Here we are again, finally a new chapter! I'm so sorry for taking this long, but unfortunately life happens. Also, a very big Thank You to all those, who chose to favourite or follow this story ^.^ I'm immensely thankful for your support and interest in my hallucinations :D
So, without further ado, have a look at the next chapter.
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Oliver stared at his colleague and mentor blankly, not sure how to take his statement. Lin didn't get dreams...he could walk into someone else's dream with preparation, but precognition and retrocognition were not his forte.
"You had a dream?" the young scientist asked with slight disbelief.
"Not exactly." Lin explained sitting himself down on the side of the table and combing his fingers through his hair to put it into some resemblance of his usual orderly haircut. "It was not my dream, but I saw it."
"Explain." Oliver demanded both intrigued and beaten off track. Every other person in the room sat very still and quiet, waiting for information.
"Naru, you know, that Yukiko has dreams with ether precognitive or retrocognitive qualities, but recently she has been able to astral project in her dreams – sometimes great distances. That's how she was able to accompany me on several of our cases so far. Recently her abilities grew again and tonight she was able to take me along into her dream." His tone seemed scholarly, like explaining the theory of relativity, not the fact he dreams his girlfriend every night. Mai absentmindedly envied his ability to speak without any embarrassment.
"Will you tell us what she showed you?" There was no doubt in Naru's voice. He learned very quickly (and the hard way) to trust the Icelandic witch and her ability.
Lin took a deep breath and started to remember his dream…and how much of it should be revealed. It was still so vivid in his mind, so the Chinese man just closed his eyes and let the entire evening play back in his head from the very beginning.
Lin Koujo couldn't believe his luck – he actually got the chance to sleep two nights in a row. After Mai's little accident everyone, but Naru, stayed in the base and let him go to rest after his ritual. In all honesty he wasn't so deadly tired, but passing such a chance by would just be foolish, so he went to bed anyway. Dressed in warm undershirt and sweatpants he was warm enough, but the futon was lumpy, old and smelled of dust. Nothing he hadn't seen before. With resolve to fall asleep as quickly as possible he closed his eyes…
And opened them again in another bed. Their bed. Facing the familiar white ceiling of Yukiko's well lit bedroom he instantly felt a hand, traveling up and down his chest slowly. Turning to his left in slight panic Lin found familiar wicked golden eyes gleaming at him playfully.
"Hello there, my love." She spoke quietly sliding her hand up to cover his cheek "I've been waiting for a while, you know? You still have a bad habit of not sleeping during cases, hmm? I missed you."
"And that's why you decided to walk into my dream? Really Yuki?" he couldn't help the smirk pulling at his lips. This woman was insufferable.
"Is that not reason enough?" the lovely woman mock pouted lifting herself up to straddle his hips. Smiling from ear to ear she slid forward, burying her fingers in his dark hair and massaging the scalp just the way he likes it. The sorcerers eyes slid shut against his will. This was far more pleasant, than the crappy futon he fell asleep upon.
"So?" she purred and pecked his lips lightly. Dragging himself out of the relaxed state he blinked and stared her down with a skeptical expression.
"I suppose it is…but knowing you, there must be something more." Yukiko just sighed but never lost the contented smile.
"Well, if you have to know…I'm here on business too. The case you are on…I've been seeing it in my dreams lately and I think you should know what I found out."
"What is it?" he asked mildly worried. They have just exorcized one pretty strong spirit. What else might be in the museum?
"Oh no, I'm afraid you will have to convince me to tell you…I've missed my love in my bed for these last days, so it might be wise to…" she didn't finish her sentence, interrupted by Lin's hot lips on hers.
He pulled her body close, relishing the feeling of her breasts pressing into his chest and her hands clutching his shoulders for support. This was home – her warm body, her long black hair tickling his face. Wrapping a hand around her neck he pulled the coal black waterfall of her hair out of the way to latch his lips upon her pale throat. Yukiko moaned and involuntarily bucked her hips into his groin. It was Lin's turn to groan. Before losing all ability to think straight he stopped and pulled her away with a small sigh.
"Am I being convincing enough?" he smirked up at her, watching the usually pale cheeks burn fiery red.
"For now…"she smiled back, a little breathless but by far not defeated "But when I have you back in our bed I will have my way with you."
"Then tell me what you know, so I could find my way home sooner rather than later…These dreams are leaving me in a very peculiar position...I'm just lucky no one slept in the same room yet."
That little confection made her laugh out loud. A happy and light sound filled Lin's ears and made him smile despite himself, before he saw Yukiko's face turn serious. She rolled off him and sat cross legged on the bed.
"The place you are in now is not where you need to be. The souls are not there, they may appear in the rooms, but the real location is a forest. I have been seeing it in my dreams for the last two days. Every time I fall asleep, I go flying over that mountain." She explained, trying to make him understand what they are supposed to look for.
"Can you give me any markers, something specific? There are a lot of mountains here, Yuki, I have no way to know which one it is…" he asked thoughtfully, trying to run all possibilities in his head.
"Well…there is a large temple on one side and lots of paths, wooden paths all around the mountain…" Yukiko trailed off, trying to find something specific in her memory before coming to a decision. "I think it will be easier if you see it for yourself."
That caused the Chinese man to raise a brow. "How exactly would that work? Did you learn something new again?" he asked only half surprised. His lovely doctor was learning to use and control her power incredibly quickly.
"I might have." She answered with an elusive smile and took the tall man by the hand, dragging him out of bed with little resistance. Though a bit worried Lin followed her curiously, wondering what trick she will surprise him with this time. Without another word the doctor placed her hand on the bedroom door and drew a glowing rune on it. Then, she threw the door open and it opened to…thin air. The door literally led into the sky, high up above a mountain.
"Yuki! What are we doing?" the sorcerer asked, unsure how to proceed. Dream walking was not a natural talent for him. He could do it, with preparation, but not to this extent.
"We are going flying, my love." She smiled just before pulling him into a kiss and stumbling them both through the door. Instead of the anticipated feeling of falling down, they were both floating in the air, completely weightless. The morning sun was playing in her hair and on her face, making her black hair crimson red instead. With a broad grin she pulled them both further, easily flying over the treetops, following the line of the rising mountain. There were paths and even roads underneath.
They branched over the entire mountain like veins. One particular pathway led to a long flight of stairs and a torii gate that was almost blinding red among the white and green tones of the winter forest. They took a small tour around the mountain top and Lin had a feeling it was just for the view, which was ethereally beautiful, so he couldn't complain. Yukiko probably felt his doubt, because the next moment she landed them upon the stone stairs leading to the temple. It was probably the longest steps to a Shinto temple Lin had ever walked -bulky, old and made of solid rock. Hand in hand the walked through the torii gate and stepped up to a large building structure. Usually temples are quite small…or very large. This one appeared to belong to the second category. There was a huge tree in the middle of the garden and the main building greeted guests with the bells and space to wash, though it was mostly frozen over now.
"This is where the path starts. This temple is old, and I think it's the only reason the spirits of the mountain are yet to spread down into the valley. It's like a protective barrier." Instead of going closer to the temple the elegant woman led them both towards a wooden path, skillfully hidden on the other side of a building. "The problem is the forest, Koujo, it has too many spirits. Some are supposed to be there, it's an old forest, after all, and the ancient gods are still alive here, but others are trapped. Souls of many humans travel the forest blindly, not even seeing each other. The reason is a building higher up the mountain. It's only ruins now, and they don't show me what it was, but it was large."
"So we need to find this particular temple and go on from there, yes?" Lin asked just to confirm if he got it right.
"Yes. It should be easy. There are very few temples this big in one area. When you get here, go up the paths and find the ruins. That is the source and the spirits drift around locked to it. I tried to speak to them, but very few are conscious enough to understand…" golden eyes shadowed over after the last sentence. Seeing his woman so downtrodden Lin automatically put his arm over her shoulders and pulled her close. Without objection Yukiko leaned into his tall frame and sighed. "This place makes me sad, koishii. For some reason most of the souls here are barely conscious, like people on drugs…but some are aware, and very powerful…"
Suddenly the woman's eyes dimmed for a moment and she froze in place. It startled Lin for a second and he grabbed her shoulders to try and get her back from wherever she was.
"Yuki, what is it? Where are you? Yukiko!" Koujo shook her body rather violently for a second and the woman in his arms came to.
"Other dream walker was here, I think it was Mai. Her visit…might have been unpleasant. Koujo, she is growing stronger, just like me."Yukiko looked up at her sorcerer with concern and laid both her palms on his face, trapping the tall man in place "Protect her. All of you. She is strong, but her emotions are too closely tied to the spirit world. It's both her greatest strength and her biggest weakness. Don't let her get lost, my love." She finished solemnly and gently pressed her lips to his. Lin could see how serious his witch was and it made him worry.
"We won't. I promise to do our best to look after her." he vowed seriuosly and tried to lighten the mood " Also...Oliver is so smitten he barely lets her out of his sight."He smiled "That boy is possessive, he won't let anything happen to her, believe me."
The little jab at his favorite ward earned Lin a crooked smile. "He is not the only one smitten, I believe." She teased before drawing a small glowing rune on his chest. "But now you must go. Tell them all this."
When her palm slid over the small symbol Lin woke up on his dusty futon in the museum and bolted upright.
Deciding to skip the first part of the dream, as pleasant as it was, Lin explained in detail what he saw and the best markers to find it. The main thing he could think of was a very large temple on the northern side of a mountain, high up (because the stairs were so ridiculously long).
"Alright, Mai said it was not far way, so I can guess there should be few temples that big in close proximity." Oliver stood up instantly to go over to his laptop and try finding the exact location.
"Yeah, I mean there are few temples that big in general. Are you sure it was not a Buddhist monastery, or something?" Monk piped in. The description reminded him too much of his home temple.
"I can tell the difference, Takigawa. It was Shinto, I'm certain. The gate alone is telling enough. Also there was temizusha, though it was partly frozen over. And the barrier around the temple was made of wood. It's old. Very old." Lin argued remembering as many details as he possibly could.
"And the forest was nearby?" Mai asked, still remembering the grand, ancient forest from her dream.
"Just behind the buildings." Lin confirmed.
"By any chance…was there a large Sakura tree in the middle of the temple gardens?" The client asked quietly and very carefully. It seemed almost like he didn't want to know the answer. Every single person in the room turned their heads to the middle aged archeologist, but he was pointedly looking at the floor. Then all glances turned on Lin, who seemed to be slightly derailed, but got his composure back in an instant.
"As a matter of fact, yes, there was a large and very old tree in the middle of the garden, though I couldn't tell if it was a Sakura – the tree is bare during winter." He answered piercing the older man with a scrutinizing gaze. Even Naru lifted his head up from the screen and was watching intently.
"Do you happen to know of such a shrine, Sawamura-san?" The boss asked pointedly looking at the man, who was still very interested in the floor mats.
"I believe I know the shrine you are talking about." After a short pause he added "My family owns it…so to speak."
The collective "What?!" nearly made the poor old scientist fall out of his chair.
"Please elaborate." Naru almost ordered in a very strict voice.
Sighing the client lifted his head up and looked around at the young people in the room. To him they all seemed like children almost, but he clearly underestimated them. He had his theories and really didn't want for them to become reality…
"That temple is only seven miles away, up the mountain. It was there for the last four hundred years. Technically all temples belong to the government, so this one is also not ours, but my family was responsible for running this temple for twelve generations now."
"Twelve?!" Monk nearly jumped out of his chair and quickly falling back started to count on his fingers how many years that could be…in a moment he blanched.
"Yes. Nearly from the beginning of its life." The archeologist confirmed.
"But if your family is responsible for running the temple, how can you work here, Sawamura-san?" Masako asked a little surprised. "As much as I know, you ought to be the high priest…"
"You see, Miss, I'm not the oldest son." He explained, falling back into his normal scholarly tone "My brother Hiroshi is running the shrine now, he is currently the high priest. Since he chose to stay and take over father's position, I was free to choose any other occupation, so I became an archeologist. We both loved history, me and my brother, I suppose it's inevitable when you grow up in a four hundred year old buildings." The man smiled wistfully to himself.
"Alright, that spares us the time finding the temple, I assume you will be willing to arrange a visit with your brother? One of your own co-workers is still comatose, after all." Oliver was clearly not too happy about the withheld information, but he understood that the man couldn't have known it was important. However the young boss was determined to get all possible information out of the man now, and decide whether it's relevant or not later.
"Yes, of course I will contact him in the morning and warn him of your visit. If you like we can be there by midday tomorrow."
"Very well. Also we will need someone to guide us up the mountain on the aforementioned paths. There must be another building up there, higher than the shrine. Do you happen to know anything about it?" Oliver inquired, watching the client keenly, to be sure he wouldn't lie. The pause after this question was considerably longer, but the client still answered.
"I know there was a building there, couple of miles up the mountain, maybe a little more, but it was demolished when I was a child, about forty years ago. I don't know what it was, our parents never spoke about it and we never really asked. It was forbidden to play in the demolished site…and at the time we still obeyed our parents…so we didn't really go up there." The spectacled man explained, but his eyes darted to the side avoiding Oliver's gaze, which became the reason for the boss to believe there is more to this story.
"You are not children anymore, Sawamura-san, and yet I can only assume no one goes up there even now. Why?"
"Well the wooden paths were made around ten years ago, for tourists to go higher up the mountain, so you cannot say no one goes there…" the archeologist was clearly avoiding the question, but Naru refused to be derailed.
"Are they in use, the paths?"
Silence was deafening in the room.
"Well?" Naru pressed further, quickly losing his patience "We cannot help you, Sawamura-san, if you refuse to give us information. We can, and will, find it from other sources if we have to, but if you hired us, I can only assume you want this bloody mess to be over…So I shall ask you again. Are the paths in use?"
Mai sat beside her boyfriend slightly shocked. It was a while after the last time she heard Naru speaking to a client in that tone. He was pissed, clearly, and his patience was running out. She secretly wondered if this will be the last day of their investigation, because the client might just send them back home…Watching the kindly scientist wringing his hands she waited. This will be the deciding moment – he will ether cave and divulge the truth, or send them howling. After almost solid two minutes of silence, the client spoke up once again.
"You and your team…you are just children to me, my daughter's age, most of you. I honestly don't want you to get hurt in this mess. If the situation in the museum was bad enough it will be worse up there." He sighed ad looked straight at Naru, trying to convince the young man to give up on that particular train of thought, but instead was met with steely and unwavering gaze of cobalt blue eyes. Realizing they are not backing down, he reluctantly continued. "Those paths were made twelve years ago as part of a program to get more tourists coming in. My brother, who was the head priest, was happy to have the paths coming through our temple – it meant more traffic. But soon we realized it may not have been the brightest idea. The paths were very popular, due to the beauty of the woods, but there were a lot of…accidents. People would stumble, say someone caught their feet, come back saying they heard someone talking when there was nobody there. In the next two years it got worse – tourists, who climbed the southern side of the mountain, were fine, but the ones, who chose the northern side - the paths behind our temple – would periodically get lost or missing.
Most were never found, so eventually we decided to close the entire northern side of the mountain for visitors and block the paths, as they were unsafe. Of course our family knew the problem was not the paths, but the forest itself. Me and my brother did not inherit the sight, so all we knew was our mother telling us to never go there, because our souls will be trapped." Taking a deep breath he looked over the entire team, littering the chairs and tables, even the floor, and with resolve announced "Therefore I will be happy to arrange the visit to the temple, but I will not allow you to take the paths up the mountain. There is no one who has climbed there in ten years – so there is no one to guide you."
"Then I'm afraid we are going to have to be the first ones to walk those paths in ten years." Naru announced standing up and very demonstratively packing up his laptop. The rest of the team silently followed suit.
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That's it for now, I will try to update quickly :)
As for cultural sidenotes:
temizusha - it's a small building with water basins or something simmilar. It's meant for the visitors of the shrine to wash their hands and rinse their mouths in a sort of purification ritual.