The Dream Shifter

Chapter 213

'…doesn't remember?' Yumi suddenly felt confused, but the attention from the three of them made her uncomfortable. She stared at the ground as the only way to manage her emotions.

"So who is she? Does she know you? She came up to us."

"Already making the moves on girls, huh? Yuki?" joked Hiroshi, nudging his elbow in his ribs. Saki quickly whacked him on his head for the words. He slowly rose back up, corrected. His hand rubbed the pain away from his head while looking over at Yumi. "She's Yumi Mizuno. I think I've heard the name before."

"Her name?" asked Saki, "So you know her, Yuki?"

"Nope, I haven't seen her before today."

"So what then?"

"She's my friend!"

"Huh?" Saki stared at him trying to figure out if he was joking. However, the look in his eyes told her he was serious about it. "Is everyone in the class your friend?"

"If they want to be!"

"…Yuki…"

'…friend?' Yumi finally felt at ease to lift up her head. Her face turned red again staring at him, but she ignored it. 'He wants to be my friend? He doesn't know me?' She stared partially in confusion and awe at him. Nothing about him made much sense to her, but she could not stop her eyes. 'He heard my name, but didn't say anything. He's just looking at me as though I'm just another person.'

Saki leaned over to Yumi, still obvious to the conversation going around her. "Hey you need to speak up! If you don't want this creep to be saying things like that you can tell him!"

"That hurts, Saki! I didn't say anything I didn't mean!"

Yuki's protest pulled her away from him and dragged her to face him. She threw out her hand nearly running it up his nose with how close it came to him. "But you don't just go around saying you're friends with everyone! You can't decide that for them!" After she felt satisfied with her rebuttal, she turned back to Yumi. Her hand came out to Yumi, but nowhere near as intrusive. "If you don't feel the same, its fine. You don't have to be friends, you can tell him."

Yumi did not completely follow everything that happened, but she no longer felt the stress of the day in her body. Her heart still pounded, but she knew it was not because of nerves. She was comfortable and at ease, on her first day at a new school where her brother attended. Yumi shook her head lightly and found a small smile lifting up on her lips. "It's fine with me. He's right! We're friends!"

Story time concluded for Yumi and Chiharu, those that they waited for still had not appeared. Chiharu noted their absence, but it went completely ignored by Yumi. She focused on her memories. It felt a little like it re-enforced for her the resolve she knew she needed to have. The first encounter with Yuki was only the beginning, but it acted as one of many triggers. A very important and precious memory that she kept locked inside. She did not even know why she ended up so freely telling Chiharu. It was something that she kept to herself for so long. She had not even told Kaede and Katsumi. If she told someone she felt like it might turn out to be a dream and they would wake her up from it. She never wanted the dream to end.

As much as the flashback buried Yumi so deeply, Chiharu seemingly followed something like the law of physics with an equal and opposite reaction to Yumi. Her interest in the story left her bored and bothered. She did not understand why a couple of words could not have done the same thing. In the end, she also did not feel like she got any closer to an answer to the original question. On the contrary, it felt like they had strayed from the purpose. Chiharu had lost most of her motivation in the discussion that she considered cutting it short. Yet she found herself responding, which bugged her slightly inside. "I'm failing to see the point of that story." Chiharu's facial expression turned flat and disinterested with her words. "It's insignificant to the matters now."

The empty and course words from Chiharu nearly brought a tear to Yumi's eyes. She turned a little child-like flailing her arms in Chiharu's direction. "It does have meaning! How can you trounce over a girl's precious memories! It's my most important memory of Yuki!"

Chiharu became even more confused and slack jawed watching Yumi. She no longer understood anything the girl spouted. It was all just emotional gibberish. 'I guess if I think about it as being tied to emotions then that might explain some of it. Still doesn't make a lot of sense. Seems pretty pointless…' A hint of curiosity triggered in Chiharu after the thought. She wanted to know more for some reason. "Precious memories? It was just a random encounter with the weakling. He's always running his mouth with empty drivel that's meaningless. You shouldn't take him seriously."

"You're wrong," Yumi said shaking her head. She closed her eyes thinking about the day and Yuki's face. It remained as crystal clear to her months later with no decay. His expression etched in her heart. "I know I'm not really good at reading people, but there is one thing that I'm certain more than anything else. Yuki's always serious."

"Eh?" Chiharu tilted her head thinking the girl went daft in the brain. She questioned if she misheard the words. "What did you say?"

"Yuki's always serious."

"That weakling's never serious, except for I guess when he's fighting. Though I've heard he's not serious then as well."

"You're wrong, Chiharu." Yumi let a deep smile crawl over her face carrying a deeper emotion behind it. She opened her eyes and stared over at Chiharu unflinching. "It's easy to miss, because Yuki's always acting silly. But that's just because people don't understand it. I don't know the whole story to Yuki, but the pieces I've seen tells me that he's covering up a great sadness within his heart. Everything on the outside is just a mask."

Chiharu turned back to her disbelief from listening to Yumi. She knew that she did not know a lot about the weakling, but she found it impossible to believe the words. None of it made any sense to her. 'A great sadness? What sort of i***t would believe someone acts stupid to cover up their past?' The thought started her hand shaking subconsciously. She leaned ever so slightly close to Yumi. "That's ridiculous. There's nothing in that weakling's head, but air." Chiharu raised her hand towards Yumi in a questioning accusation. "If you're so bad at reading people, what makes you think anything of what you said it actually correct? You're just providing material for debunking your theory. You're making yourself an easy target."

The words made Yumi giggle a little, which did not help Chiharu any. "Maybe, but he is a classmate. I've watched him for the last few months. So I've learned a few things in how he acts."

"You sound like a stalker."

"I'm not a stalker," protested Yumi with a red face.

"Oh? And what makes you think he has such a great sadness as you claim? I've looked into his eyes and I only see stupidity."

Yumi leaned in at Chiharu using her hands to support herself. "Then you haven't looked deeply enough!" She spoke with unwavering certainty that ignored their proximity.

Chiharu leaned back a little set off balance by Yumi's forwardness. It forced her eyes to shift away from Yumi, no longer wishing to make contact. She could not stand the thought of what she suggested. "There's nothing to find."

"You asked what I knew that made me certain." The grave mood that Yumi exuded changed the atmosphere. She was serious the entire time during their conversation, but her words and stature altered. Any doubt disappeared and left zero room for questions. Yumi pulled herself back to sit in the grass. "He never talks about it. So most don't know, which is understandable. Even I don't know all of the details. But I know that he's lost both of his parents. So he bares all of that inside, while showing the silly and careless exterior that you know. Before I learned that I already was starting to understand, but it is all just an act for him. Yuki is always serious in everything that he does and he's always looking out for others."

Silence hanged between the two for seconds that felt like an eternity. Chiharu did not have a counter argument or even quick comment to deny the emptiness of the claim. The shaking in Chiharu's hand transferred into her legs and slowly worked into her body. Once again, Chiharu did not understand. However, the point that she did not understand ended up as something completely different and unexpected. It left her a little surprised. She fought to keep her shock from bleeding into her eyes, threatening to give it away. '…doesn't make any sense…can't…'

Chiharu ran questions through mind. Countless denials threw out to try to knock away Yumi's words. Yet Yumi's face stared back at her not giving in to Chiharu. She wanted to push it all away. She wanted to call her a liar that knew nothing. She wanted to call her childish and drunk on love. She wanted to call her love blind. She wanted to say that it made her see things. She wanted to say so many things, but no words came out. Chiharu had no words. Her throat choked on them. It was uncomfortable.

She did not understand.

It fought back in a way that she did not plan. All of her angles closed off. It surrounded her flanks. Even her escape fell. Chiharu did not know what to do. She was stunned. 'How…it can't be…she's wrong! She has to be wrong! It doesn't make any sense!' Everything that came from Yumi said she believed it to be an undeniable truth. Panic bleed into Chiharu's thoughts. She wanted to scramble away. It made her feel small, again. The feeling forced her to recall the instant that Yuki glared down at her. He had never looked more serious or determined in front of her. She gave into him then not understanding him.

'He's always serious,' echoed Yumi's words.

Chiharu shook away the thoughts. She wiped away Yuki's image that made her feel like a child. She was no child. She left it all behind. 'No! Go away! You can't go back!' Chiharu wanted to wrap her arms around herself. She wanted to run away. The thoughts that kept surfacing within her frightened her. She hated the feeling it brought out. 'I left it behind…'

'He lost his parents.'

'That can't be! You must be wrong! How can…if you…act like that…' All she needed anymore was herself. She believed it. If she needed warmth, she could grab a blanket. If she needed to eat, she could cook for herself. If she needed saving, she would stand up for herself. She did not need any of it.

'It's all an act.'

Chiharu forced her eyes closed. It did not help her any. She hoped that it would prevent the thoughts from coming back to her. She prayed for the memories to cease. Memories were the past. She wanted none of them. She needed none of them. 'How can anyone? It doesn't make any sense! It has to be a lie!'

'He's just pretending to be silly.'

'If all of that is true…if it's true… The truth…' The inkling that anything Yumi said was real pushed the shaking into her body. She could no longer ignore it. It overwhelmed her as she fled deeper into her mind for protection. She distanced herself from it. The further away from her the less she felt the uncomfortable sensation. It was just a sign of weakness and she had no weaknesses. She needed no weaknesses. 'It can't…'

'I'm not lying.'

'You are lying! It's the only answer! It has to be!'

'Why?'

'Because if it's true…if it's true…'

'Because if it's true? What?'

'No! It's false!'

'Because if it's true then the answer you found might be wrong? You might be wrong? You might be lying?'

'No! I'm not! I'm not lying! It's impossible!' Chiharu's heart started to pound from the thoughts slamming around in her head. The further she escaped the louder and more penetrating the words became. She felt more surrounded than before. The only thing she had was the shaking in her body to comfort her. It sickened her. The detested weakness sapped away her strength. It was stronger than she was. She did not want it to be true. 'It's impossible! He's just a normal i***t who's a busy body that has to get involved in problems that aren't his!'

'But it's the truth. It's not impossible.'