Pinfu
It’s been a few days since those three have started speaking in my head.
They always make sure to stay away whenever I’m in front of other people, and they honestly only really appear when I’m alone and worried or if I was having trouble… But when they did, they always make a lot of noise, argue with each other, and give me advice.
This made me want to know about them more in turn, so I started looking up a bunch of things and researched as much as I could. From a variety of books to the depths of the internet.
After a while… I found something that I thought fit what I was going through the best.
“Imaginary friends…”
The book I read this in said they could also be called “make-believe friends” or “imaginary playmates.”
That being said, there’s no clear definition of them, and the forms they appear in can differ from person to person… Some people don’t just hear voices, they can actually see them too.
In some cases, it could happen in adults, but they mainly manifest in children.
“Is it… because I’m alone…?”
As I closed the book, I began to think to myself… Maybe I subconsciously created them because of my isolation and loneliness…?
This could be true, especially in Rouzel and Dewawa’s case since they both appeared when I was in that scary tunnel that looked like it led to another dimension… The likelihood of this was extremely high.
“Should I not be keeping those kids1 around…? Maybe they’re just illusions…”
I wonder… what I should do. I have no idea.
But, I think it’s better than not having any friends at all.
There was a book that said that imaginary friends are a sign of loneliness, so the kid should work on making real friends.
I never thought about trying to get rid of them or anything like that, though.
Those three have taught me a lot of different things, and even though it can be hard or confusing to deal with them talking all the time… I’ve had more fun being together with them than anything else.
I felt like I needed them, and I wanted to be with them from here on out.
“There’s just… one thing that I found strange…”
Imaginary friends were said to be something that you create and make up yourself. But all of them use language that I’ve never heard before. For example, the difficult words KB uses, Rouzel speaking in English, and Dewawa’s slang too…
On top of that, the three of them know about things and offer different perspectives that I’ve never even thought about before.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was strange for me to have created things that were formed of knowledge I couldn’t have possibly known.
“Imaginary friends are… hard to understand…”
— ✈︎
A few days later.
That day, I was just listening to the three of them talk… So I sat there spacing out until it was time for art class to end.
Thanks to Rouzel and the others, I stopped being afraid of walking home in the dark… But in turn, art class ended up being more tiring than usual, so I was just worn out when I got back home.
“…Tired.”
Before I knew it, I ended up falling asleep.
— ✈︎
Inside my dream, all kinds of different Western style paintings that my art teacher showed to us appeared around me.
Landscape paintings.
Still life paintings.
Paintings of fruit.
A rolling apple.
Paintings of animals.
A free roaming cow.
A man’s face in abstract clothing.
A profile of a woman wearing flowy clothing.
Men, women, men women menwomenmenwomenpearmenwomenmenwomen, men women…
Men, wom…en――
“Ah~~~!” 2
— ✈︎
At that time, a voice came from somewhere within my dream.
— ✈︎
“What’s thaaat~~~!?”
The voice called out like it was pointing out something extremely important.
“Eh…!?”
— ✈︎
Out of shock, I woke up.
Suddenly, I felt something strange around my stomach― A feeling that was completely out of the norm. So I jumped up.
And I ran to the bathroom in a rush.
— ✈︎
Nervously, I looked down at my stomach and―
“Wh…”
I was stunned.
I stood there, frozen in place.
Just in severe shock.
What… was happening…to me―
At the same time, a voice burst out in laughter from the inside of my head.
“Ahahahahahaa! My baaad~!”
It was a very carefree laugh that sounded like it came from the bottom of his heart.
“Eh?? Huh!?”
“Kiroku, was that your first time~? No way, congrats, for real~! Ahahahaah!”
“Wha, huh?”
“You got nothin’ to be embarrassed about, it’s all gooood~!”
“Why…? What… is this?”
I was completely frozen in place. I called out to Rouzel and the others for help.
But, no one said anything.
Or rather, they might have felt a bit awkward about the situation. Even though I couldn’t see them, I got the feeling they were looking at each other and whispering to each other…
“Aha! Weeell, I guess these kinda good feelings are right up my alley, sooo~”
“Feelings…?”
“You liked it, right~?”
The fourth voice was still talking, and the other three kept silent, so it felt like things were just going to get more and more confusing from here.
So I asked him.
“Who are you? What did you… do to me?”
“I don’t got a name sooo, I’ll tell you all about it if you give me oneee~”
So I obviously came up with one for him.
He was a pleasure-seeking person who brings good feelings, and along with him came some sort of weird feeling as well.
“I’ll name you… Pinfu.”
“Thanks a bunch~! Then, about what I diiid~”
Pinfu said―
“I didn’t do anythin’.”
And teased me while laughing as I held my breath
— ✈︎