Maki Nishikino was being a lookout while a mad scientist dug up a time capsule.
Not the way she would have predicted her day would begin, nor so early.
"Doctor Smith" broke the concrete. Triumphantly. The message touched her heart, but she didn't recognize any of the events. The Covid SARS hadn't been any worse than the other SARS outbreaks. The Democratic Party was controlling the Diet, and she'd never even heard of Kishida, even though she listened to the news on a daily basis.
Smith looked at her sympathetically. "That message isn't very current. She told me before she left that she was going because she'd already gone. That may not mean anything now, but after we discuss it, it should. It must have been harrowing, the first time, but now she's in a stable loop, it should be fine.
Maki was just happy the Otonokizaka students had not arrived yet, nor had any of the staff.
She was still proud of the way her girlfriend and she had joined up Nico's trio with Honoka Kousaka's trio and Maki and Nico's friends to become school idols and save Otonokizaka, which was still open to this day.
The rest of Nico's trio had been too busy to be full-time idols, but had joined them for a performance and helped Honoka's friends provide support for their "lives."
"That message came when Yazawa-San had many, many regrets, but now I would say she has too few to mention. But when you've already done certain things, you must always do them. It's very confusing, but she is in absolutely no danger."
That was the gist of a more recent note he'd handed her. Weirdly, it had contained information in her own handwriting giving her the medical overview of Nico's condition. Even though she had no memory of writing it.
Then Dr Smith explained the ins and outs of time travel.