Hey, hey, hey! I'm back... again! I'm sorry for not uploading in a couple months but school ended, personal problems, computer getting viruses, volunteer work, and mostly a lack of motivation. I've tried many times to write this chapter, but something would always happen. (Ex. Microsoft Word crashing, me forgetting to save) Anyways, I switched to LibreOffice, so maybe that will be better then the outdated Word I had. Please read and review, I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 10 – Strange Happenings
February 19, 2018 – Wednesday [Jundo Street, Morning]
Ryo and Aimi were walking towards CHAS the next morning. They both felt a lot better than they had yesterday morning, as Ryo was now playing his PSV, while Aimi began humming her favorite song. Takeo then walked up to the twins, his eyes looked blank and cold.
"T-Takeo? What's the matter?" Aimi asked forgetting about her song for a moment.
Takeo didn't respond at first but slowly began to speak, "M-My parents got m-mad at me last night. They said I can't hang out with you guys anymore… M-Mom said she was 'disappointed in me'."
Ryo walked over and patted the burly teen on his back, "It's okay, they're just a little upset, that's all!"
"I-I know, but h-how come I can't even spend time with Michio-sensei?" Takeo asked, "The r-rest of the night, t-they were screaming and yellin'! And it's all because of me!"
"Don't think like that!" Aimi said forcefully, "We all know what happened, and whatever people want to make of it is their decision." A tear formed in Takeo's eye, and he ran toward the school building. Ryo shook his head in disappointment and walked off as well.
February 19, 2018 – Wednesday [Classroom 2-C, After School]
The bell rang, sounding off that the classes had finished. Ryo rose from his seat about ready to leave when Aimi walked up, "We have to go to that doctor's appointment, remember? I still have the card, let's go." Ryo nodded and the twins set off from school.
Ryo and Aimi went into downtown looking at the GPS on their phones trying to find this place. Eventually, they came across a small building with a metallic gold plating saying, 'Dr. Hasegawa & Co. Trained Psychiatrists Department.' They stared at the door for a few seconds not knowing what to do. Aimi began to reach toward the door and turn the knob. Slowly the door opened to a small, quiet room, containing only a desk with a secretary behind it tapping some keys on a computer. It was entirely a light brown color and felt uncomfortable to be in. "May I help you two?" The secretary asked without looking away from the screen.
"Yes, we are here for an appointment." Aimi responded, not knowing what else to say.
"Alright, what is it? Relationship counseling?" The secretary asked.
"N-No! We're brother and sister! We have a court-mandated appointment!" Aimi raised her voice and her face grew red from embarrassment.
The secretary swiveled around, more interested now, "Oh… You're those kids… Okay well right this way." The twins followed the secretary down the hallway and stopped at a mahogany door, "Aimi, your doctor is in here," Aimi walked through the door silently. Ryo continued to follow until he got to a door at the end of the hallway; it said 'Dr. Hasegawa's Office' on it. "And you are here. Good luck!" The secretary walked off. Ryo walked inside the room and found a man, that looked a lot like Mr. Itou, but with less hair and small reading glasses.
The psychiatrist looked up at Ryo, "Ah hello, Mr. Fujihara" He greeted. He had his arms crossed like he was expecting Ryo for a long time. "Please, sit down. I am Dr. Hasegawa, I am going to help you through any ordeals you may have." Ryo slumped down on the couch. Dr. Hasegawa sat across from him being separated by a small coffee table. "Now I know you may have some concerns with 'jail' and 'criminal records' but I believe with these sessions we can prove that you're innocent! I know you and your friends didn't do anything, why? Because people have a tendency to forget things after traumatic events. I believe that is what happened to you, and you filled in the blank spaces with those wild fairy tales."
Ryo blinked, "Maybe that's what actually happened. I never thought about it before… -No! What I saw is what I saw…" Ryo shook his head. He leaned forward in his seat thinking momentarily, "That can't be true." Ryo stated calmly.
"Ah! I love bets! Let's make one! I bet you that you are blocking something subconsciously! How are we going to find out? With a little device I made myself!" The psychiatrist smiled and walked over to a table on the far end of the room. He uncovered something hidden by a large, white cloth, revealing it to be a device with wires sticking out, a computer screen, and some head gear attached to a cord. He brought the heavy object over to the small coffee table and dropped it. "Ugh I'm sorry, but may I use you as my guinea pig? You see I love to tinker, and with this job, I get plenty of free time to craft things just like this to help people like you!" Dr. Hasegawa handed Ryo the metallic headgear and several smaller pieces attached to wires themselves. "With this, the Hypnos, I can use your brain's electronic signals to graph out binary code, from which I can create clear pictures that reside deep within your mind! Hee hee, ooh I'm getting all gitty!"
Ryo backed away, "W-Wait, you want to hook this up to me!"
"Do not worry! It is not going to harm you. Just relax…" Dr. Hasegawa said and then put the device on Ryo's head. He attached the other devices to his temples and his wrists. "Now take a deep breath. The monitors on your wrists are to check your pulse. Your heart rate may affect the experiment." The psychiatrist flipped on the large machine and the screen grew light-blue; he tapped some keys and the screen turned black with many numbers appearing. "Okay, give me a few seconds. For now, try to think back to that night, and try to focus on your friend's death. As hard as that may be."
Ryo couldn't get comfortable because the cords prevented him from leaning back. Instead he sat up straight and took a deep breath. The leader cleared his mind, making sure that this man could get little information about his personal life. If this did work, he didn't want the doctor to see anything except what mattered. Ryo thought back to the night, the green-gridded sky, the burned remains of Chichibu, the alien-looking creature, Charon, and… The two beings that mauled Hikari. A few seconds passed in silence. Eventually Dr. Hasegawa tapped some more keys until the screen changed once again. This time it was filled with 0's and 1's in different colored sections.
"Yes!" Dr. Hasegawa exclaimed, "It actually worked! Alright, now I can translate out this code into a picture!..." Another few seconds passed, "This is… odd. There seems to be some sort of disruption…" He tapped a few more keys and stared intensely at the screen. "What is this…?" Dr. Hasegawa mumbled, he checked the cables and receded back to the screen.
Ryo began to hear a familiar growl in the back of his head. "Charon?" He asked. Charon snorted, and it somehow eased Ryo to hear the noisy monster.
"You may want to see this…" Dr. Hasegawa said and turned the screen around. At first, all Ryo could make out were very small 0's and 1's, but he looked at the bigger picture and saw a figure. The figure that dwells in the back of his mind.
"Charon…" Ryo whispered to himself.
Dr. Hasegawa noticed, "Y-You know this… thing?" he asked.
Ryo swallowed hard. "It's like my other self." He stated without taking his eyes off the screen. There, Charon stood, his muscular, beetle-like body slowly moving with as it breathed. It knew Ryo and the psychiatrist were watching it, so it watched them as well, its red, beady eyes piercing like daggers.
"T-This is incredible! I-I have to rush these findings to some sort of research group!" Dr. Hasegawa attached a cord to the machine as he exclaimed. He hit a key, and a page began to print on his small printer. "Mr. Fujihara, you are dismissed. We shall meet again next week, same time." He got up, practically skipping into another office. Ryo shrugged. He suddenly felt very uncomfortable knowing that Charon has been, and probably still is, watching him. He got up and ran out the door.
February 19, 2018 – Wednesday [Fujihara Apartment, Late Night]
The door slowly creaked open as Aimi poked her head in. Her session got out very late because of an argument she and her doctor had. To her surprise, she found Ryo watching TV with all the lights turned off. He looked over at Aimi for a second, and then back at the screen. "You're home late." He stated.
"S-Sorry bro, my doctor was being a real asshole. A bit of a pervert too." She said while sitting down next to Ryo and discovered he was watching the Midnight Monster Movie that was on every night. Ryo seemed a bit unfazed by the decapitations of the people on screen. "Anyways, how was your meeting?"
"Alright." Ryo replied smoothly. He decided to not worry his sister even more by telling her what really happened.
"Okay... Bro, I'm sorry for how I acted that night... It was just so frustrating, you know? Now I just can't help but think, if I hadn't left that night, maybe Hikari wouldn't have died." Aimi looked seriously at Ryo when she spoke. She sighed and got off the couch, "I'm going to bed; I need to sleep for the next couple days..." She shuffled back to her room, and a few minutes later so did Ryo. What Aimi had said really got him thinking of what exactly had triggered the event.
"Was it something we did? Why were the others there then? Maybe it was just a random coincidence... Wait, what about that text message? We all got one except for Aimi, and I forget if Hikari did or not. That must have something to do with it-" Ryo checked to clock to find that it was nearly 2 AM, and remembered he had to be in school the next day.
February 20, 2018 – Thursday [Class 2-C, Lunchtime]
The lunch bell had just rang and Ryo was getting his stuff together. Michio appeared out of the corner of his eye, indicating that he wanted to talk. "There is going to be a meeting again after school, make sure you guys are there." Michio looked at Aimi as well who just began listening.
"A meeting?" She asked, "You mean-"
"Yes, The Golden Heart Hunters do indeed have a case, but first we need to talk about that night and your experiences. Katsumi agreed to join us again." Michio answered.
Ryo spoke up, "What about Takeo?"
"Hm? He'll be there like always." Michio looked at Ryo with confusion. Ryo shook his head. "Anyways, Viper refused, as expected, because of what happened last session. That is right, Aimi, our first case is Viper by the way."
Aimi looked displeased, "Alright..."
Viper walked into the classroom late as usual. He had bags underneath his eyes and looked like he was about to take someone's head off. He slumped down in his seat and noticed the three individuals talking. No one decided to even glance at Viper when he walked. Soon everyone from the halls began to filter in because lunch was drawing to a close.
"Man... Lunch is over already." Aimi complained. Katsumi with a band of girls walked in and they took there seats.
"We'll talk more about this later," Michio started. Takeo then walked in and took his seat as well.
Suddenly, Ryo felt something warm in his pocket. He reached inside quickly and found something all too familiar.
"What's the matter, bro?" Aimi asked. Both of them quickly looked over at Ryo, whose face grew with panic.
In his hand, Ryo held the tamogachi-like device from that night. The one he used to summon Charon. The one that saved them from the alien creature. He could still remember the feeling he had vividly. That burning sensation. His hands shook almost dropping it. Ryo looked it over, a gray device with glowing buttons, and a little screen with pixels that formed the word 'WARNING'. One button was flashing, the picture on it had an elliptical-shaped hole with an arrow going through it. Ryo looked up and saw that the other two were confused of what was going on.
Ryo tried to speak, but he couldn't focus. "What s that?" Michio asked trying to calm Ryo down.
Instead of speaking, Ryo held it up so they could see. He suddenly heard some other students speak, "Hey is that a tamogachi?" A gossip-loving girl asked.
"Does the new kid not know that they're banned?" Another noisy girl said.
"I don't get it," Aimi responded, "What does 'WARNING' mean?" Ryo brought it closer to him once again looking at it intensely. He wanted to throw it on the ground and stomp on it so hard, but his body wouldn't do it. Instead his thumb reached for the blinking button.
The entire class' attention was caught now, even Viper who tried to get a good glimpse of the device. Katsumi smirked waiting for Ryo to get in trouble, while Takeo got up trying to warn Ryo.
Ryo finally made contact with the button after what seemed like forever. With the slightest push, the device screen went blank and a series of numbers and algorithms shot out in a ring blinding everyone. Ryo found himself in a destroyed and charred version of his homeroom class. With him was Aimi, Michio, Takeo, Katsumi, and Viper... Just like the last time. He looked up to the sky to find a light-green grid. Behind it, looming over the students, was a small, barren planet.