"...Y-you really don't recognize me? Didn't we meet last week, in this exact same hospital?!"
One Ren Amamiya furrowed his brow at the 20th question that Kasumi threw his way.
"Uhm, like I said...to the best of my memory, I don't recall ever meeting you or your sister. The accident earlier this afternoon - I simply came along since I was one of the first ones on the scene."
"But-!"
Looking at the very confused man who was trying to answer all of her outrageous questions to the best of his ability, Kasumi slowly sobered up to the reality that he too had very little idea of what was going on. The only difference was, the reason for his confusion was because of her. She felt a little hot upon letting the embarrassment catch up to her actions.
She tried to take a deep breath to stop her hyperventilation. Unfortunately, it did little. She was already confused as hell, but now, she really needed to throw all of her logic out of the window to provide an explanation for this one.
Kasumi had met this person already. This was Ren Amamiya, the stranger that accompanied her when she went to the hospital. Since then, a week had passed; she had gone to Sumire's funeral, left early to hike up a mountain filled with stars, and then foolishly fell off of the mountain, leading to her certain death.
That was what had happened.
...That was what had happened...right?
Because if it didn't, then, to recap, she had somehow switched places with Sumire during the accident, survived an eight story drop, and then as if that wasn't outrageous enough, somehow traveled back a week in time.
...To be honest, things would've been a lot easier if she just got hit by the truck.
Was she dreaming? She had to be dreaming. Or maybe that whole week that she experienced was a dream. She didn't know anymore, but it was the only 'logical' thing she could come up with. Since the accident, it's been like she's been living in one, long nightmare.
"Uhm, miss…"
A voice filled the room after what seemed like an eternity of silence, drawing Kasumi's attention to him after mulling on these crazy thoughts for so long. It was then that she vaguely realized, with the way he addressed her, that in this 'timeline', she hadn't introduced herself yet.
"Oh - right. Sorry for all the confusion. I'm Kasumi Yoshizawa," Kasumi briefly answered.
"Ah, okay - then, Yoshizawa-san," Ren addressed, still staying polite despite all of the questions she pelted him with. "If I may ask, what were those questions about…?"
Kasumi shook her head, and then put a hand to her forehead, as if trying to sort out her memories. "Right. Sorry. I've just had the most surreal sense of dejavu…"
"Dejavu?"
"Y-yeah. Sorry, it's a bit difficult to explain…"
"Hmm…" he trailed off, a little lost in thought.
As if to pick up where he left off, the cat, which he had introduced as Morgana for the second time, popped out of the bag again.
"Meow!"
"A strange phenomenon indeed…" Ren said softly.
'...That was strange. It almost looked as if they were talking to each other…'
"Kasumi!"
But she didn't get to think about that any further, because a familiar scream came through the door.
The next thing she knew, her mom burst into the room, with full on tears on her face.
...Oh right. This happened.
"Kasumi!" Running over to her bed, she felt up her body through the blankets and said the same words she had already heard once before: "Kasumi, are you okay?! Are you hurt?!"
Kasumi just nodded, slightly numb to the whole scene unfolding in the exact same way, with the exact same words.
"...Yeah. I'm fine, Mom. ...I'm fine."
Her mom was a little hesitant given her less than convincing reassurance, but after inspecting her up and down numerous times, she gave a small nod.
"Right...you're okay. Thank goodness… If I had lost both of you I...I…!"
Her mom crumpled to the floor, sobbing into Kasumi's hospital bed at this point.
"Sumire!" she bemoaned. "Sumire, why?!"
The sounds of her mom's cries filled the room.
Ren, still sitting in the chair next to the bed, lamented over the scene sadly.
But this time, no matter how pained her mom looked, grieving over her recently departed sister's death, Kasumi couldn't find it in herself to feel anguish or shock.
...
...It was the same.
That casket at the end of the room, behind the podium where the priest stood.
Everything was the same.
"...And so it is, on this day, that we remember her for her time here on this earth…"
Even the goddamn speech was the same, and that was saying something, considering she could tell, but didn't even pay attention to it the first time.
To her right, her mom was silently weeping into her hands.
...Well, it makes sense. After all, it had only been a week for her since Sumire's passing, and she was hearing this speech for the first time.
Her, on the other hand…
Removed from the incident by two weeks, and the funeral by one - at least from her perspective. Not that she cried at the funeral the first time, but at this point, she had had plenty of time to come to terms with her current situation.
And as a result, the funeral no longer evoked anything out of her. The feelings of grief and guilt - over the past week, they slowly stopped swelling up inside of her.
It may have sounded cold, but that wasn't to say that she was over her sister's death. Not at all. On the contrary, this past week that she relived - it only served to reinforce this one idea that had done nothing but grow since she thought of it.
Kasumi was, by nature, someone who didn't believe in coincidences or dumb luck. That seemed rather obvious, given her personality, after all. Rather than relying on something like luck, she would much rather prefer to seize opportunities with her own hands and carve out a defined future with 100% probability. In other words, a pragmatist.
In a similar notion, then, it shouldn't come as a surprise that she was a non-believer of the surreal. Indeed, she had a lot of trouble just accepting the circumstances around Sumire's death. And this time too, what with her going back a week, she struggled to accept it for what it was.
After all, it was time travel. No way would that idea sit well in Kasumi's head. She would much more readily accept that the first week she experienced was somehow a hallucination or a dream of some sort.
And yet, that same mentality and thought process, ironically enough, slowly led her to believe that she did in fact travel back in time in some capacity.
"...so that she may rest in peace. Amen."
A chorus of people repeated the ending prayer, and with the priest's exit, everyone started to shuffle around, picking up their things and getting ready to leave or greet her family.
She watched everyone, almost robotically, repeat the same things that she had seen them do before.
It was because everything was exactly the same as the 'dream'.
This past week, everyone's actions were the same. Everyone's words were the same. And all the events, from start to finish, were the exact same as the previous week before she fell off the cliff. There's no way that could've been a coincidence, nor could things have turned out exactly the same way if she had simply dreamt it all in her mind.
That could only mean one thing - it wasn't a dream. She had experienced reality. That was what she had concluded. And upon her death, time rewound by a week, where she experienced it again. That was the only way to explain how everything lined up to be the exact same.
Thus, the same personality that initially led her to reject this surreal situation also paradoxically allowed her to accept it. And if she were to accept that, then that would mean only one thing, which had been one of the only things occupying her mind:
There's something more going on that she isn't aware of.
She wasn't sure what, exactly, that was. But if she accepted that she could travel through time, then she also knew that there must have been something more to Sumire's death, and the fact that she somehow switched places with her.
Last week, she was on the verge of accepting Sumire's death. But now, a repeated week later, she decided she couldn't do that yet. Not until she got to the bottom of this supernatural mess.
She looked to her mom, who was busily greeting her family friends in tears, with them consoling her, saying things like "Sumire will be dearly missed".
'...Sorry, Mom,' Kasumi thought. 'I'm not ready to shed tears and accept it. Not quite yet.'
Getting up from her seat, she decided to get some fresh air outside. She excused herself from the procession and walked out the ostentatiously decorated church doors. As if to greet her, a lonely gust of wind blew by, causing her to inadvertently shiver due to her exposed arms.
"Brrr...it's so cold outside…" Kasumi murmured ruefully.
'!'
And when that familiar sensation came back, a sudden realization dawned on her.
'That's right, after this, is…'
Hastily reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone and unlocked the screen, partially blinding her from the sudden, bright light that appeared before her eyes. Still though, she saw the numbers clearly. It was almost 8 PM.
Which meant…
Last time, she fell to her death at 11:20 PM. She was sure of it, because she checked the time right before. And so far, everything that happened this week was the same as 'last' week.
She bit down on her lip with a sudden sense of dread. How could she not have thought about it until now?
She wasn't entirely sure what kind of phenomenon she was experiencing, but...if she was experiencing the same week, and the outcome was still entirely the same…
...Was she going to die in around 3 hours?
Kasumi shook her head violently, her ponytail trailing behind her, rejecting the thought outright.
No, no, no. That can't be right.
In the first place, she didn't even know how this time travel stuff worked. Who was to say she would even go back if she died again…
Besides, that would be assuming she followed the same path as she did last time. In that case, it was simple - she just wouldn't go to see that starry sky atop those mountains. That would be enough of a deviation.
Still though, there was a small unease in her heart. After all, wasn't it really common in time travel stories for specific events to be fated to occur? Like, her death was the will of the universe itself, and if she didn't fall off the mountain, then at 11:20, she'd just spontaneously combust, or something?
...Clearly, she had spent too much time listening to Sumire gush over her favorite fantasy books. She much preferred going outside to play rather than sticking her nose into a book herself, but when her twin was such a bookworm…
But no. The world wasn't a book, nor was it fiction.
"...Although, this isn't exactly what you can call 'reality', either…" she said softly to no-one in particular.
With that feeling of dread still welling up in the pit of her stomach, she turned back around into the church, and found her dad packing up their belongings in the front row.
"Hey Dad," Kasumi said, as she walked up to him. "Do you mind if we go back soon? I...kinda want to go home."
Her dad looked her over with a little worry, but curtly nodded in agreement.
"Yeah - let's get you some rest, Kasumi. Don't push yourself."
He turned around to get his mom, and it was all Kasumi could do but to slowly exhale.
Now, the only thing left for her to do...was wait.
...
Kasumi had always thought this, but why did time have to pass by so slowly only when you didn't want it to?
11:17PM, and 26 seconds. Less than 3 minutes left.
Currently, she was sitting on her bed, back home. It was dark in her room, as she hadn't turned the light on - the only source of illumination was from the moon, trickling in through the window. Either way though, she didn't care about that at the moment. With a clock in her hand, she attentively watched the second hand tick clockwise.
Given how close it was to that fated time, it was perhaps natural to pay such close attention. But for better or for worse, this was pretty much how she had been for a good two out of the three hours since she got home. It wasn't like she had wanted to, given how dull it had been just watching the seconds go by (and indeed, they went by so painfully slowly), but unfortunately, she couldn't find it in her to concentrate on anything else. And so it was that Kasumi found herself reduced to this state, unable to do anything but count down the seconds.
She wondered briefly for a moment, that if indeed the world had decreed her death necessary, how she would die in her current state. Would she, like she thought, burst into flames? Or perhaps, swallowed by the earth? Maybe she wouldn't even experience her death. She'd just disappear.
11:19PM, and 37 seconds. Well regardless, she was about to find out.
And just when the minute hand ticked over…
There was an abrupt knock at the door.
"Eep!"
Given how tense she was, she couldn't help but jump at the sudden noise. Who would even knock this late at night?
She looked back at the clock. ...No way.
Was she going to get...murdered?
All of those thoughts disappeared however, when she heard a familiar voice from the other side.
"Kasumi? Are you still awake?"
It was her dad.
The sudden gap between her tense expectations and the reality before her rendered her shocked and unable to respond.
"...Kasumi?" her dad asked again.
"A-ah, sorry!" Kasumi hastily responded, coming out of her trance. "Yeah, I am. You can come in."
She heard the sound of her door handle rustle, and a slight creak as her door opened inward. Her dad walked in, perfectly normal.
"Oh goodness, it's so dark in here," her dad commented. "Are you alright?"
"Ah, y-yeah," Kasumi tried to say in the most reassuring tone she could muster. "What's up? Why come in so late?"
Her dad furrowed his brow slightly, but continued anyway.
"Nothing that important, but I thought I should bring it up regardless. I wanted to talk for a little about next week."
Under normal circumstances, the term 'next week' would've seemed perfectly ordinary, but with what she had just been through in the previous week, it was so conspicuous that Kasumi instantly got suspicious.
She narrowed her eyes. Did her dad somehow know something about the circumstances…?
"Next...week?" Kasumi said tentatively. "What about it?"
"Right," her dad nodded. "Well, given all that's happened, you can take your time, but you know, next week is the start of the new month. And it'll be Monday in a few days, so..."
"!"
When the realization of what her dad was trying to say hit her, Kasumi visibly facepalmed and groaned.
In all the chaos and confusion that had ensued, she had totally forgotten about it.
Kasumi looked down again at the clock in her hands. 11:23PM. Well - that was that. She had passed the dreadful time, and made it on the other side alive. So there was that, at least.
With a giant exhale, all that built up tension left her body.
That's right. It wasn't death that greeted her in this timeline, but given the situation, it might as well have been.
...High school.
...
"Hey hey, I'm in class 2C. What class did you get put into?"
"Damn, same! Looks like we'll be in the same class again!"
"Ah man, Ushimaru is our homeroom teacher?! I heard he's brutal…"
"Senpai, looking forward to the year with you!"
One Kasumi Yoshizawa walked along the streets of Aoyama-Itchome, where the illustrious Shujin Academy was located. Students all wearing the same uniform passed by, talking excitedly with their friends and peers about the upcoming school year to come.
Meanwhile, she, on the other hand, was walking by herself, with no-one but the air next to her as a companion to talk to.
It wasn't like her, but in that moment, she got oddly...sentimental.
She remembered all the times that her and Sumire would walk to school together. Once upon a time...she was like that as well. She was like all these other students, living a regular student life. If everything had proceeded normally, she would have been an excited high school student, discussing gymnastics, boys, midterms, and everything in between with her twin.
There was no longer a time where that could exist anymore. The incessant chatter around her made her all the more painfully aware of her loneliness and the fact that she herself didn't have anyone to talk to.
And despite the sentimentality, at the same time, she became a little resentful of it all as well.
She wasn't necessarily resentful at the other students themselves. Rather, she was more resentful at the world itself. 'Life moves on, with or without you', it seemed to be telling her. It didn't matter if her world came crumbling down; everyone else was living their own independent life, irregardless of her circumstances.
Because for better or for worse, she hadn't moved on yet. She stubbornly held on to the notion, perhaps even a little foolishly, that there was more to her twin's passing than she could see.
That being said, though…
"Haah…" Kasumi sighed loudly.
...How was she even supposed to look into that? Like, where could she even start? 'Do more research into time travel.' 'Investigate the memory that only she remembers.'
Yeah right. How the hell was she supposed to find more information on stuff like that?
And to top it all off, now she had freaking school to go to. That meant less time to concentrate on the investigation.
Of course, her dad had said that she didn't have to go straight away. But in the end, Kasumi still agreed to go, despite herself. She couldn't exactly place her finger on why, but if she had to put it into words, it would be that it felt like...the 'right' thing to do. Like what Sumire would've wanted her to do, even in this situation, or something. Plus, above all - she didn't want to worry her parents too much.
The more and more she thought about it though, the more she started to regret that decision.
Coming to a stop in front of the front gate, she looked at the ornate architecture that stood in stark contrast to the modest buildings surrounding it. Despite its impressive appearance however, the only thing she could think about was how even though she was here, she probably wouldn't be able to think about anything else except the situation thus far.
In other words, this building was just an extravagant looking prison that would hold her down for 8 hours.
Kasumi let out another exasperated sigh.
Today would be a long day.
…
"...And as for the history of this kanji word, it actually means-"
*Ding! Ding!*
The savior bell, signalling the end of the school day, abruptly cut off the japanese teacher from going into another spiel that the entire class at this point had already gotten tired of- and it was only day 1.
"...Ahem. Well, looks like that'll be all for today," he said curtly, closing his notebook. "As for homework, please be sure to read chapters 2 and 3 for tomorrow. That's all. Dismissed!"
With that authoritative tone, he packed up his belongings and started to erase the chalkboard behind him.
At the same time, the entire classroom volume uproared, as people shuffled around packing up their things and discussing their afternoon plans.
"Ugh, homework already? It's only the first day…"
"Yo, wanna hit up the arcade after this?"
"Hey, listen to this! I've heard rumors about this really accurate fortune teller in Shinjuku..."
In the front left corner, a redhead with a ponytail stretched her arms in the air, mindlessly listening to the conversations going on around her.
"Ahh, finally over," she said tiredly. "Well, time to head home, I guess…"
She started to put everything into her bag, and clean off her desk. As she was about ready to leave however, the teacher turned back around and addressed her by name.
"Oh, that's right - Yoshizawa-san?"
"Hm?" Hearing her name, she turned to face him, dusting off her skirt in a prim and organized way. "What is it?"
"Before you leave today, would you mind going to the vice principal's office? He wanted to talk to you."
"Eh?...Me?" Kasumi blinked.
"Yep, that's right. Well, I've delivered the message. Don't forget now." And with that, he turned around, picked up his books, and walked out of the classroom.
Kasumi tilted her head quizzically, not quite getting the situation. ...Did she do something?
'...Well, only one way to find out, I guess.'
Following everyone else, she exited the classroom and mingled into the crowd gathering in the hallways. Unlike traditional schools, the first years' classrooms were actually on the third floor instead of the first, so she followed everyone else as they went down the stairs. However, rather than go down even further to the first floor, she exited at the second, where the guidance office was.
When she got to the office, she couldn't help but pause for a second outside of the door, suddenly caught with a bout of nervousness.
...Maybe she actually was in trouble. But she didn't do anything - at least, that she knew of…
'Agh, whatever,' she thought, shaking her head. 'Best to just get it over with…'
Swallowing a little, she knocked on the door twice, and then slowly opened the door.
"Pardon the intrusion…"
When she walked in, she found two individuals sitting on opposite couches, engaging in a conversation. At the sound of the door opening though, they turned to face her.
One of them, dressed in a suit with short black hair, she recognized as the vice principal who interviewed her for the scholarship that she was currently attending on.
The other one was a tall, lanky man with long, wavy hair and thick, squarish glasses. Also, he was wearing...a labcoat? Was he a doctor, or something?
The vice principal stood up, greeting her.
"Ah, Yoshizawa-san. Welcome. I trust your first day went well?"
The man in the labcoat took this time to speak up.
"Sorry, vice principal," the man said apologetically, " I didn't realize you were expecting someone. Should I get going?"
"No, no need," he said curtly. "This won't take long."
He turned back to Kasumi, prompting her to speak.
"Greetings, vice-principal," she bowed a little to him. "It was great! I had a lot of fun learning from all of the various teachers today."
...That was a lie, of course. But easier to say that than to tell the truth.
The vice principal nodded in agreement, apparently satisfied with that answer.
"Good. We do indeed have good faculty here. In any case, sorry to call you in on such short notice."
"Right - about that," Kasumi questioned. "What exactly…"
"Ah, yes. You see, I wanted to talk to you about your scholarship."
"My scholarship?"
"Yes. Originally, when we extended the scholarship offer to you, it was on the condition that you and your sister attend the academy together to bring about great achievements for Shujin. However...I heard the news about your sister."
"!"
...So that's what this is about.
'Without my sister, I don't deserve a scholarship...huh?'
She probably should've seen this coming. Even during the interview process, she could tell the vice principal was someone who was 'all business'. He would probably use her sister's death as an excuse to take back the money. That was the cold, hard reality.
"So you see, I thought you might've assumed that we would revoke your sponsorship, given the situation."
Kasumi looked at the floor and balled up her fists. And...there it was.
"Rest assured however," he continued, "that we have no intention of doing that. I just wanted to reassure you of that, and perhaps offer you some help as you go through this difficult time."
"Eh? Wait - wait, what?" she asked, looking back up at him, completely dumbfounded. "You 're not going to revoke it?"
The vice principal shook his head.
"Oh no- perish the thought! You're a valuable student here at Shujin. I merely called you in here to talk to our new counselor, Dr. Maruki. I thought you would be able to use the help."
He gestured over to the man in the labcoat, who gave her a soft smile and waved.
"I'm Dr. Maruki - nice to meet you, Yoshizawa-san. I'm still a novice counselor, but I hope I can help you out in any way possible."
"You don't have to talk to him if you don't feel comfortable of course, but I would recommend giving it a shot and seeing if it is beneficial in some way." The vice principal nodded. "Would that be okay with you, Yoshizawa-san?"
"Huh?" Kasumi squeaked out, suddenly put on the spot. "Uhm...yes. That's fine."
Given her dumbfounded state, she could do nothing but go with the flow. After all, she was sure he was about to say that he was revoking the scholarship, given his personality when he interviewed her a month ago. Now though, it was like he was a completely different person...
"Good. Right, well, now that that's established, I'll excuse myself for a bit," the vice principal said, walking over to his table and gathering his belongings. "Yoshizawa-san, please feel free to take your time with Dr. Maruki."
The next thing she knew, he walked past her, and shut the door behind him, leaving just him and this counselor alone.
Dr. Maruki laughed awkwardly to break the silence.
"Ahha, well, for starters, why don't you have a seat? I also have candy, if you would like."
...
"I see...that must've been horrible."
That was the first thing Dr. Maruki said upon hearing the story of what had happened. Or at least, the version that everyone else saw- not hers. Apparently, he had not been informed of her situation.
"...You're a strong girl, for being able to come to school despite that happening so recently," Dr. Maruki noted.
On the opposite couch, Kasumi shook her head, her gaze slightly downcast.
"Oh no, not at all. To be honest, the only thing I could think about in class today was my sister," she sheepishly admitted.
"Mmm. That's definitely understandable. What about her were you thinking about?"
"Ah, well, when I say I was thinking about her, I kinda meant about the events that occurred after her death," Kasumi corrected. "I just feel a little...lost, I guess?"
"Right- that can happen," Maruki nodded. "Sometimes, after accepting a loved one's death, people have a bit of trouble knowing what to do next. It's natural."
"That's the thing though - I haven't."
"Eh?" Maruki asked. "What do you mean?"
Kasumi balled up her hands into a small fist.
"I haven't really accepted Sumire's death yet. I know in my head, she's dead, but...I can't move on from it just yet."
Upon hearing those words, Dr. Maruki's gentle smile faded.
"You...haven't moved on?"
"There's just something more to the situation that I don't know of…I'm not sure what exactly, but I can't shake this feeling that I'm missing something. Something...big, about her death," Kasumi cryptically added. But then, upon realizing what she just said, she quickly snapped out of it. "O-oh, sorry. That must've sounded really weird, huh?"
"N-no. Not at all..." Dr Maruki trailed off.
He put his hands together in his lap, and stared downwards at them with a somewhat melancholy expression on his face.
"I see...so you still...haven't…" he muttered under his breath.
"Hm? What was that?" Kasumi asked, unable to hear.
"Ah- nothing. Forgive me," Dr. Maruki said, returning to his normal gentle smile and volume. "But I see. Accepting a loved one's death can be a slow and lengthy process. Regardless though, it is something necessary if you want to move forward. And unfortunately, as cruel as it is, the only thing we can do to honor their lives is to keep on moving forward. For the sake of carrying their torch, their hopes and dreams, we must. Time does not stop for us, after all."
"Eh? Ah, right…"
For some reason, she felt like his tone slightly shifted, as if he was giving a lecture now.
Dr. Maruki nodded, and then stood up, extending an arm to her.
"Well, I think that was a pretty good place to end on. I hope you enjoyed our talk today, Yoshizawa-san. I don't know if it helped, but please, feel free to come back anytime."
"Oh, yes, thank you."
Kasumi, following his lead, swiftly stood up to shake his hand. As she shook his hand, however, she felt a small electric shock run through her body. Not painful, but a very foreign feeling nevertheless.
"E-eh?" she voiced out involuntarily.
"Take care on your way back home now," Maruki said, bringing her attention away from the sensation.
"O-oh, you too. I'll try to come again if I have time."
After giving him a brief bow, Kasumi walked out of the guidance office, closing the door behind her. She scanned her immediate surroundings in the school corridor.
No-one around. Well, that was to be expected.
Looking out one of the second story windows, she could see the yellow and orange tinted light filtering in, indicating that the sun was already setting. For all intents and purposes, she spent quite a while talking with Dr. Maruki.
"Guess it's time to go home," she said aloud.
With a steady stride, she went down the steps and out the school gates, making her way to the subway station. Given how late it was, she was pretty much all alone, with nothing but the sound of cicadas and distant trains filling the air.
Checking her phone briefly, she noted that it was almost 6PM. That meant that she had been with Dr. Maruki for almost 2 hours. It certainly didn't feel like it.
Her mind aimlessly drifted back to the chat that she just had.
'For the sake of carrying their torch, their hopes and dreams, we must.'
That was what he had said, almost in a lecture sort of way.
Heh. Honestly - way to hit her where it hurts.
He was a nice guy trying to help - that was what she thought, at least. But those words definitely seemed very loaded, specifically towards her. And even besides that, he seemed very adamant on getting her to 'move on', whatever that meant. Perhaps that was indeed what was best for people, so they didn't get stuck chasing the ghost of their past.
Kasumi however, couldn't do that. She had already decided that this world - this reality - there was something fishy about it.
She nodded to herself, strengthening her resolve.
That's right. This was the path that she had chosen. She couldn't back down now.
But as soon as that thought crossed her mind...
"Agh! Wha?!"
...she was hit with a massive dizzy spell, her vision rapidly blurring. She quickly veered to the wall, trying to steady herself and keep herself standing.
"Ugh...what...is this?"
However, the dizziness proved too much. She crumpled to the floor, resisting the urge to pass out entirely.
"Sumi...re…"
...Until that too, proved fruitless, and her consciousness slowly faded, her sister's name the last thing to escape her lips.
...
Kasumi opened her eyes to a world of white.
A blinding white ceiling, with blinding white lights.
"Agh, so bright…"
Barely just regaining consciousness, she squinted and instinctively shielded her eyes with her hand, trying to limit the amount of light that entered her vision.
Wait...where was she? What happened?
"!"
All of a sudden, she felt an uneasy sense of dejavu. And as soon as she located where she had felt this feeling before, her heart felt like it sank to the bottom of the ocean.
'Oh no. No, no, no, no. Don't tell me…'
Did she die? ...Again? If she did, and had gone back in time…
She sat up quickly, trying to ascertain her surroundings. She half expected to hear that same man say, "Good morning" out of the corner of her eye.
But, no - this wasn't quite the same.
There was no man sitting next to her. And she...wasn't in a hospital room.
Not only was the ceiling white, but the walls were shades of white and gray as well. The room was basically entirely white. As if to add more to its abstractness, there wasn't much in the way of furniture either. Just the bed, a table, and the door. To the best of her memory, she couldn't really recall being in a room like this before.
So...where was she?
"Man, waking up in an unknown room after passing out...how many times does this have to happen?" Kasumi grumbled.
Thrust in these unfamiliar situations, once again. Only this time, there was no-one next to her to inform her of what was going on.
Now, the question was what she should do next. Clearly, someone had moved her here, after she passed out from that dizzy spell.
'What was even with that, by the way…'
She put a hand to her head, as if to feel for injuries. Her mind felt relatively clear - no dizzy spells.
Should she just wait for whoever put her here to return? That seemed safe enough, but there was no guarantee they would return in the first place.
She wasn't sure where she was or why she was put in here, but sitting around would answer neither of those questions.
Getting up from the bed, she slowly stood on her feet.
'Well, everything feels fine physically, at least…'
Deciding it best to take a look around, she opened the door to her room, only to find it leading to a large, white open area. There were benches strewn about, with a few people sitting around on them. In the middle, there was what looked like a ticket booth, and at the end of the room was a large elevator and circular stairs wrapping around on the side of it.
This place - it looked like...a giant reception room?
Kasumi had so many questions. This didn't look like any place in Tokyo that she had seen before - and besides, why was everything so blindingly white? It made her feel...uneasy, like this place was too artificially clean or pure, or something.
All of a sudden, a large announcement echoed throughout the main hall, catching her attention.
"Welcome, and thank you for coming, patients! We will assist each and everyone of you. Rest assured. Everyone can become happy. Please line up at the reception booth so that we can guide you to a pure and happy life."
'What?' Kasumi thought. '"Patients?" "Become happy?"'
Slightly confused, she walked towards the crowd, where she could hear people excitedly talking about the place.
"This place is amazing, they can make everyone happy!"
"I know, all of my worries and stress are gone! No more problems!"
"Oh, I can't wait for my turn! How nice my life would be!"
Amidst the group of people waiting, she heard endless chatter about eternal happiness.
"Kasumi!"
"!"
...But even among all of those voices, a distinct one behind her, calling out her name, stuck out to her immediately.
After all, she would recognize that voice anywhere. That voice, belonging to someone who had been by her side her entire life…
Kasumi slowly turned around, eyes wide, in disbelief.
And at the bottom of the steps, leading up to the reception, there she stood.
Sumire, upon making eye contact with her, waved happily.
"You made it, Kasumi!" Sumire said, her smile growing wider. "Welcome...to paradise."
A/N: I'm sure some of you at this point may be confused with what exactly is happening - it does involve the supernatural and potentially even time travel, after all! Don't worry - Kasumi feels the same way. Subtle clues have been scattered here and there, but until we get the full picture in the later chapters, Kasumi is just as much in the dark as you are.
As always, let me know your thoughts and theories!