My head shook a great turmoil as I tried to compose myself. I felt the urge to vomit. I let my breathing take its natural course as my eyes were brimming with tears.

"What… happened?" I muttered a question.

I looked around to see an acute scenery of a beautiful ocean with a tropical beach. I could hear the waves of the ocean filling my ears with relaxing sounds. The gentle wind of the breeze welcomed my appearance as it hit me.

I stood up with a different sensation. Everything felt foreign. I could see the beautiful scenery of nature everywhere I saw. I slowly walked alongside the beach as I tried to acclimate from the chain of events that just happened.

I couldn't see anything man-made within my sight. However, the sight of nature itself calmed me down. I could see a thick forest at the opposite side of the beach. I thought for a moment before deciding to sit down on the rock nearby the beach.

"Am I always this tall?" I wondered.

I inspected both of my hands and palm to see a rather unfamiliar feeling yet a nostalgic one. I found the sleeves of my outfit rather comfortable. I tried to inspect my clothes even further.

"This garment looks familiar…"

I stood and walked near the beach water to see the reflection of myself. It was a little bit blurry, as the ocean water wasn't calm, however I could make up my reflection. I couldn't hide my shock after seeing it.

"I turned into… Mashiro?!"

I saw adorable fox ears twitching from my reflection. The facial features resembled a mature yet young tall lady with a rather fancy outfit. My hair was mostly silver with some tints of pink, matching my dress. I also had a somewhat uncomfortable long silver tail, the same color as my hair.

I walked along the coastline of the ocean to clear my mind. I still occasionally stared at the reflection of myself on the ocean to admire the look of a character I really loved.

I sighed, "What is happening…"

Aimlessly wandering around, I managed to find a rusty shack near the ocean. I walked closer towards it. It was a rather huge building for a shack, but the outside exterior looked neglected for quite some time. Without any thought, I opened the door.

"Is anyone there?" I didn't receive any answer.

I looked around inside the shack to see various items and even paintings of a boy. The roof provided me quite a nice shade I was looking for. I felt tired from the heat of the sun.

Without wasting any more time, I did something that I normally did whenever I was thrown into a sudden predicament.

"Well then, goodnight."

***

"Who are you?!" shouted a young boy as his voice rudely interrupted my nap.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned in sleepiness as I tried to clear my head up. I looked around to see a young looking boy with natural black hair holding a dagger. His whole body tensed up while his hand was shaking.

I looked outside the window to see the sunlight turning into orange, indicating the time to be afternoon. I switched my gaze back to the little boy. His figure was small, at around the size of an elementary student.

I tried to calm him down, "Oh, is this your house? I'm sorry, I didn't realize. I thought it was abandoned."

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Hearing my words, he sighed in relief. However, his dagger was still up in front of him as he didn't have his guard down at all. His eyes were moving up and down, inspecting me.

"I-If you stare at me like that, I would be embarrassed, you know," I teased the boy, with the most shy voice I could try.

The boy immediately hid his gaze and put down the dagger he was holding, "I-I didn't mean to do that!"

I reflexively smiled after hearing his innocent and pure reply. I could see he relaxed his guard a little bit while rummaging around the room.

"Is this you, boy?" I showed the painting of a smiling young boy holding a gigantic tuna fish. There was an elderly man beside the boy as his proud smile was visible from the painting.

"Yes, also stop taking other people's stuff!" The boy said.

His eyes were in a frantic state. He kept on bashing furniture, trying to find something hidden. I could only watch his impatient behavior as he found a shiny pearl at the size of a marble from under the tile floor.

"You're not… a thief or anything, right?" I asked with concern.

"Of course not! A rich lady like you wouldn't understand, we commoners don't have the privilege of being safe all the time!" the boy screamed. Despite his small body, his tone of voice was rather demanding.

I tried to deny his words of me being a rich lady, however I realized that he was correct. Mashiro, my favorite character from Luminous Dream, was supposedly a student from an elite rich all-girls school.

After he said that, the boy tried to run away from the shack with great speed. However, just after he got out of the shack, a few men appeared.

"Just casually sneaking into our hideout, do you have a death wish boy?!" one of the men yelled out. He was carrying a rather giant club filled with nails, presumably as a weapon.

The boy's sweat fell just like a river as he desperately hid the pearl he took from the shack. The boy took a deep breath, "it's-it's our shack! My grandfather was the one who built this shack! It's ours!"

I watched the whole thing unravel from inside the shack. It seemed that the group of men hadn't noticed my presence.

The boy's outburst caused the men to laugh in tears. The men wore filthy outfits while holding weapons like swords, axes and knives. One of them got closer to the boy as he said, "Listen boy, we bandits couldn't care less about what you think, now scram off before I cut off one of your legs!"

The boy nodded and ran away as fast as he could. However, one of the men tripped the boy as he laughed, causing the boy to lose balance and the pearl he was carrying fell.

All of the men were stunned by the dropped pearl as they hurriedly took it from him. Their eyes were taken over by greed as the boy tried to stand up and run away.

"You're not going anywhere, unexpectedly rich boy."

One of the men held up his knife in a threatening manner, "give us all of the valuables you're hiding, and you'll be free."

"That's all I have! I don't have anything else!"

A shriek from the boy could be heard at least hundreds of meters away as one of the men took his knife closer to the boy's neck, "do you really think we're stupid enough to believe your lies?!"

The boy's teary eyes were scanning for ways of escape. Until finally, he took a secret glance at the shack, more precisely, at me.

His eyes grew empty as he said in defeat, "please, I don't have anything else."

The group of men ignored his plea. Their aggressive look proved to be too much for a young boy at around elementary student age.

"Men, ransack this tattered wood shack until there's nothing else to take! Feel free to burn everything you don't need!"

The boy's expression grew pale as he heard that, "please! don't go inside!"

I sighed after seeing the entire thing unfold. It would be hard to escape from this shack without getting caught. I looked at the pitiful looking boy with a bitter smile. I took a deep breath and decided to go meet the scary looking men outside.

"Bullying an innocent child, are you not ashamed of yourself?!" I walked out of the shack.

I stared at the men with determined eyes. My heartbeat kept on going crazy, however I kept my composure. The men halted their advance to the shack as they saw me. Their eyes focused on my ears and tail.

"Who are you?!" one of them yelled.

I smiled while trying my best to maintain my high class dignity, befitting a rich lady. I pointed at the little boy they were holding, "release that boy right now."

"Heh, so that pearl was from you, was it?" one of the men concluded.

"Yes, that's right, and if you do anything to me and that boy right there, I'll make sure you regret it."

I felt an urge to vomit. However, I kept trying to bluff my way out of this. Being stared at with a bunch of strangers holding scary weapons. I wouldn't want to get stabbed ever again.

"Do you think we care about what a random noble lady would say? this is the middle out of nowhere, just because you're a noble doesn't mean bandits like us would spare you!"

I smiled hearing the words of one of the men. It seemed like they thought I was a noble. My fancy outfit might be able to help me out in this predicament, by making them think I was a noble lady.

"Then you're a fool! Do you think my knights would let you go if you hurt me? They're coming here as we speak. If you don't give it up, all of you will die meaninglessly, fighting an army of knights."

The men's expressions were conflicted. They seemed puzzled to proceed, until one of the men took the lead. He unsheathed his sword as he walked closer towards me.

"Then, when that time comes, what would they do if I were to take you as hostage?" the man with a sword asked.

I exaggerated a sigh hearing his question, "you will die, all of you. There are only ten of you, while my knights amounted to hundreds. It doesn't matter whether I am a hostage, alive, or dead, what matters is you all will certainly die too."

The men panicked after hearing my statement. I could see the person that unsheathed his sword was frozen in the spot. All of them were taken aback at the false information I just dropped. They all were puzzled on what to do.

Looking at the confusion among the group, I smiled. I took this chance as I made my final ultimatum. At the end of the day, these people were humans, and fortunately, they feared death.

"What I'm trying to say is, to get the hell out of here! leave me and the boy alone. With that, you might all live."

Without any delay, all of the men took a desperate run as they left the pearl they took and the boy alone. Just a few moments later, the boy and I were all alone.

"Umm.. Miss, thank you. And sorry, I might've been rude to you earlier," said the boy as he took the pearl that was left out by the men.

I smiled, "I'm just repaying the favor. When you were caught by those bandits, you were trying to hide me, weren't you?"

The boy's cheek reddened as he hid his gaze from me. He pretended to clear his throat as he took a deep breath.

"By the way, I'm Roy. What's your name, Miss?"

I took a moment before saying anything. I looked at the horizon of the ocean. Seeing that, I smiled. I switched my gaze into Roy's eyes.

"I'm Mashiro, Mashiro Shimizu Mikan, nice to meet you."