Yumi no Kuni [Part 2]

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“What?!”

She could barely hear anything at all now. The wind whipped through the air, drowning out all other sound except the relentless sound of her own inhaling and exhaling.

The boy’s voice reached her again, echoing across the endless field. 

“The priestess—!”

His voice was fading quickly. Haruki barely caught the last thing he said. 

“…the altar!”

She tried to respond, but she couldn’t. It was pointless now.

In an instant, the world was swallowed up, and the boy was swallowed up with it. 

⊹ ▬ ▬ ⊹ ⊹ ▬ ▬ ▬ ⊹

“Ah!”

Haruki jolted awake.

Her heart was pounding. Her neck was drenched in sweat.

She sat up halfway before realizing her head had been resting on something soft beneath her: Mayumi’s lap.

“Haruki?” She blinked down at her with concerned eyes.
“Are you feeling okay?”

Haruki looked around the room. Breathless and disoriented. 

Gilded wallpaper, huge white curtains, an expensive chandelier, and a drummer girl with her guitarist friend absorbed by the chaotic squawks of some party game on the gigantic wall-mounted TV.

The clock on the wall read:
10:15 PM

Right. Mayumi’s house. Girl’s night.

She felt a sense of relief upon the realization, but that relief soon faded.

Haruki rubbed her face.

“Ha! Haruki fell asleep first!” Sakura pointed an accusatory finger from her beanbag throne. “Violation of girl’s night protocol. Penalty!”

“You totally conked out,” Aika added without looking away from the screen. “I was gonna call it, but Sakura beat me to it.”

Sakura leaned back dramatically in her beanbag chair. “Only Haruki could fall asleep earlier than my Ojisan.”

Haruki didn’t laugh.

The boy’s words still rang sharp in her mind.

Priestess… Altar…

“You’re all sweaty, Haru," Mayumi said. “Are you sure you’re okay? You look scared…”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Another nightmare?” Sakura cut in.

Aika shook her head jokingly. “You shouldn’t sleep facing north, that’s how they lay out bodies at funerals. You invited the nightmare demons.”

“That is SO bull.” Sakura laughed.

“It’s true. My Ojisan told me. Never doubt the elderly.”

Haruki didn’t even smile. She didn’t find any of it funny.

“It wasn’t just a nightmare.” She muttered. “This whole week has been so strange. The note, the thing Kenji found, now this…”

“Haruki, come on. It was just a dream. You’re just stressed from the gigs.”

“Yeah, relax,” Sakura added. “...And I told you not to take anything Kenji says seriously. He’s already implanting his schizoid nonsense into your brain. Next thing ya know, you’ll start to think secret undercover squirrel agents are spying on you.”

Haruki felt her anger building.

They were trying to comfort her, but she didn’t want that.

They didn’t even try to understand.

They didn’t try when strange messages began appearing inside glitches.
They didn’t try when she started having strange memories.
They didn't even care after that day they forgot she'd existed.

And now, after everything, they were still laughing like she was some punchline.

Haruki grabbed her jacket and stood. “I’m getting some air.”

“Where are you—?”

But Haruki had already left.

The two exchanged a look, but brushed it off and continued mashing their controllers. Mayumi sat solemnly on the couch with concern. 

⊹ ▬ ▬ ⊹ ⊹ ▬ ▬ ▬ ⊹

Haruki slipped through the sliding door that led out into the courtyard and the gardens beyond. It had been raining earlier. The grass was still wet with shiny glass beads that clung to her shoes as she stepped through. 

She followed the winding path that took her deeper into the gardens. Its flowers, by now, had curled up and begun to wither away. A sign that winter was slowly encroaching. 

She kept going, farther and farther away from the house, only stopping when she reached a little opening where a koi pond lay. 

The water's surface lay in perfect stillness. 

She tried not to disturb the dreaming fish beneath its surface.

The cicadas, which had once filled the air with restless song, had fallen silent now.
The autumn cold had finally claimed the last of their voices.

She let out a slow breath and sank down onto the edge of the pond, hugging her knees to her chest.

It felt like everything was unraveling.
Her life, her memories, even her own friends.

As if the clock had reset again.

No matter how hard she tried to hold on to things, places, people, promises…

Nothing ever stayed.

It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was just the way her life worked.

That’s why she couldn’t get too comfortable.
Why she wasn’t supposed to believe she’d fit somewhere.
Because the second she did, the universe would come and take it all back.
The way it always had.

She buried her face deeper into her arms and closed her eyes.

For a long moment, she just sat there.
In her tiny corner of the world.

Then…

The faintest crunch of footsteps startled her eyes open again.

Haruki didn’t turn to look, but she knew who it was.

The sweet blond-haired girl quietly sat down beside her. She mimicked Haruki, pulling up her knees to rest her chin on them.

“You don’t have to talk…” She said. “…but I’m here if you want to.”

Haruki stayed curled up. She wanted to say it didn’t matter. That it was stupid to feel like this.

But Mayumi’s quiet presence made it harder to pretend.

“...It’s happening again.” Haruki finally whispered.

“What’s happening?”

Haruki hugged herself tighter. “I thought I'd broken a barrier. I thought if I'd just kept going, maybe this time things would finally be different. That for once I could stay somewhere… but everything’s unraveling again. I can’t stop it, no matter how hard I try.”

She pulled her sleeves over her hands. “I’m scared... scared that I’ll wake up one day and everything will disappear again.”

Mayumi shifted closer, brushing her shoulder gently against Haruki’s.

“I don’t think you’re unraveling," she said quietly.
“I think… you’re just scared to lose something precious to you.”

Haruki hesitated, tapping the tips of her shoes together.

“It’s just… everything just doesn’t make sense anymore. Every day, there’s this new thing that I can’t explain… and now these dreams. Or nightmare, or whatever it was. It felt so real… There was this boy, and it was like he was trying to tell me something important...”

She trailed off, as if realizing how insane she sounded, then let out a scoff. “Here I am, talking about some dream like a crazy person… and I still can’t prove anything. Guess I am unraveling after all.”

For a moment they fell silent again. A yellow ginkgo leaf fell onto the pond, casting a gentle ripple. It spread across the water's surface before dispersing into nothing again. 

Then Mayumi said something she didn’t expect.

“You don’t have to prove anything to me, I believe you,” she said. “Even if it was just a dream… you looked scared. And you’ve been acting strange all week. Maybe more. I don’t think you’re making it up, you’re not the type.”

Haruki looked at her. “So you… really believe me?”

“I do. Friends believe each other. That’s what they do.”

“I just don’t know what’s happening to me, Mayu. It all sounds absolutely crazy, but then something happens and it feels too real to be just imagination.” 

Mayumi reached out and gave her a friendly pat on the head. “Then it probably is.”

Haruki made a weak attempt at a laugh. “That easy, huh?”

“Well... I think you shouldn't have to go through this alone.”

And just like that, Haruki felt her chest loosen. Not entirely, but just barely enough to breathe again. 

“Thanks, Mayu...”

For a while they just sat there. The cold nipped at Haruki's skin, but she barely felt it anymore. Her mind was still too full.

The boy in the dream said something about a priestess and an altar. She tried to remember. What could it mean?

The priestess.

Her eyes widened a little.

The altar.

An image flashed in her mind.

Smoke rising from incense.
The cold stone pressing against her palms.
A small stone altar.
A grave.

She sat up. A small gasp escaped her lips.

“Wait!"

“What is it?”

“The cemetery.” 

Mayumi looked puzzled. “Cemetery?”

“The boy in the dream. He said… something about a priestess and an altar…” Haruki continued, trying hard to recall. “When my mom was buried, we had a small altar made in front of the grave. I try to visit every year. Or at least when I could. We leave incense and flowers and stuff like that… maybe the boy was pointing me there.”

Mayumi’s eyes lit up. “It all makes sense...”

“Huh?”

“Obviously this dream wasn’t random. It’s a clue!”

She pointed at Haruki with a determined look. “We have to go to the altar tomorrow. Like real detectives! If there’s a priestess there, we’ll find her.”

Haruki seemed to grow more determined, but a second later she shrank down again. “I appreciate it Mayumi, but we can’t... The cemetery is in Shakotan… way out by the coast. It's not easy to get there.”

Mayumi thought for a second before replying. “No worries! I’ll have my chauffeur drive us first thing tomorrow morning.”

“You have a chauffeur?”

“Of course! Doesn’t everyone??”

Haruki shook her head with a smile. “Thank you... but you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. I know you don’t like scary places.”

“Nonsense. I’ll join you.”

“Are you sure? You really don’t.”

“It’s okay, I want to.” Mayumi replied, her voice with a little more steady. 

Haruki thought for a moment, considering her options. Then she declared:

“Okay, tomorrow it is then.”

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