||MekakucitY∞TimE∞TravelS|| Part 2: The Haze

●B☆RS II● "Counseling"

"Damn it!"

Ene closed off a window for what seemed to be the hundredth time, and fled the computer she had accidentally gotten into. The accounts in the memory disk had been totally unfamiliar. Grunting angrily, she patted and picked out the viruses that had clung to her hair. 

"Gah . . . how could I be this lost?" No matter how many times she tried to trace Master's viewing history, she still couldn't find his phone. Not even through a GPS. Leaning against an ad for acoustic guitars, she sighed. 

Okay, she'd been trying to look for Shintaro's phone ever since she was suddenly flung out of it after forcing him to use his power. It had been, like, nearly a day since then. Now she was lost in cyberspace. The world she had wished to be in, changing with every blink of an eye, deleting all possible landmarks that could have helped her find her way home. New sites and accounts popping up, millions of bytes being uploaded every hour. It was chaos enough to make anybody's head spin. 

Even though she had been in the cyberspace for two years already, she never ceased to be overwhelmed by its endless intricacy. 

Humans have really taken the world in their hands, huh. 

She was already tired after moving around for so long, but Ene didn't allow her to sleep at all.

She couldn't close her eyes. 

She doubted if she still can.

A small movement whooshed by somewhere near her arm. Ene looked toward its glittering trail, and saw that it was a message being delivered. 

"Well I guess there's nothing wrong with a little exploring . . . that's how I found Master's computer in the first place, after all."

She zoomed in on the email which was moving at lightning speed, following its shimmering trail as she entered a smaller, more organized space. It was a school's website.

"Oi~ wait up!!" The email had been whisked away in the split second she observed her surroundings, and was leading her to another person's mailing inbox. She stopped, hovering around the edge of the monitor.

"Oh hello there," a woman's voice said. "Who are you?"

Several apologies ran through Ene's mind as she looked up at the person facing the computer she had entered. 

Shoot! Only Master was supposed to see her, not other people!

"Wrong entry! Sorry, I'm a little lost . . . "

But as she turned to leave, she found that the exit had been blocked with a password.

"Lost?" the woman asked. "Why, where are you from?"

It was vaguely in her memories that she was told never to speak to strangers. She tried typing in several password codes in her head, but nothing seemed to let her out.

"Why--won't--this--work???" she punched in one last combination and hit enter. 

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR!

"Gah!" She fled behind an open window, accidentally pressing 'EXIT' and closing it off. The woman cried out.

"That was my report for the principal!" she shrieked, her fingers lifting slightly from the keyboard. "What happened?"

Ene felt like screaming. "I'm sorry!" she said, opening a new browser. However, the email was gone.

"I haven't even saved it in the drafts yet," the woman whimpered.

"I'm sorry again . . . "

An uncomfortable silence filled the space between them as their conversation came to a standstill. The woman gave a sigh, as if she had finally decided, and raised the coffee mug beside the keyboard to her lips.

"Well I wanted to redo that message, anyway," Ene heard her mutter after she sipped and set down her mug. "I'm Saya Irino-sensei, guidance counselor of this school. And you are?"

She was surprised at how kind the woman was. "Ene," she said, placing her hands behind her back.

"Ene," Irino-sensei repeated. "Well Ene, how can I help a computer diva like you on such fine lovely day?"

A computer diva! She had never been so complimented. "Well you see, I'm a bit lost. I can't seem to find . . . a particular someone . . . since yesterday."

"Yesterday, huh? Did you come in together?"

She gulped. "I think so, but we got separated."

Irino-sensei placed a hand on her chin. "I see."

"We were always together, but I feel like today I won't be able to see him anymore . . . "

Normally a guidance counselor would say, 'Don't be so pessimistic, keep your hopes up!' or something similar, but Irino-sensei only furrowed her brows. 

"That urgency . . . You're still looking for him but you don't think you'll be able to see him anymore. Is there something you still have to do?"

Ene cocked her head, not comprehending. "Yes . . . somehow."

"You're hesitating. What's holding you back?"

"He . . . needs me. He just doesn't . . . realize it."

Ene was amazed at her own answer. She never felt a fondness for him as much as anyone else's, but . . . 

A horrible pain started behind her eyes, but when she raised her hand to wipe the tears away, they were still dry. 

No. She had a plan. And it wasn't to help him. It was to get him back. Him, the one from her past.

Irino-sensei raised an eyebrow. "What hope do you have of ever finding him again?"

Ene hung her head.

Irino-sensei sighed. "The common problem is that you don't set your goals straight. If you want to achieve something, you have to drop everything and go for it. Be dedicated, and commit yourself to that one purpose only. No holding back once you've started."

Ene scratched her head, surprised at how the woman had grasped her situation even without her talking much about it. She was even more surprised that she didn't ask technical things like 'How are you able to speak?' or even 'Who controls you?'

"Set my goals . . . straight?"

Irino-sensei nodded. "If you really want something so badly, you'll do anything to get it, even if your feelings are hurt."

Her words stabbed a hole in her heart, and another, and another. Ene wished her tears would just spill over already. 

" . . . even if my feelings are hurt," she repeated, as a painful conclusion folded in her mind.

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(AN) For the readers: If Shintaro and Ayano had darken personas, what would they look like? What would be their names? Comment below!