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[all_wound_up]

[Nano's been pretty quiet for the past week or so.  She's still been going to school every day and working at the inn, but she mostly keeps to herself, and has been going directly home afterward.  Those accustomed to seeing her out and about during the 13th Hour helping to fight demons will find her conspicuously absent.  So it's perhaps a relief to anyone who's been wondering or worrying about her that she's finally back on the network, doing her best not to look as sad as she feels.]

U-um... would anyone like to come over for dinner sometime?  Or... or maybe I could have another party or a sleepover at the inn?  Would anyone be interested in that?

[It's clear something else is up, but she's trying not to focus on that.]

Comments

[all_wound_up]

W-well, I mean, if it's not an inconvenience for you...

[otakuro]

It's not like I'm doing anything much more productive, anyway.

[Atsuro shrugs.]

...Did she have a lot of stuff, do you think?

[all_wound_up]

She never really had a steady job for very long, so she didn't have very much...

[otakuro]

Well. Let's take a look sometime later. It's probably better to... wait a little while.

...Were you really close friends?

[all_wound_up]

[Nano nods.]

She was my best friend from home. Yukko-san... she was the first person to accept me for exactly who I was. She talked to me right away on my first day at school, even though I was so nervous about fitting in.

[otakuro]

So everyone already knew about who you were back when you first enrolled, huh? Even if they didn't accept you, no one'd better have treated you badly.

[Although honestly high school wasn't exactly filled with tolerant loving individuals.]

[all_wound_up]

Yukko-san was the only one who ever mentioned it. I don't think the other students really believed her. But she came to my house one day just to tell me that she noticed, and still wanted to be my friend anyway.

[otakuro]

...Huh.

I mean, I think at some point, people'd spend enough time that 'cosplay prop' stops being really convincing. I guess that just shows how much attention you pay people who aren't your friends, though...

But that's good. I'm glad you've got someone like that.

[all_wound_up]

Mmhmm. Yukko-san was always there for me. And Naganohara-san and Minakami-san, too.

[otakuro]

What grade are you supposed to be in, again?

[all_wound_up]

Oh, um... I was a first year in high school at home, so now I'm about to finish my second year.

[otakuro]

Well. It sounds like you got off to a pretty good start then - and whenever you go back home, your best friend will be waiting for you.

[all_wound_up]

And Hakase and Sakamoto-san, too.

[otakuro]

Right!

[Atsuro smiles before turning away thoughtfully.]

I guess you probably don't have any weird alternate universe situations going on, right?

[all_wound_up]

...Huh?

[Which is to say 'probably not.']

[otakuro]

Ahaha...

I actually have two best friends from home. Both of them have ended up here at some point, but... neither of them are actually from my world!

It's strange, huh?

[all_wound_up]

I don't understand. How are they from your world but not?

[otakuro]

It seems like there are a lot of different parallel worlds out there.

[Atsuro gives a small shrug.]

They all depend on these little decisions we made during the lockdown - the demon invasion.

[all_wound_up]

I've never heard of anything like that before.

[otakuro]

Maybe they were important to affect the fate of the world and spin it off into different outcomes.

Someday, when you have to decide between having pancakes or waffles for breakfast, you'll probably start your own spin-off.

[all_wound_up]

What? I didn't know my breakfast was so important! W-what happens if I eat miso and rice?

[otakuro]

We'll call that the Prime Timeline. Pancake Timeline probably ends in catastrophe because you run out of syrup and the Butterfly Effect makes a riot break out, and Waffle Timeline ends in a mess because I've never made waffles without making a mess.

[all_wound_up]

I'm never eating pancakes again.

[otakuro]

But that's a choice you're making too! If you never eat pancakes again, that timeline could have different consequences altogether. Maybe one morning when you were meant to eat pancakes, you eat miso and the miso's gone bad.

Not that miso ever really goes bad.

[A slight pause.]

Aha, I'm just teasing, but... you'd be surprised at the things that make a difference sometimes.

[all_wound_up]

Timelines are so complicated...