The entire afternoon, Souta accompanied Izayaoi Miku as they strolled around Tengu City.
They bought a lot of clothes and even found time to watch a movie.
Under Miku's persistent persuasion, Souta even followed her into a lingerie store.
The stares from the female customers were a bit piercing. Souta endured the awkwardness and picked out a few sets of pure and elegant lingerie for Miku. He then firmly refused her suggestion to try them on for him.
At the checkout, the female cashier glanced at the oversized items and gave Souta a sly wink, as if to say, "You're one lucky guy, aren't you?"
Or perhaps it wasn't just luck with his hands—landing a good catch like her—but also his silver tongue, and, well, maybe even his impressive endowment down below. Who knows, the cashier might've meant all that and more.
This made Souta feel a little helpless.
By the time evening arrived, Souta teleported Miku back to her hospital room.
Since the discharge paperwork wasn't completed yet, they couldn't just leave outright.
Miku put away her purchases, then lay on the hospital bed, stretching her body comfortably like a cat.
"Ahh, so comfy... I feel alive again."
The soft mattress instantly relieved her exhaustion.
"Today is the happiest day I've had in over a year."
Lying on her back, Miku looked at Souta, her face adorned with a gentle smile.
From Souta's angle, he couldn't help but feel that the rise and fall of her chest was nearly obstructing her face.
"...Are you leaving now?" Miku asked.
Souta nodded. "Yeah, Kurumi asked me for a favor. I've delayed it long enough."
"Kurumi-san..." Miku blinked. "Where is she now?"
"She's somewhere far away. She won't be back for a while."
Souta casually brushed off the question. After all, explaining otherworldly matters would be a hassle.
Miku took a deep breath, her expression turning guilty.
"Sorry, I kept you for too long."
"No, there's plenty of time. Don't think that way." Souta shook his head slightly and smiled. "With time travel, there's no such thing as missing out. I can go anytime."
"...Will you really come back to see me?"
A flicker of unease flashed through Miku's eyes.
The betrayal of her fans had made her instinctively distrust promises and agreements.
"I will." Souta, noticing her concern, added two more words, "I promise."
"...Then, will you be able to find me later? Should I write down my address for you?"
Miku reached for a piece of paper to jot down her home address.
But Souta stopped her.
"No need for that. Time travel doesn't affect the present. When I come back, you probably won't even have finished your discharge procedures yet."
Miku let out a soft breath, her smile returning.
"Then I'll wait for you here."
"Mm. If you get bored, you can take this chance to settle some personal scores." Souta reminded her, "The two people who wronged you are still out there, enjoying their freedom."
"...Oh, I almost forgot about them!"
A hint of disgust suddenly appeared on Miku's face.
The time spent with Souta had been so enjoyable that she had temporarily set aside her bad experiences.
Now that she remembered, she felt irritated all over again.
"Well, I'll be waiting to see their public apologies in the news." Souta chuckled.
Of course, he was mostly joking—since traveling back to the present wouldn't take much time, Miku would hardly have the opportunity to enact her revenge in such a short period.
With a simple farewell, Souta left the hospital room and headed to Kurumi's house.
He needed to drop off the things he bought while shopping.
What? Why not just store them in the system's inventory?
Well, because any uploaded items would send a notification to all group members.
If Kurumi saw it, she would definitely start asking questions...
Wait, why does this feel like sneaking around in an affair?
Miku stared blankly at Souta's departing figure.
In the end, they hadn't even touched each other. She felt a bit regretful.
Would she still feel fear when touching Souta in the future? That was now a mystery.
But since Souta promised to return after time traveling, she felt much better.
There would be plenty of opportunities later.
Next time, she would find a better excuse—one that Souta couldn't refuse—to get a hug!
After returning to Kurumi's house and putting everything away, a thought suddenly occurred to Souta.
"Wait... If I use the Eleventh Bullet to push time forward by a few months when I return, wouldn't that give the split-off Divine Kingdom extra time to absorb faith?"
But then another question arose...
If he traveled to the future using the Eleventh Bullet, would there be a time limit on how long he could stay there?
This led to another issue—there was already a precedent of time limits with the Twelfth Bullet.
When Itsuka Shido traveled five years into the past to save someone, he was forcibly returned to the present after his allotted time ran out.
However, this wasn't necessarily an unsolvable problem.
For example, the more time energy loaded into the Twelfth Bullet, the longer one could stay in the past.
Rin Tohsaka had been able to live in the past for a full year because she stacked multiple Twelfth Bullet item cards.
That's right—the Twelfth Bullet item cards weren't just for traveling through time; they could also extend one's stay in the past.
Rin and Illya had used the Eleventh Bullet to return to the future only because their Twelfth Bullet effects hadn't expired yet. If they didn't want to wait, their only option was to force their return.
But returning to one's original timeline was different from traveling to the future.
In your original timeline, there was no time limit on how long you could stay.
For the future, though... Souta wasn't sure.
After all, Kurumi had never used the Eleventh Bullet to jump forward in time before.
Thinking about this, Souta pulled out his system phone and sent Kurumi a private message to ask.
Before long, Kurumi replied.
Tokisaki Kurumi: I'm not sure if the Eleventh Bullet has a time limit either. We'd have to test it.
Souta: If there is a limit, your plan to send Myoko and the others to the future might not work. You wouldn't be able to keep using the Eleventh Bullet indefinitely to maintain their stay in the future.
Tokisaki Kurumi: Good point. I overlooked that issue. I'll test it first. If it doesn't work, we'll have to take them far from the Empire and wait for the right time to resurface... or just time-stop them until the future to avoid disrupting history too much.
Tokisaki Kurumi: Also, Souta, we can't travel to the future ourselves. And not just that—we're even restricted from revisiting certain parts of the past. For example, we can't go back to a past that the system has already "occupied."