"..."

Hearing birds chirping faintly from the living room, Shinji slowly opens his eyelids.

He stretched his arms up and gave a yawn as he rose from his slumber.

Aside from being woken up for a brief moment by Tohka and the others, he had drifted back to sleep undisturbed for the rest of last night.

Clearing the fogginess of his head, the first thing he notices is that the warmth of the girl who was always with him was not there.

But it did not take long to find her.

He turned to look at where he heard clattering of all kinds.

Sawa was setting up the table.

And a little further past her were Mio and Tohka preparing breakfast in the kitchen area.

"...Tohka-san?"

Shinji had thought that he was at home, however he immediately remembered that the last thing he was doing was visiting Tohka.

Beginning to panic and wondering if there was anything else he had missed, he checked his phone to confirm the time.

On a day when there wasn't school, he would consider it rather early.

But seeing as how the day had changed to Monday...

"Ahh!"

Noticing that Shinji had finally awoken, the girls looked up to see a high school boy running the risk of being late for his first class of the day.

"About time you got up. That's two days in a row."

Sawa had a smug look on her face as if she had just won a contest against her older brother.

"Good morning, Shin."

Mio greeted her brother with a heartwarming smile.

"Breakfast is about done. I went to get your uniforms last night and left them upstairs in one of the guest rooms. Your toothbrush is there too."

Tohka wasted no time in explaining how she covered for every contingency.

"Why did no one wake me up!?"

Shinji hurriedly stood up from the couch.

"We did decide on who should wake you up, but..."

Tohka looked at the white-haired girl standing next to her, though Mio herself could not return the stare.

"But...he looked so happy...I can't wake him up when he looks like that...!"

Mio had her hands full, but if she could she would be holding her face with both hands while saying that.

Tohka could only sigh at the sight of what was happening.

"To be honest, I worry about you two."

"You underestand though, don't you Tohka-san?"

Finally Mio had the courage to look at her aunt with a bit of determination.

"Haven't you ever felt this way about dad?"

Tohka's face turned red at Mio's question.

The tables had been turned, and this time Tohka looked away.

"O-Of course I..."

Tohka never managed to give a complete answer.

It started taking all of her concentration to not mess up her part of preparing breakfast.

Seeing how the mood had gotten weird, Shinji took this opportunity to get ready for school and sprinted upstairs.

Breakfast had been made on time, but it still had to be eaten in a bit of a hurry.

"It's a good thing this place is the same distance to school as our house."

Now by the front door, Shinji was putting his shoes on.

Tohka had been waiting to see them off.

"I'd tell you that you could just warp there, but..."

With the technology of Tenguu City improving, more people have started to gain access to teleporting to and from different areas.

It made arriving to places such as school and work on time much easier.

However a good number of people chose to continue commuting via walking, driving, and public transit.

There were many reasons for doing so.

Many of them simply did not want to adapt to modern times out of stubborness or concern of keeping up with the times.

Others did not trust in the quality of warping to places yet as it had not been that long since it had been introduced.

For Shinji, Mio, and Sawa, they thought it was more fun if they could walk with the ones they loved whenever they could.

"We might have to do it today though."

Shinji had considered the idea and was certainly tempted by it, but another idea had struck him.

"Actually, maybe we can get away with walking half of the way there."

He looked at Mio and Sawa for feedback on his middle ground idea.

"Sounds good to me."

Sawa answered coolly.

"If it means that I still get to walk to school with you."

Mio gave no complaints.

Shinji nodded at their answers.

"Okay, guess I'll be getting bread for lunch today."

"Ah, don't worry, we took care of that too."

"Huh?"

Tohka had been hiding her hands behind her back, but now she brought out what looked like two bentos wrapped in cloth.

"Kaguya and Yuzuru secretly made these while you guys were sleeping."

Shinji and Sawa accepted the bento being handed to them.

"They're both the same size and meant for two people."

Tohka looked at Sawa while saying so.

"If you can't finish it just take the rest home with you."

"No, this is perfect!"

Sawa shook her head as if this portion would be no problem for her.

She had been hoping her bento would be for two people.

"Thanks mom!"

"Eh?"

Tohka's eyes widened a little in surprise at what she had heard.

Sawa had caught her mistake the moment she heard herself talk.

"Ah, no, I mean...you know, this is something a mom would do, so I..."

The more she thought about it, the more she began to panic.

"I-It was a slip up! Forget what I said!"

She immediately headed for the door and opened it.

"A-Anyway, see you later!"

She ends up being the first to leave the house.

"Wait! I thought we were only walking half of the way there! Sawa!"

Shinji was about to run out also, but not before saying good-bye.

"Sorry, mom. Forget what I said too. Later!"

He gives a wink before nearly jumping out the front door.

"Thanks for taking care of us, mom."

Mio quickly but gracefully leaves with a wave before going after Shinji.

Tohka was left with the task of closing the door that was left open.

"Those brats..."

Her tone and words made it seem like she was rather annoyed, but the smirk on her face showed that she was enjoying herself quite a bit.

"Oh, I forgot to tell him one more thing."

Tohka pulls out her phone, knowing that it was already too late to catch up to Shinji.

"I could teleport and get there before they do, but..."

She presses some buttons as she talks.

"This might be easier."

After teleporting to the halfway point to school, the Itsuka siblings stopped momentarily at an intersection.

"Well, I'm going this way. See you tonight onii-chan! Onee-chan!"

Sawa runs in a direction different from where Shinji and Mio were heading.

Her school was not very far from Raizen High, so like her brother and sister she would still barely make it to class on time.

Shinji and Mio were waving to her when Shinji's phone had started to go off.

He checks the screen and then answers.

"What's up, Maria?"

"Good morning, Shinji. I hope you slept well last night. Tohka wanted me to deliver a message to you since you ran out of the house so quickly."

"Oh, sure. What is it?"

Mio looked at her brother in wonder while he continued listening.

"Tohka's message is actually a message from your father. It seems a lot happened last night. He wants you to call him before you get to class."

"He can't tell me himself? We're already late enough as it is. Can't it wait?"

"He was very insistent in talking to you before your day started. It may be a good idea to do it as soon as you can."

"Alright, I'll call him then. Thanks, Maria."

"I'll connect you to him to save time."

Shinji wondered why his father would go through such a roundabout way of doing things.

The phone rang a few times before an answer came from the other side.

"Is that you Shinji?"

Shido had picked up from the other end of the phone call and sounded rather calm despite what Maria had said.

"Hey dad. I heard you wanted me to call you before I got to school. Did you need something?"

"Oh, yeah. Thanks for actually calling. Uh, it's a little hard to explain though..."

Shinji looked at Mio, showing her that he was just as puzzled as she was.

"Is everything okay?"

Not sure how to continue the conversation, Shinji decided to check up on his father first.

"Yeah, everything's fine...At least...I think so."

"You think so?"

"Oh, sorry. You and Mio are on your way to school, right? I'm kind of busy too, so let me just tell you one thing for now."

"What is it?"

Shinji couldn't sense anything out of the ordinary from his father's voice, but he was starting to feel a little curious.

"Be careful of your new teacher."

"Huh?"

"Uh, sorry, that's all I have time to say right now. We'll talk more later, I promise. Bye."

"Wait, dad!"

Before he could say or hear any more, he heard the clear sound of the phone call being cut.

He looks at Mio again, both of them still confused.

"Uh, we should start walking to school. I'll tell you on the way."

Not long after parting ways with her brother and sister, Sawa caught sight of a boy her age leaning against a telephone pole.

Her face lit up when they made eye contact with each other.

Isaac Woodman leaves the pole and walks over to greet the happy girl.

"Hey."

"Were you waiting for me?"

He did not fail to notice the hint of excitement in her voice.

"I just wanted to make sure you weren't late again."

The excitement from earlier went away as quickly as it had arrived.

It had been replaced with a childish pout.

"What do you mean 'again'?"

"You don't really have a good attendance record."

The boy smirks, somehow finding amusement in teasing her.

"Fine, then you can stay here while I fix my bad record."

Sawa begins walking ahead, but Isaac immediately catches up beside her.

"Hey, I was kidding. Don't get so upset."

"Hmph."

She ignored him.

"...Did you bring lunch today?"

He had noticed the large bento and tried changing the subject.

"Yeah, and you aren't getting any."

It wasn't a good answer, but she had stopped ignoring him.

"That seems a lot for just one person though."

"I'm taking the rest home."

"Look, I'm sorry okay? Jeez."

"..."

"I'll split some of my lunch with you too."

"You made me lunch too!?"

Sawa's eyes began to glitter as she leaned towards Isaac.

"Uh, yeah."

She had immediately gotten over what he had just said.

The two of them behaved like this all the way to their classroom.

Isaac had a feeling that it would be a bit of a long day for him.

Mio had not understood what led to the message from her father either.

But it was not difficult to infer the meaning of it.

It seems as though the school would be getting a new teacher.

Shinji and Mio were both in the same class, so they expected to find out together.

Half the day had gone by, and nothing seemed to have changed.

Their next afternoon class would be starting soon, and the only thing they had to work with was their curiosity.

However their curiosity only grew when the door finally opened.

A person they had never seen before had walked in.

At least, it should have been someone they had never seen before.

Instead, it was someone who Shinji was certain he saw every day.

Which was why he could not find any words at first.

"Umm, your last physics teacher seems to have some personal business to take care of, so I'll be filling in for a while."

"...Huh?"

He finally managed to make a sound, but Shinji was unsure of how to feel about this outcome.

Even her voice seemed familiar, though it was a tad bit tired.

What made it even more strange, however, was that a very familiar "accessory" could be seen in one of the pockets of the lab coat she was wearing.

It was a stuffed bear that looks as though it had seen better days.

Mio had been sitting next to him, but when the two of them looked at each other, no form of comprehension showed on their faces.

For Mio, it was a little creepy.

It was like looking into a mirror.

Because their new physics teacher looked very much like the girl who had fallen in love with her brother.

"Anyway...right, name..."

The new physics teacher seemed as though she was mulling over something.

Some of the students in the classroom caught a thin smile forming on her face.

"Name, huh...?"

The daydreaming did not last long, as she immediately came back to her senses.

"Sorry, just talking to myself. Anyway, you can call me Reine Murasame."

She had spoken her name loud enough for the classroom to hear her.

But what she was looking at during the self-introduction was the interesting couple who seemed more confused than any of the other students.

"Nice to meet you."