"Ah, sorry, I got the wrong person again. How about you give me a hint."
Shiraishi scratched his cheek, looking a bit embarrassed. Usually it was his old classmates who forgot him, so he never considered the possibility that he would forget a former classmate or friend.
Saiki's pupils darkened a few more shades.
[Hint? I didn't expect our relationship here to be that bad, or maybe…]
Kubo Nagisa: "Ah! I know!"
[Oh? You know?]
Kubo Nagisa suddenly seemed to think of something, her pupils deep, a clear smile on her face.
[Oh? You know?]
Saiki looked at the "Kubo Nagisa" in front of him with a surprised expression, planning to see how she would answer.
Kubo Nagisa hummed proudly: "You're Akashi-kun from the neighboring class, right!"
(Don't judge people based on voice actors!)
[No, don't mix that person with me, it just feels weird and annoying!]
"Ah! That's not right either, sorry.·´¯(＞▂＜)´¯·."
Shiraishi walked over to Kubo Nagisa and quietly asked: "Kubo-san, you really can't remember who this classmate is either?"
"I don't remember either, but he seems to know us."
The two lowered their voices to discuss.
(I can hear everything.)
[I'm Saiki, Saiki Kusuo, a super… cough cough, an ordinary high school student.]
"Saiki?"
"Saiki-kun?"
Kubo Nagisa and Shiraishi looked at each other, communicating tightly through the pupils in their eyes.
Kubo Nagisa [Mm, do you know him?]
Shiraishi [Seems familiar, seems not, you?]
Kubo Nagisa [Same here.]
(Don't secretly use telepathy to communicate, I can hear it all.)
The two turned their heads and saw Saiki still standing calmly with his hands at his sides, expression as composed as usual, and those eyes that showed no ripples at all.
But Saiki's inner feelings were not as calm as his appearance.
[Forget it, sorry, I got the wrong people.]
Saiki gave the familiar yet unfamiliar pair a complicated look, then turned and left.
Kubo Nagisa and Shiraishi Junta stood in place, watching Saiki's departing back, suddenly feeling an urge to chase after him and strike up a conversation.
"…"
"Kubo-san, do you really not know this classmate? He said our names so easily just now, he doesn't seem like someone who got it wrong."
Shiraishi suddenly asked from the side, snapping Kubo Nagisa, who was still dazed in place thinking about something, back to reality.
Kubo Nagisa shook her head: "I probably don't know him. By the way, he called Shiraishi-kun's name too, didn't he?
And he found you so easily on the main road just now, I even thought you two knew each other since childhood!"
Hearing Kubo Nagisa describe it that way, Shiraishi subconsciously nodded, then thought, is it really that strange to suddenly see someone on the main road?
Shiraishi pursed his lips, wanting to complain, but after thinking for a while, he could only agree with what Kubo Nagisa said. However, if he really had such a classmate or friend, there's no way he could forget them.
Shiraishi: "But even though I have no impression, I still feel like he's very familiar."
Kubo Nagisa nodded in agreement: "Me too, it's so weird!"
"Clearly the first time I saw him, I had no impression and didn't know him!
But after talking a few words, there's this very familiar feeling, like I've known him somewhere, and very well, and watching him leave makes me want to rush up and tease him!"
Shiraishi: …
"That wouldn't be right, Kubo-san!"
Shiraishi was speechless. Although he knew the Kubo-san in front of him was the type who was a little mischievous and liked to tease classmates.
But planning to rush up and tease someone on first meeting, this really is… so Kubo-san.
"What's wrong, Shiraishi-kun, are you jealous or do you care a lot!"
Shiraishi shook his head calmly: "No, I just think that's not very polite!"
"Hmph! That was just to fool you earlier."
Kubo Nagisa turned her head away.
"What's wrong, Kubo-san?"
"Hmph, nothing!"
After Saiki's figure completely disappeared, that strange feeling Kubo Nagisa had vanished again, so she turned and ran toward the convenience store.
Kubo Nagisa [Who was that person just now?]
Yes, what Kubo Nagisa said about that strange feeling was real, but she truly couldn't remember.
Although the strange feeling disappeared, her heart firmly remembered this sensation, probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.
"..."
"Rustle rustle!"
Saiki sat on the rooftop of a hundred-meter-high apartment building, the breeze brushing against his face.
Saiki closed his eyes and recalled how the Kubo Nagisa and Shiraishi Junta earlier were different from usual.
Two seconds later, Saiki slowly opened his eyes, the trace of doubt in his gaze completely gone.
(Although very familiar and very similar, those are not the Shiraishi and Kubo-san I know…)
(Or rather, this shouldn't be my world's Kubo and Shiraishi, nor my world's timeline, this should be another parallel world!)
When Saiki left earlier, he had quickly investigated for a bit and found that there was no himself in this timeline.
(This is a world without me, not only without me but also without Shiina-san, Shikimori-san… even Sobu High School doesn't exist!)
(Yare yare daze, this is the consequence of not controlling time-space travel properly. See, it's really troublesome. So warm reminder, friends with time-space travel abilities, please don't use it casually. Even I, in these 15 years after this ability went out of control, have only actively used it twice.)
Saiki stood up, his deep and unfathomable eyes holding a light he usually didn't show.
[ Sigh~ You guys really make me so sad.]
Even though Saiki knew they weren't his world's Kubo and Shiraishi, facing that feeling of being forgotten still made his heart ache a little.
[I actually became this sentimental, mm, progress. Alright, time-space travel!]
Saiki extended his hand again and jumped into the time-space track.
(Yare yare daze, this time I have to find the way home for sure, mm… wait, this is "special traversal"!!)
Saiki's pupils shrank, a horrified expression appeared on his face. During the time-space traversal just now, he felt a pull and fluctuation, instinctively looked back.
As a result, the surroundings in that space were no longer the ordinary colorful during normal time-space travel but turned into a multicolored black, rushing toward him.
The scene is probably like this→
[No, don't!]
Saiki instinctively sped up, but that multicolored gray space rushed toward him even faster.
[This is bad, can't escape, ah!!]
"..."