A/N: how does Takao address girls omg
Due to some important outcomes while writing this chapter, Momoi's behavior back in chapter 5 has been altered slightly (kind of important if you wanna reread). Reasons are revealed in this chapter ;)
Aomine maneuvered leisurely through the bustling crowd with his friend, who was having a more difficult time seeing over the mass of heads. He swore that if he weren't tagging along behind her, Momoi would've already tripped twice on her feet from the push of the crowd.
"Ah, look, look, Dai-chan!" Momoi piped up.
A noncommittal grunt was the reply, as Aomine preferred not to bother this early in the morning.
"Hey, Midoriiin!" Momoi threw up her hand and began jumping up and down in the crowd, excited to see a friendly face.
'Oh, great,' went unsaid by Aomine, not wanting for a day to be ruined already. He sighed and watched as his breath puffed out and faded in front of him. Why did Midorima have to be here?
Sharp eyes easily pinpointed the pink haired female, as a happy grin formed. "Neh, Shin-chan, over there!" Takao tapped his companion, accurately pointing out the bouncy pink hair through the bustling crowd, thanks to his Hawk Eye ability.
Midorima merely grunted, not in the mood to tolerate another person just as bubbly as Takao -not like he ever really was in the mood. Catching sight of Aomine was an easier feat, but that only generated more aversion, and before Takao could wave back to them, Midorima was leaving in the opposite direction.
"Shin-chan!" Takao called after, exasperated.
"Hurry, Dai-chan! Midorin and Takao-kun are leaving!" Momoi tugged at Aomine's arm still stuffed in the pockets of his coat. While normally Aomine would remain rooted in place no matter what, he reluctantly let himself be tugged away to just quickly get out of the crowd.
"Oi, we should at least go say hi! Come on, Shin-chan don't be so stingy, will ya?" Takao grabbed Midorima's shoulder, which proved ineffective as the green haired teen shrugged it off.
"I have business, Takao. I don't have time to spare today chatting away."
"Yeah, yeah," Takao dismissed. "You never have time for this, but you always have time for lucky items," he grinned, knowing he'd hit the nail on the head.
"It's serious business," Midorima clarified indignantly, pushing his glasses up almost reflexively.
"We literally have all day, Shin-chan. You're getting your lucky item for tomorrow, jeez," he continued to address his taller friend with a look of weariness.
"They'll continue to distract me if they come along," Midorima continued with the excuses, getting more and more impatient.
"Well," Takao slapped a hand onto Midorima's shoulder, "I managed to distract you, so it's a win for me!" Takao grinned triumphantly, and only then did Midorima realize that he had stopped walking in favor of correcting the other.
"Midoriiiin! Takao-kun!" Momoi caught up with the two, finally pushing past the crowd so she had a clear view of them.
Takao turned cheerily to Momoi, knowing he could use another acquaintance who wasn't a killjoy on this nice morning. "Ah, Momoi-chan, good morning!"
The two began further talking amongst themselves, leaving Aomine and Midorima out of the conversation. With nothing else to do, Aomine finally addressed the other, as much as he didn't want to.
"Yo, Midorima."
Midorima didn't reply, still caught with a resentful look on his face before quickly recomposing himself and turning to the other. "What are you doing here?" Midorima instead asked, his tone more demanding than usual.
Aomine tried not to let the other's less than amicable words get to him. "What, I can't go out shopping on a Sunday morning?"
"No, I just thought that you weren't capable of waking up so early," Midorima jabbed, not quite unintentionally.
Aomine's eye twitched, offended. "Hey, it's not my fault that your loud partner can outwit you so easily into meeting us."
"You say that, but Momoi nearly acts as your mother who cleans up after you."
That did it. A vein popped out of Aomine's temple. "Oi! Are you calling me a kid-"
"Hey, hey!" A cheery voice cut in, Takao walking in between the bickering children. "Why don't we all go shopping together? Twice the fun, agreed? All right, let's go!" Takao steered Midorima away before the other could retort anything, leading him in the direction of the shopping malls.
"Let's go, Dai-chan," Momoi flashed a reassuring smile, skipping off after them.
Aomine begrudgingly followed in suit, heaving another sigh.
After weaving their way through the packed crowd, the four of them reached the entrances to the plethora of department stores.
Nearly all of Midorima's complaints were ignored by Momoi and Takao, who opted to drag their companions wherever they pleased. Aomine could've cared less about where they were going, and soon lost count of all the stores they've visited. After a while, Midorima seemed to get fed up and finally broke away from the group to go locate a trinket shop. With nowhere else in mind, the three others followed him, large bags in tow.
The shop they found themselves in was compact, filled with various ceramic and plastic novelties. Many were arranged on high shelves or hung on display, and any wrong move would certainly break a trinket or two.
Momoi and Takao separated from their companions, as they strayed to check a section of the store selling cutesy keychains and mini figurines, while Aomine found himself following Midorima, where traditional looking ornaments and figurines were on display.
"Do you two go everywhere together?" Aomine felt himself asking.
"That's none of your business."
Aomine snorted, realizing that he should've known better to try and start small talk with the spinach head. Juvenile name calling, but hey, he hates spinach. Change of topic, then.
"Hey, have you seen Tetsu lately?" Aomine folded his arms behind his head.
Green eyes narrowed. "No, not since the Winter Cup. Why do you ask?"
Aomine hesitated, as he half expected for Midorima to say 'no' and drop the subject. His own question had been rather spontaneous, and now he realized that he the reason he asked was because it was weighing so heavily on his mind.
"…Satsuki lied to me about her so called date with Tetsu yesterday," he finally answered, putting emphasis on the word 'date'.
Midorima stopped inspecting a wind chime hooked on a rack. "What do you mean by date?" his eyes strayed to look at Aomine from the side.
Glancing cautiously at their companions across the store, he said lowly, "I'm practically in the dark too. All I know is that they met up yesterday, since Tetsu texted her for one issue or another- something about dreams. And the only reason I know she lied is cause I managed to tail them for a bit after school before losing them," Blue eyes never strayed from the duo, watching as Momoi laughed at some joke Takao cracked as he pointed to something he was holding.
Midorima also followed the other's line of sight to the laughing pair. Mulling something over, he then pointed out, "I don't recall you ever involving yourself with a trivial matter like that, so why are you concerned?"
Aomine eyes swiveled back to the trinkets surrounding them, landing on a ceramic lion figurine and poking it. "I could be wrong, but back at Teiko, Tetsu's never been the one to ask Satsuki for help. It's always been the other way around. While I don't know whether he asked his teammates first or not, I doubt Satsuki was the last resort," his eyes squinted as his finger picked up dust from the figurine. "And if Satsuki had the gall to lie about it, it might be more of an issue than they're both willing to admit."
Green eyes directed their attention back to the figures on the shelves. "I still fail to recognize as to why you concern yourself with a matter like that. If anything, I find it uncharacteristic of you to be so involved."
'Helpful as ever,' Aomine couldn't help but remark to himself.
"You mentioned that the reason behind the rendezvous is because Kuroko wanted to discuss something related to dreams, correct? I'm certain those issues pertained to sleep won't be crucial, and this will soon pass over, considering that the only reason for fret would be if Kuroko were to be deprived of sleep," Midorima sounded sure of himself, as always.
Even so, Aomine continued staring at the lion figurine, and Midorima could tell the other remained unconvinced. "If by miraculous chance, this does turn into an issue, I'm also positive Kuroko would ask you or Momoi for help, if he doesn't fix it himself sooner."
Midorima picked off a wind chime from where it hung, moving to the front counter to pay for the item, leaving Aomine to his own wits.
Blue eyes remained clouded in thought, unable to the shake the foreboding feeling settling in his mind.
Kuroko sat down in his desk chair, finally having the time to recoup after barely arriving back home, having spent it running errands all afternoon. He just had a few more things to do for homework before he could completely relax.
Although, he found it difficult to focus on homework when his thoughts kept drifting back to the dream last night, once again confused by the sequence of events and how it concluded, and more importantly why Mayuzumi was behaving that way.
Maybe flipping through Momoi's notes would help him figure something out.
Kuroko rifled through his book bag and pulled out the notebook, setting it on his desk table. He noticed a small cutesy drawing in sharpie on the corner of the cover, a pink baby chick with a speech bubble saying: "For Tetsu-kun! 3"
Kuroko let a fond smile stretch onto his face, still appreciative of the amount of work the other had put into the notes.
Flipping open to the first page, he was amazed to see a table of contents written on the first page to guide him, topics ranging from states of awareness, to dreaming itself, and to symbolism.
His eyes scanned down the list, topics branching off into different subtopics, a few that he still weren't able to gather from just a small description. He flipped to the first section, on the consciousness.
It was simple enough, describing the three states of consciousness. Though, towards the bottom of the page, Momoi's notes brushed upon something new to Kuroko, as he read the Katakana for the name of a supposed researcher.
'Sigmund Freud,' he read to himself, puzzled as he glanced over the few bulletin points about his research. He read the miniscule note in the corner: "Flip to Dream Theory section."
Locating the section, the first few bulletin points described how theories on dreams were inaccurate. Momoi's notes read, "Nearly every analysis on the contents of dreams are, in all honesty, false. Sigmund Freud, who was well known in analyzing people's dreams of what they remember and the symbolism, is not considered to be credible today. It is true that there are many common themes within dreams shared amongst people (such as falling from high elevations), but most predictions to the underlying meaning behind these themes tend to lack any worth, and will not affect future dreams or human psyche in the awakened state."
In other words, it would be useless for Kuroko to try and decipher any hidden meaning behind his dreams.
He had to admit, he wasn't quite expecting such an outcome, since the biggest question that he wanted the answer to was why Mayuzumi was exclusively the one to pop up in his dreams.
Needing more of the facts, he flipped to a different topic.
New terminology greeted him, and only set off more confusion as he jumped from sentence to sentence. Reading into it, however, he easily began to grasp the concepts, written in neat handwriting.
Momoi worded her notes splendidly, with a few diagrams to help him get the picture. He really needed to thank her for this later.
As he continued to read, the notes failed to cover anything reminiscent of his own dreams. He did expect that the notes wouldn't cover something like the senior's more unpredictable and individualistic behavior, but maybe it would least mention a thing or two on vivid dreaming, right?
He continued skimming through the pages, looking for anything that would catch his eye. In the middle of the Brain Activity section, he finally located a side topic labeled 'Lucid Dreaming.' This caught his attention, and he began reading.
Lucid dreaming: any dream state where one is aware they are dreaming.
Lucid dreaming is a somewhat controversial topic, as some claim that this state can be dangerous to experience, as well as the fact that there have been accounts of long-term side effects in achieving this state of unconsciousness.
Kuroko blinked, a bit off put. His eyes strayed to the margins of the page, seeing a personal note addressed to him from Momoi.
"Tetsu-kun, I highly suggest not trying out lucid dreaming yourself. By what you have mentioned to me, it sounds like you've been experiencing lucid dreams, so I definitely do not recommend you continue down this path," Momoi finished the annotation with a frowny face, and Kuroko deduced that this note was added during their meet up.
Another small note was added towards the bottom, reading, "I didn't mention all of these things while we met up because it seemed too harsh to break to you. ヾ(。﹏。)ノ゙ Not while you seemed to be talking so fondly of your dreams…Is Mayuzumi-san that fun of a person to you?"
Kuroko stiffened, and he couldn't control himself as he could feel his face heating up, but quickly subsided as he reread the message, realizing that the "harsh" news was probably why Momoi had been acting strange during their meetup. But just what was so severe that she couldn't mention it? Finding his place, he continued.
Most accounts describe this state to be dangerous due to the chance of sleep paralysis occurring.
Sleep paralysis is a method used by our bodies keep us in place while we are asleep, but at times, people will rouse from sleep still locked in this state, fully aware and conscious, yet still unable to move.
Although it's uncommon for lucid dreamers to experience this, there are also other dangerous outcomes, particularly with people who have become fixated with lucid dreams. Stories of people sleeping more and more, because they are fascinated with what their minds can conjure, until one can't even discern dreaming and reality, are rather terrifying.
Kuroko suppressed a shiver as he pressed on.
In the situation where one does continue this dangerous sleep cycle can lead to hypersomnia (excessive sleepiness). Other than excessive sleeping, hypersomnia is caused by, but not limited to: sleep deprivation, drug or alcohol abuse, sleep disorders, and head injuries.
Kuroko's ever blank expression morphed into shock as he reread that paragraph to make sure he wasn't reading it wrong.
Head injuries. Is that what has been happening to him?
Kuroko froze, eyes staring off into space as he remembered Momoi's fidgety behavior. So this was what Momoi couldn't break to him.
Still, this didn't mean that he did actually have hypersomnia.
If he did, this also meant that there was a possibility the real Mayuzumi was going through the same thing, being terribly drowsy throughout the day.
Was that correlated with his dreams as well?
He clearly has been more tired as of late, particularly today, as he realized that Mayuzumi's warning of stressing his mind too much did prove to be true. But how did he not make the connection before? The only possible reason was that his mind had figured it out while dreaming last night, and had manifested in the form of Mayuzumi's warning.
But then there was the dream he had two nights ago, the one where he was chased, and where he recalled being under high levels of stress, yet he felt fine upon being awake.
As he turned the idea over in his head, more unanswerable questions arose, serving to completely befuddle Kuroko, pushing him back to square one.
He grew frustrated, seemingly getting nowhere in interpreting his experiences. If he couldn't figure it out now, he might as well start documenting them. He flipped through the notebook to a blank section, taking a pencil out and started to jot down a few reminders and questions, creating the overarching theme that he would hopefully answer.
Why do these dreams keep happening? And for what purpose?
At that moment, Kuroko yawned, noticing that the sun was beginning to disappear over the horizon. And with the setting sun, he began to question if this really was worth all the effort. He hadn't really gotten any useful information, but even so, the dreams had only just begun. And, odd as they may be, they haven't displayed any serious side effects. If he did ever come across any issues that Momoi had listed, he could just start taking sleeping pills.
But his first priority was to finish the section of the notes, so he flipped back to where he left off.
It had been a long and tiresome day for Mayuzumi, who now lay facing up on his couch, reading away at his stack of light novels with only the dim light from his lamp to assist him in his peruse.
He probably should change the lightbulb, since it was already beginning to flicker between on and off, but as long as he could read the words smoothly down the page, he would continue to ignore that issue.
But alas, his eyelids were drooping, and with the onset of the evening, he was ready to retire for the night.
He snaps his novel shut, setting it on the couch and sitting up. As he rubbed his eyes, he couldn't help but think he'd been much too sleepy today, even though he sort of toned down energy use while dreaming. Besides, playing street ball all day had to have woken him up, so why was he already nodding off?
Maybe he'll just shower and go to bed. But that meant he had to deal with the brat all over again. And while he had a devised a large plan to toy with Kuroko throughout successive dreams, the way the younger boy had behaved last time made Mayuzumi think twice in actually executing them.
What, has he grown soft?
Mayuzumi resisted the urge to facepalm.
He reaches his bathroom, opening up the shower curtain and twisting the water nozzle on.
It wouldn't hurt to mess with the other's head a bit more, though. He could leave something like a memento with the other before he finds a way to cut off this weird telepathic connection they have.
Albeit there's no method that he's found that is leading him towards breaking the connection, and hell, he didn't even know if it was possible.
Whatever. He'll cross that bridge when he comes to it.
Light blue eyes blink wearily at the text scrawled across the pages, unfocused as he tries to continue reading.
There are some stories where people who have tried lucid dreaming end up hospitalized, primarily from incessant paranoia and fear while conscious. Although, once again, these cases are rare, and will only happen if one pursues lucid dreaming nearly every time they fall asleep.
Try as he may, Kuroko finds himself unable to resume reading, and with that, he stands up to go prepare for bed.
With he has read, it's safe to assume that he will need sleeping pills at some point. He enters his bathroom, locating the medicine cabinet.
He files through the cabinet, pulling out a bottle of sleeping pills used occasionally by the whole family. He pops open the bottle, seeing that there were only a few capsules left, before shaking one out. Reading the dosage, he was about to take it before he remembered he needed to check the side effects.
Side effects include: changes in appetite, dizziness, daytime drowsiness…
Kuroko returned the bottle back into the cabinet.
If one of the conditions he wanted to avoid could possibly happen while taking this, he'd rather use this for when he found it absolutely necessary.
Plus, one more night of dreams couldn't hurt, right?
Kuroko makes his way back to his bedroom. Turning off the lights, he climbs under the covers and finds himself quickly drifting off.
The notes are indecipherable in the darkness of the bedroom, but the written text a sleeping phantom has forgotten about reads:
In the case of hypersomnia, the sleep cycle will become progressively more difficult to break out of as time goes on. And, although once again rarely, research has shown that if it goes on long enough, it will result in a coma or early death.
A/N: That very last bit is half true. None of my research shows that sleeping more and more causes people to go into comas, lol.
But nothing really happened... .-. I'm sorry that this chapter is more filler and info than anything else ergh and it took so long and was so difficult to write (mainly cause of research). I will try and make a more interesting one next time :
Thank you for reading!
