Chapter 14: Awakening (Mel and Kenshin)
The four of us were outside the room, waiting impatiently for Luna to allow us inside. But the way she was reacting with Dr. Shrunk made me think that they were arguing about something. I could see Torii shaking her leg nervously while the boys were pacing back and forth. It was obvious that we were worried for our respective mayors.
"Why won't they let us in? It doesn't make any sense." Kenshin vented out his frustration, clearly not helping with the tense atmosphere.
The three hours of waiting outside was rather tense, especially since Kenshin was rather adamant of entering the Dream Suite. It took both Torii and Umbra's story to make him forget about the situation Kosei, much to his chagrin.
And it was quite a trip.
Essentially, Solis, Umbra, and Torii have known each each other for almost eight years. So naturally, romance was bound to blossom between two of them. Umbra and Torii, in this case. What they didn't expect was Solis having a crush on Umbra, her own twin brother.
When we heard that, both Kenshin and I shuddered, expressing our disgust at the very idea of someone falling in love with their own sibling.
That was when Umbra told us that for some unknown reason, he remembered that he was Solis's twin sister while Solis didn't remember at all. That made him assume that it was that particular memory, or the lack of it, that made the female twin develop a liking to the male twin.
'But still, it's just so… wrong.'
When Luna told us that Kosei and Solis weren't waking up, we naturally panicked and grabbed the two mayors. She told to head for the Himiko Hospital in Azuma-Kaosu City.
And that's where we were now.
So when we saw Umbra heading for the door, practically flinging it open, we thought that his impatience had gotten to him. But, seeing Torii's immediate reaction of following him had us both worried.
When our ears registered the electronically flat tone, that was when we entered the room. I had never felt such an intense sadness before. Wait.. I think I did when Taki locked my thread with his. And something told me that Kenshin felt it too, though he didn't show it. Probably because he didn't have the emotion unlocked by the doctor.
But still… It was weird.
Looking back, I didn't have time to mull over it because of the insanity going on in Mira, but now I could think.
We had seen Isabelle in Mira, Seaside, and I myself saw her in Leafside. At first, I thought that it was a popular name for her breed. But they all had a twin brother named Digby, who worked with the HHA, which was in a corner of Tom's real estate.
Everything on that alone was so disturbingly accurate that I can't even call it a coincidence. It's almost as if everything was being copy and pasted…
"... the mayor of Mirror-, I mean Mira."
Torii said that to us when we first stepped foot in Mira, and I couldn't blame her because the two words sounded rather close. And I did notice why she said "mirror." Despite the differences, Mira did look like a reflection of Aika Village. The bridge was in a different corner. Only Fauna lived on the side where Torii and Umbra were. The other animals were on Solis' side. A small island where you can normally access by swimming.
And I didn't want to say anything before, mostly because I was mentally exhausted, but I could've sworn that I saw two Chiefs round the corner before they noticed us and quickly turned back the way they came. And last I checked, Chief was back home.
"H-Hey, Kenshin? Can you keep an eye on Kosei for me? I need some air." I eyed the tapir and axolotl that were about to leave the room. Kenshin, luckily, noticed it and nodded. I left the room, catching up to the two.
"You two seemed a tad eager to leave the room when you didn't even tell us their conditions." I said, making them freeze up.
"Mel," Shrunk said, "I think it's best that you wait for Mayor Kosei to wake up-"
"Not until I figure out what's going on. There's something about those Dream Suites, and it most likely made my friend experience something that he shouldn't have. And it also made Solis go…" I paused, trying to think of the best words, but settled with, "Partially mad. There's also the fact that you guys had that room prepared for us. Quite in advance, might I add."
"Mel, this is the type of path you need to stay away from. Taki chose to continue, and he wanted to reset. Don't make me do the same to you."
That line made everything click in my head.
"There's more than all of you animals. And you're so similar to the very subtlest details, it's like you're clones."
The way Luna flinched proved me right, but the way the doctor blankly stared back at me was unnerving. "Mel..." The warning weighed heavily in my name. But I stood my ground, staring back. I wanted to know what was happening behind our backs, and what was going on with Kosei and Solis.
The doctor let out a sigh, signaling defeat. "Come along now, Mel." He headed down the corridor with Luna slightly behind him, leaving me to bring up the rear. The two then stopped in front of a door, that led to an office. I took a seat in the chair in front of me, suddenly nervous.
"You know of the links and the side effects of one due to Aika Village. But these empathetic links aren't the only ones that have been recorded," Shrunk said, to which I nodded at the first statement. But I tilted my head in confusion at the second.
"Any and all Dream Suite activity has been recorded. As such, we came up with scenarios so we can act accordingly. However, these scenarios are on two different scales. One deals with the Dream Severity while the other deals with a dreamer's memory."
I nodded silently. "So what would my Severity be?"
"One," Luna answered immediately, "It would be an automatic one even if you just use it just once. Some humans don't have a Severity because they either don't a suite, or they haven't used it since its opening. And because of that, their psyche and memory is unharmed.
"According to Kosei, Solis said that Mira has a Dream Severity of 5. And that alone is the worst case scenario for a dream town. But now, we need to figure out the scale of memory corruption."
"Memory…?" As this new information began to sink in, I started to feel nauseous. There was an uncomfortable pressure in my head, and it only brought more questions to life.
"That is what the other scale is for. The main scale is used to determine the severity of a dream, but there is a secondary scale dedicated for the memory of a dreamer," Shrunk added, making me tilt my head. He sighed. "Sometimes people may have a bad experience in a bad dream for their own reasons. Like the main scale, you have an automatic 1 on the secondary scale. This means that you memory is, for the most part, intact. From what Luna has seen when Kosei woke up, he seemed normal despite his lack of mental strength. We're expecting him to have an MC of 3, at least."
I had to cradle my head because the pressure was making me light-headed.
"What does..." I couldn't even voice out my next question completely.
"MC stands for Memory Corruption. The scale also has five scenarios, however they're not as easily determined."
It's been almost twenty minutes, and I was getting worried about Mel. There was no doubt that she was beginning to question things, but still…
"What are you thinking, Kenshin?" I was snapped out of my thoughts by Kosei's voice, He had woken up and was starting to sit up. I was to tell him that he shouldn't strain himself when he said, "I'm fine, Kenshin. I don't know why, but I feel like that wasn't the worst thing I've gone through."
"Um, Kenshin? Kosei?" We both looked at Torii, her hands behind her back, looking down at the floor for a few moments before looking at us. "I want to apologize for tricking you into thinking that I was the mayor of Mira. At the time, that was the only way Umbra and I could think of to bring you guys here."
Torii took a moment to pause before continuing. "At the time I wrote that letter, Solis was going to the Suite two, sometimes three, times a week. It was almost like seeing someone slowly drive themselves insane, and we were powerless to stop her. We lived in her town, so she was in charge. We didn't want to run the risk of being kicked out. Call us weak, but we wanted to stay with her. We wanted to help her, but we didn't know how without making her shutting us out or setting off her worsening temper."
I looked at Solis, who was silently appreciating her brother's presence, and I could tell that Umbra was doing the same. As her eyes locked onto mine, the guilt was seen clearly, as if it had been burned into them. She closed them, allowing herself to cry. At first, I thought of them as crocodile tears. But the intense guilt made me think otherwise. And yet, there was that sense of dread again. The guilt felt genuinely painful, but it was also too much for what she had done to Kosei, Umbra, and Torii. What else could be she guilty about?
"Memory Corruption…" I breathed, trying to wrap my head around the very idea. Our memories can be corrupted.
"Yes. This negatively affects a human's perception of their lives. As of right now, we don't completely know the full extent of this. The brain is a rather complicated organ, after all."
'Aside from the heart,' I thought but didn't voice it.
Luna continued, "The signs of corruption is normally a change in their behavior, but the true damage can be seen in a Dream Town. When Kosei wakes up, we'll have to ask him about the state of Dreamy Mira. After that-"
The tapir was interrupted by a knock on the door. The three looked at the girl who stood at the doorway. She looked around eight or nine years old, wearing a preppy school uniform and a pair of mary janes. Her light green hair was in pigtails, and her blue eyes were unreadable.
"Oh, sorry. Was I interrupting something? If I am, I can come back," the girl quickly walked back the way she came.
"What's the worst-case scenario for…" I asked, my mind practically swimming in confusion.
"The most severe case that we've documented had some changes to the villagers. We had to use a moderately potent Reset Potion to help both the traveler and the mayor. If Solis's MC is worse than that…"
I couldn't take it anymore. My head was on the verge of bursting, and this information was making me question the Dream Suite's safety. Kosei was here because of Solis, who herself wasn't in the best mental state.
"Dear?"
I could hear Luna ask, out of concern for my own mental state. I shook her head weakly, trying not to cry. The two seemed to know what I wanted, because I felt the prick of a needle before everything went to black.
"Oh, hi, Solis." A green-haired little girl entered our room, and I saw Kosei stiffen up just a bit.
"Arisu?" He asked, which left me confused. The girl looked at him, surprise evident on her face.
"How… do you know my name?" She asked, to which my friend replied with, "I met you in Dreamy Kyōki."
The way the little girl's face blanched had me worried for a moment. "I-I should get going… I was just here, looking for some antidote." She blatantly lied before speed walking out of the room.
A few minutes later, Luna, Shrunk, and Mel returned, but she showed signs of being reset. She must've asked for it. I looked away, completely guilty. I myself know some of the secrets the animals kept hidden, and it hurts not being able to tell them.
"Okay, Kosei, would you like to describe the events while you were in the Dream World?" Luna prompted, a clipboard in one paw and a pen in the other.
Kosei nodded, and shakily began, his nervousness slowly leaving. As his words painted the images in my head, I looked at Solis with the coldest glare. Her fingers twitched, proving that she was affected by it since her face refused to express it. It was almost like she went completely numb to my anger. She was planning something, but I couldn't figure out what it was.