[6.3] The Dream Meeting

"I'm not entertaining this. This conversation is over, Mikuma."

"Like hell it is! Get back here! ITSUKI!"

It didn't sound like he waited, as staggered footsteps slowly faded away in the opposite direction.

Followed by repeated, loud pounding against the floor. The frustration was palpable with every impact as it transitioned to the walls.

Teru, collapsed into a huddled position behind the corner, could only tightly clutch the pouch that contained Keina in spirit to his chest after what he had just heard.

The man who was Keina's father.

The closest he's gotten to learning what happened to her.

And the grief that rocked those who were a part of her world.

"You."

Teru jumped back the farthest he's ever had, in both the Dream and real life, as Mikuma's still furious voice called out next to him.

"Don't think I didn't notice you behind the corner.

"I made myself very clear, explicit even, to the front desk about there being no visitors in this wing today. State your name, now."

Teru's body shivered as he struggled to form his words, his eyes seeing the battered walls and floor behind her.

"I-I-I'm... My n-name is Kasuga Teru. I'm... K-Keina's frien—"

"Bull." The old lady cut him off instantly.

"I remembered everyone who visited her these past two years. I don't ever recall seeing you among them."

"W-W-Well, I—"

"Kasuga," she spat with venom. "Well, that's an accurate name. Either you just conveniently never bothered to visit her once these two years. Or you're a total stranger who is just here to exploit her name, like those soulless media hacks."

"T-That's not—"

"Zip it." She hissed through her teeth.

"She is not a public domain display piece, and I am not in the mood to entertain you. So kindly get the hell out of my sight, or security will guide you far beyond these doors."

She started to turn away, clearly expecting Teru to comply with her demands.

He couldn't muster up the courage to speak out or plead his case.

Mikuma was only half his height, but he felt overwhelmingly tiny compared to her with her level of ferocity and viciousness, both towards Keina's father and himself.

It was almost like...

"Prickly, like a hedgehog, and intense, like a bear..." He muttered to himself. 

And worked with her father.

"What the hell are you saying?" Mikuma turned back and started stomping towards him. "Speak up, you—"

"A-Are you Hariguma?"

The old lady stopped in her tracks as he asked that question.

Her voice lost an edge for the first time, sounding almost haunted.

"...How do you know that name?"

She looked straight into his eyes. For the first time, Teru could see a glimpse of sorrow and pain underneath all the anger.

"Not a single soul knows that nickname, except for her. Not even her father."

Teru took a hitched breath as he tried to steady his nerves.

"She...told me about you before. She said you were somebody who could be prickly as a hedgehog and as fierce as a bear. But also had a heart as big as one."

He even tried to copy the same bear paws that Keina did when she talked about her, back when they were looking at that spiky bear fish at the aquarium. Key word being tried.

That only seemed to stun her even further.

"...Who are you, really?" Hariguma's rage had been subdued.

"Kasug—"

"Not your name, you fool!" She snapped, causing Teru to wince. "I've known Keina ever since she was a little girl. Barely would talk to anyone other than that one girl, Awamiya."

"If she were close to anyone to tell them about me, let alone a boy, I would've known. So let me ask you again, and I only want the truth. How do you know about Hariguma?"

Teru gulped. She was still curt, but now it looked like she was at least willing to hear him out.

Still, he feared her reaction when the truth was something more far-fetched than fiction.

Teru took one more deep breath, Keina's pouch in his hand.

"P-Please listen to what I-I have to say. No matter how unbelievable it is..."

---

"So you've spent the last few months seeing her in your dreams." Hariguma recounted his explanation. She patiently nodded along without interrupting him, even as he stumbled over his words.

"You're right, that is pretty damn unbelievable. The most wish-fulfillment thing I've ever heard, actually."

Teru flinched as she said that last part. He tried to be as detailed as possible, but there was really no way he was going to convince a veteran health professional with what should be an impossible tale.

Oddly, she didn't sound completely dismissive, or like she was going to kick him out personally.

"I'll ask you one more question then." Hariguma started a bit more softly.

"That Keina in your dreams, what kind of person is she?"

Teru looked at Hariguma for a long time. How to put Keina into words, to her?

What was Keina to him?

Without thought, he pulled out her drawing from the pink pouch, which represented her on his journey here.

"Keina is..."

---

Teru, there you are!

"Somebody, who always gave me unconditional joy."

It could be good, you never know!

"Somebody, who was always brimming with curiosity and excitement for the new and unknown."

This is just my timeskip arc, after all!

"Somebody, who could laugh at herself and make light of her own situation, and never dwelled on the things that happened to her."

Are you okay, Teru?!

"Somebody, who was strong and more than willing to face danger head-on."

I wouldn't want you to neglect real life just because of me.

"Somebody, who cared so much more for the people around her than she did for herself."

I want you to be able to relax as well, Teru.

"And somebody, who's been there for me at my darkest. And so I want to do everything in my power for her too."

"That's who Keina is. Be it the Dream or real life.

"She's the person I love the most."

---

Hariguma remained silent, as Teru laid his feelings bare with a warm conviction, neither of their gazes leaving the pink pouch.

She finally spoke. "I... know a different Keina.

"The Keina I know was also sweet, and always prioritizing everyone's happiness at the cost of her own.

"But she was a reserved and meek little girl. always cowering from danger, always scared of me, never speaking up about what bothered her. That's who she was."

She closed her eyes as her voice wavered, tears flowing from her grizzly features.

"But the Keina that I knew, that little girl that I loved like my own... She would have never done what she did that day.

"Not like... the woman you described.

"But most of all..."

She took the chibi doodle of Keina, handling it with utmost care as she gazed at it, as if it were the most valuable thing in the world.

"I was the one who taught her how to draw like this."

"You did?!" Teru exclaimed, maybe a little too loudly.

"It was one of the ways I won her over." She started walking, now calmer.

"Come with me. I'll let you see her."

Teru nodded as he followed her to the very end of the hallway. His heart sank as he saw the room sign on the door that was now right in front of him.

Room number: 634

Patient name: Minazuki Keina

---

It was her.

That was the only thing Teru could think of as he finally met her, for the first time.

Her hair wasn't pink, but black, with a few centimeters of faded brown towards the ends.

Her features were shrunken, her eyes sealed shut with a neutral expression. Her silhouette beneath the blanket appeared gaunt.

The only sign she was even still alive in her bed was the monitor to her heart that was steadily beeping.

But it was her.

It was Keina.

The person he only knew from the Dream, and loved as much as life.

"Hey," He tenderly greeted her, as he collapsed onto his knees, becoming level with her bedside as he looked at her adoringly.

There was no response, of course. But he knew what her reaction would've been.

Teru! There you are!

A small smile formed as he was overcome with emotions, barely able to keep it together.

"Don't touch her," Hariguma curtly reminded as his hand hovered over hers. "She's very fragile at the moment."

Teru pulled back his hand promptly as he got back up. "Sorry.

"Um... Hariguma,"

"Mikuma." She corrected, bowing. "Mikuma Sachiko. Acting Director of Minazuki General Hospital."

"Director Mikuma," Teru began, conviction rousing within him. "I still don't have the full picture.

"Could you tell me, please? What happened to her?"

Director Mikuma sighed. "You really don't know, do you?"

She made her way to the window, her eyes pointed down at something in the distance.

"Very well. I'll tell you.

"The incident that happened two years ago, that put her into that bed."