[We will be departing soon. Our next station is Shibuya~]
Haaah....
The sound of a long breath rang through the empty hallways of a long-abandoned school building.
The first thing Hinata tasted in the dark, empty class was dust that churned visibly in the air. His cheek was pressed against cold, gritty linoleum, and the sll of mildew and stale air was overwhelming.
Hinata groaned softly and lifted his head. The sharp sting of the winter cold made him shiver. He blinked once, then twice, finally realizing where he was.
In front of him sat a number of scattered, rusted lockers, and from his peripheral vision he could see a long, dark hallway that seed like it hadn’t seen the light of day in a very long ti.
Hinata rubbed his temples vigorously as his hazy eyes began to focus. With the help of the faint moonlight breaking through a shattered window, he could make out the chaotic ss of the room.
Before Hinata could take it all in properly, a small rodent rushed past him and crashed into the broken lockers behind him.
"Where am I?"
The train announcent rang again in Japanese, which confird that he was indeed back on Earth.
Rising to his feet with wobbly steps, Hinata tried to make his way out of the class, only to freeze in place.
On the wall next to the broken wooden partition was written in ssy English letters:
Welco To Class 3–A!
Beneath them were different faded words — proclamations, notes asking the next year to rember them, yet beneath all of those were words Hinata could never forget.
Happy 18th Birthday To Our Hina!
Hinata’s fingers hovered hesitantly over the words before he finally traced them.
A smile, or sothing that resembled one, spread across his face. At the edges of his eyelids, tears threatened to spill, though he imdiately held them back with a quiet chuckle.
"I’m really back..." he laughed softly, fingers curling around the fabric of his shirt at the chest. ’It’s been so long.’
Shaking off the sentintal feeling, Hinata scanned the room again. "How did the class end up like this?"
He could still rember that a year ago it had looked brand new, yet now it seed as though it was on the verge of collapse.
Hinata glanced toward the back door and the mory of the day he had been summoned flashed through his mind. He slowly approached it, and with barely contained rage, punched it.
The door flew off its hinges and slamd into the wall of the classroom opposite.
"Shit..." he muttered, rushing toward it. "Mister Kiyotaka is going to end my life...!"
When he entered the hallway he imdiately noticed how desolate it was. The familiar sounds of chatter he used to hear whenever passing through had vanished into an eerie silence.
He raised his hand as if to wave, the sa way he always did when crossing the hall and people called out his na, asking how he was doing.
Hinata tried to form a smile but couldn’t. And his hand slowly dropped, fingers curling in on themselves before he let out a quiet sigh.
"Looks like they closed the school after we went missing."
Thinking on it properly, it made sense that the school would be empty. After all, the governnt couldn’t leave a school that had let an entire class vanish without a trace.
Hinata’s gaze sharpened as the realization settled. He quickly got to his feet, bowed at the door he had broken, and rushed out of the school.
The halls and stairways were exactly as he rembered, making it easy to navigate the building. Within a few seconds he reached the foot of the stairwell and exhaled.
Tokyo still looked the sa as it had when he vanished, except for a few extra digital billboards mounted atop high-rise buildings.
Hinata quickly dismissed the kimono he wore and fashioned a new set of clothing using the Sli King.
His hair was still long, which would surely look out of place in modern Tokyo, but he didn’t mind for the mont. Dressed in all black, Hinata walked out of the school compound into the busy streets, at which point the system flickered into existence beside him.
[Temporary return ticket has been used.]
[Ti left: 4:51:08.]
[Note to user: Your core is very unstable currently, and you might lose your abilities if it isn’t stabilized soon.]
Hinata ignored the final line of the system, focusing only on the ti remaining.
His first problem now that he had returned was straightforward: although he knew where his family ho was, he had no money to travel from the school to get there, and running was out of the question since it would expose the fact that he wasn’t a normal person.
’System, can I get so money with my remaining points?’
The system was silent for a mont before flickering into existence.
Ding!
[Using last amount of fool points to generate funds.]
Instantly, a phone appeared in Hinata’s hands. He stared at the device, one he hadn’t seen in a long while, before quickly unlocking it.
On the ho screen was a single app — System Funds.
He opened it and checked the balance the system had deposited, which was just enough to get around and eat decently, though anything beyond the basics was well out of reach.
Without wasting another mont, he flagged down a taxi.
The driver turned out to be a young woman, which made Hinata pause for a brief mont before he quickly composed himself.
"Where would you like to go, handso mister?"
Hinata thought for a mont before answering with a quiet confidence. "Ho."
The woman blinked, then burst into laughter. "Sir, where exactly is your ho?"
His face burned as he realized what he’d said. He tried to recall exactly where his house was, but nothing ca to mind. After a brief hesitation, he settled for describing the area to the young driver instead.
It didn’t take long for her to understand, and she pulled out into traffic heading toward the housing district.
Throughout the journey, Hinata stared out the window, taking in the sight of Tokyo’s nightti beauty and the people moving freely along the streets.
A year ago none of this had interested him, perhaps because he had seen it every single day, but now it felt entirely different.
He couldn’t help but smile softly. Soon enough, they reached the district where he had lived, and the building he once called ho ca into view.
’It looks exactly the sa,’ he thought, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.
"This is the place, right?" the woman asked, glancing at him in the rearview mirror. Catching his expression, she smiled warmly. "Handso mister, this ride is on ."
Hinata imdiately snapped back to the present. "Wait — are you sure? I have money to pay."
The woman nodded. "Don’t worry~ it looks like you haven’t been ho in a long ti. It must have been rough."
His face brightened, then dimd just as quickly. He smiled gently, eyes dropping to the ground. "Yeah, things were really tough."
Without another word, he stepped out of the cab and waved the driver goodbye.
Now standing in the courtyard of his ho, Hinata found himself hesitating.
Questions flooded his mind all at once.
Would his family even rember him? What would they say? How would he explain any of this? What if they thought he was an imposter? How was he supposed to tell them he had to leave again?
Hinata drew a slow, shaky breath.
One step at a ti, he made his way to the massive entrance of the house and pressed the buzzer.
A beat of silence. Then ca the sound of footsteps; light and quick, moving down the hallway. The door swung open, revealing a girl whose face made his bones go rigid and his heart stop beating entirely.
She was around his age, with short black hair, a face that was a little above average, and wide, curious eyes.
The mont he saw her face, the urge to cry hit him without warning. This was a face he had seen countless tis, one he could never forget.
The girl tilted her head, studying him with an expression caught sowhere between curiosity and mild suspicion.
Hinata, oblivious to it entirely, broke into a wide smile. "Hey, Aoki."
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