Prophetic Dreams and Reality

The classroom air was heavy like a damp rag, and strangely cold.

Even though it was break time, there were no boys goofing around or girls laughing at their phones.

The whole class seemed to huddle together in fear of some invisible something, an eerie sense of solidarity hanging in the air.

"… Hey, did you see it too?"

"Yeah. So it wasn't just me…"

Near my seat by the window, a group of girls were whispering together.

Their faces were uniformly pale, with deep dark circles carved under their eyes.

"It was super realistic. The schoolyard, like, melted into goo… and these green little people came crawling out."

"I dreamed the sky shattered. Like glass, with a crack. And then all these red eyes were peeking through…"

"Eww, what? That's the same as mine."

Their voices trembled.

It wasn't coincidence.

Nearly a third of the class, no, close to half, had seen "the same kind of nightmare" last night.

(… The reception has begun.)

I kept my textbook open while directing only my gaze toward them.

The dream content they described: green little people, shattering sky, red eyes.

None of it was fantasy. It was "prophecy."

The rising maso concentration had pushed the boundary to its extreme limit.

As a result, people with high sensitivity, those with high latent mana reserves, were unconsciously picking up information from the other side.

Like an old radio accidentally picking up a foreign broadcast due to interference.

Except that broadcast wasn't peaceful music. It was an announcement of slaughter and destruction.

"I'm scared… Can I go home today?"

"Even if we tell the teacher, they'll just say it's 'mass hysteria' and get mad…"

One of the girls looked ready to cry as her friends tried to comfort her.

I calmly observed them, making a mental list.

(Those three… especially the long-haired one who dreamed of the sky cracking. She might have the aptitude to become a mage.)

Being sensitive to maso meant having high potential.

Right now it was only a source of fear, but after the world changed, they might awaken as gifted.

Worth remembering.

I shifted my gaze out the window.

The sky was covered in that unpleasant leaden color again today.

But the sense of wrongness wasn't just the color.

(… They're gone.)

I scanned the schoolyard trees and the rooftops of the houses across the street.

No crows.

No sparrows either, no stray cats. All the animals I'd normally see had vanished completely.

Wild animals are more sensitive than humans.

They must have realized by instinct that this place would become the epicenter and scattered like baby spiders.

All that remained were humans who knew nothing, or weren't told anything.

Like livestock left in a slaughterhouse.

Slide.

The classroom door opened and homeroom teacher Satake walked in.

A veteran teacher in his fifties, but something was off about him today.

His tie was slightly crooked, and above all, greasy sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Ahem, take your seats. We're starting homeroom."

Satake's voice was strained.

Students sluggishly returned to their seats, but their movements were lethargic, their minds elsewhere.

"Recently… it seems strange rumors have been spreading."

Satake placed his hands on the lectern and surveyed the classroom.

I didn't miss that his hands were trembling slightly.

"Mass nightmares, the sky looking wrong… Don't be fooled by such occult nonsense. As the news said, these are temporary effects from geomagnetic disturbances. There's no harm to the human body."

A lie.

Words meant to convince himself more than anyone.

Maybe the teacher himself had seen something last night. Or perhaps a gag order had been issued in the staff room.

"You're exam students, so don't get distracted by such rumors. Focus on your studies… Understood?"

No one answered.

Normally there'd be halfhearted responses, but today only silence pressed down heavily.

Satake cleared his throat awkwardly and tried to open the attendance book.

Just then.

Clink.

A dry sound rang out as a piece of chalk slipped from Satake's hand and shattered on the floor.

It was probably just his hand slipping.

But at that sound, the entire class flinched and tensed their shoulders.

An overreaction as if they'd heard a gunshot.

"Ah, ahh… sorry. My hand slipped."

Satake hurried to pick up the chalk, nearly bumping his head on the corner of the desk.

A comical sight, but no one laughed.

They couldn't laugh.

The whole classroom felt like it was balanced on a taut wire. One loud shout might trigger a chain reaction of panic.

(It's at its limit.)

I quietly let out a breath.

Society as a system was surprisingly fragile.

Not a single monster had appeared yet, but inexplicable phenomena alone had pushed everyday life to the brink of collapse.

Two more days.

No, maybe even sooner.

Until this tension snapped.

"… Kurose."

From behind, Sakaki called out in a low voice.

He looked unwell too.

"I saw it too… A dream."

"What kind?"

"You were… covered in blood, laughing."

"…"

Without turning around, I let a faint smile cross my lips.

"Morbid dream."

"Yeah, totally… Please don't let it come true."

"I'll try."

Sakaki's "prophecy" might be the most accurate of all.

Being covered in blood was a certainty.

Though it wouldn't be my blood. It would be from the monsters I'd slaughter.

I looked out the window again.

Through a gap in the overcast sky, I thought I saw something like purple lightning flash for an instant.

Not a hallucination.

Something beyond the sky was pounding on the shell from the inside.

Knock, knock.

As if saying: Open up, I'm hungry.

The teacher's words no longer reached my ears.

My consciousness was already turned toward the other side.

The countdown wouldn't stop until the visions from dreams became reality.