7 Seven

"Quickly recover them so we can start closing this astral plane already," Yavin heard a female voice ordering someone. His consciousness was fading in and out.

Everything looked hazy, and his body felt heavy too. In a weird way, he was starting to get used to the comfort of the hard and dirty asphalt road as his body laid motionless on the ground.

Then he blackened out again.

His eyes opened again with hazy and blurry vision. He found some people wearing black cloaks picked up the body of Vanya. Then he felt his body being lifted.

"Where..are..you..taking me?" he muttered to the strangers.

Yavin heard someone coming over him. It was a girl wearing eyeglasses with black bob cut hair. She pressed her head closer to him and smiled.

"Don't worry, Yavin, you're safe now. Both of you are safe now," she said in a cheery tone.

How did she know my name? Who is she? And who are these people? he thought.

Yavin tried to move his mouth, but a groan simply came out of it. He heard the people around him muttering gibberish words as they escorted him and Vanya somewhere. Hopefully somewhere safe from the demon.

What happened to the demon? Did I kill it? Those were the last few thoughts before he could feel the darkness creeping into his mind again.

Then blackness again.

*****

Yavin was walking in an empty street. The same street where he'd met Vanya and the giant goat demon. He also observed that he was still wearing his school uniform.

Looking at the area, he couldn't find a single soul in the street and only the rustling of the leaves from nearby trees could be heard around the area. He pulled out his cellphone to check and call someone. When he tapped the screen, he found there were no bars for signal reception. He returned his phone in frustration and clicked his tongue.

"What now?" he muttered to no one.

Shaking his head, he tried pushing the door of a nearby store besides him. But then, he felt a small tremor on the ground.

He froze for a moment feeling the ground. Then another tremor came. But this time, it had stronger intensity than earlier.

The ground continuously shook then eventually Yavin heard a strong stomping sound. As it grew closer, the stores began to shake.

Then Yavin's body began to shake when he found a giant shadow coming over him. It continued to march closer at him, and that was when Yavin recognized it.

It was the giant goat demon. The demon smiled at him and opened its mouth.

Yavin was expecting a deafening howl, but what came out of it was a deafening sound of an alarm clock. It continued ringing and that was when he woke up.

Yavin quickly rose from the bed. He was gulping for air while his body was drenched in sweat.

He found himself back in his room. Or to be exact, back to the apartment studio he was renting when he started his senior year in Rockvale High. He left his parents' home since he wanted to get used to the feeling of independence once he starts college next year. His parents allowed it on the condition that he will regularly text them his whereabouts.

It was a small room with a study desk beside the bed and an eight-foot bookshelf filled with manga, comics, and fantasy books from his collection.

A few feet away from his bed was the door to his bathroom. He climbed out of his bed and went inside the bathroom. He immediately splashed his face with cold water and found himself staring at his face in the mirror. He was wearing a blue shirt and white pajamas.

Did I just dream all of it? he thought. He was no longer sure if he did really meet Vanya, the giant goat demon, and the three weird talking symbols. Because if they are real, how come he's back in his room.

There were no visible wounds or scratches could be found on his body, making his case that he just simply made them out of his imaginations. He turned on the shower and clean himself. After that, he changed to his school uniform. He found his cellphone on his study desk and found that he only had fifteen minutes left before school starts.

He cursed himself and hurried out of his apartment studio and climbed down the stairs of the apartment building.

*****

Yavin was zoning out during lectures. He was called out repeatedly by his teachers while his classmates just laughed at him. He just simply ignored them and looked vacantly at the window, staring at the clouds.

Everything felt so real when he remembered it. He tried during breaks to summon the magic that supposed defeated the goat demon. But then, he remembered what Vanya said that there is no magic in this world anymore. So the only way, he could try it on was to get back to the astral plane.

But that was only possible if those things really happened to him last night. He sighed heavily while ignoring the lecture of his teacher in front and gazed at the afternoon sky.

The afternoon bell rang ending the school hours. Everyone was chattering while picking their things while Yavin grabbed his bag and headed out of the room.

He strolled in the hallway then someone grabbed his shoulder, and that was he found a familiar face, Curt.

"Hey! You looked like you're thinking deeply about something," Curt asked while he slung his arm on Yavin.

Yavin just chuckled lifelessly at him. Curt caught this, and he appeared worried for his friend.

"Yavin, what's wrong?"

Yavin shook his head at him. "Nothing. Umm, Curt, I don't think I can come to the arcade center with you and Dani. I have something that came up."

Curt's brow arced. "Did something happened after we parted ways last night?"

Yavin was about to answer him. But then, he knew Curt wouldn't believe him if he told him what happened allegedly last night. He was even questioning himself if it was just a dream or what.

He just shook his head again and patted Curt on the back. Yavin waved at him leaving Curt with a concerned look plastered on his face.

Instead of climbing down the stairs, Yavin climbed up instead. After a few turns, he exited on the rooftop of the school building. Thankfully, there were no other students hanging out at the place right now.

This is his favorite place when he wanted to think. He could see from the distance that the clouds were turning to orange as the sun began to set.

The wind was howling with cold air since it was in the middle of August where the rainy season usually starts.

His phone suddenly chimed. He grabbed it from his pocket and found that Dani and Curt sent a message to him. They were both concerned about him, and if he needed to talk to someone he can always approach them. This made Yavin's smile.

He was lucky to have Curt and Dani as friends. Aside from the fact, they shared geeky preferences, they understand each other also.

Yavin came closer to the metal rails of the rooftop, observing from his position the afterschool activities on the school ground. There were some doing drills for football and other sports. While he could hear some chanting voices of the cheerleader squads as they rehearsed their dance steps.

"I hope you're not planning to jump off the building," said the voice behind him.

Yavin was startled at first then he recognized that voice. It was the same voice from last night. He turned around and found the red-haired girl wearing the same black uniform last night.

She was smiling at him while her long red hair was swaying behind her.

"Y-You're real!" he cried.

Vanya rolled her eyes at him. "Of course, I'm real! What? Did you forget already about last night? Usually, I always left a lasting im-" Vanya didn't finish her sentence as she felt the warm body of Yavin on her. He was hugging her tightly.

"Okay, what's h-happening?" Vanya appeared startled at the sudden turn of events.

Yavin released her from his embrace. "I thought I was going crazy! There were no telltale signs of what happened last night. Then, I just woke up in my apartment as if nothing happened."

"Well, if you found some telltale signs from last night, then our clean up division must be doing a very bad job. That's their job by the way to cover everything as if nothing happened. I'll explain further later," she explained.

"Okay. But how did you get up here? You're wearing a different school uniform, so I doubt they will just let you in."

"Of course, I used the astral plane to get here. Remember, the plane is exact replica of the physical world. So if you travel around the astral plane and turned off the warping device, you'll be left on the last place you've been in the astral plane."

"That's cool!"

Vanya could see in Yavin's expression that he was really pleased on seeing her. Then, Yavin scratched lightly his left cheek tentatively.

"So why are you here, by the way?"

"Oh, that's simple. You're being summoned by the academy, so I'm here to escort you," Vanya replied.

"What?!" Yavin cried in shock.

"They will explain later. But for now, we have to go now. They are waiting for you," Vanya turned her back and pulled something from her pocket.

"Hey, Vanya. I think we haven't formally introduced ourselves."

Vanya turned around again with her brows creasing. "Huh?"

Yavin offered his right hand to her. "I'm Yavin Poder. Please take good care of me!"

She looked at Yavin's waiting hand and looked at his face next. Vanya just simply shook her head. She grabbed his hand and shook it. "Vanya. Vanya Noir."