Fikush-ON!

Ch. 21: Summer Job

You know what I like? Bright night skies. They make me think about existence, and sometimes they make me completely forget about it. Endless amount of white dots on a black canvas, you could just look at it forever.

But you know what I don't like? Falling. I was falling through the night sky. Though, neither my clothes nor my hair were waving, like they should be when falling. Soon, the stars faded away into nothingness, and I ceased falling. There suddenly was a floor below my feet. Or I think there was, I just couldn't see it. Everywhere I looked, I only saw darkness. Despite the lack of light, I could see myself just fine. Having no idea where to go, I just began walking. As I did that, I felt the 'floor' descending, almost as if I was walking down a slope or something.

I soon got to the point where the 'floor' was level again, and continued on walking through the abyss. I could make out some yellow light shining amongst the darkness. As I got closer, I noticed that it was actually a light orb. No, it was many light orbs, maybe a dozen or so. Floating a meter above the ground, they had formed a circle. In the middle of the circle, I spotted one more light orb. However, it wasn't yellow, but green. The sight reminded me of some atomic structure or something.

Suddenly, the yellow lights began to approach the green light at a steady pace, shrinking the circle in the process. As they did that, I noticed something: the green light orb began fading away. Those yellow lights were doing something to it. Almost as if they were crushing it without touching it. I'm not sure why, but I didn't bear to witness it for any longer, so I decided to put a stop to it. I ran towards the lights, waving my arms to shoo them away. Immediately, the yellow lights fled, each one in a different direction, disappearing into the darkness. The green light orb, having regained its strength, made a run for it, too. For some reason, I wanted to catch it, so I gave chase to it, but to no avail. It was simply too fast, soon disappearing into the black darkness. The black, however, turned to white.

"...urgh," I growled, slowly opening my eyes.

Another dream about a light orb, huh...?

I kept staring at my room's ceiling for a minute, smacking my lips, until I kicked the blanket off me. Another beautiful summer morning. However, this one wasn't like the others: my summer job would begin today. Slowly sitting up on the edge of my bed, I scratched my head and stretched my arms. I finally got myself on my feet, and walked over to the computer table to check my watch. Huh, looks like I woke up five minutes before my alarm. After turning the alarm off, I headed to my wardrobe, checking its contents. Eh, I'll be provided work clothing, so I guess it doesn't really matter what I'm wearing. I ended up picking jeans and my red hoodie. What a surprise.

Stopping by the bathroom to finish my morning routines, I headed down the stairs, yawning all the way. To my surprise, I could smell the pleasant aroma of coffee. As I finally got downstairs, I turned to face the living room, noticing my sister sitting at the coffee table.

"Morning, Eiji-chan. I made some coffee for you," she said.

"Oh, thanks," I muttered, heading towards the kitchen.

"Morning, Eiji-kun," Ui greeted me.

I waved my hand. "Morning to you, too."

...wait a minute.

Taking a couple of steps backwards, I double-checked the living room. Yup, it sure was Ui, alright. She was sitting at the coffee table with my sister.

"...Ui-san?"

She turned to look at me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

Before she could say anything, Tamiko stepped in: "I invited her."

Ui nodded, and added: "Sis is currently on a trip with her club, and I wouldn't want to be alone, so..." A bit embarrassed, she didn't manage to finish her sentence, so she just chuckled sheepishly, instead.