---Leiko Hamada---
---Warakuma Mall---
Leiko Hamada was not a dreamer.
Dreams were for people hopelessly absorbed in their own self-indulgence, their lives so desperately unfulfilling that their consciousness yearned for something different from their own drab lives. It was pitiful, really. For their own reality to be so dissatisfying that dissecting nonsense was some kind of beacon of hope for them...
"I started this dream diary since Monday. I looked it up online, and it said that if you see a waterfall, it symbolises a new beginning! How fitting is that?"
"For real? Wow! And didn't you break up with that Takeshi guy on Sunday too?"
"Yah! Crazy, right? What do you think, Hamada-chan?"
"Hamada-chan?"
"Hmm?" Leiko blinked, bored to a near stupor from her friends' blabbering as she gave a yawn and stretched. "What does it matter? Dreams don't mean anything."
"Aww c'mon. Don't be like that." Dream Diary girl pouted. "Unless you're calling the internet and a whole bunch of psychology experts wrong, then dreams have to mean something. Like, what did you dream about last night?"
Leiko blinked. “Nothing,” she answered flatly. “I never remember them.”
This wasn't entirely the truth however. Last night, she had envisioned herself in a sea of velvet, with a strange goblin-like man with a long protuding nose, staring deep into her soul with blood-shot, bulging eyes. It was the material made of nightmares really, but throughout the dream, Leiko never felt frightened or afraid. It was strange...
She also recalled something about cards. ;Layers of them were laid out in front of her, like some kind of fortune-telling session. She had tried to pick out a card, but a white silk glove clasped around hers before she could, telling her “Not yet...”
And that was when she woke up. The outlines of the dream became more blurred as the day went on, until certain details were impossible to grasp, like why she was there, or who that strange man really was...
“...Aww, that's disappointing, Hamada-chan,” One of her friends let out a drawn out sigh. “But then again, why would you even bother with dreaming? You have everything you could possibly want already. Money, popularity, a rich and powerful fiance on the sidelines...”
“You really are living the dream, huh Hamada-chan?” Dream Girl murmured, her voice tinged with envy. “You really do have everything...”
Leiko's lips thinned. This seemed to happen too often for her liking. Somehow, the conversation would always draw back to how much she had, how 'lucky' she was in this lifetime...
It was irksome.
“Enough of that. We should pay for our tab and get going.” She called the waiter over and flashed a credit card out of her purse, signifying that she would pay for their meal. Her friends made no effort to stop her; after all, this was a longtime custom when you were friends with Leiko Hamada. She could afford it, so why oppose it?
“Come on then.” Leiko stood up and picked up her bags from the floor, her two friends following suit as they left the restaurant. “Where should we go next?”
“Umm...how about the amusement park?” One of them piped up with a bright smile. “It's been a long time since I've gone there. We can just get your chaffeur to drive us, so it'll be a breeze.
“Are you serious? How childish.” The other girl let out an audible groan. “Do we really have to?”
Leiko cocked her head slightly in thought. “Hmm...” Leiko was never really one for childish games...but she'd shopped so much it was becoming a chore. And there really wasn't a whole lot for young people to do in Warakuma besides...
“Hey...” One of her friends' voices became hushed as she pointed to one of the benches just outside the mall. “Isn't that Wakahisa-san?”
Leiko's eyes followed to the source of her group's curiosity, noting a rather gloomy and unsettled girl sitting on a bench, with what appeared to be a wooden sword clenched in her hands.
“What the actual fuck.” Dream Girl's voice became high pitched and incredulous. “Why is she holding a sword in public? And I swear I heard her just call it 'Kami'...What a freaking nutjob!”