I had no explanation as to how Yamada remembered me, but she stood behind me trying to say my name all the same. None of us had seen her since the water park at the end of last summer, and until recently, I had thought it was all her choice. She looked as if she was coming back from shopping; she had two paper bags in one hand and another cradled in the other.

  "Do you live here too?" she asked as her head tilted to one side.

  "Um, yeah. I just came here recently." I scratched the back of my head to feign some sort of normalcy while my mind ran wild with questions.

  "Oh," she looked away like she was being repelled from my face. "Would you like to come over? I always make way too much for just me."

  "Um, sure. I'll set my stuff down and be right back."

  I ducked into the apartment and calmed myself enough to activate my ability. I sank down with my back against the door. The memories of the last person to remember me were still fresh in my mind, and I had just agreed to enter what could be the den of another beast. She was also the only lead I had when it came to undoing what Kaori had done. I gathered myself as best as I could, and when time resumed, I placed my bag on the desk and returned to the walkway outside.

  The two of us walked down to the end of the walkway. My own apartment is the second door once I walk up the stairs, and the floor has another eight units past my own. I volunteered to carry the two bags while she dug her keys out of her pocket. Her brown rain coat shifted and swayed while she dug through each of its pockets.

  "Agh," she grunted. "Don't tell me I forgot where I put them again..."

  She tossed her paper bag down, and its contents spilled onto the ground: a bag of bread flopped out and a few eggs began to seep through the paper. She got more irritated the longer she failed to find her keys. She began to check every single pocket on the inside and outside of her jacket before moving to her slim-fitting blue jeans. When she failed to find her keys, she tossed off her jacket revealing the collared shirt underneath before she sat down and removed her black rain boots.

  What in the world is she doing?

  After shaking her boots and finding nothing inside, she stood back up and stared at the door like she was trying to process something. Slowly, she picked up her boots and jacket before replacing everything in the soaked paper bag. As she placed the bread back inside, she found her long lost keys at the bottom. Strangely enough, she hardly seemed relieved by her discovery. To make matters even stranger, she jumped when she looked over at me as if she had forgotten that I was standing there.

  "C-come in," she stammered. "Please don't mind the mess, I never have company."

  The "mess" was a singular dirty dish set in the kitchen sink and the fact that her futon had not been put away that morning. Other than those two factors, the apartment was spotless. Yamada pulled out an extra cushion for me to sit on while she put her groceries away and made tea. A myriad of questions began running through my mind once again, and I tried to formulate how I would ask her any of them.

  Why didn't she go back home after last summer? Has she been here this whole time? What about school? That shirt, is that where she works? Most importantly, how the hell does she know who I am?

  CRASH

  "Ow! Shit!"

  I turned back to see her holding her hand under a stream of water and a shattered tea cup on the floor next to her. The cup had leaves and stems in it like she had poured them directly into the cup and was running the boiling water on top of them. She was trying to cool down the tips of her fingers.

  Did she try to dig the leaves out by hand? Why not just strain them out?

  "Yamada, are you — "

  "Huh?!" she jumped back from the sink. "Oh, you startled me, I-I don't normally have company."

  "Here, let me help." I took over making tea even though I was still far from the best at it.

  "Thank you, I-Ishi..." she put her hand to the side of her head. "I'm just gonna grab a seat, then. I feel bad having invited you in when you're the one doing all the work."

  "No need to worry," I smiled. "What are neighbors for?"

  An awkward air filled the apartment while I made our tea. Yamada and I had hardly ever talked one on one; I knew next to nothing about her, and I was sure that she knew about the same about me. As painful as it was going to be, I needed to draw out as much information as I could.

  "Your shirt," I started. "Do you work at the Super Duper Mart a few blocks over?"

  "Yeah, I started a while back. Thankfully, they let me work enough to pay for this place. It's a little hard to balance night school and work, but I make it work."

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Night school?"

  "The adult learning center near Forsī District, they have a program to help people finish high school."

  "That's pretty cool," I glanced up as I poured the second cup.

  The aroma of lemon and ginger filled my nostrils as the warm scents danced in the air. Mother had always given Yui and I a generous helping of honey when she made us this type of tea. As I looked around the counter, there was none to be seen, and I felt too nervous to ask. I placed everything on the tray and carefully moved it to the open area.

  "Thank you," she smiled as she took the cup, wincing slightly when she grabbed it with her right hand.

  I need to figure out how to move the conversation to Kaori...

  "I guess there's a burning question, huh?" her smile retreated slightly. "What happened to me?"

  "Oh, um, I don't mean to pry. Only if you're willing to tell me."

  "I don't know if there's even much to tell. One day, Rito took me to the water park with you and your friends. I'm sure you remember the day. Right there at the end, Hojo pulled me aside. She said she needed to use the bathroom and wanted someone with her in case anything happened. When we got into the locker room, she turned back to me and looked around really quickly."

  Yamada put her hand to her temple again and scrunched her face.

  "She... she said something about Rito. I-I don't really remember. She went back into the stalls a-and came back a little bit after. Then she took my hands and looked into my eyes — she has really pretty eyes, did you know? — but, she... she said something... something about running away. Was it her running or someone else? M-my memory gets kind of hazy after that, but I remember not wanting to go to school any more."

  That sounds like her, through and through. But the haziness? What's up with that?

  "The next thing I knew, I was back at Rito's family home standing in front of my packed bags. I blinked a couple of times, and I was standing outside this apartment complex. The nice land lady welcomed me in and gave me a place to stay even though I had no way of paying her yet. One thing led to another, and I slowly found a rhythm.

  "A couple of months ago, I was working when the pageant at Toriyama High School popped up on the TV. I saw Hojo's pretty eyes again, and she said something about a boy... I didn't know who that boy was, but I thought that she should have him all to herself. I thought that I shouldn't get involved, that I should leave them alone… that I should forget he even existed to begin with."

  With those words, the color drained from her eyes and face. She went mostly limp, dropping her cup into her lap without spilling it and slouching back slightly. The apartment was completely silent for several minutes before I mustered up the courage to make any sort of move.

  "Hello?" I waved my hand in front of her face.

  Nothing.

  "Yamada?" I tapped her shoulder, and the color came back in a flash.

  "Huh? W-who the hell are you?!" she jumped back as the cup spilled on the textile floor.

  This seems all too familiar. There has to be a way to jog her memory.

  "It’s okay, Yamada, it's me," I tried to seem calm and non-threatening.

  "Get the hell out of my apartment!" She reached for the cup to throw it at me.

  "It's me! Ishigami Kazuma!"

  "Ishi...gami? K-Kazu...ma?" her fear shrank, our eyes locked.

  Another long and painful stretch of time passed as her face told me how much she was trying to process. The sun was setting, and the room was filled with a mix of crimson and gold.

  "Do you remember me?" I carefully asked as I stayed perfectly still.

  "I-I remember," she placed her hand over half of her face. "I-Ishi...gami K-Kazu...ma. You... you're Ishigami Kazuma."

  She looked at me as her hand dropped and our eyes met again. A hopeful smile crept across my face but was shattered in an instant. A trickle of blood started to escape her nose, then a river. Her body went slack, and she collapsed to her knees and subsequently to her side with no attempt at catching herself. Her limp body slammed onto the ground, and her eyes went fully dilated before losing all color again.

  What the hell?! No no no no no!! I've gotta jump back! COME ON!!

  My anger was pointless: she was already dead. The smell of automatic bodily functions immediately following death violated my nose. Even throughout the three years that I was trapped in the time loop, I never experienced this: I was always pulled back before it could happen. I started to gag and wanted to throw up.

  "Fascinating," a twisted and sinister voice came from the front door. "I know that a Mind Jacker can't force someone to act against self-preservation, but I've never seen what can happen if their victim takes their opposition to an extreme."

  Damien walked into the open area and squatted beside Yamada's still-warm body. I was paralyzed as he twisted and moved her head around to see it from all sorts of angles. I could feel the insidious curiosity pouring out of him like a mad scientist looking over his latest failed experiment.

  "Aneurism," he said coldly. "Big one too, violent. Quick death, at least, damn near instantaneous. My guess is that her mind couldn't deal with the paradox of you both existing in reality and not existing in her head. Somehow, the metaphysical problem forced a physical reaction. Truly fascinating."

  "I-I did this?"

  "Indeed, you did, my stubborn child," he chuckled before looking back at me. "Congratulations on your first manslaughter."

  "I-I... I couldn't have..."

  "No use in dwelling on it, Kazuma. Get out of here. I'll deal with the clean up.” He let out a long sigh. “You should have just laid low."

  "Fuck you!"

  I forced myself up in anger and launched myself at him. As always, he dodged each of my blows effortlessly. After a dozen or so failed punches, elbows, knees, and kicks, he disappeared. I spun around trying to find him only to realize too late that he was behind me.

  I had no idea what rendered me unconscious, but I woke up after the sun had completely hidden itself beyond the horizon. I was back in my own apartment, and it was as if nothing had happened at all. I immediately ran to the bathroom and emptied my stomach from the top. After losing my entire day's worth of food, I slumped on the wall beside the toilet. My only lead to undoing what Kaori had done was dead... and I was the one who killed her.