Chapter 6 - Waking Up

A/N: This is my sixth chapter, ninth in total, of Grimoire: The Lustbound Heart. It's been more than a year since my last update, seven years since I started this. Things are now getting freaky here, no that Tomo had a chance encounter with a hand from the murky deep and the return of the radio, or rather the signal it produced. It's a miracle I kept this up. Hopefully, I can develop a coherent mythos and better plot in latter chapters but it's no guarantee I'll make new chapters on time.

Disclaimer: Azumanga Daioh is the property of Kiyohiko Azuma and J.C. Staff. No copyright infringement intended.


And this is the writing that was inscribed: mina, mina, shekel, half-mina. This is the interpretation of the matter: mina, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; shekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting;half-mina, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

-Daniel 5:25–28

Two days ago radio stations across the world picked up an anomalous signal. Everyone from ham radio to listening station received a strange broadcast whose erratic audio quality created a firestorm of attention. The internet went loud with activity as everyone passed messages back and forth about what they picked up and speculate about its cause, purpose, and origin. National Security Agency listening posts for instance immediately and simultaneously recorded the signal and streamed it to Fort Meade, where the agency is headquartered. Supervisors were alerted and immediately sent it up the chain of command, declaring it top priority. They streamed it to the White House, Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency.

Yet even before anyone can wake anyone to listen and discuss about the signal, one place responded the soonest after they picked it up. In the Negev Desert, at 4 PM, local time, an Israeli Defense Force listening station had just tuned in to the signal during a system test. It startled the operators and the supervisor instantly ordered the entire place on alert and contacted all nearby garrisons. Garrisons responded that they've picked up the signal and the alert went higher, believing it was it was a communications lockdown by unknown forces aimed at jamming coms. Local commanders immediately started verifying everything via landline and were told that nothing else unusual was about, no hostile moves from the restive Palestinians nor from their often quarrelsome neighbors. At HaKirya, Tel Aviv, the Ministry of Defense was alerted and the minister was roused from his office during a budget meeting and was quickly taken to an army base in the Negev. The recording was streamed to a computer where he and several people listened. Only ten seconds into the recording the minister's mouth slackened with a horror the staff did not know. He immediately ordered a direct call to the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. At his office, the director took the phone, receiving the minister and told him that he was listening to it now.

The director's eyes bugged out of their sockets as he listened the broadcast.

He quickly thanked the minister and that he will be advised of the situation.

The minister replied that at this moment, all available assets available will be immediately at his disposal.

He thanked him and hung up and began dispatching the necessary orders. He immediately pressed a direct line to an unlisted number. He had a brief conversation with the man at the other end, stating the urgency of the recorded broadcast. He shook his head as a growing horror filled his mind. The recording will be studied by experts for the coming weeks and this case will be given a classification above top-secret. How he wished the world to be normal. What he dealt with usually from terrorism to espionage was abnormal enough.


Kagura was fishing dirt out of the pool with a net. It was her turn to clean it today and in any case she had time. As she dumped some leaves in a bucket, she heard the gate open. She turned to see Nyamo entering the pool area.

"Hey, coach, what's up?" she asked.

"Still working the pool?" Nyamo observed Kagura's progress.

"Yeah, it's duty day for me," she replied, stooping down to check a pool filter. Not much except for a candy bar wrapper. Kagura frowned as she inspected the offending rubbish. They'll be stiffening penalties for this. No need for Principal Hajime for that when you got Nyamo. She flicked the wrapper into the bucket. Kurosawa got up to the pool.

"About time we warn anybody about smuggling snacks." She looked at the candy bar wrapper in the bucket with the same look of offense Kagura had.

"Probably a first offense but great things start, right?" Kagura observed.

"Kagura, something's up with Tomo," she said.

"What happened? More trouble with Yomi?" That wildcat can't take a break, can she?

She shook her head. "Well, not exactly. Apparently, there was trouble while they were sweeping the schoolyard. Tomo apparently got hurt over something while Yomi was away."

Kagura cocked her eyebrow at that. "Really? That sounds like a first." Although to be fair, Tomo would likely hurt herself as much as getting a pounding from Yomi, which usually falls under hurting herself.

"Tomo's in the clinic right now. I thought I should break the news to you."

The tomboy looked at Nyamo. "Really? How?"

"I'm not sure." She shook her head. "Some ruckus of some sort."

Another question. "Where's Yomi?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen her anywhere," Nyamo admitted. "Not in the classroom, or in the library, nowhere."

The answer provoked another thought. "Odd. Maybe she needs to cool off but I don't think Yomi knock her up hard like that and then ditch her, especially after the principal dropped the hammer on both of them."

"I'll tell Yukari to check up on them. She's their teacher and further more, she's suppose to keep them in line." Nyamo was always irked by Yukari's cavalier and erratic management of her students, much like how she ran her own life. She hasn't really changed since her high school days. Drinking, hitting on her for cash, being a loud-mouthed slob. She sometimes asked herself why she didn't drop her and move on.

"Coach, don't sweat it." She grinned a bit. "I bet Hajime got Yukari already for something."

Nyamo's face had a goofy grin as the thought of Yukari being chewed out by the new principal entered her mind. No doubt that Yukari can't pull off her antics on the old warhorse. But then again, Yukari was the sort who'll do anything stupid at a moment's notice, no forethought made at all. "In any case, keep up the good work."

"Sure, coach." Kagura nodded and bent down to open another pool filter at the side and dumped the contents in the bucket. Placing it back in its hole in the pool, she went to another pool filter to clean out. Great, she thought wryly, more pool scum... Wait...

She looked into the filter and noticed it had a blackish goo covering its walls. Kagura sniffed and almost jolted back, dropping the thing. She held back from vomiting as the powerful stench of rotting swamp was still fresh in her nostrils, gulping it back. She took a deep breath of fresh air, then looked at it incredulously."What the hell was that?" She looked the filter with its black slime inside, sitting there on the edge. Sucking up her revulsion, she picked up the thing by the fingers and proceeded to to take to the sink to wash it.

"Damn, what is this stuff?" she muttered to herself as she washed it with water, pouring some soap on it, and scrubbed the filter with a brush. It felt like used motor oil that's left to dry in the garage for a week. She grimaced at the noxious task she took. Some of the icky stuff stuck to her hand like phlegm. "Ugh." The sound of bristling can be heard loudly around the pool area.

Grunting in exertion and sweat forming on her forehead, she sighed as she finally got rid of the black smudge from the filter. "Thank God it's gone." She let out a long sigh of relief as she washed away the soap suds from the filter. That's one thing down. She's almost finished with her chores and after that it's time to wrap up and head for home. It was getting late by the way.


Tomo was aroused from her nap in the room. The infirmary was dark and from the window the sky was a darkening blue. "Dang," she muttered. "Someone forgot to turn on the lights." She looked around called out. "Ah, nurse. Are yah there?" No response, simply silence. As a matter of fact, nothing can be heard. No hum of the air conditioning, no nurse writing or typing stuff, down, no nothing. "What the hell?"

She got up and and stretched her arms. She was stunned as she looked at her wrist. It's gone, the bruise was gone! She examined her wrist, pinching to feel that it was A-okay. "Huh? But how..." She moved her hand a bit, twisting and turning on the wrist, wriggling her fingers and final pinching her wrist. There was no lingering feeling of pain, no swelling around the joints, no hot feeling like anyone would have with a sprain or crushed limb. Tomo's eyes widened as she looked all around her. The room seemed dark, empty, like she was forgotten when they closed for the night. This new development brought back memories of the hand that almost drowned her in that shallow puddle.

Looking around desperately, she parted the curtains partitioning her bed from the rest of the room.

SCHWING!

A gasp!

The wildcat saw the nurse facing her from her swivel chair, startled by the rustle of the curtains. She was on her desk writing something in in the well-let room. Computer's not on. The orange light of the dusk sun filtered through the window. She blinked her eyes twice to just to see if she were dreaming. The room was still the same. Her head went left and right reflexively.

"Uh, can I help you, Miss Takino?" The nurse's voice was calm, inquiring at the oddness

"What time is it, nurse?" she breathlessly, eyes wide in anxiety.

"It's 4:45. It's late now."

Late afternoon generally meant free time before home for Tomo and now it would be a good a time as ever to leave. "I think I should go now."

She raised her hand to stop her. "No, wait, what about your wrist?"

"Ah!" She held out her wrist jauntily. "See? The bruise is gone. I'm cured!"

She looked at the bruise with a surprise look. "What? How could that be?" She took Tomo's wrist and started running her fingers around, tapping and pressing it gently.

"Oh, that tickles," Tomo chided playfully.

"What?" That came with a bit of a jolt.

The nurse did not get the joke. "Sheesh! I'm just kidding. My wrist is perfectly fine."

She blinked at the wildcat and let her hand loose. "Miss Takino, was it some kind of a joke?"

"Yeah," she said proudly. "About my hand hurting at the press of your finger tips?"

"The whole thing," she added in demand, eyes narrowing. "Was this some sort of practical joke?"

Realizing her error was a bombshell and boy did it really show in her face. "Look, ma'am, I'm sorry about the tickling part, okay? What just happened to me is real. My bruise is gone."

"How sure are you?" she asked, concerned. "Complications might arise."

She clasped her wrist. "See, it doesn't hurt. The swelling's gone." The nurse examined the wrist again, applying steady pressure on points on the wrist where the bruise used to be.

"It doesn't hurt?" she asked again, slightly serious.

"Yeah, I am serious." She pressed her wrists and no wince. "Nada."

She could not believe that a bruise caused by what seemed like a machine vise disappear that quickly. "It better not be a joke. I gave you painkillers."

"I think the painkillers worked," Tomo offered for an answer. "Can I go home now?"

"You can but..." She was uncertain about this miraculous recovery.

"Come on, lady," she persisted. "The bruise is gone. Isn't that good enough?"

She appeared not convinced. "I need you here tomorrow to see how feel then. I don't want any complications."

Hmmph. "The only thing you're complicating is my exit." So with a smile, she pivoted towards the door, picking up her dirty blouse. "Exit stage left."

"You better be here tomorrow..." But those words paled as Tomo jauntily marched out the infirmary. Tomo was glad to be out of that clinic and going back home. The sun had already set and it annoyed her a bit that she was going home late. "Yomi." Whispering her home, Tomo recalled that Yomi took her to the clinic when that thing... happened.

Her body went cold as she thought of the incident. How that hand seemed to float upward and upright from the puddle, entrancing her with its clammy touch before dragging her in. The wildcat, a girl who was normally rash and quick to anything, had her eyes darting to and fro, ears perked to picked even the most minute sound and cold sweat enveloping her body. The corridors felt emptier and she wished she hadn't left that clinic with the overly-nosy nurse. At least with her tittering she had company. All the sound she had with her was her soft shallow breathing and beating heart.

"Jeez... shit just got real..." It was only words she ever uttered, mostly as it aptly summed the situation she was in.

A door creaked open behind her and foot landed noisily on the floor. "AAAAHHHH!" she screamed and ran off like her feet were on hot coals. They carried her in record time that she actually made it to her room to collect her things.

Kimura was startled by the noise as he came out of the room, watching Tomo screaming her head off along the corridors at top speed. Tomo's behavior is a source of mystification for many people and and here he was, scratching his head at her latest act of random mischief. "What an unruly girl," he commented, "running in the hall making noise like that." His cell beeped and he answered it.

IT'S US. CAN YOU MEET? the liquid-crystal display asked. WE NEED YOUR HELP.

His heart skipped a beat. To answer there summons was to skip a delay. How will he explain his tardiness to his wife? And for that matter, how did they get his number?

It beeped and another text appeared: SOMEONE WANTS TO SEE YOU.

Hmm, a surprise, he thought. What could that be? He sighed as his curiosity urged him to see for himself. His hands sweaty, he text-ed his reply. YES. I'LL BE THERE.

After a second or two, the affirmation appeared. GREAT! COME SOON. His curiosity aroused, he shut off his phone and began to a brisk walk to back to the faculty room. He had know time to waste as he packed up what needed from his stuff and began his little detour on the way home.


Chiyo and Osaka were at the latter's home, simple suburban two-story house, doing homework.

"Osaka, it's not that hard when you put your mind to it." She scribbled the English words into the paper.

"Ya know, Chiyo-chan. English is probably one of da easiest t'ings ta learn." She marveled back at Chiyo's work. "Yah got your alphabet right. Ya just string 'em together to form words." She turned to Chiyo. "It's not like with kanji. It's always about da strokes where ya gotta get the right word. One wrong stroke and yah get another." She began to scribble a few letters of the Latin alphabets. "But sum'thin's funny with de English."

"What is?" the little redhead asked curiously.

"Sayin' it and writin' is different." She blinked her sleepy wide eyes. "What's with dee extra letters? Sometimes we have ght and gh, the letter groupin's very confusing when I read it."

"Well, it's not that confusing if you put your mind to it, Osaka." Chiyo, the ever-helpful genius that she is, patiently and in easily understandable terms, taught Osaka some of the elementary ins and outs of the English language and Latin lettering. The Osakan took it all in through her usual understated manner. Progress was slow and steady and by then Osaka had a decent understanding of English for their stage of lesson.

Chiyo looked up the clock. An hour and a half had passed already. "Whoa, time flies so fast."

"It sho' is won'derful to make the dey go by," she noted. "When you got nothin' to do it sure is slo.' Ev'ry second tickin' is an eternity in the great white hall."

The redhead blinked her eyes twice at Osaka's newly invented phrase. "Uh... 'great white hall?'"

"Yep. See, Chiyo. It's like in TV where when ev'ry'won's standing in the center of the great white hall, where the sets are packed away and 'oll the characters do is stand in the middle of it."

"I see..." Ayumu's tendency to meander to any thought was a common recurrence for Chiyo and the other girls. She always manage to come up with something new, from inane to bizarre.

"But that's nothin' compared to my dreams." The Osakan's smile faded into a neutral poker face and she looked out the window. "They've been gettin' real weird lately."

"What makes you say that?"

"Cuz no matter hau differn't they looked, they stay de same?"

Osaka normally had a head full of wonder. A broad and varied assortment of things randomly generated and assembled in her mind to create countless combinations of fancy, juxtaposing with more weird sequences. In daytime, this often caused Ayumu to zone out and sometimes she spouts them to anyone who happened to listen, the randomness was enough to cause many to dismiss her as a space cadet but others, with more curious minds like Chiyo, have been attracted to her whimsical musings. The one thing consistent with her dreaming was that it rarely repeated itself.


Ayumu's perspective...

"It all began when Ah lay mah self to sleep. Sometimes Ah just doze of like a rock, but sometimes I stay awake for a while... What'ever happens It starts right deir..."

All it took for the airhead was a blink. Just one.

It wasn't her bed room anymore. No blue walls surrounding her bed and no window to look out of. Cobwebs hang above the ceiling like curtains. She was in the middle of a dusty wooden room, cobwebs hanging in the ceiling and holes on the walls and ceiling. The dust caused her nose to crinkled and she let out a rather soft sneeze. Her backside felt cold and somewhat damp. She got up and notice that in the place of her bed was a moldy old mattress. She started up, mainly from the cold and the shock propelled her to get out of bed.

Osaka felt a powder sensation on the soles of her feet. The floor was dusty. She scraped her feet a few times, hearing the soft rasp of the dusty old floor and tingling the dust gave her, almost like walking on cornstarch on a marble counter top. The soft rustling of feet against the dusty floor aroused filled her with childlike glee as began to skate across the confines of the small wooden room she's in.

"Dust isn't 'll that bad," she chimed. But she forgot about the folding screens in front of her and almost bumped into them, narrowly escaped losing her balance on due to her delicate, nonathletic legs. "Shoot, I should'a put them away when ah skated."

She gingerly cleared the old, moldy paper-and-wood screens to reveal the rest of the room. It was slightly bigger. To her left she could see some wooden bureaus chipped and covered in dust. To her right was a window with faint light filtering in. She looked at the window and saw a fog, dirty, grey, and opaque.

She was inside an old mansion, traditional in architecture and use of wood. It looked like it had been abandoned for years. The furniture and fixtures may have seen happier days, days when people once roamed its halls and of salad days with whole families gathered to spend their time together. Of celebrations held in sunnier times, now shadows remain where once filled with people.

"What am aye doin'?" she asked herself as she proceeded to walk the empty halls. She wondered she got here, wanting to know why she's out of the safety of her room, with its warm bed with her snug blanket in her warm, comfortable house. Osaka was rather slow in thought but something was creeping in her mind. This was no random dream with Chiyo winging around her pigtails or the weird orange cat. This wasn't something she would cook up in her head even in the best of days!

Slowly but surely the idea was starting to set in for Osaka as her eyes, seemingly wide in wonder, scanned her surroundings even more. The old walls held pictures, some of them paintings while others had calligraphy. The paintings seem really weird but she did have a faint idea of what they were supposed to be... Italian? Who knew the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would have some weird imaginations, weirder than hers that is.

One painting she saw looked some guy seated on the clouds looking over the land below. Lots of winged figures were falling from the cloud while below, an old man in cloth seemed to be lecturing to a naked woman while a man sleeps on the ground and further below was a man and a woman talking under a tree where a half-man, half-snake figure was holding out an apple. The bottom of the painting has seemingly the same and woman being driven away by a word-wielding winged figure.

"Never accept anythin' from strangers," she commented. "Ya'll be thrown'out befo' yah know it."

Then her eyes wandered to some calligraphy, only it wasn't kanji or hiragana. As a matter of fact, it wasn't anything she ever known. But for some she understood what they meant.

MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN

MENE - She saw numbers being tattooed in screaming, unwilling captives in striped pajamas, roughly pushed into huge ovens. In a tropical place she found herself and looked to sign that said "Kill Tutsi" and her eyes followed a thick and massive slick of blood leading into houses and a church.

MENE - She caught a glimpse of a noisy arena, its music the chatter of computer keys and choir the noisy shouts of the people below. They were shouting and haranguing like birds fighting over bread. She noticed rapidly-numbers electrically juxtaposed to currency signs such as yens, pesos, and dollars. Out the huge windows of the arena were skinny, tired people working in desperation a sun-baked land, their crops dying.

TEKEL - The clink of coins and red digital readouts of numbers and letters, the noise and lights combined to disorient her. She walked away, trying to found a way out of this when she came upon a door. It was thick and hazy with tobacco smoke, and she almost coughed. She looked to see fat people smoking big cigars like smokestacks, discussing something. She couldn't understand any of what their talking about, talking too fast and too loud, and using words she's not familiar with. Yet she knew that it seemed like items and their price but not in yens or dollars, it was more weird, scary even.

"Ten gallons of children's blood for a lump of gold," exclaimed one fat man. Another called out, "Starving thirty million people is worth 300 million tons of rice."

A third added, "A child's stomach for this Ipod, hey ho, worth a bargain." Osaka heard enough. She slowly backed away, not wanting to do anymore with this obscene bazaar whose currency is bloody and inhuman. She quickly made for the door and slammed it shut behind her, lest the figures notice her.

PARSIN - Darkness. Then she thought she heard a low rumble, one that reminded her of a pot tightly shut keeping the boiling water in it. Then she heard sharp, crackling noises that made her jump and she felt a low trembling on her feet. The darkness faded away somewhat to reveal her neighborhood. Earthquake! she thought with alarm and she quickly ran for her house. The girl, whose body was built like a feather and as much stamina as such, gave a surprising dash as fear flowed through her body. She had to get to her parents before this happens. She had to get home to warn her friends before the earth tears itself apart. In her mind Chiyo! Chiyo! screamed, as she feared her fate in the quake.

Yet the growling earth would not allow anyone to escape their fates so it shook harder and harder and Osaka fell forward. She forward on, not minding the scrapes but this time, it was at boiling point the ground as clumsily tried to stand up, trying to keep from falling, then she lost and hit her head on a lamp post.

It all went black.

Osaka sees the skyline burn bright while she can hear horrible screaming from the distant city. Smoke and ashes rose to the air. Ash and hair fell on her like snow as she looked up. It was like snow except with the hot air swirling all over. The skies would have been ink black save for the fire below lighting and through it she could see things in the air, things that were ugly, vicious, screeching, and sneering flying. They dove into the burning city to carry away people. People screaming and struggling as they were carried off into the darkness. Some of the creatures toss them to others so they can dive back in to catch more. Sometimes this consisted of them being passed around mid-air like toys, their poor burdens screaming as they flew from hideous grasp to another. One was thrown yet no one the soul as he or she, Ayumu couldn't tell, fell back into the fires below.

She felt her insides tighten in fear as she stared in horror, true horror, at the spectacle above. A familiar voice called out at the corner of her ear. Chiyo! And it was confirmed when a creature swooped past her, carrying the little redhead. Osaka called out her name in desperation and tried to follow her into the burning city but a chasm occurred below her feet and sent her into a pitch black hollow.

Wake up, Osaka, a voice whispered into her ear.

"Huh?" she looked in alarm for the source of the voice.

Wake up now, Osaka, it repeated, slightly louder.

"Who are you!? Save me!" She was flapping her arms now, hoping to grab onto some obstruction that can catch her.

You can save yourself. The voice was louder now, retaining the calm inflection that it had.

"But Ah can't! Ah'm fallin'!" she screamed. "Heeellllppp!"

You can fly, Osaka. You just have to wake up.

"But hau!" She felt her body being pulled faster down the great void.

Just wake up.

Osaka knew that this can't last forever. Hopefully, there'll they'll be a bottom where she will crash and it would over, wake up safe and sound.

And if there isn't? the voice asked, reverting to its misty whispering tone. The fall seemed faster, Osaka was alarmed and she began swinging her arms, as if to fly but was trying to grab something to hold on to like a branch. At the bottom it seems she can see the ground, and it felt closer, yet it felt thousands of years away.

Yet it was becoming colder now, the top where she fell was but a mere dot and that disappeared as well. "T-th-this is only a dream," she whimpered. "Ah'll just wake up nau."

Can you? the voice asked yet again.

She looked down to see that she was coming back to the burning city. She can hear Chiyo's faint screaming, no audible words but it had anguish and terror.

As above so below, it said. You will die unless you fly.

As she plummeted closer, strangely still far away, she can hear more screams and growls, screeches and shrieks echoing to her.

Fly or die.

"AH WANNA WAKE UP!" she screamed. She felt her forehead became hot and sharp like a hot iron poking and burning out. She wailed loudly, fearing the worst as she was about to meet Chiyo into down the burning abyss.

Screaming won't help. Focus what's inside you.

She did not ask why nor did she how, she closed her eyes and wished hard that she can fly.

"Osaka...!" Her friend shrieking for life curdled her blood. Her head was flooded with all sorts of hideous things happening to the little genius and they all filled her with dread.

"Chiyo!" she shouted back.

Ignore it. Focus.

"Ah can't!" she retorted desperately. "Chiyo's in danger."

The dream will kill you. Fly!

"But ah-!"

Fly.

"Chiyo-!"

FLY! NOW!

She realized that it closer now. And hotter. The burning city blazed brightly, a hideous parody of the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, the fire at the pit.

She closed her eyes, struggling to keep Chiyo's screaming from distracting her, hoping to wake up to see the real Chiyo in the waking world. She wanted to see her friends again, to meet Tomo, Yomi, Sakaki, Kagura, her teachers Nyamo and Yukari, Mr. Tadakichi, her parents. She thought hard of waking up, hoping this nightmare would end.

She wished to break from the dream. To break on through to the other side.

Wake up! She thought helplessly. Wake up! Wake up! Pleas wake up...! Tears formed in her eyes, she felt them boil into steam on her skin.

The intense heat on her forehead started to burn hot, causing her pain. It felt like whatever it was in her head scorching its way through her forehead. She wailed loudly in pain. Worse was the smell of burnt meat and she knew it was her head burning. This caused her to panic. Together with it was a light so bright it blinded her, her long moans turned to screams until she can't hear her voice. It felt like she was burned out of existence.

...

"An' ah did just that," she ended her tail. At this moment, Chiyo looked quite pale, providing a stark contrast to her red hair.

"T-t-that was a scary dream," she finally managed to speak, still wide-eyed at Osaka.

"That's not all," Osaka continued, a little more alarm in her voice. "The last thing I heard was that this... 'As above so shall below.' Ah don' know what that means but not even waken' kept me safe."

...

She bounced on her bed, sweating and bewildered. She threw of her blanket and stepped into the floor, just to feel the cold wood on her feet. She touched her cold clammy face. She looked at her clock, registered at 3:45 A.M. She turned on the light at the nightstand to see the blue walls of her room. She was awake now! She's back in the real world. It was then she felt a great headache, which caused her to sit back then. She touched her forehead and it was hot to touch, causing her to flinch. She was afraid now. She was not safe anymore. Not in her head nor in her bed. Bewildered, Osaka covered herself in her blanket, feeling something was with her in her room.

...

"I don' know how or why but I feel somethin' wit' me that time," she finally concluded. "Som'times mah dream changes a bit, som'times it gets weird but som'thin' tells meh that it's just the start."


He arrived at the house in time. He called his wife to make sure there was no misunderstanding and she accepted it in spite of the skeptical voice which she asked him. A few nagging doubts emerged but her put them away and had himself settled in with the girls. Previously, though, he was discussing that book with the two girls, when he's not taking occasional glances on their faces and figures. That deplorable thing Sakaki showed him, with its old, rasping parchment, its ancient kanji and its arcane, grim-looking caricatures.

"What sort of book is this?" he asked as he flipped page after ancient page.

"My father found it at an online auction," Sakaki answered softly. "He said it was a manuscript of some sort."

"A manuscript for... what?" he questioned, cringing at yet another disturbing image.

"I don't know," Yomi said, "maybe the first light novel?"

"I could hardly believe this was what people read back in the day." Kimura's own quip raised his curiosity. He brought the book up and took a whiff of it, he almost sneezed on the book but quickly pulled back and sneezed away. It had a rather musty stench, the scents of have multiplicity of sources he can think of, old crusty leather, empty rice sacks collecting dust, the pungent smell of spice and herbs from some faraway market, wood smoke, incense, wine, sake, silks. The cover was rough to touch, like tree bark. The pages wore worn thin, smooth, so faded he had felt he need to turn them with some delicacy.

"How good are you in Japanese?" Yomi suddenly asked.

He looked from his reading. "What makes you say that?" he asked curiously.

"Because the stuff shown here is old, very old Japanese." Yomi sat up from her easy chair and took a look at the pages. "I bet you never seen anything like this."

The literature teacher replied. "I think I did." He turned a few pages. "I remember looking at a similar text in college where I studied literature as for my major. It was an example of Rangaku literature."

Sakaki looked curious. "Ran... gaku?"

"Japanese adaptations of knowledge imported from the West," Kimura explained. "We mostly obtain it from the Dutch enclave of Dejima in Nagaski prior to the coming of Commodore Perry."

"That's... interesting. No wonder the different styles of drawing." Sakaki seemed mused by the caricatures.

"It was rather familiar too. My professor said it was a tome on occult lore."

"Does that mean you can read it?" Yomi looked intently into his eyes.

He was a little flabbergasted by Mizuhara's sudden interest. "I-I- I'm not sure. Why the sudden interest? It's like how you blasted me for 'inappropriate behavior' towards Sakaki."

Sakaki frowned a bit like an embarrassing moment from her infancy was brought up whereas Yomi pouted in annoyance. "Yeah, like I want the whole school to know of our relationship with you. Would make a headline too for the school paper."

"A-ah, I'm sorry," he said in apology. No answer came from the girls.

Yomi sighed. That was good, he thought. For a second he thought he would be thrown out. "That's alright. We just need to know how good you are in old Japanese."

"I'm not a professional in that sort of thing, mind you," he pointed out, thinking the girls were mistaken about his skills. "I only teach classical literature."

"Are you?" Yomi asked, her eyes, meeting Kimura's.

"Well..." Then Sakaki had her eyes on him too.

"Are you?" she asked in her soft, low voice. The girls' stares seem to hold him still, he never got anything like this from the female student body, the last time he was was his wife from their high school days. The eyes seem entrancing and seeming to probe deep into his heart. He did not know why it's so, whether because they were beautiful or it was simply him lusting after them again.

Beauty... lust... two things that propelled him to them in the first place, he recalled, cringing. Things that clouded his better judgement - and theirs - and made no effort to dissuade them. Yes, he recalled, guiltily how he enjoyed their intimacy, their touch, their warmth, the feel of their flesh... taste His hands remembered as they sweated. His heart beat faster and his breathe was shallow as he can still hear a trio of cries. He remembered that his arms held and his loins had bucked three women that night, them and his wife.

"Kimura-sensei." Yomi had shook him slightly by the arm. He realized his breathing and cold, clammy skin. "You were dazing off."

"Oh!"he exclaimed, back to the here and now. "Well, literature was my main interest in college, though not my first choice," he admitted suddenly. "I got really good at it."

"At least you're still with us." She looked relieved. "I thought you might have a heart attack or something."

"No, just having-"

"Second thoughts," Sakaki voiced. Her face formed red tinge. "I'm sorry." Sorry, he knew, for voicing the obvious and for interrupting a teacher.

"I understand." She patted her arm. She smiled a bit.

"Well, Kimura-sensei, we'd like someone to take a look at it," Yomi explained as she adjusted her glasses. "Just an overview. Sakaki's dad spent a proverbial goldmine for it and I read about it online that rare books can be faked. We need an expert."

"I'm no expert," Kimura protested.

"But you might know one." Her eyes gleamed hopefully.

She had a point, he thought. His old professor might help him. "And why did her father bought this?"

"He has strong interest in old literature," Sakaki said. "Some of it weird and bizarre."

"I see..." He flicked through the pages again. Then an implication entered his mind. Did they do it - those primal acts with him - for a book? "Mizuhara-san, Sakaki-san, did you do..." He did not know how to say, fearing he might offend them.

"Are you asking we had sex with you because we need you to translate a book?" Yomi knew what he had to say, it startled him. She put her hand on his, electrifying his senses. "Tell us: would we have done that when we can look for an expert on our own? Our womanhoods for a book?" He could not answer for he could not answer properly. "We are growing women with urges but not harlots. We'd rather have a man like you, a good man, rather than some teen boy hopped up in hormones. You said you like highschool girls."

"But I'm a grown man in my forties, married with a daughter," he protested the fact. "I can't go out with my students, especially female students."

Yomi sat beside him, which increased his discomfort. "If you're so uncomfortable about it, tell me why you like us then?"

He gulped. He decided he can't hide it forever. "You're beautiful... all of you... and you're blooming. And I feel young again just looking at you." Oh God, he thought. Why...

"Does your family know?" Sakaki asked.

"My wife only knows that I'm helping two students," he admitted. "She doesn't know anything else."

"Then it's best that way," Yomi suggested. "Nobody needs to know."

Kimura bobbed his head in agreement. Yes, that's it. No one needs to make a big fuss about it if they keep the lid on at all times.

"Then we are agreed then." Mizuhara was delighted at this. A knock on the door startled them.

"I'll get it." Sakaki stood up and went for the door. Kimura tensed while Yomi discretely went to the couch opposite of him.

"Good evening, Kagura," the tall girl greeted the new guest.

Kagura!? His jaw fell at that moment. The proud tomboy with a few current academic failings was here?

"Sorry, I'm late," she said as she got in and put her things down. "I was held up at home doing a few things."

"We're glad you came," Yomi said to her. "Just relax."

"Yeah, I..." Her voice trailed when she saw Kimura. She bowed slowly in respect. "Good evening, Kimura-sensei." Her voice was reluctant, almost like she deciding whether to go through with her course of action - one he knew was most likely.

"Good evening, Kagura," he said, keeping the awkward situation from building up. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I was hoping this would not happen," Kagura said, not like the proud girl that he knew she was.

"Well... sit down," he said. "You're among friends here." She nodded and sat down. Kimura wanted to question himself, or at least plan a clean exit but the only thing he had in mind was... Why are you so forlorn, Kagura-san?


A/N: I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I tried my best to get the plot going. The idea about paintings was supposed to be a reference the masterpiece of Dutch Renaissance master Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights , or rather my take on the painting in Osaka's dream. If any of you guys know off scary Renaissance or any other art period paintings, please let me know. Rangaku literally translated to Dutch learning, owing its source through Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed trade with the outside world while Tokugawa Japan kept its policy of of isolation (sakoku). It was critical to the development of Japanese science and technology up until the Perry Expedition forced open the country during the mid-19th century. It warms my heart to finish this chapter so I'll present it to you. And if you're so inclined, please PM or leave a review, I welcome your opinions. And last but not the least, thank you for reading.