The wind was blowing stronger that day. Normally, people would only take it for granted, and move on.

But things were different with the girl under the large window. She seemed to enjoy every minute of swaying trees and falling leaves just outside of her classroom. She was trying to calm down and pass time. After all, it was only a few minutes until the semester ends. And she had something to do with a certain someone.

"Alice, can you tell us the fourth state of matter, please?" Said the teacher. Half of the class stared at her. He seemed to recognise how Alice wasn't paying attention.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"The fourth. State. Of matter." He repeated, closing his eyes.

"Oh.. Um... Plasma, sir." She answered.

"Good. That was a close one. Pay attention next time, or you'll fail to notice things that are... Directed at you." He said with a pressing, slow speech that seemed to went past her head. His tone went from being serious to a little loose and turned his gaze. "Alright class, that is for today, don't forget to turn in the assignment next week. Take care of yourself in this short break, or maybe little holiday, if you wish to call it that. So, yeah, see you next week."

The rest of the class went loud with each of their own conversations after the teacher had left. But the girl began to pull out a colourful box, packed her belongings, and left the classroom without a single word.

Will this be enough, she thought to herself. She wanted to go to the other classroom as quickly as she could while trying not to drop the gift she carefully wrapped.

But as she came, she couldn't find him. Where is he, she wondered. She couldn't see his bag, so she went outside and looked for him.

In the garden of the school, just near the entrance, she could see him, talking to a teacher. "Good, I can give this to him." She muttered quietly to herself. But then she looked down and found that the wrapping had became undone. And while trying to be careful, she quickly sat down on a bench and redo the wrapping.

"Sorry cat, I don't have time for cuteness right now. I have to hurry." She said, focusing on her wrapping. "I wish I could catch up to him before- Hey hey! Come back here cat!"

She panicked as the stark white cat stole her gift. It was an hourglass. She chased it but after a while, she gave up as the cat disappeared into the bushes.

She was shocked and confused. She didn't know how to fix this, as she bought that hourglass with her entire savings, which wasn't much, and had no spare money to buy another gift for her friend.

Then after a while, she decided to go home. As the sky was almost dark, her frown began to get lower and lower. She looked sad, tired, and as if the only thing she saw was the path she walked on. She just wanted to give her dear friend a gift.

"Why am I going through such lengths just for him?" She muttered behind her breath, annoyed at the situation. She looped a few strands of her long, black hair between her fingers, twisting it and playing with it. "Maybe I just feel indebted to him. Maybe I just feel okay to give him gifts. Ah.. I don't know anymore.."

The girl continued to walk, and continued to think. Maybe she actually liked the boy. Maybe she felt that she just wanted to make him happy, or maybe because she felt like she had seen him before. She wasn't sure of her own thoughts at that time. But one thing she knew for sure, was that she would make him a gift. That is if she couldn't find the stolen hourglass.

Thirty minutes have passed, and she finally arrived near her home. It was a long walk, but she often tried to make the walk a little bit longer. Just long enough so that she could enjoy a little time of her own. She didn't like her home, and it was something very understandable.

"I should prepare myself. I'm about to be yelled at really bad this time." She talked to herself. "If I could escape, I would be so happy. If I was allowed to be myself and find my own happiness, I would be so happy. I wish... If I could be with him.. I would..."

She slowed down her pace, then she stopped. She couldn't say anything. She didn't remember having stair steps made out of stone, jutting out of the ground in front of her house. She froze, then slowly looked up to find the stark white cat, 50 steps from her, holding the hourglass with its mouth.

The air changed, the wind stopped blowing, and the sun had set. She swallowed her breath and slowly took a few steps up the stairs. She could see her house behind the platform, but the next thing she saw was the grains of sand in the hourglass. It was almost empty.

The horizon gave a reddish hue, everything became quiet, then she heard a voice. A quiet, soothing voice.

"Alice..." Said the cat.

She couldn't believe it. She tried to step back, but things went darker, and the cat ran.

"Oh no..."

"Wake up, Alice." A cloudy voice resonated softly inside her head.

A fallen, darkened, orange leaf fell on Alice's cheek. She opened her eyes, almost as if she had woken up from a deep slumber. "Cat..." She whispered, trying to regain her strength. She stood up, and examined her surroundings.

She was in a dim, damp, overgrown square room, void of any windows or doors. There was only a small hole on the wall, and one furniture. A table in the middle of the room, with a bottle labelled 'Drink me.' in its centre. She smiled. "You must be joking." She giggled. "Where is the cake then?" She then examined the bottle closely. It was a transparent glass bottle, half filled with an equally transparent liquid.

Having a chemist father made her to be more of a careful observer on most situations, especially this one. She wasn't fond of chemistry, nor was she interested in anything related to it, however, she knew that she couldn't just open the bottle and chug it down her throat. She first opened the cork, then carefully smelled the content. It's alcohol, she thought. She also knew that many poisons are odourless, so she held herself back. And at that moment, she ignored the bottle altogether and began looking for another way out.

"You're name is... Alice, right?" Said the cat, suddenly.

She quickly turned and saw the stark white cat. She froze. It was probably dread that filled her mind. She knew nothing was normal from the beginning, and she knew for certain it began with the cat in front of her.

"You've got the wrong Alice, cat. Or is your name... Cheshire?" She said. She couldn't move an inch, nor could she avert her eyes. But the cat's voice sounded softer and more feminine than what she had imagined, so she dared to talk again. "Speak clearly or I'll begin my offense."

"Feisty, aren't you? Well, no, I'm not Cheshire. No, you're not the wrong Alice. And... I don't know if you have realised this, but this is not a rabbit hole. At least, not the one you once read in a... Particular book." The cat smiled.

Alice kept her focus. She held her ground, refusing to react to the cat's words.

"Hahaha.. Alice.. You're sharper than I thought. I didn't think I'd have to use option B."

"What's option B? What was the option A?" She asked quickly. Her focus hasn't changed. A single smile from a suspicious being didn't affect her mood about the subject. "Explain, cat."

"There is no need to be cautious. You see Alice, that potion was supposed to take your consciousness away." The stark white cat explained while slowly and casually approaching the frightened Alice.

"Why?" She took a step back.

The cat then swirled her tail, in which a familiar shape emerges from the transparency of thin air. "There is very... very little time left, Alice."

"You're not making sense, cat." She took a few steps back. Alice couldn't contain her confusion anymore. It was as if she could just give up to her fear and tuck her knees close to her chest. But she didn't. She was trembling, but she could still think. She saw her hourglass. And she could see the grains were almost all the way to the bottom.

"Someone is waiting for you. I'll also be there. In short, this world is not what it seems, Alice. You have to wake up. I'll explain later." The cat then gently put her paws on the hourglass.

"Wait, what do you mean? Who?"

"Three... Two..."

"Wait!"

"One."

The cat cracked the hourglass open with a single push. Then the walls collapsed, the ceiling fell, and the room went dark.

I can't breathe, thought Alice. Help, I'm buried... Help... I'm... floating?

Alice couldn't see, nor could she hear anything. All she could sense was the smell of parchment. The smell of a dry, old wooden table. Then it suddenly went cold. So cold that she could smell the cold. It was sharp. It only went for a second until all became normal and she could hear a quiet voice. A second later she then heard two voices.

"...do you really think she could believe anything?" The gentle, but slightly coarse voice said. It seemed familiar to her.

"Well, I don't know, she should remember as soon as we explain it to her." Said a soft, soothing voice. It must be the cat, she thought.

"Why did you threaten her?"

"I didn't! I merely made her curious enough to tag along. And... Oh, she just woke up."

She could see her friend, and the cat. What? Why?, she thought. "Why are you here? What happened?"

"Snow, get me some water please, and some bandages if possible." He helped her to get up and sat her on a chair next to the desk full of books. "It's a long story, but what you just experienced, was a leap through the fourth dimension."

"Umm... What?" She squinted her eyes and looked at him again.

"I might sound like a chuunibyou, but I'm not making this up. Snow and I will explain later, okay? Just don't panic." He said.

"Here's some water, miss." Snow came in the room, dragging a small leather bag. inside it she could see a water bottle and a piece of white fabric.

"Show me your temple. You must've scratched yourself against a debris while in a leap." He said. Gently wiping a streak of blood from her temple. "That room was very old. But I didn't think it would collapse alongside a leap."

Alice took a deep breath. "Look, I'm okay, I'm not panicking anymore. Just tell me what happened, and why. I won't tell anyone that both of you have mastered witchcraft, but I want to go back home as soon as possible. It's already very late, I could get scolded and punished if I spend any more minute in this place. Thank you for the water bottle, the bandage, and the entertainment, but I have to go home."

"Alice, wait, listen."

"What?"

"This... This is your home."

"None of this makes sense." Denied Alice.

"I know all of this is hard to believe. But apparently your memories haven't recovered yet, but I can show you." He tried to convince her once again, to no avail.

"Ryan, it's not funny anymore. You can drop it this instant." Said Alice. Her expression indicated visible confusion and desperation. She still tried to stay calm but her anger started to show bit by bit.

"Almost, I'm not Ryan, though. It's Rein. Artificial memories are harder to cancel than I previously thought." He corrected.

"Last time I knew you, you weren't Rein, Ryan. And why do you think this memory that I have is false? That my entire life is nothing but a made up dream."

"Exactly. But it's not that simple. You're just simply not awake yet. The world you currently know about is just a temporary projection. You will soon realise everything after your old memories come back. Don't worry, this memory you have now won't be erased."

"What are you talking about?" She finally stood up.

"I know everything about you, Alice. I know you have a scar, a small cut on your right shoulder, you have a mole just below your nape, your hair used to be brownish before it turned black, you can see better with your right eye, and if you run more than 500 metres on altitude higher than 1000 metres you'll start to feel constant sharp pain in your left abdomen just below your diaphragm. You also only drink coffee when you don't want to sleep, you'd prefer tea with three teaspoons of sugar, and you are the most critical person in your family especially when it comes to planning and accounting. Am I right or not?"

She didn't answer. She couldn't. Everything was spot on, and she was sure he knew more than that. And at that moment she began to think that her intuition of knowing him far before she could remember might also be true. She nodded, looked at the floor, and sat back on her chair.

"Trust us. Nothing and no one in this room is going to hurt you. In around 30 minutes we are going to enter another dimension and into a different world, quite an old one. We will settle there for some time while trying to solve your memory and plan our next step." Rein glanced at Snow for a second, then looked around. His eyes then landed on Alice, whose face was still visibly confused but not as enraged as before. He saw contemplation.

"Try to make yourself comfortable. If you need anything, just call me or Snow. We won't be far from where you are." He said as he slowly turned and walked away from his desk. "Oh, and Alice..."

"Hmm?" She looked sad and still visibly confused. Her white school shirt and long skirt looked a little dirty and bashed up after the long journey she went through to get there. She looked at him with tired eyes and a slight frown, waiting for a response.

"Umm... Thank you for the gift. Really."

She smiled. Stupid, she thought. He saw me back then. But despite all of that, she felt relieved, somehow. She started to think maybe he was right, that the room she's in, was indeed, a part of her home.

"We can go back here anytime we want, so don't worry. This is our safehouse." Assured Snow. "You can have a little nap here before the leap. I'll wake you up after 25 minutes."

She rested her head on the sofa pillow behind her. She looked at the ceiling. What a pretty chandelier. She slowly closed her eyes, then not long after, she began to drift away. Floating, again. But this time she knew the dream world she was in. It was bright. Then she saw a ring.

A ring?, she thought to herself. Is this... me? And... Rein? What? Where is this? Who am I?

"You're you, Alice."

The room became dim once again. The flickering light of the chandelier brought her back to her senses.

"Three minutes until the leap." Said Snow, focusing on the navigation tool.

"Just sit back and wait." Continued Rein.

"Rein? Who am I?" She asked once again.

Rein looked back to her. He smiled. It was probably the warmest smile she had ever seen. Time went slower to her, the flickering stopped. His smile became warmer, and his lips began to move.

"You're you, darling."