… For some reason, he felt like he’d been delivered a really backhanded compliment. Was someone talking badly about him? No, wait, he’d have sneezed if they were doing that… Ah, whatever. He didn’t have time to dwell on that feeling.
“I see…” He frowned, but only for a moment. Not giving up easily was one of his strengths, after all. “Oh well! I guess that means we’re just looking for the same person, then.”
He took a closer look at the girl he’d run into. He didn’t know her name, but she looked fairly average, all things considered; like a regular girl who could have easily come from his own world. He’d seen more than a few of those walking around, but judging by the fact people seemed to be confusing her with this ‘Ion’ character… Maybe there was something special about her?
He just wished he could remember anything at all. It was bugging him, like an itch at a spot he couldn’t reach. Or that didn’t exist in the first place.
“I was hoping someone would tell me that, actually…” He instinctively bowed back–Ah, no, I was the one bothering you in the first place, there’s no need to apologize–before resuming. “It’s kind of complicated. Let me just show you, and maybe it’ll make a bit more sense.”
Before he’d finished speaking, she’d see him pulling a small journal out. It looked tidy and organized, yet still had some noticeable wear and tear on it. It was clearly used recently. He offered it for her to read, explaining his situation as she did as she pleased.
“The stuff written here is in my handwriting, and kinda sounds vaguely like me, but I don’t remember any of it. The ‘me’ who wrote it honestly sounds like a totally different person.” He cupped his chin, muttering to himself out loud. “I mean, I can’t rule out amnesia, but this whole situation is so bizarre, it could be just about anything… I still haven’t ruled out Everett actually being right, either.”
No way, no way. There was absolutely no way she was anything other than normal, by any standard. Whoever this Ion was, and what she had done to get recognized and sought after, it had nothing to do with Nei Yuuki. She was just a regular high school graduate, you know? She had plans to move to Tokyo and get a degree in an engineering school..
You could say ‘Nei, didn’t you make a robot that connected to another world for it’s OS?’ and you would be right. However, 1) She just found Interdimend on the internet, and 2) Yumekichi wouldn’t have been anything special if she hadn’t found that program. Imagine if she had used a Google Dream AI OS instead, and hadn’t built the isekai machine... She wouldn’t have been in this mess in the first place. And Bot wouldn’t have.... Nei forcibly brought her attention back to the boy in front of her.
“.. Searching for the same person.. Ion-san, who are you..?” She mumbled to herself, listening to the boy’s tale as he pulled out a journal from his pocket. Nei took his offering, nodding to him as she opened to the first page. The mention of Everett’s many worlds theory didn’t escape her, either. Perhaps he was from a similar place as her? She would have to ask later..
“Excuse the intrusion...” Another mumble, this time directed towards the odd alternate version of this boy who wrote about Ionasal. Intending to read the first entry in it’s entirety, she started each line of carefully penned Japanese. Didn’t someone say you could tell a lot about a person from their penmanship? She got the feeling he was a rather serious character.
Although, the events he was talking about were odd, to say the least.. Some sort of body swapping event, mentioning another person (likely a girl? A Kanon-san..) who he got swapped out with. General confusion plagued his thoughts, mentioning a world and events she knew nothing about.
She continued to read. Until... If he was watching her, he would have noticed that she stopped at a name. A name that, given the circumstances, shouldn’t have appeared in this journal. Shouldn’t have, except it did...
A nervous laugh escaped her, thinking back to the analogy of being in someone else’s body. If she wasn’t supposed to be this ‘Ion’ character, why did her name appear here? It was the right characters. It had no honorific after it, like they were close. It was her given name, not family. How much of a coincidence is she going to simply overlook? What kind of irony was this?
“I don’t know how to say this, but...” She pointed at the single character written down on the page, showing it to the boy across from her.
“... My name is Nei. Yuuki Nei..... This is the right character.... Umm, nice to meet you?”
