Silenbsp; A peaceful m arrived. At least ing out of sleep. The early arriving sunlight broke through the curtains. Its warmth helped as much as the arm to stir Saki awake. She reached her hand over to the clock.

  A simple small analog clock with just a siton. Saki slowly pressed it down to end its call. Her finger settled into the smoothed well used surfabsp; The pstic cover for the clock hands marred with scratches and a crack a third of the way through. A bit of the outer pstic chipped away where it had falleoo many times.

  Saki stretched a little before sliding out of bed. Her hand brushed back a few strands of hair, barely lohan a pixie cut. ing up the covers, she gnced over at the other bed still deeply occupied. Once she finished making her bed, she walked over. “Time to get up, Nori,” she spoke softly.

  It took a couple of calls before her little sister moved. Though as usual, it was just turning in her sleep. Taking a more direct approach, Saki petted her head, gettio stir. Slowly coaxing her out of sleep took a couple minutes more. “Mornin’”

  A slow yawn came out of Noriko as she finally opened her eyes. “Is…m…now?” Sleep slurred her words adorably.

  “Yup! Gotta wake up.”

  “O…kay…”

  Saki stepped away. Early m prep tinued as she waited for Noriko to get up. By the time, Saki ed up and ged clothes, her little sister walked out of bed. The short nine year old kept rubbing her eyes.

  Helpihrough their routine, Noriko finally had the energy to operate on her own. Saki sat down startiretches. Noriko returned in simirly designed casual shorts and a loose shirt, but in a pink and white pattern to Saki’s bd blue. Dropping down, she eagerly began trying to match what Saki did. Unlike Saki, Noriko cked the years of practice even being younger and likely more flexible. Saki guided the same as always when she failed.

  As Saki stretched, Noriko kept up her energy, as though it recharged her. By the end, she bounced around Saki. Saki tried to settle her down before they went out for breakfast. It didn’t work.

  Chapter 8 - Routines

  The boung feet creaked the old wood in the hall. Saki walked with a lighter step seeing the table already prepared. Her father sat deep in a cup of coffee. Behind Noriko’s cheer greeting, she replied as well. “Good m.”

  As they arrived, their father looked up. A young by appearance Japanese man dressed in a semi-formal attire prepared for work already. “Mornin’ you two! Sleep well?” He leaned over to help Noriko finish pulling in her chair.

  “We did stretches!”

  “Oh my, your itment is encing!”

  “it…ment?”

  “Hard work.” He gave her a pat on the head and smiled. She grinned wide back swaying a little while waiting.

  Saki politely sat down on the opposite side. Hands in her p, she waited for breakfast to e. She watched him dote on her little sister as time slowly passed.

  He turned over to Saki when it looked like Noriko had settled down enough. “How’s the new school? It’s been a month already. Where does the time go?”

  “Not much different.”

  “I heard you joirack team. After all the time at the dojo, I was surprised you picked track.”

  Before she could ahe food arrived. A simple fare sisting mostly of egg and bread. Behind the food, their mother stood with a stern expression. Shoulder length semi-graying dark rust colored hair tied babsp; Several wrinkles already began to develop along her eyes and mouth. “It was just for self defense, Hachiro. After everything she went through, you uand. Track’s something more practical for her to pursue.”

  “Naturally, if that’s what Saki wants. I know you threw yourself into it.” He looked over to Saki for firmation.

  She nodded briefly, cutting into her food. “This is what I picked.”

  “If you’re having fun.”

  “It’s only been a week or two.”

  “Be sure to enjoy yourself.”

  “Yes, yes dear. You don’t o pressure her.” Their mother pushed the pte a little closer to him. He took the hint and stopped.

  Oheir mother sat down, the breakfast carried on with retive silenbsp; Saki finished quickly and moved to get ready for school. With some aloime, she stared at the mirror in her room. Thoughts strayed between past and present. Nothing held for long.

  Refles ended when Noriko crashed the room. She hurried over to Saki’s bed to get the ribbon for her. “Thanks, Nori! Wao help you get ready?”

  “Yes, please!” She bounced up and down in front of her sister with her arms up. A small giggle came from Saki.

  When it came to exit their apartment, Saki heard from the kit the familiarly repeated phrase. “Be safe and don’t go near him!”

  “Yes, mother! I’ll be going!”

  A few blocks over in the neighborhood and early m once more, there was a distinct ck of earthquake style boung. Not that in his sleepy state he would have been able to dis the differenbsp; No, dream Yuki well forted away from reality. Especially, a new said reality that sleep might be fending him from currently.

  Lack of boung aside, some movement or shifting was happening. In the borderliween sleep ay, he made no sense of the differenbsp; But what snapped his enting melody of fantasy dreams was the fact that it felt off, wrong maybe? Food or bad, his little brothers made it their habit to wake him up in the m, most times before his arm even got a ce (sad arm noises). The different feeling this gave him sliced through his dreams.

  Through those sliced dreams, his ears heard a soft voice whisper to him. “Master Yuki…Master Yuki…”

  Yuki nodded his head, feeling the tig of the breath, but rolled over to keep sleeping. “Just a little longer, Sis…” Si didn’t sound as urgent clearly he had more time to sleep. Naturally.

  “Master Yuki…” The voice persisted in his ear making it twitbsp; A sudde pressed on him, when calling out to him failed repeatedly. “Master Yuki…”

  “Momoko…Ken…why are you both…” He attempted to move around, but found it to be difficult. Normally, his little brothers, while great at making an impact, couldn’t do anythio pin him down. Yet they ma? Momoko did? He was really fused. That pulled him further into reality when the covers came away.

  With reality and his eyes starting to open, he picked up more of his surroundings. An unfamiliar sweet aroma danced in the air. Something that didn’t make any sense for Momoko, at least in the m. “Momo? When you’d start wearing perfume in the m?”

  “Master, you’re awake!”

  “And why are you calling me ‘Master’?” He stared through his blurry eyes at a face that he could only tell was a woman from the void long hair. He blinked ond wiped his hands over his eyes to clear his vision. Once sight had beeurned, before him was a beautiful young woman in a maid e straddling him staring only a few inches away from his face with a leasing smile on her fabsp; “Oh a maid…”

  Of course it was a maid. A dime a dozen knock off from any anime ht hat he could think of from the st three months. Nothing strange about seeing a maid.

  Nothing?

  “What?! A Maid?!” He jumped back up, nearly crashing into the woman before pulling back breathing heavily. ‘What’s a maid doing in my room?’

  “Master?”

  “Y-Yes?” he said nervously trying to work through what was going on. ‘I’m still dreaming. This is just a dream. Y-Yeah and I just o wake up.’ Yuki pinched himself and looked up to find the results to be no different. He spped his fad punched himself thinking he needed more pain to wake up, but nothing had ged.

  “Master?”

  “AH!” Yuki pulled ba his bed trying to put some distaween her and him. She tio follow him until he fell out of his bed dropping his back painfully. A few books dug into his baow as he found himself in an all too only familiar se. If it wasn’t for the panid fusion running through his whole mind and bht now, his young male adolesce might have actually e.

  A long shining bde suddenly beamed over him toug his nebsp; The point of it was very real, making him cough cautiously. “Yuki. As a samurai of honor I challenge you to a duel.” And the cliche se suddenly flipped into nour.

  Yuki tilted his head over slowly to see a man standing before him standing in full samurai armor from the Edo Period. He began to sweat at the sight, as well as the katana at his throat. Dark panicked shadows painted over his face as this hreat. ‘An assassin? In samurai armor? What’s going on here?’ The man pulled back his sword looking like he was waiting for a reply.

  Yuki took the opportunity to leap away from the woman and crawl into a er away from both of them. His eyes darted quickly betweewo of them watg what they did carefully. ‘What’s a samurai and a maid doing in my room?’

  ‘...you are part of a group of people who rewrite the ws of the world to create anything that our imaginations e up with,’ said Ayumi’s voi Yuki’s head suddenly, remembering something. The words from her story pitch came ba and he began to piece things together.

  ‘Anything my imagination e up with?’ He looked at the maid and o him. ‘Yeah, she looks almost exactly like the maid out of I Quit My Dead-end Job When a Maid Fell into my Life.’ The maid started to approach him again looking like she wao do something. ‘I made her? Like a waking dream? Is this how it works?’

  He didn’t know how it worked.

  The samurai stood getting impatient for a response, katana brandished in a demanding angle. ‘What am I supposed to do? How do I turn it off?’ Yuki closed his eyes hoping that it would disappear, but when he opehem again they remained. He shut his eyes once more. ‘Turn off. Turn off. It’s not w. What do I do?’ Yuki began to bee panicked again seeing the maid get closer to him with the samurai taking a frightening stance against him.

  He tried to think back to the night when he used his powers. ‘How did I do it before? Fog too hard on it made it disappear…’ Yuki stared at the two really ily. They became the only thing in his vision. Unfortunately, the samurai apparently took umbrage with his stare and took two steps forward as though the challenge ted.

  ‘T-this isn’t w! Ayumi! I really wish you were here to tell me how to turn this off!’ Crawling a bit against the er of the wall, he stood up. ‘It’s mind powers. T-think! You’ve watched and read so muime, something in your brain’s got to have an idea.’ Rapidly Yuki did a mental file search through his media knowledge.

  Pressed for an immediate answer, he stopped the search at the first idea. He winced. This was not a good idea, but definitely an idea. And backed by an uioningly uhy ption of anime carried some validity.

  It still made him pause.

  A loud crash followed with a thud. Yuki y partially unscious on his bed, eyes turning into spirals dazed. Shards of the unfortunate mp scattered around his sheets.

  His door opened showing an er Ken and Jun. “Are you pying without us?” They rushed through the forest of books to his side.

  Snapping back to attention, his eyes darted over to where the samurai and maid were. her could be seen. A sigh of relief came to him as he pulled himself back up to greet them. “I would never py without you two! I was trying to surprise you when you came in to wake me up! Did it work?”