Shiratori Haruto

“You know what, I can’t find anything about this game on Google,” I said as I looked uninterestedly inside my smartphone’s screen and swiped downwards continuously. I was lying on the ground, surrounded by thin and thick bunches of wires going here and there from the TV screen in front of me to the console in front of it and the black controller in Itsuki’s hands.

“Huh? Really?” Itsuki’s figure, sitting on my right, tilted his head towards my hand, and I tilted my phone a little rightwards towards him.

“It’s all about other isekai games or about the console itself. Not even a single picture of this game.”

“Isekai is a genre too. I guess Google is showing results based on the genre rather than the game itself.” Itsuki turned his head to the front at the screen again.

“Lemme search for some more keywords,” I said as I started typing on the phone’s screen with both my thumbs.

“Maybe you’d ask someone about it,” Itsuki suggested.

“All of my brothers and cousins are too small to play games, like the ones we just met.”

“Any friends?”

“Like we have anyone else,” I seriously replied, immersed in the screen.

Itsuki remained silent at my reply. He tilted his head down towards the black controller in his hands on top of his bare crossed feet. Nervously, he stared at the joystick on the left, the ‘START’ and ‘SELECT’ in the middle, and play buttons like A, B, X, Y on his right. He started to rotate the joystick with his left thumb and continuously clicked the buttons on the right. “Y-Yeah…”

I smiled, tilted my head up at him, and said, “Well, we’ll always be together in this, pal.”

***

My eyes opened. I looked at the rotating fan in the front of my eyes on top at the ceiling. Moving my right arm back on the ground and pushing my back up, I looked at the ground. My legs, spread open, were on top of the white mattress. I turned my head up, and looked at the darkness of the room.

“D-Damn…”

***

I walked down the narrow lane which ascended a little upwards. My hands were inside my pockets, my eyes fixed straight at the gate on the right side of the street. On my right side was the ground of the school behind the green fence. A group of three girls walked behind me as they talked. “So, did you watch the show yesterday night?”

“Yeah, and I just… I was just amazed to see Nanako-chan beating those bad guys!”

“Those guys were really creepy, were not they?”

“Yeah. And guess what’s scarier, I…”

Suddenly, in the middle of those conversations, I heard a female voice shouting, “Shiratori-kun!” I tilted my head back and looked at Hina running towards me, her right hand high in the air waving at me as she smiled. She stopped right in front of me as I tilted my head to the front again and we continued to walk together. She tilted her head a little down, her smile fading a little, as she said, “I-I’m sorry I was unable to meet you after school yesterday.”

“Well, it’s fine,” I replied, my eyes still fixed at the front.

She turned her head at me. “You see, my teachers had called me regarding some club activities or something, and…”

“It’s fine,” I repeated.

“Is… Is it really?”

“Oh yeah,” I nodded, turned at her for a second, and then turned my head to the front again. “It’s fine.”

“But… what’s up with you right now?”

“Just something’s bothering me right now. Don’t worry, it’s not because of you.”

“Is it because of y-your memory loss?” She shyly asked.

I turned my head at her, looking seriously into her eyes for a second as we walked, and then turned my head to the front. “Well, can say.”

“You can share every tiny thing with me, Shiratori-kun. I’ll always believe you,” She tilted her eyes a little down.

“Thanks.”

We both continued to walk beside each other on the silent street. PAT-PAT. PAT. PAT-PAT. Our footsteps matched a little and were all around our ears. My dark uninterested eyes were fixed at the front towards the other students walking, their mouths constantly moving up and down, but not taking out a single voice. The girls behind our backs too were gossiping constantly, but not even a single voice reached my ears. Hina had her head tilted a little down as she walked. She turned her head to the right, looking toward my serious face. “S-Shiratori-kun…” She asked. “I… wanted to ask you something…”

“Something…”

“… something…”

The words echoed in my ears. I turned my head at her. “What?”

“What…?”

“… What…?”

“Is… Is it real that you used to be a friend of a killer?”

“Well, we’ll always be together, pal!” I heard my own voice echoing in my ears.

“… Pal!”

“That… was when another change took place in the real world. That… was when Takemura Itsuki… came back to existence in this world again.”

“H-Hello, Yashiro-san, I-I-I’m Takemura Hiroshi, the f-father of I-Itsuki. Y-You were right, s-sir, I-I do have a s-son, and I don’t know h-how, b-but I co-completely forgot a-about his ex-ex-ex-existence…”