Dreams and Secrets

September 14th
Amari High School, Aoyama-Itchome, Tokyo

The classes are as boring as always, a Wednesday without anything remarkable, and although I was thankful not to be in the middle of a shootout again, I still preferred to be in a place where I wasn't sleeping, right now I was on the verge of falling asleep in the middle of the class, damn RNG, in the end, I ended up going to bed super late because I had to kill the boss of the dungeon more than 40 times until he gave me his weapon, but at least I'm ready for the next season of the server's arenas. Shit, I almost hit the table again! Come on concentrate! Don't fall asleep!

*Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding*

!!!!
Excellent!
Time for lunch! Finally!

The teacher finishes her class and leaves the room, the classmates start to get out of their seats. As usual Haru comes to talk to us.

"Hey Elise!"
"Can we eat together again?"

"Ah? Yeah sure, just give me a moment to warm up my lunch."

I take out my bento with my lunch from my backpack, just out of curiosity I lift the lid to see its contents. And oh my god, what is that? I immediately close the lid before anyone else can see what it is.

"!!!!!"
"Elise!? that was blood!?"

"Oh my"
"Looks like Lisa did her thing again and put the food she prepared for Elise's lunch" Said Tamamo with a slight smirk beside me.

"Why the hell haven't I forbidden her to cook in general yet?"
"....."
"Oh, my goodness, I hope that's not the neighbor's cat."
"It's been missing for a couple of days now."

"Did the succubus cook for you?"
"Why do you despise it? Isn't it a nice gesture that she cares and takes the time to cook for you?" said Haru trying to understand what happened.

"Well, Lisa had already cooked for Elise yesterday at the house too."
"And she ended up throwing up so much that we thought for a moment that she was trying to do mitosis."

"Oh, God, I feel sick again."
"...."
"I've eaten raw dragon meat that tastes better than what she makes."
"...."
"I'm sorry but I have to throw this in the incinerator, the box itself is beyond saving, and probably my backpack too."
"...."
"Ah, you girls go first, I'll see what I can buy for lunch."

"Ok! Let's go Tamamo!"

"Alright, I'll go ahead to eat then Darling."

The two girls left the room together, I put my things together and I also set off. But when I went out the door I found a girl waiting for me, a little bit small, shy, I already knew her, she was again Mitsuki Izumi, the sister of Sakura's nuisance. When I saw her I decided to simply ignore her and continue my journey, but behind me, I could hear footsteps following me, then her voice shortly after.

"I'm sorry, Elise, isn't it?"
"That's what I was told your name was when I asked several colleagues what your name was."

"If it's me, what do you want?"
"If you've come to ask about my white skin like all the other girls, I've said it a thousand times, it's not makeup, it's actually albinism."
"No, I don't know what is the best product to have a white face."
"No, my hair also comes in white, I'm not old gray and I don't dye it either."
"Well, if that's all, I'm sorry, but I have things to do."

"Hey wait! It's nothing like that!"
"I just want to talk to you, about that day, at the harbor."
"Can you listen to me for a moment?"

"Ahhh, I feel like this is a bad idea."
"...."
"I'm going to throw this in the incinerator and move on to the dining room, you have until then to talk."
"I'm not stopping"

"Yes, okay, I agree!"

"So what do you want? the clock is ticking"

"Ah, well, as I said before, you were the girl from that time, weren't you?"
"The one who saved me at the harbor!"

"I'm not sorry, you're confusing me with someone else!"

"That's impossible! Don't do that to yourself!"
"You look exactly the same, same white, same size, same fox ears!"
"Do you even try to hide your identity?"

"Is that all?"
"Can you leave me alone now?"

"No wait, that's not it!"
"what I mean is ..... well ....."
"....."
"Please teach me!"
"Teach me how to be a magic girl!"

"Ah!? Wait, what?"
"What the fuck?!?"
"So casual?"
"Do you think I look like a trainer, teacher, crazy or what?"

"Please!"
"I saw you with the police that day!"
"Which means you must be known!"
"You must belong a the real Association of Magical Girls, right?!"
"I want to be part of it too, please help me!"
"Train me! I can show you that I have potential!"

"Oh God, just when my life can't get any weirder, something always comes along and proves me wrong!"
"Ahhhh"
"...."
"Look girl, there is no such association, at best it would be demon hunters or something like that, something with more sense than an association of school girls in costumes using canes."
"...."
"Wait, that sounds pretty bad"
"...."
"Well, the point is that if there was such a thing your sister would have already tried to join and leave you out of it."
"Second, I don't even know what you're talking about, I'm not a magical girl."
"I like to fight melee, with real things, making faces with my face, imaginary fights, and shouting to warn which is the next attack doesn't go with me."
"So no"
"...."
"Why don't you go into a career with a bigger job market and less risk?"
"Firefighters, police, doctors, even teachers."
"There's more than one way to help people if that's what you want to do."

"But that's not good enough for me!"
"I want to get better, I don't want what happened that night at the port to happen again."
"I don't want more people to die because of me."
"My sister will be mad at me if I don't get better and become better."

"Is it because of her that you are doing this?"
"That's even worse, now I want to help you even less."
"If you're risking your life just to be "liked" by someone who doesn't even appreciate you in the first place then that means the problem is you for not leaving her behind!"

"Shut up! You don't know anything!"
"She's trying to help me, in her own way."
"...."
"I think"

"That doesn't sound very convincing indeed."
"Aren't you really mistaking her condensendency for genuine willingness to help?"
"I mean, if there's one thing your sister has to share, it's her ego and selfishness."
"If there is a house on fire she will help rescue those in need."
"But if firefighters arrive and reporters interview them, she might even kill them while rescuing someone for stealing her spotlight, like the bitch she is."

"Please, I don't know who else to turn to! Who else can I ask for help?"
"My sister will be really mad at me if she finds out about my abilities."
"I don't want to lose my sister"

"And that's exactly the problem"
"If she's what's holding you back from being better, then let her go."
"Even if you two are family, it's better to leave behind a relationship that only brings toxicity,"
"Even if it's your own sister."

"...."
"Some time ago, I had a very bad dream"
"It was in another world, a fantasy world, a floating island."
"Both my sister and I fought dragons every day."
"I was a very strong mage, but my sister was even stronger."
"It was tiring, but we did it to save others."
"The place was horrible, it was frightening, people were dying all the time in cruel, insurmountable ways."
"And at the end of it I saw how an evil man killed me while he had a horrible face."
"As he plunged his knife deeper and deeper despite my pleas."
"...."
"Then I woke up in the middle of my room, still in the night."
"I thanked God that it was all just a bad dream."
"...."
"But a couple of days later my sister woke up crying in the middle of the night."
"She said she had a horrible nightmare"
"A floating island, dragons, war, it all sounded pretty familiar."
"But when she mentioned that she had seen me dead during that battle, with my body in her hands, I felt real panic."
"...."
"And yet I let all that pass as just an abnormality in my life."
"But then, when I received these powers to use magic and see that I can use them in a way that was similar to before."
"...."
"I no longer believe that this nightmare is a coincidence, and it makes me afraid,"
"That's why I decided to become stronger! To prepare myself for when that day comes!"
"To avoid my death at the hands of that horrible man!"
"And to prevent my family from suffering because of me!" Mitsuki mentioned almost to the point of tears.

"......"
"......"
"Most likely what you saw are things from the past or something like that."
"I'm sure you both saw a pretty violent movie on TV that did that."
"You should stop worrying about nonsense like that and instead enjoy the opportunity you have to live in a peaceful and carefree world."
"...."
"Not everyone was so lucky"

"Are you really going to act like that?"
"So apathetic and irresponsible?"
"That's not the way of a Hero!"
"You have to do better! You have to train me!"

"Look brat, first of all, I am not a hero, nor will I ever be one."
"I'm not that good"
"Do you see me as a two-meter tall white knight, with a spear and all?"
"But the worst thing is that now you act like the great guardian of the lollipop world, when before you were as cold as ice and despised humans as insects just like your sister"
"Now that you are in the beautiful part of your life you have no idea how damn lucky you are, just worried about being special with your magic games."
"Not everyone is lucky enough to be born into a family with special powers, to have the opportunity of a life favored by the simple fact of being born on a silver platter."
"If you die on the battlefield it's your fault for being there, whether I trained you or not."
"In any case, my answer is no, I will not train anyone who does not understand the weight of their decisions, blame their faults on others and then kill themselves stupidly."
"And especially someone who cannot see the problem that is his own sister."

A little angry I finish throwing my lunch box into the incinerator.

"Time's up, good luck kiddo, I hope you do well in your life."
"Whatever you decide to do, it's no longer my problem how you waste yourself."

Mitsuki, angry also ran away from me, which did not matter to me, all this was stupid, in the first place I should never have seen her again after what happened in Atlantis, it was much better that she only stayed away from the problems, as much for herself as for her sister, the last thing I wanted was to see again Sakura poisoned in revenge again.

After that, I went to buy my lunch and went back with Tamamo and Haru to eat on the roof of the building. After that, the classes returned in the afternoon. Once again involved in the monotony of the classes, again Sakura trying to be the perfect student by reminding the teacher to check the homework she had forgotten, Josuke back with his bad jokes, Kyouko being a fucking pain in the ass again and Yuko being a slut mentioned that she has a new boyfriend this semester, for sure for the next one she will mention that she is pregnant.

When the classes finally finished their torture, Tamamo and I went back to the club room, as I had been absent all the previous week after being in the hospital. When Haru saw me arrive she was impressed.

"Are you sure Elise?"
"Didn't you have a six-hour limit before you became a slime girl again?" asked the amateur investigator.

"Don't worry, I'm getting better"
"Now I can last up to 3 hours on my own."
"So when I'm close to my limit and I start to feel tired I take my pills which gives me an extra six hours."
"Which means I can be back in school as normal."
"Well, at least as long as we don't get out too late."

"That's good, but there's still something I don't understand about all this."
"You told me you were a fox girl."
"Then you go to Korea, get in a fight with an evil yokai, go to the hospital, and then it turns out you're a slime girl."
"So how does that all work?"
"What are you really, can you really tell me?"
"Were you always a slime who was confused about herself and thought you were a fox girl all this time?"
"But if so, it doesn't explain why you now have a time limit."
"So there's something weirder here than it already is."
"Maybe your mother is right and the correct answer is that you are an experiment of the Alliance!"
"Tell me finally the truth! I'm tired of playing this game!"
"How do you want me to help you if you keep lying to me all the time!"
"Aren't we friends? The only thing I want is to help you, but for that I need you to tell me the truth!"

"And what do you want me to say if I don't know the truth myself?"
"The only thing that matters is that I don't care."
"No matter what I am, I'm still me, and whether I'm a fox girl or a slime girl won't change anything, my mother is still my mother and my sister is still my sister."

"Yeah okay, I think it's nice that you still love your family."
"But that's not the point! I'm just asking you to trust me more!"

"But I'm telling you the truth!"
"I don't know what happened!"

*whoosh*

We heard by surprise the sound of the living room door sliding open, it was Sakura, who was playing with her cell phone. With that, I had remembered how I hated that Haru had given permission to the one person I didn't want to join our club who was just a pitiful embarrassment.

"Well as I was saying so it's not the right way to kill that final Boss" I said improvising something.

"Yeah, sure, I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the advice" Haru replied, helping me cover up our past conversation.
"...."
"Well anyway! Since we're all here I have news to give you about the club!"

"You're finally going to close it! Good!"
"It had already lasted longer than I thought it would."

"Yeah sure, you wish."
"No, unfortunately, you won't be saved so easily."
"Instead it's more different."
"Seeing as our progress as an occult club has been minimal."

"As expected, how much you're spending on investigating ghosts."

"Will you shut up for a moment Elise!"
"I'm trying to break the news about the future of our group!"

"Ok, I'll shut up now, sorry."

"Well as I was saying, it doesn't seem to be working out."
"So instead I thought I would slightly change the focus of our club to give you the possibility to be more flexible with what we do."
"So I'm thinking of renaming our club from an occult club to an investigators and paranormal stuff club!"
"This way we can do more different but equally interesting things."

"Haru, I told you before, no one is going to set us up to look for a bank robber!"
"In the best case scenario, maybe a pet missing.."

"Well, that's fine, but it doesn't matter!"
"We can still help others, that's what's important."
"Besides, we can still keep the right to accept the investigations and reject the things we don't want."

"Wait! Wait a minute!"
"You can't do this to me! Not now!" Sakura said surprised by the news
"I had already encountered rumors of weird things!"

"Really!?"
"And what are you waiting for tell us more!"

"Well, it's nothing conclusive, I'm still wandering around."
"It seemed like something about a scary monster in a park at night" Sakura said a bit nervously, something a bit out of her usual behavior.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the superheroine of Sakura had not had sufficient luck to find more clues about the mysterious monster of the park, but anyway, only that it was enough to excite Haru, which indicated to Sakura that she should investigate more about the subject before going all to investigate. I for my part only wish that they changed the name of the club to one less ridiculous, at least the rest of the day was much calmer without anything to emphasize, only the return again to the cafeteria and to try to earn a little more money for my savings.