Thursday, September 29, 2016, 8:49 PM
Yomi was used to Tomo invading her space, but now that she lived with all of her schoolmates living in the same apartment complex, everyone except Osaka had managed to wander into Yomi's living room. Not that she minded, as it's not like she had anything important to study for.
"I still can't believe we're time travellers. It's so romantic!" Kaori said to the room. Or perhaps just to herself; there were often times when she couldn't tell if she was being ignored.
It felt like another one of those times for half a minute, until Yomi set down out of her book. "I can't believe it either."
"I know, right? It's like maybe, because of tradition, something couldn't happen before, but now in the future, maybe two people can— they can—"
"That's not what I meant. Doesn't something seem odd with this picture?" Yomi held up a copy of the complete Lord of the Rings next to her face. The book was on loan from the manager, with a bookmark a good hundred pages in.
By now, everyone had tuned in to the conversation, but met Yomi's query with blank stares nonetheless.
Tomo murmured, "No? Yomi was always a huge nerd."
"What I don't understand is why I can speak and write English so well."
"Eh?" wondered Chiyo-chan. "What do you mean?" She put down her own book, an American edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
"Well, I know that you were always fluent in English, but that's because you're so smart."
"She's a fricking genius," Tomo inserted.
While hitting Tomo's forehead with a convient paper fan, Yomi calmly continued, "None of the rest of us were quite that good. Even Tomo was only passable at speaking English, and she was better than me. But now... why does Osaka speak English with a Southern accent?"
"Something has changed us," Sakaki declared.
"Right. That ... or we're not who we remember ourselves to be."
The room turned absolutely silent as everyone thought through the implications of that thought.
Eventually, it was Chiyo who broke the silence, her eyes welling up with the beginnings of tears, "Yomi, if I'm not Chiyo Mihama, who am I? What am I, a clone?"
Sakaki knelt down to Chiyo's eye level, and took her hand. "No. You are Chiyo-chan. I don't think anyone could replace all of the little details about ourselves. Nor the way we feel about each other."
"Miss Sakaki!" Chiyo hugged Sakaki like a circle around the sun.
Kaori sat quietly in the corner watching the scene, her face reddening as her hands were clasped together.
Tomo decided that this was not the moment to use her joke about clones, even though Chiyo and Sakaki's Lily Rank just increased. Contrary to popular opinion, Tomo Takino did have her limits. She internally cursed that she'd probably have to wait another few months for an opportunity to use that gag, but so it goes in comedy.
Moreover, what Yomi had said really was troubling. Tomo had been thinking about it too, silently amazed at the world of multilingual puns that had opened up to her and Yomi. It was stressful enough to find yourself adrift in another world. But it was quite a bit worse to know that you were not quite the same person you had been before.
"Um, why don't we just ask the manager if he knows?" Kagura queried.
Tomo narrated, "Baka Ranger Red uses her special power: Ask the teacher!"
Yomi was used to Tomo invading her space, but now that she lived with all of her schoolmates living in the same apartment complex, everyone except Osaka had managed to wander into Yomi's living room. Not that she minded, as it's not like she had anything important to study for.
"I still can't believe we're time travellers. It's so romantic!" Kaori said to the room. Or perhaps just to herself; there were often times when she couldn't tell if she was being ignored.
It felt like another one of those times for half a minute, until Yomi set down out of her book. "I can't believe it either."
"I know, right? It's like maybe, because of tradition, something couldn't happen before, but now in the future, maybe two people can— they can—"
"That's not what I meant. Doesn't something seem odd with this picture?" Yomi held up a copy of the complete Lord of the Rings next to her face. The book was on loan from the manager, with a bookmark a good hundred pages in.
By now, everyone had tuned in to the conversation, but met Yomi's query with blank stares nonetheless.
Tomo murmured, "No? Yomi was always a huge nerd."
"What I don't understand is why I can speak and write English so well."
"Eh?" wondered Chiyo-chan. "What do you mean?" She put down her own book, an American edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
"Well, I know that you were always fluent in English, but that's because you're so smart."
"She's a fricking genius," Tomo inserted.
While hitting Tomo's forehead with a convient paper fan, Yomi calmly continued, "None of the rest of us were quite that good. Even Tomo was only passable at speaking English, and she was better than me. But now... why does Osaka speak English with a Southern accent?"
"Something has changed us," Sakaki declared.
"Right. That ... or we're not who we remember ourselves to be."
The room turned absolutely silent as everyone thought through the implications of that thought.
Eventually, it was Chiyo who broke the silence, her eyes welling up with the beginnings of tears, "Yomi, if I'm not Chiyo Mihama, who am I? What am I, a clone?"
Sakaki knelt down to Chiyo's eye level, and took her hand. "No. You are Chiyo-chan. I don't think anyone could replace all of the little details about ourselves. Nor the way we feel about each other."
"Miss Sakaki!" Chiyo hugged Sakaki like a circle around the sun.
Kaori sat quietly in the corner watching the scene, her face reddening as her hands were clasped together.
Tomo decided that this was not the moment to use her joke about clones, even though Chiyo and Sakaki's Lily Rank just increased. Contrary to popular opinion, Tomo Takino did have her limits. She internally cursed that she'd probably have to wait another few months for an opportunity to use that gag, but so it goes in comedy.
Moreover, what Yomi had said really was troubling. Tomo had been thinking about it too, silently amazed at the world of multilingual puns that had opened up to her and Yomi. It was stressful enough to find yourself adrift in another world. But it was quite a bit worse to know that you were not quite the same person you had been before.
"Um, why don't we just ask the manager if he knows?" Kagura queried.
Tomo narrated, "Baka Ranger Red uses her special power: Ask the teacher!"
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto