Chasing After Rainbows

I've come some old photos of my family from before I entered primary school (小学校) . The people in it seem different from what I had always known them as. The majority of these photos that were taken before the 1990s were starting to become brown/red-ish. Roughly, there are about 2000 images of them. Restoring the above-said images is time consuming due to the vast quantity, and amount of defects on the photo at the time it was scanned, it could take forever. It's very hard to restore them, and certainly very difficult to make it look like their digital counterparts. Not counting phones with camera below 3 megapixels, nobody in the family had a camera until late-2003. Imagine how excited I was, despite memory card space volumes back then being tiny for today's standards. I have even seen some rare photos of my mom and dad from their high school days (separately of course), and a set of grandparents that had died before I was born. Shame I don't know anything about them...

My position as the Kamisugi High's Computer Club President has been handed over to the person whom everyone has elected months earlier, just before every third year became very serious for their college entrance tests. Initially, I wanted Takagi to take over my position, but he revealed to me that he was in the same year as me. That left me an uncertainty on how the newly elected club president would lead. As I cleared out my things, I came across that strange doll again. It's the doll that, according to rumors, people who had came across this doll had their lives completely changed, like my Mihara classmate and her childhood friend some years ago... Wait. Could I also be one of its many victims too? The day it happened is about the same... No, it can't be, right? But, I've seen that thing several times, and my life now is completely different from before I first saw it... I think I should leave this thing behind and... what is he doing here? Me: "Takuya-kun, ...

The new year has started, and I'm approaching my graduation from Kamisugi High. Knowing that my endless life would go on like a never-ending loop, I stopped caring about what year it is now, other than this feeling that Kotomi would be back from her college studies in America and hopefully side with me to deal with my annoying other self. I haven't seen her for at least three years. With the duration of not seeing a person exceeds the time between meeting that person for the first time and the last you see them, there's an increased chance that the other person might not recall you. The school that I will be headed to after Kamisugi High is Mizuho Girls' Academy. They have officially dropped "High School" from the name due to the confusion with the other departments it has there and office areas within its grounds. They have also introduced an optional 4th year where they could graduate with a master's degree, making Mizuho look like a shortcut for Middl...

Even though I have been out of the house longer than I had been since last year, I've notice that my family's utility bill has been increasing. I can't be the culprit as I always unplug after use. On closer inspection, it's hard not to see why: LCD TV and the audio system is in standby overnight instead of being unplugged. The TV is apparently turned on only in evenings too. The power "bricks" of already-removed appliances at hard-to-reach-places are still plugged in even though the other end has already been removed for some months now The router has never been switched off since it was installed almost a year ago. Wonder how much power it consumes over the older one? Parents always switch on the air conditioner at night during summer, before they go to sleep (A major source?) and wearing jackets. Sometimes, I find that the fan or radio in the kitchen are left running when the place is obviously not in use Desktop PC in the living room is left idle, not...

This happened on my first day back in class after I was mentally tortured by my own other self. It could have been worse if the higher-ups had chosen me instead of him. Itsuki had that unhappy look when I was there and that "testing" continued on even after I left. I wonder what's going on? Female classmate:  "Hisakawa-san? What happened to you? You were away for quite a few days. You looked just fine just barely half an hour before you collapsed from the fever."

The unknown girl left hurriedly, but what shocked me the most was that she entered my house right in front of me. Me: "Hey wait! You trespasser! That's my house you know!" I caught strange girl by the hips. It wasn't hard as her reaction time was slow on top of me being stronger (from all that carrying at work) too. All of the girls from Mizuho seem to strangely have identical physical traits that makes them all appear identical unless you look closely. Saeko, seemed to have continued on to my parent's house with my children but not without making a face at the girl like they both know each other quite well. Saeko probably did not want my children to be involved in the argument. Me:  "Now, what dark magic did you use to make my children call you their father? I'm the mother and I have never seen you before." The girl gave up struggling and sighed.

The sound of shop shutters being closed at night. That was the earliest clear memory I had. I remember that the place was the shops next to the train station and was being carried by my mother. This sound was the loudest I have ever heard back then that it made me cry. As to when exactly that was, I have no idea. I would say that was between 1990 and 1993. There are other memories as a baby, but I don't know if they are based on photos I saw later on, recorded dreams, imaginations, or what others told me. Odd ones include dad leaving to serve the army from mom's point of view, and me in a water bag with nothing but darkness around me. There was also me in a pram and being played with my older sister at the doorstep, drinking from a cup or bottle of milk that had a I-have-no-idea-what-it-is added for me to drink from, and even crawling under the blanket of the bed my parents were sleeping in.