Chapter 2: 2. [Does]

“What were you housewives talking about?”

Iyo’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, um, just some catching up and whatnot.”

Get out of this town.

His words were still digging deep in my mind. I had no idea what he was talking about, and he refused to explain any further. The serious glare in his eyes told me he wasn’t joking, but I couldn’t just up and leave.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. There was no way I could figure out what he meant, especially not now. I could ask if he could elaborate later if need be.

“Sure you were,” Iyo said as she plopped down on her bed. She looked over at me then tapped next to her. “Come here.”

I hesitantly walked over to the bed and laid down beside her. Although we’d done this plenty of times before, now that we were older it felt much different. Especially since I hadn’t seen her in so long.

She turned to look at me, her brown eyes reflecting my nervous face.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” she reached towards my face and gently touched my cheek. Her cold palms almost stung against my warm face. “I always hoped I would see you again…and here you are.”

I put my hand on top of hers as I responded, “And I won’t be going anywhere…well kinda. I still have school after winter break.”

She laughed as she let me go.

We laid there for a few minutes cherishing each other’s company. I could feel her body heat with how close we were. I feared we might’ve been close enough for her to hear my heart race.

“I tried looking for you online,” I said to fill the silence. “I never found anything about you.”

With social media being everywhere, I imagined I would eventually find her online. Even after years of trying, I had no such luck. It could’ve been school pictures or pictures taken by other people, but there really was nothing about her.

She smiled, “Mom never let me on the internet. Said it was too dangerous.”

“Really? That strict?”

“Sucks, right?”

Her mom had always been reserved, so I never got to know her as well as Iyo’s dad. She never came across as strict though.

“She didn’t even let me go out with friends. All I could do was lock myself in my room and listen to vinyls, maybe CDs if I was lucky.” She sighed.

“Sounds fun.”

“Screw you.” She playfully shoved my shoulder.

These moments were something I never imagined reliving. Even the simple things like the lavender smell of the room and the shelves lined with baseball equipment were surreal.

After some silence, Iyo said, “Hey, Katsu.” Her eyes lowered as she took in a deep breath. “Can I still trust you?”

A question out of left field.

Out of many things I hadn’t thought of, the way our relationship might’ve changed during this long period of time was one of the bigger ones.

Trust was hard to come by, and though we fully trusted each other at some point, we were different people now. But if there was one thing I was certain of, it would be my willingness to do anything for Iyo. So there was only one correct answer.

“Of course.”

With a nod, she sat up and reached for the nightstand next to the bed. She opened the drawer and pulled out a small rectangular device. One that I had seen not that long ago in fact.

“Is that an NAHD?” I asked bewildered.

NAHD or Neural Augmentation Holographic Device was the official name for the device in her hand. It was the same device Araki was wearing earlier in the arcade.

“Cool, right?”

“Why do you have one of those?”

“Oh, mom gave it to me. She works in a lower branch of the company that makes them.”

“AUGCORP?” I asked.

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As far as I knew, they were the only company that manufactured those devices. They might’ve been top of the line but were quite expensive.

“Yeah,” she admitted. With a sigh, she added, “Gosh, that name just screams soulless corporation, doesn’t it?”

She turned it a few times before tracing the AUGCORP logo on the side of the device with her thumb.

“Here,” she grabbed my hand and put the device in it. “Put it on.”

I’d obviously never used one, but I had an idea how to operate it. I placed it on my temple, and it attached with an odd sound.

Immediately, the AUGCORP logo flashed before my eyes. A single holographic window popped up in front of me, a folder icon on the top left.

Iyo sat down next to me and inched closer until our shoulders were touching. “Open that folder.”

I double tapped midair where the folder icon was, opening the file.

“What is this?”

Inside the file were multiple sketches of people. They were realistically drawn, but I didn’t recognize any of them.

“They’re my drawings.”

“You drew these?” I marveled.

She nodded, “Yeah, I did.” She twiddled with her thumbs before continuing. “Those people…they were in my dreams. I drew them after waking up. It was like their faces were engraved into my brain.”

Was she just wanting me to see her drawings? Even though I asked myself that, I knew by her expression that there was more to it.

“Can you open the other folder?”

A single folder was mixed in between the images. I opened it and a few screenshots of news reports were revealed in a new window. All of them related back to a missing person.

“Do you see?”

See what? I was about to ask, but before I could, I realized something. If I looked at the drawings, then at the screenshots…

“They’re the same.”

“Right,” she said with a nod.

…the drawings and the people in the news reports were the same.

“Every dream I had happened the day before they went missing.”

I glanced at Iyo who was looking at the ground.

Her claims were nothing less than outrageous. No one would believe what she said was true, but her face told me she wasn’t lying.

“Hm…I see,” was all I could say. How else was I supposed to react to this information?

The news screenshots were all from the local news and they’d occurred in the last month and a half. The crime rate in this town was low and disappearances were almost unheard of. The fact that eight had happened coincidentally when she dreamed them in that time frame was a cause for concern.

I was speechless, but thankfully, Iyo continued.

“I…wanted to ask for your help.”

“With what?”

“Well, it’s just…” she let out a sigh, “I had another dream again.” She reached for the nightstand again and pulled out a notebook. She opened it to a page and handed it to me. “This is who appeared this time.”

Just with a glance, I recognized the careless smile and the hair parted over to the side. The face was none other than Araki.

“You mean…” I trailed off.

With a nod, she said, “If things go as they have, Araki might go missing by tomorrow morning.”

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