A visitor?
"Ah- Hello, Taniyama-san!" A bright voice assaulted me.
Splayed comfortably on SPR's sofa was a young man. By most accounts, he would be considered handsome with his warm, chocolate eyes and tastefully choppy haircut. If this had been a visit by some random good-looking guy, that would have been fine by me, but unfortunately I knew him.
Yamada Ayumu, class know-it-all, smiled up at me next to a large, dark green binder of what I assumed to be schoolwork. My neglected schoolwork. Naru typically disdained visitors; I looked to my young boss in time to see a smirk forming. No doubt this was the kind of visit he actually enjoyed: one that further asserted the belief that his assistant was an idiot. If my internal groan chose to vocalize itself, I didn't care. I slouched into the unoccupied couch and gave both teenage boys the darkest looks I could muster.
"Yamada-san," I started, "Keiko or Michiru drop off my schoolwork when I leave early." Naru sat down next to Yamada-san, giving me the impression they were ganging up on me. I also couldn't help but compare the looks of the two: Naru definitely hogged that spotlight. As soon as such an inappropriate train of thought began, I derailed it with a shake of the head.
"Well- erm, Sensei cornered me after class, you see," Yamada-san muttered, apologetic look intact, "he's worried about your academic progress. As a second year, you should be devoting yourself more to schoolwork, and if you wanted to go to university- well, the entrance exams would crush you. Here-" he handed me the binder. "Kouno-sensei put together review materials for his class and your other classes, it seems your other teachers were fine with the idea, and he thought that, well, you might like a tutor." He smiled brightly.
"T-that's okay. I think I'll manage. Thank you for the offer and the binder, Yamada-san. I should be getting back to work-" I set the green binder roughly on the coffee table and a few miscellaneous papers fell out.
"Mai means she will consider your offer," Naru stated, coolly. I scoffed in objection; lack of energy kept me from exploding at him. The nerve of that man, honestly... "Now, I understand there was another reason you chose to deliver Mai's review materials yourself."
"Yes, well- my family recently purchased a new apartment. We were supposed to have moved in last weekend, but things are... not right, there." Yamada-san came to us with a case? That was just what I needed. After a long day of school, the stressful ordeal of seeing a shrink, and being proved stupid in front of Naru by Yamada-san, I'd had enough. I rose and scurried over to the only safe place in the office- the kitchenette. Teenage voices droned on in the lounge; I drowned them out.
I couldn't make the decision to get help for my insomnia. It also seemed I lacked the authority to choose whether or not I would have a tutor. A certain gleam in my boss's eye told me I'd probably have to start seeing the shrink and a tutor on a very regular basis.
Fuming at Naru, Kouno-sensei, Yamada Ayumu, and everyone who'd vaguely wronged me that day, I appraised the kettle with a hostile eye: what a perfect weapon it'd make when hot. The mental image made me smile. With an oven mitt, a whimsical oven mitt, I could take them all out without burning myself-
"Taniyama-san?" An unexpected voice jilted me from my fantasy- a voice I never encountered in the kitchenette. Lin-san stood in the entryway, hunched somewhat due to his height. I'd need stilts to see eye to eye with Lin-san, and he rarely spoke to me. He'd never left the safety of his office to come speak to me before, it unnerved me a little. What a weird day~
"Lin-san?" I pointed to my weapon, "Did you want tea?"
"No, thank you. I need to speak with you in my office when you're done." With that, he left. I blinked. What the hell could Lin-san want to talk to me about? Finishing my tea-making process, I dropped two cups off in the lounge for Naru and that other boy, while bringing one for myself to Lin-san's office.
While Naru's office contained a library of paranormal books, Lin-san's was obviously meant to be nothing more than an archive room. Similar shelves to the ones we brought on cases lined Lin-san's walls, and on them sat tapes, monitors, tapes and more tapes. In one corner, SPR's recording equipment sat, neatly stacked. Monitors dominated one full wall, not hooked up to anything, but too bulky to be put in storage. SPR really ought to upgrade to flat screens. Lin-san's desk blended well with the wall of monitors, and the familiar glow of a laptop lit the Chinese man's face. He motioned for me to sit in a swivel chair similar to his.
"I have some questions about your dream logs from the past few cases..." Shit! I forgot to e-mail the one from Takata-san's case again.
"Sorry, Lin-san- I keep forgetting to send you that last one. I just have to put a few finishing details on it; I'll send it soon." Lin-san nodded and thanked me.
"That's not the main reason I called you in. There are a few inconsistencies in the past fifteen logs or so."
"Inconsistencies? I wrote every detail I could remember..."
"There are certain details that have nothing to do with the rest of a particular dream, or the case itself, even. They seem random when looked at as isolated cases, but once I started looking for them, I found a surprising number of them. They seem to have some sort of connection, not to the cases, but to themselves."
My face burned bright red. I didn't recall anything like that happening. Lin-san opened a file on his laptop and shifted the thin monitor so we could both read.
"This case was the first one to have an inconsistency."
Dream log: August 14
Recorded: August 15-16
Client: Inoue Shinju
Fell asleep after talking to the client's husband; dream onset immediately. The house was shown to be much newer, meaning the dream had to have been showing a time at least seventy years ago. Inoue-san's grandfather and one of his sons argued, while another (much younger) son listened from the doorway. The fight was about the eldest son's choice of bride: the father disapproved as she was from a poor family. As the fight became more heated, it was obvious both men were not thinking grandfather stabbed his eldest son during his rage, and jumped off the roof, taking his own life in grief. The son that watched fled, and I followed him, when he disappeared and I found myself in a field. The house was nowhere in sight, and I seemed to be the only person around. Sakura petals began to fall from the sky, yet there were no trees near to drop petals, and no wind to carry them. As I thought more on the origin of the petals, they began to shift shape. Small red water droplets rained down from a blue sky instead of flowers. Blood, I soon realized. I watched the grandfather's body fall from the roof again, and realized he was the spirit that hadn't moved on. If we could get him to accept his actions, and move on with his son, he could be cleansed, but I doubt it will work with that rage. As the ghost is causing violent behavior in Inoue-san's family, a quick exorcism would be best.
x.
I saw what Lin-san meant. Indeed, I remembered nothing of a field of sakura petals turned blood, not even typing up that description. Seemingly, the image came out of nowhere. I must have forgotten all about it. Reading through the paragraph one more time, I tried to picture the dream again, and found myself unable. Furrowing my eyebrows, I looked back to Lin-san.
"I have no idea where it came from. I don't remember the random part, or the dream at all now that I look back. It's like it never happened. Yet, I know it did. We used that dream to figure out who the ghost was... it was hiding from Masako..." I racked my brain for any information it held about that case. "It didn't want to be cleansed- it wanted to wreak havoc in the family; cause fights. John had to exorcise it. I remember the case details a little, but my dream's gone." I sipped my green tea and it helped cure some of my distressed nerves. My memory was failing me.
"I see. Thank you, Taniyama-san." Dismissal already?
"Really? You don't have any more questions for me," I moved to the door and pressed my ear to it. Yes, Naru and Yamada-san were still talking. No way in hell I wanted to join them. "There's nothing I can help out with-?" I swear, the look Lin-san gave me qualified as a smile. It was strange to see Lin-san smile.
"You dislike your classmate?"
"Caught me~ He's kind of like Yasuhara, only this one isn't as endearing. Just annoying. And the pair of them- Naru and Yamada-san... Well." An explosion sound effect would have said it all, but as Lin-san was actually talking to me about a matter not directly related to work, I didn't want to risk it by being silly. If I did, he could send me back out to the wolves. I suffered an internal cringe at the thought.
"Actually- I was trying to find this tape earlier..." Lin-san gave me a date and number of one elusive tape and I began scouring the shelves as he typed away on his laptop. I was tempted to ask what he was always doing typing up a storm, but held my tongue. Suddenly, I remembered that more important questions needed answers.
"L-Lin-san?"
"Did you find it?"
"Not yet. Uhm- I was wondering, do you know anything about psychic planes?" Immediately, Lin-san froze. "Li-"
"Where did you hear that term?" He sounded confused, and more than a little defensive. He knew something.
"What?"
"Where. Did. You. Hear... That term? Who told you?" His voice was near a whisper, and it sounded dangerous coming from Lin-san. I stood, hesitant. Should I just leave without saying anything? I wrote nothing about my dream Naru in the logs that went to Lin-san. The only records of my guide were in "the red necklace" file. If I told him now about a dream guide, no doubt he'd be suspicious.
"N-never mind. Sorry to bother you with this, Lin-san, I think I need to make more tea, excu-" Lin-san turned back to his laptop, composure regained.
"...If you want to know anything, why not ask Naru? He'll tell you anything you need to know." The older man's softened voice was not unkind.
"Thank you, Lin-san." The door closed firmly behind me as I reentered the lounge. Naru, his notebook, and my classmate occupied the sofa still, and I ignored them all the way to my sorry excuse for a desk. If Naru wanted to insult me, he could do it from across the room. I didn't care, but I needed to get in his good graces sometime soon. Enough, at least, to ask him a very important question.
What's more, it looked like Naru considered taking Yamada-san's case.
"What a long day..."
Shorter than the past few chapters, but I liked writing it~ I'm trying to plug away at this story while the fire's hot. That, plus I'm job searching currently and when I score one I'll be lacking in free time.
Q&A: About "Dream Naru"...
- Mai will probably discover something, but Lin-san and Naru will not help her, though they will both find out. I'm not divulging my master plan, here, you'll have to read it as it unfolds! :D
About story's timeline...
- Though I've read the manga, and every part of the novel that's on Baka-Tsuki, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep occurs after the end of the anime.
Any more questions, ask away! +Criticism needed, still+
Thanks for reading- review if you've the time, s'il vous plaît! :D
x. thief