Shiratori Haruto

“The next day… when I woke up… somehow… I remembered everything… everything that had happened to me.”

***

The sun was rising on top of the small bricked houses on top of the hilly area of Chizu. The city was shining brightly as it reflected back the yellow hue it received. The narrow houses in the narrow streets, the school building and the wide ground in front of it, the cafés on both sides of the streets which had once been in war against the giant snowy apes—everything lit up in the city.

The sunshine entered the bedroom filled with a set of study table and chair on the right corner of the room just beneath the window filled with books and stationary material scattered around, a wardrobe on the left of the room, and a bed on the right center of the room where I was lying with my back facing the top, my eyes shut, and my right arm on top of my face tilted to my left, my legs spread on the bed beneath. A red clock was kept on the bedside table in between the bed and the door on the other left side of the room. The clock suddenly rose up.

TRIIIIIIIING! TRIIIIIIIING! TRIIIIIIIING!

My eyes opened a little, closed, and then opened again. They then closed again as I moved both my arms beneath my neck, and then pushed down at the soft white bed mattress to rise up. Just as my feet moved back and I sat up on the bed with my feet beneath my butt, I moved both my hands up in front of my face and started to rub my eyes. Just as I was rubbing my eyes, an image of the figure of Itsuki wearing a black shirt on top of a black pair of pants emerged in front of me.

SNAP! BLINK!

I opened my eyes wide.

“… What… What’s happening at Dansamia? And… why am I… here?”

***

Isekai’d

Written by Dhruv Pabreja

***

“When the right time will come…” I remembered the words of my mother.

I was walking down the narrow street tilted up, wearing a white shirt and a grey pair of trousers, with a black bag lying behind my back. My head was tilted down, my hands on the straps of my bag in front of my chest, and my legs moving constantly. “The right time… has come?” I then turned my head to the front. “Well, it… just came in. No prior warning or anything, huh?” I thought as I looked at a group of girls walking some steps in front of me. There were some others who walked at my back, all scattered. Just as we all continued to walk up, the road beneath our feet suddenly turned plain. Just as I stepped onto the horizontal street, I noticed the green fence, the bushes inside, and the wide ground some steps away on our right. I then turned my head a little up, looking at the building of the school at an angle some steps away.

“Now that I have my memories back with me… what am I supposed to do now?”

I remembered the image of Itsuki standing in front of Katsuki, his knees bent and his sword in front of his chest. I then remembered Airi and Ichika drinking with a cup in their hands, their faces smiling as they sat in the middle of men and women enjoying the night on the wooden table of a wooden bar with them. I remembered myself turning to my left, looking at Itsuki sitting right beside me on the table in the lighted dark, surrounded by girls around our age, all having their hands intercrossed as he bragged about himself and the fight, and they replied in awe.

“I… No one will ever believe in it…”

“Well, it’s literally something out of this world. No one… except maybe my mom and Yashiro-senpai… will believe me.”

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

My formal shoes patted on the road as they walked.

***

DING DONG!

The bells of the school rang. The classroom with white marble on the floor and tables and chairs of light coffee brown wood were shining brightly with the light incoming from the windows on our left. The desks were filled with students—boys and girls of the same age—in the same uniform of black pants and white shirts sitting down. A teacher was sitting in the left corner of the room in his dark brown thick wooden table and chair. He stood up, turned to his left, and started to walk toward the exit on the right corner of the room. Everyone stood up in respect as he walked away, entered the corridor, turned to his left, and walked away. We all then sat down in our seats again. I, sitting at the back right corner of the room, sat down too. I then turned my head to my right, looking at the windows and the corridor filled with groups of girls and boys on the other side of the window. I moved my left elbow on top of the table and settled my face on my left hand.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD… THU-THUD.

A figure approached me and turned to me. They were on my left side, with the back of my face facing them. The figure then bowed down as the feminine voice said, “I-I’m sorry, Shiratori-kun.”

I turned my head to the back, looking at the tightly tied black hair of Hina facing me. “You know, I… wasn’t even—”

“Still, I have to apologize.” She then moved her head up. “You know what, I should have never trusted my friends when they said that you were faking it all this time. Like, what if it all really is real?”

“O-Okay,” I said, and then turned my head to the corridor again. “I wanna thank you too.”

“F-For what…”

“Maybe… if you wouldn’t have pressurized me… I wouldn’t have remembered it.”

“You… regained your memories?”