A New Mission: The Oregairu Arc

"Still, please don't come too close to me."

She said, "I'm very easily influenced by other people."

"Just like you said, whether it's friendship or love, if they're both the same, I don't want to let myself waver."

That part was actually a little obedient of her.

Houtarou Oreki glanced at the bag she had brought with her.

There was a bottle of beer inside the bag.

"Do you not like beer with chocolate anymore?" Houtarou Oreki asked.

"Mm..."

"Before, it was a taste disorder. Nothing you ate had any flavor, and only beer and chocolate let you taste anything... But now... wait—"

The copy of Tagore's Poetry Collection in the woman's hands suddenly fell. "Why would you know that?"

"Because I've seen you eat them before." Houtarou Oreki reached out to her. "It's been four years, Takari."

"You're still just as much of a handful."

"Uh..."

Takari stared at Houtarou Oreki in astonishment.

"Beer, beer with chocolate..."

"Four years ago..."

"Could it be—"

Takari's memories suddenly returned to that time when she had been saved.

She loved being a teacher, but she had encountered the greatest crisis of her life.

Namely, being unfit as a teacher.

She had been ostracized by the third-year girls she taught, leaving her neatly dressed every day but too afraid to go to school.

Instead, she hid here in the pavilion.

And then...

Here, she met Mitsuha Miyamizu.

But this Mitsuha was a little different. She was clearly a girl, yet she always carried a boyish heroic air about her.

And it was also because of this Mitsuha.

She had been saved.

Not only had the matter of being ostracized by her students been resolved, allowing her to keep teaching, but it had also been just like gaining a close friend.

For someone like