The next morning, the preset alarm on the phone rang.
Mori Shinra opened his sleepy eyes, picked up his phone to check the time, and then stared at the unfamiliar ceiling.
"What am I doing here?"
The moment this thought popped up, a stream of unfamiliar memories flooded his mind.
He instinctively sensed something was wrong. These memories felt somewhat discordant. Subconsciously, he used 'Photographic Memory'.
This skill not only allowed him to remember everything he saw, but his brain also became abnormally active when it was enabled.
After organizing his thoughts for about a minute, he finally discovered what was wrong.
He opened the system's request log, his eyes fixed on the 'empty slot' at the top. A voice faintly reached his ears, weak at first, but growing clearer with the passage of time.
"Mori Shinra... Mori Shinra..."
"Mai-san!"
As if a bubble had been popped, he subconsciously shouted her name.
Then, a familiar, pretty face came into his view. Mai looked as if she was about to cry, her hands tightly clutching his collar.
He pulled the girl into his arms and said, "I still remember you, Mai-san."
"Mmm..." Mai didn't resist, letting out a compliant whimper, her body trembling uncontrollably.
In a place she couldn't see, a trace of lingering fear flashed in his eyes. He finally understood the weight of a time-limited request.
Even with 'Photographic Memory,' he wasn't completely safe.
It was like someone on the phone, looking for their phone while talking on it, and being unable to find it no matter how hard they looked.
Although Photographic Memory was powerful, if he had subconsciously ignored her and hadn't thought about the memories of their time together, what good would it have been, even if he had remembered?
After a long while, her trembling stopped. She gently pushed against his chest with her hands, propping herself up.
"I'm fine now."
"Mmm... sorry for making you worry."
She shook her head. The fact that he could remember her was already very good. But she didn't know how long this situation would last...
Thinking of this, a shadow of gloom flashed in her eyes.
But she quickly adjusted, a very forced smile on her face. "Let's go. It's time to go back to school."
"Yeah, it's time to go back to school," he nodded.
Except for the pantyhose she no longer wanted to wear, which she had stuffed into her own bag, they didn't have much luggage to pack. They soon went downstairs and completed the check-out procedure.
Sitting on the train back, Mai suddenly spoke again. "Hey, let's kiss?"
Shinra saw through her thoughts at a glance. "Are you worried that if you miss this chance, you'll never have another one?"
"..." She didn't speak, but the expression on her face clearly meant yes.
"Well, before that, sign this first," he said, handing her his phone.
She took it and saw that it was an electronic contract. And on the cover of the contract was clearly written...
"The Sakurajima Mai Scholarship?"
A large question mark appeared above her head.
Although she could understand every word on it, when put together, it became something she couldn't understand.
"Yeah. You'll have to sign a paper contract at school later. Don't worry, there are no traps. When we get to Minegahara High, a dedicated lawyer will explain it to you," he said.
"Wait, a dedicated lawyer?" Mai was confused by his words.
What on earth was going on?
"It's a bit troublesome to explain now. Anyway, it's related to your abnormality. You'll know when we get to the school," he said.
Seeing that his expression didn't seem fake, she wanted to say something but found that he had already taken his phone back, his fingers flying across the screen, looking very busy.
In the end, faced with this situation, she could only temporarily push her doubts back down.
Because they didn't need to get off the train on the way back, the return journey was much shorter.
In just about an hour and a half, the two of them were back at the familiar platform.
"Let's go, to Minegahara High," he said without stopping, pulling her to transfer trains.
At this moment, many students from her school could already be seen in the station's waiting area.
Unfortunately, these students still couldn't see her.
But it didn't matter. As long as the plan went smoothly, this situation would soon change.
After all, he had donated real money. Not just for the scholarship, but he had also donated 300 million yen to build a 'Mai Building'.
This amount of money, for a public high school like Minegahara, could be considered a considerable sum.
Not to mention, he had also stated that he didn't care if a new building was built or not, as long as the school had a building named Mai.
In return, it wasn't too much to ask for him to use the school's broadcast to make an announcement about this, was it?
And to organize the students to watch movies she had starred in wasn't too much, was it?
And to borrow the school auditorium on a day off to hold a press conference for her return to acting wasn't too much, was it?
With such a combo, he didn't believe the students could still ignore her. Even if the students were stubborn and continued to ignore her existence, could their teachers ignore her?
In the end, the reason she had encountered this situation at school was largely due to the inaction of the teachers.
If the teachers had been a little more sensible and had directly assigned her to a group, or appointed her as a class officer or a member of the student council, things would not have developed to this point.
But it didn't matter. Now that he was here, a new dawn had come for Minegahara High.
Of all the martial arts, this was the art of paving the way with money.
Capitalism, isn't it magical?
Jye jye jye...
Looking at Mori Shinra, who was letting out a villainous laugh, a few dark lines couldn't help but appear on Mai's forehead.
So can someone please tell her what on earth this guy was planning to do?
Arriving at the station, Shinra proactively took her hand.
After getting off the train and walking a short distance, more and more students in Minegahara High uniforms appeared, gradually becoming the majority. This also meant they were getting closer to the school.
Finally, the two of them arrived at the school.
Mai looked at the classic red banner with white text erected at the school gate, and the smiling school leaders standing at the entrance. She couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
However, she didn't have much time to think. The principal of Minegahara High spotted her at a glance.
The face of this menopausal woman immediately bloomed into a chrysanthemum-like smile. She quickly walked up to Sakurajima Mai, took the hands of this well-known alumna who knew to donate to the school before she had even graduated, and said in an incomparably intimate tone:
"Mai-san, we've been waiting for you for a long time."
See? Even a supernatural event cannot hide the radiance of money.