DAY FIVE

The next morning, Hokuto discovered exactly what it was like to cook for three. At least the chorus of "delicious" was worth it.

"I just don't know what to do!" she said, when Subaru asked her why she was looking so down. "I mean, we had a date yesterday and I didn't have a clue! Do you have any idea how awful that makes me feel?"

"I've had to break dates with Mitsuki because of work many times." Subaru's finger traced patterns on the table. "It's not the same thing at all, really, but I know what it is to feel guilty for something you can't help."

"Maybe you should try talking to him?" suggested Kakyou, quietly.

She shook her head. "I mean, sure, it'd make everything so much easier... But, I'm scared of what he'd do if he found out. And... I don't want to have to tell him that he killed me."

The room fell silent.

"I think I can understand that," said Subaru, after a moment.

"And I'd have to, because I'd have to explain why I... Well. I can't talk to him about it. So I'm stuck."

She was disturbed from further deliberations by the telephone ringing. Giving her two guests an apologetic look, she ran to pick it up. "Moshi moshi?"

"Oh, Hokuto-chan! I'm glad you picked up. Ne, Subaru said you were having memory problems. Are you okay?"

Hokuto blinked. "I'm fine, really. Why?"

"Well, I was reading today's paper and there's that story about the girls... It's horrible. And I thought I'd better check up on you."

Hokuto scrabbled around for the paper that had been delivered to her door that morning. "I see," she said, flipping through pages. "Well, I'll be careful, and thanks for your concern. Did you want to speak to Subaru?"

"Well, if he's there..." Subaru's wife sounded a little bemused.

Hokuto handed over the phone, and sat down at the table to examine the paper. "Akari Asuka, who had been complaining of memory loss, was found dead in her room last night. This has been the third such death in as many days," she read out loud, when she found the article. "No wonder Mitsuki was worried."

Kakyou looked at the paper over her shoulder. "I know that name," he commented, sounding puzzled.

"Really? How?"

He frowned in concentration, then shook his head. "I can't remember. She was probably in a dream I had once."

"Hmm..." said Hokuto. "Oh, by the way, how do you feel about going to beach today?"

"The beach?" said Kakyou, blinking. "What, just you and I?"

"Well... Subaru!" she said, as her brother walked back into the room. "Do you have a job today?" He shook his head. "Does Mitsuki-san work?"

"She helps out at a women's call in centre, but she doesn't work on Saturdays. Why?"

"How would you and the kids feel about coming to the beach, then?" asked Hokuto, bouncing lightly on her toes.

"I'm sure they'd love it," he said, smiling. "Why, were you planning on going?"

She nodded. "Today, if possible. Kakyou's never been."

The dreamgazer looked embarrassed.

"Did you hang up already?" she asked, glancing at the phone in his hand.

"No, actually, Mitsuki wanted to know if you two wanted to come to dinner some night."

"Of course!" she exclaimed. "Ne, Kakyou?"

Kakyou nodded again, although his eyes were starting to look a little glazed over.

"Excellent. I'll tell her. Want to make it tonight? We can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak."

"Are you sure that would be okay?" she asked, nervously. "I mean, it's awfully short notice."

"Well, let me ask." Subaru wandered back into the kitchen to continue his phone conversation. He returned moments later. "She says the beach is fine, but dinner will have to wait for another day. Ryu's safety seat fits in the back, so we can all travel together. If that's okay."

Hokuto nodded. "I hadn't even thought about how we were going to get there," she confessed, sheepishly.

"It did seem awfully spontaneous," her brother agreed. "But it's fine to get a lift with us. Well, assuming you don't mind leaving very soon."

Hokuto leaped to her feet. "I'll get packed right away. Kakyou, you'll need to pack a bathing costume and a beach towel. I can find the rest of the stuff."

"You know, my Hokuto hated the beach," Subaru called after her. "I could never convince her to come with us."

"She must have been insane," Hokuto retorted. "I love the beach. And your children are adorable."

Packing didn't take that long and soon enough the three of them were on their way to Subaru and Mitsuki's house.

When they arrived they found themselves in the midst of an argument. Hikaru was insisting she got to sit in the very back because she was bigger, whereas Ryu said he got to sit there because it was his car seat. Hokuto took one look at them and announced that whoever sat there on the way to the beach would have to swap on the way back.

Mitsuki was in the kitchen making lunches and gave Hokuto a thankful look when Hokuto joined her. "I was just about to tell them that myself."

Hokuto laughed. "They're great kids. Here, want me to help?"

Mitsuki gratefully handed her a bento box to fill. "So what's wrong, anyway?" she asked, curiously. "Subaru wasn't very clear on that."

"Well," said Hokuto hesitantly, "it's very strange. I was in a car accident or something and all of a sudden I can't remember anything that's happened since I was sixteen." It seemed the safest lie, and the one closest to the truth.

"That's horrible, Hokuto-chan!" exclaimed Mitsuki. "Did you go to a doctor about it?"

She shook her head. "I'm fine, really. Well, aside from the memory thing."

Mitsuki gave her a stern look. "Subaru never wants to see the doctor either. I'll let you off this time, but if it gets any worse you're seeing the doctor straight away."

Hokuto nodded meekly.

"Good, I'm glad that's settled. So, I guess this explains your outburst the other day."

Hokuto found herself blushing. "Actually, I wanted to apologise about that."

Mitsuki waved it away with her hand. "It's fine. I suppose it's only natural you'd be a bit suspicious of me at sixteen. It was a horrible thing to say, even if I didn't mean it." Mitsuki snapped the lid on the last box triumphantly. "There we go. All done. This was a good idea of yours, Hokuto-chan. We haven't been to the beach once this summer."

"Spontaneity is an under-appreciated art," said Hokuto solemnly, before bursting into giggles.

The two of them wandered back into the lounge room to find Kakyou being interrogated by two curious children. The dreamgazer looked a little panicky.

"Children, please," said Mitsuki, in an exasperated tone. "Let the poor man breathe."

Hikaru pouted, but stopped asking questions and settled for just staring at the dreamgazer intently.

Hokuto giggled and introduced Mitsuki and Kakyou to each other. Before the situation could grow uncomfortable, Subaru walked inside to tell them the car was all ready. As soon as the children were settled, they were on their way.

Kakyou and Hokuto found themselves on the backseat with the overly energetic Hikaru between them. Subaru's daughter babbled cheerfully and relentlessly about whatever took her fancy, whether it be what she did at school the other day or what she'd just seen out the window.

"She reminds me of me when I was little," said Hokuto to Kakyou when the little girl turned her attention to the front of the car for a change.

"I pity whoever had to look after you," Kakyou murmured back.

By the time they reached the beach, Hokuto was beginning to agree with him. She was only too glad too get out of the car and let the child loose on the unsuspecting beach-goers. Mitsuki's first move was to dash after the five-year-old and give her strict instruction on what was appropriate and safe behaviour for the beach. Her second was to insist the entire party put sunlotion on.

Hokuto's first stop was the changerooms. She'd bought a nice new bikini the other day and was dying to try it out. Kakyou was sitting on a beach towel in his own bathing costume, looking somewhat embarrassed, when she finally emerged.

She pirouetted and asked him what he thought but received only a blush in reply. "Mou, Kyou-chan, haven't you ever seen a girl in a bikini before?" The dreamgazer continued to blush. "Anyway," continued Hokuto, "aren't you going to come into the water?"

"Anou, Hokuto-chan, I can't swim."

She paused. "Of course you can't. Well, I'll show you. It's not that hard. Come on." She took his hand and tugged until he got up and followed her to where the gentle waves were breaking on the sand.

"It's cold," he said, as the water touched his feet.

"It gets better. I find the best thing is to just get wet all over right at the start, then it doesn't seem so bad." [1]

Kakyou shivered involuntarily.

"Besides, the first thing when it comes to swimming is floating and you have to get all wet for that," she continued, matter of fact. "Come on, we'll go out a bit deeper."

Kakyou turned out to be a quick learner and an attentive student. Before too long he was swimming quite confidently, if not particularly skillfully.

When they returned to where Mitsuki was sitting, watching the children (who had graduated from splashing in the water and were now making sand sculptures), Hokuto noticed a conspicuous absence. "Mitsuki," she asked, puzzled, "where is Subaru?"

"His pager beeped, so he's gone to take the call," Mitsuki explained, with a long-suffering air. "He'll probably be back soon."

Hokuto nodded, and looked down at Kakyou, who appeared to be dozing on one of their beach towels. "Ne, sleepy-head, what are you doing?" She poked his side lightly with her toe.

"I'm tired," he muttered, in that tone which meant he hoped she'd just leave him alone.

"You'll get burnt if you lie out in the sun like this. You need to put some more sunscreen on." Kakyou continued to ignore her. "Well, if you're not going to do it yourself I guess I'll have to do it for you..." she said, in a teasing tone.

He sat up abruptly, blushing very red, and took the bottle from her hands. "It's fine, thank you," he said, primly.

"Now you can help us build a sand fortress!" said Hikaru, popping up beside them and bouncing excitedly.

Kakyou looked doubtful. "I don't think..."

"No, no it's a great idea. You can't come to the beach and not make a sand sculpture, Kyou-chan. Come on." She tugged on his hand again until he got up and followed them to the water's edge.

By the time the afternoon was beginning to look a bit tired, they'd constructed the biggest "sand fortress" on the beach. Hikaru was enthusiastically decorating it with shells and pieces of seaweed while Ryu carefully dripped wet sand onto the towers.

When she saw Subaru walking back to the beach, Hokuto got up to greet him curiously.

"I have a new case," he explained to his wife. Subaru turned to Hokuto. "It's the one from the newspaper this morning, about the girls with memory loss."

Mitsuki looked worried. "Do you need to leave now?"

Subaru shook his head. "They can't fax me the information until tomorrow morning."

"Eh?" exclaimed Hokuto. "But what if someone else dies overnight?!"

Subaru sighed. "You and I know that one night could mean the death of another person, but the people in charge either don't know or don't care. I told them to put a full police watch on any people that had complained of inexplicable memory loss."

Hokuto nodded. "I just hope they obey you."

"Ne, ne, daddy, come and look at our sand fortress, please?" Hikaru interrupted, tugging on her father's shirt.

Subaru glanced over to where Ryu was still working with his wet sand. "It certainly is big," he said, smiling. He scooped his daughter up and sat her on his shoulders and walked over with Hokuto and Mitsuki. "How would you all feel about getting a takeaway dinner?"

He was met with a chorus of enthusiastic affirmitives.

When they were all settled again with food on their laps, Kakyou pulled Hokuto aside.

"I remember," he said, urgently. "I know where I knew the girl from."

"Where?" she asked, keeping her voice down.

"She was in the dream where you died. She saw it happen."

Hokuto gasped, softly. "I think we should tell Subaru."

Kakyou nodded his head in agreement.

--
TO BE CONTINUED.

FOOTNOTE(S)
1. *shudders* I don't agree with Hokuto here. I'm all for immersing oneself in the water slowly.