The mad screeching of tyres on asphalt.
A blur, then a sickening crunch as metal connected with soft flesh. A body was flung into air as easily as how one might throw a wad of paper into a wastepaper bin.
Everything happened much too fast for anyone to react. They could only watch in horror as the events unfolded before their eyes, as swift and flawless as a well-rehearsed skit. Some people pulled out cellphones to dial for necessary aid, but it was too late.
A pale hand lay motionless in a growing pool of blood.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The teen awoke with a start. Around eighteen years old, he was tall and lean, with long and wind-swept brownish-blonde hair pulled loosely into a low ponytail and his fringe completely obscuring his right eye. An open jacket, with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and covering only half of his torso, was thrown over the white shirt he was wearing; the neck dipped low enough to barely reveal the toned muscles of his chest. The legs of his grey trousers were slit such that the lower half of his calves would have been fully visible, if not for the leather of a pair of army boots peeking out underneath. A number of small belts crissed-cross over a long strip of dark cloth, strapping it tightly to his wrists.
His expression would normally have been that of a bored and disinterested one, but at the moment it was merely stunned. Glancing around to take in his surroundings, his eyebrows gradually furrowed. He was in a large open plain, seated on the springy grass under the shade of a rather large tree. The sky was bright and clear, the sun shining dauntingly down on him, but the area was surprisingly nought of any sign of life. Creatures would normally gather at large open spaces, but there wasn't even a chirp of a bird to be heard, nevermind any other humans.
Where... The hell am I?
Getting to his feet and dusting himself off, he looked around once more. When he squinted into the distance, he could just barely make out the sight of a rather large town. Since he had a bird's eye view of the town, the blonde correctly assumed that he was on the peak of a tall hill.
This isn't right... I should be in- ... And what's up with these clothes? Dammit!
He directed his now-irritated stare in the direction of the town. Well, first things first. I should get to civilization and find out why the hell I'm in a foreign location I've never seen and definitely shouldn't be in.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The town was no less strange than the hill he set off from, to say the least.
A hybrid fusion of modern and medieval, the town didn't even look like it belonged anywhere on Earth to begin with. The road he was walking on was grey in color and paved; reasonably wide, seven people would most likely be able to walk side-by-side without fear of bumping into one another's shoulders. All the buildings he had seen were all made of old brick and wooden beams and had thatched roofs, none of them more than three stories tall. What some of the buildings were functioning as was the teen's biggest clue that something was wrong with his situation... Not that he hadn't already realized that, of course. The vast majority of them were ordinary grocery shops, restaurants or even houses, but as for the others...
"A weapons shop...? Who still uses swords and axes in this day and age, when everyone's using guns and advanced technology?" he muttered in a complete monotone. . Only his slightly gaping mouth gave away his confusion as he took in his surroundings. "And... A magic shop...? Alchemy?"
He never was very good at expressing his emotions through his voice, resulting in his permanently flat manner of speaking. That, coupled with his poker face - or rather, unchanging bored expression- unfortunately frequently led to people misunderstanding him, thinking that he was disinterested and couldn't be bothered to talk to them. There were times when they would be correct, though. Despite his appearance and age, he was an unusually good judge of character, being able to instinctively tell whether someone was trustworthy or not. If he deemed them to not be so, he wouldn't even spare them the time of the day.
Nonetheless, he kept walking. Townsfolk milled about in the square: young children accompanied by parents, women carrying brown paper bags of groceries or bargaining with store owners. Weaving effortlessly through the large bustling crowd, he noted the dressing style of the townsfolk. They wore clothes closely resembling those of the medieval times, much like what he had only seen in history books, the cloth in rather dull colors. He did manage to catch sight of some people dressed in reasonably more modern clothes, but such people were few and far between. On the other hand, there were others in stranger garbs, like long robes with intricate patterns much like he imagined mages would wear, or buff men with leather or metal armour strapped tightly to their bodies, swords hanging within easy reach by their sides.
It all seemed far too much like a fantasy game.
Looking completely out of place in the medieval environment were the tall metal poles with speakers attached for announcements. They lined either side of the streets neatly, spaced a few feet apart from one another. In the distance, he could just barely make out the outline of a decently-sized stone fountain. In the middle of the calf-deep pool of water stood a statue of a young priestess clutching a glowing sapphire jewel in her outstretched hands; clear water gushed freely from the jewel.
He didn't feel very much closer to understanding his whereabouts, as interesting -and unexpected- as the town was. He figured he could wander around by himself until he learnt more about the town, but it would probably be a lot faster to find someone who looked knowledgeable and ask. Afterall, the faster he managed to gain information on the place, the faster he would be able to leave it. He didn't feel like spending more time than necessary in a foreign location if he could avoid it.
A man in his mid-thirties approached him and stood squarely in front of him, blocking his way. He was one of those wearing light metal armour, the chestplate strapped tightly in place with fastenings. A sword in its scabbard hung beside his left thigh. Something seemed off about the man, but Ochre couldn't tell what exactly. It was just a gut feeling. Ignoring the man, he was about the step around him and continue on his way when he was stopped in his tracks by the stranger's question.
"Is yer name Ochre?" The man's voice was gruff and to-the-point.
Skeptically, he pointed at himself to confirm that the man was indeed speaking to him, and not anyone else. 'Not that anyone else would have such an unusual name,' he thought.
The man didn't say or do any actions to affirm it, but he didn't refute it either. He just continued staring at the teen, eye-contact never breaking.
He probably is referring to me, then. But who is this man? Ochre didn't know what his intentions were, so he nodded silently. It seemed like a harmless enough question.
He was wrong. In a flash, the man had pulled his weapon from its scabbard. The well-polished sword swung at him, its blade gleaming mercilessly in the sunlight. He instinctively stepped back, dodging the weapon, but only just barely. It drew a thin line of blood across his throat. Had he been just a fraction of a second slower, he would have... He swallowed, the hard thumping of his heart in his chest drowning out the terrified yells of the townsfolk. The teen allowed himself a moment to eye his attacker. His assailant was rather well-built, his muscles showing easily through his relatively fitting clothes. He was hardly armored, save the chestplate, but that hardly bothered the man at all, if his self-confident smirk was anything to judge by.
He wasn't attacking anyone else at all; neither did he seem to be drunk or anything... "Does that mean he's intentionally targeting me?" The teen muttered to himself, wiping the trickle of blood off his throat with the back of his hand before it stained his shirt. If that was the case, then the man's had probably been trying to confirm his identity to ensure he had the right person before attacking. The question was... Why? He had only just found himself in this strange world. He definitely didn't have any time to offend anyone, never mind this man who he didn't even recognize.
Dammit. I can't believe I fell for such a simple trick. I shouldn't have let my guard down in such a place!
"An unprovoked attack? Why are you so intent on killing me?" he called out in his toneless voice.
The man simply shrugged. "Sorry kid, I may not have any grudges against you, but apparently someone out there does, and I was paid quite handsomely to take on the job of killing you."
"Who was it?"
"My employer?" The man shrugged once more. "I dunno, and that's none o'yer business. Just die obediently now!" Swinging his sword, he suddenly charged at Ochre.
Ochre cursed. He sure as well wasn't going to just let some stranger cleave him in half for a reason as stupid as that. His quick reflexes, especially since he was anticipating the attack, allowed him to sidestep; with a low sweep of his right leg, he caught the man's foot and tripped him. The man crashed painfully to the ground, but his sword never left his hand, to Ochre's disappointment. He knew how to brawl, but he wasn't foolish enough to believe he was good enough to win against a man wielding a sharp sword. Since no one in the large crowd gathering around them appeared to be stepping up to help him, then his only hope for survival was to somehow find an opportunity to safely escape, ensuring he survived until then.
He kicked a pebble that was lying by his feet into the air and caught it with ease. Without having to aim, he lobbed it at the man's eye. The accuracy came naturally to him. Although the pebble was small and he hadn't used a lot of strength in the throw, it connected perfectly with the man's open eye, piercing it slightly.
If there was one thing Ochre prided himself on, it was his remarkably good aim. If given a bow and arrow, or a gun, or even at a game of basketball, nine out of ten- No, all ten shots would hit the bulls eye without fail, without any effort at all on his part. Even if he were to be blindfolded, the results would not change in the slightest. He seemed to have an innate talent for accuracy, leading to many sports clubs at his high school clamoring to recruit him. The only reason why he had turned them all down was due to his noncommittal personality.
The man howled in pain. "You goddamn..." Clutching his bleeding eye, the man got to his feet. His entire face was contorted with unsuppressed rage, creating a terrifying expression. Ochre didn't feel any more fear than he already did, and that was only due to the fact that he was unsure of how to fight against someone wielding an actual sword. He had seen that look on far too many people who had challenged him to brawls, only to realize that he would win the brawls without even fighting seriously.
Once more. This time, Ochre didn't even bother to catch the pebble in his palm before he threw it- he just simply sent it flying from the ground and towards the man with a kick. It would have hit the man's other eye, but his straightforward tactics were far too obvious. Ochre was trying to blind the man so that he would be able to escape easily into the crowd without being noticed while his opponent was stumbling about. With a guttural roar, the man swung his sword; the teen thought he saw the pebble get cleaved into a clean half.
Although I could probably find more ways to disable him, it really isn't a good idea to prolong this fight. I should hurry and get out of here. Ochre noted how the man's sword was slipping out of his sweat-slicked hands as he fought to stem the bleeding of his eye. Now's a good time. He'll still be able to see what direction I go in, but I don't have a choice. All I can do is hope his movements are too sluggish to catch up with me.
Ochre quickly spun around on his heel to run- Or rather, would have, except that the man had somehow managed to readjust his grip on his weapon and close the distance between them before he could do so in just a few seconds. With a loud roar, he grabbed a fistful of Ochre's shirt and thrust his blade at him. He didn't expect the man to still have that much vitality in him, and he most certainly didn't even have a chance to register what was happening.
"Shit..." Was he going to die now? Even before finding out where he was? Being killed by a total stranger who had just been hired to kill him? He didn't even know who was it who hated him enough to want him dead.
He reflexively clenched his eyes shut as he prepared to receive the stab to his heart. The pointed metal inched ever closer.
"Incoming! Get. Out. Of. The. Waaaa-y-!"
Neither Ochre or his opponent had made that cry. It was high-pitched like that of a girl's, and rather childish. The man had been stunned enough to pause momentarily in his actions, but that was all the time Ochre needed to open his eyes and turn his head to the left in the direction of the voice, only to see a blur whip past him in a full arc and connect with the man's head- His attacker sailed several meters away from him; the sword flew out of his grasp and landed with a resounding clang on the ground.
The man now lay in an uncomfortable-looking heap on the ground, a small girl balancing easily on him. Ochre watched with mild surprise as the girl removed her right foot from the man's temple, kicked him unceremoniously onto his back, then leapt heavily onto him again, grinning satisfactorily at the man's grunt of 'oof!'.
The girl didn't look like she could be any older than twelve years old, and even so, was extremely short. She probably didn't even come up to Ochre's chest. Her shoulder length reddish-brown hair fluttered freely in the wind, some of it gathered messily and bundled into a small ponytail on the top left of her head, tied with a large green and white striped ribbon. She wore a short off-white sleeveless top with gold patterns over a tube top, exposing much of her navel; two long grey and green decorative belts were attached to the oversized one over her shorts. She had tight black straps around her arms and thighs, and Ochre noticed that her wrists, ankles and neck each had a green-tinted metal choker affixed.
The girl was now jumping -repeatedly- on the man's back, seemingly deriving great pleasure from his pain, despite the fact that her skinny frame couldn't have weighed much. Ochre knew though, that she had a hidden agility and strength. He hadn't been able to see her move at all, and a single kick of hers had sent a grown man flying at least three meters. Even so, such a childish person...
You're telling me my life was just saved by her? If not for the fact that it would have been extremely contradictory to his personality, Ochre would probably have tried to find a hole to crawl into in shame.
"Rei, stop that already. He can't fight anymore. And even if he could, you know that there's no way he can win against us. Stop torturing him."
Once again, Ochre turned to face the direction of the voice; this time, he looked up. Perched on the wooden railings of the balcony of a building to his left was a young child the splitting image of the strange girl. In fact, save for a few differences, they looked almost practically identical.
The child was... a boy? His face was pretty, but when Ochre looked closer, it didn't really look like that of a girl's. His attention was automatically drawn to the boy's eyes- He was heterochromatic, his left eye purple and his right a clear emerald green. The eyes were what stood out the most about the boy, so much that they were virtually impossible to miss. His hair was of a similar shade to the girl's, but spiking all about and cropped shorter, only a few loose tendrils curling around his neck. Green streaks longer than the rest of his hair framed each side of his face and a thick hairband with metal embellishments pushed back some of his hair, preventing it from being overwhelmingly messy. His shirt was also an off-white color and had gold patterns, but it was large and baggy instead, the sleeves ending just above his elbow. The ends of a tight black shirt poked out from underneath. His dark-colored pants also ended just above the knee, and it had similar gold markings in addition to what looked like a belt sewn to the legs. Purple decorative belts similar to the girl's also hung around his waist, but this time they crisscrossed each other and each had a small brown leather pouch attached. The boy had the same metal chokers around his neck, wrists and ankles, but they were tinted purple instead of green.
The girl didn't stop jumping on the man.
The boy sighed. "Rei, I said STOP. The guy's not going anywhere any time soon."
She finally stopped, but didn't get off him. She turned around to meet the boy's eyes. That was when Ochre realized that the girl was also heterochromatic, but the color of her eyes was the opposite of the boy's. Her left eye was emerald while her right was purple. Additionally, she also had long hair streaks, but hers were purple in color. "Get down here then!" she yelled, but Ochre could tell she wasn't really angry. Rather, she seemed to be quite enjoying herself. "Quit lazin' around at the back an' makin' me do all the work by myself!"
The boy rolled his eyes at that statement. "You're the one who jumped down from here all of a sudden saying you were going to join in the fun," he retorted. Nevertheless, he pushed himself off the railings and landed lightly on the ground next to Ochre, acting all as if he hadn't just jumped two stories and landed without a single scratch on him.
"About time, stupid Raido. Ya're so slow that sometimes I wonder how ya even manage to get yerself out the door every morning. Hurry up and tie this guy up, or I'm not getting' off him. I'll jump on him 'til his spine snaps!" To prove her point, she jumped on the man's back again, but this time she made sure to dig her heels in painfully when she landed. Ochre thought he could see the man's shoulders tense, probably as he winced, face against the hard ground.
Once again, the boy -Raido- rolled his eyes. This was probably a common occurrence between the two children. "That would probably qualify as a form of torture, idiot." Raido unbuttoned the flap of one of the pouches slung loosely around his waist as he traded insults with the girl and drew out two small glass bottles, each half the size of his own palm and filled to the brim with some sort of glittering substance. He tossed them to the girl. To Ochre's confusion, the moment she caught them she reluctantly hopped off the man (who didn't bother hiding his sigh of relief), uncorked the bottles and dumped their contents on the man. His confusion turned to astonishment when almost instantly, the mysterious substance turned into thick chains, snaking and wrapping themselves tightly around the man. There was absolutely no way for him to escape.
"I- Hey- What is this?!" The man struggled, but his efforts were futile. He seemed to be just as shocked as Ochre was, but listening to the murmurs of the on looking crowd, Ochre figured that the two children were rather well-known around these parts. The crowd wasn't the least bit surprised regarding the strange abilities the two young children had demonstrated.
Finally satisfied that Ochre's attacker wouldn't be able to escape, the girl walked calmly over to Ochre, coming to a stop right beside Raido's side. They stared curiously up at him.
"Ya couldn't beat him?" the girl asked, amazed. "Dude, the guy's weak. Does that mean ya're even weaker than him?" She snorted.
Ochre felt an eye twitch, an urge to throttle her coming over him, yet he forced himself to maintain his passive expression. Thankfully, Raido punished her on his behalf by slamming a fist to the top of her head. She immediately doubled over clutching her head and willing her tears of pain back into her eyes.
"Brute. Violent brute. This is sister abuse!" she wailed. Raido ignored her.
The boy introduced himself. "Hello, I'm Fukajima Raido. Just call me Rai." His tone was polite and mature, making him appear to be older than his actual age of twelve. He pointed at the girl. "She's Fukajima Reina, but you can call her Rei. We're twins." He paused, as if considering something for a moment, then added smugly, "And just in case you're wondering, I'm older than her by four minutes."
"No one cares, idiot!"
Reina seemed to have recovered from her brother's blow and she straightened to her full height, which was, admittedly, not very impressive. Ochre's estimation was right on the money. Even Raido, who was slightly taller than her, didn't even reach Ochre's chest. It felt awkward to have to -literally- look down at them just to talk. He was pretty sure twelve year old kids weren't supposed to be so short, and yet...
Both the twins must have figured out his train of thoughts because they suddenly stood on tiptoe, trying all they could just to appear even a few centimeters taller. He forced down the snigger threatening to emerge from his mouth.
"Ochre."
Seeing the blank stares of the twins, he clarified, "My name."
Raido simply nodded in understanding, but Reina grinned. "That name sounds far too cool for ya. Deadpan is Deadpan."
"'Deadpan'...? You damn kid, who the hell gave you permission to give me such a nickname?"
Reina shrugged at the look her brother gave her. Ochre couldn't quite interpret it, but it looked like a mixture of exasperation and something else. "Well, ya talk in a complete monotone. I don't think 'Deadpan' sounds that far off."
That-! Ochre sighed inwardly. It wouldn't be very mature of him to start an argument with an elementary school kid, even if said kid was asking for a beating. Besides, he had much more important matters to settle. First of all... "Where is this place?"
"Y-You don't know?" Raido's expression was one of complete shock, almost as if Ochre had asked him how to count to ten, instead of his current whereabouts. "Ah, I get it... You're a newcomer, aren't you?"
'Newcomer'...?
"This is Laevier. Most people from your world also call it the Dream World, but the natural denizens of Laevier don't like that, so make sure you don't use that term here."
"'Dream World'? This town?" Ochre questioned, once again in his toneless voice. Raido felt that his sister's nickname couldn't have been any more accurate, but he kept that thought to himself. It wasn't a very polite nickname.
"T'be accurate, this town's called del'Hel Square. It's a really big town, an' we're currently in District Five, the last district. This entire world," Reina stretched her arms to her side as far as she could, "is called Laevier!" she corrected.
Returning her hands to her sides, she grinned savagely, her expression revealing an arrogant and prideful personality. She ignored the way the strong winds whipped long strands of her own hair into her face, partially obscuring it. "Welcome to our very twisted Wonderland."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Laevier. It was a world that defied all rules of reality. A world that probably had its roots deep in fantasy and imagination, but a world that probably no one would have been able to believe truly existed.
It did exist though. Ochre was living proof of it. So were the Fukajima twins, and countless others.
It was a world separate from reality, aptly nicknamed the 'Dream World'. A world in between the boundaries of the living and the dead.
Ochre was from Tokyo, the 'Real World'. It was unknown why, but a few years ago, some people from the 'Real World' managed to temporarily cross the boundaries and enter Laevier, although that should have been impossible. No one knew why only a select few managed to do so while the majority did not, but the reason as to how they did was simple. They were in an extremely deep sleep. Somehow or another, their physical bodies remained in their own world, but their mind and soul managed to travel to Laevier, and hence those people gained an existence there. They were able to interact normally with the natural denizens of that world, and soon they were able to lead two separate lives- one in their own world, the 'Real World', and one in their dreams. That was the reason why Laevier eventually gained that name.
The consciousness of the natural denizens of Laevier were unable to traverse to Earth, but on the other hand, the number of people able to enter Laevier grew steadily. Once again, Ochre was a fitting example.
However, just because one was currently unable to enter Laevier didn't necessarily mean that one would be unable to do so forever.
Additionally, the rules governing Laevier were drastically different from that of Earth. Laevier was a world of swords and sorcery. In fact, the entire world revolved around it. Even basic necessities such as electricity were obtained through the use of magicites, none other than the solid form taken when a high concentration of magic was compressed tightly together. Here in Laevier, powerless people amounted to nearly nothing. It truly was a world where the strong ruled over the weak. It still didn't quite amount to 'survival of the fittest', but warriors and magic-users tended to achieve more due to their unique abilities and skills. They were also more likely to survive when they wandered out of towns as they wouldn't be easily killed by the wilde beasts wandering the outskirts.
The method of governance was also beyond the beliefs of anyone who wasn't a natural denizen of Laevier...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Different?" Ochre quirked an eyebrow, but just barely. "What do you mean?"
Reina shook her head, smiling enigmatically. "We won't tell you that just yet. To be honest, it isn't very much of a secret, but I don't see why we should waste our energy telling someone who may or may not be able to appreciate the information... For the moment, at least."
...That's fine. I'm not particularly curious, anyway.
"What about that fight just now, then? Those chains that appeared from nowhere."
"We... Can't tell you that either. Not right now. But tell us one thing: Will you return to Laevier?"
"Of course I..." Ochre wanted to say yes, but faltered. What sort of question was that?
Raido started to explain what he meant, understanding the older teen's confusion. Apparently, even if one from the 'Real World' had managed to enter Laevier once, it didn't necessarily mean that he or she would be able to do so all the time from hence on. Even if they were able to do so, they may not have managed to retain the memories of their previous visits and experiences regarding the world. Although it wasn't rare, people who were able to consistently enter Laevier everyday when they were dreaming and not lose all their memories of past visits were far more uncommon as compared to those who did.
That was what the twins had been asking him. Would he, or would he not, be able to return to Laevier the next night through his dreams, whilst retaining his memories all of the events that had transpired today?
Ochre may have understood the significance of their question now, but he still didn't have a proper answer. According to Raido, there wasn't any way to tell if one would be able to return to Laevier or not. It was all a matter of the person's 'potential'. He voiced this aloud.
"It's fine. All we want to know is whether you think you have the potential to do so or not."
I... "If you're not answering any of my questions, then I don't think I'm obliged to answer yours' either."
Reina shared a look with her brother, then moved her shoulders as if to shrug, but a sound from behind her made her stop mid-action. It was the distinct sound of something heavy being dragged, coupled with rattling. Ochre looked up from the twins. They seemed to have heard it as well- Of course they did. It would have been rather difficult to miss, even with the light chatter of the townsfolk in the background.
Wha- But when he turned back to the children to ask them what that sound was, they were gone, not a single trace of their presence left behind.
Don't worry, we already know your answer.
Ochre thought he heard Reina's voice, soft but clear. Except... They're fast. She's gone, and so's Rai. How is that possible?
You'll be back. Her voice paused momentarily, as if considering what to say next. We'll see you again.
Was that a promise? Reina had sounded much too confident in her statement; as if there was absolutely no way she could be wrong. But how could she know? Wasn't it impossible to know if one had the 'potential' to return to the Dream World? Ochre may have thought that he wasn't curious about this world, but he sure as hell was now. But even more importantly, he couldn't help but think that the twins were the greatest enigmas of all.
The blonde pushed that thought to the back of his head as he suddenly had the instinct to head over to where his assailant from earlier on was lying, tightly chained, on the ground. He made his way through the thin crowd without any difficulty, but once he reached his destination, all he could do was stare at the ground. The man was gone, chains and all, and all that remained was a small pool of blood. Even so, it was too large to simply have been from the man's eye Ochre had injured. There was a light bloody trail, most likely from the man having been dragged away by someone or something, but it ended abruptly, with no other clues as to how he had disappeared. That sound I heard... It must have been from this. Did that man get away? Or was he taken by someone else?
His face may not have betrayed anything, but Ochre felt frustration, not being able to do anything about everything that had happened to him in Laevier. He was still far too ignorant about this world. As he noticed his fingers slowly grow increasingly transparent, then his arms - the twins had mentioned to him that that would be the indication that his consciousness was exiting the Dream World and returning to his physical body in his own world - he looked up at the sky. It was clear, full of large columbus clouds so white it made his eyes hurt, yet his attention was fully focused on the large island floating in the sky. He hadn't noticed it before. Despite its distance from the ground it was larger than his outstretched palm, and was so high up that it didn't cast a single shadow on the continent below it that Ochre stood on. The way the sun shone on it gave it an almost holy, yet ominous glow.
And then, before he could fully ponder what the mysterious island was, the scenery before him faded to black. When he opened his eyes (since when had they been closed?) he was once again greeted by the blue sky, but the island was no longer in sight.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ochre frowned as the bright sun glared into his eyes. He slowly pushed himself off the hard tile flooring and into a sitting position, feeling a slight sense of deja vu. Gone was his 'strange clothes', replaced by a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, a casual tee worn underneath, and plain brown pants. The white shirt had a school crest emblazoned on it. One of his high school.
He was still groggy, but he remembered all his experiences in Laevier clearly. Being attacked by the man with as sword... Being saved by the two young twins and having that conversation with them... Everything.
I must have fallen asleep while on the school's roof... He stretched slightly, working out the kinks in his stiff neck. He had probably fallen asleep in an pretty awkward position for his neck and shoulders to ache so badly. I guess those two weren't lying about that 'Dream World' bit then.
The teen looked up at the sky, shielding his eyes with a hand. His long ponytail flew about wildly, buffed by the strong winds. The clouds were still just as white and huge as they were in Laevier, even though they were from different worlds, but he couldn't find what he was looking for. The floating castle he had seen in the sky back in the Dream World was gone.
That floating castle... What was that all about?
"...-chre! Ochre!" He grew faintly aware of someone calling his name. It belonged to a girl, and he had a rather good idea who it was. She sounded irritated; he should reply her to prevent her from becoming even more so. It probably wasn't a good idea to skip all the morning classes on the very first day of the week, even if he had been incredibly sleepy. He could already hear two pairs of footsteps, one set heavier than the other, resounding from the stairway leading up to the roof where he was.
"Coming." He removed his gaze from the sky and stood up, then turned around to leave.
'Don't worry. You'll be back.'
He didn't really know why, but he felt that he could trust the Fukajima twins, and it wasn't just because they had saved his life in the Dream World.
'We'll see you again.'
Hmph. I guess I will.