Dreams were supposed to stay as a figment of our subconscious mind made up by our own fears, fantasies, or even imaginations. It was supposed to be like that, yet why do the dreams feel even more real for Shizuku? After that coincidental meeting with the volleyball club's captain, her dreams began to change again, and it scared her. This hasn't happened before.
Shizuku was used to dreaming about watching things unfold from a safe yet close distance, but today was another different dream. She was inside that place again not as another person watching things unfold, she was there as the girl she watched grow up. The same girl with the same face and the same color of hair. She watched through her eyes as if she was really her.
Shizuku didn't feel uncomfortable in her body though, she felt normal and the more she thought about it, the more it became disturbing. She was inside that body, yet she couldn't control it fully. Soon Shizuku found herself beside a long stream a few steps from the porch of the girl's room.
She was gazing upon the clear water, her reflection sending shivers down Shizuku's spine as every detail on their faces matched. It was so identical that even the small mole beneath Shizuku's right ear was seen on the girl's face.
She thought that nothing more could ever surprise her and just wanted this dream to end, but she was proven wrong. The body she was in tilted its head towards the other side of the lake wherein she met again the gaze of the same bright colored eyes last night on hunt she witnessed.
Shizuku was stunned for too long as the face of the boy became clearer than day, giving her too much of scare. All because the boy looked too much like Shikuro Yuuji.
But what's different is that he had fox ears and two long foxtails. She was entranced and even if the woman's body was the one who willingly met that man's gaze, Shizuku couldn't find it in herself to look away.
"ANEUE!"
The sudden scream of another person inside the dream had given Shizuku to turn her head, but as she was ready to see who the voice belonged to, her eyes fluttered open witnessing the sight of her younger sister, face etched with extreme worry and fear.
"Kikyō?" was all Shizuku could say before she was pulled into her sister's comforting embrace.
The little tough girl trembled in her arms as she sobbed, "A-Aneue y-you weren't waking up. I-I was so scared" said the girl in between her sniffs.
Shizuku smiled softly at her sister's actions and was touched by how much Kikyō cared for her. "The dream was just longer than it usually takes Kikyō, calm down, it's okay I'm still here" she mused, hands caressing her sister's long silver locks lovingly.
However, her mind stayed wondering about why did that boy's face was the same as the Shikuro's? Could it be that she was just mixing her own reality with her dreams? That might be it. She had just met the boy and was interested in him. That must really be the reason why she saw him in her dream.
But it wasn't even a week since her thoughts became filled with seeing the boy's face on the man inside her dreams. And it didn't really help that since then, the two would always find themselves meeting on such untimely situations. She was getting uneasy with their encounters and even tried to avoid him as much as possible.
Shizuku even had the thought that maybe the boy was stalking her.
But for Yuuji, it wasn't like that at all. Everything had been weird for him lately too. The dreams he saw always had Shizuku in them and it bothered him because he didn't mean to think of her that much that she manifested herself into his dreams.
Surely yes, Shizuku had been a girl who appealed to him the most but he didn't want her in his dreams. He felt extremely embarrassed thinking that maybe the reason why she's inside his head was that he is subconsciously sexualizing the girl, and that's the least he wanted and would ever do.
Even for him, meeting the girl in such random and even weird situations had him questioning why would they always find themselves meeting? He didn't want the girl to feel uncomfortable, he wanted to befriend her rather.
Yuuji let out a sigh as he walked out of school with an umbrella in hand. The soft pitter-pattering of the drops of rain lulled him in a trance as his mind wandered again to nothing. It was like driving a car then falling asleep, but the car still drove itself safely and perfectly. It always felt like that for him, but he wasn't able to do anything about it. He was always pushed by someone or something, and he didn't have the will to go against it.
He wasn't given any choice and Yuuji hated it. Most of the time this happened was when he was at school, leaving him unable to finish his routine of cleaning. Yuuji consulted his grandma about this and instead of deeming it as rubbish, the old woman smiled in a way where Yuuji was bothered.
"Yuuji, you're probably being guided." he remembered her say, "Just leave yourself in their care"
Their? Yuuji asked himself a thousand times. What does that mean? It confused him all the more after that.
After a few days of experiencing it, Yuuji noticed something off. Whenever he feels like this, he ends up meeting the girl he was trying to actually refrain from doing so.
And he did.
There she was, at the bus stop, waiting patiently under the shed above. As if a switch flicked on, Yuuji stood there cursing himself why did he have to run to her now. It didn't take long for Shizuku to turn her head and meet his eyes.
"S-Shikuro-san," she said.
Wanting to clear up the misunderstanding after seeing Shizuku give him an uneasy look, Yuuji walked closer. Only then, he saw the girl was drenched in water as the ends of her hair had drop falling from it.
"I-I wanted to say sorry for the past times Yamanobe-san. It wasn't my intention to make you feel uncomfortable" he sincerely said and even bowed in front of the girl, wanting to receive her forgiveness.
Shizuku felt a bit guilty at her assumption that the boy was stalking her and smiled warmly after a while, "It's okay. I should be saying sorry too for being so rude these past few days" she said and bowed in front of him too.
The two lifted their heads and showed each other smiles which both accepted wholeheartedly, feeling like the uneasiness around them slowly merged with the wind and got blown away.
Yuuji clenched his fist and swallowed the nervousness building up inside him again and offered a hand, "You can stay at my house until the rain stops Yamanobe-san,"
"I don't want to trouble you Shikuro-san"
"Just think of this as my way of making it up to you, now shall we go?" he replied and extended again his hand, "Yamanobe-san?"
Shizuku accepted and slipped her hand with his, "Shizuku is fine"
In the back of their heads, voices resounded again.
"Shizue is fine, Kitsune-san"
"I have a name, human"
"Then what should I call you?"
"Yuuki"
Can they hear that?
The sound of their fate being woven by the Gods.