The GATE Academy [Please read description]

Chapter 41: Preparations of War

... Bow to us, for we are your god.

The deafening silence of my room was briefly interrupted as the ice settled in my fridge, but shortly after, my room had returned to its still state. I was jerked awake as I had been dreaming about that vision- no, that nightmare- again. Since the day of that revelation, I had been having that nightmare every night. Tonight, Thursday night, would mark the 5th night since it happened (it happened on a Monday). Every time I had it, however, more and more was added to it. As of recent, I was able to move around the ruins of the school and even speak, but everybody and everything didn't seem to pay any attention to me. Also, the rest of the GATE staff had disappeared, leaving me alone to dream. The time before being forced to look up had gotten longer, so I was forced to walk around the battlefield for almost half of an hour, unable to intervene in any way.

When I looked up, hoping to see and hear the figures so that the dream could end, before I was forced to, the figures would not be there, and I, left alone amongst the chaos. As the nightmare appeared more frequently, I found myself walking into the scenes of my friends' death. I watched as Faith and Yuki were killed in one swoop as they both tried to take down a giant monster, of whose gory, grotesque nature I could not describe. The creature's claws were dripping with a black acid that would eventually overtake Faith. Its teeth would consume Yuki. I watched every time as Keita was strangled by an armored skeleton. His life was literally being drained from him as his body would shrivel and his eyes extinguish into a cold gray. Riku would hold out for a little longer, only to be stabbed from behind by some type of demonic elf. Riku would not die instantly, but would instead turn around, say something witty, and kill the elf by smashing it between two walls brought up from the earth. Riku kneels down and closes his eyes, but not long before collapsing.

I shot up from my bed and stormed into the bathroom, beginning to wash my tear-stained face. I never woke up crying, but I always knew that I was in my sleep. I would wake up with a heavy chest, always short of breath, and my body aching. The odd thing was, after I would wake up again after going back to sleep, my eyes were never swollen and I was never physically tired.

After washing my face, I sat down and leaned against the bathroom door, my eyes closed.

"Why does it have to be so real?..." I whispered to myself.

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Friday morning

Faith was still giving me the cold shoulder. If only I could find something that would get her to help me like she did before. Well, technically I guess that didn't happen, but still, that just means she's been playing hard-to-get this whole time! First period Power Enrichment with her was the same as always, just glares whenever I looked back, even if I wasn't trying to talk with her, and just that cold vibe coming from her.

I needed to get her back. I just couldn't get her out of my mind! Not since that vision of the war... Not since I witnessed her death... I had been dying to find some way to win her back, make things clear that I do want her as my girlfriend, but that one slip up just made her walk out on me so easily. That wasn't even it, she was apparently talking to some other guy from her old class... Yeah, "talking." Yuki told me about him last week, some guy named Pantera I think... I think I had a class with him last year, but we never associated ourselves with each other.

I pushed aside my thoughts of Faith and tried to refocus myself on the lesson. Today we were wrapping up a lesson on how to fight off a crowd. Single out the stronger fighters, use the momentums of incoming attacks to your advantage, throw/flip the lighter enemies into the rest, stuff like that. I couldn't help but let my mind wander as I was reminded of my friends' and my fight back in Kazekuya. After sitting through this lesson, I think it was safe to say that we did pretty well, even if we never officially learned how to fight through crowds. Then something interesting came across my mind.