“This place has a strong sentimental significance for me and you, Rentaro-sama.”
Mei had ushered the group to Onigasaki Park.
It was Rentaro’s request that his girlfriends take him to places that held strong memories for them. The idea was to use those places to trigger and restore his own memories. The girls agreed without hesitation.
“Oh, how beautiful!” Rentaro exclaimed as he looked up at the blooming sakura trees.
The girls also voiced their admiration.
“Wow, it’s the sakura-blooming season,” Hakari said.
“Which is all-year-round, for some reason,” Karane pointed out drily.
Kurumi was silent for a moment, then said, “Now I’m craving sakura mochi.”
“Gramma made Kusuri some sakura mochi, so let’s eat up, aye!” Kusuri shared her snacks with Kurumi, a heartwarming sight to be sure.
Rentaro gazed at the scene for a while, a smile on his lips, before turning back to Mei. “Have we come here before to look at the flowers?”
“Yes. You also had many orders for me.”
“Ordering my girlfriend around? Doesn’t that make me an abusive lowlife?!” Rentaro bonked his head viciously.
“N-not at all, Rentaro-chan!” Hahari was quick to stroke his wound. “Mei struggles with other forms of communication. I’m sure that she asked you to give her orders, didn’t she?”
“Yes, it is as Hahari-sama says.”
“And after that? Could you tell me what you did?”
“As you wish, my lady. Afterward, I came to the conclusion that the only way I could carry out Rentaro-sama’s order was to end my very life.”
“How the hell could I make my girlfriend feel that way?!” Rentaro moaned.
“Calm down, Rentaro-chan!” Hahari restrained his arms before he could self-flagellate again. “Mei, context!”
“Yes, my lady.” Mei bowed solemnly. “I derived my self-worth solely from being useful to those who are precious to me. I believed that I possessed no inherent value.”
Behind her firmly shut eyelids, Mei appeared to be swimming in memories. A fond smile came to her lips.
“Thus, Rentaro-sama, out of great consideration for me, told me his wish. It was much like an order. Then, Rentaro-sama—”
“Urk?!”
Before Mei had even finished speaking, Rentaro let out a moan and clasped a hand to his head.
Hahari stroked his head. “Rentaro-chan, do you have a headache?!”
“N-no,” Rentaro answered, a little apologetic. After getting back to his feet, he shifted his gaze to Mei. “‘You are not allowed to be of any use to me at all.’ Is that what I said?” he asked hesitantly.
Mei’s eyes did not quite spring open, but she did look terribly surprised. “Has your memory returned?”
“Ah, no. It was just something that popped into my head. It’s not a memory, exactly, but I might have just realized what I would say in that situation.”
Shizuka beamed. ‹’Tis progress nonetheless!›
Nano, in contrast, never let up her deadpan expression for a moment. “I expect that tracing your thinking patterns from before the amnesia is an effective means of restoring your memories.”
Rentaro seemed encouraged by their words. “I was just asking myself if there was anything she could do besides throwing her life away. Did I come to the same conclusion the first time?”
“Indeed, you did,” said Mei. “You said that you appreciated me, no matter what I did or where I was. This made me think that the only way I could not be useful to you was to end my life.”
“But…wouldn’t that be the point I was trying to make? That you help me just by existing. Mei-san, you’ve got plenty of worth without needing to follow commands or go out of your way to be useful.”
Upon hearing Rentaro express the exact same sentiments from that earlier scene, Mei was at a loss for words.
“When you love someone, all you want is for them to be there. The mere fact that they’re alive is a blessing on its own…right?”
“It is just as you say,” Mei said, a smile bright on her face.
Seeing this, a light of understanding came over Rentaro. “I see… So I was in love with Mei-san…”
His quiet murmur had a trace of loneliness in it, perhaps because he had no memory of this love. Nevertheless, his eyes were filled with determination when he clenched his fist.
“I’ll get that love back. Just you watch… Will you wait for me a little while?”
To this quiet declaration of resolve, Mei responded…
“Your wish is my command.”
“That wasn’t a command!”
It was a word-for-word repeat of what they had said at the time.
✦ ✦ ✦
“A place I have strong memories of with Rentaro… Yeah, that’s got to be here.”
They had returned to the school, where Kurumi led them to the cooking classroom.
“I’ve got a crazy fast metabolism. I’m always hungry, and it ticks me off,” she explained. “Before I met you, I always used to spend as much time as possible by myself so I wouldn’t take my frustrations out on people.”
Hakari smiled. “Oh yes, you did tell us that you weren’t planning on getting chummy with us when we first met.”
“And now look at you, huh?” Karane grinned too.
Kurumi turned away. “I dunno what you’re talking about.” Her cheeks were slightly flushed. “Right now, I’m just like Nano-senpai. I’m not just playing along because you’re all Rentaro-senpai’s girlfriends. It’s because…I like you people.”
“Sounds like a proposal!” Hahari squealed. “Let’s get married!”
“That’s not how I meant it!”
“I have prepared a marriage registration form. Please fill it out,” Mei said.
“Don’t need it!”
The warm, cozy atmosphere was only slightly marred by Kurumi’s forceful attempts to fend off Hahari’s hugs.
Kurumi’s stomach began to rumble. “Fill it? Fillet? Mmm, sounds tasty!”
“Whoa?!” Rentaro turned to her in surprise. “Are we doing a word association game now?!” He could understand how she’d gone from sakura to sakura mochi, but this was a bit of a stretch.
“She’s always like this. We’re used to it, aye,” said Kusuri.
‹Such is her inclination.›
“I-I see…”
While they spoke, Mei briskly started filleting a fish in the cooking classroom. This was enough to sate Kurumi’s hunger for the time being.
“Okay, back on topic.” Kurumi coughed, her cheeks still slightly pink. “So, because of my situation, I got snappy at you when you were being nice to me, Rentaro-senpai. But you never stopped being kind. You made me a menchi katsu sandwich, and it was so yummy… It made me happy…”
Upon witnessing this shy yet heartfelt admission of love, Rentaro and the others swooned.
“Anyway!” Kurumi went on, her tone somewhat flustered. She pulled out a premade hamburger and katsu sandwich from her bag. “I dunno if this’ll come in handy for triggering your memories, but…I wanted to make a mechi katsu sandwich for you, this time, Rentaro-senpai.”
“According to the Proust effect, familiar smells can trigger memories,” Nano remarked. “Perhaps that will apply here.”
Encouraged by those words, Kurumi pulled the beef out of the hamburger. “First off, you fry the hamburger patty.”
“Ah.” Rentaro let out a little gasp as he watched Kurumi pour ketchup on the beef. “You’ve got to make sure the beef is dry first, or else the oil will splash on you. Be careful—it stings so bad it feels like the world’s ending.”
As Rentaro spoke, he pulled out a kitchen roll. Kurumi turned to him, her eyes gleaming with expectation. But when Rentaro showed no indication of remembering anything, her shoulders slumped slightly in disappointment.
“I know. You told me that it happened to you,” she said as she wiped down the juices on the patty with a towel.
She put the patty into the oil, where it emitted a satisfying hiss. An appetizing scent began to fill the room.
Finally, Kurumi picked up the menchi katsu sandwich. “It’s done!” she announced, her voice brimming with accomplishment. “Eat up, Rentaro-senpai.”
She passed the sandwich to Rentaro.
Grrrrrrrrr!
At that same moment, however, her stomach growled up a symphony. Kurumi’s expression darkened with a scowl of irritation. “This whole time I was thinking about menchi katsu sandwiches, I was imagining eating it myself!”
“Then eat it yourself!” he insisted.
“But I made this for you, Rentaro-senpai!” Normally, she would have accepted the proposition with delight, but today, she gritted her teeth and remained firm. “I’ve always wanted to pay you back for what you did that day!”
Even in the midst of Kurumi’s ire, her constant consideration for her boyfriend came across loud and clear.
“I understand now,” Rentaro said, after a pause. “I gladly accept, then.”
This time, Rentaro took the menchi katsu sandwich in an apparent display of understanding. Kurumi’s stomach grumbled even more violently when the sandwich left her hand. Perhaps it was separation anxiety.
Meanwhile, Rentaro took a knife from the cooking classroom and cut the sandwich neatly in two. He held up one of the halves for Kurumi.
“Here, let’s share.”
She stared at his hand—the hand which she had spurned once before.
“You really enjoyed the sakura mochi and the fillet, right? I think I’d have an even better time eating alongside someone who enjoys their meals as much as you do.”
For a long moment, Kurumi said nothing. “Even without your memories, you’re still the same Rentaro-senpai.”
This time, she earnestly accepted the gesture, and they both chowed down on the menchi katsu sandwich.
“Yummyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”
“Yeah, that was super delicious.”
As he gazed at Kurumi’s expression of unbridled joy, Rentaro smiled happily.