Multiple Meetings

"Let's go to the place you want to go... and not any popular tourist attractions from tomorrow. I'm not very attracted to mainstream places, you know?" Johan said as we walked our way back to my home.

He didn't say it telepathically this time though, it was verbal. Anyway, it wasn't like it mattered if he spoke telepathically or verbally—as the only one who could hear him was me, after all.

Not even Pilo who walked with us to stay the night in my home. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that she'd be scolded if she returned this late even if she was with me. Staying in my home was a better alternative she said. 

I mean my larger-than-life house really lacked people so her staying over was a deal I couldn't refuse. 

However, that doesn't mean my home was full the entire time. My parents are always out for their jobs and I stay back in school for clubs or wander around with Pilo after school. There were barely any humans there at any given moment, but that also doesn't mean there was a lack of people there.

VISIONs thrived in that house almost everywhere in that four-story house for three people until last year. It was sure creepy, but the house didn't look lonely at the very least.

Whatever. I don't care.

The wind clashed with my dry skin as we walked through the dimly paved footpath. Johan floated as a genie, Pilo texted as she walked, it was loud—probably because she hadn't changed the noise settings to the minimum, which I think should be the bare minimum for any smartphone user.

Plus, her walking while simultaneously holding a heavy bag (that she asked me to stay away from), and texting someone at the same time made her look like the boss of some secret organization

Now that I think of it, Pilo looked more of a boss than Grey did, however, it didn't mean she had leader-like qualities.

She's what I'd call bossy, while Grey is sassy. On the other hand, I wouldn't say both solely possessed either one of those characteristics. 

Most likely, they just had better compatibility for those elements compared to the others. Basically, what I'm intending is that Pilo could be sassy too but for the most of it she was bossy. The same goes with Grey's bossiness—however, she's more mature in that field than Pilo. 

Her bossiness has a class, while Pilo's is whimsical—which, to be honest, I like more. 

"The city looks quite different at night, doesn't it? It's like I could sleep in the middle of the road and nothing would interrupt me. Neither the buzzing of the cars nor the honks of people." I said it to two different beings belonging to two different dimensions.

A VISION and a human. 

"The city is asleep. But that doesn't mean you should devastate that beautiful outfit, Rei." First the tired human—Pilo replied.

I mean she definitely would have insisted on sleeping on the road, but I think she's way too tired for such stupid thoughts anymore.

"Well, I've already tried it and gazed upon my life's worth, and then I realized I was already dead." The solemn VISION—Johan replied secondly. 

That wouldn't have been productive even if you were alive.

Hmph, both aren't a good company at night, are they? Well, Pilo was a human so I could understand but what about Johan? Was he not a night person?

I guess so.

I might be just jumping to conclusions, however, now I'm not in a state to control my own thoughts. Yes, yours truly, the world's allegedly greatest thinker can't control her own thoughts.

It's not like I was tired like Pilo. I was much of a night person, so staying awake till 2 a.m. wasn't out of the ordinary for me, let alone just until midnight.

It's just that I'm yet to process all the annoying information spilled out by Grey. Information that I couldn't react to right away but was written all over my hippocampus. Roughly and traumatically.

Which was also the very reason why I can't wait to get on my bed and ponder about it. Why not while walking, you ask? Well, I think it's very inefficient and also quite dangerous. 

Though walking at night isn't as dangerous as it's in daylight. Wait, no, that's so wrong.

Ahh, this is why I don't like to think while walking, damn it.

"Hmm, those ancient street lanterns are still working as brightly as ever!" Pilo observed as we were closing to my home. 

"I've said this to you countless times—those aren't ancient, only their design is." I retorted.

"Isn't that the same thing I said?

"Well, not really—"

"Sorry, I don't want to hear another lecture. Let me sleep on you." Pilo ruptured my sentence halfway. Guess she was so sleepy she couldn't even try to make sense.

"Not on me, but surely inside that caterpillar bag." I threatened her but that wasn't a proper choice.

"Ow!"

She smacked my back with the heavy-looking duffel bag she had held for so long. However, I felt something papery when it hit me. Did that bag really only contain high-quality props? First of all, did it even contain them?

"Who knows!" isn't how I want to answer my question.

Anyway, I didn't retaliate to her smack 'cos that would be indeed dangerous, despite me thinking or not.

The definition of a karate "smack" and a normal high schooler's smack differed vastly.

Nevertheless, your narrator isn't that violent, you know? She is very kind to her friends and even strangers.

"Keys!" Pilo asked as she slid the mobile phone into her pocket. Multi-tasking was a walk in the cake—I mean walk in the cave for her...

Leave it, I'm not gonna correct my mistake.

"Keys? Oh, keys to your brain? Well, you know, I dropped them somewhere by mistake."

"Just give me the keys to your house. I want to go in and sleep."

The figure of speech "Make it your home while you're here" isn't quite applicable to Pilo as the home's ownership transfers to Pilo when she feels like it.

"Hmm, don't need that. We changed our lock system to a biometric one since the last time you came here."

"Wait, wasn't the last time I came here the day before yesterday's yesterday?" Pilo finally regained her senses.

"Yes, we had them change it that evening you left me home." Well, not evening as it happened at night when I was asleep." Seriously, that put me in a more vulnerable state than when there was that lousy lock. "...My parents were quite cautious so when they heard their daughter was in a vulnerable state they just had it changed right away."

"W-What kind of parents do that? Hell, not even billionaire's kids have their parents do that."

I mean they already had a lousy manual lock, anyway. So, spending on some fast renovations wasn't a waste of money for them.

  Ignoring her, I went ahead and opened the door. 

The first thing I felt at looking at the blank hallway was sheer relief. It was only seven hours I was far from here, but nothing could ever feel better than home.

"Whoa, it's cold here," Johan said (verbally) as he entered.

"Sure is. It's winter." I replied telepathically, however.

Now that I think of it, Grey never talked about VISIONs feeling/sensing or not feeling/sensing anything. She just said they were the only real things in this world, and everything else is just a piece of my imagination (which I disagree with as Pilo did there).

"Three floors from here, huh? God save me. And by God, I'm not talking about you, okay? But that also doesn't mean you couldn't assist me getting up there." Pilo said, avoiding fueling my God complex.

"You gotta help yourself, it's your home after all..." I replied.

"..."

Hmm, I'd almost forgotten that I didn't eat what I ordered in that café—the Rude Café. Grey asked me to pay for it but I'd even forgotten that. Well, I suppose that's on the house for whatever inconveniences she caused me yesterday and today.

"Well, you can go to my room by yourself and sleep, I'll eat some instant noodles and join you shortly. More shortly than you'll take to sleep." 

"Hmm, sure~" She flip-flapped through the stairs as she said it. Well, she's already been here innumerable times so I'd not expect her to get lost at the very least. I just hope she doesn't try to read my diaries again...

"Why'd you lie?" Johan asked (verbally) seemingly reading my brain.

Lie? No? I mean, I was obviously not going to make noodles at this point. But the fact that I was going to eat some chips (which were available instantly) and catch up to her right away was indeed a fact.

"Uh, where are they, where are they... here!" I exclaimed quietly so as to not attract Pilo's attention.

Whatever I said to Pilo wasn't, if truth to be told, a lie—it was rather closer to the truth. One could argue how were noodles closer, or even similar to chips.

It was similar to asking what was the difference between X and Y. In mathematical terms, both held different values, and even in English, both had different pronunciations.

However, ultimately and basically, both X and Y were simple alphabets. Even if I did change the noun noodles to chips, both were fundamentally food and were instantly available. So, elementally, I wasn't nitpicking what to eat and was eating whatever was available instantly.

"Enough, enough. You could fool someone like Pilo with such tongue twisters but I ain't falling for it." Johan spoke after carefully observing my thoughts.

Hmm, those are more of a truth-twister than tongue-twisters, to be honest.

"Anyway, I forgot to ask you something, Johan. I remember you saying that you'd met Unknown Souls, so you do know what they looked like, right? I'm just asking for a reference for if we ever met them while crossing streets I'd be able to recognize them, never late to be careful..." I asked him as I opened the inflated chips packet. Seriously, half of this is just nitrogen.

"Oh, that! How could I forget, how could I even forget something so important?!" Johan started blabbering.

"Unknown Souls aren't what you think they look like... wait, they look exactly as you'd think them to be. However, thinkable doesn't mean expectable—because their appearance is completely unexpectable, astonishingly unpredictable." Johan ended his blabbering while grabbing his head frustratingly, trying to focus.

"Stop exaggerating and beating around the bush. How could something be thinkable but unexpected? If I think a bunch of things how they'd look like it's gotta be one of those possibilities. If it doesn't fall into those lines, it'd be simply unthinkable."

"You're not getting it! You're just thinking of possibilities, but what if it's something you can think of but you don't consider it as a possibility? The possibilities aren't your limit, but your thinking capacity is." Johan revealed as if he'd said something extremely profound.

"Impossible, I think everything is a possibility. Even if it's unhinged, even if it's super unlikely, and even if it doesn't exist. So, stop beating around the bush and say it already." The conversation was heating up and I needed an immediate solution to it.

"Hmm, to put it simply," Johan started, accepting his defeat. "The Unknown Souls that I met looked exactly like you. It wasn't a make-shift cosplay like Grey's but it was the real deal. Of course, I hadn't met you before meeting them, so nothing truly was unexpected for me at that time."

Johan halted, taking a deep breath. Almost trying to add great emphasis to his next sentence.

"...However, it was really unexpected when I saw you for the first time. I felt you were Unknown Souls, but later I understood who exactly you weren't and then I approached you."

Well, that wasn't unexpected. In my mind, somewhere, I had assumed that they'd look exactly like me. Conversely, though I didn't get why they looked exactly like me.

The possibility was there, but not the reason, Which made it more of an unidentifiable case than an unexpected one.

"Hmm mmm... Well, whatever, let me go and sleep. I'll do the thinking part tomorrow. Today's not possible. Anyway, you'll be sleeping here, right? I mean it's not like you are capable of sleeping.  Plus, I can't unfortunately bring you near Pilo at night. You can just wander around the house, all three floors so you won't get bored. You're just not welcomed to the fourth floor, remember that." I warned Johan.

A simple warning.

"I wasn't planning to go up and get confined in that bag anyway." Johan riposted.

"Good to know." 

I finished eating and then wrapped up the cover before tossing it into the kitchen's trash bin. I know I'd still feel hungry despite eating only that, but anything's better than an empty stomach.

Johan wandered away to the second floor right away, which was the family library. With that character, I suppose reading some books might be just good enough.

The third was just a home theatre so that's also something I'd not be worried about if he entered without asking.

I too washed my hands and then hopped onto the narrow stairs, heading to my room on the fourth floor. The fourth shared both my parents and my room, so that was the clumsiest of all. 

"What's that you're reading? Oh, wait! Didn't someone warn you to not read something when Rei Sturluson was away?" I asked as I witnessed Pilo lying on my bed, her clothes changed to the ones she'd left in my home for further visits (that I had to wash).

It was awful! Weren't my diaries read enough? Divine Punishment wouldn't be enough to correct this insolent fool. Something more devilish, something filled with unholy malice must be awarded to this dumbass.

And I did it.

Day 4: CONTINUATION

"It's not like I don't like people reading my diaries, it's when they do without permission, I hate it," I uttered my first lines as the sunlight brimmed the room.

The floor felt uncannily fluffy when I stepped on it. However, then I realized it was Pilo whom I was stepping on. She was like a pillow—stamping on her took me to cloud nine.

"Ow! Who's using me as their morning mattress, now?" Yelped Pilo. The fact that she said that right away gave it away that she was used to such experiences. Pathetic.

"Who else? The same person who you tried to commit an insufferable crime against."

"Never mind, continue using me as your morning mattress, Rei."

Her aversion to that bag took her to such lengths that she started degrading herself. That sleeping bag is really something. 

"You don't want to return home? I bet your mom would be fuming by now."

"Aaaaagh. I forgot to text her." Pilo rose screaming but my legs (which I still hadn't taken off her) made it impossible for her to do so.

Not her being clumsy like me though.

Somewhere, I felt that she needed to return home right away so I could truly overcome yesterday's trauma and genuinely start processing the significant events that occurred in my life, events I was informed about by Grey. 

It was because she was a great company that I had to push her away at once. She proved to be too much of a distraction for me.

So, after my leg rebuked her rising, she pushed them in a hurry and reached out for her phone on my bed.

"97 messages and two missed calls." She exclaimed as she brushed up her face in the mirror. "I gotta or it'll be the end of your only friend, and you wouldn't want that, would you?"

I admire people like her who are super energetic and motivated in the morning. I couldn't even start comparing to people like her. My whole day is usually wasted on recovering from the disease called sleep, after all. 

However, not recovering from it is sometimes better than recovering.

"True, I don't want you to disappear. That bag would start feeling lonely if you happened to go away..."

Her resistance to my devilish punishment before today's sunrise was significant, especially towards that bag. So the only penalty I could provide her was to sleep on the floor. However, that was just a farce, I just needed the whole bed to myself. She accepted that penalty gladly though.

"Are you going out today too? For a date with that VISION (not that I can see him)? How does he look anyway?" Pilo shifted the direction of the discussion as she combed her hair.

"No, today isn't possible. Maybe tomorrow, somewhere better. And about him—his name is Johan."

"Yeah, I know. Heard it yesterday night. So, tell me more about him. His age and how he looks and all..." Since Pilo was holding the steering wheel, she started controlling even the flow of the conversation. 

"Hmm, he's fifteen, a year younger than us or even less. He looks better than the average guy you'd find anywhere, I suppose. Still shorter than me though." We never talk much about boys so it was slightly embarrassing to talk about Johan.

Pilo shifted her gaze from the mirror and said looking at me: "That's too vague for a description. Anyway, you're never gonna find a guy taller than you in this city, so stop comparing everyone with your height standards."

"That may be true. So, if I were to describe him less vaguely—he has a mature sense of fashion and is a bit cheeky, I guess." I replied, swinging my legs while still sitting on the bed.

"I see, that gives me some idea. At any rate, get up, I'm leaving. At least see me till the front door." Pilo questioned my responsibility as a friend as she finished up dressing.

"Yeah, sure. Let me just wash my face—" My hand suddenly felt a strong pull before I could complete the sentence.

"You can do that later, I'm getting late. No one's gonna look at you this morning except him, anyway." Pilo started pulling me.

"Not really worried about Johan looking at my face. I just can't get things done without washing my face." I resisted.

"Don't worry, you just have to walk and nothing else!" Pilo announced.

This girl's seriously annoying. Nothing goes through her brain.

We ran down the steps in a hurry so I didn't get a chance to peek at the library, where Johan was supposedly reading books.

Was he even capable of reading books? I'm not very sure.

"Well, I think of joining you tomorrow. So what are your plans? If you don't have any plans (which I know you don't), would you mind going to the new art museum with me? It's a museum so there won't be many people there, you know..." Pilo started rambling as we reached the final floor from the top.

"I don't know about that. Maybe I want to go, maybe I don't."

"Just say yes. Your knowledge about this city is as good as a potato."

"Don't you have to go back home? Now, go away." I shoved Pilo outside the door as I spoke. "I'll message my confirmation to you, and if I don't—you know my answer."

"Okay, okay bye." Pilo started walking aggressively as she said and then accelerated her speed. Perhaps her mom was really angry about what she didn't do and what she was supposed to do (forgot to text her).

I waved her meaninglessly as she faded away into the dry pale roads of the winter board as the sole blazing torch. I mean there's no meaning in waving someone goodbye anyway. Even if they see it or not, it's the same.

However, it's the action of waving to someone that holds a point. It's done to not convey a message but to make a point. To make a point that we care, and that our expectations of meeting again would fulfil. 

Therefore, if something's meaningless, it's not pointless. 

"Absolutely true, just like how your life is meaningless but that doesn't mean that it's pointless. And your life's point is to show me around the city!" The person paler than these roads spooked me like a real ghost. However, he was a VISION and not a ghost. An entity that could read minds.

"..."

One would ask what was the difference between them, a ghost and a VISION, a cultural phenomenon, and a Rei Sturluson phenomenon.

The difference is fairly uncomplicated. One is delusional another is a reality, a matter-of-fact. Well, which is what is left up to your interpretations, dear readers.

"Are you sure? Everyone believes you're delusional, but they don't think they themselves are. You almost became controversial with such an open statement, you know?" Johan commented on my internal philosophy.

"Do I look like I care? Anyway, if Grey's statement were, suppose, true, especially the one about me being matrix and everyone and everything else was just a glitch, then you can't even consider them delusional. Rather, they themselves are a delusion of mine, that is."

"Despite Pilo's honorable intentions, your God Complex has shot up into space, huh?" Johan riposted verbally and has been doing the same for the last few hours since yesterday night—or rather, today morning. Conversely, he still occasionally, if not every dying moment, reads my mind telepathically.

At the very minimum, aside from the blatant and unapologetic privacy invasion, I can finally give a speech without stuttering even once and there's even an audience who gives an active commentary. My feelings and thoughts are straighter than they ever were—despite being in an emotional and logical travesty.

In the battle of my life, my emotional supporter and partner have always been basketball and somewhat Pilo, but my intellectual partner slot was always empty. Never to be filled. Never to be matched. Genius loneliness and creative solitude was actually a syndrome, and now I get it, finally when I filled the slot.

"Now, now, those are very embarrassing things to say, aren't they?" Johan replied.

"Whoa, it's cold! I should enter back in right away." Ignoring Johan's reply, I re-entered my house to freshen up to laze around the whole day.

I snapped the door using the biometric lock, entered the kitchen, and brushed my teeth. Consequently, I climbed up to my floor, took a shower, and then dressed up in oversized comfy clothes. Well, the oversized part should be really not underestimated as it was the last size in women's t-shirts. Well, for my height too it was slightly large—but you couldn't blame me for it as I'd bought it a few months ago anticipating my growth spurt.

It did come up to my knees, however, it wouldn't cause much inconvenience as all I was going to do today was stay in my home. Hmm, now that I think of it, I could wear it as a one-piece too.

"All that in twenty minutes! What are you... a YouTube speedrunner?" Johan who had picked up one of the books named Kizumonogatari, from the family library said to me as I arrived on the second floor. If I remember that's from my father's collection, however, that was a Japanese book. 

Dad does love a lot of Japanese things, including Mom, huh? 

Even this house was a Nordic-Japanese or rather Japandi architecture which I'm very fond of.

Well, we did go to Japan a lot more times than Iceland so I guess it should be obvious at this point. 

"By the way, were you reading that book all night?" I questioned Johan as I sat beside him in a wooden chair.

"Yeah, it just has a little over 300 pages so I thought one day would be more than enough to complete this. Plus, this book is part of a huge series so I'll have a lot more to read later on."

"That's nice I guess. You could probably stay here forever reading all those." I replied hopelessly, knowing that he'd go away sometime like other VISIONs. "I'm going to watch some movies on the floor above in the home theatre. Do you want to join me?"

"Well, if it's going to be noisy here then I may consider."

"It's perfectly noise-proof." It felt like I was inviting and rejecting him at the same time. Quite hypocritical from my side.

"What kind of movies though?" Johan jumped over to another question.

"It's that book's adaptation you're reading right now. I thought of discussing how the adaptation and source differed after finishing them, you know? Also, I heard that book was about vampires and all which I love very much."

"Well, then let me join you, I don't want to do double work."

"Okay, so come with me right now. I just can't delay on entertainment. I also have some chips we could eat while watching." I was impatient.

"Wait a minute! Didn't you say you hadn't eaten anything until the date yesterday? Then you didn't eat in the café and then at the lounge. So the only thing you've eaten from yesterday morning was just a packet of chips?" Johan reminded me of something very important.

"Actually—" Just when I refused, Johan cut me off, with a six-page scolding, that ended by the lines of "...seriously, how could your parents even leave you, such a useless child alone? That too for two complete weeks. You'd have died if no one was there, you know?"

I don't like people younger than me lecturing me about my lifestyle.

"Go order something or at least try to make something edible!" Johan ordered.

"Hmm, ordering isn't that healthy for my survival, nor is making food by myself. I'll just ask Pilo to bring something from her house. Her parents do make a lot. Her home is very close too so it won't take her much time to bring something here soon."

"That's a good excuse, but what's the chance there's any food ready right now in her home?" Johan questioned.

"A hundred percent!"

"A hundred percent?" 

"There's always food there, Pilo is a voracious eater unlike me. VISIONs, like Grey said are more than enough of an energy source for me so I guess that's why I don't get hungry that much as an ordinary person."

"I see." Johan ended his rage. 

"So, let's go. I'll call her in the meantime."

After this, Pilo didn't pick up any calls for some reason so I'd to compensate for my energy source from Johan—however, Johan himself didn't notice it as he was too engrossed in the Kizumonogatari trilogy movies that we watched for three hours straight. Not even getting up once.

The movies were, contrarily, not your average vampire movies. Gore, is fantastic and sometimes uncomfortably dialogue-heavy. There wasn't an English dub, so I had to manage with the subtitles.

Well, I didn't really manage as Japanese was my mother tongue, no pun added.

I couldn't much relate to the movie though, it was entertaining at its best.

"That was one hell of a movie!" Johan exclaimed, forgetting his anger.

"Yeah, hellish for the protagonist."

"Stop it! Don't spoil it for the readers."

"Okay, okay!" I backed down. I didn't know he could get aggressive at such odd dimensions.

Claps showered in the home theatre from behind us. I jumped out of my seat because... because no one is supposed to be in the home aside from me who could make any kind of noise.

This wasn't odd, this was straight-up disturbing. The door was closed, right? The windows, back door, and every other human entry spot were closed, right? 

All those thoughts danced in my brain as I turned around, simultaneously building up a guard to protect myself.

"Two Johans? No, only one of you is real. Another one is an imposter." I questioned loudly.

"I'm actually the imposter—actually, we are, Unknown Souls. C'mon, you don't need to have a guard up, I'm the plain VISION that only you'd find everywhere, Rei Sturluson." A voice that wasn't deep or wasn't high—nay, a voice that was all deep, high, low—or rather in a chorus sung those words. 

However, their demeanor looked like Johan's, or should I say they were Johan's doppelganger.

No, seriously. Which imposter would go ahead and say "I'm the imposter!" Only people who try to gaslight others do that. 

"True, we were trying to gaslight you, into forgetting there ever were VISIONs, that there ever was a Johan."

"..."

See, now they even could read my mind. Damn it.

"Not saying anything won't do anything, Rei! We're your only reality, so you have to communicate with us!"

"..."

When you're suddenly faced with the final villain of the story, and at the same time wearing the worst possible outfit combination, you really can't expect me to talk much.

"Don't worry there are no villains in this story, but there's an antagonist. And that'd be us! Anyway, We're not here to hurt you either mentally or physically. I'm just here to clarify the convoluted truth!"

Truth? The only truth is me here!

"We're not denying that. However, we are here to clear the truth, to clear you from whatever rubbish that naïve girl, Grey told you."

"Calling Grey naïve is a mistake I'd never commit." I started communication, I couldn't stand their remarks despite standing.

"Well, you may have an image of a manipulator of Grey, and I wouldn't go as far to discard that title. Sure, manipulating a manipulator is certainly a hard job—that girl was not easy to get through, I must say. But everyone has a sweat, weak spot. And for her, it was the drive to compete, compete as a leader, on top of it.

So we simply sparked it by giving false information. Conversely, everything that we said wasn't fake either. They say to make a falsified portrait, we must use the gradients of truth. We gave her the outline and joined the disjointed parts with rock-solid evidence that we found in Sixty-One's records on you and her parents.

She drove off separate ways, and we VISIONs were able to maintain your sovereignty, Rei." Unknown said.

"So, you Unknown Souls are just an amalgamation of VISION. The true form which unlike during my birth didn't go berserk and was able to sustain into a single body?" I questioned.

"Exactly! It was an unfortunate mistake that you ended up meeting up with Grey despite putting up countermeasures like falsifying your image as someone divine. Anyway, that almost sums up everything, right?"

"No, it doesn't" Johan started. "Why do you look to me as Rei, and why do you look like me to Rei?" That was my major concern! Good going, Johan.

"I wouldn't explain it in overcomplicated terms, but if Rei truly wants to know the truth, we can't simply hide it as we are her actuality, Johan..." Unknown Souls interjected ordinarily as if it was very ordinary for them to speak. 

"...We VISION and Rei, are a group together—a union. After Rei's birth all VISION, as you know, divided into multiple separate individuals.

However, after copying the Purge Device from Sixty-One, and then refining it—all of us coalited together.  Except for the exceptions; Johan and that camera girl, all of us have reverted back into our true form.

Unintentionally, though, we've created an effect for the non-coalition entities in the union like the exceptions and you, Rei. 

And that effect is that we Unknown Souls can show you, the non-coalition members—the last person you want to lose. We represent your desire to not lose the person. 

Elementally, we copy the person to make you realize that you don't want to lose them."  Unknown Souls concluded their part of the story with that statement.

I of all people don't want to lose Johan... no way!

"There's no need to refute such feelings. It's true that you don't want to lose him so early. It's a fact." Unknown Souls stated in a matter-of-factly tone.

"Drop that attitude. It's annoying." I said as I sat down on one of the seats. 

"Well, we're a part of you so we're deemed to be annoying." They retorted.

"What do you want me to do, huh? Just wait for Johan to disappear and cluster up with you so I could be even more depressed than before? That's worse than an inmate waiting for his execution." I spoke while facing the large screen. It was my attempt to hide my feelings, but contrarily I was also expressing them out loud. 

I'm quite hypocritic, aren't I?

"If you are using such small examples to accuse yourself of a hypocrite, you're just overestimating yourself, Rei," Johan interjected. 

"But you're underestimating your hypocrisy, Unknown Souls. Sending me to Rei with half-assed information to find my home and when I died, much of which turned out to be false. I just wanted to find my house, so why couldn't you simply tell me where it was?" Johan asked assertively. 

"So, you never wanted to meet me?" I asked, at the brink of sobbing.

"N-No... I-I am just questioning Unknown Souls' hypocrisy." Johan replied stammeringly.

"About that. You, Johan, are our last and final gift from us, VISION. To Rei, before we all fade away in her shadows. In her memories. Just as a final sugarcoated memory. Also, one last thing—we're not from a different universe, that was just a lie we told Grey to spark up a flame. That's all. Enjoy your days with her. We'll meet you again." 

They were probably too embarrassed exactly like me to run away after saying such emotional stuff. So, last and final, huh? They're going to disappear for real this time. I see. That's way too unfortunate.

"Hey! Don't forget me! It's not like I never wanted to meet you, okay?" Johan yelled. This conversation just made me more cloudy and convoluted than clear and relaxed. Why must I alone go through all of this? 

Day 5: Date Number 2

I'm more of a history museum type of girl than an art museum type, yet I don't seem to have any other choice. This city only has one museum—the one we are standing right in front of—which was, yes, an art museum. 

The brisk sunlight partnered with chilly air calls for a homestay, but Pilo calls for something else. I mean I didn't seriously know where to go, so having Pilo plan things was a great deal.

Oh, wait... there was an old fortress in this city which was both historical and museum-like! Damn it, I should've remembered it yesterday. Guess, it's too late to change plans.

"Why not ditch Pilo and go there?" Johan, who'd read my thoughts like an open book, recommended a hideous plan.

"What kind of friend do you think, I am? I never ditch my friend(s) for my selfish interests!" I rejected his offer, telepathically.

"Huh? Aren't you the same person who stalled yourself from saving Pilo just to listen to a lame story half of which was false?"

"I did apologize for that, but don't call my life's story lame, okay? Yesterday evening I was in a complete entanglement of solving and processing the two-sided data that I received from Grey and Unknown Souls!"

"Sure, I believe that (this is not sarcasm)," Johan said sarcastically.

As we, more specifically I, waited for Pilo to arrive the brisk sunlight was transforming soggier by the wet clouds.

"Never late huh? You're ten minutes early... or did you arrive even earlier?" Pilo, wearing a ludicrously light—Yellow Floral Print Sundress for this heavy winter, hopped in front of us with a ludicrous statement.

"What about you? Even you attempted to come earlier than me, didn't you? But look at your failure, I beat you." I retorted.

"Don't turn everything into a competition, Rei! Anyway, let's go inside, it's going to rain, I feel." She overwrote my underlying intentions with her 'feelings'. Another new character is being presented by the Drama Club Leader of my school—an upbeat character on top of it. What a day.

It was quite opposite to the one she'd presented in that dubious café the day before yesterday.

"You need a student ID for this museum?" I asked a meaningful question to avoid any miscalculations. Once bitten, twice shy would be the perfect idiom for why I'd not try to commit any miscalculations. 

"Yes, I guess. But I didn't bring one. I lost it somewhere, tee-hee."

"What's with that cutesy act? You know you wouldn't be able to enter without it, right? Dumbass."

"Don't you have it in that handbag though? I mean I didn't leave it on purpose, but when I left in a hurry yesterday I forgot to take it back with me." Pilo replied.

Seriously to what extent could a human being be so irresponsible? Are there even any limits to such dependency and stupidity to begin with?

I grabbed her ID from my bag, totally fed up, and threw it at her face—however, she caught it before it clashed her face.

"I saw that from a mile away."

"Sure you did, Pilo. By the way, nice reflexes—but remember next time it'll come much faster, and with the intent to crack your skull."

"Well, I'll just dodge it." How audacious. No way somebody could dodge it, she's simply putting up airs.

After that, we both entered the museum using our student ID and Johan entered free of cost, thanks to his invisibility I guess. Lucky guy I must say.

I saw a poster for a special event that is going to take place around 1 a.m. (one hour from now), where a famous, god-knows-who artist is having an exhibition in a gallery on the second floor.

  I recommended myself not to spend any money on a random person's exhibition, someone I'll never encounter in my life again. I'd already spent enough on that membership card for that lounge that I may or may not revisit.

Sadly, Pilo had some other plans. She'd specifically come here for that exhibition and I was trapped here. I guess I might be the most gullible character in this story.

"Being gullible is good, you know? It means you trust people a lot, and we need more people who trust each other blindly." Johan spouted some gibberish ideology.

"Are you praising me or teasing me? Anyway, I don't want to be a person who trusts people a lot, it just brings back betrayal in return." I commented on his idealistic viewpoint.

"See this painting. It's half red and half blue—colors that don't make any sense by themselves, but there's a title below it. 'Opposites' it says, and it's what gives this painting some sort of meaning. 

Your life is the same, you can just title it however you want it. Betrayer or innocent or neutral, whatever you name it you can define according to it. So, why look at others and decide what you want to be? You alone can be a trustworthy person, and that would be more than enough for the world." 

Johan actually thinks, huh? That's quite unexpected.

"That may be true, but what about the audience? They must be respectable enough to show them the painting, right? And if no one's respectable then the painter might be demotivated completely to not paint, let alone give it a title." I loved Johan's point—but I continued the argument for the sake of it.

Believe it or not, I didn't have anything better to do aside from looking at these paintings and age-old sculptures.

Johan replied after a bitter moment of silence:

  "Yes, the painting might not have an external value without a respectable audience. However, the meaning only and only lies within the painter. Without you, your diaries may as well be meaningless. You are what gives your life a real meaning, at least, for yourself."

His point came out as quite dismissive and subjective—but I suppose art and life are best not to be objective, not to fit in a box. I'll not argue further.

"Whoa... why are those gloves filled with human hair, gross," I commented blatantly as I encountered something disturbing.

"Hey, don't comment loudly. That too is art, you know? People may get offended if you did that." Pilo replied.

"I don't know, I don't feel like staying on this floor anymore. Let's go check the other floors."

"Well, if you're really that disturbed you can go by yourself. I'll join you in some time, till that time you could probably entertain yourself with your imaginary date." Pilo mocked me once more. How long is she planning to continue such offensive commentary despite knowing that VISIONs are real?

"Yes, I will!" I stormed away from that floor. There were no elevators so I had to take the steps... which were, in fact, beautiful. 

The colorful glass adjacent to the silver stairs reflected their shades on them, which I think were purposefully kept colorless so the stair-glass partnership could create a magnificent interplay of colors.

Immediately, I took out the VISION-possessed-camera from my handbag and to a picture from it. 8YO (yes, I named it according to its age) looked visibly angry for handling the camera roughly. It didn't say a single word but the glare it gave me was enough to scare anyone.

Now that I think of it, she was more like an AI assistant than a VISION that possessed a camera. She also enhanced my pictures and captured VISIONs through the lens of this ordinary camera—so she was the perfect AI filter.

"Whoa, we VISIONs don't like to be used roughly. Especially when it's an eight-year-old who you're dealing with. Even dead people have feelings." Johan, another VISION funnily retorted.

"I see, I'll be careful the next time, tee-hee." I picked up Pilo's cutesy character to reply. 

"Don't go on picking stuff like that." 

"Hahaha... I'm done with taking pictures let's go." I caught Johan's hand and climbed up forcefully.

I couldn't love this moment anymore. I can't bear to not love this...

We were now on the third floor which apparently was the virtual gallery.

"What's that room? It has a sophisticated look with a long table in the center and a lot of chairs surrounding it. That couldn't really be the conference room of this museum, right? Like no way, it has transparent sliding doors, visible to all the visitors. No way it's possible!" Johan spoke in disbelief. 

"You see Johan, it's not only limited to the company's staff—artists all around the world meet here at night when there are no visitors, trying to find ways to dominate the world again." I rode onto his unexpected disbelief, a little teasing wouldn't bother.

"Again? Was the world dominated by artists before?" I can't believe he didn't question everything before that particular point. Did he forget all that talk about being gullible?

"Yes it sure was, and we can't stop them from doing so. That's why we should just move forward to the virtual gallery.

"Okay..." Johan said. I took a short picture of the conference room for reference, or just to remember this conversation in the future. I also included Johan in them (thanks to 8YO), so he could work as a reminder.

"I'll go to that part, you check that part, okay?" Somehow, Johan also decided to part ways in this room which was divided by a pointy wall.

The part he chose had modern paintings and the part I willingly (forcibly) chose was the "Things That Say Stories" section. It was a virtual exhibition that displayed, obviously, personal belongings dating back to the early twentieth century and the stories related to it. 

Now that I think of it, Johan probably sent me here to emphasize his point about self-definition.

I started reading one of those melancholic stories accompanied by pictures of the belongings. One of which was about an old-fashioned teddy bear. Did teddy bears even go through evolution (except for their size) in the first place? Not sure.

Anyway, the story was about how a very young boy was separated from his parents during the great depression. The only thing he possessed that his parents gifted him was that toy bear. Eventually, as he grew, individually and independently from society, the only thing he could depend on was that bear. However, one day he even lost it—but he'd finally realized that he didn't even have to depend on his parents' only connection. He was free of everything and anything... this picture was taken before he lost it, I suppose.

Yes, the story is quite melancholic but his life wasn't. This picture is woven with meaning and love. So that's what Johan was trying to say, huh? I see. 

I didn't bother to read the other stories in that corridor, as one was more than enough for an example.

After this, I headed to the other section of the room which was filled with modern paintings, where Johan was wandering.

I could see him directly from the entrance of that corridor. Standing in the dead-end, floating in the air while gazing at a painting of Vincent van Gogh. Coincidentally, there was a spotlight showering exactly where he was floating, making him the perfect subject for a beautiful picture that I captured using 8YO's camera. I'd call it 'The Boy with Silver Thoughts.'

Next, we both admired the ecstasy of modern painting that lay in the warm corridor. I don't believe couples usually do this kind of thing. Googling through a museum or engaging in a three-way deadlock in a lounge. 

We are indeed a couple for the sake of the date and not the opposite—however, in conventional terms, we'd go to either a mall, café, or an amusement park. Or so I saw from my classmates' updates on Instagram. 

"Mm... I'm tired let's go to the lobby." I said, getting super tired after getting over with gazing at historic doodles.

"Already? It's barely been half an hour since we came here!" Johan said.

"The lobby isn't devoid of paintings too, it's just that Pilo isn't coming up here so staying down would be better," I argued.

"I see, if there are more paintings then I wouldn't bother relooking at the paintings here."

After Johan completed his one last look, we left the floor and walked down using the same colorful sliver stairs that we'd encountered before.

It's already 1 a.m. so Pilo will be directly joining us after an hour, I see.

I think she's being considerate in her own way by not interrupting our so-called delusional date.

"Being invisible is super convenient, don't you think? You didn't have to pay any fee or had to go through the rigorous checking at the entrance of this museum." I asked Johan as I sat down on one of the couches in the lobby. There were paintings all around so it was a pleasant scene. 

"I think there are more inconvenient things than convenient things about invisibility. Like how you can't interact with people or how they can't even remember you if you never were there to begin with." Johan said with a long face.

"Wait, you needed invisibility for people to not talk with you. I didn't even need that to be not able to interact with people." 

"What kind of life did you even live? I don't even know what'd have happened to you if Pilo was never around." Johan said with a stiff emotion.

At least I was able to change his perspective on invisibility.

"No, you did not!" Johan retorted. However, I didn't reply or argue his nonsensical claim. I was facing what you'd call an introvert exhaustion. It's a serious illness, you know.

There was a metal stand just in the center of all the couches in the lobby which made it look like an arch. Anyway, it had many notes on it—drawn all over with visitors' scribbling and doodles. Both beautiful and artistic ones. This museum really takes the art part to the extreme, doesn't it? 

I grabbed one of the pencils from the stand and started scribbling on one of the pages. I was not perfect at it but I used to draw a lot in my diaries. At any rate, the drawing was of two people—one was half alive, another half dead. 

"I'm done with it, Johan! Look here."

"Wait, is that both of us? It's way too detailed that it'd be a waste if we kept it here." Johan uttered as he took a close peek at my scribbling. His tone of voice said that he was not making a sarcastic remark.

"I don't think so. It's best if we keep it here, where everyone would become aware that you exist. Your existence gives this picture meaning, therefore I want you to co-sign this picture with me. Whether you're dead or not people will know that you exist solely by looking at this rough scribble."

Johan looked puzzled, perplexed, and embarrassed at the same time. Overcoming all those emotions, he came close to me, grabbed the pencil, and gave a long signature. Long enough to make people realize that he existed.

That Girl and This Vision; a half alive and a half dead's drawing. I named it.

Day 7: Date Number 3

Today, we found ourselves on a riverside, on a Tuesday afternoon. Two days after visiting the museum, we're back on our third date—or should I say picnic because I feel more like that than a date. 

Nothing spectacular happened yesterday, except for the fact that I was sleeping for most of it.

"If we had a laziness detector with us, it would probably blast due to the insane off-the-chart readings that it'd detect from you." Johan retorted.

Yes, I'm lazy, so what? Being lazy is one of the good qualities I possess. Laziness is a product of creativity, after all.

"Wait, wasn't it the opposite? Like how lazy people tend to be more creative as they try to find lazier methods—which in turn are creative to solve complex problems?" How much does this guy like to argue, seriously? I wouldn't be able to keep up with that behavior.

It's a figure of speech, good grief.

Waste not, want not—I don't have time to waste on wordplays. We do have a few hours on our hands—but that'd slip away from my palm like the sand I was stomping upon.

Pilo, Johan, and I had just arrived here minutes ago, passing a waterless bridge and then climbing up a short bump of a hill with steps paved with stones randomly.

The adventurous feeling made the river seem like a secret treasure, hidden from everyone. However, it was way too long and broad to be kept as a secret from the city dwellers.

Maybe it's the inaccessibility to the masses that makes it feel like a secret.

  As we crossed the sorry excuse for a hill, our eyes met the great yellowish expanse of sand and our faces were buffeted by the open scenery's gale.

It felt like we were in different altitudes, different landscapes. You couldn't blame us for this false perception; we had gone from a dry, humid place to a warm, watery one, after all.

The water looked shallow near the shore so I guess it wouldn't be dangerous to play there, but I'm not sure about going any further. Shamefully, I do not know how to swim—and if I drown Pilo wouldn't be enough to save me.

"What are you thinking in that thick skull of yours? This is no place to think but just to play." Pilo injected her words into my thoughts.

"Thinking how useless you'd be when I'd drown." I retorted.

"Hey, don't call me useless when you yourself can't swim at all!"

"Hmm..." I folded my jeans at the open end to some extent so that they wouldn't get wet. Jeans are perfect when it comes to outdoor activities; almost nothing comes close (also way better than skirts). I wore them even when we visited the museum the day before yesterday, just in case I needed to escape. I don't want to repeat the travesty of our first date, after all.

"Is Johan here? If he's, tell him hello from me!" Pilo suddenly asked an unforeseen question as she entered the shallow water with me.

  Was she interested in him? How can someone be interested in someone they have never seen?

"Well, hello from me too!" Johan replied instantly. Huh? Am I supposed to be a mediator in communication between a human and a VISION? A visible and an invisible person?

No way I'm doing that exhausting shit.

"He said he's not here, don't say him hello—he's getting offended," I said to Pilo.

"The only person who'd get offended by a greeting could be only you, Rei. Now tell me what he really told you" Pilo riposted.

Hehe hehe, both of them giggled at me in sync. Imagine if both of them joined together to tease me, I'd be done for. I'd have to continue with the mistranslation or else...

Johan, who was also inside the river, splashed a large amount of water on my face suddenly. Anticipating my further attempts to create chaos.

"You little!" I exclaimed, however Pilo who'd observed water being splashed on my face by an invisible entity, joined with him.

I just can't sit back and go on getting drenched by this warm water, you know? Similarly, like them, I accumulated huge chunks of water in my palm and splashed on them in retaliation.

Our ceaseless waterplay caused quite a ruckus, but I guess it's not the time to bother about such trivial things. If I didn't go with the tit-for-tat ideology, I'd be the only loser.

This was intense for me, however. It became a 2v1 situation with Pilo and Johan forming a sudden partnership, putting me at a higher risk of losing than them. Disadvantages discourage people, they say—but it's just a storm in a teacup. If I defeated Pilo, this match would be more or less over. 

"..."

"Hmph! Did you think you'd be able to beat a former water splasher champion?" I looked down on Pilo who'd fallen in the water in complete loss.

"Seriously, how many former 'champions' titles do you even own? I bet half of them are just made up." Pilo refused to accept her defeat even in warm water. Well, denial is the first stage of grief, so her symptoms were clear as day.

I pulled her up before she fell into complete despair.

Today, she'd worn a similar character to me. A competitive yet introspective person—I expected no less from the Drama Club Leader.

Even the cosplay was on the spot. A deep blue maxi dress over jeans—perfectly unconventional just like most of my outfits. She looked way too good on it, I must say. 

Her fashion sense isn't a sense as she doesn't have any likes or dislikes when it comes to clothing. No, adaptability and dynamic is her fashion.

Next, Pilo got a great idea—or should I say a bad idea. She deduced that if Johan could throw water he could certainly catch a stick. This would bridge direct communication between them and I'd not be needed as their mediator.

Johan lit up like a bulb the moment he heard that idea and eagerly joined Pilo on her quest to find a stick or a fallen branch. Their plan was to use the sand as a makeshift board for communication.

It's not that I didn't see something so obvious, it's just I decided to ignore it so they both wouldn't communicate.

Either way, I decided to stay in the clear warm water unlike them. The water was quintessential enough to be pleasant, 

As the evening sun cast a warm glow on the shore, I took big strides, being careful not to slip on the damp sand. While also observing Johan and Pilo, playfully communicating by the water's edge.

I walked against the subtle flow of the river—that looked like waves, tiny waves. Just there I found the same doppelganger that I'd tried to bury deep in my brain's graveyard.

"Unknown Souls, you—" Just before I could complete my sentence, a VISION appeared. A VISION that was a coalition of all the VISIONs I'd ever encountered in every street, every building, and every playground in the past. 

My past and present were in a single entity's identity. Well, 8YO and Johan still worked independently as outcasts from this coalition, but even before them, these VISIONs were what shaped me as a human being.

"It's time... for Johan to return to his home—or it'll be too late. Why that long face, Rei? Didn't we tell you to enjoy your final days with him?

Okay, let me explain to you properly from where we'd stopped the last time. We VISIONs are not from an alternative universe and neither did you summon us. We VISIONs were with you for our own interest. You were more like an oasis for us lost souls. 

We belong to this world and will continue to do so. However, you'll have to return Johan to his home." Unknown Souls said.

"But why does Johan have to go away... if he's a VISION he can just stay with me forever, right? Someday, I can take him to his home and after that, he could stay with me, so why does he have to go away?" I questioned them.

"Johan himself will answer those questions when you take him to his home. I'll remove my censorship over him so he'd exactly remember when he died and where his home is. In his current state, he doesn't remember anything because of us, and because of the objective censorship pact that I've put upon both of you. So, you have to take him as soon as possible—or it'll be too late for him!" Unknown Souls said reluctantly.

"I understand, but what about you? You said you were just going to become a sugarcoated memory of mine? I'll be too devastated if you do that." I replied desperately. 

The memory refused to be sugarcoated let alone forgotten.

"We'll still be there in your shadows, in your soul, in your heart. You'll have to live without us, free from us. I know we hurt you a lot and will be doing the same by leaving you but...

It's a goodbye from us and you'll have to accept it no matter what. It's a goodbye from yours resented and yours faithfully, VISION. We didn't need to talk or react to you to shape you into who you are now. We didn't need to show empathy to love you. We were there all along... with you.

However, here's where we part ways. Where you truly become alone, but I'm sure you'll make better friends. Friends who don't hesitate to express their love unlike us. We love you, and we'll continue to do so, Rei!"

"...Goodbye?"

I fell down to my knees in the water. Making me realize that the jeans I'd folded up for it to not get wet was a useless attempt. I looked at myself in the water, who was bawling her eyes. She couldn't stop crying. Words fell short of describing what she was feeling.

Loss, childhood, adolescence, loneliness, despair, truth and false, right and wrong, and anxiety all clouded her. 

What would she do in the future without them? Would she even remember her childhood anymore?  How was the present going to change for her? 

She didn't know it and neither did I. 

"Hey Rei! You know Johan here is quite similar to me! Especially his thoughts on you and all..." Pilo suddenly fell silent and rushed towards me with Johan. "What happened Rei? Why are you bawling your eyes off like that?"

"They're gone. VISIONs are no longer with me." I said loudly, so I could accept it.