From that massive gateway, I stared at the large rectangular building, tugging at the collar of the white dress shirt Mia said I had to wear. The 'uniform' was rather… uncomfortable. Trying to ignore my discomfort, I thought about the building and what lies inside. I was curious if it were anything like the visions from my dreams.
~Guess I'm about to find out.
With a step forward, I began my short journey to the entrance. Though, I was quickly interrupted as Mia tugged on my shirt, nearly choking me.
"Ack-" I coughed, recoiling from slight pressure to my throat.
"Oop! Sorry, lil bro!" She said with a giggle. Still beaming with a smile, she handed me a small box wrapped in a cloth. "Here. This will be your lunch."
"Uh…" I accepted it, though it wasn't like I had much of a choice. "Thanks."
"Now make sure you avoid bullies."
"Bullies?"
"Oh, right." Mia let out another giggle, patting my head. "Just don't get into trouble, okay?"
"Right…"
Mia hopped back into her car and waved at me, driving away. Watching the car disappear around the corner, I let out a short sigh.
"Sometimes she's a bit overbearing." I muttered under my breath. "Wait… hang on…"
Recalling the previous day, I realized I didn't have a bag.
~Crap. That's probably important… Oh well.
With those thoughts in mind, I casually shrugged it off and continued my journey inside.
At the entrance of the school, there were shoe lockers. Shoe lockers— exactly what they sound like: places to put your shoes.
If I were to assume all the information from my dreams was accurate, I am supposed to change between inside and outside shoes here. Mia said my locker number was…
"This one right?" I opened the locker I believed to be mine.
There was indeed a pair of shoes inside. However, it didn't look like the inside shoes from my dreams. Rather, it was clearly a pair of tennis shoes. Whoever wore them was likely into sports.
"Uhhh…"
I quickly closed the locker and looked at the other lockers, thinking.
~Did I get the number wrong? Wait… no…
I opened another locker. This time the proper school shoes lied inside.
"I guess I mixed it up with the one I saw in my dream."
Muttering to myself over the mistake, I grabbed the shoes and placed them down at my feet. Slipping out of my other ones, I went to put the school shoes on. Seeing them side by side, however, I realized something.
"...They look exactly the same."
…
Bap. Bap. Bap.
The sound of my steps on the wooden floor echoed through the empty corridors of the hallway. I could hear the murmuring gossip of students seeping through the thin walls. Admittedly, though I did not know exactly what a school was or what it was like, I certainly did not expect the tension to be this high. Perhaps I was nervous.
~Nervous? But I'm a god. Why should I be nervous about meeting a bunch of mortals?
I asked myself the obvious question as I stood in front of a classroom door; the sign above it reading "1-C". Still pondering the answer to my own query, my train of thought was soon interrupted by a call from within. In the form of an aged man's voice, it spoke in a polite and delicate manner.
"We will be having a new transfer student starting today. If you'd please come in, sir."
Placing my hand on the handle, I found my hand shaking.
~Fear? Nonsense. This is nothing.
I reaffirmed my conviction and slid the door open with all my strength. The door flew open, slamming against its limits.
Oops.
Almost immediately, I could sense the entire classes' gazes focus on my position. Their eyes were lit up in terror and their mouths gaped open in shock.
"Uhm." The teacher was the first to speak up. "Yuruichi, how about you come over here and introduce yourself."
"Right…"
Muttering under my breath, I found myself to be a bit embarrassed by what just occurred. Though, setting the thoughts aside, I positioned myself at the teacher's podium and faced the blackboard. Grabbing a piece of white chalk, I wrote my name as it was shown on my identification card. As soon as I was facing away from them, they began whispering to each other. I couldn't make out what they were saying, though I wasn't sure if I should care.
With a twist of my waist, I turned to face the class with as much confidence as I could muster. I closed my eyes, then opened them, almost glaring at them with the same look I gave the primordials– a look of a god who couldn't care less.
Granted, it was only a facade. Though, this expression seemed to have great impact, as they fell silent as I spoke.
"My name is Yoiyami Yuruichi. It's a pleasure to meet you mor-" I paused, clearing my throat before quickly correcting myself. "My fellow students."
Their gossip continued.
The teacher, ignoring them as if it were normal, looked at me and spoke with a hint of nervousness.
"Mister Yuruichi. How about you take one of the empty seats in the back."
~One of…?
Thinking about his words as I walked, I looked to the back of the class. The entire back row consisted of five vacant desks.
Approaching the vacant desk by the window, I passed by the students within that column. They all stared at me as I passed by them. In response, I did my best to avoid eye contact, looking only straight ahead, focusing my vision entirely on the seat I was shooting for.
However, unexpectedly, I found my foot catching onto something and the floor quickly found its way to my face. Instinctively, I thrust my arm forward, faster than any mortal eye can see and slapped the wood.
PAP!
The class fell silent once again.
I looked behind me to see what my foot got caught on. Much to my surprise, it was another foot; sticking out to the side to block my path. Following the leg up to its owner, I recognized the mortal who it belonged to.
~He's the same one from my dream…
The boy stared at me in disbelief, clearly having been certain I would have fallen on my face.
Unhooking my foot from his, I leapt to my feet and took the seat behind him.
"Uhm. Mister Yuruichi? Are you okay?"
I gave him a nod.
"Uh… Alright then. How about we start class everyone? If you'd please open your texts to…"
~Texts?
I looked around. The rest of the students were opening books.
~Books… Weren't those in the bag I forgot?
I leaned back in the seat, letting out a sigh. The class continued on without me.
Stretching out my arms as I listened to the teacher talk and the students answering questions, I laid my head on the cold wooden desk and slowly drifted off to sleep.
…
The sky was black. Black… Black… Black? In my eyes, a shining white moon shone, a nearly perfect circle.
~Nearly perfect?
I thought, peering at the sphere, analyzing it to the finest detail.
~Right. It's not perfect…
The darkness covered a very tiny sliver of that silver moon. It was nearly unnoticab-
SLISH.
I felt a stabbing pain in my chest. Coughing in pain, my head dropped down, meeting eyes with a shadow wielding a blade.
~What?
The visions began before I could even fully react to the new shadow.
Sports: Basketball, volleyball, foot races, archery, kendo. A festival of sports. Vibrant meals with sparkling brown sauces. The army, troops, war. A duel to the death. A strike of black of lightning.
These images flashed through my mind in an instant.
Splish. Splish. Splish.
The rapid tap of footing against water filled my ears as two more figures approached. It was the dark clones of me from before; one of fist, the other of barriers.
Yet— There was another behind them. It gleamed of a pure whiteness pertaining to that of the massive sphere above. In its hand, a book. It chased the two others as they approached me with haste.
The book wielder shut the book in his hand with such force that it left the other two incapacitated. With a swift kick, he knocked them off their feet and headed straight for me.
~Crap! What's with this clone!?
Like a ghost, the book-wielding light phased through me to attack the dark swordsman. In that instant, a wave of new visions rushed through my brain.
With them, a single word was repeated to me in hushed whispers.
"Memory. Memory. Memory. Memory. Me-mo-ry."
…
I found myself in a room filled with books, stacks of them all around. There were books in the walls, books on the floor, even books floating above my head.
"Where am I this time?"
I began to navigate my way through the maze of books, noticing some strange ones that I could only assume to be tomes and grimoires. The genres in the books were all over the place, but organized in such neat form.
Reading off a few titles, I found books about psychology, mythology, cosmotology, demonology, world history, world geography, and even fantasy novels.
Though as I found myself, judging from the ceiling, closing in on the center of the room, the amount of books on psychology seemed to increase and I began to once again hear the whispers.
"Memory. Memory. Memor-y. Mem-or-y."
There in the center of the room, sat a white-haired boy of a familiar stature. He was mumbling something aloud as he buried his face into a book.
"If my research and theories are correct, as primordials of the Void, the names we are given or have chosen will personify; in other words, they act as a sort of 'code' that decides how our abilities work inside the mortal realm. As I was given the name "Nokioku" which means "memory of" in this particular earthly language, this would essentially make me the 'God of Memory'."
~God of Memory? I guess that would seem about right. Then what does that mean for my abilities? Wait– He said "I". Is this person…?
The boy continued to ramble on, having not noticed me standing behind him.
"With that in mind, the God of Memory would have abilities pertaining to memory. From what I can understand from my dreams, this includes memory of the past, present, AND future. If that is the case and taken into consideration the 'omniverse theory' in which a timeline exists for every action we do not take– These figures I see in my dreams are doppelgangers, other iterations of me across different timelines."
~Doppelgangers? Different timelines? Omniverse theory…
I held my head and groaned. Information began to rush into my brain at an astonishing rate, bringing me to my knees.
Yet still, the boy continued.
"In most stories involving doppelgangers, a doppelganger would typically attempt to rid of the original so they may replace them and become the original. I, however, see no point in this. For in our case, each one of us is unique to our own timeline. And if this is true…"
The boy's voice trailed off as my mind began to overload.
It was as if all the information from all the books around me was rushing into my head.
"The God of Memory would be able to collect memory… memory… memory… Memory… Memor-y… Mem-or-y… Me-mo–"
…
"Mister Yuruichi! If you think you can just transfer here just to sleep in class, I am afraid you are sorely mistaken. How about you answer this question for me, hm?"
My eyes shot open. Immediately, I stood to my feet.
Mouthing the words, an answer came out in such grace that one could say it flowed out of me like a river.
The teacher had a look of shock on his face, as did the rest of my classmates. Though, that was to be expected.
As one would not suspect that the transfer student who not only forgot his textbooks but also fell asleep on his first day would get the answer right.
"Well… How about you answer this one then?"
Again, their faces were stunned. For once again, the correct answer left my mouth in such a way as if I memorized the texts.
And, that much was indeed true. For I had just gained the knowledge of one who stayed in a library in his freetime every day, memorizing every text he could get his hands on. This is what the visions of the book wielder granted me.
"Uh… Very well then. You may take your seat. Could somebody else answer then?"
Sitting down, I let out a sigh.
~The day's only just begun. But I'm beginning to suspect more and more there's something more to these dreams than my eyes perceive.
I stared out the window in thought.
~What else shall this day bring? And what will the next bring? I'm beginning to believe the mortal realm is filled with mysteries.