“… -jo! Hey, Ichijo!”
Someone yelled out Akira’s name, causing him to snap awake.
“I don’t want to… die?”, he said in a loud voice. Taking in
his surroundings, he slowly closed his mouth.
It was his desk. A computer monitor sat in the middle of it,
a collection of empty energy drink cans piled up in the corner. A mess of
sticky notes covered the bezels, and on either side, there was a row of
textbooks he had bought for work.
The monster with its gaping maw and blood tripping from its
lips was not there.
His surroundings were familiar to him, he was in his seat in
the office he worked at.
“Wha…?”
Akira muttered dazedly and looked around.
And then he saw it – his leg.
The leg that should have been torn off and eaten by the
minotaur.
The leg, that he was sure was lost, was there.
“…Why?”
He reached down to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
He touched his calves in disbelief, feeling his hands
brushing against his legs. The sensation of his toes moving around in his
leather shoes made Akira realize that his lost legs were now there.
I thought my legs were eaten by that monster. But they’re
sill here? Was that all a dream then?
No. Even if that was the case, something wasn’t right.
The pain, the suffering, the fear, was all most definitely
real. It wasn’t something you could dream about, especially so vividly.
Then, Ichijo heard a voice calling out to him.
“Ichijo! Are you even listening to me? Hey!”
Akira looked towards the source of the voice.
There was a woman in a suit with long black hair standing
there, her brows furrowed, giving Akira a piercing gaze.
Akira knew who she was.
Nao Nanase. She was a senior of Akira’s whom he had known
since middle school, and also his supervisor, working as the head of Section 1
of the Development Department that Akira belonged to.
When Nao saw that Akira had noticed his presence, she let
out a sigh of relief and opened her mouth.
“You finally noticed me. You’ve been acting strange lately.
What’s wrong? Are you sick?
There was a casual and easy-going tone in her voice.
Nao only ever spoke to him like that when no one else was
around. Akira knew that she would only revert to her old tone of voice when she
was the only one around, as not only were they boss and subordinate, but were
also old friends.
Since she was using her more casual tone, Akira guessed that
there was on one left in the office building but the two of them.
“No, I’m not felling that well, or rather, I had a strangely
realistic nightmare…”
“Nightmare? Were you asleep at your desk?”
“…Maybe.”, Akira responded with a small voice.
What’s happening? That was way too real to be a dream,
but my legs are right there…
Since they were still there, it must have just been an
abnormally vivid dream.
“You seem exhausted.”, Nao said with a concerned expression.
“I know that the deadline for your project is approaching,
but… you don’t want to end up collapsing from overworking yourself.”
As Nao spoke, she let out a big sigh and opened her mouth.
“Ichijo, you should go home for the day. You’re not going to
tell me that you were planning to continue working until the last train, are
you?”
The words that came out of her mouth made Akira hold his
breath.
I… I know these words. And I know what she’s going to say
next.
“It’s important to meet your deadlines, but you should also
take care of your body.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this…
“…What?”, he muttered under his breath.
What the hell is going on?
We had this conversation just a few minutes ago. I remember
it clearly.
Is this real? Is this some kind of hallucination I’m
experiencing before I die?
“Chief.”
“Hmm?”
“Can you slap me?”
“Eh?”
Nao gave Akira a confused look.
“I want to check if I’m dreaming or not.”
“You… want to see if this is a dream? You’ve been acting
weird since I came in. Are you sure you’re alright?”, Nao said worriedly.
“That’s enough. Go home for the day. I’ll be leaving soon
too.”
She patted Akira on the shoulder and went back to her desk
to continue preparing to leave.
“…”
Akira stared at her bewilderedly.
That’s all he could do.
I don’t know what’s going on anymore…
It would have made sense if his experience was just some
twisted nightmare, but the pain of his clawed open arm, the feeling of his
swollen, bleeding lips, even the pain of his twisted shoulder, and especially
the pain he experienced when he was separated from his lower half, it all felt
too real to Akira.
“…What’s going on?”
It would only be a few minutes until Akira learned the
answer to that question
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