My Name? No. Your Name

Chapter 1

Some mornings, I wake up crying and I don't know why, that sort of thing happens every now and again but the only thing I have left when I wake up is a sense of loss, which lingers for a long time afterwards, I've been consumed with this feeling, ever since that day, the day a star fell.

"Taki, Taki... My name is Yuki!" I stretched out my ribbon to him, I woke up with a jolt, "Taki?" I shook my dream off and went downstairs after I got dressed, "Mornin'," I kneeled down by the table, "Good morning," Grandma begins to eat breakfast, "Lazy butt, you're so slow!" Yotsuha waves the rice paddle at me, "I'm sorry, I'll fix breakfast tomorrow, now give me that you brat." I snickered and lightly batted her cheek in a teasing way, "Can you pass me some more fish?" Yotsuha looks at me, I hummed and lined up my chopsticks before picking some up for her, she gobbled it down, "Oh that's a lot, oh well." I dumped a paddle-full of rice into my bowl, "You're back to normal today." Grandma looks at me, I turn to her confused, "You were so crazy yesterday." Yotsuha giggled, "Wait, what do you mean crazy?!" I sat back on the ground, "Attention citizens of Itomori. This is an official announcement from Itomori town hall. It is in regard to the mayoral election, the election will be held on the 25th of next month the election committee would like to remind everyone-" Grandma pulled the plug for the radio to stop it, I grabbed the TV remote and pressed on, "The comet that comes only once every twelve hundred years will finally be headed our way in a month. The comet will be visible to the naked eye for several days as it approached the Earth. According to Jack's spokesperson we're preparing for the celestial show of the millennium." The news lady says. After breakfast I went back to my room to tie my hair up, I threw it up in my usual high ponytail and I fixed my trademark red ribbon in my hair.

"We're leaving!" Yotsuha and I slid the door behind us, "Careful Yotsuha, there's still moss here." I grab her arm and she slipped a little, "Thanks sis," She grins, "I can't wait till the festival! It's gonna be so much fun!" She hops down the remaining stairs. "Study hard sis!" She took the elementary school route, "Yuki!" I heard someone call my name and the ring of a bike bell, "Morning Saya. Morning Teshi." I saw Saya on the back of Teshi's bike, "Morning!" She leans forward, "Come on, will you please get off already." Tashi looks back, "Why meanie?" She pouts, "Cause you're heavy." He says at her, "That's rude," She huffs, "You know, I gotta say, you two make a great couple." I grinned and walked off, "No we don't!" They both say at the same time, "Say that all you want," I stuck my tongue out, "Hey, you decided to do your hair up today." Says fiddles with my bangs, "What do you mean?" I ask confused, "Oh yeah what happened did your grandma exorcise all your demons?" Tashi looks at me, "Exorcise my demons?" I cock my head, "Something totally possessed your body." Tashi nods, "Will you give this a rest, stop with the aculty stuff, Yuki's got to be feeling as stressed as it is right," Saya rubs my shoulders, "What are you talking about?" I ask again, "Are ya feeling ok?" Tashi stops his bike, we all look at the direction he was looking, "Restoring the town's physical health so we can continue our revitalising project! It's only when all of these things are achieved that we can create a safe and secure community! As the candidate, my registration..." I saw dad up doing his speech, "Hey Nariko." I saw a boy and two girls from our school, "Morning," I look down, "Looks like the mayor and the contractor's kid are pretty cozy too." He smirks, the two girls giggle, I slumped down a little and the three of us walked past, "Yuki!" I flinched at my dad's voice, "Stand up straight when you're walking." He scolds, I stiffen my back and continue walking, "Awkward." "Sucks to be her." The two girls giggled, "Yuki." Saya runs after me and Teshi, "In front of everyone?" I close my eyes.

'Who are you?' I saw written on a spare sheet in my work book, I look at the handwriting and lean in closer, "Hm?" I hum to myself. "To light, that's the origin of the word twilight, I'm sure everyone here knows that word. It's dusk, a time where it's neither day or night. When the border of the worlds blur and where one might encounter something not human. Another older term for that is dusk light, some people also call it golden hour." Our teacher scribbles on the chalkboard, I kept flipping through my pages to try and find more of whoever wrote on my workbook, "Nariko." I stood up, "Y-Yes." I looked around, everyone laughed, "Well I can see you remember your own name today." She chuckles, everyone laughs again, I just cock my head in confusion.

"You, don't remember?! Well believe it or not you forgot where your own desk and locker were yesterday, plus you had the worst case of bedhead and you didn't have your ribbon on either." Saya explains, "W-What?! No way..." It was lunch and we all sat outside, "Yeah it was like you had amnesia or something." Saya nods, "Now that you mention it, I have been having weird dreams lately, like a dream about someone else's life. Ah. It's all so fuzzy." I touch my cheek, "Wait... I've got it! It's memories from a pervious life maybe you're self conscious telling you about the multiverse!" Teshi holds the book he was reading up, "Keep your full mouth shut!" Saya interrupts him, "Wait Teshi don't tell me you were the one who wrote in my workbook!" I point at him with my juice box, "Huh?" He seemed confused, "Wait... forget it..." I take another sip, "But you really were acting a little strange yesterday Yuki. You've been feeling ok?" Saya asks, "That's what's weird, I feel fine." I rest my chin on my knees, "Maybe it's from stress! You know you've got that ritual coming soon don't ya?" Saya leans over, I groan "Don't remind me, I can't stand this place anymore! It's too small and towny. I wanna graduate now and go to Tokyo as soon as I can!" I throw my head back, "Can't say I blame you. There really isn't anything in this town. There's only one train that stops here every two hours, the stores close at nine o'clock, no bookstores, no dentists but two cocktail bars for no reason... No jobs in town, no one dateable." We both list off, "Even the days are too short," Saya sighs, the three of us were making our way home after the end of the day, "You know what!" Teshi suddenly stops his bike, "Know what?" We both reply, "Forget that stuff, why don't we go to a cafe!" He offers, "A cafe!" I lit up, "Where!" Saya nods. 

I ended up going straight home instead, "I wanna do what you're doin'," Yotsuha was rolling up thread on wooden cylinders, "It's still too soon for you to try Yotsuha, listen to the thread's voice, when you twine it round and round like this, feelings will start to roll in between you and the thread." Grandma was making more braided cords for the festival that was coming up, "It's not like threads talk," Yotsuha drops her head down, "She's telling you to focus," I explain as I make a cord using another machine, not like Grandma's weaver, "Etched within our braided chords is a thousand years worth of Itomori's history. Listen, something happened two hundred years ago," Grandma begins, "Here she goes," I smiled, "Bathroom, sandal maker Mayugoro Yamazaki caught on fire and this entire area burned down, the shrine and all documents were destroyed, this is known as..." Grandma waits for us to answer, "Mayugoro's Great Fire." I stop my braiding and answer her question, "They names a fire after him! I feel bad for Mayugoro." Yotsuha looks down, "The meaning behind our festivals was lost because of that, only the surface was left. But even if those words are gone, the tradition shouldn't fade. That's the Nariko Shrine's duty, our important task. Ahhh... despite all that... that son-in-law of mine." Grandma rubs her shoulder, we all look down, "Abandoning the shinto priesthood and leaving this household for good is bad enough but politics?! Oh he's hopeless." Grandma scowls, Yotsuha and I stood up getting ready for our Kagura dance.

Yotsuha and I got dressed and we grabbed our kagurasuzus. We went to the shrine and people all over the town watched us perform, the sound of the bells rang and echoed, you could only hear the flutes, bells and the crackle of fire. We both knelt down and unwrapped the rice we held in the red dishes, Yotsuha and I both grabbed a small portion of the rice and chewed on it, the oldest way of making sake, chewing on rice, spitting it out and letting it naturally ferment it becomes alcohol. I grabbed the small wooden container, we closed out eyes and used the sleeve of our kimono to hide us spitting the gluten sludge out of our mouthes and into the boxes, "Ah! I'd never do that!" I heard the girl in my class's voice, "And in front of everybody," Her friend nods, "Embarrassing right," They giggled, I opened my eyes and I saw them, I quickly spat the rest out and using a red braided cord, we placed a piece of paper over it and bound the wooden box with the cord. The festival ended, everything was dark and everyone left, "You should try to cheer up sis, who cares if a few of the kids from school saw that." Yotsuha says, "It must be nice for you to not be a teenager." I grumble and slide the door behind me, "Hey you know, you should just sell sake and move to Tokyo." Yotsuha looks at me, "I bet you could sell all sorts of stuff like photos and making videos oh! And then you could call it Shrine Maiden Sake! You'll make buttloads!" Yotsuha grins, I think for a while and my face flushes bright red, no way, I'd be made fun of till I died, "I can't! There're liquor laws!" I made up and excuse and ran down the stairs, "Huh? That's what you have a problem with?" Yotsuha cocks her head, I ran all the way down to the shrine gate, "I hate this town! I hate this life too! Please make me into a handsome Tokyo boy in my next life!" I scream "What a jackass." Yotsuha sighed.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm, "Ow!" I rubbed my head as I fell out of bed, "Ouch," I pulled the sheet off my head, I looked around the room "Where..." I held my throat, I don't sound this deep, I touched my chest, nothing, I stared at my lap, "Somethings... there..." I mutter, I put my hand between my legs, "AHHH!" I blushed bright red.