Ichi and his dreams

Rei stared at his phone screen, thumb hovering over the keyboard.

The message blinked on the screen, unfinished somehow. He added another line, deleted it, retyped, and then finally hit send.

His chest felt tight for reasons he couldn’t quite explain.

The morning light through his bedroom window was pale and unsteady, filtered through gray clouds that promised rain later. Outside, cicadas droned lazily, oblivious to the quiet storm building inside his chest.

He dropped the phone on his desk and sat back, staring blankly at the wall. His reflection glimmered faintly in the window — tired eyes, messy hair, a boy who looked like he hadn’t slept right in weeks.

“Just text back already,” he muttered under his breath. “Tell me you’re fine.”

No reply came.

Rei sighed, grabbed his bag, and slung it over his shoulder. His mother had already left for work, and Mika had been dragged to school by the neighbor’s carpool an hour earlier. The house felt too empty, too still.

The silence only made him think louder.

By the time he reached school, the hallways were already buzzing. Students clustered near lockers and classroom doors, the air thick with chatter and the faint smell of floor cleaner. Posters for club activities hung unevenly on the walls, curling at the corners from humidity.

Rei nodded absently to a few classmates as he walked. The noise felt distant — like he was underwater, only catching fragments of words.

“Did you see the news—?”

“—the subway thing?”

“Crazy, right?”

He heard snippets here and there. Every mention of the `subway thing` made his pulse skip. He kept his eyes down, pretending not to listen.

When he reached his classroom, he took his usual seat by the window — second from the back, good view of the courtyard. The sky outside was the color of steel.

He checked his phone again.

Still nothing from Ichi.

The teacher hadn’t arrived yet, so the class buzzed freely. Some students were laughing, others scrolling their feeds. Two desks over, a girl was showing her friend a video — shaky footage of flashing lights and shouting in the subway. Rei quickly looked away.

He thumbed his phone again, refreshing the chat. Still no reply.

His thoughts spun in restless circles.

What if something went wrong during the test? What if Ichi did not pass? What if they have taken him away already?

He swallowed, fingers tightening around the phone.

Then—

“BOO!”

Rei jolted so hard he nearly dropped it.

A loud laugh followed right beside his ear. “Man, you should’ve seen your face!”

“Ichi—!” Rei hissed, clutching his chest as he turned. “What the hell?”

Ichi grinned from ear to ear, slinging an arm around Rei’s shoulders. His blond hair was messier than usual, his uniform shirt half tucked. “What? I texted you like an hour ago.”

Rei blinked, pulling out his phone again. There was no message.

“Oh, right.” Ichi snorted. “Forgot to hit send.”

Rei groaned. “You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah, but I’m a normal idiot,” Ichi said proudly, holding up his arm like a champion boxer. “They tested me this morning. Totally human!”

Relief hit Rei so fast he almost laughed out loud because of how he said it. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“Scared? don’t be I’m like… the definition of human,” Ichi said, grinning wider. He leaned in, lowering his voice. “But man, part of me was kinda hoping, you know?”

Rei raised an eyebrow. “Hoping what?”

Ichi shrugged, eyes gleaming. “That maybe I’d pop off. Like, boom — telekinesis, Fire controll, something cool. Don’t act like you wouldn’t want that.”

Rei frowned. “You’d want to be a Freak?”

Ichi didn’t answer right away. He flopped into the seat in front of Rei, turning it backward so he could face him. “I mean, think about it. You get powers — real powers. You’re like a walking legend.”

“People fear you”

“yeah, but they know you. Nobody forgets a Freak.”

Rei looked down at his desk. “Yeah. Because they end up on wanted posters.”

Ichi waved that off. “Not all of them tho, Moro was never on them.”

“Just because the cops didn’t know his real name, and he was too much of a danger”

“So you’ve seen the clips too, right? That guy from the Blood Syndicate — Moro? Dude was insane.”

Rei’s stomach twisted at the name. “Yeah. I saw some.”

“They said he could stop bullets mid-air!” Ichi’s eyes lit up as he leaned forward, voice brimming with excitement. “And like, once — I swear, this is true — he took on six armed cops and another Freak at the same time. Didn’t even try to hide his abilities. Just stood there in the middle of the street like some kind of action hero.”

“Yeah,” Rei said quietly. “And now he’s dead.”

That stopped Ichi for a moment. He scratched the back of his head, trying to recover. “Well… yeah. But still. He went out like a legend.”

Rei stared out the window. The clouds were thicker now, heavy and gray. “If that’s legendary, I think I’ll pass, sure people will remember him but only as Moro not as who he really was.”

Ichi laughed softly. “You’re no fun, man.”

The teacher entered then, calling the class to attention. Chairs scraped. Books opened. Rei tried to focus, but his mind kept drifting back to the conversation — and the faint glimmer of admiration in Ichi’s voice.

By lunch, the sky had darkened further. The air buzzed with static, the kind that always came before a storm. Students filled the cafeteria, trading gossip and snacks while the rain began to whisper against the windows.

Rei and Ichi sat by the far window with their trays. Ichi had a half-eaten sandwich and a phone full of news articles about Freaks.

“Look at this,” he said, shoving the screen toward Rei. “Apparently Moro’s power was telekinesis. Seemingly the older he got the stronger his control got. That’s wild.”

Rei glanced at the screen. A blurry image showed Moro mid-fight — eyes glowing faintly, arms raised. The crowd around him looked frozen in awe and fear.

Ichi scrolled further. “And get this — people say that he was close to being the boss of The Blood Syndicate it says he wanted them to be more then just criminals. He wanted them to be freedom fighters or something. Trying to protect Freaks from being hunted.”

“Yeah, sure,” Rei muttered. “Freedom fighters who rob banks.”

“Hey, everyone’s gotta pay for rent somehow,” Ichi joked, but his tone was half-serious. “I don’t know, man. Maybe they’re not all bad.”

Rei set his chopsticks down. “You sound like you want to join them.”

Ichi grinned. “If they offered me powers, maybe.”

“You’re insane.”

“Maybe.” He leaned back in his chair. “But don’t you ever think about it? Like… what if you woke up one day and had it? Power? Would you hide it?”

Rei froze. The question hit too close. He stared at the table, tracing invisible lines with his finger. “Yeah. I’d hide it.”

“Boring,” Ichi teased, nudging his arm. “You’d at least test it out, right? Move a cup or something? Come on.”

Rei forced a chuckle. “You’ve been watching too many late-night documentaries.”

“Probably,” Ichi said with a smirk, then glanced out the window. The rain had thickened, drumming steadily against the glass. “Guess I’m walking home in this. Lucky me.”

“You could always stay over,” Rei offered before thinking. Then he realized how it sounded and quickly added, “Just if the rain doesn’t stop, I mean.”

Ichi grinned. “You trying to rescue me from the storm now? How heroic.”

“Shut up.”

They ate in companionable silence for a while, the hum of conversation around them blending into the rain’s rhythm. For a moment, it almost felt normal again. Two friends, lunch break, bad jokes.

But Rei’s mind wouldn’t stay still. Every time he blinked, he saw flashes of that night — the blood, the gunfire, the man’s voice.

“Sorry, kid.”

He shoved the memory down, forcing himself to breathe evenly.

After lunch, classes dragged on endlessly. The rain outside became a curtain, muting the world. The gray sky made everything in the classroom look dimmer, heavier.