【ʏᴏᴜʀ ɴᴀᴍᴇ】
Final chapter guys!
Btw, I have an art account on instagram. I just started so I don't have much followers yet but I appreciate it if you guys check it out TvT. My username is Artsy_Mana05.
I also drew Hatsume from my book Our fate together XD
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(Y/n) have a few habits she have unconsciously picked up. For example, when she was feeling rushed and flustered, she would touch the back of her neck. When she would wash her face, she would look into her eyes, reflected in the mirror. Even on mornings when she was in a hurry, when she stepped out the front door, she would pause for a moment and take a long look at the scenery.
She would also gaze at her palm for no reason.
"The next station is... Yoyogi... Yoyogi. "
As the synthetic audio announced the station, (Y/n) realized that she was doing it again. She look away from her right hand and gazed absently out the window instead. The train was slowing down, and beyond the glass, the crowd of people standing on the platform flows by.
Abruptly, her whole body broke out in goose bumps.
A beat later, She thought. It was him.
He was standing on the platform.
The train stopped. Even waiting for the doors to open seems to take too long, and all then (Y/n) left the train at a sprint. She turned in a circle, scanning the platform. Several passengers dart suspicious glances at her as they pass. Her head finally cools down.
She was not looking for anyone in particular. He wasn't even there at all. This was yet another habit (Y/n) picked up unaware, and it was a weird one.
The next thing she know, she was still standing on the platform, (Y/n) gazed at her palm again.
'Just a little more.... Just a little longer. Just a little more.'
(Y/n) didn't even know what wish accompanies those words, but somewhere along the way, She had started longing for it.
"This manga is really good." Shijima Mei, a first year freshman in Tokyo Polytechnic University Nakano Campus said. (Y/n) met Mei a year ago, and learned that she was entrolled in a prestigious art school, specifically focusing on making manga.
(Y/n) was finishing up her last year in highschool. For her to enter her desired university, one of her requirements to enroll was her to pass a manga sample.
Somehow she manage to create a volume one of a shounen manga about a ghost boy and girl, taken from a urban legend that was known through out the schools of Japan.
"You really think so?"
"Yeah! The illustrations are quite detailed! The main characters are well drawn too!" Mei complimented, finishing the entire volume. "I suggest that you should continue making this story. I bet the instructors will love this!"
"Thank you, Shijima-senpai." (Y/n) smiled. If a student from the university said that it was good, then maybe it really was. She only hope that once she passed all the requirements, the university would accept her as one of their new manga writer in training.
"But I do have some more comments. Your lead female, Hatsume is somehow look exactly like you. Long (h/c) hair and (e/c) eyes, it's like you made yourself as one of the main characters!" Somehow, Mei was exaggerating too much compliment on her demo manga. At least what (Y/n) thought. Mei was just loving her work, that she already wanted to know what happened next. "And does the main character Hanako is someone you know in real life?! Oooh! Is he your lover or something? A crush maybe?"
'No... I don't even know if he really do exist...' (Y/n) thought.
Hanako was just a character that she had made up. Somehow his appearance had made a sudden invision when she was still drawing the characters. Bright sunset yellow eyes, choppy raven black hair, mischievous smile. Next thing she knows, she had already drawn him.
Going with the flow, she decided to add herself as a second character. Then using some people she knew in real life as some of her story's supporting characters.
"You're gonna be a great asset to the campus, (Y/n)-chan~ Your manga ideas are amazing!"
Wanting to be a good senpai, Mei decided to enroll (Y/n) herself. The older girl waved her goodbye when her Kouhai left the campus, before heading towards the enrollment cheif's office.
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"So? How did your enrollment went?" Aoi asked her friend.
"Shijima-senpai, did it for me." (Y/n) told her glumly.
Looking awfully entertained, Akane commented. "Seriously? How long are you gonna stay in your introverted stage? You can't even face strangers properly without stuttering?"
"I don't want to hear that from you." (Y/n) cut back crossly.
"Akane-kun is right, though. One day when you're famous, you have to learn how to interact with your readers " Aoi grinned.
“You guys aren't much different!” (Y/n) bristle angrily.
"I'm entering a school for florists. I already know how to talk to customers." Aoi countered cheerfully.
"I'm doing investments. Interacting with others is something I am already capable of doing." Akane condescended.
(Y/n) have no comeback. It was true that she can't face strangers without getting anxious. Her teacup rattled in her fingers as they tremble with humiliation.
Just then, her phone chirps from the table. (Y/n) checked the message and drank what was left of her tea in one gulp, and stood up.
(Y/n) hopped down the stairs to the subway. She was going to meet up with Very, who was waiting patiently at the bottom.
"So, how was your enrollment?” Teru looked up from his phone, to see her still wearing her my kamome uniform, and smiled. It was already evening, and the area in front of Yotsuya Station was filled with the faintly languid hum of people released from their days at work or school.
"Shijima-senpai, enrolled me. She just texted me that I got in."
"Ah I see. Time flies fast, doesn't it? You're already starting university."
"I think it's a good thing. I'm going to follow my dream of becoming a manga writer."
"Let's walk a little..." Teru told. (Y/n) nodded and follow him. The two began walking around, going against the current of the university students on Shinjuku Street. They cut across Kioicho, then crossed the Benkei Bridge. For the first time, (Y/n) realize that the trees lining the roads were changing color. About half the people the two passed have on lightweight coats. Teru himself was wearing a loose ash-gray jacket, too.
"What's going on today? Your text came out of the blue."
Feeling as if she was the only one who hasn't kept up with the season, (Y/n) turned to Teru beside her.
"What?" Teru gave her a childish pout. "I can't get in touch with you without a reason?"
"No, no, no!" (Y/n) waved her hands hastily. "It's not like that!"
"You're happy to see me, aren't you? It's been a long time."
"Y-yes. I am."
Teru smiled in satisfaction at her answer, then continued. "I was in the area for work and thought I'd like to see your face, (Y/n)." Teru was a office worker who worked at a successful company in Chiba now. "Life in the suburbs is fun, too, but Tokyo really is lively and one of a kind." He told her, gazing at his surroundings like he was a little awestruck. "Look..." He suddenly and (Y/n) raised her head.
They were crossing a pedestrian bridge, so they were eye level with the giant outdoor display screen above an electronics store. It was showing an aerial footage of gourd-shaped Itomori Lake and the words, 'The Comet Disaster-Eight Years Later in big letters.'
"We went to Itomori once, didn't we?" Teru narrowed his eyes, as though he was searching some distant memories. "You were still in middle school, (Y/n), so it must've been..."
“Five years ago, maybe?" (Y/n) finished the sentence for him.
"That long..." He exhaled a little, as if surprised. "I'm forgetting all sorts of things."
'Senpai is right.' (Y/n) thought. As the two came down off the pedestrian bridge and walk up to Sotobori Street where it runs along the edge of the Akasaka Estate lands, (Y/n) tried remembering that day.
It was the summer of her final year in middle school. It was just about the early autumn. Akane, Teru, and her all went on a short trip. The three had transferred from the Shinkansen to an express train, went all the way to Gifu, and wandered aimlessly around the area along the local train line. They then went into the ramen shop that was standing all by itself on the side of the national highway. And then, from that point on, (Y/n)'s memories blurred and grew distant, as if it was just belonging to a past life. She at first thought that she fought with the two and had a vague recollection of leaving the two and going off on her own. She had climbed a mountain somewhere all alone, spent the night there, and then went back to Tokyo by herself the next day.
Back then, she was obsessed with the events surrounding the comet.
In the sort of natural disaster that had happened only a few times in human history, a fragment of the comet destroyed a town. And yet, in spite of that, almost all the town's residents survived. It was a miraculous night. The day the comet fell, Itomori just happened to be holding a town wide disaster drill, and most of the locals had already been evacuated from the area impacted.
It was such a huge coincidence and such incredible luck, that there were all sorts of whispered rumors after the disaster. The unprecedented astronomical phenomenon and the townspeople's stupendous luck were enough to stir up the media's and public's imagination. All sorts of irresponsible ideas flew around wildly for days on end, from folklore-type stories that linked the comet's visit with Itomori's dragon god legend, to political statements that either praised or questioned the mayor of Itomori's use of plenary power in forcing an evacuation, to occult rumors that the meteorite strike had actually been foretold.
Other strange details, such as the fact that the town had been so isolated it was practically a landlocked desert island, and the fact that the power across the entire area had gone out about two hours before the meteorite strike, spurred public speculation. Society's excitement lasted until the programs to resettle the victims in other areas had calmed down a bit, but as with most incidents, just about the time the seasons changed, the topic of Itomori slowly disappeared from public conversation.
But once again, it striked (Y/n) as strange. She had even drawn sketches of Itomori, several of them. Not only that, but her feverish interest had materialized unexpectedly, a few years after the comet striked. Something had visited her suddenly, like a delayed comet itself, then vanished without a trace. (Y/n) didn't know what did it meant.
It was not that important, atleast on what (Y/n) thought. Watching the streets of Yotsuya sink into the dusk from a hill beside Sotobori Street. It really didn't matter now. (Y/n) should really need to be focusing on her entrance exam to be considered as a student in Tokyo Polytechnic Universitynext year, not on some ancient history that she doesn't even really remembered.
"The wind's come up." Teru whispered. "Thanks for spending the day with me. This is far enough, I need to head home so I could spend some time with my family."
The two ate dinner at the maid and butler themed restaurant where they have worked part-time as students. Thanks to a promise (Y/n) totally didn't remember making. "Come to think of it, (Y/n), didn't you say you'd treat me when you get accepted in that university?"
In the end, (Y/n) have ended up paying for Teru. Even so, she felt a little bit proud picking up the check. Teru did payed up for everything during their first date five years ago.
"You know, I had no idea the place we used to work had such good food."
"Yeah, all the meals they gave us during our shifts were like school lunches."
"We went for years without catching on."
The two laughed. Teru then drew a deep, contented breath, then said. "All right. I'll see you later." He waved at her. Teru told her that he couldn't wait to see his siblings again. He grew the habit of getting worried for them after the tragedy of the comet. Though, (Y/n) haven't met his siblings yet, Teru assured her that they were just busy with school too.
"You’ll find happiness someday, too." Teru assured her earlier over an espresso, it was after (Y/n) replied to his question of "Have you got a boyfriend yet?"
(Y/n) was not particularly unhappy. Watching Teru's silhouette descended from the pedestrian bridge stairs. That said, she didn't quite really understand what happiness is yet, either.
She abruptly inspect her palm. All that was there was an absence.
'Just a little longer'
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Before she know it, the season had changed again.
An unusually typhoon filled autumn passed, moving straight into a winter of nothing but cold rain. Tonight was like that too, the rain was whispering down unabated, like the memory of a pleasant chat on some bygone day Christmas lights twinkle beyond windows beaded thickly with water droplets.
(Y/n) took a sip from her paper cup of cofee, as if swallowing her scattered thoughts. Then look down at her notebook again. It was exams again. If she wanted to graduate in order to attend her dream university, she had to study.
It was months of full preparations for graduations. Study sessions with classmates, project deadlines, assignments. The cycle was chaotic. (Y/n) was a bit stressed by it. She then started doing her homework for tomorrow, staring at her notes in her notebook.
"Don't you think, Tiara-chan would like this strawberry cake? I heard that she was craving for one."
Mixed with the sound of the rain, the conversations of strangers sound a bit like secrets. The couple behind her were having a lively conversations about their own families for a while now. There was a bit of an easygoing regional accent to their speech, and their conversation seems completely relaxed, as if they were childhood friends. (Y/n) was not really listening, but her ears pick up what they were saying.
"Again? Niichan will buy it for her. You don't have to do it, senpai." The guy sounded a little annoyed, but even then, there was no mistaking the affection in his tone.
The guy's phone suddenly made a sound. "Eh? Tsukasa wanted to meet up, for some reason."
"Really, right now? Well then, Kou-kun. Let's go meet him then."
(Y/n) was about to drink her coffee, but her hand stopped dead. Her pulse was speeding up, though She don't even understand why.
"Why would he wanted to meet us anyways?"
"He said he was nearby with Mitsuba, Nanahime-senpai and Natsuhiko-senpai."
"Ah, that make sense. They kept hanging out lately. Mostly around where Nanahime-senpai is."
Slowly, (Y/n) looked behind her. The two of them have already gotten up from their chairs and are pulling on their coats. The tall, skinny guy was wearing a stocking cap over his messy blonde hair. She just caught a glimpse of his profile. The girl was petite, and her white and green bobbed hair makes her seem young. The pair turned away and leaves the cafe. For some reason, (Y/n) can't take her eyes off their backs.
"Thank you for your visit." The cafe employee's voice reaches her ears indistinctly, mingled with the rain.
By the time (Y/n) was done with her homework, she decided to leave the cafe. The rain has turned to snow. Maybe it was because of all the moisture up in the atmosphere, but the town was oddly warm in the falling snow. (Y/n) felt strangely uneasy, as if she had just wandered into the wrong season. It seems to her as if each and every person she had pass was hiding some important secret, and in spite of herself, she keeps on turning back to look at them.
She went straight to the ward library, which was almost ready to close for the evening. The sparseness of the handful of readers in the vast, vaulted space made the air inside feel even chillier than outside. (Y/n) took a seat and open the book she had retrieved from the stacks. The title was 'Vanished Itomori: Complete Records.' It was a collection of photographs.
As if removing an ancient seal, (Y/n) slowly page through out the entire book. Gingko trees and an elementary school. The shrine's steep stairs, with their view over the lake. A shrine gate with peeling paint. A tiny railroad crossing, like toy building blocks abruptly set down in the fields. A pointlessly expansive parking lot, two snack bars right next to each other, a drab concrete middle school. A prefectural road with old, cracked asphalt. A guardrail that traced a winding hill road. Vinyl greenhouses, reflecting the sky.
They were the sort of ordinary sights one would see all over Japan, so (Y/n) recognized all of them. She can already visualized the temperature of the stone walls and the chill of the wind, just as if she had lived there.
'Why is this so... ?' (Y/n) wondered as she turned the pages.
'Why do the unremarkable sights of a town that no longer exists make my heart hurt this much?'
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Once, fueled by intense emotions, (Y/n) made some sort of resolution.
She remembered this out of nowhere when she had looked up at the light in someone's window on her way home. Or when she reached for a box lunch in the convenience store. Or when she had to retie her loose shoelaces.
(Y/n) had decided something once. She had took an oath because she met somebody. Or that she would meet somebody.
Washing her face and stared into the mirror, tossing a plastic bag in the trash, squinting at the morning sun between the buildings.
'Somebody.... something.' (Y/n) thought, smiling dryly. In the end, she doesn't even know a thing.
'Still....' She thought as she slowly answered on her test paper.
'Still, even now, I'm fighting my way through. Perhaps it's a bit dramatic to say, but I'm struggling against life. Wasn't that what I decided once? To struggle. To live. To breathe and walk. To run. To eat. To bind, musubi. To live an ordinary life so I shed tears over the sights of a perfectly ordinary town.'
'Just a little longer...' (Y/n) thought. 'Just a little is fine. Just a little more.'
She didn't know what it was that she wanted, but She kept on wishing for something.
'Just a little longer. Just a little more.'
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The cherry blossoms bloomed and scattered, long rains washed the streets, white clouds billow high, the leaves change color, freezing winds blow. Then the cherry trees bloom again.
The days were accelerating.
(Y/n) now graduated from highschool and was now studying to be a manga writer at the university she had dreamt of to enter. She had spend every day with the determination to finish school inorder to earn money for her everyday needs. Her manga demo that she passed during her enrollment was loved by her peers, her instructors asked her to continue it so that it could become a real manga, sold nationwide. There are times when she can't even believe that she getting closer to reach her dream, she was still a freshman after all. And yet here she was, her manga was about to get published.
'Toilet Bound Hanako-kun and Hatsume-chan'. That was now the title of the nameless story she wrote for her demo. It was about a highschool girl who met two ghost that dwells in her school's bathroom. Ever since then, she and her two new supernatural friends have unforgettable adventures surrounding the school's seven mystery along with an exorcist in training.
But somehow, everytime she sees the main male character, Hanako. She can't help but feel a slight nostalgia whenever she glance at his eyes.
In the morning, when she wakes up, (Y/n) would often stare at her right hand. There were little drops of water on her index finger. By the time she would notice them, both the dream she was in a moment earlier and the tears that for an instant stained her eyes have evaporated.
'Just a little longer.' With that thought, (Y/n) got out of bed.
'Just a little longer.'
As he recited the wish, Amane faced the mirror and tied his cord around his wrist. He then pulled his arms through the sleeves of his assistant teacher uniform.
Amane was planning on becoming a science teacher. He was already in his third year in university. In order to gain a little experience before he could graduate, he have to experience on being a student teacher.
He waved at his twin brother and grandmother, goodbye, and opened the door of of his house. For a moment, Amane gazed at the Tokyo cityscape that unfurled before him.
He climbed the station stairs, went through the automated turnstile, and boarded a packed commuter train. The little patch of blue sky he could see beyond the heads of the crowd was piercingly clear.
(Y/n) leaned against the train door, looking out. The city teemed with people, in the windows of buildings, in cars, on pedestrian bridges. A hundred people to a car, a thousand people to a train, a thousand trains crisscrossing the city.
Gazing at them, she made her wish.
In that instant, with absolutely no warning, she sees him.
Amane's situation was the same. He sees her.
She was there, close enough to touch if it weren't for the window panes, on a train running parallel to the one he was on. She was looking straight at him and hereyes are wide with surprise, like his. That's when he realized what the wish he have been carried for so long.
He was there, just a few feet away. (Y/n) doesn't even know his name, but one thingshe knows that it was really him. Their trains were now pulling away from each other. Then another train passed by between them, and (Y/n) lost sight of him.
(Y/n) finally know what she was wishing for.
Amane finally know what he was wishing for.
'I wanted to stay with him, just a little longer.'
'I want to be with her, just a little more'
The train stopped, and Amane dashed through the streets. He was looking for her. He already knew that he was positive that she was looking for him, too.
(Y/n) knew that she had never met him before. At first she thought that could be just her imagination. It might be just her assumption, something like a dream. It could also might be just a delusion, like past lives.
Even so. They both wanted to stay together a little longer, just a little more.
As (Y/n) run along the sloping road, she wondered 'Why am I running? Why am I searching?' She probably know the answer, she just doesn't remember it. But everything in her body knows.
Amane then turn at a narrow alley. The road drops off and there was stairs. He walked over to them, look down, and there he saw her.
Fighting back the urge to run, (Y/n) climbed the stairs slowly. A wind that smells like flowers blew her hair slightly that she had let loose. He was there standing at the top of the stairs, but (Y/n) can't even look at him directly. She only watch him out of the corner of her eye. He was descending the stairs. The click of his shoes driftedsoftly into the spring air. (Y/n's heart was leaping in her rib cage.
As the two approached each other, they kept their eyes downcast. Amane didn't say anything. (Y/n) didn't say anything, either. Then, still without speaking, they passed each other.
In that moment, (Y/n) felt a tense, squeezing pain all over, as though something inside her had taken hold of her heart.
'This is wrong...' She thought fiercely. She knows that they could not possibly be strangers. It goes against something as basic as the mechanics of the universe, or the laws of life.
And so (Y/n) quickly turned around. Amane turned too with the exact same speed. He was standing on the stairs, the streets of Tokyo behind him, his eyes were wide and round.
(Y/n) realized how his eyes resembled her manga main male character. His deep sunset yellow eyes and choppy black hair that was slightly longer and neater.His wrist had a cord wrapped around it with the color of the evening sun. (Y/n)'s whole body trembled slightly.
"Excuse me... But have we met before?"
"I thought so too..." Amane finally found her. They finally met. Just as he thought that he would probably burst into tears unless he do something, he realized that he was already crying. Seeing this, (Y/n) smiled.
Even as he cried, Amane smiled too. The spring air carries with it all sorts of apprehension and anticipation, and he draw a deep breath.
Then they both open their mouths at the same time. Like children both agreed to go on the count of three, they both say together:
"Can you please tell me.... Your name?"
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Okay, I made up the requirement for entering a manga school XD. I honestly don't know the exact things needed to enroll.
I hope you guys enjoyed this story!