I thought back to that weird dream I had today. I was an ordinary (more on the successful side) high schooler there—one that had decent grades, lots of friends and, obviously, a girlfriend.

It was merely a dream, but it bothered me that I didn’t have the slightest idea where it came from. It wasn’t my desire, or at least I didn’t think so, because I didn’t like the vision depicted in it. I wouldn’t like for my life to look like that. It was perfect at first glance, but after thinking it over, it became kind of boring. It wasn’t that nothing interesting was going on—I had lots of friends, so I could have fun with them almost every day. Lots of people in the real world lived like that and it worked—so surely it would work in my case too.

Yet, I didn’t like it. I could even say that it was disgusting. Why? Because it was too ordinary.

If I somehow achieved it—although I would have to put a lot of effort and go through a lot of pain first—I’m sure that I would be satisfied. Because, after all, who wouldn’t? I was a human being like everyone else and there was nothing strange about me except for the fact that I was a loner. I was neither proud nor ashamed of that. If I had to say, it was my own decision that was lightly influenced by other people. I wouldn’t mind if I stayed like that forever, but I wouldn’t mind if it changed either.

Or… so I thought.

“…”

The girl who I had just left the restaurant with, was walking next to me with a mask that covered half of her face on. As a result, the voice that sporadically left her mouth was muffled and her emotions were indistinguishable.

Her odd name matched her personality ideally. So did her current attire—black from the tips of her shoes to the cat ears on top of her hood, it was difficult to find an exposed spot. It stood out greatly in the hot summer weather—I was surprised that I had never seen her complaining, or perhaps she was exceptionally good at pretending that there was no issue with it for the sake of appearing cool?

The same girl showed up in the dream as my girlfriend. Whenever that thought reached my mind, I froze for a few seconds. Imagining it was simply too embarrassing, and I was unable to properly get rid of it.

“Human?”

The same thing happened now. We were walking on the sidewalk, already on our way home—which we in large part shared, so we still had at least twenty minutes before we parted ways—and I stopped suddenly, leaving her, who had been accompanying me at the same pace, confused and shortly forced to stop and look at me. The amount of people had decreased, but the streets still were far from empty, which made that act even more strange.

“N-nothing.”

At the moment, the worst thing that could happen to me was her finding out about my current thoughts. While I did not believe that she had mind-reading powers at all, I was absurdly worried that by merely looking at me, she would be able to read my thoughts because of the profound aura they emitted right now. Therefore, her reaction intimidated me and I wanted to hide my uneasiness as soon as possible.

It was common for people to think “what a cute couple!” whenever they only saw a boy and a girl together. Most likely, it was the case for us too, and some people we had passed by surely had thought of that too.

Obviously, it wasn’t like that. She was my friend, even my best friend, but that title was pretty much meaningless as I had no friends other than her. She wasn’t my childhood friend, since I had met her only a few months ago. We weren’t even that close to each other—I usually found myself embarrassed when talking to her.

Regardless, I did like spending time with her. True, it was embarrassing in the beginning, and it put a lot of stress on me, but in the end… it was fun. Even if we didn’t talk much, I returned home satisfied. Doing things I would be too scared to do alone, or just doing nothing while sitting under a tree, was fun.

But… that didn’t mean that she could be my girlfriend. There was no reason why she (or any other girl) would go out with me, as I didn’t have any interesting qualities… I think.

Besides, once we graduated, we would probably spend less and less time together and our friendship would sooner or later die out. Either way, there was plenty of time before that, so I didn’t have to be worried about that for now.

But… there was something wrong with me. I was anxious before talking to  —at first, it was because I was worried that I would get laughed at by her. Now, I knew that those worries were pointless. Not only did she have no intent to make fun of me, she was the one I could potentially make fun of—but of course, I did not.

I did not know many things about her, but I did know some. It was certainly enough to feel comfortable with her—yet it wasn’t. Opening my mouth took a lot of effort, and often I could not find the proper words to say. It wasn’t like I was afraid to talk like it was earlier—the words didn’t even appear in my head.

A few days ago, on the platform, I found the courage to say everything I had to keep to myself until then. It lasted for a mere few minutes. I learned more about her—for those few minutes, she cast her strange act away and talked to me as a normal human being, a girl. She was anxious just like me. We were similar in being different. She never talked much, but neither did I. It was difficult to reach her, but I rarely even tried. I wanted to change that… but it was only easy to say.

•

“So… what do you think?”

Reluctantly, I talked to the silent figure clad in black, who seemed distant to me because of all the measures she took to cover almost her entire body, yet was close enough that simply reaching out my hand would allow me to touch her warm body, which proved that she was a living human being just like me.

“About what?”

She responded me, displaying her uncertainty. I was talking about the food we had just eaten—I thought it would be obvious, but I clarified:

“Human food…”

It wasn’t like that conversation had any point—we had just visited an ordinary family restaurant, so the food there wasn’t anything remarkable enough to talk about.

“Well… good enough, I suppose.”

Her response lacked passion, but in her case, it meant pretty much nothing. It might have been the result of the mask obfuscating her voice, or her pretending to be emotionless for some reason. Nonetheless, she didn’t seem to be impressed with the food.

“Good, huh… I see…”

There were some clouds on the bright, afternoon sky. Instead of looking at her as I talked, I gazed at them. I didn’t know the reason why. I just ended up with my head up and I couldn’t bring myself to lower it back.

When I passed by totally random people and heard her voice, I felt as if I had actually been living, enjoying the summer, most likely for the first time in my life.

“Err… I think it was good, too…”

I uttered those words that didn’t really encourage her to keep talking. As I had experienced already, she had occasional sudden surges of energy, mainly when she talked about her imaginary powers, but other than that, she was rarely willing to talk. It wasn’t her fault—despite her bold appearances (because, in my opinion, it took some courage to go outside in such odd and conspicuous outfit), she was quite apprehensive.

Totally by accident, I noticed a small poster hanging on the window of a building we were passing by. It was noticeable mainly because of being all black with a huge caption in an odd, red font. Apparently, it was a poster for a movie—judging by a deformed figure that most likely belonged to a demon, it was a horror movie.

Coincidentally, the girl that wore entirely black clothes appeared in my sight once more. On her face, not only did she have a mask that effectively hid her facial expression, but also her left eye was concealed under a black eyepatch, which held no meaning at all, leaving exposed only her right eye, which was simply looking forward. I had an idea what I could talk to her about.

“Lumiya-san, do you like scary things?”

She had told me that she was an alien, but it was very likely that she had been interested in occult stuff at some point. The color black, which seemed to be her favorite, certainly would match that.

“It depends on what your idea of scary is, human.”

Without as much as taking a moment to glance at me, she talked to me through the mask in a calm voice.

“Undoubtedly, there are things I fear. I am scared of some things humans are not, but I am not scared of some things humans are.”

“What about horror movies?”

Horror movies (or novels) were meant to be scary… but often, the noticeable low effort and budget made them seem funny to some people. I had never watched one, so I could only guess what would be my reaction to one.

“Fufu, that’s funny of you that you didn’t guess the answer yourself”, she spoke contemptuously, but that didn’t mean anything, because she might have just been pretending to be tough.

“So, what are you scared of?” I asked her tentatively, but I didn’t expect a proper answer since I doubted she would tell me how to scare her.

“Do you really think I would tell you? Fufu, obviously I cannot reveal my weakness.”

“I guess…”

There was one thing I knew she was kind of scared of, and actually me too—it wasn’t anything supernatural, but something we all knew and came across everyday: people. Thinking about it, it was sort of funny.

”Have you ever tried to summon a ghost?”

Lumiya claimed that she was an alien. It was an entirely different type of supernatural than ghosts, vampires, etc., but I asked her nevertheless, since her outfit reminded of occult more than aliens.

“Kakaka, I have to admit… I have performed those rituals, although now I know, that was foolish”, she raised a hand to perform her usual gesture of pressing it against the eyepatch, and continued:

“The proper way to call someone back to life would be necromancy, although it’s pointless in most cases too.”

I hadn’t expected that she would admit it just like that. She certainly was an iffy alien.

“I shall explain it to you, human. The being itself… the thing you would call the soul, it doesn’t leave anywhere once a being dies. It remains in the dead body and decays… really quickly. It works similarly to RAM memory in a computer—once the power is cut off, the contents start to disappear.”

I hadn’t ever been interested in occult, but I don’t think this stuff worked like that. Well, everyone had their own understanding, and it didn’t really matter, since it was all made up… I think.

“If the being dies, it is most likely because its vessel, the body, becomes insufficient to meet its needs. That’s why necromancy is mostly pointless, unless a method of transferring the vessel is used… but that’s a whole different thing, and it requires an enormous amount of knowledge and resources.”

She continued talking to me eagerly, as if in a trance. She seemed to be quite knowledgeable… I mean, it was all her imagination either way.

“And even in such case, the act has to be performed very quickly, before the soul decays away. That’s why summoning a human’s dead grandma will never work.”

I was walking down the moderately busy street in the summer afternoon. Next to me, the peculiar girl dressed in black was walking… and she certainly was in another world with her thoughts. Honestly, even though she was spouting nonsense, I thought for a moment that it would be nice if her powers were actually real.

“…and have you tried that?”

“No, although I have studied the topic quite thoroughly. I am worried that performing such act, even without anticipating a satisfying result, would be impossible with the resources available in this world.”

“Ah, I see…”

Then, why had she studied it, even though she knew she would never be able to perform it?

“Just so you don’t get me wrong, human, I’m not talking about occult. This is a high level of science, which hasn’t yet been achieved by your humanity.”

Necromancy was science? Huh…

“Okay…“

We stopped before a crosswalk. She had been walking next to me the entire time, but now I felt her presence close to me more directly. We were waiting for the light to turn green alongside a few other people, dressed mainly in suits and surprisingly not paying much attention to us.

Soon, Lumiya talked to me with that muffled voice again, without turning to me.

“Human…, would you mind telling me what you do find scary?”

I hadn’t expected such question of her, but it was nice of her to ask. I didn’t mind telling her, since my fears were quite standard.

“Me?”

“Correct.”

“Uhh… to be honest, I can say that I’m not scared of ghosts or demons, but if I woke up in the middle of the night and heard something strange or saw something in the corner of my eye, I… it wouldn’t be pleasant.”

She noticed the light turning green earlier than me, so her sudden movement was the impulse that made me start walking

“Kaka, that’s funny. If such situation ever happens, I assure you that no beings other than humans may go after you, for a protection charm has been placed upon you the moment you became my servant.”

She spoke proudly as we crossed the street. I was reminded of the servant thing—I had never thought it was relevant, since I usually didn’t act like one and she didn’t seem to mind it.

“Huh, that’s nice. Thank you, I guess…”

Turning into a side alley, we left the crowded street and were now pretty much alone. When I took a glance at her, she was pulling at the black cat ear hood.

I couldn’t make out anything else from her appearance as her face ended up hidden entirely from me, but I could presume that I had somehow thrown her off balance as her pace faltered.

“W-what are you talking about. It’s only natural…” she stammered.

I couldn’t judge whether she was purely embarrassed or gratified.

“Fufu”, she chuckled without a reason.

The street we were walking down was mostly empty, and only houses and trees surrounded us on either side. Incidentally, it made me feel warmer than before. I didn’t understand how she could put up with that torturing heat inside all those thick clothes and have a mask on her face on top of all that. Merely by looking at her, I felt that scorching heat on my skin she had to endure… or she would have had if everything was okay with her.

“Hey… since we’re alone now, would you maybe take off that mask?”

I suggested, since imagining myself in her skin was painful enough. Unfortunately, I doubted that she would listen to me. She spoke shortly, surprisingly expressing some interest.

“But, can you guarantee that the air here is not contaminated, human?”

“Y-yes. I’m healthy, probably.”

The contamination she mentioned was only part of her imagination, so it had never been here either way.

“V-very well. Consider it an honor…”

“Huh?”

That was unexpected—she actually accepted. That was the last fragment of her voice that reached my ears muffled—astounded, I turned to look at her, and I saw the sight of her pulling the mask off for the second time today. I couldn’t believe that she was actually doing that.

“…”

Her face appeared to me in its entirely—well, with an exception for the eyepatch on her left eye, obviously. Her cheeks were red, but then again, its cause wasn’t certain. She took a large breath of the fresh air in—but it didn’t seem like she thought it was fresh, as she soon coughed. Whether it was faked or real, I had no idea.

“I don’t like it”, her lips actually moved as she spoke.

“You don’t say…”

“Breathing the same air as those filthy humans is a horrible disgrace.”

She spoke with contempt. There weren’t any “humans” other than me in the vicinity, so she didn’t have to be worried about that… it might have been the actual reason she had agreed in the first place. She glanced at me with that one eye of hers, while still trying to keep her face hidden from me as much as possible.

“T-that’s why you should feel honored. I’m breathing the same air as you now.”

While it was only natural, there was something about the way she said that sent a chill down my spine.

“W-well, now only the hoodie is left to perfection.”

Well, it wasn’t exactly a hoodie, but it looked like one and had a very similar purpose, so I just called it that.

“N-no! I mustn’t cast this layer of protection away. It would bring consequences too severe, human”, she sounded agitated as she slowed down.

The moment I heard her objection, my chest tightened. It was because I had just thought—what if there was nothing under it?

It took a moment to realize, but I heaved a sigh of relief—the coat was actually unfastened, so I could see another layer of clothing inside. It meant that there was technically no issue with taking that coat off.

“I’m sorry…”

“A-as long as you understand…”

We had enough time to get home before the sun began to set. There were no other people around, leaving us two alone on the street that was wide enough for only one car to pass, and surrounded by numerous houses and trees on either side.

“…” “…”

Embarrassed, we looked away, even though we hadn’t been looking at each other in the first place.

I had two conflicting opinions at this moment. I felt immense embarrassment, and I seemingly wanted to just run away and never meet her again as to avoid remembering it, but the other was pure joy and satisfaction from being able to walk next to her.

I gathered my courage back and turned my head to glance at her. I wanted to know what she was thinking about, but she was unable to be read, even without the mask on. Her dark coat was both dense and fluffy—from the first glance, it was only obvious that it was absolutely unsuitable to wear in the middle of the summer, yet there was something about it that felt chilling, relaxing.

“Hey, Lumiya-san…”

The girl reacted by exclaiming proudly:

“I’m listening to you, human.”

“Err… is it alright if I…”

I stood there for a while speechless, thinking of how I should word it so that she wouldn’t misunderstand.

Closing my eyes, I stopped myself from overthinking it and decided to gather all my courage in one place and ask her straight:

“May I touch you…?!”

But, it didn’t turn out like I wanted. I couldn’t see what expression she had made, but she stopped abruptly and gradually raised her hand to pull at her hood, which was placed on her lowered head.

“W-what are you planning…” she lost her condescending overtone for a moment as she said in a low voice, as if she was going to burst into tears soon.

I realized that I had made a mistake, so I tried to undo it before I became unable to act at all.

“A-ah, it’s not like that! I didn’t mean to say that!”

I felt like a permanent scar had been made on my heart. In fact, it was only my fault. It was the first time that I regretted spouting what I had been thinking straight out.

“Err… I meant your coat. I want to touch your coat.”

I meant touching the cloth embracing her arms—since her entire body was covered, I thought that there wasn’t much difference between it and her body, but it seemed that I had forgotten something very important along the way.

The girl remained in one place, ineffectively trying to hide her figure from me, but gradually calming down.

“Y-you insolent human… Remember who you are talking to…”

“Haha…”

She actually scolded me. That was quite funny, but my awkward laugh had neither a cause nor a point.

“So… is it okay?”

“B-but remember that I can kill you if you try something funny.”

“Ah, okay, okay…”

She had told me that the power in her eye wasn’t all that reliable, so why did she mention it now?

Extending her left hand, hinting that I was free to touch the cloth covering it, she turned her head to the other side.

Hesitantly, I held out my hand and grabbed a pinch of the dark cloth that altogether made an unusual coat or hoodie, embracing her entire upper body. I looked at it as I felt it in my hands.

The cloth was unusually thin—thinner than I had expected, so it was possible that it didn’t affect the temperature inside it as much as I thought. Even though it wasn’t enough to even feel the heat of her skin, I felt absolutely embarrassed.

My attention wasn’t turned to the cloth itself, but its owner. My hand wanted to promptly let go of it, but simultaneously, I wanted to hold onto it as long as possible.

“I-is it enough?” she asked me, abashed.

“A-ah… I’m sorry…” I let go of the cloth automatically the moment I heard her voice, most likely because I simply got startled by it.

Turned away from me, she proceeded to shove her hand into the coat and pull out an item.

“I’m thankful, human, but it’s about time we parted ways.”

The girl turned around to face me, still avoiding my gaze. I noticed immediately that her voice was muffled—she put the black mask back on her face.

At first, I thought I had overdone something and she wanted to run away from me, but instinctively looking around, I noticed that we had reached an intersection.

“Err…”

“I will have something important to tell you the next time we meet…” she interrupted me.

Her bashfulness disappeared for the most part. I guess my theory about it being a way to increase her self-confidence was correct.

“And… I hope that we meet soon. I-it regards the future of your world, so you had better come prepared…”

Despite the mask, she still faltered.

“Okay…”

“Now then, until we meet again…”

She started walking away at a hurried pace, waving a hand embraced by the baggy sleeve without looking at me. It did look like she was trying to run away inconspicuously, so I had overdone it after all. Well, but I could be relieved—I really had a lot of fun with her today.

But—I couldn’t move forward. I was left both satisfied and awkward, but there was something else troubling me. I had realized it at some point today—the true reason why I had been so anxious before talking to her.

That girl might have meant to me more than I had ever thought.