“The same thing’s happening right now, even as we speak. When I came here from the future, my presence immediately began to alter the course this world was taking.”
“Oh. Then things started changing the moment we met?”
“That’s right. The divergence was small at first, but over time, it’s going to grow more pronounced. There’s no telling how far off track things might get if we sit on our hands. That’s why you need to make an active effort to stay on the rails.”
“Hmm, I see…”
Naomi nodded knowingly, but in all honesty, he didn’t really get it. Sensei was his only source of information on how all this worked, though. He had to take his word for it on this stuff.
As Sensei had repeatedly pointed out, Naomi was a resident of this world. The system that kept it running was beyond his comprehension. It didn’t matter what was happening to the data behind the scenes—he could only perceive his own life as a single chain of events.
Naomi found himself looking up at Sensei’s face. This man had broken free of that chain. He’d chosen to step back in time and participate in a retake version of his own life.
What could that possibly feel like? Maybe he felt like a god. Or maybe, somewhere deep down, he felt like he was doing something wrong.
“Don’t look so nervous, Naomi.”
Naomi blinked as Sensei clapped his notebook shut.
“Just leave it to me, all right? You’re not going to fail as long as you do what I tell you. Your victory is basically preordained. No reason to overthink it, really. Just trust me, and follow the instructions in this notebook.”
Turning the notebook over in his hands, he showed Naomi its cover once again.
“It’s not every day you get a self-help book from the future, right?”
Naomi flinched a little. The words self-help book brought to mind some painful recent memories. His recent purchase, How to Be Decisive, contained more than eighty pieces of advice, all of which had been no help whatsoever. He’d wasted 2000 yen on that stupid thing.
Perhaps he bore some amount of blame for his failure, since he’d been too much of a chicken to act on the book’s advice. But come on! That stupid book just said do this and do that without a single word about what the results would be. It was always terrifying to take a risk without any guarantee of a decent outcome, right?
This notebook was different, though.
The Ultimate Manual in Sensei’s hand was a description of the future. It was offering him a guaranteed, preset path that could only lead to success.
A bit belatedly, Naomi was realizing just how amazing that was. This was exactly what he’d been looking for so desperately last week. It was the single greatest self-help book in the entire world.
“So, what should I do first, Sensei?” he asked excitedly, his heart dancing in his chest. He was eager to give this thing a try.
“Right,” Sensei said, nodding in a mildly pompous manner. “Start by taking out a book.”
“Yes, sir!”
Naomi pushed his phone into his jacket pocket and retrieved a paperback book from his bag. He was always carrying at least one with him.
“Now open it.”
More instructions already!
Naomi had put away his phone, so he couldn’t respond verbally anymore. Still, he snapped open the book with a sharp, decisive movement, like a fresh recruit carrying out his orders.
“Now drop it.”
Again, he executed his instructions faithfully. The book flopped straight to the floor and fell shut. A moment later, the bus swayed slightly, causing the paperback to slide a few feet along the floor.
“Now go pick it up.”
This seemed like a pretty involved operation, but he was keeping up so far.
The bus swayed again, and Naomi’s book slid further forward. He chased after it hurriedly on his hands and knees, managing to catch it just before it could slide out of reach.
What the hell am I doing?
A moment of self-reflection caused Naomi’s faith to waiver. Was this sequence of events really described in that journal? It was hard to see what he could possibly be accomplishing.
The bus swayed again, and Naomi’s head smacked into the backside of the person standing in front of him.
“Uh, I’m sorry…” He apologized reflexively as he looked up at the other passenger.
Meeting his gaze from above were the glowing eyes of a ruthless predator—the eyes of a viper sizing up a toad, or a lion contemplating a rabbit.
I was right the first time. She’s definitely not the cute type.
As Naomi stepped down off the bus at his stop, he looked over at his classmate.
Given his role as a rabbit, he’d been unable to do anything except quiver fearfully on the ground and await his doom. Accordingly, he’d received a hard slap across the face.
Naomi was one of the guilty parties here, so his punishment was probably warranted…but he found it a bit unfair that the true mastermind of the incident had escaped unscathed.
He appealed to his judge and jury’s sympathy with a pathetic look of remorse. Ichigyou Ruri shot him a withering glare, then turned and strode off. For a long moment, Naomi just stood there at the bus stop. His left cheek started to sting.
Oh, that hurts. That really hurts…
“Excellent,” said Sensei with a nod.
“Excellent?! What was excellent about that?!” Naomi protested angrily. Whatever he’d been doing, it had turned out horribly! “She thinks I’m a scumbag now! She probably hates me. Were you reading from the Ruin Everything Manual by mistake? What am I supposed to do now, huh?!”
“First, stop freaking out.”
Now Sensei was just asking the impossible.
His face calm and composed, the older man wagged a finger chidingly. “All of that was just a necessary bit of groundwork.” He pointed dramatically down at the ground.
“Um…” Naomi’s voice came out in a squeak. He almost wished it had gone unheard, but the library was deserted and silent today, so it carried just fine.
He was on the second floor of the library, in a corner divided from the rest by partitions. The after-school committee meeting would be starting soon. But for the moment, the only people there were Ichigyou Ruri—the first to arrive—and Naomi, who’d followed her there.
Ruri’s eyes moved from her book to Naomi’s face.
She wore the same look of scorn he’d seen earlier. Naomi almost thought she might slap him a second time, just to send a message. He wanted nothing more than to turn on his heel and flee. But he couldn’t do that. It wasn’t what the Ultimate Manual said would happen.
He just needed to recite his lines. He didn’t need to think. It was just like reading from a script, really.
Gathering up all his courage, he managed to speak.
“I’m, uh…sorry about yesterday. You know, the thing that happened on the bus. I was just trying to pick this up for you.”
Embarrassed by his wooden delivery, Naomi took out his prop—a bookmark that Ruri had dropped on the bus. It was a colorful little thing with a peacock-feather design. Apparently, it had slipped out from between the pages of her paperback.