CHAPTER 8

CARNIVAL

Although it was still early in the afternoon, Katsuo yawned loudly. For some reason, he was feeling sluggish with studies today. Most likely, it was related to his recent chance at possibly getting near Tatsumaki. With that on the back of his mind, it was harder to concentrate than usual.

"Lazy, lackadaisical, inattentive, distracted, weary, lethargic." Ichika was sitting cross-legged on her bed, with her book in front of her, but her gaze was set on Katsuo.

"Sorry. Just been… yeah." He realized he was making excuses quite often.

"Excuses, Katsuo-Kun." She noticed it as well.

"I'm not the one who's got homework to do," he pointed out.

Ichika squinted in irritation but then turned back to her book. She was studying anatomy today, specifically the human brain. There was a complex system behind the motherboard of a human being.

At one point, Katsuo set his own book aside and came over to sit next to his sister. Before he did, he remembered to place a paper towel on the sheets, which was his way of helping out so that Ichika didn't need to wipe the surface clean ahead of time. "Reading about the brain huh?"

She paused to switch her attention to her brother. "Did you know that the limbic system in the brain deals with your dreams?"

Katsuo wondered how she chose that piece of trivia. "Have you been dreaming a lot, Ichika-Kun?"

"Only all the time." She sighed and fell backwards, pressing her hands onto the mattress to prop her up. "My dreams are all over the place. Everything is so much more exciting. This place is really boring."

He couldn't fault her. After hearing that, he pressed his hand on top of Ichika's head playfully, causing her to grimace in annoyance. Katsuo just smiled and made her fight to remove his hand, until he mercifully released her. "But you enjoy studying, don't you?" It wasn't merely an assumption. Ichika boasted about her lessons all the time.

She grabbed her brother's wrist and twisted it, although not with any actual intent of harm. "I love reading. I love studying. But I know there's more out there. The reason I'm doing all of this is so you'll take me home. But you never do, even though you always tell me you will." Her pouting was growing more emotional.

"All right." Katsuo returned to his feet and stood before her, looking down. But he encouraged her to rise to her feet, which she did when she realized he would possibly grant her wish. "Where do you want to go?"

"What… do you mean?"

"When you leave this place, where do you want to go first?"

She scratched her chin as she thought it over. "I want to go to the carnival," she said, suddenly excited, as if she was sure she'd get her wish.

"The carnival…" Katsuo crossed his arms, expressing authority over her choice. He didn't follow that up with anything.

It didn't take long for Ichika to begin getting antsy. The entire time, it was as if she were holding her breath. But eventually, she had to let it out. "Oh, come on! Are we going to the carnival or not?"

"What do you want to do at the carnival?"

"Why are you asking me so many questions?"

"If you want to go somewhere, there should be a good reason. At least one."

By now, she started to get slightly frustrated. "I don't have a reason."

"Give me one good reason. If you do, I'll take you."

She stopped messing around and concentrated. There were so many possibilities at the carnival. But that was just the thing. Too many options, and yet none seemed appropriate to present to Katsuo. If she picked one, what if it wasn't as good as another? What if he already knew the best ones, and when she failed, he pointed it out to her? Suddenly, her mind felt compromised.

Meanwhile, Katsuo was grinning mischievously. "You don't really want to go to the carnival. Not any more than any other place outside of here. You just want to go. Go away from here."

"Why are you being so bossy?"

"So, I'm wrong?" Katsuo was pushing her but he had his reasons.

Ichika wanted to pout but she refrained. Her brother was constantly testing her, and so she couldn't act childish. Not with a potential trip to the carnival at stake. "I want to go to the carnival. I never get to do anything fun here. And when I finally do get to go out, I want to go and do a bunch of fun things. The carnival has a lot of things to do that are fun. Therefore, it is a rational choice to go there because I will have plenty of fun things to do."

Katsuo ended up nodding, impressed. "Very good. That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"You were mean, though." She squinted at him once again.

"Just because someone asks you a question, doesn't mean there's an ulterior motive behind it. You need to learn to trust in your knowledge. And stop worrying so much. Like I said, just be patient. I'll take you to the carnival."

She was about to celebrate but she stopped herself. "Let me guess. Soon?"

He stopped smiling and felt unsatisfied himself. Whether or not he was doing right by his sister, he was still keeping her waiting far too long. Time was against him now.

Even so, what else could he tell her? "Soon."

She nodded, as if she understood, but then she plopped down on the bed in frustration. While there, she took her pillow and struck it against her face, six times in total. After nearly a minute, she appeared to have let off enough steam to simmer back down again.

There was a knock at the door and Shoko was there, the staff worker whom regularly tended to Ichika. "Excuse me. Katsuo, may I speak with you for a few moments please?"

He turned to watch her suspiciously but ultimately granted her request.

Once the two of them were outside of Ichika's room, Shoko had a look of concern on her face. "Ichika is beginning to grow more animated. She constantly wants to watch people do things. Which is normal in a child, but with her there is something else. It's like she wants to see conflict."

That got Crush to raise an eyebrow. "What are you saying?" His voice was low and impassionate, yet defensive.

Shoko nearly refrained from continuing, but she managed to get it out. "Ichika suffered a traumatic experience. There's no telling how she'll respond in the years to come. Her recovery always looks promising, but then she relapses. Not in the same fashion each time, but in different ways. It's like trying to turn a can upside down to let the last grains of rice fall out, but they slide around in the corners of the can and remain there. With Ichika, we have yet to figure out a definite way to secure her mental stability."

Crush didn't like having this woman tell him things about his sister like this, but he also had to listen closely. Ichika's future was at stake, and he couldn't simply make all of his decisions by himself. There were experts who handled this sort of thing and he needed to take their opinions into account.

But he didn't enjoy having to face this. "When's the last time she suffered from a seizure?"

Shoko shrugged nervously. "It's been over six months."

"And how long has it been since she threw a tantrum?"

"Three months now. But Katsuo…"

"What about her dreams? No nightmares with dead bodies and blood, right?" Crush didn't even wait for Shoko to respond because he already knew the answer. Ichika always shared her most intense dreams with her brother, and she assured him her nightmares had been absent of violence. So Crush knew the truth. "She's healing. She's recovering. And she's not relapsing."

It was hard for Shoko to oppose Katsuo's opinion, considering how intimidating he was, but for some reason she pressed on. "Hironaka-San. I need you to please calm down."

He nearly lost his composure upon hearing that, but he took a deep breath and complied. This was probably how they dealt with conflict in this place. As much as he hated it, he had to respect the environment. Especially with his sister having to call this place home for the time being.

After a few moments, Shoko felt more secure. "The senior doctor is scheduled to interview Ichika in two more weeks. When she does her analysis, she'll be taking reports from the staff into account. Reports such as mine. And I have to do my job as honestly as possible, otherwise I'd be putting Ichika's future at risk."

At this point, Crush was barely able to remain patient. "She's not a prisoner here. My sister is here because she needs help. But if you and your personnel intend simply to imprison her, then I'll take her away at once."

"That's highly inadvisable, Hironaka-San."

The voices were growing more animated. The darkness was surrounding him, and he had little patience left. But he had to rise above it. What mattered was doing the right thing. Above all else. And as much as he wanted to get Ichika out of here, he couldn't do that, until he was sure that she was mentally ready. That meant she needed more time.

It took most of his energy to regain his composure at that point. "Very well. Just… please. Look after her. She deserves the best."

Shoko felt her own discomfort diminish as thoughts of empathy arrived. It was heartening to bear witness to the love these two siblings had for each other, especially considering what they lost. "Of course, Hironaka-San. I'll watch over her. I promise you."

He remained skeptical of her capacity to be helpful, but he did nod in approval of her declaration.

With the conversation completed, Katsuo returned to his sister's room, and she was sitting against the bed frame, staring aimlessly at the doorway.

"Hey… you all right?" Katsuo moved over to her quickly.

"You could have told her you were taking me out of here. But you didn't"

It was a startling discovery for Katsuo. "You were able to hear us?" He switched over to a loud whisper. "Ichika… what did I tell you about using your powers here?"

"No one ever notices," she whispered back.

"So you admit you've used your power on different occasions?"

She gulped nervously, having been exposed. "I'm… I'm sorry."

Katsuo was angry but he kept it buried inside, hiding it as best he could. "These people are always watching you, sis. They study every single thing that you do. If they find out you're using your powers, they'll just get worse. I need you to promise me that you won't do it again."

"Fine, I promise." She gave that up very easily. But she wasn't done yet. "I promise, but you have to tell me why you let them keep me here. You said you'd take me to the carnival."

Before answering that, Katsuo had a question of his own. "If you heard what we were saying, then you heard the lady say that you were drawn to conflict. Is that true?"

"I don't know what conflict is."

Katsuo huffed and let out a single laugh. "Don't mess with me. You can name six words at a time. Go on, show me."

She sighed before proceeding. "Conflict, collision, contention, struggle, strife, encounter."

"Why are you drawn to conflict, sis?"

"I don't know." Even after saying it, she was frustrated, since she knew her brother was going to give her a hard time for falling short of a valid response. "I guess… it's just that everyone always acts like I'm about to crack open. Like any little thing will cause me to break. When I tell people things, they just smile and say nice stuff. But they're always lying. I hate it."

Katsuo sat closer to his sister, and then he wrapped his arms around her, giving her a hug. It was a surprise gesture and she turned into mush immediately, hugging him back tightly. He was the only person she could actually hug.

While they remained in each other's embrace, Katsuo explained himself. "I'm never going to lie to you. However, I'm also telling you things you don't want to hear. It's not fun having someone tell you things like that. If you are having trouble dealing with the truths I tell you, then it means you still need time to mature and accept hearing it from other people."

The logic made sense, even if Ichika was sad to think it was true. "Fine, I guess. You're right, Katsuo-Kun."

He didn't rub it in her face in any fashion. Instead, he released her from the hug and went for her pillow, locating the necklace with the blue crystal. He took it and put it around her neck, messing with her hair once again to get her to smile. "I'm sorry for being mean. I want to take you out of here really badly. But I also can't let anything bad happen to you. That means I need to be sure that you'll be okay once you leave this place. That means not rushing out of here."

He smiled and held her hand, while staring into her brown eyes. Then he made the realization that he was sitting on the bed without a paper towel in place. "Hey sis. Notice anything?"

She looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Anything weird about me right now?"

"No. Nothing." Instead of bringing it up, Katsuo just smiled proudly. He gave her another hug, causing her to giggle in response. "Weirdo," she told him, although she hugged him back.

After a short while, Katsuo returned to the desk to pick his book back up. For some reason, he noticed one of the drawers was open a crack and he reached over to close it. Before he did, something caught his attention. He pulled the handle and opened it, revealing some sketches. But the one on the top was what caught his eye. There was a sketch Ichika had done of herself, looking rather somber. And two figures were by her sides, each one holding one of her arms. The resemblance to the two demons from Katsuo's nightmares was indisputable.

"Ichika-Kun." He got her attention, and removed the sketch from the drawer. "When did you draw this?"

She raised an eyebrow, unaware of its significance to her brother. "Sometimes I have this dream. Two other kids are trying to get me to go with them to play. But they're pulling my arms in two different directions, and so I just get stuck in place."

Katsuo nodded, while reexamining the sketch. The two figures looked like children, and their faces were expressionless. But to Ichika, they were merely children.

On the other hand, to Katsuo, they were demons. Even so, he wondered how the two of them were both sharing this same apparition from their dreams. For the time being, it remained a mystery.