Kokoro no X (I) ~EDITING~

Eight

The question had just popped in my head randomly. I don't know why I actually asked it.

"How do you know so much about me?"

It took a while for Koichi to answer. When he finally did, he smiled in his strange way and laughed, "That's for me to know and you to find out! Or just ponder," he added, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Couldn't you just 'flip through my memories' or whatever?"

I shook my head. "I can't do that with you. It's like a wall or something. Your mind is completely off-limits to me. Same with Takumi."

A quick flash of relief crossed Koichi's face before returning to its previous confused expression. "Huh. That's weird."

I pretended not to see the relief and gave a small laugh. "Sure is."

"Any luck?" Koichi asked me after a while and a few phone calls.

I sighed. "No, it just keeps cutting to message. I wonder what happened." I tried calling Sayuri again, only for it to cut to message one more time, the mechanical voice chiming its droning message. I hung up and sighed yet again.

"Maybe I can block off my thoughts because, well..." Koichi began, cutting off soon. He looked as though he had made a mistake.

"Because...?"

"I-I knew a Kokoro once."

My eyes widened. "You did?" I asked, surprised. "But-"

"She's dead now. Or, rather, missing. She's legally dead. She went missing ten years ago." Koichi's voice was strangely sharp.

"Oh. Do you know what happened to her?"

"If we did, then we would have found her already, wouldn't we?" Koichi snapped, not looking at me. Oh, so she must've had some kind of special connection with him like all the dead characters do in stories like this.

"What was her name?" I asked.

"Kagerou. Her name was Kagerou Akarimoto."

---

Koichi had been bugging me for days now, trying to get me to talk to the new girl. She had never been introdued, so no one knew her. No one even seemed to notice her. Koichi kept saying that she seemed really familiar, and Takumi would always nod in agreement and add a comment of his own. They kept pushing me to talk to her.

So I finally plucked up the courage to.

It had only been a week since the incident with the KFC or whatever Koichi called it, so I was still pretty cautious since he kept screaming that "the imitations are gonna find you!" and such. About a million scenarios ran through my head every time I took a step forward, and by the time I made it to the new girl's desk I had probably seen every possible scenario that could happen from talking to her.

"Y-Yes?" she asked nervously once she spotted me. Was it just me, or had I seen a flash of recognition?

"Uh..." I tried to swallow my fears as I tried to summon the words that were clear in my mind.

"W-Welcome to our class! I'm Tamotsu Akiyama." I introduced myself awkwardly.

"T-Tamotsu?" she stuttered.

"A-And you are...?"

"I've heard your name before..." she breathed before continuing. "Oh, right. I remember now. You don't have to introduce yourself, Akiyama-san.

"I know all about you."

I spotted the clan mark on her hand as she stood up. That's right, I thought. She's a Kokoro.

"Well, since you seem to be unable to break thought barriers, Tamotsu, I'll introduce myself." Koichi silently cheered from the corner of the classroom.

"I'm Kagerou Akarimoto. I look forward to working with you," she added in a creepily dignified tone.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Koichi stop cheering, his smile disappearing. Takumi froze as well. I followed suit.

"So you know about me, eh? So I figure you know abo-"

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch and cutting Kagerou off. She sat back down, as did I.

Later on, after school had ended, Koichi and Takumi pulled me aside before I could walk to Yasu's.

"DOYOUKNOWWHOTHATWAS,TAMOTSU?THATWASKAGEROU,OURCHILDHOODFRIENDANDSHEWASSTANDINGRIGHTTHEREANDSHESSUPPOSEDTOBEDEADAND-"

"Koichi, shut up! We can't know for sure that's her." Takumi scolded quietly.

"But she looks like her, and she has the same name, and-"

"Still."

"Akarimoto isn't a very common name. In fact, I've never even heard of it before," I jumped in.

"See? Even Tamotsu agrees that it's her!" Koichi protested. "Why are you so against her?"

Takumi flinched and made a growling sort of sound. "Y- I don't want to see you like that ever again!" he yelled.

Koichi looked away. "She wasn't that bad..."

"Yes, she was. You know what happened when we were little!"

"At least it's helping me fit in better as a-"

"Shut up, Koichi! Just- Just shut it, alright?" Takumi turned and began walking in a direction which I assumed to be the way to his house. "I'm walking home. Alone," he added as Koichi tried to follow him.

I turned around, heading towards my own house, calling a last goodbye to Koichi. I already knew he was following me before he even realized it. I turned around.

"Aren't you gonna go home?" I asked.

"No... When Takumi gets like this, I usually stay away. I would stay at Sayuri's, but..." He trailed off, not meeting my gaze.

"Why don't you stay with Tatsuo or Fuji or someone? You seem pretty close to them."

"I don't know them as well. It would be awkward, since we only know eachother through Sayuri."

"And what makes me different?"

Koichi fidgeted, wringing his hands and hiding his thumbs.

I sighed. "Fine, you can follow me home." Koichi instantly brightened up.

"Yes!" He cheered, following me to the house which I called my own.

---

A/N: WOOHOO ANOTHER CHAPTER AND SOME DRAMA WOO

IF YOUCAN GUESS KOICHI'S SECRET (only DMs cos we dont wanna spoil it for the others) YOU GET A SHOUTOUT AND I'LL DEDICATE A CHAPTER TO YOU

ALSO

School's started back up, and since yknow eighth grade shit and stoof oN TOP OF writing (1, 2...) I think maybe four boo- OHWAIT SIX books all at once I probably will have next to no time at all. So updates might slow down a lot (yeah i know they're pretty slow already)

Bye
-R