The instant I had a chance after sprinting away from Sagami, I invoked the Mandatory Assembly Protocol.
What, you may ask, was the Mandatory Assembly Protocol? Simply put, it was one of the many protocols circulated among the members of the literary club. Its invocation would cause all of the club’s members to drop whatever they were doing, no matter what that might be, and gather at a predetermined location with all due haste. It was an emergency protocol that clocked in at an SSS rating on the urgency scale. We of the literary club—largely under my direction—had established a set of emergency plans broad and varied enough to cover any disaster you could imagine, and the Mandatory Assembly Protocol was just one of the many countermeasures in our arsenal.
I opened up the group LINE chat that the five of us shared, typed out the words “Mandatory Assembly Protocol,” and followed them up with “Point G: 1078,” informing everyone in code exactly where we would be gathering. Everyone had called me a chuuni for spending day after day ironing out these plans, but in that moment, I was truly glad that I’d gone to so much trouble to sow the seeds of emergency preparedness.
If this means that we’ll be able to come together just a little sooner, then it was all worth—
Tomoyo: “Uh-huh. Get a grip, chuuni-boy”
Hatoko: “Oh, Juu! Thank goodness. We’ve been trying to call you for ages!”
Sayumi: “Where have you been? We were all worried about you.”
Chifuyu: (Sticker featuring a surreal character making an equally surreal expression)
Not even one of them took the order seriously.
Oh, okay, I get it. Looking back with a clear head, I’d been abducted out of nowhere by Tamaki the moment the world had returned to normal from Sayumi’s power making everything topsy-turvy. From everyone else’s perspective, I’d vanished into thin air and had been mysteriously out of contact since.
Jurai: “No, for real! I’m 100% serious this time! This is an actual emergency situation!”
Jurai: “Just meet up at Point G: 1078, ASAP!”
Tomoyo: “lol; lmao”
Hatoko: “Sorry, point what? Where is that?”
Sayumi: “Are you familiar with the story of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’?”
Chifuyu: (Sticker featuring a surreal character making an equally surreal expression)
Well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions! I sure did sow these seeds, and I sure am reaping them!
Tomoyo brushed me off, Hatoko had forgotten the location codes, Sayumi went straight for the jugular, and who even knew what Chifuyu was trying to communicate. The system of protocols I’d taken so much care to set up for any given situation had totally broken down, so in the end I just texted them a simple “Meet me at the karaoke place by the station, stat,” followed by a series of increasingly desperate attempts to get them to believe that this really was an emergency.
Everyone still seemed less than convinced that this wasn’t just a prank, but my panic seemed to finally get through to them, and I ultimately managed to get them to agree to gather up where I wanted them to. I wanted that to happen as quickly as possible, so we fell back on an old tactic we’d used before: combining Closed Clock and World Create to get us all together at the karaoke place in the blink of an eye. Night had already fallen, and I didn’t feel great about calling an elementary schooler like Chifuyu out at that time of day, but this just wasn’t the sort of situation in which I could afford to worry about that sort of nicety.
“All right, Andou, you’ve got some explaining to do. Why’d you have to bring us here without even bothering to explain yourself?” Tomoyo grumbled with a scowl the moment we were all safely in our karaoke room. “If this turns out to be another of your stupid chuuni stunts, I’m seriously gonna give you hell over it!”
I didn’t say a word. Tomoyo gulped.
“Huh...? Wh-What...? Why’re you staring at me like that...?”
“Ah! S-Sorry,” I stammered.
Hmm. She’s the same Tomoyo as ever, all right. For some reason—by which I mean, because of Sagami’s stupid power—having to look Dereyo, the living embodiment of clingy cringe, in the eye felt...I dunno, kind of awkward, I guess. I had to look away from her in the end, but that just meant I was looking at Hatoko, Sayumi, and Chifuyu instead...and suddenly, all the future memories I’d experienced of them flashed into my mind as well. The shame was overwhelming.
For crying out loud... You just had to go and give me those stupid visions, didn’t you? Do you realize how much harm this is going to do to my relationships with all of them from now on?
This, however, wasn’t the time. I had to swallow my embarrassment and dive into the very serious topic at hand. This was the moment for us to stand our ground, lest we lose our futures altogether.
“Listen up, everyone. Earlier today...”
I stood before the group and began my explanation. I told them about the supernatural battle with Tamaki that I’d been pulled into, about everything that Future Sagami had taught me...and about the truth of Kiryuu Hajime and the Spirit War. I only had a scattered understanding of the story that had been playing out behind our backs this whole time, but I told them every bit of it that I could, leaving nothing hidden or unsaid.
I knew that the story I was telling them was completely insane. Anyone who wasn’t off their rocker would dismiss it out of hand. But, that said...we were exceptions. All the time we’d spent together in our clubroom—all the trials we’d overcome and all the unbreakable bonds we’d forged—would, I knew, allow my feelings to get through to them, even when my words faltered.
“Okay...you really went all out on the elaborate backstory this time. Seriously, though, did you really have to pull my cringelord brother into it? Don’t do that. Like, really.”
“Did you really meet Tamaki, Juu? That part was true, right?”
“...”
“Andou... You are familiar with ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf,’ yes?”
“...Dammit all!”
At the very least, it was nice to know that everyone was way saner than I’d given them credit for. Nobody took my word for it. Chifuyu was so checked out, she was on the verge of nodding off altogether.
I guess I can’t blame them, though. I didn’t think that the boy-who-cried-wolf comparison Sayumi kept making was totally fair, but I had to admit that my usual behavior probably made it hard to accept an explanation like this from me, especially so abruptly. Even I had to admit that this sounded exactly like the sort of story that I’d come up with on the fly.