Published at 27th of November 2020 10:47:56 AM
Chapter 156
Final Confirmation
TL: Daemon
ED: PuffyPyjamas
After I decided to go and buy Hiiragi-chan a Christmas present, my time leap state was released all of a sudden .
I was currently inside the HRG company on the floor that I do my work on . Specifically, I was at my desk .
I checked my employee ID and the date .
“…Sanada Seiji . ”
This time, my last name is still Sanada . Last time, I was asked by Kanata to pay attention to Sana more, and so I was more conscious of that than usual .
Then, how did Sana’s feelings change…?
For the original timeline, I had spent my second year Christmas playing games the whole time, without going out to hang out with anyone, let alone giving Sana a present . I didn’t even have a part-time job . That’s why I wouldn’t have been able to pay for such a large expense like buying three games .
I checked my laptop email to see if there was any progress on the Mobile Content Division . When I did, I found that it seemed to have made more progress than before .
I called Natsumi-chan on an internal line .
“Hello?”
“What is it?”
“It seems the division has made quite a bit of progress . ”
“Huh? You’re saying that now? You were the biggest contributor to all the progress . ”
To Natsumi-chan, that was probably the case, however, I had time leaped, so it’s not like I was here in the present day the whole time . It can’t be called a failure, but it still ended up the same as the previous two times, with the feud between Sana and I hindering progress .
“How have things gone with Sana?”
“Aaah, about that, I was planning on having a meeting with Ii-san, do you want to come too, Seiji-san?”
“I’ll go . ”
“I’ll send you something real quick . I just got this earlier . ”
A new unread text arrived from Natsumi-chan . After I clicked it and looked at the contents, I found an illustration attached . It was a female knight wearing armor that you would see in a fantasy RPG, a mage with a pointed hat, and a mascot-like animal character .
“This is… a rough draft of characters…?”
“That’s right . It’s from you little sister . ”
O-ooooooh! There’s progress! Sana drew this? She really is a pro… Amazing .
“She’s finally motivated . ”
“However… Itt really feels like she’s reluctantly doing this just because it’s her job . The Sanchan that I know is much more amazing . ”
“R-really? Even better than this?”
“Yeah . I was thinking of asking Ii-san about it . ”
As such, I left the company building when it was time for the meeting . I got into the back seat of the car with Natsumi-chan and we headed towards the ASW company . We were supposed to intrude upon one of their conference rooms today .
Most of my conversation with Natsumi-chan was about work, and her way of speaking was very precise, giving her the feeling of a great superior .
“Well, why don’t we leave it at that—”
“What do you mean, leave it at that?”
Natsumi-chan gave me a chop on the head .
“I just wanted to ask a quick question . When did Sensei and I break up?”
“Why are you asking this now? You guys broke up during your second year of high school, around March . ”
The way she spoke about it was very casual .
Second year of high school, March? It’s even shorter than before . Well, more than that—
“Do you know why we broke up, Natsumi-chan?”
“…Why would someone involved want to ask that from an outsider perspective?”
“It’s nothing… You might laugh it off, but will you listen?”
Sponsored Content
Natsumi-chan made a weird face, as I began to tell her everything about myself .
About how I had time leap to the past and changed the future multiple times . How originally, Hiiragi-chan and I were never supposed to have dated . About the fall in business performance, and how I set up the Mobile Content division in order to counter that .
I talked about everything .
“… Fufu, ahahah . I see, so that’s how it is . ”
“It’s okay if you don’t believe me . Anyways, I just want to do something about Sensei, who I have apparently broken up with . ”
“As usual, you’re so devoted . That was… it’s not that anyone did anything bad . The person who was the most saddened was probably you, Seiji-san, but Haru-chan was probably the same . I understand Haru-chan after all . ”
“Eh? What do you mean?”
Just as I asked her, Natsumi-chan’s smartphone began to ring .
“Sorry, it’s for work . ” She said, before taking out her phone and picking up the call . Once you become a division leader, it seems that you become quite busy .
We arrived at the ASW company . After being guided to a reception room, Kanata was already waiting for us . Sana as well .
“… N-Nii-san . Why…?”
Sana had grown more mature . Of course, after ten years, she is an adult now, not just more mature .
I wonder if she did the job because my relationship with her has improved .
“I heard there was a meeting, so I ended up joining in . ”
“…Kanchan, you never said that Nii-san was coming . ”
“…Yeah . I didn’t say that . ”
“W-why?”
Kanata caught Sana before she could run away . We arrived at the seats across from them, gave our greetings, and finally, the talk began .
“Sanchan, is there something here that’s giving you difficulty? If so, we can change it . ”
Natsumi-chan jumped straight into the main topic .
Sponsored Content
“That’s not it… It’s nothing, things are normal, completely normal . ”
With that sort of attitude, she probably thinks the exact opposite of what she says .
“…Sachan’s output shouldn’t be like this . I sent out the rough draft . I didn’t like doing it because it seems like I’m shaming you, but we’re already a team with the HRG company, we need to share information . ”
Ugu, Sana stayed silent .
“I don’t know much about the technical details, but is that normal for a pro?”
This time Sana started to groan .
“Even I don’t like it! However, when I’m doing the work, bad memories end up coming to mind, and I can’t concentrate…”
“Bad memories? What do you mean?”
Sana took a sidelong glance at me .
“Why don’t you ask yourself?”
Hmmm, if it’s like this, it seems we’ve ended our disagreements, but there are still residual effects .
“What is it? If it’s something that can be fixed, I’ll fix it . ”
“—I don’t trust my brother . I hate my brother that lies . ”
Sana turned her face away from me . How old are you already…? An adult doesn’t just do that .
“I already saw perfect proof, and yet you continued to lie… I was hurt by that…”
Perfect proof? What is she talking about?
I couldn’t understand what she was talking about, but Kanata helped me out .
“…Seiji-kun, ten years ago, we had a Christmas party, right?”
“Aaah, yeah . ”
“…At that time, Sachan looked at the data stored on the digital camera, and ended up seeing it . ”
The data stored on the digital camera? When Rei-chan took that selfie together with me… we used Hiiragi-chan’s digital camera…
Sponsored Content
Inside, there were a lot of photos taken from my date with Hiiragi-chan .
“…That’s what you mean . ”
So, she saw . She saw photos of me getting along with our club advisor .
I can’t blame Hiiragi-chan, who was busy with work, cooking, and decorating her house with Christmas cheer . It can’t be helped that she never thought about that .
“Which means that, as expected, when you asked that question today…”
In terms of date, today actually meant Christmas day 10 years ago from the present time .
“Rather than worrying about whether I would accept it or not… I just didn’t want you to hide it from me . ”
So, this has been trailing on with no end in sight—
I want to be able to stick out my chest with pride and tell everyone that I’m in a relationship with Hiiragi-chan . However, I lied to Sana today . I even knew that she would only bring that topic up because she had some sort of proof . Yet, I tried to pull the smoke over her eyes .
There is also the fact that I didn’t know how Sana would react . We are students at the same school, and if somehow rumors were to spread—Hiiragi-chan and I wouldn’t have been able to stay together .
However, if she is still holding on to that grudge even after 10 years, for Sana, it must be pretty hateful—something that made her lose all trust in me .
“Got it . Then, can I believe in you? I’ll tell you, seriously . About Hiiragi-chan and I . ”
“…Rather than say that you’ll tell me, I already know . ”
“I was talking about you from ten years ago . ”
“I don’t mind when—For you to not believe in your younger sister, Nii-san is also quite paranoid . ”
She brought it up out of irony .
If I hadn’t hidden our relationship from Sana, if I hadn’t tried to hide it behind smoke, then maybe, just maybe, the present situation would have proceeded in a smoother manner . I even had many chances to tell her without trying to avoid the topic .
Ever since I started the time leap, I’ve changed the present multiple times, and yet there hasn’t been a single time yet, where I revealed my relationship to her .
“…Believe in me . I’ll do something about it . If Nii-san can believe in me, I’ll also do my best . ”
Is she talking about her work? However, to me, it seemed as if she was talking about Hiiragi-chan .