The Girl In My Dream

At some point, I started having the same dream every single day.

I couldn’t remember exactly when it had started, but I thought I had probably been around nine years old. That was right around when I started practicing kendo. No, I was sure it had begun around then.

A vast meadow. Thick, rolling fog. The murmur of a stream. The splashing of water against thin branches that blocked its flow. A slightly cold, damp breeze. A stagnant sky. Pitch-black clouds.

Even though it was supposed to be a dream, at some point I had begun to experience that place as though it were real. After all, everything I saw, every sound I heard, every scent I smelled, and every sensation I felt was scarcely different from the real thing. To me as a playful young child, it had been a secret place, a playground, a paradise, another world.

A little while after the dream began, a figure would emerge from the fog ahead of me. I could never see her face clearly, but somehow I knew she was a girl. A beautiful, delicate girl who looked like a princess.

But she wasn’t just an ordinary girl.

“Let’s do it again today.”

At her waist was a Japanese sword sheathed in a scabbard decorated with cherry blossom patterns. She slowly drew it from its sheath.

The beautiful steel blade revealed itself. Even beneath the gray sky and amid the dark meadow, the silver blade possessed an undeniable presence, and I remembered being utterly captivated by it. In fact, it had been what inspired me to start practicing kendo in the first place, so the impact it had left on me must have been immeasurable.

“Yeah, let’s do it!”

She handed me a Japanese sword as well, and I drew the blade. For an instant, the blade shimmered like a heat haze, giving me the illusion that the sword itself was alive. My blood seemed to course through the cold, inorganic blade of steel. This keen-edged sword, sharp enough to make me feel as though it might steal even my soul before I realized it, had long since become surprisingly comfortable in my hands.

“Now, take your stance, Konoha.”

Hearing her call my name made my heart skip a beat. But that feeling lasted only for a moment as I took my stance, pouring every ounce of my concentration into the sword. Before long, I couldn’t even hear the sounds around me anymore. Only at this moment did I feel as though I existed in neither the real world nor the world of dreams. It was a fascinating sensation.

The fog grew thicker and thicker, but our excitement showed no sign of fading.

I didn’t know her face.

I didn’t know her name.

I knew nothing about her.

And yet, there had undeniably been something precious there: precious time spent with my dearest friend.

This was a dream I wished I could remain in forever if only that wish could be granted, yet it always ended mercilessly and abruptly.

But someday… I will learn your name…