If scenes from a "dream" you once had started replaying themselves in real life—events you had personally experienced appearing one after another in your daily routine—how would you react?
Bocchi-chan's first response was—
Yabai.
Yabai, this is way too yabai.
That feeling—like everything was destined to move toward a conclusion you had already foreseen, like there was no escaping fate's grip—only left a person feeling powerless and lost.
As if someone had already written the script for your life, and without realizing it you were following the plot exactly as intended, driving along a track laid out by someone else.
"And the person I was just thinking about how I might meet suddenly shows up right in front of me the very next second—doesn't that work a little too well…?!"
Gotō Hitori, fifteen years old, student.
At this very moment, she was sitting stiffly on a swing, enduring Ijichi Nijika's warm, expectant gaze as she patiently waited for an answer—while at the same time, Bocchi couldn't stop herself from glancing past Nijika at the two people approaching from behind.
She recognized them.
The blue–short-haired girl walking in front with a bass case on her back was Yamada Ryō, the future bassist of Kessoku Band.
And the curly-haired boy behind her, also carrying a guitar case, with a calm expression—
"I did imagine the possibility of running into him again in real life… but I didn't expect it to happen this fast, completely unprepared…!"
Even though Bocchi-chan still looked relatively composed, the hands gripping the swing were already trembling uncontrollably.
"A-are you okay?"
Nijika, ever attentive, immediately noticed something was wrong.
But no matter how much concern the blonde girl tried to show, Bocchi still couldn't stop herself from bristling like a startled kitten.
"Yabai yabai yabai yabai—they're coming over…!"
That was the very last coherent thought left in Bocchi-chan's brain before it completely crashed, as the blue-haired girl and the curly-haired boy drew closer.
"Nijika, fancy running into you here."
Yamada Ryō greeted her friend first, then turned her gaze toward the pink caterpillar sitting rigidly on the swing.
"Hmm, and this kid is…?"
"The kid I saw in the dream… right?"
Could it be that the dream hadn't been entirely fictional—maybe it had even carried some prophetic weight?
"I think her name was Gotō Hitori… Bocchi-chan, was it?"
Yamada Ryō tilted her head lazily, digging through the handful of things she remembered and pulling out the one that best matched the pink-haired girl in front of her.
"Ah, this is the girl I was hoping to ask to fill in as a temporary guitarist. You know, ever since our last guitarist ran off, we haven't really had any chances to perform."
Unaware of the deeper situation, Ijichi Nijika activated her passive skill—introducing people she assumed were meeting for the first time.
"This is Yamada Ryō, the bassist in my band. Um, by the way, I've been meaning to ask—what's your name?"
"G-Gotō Hitori…"
"Bocchi-chan. Nice to meet you."
Yamada Ryō accepted the reappearance of this "person from the past" with remarkable ease, as if questioning why she kept encountering such non-everyday developments simply wasn't a function she prioritized using.
"Hey, Ryō! Giving someone a nickname right off the bat is kind of rude!"
"I-it's fine…!"
Bocchi shook her head frantically like a rattle drum. Even though she appreciated Nijika sticking up for her, she didn't actually dislike being called that—and having gotten used to it in the dream, the nickname even helped lower her guard a little.
"Since you mentioned looking for a guitarist, Nijika, I actually had someone else in mind too."
Yamada Ryō steered the conversation back on track, conveniently giving some presence to the curly-haired boy who had been silent at her side the whole time.
"Here—Koumi, show them what you've got?"
"Why does this feel like being ordered to perform a talent show in front of relatives during New Year's?"
Narumi Tetsu declined Yamada's suggestion with a dry quip. Honestly, he wasn't that invested in whether he became the guitarist or not—
Because ever since they arrived, his silent gaze had been circling around Gotō Hitori, who was staring down at the ground, too afraid to meet his eyes.
That damn system had said that events from the simulations could influence reality to a certain degree. Maybe that unexplained familiarity the Yukinoshita sisters showed him came from there.
If so… how did Bocchi feel about him?
Had the simulation affected her as well?
"Honestly, the things I did to that pink caterpillar in the simulation were pretty awful… I didn't treat her like a person at all, just a capture target. If the simulation influenced her emotions, it'd be perfectly reasonable for her to hate me and avoid me."
With that in mind, Narumi had already braced himself for the worst.
"What? Ryō, you found a guitarist without even talking to me first? And it's Narumi-kun, the guy who works the counter at the shop? Wait—no offense, but can Narumi-kun actually play guitar…?"
"Koumi, looks like you really do need to show them something."
"I'm not being the kid forced to perform unless there's an envelope involved."
Bocchi, who had been shyly keeping her head down and not daring to join the conversation, blinked. Through the gap in her bangs—drooping low enough to almost cover her eyes—she cautiously observed the three of them.
And the moment her gaze accidentally met the curly-haired boy's—
She reflexively looked away in a panic.
"W-we made eye contact—!"
At the moment, Bocchi-chan's courage only allowed her to engage in this kind of damp, shadowy people-watching.
"Does he hate me? But… the pink caterpillar's personality is pretty shy to begin with. Being guarded around a guy she just met makes sense."
Narumi, of course, had no idea what kind of mental maze Gotō Hitori was navigating. All he could do was assume the most likely explanation.
While the two of them were each lost in their own thoughts, Nijika and Yamada—oblivious to both—kept arguing beside them.
"Honestly… if you found a guitarist too, Ryō, we can't exactly have two of them on stage."
"Two guitarists? It's not like that's impossible. Or else…"
Yamada Ryō shifted her tone and looked at the silent curly-haired boy and the pink-haired girl.
"Whoever plays better—and is more suited to be the band's guitarist—why don't we just let them settle it with a showdown?"