A.N.: Now with fixed formatting. I have no idea what happened before, so thank you Xanpluto for bringing it to my attention! Hopefully it should be readable now...
The lift in Koushiro's apartment block was out of order again. Of course it was. Taking the lift would be too easy. Sighing, Takeru made his way up the stairs. He was glad it was a cool night. The cold breeze helped to soothe the pain. It was as bad as the time he had found his father's lighter as a young boy, and burnt three fingers on his right hand while playing with it.
The lights were out in Koushiro's apartment. Had Jou been able to get hold of him? Takeru gingerly fished in his pocket for his phone, trying not to rub the back of his hand. Before he had time to send a message he heard the catch.
The door swung open, and Koushiro beckoned him in, holding a finger to his lips.
"My parents are asleep. This way."
They crept through the dark apartment, their path lit by the light coming from the crack under Koushiro's bedroom door. Jou was there already, and started when they walked in.
"Well. I can certainly see why you were "freaking out", as you put it," he said. Takeru could hear the tremble in Jou's voice.
Koushiro was staring too, now that there was enough light to see the blisters. "And you say you just woke up like this?" he asked, closing the door behind them.
Takeru nodded. "I... I've been having the dreams for a little over a week now. Like Hikari did, only not, because that place was dark and grey, and this is about as far from that as you can get."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Koushiro asked, sinking into his desk chair. He looked pale.
"Because they were just bad dreams! I mean, everything has been normal for more than a year now, and I didn't want Hi-" He coughed to cover his near slip, as Jou and Koushiro exchanged a look. "I didn't want anyone to worry. Besides. I saw the Dark Ocean at the time, and that was a completely different place. I didn't have any reason to think they were anything other than plain old bad dreams. All the other nights I just woke up normally."
"Sit down," said Koushiro. "Jou, did you bring anything for those burns? I'm assuming that's what they are."
Jou nodded, as Takeru sat down on Koushiro's bed. The older boy pulled a first aid kit out of the bag at his feet, and looked at the burns on Takeru's arms.
"They certainly look like it. You really need dressings on them, to prevent infection, but I hadn't expected there to be so many of them. I'm not sure I have enough in this kit. I've never seen anything like this before."
Takeru groaned. "Great, so now what? And what's the use in putting something on them, when the odds are that the next time I fall asleep something worse is going to happen?" He could feel the panic bubbling up in his chest again. "How am I ever meant to get some sleep, when I don't know what's going to happen if I do?"
Koushiro shook his head. "While we can't discount that as a potential danger, it's also unwise to extrapolate based on a solitary outlier. You mentioned that this is the first night that you have experienced a tangible effect from these dreams, yes? Well, was there anything which happened differently to lead to those circumstances? Perhaps we can work through this logically, and come to a solution to prevent this from reoccurring."
"There was a silence while Takeru translated the speech in his head. "Wait. I'm not going to be your guinea pig, Koushiro. Have you not noticed that whatever is happening there is getting brought back with me?"
Jou nodded. "I really don't think that just acting as though this is a one-off is going to help. It's too dangerous."
Koushiro sighed, his head drooping. When he looked up, Takeru saw genuine worry on his face.
"The trouble is, I can't think of any alternative. You've confirmed that we're not talking about any world with which we are familiar, and we have no explanation of what could be causing you to be affected by it in this way. When Hikari was pulled into the Dark Ocean, it was by digimon who needed help-"
"And then betrayed her," Takeru pointed out.
"Precisely. But she described seeing those entities before she was taken there. In her dreams. Whereas, what you are describing is an absence of any life forms of that sort altogether. Additionally, at no point did Hikari manifest with this sort of phenomenon. The two situations don't correlate, so really, the only information we have is what you can tell us." Koushiro frowned. "We don't have sufficient data on whatever this place is to start making assumptions. And the only alternative is to suggest that you refrain from sleeping, which is hardly a viable solution."
"Well, I don't really feel like sleeping right now. That's for certain."
"Perhaps not, but at some point it will become a biological necessity."
"Koushiro's right, Takeru," said Jou. "The human body begins to shut down without sleep. You have a maximum of about nine days, and the majority of those you would be increasingly delusional."
"Takeru felt his heart hammering in his chest again. Surely they weren't giving up already? Yet, that was exactly what it sounded like. They didn't know what to do. They couldn't help. And the next time he fell asleep, who knew what was going to happen? How long could he stay awake for before he passed out? He felt as though his life had suddenly become a countdown. Seconds trickling away from him; time running out.
"Focus, Takeru," Koushiro said urgently. "We're not giving up, but we need more data. You have to tell us every detail you can remember. There has to be a solution to this problem, and an explanation as to what's causing it, but we can't work that out with an incomplete picture."
"I don't know what more I can tell you. Every night for the last week I've dreamt about this beach, as though I just woke up standing ankle deep in the water. And I walk along the shore, and the wind gets stronger and stronger until it's almost knocking me down. It's howling in my ears, it's so loud. And then I hear some kind of roaring behind me, and I turn and see a massive wave of water bearing down on me. And just as it's about to hit, and sweep me away, I wake up. And always at aboutone in the morning. Just one or two minutes past."
As he spoke, Jou had started to dress the burns on his arms and hands. He continued in silence as Takeru paused, collecting his thoughts.
"And then tonight... Well. I came straight home from school and crashed out. And when I woke up, it was in the same place, only I thought I could see a shore on the far side of the ocean. It threw me, seeing something different. When the wind picked up, I didn't wait for the wave. I don't know why, but I just felt more aware of what would happen if I didn't move. Like I was more awake somehow. And – and the other crazy thing was that I was dressed exactly as I'd gone to sleep. Right down to just wearing my socks on my feet, and no shoes. By the time the wind got to that howling point, I was on this kind of field, with trees past it. My hat almost blew off, it was so strong. I had my hands over my head holding it down. And it had got dark then, like a storm was coming, only instead of it raining, it was just these drops that burned. I don't know how, but I just suddenly emknew/em that it was raining this stuff, and it was going to burn, and I was stuck out in it with nothing to stop it from burning me all over... And then I woke up."
There was a silence. Koushiro had his head down, frown lines visible. Eventually he looked up.
"And you woke at a couple of minutes past one again? Additionally, I note that you are not wearing a hat at the moment."
"Uhh, near enough. I think the clock said one oh five. And I changed before heading over. All I did after getting in from school was take my blazer off."
"Koushiro's expression had changed. The frown was gone; now he simply looked thoughtful. "I wonder," the older boy said softly. His expression had glazed over in that familiar way so typical of the redhead when he was processing a thought.
"You wonder what?" said Jou. He had reached the end of his supply of gauze pads and bandages. There were still two burns on Takeru's arm, and the few on his face, which remained undressed. "You're going to have to be careful with these until we can get more dressings, Takeru. If the blisters rupture, they could get infected."
Takeru groaned. Just what he needed. "How long will they take to heal, Jou?"
Koushiro grimaced. "Takeru, burns can take weeks to heal if they are serious. I don't need to be training as a doctor to know that. If you're thinking of trying to stay awake until they do, then I would advise you to forget it. However. From the information you provided, I wonder if I can propose a hypothesis." He paused, leaning forwards in his chair.
"You think you know what to do?" Takeru asked. It never took much to get his hopes up, but even this sliver had seemed impossible a few minutes before.
It is only a hypothesis at this stage. I can't be absolutely certain. But, are you sure that it was five minutes pastone when you awoke this time? It's only a couple of minutes, but that is different to the time you mentioned previously. And it correlates with your description of having acted differently this time. So far there is also a connection between you experiencing a surge of fear strong enough to awaken you, and you being returned to the real world. Now, previously, you were awoken by the giant wave you spoke of. This time, that wave didn't awaken you because you were no longer in the water. You remained in this... so far unidentified world for a longer period of time. That burning rain awoke you just as it started to fall. My hypothesis therefore is that this occurred because you had not already been awoken by the wave you described. For each night to be a repeat, there is obviously some cyclical pattern to the weather. It starts over every time you enter the world. When you remained in the sea, the wave awoke you before the rain had time to start. When you left the sea, crucially, you stayed the extra few minutes it took for the rain to begin, which in turn generated the fear response which awoke you as you realised what was happening."
There was silence as Takeru and Jou processed and translated what Koushiro had said into something they understood.
"So you're saying that the only way I can get back is by scaring myself to death every night?" Takeru said eventually. "No offence, but that sounds like a really terrible plan."
Koushiro sighed. Jou took the opportunity to speak up.
"Have you a first aid kit in the apartment? If you've any dressings, it really would be a good idea to finish treating Takeru."
"Of course," Koushiro replied. "I'll return momentarily."
"Takeru sighed, and tentatively lowered his head into his hands. He didn't look up when Jou sat on the bed next to him, or when the older boy leant forward to rest hands on knees. How was this happening? After everything he had been through in the Digital world, he had thought he was past surprises. Apparently he'd been wrong.
"You know, I thought the nightmare ended when I woke up," he said after a minute, his voice leaden. "But now I feel like it just carried on. What am I going to tell my mum, and everyone else? How can I explain... these?" He lifted his arms up, looking at the dressings which littered them.
Jou rested a hand on his shoulder. "Look. I know you must be feeling pretty scared at the moment, and I don't think that's something to be ashamed of. I mean, at least when we fell into the Digital world it was all together. But none of us knew what was going on when we arrived there either, you know.
The older boy paused, straightening his glasses. "I don't know how much you picked up on it at the time, but we were running completely blind. We didn't have any answers, or explanations. But we still came through it all in one piece, eventually. And I'm sure there's got to be some answers this time too. I can't promise that it will be easy, but we won't stop looking until we find out what's going on. We won't let you down, Takeru."