This has been a long time coming. I apologize for the absence, but life happened, and then kept happening. In the longstanding tradition of Promenade and my writing in general, this chapter arrives subsequent to revisions. Promenade 25 and TWH 3 have been adjusted to reflect some proper hammering-out of Saguru's abilities with a few very minor other ripples elsewhere. Please read and enjoy.

To briefly recap: Kaito and Saguru have stumbled across doubles who are ten years older and already dealt with both Pandora (albeit a bit differently than the norm) and the Black Organization. Saguru and Kaito's perspectives refer to the native inhabitants by their last names, and each other by their first names. The natives refer to each other by first names and the travelers by Kai and Steven.

This chapter includes a chess game described in algebraic notation. N = Knight, K = King, B = Bishop, Q = Queen, R = Rook, no letter = pawn, and x = the move captures an opponent's piece. Letter-number refers to the target square of the move.

Interlude

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
~Burnt Norton (I.11-15)

Saguru had to breathe a sigh of relief when Kaito agreed to stay put for a few days—Kaito had no inkling what the phrase "pace yourself" meant. Not to mention they'd been traveling at breakneck speed, and that primarily through public spaces or otherwise unknown territory, which required being almost exclusively on high alert.

Consequently, the welcome distraction of dinner gave Saguru the chance to remove his gloves and sunglasses for the first time since waking up at the detective agency, five hours and twenty-three minutes ago. Even their relatively thin material interfered with dexterity more than he liked, and crockery, at least, should be free of nasty surprises. The number of people present was more than slightly daunting, but he had to at least try.

He carefully peeled off the gloves during the general bustle of relocation, reached for the sunglasses perched on his head, hesitated, then sighed and pocketed them.

Breathe. Concentrate. Don't get lost, don't get eaten—

{Breath of cobwebs clinging in the dark, glistening in stale air—}

{Firelight crackling in the evening, warmth and safety and guidance home—}

{Inquisitive moths gathering, seeking, countless soft wings beating—}

Oh, no, he would not give in so easily—

Kasparov vs Topalov 1999, Kasparov's Immortal: d4, d6; e4, Nf6; Nc3, g6...

He concentrated on the pattern of the chess game like a shield, trying to drown out the flood of new input, or at least keep it at a manageable distance. Even without high intensities there were so many sources, swirling and dancing and happily dumping far more sense-images than he wanted to face down simultaneously directly into his brain. Though not quite enough to trigger a complete overload. Yet.

Kaito didn't call him a stubborn bastard for nothing, however, and this was important. He only had two days to convince Koizumi that he was functional enough to leave. Neither Kaito's urgency to move on nor Koizumi's… personality boded well, should the two end up clashing.

He tucked the gloves into his bag—paranoia had kept the bag close and his coat on through the previous discussion in the study—and dropped the lot beside Kaito's bag on the way to the Western-style dining room. Hakuba waved Saguru over to the end of the table dominated by blondish-brown hair; he sat across from Hakuba and diagonally to Koizumi, with the twins sharing the corner between their parents.

An amused smirk lit Koizumi's face as she took note of his new lack of accessories. "Oh, they can come off after all?"

Saguru deliberately smiled back, throwing F3, b5; Ne2, Nd7 at the surge of {subtle glint of sharp points in even vixen's friendliest grin}. "When there is minimal risk that something might overwhelm me without them. Keeping Kuroba-kun sane and intact is prohibitively difficult when my own sanity is under siege. Under the current circumstances, however, I hardly think anything malevolent will leap out of the soup."

"Unlikely," Hakuba agreed, "though I wouldn't want to put Murphy to the test."

"Daddy, what's a murphy?" Ame inquired innocently, echoed by Akiko.

While Hakuba attempted to formulate a comprehensible answer for two preschoolers, Koizumi smoothly interjected with a mildness Saguru definitely didn't trust {smooth, considering prowl, razor-edge gleam of white still bared in amusement—for the moment…},"What do you consider a sufficient risk to justify wearing your armor? Since a bus ride in public and a private group discussion obviously both meet your criteria."

Saguru kept the placid smile firmly in place. "My difficulties aside, before Kuroba-kun agreed to stay there remained a chance that we could depart abruptly. I prefer to be prepared, as there are fewer unpleasant surprises that way."

Exponentially growing Heartless mobs were one of the exceptions.

"Hnn." Koizumi remained unimpressed. Bh6, Bxh6; Qxh6, Bb7.

The conversation paused as the meal began, before Hakuba inquired, "How long has your sensitivity been an issue? You mentioned that it was dormant for quite a while..."

Saguru offered a wry smile. "According to my pocket watch, since travel with Kuroba-kun wreaks havoc on the internal clock and I'm positive he cheated an extra day without me? Two hours and seventeen minutes shy of six full days. We keep skipping from the morning of one place to the afternoon of another, though so much keeps happening it feels easily twice as long."

Koizumi narrowed her eyes. "How long did you work with the one who gave you the gloves and sunglasses?"

"Mmm... Approximately twelve hours total between our arrival and departure, though he only gave me the gloves. Kuroba-kun made the sunglasses himself."

Seeing her expression remain unchanged over {subterranean water rushing, boiling, pounding at the surface}, Saguru felt compelled to add, with an extra edge of charming smile and a mental snarl of a3, e6, "They were obviously intended as emergency measures. There simply hasn't been time or opportunity for much of anything more comprehensive. Our acquaintance certainly tried his best in the interval he had at his disposal, but twelve hours to learn, and perhaps that much again to practice... there is only so much one can pick up in that time."

Other than the desire to curl up in a corner and tell the rest of universe to bugger off, of course. Loudly, repeatedly, and damn but his equilibrium did not last long in a crowd—even a tiny one—even knowing that nothing pounding at him was actually his.

Castle: queen's side, Qe7.

She inclined her head just slightly, the barest hint of acknowledgment as the {rush of water} receded into the overall surrounding noise. "What do you have without your... protective equipment, then?"

Saguru took a moment to savor some miso soup, putting his thoughts in order. Solomon-san hadn't been the fool she seemed to want to assume he was, he'd just... been forced to prioritize. Rather drastically. There had been so much to compress into so very little time just to keep his new sensitivity from uncontrollably crippling him.

"The basic problem is that at the moment, everything is too intense. Without the assistance of, ah, 'protective equipment' to help dampen the sensations to a tolerable level, the best I can do is try to ignore them by concentrating on something else. It's a little like one does with ringing in the ears, I suppose, when the sound itself cannot be eliminated. Rather than trying to suppress it, find a way to hold it at arm's length, to keep from being swamped. I've done what I can to improve my tolerance, but we tend to switch between emotional hurricanes and large crowds and no company at all. This is—a group this large, that is—is about the limit of what I can handle, at the moment."

"I can see that," Koizumi said dryly. "Stop being hung up on your pride and put the daft glasses back on until after dinner."

He glared, just a little. "I beg your pardon?"

"If you keep this up, you're going to be exhausted and useless for anything productive by the time we're done talking. Put them on."

"I'd do what she says, myself," Hakuba broke in with a smile and a wave of {brook over stones-worn-smooth, laughter running in place}. "You'll be happier that way."

Pride wrestled with fatigue.

Fatigue won.

Saguru retrieved the sunglasses and settled them in his hair. The world instantly muffled into blessed quiet, and whole muscle groups he hadn't noticed had been taut as coiled springs relaxed. He let the chess-match memory dissolve with a sigh.

Koizumi smiled in knowing satisfaction. "Better. Go on."

Saguru took another long moment to breathe, then shrugged, raising one index finger to tap the frame of the sunglasses over his temple. "If you're asking about what I know... As I'm sure you can tell, the bronze in these acts to help block out... well, whatever's in the vicinity. The gloves physically prevent the amplification effects of direct contact—you might call that psychometry, I suppose, since it's at least an order of magnitude more powerful than sensations from any distance—and the bronze threads in them similarly dampen whatever might be emanating from objects I have to handle. As far as I've been able to tell, any impressions I pick up do seem to correspond in at least some manner to how others feel."

He shuddered as his mind skittered away from memories.

"Impressions? What sort of impressions?" Koizumi's eyes narrowed in what he rather hoped was merely interest.

"It's..." Saguru hesitated for a moment, trying to find words for the experience. "I suppose it might be easiest to think of it as a bit like having someone else's dream imposed upon you, while you're awake—an uncontrollable sort of tangle of image and feel and association."

"So you don't experience them like they're your own emotions, then."

"No, not at all. It's definitely an external sensation, not... emotion per se."

Koizumi tapped a finger against her cheek. "Hmm. Well, at least this emergency teacher of yours had enough sense to try for ignoring, rather than outright blocking or suppressing things yourself—that would have risked damaging you in a variety of ways, eventually. I'm sure we can do far better for you here and now, of course."

"...Thank you," Saguru conceded after a moment. He did need whatever help he could get.

"It'll take a little while, of course, but we should be able to get you started in the right direction and give you some actual preparation before dropping you in the deep end. What does—hmm, no, if you're this sensitive—as a baseline, then, while you still have your dampeners on, what does it feel like to you if you, oh, say, touch someone's hand during casual conversation?"

Saguru hesitated, remembering the mob of Heartless they didn't particularly want to bring up here. The knowledge would lead to far too many other questions they preferred to avoid. "Under normal circumstances, with the glasses on, nothing definite unless I concentrate. I mostly wear both glasses and gloves for redundancy in case... something happens."

A chain was not the most secure of devices, but welding bronze to his skull was not exactly a viable alternative.

Koizumi considered briefly. "Without either, then."

Saguru hesitated. "It depends on what they're feeling."

"Such as? Pick an example."

He sighed. It seemed quite clear that she was not going to stop calmly pressing for more information until she got what she considered to be a satisfactory level of detail, but—

"I'm... truly not entirely sure how to explain it. It's not something that's easy to put into words." In any language.

"It's... when I even try, the description comes out... flat, almost. As though it's missing the full impact that it should be carrying—a bit like how I could tell you that something gives me the impression of a waterfall, and you'll think of a photograph or a poster, or a view from a safe distance. But that's not what it's like at all. It's the difference between a photograph or a description, and actually being there in the middle of it all: the slipperiness of moss and rock, the shock of cold air on your skin, the mist hitting you wet and clammy in the face, the roar of the water, the inexorable strength of the current rushing down and down, to break on the rocks below—" he broke off, shaking his head.

Koizumi's gaze had gone dark and intent, and the twins were watching in wide-eyed silence. "That wasn't really a hypothetical example, was it."

No more than that had actually been a question. Saguru swallowed, shoving down the memories of that first terrible grab at Riku in the Darkness Corridor and the first aftermath of viewing Kaito's twisted nightmare.

"Perhaps not as much as I would like," he managed.

She regarded him for a long, thoughtful moment before asking, a little more softly, "So what produced that impression, then? It seems to have been... memorable."

Saguru hesitated, trying to figure out how to untangle that particular sense-image from all the others that had deluged him then, most of which he did not particularly want to think about too closely. Delving after anything more specific than "Yes it happened and was predominately unpleasant" had an unfortunate tendency to cause immersive flashbacks, and he wasn't enthused by the prospect of skirting that cliff edge.

"I... don't know. Not precisely. It's not a memory I can pick at without being... pulled back in."

"I see." There was, perhaps, a bit of sympathy in her eyes and her voice stayed that shade quieter. "What was the general situation, then?"

He shrugged faintly "An overwhelming combination of negative emotions. What I just described wasn't the only image, you see, simply one of the strongest. If I were to venture a guess, however... perhaps guilt, or horror."

She nodded, contemplative. "Well, it's a start. I'll think on what to work on first—there's so much, after all..."

After she trailed off, Saguru took the opportunity to eat the rest of his dinner. The food really was quite good, and he thought he recognized Baaya's unique approach to curry flavoring in the main dish. When Hakuba didn't have the twins distracting him, they even managed to have a pleasant, if sporadic, conversation comparing family trees. Hakuba's had been surprisingly sparse as an only child with only a mother and grandmother in England, but the absence of three uncles and a younger brother explained why he'd been so much more willing to stay in Japan permanently. Saguru was still trying to not think too hard about what would happen after he got back home. There didn't seem to be a way around disappointing someone unless Mother could be convinced to move back to Japan, and Saguru still wasn't sure how much he wanted to try that until at least Kudou's flock of crows was taken care of—and if Kaito's stalkers were the same organization, so much the better. But introducing leverage onto the game board just before starting a serious gambit was poor strategy indeed.

Saguru's thoughts were interrupted by Touichi and Shinji accosting Kaito further down the table, and he realized he'd been staring into empty dishes for the last few minutes. Dinner was over.

And Koizumi was enlisting all five children to assist in his practice session. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she smiled in return. "Children are wonderfully simple when it comes to emotion. Unrefined, uncomplicated, and unrestrained—sorting through subtlety comes after you can withstand strength."

"Oh dear." But damned if he was going to say he wasn't willing to try it. "Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained…"

He followed Koizumi to the den, where she settled onto the couch and added, "Really, I wouldn't consider you properly prepared until your mind is adapted enough to process the input as you do sight or touch—not hiding behind walls, bronze or invisible. It's supposed to be another sense, not a complete liability."

"I gathered as much, judging by your earlier objections," Saguru murmured dryly. "But surely a learning curve is to be expected?"

"Steven-niisan!" Touichi, Shinji, and Hanako raced into the room, interrupting the conversation. "We brought cards!" Shinji announced with a hint of glee.

"You'll play poker with us, right?" Touichi continued. "Akiko-chan and Ame-chan can't remember the hands right, and Hanako-chan only plays a few rounds before getting bored."

"Because I can hardly ever beat you two idiots!" Hanako protested.

Koizumi smiled benevolently. "I think that sounds like a fine idea. Hanako-chan, why don't you ask Steven-kun if he'll play as a team with you?"

Hanako, Saguru had to admit, had the art of begging eyes down pat. "Will you, Steven-niisan?"

"Yes, of course…" Saguru settled on the floor near Koizumi with his back against the couch, then looked up as the twins trotted in, Ame carrying a brightly-covered book and Akiko with a plastic case full of crayons.

"We're gonna color!" Ame announced to the room, and with no prompting the pair settled on the other side of Koizumi's feet and spread out their supplies. Saguru blinked a little at the degree of good behavior in two three-year-olds, looked back at Koizumi's tiny knowing smile, and chose not to comment. He suspected there would be at least one argument over colors and crayon-ownership sooner or later, though, because they were still siblings.

Saguru was distracted by Hanako sliding into his lap, automatically shifting a bit to accommodate her. She stuck out her tongue at the boys. "We're gonna win!"

"Nuh-uh!" Shinji countered.

"Uh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

Touichi looked at Saguru as the debate continued, rolled his eyes, and proceeded to deal. Saguru chuckled briefly, before the memory of why he was sitting there in the first place resurfaced, and he went after his glasses again with a soft sigh. He startled slightly when a hand suddenly gripped his shoulder —thankfully not his wrist, which was bare without his coat on—but when he turned, Koizumi smiled at him and then grabbed the sunglasses for herself, settling them atop her hair.

"You don't need me adding complication right now, wouldn't you say?" she asked.

He blinked, staring a little, as it sank in that in the few seconds it had taken her to put them on, the room had felt distinctly louder and more complex. Now... it wasn't quite as bad as he had feared. {Kitten-purr, claw-prickle and scentmark and climb to explore} vied for attention with {Breeze over sun-warmed stone and dirt, flowers waving under leaf-rustle} and the {Firelight crackling in home's hearth} he'd vaguely processed before. They were still strong, but it was the difference of half a dozen speakers each loudly playing a different song, and thirty speakers blaring as many distinct ensemble pieces at full blast.

Of course, half a dozen was still enough to need some distance to avoid having the part of him that felt human lost into a jumble of waking dreams. He had left off... yes. Kb1, a6; Nc1, castle: queen's side.

"Steven-niisan, are you paying attention?" Hanako waved a hand in front of his face, cards clutched tightly in the other. "We're first!"

"Ah, my apologies." He made an effort to focus on the cards and suggested which ones to replace—with no betting materials, the game of choice was Five Card Draw. As the round continued, he went back to only halfway paying attention, because there was so much else to focus on. He was going to get a headache eventually, but... eventually, not right now. He could stand it for now, and might be able to pick the images apart with more success than previous experiences. Later.

The time went by rather pleasantly, all things considered. Quite a few rounds had passed in counterpoint to the mental chess match replay when Saguru realized abruptly that Shinji's fingers had moved oddly as he'd dealt out the new hands—a movement Saguru recognized after a moment as a slightly clumsy version of dealing off the bottom of deck. Which, upon further consideration, he concluded had also been present more subtly in Touichi's deals.

Oh, to be a competitive six-year-old with an in-game advantage. But perhaps the fruits of being an obsessive teenager would be sufficient to counter their trick, because no study of Kid could be complete without a study of his methods... and card and coin tricks had been the easiest way to try understanding the entertainer mindset.

"If I may?" he asked in a carefully mild tone when Hanako next took possession of the deck, offering an upturned palm. "It's hardly fair to make you do all the dealing for our team."

She shrugged, her initial enthusiasm worn down even though luck had granted them a few victories here and there.

"Thank you." He wasn't much better than Shinji, all told, but it was enough. Shuffle the cards just so, hold the deck precisely, and deal. Both boys noticed, judging by the sudden piercing sensation of {bird startled out of the brush}—Ra7, Bb7; Rxb7, Qc4—and twin looks of badly hidden surprise.

Saguru set the deck in its place on the floor, but left his hand covering the cards as he regarded them.

"The most important thing about learning to cheat," he murmured, "is to know when to use it. I'm sure if your fathers taught you, they said that the only appropriate times are against someone else who also knows how so you can both practice, or against someone who truly deserves it. Am I right?"

"What?" Hanako's shrill outrage alone would have been enough to set Saguru's head throbbing due to close proximity, even without the spike of {rushing, boiling, shooting geyser} that made his breath hitch and vision blur. He tried to speak, but couldn't manage any words before Hanako scrambled out of his lap, bumping bare arms {brightly-wrapped present opened to only an empty box}—

—Ohgod—

Qf6-Kxe3-Qa6-Kxb4-Makeitstop-c3-Kc3-Qa1-Kd2-Qb3-Kd1—

By the time the incomprehensible jumble of sense-images had dimmed enough for the room to swim back into focus, Hanako had gone. Touichi and Shinji hadn't moved, looking half-guilty and half-disgruntled.

"Why'd you have to go an' do that?" Touichi grumbled.

"Yeah, now she'll never play with us," Shinji complained.

Saguru crossed his arms, partially for emphasis and partially to make sure his hands couldn't shake. That had been... bad. And Koizumi was probably spectacularly unimpressed with his control—he didn't want to look over his shoulder to check.

"She might. But first you have to catch up to her, and apologize, and promise to teach her how to deal like that so you can all practice together—when she feels good enough to try it in a game."

"Aww, but—!"

Saguru held up a hand to cut off the protests. "What did your fathers say about when this was acceptable?"

They exchanged glances, before Shinji reluctantly muttered, "What you said."

"Does Hanako-chan meet either of those criteria?"

Shinji and Touichi squirmed a bit. "No..."

"Then if you want to play with her, you have to fix that. Understand?"

After more hesitation, the two chorused an assent.

"Go on, then. Poker's done for tonight."

Together, they looked behind him—presumably at Koizumi—but she must have nodded, because they said, "Yes, ma'am," and headed off together.

He slowly turned around to face Koizumi. "My apologies... I hadn't intended to end the game so quickly, or to referee a disagreement."

She smiled lightly at him. "Given your apparent sensitivity, you handled yourself rather well. And it's just as well they left when they did, because it seems the frog needs to start in slightly cooler water. Is this level of company better for you?"

He looked between her, with the glasses, and the twins, who were happily ignoring the rest of the room.

"...Yes." But by Holmes, it was depressing for a comfortable level of input to be limited to this. Even if he almost didn't need the familiar comfort of Bf1, Rd2 to handle it, and the not-quite-headache he'd been putting off was starting to fade.

"Then start here, until you don't even need a coping mechanism to handle it. I'm sure Ame and Akiko wouldn't mind some assistance coloring."

Since, he knew, something like reading made an excellent distraction from other stimuli, and using a book as a method of mental protection would invalidate the point of being there in the first place.

He smiled at the twins. "May I join you?"

"Sure!" Akiko proudly held out a crayon. "We're coloring Masked Yaiba, see?"

The black and white lines were certainly becoming colorfully filled, if in a rather overlapping mishmash.

"Yes, nicely done." He took the proffered crayon and bent over the paper with them. Aidan hadn't outgrown this sort of thing too long ago, after all. He could almost pretend he was back home. The thought was comforting, and it helped support his resolution that he wasn't going to move until he could truthfully claim some semblance of progress.

There was so much further left to go.

More plot to come.

Ocianne

12/11