and fantasized about becoming a magical girl one day, so I often asked the big black cat when I could transform.

How did it answer?

"Meow~"

The girl couldn't help but imitate a cat's meow softly, but she regretted it right after she finished. She looked around in panic.

There was an empty seat in the front, with two girls sitting towards the store entrance, four customers sitting at the left side, and the boys in the middle booth were talking very loudly, probably so loudly that no one could hear them.

The girl, who was slightly relieved, amused herself again, her face slightly red and her thin lips tightly pursed.

The waiter brought the matcha cake over. After politely thanking the girl, she picked up the spoon and gently scooped a spoonful into her mouth.

Suddenly, the soft and delicious aroma spreads in the mouth. After chewing it slightly and swallowing it, the bitter taste of matcha dissipates, replaced by a long-lasting sweetness.

This cake is like life, bitter at first but sweet later.

Looking at the cake with a hole in it, the girl was stunned. "It's just that I haven't experienced bitterness. My life has been happy since I was born. Everyone is protecting me. I am the luckiest person in the world... The past was beautiful. Will it continue to be beautiful in the future?"

Suddenly, she noticed the metal fork in her hand and recalled her childhood.

I remember that I was obsessed with desserts at that time, and I always brought the black cat here on weekends under the pretext of going to the park. But my pocket money was not enough to buy two pieces of cake, so I always ate one bite myself and then scooped a spoonful to feed it.

But cats can't eat sweets, right? Chocolate is a deadly poison to them. It can damage the cat's central nervous system and heart function, and in severe cases can cause acute death.

But the cat at home seems to be an alien. I have fed it sweets for so many years and it is nothing wrong with it. It is just like what I imagined when I was a child. Is it a magic cat?

Thinking back to the lazy guy at home, the girl's lips curled up into a faint smile.

I am so happy because of it, right? It is also different from other cats because it is too smart.

It is very human and knows who its owner is. It will accompany him to school and knows who has bad intentions. It will stand up for him and punish those who bully him with its nimble body and sharp claws.

When I was a child, I thought it was my elder and even relied on it a little.

Looking back now, it is such a shameful dark history.

The girl shook her head, the bitter taste of matcha in her mouth reminded her of what she had thought of when she talked to Mr. Hiratsuka an hour ago.

Doraemon and Shizuka do not exist, and Suneo and Takeshi who bully him are also fake. The reality is the imagination of an autistic patient named Nobita Nobi, who lies on a hospital bed, dreaming a beautiful childhood dream from which he will never wake up.

Just like I had imagined that the black cat at home was a familiar, and that I would eventually become a magical girl.

Have you ever suffered from autism? Do you never mention it because you want to protect yourself?

When the cat was young, it could not only talk, but also protect itself. Like Doraemon, it had a treasure bag and could conjure up many new and strange things to amuse itself.

But even if it was just a fantasy, I was a happy autistic person, because whether in my memory or now, I had hardly ever experienced anything particularly unhappy.

Is it because of that guy's existence that my autism can be cured?

Suddenly, the girl's thoughts were interrupted by the movement on the other side of the street. She turned her head in confusion and frowned slightly. It turned out that three bad guys with dyed yellow hair dragged a man wearing glasses into the alley.

The man with glasses hunched his neck, and it was obvious that he was a coward. He was dragged into the alley and it was easy to imagine what would happen. If he was lucky, he would just have to contribute his pocket money and he would be fine. If he was unlucky, he would get bruised and battered.

"At the beginning of man's life, his nature is evil."

Xue No stared at the entrance of the alley and said to herself: "Human beings are also a kind of animal. The strong prey on the weak and the instinct of plunder flow in our blood. Only correct education can suppress the innate instincts. Otherwise, evil will no longer be evil, but will be taken for granted because they don't understand."

But has the malicious instinct of human beings ever disappeared? Never. If there is no legal restraint, their instincts will soon awaken. Just like those who blatantly do evil, because the rules cannot restrain them.

They have clearly crossed the red line of the rules, but they escape or have their guilt reduced because of the rules. They are clearly committing robbery, but they can replace it with bullying.

The girl shook her head slowly and scooped another spoonful of cake into her mouth.

I was also bullied when I was a child, but I was lucky. They all received the punishment they deserved. Unlike the guy with glasses who was dragged into the alley just now, I was well protected and didn't even know what it felt like to be beaten.

Some people are born noble, some are born mediocre, the world is so unfair. I am lucky because my last name is Yukinoshita.

The voices of the boys in the middle booth suddenly rose a few notches, becoming a little noisy, and they began to argue loudly about something. Yukino listened for a while and understood the reason. They were arguing about something very boring.

Because there were girls present, the boys became very excited. Just like male birds courting, some of them wanted to show off their feathers by saying that they went to Sydney, the capital of Australia, with their parents last summer vacation.

But as he was talking, another person immediately interrupted him and said that the capital of Australia is not Sydney, but Canberra...

Then everyone was stunned. The male bird, which had flown to Sydney for a tour last year, began to laugh at the guy who tried to pluck his feathers, but his competitor was not to be outdone, so they started making a bet.

This is actually a very misleading question, similar to the 'Mandela Effect'. To give a simple example, many people think that the capital of the United States is New York, but it is actually Washington.

90% of foreigners think of Tokyo, the capital of Japan, when they mention Japan. In fact, Tokyo is not the capital of Japan. Japan is a country without a legal capital.

So the capital of Australia is indeed not Sydney, which is familiar to everyone, but Canberra, which many people have never heard of.

You can find out all this by just checking your phone, but because the female bird was present, the male bird started a duel directly in order to suppress its opponent and stand out... Maybe they are both very confident.

Suddenly, a passage inexplicably popped up in the girl’s mind. This passage was super classic, and it seemed like she had seen it while watching videos online. But the strange thing was that such a classic saying did not seem to be spoken in Japanese?

Since it wasn't said in Japanese, how come I know it?

She frowned, tried to recall for a moment, and then spoke softly, "The less knowledge a person has, the more they have an inexplicable courage and an inexplicable sense of pride. Because the less knowledge they have, the more absolute their beliefs are, because they have never heard of... opposing views."

"Eh?"

Yukino was stunned, "Why... is it in Chinese?"

Because I like reading classics, I am proficient in Japanese, French, English, and now I am also learning German. But I am proficient in so many languages ​​except Chinese... But why did I say that sentence naturally when I don't know Chinese?

Just as she was in a daze, the whole dessert shop became noisy.

The girls started to scream, and the boys also cried out in surprise. They stopped betting and stared at the road across the street.

Yukino, whose thoughts were interrupted, turned her head because of their gazes, and saw that the otaku who was dragged into the alley before had walked out. His glasses were knocked off his nose and his whole face was bruised and swollen.

This is not the point. The point is that he was covered in blood, holding a switchblade in his hand and roaring almost madly.

Through the shouting and screaming, Yukino heard what he meant: I didn't mean it, they took out the dagger first, they robbed me of my money, and they wanted to beat me up, I was acting in self-defense!

"Different people have different personalities, but no matter what kind of personality it is, wildness is an instinct engraved in our DNA."

Xue No stared at the frightened otaku and shook her head helplessly, "There is only one real reason why people don't dare to kill, and that is that they are afraid of death. If the rules allow, even a coward can kill for you to see."

The whole street was in chaos. The girls in the dessert shop were scared to death, and some boys were pale.

Only the girl sitting by the window was surprisingly calm. She even slowly scooped a spoonful of cake into her mouth. She was elegant and well behaved, and was not affected by the blood at all.

"Where did you get these strange insights into humanity? I guess I've never seen so much blood before..."

She became more and more confused. Why wasn't she afraid? She even felt like she was used to it.

Both visual sense!

Yukino's eyes suddenly opened, she placed a thousand yen bill on the table, picked up her schoolbag and walked out of the dessert shop.

Everyone on the street was hiding or calling the police, only a quiet-looking girl walked over with a frown, walked around the otaku who was sitting on the ground covered in blood, and came to the alley between the buildings.

It was a mess inside. One of the three delinquents was leaning against the left corner. His carotid artery and trachea were cut. Although his body was still twitching intermittently, he was already beyond saving. The other two delinquents lay motionless in a pool of blood. The one in the middle was pierced through the heart and died instantly. Only the lucky one on the left was in shock due to the brain's protective mechanism.

In an instant, the girl's pupils shrank and she froze in place...as if something was about to burst out.

A few seconds later, the shrill sirens brought her back to reality, and she left the place with a dull look in her eyes, as if she had lost her soul.

"It seems very strange... What's strange about it?"

Yukino muttered to herself, "Why can I tell who is alive and who is dead at a glance? Why are you so calm, as if death is commonplace?"

The girl was trying hard to think about the unreasonable things that happened to her, walking aimlessly on the street.

It’s not just a fantasy, it’s just like what I guessed after school, those strange déjà vu scenes, the memory fragments from lucid dreams... a manipulated life, false happiness?

There is also that inexplicable illusion...it seems like I am a very extraordinary guy!

Are you really approachable? Maybe you are really a weird person who doesn't know what he means and doesn't speak well?

And life is not always smooth sailing like this. Even if you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth, there will always be troubles.

The girl felt that something very important was about to burst out in her mind, but when she thought about it carefully, she couldn't remember anything. It felt like it was always just a little bit short of something.

She walked and walked on the street... until the sky gradually darkened, until the brilliant neon lights were reflected in her lifeless pupils.

The nightlife began, and people of all kinds walked through the streets, dressed in bright and colorful clothes. But in this feast of lights and wine, there was a girl who looked out of place.

Because at this time, even students would not walk around the streets in school uniforms...

Unconsciously, there were fewer pedestrians around, but the girl was still carrying her schoolbag, walking tirelessly on the street.

After a long time, she suddenly came to her senses. It was already late at night.

Yukino's gaze changed from dull to clear, from confused to insightful. She took out her cell phone to check the time, then put the phone back into her schoolbag.

"It's been more than five hours already? Time flies so fast... It really feels like... a lifetime ago."

She looked around, her eyes fixed on the pub called 'Midnight Diner' on the street.

In fact, this izakaya was previously called "Miura Midnight Diner", but later the owner transferred it due to family problems. The new owner is still running the izakaya, and it is still called Midnight Diner, but the word "Miura" has been removed.

Yukino had been to this store not long ago with her good friend.

"I am normal. Even though I have a weird personality, I say what I mean and say what I don't, and I speak harshly, I will eventually become someone who is approachable..."

The girl thought for a moment and continued to talk to herself, "The reason why I seem to be easy to get along with is because my appearance is determined by my heart. I am always surrounded by beauty, so I don't have any negative emotions. For me, what I desire most is a free and ordinary life."

Life is always so plain and happy, because this is what she desires most.

She just wants to be an ordinary person and enjoy an ordinary life. Why didn't she want to accept Mr. Hiratsuka's commission before?

She simply doesn't want to do anything meaningless. Yukino has no obligation to help Hikigaya-san change his mindset, and there is no need to cause unnecessary trouble, even if she can do it.

Wouldn't it be better to have one more meal, one more cup of tea, one more book, one more ride, one more talk with your mother?

Why waste your time on irrelevant people? Because you are eager, you should cherish every second.

Just like when she heard those idiots arguing about where the capital was, Yukino just felt bored. If someone came up to her and said that the capital of the United States was New York, she would definitely answer in an affirmative tone, you are right.

Because people come to this world to feel the beauty, not to argue with cerebral palsy, let alone to save cerebral palsy.

Although Yukino knows that she has psychological problems, she just wants to find the truth about what is bothering her, and will never do anything stupid like Hiratsuka-sensei is overly worried about.

Because even though Yukino doesn't understand, her instinct tells her that this ordinary happiness is hard-earned. It is a very precious thing, earned with tears and blood, with unforgettable and heart-wrenching pain.

So even if she was willing to daydream meaninglessly for herself, she was not willing to waste even a second on others.

"Because, the life I have now... is what you, the stupid cat, worked hard to get for me."

The cold voice was warmer than the spring breeze. She lowered her head slightly and looked at the black cat that had appeared at her feet. In its mouth, it held a small pendant-like gadget.

"Meow."