Chapter Text
‘My name is Hitori Gotoh.
I am currently 19 years old, and in my second year of college. Althought quite unfortunately, things have gotten difficult.’
“Thank you once again Hitori!” A woman waved at her, smiling. In which Hitori didn’t even dare to wave back, why would she- no, more frankly. How could she? She was never the type to do things like that.. But more importantly.
Graffiti ridden walls, skatebords, tamogatchi’s, it was all foreign information for her, despite the irony of it being in the past.
Japan’s individualism phase of the mid to late 2000s, it was interesting to say the least. And her, she was in
said phase.
She didn’t know how it happened, but 3 months earlier, she woke up here.
Ever since then she’s been working odd jobs to barely scrape by. And those jobs can only pay so much, she should probably get a real job by now. It’d be easier than going around town searching for flyers looking to find help in cleaning the city. Or scraping bubblegum off of park benches to earn some cash.
But will she? Even before waking up here the only job experience she has is of a live house that doesn’t even exist yet. And even then, she was only able to work because of her friends being beside her in said live house, pushing her to improve her skills. But now—
now she has nobody.
…
So long story short, she was gonna stick to odd jobs, even if it meant having to eat 7-11 sandwhiches for her entire life.
“Hah..” Hitori sighed, sweeping off the dead leaves blocking the sidewalks.
“Alright guys, we should probably get this done before 3:00 PM if we continue with this pace.” A man spoke up, “Let’s take 15, and then after we’ll start cleaning the other side.”
The helpers all huddled up, talking amongst themselves. probably about where they should all get lunch. Hitori doesn’t have a lot of options anyways, since she can only really afford conveniece store foods. So there’s no point in joining them.
Ah, but she should hurry if she doesn’t want to waste her 15 minutes..
“Thank you for your purchase.” The cashier spoke without much enthusiasm, and not that she cared, the only thing in her mind is absolutely destroying this ham and cheese sandwhich, and gulping down her coca-cola with it.
‘Maybe I should treat myself to karaage tonight.’ Hitori thought to herself, happily opening the packaging and chomping down on the bread.
Well.. You might be thinking, ‘Does Hitori have a plan on how to get back?’ ‘What has she been doing for the past 2 months?’ And to that she says.
She does indeed have a plan, and numero uno for that plan to succeed, is to currently survive. After that, she plans on finding a place to sleep, and then after, maybe rent an apartment to live in after getting a stable job… Somehow.
So to sum it all up, she has given up.
‘This cheese tastes funny.’ But can you blame her? getting transported 15 years into the past, with no way of knowing why, how, and what. Nobody could pit her against the reality of that.
And besides, by now, her other self is 4 years old and most probably starting kindergarten next year. And by then, her severe social anxiety will truly take a toll on her, and then that will cause her to be just as miserable now.
‘Oh, the leaves are falling.’ She thought to herself, taking a moment to look at the park across the street. ‘Ah, I should probably prepare for winter.’
“Alright guys let’s all go to our next spot! The faster we move the quicker we can get this done.” She heard the voice shout, quickly finishing whatever was left with her sandwhich, before standing up.
“Let’s see.. Haruki, here.. Hitori.. Here, Nagi, here, alright. You guys are in charge of that spot over there.” He said, pointing to a nearby part of the city with dead leaves scattered all over.
…
“So, why’d you guys decide to join the program?’ She spoke up, raking the leaves together into one big pile. “My name is Haruki by the way.”
“Nagi.” She replied. “Wanted some extra cash for my school funds.”
Before long, Hitori felt eyes burning holes ar the back of her head. What should she say? Should she say something? What can she say?
“I-I’m Hitori..” She muttered meekly, “I-I wanted to, uhm..” Pausing for a moment, before opening her mouth. “I-I wanted to help the city.. A-And achieve world peace.”
…This is it… It was only a matter of time before she would eventually have to face another one of her embarassing momengs… She just didn’t know it would be so soon..
“So righteous..!” Haruki gasped in shock, “I’m here because I also want to earn extra cash, I’m saving up for a laptop you see.”
“Oh? What kind of laptop are you thinking?” Nagi asked,
“Right now I’m thinking something like an HP-blahblahblah.”
Hitori had this talent of tuning out sounds like she was listening to white noise, more of a superpower actually- but that’s not the point, what makes her such a strong worker is that she has the tendency to go on autopilot, while she’s in autopilot she can think about other things likd where she’s gonna sleep tonight, or where she’ll look for jobs tomorrow.
Actually. now that she thinks about it, she saw a flyer asking for some help as a dish washer at a restauraunt, maybe she should go there tomorrow.
“Nice work everyone.” The man spoke up, “We finished a little later than expected, but that’s fine.” He began taking out some envelopes from his bag and said. “As promised, here’s your reward.”
Hitori gently took the envelope from him, before smelling the brown paper container, and finally, opening it to inhale all of her hard work, a fresh wad of cash. About.. 2,000 Yen give or take.. With this she’ll have the luxury of sleeping at a hotel tonight.
Of course, not all days can be as joyful as this one, so she saves a few thousand to have as an emergency fund. (Mostly because she wants to save enough moneu to buy a guitar.) But that can wait for a little while longer.
She walks towards a karaage place she found out about not too long ago, and one that she’s wanted to try for so long, maybe she’d even get the most expensive one, Hehe~ wait, no. She still has the problem of finding a hotel to stay at.
After her search, even getting long a few times.. she finds herself at the place. Outside it looks pretty sketchy, with graffiti painted at the side of the building, but she’s heard good reviews of it. (Mostly from people passing by talking about how crunchy and juicy the food was here.)
Opening the door and surveying the entire restauraunt to find the most optimal seat. And where spots a vacant table near the back of the restauraunt with barely any people nearby. The perfect spot.
Sitting down, she takes a moment to savor this chair. So soft and comfortable, and this table, so.. So..! So woody! And this lamp! So much light emitting from it!
“Hello, what can i get for you today?” She asked, holding a notepad and pen.
‘And these waiters..! So.. Polite..!’
“The best seller you have for karaage please..” Hitori ordered. Smiling as she did so, which was unlikely of her.
“Would that be all?” The waiter asked, writing it down on her notepad. And wherein Hitori promptly nodded.
“Hah..” Hitori sighed in satisfcation after the waiter left, knowing that in minutes from now, she’ll be chowing down on some of her favorite food in the world..
‘Ugh! She pissed me off!’
Nothing can ever make this day any better.
‘How are we gonna play now when we’re down 1 member?’
Maybe she should order some coca-cola too~
‘We’ll figure it out.’
“How?! How are we gonna figure it out Rina when we have 5 days before our next show!” She heard a voice shout,w a familiar voice... Eh?
Poking her head out from her table, she finds the familiar yellow hue and dorito shaped ahoge, isn’t that..
“Manager?” She called out, before closing her mouth and hiding.
“Did you hear that?” Seika asked, looking at the direction where the voice came from.
“You’re going crazy from anger.” Rina joked, before sitting at the table adjacent to Hitori’s.
“But really, if we don’t find a guy to fill-in we’ll get banned, and probably boy-cotted from other live houses..”
“Which won’t happen, because we’ll find one.” Rina spoke, her tone bold and confident.
“God damn it..” Seika sighed into her hands, wherein Rina began talking to the waiter at their table.
“Woah..” Hitori whispered, hiding herself in her menu.
‘It’s Manager-san.. But she looks so.. young..’ Thinking to herself, spying on her from afar. ‘Who is that with her?’
‘Her band member maybe? She did mention being in a band back in her old days..’
“So, how’s your relationship with your Mom going, any chance you’ll go back to living with them before autumn comes?” Rina asked.
“Ah, I don’t know, i’m busy with the band. You know that much, I really wanna make us big.” Seika replied, sighing in frustration. “But she texted me earlier, asking me how I’ve been.”
“Did you reply back?”
“Not yet.. I don’t know what I should text.. We had a big fight when I left.”
“You’ll find the words eventually.” Rina said. “You were never good with expressing emotions, you tsundere.” Rina teased.
“Piss off.” Seika said angrily, flipping her off. Wherein Rina laughed.
‘It’s strange’ Rina thought to herself. “Do you know that girl?” She asked, gesturing to a pink-haired girl adjacent to them.
“No? Why?” Seika replied, looking at where she was pointing.
“She keeps sneaking glances at you, she’s done so for a while now.”
“…” Seika paused, trying to think of what she was going to do next. “Let’s switch tables.” She suggested, standing up and where Rina followed.
…
“Oh, they’re leaving..” Hitori whispered, before panicking. ‘A-Ah.. D-Did I make it too obvious that I was staring…? W-What if they think I’m a creep..’ Hitori thought to herself.
‘S-Should I explain why I was staring? B-But I think that would just make me look more of a psycho..’
“Hey uhm, i’m actually a person 15 years from the future, and i’m in a band with your little sister that’s why i was staring………………,,..” Hitori explained, and shortly thereafter Seika fainted from the shock and exploded.
“…Yeah… Nevermind..” Hitori muttered.
“Here’s your karaage Miss.” A waiter appeared, and placed a plate of freshly fried karaage with a bowl of rice. Oh.. Who cares about that kinda stuff anyways, what’s important is the now..
She took a bite of the fried chicken, and then another, and then another. Until she felt tears streaming sown her cheeks. My god was it amazing. Oh, how pitiful she was for crying, crying for food.
It’s the little things in life that feel good, and the little things in life that feel big when you’ve been eating nothing but 7-11 sandwhiches for a few days.
“Here’s your bill.” Ah, she didn’t ask for the check yet.. But no matter, must just be a restauraunt policy or something.. Let’s see.. 1,350 yen.. Oh, for the quality of the food it was suprisingly cheap, Wonder how they do it.
…
Hitori sighed, lying down on the futon. She found a cheap overnight internet cafe nearby where the karaage place was, the futon wasn’t particularly soft but she can manage, and there was a shower, so it’ll do.
“Mnh.” She groaned, as she knows this short retreat will only last so long, tomorrow she’ll have to check out that place looking for a dishwasher, and probably the day after go back to the local park and scrape off the gum from park benches, or pick up leftover trash.
Hitori felt a wave of sleep wash over her, her eyelids gradually started growing heavy, and her body started relaxing. That can wait until tomorrow however. If she’s gonna be working her butt off tomorrow she should get the best sleep she’s ever had ever since she came here..