The rain fell in sheets pelting my window. Even though it was just before seven in the morning, the sun was absent from the sky. More specifically, it was hidden by the dark grey clouds that filled its domain. I was unable to go back to sleep after that dream. My mind continued to play it back over and over no matter how much I cried and begged to be free of it.

  I slowly got up and put my futon away before trudging into the bathroom to try to get ready for school. It was the second week of the semester, and I was already desperate for it to all be over. I only continued going in the hopes that one day, they would look at me, recognize me, and everything would go back to the way that it was before. I glanced at myself in the mirror — tear-stained cheeks and red, puffy eyes.

  After doing all I could to look alive, I sat down with a cup of coffee. The swirling black abyss was held to the small porcelain cup in my hand. The taste was less than pleasurable, but for free, it was more delicious than any drink I had ever tasted. I finished three cups of the large pot I had made and saved the rest for later. Caffeine tends to dull the appetite, and since I had no income, I would have to make the food that was available in the unit last as long as possible.

  I put on my uniform, grabbed an umbrella, and set off. Once outside, I caught a glimpse of a bigger guy not much older than me placing trash bags outside of his door. Neither of us said anything as we exchanged glances. At the bottom of the stairs, the landlady was pulling in sandbags to brace against any flash flooding. She turned her head in my direction, smiled, and waved. I first looked behind me to make sure I was not mistaken, but there was no one there.

  She can see me?!

  I smiled and waved back, and she went about her business. The two incidents at the apartment complex gave me a glimmer of hope that what Kaori had done could be undone or was already coming undone since her death. A few steps away from the train station, something possessed me to turn back to the complex.

  On it was writing that was so faded and washed away that it looked like another language. Graffiti, various banners, and background light from the neon signs of opposing buildings made it seem like multiple languages were inscribed all over my unwilling home. It seemed interesting for a moment. I turned back and continued my long trek to school thinking to myself as I took a seat on the train.

  How am I supposed to continue living in this place? What did Damien mean by 'getting it for a discount'? Where the hell has he been? He showed up, beat the brakes off of me, said we were starting our partnership, then left. He didn't even leave a note or anything saying how we would go about his outlandish plan. I guess until he does, I'm on my own.

  I arrived at the school once again, and it seemed like an impossible task just to enter the building. My shoe locker was close to the bottom, so several people would trip over me in the less than two minutes it took to switch my shoes. I thought about freezing time and reappearing in the restroom near my classroom, but on the off chance that I am visible to someone, that would make for a whole new headache.

  I spent my day in solitude. It seemed like the two earlier acknowledgements of my existence were flukes. I often caught myself stealing looks at Chika who sat diagonally from me three seats away. Denki was to her right, and the two of them seemed to carry on just the same as they had when I was around. I tried as hard as I could to keep my eyes forward, but her perfection continued to draw me in.

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  The weight of it all hit my heart again, and I buried my face in my arms in silence. My breaths again became jagged, and I felt my heart in my throat. Tears flooded my eyes as my brain replayed the perfect dream all over again. When I finally forced my eyes open and my head up, all was still around me. I had accidentally frozen time again. I pushed my face back into my arms on my desk and pounded my fist against the table top in anger and pain.

  I sat up and began to go through the steps to undo what I had done, but before I let go, a thought crossed my mind. A deranged and horrible thought filled my mind. I lost all control of my body as I slowly stood up and walked over to her desk. In front of me sat the light of my life. Her brown hair looked like a river of caramel cascading down her slim and beautiful face. The sun caught her jade eyes just perfectly to make them sparkle like green-tinted stars in the night sky. I was lost in what I beheld, I barely noticed my hand moving up to her face.

  STOP IT!! Don't you dare touch her!

  I grabbed my own hand and pulled it back like some sort of rabid dog. I struggled to take even a single step backwards away from her, so I stood and fought against myself for seemingly hours. After it was all over, I was on my knees in the same place as before. Her gaze was averted just as it was when time flowed normally. Once more, my hand rose to meet it; only this time, there was no other hand to stop it. Instead, it twitched just short of making contact; then, it curled up, and returned to me as defeated as its master. All I could do was hold my own hand in my lap as I stared into her unaware eyes.

  I miss you so much... I never fully understood or appreciated how every little reaction made my life livable. I was so scared that you would die if you got close to me that I kept you out. When I finally saw what a fool I was... it was too late. I'm so sorry...

  I knelt in silent reflection for a long time before returning to my seat and resuming the flow of time. No one was any wiser that anything had happened. The only thing close to a response was Angelica Grey glancing over at my desk and pushing slightly more air out of her nostrils than normal, perhaps in a sort of observation sigh. The rest of my day was lonely and uneventful; however, I attempted one thing to further my own goals of undoing Kaori's ability.

  After school was over, I waited until everyone had left before sneaking back into the faculty offices. The sun was free falling from the sky, and night was beginning to take hold as I sat down at one administrator's desk. My goal was simple: find out where Yamada went after junior high school. I began with rosters of my class in junior high, but when those failed to yield any sorts of results, I was forced to go larger. I went into a legacy database and searched for her across all schools for the previous five years. The results were the same, she could not be pulled up.

  I sat back in the old administrator's chair and thought about what it could all mean. Either I was going crazy, or someone erased Yamada from every database at some point. The question might have been who, but who hardly mattered. Kaori could have told anyone to do it, and her ability would have taken hold forcing them to do it. Again, either I was going crazy, or Kaori had Yamada erased from any sort of database to cover her tracks.

  She really was scary good. Now what, though?

  I sat up and retrieved my things before clearing any evidence of my presence. The ride back to the Cirsam District was as introspective as the ride to school. Countless questions filled my head with absolutely no answers to keep up with them all. The rain had picked back up by the time I arrived at the station. Again, I took in the weird pseudo-language that covered the complex as I returned. The land lady's sandbags were keeping the overflowing drainage from drowning the walkways in the complex. As I was about to open the door of my apartment, a small voice stopped me dead in my tracks.

  "I-Ishi-Ishi...?"

  I turned around at break-neck speeds to see a blue-haired girl dressed in a long coat and rain boots. Our eyes met and the weight of being the only living person to remember me fell to one Yamada Shizune.