Yuu groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. His head was throbbing but the rest of his body felt rather light. Ignoring the pain, he sat up. He kept his eyes shut as he tried to will away the pain. As useless as it sounded, it did indeed gradually subside.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself on someone's lawn. He looked up at the house that loomed over him. There was something familiar about it, but he didn't recognize it. The pounding was starting again so this time he tried to shake his head to rid himself of the headache. Standing up, he made his way away from the property.

The streets were eerily quiet. Yuu expected cars, stray animals, people. But he was met with silence.

He walked. He didn't know where he was going, but he walked on. Dressed in his black t-shirt with a light white jacket on, the temperature was neither hot nor cold. Not even a gush of wind was blowing.

Yuu started to become desperate. He wanted to find someone, anyone. He didn't want to be alone.

He paused when he heard something creak. The sound of metal grinding on each other, squeaking on contact. A swing.

Yuu looked around him and found the small opening to the local park. The one he always went to after school with his friends. His little legs ran as quickly as he could manage. He could almost see the faces of his friends as they laughed and played around the play structure placed in the middle of the park.

But when he arrived, none of them were there. He was breathing heavily as he looked around. None of his friends were there. But the squeaking of the swing was still prominent.

Yuu made this way around the play structure to the swing set behind it. There was a little girl, probably younger than him by a year or two. She looked kind of like the little kindergarteners that were at his school.

"Hi. Um, are you here by yourself?" Yuu asked. The little girl did not reply. Her feet were barely touching the ground as she swung back and forth on the swing.

Yuu noticed that the swing seemed to be a little lower to the ground than he remembered as if to accommodate her small statue. He decided to join her when she didn't reply. He sat down on the swing and swung back and forth. He loved swings, but he loved it even more when his friends where around as they would all push with all their strength to send one of them flying high into the sky.

He looked back at her as her feet kept brushing the ground briefly to keep her momentum. Aside from her leg moving, she was almost still.

After another couple of minutes, Yuu didn't want to wait anymore. He stepped off the swing and looked at the pigtailed girl. She continued to swing while her gaze was glued to the ground.

"I'm going now. Do you want to come?" Yuu asked. There was no reply once again. "Well, bye then."

He decided to go visit his school. Judging by the high sun, he might be late for school. He knew that it could be the weekend but the streets would be busy with life and noise if it was. The streets were awfully boring during the week days.

By the time he reached the school, the gates were not closed as they should be when classes have started. But they would also be closed if it was the weekend. Instead of going inside the large white building, he went around to the back of the school. There was always a class having gym every period. But he was greeted by an empty field once again.

Yuu looked back at the school. All the windows were closed. It was such a nice day that he thought the teachers would like them opened to let in the fresh air as they would say.

But his thoughts were interrupted by the rustling of leaves. He looked back at the forest that was beyond the fields that belonged to their school. No one was allowed in here as it was easy to lose someone inside the forest. But he vividly remembered a class trip for a picnic during family day.

The teacher had prepared sandwiches for everyone as they set up the perfect picnic spot inside. The only reason they were allowed inside was because of the presence of their guardians to watch over the children.

Yet, Yuu felt something else drawing him in. As if the forest was calling to him, telling him to go closer.

The forest wasn't as intimidating as everyone made it out to be. He always boasted about going in alone and making it out fine. Of course, that got him into trouble despite not taking action as he knew he wasn't allowed. An 8 year old could only dream.

But this time, there was no one holding him back. No one to tell him not to.

So he went forward.

The school made a pathway for classes to make class trips into the forest. He heard that he would be able to do that too when he gets older. It was a yearly tradition that the oldest kids at the school go into the forest with their teachers to study the plants in the forest.

Yuu wasn't that interested in nature, but he was definitely easily fascinated by the different flowers found in the forest. And there was a bunch in the middle of the clearing.

When Yuu was admiring the flowers, all standing tall and in full bloom, he noticed a wooden bridge at the other end of the field. He never remembered anyone mention about a bridge in the forest. Maybe he went so deep into the forest that no one has been here.

With a flower in hand, he walked towards the bridge with the intention to find out what's one the other side.

"Stop!"

Yuu froze. He was only three steps away from reaching the wooden bridge that led to a new mystery. However, he didn't recall the other side of the bridge to be so bright.

"What are you doing here?" Yuu turned around to see a small child. He was almost as big as the little girl he saw earlier. But his hair was curly and a light blond colour and his eyes a bright blue.

"Um, I…" Yuu stuttered as he failed to come up with a lie. He noticed how the other's eyes trailed from his face to the flower in hand.

"What colour is the flower in your hand?"

Yuu looked down at the flower. He didn't mean to pluck it out of the ground. He really liked it because it was a nice pretty orange flower.

"Orange?" Yuu said as he looked from the flower to the boy. "Did you want it?"

The blond shook his head and walked towards Yuu. Only then did he know he was about a head taller than the small boy.

"You can't cross that bridge."