And finally, they went to their last destination: the garden behind the school.
“Here,” said Hakari, “this is the place…”
“Not that it has any emotional significance for me or anything!” said Karane.
“Aye, then why bring us here?” asked Kusuri.
Hahari giggled. “Karane-chan’s just being coy as usual, eh?”
“No way! I’m not being coy or anything!”
“Shall I bring the lie detector?” asked Mei.
“Not only do her pupils exhibit a slight dilation but her heartbeat is erratic as well,” said Nano. “These are signs of lying.”
“No way! I’m not lying or anything!”
“This is going nowhere, Karane-san. Could you put a lid on it, please? Just for a little while.” After one too many of Karane’s suspiciously specific denials, Hakari pretended to zip the girl’s mouth shut. “There’s a rumor in this school that if you ask someone out while presenting them with a pink four-leaf clover, they are guaranteed to say yes.”
“You’ve got to be a dumbass to believe stuff like that when you’re in high school!” Karane turned her back to them with a huff.
Hakari responded with an utterly straight face. “Please stop with the exact same song and dance.”
For a moment, Karane said nothing. Then…
“You’re an idiot.” Unlike her previous displays of huffiness, her voice came out as a strangled whisper. “You spent the whole night looking for the clovers just ’cause you thought it might make us happy. Then, after all that, you asked both of us to be your girlfriends.”
“What an unjustifiable sin!” Rentaro moaned.
“Oh, but please don’t misunderstand, okay?” said Hakari. “Karane-san wasn’t actually criticizing you.”
“There’s no way I’m criticizing you or anything!” Karane turned away in a huff yet again.
Kurumi peered at her, fascinated. “Wow, you’re actually saying that as if you mean it for once.”
“After that, you started adding more girls one after another,” Karane went on. “But like I said before, I’m fine with that now.”
“I was just glad you didn’t dump me,” Hakari said with a self-effacing smile. “That was enough to satisfy me.”
“Hey, don’t lump me in with you! I’m not the type who gets their rocks off that easy!”
“I would appreciate it if you didn’t say things that make me sound like my mother, Karane-san.”
“You’re one and the same in that department!”
“Oh, please, you two,” Hahari cut in. “You mustn’t fight over me!”
‹Though she was the cause.› ‹They did not fight for her sake.›
Hahari’s intervention did temporarily halt Hakari and Karane’s banter, however.
Karane coughed and went on. “You’re the kind of idiot who put a crazy amount of thought into our first kiss when we started dating. You complimented us without a lick of hesitation. You did anything and everything to make all your girlfriends happy. You even accepted a girl like me for who I am.” She lowered her gaze. “I swear, I’m gonna make you remember all your dumb memories if it’s the last thing I do!”
When she looked back up, her eyes glinted with an obstinate will, almost as if she was glaring at Rentaro.
“Thank you! I’ll do everything I can to remember!” Rentaro’s gaze was similarly steely. “How about you bonk my head as a test?”
“Jeez, you’re not a faulty appliance,” Karane responded to Rentaro’s straight-faced suggestion with an equally serious expression.
“There is a certain logic to revisiting the shock that made him lose his memories as a method of treatment,” Nano said.
“If Karane bonks Rentaro with all her strength,” said Kusuri, “his head will fly off…”
“Maybe it would be better if someone like Nano-senpai did it,” said Kurumi.
“What kind of monster do you take me for?” Karane demanded.
‹They recalled her past actions.›
“I don’t want to cause Rentaro-chan pain,” said Hahari. “Can’t we make this a last resort?”
“Understood, my lady,” said Mei. “When the time comes to deliver a blow to Rentaro-sama’s head, I shall be the one to do it. Give me the order, and I will strike him however many times necessary until his memory returns. However many times.”
“That sounds freakier than if I did it,” Karane pointed out.
As the girls engaged in this cheerful(?) discussion, Rentaro folded his arms and groaned. “Ugh, how to cure amnesia? Would Google be helpful? Urk, damn it! I don’t know how to make this work! How do I get my precious memories with you all back?!”
Hakari regarded him silently for a moment. “To be honest,” she muttered, “a part of me thinks that it doesn’t really matter whether or not you remember.”
Her words went completely against the grain.
“Wha—?!” Karane looked stunned.
“I mean, you can see it, right? Even without his memories, Rentaro-kun has never stopped being himself.”
“I agree on that count,” Nano said.
“I guess I can see it…” Kurumi said.
“Aye, Kusuri agrees!”
‹As do I.›
“Even as an amnesiac, Rentaro-chan will always be a cutie!” said Hahari.
“If you may allow me to say so, I share Hahari-sama’s opinion,” said Mei.
“Sure, you might agree, but are you really okay with things being like this?” Karane retorted, before letting out another huffy snort. “I mean, I know he’s the same as well!”
She, too, indicated genuine agreement, unusual though it was.
“His memories are very important, of course,” Hakari went on, “but I wouldn’t want the current Rentaro-kun to feel awful about it… Besides, there’s also a chance that they’ll come back to him over time.”
“Kusuri will keep working on amnesia cure!”
“See? It’s fine if we just wait, right?”
Hakari and Kusuri’s logic was beginning to have a noticeable effect on the group. True, that is an option… they thought. But then…
Mei jolted in surprise. It seemed she’d received some kind of notification. “Hahari-sama,” she called out before whispering something in her ear.
Hahari’s eyes widened. “A fairly large meteor is flying toward the school?!”
‹A sudden catastrophe!›
The entire group was stricken with shock at this new plot twist.
“Don’t tell me everything’s gonna get destroyed without any foreshadowing!” Karane wailed.
“Maybe the meteor that hit Rentaro-kun’s head was the foreshadowing…”
“That’s hella sloppy of the writer, if true!”
After getting in that quick joke, the group began pacing frantically.
“Tell the students to evacuate!” Hahari barked at Mei.
“Yes, my lady.”
“It is safest to shelter in a place without windows,” Nano remarked.
‹Let us hurry into the castle walls!›
In the midst of all the kerfuffle, Rentaro stood very still, apparently deep in thought. Before anyone could accuse him of dawdling, however, he sprinted to Kusuri. “Do you still have some of that Human Magnet Medicine?!”
“Hmm? Well, yes, but…” Kusuri gave him a puzzled look as she pulled out three test tubes from her pocket.
“Sorry, but I’ll be taking all of those!” Rentaro grabbed the three test tubes and downed their contents in a flash.
“Whoa! Drinking more Human Magnet Medicine will make you more magnetic, but the constipation will get that much worse! And you’ll vomit!”
“Is that all? I can handle it!” Rentaro declared as he dashed for the grounds.