Tired of Reality -Chapter 1- The girl resembling the cherry blossoms

I glanced at the many different styles of pink the sakura tree possesses; the blossoms of pink gave it a brilliant coverage. At each few metres, I stood up on my toes and gradually reached for a pink blossom. The soft feeling passed through the tip of my fingers and I found it to be such a great remedy since I just recently injured them. As I reached from tree to tree, I started to daydream involuntarily. I examined the surroundings around me, I was in a place I've never been to before. Suddenly, I started mumbling things I never wanted to.

Yoshimatsu Hikari. I said to myself over and over again even though I had no idea who that was. Who was this? This splendid-sounding name reminded me of the sakura trees I had just felt. The same words rattled and shook my head constantly. "Who is it?"

At each few blasts of pink, all I could see was pure light fuscia blossoms. How could this be? Sakura trees are known for the beauty of their cherry blossoms, including the branches. What I saw was just pink; it was almost utterly painful to the eyes. It was like a cartoon. I knew this wasn't the real world.

As I continued to see visions of pure pink blossoms, I felt my feet walking. I was constantly worried about a lot of things - - I could probably trip and injure myself since I can't see where I'm going, and yet I can't control myself to stop. A few minutes passed; the same thing occurs. I was surprised I didn't get injured yet. I push my eyes to close, but it didn't seem to do anything whatsoever. The vision of pink was stabbing my eyes, and pricking my mind. Is this going to stay there forever, I continuously asked myself.

Suddenly, the hurting pink was starting to fade. This time, I felt my feet moving faster.. I was running; running vigorously while constantly panting. As I was grasping for air, the blast of pink faded into a blurred image.

I started to notice that I could now control my eyes, but still not my feet. I squinted and blinked. The blurred image seemed to turn into an animation--it was another girl, she was about six years old, running..away from me. I didn't have any clue why, so I thought about running faster. Just then, as that thought entered my head, my legs pushed themselves and increased my current pace. I was now panting even harder, but I couldn't find myself to stop. The girl in my vision started to move her head to look at me.

Her hair was very silky and showed a resemblance to the trees. It was a radiant pink color. She was wearing ragged and dirty clothes. Her face was about an inch away from showing itself, and just as her eyes started to reveal themselves, the vision blacked out. It wiped out like the television blurring to static. Furthermore, I felt a whole new sensation entering my body. As I found the chance to open my eyes, I found myself collapsed on the ground, my chest experiencing a fiery pain. I force my hand to a fist and with all my might, I tried to tell myself to stand up.

The pain slowly stopped, and I forced myself to try and stand up, clenching my teeth together because of the numb feeling of my arms and legs. When my vision finally improved one hundred percent, I realized I was at the exact same spot I left off before I started daydreaming, with a pink blossom still compressed in my hand.

My name is Takahashi Arisa and I've been in this world for seventeen years.

I started to walk along the pathway, with the same Sakura trees filling up each side. Whenever I walked forward, it seems like the pathway never ends. I constantly shook my head, studying each and every tree, which I feel I've gotten an obsession on.

I slid both my hands inside my pockets, humming a familiar tune in my head. It was just such a marvelously remarkable day. As I proceeded forward, a screeching loud voice called my name, it was almost too annoying to bear.

"Hey!!" the voice called out. I saw a boy running up to me, bringing a paper bag. It's amazing how such a mature-looking male can have such a shrill call. It was my brother.

"Keiichi, go home." I declared, having no expression on my face. "But--!"

"Go home" I asserted, sounding a little more furious. He gave me a weird whimpering look.

"Arisa-neechan!! You're so cruel!" I knew it was wrong for me to act superior to my own younger brother, but it was too unbearable. "Alright, fine. Be that way." He proceeded and left on his own with a disgusted look on his face. I couldn't help but think he was used to all this.

I felt a drop of water spill on my cheek as I looked up at the sky. It seemed like it was just as devastated as I was when I remembered the war back then. It started to rain; from drops to what seemed like my heart beat to massive showers. I started to run with all my strength since I didn't want to get wet but it was no use. It was raining hard, and my house was about two kilometers away from here. The reason I came out here in the first place is because I needed to think about a lot of things, and this particular location always did the trick for me. It was the only location where I could think things straight, and I'd walk long distances to get that opportunity during my free time.

On the way home, I experienced myself being sucked into another dream, without my permission. I felt myself constantly spinning, my head was getting dizzy and my heart was throbbing for no reason at all. I felt my hands and feet numbing and my eyes slowly closed. Once more I wondered if I was doing the same thing outside of this dream.

A few seconds past, and I finally pushed my eyes to open, gazing at the light in front of me. My eyes twitched a lot because of the brightness. This was a lot more painful than the previous incident. I decided to walk up to the light for if I stayed there, I'd just be staring at the bright light for the rest of my life.

As I entered through what seemed like fog, clutching my hands into fists, I saw probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The grass was apple green and flowers took over it. There were no trees at all- just grass and flowers. As I looked around, I realized that there seemed to be no end so I sat down on the grass, feeling the cold breeze swaying and tickling strands of my hair. I felt a shivering feeling down my spine. There was a girl walking toward me, the same girl I saw during my previous dream. Her slow walking turned into frightened running. I was frightened as well.

"ONEE-CHAN!!" the girl yelled. She seemed like she was in desperate need of air, as her voice was losing power. I stood up and patted her on the back, stopping her legs. Her crystal green eyes shot at me. She was definitely tired.

"If you keep running," I continued patting her back. "you'll go out of breath." She studied my face a bit, then her gaze quickly moved down to her feet. She sat down and squatted, sighing at the same time.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked me. The same green eyes met my own, pressuring me to answer as soon as possible. Nothing came to mind, until I remembered the dream I experienced beforehand.

"You're Hikari, right?" I ended with a little smile.

"You got it!" Her face was starting to gather strength again, and she lit up and expressed her happiness. She was a lot more friendly than I had imagined. "Yoshimatsu Hikari." she continued. "Takahashi Arisa." I replied. She kept the same joyful expression on her face, spreading her hands around. She looked at me once more, like she was about to say something.

"Arisa.. that's a pretty name!" she began. "I called you earlier, remember?" She probably meant the dream earlier, although I wouldn't say she was 'calling' me, it was more of 'coincidence'. "You chose me?" I asked. She looked away, I felt like I offended her somehow. "I don't get to choose. I can't." She turned around. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Isn't this just a regular dream? I'm probably asleep in the real world right now."

"You're not asleep." Her eyebrows went up. "The truth is, you're not there." My eyes grew huge. This kind of shock is something I've never experienced in my whole life before.

"Th—then.." I stuttered. "This isn't a dream?" I clutched the grass this time, ripping some of them out. "This is still a dream, except it's called a 'called dream' where the host calls the whole person's body to the dream." Hikari explained. "Any bystander nearby who sees the person being 'called', he will automatically forget what he just saw. Afterwards, the person goes back to the same place he was before he was called." I hated how she said 'called'. Hikari made it seem like it's for some special reason. 'Forced' is a better word to say, because you don't get a say in being called to the dream. You just do.

"Are—are you for real? A-are you human?" I asked, confused. I didn't know where this was going to go, and I still insisted in my head that this is just a regular dream. "I'm human, just like you." she replied. I could tell she'd done this to other people, and they all probably had the same reaction. Hikari stood up, catching a swaying blossom in her hand. At first I thought it was pretty cool, but then I started to think. "Hey," I realized something. "There aren't any trees around here even if you look far ahead. Where'd that come from?"

I was waiting for her response. Hikari smirked. She was like those evil witches in horror movies with that same smirk when the protagonist finds out he's been tricked or something. "Do you ever get to control yourself during your usual dreams?" she said as she let go of the blossom that was crushed in her hand. "I don't know." I retorted.

I hated how she acted all superior on me, so I gave her a dirty look as a result. "When I'm dreaming," Hikari began. "since it's me who's actually in the dream, I thought I was controlling myself. As I go on, sometimes bad and scary things happen like during nightmares. I realized then that you don't really get to control yourself nor your dreams."

Dreams. How many times have I heard that word today? And who was Hikari to lecture me about them? I didn't have any interest in her fake stories anyway. I felt like I was in those fairytales, where all they cared about were dreams and making them come true. I wasn't that kind of person.

"You want to get out of here, right?" Hikari broke the silence. "Yeah, I do." I responded." I pulled myself up and examined the surroundings. I thought maybe then she'd bother someone else while I find a way to get myself to wake up. She gradually came closer and closer, giving me no choice. "Why are you following me?!" I ran away as fast as I could, for this was turning into a nightmare. I kept running, pushing my legs to increase the pace despite the fact that the muscles were starting to complain. As I've noticed before, this place never ends. All you saw were the clouds moving, not you. It reminded me of a treadmill.

After a few minutes, I stopped. I've reached my limit. I collapsed on the ground, and everything started to black out.