Not a Dream

Chapter Two

Not a Dream (Yume ja nai)

“Well”, Hitomi sighed lightly as she finished her quiche, (“this is either a new way of having dreams, or maybe there’s something more to it.”) Despite having had a large variety of boring realistic dreams in the past, Hitomi thought this situation was intriguingly different, as she has never dreamed herself at a different age. She might have a boring dream where she’s again in the same classroom with her elementary school classmates, and she might as well wonder why, looking like a second year university student in terms of appearance, is she sitting at a Grade 3 desk.

Remembering a movie she once saw where one of the characters had a spinning top to test whether it’s dream, Hitomi decided to go outside, out of the cave. She was a physics teacher in training, and if the refraction index of water was any different from the ordinary, she would know, provided that she wouldn't forget her goal and get carried away by being in a crazy dream.

“Hi, ugh...” Hitomi didn't know anybody’s name, and not wanting to appear rude, she tried to talk to one of the staff with her soft, gentle voice (not the one for quieting a Grade 8 science classroom), “sorry if I’m interrupting your work, but may I go outside to relax for a while, please?”

“Kagami, others want to go outside at age three, and you finally want to go when you are almost six...” smiled the staff.

(“Okay, apparently I am five at the present moment”, thought Hitomi) “So, may I?”

“No, not yet. Soon, though. The test is in less than a month.”

(“There’s a test for going outside?!” Hitomi shouted in disbelief inside herself.) “Could you please be so kind as to refresh my memory on the whole issue?”

“Kagami, ...you usually don’t talk much, but what you just said... No one ever talks like that here... How did you...” The daycare staff looked both concerned and with deep suspicion.

(“Gagh! I forgot to talk like a child!”) Hitomi was almost certain by this point that it was not an ordinary dream. She has never got in trouble for talking professionally in a dream before, and honestly, she had no inkling on how to get out of the present awkwardness. “Well, I... well, ... I don’t know... I don’t know at all what’s going on” Hitomi stuttered. Thankfully the daycare staff didn’t have the luxury of leisure on her hand, and had to help in the kitchen. Hitomi breathed a sigh of relief, (“until the next faux pas... I get to live for a little while longer.”)

(“Well, it’s decided. A dream or not, I would like to not get in trouble like I did just now.”) Hitomi made a resolution to herself, (“Even though this Kagami seems just waiting for me to come and assume her identity, with all the Gouda that nobody here understands, I am not going to gamble with my luck. I will stay low, listen carefully, keep quiet, and source information from others’ conversations. Until I wake up again, I am Kagami, age five presently, who doesn’t talk much.”)

It took a while, but after the meal rotation had come full circle twice for breakfast, and she had arrived naturally to just call it “hard yellow cheese” instead of “three year Gouda”, (not that educating people who live in a cave on the distance between the towns of Gouda and Edam had ever been a high priority anyway,) Kagami -- she’s comfortable with that name now -- has come to terms with the fact that she would NOT just one day wake up and be in her apartment again. This was the new norm. She's in a different world now.

A world that children have to live in a cave until the age six. Kagami heard some daycare staff explain to some three-year-olds.

“It’s dangerous out there for you. You know what is earth, this dirt thing, and wind, like from this fan, and water and fire, and these are called the elements. Yes that’s a big word, but don’t worry. Well, you see, sometimes you see dust in the air, and other times you see a little bug fly by. The outside has tiny earth, wind, water and fire flying in the air like dust or little bugs, and your body is too young. The elements will go crazy in your body and you will get hurt very very badly, lots of blood... ”

(“That’s a good daycare staff”,) thought Kagami, (“explaining magical elements to three year old children.”) Kagami kept listening.

“When big people, adults, give birth to babies, the mother’s love, the essence, keeps the baby safe from the elements for three days. During those three days, babies are quickly brought to these special caves where the shiny rocks in the wall, we call them crystals, help to keep you safe.”

(“I don’t think the children are listening any more”,) thought Kagami, seeing the children’s eyes wander.

“So can I go outside now?”

(yup.)

By listening to conversations here and there, Kagami more or less has the larger picture now. When children turn six, they are given the first instruction on how to survive outside. There is magic matrix at the mouth of the cave, and instructors from some academies will give demonstrations on how to utilize the matrix, with proper footwork and body movements, to bring the elements into one’s body in a controlled manner.

If a success is achieved, then the child can become a student in one of the academies. Once graduated, sufficient preparation has been made for this person to live in the outside world. On the other hand, if a child is not successful, another year has to be waited before one can attempt again.

If by age eighteen one is still unable to rein in the elements, such person has to become a daycare staff in the cave. This has been the way the world operated since time immemorial, and people are quite content even if they are spending the rest of their years in caves.

(“No wonder that I was told that in a short while there would be a test for going outside. The batch of, well who knows what’s the year in this world, are taking their first grade entrance exam.”) Kagami smiled and thought of her “formative assessments” that she had compiled for students entering physics in Grade 11. (“That feels like a lifetime away already...”)

A few days later all the children who had turned six since last year were lining up. After going through winding tunnels and a few doors engraved with magic spells, Kagami, one of the youngest whose birthday was just last week, saw the sky at the end of a long walk. 

It's not blue. But Kagami couldn't decide with firmness whether it's best to call it torquoise, cyan, or aquamarine. It's a calming world, albeit with raving magic elements. Toward the horizon, the sky turns just the most delicate hue of lavender. ("I am fortunate, regardless of how slight the luck might be,") thought Kagami, ("to be in a world filled with my favorite colours.")

Opening of the cave looked like an amphitheatre, with multiple magic matrices on the ground, glowing faintly with purple light. Across from the children, standing on the outside half of the space, were the representatives from the academies.

After listening to some superficial introductions on the academies from the daycare staff, Kagami believed that she would join Aohiyama should she succeed. It’s the uniform. Classic navy blue suits seem pleasing to the eye, whereas the others were a little too “lively”. Yes, Kagami was once a more nerdy type of physics teacher in the training, not an art teacher or dance teacher or drama teacher.

Kagami recalled online videos of taichi as she watched the demonstration on how to take advantage of the matrix, (“some of these poses look like yoga, while others have footwork resembling taichi...”)

(“There was even a parody video online, on how to make beginner taichi movements: gently hold one air watermelon, cut it in half, to the left falls one half, to the right falls another half, left foot goes over the watermelon, trace the curve, lift your right leg to avoid stepping on the melon and slipping, now move the right foot to go over the other half of the watermelon, close the fridge door with both hands.”)

“Who would like to try first?” some voice called Kagami back from her thoughts.

(“It wouldn’t hurt to try. I can always try again next year if I fail. Being a daycare worker isn’t too far away from being a teacher anyway if worse comes to worst.”) Kagami took a step forward. “Me!”

Kagami steped into the matrix, and immediately gasped for air. The magic elements were vicious, even if their effects were dampened by the magic spells. Kagami’s feet were swept off the ground as she was being caught in a whirlpool of elements, and her neck felt like it’s being seized in a chokehold.

Kagami sincerely thought she would pass out soon if she didn’t do something immediately. (“Foot ... step over a watermelon... left hand, let a melon fall... right... hand... the other half falls”) and then she could suddenly breathe! Kagami was no longer fighting for her very breath, but was going with the current in the rapid whirlpool; it was still difficult, however, to be in control. Her body spinned too fast and was no longer in sync with the rotation, like a piece of clothing in a washing machine that got tangled when momentum carried it forward when the machine was shifting its direction of turn.

(“So this is how it feels to be a bed sheet in the wash...”) Kagami pondered if she was able to “ride the current” when she’s barely six...

(“Yoga? Palate? Zumba? Can anything help me right now?”) Kagami got tired of trying quick remedies, and decided to call it quits. She slashed the torrent of magic elements open with her forearm and stepped out.

“Well done.” came the judgement.

“Heh?????” Kagami was more than confused. “But I gave up trying to control the elements.”

“You were able to breathe, and you knew when to stop. We cannot possibly ask more from a six year old. Where would you like to go?”

“Aohiyama. I like the uniform, it’s...”

“You wouldn’t want to waste your talent at Aohiyama, would you?” A young voice cut Kagami off half way through her sentence. “Come with me, to Kageyama.”

Kagami’s eyes widened as she turned to look at the girl from Kageyama.

“...Rin...” a whisper escaped between her lips.

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Hi Everyone, here is the second chapter. I made a lot more typos typing the second chapter than I had done doing the first earlier today. I think I'd better read them again later this evening, and get grammar and spelling checked again. Thanks for reading! ^^

Hitomi

P.S., I also wrote up the cover page this afternoon with some markers. Too bad the scanner was a bit small, and a fair bit was cut off at the bottom, and I had to fill in the missing part with Paint. My, I feel old, my go-to tool for a quick fix is still Paint...