"Heh, isn't it funny? How one moment of your life, could change everything?"

My eyes opened, I woke up with a jolt, sweat dripping down my face, heart beating faster by the minute as I screamed out "Who's there!". What was that? I saw... a beast with... more than it's fare share of tails... what was up with its intense gaze? It was oozing blood lust and hate... It was no human...

I hadn't noticed, my bed was drenched in sweat. While I was questioning if that was a dream, my phone suddenly began ringing, and my heart almost jumped out of my chest. I looked fearfully at it, as though the girl from the ring would pop out of my phone. Only after half a minute, I realized it was my 3rd alarm. "Hehe... I must have slept past them... I'm gonna be late anyways to school, might as well skip it." I fell back on the bed.

Upon contact I yelped out "Ew what the hell?" I looked at the sheet drenched with sweat. "I didn't even know a human body could produce that much sweat..." He changed the sheets and took a bath. After about an hour later, I fell back to my bed.

I thought back to the dream and I had realized I had forgotten most of it. The only thing I did remember was... two eyes... they looked deep down into my soul... they looked like they could have burned me and the world alive if it willed so... and how many tails were there again...?

I ended up pondering on that question for 10 whole minutes. Some one knocked at the door, knocking me out of my stupor as well. I opened full well knowing who it was.

"Ayy, what's up Kazumi, you decide to skip school?"

Hayat, age 16, a Junior like me, single and ready to mingle, the boy who basically has a confirmed scholarship because of track, who also happens to be my best friend. He crashes over every now and then without telling me. It's been like this ever since my parents and brother died in an accident leaving me all alone in this world of ours.

Like me, he was unfortunate enough to have parents who were too into anime. We both ended up getting Japanese names even though we clearly aren't Japanese, we were raised in the US.

I said in a monotone voice, but in a joking manner "Oh, uh, as you can clearly see, I wasn't feeling too well," I bought my fist up to my mouth as thought holding a microphone and said "cough cough cough."

He said with a grin on his face "Oh what a stupid coincidence?! I'm sick too! Cough Cough Cough, I think I caught whatever you had." Imitating me, he said "Cough cough cough."

We both looked at each other for a second or two, before breaking down into a laughter.

I used to be depressed all the time, I would be looking out at the sky wondering what their last thoughts were right before they died or something about them, and he would just pop out of nowhere as if on cue and place his hand on my shoulder telling me it's alright with a big smile, or changing the subject entirely.

"So seriously what's up? You forgot there was school Monday or something?"

"Nah man... Something happened in the morning, I can't quite remember, but my bed could have been mistaken for a kiddie pool."

"Whoa, you peed your pants man?!" He said breaking down into a laughter, literally having tears in his eyes.

"Hey now! It wasn't piss, that I'm sure of!" I said fast

"Relax bro, I'm messing with you!"

"Yeah I gotchu."

"What about you? Are you sure you should be missing school again? Remember what Mrs. Schmuck said about you skipping classes?"

"Uh ye~ah, I go~ot it... I hope... Well screw it, life is too short, besides, I got my 'sick' best friend at home just chilling without me! You would have done the same!" He said as he jumped onto my sofa.

"Well I guess you do have a point" I said thinking back to the time I broke into his house to hang out with him as his parent's were leaving the house.

"So what's the move?"

"Hmm, I dunno man, what do you wanna do? Wanna play Naruto Shippudden Ultimate ninja storm 4. "

"Hell yeah! Lets get right into it!"

The Next Day...

On the way to school, Haru, and I were making idle chit chat, until all of a sudden, a searing pain shot through my head. I dropped to my left knee on the side of the road grabbing the right side of my head. "KAZUMI!" yelled my friend, but I couldn't hear him.

It felt as though I was in a whole another dimension. Everything slowed down to the point where nothing moved. The only thing that could move around was me. I slowly got up, controlling te pain and looked around. I ran over to my friend and tried to shake him back to moving.

I placed my palm on his shoulder, to my surprise however, it slipped right through his body. I looked at my hand. It was perfectly fine. I looked around, nothing was different other than the fact it was stopped in time.

"Over here" said a voice. I froze. I remembered that voice once more. Where have I heard that voice? I know I have heard it before, but I can't remember where. I couldn't will myself to turn around. I tried to turn my head around but it was to no avail.

The sadistic voice then said, "Oh since you aren't turning, I guess it's alright to go ahead and gobble your friend right up."

I have no clue what happened, but I snapped. I looked at the beast right in the eye. I then remembered where I saw it before. It was back in my dream. But wait a sec, isn't this exactly what happened in my dream? What happens next? Think Kazumi! Take fate into your own hands!

I looked at the beast's cold, frightening eye. To my surprise, I wasn't scared at all! I looked at it dead in the eye and said "Back off, or you will regret it." I felt something click and change in my head. I felt like I gained one hundred pounds of muscle, and managed to stay in the same shape. I felt as though my look, could actually kill, I felt like a bad-ass, but at the moment, I couldn't care less, not as long as my friend is still in danger.

The beast said "Those eyes... Heh... looks as though you might actually be of some entertainment, at least as a good chew toy.

I have no clue what is going on anymore. Something just happened. It literally shattered into a million pieces.

I looked back and what I saw shook me down to the very core. It was my own body. "Okay... now this... is pretty wierd. I walked up to myself and touch my forehead out of curiosity. The second I did that, I felt a sharp pain again in my head. I shut my eyes down hard. When I opened them again, what I saw was everything back to normal.

"Are you okay?! Do you need to take a breather? Do you want me to get you an ambulance?"

"Relax dude, I'm fine! I might need a hand walking back to school."

"Hah, back to school my ass, your ass is going back home! This instant!"

"No I'm fine bro, I just need to sit out a little bit." I knew full well, if I missed out school again, not only would I be missing work, but more importantly, he would stay over at my place again. I don't have any complaints with him crashing over, but the problem is that if he misses anymore classes, it might affect him in track.

The teacher already said that because he still misses days even after detentions, the school will start to restrict after-school activities, such as track. Since I had a GPA above a 4.25, I got a pass, but Haru, he had a GPA of a little over 3.65, and his behavior in class wasn't the best either.

As we were walking across the road, I saw a girl, around the same age as me and Haru, 15-16 year old. She had straight black long hair, reaching down to a little lower than her shoulders, down to her half shoulder blades, hair parted from the mid-left. She looked to be around 5"5' (165cm). To be perfectly honest, she had an above average appearance.

The b:w:h ratio were good too. She was slim, and had an attractive appearance too. As far as I knew, there weren't many boys who were making a move on her, if any. It was just something about her which really caught my eye which I just can't explain.

Maybe it was her intelligence, maybe it was the way she carries herself, maybe it was the elegance in her, maybe it was the fact that she didn't necessarily faun over any boys, maybe it was the fact she is reserved. If I knew who she was as a person, I might have actually made a move on her, but I didn't know much about her. She went to the same school as I.

I had made Idle chit chat with her, but I would say I have made it to the part where I can say I am her friend now. I had decided a couple days ago, that I think she is the right person and had finally worked up the courage to get her number.

Haru, my best friend found out that I had a crush on her a couple months back. He spotted her after tracing my eyes, and got a mischievous smile on his face. "Go get em tiger, the girl of your dreams who you have fallen for, for the past 3 years."

He ran up half way between me and her and yelled out, "Hey Kazumi! I'm going on ahead! I'll meet you up at lunch later, I gotta turn something in."

I cursed at my friend as he called my name out trying to grab her attention. He might as well be saying Hey, I am trying to get you to notice Kazumi! Half of me however was thanking him for creating this opportunity.

She looked back and saw me as she was crossing the street. She stopped as she saw me and waved at me after checking if there were any cars coming her way. I smiled and waved back, and ran up to her.

*Screech*

I searched for where that sound came from as I ran over to her. She looked to her left and so did I. My heart almost instantly fell. Haru, who was about a 80 meters ahead of her noticed too. There was a truck with a tire which had just flattened out and was now making its way up to the woman of my dreams.

She was in too much of a shock to move, Haru dropped his bag and ran full speed towards her. He knew he wouldn't make it in time, even if his 100 meter record was 10.81 seconds, the bus would still make it to her in about 5 seconds

The whole world slowed down again. My whole body went numb. The whole world went white. There were only 4 things that existed in that white void of a space. Just a moving truck about to run over my crush, as my friend tries to save her, while I stood from the sidelines. Not even gravity existed. It was playing in slow motion, so slow infact, that the truck might as well be a turtle.

I heard the same voice I heard not too long ago. That of the beast. "What will you do now? The person you like will be killed now. Her bones will shatter into a million pieces, are you ready to see her lifeless body oozing with blood?" The beast, clearly amused, asked me that question.

I felt something click again in my eye. I turned my head around, one eye facing the beast and said, "Shut it!"

The beast stopped talking. It looked all shocked, frightened, angered, and surprised at once. "Those... those eyes... I never Imagined you'd advance so quickly in such short of a time..."

I felt my body feel weightless. I felt as though I could lift that truck with one hand, I felt as thought I can run faster than a cheetah.

"Alright then... Show me what you got, human..." whispered the beast with high expectations.

The world started to get it's light back. The building, and people started to reappear, time started to speed back up. I was surprisingly confident that I would make it in the nick of time to save her, even though my friend, who was much faster than me, and closer than me to her wouldn't be able to.

I implanted my right foot onto the ground for a solid 1 second, and kicked off full force, which left an extremely miniature crater on the ground. I rushed full speed extending my left hand towards her and managed to push her into Haru. It was too late for me to make it out. The bus was mere inches away from me.

I felt time slow down again, I looked at my crush and best friend and my look of concern and worry, faded into a smile. I somehow managed to get this sentence out of my system even though the bus was so close to me. "It was nice to know the two of you... take care..."

I closed my eyes waiting for the end to finally come. I felt one last thought emanating in my mind, as the everything began to dissipate.

"Heh, isn't it funny? How one moment of your life, could change everything?"