Chapter Text
“…ne-chan…”
…
“Nene-chan…”
“Mmmm…”
“…”
grumble
“NENE-CHAN!!”
“WAHH!”
Nene’s eyes immediately shoot open. She lifts her head up off the ground, looking around at her surroundings. She notices that she’s still laying down, but she’s no longer anchored to a hospital bed anymore. She seems to be laying down in… a patch of grass.
“H-Huh?”
Nene slowly sits up from her position and looks around. She has no idea what the hell is going on or where she is. She slowly rubs her eyes to try and get a clearer look at where she is. Once she reopens her eyes…
“NENE-CHAN!”
Nene suddenly feels something tackle her, causing her to fall back down onto the ground. She closes her eyes as her head makes impact with the ground.
As she opens her eyes, she’s greeted by a bundle of pink hair. And it’s a bundle of pink hair she’s all too familiar with.
“E-Emu?”
Emu didn’t respond to this. She just continues to squeeze and nuzzle Nene. Eventually, she lifts her head up and looks at Nene with sparkles in her eyes.
“You’re awake, Nene-chan!”
Nene looks at her with a confused look, “Uhh… I am?”
“Well, your eyes are open, right?”
Nene blinks for a bit, “Well, yeah. They’re open.”
Emu flashes a huge smile, “Then that means that Nene-chan is awake!”
“Uhh,” Nene responds, “Y-Yeah…”
Emu rolls off of Nene and onto the grass, before sitting up and staring out at the horizon. Nene slowly sits up from her position and looks out to where Emu is staring.
Emu lets out a gentle sigh, “Isn’t this view beautiful?”
Nene crosses her legs together and places her hands on her lap, “Y-Yeah, it’s… very nice…”
Emu lightly giggles, before turning her head towards Nene, “I’m very glad I’m able to share this moment with you, Nene-chan…”
Nene looks over at Emu. Her eyes were sparkling and her grin reached across her face. She couldn’t help but smile back.
“Me too, Emu… Me too…”
Emu giggles once again, before turning around and facing towards the view again. Nene looks back at the view, as well. She has calmed down a bit , but she still couldn’t help but wonder where the hell she was. Isn’t she still in the hospital? She couldn’t help but wonder.
After a couple of moments, Emu suddenly stands up quickly, causing Nene to flinch back. Emu turns her body to face her and holds her hand out.
“Come on, Nene-chan!” Emu said, still smiling widely, “Let’s go have fun!”
Nene looks at Emu for a little while. She still has no idea what she’s doing or where she is right now, so she’s a little unsettled at the current moment. However, having the ability to look at Emu’s bubbly personality and shining smile, she couldn’t help but smile back. She reached over for Emu’s hand and grabbed onto it softly.
“Alright, Emu,” Nene responds, “Where do you wanna go hang out then?”
Emu thinks about it for a while, before snapping her fingers, “I don’t know!”
Nene looks at Emu, even more confused, “You… don’t know?”
Emu shakes her head quickly, “Nope! But I know that as long as I’m with Nene-chan, everything will be fun!”
Nene sighs, before giggling quietly.
Silly Emu…
“Why don’t we just walk around together then?”
Emu’s eyes start to sparkle, “Ohhh! You’re right, Nene-chan! We should do that!”
“I would like that,” Nene responds, a soft smile continuing to form on her face.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Emu yells, before yanking Nene forward, causing her to yelp quietly. “Let’s go, Nene-chan!”
“A-Alright, Emu,” Nene responds, “Just take it slow for now. I still have to get used to this again.”
Emu giggles, but nods in understanding, and the two of them start heading down the grassy hills to see where the journey takes them. Nene still has no idea what the hell is happening right now, but she has to admit, having the ability to see her girlfriend happy and shining in her space is one of the greatest things she’s ever gotten to experience.
Eventually, Emu stops in place, causing Nene to stop right next to her. Nene looks over at Emu’s face, which was not as bright or happy as the energy Emu was supposedly emitting from her, which starts to worry Nene.
“U-Uhm…” Nene says, waving a hand in front of Emu, “You alright?”
No answer comes out of Emu.
“Earth to…Earth to Emu?”
Once again, no answer comes out of Emu. This starts to worry Nene. Why is she not responding to her?
Then, all of a sudden, Emu suddenly shakes her head. This causes Nene to flinch back slightly.
“WHUH?”
Nene continues to stare at Emu, “E-Emu?!”
Emu looks over at Nene, before smiling, “Hi, Nene-chan!”
Nene’s facial expression changes from one of confusion to one of dumbfoundedness. Her eyes start to the left and right for a bit, before honing on Emu.
“Uhhh…Hi?”
Emu continues to smile widely at Nene, “What do you want to do today?”
“Uhhh…”
Okay, now Nene is REALLY confused. Did Emu just…forget everything suddenly?
“Did you…forget?”
Emu looks at Nene and tilts her head in confusion, “Forget what?”
“About our…plan?”
“We had a plan?”
“Uh,” Nene responds, now starting to worry for a bit, “Y-Yeah? We were just going to…hang out?”
Emu’s eyes widen, “OH! RIGHT! IT WAS TIME TO HANG OUT WITH NENE-CHAN!”
Nene lets out a sigh, but she has no idea if it was out of relief or some form of disappointment. Nevertheless, Emu continues to yank Nene in a random direction and starts on their…new…journey.
Now Nene is…feeling some sort of uncomfortable feeling. At first she has no idea what’s going on. Now, she…still has no idea what’s going on, but now she’s worried about Emu as well.
What is going on here? Am I stuck in a time loop?
She can’t help but feel there’s something wrong with the world she’s in. There’s no way she can be experiencing this, considering she’s…in the hospital.
Am I even…awake?
…
*WHACK*
“WAH!”
As Nene was thinking about this, she suddenly flinches and stops as she sees Emu fly forward and tumble onto the ground. After a bit, Emu stops rolling and lands on her face on the ground. Nene immediately runs up to Emu and kneels down next to her.
“E-Emu! A-Are you okay?”
Emu doesn’t respond to anything Nene says. She just lays there, face flat on the ground. Eventually, Emu’s head begins to twitch, and she begins to push her hands off the ground and slowly lifts her head up. Once Nene gets a good look at what Emu looks like, a sudden wave of horrible memories start to overflow her mind. Tears start to form in Nene’s eyes.
After a while, however, she suddenly hears a voice…
“Hello, Nene…”
Nene flinches at the sound of the voice. She stands up from her kneeling position and looks around her.
“H-Huh?! Who’s there?!”
Silence filled the area for a while, before suddenly, the voice came back.
“Can you really not tell?”
Nene looks up, a confused look plastered onto her face.
“Uhhh…,” she responds, “N-No?”
“Ahhh, what a bummer…”
“S-So, with that being said,” Nene says, “W-Who are you?”
Silence once again filled the air. The voice suddenly stopped answering Nene. Nene looks around the area, wondering if there was any figure that the voice was coming from.
After a couple of seconds, however, she suddenly feels a strong gust of wind coming from behind her. Nene almost topples over, but she turns around and stands as firm as she can, before lifting both of her arms in front of her face and blocking the wind.
Suddenly, the winds stopped blowing around her. Nene slowly opens up her eyes and lowers her arms. She stands up straight and looks around, wondering where that wind was coming from.
Then, without any warning, Nene feels something kick her in the back
“AHH!”
Nene falls down face first into the grassy ground. She slowly moves her arms around, before placing her palms flat on the ground. She then begins to slowly push her body off the ground and lifts her head. She slowly shakes her head to try and get any dirt stuck in her eyes, before slowly opening them up and looking around the area.
“Get up.”
Suddenly, a voice called out to Nene, causing Nene to look around with a confused look on her face. Who was talking there? It didn’t sound like Emu, which means it’s gotta be someone else.
As she was thinking this, however, without warning, another swift kick was delivered right in the back of Nene’s head, causing her to faceplant onto the ground.
“I said get up.”
Nene slowly lifts her head off the ground a second time, before pushing her body off and slowly steadying herself on her knees. After that, she slowly stands up and pats her clothes to get all the dirt and grass off of them.
Once she finishes that, she turns around to see who was talking. However, it was not at all what she was thinking it would be.
There, behind her, was a bunch of cloud-like substances all mushed and combined together. Nene’s eyes widen, as the clouds start floating towards her.
“W-Who…” Nene starts talking, “W-Who… are you?”
The clouds stop moving and hover right in front of her face.
“I want you to think about that question.”
Nene tilts her head slightly and looks up at the clouds. Suddenly, the clouds start to form a sort of…human-like shape…
“Do you really not know who I am?”
Nene squints her eyes, before shaking her head, “I-I… can’t say for certain…”
The clouds stand there for a while. Then, after a while, it bends down and picks Nene up by the collar, holding her up in the air.
“I want you to think about that, then.”
After that question, the clouds start to float up quickly into the air, while continuing to hold Nene by her collar. Once Nene felt her feet leave the ground, a sudden chill ran through her body.
“W-What are you doing?”
“Forcing you to think about the answer to that question.”
“Huh?”
“If you don’t find the answer, the ground below will find you.”
“WH-HUH?!”
Nene slowly looks down to catch a glance below her. Her eyes widen as she realizes that she is now thousands of feet in the air. Realizing this, she starts to panic, breathing heavily and hugging herself tight.”
A quiet hum is heard from the clouded figure.
“You seem like you don’t want to be two thousand feet off the ground.”
“WELL, I DON’T THINK ANYONE LIKES BEING FORCED UP HERE AGAINST THEIR OWN WILL?”
The clouded figure performs a motion that is similar to shoulders shrugging.
“Hmm. Well then you have two ways to get back down. Either you find the answer and I’ll bring you back down, or you don’t and I drop you from this height.”
The anxiety level inside Nene’s body immediately skyrockets, causing Nene to start breathing even more heavily.
“H-How am I supposed to find the answer to this stupid question?! I don’t even know where the fuck I am NOW!!”
The clouded figure makes another motion that’s similar to someone nodding their head.
“You’re getting somewhere.”
Nene looks over at the clouded figure with a slightly confused look on her face, “Wh-What… do you mean by that?”
“You say you don’t know where the fuck you are?”
“Uhm…Y-Yeah?”
“And you’re saying this…despite asking before if you were awake?”
“ What do you-“
Nene’s eyes slowly widen. A realization just passed through her mind.
How the hell did I forget the fact that this is not even real?
“That’s right,” Nene comments, “I’m not actually awake. This is all just…happening in my mind. It’s all just…a dream.”
“Fantastic observation there. They should hire you for detective work.”
“You know, your sarcastic comments aren't going to help out this situation.”
“It’s not hurting it, either. That’s why I’m making them.”
Nene opens her mouth, but shakes her head and lets out a sigh. It was at that moment that she just remembered that she’s beefing with a bunch of clouds.
“So, if this is all a dream,” Nene questions, “Does that mean that you don’t exist?”
“I do. Just only in your mind.”
“R-Right…”
“You’re still in the hospital back in the real world. I doubt you'd be dreaming about also being in the hospital.”
“Y-Yeah, I guess that-“
Wait.
Nene stops talking for a bit, then looks straight at the clouded figure.
“How… do you know that I’m in the hospital?”
“You think something in your mind wouldn’t know something like that?”
“I…guess?”
“But that should still narrow down my identity. Who currently knows you’re in the hospital?”
Nene looks over at the clouded figure with a confused look on her face.
“Who knows about it?”
The clouded figure makes a movement that resembles a head nodding. Nene squints her eyes and hesitates to answer, thinking that something was up, and it wasn’t her being 2000 feet in the air. However, she was aware of the fact that she was 2000 feet in the air, and with no other way down, she has no choice but to concede, so she lets out a sigh and answers the question.
“Well, Tsukasa and Rui both know I’m in the hospital. They even visited me earlier today when I was conscious in the real world,” Nene responds.
“Interesting. Is there anyone else that knows?”
Nene’s eyes dart around, “Uhhh, well…I did call Emu a while ago. She never visited but she does know that I’m in the hospital.”
She looks back at the clouded figure, “I believe that’s it, however. I don’t know why you wanted me to list off something like that.”
A hum comes out of the clouded figure, before a motion of a head shaking is seen.
“That’s because you didn’t list everyone that knows.”
Nene tilts her head in confusion, “I-It’s…not?”
“Think about it harder. Who knows about it?”
Okay, now Nene is REALLY confused about this whole ordeal. Who else would know about it? She listed Emu off. She listed Rui off. She listed Tsukasa off. That’s all she can really think about in her mind.
...
Wait.
All I can think about in my mind...
My...mind...
...
Nene looks over at the clouded figure, before a horrified look appears on her face.
“Are you...me?”
The clouded figure hums, before suddenly, wind gusts start to emerge from it. It starts swirling around Nene, and she watches on in confusion and horror.
Then, suddenly, the wind gusts stop. Nene feels herself being lowered to the ground slowly. The clouds start to shrink and a figure begins to shine in the middle.
Once Nene feels her feet land on the ground, she feels the figure let go of her. The clouds begin to shine. They begin to sparkle. They begin to glow too bright for Nene’s eyes. Which is surprising considering she stares at a screen for an extended period of time for gaming. Nene starts to cover her eyes with her arms, due to her being at risk of going blind.
Then, the light suddenly fades. Nene slowly opens her eyes and lowers her arms. And what she saw standing in front of her was something that she couldn’t believe she was seeing.
It was her.
She was standing in front of herself.
Nene doesn’t have the words to express how extremely disturbing this whole situation is.
“Y-Y-You’re...”
The other Nene starts to slowly walk closer to her, light shining behind her like she was some sort of goddess.
“Y-Y-Y-Y-You...That’s...”
“Take your time,” the other Nene responds, shrugging her shoulders, “But I do hope you don’t waste it on stuttering.”
Nene rubs her eyes with her hands, before staring out at...well...herself...
“WHAT?!”
“Situation finally grabbing hold of you?”
Nene’s look of bewilderment only worsened as she realized that she’s literally talking to herself.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!”
“Maybe I’ll tell you if you calm down,” the other Nene responded, putting her hands in her pockets.
Nene still doesn’t know what to make of this whole situation, but she does decide to calm down and try to breathe steadily.
After a minute, she feels like she’s got a steady pace of breathing. So, she looks over at the other Nene, looking a bit desperate for the answer of what’s going on.
“So,” Nene says, “What’s going on? Why am I here? Why are you me?”
The other Nene turns around and stares off into the open sky.
“Well, that last question is pretty obvious,” the other Nene responds, “I’m you because we’re in your mind. Who else would I have been?”
“But,” Nene starts talking, “You’re acting like you own the place? Like you’re a goddess running a city and making sure like...everything is okay and like...in place?”
The other Nene looks over at her, “I mean. I’m you. And we’re in YOUR mind. Naturally, the person in charge would be yourself. Or in this case, me.”
Nene puts both of her hands on top of her head, “I really need to get more sleep. I might be going insane again.”
The other Nene simply just chuckles at Nene’s attempts to stay sane in this whole situation.
“This is kinda funny to watch.”
The other Nene faces towards Nene and walks towards her.
“Anyways, the reason you’re here is also quite obvious.”
Nene slowly looks up at the other Nene, “Wh-What do you mean?”
“You’re here because you can’t STAND being in the real world. There’s so much shit going on outside of life that you just want to get out of reality and go somewhere not filled with all of that.”
Nene hesitates to answer for a bit, but eventually, she nods her head in agreement, “I…guess you’re right…”
“Like, that whole Emu situation. What does it make you feel like?”
Nene slowly hugs herself with her arms, “Well…it makes me feel…useless…”
“Mhm. What else?”
“Uhm,” Nene continues, “It makes me feel…anxious…”
The other Nene tilts her head, “And why is that?”
Nene hesitates to answer for a bit, but eventually, she sighs.
“When we were first confronted by those bullies, they took…Emu away, and I didn’t do anything to try and help or stop the bullies.”
“Mmm…”
“And then when I heard that Honami had to swoop in and save Emu, it just made me feel even more useless and it’s making me think that…think…that…”
Nene suddenly stops talking straight and starts stuttering. The other Nene tilts her head in confusion.
“Think that?”
Nene takes a deep breath, before looking up at the other Nene, “It makes me think that…Emu’s going to leave me for Honami.”
“Ahh, I see.”
The other Nene starts walking towards Nene, before placing her hand on Nene’s chin and pushing it up to look at her.
“Do you want to stay like this?”
Nene tilts her head in confusion, “What do you mean?”
The other Nene stays silent for a little bit, before its eyes start squinting at her in a bit of an angry expression.
“Do you want to be completely and utterly useless?”
Nene’s eyes widen, before she steps back in disbelief.
“Wh-What?”
“Think about it. You saw Emu get taken away. You SAW her get taken by those bullies. And yet, all you did was watch?! You really let your girlfriend get taken away from you. Pathetic.”
Nene starts to squint in annoyance. She shakes her head.
“What are you talking about?!”
“I’m just stating the truth. It doesn’t seem like you and Emu are going to have that great of a relationship after this whole ordeal.”
Oh, that really started to grind Nene’s gears. She clenches her fists and places them firmly on her hips.
“What gives you the authority to judge my relationship with Emu?!”
The other Nene looks at her in disbelief. She leans forward and crosses her arms in front of her chest.
“Motherfuckin- I AM YOU?! I COME FROM YOUR MIND?! I’M THE LITERAL EMBODIMENT OF YOUR THOUGHTS?!”
Nene scoffs and rolls her eyes, “Yeah, sure whatever. I doubt my thoughts are THIS unbearable to handle. I would never think that Emu and I are going to break up.”
The other Nene raises her eyebrows, before stepping closer to Nene. The two Nenes stare at each other with anger on their faces.
“Then, tell me something,” the other Nene states, “If you really DO care about Emu, why didn’t you save her a couple of minutes ago when you saw her get knocked over?”
“I-“
Nene opens her mouth and holds her hand up to answer back, but her eyes immediately widen and her hand freezes in place.
Holy shit, I…I never checked on her…
“See? You never checked on her, have you?”
Nene looks over at the other Nene surprised, “H-How did you read what I was thinking?!”
“You seem to forget that I’m literally you in your mind right now. Maybe you should take some time to rethink how all of this works.”
Nene sighs, before looking around the area, trying her best to look for Emu, a worried look appearing on her face.
She’s got to be around here somewhere…She has to be…
Nene can feel tears starting to form in her eyes. Was she really…a bad girlfriend? Was she not worthy to take care of Emu? Nene thought about these for a moment…
*WHACK*
… before she feels another swift kick towards her back, causing her to yelp and fall forward onto her face again.
“Now you’re finally seeing how worthless you are…”
Nene lifts her head off the ground, shaking all the dirt out of her hair, before turning to look at the other Nene, miffed.
“You really are just trying to aggravate me as much as possible, are you?”
The other Nene shrugs, before putting her hands in her pockets.
“It’s fun. The more you get angry, the more you know that I’m speaking the truth. It’s just the nature of things.”
Nene grips onto the ground in anger, digging her fingers in the dirt. She starts to breathe heavily in anger.
“But at the same time, it’s kind of tiring to see the same reaction coming out of you. I’m hoping there’s a change, but it’s clear that’s not happening. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Nene pushes herself off the ground, first getting on her knees. She continues to look down at the ground.
“Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it. Which if you think about it is really sad. Your own thoughts can’t help how worthless you are? It’s honestly-“
*whack*
The other Nene stops talking abruptly, after she feels something hit the side of her face. She closes her eyes as something makes an impact with her left cheek. She lifts up her left hand and rubs her cheek, before looking down at her hand. It seemed to be a bunch of grass and dirt that smacked her face. She looks over at Nene, who’s clenching her fists and glaring at her angrily.
“Shut the fuck up,” Nene growls, “You have no right to beat me down about all of this.”
Nene reels in her right hand and chucks another chunk of dirt at the other Nene, hitting her right in the face. The other Nene stands still for a bit, before lifting up her right hand and wiping all the dirt off of her face. Nene starts breathing heavily and angrily.
The other Nene doesn’t say anything, but glares back at Nene. She starts walking up to Nene, before standing inches away from her face. The two of them glare at each other for a while.
“I’m…” Nene starts, “I’m not scared of you…”
The other Nene continues to glare at her, before slowly closing its eyes and turning away from her.
“I understand now,” the other Nene says, “You’re not scared of me.”
The other Nene lifts up her leg to start walking away. This causes Nene to stop clenching her fists and try and calm down.
Unfortunately for her, this is exactly what the other Nene wanted. It immediately turned around and grabbed Nene by the neck, holding onto it tight.
“WAH!”
Nene tries to claw herself and break free from the grasp of the other Nene, but its grip is way too tight to break out of easily. Her neck starts to grow purple, and her face starts to turn red due to the lack of oxygen.
“You’re mortified.”
The other Nene hovers above the ground, bringing Nene up with her. Once they were about 20 feet in the air, the other Nene spins in place and throws Nene straight into the ground, causing her body to fall and roll across the surface. Once she stops, Nene looks up quickly from her position to look for the other Nene. She was right. She’s mortified of this being. She just didn’t want to admit it.
As she was looking, she felt something grab onto her legs. She looks behind her to see the other Nene grabbing onto her while glaring. Without warning, she starts to drag her across the floor, causing Nene to scream in more pain, before picking her up and slamming her into the ground in front of her.
“AH!”
“You really think anything you’ll do will affect me?! I’m you in your own mind! YOU’RE IN MY REALM!!!”
Nene starts coughing up some dirt and minor amounts of blood, before she feels tears starting to form in her eyes. Her body was shaking. She didn’t know what else to do.
So without thinking, she gets up and tries to scurry away in a random direction, hoping that the other Nene wouldn’t be able to find and hurt her again.
Unfortunately, like it stated before, this was its realm. Nene was playing its game.
Nene looked behind her to see if the other Nene was catching up with her. Little did she know, it already beat her to where she was going because, with a swift motion, it kicked Nene right in the stomach, causing her to squeal and bend over in pain.
“The only thing you can’t run away from is your thoughts, dumbass.”
Nene grips onto her arms and holds her stomach in a hug, before falling to her knees. Tears began to pour out of her eyes. The other Nene walks up to her and gently holds Nene’s chin with her left hand. She pushes her head up to have them stare at each other.
“This is who Emu is dating?”
The other Nene pushes Nene to the ground, causing Nene to flop over on her back. Nene tries to push herself back up, however, she feels weak and defeated. As such, she couldn’t push herself back up and was forced to lay down.
The other Nene walks up to her and leans forward.
“How can you protect Emu if you can’t even protect yourself?”
The other Nene begins to hover into the air. As this happened, the wind started to pick up and get stronger. The clouds began to turn gray and combine. It immediately started thundering and pouring rain. Lighting struck from every part of the cloud, hitting everywhere around Nene. But again, Nene couldn’t do anything. All she could do was watch.
The other Nene holds up her right fist into the air. Within moments, three lighting bolts hit the tip of her knuckles. This causes her fist to grow a bright white and yellow color, and miniature lightning bolts emitted from the inside of her hand. It looks down at Nene.
“Don’t worry, buddy. Emu will be safe now,” it says, “Just without you in the picture.”
Nene watches in horror as the other Nene reels her arm back, before launching herself down towards Nene. The other Nene’s fist continued to shine bright and the lightning strikes continued to emit and strengthen as she descended.
“Goodbye, Nene.”
Nene was forced to look up and watch this other Nene approach her at a rapid pace. The closer she got, the more accepting that this was her fate at the moment.
But that’s not stopping her from trying.
As the other Nene approached the ground, Nene took a deep breath in and closed her eyes. The moment she was inches away from her, Nene immediately rolls to the side, causing the other Nene to punch the ground instead, causing an explosion around her, and sending Nene flying away, before rolling on the ground again. She lifts her head up and shakes her head, before looking at the other Nene. The other Nene removes her fist from the ground and rubs with her other hand.
“Oh, so NOW is when you’re accepting that things can change.”
Nene slowly pushes herself off of the ground, before leaning forward and looking down while breathing heavily. She slowly looks back at the other Nene.
“They...” she starts talking, “They will. They always do.”
The other Nene looks at her and takes a deep breath.
“There’s no reason why...things have to stay this way,” Nene continues, “Just because I didn’t help Emu one time...doesn’t mean it’s only going to be that way. It doesn’t mean that things have to continue like this. People can change. I can change. You just have to accept that I do.”
The other Nene sighs, before crossing her arms in front of her chest.
“Nene, I don’t think you understand how severe this situation is.”
Nene tilts her head in confusion, “What is it that I’m not understanding.”
“Yes, things can change. Yes, they can improve over time,” the other Nene starts, “But this is a situation that you don’t want to be in.”
“H-Huh?”
The other Nene takes in a deep breath before sighing again, “Look what happened to Emu. Look at the state of her condition. It’s getting better, but it’s still not an acceptable one. She’s hurt because you couldn’t save her in time.”
“B-But I can change that so it doesn’t happen again!”
“It does not change the fact that you still caused Emu to be in this position. Who else would you blame for this happening to her? Who else was the reason this happened to Emu?”
Nene falls silent, only able to continue to breathe heavily, before looking up at the other Nene and pointing slowly.
“Y-You…You don’t know that…”
“I don’t know that?”
The other Nene steps forward towards Nene, squinting at them in disbelief.
“Nene, YOU don’t know that. The more you tell me that I don’t know that, the more you tell yourself that. Because, again, I am you. I am what you are in your mind.”
Nene opens her mouth to counter, but suddenly, her body starts to shake. She falls onto her knees, staring at the ground.
“N-No…”
The other Nene shakes her head, crossing her arms and closing her eyes.
“I know you want to scream,” she says, “I know it’s boiling inside of you.”
“N-No…No…”
Nene looks down at her hands. Both of them are trembling uncontrollably. She can feel tears starting to form in her eyes. She grips onto her hair, her breathing going from bad to worse. Her vision starts to blur and her mind starts to spin out of control.
She couldn’t do anything to help.
All she could do...was scream...
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
“-AAH!”
Nene shoots up into a sitting position. She starts breathing heavily, and she can feel her body trembling in fear. She takes some time to try and calm down, and she takes in a bunch of deep breaths. As she does this, familiar noises started to play around her.
*beep*
*beep*
*beep*
Nene slowly looks around at her surroundings. Machines circled around her, and wires and tubes connected to her arms and her body. She looks down and sees her wearing a hospital gown and laying down on a hospital bed.
She was back in the hospital in the real world. Normally, this would make her situation worse. But after what Nene experienced in her mind, she would rather be here.
After a bit, Nene finally starts to steady her breathing, and she slowly places her hands to the side of her on the bed. She slowly plops herself back into a laying position on her bed and sighs.
“Man…”
Nene takes a deep breath and slowly closes her eyes.
“Am I really not good enough for Emu?”
Nene opens up her eyes and sadly looks up at the ceiling. Maybe that other Nene was right. She can’t necessarily talk back to it, not only because the other Nene is more powerful, but because it’s like she’s attacking a mirror. No matter what happens, she’s hurting herself. It’s not a situation she wants to be in.
…
“Do you want to keep thinking that way?”
Nene closes her eyes and shakes her head in response. She doesn’t want to feel useless. She doesn’t want to feel unworthy of anything.
“No, I don’t want to keep feeling this way, Rui,” Nene responds, “I don’t want to feel worthless to Emu…”
“Mmm, I understand…”
…
…
…
“WAIT, RUI?!”
Nene shoots up into a sitting position and looks to her left. Sure enough, sitting in the chair next to her was Rui, legs crossed and leaning forward to look at Nene.
He chuckles, “Well, looks like you’re finally awake.”
Nene looks at Rui with a really confused look on her face. Her eyes dart around the room, before looking back at Rui.
“How…did you…get in here?” Nene asks. “Visiting hours should’ve ended like…”, she looks over at the clock on the wall, “…hours ago?”
Rui sits there in silence, but he simply shrugs his shoulders after a while, “Well, they shouldn’t have left your windows unlocked.”
Nene squints at Rui, “Did you…break in?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say breaking in,” Rui responds, “I’d call it arriving without reservation.”
“That’s breaking in.”
“Well, we see things in different lights, I guess,” Rui says, crossing his arms.
Nene opens her mouth to scold Rui, but after what she witnessed in her own mind, she doesn’t have the energy anymore. She’s gone through hell and back in her mind. She decides to just lay back in her hospital bed and let out a defeated sigh. Rui shakes his head and leans back in his chair.
“You don’t know this, Nene,” Rui says, “But Emu’s been really worried about you recently.”
Nene doesn’t turn her body. She just continues to stare up at the ceiling.
“And how would you be aware of that?”
Rui chuckles softly, before taking out his phone, tapping the screen repetitively.
“I wish I could explain it to you,” Rui says.
He hands Nene his phone. Nene looks over to see that the message app on his phone is open and on Emu’s contact.
“But I think it’s better for you to see for yourself.”
Nene looks up at Rui in confusion, before looking back at his phone. She lifts up her left arm and gets ahold of his phone, before looking at the messages.
Emu
RUI
RUI
RUIIIIIIIII
RUIIII
Rui
Yes?
I’m assuming you need something?
Emu
UHM
UHHHH
HOLD ON I FORGOT
Rui
Take your time.
Nene chuckles lightly.
Such a silly cutie…
She continues reading the messages.
Emu
OH OH OH
OH
OH
I REMEMBER NOW
RUI HAVE YOU CHECKED ON NENE-CHAN
Rui
Yes, I’ve been able to check on Nene.
Why do you ask?
Emu
Uhm…
Wait hold on I think I forgot again
OH NEVER MIND I REMEMBER NOW
So basically
Nene-chan called me like earlier today
And we were talking together
Then had to eat dinner so I left
But now I feel bad for how fast I left the call
Rui
Hmm
I see.
Emu
Uhm
I’m kinda scared to talk to Nene-chan because I’m pretty sure that me leaving the call very fast probably made her really sad :(
So uhm I wanted to ask if you could send her a message for me.
Rui
I could.
What do you want me to tell her?
Emu
Uhm
Tell her that
I’m really sorry for leaving her so suddenly
Once I did that I felt really bad for it :(
Tell her that I’m still really worried for her
And that no matter what happens
I still love her a lot!
And the moment I see her again I’m going to shower her in so many hugs and kisses!
Rui
Hmm, alright.
I’ll tell her when I can.
Emu
THANK YOU RUI
UHM I HAVE TO GO NOW SO BYE BYE
Rui
Alright
See you later, Emu.
“E-Emu...”
Nene rereads the conversation over, seeing if everything she read was not a joke and actually real. Once she realizes that it is in fact real, she sighs in relief and tears start to form in her eyes.
Rui leans forward in his chair again, “See? She does care about you still.”
“S-She...does...” Nene responds.
“Please don’t tell yourself that you’re not enough for her,” Rui adds, “She seems to be perfectly content with the way you are.”
He gets up from his chair and places his hand on her shoulder, “She loves you for who you are. Not for what you can be and what you should be. It’s because of you.”
Nene looks up at Rui, tears starting to flow from her eyes.
“Y-Yeah,” Nene says,”You’re...right...”
Rui pats Nene on the head, before turning around and looking out the window. Nene continues to read the messages on his phone.
“I do wonder how Emu’s doing right now, though,” Nene says, “After reading this, I do want to see her again.”
Rui stays silent for a while, not responding to Nene. Then, suddenly, he unlocks the window and opens it, before turning around and looking back at her.
“Then why don’t we see her now?”
Nene’s eyes widen and a look of surprise appears on her face, “Wh-What?!”
“You want to see Emu again, right?” Rui says, “Then why don’t we make our way over there now?”
“B-But...” Nene says, looking at the hospital door before looking back at Rui, “Isn’t this kind of like...illegal?”
Rui shrugs his shoulders, “I’ve seen people do it in movies.”
Nene’s expression transitions from surprise to dumbfoundedness, “Are you serious right now?”
“Look,” Rui adds, “Do you want to see her again, or not?”
“I do want to see her again,” Nene responds, “But I don’t want to be in trouble with any of the hospital staff.”
“Oh, I asked them if you can be dismissed early,” Rui says.
“Did you?” Nene says, raising an eyebrow.
“Of course not,” Rui adds, “But I removed you from all of their records, so they probably won’t remember that you’re here.”
“Oh, that’s illegal as all hell, Rui,” Nene says.
“Well, it’s illegal if they find out,” Rui responds, “Now, come on. Before they put another patient in here thinking it’s empty.”
Nene looks at the hospital door once again, before looking down at Rui’s phone and Emu’s conversation. She did miss her girlfriend a lot, after all.
After a bit of thinking, Nene sighs, before throwing off her hospital blanket, as well as all the wires connected to her body. She doubts that those wires were doing anything anyway. She throws her legs off of her bed and pushes herself off. A smirk appears on Rui’s face once Nene walks up to the window.
“You ready?”
Nene shrugs her shoulders, “I guess as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Well, go on,” Rui says, “Ladies first.”
Nene takes in a deep breath before sighing and climbing onto the windowsill. She crawls up to the window and turns around, letting her legs out first. Once she’s far enough, she slips out of the window and onto the ground. Rui follows behind her, landing next to her. He looks over and signals her to follow him.
“Where are we going?” Nene asks.
“Well, we can’t really take public transportation,” Rui responds, “People will probably be very suspicious of you wearing a hospital gown.”
“Right. So what then?”
“Well, I had to take matters into my own hands,” Rui says, “So I want to show you something. It’s just around this corner.”
Rui stops at one of the corners of the hospital, before turning to look at Nene and signaling her to look.
“I would like to introduce what I’ve been working on,” Rui says, “Or rather...reintroduce.”
Nene stops in front of Rui and tilts her head in confusion, “What do you mean reintroduce?”
Rui chuckles, before pointing to his left. Nene looks over at her left in confusion. However, that confusion soon turned into amazement as she saw what was sitting there. Shining in the moonlight was a familiar figure she never thought she would see again, but was always something she would never forget about.
“N-NeneRobo?”
Rui chuckles and pats Nene on the shoulder, “Do you like it?”
Nene looks over at Rui, “B-But I thought we dismantled her long ago.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t rebuild her,” Rui responds, “Plus, dismantling her meant that I can add new features to her. Including super speed, rocket fists, and most importantly, the power of flight.”
Nene looks over at NeneRobo, before running up to it and examining it all over. It still looked the same as it did all that time ago, but a lot more new and advanced. She looks over at Rui, and a big smile appears on her face. She didn’t think she would miss NeneRobo this much, but it turns out that she was wrong.
“How do I fly with her?”
Rui walks up to NeneRobo and pats it on the head. After a while, NeneRobo’s eyes flash and the head turns to look at Rui. This causes Nene to flinch back in surprise.
NeneRobo flails its arms around, “HELLO, RUI.”
Rui chuckles, “Hello, NeneRobo.”
“WHAT SERVICE WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE TODAY?”
Rui holds his hands out in front of him, “Well, before we get to that, there’s something you need to see.” He points over to NeneRobo’s right. This causes NeneRobo to turn around and look in that direction. In that area stood Nene, trying to hold back her tears once again.
NeneRobo stands there staring at Nene for a good while. After a bit, it turns its whole body around to fully face Nene.
“NENE.”
It lifts up its left leg and steps forward, before doing the same thing with its right leg, causing it to walk towards Nene. Once it stops right in front of her, it lifts both of its arms up towards her and walks into her, which is its attempt at giving Nene a hug. Nene reciprocates this feeling and leans her head on top of RoboNene and wraps her arms around its head, tears starting to flow from Nene’s eyes.
“MISSED...NENE...” NeneRobo says.
“Y-Yes, RoboNene,” Nene responds, “I m-missed you, too.”
“NENEROBO WANTS NENE BACK AGAIN.”
Nene nods her head, “I wanted you back, too, NeneRobo. And I’m glad that you’re here again, too.”
After that exchange with Nene and NeneRobo, Rui walks up to the two of them.
“Hey, NeneRobo,” Rui says, “So about the service that we need.”
NeneRobo turns its head over to Rui, “YES?”
“We need to make it over to our college campus,” he adds, “So we need you to fly us over there.”
NeneRobo’s eyes flash, “I UNDERSTAND. I WILL NOW ACTIVATE THE POWER OF FLIGHT.”
NeneRobo looks forward, and the bottom of its legs start to flash. Rui starts to walk forward and grabs ahold of NeneRobo’s left arm. He looks over at Nene.
“You may want to grab onto the arms, Nene,” Rui adds.
Nene nods her head, before grabbing ahold of NeneRobo’s right arm. Once she gripped onto it tight, NeneRobo started to hover above the ground. Nene looks over at Rui, who is counting down with his fingers.
“Three…Two…One…”
Once Rui counted down to One, NeneRobo immediately shot up into the air with thrusters attached to the bottom of its feet. Nene’s eyes widened once she felt herself be thrusted into the air. She closes her air and holds onto NeneRobo for dear life.
“AHHHH!”
Once NeneRobo reaches a certain altitude, it slows its ascent down. Nene slowly opens her eyes after she feels they’re not elevating anymore, and once she gets a glimpse of how high up they are, she immediately closes her eyes again and holds on tight. Rui chuckles.
“Don’t worry, Nene,” he adds, “NeneRobo won’t let go of you. It’s programmed to not drop us.”
Nene’s eyes shoot open and looks at Rui, “I’m just not a fan of heights, Rui.”
“I know, but this is what we need to do to get back to campus without being seen. Plus, it’s for Emu, right?”
Nene looks over at RoboNene, before slowly nodding her head, “Y-Yeah…for Emu…”
“FOR…EMU,” Nene responds, “LET’S GO TO EMU.”
Nene and Rui both look at NeneRobo and nod, and NeneRobo begins its journey heading towards their college campus. As they traverse the skies above the city, Nene takes a deep breath and smiles gently.
Don’t worry, Emu, I’m coming for you again!
“Mmmmmm!”
Emu places her right hand on her face and sighs as she shovels rolls of sushi into her mouth. Honami and Kanade chuckle lightly as they both consume their dinners as well.
“Hehe,” Honami chuckles, “Sounds like someone’s enjoying their dinner to the fullest.”
Kanade continues to slurp on her noodles, before wiping some sauce being caught on her face, “She’s really shoveling all of her food down. There’s gonna be no more left!”
“Nom nom nom nom nom”
Emu doesn’t seem too fazed by the other two’s comments. She just continues to scarf down her dinner as fast as she can. Within moments, she places her chopsticks down and rubs her now full tummy with her left hand.
“Ahhh…” Emu says, sighing in contentment.
Kanade giggles, placing her cup of noodles down on the table beside her, before placing her hands on her thighs and looks at Emu.
“How was it?”
Emu nods her head, “Mhm…It was so good…”
Honami walks up to Emu and gently pats her on the head, “You looked like you really enjoyed it!”
Emu opens her eyes slowly and giggles, “Hehe~”
Honami then turns to Kanade, “How was your dinner, Yoisaki-San?”
“It was good,” Kanade responds, nodding in contentment, “It’s what I usually have for dinner so it’s something I enjoyed.”
Emu tilts her head, “Usually?”
Kanade nods her head, “Yeah. Back when we were in high school, I usually just stayed home and prepared cup noodles.”
“Sometimes I would prepare dinner for Yoisaki-San,” Honami adds, “But even then…she just kinda eats her noodles when she feels like it.”
“Ohhh, I see, I see!” Emu says, nodding her head in response, but then slowly transitions into confusion, “Wait, you prepared dinner for her?”
Kanade awkwardly scratches her cheek with her finger, “Ahh, you don’t remember?”
Emu shakes her head, “I don’t think I do.”
“Mochizuki-San was my house keeper back in high school. Since I was always home alone, I needed help maintaining everything, so Mochizuki-San volunteered to help.”
Honami nods in agreement, “Yeah, that’s how we got to know each other in high school.”
Emu’s eyes start to sparkle a little, “Ohhhhh, that’s so cool! What a unique way to meet one of your friends!”
Kanade chuckles a little dryly, “I don’t know if I would consider the situation…cool. But it did introduce me to Mochizuki-San so I’m very thankful for that.”
“Uhm, Yoisaki-San, you don’t have to call me Mochizuki in front of others anymore. You can just call me Honami.”
Kanade looks at Honami and smiles gently, “Then in that case, you can just call me Kanade. No need for Yoisaki-San.”
“I’ll do that then, Kanade,” Honami says, smiling back.
Kanade giggles, opening her mouth to respond back. However, as she does…
*ring*
*ring*
*ring*
The three of them flinch at the sound of something ringing inside their room. Emu’s head starts darting around the room, wondering where that noise was coming from.
“WAH! WHAT’S THAT?!?!!”
Honami and Kanade look around the room too, before eventually landing their eyes on a phone on the table.
Kanade sighs, “Oh yeah, I forgot that I had that as my ringtone.”
Honami giggles, “How do you forget what your phone alarm sounds like?”
Kanade scratches the back of her head, “I…I never really had a use for my phone, so…I didn’t change my ringtone since there was no need to.”
“Ahh, I see…”
Kanade gets up from her chair and walks over to her phone, picking it up off the table, “Ahh, it’s Mafuyu.”
Kanade swipes up on her phone to accept the call, before putting it to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Kanade? Are you okay?”
“Ahh, Mafuyu. I’m okay, don’t worry.”
“Where are you right now? You haven’t returned to our dorm after your walk.”
“Sorry about that, Mafuyu. I was heading back to our building and I ran into Honami on the way here.”
“Mochizuki? What was she doing out at that time?”
Kanade opens her mouth, but then immediately closes them. She takes the phone away from her ear and covers the mic with her left hand, before turning towards Honami.
Is it okay if I talk about this?, she mouths out. Honami looks over at Emu, looking for her opinion. Emu sits there silently, before nodding slowly. Kanade nods in response and brings the phone back to her ear.
“Uhm…so…when I walked back into the building, I saw Honami carrying Emu on her back and pushing a dolly with drums on it. When I approached her and she turned around, I noticed she was a little…wounded. Well, not a little wounded. A lot wounded.”
Mafuyu sighs on the other end of the phone call. Kanade pauses for a bit to see if Mafuyu would respond in any other way. After a while, Kanade assumes that Mafuyu isn’t going to respond in any way, so she just decides to continue talking.
“So, we got into Honami’s room and we helped Emu settle down onto her bed. When I got a look at how Emu ended up, it was...it was not something I would call a “good condition”...Everywhere on her body was injured in some way...It was horrible...”
No answer came out of Mafuyu’s side of the call. Kanade was a little suspicious of this, but she did know Mafuyu as a rather quiet and contained person, so she just assumed she’s being herself and thinking, so Kanade continued talking.
“When we finally settled down, Honami told me...she told me everything...She told me how these two bullies were just...picking on her and her friends every chance they got...and most of the time...stuff would get physical...I don’t know why, but they don’t deserve it...They’re just...They’re just getting their college life even more screwed up than they ever wanted it to...”
Kanade starts to feel tears form in her eyes. She really cares about her friend’s wellbeing, but she has no way or thought of how to help them at all. All she can do is basically watch from the sidelines, seeing all of her friends getting hurt in horrible ways. She doesn’t know what to do.
What she does know, however, is that Mafuyu has been rather...quiet ever since she started talking about what happened.
“Mafuyu? Are you there?”
No answer came out from Mafuyu’s side of the call. Now Kanade was starting to worry about her even more. Kanade started to panic. She tried to hide her facial expression from Honami and Emu, but with them being the only thing active in this room, it was pretty hard for her to do that.
*knock knock knock*
It wasn’t until those three knocks on the door suddenly caught the attention of all three of them. They all turned to look at the front door.
Honami tilts her head, “Who could be knocking at this time?”
Honami walks over to the door slowly. She puts her ear to the door to see if anyone was there. A faint sound of someone breathing softly confirmed that thought. She reaches over towards the lock on the door and unlocks it, before slowly opening it and peeking her head to the side to see who it is. Once she gets a good view of the person-
“M-Mafuyu??!!?!”
Mafuyu flinches at the sudden sound of Honami’s voice. She places her right index finger over her lips.
“Shhh!” Mafuyu said quietly, “Remember, it’s currently night hours right now. We have to be extra quiet!”
Honami places both of her hands over her lips, “Oh! I forgot,” she whispers, “My bad.”
Mafuyu sighs, before walking into the room slowly. Once she does enter the room, she spots Kanade on the phone and Emu sitting in a chair.
“So...that’s why you weren’t answering on your side of the call,” Kanade commented. Mafuyu responded with a slight nod.
“Once I heard you talking about how people were picking on Honami and her friends again , I had to come over to check how they were doing.”
Mafuyu looks over at Emu, who is sitting quietly on a chair. She walks over and bends her body down slightly.
“How are you feeling, Emu?”
Emu shifts and fidgets in her chair slightly, “U-Uhm...I’ve...I’ve seen better days...but I’m feeling...okay n-now...”
Mafuyu sighs, “What exactly did those bullies do to you?”
“Uhm...I-I...”
Emu continues to hesitate telling Mafuyu what happened. Mafuyu waits a moment, before standing up straight and letting out a big sigh.
“Seems like they’ve done some awful stuff to you,” Mafuyu comments, shaking her head, “You poor thing. You didn’t deserve any of that.”
Mafuyu turns around and looks at Honami and Kanade, “Well, none of you deserve any of this.”
Honami sighs, “It’s rough.”
“I would imagine so,” Mafuyu responds, walking over to Kanade, “How much more do you need to go through until those freaks think it's enough?”
“Apparently not enough to them,” Kanade says, “It sounds like they always find a way to just harass everyone in our friend group.”
Mafuyu shakes her head, “I just don’t understand any of this.”
As the three of them converse about what’s going on with those bullies, Emu continues to sit down and think about what’s going on with Nene. She does feel rather guilty for just leaving Nene’s call, especially because she’s trapped in the hospital. But it feels wrong to just call her again, because there’s a chance that Nene won't forgive her for leaving the call. She just sits there, looking down at her hands on her lap.
“Nene-chan…”
Just the thought of Nene having to fight those bullies is a horrible thought. Especially since they might target her when she’s weak and just getting out of the hospital. Emu loves Nene, so she’s just hoping that she can make it out okay.
“What’s this about Nene?”
Emu’s eyes widen, and she looks up to see Mafuyu kneeling in front of her, looking a little confused. Emu looks around her for a bit, hesitating to answer. However, it seems like she has no way out at this moment. So, she takes a deep breath and looks up at her.
“T-The bullies…” Emu starts off saying, “I’m scared that…they’ll…they’ll go after Nene…”
Mafuyu looks down at Emu’s hands. They’re trembling. She’s terrified of what could happen.
After a couple of moments, Mafuyu nods her head, “Don’t worry…I’ll…I’ll see what I can do.”
Emu looks up at Mafuyu with a surprised look on her face, “Wh-What?”
“M-Mafuyu?” Kanade calls from behind, “What do you mean by that?”
Mafuyu looks back at Kanade and Honami, before standing up and placing her hands on her hips, “I do help volunteer for teachers sometimes. One of them is actually Ichika’s math teacher. I can try to let them know and see what they can do in the situation.”
Honami’s eyes widened, “R-Really? You’d do that?”
Mafuyu shrugs her shoulders, “All I’ve heard these bullies do is cause trouble and it seems like they’re getting away with it freely. I’m gonna try my best to try and put a stop to this. No guarantees, but I’ll try.”
Honami and Kanade stand there in silence, looking at each other in surprise. Mafuyu looks at both of them.
Then, without a warning, Mafuyu feels something tackle her from behind. She turns around to see Emu wrapping her arms around her waist and digging her face into her back.
“Thank you, Mafuyu,” Emu says, “I hope this goes well.”
Mafuyu smiles softly, before turning her body around and wrapping Emu in a big hug in response.
“I’ll try my best, Emu,” Mafuyu responds, “I’m hoping everything turns out okay.”
The four of them stand in silence, Mafuyu and Emu still hugging in the dark room. Honami and Kanade look at each other, calmed down from all the stuff that happened today.
I hope Mafuyu will be able to help us out, Honami thinks. All this bullying is getting tiring, and I would rather not let it fall into my hands.
But for now, all they can do is wait and hope for the best.
Bright blue skies.
White fluffy clouds.
Birds flying above, tweeting in the fresh natural air.
A perfect day to go for a walk.
So that’s what Shiho Hinomori decided to do.
They had no plan where they were going.
They had no idea what they were doing.
However, Shiho decided to go on a walk, so a walk is what Shiho is going to take.
Once Shiho steps out of their apartment building, they immediately take a deep breath of fresh air.
“Ahhh,” Shiho says in a relieved tone. It always feels nice when you take in a huge breath of fresh air on a day as beautiful as this.
Shiho turns to their right to walk down a ramp leading to the front entrance and decides to start their walk towards the city.
They walk wherever the sidewalk leads them to.
After a little while, Shiho ends up a couple of blocks away from the city. The foot traffic started to pick up the closer they got to the city.
Shiho waits at a corner of a sidewalk, waiting for the walk signal to flash. Cars start to drive in front of them, the colors of each car flashing in the bright sunlight. Shiho places their hands in the pockets of their hoodie and waits in place. Once the walk signal flashes, he walks forward and crosses the street.
He looks around for something to do or hang out around the city. There was Spojoy Park if he wanted to get some exercise or waste some time doing something, but he ultimately decided against it. He’s not really in the mood for being active. He is, however, looking for somewhere to waste time at.
“Hmm,” Shiho hums, looking around the area. Eventually, his eyes land on a cafe. He thinks about it for a bit, before shrugging his shoulders.
“May as well,” Shiho adds, “I need time to kill anyways.”
Shiho walks over to the cafe and opens the door. They wait in line and look up at the menu to see what they can snack on. Once they reach the front of the line, they look down at the cashier.
“Hello!” The cashier says with a big smile, “What can I get for you today?”
Shiho shrugs his shoulders and looks at the cashier, “Oh uhm…just one of those chocolate chip muffins.”
“Oh, alright! Just wait there on the side and we’ll get it all sorted out for you!”
“Thanks,” Shiho says, before turning around and standing on the side of the counter. They tap their feet as they wait for their snack, and they turn to look outside the window.
There’s a lot of people out today, Shiho thinks.
“Chocolate chip muffin?” the cashier calls out, causing Shiho to look over at them. He raises his hand.
“Oh, right here.”
Shiho walks over to the counter and retrieves their muffin.
“Hope you enjoy it,” the cashier says, still with a big smile on their face.
“Thanks.”
Shiho walks over to a table by the window before sitting down in one of the chairs. He takes the muffin out of the bag and takes a bite out of it.
It’s sweet, Shiho thinks. I kinda like this.
He takes another bite out and looks out the window, looking at all the people walking past the cafe. Shiho decides to have some fun and tries to describe everyone in their head
Green hoodie…Blue jeans…Red hair…
Light Blue Hair…White T-Shirt…Red Skirt…
Black hair…Grey sweater…Black pants…
“That one reminds me of Ichika,” Shiho comments, taking another bite of their muffin. “I haven’t seen her in a while, though.”
As Shiho watches, he sees a smaller yellow haired girl with pink tipped pigtails approach the black haired girl and grab their hands and jump in front of them.
“That one is like Saki,” Shiho comments once again. He goes to take a bite, before noticing that the two of them are looking at the cafe and approaching it. As Shiho got a better look at the two of them.
“Oh my fucking God.”
They didn’t just look like Ichika and Saki.
They WERE Ichika and Saki.
Shiho looks away from the window and at the wall, hoping they didn’t notice him looking at them through the window. The two girls approach the cafe and open the door. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like they noticed him at the window.
Shiho, however, was not looking forward to potentially seeing them.
Now, I need to find a way out of here…
Shiho takes their muffin and places it in his mouth, before jumping off their seat and pushing their way through the group of people to successfully leave the cafe.
Thankfully, it didn’t look like either of them noticed them leaving. They sigh, before taking the muffin out of their mouth and taking another bite out of it.
Shiho takes a deep breath before walking in another direction, hopefully avoiding the chance of running into those two again.