Day five
Where is she? It is a big house. The sun is shining bright. There are too many people here in the courtyard. Some are running wild while others are constructing some kind of makeshift stage beside a pond. It is hot. The white lilies are in bloom everywhere. She hears someone shout, "Nanami? Nanami! Come on! You need to get ready!" She realises they are talking to her. Wait, she is not Nanami, she is Mai Taniyama. The woman calling her Nanami must be confused. Before she can clear the misconception, the older woman grabs her by her elbow and drags her inside this huge room where two more women are awaiting her. The one eye-catching feature in the room is a huge mirror covered in red cloth.
She is quickly stripped off her plain yukata. She tries to protest but no word comes out of her mouth. The only barrier against her nudity is this soft silk innerwear she is wearing. They start draping an uchikake around her. It is white and made of silk. It is embroidered in silk and metallic threads with stencil-style details. She notices that the design on her uchikake is stylised as a gathering of cranes and tortoises in a bright landscape dominated by pine, bamboo, and blossoming plum. She touches the fabric and is awed by the quality of it. It must be very expensive.
Then they turn their attention towards her hair. She widens her eyes when she realises her hair is neither brown nor is it till the middle of her back—it is a rich black colour and it cascades down her hips. They comb it out, not really caring that each knot they detangled hurt her scalp. Everyone ignores her watery eyes. They roll strands of her hair and wind it around, pinning in places. She sees from the corner of her eyes that they are putting some sort of hair accessories too. She thinks they are carved yellow quartz flowers.
When the women are done, one of them pulls the red cloth off the mirror. Mai gasps. She looks in the mirror to see herself, yet not quite herself. This self has a larger chest, longer hair and grey eyes. The woman who had dragged her in here, starts weeping. She says, "Look at you. You look so beautiful as a bride. Kenji will not be able to take his eyes off you. I am so proud of you, my girl." Mai realises this is Nanami's mother
What? Wedding? Who is Kenji? Why do they think she is Nanami?
Suddenly she hears a bell ringing. The women giggle and usher her out of the room. They are back in the courtyard. This time all the people have quieted down. They all turn and gasp in unison when they see the bride. Mai blushes. She is walked to the podium where a handsome man of twenty or so smiles at her. Is this her groom?
She is told to sit down as this old man pours sake in a bowl for both of them. Her groom offers her a bowl. She takes a sip from it. Then the groom brings out a package wrapped in white silk. She takes it. Her mother gestures her to get up and bring the package with her. She obeys.
Again, the four of them retreat to their room. The white uchikake is taken off. The silk package is unwrapped to show another garment, a black and red kosode with symbols on them she did not recognise. They put it on her.
She is again walked out of the room. She is made to sit beside her groom again. But then…something happens.
A shrill scream echoes around the courtyard. It makes her blood run cold. The courtyard has a high wall wrapping around its west and south end. The wall on the south ends bursts open. Debris fly everywhere as women, men and children run to take shelter. Mai and her groom stand shell-shocked on the stage.
In midst the dust, a figure of a woman appears. Her black hair is messy and it covers her face. She steps over the debris and starts walking towards the bride and groom. Mai's blood runs cold. She doesn't like this one bit.
The woman raises her head and she hears Kenji gasping, "Nagisa!"
Nagisa? Why does she look familiar? Mai gasps too when she locks gaze with Nagisa. Her eyes are cold, yet burning with hatred. Hatred towards her and Kenji. She raises a finger and points it towards Mai. She chants something under her breath. Mai screams, the hem of her kosode has caught fire. Kenji quickly drops to his knees and tries putting the fire off with his bare hands. But it does not help. The fire spreads, the flame catching her silk kosode fast.
Kenji pulls back, his eyes widening in panic. The fire reaches through the outer garment and to her legs. She can feel the heat touching her skin. The flame shoots up, she feels the heat on her face. Any moment and she will be burnt to a crisp. Then she hears Kenji scream, "Nagisa stop this! Please!"
"No! You are mine! You are supposed to be marrying me!" Nagisa screams.
"I told you again and again, I am in love with Nanami!"
"I don't care! She must d—"
Mai's dream is cut short when she wakes up screaming as she feels the skin near her ankle burning.
Ayako and Masako are woken up when they hear Mai screaming. Ayako quickly rushes over to her. She had her eyes closely shut. There are tears streaming down her face as she keeps on screaming. Masako shakes her shoulders, "Mai! Mai! Wake up!"
They hear the doors sliding. They looks up to see Lin standing there. He asks, "What is—"
"She is dreaming," Ayako explains. She leans over Mai and shouts loud enough to wake the entire household up, "MAI! GET UP!"
This seems to work as the screaming stops. She does not wake up. Lin kneels down beside her. He notices her lips moving. He leans down and turns his head sideways to catch what she is trying to say. He gasps in alarm when he understands her mumbled words. He straightens up and tells Ayako, "She is saying 'Burn' and 'Legs'!"
Ayako throws off the blanket off Mai and cries, "Lin her legs!"
Masako and Lin gape in surprise as they see that both of her ankles and feet had large angry burn marks. Ayako says, "They are first degree burns. A cold compress and some aloe vera gel will take care of it." She covers her forehead with relief.
Lin relaxes too. Then Mai opens her eyes. The first person she sees is Lin. She sits up in shock, blinking at him. He opens his mouth to say something when she cries, "Ouch! My feet!"
Mai looks at her feet and gasps. What? How? She cries, "The dream!"
"You had a dream?" Lin asks.
She nods, "I don't understand it, but…" then it hits her, "Wait I saw the angry spirit in my dream! Her name is Nagisa! I think she is a witch."
"I will go wake the others up," Lin says as he gets to his feet, "Tell us your dream, in detail. Matsuzaka, take care of her."
He leaves the room. As he makes his way to the others' room, he runs a hand through his hair. He remembers how scared he felt when he heard her screaming bloody murder back then. He had conjured up the worst possible scenarios in his head. He was glad she was mostly unharmed. Matsuzaka said she will be fine, and he trusts her.
He doesn't need to go all the way downstairs to call up the others. Naru, Monk and John were coming up the stairs. He also spots a very concerned Sakura amongst them. She says, "I was in the kitchen getting a drink, when I heard the screams. What happened?"
Lin replies, "Mai had a dream. Uh, do you have any cold compresses? And aloe vera gel?"
"A dream?" Naru says. He quietly goes upstairs.
Sakura says, "Uh, I might have a cold compress. But I don't have any aloe vera, I will ask Tsugumi." She goes back to the kitchen, wondering why Lin-san needs them.
Mai wipes her tears away as Naru enter with Lin, Bou-san and John in tow. Ayako asks, "Where is the compress?"
"Sakura is bringing it," Lin replies.
Naru gets straight to the point, "Mai what did you see?"
Mai takes a deep breath and recounts her entire dream. After she is finished, Naru comments, "You are saying you were Nanami?"
"Yep."
"Has this ever happened before? You taking the first person perspective in a dream?"
Mai closes her eyes and tries to remember. It did happen once, a year ago. She says, "A year ago, or so, I saw an accident in front of my eyes. A truck and a minivan collided. The minivan's driver had died on spot. Two nights later…I dreamt that I was the minivan's driver and I woke up screaming. Michiru said I was crying as well. It was a bit difficult to explain her all the bruises I had all over my body. Thankfully they faded. But I remember feeling the awful pain the poor man must have felt."
Bou-san whistles, "Mai, you never told us this."
"I did not want to worry you all," she says in a very quiet voice.
Naru says, "Seems to me that you are using psychometry in your dreams."
Mai turns to look at Naru with consternation in her eyes. Lin says, "That is dangerous." She is surprised by the amount of anger he was trying to conceal in his voice.
She stutters, "I-I can't control it."
"You will need to learn how to do so."
"Yeah," Naru says, with a smirk, "Lin will teach you. He helped me with my powers a long time ago."
Masako tries to hide the smile on her face when Mai starts to blush and Lin looks at the ceiling like it is the most interesting thing ever. Then he says, "I don't have any problems with that.''
Mai hangs her head and takes two deep breaths. She says, "Okay."
Bou-san and John scratch their heads. They know something happened that escaped them completely. Ayako, on the other hand, has a hunch.
Just then Sakura enters with a cold compress and a tube of aloe vera gel. She asks, "Uh, what happened?"
"Mai got hurt," John says.
Sakura widens her eyes. She silently passes the things to Ayako, who gets to work. Mai looks at the panic in her face, and sweetly smiles at her, "Sakura-chan, please. I am fine."
Lin glances at her. He sees the dried tear tracks on her cheek, he also sees the burns on her feet. Her powers have been increasing. Yet, she claims to be fine. He shakes his head. Then he excuses himself.
He walks to the base. He enters and locks the door behind him. His mind is in a mess.
Later, when the men and Sakura had left the room, Ayako as she bandages Mai's feet, asks, "What is going on between you and Lin?"
Masako smirks as Mai blushes, "What? Nothing!"
"Don't lie. You resemble a tomato when you try to lie."
"Ayako—"
The older woman puts up a hand to shut Mai up. She says, "I have never seen Lin so scared and concerned. You had your eyes closed but I saw his face. It was genuine emotion on his face."
Mai looks at her, taking in the new information. Was he really afraid for her? Ayako continues, "Mai if you have feelings for him, you have my blessings. I know he is older than you but somehow I have a feeling you two will fit rather nicely."
"Yes," Masako agrees, "Lin-san needs someone fun, and you need someone serious."
Mai looks at both women. Then she starts to cry, "It is of no use! He still thinks I am juvenile! I am an adult for gods' sake!"
Ayako hugs Mai's shoulders, "There, there. Don't give up so easy. Men are dense…amazingly dense. Look how long it took Houshou to say he loved me. I was relentless, so you should be."
Masako comes closer and gives her own pearl of wisdom, "Yasu was dense too. He had decided to flirt with me instead of coming clean and asking me out. I figured he liked me, so I asked him out instead. My gamble paid."
"Yup Mai, listen to us. We both know how it is. Houshou is stubborn and Yasu is an idiot, no offense Masako," she did not take any, "And Lin is a robot. He has feelings but he will pretend that he hasn't any. It is up to you Mai."
Mai wipes her tears as she stares at her bandaged limbs. They are right. She raises her head and says, "Okay. After we get back to Tokyo, I will show him what I am made of." She fists her hands and nods her head once.
Ayako pats her head, "Now don't punch him or anything."
Masako asks, "What if he doesn't get her point?"
"Okay, maybe a harmless punch is allowed."
Masako, Mai and Ayako giggle as they try imagining the scene.