Tsunami

The driver was texting. 

Frozen in time, I swore I could feel my soul already leaving my body. I wanted to close my eyes, because that seemed the only thing I could do in this split second before the inevitable collision. But I just couldn't take my eyes of the driver. I was thinking so angrily at him. What could he possibly be texting that was so urgent, that it couldn't wait until he got to work? What was so important, that it made the safety of school children insignificant?

It happened in slow motion. He looked up, met my eye and I saw the blood drain from his face. He grabbed the wheel and swerved to the right, whipping his car into the opposite lane. I reacted at the same time, turning my handle bars so that his fender wouldn't take my front wheel off, and my arms with it.

He missed me by a centimeter.

His car went up on two wheels, skidded briefly against the sidewalk, then swerved back into his own lane before colliding with oncoming traffic. I heard him shout through his cracked window: "watch where you're going, stupid kid!"

Excuse me?! "You had a red light!" I shouted as the blood came rushing back through me. But he had already turned the corner and was gone.

Well that was close. Needing to compose myself, I hopped off my bike and walked it the rest of the way to school. Suddenly my perfect attendance record didn't seem so important. 

Did I really almost die?! 

I tried not to think too much about it, but I was still deeply shaken by the time I arrived at school. My face must have shown it too, because people were pointing at me and whispering to each other—even more than usual.

"Look, it's the Night Witch," said Akari Hidaka, my ex-best friend from middle school.

"She must have pulled another all nighter," said Natsumi Kawakami, Akari's current best friend. "Look how pale she looks!"

"Should we call a nurse? She looks like she's going to collapse..." said Haruto Fukuzawa, Akari's boyfriend, and the reason we weren't friends anymore.

Although they weren't wrong, couldn't they cut me a little slack? I'd just had a near death experience for crying out loud!

Obviously, I wasn't the most popular girl in school. Although I was the valedictorian, I didn't hang out with anyone or concern myself with anyone else's drama. They all just thought I was conceited, too good to waste my time with any of them. That wasn't it, really. It was just that I really didn't have any spare time... or energy... And ever since Akari stole Haruto from me... well... let's just say I just hadn't really been in the mood to focus on anything but my studies. And for the past three weeks my in-game Kraft.

That was the other reason for my current stigma: just about everybody played Witch Kraft, and yet even in-game I was an outcast, which earned me the nickname Night Witch, after the class of my character. It wasn't my fault I couldn't play when everyone else was online, I didn't have any other choice. As I mentioned before, my father simply wouldn't tolerate me "wasting time" with games, so I was only able to play in the middle of the night.

You might be asking yourself why I would sacrifice all my sleep in order to play some stupid game. Well, if you'd ever played it you'd understand. There was no other game like it, at least not that I'd ever heard of. At first glance it seemed like your typical fantasy MMORPG. Other than the factions and races to choose from, there were eight classes. Night Witch (hello); Magi: Mentalist; Chanter; Cloud Tamer; Geomancer; Seed Caster; and Harlequin. 

Each class had their own weakness, strengths, passive and active abilities, as well as other unique traits. Night Witches, as you may have guessed, benefited from powerful buffs that were only active at night—and they were severely weakened during the day. Thus, I was the only student at my academic high school who played one, hence my nickname.

My class wasn't the only one with odd quirks. Cloud Tamers (who controlled the weather) were entirely useless in dry regions, at least until very high levels. Seed Casters (who literally threw seeds around) were also basically worthless in deserts, whereas Geomancers (who manipulated the ground) found themselves right at home. 

Harlequins and Magi were the only classes that fought with melee weapons, albeit it small and light ones. Yet even they were heavily dependent on their particular schools of magic to be effective in this spell-centric MMO. Other weapons existed, like great swords and morning stars, but those were equipped to certain minions that could be made through the various Krafts.

And it was the Krafts that made the game so addictive that it seemed crazy to trade a few hours of of playtime for an equal exchange of sleep. Krafts were the game's in-game profession system. 

There were eleven Krafts to choose from: 

Pipers (used flutes to make monsters dance to their tune); 

Perfumers (created perfumes to give various buffs, debuffs and Crowd Control); 

Paintresses (could design their own minions upon their in-game easel); 

Mask Makers (gave the wearer powerful buffs, spells or even the ability to transform); 

Carvers (made staves and wands); 

Scribes (made tomes and scrolls for learning spells, or storing cumbersome items (and unruly minions)); 

Dancers (increased dexterity, buffed allies and mesmerized enemies); 

Weavers (made gowns and certain traps); 

Jewelers (made enchanted rings and pendants): 

Brewers (made all sorts of potions, elixirs and ales); and of course, 

Doll Makers (the reason I'm in love with this game).

I've been obsessed with dolls for as long as I can remember. When I was a little girl I had so many. Some that my mother and grandmother bought for me, and many more that I made myself. They were crude and made out of old socks and spare buttons but I loved them all the same. I made them pretty dresses, painted their faces and treated them like they were my children.

When most kids visited their grandparents they would lie awake at night, cowering under the blanket, afraid to look at that lifeless wooden faces watching them from across the room. I, however, would crawl out of bed and make friends with them. Then we would hide together beneath the blanket—from the rest of the world.

But there was no hiding from my father. When the dreaded first day of middle school finally arrived, he brought them to a temple for Ningyo Kuyō—a ceremonial doll funeral. I begged him not to, but he said I was spending too much time with them and needed to focus on my studies instead. Besides, he said, I was turning 12 soon so I was too old for them.

Well, I was 16 now and I still missed my dolls. Before Witch Kraft came out, I would still have dreams about them... 

I honestly couldn't tell you why I'm so obsessed. I know at this age I'm supposed to be dreaming about boys, but I've already tried that. I ended up heartbroken, so now I've lost interest. I'd be perfectly happy being single the rest of my life. 

"Hey...Minori?"

Huh? Oh it was Kosuke Satou, the closest thing I had to a friend these days. I was so lost in my reveries I didn't notice him approaching me in the courtyard. We usually had lunch together here. The view of the ocean from where we sat was my only reprieve from the hectic school day. 

It was hard to believe it was lunch time already, time felt like it was skipping around. I really need to sleep...

Kosuke had been acting weird around me lately. And today was no exception: if anything he seemed particularly strange, with his knees buckled, nervously pushing his index fingers together. And... ew! I'd never seen him so red and sweaty.

"There's... uh something I wanted to talk to you about..."

Oh no, please don't...

"I... um... well we've known each other a while now and... uh... I just kind of... ummm, you know, really like you and all..." he managed to choke out, sweat dripping from his brow.

Really Kosuke? Why'd he have to choose today of all days to make his confession? I was barely holding it together, I'd probably slept a total of five hours over the past three weeks, and I literally almost died this morning! 

"Ok," I said as stood up and walked past him. 

I doubted it was the answer he was looking for, and maybe he deserved a better response than that, but I just wasn't the person to give it to him. Hopefully he didn't take it too personally, I just had zero interest or desire. 

I didn't have the time nor the energy to even think about those kinds of relationships. To be honest, I wished I could go back in time and stop myself from becoming a teenager all together.

"Minori!" shouted Kosuke from behind me.

Ugh... Did he really need for me to spell it out for him?

"Minori!" he shouted louder this time.

Something about his voice gave me pause. It was quivering.

I turned around, just in time to see the tidal wave crashing down.