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Chapter 60: A Regular Tuesday Without School
🕑 Added 2025-08-04 15:13:00 +0000 UTCIt was Tuesday.
After returning from Kyoto to Tokyo, unlike Nijika and the others, Aoki hadn’t just taken Monday off.
Last Friday, right before the weekend started, he’d taken the initiative to visit the faculty office and inform Hiratsuka-sensei that he might need a bit of time off.
He wasn’t sure how long exactly, but he promised to return as soon as things were settled.
Being top of his grade came with certain privileges, and it helped that he had a good rapport with Hiratsuka-sensei.
So, although she gave him a brief scolding on principle, she ended up approving the rather vague request without much resistance.
Back to Tuesday.
The real reason Aoki didn’t go to school that day wasn’t because he had anything pressing left to do.
In fact, after taking the train back to Tokyo on Monday afternoon, the only thing left regarding the PVC Original Music Project was to wait for the final rankings to be emailed.
And let’s be honest, that wasn’t exactly something you needed to skip school for.
Still...
Given that he’d already learned everything currently being taught in class, and considering how insanely packed his schedule had been lately, he figured he might as well take advantage of the downtime.
After tossing and turning for a while in bed the previous night, he decided—just this once to give himself another day of rest.
So, at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning, without setting an alarm, Aoki woke up naturally, sunlight gently spilling into his room.
Still half-asleep, he reached around for his phone.
When he didn’t find it right away, he dragged himself out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom in his pajamas for a quick wash-up.
A splash of cold water to the face helped shake off the last of his grogginess.
After brushing his teeth and washing up, he returned to the bedside—and finally found his phone, which had somehow ended up beneath his pillow.
Weird, considering he distinctly remembered plugging it in next to the bed last night.
He didn’t think he had any habits of tossing and turning in his sleep… but whatever.
Not that important.
He rubbed his eyes, lit up the phone screen, and even before he unlocked it, message notifications started pouring in.
Most of them were junk ads or alerts from YouTube—but one message caught his eye.
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[Hikigaya]: You didn’t come to school today. Are you sick?
[Hikigaya]: If it’s not too much trouble, can I visit you tomorrow?
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They’d exchanged contact info a while ago after chatting.
Aoki vaguely remembered the conversation—it had started with Hugo’s Les Misérables, then somehow derailed into a discussion about the recently released light novel.
I Became the Strongest by Abusing Status Abnormalities Everyone Hates and Now I Crush Everything.
Don’t ask how they got from French literature to isekai trash novels.
Still yawning, Aoki shook off his early morning thoughts and replied:
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[Not sick, just had some things to take care of. Took a few days off.]
[No need to visit—I'll be back tomorrow. But if you do come, bring sweets. I’ve been craving chocolate daifuku.]
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A few moments after he hit send, a reply popped up.
It was about 9 a.m.—just around the time the first period at school would end so the timing checked out.
Hikigaya didn’t respond to the joke about daifuku, though.
Instead, his message came back sounding surprised, almost accusatory.
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[Hikigaya]: I think I finally get why you weren’t at school yesterday…
Wait a minute—Aoki, you’re that music YouTuber who’s been blowing up recently?! You’re suki-san?!
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Aoki blinked at the screen, mildly confused.
He hadn’t used a voice filter.
His singing voice wasn’t much different from how he normally talked.
Plus, Hikigaya had seen his guitar the exact same one he used in the videos—so how did this not click earlier? And what did this have to do with skipping school?
He tapped out a reply:
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[You just realized I’m suki-san? I thought you already knew. Isn’t it obvious from my voice?]
[Also, what does that have to do with me missing school?]
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Hikigaya replied almost immediately:
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[Hikigaya]: Nah, I hadn’t seen your videos until now. But I just came across a clip from your live performance yesterday in Kyoto.
[Link to video]
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“...Huh?”
Aoki stared at the message, then tapped on the link out of curiosity.
The video title read:
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[Suki-san’ Performs “LOSER” Live with Kessoku Band – Absolute Fire!]
A bit long, but catchy.
He glanced at the view count. Nearly 2 million plays.
Aoki blinked in surprise.
Although Aoki had been fairly confident in Kessoku Band’s live performance yesterday, he never expected that a fan-shot video of the show would blow up the way it did—racking up views at an almost absurd rate in just a single day.
It was honestly kind of ridiculous.
The video had apparently been uploaded by someone in the audience, and despite the band having no real fanbase yet, it had already gone viral overnight.
The sheer momentum behind it was hard to wrap his head around.
Feeling a mix of surprise and curiosity, he tapped the play button.
The video started.
Aoki gave it a quick once-over.
As expected from something recorded on a smartphone in the crowd, the video quality wasn’t the best.
The audio was also a little rough around the edges.
But on the plus side, it captured the electric atmosphere of the live event pretty well.
Overall, the performance itself had no issues.
But still—there was no way a simple video like this should’ve gained that many views just by chance.
His curiosity deepened.
After watching it through once, Aoki scrolled down and opened the comment section.
His eyes were immediately drawn to the top comment.
The username: “Flowers Beneath the Starry Sky.”
Aoki recognized the name instantly.
An acclaimed animation director, widely respected in the industry, with a massive fan following.
Some even called him an "animation artist."
But those accolades weren’t what made Kei remember him so clearly.
The idea of parallel worlds had always seemed far-fetched and mysterious.
Aoki’s past life wasn’t in quantum physics, so he didn’t understand the science behind it.
What he did know was this: in this world he’d reincarnated into, some works from his original world had mysteriously vanished—while others had strangely survived.
Take, for example, the director who went by “Flowers Beneath the Starry Sky.” He had helmed projects like The Garden of Words and 5 Centimeters per Second...
In other words, even if the man had a different name here, he was undoubtedly the Makoto Shinkai of this world.
That’s why Aoki remembered him so well.
And now, after seeing that comment, Kei’s question—why did this video suddenly go viral?—was at least partially answered.
As mentioned earlier, this director had a massive fanbase.
If a public figure like that went out of their way to praise a video in the comments, it was bound to catch people’s attention.
And since Kei’s performance of “Loser” had been solid, it made sense that the oddly titled video had gotten so much traction.
In a way, it was like this famous animation director had gifted him a massive burst of exposure.
Feeling grateful, Kei mentally thanked “Flowers Beneath the Starry Sky” before closing the video.
No new messages from Hikigaya yet.
Since he already had YouTube open, Kei figured he might as well check his private messages.
His inbox was flooded.
Although the video of him performing “Loser” with the girls from Kessoku Band had gone viral, its full impact clearly hadn’t peaked yet.
Most of the messages were just what he was used to—fans complimenting his vocals and songwriting.
But buried in the sea of praise were a few unusual DMs.
For example...
As he scrolled further, his fingers suddenly paused.
There it was—that username again, one he’d seen several times over the past hour.
He opened the message thread.
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[Flowers Beneath the Starry Sky:]
Hello, Mr. Suki.
I’m an animation director and a huge fan of your music. Ever since I heard your very first track, I’ve wanted to collaborate with you.
I happen to be developing a new project right now, so I thought I’d try reaching out. If you’re interested, please give me a call—or I can contact you directly. Thank you so much, and sorry to bother you, Mr. Suki.
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Beneath the message was a phone number.
A famous animation director wanted to work with him?
Aoki blinked, stunned.
Originally, his plan had been simple: if he performed well in the PVC audition project and gained enough exposure.
He could start releasing his own music, build a reputation as a musical prodigy, and eventually have people offering him big money to write songs.
But ever since joining Kessoku Band and bonding with the girls, a new dream had taken root—to become professional musicians together.
Regardless of the path, it all hinged on exposure—whether for himself or for the band.
And now, before PVC had even announced their final rankings, a completely unexpected Plan B had dropped into his lap.
A glimmer of excitement flashed in his eyes as he copied the number from “Flowers Beneath the Starry Sky.”
‘A chance like this just fell into my lap for free!’
