Chapter 2: The dream
.Come. ..Awaken.. .Seek. ..Fight.. ...Accept.... Mei looked around her. She seemed to be floating in a void. Images of miscellaneous items appeared and faded all around her. She tried to move her body and found herself floating towards a door floating in the void. Her hand reached out tentatively towards the door. Her fingers grasped the handle. She pushed. The door opened. Beyond the door, she saw.a shadow..No, make that two. One looks familiar and the other was too big to be human. The big shadow had what looked like horns all over its body. She started to walk towards the shadows. Despite the size of the large shadow, Mei wasn't scared. She only felt curiosity and a strange kind of longing. As she got closer, she started to reach out to them. Just moments before she touched them, a ringing sound pierced her thoughts.
She woke up. Her hand was outstretched. After a few moments, she sat up and looked for her alarm clock. She found it on top of her nightstand and switched it off. That was the tenth time she had that dream. It started exactly ten days ago but this was the only time she was able to remember it. The dreams didn't bother her in the past since she couldn't remember much of it, but now it feels so real and something about it scared her..'Ah well,' she thought to herself. 'No use thinking about it too much', with that, she got up and walked to the bathroom to take a shower.
"Good morning, Mom!", Mei said to her mother as she walked down to the living room. "Good morning, dear", her mom answered as she prepared a bowl of rice for her. Mei sat down on a chair as her mother set down her breakfast. "Hey, Mei, I heard you got a new seating partner. What's he or she like?", her father asked as he flipped through that morning's newspaper. Mei gulped down her un-chewed food hard, almost causing her to choke. "Wh-where did you hear that from?", she asked her father. "Well, your friends called this morning and told us, dear", her mother answered". "Yeah, they were worried you might skip class because of that", her father continued, still looking through the newspaper. "Oh.well, I'm not going to skip one day of school just because of him", Mei answered and continued eating. Her parents looked at each other. "So, it IS a him", her mother whispered. "Well, that's good to know.", her father whispered back. Mei gave them a confused look before she stood up, picked her bag and left for school.
It is the gym period now. Their teacher is a big bodybuilder kind of man with square features on his face, jutting cheekbones and small, beady eyes. All the students wore their trainers except for Kai. Kai was wearing a sleeveless white shirt with loose, baggy black pants. The teacher knew better than to argue with Kai. He would most likely be ignored or Kai would argue with him to no end. He has a good reason for not wearing his trainers, anyway. He doesn't have any. "Alright, class, for warm up, we're going to do three rounds around the field. Girls can do 2.5 rounds if you can't take it. Kai, you do five", The teacher said loudly to the students and blew his whistle. Most of the students looked at Kai. Some snickered. Some shook their heads. Five rounds on the field meant running for 3 km. Mei looked over and wondered if he would pull it through. As the students start jogging around the field, Kai exhaled, leant back and dashed forward. The students started five minutes ago and most of them are well over 200 meters from the starting point. Given Kai's late start, they were not expecting him to join them any time soon. As such, they were shocked when Kai weaved through them, his body bent low to the ground, just seconds after he began running. He quickly overtook the leading boy and ran on. They looked on and their running slowed down for a while as Kai disappeared from view. They began running again in a few seconds. Two minutes later, he overtook them again. The rest were just finishing their ¾s of the first round. It happened again every two minutes. The leading boy tried to match his speed on his 4th pass, but he was hopelessly left behind and ended up in the middle of the group.
Kai finished at around the same time as the others, despite his late start and having to run 1.2 km more than most everybody else. He was sweating, but his breathing remained regular. Mei looked at him. His shirt was soaked and clung to his body. In uniform, he looked like most ordinary boys in school. But looking at him like this, Mei could see that his body was way more developed than most average students. "Hey, you OK?", someone asked from behind her. She quickly turned around and saw.Akira. Mei's cheeks flushed. Akira was the best-looking guy in her class and he was obviously on every girl's 'hit list', including Mei's. "O, oh, I'm fine!", she said as she jumped up from her sitting place under the tree. Akira had opened part of his training jacket even though it was winter. Looking at him like that, Mei realized that his body was almost as well developed as Kai. She stared at him for a moment. He looked at her and smiled questioningly. A warm object suddenly pressed against her neck. She yelped lightly and turned around. Kai was standing behind her, holding a warm can of green tea in his hand. She looked at his eyes for a moment. Well, only his right eye, actually, since his left eye was covered by his white hair. His right eye was red, bright red. They looked at each other for 20 seconds like that before Kai finally decided to take her right hand and placed the warm drink in her palm. He then turned and left for the next exercise lessons. Mei looked at the can of tea in her hand. She decided to keep it for later.
"Mei, what happened between you and him?", Kanako asked Mei later on during their break period. Mei was drinking the tea Kai gave her. It was still warm, surprisingly enough. Mei looked at Kanako. "What are you talking about?", she asked Kanako back. "That", This time it was Ami who asked, pointing at her can of tea. Mei realized what they were talking about and shook her head vigorously. "How on earth can you think about that?!", she nearly shouted at her friends who were sitting in the same table as her. "Well, it is pretty unusual for Kai to suddenly act nice to anyone", Kanako said. Ami nodded at this statement. "It's nothing, I tell you!", Mei said again, well, more like shouted again. "Please be quiet. You're making too much noise", a soft voice suddenly said behind Mei. She turned around and saw Anne Sugiyama. "A, ah, we're sorry.", Mei said softly. Anne nodded and was about to walk off when another loud voice called out to her. They turned and saw Kai, Stevan and Takeshi. "Didn't expect you to be here!", Stevan said loudly to Anne. "I thought you would be cooped up somewhere studying for some test or something", he continued. "I have to keep my eye on brigands like you", she replied. "Sittin' down all day studying ain't good for your ass, babe", Stevan said again, smirking all the while. "Better than fighting meaninglessly everyday and getting expelled, you big oafish brute", Anne countered. The hostility here was apparent to everyone in the room. Anne was a member of the school's disciplinary committee. Stevan was a regular rule-bender. The implications are obvious. They're worse than oil and water. At least oil and water can stay together. These two are more like oil and fire. Put them together and they'll explode. Kai grabbed Stevan's collar from behind and dragged him away. "Sorry about that", Takeshi said as he bowed slightly to the girls and joined his friends.
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"So, how are we going to do it?", a voice said. It belonged to the girl who was kicked in the leg by Kai. "We won't be able to win against him using brute force", another voice said. This one belong to the girl Kai kicked on the forehead. "So, what do we do?", another girl in the room said. "We ask for his help", the first girl said and snapped her fingers. A shadow suddenly formed on the wall behind her. Her friends looked at it, terrified. The shadow had the shape of a man with what looked like huge claws for fingers. "Wh.what is that?!", one of the girls asked. "My personal demon. Nor even he can beat this..", the first girl replied and cackled madly.
End chapter 2. Nothing much going on. It will change next chapter though.
.Come. ..Awaken.. .Seek. ..Fight.. ...Accept.... Mei looked around her. She seemed to be floating in a void. Images of miscellaneous items appeared and faded all around her. She tried to move her body and found herself floating towards a door floating in the void. Her hand reached out tentatively towards the door. Her fingers grasped the handle. She pushed. The door opened. Beyond the door, she saw.a shadow..No, make that two. One looks familiar and the other was too big to be human. The big shadow had what looked like horns all over its body. She started to walk towards the shadows. Despite the size of the large shadow, Mei wasn't scared. She only felt curiosity and a strange kind of longing. As she got closer, she started to reach out to them. Just moments before she touched them, a ringing sound pierced her thoughts.
She woke up. Her hand was outstretched. After a few moments, she sat up and looked for her alarm clock. She found it on top of her nightstand and switched it off. That was the tenth time she had that dream. It started exactly ten days ago but this was the only time she was able to remember it. The dreams didn't bother her in the past since she couldn't remember much of it, but now it feels so real and something about it scared her..'Ah well,' she thought to herself. 'No use thinking about it too much', with that, she got up and walked to the bathroom to take a shower.
"Good morning, Mom!", Mei said to her mother as she walked down to the living room. "Good morning, dear", her mom answered as she prepared a bowl of rice for her. Mei sat down on a chair as her mother set down her breakfast. "Hey, Mei, I heard you got a new seating partner. What's he or she like?", her father asked as he flipped through that morning's newspaper. Mei gulped down her un-chewed food hard, almost causing her to choke. "Wh-where did you hear that from?", she asked her father. "Well, your friends called this morning and told us, dear", her mother answered". "Yeah, they were worried you might skip class because of that", her father continued, still looking through the newspaper. "Oh.well, I'm not going to skip one day of school just because of him", Mei answered and continued eating. Her parents looked at each other. "So, it IS a him", her mother whispered. "Well, that's good to know.", her father whispered back. Mei gave them a confused look before she stood up, picked her bag and left for school.
It is the gym period now. Their teacher is a big bodybuilder kind of man with square features on his face, jutting cheekbones and small, beady eyes. All the students wore their trainers except for Kai. Kai was wearing a sleeveless white shirt with loose, baggy black pants. The teacher knew better than to argue with Kai. He would most likely be ignored or Kai would argue with him to no end. He has a good reason for not wearing his trainers, anyway. He doesn't have any. "Alright, class, for warm up, we're going to do three rounds around the field. Girls can do 2.5 rounds if you can't take it. Kai, you do five", The teacher said loudly to the students and blew his whistle. Most of the students looked at Kai. Some snickered. Some shook their heads. Five rounds on the field meant running for 3 km. Mei looked over and wondered if he would pull it through. As the students start jogging around the field, Kai exhaled, leant back and dashed forward. The students started five minutes ago and most of them are well over 200 meters from the starting point. Given Kai's late start, they were not expecting him to join them any time soon. As such, they were shocked when Kai weaved through them, his body bent low to the ground, just seconds after he began running. He quickly overtook the leading boy and ran on. They looked on and their running slowed down for a while as Kai disappeared from view. They began running again in a few seconds. Two minutes later, he overtook them again. The rest were just finishing their ¾s of the first round. It happened again every two minutes. The leading boy tried to match his speed on his 4th pass, but he was hopelessly left behind and ended up in the middle of the group.
Kai finished at around the same time as the others, despite his late start and having to run 1.2 km more than most everybody else. He was sweating, but his breathing remained regular. Mei looked at him. His shirt was soaked and clung to his body. In uniform, he looked like most ordinary boys in school. But looking at him like this, Mei could see that his body was way more developed than most average students. "Hey, you OK?", someone asked from behind her. She quickly turned around and saw.Akira. Mei's cheeks flushed. Akira was the best-looking guy in her class and he was obviously on every girl's 'hit list', including Mei's. "O, oh, I'm fine!", she said as she jumped up from her sitting place under the tree. Akira had opened part of his training jacket even though it was winter. Looking at him like that, Mei realized that his body was almost as well developed as Kai. She stared at him for a moment. He looked at her and smiled questioningly. A warm object suddenly pressed against her neck. She yelped lightly and turned around. Kai was standing behind her, holding a warm can of green tea in his hand. She looked at his eyes for a moment. Well, only his right eye, actually, since his left eye was covered by his white hair. His right eye was red, bright red. They looked at each other for 20 seconds like that before Kai finally decided to take her right hand and placed the warm drink in her palm. He then turned and left for the next exercise lessons. Mei looked at the can of tea in her hand. She decided to keep it for later.
"Mei, what happened between you and him?", Kanako asked Mei later on during their break period. Mei was drinking the tea Kai gave her. It was still warm, surprisingly enough. Mei looked at Kanako. "What are you talking about?", she asked Kanako back. "That", This time it was Ami who asked, pointing at her can of tea. Mei realized what they were talking about and shook her head vigorously. "How on earth can you think about that?!", she nearly shouted at her friends who were sitting in the same table as her. "Well, it is pretty unusual for Kai to suddenly act nice to anyone", Kanako said. Ami nodded at this statement. "It's nothing, I tell you!", Mei said again, well, more like shouted again. "Please be quiet. You're making too much noise", a soft voice suddenly said behind Mei. She turned around and saw Anne Sugiyama. "A, ah, we're sorry.", Mei said softly. Anne nodded and was about to walk off when another loud voice called out to her. They turned and saw Kai, Stevan and Takeshi. "Didn't expect you to be here!", Stevan said loudly to Anne. "I thought you would be cooped up somewhere studying for some test or something", he continued. "I have to keep my eye on brigands like you", she replied. "Sittin' down all day studying ain't good for your ass, babe", Stevan said again, smirking all the while. "Better than fighting meaninglessly everyday and getting expelled, you big oafish brute", Anne countered. The hostility here was apparent to everyone in the room. Anne was a member of the school's disciplinary committee. Stevan was a regular rule-bender. The implications are obvious. They're worse than oil and water. At least oil and water can stay together. These two are more like oil and fire. Put them together and they'll explode. Kai grabbed Stevan's collar from behind and dragged him away. "Sorry about that", Takeshi said as he bowed slightly to the girls and joined his friends.
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"So, how are we going to do it?", a voice said. It belonged to the girl who was kicked in the leg by Kai. "We won't be able to win against him using brute force", another voice said. This one belong to the girl Kai kicked on the forehead. "So, what do we do?", another girl in the room said. "We ask for his help", the first girl said and snapped her fingers. A shadow suddenly formed on the wall behind her. Her friends looked at it, terrified. The shadow had the shape of a man with what looked like huge claws for fingers. "Wh.what is that?!", one of the girls asked. "My personal demon. Nor even he can beat this..", the first girl replied and cackled madly.
End chapter 2. Nothing much going on. It will change next chapter though.