96 In The Last Six Months... I Played a Part

It was now after school. Arata did exactly what was asked of him. Ichiri had some confidence for her plan, but how much of that she could back up was still a mystery to him.

She took him to the school's theater, which looked very massive to him. His surprise came when she told him that this wasn't the first time he had set foot in here.

"So what's so special about here?" He asked.

"Well, it's where we first met." She responded.

"We did, huh?" So was she trying to get that memory back? It appeared that being at a place like this didn't stir anything within him. "I'm sorry, but I got nothing." He admitted. "Which I'm sure is a shame for you."

"Oh I mean." She turned her head away from him. "I mean, that wasn't what I thought you might remember." She informed him of something was even more surprising to him. That he took a major role in the school's play during the festival.

Arata wouldn't call himself the type of person to be shy. Though this sounded like a step much further than he'd would normally take so willingly. Did something force him to do it?

"There you are, Arata." It was Erina, who was also joined by Yurime. She was looking for him, and was told he'd be here.

"So, it doesn't look like it worked." Yurime commented on the blank stare he had on. It was a shame, but if going to school as he already done didn't work, then going to any location probably wasn't going to do anything about his mind.

"So you don't even remember the two of us being on the stage?" Erina sat down, her legs hanging off the front end of the stage. Reminiscing on a better, technically worse, time. "It was a lot of fun."

"We did?" He fidgeted in place. How did such a pretty girl enjoy doing something like that with him? Actually, there was something else that he was taking issue with here.

He could finally accept that everyone that claimed to be his friend was telling the truth. The evidence was there, but that didn't explain why that was the case. Why did Arata change himself so much during this time?

"Say, there's something that's been bothering me." He said, grabbing all of their attention. "Why? Why are we all friends?"

It was a good question for someone like Arata to ask. Clearly something happened to make him a different person than what he used to be. He just didn't understand what led to it.

In reaction to hearing his question, both Erina and Yurime turned their heads down and away from him. That's not something he was hoping to see as a reaction.

"It's not something bad, right?" He asked with unease. Their silence only added to how he was feeling. Of course it wasn't easy to just tell him again. If he heard that he got blackmailed, not once, but twice. There was no telling to see how he'd react to it now.

"Hey, Arata." Ichiri was the one to break this silence. "Let's not worry about that type of stuff right now." Instead, she offered that the two enjoy something to eat after school.

He wanted to protest, feeling that this was just a poor attempt to avoid the problem here. But she wasn't going to take it, as she pulled him away from the other two girls.

"What's going on?" He asked, now that they were off of school grounds. "Something happened, so why are you protecting them?" While he wasn't confident that those two did anything bad to him. The way they acted showed they knew something uncomfortable.

"It's hard to say." She responded to him. "Because, I know that you'll get mad when you hear it." He waited for her to tell him the truth, but nothing else came from her.

"If you're worried I'll get mad, does that mean you're also responsible for it?"

"No, I had nothing to do with it." She answered. The pair entered a nearby shop that sold food to go. "But, I don't want to see you get upset at them." Arata had no clue as to why she would care so heavily about that. Especially if it had nothing to do with her.

But Ichiri did care. It was a bit of that naive immaturity she still had. He was the one that chose to show her how he forgave them. She didn't want him to, but he did it anyway because he understood working to fix the problems that one caused.

Erina's the one that backed out of blackmailing him. She even helped him when it happened again. Ichiri had also seen the work that Yurime had been doing with her. That girl was willing to throw away friendships to atone.

Those were going to be things he'd had no clue of if all he learned was just the blackmail part. He'd get angry, and she'd didn't want to see him lose something that he taught her himself.

"You can call me immature." She said. "But, as my senior. I think that I like the you that I met. Not the you that doesn't even remember me." Well, he didn't realize that he could have an impact with her. Nor did he think he was that much of a different person, was he?

"That's great and all… Wait, did you just say senior?…"

Meanwhile, as Arata and Ichiri had left the school. The two girls they left behind were unsure of what next step to take.

"What should we do?" Yurime asked. "I mean, it's the truth. Shouldn't he know?"

"I know he should." Erina threw her hands up in frustration. It was only fair. It probably wouldn't do much for his memories, but at least he could start rebuilding it.

Though, when he finds out, the two knew there was a likely chance that he wouldn't choose to forgive either of them. Not this time.

"If only we could find a way to get him to get his memories back." She commented, pulling out her camera to look at past photos she had saved. It used to be a den of Yogi, the boy she loved. However, lately Arata seemed to be sneaking into them a lot more often.

"I didn't know you were into photography." Yurime was impressed by the camera she was holding. It was a highly advanced one, expensive at that too.

"Oh, I just got it because of Yogi." She bragged. It was perfect for all those times she wanted to sneak a good image of the boy. "See, look at all these pictures."

She turned it to Yurime. It was image after image of the groups escapades. Seeing it all really impressed her. An idea was brewing within from the sight.

"I got it!" She shouted, giving the other girl a fright.

"Got what?"

"I think I know how to get his memories back." It wasn't an amazing plan. But she was confident that it might have a shot at working.

Erina had a ton of pictures that involved Arata. Plus, there was also the newspaper images that had him on it during the play and dance. Maybe, if they showed him all of them. He might remember doing them.

"So, can I borrow your camera? I can get prints done before the end of school tomorrow." She asked for permission.

"…" Erina wasn't sure if this plan was going to work. But at this point, she was willing to try anything. "Okay, but I already got a lot of them printed out. So, I'll just bring them tomorrow."

So that was their agreement. A lot was going to be banking on this plan. Because, if it didn't work, then what will?