Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 13 - Chapter 1.4

4

January 3, a whole new year.

Shortly after noon, Sakuta took Mai to his parents’ place in Yokohama.

The New Year’s programming on TV was starting to calm down a bit now, and they all watched that while eating his mother’s zoni—for the first time since the previous year. Kaede had stayed over the night before, so she was eating with them.

The zoni soup contained mochi, chicken, Chinese cabbage, carrots, and sliced red-and-white kamaboko. They’d placed an order for this last ingredient in Odawara on their way back from Hakone and arranged for it to be delivered on New Year’s.

“Mai, thanks for the kamaboko,” his mother said as Sakuta savored a bite of it.

“We sent that in my name!” he said.

“But we all know it was Mai’s idea.”

Mai said nothing, but her smile said everything.

“You can’t put anything past my mom.”

“This boy, I swear.”

Mai watched them bicker, grinning happily.

After lunch, Sakuta and his father did the dishes. Kaede, their mother, and Mai sat on the couch, watching the New Year’s programming.

Then the MC said, “But first, an update from our news division,” and the screen cut to an elderly anchor.

He bowed once and began delivering the news, his voice calm.

“Early this morning, in a residential area near Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama, a man was arrested for vandalizing license plates. The police responded to complaints from area citizens and caught him in the act. He appears to have used pliers to bend over a dozen plates. Police comments suggest the man claimed to have dreamed that he would remain unemployed after graduation in April and was lashing out. On a social media account believed to belong to the accused, there was a #dreaming post dated December twenty-fifth of last year. The police investigation will focus on how that led to this incident. That’s all from the news desk.”

He bowed again, and the brief update ended.

The screen went back to the New Year’s programming, and cheery voices echoed from the speakers.

“Well, that was weird,” their mother said.

“Mm-hmm.” Mai nodded. She didn’t know how else to answer.

It was a very weird story.

No ordinary person would get so angry about a dream that they’d take it out on other people’s cars. But this outlandish incident had made it into an ordinary news report.

Everything about that felt wrong.

But this was a real-world case. Not an obscure article found online, but something the TV news was covering, something the police were investigating and giving interviews to reporters on.

The social media outage had made the dreaming hashtag public knowledge, and Sakuta’s hopes had been dashed—even now, the world was still talking about it. Rather than fade out, #dreaming was only making itself better known.

“What did you dream about, Mai?” Kaede asked absentmindedly. Just assuming she’d had a dream. Sakuta didn’t even think that was strange.

“I didn’t have one,” Mai said. A totally normal response. She’d said the same thing the morning after. Nothing weird about it.

But for some reason, it bothered him now.

“Oh yeah?” Kaede said, blinking. Proof that in her mind, everyone had had a dream.

Most young people had. Sakuta, Kaede, Kento, Juri, Toranosuke—all of them. Ikumi’s had even overlapped with Sakuta’s.

Mai was the only person Sakuta knew who hadn’t. This was likely true for Kaede as well. That was why she’d been taken aback by Mai’s answer.

Was this just coincidence?

“Live from Kanagawa Prefecture’s own Enoshima!”

The screen cut to a female announcer in a brightly colored long-sleeved kimono.

Sakuta’s mother seemed to be struck with an idea, and she turned to Mai.

“Mai, yours is coming up this year, yes? Your coming-of-age… Oh, we don’t call it that anymore. The gathering of twenty-year-olds, was it?”

“Oh, yes, that’s next week.”

“Do you have a kimono?”

“My mother showed up yesterday and dropped one off.”

She took out her phone and showed Kaede and Sakuta’s mother a picture of it.

“Wow, that’s lovely! Perfect for you, Mai.” Kaede sounded impressed.

“That is nice! I’m looking forward to you turning twenty, Kaede.”

“That’s a long way off.”

“Only three years.”

“That’s a long time.”

Sakuta kept one ear on their delightful conversation, but that nagging doubt was still with him.

Why hadn’t Mai dreamed?

As four o’clock rolled around, it began to get dark out, and Sakuta rose to his feet.

“Time we got going,” he said.

Mai stood up as well, reaching for her coat and purse.

“You could stay for dinner.”

“I’ve got work. We’ll come over next time we’re free.”

“Geez, didn’t you just have a shift yesterday? Take a holiday!”

“I’ve got shifts tomorrow and the day after, too.”

With that, he stepped out the door. Glancing up, Sakuta noticed that half the sky was dark. Orange to the west, shifting to a pale blue, then navy, then a night sky.

“Later!”

“Thanks for having us.”

His parents walked them down to ground level. Mai and Sakuta waved to Kaede, then headed to the lot where Mai’s car was parked.

She paid the three-hour lot fee and drove them away.

The navigator screen showed the roads back to Fujisawa.

“Mai, can I borrow your phone?” he asked when they stopped at a red light.

“Go ahead.”

Since she had her hands on the wheel, he grabbed her purse from the back seat and pulled out her phone. The phone case had bunny ears on it.

“It’s locked.”

“Point the screen at me.”

It registered her face and unlocked itself. A very diligent phone.

The light turned green, and as the car pulled out, Sakuta dialed a number.

It rang once and the call was answered.

“What’s up, Sis? What’s the news?” Nodoka seemed to be in very high spirits.

“It’s me,” Sakuta said.

“Oh. Why?”

His voice was enough to send her spirits plummeting. Possibly into the abyss below.

“You got a minute?”

“I’m at a dance lesson, but we’re on break. That’s why I picked up.”

She sounded disgruntled, obviously urging him to get to the point.

“It’s only the third, and you’re already back at work?”

“We’ve got a gig coming. So? What’s this about?”

“Did you have a dream on Christmas Eve?”

With her hands on the wheel, Mai glanced his way. Her focus was soon back on the road, but she was clearly listening.

“Huh? Where’s that coming from?”

“Just answer the question.”

“I did. We were doing a show at a hall in Yokohama. Uzuki…all of us had the same dream, same venue, same show.”

“That’s nuts.”

“We already have a gig booked there for April first, so none of us were all that surprised.”

“I feel like you should be.”

He figured Uzuki had just gone, “Like, wow! Destiny is on our side!” and ended the discussion.

“So, Sakuta? Why are you asking?”

“Just curious if you’d had one.”

So he was done here. It was a yes-or-no question. Nodoka, Uzuki, and the rest of Sweet Bullet had all had dreams. That was everything he needed to know.

“Sorry to interrupt your break. Bye.”

“Hey, don’t—”

Since he’d got what he wanted, he went ahead and hung up. Nodoka was still talking, so he thought maybe she’d call back. He waited a few seconds, but the phone didn’t ring. Maybe her break was wrapping up. Maybe she’d decided it wasn’t important. Sakuta was fine with it either way.

“Thanks for the phone, Mai.”

He put it back in her purse.

She’d definitely been waiting for that.

“Sakuta, is my lack of a dream bothering you?”

“You’re the only person I know who didn’t have one.”

“I’m more concerned about the weird one you did.”

“Can’t argue there.”

Mai’s point was valid. The people who’d had weird dreams should be the source of concern. Kaede, Ikumi, Nodoka, Uzuki, Kento, and Juri.

“And your parents didn’t dream, either.”

They’d said as much earlier. Neither had ever had a dream that felt especially real.

“But they’re grown-ups. Not exactly in the throes of adolescence.”

If these dreams were Adolescence Syndrome, then they were only affecting people in that age bracket. Where the upper limit on that lay was a mystery, though.

“Then I guess I’m no longer an adolescent,” Mai murmured, like it was simply a fact.

That carried more weight than her words alone.

“You’re very mature,” he said.

“High time you grew up, Sakuta.”

She smirked, teasing him.

“That sure would spare me all this worrying about Adolescence Syndrome.”

That was definitely the ideal solution. The problem lay in the definition of grown-up. Since Adolescence Syndrome derived from the mental instability of youth, it was likely not solved purely by the accumulation of time. Maturing within was the true definition of growing up. And by that standard, Mai was certainly qualified.

“……Which means you’re right.”

“Hmm?”

“The people who did dream are the weird ones.”

“And you’re going around seeing this Santa Claus that I can’t.”

“That makes me sound pretty far gone.”

Objectively speaking, he truly was.

“Be grateful your wonderful girlfriend puts up with your mess.”

“My current goal is to hit up driving school after final exams so I can take a turn at the wheel.”

He hadn’t mentioned this before.

“So that’s why you’re taking all these holiday shifts!” Mai said, grinning.