Rito stared at his old friends Daru and Yuki. They looked exactly as they did back in high school, but that wasn't the strange thing. Rito's eyes focused on Yuki. She was standing in front of him, alive and well. She still had short shoulder length black hair, and she was still wearing her typical fanny pack that she used to always carry around.
Rito stood up quickly and wrapped his arms around her.
"W-What!? Rito!?" Yuki muttered as Rito continued to hold her in a caring embrace. Daru just stared at them with a strange grin, nodding his head and making weird noises. The nodding of his head moved around his messy blonde hair as he wrapped his arm around Rito's shoulder.
"Did you finally realize the beauty in front of you all along buddy?" He asked with a goofy smile.
Rito pushed him away.
"I-I just had a weird dream is all!" Rito claimed, trying to rationalize his actions.
A dream. Was that all that was? Was everything really just a dream? No. It couldn't have been, it all felt so real. There was no doubt about it, Rito didn't want to admit it due to just how unbelievable it was. But what happened was too strange to just be a mere dream.
This was a Time Leap.
His memories from twenty years ago have been transferred into the body of his sixteen year old self. Explaining what happened to him didn't leave him with unanswered questions.
Why did this happen? How did this happen?
Rito didn't have an explanation. This wasn't some manga or light novel. Things like time leaping and time travel just couldn't be possible. Right?
"I-I have to use the bathroom." Rito said quickly. He left his old friends and made his way out of his old classroom. I was kind of bizarre seeing the building from his past, that had been shut down, now open and full of life.
Rito remembered the days he used to wander the halls, reading the bulletin boards and looking at the ridiculous posters clubs posted to try and convince students to join them. Rito was so caught up in remembering his past that he wasn't watching where he was going. He found himself colliding with someone as he and that person fell to the ground.
"OOF!" They both ended up gasping as they fell down. Rito was the first to get up.
"I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention." He said as he bowed.
"Ugh, seriously!? Watch you're going next time you unshaved ruffian!" Said the person that Rito had run into. He stood up and took notice of who was speaking.
It was a girl. Rito guessed she was a 2nd year like him. She had blonde hair tied into a tight ponytail that looked like a braid and she had bright blue eyes. Rito was stunned to say the least at her beauty.
"Hello? Are you going to help me up or am I just going to lie on the floor?" The girl said with annoyed expression.
"S-Sorry." Rito said quickly as he held out his hand for the girl to grab. The girl scoffed as she grabbed it, and Rito pulled her up. The girl didn't seem to happy about falling on the floor. Rito felt bad since it was technically his fault.
"If you're quite done staring, I have somewhere I need to be." The girl said with a huff. She let got of Rito's hand and began to walk away in a very dramatic manner. Rito felt that he had seen that walk somewhere before. Where did he know this girl?
"Yo, Rito!" Rito heard someone shout to him from behind. He turned around to see Daru and Yuki approaching him.
"Hey guys." Rito said quietly. He didn't know what to say. He was happy to see his friends again, but in a way it also felt wrong. Yuki, the girl whom had died during the horrific murders during his school, was currently smiling at him, her same innocent smile that she had gave him every day when they were in high school. Then there was Daru, the one friend that he had made that still wanted to reach out to him. The one friend who he refused to let in, was treating him like his best friend. Despite having ignored him for years, it was like their friendship was never shattered.
"You leave us in the classroom by ourselves to go and flirt with a girl huh?" Daru said with a cheeky grin. Rito blushed.
"I wasn't flirting, I just accidently ran into her, that's all!" He said trying to justify meeting the strange girl in the hallway.
"I didn't know you went after...THOSE kinds of girls." Yuki pointed out.
"Like I said, you've got it all wrong! I don't even know her!" Rito defended himself.
"You don't? But she's in our class?" Daru said with a confused expression.
"Who is she?" Rito asked.
"That's Harumi Ohta. I hear she's a transfer student from England." Daru said with a grin.
Rito froze. Everything came to him. Harumi Ohta. He remembered the day he saw her name on the news. Harumi Ohta was the first in the string of murders at his school. Yet here she was alive and well?
Rito thought for a second before a thought came to his head. He was sent back to this time after he witnessed the report on Aiko's death. Was it possible that he was sent her because of the murders? It sounded far fetched, but then again, the idea of time leaping was far fetched too, and yet he managed to do it.
Was he sent here to prevent these deaths from happening? But how and why him? He had already given up on his past, he had already accepted his mistakes, so why was he sent back? Rito shook his head. Did that really matter? He was back, and he could prevent all of the deaths that could happen in the future.
Rito clenched his fists, remembering the grief the girl's friends had gone through, knowing the families and relationships that had been broken up, he wasn't just going to sit here and let those deaths happen again.
Rito turned around to where Harumi had left. He stared in that direction, much to the confusion of his two friends.
"You know Rito, I was joking about the whole flirting thing, but do you actually have a thing for Harumi Ohta?" Daru asked. Rito shook his head. He turned his friends, a smile on his face as he approaches them.
"Nah it's nothing. Let's get going, how much time do we still have for lunch?" Rito said casually. His friends were confused but they just chalked it up to typical Rito weirdness.
As Rito follows his friends down the hall, he turns back around and takes a few more seconds to stare at where Harumi had gone before walking back down the hall with Daru and Yuki.