451st post: Oddly Tired

I don't know what have I been doing lately that is making me sleepy and tired. I haven't been doing anything mentally or physically stressful to the point that I can't really think. Even if I could, I would be too sleepy by then and forgotten all about it by the time I woke up.

Haven't been posting much lately too. For the anime reviews, Railgun 6 is posted right after Railgun 5. As at the time of typing, Railgun 8 should be airing in a few hours, but I haven't even started Railgun 7.

I've lost track of what anime episode I had watched that I don't know how far behind it is, on top of anime like Kobato having some long break between episode 4 & 5. (Above image is from Sasamaki Koto ep7) I know IE9 is being officially planned, Google releasing some official info about the Chrome OS, Microsoft bans hundreds of thousands of modded Xbox 360s, Danny Choo now up to something, YouTube planning to release 1080p videos, and it's just too many things to keep up, but I didn't mention anything about it in the technology blog.

You may be wondering why is this post numbered 451 instead of 448 since, if you counted, the last numbered post is 444. No, I didn't skip numbers. The right screenshot is what I'm seeing now: I have unpublished stories that are not yet completed. It in fact follows the number you see at the top right (+1 when creating a new post). Come to think of it, I hardly post any non-story posts lately, partly because I tweet more frequently. You might also have notices S3P23 and S2P37 on 17 November, which are partially done as they are done from my phone, but with no references to earlier parts accessible at that time.

Speaking of accessibility, the current theme at my WordPress blog seems to have a mobile phone version, which is kind of useful. Main reason why I'm not moving there is that it doesn't allow me to insert any code I want without it being stripped down to the point that it's broken, edit the CSS of the theme without paying, confusing interface, and so on. I do sometimes use it to archive the stuff here and upload vector PDF version (instead of the PNG raster) of my traces.

I'm just tired and sleepy and haven't had enough (comfortable & uninterrupted) rest.

Disoriented Feelings (Part 18)

The day of the festival has arrived. I've brought my siblings along just to see what they could do there, or at least have fun there. To tell you the truth, I hardly know anything about them despite living in the same house and having the same set of parents. I wonder what do they see me as?

Thinking back, the weird school principal who called me back on my birthday last year seem to be telling the truth. I didn't believe him back then as the time-traveling part seemed too hard to believe. However, he also added that there is some hidden truth about myself that I should know nothing of, but will soon find out anyway. What does he mean by that? I don't find anything odd about myself...

As I was heading about with my duties as the organizing committee and as a student council member, I decided to drop by the computer lab. Sure enough, I heard my siblings' voices.

Izumi: "You mean that it will happen?"

Saeko: "Only if she is not aware of it taking place. Though this could change, like how changing the past affects the present. Since she and all of us know now, this could change, but we don't know if they would still attack her or how differently."

Kousei: "But what can we do? I can only think of stopping them, which is impossible for me."

Saeko: "And if their attacks hit my other body, I would be limited in movement and can't do anything for a while. Really get killed if they go after the one I'm in now."

I looked around and, besides my siblings, my boyfriend was with them. I headed in. I know I'm not comfortable calling that girl as my boyfriend, but she was him not too long ago.

Me: "Well, I wanted to keep it a secret, but this involves my life. Unlike Hisakawa-san here who has somewhere to fall back to that can't die, I fear that I would fade into nothingness if it were to actually happen, especially when I have not yet experience life in full before even becoming an adult. I think I can reprogram you so that attacks would not penetrate you and prevent your body from going into a 'pretending-to-be-dead/killed' mode."

I really don't know how to address my boyfriend as, since he's now a girl. I need the clone's body to see how I can still be living even though I should have died. I heaved a sigh of disappointment as I looked at her, since the clone is not there.

Me: "I forgot... The one capable of what I just said is not here. Saeko, bring her to your workplace at the end of the day. I will be there. I have a lot of things to do now."

Yes, I am going to program the device in such a way that my boyfriend would turn back, and find out more about Mamiko's abilities, especially after what happened last night.

*****

My boyfriend invited me to her place to stay over the night: it's the recently-completed apartment complex. A sharp contrast to the house he/she used to live in that I visited before. When I asked her how she managed to own that recently-completed penthouse at the top, she doesn't seem to know why herself: she woke up in there on the morning of being turned into a girl.

To other people, seeing 3 girls walking together means that they are close friends, but the girls in the Mihara Academy uniform consists of my recently-turned-into-a-girl boyfriend, while the other was her clone that seems to have been made more recently. I was hoping he was just crossdressing or went through some weird surgery, but when I tried to do that like before, it was impossible. 2 receivers but no transmitter. Ugh. I have to figure out a way to turn her back. No point bothering with the clone. Just to be sure though, I had to ask her if she really is my boyfriend.

Me: "Tell me, how did I first met you?"

Saeko: "Well, you crashed into me while carrying books, hid your face with one of the fallen books as you picked the rest up, before running away. Later on, you wrote your love letters to me with that Gobachev name in an unusually formal way."

I hate to admit, but this girl really is my boyfriend: she even told me stuff that nobody else knows. I have to change her back or we can't be a married couple.

*****

With some research, I have made a time-traveling device. I would only require adjusting the device my boyfriend was wearing to turn her back into a guy, but first, I would travel to the Mihara Academy school festival that took place just before mine. She said that I was there and had even talked to each other, but I wasn't even there! Maybe it was the future me instead.

*****

I met up with my cousin, Aiko, when I was searching for those two. We bought some snacks, drinks, ice-cream along the way. I kind of forgot why I was here until we saw the clone staring at us with a puzzled look on her face.

Saeko: "I know the both of you, but I've never seen you two together. How do you two know each other?"

Aiko: "We're cousins. In fact, we are born in the same year. Kotomi? How do you know her?"

I explained my long story to my cousin on how we met. I told her the truth: Met at first by accident early last year at my school back in my original dimension almost everyday after that until the day before he turned into a girl back in May, 4 months earlier, and did not see my boyfriend again until the week before now. I almost confessed to him back in May and did not recognize him until I heard rumors of a cute girl from another school who keeps appearing at a particular class that she was walking with a guy that she was close with. When I saw the news report about a girl being stabbed by bad guys later that day, I recognized her as the one who fits the rumors that was spread around school. Since her gender and given name is completely different, I didn't recognize that girl was my boyfriend at that time. However, her face and family name did made me think of it upon meeting again when I accused her of being a spy,

Aiko: "Kotomi, I think you can stop there. Look, Mamiko is already crying."

Sure enough, tears were flowing out of her eyes and was sobbing with her hands covering her eyes.

Mamiko: "It's not your fault that I was reminded of it. It's just control mwahaaaaa!!!"

She started to cry loudly. Why are you crying? People are watching us!

Just as my cousin and I were figuring out how to stop her crying, I heard Mamiko's voice from a nearby speaker.

Mamiko (speaker): "Ah! I can't stand that crying! Kotomi, can you help to shut myself up."

Wait, you mean the voice from that speaker comes from the girl crying in front of me? The same person? Although I'm puzzled as to what was going on, I followed what she said by asking my cousin to grab a hold of her while I covered up her mouth.

Mamiko (in person): "Hey! What are you two doing? Let me go!"

Mamiko (speaker): "Ignore that! Keep at it until I've calm down. Beat me up weakly if necessary."

I'm confused as to which to follow: her mind is completely different from what her body is doing. After she calmed down, I carried her to a table outside a nearby cafe and waited for Saeko to head there, since she's probably aware of what happened with us. I fiddled with the device so that Saeko would (hopefully) turn back into a guy. She doesn't seem to know what I just did when. ironically, it was her that made it.

Saeko: "Anyways, about that thing..."

She was pointing me towards Mamiko. Hold on, I can't really tell you two apart!

Me: "Oh, the machine you came across at the science research department of this school? I made it, just the month before you came across it. Of course, with the help of several others."

She gave me a look that what I just said was not what she was talking about, but since she was interested anyway, I continued on describing it.

At the end of the day, I traveled back to my present period and wait for that time to arrive. I should not let my guard down like what I saw on the video of my own death.

After my school festival that seemed like forever, I brought Saeko and Mamiko to their workplace, which is one of the branches of my company. There's something odd about Mamiko I would want to find out, especially since I heard her voice in a tone that is completely different from what she was doing. In fact, it seems that there is more than that.

← Part 17

Related: "Alternate Dimension (Part 21, 22, 23, 30, 31)"

Part 19 →

[Author's note: This was not published immediately after part 17 as I need to revise the content due to suggestive words and conflicts with other parts.]

An Unexpected Wish (Part 5)

A little info about Takuya's background: he is older than Nanami by two years.

In his first year, he was in the art club as a natural choice since he was in one during his middle school days. He paints beautiful paintings, some with the aid of his seniors. However, since the club did not meet the minimum amount of members after the seniors graduated, the art club had to be disbanded.

As a replacement for his 2nd and 3rd year, he joined the computer club as he sees programming in one of their activities as an art too by knowing how things would turn out, and how a small mistake can affect the whole thing. There was also a popular female student who is in the same year. She was kind, patient, beautiful and smart. She was so smart, she seemed as though she should have been in a prestigious school, like the Mihara Academy in a neighboring prefecture (it's well known across the country) or a university instead. She is also keeps her cool down in situations where people would normally be stressed up or be angry, like exams or projects. Despite all that, people could sense how serious she is without saying anything. That's probably one of the key points as to why she was chosen to be the president in the final year.

Her personal background info is relatively unknown, but there has been reports that she is sometimes seen leaving in an expensive car or arriving in it when she's late. Except for those times, she is seen walking by herself to a research center nearby everyday most of the time. When a deadline is given by an external party when it's nearing with much stuff not done or some major unexpected problem pops up at the last minute, she would be the last resort as to fix things in an instant. Nobody saw how she did it, but the finished product seem to be professionally done and completed in an instant. She did remind them not to use her as an excuse to be lazy though.

During her graduation last year, everyone was shocked that she did not plan to enter college, but did say she managed to get a job with a well-known medical and research company (a company different from the one she is usually seen going to after school) that needs a qualification higher than a high school diploma. How she got the job is also a mystery, looking at the qualifications and the average age of a new employee there. He hasn't heard much of her since then though, other than she could guarantee a place should he want to work with her. There's also a rumor with supported photos that a girl at the north-western outskirts of the capital looks very much like her, but she's only in Year 1 and does not have the trademark hairstyle people usually identify her with.

When he collected a painting he did together with his seniors earlier, he dropped by the computer room and noticed a box belonging to the girl mentioned earlier that she left behind. It was labeled "Saeko Hisakawa's stuff". In it was a strange looking doll, some papers, media disks, and photos taken during her time in the club. He brought it with him before collecting the painting, hoping that she would collect it back from him one day, since she seemed to have a liking for him.

December 2010, Nanami's grandmother introduced to her the cousin she has been talking a lot about lately and just recently graduated from a university overseas. She's about 21 years of age, so she just legally became an adult not too long ago.

"Hm? Where have I seen you before?"

"It's me, Kotomi! Surely you have seen me when you were 9 back in April 2004. You were even playing with my younger siblings back then."

"I do remember that I was playing with someone during Hanami when I was younger, but not the faces though. However, I have seen you quite recently though."

"She was at the funeral," the grandmother quietly added and walked away.

Nanami tried to recall whom she met. Although she looked like she was about to fall into tears when thinking, she suddenly exclaimed.

"You had a boyfriend whose younger sister gave me the largest sum of money! I thought the bag contained clothes until I opened it! Never seen someone like that before. You sure are lucky for you to meet a family that rich!"

"Yeah, I myself didn't know they were that rich, since it happened out of the blue. They portrayed the exact opposite image when I first met them: poor, typical house, minimal furnishing inside, some dust here and there. My boyfriend is jealous that his younger sister is more popular than him, but at least he got me. I don't know what made me like him though, like he's a magnet to me. Since then I can't stop thinking of him, like I've been brainwashed to not want anyone else. I went crazy when I didn't see him for a long time, but meeting his sister during that period of absence calmed me down since she resembles him a lot, though I still wanted him. I'm surprised that I'm even aware of this spell. Wouldn't be surprised if he proposes to me anytime now, we've known each other for 6 years already."

Kotomi sounded as though she had told some lies: she knows the truth behind the siblings Nanami just mentioned.

The two girls talked among each other what they had went through while the grandmother prepares dinner.

"Although I'm older than you, you are technically my aunt, since your grandmother is my great-grandmother. I was puzzled at this fact at first when I checked the family tree."

"No way! Really? I didn't know this!"

"It's true. I don't know what my eldest son and his son were thinking: marrying and having children so early. At least my other sons and daughters aren't like that. Anyway, dinner's ready."

It looks like Nanami's cousin could be staying here with grandmother for a while since she has a job in the capital. Nanami now feels that she has her family back again and is no longer by herself.

← Part 4

Part 6 →

Disoriented Feelings (Part 22)

I know I had went back to Japan just to attend a funeral of a family of relatives, but Mamiko showing up to pick me up from the airport was really unexpected. The shocker is that she revealed that her mind is the original Itsuki from before the dimensional change. The current Itsuki is what would have happened if that event never took place, but he recognizes Mamiko as the original owner who was forced out.

What I'm puzzled about the most is the place where had she kept the luggage I had brought along back then. I left them with Mamiko, but I don't see her carrying it and it mysteriously reappeared when I needed something from it. Also, where did she acquire such huge amounts of money she gave to Nanami (the only living family member mentioned earlier)? That is an amount that only my uncle, Kenjiro, would be able to earn at his current job (without including expenses for family and taxes) in a few short months. I hope she didn't rob a bank or something. I'll ask her more questions when I arrive back after my university graduation quite soon.

After a long flight, I finally landed in California. The roommate who sent me to the airport earlier is here again to pick me up back to the dormitory in Palo Alto somewhere. I still don't know where exactly, since I only know it as, "this way, turn right here, head in that direction, the building over there, interstate 280, that restaurant, " and so on. I don't know how great my university is, but people are saying that it's one of the best in the word. It's like, "Really?" when I heard that. I've also heard that the headquarters of some of the largest, well known companies in the world are just across the nearby Bayshore Freeway where my university is located. It's that close?

I don't know what to think about it, they said that I could choose to attend or not to attend the graduation ceremony and if I do, If I choose to attend, the graduation gown should be rented. In both cases, I will be receiving the certificate, testimony, and whatever else. Wait, I have to pay for the gown? I can't bring it back as a memento? What is this? Money minded people... At least there's someone outside my immediate family willing to pay for my expenses.

On the days leading to the graduation ceremony, lessons that seemed to have lasted forever has finally ended. I see people talking to each other more frequently, including my juniors. Without any lectures, practical, lessons and tests left, I felt that something is missing since we spent most of the time studying and researching. We would dread writing that several-thousand-word reports (in English) they frequently gave us. The stuff I do with my friends here. The beautiful scenery here.

Come to think on that last bit, reduced stress over work and more free time makes me appreciate how beautiful the place is with all the old buildings here. It's a shame some were destroyed in an earthquake that is, surprisingly, about 104 years ago.

International students (including myself) can't really stay in the United States after graduation for long, unless they are married to a local or already secured a job here, due to those tough immigration laws. I got in here on a study visa that is about to expire. Well, I don't plan to stay here anyway.

Before I head home, I should join my friends for my graduation trip and buy stuff for my friends and family before heading home. Who knows when I would be back here. Oh, I should also invite my friends to visit me back home: they seem to have an interest on visiting my country.

← Part 21

Part 23 →

444th post: Differences from the manga and anime

I recently bought the manga, I don't mind the chronological order being mixed up, but switching characters is very glaringly obvious. Especially episode 6.

	Some unknown judgment girl has been switched with Komari during the searching scene. They are also searching at a bridge instead of a tree. I can understand a tree, but why a bridge?

Read more »

Alternate Dimension (Part 35)

Just after New Year's day in January 2007, I received some odd news from my company. I don't know if it's a good or bad news, but here it goes:

1. It was found out that Kotomi I had known had returned to the original dimension since after the school festival in 2005.
2. Although I am actually 17 and a half years old, my body never grew a day older since around that summer holiday. That means my body says that I'm still 16. What?
   
3. Because of point 2, I can still learn and absorb new things better than my peers who are born in the same year as me in the latter years. That means that I would still appear, behave, and learn like a 16-year old even though I might actually be 70. Which also means, mentally, I can't be as mature as an adult. Ugh.
   
4. I am highly likely to repeat high school for the rest of my endless life (I can't die even if a Hydrogen Bomb were to explode in front of me)
5. The dimensional viewer range limit is now at infinite from the 1-hour range and, if necessary, communicate with the people there. They also made it possible for me to return to my dimension with control over it.
6. The Kotomi in that dimension did made it into that American university.
   

Wait. Does that mean that I can return back to what it was before it all started? Just a typical poor miserable guy who is just a nobody? I want to go back: that messed up cloning ruined my life here in this dimension: Kotomi ignored me, those guys keep attacking me, guys following me like I'm some star, and I feel like an extra even if I'm out with just Saeko. And that house is too huge and posh for me.

The professor did the necessary arrangements and sent me back there, but not without asking some final questions. Heck, I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying as I just want to go back there.

....

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Alternate Dimension (Part 34)

I haven't been seeing much of Kotomi for almost a year. I went to her house most of the time and none of he family members know where she went to. Her mobile phone has not been contactable too. I wonder what is going on in her mind? I'm worried. Oh, and when I talked to her mother, she appears to be hiding something from me when I asked, but she really doesn't know where she went. Wonder if it's something to do with what she mentioned some time ago about her having a secret that she herself doesn't know about. What is it then? But then again, some secrets are best not to know about. Still, I don't know anyone else that I could get along with.

The college entrance exams are approaching, Everyone is studying for it, with the criteria ranging from entering one of the best schools, to just being in the same university as their friends. Although people have high expectations of Kotomi and actually has a scholarship into one of the popular universities in America, which, to everyone's shock, she rejected.

Well, that was some time ago. Towards the end of 2006, I was shopping for Christmas presents for everyone when I noticed a huge crowd being gathered at one of the widest grate-level crossing ever know of. I was too far to tell what was going on, but I did hear shouting. The shouting mysteriously stopped when a train went past here, which applied emergency brakes almost immediately. I heard the crowd gasp and the train sounding the horn shortly before that happened though. It seems as though someone was hit. I took a look at who it was and...

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441st post: Status of my Vector Tracing

I know I haven't been vectoring much for almost half a year now due to me having the lack of time to do them. Some of them include:

1. My job (it's a mental torture out there)
   
2. Typing my stories here and an organized (not necessarily corrected) version of it at Wordpress
3. Some updates here and there
4. Twittering (though mostly when I'm out)
5. Some game at Facebook
6. Accumulated unwatched anime because of no. 1
7. Organizing (and playing) music and video files
8. Traveling, because of no.1 and where idiots colleagues, friends, and family drag me to
9. ニホンゴノウリョクシケン (no really)
10. Eating and sleeping. Although I eat at the computer or while doing other things, I don't know why I my body needs 9 hours of (uninterrupted) sleep even though I'm almost an adult. And that feeling from the lack of sleep (or continuing on when my body wants to sleep) is a torture.
11. not in the mood
12. too freaking complicated and might give up mid-way
13. Finding a suitable theme for no.2. I like the current one with it's clean and simple layout and mobile-friendly support, but navigating to my stories and vectors there is horrible if you don't know where they are. (Even I don't know where they are. Links in no.12 was possible because I visited the page before in my default browser.)
14. Editing and uploading videos and quietly put them up. (link to the other account if something happens to the other) So quiet that I don't even mention anything about it here or at Twitter.
    
15. and so on....

This does not mean I will stop doing them completely though, but just when I feel like doing so. However, the rate of finding potential images to vector trace from is growing faster than just doing one of them. There are 300 images on the waiting list, more than triple of what has already been vectored.

Alternate Dimension (Part 33)

Well, this thing would be useful if I could check further back/towards the past/future than one hour from the present time, like 10 years. Even so, there's nothing I can do currently to help Kotomi with her situation, as though it will happen the exact same way regardless of what she tries to do to prevent it. Kotomi is too depressed to talk to anyone right now. She did try to tell her family about it, but they think that she's just having a nightmare or something.

I was playing with this thing on my way home to spot anything interesting. So far: nothing, except that I would be in an area of the house I rarely go to within an hour. You can say that my house is huge, but I have only been to the area around the entrance, which forms a small percentage of the total area and have never explored the rest since acquiring it.

Hold on... does that mean that I will be doing the exact same thing later?

If i were to be thinking of doing something else, will that future change? Like doing my homework for example? Speaking of which, I have some to do.

...except that i don't know how to do it. I know what the topic is, but not the exact details. Saeko is now out with that (former) best friend of mine, so i guess i have to search for a book on it somewhere.

I headed to where I remembered seeing a lot of books: the study room. I find those easier and more reliable to search than looking up online, which are in bits and pieces.

The study room is filled with a lot of books, study desks, nice design, and so on, that you might mistake the place to be a college library, though still smaller than a regular public library. I still  can't believe that this house is legally mine.

...

Oh, that book up there looks like it could contain what I'm looking for. Let's...What?! I can't reach it? I was able to reach something that high just early this year... Oh, wait.

I looked down at myself: I forgot that I had turned into a girl back in May. How could i have forgotten that? Especially when changing or the voice that comes out of my mouth. Oh well, let's use that ladder over there to get that book.

...

There's something awfully familiar about this scene... Hold on! I saw myself doing this not too long ago and I'm doing it without realizing it! This dimensional viewer is too accurate that what i had dreaded to happen could most likely to happen.

*****

Kotomi's behavior seem to have changed since the night after her school festival. I can understand: it's like you have disease or cancer and the doctor saying that there is no cure and have few short months left to live. For some unknown reason, she would prefer Saeko instead of me. I mean, what's the difference? Saeko's body was originally mine, but i'm mysteriously stuck in my clone's body. Wait. Does she know about this? Well, to anyone looking at us from the outside, there isn't any, except that I'm just an extra that nobody seem to care.

← Part 32

Part 34 →

[Modified: 1 November 2009]

Minor stuff noticed in To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

Those drinks... they look familiar... where have I seen them before? Let's have a closer look at the drink.


Curry Soup? Soup of the bear? Well, I don't remember the name, but I know it had that design.


Ah! It's one of the drinks that came out that had earlier swallowed Touma's 2000 yen note in Index.


The covers appear to be based on actual magazines, but let's focus on the bottom of where Mikoto is standing at.


Wait?! "Denki Daioh" with the cover of Shana??? About the Shakugan no Shana S OVA that just came out this month???


Speaking of Shana, this scene in the same episode reminds me of the Shana Anime when the Fuzetsu is activated.


These two images are of the same place, with the 1st image being chronologically later than the 2nd. However, there is no closet in the first image. (Note: Kuruko is on Mikoto's bed)


Let's zoom in at the study desk behind Kuruko's bed. Railgun makes the place look smaller than Index. The fridge is still there but the gap on the left-side of the bed is a lot narrower and where did the bed go in the 2nd image of this set?


Speaking of Saten and Uiraru, these two girls did make a cameo appearance in the opening and some scenes in the main episode (quite rare) of Index. Btw, who is that guy in the 2nd image?