Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 300: Interlude - 19: Earth

"I, don’t quite remember this memory," he watched a scene on the beach, flying a kite high in the sea breeze while people built sandcastles, took a dip in the sea or were on their phones while munching on snacks.

"You mean, this isn’t your memory?"

Jotou chuckled, "Well, it is. I just forgot about it." The memory panned over to behind, distant voices calling over. Pulling the kite along, the memory made a dash for the snacks and the people calling over.

"Who are they?"

"My family," Jotou uttered with a drop of his mood. "I remember this. It was a beach trip with my cousins, aunt and uncle and all. Must’ve been when I was, nine or ten?"

"No wonder our view’s so short! Is this how Meko sees things?"

Jotou snickered. "Speaking of small." The memory shifted and changed.

"Ow!" a little Daiyu fell off her bike and scraped her knee.

"Oh no, are you hurt? Come on, let’s go to my house," Jotou aided her up.

"My house is right there we can go to."

"But my house is closer, it’ll take us less footsteps to reach. Come on! We need to make sure it doesn’t get infected!" Jotou pulled her along without Daiyu having a say in the matter.

"I can’t wait for my mom to meet you!" Jotou opened the door to his childhood home...

"Hm," Jotou’s smile, Asobi could hear. "When I was still too young; I wonder what little me would think of me now."

"I think he’d be surprised," Asobi giggled. "But I think he’d also be happy. After all, you are him and if you’re happy."

"I suppose so," Jotou amused.

"Who’s the little girl?"

Jotou laughed, "Hard to think that she becomes a psychopath in the future huh?"

"Wait, you mean, Daiyu!? Aww!!!!"

Through the frozen memory, Jotou panned over to the fallen bicycles upon the grass—the wheels yet to stop. "I can barely remember this one, but I always can... It’s nice to see it fully intact like this instead of it being such a blur."

"Jotou? What about your other friends?"

"Patience~ I’m just strolling through memory lane is all."

Asobi tittered, "Take all the time you need, I’m just curious."

"Well, nothing more to see here," the memory waned away as another took its place. Sitting in an audience, watching a tennis match.

"What game is that?"

"Tennis; it’s the sport that Daiyu played. But I guess no close looks here," the memory scrolled forward. "This match was about a month before the crash. After the match, I went to see Daiyu in the locker rooms."

The empty locker room stood before them, but the memory was still playing. "Gotcha!"

"What the-! EW!"

The memory was covered by some white towel till Jotou’s hands wrestled it away. "Don’t fight it! It’s the perfect punishment for a pervert entering the girl’s locker room like this!"

"You called me here and said we’d get lunch after psychopath!"

"Oh, right, guess I did," Daiyu took the sweaty towel away and walked in front.

"You’re disgusting," Jotou huffed. "Congratz on the win."

"Eh, I had it in the bag. But thanks though."

"I’m sure you’ll lose at some point~"

"Don’t jinx me loser," Daiyu half-closed her right eye.

"Sorry not sorry."

"Wanna have a match? I think your head’ll make a great ball."

"I’d stop you before you could do shit."

Daiyu grinned, "Like you could ever take me in a fight~"

The memory paused at the smile. Headband taken off and a competitive glint in her eyes. A green streak in the fluffy black hair and changed into a more casual outfit of tattered jeans and a black leather jacket. "This is her, before this world."

"She looks so different and striking; pretty but in a cool way!" Asobi examined. "But she acts the same now too," she giggled.

"Let me see..." memories whizzed past and the memory stopped at a table in a cafeteria. The day Daiyu came in to save Crispy, Ramond and Jotou from school bullies.

He stopped the memory at Daiyu’s face, much younger and in the school’s gym attire; same sharp brown eyes and tiny bumps of acne on her forehead. "This is also her."

"Much younger."

"Teenager to be exact."

"There’re a lot of bumps on her face... Why are you showing me her? It seems like people’re getting hurt here, is there something important in this memory you wanted to see?"

"Oh no reason," a devious Jotou replied. "It’s not too important, but just a bit of my old school life. It’s, something I hate, yet I, I don’t know; I somehow miss it.

A-anyway, the one on the left is Crispy or Ben and the right is Ramond. Two of my friends; this is when we were younger though so, hold on," Jotou and Asobi traversed across the memories.

"Ooo, what’s this place?" Polished floors, multiple lights all shining down with rows and rows of stores next to each other. Everyone around had a phone in their hands, otherwise some had shopping bags.

Children on strollers, a claw machine next to colourful animatronics which kids begged their parents to ride on; escalators going up and down several floors and a queue they stood in.

The two spun the memory, allowing Asobi to survey in amazement to it all. Delicious food, from popcorn to pretzels and soups coming from restaurants a floor below.

"Welcome to the usual place any friend group comes to when nobody can figure out a plan to meet up—the mall," Jotou continued the memory.

"What’re you looking at? It looks like weird magi-technology."

"That’s my phone. Phones in my world can do a lot of things other than just call people; it’s often used as a distraction. You can see the latest news, take photos, play games and talk about stuff with people with all over the world."

"Woah... That’s AMAZING! Oh- we’re looking up. Ooo, that’s Daiyu! We’re in a line waiting for something?"

"Mhm. See that big box at the front? We walk up to it and buy tickets to watch a movie."

"A movie?"

"Think of a moving picture that tells a story. Or, a circus act, but it’s been recorded and can be played back for others to watch; much like how we’re watching these memories."

"So it is like a circus then! You even have to buy tickets! But if your phone can take pictures, can’t you watch a movie on there too?"

"Well yeah. I’d usually just binge watch shows on my laptop- Never mind. The difference is the experience. The people making the movie don’t let it get onto the phone; a lot of moviemakers don’t anyway.

Even so, we have bigger screens than a phone at home you could invite friends over to watch most things. But doing this is more of an outing. There’s food stores in a mall, things to do and see, such and such."

"Mmm... I smell, popcorn!"

"It’s overpriced, but tasty."

"Wait, that’s... Crispy, right? Or Ben?"

"Both’s fine. And yeah. This was last year, so a relatively more recent memory." He was rotund, with a t-shirt with some printed cartoon character and a red-ish jacket over—a soft beard circled his face.

"And that’s Ramond."

"Really? He looks really different."

"Changes are inevitable, but Ramond was still Ramond." He checked his silver wristwatch before pulling it out a switch comb from his jeans. His skin tan and black hair coiffed—black piercings he wore on both his ears.

"The one who has his arm around Daiyu’s Kaleb; her boyfriend and our friend too. Though, I guess now they’re no longer that." Dressed with a brown hoodie and purple streaks were at the tips of his spiky hair.

"It was the crash, wasn’t it..."

"Hey, no need to feel down about my memories."

"I’m just comforting you silly. There’s no doubt you’d feel sad about all this..."

"I’m fine, there’s no need to worry."

"As long as you feel okay to go through the memories of your old world."

"I like my old world to reminisce about it, but I like this world too. So, I’m okay. Now, let’s show you the experience I’m talking about~" Jotou fast-forwarded to the theatre where they sat in the dark.

The advertisements began rolling on the screen. "That’s a big picture... and it’s moving! OH! Move-e. Now it makes sense!"

"These are just ads before."

"Lots of people, they’re sitting here like a circus; except it’s all facing the movie," Asobi could see down the rows and rows of seats. "And the seats are so comfy!"

Jotou chuckled. "Actually, since these memories perfectly show everything, including things I forgot, we can watch a full movie like this."

Asobi gasped.

Jotou could imagine her eyes glittering, "I’d love to ask you to catch a movie with me, but I don’t know if we have the time..."

"Time is passing like normal outside of course," Iridina’s voice interrupted. The memory paused. "Movies take hours, no? None of us have that time. Maybe you can book some other day with me."

The two appeared back in the black void, in front of Iridina. "I seem to know Jotou much better after surfing through your memories. The internet’s really convenient."

"I thought you’d be spectating?" Jotou glared.

"I can do both with no issue. Look what I found~" her irises went pink.

A memory played before them in the space, like they were watching a screen instead of experiencing it. It was still in Jotou’s perspective, but... it was of a certain redhead and herself-

"HEY!" "SLAM!" Two doors slammed shut over the memory as Jotou waved his hands. "That is! NO!" he pointed to Iridina floating in the air who had a smug grin.

Asobi stared wide-eyed to the shut doors, "Meko was right..."

"Look what you’ve done!" Jotou yelled to the mouse-woman.

"That made me feel things... Why the no clothes? Is that normally part of the process?" Asobi squeaked, her face and the tips of her ears went red.

Iridina snickered, "That was from a week before New Year’s. Don’t fret, I only saw about three seconds before I moved along. I still value privacy—somewhat.

I have to say, seeing the Thundering Blade and the Azure Firefly going at it wasn’t on my schedule today, but it was certainly interesting. Before you get angrier at me, let me just say I was trying to help."

"By traumatizing Asobi?" he tightened his lips.

"I’m not traumatized, just, hm..." she pondered to herself.

"That was just for my amusement. No, I was helping with this," Iridina snapped her fingers and-

"Thundering Blade!" "Thundering Blade..." "Thundering Blade!!!" "You’re the Thundering Blade!?" "Thundering Blade, pleasure to meet you." "The voice of thunder personified." "Thundering Blade." "Thundering Blade!" "Thundering Blade!!!" "There is no chance you will not go into an unpredictable outrage." "You’re, the Thundering Blade now, aren’t you?" "Thundering Blade?" "So composed. I commend you." "Thundering Blade." "Thundering Blade!" "Although your eyes show more honour than what you speak..." "Thundering Blade!" "Thundering Blade!" "Thundering Blade!!!" "Returning from the brink of death, only to become Kria’s greatest saviour." "Thundering Blade." "I think your morality’s perfectly fine." "Fucking madwoman..." "It’s the Thundering Blade!" Thundering Blade? You’re a bigger joke than your title." "Very well. Do not let this perseverance of yours falter then." "-

"STOP IT!" the voice of a songbird screamed out, clutching the sides of her head as she fell to her knees.

The cacophony of voices died down in an instant, "Oh? But that was not the end of it, there was so much more," her irises went turquoise.

Asobi rushed over and wrapped her arms around Jotou from behind, "Why are you trying to hurt her!?" in anguish she looked up.

"You misunderstand my intentions," her irises went black. "My real-self promised to make it up to the Thundering Blade for pestering her.

The thing is, I and me idolize her a lot. She’s been a very inspiring person and that alone I deemed warranting of any assistance I’m able to gift."

Jotou caught her breath though there was no air here. Her heart still raced, but she held onto Asobi’s arms wrapped around and steadied herself.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she stuttered a bit. "Just caught me off guard," her brows knitted up to Iridina.

"There you go again. You do truly believe you can no longer make mistakes and that all your wisdom you so boldly give others is somehow lost on you?" Iridina’s voice projected and echoed around.

"The hell are you talking about?"

"As I said, I went through your memories and I understand you a lot better now." She descended onto the ’floor’ as her irises spun back into rainbows. "I suppose," her voice mellowed, "It’s understandable once I linked everything together.

It’s not superficial as I first believed it to be. Rather your form of resolve and hope."

"I don’t understand what you’re talking about," Asobi pulled the blonde back in her embrace, staring at the approaching Iridina.

Jotou got up onto her feet with Asobi’s aid and put her left arm out to the side even though Asobi was still holding on close from behind.

"I’m not going to harm either of you, you needn’t be worried. By my understanding, you need help Jotou; you’ve been seeking comfort and feel somewhat better, but these thoughts will continue to haunt you if you don’t face them."

"Look, I already faced them-" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"No, you’ve faced the tip of the iceberg. You’ve not gotten to the root cause of the issue. Please, my methods may seem forceful, but let me help. I know the memory you wish not to visit, but I’ve figured out that it connects to this overwhelming pressure you feel."

"Jotou, do you know what she’s talking about?"

"Some details, barely," her brows knitted. "Alright fine, it’s not like I can wake up of my own accord."

"I’m not some villain," Iridina snapped back with red in her irises. "If you wish to harbour this issue, then be my guest, we’ll end this right here. It’s your choice to make."

Jotou’s eyes darted the farthest they could. "I’ll be with you, if you want," Asobi hushed. The blonde glanced to Iridina and took a deep breath.

"I see. Good choice," her irises took all the hues once more...