"It's Rin. Rin Tezuka." Lilly stiffens at the name, cringing before forcing a weak smile.

"Ah. I understand." It appears they are acquainted.

"Rin, what are you doing out here so late?" The girl in question turns to look at us, looking terribly out of it. I'm not entirely sure if she recognizes either of us. She looks like a statue. Or a zombie. A statue zombie?

But slowly, some symptoms of understanding seem to light in her dark eyes; this is something she must react to.

Rin blinks once. It is the most profound blink I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing.

"Hello." She says.

There is an awkward pause, everyone waiting for someone else to say something.

"What are you doing out here so late?" I repeat.

"I..." She starts, before pausing, as if having lost all her thought. "I was wondering about that myself too. Just now."

Typical Rin.

"Some people asked me that just before. I assume they were wondering the same. I didn't know. They didn't know either. I asked. That's why I'm wondering. So that was pretty much it. It's a murder mystery without a murder. They were going that way."

She turns, facing to her right, in order to demonstrate the direction the other people went to as if that was important, then rotates back like a mechanical gear in an overly complicated clock. For someone who gives an impression of being the quiet type, Rin really does use a lot of words to say things that don't need a lot to be said.

Unsure if she's finished, I say nothing. Neither does Lilly, who seems equally robbed of words for the time being. Our stupefied lack of reaction doesn't faze Rin at all. She just keeps looking at us expectantly, a calm hint of expression on her blank face.

"Do you have amnesia? I don't recall you having anything of the sort, though..." Lilly starts off, apparently attempting to steer the conversation back to normality.

"If I did, I probably forgot. If you forget about having amnesia, do you still have it?"

Blind people do not make very good drivers, especially when Rin Tezuka is in the passenger seat.

"Well, yes." I say, simply. "But that doesn't matter right now. The point being, you have no idea what you're doing here?" She frowns, looking extremely displeased at either my question, its consequences, or the answer she's about to give.

"I do have. An idea. I can't really tell what kind, though."

"That sounds like progress, at least." Lilly interjects. She sounds as if she's spotted an opening. I can't say I share her optimism.

"Yes, there is some. Definitely. The rest will come later. I'm sure of it. I always have...reasons." The ensuing silence kills Lilly's hopes all too visibly. That didn't last long.

Talking with Rin is like playing chess with a supercomputer who does seemingly completely random moves as if to mock everything you know about chess.

"So I assume you were going somewhere, not coming back to the school...any idea where?" Her eyes widen in shock and she jolts back in a somewhat artificial way, making it seem like an act rehearsed for situations like this.

"Are you a mind reader? Is that your disability? How unique!"

"Um, no." I tap my crutch on the ground. "Definitely not."

"You knew what I was doing."

"It was just an educated guess. The school's in front of us, and you're walking away from it."

"Oh." She sounds a little disappointed.

"That's the second time this week that someone has accused me of being a mind reader. Do I really give off that impression?" Rin shrugs, which is all the answer I get.

"You know-" I start, but Lilly interjects.

"Maybe you should come with us back to the school?" She sounds rather concerned, the paper-thin smile on her face badly disguising the fact. Maybe she came to the same conclusion as I did.

"Yeah, Lilly's right. If you can't remember, then there's no point staying here." Rin considers this simple deduction for a moment, then nods.

"Okay." We start towards the school again, Rin in front. She walks along the edge of the sidewalk in her erratic way, looking like a mix of sleepwalker and rope dancer, while Lilly and I follow her, tapping along.

"So how's the mural going?" I ask.

"We are going to get bad luck. Never talk about works in progress."

"I'm sure it'll be wonderful." Lilly tries.

"Bad luck." Rin replies, in her customary deadpan. Lilly's politeness feels out of place, for the first time.

Tap step tap tap step step.

...

Arriving at the dorms, Rin stops in front of her mural as if lightning struck her. She had been so quiet for almost all of the walk back that I had forgotten she was here.

"It's Friday, isn't it?"

"Yes, Friday, the eighth of June." Lilly affirms.

"This is bad." Rin says, looking despondent.

"Bad? Why?"

"I think I am going to go in a fetal position and throw up. Possibly in reverse order."

"Is something wrong?" Lilly tries, again.

"No, nothing is wrong. It's Friday and nothing is wrong yet. This mural, it's going to need to be finished by Sunday. So everything's alright. But if I don't finish, then it's going to be very wrong. Do you have any drugs? Or a time machine? This is not good. Not good."

And as such my suspicions are confirmed. She's behind schedule. Rin keeps staring at her mural looking as mortified as she can.

"Leave me. I'm going to need to work for a while." When we don't immediately leave, her expression darkens.

"Leave me." We do, of course, not wanting to aggravate her more.

A safe distance away, Lilly speaks up.

"Sorry about leaving you stranded as you talked to her. I...don't really understand her, so I keep my distance." Lilly offers a slight, apologetic smile as if she was sorry that her own shortcomings have prevented her from becoming closer to Rin.

"Eeh. I'm kind of fifty-fifty with her." I reply. Lilly lets slip a long breath, possibly a disguised yawn. I imagine she's as exhausted by all this as I am.

"I'd better leave now and give these to Hanako. Thank you for the company, Hisao." She smiles very sweetly at me. It feels different than normal, despite the fact that she seems to be smiling so often.

Genuine, I think. That's what it is.

"Yeah, good night. Say hi to Hanako for me."

"I will." And then she disappears, fading away into the dark.

...

...

About an hour later in the night, I return to the mural to find Rin still working on it, clearly struggling to see.

"Here, Rin." I say, setting down a portable lamp next to her. "This might help you."

She turns her head mechanically in my direction, her eyes as focused as I've ever seen them. Slowly, they pan up, towards my face.

A long pause.

"Thank you." And then her head turns back to her mural, her feet continuing to paint away. I sit next to her, watching.

Many hours later, she gives up and heads to her dorm, looking distinctly pained, but with fruits to show for her effort. I head off, too, hoping to catch an hour or two of sleep before I wake up to watch Emi run again.