Okay what the fuck is he supposed to do with this. So being a superhero who can ANNIHILATE MALARIA which - he checks - kills hundreds of thousands of people annually, is dangerous, fine. Haru was not particularly expecting to have the opportunity to do it but he would in fact straightforwardly die to put malaria in the ground, and if he gets to go down swinging so much the better, gets to go down saving more people so much the better, gets to go down with magic of his own and insight into the masquerade so much the better.

But it can't be that simple, apparently, because he has this - boy - who he fell in love with, reportedly, he underlines "reportedly" a couple times, over the next month, that's so fast, what were you doing, other-timeline-Haru - no, he can guess. He was high on being a magical superhero, he was implicitly limiting his dating pool to his fellow magical superheros a little bit maybe and this one was so cute and so sweet and so magical and superheroic and went to school with him so conveniently and really really wanted him, wanted him with an intensity that Haru's kind of tempted to swoon about even getting only the corners of it through a tearful confession of wrongdoing. You learn something new about yourself for the second or third time every day, apparently, and Haru goes for, what, lunatic stalker energy - that's not fair. That is not reportedly fair. Underline.

And also Tokyo has millions of people in it. You can't let Tokyo go down to get malaria dead, even notwithstanding that if it blows through Tokyo there's no particular reason to think it'd stop there. Pin in that, what's the upper bound, is there one.

Can he just wish to kill the big witch, now that his wish is a free agent? With enough time to get worked up about it, maybe? Is that even conceptually a thing. Pin in that. Little highlighter marks in fluorescent green.

Would the creepy-ass mind magic allow for... lie detection. Used consensually, but like, that seems probably likely. Yutaka just handed Haru his SOUL. Highlighter mark.

He's going to need to do even more notebooking about this Kyubey character once he meets him but he doesn't want to spend a lot of "time" on it before that.

Is it going to compromise their ability to save Tokyo if Haru doesn't bonsai himself into dating this guy. ...he might not even have to try very hard what with the things he has learned about himself today, but he might have to try at all, does he need to do that. Highlighter.

What does he need to extract from these letters to send himself a summary if they need to go around again... he does that next, it's more likely than not premature but if he's butterfly-effected into an open manhole and dies on his way to school Yutaka can have annotated note-to-self letters for Haru attached to Yutaka's own versions. Rip rip staple staple.

He comes out of his room again after about a subjective twenty minutes.

Well, it's been twenty minutes for Iwasaki, too. He's still sitting exactly where Haru left him, but now he's holding his head in his hands, resting it on his elbows, fingers interlaced with his hair looking like he's been pulling it.

He doesn't look up when he hears Haru come out.

"...so I have some questions though I don't know if you know the answers to all of them."

He lets go of his hair, smooths it down (to the extent it'll go, since it's poofy), straightens up, and looks at Haru. "I will try my best to answer them." He doesn't look like he's been crying any more since Haru went into his room, at least.

"If the witch rolls over Tokyo - then what. Does it just keep going? Do they have a natural lifespan or something?"

"They do not have a natural lifespan. I don't know what actually happens, I as-well-as-died both times, but witches keep going until someone kills them."

Haru jots that down. "Can I just wish to kill the big witch, or witches in general if I'm dreaming bigger."

"Kyūbey said that it is theoretically possible to wish to kill witches in general, if you feel strongly enough about it, but you didn't, at the time. It must be possible to wish to kill just the one witch, though."

"Geez, how many times do I have to die to feel strongly enough that I want that to stop happening," he mutters, writing that down.

He winces but doesn't have an answer for that one.

"Once I have magic, would it, hypothetically, let me - verify your honesty, if you were inclined to invite me to do that -"

"—with, like, the mind magic? I don't see why not. Yamanaka seemed to think it was possible, but none of us tried it. ...Yamanaka was the one who originally told me about the mind trick, and later when she told you about it she acted a lot more contrite about having ever used it than when she told me."

"...gosh." Write write. "How... badly out of commission, are you, emotionally -"

"I don't know. I want to not be pathetic, but I am. I think I will not have much—initiative—for the foreseeable future. Or ability to want things."

"But you can, like, hunt witches enough to be self-sustaining for the month, you can - self-maintain and function to a basic level and show up for the big witch fight and stuff -"

"Yeah. I think so."

Scribble scribble. "I wrote myself some letters and attached them to yours, in case you need to go back - unexpectedly - and expect to update them periodically." He hands them over.

Iwasaki accepts them and puts them in his buckler. "Should I just hand you them first or should I—explain everything again—" He talks about it like someone who is asking if he should go jump in front of a train for his cause would.

"...I think if you leave them on my desk like you did with your initial note they will suit."

"Understood."

"Is there... anything else I should know before time goes on."

"I think that was all. How should I—behave in front of your mother, or should I just vanish? Is there anything you want me to do at school, should I avoid you, should I not go?"

"- I think you should go to school probably, and be, uh, less out than you were last time if that attracts attention from your dad, and otherwise act basically normal in most ways most of the time? You don't have to avoid me, I will probably ever have questions for you that I don't want to share with the critter and that'll be less weird-looking if we are observed to have, like, met. Ren's probably going to offer you a ride to school, you can accept that if you want or not, I don't know what your default transportation plan was."

"Roof-hopping. I can—try to act normally."

"I mean you can also act depressed, but -" Shrug.