DREAM: RESTLESS NIGHTS

CHAPTER 15-DENIAL

Tokyo city was a large area, much more modern than anything Mamoru had ever seen.

"Ugh... did humans really advance this much? It's so hard to navigate through here..." Mamoru walked across the roads and concrete sidewalks. There were tons of plants that gradually invaded the buildings. Mamoru finally began searching, starting with the trash bins.

"Why do humans make these so small... how are they going to fit dead bodies into these?" Mamoru was unsuccessful in finding a healing elixir, so he moved on to the work buildings. There were tons of them, meaning it would take an even longer time to search. But he doesn't have that much time to spare.

"How am I gonna check all these buildings...?" Mamoru groaned, entering the first building. As always, there were dead bodies everywhere. But these ones were different, they were modern humans.

"That's not right... there shouldn't be so many modern humans here. The Mirror Realm openings are usually in ancient eras where humans don't usually exist." Mamoru examined some of the bodies, they looked intact for the most part. Each human had different positions they were in before they were killed, but there was one thing that they all had. A look of fear on their faces.

"What even killed them? There's too much blood on them... blood that's not their own." Mamoru took one of the bodies, checking under the shirt, pants, and then behind the hair.

"...A gunshot..." Mamoru checked all the other bodies, it was just as he thought. Gunshots to all the heads, Mamoru quickly grabbed someone's jacket, covering himself. He looked around from a hole in the jacket, trying to find something flammable.

"Please, please, please let there be something I could set on fire!" Mamoru blurted out, before he could do anything about it, someone's arm popped out of the inside of one of the large desks, pulling Mamoru in. It was pitch black, until a match was lit.

"D-did you survive t-t-too...?" A timid woman, covered in blood said. "Wait... y-you're not o-one of my c-co-workers..." Her hand began shaking.

"No, I'm not. But, I promise I'm with you. Can you explain what happened?" Mamoru noticed how shaky the woman's hand was, so he took the match, making sure he wouldn't drop it.

"I-I don't know! Everyone w-was just w-w-working until there was th-this loud bell chime and th-the building just t-tilted over! But it gets worse!" The woman began breathing heavily. "THERE WERE JUST GUNSHOTS EVERYWHERE! I-I-I... I just h-hid here... there was s-s-screaming... and then it just s-stopped..." Her face was pale, her eyes were wide open. She was terrified.

"Calm down... it's going to be ok–" Mamoru said right before he got cut off.

"BUT IS IT?! I'M A SINGLE MOTHER WITH TWO DAUGHTERS AND A SON! M-My baby boy just w-went missing a week ago..." The woman wept. She pulled out a picture of herself and her three children.

"Wait, can I take a closer look at that picture?" Mamoru reached his hand out, taking the photo.

"...HARUTO BUSHIDA?! Wait– you're his mother?" He looked closer at the woman.

"You know Haruto?! Is he ok?! Is he alive?!" She began bombarding Mamoru with questions.

"He's alive! But... he lost his arm. I'm trying to find a certain healing potion that helped him last time. Let's get out of here, know your way to your house?" Mamoru handed the picture back to her.

"Yes. Follow me... uhm... I haven't asked what your name is yet, would you mind telling me?" She peaked out of the desks.

"Mamoru. What's yours?" He grabbed the jacket again, covering both Mamoru and Haruto's mother.