Kirigiri blinked a couple of times, and felt herself shaking softly, a whirring sound could be heard all around her. Was all that some horrific dream? It certainly wasn't above Kirigiri to have strange or disturbing dreams, and it wasn't unheard of for someone to sleep on public transport.

Yes, Kirigiri was sitting on the bus. She brought up a shaking arm, and looked at her watch... strangely the arm hurt, as if heavily bruised...
It was 5:30AM.
Kirigiri wasn't at all sure where she was going, but at this hour imagined that it must be an emergency... but, if it was such an emergency that she was going by something as unreliable as public transport, and not by car, or by something a little more trustworthy and always on time... then it couldn't have been that important. Emergency or no emergency, Kirigiri was too tired to deal with it.

Why was she so tired... if all that was a dream, then she had just been sleeping... and if she had just been sleeping...
Kirigiri prodded her arm with her fingers, and felt a sharp pain, cringing. She sighed deeply, and looked to the side of her, leaning towards the window. It was pitch black outside, no sign of any psychopathic albinos... no fire... no glowing red eyes... no loud voices, except for that of the bus driver occasionally telling a kid or two to shut up.
She heard a voice beside her. "Hey, Kyouko!" it was the voice of a man, a voice she recognised well.

Kirigiri sighed. "Yes father?"

"Do you remember, we were going to meet that boy in the neighbourhood today..."

Kirigiri shook her head... her fathers voice sounded distorted, almost as if playing on an old radio...

"He really wanted to see you... it's a bit late for that now..."

Kirigiri just continued to stare out the window... she knew that if she turned around nobody would be there... or if there was someone there...

"His name was Ishimaru Kiyotaka if I remember correctly..."

Kirigiri froze, but just let out a loud, exasperated sigh... so he was the neighbour she never spoke to. She chuckled slightly to herself, albeit dryly... she was beginning to refer to Ishimaru as Ishida did... with only pronouns and vague indications.
She sighed again... she wasn't sure what any of this was, but it all felt unreal... it made her feel slightly sick. It wasn't the kind of violent sickness she had felt when she was around Ishida... but a kind of strange lingering nausea, the kind of sick feeling you could never quite put your finger on before it was too late to do anything...
In a way it was worse than uncontrollable gagging, or vicious anxiety.
Oh what was Kirigiri even thinking at this point?!

"He kept calling himself something different on the phone though... Ishida or something. Maybe it's a nickname, Kyouko!" Her father laughed slightly, a crackling sound around the air, as if the radio that was playing her fathers voice was picking up static. "Maybe if you do go and see him, you should use it... it'll really show how much you pay attention to things!"

Kirigiri sighed... and suddenly, she could hear her own voice. She tensed up... wait... did her father really just say...

"I have no interest in socialising with others, you should know that."

"Aw, Kyouko don't be like that! I'm sure he'll be very nice!"

"I'm only saying that if I am not required to speak to him, I will spend my time on research."

"Ishida?" Kirigiri said, making the memories blur and fade away with her words, shaking her head to clear her mind. She didn't have time for silly memories... even if they were of her father...
She looked to her side, as if expecting the strange boy in her dream to just appear out of thin air next to her...
It didn't seem unlike him to do something like that...
But what did Kirigiri know about someone she had only met once... someone who probably wasn't even real?

She shook her head again "All just a dream." she mumbled... perhaps she was still sleeping right now. Kirigiri wasn't sure, but she decided to believe she was at least mostly awake at the minute. Having anxiety dreams about things you were going to do was perfectly normal... and after all, she had been hoping to make it to Hopes Peak Academy for a while. Everything felt so real that she could barely trust her own judgement however... "It's all a dream, only a dream..." she continued to mumble.

"Are you ok, miss?" A kind and calm voice sounded itself from the seat across the other side of the bus. It was the voice of a boy, and a voice Kirigiri recognised well...
Not another memory...

Kirigiri looked up to see her good friend Naegi Makoto, a kind brown haired boy, the same as in her dreams... or rather, her long insufferable nightmare.

The boy continued to look quizzically at Kirigiri, who was just staring up at him with emotional indifference.
She was so confused...
If that was all a dream, then why were all these people so familiar...? Surely all these people couldn't be the same as in her dream?
Kirigiri looked down at her lap. "Naegi-kun?"

Naegi tilted his head slightly "Hmm? Do I know you?" he said in a friendly yet slightly concerned tone.
He was so oblivious, having no idea of the events to come... Kirigiri felt a pit in her stomach. If her time at Hopes Peak was all a dream... all in her imagination... then why was Makoto Naegi, the boy she stabbed, right before her? She had never met him before Hopes Peak... so it wasn't like she had somehow integrated this boy into her dream from a chance meeting...
And she certainly knew his name.

Kirigiri felt her eyes welling up with tears, looking at Naegi.
There was no way that was a dream. Everything was very real...
But where was Ishida? The last time she had seen him, he was clinging onto her in fear of the strange whirring machine in the school science lab.

She let the tears roll down her cheeks.