The sunset, the sakura trees, and the quiet playground—none of that registered in my mind when I was face-to-face with the girl in front of me right now.
"I'm going to write you a bunch of letters… I swear, Aisa!" I said, stopping the tears that were trying to spill from my eyes.
"Mhm… I'll definitely write to you too, Toshi-kun," my dear childhood friend said with a gentle smile. "You better not forget. As long as we keep writing stories, we'll always be connected."
Then, we fist-bumped; this might be our last fist bump. But this is a ritual, our ritual, one that confirms our unbreakable friendship time and time again.
Amidst all this, Aisa looked like she wanted to say something, which was quite the timing, because I wanted to say something to her as well.
We looked at each other and opened our mouths at the same time.
"Toshi-kun, I—"
"Aisa, I—"
===============
Sitting at my usual desk, I continued writing my plot before moving to the actual story I had in mind earlier, but—
"I'm stuck," I sighed to myself, looking away from the paper. I put my pen down and turned my head up toward the white ceiling of my room.
While spinning my chair around, I suddenly remembered that in a blink of an eye, several months had already passed since I said farewell to my childhood friend and rival. With me being in my first year of middle school right now.
I wonder how she is doing right now. Even though the two of us stayed in touch through letters, I was still curious to know how Aisa was progressing as a writer.
"Aisa, I—"
Remembering what I was about to blurt out during our farewell, I cringed unconsciously and scratched my head while screaming internally. What was I thinking?! Toshiki Kagami you idiot!!
"I can't even deny it anymore, I like Aisa," I sighed.
Both of us were already glued at the hip during our time we spent together.
Being my neighbor, my close friend, and my rival, it was inevitable that I would become conscious of her, with her being a girl and her good looks as part of the package. My classmates teasing us also did not help.
"Damn it."
I might as well just sleep instead of moping around here.
Cleaning up the stuff on my desk, I stood up, stretched my body, and jumped straight into bed.
Feeling my eyelids grow heavy, I let my tiredness take over my body and allowed it to rest, getting ready for tomorrow's classes.
===============
There's only one word that comes to my mind when witnessing the situation happening in front of my eyes right now:
'Chaos'
Multiple reptile-like monster roaming around in both the air and on the ground, people using all their strength to kill said creatures. But the one that stands out the most is the huge five-headed dragon flying and roaring in the heavens above me, and a purple-armored guy wearing a long white cape, holding an ominous and obviously evil-looking spear. He even has a bat-like creature flying beside his head.
"Now that annoying piece of turd finally showed up, huh?" an old man grinned beside me, not even noticing my presence on this godforsaken landscape.
I say old man, but this guy is literally built like a tank.
Being way taller than any basketball player I know, his upper muscles being visible while his lower body is clad in those martial-artist pants I've seen in movies and anime.
Multiple wyverns noticed the guy beside me and started flying to assault the old man.
Even though I know attacks just pass through me, seeing these scary flying lizards coming this way is no easy task to shrug off.
The bald old guy just grinned and took a deep breath, stamping the ground, causing it to shake. He opened his mouth—
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!" As he shouted, the hundreds, maybe thousands, of monsters in front of him literally disintegrated into pieces.
Seeing the destruction he caused, the old man just stared blankly and laughed.
"I tried to control myself, but it was still not enough? Muhahahahahaha!!" The guy acted like what he did was completely normal.
"Well, it's not my fault that you're all way too weak to handle the mighty power of Jin Baiharu!!!"
Even though I had already seen this old man multiple times, it never fails to surprise me every time I see him fight.
"HUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"It's the drunkard!!!!"
"The big guy is here!!!"
"Took you a long time, old man!!!
Jin looked back and just gave a thumbs up to the soldiers getting excited upon noticing him.
"Well, it can't be helped. This tincan trapped me in a prison," Jin said, pointing at the knight riding the dragon above us.
While the people celebrated Jin's arrival, three purple door-shaped portals popped out of thin air.
A samurai riding a burning skeleton horse, a boy who looked the same age as me, and a beautiful short black-haired woman wearing a monocle and a black coat came out of it.
"I can't fathom how much of a nutter you are to deny our help, old man, to attempt to escape from a dimensional prison made by a celestial being THROUGH BRUTE FORCE," the only female of the three spoke in an English accent, striking Jin on the head with her cane.
Jin just grinned when he felt the wooden object strike him.
"Unlike you, Carys, I don't know anything about that dimensional space time mathematical probability and sciency fuckassery you and Roy do, so why not try punching it?" Jin just huffed proudly, putting both his hands on his hips.
"I'll just say that the saying about old people being wise is a load of horse shit," Carys just sighed.
"I would have loved to join your chat right now, but we've got company on top of us, Carys, Jin," the Samurai warned before one of the heads of the five headed dragon turned its eyes purple and let out a huge surge of purple flame.
===============
Seeing that it was 2:00 am in the morning after checking my clock, I wiped the sweat and took a breath.
"What the hell is wrong with me?"
It has already been twenty days since I started seeing this dream of mine, seeing the same people like that old man and his comrades in different times or locations, while also waking up sweaty and somewhat out of breath like I am experiencing right now.
Sometimes I just say that I've been watching too much anime and reading too many fantasy light novels, but this being nearly a month already is starting to worry me.
After a short cooldown period, I decided to come downstairs to drink some cold water, as usual. Gulping down the glass until it was empty.
"Now that's some fine water alright"
Something about a cold glass of water just feels different during this time of the day.
I just contemplated briefly while staring at the fridge before deciding to go back upstairs and lie down on my bed.
"Maybe it's just my writer's side being imaginative. Yup, maybe that's it," I thought positively, despite the thoughts racing through my mind. I tucked in my blanket and fell asleep again.