Author's Notes

Exams, and the first fight in the dream world. Quite a week for Hajime.

One thing to note is that the characters are, at the moment, fighting without their personae awakened. But they will come.

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Chapter 4

Just A Bad Dream

The man with the axe seemed a bit like a bandit (how cliched!), judging by attire and mannerisms. He seemed to be quite adept with his weapon, making attacks with ease. The axe, luckily for me, didn't have much range at all, though still a significant amount more than my sword. However, if he were using a spear or something, I can say confidently I would've been dead.

I ran quickly. An axe blade swung over my head. Lucky. I had a chance after all. My whole body lunged as I tried to stick a blade into his chest, however, I was stabbing air as he had made a small leap back. Curse you, poor range.

For a moment, I thought I saw fear in his eyes. He knew I wasn't playing.

He hadn't learned his lesson, sweeped with his axe again. By ducking a little, I dodged his attack. Seriously, I'm shorter than you; you might want to take note. I did a kind of a spring jump from my low position. The extra strength and speed would let me pierce his armor. It would be over in one attack, how perfect.

It did not work. He was ready, and evaded my lunge again. The spring proved to screw me over, as I lost my balance and fell over. I tried to scramble up, but it was too late. He held his axe over his head, winding up for a powerful vertical slash, similar to a guillotine. It was over.

I tried desperately to roll over. The fell with an extreme speed, but hit nothing but the ground. I scrambled up to my feet, managing to roll a foot or two sideways. I was up again, ready, but utterly exhausted. My enemy, on the other hand, didn't seem tired at all.

I had to finish the fight soon. I was the first to move, and did a bit of a sprint at him. To my left, I saw an axe blade flying, however, it caught nothing but air, as I stopped well out of its range. As it swung by, I began to sprint again. He wasn't ready for an attack. I felt my blade receive resistance as I stabbed, and I knew it was over. He knew it was over.

The other bandit realized in a second what had happened to his comrade, letting his guard down for a split second. However, it was long enough to get him killed, as the man wielding a katana got a perfect slash in. The second bandit fell down, bleeding from a strong slash.

I caught the grinning face of the katana-user for a second. For a moment that seemed to drag on for an eternity, we locked eyes. He looked like Tadashi.

I woke with a start, feeling utterly exhausted, short of breath and panting.

*

The room suddenly fell silent. Every head began to look down, as a scratching noise filled the air. I followed suit, and smiled. My studying had paid off. Kind of.

*

People were streaming out of the classroom.

"Man, that sucked. How could anyone possibly not hate mid-terms?"

Toshiro was turned towards me while walking, trying to chat me up. I nodded in agreement. There were so many better things I could be doing.

"When's the first baseball match, anyways?"

I thought for a moment, and remembered it was a week after mid-terms. Despite the preparations, Iwano (the team manager) insisted we continue to practise three days a week. Needless to say, I didn't feel confident going into midterms.

Toshiro turned away, walking towards his house. I kept walking.

*

I decided that I needed to blow off some steam, so I returned to the dormitory early. Evidently, Tadashi was thinking the same thing, as he was sitting in the lounge, flipping through channels, as always. He looked at me and said "Welcome back.", before turning back to watching an anime. Interestingly, it looked like something CLAMP would put out.

It was only a dream, I reminded myself. There wasn't a need for any questions. As I walked up the stairs, I glanced at the sky, where a crescent moon was hanging. I blinked a few times, and went up to my room to study a little and watch television.