A New Day Comes

Mamoru was in a old castle’s long wooden hallway in a body that wasn’t his own. It was more slender, softer, and full of magic. He felt energy inside him like he had never felt before, it was fuzzy, and warm. He held an arm up to look at the sleeve of a floral kimono when someone spoke from behind.

“Princess Hikari?” The voice was a man’s, elderly by the sound of it, but when Mamoru turned, he appeared to plenty of good years left in him. His face was slender and hair jet black. He stared at Mamoru with blood red eyes that seemed to stare deeper than skin would show. The high school boy didn’t have the slightest clue of what was going on, but he was instantly filled with dread that this strange man could see through the princess to him inside.

But he seemed familiar too.

Ah! Stop. Stop. Stop!

Hikari’s voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Then the hallway twisted around itself like a jalebi. The man twisted as well, blending into the wooden background like a kindergartener’s finger painting until everything blurred to black.

Mamoru woke with a start, breathing heavy and covered with a mild sweat. He coughed and rolled to his side. The sword was still at his side like usual.

He flopped to his back and stared at the ceiling. The usual white was there, but with an unexpected something in his lower periphery. Mamoru only shifted his eyes down. A partially translucent girl with white hair and floral kimono floated in the air.

He rubbed his eyes, making sure they were fully awake before checking again.

She remained. Her face was turned and cheeks puffed, so he couldn’t tell if she knew he could see her. For now, he would see where things led.

“Um, Hikari, about that dream?”

Just ignore that! It was nothing!

The ghostly image of the girl’s mouth moved with the words, but the voice was still well in Mamoru’s head. She shook her head and floated to the window.

Don’t you have to go to school anyway? The sun is already starting to rise.

“It’s that late!”

Mamoru didn’t waste any more time on pondering the dream. He jumped from bed and quickly started to change into his uniform. Hikari’s ghostly form covered her eyes with her sleeve as he did. She was a thoughtful specter at the very least. He snatched the sword last and burst from the room.

As he ran down the stairs, she floated by his side. He wondered if she was locked to only go a certain distance from the sword, but such questions would have to wait. For now, he hadn’t even gotten a chance to tell her he could see her.

The motorcycle ride went by in a blur—with many horns blaring at him as he zipped past.

You’re going to get yourself killed! Hikari said when they arrived, but Mamoru was already charging into the school. He made it to his desk just before the bell tolled.

“Whew, safe, at least one more day,” he said quietly.

A voice came from his right, “Oh, safe one more day, huh?” Mamoru groaned.

“You were fairly absent yesterday, Kaito.” He shot back.

The boy to his side, Kaito Ito, was something of a childhood friend. A plain fellow by all definitions. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Standard uniform 1:1 to the finite detailed regulation. He was the spitting image of the plain model student.

And yet he was the one to get the attention of most girls. Not that Mamoru would have ever complained.

I can see why. He’s a bit cute. Hikari floated next to Kaito’s face, with hand to her chin, and examined him thoroughly.

Mamoru imagined how spooked Kaito would be to know a ghost girl was next to him. One that could strangely read Mamoru’s thoughts except for the ones that would have alerted Hikari to the fact he could see her. He wondered if she couldn’t read thoughts pertaining to her but didn’t have time to test it.

“Well,” Kaito picked up without missing a beat, “there was that new game released yesterday—Ring: Campaign Evolved—and I had to play through the whole thing.

“You actually bought that soulless cash grab for full price?”

Kaito grinned. He was about to make a snark reply, Mamoru was used to such, but a piece of chalk cracked into the side of his head.

“Ito. Takeda.” Their homeroom teacher cracked his knuckles. “I don’t want to kick you out when you two are actually here. Don’t make me get creative.”

The boys replied in dreary unison, “Yessir.”

Hikari held a hand over her mouth and tried with all her might to hold back a giggle. She burst into full laughter which drowned out the beginning of the lesson—not that Mamoru was in the mood to listen anyway.

The classes droned on as usual until lunch hit. Kaito corned Mamoru at his desk and flashed a grin with a thumbs up.

“Is Mr. Antisocial going to join us for lunch today?” Mamoru groaned. “Don’t make me pull out the old pictures,” Kaito already had his phone in hand. A phone which had access to the cloud which documented Mamoru’s dark past, among other embarrassing photos.

“You’re an idiot,” he replied. He stood up and walked in step with his friend to the cafeteria.

What dark past? Hikari asked with a teasing voice. Mamoru refused to let his thoughts wonder to those years and forced Mirai songs to loop on repeat. She groaned in agony when the vegetable juice song got properly stuck and Mamoru couldn’t get it out again.

The cafeteria was crowded as ever, and Mamoru quickly was separated from Kaito. He shrugged and bought his lunch before pushing back into the sea of other students. The crowd broke around the lunch table where he expected Kaito to be, and sure enough he was already chatting up a storm to their mutual childhood friend, Sumire Yamamoto.

She was similarly a model student with neat uniform, black hair, and brown eyes that flicked his direction as he sat down.

“Nice to see you Mamoru!” Sumire spoke in a soft voice normally but had to force it so the others could hear her over the cafeteria’s din. “I heard you were here yesterday, but you never stopped by.”

Wow, she looks so sad. Why didn’t you eat lunch here yesterday, you jerk.

Mamoru would have liked to remind the princess that Yamiko had them worried all day having threatened to reveal he was carrying a sword around, but he didn’t have to. The purple haired girl’s voice cut in from the side without any invitation.

“Mamoru! Bae!”

She tackled his side and wrapped her arms around him. “Get this, my mean boss made me work so late yesterday! I like, am starting to get blisters on my hands. See!” One arm loosened so she could shove a palm in his face. It was certainly roughed up from all the digging, and it seemed she wasn’t about to stop complaining.

Kaito grinned and nodded approvingly. Mamoru questioned his taste.

Sumire froze solid. Chopsticks flopped from her hand onto the table. She seemed at once like the would have to put in her in a museum if she never moved again.

“Um,” the frozen childhood friend thawed, “Mamoru, who is this?” Yamiko wasn’t about to let him reply.

“I’m like Mamoru’s new girlfriend! Here look at my phone and smile. Yay! Okay, what is that look like supposed to be?” Sumire’s mood sink like a large ship. Mamoru wondered if she might be a little sick.

She’s actually a witch who probably should be executed on site. Hikari added. Mamoru couldn’t help but notice a red glow around her spectral form as she vented. The lighting in the room must have been off.

“Anyway, I figured my bae and I could talk about our plans for tonight!” Yamiko added. She leaned close to whisper in Mamoru’s ear. “You like made it sound like we were going to do something, you know.”

“Yes, yes. Kaito. Sumire. This is Yamiko Suzuki, my new… we will be spending a bit more time together after school, so I may be unable to hang out with you two.”

Sumire looked awful, like she really needed to go to the nurse, but she took a deep breath and bounced back.

“Well, Mamoru,” she began in a firmer voice than her usual soft one, “I am glad you have bounced back after what happened to Mae…. I am… rooting for you!” Mamoru did his best to prevent his head from slumping. Not Sumire too. Why did both of his childhood friends approve of such an obviously questionable girl?

Says the guy who went out with her last night, Hikari added snidely. He began thinking of the Mirai song again until it resumed looping in his head.