vivid dreams

Saya Takagi last weeks hadn't been as calm that the rest of her past fifteen years. To be precise, since the one know as Alexander Evans enter her life, nothing had been the same.

The first time she encountered him, Saya felt nothing more than a passive curiosity, as it was rare for her father to bring someone her age to their house. She was accustomed to political allies or her mother friends but never young her age.

Founding his political position had been the second biggest shock of her life, after his eyes. 'Those things should be illegal.' The first time she saw them, she surprises herself, feeling attracted to a boy other than her childhood crush.

During the meal she shared with him and her family, she had the impression to know him better than the one she spent her childhood. It was also during this time she made some of the dumbest cliché faux pas one could.

This had been a shaming moment, more so for a self-proclaimed genius.

Other than the less than memorable moment, she learns a great deal about his character. Unlike Takashi, ALexander was sure of himself, not easily flushed, like most virgin boys, not that she wasn't one herself, but as a girl, she wasn't burdened with their maiden tendencies. He was also a great deal much mature and seemed to possess a ridiculous amount of knowledge in other fields that her own.

These suspicions had been rapidly confirmed, along with the fact, that he may not be far behind her in intellect. Seeing him learn the entire Japanese kanji list in three days was just ridiculous. But more than that was the sheer ability he had with other fields. She was still marvelling at the jade charms on the bracelet she had no pain in trusting was his craft.

Even if it wasn't, the blades he offered to her parent had been of an unseen craftmanship, a fact she longly searched the night she had before class but found no clue about. This was means that he was probably holding secrets to an art lost in the sand of human-kind.

The degrees of details brought to it was simply mind-blowing, and one knows that he was only a year older (A/N: he wasn't), which was starting to bring her insecurities. Other than her brain, Saya had nothing to her name, while he had already several masteries in different fields.

'What genius? If I'm one what he is, a monster?'

~~~

However, those thoughts could burden her; it wasn't the worst.

She knew something had changed in her after a sudden bout of fever that left her bedridden for nearly three weeks. It hadn't been visible at first, but it rapidly changed. First were the dreams. She seems to be haunted by the ghost form of a creature she needed two days to identify its closer known resemblance, a snow panther. Even then, the one in her dream was much larger and had minors differences.

The most striking features was the bones-like spikes jutting from its spine. Every time she could see it simply standing at the same place as if waiting for her to cross a specific boundary.

What was more shocking was that she saw all her memories, even those she had no recollection of, displayed in from them. Toward the most recent, she could feel the animal purring happily at the sight of Alexander. This was an oblivious flag that told her that he wasn't like what he seems, and she strangely couldn't come to bother with this.

During the sighting of her memories, she also understood that something happens to her, more precisely, her rapport with ALexander.

In less than three weeks, she felt to have fallen completely head over heel in love with him, forgetting Takashi. When she faced her feelings, she couldn't help to weep at the silliness of her action hysterically. She lost most of her life nursing feelings for an idiot that hadn't remarked her and would most likely never.

For this, she had been grateful to have her eyes open to this truth but had still some difficulty accepting her unconditional love for the other boy. Even if it didn't affect her cognitive function, it still frightens her how he wormed his way into her heart.

~~~

All those worries had been blown away the previous night when she again dreamed of the same creature, only this time, she wasn't the one whose memories were displayed, but her; Susan.

When she morphed from her bestial appearance to a petite girl strangely similar to her, she first learned of her identity.

What she saw had been genuinely mind-blowing. Magic, hidden communities, and the existence of different reality. Among the most shocking was Alex identity. She wasn't sure what was the most challenging thing to absorb, the fact that gods exist, that he was the son of one, or that he had the ability to travels to different planes of existences, or was an unseen race on his own.

Surprisingly, she found then he had primarily been truthful about his origin, only changing some fact to better merge in the background. She found some relief in his honesty that she wasn't lied without a good reason and on minor points.

If it weren't for Susan, she would have difficulty understanding what it means to be an Evans, but more than her memories, she was able to feel her emotion.

The response she searched had been among them. Founding that you were naturally found the most compatible with someone was much-fulfilling than she thought she would felt. That someone would love you on a completely different scale than what a human was capable of feeling and giving was mind-numbing. She felt she couldn't fully enjoy the experience through Susan memories, as if something was still preventing her.

What she understood was, while it was due to Alex, he had no control over and no nefarious goals from this.

Like the fact that learning he hadn't put a fake persona in front of them, she was elated to know that he was more likely worrying about what he had done to her. She could now understand the barely perceptible swift in his reports towards her those few days.

'He most likely realises what happens and searched for the best way to tell me, not seemingly aware of our ability to share memories in dreams.'

After witnessing the change, she understood that it prevented her from truly understanding what it felt. It was also a life-changing decision. If she goes with it, she will pass the rest of her life with him, not that she minded so much, but it would also mean sharing with Susan once he would return to her side, and she knows he would.

What felt strange for her was she didn't felt that much against the fact even now.

~~~

'I really need to talk to him', Thought her, while biting her thumbnail.

Unaware of the swift of her face during her travel down to memory lane and that she was observed closely by someone, Saya took her decision.

On the other side of the classroom, a rank behind Saya one, a certain black-haired boy was also chomping at the bit before the class ends; Takashi Komuro was rehashing the events of the last few days.

After the news of Ichirou Shido and the nefarious acts of his son, Takashi had rapidly gone visit Rei, thinking that she would need a shoulder to confide in, after scowling her not to have spoken to him about it. The moment had started under the best auspices; her mother had greeted him quickly and let him enter.

Things also started great. Rei was in an excellent mood, but that where everything started to go pear-shaped. Rather than be happy that he was her, she seems to want and encounter some 'Evans-san' bloke. As the teenager he was, he hadn't time to consecrate daily to the thing happening globally, but rather worry on how to win over the girl that he had a crush overs year, but seems to want him to stay in a strange area, without her.

'What that 'friendzone' anyway? Is that some new trendy club or something?'

Obviously, he had to show her that he was angry and she wasn't allowed to go after that 'Evans-san' bloke, as he was already here for her.

~~~

The poor boy hadn't understood that the girl wasn't interested in him but also just wanted to encounter the one that saved her father from the pressure Shido was putting on his shoulder and making things straight again for her.

She was primarily sure the said person wasn't even aware of what he did for her, but as an adequately raised human being, she still wished to thank him for the indirect action.

~~~

When he transmits his feeling about this surely old, corrupted scum, whose Ichirou walked on toes, that she wasn't to encounter him. Takashi knows that he would surely take advantage of her body; after all, all those men in the douji* cough* culture books he read would do. Others wise, how come the press hadn't been able to obtain a single shot? It because his crookedness was seeable on his face, that why!

Rather than be grateful to have saved her purity and be ready to receive it for his kindness, he only receives a still stinging red handprint on his face.

But what others would saw as a mark of shame, Takashi was proud! It was the first time since they were teen that Rei touched him! Surely the rest would come in time, right? As he wasn't like those dense harem protagonists, he had made what all cultured man had done before him a tactical retreat. The only downside to the encounter was that he was sure Rei burst a lacrimal canal with her lovely touch; otherwise, how could you explain the leakage his eyes were under?!

~~~

Takashi slightly burned the bridge with Rei when he attempted to make her see reason again, resulting in an angry yari pointed at his private part and that she was done with him. When he tried to make her realise that she was being brainwashed by her need to encounter him, and as a sworn future husband, it was his duty to look over her, an angry Rei who nearly carved his face at the words.

That day, Rei told him to grow up and search for his maturity if he didn't want to do the same for his manhood. At the treat of his most intimate friend, Takashi had realised that the girl was upset and most certainly on her cycle. Thus process to his second strategic retreat and ponder how Rei could inflict a pavlovian reflex to his eyes in a single encounter.

After the less than stellar result with Rei to graduate for something other than school, Takashi turned toward his second-best chance, Saya.

After the break, he found that her uniform was slightly tauter, and knowing that she couldn't have asked for another as the school just started back, it only means a thing, the seismic activity the past three weeks had to grind her tectonic plates, making her twins' peaks higher! As Japanese, Takashi was well versed in the geological phenomenon that impacted the island each year.

And with his main ticket burned, he still won the free ice cream as life given him a proverbial winning stick known as a childhood friend!

~~~

Due to this reason, Takashi was elated to found her in his class and slightly relieved to discover than Rei was not. Having missed her on the lunch break, he was banking on the fact that they were Friday. With enough chance, he would graduate not even a week after school starts!

He was sure of his chance; after all, he hadn't leered freely while staying discreet, those past two years at her chest, without learning that he had a chance with the girl. Saya had been starved for his attention, but since Rei had the initial promise, as a gentleman, he would only go after Saya once tying the knot with Rei first!

That why, five minutes after the bell rung, that Takashi prepared himself to accost her, only do hears someone else call for her.

"Saya, can I spoke to you a second?"

While the rest of the class fallen silent at the familiar way a stranger spoke to the girl, Takashi clearly saw the emotional display flashing through her eyes. Not really knowing how, but his instinct screamed at him while a police siren blared in his mind. Learning to trust his intuition in those situations, he immediatly posted himself in front of the door, blocking the way, and shoot with an assertive voice.

"What do you want to Takagi-san!"

Before he could pat himself in the back for the timely intervention, and the crew above congratulate themselves for a well-planned action, silence fall. The cut blaring siren return with a vengeance while he could nearly see the crew running around, and the post falls into chaos.

'Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!' In less than a second, his support team abandoned him, leaving him to face the hulk of a man facing him.

'I should have looked first before shooting.'