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Ice Cream for The Planet
6th Fragment - Disappearance

6th Fragment - Disappearance

The sky is clear blue and dazzling today. For a moment, passing clouds formed an easily recognizable pattern—a bear. Its shape resembles that of a furry mammal, although with a larger head composition than usual.

The girl raised her hand as if drawing an imaginary line to reshape the bear's cloud. Then, she tried to push another cloud to move towards the bear cloud through her hand.

It doesn't really have anything to do with how the clouds move and the movement of one's finger, but it's worth a try, she thought.

The girl struggled to push the cloud out of the room where she was sitting, looking out the window. Her fingers rushed to the right and left, hoping the other cloud would meet the bear-shaped cloud.

However, all her efforts to bring the two clouds together were fruitless. Instead, the cloud moved away from the bear cloud.

"Ah."

As far as she could remember, there wasn't anyone who could move the clouds in the sky with just a finger. Thus, she did not regret too much of her wasted efforts.

Now the girl is looking towards the north—a large city dam. The distance is indeed quite far from the school where the classroom she is currently attending. However, she could see the water-retaining concrete from here, thanks to the absence of skyscrapers.

Large enough to be seen from here, she thought.

Indeed, she knows this city has a large dam nearby, in the northern area. However, seeing directly like this gave the said girl a new experience.

She is curious and planning to come there shortly.

"Arisa!"

"Guh! Nita?" Arisa turned to meet her two friends. A person with a ponytail whose name is Nita. Behind Nita's back, the other girl with neat shoulder-length black hair is named Tesa.

"That's right, the one who just slapped your shoulder was Nita. I didn't do it at all."

"You were the one who suggested hitting Arisa's shoulder from behind," said Nita quickly.

"No! It was just a joke!" Tesa defended herself.

"I thought it was serious!" Neta said

"Awawawa…"

Arisa lets out a dry laugh to react to what her schoolmates are doing. She doesn't mind that her friends greet her like that. After all, she didn't experience the feeling of having classmates in education for a long time since she left her school in the future timeline.

It's been a few days since Arisa met with Nita and Tesa, so she is pretty used to their behavior. Being directly involved with the two of them is pretty interesting for Arisa.

"So, this morning we talked about to go to the cafe after school. Let's go now!" Nita exclaimed

"The cafe in the eastern part of the city. Quite famous for a variety of cheap dishes, very compatible to students' pockets." Tessa added.

"After all, we haven't been to the cafe in a long time. Students also need refreshing, obviously!"

"About that, I have another suggestion. How about we go to the dam instead? I'm really curious about it." Arisa raises her hand like a student trying to answer the teacher's question.

"Refreshing is reall good idea. I've heard that a student did poorly on his exams because he never took a break for once."

"Therefore, fish and chips is a must! The extra pancakes aren't bad either!" Nita clenches her hands.

"When a junk food is combined with something very sweet, it'll leave a weird taste on our tongue, Nita." Tesa looked disapproving.

"You should try first!"

"Um, girls? How about my suggestion for us to go to the water dam?"

"The palate is totally different. Something oily should not be combined with sweets. It's a common sense." Tesa is still steadfast in her opinion.

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In short, Nita embraced Tesa's arm and walked away from the classroom while they kept arguing about what menu to enjoy at that place. Arisa is still not moving from her chair, quietly watching her two school friends going further.

"You girls are still want to go to the cafe?"

Arisa guessed that her two friends couldn't accept her suggestion. So, she immediately stood up and followed her friends approaching the school gate.

"Girls. Alright, I'll join you to the café!" exclaimed the girl with an ice cream accessory on her hair.

"By the way, Tesa."

"What's wrong, Nita?"

"I think we forgot something?"

Nita blinked and looked up slightly, then shook her head. "I can't think of anything. Everything is in place."

"Okay!"

Arisa realized that everything she said to Nita and Tesa was utterly ignored. They also seem to forget about her existence just like that. Arisa steps back to see her friend keep walking away and disappear from sight.

"I wonder why? It's like they can't hear me," she muttered. She thinks of various possibilities why her two friends were behaving like that. A slight feeling of something unpleasant appeared in her mind because Nita and Tesa had just left while totally ignoring Arisa.

However, Arisa dwells on her mind no longer and tries to focus instead on something else.

She tried to greet another student who happened to be nearby to test her hypothesis.

"Excuse me, you. Can you hear my voice?"

The man keeps walking while using his cell phone and bumping into Arisa, unbothered.

Seeing this, the ice cream girl concluded about what had happened this evening.

There is a possibility that my existence has suddenly disappeared, so he can neither hear nor see me. But why can this happen?

This girl keeps racking her brain as her footsteps walk away from school. As soon as Arisa came to her senses, she was already in front of a small shop selling various snacks for small children.

Arisa doesn't think much of how her footsteps brought her here automatically. She picks up one of the ice cream sticks with strawberry flavor and brings it to the counter. She waited a few minutes until the cashier realized something was on the counter.

The woman picked up the pack of ice cream and looked at it closely. Her eyes were so curious as she looked at it for a few minutes straight. Arisa could tell that the cashier was so confused by having the ice cream in front of her.

The girl with the ice cream-shaped hair clip stays silent for a moment. Her eyes observe the person standing in front of her, who also doesn't seem to notice that Arisa is right under her nose. Shortly after, the cashier returned the ice cream packet to the store freezer.

"Ah, I'm really that invisible," Arisa muttered.

So, when the cashier returned the ice cream to the refrigerator and returned to her desk, Arisa took the ice cream back and put some money on the counter before walking out.

Using her hands, she looks for where the stick is, unwraps the ice cream, and throws it in the trash.

When Arisa is enjoying her ice cream, her brain feels better thanks to the sweet flavor and cold feeling that spreads on the surface of her taste buds. Her thoughts can move faster, and her mood is gradually better.

After a few more bites, a single conjecture appeared in her brain.

"So, my guess is that my existence is now disappeared. No one can see nor hear me. So, that's the reason why Nita and Tesa forgot my whole existence and the reaction of the cashier who was so confused seeing the ice cream on the table."

What if she could no longer be seen by everyone anymore? Can she go back so everyone can be aware that Arisa is here?

The girl arrived at her house safely when she finished her ice cream. She comes in and greets everyone inside.

However, the situation is changed. No one responded to Arisa nor cared that the girl had entered the house. Then, she goes to the kitchen, where her mother is currently preparing dinner.

"Mom, I'm home."

She keeps going to make toast while not answering Arisa at all. The aroma tickled the taste of the ice cream girl. Still, Arisa prefers to return to her room to think about the absurd phenomenon happening to her.

She walks over the stairs to the second floor and sees her little brother walking past her. Arisa waves her hand to say hello. Yet, he keeps walking down to the lower floor.

"Of course, you won't notice me," Arisa muttered before she entered her room. Just in case, she remembered to lock the door.

Now, she sits cross-legged on the bed, folding her arms and looking at the wall with great focus. There's nothing on the wall, but Arisa is trying to concentrate on this particular spot.

Feeling deadlocked, Arisa accessed her communication ring to access the Ringnet. There was a holographic display floating in no time as Arisa put a few more display screens to search for more information simultaneously.

"…"

She can't find the answer. In the end, Arisa closed the entire hologram screen and lay on the bed.

"Should I try to discuss it with Rio, huh?" she hissed.

Rio, her former classmate, had been looking for her all this time since her departure from Elementary School a couple of years ago. Thinking about him, she suddenly remembered what happened on the first day of her arrival in the past. The man came to her and confessed immediately as soon as they reunited.

"Will you be my lover?"

Arisa recalls the definition of dating. She previously understood that 'dating' means a close relationship between two individuals who love each other. This relationship often continues until marriage or stops when the two individuals don't feel comfortable anymore.

The girl is trying to consider how the individual named Rio is meant for her.

"Rio is… my classmate whom I saved his life when we were in Elementary School," Arisa recalled while flashing other memory particles in her head.

This is the story of a friend named Rio.