Chapter Twenty-Eight: Broken

I groaned as I sat up to hit my alarm. Dealing with Misae's situation the night prior had been exhausting, but I had still found it difficult to get to sleep. I had lost track of the day, so I was glad to find out that today was a Saturday, meaning that we would only have half a day of school.

I yawned my way through breakfast, I yawned as I got dressed, and I was still yawning as I opened the door to head to school.

"Good morning, Tomoya!"

That voice was a little too cheery for my liking, and I was about to tell her so until I realized who it was. "Misae…?"

It was Misae…but it wasn't. If I hadn't seen the visions that Shima had given me I might never have recognized her. She wore what looked like the same uniform that she wore when she was a student of Hikarizaka and her hair was down, except for the ponytail she had tied back with a ribbon. It was as though her past self had come to the present.

"Are you ready, sleepyhead?" she giggled?! "Hurry up! We're going to be late!"

"Right," I said, not sure what was going on. "Sorry."

"Hurry up or I'll drag you there!" she exclaimed as she took my arm. My eyes widened as I felt her breasts press against my arm, and I had to fight to beat back my libido. Checklist, Okazaki: Before sex, marriage. Before marriage, proposal. Before proposal, dating. Before dating, figure out what's happened to Misae!

"Okay, okay," I said as I forced my legs to move. "Take it easy on me; I didn't sleep very well last night."

I noticed a definite pause before she released my arm, giving it an affectionate pat. "I'm sorry, Tomoya; I didn't know." She gave me the biggest smile I think I had ever seen from her, and I warmed my heart. "I guess it's okay if we're a little late."

"No no," I said. "I'll be all right. Let's go."

As we hustled I thought about the situation; Misae was walking to school with me in her old school uniform – hey, she even had her bag! – like she was a high-school student. Everything about her looked exactly as I remembered from Shima's visions.

She caught me glancing over at her and smirked. "Like what you see?"

"Well, yeah," I admitted. "But…" How to broach the subject? "…why are you dressed like that?"

Her smile turned impish. "Why am I dressed like this? It's a school day, isn't it?"

"Well yeah, but-"

"Would you prefer I came to school naked?"

"NO!" I yelled before I could catch myself. "I just mean…Why are you going to school?"

Her next words chilled me to the bone: "Why am I going to school?! I'm a student, aren't I?"


The minute we passed though the school gates she latched onto my arm again. "Heehee…"

I smiled and shook my head. If she was doing this to cope with her loss, then maybe the best thing to do was just let her. I had to admit, having her holding my arm was nice. "Having fun there?"

"Mmm-hmm!" she started humming a tune that I didn't recognize, probably from back when she was as student.

I was glad to hear her humming happily, but the overall situation concerned me. Her behavior was quite the contrast to the teary mess I had seen the night prior.

She had basically gone into meltdown after Shima disappeared, crying hysterically in a crumpled heap on the floor, and it took all of us over an hour to get her to settle down enough to drink some tea and go to bed. The girls had to help her get changed, so I had been booted to the hallway while they got her ready. Apparently she had asked for me after she had been tucked into bed, because Tomoyo came out to get me. I went into her room to find her staring at the ceiling and held her hand for a few minutes before gently kissing her on the forehead and wishing her a restful sleep.

Apparently the giggle-storm holding my arm had rested well enough, as she alternated humming and giggling right up to the door to my classroom. I half-expected to part ways with her there, but she followed me right in. "I'm sitting next to you today," she declared.

"Ooookay."

As I took my seat, she gently kicked the leg of the desk where Sunohara's head rested. "Hey," she said. "You're in my seat."

"Ehhhhhhhhh?" my yellow-haired comrade replied as he looked up with bleary eyes; he had probably stayed up until the crack of dawn, as was his usual. "Whuzzat, are we switching seats again?"

"That's right," Misae confirmed. "I'm sitting next to Tomoya." She gestured toward the floor at the back of the room. "You can just….sit over there or something."

"Okay," he said. With that, he collected his books and relocated to the back of the room, laying himself out on the floor, and it wasn't long before he was asleep again.

In the meantime, Misae settled down in Sunohara's old seat. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to focus today with you next to me."

"I'll try not to be a distraction," I said dryly.

"See that you don't, or I'll have to punish you," she said with the second impish grin of the day.

About a minute later Fujibayashi came in, causing me to realize that Sunohara how somehow gotten to school before most of us. Had he been sleeping here since yesterday?

She did a double-take when she saw Misae sitting next to me and looked at me with a puzzled expression. I could only shrug my shoulders in response. After putting her stuff away she approached my seatmate. "Hello. A-Are you a new student?"

"Oh Fujibayashi, you're so silly!" Misae laughed. "You know who I am! Stop kidding around!"

She looked to me with a panicked expression, so I mouthed the words 'Sagara Misae', and her expression changed to one of disbelief. "O-Of course, Sagara-san! O-Of course I was kidding!" she said with a blush. "I'm sorry!"

"Don't worry about it," Misae said, waving a hand.

Fujibayashi glanced cautiously at me before speaking again. "By the way… Did you sleep okay last night? You seemed really upset after Shima…well, vanished."

Misae's words chilled me to the bone for the second time that day: "Shima? Who's that?"