I stand in a very complex yet uncomplicated position. I've cooled down since yesterday evening's disaster of a picnic. We had to retreat back home earlier than estimated because of my stupid emotional breakdown.
"No, it wasn't stupid in the slightest. You don't realize that it was extremely necessary for you to do that." Johan read my mind for one of the last few times.
"Hey, that's a very depressing dialogue tag. I'm going to read your mind for the next thousand times so be prepared for that!"
"Honestly, that line was more disturbing than the fact that VISIONs left me entirely."
"It was just to raise your spirits up!" Johan retorted.
"...Hmm. So, do you remember when you exactly died and where your home is?"
"Yes, I already knew where my town was (a little further from the outskirts of this city) but now that I do know when I died, everything seems clear."
"Clear, in the sense?" I questioned him.
We—Johan, Pilo, and I were in my room on the [redacted] of this year. Pilo was simply listening to our conversation trying to make her own interpretations, despite me asking her to not do it.
"Clear about your life and mine too. Anyway, we'll have to get to my home before tomorrow at 8 a.m. or it'll be super late."
"I'm not getting it. Why'd it be late?"
"We are out of words to discuss that topic anymore. Unknown Souls have instructed me to tell you about it only when we reach there." Johan announced.
Why is he being so stubborn, just tell me about it already.
"From your conversation, it seems like you're having a lovers quarrel, right?" Pilo muttered some ridiculous things.
"No, are you dumb?" I retorted.
"I see." I don't think you're supposed to respond I see to a yes or no question. But it's Pilo we're talking about, the rules of this world don't just fit in her brain—she blatantly rejects it.
"I can't go all by myself that far (as I can't use GPS or maps), so you, Rei, definitely have to join me. And if she wants, Pilo can also join us!" Johan recommended.
"I don't think she'd like to spend the [redacted] traveling around." I rejected his recommendation.
"I don't think that's true. Better than being home at least." Pilo, who could only hear my end of the conversation, rejected my rejection. No, really, how can someone make so precise interpretations just by hearing only one side? Can't be me.
"If she too agrees, then you must book tickets for today—and a bus ticket would do. It'd barely take two hours to reach there." I think planning isn't that well-paced here.
I have to ask my parents and Pilo too has to. Two young girls traveling alone, in a bus without guardians—if that doesn't sound dangerous, then what else would?
I asked Pilo: "It's at least going to be a six-hour drive on a bus (including return), late in the evening on top of it. Do you think your parents would agree?"
"I don't think so, but I must say I wholeheartedly agree to take on that risk if it's for you, Rei!"
"Don't be romantic. If your parents are not going to allow then how do you think you're gonna accompany us?" I retorted.
"I'll cross the bridge when I come to it. They're hosting the [redacted] party for their friends and relatives so they're going to forget about me anyway."
If she's going with that reason then I think I don't have any other reason to object. Guess, asking my parents is the only thing left.
"See, everything is going according to plan," Johan commented as if I'd already booked the tickets for the bus.
"I'm going to call my parents, both of you leave the room for some time," I ordered Johan and Pilo.
"Why do you think two of us should leave the room for you? You should go out, not us!" Pilo spoke for herself and Johan (even though she has never seen him or never will).
"My room, my rules, and my order. Just go away for a few moments." I pushed Pilo out of the room as I spoke.
Subsequently, I grabbed my phone from where Johan was playing with it and dialed up my mother.
It was almost a week since I'd last talked to them verbally. We only had chats all over the week. If I remember they were arriving next week on Monday, hmm...
"Hello, Rei... almost thought you didn't care about us anymore." Out of every character in this story, my mother probably had the highest level of sarcasm.
"What're you saying, mom? Didn't we talk like yesterday on text?"
"That doesn't count as talking, you know? At any rate, what made you remember me? A souvenir, or something more expensive... as long as it's reasonable we'll buy it for you."
"I just needed permission to go out—"
"You and permission? That's like a predator asking permission to its prey to eat it."
"Wait, listen to me, first. I and Pilo and a few of my classmates, you see, are going to the outskirts tonight on a bus. I just needed to ask permission for it."
"...Lie. It's quite simple to figure out when you're lying. You just elongate your sentence unnecessarily—don't do that the next time... only then it'll be a serious challenge. So, tell me the truth, even if I don't allow you."
She's sharper than Pilo's intuition. I guess that's more or less what it takes to be a diplomat. I had no other option but to tell her the truth.
Everything from the beginning, what Grey told, what Unknown Souls told, and what Johan told. Obviously, she and Dad considered these VISIONs as a mental illness of mine for a long time, however, they accepted it one day.
That VISION isn't a delusion but is a real entity—for some reason that I still don't know.
After carefully listening to my part of the story, she told me in a very clear mind: "Well, I didn't quite understand half of the things you said, however, if that boy really, earnestly wants to return to his home, even after death. then I think it wouldn't be harmful to accompany him. But remember you're going to hear an earful from your Dad—and I won't stop him from doing so."
"That's quite a cryptic way to say yes, but fine. I promise I'll return soon." I ended the call right before she could say anything sarcastic that'd delay the booking of tickets.
What's Dad going to do anyway? I could just evade him for an entire week before he forgets it.
"Quite a spoiled kid, aren't you? If it were me I'd never get such an approval."
"Well, it's just that I've broken way too many rules so many times that there aren't any rules anymore in this house. Though I do hear way too many scolding regardless." I riposted at Johan the eavesdropper.
I went out of the room to call Pilo who was sitting on the stairs that lead to my room.
"Hey, I asked my parents and they said yes. So, do I book tickets, now?"
I sat with her—but behind her like catching a giant teddy bear. Our height difference was perfect enough to do that. I then put my head on her shoulders to look at what exactly she was scrolling through on her phone.
"No need! I've already booked our tickets... I'd guessed your mother would accept right away, so it'd be tomfoolery to not book it."
"Not really—"
"Anyway, in this position are aiming to push me down?"
"Not really." I was just feeling emotional tiredness, something similar to my introvert exhaustion. I was putting my emotional burden on her shoulders, that's it.
"...Whatever, the bus for today is at 11 p.m., it was the final bus I could find for today so you can't blame me for that timing."
"Wait... did I even tell you where we're going?" I questioned Pilo. I remember not even mentioning the place during my conversation with Johan a few moments ago.
"Not you but Johan informed me yesterday. When we were in the riverside, you know?"
Ah, that little human-VISION conversation they had yesterday. Borderline insane, if you ask me—an invisible and a normal person talking to each other, that is.
"I see. We've got a few hours on our hands to kill. Might as well use that time to prepare for the trip." I said.
"Are you sure... Johan's going away today, right? Don't you want to eagerly spend the last moments with him?"
"But the packing—who'll do it?"
"Me, of course! The trip's just for a few hours so we wouldn't need that much luggage in the first place." Pilo asserted confidently.
"Thanks," I said as I got up from the stairs—behind her. Then headed back to my room where Johan was, well, I don't know what he was doing.
I opened the room just to find him lying on my bed comfortably, reading one of the books on the shelf.
Come to think of it, he loved books. Almost every time I find him either reading my diaries or some books from the library. On another note, he also loved burying his nose, whether it be personal matters or books.
"What're you reading now, huh? You're going away today, so wouldn't it be better to spend your last moments with me?" I sighed forcefully.
"We both know you're not the type of person to do that last moment things despite doing everything in the last moment." Johan retorted.
"Yes, I don't like last moment things, so why not we do something for the first time... tell me about yourself and I'll tell you something about myself. No mediators, no translators. I just want to know more about you."
"I love studying new things." Johan rode onto my idea right away.
"I love studying about old things..." I exchanged something about myself as promised.
"I hate studying in school, it bores me out," Johan continued.
"Hehe, same. But to be precise, I hate the people in the school."
"I love talking to interesting people, endlessly."
"Not sure about that, but I do like telepathy—even though the only person I've tried it with is you."
"I love rumors and secrets, stories and drama, rebels and rule breakers."
"I like breaking rules, secretly—however, without drama. I also love abandoned buildings, space, and empty beaches."
"I like how embarrassing you're, Rei."
"I like how straightforward you're, Johan."
"Hahahaha" Johan giggled—seemingly running out of any other likes or dislikes at the moment.
Sharing our preferences on the [redacted] is certainly a last-moment thing, how so obvious of me.
The pages flipped as we continued sharing retorts and secrets, and the things we wanted to do and the things we failed to do. Time flew like a bird, but our conversation flew like a tortoise. So intimate, so personal that it made me forget today was the final day with him.
Johan was a good friend and one of the very few friends I'd made in my life, and unfortunately for me—I'm the worst on this planet to say goodbyes. It seemed impossible to do it.
"It doesn't matter if we have to say goodbye, and I don't want your only memory of me to be a sad farewell... I will probably never see you again, but that doesn't mean you never knew me in the first place." Johan said, reading my mind once again.
"Okay, I guess." I couldn't reply to anything more than that.
"Knock-knock. May, I enter?" Pilo knocked at the door after returning from her home with a duffel bag—the same bag she received from one of Grey's uncles.
I didn't even need to say yes, come in for her to barge inside. How whimsical. Well, it's her habit to do from I don't know when to barge in my house. I don't mind it though.
"If you want to put something in this bag do it right now!" Pilo urged.
"I don't think there's anything I'd need to put in that. My handbag would be enough." I replied.
Johan also said we needed to take the VISION camera with us for some reason, so I had to bring my handbag to keep it safe with me.
"Well, then we can head out right now. It's 9:30 p.m. so it'd take roughly half an hour to reach there. Let's go!" Pilo yelled with enthusiasm.
A bit too much zeal for this time of the day, I suppose.
I changed my clothes, took my handbag, locked the door properly, and then joined Pilo and Johan who had left me in my room.
I saw them conversing using sticks and branches lying around the entrance. A normal person would probably think that Pilo had mental health issues but for me, well, it looked the same.
"Hey, move on. You look like a child (or rather a psychopath) playing with sticks in the middle of the road." I boomed harshly at Pilo.
"Hmm mmm, Johan here was saying interesting stuff about you that I wasn't aware of up until now."
"Whatever Pilo, we don't have time. Let's rush!"
"Fine, just carry this bag." Pilo threw the duffel bag at me. Fortunately, I was able to catch or it would have made me off balance.
"Are you out of your mind?" Before I could exclaim, Pilo had already overtaken me. What was this... a sabotage in a competition?
From what I know, we weren't in a race or competition or anything of that sort.
"Johan come with me! Why are you reading the address plate right now? We don't have enough time to waste."
"Coming in a bit, you go on. I'll just remember the address as a backup, so if I ever get lost I'll be able to make my way back here." Johan replied melancholically.
Well, he'll be able to join us by floating so I could leave him behind for some time without any harm.
So, leaving him, I quickly joined Pilo in a fast leap but before I could say anything, she started: "You said to rush, right? Well, that's what I'm doing."
"No, even if we walked at a normal speed, we'd reach there on time?"
"That doesn't matter, this is now a competition and that bag is your handicap for being in the school's basketball team," Pilo said whimsically. Probably no amount of convincing could slow her down. Actually, she's right. I must get some sort of a handicap or the competition would be unmistakably unfair.
"You both look incredibly stupid trying to compete. Stop it" Johan, who was floating (which was a VISION attribute), commented on us.
"Once it has started I can't stop Pilo. We're going to do it and that's final." I replied.
"Helpless people!" Johan riposted.
It was a blackish and moonless night, so luckily there weren't enough people to witness two high schoolers racing on a footpath. It'd be embarrassing, really embarrassing.
Pilo ran out of fuel eventually, making us slow down very much. That was more embarrassing—I must say. It took us a long time to reach the bus stop—Pilo must've underestimated the distance. How foolish.
We barely made it on time—reaching 10:50 p.m., just 10 minutes before the bus departed.
"How did you think we were capable of covering a distance of 8 kilometers in a span of only 30 minutes?" I asked as we took our seats on the bus.
It was fairly empty with only 5-8 people on board. The insides of the bus looked partially painted—or rather, it was scraped off, it was a non-AC seater, and much not to my surprise the legroom was small.
That's what you get for a last-minute booking, huh? Shouldn't have let Pilo book the tickets, good grief.
"I thought you'd carry me instead of the bag!" Pilo replied as she fitted the bag into the overhead compartment.
"That's not a reason, that's your imagination!" I replied.
"If you'd have missed the bus we were done for!" Johan interjected.
"Now, why are you complaining, Johan? Go sit in one of those empty seats." I recommended him harshly.
With a loud horn, the bus strode onto its journey which was more or less the end of my journey with Johan. This is what you'd call the beginning of the end, I suppose.
I grabbed the window seat (obviously after all that work, I deserved it), and Pilo sat to my left. Johan also took a window seat but in the one in front of mine which was empty. The cold wind was my best friend after an exhaustive humdrum.
It was for the best that I stopped thinking for a while and took a short nap. I can just ask Pilo to wake up within an hour.
So, after ensuring that she'd wake me up exactly after an hour, and asking Johan to wake me up right away if we were in any danger, I shut the curtains of my eyeballs and dozed off. I felt surprisingly comfortable despite the bus's cramped legroom. Adjusting my long legs took some time, but the chilly breeze outside helped me relax, allowing me to gradually fall asleep.
Pilo also delved into the digital world and Johan... I didn't really know about him despite him sharing a lot of things with me today. Guess you don't build the Taj Mahal in a single day.
However, it was way too late to ask him anything anymore, right? If it didn't take one day to build it, I might well never do. I think I'd be just as much happy with a half monument as with the full.
I wiped up all the dust and laid down on my brain and took a complete rest.
"..." I said nothing (because I was sleeping).
"..." Pilo said nothing.
"Rei!" Johan said something...?
Huh, I think it's not even an hour and Johan already woke me up.
"Rei, there has been a landslide. Just in front of our bus! Wake up!" Pilo woke me up.
"...A landslide? WAIT, A LANDSLIDE?" I yelled.
How could something so drastic happen in a span of an hour? No, is it even possible to start with?
I gently pushed Pilo aside and made my way to the front of the bus to get a closer look at the apparent landslide.
"It's just a small bolder. However, if we were there at the wrong time it could've pushed us down the cliff." Johan commented. "Well, unluckily we can't push it by ourselves so we'll be stalled here for a few hours until the rescue team comes here."
"Damn it! Not it's less likely that we'll ever reach your home on time." I replied sarcastically.
"No, I bet we'll. As long as you're with us—I give you a guarantee that we'll reach there on time, Rei."
Huh... am I some sort of a lucky charm? Or is this related to me being a god?
"We'll know that when we will reach my home, Rei!" Johan retorted, glancing at my thoughts...
The few hours we had together have elongated—that's it. No need to be happy, no need to be overjoyed, you silly.
"I believe you can do that, you can be happy for now that you have a few more hours to spend with me..." Johan said after reading my brain for one of the few final times.
I returned to my seat but this time I decided to sit near Johan.
He too sat near me unhesitantly, very close to me, and then started rapidly conversing with me. Adorably, spilling out all the thoughts that he wasn't able to convey to me while I was asleep. He went on for hours, talking about how for the first time he was able to talk heart-to-heart with someone—or should I say mind-to-mind hehe. He spoke about things that he hadn't said for my consideration—like how even he wasn't cool about the idea of saying goodbye. Like how he hated parting away from the people he was super interested in. He talked about the embarrassing intricacies of our dates for the last one week. He talked about how lazy I was and how unfit I was for dating. He said he'd carry all the responsibilities despite being a year younger than me. Like c'mon, I planned most of the dates, stop lying. Next, he continued speaking about his life before dying, how he was the brightest of his class but also how he was frustrated by the rigid and orthodox rules of his school. He also talked about how he was lost and once even attempted suicide, how he was completely lost, and how no one truly understood him.
But then in a slight change in tone, he continued like this:
"After being entangled in all sorts of depressing thoughts and disgusting emotions, one day I started to dream. The dream was how I was able to leave my body, leave my mortality, and then literally start thinking outside of the box. Then, I met souls similar to me, who were all once lost, but someone saved them. Those once-lost souls guided my way to their savior, who was supposed to help me, however, she turned out to be a girl who was just sixteen. Clumsy and embarrassing.
My apprehensions were entirely false, however. She turned out to be one of the most forward-looking and determined people I've ever met. She was so forward-looking despite her miserable failures that it made me drown in shame for even thinking about suicide."
"Wait, Johan isn't that me—" Johan cut my sentence for the one last time.
"Yes, yes, it's about you, Rei. You were the person who saved countless lost dreamers including me, all your life, without even knowing, but while hurting yourself. We VISIONs are nothing similar to what Grey said to you. That's all false. We were just having nightmares and you saved us all. By not ignoring us, by fighting back against all the problems we threw at you, you saved us.
Your sheer willpower is what inspired us to return to continue our lives. So, I too have to return back to my life now that you have guided me."
"But wait... Didn't you have to wait until we reach your home, that's where we're heading, right?"
"No, I gave Pilo the wrong address. First of all, it's way too far to reach my house by an overnight bus ride. This bus ride is just a pretext, a context for us to leave you. More or less, it's a ritual."
"Also, didn't you say you died on... 1st January? Wait, isn't the of 1st January today? But you never mentioned the year, so you ought to have one year back right?" The censorship placed by Unknown Souls is taken off completely, huh? He could now hear all those [redacted] words now.
"1st January 2022, today—I started dreaming. My death happened in the future for you. To put it correctly, your powers, exactly, were to break the line of time and turn it into a circle. It wasn't summoning souls from an alternate dimension or anything like that. You became a huge anchor for the souls who died all over the timeline and concentrated them into a single point of time since your birth.
That's why we were able to jump back in time during our first date because you had time-manipulating energy. All the souls you summoned in Earth's timeline were pretty much dead, but after they came in contact with you they returned to their life and continued living."
"So, what you're saying is I helped depressed souls and then revived them back to life?" I summed up whatever he said to have a clear understanding.
"Yes, exactly. Well, the word dreaming was a euphemism from my side. So, yes I died today, and I met you one week ago, on 24th December 2021. You helped me come this far and Unknown Souls who have all continued living their life normally and much better than before—for you and because of you and left the burden of telling you the final piece of truth to me."
"So, we've to part ways now?" I asked him one final question.
"One last thing, from me and all other VISION(s) you've ever met, Rei. You weren't a God to us, but a savior. Take pride in yourself for the countless lives you've saved. You showed all of us a very firm yet warm vision.
And one last thing from me alone: Thank you for everything you've shown me for the last few days. Such experiences were very much needed for me to live from here on. If we ever cross paths ever again, I promise I'll consider falling in love with you seriously, haha. Happy New Year! I'll not say goodbye if you want to... but from me, for now, goodbye."
"Goodbye... I'll love meeting you again." My tears waited patiently to flood my face, but I didn't let them even after Johan completely disappeared into thin air. I dammed them, even though they were prepared to unload.
Johan's pale white body slowly vanished from his seat, his face was dry like mine until the very last moment. The seat felt unnaturally empty, without him there smiling on me. It looked like a birdless nest.
It was an abrupt goodbye but I'd have to deal with it maturely unlike during Unknown Souls. It was going to happen either way so I'd already prepared for it.
I checked my bag for 8YO in the camera—the only other remaining VISION, but not to my surprise, even she'd left me without a proper goodbye. Well, with that attitude she'd be awfully bad at doing so. I hope she lives properly from here on.
Here comes an end to my story with VISION. It's all over. All done.
Here starts a story without them but for them, and their stories without me but for me. It's quite a Warm Vision, I must say.