Maladaptive Daydreaming..? (pt. 4)

[3RD PERSON POV]

"Katsumi?" The thought lingered around the mysterious woman, looking at the man who saved her life with a somewhat confused expression on her face.

In her mind, she was still in the arms of an unknown man, bewildered by the man's utterance of this person's name. "Katsumi?" Her name rang a bell, sparking countless questions about this man's identity and his place of origin.

She wouldn't have cared had he not mentioned a name that seemed familiar to her.

Right as she was about to utter a word, he disintegrated, his body turning to ashes as the gust of the wind blew him away. He completely vanished in front of her face, fading away in the blue sky without leaving a trace.

Her confused trance caused her to have a sluggish reaction time as she fell hard, hurting her left foot in the process of landing awkwardly on the ground. She sat on the log that was slashed down by one of her blades to properly take care of her foot. But, instead of the conventional first aid kits on the other world, she used her hands to caress her foot, activating a magical phenomenon that made her hands glow as luminous as a bright torch at night. 

"Is he perhaps a guiding spirit?" As she was healing her foot, she began thinking of the numerous possibilities of what and who he was supposed to be. She reached a reasonable conclusion that he must have been a guiding spirit wandering around the forest east of the Kingdom of Regis, one of the five great Kingdoms of the Continental Plane. 

Despite the way things have turned out, however, a lingering thought still remains in her head. She was not spending her energy thinking about the possible explanations behind the person who saved her, but the single word that she had heard from him.

"How does she know you?" She thought as she expressed her worry while looking around the area she had undoubtedly destroyed.

"I hope you're doing well."

[MASUMI's POV]

I couldn't bring myself to sleep after that encounter. I lost count of time,  so much so that it was already past six in the morning. The vibration of the phone underneath my pillow took me out of my abstruse thoughts—slowly got up from my bed with a tiresome expression on my face.

It's not like I was not trying to sleep, but because I felt a bit anxious. The near-death experience from those sharp blades, the terrifying grizzly bear, and the danger I felt when I was with Katsumi.

You know what?

Even I was not convinced; I was not so sure if that person—the one who had the absolute intent to kill someone, was really her.

"Oh, shit. If that was her, then..." 

Does she want to kill me?

Would she remember me?

God forbid, what is going on?

[TIMESKIP: LUNCHTIME]

This time, I won't be eating at the cafeteria!

As for my food, I made one since I wasn't able to succumb myself to sleep earlier. 

"Yo! What's with you today?" As usual, Ken was eating with me with his bento. He already had raised an eyebrow on me, noticing something strange with my behavior today. 

He noted that I was extra vigilant when going in out of the class as if I was avoiding someone, especially when I went out to the bathroom.

"You were wearing a mask! If that's not enough, we're literally eating at the corner of the classroom! We aren't a detective, you know?!" He complained, but that was not my concern at the moment, as I was looking at the door, anxious about the person who was going to enter and leave our classroom.

"Did you, by any chance, just contract a phobia for beautiful girls?" He began teasing again as I irritatingly scowled at him. He chuckled and then continued to eat as if nothing had happened.

This guy...

Our attention was averted to a student who was yelling in the hallway adjacent to our classroom. My curiosity struck me, and I wondered what he was saying. His tone was not of concern, assuming that he was running away from something that was dangerous.

"Then why is he—"

And then, it hit me.

"MAKE A WAY! MAKE A WAY FOR HER! SHE'S COMING— HEY, MOVE ASIDE!"

Oh no.

"MAKE A WAY FOR NAGASAWA-SAN!"

OH NO.

"YO! THIS IS A FIRST!" I looked at Ken. "HER CLASSROOM IS AT THE OTHER BUILDING!"

There's no way this was just a coincidence.

"I wonder why— Hey! What are you doing? Don't you want to look at her and admire her at a close distance!?" "SHUT UP!" I hid under my table, urging Ken to go away. Ken was so confused.

"U-Uhm..." Silence had immediately conquered our room, gathering the attention of my classmates. That, of course, also applies to me.

That voice, the intonation and everything...

I looked at Ken as I saw his jaw drop.

No way.

"Is this, by any chance, Mrs. Kawasaki's scheduler?" Katsumi appeared out of nowhere, grabbing on our adviser's scheduler. 

The silence was so loud, it was terrifying knowing what I just got into.

...

WOAH!!!

Everyone in the classroom, including my old buddy Ken, was smitten and star-struck with her sudden appearance as my classmates went into an uproar.

Phew! I guess I'm safe.

I think.

"A-Ah, yeah... just leave it there..." A student told her to leave her belongings on her desk. My classmates immediately came up to her—which got me relaxed as I got up from my table, inadvertently not realizing that Katsumi was there.

"Ah..."

Ah, shit.

"Hey you..." I turned around slowly as I saw her...

Pointing at me...

With a blank, poker face.

As our eyes met, I was petrified.

My high school crush—I finally got her attention.

But this time around, I was NOT ready since circumstances have changed so much.

Instead of delight and joyousness, I felt so intimidated and scared of her.

"Are you..."

"Miyoshi Masumi?"