CHAPTER I•••
The Dream
Utter darkness. Fresh, soothing, making my body feel ethereal. There aren't any stars, but I feel I'm soaring through the void of space. I'm at peace with myself. It's the same feeling I get at the fencing club, but without the sweating and the heavy breathing. I'm… happy.
Suddenly—yet so slowly I don't realize it until I have clear sight of it—, something blends out of the shadows. Black gradually shifts to grey and I have to cover my face as its whiteness blinds me. After a beat I lower my arms and I see a male school uniform, but it can't recognize it.
"Welcome to my world," the figure says, extending one of his gloved hands to me.
I follow the little twitches of his fingers as they reach his chest. The school emblem embroidered onto his breast pocket is red, with some horned monster's skull guarded by two "H"s. For some reason, I have no doubt they stand for "Hell High".
"Until yesterday, I was extremely talented… but still ultimately just a human."
My mind eye gazes through the rest of his pure, white outfit. The only different shade is on his pale face, which grows slightly darker till eventually disappearing amidst the wild waves of his hair.
I start blinking as a blue light starts bathing his slim figure and I finally get to see his face.
"But now, having received omniscient, omnipotent power… I've become the ruler of the Demon World," says my former classmate Ideo Hazama and my heart instinctively skips a beat. It's a shot of terror coursing through my veins, stopping everything on its way. "The denizens of the Demon World call me the Demon Emperor", Hazama continues, "You have been blessed with a once in a lifetime privilege to behold me. Your fate—whether you live or die—is now entirely up to me."
He reaches out for me and slides his fingers through my face in a twisted caress.
"You'd best put on a good show," he whispers and backs away, fading into the darkness once more.
There are only a few seconds of silence—of vacuum—until a cackle of laughter deafens me. My hands shoot out to cover my ears, but the terrible sound refuses to leave them. I feel its sickness licking my lobes and I scream, but I can hardly hear my cry among the chuckles. I feel I'm about to lose it myself, to really let my mind go bananas… and then the laugh dies.
I'm all alone again… but the dark is cold now and—as I fiercely blink the mind eye to scare the psychological tears away—I find I can't remember what peace feels like anymore.