Yuiga Nariyuki wakes from a nightmare he can't shake—because it wasn't a nightmare. It was a memory. Five years from now, he died. And before he did, he watched every person he cared about slip away, one by one, into darkness he couldn't reach.
But when he opens his eyes, it's April of his third year of high school. He's been given a second chance.
Armed with a battered notebook recording the future he's desperate to prevent, Nariyuki accepts the role of education supervisor for three brillian
We Cannot Change Fate - The Queen of Thin Ice — The Words "Don't Bear It Alone"
The air was heavy.
Light through the classroom windows already had the color of summer. June sunlight fell white across the desks.
Yuiga Nariyuki watched that light.
He couldn't move.
Didn't want to move.
His body felt heavy as lead.
(Rizu closed her heart.)
(Fumino vanished without a trace.)
(Uruka lost her smile to studying abroad.)
(The tutor program—suspended.)
(The recommendation—on hold.)
His fingertips were cold.
Morning classroom. The students around him laughed as always. Someone calling someone's name. The sound of desks being arranged. A window sliding open.
All of it, far away.
Only around him, a thin membrane seemed stretched—sound turned muffled.
Nariyuki let out a slow breath.
Heavy air lingered deep in his lungs.
(I couldn't do anything.)
(I knew the future, and still—)
(Everything went the wrong way.)
(It's my fault.)
Something cold clenched in his stomach.
Morning homeroom ended.
He left the classroom. The hallway air was heavy too.
He avoided the crowd, walked along the wall. Didn't meet anyone's eyes.
"Yuiga-kun."
A voice.
His feet stopped.
He turned.
Kirusu Mafuyu stood there.
Long iris-colored hair. Water-blue eyes. A black suit worn without a single wrinkle—a twenty-eight-year-old math teacher. Homeroom teacher of Class 3-A at Ichinose Academy. Swim club advisor.
The woman called the "Ice Queen."
Her eyes looked straight at Nariyuki.
"Come to the staff room after school."
Her voice was cold.
But something lurked beneath it.
Nariyuki understood.
(So it's come.)
Somewhere in his heart, he'd been waiting all along.
For this moment.
"...Yes."
He answered shortly.
Mafuyu said nothing, turned, and walked away.
Her footsteps echoed down the hall.
Nariyuki watched her back for a while.
After school.
He stood before the staff room door.
Deep breath.
Something heavy sat in his chest.
He knocked.
"Enter."
A low voice.
He opened the door.
The staff room was quiet.
The other teachers must have gone home already. Mafuyu sat alone at a desk by the window.
The setting sun slanted in through the glass.
Her iris-colored hair caught the light, glowing faintly.
"Sit."
She spoke without looking up from the papers in her hands.
Nariyuki sat in the chair across from her.
Silence.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Mafuyu closed the documents.
Then turned her water-blue eyes on him.
"I'll ask you straight."
Her voice was cold as ice.
"You're hiding something, aren't you."
Something jumped in Nariyuki's chest.
"...What are you talking about?"
His voice cracked.
Mafuyu narrowed her eyes.
"Don't play dumb."
She tapped the papers on the desk with her fingertip.
"Before the parent-teacher conference, you said it. 'Furuhashi-san might leave home.' At that point, no one predicted Furuhashi-san would run away. No one but you."
Nariyuki said nothing.
"That's not all. The matter of Usami-san's study abroad. You knew before it was officially decided. The way you looked at her—those were the eyes of someone who already knew."
Her words pierced sharply.
"Ogata-san's family problems. You stepped in more than necessary. As if you knew beforehand what would happen."
Mafuyu crossed her arms.
"Your behavior is unnatural. As if you're reading future events ahead of time."
His heart raced.
His fingertips were cold.
(I can't tell her.)
(If I tell her, fate will twist.)
(It'll get worse.)
Nariyuki clenched his fists.
Nails bit into his palms.
"...It's none of your concern, Sensei."
His voice trembled.
Mafuyu's expression didn't change.
"It is my concern. I'm your homeroom teacher."
"Even so, I can't tell you."
Nariyuki raised his head.
He looked straight into her water-blue eyes.
"If I tell you, it'll get worse. That's why I can't."
His voice shook.
But he didn't look away.
Mafuyu stared at him for a while.
Then let out a small breath.
"I see."
She turned her eyes to the window.
The sun was sinking.
The sky was stained red.
"...You're always like this."
Her voice softened, just a little.
"You try to carry everything alone."
Nariyuki couldn't say anything.
She'd hit the mark.
"You don't rely on anyone. Don't tell anyone. Try to handle it all by yourself. ...Am I wrong?"
Mafuyu turned toward him.
The sunset reflected in her water-blue eyes.
"...You're not wrong."
Nariyuki looked down.
"But there's no other way. This is my problem."
"It's not your problem."
Her voice grew stronger.
"It's the problem of the students you're involved with. Then it concerns me too. I'm a teacher."
Mafuyu stood.
She walked to the window.
With the sunset at her back, she looked down at Nariyuki.
"I knew your father."
Nariyuki's body went rigid.
"...My father?"
His voice trembled.
Mafuyu nodded quietly.
"Yuiga Teruaki-sensei. My mentor. He taught world history at Ichinose Academy."
Nariyuki caught his breath.
His father's name.
A nostalgic sound.
"...I didn't know."
"You didn't need to. I was simply the one who received his teaching."
Mafuyu looked out the window.
The sun was half-sunk now.
"I learned from your father what a teacher who stands beside people looks like. To put students' feelings first. To understand the feelings of those who can't keep up. ...I learned all of it from your father."
Her voice was quiet.
But there was a definite heat in it.
"That's why I became a teacher. Because I wanted to be a teacher like your father."
Nariyuki looked at her profile.
Lit by the setting sun.
Her expression, usually cold as ice, was now—just slightly—soft.
"...What kind of teacher was he?"
The words came naturally.
Mafuyu smiled, just a little.
"Passionate. Clumsy. But he thought about his students more than anyone. ...You're just like him."
She turned back to Nariyuki.
"You resemble your father too much. In the way you try to shoulder everything alone."
The words pierced his chest.
It hurt.
But it was warm.
His father's shadow.
His father lived inside her.
(I'm like my father.)
(Carrying it all alone.)
(Was that how he was, too?)
For the first time, Nariyuki recognized his own habit of hoarding burdens.
It was the first time anyone had pointed it out.
"...Even so, I can't tell you."
Nariyuki forced the words out.
"If I talk about the future, it'll get worse. I know that. That's why I can't."
Mafuyu stared at him.
"...The future."
She murmured softly.
"Yes. The future. I don't care if you don't believe me. But this much is true."
Nariyuki clenched his fists.
"I have to save everyone. Rizu, Fumino, Uruka, and you too, Sensei. I have to save all of them."
His voice grew hot.
"To do that, I'll fight alone. I won't rely on anyone. ...No—I can't rely on anyone. Because if I do, that person might get dragged into danger."
Mafuyu listened in silence.
"So, Sensei. Please, leave me alone."
Nariyuki bowed his head.
"I'm asking you."
Silence.
Only the sunset poured into the staff room.
"...Lift your head."
Mafuyu's voice was cold.
But somewhere in it, there was sadness.
Nariyuki slowly raised his head.
Her water-blue eyes pierced through him.
"I will not abandon you. Whatever you're hiding, I am your homeroom teacher. ...Remember that, at least."
Her words echoed in his chest.
Warm.
But painful.
"...Thank you."
Nariyuki bowed his head once more.
He left the staff room.
The hallway had grown dark.
The sun had already set.
Nariyuki leaned against the wall.
(Mafuyu-sensei.)
(My father lives inside her.)
(What did my father teach her?)
(She tried to become a teacher like him.)
Something warm spread slowly through his chest.
But at the same time, cold unease crawled up the back of his neck.
(Can I become like my father?)
(Carrying it all alone—what happened to him?)
(My father died.)
(I died too, in the future.)
(Carried it alone, and died.)
Nariyuki clenched his fist.
(But even so, I have no choice.)
(To save everyone.)
(I'll do it.)
Night.
His room.
Nariyuki sat at his desk.
In his hands, a single notebook.
The "Future Notebook."
A secret notebook of his alone—fragmentary records of events five years ahead.
The cover was battered.
Because he'd read it over and over and over.
Nariyuki opened it.
He turned the pages, one by one.
Memories of the future.
Rizu closed her heart.
Fumino disappeared.
Uruka quit swimming and vanished.
Mafuyu-sensei resigned from teaching.
And he himself died.
It was all written there.
Dates.
Places.
Who became what.
In detail.
And yet.
Nariyuki stopped his hand.
(...Something's wrong.)
A certain page.
"Why did I come back?"
Only that part was blank.
No—not blank.
It had never been written at all.
(Why did I come back from the future?)
(How did I come back?)
(Who sent me back?)
Nariyuki stared at the notebook.
The other memories were vivid.
Rizu's closed heart.
The aftermath of Fumino's disappearance.
Uruka's lost smile.
Mafuyu-sensei's resignation letter.
His own death.
He remembered all of it.
And yet.
Only "the circumstances of how I came back" was missing from his memory.
(Why?)
(Why is only this part missing?)
Nariyuki clutched his head.
(How am I here?)
(Why am I the only one who came back?)
(Who sent me here?)
No answer came.
The blank space in the notebook stared at him, cold.
(...I don't know.)
(But even if I don't know, I have no choice.)
Nariyuki raised his head.
(I'll save everyone.)
(Even if I have to sacrifice myself.)
(This time, I'll save them all.)
Nariyuki closed the notebook.
A hard resolve formed deep in his chest.
But behind that resolve, a cold question stirred faintly.
(Why did I come back?)
(Did I really come back?)
(What am I here for?)
The question gnawed slowly at Nariyuki's heart in the darkness of night.
The next morning.
Ichinose Academy.
The rooftop.
The morning sun stretched the school building's shadow long.
Kirusu Mafuyu opened the rooftop door.
Last night's conversation with Nariyuki wouldn't leave her head.
(The future.)
(That boy knows about the future.)
(I can't believe it. But the seriousness in those eyes wasn't a lie.)
Mafuyu walked slowly across the concrete floor.
The wind was blowing.
Her iris-colored hair swayed.
Then.
She noticed something lying at her feet.
A scrap of paper.
Mafuyu picked it up.
A torn piece of notebook paper.
A ripped page.
On it, hasty handwriting.
"Five years later: Rizu—heart closed. Fumino—missing. Uruka—vanished. Mafuyu—resigns."
Mafuyu's hand stopped.
Her water-blue eyes traced the words.
"Five years later... the future?"
Her voice trembled.
The morning sun lit the scrap.
The characters rose sharp and clear.
"Mafuyu—resigns."
Her own name.
Resignation.
(I'll quit teaching?)
(In five years?)
Mafuyu stared at the paper.
The wind blew.
The scrap fluttered.
She gripped it tight.
(This is Yuiga-kun's handwriting.)
(No mistake.)
(He wrote this.)
(The future, five years from now.)
(And on it, my resignation is written.)
Mafuyu's heart raced.
(That boy really does know the future.)
(And in that future, I quit being a teacher.)
(Why?)
(What happens?)
Mafuyu slipped the scrap into her suit pocket.
Then looked at the morning sun.
Dazzling.
But she didn't look away.
(Yuiga-kun.)
(I will uncover your secret, no matter what.)
(And I won't let you fight alone.)
A strong light kindled in Mafuyu's water-blue eyes.
The wind swept across the rooftop.
Her long hair, lit by the morning sun, shone gold.
At that moment.
Nariyuki's smartphone buzzed.
A message.
From Usami.
Owner of the board game café "Dice Roll."
An acquaintance of Rizu's grandmother, Mizuho.
Nariyuki looked at the screen.
"The missing page of the Star-Crossing Board. Apparently it's kept in the Ogata family safe."
Nariyuki's eyes went wide.
(The missing page.)
(A message to the family.)
(The secret Rizu's grandmother hid.)
(It's in the Ogata family safe.)
Nariyuki gripped his phone.
(Mafuyu-sensei's pursuit.)
(And the secret of the board.)
Two problems closed in on Nariyuki
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