As I told the crystal I accepted its deal, I felt my consciousness fading. It was a weird feeling, I was already inside the dream realm, yet I was falling asleep again… I did not resist it however, I let that peaceful force lure me away.

When I woke up, my memory was fuzzy. It felt like I was doing something important, but I can’t remember what…

“Morning, sweetheart.” Iris said, then she kissed me. It felt wonderful, as if I was in heaven.

But why? Iris never accepted my love, why was she taking the initiative now? “Not gonna wish me good morning?” She asked.

“I thought you said you couldn’t love me.” I answered honestly.

“Did I ever say that?” She asked, “I don’t think I would say that though, because I love you so much.” It didn’t seem like she was lying, however…

There was something fishy here. “Who are you?” I asked.

Iris opened her mouth to answer, but I did not hear her voice, what entered my ears was a completely different sound, “That is no good, Aria. If you do not accept your reality, it will not become true.”

Who was that? “You know who I am, but you forgot. It is for the best that you forgot.” This being is speaking in my head…? “Correct. Now relax, and let your dreams become your reality.”

My dreams? This is not real then? I… I tried to keep thinking, trying to remember, but my eyes felt so heavy… I was tired, maybe after a nap I would remember.

“Morning, sweetheart.” I woke up with Iris’ kiss. It was absolutely blissful, I wish I could wake up to this every day. However, there was something off about being kissed by her.

“Good… Morning?” I answered, still half asleep.

She giggled and kissed me again, “Unless the sun is playing a prank on us, it is definitely morning already.” I loved the feel of her tiny lips so much, I wish those moments would last forever… Still, there is something amiss here.

“Why are you kissing me?” I asked her.

“Because I love you, of course.” She does? But…

“I thought you said you couldn’t…” I started answering, but she stopped me by putting her finger in front of my mouth.

“How could I possibly not love the most wonderful girl in this plane? Are you sure you weren’t dreaming it?” Dreaming it? Maybe that might be it, just a nightmare in which I couldn’t be with Iris… I’m glad that was just a dream.

I then asked her, “Me? The most wonderful?” She nodded, “I disagree, for you are the ultimate supreme beauty that would leave all beings of all planes jealous of your wonderfulness.” I said and then kissed her.

She blushed a bit, which just made her even more beautiful. Iris always looked so cute whenever she became this red, even though she always rejected my advances no matter how much they made her blush… Rejected? But she was right here, kissing me, she told me I was the most wonderful girl of this plane… Of this plane? Why is Iris in this plane? She went back home because my mana ran out…

“Sleep…” A voice rang in my head, I felt like I should not be sleeping, but… Maybe it was for the best, maybe I should just let the dreams take over me…

“Morning, sweetheart.” Iris kissed me as I woke up, being able to wake up each morning with this heavenly feeling was the best blessing I could ever hope for.

“Good morning.” I kissed her back, “I love you.”

“I love you too.” She said as she kissed me again, and that was all I could have ever wanted to hear.

---

We had been resting in the backyard of our house for a while now, I felt like we should go home, but Iris didn’t stop playing with my ears… It felt too comfortable to leave.

However, at that moment, something inexplicable happened… Another Iris appeared in front of me! Two Irises! The one I love the most was duplicated! Am I in heaven!?

The new Iris looked angrily at me though, she was a bit scary… She flew a bit closer and said in a very stern voice, “Aria, what are you doing?”

I wasn’t sure how to reply, but the old Iris did it for me, “What else? She’s enjoying the time of her life with me.

“I should throw the question back though, what are you doing here?” She seemed a bit annoyed, it felt weird, did Iris ever get annoyed? She always seemed to be willing to overlook any weird thing I did… Except that time I put fire to a classmate’s dress because she didn’t stop annoying me; or that other time I flew away from the tower with an experimental enchanted broom that I never tested before, she was so worried I could have fallen from it if my enchantment was slightly wrong; oh, there was also that time she screamed at me because I forgot to ask directions to the city guard…

Wait, didn’t Iris get angry at me all the time? That was part of her charm even, why was she suddenly so nice to me now?

Unaware of my inner thoughts, the new Iris looked sternly at the old Iris, “Saving Aria of course, what else?” Saving me? How come? Things are perfect in here.

The old Iris gave a snarky reply, “Does it look like she needs any saving?” She then hugged my ear, it generally felt pretty calming, but this time it felt a bit repulsive… How come I’m getting repulsion from Iris? “Our life is perfect right now, you don’t need to interfere.”

The new Iris seemed about to explode, “Oh, I totally do.” Wait, why are her flames expanding!? And why is the old Iris also getting hotter!?

“Stop stop stop!” I shouted, “Can somebody explain what’s going on to me!? Why are there two Irises in here and why do you both look like you’re about to kill each other!?”

The new Iris looked astonished, “You don’t know…?” She asked.

I tilted my head, “Should I?” The new Iris somehow seemed to be even more flabbergasted than before, did I say anything weird?

The answer to the riddle came from the old Iris, “Don’t worry, Love, she’s just an impostor.” An impostor? She seemed so real though, “I’ll take care of her in no time, so you just wait here.” She then flew from my head and got closer to the new Iris, her flames emanating higher and brighter than the latter’s.

The new Iris looked into my eyes, she seemed scared, but… Not of the old Iris, it was of something else, it felt like there was something worrying her far more than that killing intent pointed directly towards herself. She then suddenly “Aria, what did I say after our first kiss?” Our first kiss? Why bring that up now?

The old Iris turned towards me, she seemed afraid, terrified even, what’s causing that? What could be making her feel this horrible…?

She turned back towards the new Iris, shouted, “Shut up!” And threw a red laser of pure mana towards the latter, who barely dodged, “Why ask her that!? Why do you want to ruin everything!?” Wait, what is going to ruin everything? What even is this everything? I don’t get it. “What do you gain from causing her this much suffering! She’s happy now! We’re happy now! You threw her away and now want to take her back!?” Iris, I love you, but you’re making 0 sense right now. Why is the new Iris making me suffer and when did she ever throw me away…? Please talk to me and explain all this. “To your damned life that had nothing worth living for!? Leave! Be gone you foul being!” She kept throwing more of those lasers at the new Iris, who somehow kept avoiding them.

And why is she even throwing lasers? Iris was supposed to use fire magic… Nothing is making any sense.

Meanwhile, as the new Iris dodged, she shouted back, “I never abandoned her, I have always wished the best for Aria!” However, for some reason she was not shooting anything, she only kept dodging.

The old Iris answered, “This is the best for Aria! This is what I brought her! I made her dreams come true! What did you give her instead? Just how many sleepless nights that she went through when she was with you!? How many times did she cry herself to sleep because of you!?” Sleepless nights? Crying myself to sleep? I haven’t had to worry about any of those things in ages… Ever since… Since when?

The old Iris stopped attacking, her tone shifted from the angry shouts to a saddened one, “You brought nothing but suffering to her, just… Be gone already. Please.” She then started crying, Iris was crying right in front of me, yet I didn’t move. I should do something, I should act, but… I was so confused, nothing here made sense, what was I even supposed to do? I just kept staring at her, at her flaming tears that fell down and disappeared into the ground… Wait, why did they even disappear? Somebody please make sense of all this.

The new Iris replied, though she was also distraught, I could feel it in her voice. She wasn’t any happier than the old Iris, “I know. I know it very well, I only made Aria’s life worse by being with her… Yet I can’t abandon her, I can’t lose her like this. You understand it, don’t you? Better than anybody else… I can’t leave Aria.” But if she can’t leave me… Where was she all those years? Why did I never hear of this new Iris until now?

“… Just how selfish can you be?” The old Iris said between sobs… She was crying right in front of me, I had to do something… This was horrible, this whole situation was horrible… It made no sense, they just kept exchanging words with one another while completely disregarding me and yet… Somehow, the Iris I have spent my whole with was crying… How could this… This, this… This impostor do this to Iris!?

“Stop it!” I shouted to the impostor, “Why are you making Iris cry like this? Why do you have to get in the way of our life like this?” Even as I said it, I wasn’t sure what I meant with it. I didn’t know what the impostor was doing that was making Iris cry, and yet… I could not allow her to continue doing it, “Can’t you see you’re hurting her?!” I asked while gently holding Iris with my hand, then I used my finger to slowly caress her hair.

It seems like it worked, for Iris stopped sobbing and looked at me with still tearful eyes, “Aria…”

The impostor looked at me incredulously, and asked with a shaking voice, “Aria… Do you really not remember?”

I returned the question angrily, “Remember what?” Yet it hurt me to shout at her like that, there was something about this impostor that connected with me. Was it because she looked like Iris? Or was she’s actually connected with me somehow? But why can’t I think of anything on her? Why is it that Iris seemed to know her, yet I don’t have a clue on who she really is?

Her whole body started shaking, she seemed about to cry. “What I told you after our first kiss… Can you really not remember? Can you really live this dream while fleeing from the truth?” I don’t understand it, what does our first kiss have to do with anything? Rather, why does an impostor even care? Why do I even care? And why does she look so hurt? Can somebody please make sense of all this…?

“Stop… Please…” Iris asked while still crying, “Don’t make her suffer any longer…”

… I’m sick of this. I stared deeply into the eyes of the impostor, “Look, I don’t know who you are, nor what you want, but you’re making my beloved cry. If you don’t leave now, you’re gonna have to deal with me.” Each word I said left a wound in my heart, opposing this impostor felt wrong, I should not be doing this… But will not back down, I can’t back down… Not when Iris is crying right in front of me.

Both Iris and the impostor seemed shocked and nobody spoke for a small while. Eventually though, the impostor recovered, and then she spoke emotionlessly, “Is this really what you want? To spend the rest of your life in this farce? With this beloved of yours?”

A farce? Did she really call our life a farce? After everything we went through to get here… Just who does she think she is!? I was feeling hurt for facing off against her, for hurting her due to reasons I didn’t even understand, but not anymore! This impostor deserves all pain that’s coming for her. “Yes. That’s all I could ever ask for.” I wanted to scream, I wanted to swear at her, I wanted to tell her to shove all this farce talk within herself… Yet all I could manage was to say those simple words. I don’t get any of this, why can’t I even talk back to her properly?

Surprisingly though, those words seemed to be more than enough, for the impostor snapped, “Fine then! Enjoy throwing away your life to stay with this beloved thing you cherish so much! See if I care! But don’t come back crying to me once you give up in this idiocy, because I won’t answer!” She then turned around and started flying away.

“Her name is Iris! And she’s not a thing!” I shouted as the impostor got farther and farther.

She turned around one more time to answer, “I’m Iris, you dumb idiot!” She then stopped for a moment… It was hard to see because the impostor was far from us, but I believe she was crying… “I loved you! I loved you above all else!” Wait what!? Iris loved me? But she never accepted my… My what? Why is my head hurting and who is this Iris!? “But you just can’t care, can you!? You only care about living this damned dream! I thought I was worth more than this, but it seems I was wrong! I was so wrong that even our first kiss was unremarkable to you!” Why is she coming back to this kiss talk again? And when did we ever kiss? I only kissed my Iris, the one I love, the one that has always been there with me… And why can’t I for the life of me remember what she told me after our first kiss?

The new Iris then finished, “I really wished nothing but the best for you, Aria, but I guess our definitions of best are not compatible… Goodbye.” She then turned around and left for real.

… What was this all about?