“Sometimes, it feels like I don’t really have any options either.”
CHAIN-LINK EVENT
WARNING: this Event is part of an Event Chain! You've lost all control over your own actions and must now sit back while
someone else takes the wheel. Enjoy the ride while it lasts, and hope that you did things right before taking the plunge!
While wandering through Kumon-mi, Sensei contemplates the existence of divine beings and reprimands himself for being tempted to pray to one when he was feeling down. He also hates that Maya and Ayane are the ones who are lost when he should be the one lost in a box, which gives him an idea for their current predicament. Ayane asks where they should look, and he suggests the dorms, but she reminds him that she already looked there and couldn’t find anyone. Sensei still thinks it’s worth a shot, feeling like they will either find Maya or some kind of clue.
Sensei vents his anger about the gods, and Ayane feels like she should be angry since she now knows that he loves Maya just as much as her. Sensei insists that he doesn't love anyone, but Ayane reminds him that there’s a difference between understanding and feeling love, and while he might not do the former, he’s still capable of the latter, pointing out the love he has shown for her and most of the girls in his live, and she’s waiting for the day he finally realizes how silly his current view regarding his feelings are and accepts them instead. With that, both agree to visit the dorms so they can get a change of clothes for Ayane and a starting point for their search.
Before they enter Maya’s dorm room, Ayane asks what she’s supposed to look for, and Sensei recommends checking the boxes in front of Maya’s bed. Once inside, Ayane decides to look for clues Maya might’ve left behind before noticing that Sensei is frozen in place. He tells her that Maya is lying in her bed, but she doesn’t see her and starts to worry. Sensei gets closer to her bed, wondering for a moment if the other girls are sleeping in their beds as well, and attempts to wake her up. Still scared, Ayane decides to take a look inside Maya’s boxes and seems to have found something of interest, but Sensei already tries to wake Maya up, breaking the world in the process.
Meanwhile, Maya “wakes up” in a bathroom, realizing that she’s significantly younger. After exiting, she finds herself inside Sensei’s old tutoring room with a young Noriko and an unfocused Sensei sitting on a bed. Noriko acts like it’s just another tutor session, but Maya, shocked about being back in this place and time, shuts her up and ignores her confusion about her anger. She breaks into tears and slowly gets more and more desperate while trying to convince herself that this is an illusion and she will wake up any moment to be reunited with the real Sensei. At some point, her anger breaks through and she desperately demands to be freed from this hell until she finally wakes up for real.