Chapter 1: Arrival Twenty minutes passed since the bell rang. Everyone had already exited the room, including the teacher, which left me as the only person currently occupying the room. The school day had ended the moment the bell rang, which meant that those same students who had left the room twenty minutes ago also left the building entirely. Silence. It was the one time of day when silence was present. And I would often use this time to clean the room. *Ding* A sudden sound. A simple sound. It was the sound of a bell. Random in all its randomness, and yet, somehow, it felt systematic. Like it was on purpose. Like it had a purpose. Of course, with me being human—or rather, I guess it would be more fair to say a creature with the sense of sound given the animals lower in the food chain would also have intrigue upon hearing such an event—curiosity is sure to strike. I lowered the desk I held with two hands as my eyes scanned the room. Not in a frantic manner, but more so in a wondering manner. That was when my eyes caught it. There they were—that mysterious person I had been seeing in my dreams for years now. Only this time, they didn’t feel illusory or dream-like. They felt real. Like skin, flesh, and bone real, and yet, it seemed as if they formed completely out of thin air. There was no sound at their entrance, and there were no noticeable changes in the environment to insinuate some form of entry either. It’s like they were summoned here. I blinked once. Then twice. Then thrice. This had no effect on the individual's presence. Standing at the other end of the room, just behind the pyramid-shaped formation of stacked desks, was a person with a rather large sun hat whose brim shadowed their entire body. A single white ribbon was tied around the hat, with the end of the ribbon draping far down the back of the sun hat, nearly touching the floor. Their face was left a complete mystery as they wore a simple white mask with only two slits in it. One for their right eye and one for their mouth. No hair could be seen. [Was it tucked into their sun hat? Or maybe they just have little to no hair.] Shifting my gaze to their physique, I noticed that this person seemed to be on the skinnier side, with arms that made a normal-sized school uniform look oversized. Speaking of school uniforms, this person seemed to be wearing a combination of both the male and female uniforms. Above their torso, they opted for wearing the female uniform, while below their torso, they opted for the male uniform. A man? They couldn’t be—at least not physically. Strangely enough, the same could be said for the female gender. A demi-human? No, that is also not possible—at least not from a logical, nonfiction standpoint, I think. Do demi-humans exist? I pinched myself. This was indeed reality. [Who is this strange individual?] "You are aware that the bell has rung, right?" I asked while scratching the back of my head. "..." No response was given, unless I'm counting no response as a response. If that is the case, then would it be idotic for me to regard their silence as their reply? "You know it’s rude to stand there and stare without introducing yourself?" "…" As if to spite me, they continued to stand and stare. "You know it’s rude to stand there and say your first name?" A smug grin grew on my face. [I know this will get them!] "…" The same response. No response. [Damn it! I was certain that would get them to speak!] I stood in place, tapping my finger against my chin as I dove deep into my thoughts. My head was cocked to the side slightly as I continued to ponder. "My name is Oki Oshi. I am a senior here and often stay after to help clean the room." I spoke while gesturing to myself. I thought that the best way to gain an introduction was to simply give one. Now, while it may have been a bit brief, it was an introduction nonetheless, which meant that the burden of introduction was now completely on them. I hoped this would work and even had some part of me believe that it might. Of course, with me being me and my luck being my luck, this turned out to not work. [A mute person. They had to be! There is no way someone who is probably my age is this rude! Their parents have to have taught them some form of introductory manners!] Suddenly, as if beyond all comprehension of reality, the person made some kind of movement. It was with their right hand. [Why their right hand? Were they dominant with their right hand?] They raised their right hand, which was previously dangling by the side of their waist, to the inside of the jacket of their school uniform. Their hand moved around blindly as if they were searching for an item stored in between their jacket and shirt. Within the span of eight seconds, their hand stopped, and I could notice their fingers begin to ball from under their jacket. They were gripping something. My mind sifted through the possible items they could have hidden within the thin space separating their jacket from their shirt. [A pencil? A piece of paper? A porn magazine? I mean, they are around my age, so it wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary. Besides, it‘s completely normal! Wait, no! Looking through one would be normal, but carrying one around would be completely unusual! They would be asking to be called a pervert, or worse… a pedophile! The worst title one could be bestowed!] Before I could continue my train of thought, their hand began retracting from under their jacket. And kept retracting. And kept retracting. And kept retracting. What I saw when they had fully retrieved the item from their jacket left me wide-eyed and wide-mouthed. Held roughly one foot away from their body at a height of three feet was a… large feather?! A three-foot. Large. Feather. [What bird could that have possibly come from?! Only a dinosaur would possess such a large feather, and everyone knows dinosaurs don’t exist anymore!] Both shocked and confused, I, as any normal person would have, questioned the person‘s possession of such an item. "Why do you-" Before I could finish my question, the person dashed forward towards me. Their speed was nothing short of superhuman. They broke past the pyramid-stacked desks as if they were mere building blocks, and in less than a microsecond, they cleared about 22 feet of space between us. Upon reaching my body, the person gave me no time to react properly, slicing the air in an upward motion using their abnormally large feather as a weapon. Leaving my brain on autopilot during this fight or flight moment, my body instinctively moved back as I was able to successfully push backwards off my right foot. This opened up about two feet of space between us. Unfortunately, due to the instability of my landing, I ended up tripping over my own feet and falling onto the ground bottom first. I stared daggers at my now enemy as I gave heavy breaths out of anxiety and fear. My heart was pounding so hard that I could feel each individual pump through my chest. If my reaction time had been anything more than 125 milliseconds long, I surely would have been cut. I was always proud of my ability to react quickly. Luckily, that skill came in very handy at a time like this. My enemy lowered the feather from the air and stepped forward, holding what felt like the most menacing gaze despite being unable to even see their eyes. Not even the eye with the mask slit was visible. Although I had cleared their attack unscathed, I was now in a very compromising position and knew that if I didn’t do anything at all to try and escape this unfortunate situation, I would surely be cut by their next attack. [Could I get up and make a run for it?] Judging by the distance that separated us, which was not that wide, I knew that if I were to take the time to stand, I‘d for sure be an easy target to hit. So, to stall for time, I decided to crawl as fast as I physically could. Backwards. I crawled backwards. My body mimicked that of the crab-like dynamic stretch P.E. classes would participate in only without the use of my legs. All my strength came from my not-so-muscular-looking arms. Adrenaline was clearly carrying my weak physique. [Should I protect myself with something that could withstand that behemoth of a bird feather?] Thinking this could be my way of defense, I desperately looked around at my surroundings. Legs of desks. It was all I could see in front of and around me. [Damn my cleanliness! If I hadn’t cleaned up, something I could have used as defense would have still been on the ground!] Understanding that defending myself with some kind of object was out of the question, I turned towards utilizing the only defense strategy I had left. I threw my right hand into the air, palm facing flat towards my perpetrator, and began to plead for my life. "L-listen! I have uh..." My words were stuttering quite heavily as I began to start listing things I have. That was the plan. To give them everything valuable on my person. That was indeed the plan. Keyword, was. Using my left hand, which was currently being used to help keep my body in an upright position, I frantically patted my pockets, hoping to feel for anything that had a defining shape from outside my pants. Valuable or not, I would hand them anything to spare me. After patting my pants from left to right, my heart sank. I was still in the field of job hunting. When added to the now very unfortunate fact that I was never given an allowance of any kind, I quickly understood that I had, in a literal sense, nothing to give. Valuable or not. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero! My synonyms ran quite short. Realizing that I had no more defensive moves within my arsenal, I stuck out both hands, palms flat and open with spread fingers, and waved my hands in a surrender-like fashion. This had not halted the person in the slightest, as they continued to make minute advancements towards me. Each step of theirs causing immense fear and anxiety to surge through my body. "Wait! P-please, I don’t have anything to give! I beg! Please spare my life!" *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* The sound of each step slowly began masking the sound of my heavy breathing as well as the pleas from my frightened soul. I crawled backwards until I felt my back knock against the legs of a desk I stacked in front of the chalkboard. I was out of space. Completely out of space. Completely out of defensive ideas. I watched helplessly as the still-mysterious individual, who was clearly my new-found enemy, raised their weapon-like feather into the air. I prayed, or at least I began to, when I remembered the hypocrisy that would result from me of all people praying. All my life, I thought of those who prayed only when it convinced their lives as fake believers or people with a false sense of faith. This was especially prominent for an atheist such as myself. If I were to go against my own beliefs just to try and survive, then I've ultimately become the people I‘ve criticized all my life. I would be a hypocrite. I tried to formulate some type of cohesive sentence together, yet with such a wobbly lip and fearful mind, trying to come up with eligible words was near impossible. All that could escape my mouth were the sounds of a helpless and frightened creature facing certain injury or… death. Without letting their arm stop completely at its peak, the person sliced in a downward motion, cutting the air cleanly as their feather cleaved straight through my left shoulder like a hot knife cutting through a stick of warm butter. In an instant, my arm had been lopped off entirely, along with the sleeve of my uniform. "ARGHHH!" I yelled in sheer pain. I forced my eyelids together as I clenched my teeth tightly. Pain. Searing hot pain. Boiling hot pain. My breathing became fast and sporadic. I wrapped my right arm around my body, gripping the open wound at my shoulder where my arm had been lost as my body instinctively recoiled into a ball. A mixture of jagged bone, room-temperature blood, and several severed nerves were felt upon immediate contact with my wound. My insides were exposed. Upon feeling my innards, I immediately released my grip on the open wound and instead chose to grab at the top of my shoulder near my wound rather than touching the open wound itself. The blood that painted my palm from the wound stained the shoulder of my uniform as I grabbed it tightly. [It hurts… It hurts so bad. Why… Why did it... have to happen? Why did it... have to happen... to me?] I wondered if I was going to die. Of pain or of blood loss. Which would take my life first. After the initial shock of pain subsided, I slowly opened my eyes. The pain was still there, but it wasn‘t as bad as when I had initially gotten my arm cut off. Still painful, but not completely unbearable anymore. As my eyes opened slowly, I noticed something that looked familiar streaked across the floor like an uneven line. Because of the up-and-coming lightheadedness I felt, my vision wasn’t completely fixed, meaning that most of what I had seen was quite blurry. To counteract this blurriness, I squinted my eyes and strained my vision on the streak across the floor. Red. It was the color of red. [Huh? I… thought there were… no red… floor tiles.] The color differed greatly from the bland tiling of the school floor. [Did I… miss a spot… while cleaning?] As my eyes slowly adjusted, I noticed that the red line was thick and had the properties of a liquid state, as it had no definite shape but a definite volume. I followed the liquid up with my eyes, starting at where it was closest to my body, which was by my left shoulder. Trying my hardest to keep eye contact with the liquid, my eyes desperately weaved in and out of blurriness. The liquid traveled up about three feet from my body before I noticed a pool of it surrounding a still object lying on the ground. The object looked familiar. Really familiar. As if I‘d known it all my life. It was long and looked to have a bend in it at its middle. The object seemed to be wrapped in some type of dark blue fabric; however, upon closer inspection, I‘d guess "dressed in" would be a better description for it. It was like a sleeve. [A... sleeve? Wait, is that… my arm?] My arm. That is my arm! Lying there completely still! Completely severed from my body! Seeing my severed arm lying limp on the ground had greatly unnerved me. It was so unnerving that the desire to vomit trumped any desire I may currently hold. "My… arm…" *hrk* After barely letting two words escape my mouth, I felt that need to vomit build up in my throat until I could eventually no longer hold it in. A mixture of green and yellow liquid spewed out of my mouth, with chunks of previously eaten food following soon after. Unfortunately, due to my awkward positioning on the ground, at least half of the vomit landed right on my uniform. [Aw man. If this person... doesn’t… kill me… then… my mother surely… will.] Of course, like all puking incidents, more vomit is going to show up quickly after the first spill. And that’s exactly what happened. More vomit. Less in its volume, but the same in its grotesque matter. Green, yellow, and chunks of randomized colors mixed within. This "puking period" went on for another two rounds before my stomach had no more to give. Soon I was found trying to throw up seemingly nothing. "As expected and as usual. You didn’t put up any sort of fight." A voice appeared. The voice sounded doubled, almost as if two people were speaking simultaneously. The voice of a male and the voice of a female. Their words echoed as if they themselves were inside a cave. "Look at you. You‘re a mess." They continued on. They continued to shame me for the pitiful person I am. It was neither fair nor right, but what was I to do? Besides, isn't it always taught that this world isn't fair anyways? I guess I just wasn't chosen by the grace of the universe. I watched as my attacker bent over to retrieve my arm. They examined it for only a second before stowing it away inside that very deceiving-looking jacket they wore. After storing away my arm, they stepped forward towards me, still holding that behemoth of a feather. "I shall give you one task to complete. Understand who it is that I am, and your world shall come to ruin." [Huh? What… are they talking… about?] Offering no further explanation, they raised their feather into the air. Suddenly, a familiar feeling arose from within me. [This feeling. It feels… different from… when they… first struck me. I feel like… I‘ve felt it… before. Near death… and… from this… exact same person…] "Goodbye." Those were the last words I heard before my vision went completely black.