The Dream Shifter

Chapter 6

The morning continued on without Yuki needing to be among of the living; though he did eventually awake up to find that his homeroom class had become the English class and he was twenty minutes late to the class. Apart from the new student it was a normal day so far for him. 

Eventually the sun decided it would be noon and the students broke for lunch spread across the school grounds or classrooms depending on what their friends decided. For Yuki that meant getting together with Saki, Hiroshi and a couple other of his friends on the roof. However, none of them made it that far with a surprise visit by Ayumi.

They were all standing at the edge of their classroom waiting on Yuki to get his lunch when Ayumi burst through the door looking around franticly for something or someone. Yuki's friends exchanged glances with each other and Ayumi none of them certain what this about. 

But they all quickly understood when she spoke. 

"Yuki! I found you!" She rushed over to him as he had finally pulled out his lunch from his school bag. 

The fact she was actually interested in Yuki, again, made his friends face drop in awe. The truth hurt; fortunately Yuki was not aware of it.

Yuki turned around finding Ayumi behind him and looked a little downward to meet with her face to face. It took him by surprised as well jumping back a step not certain what she wanted. 

"Ayumi?! Hey, did you need something? You get lost?"

"Oh no. I-I was actually…wondering if we could have lunch together," she said looking down a little towards her feet. It was enough to send another round of shocks through his friends listening from the sidelines.

Yuki pulled himself back towards Ayumi recovered and seeing that it was just something normal. He was not sure what he was expecting, but he gave her a nod in agreement. 

"Sure, we were just going to head up to the roof for lunch. You can join us." He pointed to his friends who were looking back at him like they suddenly wanted to be left out of the conversation.

Ayumi held her head a little lower looking like she had become disappointed by something. 

"Oh…I see… I was wanting to eat alone with you…" She was beginning to fidget with her hands shifting around her body at each moment like there was something crawling over her that made her squirm.

This naturally only further plastered his friends into shock as this day was turning out to be anything but normal. None of them knew who this new girl was and why she was so interested in Yuki. But Hiroshi finally spoke across the group to a girl staring on intently with her hands clutched tightly to her chest in pain. 

"Better act quickly, Yumi. Looks like this new girl is aggressive despite how shy she looks."

Yumi looked down suddenly at the floor with her face becoming red quickly. She could hardly put two words together only making what seemed more like noises than words. Saki sighed walking over to Yumi and hit Hiroshi in the stomach in passing. 

"Careful what you say, Hiroshi!"

Hiroshi fell back forced to use the wall for support after taking a punch from Saki. He coughed a couple times trying to recover himself quickly remembering her strength. 

"Hey, what you do that for Saki! I'm just joking."

"Yumi?" Saki glared back at Hiroshi making him turn blue in fear for getting hit again. He backed up behind another body to keep some distance between them. Saki could see that Yumi was locked away in a distant world now with her head deeply flush with red. 'Oh dear, poor girl is so embarrassed that she can't function. That Hiroshi…' She put her hands on Yumi's shoulders hoping to get attention, but finding that it did nothing. 

"Yumi? Hey, it's alright. Yuki's going to be having lunch with us." Saki looked back to find Yuki as assurance for the claim that she just made in hopes that Yumi would return to normal. However, Yuki's space that he was occupying was flashing back as being clearly empty along with the new girl, Ayumi. 

"Where's Yuki?

Hiroshi looked out from around the person that he was using for protection to see what Saki saw, which was no Yuki. He had no more of an idea than Saki. They all jumped out into the hallway looking for Yuki while Yumi was left alone staring empty into space. 

"Yuki! Yuki?" None of them could find him after a short search and returned back to the classroom to check on Yumi.

"Hey, what's Yuki doing with the new girl?" a student said looking out the window. It did not take but a second for the unfortunate student to regret speaking aloud as Yuki's friends charged the window leaving the poor student pressed against the glass as they looked out. 

Saki looked around with her eyes franticly until she finally found him walking under a tree with Ayumi.

"When did he leave?" Hiroshi said surprised, though he was not sure if he was more surprised or disappointed that Yuki had found someone sort of normal, 'sort of' because she could not possibly be completely normal to have an interest in Yuki, before he did. The window was pushed open with several of them leaning out attempting to hear them. 

"Can you hear what they're saying?"

"They're too far away," Saki said straining at the window. She was not sure who this girl was, but Yuki was so trusting that he was going to end up following her anywhere.

"So what did you want to talk about, Ayumi?" Yuki said when Ayumi finally stopped at the base of a tree. He thought back for a moment at what she said trying to figure out what this was all about.

'Alone? I guess, you don't want to meet my friends?'

'No…it's not that. I was hoping to be able to talk to you alone. So I thought lunch would be a good time.'

'Oh? Sure.'

There was nothing more than that. It was pretty vague for him, but he figured that she would tell him soon enough now. Ayumi turned around to him with a change in her usual expression. She looked far more serious and stood straight up losing any hint of meekness that she had before. "Ayumi?"

"Yuki Hayashi…Ayumi Nishimura is not my real name. And everything the teacher told you about me is a lie."

Yuki checked her for a joke or something, but she seemed to be very serious about what she was saying. He was not sure what to make of it. This was contrary to what he had seen from her earlier. The girl had changed completely in front of him from a mere few words and stance. 

"What are you talking about Ayumi? Why would you lie to us?"

"I had to lie. Because the truth is not meant for them, but for you." She pointed to him as she spoke making Yuki pull back a little.

"Huh? For me? What are you talking about?" Yuki's head was starting to spin a little confused by what he was hearing and seeing. 'Truth for me? What is she talking about? What truth? Who is she? This feeling…I'm getting it again.' 

He felt the weights returning to him stronger than before. His entire body was beginning to sweat from the unsettling sense pouring through him now. 'This is what I saw before from her…this was underneath that smile…it was covering it up…' Yuki clutched his chest receiving a sharp pain. 

"What truth for me?"

"The truth is that you are not like everyone else here and I don't mean in the manner of goofing and acting weird that they see from you. This is something deeper inside you. You feel some of it now perhaps, such as this morning with that tree you cut."

Yuki's eyes widened thinking back to that moment and the similar feeling that he had. She had been correct that this felt like that. But there was something distinctly different this time. However, he did not cut that tree it was unharmed when he looked. 'What's she getting at? I didn't do anything. But how did she know that I cut that tree in my mind?' He stared at her seeking an answer from her eyes, but it was like watching a brick wall. He was not getting anything out of her now. 

"How do you know about the tree?"

"I know, because you cut it down."

"No I didn't!"

"Yes, you did. You used your power that you have had locked inside you trapped by your mind and it is starting to break free from its seal."

"Seal? Mind? You aren't making any sense! I don't understand what you're saying."

"I've come for you, Yuki Hayashi. I need you to save my people and I need your power!"