Storytime

“Just to make this clear from the start, I have no clue where we are.”

“Well, how did you get here? Did you run off the road somehow? or did you run out of fuel?”

“Neither. it's pretty much the same as it was for you, I have no idea how I got here either. I just woke up in a field.”

“Do you have any memories how you got there?”

“If I had I wouldn’t say that I just woke up in a field.”

“Did you have any injuries, anything that would indicate memory loss, perhaps a wound to the head?”

“I don't think so, but as you may see a sore is only temporary for me. Mental changes, however, are permanent, so that would be a possibility. But all cars look like they haven't been used for thousands of years, and I don't think mine would be any different.”

“Oh, ok. I’ve heard of this before, in particularly rain-intensive areas the cars are supposedly all like this, as most can't afford repellent materials.”

“By the way, I can't drive, so it doesn't matter, unless there is at least one other person stranded here with me, besides you.”

“Ok than, that was pointless.”

“Yeah, pretty much. But you want to know about the shadows, right?”

“Shadows?”

“Oh, I’m sorry that what I called them, but you seem to be able to see them completely normal.”

“What are we talking about?”

“My copies.”

“Oh, yeah, you are damn right I want to know about that.”

“While you see them as perfect copies of me, I see them as black silhouettes. Because of that I will refer to the copies as shadows from now on.”

“Understood.”

“So, to put it simple, it’s a bit like Groundhog Day, whenever I die the day repeats.”

“That’s not really like Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day is more about the day repeating whatever he does and not about dying to repeat the day you are living through right now. In that regard, Groundhog Say is about being trapped in a single day, while you have the ability to repeat days until you achieve what you want.”

“That’s what you would think, but I’m also trapped in this day, and that also goes for you.”

“What?”

“You see, I can’t live this day to the end, i am killed before the day ends, every time”

“By whom?”

“The shadows. Like I said, I can repeat the day when I die, but my previous self is still there, when I repeat the day, I wake up in the place I died the previous cycle. But the other way around on the first day, the me from the second cycle also existed. They existed all from the start, if I had been here before at this time, I would have already heard our conversation.”

“So, the shadows are your past and future selves killing each other?”

“Well, I have killed my past self before but it were mostly the future selves that for some reason want to kill me.”

“Maybe you repeated this day so many times that the pain made you go insane.”

“For that I think I’ve seen too few shadows.”

“But what if you fell in a pool of lava, you would repeat hundreds of times before you would get out and would suffer through it all again and again. This could make you go insane without their being many shadows.”

“I already thought about that, with the exception that it was a spike pit and not a pool of lava. But you have to remember, this isn’t a video game, so we won’t find a spike pit, lava, or anything like that.”

“It was just an example, I think it’s not too farfetched.”

“I don’t think they are dipshit insane, they seem different, and they are a lot more sadistic, but they can still think clearly.”

“A more sadistic you? Is that even possible?”

“Oh, shut up.”

“But doesn’t that mean that everything is determined, that freewill isn’t a thing, and that fate is just how the world works.”

“Yeah, pretty much, but crying about it won’t help, so just don’t think too much about it.”

“So you are telling me that the day repeated after I killed you back then in the class room?”

“Yes.”

“So, does that mean that you let the whole day repeat for everyone, or why do I remember what happened?”

“I have no clue, but you are a bit different, it seems you are glued to a line of interactions, your day repeats with me and you remember it, but when I killed my self back then to fight you 2v1 you didn’t repeat the day with me. If you did, I would have been kinda fucked, because I completely forgot about that.”

“So, what have you been doing before you met me?”

“Well first I just walked around. My first objective was water, so I searched for a river. After that I walked down to a lake and died, that’s when I first repeated the day.”

“I’m sorry, what’s your name again?”

“Yukio, why are you asking?”

“Not knowing what name, the person has you are talking to is a bit odd.”

“If you say so. Anyways, the next day I walked to the city and was killed in an abandoned house. The next day I woke up and it was raining. The rain didn’t stop so I just kept walking. After a while I found a park near the center of the city and died.”

“Black rain.”

“Yeah, that was probably it. The day after that I walked down to a black lake in the city center. In the middle of the lake stood a skyscraper that unlike the rest of the city was still intact.”

“You already mentioned that didn’t you?”

“Yeah, briefly. Anyways, after that I saw a shadow and was launched into a building by an explosion and died shortly after. The next day I walked down to the lake, it was surrounded by a strange fog that blocked my view and when I lit my lighter to see I caused the explosion I died to the day before. Do you have any idea what gas that could be?”

“I have no clue, but I can tell you that it is most likely not related to the rain.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, the rain is highly toxic, but it isn’t flammable. If it would be the world would have burned down by now.”

“The next day I walked down to the lake and to the Skyscraper. Inside I found around 20 shadows, but they weren’t interested in killing me. I walked past them into another room and found a screen, on it played a short animation of a hangman chocking to death. I walked past it into another room. Pictures of the hangman were hanging on the walls and on the desk next to the window lay a piece of paper. It read “Look out the window” or something like that. When I looked through the window I saw the same city bellow, it felt familiar. I knew what city it was, but its most essential part was missing, it’s inhabitants. Nobody was walking through the streets of Shibuya. The city I saw back then was Tokyo, and it was entirely abandoned. The black rivers flowed through its streets like black veins corrupting it from the inside.”

“I’m sorry to say that, but that city is not Tokyo.”

“Why is that?”

“Do you remember how I said that they build New Tokyo on top of the old Tokyo?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, was there another fucking city on top of that one, because if yes you should have probably mentioned it.”

“No there wasn’t, but I’m certain that it was indeed Tokyo.”

“I don’t really care, just go on.”

“I had a fight with two shadows or rather me and one shadow had a fight with another. After that I left the city and had some mental problems.”

“That explains a lot.”

“Very funny of you, could you please shut up, thanks.

“No.”

“Anyways, after that I accidentally killed my self from the second cycle that was sitting inside the abandoned house I mentioned earlier. On the next day I walked through the forest and found this warehouse. I fell while trying to climb down to the meadow, landed on the ground and couldn’t move anymore.”

“You could say that you put your back into it.”

“Truly comedy gold. I entered the warehouse on the next day. My memories of what happened after that are a bit blurred, but I fought a shadow inside the warehouse. I also had a strange dream about a tube and the tea-“

“What? Could you repeat that?”

“It’s not important, just forget it. Anyways after that I found you and here, we are.

“You could write a book about that story.”

“Probably, but I’m not so good of a writer.”

“Sucks to suck.”

“Fuck off.”

“Well, I hope you write a book about this.”

“Why is that?”

“Two simple reasons, firstly I just broke the fourth wall and secondly you would need to write our whole conversation as a recap chapter.”

“And what’s the problem with recap?”

“It’s boring.”

“Well then I can just leave it out, after all I’m the one who gets to decide what I write in my book.”

The conversation mysteriously ended.