I intend to do my best to make this story digestable for anime and manga onlies as well. The chapter in Volume 7 can be seen as the prologue to this, but it will not be a necessary read (hopefully).The novels are really good though, so definitely read them if you have time!

Platform of beginnings

In a certain place and time that may have been not much different from the one I found myself occupying right now, there may have been an unusual girl with long blue hair. This person, which could only be described as a strange creature posing to be a little girl, may have been an alien or any other unidentified being. It was a mystery to everyone, but it didn't really matter anyway.

Her innocent smile spread far across her cheeks as she spoke of the truth the universe contained - a secret she revealed all too casually.

No matter what timeline, no matter the state of the world, should there be a Shimamura, she would inevitably find her very own Adachi. All the Shimamuras were fated to come across an Adachi and then change in some significant way. Destiny was a curious thing.

This world where Hougetsu Shimamura - the me that was not me - met this creature and received such fantastical information was not unlike my own. Surely the only difference was that the Shimamura of that world had met her Adachi just a little sooner. That and the existence of a self-declared alien of course.

My world was not quite so convenient and interesting. In this world, which I considered to be the only one, I found myself living a tedious and boring life. I had coasted through school and got my higher education, but in the end I came to the same place as so many others who had no ambitions or desires. A tedious office job that left me tired and listless every day. A tediously long morning commute led me to a crammed office full of work that gave my heart no nourishment or meaningful stimulation.

That was how it had been for an entire year. A stretch of my life that was only filled with sleep, work and meals. Nothing meaningful had ever occurred, nothing memorable could be retold. If someone had asked me what I had done all year, I could honestly not say anything in response. Work? Hmm, that's about it.

If there was anything I had enjoyed, it was the times I could sleep. To me sleep was perhaps the closest to a hobby that I could find. The wonderful feeling of losing consciousness to a void that had no work, people or duties prepared for me was undeniably the best. It's also where I had met the blue haired girl. A strange twist of my typical aimless strolls across Dreamland.

I had always been one to sleep a lot, far more than my family found acceptable perhaps. I had gathered my fair share of judgmental comments across my life and most revolved around how I was always sleeping the days away. The other was of course that I was a boring person. Not like I could defend myself on either account.

Superficial interactions with my co-workers were not exactly keeping my interest long enough to give them any other impression of me. Of course being constantly tired did not help my weary mind to accommodate human relationships much. I truly was tired. Every day I woke up exhausted, went to work barely able to pry my eyes open and then returned from work close to fainting on the train home. Despite being so in love with sleeping, I seemed to have unlearned how to actually rest properly. At least that is the impression my creaking bones and continuous yawns gave me back then.

But the current me was not quite so deprived of life. Not at all. Something had changed. That something – or rather someone – was standing at the station platform yet again, like she always did.

The woman that seemed somewhat tired, hunching her back ever so slightly, was looking at the watch around her wrist. Her piercing eyes appeared cold as ice. It wasn't just her gaze that was cold, there was a certain frigid beauty to her in general. Her shoulder length hair was tied together at the lower tips and hung loosely over her shoulder, reminding of a deep mountain spring that wound itself out of a glacier. Her complexion was beyond pale, but not sickly or anything.

I found myself staring at her from a distance for a while. It was not the first time that her appearance, or rather her presence itself, captivated me. This emotion was indescribable to me as I had never experienced it before. It honestly was a bit unnerving, but I recently found myself awfully giddy each morning.

"Adachi."

I called out to her, my hand raised in greeting. Adachi. That was her name. I had learned it only recently. Somehow just this little piece of knowledge had made my body feel rejuvenated. That was how much I had enjoyed myself on that special evening. I wondered if she felt the same way.

"Err… Shima…"

The surprised response got stuck in the woman's throat. Had I truly startled her so much? She had glared at her watch quite fiercely until just a moment ago. Those creased brows had loosened as her surprised face had turned my way. I must say she was quite charming when she acted so flustered.

Was it weird to think that of someone I barely knew? It definitely had to be odd.

"Late again."

I said with an apologetic smile. Was I supposed to apologize? It's not like we had agreed to meet here. In truth I had been here much earlier, but watching Adachi from a distance had taken up quite a bit of my waiting time. In that sense I definitely felt a little guilty.

"Overslept, right?"

"You got it."

Still, was it really necessary for me to lie?

We had not managed to grab any open seats. I tended to avoid sitting down during rides to work due to my condition of falling asleep during the time it took to get to my station. Frankly I felt like I could have nodded off even while standing if it was a really bad day. Yet those worries were mostly pushed out of my mind lately.

"You can sit… if you want."

Adachi was glancing at the single unoccupied seat behind a couple of sleep deprived salarymen. How it was still free was a mystery, but it would most likely not stay that way for long. Now was my only chance to sit.

"I'm good."

I replied with a smile as I held on to the rail next to me. It was true that my legs felt more wobbly than a newborn fawn's, but that was not important. Not as important as my time standing next to Adachi at least. If I sat down now we would be separated by the wall of passengers. Some sliver of decency buried inside the depth of my brain also argued that being the only one who sat down was no good.

Thus we ended up standing shoulder to shoulder, shaking with the rattling train and silently staring out the windows. Although I initially felt slightly taller than her, I had finally noticed that her shoes were surprisingly flat. Unlike most office ladies I saw on the daily, she was not wearing any type of heels. This made me keenly aware that our height gap was negligible at best. She might even have been slightly taller than me overall.

I liked being on eye-level with her, so I would keep wearing these uncomfortable shoes for sure.

Adachi was throwing sideway glances at me at regular intervals. When our eyes met I noticed her cheeks tinge slightly red. It made me a bit self-conscious as well, to the point where my heartbeat increased. I couldn't explain it myself honestly. We were both so awkward, but there was something exciting about feeling that way. I could hardly remember the last time I had felt anything other than indifference to anyone but my family.

I managed to suppress a yawn as we passed another station. My tired soul was slowly overpowering my restless body. It was nice to calm down long enough to enjoy the moment, that's how I decided to see it. Yep.

"Shimamura."

Adachi suddenly spoke up and dragged me out of my lull.

That was my name. It was how I had been addressed by pretty much everyone since my earliest school memories. At this point I may have forgotten what my given name even sounded like spoken by a human being. My mother would be pretty much the only person to call me by it, but that bizarre woman barely counted as a human anyway.

There was something oddly fresh about the way she said it, though. When people addressed me at work I could not differentiate when they said my name or talked about the clothing store chain that haunted me constantly. It was likely that most people thought of the store first and then reflected it on my family name. When Adachi called me, I felt like she was really saying my name. It made not much sense, I know.

"Hm?"

"Do you often eat out?"

It was a question that had very little context to the current situation. A topic that may have been as random as any other. To the two of us, it did have some meaning however. That would be because of our date the other day. Wait, calling it a date was kind of weird. A meeting? That sounded like an obligation. We really did just get dinner together after work and that's it. There were no particular connotations to it. Just something we had done on a whim. Yeah.

"Hmm, not in particular."

Honestly, I didn't have that kind of energy after work. My mother thankfully had not stopped cooking for me yet, although she had threatened to do so quite often. Whether she had mercy on my sleep-deprived state or just didn't actually care about the difference of one extra portion, I could absolutely not tell. That woman marched by her own drum.

"Oh."

That got Adachi to look rather contemplative. I felt intrigued now.

"How about you?"

"I uhm… order food sometimes."

She replied with a slightly hung head. Was she ashamed of appearing lazy? Then what would that make me? She probably got the wrong idea from my initial reply. Clearing the misunderstanding was a little too embarrassing for me, though, so I kept quiet.

Our conversations often dried up like this, even when I was not doing it on purpose. It was not unpleasant, just bumping shoulders with Adachi as the train entered a curve. Definitely not. That didn't mean I wanted to give her my proverbial cold shoulder. I had to wonder if she thought of me as cold. I really wanted to avoid that somehow.

"That place was quite nice."

I finally managed to push myself to speak up again.

"Right."

And Adachi gave me a one-note response again. Would it have been too much to ask that she played along a bit more? Then again, I was no better. Dealing with people was really a tedious thing. Just what had made me decide that it was worth the effort with her? Whatever it was, I tried to believe in it.

"I really like Chinese food."

"Mhm."

"They even made the waitress wear a Chinese dress. That's real dedication."

Remembering the girl, who was probably around high-school age, confidently flaunting her legs made my lips curl into a wry smile. We had just gone to a local Chinese place that was on the way to the station. Luckily Adachi and I were from the same town, much to my delight. Delight? Really?

"Y-Yeah."

Adachi was overcome by a cough fit for a moment before responding with a dry throat. Her stiff shoulders gave me the impression that she was containing something big inside her body that wanted to burst out. Hopefully she didn't catch a cold.

The subway rattled loudly as we entered another tunnel. It was not all that long until I would hit my stop. I felt truly disappointed by that fact. It was troubling even to me how such small things could affect my mood now.

The warmth of Adachi's shoulder would soon fade from mine and then we would separate for another long day of work. It was only natural that commuters left the train and split up to find their destinations. Trains were really just bottlenecks for their segments of life. They were tight and forced the stream together, but eventually it always had to let up. Adachi and I were just two drops in that stream flowing through the gap.

"I could get a discount…"

Adachi suddenly spoke up again just as I mulled over how to extend my ride.

"For what?"

"A place that serves Chinese food."

"Really? Did they send out coupons?"

I asked curiously. My mother sometimes got some in the mail. They were a good lure for our family that had a certain love for Chinese food, even if it were mostly Taiwanese places that seemed to offer it around here.

"Err, something like that. So maybe if… you know."

She fiddled with the strap of her bag and then looked at me. Our eyes got tangled up again. It made me feel a bit more connected to her.

"Yes?"

I obviously knew what she was getting at, but I felt a strong instinct to tease her a little. It was quite unlike me to be honest.

"Nevermind."

She backed off. How surprising. My impression of Adachi was constantly changing. When we went out for dinner she had been quiet, sure, but she seemed to be stoic more than awkward. Now I could start to tell that she really was just as flustered as me.

"How about tomorrow?"

"Huh?"

"It's a Saturday tomorrow, so I got all the time in the world."

I explained with a smile of anticipation. Her surprised expression was so entertaining that I actually chuckled. If two adults could find a common time to hang out, it was usually the weekend. I would just text mom that I had plans to eat out again. I am sure she would not mind having to cook less. Or maybe she would? That woman would find some way to take it as a slight to her skills, I was convinced.

"Sure."

Adachi's facial muscles had finally realigned and she gave me the response I had pined for. This morning really had been productive. To be able to say that about simply having a conversation and making plans for a meal… It made my head feel a little fuzzy.

I really looked forward to becoming friends with her.