"Haaa~"
The outside world couldn't affect Ryuji.
The next day, he yawned as he got up from his room.
When he stepped outside, he saw that Miko had already prepared breakfast.
"Are you up? Wash up, have breakfast, and then head to school!"
The weekend went by way too fast!
"Man, as expected, the best part of school is not going to school!" Ryuji couldn't help but sigh as he walked toward the bathroom.
That being said, he still had to go to school. After all, if he didn't, something always felt off.
Looking at how childish Ryuji was acting, Miko smiled as she laid out some clothes for him to change into before heading out.
Just as Ryuji came out of the bathroom and was about to eat breakfast—
"Ding Dong!"
The doorbell rang.
"Who could it be at this hour?" Ryuji asked Miko, confused.
Miko, who had just taken out some clothes, was also curious and shook her head.
"Ding Dong!"
The doorbell rang again. Not sure who it was, Ryuji still went to the door.
"Hello?"
Outside stood a mature woman with a somewhat dangerous-looking hairstyle. Behind her was a girl who seemed to be in elementary school.
The two looked almost identical, like an adult and a child version of the same person. They looked familiar like characters from an anime.
"Hello!" The woman smiled as she held up a small cake in her hands.
"My name is Sae, and this is my daughter, Sagiri!"
The moment Ryuji heard the names, he immediately remembered them.
This mother and daughter duo was from the anime Eromanga Sensei. In the anime, Sagiri's mother had passed away before the story began, but here she was, alive and well.
"We just moved in. This is a little gift. Please take care of us from now on!" Sae said.
In Japan, it was common for people to give gifts to their new neighbors as a greeting when they moved in.
Ryuji didn't hesitate and took the cake.
"Thank you. My name is Ryuji. If you need anything in the future, feel free to ask!"
After that, he smiled at Sagiri, who was shyly hiding behind her mother.
"Hello, Sagiri!"
"Hello..." Sagiri blushed, hiding further behind her mother and mumbling softly.
"Sorry about that. She's a bit introverted and shy," Sae explained with an apologetic smile.
"It's fine!"
Ryuji thought this was much better than in the anime. At least Sagiri was willing to come outside. In the anime, she never left her room due to severe social anxiety.
It must be because her mother didn't die here, so she wasn't as socially withdrawn.
"Well, we won't take up any more of your time."
Sae and her daughter didn't linger long. After a brief chat, they left to greet the other neighbors.
Ryuji watched them go, then closed the door.
At that moment, Miko, who had just finished folding clothes, noticed the small cake in Ryuji's hand and looked curious.
"What's that?"
"A welcome gift from the neighbors. They just moved in. It's a single mom and her daughter," Ryuji explained casually.
"That makes sense. In that case, I'll bake a cake to return the favor tonight!" Miko said cheerfully. In Japan, it was customary to reciprocate when someone gave you a gift.
"Let's focus on breakfast for now," Ryuji said.
"Right!" Miko nodded enthusiastically.
---
"Ryuji-san!"
"Good morning, Ryuji-kun!"
When Ryuji arrived at school, things were different. Normally, no one greeted him. But today, Yumiko and the other girls from the popular crowd all smiled and waved at him.
The other students in the class were confused.
When did Ryuji get so close to the girls in the clique?
Even Hayato, who sat in front of him, glanced over curiously.
"Good morning," Ryuji greeted them back.
Seeing the dark circles under the girls' eyes had disappeared, he smiled. "It looks like you've all recovered."
"Yeah! Thanks to you, Ryuji-kun, we haven't had any nightmares these past few days," Yumiko said, smiling as she pulled a chair over to sit opposite Ryuji. She didn't seem to care about the curious looks from the other students. Then again, as the "Queen" of the class, she never did.
"It's nothing. You already paid me, after all."
Over the weekend, Yumiko had transferred the payment for the exorcism through a chat app. She had even tried to invite him to dinner, but he had declined because he had plans with Utaha and Eriri.
"But I invited you out, and you refused!" Yumiko pouted slightly, her eyes looking a bit resentful. If someone didn't know better, they might think she'd been rejected romantically.
Ryuji shrugged. "I had other plans. I was on a date with some other girls, so I couldn't make it."
"..."
You don't have to be so blunt, you could've just lied…
"Was it with Miko?" Yumiko asked, remembering seeing Miko come to class to fetch Ryuji for lunch. She assumed they were dating.
"No, it was with someone else."
"???"
Did I hear that right?
"So, Ryuji-kun, Miko isn't your girlfriend?" Yui and Hina, who had also walked over, asked in unison.
"No, Miko is my girlfriend," Ryuji clarified.
"..."
Yui looked confused, her head spinning from all the back-and-forth.
"And you're okay saying all this so openly?" Hina asked in an amused tone. She thought it was rather bold of him to admit he had a girlfriend while also dating other girls.
"Miko knows," Ryuji replied casually.
"..."
Even Hina, who prided herself on being perceptive when it came to romance, didn't know what to say to that. Was this how relationships worked nowadays? She felt like she was behind the times.
Meanwhile, Yumiko's eyes brightened as if she had realized something.
---
During lunch, the service club was unusually quiet. As mentioned before, whenever Rikka and Sanae weren't around, the club was much more peaceful.
"By the way, have you heard?" Hana suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence. "There's a new rumor going around the school!"
Even Ryuji looked up. He usually didn't pay much attention to school gossip.
"What kind of rumor?" he asked.
"A lot of students have reported encountering someone who claims to be a senior named Mai. She asks them if they can see her, but after that, all they remember is her name Sakurajima Mai and they forget what she even looks like!"
"Really?" Miko was surprised. That was definitely unusual.
"I've heard about it too," Yukino said, putting down her lunch. She looked serious.
"Oh? So you're not avoiding me today?" Ryuji teased, noticing Yukino sitting closer to him than usual. In the past, she would always sit far away, but now, it seemed she was becoming more comfortable around him. He had been visiting her dreams frequently over the past few nights, after all.
"..."
Yukino said nothing and simply rolled her eyes at him.
Though, she couldn't deny that their dream interactions had become increasingly vivid and... well, wild.
There were already four or five people in the dream now.
But Yukino felt a strange sense of calm. After all, life sometimes felt like that if you can't fight it, you might as well lie down and accept it.
"Don't misunderstand, Ryuji-kun. I'm just doing it for... other reasons," she said, trying to save face.
"Don't worry, I didn't misunderstand," Ryuji said with a nonchalant smile, resting his chin on his hand.
"..."
For some reason, his smile always made Yukino feel like he could see right through her thoughts. She couldn't help but blush slightly.
"Ahem, let's get back to the rumor," she said, clearing her throat to change the subject.
"One of my classmates met a girl who introduced herself as Sakurajima Mai during gym class. She asked if he could see her. Afterward, he barely remembered the encounter and started doubting if it even happened. He only remembered her name."
It was easy to dismiss it as a hallucination, Yukino explained. But it was strange for so many people to have the same illusion.
"Sakurajima Mai?"
Ryuji's eyes narrowed. He immediately recognized the name. It was Bunny Girl Senpai.
At this point, Mai's presence was only beginning to fade, meaning people could still barely see her. But soon, it would be much harder to remember her, or even see her at all.
"Hmm?"
When Ryuji looked up, he saw everyone staring at him, clearly expecting an explanation.
"What?" he asked. "Aren't you going to talk about it among yourselves?"
"I just thought you might know something," Yukino replied, slightly confused by her own words. Since when had she started relying on Ryuji? In the past, she had always believed in solving everything by herself.
Now, though, she was turning to Ryuji for answers.
When had that habit formed?
"I'm curious too!" Miko and Hana chimed in, their eyes full of curiosity.
"Could it be some kind of supernatural event?" Miko asked.
"Is it something strange?" Hana added, her curiosity mixing with a bit of fear. Ever since she learned about the existence of curses from Ryuji, she had been both scared and fascinated, secretly hoping to see something unusual again.
"It's not exactly strange," Ryuji said. "If it were, people wouldn't just forget someone's appearance after meeting them."
"So what could it be?" Miko asked, intrigued.
Ryuji thought for a moment. "It's more likely that a technique is getting out of control."
In Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Mai Sakurajima begins fading from people's perception due to "Adolescence Syndrome," a mysterious phenomenon tied to emotional and psychological struggles. The turning point comes when Sakuta confesses his love for her in front of the entire school, loudly declaring his feelings. This public declaration forces everyone to acknowledge her presence again, breaking the effects of the syndrome.
"A technique?" Yukino, who had been quietly observing, spoke up. She raised her eyebrows at the new term. "What do you mean by that?"
"Sometimes, sorcerers have techniques they aren't fully aware of, and they accidentally activate them without knowing how to control them. That's called a technique going out of control," Ryuji explained.
"Kind of like Yuta's situation," he added, referencing Yuta, a character well-known in the sorcery world. "He didn't know about his own abilities, and when his childhood friend Rika died, his emotions caused his curse energy to spiral out of control, turning her into a special-grade curse."
"So, you're saying this person's technique is making her disappear from people's memories?" Miko asked, starting to connect the dots.
Ryuji nodded. "It's probably a technique that makes her presence disappear. She might have activated it without realizing it, and now it's backfiring."
"And the consequences?" Yukino asked, leaning in slightly.
"The consequences? Well, as you can see, people are already starting to forget about her. Eventually, no one will remember her at all. She'll still exist, but to everyone else, it will be like she never did. She'll be completely alone."
"..."
Everyone was silent for a moment, taking in the weight of what Ryuji had just said. The idea of being completely forgotten, of walking through life with no one acknowledging you, was horrifying.
"So she'll just... fade away?" Yukino finally asked, her voice soft.
Ryuji nodded gravely. "Yeah. Unless someone can figure out how to stop it, that's exactly what will happen."
Miko looked down, a worried expression crossing her face. "That sounds... really lonely."
"It does," Ryuji agreed, thinking about the desperation someone like Mai must be feeling. To be alive, but to be invisible, forgotten by the world it was a fate worse than death.
*********
I'm working on translating a Fate ff that I found really interesting. I've read up to chapter 60, and it's pretty decent overall. I've translated some of it, but since it's a typical Chinese ff, there's a fair bit of nationalism and some aspects of the MC's powers that might feel off-putting. But don't worry, I've edited and changed most of the elements that could make it unbearable.
If you're interested, I'd love for you to check it out and help me decide whether it's worth continuing to translate, or if I should wrap it up to avoid spending time on something that might not be well-received.
Fate: Question And Answer System of Traversing Heroic Spirits
Also, please check out my One Piece: King of the World! It's a solid fic, though it doesn't have a lot of traction yet 🥲. Thanks