The person who likes me is a yandere.

...What's wrong with this guy?

A strange man suddenly appeared, facing me. He looked about fifteen or sixteen years old, and his face was extremely haggard. His cheeks were so thin that his cheekbones protruded, and his lips were dark; he looked very unwell. Perhaps because I had just seen that ridiculously beautiful girl, I could only see flaws in this man. Moreover, he was dressed in all black, just like me, with a bandage wrapped around his head, and like me, he was placing his hand on his temple…

"Who are you...?"

I took a step forward, and the man did the same. Exactly the same, and their thin lips moved at the same time. I raised my right hand, and the man raised his left. I raised my left hand, and he raised his right.

—Mirror image.

That's for sure. Regardless of time or place, the object placed in front of the washbasin is always a mirror.

My legs suddenly went weak, and in a dizzy state, I braced myself on the washbasin and brought my face close to the strange man in the mirror.

"Who are you……".

No one spoke the answer.

It was only at this moment that I realized I had lost all my memories of myself.

Chapter One: The Undeniable Confirmation of Amnesia

"This should be... traumatic retrograde amnesia."

The mysterious girl pulled at her sleeve and brought over a tall, thin, middle-aged doctor.

The doctor had black hair styled with hairspray, and although his long, narrow eyes, reminiscent of reptiles, gave him a cold appearance, his demeanor was remarkably gentle. The girl called him Dr. Miyazaki, and I was certain that was his name; judging from the name tag he wore, he certainly should be called Miyazaki. The doctor had me, in a state of utter confusion, lie down on the bed. After conducting a physical examination, he adjusted his silver-rimmed glasses and explained the diagnosis to us.

"Going against the flow...forgetfulness?"

The girl sitting on the folding chair next to the bed repeated the unfamiliar word, tilting her head in confusion.

"I experienced short-term memory loss after suffering brain damage due to an external impact. Let me think... perhaps 'amnesia' would be a better term."

Amnesia!?

It's easy to understand. The girl's screams echoed throughout the narrow hospital room.

"Wait, wait, doctor! What's going on? Huh? Huh? Amnesia? My brother has amnesia? Doctor, this! Tell me this isn't real!"

"Ayase, don't get agitated. It's understandable that you can't believe it."

The girl seemed even more confused than I was, the one suffering from amnesia. Dr. Miyazaki calmly tried to soothe her.

"I find it hard to believe too. But now, it seems that Asahi-kun has no memory of her own affairs at all. Isn't that right, Asahi-kun?"

"Brother, is that so?"

"Huh...?"

Two pairs of eyes stared straight at me, and it took me a good few seconds to realize that Miyazaki-kun was referring to me.

"...Am I called Qianyu?"

"Hey...brother, don't do this!"

The girl immediately looked flustered.

"That's right. Your name is Aragaki Asago."

“Xinyuan…qianyu…”

I tried to pronounce the name that Dr. Miyazaki told me.

“Xinyuan…”

I read it again to confirm the pronunciation.

“Xinyuan…qianyu…”

Finally, I relaxed and read it aloud one more time.

"Brother, has something come to mind?"

"…………"

I felt nothing.

A name should be the most stable word for identity, yet it fails to evoke any feeling, simply falling idly from the cracks of the heart.

"No, I can't remember..."

"Really? Then you remember Ayase?"

"Ayase?"

Dr. Miyazaki gestured to the girl beside him. The girl clasped her hands together, as if in prayer. Her large, bright eyes seemed to be desperately trying to tell me, "You must remember, right?"

I stared at this exceptionally cute girl named Ayase for a while...

"...I can't remember."

But this is the only answer I can give in the end.

"How could this be... Brother, you're lying to me, aren't you?"

A whisper, barely audible, escaped from Ayase's lips.

"Brother, look closely. I'm Ayase. Your only sister."

"……younger sister?"

After she said that, I looked at the girl's face again, but I still couldn't remember anything.

"Brother, please stop. This isn't real, is it? You're just teasing Ayase, right? That must be it, isn't it, brother!"

Ayase

Dr. Miyazaki grabbed Ayase's shoulder.

"Don't do this! It's not fun at all! Please, brother, don't do this!"

"Ayase, let's forget about it. Asagami-kun is confused right now too."

"But this is definitely a lie! How could my brother forget Ayase! Please, doctor, give me another thorough examination!"

"This kind of thing will be diagnosed the same no matter how many times. It's okay, retrograde amnesia is a temporary symptom, and the amnesia state almost never lasts a lifetime."

"It's almost certainly possible, but it doesn't matter where it is!"

"Hey, that's not what I meant—anyway, calm down first."

Ayase was in complete disarray, and the doctor in the white coat was desperately trying to calm her down. Watching them both like this, I felt as if I were in another, distant world. How can I describe this feeling…? It was as if everything had abandoned me, rushing away rapidly. As if I myself were slowly collapsing from my feet.

Amnesia? What the heck...? Please, this is ridiculous! This isn't a movie. How could something like that happen in real life...? How could it actually happen in my life...? My life... My... Wait a minute.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

Ayase, with her sharp eyes, noticed the slight confusion in my expression and asked me.

"Ah, it's nothing. I was just wondering why I could understand these words..."

"talk?"

"I have no memory of it, but I can understand what you're saying. I can tell it's... Japanese. I can even name the things. What's going on?"

Ayase's face immediately lit up.

"Really? Really? Big brother! Uh, uh, wait a minute... Good morning, big brother!"

"Huh? Oh, good morning..."

Are you alright?

"...Not very good."

"Oh, I understand! I understand completely, brother! Doctor, please examine him again. Brother hasn't lost his memory. Look, he hasn't forgotten his Japanese or English. Oh, that's great!"

"Alright, Ayase, please sit down. Unfortunately, it's not surprising that people with amnesia possess common sense."

Dr. Miyazaki then urged the excited Ayase to sit down, and then carefully considered his words before speaking.

"Although they are all called memory, they are located in different areas of the brain depending on their type. For example, short-term memory is stored in the hippocampus, while long-term memory is stored in the cerebral cortex. To put it simply, Qianyu's brain damage is likely concentrated in a specific part of the brain, resulting only in the loss of scene-based memories like recollections."

"It's so hard to understand! It's so frustrating!"

"Ah, really? Well, in general, Asahi-kun retains common sense, but has lost his memories of himself."

"What?! Is this even possible?"

"Since it happened in reality, it must exist, right? Of course, it's not very common."

Dr. Miyazaki poked his head with his index finger and said...

"In short, it's fortunate that the damage didn't affect deep memories. If those memories had been damaged, essential survival memories like the national language and common sense would have been lost. Aki-kun, can you tell me what the capital of Japan is?"

"……Tokyo"

"That's right. What is 2 × 2?"

"4"

"Where is Ecuador's Foreign Minister?"

"What?"

"Yes, there might still be some damage in the deeper layers."

Dr. Miyazaki's ballpoint pen flew across the medical record. But wait, is the third question really common sense? Even if most Ecuadorians didn't know it, surely the majority wouldn't.

"The impact of the car accident was indeed greater than expected. Let's do another check-up tomorrow."

"Car accident...?"

I have a slight headache.

"Wait a minute, doctor. I've been in a car accident?"

Yes, you were in a car accident right here on the driveway next to the airport. The accident happened last Thursday.

"Car accident..."

I ran my fingers over the bandage wrapped around my head.

"That driver was heartless; he didn't even call an ambulance and just drove off. That's a hit-and-run, isn't it? Luckily, I happened to be passing by, so I brought you here directly, and you finally woke up today."

"You mean today? Today is...?"