It was the largest number of people a psychiatrist
had ever seen in one office at one time, but this extended
family needed to be seen all at once. However, even
free therapy for a year wouldn't be able to address all
of the problems in the room. While he was, of course,
most concerned with the mental rehabilitation of his
patient, he still was at least somewhat distracted by the
obvious problems of others.
For example, the younger matriarch of the family, Sally
Alexandria Montpellier Washington-Ikeda, was about to crack. This
week had added tons of stress on the poor woman. A full time
professor herself, she was probably devastated to have a child
in a coma for almost a month after nearly losing her youngest
to another accident less than two months ago. Since her son had
awakened, she had to balance her job, her other children,
and healthcare expenses with looking out for her hospitalized
son. The shouting matches she had had with hospital staff were
near legendary, and her tireless work to find her son the best
physical therapists was common knowledge. And all that stress
was laid on her as base; the effect of Andrew's dream and
her (lack of) place in it was icing on the cake.
Of course, then there was Betty Usagi Ikeda, the
daughter. As a freshman in college, she was already under
a lot of stress, especially considering that her boyfriend was
still a junior in high school, and, therefore, not able to visit
as much as she would like. She was attending a well-respected
institution some distance away, struggling to adjust to college
like most other freshmen. According to her mother, Betty also
had the distinction of having the roommate from hell, who was
a lush and a slob. To nearly lose two of her brothers before
the fall semester was over was a lot of carry around on her shoulders.
Then there was the older matriarch, Mio Sakura Ikeda,
known as "Genkai" or "Grandma" to her family. There was clearly
tension between the older matriarch and the younger; if he had to
guess, the doctor would put the tension down to the mixed marriage
of Mitsuru and Alexandria. He was pretty sure that the tall, brassy,
opinionated African-American female was not what Japanese-American
Genkai would consider the perfect daughter-in-law, Alexandria's kindness
and Mitsuru's besotted-ness notwithstanding. His guess was that the
in-law relationship had been particularly nasty at points, but that
Genkai wanted to build bridges. Yet, with Genkai's and Alexandria's
personalities and Alexandria's wariness of her mother-in-law, the
relationship hadn't been able to change. On top of this, it was
obvious that Andrew was her favorite grandchild, even though she
often referred to him as "dimwit". So, the older matriarch was
in a lot of internal turmoil. She was worried about her grandson
and wanting to reach out to the obviously hurting Alexandria, but
powerless to help one and unsure about how to reach out to the other.
Those three were only the tip of the iceberg, and all of this was
clearly weighing on Mitsuru Ikeda, who had, for some unexplainable
reason considering that his father was still alive, set himself up as
family patriarch. Watching his family fall apart and his son not
recognize his own life was pulling hard on the father.
What worried the psychiatrist, beside the fact that few of the
people in his office would actually get the treatment they needed,
was that what he was going to suggest would make things a lot
worse for a few people in the room.
Taking a deep breath and mentally preparing for the resistance
ahead, he began, "As you know, I had a talk with Andrew earlier
this week, at your request. Throughout the interview, he insisted
that I call him Yusuke, and, for the most part, he refused to
cooperate, insisting that he wasn't crazy."
Genkai snorted, "Good for him. The dimwit has more sense
than I gave him credit for."
"I disagree," Lafayette Jefferson Washington, Alexandria's
mother,chimed in. "I think those are just the Jefferson/Washington
genes coming through. He is my eldest's son after all. I mean I pushed
myself through a depression with no professional help and Alexandria,
throughout all the problems with her father's illness when she was
younger, only went to a therapists for three months, if fact.
Jeffersons and Washingtons don't do 'help'; it seems to be against
our nature."
At this banter, the doctor mentally groaned. Between the older
matriarch's opinion of therapy and the way the younger matriarch
had treated therapy in the past, no one in that room was ever
going to get the help they needed. In fact, the doctor was
willing to bet, if 'Yusuke' wasn't so bad off, the family would
probably have just gotten him some Prozac and gone on about their
business.
But he had to remember that this was about his patient, and that
through helping his patient he could help the entire room.
The doctor cleared his throat so that everyone could re-focus
their attention on him. "As I was saying, I was able to get
Yusuke to explain this 'other life' of his to me. Based on what
he said and from his medical records, I believe what he experienced
was a dream-"
"Figures my brother would get his head stuck in La-La land" Betty
muttered under her breath.
"But I believe this dream did two good things for him. First,
it allowed him to work through and fight immense pain in a
logical way that kept him occupied. All the medical doctors
agree that if he had awoken earlier, the massive pain that was
racking his body would have sent him into cardiac arrest and
killed him."
That bombshell quieted the room. While everyone was
understandably upset, the realization that they almost lost the
young man still hung heavily on their hearts.
"Second," the doctor continued, "I believe the dream
allowed him to work out some emotional problems."
"What the hell are you implying?" Alexandria practically
growled from her position next to her husband.
"What I'm saying is that your Andrew was dealing with a lot
mentally as well at the time of the accident. So much so,
in fact, that he needed a mental vacation. However, he still
wanted to work through a lot of his mental issues, so, I
believe he incorporated them into this dream world in various
ways. For that reason," the doctor looked around at everyone
in the room, "I don't think we should disabuse him of his
dreamworld quite yet."
"WHAT?!" the entire room shouted.
"Are you CRAZY?!" Alexandria and Betty said in unison
as they surged to their feet.
The doctor held up his hand. "I'm not saying that we tell him
that world is real. I am saying that you cannot force upon him
his life as Andrew yet. I believe that will come to him on his
own. What you should do is the following. One: Address him as
Yusuke-"
Alexandria made a noise at this. Belatedly, the doctor
remembered that naming him Andrew had been her idea; giving
him the middle name of Yusuke had been his paternal grandmother's
idea.
"Two," the doctor continued, "You may only discuss his life as
Andrew in response to direct questions he poses to you."
"Um, I thought the whole point was to help him not be crazy,"
Hasukawa observed from his position next to his older sister.
"All this seems to do is to give him license to be crazy," the
youngest child added under his breath.
"And three," the doctor concluded, knowing that this would go
over the least well, "You must refer to yourselves and allow
him to treat you as he did in his dream world, until and unless
he begins to treat you otherwise."
At that, the room exploded.
"Oh, no way!" Betty objected. "I'm his older sister! I'm not
going to allow him to order me around or ignore me like some
sidekick!" She pushed some of her obviously dyed light blue
hair out of her face. "He's enough of a prick to me as it is!"
"Look," Alexandria began to shout, "I'm just a voice in my
son's little crazy dreamland. A voice of a demon no less.
How the hell do I relate to my son with that distinction? Are
you telling me that I can't see my son?!"
"Related to that, what to you suggest I do?" the powerful
businessman who was paying his fee, Samuel Mitsuru Ikeda,
weighed in. "In Andrew's little mind game, I was an extremely
shady businessman who died by blowing up himself and an entire
stadium. By the time he awoke from his vacation, I was already
dead. Does that mean I'm barred from visiting my little
brother?"
"It is even more complex than that for some of us," Betty's
boyfriend began. Along with a few other non-family members,
the young man was included because he was deemed an important
part of Andrew's life. "When Andrew first related the story
to Keiko and his father, and later you, he threw around a lot
of names. As we don't have descriptions to go with the names,
we don't really know who all these people are. We have no idea
if we figure in the dream or if we are helping or hurting
by staying away."
The doctor sighed, "I'm not saying if you don't have a leading
role in this dream that you must ignore him. You can certainly
visit with him when he's asleep-"
"Well, shit," Alexandria muttered under her breath.
"And, if you don't know who you are in his 'dreamland,'
you are allowed to visit him to see if he recognizes you.
Just be prepared to react accordingly once you discover you
were."
"Great," the patient's best friend said as he stared out
of the window next to him. "I am having my relationship
with my best friend dictated to me by some quack."
"I realize this will be hard on some of you," the doctor
conceded, "but it is the best thing for Andrew. I believe
his memories of Andrew will come back with time and that
those will blend with the insights he gained from this
dream. But, until they do, he needs this mental space to
recover as much as he needs his physical therapy."
The meeting broke up soon after that. As the doctor was
gathering up his materials, he did notice the two matriarchs
over in the corner. Later, he would deny ever listening
to their conversation, but at that moment, he wanted to know
what Alexandria was saying to her mother-in-law while she
bowed to her.
"Ikeda-san," Alexandria said in a subdued and quiet tone,
"I have a favor to ask."
"And what would that be?" Genkai asked. The question may
have sounded harsh if you couldn't see the older woman's
features...which the bowing woman couldn't.
"I know you care a lot about Andrew. And I know he had a much
clearer connection to you in his dream. And I realize that,
next to Mitsuru's older sister Ayame, you were the only adult
to feature prominently in his dream. I-" the younger woman's
voice caught for a second, but she continued, "I would like
you to look out for my son where I cannot. Apparently in this
dream world he assigned me to the sidelines, and, as I refuse
to let Ayame and her substance abuse problems anywhere near my
son, that leaves you. Please, look after my Drew for me."
"Of course," the woman agreed quietly. "I'll try to keep the
dimwit out of trouble."
"Thank you, Ikeda-san."
This Side of Living
Living with Two Minds -chapter four
They called it physical therapy, but he called it hell. Whoever
hired those two sadistic medical professionals really had it in
for him. After every session, he ended up feeling wiped out.
Who knew for how long he'd been out this time.
As Yusuke opened his eyes, he was in his private room in the
hospital. Apparently money talked or this 'Andrew' person
knew someone, because this room looked more like a hotel than
any hospital room he had seen before.
"Ah! Welcome back. It appeared that your physical therapy
knocked you out again. I hope it was a productive session, at
least."
"Kurama?" Yusuke asked as he turned to look at the person
from who the voice came.
The young man sitting next to the bed smiled at Yusuke. His
hair was the right color to be Kurama, but it was two short.
And the eyes were the wrong color. And he was wearing a strange
uniform with a hat on his lap.
The young man with Kurama's voice didn't seem to mind the
inspection that Yusuke gave him. "I expect you are thirsty,"
he said. "Would you like some water?"
At Yusuke's nod, the young man began to pour him a glass
of water. As Yusuke took the offered cup, he asked, "You're name
isn't really Kurama, is it?"
"No," the young man agreed. "It's Kevin. But you can call me
whatever you are most comfortable with. I can answer to both."
"Why are you in my room today? Not to sound ungrateful," Yusuke
added. "You aren't among Andrew's legion of siblings, are you?"
"No," Kurama laughed. "But calling the Ikeda family a legion may
be a slight exaggeration." Kurama-Kevin smiled. "I'm here because
Andrew's sister, I believe you call her Botan, needed a break. She
is extremely stress about her upcoming Econ test and she looked
like she was at her wits end. I sent her down to the cafeteria
to get a cup of tea and take a mental break. As Hamilton, Keiko, and
Hasukawa are still in school and as Samuel, your father and your
grandparents are still at work, that left me. Alexandria-san
had to teach today, as well. Though, lately, she looks as bad
as your sister. I probably would have requested that she take a
break as well, had she been here."
Looking over to see Yusuke's confused look, Kurama
apologized. "I'm sorry. It is still a little difficult for me to remember
how you remember all of those people. I hope I wasn't unduly
confusing?"
"No, it's okay," Yusuke agreed. 'I couldn't get any
more confused, anyway,' he thought to himself. It was strange.
Part of him envied this Andrew while a small part of him felt like he
understood things this Andrew would understand. He wasn't
quite sure if he believed everyone when they said he was this
Andrew guy, but lately he had been having flashes where this
life seemed less strange. It was a lot to rap his head around.
"How exactly does Andrew know you?" Yusuke felt compelled to
ask.
"Well," Kurama began, "the short answer is that we met when we
were both freshmen and became friends after a fashion. The longer,
more complicated answer is that I'm dating Andrew's sister."
Yusuke blinked at this. Kurama and Botan was not a couple
he had ever envisioned in his head...but Kevin and Andrew's sister
Betty weren't Kurama and Botan. Even if Betty did have the same
voice, same personality, and same colored hair. Apparently, at some
point, Andrew's sister had decided that she wanted light blue hair,
so she'd bleached the brown out of her hair and then dyed it blue.
It had been like that for years now, according to Keiko anyway.
Kurama quietly cleared his throat. "Yusuke," he began, "if
you don't mind, could you tell me a little more about Kurama.
I wasn't able to hear about your adventures the first or the
second time you shared them. Call it, my curiousity, I guess."
The request was no longer seemed odd to him. Apparently some
people were not changed at all in this reality or the last, Keiko
being the most obvious example. Other people, it seemed,
were either vastly different or missing. Yusuke shrugged. He
figured that he owed it to Andrew's sister's boyfriend to explain
who Kurama was.
"I first met Kurama as part of my first case as Spirit Detective.
Along with two other demons, he had stolen several priceless
artifacts. It was my job to get them back and arrest those
responsible."
"A criminal and a demon. Well, that's interesting to say the
least," Kurama commented.
"No, no wait. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Kurama was a good
guy," Yusuke insisted. "He was fused with a human boy and he
had stolen the artifact he had to save his human mother's life!
After that whole incident, we kinda got to be friends."
"Oh," the other young man said. "Well, what was his personality
like?"
"He was smart. A good fighter. Modest. Keiko would probably
call him a gentleman," Yusuke snorted at that. "He was-"
here Yusuke paused for a moment, "He was a good friend, with
an affinity for plants...and an annoying tendency to be
vague."
"Hm, it's amazing how much seems to hold constant, doesn't it?"
Kurama noted.
"There goes that vagueness again," Yusuke groused. Looking
back at the young man sitting next to him, Yusuke added.
"It's weird. You sound so much like him, to the point where
I can see him if I close my eyes. But you don't completely
look like him. I think it's the hair."
"My hair?" Kurama asked, puzzled.
"Yeah, I remember your hair being past your shoulder and
almost halfway down your back."
The other young man shrugged. "As freeing as that sounds,
I don't think I could get away with that at school. What
with the military dress code."
"You are in military school?!" Yusuke asked, surprised.
"Yes, an all male Catholic military school. At this point,
I'm actually an officer. The school is the brother school
to your - excuse me, Andrew's - sister's alma mater, an
all female Catholic high school. It partially explains
how we met."
"You are good student?"
"Fairly," Kurama answered, "although I am at the top of
my class at the moment."
"That figures. Are you popular as well?"
"In a sense, I suppose. It's a different world there.
I'm not quite sure how I would measure my standings as
opposed to my fellow students. I never really thought
about it much."
"Oh," Yusuke said. He would have said more, but he began
to yawn.
"Go back to sleep, Yusuke. There will be people who will
want to visit with you later in the day and you need your
rest."
Yusuke nodded. "Thanks for hanging around today...Kevin."
The young man in the military uniform smiled. "You're
welcome.
- To be Continued -
had ever seen in one office at one time, but this extended
family needed to be seen all at once. However, even
free therapy for a year wouldn't be able to address all
of the problems in the room. While he was, of course,
most concerned with the mental rehabilitation of his
patient, he still was at least somewhat distracted by the
obvious problems of others.
For example, the younger matriarch of the family, Sally
Alexandria Montpellier Washington-Ikeda, was about to crack. This
week had added tons of stress on the poor woman. A full time
professor herself, she was probably devastated to have a child
in a coma for almost a month after nearly losing her youngest
to another accident less than two months ago. Since her son had
awakened, she had to balance her job, her other children,
and healthcare expenses with looking out for her hospitalized
son. The shouting matches she had had with hospital staff were
near legendary, and her tireless work to find her son the best
physical therapists was common knowledge. And all that stress
was laid on her as base; the effect of Andrew's dream and
her (lack of) place in it was icing on the cake.
Of course, then there was Betty Usagi Ikeda, the
daughter. As a freshman in college, she was already under
a lot of stress, especially considering that her boyfriend was
still a junior in high school, and, therefore, not able to visit
as much as she would like. She was attending a well-respected
institution some distance away, struggling to adjust to college
like most other freshmen. According to her mother, Betty also
had the distinction of having the roommate from hell, who was
a lush and a slob. To nearly lose two of her brothers before
the fall semester was over was a lot of carry around on her shoulders.
Then there was the older matriarch, Mio Sakura Ikeda,
known as "Genkai" or "Grandma" to her family. There was clearly
tension between the older matriarch and the younger; if he had to
guess, the doctor would put the tension down to the mixed marriage
of Mitsuru and Alexandria. He was pretty sure that the tall, brassy,
opinionated African-American female was not what Japanese-American
Genkai would consider the perfect daughter-in-law, Alexandria's kindness
and Mitsuru's besotted-ness notwithstanding. His guess was that the
in-law relationship had been particularly nasty at points, but that
Genkai wanted to build bridges. Yet, with Genkai's and Alexandria's
personalities and Alexandria's wariness of her mother-in-law, the
relationship hadn't been able to change. On top of this, it was
obvious that Andrew was her favorite grandchild, even though she
often referred to him as "dimwit". So, the older matriarch was
in a lot of internal turmoil. She was worried about her grandson
and wanting to reach out to the obviously hurting Alexandria, but
powerless to help one and unsure about how to reach out to the other.
Those three were only the tip of the iceberg, and all of this was
clearly weighing on Mitsuru Ikeda, who had, for some unexplainable
reason considering that his father was still alive, set himself up as
family patriarch. Watching his family fall apart and his son not
recognize his own life was pulling hard on the father.
What worried the psychiatrist, beside the fact that few of the
people in his office would actually get the treatment they needed,
was that what he was going to suggest would make things a lot
worse for a few people in the room.
Taking a deep breath and mentally preparing for the resistance
ahead, he began, "As you know, I had a talk with Andrew earlier
this week, at your request. Throughout the interview, he insisted
that I call him Yusuke, and, for the most part, he refused to
cooperate, insisting that he wasn't crazy."
Genkai snorted, "Good for him. The dimwit has more sense
than I gave him credit for."
"I disagree," Lafayette Jefferson Washington, Alexandria's
mother,chimed in. "I think those are just the Jefferson/Washington
genes coming through. He is my eldest's son after all. I mean I pushed
myself through a depression with no professional help and Alexandria,
throughout all the problems with her father's illness when she was
younger, only went to a therapists for three months, if fact.
Jeffersons and Washingtons don't do 'help'; it seems to be against
our nature."
At this banter, the doctor mentally groaned. Between the older
matriarch's opinion of therapy and the way the younger matriarch
had treated therapy in the past, no one in that room was ever
going to get the help they needed. In fact, the doctor was
willing to bet, if 'Yusuke' wasn't so bad off, the family would
probably have just gotten him some Prozac and gone on about their
business.
But he had to remember that this was about his patient, and that
through helping his patient he could help the entire room.
The doctor cleared his throat so that everyone could re-focus
their attention on him. "As I was saying, I was able to get
Yusuke to explain this 'other life' of his to me. Based on what
he said and from his medical records, I believe what he experienced
was a dream-"
"Figures my brother would get his head stuck in La-La land" Betty
muttered under her breath.
"But I believe this dream did two good things for him. First,
it allowed him to work through and fight immense pain in a
logical way that kept him occupied. All the medical doctors
agree that if he had awoken earlier, the massive pain that was
racking his body would have sent him into cardiac arrest and
killed him."
That bombshell quieted the room. While everyone was
understandably upset, the realization that they almost lost the
young man still hung heavily on their hearts.
"Second," the doctor continued, "I believe the dream
allowed him to work out some emotional problems."
"What the hell are you implying?" Alexandria practically
growled from her position next to her husband.
"What I'm saying is that your Andrew was dealing with a lot
mentally as well at the time of the accident. So much so,
in fact, that he needed a mental vacation. However, he still
wanted to work through a lot of his mental issues, so, I
believe he incorporated them into this dream world in various
ways. For that reason," the doctor looked around at everyone
in the room, "I don't think we should disabuse him of his
dreamworld quite yet."
"WHAT?!" the entire room shouted.
"Are you CRAZY?!" Alexandria and Betty said in unison
as they surged to their feet.
The doctor held up his hand. "I'm not saying that we tell him
that world is real. I am saying that you cannot force upon him
his life as Andrew yet. I believe that will come to him on his
own. What you should do is the following. One: Address him as
Yusuke-"
Alexandria made a noise at this. Belatedly, the doctor
remembered that naming him Andrew had been her idea; giving
him the middle name of Yusuke had been his paternal grandmother's
idea.
"Two," the doctor continued, "You may only discuss his life as
Andrew in response to direct questions he poses to you."
"Um, I thought the whole point was to help him not be crazy,"
Hasukawa observed from his position next to his older sister.
"All this seems to do is to give him license to be crazy," the
youngest child added under his breath.
"And three," the doctor concluded, knowing that this would go
over the least well, "You must refer to yourselves and allow
him to treat you as he did in his dream world, until and unless
he begins to treat you otherwise."
At that, the room exploded.
"Oh, no way!" Betty objected. "I'm his older sister! I'm not
going to allow him to order me around or ignore me like some
sidekick!" She pushed some of her obviously dyed light blue
hair out of her face. "He's enough of a prick to me as it is!"
"Look," Alexandria began to shout, "I'm just a voice in my
son's little crazy dreamland. A voice of a demon no less.
How the hell do I relate to my son with that distinction? Are
you telling me that I can't see my son?!"
"Related to that, what to you suggest I do?" the powerful
businessman who was paying his fee, Samuel Mitsuru Ikeda,
weighed in. "In Andrew's little mind game, I was an extremely
shady businessman who died by blowing up himself and an entire
stadium. By the time he awoke from his vacation, I was already
dead. Does that mean I'm barred from visiting my little
brother?"
"It is even more complex than that for some of us," Betty's
boyfriend began. Along with a few other non-family members,
the young man was included because he was deemed an important
part of Andrew's life. "When Andrew first related the story
to Keiko and his father, and later you, he threw around a lot
of names. As we don't have descriptions to go with the names,
we don't really know who all these people are. We have no idea
if we figure in the dream or if we are helping or hurting
by staying away."
The doctor sighed, "I'm not saying if you don't have a leading
role in this dream that you must ignore him. You can certainly
visit with him when he's asleep-"
"Well, shit," Alexandria muttered under her breath.
"And, if you don't know who you are in his 'dreamland,'
you are allowed to visit him to see if he recognizes you.
Just be prepared to react accordingly once you discover you
were."
"Great," the patient's best friend said as he stared out
of the window next to him. "I am having my relationship
with my best friend dictated to me by some quack."
"I realize this will be hard on some of you," the doctor
conceded, "but it is the best thing for Andrew. I believe
his memories of Andrew will come back with time and that
those will blend with the insights he gained from this
dream. But, until they do, he needs this mental space to
recover as much as he needs his physical therapy."
The meeting broke up soon after that. As the doctor was
gathering up his materials, he did notice the two matriarchs
over in the corner. Later, he would deny ever listening
to their conversation, but at that moment, he wanted to know
what Alexandria was saying to her mother-in-law while she
bowed to her.
"Ikeda-san," Alexandria said in a subdued and quiet tone,
"I have a favor to ask."
"And what would that be?" Genkai asked. The question may
have sounded harsh if you couldn't see the older woman's
features...which the bowing woman couldn't.
"I know you care a lot about Andrew. And I know he had a much
clearer connection to you in his dream. And I realize that,
next to Mitsuru's older sister Ayame, you were the only adult
to feature prominently in his dream. I-" the younger woman's
voice caught for a second, but she continued, "I would like
you to look out for my son where I cannot. Apparently in this
dream world he assigned me to the sidelines, and, as I refuse
to let Ayame and her substance abuse problems anywhere near my
son, that leaves you. Please, look after my Drew for me."
"Of course," the woman agreed quietly. "I'll try to keep the
dimwit out of trouble."
"Thank you, Ikeda-san."
This Side of Living
Living with Two Minds -chapter four
They called it physical therapy, but he called it hell. Whoever
hired those two sadistic medical professionals really had it in
for him. After every session, he ended up feeling wiped out.
Who knew for how long he'd been out this time.
As Yusuke opened his eyes, he was in his private room in the
hospital. Apparently money talked or this 'Andrew' person
knew someone, because this room looked more like a hotel than
any hospital room he had seen before.
"Ah! Welcome back. It appeared that your physical therapy
knocked you out again. I hope it was a productive session, at
least."
"Kurama?" Yusuke asked as he turned to look at the person
from who the voice came.
The young man sitting next to the bed smiled at Yusuke. His
hair was the right color to be Kurama, but it was two short.
And the eyes were the wrong color. And he was wearing a strange
uniform with a hat on his lap.
The young man with Kurama's voice didn't seem to mind the
inspection that Yusuke gave him. "I expect you are thirsty,"
he said. "Would you like some water?"
At Yusuke's nod, the young man began to pour him a glass
of water. As Yusuke took the offered cup, he asked, "You're name
isn't really Kurama, is it?"
"No," the young man agreed. "It's Kevin. But you can call me
whatever you are most comfortable with. I can answer to both."
"Why are you in my room today? Not to sound ungrateful," Yusuke
added. "You aren't among Andrew's legion of siblings, are you?"
"No," Kurama laughed. "But calling the Ikeda family a legion may
be a slight exaggeration." Kurama-Kevin smiled. "I'm here because
Andrew's sister, I believe you call her Botan, needed a break. She
is extremely stress about her upcoming Econ test and she looked
like she was at her wits end. I sent her down to the cafeteria
to get a cup of tea and take a mental break. As Hamilton, Keiko, and
Hasukawa are still in school and as Samuel, your father and your
grandparents are still at work, that left me. Alexandria-san
had to teach today, as well. Though, lately, she looks as bad
as your sister. I probably would have requested that she take a
break as well, had she been here."
Looking over to see Yusuke's confused look, Kurama
apologized. "I'm sorry. It is still a little difficult for me to remember
how you remember all of those people. I hope I wasn't unduly
confusing?"
"No, it's okay," Yusuke agreed. 'I couldn't get any
more confused, anyway,' he thought to himself. It was strange.
Part of him envied this Andrew while a small part of him felt like he
understood things this Andrew would understand. He wasn't
quite sure if he believed everyone when they said he was this
Andrew guy, but lately he had been having flashes where this
life seemed less strange. It was a lot to rap his head around.
"How exactly does Andrew know you?" Yusuke felt compelled to
ask.
"Well," Kurama began, "the short answer is that we met when we
were both freshmen and became friends after a fashion. The longer,
more complicated answer is that I'm dating Andrew's sister."
Yusuke blinked at this. Kurama and Botan was not a couple
he had ever envisioned in his head...but Kevin and Andrew's sister
Betty weren't Kurama and Botan. Even if Betty did have the same
voice, same personality, and same colored hair. Apparently, at some
point, Andrew's sister had decided that she wanted light blue hair,
so she'd bleached the brown out of her hair and then dyed it blue.
It had been like that for years now, according to Keiko anyway.
Kurama quietly cleared his throat. "Yusuke," he began, "if
you don't mind, could you tell me a little more about Kurama.
I wasn't able to hear about your adventures the first or the
second time you shared them. Call it, my curiousity, I guess."
The request was no longer seemed odd to him. Apparently some
people were not changed at all in this reality or the last, Keiko
being the most obvious example. Other people, it seemed,
were either vastly different or missing. Yusuke shrugged. He
figured that he owed it to Andrew's sister's boyfriend to explain
who Kurama was.
"I first met Kurama as part of my first case as Spirit Detective.
Along with two other demons, he had stolen several priceless
artifacts. It was my job to get them back and arrest those
responsible."
"A criminal and a demon. Well, that's interesting to say the
least," Kurama commented.
"No, no wait. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Kurama was a good
guy," Yusuke insisted. "He was fused with a human boy and he
had stolen the artifact he had to save his human mother's life!
After that whole incident, we kinda got to be friends."
"Oh," the other young man said. "Well, what was his personality
like?"
"He was smart. A good fighter. Modest. Keiko would probably
call him a gentleman," Yusuke snorted at that. "He was-"
here Yusuke paused for a moment, "He was a good friend, with
an affinity for plants...and an annoying tendency to be
vague."
"Hm, it's amazing how much seems to hold constant, doesn't it?"
Kurama noted.
"There goes that vagueness again," Yusuke groused. Looking
back at the young man sitting next to him, Yusuke added.
"It's weird. You sound so much like him, to the point where
I can see him if I close my eyes. But you don't completely
look like him. I think it's the hair."
"My hair?" Kurama asked, puzzled.
"Yeah, I remember your hair being past your shoulder and
almost halfway down your back."
The other young man shrugged. "As freeing as that sounds,
I don't think I could get away with that at school. What
with the military dress code."
"You are in military school?!" Yusuke asked, surprised.
"Yes, an all male Catholic military school. At this point,
I'm actually an officer. The school is the brother school
to your - excuse me, Andrew's - sister's alma mater, an
all female Catholic high school. It partially explains
how we met."
"You are good student?"
"Fairly," Kurama answered, "although I am at the top of
my class at the moment."
"That figures. Are you popular as well?"
"In a sense, I suppose. It's a different world there.
I'm not quite sure how I would measure my standings as
opposed to my fellow students. I never really thought
about it much."
"Oh," Yusuke said. He would have said more, but he began
to yawn.
"Go back to sleep, Yusuke. There will be people who will
want to visit with you later in the day and you need your
rest."
Yusuke nodded. "Thanks for hanging around today...Kevin."
The young man in the military uniform smiled. "You're
welcome.
- To be Continued -