What Exactly Happened

"Ouch, why is it still like this." Jiu Ming tapped his head. The 'imposed' memories seemed to be playing tricks on him, accumulating to a certain level, always like a veil, unclear and troubling him.

"Shopkeeper... have you encountered some disaster?"

Meeting again, noticing Jiu Ming's abnormal state, Yakumo Yukari's teasing also subsided a lot. What surprised her was that after she arrived here, Jiu Ming's gaze at her was a bit strange!

Although his whole body was now emitting a strange, gloomy aura.

"En? Forty seconds left... Girl, come keep me company." Shaking his head, which felt like it was about to split, Jiu Ming glanced at the time and waved at the suddenly arrived Yakumo Yukari. Putting everything else aside, Jiu Ming doubted his own willpower, to have endured this for over a day!!

Once every two minutes, this more than a day had subjected him to nearly a thousand such noisy and chaotic experiences!!

"Shopkeeper, do you know who you're messing with?"

"...Sorry, I've encountered some things recently, and my emotions are a bit unstable. Don't hit me if you're unhappy?" Pressing his temples, Jiu Ming let out a long sigh, and suddenly changed his tone, "If there's nothing else, hurry up and leave, lest something happens later."

The Curiosity Demon was no exception. Jiu Ming's kind warning instead made her stay, and she even sat directly next to Jiu Ming. Ten seconds left.

As she got closer to Jiu Ming, Yakumo Yukari could feel his current abnormal state even more. His entire Soul Body was violently agitated, giving her a very strange feeling. Unfortunately, time was too short. Before she could figure anything out, a noisy and chaotic sensation made Yakumo Yukari's expression change slightly.

This is... she felt the timeline of her own body instantly extend...

"You, this?"

After that noisy and chaotic feeling, the same one Jiu Ming experienced, passed, Yakumo Yukari, who was sitting, was now standing. The surrounding furniture also seemed to have been swept by something, in disarray. Jiu Ming's Soul Body had also become much more transparent.

"Hoo... there's one minute now. If you're okay, you should leave first?" Letting out a breath, Jiu Ming felt that more content had been added to his blurry memories. It was added because Yakumo Yukari joined, and the direct result was that the gradually clearing memories became blurry again.

This is a disaster!

Yakumo Yukari was stunned. "In my impression, it seems I 'just' fought with you?"

"Huh? You remember? That's good, I'm also a bit strange about my current weakened state." Jiu Ming raised his arm, which was much more transparent.

"Some parts are blurry. The flow of time was too fast just now. Is this what you've been experiencing?" For some reason, Yakumo Yukari didn't explain the detailed process. "Regardless, Shopkeeper, this is my kind warning to you, don't endure it so hard. Even though you are very resilient, you can't withstand the side effects of this kind of experience for much longer."

"If I'm not mistaken, only a part of the area experienced time acceleration. The overall time here has not changed. Therefore, after that experience ends, the time your body has experienced and this place will produce a discrepancy. The impact of this discrepancy will last until you yourself and this place reach a temporal rift."

"You should be glad you're not human."

Her explanation... well, it could be referenced as a side effect of someone's Time Control.

"Can't be immune?"

"Of course not. Unless you have special abilities related to time that can ignore this side effect, or you are strong enough to ignore this temporal compression." After the incident just now, Yakumo Yukari, who was still acting as if nothing happened, smiled slightly and said with a hint of Taunt, "It seems that Shopkeeper, you possess neither."

"Nonsense... I've already experienced it nearly a thousand times..." Jiu Ming, naturally displeased at being underestimated, dug out that surviving Little Notebook from the pile of shattered furniture. At the same time, the damaged furniture quickly returned to normal.

"Look, this one character represents five times!" The characters were not large, but several pages were filled with dense tally marks.

"I underestimated you." Yakumo Yukari narrowed her eyes slightly, a hint of surprise in her voice, as if waiting for something. "Your spirit is commendable... but you're courting death. No wonder I felt the Shopkeeper was only 'a little bit' stronger. The time has come."

Having returned to normal, Jiu Ming's weakness had vanished. Within that period of abnormally accelerated time, he had recovered. However, in Yakumo Yukari's eyes, even though Jiu Ming had returned to normal, the fluctuations of his Soul Body had intensified once more. The pressure from two different time flows had inflicted severe damage upon him.

Even though he had 'ample' time to recover in those extremely accelerated environments, there was always a small residual accumulation. When this accumulation grew, it would be like a hidden injury. Once it erupted, Jiu Ming would have to pray whether he would die repeatedly or have his soul scattered.

And he himself didn't seem to realize the seriousness of this problem.

"I say, you don't have to come along with me like this, do you?" Jiu Ming rubbed his head. The memories from that period of abnormal time had become a little more blurred again.

"Heh heh, Shopkeeper, I was planning to kindly help you deal with the source of this matter." This time, Yakumo Yukari looked at her palm with a hint of daze. A few small cracks appeared on her slightly sharp fingernails.

"Nonsense, you clearly intended to kill them all... Huh? Whoa, you stayed here intending to do that?" Jiu Ming blurted out instinctively, and a bit of his blurred memory suddenly became clearer.

"I am a youkai. Isn't it normal for me to kill and eat people? That little girl named Nagato Yuki is not simple." As she spoke, Yakumo Yukari, who had been sitting beside Jiu Ming, stood up. "I'm feeling a bit bored. If this continues... you will die! You should have a way to leave here. Do you want to come to my place as a guest? It's been a long time since I've had an outsider visit."

"I still have an appointment to keep. Next time." Jiu Ming shook his head. He had considered leaving the Mysterious Shop temporarily to avoid this.

"With those humans!?" A hint of ferocity flashed in Yakumo Yukari's eyes. "Forget it! I hope you're still alive the next time I see you!"

"Speaking of which, it's a bit strange." Jiu Ming tapped his head. If he had spent a long time in those abnormally accelerated environments each time, the accumulated memories should have been vast. Yet, he found that the accumulation of his blurred memories was... very slow!

It seemed... the repeated parts weren't accumulating.

Honestly, right now, Jiu Ming just wanted to get out of here and find a place to sleep soundly!!

Even though he didn't feel much fatigue now, Yakumo Yukari's warning made Jiu Ming very concerned. If this continued, he would die?

"Damn it, once I figure out that unclear part of my memory, I'll find a way to visit her world... and see what kind of anomaly has occurred!!"

Without external interference, even though those blurred memories were slowly increasing, the previously stagnant blurred parts were gradually becoming clearer. However, these clearer memories disappointed Jiu Ming. They were completely mundane conversations!

Experiences like playing at the swimming pool, attending the Obon festival, or catching cicadas... What was all this? For these memories to deepen his blurred recollections to such an extent, it was clear that such interactions had been repeated countless times during that endless 'time anomaly' phase.

Besides that, there was Nagato Yuki, who appeared increasingly lonely.

To obtain memories this clear, more than three days had passed, bringing the total time to about five days.

"If this continues, I might really die...?" Looking at his palm, Jiu Ming faintly saw small, gray 'gas' slowly dissipating from it. This process was closely linked to the scattering of one's soul. Recalling those gradually deepening memories, it didn't feel worth it!!!

All for some trivial, everyday conversations!

Thinking of the deepest impression in his memory, the increasingly lonely Petite Figure, "Sigh..."

With a long sigh, unable to make sense of it, Jiu Ming rubbed his forehead. The gray 'gas' slowly dissipating from his body made him agitated. However, it was time again.

This time, Jiu Ming found a sticky note. This mode seemed different from the last one.

Jiu Ming picked up the sticky note and glanced at it. His face immediately darkened. This was left by Yuki, but the content...

'Thank you for your persistent companionship. Your condition is dangerous. Please temporarily leave this vortex...'

"I can't sort it out. If only the remaining vague memories could become clear." Shaking his head, Jiu Ming put away the sticky note. Vortex?

If he wanted to leave, it was simple. He should be fine as long as he temporarily left the Mysterious Shop.

However, doing so always gave him a sense of irresponsibility. But if he continued like this... he really seemed to be going to die!

The dissipation speed of his Soul Body had increased by an imperceptibly small amount. As for those High-Energy Crystals?

They had already turned into a pile of powder two days ago. It was simply brutal.

Jiu Ming himself found it incredible that he could persist for so long, but he was nearing his limit.

"I can't go on like this. Otherwise, if I continue to be passive like this, I'll really get myself into trouble!!" Jiu Ming rubbed his face vigorously, cheered himself up, and then stood up abruptly. Kneeling down inexplicably was too demeaning. He had to figure this out!!

He would go to her world and figure out what Suzumiya Haruhi was up to that caused this to happen! Even if it happened, she shouldn't drag him down!

Jiu Ming no longer held any hope of figuring out the entire matter based on the vague memories. It was simply a vicious cycle. Every time, a little new vague memory would appear. By the time the earlier vague memories were sorted out, an unknown amount would have been added later. This endless cycle was going to kill him!

Instead of passively accepting it, it was better to take the initiative and figure out the matter directly, breaking this vicious cycle. Thinking about it this way, his previous actions were truly stupid!? Forget it, forget it. He would just consider it a special training. He had indeed become much stronger and more resilient because of it.