105. An Unexpected Situation

“Beep-beep—beep-beep—!” Jiang Yu, still with his eyes shut, fumbled for the alarm that had been ringing and switched it off. He pressed the back of his head and felt a jolt of discomfort.

He pushed himself up from bed, let out a dirty breath, and felt a sharp heat and dryness rise in his throat.

“So that’s it…” he murmured. He had intended to draw a few reference sketches for *Witch House* before going to sleep, but somehow had dozed off right at his desk.

Then, halfway through the night, a blast of cold air had woken him. While cursing the fact that he was probably in for trouble, he leapt up, shut the window, rubbed his swollen eyes, went to the bathroom for some personal cleanup, and went back to bed.

Maybe it was just his poor constitution. Or maybe it was the recent run of all-nighters. Either way, Jiang Yu already showed signs of a cold. He shook his head, braced himself, and made his way to the bathroom on slightly unsteady feet.

When he thought that he still had breakfast to prepare, he almost wanted to lie down again.

After bidding farewell to Mai Doma and Nana Natsuna at the intersection, Jiang Yu made his slow way to Fengzhi Academy. It wasn’t even a full cold, yet those mild symptoms alone were bad enough to deserve an entire kettle of treatment.

Just this morning, when he had called Mai, even his own rasping voice had nearly startled him. At least one thing warmed him: while he ate breakfast, Mai looked at his tired face and asked with concern, “Big brother, what’s wrong with you?”

Alas, he waved it off with a casual, “Maybe I didn’t sleep well last night,” and moved on.

Whether to call that lucky or sad, Jiang Yu couldn’t tell. He watched Mai, sleepy-eyed and dragging at her meal, and heaved a sigh as he worked through his breakfast.

His mood, really, was the complicated wish to be cared for while dreading making anyone worry. But Jiang Yu, by habit, simply preferred not to involve other people, especially because the mess was his own.

Maybe it was a habit of radical independence.

After forcing himself to stay alert, he greeted Megumi Kato and Renya An, then sank into his seat. Through the morning, he looked as if he had all the energy of a damp matchstick.

Renya An didn’t mind at all; after a night without sleep, the state looked familiar—he knew the feeling well. Megumi Kato, by contrast, studied him with a thoughtful expression. When Jiang Yu greeted her, she seemed about to say something, though he, fighting the weakness coursing through him, didn’t notice.

During lunch break, Jiang Yu nearly slept through the better part of it. At least he regained some strength. With no appetite, he stayed in the classroom, took out his phone, and, in the stupid loop of locking and unlocking the screen, began to plan the afternoon.

The club activity could be dropped. Minami Kotori—or rather μ's… yes, seems like four o’clock. Then he’d only need to act after school.

“Wait—four o’clock?”

Jiang Yu suddenly jerked upright from the desk and shouted. The classmates who were still eating lunch nearby turned with curious eyes.

Noticing the looks around him, Jiang Yu flashed an awkward, almost impolite yet apologetic smile at the unfamiliar students nearby. Honestly—how does one even produce that face?

Back to the point, he had just remembered something serious. The μ's performance was at four in the afternoon, and naturally it would be at Otonokisaka Academy. Fengzhi Academy dismissed at three-thirty.

So now, a simple math-and-physics problem: in half an hour, how can Jiang Yu get from private Fengzhi Academy to Otonokisaka Academy, arrive early, and find the school auditorium that Kotori named, all while knowing nothing about the local traffic and roads?

First, assume the integral is path-independent… nonsense! If you refuse detours, can you just fly there in a straight line?!

In furious frustration Jiang Yu thought and thought, but could not find a perfect solution that guaranteed both attendance and keeping his promise to Kotori.

So, the time for the decisive choice had come.

Come on—are you choosing the Asuna figurine, or the Kotori figurine?

No contest. This time Jiang Yu chose without hesitation: Kotori.

Not to mention that he didn’t want to miss the girls’ First Live—a once-in-a-lifetime moment. And between us, he was genuinely curious about what Minami Kotori’s stage outfit would look like.

Just from the standpoint of his word, Jiang Yu would insist he has never had the habit of breaking a promise.

Still… this wasn’t college. He understood perfectly that this wasn’t a time to skip class on a whim. Besides, at a private school like Fengzhi Academy, students were only allowed to come and go freely at the regular morning and afternoon opening and closing periods.

But in his present condition, a sick leave might be possible. He lifted his brow; the decision was clear in his mind.

He showed the leave note he had gotten from Kanno and left school without trouble. He had only just remembered that schools here still had proper nurse’s offices and had almost been escorted there by the kindly concerned Renko Kanno’s daughter. He politely refused, yet still secured the leave pass.

He went straight home. Jiang Yu prepared dinner, set it in an insulated container, and was about to message Mai through LINE. After a moment, he put down the phone, wrote a note instead, and stuck it to the lunch box.

Seeing that it was still not too late, Jiang Yu left for Otonokisaka Academy. Even with the coordinates Kotori sent, and even with navigation, he wasn’t fully sure he could still find the right trains and route to get there.

After a tangled series of turns, he finally arrived at Otonokisaka Academy with the clock still on the tail of three, stepping through the gate under the curious, astonished stares of the girls around him.

He was completely at a loss when he tried to figure out where Kotori had told him to go, when suddenly he spotted a familiar silhouette hesitating at the entrance of a classroom building. His eyes lit up, and he hurried over.

“Um… Maki Nishikino? Good afternoon!”

When the girl turned around in surprise and confirmed he hadn’t mistaken her, Jiang Yu’s questioning tone naturally softened into a greeting.

Maki Nishikino had not imagined seeing Jiang Yu here, let alone at school; perhaps she thought he had come looking for her on purpose. That thought flashed across her mind, only for her to instantly cast it aside as nonsense.

After a moment’s hesitation, she finally said, “…Good afternoon, Jiang Yu. You came…”

Before she could finish, Jiang Yu, a bit embarrassed, interrupted. “Sorry to cut in, but I have a bit of an urgent matter. Do you know where μ's… ah, the three second-year school idol girls from your school are performing?”