Yukino

[ChesCa]

Sorry, my tabs button isn't working for some reason.
Facepalms
How could I forget the theme song for this thread?

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'Yukino'

In the village of the Black Paper people, the specters of twisting breathing fabric danced amongst the fog secreting lanterns, humming their songs as it vibrated through their beings. They twisted into soft circles and spiraled into sharp squares, squashing into high shapes and stretching into low ones. Most would have run away in horror or had at least become too dizzy to watch, but not the little girl, sitting on the edge of their little village, watching in fascination but too shy to come close.
As she watched, she felt something grab and shake her. She could not see the hand and she began to panic. Before she could scream, she was paralyzed by an unknown force. Struggling and grunting, she finally gave up when she realized what was happening.
She was waking up. In an apartment, Ms. Nagawa shook her daughter awake.
"Yukino, it's time for the appointment," she said.

Dr. Issei was meeting with the most challenging patient in his life. Her name: Yukino Nagawa. Age six. Born in Hiroshima, New Japan in the year 2991CE. Yukino was indeed one of the special cases: every attempt to diagnose her disorder had been met with failure. Japan…no, the world had made great bounds and leaps in the field of psychiatry: mapping the brain, decrypting chemical readouts, reading behaviors and above all, 'curing' them. Of course, even with today's medicine, not all mental ailments could be gotten rid of, but with disabilities such as autism, shyness and anxiety just a few pills away from total erasure, it would only be a matter of time before all mental deficiencies were gotten rid of. Of course, there is a down to every upside: every human body is different, and as diagnosis became more refined, so did the medication needed for each patient. One milligram of a special medicine to treat depression could throw a person who needed only half a milligram out of whack in the skull, leading to symptoms from 'mild nausea' to 'total psychotic breakdown.' This was why the ShikoPlus was invented: a machine that could diagnose every known disorder and read what treatment was necessary to bring a person back to normalcy. The machine itself was just a portable helmet that had sensors lining the inside that read brain functions. Every nineteen patients out of twenty had been successfully diagnosed. It was usually Issei who was in charge of the last remaining patient. Dr. Issei specialized in talk therapy, an old but necessary method to diagnose those who could not…or would not...use the ShikoPlus. Some patients' brains were not compatible with the helmet, and as a result produced no read out. It was then up to Issei to use trial and error to find the correct diagnosis and to let the patient's physicians take care of the prescriptions. The rest of the patients, however, just found it too embarrassing to use the helmet. Throughout history, the mentally impaired were ostracized, and these times were no different. Some patients found shame in wearing the helmet, or would be afraid that someone they knew would find out they used it. There was even a hushed, derogatory nickname for the ShikoPlus. The YanDome, which sometimes translated to Crazy Cap. Issei could get even the most stubborn of clients to eventually use the ShikoPlus after ensuring that there was no shame in using it nor would there be a violation of privacy, and that's why Yukino had been assigned to him: she would not wear the cap no matter what. Both the doctors and her mother had thought that its touch had caused immense discomfort, and that she seemed to be deathly afraid of it. Right off the bat Issei had thought 'Autism or Asperger's' when he read the report about her, but he was still legally bound to make absolutely sure that this was the problem with her, lest everyone involved face a malpractice lawsuit. And so it was that Issei waited in his office for his new patient to arrive. His secretary's voice crackle on the intercom.
“Dr. Issei, your six o' clock is here.”
“Send her in, Miss Nosa,” Issei responded.

Ms. Nagawa glanced at the rearview mirror out of habit and saw nothing in the backseat.
That's right, she had Yukino sit in front this time around. She wanted to give her daughter comfort concerning this 'new development.'
Ms. Nagawa fidgeted in her seat as she thought carefully about what she would say to her daughter.
A few nights ago, she sat Yukino down at the dinner table and tried to discuss what was going to happen. She spoke about how mommy was worried for her, that she wanted Yukino to be happy and have friends and grow up to be a loving, caring person, and that she would not leave her alone with an adult that wasn't friendly. Yukino nodded her head to please her, but Nagawa knew that she didn't really understand the weight of the situation or what they were trying to do.
The antsy mother tried not to shake her leg while driving. Her mother had always told her not to do that, or people would stare at her.
Right now, Yukino was just staying quiet and staring off into space, ignoring her new surroundings. The change in scenery and routine did nothing to phase her or pique her interest. She wasn't even looking out the window for the new buildings. Ms. Nagawa put her eyes back on the road, trying not to look like she was judging her own kid. A lot of children her age should be looking at the buildings and landmarks as they passed by on a trip so that they could judge how far they were from home on the way back, but not once had Ms. Nagawa seen Yukino do anything like that.
Kids did that right? Adults did it too, so Yukino should be following suit.
Maybe.
“What do you want to listen to on the radio?” she asked.
Yukino turned. “I don't know.”
“Well, what kind of music do you listen to?”
“I don't listen to any kind of music.” She looked down a little, almost on the verge of spacing out back into her own little world.
“Mom's just going to put on some jazz.”
“Okay.” Yukino looked to have barely registered her mother's statement.
Soothing piano music permeated the front of the car shortly thereafter.
“How was school yesterday?”
“The same,” she responded. It was always the same, both Yukino's school day and this conversation.
Nagawa pressed the subject anyway. Maybe this time she'll get something out of her daughter other than 'nothing special' or 'the same.'
“Really? What happened?”
“I dunno'. It was just the same.” Yukino also never told what the same meant.
Fine, then Nagawa will just have to take the lead.
“Well, what did the teacher teach?”
“Math,” she replied timidly. Her arms were laying on her lap.
“Oh. That's good. What did you do then?”
“We had a test. I got a 10.”
Nagawa's eyebrows raised for a fraction of a second. Was her kid also…
“A ten? How many questions were there?”
“Ten.”
Oh.
There was a prolonged silence in the car as Nagawa managed to blank out every possible subject for school that could have been talked about.
“I'm very proud of you honey!” Nagawa mustered up the most enthusiasm she ever felt for being able to count numbers. Yukino looked at the car door. Ms. Nagawa raised a mental white flag and drove the rest of the way in silence. If there was one thing she knew, it was that talking about Yukino was off-limits for Yukino.
When they arrived, their destination was a clean, white building that was two stories tall. They entered through the front and spoke with the secretary.
“Oh hi, Ms. Nagawa! And how are you today?”
She didn't answer the question. No way she could say 'fine' after having just pondered whether the love of her life was stupid or not on top of worrying about her mental condition.
“I'm just here to sign in my daughter,” she said and smiled politely.
“Okay, sure. Let me just buzz you in.”
She pressed the button on the intercom. “Dr. Issei, your 6 o'clock is here.”
“Send her in Miss Nosa,” Issei's voice crackled from the other side. The secretary buzzed the door into the main offices open.

Dr. Issei had always left his door open so that he was visible to the patients as they came in. The security door buzzed and Ms. Nagawa walked her daughter into the office. A small thing, less than 4 feet high, Yukino was dressed in blue slacks and a white shirt. Her hair was cut short and she was remarkably pale. The meaning of Yukino's name was 'Snowy Field.' She certainly lived up to that description.
Ms. Nagawa leaned down and met her daughter in the eye.
“Okay, sweety, I'll be right outside if you need anything.” Yukino gave her mom a small hug.
“I love you,” she said, like she was saying good-bye forever. That was okay. The young ones usually don't get used to strangers too quickly, but Issei could usually loosen them up after a few sessions. What Issei's observant mind immediately noticed was that Yukino barely spoke above a whisper, a totally withdrawn voice and lifestyle. The file on her had mentioned that she was often 'gloomy and vapid.'
Ms. Nagawa gave a quick wave and smile to the good doctor and headed out. Yukino stood in the middle of the room, unsure of what she should be doing.
“Hello there. How are you?” Dr. Issei leaned forward and smiled, but made sure not to get into her face with his friendliness. He wanted her welcomed, not smothered.
“I'm okay.” She avoided eye contact and looked at the floor.
“Why don't you have a seat and get comfy?” Issei offered, directing to the couch. Yukino climbed on and plopped onto where the cushions sink down, looking like she'd fall into the couch at any moment now.
“Tell me a little about yourself Yukino.” Always proactive, never apprehensive or disinterested. That was how Issei would always handle his cases.
She stared. She couldn't think of anything to say. No worries, just lead her on and she'll get more comfortable.
“Say, how old are you?”
“Six.”
“Oh, so you're getting on in years.”
That stare again. Over her head. Poor choice in a joke.
“What's it like being six?”
“I'm smarter, I guess.”
“Really? How smart are you?”
She fidgeted a little and broke eye contact. “I got a perfect score on my test.”
The report on her also said that she was having trouble in school, partially from having trouble getting up in the morning and partially from being bullied by other kids. Personally, Dr. Issei had also laid blame at Ms. Nagawa's feet for not disciplining her daughter enough. He had heard she was being raised in a 'study-free' environment.
“How good for you! What was it about?”
“Numbers. I can write up to ten.”
Dr. Issei pulled out a sheet of paper and some pencils.
“Why don't you draw them for me?”
“Am I going to be tested again?”
“No, not if you don't want to.”
Yukino took the items anyway and wrote on the end table beside the couch. After a few moments, she finished and gave it back to the doctor. He looked it over.
She can count. Well, that's one thing she can fell confident about.
“That's very good of you.”
“I knew I could do it.” She spoke as though she had done nothing of importance. That's interesting. Usually praise rubbed kids in the right way.
“Yukino, what makes you happy?”
She raised her eyebrows a little, then thought about the question. For three minutes.
“How about this Yukino: What makes you feel good?”
She pondered for another minute.
“I don't know the right answer,” she finally replied.
“You're not being tested. Any answer you give is okay.”
“I know, but I think I don't like lying.”
This one had the strangest answers. Not especially worrisome yet, but strange. Perhaps this one had delusions of grandeur? A self-inflicted burden of being perfect and always right?
“You think you don't like lying?”
“I thought about it a little.”
“Why don't you like lying?”
“Because it will make me feel bad.”
“I see. Why would that happen?”
“I dunno'. That's just what would happen.”
A slight pause as Dr. Issei tried to think of the next topic.
“Can I build a house?” Yukino asked.
“Oh. Sure.” Issei pointed to some blocks scattered in a basket on the game shelf. Instead, Yukino began gathering all the pillows she could from the couches and placed them around herself. It only covered up to her waist. She added on the cushions as well, and propped up the cushions so that one was at her back and two at her sides, like a tent, then stacked the pillows within the v-shaped area of the cushions to make a kind of wall. Only her eyes were visible through the opening.
“I've never seen anyone play house like that before.” Issei was genuinely a little perplexed and amused. Most parents nowadays had discouraged their kids to doing this by now.
“I do it all the time at my house. I use blankets and pillows though. I also like to do it in a closet sometimes.”
“Why do you go into the closet Yukino?” Issei wanted to make sure she wasn't hiding from her mother.
“I just like it in there. It's dark and I'm all comfy.” That last sentence is accompanied by her smiling a little and hugging herself. So she did have a comfort zone.
“My mom doesn't like it though. One time she came home at night and I fell asleep in there. When she opened the door she screamed and thought I was an animal or something. Then she told me I couldn't do it anymore because she said sleeping in dark and small places were for rabbits. I would've told her I was in there if I was awake, but I messed up.”
“Yukino, you don't need to blame yourself. I'm sure your mother isn't even bothered by it.”
“But I was supposed to know.”
Yukino was a zealous type A. If it continued to be focused on self-blame, this was not good for her well being. Issei made a mental note to steer that personality type to something more constructive.
“Yukino, it's okay that sometimes bad things happen and make mistakes. It's how we learn.”
Yukino looked confused.
“Okay,” she finally commented. Another conversation over her head. She'll learn when she's older anyway. Let's change the subject to…
“Yukino, what do you like to do?”
“I dunno'.”
“Let me say that again: what is your favorite thing to do at school?”
She thought a little. “I like drawing time. I can be by myself and do my own thing.”
“I see. What kind of things do you draw in class?”
“I draw people and grass and animals, and sometimes,” she leaned forward and whispered “even monsters.”
“Ooooh. What kind of monsters?”
“Scary ones. With lots of…lots of...,” she searched for the words, “Wiggly legs.”
“Wiggly legs?”
“Yeah. And also black monsters that are like paper.”
A portrait from her psyche could help in his diagnosis. Issei got the paper and some crayons this time. “Could you draw them for me?”
“Okay.” She set them down on the table and really got into her work, taking six minutes to complete it all. She used up a good chunk of the black crayon. Black is actually the only color she used.
She gave the paper back to him.
On the page are what looked like squiggly, blobby patches of black. One was unidentifiable, another looked to be a scowling person with big, round ears, another a stack of laundry with small ears and the last shape slightly resembles a...
“Those wiggly legs are called tentacles. Squids and octopus have them.”
“Oh! Like the kind you eat.”
Issei chuckled. “Yes, like that.”
“Ew. I've been eating slimy things.”
Issei laughed at that. “Don't worry, the food makers make sure to clean it all up before they serve it to you. Do you like drawing these kind of things?”
“I think it's okay, although the teacher makes sure I don't draw anything scary again.”
Again?
“What did you draw that looked so scary?”
“What people really look like.”
That could be something of note.
“Could you draw me a picture of what we all really look like?”
“Will I get in trouble again?”
“I just want to see how you see things. There's no wrong way to do that.” And even if there was a wrong way, it could be easily remedied.
Yukino hesitated a little when given the drawing materials again, then spent two minutes scratching down on the desk and paper. When she was done, she handed it back.
The 'people' in the paper barely looked like people at all. They had arms and legs for sure, but...their eyes and faces were gaping red holes, and they had wheels on their feet. The backs of their heads were broken and out of those holes came wires, which led up and out of the page. The arms and legs even looked funny: they were square and blocky, like wood.
Dr. Issei looked over at Yukino.
“Is this what they look like all the time?”
Yukino shook her head. “Only sometimes, when they're showing how they really look.”
“Do I look like that right now?”
Yukino glanced to the side. “Only a little.”
She really didn't look comfortable with lying.

The session ended a little early, but only so that Dr. Issei can talk with Ms. Nagawa. Yukino was given a coloring book in the lobby while she waited.
“What's wrong with her? What will she need?” Ms. Nagawa was wringing her hands, waiting for an answer.”
“I don't quite know what it is,” Issei began, “but so far autism isn't such a stretch. However, I think she may be the youngest patient that has ever shown signs of schizophrenia.”
“Oh...” Now the mother looked worried.
“Don't get too discouraged. I'm an expert in solving problems like these, though they may take a while.”
Ms. Nagawa nodded her head, but she was still looking back at her daughter in worry. Perhaps some 'home remedies' would help ease this case along.
“I do have one suggestion to make things easier for everyone,” he proposed.
“What is it?”
“Spend time with her.”
“Doctor, I do spend time with her. I talk to her at the dinner table, but she won't pipe up much. Any morning time is spent trying to get her out of bed and you know how that works out.”
The report had said she had trouble sleeping so much she had missed days of school. The event that finally got her mother to get her diagnosed was a day where Yukino literally spent almost the whole day sleeping.
“What I mean is spend quality time with her. She seems almost incapable of enjoying herself, and always worries about things beyond her control, even small ones like scaring you from the closet.”
“Oh, I remember that night. She startled me and I scolded her,” Ms. Nagawa looked guilty, “She looked like she'd committed a crime and I spent the night worrying I was too hard on her. How do you suggest I get her to open up?”
“You know her better than me. What would she like? Maybe set aside an hour that's all about her, even if it's just to distract.”
Nagawa thought for a moment.
“I guess I could read to her,” she said half-sure, “She can get pretty absorbed into a story, and that's usually when she can settle down a little.”
“Good. Let her choose a story she might like and you read together with her. Make it seem like you can understand her tastes.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Wrong choice of words.”
“I can set aside Sunday for reading time. I'll see what she likes in a book. Thank you doctor.”
“No problem. Same time next week.”
Ms. Nagawa turned to the door.
“Oh, I'm sorry, but there's one more small matter.”
“Yes doctor?”
“Does your daughter like to play 'House' a lot?”
Ms. Nagawa gave an exasperated laugh. “Yes she does doctor. A lot.”
“Whenever she gets…” she searched for the words, “overwhelmed, she hides in a really small space and covers herself. She really likes the feeling of being covered. She once described it as being like a turtle. It's just comfort thing, I guess.”
“How long and how often has she been doing this, Ms. Nagawa?”
“Technically for a few months now, but ever since she was—just before she was four, actually—she would always crawl away into hiding spots. Like under the cupboard or in a corner where furniture meets, like she wanted to be alone.”
Ms. Nagawa gave an exasperated yet amused sigh, “There's no talking that kid out of that habit no matter what. It's okay now though. I've told her where can and can't go, but recently she just took to wrapping herself.”
“Is there any way for you to coax her out of places?”
“What would happen normally is that I'd just take her out of wherever she was and she'd just crawl right back later. Now I can just call her for dinner or tell her that I'm going to the store and she'll come right out. She's a good girl.”
“I can believe that. But...”
“Yes doctor?”
“When you read to her, try doing it in a place where she's not so at ease.”
“What? Will she be able to handle that?” Ms. Nagawa glanced at her kid again. She was coloring the pages in black. 'More Black Paper People?' Issei wondered.
“Oh no, nowhere dangerous. Just the living room or outside. Just get her used to a new location. You can tell her you have an easier time reading there.”
“That...could work.”
“It's nothing but a small precaution. When she gets used to being around people, at the same time she'll be learning to explore outside her comfort zone. Not to be so apprehensive of new environments.”
“I'll do it, but is this really necessary doctor?”
“Oh, it's probably a phase, but...”
Neither of them needed to say it. 'She could grow to become a future shut-in.'
“….I would recommend disciplining her out of this stage of life as soon as possible.”
“I know. I should have done it when she was younger, but I wasn't strong enough.”
Ms. Nagawa teared up a little, but before Issei could offer reassuring words, she composed her self again.
Thank you Dr. Issei.”
“Oh, anytime,” he responded.
Nagawa exited out of the door into the lobby, but Issei kept his door open for his next appointment, who should arrive shortly. Through the lobby door, he heard the mother and child.
“Yukino, what kind of books do you like?”
“Um...a book about animals.”
“Any kind of animals? What's your favorite?”
“Rabbits!”
“Why are you asking?”
“Because I just the best for my little daughter.”
Issei swears he could hear the smile in Ms. Nagawa's voice.
“Mom, you're squishing me in front of all the peoples.”
He heard the two leave, presumably to a bookstore.

The Brown Burrow. A place to be served drinks by beautiful, almost half naked women in animal suits. That is where he always went to unwind. First greeted out of courtesy, now as a regular. Dr. Issei did not think it a sin to enjoy himself with drink and beautiful women. Many who could find out would be shocked, but that's what made him so good at this job: he could do things both ways. As long as he kept his business and personal life separate, all the more power to him.
“Pass me another one!” he shouted, red faced and red nosed.
“Yes Master. Is there anything else you would like?” asked a dainty waitress in a kitten costume with a low cut neckline. He ogled her for a moment.
“Master, I'm afraid that there are other customers.”
“Oh, of course of course sweet potato.”
“Thank you Master,” she refilled his drink, the third one he had tonight, “Please enjoy yourself.”
As she walked away, he swore she deliberately sashayed like that just to get people coming back. All the girls did so, but with hips that wide she could really toss it out. He downed his drink and sat back, groggy and taking in the nice view of the scenery.

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Yukino
Ms. Koona Nagawa squeezed her right shoulder in self comfort as she watched the doctor lay her daughter down on the bed, gently shooshing the child while she whimpered and sniffled through the cotton ball held in her mouth to stop the bleeding. Even his patient and tender demeanor couldn't calm the quaking of her body and he gave Ms. Nagawa a look that said 'help her.' The mother let go of her arm and knelt down next to her child, placing one hand on the forehead and the other into her daughter's grasp. Their eyes met.
“Ssssh, it'll be okay Yukino. Be brave.”
Nothing stopped the tears but Yukino nonetheless nodded her head.
The doctor took out his thread and needle and instructed the girl to keep her mouth open as wide as possible before removing the cotton. Yukino had to face the doctor but had started squeezing Ms. Nagawa's hand for comfort. Also per the doctor's instruction she held out her tongue.
The teeth marks made a gash nearly halfway through the tender flesh where Yukino had deliberately bit down. The mother didn't permit herself to look away but it was impossible to swallow the new lump in her throat.
During the suturing Ms. Nagawa had sometimes needed to hold down Yukino's head to keep her from turning away in pain. Regardless she was still a good girl for most of the procedure and it was a merciful ten minutes before everything was done.
As Yukino held her mother's hand Ms. Nagawa finished the check out process with a smiling but clearly uninterested secretary.
“Would you like to schedule another appointment for the ShikaPlus?” the secretary politely recited from whatever sensitivity training she was given.
“No,” Ms. Nagawa was curt but respectful, “I'd like her to see a therapist.”

Dr. Issei had an appointment with the most peculiar patient in his life. Her name: Yukino Nagawa. Age seven. Born in Hiroshima, New Japan in the year 2491CE. What made her peculiar was that every attempt to diagnose her disorder had been met with failure, and it wasn't because of a problem with the equipment.
The world had made great bounds and leaps in the field of psychiatry and psychology: mapping and deciphering the human brain, decrypting chemical readouts, reading and predicting behaviors and most important of all, curing them. Of course, even with today's medicine, not all mental ailments could be gotten rid of, but with disabilities such as autism, shyness and anxiety just a few pills away from total erasure, it would only be a matter of time before all mental deficiencies went the way of smallpox and polio.
Sadly, there was a down to every upside: every human body was different, and as diagnosis became more refined, so did the medication needed for each patient. One milligram of a special medicine to treat depression could put a person who needed only half a milligram into a state of panic. This was why the ShikaPlus was invented: a machine that could diagnose every known disorder and read what treatment was necessary to bring a person back to normalcy. The machine itself was just a portable helmet in appearance, but the lining was full intricate sensors that could scan every known detail of the brain, marking red flags in its database of everything that needed to be fixed. Every nineteen patients out of twenty had been successfully diagnosed and treated before their ailments matured into something potentially catastrophic. It was usually Issei who took care of the last remaining patient.
Dr. Issei's specialty was talk therapy, an archaic but necessary method to diagnose those who could not…or would not...use the ShikaPlus. Some patients' brains were not compatible with the helmet and as a result produced no read out. In those cases Issei used trial and error to find the correct diagnosis and let the patient's physicians take care of the prescriptions. The rest, however, just found it too embarrassing to use the helmet. Throughout history, the mentally impaired were ostracized and these times were no different. Some patients found shame in wearing the helmet, or would be afraid that someone they knew would find out they used it. There was even a hushed, derogatory nickname for the ShikaPlus: the YanDome, a less than subtle word meaning 'Crazy Cap'.
This was where Issei really earned his bread and butter: most of these types of patients were scared of change or judgment, and talk therapy was there as a safety net to assuage those fears and lead them back onto the path of social harmony. It was especially effective on children and he had the most success with the young ones.
Still, Issei wasn't expecting this to be another cakewalk, based on the file of this girl. There had been an emergency when attempting to put the ShikaPlus on her head. Not only did the patient have to be restrained, but when she had no other means of escape she bit down on her tongue hard enough to draw a massive amount of blood. The mother had legal right to force Yukino to wear the cap but Issei understood how hard it was to take the rational route when things affect your loved ones personally.
Both the administrators of the test and Ms. Nagawa had thought that its touch had caused immense discomfort to the point of hysteria. Right off the bat Issei had thought 'Autism or Asperger's' when he read the report about her, but he was still legally bound to make absolutely sure that this was the problem with her, lest everyone involved face a malpractice lawsuit.
And so it was that Issei waited in his office for his new patient to arrive. His secretary's voice crackled on the intercom.
“Dr. Issei, your six o' clock is here.”
“Send her in, Miss Nosa,” Issei responded.

A 2498 Hendai AutoDrive merged onto the Freeway System and the vehicle AI automatically began following the safest path to the doctor's office.
Inside Ms. Nagawa glanced at the rearview mirror out of habit and saw nothing in the backseat.
That's right, she had Yukino sit in front this time around. Her daughter would need comfort concerning this 'new development.'
Ms. Nagawa fidgeted in her seat as she thought carefully about what she would say.
A few nights ago, Yukino was sat down at the dinner table to try and discuss what was going to happen. Ms Nagawa spoke about how mommy was worried for her, that she wanted Yukino to be happy and have friends and grow up to be a loving, caring person, and that she would not leave her alone with an adult that wasn't friendly. Her daughter nodded her head to please her, but Nagawa knew that she didn't really understand the weight of the situation or what they were trying to do.
The antsy mother tried not to shake her leg. Her own mom had always told her not to do that, or people would stare at her.
Right now, Yukino was just staying quiet and staring off into space, ignoring her new surroundings. The change in scenery and routine did nothing to phase her or pique her interest. She wasn't even looking out the window for the new buildings. Ms. Nagawa put her eyes back on the road, trying not to look like she was judging her own kid. A lot of children that age should be looking at the new buildings and landmarks as they passed by. Not once had Ms. Nagawa seen Yukino do anything like that.
Kids did that right? Adults did it too, so Yukino should be following suit.
Maybe.
Ms. Nagawa turned to her daughter and smiled.
“What do you want to listen to on the radio?”
Yukino stared back. “I don't know.”
“Well,” her smile was a bit more forced to compensate for the awkwardness she felt, “what kind of music do you listen to?”
“I don't listen to any kind of music.” Yukino's head lilted down a little, almost on the verge of spacing out back into her own little world.
“Mom's just going to put on some jazz,” the knob was already being turned to the ON position.
“Okay.” Yukino looked to have barely registered her mother's statement.
Soothing piano music permeated the front of the car shortly thereafter. The mother leaned back in her seat but didn't unfold her arms until she realized they were already crossed.
“How was school yesterday?”
“The same,” school was always the same, as well as this conversation.
Nagawa pressed the subject anyway. Maybe this time she'll get something out of her daughter other than 'nothing special' or 'the same.'
“Really? What happened?”
“I dunno'. It was just the same.” Yukino also never told what the same meant.
Fine, then the adult would just have to take the lead.
“What did the teacher teach?”
“Math,” she replied timidly. Yukino's arms were laying on her lap.
“Oh. That's good. What did you do then?”
“We had a test. I got a 10.”
Nagawa's eyebrows raised for a fraction of a second. Was her kid also…?
“A ten? How many questions were there?”
“Ten.”
Oh.
There was a prolonged silence in the car as Nagawa managed to blank out every possible subject for school that could have been talked about.
“I'm very proud of you honey!” Nagawa mustered up the most enthusiasm she ever felt for being able to count numbers. Yukino looked at the car door. A mental white flag was raised and the rest of the trip was in silence. If there was one thing she knew, it was that talking about Yukino was off-limits for Yukino.
Ms. Nagawa took over the wheel after leaving the freeway system and a few minutes later they reached their destination: a clean, white building that was two stories tall. After parking mother and daughter entered through the front, where a plump but more charming secretary than the one in the hospital sat in the middle of a soft colored, warm room.
“Oh hi, Ms. Nagawa! And how are you today?”
Nagawa didn't answer the question. No way she could say 'fine' after having just pondered whether the love of her life was stupid or not, on top of worrying about her mental condition.
“I'm just here to sign in my daughter,” she smiled politely.
“Okay, sure. Let me just buzz you in.”
The woman pressed the button on the intercom. “Dr. Issei, your 6 o'clock is here.”
“Send her in Miss Nosa,” Issei's voice crackled from the other side. The secretary buzzed the door into the main offices open.
[/hide]

[Kitsune Inferno]

Alright, first of all, you've got a wonderful set of characters here. Yukino is clearly the star of the show, even if she's not the narrator. Issei and Yukino's mom are rather plain and typical, but they work, so I don't really think you need to change them. They serve the story well. And Yukino is rather profound and very interesting. What kind of story is she going to have, I wonder? I'm really looking forward to it.

My biggest complaint is that you've got no hook. A first chapter, of any work, should give the reader a good sense of what the story will be about. I'm at a loss when it comes to Yukino. Is this a feel-good family story? Is this a supernatural thriller? An action series? There's nothing that tells the reader what to expect, which is in direct contrast with Bound, which probably told the reader too much. You should strive to strike a balance here, because as interesting as Chapter 1 may be, it tells me nothing about what kind of story it is.

You had a few grammatical and structural errors here and there, and I was unsure who the narrator was in the second-to-last section until the end. I was a bit confused at times.

Other than that, Yukino is a valiant effort and the cast is astoundingly interesting, despite there only being three characters so far. Just remember, a hook is key, even if it's just an exposition chapter…

[ChesCa]

Thanks for the review. After the reviews, I'll change the first chapter to reflect what we talked about.
[hide]
The next week, Yukino was more at home in his office, now that she knew that she was to come every week.
“How are you today?” Issei started. He always hated starting that way, but whatever got the ball rolling.
“I'm okay. And how are you?”
“Oh I'm fine. Thanks for asking.”
“I know that. I'm just supposed to ask.”
Eh, she'll get this human interaction stuff done right eventually.
“Are you learning manners in school now?”
“No. My mom said that I should ask people how they are. I don't know why because I can see how they are just fine.”
“Hmmmm,” Issei took an exaggerated pondering pose for her benefit, “That's true, but why do you think your mother wants you to do that?”
“I dunno'.”
Well, no one was exactly born courteous.
“Well, I can take a guess: People like it when others care about them, but they don't always know when someone does. By asking that, that person will know that you care, and it will be very nice for them.”
Yukino turned glum for a moment.
“Yukino?”
“Nobody ever asks me.”
New strategy.
“I'm sure that they're just shy.”
“What does shy mean?”
“It means to be afraid of good things.”
“Why would anyone be like that?”
“It's a mystery.” That and he didn't want to pour the complex possibilities on a first grader.
“Ooooh.”
Time to see if he can dive into the next layer of this girl's mind.
“Yukino, do you like where you live?”
“Oh yeah. It's okay.”
“What's your house like?”
“Um…there's a kitchen, and a living room, and a TV room with a biiiiig TV,” she stretched her arms out at the word 'biiiiig', “and my bedroom and my mom's bedroom and the bathroom and the hallway.”
“It sounds like a pretty big place.”
“Yeah, it's okay.”
Better than 'I guess' or 'I don't know the right answer.'
“Do you and your mom get along pretty well?”
“Um...I guess.”
Too soon.
“Do you get into arguments?”
“Only when I don't get up in the morning. She gets really mad and yells at me sometimes,” she started looking glum again, “The rest of the time she's okay and lets me do my own thing.”
“Did you two do anything together?”
“Sometimes she would make me go shopping with her, but that's boring and I always want to go home. And we eat together.”
“Anything else?”
“Mmmm,” she grunted, a little annoyed, “I used to read by myself, but now she wants to read for me.”
A slight hitch for the mother. Better get the daughter to loosen up more with the new plan.
“Do you like reading by yourself?”
“No one bothers me when I'm reading in school. They don't come near me.”
“When do you read?”
“Recess.”
The children are probably distracted, or she sits somewhere they don't notice.
“I sit in the classroom and do it.”
Or there's that.
“Why does it bother you when your mother does it?”
“Because I want to do it on my own!” she was pouting a little.
“Oh, well, just tell her that you want to read to her.”
The idea latched onto her as planned. “Will she listen?”
“If you tell her to. The next time you sit down, tell her you want to show off a little.””
“What?”
“That you want to show her how good you are at reading.”
“Oh. I'll do that.”
“Very good.”
Keep the conversation going. Don't let the progress stall.
A key part of a child's growth was a good, strong, healthy family unison. Issei decided to check that aspect of her life next.
“Do you talk with other family members?”
She shook her head. “I only live with my mommy.”
“There's no one else?”
“My mom says I had a daddy, but he died before I was born.”
“I'm sorry to hear that.”
“That's okay, because I don't know him,” she looked down at her lap, “Sometimes the kids make fun of me for it, though.”
“How did you feel when you first found out that he was dead?”
“I was a little sad, but my mom looked even sadder. Like she wanted to cry, so I hugged her.”
“That's very nice of you. I'm sure she liked that.”
Good. Normal bonding with the parent.
“I knew she would.” She actually grinned a little at that. She had some pride, it seemed.
“What about any aunts and uncles, or grandma and grandpas?”
“She said I'm not allowed to see them.”
Division in the family. Not good.
“Why Yukino?”
She shook her head again. “She didn't say.”
Best not to pry, but that could be worth remembering. Would the other family members be a bad influence on her, or was it a more personal thing on Ms. Nagawa's part?
Speaking of relations, that brought up another point.
“Do you have anyone to play with?”
“No. And I don't want to,” a defiance coupled with her usual glumness. Despondency. She doesn't want friends because she gave up on having them.
“Don't you want someone to talk to?”
“I'm talking to you.”
“No no, I mean like kid stuff or stuff you wouldn't say to me.”
“I'm not going to say anything to you that I don't want you to know.”
“This is the part where she's supposed to act creepy and possessed and like an adult,” flashed the thought between Dr. Issei's ears, but she said it naturally, like she was just letting him know.
That usually wouldn't bother him or any psychiatrist; there were private and then there were personal matters, but children would just hide and hide, not letting anyone know they have a secret. Yukino's reply was something more along the lines that a frank speaking adult would say.
“You don't have to say anything you don't want to.”
“I know. No one can make me say anything.”
That adult talk, innocent manner again.
“And they shouldn't.”
“I think people are going to try anyway, but I won't say anything.”
“What kind of people are they, Yukino?”
Was someone after her? Why? Was it just the other kids?
“Some people that mom doesn't like and told me never to talk to. They're grown ups with cameras and papers. I know what will happen if I talk, so I won't.”
“What will happen if you do talk?”
“She'll be in the newscasts, or what she says are trashy peep shows.”
Reporters?!
“Why is your mom so famous?” he wanted to ask.
None of his business none of his business none of his business. Focus on the cause and cure of her disorder.
“Your mother taught you well. It's bad to talk to adults you don't know outside of here, your school and your house.”
Yukino's eyes rolled a little up and to the side, then her eyebrows raised. She just remembered something.
“I almost forgot: Do you know what 'Media Whore' means?”
That's a bizarre development.
“No, I don't,” he lied, “Where did you hear that?”
“My mom. She was talking on the phone and she told the person not to call her that. She was really mad. She found me and told me to wait in another room while she talked.”
No family connections and an angry phone call from someone who would throw personal insults at Ms. Nagawa? Sounded like an estranged relationship if he ever heard of one.
Time was up a short while later after they had made small talk.
“Yukino, when you come back next week, can you do me a favor?”
“Yes?”
“Could you tell me about the story you're reading?”
“Okay,” she grinned. “It's called Watashipu Daun.”
“I'll remember that.” Issei smiled back.
Best to gauge how well the 'project' was going by seeing how lost she gets in the conversation over it. Too bad it was an english title, or else he'd be able to figure out what she just said.

Dr. Issei waited for her to exit the office, then poured himself some water. He'd been talking for a long while today and needed a break.
Yukino acted like she knew everything and was never wrong. That probably wasn't a good sign. Girls her age should be humble and willing to listen to her seniors more. Maybe the early stages of Narcissism. Or maybe it could be connected with that earlier Super Type A personality she had and she can't relax until she's sure she knows everything. If the latter were the case, the mother would firmly but carefully break all expectations of being right. Better that than letting life do it in a much harsher manner and having her react negatively to it. If it was the former…Yukino will be seeing psychologists for a very very long time.
Baby steps. Just teach her how to work well with others she doesn't know and build on that. What matters is getting a handle on her problem, and the earlier the better.
“You're next appointment is here Dr. Issei,” Miss Nosa buzzed on the intercom.
“Send him in, send him in,” he gulped down one last glass for good luck.

Yukino dreamt again that night. In that dream, the Black Paper People were dancing and making weird shapes, humming and talking at the exact same time. The thing with the wiggly legs (tentacles, they're tentacles) was on the ceiling, not caring what was going on below, letting the Black Paper People pass through his hanging tentacles. It looked sad and lonely, so Yukino walked up to it.
“How are you?” she asked.
Two big, shiny, bulbous white eyes, not unlike searchlights, widened and focused on the little girl. The Black Paper People stopped dancing, but they only muttered and looked at the ceiling squid, whispering their translucent hums.
After a long pause, it answered “I could be better.”

[/hide]

[Kitsune Inferno]

Hmmm, I really liked it. It seemed each chapter we were going to get a little more of Yukino's story peeled back, but my one issue is the end of the chapter. It seems so out of place… I'll have to see Chapter 3 before making the call on it, but it's a little jarring and kills the immersion.

[ChesCa]

Here we go, the next part:
[hide]
“What happened next?” Issei asked Yukino.
“And then they went into the forest, and then they were nearly eaten by a dog,” Yukino was using rapid hand and arm gestures to put the point across. Good. She's excited. Kids in a good mood were usually more pliable.
“Oh wow. How did they get out of that one?”
“Bulakubelli figured out that they could float wood and help the rabbits that couldn't swim up the river.”
Blackberry. Yukino meant Blackberry. Issei was going to need to teach her how to correctly pronounce the words one day.
“This sounds very interesting. I didn't know a story about rabbits could be so cool.”
Dr. Issei wasn't putting on a facade when he said that: he was genuinely entrenched in a tale of rabbits trying to find a new home.
“We had to stop there last night, but I get to hear more tomorrow.”
“I'm glad you like it Yukino.”
Nice to hear that her home life was becoming at least a little more enjoyable. A positive sign of progress that she's taking root to the efforts to curb her avoidant, queer behavior.
“I knew I would–”
She stopped herself.
“Yes, I enjoyed it very much. It was cool,” she almost stiltedly said, like it was rehearsed.
It seemed her speaking with so much self-assurance was finally effecting her home life. Her mother was now obviously training her to be more humble in her language.
The next question wasn't a sure fire way to learn more about her, but it was worth a try.
“So, who is your favorite character?”
“FAIBA!” she exclaimed.
“You knew you liked him the moment you saw him, didn't you?” Issei said while nodding. He was waiting for Yukino to explain the character before he chanced to guess who she was talking about.
Yukino opened her mouth to exclaim again, but paused.
“Yes!” Her head nodding was a little too enthusiastic.
What? Did she know she would like him before she even heard of him? Still, progress was progress, and when she fit into the habit of humility her grandeur should fade with it.
“What do you like about him?” Issei asked, trying to calculate which rabbit she was talking about.
“He can see the future.” Yukino put up her hands like a magician having just presented something out of thin air.
Fiver. She meant Fiver.
“Is he always right?”
“Uh-huh.”
Somehow, Issei knew she would say that. He chuckled under his breath.
“What's so funny?”
Whoops. He slipped.
“I just think he sounds a lot like you, Yukino.”
Issei hoped his tone made it sound like he was just ribbing her.
She still smiled, but it faded to a small one, her teeth disappearing.
“I'm not a rabbit.” Even for a child this was poor cover.
Wishes to hide from the world in her 'house', thinks she knows everything, relates to a psychic rabbit that can predict the future and should be listened too. Conclusion: Keep her away from message boards. She won't be able to escape.
Now came the hard part. She wasn't likely to be in a better mood than this.
“Do you ever feel like that? Like no one is listening to you?” Dr. Issei wore his empathy face to put her at ease.
Yukino slouched back and folded her arms. She looked down. Putting up her guard? Thinking? She didn't respond for a full minute.
Dr. Issei was about to press the question again when she looked up.
“People listen to me, but I think they think I'm lying.”
Persecution complex? Maybe. Probably just the usual communications problem with someone still learning how to talk to others.
“They think you're lying?”
“Not lying but…” she can't think of the word.
“Wrong.”
She sunk back further into the chair than before. Crap. Too strong a word.
“Yeah,” Yukino sighed sullenly.
Still, he had to go forward.
“Yukino, sometimes you have to accept the fact that you don't know everything,” Issei started, carefully making his words as non-judgmental as possible, “Sometimes fitting in and growing up means swallowing your pride and going along with what's best for you.”
Yukino started to frown and pull her legs up to her chest. She stared up at him from a downcast head. Better lighten the load a little.
“Today, we still function as a society because we learn to interact with each other, working towards what's best for the group,” he reassured her, “Without these skills we could not have built and rebuilt our society to where it is now.”
Yukino was very still. The only sign of movement was that her eyes had turned away. She really didn't want to hear what was being said.
“Yukino look at me,” he said as gently as possible. She turned her eyes back towards him, but they were squinted, like she was struggling to focus her gaze on him. That made sense: children with autism or Asperger's always had a hard time breaking the habit of low eye contact. Usually it was best to start when the child was four to discipline them to not look away, but Yukino at least wasn't too old yet to start.
“I know it's very hard for you right now, but that's okay. Not everyone has it easy. Learning to talk, smile, make friends and study comes to some people more easier than others,” he had made his tone as soft as possible, “There was even a time where for some people it was near impossible.”
Yukino gripped her legs harder. For all her pride, she really did have a habit of knowing what would come next.
“But we've gotten past those times, and we have medicines and machines to make it better for all of us.”
Well, most of Japan. There was still those few of whom the ShikoPlus had no effect on.
“Your mother and I only want what's best for you, so if you could–”
“No!” Yukino interrupted abruptly, turning her head away from him. Great. This was falling apart fast.
“Yukino, behave and let me finish what I was going to say.”
She snapped her head back at him and pounded her arms once on the cushion.
“I already know what you're going to say and I said no!”
“Yukino--”
“NO!”
It was hard to keep his calm tone of voice, but Issei would have never gotten his job if he didn't have the patience to deal with situations like these.
“No no no! You can't make me!” she was starting to raise her voice. The only way left to handle this was to just let her yell it out while he listened.
“Everyone keeps trying to make me wear that stupid hat but they won't leave me alone! I never wanted to put it on but my mom kept trying to make me! And the doctors kept trying to tie me up and put it on me and they JUST. WOULDN'T. LISTEN!” Yukino's voice had raised to almost a screech at the end. As nice as she usually was, she had absolutely no control over herself when she was angry. That was another typical habit of the autistic: if something doesn't go their way, they lash out to an inappropriate extreme. All of this could be avoided if she just put on the helmet, but then again that was precisely part of the problem. Part of her disability was an unhealthy aversion to new things.
She had finally quieted down, breathly deeply and quickly, her arms shaking from anger.
“Yukino,” he started, his voice emotionless, “I deserve better than being yelled at, and if you keep talking to me like that I will have to end things early.”
She was shocked and her arms stopped quivering. Playing the part of the victim was sometimes the best way to disarm someone.
“But you tried to make me put on the helmet too,” she blurted, immediately putting herself on the defensive. Now that she knew she was wrong, she'll no doubt be more open to reason.
“Yes, and I am sorry for that,” he explained, “but I deserve more respect than that, and in return I do not yell at you, okay?”
Yukino hugged her legs for a long time, looking ashamed. In defeat, she laid on her side and looked directly at her knees. She was closing up. Best to drop the bad cop act and put on the good cop cap again.
Dr. Issei leaned forward. “No one is out to get you.”
“What about the other kids?” Her already low voice was muffled by both her mumbling and her legs.
“Kids sometimes don't know any better. You just have to remember not to be like them, and try to stay away from them.”
“Can I do the same with the camera people?”
“Let your mother help you with that,” Issei sincerely advised.
“She sometimes yells at me when I talk about that kind of stuff.” This time she looked at him, but she was still curled up.
Dr. Issei was getting exasperated.
“Sometimes grown ups make mistakes too. Even I do from time to time. Try asking her if you can sit down and talk about it sometime.” Issei hoped that Ms. Nagawa would be open to that conversation.
“Oh. Okay,” she sounded like she had surrendered her fort to him.
After about a minute, Yukino sat back up, but was slumped into the couch. Issei let her sit there to mull over what happened.
“Dr. Issei?” she finally asked.
“Yes?”
“What do rabbits eat?”
That was an....interesting change in topic.
“Oh, lots of things: carrots, leaves, lettuce, grass,” Issei counted on his fingers as he went.
“Okay,” Yukino acknowledged.
“Why do you ask?”
She smiled. “It's a secret.”
He didn't need to be Faiba to see what that comment meant.
He wanted to press her and tell her that she would need to talk to her mother before bringing animals into the house, but he really didn't feel like challenging her after finally calming down from her episode.
“Well, whatever it is, make sure you tell it to someone you trust if it's very important.”
“Oh, I know that,” she said, beaming.
Of course.

The good doctor invited Ms. Nagawa into his office.
“I don't want to go into specifics, but you might want to think about getting a good rug cleaner in the near future,” Dr. Issei started, doing his best to warn the mother of impending carpet bombs without violating confidentiality.
“What? Oh Dr. Issei, is this about the rabbit she wants?” Ms. Nagawa asked nonchalantly.
So her mother does know. That's good and bad.
“You...didn't bribe her into behaving with a pet rabbit did you?”
“I thought about it, but only if she refused at first.”
“Ms. Nagawa.”
“I'm kidding doctor I'm kidding. She wants one because of the story. It's fascinating, that E-Archive. I just get drawn into it.”
“Yes, adventure isn't usually what I think of when it comes to rabbits,” Issei said bluntly.
Ms. Nagawa made a face. “You don't tell Yukino that do you?”
Whoops. “Oh no no no,” he sputtered. She gave a mischievous leer and snickered under her breath.
Guess even Ms. Nagawa had her sly side.
“I never let my adulthood corrupt my patients Ms. Nagawa,” he swore.
“I dunno.” Dr. Issei started sputtering again. “Oh, I'm just teasing.”
“Well, I just needed to let you know,” Issei just wanted to finish this conversation and get to the point.
“Yes, thank you doctor,” she turned to leave. Issei sighed a little inside.
“Ms. Nagawa, there is one more thing,” he said in his professional voice. She halted and turned, looking a little concerned.
“Yes?”
“Is there any reason why you will not make her wear the ShikoPlus?”
Ms. Nagawa's look of concern shifted into an almost glare. She was trying to be pleasant, but the glare behind her eyes could almost be seen.
“She didn't want to, so I didn't make her.”
“Ms. Nagawa,” he started, “It is within your power and right as a parent to make her wear the ShikoPlus.”
“Thank you for the suggestion. I will remember it,” she said mootly. Issei thought she would remember what he said all right.
“We need to make her wear it for her own good. It will not be pleasant, but it will only take a short time and she will be done with it.”
“Dr. Issei, did you know she couldn't speak for a week when we tried to put the YanDome on her?”
She was calling it the YanDome. Issei was on thin ice.
“I read in the report that she had resisted and you eventually escorted her out. It's the reason why she's here.”
“She bit her tongue, doctor.”
Issei was not aware of that. Whoever made that damn report was going to need to be disciplined.
“I was unaware of that Ms. Naga–”
Her mother interrupted him more quickly and harshly than Yukino did.
“She learned from one of my movies....my movies Dr. Issei,” she almost unnoticably gulped, like one guilty or afraid, “that biting your tongue was a way to win. A way to escape something bad.”
She sniffled a little but her eyes were still dry.
“I don't know if she knew that could kill her or not, but it was painfully clear for everyone that she was terrified of that thing, and I will not force my daughter to endure something she finds so horrifying.”
Issei almost pleaded a second time, but the poison misting from her words only signaled that she was more than ready to bite the head off of him and any objections he had.
“I understand. Forgive me for forgetting my place.”
He backed away.
“I am here to help the both of you,” he reassured her.
“Thank you doctor,” Ms. Nagawa's thanks sounded a little strained, “I hope that you don't mind we miss next week's meeting. It's her birthday that day.”
“I understand. Two weeks time then, Ms. Nagawa.”
The both stiffly returned to the normal routine of their lives.
[/hide]

[Kitsune Inferno]

I haven't read the chapter, but I JUST noticed what your theme song was.

Never seen the anime, but this song's part of that rescoring project I was working on

[ChesCa]

Here's the next part. I won't be submitting this to the bi-weekly:
[hide]
Yukino came in looking a lot more at home in his office. She was finally getting used to her new routine, trusting herself to someone she barely knew. This could also be an indication that her home life was improving.

“Hello again Yukino. How was your birthday last week?”

“It was fun. I got to have a big cake and go to the movies and got three—no four presents.” She displayed four fingers in triumph, hand raised high into the air in front of her.

“That's very good.”

He didn't even have to ask 'What did you do?' this time around. Yukino was finding something in her life worth sharing with others about. For a girl with her condition, she was showing remarkable progress in her adaptation to new things. Still, it wasn't like it would be enough to finally cure her. In the end, there was nothing that could benefit someone more than the ShikoPlus.

“What kind of movie did you see?” Issei kept the conversation casual for now.

“It was one my mom was in a long time ago. It was called Depth Row.”

Come again?

“Your mother was in a movie? Nooooooo,” he said in faux disbelief to hide his actual misbelief. His thoughts flew one after another like flash cards being sorted through at top speed. No matter how many images of actresses he brought up, he couldn't find anyone that looked like Ms. Nagawa. Did she change her appearance? And if so, why was she still being hounded by the press? He didn't see anything looking like her on the Netsphere.

“Yes she…” Yukino interrupted his thoughts, then she slumped, “I messed up.”

She wasn't supposed to tell. Understandable.

“I won't tell anyone about it. No one outside this room will hear that your mom was in a movie.”

“Thanks,” she beamed.

Reporters, hearing her mother being called a media whore, cut off from family. This girl will not be living in a normal household anytime soon. It made him wish to get to know the mother more, as Yukino's home life was directly affected by how well Ms. Nagawa could train herself to handle both personal issues and raising a child. Yukino first. She would need to serve as the point of view that her mother can not have of herself. Then he could think about calling her in for appointments and perhaps curing her of any deficiencies as well. Issei got the conversation going again.

“What was the movie about?”

“It was about a poor place in Osaka where the Koreans live and how they made these houses out of parts from back home and from what people throw away. It was good, but mom and a couple of other grown ups got mad at me when I accidentally gave away the ending.”

“Did you look on the Netsphere?”

“You little rascal you,” was what went unsaid between them.
“You can't make me tell,” Yukino's stated in a sing-song manner.

“I have a secret and you won't know what it is,” was what came from her undertone.

Backing off. Talk about the presents. Get her likes and dislikes and see if you could segue from there to something important.

“What did you get?”

She jumped right up and began counting on her fingers the four gifts she got.

“I got a toy dog, a bat alarm clock that I chose–”

“You chose? Isn't that cheating?”

“My mom was taking me to see some clocks for an alarm and I told her I wanted the bat one. She pretended to buy another one, though.”

He supposed that was clever enough. “Go on.”

“I also got a book about Alunesto–”

She really needs to get those English titles down.

“And a Faiba!”

A what?

“A what?”

“A Faiba! I got a pet baby rabbit like in the story!” Issei could see the gleam in her eyes.

“Wow, that is so cool. Did you name it yourself?”

“Yes!” Her one nod was so hard it looked almost like she wanted to shake her head off.

“What's he like?”

“He has brown fur with white circles around his eyes. He looks like a big, cartoon bunny.”

“You're making sure to take good care of it, right?”

“Oh yeah. My mom's teaching me how. We're making a garden box for him to move around in.”

“A garden box?” Issei asked.

“Outside in the balcony, where we keep some balls and fake grass.”

“Ahhhh. Well, that sounds like a lot of fun.”

He leaned back in his chair. She seemed loosened up enough now.

“Has school been getting any better lately?”

Yukino lost her excitement, but didn't don her usual glum face, instead getting comfortable on the couch and concentrating on prior events.

“It stinks.” She put on an almost melodramatic emphasis on stinks.

“I see.”

“When it was two days before my birthday, I ended up talking about it. They laughed at me and told me that nobody is going to go.”

“That's not very nice. How you did handle it?”

“I just walked away, but they kept following me so I ran. The teacher saw them then and made them stop.”

“When I see her, I'll be sure to thank her,” Issei assured her.

Yukino stared off into space for a moment.

“No one did come to my birthday party.” Her voice was monotone. It was difficult to tell if she was bored or just hiding her melancholy.

“I'm sorry. Next year, we'll do something here so you can have two parties.”

“It's okay. No one ever came before anyway. Not even grandma or grandpa.”

Dr. Issei leaned forward again.

“Have you ever met them or talked to them?”

“No. I'm not allowed to see them.”

“I see.” Ms. Nagawa seemed to be taking drastic measures to cut Yukino off from the rest of the family. This wasn't good for either mother or daughter, ignoring the bonding that comes with a strong family unit and the willful ignorance of rejecting one's elders. Issei's suspicion that some of Yukino's problems stemmed indirectly from the mother's doubled.

“How has school been since you first started coming here?” Issei wanted to dig a little deeper.

“More or less the same, I guess.”

“What about your home?”

“We keep reading, and I get to watch the Net Monitor until nine.”

“That's good.”

The conversation was stalling fast. Find something to latch onto.

“Is there anyone at school you like?”

“No,” she said flatly. She seemed to have totally given up on human contact and has already dismissed it as something she can do without anyway.

“Nobody! Everyone in the school dislikes you?”

“No! Some kids leave me alone,” she scolded the good doctor. There's some leeway for improvement there.

“There are usually group projects in schools. Were you ever partnered with anyone?”

She started rocking herself a little. She didn't like talking about her loneliness, or rather, how she wished she didn't experience it. That was one of the downsides of being alone out of frustration rather than any initial desire.

“I get partnered Anako. She works pretty nicely with me,” she finally mumbled, almost too bashful even for her.

“What have you worked on?”

“One time, we had to make this diarrhea–”

“Diarrhea?” Issei burst with genuine incredulity.

“The thing with the dolls and paper and glue.”

“Diorama. It's called diorama,” he couldn't hold in his laughing. Across from him, Yukino couldn't hold in her frustration.

“Sto-o-o-p! That's not funny!”

“I'm sorry. Do you know what diarrhea means?”

She gets confused. “No.”

“Ask your mother because she will never forgive me if I tell you.”

He calmed down, then implored her to continue.

“We had to make a diarrhea--”

It took about ten seconds for Issei to calm down again and forty seconds to talk Yukino away from her newly made fort.

“We had to make a thi-ing,” she spelled out for Issei, “and I had to collect the grass. I didn't have any toys, though, but she brought some from home.”

Her mood lowered. Whatever happened next wasn't good.

“But after school I was going to meet her to give her the toys back, but I put the diorama down to tie my shoes while crossing the street…and then I forgot it there.”

That probably caused a rift between the two.
“I didn't know until I was nearly home, but when I came back, the cleaning guy was already sweeping up everything. I was really sad, but when I told her everything, she told me it was okay.”
She paused.

“She looked sad too, though. My mom helped me buy her new toys as a present for what happened, and it was alright after that.”
That was good news. This Anako sounded like a healthy young girl, someone Yukino could bond with and learn to be more socially adept from. It would be really good for progress, and she would have a friend as a nice bonus.
“How is she now?” he inquired.

“Oh, she's fine. I say hi to her and she says hi back.”

“What did you think of the toys she brought?”
“I liked them, a lot.” She looked as though she wished she had gotten them for presents instead. Issei prepared himself a bit, then took the tone of someone asking a favor, suddenly sounding like her closest friend.

“I want you to do this for me: sometime this week, tell her that you like her and want to play with her.”

“How?” She looked ready to panic.
“Tell her you liked your toys, and maybe share something with her. Just play with her.”
“It'll be weird.”
“It's not like she's going to hate you.”
And then, Yukino went quiet for the longest time. Her eyes aren't just far from still, turning this way and that, but almost chaotic in their zigs and zags. If it weren't for the fact that her brow was so creased in concern, thought and fear Issei would've thought she was having a seizure or something. She stayed this way for two minutes before Issei stepped in.
“Yukino?”

“Shhhhh!”
She was quiet for another five minutes, looking for all the world like she was trying to solve the world's most evil math equation in her head, even wordlessly mouthing whatever she was thinking but never actually speaking. Her eyes slowed down to a stop, some of the tension vanished like a magic trick (but not all of it), and she finally looked the good doctor in the eye again.
“...I can do it,” she finally said, cautiously.
“Good. Let me know how it goes next week,” Issei hoped his fake cheeriness would put her at ease.
The rest of the session went by more quickly than anticipated and ended.
“Could you send your mother in for a moment? Miss Nosa can give you something to read while you wait.”
“That's okay, I'll read a little bit from Wataashipu Daun instead.”
“Good girl.”
A few moments later, Ms Nagawa entered.
“I have some concerns I would like to address.”
“What's happened to her?”
“It's you I want to talk about this time.”
“EH! ME!****”

Ms. Nagawa had clearly never seen herself as a problem. How many times has he gone through this talk now with the parents?

“Yukino is alone. Utterly alone.”
Ms Nagawa immediately grasped what he is getting at. She must've had this conversation before with others, possibly even with her own family. Not surprising, considering how unusual alienation from one's kin was.

“It's not that easy.”
“I do not know your family or professional situations, but from the way it sounds, Yukino is too isolated, and has never grasped how to interact with others.”

“That's not entirely my fault. She's been this way since she was in preschool,” Ms. Nagawa was on the defensive, but was trying to be graceful about it.
“Granted, but I sometimes wonder if you're trying too hard.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“How large is your family, Ms. Nagawa?”
“Not very, but I'm not in contact with any of them. Not voluntarily anyway.”
“They're stalking you?!” That didn't sound good either.
“For the most part, yes. But I can't do anything about it until they actually show up at my doorstep. For now, my mother is just too good at looking up my information. I have to have my agent change my call number every month.”
“Your agent?”
Now Ms Nagawa messed up. A rare opportunity.

“Nothing, just business.”
And there it went.
“I'm just worried that in keeping Yukino isolated from her family, you're doing it too well. There is absolutely no way she can leave the house? Ever?”
Ms Nagawa was at a loss.
“I don't do it on purpose…I just want...”

“Ms. Nagawa, don't you think Yukino deserves better than this? You're punishing her for whatever problems you may be having.”
Ms. Nagawa glared at him. “I'm not the one causing the problems.”
Issei had a feeling he was about to relieved of his duties.
“My mother and father are....” she paused, “They're my problem, but I can't let Yukino get into contact with them.”
Phew. It wasn't him that was getting the blame. This new fact that Nagawa wanted to protect Yukino from something did open up a new avenue of possibilities.
“I know a park just an hour up the freeway that's out of the way of the city. There's plenty for a child to do up there.”
Nagawa blinked. “A park?”
“Because there's very few out here in this stretch of the woods, and much more crowded.”
The mother took a few moments to get his meaning about how this trip would benefit Yukino.
“I'll…consider this.”
Translation: I'm going to buy sunscreen after this talk. A place to play and interact without having to worry about 'stalker family.' No one could say Issei couldn't compromise.
“Thank you doctor. Until next week.”
“Of course, madam.” They both give a short bow.
When Ms Nagawa shuts the door behind her, he heard a very loud question being asked in a tiny voice: “Mom, what's diarrhea mean?”
Nothing came of it, but Issei locked his door, just in case.

Yukino stared through a hazy, smoky glass now separating her from the Black Paper Village. The Black Paper People were displeased. Their master had left, ever since the day he talked to her. If he didn't return soon, she knew they would have to pick a new ruler, and they were at a loss as to who can fill his place.
An invisible man pushed through the crowd. They paid him no mind, used to his nudging as a way of making his presence known. Yukino knew the invisible man was looking up at the endless black of the ceiling.
“Does anybody have any idea where he could have gone?” His voice came through like she had water in her ears.
The Black Paper People hummed their 'no's' and 'sorries,' their vibrations rippling their bodies like tiny waves. Like ponds thrown in a puddle.

No one noticed that he disappeared until they realized that he doesn't nudge his way back from where he was standing. This was because he began floating into the endless black, tracking their master to where ever he went.
Yukino waited for the rest of her dream for the Black Paper People to start dancing again, but still they waited in concern for the return of their master.
[/hide]
Let me know if any parts or sentences confused you.
Also my writing group said that they wanted me to show Yukino refusing to put on the Yandome and not tell, except for me it seems superfluous and redundant to do so. The scene would only show that Yukino might have autism and an aversion to touch and new things and Ms. Nagawa doesn't want to traumatize her daughter by forcing her to put it on, which we should already know by now.
Thoughts?

[ChesCa]

Here's the next batch. I hope I didn't overdo it on the last part.
[hide]
“Piss! Off!” Yukino shouted with her fist in the air.
Huh?
“Huh?” Issei tilted his head.
“It's a new word I learned. It was in the book we read.”
“Really?” Issei knew he was in for a memorable session.
“My mom doesn't let me say it.” That's obvious enough. It also appeared that she just borrowed a grin from a devilish little imp.
“I won't tell, but let's not repeat that too many times,” Issei whispered to her.
“PISS OFF!” she shouted again.
Sigh. Best check on her progress with social interaction.
“Did you talk to Anako last week?”
She nodded her head. “Yes.”
“So, what happened?”
“I said hi, and then she said hi back. She was playing with her new helicopter.”
New one? Oh right, the car accident.
“I showed her my stuffed cat. And then we played astronauts,” she continued to list off.
“With the cat and helicopter?”
“The sandbox was the moon and the helicopter was the spaceship.”
“What was the cat?”
“Mission control,” her happy grin was almost contagious.
“So who went to the moon?”
“The spaceship,” she spoke matter-of-factly.
“I see. Anyone inside it?”
“We tried to fit in a dead sand bee, but it crawled away, so it wasn't dead anymore.”
From the girl who knew everything.
“But I forgot that it was alive, so it made sense.”
Ugh. At least she hadn't chased off anyone with her ability to know-it-all.
“And then, and then I asked to come over to her house, but her mom said no. I asked my mom but she also said no.”
That's not surprising. Not many were willing to take a strange child into their house so quickly. It could cause disruption.
“I think they're mad because they think I cheated off her terminal.”
What?
“Why would they think that?” Issei's concern was more genuine this time around.
She shuffled uncomfortably.
“Yukino, please answer me honestly.”
She had a hard time looking at him as she answered.
“We have the exact same answers.”
Issei internally shook his head.
“Yukino, you shouldn't copy off of other people.”
That nearly set off one of her moods when she shouted “I can't copy without her password!”
Wait, did he hear that correctly?
“You didn't shar information?” Issei asked. Sometimes the younger kids shared information as a sign of friendship or to take advantage of one another, depending on the person.
“No! We didn't do anything, but everyone thinks I still cheated!”
Issei would need to look into this more. Actually, this gave him an idea for what to do for his next session. He'd need to go buy it first though.
“Sorry, I believe you,” he lied, putting up his hands in defeat, “are you still allowed to see Anako?”
She visibly let all her tension go.
“Yeah. I even asked if we could go to the park next time, but she said 'we'll see.'”
So she went there already. Did it work?
“Which park?” Issei tried his best to act ignorant.
“Oh, it's a park reeeeaaaally far away. But it's really pretty, and has lots of grass and flowers for Faiba to silufulei on.”
What?
“Si-lu-fu-le-i?,” even he had a hard time wrapping his tongue around that, “What does that mean?”
“It's rabbit talk for eating grass,” Yukino then put on that grin again “and sometimes she makes hulaka.”
“Hu-la-ka?”
Wait a minute. Makes hulaka?
“She went poop,” She giggled wildly at this, “but then this police man came over and said we had to pick it up. My mom brought plastic bags, though, so it was okay.”
“Where did you learn this word?”
“Wataashipu Daun.”
What kind of book was this Watership Down?
“You got further into the book?”
“Yeah, and right now, they just reached their new home, but the bird told them that they won't survive because there's no one to make babies.”
Make babies?! Wasn't she too young to be learning about that kind of thing?
“My mom made that face too, but she wouldn't say why.”
“What bird told them? I thought it was about rabbits,” Issei instantly knew after that statement that he was letting too much get to him.
“Oh, a bird joined them. The 'Piss off!' bird. His name is Keehaa.”
What are they putting into kid's books these days? Issei wished he could use the ShikaPlus on everyone who ever wrote stuff like that.
“Right now, Hey-zelu is going to rescue some caged rabbits so that they can make babies.”
“Okay. That sounds…,” dicey, “...exciting.”
“Yeah. I can't wait,” she was jumping up and down. Ah, the innocence of youth.
“So, back on track: What else did you do at the park?”
“I played with Faiba and chased him, and a lot of kids came over to look at him. They took turns holding Faiba, and even their moms and dads took a look at it.”
She then remembered something off, judging by her frown.
“My mom wouldn't come over, and she stayed by the bench in the shade. She was wearing a mask, like she was sick.”
Hmmmm.
“She said she was sick, but her cough didn't sound real to me,” Yukino added.
Dr. Issei did not contest this. Were there people who would still recognize her even after all her changes?
“She probably just had one of those day long colds, and her cough might've sounded funny through the mask.”
Dr. Issei immediately regretted lying to her, but he didn't want to explain something overcomplicated to a child like the right to privacy and reporter stalking.
“We stayed all day, and I was getting, tired, so then we went home.”
“I'm glad to hear that you had such a good time.”
Dr. Issei just remembered something very important.
“Are you sleeping well?”
“Yes.” She's lying. That was too quick of an answer.
“Good. Just make sure to keep it up.”
The session ended later.
“Have a good week, Yukino.”
“Thank you doctor. See you later. Bye.”
Dr. Issei waved back lightly.

Issei was back at the Brown Burrow, glad to spend his spring vacation being admired by pretty women. He sometimes wondered if there was a big, gaping void within him that needed human contact and listening to the problems and bellyaching of others was his way of compensating. The little bird woman serving him his drink with her arm around him was more intimacy than he was used to experiencing overall, and thus he banished his over thinking self back to his office until it opened again.
“Up to the top again, Cindy,” he was really good at not slurring when drunk.
“Yes Master,” the little bird replied with squealy glee.
He touched her fingers delicately as she handed the glass back to him.
“Please, call me Hanake.”
She turned to make sure her boss wasn't around.
“Sure, Hanake.”

Yukino was still not sleeping well. Every time she tried, she woke up only a couple of hours later. She did not know why. That's okay, though, as it gave her time to check on the gate out in the balcony. Faiba was too small for the gate to keep from passing through and falling onto the ground floor. Yukino knew that if she wanted Faiba to be safe, she'll need something for the gate. But she could never find or think of anything. And when she was rested enough to think about it, she always forgot. After petting the rabbit good night, she climbed back onto the bed, spent thirty minutes trying to slow down her breathing, and went to sleep.

She saw the village of the Black Paper People rejoice as their Master returned, descending from the hole above like a falling boulder and becoming their pretend, breathing ceiling once again. He looked around, searching for something. Yukino then stepped away from the smokey glass. She thought that he might have been looking for her just now.
Do you see her? the Master's whisper was so loud she had to listen to him talking through the hands she used to cover her ears. His voice always went through the ground, like a radio being played too loud.
The Invisible Man was at the bottom of a tentacle.
“No,” he growled, “but I can feel something rubbing at the wards. Only a special girl could even touch them.”
She should be completely unable to come back at all. Why is she so powerful?
“She's getting stronger still,” the Invisible Man sounded worried. Yukino felt a little proud of herself for scaring the creatures. Here she was like a super hero or something.
Is she–? The Master started again.
“No. She's only human. But I think…I think I know what's happening.”
What is it?
“She must be getting her power from somewhere else. I'll increase wards to maximum.”
They'll notice.
“We'll think of something to tell them to stop being scared.”
The Invisible Man put his 'wards' at the highest power, and Yukino can only see outlines of the village now. The Black Paper People shimmered, feeling the force of the new barrier.
Well, what do we tell them? The Master's voice was so quiet now she could take her hands off her ears.
The Invisible Man did not answer. She knew he wasn't there anymore.
Piss off you sissy.
That night, Yukino slept the whole way through, dreaming her usual routine of keeping the world safe from the Black Paper People. She was the only one who could do it and she knew it she did it well.
The next week, Yukino did not make it to her appointment.[/hide]

[ChesCa]

This batch I'm intending for the Bi-Weekly after the one I judge.
[hide]
It was Monday morning when he got a call from the police. Issei remembered because Mondays were usually quiet and monitor transmissions cut in like an unwanted cherry pit in the throat. He hit the receive key much harder than he intended to shut off the call tone and an image of a rough faced, older man appeared onscreen.
“Hello. May I speak to Dr. Hakane Issei? This is Detective Tsuzube.”
“This is he. Which one did it?” Issei said without a beat.
The officer on the other side laughed. This one was new to dealing with uncured patients, that much was obvious.
“Actually, I'm afraid it's a little more serious than that,” the detective's tone evaporated what little was left of his previous mirth.
“What do you mean, sir?”
“Do you know a girl by the name of Yukino Nagawa?”
Oh, that cannot be good.
“Try to keep everyone calm. I'll be there shortly to help with whatever you need.” Issei was already getting up. Every once in a while he'd have to visit a patient's home to diffuse a situation. It was nothing usually too serious; more often than not it was someone just having a meltdown and disturbing the peace. Still, legally, as the one to take on Yukino's case it was his responsibility to make sure he wasn't lax in his duties to cure her. Quite a few talking doctors lost their license because they didn't take their work seriously.
Instead of looking relieved, the man on the other side looked a lot more uncomfortable.
“Then you don't know where she is. That's a shame.”
What did he say? The good detective continued.
“The mother tells us that she's gotten rather fond of you, so we thought your office would be a good lead.”
“My office is still miles away from her house. I don't think that she can easily get here,” Issei replied, plopping down on his chair and wiping his brow.
“It gets worse. We can't decide if this is a kidnapping, or if she just ran away.”
Did she go off with a stranger? He started sweating more. Issei wouldn't get into trouble for that, but the idea of her being plucked up by some uncured psychopath was enough to raise the hair on the back of his neck.
“Please, can you tell me what you know?” he pleaded.
“Well pal, I can tell you what I can so far.”
There was a sound of paper rustling as he looked through something below the screen's view. Tsuzube was checking his notepad.
“Last night, at a yet to be determined time, Yukino left the house. The door was locked, but the key kept in it was missing. That means she took the key with her and planned to return.”
There was no break in. That much was good news.
“What makes you think this was a kidnapping? It sounds like she just up and left.”
“At first that's how it looked. The girl was discovered missing when her mother went to wake her around 6:30, but her bed was empty and as said before, the key was missing from the door. Ms. Nagawa called the police and searched around the apartment complex for hours, but nothing doing.”
“Is it possible someone could have lured her outside?” Issei asked.
“Not likely. I'm told that the child doesn't take too easily to change and prefers staying at home, plus the missing key, which again indicates that she planned to be out for a while. If somebody had lured her out to kidnap, they would most likely just lead her away, saying they needed something quick from her. Yukino planned to be gone for quite a while.”
That made sense.
“I…I see. I don't know anything, but I'll call if I ever see her.”
“Thanks.”
“I just hope the rabbit will be all right,” Issei muttered to himself.
“Rabbit?” The detective was confused by the strange change of subject.
Issei caught himself.
“She had a rabbit, named Faiba. She kept it on the balcony.”
Tsuzube looked like he just conjured a lightbulb.
“Oh, so that's what it was.”
Issei frowned.
“What what was?”
“We investigated that place and found a lot of vegetables and...droppings, but no animal. Sorry to tell you this Dr. Issei, but it looks like even the pet has gone missing. So much for lucky rabbit feet, I suppose.”
The detective typed something onto his console, and Issei's monitor blipped, asking for a approval for an incoming file.
“That's some security footage of when she was last seen. It's the whole reason we're possibly looking at a kidnapping.”
The next week, Yukino was still not found. Not a sign of Faiba either. There had been no note for ransom, no cryptic calls, not even a letter.

Dr. Issei was seeing a substitute patient this Saturday evening: Ms. Nagawa herself, who was so distressed that talking her through this tough time would do little in keeping her functioning. Not that Issei blamed her for her distress. The tape in question had shown Yukino approaching a man in a train station. She approached him, at which point the man turned and started talking to her. After about six minutes, the man led her by the hand onto the train. The police were currently trying to identify him for more leads. Issei hoped for the best, but chances seemed slim that he had good intentions, taking a lone, strange girl with him for no conceivable explanation. There was no sign of Faiba on the tape.
Now came the most difficult part: talking someone through a loss. Even with today's medical technology, there was no medicine or device to give peace of mind in an uncertain world.
“I'm so sorry for your troubles, Ms. Nagawa,” he leaned forward and put a hand on her shoulder.
Ms. Nagawa accepted the touch gracefully. She had a box of tissues on the arm of the couch, ready for easy access. She couldn't predict when she'd be strong and when she'd collapse into a sobbing mess again.
“Thank you for your sympathies doctor, and it's not your fault.” She grabbed a kleenex for good measure and blew her nose.
“How can anyone think of taking away my little girl?”
“Sometimes…,” he started, but he couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't needlessly worry her more. He changed his tone, but he could see Ms. Nagawa already caught the pause, “We still don't know exactly what happened yet. We don't even know if there's anything wrong with that man.”
Yeah right. The more Issei thought about the situation that more tense he got too.
With the advent of the ShikaPlus, mental illness was nearly a thing of the past. Suicide rates plummeted, homicides were near non-existent, and schizophrenia, depression, PTSD and even sociopathy went the way of the small pox in Japan…except for those few instances when the helmet didn't work or the person managed to evade its use. Whenever a murder or rape happened, it was almost enough to accelerate a slow news day to the speed of light, the spectacle often lasting for months. Some of the time it was just a person who didn't take to the ShikaPlus, but those were rare, as most of those people didn't have too serious of any illness. Most often the perpetrator just knew how to act sane and had just finally gotten caught doing their crime, after which they were forced to wear the cap and take their meds. They were always immediately cured and repented afterwards. Then there were the scandalous cases involving a patient whose doctor had either misdiagnosed or was too lax in getting them to wear the helmet. Issei remembered back in psychology classes about the case of Wamui Mitemine. She was an adult patient who suffered from severe emotional disturbance, an inferiority complex and severe depression. She had refused to wear the ShikaPlus, and so was court ordered to see a talking doctor. The doctor's job, like his, was to convince her through any means necessary to wear the ShikaPlus.
Six months later the board who hired the psychologist weren't getting reports of any results and were wondering if he was even doing his job. That was when Wamui Mitemine killed both herself and her nine-year-old son. An investigation was opened and the board found through the psychologist's records that he had been neglecting his duties, never sticking to his agenda and instead letting the patient dominate the sessions. When his license was revoked, the press caught onto what had happened and implicated him for the murder/suicide as well. It was a harsh lesson in taking matters concerning mental illness lightly.
Issei suppressed a small shudder. He knew that when that man in the train station was identified, his doctor would be getting a call soon after. Poor guy.
“Ms. Nagawa, is there any other place you can think of that Yukino might have gone, or who might help?” Issei asked.
Ms. Nagawa held herself for quite a while, then let a whisper crack through her throat.
“Excuse me for one second.”
Issei nodded. She left the room, then heard the door to the main lobby open. He assumed she was going outside.
After a couple of minutes of silence, he heard shouting. It was Ms. Nagawa's voice and she sounded incredibly angry. The walls only halfway succeeded in muffling her rage. After what seemed to be five awkward, unpleasant minutes, he heard the door to the lobby open again and the mother re-entered the room, looking even more exhausted.
“I called my family,” she forced herself to admit, “They'll look for her in their neighborhoods.”
Issei still wore his poker face, but he still felt a little shocked at this development.
“That is very brave of you, Ms. Nagawa...but is there a reason you didn't tell her about where she went to school or where you live?”
She shook her head.
“I can't bring them there. Besides, those areas are already covered by the cops. They'll have a better chance of finding her anyway, and my parents will just have an excuse to intrude while they're 'helping out.'”
This bothered Issei more than it should. He took a deep breath, then asked the question.
“Ms. Nagawa, are you hiding something?”
Ms. Nagawa's eyes narrowed to the point where her eyelids seem to shadow completely over her corneas.
“What are you getting at?” Dr. Issei knew he had approximately ten seconds before he had a disaster on his hands.
He disarmed the situation immediately by jumping straight to the point, “Ms. Nagawa, I will be required by law to tell the police that you are withholding information from me that could lead to the child's whereabouts that much sooner. If you can not convince me that keeping her away from your family is that much worse than letting them get involved, it will look that much worse for you.”
Ms. Nagawa held her glare. Perhaps those weren't the right choice of words.
“I have worked with the police numerous times and they have valued me as a credible source when it comes to cases such as these. I can still tell them that for private reasons you can not have the family involved and they will believe me. But only if you tell me what's what.” That was as stern a voice as he could muster.
Ms. Nagawa's eyes flickered and her lip turned up for but a moment. She then laid back and rested her head on the back of the couch while she closed her eyes and composed herself for whatever confession was coming. Finally, she looked up and let everything out.
“They're going to sell her into show business if they ever get their hands on her.”
There was a long pause. 'Sell her?' Issei was slightly confused by those choice of words. Yukino didn't look the celebrity type. He decided to wait while Ms. Nagawa braced herself for more confessions.
“I'm sure Yukino already let this slip, but I'm a…was...movie star,” she finally stated.
“I'm not at liberty to confirm or deny that, Ms. Nagawa. I can't talk about what patients say.”
“Fair enough. It wasn't my choice to enter into the film industry. My parents...my siblings...hell my cousins, aunts and uncles....they were very wealthy people. Were wealthy.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she remembered whatever shame she was re-experiencing.
“My grandfather and his brother had everyone spoiled rotten, and no one was left wanting. Not even his grandchildren. We used to live in the Edo precinct; very prestigious.”
Issei nodded his head. Back in his academy days, he often walked by the tall gates, green gardens and tall white buildings of the more privileged neighborhoods. It never particularly bothered him, but he did notice that not an awful lot of people came down from their gated communities to attend the university, despite being more than able to afford it.
“But then...I don't know. I was way too young to understand at the time and I only found out more details when I was away filming in Australia, but something happened where our grandfather was murdered and his will was stolen.”
That would traumatize someone for sure.
“I'm very sorry. Have they caught the perpetrator?”
Nagawa shook her head. Bad topic.
“How did you know it was stolen?” Issei tried to change the topic. Nagawa's smile at that could only be sardonic. Not the wisest of moves.
“Ha! Grandfather Te didn't spoil us to corrupt us on purpose. If anything, he loved us too much to see what he was doing to our personalities. It doesn't make sense for him to not leave us something.”
“Anyway, no one can find his will, and...you know.”
Issei nodded again. Most of the unclaimed assets would go to the government, while the family would have rights to anything owned by the deceased, assuming that the corpse in question was not in debt.
“Everyone was very upset. We had nowhere near the same wealth as before, nor did any of us have any life skills. We were basically a clan of over privileged brats. None of us even went to schools past high school.”
“This meant that the adults had little money of their own to give. They had almost none saved up, aside from their leftover allowances. My cousin's family tried investing, but my uncle had no idea what he was doing and soon he had to move to the poorer part of town. The Korean slums, if I remember correctly. That scared the shit out my mother and father.”
“My other cousin's family, they were well off for a while, but it was discovered that my aunt and uncle on that side were running a con artist's ring and were locked up. Thankfully, my cousin there was taken in by a good family and moved to Hokkaido.”
“My own family,” she sighed in exasperation, “that's where the trouble really begins.”
Ms. Nagawa placed her head in her right hand. Issei could smell the frustration.
“One of them knew a talent agent, and they were looking for child actors. I was four, and the talent agent was looking for the new face of a CD cover. This was before my grandpa's death, but it played a large point in what came afterward.”
Ms. Nagawa's smile was weak as she straightened up and put forward her hand.
“Hello. My name is Carrie Childs. Pleased to meet you.”
Dr. Issei could not hide his surprise from this revelation. This woman was Carrie Childs? The household face for Gleaming Dan?
“You're the girl that...” he began.
Ms. Nagawa hung her head in shame. “Yes. I'm that girl.”
Carrie Childs was a little girl who was depicted walking hand in hand with a popular cartoon talk show host Gleaming Dan. It turned out later that the creator of Gleaming Dan had a thing for high school girls and was involved in a scandal where he was caught proposing one for sex. The interviews started coming back to Issei, as well as those associated with Gleaming Dan caught up by the press.
“I am so sorry, Ms. Nagawa.”
“Thanks, but it wasn't your fault. That part was a complete accident, to be fair. Nobody touched me, at least."
The media sensation after the revelation was nightmarish in its nature. Just after the creator was brought onto the six o' clock news for his takes on the events that transpired, Carrie's life was brought into the center spotlight: her favorite food, how well she did in school, her blood type and speculation on what it was (that information being deliberately withheld to keep the show hosts guessing), even her thoughts on the controversy that she in no way could fully understand. Dr. Issei remembered what happened after that.
“They sold out information on you to make you into a media star,” he said.
Ms. Nagawa made such an angry face that Issei wondered if she had it reserved just for this topic. The good doctor couldn't blame her. Every day information had been sold to the public to keep their interest in her up, right down to what she ate for lunch and every playground she visited.
“At first I loved the attention, but then soon other kids started wanting to come over to my house. They only wanted to be on the Datasphere broadcast as well and even their parents would sometimes ask me for autographs. Later I even had a stalker peep into my window as I was playing a board game. It got to the point where we had to move to a new apartment complex in another city just to keep the fans guessing where I am. We even had to cut off our internet to keep from being traced. My parents used the public terminals as substitutes.”
“But it never stopped, not on my parent's side. They'd still approve of any interviews to be done and any photo shoots for any magazine hoping to stand out from the rest. My sister and brother suffered because all attention was focused on me getting as much publicity as possible, and even now I don't know if they can ever truly look at me without contempt.”
Issei could barely digest all of this.
“How did you deal with all of this? Did you protest?”
“Pfft, no!” she laughed, “I was four when it began and barely ten before I got tired of it, and all this stuff was still fairly glamorous to me, despite the downsides. All it took was one fun interview or one birthday present to make me forget the hell I went through each week. It only got more chaotic when they asked me to start starring in commercials. I started getting a lot of money for my allowance again, so I could have anything I wanted. But I also had to keep my schedule open for any shoots and calls and even had to turn away a few dates with friends because I had a job to do. By the time I was fourteen, I was the happiest little wreck you ever saw.”
Nagawa's sigh was enough to bring down the mood in the room below the floor. Issei could see her fighting back tears.
“I was in Australia doing a shoot when my grandpa died, and I was still there even after his funeral.” She gave a bitter chuckle, "Getting me on television was his idea in the first place. Just as a little birthday gift."
She took a kleenex and dabbed her eyes. Ms. Nagawa took a couple of moments before starting again.
“Then came my first and only big movie deal. Depth Row. I was tired of always being cast as some child actor in a teenage skin, so I auditioned for the role of a lead girl in a Korean slum. I was...,” she subtracted the years in her head, “sixteen at the time. I didn't get the part, but I was asked to be an understudy and instead got the role of a daughter whose family's car breaks down in the middle of the town. The family is classic middle class home grown Japanese goodness and wouldn't you know it? They all of a sudden find themselves out of their element.”
Ms. Nagawa rolled her eyes, but continued.
“Still, it was nice being asked to play something that wasn't some shiny face on a poster, and everyone on the set was pleasantly surprised at how few takes I needed to get a scene done right.”
“And that's where I met my future husband.” She tried to hide her smile, but it broke through anyway.
Dr. Issei checked his watch. He didn't want to be rude, but time was of the essence and he didn't mean to get so entrenched with Ms. Nagawa's problems over Yukino's.
“I'm sorry Ms. Nagawa, but all of this is leading to why we can't let them find Yukino, right?”
Ms. Nagawa gave him an unfriendly look, but relented with an understanding nod.
“Oh, trust me…this is where I start drifting apart from my family and why I never want to see them again. His name was Kooyai Banata.”
Dr. Issei recognized the name. Aside from a few side roles that were pretty memorable, Kooyai was a fairly under the radar actor. So he had married, eh?
“He was playing the part of my character's unrequited love. Irony, right?”
Dr. Issei nodded. Very 'irony' indeed.
“Afterwards, we started hanging out after the shoots were done and...I knew he liked me a lot, but he was so shy. It took him eight months to finally ask me out to a movie. As friends of course.”
Ms. Nagawa grinned at this, obviously remembering how poorly Mr. Banata explained how he was just 'friends' with Ms. Nagawa.
“After the first week I tricked him into confessing his love for me. He freaked for three minutes before I had to explain that I had no problem with it.”
She started laughing at whatever freak-out show her then boyfriend was putting in her mind's eye.
“And after a night together—no sex, in case that's what you're thinking—he really started to loosen up and forget what he was so nervous about.”
Ms. Nagawa's face then fell.
“Then I started shirking my shoots so I could go on more dates with him. I knew that I could get away with it now that I was so famous, but my mother was livid and tried warning me that if I kept up my absences I wouldn't be paid anymore. It got to the point where she started physically blocking the door so I couldn't go out.”
Her voice dropped to a low, almost threatening tone.
“I knew she wanted me for my money, but that was when it finally hit me how much of my happiness she was willing to throw away so she could keep up her lifestyle. I was never so angry in my life.”
Dr. Issei didn't blame her. She continued.
“Eventually, we both turned 18 and eloped. We weren't 100% sure at the time, to be honest, but my mother was getting increasingly desperate to keep me under her control and in her wallet, so she started promising my cousin's family in the slums a cut of the money if they could shame me into staying with her. Once she gathered them together to try and plead their case about all their needs riding on me, I just lost it like no other time in my life. They tried to get me to comply by making me lose face, but I reversed the situation and shamed my parents in front of the whole two households. That was when I cut myself off.”
Issei nodded, then waited for the inevitable conclusion of her husband's fate. By his calculations it was...
“Four years later,” Ms. Nagawa completed the thought, “he got struck in the head by a falling brick. He didn't even make it to the emergency room.”
She shrugged, but in a way that made it look like she was struggling to lift her shoulders. “Life, eh?”
“And this is where we finally get to why Yukino can't be found by them. The doctors...I had told them that we had been trying to conceive, and they offered something I didn't know could be done before: post-mortem sperm collecting.”
Issei gave her a quizzical look.
“I don't know the proper term, but what they did was they collected his sperm before his body was too cold, and I gave some of my eggs.”
She still looked nonplussed talking about the whole situation.
“I still can't believe I did something like that, but at the time, I was just so...desperate. And it felt like the only chance I had.”
It probably was.
“For the next month, I was really beside myself with grief, and even considered suicide, or having the eggs destroyed. Or both. It didn't really matter. Then something terrible happened,” she got quiet, trying to remember the exact details, “One day, there was a fire in the clinic where the eggs were being kept, and it damaged a lot of the equipment. They had called to tell me that the eggs were no longer usable, and I was just this close to breaking down on the phone.” She held her fingertips really close together to illustrate her point.
“Later that day, though, they called and reported something I couldn't believe. One of the eggs had survived. Both the doctor on the phone and I were still amazed when I asked him to repeat that message.”
Ms. Nagawa leaned forward, “The egg had died but it was usable again. There was only one way I could believe it: I had to test it out.”
Issei didn't have anything to say even if he wanted to speak.
“And that's how Yukino was born. You're starting to get an idea of where this is going.”
Suddenly Issei knew exactly why Yukino had to be kept away from the family, as morose as it made him to admit it.
“She was a child that defied the odds. Everyone would be gaga over her in a day," Issei stated.
“Exactly. I was on cloud nine when I finally had my darling Yukino, and I had to tell somebody. So I called my mother to tell the good news to. I thought she might have changed while we were apart. She came over right away and actually looked excited to see a brand new baby in this world.”
“Then she found out what happened with the eggs,” she curled her lip into a sneer, “I saw her eyes light right up. And I made sure that was the last I ever saw of her.”
“Sometimes she would manage to find my number and call me, accusing me of being selfish and endangering the well-being of my child, but I know that if I let her see my mother that…,” Nagawa quivered with anger, “....woman…will do everything she can to manipulate Yukino into something that she'll come to regret.” She slumped down, exhausted and breathing hard from her rant. After she composed herself, she sat back up to meet the doctor eye to eye.
“They also have a copy of her hospital records as proof of her strange birth, just to fend off any naysayers. They're insane, all of them, but my mother is the one leading them all. All for money.”
Silence.
“She is a gift from my husband, and her name is Yukino.”
Dr. Issei recalled how strange Yukino's name was spelled, the characters not usually combined in that way.
“Snowy field.”
“Life in winter. Life in death.” Ms. Nagawa sniffed and took a tissue.
“I'll let the officers know not to let them near your daughter.”
“Thank you doctor.”

Yukino had no idea where she was. All she knew was 'head east.' She can't read the roadsigns well enough yet, so she couldn't tell how far it was before she reached the beach. She had not bathed in days and her trip was hindered because she would not get a ride. She knew that people would either take her to the police station or kidnap and do terrible things to her, touching her in ways she didn't know why they did. She also had to walk by night, or she knew she would be seen walking by herself and would be stopped. She ate thrown out food that wouldn't make her sick and never drank from fountains that had been spit in.
She really needed to get the beach.
She had to hurry. She knew how to do this, so nothing could stop her from saving him.
From saving Faiba from death.
There was an alleyway she could snuggle up for a few hours. She went to sleep on the concrete, beneath a few garbage bags, her ear on the ground so that sounds would have a better chance of waking her up. Before light came, she could hear the whispers from the shadows. She learned how to listen to the Black Paper People through them.
Al. She heard the master say.
No answer.
Al!
“Yes sir?” She heard the Invisible Man's voice say. She now knew he was Al.
I can't find him in this crowd.
“That can only mean that he has retreated to his lab, my lord.”
Well, bring him out! I have important matters to discuss.
“Of course, Master.”
No one talks for a few moments. She could only hear the humming whispers and the rippled footsteps of the dancing village.
“What is it?” Came a tiny voice finally. She squinted as she concentrated on hearing it. She thought it sounded like a mouse.
The Black Paper Mouse made a yelp.
“FUCK MAN LEGGO'!” It shouted. Yukino heard that word before. Only bad grown ups and kids used it.
“Do not speak with impunity to the Master!” Al shouted.
“Oh yes, because he knows how to make it all by himself and just has me along for fun.”
Shut up. Both of you.
“Sir!” both Al and the Black Paper Mouse responded. She heard one of the Master's tentacles moving. Maybe he was picking up the mouse.
I need your advice…and your help.
“Again?”
There's something more pressing than the Rosetta Disk at the moment.
“Really?” The Black Paper Mouse sounded confused.
Yukino heard the Master shoot up that tunnel. She could tell because of the really loud echo it left in her head. Not even God knew where that tunnel went.
[/hide]

[Kitsune Inferno]

Finally caught up.~ Aside from the message board comment in the third chapter (really? :P), this story just gets better and better, Cuddles. As it stands, Yukino's scenes with the Black Paper people are kind of weird, but the therapy sessions more than make up for it! Your story is shaping together nicely, very nicely! I can't wait to see what Yukino's motivations are in her runaway, while I can't wait to see how her grandparents play into this.

As for Chapter 6 itself, I loved Yukino's backstory. It was so engrossing to read and it doesn't really feel contrived. You've painted rather realistic portrayals of the characters and their motivations, and aside from a few technical errors, I feel that this chapter of Yukino is not only the best yet, but probably one of the best pieces of fiction I've read in the entire sub-forum. If anything can dethrone A Dastardly Two, its name is Yukino.

I commend you, Cuddles. Excellent, excellent work! ^^

[Gerri]

Why is KI the only one commenting on Yukino? If it means nobody else has read it yet, then they are sure missing out on something. I absolutely love the conversations with the therapist. The extra texts sometimes confuse me regarding the timeline of events and occassionally seem to interupt the story but that's the only minor criticism. And Cuddles updates quite regularly which is a big plus as well. Out of those stories I've read here so far it's the one that resembles an actual book the most. I still haven't read quite a few though. (-;

Anyways, please continue writing it!

[ChesCa]

@Kitsune:

Finally caught up.~ Aside from the message board comment in the third chapter (really? :P), this story just gets better and better, Cuddles. As it stands, Yukino's scenes with the Black Paper people are kind of weird, but the therapy sessions more than make up for it! Your story is shaping together nicely, very nicely! I can't wait to see what Yukino's motivations are in her runaway, while I can't wait to see how her grandparents play into this.

As for Chapter 6 itself, I loved Yukino's backstory. It was so engrossing to read and it doesn't really feel contrived. You've painted rather realistic portrayals of the characters and their motivations, and aside from a few technical errors, I feel that this chapter of Yukino is not only the best yet, but probably one of the best pieces of fiction I've read in the entire sub-forum. If anything can dethrone A Dastardly Two, its name is Yukino.

I commend you, Cuddles. Excellent, excellent work! ^^

Awww, thanks dude. ^^; (Even though we talked about it before).
@Gerri:

Why is KI the only one commenting on Yukino? If it means nobody else has read it yet, then they are sure missing out on something. I absolutely love the conversations with the therapist. The extra texts sometimes confuse me regarding the timeline of events and occassionally seem to interupt the story but that's the only minor criticism. And Cuddles updates quite regularly which is a big plus as well. Out of those stories I've read here so far it's the one that resembles an actual book the most. I still haven't read quite a few though. (-;

Anyways, please continue writing it!

Thanks, I will.
However, I will take a week or two break before editing the next part. I just have to focus on a couple of other things is all, but I'll be back on it in no time.
Tigerlilly and some of the judges have read my story as well. It's just that this thread isn't very conversation heavy.
As far as the texts go, aside from that mess up where I fast forwarded into the future, pretty much everything happens chronologically.
As for the Black Paper people stuff, well, there's a reason for that, but I can see how they feel out of place, and I'm hoping the payoff for them will be worth it.
Glad you like.

[Dryish]

Mm, I actually forced myself out of the dark haze of ordinary indolence and read all of Yukino. As someone who has visited a psychologist weekly in the past, and as someone who has taken interest in the different ways of actually helping out mentally unstable and insecure people, I have to take off my hat for you. This is fantastic. The characters really do work, even though they're not too unique, and the conversation flows with eloquence, making it sound very real. Also, I love what you're doing with the black people and the post-mortem sperm gathering. It adds an interesting dark touch to the plot.

The only rant I've got is about those odd time jumps here and there, especially about the one at the end of the second installment. It feels quite out of place there with the next bit beginning normally with Yukino and Issei chatting. If you have to keep including those, you might want to separate them from the main text somehow.

I'll keep following this enthusiastically. Yukino has really piqued my interest.

[ChesCa]

@Dryish:

Mm, I actually forced myself out of the dark haze of ordinary indolence and read all of Yukino. As someone who has visited a psychologist weekly in the past, and as someone who has taken interest in the different ways of actually helping out mentally unstable and insecure people, I have to take off my hat for you. This is fantastic. The characters really do work, even though they're not too unique, and the conversation flows with eloquence, making it sound very real. Also, I love what you're doing with the black people and the post-mortem sperm gathering. It adds an interesting dark touch to the plot.

The only rant I've got is about those odd time jumps here and there, especially about the one at the end of the second installment. It feels quite out of place there with the next bit beginning normally with Yukino and Issei chatting. If you have to keep including those, you might want to separate them from the main text somehow.

I'll keep following this enthusiastically. Yukino has really piqued my interest.

Thanks. Glad you likey.

[ChesCa]

Here's the next part.
[hide]
It was one week later when Dr. Issei got the call from Tsuzube. Yukino had been found.
“Is she okay?” Issei cut to the chase.
“You want the good news or bad first?” the officer responded as he laid back in his chair. This one didn't give much care to appearance, it seemed. Contrarian mindset, or just laziness?
“Give me the overall picture,” Issei was wiping his brow again.
“Well, health wise, it's still undetermined. She was remarkably resilient and savvy when it came to surviving on her own. She's not sick with food poisoning, she's not starving, she's not dehydrated. From what we could get out of her, she never talked to anybody and miraculously no one ever noticed her. For two whole weeks she somehow made it to the beach on this side of the island almost undetected.
Dr. Issei lost his voice at this news. Maybe Yukino did know everything. Or maybe this was a huge coincidence. Who knew at this point?
“We're keeping her in the hospital for checkups, though. She's got sunburn from sleeping outside during the day, and the trip was too long on foot for a kid like her. She made it, but now she's looking like she's sore all over. Shouldn't be too long before the kid is discharged, though.”
“Good, good. As can be anyway,” the good doctor nodded to the monitor. He was about to bid the good detective adieu before Tsuzube continued.
“Yes, but….I think there might be something else.”
“What is it?”
Tsuzube made a grimace as his eyes moved in thought about how to best explain the situation.
“I should just give you the simple version first,” he said, finally deciding on a proper explanation, “That rabbit, 'Faiba,' he's dead.”
“Oh no,” Dr. Issei put his face in his hand, “She must have been crushed.”
This was not good for her recovery. Issei would have to be extra careful on how he handled her for a while. He was already planning how long he should let her grieve before focusing on her condition again. Sadly, no matter how many times he went through this, things still always got complicated.
“The reason Yukino was at the beach in the first place was because she followed the rabbit there, or so she's told us,” Tsuzube explained.
Dr. Issei knew that he should be shocked by what he just heard, but his instincts for a patient's well being was overriding that emotion at the moment. Facts like that were always stored for later analysis anyway. Tsuzube on the other hand looked more at ease at being morose.
“When she got there, she was only in time to see him get run over by a truck. Barely anything left of the poor thing. The reason we found her was because she wouldn't stop crying and a family having a picnic in the area thought that she was lost.”
“How did the rabbit get there?” Issei inquired.
“We don't know. We even tried asking Yukino, but now she's just all clammed up,” the good detective rubbed at his neck in discomfort, “I guess it's all really up to you now. Head cases are your specialty, right?”
Dr. Issei nearly snapped at the officer for that remark, but let it slide in favor of just keeping things pleasant.
“I will do everything I can for her,” Issei assured with a small but humble bow.
“Thanks doc. The doctors said she should be a week at most in the hospital, so expect her a couple of Saturdays from now.”
Issei almost forgot.
“What about that man she was with? Did you find him?”
“Oh yeah!” the detective sat right back up at his forgetfulness, “We found him and brought him in for analysis.....however,” Tsuzube was having trouble with strange news again, “both the YanDome and his doctor said that he had been cured of any illnesses a long time ago. Not only that, but when he took our polygraph, we found out that the train station was where he met her for the very first time. She had fed him a story about being lost and he believed her.”
Issei's silence was the signal for Tsuzube to keep going.
“The only thing he's guilty of is being gullible. We're double checking, but....I don't think he was the one who sought her out.”
“…Thank you, detective.” Issei put on his professional tone again.
“I'd prefer to wait and let Ms. Nagawa handle her first. She needs to be with her mother.” It would also give him more time to prepare for her.
“Suit yourself. You know what's best pal. So long,” Tsuzube gave him a half-wave, half-salute.
“Yes...,” Issei paused when the detective cut off transmission, “...goodbye.”

“Please don't mention Watership Down to her,” Ms. Nagawa nearly pleaded.
Dr. Issei already knew this.
“Thank you for the heads up,” he kept the sarcasm out with no effort. It wouldn't be an effective one-on-one conference otherwise.
“She's back to sleeping late again,” the despondent mother said through a voice almost thick with tears, “I can't wake her up no matter how hard I try. It's even worse than when we started.”
Issei thought it best to get the hard part out of the way.
“It's likely she gave up on everything when she saw Faiba die.”
“Thanks doctor. I really wanted to hear that,” she still had enough energy to give a small leer.
“Just mulling over how she might be feeling right now, to help us prepare to how to best handle her.”
She nodded in reluctance, but Issei noticed a temporary glare at the word 'handle.'
“Yes, I think that would be for the best.”
Best to check on her education as well.
“What about school? Is she doing okay?”
“A student is bringing over homework from the class to her. Her name's Anako, and she's someone Yukino responds to for some reason.” Ms. Nagawa's eyes squinted with suspicion. “They seem to only be talking when I'm not in the room. I don't like two kids keeping secrets from me,” she gave a defeatist shrug, “but she probably needs this right now.”
Yukino had a confidante. This was certainly very good news. Most likely even he'll never know what the two are talking about, but that was of little relevance. Sometimes friends could help in ways even he couldn't.
“When can I expect her, Ms. Nagawa?” he asked in a deliberately quiet tone.
“Probably next Saturday,” she then sighed, “I'm sorry, but I have to cancel reading time for now. I finished the parts we didn't get to and it has the rabbits going to war and trying to kill each other. Not a very good thing to be exposing her to at this point.”
“I understand completely. Until next Saturday then, Ms. Nagawa.”
“Doctor.”

Yukino was at the park again, but she really didn't feel like going. Some of the children have asked about her rabbit, and she had to tell them that he died. Some said they were sorry, but then they forgot about her and went to do something else. That's okay. Yukino knew that would happen. She didn't care anymore though. They didn't deserve to play with him anyway. She felt sad because she knew she would regret playing with them, but now she can remember not to do it again.
Her mom came up to her. She looked worried. Maybe it's because Yukino was looking sad while she sat on the bench. She was actually doing it on purpose a little, so that her mom would know she didn't like it here.
“Do you want to go home early?”
“Yes,” she nodded, “can I sleep in the car?”
Her mom was getting mad at her for sleeping too much.
“Sure sweetie.” Yukino was led back to the car by hand, and she nearly fell asleep by the time her mom got in too.
Yukino wished that her friend Anako was here, but she lived too far away. She could talk to Anako about anything. Yukino let herself drift off finally, her mind being enveloped in a cool dark that always seemed to start when her eyes closed. It was comforting.

Before the two had left, on the other side of the park, a man was watching the kids play. Ms. Nagawa did not know this, but this man was the second husband of Ms. Nagawa's cousin, whom she had never met. This man was heading into his own car, and he followed them at a discreet distance to their home.

The Black Paper Village was asleep. Even they tired and needed rest, and so they sunk into the smooth black rock beneath them and slumbered until their next calling. Not the Master though. He never slept. He had not slept for three thousand years. Yukino knew because she once heard him talking about how he forgot how old he was and Al did a math problem to figure it out. She giggled a little when that happened.
Now the Black Paper Mouse looked like he wanted to sleep but couldn't. He was too busy working on something. He always seemed more awake when he was working than when he took a break though. The Black Paper Mouse had a hard time keeping his shape, which made his humming talk kind of hard to understand through the shield.
“I've found all I can about her, and it looks like she might not be that all that special.”
She felt sad about that. She knew they were talking about her. It was because they saw Faiba die, wasn't it?
Are you joking with me? I was so sure about her.
“She did have some abilities, but they're not too strong. They aren't developed at this age.”
The Master raised an eyebrow.
Come again?
“She was born that way.”
I thought she was being given her talent.
“Al thought wrong. She's too young to have even survived the doors. And even if she did, she would've gone crazy afterwards.”
Interesting. So she has nothing to do with us at all?
“Aside from her 'nightmares,' no.”
I'll keep the wards up to keep her away then. After her she learns to avoid this place, we should be safe.
“Of course, Master.”
However, I still trust Al, and something about this stinks.
The Black Paper Mouse nearly lost his shape entirely as he plopped onto the ground, but then he fixed himself.
“Mas-ter! We can't do this forever!”
I don't want you to. Just don't let her become a problem when we aren't watching. Multiple sessions will do.
The Black Paper Mouse sighed.
“Of course, Master.”

[/hide]

[Gerri]

Yay, new chapter. I continue to be hooked. Poor Faiba. Btw, I never found the black paper people out of place, it was mostly the time jump that felt like it. The black paper people are essential and I like the awake and asleep side of the story. Now, I'm curious whether and when a connection between the two will become more apparent, i.e. regarding the characters in both story sequences. Great how you continue to grow the different aspects of the story (the therapy, the relatives, the friendship, the black paper people). Looking forward to the next chapter.

[ChesCa]

Thanks Gerri.
For this chapter, my writing group said that some of my description was redundant. They were right and I was going to edit them out….....except when I finally got to it today I forgot which parts were the problem and I can't pick them out. They also said some descriptions could be taken out and have Issei or Yukino make movements or something that would be better. If you can find those problems, please pick them out for me.
[hide]
Anako was walking home with her mother after dropping off Yukino's homework for the night. It was dark and nearly her bedtime, but Anako and her mother had to wait for the hospital room to become available. It looked like one of Yukino's family members came to visit. He said he was her uncle. The uncle made a lot of noise because Ms. Nagawa called security on him. She said that she didn't want Yukino's uncle to 'pro-po-zi-shen' her for anything. Then they both started yelling and had to go out of the room.
“Mom? What was happening there?”
“Don't ask honey. It's not polite and it's also none of our business.”
“Are you going to tell this to your lady friends?”
“Want some ice cream?”
Anako always got ice cream every time she asked that. She started skipping as she walked.

Ms. Nagawa was sitting in her daughter's hospital room, wondering what the hell was taking so long for the doctors to discharge her daughter. She was especially agitated because of her brother-in-law's unwanted visit. She turned to her child.
“Yukino,” she said directly, almost commanding her, “do not talk to that man anymore. If he comes up to you, you come to me.”
“I know,” she said with an exasperated sigh. Those were usually the two words Ms. Nagawa could get out of her at this point. She still had the bad feeling that Yukino didn't appreciate the gravity of the situation.
“I mean it Yukino. In fact, if anyone comes up to you talking about television and fame, you run away. Quickly.”
“I know!” Yukino screamed back. A nurse passing by looked in, but the mother didn't give a damn at that point.
“Don't you talk back to me!” Ms. Nagawa was pointing her finger right in her kid's face, like she was shaming her. Yukino immediately retreated into her blankets.
“I didn't mean to.” Ms. Nagawa recognized the tone. She could hear her eyes tearing up.
Ms. Nagawa's wrath curdled into guilt. “I'm sorry honey,” she sat down next to her little girl, “Mommy…mommy is really upset right now, and I'm not acting very grown up.”
Yukino peeked from underneath her covers. “No. You're not.”
Ouch. “Okay, but don't tell everyone that, okay?”
She sidled back up from her covers. “Okay.”
Ms. Nagawa was glad they could reach an understanding.

Yukino wasn't talking, just hiding in her 'house' again. Dr. Issei understood why. Yukino didn't even want to come, but both he and her mother knew it was best to get her help again as soon as possible. He still felt bad when he saw her apprehension in the waiting room, though. Ms. Nagawa was leading her by the hand instead of letting Yukino come in on her own. Now was as good a time as any to bring out the card game he bought for her....was it really only a few weeks ago? He brought out the game from his shelf.
“Do you want to play?” Issei calmly asked through the stack of cushions. Nothing came in response.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?”
“Does this game have dice?” Yukino asked.
That was an odd request.
“No, it doesn't,” he explained, “Would you like to learn how to play 'Big Picture?”
Issei wasn't sure if this would work. The game was for different grades, and some cards in this deck reached a full three grades ahead of her.
Still, it seemed to work, as she slumped down from her pillow house, the 'walls' collapsing and making a mess that Dr. Issei will have to clean up after the session.
“That sounds okay, I guess,” Yukino was more receptive than he thought. Maybe...
“Yukino, do you already know how to play?”
“No, but I've seen other kids play it.” What wasn't being said was that no one would let her play with them. “I want to see how the older decks work,” her morose monotone didn't show much excitement, but it was likely that even she wanted something to distract from her ordeal.
Perhaps this game was right up her alley.
“Okay. Let's try it this way to pass the time. I'm going to draw a card and show you the front,” Issei began to explain. He picked up a card and showed it to her. The front of the card had the 'question kanji' and the back had the 'answer kanji.' Dr. Issei then handed Yukino the spare paper and pencils that came with the set.
“Then I'm going to give you a clue as to what the complete kanji is. Sometimes you'll need to write in the missing part, sometimes you'll need to guess what needs to be added to change the meaning. Every question you get right, you get to move onto the next part and get a point.” Inspiration struck Issei and at the last minute he added, “But for every one you get wrong, I want you to tell me something about yourself.”
Yukino suddenly looked a lot shyer. “Like what?”
“Anything you want to talk about. Your choice.”
“What do I get if I win?” she asked, huddling to herself. That was a fair question.
“If you get the most out of ten...” he thought for five seconds struggling for something good, “you get to decide what we talk about next week.”
“Oh, okay.”
Issei regretted what he said, but at this point next week wouldn't bring her closer to results anyway. And besides, he bought this game for a reason. He wanted to see if she somehow cheated to get those answers off her friend.
He pulled the first card. On the front was the symbol for the word 'Word.' He set the hourglass.
“Draw the symbol that will turn this character into 'Trust.” The answer side showed the symbols for 'Person' to the left of 'Word.'
Yukino mulled this over while holding the pencil in her hands, caught between writing a guess and giving up. When the hourglass was about to run out, however, she dropped her pencil and blurted out her answer: “A person!”
Just in time. The sand nearly ran out.
“Very good, but could you write it anyway? It's how people in the game know that someone isn't just guessing.”
“Oh, okay.” She wrote it down and gave her answer over to him. It was close. She put the symbol for person to the right of the character instead of the left. Still, he felt that Yukino would not appreciate him badgering her over something that kids would probably find trivial anyway. “Very good,” he encouraged. That's one down. Nine more chances to go to find out more about her. He pulled the next card. It was a fifth grade level card and a multiple choice 'replace the character' card.
The question side had the symbol for 'Shop' or 'House.' There was a symbol at the bottom that needed to be changed to make the overall picture mean 'Reside' or 'Stay.' He reset the hourglass and began to read aloud.
“This shop has been in the same place for a long time. What symbol needs to be placed under the roof? A. Old? B. Needle?--”
“Old!” Yukino shouted in victory. Right again. The symbol replaced at the bottom was the symbol for old. Two for two for Yukino.
“Good job! Did your mother teach you that?”
“Yes!” She's nodded her head too hard again. She didn't learn that kanji from her mother. This girl was way more advanced than he gave her credit for, and Dr. Issei felt like he just made a very bad gamble. Still, he would be true to his word. He picked another card and reset the hourglass. The question side was the character for woman, which anyone can recognize. The answer side was for 'cheap', with the woman wearing a 'hat.'
“What do you draw to give the woman a cheap house?”
“Easy!” Yukino drew the exact symbol. Too easy for anybody.
“Very good!”
“I'm winning I'm winning!” At least she was distracted from what happened to her.
Dr. Issei wouldn't be getting anything out of her today, it seemed. He drew another card. Great, it was another easy one: the question side was the symbol for 'Mouth.' The answer side was the character for 'Old', which she obviously knew from the previous question. One would just have to place the mark for 'Ten' on top of the mouth symbol.
“What do you get with ten mouths?”
Yukino thought.
And thought.
And thought.
The hourglass emptied.
“Time.”
“Aw man.”
“Don't worry about it,” he reassured her, “The question was probably worded poorly. This is the symbol.” He showed her the answer side.
“What does that mean?”
"Hm?!"
Issei didn't guard his reaction too well this time. Yukino looked a little worried, but Issei reassured her by putting his hands up.
How could Yukino answer the question for 'Reside' if she didn't know the proper symbol? He was about to ask, but then it hit him that he never made Yukino draw the symbol and that she probably bluffed. Multiple choice questions sometimes made things too convenient.
He decided to let that little fact slide for now to avoid upsetting her, but he intended to see if he can't use this to find out more about what kind of person she was when she played games. Playing nicely? Cheating? Ignorant? Just having fun?
“Okay Yukino. Just tell me something about yourself. Anything at all.”
Yukino pondered what to tell the good doctor without embarrassing herself. After a moment, she replied, “My best friend is Anako. We're going to be together forever!”
Dr. Issei wouldn't rush to such conclusions about someone he barely knew, but that's more of the adult life right there. Besides, some children could stay bonded much easier than adults could.
“Really? And how do you know that?”
“Well, I don't see us splitting up anytime soon.”
That was....fair.
“You really get along with her, don't you?”
“Yeah. She even helped me stay in school. And talked to me when Faiba--”
She shut her mouth instantly. A moment later, she cast her eyes to the ground and hugged her knees.
“When Faiba died, she still stayed my friend. All the other kids I knew stopped playing with me when I couldn't bring him anymore.”
Issei gave a sympathetic nod.
“It's okay Yukino. I'm sure it's not because they hate you.”
“They never really liked me either,” she pouted. Dr. Issei couldn't directly contradict that.
“I just want you to know that they probably didn't mean anything, and sometimes people grow apart anyway.”
“...Not Anako,” she mumbled to herself. A sore subject. Dr. Issei drew his next card and reset the hourglass. The question side was 'Field'. The answer side was 'Fruit.'
“What day of the week does fruit grow on the field?”
“Thursday!” she immediately shouted again. She was right. The primary symbol for Thursday was 'Tree', and the picture for fruit was a tree sprouting underneath the field symbol. Still, he had to check something again.
“Could you draw the symbol for me?”
Issei could see the enthusiasm melt completely from her face. She now looked a little panicked.
“Sure,” she said anyway to fake confidence. She handed over the finished result.
She drew it wrong again: the tree was put on top of the field, not below it. She just guessed at random and got lucky a second time. Still, at least this time she knew what the character actually was, unlike the Old pictograph. This was getting more perplexing. He refrained from calling her out on her lie and drew the next card. The hourglass was reset. The question side was 'Snow.' The answer side was 'Electricity.'
“Draw the dragon's tail turning snow into lightning.” The tail part of a dragon kanji could be easily drawn into this symbol to turn it into electricity. Just two lines would do the trick. This question was especially inconvenient because Yukino would have practice spelling her own name, which contained the character snow. She surely must have seen the symbol for train, which had the electricity symbol.
Yukino was still struggling when the timer ran out. Dr. Issei was beginning to see a pattern here. First thing was first though: getting to know Yukino more.
“A deal's a deal. Tell me something about yourself that you think is really interesting. Perhaps even something you're good at.”
Yukino thought a long time on this one. Too long. After thirty seconds, she answered “I can't.”
Normally he would establish that response to her lack of self-esteem, but now he wondered if she was hiding something.
“There's something that everyone is good at. You just have to think really hard.” He said this with the most encouraging look he could give, like he believed Yukino really did have something she could share. Sadly, his work with kids has convinced him that, even if somebody had something they're good at, there was still such a thing as 'too early to tell.' He can't say this to Yukino though, nor any other patient for that matter. After ten seconds, Yukino came up with a rather simple, vague answer:
“I can live all by myself.”
Already ready to leave the nest, this girl was. To her credit, she did survive on her own for about two weeks. Perhaps...
“Oh. And how do you do that?” he inquired.
“I eat food that isn't bad for me and I don't talk or get seen by adults that want to hurt me.”
Issei successfully suppressed his wince. At least Dr. Issei would never have to worry about Yukino taking rides or candies from strangers any time soon. He intended to press the question of how she could tell such things. Trusting a child in her own judgment of safety was still too dangerous just to take her word for it.
“Draw the next card please!” she exclaimed, cutting him off from further questioning. He obeyed, keeping to his word. The question side of the next card was for 'Preach', with the answer side was 'Word'. Once again, this card required Yukino to draw the answer. Once again, she failed to do so.
“What would you like to talk about next?”
Yukino thought for a little bit.
“...I still see people as they are sometimes, but it doesn't happen that much anymore.”
Yes, the people with the strings coming out of their heads, blocks of wood for limbs and wheels for feet.
“Why do you think we really look like that and not like we are now, with skin and hair and all that good stuff?” he asked.
“I never look like that,” she put her hand over her mouth. She let that slip out.
Ah. This was a new development.
“How come you never look like us?”
She made her shrug way too obvious. “I don't know. I even tried looking in a mirror once to see if I really looked like that, but I don't turn into any of those things. I think I'm the only one who's real.”
“You're the only one whose real?” Issei didn't like the sound of that.
“I don't mean it like that,” she corrected herself. Did she really realize she just made herself sound like a sociopath? “I just....don't know how to say it.”
She looked like she was scanning her lap as she tried to find the right words. It didn't seem likely that she was looking down on others as figments of her imagination. Good. Scratch the psychopathic possibilities. Hopefully.
“What do you look like?” Issei inquired.
She immediately put up her defenses at that. “I don't want to say.” Okay, fair enough. Still, he could sneak in one more question.
“When did you stop seeing our 'real forms' so much?”
“It was when I began sleeping a lot again,” she put a pillow on her lap and held it against her, “I really don't want to say anymore.”
Dr. Issei displayed his palms in defeat and picked another card.
The next two cards were multiple choice, and on both counts Yukino got them right but didn't write the symbols correctly. She was more confident that she was fooling her therapist since Issei already decided to never say anything. So far, everything she has managed to get right was multiple choice or had multiple choice elements. One last shot at asking Yukino any questions he might have before time was up. He got another multiple choice card. The question side had the picture for Field again. The answer side was for 'Thinking.' A field above the symbol for heart was the answer. The three choices were 'heart,' 'rain' and 'hit'. Dr. Issei tried something he usually wouldn't, but in exchange forbid himself from asking Yukino anything.
“What does a thinking field need?” He started the timer. He deliberately turned it into a drawing question.
Yukino should be able to get this one. She was in the right grade bracket after all. But she struggled and struggled, until time ran out.
“Dangit!” she shouted.
Aside from the easier two kanji, Yukino could not draw a correct kanji on her own, but got all her multiple choices right. Dr. Issei...could not draw any conclusions from this strange case. Well, except that it was strange.
“Well, don't worry: You still won, so you don't have to answer the last question.”
Yukino looked relieved, and even smiled for him. “Thanks doctor.”
The session ended and Yukino was sent home looking better. At least, that was what Issei surmised when he saw how relieved Ms. Nagawa looked to see her daughter in high spirits again. She even mouthed a 'Thank you' from the lobby. Unfortunately, Dr. Issei didn't get to ask his last question:
What would have happened if the two had played with dice?

The Black Paper Mouse looked really beat up. His edges were like torn paper with wet dirt and sticks stuck to him, and his footsteps left sand. The Master didn't look bothered by it though.
What took you so long?
Yukino didn't think he could see the mouse's face, because Chuu was making rude faces without getting in trouble.
“I took the scenic route. I was under a lot of stress lately and I needed to contemplate suicide in private.”
Yukino remembered hearing about suicide in history class. People rarely did it now. Maybe the mouse needs to wear the YanDome.
There's always 'death by smartass.'
The Black Paper Mouse grumbled. “I had to go practically everywhere. Really hard when you're as small as me. Not to mention that she only traveled at night.”
Did she ever lose you?
“Sir, I wouldn't have been gone so long if I had ever lost sight. I was faraway, not lost.”
The Mouse sounded mad at the word lost.
You did well.
“Thanks, I guess.
“Get on with it!” Yukino was given a start. She didn't know Al was there. Both the Master and the Mouse jumped too.
“Yes sir!” the Mouse responded, “She showed signs of having special abilities. She was particularly choosy about what she ate, where she went and who she talked to.”
“Are you sure?” Al asked.
Yukino frowned. It followed her? But then why didn't they talk about this while she was trying to find Faiba? Maybe they were talking about another girl. One that didn't lose their pets. She nearly cried again.
“I saw her walk around three blocks to reach a building instead of heading straight there. If she had taken the straight route, she would've run into some bad people. There was no real way for her to know that they were there ahead of time.”
How far did she travel?
“Around 30 kilometers, if I can guess correctly. She finally got picked up by humans at a beach.”
And you didn't get on the car?
“I was getting a drink from a water fountain. Had to walk all the way back home.”
The Master thought about stuff. She could tell because his eyes were moving.
How is she now?
“I don't know sir. I came straight here to report.”
“We haven't had anymore trouble with her, Master,” Al chimed in. The Master thought again, then talked again.
Rest well, but be open to looking over her if she starts becoming a problem again.
“Sir? You don't want me to kill her?” asked the Mouse.
This one's a natural. We've never had a case like that before. She's completely new. What if we…
“Oh. I think I get your gist.” The Black Paper Mouse bowed and sunk back to his labs underground.
It would be a gem of a miracle if we ever get a hold of this talent. Any thoughts, Al?
Silence. Al went away earlier..
I need to do something about that.

Dr. Issei was back in the Brown Burrow, this time being serviced by a sheep girl.
“Would the master like a refill?” she said as she clung to his arm.
Issei put his glass forward and let the sheep girl fill it to the brim. “Thanks honey.”
“You're welcome.” She swung her other arm around his shoulders, “How was your day today?”
“Oh, you know, same old same old. Someone with a parenting problem, someone with a love problem, a person where the question is 'what problem doesn't he have?' Just the hazards of the job.”
“Teenagers with too much time on their hands?” she cooed with a charming faux fascination.
“Mostly.” He took a swig.
“You look really tired. Did my teddy bear get too many crazies today?”
Dr. Issei took a second to look over how he was in the past hour. It took twenty seconds in all for him to remember what the two are talking about and five seconds to recall that yes, he did come in looking like crap. He had felt so worn out.
“Yeah, there's never really any place where everyone is happy. Sometimes I think that the only way to find a happy town is to find a place without a psychologist within twenty meters.”
“No one to tell them they're sad?” the sheep girl put her finger to her cheek in legitimate pondering. Dr. Issei laughed loudly, forgetting for a moment how tired he was. Unfortunately, his swinging moods brought him right back to what was probably the cause of his melancholy.
“Dear, do you remember what it was like to be a child?”
The sheep girl put her finger to her lips while she rolled her eyes up to mimic thought. “Let's see: I remember being really short and really happy!”
“Never miserable?”
“No. Not really,” she answered in a really cutesy voice, “Nobody's ever sad with doctors like you around.” She doubted any doctor outside of this place ever got to hear her especially arousing sultry tone.
It was obvious that this sheep girl's childhood never had bad adults and environments intruding on her well-being. Otherwise, she would probably be a different person altogether.
Extra happy or extra miserable or extra troubling, kids never really half-ass it either way.
[/hide]
I also feel like the last conversation wasn't necessary, but the Brown Burrow needs to stay in the story.

[ChesCa]

Next part and it's a doozy.
I'll try to make my corrections, and next installment will conclude the Spring Act:
[hide]
There were now three men a day coming to Yukino's apartment asking for her. Mom kept shooing them away, so that's good. Still, Yukino was now too afraid to go to school anymore. The reporters were allowed to follow her mom and her on their walk and not get arrested. They kept asking about 'art-ti-fish-all in-sim-men-nay-shen' and her dad. That really made mom angry and Yukino wished that she could make them go away because that made her mad too. Mom said not to talk to them, though, or they'll have something to put on the Datasphere, like her voice or a video.
Still, even though she was afraid, her mom pulled her by the hand to school, both of them running really really fast to keep away from the camera people. That wasn't the most bad part though. Everyone in her class knew that she could be on the Datasphere one day and wanted to be her friend. Yukino knew that only Anako was her real friend, and that the other kids would stop treating her nicely once they thought they would get to be in the news. She always stayed with Anako now, although she felt bad that her friend had to deal with the lying kids too. That was okay though. Yukino knew that Anako would try to make real friends this way instead of pretending to be someone's friend. That was what Yukino liked about Anako.
The school bell chimed and she and her mom were just in time. She waved her mom good-bye and followed everyone into class.

Ms. Nagawa began her walk back home, now able to focus more on fending the reporters off from herself instead of having to worry about Yukino's privacy. It had been a while since she'd had to run, but thankfully old habits died hard.
She started sprinting like a mad woman, grateful for the fact that she hadn't worn heels in years for this very reason. She made a direct line to the school's parking lot, where many parents were still crowding in with their cars to turn in their students at the last second. With the reporters crowding and carrying multiple equipment, not many would make it through before losing sight of her. In fact, once she crossed between the cars of two very surprised families, the media mob was choked down to a trickle,and the onrush of cars on the other side blocked traffic, entrapping all but a few personnel within the hodge podge of vehicles. Only three reporters made it through. Ms. Nagawa checked the skies for clouds. Crap. It was a bright and sunny day. If it had been raining, she could have taken a chance and run through muddy fields or places where the water poured down in spouts. Very few cameramen were willing to risk their equipment that way just to get a shot of a running celebrity. Instead, she tried for Plan B and headed for a crowded area, not too hard in the her city.
She ran many meters before she reached a mall. Perfect, except for the fact that it was a middle of a school day, so crowds were sparse. She remembered her survival instincts: Do not take an elevator that was next to another elevator or very near an escalator, lest they beat her to her floor and she gets boxed in. Instead, she searched for the mall theater, and spotted it dead ahead. All recording equipment would be confiscated if the reporters tried to come in, so she dashed into the lobby, not bothering to get a ticket yet. The camera men halted at the boundary between theater and mall. As a last punishment she walked out of their sight. Ms. Nagawa took out a book she had on hand for such occasions and sat to read. It would take a while, but even reporters eventually walked away, not wanting to waste anymore time on an impossible chase. The book she brought out was 'The Importance of Being Earnest,' an old favorite of hers. Kooyai had given it to her to remember him by.

The bell rung and Yukino was ready to finally go home, but her mom wasn't there to pick her up. That was really bad, because Anako needed a ride home. Like, right now. Anako did not know this, but Yukino didn't want to tell. A man came up to Yukino all of a sudden. She stayed still, almost petrified.

“Hello Yukino,” he said. He was bowing down a little, but he still looked really big, “Do you know who I am?”
“You're her uncle,” answered Anako. Yukino wondered how she knew that.
“Why yes, yes I am,” he said, pretending to be happy but she could tell he wasn't really, “Say, would you mind letting me take care of Yukino now? I need to take her home.”
“Um….” Anako nearly walked off with Yukino. She knew not to talk to strangers, but Yukino grabbed her shoulder to stop her.
“Actually, could you give Anako a ride home with me? I just need her to be dropped off.”
The uncle started looking really nervous. Yukino didn't know why, but she didn't really care. Anako needed to go home. It was weird how she looked a little scared of him still, though.
“Take a kid I don't know in my car? That's kind of...,” his eyes went back and forth, like the Master in her dreams, “rude.”
“Yeah, my mom's picking me up,” Anako said really quickly.
Yukino turned to Anako. “Don't worry, she'll be alright with it.” Anako's nervousness was gone, but it took a little while. “He's family.”
The uncle stood there looking scared, but he then said yes after a little while. “Hop in the car kiddos. Just tell me where to drop you off.”

It had been six hours since Ms. Nagawa ducked into the theater. The time was moot to her as she was once again absorbed into her favorite book. She reached the ending even faster than usual. Earnest's name was about to be revealed and Bunderby has just died. He reminded her of her husband. Kooyai's first play was the 'Importance of be Earnest' and he joked how as an understudy he provided support for the real actor. Kooyai hated the concept of status and images. A lot of it rubbed off on Ms. Nagawa. Not surprising, considering how they got tired of it after so long.

They were laying on the grass together, gazing into the sky, like the silent scenes of a cliché romantic picture.
“Koona,” he said, “Don't you ever worry how much you're giving away to make others happy?”
“I'm happy too,” she responded, “I'm definitely a lot more lucky than other people.”
“If you're happy, how come you only smile when I'm around?”
Koona Nagawa was silent at that response. Did she really look that sad? She wasn't exactly happy-go-lucky but she didn't feel depressed or anything either.
Kooyai looked a little too proud of his question, like he thought he made a point or something. He toned it down when she gave him 'that look'.
“It's just that,” he began very carefully, “You don't look like you enjoy what you do. You're acting for the paycheck and not for any real passion.”
“Don't you work for a paycheck too?” Koona bounced back at him, “You had to work hard to get into stage productions.”
“Fair enough,” he conceded, “but still, how come you don't talk to the other actors? Or the crew? They seem pretty friendly.”
“Well…” Koona was having a hard time with this answer, “because my family picks me up for my next shoot.”
He looked taken aback by that.
“How many shoots do you have a day?”
Koona was really hesitant this time.
“Maybe forty or fifty.”
Her companies had the best in holographic sets and music.
“How could you get to know anyone like that?!”

“I still have my family!” she snapped at him.
She knew what Kooyai would be thinking the moment that slipped out.
“It's not like that. They care for me, so I'm just making the most of everything,” she waved off.
“So nothing was ever your idea?” he asked plainly.
She hated how brusque he could be sometimes. Koona wasn't really reaching this man.
“Don't you have any feelings for your family?” she teased.
“Only as much caring as they gave me.”
The sudden shift of intensity in his voice actually scared her a little. He calmed down when she saw him get a good look at her face.
“It was mostly a stable family as long as no one embarrassed my dad…and as the head of our local school district it was hard not to do that. If we didn't get the good grades to show that his term in office was working his rivals would pin that against him. Naturally, that meant we had put on a good show for people he called 'shit eating pigs.'
Koona Nagawa couldn't hold in her snort. Kooyai seemed to remember that phrase fondly as well.
“But yeah, I don't really think my family's all that good for me.” He rolled over to face her. “And now that I think about it, I rarely see you without yours in tow. How often are you away from any of them?”

Koona rolled over onto her back so that he wouldn't see her think. She tried to find just the exact right way to phrase her answer, but no matter what she could think of the response felt like the wrong one.
“I'm very close to them,” she finally said.
“To all of them?”
“Well, my brother and sister are kind of jealous of me,” she admitted.
Kooyai looked at her for a moment.
“How do your siblings get treated?”
“They're fine.” Why can't he just go back to being quiet and pretty?
“I don't see them around that often. Not as much as your mother.”
“My mother drives me! I don't have a license yet!”
He put up his palms in surrender. “Fair enough, but they don't come onto set too often.”
Koona gripped her hands.
“They just do whatever the hell they want. They're rarely ever home, just roaming around with a bunch of feral kids, doing who knows what?”
“I think they're just hanging out with friends. I used to do it all the time.”
“Well, mom and dad didn't know what to do with them so they just let them wander around.”
“I think you're jealous,” he blurted out. She knew he blurted it out because he instantly regretted it.
Fuming, she grabbed her purse and started to stomp off.
“Koona–”

“It's Miss Nagawa to you for a while, buddy!” she sneered back.
She started walking faster when she heard him trying to catch up with her, pleading her to listen.
That man didn't know her at all. He was just mad because she was more successful than he was. Typical males.

Ms. Nagawa had finally finished her book, then looked at the time.
“Oh shit!”
Everyone in the theater lounge looked up at her. She didn't pay any mind to anything but the fact that she was late for picking up Yukino. She brashly said good bye to a stunned usher, rushing past so fast he didn't have time to bow.

Dr. Issei was in his office, contemplating his letter very carefully. He didn't want to look like he was running away from his duties, but on the other hand he also didn't want to be the one who let something slip on his watch. After quadruple checking and making sure everything was exactly how it needed to be, he sent his e-mail to the Board of Mental Health:

Dear Sirs and Madames of the BoMH:
While our initial diagnosis of autism and Asperger's seem to fit her behavior, she has also exhibited traits of a superiority complex and has a rather remarkable ability to somehow predict multiple choice answers with very high accuracy without knowing the real answer to the question. It is very likely she may have a new way of thinking that has yet to be cataloged into the ShikaPlus, and I would like to request she be brought to you for advanced evaluation.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Hanake Issei

He relaxed back into his chair.

Koona Nagawa had already gone to the principal, but security couldn't find Yukino anywhere on campus. Ms. Nagawa finally just went straight to her teacher to find out anything she saw.
“Yes, someone had picked them up already.”
What?!
“What!?” Ms. Nagawa shouted.
“It was your brother. Your uncle, right?”
This stupid, stupid bitch.
The shock had to dissipate before Ms. Nagawa could express her feelings the best she could.
“You let her go with a complete stranger you dumb bitch!?”
Yukino's teacher was cowering away, finally realizing that she may have made a mistake. Good, but too little too late.
“How did you even know it was really her uncle?!” She wasn't letting this woman off the hook until she was good and done.
“He walked up to her and introduced himself to Yukino and Anako, and Yukino confirmed that it was her uncle.”
Oh this woman was such a liar!
“I even walked up to him and asked why you weren't picking them up. Yukino said that you were sick at home and that you called her to say to let her uncle pick them up. It's true, I swear!” the teacher pleased and begged.
Bullshit! Is she honestly expected to believe that Yukino would lie to cover for a man she barely met? Ms. Nagawa pointed her finger in the woman's face, slit her eyes and talked in a deliberately forced yet hushed tone: “If anything happens I will use my status to have you terminated in this precinct and every one surrounding it. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” she nodded, near crying. Who knew if the woman even knew she was bluffing, but it was enough to put the fear of God into her and that's what she needed right now.
“Good.” Ms. Nagawa walked back to the administration office to make a phone call to the police, then headed straight for her house for her car.

Anako waved goodbye to Yukino before she ran into her house.
“Mom! I'm home! Yukino's uncle dropped me off, so it's okay, right?”
Mom didn't say anything.
“Mom?”
Anako walked from the front to her living room. There wasn't anybody here.
“Mom, where are you?” Anako was getting really worried, so she ran to the kitchen to look there. It was empty, but Anako started to hear water running. The shower. She knocked on the door to let her mom know that she's home.
“Mom! I'm home!” she tried to shout over the water. She wasn't saying anything. This made her want to cry. “Mom!” she pounded really hard on the door now so her mom could her her, “I said I'm home!” Nothing. She pounded the hardest that she can, feeling her eyes get watery. Something was horribly wrong. She ran out of the house and pounded on the neighbor's door.
“What? What is it?” the lady answered.
Anako was almost crying, but she tried to keep herself from from doing it so she could help her mom better.
“My mom! She's in the bathroom but she won't come out.” Anako felt the tears gush out really strongly now, and she cried on the porch while the lady ran inside to check on her mom.

Yukino was still in the passenger's seat, her uncle driving her to a house a few miles away from hers. She knew she wasn't going home right then because they were never going to her house in the first place.
“I know this looks strange, but you're actually going to get to visit your aunt and your grandparents, so there's nothing to worry about.”
“I know,” Yukino thought her uncle looked a little surprised at how she said 'I know.' He didn't say anything though.
“I'm not going to tell you anything that I don't want to,” she said in the same way. If that made her uncle angry he was good at hiding it. She guessed she was important or something.
“Aw, don't be that way. We're nice people once you get to know us,” he lied.
“I already know all about you, and you people could never be my friend.”
No one said anything for the rest of the ride.
[/hide]

[ChesCa]

This will probably need a little polishing, but this concludes the Spring chapter of Yukino. I'll be taking a hiatus until some time next year (March at the latest).
[hide]
Dr. Issei was waiting impatiently for Yukino to show up and meet his new guest, a chairman of the Board of Mental Health Mr. Chirago. He had responded to Issei's email with great interest, wanting to document the new mental condition of the child that could significantly improve the capability of the ShikaPlus.
Said child was forty-five minutes late. It was only Chirago's eagerness that kept him there.
Issei took care not to rush when Miss Nosa buzzed in.
“Yes Miss Nosa?”
“Sir, there's a group of people who are here to see you. They say it's urgent.”
Even Mr. Chirago doesn't like the sound of that.
“Who are they?” Issei asked.
“They claim to be family of Yukino's. They want to find out where she is and thought you might know something.”
Oh God not again. The Chairman was too kind to sigh in exasperation, but they both knew he was doing it internally.
“She's run away again?” Issei forgot to mask his frustration this time.
Both men could hear the secretary trying to shoo away the family before whispering into the intercom.
“No sir. Ms. Nagawa is missing this time as well. It seems that they both ran off.”
There was louder chatter and Nosa had to click off. Mr. Chirago put on his hat, thanked Issei for going through the trouble of seeing him, and walked out the door.
Well, so much for progress.

That night, on the news, it was everywhere: the superstar actress Koona Nagawa had been found, and that she had a kid. However, before either of them could be interviewed, both had disappeared, and her face was plastered on every post and topic thread on the Datasphere, with enough to keep the tabloids going for months at a time. Everyone was looking for her when they weren't glued to their screens and seats, and all were fascinated by new information being given out by her family in this time of crisis, revealing everything from her forbidden love with her husband, the late great Kooyai Nagawa (whose past was also being dug up) to her measurements, claiming that it would help better identify her. The family was already being offered a role in a documentary about their wayward daughter's life. It was on every night for three months.

Yukino was barely keeping awake in the car. Ms. Nagawa wanted to avoid traveling abroad, feeling that Yukino didn't deserve to be chased away from her home country. Even the summer home in Australia was out of the question. Ms. Nagawa was too familiar with what it was like to be uprooted. Besides, her family already knew about that place. Instead, she called in a favor with her godfather, an old friend of grandpa Te. Before she lost touch with him, she still remembered him as that old man who disapproved of how his best friend's family were behaving and treating their children as cash cows. And he was right.
She turned on the radio to calm herself and keep awake as the isolated highway got darker and more pitch.
Koona remembered that the last time she saw him, it was when he warned her about going into the movie business, saying that it would follow her. She scoffed at him, but she was pretty sure that he didn't take it personally. He was even still friends with Te even after they fought over how he was spoiling his kids, so naturally he would forget about that little incident with her, right? At the very least, he was doing it for Yukino's sake, letting them stay with him for a while. A small town, up in the mountains, poor reception and communications. It would be rough, but better than dragging Yukino across the sea.
“Mom, will I ever get to see Dr. Issei and Anako again?” she mumbled very sadly.
Ms. Nagawa blinked. She wasn't…'sad' per se, but the let downs were really starting to feel like a ton of pebbles. “I don't know, honey.”
Yukino leaned on the car door to keep herself upright.
“I don't know yet either.”

Dr. Issei was at the Brown Burrow again, saddled with the same dumb sheep girl as before.
“Can I get you anything, Master?” He put out a glass. She refilled. She smiled daintily. Wasn't there anyone new on shift?
“Is there anything wrong?” she asked with a puppy dog look. He just wasn't concentrating on his public face too well today.
“No, I just have something on my mind.” Nonchalant truth seemed to be the best way to end this.
“Aw, let's make some small talk to take your mind off things. I know. How about that missing actress all over the news now?” she piped really cheerily.
Although he felt a little bad for getting up and leaving, this was the first time Dr. Hanake Issei needed to walk out of the Brown Burrow early.

The Master was wondering where Yukino went. She was watching from the barrier but maybe he didn't sense her. Maybe they knew where she lived but was gone now so they couldn't find her.
Chuu.
The Black Paper Mouse spilled up from the ground.
“Yes si-GURK” Chuu tried to say something but one of the humming dancers accidentally stepped on him.
You still there?
Chuu got himself up and popped and unfolded everything back to normal.
“Can we move to somewhere more private? And less heely?” The Black Paper Mouse was looking over his shoulders.
As you wish.
The Master grabbed Chuu with a tentacle and shot up the tunnel to where Yukino couldn't see. That was okay. She didn't care anyway.
Yukino watched the humming dancers as they turned and twisted at the same time. The dances were so pretty that she felt her eyes getting heavy.
Yukino blacked out in her own dream and went to sleep a second time.

“So, what did you need me for, boss?”
That human has not come back. Is she…
“Dead? I don't think so.”
Chuu, you don't mean to say you tried anything, did you?
“What? No! I'm a bad guy, but not that bad.”
You said you don't think so. Why?
“Well sir, the sad thing is she just went away.”
How?
“Her mother just packed up one day and left. No warning. I was in the village when it happened, so I couldn't stow away.”
I see…this is disappointing, but perhaps no big loss overall.
“Anything else, sir?
How goes the Rosetta Chip project?
“Almost done sir. The notes left behind came in very handy. The first five languages should be done in no time.”
Glad to hear it, Chuu.
[/hide]

[tigerlilly]

NIce one nice! The most interesting tidbit of the story for me must be story line you brought in with Anako and her mother. Introducing a friend of Yukino's brought in a nice dynamic an explained a bit why Yukino doesn't like other children, since she expects them to have some other plans in the back of their minds
And it showed that Yukino actually does care for others, even if it's just a selected few. The interesting part must be the one with Anako's mother though; I assume her mother tried to commit suicide? And Yukino urging her friend to get home, was more than her having a bad feeling, she literally knew Anako's mom was in mortal danger.
This just strenghtens my feeling even more that Yukino had a connection to death somehow, so that she could sense something was wrong.
But also her ability to apparently read the mind of others ( like knowing that she can never be friends with her uncle) interests me. It looks like she can't read thoughts, but read another persons intentions or their "heart", to put this very simplified…? I think there's some kind of trick behind it... somebody "helping" her to do so in some way. It already happened with the card game too, didn't it?
As always I am confused by the paper mouse and his Boss, this one I still can't sort out hahah Since now for the first time it is clear they exist completely independently from Yukino (So them being a fragment of her imaginatin I can rule out). Just what are they?? I feel dumb for not finding a clue! xD
I hope I will found out in the next chapter when the hiatus is over!

Also the little flashback of Yukino's mom, was nice to read. As I began reading it, I expected this to be the part where Koona confessed his love to her (the funny little anecdote you mentioned in a previous chapter), but this one gave a good insight on miss Nagawa too!

What didn't go as smoothly was the transition between the two last parts. I would have loved to kow what happened at the house of Yukino's grandparents and as it is know it felt as if you just skipped a part. Will this episode be told in another chapter? And a couple of spelling errors made their way in, but nothing big. As you said you'll still give it a polisihing, right?
BTW when you say spring arc, this means there will be 3 more arcs named after the remaining seasons?

[ChesCa]

Thanks Tigerlilly.
I'll address each point bit by bit.
@tigerlilly:

The interesting part must be the one with Anako's mother though; I assume her mother tried to commit suicide? And Yukino urging her friend to get home, was more than her having a bad feeling, she literally knew Anako's mom was in mortal danger.
This just strenghtens my feeling even more that Yukino had a connection to death somehow, so that she could sense something was wrong.

You know what's funny about that part? It's sole purpose was to show that Yukino did know what was going to happen to her mother. The thing is, I got so focused on that that I forgot people might actually care about what happened. XD
Case in point, my writing group:
Leader: That's a nice cliffhanger to leave us on.
Me: What cliffhanger?
Leader: With Anako's mother.
Me: Oooooh…..whoops.
I'll add a blurb about her being saved in the hospital or something.

But also her ability to apparently read the mind of others ( like knowing that she can never be friends with her uncle) interests me. It looks like she can't read thoughts, but read another persons intentions or their "heart", to put this very simplified…? I think there's some kind of trick behind it... somebody "helping" her to do so in some way. It already happened with the card game too, didn't it?

Oh, there is a trick to it, and not only does she get better…but you still can't make her tell anything about it. :devil:

As always I am confused by the paper mouse and his Boss, this one I still can't sort out hahah Since now for the first time it is clear they exist completely independently from Yukino (So them being a fragment of her imaginatin I can rule out). Just what are they?? I feel dumb for not finding a clue! xD

First off, don't feel dumb. I'm just being deliberately mysterious.
Oh, and this is my fault: The final paragraph is still from Yukino's point of view. When she fell into that deeper sleep she was still able to hear them, so we can't decide if they're real just yet.
Sorry, I should've made it clearer. I'll fix it somehow. Still, just what is this Rosetta Chip business~?

Also the little flashback of Yukino's mom, was nice to read. As I began reading it, I expected this to be the part where Koona confessed his love to her (the funny little anecdote you mentioned in a previous chapter), but this one gave a good insight on miss Nagawa too!

It actually was going to be that originally, but then I realized not only was it too sappy but Miss Nagawa shouldn't have been acting all sweet. I don't know what point in time he confessed to her (Bad Cuddles!) but judging by how this scene was set up and went he already did so a while ago.

What didn't go as smoothly was the transition between the two last parts. I would have loved to kow what happened at the house of Yukino's grandparents and as it is know it felt as if you just skipped a part. Will this episode be told in another chapter? And a couple of spelling errors made their way in, but nothing big. As you said you'll still give it a polisihing, right?
BTW when you say spring arc, this means there will be 3 more arcs named after the remaining seasons?

I'm conflicted on writing what happened at the grandmother's house. I know why people would want to know, but….I don't know what I could do with it. For the moment, it seems best for the readers to draw their own conclusion, but given how Ms. Nagawa was treated, how slimy her family is and how protective Ms. Nagawa is of her daughter you can imagine it was pretty ugly. Ugly enough that she didn't want Yukino in their reach again.
If I can give it a satisfactory telling I'll add a new post for it.
And yes, this story is divvied up into four seasons. It begins in Spring and ends with Winter.
Because, you know, SNOW FIELDS! OMGWTFBBQ!

[ChesCa]

Here we go, the start of Summer:
[hide]
The AllWhere Monorail swung gently under Ms. Nagawa's feet. It had been thirty-six hours since she last slept and the rocking motion of staying steady under the train handle made the inside of her head swim. She gripped her hand.
“Ow! Mom!” Yukino complained.
Yukino was a pre-teen now and Ms. Nagawa felt she still couldn't keep her eye off her daughter. Once she slipped away between the doors just as they had been closing for departure, but thankfully she tripped and Ms. Nagawa yanked her up by her collar and gave her a long, screeching scolding in front of everyone. Yukino looked more indignant than shamed, and all Ms. Nagawa got for her righteous anger was a slightly scratchy throat.
“-Now arriving at Amagu Station-All departing passengers please make your way to the exits-” the intercom parroted. That was their stop. The tone for the doors to open chimed and everyone began herding out the moment they heard the mechanical lock unlatch beneath the plastic looking white metal of the sliding doors.
A few passengers grunted when Ms. Nagawa interrupted their flow of traffic, suddenly halted when her daughter planted herself in place in defiance.
“Yukino, come on,” Ms. Nagawa growled through ground teeth, trying to drag her daughter off the train. The little brat leaned back and dug her feet in further, but it took one angry yank to tumble her forward and off the train, to the quizzical looks of the onlooking business men and women. To make certain she didn't try and turn around Ms. Nagawa put her hand on Yukino's back and firmly pushed her forward away from the platform.
Her daughter gave a start when hands squeezed both of her shoulders and twirled her around to meet her mother in the eye.
“How many times are we going to do this Yukino, hm?” Ms. Nagawa struggled to let just enough of her anger leak through, “How many times are you going to embarrass me and yourself before you start behaving? Why are we here in the first place?”
Yukino wouldn't look her in the eye. Ms. Nagawa saw it as an act of both defiance and shame.
“Answer me!” she shook her daughter a little, not wanting to break the grip she finally has her in. She heard the intercom announcing the next train coming in but it bled in with the rest of the congested murmur of the station.
Yukino's eyebrows went up for a moment, and she turned her head to look over her mother's shoulder.
Ms. Nagawa looked behind her. Their train had departed. What was so strange about that?
The station tilted beneath her slightly as pressure on her chest knocked her on her rear. Yukino pushed her while she wasn't looking and had started running down the platform.
“Yukino get–” Ms. Nagawa choked on her own voice when Yukino jumped onto the tracks and dashed across to the other side. The people nearby all turned, watched and murmured nervously at the sight. Their voices rose in shock when the approaching train had just become visible from the tram tunnel.
Ms. Nagawa's face felt pale and dried out, and suddenly there was no color, only black and white. Time waited for Yukino to get to the other side as the train slowed down further, but she wasn't fast enough. Her daughter's hands were on the steel of the opposite platform, gripped for a good hoist when the train cut off all traces of her.
Nearly the whole station went silent when Ms. Nagawa's voice blistered the air with Yukino's name. The train finally pulled to a complete stop.
Then she blacked out.

Yukino had almost made it, but before she could squirm away two station hands had hoisted her up by the shoulders and carried her to their office. Damn idiots! She saw them coming but she was too fat and slow to dodge them. They were lucky she wasn't older or she'd throw them on the tracks behind her. God dammit!
“Let me go!” she kicked her legs everywhere but couldn't hit anything other than air and it made her look like a total child trying to fly with her lower half. Assholes.
Yukino had to wait in the office for about seven minutes before her mother was brought in. Two men supported her shoulders because she looked like she forgot to walk.
“Hi mom,” Yukino moaned, ready for what was coming. Her mom's shoes tapped really quickly when she ran across the room and gave her a smack so hard the entire left half of her face burned. Yukino knew she wasn't behaving and that her mom was really worried, so she let her do it. It didn't make it less humiliating though. The station workers tried to hide their surprise but they wouldn't forget what had happened here. She allowed them to shift their feet. Who gave a fuck?
“Why did you do that?!” Yukino let her mom shout and get it all out. “You could've gotten yourself killed!”
Yukino's shoulders hurt when her mom grabbed them again.
“What is wrong with you?!”
Yukino tried to think of a good answer to get her off her back, but the best one wasn't all that good.
“You wouldn't understand, so stop worrying about it.”
She let her mom cry, but didn't say anything else.

Dr. Issei was sitting in that the same clinic, doing what he knew best: taking in patients and trying to show them the benefits of the ShikaPlus, an argument that while the same needed an approach tailored to each individual person. Not easy, considering all that he had seen over the years. There was no such thing as 'getting the hang of it,' with each tragic, jarring story being some new experience. People who have witnessed murder, people who have nearly been murdered, sex abuse victims, verbal abuse victims, those that are lonely, those with no privacy, those who can't stand people and all combinations thereof and everything else that he could not think of. Some days he felt like he had a good handle on things, other days he just wanted to force the helmet on them himself and make them to become better people. But that would be wrong.
His still loyal receptionist Miss Nosa buzzed in.
“Dr. Issei sir, you have a request for a new appointment.”
“What day, Miss Nosa?” he said, massaging the bridge of his nose.
“Saturdays sir. Saturday evenings, to be exact.”
Huh. No one usually wanted those. Still, it wouldn't be a problem.
“That's fine, Miss Nosa. Who is the patient?”
“A returnee sir. A Miss Yukino Nagawa.”
What?
“Dr. Issei? Are you still there?”
He shook his head. He hadn't said anything for about half a minute.
“Yes, Miss Nosa. Please send me the file report on our returnee.”
“Of course, sir.”

That Saturday he read over the report again before their reunion.
Yukino Nagawa. Age: 12. Currently attending middle school in her former home town.
Updates on the patient:
The patient has spent the last four years since her move regressing back into abnormal sleep patterns. Nothing could be done, and as a result was partially home schooled by her mother to keep up with the classes she was missing. Presently, she is now doing her best to stay awake at nights, sometimes operating on 2-4 hours of sleep, usually never more than six. Still prefers isolation to human contact. Has been noted to now actively spurn others, stating that she doesn't want to interact with 'normal' people. Has also been accused of being a chronic cheater in school. Barely keeping grades up because no one can prove how she is cheating. Only has established contact with an old friend, whom she considers her confidante. Cares little for her own health. Has taken multiple, dangerous risks believing herself untouchable. Goals: To prep her for the ShikaPlus. Mother still refuses to press it on her.
Dr. Issei waited for the buzzer for the security door to sound, then called out 'Come in' to his returning patient.
Yukino walked in and immediately jumped straight onto the couch, slouched and arms folded. This was her territory, at least that's what her body language said. She had changed, but Dr. Issei knew that age changed everybody. Yukino was taller and reached up to his forearms, unlike last time where she only reached his waist. Her hair was longer and done up in a ponytail, with a rabbit scrunchie no less. An unconscious childhood burden involving Faiba? He wouldn't doubt that. She also wore more relaxed clothing than that school uniform back then, choosing jeans with lots of slack and a red, loose shirt. The only really notable thing about her new look was that her eyes looked very sunken and droopy from the lack of sleep and that she had gained some weight, making her look a little chubby. Dr. Issei wondered if she was unable to get enough exercise or if she was willingly letting her body go to seed out of self neglect.
“Welcome back Yukino. How are you?” he opened with a friendly smile.
“Hi,” she gave in a dedicated, rebellious monotone. At least she was talking. It looked like she still wouldn't do anything she didn't want to, though.
“I'm doing fine, by the way,” Yukino continued, as she adjusted her hair.
“That's great to hear,” Issei often used positivity to break through barriers, “How is your mother doing?”
Yukino fidgeted but forced eye contact with him, “She's surviving.”
Dr. Issei nearly asked his next question, but was cut off.
“I think it might be my fault.” Yukino genuinely looked guilty.
“Why do you think that?”
“I'm not telling,” she directed at him beneath half-closed lids. From the top, it seemed.
[/hide]

[gottalt3OP]

YEY!
Well in this case I will review once I finish reading this chapter. I've been wanting to review for some time but never really got to do it. :3

[gottalt3OP]

So I think I should do a small review of Yukino, it really does diserve it.

! Yukino starts of as just a story about a mentally ill child. At first it reminded me of a silly anime I didn't even follow which was about a psychiatrist. Kuuchuu Buranko if I recall correctly. I do know they are completly different things and all, but my silly mind could not avoid the connection.
Well as I kept on reading I noticed the characters were all well developed. Dr. Issei is quite an enjoyable character, and you did a nice job portraying him. Yukino is splendid, to avoid using overused adjectives. I love her conversations with the Dr. and with each knew reunion we get to know a little bit more about Yukino, but not much.
And it seemed like it would be just those two talking for the whole series, but then the plot thickens. Yukino's Mother whom I tought would be just a side character, turned out to be a pretty well rounded character, with a nice backstory. The dreams which I tought were just a fun way to hint at Yukino's mental condition, turned out to be something more supernatural, or not. And what seemed like a nice but simple story became something a little bit less simple and a lot more fun.
I like the overall feel it really follows the law of conservation of detail, and there are no useless sentences, which goes pretty well with the feel of the story. However I get lost sometimes in who is saying what, but not really important.
I really love the style, and the story as a similar vibe to Urasawa's mangas. Realistic characters and something supernatural under the overall pretty normal society.
The best story I've read here. Maybe a Dastardly Two will be good competition [when that annoying Lockery gets some balls] but for now this is the best I've read in this forum.

And now a comment on the most recent chapter:

! The beginning sounded a little hard to follow. Maybe it is due to me being dumb but I was actually thinking that some random pre-teen and Miss Nagawa were feeling the same thing… But I like the time-skip, I actually tought we would see them with the god father and have a change of pace, but this sounded good. Yukino's rebellion actions which know one would believe the causes make me think the story with the black papper people has evolved quite a bit, maybe she needs to go somewhere quickly? Or maybe those dreams never really came back, meaning she can only have those dreams while in town. Or not. Well I do like to make my own theories. Keep up the good work.

[ChesCa]

Sorry for the late response.
You're not dumb with the pre-teen thing. I rechecked the sentence and it did seem like Ms. Nagawa was sharing thoughts with a pre-teen. I made things more specific.
I'm also flattered I've got people making theories.
In Summer, we will be getting parts from the God Father's POV. The basic format is following Issei and Yukino's sessions, plus the side stories of Issei's private life and Ms. Nagawa's struggles, with maybe a bit peppered here and there with minor characters. Overall, 90% of the settings are always going to be Issei's office, the Brown Burrow and the Black Paper Village.
With that, here's the next part of Summer:
[hide]
“Let's change the subject. Have you made any new friends since we last visited?” Issei initiated. Yukino was very curt.
“No, it's still just me and Anako.”
As the report said. Issei didn't know what he was hoping for exactly.
“You must feel very fortunate,” he complimented, “Not many people can stay together even without long periods of separation.”
“Oh, trust me,” Yukino started with a smug look on her mouth, “when it comes to her, I can click with Anako just like that.” She snapped her fingers for emphasis. “Nothing will ever change between us.”
Dr. Issei felt he should have been glad to hear that, but something in that attitude suggested that she somehow had Anako under her power. Best to approach this puzzle box with a tap.
“That's fascinating. What do you two share that makes you so inseparable?”
Yukino sat back and let the words flow.
“She and I have the same school schedule, the same interests in animals, we both like to hang out in the library and read, we know how to cover for each other when we get into fights, we both hang out in the same hot spots and we even play on the same baseball team.”
Issei was fascinated despite himself, in one part in particular.
“You cover for each other when you get into fights? Do you two regularly get into skirmishes?”
“Oh, only some of the time,” she continued, showing no break in her demeanor, “when someone is making fun of us or trying to get money from us, then we sometimes curse them out, or even beat them up.”
“Really?” Issei inquired without betraying his concern.
“Really really.”
Interesting. Now he can be a tad more forward.
“How does this work? Does she lead and you follow? Do you both go in at once?”
“Oh, I'm the one who leads the fight most of the time, and sometimes I have to tell her what to do, but overall we work well together.”
“Can you tell me about any of these fights?”
“Sure. Last week, there was this girl in my class. Her name is Yomi, and she really likes to pick on people smaller than her for money.”
A bully. Well, at least it doesn't seem like Yukino was an instigator.
“Is that right? How come none of the teachers do anything?” Issei might need to call the Yukino's teacher about this.
“How long have you been out of school, Dr. Issei?” Yukino sounded kind of annoyed. He would really need to call the teacher.
“I was hoping that things had changed since,” he admitted.
“Ha! No chance, but I don't blame you for hoping,” she went on, but then she made a very intense scowl, “it's just me and her. Teachers are useless.”
“When I didn't give her any money one day,” she continued, “she started pushing me in class. I started pushing back, and she ran into a desk behind her.”
“I hope nobody was sitting there,” Issei tried to lighten the mood a little.
Yukino couldn't hide her maniacal grin. Crap, now she's just being encouraged.
“One of her friends. She was staring at me when Yomi was trying to extort me, trying to intimidate me. So I shoved Yomi into her. They both looked super pissed.”
Dr. Issei wasn't at all impressed with her behavior, but held his tongue for the sake of letting more of Yukino's manner and testimony speak for her.
“So they tried to gang up on us after school. Cowards were in a group of five, and one of them was a guy,” she recounted, “but I knew how to deal with them. We were playing tether ball at the time when they showed up, so when they got closer, I took out one guy when I hit the ball hard into his nose. He started crying and ran away.”
An impressive feat of strength and accuracy, Issei thought, but almost unbelievable.
“That just left the four other girls. While the group was distracted by the guy's crying, Anako and I each jumped a girl and began wailing on them. POW!”
Yukino was making this sound like Battle Royale, but minus the death. Hopefully.
“Unfortunately, they were only the weaker ones, and the two stronger ones managed to pull us off of them. So we both got into a fight with them, but managed to hold them off, and we even pushed them into each other. Then I konked their heads together real hard. After that, it was easy to chase them off.”
Issei was observing Yukino's behavior while she spoke, and when put together with the ghastly incident, he came to the conclusion that she saw her total victory over her opponent as some sort of triumph not because she defended herself, but because of the violence and fear she supposedly instilled into her enemies. This worried him. He thought that Yukino might be at risk of becoming a major sadist, if she wasn't one already.
“How often do these fights happen, Yukino?”
She thought on it, trying to remember. Great, she cared enough to try and keep count of more than she could actually remember.
“Maybe about three times a month. Yomi and I are kind of enemies, and there are always some kids who come in and try to fight me to prove how tough they are. Other than that, I usually just get into arguments.”
“How often is that?” Issei asked, unable to keep his exasperation in check.
“Do you have to know everything Doctor?” Yukino asked back in amusement, “even I don't know how many verbal fights I've gotten into.”
Issei chose his next question carefully.
“Does your mother know about these fights? Is this why you blame yourself for her having a hard time of things?”
There. Something happened there. Yukino was still laying back like a slouch and keeping her relaxed, nonchalant grin on her face, but for a moment her smile drew back just a tad and her eyebrows lowered a little. She had clenched her jaw for the briefest moment. Issei pretended not to notice.
“She doesn't know. The school teachers don't know anything about what either me, Yomi or anyone else does. The other kids know that if they tell, they'll look like a crybaby tattletale.” She instantly wore her nonchalant look like it was nothing at all.
“I see. Yukino, do you like anybody other than Anako? Anybody at all?”
“Nope. People are more or less stupid, but Anako's the exception. She and I can stick together and outsmart all the other kids. I won't need anyone else.”
Issei was reminded of the time when Yukino told him 'you can't make me say anything I don't want to' in that same certain tone. Even after all these years, she was still acting a bit like a know-it-all.
“Yukino,” he started again, “there's something that has been on my mind since I found out that you were coming back.”
“You want to know what happened with the reporter and family situation?”
That was a very good guess.
“I can tell you all about it,” she leaned back and tried to recall everything she could.
“When my mom moved to that town a few years ago, it was really out of the way. Seriously, there's bad television reception, cell phone reception, the nearest convenience store was in the next town over 50 miles away and the school only had about two-hundred students in it. When my mom wanted me out of the spotlight, she really did a good job of it.” Yukino glared to the side for a moment. It was obvious what she thought of being dragged out of city life and out into the boonies somewhere.
“I had to live with her godfather, who knew my great-grandfather Te. They were both scientists, but this guy decided to retire where it was peaceful and quiet. And also where it snowed too much.”
Issei held back a grin when Yukino complained about snow of all things.
“Anyway, the biggest problem was that my mom didn't know when or even if my grandma would ever call off the pursuit. So for about three years, we were in hiding.”
“Excuse me, but I thought it was four years.”
“I'm getting to that,” Yukino waved him off as she tried to remember more, “One day, I just happened to be reading the newspaper and it had an obituary saying that grandma was dead. I showed it to my mom and she said that it meant that the rest of the family will stop trying to come after her, since she was the one who organized everything. She was right, plus everyone got tired of waiting around and searching. Most of the family members even just moved on to get jobs. I still had to complete another year of school though, since I was just starting a new year. We applied back to my home school during that year, though, so we were finally able to move back.”
“And that's how it happened?” Issei thought that sounded rather convenient.
Yukino grinned wider. “Well, it was kind of boring wasn't it, but I survived and returned home. So there's nothing really more to talk about.”
Issei pretended to agree, wondering how much she was hiding or lying about.
Their session ended a little later. Yukino left, waving goodbye and saying how nice it was to see him again, and she made her way out to the lobby where her mother awaited. Just like old times.
Dr. Issei closed his office door and sat at his desk, head resting on one arm in thought. Yukino was talkative when she was younger, but only when he coaxed a story out of her. That conversation was entirely different. Not only was she more willing to open up, but she acted like she was in charge, never faltering in her words and actions.
Issei thought he might have screwed up. He thought he was coaxing a story out of her, but maybe she was in fact bragging about everything. In which case, he just let her rule the entire conversation.
Issei frowned. Actually, some of those stories were too detailed, like she had been rehearsing them over and over in her mind. One possibility was that she wanted to get many things off her chest.
Another possibility was that Yukino was hiding something, and was going through hoops to do so. This case was looking grim already, and he didn't give himself leeway to bring up the ShikaPlus again. Issei had to plan future sessions very carefully. For starters, he would need to talk with the mother about why she didn't force the helmet on her daughter after all these outbursts.

Ms. Nagawa was driving Yukino home. She was afraid that she would lose her way on the drive to the clinic and back, but it's funny how old memories can easily come back to one, including car routes. Yukino was in the back seat, lying down and taking a power nap. That's all Yukino did whenever she was home—just rest and gather any energy she'll need to stay up at night. At first, Ms. Nagawa had tried yelling at her. When she resisted, Ms. Nagawa threatened to take away phone and television privileges, but still Yukino would not relent. That was what prompted her to finally take her back to see Dr. Issei.
Yukino snoozed in the back seat while Ms. Nagawa worried about just exactly how she was to save her daughter.
[/hide]

[gottalt3OP]

Hmm. And now I complain about how we didn't get to see the Black Papper Village again. Just kidding.
Pretty good chapter. I noticed some improvements from the past one. Pretty much easier to keep track of what's happening and who's talking.
Yukino's character development is wonderful and with this I think autism its not really the most likely condition. At least I don't remember hearing stories about sadistic autists, and she was talking normally. I always loved Yukino's character, and I'm glad she only became more likeable with the time-skip.
The fact that the godfather is a scientist opened up some weird possibilities in my mind. Keep it up.

[ChesCa]

@gotta<3OP:

Hmm. And now I complain about how we didn't get to see the Black Papper Village again. Just kidding.
Pretty good chapter. I noticed some improvements from the past one. Pretty much easier to keep track of what's happening and who's talking.
Yukino's character development is wonderful and with this I think autism its not really the most likely condition. At least I don't remember hearing stories about sadistic autists, and she was talking normally. I always loved Yukino's character, and I'm glad she only became more likeable with the time-skip.
The fact that the godfather is a scientist opened up some weird possibilities in my mind. Keep it up.

Sorry for the late response, and yeah, the Godfather is going to be an interesting man, especially since I'm making some parts of him up as I go.

Next part, submitted for the monthly competition:
[hide]
In the quiet mountainside of Koyomaha, Toshio Watanabe finally, finally had his home to himself again. The silence was very soothing for him, and he blindly fished in his mini-fridge as he relaxed in the lounge chair next to it. Yukino had been far too disruptive for much of her stay, developing the habit of keeping the radio and broadcast windows open on her personal virtual home system. She did all this to keep herself from having to go to sleep, like she was still five. Her deviancy had become too much for him to tolerate and he had seriously contemplated barring Ms Nagawa and her wayward daughter from setting foot in his secure abode ever again. On that night when his patience had been wound beyond its means, Yukino had run away.

There were plentiful blessings to living in a small, isolated and charming town: the quiet, the lack of light and air pollution, everyone was respectful and knew how to treat their elders. Another advantage was how difficult it was for a little delinquent to cause trouble. In theory, it would be impossible for a runaway to slip out unseen.

In theory. The two of them had to spend three days looking for her. Koona was more than just worried about Yukino, and Toshio's agitation of being dragged out into the cold wet snow each day only increased his surliness. There were many squabbles and it was up to him to settle each verbal storm that arose. He only started fearing for Yukino when she still failed to turn up wherever they had combed, and it had become obvious that she escaped the town and went straight into the mountains. The only time people really did that these days was when they were thinking about old fashioned suicide, and he had horrid visions of Yukino swinging from a dead tree branch or drowning in an icy river. He didn't want to know what tragic fate his then neurotic goddaughter was contemplating. Koona even told herself that Yukino just ran away and was still alive somewhere. On the fourth day, she returned home while they were gone out searching for her again, and she acted like nothing had happened. The prodigal daughter claimed she had no memory of the past few days and thought that it was still the day she disappeared.

Toshio could see the lie straight away and threatened to kick her out if she didn't confess the truth. It was a bad idea to do that in front of the hysterical and distressed mother. First time he was ever run out of his own sanctuary. In 'penance', he let the mother and daughter reunite and saved the noise problem for a more appropriate time. That time never arrived, as the noise suddenly died in Yukino's room at night. He assumed she was finally getting some sleep, but noticed that the light under the door crack was on nearly all night every night, and the bedroom window was left open, making her room feel like a walk-in freezer with a rug. That girl was obsessed with freezing near the end of her stay and the why of it was beyond him. One day he even found all her shoes and slippers laying out front in the greeting room, meaning that she was enduring the temperatures barefoot in the cold house. But somehow, the most peculiar discovery was the most mundane item: headphones, like the kind old fashioned pilots like to wear. These kinds connected to a radio, but he didn't remember her having them before. The silence at night started making a lot more sense when he deduced that she was using them to keep herself awake without disturbing others, listening to who knows what on the radio and home system.

He prayed that she would get better by the next time he met her. Brat or not, it would break Te's heart to see someone so young in his family continue to go through so much suffering.

He went to his next bottle and let the buzz clear his thoughts. Toshio wanted it silent both outside and inside his head.

Dr. Issei chose to speak with the mother before the next session, to get a better idea of what had changed in Yukino and why she hadn't made her daughter wear the ShikaPlus yet.

“Thank you for seeing me, Ms. Nagawa. I'm glad you could make it,” he smiled to her from across the desk. She still seated herself upright, not lounging or lying down like someone who feels complacent.

“It's no trouble at all doctor,” that smile she had put on had no sincerity. Ms. Nagawa wanted to nuke the problem as much as she did, but it wasn't putting her in a good mood to do so.

“To be quite frank, Ms. Nagawa,” he rubbed the bridge of his nose, “I've found that your daughter has acquired a gift for making anything sound nonchalant, even her more…'disruptive' behavior. Not only this, but for someone who is so antisocial, she seems to know what she is doing is wrong but has almost no cares about it. It quite frankly has me very concerned that she may be experiencing some emotional distress or disturbance that isn't being addressed.”

“You're right doctor. Any ideas on how this should be handled?” Ms. Nagawa asked while still smiling. Was she ignorant or just being vindictive? Most likely the latter.

He tried to stay focused. 'Good vibes Issei, good vibes.'

“I would like to reconsider the option of placing the ShikaPlus on her again. You do have parental rights to put it on your child.”

Ms. Nagawa stared hotly at him for a moment, then shook her head in exasperation.

“She usually threatens suicide if I talk about it. It wouldn't be so difficult if she didn't seem so focused on going through with it.” She started to tear up as her voice got heavy. Issei handed her a kleenex before letting her continue.

“One time on our way to a clinic she opened the car door while I was driving and was heartbeats away from getting hit by traffic. I was never so scared in my whole life.” She sniffled. “When I tried to drag her back to the car anyway and brought her to the place she jumped out of the car and ran up the freeway ramp.” Ms. Nagawa held her head in her hand as she broke down sobbing. “I thought she was dead. It took ten minutes to find her.”

Issei patted her on the shoulder for comfort. After a while her shaking stopped and she was under control again.

“The ShikaPlus is out of the question. Please doctor,” she held his hand in search of comfort, “She had good results with you before. Please, please continue the therapy.”

Issei gave a nod of assurance and let his hand glide away.

“I understand. Have there been any new external problems your daughter may be encountering?”

“I have no clue. All I know is that during our stay in that town she would refuse to sleep and it made her an angry, confused wreck. And I think she knows she's hurting herself too, because one time I found her crying the bathroom, worried about where her life was going. It got so bad that in the mornings of the later years, she looked miserable, like she knew she was going to ruin her day and mine.”

“When did this change start happening?”

“I think it was when she was 9. And to be honest…,” Ms. Nagawa blushed a little and put her hand up to her mouth in thought, “Doctor, do you think it could be because...”

Issei tilted his head a little. "Because of what, Ms. Nagawa?"

She looked to the left and right, like she was triple checking to make sure nobody was overhearing them. She then leaned in and her whisper was so small it sounded forced: "Do you think it's because she's menstruating early? She started when she was nine."

Issei was proud of his poker face. It gave him a lot of power in a conversation.

"Puberty can affect someone's mood, yes, but I think this is beyond simple maturity." He gave her a reassuring smile, which she accepted wholeheartedly.

The truth was that Dr. Issei did not really need to know all about Yukino's bodily changes, nor did he really want to know. The ShikaPlus solved those kinds of problems on its own anyway.

Ms. Nagawa cleared her throat. “To tell you the truth, I really don't know if the mood change and sleep habits are connected at all with puberty, but the timing really couldn't be worse. It was about two months after I bought some 'essentials',” Ms. Nagawa would need to stop being that modest if she was going to talk about it at all, “that she started trying to stay awake. At first I didn't notice, but later I couldn't hear her snoring as I walked past her room, and so then I knew something was up.”

Ms. Nagawa shook her head. “And it only got worse. Right now, she's only averaging three hours of sleep at night and maybe two hours of nap time in the afternoon, if she can manage even that!”

“It really made her sullen after a while,” she continued, “whatever progress we made was instantly gone, and she even got worse. She either yelled or locked herself up in her room. It was a mess, and I was glad to be back.”

“I've heard that she has reconnected with an old friend.”

“Anako? Yes. While I worry about those two possibly getting into trouble, I know for a fact that Yukino's mood did improve somewhat after they met up again. She's the one person my daughter can talk to.”

Dr. Issei didn't like the sound of that last statement, but wasn't surprised.

“You think those two might get into trouble?” he asked.

“It's nothing certain, but Anako is really attached to Yukino, so much so that I'm afraid of Yukino taking advantage of her." Ms. Nagawa's eyebrows furrowed, "Whenever Yukino comes home from school bruised or looking messy, Anako looks to be the same way. I think she's getting into fights that no one knows about.”

'Or fights you don't know about,' Issei thought, but kept that to himself.

“They're so attached to the hip,” she continued, “that she even chose a class schedule just so she could be with Anako all day.”

Really? Issei lifted his eyebrows in surprise for a quick second.

“Really? How did she know her schedule?”

Ms. Nagawa shrugged. “My guess is that she got Anako to tell her.”

That made sense.

“Well, I'll see what I can do to address these issues—without implicating you in any way,” he reassured Ms. Nagawa when she gave him such a glare.

“Thank you doctor,” she said nonetheless. She got up to leave when Issei remembered a very important question he wanted to ask. He put his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“Ms. Nagawa, there is one more question. How did you know when it was safe to come back?”

Issei saw she didn't know what he was talking about, but she figured it out when he was about to explain it to her.

“Oh! It's because my godfather told me. He got a cellphone call from my cousin who wasn't into fame and was told that my mom was dead. Not only that, but she was disowned a while before that because of her greed, so the whole celebrity thing was put to rest with her.”

Issei nodded. “Thank you, Ms. Nagawa. I look forward to continuing this next week.”

“Of course doctor. Take care.” Ms. Nagawa took her leave of his office.

As he suspected, Yukino lied. Not only about how Ms. Nagawa found out about her mother's death, but also about how the area had no cell phone reception. But why?

The Black Paper Village was a lot more dull these days. That's because the villagers had been moved to another location during the past few years, to a place out of the way and more private. A place that Yukino couldn't see. The whole place was converted into barracks, but why she didn't know. Couldn't even see any soldiers. At least the Master, Chuu and Al were left. The Black Paper Mouse even converted an auditorium into a kind of spooky lab. The cool kind of spooky.

Wait. There were also two new guys in the village: a Black Paper Monkey with slightly worn edges and dirt caked hands, and a stack of mobile Black Paper Rags that was shaped like a cartoony bear. They were all discussing the current problem: the effectiveness of the barriers. Yukino smiled. She knew this because she was getting more powerful and could hear a lot better through them. She felt like a robot reading somebody's lips.

Al, those barriers are starting to show cracks. We cannot see her, but I can feel her nudging at the edges. She can no longer be warded off.

“I've tried many things, Master, but they can't get any stronger,” Al explained, “if anything, it's a sign that she is finally getting stronger.” Yukino hoped her pride didn't show through the invisible wall.

You have got to be kidding me. Has she had any training?

“Not that I can figure,” Chuu piped in, “I've been monitoring the doors for a long time now, and there has been no hint of unauthorized use.”

This could only leave the possibility of her getting naturally stronger, then the Master mused, putting a tentacle up to his face in thought.

“How is that possible? It must be for another reason,” Al protested.

“Excuse me, but what am I doing here again?” the Black Paper Monkey complained.

We need all personnel to be up-do-date with what's happening. We can't allow a weak link in our chain of intelligence. So shut up.

“Yes sir,” the Monkey moped.

“I just…” the Black Paper Rags stopped in mid sentence as a ripple went through his weird body, then he started again, “...thought of something. Are you sure...” he rippled, “...that's she's the only natural out there?”

Wait, so she's not special? Yukino didn't feel as good.

I'm positive. There were never any real 'naturals,' and there were only two sources of power: the Doors and 'Him.'

She felt better then.

“But…” ripple, “...what other explanation is there? Couldn't her powers have been given to her without us knowing?”

I don't see how that would work.

“Boss, if I can tell you something,” Chuu requested. The Master picked him up and put him next to his…uh...squid ears.

Yes, what is it?

Chuu whispered and the Master listened. Yukino strained her mind and ears but it wouldn't help. Near the end of this secret conversation, the Master's eyes widened a little. Chuu had just told him something big and she didn't know what it was. Damn.

Maku, Gripe, he started, putting Chuu down, I need a favor. Follow Chuu through the doors and get me information on these targets.

The Master squirted ink onto the ground and lets the splotches melt into the shapes of three human-like figures. Somehow everyone recognized who they were. Yukino thought they just looked like shadows.

“Yes sir,” said Gripe.

“When…” Maku rippled, “...do you want it done?”

Immediately.

The three given the assignment bowed, then melted silkily into the ground. Only Al and the Master were left.

“What did he tell you?”

Yukino woke up before the Master could say.
[/hide]

[ChesCa]

I'll need to make some minor wordcrafting touches, but other than that here's my group loved it.
[hide]
It was time to report his progress to the Board again, which Issei always found to be a giant pain in the rear.

The building was long, white and rectangular and most of the windows were reflecting the light of the sun. Some parts of his side of the building still had all white squares though. Many doctors preferred having the sunshine on them but others felt they were more suited to a dank setting and set their wallviewers to the off position. Issei once got into a heated discussion with a colleague as to whether it's really natural for a person to love the dark, but the issue was too minor for either of them to bring up anymore. Still, there had to be some cause for people spurning the sun.

The double doors slid open and the old chime played on a speaker as he walked in. The air quality changed inside thanks to the filter, making it just a tad more pleasant to breathe. That was always one upside to being dragged here: he didn't have to deal with the intermittent smog of the outside world. The ambient sounds of nature still looped on the loudspeakers, including the morning birds sounds that Issei himself could always get every sunrise, the aroma distributors coughed out little, incremental whiffs of wet grass and sunflowers, like he was trapped in the park. The walls finished off the foyer with a curved ceiling with decorations made to resemble a radiant sunrise on one side of the room, with an eerily beautiful sunset depicted on the other, giving a scientifically precise combination of warm and cold colors that was supposed to be pleasing to the eye.

Issei would need to give himself a mental checkup as to why he had come to hate objectively beautiful things. It would certainly make his trips here easier.

“How may I help you, Dr. Issei?” the young secretary said from behind her desk. This one was a young and pretty intern from one of the local community colleges. This place never usually had a secretary over twenty-five, and every one of them were trained to be polite and talk in the most charming way possible. Issei thought it would be creepy if it didn't suit the atmosphere so much. It did remind him of girls the Brown Burrow though. He chuckled to himself, imagining all the interns being trained there at night to be courteous by day.

His thought was interrupted by the secretary laughing as well. Sometimes they could be trained to be too polite. He cleared his throat.

“I am just going for my quarterly report, young miss,” he explained, “My appointment should be any moment now.”

“I'll check you in,” she was already typing into her desk comp as she sweetly said that. There was a beep and right away an elevator to his left pinged before opening.

“They're ready to see you now doctor. I wish you the best,” she finished with a bow. Issei gave a slight nod back and entered the elevator. There were no sounds or smells as it went up, most likely because it would become too much in such a small space, but the ride was so smooth he always wondered if it ever moved at all.

Except for the sudden stop right then that made him feel as though he was about to leave the floor. The elevator always made a sudden stop on the Board's level. The members called it part of the building's 'poetry' and he could never figure out if that was a passive aggressive admission of how pompous the whole thing was in design. Issei exited.

The design of the board room was almost as featureless as the elevator, the whole area just a large white square…Issei would call it a court room kind of setting. There was a single steel folding chair in front of a one way mirror. There were always four Board members on the other side of the glass speaking with a voice filter that made them all sound like the same, emotionless person. Only four small lights were there to indicate when a different person was talking, flashing to match the one speaking. The excuse for the whole thing was that not knowing what the Board was thinking or feeling would prevent a doctor from trying to manipulate them. Issei thought that was bullshit.

…...Issei really should think about his own negative thoughts and feelings after this was over.

He took a seat in the chair, struggling not to fidget. The things seating always made his bottom feel uncomfortable. Did the Board have to sit in these poor types of chairs as well?

The Board always had a strange history. They clearly constructed everything to favor how they are looked upon as higher yet mysterious members of society, but they too were subject to what that self same society thought once upon a time. Originally there had been three Board members because of the old superstition that four was the number of death. When a satirist blogger poked fun at the 'rational' Board for still being superstitious, a fourth member was chosen to disprove that. The number four lost a lot of meaning when nobody died from such a 'cursed' digit. Issei theorized that any constructed impressions the Board members made were most likely passed off as 'order' rather than anything manipulative to the psyche.

“Hello again Dr. Issei,” a light to right slowly flashed. He mentally called this member Ichi, “I understand your patient has returned.”

“Yes honorable Board,” Issei bowed, “Nagawa Yukino has returned with her mother back into my services and I am ready to treat her again.”

“Have you already started treatment?” asked the light second to the right. That one would be Ni.

“Yes, we have already met twice, and I am working with the mother to catch up on how she has grown during her absence.”

All the lights flickered as the Board members whispered to each other. Issei kept his hands on his knees to keep from moving his body around. He wanted to bring a pillow every time he came here, but he was afraid of being referred to a talking doctor himself over it. Maybe next time he could feign an injury and get a conference call from his nice couch at home.

“What can you tell us so far?” asked Ni again.

Issei cleared his throat.

“She's been having behavioral and sleeping problems, and she had run away from her home for a short time. She also has taken suicidal measures to avoid wearing the helmet. I will be picking up where I left off to try and get her to wear the ShikaPlus and cure her.”

The lights flickered again.

“Would you like another assignment, Dr. Issei?” asked Shi, the light to his left.

Come again?

“Might I ask you to repeat that question, honorable Board?” He almost forgot to bow.

“What we are saying, Dr. Issei, is that Yukino may have been a poor choice on our part to give to you,” stated San, the last light.

Oh...no...no! They couldn't be doing this to him!

“Honorable Board,” he kept his voice as flat as being polite could allow, “I have built a great relationship with the patient, one that no other doctor could replace.”

Rarely any doctor lost a patient to another, and behind the outward pleasantness talking doctors were always seen as the bottom of the food chain. Some past (and hopefully not present) Board Members considered them barely doctors to begin with. A patient lost goes on one's record, and it always started a chain reaction where the therapist is given less and less cases to take, eventually resulting in an early retirement from their job as income ceased.

“Dr. Issei,” San continued, “You state suicidal tendencies and behavioral problems in the patient that were not present before. She had gotten worse in her absence, something that would never had happened if she had worn the ShikaPlus as planned.”

No. No no no no no!

He almost shot forward out of his seat, catching himself as he was leaning out and snapped right back into the back of the chair again. Issei couldn't let himself panic. He needed a good reason to explain why he was having so much trouble. His eyelids opened slightly as he remembered the obvious problem.

“Honorable Board, with all due respect, Ms. Nagawa is very protective of her daughter to the point where it isn't very healthy,” he forced himself not to sweat, “the glaring reason why Yukino has not worn the helmet is because the mother has twice fed into her destructive protests. Any doctor with no experience with the patient will find themselves at more of a disadvantage when negotiating with the mother.”

“Yes, the mother,” contemplated Ni, “we have read about her.”

Issei's brain ran in circles trying to figure out if that was good or bad.

“She is hysterical, overprotective,” Shi sounded almost offended, “and worst of all negligent. What we need is a stronger doctor to make her see reason at all.”

The doctor's throat tightened to prevent himself from gulping.

“Honorable Board,” it was a miracle how his voice didn't break, “the mother is also very sensitive. Any pressure on her could have her leaving that doctor's service altogether in protest. She is free to search for whatever doctor she feels is best for the child.”

“Well Dr. Issei, do you think yourself the best in light of all that has happened?” Ichi inquired.

He likely only had two seconds of hesitation before the Board decided he had no answer, so Issei started talking on the fly while praying for luck internally.

“Honorable Board, despite her recent actions, Yukino had been improving since our sessions had started back then. She was alone and shy and stubborn. While I have yet to put the helmet on her, she had been making friends and socializing despite whatever it is that ails her and the fact that she regressed during our time apart only points to the fact that my services are that much more necessary for convincing her to wear the helmet.”

Shit. He hoped he didn't sound like he was bragging.

The lights took a moment before flickering this time. Issei couldn't tell if they were taking five or fifteen minutes to discuss the issue. He really wished he could hear what they were saying.

“You will continue treating Yukino and you will be talking to the mother more,” the sudden command from Ichi made Issei flinch a little, “It is of utmost importance that we get this child treated before she does something we all regret.”

The doctor nodded multiple times.

“Yes Honorable Board. That has been my intent all along.”

“Dr. Issei,” he didn't like the warning tone of San's voice, “we don't want another Wamui.”

Issei could barely breath as the elevator opened into the lobby again.

“How have you been, Yukino?” was what Dr. Issei began his next session with.

“Oh, I've been doing plenty alright. You?” She was slouching once again, looking ready to crash into a nap from exhaustion. Her voice was also a deeper monotone, signaling boredom as well.

“I've been fine,” his answer was quick but casual. He wanted to keep the focus on her, “How has school been?”

“Just fine. No fights this week, and I got a few perfect scores on my test.”

Were they multiple choice too? Issei kept that question back for now and tried a different question.

“What were the tests about?”

“Meh. Mostly geography and history.”

“You must have studied a lot. Is there any part of the class that you liked?”

She sprung up and dove right in to that topic. “I love studying the Concrete Nation.” Holy cow she was actually smiling when she said that. The Concrete Nation was a morbid topic by all accounts, but also highly addicting in its plethora of history and tale telling. He leaned forward to show interest.

“Do tell. What is it about the Concrete Nation that gets your attention?”

“Well,” she began, counting off of four fingers, “I know that there's an argument that the country was made to turn a profit above all else, that many Industrialized and Mystical nations ally themselves with it because of its power and thus they turn a blind eye to any 'perceived' human rights violations,” there was no mistaking the sarcasm in that emphasis, “I know that nobody has left the Concrete Nation that wasn't supposed to and as a result has a 100% success rate in keeping its inmates detained and that Eternal Sunday is the only spot in the country that can not be constructed in.”

It sounded like she was just starting to learn about the place, but on the other hand she seemed to be learning immensely quickly.

“…Of course there had been rumors that someone was trying to change the system...”

Crap! Was she still on about it?

“Yes, that is a very frightening country,” Issei chuckled while leaning back, hoping to diverge from the morbidity somewhat. “I do sometimes wonder if anything can be done about it.”

Did she just roll her eyes at him?

“With all that money? Not a chance.”

What Yukino said was sadly true: many powerful countries owe their wealth to the fortune borrowed from that horrible place.

“What is it about that country that interests you? I usually never see you so enthusiastic.” Issei was genuinely interested in this development. To his surprise, Yukino slumped back down and looked depressed.

“Well, there is one person that escaped,” she started, “At least, that's what my mom told me.”

“There was?,” he tilted his head, “I didn't hear anything about it on the news.”

“That's because they got the story wrong,” Yukino waved her hand in agitation, “Or at least, that's the way my mom tells it. It was one of Great-Grandpa Te's friends who escaped. I think her name was...,” she though for a moment, “Marion. She was a cat woman.”

A cat woman? From a Mystical Nation? What would a hybrid human be doing there in the first place?

“What my mom said happened was that a few years ago she committed suicide, and that was because she found out that her country was considering adopting some of the same practices of the Concrete Nation.”

Dr. Issei nodded. While there were never any real specifics, what was known was that the Concrete Nation did use the prisoners as slave labor with no cost paid out, giving an incentive to keep anyone there imprisoned for as long as possible. If that system bled over into another country, the results would certainly be most horrible.

“Of course, no one would really commit suicide just because of that,” Yukino quickly explained, “but what really happened is that she was doing some sort of investigation into that place. I don't know how, but she got caught and...” Yukino winced and shuddered a little, “Marion was missing for two months while her country tried to negotiate for a search and rescue. The government claimed it was a rogue gang that kidnapped her,” Yukino growled that sentence out, “Fucking liars.”

Issei listened intently but remained skeptical. Despite its power the Nation would still want to stay on good terms with other powerful countries and they were unlikely to do something so brazen. At the very least it would have ended up on the news, despite Yukino's conspiracy theory.

“When they finally got her home, she was sick with so many diseases that the hospital had to give her constant monitoring over both her physical and mental state,” she looked ready to vomit, “They didn't even know which STD to start treating.”

Issei's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Yukino's brow furrowed when she noticed.

“What? Do you think I'm making this up?”

That wasn't it.

“Your mother told you about the STD stuff too?” Issei might as well explore that possibility.

His patient went from offended to flustered in a second, trying to make the words for an explanation but only coming up with 'ers', 'uhs' and 'hms'.

“She was drunk,” she finally forced out, looking to the side doing her best to look embarrassed for her mother.

Uh huh.

Yukino looked down in remorse for Marion. Dr. Issei almost did the same, but decided against it. In this case he would listen, but not believe. Whatever this story was to Yukino, though, she was glad to get it out of her. Her posture was much more straight and there was relief in her face.

“It took her months to heal even some of her injuries and she was undergoing physical therapy, but it got too much when she saw an article in the paper about her country's plans, so she attacked a nurse to keep her from interfering, then dove headfirst into the ground from the roof.”

Issei noted she didn't look that relieved.

“Is that story what brought you interest in the Concrete Nation?” Issei asked.

“Yeah, more or less. I just wanted to find out what was so bad about it. And I got my answer.”

Near the end of the session Yukino was slouching so much Issei was afraid she was going to slide off the couch and her eyes couldn't seem to focus on anything. She was dead tired.

“That's enough for today, Yukino. But I want you to do me a favor,” Issei requested.

“Yeah?” she tilted her head up to meet his eyes.

“Could you please try getting some sleep before our next session? We still technically have time left, but at this point your health is a more concerning matter, and you'll find that life will start becoming a lot more unpleasant the more you deprive yourself of slumber.”

Yukino coughed out a 'heh.' She didn't necessarily agree to what he said, but doctors can only have so much power over their patient's health, mental or otherwise.

“Sure, if I can,” she agreed. 'Can' was such a weasel word. Dr. Issei let her out and wished her a good night's rest.

At the Black Paper Barracks, Yukino was about to leave when Chuu finally came back with his findings and everyone relevant had been gathered together. The mouse took out three reports he had somehow stuffed and crumpled into his small body and laid them on the ground. Unfortunately Yukino was still too far from them to see what was on the documents.

Proceed commanded the Master.

“Okay, here's the scoop,” Chuu began, “all three of these people qualify as 'natural born,' despite being gifted from an outside source. All three grew in talent, cultivated it, spread it, then died.”

“Yeah? How's that help us?” Gripe interrupted.

“What we're looking for is a pattern,” the mouse squeaked at the monkey, annoyed, “what all three of these have in common is not what they did with their powers, but how they grew.”

Chuu took out a black piece of paper this time and unfurled it into a Black Paper Stick. He pointed it at the first diagram.

“In the case of Subject #1, her powers started increasing ten-fold between the ages of 11 and 20. In the case of Subject #2,” Chuu pointed to the second paper, “he started from age 13 up until age 18. His powers increased seven fold. The last one here increased twelve-fold from age 10 to 22, and paid for it with his life.”

Al spoke from nowhere, “What does this tell us?”

“This girl exhibits the same pattern as these guys, only now are her powers starting to grow along with her body, placing her as a 'natural' that's actually natural.”

“But that's impossible,” Maku argued, “Naturals are only…given the power at birth.”

What Maku says is true, and we would have been able to hunt her down. However, your evidence can not be balked at either.

“Thank you!” Chuu shouted, “but here we have someone naturally born with the gift…supposedly.”

“Elaborate,” commanded Al.

“I'm getting to that stupid!”

Elaborate.

“Yes boss,” the mouse gave a stiff, almost mock salute, “what we know about this girl is that she died before she was even born.”

Did they all just gasp dramatically? Yukino stifled a laugh.

“You mean fetal death?” Gripe demanded.

“No no, not what I meant,” Chuu corrected, “Perhaps the better word is she died before she was even conceived.”

“How's that possible? You're not even living yet!” Al shouted.

Yukino was liking this. It was like being a freak that weirded out all the other freaks.

“Her sperm and egg were in frozen storage, but they were ruined. However, when put back in the freezer by mistake, they miraculously revived.”

The Master put a tentacle up to his….chin she guessed.

It adds up, in a sort of weird way. Leave it to him to break the rules. If she had been ordinary, we would have been aware of her on the spot. But this circumstance…

Whatever The Master was saying he did not need to finish.

We will have to do this the old fashioned way. Make absolutely sure that she will not become a problem.

“And if I can't, boss?” Chuu asked.

What else do I want you to do? Kill her!

Chuu looked like a very happy mouse at that moment. Ha! Let them come! Yukino was excited by all this. Not everyone got a chance to fight monsters.

She turned to wander around when she tripped. Cursing she looked at what she tripped over.

It was her shins.

Because her feet had dissolved. In fact her whole body was rapidly dissolving from the bottom up. She was too stunned to scream until it finally reached her neck, and what was resulted was a half second screech before she melted into the darkness.

Yukino was wandering that strange black land again. The memory sludged into her head all at once every time she came to this place. It wasn't like the murky Black Paper Village. Everything here was complete darkness. She could never see anything…except for this white spot in the distance. She had spent years wandering around before catching sight of it, and months just walking towards it. Months in each time she dreamed about this place. She would never reach it if this weird dimension ran on normal time.
This dream was the final six months of an untiring, calm walk when she finally reached the spot.
It was a white door, seeming to just levitate in the middle of nothingness. She turned the handle and crossed over the threshold.
She was now in an never ending hallway filled with doors. A creepy, disturbing dimension devoid of sight, sound, any sensation whatsoever, like it was in space. Just a claustrophobic hall and nothing but more doors into infinity on both sides. She shuddered. It reminded her of a horror story she once read. Couldn't sleep without a night light on for a while. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but her dream instincts told her something was here. Everyone had some instincts in their dreams right? She started opening each door one by one.
This place was very strange. Some doors lead to Rome, some lead to space, some even lead to a strange land where the earth and sky have switched places. Not upside down, but like a universe where everything was filled with rock except a few patches of air contained inside certain places. She shut the door quickly on that one, remembering being attacked when opening that door before.
Wait, this was her first time here. How could she have been attacked before? Dream time and instincts made for strange bedfellows. In fact, all the doors she had never opened and yet had started coming back to her. Or were they greeting her for the first time? The sensation of time twisting was sickening and instead Yukino just walked down the hall in search of a door that didn't trigger a false memory.
It took two hours before reaching the one door she had yet to 'remember' and went through.
It lead into another hallway of doors running perpendicular to this one. She slammed it shut in fury and started tearing up from frustration. When Yukino looked down something of note came into focus through her tears. From the crack underneath, there was no light, whereas one can faintly see some sort of color from all the other places she tried. Yukino 'remembered' again that finding the purpose of this place and why she was here lay in exploring the other hallways.
She tried the door again and set one foot into it.
“STAY OUT” the disembodied voice was so loud that her head exploded, leaving her dream body to twitch for the rest of the dream.

Yukino shot up with tears in her eyes and sweat all over her.

The adolescent was trying to sleep, she really was, but the night terrors wouldn't let her. How long was it that she started feeling sick and stupid and worthless? Months? Perhaps a whole year? Even time was bleeding together for her. There were times where she struggled to stand up straight, and other times where she'd being doing something before she realized that she could not account for the past five minutes.

What kept her up the rest of the night was the fear. Fear of what, she didn't know. The memories always evaporated when she woke, but her trip from deep sleep always left her so scared out of her wits it felt like her life was getting shorter each time.

But still, maybe she could rest her eyes. Yukino fell onto the cool pillow, intending to take half a nap.

She was conked out before even trying to reach for the covers.
[/hide]

[ChesCa]

Next chap.

I'll work on 'that' joke as best I can >>;

[hide]
Dr. Issei was back at the Brown Burrow, taking his usual drink, sitting at his usual table, chatting about the usual, which whatever happened to be what the girls have been trained to care about. He got a bunny girl this time around. Charming joke from the management it seemed. An extraordinary sense of humor, sending him an animal girl he specifically did not request. If he didn't keep getting free drinks from this place he would've left a long time ago.

Wait, the girl was someone new. Maybe the young one didn't know about his arrangement yet. He let it slide when she poured him his drink with a dainty little smile.

“Anything else, master?” she bowed.

“No, not at the moment,” he said with his best, blatantly plastic smile. The girl wasn't too good at reading signals, or at least not 'go away.' Still being dumb only made him feel more sorry for her and spared her the wrath of a customer complaint.

“So, what got you into that rabbit costume?” he asked.

She turned, giggled and slid into the booth next to him.

“I've always thought that they were cute, ever since I was a little kid. They were always so fluffy and adorable, so I wanted to be just like them,” the last sentence was accented with a sugary tilt of her head and a couple of decibels added to her squeak.

Dr. Issei nodded while he occupied his ears with something more pleasant sounding. The bass from the DJ didn't sound too bad.

“Do you like bunnies, master?” she asked, scrunching her nose and batting her eyelids. Ugh, he could feel his smile trip a little bit. He hoped she wouldn't notice and become 'concerned.'

“Ah, I'm afraid I've come to not be so into them these past few years,” no way anybody could miss that sign.

“Aw come on,” she gave him an irritating poke in the ribs, “everyone loves bunnies. At least here they do.”

Dr. Issei laughed with his mouth wide open. Too wide and too much, her shrinking away from him conveyed. At least somebody here had a brain. Issei shrank his mouth down to a fun size little dollop to put her more at ease. She leaned in closer (but a tad more cautiously now) to lend her four ears to him again.

“Ah it's just a patient of mine,” he breathed out like an exasperated sigh, “She was into rabbits so much that it came up in a few sessions. The funny thing is that what got her into rabbits was a pretty grim book about them.”

“How was it grim?” Her overacting naivete still ended up making her look more intelligent.

“The rabbits sometimes tried to kill each other,” Issei thought of making that sound pleasantly creepy while in his alcohol induced haze.

“Oh,” the Rabbit Girl responded, her face turning down a little in disgust and scooting over more to the edge of the booth.

Dr. Issei ordered another round and sent the little servant off with a pat on her behind. It took a second for her to remember to giggle like she had been tickled. He thought about complaining to the manager but somehow found the heart to find his dead rabbit comment 'punishment enough.'

-

As Yukino recounted the school day something had crossed Dr. Issei's mind during the middle of his current session. He remembered long ago that Yukino said she saw a human's 'true self,' but failed to get her to elaborate further on them. While she was bragging about the umpteenth fight she had gotten in, he pressed the question.

“Yukino, there's something I've been meaning to ask,” he put up his hand in a polite wave for interruption.

“Yes?” she frowned a little.

“Do you remember what you once told me about how people truly looked? Do you still see them that way now?”

“Yeah, sometimes,” Issei made sure his eyes didn't betray how surprised he was by that casual response, “but now I have more control over it. Before, I had to just endure whenever the visions would randomly come up. As it is now, they only sometimes come up without my wanting it, but the rest of the time I can turn the visions on,” she was smiling when she said that, like she passed a hurdle.

“Do I still look like that sometimes?”

“Don't worry. Everybody looks like that,” she paused and furrowed her brow a little. She just remembered something. “Well…”

“Yes?”

“Except me, for some really strange reason.” She fidgeted as she admitted that. Perhaps she thought that she sounded too prideful? Maybe being modest about her 'advantage' over others? “Whenever I have a vision and look at myself in the mirror, I look like a puppet with strings coming out of my hands, instead out of the back of my head like other people.”

Interesting. She saw herself as a puppet puppeteer that controls others instead of the other way around. This could be a side effect of her knack for bullying and fighting. Or could it be vice versa?

“It's not like I can help it,” she put up her hands, “but that's how it is. And I don't know what it means.”

Dr. Issei pretended to think for a moment before stating the obvious conclusion.

“It sounds like that on a subconscious level you view yourself as having total control in your surroundings, knowing how other people work and manipulating them to your own advantage.”

Yukino shifted her eyes, “Well, I wouldn't put it that way, exactly,” she played with her hands as she searched for the polite words, “I just feel like I was born differently.”

That much was certainly true. Dr. Issei wondered if Yukino was even aware of the strange circumstances of her birth.

“Why do you think that is?,” he leaned forward, “Does somehow knowing how others look like give you an advantage?”

“Sort of. When I see people as they are, I can also see how they are going to move, react, talk, even think sometimes.”

“Sounds like you're pretty clairvoyant.”

She grimaced. Odd.

“Yeah, a little like that, but real psychics are right all the time.”

That was interesting. An admission that she didn't know everything for once.

“How often are you wrong?”

“I'm not going to tell you.”

That was much more familiar. So much for that train of thought. It did remind him of something else, however.

“Okay, we won't talk about that anymore, but I do have another question. Do you still not like playing with dice?”

“Yeah, more or less,” she slouched and grunted, “I can't stand dice games. They're always so boring.”

“Why is that?”

“It's because the game is nothing more than just one giant waiting game to get from one side of the board to the other, and it's always luck that
determines how long the game is. You would not believe how bored I've gotten playing Oligopoly.” Dr. Issei actually could believe that, but the conversation wasn't about him.

“What about dice games that incorporate questions or activities for points? That way, it's not always dependent on the roll of the dice, but how much a person knows or what they can do.”

“Those are a little better, I guess,” she grudgingly admitted, “but it's still a game of chance near the end when everyone is looking for that last color or last type of question and not getting the right dice throw. It gets super annoying super quick. Some games even require that you have to get the right amount of spaces to get to the goal. Otherwise, you go over and have to work backwards on your next turn. It really takes the fun out of it.” Dr. Issei remembered frustrations like those, so he could relate.

“What about point based games?” he remembered the pictograph game he had played with her a long time ago.

“Those are the only ones I can pretty much stand,” she stood up straight again and smiled, “It's always by chance what things come up, but at least you have to rely more on your wits than luck to win, and that's what makes that kind of game more fun. Hell, it's what makes any type of game fun.”

Dr. Issei glanced over at the board shelf for any dice games that depended more on skill than how many spaces one moved. There weren't any, so he made a mental note to buy something like that later in the month. That way he could have another game for patients like her.

“What kind of games do you play in your spare time?”

“Me and Anako usually just play some kind of sports game, or play cards. Sometimes even games down at the arcade.”

“You like video games?”

She tsked, rolling her eyes. “Not really, but it kills time and there are some beat-em-up two player games that are more fun when you're not playing by yourself. Sometimes we even go to those claw machine places and pick up some dolls.” She grinned evilly. Uh oh. “I nearly got banned from those places for winning too much. I only managed to avoid that because Anako promised that I would only come for once a month and not stay for more than half an hour.”

The claw machine plazas had machines that would drop prizes automatically within a certain ratio, like one out of every five tries to one out of every two-hundred tries for the bigger prizes, and there are people out there who are more than capable of getting the pattern of the machines down in their heads. Whenever anything had a pattern, Yukino seemed like the kid to exploit it.

She reclined back again. “So yeah, that's pretty much all the games I play.”

“That's good. Did you have any contact with Anako before hand? It sounds like you two should really have kept in touch.”

“I just told you last week: I didn't see her until I started school again. There was no way for me to talk to her before hand. I couldn't even use a cell phone.”

Dr. Issei let that pool in his mind. If what Yukino said was true, then she would have no way of knowing what Anako's school schedule was going to be like, and therefore unable to know which classes to choose so that she could be with her. However, he was more inclined to believe Ms. Nagawa that she still found some way to get Anako's class information from her.

He tried one last alternative.

“What about Anako's family? Have they tried to keep in touch with you?”

“No, not really. Like I said, we were completely cut off.”

There went that idea. How did Yukino manage to find out about Anako's school schedule?

Time was up, and they break session for another week. Just the same as last week, Yukino barely showed any hesitation or thought in her answers to his questions. Either she was getting more pliable or they had been seeing each other for way too long. Dr. Issei still waited for when he can catch her off guard, to break through her act.

Yukino was sitting on her bed, resisting the strong urge to break open her bedroom window and let the cold air in. She really wanted to sleep, but she can't stand the fear that awashed over her every time she woke up. So there she sat, sipping as much soda and tea as possible in the dark while trying to keep her mind occupied. Dr. Issei's sessions, the school tests, how to keep Anako as her friend, all of this she tried to plan all at once. None of her ideas went anywhere. Too many things on her mind to juggle. She couldn't concentrate, and one day she was going to slip up real bad. And then everyone will know. She ran over in her mind the topics that are most likely to come up in her sessions with the good doctor and tried to answer as many unsaid questions as possible. She reached the parts where her 'cheating' in school was brought up when her thoughts melted from fatigue and she blacked out.

She continued down the Hall of Doors again for the first time ever. She can't help it. Her subconscious can not be anything less than satisfied while in dream state. Common sense, fear, they had no place when one was reduced to a remnant of thought. Instinct was the more appropriate term. Until her instincts are changed, she will continue to revisit and explore this dangerous world until she had been conditioned to stay away forever.
She put off going into alternate hallway as long as possible by letting her curiosity take over. Yukino opened a door that didn't trigger a false memory. A place with a green sky and red sand. She closed it off.
She suspected and knew that the door had been moved since she last visited. There was supposed to be another world there entirely Something was actively keeping her from finding something. Something beyond the reach of her memory's net. What it was she couldn't say.
Yukino's curiosity was diminished and her exploration instinct took over. It took her three hours of walking to reach the perpendicular hall again, but in dreams time barely mattered.
When she stepped in, Yukino noticed that the floor was slightly lower than the last area, and slightly tilted as well. The next hallway was leaning down, but she felt no shift in gravity when she entered.
This wasn't the only hallway like that. All of them were, she recollected as she walked toward the second one for the first time. She repeated this pattern over and over in the endless chain of halls, but got nowhere except lower and lower. Picturing the outside of the halls in her head, it made an interesting shape: a spiral, like the world's most pretentious staircase. Was there a top or a bottom?
She did an about face and went back up, knowing that the hallways were built downward starting from the top, and the top was where the Builder was. She reached the right door leading back, but nearly forgot that it was moved and went to its new location.
Her whole body exploded this time when she turned the knob.
“YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW THIS” boomed a voice that vibrated the universe.

Yukino woke for the rest of the night. She cried in frustration trying to remember what she was so afraid of.

[/hide]

[ChesCa]

I'm posting this while at my group, so I'm not skipping out on the Skype.

The Summer Arc has about ten pages left (so maybe 3-5 chapters):

[hide]
The next week, Dr. Issei brought up the subject that Yukino had been planning for.

“Yukino, I have a few questions about your academic performance. I want to know how well you have been doing.”

“Fairly well,” she flopped her arm up like a wet noodle, “though some think that I'm cheating.”

Not surprising.

“Why would anyone think that? Don't you study?”

“Yeah, like my stuff for the Concrete Nation on my History test,” she grinned, “and I'm almost a whiz at math.”

“Why do they think you cheat?”

“Because I get all the multiple choice answers perfect, but they don't like that I'm too lazy to write out the work. I don't wanna' do it.”

Dr. Issei thought that this was a pitifully weak defense. He leaned forward and clasped his hands together on top of his knees.

“Well, you do have to understand the teacher's position. They need to make sure that you know the work, and if you can't back that up they're going to think the obvious.”

“I know, but it's just hard,” she slouched down until her rear was almost over the edge “I know the answer in my head, but when I try to write it down nothing comes together.”

Dr. Issei thought that was slightly more plausible, but he never really heard of anyone with that severe of a cognitive problem before.

“How come you haven't asked for help with this before?”

“I don't want to look stupid. If I do that, the other kids will be too much for me to handle.”

That was not good. She was too concerned with image instead of self improvement.

“Yukino, perhaps this is a good time to consider maybe getting special help from the administration.”

She glared at him, but Dr. Issei continued anyway.

“It can be private, and I'm not saying this to make you feel stupid. Me and your mother just want what is best for you, and that's making sure you don't fall behind in classes. Do you think you'll look any smarter if you get left behind a grade and have the reputation of a bully?”

“I'm not a bully. It's other kids who are starting fights.”

“That's not what the others will be saying.”

Yukino was silent. She likely saw that he had a point. Even if she fought in self-defense, all it would take was one rumor to paint both her—and Anako—as some stupid stooges who are only good with their fists. She started to look very, very angry. She can't get out of his reasoning.

“Fine,” she gritted through her teeth, “but I won't like it.”

“Trust me,” Dr. Issei assured her, smiling, “you won't regret it.”

Yukino held her glare at him. She wasn't buying that part.

“Let's talk about something else,” Yukino growled.

“Okay, how about…” the good doctor tilted his eyes in thought, “we talk about your sleeping habits?”

Wow, she could grimace even harder.

“Have you been getting enough sleep?”

“No...” she answered, her eyes fixated on somewhere that wasn't his face, “but it's not because I'm not trying!”

“I see. Why is it that you stay awake at night? Any ideas? Changes in your lifestyle maybe?”

These games were going worse for her. Her mind's not in it enough to keep Issei fooled, no matter how long she had been preparing for these questions.

“I don't know, I just...” she buried her head in her hands in loss. She cannot fight this week, no matter what she tried to do, “I don't know what's causing it, but I'm too afraid to sleep.”

His eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“Why are you afraid to sleep?”

Yukino peeked at him through her fingers, then slowly laid down on the couch and tried to get her head comfortable on the arm rest. For the first time, Dr. Issei saw her as the fatigued little kid that she was. The stress actually made her look a little older, or rather less vital. Yukino began to speak, her voice somewhat drolling and her eyes almost completely closed.

“I don't why, but whenever I go to sleep for more than a few hours, I end up waking up in a cold sweat from some night terror or nightmare, but I can never remember what it is.”

Dr. Issei nodded. He was listening.

“It started off as no big deal at first. I would wake up scared, but I thought that I would get used to it, but then...,” she lowered her eyes and murmured silently, trying to find the right words, “then came one time when I tried to sleep, and it felt like a great darkness was trying to cover me.”

She turned to meet his face. “As corny as it sounds, that's how it really felt. The shadows, the darkness was trying to seep into my skin, covering me. I had to try and concentrate on moving to convince myself that I wasn't paralyzed. I could still sometimes get to sleep, but it was getting harder, and I'd still wake up afraid. Every night going in wrapped in shadows, going out frightened. I didn't know what was going on.” She was tensing her body as she recounted the experience. However strong the feeling was that she experienced, it was more than just a little unpleasant.

“This continued until one day a couple of years ago, I stopped breathing.”

Sleep paralysis?

“The shadows and darkness were trying to smother me and I couldn't breath. They were also moving. I couldn't really see them move, but I could swear that if I closed my eyes, I could see shapes changing through the eyelids. When I could finally collect myself, I realized: if I fall asleep, I'll die. Every time I go to sleep, I risk not getting back up. Just losing consciousness forever. And it scared the shit out of me.”

Yukino reached behind and took a pillow from the headrest and held to it tightly, but after a few moments managed to relax her grip, and she calmed down back into her previous state.

“I know that's stupid, because I've had to go to sleep and woke up just fine. Probably a thousand times by now. But...I think I know why I wake up scared.”

Dr. Issei had an idea of this as well, but let her speak.

“I once looked up a book about sleeping and dreaming to help me with my problem, and I found out that you don't dream immediately when you konk out,
but instead it takes a while to enter the dream stage. About three to four hours in. And that's when I put two and two together. When I added up the hours I slept, I realized it was my unknown nightmare that's causing me to wake up each night. Still, even knowing that, I can't help it.”

She buried her face in her pillow for a few moments. When Dr. Issei saw her body twitch, he realized that she was trying to stop herself from crying. He put a tissue box next to her. She peeled her red eyes from the fabric to continue.

“I want to sleep. I want to dream regular dreams again, but I've gotten to the point where it feels that I'll die each time I lie down. Like that Pavlov's Dog.” She turned to grab a kleenex and blew.

“I can't stand it doctor. I can barely think straight anymore, but nothing can save me from this. I just want to rest.”

She spent the next significant portion of the session shedding her tears into the pillow. Near the end, she had spent them all. Issei agreed to talk more about her dreaming troubles next week with her mother while she stayed home and rested.

Another night. Another dream. Another nightmare. Another journey. Yukino proper missed the sights, sounds and comforting chilliness of the Black Paper Village, but Yukino's subconscious kept putting off returning there after a while.
She was climbing up, at a pace that allowed the memories of roads she never traveled before to meld with her instincts. This trip had taken three days now, but that was only a blink of an eye in the waking world.
There was also a new, more deep set memory: knowing when the voice wouldn't talk and destroy her again. Whoever spoke wasn't able to keep a constant eye on her.
She opened a door that should lead to the next hallway.
There was only an empty, tiny room.
She popped her head in to look around, and found nothing of interest. Not even a secret passage. Odd. This room was in her mind, but when she tried to focus on it the image was dim, like looking at a photo's negative in poor lighting. What caused that?
Yukino thought over the investigation she hadn't done and there were no answers.
She gave up and continued down the hall. The real exit gave her pause. She opened but didn't step through.
Only infinite blackness on the other side. This experience reminded her that she was running into broken hallways for the first time. Gazing slightly upward confirmed once again that the other side of the hall was intact after a giant black expanse.
Something wasn't right. In fact, it was terribly, horribly wrong. Maybe this was a defense mechanism against curious climbers, but Yukino knew someone had sabotaged the structure.
It was futile to try and force herself back down to revisit the Black Paper Village. All her attempts failed before she even tried. Her subconscious wanted to climb and it damn well was going to try everything it could. Yukino sat and thought, and thought, and thought some more.
She spent so much time thinking that she woke up.

For the first time in a long while, Yukino had gotten a good night's sleep. Tears of relief were relished before she wiped them away.
[/hide]

[ChesCa]

Only one more installment of Summer left after this!
[hide]
Toshio crunched the snow under his boots harder than most other people because he was always afraid of slipping. It made him a lot slower than everyone else up here in what was almost his own private little highway town. At the very least he could find solitude in the furthest edge of settlement where he could continually find the time to breathe in case he got too wound up.

Unfortunately he was more anxious than he had ever been. Toshio had never traveled so far from the sight of the road or the town before and these trees were starting to look too similar and compacted in this otherwise pretty forest.

This would not even be necessary if Yukino had not run away a year ago now. The Godfather could not stand being ignorant about where she hid herself from the search he and his godchild wasted so much time on. If something like this happened again with one of his neighbor's children he would feel awful if there was even one place he did not know of.

A few days ago his improvised local geographical survey was started when he combed the perimeter of the town to see how many paths and dead ends there were. The village was nestled between two stone cliffs which cut off any real hidden route. There was a hiking trail but it only concluded in a little grove with only one way in or out. The only place Yukino could have gone was along the highway. The realization of the work ahead of him was already giving him a terrible migraine.

Naturally there were only two directions the little stray could travel: to the North, where it was twenty miles to the next town, and to the South, where a lodging town lay only three miles away. It was still far but Toshio did not doubt that it was still possible for her to get there on foot in the snow if she was determined enough. Beyond that town was nothing but road for forty miles.

Toshio drove down to the little burg to ask questions about a lost little girl that would have appeared a year ago, starting with the warm looking lodge built by the road for all drivers to see. It was disappointing when nobody there recalled her, but that was acceptable. It just meant it was more likely that she hid in one of the other stores lining the road.

Toshio scoured all ten of them in the space of two hours. Unless there was a liar amongst them, Yukino had not been anywhere close.
That left only one direction, and when the Northern route cleared the cliff walls he found a rest stop overlooking a steep drop to park his car. The already weary old man looked from the Eastern side of the road at whitening thicket to the West before warily crossing over for a look.

Toshio had been wandering for almost twenty minutes before he finally accepted that he was lost. The white was everywhere and covering everything and the wind was picking up. Where ever Yukino stayed he would have to locate it quickly if he did not want to end up entombed in snow.

Toshio spotted some brown blocking out a little of the white between trees. It was a run down, abandoned cabin. So that's where she was hiding!

He ran for it like he was half his age, trying to focus more on getting inside and less on what sort of animal or vagabond Yukino could have run into while she hid there. Petulant child.

The door was good and tightly shut before he forced himself to finally let go of the knob.

The front room of the cabin had little outlines on the floor where the furniture used to lay before they were either moved out or, more likely, stolen. There were not any signs that a little girl had stayed here though. The admittance of the cold wind through the broken windows likely made this area a poor place to sleep. He stepped into the kitchen area, expecting to find signs of living farthest away from the winds.

Toshio stopped in place and forgot his composure when his jaw dropped. There were candy wrappers and a cast aside broken lantern that had proven she was here but the evidence of Yukino's stay that popped out more than his eyes were images and letters written in scratch all over the floor. Without his specs Toshio bent down for a better look and was legitimately startled by not only the amount of writing, but also by how small it was. A vision of his wayward guest on her knees, using an icepick or pocketknife or whatever instrument was sharp enough to dig into the hardwood floor to write inscriptions and little pictographs barely bigger than the tiny font Toshio himself liked to type in his reports back when he worked with Te.

In the center of the spiraling words were three large pictures that made him feel like he had frostbite spreading in chest cavity as he looked at them: a rabbit, likely related to her pet Faiba, the name Anako and a cat eye that looked like it was turned sideways in relation with the other pictures.

The rabbit was crossed out with a deep, jagged and violent X.

Ms. Nagawa never liked the dread that came with a Parent-Therapist Conference.

“How is Yukino?” Issei never usually beat around the bush with her. Would it hurt him to use a little tact with her?

“She seems to be getting a little better,” she tried to make her words sweet but Ms. Nagawa feared they were closer to bitter honey, “but her sleeping habits are still very atrocious. She's too used to sleeping during the day to get a good start on a night's sleep.”

Dr. Issei nodded, then dropped something new on her. “Your daughter has somniphobia.”

She had to tilt her head.

“I'm sorry?”

“She has a crippling fear of sleep. She thinks she'll die if she goes under.”

It was too much for her to not chortle nervously, but Dr. Issei's steady stare spoke for the seriousness of the matter.

“I'm sorry. It's just that she still goes to sleep,” she lightly sighed, “eventually.”

“Yes, but that's only when her body forces her to sleep,” he was so damn clinical too, “otherwise, the fear of death keeps her up every night.”

Ms. Nagawa tried not to look like she was slouching when she rested her head on her hand in exasperation, internalizing another sigh big enough to be heard through the walls. She probably looked like she was thinking but what she really wanted was a few moments before starting this depressing conversation again.

“What can I do about it, doctor?” she asked at last.

“A lot of unfounded fear cases like these tend to stem from one thing: anxiety. Your daughter is so horribly stressed that she is fearing a loss of control, which is what happens when one sleeps. What we need to do is to get her to relax. She needs to feel safe.”

That plan couldn't hurt, she guessed. Not everything had been tried.

Yet.

“What can I do about that?”

“For starters, you could encourage her to go to social events like after-school clubs and the like. She needs to have a more positive group of people to encourage security, to make her feel not alone in this world. That usually helps relieve a lot of stress.”

Ms. Nagawa mumbled wordlessly as she sifted through her memories for anything she can think of, then she hit on something.

“The drama club” she almost exclaimed.

Dr. Issei grinned. “Remnants of a childhood dream?”

Her glare cut him back down to size.

“Doctor, I'm not entirely proud of my former career, but when I was on stage and set, I found that it was easy to form bonds with my fellow actors. For Kooyai, this went triple fold since theater was his profession. Don't underestimate what forcing kids to work together can do.”

Dr. Issei nodded in agreement. At least they could agree on something.

“Plus,” she continued, “whenever I told old stories of how much fun me and her father had working together, she'd always get this look, like what I was talking about was some magical experience. I honestly do believe that she wants to try it out.”

Dr. Issei offered his hand.

“Mother knows best.”

Ms. Nagawa took his hand into her grip and shook it in triumph.

Yukino was hanging around outside the school grounds with Anako. With no classes left it was just the two of them, Yukino having a hard time staying upright and awake while her compatriot and confidante put a hand on her back for support and comfort. A few moments before Yukino's legs collapsed from under her thanks to how damn exhausted she was. The only reason she wasn't in the hospital was because she snapped at Anako when she tried to take her there, so now she felt tired and like a bitch. Thankfully Anako was very forgiving, and no matter how much she worried, her friend knew to trust Yukino's judgment and instead decided to stick out this fuckin' pain in the ass dizzy spell with her.

“Anako, do you ever wonder?” her voice wasn't nearly as droll and low as she felt.

“Wonder what?” Anako asked.

“What's it's like not knowing everything?”

Anako frowned. Shit, she was annoyed at something she said.

“Uh…I don't know everything.”

Oh right, it was that.

“Oh, sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly,” Yukino apologized.

“It's alright,” that was good, “Are you feeling any better right now?”

“At the moment, I feel like my mind is swiss cheese,” that didn't feel fitting enough, “Gunky swiss cheese.” That's better.

“I see.” Her friend raised an eyebrow, but at this point Yukino didn't care.

“Don't worry, I'll just need five more minutes.” Yukino's head was buried in her hands as she struggled not to fall off her ass and snooze.

“So, why were you asking me about not knowing everything?”

Yukino couldn't remember if she was trying to collect her thoughts or courage to answer the question. Kind of felt like the same thing.

“Anako, why do you think people go insane?” she finally asked.

“Um…,” she scratched her head, “I think it's because they get disconnected from reality and their reasoning gets screwed up.” Not a bad answer. Smart even.

“Yeah, but what if you go insane because you know too much?”

“That's not going insane,” Anako smiled and laughed, “That's just figuring out how dumb the rest of the world really is.”

Yukino smirked, but she didn't feel that much like laughing.

“Somehow, I knew you were going to say that.”

“Then why'd you ask?” she teased. Yukino felt like she was trying to balance her head on a swivel and yank her eyelids open with sheer willpower at the same time.

“Because I was hoping for a different answer, to tell you the truth,” she almost slurred.

It took five minutes for things to clear up enough to get up and walk home. Just in case, she accepted Anako's offer to drape their arms across each other so that she wouldn't fall again.

Yukino knew from looking down in the future that not only did the hallways make a spiral shape, but the hallways connecting one set of stairs to another gave the whole structure the shape of a DNA strand. She would've tried to think about why it was that way if her subconscious compulsions would let her.
It was the last interconnecting hallway she passed in the actual past past and not the future past that she entered.
As she retraced her untaken journey the cracks of the doors were reobserved. All had light poking through, cementing the absolute fact that no alternate hallways stemmed from the straight passages. After exiting the other side the upward slope of the opposite structure was found to be unmarred by sabotage, allowing for a continued, unmolested journey.
It took three weeks dream time to find a section of both spiral structures that were broken and had a drop into the blackness. The kinder one had a ten foot gap.
Yukino knew her subconscious would let her know that she could make it before she felt that exhausted despair of being denied another chance to give up and go back. As dreams always work, one always knew one's own abilities and limits when they were called upon.
Gravity did not effect her strongly here, which would allow her to glide over if she gained enough momentum. The dream girl practiced her ability by willing herself backwards without thinking of using her legs. Immediately she glided downhill, then braced for the crash when she gained too much momentum and hit the bottom wall.
It was time to test the successful uphill climb she was about to do. The acceleration was slower but her body felt so light the gliding came into effect immediately. She knew her jump would be an overcompensating 30 feet before she had gotten halfway to the terrible leap.
The landing on the other side lacked the anticipated impact she had been expecting on her legs, but perhaps that was because she had to keep her legs off her mind to do such a feat in the first place.
The next 'kind' gap she encountered were two entirely missing sections.
Up in the blackness, past the remaining remnants of the broken halls, there was a floating platform from which the halls snaked out.
Her subconscious knew it was the top.
[/hide]

[ChesCa]

[hide]
Dr. Issei was delighted and smiling to finally see Yukino in good health. She had gotten more sleep since their last meeting a couple of weeks ago, and the improvement was almost miraculous. Her mind was extra sharp, her eyes weren't shutting every few words and for once Issei was seeing her sitting upright and not about to slide off the couch. She was even more cheerful.

Well, relatively speaking. His patient's usual scowl had softened into more of an attentive frown.

Issei was pleased anyway and clapped his hands exclaiming, “You look great today Yukino. Have you been getting better in your sleeping habits?”

It was still weird how natural her grin looked.

“Yeah! It took a while, but now I'm able to go to sleep around ten and wake up at six.”

Issei leaned forward to meet her at eye level.

“That is an improvement.”

“Yeah, but the only reason I don't get up at ten or eleven or anything is because of my alarm clock.”

He nodded. One could not expect to recover from so much sleep deprivation quickly, but every little bit helped.

“How has life been at school so far?”

Yukino waved her hand from side-to-side and her face scrunched a little.

“It's been getting a little better,” she started, “but my mom keeps pressuring me to join the Drama Club. To be honest though, I really don't want to.”

“Oh,” Dr. Issei hid his feelings well, “Have you told her this?”

“No, I didn't want to hurt her feelings or anything, but sometimes I get the idea that she wants me to join just so I can live out some dream of hers or something.”

Issei pretended to ponder that statement. “I'm sure the best way to find out her intentions is to talk to her. I know that you live with her and I don't, but based on our conversations she really does want what's best for you.”

Yukino squinted and tilted her head slightly, then slowly began to nod. “I think that can work out,” she grunted, “sometimes it never crosses my mind to do those kind of things.”

Getting her out of her shell and taking measures to improve her relationship with her mother. The progress was invaluable.

“Might I ask if you tried out anyway?”

“Yeah,” her eyebrows tilted up a little, like she made a mistake, “Well, kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“What I mean to say is that I visited their school room when they were handing out applications. I filled one out, but I'm not really sure if I'm going to go to the meetings or not.” She shrugged. “I mainly just did it because I promised my mom I would 'try out the club'.”

A girl of her word. That was a good sign.

She was also a girl of her literal word. Issei wouldn't be giving her promises with loopholes anytime soon.

“But,” she sighed, “I don't know if I can do it. I'm not really used to performing for people.”

Issei personally thought she would be good at giving any kind of performance. Right now he was kind of hoping that this lack of confidence was one of them. He played along as usual.

“Is there any way that you can cope with performing for people?”

She shook her head. “Not that I can tell.”

Dr. Issei reconsidered the line of questioning.

He forced himself not to grin.

“Do you really not like the idea of acting, or are you just nervous?” he asked, crossing his arms.

Yukino looked less shocked than expected at the accusation. Mental maturity finally settling in? She lowered her head in thought for a few moments.

“I don't know,” she almost whispered. Issei felt a small pang. It was certainly a cruel irony that behind the walls she constructed was still a very shy girl. Yukino had grown to handle negative attention a lot more fluently than positive. Dr. Issei mentally rolled up his sleeves and saw if he couldn't give that problem a little sorting out.

“Let me ask in another way: Have you ever performed and liked it?”

Yukino raised her head and shifted her eyes around somewhat in memory. “I think so, yeah.”

Time to strike.

“What gave you confidence when you performed those times? What finally put away your hangups and let you do the show?”

Everything was still as Issei let Yukino think on the answer. The stillness was good. Yukino was forgetting to put up a front. Ironic that they were talking about acting of all things.

“Just so that you know, anything you say will stay here between us,” he reassured her.

The comfort did its work, and she reluctantly, but finally, spoke.

“I like the idea that I'm fooling people. It makes things more fun.” She looked bashful at admitting that. Issei was kind of surprised that she didn't notice how badly she hid that part of herself.

“Can you use that against the audience in some way or manner?” he leaned in.

Yukino thought again but with less pause. “I guess, if I really wanted to, I could take on a role that's not like me and convince others that I'm more like that person.”

“I'm sorry?” Issei was genuinely a little confused.

“Sorry,” she frowned as she searched for a correction, “What I meant to say is that…you know those actors who are, like, funny a lot of times but amaze people when they play a serious role?”

Ooooh.

“Yeah?”

“I want to do something like that. I want to see if I can fool the audience into thinking I'm a person I'm not,” she shrugged, still unsure of how she was coming across, “then I can surprise them later?”

“Aren't you afraid of getting typecast?” That was a legitimate concern from Issei.

“Well, I'll just practice and try out for a different part when I'm ready,” she grinned at her own perceived cleverness. No lack of confidence there, “Maybe I'll even take a role that's completely opposite of my personality.”

“That's great.” He clapped his hands together once again in enthusiasm.

The rest of the session completed itself with no major complications. Before Yukino left, however, Dr. Issei asked the ultimate question:

“Have you reconsidered wearing the ShikaPlus yet?”

Yukino halted in the door frame. It was still again, but this one was the bad kind.

The clock ticked past the point when she was supposed to leave, but Issei let her think. He didn't have any other patients today anyway. It was four minutes after the appointment's end that she finally turned her head slightly. Yukino talked with her back to him.

“Can things change?”

Hm?

“Can you be more specific?” Issei asked.

Yukino turned around to face him front-to-front.

“Just,” she moved her lips looking for the words, “how do you know nothing bad will happen?”

The appropriate question was granted to Issei's mind immediately.

“How do you know something bad will happen?”

Her eyes widened a little. For once she was too stunned for an answer.

What was this all about? He nearly got his mouth open to ask when she almost fitfully began moving her lips and shifting her eyes again. If her speed was any indication Yukino wasn't just thinking but rapidly calculating.

Whatever analysis it was was apparently so deep that she didn't even get phased when he fidgeted in his chair. Movement wasn't enough to catch her attention.

She was slowing down. The frown that crept in got more rigid as she failed to come up with whatever answer she was looking for.

Issei couldn't help but help be stunned himself when she smiled.

That wasn't right. She wasn't just smiling, she looked extremely happy.

“I guess that's possible.”

Yukino was on a happy brisk walk down the hall as she left a very happily confused Issei feeling like he just moved a mountain.

Ms. Nagawa was walking to Yukino's school for her play, grateful that every school her daughter went to was in walking distance. It gave one time to think and take in the fresh air, as well as get a little exercise.

Not that she was fat. Just old.

And not even that old.

Really.

Thinking about the tremendous strides Yukino had made gave Ms. Nagawa so much energy she couldn't resist walking faster. Three years of absolute misery for her daughter, possibly turned around in a matter of months!

Crashing into a group of people waiting to cross the street brought her out of her reverie.

Ms. Nagawa settled back into reality with a bunch of bows to the people she bumped into and some extra deep bows for those knocked off the sidewalk in the front. Still, she was so happy for Yukino and her decision to make more friends and try to improve herself.

The mother tensed when everyone could finally cross though. Ms. Nagawa knew that it would be all too easy for her child to settle back into old habits should the times get tough. Right now, the most important thing she could do for her child was support and guide her away from any further rash decisions.

Ms. Nagawa herself could remember a few she avoided herself.

Koona wringed her hands together as she watched Kooyai pace and mutter and shake his head in little jerky fidgets. He had finally asked Koona two months ago if she was interested in coming with him to a retreat in Hokkaido, just the two of them. It was to mark their two year anniversary as a couple and Koona had said she was sick of the entertainment industry. Yet like the parent of a delinquent child she still hadn't reached that point where she would give it up altogether, squeezing whatever hope she could find for things to finally turn around.
Her family signing her on for a Hard Times foot cream commercial without her permission didn't help either. It was humiliating work, but despite every bad thing that's happened to her in her career Koona still desperately wanted another movie role so that she wouldn't be a burden and the film industry was looking everywhere for their next new talent.
“I'm sorry Kooyai, but this is really important,” she bowed and apologized, trying desperately to calm him down.
It wasn't working.
“How important?” he wheeled to scold her straight in the eye, “More important than this?!” he jerked out the two plane tickets to Hokkaido to emphasize the last word. “You had already promised! How could you let your family talk you into this?”
“I'm really, really sorry! I promise it won't happen again!” The next bow was deeper for good measure.
Kooyai just slapped his head in his hand and laughed. “It sure won't happen again. These took a big chunk out of my salary. I'm not sure if we'll even get a second shot at this, all things considered.”
She was really upset at the grief she was causing him, but she couldn't afford to back down from this deal. If she got just one more gig, she would be one step closer to stardom and supporting her husband for the rest of their lives.
She reached out to his hands and mercifully he let her fold them into hers. He just needed to understand that her family wanted what was best for both of them.
“Kooyai, if this eventually leads me to becoming a big time actor, we can come and go as we please to Hokkaido until we get sick of it.”
“That's not the point!” he threw his arms out of her grasp, causing Koona to jump in fright. He rarely ever shouted. “I just thought that after all this time, I'd have more weight in your life than those moochers you call your family!”
What did he say? Koona's jaw dropped before she clenched it shut to keep from looking like an idiot.
How could he say such a thing?
She crossed her arms and put on her best glare.
“Say one more word about my family like that” she almost whispered, “and you'll be testing how much weight you really have.”
She could see him clench his throat to gulp down his anger. Koona understood his anger but Kooyai needed to understand that she was not going to be made to choose between family and love. He should have known better anyway.
“I'm really sorry. I mean it, I know how much everyone means to you,” he half gestured pleas from his arms to emphasize how repentant he was, “ I just don't…agree with any of this.” As mad as she was, Koona appreciated that he was putting it as mildly as he could. “It's just that, dammit Koona, what you're doing isn't really going to make you happy.”
She let her arms relax but still kept her distance.
“We can be happy, but first we have to work for it.”
“We already did,” Kooyai argued. She thought he was going to cradle her hands this time, “We found each other. We took chances with each other. We got to know each other. We fell in love with each other. Do you know how hard that is? How lucky we are that we even reached this far?”
Koona didn't know what to say but kept her face stiff so he wouldn't know it. Kooyai could make it so damn hard for her to keep her composure at times.
It turned out she didn't have to say anything.
“Look, I'm sorry I yelled,” he threw the tickets in the trash and put up his arms in defeat. Every muscle in her face wanted to pull out of its stoicness but she still held on, “I really don't agree with your decision, but I don't think this is something worth throwing you away over.” He caught her in a tight but comforting embrace. Koona was glad her face was where he couldn't see it at that moment. “I'll be there to cheer you on. I know how hard it is to work like that and I should've appreciated your commitment.”
“Th-thanks,” she patted him hard on the back to show how much she cared. Kooyai left the room, saying that he was going to get dressed to take her to the set.
Koona fished the tickets out of the trash and turned them over to the destination print out. She really was looking forward to the trip.
Her cell phone rung. The caller was identified as her mother.
_“Yes mom?” she greeted.

“Where are you?! The shoot is almost about to start!! A friend of mine pulled a lot of strings to get this part.” No time for pleasantries as always._
“Sorry,” she was saying that a lot today, “I just had to explain to Kooyai that I had to cancel our trip.”
“Good. Now get down here!” Mom hung up.
What?
Wait didn't she hear what she just said about Kooyai?
She understood right?
Normally that would've ended things, and Koona would have just gone to the set, secured herself another rung on the media ladder, then washed, rinsed and repeated.
And repeated.
_And repeated.

And Kooyai would have just stood there by her side, doing whatever mother told the both of them to do._
Wasn't it her mother who had encouraged her at first to date Kooyai, saying that the two would be great together? Maybe she also saw a profit in it but ultimately she had everyone's happiness in mind right?
Except now she just threw Kooyai's happiness aside like trash for a quick dime. Somehow his inconvenience was more damaging than anything she had to go through and something inside her physically hurt when her anger finally exploded.
Koona gripped her phone so hard she felt it ready to give, then let out a scream about a decade in coming and threw it out of the open window and into the pool. Kooyai ran in panicked, his shirt still unbuttoned and in his boxers.
“What is it Koona?”
She almost accidentally slapped the tickets in his face when she threw them up in front of it.
“Get dressed! We're going to Hokkaido!”
Was he smiling as he dashed to put his suit back on? Didn't matter.

The first twenty minutes of their drive gave her time to calm down some, but she couldn't get a grip on her facial expressions this time and Kooyai felt what anger was left.
“Is anything wrong sweetie?”
“I was just hoping to break something when I threw the cell phone,” she pouted.
His laugh lifted some of the tensity she had been shouldering.
“Aw come on, I don't want you to be mad.”
“I don't have a lot to be happy about,” she was still kind of grim.
“But you look so beautiful when you smile.”
Koona snapped into a giggling, blushing fit. “Stop, I can't control myself when you say that.”
Kooyai smirked, smug over the fact that he could easily get his girlfriend in a good mood.

Ms. Nagawa hustled herself into the school auditorium. It would not do for her to be late for her daughter's first play.

Yukino was getting ready for bed, setting her alarm to six am. She sensed someone behind her and turned grinning to her mom in the doorway.

“Yes mom?” she asked.

“I'm very proud of you Yukino,” she came over to hug her, and Yukino draped her arms over her shoulders, which somehow became her own version of embracing “and I'm sure that your performance would have made your dad very happy.”

Yukino was more than prepared to suppress her tensing. She didn't want her mom to worry.

“Thanks mom,” a moment passed, “I love you.”

This was it. The last trip. She took the steps that led to figuring out how to get to the top. No one had ever tried surpassing the Broken Corridors. Yukino knew because only she would be crazy enough to try it. Victory was guaranteed. Pre-destined!
She squatted down until her imaginary knees refused to bend any further, then jumped to the roof of the opposite broken corridor. She grabbed onto the ledge and climbed on.
Once she already realized the limitations of imagining legs her subconscious already unloaded as much of her unnecessary body parts as possible to lighten the load for the leap. Only the habit of wanting to grab something discouraged her from trying to fail at wishing away her arms and the need for jumping tension required the knees.
It was so disorienting, standing in nothingness where gravity had laws except the ones she made. It was especially nauseating because her illusion of a center of gravity matched the hallways' tilt, making it so that she would never feel like she would fall backwards. It took immense concentration to keep her stomach out of her mind and not get sick.
For twenty dream minutes she bounced and jumped, easy at first but feeling deceptively dangerous when the corridors became smaller and farther apart, and the certainty of her jumps still weren't enough to make her forget that it was a long way down if she missed.
The top was a giant stone platform just above her now. It retook her five minutes to get the guts to make the final, tall leap.
Her feet brushed the edge when she landed and her weight unexpectedly went backwards. She yelped and flapped her arms for balance but nothing had prepared her for this. She was going to fall and wake up and for the rest of her life she would just dream of falling and falling and falling.
Except something unexpected happened again when something slammed around her Not-body, inducing her with mass as whatever it was gripped her. It hurt, but she was lifted away from the edge of the brink and carried up into the air. Using her instincts she felt the object around and nearly screamed when she identified the object as a fist. Above her were two large blue orbs with green dots in the middle the swelled and pulsed and grew into the blackness as she was taken closer to them. The green dots moved towards her when she was finally in front of them.
They were eyes.
“I WARNED THAT THIS IS NOT FOR YOU!!”
Yukino was incinerated with every bad memory, thought and action she had and had not done. Everything turned white from the heat before blackness bleeded into the edges towards her.
Nothingness was swallowing her.
Yukino screamed.
She would have rather fallen.

Yukino jolted up like she'd been shocked. It was still dark.

In her groggy, delirious state she somehow figured she was being attacked in an alien world and screamed and kicked to get away from whatever held her down.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

She gasped so hard that Yukino thought she might not have been breathing before. That was her alarm clock. After several deep breaths to steady her shaking and realizing she was likely still asleep, Yukino opened her eyes.

Except she didn't feel them open.

It was still dark and her panic was starting to crush her chest again. There were footsteps on the floor. Mom was walking into the room.

“What is it? What's wrong?” Yukino heard fear in the voice.

Why couldn't she open her eyes? What had happened while she was asleep?

Wasn't her alarm set for seven? It should be bright in here not pitch black.

Yukino tried to keep her trembling under control but gave up when her mother embraced her. She would feel it no matter what.

“What's wrong Yukino?” Mom sounded so scared right now.

Yukino tried blinking a few times.

Her body collapsed into her mother's arms and the sobbing didn't stop for anything, no matter what Mom did to try and console her.

She couldn't feel her eyes open because they weren't closed to begin with.

Issei hoped the Board would forgive him for not being at his best with his final report. The chair was too uncomfortable for him to be sitting straight up anyway and he was too lost in thought to be pretending to try to guess where to look at any of them in the eye.

“Please explain why Nagawa Yukino had missed her appointment for the ShikaPlus, doctor,” ordered Ichi.

He sighed and gripped his knees, then swiveled his neck so that Issei was facing the glass.

“She's gone blind. It was caused by stress. No medicine has worked for her yet.”

The lights flickered as they all whispered.

“When will she be available for another appointment?”

Issei turned his anger into deep breathing to avoid making a scene. If they saw anything wrong with his behavior they didn't mention it.

“She's blind and only a harmless little kid. I think we have nothing to worry about from her.”

There was a pause before the lights flickered again.

“Are you sure?” asked San, “It couldn't hurt to be safe and some mental deficiencies only get harder to treat as the patient gets older. We still don't even know what she has yet.”

“I assure you she is not a danger to anyone,” Issei was enunciating his words to avoid grinding them through clenched teeth.

God damn cowards.

Flickering again.

“Very well,” Shi relented, “Until her blindness has finally been cured the case of Nagawa Yukino is once again suspended.” [/hide]
And so ends Summer.

[ChesCa]

This is the first part of the next chapter.
[hide]
AUTUMN

Issei had gotten a Notice a few minutes ago but couldn't quite read the dancing blurry text on his Digital Assistant to make it out. What clown sends in type but not audio anymore?

The Brown Burrow had aged with him, and both weren't what they used to be. The patronage had dropped over the past five years due to the declining popularity of animal girls. The owner stubbornly held onto 'tradition' until he too finally gave into the new trend. Now everyone was being served by robots.

Robots with breasts.

The girls' costumes were too weird for even Hakane Issei's taste, although he admitted that a lot of interest was lost in this place as well. Even before the old costumes were thrown away the servers wearing them started seeming less like sexy little nubile nymphs and more like children playing dress up. For a while Issei had tried to date people his own age but many women were already taken. Seemed like no woman in her right mind went unmarried past twenty, and so he was alone and graying and fat and miserable, sloshing down free drinks every Friday night for many years before, now and in the future.

Even if he wanted to flirt with the girls none of them stayed long enough to really get to know him. Their profession was one of the worst to age in and was always a temporary 'career choice' before they either found someone rich or moved onto more meaningful work elsewhere. Work that got less stagnant and morale crushing and couldn't pay them enough to tolerate going absolutely nowhere.

Issei wondered if experts at the top of each of their fields felt this way.

“So father, would you like to spend time with your loving loyal daughter?”

The servers also took to calling their patrons 'father'. Followers of this pretentious trend insisted that this was technically correct because robots would see humans as their creators. Sometimes Issei heard other drinkers being requested to be called a God.

The doctor wouldn't want to be caught dead fathering this silver sprayed whore. The whole place was turning him off to the color in general. He grunted as he tried to turn to meet the girl in the eye, but couldn't quite get to tell her to fuck off.

“That's enough for the master right now sweetie,” a gruff voice interrupted behind him. The girl bot looked over his shoulder and he thought even her silver paint went a little white before she squeaked and scampered away.

Issei was internally grateful but was too groggy from his binging to keep his tongue from looping in on itself. That dissipated when the mystery man replaced the server in the booth across and Issei was sure his groan was too big to be choked down anyway. It was an old, heavy set man with a dress shirt and brown slacks. He flashed some sort of brownish blurry triangle and the doctor just assumed it was a badge.

“It's been a while doc. How have you been doing?” the man asked, “I was told you liked it here but you don't seem too happy.”

Issei had a little trouble looking at the intruder in the eyes, mostly because his neck only wanted to reach up to his stomach.

“Do I know this gut?” Issei was too drunk to be self conscious about his loud obnoxious laugh and he wasn't too far gone to appreciate it.

The stomach laughed hard at him back. That giant pompous bastard, “It's kind of grown up.”

They both laughed out loud at this. A patron and serving girl looked over in disgust before she led her 'father' by the arm to someplace less drunk old manly.

“How do you know me Mr. Gut?”

The voice was more serious now.

“You may not remember my name, but I'm detective Tsuzube.”

“Nope,” he bolted his head up to exclaim joyfully, “doesn't ring a bell in the slightest.”

Now that his head felt like floating up the guy did look familiar. Issei had once worked with him.

It might've been the beer but all the warmth was sucked from his body all at once. It was the man who helped him try to find his runaway patient a long time ago.

“That's alright,” Tsuzube waved his hand, “It's my business to remember facts anyway. Speaking of….”

He squeezed his giant hand into his back pocket and grunted until he yanked out a photo. It showed a young woman in her teenage years, pretty but not gorgeous, with innocent eyes.

“Tell me if this girl looks like someone you know.”

“Nope,” Issei just wanted this man to go away, “never.”

Tsuzube waved his hand in front of his face, probably trying to get the scent of alcohol out of the air. Maybe if Issei talked more the cop would leave him alone.

“There's no way you could be lying, I'll give you that much.”

That worked too.

Tsuzube reached for his back pocket again, but then thought better of it and put the photo in his shirt pocket. The detective then folded his hands, which Issei thought made him look kind of grim.

“This girl got a face full of train this morning when she ended up on the tracks,” he began, “Stopped a whole line for half an hour. Very sad, if you ask me.”

Issei didn't roll his eyes. He had some respect for the dead, no matter how drunk he was.

“I'm a psychologist, but I can only help people before they kill themselves,” he scolded, “go to a pathologist if you want to diagnose what she was being treated for if you want an autopsy.

Tsuzube's grin looked both humored and sad.

“This wasn't a suicide. This girl was pushed.”

Issei rubbed his temples.

“I really am sorry, but what's that got to do with me? All my patients are either cured or under control when they leave me.”

“Her name was Anako Watanabe,” Tsuzube's pause was expectant. Just what did this nosy civil servant want from him?

Still Issei let that name dance in his head for a little bit, trying to match it to a patient. Before he could get a chance to tell this annoying guy to fuck off Issei gasped hard enough for it to be vocal when he remembered where he heard that name.

His hands were trembling because he was concentrating on keeping his voice from doing the same.

“Detective, who is the one being charged with murder?”

“Do you really have to ask that? Didn't you get a Notice?”

Issei nodded quickly on instinct to hide the dopey look on his face, but got the feeling he failed miserably.

“I'll be down at the station as soon as I finish my meeting,” he assured Tsuzube.

The bastard made him jump when he clapped a hand onto his shoulder.

“Good luck my friend.”

The detective made his leave to let Issei figure out how to fend for himself.

After he finally got rid of Tsuzube he fished out his Digital Assistant and opened his inbox, but no matter how hard he squinted and held the screen at different lengths and angles Issei still couldn't make out the letters. A girl walked by.

“Hey, hey you!” no time for tact, “I need your help.”

She scurried up quickly, her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“Are you okay sir?” Bless her for not staying in character.

“I'm sorry but I need a favor,” Issei handed her his DA, “Please don't read the message but could you tell me where this was sent from?”

The server looked puzzled and a little annoyed but complied. Issei would make sure to leave her a tip.

“It just says it's from The Board,” she shrugged, returning the device to him before going into the back to refill her drink tray.

[/hide]

[ChesCa]

[hide]
The morning drive to his hearing with the Board was pure hell, and not just because of his bitch of a hangover.

Issei's vehicle was one of the most still and graceful models as it followed its predestined path on the Freeway Guidance System and every turn it made still made the doctor dizzy. He could switch over to manual drive and adjust the speed to his liking but he really needed his attention and hands free for the last minute preparations for the Board.

“All thirty of the witnesses reported that Nagawa Yukino pushed her friend unprovoked in front of the train.”

The news monitor was also on for anything he or the Board could possibly use against each other. Most likely everything broadcast was mere spectacle but every bit count.

Speaking of spectacle, the feed cut from the dressed up anchorwoman to his least favorite part of the story: the security footage of the fatal push.

Issei had his sporadically focused eyes on his DA and digital dashboard for his research but he knew by hearing alone what was playing out on the screen again. The first time he saw it the footage was at an angle where it overlooked a crowd from behind and the platform was blocked from view. The generic milling and talking of the passengers was audible.

Then would come the sound of screaming, the train pulling in and poor Anako screeching Yukino's name before it was eerily erased by the train making impact. Issei was grateful that the shoulders and heads of the crowd blocked both the view of the push and the train hitting her, but it was still mortifying seeing the top of the train move in and pinpointing when it ended Anako's life as she became forever silent.

Every station had been playing that clip when they cut to the media sensation of 'A Murderer in our Mist' and 'The One that Got Away.'

“Mute that,” Issei commanded. According to the guidance system he would be off the freeway in three minutes anyway and the more silence he had to work in the better.

Why the hell didn't he pick up a refill on hangover pills on the way here? Of all the days and times to find out the bottle in the door pocket was empty.

He stuffed as much information as he could into his head before time was up.

“We are approaching your exit. Please shut off all devices and put your hands on the wheel,” the Vehicle Companion droned.

“Close applications,” Issei commanded as he put his hands on the wheel, “VC, I'm feeling a little under the weather. Please guide me to my destination if I need any assistance.”

“Understood doctor,” it responded, “Please be advised that if you can no longer safely steer the car will come to a stop–”

“I know all of that,” every single time it had to list off safety protocols. The programmers were legally bound to make it that way but it was still so annoying, “Just be ready to help me.”

“Yes doctor.”

Mercifully the Board's building was only less than a mile from the freeway and he had little trouble driving to his destination, although a couple of times the VC had to tell him to stop going well below the speed limit.

“Doctor,” the VC started after he was in his parking spot, “I regret to inform you that I may not be allowed to park your vehicle here after today. Your Permanent Practitioner's Permit Code has been temporarily locked and replaced with a Visitor Code.”

That was just great.

“Thank you VC,” he opened his door and managed to stay steady as he got out, “I don't think I will be long in my absence.”

“If Nagawa Yukino had put on the ShikaPlus that girl would still be alive!” Ichi having an emotion was almost out of character.

“Issei,” the lack of formality was completely out of character and a bad sign coming from San, “you had promised us that the girl would not present a danger to the public.”

Issei felt like he had managed bury his trembling down to only his bones, though it made his headache worse to do so. At the very least nobody seemed to comment on why he wasn't sitting still. He prevented himself from gripping his pant legs by pressing his fingers and palms into a pseudo-relaxed pose. Maybe from this far they couldn't tell he was was squishing his own thighs into putty.

“Do you have anything to say in your defense before we revoke your license?” Ni asked.

He clenched his teeth to keep from licking his lips. Issei was doing a lot of restraining today.

Everyone knew that when a therapist messed up the press would instantaneously start lobbing questions at the Board, assuming they didn't have access to the doctor that they outed to the entire nation. So much was recorded and collected already that everything pretty much added up quickly to Issei looking like nothing more than an incompetent quack. This was all a formality. Yukino was already another Wamui Mitemine and an example needed to be made.

Issei took a breath like he needed it to last, then played the defense he had only a few hours to make.

“There was no way anybody could have predicted this could happen,” his enunciation of his words made him look well spoken, but he just didn't want his mouth to slur them, “I would like an inquiry from the Department of ParaSocietal Control.”

The lights flashed without a moment's pause.

If there was anything that could get him out of this mess, it would have to be other worldly help.

“Issei,” San again, “the DPC would not appreciate being used as a stall tactic. You have never given us any evidence before that Yukino had supernatural ability.”

“That's because I had no reason until now to believe she did,” Issei's voice was flat both from control and the numbing of his soul.

“Explain,” Shi commanded. Issei took another deep, but more subtle breath to calm himself.

“To begin, Honorable Board, she was blinded and no known medicine could help her. This is a case even more strange and unexplainable than that of Kigejin Funna's patient.”

The lights were still off. Good, they were listening.

Kigejin Funna was the only therapist let off the hook for a rogue patient, mostly because it was discovered that he had used a magical brand from the Mystical Nation to subvert the control and influence of both his therapist and the ShikaPlus. Kigejin was still suspended to appease the press, but was compensated for her lost time and money and was reinstated with less clientele to avoid too much future attention.

That retirement plan suited Issei just fine, if he could pull this off.

“There are barely any accommodations left for the blind since most forms of it can be cured,”he continued, “By all rights she should have not gone long without assistance, and yet from what I gathered she was fully independent.”

His confidence was rising but he still had to watch his words and mouth to make sure they didn't fumble on him. If Issei could only talk faster all of this would go by more quickly.

“Yes, she was living in pretty suitable conditions,” Ni conferred, “but she could have conditioned herself to adapt to a better degree than most others in her situation.”

Issei raised his hand up.

“Honorable Board I do acknowledge your point,” he retorted, “but in light of past events I already had reason to believe she was, uh, unusual.”

The lights flickered. Fuck Issei had seemed unsure. He needed to keep a more level head.

“She possessed a remarkably high intellect even as a child,” he added, “so much so that she learned how to survive on her own when she had run away from one side of the country to the other.”

Silence again.

“Furthermore,” he wet his lips, he couldn't help himself now, “she knew the answers to some advanced questions and got perfect scores on tests without any studying or cheating.”

“She probably just has a parlor trick or two down,” Ichi dismissed.

“And finally,” Issei pressed through, “there was the matter of how she was born.”

Dead silence.

“Yukino had come back from the dead before she was even conceived,” he concluded, “who knows what effects it could have had on her?”

Light, paused flickering in the bulbs.

“Are you sure you know what you're doing Issei?” San asked.

“You do have enough cause to investigate this, but what you have is still vague and the DPC will not be kind if you waste their time,” Ni explained, “You will not face jail time but drawing things out could only make things worse for you. We can end things more kindly and quickly.”

As a last act of defiance against himself today he clamped down on the grin he wanted to show.

“I am confident I can prove my innocence.”

The lights flickered very lightly now. Whatever they were doing they were making sure nobody but them heard what they were saying.

“As it was set precedent by the case of Kigejin v The Board,” Ichi began, “Dr Issei is permitted six weeks to determine a supernatural, uncontrollable cause for his patient's behavior.”

“Yukino's diagnosis by the ShikaPlus will be postponed,” said Ni, “so that her original mental state will be preserved for study and time given for the investigation.”

“If a cause is found,” continued San. Were these people like robots or what? “Dr Issei will keep his license and benefits and be cleared of any charges of patient negligence.”

“If not,” Shi fittingly finished, “his right to work as a therapist and any benefits associated with it will be revoked and the DCP shall determine how hefty a fine they should charge him if they deduce any fraud or wrongdoing on the part of the doctor by bringing in their services.”

Issei hoped they didn't see him clench his throat a little.

“Dismissed,” they said in unison.

[/hide]

[ChesCa]

Oh WOW it's been way too long.
[hide]
The next evening in front of the precinct Issei's car window was starting to frost early, a sign of the coming winter. By the time six weeks were up snow would be everywhere.

“I can clear the window for you if you wish,” the VC suggested.

“Nope nope that's alright,” the doctor grunted as he picked himself up from his stooping, “It would warm me up to do it myself.”

“Acknowledged,” the VC said as Issei held his squeegee in inspection before wasting more time on clearing up the windshield.

He looked over to the entrance of the precinct again. While the doctor was bending down to retrieve his wiper Tsuzube had stepped out front to smoke, watching Issei prolong the inevitable.

Damn. He put the squeegee back.

“On second thought I'll do it later.”

“Acknowledged.” It was all the same to the VC. Issei really needed stalling time to ruminate on his plan of action but he wasn't going to let the detective watch him be so willful.

“This way,” Tsuzube instructed as he led him in.

The first two things Issei noticed were how gray everything was and that Ms. Nagawa was waiting for them standing by the desk. She was clearly expectant of his arrival.

Ms Nagawa had also lost a lot of weight. While she was dressed in thick layers it really showed in her cheeks and eyes, the skin sinking to cling more to the contours of her skull, her skin absent of color and life and her eyes and mouth looked permanently down turned into a dead mope. Had she gotten any rest since her daughter was brought here?

Inside he grimaced at her not out of disgust, but out of pity and remorse. Ms Nagawa didn't know about his resolution to the Board to classify her as a supernatural creature but Issei's gut frosted over just the same as though she did. If he succeeded she wouldn't see her daughter again for a long, long time.

There weren't any screens or radios in the station. A small mercy but a welcome one. The saturation of her daughter's crime on the news felt so palpable Issei was worried the already weak hearted mother would die from grief if she heard that horrible audio one more time. Before he had turned off his car pundits were arguing whether she was a sign of today's undisciplined youth or a product of a society with little compassion. Neither of their anger felt as real as the grief Ms Nagawa would feel for the rest of her life.

Issei relaxed his posture but quickened his walk as she began approaching him. She didn't need his permission for the hug she gave him.

“Doctor,” she laughed like any crushed person would, “I was just about to recommend you to talk to her.”

“Ms. Nagawa, it is an honor to see you again,” his guilt kept his arms from pulling away from her humbling embrace, “although I wish it were under better circumstances.”

Ms. Nagawa didn't feel less tense when she finally pulled away from him but he supposed they both knew that they couldn't stand together forever.

Also it was hard to have a normal conversation with someone talking into your wet shoulder.

“Thank you doctor. I don't know what we can do, but thanks.” Her back was straight but the moisture in her eyes were glimmering in restraint.

“Dr. Issei, this way please,” Tsuzube interrupted from behind her, holding open a door that led to the private booth at the end of the hall.

Odd. Those booths were usually only reserved for violent criminals. Issei and Nagawa shared one parting, apprehensive glance before the doctor let himself be escorted away to his destination.

The booth used to be a second detention room when Issei was younger. Now instead of talking to the prisoner in front of a window the interviewer had screen with a live feed to the criminal's holding cell. From Issei's past experience with imprisoned clients the televisions would work like a two way mirror: Issei could see her on his screen but she couldn't see him on hers until she was allowed to. This further isolation of the incarcerated was done in the name of security for the staff who would otherwise escort the prisoner. Issei always thought that if nobody could handle a violent criminal they didn't belong on the force but he had enough sense to not get in an argument with the authorities over that.

Issei felt wrong, getting a good look at how his old client was in private, even if she wasn't doing anything.

Yukino was now about five and a half feet tall by his guess, and her hair was still cut only to neck length. The familiar ended there: she looked to weigh less than her mother, very skinny and very withdrawn, and her women's size blue prison garb still hung off of her in places.

She was leaning forward, staring at nothing, saying nothing, just waiting for her monitor to turn on. The quality of the image made her already pale skin begin to glow, and Issei couldn't help but notice how still she was. His screen looked like a three dimensional painting of a wandering, deadly spirit.

Dr. Issei knew something was very wrong at once, but it wasn't the diagnosis. He gave an angry whisper to Tsuzube from the side of his mouth, not wanting to miss anything she might do.

“Where's her glasses? Did you confiscate them?”

“Glasses?” the detective frowned, “She wore glasses?”

Issei's lips pressed together. Didn't this 'detective' know anything about her?

“She should have,” Issei chided, “She went blind five years ago.”

That look he was getting from his companion either meant Tsuzube was stupid or the doctor was in deep shit.

“Doctor, she wasn't blind,” Issei felt the blood freeze in his chest, like frostbite in his ribs, “She could see just like everyone else.”

Christ, the detective was starting to stare at him like he's crazy.

“Is this a bad time?” Tsuzube wiped his nose and sniffed. This guy was actually embarrassed for the doctor.

“No, no. I'm ready.” Issei shooed the detective away mid sentence in a rush to get him away.

Panicking wouldn't do any good now. There was still a chance she was faking blindness anyway.

He hoped.

The screen on her side made the connection to his booth.

Yukino made sure to give Issei a nod when the screen turned on.

“Hello doctor. I knew you would be coming to visit me,” she scooped all emotion out of her voice a long time ago so that they wouldn't know how she felt. The practice had a downside of course: even she didn't know how she felt. A minor inconvenience.

Chuu was breathing behind the wall of her cell, spying for any weakness that would show. She could feel the dirty air coming from his breath, gunking everything and sinking into it. Some of that gunk plastered onto the back of her head but it couldn't get into the skin. It didn't feel any less cold or gritty. She'd have to wash it again after this.

“Hello Yukino,” she could tell Issei was pretending to be pleasant but at least he was trying for her sake. Yukino could count on him for a lot, “It has been a while.”

He hadn't changed much though.

“Why are you only reachable by monitor? Are you really that dangerous?” Issei's joke sounded forced.

“I requested it.”

“Why!?” There was the shock she was expecting.

The Black Paper People marked tracks like soaps of sickness everywhere she was but none led to him as long as she was careful. He was safe.

“I'm not going to say,” Yukino recited.

“Another five years,” he did a kind of deep exhale like sighing through his nose, “Who'd have thought it?”

She smirked.

“You would've,” Issei grumble. She giggled. That was okay to react to. Moments like these were meant to crack through defenses.

“I'm guessing you know why I'm here,” so much sadness in that voice. Too much for the humor to stay.

“Visiting hours?” Yukino was deep in her protective shell again. Chuu's whiskers made little tiny audible scratches from behind the metal.

The scratches jumped in frequency and were moving away. Chuu must be changing shifts with something else and crawling off. The faint scraping of the cloth of the new creature coming in was too small for the untrained to hear.

“Yukino, this is serious,” too much anger but she allowed it, “You are being charged with murder, and I don't really hear all that much evidence to the contrary.”

Yukino locked eyes with him unblinking until he got uncomfortable and under control.

“I didn't murder her,” was her argument.

“That's what I'd like to believe.”

Everyone knew he would say that.

“I did kill her though,” outright lying would get her into trouble in a nano second.

“There's no difference in your case.” Stern. Almost as harsh as the new thing behind the wall. What denizen was it? It's sweaty breath was making everything just humid enough for only her to feel.

“No it's not,” she defied him.

“How so then Yukino? How so?” the counter on his side creaked under his weight as he leaned forward on his elbows.

“You wouldn't believe me if I told you.” Nobody would.

“After all these years, you don't trust me that much?”

Yukino trusted him. Just not everything else that listened to her. If she wanted help she'd need to talk in code.

The air conditioning helped her meditate the heat away.

“The only person I ever trusted everything with,” she paused, “was Anako.” Yukino gave a hollow laugh at the irony of that statement for the agent in the wall.

Dr. Issei sighed. He didn't get it.

“Okay Yukino. Please start from the beginning.”

Yukino stared. She didn't let him see how sad she was.

“Miss Yukino. This isn't the time to be fooling around.”

“I'm not,” she responded, “I'm just trying to figure out where the beginning is.”

“How about we talk about the day of the-,” he cut off the 'murder' part; polite to a fault, “the day Miss Anako died.”

“Sure,” she began.

Beneath the sidewalk stairs in the yellow-white tiled station, the AllWhere rail platforms were packed shoulder-to-shoulder, forcing Yukino and Anako to hold onto each other's hands so they wouldn't get separated in the conflicting tides of the crowd. Yukino wouldn't even be putting up with the lack of personal space and the stench of body heat smothering her if it weren't for the fact that Anako went to school in a separate town. Yukino took the train every week just for the privilege of seeing a good friend. She owed her everything, and going out of the way to meet up was the least she could do.

There was also the fact that changing schools until Yukino dealt with her blindness resulted in no friends. Social skills were still so awkward she couldn't get noticed by peers long enough for them to want to social network with her, so she left the school for the blind alone and entered back into public school with no spirits.

“We're in the Grand Mile now,” grunted Anako as more commuters squeezed past her in opposite directions, nearly getting twisted out of Yukino's grip. The Grand Mile was their label for the long walk between the subway stairs and the turnstile. All fifty feet of it. Somewhere on the first leg of the journey Yukino felt the floor starting to tilt underfoot.

“Anako, I'm getting dizzy,” she mumbled as loud as she could over the speakers and the foot traffic. The friend stopped and put her arm around the young woman to help keep balance. Anako probably knew from experience when the sensation of being surrounded overpowered Yukino, but even if she didn't notice this time the friend at least knew how to help out.

_Yukino felt queasy and smothered a belch from the chest to avoid burping in her friend's ear when she whispered “Thank you.” Anako giggled. Guess she was close enough to feel the rumble.

They finally scanned the ticket code on their PDA into the turnstile after a full ten minutes of a congested and squashed 'line' of people finally let them near enough to the bottleneck. The other side was more spacious and the two waited behind the yellow line for Yukino's train back home. According to the time it would be due in five minutes._

For a few moments Anako and Yukino just talked and chatted and gossiped about what they had been up to when suddenly Anako said something harsh and Yukino impulsively shoved her. Unfortunately the push was too hard and Anako fell onto the tracks.

“Yukino!”

Yukino was close enough to hear the flesh smack against the metal, although just barely over the panic and horrified gasps of the onlookers. Even before the AllWhere had screeched to a halt everything that made Yukino a person evaporated, leaving her standing in shock.

For a few seconds both legs felt like they would crumple underneath her weight, but they locked into position when the void in Yukino started filling again, something not unlike an unfolding, slow explosion that began in her chest. As the pressure mounted throughout Yukino's lungs felt like they were shrinking while her heart felt like it was about to burst from a crescendo, panicky rhythm.

The young woman stiffly walked over to a wall, unable to suppress the shuddering in either arm, and cried with her back to the witnesses.

“And that's how it happened Doctor,” Yukino concluded, “so there's nothing really that can be done. I did kill her, but I didn't murder her. I didn't plan for any of it.”

Issei sighed. He would be trying to look for any cracks in the story. After five minutes Yukino figured out that he was having trouble deciding where to begin.

“So that big push,” Issei was clamping his face trying to get everything together in his head, “was just an accident, Miss Yukino?” Dr. Issei's voice was very exasperated. She never knew him to get so flustered.

“Yes,” Yukino explained in that same flat, dead tone that the spy wouldn't get a read on, “and I have paid for it already.”

Issei sighed more heavily.

“Yukino why are you lying to me?”

She knew he'd be a little difficult.

“I'm not Doctor. Don't you trust me?”

Issei's chair made a grating screech as he got up quickly, causing her to wince.

“We'll see,” he said before walking away from the screen, “I'll talk to you more in a 'proper' session next week.”

“Of course,” the door clicked shut, “Dr. Issei.”

She was finally alone. Without anyone to expose the Black Paper People to the agent watching her went on a break elsewhere in the building, most likely the cafeteria. She made a mental note to purge any food she ate in case that thing touched or poisoned any of it.

Yukino had practiced every possible angle the Doctor could attack her from and saw no weak spot or chance of failure. All she had to do was last for a few weeks and she would be free. Anako was a sad mistake but that couldn't stop her. Not today, not ever.

She didn't want to kill Anako. She really didn't, but Yukino had to go on. Too keep fighting the forces that wanted the world and Yukino to themselves.

But first, she must do something about Dr. Issei and the officers watching over her.

Killing them wasn't an option. One too many had died already and another person will leave her before she was finished with her plan.

But in the end Yukino had to be free to continue her mission to free the world of filth and spies.

“See you on Saturday Dr. Issei.”

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Both halves of the chapter have been melded with the second half updated.

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The Vehicle Companion was left on for a third night in Dr. Issei's garage while the rest of the car was off. While the doctor slept it analyzed all known data on Yukino Nagawa from the Digital Assistant for any missed signs of strange activity. In order for someone or something to be classified as supernatural there had to be a match to the four criteria:
1. That person/object must perform an activity that could not be read by scientific instruments.
2. The person/object must not have a magical brand that could explain the activity.
3. The person/object must be able to perform the activity outside of the Mystical Nations.
4. The person/object can not be a mystical creature in disguise nor related to one.
Yukino's data had already proven two out of the four: Body scans and dowsing by the officers exhibited no signs of external or internal branding and she had never even been to a Mystical Nation. Everything came down to finding out her ability and seeing what effect it had on observational equipment. Everything about his patient was recorded and examined, from her digital activity to her most private information. More importantly, the VC was looking for any conclusive evidence that she had really gained her sight back, the crux of Issei's original argument.
The following morning Issei read the conclusions on his DA: Yukino had been released from the school for the blind by passing a sight test revolved around reading, drawing and navigating new environments.
Issei already had questions ready for his second session, but he almost didn't make it because it took him hours to get out of bed again.

“Hello, Miss Yukino. How are you feeling today?” Issei addressed the screen.
Yukino's head rested on the steeple of her hands and peered at him from a downward gaze.
“What's the word when you won't commit suicide but you still want to die?”
The silence that followed wasn't because Issei mulled over the question.
“How are you feeling yourself, Dr. Issei?” No change in expression or posture. She was probably ignoring the awkward undertones.
“Older but wiser, thank you for asking,” his response was polite but taut.
“Glad to hear it,” she didn't sound glad about anything anymore.
The doctor straightened up into a more comfortable position.
“That's enough beating around the bush, Miss Yukino.”
“You used to just call me Yukino. You're upset with me.” His patient wasn't asking. She barely even seemed to care.
“What I'd like you to tell me is why you pushed Anako onto the tracks,” the terseness he spoke with subtly demanded a quick, honest answer.
Yukino stared. She was likely stalling to get her story straight.
“Yukino,” Issei warned, “we can't get anywhere if you don't say anything.”
The patient furrowed her brow and the steeple clamped as she clenched her hands.
“I'm not sure how I can describe it,” she finally muttered.
“Please, take your time and try,” Issei would be smug about pressing his patient if he wasn't so familiar with how she danced around words. Instead he let the stress and pressure focus his concentration. Yukino could not possibly slip up on the first telling but any detail could come into play in retellings of the murder.
The eyes wouldn't stop moving, though they were steady with recollection and thought. Whatever she was going to say would require heavy scrutiny.
“There are these messages,” it nearly startled him how her gaze fluidly stilled again, “in my head.”
Dr. Issei nodded. “Go on.” He already didn't believe her. No matter how hard he tried in the past she would never wear the YanDome, let alone confess to being insane.
“They're from the future.”
Issei both admired the deftness of her act and was unsettled by how truthful that sounded for a story she just made up.
“These messages from the future,” he talked to make sure his breath was still steady and unmoved, “why did they tell you to kill Anako?”
Yukino shook her head, but the gesture was so loose it looked more like she was letting it lightly swing.
“They didn't tell me to kill her per se,” she explained, “it was more like an eyewitness testimony of what she's going to become.”
He leaned forward. “What would that be?”
“An assassin and anarchist who would topple a Mystical Nation and start a war,” she responded, “very dangerous.”
Dr. Issei pretended to analyze that statement but was really memorizing it for later.
“I see,” he responded as he hid his suspicion, “but couldn't you have just talked about it to her first without resorting to what you did?”
That light swinging again.
“We were arguing about the ethics of using magic to impose law on the populace, and no matter what I argued she wouldn't listen to reason.” Her eyes hardened, but only to compensate for the involuntary gulp, “She wouldn't listen.”
That fact would need more pressing.
“I want the specifics.”
“That's classified.”
“What?” Issei exclaimed. Crap, he let himself get goaded.
“I can't tell you about what I know, not until the voices change permanently,” she grinned, “that's when I know I saved the future for good.”
“Not even me?”
That erased her grin and made her flinch. No matter what face she put on, she still had some connection with him.
“You can't make me say anything.” Her voice got even colder than before. Yukino was stomping down the fear she was feeling. Issei had found a crack.
It was the only one. His patient never failed to bend from that statement for the rest of the session, no matter how much he pried.
“I thought we would be much more open than this,” the doctor said as he got up to leave, “but there's nothing more I can do for you I fear.”
“I'll tell you…” she began. Issei stopped in the middle up standing up. For once she sounded urgent and her head was raised, “...when the future is safe.”
Issei nodded, then turned off the screen.
He had nearly given his patient and career a final goodbye.

Yukino laid on her cot, thinking without feeling. Dimmed lights and cool sheets always helped her reach meditation. Those soft sensations robbed the potency from the spy's presence.
She couldn't afford to be confined and changed. It would mar her mind and the world would then be a sitting duck for their conspiracy and machinations.
Yukino closed her eyes and thought.
And thought.
And thought.
Nothing short of masterful deceit would convince her former confidante that this wasn't anything other than a run-of-the-mill killing by a crazy person.
Yukino picked and sorted through every single solitary fact she knew about geopolitics to prepare her next statement.

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