Toshiki scoffs.

"They would've."

"—and it really fucking sucks that even though it turns out that the fact that none of us are girls didn't matter I still can't reciprocate you guys's feelings."

"...what?"

"Oh. You knew. Of course you knew."

"Wait," he says, looking at his twin. "You—?"

"I'm not sure how I could've been more obvious, nii-san. Then again, if Yutaka hadn't noticed... Or I thought he hadn't."

"I'm sorry I'm turning you guys down like this. And I'm sorry that this is the third time I'm doing it. I hope it'll be the last, I'm working tirelessly to make it be the last, but I can't promise it will be, and that's why I'm here."

Toshiki stands up and kicks his chair back. "Iwasaki what the fuck are you on about."

He extends his left hand out, palm up, and lets his ring flash and vanish into the shining bauble.

"So you're learning party tricks? Iwasaki—"

"They're not tricks. Catch," he says, tossing his gem over to Toshiki.

He was clearly not expecting this but he manages not to fumble the catch.

And now it's a ring on his finger again.

"What the fuck."

"The story is so, so, so fucking long. But the short version of it is that magic is real, I'm a magical boy, and I'm on the third and hopefully last iteration of a Groundhog Day loop that starts three weeks ago and ends one way or another next week, when a giant monster that normal people can't see and which just looks like a huge typhoon shows up and destroys Tokyo."

"...I have to say, Iwasaki, this is a very original way to turn someone down."

"Yeah." He sighs. "Haru? They might find this more believable if you do show up now."

Haru appears. "Uh. Hi. I'm Swan Masaharu, nice to meet you, wish it were under less time loopy circumstances."

Toshiki pulls his chair back so he can flop onto it.

"...you got a magical adventure partner? And he's this hot? Are you—"

"Akira is that really what you want to say to a guy you just met."

His anxiety's spiking and he falls back into—that—when he doesn't know how else to act.

"—right. Sorry. It's, uh, nice to meet you, too, Swan-san."

"To clarify I'm not in the time loop, I have all this solely from him. ...all this relating to the time loop, not magic, that obviously I can corroborate. But... if things go bad next week I've got notes to self in his custody and he thought you might want to do the same thing?"

"Notes to self."