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Description
                                               The Ominous Dream

     A young boy was playing in the hallway, tossing his tiny rubber ball. He was enjoying it so much, his laughs were echoing in the long hallway. But suddenly, the atmosphere became dark and ominous. The boy looked down to the end of the hall, where he saw light coming from one of the rooms.

     Dropping his ball, the little boy crawled slowly to the end of the hallway. He heard some mumbling coming from the room, since the door was just barely shut. But it sounded like his mother and father talking. When the child reached the door, he barely understood what his parents were saying. All he could tell were the tones at the time. His father's tone was sincere and apologetic and his mother's was sweet and understanding. A few seconds later, he heard a quiet moan come from his mother. Upset that his mother was in pain, the boy shoved the door open to find what appeared to be his father biting his mother's neck, drinking her blood.

     He was shocked by the scene in front of him. His mother wasn't upset, crying, shouting, anything. She was just standing there, letting what supposedly is his father drink the blood oozing out from her neck. The man who looked like his father had slight changes to his figure. He had shiny silver hair, blood red eyes with pupils like slits, and looked really buff.

     Once his 'father' was done drinking from his mother, the wound healed automatically leaving no scar. He looked at the boy on the ground, the look of sorrow on his face. The man walked over to the boy and kneeled next to him. He slowly raised his hand and rested it on the boy's forehead. The boy could tell that the man was saying something, but he couldn't understand what it was, because it had no sound to it. Word after word, the boy started to feel light headed. His vision went from blurry to black.

     When the boy woke up, he wasn't little anymore. He looked fifteen to sixteen years old, with a weird collar around his neck. Grabbing at the collar, he felt a cross hanging from a chain connected to the collar. Upon closer inspection, it was a tiny cross with a Rosario bead in the middle of it. Looking all around him, he realized he was in a black room, where the floor was glass and what was below him was an endless abyss. But he barely missed a mirror that was several yards away from him.

     Dashing over to the mirror, he looked at his reflection. What he saw made him scream; it was his reflection but his whole figure looked different. His hair changed to silver, just like the man, same with the eyes and his body. He looked like a younger version of the strange man. With one last look behind him, he noticed there were dead bodies on the floor, resembling his friends. Moka, Mai, Tsukune, Kurumu, everyone he knew was on the ground, blood oozing from their necks.

     The boy began to cry, knowing that all his friends were dead. A tear dropped from his eyes and hit the glass. Upon impact, the glass shattered to millions of pieces, leaving him and the dead bodies to fall in the endless abyss.

     Takashi jerked himself into a sitting position, breathing heavily. He had cold sweat, chills running down his back. Standing up, he staggered over to the sink and ran the water. Splashing water into his face a few times, he felt wide awake and more alert. Staring into the mirror, he realized it was only a dream; his body hadn't changed at all. With a sigh of relief, he staggered over to the alarm clock and read the time: it was 5:30 am. 'Well, better try to get another hour's worth of sleep before the day starts,' Takashi thought over in his mind.

     Lying down in his bed, he decided to take the time and fell asleep.

* * * * *

     During class, Takashi had a hard time focusing on his work. He was too tired to stay wake because of his stupid dream. When he went to bed, Takashi had the same dream. Only he was able to understand more and more what his parents are saying in the dream. While doing some work in his homeroom, he accidently blacked out in the middle of it.

     When it came to the room changing atmosphere, he understood most of what the man was saying. "I don't know dear I…want…more blood. I…need it…so I…bite you," the man said.

     "No, I don't want you…to bite me. Please…I don't want…you to bite me," she responded to him.

     After her response, Takashi would hear his mom moan from the pain. Shoving open the door, Takashi saw the same scene from before. After the man was done drinking from Takashi's mother, the man walked over to him. Putting his hand on Takashi's forehead again, Takashi heard him say, "…Sorry…you…I…hurt you. You will forget…anything happened."

     Just as the last of his words were said, Takashi blacked out in the dream. But before he could go further into the dream, he was woken up by Ms. Nekonome. "Takashi, are you alright?"

     Takashi looked around the classroom; everyone was staring at him weirdly, wondering if he was okay. Taking one last look at his friends, a look of concern on their faces, Takashi focused on his teacher again and replied, "Yeah, I'm fine. What happened?"

     Ms. Nekonome glanced around, then back at Takashi and said, "You were moaning in your sleep."

     "I'm sorry Ms. Nekonome. I didn't mean to disrupt class. But I'm fine."

     "Are you sure Takashi?" she asked, a look of deep concern on her face.

     He nodded to her and began doing his work. Ms. Nekonome slowly strolled back to her desk, still watching him. All of Takashi's classmates went back to their work, except for his friends. They all kept observing his every move, making sure he was alright.

     After class, Takashi headed for his math room. Kurumu and the others were pursuing him. Making sure he would stop, Kurumu stopped in front of him. Takashi stood there, smiling at her. "Hey Kurumu, how are you?" he inquired her.

     She hugged him, as well as Mai and Moka. Tsukune patted him on the back. "We're worried about you Takashi. You were acting really weird in class this morning. I couldn't believe that you would moan like that in your sleep. Then just to blow it off to the teacher as nothing made it more suspicious. What is really wrong?" she asked with a look of distress on her face.

     Takashi just smiled and answered, "There is nothing wrong. I was just having some night terrors at the moment. I'm fine, really."

     He hugged Kurumu, Moka, and Mai and continued, "You don't need to worry anymore. Everything is fine right now."

     As they approached his math class, Tsukune and the others had to leave for their other classrooms. But during this class period, Takashi fell asleep three times in class having the same dream. He freaked out his math teacher, Ms. Ririko so much, she sent him to the nurse's office to get some help. All the nurse could tell him to do was go to sleep and she knew that wouldn't help. So she kept him until lunch and let him be on his way when the bell rang.

     Briskly walking down the hall, he ran into Mai. "Hey Takashi!" she squealed, embracing him.

     "Hey," he said monotonously.

     She follows Takashi down to the lunch room, listening to him ramble to himself. "Why do I keep having the same stupid dream over and over again?" he hissed silently to himself.

     "Takashi, are you okay?" she asked.

     He ignored her, still talking to himself about the dream. Mai called out, "Takashi? Takashi?"

     Her calling his name brought him to a complete halt. He quickly spun around to face her and yelled, "What Mai?!"

     "I was just asking…if you were okay," she murmured.

     "Does it look like I'm okay?! I've been up most of the night, I'm tired, and you constantly whining to me doesn't help okay? For right now can you just leave me alone so I can figure this out?" he screamed.

     "But…but we were supposed to eat lunch-" she began.

     Takashi rolled his eyes. "I don't want to eat lunch with you right now. I want to be alone at the moment," he growled, quickly walking away.

     Mai stood there, silently sobbing. He never screams at her for anything. She was thinking that he didn't like her because of the way he acted. Taking his words as pushing her away, she stormed off to her dorm, weeping the whole way.

     Moka and Kurumu saw how Takashi treated Mai and were furious. It was unnatural for Takashi to be screaming at anyone, especially for him to yell at someone as nice and shy as Mai. They marched after Takashi to confront him.

     Searching the lunch room, they found him eating alone by the window. He was staring outside, observing the pitter patter of the rain hitting the hard and bone dry earth. Moka and Kurumu hurried over to his spot so that he wouldn't leave. Upon reaching him, the first thing Kurumu did was smack him right across the face. He glared at them, with a look of confusion on his face. "What the hell was that for?" he roared.

     "Don't take that tone with me mister," Kurumu pointed a finger in his face, "We saw the way you treated Mai out there. What the hell were you thinking?"

     Moka growled, "You made her cry saying the things you said. What the hell is going through your thick skull?"

     Takashi looked back into the past few minutes and realized what he had just done. He glances over at the cafeteria doors and responds, "I didn't mean to make her cry. I was just so frustrated by my lack of sleep and at the time, her asking me over and over was irritating me. I just wanted to be left alone for a little bit."

     The two girls started to feel sympathy for him. Kurumu hugged him and apologized. "She thinks you don't want to be friends with her anymore. You need to go talk to her, straighten things out between you two," Moka told him.

     Takashi nodded to the both of them and dashed out of the cafeteria and straight to the dorms. While running to Mai, he found a student stomping away from the dorms. He stopped quickly and asked, "What's wrong sir?"

     "A girl just shoved right past me. And when I went to confront her about it, she yelled at me and slammed her door shut in my face," the student barked, storming away from him.

     'That must've been Mai. I didn't expect this to happen,' he thought.

     Running up the stairs, he rushed past people to get to Mai's door. Knocking on her door, all he heard was some loud screaming and fumbling of the lock. She swung the door open. When she saw it was Takashi, she bared her teeth and said, "What do you want?"

     "I-I just came to-" he stuttered.

     "What? Did you come to yell at me some more, to tell me directly you hate me and don't want anything to do with me?" she snarled at him.

     He shook his head and began, "I just wanted to say-"

     She slammed the door shut on his face, yelling through the door, "I don't ever want to talk to you again!"

     For the next couple of days, his dreams were getting more and more confusing. One night, he would hear a certain amount of words from the two people, the next night, different words came out of their mouths. It was difficult for Takashi to put them together to make proper sentences, so he gave up on that idea. Also Mai hating him didn't help with his stress level either.

     Every class that he was in with her, she would completely ignore him like he wasn't there. During lunch if he sat with her, she would just leave the table and go to another one on the other side of the lunch room. Takashi was becoming depressed for the way he treated his friend and wanted to talk to her.

     It's been over a week since Mai began ignoring him. When he had the dream again in his math class, everyone just ignored him since he wasn't loud this time. What he remembered from the dream was that the man was bad for forcing himself on his mother then hurting him. At lunch when he was sitting alone, Kurumu strolled up and sat next to him. "Hey, what's with the glum look on your face?" she asked.

     "Do you really need to ask?" he replied.

     Kurumu gazed at his eyes and smiled. She grabbed his hands and held them in hers. She began, "I bet you everything will turn out alright later on. I'm sure of it. Time just needs to go by to help heal this relationship."

     She starts stroking his hands, Takashi looking into her eyes. Kurumu continued, "You really are a nice guy Takashi. You were just having a rough moment and you accidentally let it all go on Mai. She will understand that and eventually forgive. Quit putting yourself through this deep depression alright?"

     Takashi put on a small smile. "Thanks Kurumu," he said.

     She pulled him into a hug, putting his head into her chest. He didn't care at the time; he was too down to notice where his head was being put. Kurumu caressed his back, trying to comfort him. Moka came over and asked her, "How's he doing?"

     "A little better now," she whispered, still rubbing his back affectionately.

     Just as Kurumu answered Moka, Mai strolled right on past them. Only she tripped and her food was dumped all over a student in front of her. Takashi looked up and recognized that the student that got food dumped on him, was the same student that Mai slammed the door in his face. Takashi jumped to his feet and jogged over to the student.

     The student stood up and roared, "Who was the idiot who lost their food all over my uniform?"

     He looked down and found Mai staring at him in terror. "You," he pointed at her, "You're the one who shoved past me that day a week ago. And proceeded to think it was alright to yell and slam a door in my face. I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget."

     Just as the student was about to hit her, Takashi stood in the student's way. "I'm afraid you won't be hurting anyone today man," Takashi asserted the student.

     "Oh you really think so? What makes you think that's going to happen?" he questioned Takashi.

     Mai stood up and hid behind Takashi. He replied, "I think it's going to happen. If you want to beat her up, you'll have to go through me."

     The student looked at him and then Mai. "I'll tell you what, so you don't get hurt so bad, why don't I punch you one time in the gut and call it even?" he inquired.

     Takashi contemplated on the idea of getting hit once. He responds, "I think that's a fair deal."

     "What are you doing Takashi?" Mai asked.

     "I'm protecting my friends. What does it look like I'm doing?"

     "I thought you didn't like me…" she mumbled.

     "Times up, you lost your deal," the student said and shoved Takashi aside.

     The student quickly transformed into a large frog-like creature. Takashi pulled out the monster guide he took and looked the student up. The only creature related to him was known as the Kappa. He read that the Kappa was a mischievous creature that looked like frogs mixed with apes. 'This should be easy to take out,' Takashi thought to himself.

     Standing up, he ran to the Kappa and kicked it in the face. The students around him started cheering him on, shouting his name. The Kappa rebound the kick with a strong punch to Takashi's face. Takashi's vision became blurry, leaving him unable to find the Kappa for a few seconds. He barely missed a punch for one of his peers shouted for him to duck.

     Once Takashi stood up after the duck, he found the Kappa. He pulled his fist back and sent it flying straight to its chops. Somehow the one hit was able not only to knock it out, but send the Kappa flying through the window. Moka gasped at this revelation, Tsukune just cheering him on. Everyone yelled out their praise for Takashi's victory. Mai slowly approached Takashi and tapped him on the shoulder. She muttered to him, "I'm sorry for thinking you didn't want to be friends with me. Will you ever forgive me?"

     Takashi gave her a bear hug and answered, "Of course I do Mai."

     With lunch over, Takashi head to his third period with all of his friends with him. During third period, he had fallen asleep again. But the dream was different; it was more peaceful than last time. When it came to the point of the adults talking, he heard everything they said. The man said, "I don't know dear I don't want to bite you. I can wait for more blood. I don't need it for a while so I don't need to drink your blood."

     His mother came with a rebuttal, "I don't want you to wait, and I want you to bite me. Please don't resist. I don't want you to wait over your pride. It's alright for you to bite me."

     Hearing this, Takashi was shocked for what his mother said. He was thinking how could anyone say that to a monster like him? Takashi shoved the door open and the exact same thing happened; the man stopped and kneeled next to him, putting his hand on Takashi's forehead. "I'm sorry that you had to see this son. I didn't want you to see me like this because I could hurt you. You will forget about anything that just happened today," the man told him, a look of sorrow on his face.

     As he blacked out and reawakened, Takashi realized that it was his father that was talking to him. He thought it was someone else. When he woke up in the black room, he found his father standing next to him. Once Takashi was on his feet, they walked over to the mirror. Standing next to each other, they both looked the same. "I'm proud to have you as my son Takashi," she father chuckled.

     Looking behind him, Takashi found all of his friends and family alive and well. The last bit of the dream before he woke up was his family and friends surrounding him, all of them beaming at him.

     "Takashi, Takashi, wake up," Mai breathed.

     He sat up and found that third period just barely ended. Rising to his feet, he followed Mai back to the dorms. "Mai, can I tell you something? Something that we can keep between us?" he questioned her.

     Mai was giddy with excitement over the thought of a secret. She answered, "Sure. What is it?"

     "The reason I've been acting different was because of what I was dreaming. It didn't make sense to me, which kept frustrating me," he began.

     Over the whole walk to the dorms, he told her of the different variations of the dream he had. But when it came to the last dream he had, his attitude became more calm and happy. He told her that his father didn't want to bite his mother, but his mother insisted that he should. After he was done drinking, he tries to make him forget it happened. Takashi left the last part to himself though.

     Mai looked up at Takashi and asked, "You think that this dream could mean anything to you?"

     "Maybe it did. Maybe it was to challenge something in this world," he glanced over at Mai and smiled, "Maybe to confront your problem with people hating you, since everything became better after our friendship was fixed."

     Mai nodded her head in agreement. Just as they reached the dorms, Kurumu had caught up with them. She glomped Takashi and held onto his arm. Mai came over to her and started fighting with her about glomping Takashi. Takashi just smiled and sauntered into the dorms. 'I'm glad everything is back to normal with everyone. I also hope one day, that dream will make more sense to me,' Takashi reflected to himself.

Description
                                               The Ominous Dream

     A young boy was playing in the hallway, tossing his tiny rubber ball. He was enjoying it so much, his laughs were echoing in the long hallway. But suddenly, the atmosphere became dark and ominous. The boy looked down to the end of the hall, where he saw light coming from one of the rooms.

     Dropping his ball, the little boy crawled slowly to the end of the hallway. He heard some mumbling coming from the room, since the door was just barely shut. But it sounded like his mother and father talking. When the child reached the door, he barely understood what his parents were saying. All he could tell were the tones at the time. His father's tone was sincere and apologetic and his mother's was sweet and understanding. A few seconds later, he heard a quiet moan come from his mother. Upset that his mother was in pain, the boy shoved the door open to find what appeared to be his father biting his mother's neck, drinking her blood.

     He was shocked by the scene in front of him. His mother wasn't upset, crying, shouting, anything. She was just standing there, letting what supposedly is his father drink the blood oozing out from her neck. The man who looked like his father had slight changes to his figure. He had shiny silver hair, blood red eyes with pupils like slits, and looked really buff.

     Once his 'father' was done drinking from his mother, the wound healed automatically leaving no scar. He looked at the boy on the ground, the look of sorrow on his face. The man walked over to the boy and kneeled next to him. He slowly raised his hand and rested it on the boy's forehead. The boy could tell that the man was saying something, but he couldn't understand what it was, because it had no sound to it. Word after word, the boy started to feel light headed. His vision went from blurry to black.

     When the boy woke up, he wasn't little anymore. He looked fifteen to sixteen years old, with a weird collar around his neck. Grabbing at the collar, he felt a cross hanging from a chain connected to the collar. Upon closer inspection, it was a tiny cross with a Rosario bead in the middle of it. Looking all around him, he realized he was in a black room, where the floor was glass and what was below him was an endless abyss. But he barely missed a mirror that was several yards away from him.

     Dashing over to the mirror, he looked at his reflection. What he saw made him scream; it was his reflection but his whole figure looked different. His hair changed to silver, just like the man, same with the eyes and his body. He looked like a younger version of the strange man. With one last look behind him, he noticed there were dead bodies on the floor, resembling his friends. Moka, Mai, Tsukune, Kurumu, everyone he knew was on the ground, blood oozing from their necks.

     The boy began to cry, knowing that all his friends were dead. A tear dropped from his eyes and hit the glass. Upon impact, the glass shattered to millions of pieces, leaving him and the dead bodies to fall in the endless abyss.

     Takashi jerked himself into a sitting position, breathing heavily. He had cold sweat, chills running down his back. Standing up, he staggered over to the sink and ran the water. Splashing water into his face a few times, he felt wide awake and more alert. Staring into the mirror, he realized it was only a dream; his body hadn't changed at all. With a sigh of relief, he staggered over to the alarm clock and read the time: it was 5:30 am. 'Well, better try to get another hour's worth of sleep before the day starts,' Takashi thought over in his mind.

     Lying down in his bed, he decided to take the time and fell asleep.

* * * * *

     During class, Takashi had a hard time focusing on his work. He was too tired to stay wake because of his stupid dream. When he went to bed, Takashi had the same dream. Only he was able to understand more and more what his parents are saying in the dream. While doing some work in his homeroom, he accidently blacked out in the middle of it.

     When it came to the room changing atmosphere, he understood most of what the man was saying. "I don't know dear I…want…more blood. I…need it…so I…bite you," the man said.

     "No, I don't want you…to bite me. Please…I don't want…you to bite me," she responded to him.

     After her response, Takashi would hear his mom moan from the pain. Shoving open the door, Takashi saw the same scene from before. After the man was done drinking from Takashi's mother, the man walked over to him. Putting his hand on Takashi's forehead again, Takashi heard him say, "…Sorry…you…I…hurt you. You will forget…anything happened."

     Just as the last of his words were said, Takashi blacked out in the dream. But before he could go further into the dream, he was woken up by Ms. Nekonome. "Takashi, are you alright?"

     Takashi looked around the classroom; everyone was staring at him weirdly, wondering if he was okay. Taking one last look at his friends, a look of concern on their faces, Takashi focused on his teacher again and replied, "Yeah, I'm fine. What happened?"

     Ms. Nekonome glanced around, then back at Takashi and said, "You were moaning in your sleep."

     "I'm sorry Ms. Nekonome. I didn't mean to disrupt class. But I'm fine."

     "Are you sure Takashi?" she asked, a look of deep concern on her face.

     He nodded to her and began doing his work. Ms. Nekonome slowly strolled back to her desk, still watching him. All of Takashi's classmates went back to their work, except for his friends. They all kept observing his every move, making sure he was alright.

     After class, Takashi headed for his math room. Kurumu and the others were pursuing him. Making sure he would stop, Kurumu stopped in front of him. Takashi stood there, smiling at her. "Hey Kurumu, how are you?" he inquired her.

     She hugged him, as well as Mai and Moka. Tsukune patted him on the back. "We're worried about you Takashi. You were acting really weird in class this morning. I couldn't believe that you would moan like that in your sleep. Then just to blow it off to the teacher as nothing made it more suspicious. What is really wrong?" she asked with a look of distress on her face.

     Takashi just smiled and answered, "There is nothing wrong. I was just having some night terrors at the moment. I'm fine, really."

     He hugged Kurumu, Moka, and Mai and continued, "You don't need to worry anymore. Everything is fine right now."

     As they approached his math class, Tsukune and the others had to leave for their other classrooms. But during this class period, Takashi fell asleep three times in class having the same dream. He freaked out his math teacher, Ms. Ririko so much, she sent him to the nurse's office to get some help. All the nurse could tell him to do was go to sleep and she knew that wouldn't help. So she kept him until lunch and let him be on his way when the bell rang.

     Briskly walking down the hall, he ran into Mai. "Hey Takashi!" she squealed, embracing him.

     "Hey," he said monotonously.

     She follows Takashi down to the lunch room, listening to him ramble to himself. "Why do I keep having the same stupid dream over and over again?" he hissed silently to himself.

     "Takashi, are you okay?" she asked.

     He ignored her, still talking to himself about the dream. Mai called out, "Takashi? Takashi?"

     Her calling his name brought him to a complete halt. He quickly spun around to face her and yelled, "What Mai?!"

     "I was just asking…if you were okay," she murmured.

     "Does it look like I'm okay?! I've been up most of the night, I'm tired, and you constantly whining to me doesn't help okay? For right now can you just leave me alone so I can figure this out?" he screamed.

     "But…but we were supposed to eat lunch-" she began.

     Takashi rolled his eyes. "I don't want to eat lunch with you right now. I want to be alone at the moment," he growled, quickly walking away.

     Mai stood there, silently sobbing. He never screams at her for anything. She was thinking that he didn't like her because of the way he acted. Taking his words as pushing her away, she stormed off to her dorm, weeping the whole way.

     Moka and Kurumu saw how Takashi treated Mai and were furious. It was unnatural for Takashi to be screaming at anyone, especially for him to yell at someone as nice and shy as Mai. They marched after Takashi to confront him.

     Searching the lunch room, they found him eating alone by the window. He was staring outside, observing the pitter patter of the rain hitting the hard and bone dry earth. Moka and Kurumu hurried over to his spot so that he wouldn't leave. Upon reaching him, the first thing Kurumu did was smack him right across the face. He glared at them, with a look of confusion on his face. "What the hell was that for?" he roared.

     "Don't take that tone with me mister," Kurumu pointed a finger in his face, "We saw the way you treated Mai out there. What the hell were you thinking?"

     Moka growled, "You made her cry saying the things you said. What the hell is going through your thick skull?"

     Takashi looked back into the past few minutes and realized what he had just done. He glances over at the cafeteria doors and responds, "I didn't mean to make her cry. I was just so frustrated by my lack of sleep and at the time, her asking me over and over was irritating me. I just wanted to be left alone for a little bit."

     The two girls started to feel sympathy for him. Kurumu hugged him and apologized. "She thinks you don't want to be friends with her anymore. You need to go talk to her, straighten things out between you two," Moka told him.

     Takashi nodded to the both of them and dashed out of the cafeteria and straight to the dorms. While running to Mai, he found a student stomping away from the dorms. He stopped quickly and asked, "What's wrong sir?"

     "A girl just shoved right past me. And when I went to confront her about it, she yelled at me and slammed her door shut in my face," the student barked, storming away from him.

     'That must've been Mai. I didn't expect this to happen,' he thought.

     Running up the stairs, he rushed past people to get to Mai's door. Knocking on her door, all he heard was some loud screaming and fumbling of the lock. She swung the door open. When she saw it was Takashi, she bared her teeth and said, "What do you want?"

     "I-I just came to-" he stuttered.

     "What? Did you come to yell at me some more, to tell me directly you hate me and don't want anything to do with me?" she snarled at him.

     He shook his head and began, "I just wanted to say-"

     She slammed the door shut on his face, yelling through the door, "I don't ever want to talk to you again!"

     For the next couple of days, his dreams were getting more and more confusing. One night, he would hear a certain amount of words from the two people, the next night, different words came out of their mouths. It was difficult for Takashi to put them together to make proper sentences, so he gave up on that idea. Also Mai hating him didn't help with his stress level either.

     Every class that he was in with her, she would completely ignore him like he wasn't there. During lunch if he sat with her, she would just leave the table and go to another one on the other side of the lunch room. Takashi was becoming depressed for the way he treated his friend and wanted to talk to her.

     It's been over a week since Mai began ignoring him. When he had the dream again in his math class, everyone just ignored him since he wasn't loud this time. What he remembered from the dream was that the man was bad for forcing himself on his mother then hurting him. At lunch when he was sitting alone, Kurumu strolled up and sat next to him. "Hey, what's with the glum look on your face?" she asked.

     "Do you really need to ask?" he replied.

     Kurumu gazed at his eyes and smiled. She grabbed his hands and held them in hers. She began, "I bet you everything will turn out alright later on. I'm sure of it. Time just needs to go by to help heal this relationship."

     She starts stroking his hands, Takashi looking into her eyes. Kurumu continued, "You really are a nice guy Takashi. You were just having a rough moment and you accidentally let it all go on Mai. She will understand that and eventually forgive. Quit putting yourself through this deep depression alright?"

     Takashi put on a small smile. "Thanks Kurumu," he said.

     She pulled him into a hug, putting his head into her chest. He didn't care at the time; he was too down to notice where his head was being put. Kurumu caressed his back, trying to comfort him. Moka came over and asked her, "How's he doing?"

     "A little better now," she whispered, still rubbing his back affectionately.

     Just as Kurumu answered Moka, Mai strolled right on past them. Only she tripped and her food was dumped all over a student in front of her. Takashi looked up and recognized that the student that got food dumped on him, was the same student that Mai slammed the door in his face. Takashi jumped to his feet and jogged over to the student.

     The student stood up and roared, "Who was the idiot who lost their food all over my uniform?"

     He looked down and found Mai staring at him in terror. "You," he pointed at her, "You're the one who shoved past me that day a week ago. And proceeded to think it was alright to yell and slam a door in my face. I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget."

     Just as the student was about to hit her, Takashi stood in the student's way. "I'm afraid you won't be hurting anyone today man," Takashi asserted the student.

     "Oh you really think so? What makes you think that's going to happen?" he questioned Takashi.

     Mai stood up and hid behind Takashi. He replied, "I think it's going to happen. If you want to beat her up, you'll have to go through me."

     The student looked at him and then Mai. "I'll tell you what, so you don't get hurt so bad, why don't I punch you one time in the gut and call it even?" he inquired.

     Takashi contemplated on the idea of getting hit once. He responds, "I think that's a fair deal."

     "What are you doing Takashi?" Mai asked.

     "I'm protecting my friends. What does it look like I'm doing?"

     "I thought you didn't like me…" she mumbled.

     "Times up, you lost your deal," the student said and shoved Takashi aside.

     The student quickly transformed into a large frog-like creature. Takashi pulled out the monster guide he took and looked the student up. The only creature related to him was known as the Kappa. He read that the Kappa was a mischievous creature that looked like frogs mixed with apes. 'This should be easy to take out,' Takashi thought to himself.

     Standing up, he ran to the Kappa and kicked it in the face. The students around him started cheering him on, shouting his name. The Kappa rebound the kick with a strong punch to Takashi's face. Takashi's vision became blurry, leaving him unable to find the Kappa for a few seconds. He barely missed a punch for one of his peers shouted for him to duck.

     Once Takashi stood up after the duck, he found the Kappa. He pulled his fist back and sent it flying straight to its chops. Somehow the one hit was able not only to knock it out, but send the Kappa flying through the window. Moka gasped at this revelation, Tsukune just cheering him on. Everyone yelled out their praise for Takashi's victory. Mai slowly approached Takashi and tapped him on the shoulder. She muttered to him, "I'm sorry for thinking you didn't want to be friends with me. Will you ever forgive me?"

     Takashi gave her a bear hug and answered, "Of course I do Mai."

     With lunch over, Takashi head to his third period with all of his friends with him. During third period, he had fallen asleep again. But the dream was different; it was more peaceful than last time. When it came to the point of the adults talking, he heard everything they said. The man said, "I don't know dear I don't want to bite you. I can wait for more blood. I don't need it for a while so I don't need to drink your blood."

     His mother came with a rebuttal, "I don't want you to wait, and I want you to bite me. Please don't resist. I don't want you to wait over your pride. It's alright for you to bite me."

     Hearing this, Takashi was shocked for what his mother said. He was thinking how could anyone say that to a monster like him? Takashi shoved the door open and the exact same thing happened; the man stopped and kneeled next to him, putting his hand on Takashi's forehead. "I'm sorry that you had to see this son. I didn't want you to see me like this because I could hurt you. You will forget about anything that just happened today," the man told him, a look of sorrow on his face.

     As he blacked out and reawakened, Takashi realized that it was his father that was talking to him. He thought it was someone else. When he woke up in the black room, he found his father standing next to him. Once Takashi was on his feet, they walked over to the mirror. Standing next to each other, they both looked the same. "I'm proud to have you as my son Takashi," she father chuckled.

     Looking behind him, Takashi found all of his friends and family alive and well. The last bit of the dream before he woke up was his family and friends surrounding him, all of them beaming at him.

     "Takashi, Takashi, wake up," Mai breathed.

     He sat up and found that third period just barely ended. Rising to his feet, he followed Mai back to the dorms. "Mai, can I tell you something? Something that we can keep between us?" he questioned her.

     Mai was giddy with excitement over the thought of a secret. She answered, "Sure. What is it?"

     "The reason I've been acting different was because of what I was dreaming. It didn't make sense to me, which kept frustrating me," he began.

     Over the whole walk to the dorms, he told her of the different variations of the dream he had. But when it came to the last dream he had, his attitude became more calm and happy. He told her that his father didn't want to bite his mother, but his mother insisted that he should. After he was done drinking, he tries to make him forget it happened. Takashi left the last part to himself though.

     Mai looked up at Takashi and asked, "You think that this dream could mean anything to you?"

     "Maybe it did. Maybe it was to challenge something in this world," he glanced over at Mai and smiled, "Maybe to confront your problem with people hating you, since everything became better after our friendship was fixed."

     Mai nodded her head in agreement. Just as they reached the dorms, Kurumu had caught up with them. She glomped Takashi and held onto his arm. Mai came over to her and started fighting with her about glomping Takashi. Takashi just smiled and sauntered into the dorms. 'I'm glad everything is back to normal with everyone. I also hope one day, that dream will make more sense to me,' Takashi reflected to himself.