Rebuilding Sakamichi in a chaotic worldline

Winter comes earlier in Miyagi than in Tokyo. The November wind blew in from Nanamin's hometown, tearing and howling against the glass dome of Sendai Station. Rito pulled up the cream-colored scarf—the Himura Prize prize that Shui Shui had given him—and walked out of the ticket gate, following the directions on his phone to a local high school.

In the principal's office, Rito met a distant relative he hadn't seen in a long time, Yoshihiro Kubo. He looked exactly like he remembered—a classic Northeastern Chinese face, with a tenacity that was already ingrained in his blood, but he still looked mostly gentle. He wore gold-rimmed glasses on his nose, a dark gray suit, and a slightly worn camel-colored trench coat over it, looking like a teacher or a civil servant.

"Rito-kun, it's been a long time," the middle-aged man said with a smile as he stood up. Although they were nominally distant relatives, the blood ties between the two Kubos were so thin as to be negligible. Therefore, he didn't put on any airs of an elder and treated Rito as an equal. "Thank you for coming all this way. I should have been the one bringing my good-for-nothing daughter to Kyoto to visit you."

"Not at all, Uncle, you're too kind." Rito bowed slightly, maintaining basic politeness, his gaze sweeping across the office—Shiori wasn't there, was he going to talk to her father?

Seemingly noticing his confusion, Kubo Yoshihiro glanced at him apologetically and explained, "I originally wanted her to come to my place to talk together, but for some reason, Shiori has been acting like a different person these past two days. She insists on meeting at her own school and won't let me go. What do you think, Rito?"

"It's nothing, she's just a little girl, I can understand. Let's go now." Rito smiled, his curiosity about Shiori growing. He stood up and asked the principal to take him to find his second daughter.

The car pulled out of the station and drove through the streets of Sendai. The zelkova trees lining the road had lost most of their leaves, their bare branches standing starkly against the gray sky, perfectly complementing the desolate atmosphere of the Tohoku region. As he drove, Yoshihiro Kubo rambled on about his family—his eldest daughter was attending university in Kansai, and his younger daughter, Shiori, was a high school sophomore this year. Her grades were much worse than her older sister's, and she didn't have many hobbies. As for her personality, to put it nicely, she was quiet; to put it bluntly, she was a bit withdrawn, had few friends, and seemed lost in thought all the time.

Rito listened without speaking, only turning his head to look out the window. Having seen so many members he had personally selected, he now had some experience: the system's methods of placing them were naturally very clever, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they were flawless, but the human heart is ultimately the most unpredictable thing in the world. Some people can quickly accept the previous settings and integrate into this world, while there will be cases where the pilot and the machine are not compatible. These images that exist in other people's mouths can only be used as a reference at most, and should not be taken seriously.

Amidst the chatter, the car stopped in front of a school. Kubo Yoshihiro told Rito about Shiori's class and location, and without lingering, drove away. It seemed that this other Kubo from Tokyo was quite at ease. Rito stood there, watching him leave in a hurry, then put her phone in her pocket and walked into the school alone.

The lunch break had just ended, and a few students walked by in the corridor carrying their textbooks. Li Ren found the classroom of Class 3, Grade 11 and looked through the window. There were a few students sitting in the classroom, but the second to last seat by the window was empty. There was an open notebook on the table and a ballpoint pen without a cap next to it.

Rito pushed open the door and nodded slightly to the girl closest to it: "Excuse me, is Kubo Shiori here?"

The girl glanced up at him, but didn't seem to care much. She turned and looked around the classroom, scratching her head. "Huh? She was just here. But lately she disappears as soon as get out of class is over, and sometimes she even skips class. If you want to find her, why don't you try the rooftop?"

"The rooftop?" Rihito raised an eyebrow. "What's she doing on the rooftop?"

"Maybe it's to avoid us." The girl shrugged. "Kubo sometimes goes there for lunch, saying it's quieter."

Li thanked him and turned to go upstairs. The iron gate leading to the rooftop was indeed ajar, a few gusts of cold wind seeping in through the crack, nearly blinding him with dust from the ground. He pushed the gate open; the wind on the rooftop was much stronger than down below, howling across the empty concrete floor and making the rags hanging on the railing rustle. Several abandoned metal cabinets leaned precariously against the corner, and the edge of the rooftop was surrounded by rusty wire mesh; otherwise, there was no one else.

Rito stood there, looking around: "There's nobody here. I've been scammed."

Just as he turned to go downstairs, he suddenly caught a glimpse of something wriggling on the playground below.

At the far end of the playground, near the back wall of the gymnasium, there was a patch of untrimmed grass. The late autumn grass was half withered and half green, carpeting the ground like a fluffy blanket. And on that blanket, lay a person.

Rito squinted and stared for a while, seemingly sensing something. He went downstairs, crossed the playground, and came to the yellow area. The girl lying on the ground was wearing a white school uniform, her long black hair was scattered among the grass, one hand was placed on her forehead to shield her from the sun, and a piece of headphone wire was wrapped around her other hand. She wore white socks on both feet, and her calves were gently swaying on the grass. It was unclear whether she was awake or asleep.

Rito looked down at her for two seconds, then lay down on the grass not far from her. However, he found that the feeling was not as comfortable as he had imagined. The hard and sharp weeds pricked his neck, causing pain and itching. The smell of the soil was also unpleasant. The sky above was gray and hazy, with no blue in sight. Only one or two crows occasionally flew by.

"Hey." After a moment of silence, the girl beside him suddenly spoke, her voice lower than Rito had expected, carrying a touch of the coldness typical of Northeast China, "Kubo-san, have you ever heard of parallel worlds?"

Rito turned his head to look at her. The girl remained in the same position, one hand on her forehead, her expression obscured, only her lips moving slightly.

"I've heard a little about it, please continue," he said.

"I think maybe I came from another world." Shiori thrashed around on the grass a couple of times, then spread her body out in a starfish shape and stared blankly at the sky. "I suddenly felt this way when I woke up one morning. Everything in the room was the same, my parents were still the same parents, and my sister was still the same sister, but I just felt that something was wrong."

She removed her hand from her forehead, turned to the side, and finally looked at him, her large eyes filled with unease.

"Do I really belong here? I wondered. I just watched a movie the other day called 'The Truman Show.' Am I also in a stage built just for me, and everyone around me is an actor? It feels like there's a transparent membrane separating me from the world, and my soul and body are separated at opposite ends. Things I've experienced now feel so foreign." She paused, then suddenly chuckled softly. "Sorry to have you hear these strange things."

"No, it's quite interesting." Rito put her hands behind her head, looked at the gray sky, and said in the same tone as her, "I mean, the process of thinking is very interesting."

Shiori blinked, seemingly surprised that President Kubo from Tokyo didn't see her as a delusional little kid. She sat up, hugged her knees, and tilted her head slightly to look at him.

Are there girls like me in Nogizaka46?

"Perhaps." Rito was still lying on the ground. From her angle, the man's profile was outlined cleanly by the hazy sunlight. "But once people get busy, they don't think about so much."

Shi Xuli paused for a moment, then burst out laughing: "Is this the latest recruitment tactic? Actually, there's no need for this. I've already decided to go to the capital after finishing high school."

She brushed the grass clippings off her uniform, stood up, and held out her hand to him. Rito took her hand; her fingertips were slightly cool, but her palm was dry. He stood up, brushed the grass clippings off his back, and looked at her.

"Welcome to Nogizaka46," he said. "But don't tell anyone you're related to me, you know what I mean."

Shiori shrugged: "Of course, I'll do my best. When do we leave?"

"Of course, now is the time." Rito patted her head, his smile as bright as the summer sun, dispelling the aloof atmosphere around them.

The rest was much simpler. Rito took her to meet Kubo Yoshihiro and briefly explained the selection process—the materials could be sent via email, the final selection was expected to be in mid-December, and the company would arrange transportation and accommodation to Tokyo. After listening, Kubo Yoshihiro was silent for a moment, then took off his glasses, wiped them, put them back on, and bowed solemnly to Rito.

"Riri-kun, I'm entrusting Shiori to you." He said. As a father, his eldest daughter was obedient and sensible and had already embarked on her own bright path. The only one he was worried about was his youngest daughter. Although he didn't know if the path she had chosen was the right one, all he could do was silently support her from behind, right?

"Please rest assured, I will take good care of her." Rito returned the greeting, feeling Shiori's gaze on him, vaguely like a letter that was only half-written and left unfinished.

December, Tokyo, audition venue.

The three girls from the Seed Group were assigned to the same waiting room. Mai Shiraishi sat upright in her chair, her fair skin gleaming under the light, her gaze occasionally drifting towards the window. Yui Kobayashi, on the other hand, was holding a guitar, her fingers unconsciously strumming the strings. She would strum a few notes and then stop, staring at the guitar as if lost in thought.

The youngest member, Shiori Kubo, sat cross-legged in a corner against the wall, holding a completed personal information form in her hand. She looked at it over and over again, finally sighed, covered her face with the form, and leaned back against the wall.

"Ugh—it's so slow, why isn't it my turn yet?"

Shiroma turned and glanced at her, then smiled: "Kubo-san is from Miyagi, right? She shares the same surname as President Kubo, so are they related?"

"No, it was just a coincidence." Shiori took the form off her face, tilted her head to look at her, and asked, "What about you, Shiraishi-san? How did you get in?"

Bai Ma pursed her lips, recalling that summer night at Disneyland and the young man who helped her out of a predicament with a business card from a housekeeping company. A faint blush rose on her face: "It was just a coincidence; we ran into each other on the street."

"Yeah, Shiraishi-san is so pretty, if I were the president, I wouldn't let her go either." Shiori blinked, her words sounding somewhat ambiguous.

"Kubo-san, you can't say that. It wouldn't be good if someone heard you."

Bai Ma quickly intervened to dissuade her. She didn't deny what Shi Xuli said, but she was worried about being overheard.

At this moment, Yui Kobayashi finally stopped torturing her guitar, looked up, and gave her a strange look: "Could it be that you, Shiraishi-san...?"

She spoke in a flat tone, but the other two could understand what she meant. Shirama waved her hand and gave a normal explanation, but a wave of emotion surged in her heart. It wasn't because of herself, but because she thought of a friend in Hokkaido who had suddenly moved into a mansion.

Nana Min, you... you acted way too fast.

As she thought this, she started chatting casually with two girls she didn't know. After all, they were all connected, and everyone knew that the final selection was just a formality. Therefore, she was much more relaxed than the other girls in the other rooms who were also participating in the selection.

The selection process went as smoothly as expected. The three of them only walked back and forth on the stage before quickly passing the test. Kobayashi's singing ability, Shiramasa's face, and Shiori's transparency were all too outstanding, so no one noticed anything was wrong. Rito, sitting at the head of the table, casually circled a form and then stopped caring.

Besides them, the overall quality of the second generation members is not much worse than that of the first generation members during the auditions. Hori Miona, who came from the center pool, goes without saying. There are also a group of high-quality members from the regular pool, such as Eto Misa, Terada Ranze, and Ito Marika, who are all very good-looking. Although their subsequent development has been bumpy, it is not entirely their fault.

"That's all. Let the qualified candidates prepare. Try to finalize the contracts in the next couple of days, then start training. The competition will be announced next spring."

After hanging up the phone, Rito leaned back in his office chair. All the members he had expected had participated in the audition, and he was lucky enough to draw Endo Riko and Odakura Reina from the third generation of Sakurazaka. He was one step closer to his promise to Misaka. Satisfied, he stood in front of the window. Not far away, the towering Tokyo Tower was already lit up with orange lights.

Just then, his phone screen lit up again. It was a text message from his live-in girlfriend saying she would be home late that night. He glanced at it, replied with an "oh," and went back to his work.