[6.4] The Dream that Started Once Upon a Time

There was hardly any footage or details ever released, but this is what I know.

It was an attack at Kuroganedai Station.

The perpetrator was a deranged man. His name was never revealed to the public, even after police apprehended him.

Apparently, they knew about him from past stalking reports. But because they couldn't catch him doing anything clear-cut, they just didn't bother with him.

He had somehow got his hands on a firearm, a Type 54, and opened fire. Security fell injured, while most everyone else could do was get away from danger.

The people above ran out of the station. The people below retreated into the carts and took the emergency exits out.

But that man wasn't there to commit mass murder. He was after someone in particular, a woman.

Somehow she was there in the station, and somehow he found her. He dragged her by the arm and threw her against the wall, pointing the firearm square at her face.

But before he could pull that trigger, before that woman's life could end so horribly and abruptly...

Somebody got in the way.

The one person in the station that day who didn't run.

---

"That person..." Teru trailed off, but he already knew who she was talking about.

"Indeed," Director Mikuma confirmed.

"That person was Keina."

"I believe that day, she had just started summer vacation, and went to go see her father. She came across the scene when she made her way up the opposite steps. And instead of running back down to safety..." 

She paused for a long time.

"I still don't understand what made her do it. Even trained professionals in self-defense avoid those situations whenever possible, let alone being unarmed.

"What possessed her... to charge at that armed man, and lay her life down like that? For a stranger she didn't even know?"

"I never would have guessed that." Said Teru with awe, as his eyes switched back to the slumbering guardian angel beside him.

He clenched his fists tightly. "So that man was the one..."

"She kicked his ass, as far as I'm concerned." 

Teru's fists instantly loosen as he swung his head hard at her remark.

"She did?!"

"She got the drop on him and knocked the gun right out of his hands, apparently." Director Mikuma had a flash of pride on her face. "Her late mother did martial arts, from what I heard, but I didn't think she inherited that."

"For the Keina I know, that would be an impossible feat. But for the Keina that you know, it somehow sounds plausible."

Her small sense of joy didn't last long, as she returned to a sigh.

"Of course, if it ended there, then we wouldn't be here right now.

"he got the upper hand at some point, and they were next to the stairs that led down to the boarding platform."

She looked back at Keina.

"I trust I don't need to say more, Kasuga."

He solemnly nodded. "...Yeah. I can work it out."

Director Mikuma's attention turned to the heart rate monitor, the only evidence that Keina still lived.

"I have to be frank, as much as I don't want to. But it's a miracle that she even survived that. If that didn't happen right outside this hospital, she would not have made it.

"But she doesn't have much more time."

"What do you mean?" Teru asked, feeling a lump in his stomach.

"She should have stabilized a long time ago. Physically, there should be nothing keeping her from regaining consciousness right now. But she just won't.

"There have been people like this who were comatose longer than two years. But they're the exception, not the baseline. The rate of survivability drops dramatically after a month, let alone years. I don't think she can hold out for much longer. And neither can her father."

"By father, you mean..."

She nodded. "The gentleman I was having a spat with. 

"Minazuki Itsuki, the Director of this hospital."

Her voice fluctuated. Sometimes, it was crossed. Other times, sad.

"He brought this place to glory and gave it the prestige it has now. But he's completely changed ever since the incident. He stepped back from active duties and put me in charge as he practically left society. The medical world has been calling him the 'Shut-in Director' since he's such a rare sight nowadays.

"That man... He's only ever awake for an hour at best. Hypersomnia, most likely."

"Hypersomnia?" Teru asked. "Is that like insomnia?"

"The polar opposite, but you got the right relation," Director Mikuma affirmed. "It's when you chronically oversleep.

"Most people don't even get a proper eight hours of sleep. But too much sleep can wreak just as much havoc on your health. And that man has been taking hospital sedatives to force himself into longer and longer slumbers, for god knows what purpose.

"He only ever leaves his home when he needs to get more."

She closed her eyes, tightly gripping her cane.

"I've been partnered with him for a long time now. His wife had just passed when I came into the picture, too early for Keina to even remember her, but she pretty much made me an unofficial part of the family ever since. And you may not believe me, but I still do care deeply for both of them.

"But at this rate, they're both going to die. Both daughter and father.

"And I can't do a damn thing to stop it."

---

Teru could hear the pain in her voice as she sniffled, recounting everything that she knew and her own feelings.

"Thank you, Director Mikuma," he held his head high, pink pouch in hand.

"I think... I have an idea of how to save Keina, now."

She looked him straight in the eyes. "You're not giving me false hope now, are you?"

"I can't say I'm certain, but in the last dream I had with her, there was a very strange place. It was fragmented and dark, and just felt really bad. I wondered what that was, but I think I know now.

"That place had to have been Kuroganedai Station."

It was Keina's memory of that incident, a fragmented recollection of that day.

"We couldn't find any leads in any other part of her Dream, but if that is the one area that's fully based on reality, then that must be where the answer lies!"

"A dream representing a deep trauma." Director Mikuma mulled over the possibility, despite the unscientific nature of the entire situation.

"It's plausible. But the mind disassociates and blocks out memories of such events for a reason. 

"I know she's far stronger than I took her for. But there may not be anything in there, and it could just irrevocably scar her instead."

Teru looked down. "Yeah... I guess that's why Yumeppo was so adamant against going back there..."

"Yumeppo?" She looked confused.

"Yeah. I came all the way here because he cut me off from her Dre—"

"Back up a bit, Kasuga. By Yumeppo, you mean that stuffed animal from Magia Lyra? He's in the Dream too?"

Teru blinked. "I'm surprised you knew who he was."

"I watched episodes with Keina from time to time, so I got the gist of it. I thought he was supposed to be an extreme doormat to Lyra. Why the hell is that one trying to control what's going on? Isn't Keina supposed to be the head of that place?"

He just looked more puzzled. "I don't know, to be honest. I thought he came from her, since he's been there with her from the very beginning."

Although now that she mentioned it.

It was sounding more and more like Yumeppo knew exactly what that place was when they had zero idea.

Director Mikuma's face flashed a realization of her own.

---

Teru had all the information he needed. And with night approaching, all he needed to do now was go back to sleep.

There was only one problem with that, and that was a two-hour ride back home. Or risk being stranded in Tokyo.

But he couldn't keep Keina waiting any longer.

"Director Mikuma," he asked, favor in mind. "Can I borrow a bed here? I really need to sleep now, and I don't have money to stay in Tokyo."

She mulled over his request.

"I'm sorry, Kasuga." She grumbled apologetically.

Teru shot her a pleading look, but she waved it off.

"We're practically at max capacity, and they're for emergency cases, first and foremost. If someone who needs treatment can't get it because you're taking space, then that's on me."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out some bills from her wallet.

"Here's fifty thousand. There's a hotel across the street, go rest there."

His eyes widened at the bills. "Director Mikuma!"

"I can't wager the life of a potential patient, but I can stomach losing a couple of bills. For them.

"Also, on the off chance you were just a very good swindler, then I'll be able to deal with you." She laughed gruffly for the first time like a bear as he paled.

"I'm counting on you," She waved him off. 

"And I'm sorry about earlier. 'Teru' is indeed an accurate name for you. You keep that light of yours bright. End this nightmare for good."

"Thank you very much. I'll bring her back, I promise!" Teru gave a deep bow before kneeling back down before the slumbering Keina. 

"See you soon, Keina." He whispered gently before making his way out of the hospital.

---

"Hey, you, wait!"

Correction, promptly sprinted out of the hospital as the receptionist recognized him.