Ichimatsu blinked open his eyes slowly, wincing in pain as he found himself lying on the hot pavement in the middle of the street. But, of course, since there were no cars, he wasn't in danger. Other than being burned.

"Why..." Ichimatsu moaned, sitting up, rubbing the side of his head which had been lying on the street. "Why can't I just dream..."

"Why would you want to dream?" a girl's voice asked softly from behind him.

Ichimatsu scrambled to his feet then turned around, looking around frantically, hoping to find out who the familiar voice belonged to.

"Calm down, Ichimatsu," the girl whispered, her voice now inside his head. "There's nothing to worry about here. It's just you and me. Can you remember that? Me...and you."

"Leave me alone," Ichimatsu hissed, realizing that he was actually able to hear his own voice despite that he was still invisible. "I don't want you to be around me. Whenever I hear your voice, something bad happens..."

"Has anything bad happened yet, little boy?" the girl asked with a chuckle.

"I'm not a little boy, you know," Ichimatsu spat harshly, beginning to walk down the street that lead to the beach. "This is ten years in the future. Also known as present time."

"You act like I wouldn't know that, Ichimatsu," the girl said coldly. "I know everything. I know how tall you are. I know the exact minute and second you were born. I know how you lie to yourself, saying you don't need people. You're really very lonely. You want friends, but you don't know how to properly interact with people. Isn't that correct? Yes, of course it is. I know everything about you. I can hear all of your thoughts."

Ichimatsu huffed, keeping his eyes focused on the ground beneath his feet. He didn't like listening to this strange girl. No matter how friendly or familiar she sounded, he couldn't trust her.

Ichimatsu stopped walking when sand overflowed his sandals. He had reached the beach.

Kicking off his shoes, Ichimatsu quickly ran to the place where he had seen footprints before. And though it was hard to run in the sand, considering the physical shape he was in, Ichimatsu reached the spot rather quickly.

Just as he had suspected, there were the footprints. And from the looks of it, they went on for a long ways. Ichimatsu immediately began to follow them, but very slowly. He didn't want to run out of breath again.

"I know I can't be the only person left in this world..." Ichimatsu thought, staring at the footprints, stepping beside each one. They were abnormally small for feet, but they were still footprints that could be made by a person. It definitely was a girl, and perhaps a very young one at that.

Ichimatsu sighed, shaking his head. "What the heck am I doing now?" he muttered to himself. "Here i and, following the footsteps of what could possible be a child. And if not a child, a petite young lady. No matter what way you look at it, it appears as if I'm a pervert."

"But I'm not alone here...I hope," he reminded himself silently as he continued to follow the small footprints.

And for several minutes, they just continued on, leading Ichimatsu farther down the beach than he had ever been before. Even as a child, when he went off "exploring" on the beach, he never wandered far. Definitely not this far.

Excitement began to build up inside of Ichimatsu as he noticed how the footprints began to look deeper and more formed, showing signs that they were newer than the ones at the very beginning. A lot newer.

With a quiet sigh, Ichimatsu sighed, sitting down on a log that had washed up on the shore a ways. He needed to rest for a moment.

"I wonder if I'm getting close," he mumbled, staring at the footprints, seeing how far they went. But as he squinted his eyes, he noticed a figure not too far off in the distance.

Ichimatsu jumped to his feet, chasing after the figure, kicking up loads of sand in the process. He kept his eyes fixated on the figure, hoping it was what he had been following for so long.

"Please stop!" Ichimatsu yelled as loudly as he could, hoping the figure could hear him. And wether they heard or not, it seemed to have stopped, facing Ichimatsu's direction.

An after only one minute of running, Ichimatsu could see the figure clearly.

It was a very frail looking girl with sunlit blond hair wearing a long, flowing white beach dress. She held tightly on to what appeared to be a huge sun hat for the beach.

"You're..." Ichimatsu muttered, falling down on his knees in the sand in pure exhaustion as he was right in front of her.

The girl just smiled and held out her hand, pulling Ichimatsu to his feet.

"It's nice to finally meet you here, Ichimatsu," the girl said, her voice the same as the one he had been hearing in all of his dreams. "I am..."

But right before Ichimatsu could hear her name, he felt himself slipping back into reality.