四葉のクローバー

   She’s almost surprised this place has such a thing. But, indeed, Phi finds herself standing among racks of clothes, an eyebrow raised as she browses the different articles. However, the girl soon finds herself rather… bored. Onto the next store, she figures. 

   Except, just as she’s leaving, a familiar pink-haired acquaintance slips into view. She’s here, too?

She was comparing two blouses when her very important decision making was interrupted. Was that...? She turned, looking like a deer in headlights. A really cute deer, of course, but a deer all the same.

“Phi...”

This really was a conglomeration of espers, wasn’t it? She and Phi had never had any problems with each other, but they also had never been super close or anything. Phi was like Sigma, but it wasn’t really clear to her if she had chosen to be in this mess like he did. 

In a moment she switched, a bright grin taking the place of her deerly departed surprise. 

Well it certainly sounds… off, but not impossible? Maybe his sense of reality finally snapped too hard that he’d buy to these things easily. He was 68 years old, though? Man, she probably had to deal with his wrinkly self. Gross.

“I believe you. Though.. I hope I’m a cool grandpa by the time I’m 68. Did something terrible happen, or are you just secretly a vampire and that’s why you still look so young.”

“Thank you, Junpei.”

Were thanks necessary? She wasn’t sure, but it felt right for some reason. 

“I guess if you think bolo ties are cool.”

Even now she found herself joking with him maybe in part because he allowed that sort of atmosphere to still exist, despite everything. Still, there were things they needed to talk about, now that she was telling him everything. Or at least a few things. 

“Yeah, yeah, order whatever you want, I got this,” - he droned as he slipped onto his seat - “Just don’t wring me dry. A man’s gotta pay his electricity bills and shit. Pun not intended.” Har har har.

She flipped over her menu and laid it out in front of him, pointing as she explained.

“I suppose I must have been,” he said. “When I awoke, I had lost my memory… a common side effect of mild Soporil overdose.” Which was their intention, of course. The doctor and Akane could hardly have run the game if Kyle knew what he was participating in. “I don’t know about a pod in the garden, however. Are you saying I didn’t participate in the AB game at all?”

His head hurt. If Akane was in the suit, and Kyle was in the pod, then…

“Oh, in that case… feel free to refer to me as K instead. I assure you I don’t mind. If there aren’t a lot of others, doesn’t that simply make me easier to find, if need be? I don’t mind sticking out.”

She had a point about the ‘moon stuff’–the gravity–but something else caught his attention. Behind the mask, he frowned. (He wasn’t entirely ignorant, but this conversation was confusing and difficult enough without bringing another layer into it.)

She laughed weakly, but it was getting harder and harder to believe this was all a mistake, all amnesia. Eventually she’d have to come accept that this was some sort of reality, but she found herself avoiding that all the while. At least it wasn’t her reality, she repeated to herself. She knew that, she remembered correctly. She had to. If she had died, she definitely would have known. That’s just a thing a person’s aware of, right? It wasn’t like she could have amnesia or anything. After all she remembered everything pretty clearly.

“Sorry, but that’s kinda weird too. I mean like that’s the name Akane went by.”

How did Kyle even know about that? Why would he consider himself K? He acted as if the name was something Clover would be more comfortable with and it was familiar, but. K was the name of the person she spent a good portion of the AB Game with. Kyle was not that person. 

She began to pose as such, waiting a few moments before switching to a another perfectly practiced pose. She did peace signs, folded her arms, lots of things. And every time she looked positively adorable. She just knew she did.

“Is this good?” she asked while changing poses yet again.