Dreamland ch. 0 [E]

Chapter 0: Premonition

The first rays of sunlight show up over the horizon, penetrating the darkness covering Onigashima. The lights of the will 'o' wisps fade away into thin air. In one instance, light engulves Onigashima, sunlight reflects upon the sea surface into countless shiny golden scales; a bird looks far off, as if overwhelmed by the beautiful outfit the Sun has given its dear sister, and then suddenly turns around and takes off into the sky.

The heavenly island of Onigashima is home to many species of youkai – mystic creatures only known to modern humans through myths. Here in youkai's heaven, youkai regardless of species all live together peacefully. It is hard to believe that this island, until two thousand years ago; was dominated by the Oni tyranny.

The flying bird stops above a Japanese style mansion, makes a full circle in the air and lands on a tree in the garden. The puddles left by the rain yesterday were also sparkling in sunlight. Behind the white sliding door, a maiden figure is resting. Is it the light that makes that figure more beautiful, no, that can't be the case; it is her long brown hair and white skin that make even the lifeless light become more beautiful, making them dance to every of her breath. That isn't all, her beauty also includes the cat ears and two tails, the pride of a nekomata.

The beauty figure moves, the flock of birds take off in surprise. "Nyaa~" she yawns lazily, the tails dancing.

One must certainly have gone through this feeling: After a nightmare, a dream that reminds you of painful past, all that is left when one wakes up is faint sadness and an indescribable empty feeling.

For nekomata, the rainy season's humidity is least looked forward to. Her favourite tatami floor in the Japanese room also became wet; she moved to the western room and fell asleep without noticing.

Shutting the door, she goes along the corridor to the main room. The mansion is designed in Japanese fashion, the room she just left was only just added after she moved in. Ten years ago, when her parents passed away in an unfortunate accident, she came to be a member of the Houzuki family and this place also became her home.

-Are you up? Come and have breakfast. We have school today.

An irresistibly  delicious scent and his smiling face greets her when she steps into the living room. To the master's order, a little monster - his shikigami comes and puts a cup of warm milk on the table in front of her when she sits down.

"At least get in the bed when you sleep. You always catch a cold at this time of the year" his complaints sound strangely soft to her. Bringing the cup of milk to her lips, she looks up at the chestnut-haired man turning his back to her. Having finished its mission, the shikigami comes back to its master's side. Just like her, there are two ears on top of his head, but of a different kind.

Houzuki Shiki is his name. Houzuki Shiki - four out of ten transformations a shapeshifting youkai can achieve; the heir to the Houzuki clan, one of the most powerful clan on Onigashima. In her oldest memories, they had been together.

-Yukiko...?

Shiki calls her name, but before he can turn back, her arms are already wraped around his tail. "Unyaa~"

Just like with nekomata and kitsune, a tanuki youkai's tail is the symbol of his power. Unlike kitsune, however; the size of a tanuki's tail symbolizes their magical power. While nekomata and the likes have to deal with the humidity of the rainy season, Shiki's tail is strangely dry and fluffy.

Nekogami Yukiko - the lucky child, is what she is called. Yukiko isn't the name her parents gave her, she had forgotten that name. Yukiko became her name ten years ago, a wizardy to seal away her misfortune. The magic was too great for a child, even while she is a youkai, she had forgotten everything from ten years ago. However, Yukiko doesn't mind, she now has an undetachable partner who will give her memories she would never forget.

***

When they leave home, the sun is already high up. All that's left from the rain last night is the puddles on the road, droplets on leaves and in bushes. A snail lazily looks around, as if enjoying the sparkling droplets on top of a leaf.

Yukiko walks next to Shiki, her steps dancing. The kimono she was wearing was replaced by an uniform with a miniskirt. Shiki has also taken off the apron he wore in the kitchen. Sometimes she skips some steps ahead of him and looks back, he patiently smiled.

-Yukiko, hurry up, second period will start soon.

Each time he says that, she smiled as if reading his mind:

-But you let your shikigami took our attendance, right?

Houzuki is one of the noble families on Onigashima; although Shiki is reluctant to admit, they're respected even inside the academy. Even if they did skip some periods, no one would question. Shiki doesn't want to take advantage of it however, just for today he had ordered two transformed shikigami to take their attendance. "This lazy cat!" he raises a fist, pretending to hit Yukiko, who pretends to get scared. The two joke around like that for a while.

All of a sudden, they heard a scream from the other side of the hill. Sensing something bad, Shiki gives Yukiko a signal, then runs toward the direction of the scream.
The person who screamed turns out to be a petite girl with bright red hair. She wears the same uniform as Yukiko. She has her back against a wall, on the other side, a creature that looks half like a dog and half like a wolf bares its fangs in intimidation, the two tails standing up, ready to attack.

Shiki instantly understands what is going on. He cried out to redirect the beast's attention toward himself, on the other hand, he gets into defensive stance, in one gesture of his hand, the amulets hidden inside his sleeves are ready in his hand. "Inugami", he calls out the shikigami's name, immediately, the ancient letters written on the amulets start to shine a golden light. As soon as they leave his hand, a dog-like creature two times bigger than the beast with three tails appears and lets out a big roar. Hearing the cry of a higher ranked beast, the initially aggressive monster escapes with its tail between its legs.

-Are you alright?

The small girl hesitates before Shiki's outstretched hand. Now that he looks closely, not only her hair, but her eyes are also scarlet. There is something much deeper inside those eyes, it is as if she is not looking at him, but at something distant. A wise man once said one could get lost inside a beautiful girl's eyes, that is so true.

-Shiki!

Shiki turned toward Yukiko when she called his name, not noticing the petite girl twitching at the name. Before he can say anything, she is already running away, some seconds later she is already far away. "What was the matter?" Yukiko asks worriedly. Shiki laughs:

-Nothing, just a lost puppy. Let us go!

***

The sun sinks away beyond the horizon, darkness engulves Onigashima. The golden sunlight is replaced by moonlight and blue lights from the will 'o' wisps. The night on Onigashima is not like anywhere in the world. Downtown, the streets are still bright with lights from the shops and stalls for night eaters.

In contrast to the noisy atmosphere in the town, the Houzuki manor is totally quiet. A shadow steps up from the pond, looks around hastily, then hurries toward the sanctuary. The blue moonlight can't hide her cherry hair. Her hands are holding something that resembles a small knife. Quietly ran along the empty corridor, she slowly opens the sliding door to Shiki's room. In the quiet night, she can only hear the sound of his breaths on the bed in a corner of the room. Slowly approaching him, she unsheathed the knife - it is not an ordinary knife, but a knife enchanted by dozens of amulets; even a low ranked youkai can sense the amount of magic stored in it. As if to make sure, she holds the knife with both hands and raises it above her head.

"Sorry..."

The girl says those words in her breath as she points the knife toward him, her hair swaying in the gentle wind. Her breath stops, as if to cut off those words, she swings the knife down...