My head shook a great turmoil as I tried to yself. I felt the urge to vomit. I let my breathing take its natural course as my eyes were brimming with tears.

  "What… happened?" I muttered a question.

  I looked around to see an acute sery of a beautiful o with a tropical beach. I could hear the waves of the o filling my ears with rexing sounds. The gentle wind of the breeze weled my appearance as it hit me.

  I stood up with a differeion. Everythi fn. I could see the beautiful sery of nature everywhere I saw. I slowly walked alongside the beach as I tried to acclimate from the of events that just happened.

  I couldn't see anything man-made within my sight. However, the sight of nature itself calmed me down. I could see a thick forest at the opposite side of the beach. I thought for a moment before deg to sit down on the roearby the beach.

  "Am I always this tall?" I wondered.

  I ied both of my hands and palm to see a rather unfamiliar feeli a nostalgie. I found the sleeves of my outfit rather fortable. I tried to i my clothes even further.

  "This garment looks familiar…"

  I stood and walked he beach water to see the refle of myself. It was a little bit blurry, as the o water wasn't calm, however I could make up my refle. I couldn't hide my shock after seeing it.

  "I turned into… Mashiro?!"

  I saw adorable fox ears twitg from my refle. The facial features resembled a mature yet young tall dy with a rather fancy outfit. My hair was mostly silver with some tints of pink, matg my dress. I also had a somewhat unfortable long silver tail, the same color as my hair.

  I walked along the coastline of the o to clear my mind. I still occasionally stared at the refle of myself on the o to admire the look of a character I really loved.

  I sighed, "What is happening…"

  Aimlessly wandering around, I mao find a rusty shaear the o. I walked closer towards it. It was a rather huge building for a shack, but the outside exterior looked ed for quite some time. Without any thought, I opehe door.

  "Is ahere?" I didn't receive any answer.

  I looked around ihe shack to see various items and even paintings of a boy. The roof provided me quite a nice shade I was looking for. I felt tired from the heat of the sun.

  Without wasting any more time, I did something that I normally did whenever I was thrown into a sudden predit.

  "Well then, goodnight."

  ? ? ?

  "Who are you?!" shouted a young boy as his voice rudely interrupted my nap.

  I rubbed my eyes and yawned in sleepiness as I tried to clear my head up. I looked around to see a young looking boy with natural bck hair holding a dagger. His whole body tensed up while his hand was shaking.

  I looked outside the window to see the sunlight turning inte, indig the time to be afternoon. I switched my gaze back to the little boy. His figure was small, at around the size of aary student.

  I tried to calm him down, "Oh, is this your house? I'm sorry, I didn't realize. I thought it was abandoned."

  Hearing my words, he sighed in relief. However, his dagger was still up in front of him as he didn't have his guard down at all. His eyes were moving up and down, iing me.

  "I-If you stare at me like that, I would be embarrassed, you know," I teased the boy, with the most shy voice I could try.

  The boy immediately hid his gaze and put down the dagger he was holding, "I-I didn't mean to do that!"

  I reflexively smiled after hearing his i and pure reply. I could see he rexed his guard a little bit while rummaging around the room.

  "Is this you, boy?" I showed the painting of a smiling young boy holding a gigantia fish. There was an elderly man beside the boy as his proud smile was visible from the painting.

  "Yes, also stop taking other people's stuff!" The boy said.

  His eyes were in a frantic state. He kept on bashing furniture, trying to find something hidden. I could only watch his impatient behavior as he found a shiny pearl at the size of a marble from uhe tile floor.

  "You're not… a thief or anything, right?" I asked with .

  "Of course not! A rich dy like you wouldn't uand, we oners don't have the privilege of being safe all the time!" the boy screamed. Despite his small body, his tone of voice was rather demanding.

  I tried to deny his words of me being a rich dy, however I realized that he was correct. Mashiro, my favorite character from Luminous Dream, was supposedly a student from ae rich all-girls school.

  After he said that, the boy tried to run away from the shack with great speed. However, just after he got out of the shack, a few men appeared.

  "Just casually sneaking into our hideout, do you have a death wish boy?!" one of the men yelled out. He was carrying a rather giant club filled with nails, presumably as a on.

  The boy's sweat fell just like a river as he desperately hid the pearl he took from the shack. The boy took a deep breath, "it's-it's our shack! My grandfather was the one who built this shack! It's ours!"

  I watched the whole thing unravel from ihe shack. It seemed that the group of men hadn't noticed my presence.

  The boy's outburst caused the men to ugh in tears. The men wore filthy outfits while holding ons like swords, axes and knives. One of them got closer to the boy as he said, "Listen boy, we bandits couldn't care less about what you think, now scram off before I cut off one of ys!"

  The boy nodded and ran away as fast as he could. However, one of the men tripped the boy as he ughed, causing the boy to lose band the pearl he was carrying fell.

  All of the men were stunned by the dropped pearl as they hurriedly took it from him. Their eyes were taken over by greed as the boy tried to stand up and run away.

  "You're not going anywhere, uedly rich boy."

  One of the men held up his knife in a threatening manner, "give us all of the valuables you're hiding, and you'll be free."

  "That's all I have! I don't have anything else!"

  A shriek from the boy could be heard at least hundreds of meters away as one of the men took his knife closer to the boy's neck, "do you really think we're stupid enough to believe your lies?!"

  The boy's teary eyes were sing for ways of escape. Until finally, he took a secret g the shack, more precisely, at me.

  His eyes grew empty as he said i, "please, I don't have anything else."

  The group of men ignored his plea. Their aggressive look proved to be too much for a young boy at around elementary student age.

  "Men, ransack this tattered wood shatil there's nothing else to take! Feel free to burhing you don't need!"

  The boy's expression grew pale as he heard that, "please! don't go inside!"

  I sighed after seeing the ehing unfold. It would be hard to escape from this shack without getting caught. I looked at the pitiful looking boy with a bitter smile. I took a deep breath and decided to go meet the scary looking men outside.

  "Bullying an i child, are you not ashamed of yourself?!" I walked out of the shack.

  I stared at the men with determined eyes. My heartbeat kept on going crazy, however I kept my posure. The men halted their advao the shack as they saw me. Their eyes focused on my ears and tail.

  "Who are you?!" one of them yelled.

  I smiled while trying my best to maintain my high css dignity, befitting a rich dy. I poi the little boy they were holding, "release that bht now."

  "Heh, so that pearl was from you, was it?" one of the men cluded.

  "Yes, that's right, and if you do anything to me and that bht there, I'll make sure yret it."

  I felt an urge to vomit. However, I kept trying to bluff my way out of this. Being stared at with a bunch of strangers holding scary ons. I wouldn't want to get stabbed ever again.

  "Do you think we care about what a random noble dy would say? this is the middle out of nowhere, just because you're a noble doesn't mean bandits like us would spare you!"

  I smiled hearing the words of one of the men. It seemed like they thought I was a noble. My fancy outfit might be able to help me out in this predit, by making them think I was a noble dy.

  "Then you're a fool! Do you think my knights would let you go if you hurt me? They're ing here as we speak. If you don't give it up, all of you will die meaninglessly, fighting an army of knights."

  The men's expressions were flicted. They seemed puzzled to proceed, until one of the men took the lead. He uhed his sword as he walked closer towards me.

  "Then, when that time es, what would they do if I were to take you as hostage?" the man with a sword asked.

  I exaggerated a sigh hearing his question, "you will die, all of you. There are only ten of you, while my knights amouo hundreds. It doesn't matter whether I am a hostage, alive, or dead, what matters is you all will certainly die too."

  The men panicked after hearing my statement. I could see the person that uhed his sword was frozen in the spot. All of them were taken aback at the false information I just dropped. They all were puzzled on what to do.

  Looking at the fusion among the group, I smiled. I took this ce as I made my final ultimatum. At the end of the day, these people were humans, and fortunately, they feared death.

  "What I'm trying to say is, to get the hell out of here! leave me and the boy alone. With that, you might all live."

  Without any dey, all of the men took a desperate run as they left the pearl they took and the boy alone. Just a few moments ter, the boy and I were all alone.

  "Umm.. Miss, thank you. And sorry, I might've been rude to you earlier," said the boy as he took the pearl that was left out by the men.

  I smiled, "I'm just repaying the favor. When you were caught by those bandits, you were trying to hide me, weren't you?"

  The boy's cheek reddened as he hid his gaze from me. He preteo clear his throat as he took a deep breath.

  "By the way, I'm Roy. What's your name, Miss?"

  I took a moment before saying anything. I looked at the horizon of the o. Seeing that, I smiled. I switched my gaze into Roy's eyes.

  "I'm Mashiro, Mashiro Shimizu Mikan, o meet you."