Chapter 7:

Companion

Meisekimu (明晰夢)


~Chapter 7~

How can one single person create so much frustration in just one week? Why do people keep proving that they’re unworthy of any kind of respect? How do they dare to assume what’s important for someone’s life and what not?

Naito couldn’t believe his own eyes. This girl has been causing him trouble since the first day they met, but she never managed to make him feel any negative emotions, only because he had worked on mental state and could restrain external “disturbances”.

But right now he was feeling like his own heart was about to burst. He was unsure if it was because of anger, hatred or shock. After having devoted time to something dear to him, controlling every move and development, the entering of a second person in the picture was enough to destroy it all in a mere moment.

“Why the hell did you do that?” It was the first time after many years that he talked impolitely in front of somebody. “How is this going to help you now? You have nothing to blackmail me anymore.”

Airi wasn’t replying. She was just standing there, next to the water, staring at the notebook melting and the ink staining the wet pages, having a completely blank look on her face.

“What is your problem? Isn’t harassing people and doing whatever pops to your head enough for you? That’s why you end up in shitty situations like last time. People will treat you as you treat them. If you treat them like rubbish, don’t expect to treat you like a spoiled princess.”

He waited one more minute, and since she wasn’t even replying, he got fed up with her and started walking back to his house, passing next to her, and pushing her with his shoulder. She lost her balance for a moment and almost fell into the water.

What a shame. I should have pushed her with more power; then she would be where she belongs: down to the ground.

He returned home and tried to relax his mind. Every problem has a solution, and his current one wasn’t a life threatening one. Of course it made him crazy just to think of what happened, but he wasn’t that weak of a personality to let a puny bad-mannered girl get to him. He grabbed another notebook and started writing as much as he could remember from his dream so far: places, people, plants, smells, voices and sounds, everything. At least, he could read some of the partsof the dream journal and try to go there once more in his next dream sessions, to refresh his memory and write down the details. What is done, it’s done.

Even if he tried his best to dream of the places he once visited, his mind wasn’t in a stable mind to do so. The river was very turbulent and dark, the water was startling his heart and confusing his emotions. He was walking between buildings of an abandoned city. Nature had started to spread its uncontrollable tentacles through the city, covering whole skyscrapers with ivies and roots from all kinds of plants. The river was going up and down though the buildings, from the roofs to the streets, forming waterfalls of blackened turbulence amidst the cement desert.

The only relieving feeling that was very clear to him, was that he was completely alone. He couldn’t sense not even a single human being around him. Not a human being but.. Something familiar was reaching him slowly and gently. Naito turned his head to the direction of the river.

Somehow he wanted it to stop being so aggressive and make its flow smoother. A waterfall had formed in front of him, emanating from the top floor of a department house, and ending up inside an underground train station. In the middle of the waterfall, there was something disturbing the flow, but with a way that made it calmer when the water was approaching it.

Exactly like how a black hole distorts the magnetic field around it. Wait.. I’ve seen that before. I know what it is.. I have seen that.. I .. A long black tail emerged from behind the black hole. It was the weird creature he met in his previous dream. Naito realised that it somehow seemed to appear when he needed to feel comfort or security. It seemed so adorable in his eyes. He knew how to communicate with it. He looked at its deep, chaotic eyes and asked from it to make the river calm. Suddenly in front of him, weird runes started forming in front of his eyes, floating around his head like a digital billboard with moving sentences. He had no idea how to read them, but he could feel what they meant.

The dark creature moved forward; all the turbulence started being dragged towards it, like its excess energy was sucked away from it, and with a sudden mild shockwave everything was tranquil. Naito had to blink more than three times to recover from the weird flick. It reminded him of the way old televisions were turned on and off, creating weird static on the glass screen. The runes around him slowed down and started fading away.

Naito felt the need to thank the mysterious sphere, not only for doing as he wished, but for making him feel ease and solace when he was anxious and lost.

He opened his mouth unconsciously to call to it, but he realised that he didn’t know how.

Using the previous mysterious method of communicating the creature without words, he tried to express his appreciation, and asked if it had a name. The ball turned slowly to him, and moved happily in the air, making him feel like it was accepting his gratitude, but didn’t show him any signs of a name. Maybe I should give you a name. You look like a mysterious flying sphere so..

How’s "Kyū"? Kyūtai means orb, and it seems to fit you pretty well.

The ball started moving happily and rushed towards Naito, rubbing its shiny surface on his chest.You really like doing that, don’t you? You are purring like a cat, you know. Since you seem to like it, I guess it’s settled then. NIce to meet you, Kyu.

During the dream, Naito was wondering what kind of subconscious need could lead to an image like the one Kyu had. Something from his past? Some kind of picture he saw? An interpretation of an emotion? I hope I can remember these questions when I wake up, and look it up a little bit more. He looked at the gray sky above his head; the clouds were floating between the buildings like big fluffy ships. Why don’t we go to explore this area, Kyu-chan? The black sphere was still very cheerful and was flying around him in circles.

It seemed like it had no weight at all, with its black tail following its motions. He started walking in the middle of a wide street, hearing birds chirping, feeling a gentle breeze on its neck. Some of the walls had these weird runes on them, but he still couldn’t read them or understand them. He tried looking at the runes for some time - maybe he could remember at least some of them when he woke up. He concentrated and tried hard to keep the image of the characters in his mind, but something was bothering him.

He could hear a disturbance, like a thud. The thud was repetitive, and it started turning into something very annoying that wasn’t coming from his dream. It started dragging him to the real world, taking him away from its peaceful state of lucid dreaming.

He opened his eyes slowly, disappointed and somehow irritated. What the hell is that..? There was indeed a repetitive sound coming from outside of his room.

Somebody was definitely throwing rocks at his shutters.