I nearly dropped my food tray the moment I saw her walk into the cafeteria.

I had a hard time believing my eyes; The ribbons were different, but the twintails were the same. The contrast between the school uniform and the colorful clothes she wore that day threw me off a bit, but there was no mistake.

I thought I had just dreamed the whole thing up, but then our eyes met, and she let her food tray slip from her hands. I hurried over to pick up her ruined lunch, stiffly vocalizing "L-let me give you a hand"

She let out an embarrassed smile, and started picking it up herself, "No, it's fine! Don't worry"

"Hey, you can keep my lunch if you want, I'm sorry for—"

"Don't worry, I'm sure one of my friends will share theirs with me" she continued apologetically, "I wouldn't want to leave you without your meal..."

Our eyes met again, hers diverted back to the floor, mine took in the gentle features of her face as framed by her cherry blossom hair. It hadn't been a dream; she had really saved me and my family two days ago. My mind was racing with thoughts, but there was only one thing I could possibly say.

"Thank you"

The look on her face changed from mute astonishment into a warm, almost motherly smile. She clasped my right hand with her delicate, soft hands and for the first time since we had started talking, she looked me straight in the eye.

"I'm glad you're alive"

I lost myself in the beautiful depths of her rosy eyes, in the gentle touch of the hands that had saved my life. The world around me ceased to exist for a couple of wonderful seconds, and there was only her. Only she could break the spell she had cast on my heart, and that she did.

In an instant, she had let go of my hand and was hurriedly grabbing her tray. Face as red as a tomato, she stood up and looked like she was about to bolt away from the cafeteria, but right before she went, she turned around.

"P-please take care from now on, alright?"

She blundered her way out and disappeared. Yanked away from that wonderful dream and back to reality, I noticed the gawking crowd. Half of our classmates' eyes had followed her, the other stayed with me. I walked away from there as fast as I could, forgetting my lunch.

I had so many questions about her, about the... monster.

Two days ago, I woke up in the middle of the night to a strange noise coming from the outside. I looked out of my window and saw something standing in front of my home, something that looked like a living collage of animal, mechanical and architectural pieces, shifting and coalescing into each other.

It hurt to look at it, to try and make sense of its twitching shape, but I couldn't take my eyes away, I couldn't move at all. I wanted to scream, to run away, but all I could do was watch as it dragged itself closer.

That thing had also been real.

School ended and I made my way to the exit. The world seemed like such a strange place now. I wondered if there were more people like her out there, or if it was just her against more of those things. I was looking over the school gates, at the towering buildings in the horizon, I could hear the hubbub of the city, and I wondered how many more living nightmares were hiding out there.

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"Are you feeling alright?"

A soft, familiar voice broke my trance. I turned to my right and was greeted by a pair of rose-colored eyes, looking at me with deep concern.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, why do you ask?"

"You were standing all by yourself here in the middle of the road, looking at nothing. I thought..." she stopped herself right before she said too much, "Never mind that, how are you feeling?"

I suddenly felt really embarrassed, "I swear I'm fine, I was just thinking about, you know..."

Her eyes widened a bit, she looked quite embarrassed herself. "If it's about what happened in the cafeteria" she suddenly started, a light flush drawing across her face, "I-I'm really sorry about that. I didn't mean to make it weird! I didn't know you studied here too, I never get to see people again after I save them and-"

She stopped herself again, but this time she had said too much, and we both knew it. My questions kept mounting, but I decided to start with the most important one.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Kaname Madoka" she gently replied, "and you?"

"I'm Satou Haruto...thanks again for... everything"

There were too many people around us. She looked very uneasy. Clearly, she wasn't up for a talk, at least, not in front of this many people. Normally, I wouldn't have been so bold, but I needed to know more. I didn't even give myself the time to think things through, I acted on pure impulse alone and just asked.

"Can I get your phone number?"

I said it loud enough to get some people to turn around. I could feel my own face turning red under the scrutiny of all those eyes, "I just want to know more about what happened the other day."

"Of course!" she said as she pulled out her phone from her bag, she was trying to get it done as fast as possible, "Give me your number and I'll add you."

We began walking towards the exit together, in total silence, looking straight ahead as if the other weren't there. I thought we'd reach the exit together, and then we'd have another opportunity to talk, but three girls were already waiting for her.

"Oh, but if it isn’t the most popular girl at school!" her friend with short blue hair said with a teasing tone, "Who's the lucky guy, huh? I've never seen him before"

"Oh, you should have seen them in the cafeteria!" another  friend with long, olive-colored hair continued teasing us in a melodramatic manner, "I had only seen such passion in TV dramas!"

"No, it's nothing like that!" Madoka was getting really bothered by her friends' remarks. I didn't know what to say other than to let out a little awkward laugh.

Her other friend, a dark-haired girl with red glasses, just looked at us. She didn't say anything at all, but she looked somewhat disappointed, sad.

I felt completely out of my depth. I didn't know if they knew about Madoka's power. Maybe she wanted to keep it a secret from them, maybe there were all in the know. Maybe they were all the same.

"E-excuse me" I managed to force out of my throat, "I need to get going. I'll see you tomorrow"

"What, you're not even gonna introduce yourself?" the blue haired girl continued teasing me as I walked away. I could hear their laughter, their attention now turned exclusively to Madoka.

I got home and immediately picked up my phone. After that blunder, though, I didn't feel so confident anymore. Still, if I wanted to get to the bottom of things, I had to talk to her. As soon as I arrived home, I got a message from her.

"Hey Satou-kun. Meet me tomorrow after school at the exit."

I quickly replied, "Hey Kaname-san. Sure."

I was wondering what else to say, then I got another message.

"Please, don't mention anything. Not at school, not here. Let's talk tomorrow somewhere else."

That really narrowed it down. "Of course. Good night". Almost immediately I got a reply, "Good night", and that's all she wrote.

I couldn't catch any sleep that night. I'm not sure if it was the anxiety it caused me to think about that monster, or the excitement of seeing her tomorrow.