Delusions

It was yesterday that we got freed from the loop, and tomorrow came for us. But today, we got entangled with this and it's my fault, even made someone involved.

I, always as a child, was cheerful. I recall my mother's warmth.

"Haibane Shana, always be strong, be helpful to others, and kind—my pride." I got all my love from my mother. Everything was going right. Where did I go wrong? Where did he go wrong? I am currently getting pinned by an old man.

[All men are the same.]

That's one thing my mother used to tell me every now and then. My parents didn't get along as for instance, I don't even remember my father's face properly. Perhaps I didn't want to recall his abuse, so the perplexing brain of a human gets relieved from those pasts that are not needed—or so I thought. But I was wrong. This man, who is on his way to violate me, is the same as my father. I remembered, recalled that I have a father too. A pleasure thing we are to men and perhaps my mother was correct.

There is that guy who was struck with me in the loop. His voice is faint, as if I can't hear anything. He is probably shouting. I just can't take it anymore. My body, my soul, is giving up. I thought I could save that girl from this old man. That's wrong. I am not the main character. I can't even save myself. That guy who is standing in front of me will just watch having fun, or probably will join with this old man too.

Step. Step. Step.

"Shana, you whore, why aren't you resisting?" He said that to me in a foul mouth. It's funny that he isn't the same like before, when he used to sit alone in class, passing his time reading the same book over and over again, pure introverted.

Ah he has changed just as me.

Then I look at his face and recalled the collection from the loop. I am fragile. He knew it. He is fragile too, but his body moves on its own with this adrenaline. How can I forget those times? Never even once did he do anything to me. He didn't even know my name rather he never seemed interested even in many chances. Instead, he tried to save me, sacrificing himself just to save me. Even in 1000 times, he never tried reaching out for my body. Well, once he hugged, but that's to do the double suicide, trying to break the loop. But that's not the point. What I meant to say is he is not the same as these people. Even though I can't express my feelings, I am scared. My inner soul is screaming for help. Traumas from the past are filling my void, yet it's empty inside of me. I want to throw up. Never did I thought I could remember of my dad again, my tainted past...

"Say, old man, can I go for the face?" The guy asked the old man.

"Oooooh. OHHHH. You are joining me too? haha. As expected of you. Fine. After you are done with the face, you can join me down here too. Let's make this a deal. We won't talk about this, and yes, no one would believe her anyway. We will manage to pull this off. See, I got protection too."

The old man was creeping in joy as he pinned me with his huge body. Then the guy with his phone cornered, he gauges in the man's eye without any wait just listening to his adrenaline. The old body rolls over in pain and bleeding from his right eye.

The guy grabs my arm and pulls me over the ground and make me sit in one corner away from the old man at a distance.

"Say, Shana, I am dumb so I don't know what is happening right now. All I can think about is Perceptual distortion. What do you think like how did you manage to make me notice this?"

He looks at me at rage, not the rage towards me but at the old man who was rolling in pain behind me, but he calmly asks for my opinion, trying to crack the oddity without even asking me if I was fine. Truly ruthless, yet kind at same time.

"..." That's right. He will take care of that just like he did about the loop. All I need to do is find the trigger this time, the trigger to destroy this oddity. I stayed quiet and I googled sitting in corner when Shiou was dealing with the old man. I am just a normal person like everyone else, and all I could do was search up on the internet.

-------------

"Ah, whatever. I will just kill this guy."

After saying that I was filled with guilt. Even if he is a criminal, a filth, who am I to consider his life on my hand? Why did killing someone even came to my mind? I did kill a cat, but killing a cat is considered as a minor crime. What makes a cat's life different than a human's? I stopped my killing intend calming myself thinking over the situations. I don't want to waste my life after killing someone. I would get arrested and freed then what? I would have lose my normalancy in life. I wouldn't want to go though that. Simple as that. We just need to destroy this illusion he created, but we don't even know where to start, all I can trust is Shana, she would definitely find something, that's all I hope.

"ARRRRGHHH." He cried rolling in pain holding his right eye as it bleeds. It looks like I did bash the phone corner deeply. My phone luckily didn't break. That's how sturdy it is? nice build quality by Samsung, not even blood got on my phone. I am glad my phone is safe. I calmed myself so I don't do anything worse than this.

"Say, old man, you really did love this girl, right?"

"gufff...aaaargh." He whiters in pain while

listening to me with one eye open still looking at me.

"If you didn't like her, you wouldn't have responded to Shana's threat. You even wanted to talk to us so we do not harm to her I guess. So then why...why did you try to harm Shana?" I could feel the pain of my fist which was I gritting over rage looking at him.

The old man with his heavy breathing speaks up.

"Hah, you wouldn't...understand. No matter what you do I will be alright. This...ugh...pain is nothing...huff...huff...I am the chosen one. God answered to my wish afterall. Even if I did anything with this girl I would still be safe." The old man grunts and still chuckled. But it showed he really did care about the girl.

"So you are the one who think that the world resolves around you, right? Just because you suddenly got an illusion of highschool boy on yourself, you thought you were some kind of main character? That's why you think even if you do something you can get away with the crime."

I spat out biting my lips feeling disgusted how foolish the way he thinks.

"You wouldn't...understand, brat...as I am...saying...my wish will be always be granted...I will forever with Miu."

Miu is probably that girl. Despite he was serious with the girl he still tried to put hands on Shana. It's crystal clear about his thoughts.

He is a scumbag.

"Do you realise, the way I bashed my phone in your eye, without hesitation If I want I can kill you anytime soon. I have no remorse or anything. I ain't even bluffing."

That's right. He didn't realise how life takes a dire turn. He never thought I would harm him and could get away his way with Shana. But I shattered his desire. It's like when your best friend puts a gun on your face you will think it's a prank, but there is atleast 1% chance that it could be real gun too, but dying doesn't comes to mind. Everyone thinks they would be in their normalancy.

Shana who was fiddling with her phone sitting at corner finally stands up and mumbles. "Well looks like it worked. The cops are coming anytime soon too."

That was sooner as expected. I was shocked how fast she even found a solution. That was inhumane.

"Huh?..." The old man looks at her in confusion. He had this despair look at his bleeding face but he was smiling instead.

"It's a still bluff right? I am not going to buy your words until you prove it." The old man grunts.

"Old, man, prove? sure the cops are on their way here and your illusion is broken." Shana sighs and speaks in same monotone which made it look more convincing. It was hard to interpret what she was even thinking.

"PROVE IT THEN BITCH." The old man felt scared but he still didn't believe it. It was invetiable. A wish which was granted could be broken. Miracles doesn't happen. It's just fate.

Shana scoffs, and starts her wordings in one deep breathe, the man was pale, he just had to confirm if she had actually gotten into the mystery. It wasn't joke when she actually called the police, the police would just turn back looking at him, but if you think deep the fact she actually called the police thinking it would work was indeed to be something be of guard...

"Shiou was close to correct, but I cracked it and found the trigger. The theory involves the concept of a "quantum mind field," a hypothetical field that governs consciousness and perception. The malfunctioning of this field could cause a mental split, where one’s perception of self no longer aligns with how others interpret them. Basically it's just us who sees you as a different identity. It's not you who entangled with illusion so your identity wasn't actually changed. We are just deceived as your wish was made true making our interpretation believing that you were already a part of our life as a student. Even when you entered to our life suddenly as a student we felt like you were already a student and someone we knew from the begging. But here is the more interesting thing about us..."

Which she means about both of us? I don't know as she looked at me directly while saying those words.

"Shana you don't mean? It's connected to loops?" I asked in hurried way where my curiosity picqed.

"Yes, I belive wish might get come true, It was probably something had to do with the cat's wish which made us go in loops but we will talk about this later as I don't think we can confirm that a cat's intelligence is of that level to make us strangle in lopps." She says calmly in cold tone.

"What are you both shit talking about with bluffs, you don't mean my Illusion was broken?" The old man was bleeding yet he asked calmly probably because his curiosity made him not feel the pain instead he wanted to understand more.

"Like I said it wasn't like it was illusion, it's just us who thought you were a student, we were the one being delusional. Also yeah what I meant is we both are different as we broke out delusional thought, I think it's related something brain where my brain could understand the oddity better than any human then after I made Shiou look thrice at your face he noticed, you know why?" Shana continues explaining.

"..." The old man stays quiet looking confused as he wanted the answer more than running away from the cops.

"Because he believed me that you were different, quantam interpretation occurs when you are laxed thinking this can't be happening and we are unsure if a lie is lie or not, the lie of you being an old man. The wish you made, made the malfunctioning of this field that caused a mental split us thinking you were already a part of our life as a student. Do you think anyone would believe you are an old man until someone make them belive, yes only if they believe, but normally people won't. But Shiou believed me, that you were different so he could see unlike everyone else who didn't believe you were an old man, so you know what I had to do to break the field?"

"T-to make them believe? THAT'S... THAT'S BULLSHIT? HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO MAKE THEM BELIEVE." The old man felt like he was at real pinch now, he was sweating bad as if he ran for six hours straight. I stayed on guard in case if he suddenly tried to attack us. and let Shana speak to him again...

"All I had to do as go to an online community, I showed them your picture, it was a big community where more than 2000 people were online, at first they all saw two couple holding hands, then I told them it's a magic that the guy in same picture will turn into an old man, 30% of them from the online group community thought it was real and they believed it and the rest thought I was a troll. So, among the 30% who believed you were an old man and the picture I sent would go with some kind of magic and they could see the real you. They commented saying that it was real and started arguing with other online members saying that the magic was real and soon others who didn't believe the picture first started seeing that picture as the real one, with the real you, and hence when I showed this picture to another group they could already see an old man holding a highschool girl's hand. So that means the field was destroyed, the quantam mind field of making everyone go delusional was destroyed with the trigger I caused and hence, your real self is naked to everyone now."

"...No, everything you said is stupid, that doesn't makes sense, how could you belive in your own made up theory!" The old man wanted to escape reality but it was mundane.

"Old man, do you think what's happening to you making sense either? It's hard to believe but it's reality sadly" I speak looking down at him.

"It was 50% brain and 50% on luck I depended on to break this oddity." Shana tells and shows a thumbs up to me as if she was proud, though being expression less.

I still can't believe she managed to pull it out. or rather there was 50% of chance her plan would succeed, then again my theory was close but I was wrong and she got it right again. I beleive her ways.

Slam, and it was Miu who entered the store room, Shana when I was talking to the old man, she secretly went and unlocked the door knob.

"M...Miu, it's not what it looks like... believe me...yes, if you believe me then I will turn back to the guy I was, I am not this fat aged man, trust your boyfriend Miu...also c-can you treat my eye I got hurt here..."

"...I heard it all." Miu who entered the store room was already outside probably listening to us, despite my threatening to her she was brave to even follow us.

"N...No... It's a prank Miu, I will take you over to a date after everything is over, trust me please...I love you."

"Shut up Old freak, pervert, you are disgusting, LIAR, YOU FILTH YOU SHOULD DIE...I...I AM TAINTED I GOT R*PED BY THIS MAN AAAAAAAAH N..NO IT CAN'T BE...I CAN'T BE TAINTED." Miu after getting hit on her reality realising she made love with an old guy twice her age, she fell into despair creeping over her expression crying and ran outside the store room.

We were silent looking at the sad scenario as the guy whose life was already less than garbage tainted an innocent girl too.

He felt to tears and knees almost like giving up as it's proven that everyone could see through his real self now. Silent felt over the room and Shana and me wasn't able to leave him alone, we were waiting for teachers,or anyone to interfere from now on but in case we still stood there waiting then when the old man starts mumbling suddenly loosening his body dropping his shoulder.

"I always was left alone, my parents were poor and they had to abandon me while I was still 5, I got adopted by an old man who lived alone raised me, all I wanted was to keep the old man happy, but no, because of my genes, I was getting bullied just because I was fat and ugly, but I studied hard, believing that one day I can also get respect instead of getting bullied and I wanted my parent, that is my grandpa, who raised me to be happy but he knew that I got bullied with my tattered shirt and dirty school bag everyday,even so he smiled always, towards me, so I don't feel bad about making him worry. Things kept on when I graduated from highschool and got back to house to show him my certificate, sadly my old man already passed out when I went to his room to show my graduation certificate. I was left alone. I got job but for some reason the boss used to cut my check for no reason so I stole money but got caught then I got kicked out, desperately to earn I took a part time job and was earning there, always thinking to relive highschool day with different perspectives and things could have gone different if I were born in different way. And that's where this wish of mine was granted haha...I guess?"

"..." We listened to his confession silently as per waiting for adults to burge in even though he looked like he gave up.

"...Then after my wish my granted, I encountered the girl at park, Miu who was crying, I interacted with her and found out she was an orphan like me, and her own circumstances so we could relate to each other, even though I wanted just to help her, not involving myself to relationship with her sadly she asked me out first and my intentions gave in.I was happy, I knew it was wrong but I couldn't help myself, she began to be part of my daily life before I even knew. I wanted to stay happy with her even though I knew one day this happiness will come to an end. Today I knew it was the day where it all will come to an end when this girl pointed me out, I was frustrated, frustrated at myself I couldn't bear it anymore, I realised my lust gave in before my humanity, more than love it was lust, It was pity to her and my lust that wanted me to to linger with her. And today I tried to violate another school girl. I wanted my life to be with Miu, my happiness and creepiness mixed in, I knew it it was wrong .I was the one who was delusional. So now I have only one thing to do, I want to tell one last time to Miu that I lov-"

"Yes, we caught him, The suspect is with us, command us to take him in."

"Yes, thank you sir." Cliff, with that he got taken by the police who broke his confession midway. All I could do was stare at him with emotions all over me, what is right what is wrong was beyond my thinking. I started at Shana, who showed no emotions. I wonder how she feeling right now.

After that we got taken to intregations again, the same police who introgagted me before after the loop because of killing that cat noticed me and gave me a weird look which was beyond my understanding. We answered everything that they asked and with that we were left off, I told them clearly that out of defence I used violence to shake him off from harming Shana, and she told them the same too, without any lie.

After four hours of calling our parents and discussions we were dispelled.

We both parted away with our parents and my parents shouted at me for getting entangled at another case.

After that we start living our pace with normalancy and happy ending.

As if there is something called happy ending in a story, the story ...continues, yet another entanglement to oddity, the "The World Crysis Syndrome." folded to us which was yet to be discovered. We never knew we would come to the conclusion to the loop and what happened today. It all made sense, even the vague quantam science all made sense. That's how this universe works. Fictional and reality both are reality afterall.

And hence, the real quantam adventure haunted us and starts from now.

To Be Continued...