Chapter Twenty One: Look Alike

A small, cluttered classroom with two small desks in the middle and one larger desk at the far wall, that was Jitsumi's current location. She was confused at first, but she soon realized what was going on.

"Ah, it's another one of those weird dream-memory things," she commented to herself.

The classroom was empty, not even a teacher patiently (or maybe impatiently) awaiting the arrival of their students. There was absolutely no one.

"What am I even doing here?" Jitsumi wondered aloud. She looked at the two smaller desks curiously. "And why are there just two desks here? Shouldn't there be mor-"

Suddenly, the door burst open, revealing a fuming black-haired girl with a boy in a green sweater behind her. The girl, Jitsumi noticed, was practically soaked.

"I'm sorry, Takane! I didn't mean to spill my water on you! I really didn't!" the boy apologized, completely sincere.

"Just shut up," the girl, presumably Takane, growled as she took a seat at one of the smaller desks.

"But, Takane-"

"I said shut up already!" Takane shouted.

The boy silently complied and sat down as well at the desk beside hers. Takane eyed the large desk in front of her, which presently lacked a teacher. She made an indignant noise, some kind of mix between a grunt and a snort.

"I see our pathetic excuse of a teacher is absent again," Takane commented rather bluntly.

Jitsumi snickered from her perch on the teacher's desk, where she had sat to watch the two students in front of her. She liked this Takane girl, whoever she was.

"I'm sure he'll come later. He's probably just late," the boy, who Jitsumi still didn't know the name of, stated in an optimistic tone.

Jitsumi looked around the teacher's desk to find some kind name list so she could properly identify these people, and, after a few minutes of searching, she found a roster that was most likely used for role call. Typed out in small font were only two names: Takane Enomoto and Haruka Kokonose.

"Well, since that girl is Takane, that means that the boy is Haruka," Jitsumi muttered to herself.

She didn't have to worry about them hearing her, she had learned this from the previous dream. Jitsumi shuddered just at the thought of it.

"Takane, since Tateyama-sensei isn't here yet, why don't we play Dead Bullet together?" Haruka suggested cheerfully.

Takane looked over at him in surprise. "You brought your laptop to school?"

"Yep!" Haruka chirped as he pulled said object out of his bag.

"Why?" Takane was asking a question, but she sounded totally disinterested.

"Because I thought it would be fun to play with you, Takane," Haruka smiled sweetly at her.

Takane turned away from him, her face tinted with light pink.

"Hmm..." Haruka hummed thoughtfully. "Since we're going to play this game, I should probably call you Ene, right?"

Jitsumi's full attention was immediately drawn to Haruka's words, specifically the name she had grown quite familiar with.

"Ene? He couldn't possibly mean the Ene I know... could he?" Jitsumi wondered.

It was possible, since this was a memory. Did that mean that Ene was once a human being who went by the name of Takane Enomoto? Jitsumi wasn't entirely sure yet, so she would just have to keep watching.

"D-Don't call me that, idiot!" Takane stammered, her face red most likely from embarrassment.

"Why not? It's your name," Haruka tilted his head slightly in confusion.

"'Ene' is just the stupid gaming handle I made up. It's not my name, and you're not supposed to call me that!" Takane explained.

Haruka laughed a bit sheepishly. "I know but..." He fiddled with a loose string on his sweater, still smiling faintly. "I like the name Ene."

Takane crossed her arms over her chest, still avoiding his gaze and, yes, still blushing. "Whatever..."

Jitsumi stood up from where she had been sitting and walked over to Takane.

"If you dyed her hair bright blue she would look a lot like Ene," she mumbled to herself. "But Ene doesn't really act like this, though the stubborn part is pretty spot-on. If they really are the same person, then shouldn't they have the same personality?"

Jitsumi thought about this for a few moments, then she supposed that people do change and that maybe, just maybe, Ene had once been this pessimistic girl. The more Jitsumi thought about it, the more likely it became.

"I wish you could tell me yourself, Takane-san," Jitsumi muttered. "It would make things a lot easier."

Just then, Jitsumi's surroundings began to slip away, and the two high school students faded as well. Jitsumi quickly realized that she was waking up, so she embraced the morning whole-heartedly by letting the people disappear, leaving her questions unanswered.

A/N: And thus ends another round of updates. I'm not even sure if people still read this story, but that's fine. I might as well just continue posting the chapters I've got.