Nikko opened her eyes to the dim glimmer of the evening sunlight that shone through the pale curtains of the nurse’s office. Ignoring the aching sensation in the back of her head, she got off the bed and approached the window and drew back the curtains. Such beautiful light, she thought, as if seeing the sun set for the first time.

Hold on. Sunset?

“What the f-!” Nikko gasped. She looked at the clock on the wall, it was 5:30pm. “H-Huh? What? Where? How?” she yelped as she frantically paced around the small space between the bed and window.

The door open and Nikko spun around to face it instantly. Daisuke casually walked in. “I hear you’re awake.”

“Yes!... No!... Yes, I am! I am very awake!”

“Yes you are.”

“Yes I am!” Nikko repeated.

“I’m aware.”

“Y-You! Explain what’s going on!”

Daisuke raised an eyebrow before saying “You fainted.”

“Oh no sh-t Sherlock, of course I fainted,” Nikko said, voice raised. “Explain, who are you?”

“My name is Koduro Daisu-“

“I know what your God damn name is!”

“I know,” Daisuke said with a straight face.

“Then why repeat yourself?!”

“Because you asked.”

Nikko took a deep breath in, and exhaled. “Why yes, I did ask. But who. The hell. Are you?”

“A friend.”

“Don’t give me that!” Nikko shouted. “I keep having this dream. About this scary ass creature that keeps chasing me in an alleyway. I’ve been dreaming about it ever since I moved back to Kujo.

“Sounds like a pain.”

“But just then in class before I passed out, I had the dream again,” Nikko continues. “And this time, some mysterious guy comes in and kills the damn thing. He had… your eyes.”

“I’m sure my eyes aren’t just exclusive to myself,” Daisuke said as he brushed the back of his hair.

“He had these silver, piercing eyes,” Nikko said slowly. “The same eyes that I swear I saw on you the first time I looked at you.”

“Sugimura-san,” Daisuke placed his right hand on her shoulder. “As you can clearly see, I have brown eyes.”

“I know, but I swear they were silver for just a second!”

“You’re seeing things.”

“W-Whatever!” Nikko said. “I should head back home. I can’t wait to tell mom about my fantastic and eventful first day of high school. Urgh she’s gonna kill me when she finds out that I’ve completely missed the first day.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah. Bye Koduro-san,” Nikko waved as she walked out of the room.

“Sugimura-san,” Daisuke called the moment she stepped out.

“Hm?”

“Take care on the way home.”

“O-Of course.”

Seriously, what’s his problem? Nikko replayed her conversation with Daisuke in her mind as she made her way home. “Honestly, he was staring at me during Ms Oshima’s introduction. Was he staring at me the entire time while I had that dream as well? Is he a stalker? He even stayed back in school to wait for me to wake up… wait he voluntarily did that? Is he actually a stalker? No, he doesn’t seem creepy though. But not all stalkers have to appear creepy, right?”

Nikko came up with all sorts of theories before entering through the front door of her house. “Moooooom! I’m hooooome!”

“Welcome back Ni-chan!” a middle aged woman with dark brown hair entered the living room. “I heard you passed out during the last session.”

Last session?

“I received a call from the nurse saying you blacked out halfway through class. Are you feeling well, dear?”

Nikko was confused. She passed out during the first class. “What else did the nurse say?”

“He said that you collapsed 20 minutes before the bell rang, and I should expect you home a bit late cos he didn’t know when you’ll come around.”

He? Nikko knew something was wrong, because she knew the nurse was a woman. Could he have…?

“Well uh,” Nikko stuttered. “I’m fine mom, don’t worry about me. I kinda passed out from all the excitement of starting high school.”

“Oh of course, dear.” Nikko’s mom replied sarcastically. “Please do look after yourself Ni-chan, you don’t want anything to happen to yourself tomorrow, do you? It’s your big day after all.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Nikko responded excitedly. “I’ll be 16!”

Nikko almost forgot about her own birthday. She had been so engrossed with her video games over the break that she hadn’t paid attention to the dates and only realised that it would be the first day of school today as her mother had to remind her yesterday.

Despite her excitement, it was not enough to get her dreams of that creature and Koduro Daisuke’s possible relation to it. As she thought about it more that night, she realised that Daisuke and that mysterious man in her dream shared the same body proportions, had a similar hairstyle, shared the same piercing eyes and had the same calming voice.

“There are too many similarities for this to be a coincidence.” Nikko spoke to herself as she cuddled a plush toy in her bed. “I mean… that dream… it keeps coming back. Is it really a dream? Perhaps a memory of my past since I always feel so tiny in them. How old would I be then? 10? 7? 4… eh not 4, mom wouldn’t let me go running around outside at that age. But then again he would be the same age as me. Maybe it’s his elder brother? Or his father? Was he also the one who called my mother pretending to be the school nurse? Why did he cover up for me by saying I only fainted towards the end?”

Thinking about the countless possibilities, Nikko drifted off to sleep, expecting that one same dream to return once again.

****

Meanwhile in another place far, far away…

A woman stood in a spacious, white room facing a blank panel of high-tech monitors. She was dressed in a padded tank top and sweatpants, and stood with arms crossed in a confident posture. Her silky black hair was tied back in a high ponytail and yet still reached all the way down to the back of her thighs. She stood by the monitors, waiting for a signal to show.

A slim young man approached the woman. His hair was lime green, shaved by the sides and had a long fringe combed all the way back. He wore a black jacket and pants. “Waiting for him to call?”

“Yeah,” the woman responded. “I’d like to know the situation before it potentially gets messy tomorrow.”

“They’ll be fine, I’m sure of it. This is our commander we’re talking about after all.”

“I know. I’m just worried about how many of them will turn up.”

“Listen, I know you wanna be there in case anything goes wrong, but you’re still recovering from the last mission. You don’t wanna stress your injury out longer. He wouldn’t be too happy about it either.”

The woman looked away. “You guys worry too much.”

“You worry about him too much as well. He’ll be fine,” the man grinned. “But seriously, he’s a bit late to call.”

As if on cue, the monitor projected a video call. The silhouette of a man appeared on the other end. “Everything’s alright on my end.”

“That’s good,” the woman said. “Make sure you’re on the lookout at all times.”

“I will. I hope things are running smoothly back in the headquarters.”

“It sure is, you can count on us!” the green-haired man said.

“Good. Chances of an attack happening tomorrow will be very high. I’ll let you guys know about it when it happens. See you two soon.”

“Aye sir,” said the green-haired man.

“Goodbye,” the woman waved. “Take care, Daisuke-kun.”

The call ended and the two nodded at each other before leaving the room.