縁樹の導き

When I come to, my listless footsteps are taking me up a mountain path.

Uh-oh. Did I properly shut the door before coming here?

Though when I think about it, that's definitely not the issue here. First of all, why in the world am I hiking up a mountain?

The natural answer: this is another dream.

I've been having a lot of dreams lately. You might even call them lucid dreams. I've had that sort of awareness in all of them.

If it's a dream, then I don't have to worry about what happens next. When the punch-line comes around, I'll just wake up.

......Huh?

According to the usual pattern, lately, I wouldn't be able to speak and move on my own, like I am now.

It would be like a movie, with me watching as if from somewhere outside.

The point is, this is either reality, or a new pattern.

Without forethought, I grab a bit of my cheek and pinch.

In other words, this doesn't seem to be a dream...

Which would mean it's indeterminate with that classic technique just now.

Uuu, so my cheek was pinched for utterly no reason, huh? There there, you poor thing.

Patting a bit at the sting in my cheek, I stop in my tracks (though a bit late for that).

"How dare you come all the way down this pathless trail without a shred of hesitation?" ask my thoughts after a swirling survey of my surroundings.

I might just be lost, but...

............

......If this isn't a dream, then I'm in trouble.

Be that as it may, things won't get any better if I sit around and do nothing, and it's not like this place is completely unfamiliar, so I decide to rely on the memory of my dream and proceed forward.

The memory of my dream... unreliable, indeed.

Za! Za! Za! Za!

Fleeting though it may be, my body chooses its path with surprising ease.

Za! Za! Za! Za!

As if knowing nothing of fatigue, the steps of my feet continue without pause.

As if possessed, the steps of my feet grow faster.

This sensation... maybe it really is the same dream?

If it is a dream then, if I'm right, just up beyond here is...

Zaa!...

Suddenly, my field of vision opens wide.

At this point, I'm probably halfway up the mountain.

As far as I can lift my gaze stands a tremendous-

A great, ancient tree towers above, letting bloom countless tiny white flowers.

With years upon innumerable years of age piled on the central trunk, comparing it to the person standing at its base makes the width clear at a glance.

There, I finally notice the existence of a preceding visitor.

A boy lingers there, seemingly about the same age, pressing at the trunk with his outstretched palm.

Zaaa---

The wind carries itself from here to where he stands.

As if it had carried my voice, he raises his face.

His slightly long, soft looking hair, sways in the wind, in tandem with the flower petals as they drop from the branches.

Thus the same word passes my lips twice.

Déjà vu... might be overdoing it a little, but I somehow get the feeling I've seen him before.

But I have no acquaintances here, and even if he's not from here, I wouldn't know a boy---

Could he be a famous person who might appear on TV, or in a magazine?

When did he get this close? Moving to peer slightly into my face, he begins talking. His height, about average.

I've never met you before... and you're a boy.

Although, his face, voice and speech all seem nice, and he seems like the type where I could get by without being conscious of him as a boy.

I've just been jumping at everything since this began.

That is... I guess you could say it isn't exactly a rare name, but...