Replay

3-2 Identity

A/N: I think I'll stick with about one chapter a month. Compared to my fall semester, I wrote a substantial amount over winter break, although still not as much as I hoped. Uh sorry, kinda?

So yeah, 'about' one chapter a month.

But thank you to everyone who's been staying along with me! I hope you enjoy this chapter.

New cover! Here's the textless version, with Blake and Frank. If you look closely, I drew several characters in the glass shards. Can you tell who's who? (If you're on mobile and can't see it, please let me know.)

All right, now here's the chapter.

"Would you like these in a bag?"

"Yes, please." The cashier withdrew a paper bag from underneath the counter and unloaded the stack of thick books into it before sliding it over. I placed a hand under the bag and grunted as I heaved it off the counter and held it to my chest. With a small nod to the employee, I walked away from the cashier and weaved around a few shoppers to head towards the escalator.

The place Youko had brought me to a few weeks ago had quite the extensive collection, with an entire floor dedicated to only foreign books in English. While I considered myself fairly proficient, I was by no means confident in my ability to read technical language in Japanese, even if I had originally applied for a job here. I peeked down at my receipt, tucked into the paper bag. Hashing, networking, and concurrent programming, which accumulated to a grand total of... heh heh, well, I guess I'm eating at home for a while.

Youko had been surprised when I came up to her with a book on encryption, which had been the cheapest one that I wanted. And now, I was back for the others.

One of the books on display caught my eye for the second time as I passed it, but I continued on. Seeing one of my old college textbooks being sold as up to date had been somewhat bizarre. But computers were still fairly new inventions in scale, and much could (and would) change over the next twelve years.

This world was almost the exact same as mine, as if the clock controlling the flow of time had simply wound backwards to plop me in the middle of 2005. George W Bush was the US President, Akihito was the Japanese Emperor, etc. Tokyo Revengers took place in a modern setting, so it wasn't too hard to believe that this world would be nearly identical to the real one. Except for the people I personally knew.

I descended the short flight of stairs and exited the bookstore through the double-glass doors.

The books I'd bought were somewhat outdated in comparison to my time, sure, but the knowledge was still beneficial. Although if I didn't have anywhere to practice or apply it, it wouldn't really amount to much. The storefront of a tech store taunted me with a 'new' laptop model, the bulky block having specs that were pretty pathetic compared to those of my time, yet it was still nowhere near affordable to me. I was not going to be owning a computer any time soon. I plodded past.

My wavy hair and mid-length skirt fanned out before me from the crisp breeze. There was a flash of movement as a crimson maple leaf fluttered down into my bag from the tree above, just one of the countless accumulating on the sidewalk around it. I admired the star-shaped leaf, its jagged edges tinged with gold, before flicking it off. The transition to autumn had brought vibrant colors and mild temperatures, quite the abrupt change from the sweltering summer climate only weeks ago. Thank God that's over.

I looked over as I heard an electronic jingle but halted as a familiar face emerged from the supermarket.

"Hina-chan," I called.

Her copper-brown hair stirred from underneath her beret as the girl walked towards me, my surprise mirrored on her face. "Blake-chan!" A short, dark-haired boy popped his head out from her side and surveyed me. Both had their hands full with reusable bags loaded with groceries. The Tachibana siblings, going on an errand.