"Dad, I've actually been thinking about something."

"What is it?"

"I remember you didn't really care about my future path, right?"

Rinji, lazily lying in the rocking chair, asked his equally lazy father.

"Pretty much. From the start, whether you became good or bad, I never insisted on how you should live," his father replied with a smile.

"So it's your choice, and I wouldn't interfere," he added.

"Then there's a question."

Rinji sat up and looked at his father, who was still basking in the sun.

"Why did you send me to Japan when I was in Afghanistan? And why to Shuchiin Academy, where Aunt Kaya is?"

He clearly remembered receiving a call from Sousuke during his 'battle' in Afghanistan, telling him that his father wanted him to go to school in Japan.

Then he started his peaceful daily life at Shuchiin Academy.

He had suspected back then that his father wouldn't normally interfere with where he went. Even if it were a battlefield or elsewhere, his father would only suggest, not directly arrange.

"If you hadn't been sent there, would you have gotten two girlfriends?"

"I'm serious."

"Let me think."

Rinji's father sat up and thought for a moment, then smiled. "You came to 1998 by chance, when I was starting my business. I happened to see your phone then."

"Oh… you found my photos at Shuchiin with the student council?"

"Yes, I thought you seemed happy at that school."

"So you sent me to Shuchiin at the right time so it wouldn't affect the events?" Rinji asked.

"Not exactly. If you didn't want to go, I wouldn't have forced it. Everything was your choice. You wanted to go, so I sent you there," his father explained.

"You always say things I don't understand," Rinji sighed.

Before coming to Japan, he didn't even know which high school he would attend. Only his father spoke in such cryptic ways.

"You also never tell me clearly about my sister."

"Do you care about your sister?"

"Of course. I want siblings."

"I see…"

His father looked at Rinji for a while and then said, "It's almost time. You'll meet her in a couple of chapters."

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Then it's settled."

Rinji returned to the rocking chair, satisfied, and spoke to his father.

"Oh, you recruited Misaki and Mei into IW, right?"

"Yes," his father said. "I found two talents for handling supernatural issues, and they seemed to have the gift."

"I heard you even set up a department for supernatural problems back then. Do you really have too much money?"

"No, I established it for a purpose," his father said. "Don't forget the supernatural problems you've encountered. Aren't they enough?"

Rinji thought of the girls who could manipulate weather, sudden body swaps, and inexplicable trips twenty years into the past to resolve a decades-long curse at a school.

His experiences had become somewhat fantastical since winter break.

"Son, your world isn't as simple as you think. Some insurance is always good."

"Oh… I heard you wanted to make a time machine," Rinji asked. "Wasn't that just a whim?"

"A time machine? That was indeed a whim," his father said. "After seeing you twenty years ago, I wondered if time travel was possible. But… never mind."

"Did you succeed?"

"No."

"Of course, defying the second law of thermodynamics isn't easy."

"Exactly."

A faint smile appeared on his father's lips, unnoticed by Rinji.

"Rinji!!"

In the distance, Karura jogged toward Rinji, holding a gift box that had been simply wrapped.

Seeing Karura approaching, Rinji also stood up and walked over.

"What's up?"

"I made you some Valentine's chocolate~"

As she spoke, Karura handed the gift box to Rinji.

Rinji took the box, feeling a slight movement of the contents inside. Seeing Karura's joyful smile, his mood instantly lifted.

"Thank you."

It was his first Valentine's Day with a girlfriend, and also the first time he had ever received Valentine's chocolate.

This feeling of surprise was something he had never experienced before.

"Karura put a lot of effort into it."

At that moment, Rinji's mother walked over and gently patted Karura's head.

"She came early this morning to ask me how to make chocolate and was very serious while making it."

"Hehe~"

"Mm, I'm really happy to receive chocolate too."

Rinji hugged the chocolate Karura had given him and smiled.

Just then, he noticed that his mother was also holding a small gift box.

"Mom, you made some too?"

"Mm."

She nodded slightly and walked toward Rinji's father.

"Here."

"Ah, thank you."

Rinji's father sat up and took the chocolate from Rinji's mother.

Even though the two still looked very young, they had been married for many years.

Yet, after receiving the chocolate from his wife, Rinji's father's smile was warm and tender.

The couple exchanged a glance and smiled quietly, without many words.

After all, they were past the age of saying overly sentimental things to each other.

Rinji's father put the chocolate into his jacket pocket, walked over to Rinji, and patted his shoulder.

"Come by my place tomorrow morning."

"Ah? Why?"

"I'll take you to see your sister."

"Eh? Really?"