Hello! Now that high school and exams are done, I can write more negitoro~

This will be a three chaptered story, beta-read by the amazing Jak656, and will update on Fridays!

Enjoy!

Chapter One: Saturday

Miku stretched contently as consciousness gently came back to her. She realized with a happy grin that she felt wonderfully well-rested, that it was finally Friday, that the early morning sun was shining, and that she couldn't possibly be more comfortable.

With a happy hum, she put an arm under her pillow and dug her head into it, hoping to bask in the wonderful feeling for a little while longer. Then, she realized that she was pushed against the very edge of her bed.

A bit puzzled but not concerned, Miku summoned just enough consciousness to wonder why she wasn't in the middle of her own bed. But that was enough to also make her realize that there was more to it.

Her bed was warm. Wonderfully so. Unusually so. There was another body behind her.

Miku was instantly wide awake. Her eyes darted around, taking in her surroundings. She was indeed in her room, in her bed...and she was naked. Panic swept over her, but she reigned herself in, limiting the output to merely a peep. On the floor, she could see various clothes, some of which were hers' no doubt, but the rest... A hand to her mouth, inhaling and exhaling quietly, Miku eyed the mess, suddenly shaking. The unknown living being, which she realized was literally pressed against her back, sighed. Her heart rate skyrocketed, and again she resisted the urge to scream.

Miku held herself back from quite literally jumping up, out or around her bed. Who was behind her? Who's clothes were those?

Her alarm went off, and she noticed that it was eight-thirty. Faster than she thought possible, she turned it off as her heart lashed against her ribs. But...eight-thirty was the time she set her alarm for the weekends, she knew.

Miku turned the device towards her and was surprised to be faced with a 'Saturday' written on the screen.

Saturday?!

She racked her mind for the previous day. It had been Thursday, she was sure of it. She couldn't remember so much as a wink of what Friday should have been.

Miku breathed deeply, shoving her alarm away from her before hugging herself. She shook with a thousand questions. She suddenly realized how sore she felt absolutely everywhere. Slowly, she rolled into a ball, trying to keep all over her feelings and all of the mystery contained.

Her bed mate groaned and rolled over, but didn't wake up. Miku almost felt relieved at this until an arm draped itself over her. She almost screamed.

Miku slowly turned around but stopped when she realized that the arm led to a shoulder, and from what she could see, from what she could feel, and from what she could reason, she immediately deduced that whoever it was behind her, spooning her, was just as naked as she was.

The math was simple, but Miku repeated the operations a thousand times before it truly sunk in.

Her shaking doubled. All of the questions burned like silent screams at the back of her throat. Who? Why? How? What?

Her unknown companion turned over again, restless. Miku shakily inhaled, gasping for air, as if the arm that was draped over her had deprived her of oxygen.

Miku wondered what she could do. Get up, get dressed, and find out who was taking up the other half of her bed? She couldn't imagine herself doing so. The mere thought of getting out from under the covers made her shiver, and not because she feared the cool air. What if her 'friend' woke up before she could even pick up her panties, which she could see, right there, next to an unknown sock?

She didn't even know who to expect behind her. She couldn't even think who she would possibly bring home with her. How would she react upon finding out? What if it was someone she knew? A close friend of hers? Or, worse yet, a total stranger?

Miku didn't do parties, drinking, or staying up late. Even though she had no memory to prove anything to herself, she knew that she hadn't gone out that forgotten day in any way that would allow her to return with a friend. And even if she had gone to some party or soiree and gotten unreasonably drunk, the evening wasn't the only part of the day that was escaping her; it was her whole day!

That single fact bugged her. It was as if the day had been a 'deleted scene' she could never recover. Miku wondered if she would remember eventually if it was merely temporary amnesia. She wondered if she'd hit her head, or was drugged. She wondered if her bed mate knew what had happened yesterday, if they knew how they'd gotten there.

Suddenly the person in question sighed, and stretched the entire length of the bed. Miku's heart jumped; that morning sigh was a woman's. She feigned sleep, staying still, and trying to breathe evenly.

She could feel the woman stretch and settle down. Then, after a few quick movements, she heard her ask the first question Miku would have asked if she'd been in her place: 'where the hell am I?'

Miku froze up, realizing that she'd been detected. Maybe she was looking at the time while she was at it, but the tealette could feel the questioning gaze on her skin.

Then she felt that the covers were lifted, very briefly, and she squeaked.

"Why are we naked? Who are you?"

Miku turned around with a start and a nervous smile, holding the covers very close. She was about to start blabbering about how she knew nothing either, but then she saw her companion's face.

She was angry and puzzled, and rightly so. But more importantly, she was Luka.

"Luka?!" Miku yelped, clutching the covers even closer.

"Yeah, and who are you?" the pinkette replied, pulling at the covers as well.

They were still awkwardly close to each other, as it was a single bed, and Luka was very angry.

"I-I..." Miku stuttered, not at all surprised that the pinkette had no idea who she was. After all, she was only in the first year. Luka was in the third and was quite 'up there' in terms of the school hierarchy.

What were they doing in the same bed?

"I have no idea what happened!" Miku blubbered.

Luka raised a brow but seemed to believe her.

"What the..." she mumbled, looking around the room. Miku followed her eyes as they noticed the clothes on the ground.

Miku saw the question coming.

"Did we have se-"

"Don't say it!"

Miku buried herself under the covers, closing her eyes, wishing she could simply dig a hole somewhere and hide in it.

"I don't know, I don't want to know, I don't remember a thing, I don't know why you're here, I don't know why YOU'RE here...!"

When Luka left the bed, she yelped and buried herself even deeper into her covers. Quiet as a mouse, she listened despite herself as the older teen went around the room, picking up her clothes.

"You know, I wouldn't usually buy it if you said that you don't remember a thing, but I don't either," Luka said after a while. "You can look now, you know."

Miku timidly peeped out from under the covers and saw a fully but hastily clothed Luka.

"This isn't what I was wearing yesterday..." she heard Luka mumble as she smoothed out her shirt.

"It's Saturday, today. Not Friday," she said, so shy she was barely audible. Only her eyes stuck out from under the blanket.

Luka looked at her with a burning gaze.

"What do you mean it's Saturday? It was Thursday yesterday!"

Miku shook her head before shyly picking up her alarm and handing it to the taller girl. She felt like a turtle, hiding under her covers from the seething threat right before her. Luka looked at her alarm for a long time, before handing it back with rolling eyes and a scoff.

"Your thing is broken."

"It's not."

Luka turned back towards her, still with a fire in her eyes. Miku could hardly return the stare.

Suddenly, the elder seemed to calm down. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

"Look, sorry for snapping at you. Can you...get dressed? I want to talk about this."

Luka left the room, closing the door behind her. Miku instantaneously jumped out of her bed; she was still shaking.

With quick, uncertain movements, she picked up everything from the floor and threw them in the bin by her door. Then, slightly calmer, as if the removal of the evidence had somehow undone what it had implied, she picked out fresh clothes. Normally she would shower before dressing, but she didn't want to make Luka wait.

Luka...why was Luka there, of all people? She didn't even know Miku existed! Sure, maybe she did; they crossed in the halls every now and then. But besides her popularity and her appearance, Miku knew nothing of the pinkette, either. What in the world could possibly connect them in such a way that they ended up waking up in the same bed, with absolutely no memory of the previous day?

Dressed, Miku headed out of her room. She found Luka in her living room, sitting on the couch, looking outside through the large windows. The sun hung low in the sky, flooding the room with a soft yellow light. It was picturesque, really, and Miku hated the fact that it was tainted with this paining mystery.

She shyly sat down on the opposite end of the couch and wondered if she had to offer her...guest anything. It was morning, so breakfast was definitely in order for her. But did Luka eat breakfast? Did she have coffee or tea?

"Do I have to try to put together a half-believable story for your parents before they wake up?" asked Luka out of the blue, still looking outside.

Miku was startled; she hadn't expected any question of that kind.

"Don't worry about that..." she mumbled. "They're not in town."

Luka raised a brow.

"Alright, that's one less thing to do, then." she sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to explain to mine where I was all night..."

Miku looked around her living room, visually avoiding Luka.

"You were right, by the way. It is Saturday. So I owe you another apology."

"...It's alright."

Luka bit her lip, but Miku wondered how she could broach the subject of an entire day having vanished into thin air.

"And, I suppose, I also have to apologize for the other thing."

Miku stopped her train of thought and looked at her, timid but quizzical. Seeing that Miku didn't understand what she meant, Luka sighed heavily and ran a hand through her hair. It was obvious she didn't know how to formulate what she wanted to say and had trouble bearing with the visible awkwardness.

"I'm just going to guess that, before last night, you were a virgin," she finally said.

It slapped Miku right in the face; Luka was right. She hadn't thought about that at all. In fact, she had preferred thinking that nothing had happened in the first place and that it was simply one large misunderstanding; her main concern had been their shared and troubling amnesia. But if things were as they had seemed, she had very effectively been robbed.

Miku curled up in a ball on the couch. She heard Luka sigh as her question had been answered.

"Sorry, then."

Fighting the tears, Miku shook her head.

"It's not your fault."

"It is," Luka spat. The anger wasn't directed to the tealette.

"It isn't," Miku defended. "Neither of us know what happened."

"I don't even know if you gave consent."

"We aren't even sure if there was anything to give consent to."

Luka raised her brow again. Miku saw this and sighed, before sitting normally once again.

"It looks bad. But...maybe it isn't what it looks like."

"Don't kid yourself," Luka said, her tone soft for the words.

Miku mentally tried defending the hope that maybe, maybe it was better than what the context had led on, but had to agree to some extent. Even if neither of them remembered anything, she knew that the vague soreness she'd felt wasn't innocent.

"You even have a hickey," Luka continued, pointing towards Miku's neck. The pinkette wasn't blushing, and Miku was too deep in her thoughts to realize what exactly it implied. She merely pushed against her skin with a finger till she felt it. And then she let her hand fall to the couch, in a dumb state of defeat. She didn't even wonder if Luka had any of her own.

"The thing is..." Miku started, her voice shaking, trying to push that...concern...away. "We don't remember a thing."

"So? We can suppose that we went to school, that I came here at some point, and then we-"

"That's not the point!" Miku interrupted, knowing how Luka's sentence was going to end. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't know you. You don't know me. The only thing we have in common is that we both go to the same school. So, the point is..." Miku paused. "What are you"-she pointed-"doing here with me," she finished with another point.

Luka remained silent for a long while.

"I don't know."

Miku nodded; tense.

"We don't have to know," Luka continued. "It would be nice, but what good would that do? We know what happened. Why look into how we got here?"

"It's more than mere curiosity," Miku said, voicing her earlier thought.

"Then what is it? What good would figuring out last night's perversions do us?"

"It's more than what happened in the bedroom!" Miku snapped.

Luka sighed, and again ran her hand through her hair.

"The thing is, we know the outcome. Why go through the pain of looking for the path that led us here? The backtracking would be way too difficult, maybe even impossible."

Miku deflated at Luka's words.

"I want to know why we both forgot everything," she said, just above a whisper. "I want to know why our Friday is gone. And..."

She felt that she wanted to know why Luka was there. The pinkette probably had a dozen other places to be...so why was she there with her...?

But the pinkette shook her head.

"I don't want to find it out. You can go on, have a field trip with it if you want."

She stood and made her way to the door. Miku followed, a bit angry but too deflated to say a thing.

"In fact, you have the whole weekend to figure it all out," Luka said as she walked. She put on her jacket. "And if you figure it out...hey, maybe you can let me know if there are chances of it happening again. Prevention is the best cure, after all."

And just like that, she opened the door and she was gone.

Miku stood there, ultimately defeated. Luka had stormed off so efficiently and so calmly that she had no idea how to react. There she was, plundered, with no memory of her Friday, and alone.

She fell to the floor and cried.

Breakfast was the largest, most chocolate-filled mug-cake Miku could create. It overflowed from the mug yet she still added icing and sprinkles, as if to drown the rage, the frustration and her helplessness in sugar and cocoa.

An hour later, Miku felt better but no less helpless. Her questions remained unanswered, yet she didn't know how to proceed in the slightest. With some effort, she found the large whiteboard she liked to use when organizing large events and placed it in her living room, between the couch and the window, in such a way that the natural light illuminated it. Across the white surface she drew a long line, with an arrow on the right end. She separated the line into three pieces; the left-most part was labeled 'Thursday'. In the middle, the largest segment, she wrote 'Friday'. The right-most segment, formed exclusively by the arrow, was labeled 'Saturday'.

Miku was ready to piece it all together, step by step if she had to. But she had no first step, and so she found herself as ready as humanly possible, but with no direction to go in.

She considered calling her friends. For a long time she sat on her couch with her phone in her hands. She couldn't stop looking at the date, and it nagged her like a terrible joke of which she didn't get the punch line. Ultimately, after scrolling through her contact list back and forth, she didn't call anyone. How would she explain anything? How could she justify the question 'Can you tell me literally everything I did yesterday?'. It was her only lead yet...she couldn't push herself to take it.

So she ended up seated on the couch for a few solid hours. She would glance at the whiteboard, at her phone, wonder if she was hungry enough for lunch. She desperately avoided the thoughts about losing her virginity to Luka. She desperately tried to ignore the fact that it would be a milestone in her life that she would never remember. She desperately tried to remember something, anything. It could have been a thought, a wink. Looking through her school supplies told her of homework she hadn't been aware of, and she had even packed the books needed to do them. But she couldn't remember anything related to the work. The subjects they were about had been started in class if her notes were any indication, but she couldn't remember learning about them. There was so much missing; she knew that she'd have to ask for help from a teacher.

Meanwhile, everything was gone.

Around one o'clock in the afternoon, Miku noticed that she'd even gone shopping the previous day. But she had forgotten to buy more butter, and the morning mug-cake had dented her chocolate supplies quite considerably. It was decided to replenish that as soon as possible. The shop just around the corner was still open on Saturdays till two thirty, so she could drop by there quickly.

Miku had just put her school books away and written down exactly what she needed on a list when her doorbell rang.

She wasn't expecting anyone. Then Miku shuddered; what if she was, and had forgotten?! A feeling akin to watching an earring fall down the drain filled her just as quickly as it would have taken the earring to slip down to the tube. Not only had she forgotten, she didn't know what she had forgotten! There was more to a school day than class. There were conversations, promises, disputes. Just then she realized how bad it truly was to have such a pronounced absence in her memory. What else had she organized, promised, for the near or far future? How would she explain her ignorance of those?

With great hesitation, she opened the door and was surprised to find Luka there. That wasn't all; she was holding flowers and wore a nervous grin.

"Just wanted to say sorry…again," she said, half-offering the flowers.

Miku eyed the flowers for a second.

"I said it wasn't your fault."

Luka shook her head.

"No, not about that. Or, not just about that. I'm sorry for storming out. You're right; it is about more than just curiosity."

Miku was stunned. Wordlessly, she opened the door to let the pinkette in. Luka complied.

"The whole day, I wondered if I had to tell my parents where I was all night. But they didn't ask. I started asking myself if they knew already, or if I'd already told them some other lie, or who knows!" Luka started, as Miku closed the door behind her. "They couldn't know the truth in any case; if they found out that I'd slept with a girl they'd kill me!"

Miku clenched her teeth when Luka once again brought up the 'sleeping together' problem. As much as she tried to shake it off, it stuck or Luka threw it back at her. Nonetheless, she accepted the flowers and wordlessly put them in a vase. They were beautiful: various roses and tulips, all different shades of red. Some small, pale pink flowers and greenery completed the bouquet. Meanwhile, Luka kept talking.

"I started questioning everything, you see. I don't even know what kind of stuff we studied yesterday, and I have exams at the end of this year. I don't know what kind of promises I made. It's so silly but..." she trailed off.

"I know what it's like..." Miku mumbled, remembering that hollowing feeling she'd felt just seconds prior.

"What I'm trying to say is..." Luka sighed. "I'm really sorry about this morning. I was really angry. This...this kind of thing just doesn't happen. I had no idea where the hell I was. Hell...I still don't even know your name."

"My name is Miku. Miku Hatsune," she said with a smile. She was truly happy that Luka had returned with such an earnest apology, and frankly, she understood perfectly. She could only imagine how frightening it must have been for her, yet she had been so calm. No, she couldn't hold anything against her, and accepted the apology wholeheartedly.

Luka smiled.

"I'm Luka Megurine, but I guess you knew that already, quite despite yourself." She held out her hand, and Miku shook it. "Nice to meet you, Miku."

Miku nodded in reply; shy. Luka then noticed the whiteboard.

"Oh, is this our missing day?" she asked, eying the handiwork.

"Yes, but as you can see, I haven't gotten very far."

Luka pouted, then shrugged.

"All in good time. We'll figure it out." She sat down. "What leads do we have?"

"Ah..." Miku put her hands together, feeling a bit awkward. Such a quick start, so suddenly...Luka had returned with true, undiluted initiative, apparently. "I was actually planning on heading out first. I need to do a little bit of food shopping, and the store nearby is closed on Sundays."

Luka smiled again.

"Alright, then we'll go shopping."

Miku didn't expect Luka to go with her so readily. She supposed it couldn't hurt, and even looked forward to it; maybe she could get to know her a little.

So Miku donned her jacket, locked her door, and they were off.

"You live in a nice building..." whispered Luka as they walked through the hall to the door. Miku lived on the ground floor, but they still had to go down a small flight of stairs before getting to the front door.

"It's cozy," Miku agreed, also in a whisper. "The halls echo a lot, though."

Luka laughed, as their whispers were carried on by the endless echoes of the bare hallways.

"That's an understatement," she said as they exited the building. "I don't think anything echoes more than those halls."

Miku shrugged, unimpressed by the halls, but amused.

They walked towards the shop, Miku leading, and Luka following less than half a step behind.

"So, what do you do at school?" Luka asked.

"I'm part of the music club. We're holding a small concert to celebrate spring in a few weeks."

"You play instruments?"

"I compose and sing, mostly," Miku gestured that they had to cross the street. Luka pushed the button, and they waited for the green light. "I know how to play a few instruments, but only so well, so others tend to play."

"How does composing music work?" Luka asked, her brow raised. Miku noticed the tick and smiled to herself. "What do you start with?"

"To each their own, and it depends on what inspired me."

"Oh?"

The light turned green.

"Sometimes it's a melody I heard, or a succession of noises. The closing of metro doors, followed by a cough, then a ring tone, for example. Or it's a quote. In that case I write the words first. But most of the time..." Miku paused, unsure how to put it to words. Luka patiently waited, attentive. "It's a feeling."

"A feeling?"

"Yes...I'm not sure how else I could put it."

"It sounds good to me. Music is all about feelings, isn't it?"

Miku smiled. She would have liked to continue the conversation further, but they had arrived at their destination.

Miku opened the door and held it for Luka, who thanked her.

"So...this is some kind of general store?" she asked, looking around.

There were dozens of different things around of all categories. To the left, against the wall, there was a large bookcase filled with carpentry tools, art supplies, and board games. A large cooler, much like the ones in supermarkets, took the right wall. One large bookcase divided the room in two, and it was also filled with dozens of different objects.

"More or less. They don't sell everything, but they have everything I've ever needed," Miku explained, heading straight towards the back of the store.

As they progressed, more and more foodstuffs and objects related to them took over the shelves. Miku headed straight to the back and found the butter in the cooler. Luka followed and watched, seemingly lightly amused by the sheer variety of things, and frequently picked up objects for which she couldn't immediately see the use.

"Hello, Kaito," greeted Miku as she arrived by the cashier.

She took the chocolate, which was right next to him, and placed it next to the butter. The blue-haired employee, however, was oblivious; he was reclined as far as his chair allowed, with a book pitched like a tent over his eyes. Luka approached and chuckled when she heard the vague sound of techno music coming from his ear-buds.

Used to this, Miku merely rang the bell. Kaito grumbled and lifted the book from his face, only to grin widely.

"Hey Miku, didn't expect you here!" he said joyfully. Then he turned to the pinkette, who was ready to introduce herself. "Ah, nice to see you again, Luka."

Both girls were taken aback as Kaito fumbled with his chair and retrieved the scanner.

"I didn't exactly expect to see anyone here today at all," he explained, pausing for the 'beep' as he scanned the butter. "Especially not you two."

"You know who I am?" asked Luka, bewildered.

Kaito paused, holding the last pack of butter.

"Yeah. As I was saying"-he resumed scanning the objects-"I was hoping for zero customers here today. And you guys came by yesterday, so why would you come by again so soon? But butter's butter and one day you have too much and the next-"

"We were here yesterday?"

He paused again, eying Miku, this time holding the last bar of chocolate.

"Yeah...?"

The tealette didn't hesitate.

"Did you meet Luka yesterday?"

"Yeah..." he accompanied the word with a very slow, decisive nod.

The two women exchanged a glance.

"Could you tell us about it?" the tealette asked, gripping the rugged counter surface. "In...detail?"

Kaito hesitated, unsure of how to interpret the sudden assault of questions. Normally, they kept to something akin to a professional conversation. She would purchase goods, he would scan them as he talked, and accept her money. Suddenly she was showing a profound interest in what he had observed, and stranger yet, she was asking about her own actions.

She could understand his reaction, of course. The whole situation was alien. But her head was spinning; she figured that she'd gone shopping the previous day, but she hadn't known that Luka had been with her!

"Sure...I suppose. You and Luka walked in...I don't know, sometime after your school day ended, I imagine. You two were really hitting it off and took your time shopping. You didn't have a list, so Luka started saying random things, to see if it would jog your memory. It worked sometimes, too. And it was real fun watching you two; it was like Broadway. Then you both came up here, and you introduced me, which I thought was weird, because hey, normally I'm the one doing the talking. But then we chatted for ten minutes or so, then you guys left."

The two girls stared for a while.

"But...why are you asking?" he prodded, unsure. "I mean...that was yesterday. Don't you...remember?"

Luka sighed, "We don't."

Kaito put down the chocolate. "You don't?"

"No, we don't remember a second," Miku defended. "We were actually going to start reviewing everything we did yesterday because neither of us can remember a thing."

"Not a thing?"

"No classes, no words, no actions, no promises," Luka slowly listed, getting graver as she went on.

Kaito put down the scanner. "Neither of you? That's weird."

"It is. So we're trying to trace back our steps. You're our only lead so far."

"Huh."

Kaito quickly scanned the last bar of chocolate and rang the total. Miku started rummaging for cash, without letting her attention truly divert from the man.

"You know...we have cameras. One, actually. I could ask my boss permission to access the footage, if you want. There's no audio, but it's got color."

"Oh, that would be fantastic!" Miku exclaimed.

"I'd have to ask my boss, though, so I'm not sure I'll be able to get it."

"Please try," Luka plead. Throughout the exchange, she'd been biting her lip.

Kaito nodded and pulled out his phone. Surprisingly quickly, he put it to his ear.

"He's got the number on speed dial..." Luka whispered in Miku's ear, sounding somewhat amused.

"Ah, h-hi, Meiko..." Kaito hesitated, and the girls could hear a calm but happy voice answer him. "Listen, I got two customers here who were here yesterday, but they've forgotten everything. Could they see the security footage?"

"Meiko?" Luka asked.

"She's the owner of the shop. She's also my neighbor; she lives across from me," Miku replied, her tone hushed. She was trying to pick up on any clues about what Meiko thought of the idea. Meanwhile, she put down the exact change on the counter.

"Alright...local business, local people," Luka looked around a few seconds. "It's really weird because I don't remember a thing about this place, and it's pretty memorable."

"You think so?" Miku asked.

"Yeah. I'm more used to...you know, classic superstores, malls... This is somewhat magical, in comparison. Fairy-tale-esque."

Her words surprised the tealette: this store was part of her everyday life, and seemed incredibly ordinary for her. Meanwhile, Kaito was trying to defend their sanity, arguing that even the insane had better things to do than ask for security footage of themselves.

"Magical? How so?" Miku asked, still keeping an ear out for Meiko's tone of voice; the woman was usually agreeable. Usually.

Luka shrugged.

"It's less crowded but more packed. That makes it...intimate. And crazy, and imaginative." Luka paused, before chuckling and turning towards the shorter girl. "Reminds me of our little quest," she said with a grin. "Right now, I can't wait to see what happened here, less than a day ago."

Miku smiled, forgetting about Meiko. She was glad that her senior also looked forward to finding out about what had transpired, and so enthusiastically now. This sincere interest made her feel a bit less alone, and she hoped that ultimately, this was something that they could share.

She could only pray that they would remember their day this time, though. She dreaded forgetting the feelings she felt right then.

"Alright, got it!" Kaito cheered. "Thanks, Meiko!"

Miku perked up, excited to hear the answer. Luka, who had picked up something that looked like a wooden Rubik's cube, put it down, curious to hear the boss' decision.

"So, I can show you girls the footage. But I can only show you the part you guys are in, and I need to be there, so I can make sure you don't see the rest of it."

"Ah, that's no problem!" reassured Miku.

"It also involves quite a bit of administrative work, since accessing the footage isn't exactly easy. Meiko's gonna send me the passwords soon. So how about this? You girls go home, and meanwhile I can set it up. It's not like anybody is going to come here anyways to bother me," he chuckled nervously, swiftly picking up the coins from the counter without counting them. "Then I can come over to your place, and you can watch the footage."

"That's perfect," said Miku as she put the chocolate and butter in her bag. "I'll see you soon, then!"

Kaito winked, making an 'OK' sign with his hand. The two girls then headed back out.

"How does he know where you live?" asked Luka the moment the door closed behind them.

"It's almost impossible for him not too; I'm too nearby. And even if he failed to notice I live literally right there"-she pointed to the front door to her apartment complex, just across the street-"he could ask Meiko."

Luka nodded.

"He said that we were really 'hitting it off'," the senior quoted, brow raised. "What could that mean?"

Miku thought for only a second.

"It could mean a variety of things, considering it's Kaito. I hope we'll be able to guess what exactly he meant when we see the footage. There's a lot we can guess from body language."

Luka nodded again, before inhaling deeply, ready with yet another question.

"So, what do you think we were doing yesterday, shopping together?"

"Just shopping, maybe," the tealette answered.

"Why were we shopping together? We're getting closer to the 'what', but we're still far from the 'why'," her senior pointed out, quite serious. "We're going to have to backpedal a bit more."

Miku shrugged.

"We have no other leads for now, unfortunately," she stated. "This is all we got. Maybe we'll meet someone else who knows a few things."

"Maybe. We already had one lucky encounter, though. I doubt we could get so lucky twice."

"You mean we'll have to look for something else?"

"Yes."

"What do you mean? Look through our school notes? Scour newspaper articles?"

"Things like that, yeah. Real...investigation stuff. We can't count on bumping into people who know more than we do."

Miku had to admit she was right. Luck did not favor the blind and unprepared. They had to know where to look, they needed clues. She wondered if her school agenda had anything relevant scribbled into it.

She unlocked the front door to the building.

"Where would you suggest we start when we're done watching the footage?" she asked, holding the door open. Already the halls picked up on her voice and made it carry on endlessly.

"Well, we could start with looking through our things, or-"

"Oh my GOD, hello you two~!"

The two girls jumped at the sudden high-pitched greeting that was amplified thousand-fold by the echo of the halls. A tall brunette stood at the top of the mini flight of stairs, looking absolutely ecstatic to see them.

"Euhm...hello Meiko?" greeted Miku, hoping to make it clear to Luka who exactly was staring at them so excitedly.

"Hello Miku, hello Luka~" the brunette returned, stepping down the stairs, trash bag in hand. "I bet you two are doing splendidly~"

The whole while she spoke with a playful, almost naughty tone, her eyes darting between the two teens as if she couldn't decide which was more amusing.

"You...you know me?" Luka asked. Meiko seemed almost insulted by the question.

"Sweetheart, I know introductions had been hasty, but it was yesterday. To think you don't remember me..."

Miku scratched 'can't count on random encounters' from the conditions of their quest. She also started fearing the worst: Meiko knew Luka and seemed to be endlessly delighted by putting the two students in a single small frame if her ear-to-ear smile and connecting gazes were any indication. She swore that every time Meiko's eyes went from one student to the next, they were knitted closer together in her mind, as if bundled up by a spider's web. No, whatever Meiko had witnessed was something they would never, ever be able to get out of.

"I'm sorry but I-... We don't remember a thing of yesterday," Luka said, partly to try to be forgiven for 'forgetting' her, partly to simply explain their situation.

Meiko squinted.

"Oh, YOU want the footage!" she exclaimed, suddenly wild-eyed at the realization.

"Yes, we do," confirmed Miku. "All memories from yesterday are totally gone."

Meiko seemed to pause a second, before frowning and throwing the trash bag over her shoulder, as if she were the disappointed version of Santa Claus with a huge bag of gifts.

"Shame for you two: you seemed to be having the time of your lives," she mumbled as she pushed between the two to get outside.

"Wait!" interrupted Miku, almost making a grab for Meiko's arm, without daring to touch her.

The brunette turned towards her.

"See...there's a reason we want the footage. We want to know what happened," explained the tealette, reluctant to continue. "So...euhm...what did you see?"

Miku noticed that Luka, too, seemed apprehensive about Meiko's answer: she was fiddling with the hair that seemed to be permanently stuck over her left shoulder. The brunette, on the other hand, had cheered right back up.

"Alright! Listen, I'll just take this trash out, but leave your door open and I'll come on in to tell you the story!"

Just as Miku was about to express her thanks, Meiko added just one last detail before the door closed behind her.

"No kiddies allowed, sweethearts! This story is rated R!"

And the sound of the door closing echoed through the entire building.

"Oh, dear..." Miku sighed.

She truly hated being reminded of the nature of her and Luka's meeting that morning. She had had a little hope that their situation wasn't what it had seemed, but with each reality check from Luka it had faded bit by bit. Reduced to a speck of dust, she feared that the little remaining hope was about to swept away by Meiko's eyewitness.

"Hey, we'll manage, alright?"

Miku had jumped, not because of the suddenly reassuring tone in which they had been spoken, but because of the hand that rested on her shoulder.

Despite her surprise, it was heartening. Luka was right: things happened all the time, some bad, some good, and people all over the world managed. On the grand scale of things, this little thing was definitely manageable. Somehow, they would manage.

"Yeah...thank you," Miku whispered against the echo, sincere.

Luka gave her a smile of encouragement before they headed back to Miku's apartment.

The big whiteboard stood ominously in the middle of the room. Still lit by the sun, still empty, still the physical incarnation of the girls' demand for answers.

"Alright..." Miku grabbed a marker. "What do we know now?"

"After class, we went shopping together," Luka answered as she took a seat on the couch. She stretched, getting comfortable.

Miku nodded and made a little mark for noon for reference, and one for four o'clock. She usually took half an hour to get home from school, so she decided to put a little dot on four thirty to indicate their arrival at the store.

"But I end class at three...!" Luka suddenly exclaimed, confused. "You finish at four on Fridays?"

"Yes, I do..." Miku responded, marker hovering over the board.

"Well, that's an anachronism," Luka stated.

Miku stared at the board dumbly.

"I wouldn't skip class," she mumbled.

"I'm not so sure I'd wait an hour for someone I barely knew on a Friday. No offense."

"None taken," Miku said as she rubbed away the little dot. "As long as we're not certain, I won't date it."

"Alright..."

Luka watched as Miku meticulously wrote above the time line 'Shopping together', without any corresponding dot.

"Anything you want to add?" she asked, hoping that the label was specific enough.

"No, that's enough for what we know."

Miku thought for a second, and just as she was going to ask a question, Meiko barged into the room.

"Grab your popcorn, tissues and 3D glasses, cause this is going to be a hell of a show!" she declared, shutting the door behind her. "Wow, I never thought I would have the honor to tell this kind of story to anyone, for their own benefit! Haha, it's like the universe played a huge prank on you guys! And in my favor, too!"

Miku rolled her eyes and sat next to Luka as Meiko took center stage next to the whiteboard. The brunette, of course, noticed the large off-white surface. Immediately seeing what it was for, and ultimately decided it was of no use to her, she grabbed a marker and began swinging it around theatrically as she told her tale.

"The time is ten past five," she started in a dark, somber tone. "Not a sound to be heard in the entire building. People are reading, knitting, doing who-knows-what. I, myself, was solving the most difficult Sudoku in history. Then...the front door shut. Everyone heard it. I heard it. Obviously. Those cursed halls carry the tiniest sound from the lowest floor all the way up to the top of the building, magnified, multiplied! So me, poor lady on the first floor, got the blunt of it all when I heard...giggles.

"They never stopped. Endless, endless laughs, chuckles, high-pitched expressions of innocent joy! It was impossible to tell how many perpetrators were responsible for such irresponsible mirth as the sounds were repeated again and again and again! I, poor soul, could not possibly concentrate on my oh-so-difficult and important Sudoku! No, it was beyond impossible! My building rage for those chirping merrymakers was so great that I was more focused on the actual building of my rage than the Sudoku! Ah, how it had infuriated me so!"

She paused for breath.

"But finally...or suddenly rather, it was difficult to tell... See, the sounds continue for a long time after the source stops, in those halls. But with continuous exposure, one develops a skill in being able to interpret those echoes with a certain amount of accuracy. So yes, the sounds faded away gradually...but their source had actually stopped suddenly! The miscreants had abruptly stopped giggling like infant girls. Only the ghost of their joy remained, bouncing through the halls, before it, in turn, faded away forever.

"I thought that my three-minute ordeal had finally been over. Silence had returned to the mansion. The Sudoku waited for its completion. Gleefully, I turned my attention and devotion back to it, and managed to scrawl a measly little '3' when suddenly! A deafening, enormous metal clash was heard! And again! And AGAIN! It repeated for endless seconds, and thanks to my honed skills as echo-interpreter, I realized that the culprits were still on the first floor. After three minutes of yapping, they were still right outside my door! And that noise! While after the clash, it had gone quiet again, it wasn't guaranteed they wouldn't make more! Nay, the contrary! Certainly without my intervention, they would continue for another three minutes! And maybe another!

"My Sudoku was long forgotten. I got up, headed for my door, and opened it. And there...lay many an explanation. First of all, there were two little delinquents. Second, the guilty one of the loud noise was the bundle of keys that had fallen to the ground. Third, it became quite apparent why they had been giggling and most importantly...why they had so suddenly stopped~"

A lecherous grin took over Meiko's face. The two teens could only expect the worst.

"Oh, they were kissing! Passionately, and dare I say, lustfully! Oh, they kissed as if they knew they were living their last days! Pushed up against the door frame, hands everywhere, not a breath of space between them! Endless pulling, tugging, physical expressions of 'more, more!' And more could only be served! There was no other way! A hand slipped and a shirt, a skirt...! A deep moan then tore through the air, rode the halls all the way to the top of the building, and I could only hear, as I heard that sound, how they were slowly but surely...reaching their own summits of joy..."

Two wide pairs of eyes stared at Meiko.

"Then I laughed and told you guys to get a room. You kinda snapped out of it, Miku, and managed to open the door and sorta half-introduce Luka to me even as she was giving you a hickey"-she paused then pointed with a grin-"that hickey."

Miku's hand shot to her neck. Luka's face matched her hair color.

"Then you went inside your apartment and shut your door. End of story."

"Oh my fucking god," breathed Luka.

"That can't be true!" exclaimed Miku, half desperately.

Meiko only shrugged with a self-satisfied grin.

"Please. You can ask literally anyone in this building 'Hey did you hear me passionately make out with my girlfriend in the halls yesterday?'. I can guarantee you that you'll get 'Definitely' and 'Please do that again, without the giggling and the dropping of stuff'."

Luka groaned.

"You two were so hot, though. So much...petting."

"Meiko, we...we've heard enough..." Miku stated quite haltingly.

Meiko paused, and noticed that her time of welcome had expired.

"Alright gals, if you have any other questions about yesterday, just knock on my door. You can ask tomorrow or in a hundred years! Just dig up my grave and read the back of my skull; it's all engraved there forever!"

She shut the door behind her, before sheepishly returning to put the marker back in its place. Then she left for good.

Miku inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly, rolling up in a ball. She put her hands on either side of her head.

She couldn't believe it. There was absolutely no denying what had happened. The feeling of having been robbed returned, only twice as heavily and violently. And she had been willing! She sounded so, so willing! That might have been a comfort, knowing that little less than twenty-four hours prior she had been eager to embark on such a journey, but somehow it only added pain. She didn't know what had encouraged her. She didn't know how she could let herself get so intimate with someone so quickly! She'd always thought that she'd need a few dates to be ready enough...but less than a day? She wondered if there was something wrong with her, but without her memories, she truly couldn't tell.

Once again a comforting hand found its place on her shoulder. Its weight and warmth brought her back to reality, and somehow she managed to make a clear distinction between the present contact and the kind Meiko had told them of. It wasn't the same gesture, and wasn't the same touch. It had a different meaning, a different intention, and what it meant at that moment was suddenly immeasurably precious to her.

"I'm sorry for freaking out a little..." Miku mumbled, taking her hands away from her head. "It's..."

Luka said softly, "It's alright, really."

The tealette turned towards her, and realized that she'd been fighting back tears; her vision was blurry. With a suppressed giggle, she wiped them away with her sleeve.

Luka wasn't looking all too happy, either. Nonetheless, she was providing the tealette with support. Miku realized that her senior was being endlessly generous when it came to tolerating her...maybe childish views. She was very quick to comfort her, and Miku couldn't have been more thankful.

Then came a second realization: Luka had, since the very beginning, asked questions about Miku, for Miku. But the tealette had difficulty with returning the favor, beyond understanding her actions and motives. Feeling guilty and somewhat selfish, as if she had, until then, taken the older girl's kindness for granted (because she definitely had), Miku almost shook the hand off of her. But denying attention because she didn't deserve it wasn't the answer. Instead, she thought that she could work herself up to Luka's level.

A question came to mind. And the moment it arrived, it burned a hole through her consciousness. It was something that she had to have answered, for she felt that the answer, yes or no, would impact her heavily for a reason she couldn't yet comprehend.

She opened her mouth to speak. Luka noticed. Then Kaito knocked on the door.

"I got the footage, girls!" he called through the wooden surface.

Miku visibly deflated but went to greet him nonetheless. He was there with a laptop, which was open. A few cords hung from the keyboard. He'd walked through the streets like that?!

"I kinda need to plug it in ASAP," he said sheepishly.

Miku let him in and showed him the nearest outlet to the couch. He plugged in his computer then sat between the girls.

"Alright, it's all ready. This is the second before you two come in, and I'll stop it the second you two leave. It's...roughly half an hour long."

"Half an hour?" asked Luka incredulously, once again fiddling with the hair over her shoulder.

Kaito shrugged, "Yeah. Explains why it took me a while to get here. I kept waiting for you two to leave so I could know when the 'stop' point would be. I wanted to be super ready, you know? Don't want to break any rules or anything..."

Miku looked at the screen. It showed a picture of the shop. The image was grainy, but it was still clear that the camera was hanging somewhere above and to the right of the door. Still, they could look down the entire length of the store, with the cashier all the way in the back, to the left.

"Half an hour..." she mumbled. "So be it. Let's see what happened."

"Alright! Let's go!" cheered Kaito, pressing the 'play' button.

The second after Kaito pressed play, the door in the bottom left corner of the screen opened, and sure enough, the two girls entered the store. Kaito was right: there was no sound, but the color was good. Despite the grainy picture, the colors helped them see more than they would have otherwise. Miku could only imagine how painstaking it could have been if they had to see the exact same tape in various shades of gray. Could they even tell the girls apart?

Luckily, there was color, and they could see well enough, so they saw that the girls were slowly, but surely making their way to the back of the shop. Every now and then Miku would pause to pick something up. Kaito, way in the back, watched, symbolized by a pinch of blue dots.

Around the five minute mark, Friday-Miku seemed to hesitate more than she did before.

"See, you didn't remember what else you had on your list," Kaito explained. "You're trying to think of what other things you needed."

Friday-Luka, who had been admiring some pale object (Miku thought it would be fun if it had been the same wooden Rubik's cube that had fascinated her so just earlier), then walked up to Miku. With no sound, it was impossible to tell if they were talking or thinking. Suddenly, she elegantly dashed from one object to the next, waving her arms, reminding the tealette vaguely of 'Singing in the Rain'. Every now and then, Miku would catch up to her and pick something up, while Luka would go on, so swift it seemed almost choreographed.

"Here Luka's listing all the random things she's coming across. It's helping a lot," Kaito once again helped with his witness. "It was real fun. Straight out of a Disney movie."

Luka chuckled at the sight of herself, only a day prior.

Miku, on the other hand, had been focused on very, very slight details that caught her eye. Sometimes, she needed to spot just that one pixel that betrayed a single little action, movement or touch. She noticed that the two girls on screen seemed incredibly close. From that one hand resting on a forearm, or touching shoulders, or the short contact that told that maybe they had held hands for a second, to even, she thought, a kiss on the cheek.

The two girls she was studying were close. Best friends since kindergarten. Or, they were in a relationship, and being very open about it.

Miku felt like she was looking in a mirror, but her reflection was possessed. She couldn't imagine that who she was looking at was her. And yet...

She thought of the comfort that Luka had brought her so easily with only a touch. She thought of how smoothly she'd taken it. It seemed so...effortless. More importantly, it felt almost natural.

The tealette shook herself back to the present when the two girls on-screen started dancing together. Holding hands and twirling around the store, Luka still picked up random objects and she spun past.

"You two were laughing so hard," added Kaito with a contented smile. "It was like...the happy end of a Disney movie! So jovial."

Finally, after a good twenty minutes of their dance-shopping, the two made their way to the counter. Quieter, calmer, they seemed to stand right next to each other, close enough to touch without having to try.

As they had gone all the way to the back of the room, their images were formed by a mere pinch of pixels each. Kaito had totally disappeared between a cluster of pink and teal.

And they stood there. Their only clues that the footage hadn't been paused were the slight changes in the pixels showing the walls, indicating that the outside light was slowly changing, and the strange lighter band that kept going up and down the screen.

"What exactly did we talk about?" asked Luka after two minutes of seemingly nothing happening.

"Oh..." Kaito blew a raspberry. "Silly things about forgetting a shopping list. Then of forgetting in general."

Miku's eyes widened at that. A clue?

"But really, only little things said between giggles. You two were in such a great mood. Let's see...Luka mentioned that you were in the music club, Miku."

"I learned that today!"

"Apparently not..." mumbled Miku, who was closely watching the pixels. Suddenly, the teal had shifted somewhat, or rather, the color changed a bit before returning to its original shade. Had Luka...run her hand through her hair?

"Miku, then you talked about the people in your club, but that didn't last long. You moved on towards what you were planning for the concert that's in a few weeks. You talked a long time about the kind of songs you would be playing, and Luka listened really well. It's like you were her whole world," he explained with a chuckle. "Sorry, must be weird for you two to hear."

"We got worse from Meiko earlier..." grumbled Luka.

"Meiko was here?" Kaito asked, sounding excited.

"Yeah, she got to tell us her part of the story we've forgotten."

"She also saw you guys yesterday? What did she have to say?"

"Nothing important..." Luka said, dismissively. Somehow, Miku knew that she had said that for her sake, to get Kaito to drop the subject, and not to belittle the worries she had had related to the subject. It was important to Miku, and Luka knew, but Kaito didn't have to know.

"Oh, alright," Kaito said, dejected. "But at least it's a little bit you're certain of, right? A small step can go a long way!"

"Right..." Miku confirmed, hoping to end the conversation; it looked like the girls on screen were going to head out soon.

Sure enough, mere seconds later, they turned form the cashier and headed for the door. Luka was carrying the grocery bag. As they got closer to the door, their expressions got more and more defined. They were smiling, so much so that it looked like their eyes were closed, and walked closely together. Miku wondered if they were holding hands.

The door opened, then they disappeared. Kaito paused the footage.

"Alright, that is it," he declared, apparently very proud of himself and the job well done. "Any parts you want to watch again?"

"No, I think I've seen enough. You, Miku?"

"...maybe just a single moment," she said, hesitant. She had to be sure.

She instructed the man to rewind to a certain point: when they got to the cashier, or rather, about two or three minutes after.

"What do you expect to see, Miku?" asked the pinkette, brow raised. "Literally nothing is happening. We're standing there, and we're so far from the camera that my hair looks like one of those 'z' shaped blocks from tetris."

The younger teen didn't answer, and merely watched. And yes, there it was. The slightest of shifts: the pixels hadn't even moved, but they had changed color in just a way that she could tell that there had been movement just too slight to properly convey with those large pixels. And from what she could interpret...Luka had probably touched her hair.

"You're right, there's nothing..." she sighed. "We've all seen it."

"And the rest is history..." Kaito whistled, unplugging his computer. "So, the time of your visit was from half past four till...maybe a little after five," he added, after noticing the whiteboard.

Miku thanked him and put the appropriate points on the board.

"Alright, have a good day, girls! And good luck with finding out what happened!" Kaito said before swiftly getting out the door.

"For a guy who loves talking, he sure doesn't waste any time getting places," Luka remarked. "And I do finish school at three, not four."

"Well, maybe you went back to school or you met me in front of the store or something else. Either way, you were there at four thirty."

Luka sighed.

"That's right. We know where we were...but why? You had shopping to do, surely. But why was I with you? Why would I wait for you? Did I bump into you? Why did I tag along?"

Miku wondered if she had also noticed their proximity in the footage, but decided to keep her mouth shut about it.

"We'll find out eventually..." she mumbled, putting the cap back on the marker.

"Oh, Meiko said we were back here around...ten past five? She actually saw us around quarter past, but..."

Miku sighed, having forgotten Meiko's story. Staring at blurry pictures for thirty minutes was taxing. Nonetheless, she took the cap back off and added another dot to the time line.

"How should I label it?" Miku asked, nervous.

Luka hesitated for a while, before saying decisively, "Encounter. Just that. No need to...add any details, alright?"

And again, Miku felt that the extra word was for her. She smiled softly as she added the label.

"So, now what?" she asked.

Luka could only shrug.

"Now I suggest we go through our school stuff. See if there are any clues we can find. I doubt we'll find any more clues about what happened after five, because, well, we were here. Let's see if we can find anything from before four thirty that could possibly explain this whole situation."

Miku sighed: she didn't look forward to the task. She dreaded looking at recent school notes and being unable to comprehend them. But maybe she could try making sense of them while she was at it; it was only a day's progress, so it couldn't be too much to learn, right?

Luka had brought her bag on Friday, they had noticed, and had forgotten it at Miku's place as she had stormed off that morning. It was quite compact, so Miku wasn't surprised that it hadn't stood out in the camera footage or why Meiko hadn't pointed it out. How relevant is a random school bag to a witness, anyway?

What did surprise her was how much stuff the pinkette could put in there. She wondered how it was mathematically possible. First came out an agenda, then a few thin notebooks, then a binder, then three pocket books, and finally a large history book. As the binder had been pulled out, Miku had the impression she was watching Mary Poppins all over again. Meanwhile, the tealette had already prepared her own schoolwork into neat individual piles: Math, English, Geography, and Literature.

The two silently scanned every little page for the slightest clue. They even swapped a few things, just to have a second pair of eyes to make sure there was nothing odd. Luka giggled at Miku's little doodles in her agenda but found none that hinted towards their missing Friday.

The work was long and exhausting. Miku had put away the math till last, and as Luka was patiently viewing her tiny (so tiny) scribbles in her history book, she finally built up the courage to open her math book.

Of course, she had learned a few new formulas on Friday. And since building on a weak foundation did not in the slightest offer a stronger structure, her understanding was limited, to say the least. The entire subject was difficult to grasp, so the new material was a whole new beast to kill.

She tried not to think about it and merely reviewed the notes, looking for something useful, but started dreading the upcoming Monday. She was so far behind in only a day...

Of course, math had nothing useful concerning the amnesia issue. Seeing that the pinkette was still busying herself with the large pages of the history book, she decided to study a little. Why not? She already had her notes ready before her.

The more time she spent trying to understand, the more her previously acquired knowledge simply unraveled. A sense of uselessness filled her; was she so incapable of studying math? What good was trying? And what good was trying to find out what had occurred the previous day, anyways? They'd just be looking for the rest of their lives without ever finding anything! They'd exhausted their sources, and had nowhere else to look!

"Oh, you're studying? I thought that you were still looking."

Miku jumped. Luka sat across from her at her dinner table, her books already packed away in her bag.

The tealette nodded.

"Yeah. You were still busy, so I tried to understand what we learned yesterday in math."

"Any luck?"

Miku sighed, "No."

"Should be simple enough. Let me see," Luka said as she scooted closer to be able to read the notes. Miku blushed lightly but turned the book slightly in her direction nonetheless.

"Easy. Let me help," offered Luka, already pulling a pen from her bag.

"No, it's fine-"

"I'm the one saying it's fine. Here, I'll explain it real quickly. You'll see in five seconds that it's really not that hard," she encouraged.

Miku listened closely as Luka explained. It wasn't as simple as Luka had made it out to be, but gradually, she managed to get a better understanding of the subject and more importantly, a strange certainty came over her that soon, when she'd be in third year, she would be able to look back at her math subjects and think that they were easy. She remembered having difficulty with multiplication when she first learned it, yet right then, she could multiply effortlessly. Somehow, knowing that repeated exposure to such problems would make them simpler, and somehow, this was incarnated by Luka. Her deep comprehension of such a silly mathematical problem wasn't what made her feel better, it was the smile. It was how she went around to explain it so easily, not the actual explanation.

Miku didn't understand it much better, and not for lack of trying. But she knew that someday, she'd understand, and that made her feel better, good enough to keep trying.

Because Luka made a visible effort to help her, Miku thanked her once, twice, then Luka wouldn't let her thank her again. The tealette could tell her senior wasn't proud of the fact that she'd failed to help Miku understand. But the tealette doubted she would be able to explain how much she'd actually helped.

Time had ticked on to five fifty. Without leads, the two had no path to pursue. Miku realized that Luka would have to go home eventually. She had gotten the impression that her parents were quite strict. Then again, that assumption was based on a single sentence Luka had said hours prior.

"I have to go. If I'm too late, my parents will kill me," Luka mumbled as she put her pen back in her bag.

Miku nodded to herself; she'd guessed correctly.

"The trip isn't too far?" she asked, hoping that Luka wouldn't put herself in danger by being out so late and alone; early spring evenings were still so dark.

"Hardly. I'm also roughly half an hour from school. Just a bit more westward," the pinkette described vaguely, putting the bag over her shoulder. "I'll be home in twenty minutes if I walk quickly enough."

Miku did the mental math and realized that Luka could be living in a house instead of an apartment complex. It was also a nicer part of town, so Miku was reassured that Luka would be safe.

"Be careful," she said despite herself as she opened the door for her guest.

Luka smiled.

"No worries, I will be."

With one more wave and a goodbye, Luka left her house for the third time that day.

Miku sat on her couch and eyed the whiteboard. Two little dots decorated the time line, and they were still so far from finding an answer. All they had discovered that day only confirmed something they had already known.

She sighed deeply.

She supposed that she could be happy, to an extent. Of all the people she knew, and of all she people that she didn't, she had ended up sleeping with Luka. And while the memory was gone, she guessed that it could have been much worse. Anybody else could have been less agreeable, or fun, or curious, or, if she could be superficial, attractive. Luka was also being so supportive and comforting...so endlessly helpful.

Yes, she supposed that she could be happy. And as the thoughts continued in her mind, the sour feeling of being robbed washed away, and the painful wound turned into something less scarring, less deep. All that remained was a certain regret that she had crossed milestones, and the memories were indeed gone forever.

That bitter regret wasn't something that could be helped, Miku thought. She knew that one day, she'd grow up and learn to deal with it. She'll have other memories to cherish.

But a fear remained; what if the sudden amnesia were to reoccur? What if the next day, she'd forget everything again? She'd have to start over... And what if it kept happening? Miku shivered at the thought: she imagined the rest of her days waking up, working again, and again, to remember what had happened the previous day. Maybe at one point someone would be assigned to her, to be there when she woke up, to tell her that it'll be like that for the rest of her life and that there's no point in trying...!

Miku shook her head, trying to chase the thoughts. It wouldn't reoccur, she told herself. But another fear emerged: what if somehow, she'd be lulled into a false sense of security? Things would return to normal, but suddenly she'll wake up married one day, with no recollection of having exchanged vows, or she'd wake up in a prison, ignorant of the fact that she'd murdered a room full of people, or she'd wake up in her coffin, unaware of the fact that she had to be dead?

The shiver returned with a vengeance. Hopefully, they would find the answers to what had caused everything, she told herself. Hopefully, they would find out if it could ever happen again. Hopefully, she'll keep her memories long enough for that to happen.

Tired, Miku decided to simply skip dinner and go straight to bed. And when she slipped under the covers, alone, in her pajamas, she remembered how strange it had felt with Luka next to her. She wondered, now that she knew Luka just a little bit better, if it would be less strange and more pleasant.

Any constructive criticism? Any theories? Just want to say something? Please review~!