Flip The Script

Toshi just gaped at the beautiful girl who was gazing into his eyes with equal parts love and longing.

 

It took a moment for everyone to realize what was going on. A beautiful girl wearing fine, upscale clothes and sporting the official school jacket of Nagase High, the single most prestigious, private, art based high school in the greater Tokyo area, had just kissed Toshi. No. Not 'kissed'. More like she tried to give him a tonsillectomy by sucking said tonsils out of the back of Toshi's throat.

 

The whole time Toshi just held his arms out wide to either side. His initial reaction would have been to shove her away, but his previous life had taught him to avoid hurting girls, so freezing up and remaining motionless seemed the better option. Toshi simply had no idea how to respond, and wound up just staring at her in utter confusion with dinner-plate wide eyes. When she pulled away, she spoke with breathless passion, "Oh my sweet angel-cakes, I thought you were dead!" Toshi was opening his mouth and about to ask a question when he heard someone nearby shout.

 

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY BOYFRIEND!"

 

Everyone turned to see a small group of people. They looked like students, just like Toshi and his friends, except they had WAY more money to spend on clothes. The small group was mixed with an equal amount of boys and girls. The girls all sported jackets from Nagase High as well. One in particular, a red head with drill curls and frame like she could give Naora a run for her money, was the one that apparently took umbrage at the beautiful blond's actions towards Toshi. To say she was angry would be an understatement. She was more like an oncoming storm front with a high chance of ass-kicking. The blond stepped back to face off against the approaching girl. It looked like there was going to be a fight.

 

That is until Kenko took control.

 

The 'Toshi Protection Squad' wasn't just a joke. The boys in the school had all come to love their quirky, clueless, bumbling, honest and fair minded friend. Toshi had a guileless charm that made it so you just couldn't help but like the guy. Yes, Toshi might be rude, or say things that made no sense, but he had this deepness to him. It didn't hurt he had a face like an angel, but he seemed like one as well. Not in the force-for-good way, but in the an-innocent-who-doesn't-understand-how-cruel-the-world-is

way. For this reason the most popular boys in school had all resolved to protect him from a world that would surely take advantage of such a naive lad.

 

Kenko gave the blond a shove to push her out of the group. Eizan and Kazuo both grabbed Toshi and pulled him back from the potential confrontation and the rest of the boys all interposed themselves. Toshi was still trying to figure out what was going on when Kenko just glared at the interlopers, "Back. The FUCK. Off!" This actually caused both parties to stop and stare. A protective ring had formed around Toshi. Kenko stepped back to form ranks with the others. He tilted his head to talk over his shoulder while never taking his eyes off of the blond, "Toshi! Do you actually know this crazy bitch?"

 

Toshi's eyes flicked from one face to another. One of the boys in the other group stared back, "Toshi?" He asked in a disbelieving tone. His face looked like he was seeing a ghost. Toshi bit his lip as he thought, then shook his head, "I don't remember any of them." He quickly added, "But that doesn't mean anything!" Kazuo leaned closer to Toshi, "Toshi, did you used to go to Nagase?" Toshi replied, "Maybe? Doesn't ring any bells." Eizan huffed, "Goddamn it, Toshi. You could have told us!" Toshi raised his voice, "I didn't know! I got no goddamn clue what's going on right now! I-" He paused then lowered his voice, "I never... asked my father about my old school."

 

He rank his fingers through his hair as he contemplated this complete oversight on his part, "Fuck."

 

The other students stared at the group of boys. Toshi's friends looked back. The blond was the first to speak, "What happened, Angel-Cakes? Everyone said you died! You just dropped off the face of the planet!" Toshi blinked rapidly, "Angel-Cakes?" The red head growled, "Stop calling my boyfriend that stupid nickname." Kenko held up his hands towards both of them, "HOLD IT!" Everyone paused and focused on him. Kenko pointed over his shoulder at Toshi, "I take it none of you know that Toshi was in a coma and has total retrograde amnesia." The red head laughed, "Bullshit." She glared at Toshi, "This another one of your games, snuggle-buns?" Toshi silently mouthed the words, 'Snuggle-buns'? The blond glared at the red head, "I don't know what delusional world you live in, but you two were never dating!" The blond turned to Toshi, "But seriously, you pulling this amnesia nonsense again?"

 

All of Toshi's friends looked at each other, then started to laugh, "Oh god, No no no no no noooooooo..." Another boy nodded, "Toshi is NOT faking it." A few others nodded, "Oh yeah, you can't fake this." As they pointed at Toshi. Eizan nodded, "Like that time Toshi almost stripped naked in the classroom because he forgot nudity was a thing." Toshi threw his hands up in the air, "It Was HOT! And I didn't strip naked! I only unbuttoned my shirt!" A boy added, "And rolled up your sleeves." Another added, "And misted yourself down like a stripper." Kenko added, "It sure looked like if Ruri hadn't stopped you..." He let his voice trail off and imply indecent things.

 

Toshi let out a strangled cry of frustration, "What The HELL? Okay! I get it! That was bad, but nobody can explain to me WHY!" He gestured to one side, "I go to the pool and wear swim trunks, everything is fine." He gestured to the other side, "I roll up my sleeves and every girl in the room wants to jump me." He smacked himself in the side of the head, "Where is the goddamn logic???" Kenko was about to speak when the blond  cut him off, "Wait... are you serious?" She looked around then got a worried look as she centered in on Toshi, "You... have amnesia?" She paused before adding, "For real this time?"

 

Toshi facepalmed, dragged his hand down his face, then held up both hands. He slowly pushed his way to the front of his group as they were reluctant to let him get any closer to these strangers. Toshi stood before the two and looked from the blond to the red head, then the small group behind them, "Let's start over." He cleared his throat by coughing into his fist, "Hello. I'm Kimoto Toshi." He bowed.

 

"Please take care of me."

 

Everyone looked at each other confused. The blond most of all, "Wait... THAT'S your family name?" The red head looked suspicious, "I thought you said your name was Oh Toshi?"

 

---

 

The entire group headed over to the nearest unclaimed tables in the food court and everyone sat down. It took some time to sort things out, but it quickly became obvious that these were students from Toshi's old school before he transferred. Toshi wound up sitting across from the blond, who introduced herself as Jin Takara and the red head who's name was Kishi Cho. They both claimed to be Toshi's girlfriend. They both presented social media exchanges to prove it. They both had a different set of accounts they were talking to. Toshi had no idea about those accounts, but when he put in for a password reset, the reset emails from both sets of accounts went to Toshi's primary email account. Both of those sets of accounts had the same family name, but it wasn't Toshi's. He looked at the emails on his smart phone for a very long time before he announced.

 

"I'm a dick."

 

Everyone jumped. A bunch of people said, "WHOA!" Toshi just looked at Kenko, "Did I use that word right? Because I can't think of anything more despicable to call myself." Kenko looked shocked, as if he couldn't imagine that word coming out of Toshi's mouth, "Toshi! Don't call yourself a- er... yourself that. You are definitely not a Dee."

 

Toshi shoved his phone in Kenko's face, "I am a backstabbing, two-timing, cheating bastard of a slut-whore!" He pointed at the phone, "I am the lowest form of fuckin' life! I'm-" Katara interrupted, "Toshi! It's not your fault! I have no doubt its this bastard's fault!" She pointed at Cho, "I don't know how you seduced-" Cho pounded the table, "Me? Let's check back and see who was dating him first by comparing DMs!"

 

Toshi froze perfectly still as he had a revelation, ~Wait... am I giving my mom a pass for cheating on dad because she's a woman?~

 

Toshi held up his hands and shook his head vigorously, "Hold It!"  They both stopped and looked at Toshi. He lowered his hands, "I'm not the Toshi you knew. I'm not that guy any more. I'm not the one you dated and I'm not the one you had feelings for."  He looked down at his phone, "Frankly, I have no desire to get to know him any better. There was something wrong with him." Toshi stood up, "I think-"

 

There was a sound of a food tray crashing to the floor. Toshi looked over at the source of the sound. He saw a girl about his age with long black hair. She was staring at him with wide eyes and a face that was rapidly turning white as all color drained from it.

 

That's when a bolt of white lightning lanced through Toshi's brain.