Chapter 3: Your Name Is Disappearing
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🕯️ 1 — The Slip
When Ren arrived at school the next morning, something was off.
Not the eerie kind of off like the day he saw Aika for the first time.
This was personal.
He walked past the front gate like always. Through the shoe lockers. Past the mirror. Up the stairs to Class 3-B.
And paused.
A group of students was clustered around the homeroom roster.
"Hey," one of them mumbled. "Whose name got wiped?"
"Dunno. Must be a dropout or something."
Ren walked over, heart pounding in quiet dread.
There it was.
Arakawa Ren — black ink, half-erased.
Like someone had tried to wipe him out with an old eraser and gave up halfway.
He reached out and ran his fingers over it.
His name was cold to the touch.
As if the page didn't want to remember him either.
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🪞 2 — The Unseen
Back in the classroom, Ren took his usual seat. He could feel it now—the absence where Aika always was.
No one said anything.
No one asked about her.
Of course they didn't.
And then—
A note fluttered out from his locker when he went to grab his notebook. Folded neatly in half.
He opened it.
> "You're starting to fade.
Stop thinking about me.
It's the only way you'll stay."
No signature.
But he knew that handwriting.
"Aika…"
He looked toward the window.
Still empty.
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⌛ 3 — The Test
At lunch, Ren stood by the vending machine with Kenta.
"Hey," he said casually, "you ever forget people? Like… suddenly?"
Kenta raised an eyebrow. "What kind of question is that?"
"I mean—like a person just vanishing from memory. One day they're there, the next they're not."
Kenta sipped his drink and shrugged. "Like, people transfer out or move, sure. It happens."
"What if they didn't move?"
"What if you're the one being weird lately?"
Ren forced a laugh.
But then Kenta added:
"Honestly, man… when I saw you today, I had to think for a second. Like—I knew your face, but I couldn't remember your name right away. Weird, right?"
Ren froze.
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📓 4 — The Memory Keeper
That night, Ren sat at his desk, staring at a photo album.
Old family shots. Birthdays. Class trips.
His hands trembled as he turned the pages.
In every photo that once had him—he was now just a blur. A shadow. A smudge of color.
Like the world's memories were rejecting him.
Only one photo remained clear:
A childhood picture of a girl with long black hair, half-hidden behind a cherry blossom tree.
She looked like Aika.
But the photo was labeled:
> "Hanami, Spring 2014. Ren & ???"
The name was scratched out.
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🕰️ 5 — Time Fails Differently for Her
The next morning, Ren left for school early.
He walked through the empty corridors, heart pounding, whispering her name like a prayer.
"Aika… Aika…"
He opened the classroom door.
And she was there.
Sitting like a ghost in sunlight.
The book still unopened. Her fingers trembling now.
She didn't look up.
"You weren't supposed to come back," she said.
"I don't care," Ren said. "I can't just forget you."
"But if you stay," she whispered, "you'll vanish too. Time doesn't hold onto me. It lets go. Like it's tired."
He walked closer.
"Then let me be tired with you."
Her eyes finally met his.
And for a moment—just one—he felt real again.
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🕯️ End of Chapter 3
Next: Chapter 4 — "Reality Glitch: I Can See Her, But I'm Not in the Mirror"