Everything he remembered about the last three weeks. Everything since he first met Mai.
He wrote all night long.
May 6
I met a wild bunny girl.
She was a senpai from Minegahara High. The famous Mai Sakurajima.
This is the beginning. This is how we met. There’s no way I could ever forget it.
Even if you do forget—remember. You have to remember, future me.
4
Three days of midterms, and the first was already a disaster.
Not only had he not studied at all the night before, but it was his second straight all-nighter, and he couldn’t focus at all. The more he tried to think, the more his brain stalled out midquestion. His mind went blank, leaving him just sitting there staring at the answer sheet. His eyes registered it but nothing more.
After the test was over, Sakuta peeked into the classroom next door, looking for Rio Futaba. She even wore the white lab coat to class, so she was easy to find.
She saw him at the door, gathered her things, and joined him in the hall.
“Do you remember?” he asked, feeling tense.
“Huh? Remember what?” Rio said, baffled.
“Then never mind.”
“Well, I’ll be in the science room.”
“Cool.”
He waved, and Rio walked off, lab coat swaying. He hoped she would turn around and admit she was joking, but no such luck. She vanished up the stairs.
“Your hypothesis was correct,” he said.
By forgetting Mai, Rio had proved it.
Now Sakuta was the only one left.
Only Sakuta remembered Mai. Only he could hear her voice or see her.
“What a thrilling development!” he said, desperately trying to convert his fears into motivation.
The next day was May 28. The second day of midterms, and again, his results were unimpressive. But Sakuta was long past caring.
He was sleepy. Just sleepy.
Every time he blinked, he was tempted to just leave his eyes closed.
He hadn’t slept since their date on Sunday. It was now Wednesday. His fourth day without sleep.
Sakuta was well past his limit.
He was constantly nauseated. He had actually thrown up twice. Ever since, it had felt like there was something caught in his throat.
He was falling apart. His pulse felt erratic and far too strong. His complexion was awful. Yuuma had been worried on the train that morning. “You look like a zombie,” he’d said.
The one saving grace was that he’d already cleared his work schedule for midterms. There was definitely no way he could do a proper job in this condition.
His eyelids felt heavy. They refused to stay open. The light of the sun was brutal. No matter how hard he pinched his thighs, he didn’t seem to wake up. Nothing short of stabbing himself with a pencil got a reaction anymore.
“You seem tired,” Mai said on their way home.
She was still coming to school, even though only Sakuta could see her. “I’ve got nothing better to do,” she’d said. But he knew she had to be scared. Too scared to sit at home alone all day. Part of her must have been hoping, if she kept going to school, things might naturally go back to normal.
“I’m always like this during tests. Pulling all-nighters.”
“That’s what you get for not studying regularly.”
“You sound like a teacher.”
“Well, if you absolutely insist…”
“Mm?”
“I could help you study.”
“If we were in a room together, I’d just think about sex, so we’d better not.”
“……”
Mai gave him a shocked look. She clearly never expected him to refuse.
“A-ah. For the best, then,” she said.
“See you tomorrow.”
They parted ways outside their apartments.
Sakuta stepped onto the elevator and breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t told Mai he wasn’t sleeping. He knew if he did, she’d insist he stop going without sleep.
He didn’t want to worry her, and he’d already made up his mind to see this through—he didn’t want her feeling responsible for it.
At home, Sakuta sat in the living room, a physics book open in front of him. One he’d borrowed from Rio the day they got back from Ogaki. He was hoping it would give him a clue to resolve this.
It was an entry-level book on quantum theory. But even then, the difficulty level was so high, he just couldn’t process it. He was spending all day reading it instead of studying for midterms, but he could barely bring himself to turn the page.
The combination of sleepless eyelids and a physics book was deadly. Like a powerful sedative. He was keeping his flickering consciousness alive through sheer willpower, forcing his eyes to follow the words on the page.
He wanted to help Mai. That was all that drove him.
He spent an hour like this. Kaede was reading nearby, and her stomach started rumbling. Without a word, he stood up and started making dinner. They ate it together.
Sakuta looked across the table and realized Kaede was saying something. His eyes registered this, but he forgot to respond.
“……”
“Hello?”
“Oh, huh?”
He was too sleepy to think straight.
“Are you okay?”
“Midterms,” he said, unsure that excused it.
“Don’t try too hard.”
“Yeah, I know.”
But no matter how hard it was, Sakuta couldn’t sleep now.
If he did, he’d forget Mai.
Maybe there was a chance he wouldn’t, but the odds were stacked against him.
In which case, Sakuta couldn’t let himself sleep.
He and Kaede finished dinner, and he went out for a walk. He swung by the store again.
Sitting still after a meal was too dangerous. Even standing up, he was nodding off. He’d nearly fallen asleep standing on the Enoshima Electric Railway, his hand clutching one of the dangling handles. His legs had buckled, and he’d only clung to consciousness because his knees hit the businessman in the seat in front of him. It had been a very close call.
At the convenience store, he bought more energy drinks. From the large beef bowl price range. He’d been drinking too many of these, and the effects were steadily diminishing. Worse, the backlash was tremendous. Two or three hours after, he’d get even sleepier. But it was still better than nothing.
He left the shop, returning his wallet to his back pocket.
The wind brushed against his cheeks. Sakuta stopped in his tracks.
Someone was waiting for him.
A wave of panic shot through him, like he’d been caught pulling a prank.
A nasty, clammy sweat broke out.
“What’d you buy?” Mai asked. She was in street clothes, legs apart, arms folded.
He tried to pull an excuse out of his groggy mind, but nothing emerged. Lack of sleep had made him stupid.
“Uh…well…”
Mai came closer and snatched the bag away. She peeked inside. “I knew you weren’t sleeping,” she chided.
“……”
He’d thought he was getting away with it, but apparently not. He knew he looked obviously unwell. Yuuma and Kaede had both pointed it out. It would have been weird for Mai not to have noticed.
“You thought you could hide this?”
“I wanted to.”
“You’re an idiot! You can’t keep this up forever.”
“I couldn’t think of anything else.”
He sounded like a petulant child.
Sakuta knew this could only go on so long. Humans needed sleep to live. And this wasn’t going to solve the problem. But even knowing it might be a waste of time…this waste of time was Sakuta’s only option.
This crazy phenomenon was making Mai suffer. They still hadn’t found a way to stop it. They didn’t even know if there was a way to stop it.
<
br /> But they had to keep looking. Sakuta couldn’t sleep until he did.
Even if he didn’t find a solution, he wasn’t about to simply give in and go to sleep.
He wanted to remember Mai for as many days as he possibly could. Each minute mattered. Every second he stayed awake was a second less where she was completely alone. All these sleepless nights had left his sluggish brain unable to think about anything else.
“Look how pale you are! You’re an idiot.”
“I entirely agree.”
“Let’s get you home.”
She returned the bag and headed back toward their apartments. Unable to think straight, Sakuta obediently followed her.
It was past eight when he got home.
Kaede must have been in the bath. He could hear her singing happily through the door. It was the jingle from a commercial for an electronics store. It wasn’t long, so she was looping pretty quick.
Sakuta turned in to his bedroom but got stuck in the door.
Mai was sitting on a cushion in the middle of the room, next to a low folding table she’d clearly set up herself.
“I thought if you went to a boy’s place at this time of day, it’d be like telling him he can do whatever he wants.”
“Eight is still in the clear.”
“Fine. But why are you here?”
“I thought I’d keep you company.”
“Romantically?”
“No. And you know that! I’m not letting you sleep tonight.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“If you start drifting off, I’ll slap you awake.”
“Wow, we’re going straight for the hard stuff.”
Mai seemed to be enjoying herself. How many slaps was she planning? He hoped this wasn’t becoming a new fetish.
“Come on, sit!” Mai insisted, patting the carpet.
He did as he was told.
“Where’s your textbook? Notes?”
“What are those for?”
“We still have one more day of midterms. I’ll help you study.”
“Engh… I’m good.”
He wouldn’t remember anything he studied in this condition. It would just make him sleepier.
“Were you the bookish type?” he asked.
“I was too busy working for most of my first year, but since the start of second year, I’ve never scored less than eight.”
Minegahara grades were on a ten-point scale. One being the lowest rating and ten the highest. So having all her grades eight or above was pretty impressive.
“What unexpected academic discipline.”
“I just study when I have the time.”
“Most people would goof off every chance they get.”
“Just focus! I am not all that matters to you.”
“You are now.”
Otherwise, he’d never be doing anything as grueling as forgoing sleep.
“Even if you do solve my problems, all you’ll have left is a disastrous pile of answer sheets.”
“Hearing something so logical is just making me sleepy.”
“You’re going to study.”
“I’m sooo not motivated.”
“Even with me as your private tutor?”
“If you wear the bunny-girl outfit, maybe I’ll feel motivated.”
“Are you like this with everyone, Sakuta?”
“I only talk like this to you, Mai.”
“Hardly a compliment.”
He yawned. The tears in the corners of his eyes stung.
“And if I put the bunny-girl outfit on, you’d think about nothing but sex. Then you’d learn nothing.”
“I didn’t think of that.”
He wasn’t thinking much at all. Sakuta was already just saying whatever popped into his head first.
“How about this?” Mai said. “If you score one hundred points on a test, I’ll give you a reward.”
This was a very enticing offer. He found himself leaning forward.
“Is this the legendary ‘I’ll do anything’ offer?”
“Sure, sure. ‘Anything,’” Mai said, clearly convinced it was impossible.
“I’ve got Math II and Modern Japanese tomorrow,” he said, checking the schedule. He was starting to feel a bit more alert. “I might be able to get one hundred on Math II.”
“What? Are you, like…smart?” Mai asked, horrified.
“Nah. I just do better with math.”
Which was exactly why he should abandon Japanese and focus on Math II. With Japanese, there were so many subjective or arbitrary ways to lose points that it was hard to aim for a perfect score. But with Math II, the answers were objective, and as long as he showed his work, he had a solid shot at avoiding any weird deductions. It seemed doable to get full marks.
He immediately opened his Math II textbook.
But Mai snatched it away.
“This was your idea! Why are you stopping me?”
“I might have said ‘anything,’ but I’m not actually going to do anything,” she said, scowling at him.
“I wouldn’t ask for anything crazy.”
“Really?”
“Nothing worse than ‘Join me in the bath.’”
“That’s already over the line.”
“Aww.”
“Th-that should be obvious!”
“Even if we wear swimsuits?”
“Swimsuits in the bathtub? Why would you even think of something that sketchy?!”
Her scornful look was like daggers. That definitely woke him up a bit.
“What about a lap pillow with you in the bunny-girl outfit?”
“Why do you seem to think that’s a more reasonable suggestion?”
He’d thought it was, but Mai did not seem to agree.
“How about that Kamakura date we never actually got around to?”
This suggestion was so tame by comparison, it totally caught her off guard.
“Fine, but…you sure that’s all you want?”
“You wanted something racier?”
“I didn’t say that!”
She reached out and pinched his cheek, hard.
“Ow! I’m awake!”
“You really do have a lot of nerve for your age.”
For the next two hours, she stayed with him, helping him study.
But it was all Modern Japanese. She refused to let him study Math II at all.
“‘There’s nobody around who can ensure your future.’ ‘Your future is not assured.’ Both words are pronounced hosho but have different kanji.”
“Professor, I’m sensing some spite in this problem.”
“Just write them down!” demanded Mai, tapping the notebook in front of him.
Sakuta wrote down two sets of kanji, the Chinese characters found in Japanese writing.
“So which pair is used for ‘Nobody can ensure your future’?”
“Well…”
He didn’t actually know the difference, so he let his finger hover over one of the pairs, watching Mai’s reaction, hoping he could deduce which was right from her expression.
But Mai was clearly onto his game.
She looked him right in the eye, smiling pleasantly. Even her eyes were smiling, which was all the more terrifying.
“You can also show me ‘Sakuta’s safety is not assured if he tries to cheat on another question.’”
“Sorry. I need a hint.”
“Ensure means making certain something happens, while assure means convincing someone it will.”
“Then ‘I can ensure Mai will have a happy future.’ And ‘We can be assured we’ll live happily ever after.’”
“Don’t change the sentences!” She rolled up the textbook and smacked him on the head. “It isn’t cute.”
Sounded like he got the answer right, at least. If he saw that on the test, he could probably get it again. Both the answer and Mai’s cross face were seared into his memory.
Mai kept giving him problems, and Sakuta kept studying kanji, feeling like he
was playing a game.
But he couldn’t maintain that focus forever.
After they got through the section on homonyms, Sakuta stood up.
“I’ll get us some drinks,” he said. “Coffee okay? It’s just instant.”
“Mm.”
She was flipping through the kanji workbook, looking for another problem to give him.
He left her in his room, went to the kitchen, and started the kettle boiling.
While he waited, he glanced toward Kaede’s room. The lights were out. She must have been sound asleep.
He came back to his room with two mugs of instant coffee.
He put one in front of Mai.
“Milk and sugar?” she asked.
Sakuta’s whole goal had been to wake himself up, so he was taking it black and hadn’t thought to ask.
“I’ll go grab them.”
He came back with a sugar packet, some milk, and a spoon.
Mai was still looking through the kanji workbook.
“Here you go, Mai.”
“Thanks.”
She took the sugar and milk and poured them in her cup. She began slowly stirring.
These gestures struck him as distinctly feminine, and Sakuta savored the sight as he took a sip of coffee. Bitter black liquid hit his stomach. The heat of it felt like a relief.
“Your sister?”
“In bed.”
Kaede had popped in an hour earlier, seen Sakuta studying, and wished him luck.
“You’re an only child?” he asked. She seemed the type.
“No,” Mai said, cradling the mug with both hands.
“Oh?”
“After my father was free of my mother, he married again. Had a kid with her, so…a half sister.”
“She cute?”
“Not as cute as me,” Mai declared, like it was obvious.
“Wow, so harsh.”
His mind was starting to get bleary.
He felt dizzy. His eyelids were heavy.
“Would you like a girl who knows she’s cuter but goes around insisting other girls are cute anyway?”
“That does sound bad.”
“The worst.”
“But…your own sis—?”
He didn’t consciously trail off. The back half of the word just failed to emerge.
It felt like he was drifting away from his body.
Crap, he thought. But he couldn’t stop it.
He grabbed the edge of the table to support himself.
His eyes were already half-closed.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Volume 1 Page 15