[6.2] The Dream Resting Spot

We will now be arriving at Kuroganedai Station. The doors will open on the left.

An odd sense of deja vu struck Teru as he got off the train, ascending the steep staircase to a place he'd never been or seen.

Awamiya pointed him in this direction—despite the horrible first impression he gave to her—through several transit changes from Shin Okubo.

His wallet was still down 3500 yen more than he'd like to be, though. It's not like he dared to ask her to waive the bill for the food after all the trouble. The gruff man who looked like her dad didn't seem fond of him either.

At this rate, he was going to be stranded in Tokyo if he kept spending any more money. Though it was a little ironic to be talking about money problem when the city he found himself in was quite nice looking.

Was this where Keina lived?

Though given the exact location that Awamiya told him with bated breath, as she struggled to even recall her words, perhaps not.

Truthfully, he had a few suspicions of where Keina would be. 

For a person who was stuck in a dream for nearly two years, there weren't many places she could realistically be, other than the one in front of him.

Still, seeing how Awamiya reacted...

"I haven't gone and seen her myself for a long time now. There isn't a single moment when I don't miss her so, so badly. But I just can't bear going there anymore. It took a long time for me to even recover from that day, but seeing her breaks me every time.

"If she really still thinks of me as her best friend after all this time, if you're really able to talk to her... Tell her I'm so sorry."

"She would've told you there was nothing to forgive, Awamiya," Teru whispered to himself.

If anything, she would be happily filling her in on all about her adventures for several hours straight, while holding her close.

Teru held the pink pouched Keina in his hands, drawing more power from her than ever to get through this. For both of them, and her best friend too.

Before he entered the doors of Minazuki General Hospital.

---

The lobby was pristine, a white luster on every surface.

It was a perfect, spotless environment befitting what was apparently considered one of the top hospitals in all of Japan. A prestige that Teru did not realize came with his preferred brand of GABA chocolate.

The hospital straight up looked cleaner than some of the places in Keina's Dream.

"May I help you?" The receptionist called out to him as he made his way over.

"I-I'm..." Teru took a deep breath. He rehearsed what to say this time on the way here.

"I'm here to see my friend, Keina."

"Oh..." The receptionist notably reacted to that name.

"I'm afraid... We're not taking visitors for her today."

"What?" Teru could only say. "N-No, you don't understand.

"I travelled all this way to see her.

"I need to see her."

"I understand your feelings, but she is a special case." The receptionist responded with a clinical detachment. "Only immediate family are allowed to see her at this time."

"Please!" He pleaded. "This is important!"

She just put her hands up. "Acting Director's orders, I'm afraid. We simply cannot make an exception for you today."

Teru mentally gritted his teeth. This was really bad. If it were the Dream, he might've been able to convince her with something outlandish or make her forget about those orders.

He didn't have the money to stop somewhere for the night. If he tried to do that, then he wouldn't have a ride back home. And there was no guarantee they'd even let him in the next day.

He clutched Keina's pouch. What can he do?

What would Keina do?

His eyes landed on something that looked conveniently placed next to a hallway that led further in.

Teru turned to the receptionist, trying to sound as innocent and harmless as possible.

"May I use the washroom first before I go?"

---

An awkward amount of time passed in the stalls before Teru sneaked out and into the connecting hallway, while the receptionist was busy handling another visitor.

Keina joked about him being a serial skipper at school before, but he would be ultra screwed if he were caught right now.

He wasn't sure if even she would do something like this, to be perfectly honest. But it was either this or go home when he was this close.

Some nurses passed by him, but he was barely able to play off his presence by being there to see a family member. And they looked too busy to further inquire.

The real problem, though, was finding out what room Keina was even in. The receptionist just confirmed her presence; he still had to find her.

"What the hell are you doing, Itsuki?!"

Teru instinctively hid behind the corner as he heard an old woman bellow with unbridled rage at somebody.

"Mikuma," the man, presumably Itsuki, spoke, haggard. He sounded just as old as her. "Now is not a good time."

"Is it ever a good time with you?!" 'Mikuma' roared. "You come out of hiding for the first time in months, and all you're doing is helping yourself to more sedatives!"

Teru heard something slam hard on the tile surface, as if it were concentrated on a point. A cane?

"I'm busting my ass here keeping your empire alive as the Acting Director, and you just keep trying to run from reality, you Shut-in Director!"

The Director and the Acting Director...

So that Mikuma person was the one who banned visitors from seeing Keina. 

Kasuga had no idea what she looked like, but he didn't want to know.

A violent fit of coughing suddenly rang throughout the halls.

"Just look at yourself," Mikuma's temper shifted from pure rage to something upset. 

"I can tell. Your blood pressure's through the roof, you've put on a lot of weight... You've been at this for nearly two years already. You have one foot in the grave, Itsuki.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself, man. Get some serious help, please start taking care of yourself.

"Do it for her, at least." She pleaded.

"I am doing it for her." Itsuki just tersely growled.

Mikuma roared in retaliation, as if she had heard the most insulting thing in her life.

"No, you aren't, you STUPID YOUNG MAN!

"All you've done is throw your life down the drain! For TWO YEARS! Letting yourself go to waste like this doesn't do a damn thing for her! Is that what you call an apology for being a workaholic, absent excuse of a father all these years?!"

Her voice then suddenly lowered to a whisper, still filled with icy rage.

"If she comes back now, by all the gods in the cosmos, if she wakes up right now, the only thing you've accomplished all these two years is saddling her with the early responsibility of buying your God. Damn. Headstone.

"Wake the hell up already, Itsuki.

For Keina."