SFS Chapter 7? Madness 3... Could it be...? Where am I...?
Chapter 7? Madness 3... Could it be...? Where am I...?
"Nice to meet you. My name is Gang Fengming. Please take care of me in the future."
After lip-reading Sawa, Ming introduced himself to the students below with a blank expression, glancing sideways at Sawa's seat.
Suddenly, Ming's gaze inadvertently swept over Sha and the neighboring table, where he saw a girl with black hair and red eyes looking at him curiously.
Upon seeing this, his expression shifted slightly, a strange glint flashed in his eyes, and he immediately opened his gaze, his brain already racing.
'As expected! It all matches up: Anzakura Girls' Academy, Tokisaki Kurumi... and Saya and her.'
At this moment, Ming's brain was working at lightning speed. Although there were precedents such as the air disaster, Ming still held a sliver of hope, thinking that it was just a matter of the disaster having the same name. However, the appearance of Tokisaki Kurumi became the last straw that broke Ming's sliver of hope.
Since Ming was a time traveler, he was already familiar with the anime "Date A Live".
However, since his perspective shifted from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional, he didn't initially connect Yamada Sae with the person from Date A Live. After all, that name isn't uncommon in Japan. But Tokisaki Kurumi is different; you could search half of Japan and not necessarily find someone with the same name as Kurumi.
"Alright, Gangfeng, you've finished introducing yourself. Now, please choose your seat."
Fujiwara-sensei's voice came from beside Ming, pulling Ming back to reality.
Ming slightly turned his head, his gaze falling on Fujiwara Chizuru. He nodded slightly, then slowly shifted his gaze to the surroundings of the classroom, carefully scanning the area before speaking:
"Teacher, please stay over there."
Ming calmly pointed to the far right of the classroom, then turned to look at Mr. Fujiwara.
Fujiwara-sensei nodded, and Ming walked off the stage to his seat. After putting his things away, he sat down quietly and began to listen to Fujiwara-sensei's lesson.
During class, Ming was focused on reviewing the material, but for some reason, he kept feeling that people around him were looking in his direction, which made him feel that it was affecting his studies.
Since it is 1989 in Japan, the manga industry was developing rapidly, with romance manga being particularly popular among young girls, becoming one of their must-read books during their adolescence. These manga, with their romantic plots and beautiful illustrations, immersed readers and made them yearn for a sweet romance.
However, the school I attended was an all-girls college, which meant there were no boys around to date.
Therefore, although there might be boys in the next class, our class was absolutely all girls. In this situation, a handsome guy like Ming, with his almost top-tier aloof and ethereal charm, would be incredibly sought after. It's normal for many girls to want to date such a cool and aloof guy.
And so, Ming spent the entire class being stared at by a large number of female classmates. As soon as get out of class ended, he was surrounded by his classmates and couldn't get away at all.
"Hi Gangfeng, are you free after school today?"
The blonde girl who was closest to Li Ming, who had no name, asked shyly as soon as she came up.
"Sorry, I have something to do after school."
Ming politely declined after hearing this.
However, this action did not reduce the number of girls asking questions. On the contrary, more people suddenly made the once quiet last row of the class lively, and even Ming was unable to leave for a while.
Meanwhile, not far from the last row of the last column in the class, Sawa Yamada and Kurumi Tokisaki were standing near their respective seats, quietly watching everything.
"Um... speaking of which... Kurumi-san, aren't you going?"
Sawa looked at her best friend with a strange expression and a hint of worry, as if afraid that Kurumi would say something interesting.
"No, I'm not really interested in romance right now, and..." Kurumi lowered her head slightly, looking somewhat embarrassed, and said:
Even so, if I were in a relationship... I'd probably still go on dates...
After Kurumi finished speaking, the corners of her mouth lifted slightly, revealing a sweet smile again. Then she gently scratched her face with her hand, still looking somewhat embarrassed.
But Sawa's expression at this moment was even more awkward than Kurumi's, who was somewhat embarrassed. She even felt a little guilty, but she still managed to force a faint smile and said:
"Uh...hehe, that's true, after all, Kurumi-kun, you're my best friend."
Sawa originally planned to go find Ming as soon as get out of class ended, but the students below were faster and blocked the way to Ming, so she ended up going back to chat with Kurumi instead.
Ming, however, would occasionally steal glances at Kurumi and Sawa through the gaps in the crowd. His perpetually icy face showed a hint of heartache, though Ming was unaware of why he felt this way.
But when he looked at Sawa again, he felt a pang of reluctance and worry for some reason. Ming's memories flooded back. He vaguely remembered that in the original Date A Live, Sawa Yamada's ending was that she was killed twice by Kurumi and finally died a tragic death.
Recalling these things, Ming's heart began to ache. His mind kept replaying his daily interactions with the girl. Even though he was still sitting in his seat, listening to the chatter of a group of classmates next to him, his expressionless face wrinkled slightly before he finally relaxed.
Then the school bell rang, and all the students reluctantly left Ming's desk and slowly walked back to their seats to wait for the teacher.
Tick-tock... The hour hand ticks away, the minute hand moves little by little, and before we know it, it's noon.
As soon as lunch break started, Ming took his lunchbox and quietly went out the back door to leave the classroom. Before leaving, Ming secretly used lip reading to tell Sawa where he was going.
As soon as the bell rang, Ming took the opportunity to shake off the classmate who wanted to share a table with him to eat lunch. He then secretly placed a small note on Sawa's desk indicating where he was going, and left the classroom to go to the stairwell at the top of the academy to wait.
Ming, sitting on the steps in the stairwell, opened the bento box he was holding. As soon as he opened it, the rich aroma of fried food wafted out, which even surprised Ming, who usually forced himself to eat delicacies like those of Takeichiro.
Upon opening the container, a golden-brown tempura rice bowl with fried shrimp came into view. This was prepared by Aunt Saori early that morning, shortly after Sawa left home.
Because Ming arrived early in the morning, Saori was caught off guard and had to use the leftover fried tempura from yesterday, but Ming didn't mind.
A while later, Sawa arrived at the agreed location and saw Ming, who was still expressionless, with a fried shrimp tempura in his mouth. The two looked at each other but neither spoke first.
"...Good afternoon, Ming-kun. Speaking of which...you're quite popular today..." Sawa broke the silence first. Perhaps because it had been almost a year since they last met, Sawa didn't know what to say for a moment.
"Hmm, Sawa, it's been a long time. The last time we met was probably during the summer vacation after elementary school graduation..."
Ming answered somewhat awkwardly, because after undergoing a second growth spurt after starting junior high school, Sha had transformed into a graceful and charming young woman. Ming found it difficult to continue speaking, even with this sight in mind.
The lunch break passed slowly, and the two remained standing in the stairwell, neither speaking, just looking at each other with bewildered expressions.
Suddenly, a woman's voice came from below the stairwell, making the quiet space tense again.
"Is Sawa there? That's strange, a classmate just said that she saw Sawa walk up there. Oh well, I'll go up and check anyway."
Kurumi Tokisaki's voice came, and before the two could react, she walked up. Kurumi saw Sawa and Ming standing next to her. Kurumi was also stunned, and the three of them stared at each other awkwardly.
"........."
Ming sat silently, seemingly lost in thought, while Kurumi only reacted after a while.
"Could it be that, Sawa, you also..."
"That's not how it is, Kurumi, let me explain..."
Sawa immediately reached out and said something, but stopped halfway through, her face slightly flushed, and she couldn't say anything more.
Kurumi looked puzzled upon seeing this, while Saya's face was already as red as a ripe apple.
“Miss, I think Sawa’s appearance is something that can’t be explained in a short time. Let me explain.”
Ming put down his lunchbox, stood up, walked to Kurumi, bowed without expression, and said...
"Uh...oh."
Kurumi responded awkwardly, and then Ming was about to start talking about his past with Sawa, but Sawa stopped him sharply.
"Wait! Ming, please leave the story of the past to me. You can go downstairs and come back up later!"
Sawa immediately shouted, perhaps thinking that Yiming, being such a straightforward straight man, was afraid he would reveal their "brotherly relationship".
"also."
After Ming finished speaking, he went downstairs, leaving only Kurumi and Sawa to explain Ming and her past.
After a while, Ming came up the stairs, arms crossed and expressionless, looking at the two girls who had finished talking.
As soon as she came up, Kurumi's eyes lit up, and she enthusiastically walked over to greet me:
"Wow! I never expected that Okamine-san, who seems so cold, is actually warm-hearted. Sawa said that you were the first righteous person to stand in front of her, and you also like kittens."
The way she greeted him, just like she would greet her best friend's boyfriend, left Ming very puzzled.
Hearing Kurumi describe what Sawa had told her, she was filled with doubt. "Didn't I say back then that I wasn't helping her?"
Although he had doubts, Ming didn't expose them and tacitly agreed. Sawa explained the matter to Kurumi in a facial expression.
Later, the three of them ate their lunchboxes together. Then the bell rang for the afternoon nap. After that, Kurumi, Sawa, and Akira (two girls and one boy) returned to the classroom at different times and took their afternoon naps.