In loving memory, my ass!

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The sound of running footsteps.

The clap of hands brushing off chalk dust.

The sound of feet landing onto rubber mats.

Fwip! The fluttering sound of spinning fabric.

This was a routine practice day at our school gymnasium.

"Hey, Becca, season 2 of that anime you were raving about has been released!"

"Oooh!" At that moment the girl swinging on the high bar let go, flipping into the air, she landed on the placemat inches in front of her friend who stared warily. ( ,* U * ) *nervous sweat*

Friend(me): "No matter how many times you do that, it still freaks me out. One of these days you're going to lay me out."

"Sorry, sorry! I just got so excited all of a sudden, do you want to go out for a snack with me real quick? Coach is already super pissed at me."

"Of course he would be! If you weren't for you we would have won! You can't go off to watch anime at a competition!"

"I didn't know Shirly had switched places with me okay? No one told me! I thought I had time!"

Her name was Rebecca, she was a young and talented senior of mine who had skipped a grade, she was my age and fairly popular among the freshman and sophomore for being the most laid-back among our seniors.

Friend(me): *sighs* "Then, let's go!"

"Yay!"~ She quickly ran to the locker room, put on her sweats, and hurried out of the gym, people gave us glances but didn't stop us.

It was pouring outside, so we sat inside a convenience store huddled together near the magazines as we drank milk and watched the first episode of the anime on my phone together.

"Which one of these guys is your favorite character Rebecca?" On our walk back, we huddled under the umbrella she bought.

"Hmm?" She shook her head. "None of them."

"None? Then are you perhaps into girls?!" Come to think of it I had never seen her date, or get chewed out by the coach for skipping practice because of a guy like the other seniors.

"I'm saying the guys in this episode aren't among my favorite!" she seemed to feel strongly about it as if there was something terrible about all the handsome main characters.

Lightning flashed nearby and both of us paused to stare before continuing to talk.

"But these are the main characters! If not them then who-

"Ah! Hold on!"

When I was about to cross the road, a truck whooshed by while the light was still yellow, Rebecca pulled me back by the collar in the nick of time and threw me further back onto the sidewalk.

"Phew! Don't scare me like tha- Before she could finish her sentence one of the poles fell.

They say the lighting had damaged one of them. Either way, I'll never forget the smile on her face seconds before she was flattened onto the concrete.

"B-becca?!"

She was non-responsive, blood pooled out and was washed away by the rain. Her death didn't register for me at first, from the time the ambulance and fire fighters came to the time she was rushed to the hospital, to the time the doctor came out shaking his head.

Some part of me had been expecting her to make it.

We would go back to finishing our conversation while she recobered and she would finally have the time to watch all the anime she wanted...

That's what I had hoped.

After the funeral, Becca's mom invited me over. Becca's mom was a single mother, who was about to marry a man with another daughter. Don't misunderstand, this had been her plan long before the accident. It was just terrible timing, she'd probably spend her honeymoon mourning instead.

"I can't bring myself to throw out her things or leave them wasting away somewhere collecting dust. If you could put it to good use, I'm sure she would like that." Her mother told me.

Her room was small and simple with its lime green walls and simple white bedsheet. I ran a hand over a framed picture of the gymnastics' club.

Among the many pictures, there was an album/ anime artbook? I remembered our last conversation from before and opened it.

"At the end, who was it that was your favorite- huh?"

The book was filled with the image and artwork of various sexy clowns. I will admit they were handsome but they had the most twisted personalities.

The redheaded pink clown from Hunter & Hunter, Hisoko, the sexy clown noble from the anime Re: Circle, and the troupe of sexy clown men from White Butler.

I blinked at the pages and continued to flip taking in the sight of cut out doujinshi pages of the clown men fucking a female character from their respectable animes but on each one, a drawn cut-out of Becca's face had been pasted there. In some of the doujinshi's, she was murdered after sex.

I suddenly regretted taking on her Mother's offer to take her things.

( - _ -) What the fuck is this Becca?! Explain this to me you fucking weirdo! If you're somewhere out there in the heavens answer me!

"I didn't need to remember the dear friend that saved my life as some wannabe lover of murderous psycho clowns!" I screamed!

-

A small red-haired child about the age of five tending to a field of crops suddenly stopped tilling the ground with her hoe to blankly gaze up at the baby blue sky with her lime green irises.

(Somehow...I feel like someone's calling me...)

The owner of the farm supervising the farmhands from atop his cow casually reprimanded her as he passed by.

"What are you doing Candace? Get back to work."

"Oh, yes!" Her small little arms raised up the hoe and began to move with newfound gusto.

"Would you mind doing my share for me too Candy? I've got a date today." A gangly man asked her as she passed him by in automatic rhythm. (Musias Rowe: loves women, money, and alcohol)

Candace saluted him.

"Sure thing!" She continued oblivious to the same man getting whacked in the back of his head by a plump woman with her shoe. (Tulip Brown- an earnest woman who has a soft spot for Candace.)

"Having some fucking shame you piece of shit!"

(My name is Candace Wutherin, although I don't quite understand it. I reincarnated into this world!)

The child wiped off the sweat from her brow before continuing.

(It's kinda primitive but either way, I'll definitely survive in this life!)