10 - Bad Phone Calls

[WARSAW]

“Despite it being a dream, it ended up becoming a recurring vision.”

“Especially now.”

“When not too long ago I’d have nightmares that allowed my worst experiences to resurface and torment me again, my worst fears to realize...now I just have these visions, these dreams, these unexplainable episodes.”

“I see colors.”

“I see a gray void with ripples of color.”

Sakuto slowly opened his eyes. His first sign of concern was the fact that he was naked. His second sign of concern and first sign of fulfillment was the fact that Ichika was right next to him, also naked. He slowly lifted the bedsheet a little to confirm it, and after seeing the amusing sight, quickly pulled it back down, his face a little embarrassed.

“Huh...”

“Makes sense why I feel so tired...”

“I remember how awkward the first time was, it was like two blind people trying to wrestle...”

He tried to slowly get up, but felt something warm and soft latch onto him. It was Ichika herself - holding onto his body, not letting him go like a mousetrap that finally caught something in its grasp. Sakuto could easily force his way out of that embrace, but he’d never forgive himself if he did so.

He instead turned around and held her a little closer, hugging her. He felt the weight of her limbs, the softness and warmth of her breath against his skin and he heard the small and cute sounds she made.

“I like this part a lot.”

“Holding her like this...I wonder if I can put my head on her chest. Since I assume us doing these things is gonna become a regular occurrence, well, at least I hope so, I’ll have to try that.”

“Having a soulmate is awesome.”

“Sakuto...” Ichika slowly said in a hoarse voice.

“Hey, you’re awake.” Sakuto said, kissing her on the forehead.

“I feel sore...” Ichika said. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Go on.”

“Why did I see your adaptation work when we were, you know...doing the thing...”

Sakuto’s entire universe shattered, his heartbeat spiked and he contemplated at least thirty different ways of escaping from reality and transforming into an extraterrestrial creature incapable of comprehending human speech.

“What...?!”

“Hehe, I’m joking...” Ichika said, pulling a little closer to Sakuto and partially mounting him. She suddenly grabbed him by his throat. “I want more of you...”

And just as yet another sequence of passionate actions was about to unfold, Ichika’s phone rang. She quickly got up, finding himself laying right on top of her soulmate, without anything intense happening or having happened.

“Huh? What happened?” Ichika asked, confused, quickly raising her head.

“You grabbed me by the throat and fell asleep.” Sakuto said. “You know, I’m still in the mood, so-”

“It’s from Captain Jian Fang.” Ichika said, picking up her phone that was on the bedside table. She quickly got out of bed and put some clothes on before accepting the call. “I guess neither of us are allowed to have time off...”

“It’s pretty late too.” Sakuto said, taking his own phone, and seeing a metric ton of messages and emails from the Heisei and even Kaito Kamiki himself. “I got spammed overnight. Gotta be something important that happened.”

He heard something hit the floor.

“Ichika?” He asked, quickly climbing over to the phone on the ground. It looked like the call was still active.

“I’m sorry if this news is difficult to digest, but we have to act as fast as possible. We are unaware of what their plans with him are, but we cannot risk him falling into the hands of the monstress herself. Please report to us as soon as possible, we are on our way to Warsaw.”

“Captain?” Sakuto picked up the phone. He wasn’t expecting any good news, considering Ichika was visibly shaking and denying reality.

“Good timing, lieutenant.” Jian continued. “I’ll reveal the details later.”

“What’s the situation though?”

“Yumichi Hanasaki was kidnapped.”

Sakuto gasped, quickly turning his gaze towards Ichika, who sat down by the bed, with a complete rejection of reality painting her pale face. She stared at her hands, as if amazed that they even exist in the first place. She saw the hands of someone she really didn’t like.

“I’ll call you back later.” Sakuto said, quickly hanging up. He sat up next to Ichika and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her a little closer to her only source of comfort.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright.” Sakuto quickly said. “We’re gonna get him back, alright?”

“How did they find him...” Ichika said with a shaky voice.

“I have no idea. But no matter where he is, we’ll find him, alright? We’ll do everything we can to find him.” Sakuto reassured her. “I’ll...God damn it, I’ll fucking kill whoever did that.”

“He was the only person whom all of this shouldn’t have gotten to.” Ichika said, leaning her hand on her elbows, unable to even shed tears. “How...and...and why? Why do they have to get him?!”

“I don’t-”

“Why him?!” Ichika yelled.

“...”

“It’s because of me, isn’t it?” Ichika said. “It’s their way of getting leverage over me, or doing something, or just, hurting me...fuck...fuck this...fuck all of this...”

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“It’s all politics.” Sakuto sighed. “Are your parents aware that he’s gone?”

“Fuck...” Ichika took a deep breath. “Fuck!”

“Ichika, focus.” Sakuto said.

“They’ll probably think it’s some regular kidnapper or some...some sick pervert...” Ichika continued. “Oh no...what are they gonna do to him? What the fuck will they do to him?”

“Hey-”

“No, no no no no no, he wasn’t supposed to be in this mess...if I had just...” Ichika teared up a little. “If I had just fucking done as they said, they...he...he wouldn’t be in this...”

Sakuto kissed her.

She was surprised by the gesture, it was an action motivated both by his affection for her and his desire to stop her meltdown. The awkward and even slightly forced kiss was broken apart a few seconds later, with Ichika coming out of it with a somewhat shocked expression.

“Ichika, you’re not alone.” Sakuto said, holding her hand and squeezing it a little. “Don’t panic, okay? Just...do anything but panic.”

“It’s my fault.”

“And so what if it is?!” Sakuto said. “Listen, we’re in a pretty shitty situation, but we’ll figure something out, alright? Come on, we’re together. We’re strong. We’ll manage to do something.”

“What do you mean...so what if it’s my fault?” Ichika said, moving away from his hold and standing up. “It...it is my fault. That’s the point.”

She stormed away.

“God damn it...”

“Out of all the people on the planet, it just had to be her little brother she’s obsessed with...”

He took a deep breath and finally got some time to check his phone. Indeed, all the messages were about the kidnapping and the comms channels were filled with different ideas as to how exactly to go about the predicament. He rubbed his eye and stretched a little.

“It’s awful.”

“I can’t imagine how being in a situation like this even feels like.”

“Assuming that someone you’re close to is in the hands of the enemy, potentially being subject to the worst types of torture your imagination can come up with... God, is this what they all felt when I was dead?”

Ichika, at the same time, was next to the sink. She washed her face over and over again, the sound of the water pouring down resembled a static in her ears, she wanted it to shut up so badly she thought of turning it off altogether, but something stopped her from doing so, confining her in a mental stalemate. She splashed the water on her face and turned it off, her movements still coming off as shaky and even disorganized.

“Out of everything that could have happened...”

“I need something.”

She opened the drawer close to the sink.

“Back then, when I had my parents yelling at me, or when I needed to knock myself out, I always took these.”

She reached for a small white bottle filled with tiny white pills. She opened the lid and stared at the little things, the little gremlins that seemed like the only way of halting her internal aggregation of emotions. She sighed and held her palm out.

Suddenly, the bottle was flung across the bathroom. Ichika jumped back in fear, a few seconds later, her mind could process the shadowy tentacle that knocked her salvation out of her hands. Sakuto entered the bathroom with Ichika’s phone in his hand, and after preventing the pills’ ingestion, threw a concerned glare at his soulmate.

“What the hell...are you doing?”

“What?” Ichika was surprised.

“What were these?!” Sakuto yelled, quickly pulling the bottle to him with a shadowy thread.

“Sleeping pills?” Sakuto exclaimed. “What...just what were you trying to do?”

“Just let me go!” Ichika yelled back. “Give them back!”

“I’m not giving shit back to you.” Sakuto said. “You were gonna take all of them, weren’t you?”

“What? No, I was-”

“Just be honest with me!” Sakuto said. “For fuck sake, why do you do this to yourself? No amount of pill chugging is gonna do anything to help you!”

“Sakuto, it’s fine.” The voice on the phone said. It was Ausra. “She wasn’t gonna do anything crazy, but it’s a good thing you prevented an old habit from resurfacing. I’ll handle the rest.”

“I’m not leaving her alone, not with those things around.” Sakuto said.

“I’ll handle the rest, don’t worry.” Ausra said. After a bit of thought, Sakuto handed Ichika her phone and left the bathroom, closing the door after him. He sighed deeply and sat down on the couch, unable to decide what to think and even more incapable of producing a single coherent thought. He just laid on the couch.

“It hurts me too, you know?”

“You can imagine how scared I was when I saw you like that...”

“...”

“I’m so concerned for her well-being, but it’s not like I treat myself any better. Is this what others felt when I talked about myself as if I wanted to die? Is this what others felt when they saw me hurt? Is this what Ichika felt when she saw my scars?”

“It was difficult for them too, and things were just becoming more and more difficult.”

“But at least she has Ausra. She’s her most reliable lifeline. But she’s gotta be in pain too...”

“Fucking hell, everyone’s in pain, and no one knows how to deal with it, they just know how to survive.”

...

“Ichika, you’re with me, right?” Ausra asked over the phone.

“Yeah...”

“Good. Take a few deep breaths.”

“Okay, I did...”

“Now, tell me that you won’t take any sleeping pills or do anything to yourself, okay?”

“I...I won’t...”

“Ichika, I can imagine how guilty you feel right now.”

“Yeah...” Ichika sat down on the bathroom floor, embracing her legs, with the phone by her side. The lack of the sound of running water made the atmosphere even stranger for her.

“If you want to feel better, don’t hurt yourself, hurt the source of the pain, okay?”

“Okay...”

“Ichika, what’s the source of your pain?”

“It’s... it’s me, doing all this...causing all this...”

“It’s not. It’s those assholes that kidnapped your brother.”

“But if I-”

“Don’t even start it. Don’t feel sorry for living.” Ausra said. “Ichika, right now, if you want to get your brother back, you’ll need to be focused and ready for anything.”

“Yeah...”

“So leave all your crying for after you get him back.” Ausra said. “At least then, he’ll be there to see you cry and maybe comfort you a little.” She hung up the call.

“Jeez, pretty rough.” Oskar said. Those two shared their own hotel number, stationed a bit further away in Poznan.

“Works well for her, trust me.” Ausra said. “I’ve been babysitting her for quite some time. Man, I hope something changes in her after all of this...”

“Must be hard, huh? I can imagine...” Oskar said.

“Yeah.” Ausra said, laying on her bed and stretching. “I’m there to cheer her up, and no one’s there to cheer me up. Life’s unfair.”

“Hey, I can cheer you up just fine.” Oskar smiled.

“I guess...?” Ausra said, feeling a little taken aback. She was snapped back to reality by the sound of Oskar’s ringtone.

“Huh? Who’s this?” Oskar asked. “Unknown number?”

“Hello?”

“Hi, um...this is Ana...I was with Dima when you guys met up, if you remember...”

“Yeah, yeah I remember you. Can I ask why you’re calling?”

“It’s about Dima. Well, I don’t know how to put it, but...I don’t know if it’s something related to soulfuls or just a weird thing he’s going through, maybe he’s hiding something from me, but...”

“But...? What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s been acting pretty weird lately...”