DAY SIX
Hokuto was awoken the next morning by a tentative knock on her bedroom door. "Anou, Hokuto-chan," came Kakyou's quiet voice. "There's someone at the door."
Blinking, she got up and into something decent before unlocking her apartment door. "Subaru?" she said, rubbing her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
Wordlessly, he handed her a sheet of paper. "I got this fax this morning."
Still sleep-addled, she invited him in before settling down to read the fax.
Sumeragi-san, the fax began. We assigned guards to the people you mentioned. However, it was not enough to prevent the death of another victim. It went on to detail the name of the victim, along with those of the men that had died protecting her. There was an autopsy report attached.
Death was caused by the insertion of some object, possibly a human hand, through the rib cage and piercing the heart.
// The sickening squelch as flesh and bone parted.
There was no signs of a struggle.
// Terrible, heart-rending pain even as she used her own lifeblood to cast her final spell.
Hoktuo ran to the bathroom and was violently ill.
A few minutes later, she was aware of her brother kneeling behind her, gently rubbing circles on her back.
"Hokuto-chan, are you okay?" said Kakyou tentatively, from somewhere in the vicinity of the doorway.
She coughed sorely. "Not really. Maybe. I will be, just give me a minute."
Once they were all in the kitchen with soothing green tea and she could think again, she turned to her brother. "Subaru," she began, "it wasn't your fault."
He stared at her. "But it was!" he protested, miserably. "I told them to assign the guards!"
"How were you to know seven armed men wouldn't be enough to hold off this psychopath?" she asked, rhetorically. "Even after reading that, I can hardly believe it."
"It's onmyoujitsu," said Subaru, in a subdued tone. "It has to be."
"Oh," said Hokuto. "That's... oh. How horrible."
Subaru slumped down onto his crossed arms. "I just don't know what to do... And with Kakyou's dream, that just makes it so much more complicated..." He blinked a bit, then sat up. "Kakyou-san," said Subaru, hesitantly. "Can you remember the names of any of the other people in your dream?"
Kakyou closed his eyes in thought. When he opened them again, he shook his head apologetically. "Not like that, no."
Subaru drummed his fingers on the table, thoughtfully. "How about if I gave you a list of names?"
The dreamgazer frowned. "I probably could. Do you have a list?"
Subaru shook his head. "But I could get a list from the police. Ever since the murders started, people have been really paranoid."
"There weren't that many in the dream," said Kakyou, slowly. "Less than ten. I'd say probably even less than 7."
"I want to get anyone we can identify out of the city. If I go with them I can ensure that nobody is watching, even an onmyouji, and I can place wards around their place of accommodation to deter anybody trying to enter."
"Couldn't you just ward their own house?" asked Hokuto, interested.
"I could," said Subaru, "but it wouldn't be as effective, particularly if the murderer already knows where they live. Wards are practically useless when you let people in, and there are always ways to trick a person into letting you enter. But in a strange place, people are more likely to be paranoid."
"I see," said Hokuto. "What if somebody breaks your wards?"
"Well," said Subaru, with a small smile, "first they'd have to find my wards. But don't worry, I'll be using protection magic, too."
Hokuto nodded. "If if I can hold off a raging demon dog spirit, you can hold off anything!" she added, with a grin.
Subaru laughed, although he looked a little puzzled. "May I use the office phone?"
"I have an office phone?" said Hokuto, blinking.
Subaru hid a smile. "Yes, you do. It has a fax machine attached and you dial in to the internet with it."
"Oh. Well, sure, go for it."
Subaru disappeared into the office, Kakyou following.
"Do you want breakfast?" Hokuto called after them. "I was going to start cooking some rice."
There was an affirmative murmur in response.
Hokuto rolled her eyes and started the rice cooker. She located the miso in the pantry and began cooking with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. She knew her brother well enough that he wasn't going to just stop feeling guilty about what had happened. She began mentally plotting her line of attack.
When the phone rang it was almost a relief, although it meant she came perilously close to dropping the phone in a pot of boiling water when she realised it was her grandmother on the other end.
Once Hokuto was done making exclamations of surprise, her grandmother began to speak again. "I called Subaru's house but Mitsuki-san said he was here, so I called here," she explained. "I heard what happened last night and I was somewhat concerned."
"He's not happy about it," said Hokuto, honestly.
"What's he doing now?"
"He and Kakyou-san are making a list of probable victims and Subaru plans on evacuating them to a safe place in the country."
"I see. Kakyou-san is...?"
"Kuzuki Kakyou. He's--"
"A dreamgazer?"
Dumbstruck, Hokuto nodded. Then, realising her grandmother couldn't see her, she confirmed it verbally.
"I remember the boy. He was having dreams that were coming true and his parents called me to see what was causing it. Once I realised what he was, I told them what was going on and how to best treat him. Barely a week after that he disappeared."
"Disappeared?" said Hokuto, surprised. "How?"
"The official story was that the boy had been kidnapped, but no ransom was ever sent. Unofficial speculation was that the senator had had the boy put away because he was mentally unstable and didn't want it to damage his reputation. I knew better than that, of course, but I couldn't ever find out what had happened to the boy."
"I met Kakyou-san a few days ago," said Hokuto, slowly. "He'd been locked in one room for as long as he could remember, so I made them let him go."
"That wasn't what I told them to do, you realise, Hokuto-chan. But, they let him go? Just like that?"
"Well..." said Hokuto, hesitantly. "I had to threaten them a bit. But I got them to pay him a salary in return for his continued services."
"I see." She could practically see her grandmother trying not to smile. "Well done."
"And he thinks he had a dream where he saw all the victims of this killer, so he's currently trying to identify them from a list of Subaru's."
"And you?"
"I'm cooking breakfast." She glanced at the stove, and dashed over to turn it off. "Which is currently overboiling."
"Hokuto-chan..." said her grandmother, with a tone of extreme patience. "Why don't you attend to that, and let me talk to Subaru?"
Hokuto obediently carried the phone to her brother and returned to salvaging what she could of the miso soup.
Eventually it was all ready, and she arranged it neatly on a tray and carried it into the study. "Where did you get this list of names, anyway?" she asked her brother.
"These are all the people that have reported memory loss to the police in the past few days, as a result of the media coverage of this case."
She looked at the list. "There's quite a few."
"These are the ones Kakyou knows from his dream," continued Subaru, indicating a few names highlighted in yellow. "I think the person that did this is trying to cover up something these people saw, probably your death. If he's an onmyouji, he probably tried to cover it up by using a memory spell, but he must be worried that it won't last."
Onmyoujitsu... Pierced heart... Memory loss.
"Oh, God."
"What?" asked her brother.
"It must be... no, I can't say. It can't be... But... We can't tell Seishirou."
Her brother and Kakyou blinked.
"What, that the killer is covering for a memory spell? That he is an onmyouji? I don't understand, Hokuto-chan."
She shook her head. "Just... don't, even if he asks. Seishirou can't know!"
"Seishirou can't know what?" came a heart-stoppingly familiar voice.
Hokuto jumped. "What are you doing here?!" she shrieked. "How did you get in?!"
Seishirou looked a little taken-aback. "I knocked, but nobody answered. The door was unlocked. I came in. Now, what can't I know?"
"It's a surprise," she said, quickly. "Don't worry about it."
He didn't look like he believed her, but didn't press the point.
"What are you here for anyway, Seishirou-san?" Hokuto asked.
"Well, I came by yesterday but nobody was home. I was worried about you, since you seemed so out of sorts the other day."
"Oh." Hokuto's finger traced patterns on the table. "We were at the beach yesterday."
"The beach?" he said, looking surprised. "But, Hokuto-chan, you hate the beach!"
"It was a spur of the moment decision," interceded Subaru. "She didn't have a chance to say no." He smiled at his sister fondly. "But you had a good time anyway, right?"
Hokuto nodded. "Your children are so cute," she said, giggling. "Would you like some breakfast, Seishirou-san?" It couldn't hurt her to keep up appearances, surely. Not when there was so much at stake.
"No, no, I've aleady eaten," he said, apologetically.
"Oh," said Hokuto. The room fell silent.
"It's almost lunchtime, Hokuto-chan," continued Seishirou gently, after a bit.
Hokuto blinked at the clock. "Oh."
Subaru finished his rice, said his thanks and stood up. "I think I'd better get moving on this," he said, folding up the list of names and stuffing it in the pocket of his trenchcoat as he shrugged it on. "Thank you very much for your help, Kuzuki-san," he added, formally.
"Oh, you've been helping Subaru-san with a case, Kuzuki-san?" asked Seishirou, curiously.
Kakyou blinked, obviously uncertain of what to say.
Subaru leapt to the rescue again. "It's the murders that have been on the news recently, you've probably heard of it."
"Ah, yes. The so-called 'memory murders'. Why did they put you on the case, Subaru-san?"
"Who knows?" said Subaru, rhetorically. "Anyway, I'd better get moving."
Hokuto nodded, and gave him a quick hug. "Good luck, and be careful."
"Aren't I always?" he said, smiling.
Subaru departed, but the tension in the room did not.
Seishirou continued to look at Kakyou with a ponderous expression. "I remember the case about senator Kuzuki's son going missing. It was all over the news when I was seven. So what really did happen? Since you're obviously alive and well."
"I'm afraid that's confidential information, Sakurazuka-san," said Kakyou, primly.
Silence fell again.
"Ne," began Hokuto, uncomfortably. "Why don't we watch a movie or something?"
The two males blinked at her.
"Well, we're not accomplishing anything sitting here in silence, are we?" she said, defensively. She was currently trying to convince herself that this Seishirou wasn't such a bad person and she had to at least try to get to know him.
Hokuto walked over to the television and switched it on. After channel hopping a bit, she found something she liked. "Look!" she said, all excitement. "It's Godzilla vs. Gamera!"
Kakyou and Seishirou stared at her.
"What?!" she said, indignantly. "Don't you two have any patriotism? Kaijuu movies are a very important part of Japanese film-making!"
"I try to avoid them," said Seishirou.
"I've never seen one," added Kakyou, turning slightly pink.
"Well then. We're watching this one."
"But..."
"Sit! You'll have a good time, I promise. Well, just so long as you don't try to take it seriously."
And, much to their apparent surprise, they all had a really good time. Hokuto taught Kakyou how to cook popcorn in a saucepan, to Seishirou's visible amusement.
Subaru rang in late afternoon to apologise and request to stay another night at Hokuto's, at which point Seishirou offered to cook dinner.
He turned out to be a very good cook, much to Hokuto's relief.
By the time Seishirou left, Hokuto was feeling a lot more comfortable around him. Overall, she thought, he wasn't a bad person at all.
She fell asleep pondering the logistics of a friendship with a man who had, in another universe, killed her - but in this universe appeared to be in love with her.
~ * ~
Hokuto was somewhat rudely awakened by a soft knocking on her door. "Come in," she murmured, without really thinking about it.
"Hokuto-chan?" came a hesitant voice.
"Kyou-chan?" she asked, sitting up. "What's wrong?"
"I know when the next murder will be."
In the kitchen, the clock chimed midnight.
--
Comments appreciated.
Hokuto was awoken the next morning by a tentative knock on her bedroom door. "Anou, Hokuto-chan," came Kakyou's quiet voice. "There's someone at the door."
Blinking, she got up and into something decent before unlocking her apartment door. "Subaru?" she said, rubbing her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
Wordlessly, he handed her a sheet of paper. "I got this fax this morning."
Still sleep-addled, she invited him in before settling down to read the fax.
Sumeragi-san, the fax began. We assigned guards to the people you mentioned. However, it was not enough to prevent the death of another victim. It went on to detail the name of the victim, along with those of the men that had died protecting her. There was an autopsy report attached.
Death was caused by the insertion of some object, possibly a human hand, through the rib cage and piercing the heart.
// The sickening squelch as flesh and bone parted.
There was no signs of a struggle.
// Terrible, heart-rending pain even as she used her own lifeblood to cast her final spell.
Hoktuo ran to the bathroom and was violently ill.
A few minutes later, she was aware of her brother kneeling behind her, gently rubbing circles on her back.
"Hokuto-chan, are you okay?" said Kakyou tentatively, from somewhere in the vicinity of the doorway.
She coughed sorely. "Not really. Maybe. I will be, just give me a minute."
Once they were all in the kitchen with soothing green tea and she could think again, she turned to her brother. "Subaru," she began, "it wasn't your fault."
He stared at her. "But it was!" he protested, miserably. "I told them to assign the guards!"
"How were you to know seven armed men wouldn't be enough to hold off this psychopath?" she asked, rhetorically. "Even after reading that, I can hardly believe it."
"It's onmyoujitsu," said Subaru, in a subdued tone. "It has to be."
"Oh," said Hokuto. "That's... oh. How horrible."
Subaru slumped down onto his crossed arms. "I just don't know what to do... And with Kakyou's dream, that just makes it so much more complicated..." He blinked a bit, then sat up. "Kakyou-san," said Subaru, hesitantly. "Can you remember the names of any of the other people in your dream?"
Kakyou closed his eyes in thought. When he opened them again, he shook his head apologetically. "Not like that, no."
Subaru drummed his fingers on the table, thoughtfully. "How about if I gave you a list of names?"
The dreamgazer frowned. "I probably could. Do you have a list?"
Subaru shook his head. "But I could get a list from the police. Ever since the murders started, people have been really paranoid."
"There weren't that many in the dream," said Kakyou, slowly. "Less than ten. I'd say probably even less than 7."
"I want to get anyone we can identify out of the city. If I go with them I can ensure that nobody is watching, even an onmyouji, and I can place wards around their place of accommodation to deter anybody trying to enter."
"Couldn't you just ward their own house?" asked Hokuto, interested.
"I could," said Subaru, "but it wouldn't be as effective, particularly if the murderer already knows where they live. Wards are practically useless when you let people in, and there are always ways to trick a person into letting you enter. But in a strange place, people are more likely to be paranoid."
"I see," said Hokuto. "What if somebody breaks your wards?"
"Well," said Subaru, with a small smile, "first they'd have to find my wards. But don't worry, I'll be using protection magic, too."
Hokuto nodded. "If if I can hold off a raging demon dog spirit, you can hold off anything!" she added, with a grin.
Subaru laughed, although he looked a little puzzled. "May I use the office phone?"
"I have an office phone?" said Hokuto, blinking.
Subaru hid a smile. "Yes, you do. It has a fax machine attached and you dial in to the internet with it."
"Oh. Well, sure, go for it."
Subaru disappeared into the office, Kakyou following.
"Do you want breakfast?" Hokuto called after them. "I was going to start cooking some rice."
There was an affirmative murmur in response.
Hokuto rolled her eyes and started the rice cooker. She located the miso in the pantry and began cooking with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. She knew her brother well enough that he wasn't going to just stop feeling guilty about what had happened. She began mentally plotting her line of attack.
When the phone rang it was almost a relief, although it meant she came perilously close to dropping the phone in a pot of boiling water when she realised it was her grandmother on the other end.
Once Hokuto was done making exclamations of surprise, her grandmother began to speak again. "I called Subaru's house but Mitsuki-san said he was here, so I called here," she explained. "I heard what happened last night and I was somewhat concerned."
"He's not happy about it," said Hokuto, honestly.
"What's he doing now?"
"He and Kakyou-san are making a list of probable victims and Subaru plans on evacuating them to a safe place in the country."
"I see. Kakyou-san is...?"
"Kuzuki Kakyou. He's--"
"A dreamgazer?"
Dumbstruck, Hokuto nodded. Then, realising her grandmother couldn't see her, she confirmed it verbally.
"I remember the boy. He was having dreams that were coming true and his parents called me to see what was causing it. Once I realised what he was, I told them what was going on and how to best treat him. Barely a week after that he disappeared."
"Disappeared?" said Hokuto, surprised. "How?"
"The official story was that the boy had been kidnapped, but no ransom was ever sent. Unofficial speculation was that the senator had had the boy put away because he was mentally unstable and didn't want it to damage his reputation. I knew better than that, of course, but I couldn't ever find out what had happened to the boy."
"I met Kakyou-san a few days ago," said Hokuto, slowly. "He'd been locked in one room for as long as he could remember, so I made them let him go."
"That wasn't what I told them to do, you realise, Hokuto-chan. But, they let him go? Just like that?"
"Well..." said Hokuto, hesitantly. "I had to threaten them a bit. But I got them to pay him a salary in return for his continued services."
"I see." She could practically see her grandmother trying not to smile. "Well done."
"And he thinks he had a dream where he saw all the victims of this killer, so he's currently trying to identify them from a list of Subaru's."
"And you?"
"I'm cooking breakfast." She glanced at the stove, and dashed over to turn it off. "Which is currently overboiling."
"Hokuto-chan..." said her grandmother, with a tone of extreme patience. "Why don't you attend to that, and let me talk to Subaru?"
Hokuto obediently carried the phone to her brother and returned to salvaging what she could of the miso soup.
Eventually it was all ready, and she arranged it neatly on a tray and carried it into the study. "Where did you get this list of names, anyway?" she asked her brother.
"These are all the people that have reported memory loss to the police in the past few days, as a result of the media coverage of this case."
She looked at the list. "There's quite a few."
"These are the ones Kakyou knows from his dream," continued Subaru, indicating a few names highlighted in yellow. "I think the person that did this is trying to cover up something these people saw, probably your death. If he's an onmyouji, he probably tried to cover it up by using a memory spell, but he must be worried that it won't last."
Onmyoujitsu... Pierced heart... Memory loss.
"Oh, God."
"What?" asked her brother.
"It must be... no, I can't say. It can't be... But... We can't tell Seishirou."
Her brother and Kakyou blinked.
"What, that the killer is covering for a memory spell? That he is an onmyouji? I don't understand, Hokuto-chan."
She shook her head. "Just... don't, even if he asks. Seishirou can't know!"
"Seishirou can't know what?" came a heart-stoppingly familiar voice.
Hokuto jumped. "What are you doing here?!" she shrieked. "How did you get in?!"
Seishirou looked a little taken-aback. "I knocked, but nobody answered. The door was unlocked. I came in. Now, what can't I know?"
"It's a surprise," she said, quickly. "Don't worry about it."
He didn't look like he believed her, but didn't press the point.
"What are you here for anyway, Seishirou-san?" Hokuto asked.
"Well, I came by yesterday but nobody was home. I was worried about you, since you seemed so out of sorts the other day."
"Oh." Hokuto's finger traced patterns on the table. "We were at the beach yesterday."
"The beach?" he said, looking surprised. "But, Hokuto-chan, you hate the beach!"
"It was a spur of the moment decision," interceded Subaru. "She didn't have a chance to say no." He smiled at his sister fondly. "But you had a good time anyway, right?"
Hokuto nodded. "Your children are so cute," she said, giggling. "Would you like some breakfast, Seishirou-san?" It couldn't hurt her to keep up appearances, surely. Not when there was so much at stake.
"No, no, I've aleady eaten," he said, apologetically.
"Oh," said Hokuto. The room fell silent.
"It's almost lunchtime, Hokuto-chan," continued Seishirou gently, after a bit.
Hokuto blinked at the clock. "Oh."
Subaru finished his rice, said his thanks and stood up. "I think I'd better get moving on this," he said, folding up the list of names and stuffing it in the pocket of his trenchcoat as he shrugged it on. "Thank you very much for your help, Kuzuki-san," he added, formally.
"Oh, you've been helping Subaru-san with a case, Kuzuki-san?" asked Seishirou, curiously.
Kakyou blinked, obviously uncertain of what to say.
Subaru leapt to the rescue again. "It's the murders that have been on the news recently, you've probably heard of it."
"Ah, yes. The so-called 'memory murders'. Why did they put you on the case, Subaru-san?"
"Who knows?" said Subaru, rhetorically. "Anyway, I'd better get moving."
Hokuto nodded, and gave him a quick hug. "Good luck, and be careful."
"Aren't I always?" he said, smiling.
Subaru departed, but the tension in the room did not.
Seishirou continued to look at Kakyou with a ponderous expression. "I remember the case about senator Kuzuki's son going missing. It was all over the news when I was seven. So what really did happen? Since you're obviously alive and well."
"I'm afraid that's confidential information, Sakurazuka-san," said Kakyou, primly.
Silence fell again.
"Ne," began Hokuto, uncomfortably. "Why don't we watch a movie or something?"
The two males blinked at her.
"Well, we're not accomplishing anything sitting here in silence, are we?" she said, defensively. She was currently trying to convince herself that this Seishirou wasn't such a bad person and she had to at least try to get to know him.
Hokuto walked over to the television and switched it on. After channel hopping a bit, she found something she liked. "Look!" she said, all excitement. "It's Godzilla vs. Gamera!"
Kakyou and Seishirou stared at her.
"What?!" she said, indignantly. "Don't you two have any patriotism? Kaijuu movies are a very important part of Japanese film-making!"
"I try to avoid them," said Seishirou.
"I've never seen one," added Kakyou, turning slightly pink.
"Well then. We're watching this one."
"But..."
"Sit! You'll have a good time, I promise. Well, just so long as you don't try to take it seriously."
And, much to their apparent surprise, they all had a really good time. Hokuto taught Kakyou how to cook popcorn in a saucepan, to Seishirou's visible amusement.
Subaru rang in late afternoon to apologise and request to stay another night at Hokuto's, at which point Seishirou offered to cook dinner.
He turned out to be a very good cook, much to Hokuto's relief.
By the time Seishirou left, Hokuto was feeling a lot more comfortable around him. Overall, she thought, he wasn't a bad person at all.
She fell asleep pondering the logistics of a friendship with a man who had, in another universe, killed her - but in this universe appeared to be in love with her.
Hokuto was somewhat rudely awakened by a soft knocking on her door. "Come in," she murmured, without really thinking about it.
"Hokuto-chan?" came a hesitant voice.
"Kyou-chan?" she asked, sitting up. "What's wrong?"
"I know when the next murder will be."
In the kitchen, the clock chimed midnight.
--
Comments appreciated.