As expected of an elder with years under his belt—just a casual remark was enough to leave Obito feeling enlightened.
The group returned to the apartment along the road they had come from. It was already time to rest.
Their rooms had long since been chosen. After washing up, everyone returned to their rooms to sleep.
They still had to thoroughly explore Central City tomorrow, so they needed to recover all the energy they had wasted on the road today.
Gradually, faint snores drifted through the apartment. It seemed everyone had fallen asleep.
Yet Tomohiro lay in bed, gazing at the bright moonlight beyond the window.
"Once upon a time, I used to imagine what I would do after returning to the human world."
"Traveling again was my first thought, and now I've more or less accomplished it. This world has developed so quickly, and there are so many novel things. There are so many things I've never seen before that even figuring out what they do is difficult for me."
"Have I been left behind by the times?"
But Tomohiro soon abandoned that thought.
"No. I haven't been abandoned by the times. The times have accepted me once again."
“No, it’s not that I was abandoned by the times; rather, the times have accepted me anew.”
Tomohiro had gone from knowing nothing at all to seeing so many interesting things and learning so much.
And he still had a long life ahead of him, more than enough to experience even more novel things.
"Why am I suddenly doing that emo thing young people do? I should be looking ahead."
Tomohiro used a new word he had only recently learned to console himself. Just as he had said, the times had accepted him again, and he had embraced the times