Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 13 - Chapter 1.2

2

Sakuta enjoyed an early soak in the main baths—he had them all to himself—and after a delightful breakfast in a private booth in the dining area, they relaxed in their room until checkout time.

They reached the parking lot at eleven.

Since Ryouko had arrived in a different vehicle, they split up there. She said she was going to tour the local bakeries before heading home—that was her thing now.

As she climbed into the driver’s seat, she cautioned, “Don’t let them take too many pictures.”

“So we’re allowed some?” Sakuta asked as she pulled away.

“I imagine so,” Mai said, grinning back.

With that in mind, they climbed into her car.

They drove farther into the mountains, to Gora, the last stop on the Hakone Tozan Railway. From that point on, the rails were replaced with cable cars and ropeways.

There were a lot of couples in their twenties and thirties around the Gora Station shops. Chatting happily, buying gifts, and eating dango.

“Ryouko says that music festival is on April first.”

“That’s a ways off.”

Today was December 25, Christmas, a beautiful day for a date. They had over three months until that festival.

“The offer came from the band that appeared in my last film. They wanted me to be a secret guest vocalist.”

“You really nailed the hell out of their song.”

“And people are still talking about it, hence the offer. It’s a nice treat for the fans, so Ryouko and the agency are on board.”

Doing a live re-creation of a scene from a movie would be a lot of fun for anyone who got the reference.

“So what are your thoughts, Mai?”

“Meaning?”

“Are you gonna take the offer?”

“I am. They did a lot for me, and it’s nice to return the favor.”

“Then we’re one step closer to that dream becoming reality.”

On April 1, Mai would be on that stage.

“Now I just have to sing a Touko Kirishima song and then reveal I am her.”

“Suppose I’d better buy a cell phone.”

“That would do the trick.”

Neither had any such plans, so they laughed.

“Still, if the future really does turn out like your dream—that’s a relief, isn’t it?”

Mai spotted a sign for the Hakone Gardens and turned on her blinker, then changed lanes.

“What do you mean?”

“At the very least, I’m safe until then.”

“I suppose you’ve got a point.”

 Find Touko Kirishima.

 Mai’s in danger.

He’d yet to figure out what that message meant.

The car stopped in a parking lot between Gora and Sengokuhara. Mai had driven them to a garden that had been built into the natural landscape and was maintained by a foreign flower artist.

“With that in mind, only one thing to do,” Mai said, getting out and walking away.

“Yep. Enjoy our date!”

Their hands clasped together.

The walk through the winter flower garden was a pleasant one. Every now and then, they’d pass someone else, but mostly they heard only their own breath, their own footsteps. From time to time, they could hear a woodpecker in the distance.

“Where could it be?”

“Good question.”

They looked for it but never saw the bird itself. Just the tap, tap, tap, tap from somewhere far away.

They gave up their search and took a rest in the garden café. The staff told them the woodpecker was claiming its territory.

Just after one, they drove back to Gora Station and ate a late lunch nearby. They had a popular local specialty—firm tofu breaded and sliced to look like pork katsu and stewed in an earthen pot.

After blowing on the hot cutlets for a while, they wound back down the mountain roads to Hakone Yumoto, the last stop on the Romancecar line. They went shopping for souvenirs near the station.

Sakuta bought some yosegi-zaiku coasters and yumochi—thin slivers of red bean jelly in marshmallow-soft mochi. He and Mai had eaten some in the attached café, and he thought Kaede would like it, so he bought a box to take home.

They left Hakone Yumoto just after three. The traffic forecast had predicted jams in the evening, so they left before things got bad.

They made a stop in Odawara to order kamaboko for New Year’s and were back home in Fujisawa before five.

“I’ll be over just after six.”

“Looking forward to it.”

After agreeing to eat dinner together, they split up outside their respective buildings.

He made sure there was nothing in the mailbox, then boarded the elevator. He’d only been away for the night, but it sure felt like a homecoming.

That feeling only got stronger as he left the elevator and headed for his apartment door.

He unlocked it and stepped in.

As he did, he heard voices inside, likely from the TV. Kaede had spent the night with their parents in Yokohama, but the lights were on, and he could hear movement.

As Sakuta took off his shoes, Kaede came out, carrying their cat, Nasuno.

“You’re late!” she said.

Nasuno meowed. Sakuta took that for a welcome.

“I was on a date, so actually, I’m home early.”

Once his shoes were off, he stepped up into the room.

“But why are you here, Kaede? I thought you were staying with Mom and Dad.”

“I felt bad leaving Nasuno all alone, and I’ve got a shift at six. And I need to talk to you.”

Her voice grew smaller and smaller as he headed to the living room. Not because he was leaving her behind—she was just getting quiet. He could hear her footsteps right behind him.

“About what?” he asked, putting the souvenir bag on the dining room table.

“……”

Kaede didn’t answer right away.

Sakuta turned toward her, and she avoided his gaze as she put Nasuno down.

The TV switched from commercials to the news.

“Continuing our discussion of the connectivity issues affecting all social media: Since early this morning, users on multiple services have reported difficulties accessing sites.”

The screen showed logos for text- and photo-based services—quite a few of them.

“About this,” Kaede said, pointing at the screen.

Sakuta had no clue what she meant.

“This?” he asked, turning his attention to the TV. The male announcer was starting to expand on the details.

“Sources say the issues may have been caused by a flood of users attempting to post under this #dreaming. So many users that the technical problems continue even hours later.”

Reading from the teleprompter, the man proceeded to explain the hashtag itself. Beginning with “Many of you have heard of it already…”

“Hashtag dreaming again…”

Sakuta had heard about this a lot lately and struggled with his own seemingly prophetic dreams it was related to. Directly or indirectly.

And it was not a good sign if the trend had grown visible enough to hit the news. Even if they were focused solely on the connectivity issues it caused.

“Kaede, can I borrow your laptop?”

“Oh, sure.”

He opened it and tried to load a short-post service. It took quite a while. He waited patiently, and eventually, the site loaded. Like the news said, the issues clearly had not been resolved yet.

He did a search for #dreaming.

Once again, it took nearly a full minute, but at least results showed up.

A whole list of dreams.

 I dreamed I broke up with my boyfriend. The reasons were so on point. That’s who he is! I had to laugh. #dreaming

 Please, no. I dreamed I got into college—argh! It was just a dream! I moved to Tokyo, started a new life, it was great—then I woke up! #dreaming

 Nighttime cherry blossom viewing. A college friend got drunk and puked everywhere. I’m not letting that dude touch booze again. #dreaming

 Dreamed my girlfriend dumped me. It sucked. She said a lot of things, but it boiled down to how I hold chopsticks. Gotta fix that quick. #dreaming

Every one described a brief moment of time, but with great specificity. Like they’d just happened yesterday. That felt a lot like the dream he’d had.

And the list of posts went on forever. More were added every second. Not a couple hundred or a couple thousand, but verging on six digits. That’s how many people had dreamed the night before and were inspired to post about it.

Assuming all these dreams really showed the future, what did that mean? How would this affect what lay ahead?

The guy dumped for holding his chopsticks wrong might escape that fate by holding them properly. He might get dumped for something else. There was no telling until the moment arrived.

“……”

Feeling eyes on him, he looked up. Kaede seemed like she had more to say.

“So what did you dream about?” he asked.

“Huh?”

She blinked at him.

“You wanted to talk about that, right? They say these dreams come true.”

“Yeah, but…”

She pursed her lips, appearing disgruntled. She was obviously of two minds. He could see her waffling.

“Is it embarrassing to talk about?” he asked, reaching for the souvenir.

“Not embarrassing, just…”

“Just?”

“……I dreamed the other me came back.”

Sakuta’s hand stopped, hovering over the box.

He looked up and met her eyes, and she averted them, petting the cat.

Still crouching, she said, “She and Nasuno were waiting for you to get home.”

“……”

Saying nothing, Sakuta picked up the box of mochi and opened it. He took out a piece—it felt ready to fall apart in his hands—and shoved it past his lips. It melted in his mouth before he could even chew.

Figuring he should make something to drink, he got the tanuki and panda mugs from the kitchen. He filled the electric kettle and hit the On switch.

“Is something bothering you? Anything that might retrigger the dissociative disorder?”

He put instant coffee flakes in the tanuki cup and cocoa powder in the panda cup.

“I’m not you, Sakuta. I have problems.”

“Like?”

The water in the kettle was starting to bubble. Also, Sakuta had plenty of problems.

“My future,” Kaede admitted, clearly loath to do so.

“Well, that’s a healthy concern. Classic ‘winter of your second year of high school’ troubles.”

The water was boiling, so he poured some into each mug. The bitter scent of coffee and the sweet fragrance of cocoa mingled in the air.

“You didn’t worry about it at all.”

“I did! About what excuse to give Mai if I flunked the exams.”

He handed the panda mug to Kaede.

“But you passed.”

“I couldn’t think of an excuse she’d buy. Had to study my ass off.”

“……”

Kaede took a long sip of cocoa.

“If you had failed, Sakuta—what do you think you’d have said?”

“Well, Mai’s the one who helped me study.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“So I’d probably have gone with ‘You didn’t teach me right.’”

“……”

Kaede froze, mouth hanging open. Flabbergasted.

“Naturally, I’d make it sound like a joke!”

“Most people wouldn’t. Couldn’t!”

“Well, I didn’t.”

Kaede let out a long sigh, but she no longer looked nearly as downcast. He could see a smile playing near the corners of her mouth.

“Then if I fail my exams, it’s your fault,” she said.

“How is that?”

“I’m gonna go to college.”

“I thought you were struggling with your future plans.”

“And I just made up my mind. I’m still not great with crowds, but…yesterday, Komi said her top pick is the same school you go to.”

By Komi, Kaede meant her oldest friend, Kotomi Kano.

“I thought it would be nice if I could go there with her. Is that allowed?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I mean, it’s kind of a flimsy motivation.”

“My motivation was one hundred percent going to college with Mai.”

“You’re just doing what she tells you to do.”

“Is that what it looks like?”

It was true, but Kaede made him sound totally whipped.

“Kaede, in your case, going to college is also about your desire to get out more, to go farther away…right?”

“Yeah, but…it sounds cringe when you spell it out like that.”

“You should do what you want to do.”

“Mm. Thanks.”

“How are you on time? Your shift’s at six?”

He glanced at the clock; it was 5:40.

“Ack! Sakuta, say that sooner!”

Kaede hustled off to her room and emerged a moment later in the same clothes with a coat over them. She went straight to the front door.

“I’m outta here!” she yelled.

“’Kay. Take care.”

“Lock the door for me!”

“Sure.”

He got up and went to the door, but Kaede was already gone. The door slammed shut, so he turned the latch and went back to the living room.

“She dreamed about the other Kaede, huh?”

The murmur escaped his lips.

If that dream was real, he could hardly just stand by. When she’d overcome her disorder and gone back to the original Kaede, the doctors had warned him there was every chance of a relapse. That’s how dissociative disorder worked.

But he’d consciously avoided tying that idea to the other Kaede. Even if his sister’s symptoms flared up again, it might not lead to the same outcome—so he’d avoided thinking about it.

Especially after Kaede got through high school admissions.

Now she was successfully taking online classes and working a part-time job.

Kaede was doing well, so well he didn’t need to worry about a relapse. She was leading a normal life.

“Guess we’ll just have to keep an eye on her,” he said, looking at Nasuno, who offered an encouraging meow.

Intending to rest a moment, he reached for his mug. The coffee was getting lukewarm, but he took a sip…and his eyes lit upon the phone.

“Oh, right.”

That reminded him of a question he had to ask.

He picked up the receiver and dug an eleven-digit number out of his memory. The one he’d dialed in his dream—Ikumi Akagi’s phone number.

Holding the phone to his ear, he could hear it ringing. The call had gone through. The number was in service.

It rang five times to no avail. No one answered.

He was sent to voice mail.

So he left a message.

“Is this Ikumi Akagi’s number? I’m Sakuta Azusagawa. If I’m right, I’d appreciate a call back. Thanks.”

With that, he hung up. If that actually was Ikumi’s number, he figured she’d call back quickly. She was diligent like that and would act on the message the moment she heard it.

That assessment of her proved accurate, and the phone rang less than a minute later.

The display showed the number he’d just dialed.

“Hello?”

Not sure it was actually Ikumi, he answered like a stranger was calling.

“This is Akagi,” she said, just as formally.

But the way she took this in stride was very Ikumi.

“Oh, it’s me. Azusagawa,” he said, switching to his normal tone.

“Mm-hmm,” she said, likely nodding.

“Sorry to spring this on you today.”

It was December 25. Christmas.

“It’s fine. We were just cleaning up after a Christmas party.”

“For the educational support volunteer thing?”

“Yeah. They all had a good time.”

“Then well worth doing.”

“You’ve got that lovely girlfriend, so should you really be calling me?”

“We already went on our date. And we’re eating dinner together later.”

“So? Who told you my number?”

Not interested in his bragging, Ikumi got to the point.

“Nobody.”

“Then how…?”

“I dreamed about it. Dreamed I was calling you.”

“And you remembered the number and decided to try it?”

“You sure saved me from spelling it all out.”

“That’s…really unsettling.”

“By which you mean the implications?”

“That’s half of it.”

“And the other half is my decision to call?”

“……”

She answered with silence. Silence signaled agreement. He’d at least have liked her to say so out loud.

“You think the dream you had is part of what’s on the news?”

“Likely, yeah.”

“And since my number was real, it might actually show the future.”

This was an absurd conversation on the face of it, but Ikumi seemed unperturbed. That was so very like her, Sakuta thought. Ikumi had been through her own share of the weirdness Adolescence Syndrome brought, and that had made her flexible enough to roll with things like this.

“And I called you to confirm that, Akagi. I know it’s out of the blue.”

“No problem. I had something to share with you myself.”

“You had a dream, too?”

“I imagine it was about the same day and time. I dreamed you called me.”

“……Oh.”

This was surprising, but he wasn’t sure what part of it he should be surprised by, which ironically helped him accept it.

“What did we talk about?”

“You rang me up out of nowhere and wanted to meet at Yokohama Station right away. Sounded like you needed my help with something serious. And it was from a cell phone number. After sunset.”

“That certainly matches my dream.”

The differences were down to perspective. Caller versus callee, Sakuta’s POV versus Akagi’s. Everything else lined up.

Was that coincidence? Possibly. But given what he’d seen on the news, it was hard to just dismiss it like that.

“Azusagawa…”

Ikumi’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Mm?”

“I think I’ve figured something out.”

“About the dreams?”

“About what they really are.”

“Yeah…?!”

His voice got a bit loud and Nasuno jumped.

“These dreams are actually…”

Staring at the buttons on the phone, Sakuta listened closely to what Ikumi said next. He wasn’t conscious of what he was looking at—his entire focus was on his ears alone, on Ikumi’s words.

What she said was something only Ikumi could have worked out. It rattled him. But more than that—it made sense. Her explanation lined up perfectly with what he knew about the dreams.

“Coming from you, Akagi, I’m inclined to believe it.”