Chapter 2.3 A Dream

I find myself in a place where everything is white, an illusionary world of dreams. It was dead silent-as if the vacuum of space- and had the freezing smell of rust running amok.

There's a beautiful woman standing in front of me; she's dressed in a white robe a la francais, always facing backwards and didn't bother looking behind her back.

Ever since she appeared in my dream, never once have I seen her even take a little peek. I tried to look at what's in front, but there's nothing ahead.

I've never seen her face nor know her voice; for we've never had a conversation before. I'm always curious as to what she looks like, but when I try to approach her, our distance gets further and further away.

All I know for now is that she has Long-straight black hair that reaches up to her waist, she's tall, probably 10cm taller than me.

To this day, I always wonder, Who are you?

The next morning, I woke up. As I opened my eyes, I found myself seeing an unfamiliar ceiling. It was quiet, not even the cries of cicadas were around.

"Evangelion reference???"

As the tension on my body came back to my consciousness, I felt that my face was swollen and my body was heavy. Despite having a sleep, I'm exhausted, what's going on inside me? I asked myself.

No! In the first place. I stood up from my sleep and asked. "Where the fuck am I?"

I felt something sticky in my chin. I wondered what it was? As I touched it, I felt a damp yet slimy feeling on it. I tried to smell it and it's-

"Is this Saliva?" There's saliva in my chin.

But why the fuck is there saliva in my chin? is this mine? I smell it again and no! My mouth doesn't smell like this. Whose saliva is this?

I turned around to see a very unfamiliar bedroom. I looked at the curtain and it's completely shut; even sunlight can't even pass.

Everything around it looks expensive. Including the paintings and vases all around. More importantly, I saw a closet with a female uniform hung on the top of it.

"What in heaven-'' Why is there a female uniform right there? Did I get reincarnated as a girl? There's even undergarments below it too.

I was completely astonished and confused. I thought to myself, when did I even die and get reincarnated?

I looked around me and noticed a huge bulge in the blanket next to me. 'Is that a person?' I thought to myself.

I removed the blanket and saw a short haired girl sleeping peacefully in her blue pajamas. After seeing the girl. I immediately covered her face with the blanket and shouted.

"IT'S THE LICH!!!"

"HMMMMMM!!!!!!" I immediately tried suffocating her while she's sleeping.

The lich then wakes up and immediately tries to remove the blanket that's suffocating her face along with a shout. "What the fuck are you doing !!???"

"Why are you in My BEDROOM???"

"IT'S Mine You Stupid Wanker!"

Wait, this is her bedroom? I asked "Why am I in your BEDROOM?", I then touched my body to find out I'm still wearing that borrowed clothes I got from the Dark Elf completely intact.

"Did you do something to my body?" I asked.

"You know fully well that Ghoul hunters can't be raped"

"I'm not talking about rape!? wait, did you thought of raping me?"-WHAT THE-

"OF COURSE NOT! ARGHH so early in the morning!" The Lich tried to fix her hair as it was covering her face.

She rolled out and sat on the bed with its eyes still squinting from the sleepiness. I looked at her as I noticed that she smelled like a Lavender soap that was freshly blooming-was it a perfume?

Wondering what hour it was, I asked. "What time is it anyways?" After asking, the lich then looked at her digital alarm clock and read the time.

"Time, huh, it's 6:01 am" she answered me. I looked around, trying to comprehend the time and-

"6:01am you say?" I asked.

Noticing that the time is 6:01am, I asked her again "When does school start?" she answers, "It's 6:30am why?"

I looked around and thought to myself-Isn't their house like 1 hour walking distance away from the school? no in the first place-

"YOOOOOO! WE'RE FUCCKIIING LATEEEEE!" I shouted as I realized the time.

The Lich who's still sleepy, opened her eyes and realized "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

We both panicked inside the bedroom, echoing our shouts inside the mansion. After the long shout, we immediately stood up from the bed, and she fixed the bed.

Noticing my shirt and underwear, I asked the lich. "Where's my uniform?" She answered. "on the ground floor, hung in the bathroom!"

"Is that so? thanks" I grabbed my bag, which was standing at the edge of the closet, and immediately ran to the first floor.

My steps were echoing in the mansion as I ran around trying to find where the bathroom was. As I saw a French door, I opened it up and saw the Dark elf wearing a white bathrobe and brushing her teeth.

I called her. "We're Late!" Surprised, she gulped up the toothpaste, and choked along, asking, "EH?"

Since she's choking she fell and can't speak what's in her mind. I noticed that my uniform is hung on behind her so this place must be the bathroom.

I entered whilst the Dark elf panicked and took the uniform hangered from a top. I told the dark elf, "Quick, we're late" and I slowly wore my uniform.

After getting rid of the choke, The Dark Elf asked. "What? wh-what's going on?" I told her. "We're late! we're going to school now!!"

The Dark Elf then asked. "But I haven't taken a bath yet?"

I told her. "You're Japanese, just take a bath in the evening!" I took her hand and helped her stand up. The dark elf then covers her body as the bathrobe almost falls.

I put the white t-shirt in my bag since I didn't wear it because the shirt the lich gave me yesterday is a pain to remove.

After getting dressed the dark elf then told me. "Um, can I get dressed first Crimson?"

I went outside the bathroom and gave her privacy. As the Dark elf removed her bathrobe, she immediately wore her purple undergarments and quickly installed the uniform that she hangered in the room.

"I'm done," she told me. I then opened the door and quickly grabbed her hands. She was surprised. "Wait Crimson!"

"No Wait Wait!, we're Late!" I told her as I sprinted outside the bathroom. She's already dressed and I'm already dressed, the only thing we need to do is to go to school.

As we reached the living room, we saw her bag at the table resting, prepared, raring to go. I opened the mansion's main door and quickly went outside.

The Dark elf then asked. "Wait, Crimson, we haven't had breakfast yet!"

"There's a cafeteria in the school, let's eat there!"

As we went outside, the sky was still at its early dawn, Dark and black whilst the moon was visible. Birds are flying around as they hear a loud turmoil going around the place. Fresh smell of leaves among the fogs smells like rain.

Did it rain yesterday?

I ran as fast as I could along with the Dark elf who surprisingly managed to keep up with me. The road doesn't have any vehicles running around so we freely run at the center of it.

Still grabbing the hands of the dark elf, she told me. "WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! CRIMSON! YOU'RE GOING TO FASSST!"

"KEEP UP WITH ME!"

After 5 minutes of sprinting as fast as we could, we finally managed to get inside the school. we grabbed our knees as pants from breathing exhaustion echoed around us.

"Haaaa! Haaaa!, well, we managed to get inside in time!" I told the Dark elf.

"Cri- Haaaa! Haaaa! Haaaaa!- Crimson! w-what's the- haaaaaaa!- the time?" The Dark elf pants as she dropped her knees on the ground, she looked more exhausted than me.

Since I'm a hunter, I was trained to immediately recover my stamina in long runs to survive in case we're escaping in a clash we can't win.

Smell of sweat surrounds the vicinity as we produce a lot of them whilst sprinting. I looked around and was surprised to see that there's no students nearby. I wonder.

"What's going on?" I asked. I looked at the time on my phone and asked the surroundings.

"Why are there still no students nearby? What's going on? the time should be 6.....-"

I looked at the time on my phone and was stunned. "It's still 5:02 am?"

The Dark elf who was panting at the ground told me. "You didn't notice the sky Crimson? it's still in early dawn"

I looked at the sky to see it in a very gloomy sky blue, indicating that it was still the dawn of the day.

I asked her. "What's the time when I called you in the bathroom?"

She answered "It was still 4:50 that time, even if it wasn't why are you rushing at 6am?"

"Huh? school starts at 6:30 right?" I asked her.

The Dark elf was surprised and told me "Eh? but the Principal yesterday announced to us that the school time is changed to 7:30 you know! due to some reasons"

"HUHHH?"-Wait, really? I was looking at the Principal's breast that time so I never listened to the announcements she gave yesterday. What the-

Am I over panicking?

"I'm sweaty" The Dark elf announced. I grabbed her hands and helped her stand up as I told her. "There's a bathroom here, let's take a bath there"

The dark elf asks. "Really? but wait, I don't have any towels." I told her. "They actually have though, check it out"

We entered the school where there's still no students inside. Despite no students, the Clerks in the cafeteria are already inside and are preparing food for the canteen. The smell of the spices run around the school, making our bellies groan in starvation.

We walked into the sideway covered in a shed. Noticing that a woman in her 40's was looking at us, we greeted her.

"Good Morning!"

The Woman then looked at us, she was wearing an apron- probably she's a new stall owner- and gave us a smile saying.

"Oh, you two love birds, it's still early in the morning isn't it"

Unbothered by the compliment, I smiled at the lady and laughed along with her. Looking at the Dark Elf from behind, she was probably trying to fix the misunderstanding but stopped as I didn't correct her.

After walking for a few seconds I looked at the Dark elf and told her.

"Listen here, I don't know how they work it out in Japan, But here, if you're being complemented by an older person, don't bother fixing it, despite it being incorrect, you hear me?"

She asks. "Why is that Crimson?"

"It will save you from peril I swear."

As we saw a small comfort room away from the main buildings, I stopped at my tracks and looked at the Dark elf. I told her "We're here"

She asks "This one?"

"Yeah" I went inside and checked if the door was unlocked at both sides and after confirming it.

"It's Open"

The Dark elf looking confused asks "Why is there a Bathroom in a school? is this also free?"

I answer. "This school is meant to be a dorm school after all, but they cancelled the plans and made it into a National high school" I looked inside both Male and female bathrooms to see if there's proper equipment inside.

I continued. "This is free because the school decided that some students don't either bathe at school since they need to wake up early, or if the students need this incase they get dirty from the activity"

"I see, this school is thoughtful aren't they?" she said.

"If they're funded by the person who made this country great again, why not make such basic implications on a school?"

I went inside the male room and told her. "You can go inside now, make sure you use the clean towel and wash it off after you use it, the detergents are in that basket. Good luck"

"Thank you"

As I went inside the bathroom, there were mirrors and faucets like they do in a restroom, but instead of toilet stalls, it was shower stalls at the corner of the room. The floors are tiled in the colour of white ivory that when you look below it, you can see your reflection.

The place smells like Zondrox and everything is clean, it seems like it was used not long before but kept this maintained.

I took off my clothes, including my uniform and slacks along with my inner shirt. I took a towel that was placed in a basket and went inside the stall.

I turned on the shower and heard the rustling of water dropping on the floor. As I started to wash my hair, I noticed that beyond this wall, there's water dropping too.

I use the palm of my hand and slam the wall, creating a shockwave that shook shivers past the next wall. I heard a girl shout. "WOAH!"

The girl beyond the wall asked. "Are you there Crimson? Don't do that!"

As I looked above me, there's a vent, making our conversation flow properly. I could even smell her sweat from here.

"HEHEHEHE" I laughed.

I started to wash my hair and my body, but the dark elf then started up a conversation. She asked me.

"I notice Crimson, you're not calling me by my name aren't you, but you call Kuro-chan a lich"

I answered her. "Well, she's a lich so I called her that." Talking with her made me realise that we left the Lich back at the mansion.

She then requested. "Can I ask you something?"

I replied "What?" The bubbles made from the shampoo covers my face, I can't even see anything.

She then continued. "Can you call me by my name?"

I was expecting something but never thought about what she said, I never tried to comprehended why she asks that but I leave it be since it was a simple request. I asked her since I forgot. "What's your name again?"

She replied. "I'm Slyvyna Lockwood"

"Ohh! so Lockwood then, I'll start calling you that for now"

The girl next-wall started to smile, Happy about it, her cheeks blushed as it turned red. Taking a shower whilst naked from the top to bottom, she told him. "Thanks Crimson"

I washed off the bubbles using the water and took a look at the vent. The vent is a huge window from atop that's wide open, No frames nor grilles covering it.

I jumped to it and looked at Lockwood from the other side.

Noticing that she's actually there, I called her. "Oh, we're actually next wall"

Surprised, Lockwood looked at me as she's still washing off the bubbles from the soap. Realising that there's a person seeing her naked body, she shouted. "KYAAAAAAAAAAA"

She threw the soap at me but it didn't affect a little bit. Me realizing my faults, I dropped myself from the vent and landed on my stall.

"I'm sorry" I apologies.

Though as I saw the body of Lockwood, I remembered something from yesterday.

Before going inside the Lich's mansion, I was looking above the sky. And there-

I saw a demon!