Nikko woke up the next day to that same dream. The mysterious man with silver hair and eyes appeared this time, standing between her and the creature, taking care of the monster just like how she saw it yesterday. She glanced at her clock as she threw off her bedsheets. It was 8am. She was late for school again.

“Why do I keep sleeping past my alaaaaaaarm?” Nikko groaned as she grabbed a slice of bread. “I might as well only wake up when school ends. Or when the semester ends.”

“How about when the year ends, Ni-chan?” Mrs Sugimura joked as she walked into the kitchen. “Come here dear, it’s the 21st of July! Happy birthday!”

“Thanks mom,” Nikko smiled as she hugged her mother. “I’ll be off to school now.”

“Alright Ni-chan, take care and have a great day!”

Nikko took the same route to school as the day before and met Arii along the way. “Ariri-chii!”

“Ariri-what?”

“Morning, Ariri-pyon!”

“G-Good morning, N-Nikko-chan!”

“How are you this fine morning, Ariri-nyan?”

“I-I’m doing alright, Nikko-chan. H-How about yourself?”

“I’m feeling fantastic, Ariri-chu!”

“Y-You’re really energetic this morning, N-Nikko… uh… p-piyo?” Arii stuttered as she tried to join in the honorifics trend.

“Yeah, kinda got a feeling that something special will happen today,” Nikko replied with a grin. It might just be another one of her birthdays, but she felt a burst of confidence today, believing that she would squeeze some answers out of Daisuke at school.

Daisuke was not at school today.

“That shifty little…!” Nikko tried not to curse as she took her seat next to Arii during recess.

“W-Who’s a shifty l-little what?”

“Koduro-san isn’t here today.”

“K-Koduro-san? W-Who’s that?” Arii asked as she tilted her head with a puzzled expression on her face.

“You know, Koduro Daisuke-san, that guy I faceplanted in front of by the stairs yesterday?”

“W-What are you talking about?” Arii seemed even more confused.

“What do you mean ‘What are you talking about’?” Nikko questioned, confused herself. “He sits on my right in class.”

“N-Nikko-chan… the seat on your right is empty. Nobody claimed that seat.”

“B-But…” Nikko stared down at her feet. But we talked yesterday. We went to class together, we sat next to each other. I spoke to him after waking up in the nurse’s office just yesterday. Are you telling me that was all my imagination?

“Nikko-chan?” Arii asked, concerned. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Y-Yeah, I am,” Nikko muttered. There’s no way Arii would be joking about this, she’s not that kind of person. Thinking about it, when Ms Oshima called out the class role in the morning, she did not mention Daisuke’s name.

Nikko continued on with school, trying to brush the thought of Daisuke suddenly disappearing from existence aside.

“See you tomorrow Ariri-chii!” Nikko waved goodbye to her friend as they parted ways on their walk home.

“B-Bye Nikko-chan!”

Nikko walked down the streets of Kujo by herself.

“Hereeeeeee…” a coarse, mysterious voice hissed at her as she passed an alleyway.

“W-Wha?” Nikko spun to face an empty alleyway. She stared at it for a few seconds before turning around to continue walking.

“Hereeeeeee…” the voiced called again.

“Who’s there?” Nikko turned again and held on tightly to her school bag. Nikko was curious to figure out who was speaking to her, but the voice creeped her out too much for her to enter the alleyway. She continued walking forwards, weary of her surroundings.

Suddenly, the sky above her turned murky grey, and a dense, cold fog surrounded the area as the temperature rapidly dropped to freezing level despite it being right in the middle of summer. Nikko panicked, hugging herself and rubbing the sides of her arms to warm herself up. Small puffs over vapour escaped her mouth each time she exhaled. The fog spread closer to her, crawling at her slowly but began to accelerate. Fearing for what could be beyond the fog, Nikko backed off and scanned the area for a possible opening. She did find an opening, but the trail led straight into the alleyway.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Nikko looked back at the fog, then back at the alleyway. She made her decision and sprinted into the alleyway.

As she entered, the fog engulfed the entire street, but did not spread into the alleyway. Scared and confused, Nikko stared at the fog that started to collect against what seemed to be an invisible barrier by the entrance of the alleyway. She recollected herself and travelled cautiously away from the fog, and further into the dark alleyway.

Nikko’s heart pounded in her chest as she ventured deeper into the alleyway. She could not hear any noises apart from each of her heavy breaths and the sounds of her footsteps on the damp brick floor. The alley grew darker for every second that passed, but Nikko did not stop moving. The journey had been a straight one so far, but she soon came to a split path, with 3 different directions to take; left, right or continue straight.

“Hereeeeeee…” the mysterious voice returned, but Nikko could not tell which direction it came from. The voice seemed to come from all around her.

Nikko looked at the path to her left, and remembered that in her ‘dream’, she took a left turn. What if I…? She proceeded left, and as she entered, the alleyway behind her filled up with fog. Nikko stood there for a moment, but recognised that it was too late to undo her decision and continued forwards.

“Hereeeeeee…”

Nikko began to walk faster.

“Hereeeeeee…”

Nikko picked up the pace.

“Hereeeeeee…”

Nikko began running.

“Hereeeeeee…”

“Hereeeeeee…”

“Hereeeeeee…”

“Enough!” Nikko stopped and screamed. “Show yourself! What do you want?”

The voice never replied. It did show itself though.

A large creature descended behind her. Nikko stared at it, frozen stiff. It was the monster from her dreams, exactly as she remembered it. The thin arms with the wicked claws. The ghostly body and tail. The white, pointy-nosed mask.

“U-Umm,” Nikko gulped. “Hi.”

The creature levitated on the same spot about 5 metres in front of her. Through its mask, Nikko could feel it gaze its eyes on her. Nikko tried to keep a calm posture, but really, she was shivering in fear from head to toe.

“H-Hey man, if you’re here to mug me, I’ve only got like 1.5k Yen. It isn’t much, r-really. But if that’s w-what you want you can have it. H-Here, have it all,” Nikko said as she took out her purse with shaky hands.

The creature did not respond to the offer, but it floated slowly towards Nikko. Nikko moved away in unison with the creature’s movements.

“S-Seriously, it if means I get to live another day I’ll gladly give up a day’s worth of s-savings for the next volume of the m-manga series I’m currently reading.”

The creature did not stop moving towards Nikko. Nikko did not stop moving backwards.

But she eventually had to, as the space behind her suddenly solidified into a brick wall, forging itself with the sides of the alleyway. Nikko pressed her back against the wall and gradually bent her knees to lower herself to the ground. The creature was soon only 3 metres away from her. 2 metres. 1 metre.

It raised one of it’s branchy arms, just like in her dream. Its claws were outstretched and ready to strike, just like in her dreams. Nikko raised her arms to cover her face, just like in her dreams. Nikko waited for a few seconds, just like in her dreams.

But she felt no impact. She lowered her arms and snuck a peek. A man with silver, glistening hair stood in between her and the monster, wielding a sword. And just like in her dreams, the creature collapsed to the ground, disintegrating into thin air.

The man turned and gazed at her with his piercing silver eyes, leaned forwards and gently reached a hand out to Nikko. “Are you ok?” he asked with a soothing voice.

That soothing voice was familiar. Nikko looked up to face the man. She was looking at those piercing silver eyes. She was looking at the flowing, glimmering silver hair. But most importantly, she was looking at the face of Daisuke Koduro.