《Mindless》
Chapter 1: Mind Blank
"Who am I? Where am I?" are the first words that came to mind when I woke up laying on the side of the street. I stand up as the dim sun follows suit, with the cool morning breeze engulfs my senses. Wait. A little too cool. My body shivering, I stare down on the ground to see a coated, white and fluffy ground presented to me.
Fantically, I pat down my body, relieved to feel a heavy coat. Not heavy enough to keep me entirely warm. Finding this scenario rather amusing yet confusing, I scuff and begin to walk indefinitely on the path that I was clearly destined to walk. Where was I? This street of houses, ever so ordinary, stretched out for a few blocks, pale grey brick walls separating itself from their neighbours, with large arch doors that would lead into a presumably humble abode.
With no lead into the future, my legs persist movement towards nowhere, and eventually I put my hands into my pocket. My footsteps falter from the feeling of a small, cold metallic object. My grasped hand pulled out, revealing a bronze key, with a certain address written on it. Quick glances to the surrounding street signs revealed I was on the same street as this house address. Perhaps waking up on this street wasn''t such a coincidence. On a whim, I pulled a 180 and started moving towards my new objective. Finding my house.
Clearly I wasn''t sure if I actually owned the house, or if I had stolen these keys from somewhere else, what was I to care if I had no directionality in life at all. It couldn''t hurt to go to this place. So, in these empty streets I continue to bend at every street corner and glanced at numerous house numbers; easily anyone could call me off for being so suspicious. And there it was, the house. Hah. Now what? Surely there''s someone in the house that could help me. Not that I care anyways.
Entering the house, the call of my voice returned no response. Lonely, yet again, in an even lonelier location. At least the streets had a good view. What appeared to be relatively spacious, I began to investigate this place. Opening each door revealed many things; empty rooms, an almost empty fridge and, to top things off, a lifeless living room. Ah, the prescence of home could not get any better, clearly my past self was living the time of his life. Whilst enticing my stomache to a packed rice ball leftover in the fridge, one last expedition around the house revealed a particular room that stood out among the rest. The bedroom with an actual bed, with THINGS within.
Assuming the bedroom belonged to me, I scoured the only lively part of this house, finding a mirror, a bed and a messy table displaying various notes and pictures on top. Looking in the mirror revealed a rather handsome man, slim jaw line, clean, poofy and black curtains and piercing brown eyes, wearing a black, yet again poofy winter coat, paired with long navy blue jeans and white and red striped socks. After being distracted by the white and red striped socks (Which I didn''t realise until now), I began to look for clues of my identity, starting at the table top. There sat an image of a father and son, which the father wore a white laboratory coat, wearing a scruffy haircut and clean glasses.
The son looked awfully similar to the descriptions I had just seen in the mirror (a rather handsome man, slim jaw line, clean, poofy and black curtains and piercing brown eyes), confirming this room as mine. The father had his arm wrapped around the boy proudly as he held some sort of plaque that I couldn''t really make sense of. I shrugged and continue my search, only to discover various ordinary sheets of paper, which seemed to detail different subject areas at school. For example, a mock math exam with a huge score of 40/100 (I found quite fascinating over my failure, even smiled a little), and a rather ominous note on the table with the following:If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
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I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this
I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this
I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this
I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this I don''t want this
But I have to.
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Of course it was a sign of stress. Feels bad. My past self clearly had a lot going on in his mind and in his life. Surely it doesn''t have a link to my memory loss, right? Feigning ignorance, I continued to search the desk, identifying my first piece of useful information. I go to school! An acceptance letter on the desk showed that I was enrolled into a school called ***** high school under the name Naishiro Shinso (ÐIJ٠¤Ê¤¤¤·¤í), who was about to start his first year of high school as of the posted date on the letter. Maybe that scribbled, incohesive mess was a result of entering this highschool? Anyways, I didn''t care about my past troubles and decided it would be more proactive to get this life on track with buddy Shinso-san''s old life.
I found a wallet with a debit card and some coins, with my ID (who knows when I would need it). Clearly my ''packed'' fridge needs an update on its contents. These were the interesting events that I experienced in roughly one hour, to this point I am at now. Starving.
Presented with a cool breeze at exit, I begin a new journey for food; clearly the rice balls weren''t enough. However, this time there were many more citizens wondering around at this time of the morning, many of them walking around wanderlessly like I was. Or perhaps they were taking a morning walk, I suppose. Whilst simultaneously walking, recording my trail on a paper I took from my room, and asking locals to the closest convenience store, I set my journey towards the holy motherland of cheap discounted goods. If there''s one thing I am glad about, it''s my sustained and unwavering memories of good food, especially takoyaki balls, ohhhhh I love them so much. Well, weirdly enough I remember mostly everything, yet my identity and my experiences still remained missing. Although I would love to remember my identity, at least I''m not forgetful to the point where I''m disabled.
These thoughts of food continuously floods my brain, where nothing else could possibly distract me. Not until my eye catches a glimpse of a barely distinguishable figure of a girl on top of a large establishment, seemly a school of some form, standing ominously on the rooftop. Around 5-6 metres tall, it was obvious that a fall from that height would kill anyone. However, it was the following thought: "What is that person even thinking?" that flipped my existence on its head. Had I not thought such idea, my life would never be the same. Suddenly, an abrupt, angry yet saddened voice intercepted all thoughts and processes
"This F*cking Ends Now. I-I don''t want this, but I h-have to."
Pause.
I can¡¯t think for a moment.
What am I? If my memory serves me correct, anyone knows humans can¡¯t do THAT. That voice¡ who was¡ was it? No¡
Pause.
My body went into autopilot. Screaming, telling her to stop, each word piercing my vocal chords in my throat. Our eyes lock for a second, my fearful and her tearful eyes.
Amongst the fear and stress, pupils shrunken, fear elevating, heart racing, it finally hit me. I wasn¡¯t normal.
Chapter 2: That Girl
¡°We can talk about this, get down from there!¡±
¡°¡¡±
¡°I know you don¡¯t want to do it, trust your instinct! GET DOWN.¡±
¡°¡¡±
The girl barely manages to hold eye contact with me, her body shaking, tears streaming down her face. A long quiet exchange is all that took place for the next few seconds, both the girl and I panting with fear and exhaustion.
¡°¡ ¡. ¡¡¡¡..¡±
DASH. Abruptly, the girl gets away from the ledge and sprints back into the school building. In response, my legs begin to swiftly move towards the school entrance, only a few metres away. Stopped by the closed gate and hesitant for a few seconds, I jump up and struggle over the low hanging fence, roughly 2 metres tall, and blindly attempt to find the girl. Surprisingly open, I rush through the main door without any second thought and begin checking each classroom on the first floor of the school.
¡°How big is this school?¡± became a looming thought after I had successfully cleared out 7 classrooms from the entire first floor. Still no sign of the girl, I continued to recklessly search for a person who I did not even know of.
1 full hour had passed. I lay on the ground of the 3rd floor, facing the ceiling, panting and drained. I didn¡¯t even bother to think of the possibility of whether she had already sneaked out of the building while I was searching for her. Talk about pointless motives. Defeated, I decided to take a break and collect my thoughts, because evidently, many things happened in that hour.
¡°I read her thoughts. Normal people can¡¯t do that unless they¡¯re inside a fictional story of some sort. Surely I¡¯m just being delusional and I¡¯m pretending to understand what she was thinking up there.¡±
In the end, I was glad she didn¡¯t fall off the building, despite not being able to confront and communicate with her properly. But there was no knowing if she were to attempt such dangerous feat a second time.
What if I could read her mind? I mean, it wasn¡¯t my own conscious I heard in my head, it was clearly a woman¡¯s voice. And no, it was definitely not my own voice; I¡¯d like to believe my balls had dropped enough to produce the most masculine voice you could possibly imagine (has a very high pitch voice for a male). But I do remember wanting to know what the girl was thinking¡ Perhaps that was a trigger¡¡±
I gave up. Clearly, I was tired and anymore thoughts would begin to hurt my brain. I¡¯ll try again later. I decided to close my eyes. After all, all that searching took away most of my willpower and energy. Surely a few minutes of rest wouldn¡¯t hurt too much¡
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I open my eyes. I see eyes. I see eyes. I SEE EY-
The girl¡¯s face was really close to my face. REALLY close, TOO close.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Crawling backwards, the girl falls back onto the floor in front of me.
¡°What are you doing in my face???¡±
¡°Sorry¡±, she exclaims as she begins to pick herself back up. Her accent sounds very foreign to me, although I could understand her completely.
As I slowly come back to my senses, I could see a white-haired girl with her hair tied up in a ponytail, with her front hair taking the form of curtain bangs flowing beside her sleek and thin face. Her figure appeared slim, and she was wearing a uniform that was supposedly for the school we were at.
The girl stands up, patting down her dress, then crouches back to my level on the ground, where I still laid. Her face clearly portrayed her concern over me, which was very ironic considering that I should be the one with such face at this moment. Violently sitting up, I swiftly turn to her, cross-legged sitting on the floor and begin talking.
¡°Why are you looking at me like that?¡±
¡°uhhh, ummm¡± is all she fumbles, as she visibly struggled to come up with a response. Recognising the language as English, I try communicating to her with the little English I seem to remember.
¡°Do¡ you¡ understand what ¡ I am saying?¡± I say in complete embarrassment. I don¡¯t think this body was made to speak to foreigners.
For a moment, all that was exchanged was intense stares, until the girl breaks this intensity with a burst of laughter. I begin to stare even harder, with a more evident confused face as her laughing continues to ring out in the hallway.
¡°You should¡¯ve seen your face when you started getting embarrassed¡± the girl blurted, with perfect annunciation in Japanese.
Completely defeated physically and emotionally, I decided to get up and walk away whilst ignoring the girl. The girl was safe, I¡¯m tired, I want to go get food and get out of here; my passion to help her disappeared in an instant.
The girl suddenly stops laughing, and runs up by my side, with a cheeky smile pasted on her face.
¡°Where are you going? Why are you leaving me? Hey, heyyyyy?¡± she exclaims, still cheery from her stupid prank. ¡°I saw you running into the school, so I thought you were a security guard or something, so I hid away from you. You know, I was watching you search for me the ENTIREEE time, and that was the funniest thing I¡¯ve seen in a looong time. Funny enough, that reminds me¡¡±
I continued to ignore her as her annoying remarks persevered through my feigned ignorance, until we reached the front gate I had entered earlier.
¡°Why are you acting like this? You clearly were about to jump off that building! I was so worried for you!¡± I shouted aggressively, fed up with her behaviour.
¡°Jump off? Jump off?!¡± she scuffs, as she begins to laugh again. ¡°You thought I was going to jump off? You¡¯re funny. I was just looking out towards the town I¡¯m living in now, dummy. The school has the best view!¡±
¡°But¡ you were hanging onto the outside of the fence! OUTSIDE.¡± I shout.
¡°So? What¡¯s wrong with that? A little danger doesn¡¯t matter¡± she says valiantly, in disbelief of what she had just said.
Sigh. What a drag this person is. You know what? If this person is fine, then I¡¯m fine. I don¡¯t want any other business with her.
¡°Alright, I don¡¯t care. I¡¯m leaving. I came outside to get food, and all I got was stress, and¡ YOU. Goodbye.¡± I exclaim firmly, expressing my anger.
Frustrated, I walk away from the front gate and towards the convenience store close to the school and shop for some food. Instant Ramen for tonight¡¯s dinner, and tomorrow¡¯s breakfast. Anddd lunch. Andddd the meal after that. Great.
However, after backing out of that situation, I still didn¡¯t know why her face and thoughts on that rooftop seemed to contrast her words. She clearly was crying. Well, maybe I¡¯m delusional.
Though that night, as I reminisce the stressful first day that was brought upon me, I thought deeply of my current state in this world. A person with no memories, no parents at home, just me. An empty shell that was going to continue living a life that doesn¡¯t even belong to me, or at least I thought. Why can¡¯t I remember anything? Nothing makes sense right now. Sleep was and has always been the right medicine for anything. Today was Sunday, as I checked my phone. Why didn¡¯t I think about checking the day first? Doesn¡¯t matter anymore now. I¡¯ll just live out this person¡¯s life for them and try to get back this body¡¯s old memories soon. I don¡¯t know how that will happen, but it¡¯s worth the try¡
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Turning into the classroom another teacher had directed me to, I open the door.
Everyone inside the room averts their gaze upon me. But one set of eyes caught my attention.
I know fate is a thing, but I didn¡¯t expect it to turn out like this. Why was SHE in MY classroom.
End of Chapter 2.