Vile: Do you guys who do these intros at the start of every fic chapter ever run out of things to say? That happens to me a LOT.

Yuma: Is that why you sometimes to talk to us?

Vile: Yeah. I used to have all sorts of quips for this. Now I've got almost jack squat.

Astral: Using your creativity on stories may be taking its toll on your actual speech.

Vile: Maybe, Astral, but at least the stories are where the creativity should go. I'm no stand-up comedian, after all. XD Anyhoo, enjoy Chapter 2, folks!

Numbershot 87: Sweet and Sour Dreams

Chapter 2

Thankfully for Rio, the energy soda she was drinking helped the day get up to speed, as she managed to perk up halfway through her class. The rest of the first half of the day went by at a normal-to-fast pace, leading up to the three girls meeting up in the center of their high school for the lunch period. "Haaaaahhh…" Rio sighed as she leaned back, lying on the grass with her arms behind her head. "I feel like a new girl."

"Man, what a day." Koko said, shielding her eyes a bit from the sunlight.

"It's so peaceful…" Makie breathed. "Almost like you could just fall asleep with the wind through your hair."

Koko looked around. "…I think a few people took that to heart." She pointed, Makie looking to see a few students asleep, making her giggle.

Rio let out a yawn. "That… actually sounds good…" She breathed, her eyes dropping before closing. Her breathing became slow and easy… for about five seconds. "Gyah!" Rio shot straight up again, looking a little freaked and getting her friends' attention, but quickly becoming angry. "Damn it!"

"You could not have fallen asleep that quickly, Rio-chan." Koko told her.

"That girl… I saw her again." Rio said. "I might need those sleeping pills after all. I need to stay asleep long enough to figure this out."

"Sleeping pills?" Makie asked. However, she slowly turned to Koko, her face disapproving. "Koko-chan…"

"What? I can't help a girl out when she needs it?" Koko tried to defend herself with.

"Lay off her, Makie." Rio told her. "With any luck, those pills can give me some answers."

*That Night*

Rio sat on her bed before pulling the sleeping pills out of her bag. A glass of water was on her end table. "Okay… What did Koko say…? Oh yeah, two pills." She opened the bottle, dropping out two white pills before slapping her mouth, gulping the pills before quickly drinking some of the water. "Guh… okay, you little nutcases." Rio said as she closed the bottle and set it on her table. "Let's see how good you are." The girl pulled the rest of her body into her bed, covering herself with the blanket and closing her eyes, trying to fall asleep and eventually succeeding.

*Rio's Dream*

Rio found herself in a very different area from her last dream: A deep forest, overgrown with weed-like flowers and vines, no end to it in sight, the sunlight partially blocked out. "Where am I now…?" Rio wondered, her voice echoing. Looking down, Rio noticed she was back in her school uniform.

"Oi, Rio-chan!" The echoes of her two friends sounded. Rio looked around, locking eyes with Koko and Makie, who were waving at her. Rio waved back with a laugh before running over to them.

However, before she reached, Makie said, "Follow us, Rio-chan!" before taking off running, Koko right behind her.

"Hey, wait up!" Rio called, keeping up her stride. Her friends led her on quite a bit of a chase, but none of them ran out of breath (likely because, well, it was a dream). Eventually, though, Rio saw light breaking through part of the forest, making her keep up with her friends before finally breaking through the forest with a final leap. When she landed (ended up tripping and landing on her face), she picked herself up and went wide-eyed. The forest gave way to a large grassy clearing with a hill, the sunlight shining fully upon the area, except for some shade provided by a lone giant tree. "Wow…" Rio looked around, seeing many kids from their school hanging out with each other: Talking, Dueling, whatever. She even saw two of them playing chess at a table somehow, and two lovebirds snuggling.

"Isn't it cool, Rio-chan?" Makie asked.

"It's so peaceful…" Rio said. "Where are we?"

"No real clue, but for a dream, it's pretty beautiful." Koko told her. "I'm glad I'm dreaming it right now."

Rio and Makie turned right to her. "Nani?"

"Wait a minute. I thought this was MY dream!" Rio cried.

"Me too! I found myself in the clearing when the dream started!" Makie spoke up.

"Okay, okay, hold on here!" Rio shouted, holding out her hands. "So, we're all asleep and dreaming… yet we're not just having identical dreams, but we're actually having the exact same dream?"

"And we can actually talk to each other during it, too." Koko said. "I would say something fishy's going on, but that would be a clear understatement."

Rio rubbed her temples a bit, then she felt a bit of pain go through her again. "Ah!" Her eyes flashed.

"Rio-chan?" Makie asked.

"This is just like what she told us about." Koko realized.

Through her pain, Rio looked around, not seeing anything that really caught her eye, before finally focusing on the big tree on the hill. Standing on the hill was the same figure from her past nightmares. "It's… It's her!" Koko and Makie turned to the figure.

The shadowed girl, however, looked right at Rio, and when she did, she seemed to be in pain, just like before. Shaking a bit, the shadow began levitating into the air. "Uh… What's it doing?"

"I know what it is…" Rio breathed, standing her ground. With a flash of her eyes, which made Rio's eyes flash, the silhouette darted forward through the air, directly at Rio. "Whoa!" Rio quickly leapt out of the way, making the silhouette fly right past her. As it was near her, time seemed to slow down. Rio looked right at the girl, whose body was completely black from head to toe even close up, gazing right into her identically-colored eyes. Within them, Rio saw fire and burning, but something else… Something familiar. It reminded her of… herself. "Who… are you…?" The silhouette didn't answer, instead hanging a U-ey to charge right back at Rio. This, however, ticked her off more. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" Rio, rather than dodge, charged the silhouette and tried to throw a punch, but her fist instead went right through the shadow's head, not even hitting anything. "N-Nani…?" Because of this failed attack, the shadow kept moving and passed right through Rio, causing her eyes to glow, and only a slightly distorted voice sounding.

"Begone…"

*Outside the Dream*

Rio's eyes involuntarily shot open, glowing a harsh pink, her face looking tense. "W-Why you!" Rio sat directly up in her bed, but after darting her head back and forth, the glow finally faded from her eyes, bringing Rio back to reality. "I'm… awake?" Rio shook her head to shake off her confusion. "H… How am I awake? That wasn't a nightmare…" Then Rio remembered what the silhouette told her: "Begone." "Did… Did she MAKE me wake up?"

*Inside the Dream*

Koko and Makie just stood there, frozen in shock. The silhouette and Rio both seemed to just be… vaporized, just by their contact. "R… Rio-chan?!" Makie cried.

"What the hell…?" Koko breathed. "Rio-chan wasn't kidding about what she saw in her own dreams… But now WE'RE seeing it. Just what the hell is going on here?"

Vile: The story is becoming interesting now. Has anyone guessed what the Number of this fic is yet? If you guys liked this chapter, leave a review for me, and the first person to correctly guess the Number gets a cookie. XD Ja ne for now!

Computer Voice: Vile, logging out.