Ruri wants to talk to me, I wonder what is it... She walked out of the class, Haruko bowed to the girls next to me and left. I followed them and walked out of the classroom to see the delinquents. Ruri saw them and then took a stance.
"What were you planning to do?!" Ruri asked, she's protecting me, why?
"Hmph! Out of the way, I'm not going to do anything." The one named Maki said. She walked past me, bumping to my shoulder forcefully with hers, and walked off to a distance. They were now famous because of the rumours. She's just fighting for her love, perhaps. I was in her way. I thought to myself.
"Are you alright?" Ruri asked.
"I'm overjoyed, thank you." I said.
"So they knocked off your brain somewhere?" Ruri responded, with a cofused look.
"You're so rude, Ruri." Haruko said. My heart felt at ease, perhaps it's because of Yuuma-kun who fought back to protect me, it felt dreamy... Dreamy...? I felt like I had said this word before. For a moment, my head felt the pain I had back then.
"Ahhh... Ahhhh!" I groaned in pain, making both Ruri and Haruko worried.
"So, you really did lost your brain?!" Ruri is still making jokes despite looking worried.
"It happened again, well... I already contacted Ryutenji-san." Haruko said.
Ruri and Haruko helped me to get into the infirmary, they laid me down on an infirmary bed and sat next to me.
"Rika-san, what happened to you?" Ruri asked, trying to diagnose my conditions.
"You somehow found a memory from your past, is it?" Haruko said.
"Yes... But I'm not sure if it is from the past..." I said, the pain started to become overwhelming, yet I thought I can see something... It was me, thanking... A goddess?
"A goddess...?" I mumbled.
"Huh? Rika-san, don't die on me!" Ruri is just exaggerating, I had no idea that she is this funny.
"Ah Ryutenji-san, you're here." Haruko said.
"Well, I do keep my promises." Ryutenji-san said, looking at this man, I remembered something.
"Ryutenji...? I know you..." I said, out of uncertainty.
"Hmmm, yes. You do know me. Now shut up and sleep." Ryutenji-san said. My pain went away, and I slowly drifted away into sleep.
It was so brief, and I suddenly met a person who looked exactly like me, with longer hair than mine. I reached out to her and called.
"Hello?" I said. The girl noticed me, and gave me a bow. I instinctedly bowed back.
"You're...?" She asked.
"Mizuhara Rika, nice to meet you." I replied. She gasped.
"I'm Mizuhara Rika too, are you perhaps another version of myself in another world?" She asked.
"Huh? Is there many versions of worlds?" I have many questions in my head.
"Fine, can you tell me about your world?" She asked.
"There is nothing particular happened in my world. Perhaps do you have something in common?" I asked.
"Zombies...?" She said.
"What?! You even have a zombie apocalypse there?!" I shouted in surprise.
"Ah, it's a long story..." She said.
"My world back then is created for people who wished upon a star. They are responsible to find their own goals and clear them. Just like a trial." She added.
"Oh... I had no such knowledge... I heard Haruko said something related to worlds, perhaps she might know something?" I said.
"What?! Haruko is there?!" She suddenly got agitated. Maybe she found out something important in my words.
She attempted to approach me, when her fingers touched me, her body glows and started to disappear. W-what is happening? Before I even figured out the situation, I returned to my senses. It's Haruko sitting next to my bed.
"Eh? What happened to me... Ah, a girl who looked the same as me..." Haruko stopped me.
"Ah, Ricchan! You're awake!" Haruno reveals herself from the curtains that surrounds the bed.
"You made me soooooo worried!" Haruno said.
"I'm fine, sorry for worrying you." I smiled at her. She smiled back, feeling relieved.
A part of myself felt odd about this, I wondered why. I turned to Haruko and signalled her that I wanted to talk to her. She nodded.
"Haruno-san, it's already evening, it's time to head home." Haruko said. Haruno gets the idea and hurried back to pack up my belongings. Haruko waited for a while before sitting back on the chair she was on a while ago.
"So, Ryutenji-san sent you to meet yourself from the past is it?" Haruko nailed it, I nodded my head vigorously, indicating that she is right.
"So, what did you learnt?" Haruko asked.
Multiple worlds, different versions, zombie apocalypses, and trials. I told them all to Haruko. She nods her head as I went on, every nod indicates how true they were to her.
"So she did tell you everything." Haruko commented, she paused for a moment, and continued talking.
"There is something she didn't tell you." Haruko said.
"Just like before, she always miss the big picture." Haruko added. Being refered as an another person sounds weird to me, yet I do think her as an another individual than me.
"Umm, what was it?" I asked.
"Your trial. I bet she didn't even know what was it." Haruko sacrastically said about the other version of me.
"Trial? Now you mentioned it, what was it?" I asked. Suddenly, the door slid open, Haruko stopped talking about this and asked me to prepare to go home.
"Ricchan! Here's your bag and belongings!" Haruno said.
"Thank you Harukon, I'm glad to be friends with you back then." I thanked her. She cried.
"Ahhh... Ricchan, you finally called me Harukon! Waaaaah!" She cried. Haruko stood there and gave me a weird expression.
"Well, I hate to bother you two, but that name is kinda misleading don't you think so?" Haruko said.
"Ah! Now I remember, our name sounds familiar." Haruno exclaimed.
"Yes, it do sounds familiar, but we used a different word for the name. Mine is 'Haru' for spring." Haruko said. Apparently it's Haruno who made me felt familiar to Haruko's name, so she really did helped me out there.
"So, mine is 'Haru' for sunny weather!" Haruno said.
"Well, no matter how, the both of you are my friends, okay?" I grabbed their hands and put them together. There goes, the argument is then settled down.
Haruno headed home alone, while Haruko followed me to a nearby cake shop. We had some cakes and tea, we continued to talk about my encounters back when I lost my consciousness.
"Rika-san, as mentioned, you wished to see Yuuma again." Haruko said.
"Eh?! Why did I wish for that?" I asked, I felt rejected to the answer. Haruko took a sip of her tea.
"Well, if you wanted to know, I could tell you about it. But don't get emotional after this." Haruko warned. I nodded, Haruko took another sip of her tea.
"Well, the tea here is not bad at all... I can come here alone again next time." Haruko said.
"Erhem!" I cleared my throat.
"Well, long story short, Yuuma died in front of you to save you. That's why you wished for that." Haruko said.
I couldn't believe it... With the little hint of the headache returning, I could see something vaguely, it's about Yuuma-kun confessing to me. I ran off and... Ah, Yuuma-kun... No... That isn't true...
"I think you could have figured out on your own later." Haruko said, before leaving. We paid our bills, and left the shop. Walking home on the way, someone patted on my shoulder.
"Kyaaa!" I went.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Yuuma-kun apologised. Seeing him kinda reminds me of the scene where he died tragically. I shuddered, as we reached the traffic light.
"Hmmm? Rika-chan, it's already green." Yuuma-kun stopped crossing the road when he noticed me not moving.
"Rika-chan, it's already..." Yuuma-said. I stopped him before he could finish his words.
"I know... But can we... hold hands while we cross the road?" I said reluctantly.
Yuuma-kun held my hand and crossed the road. Despite a trauma, my legs moved voluntarily upon crossing the road. Returning home with our hands still connected, we instinctively retracted our hands quickly, our mothers who were chatting with each other looked at us with a smugged expression.
"Oh dear, Yuuma-kun what were you doing with Rika just now?" My mother asked.
"Uhh... It's nothing, madam!" Yuuma-kun became flustered.
"Well, tell mommy as well, Yuuma." Even his mom started teasing him. I chuckled along the way.
I had my bath and dinner, now lying on my bed, despite it's still early. I started to think of the memories I recalled and kept on reading them like pages of a book. They slowly appeared vivid as I find more clues from the pages. I even fell asleep in the process. To think that so much has happened on the other version of me, I started to feel a connection between me and the other version of me. Though I started to acknowledge the fact that she is actually myself, yet there is one thing that didn't link up... I suddenly woke up and looked outside of my window. It's still in the middle of the night. I checked the time on my phone, it's 9:30 p.m. I quickly typed a message to Yuuma-kun. Perhaps this is the way I can find out the truth.
"Yuuma-kun, sorry to disturb you in the night. I had a request for you. Could you confess to me again in the courtyard again? It can be any time, just take your time. It might sound selfish, but it is quite important to me. Thank you." I hit the send button and continued my sleep, I had a feeling that he will start preparing as soon as possible. Knowing that in mind made my heart rampage. I couldn't sleep at all!