Chapter 8: Chapter 7 – A Childhood Friend

"Good morning, Sayoko."

A familiar voice rang the entire park. The source of the sound smiled with a hint of bittersweet expression as she walked closer towards me. 

My perception and vision suddenly tunneled into the figure in front of me. I couldn't sense my surroundings, they all turned hazy and dark. The sun that started to rise couldn't even penetrate its light into my field vision. I couldn't see anything except her. 

While wearing a standard middle school uniform, the girl walked closer towards me as she smiled beautifully. Her natural black hair swayed with natural prettiness as the wind blew past right by. 

Clack! 

The sound of metallic stuff fell onto the ground. Before I realized it, I lost the grip of the handgun I was holding. Rather, it's not just the handgun, I didn't even realize I had fallen onto my knees pathetically. 

I was at a loss on what to say. There were so many different things I wanted to say, however my mind couldn't form a single coherent sentence. 

"Why did you leave me, Sayoko?" The figure spoke as her eyes cried in tears, as she walked closer to me. 

I was staggered at her questioning that I thought of millions of different ways of answering, yet not a single response could come out from my mouth. I tried to voice something, anything, however my throat was cut by a sense of helplessness. 

"Why… Why did you kill me?" The girl asked, while taking one step closer to me. 

"I didn't kill you! You know that! I… I…" I screamed on top of my lungs. I tried to answer as loudly as I could to calm my fast beating heart I couldn't control. I tried to continue, however no words could come out from my mouth. The girl smiled at my stuttering response with one step closer. 

"You liar. You already know deep inside, you should've died too." The girl smiled painfully. 

I couldn't take off my gaze at the slowly approaching girl as she took a step closer. I noticed her right hand holding a familiar looking knife, the knife had a tint of blood in it. The girl finally stopped after she was one meter away from me. 

I could sense time had stopped. I couldn't feel everything around me anymore. The more I looked at the sight of the girl the more dissonant I felt. She was the only one I could call a friend. 

The girl looked at me with kind eyes. Her smile struck the deepest part of my soul, it was a smile I always missed. I noticed she raised her knife, however I was too weak to do anything. I couldn't muster the strength to lift a single finger.

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I stared at the knife the girl was holding. A flash of memories bombarded my hazy mind, of times when you were there, the days we used to rebel against the world. We grabbed the knife, games, snacks and left everything behind. 

"It's all your fault." The girl said. 

I smiled at the girl reflexively. Those were the words I used to listen to a lot. Even then, we promised to ourselves, nothing was ever our fault, this world was the one at fault. 

Tears started forming under my eyes. I couldn't care less about anything anymore, this had always been how it should've ended. There was nothing I could do to make it up anymore. I was too naive and frail to follow you. 

"I'm sorry, Akemi."

I closed my eyes in resignation.

A clicking sound of steel could be heard beside me, until suddenly, Bang! A loud noise filled the park with sudden color and gunpowder smell. Just as I was about to open my eyes, a gentle warmth of hands and soft breasts welcomed me. 

"There, there. I don't know what you just experienced, but it was just an illusion. Everything's okay now," A calm voice reached out to me. 

I opened my eyes to see the sight of a gentle Hinako hugging me softly. I slowly took a deep breath as I looked around my surroundings. 

Everything went back to normal. I could see the park I was in, how the wind felt blowing right past me, and how warm the sunlight struck my skin. 

Seeing me calm down, Hinako smiled as she continued to pat me, "There, there, good girl."

I saw the trace of green liquid smeared Hinako's clothes and her face. Just before I wanted to ask something, I could see a long and tender snake the size of a gardening hose; Its inside was completely blown away into smithereens as green liquid came out of the hole inside of its body. The snake also had small beautiful wings around its body. 

The messy looking Hinako continued to hug me. Her hands were trembling, yet she tried to be as gentle as possible. Her left hand rubbed my unkempt hair as she tried to comfort me.

Hinako's right hand was holding the DI42 I dropped a while ago. She looked at me with kind eyes, "Sayoko, are you okay? Were you hurt somewhere? The winged snake used an illusion to inflict its opponent's deepest trauma, so please tell me if you're not okay," Hinako said while hugging me tightly. I could sense a change of pitch from her voice, she sounded lonely and scared. 

I sighed, and answered, "I'm fine, it was just… A childhood friend."