August 15th at 12:30 noon
I don't see a cloud above
The sun is shining down,
what a pretty day
Emil woke up to a feeling of dread in his stomach. He didn't know why at the time, so he didn't think much about it. Maybe he should have. If he thought about it maybe he wouldn't be in the mess he is in now.
He grabbed his phone and turned it on. His background image was of him and his best friend/crush, Leon, a guy with choppy brown hair and brown eyes. It contrasted a lot with his own silver-white hair and purple eyes. He looked at the time and saw that it was 12:30 and the day was August 15th.
Emil opened the windows and saw the bright blue sky with no clouds. A usual of summer.
After getting dressed, he saw that he had a message form Leon. Quickly reading it, he couldn't help but smile a tiny little bit and answer back as quickly.
-Meet me by the park at 13:30, dont be late :P
-Ill be there in a minute, ttyl.
So sick of this summer heat
I cant beat away the haze the rays are giving way
And spending all of my time having conversations
sitting next to you
He left his room and, after telling his brother where he was going, left the house. The heat was intense and because of his Nordic ancestry he really wasn't used to the heat.
After reaching the park, he quickly saw Leon sitting in the swings, a cat on his lap. He approached him and asked:
"Since when do you own a cat?" He couldn't help the smile that rapidly made its way into his face and sat down on the other swing.
"You're late." The smile on his face and the tone he used was what made Emil understand that he was only joking. "And I don't own a cat, it just decided that I was perfect for petting it."
And so they kept on talking.
"Hey but I...don't really like the summertime"
And as you were petting on that cat
you said such a daring thing
right from under your breath
"Hey, Emil." Leon said after a while, suddenly serious. "I really don't like summer."
"Why?" It was the first time Leon said such a thing, so he couldn't help but be a tiny bit curious. "Did you just develop a hate for summer or is there a deeper meaning for it?"
Leon kept silent for a second, petting the snow-white cat that, even after an hour or so of talking, was still napping on Leon's lap.
"It's just that..." He started hesitantly. "During summer, specially August, I have this weird feeling of dread. Like something bad is gonna happen sooner or later…"
There was a moment of silence where neither of them spoke and suddenly the chirping of the birds was extremely loud. As Emil opened his mouth to speak, Leon bested him to it.
"I know it sounds silly. But it just makes dislike summer so much. I really can't explain it."
Ah, and as that cat had ran away
You tried to chase it in the end
Jumping right out in front of a
traffic light that poured a shade of red bright red
Emil opened his mouth to speak again but was interrupted again, this time by the cat. It decided, for some reason, that it was the perfect time to jump from Leon's lap and run towards the street, that was a few hundred meters away.
Leon also decided that he just had to get the cat back and so ran after it. What he didn't see, unlike Emil, was the red traffic light, that signaled that pedestrians shouldn't cross the street. The feeling of dread that he woke up with suddenly increased and Leon's words echoed on his ears:
"Something bad is gonna happen sooner or later..."
Fuck no, nothing bad's gonna happen, Emile wouldn't let something bad happen.
And that's when he saw it. He called out to Leon and reached out his hand, a little bit too late.
Crashing in and breaking you to bits
That truck a heard a scream a little bit too late
Blood dripping everywhere and choking your smell of hair
I breathe in a gulp of air and just cant take it
The smell really took Emil by surprise. It was obvious that there was going to be blood, but the metallic stench that replaced the sweet summer breeze really surprised him.
When the truck struck Leon, the other boy didn't make a sound. He probably didn't even realize he was hit by a truck. When said truck stopped Emil walked towards Leon's body. He finally realized that he was covered in Leon's blood and that, plus the was Leon's body was contorted, made Emil want to puke.
He kneeled in front of the body, feeling tears starting to stream down his face. He called out to Leon. There was a chance that he was alive, right? There had to be. Leon couldn't just be dead.
Are these lies? The heat is mocking me
"What you see is exactly what you're gonna get!"
And with the blue of sky I hear singing crickets cry and
fall right back into another dark sleep
It was a lie. He couldn't be dead. This isn't real, it just isn't.
Suddenly a voice resounded in his head, hazy like the summer heat:
The body you see in front of you? It's real. You might not think so, but it's the truth.
Emil wanted to cry out to the voice that it was wrong. There was no way his best friend was dead, it was just impossible. But the reality was right in front of him and, as the voice said, it was very much real.
Emil suddenly felt dizzy and his vision started blurring and the last thing he thought before blacking out was how ironically blue the sky was that day.
Sitting up in my bed
I could hear ticking clocks the shock
will mock my ever ringing head
I look to see the time
Before waking up fully, Emil saw a dark room filled with clocks, all of them moving. All of them except for one, that was covered in splattering red blood.
When he woke up, Emil sat quickly in his bed. Breath ragged and eyes wide, he couldn't believe it.
It was a dream.
A very vivid dream, thank you very much. He usually didn't remember his dreams but this one was probably a little too traumatic for him to forget. The blood felt so real on his hands and that voice… it said it was real.
No, he wasn't thinking that what the voice said was real. It was just a dream after all, he couldn't believe it. So, to get it off of his head, he quickly reached for his phone to see the time.
August 14th at 12 something noon
I don't see a cloud above
The sun is shining down
And yet I hear a cry of a cricket singing loudly in my head
It was August 14th and the time was 12:13. Okay, it had to be obviously a dream because he wouldn't just go back in time.
Emil opened the windows and saw a clear sky, no clouds in the sky and the sun was shining. Just like in the dream, he subconsciously thought.
He checked the phone and saw that he had a message from Leon. The creepy part was that it was the exact same one from the dream.
-Meet me by the park at 13:30, dont be late :P
Okay, so maybe the messages were the same, it doesn't mean anything. And even if it meant something what would it be? That the dream was real and that he would keep watching Leon die every time? And even if that was true, he wouldn't let Leon cross the street. No way in hell.
-Ill be there in a minute, ttyl.
He got dressed, left the house (after saying goodbye to his brother), met up with Leon. Strangely enough, they said the exact same things that they said in the dream. Leon even had the cat.
And then Leon, even though it was more hesitantly than in the dream, said the dreadful words:
"I really don't like summer."
"Hey but I...I really have to wonder why
Because in the dream I had last night
we sat in the same old park
we are sitting at now"
"Last night I had a dream exactly like this, you know?" Emil interrupted. Even those five words made chills run down his spine and if he left Leon continue he might say even worse words.
"Really?" Leon asked
"Yeah. We were sitting right here and talking about the exact same stuff. You were even petting that cat." A laugh escaped his lips. It was all so ironic. Who knew he could see the future? But hopefully the future wouldn't be like his dream. "And then you..." And the smile faltered.
"And then I… what?" Leon asked. He was probably thinking that Emil was playing some sort of prank on him. They did that to each other a lot.
"Nothing." The smile was so obviously forced, Leon probably saw right through him.
They sat in silence but, once in a while, Emil would look at the cat. If it started running, he probably wouldn't be able to stop Leon, just like the last time. And then the cat decided to leave Leon's lap.
"Hey, I think the two of us should leave."
But stepping slightly off the path,
their heads turned up towards sky
and were gaping pointing struggling to keep away a scream
Right before Leon left to chase after the cat, Emil was able to grab his wrist. He also almost yelled 'THANK THE GODS' but maybe yelling that would make Leon feel strange.
"Um… Leon. I think that maybe the two of us should go to the downtown area." Where it's crowded, and people usually don't die.
"Uh..." Leon looked back towards the cat, but it was nowhere to be seen. "Sure."
And they walked. The silence that filled the air was awkward, to say the least, and the atmosphere felt heavy. More and more people filled the streets and it made Emil feel at ease. Neither of them is going to die.
And then suddenly people were screaming, heads turned to the sky. Both of them stopped walking and looked to the sky. Iron beams were falling from the skies. One of them coming straight at Emil. He felt numb. He couldn't run, he couldn't scream. He could only look. Until a hand pushed him aside and whoever pushed him traded places with him.
Stabbing holes and splitting you in two,
the beam made seam as it fell straight from the sky
Ringing an old wind chime and shaking a passerby
then filling the air until they hit those park trees
The beam fell straight through Leon. A lot of people screamed and Emil did too. The blood splattered on the street and on his clothes.
He felt numb for the second time in a row. A few seconds ago he thought he was going to die and now here he was, down on his knees, seeing Leon breathing heavily. It was just like that stupid dream.
"Don't you dare to fucking die!" He yelled through the tears, but he knew it was useless. In a couple of minutes Leon will be dead and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Just like in the dream.
This is what it was, right? A dream inside a dream? It had to be. He was only asleep and dreaming all of this. And then he would wake up and neither of them would die and it all would be fine.
Are these lies? The heat is mocking me
"Bet you wish you were asleep, but it's not a dream!"
Vision it blurred away and keeping my thoughts at bay
I swear you stood there while keeping such a dark smile
He needed to wake up from this dream. He tried to pinch himself, close his eyes for a long time, but it wouldn't work.
This is not a dream you know. I know you wish it was, but you are wrong. Oh so wrong.
The voice from the other dream said. This was not a dream? Then what the fuck is it? Reality? Because you simply don't dream something and then watch it happen in real life.
The tears kept streaming down his face. He couldn't help it. If it wasn't a dream, then that meant Leon was gone for good. He felt numb again but this time his vision started to blur and darken.
Emil swore, though, that he saw Leon smile darkly.
Endlessly I see that over heated haze
And again the laughing will repeat on through the days
You've been dying for the past ten years
We are trapped in cycles and the end is never clear
Ten years. That is for how long Emil saw Leon die repeatedly. If he ever got out of this loop, he would probably be traumatized. Again and again he tried to save Leon, failing every single time. Ten years, and he couldn't save Leon once?
He blamed it on that stupid freaking voice, or whatever the fuck it was. He watched his death so many times that he could remember the smell of blood by memory. One thing that always scared him, though, was the smile that Leon had on his face every time he died. It didn't make sense, why would he smile?
But now, ten years later, he finally realized how to get out of this loop. Or, at least, how to get Leon out of this loop.
But a story is a story all the same
And today like any has an ending so to say
Far away and out
beyond that scorching summer day
The day started like it always would. Emil woke up, saw the time and date (always 12:13, 14th of August), opened the windows, received Leon's message and left the house. Leon was, of course, sitting in the swings with that damned cat. This time, very much like the first time, he didn't ran away with Leon.
He stayed on the swings, talking to Leon. He didn't want to waste a minute.
Suddenly the cat jumped and Leon went after it, Emil close behind. He knew what he had to do. Time seemed to stop for Emil. The truck was coming, it was going to hit Leon.
And so, Emil reached out.
Crashing in and hitting me instead you
I pushed you aside to nearly dodge a truck
Blood dripping everywhere and choking my smell of hair
You breathe in a gulp of air and just cant take it
Everything hurt. Maybe being hit by a truck wasn't the best idea, but it would probably save Leon from this loop they were stuck in. He could see Leon's eyes widening and tears starting to stream down his face. Emil wished he could apologize, but now was a bit late.
He honestly couldn't help but smile. Leon was safe. Leon wouldn't die. Everything is going to be fine for Leon. While Leon's happy and living his life, Emil is going to be dead.
His mind went quickly to his family. What would they think that happened? Was any of them aware of the time loops? Probably not or they might have said something.
In the haze, suddenly, Emil saw a boy that looked exactly like him. He seemed to be terrified and Emil knew, right away, who that boy was.
Are these lies? I haven't heard him say
"What you see is exactly what your gonna get"
Maybe this summer day has finally gone away
But that's all I'll say so this is where it ends now.
The boy, the voice that was on his head whenever Leon died, hadn't said a thing. It was as if it couldn't believe that Emil had actually sacrificed himself for Leon.
Think twice, bitch. Emil thought when the other thought passed through his head.
"The body you see in front of you? It's real. You might not think so, but it's the truth." Emil decided to say, really just to annoy the voice. The exact same phrase that he had said to Emil.
Emil decided to look back to Leon. And there his eyes widened. Behind him stood a boy who looked exactly like him, with a sadistic smile on his face.
Oh no. Was his last thought before he blacked out.
August 14th and sitting alone on a bed a girl awakes
repeating just the same muttering again
"Guess I failed again.." as she sat all alone
and held a cat still cradled in her arms
He woke up slowly. He hated waking up, specially after ten years of watching his best friend die. He looked at the calendar and saw, once again, that it was August 14th. And then he felt pressure on his legs. Awake was the cat that had gotten him in the mess he was now.
A few tears leaked from his eyes. He couldn't believe he failed to save Emil. He was going to kill that cat after they got out of this mess.
Wow. I can't believe the first thing I do after coming back for this fandom is to write something based on Kagerou Days. I based myself on the PV not on the Anime (because I'm fake and haven't finished it). Also the lyrics belong to the amazing JubyPhonic on youtube (her covers are fantastic go and listen to her now if you have time). I hope you enjoyed this one-shot. This was also published on AO3 under the same username.