[series] Dreamcatcher: chapter seventeen
Title: Dreamcatcher 17/??
Pairings: Ohmiya, Jun/Aiba
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own the plot, Arashi owns my heart, and Johnny owns Arashi and my wallet.
Word Count: 2,783
Summary: AU. Dreamcatchers force their way into dreams and steal them, leaving no trace within the dreamer’s memory. Ohno is one who makes people forget. Nino is the one who isn’t supposed to remember.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 15.5 | 16
.chapter seventeen.
It’s not that Sho doesn’t trust Aiba. Really. It’s just that Aiba’s “super brilliant plans” have a tendency to end in ways that aren’t exactly… ideal.
Thing is, Aiba doesn’t always consider the limitations of reality in his ideas, such as his recent competition to determine whether sea urchins or chestnuts are stronger by performing tests, one of those tests being to play catch with them. The band-aids are still scattered across his hands; Sho stuck them on after Aiba came to Sho with blood trickling from his hands but a massive smile on his face because he determined the winner. If not for the circumstances, Sho would have tried to talk Aiba out of it before even listening.
Or would he have? Maybe he really would have done it anyway. Sho is different than he used to be.
But it doesn’t matter; Sho’s not even sure he had a choice. It’s been three days of agonizing nothings since Sho told Jun his theory, Jun told Aiba of his past, and Aiba told Nino and Sho the news. Three days since they learned about the “ghosts” of the dream world and that Ohno is in danger of becoming one.
Three days since Ohno’s disappearance.
Jun has kept in contact every night, and the four of them have been working together and trying to find out anything they could, but what could they do? Jun is traversing worlds searching for him, but Nino, Aiba, and Sho can’t seek out the invisible. They can only dream of him and hope that one day the man in their dreams is actually him.
The weight of the ordeal on Nino is unbearable to watch. He locks himself in his room all day and sleeps, waiting to find him. “He’ll come back to me,” Nino whispers every time Sho tries to talk to him. “They promised. He will come back to me.”
Sho asks why it’s they and not Ohno, but Nino doesn’t say anything. He knows something, Sho can tell, and even though Sho can’t think of a single reason why Nino should withhold information in this situation, he knows that Nino would never keep it to himself unless he’s trying to protect Ohno.
To make things worse, Aiba has been acting strangely, too. Aiba loves everyone - that’s just how Aiba is - but the way he talks about Jun is suspicious. His eyes are becoming like Nino’s, so full of emotion and still so lost. Will he end up losing both of them to the dream world, now? Last night, Sho wasn’t visited by Jun; he dreamt of Nino and Aiba dangling off a cliff, clinging desperately to the same rope. Sho tried to pull them to safety, but the rope burned at his hands, and they were too heavy for Sho to lift, and his fingers grew numb until he couldn’t hold on anymore. They fell into the abyss and-
Sho grits his teeth and rips himself away from his thoughts. He can’t fall into despair now. Nino and Aiba need him.
He heaves warm breath onto his chilled fingers. Sho is waiting for Aiba, who asked to meet him in the Nagase’s office because of some brilliant plan that he refused to explain over the phone. Strangely, even the building’s front door is locked, and Sho is forced to wait in the cold. It’s already the beginning of February. It’s been months since those final days of summer when Nino first began remembering. Have these months been long or short? Busy or slow? Sho’s sense of time is warped. Has he spent this entire time dreaming?
“Sho-chan!” Aiba calls. Sho turns to smile at him. He ends up grimacing instead.
Aiba is wearing a costume made of mirrors, including a mirror helmet with a rectangular hole for his eyes. The places around his joints are flaps so he can move. He waddles closer, and Sho can see his face wincing in the reflection.
“I’m right here, Sho-chan!” Aiba says confidently. “Right in front of you! You can’t see me, right? See, I dressed up in mirrors and made myself invisible! I call it Mirrorman!”
“Aiba,” Sho interjects wearily, “I can see you. Very clearly. So clearly that it’s painful.”
Sho can’t see Aiba pouting, but he can picture it. “Really? Well, it just has to be in the right area. But I have a plan, and we can use the Mirrorman costume for it!”
Sho sighs. “Why don’t you tell me what your plan is, and then we’ll decide if it would be best to use Mirrorman.”
Aiba shrugs, glancing at the building. “I guess Naga-nii isn’t in today? He must be working for once. So, my plan! You said that the guy in charge of Jun-chan and Oh-chan’s world is somebody named Johnny Kitagawa, right?”
“Right…”
“Well, for some reason he can teleport into our world or something. That’s how he found Jun-chan and Oh-chan when they were younger, right? So this Johnny guy is a real person in our world. You said that all of the records of the kids that went missing just disappeared, so we can’t find any info. But don’t you think Johnny would have files or something like that? Don’t you think he would keep important papers and stuff?”
Sho leans against the wall, watching the white puffs in the air as he breaths into the cold. “Yes, Aiba-chan, that’s true, but we’ve already thought of that. I asked Nagase-kun to help right after I found out about Johnny. He looked into it, but he couldn’t find anything that seemed related. If something was there, Nagase-kun would have found it.”
Aiba is quiet for a few seconds. The flaps of his outfit clash together as the wind blows against them. He takes the helmet part off, staring at it in his hands as he speaks. “I know. But when Jun told me about… what happened to him and Ohno, it made me think. I mean, Johnny seems like a really put-together guy, from what he told me. Like how he punished Oh-chan. He seems to know what he’s doing. And it made me think that someone like that wouldn’t just throw away important stuff. Don’t the bad guys in movies hide the incrementing evidence?”
“It’s incriminating evidence. And yes, but this isn’t a movie, Aiba.”
“But we can go into his house with the Mirrorman suit and search for it!” Aiba insists. “There must be something! If we wear the Mirrorman suit, he won’t see us. Ohno’s missing and everyone is so sad. We have to try!”
Sho shakes his head. “And get arrested for breaking and entering? We can’t become invisible with this thing. Aiba, even if there was something, where would it be? We don’t know where to look. I mean, hell, if I were Johnny, I… would…”
Of course. Why didn’t he think of that before, when Nagase told him the search came up clean? The accusations were there, the evidence wasn’t. There was no cover-up, as if Johnny knew for sure that no one would ever find it.
“If I were Johnny,” he repeats, grinning at Aiba as optimism finally returns, “I would be a walker of two worlds. If I were him, I would have the perfect places to hide anything I didn’t want to be seen.”
Aiba’s eyes widen. “The Border!”
“The Border,” Sho confirms. “But also here, in the real world. Think about it: we can’t go into the Border, and dreamcatchers can’t come into our world. Not really, at least. So let’s say there were certain things you wanted to hide from one or the other. What would you do?”
Aiba returns the smile. How long has it been since Aiba smiled like that? “I’d hide the stuff from us in the Border, and the stuff from the dreamcatchers in the real world.”
“Exactly. Nagase-kun told me that nothing seemed related. But if Johnny were smart, he’d hide anything incriminating somewhere in the dream world. Let’s pay Johnny a visit - without the mirrors - and find anything and everything we can. It might mean nothing to us, but maybe it will mean something to Jun.”
Aiba responds by pumping his fists in the air. The arms of his costume fall and clatter to the ground, shattering into giant shards. Aiba grins sheepishly. “Oops.”
*
Aiba pushes the black-rimmed frames back up, wriggling his nose as if doing so would keep the glasses from sliding down again. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, and then checks to make sure his shoelaces are securely tied. He undoes the bottom button of the shirt Sho had lent him and buttons it again. He runs his tongue across the fronts of his teeth to make sure that lunch wasn’t still lodged somewhere in between. He taps his fingers against his belt.
“Stop fidgeting!” Sho scolds. “You look unnatural!”
“I’m nervous,” Aiba admits, but he tries to calm his movements. Johnny’s mansion is much larger than Aiba expected, and knowing that they were about to knock on the door of a man who could very well be a Bad Guy didn’t help with Aiba’s confidence. Nino’s the one who’s good at stuff like this, not Aiba. Aiba’s never been a great liar. He wishes he could have been Mirrorman so he could face Johnny without actually facing him.
But he isn’t going to back down. Aiba twirls the ring on his thumb around, closing his eyes. Jun had given it to him as an experiment to see if it would disappear or go with Aiba into the real world. The test succeeded, and Aiba awoke with Jun’s ring sitting on the joint of his thumb. Aiba refused to give it back after that. Something of Jun’s entered into the real world with Aiba, and that gives Aiba hope. It’s proof that Jun isn’t a part of Aiba’s dreams - he’s a part of Aiba’s life.
Aiba freezes when the front door swings open. When had Sho knocked? “We are here to speak with a Kitagawa-sama. Is he available?”
The man at the door frowns at them, but steps to the side, holding the door open. Well, that’s a start. Aiba expected the door to be slammed in their faces. Like this: Do you have an appointment? No? *Slam.* High society sure didn’t work the way Aiba expected.
And neither is Johnny. He’s not some stern, bulky middle-aged man in a business suit like Aiba thought he’d be. When he meets them in the oversized living area, Aiba finds that he’s older, in his late sixties or early seventies at least, and is a few inches shorter than Sho and Aiba. He looks like someone who would be the weird janitor at a junior high, not some political villain who’s kidnapping children and plotting the demise of people everywhere. No, on second thought, the kidnapping children thing does sort of fit. Aiba can picture him hiding in the bushes and luring in little kids with pieces of candy. Aiba shudders.
“YOU, cold?” the man asks in English, snapping Aiba out of his daze.
“No! Me no old!” Aiba sputters.
Sho rolls his eyes and addresses Johnny in Japanese. “Kitagawa-san? My name is Sakurai Sho, and this is Aiba Masaki, my assistant. I’m a reporter for News Zero, and in just a few weeks, we will be holding a new segment in which we profile prominent figures in our society. I understand that you have not only been an active member of the United States Embassy in Tokyo, but that you’ve also been an important sponsor in the past two Volleyball World Cups, and you’re the president of your own company. Pardon me for dropping by without notifying you beforehand, but would you honor me with an opportunity to conduct a brief interview?”
Aiba marvels at Sho’s charisma, convincing the unwilling man to speak with him in a matter of minutes. Aiba wanders off casually, and once the butler leaves to get some tea and Sho has Johnny preoccupied, Aiba slips away and begins his search.
The office is easy to find, but the information is another story. There’s nothing unusual about the office: there’s a desk, some bookshelves, filing cabinets, and landscape paintings on the walls. He checks the shelves, desk drawers, and paintings (behind the paintings, for a secret safe, of course) before tackling the cabinets.
They’re locked, but it’s nothing Aiba can’t handle. Lock picking is one of those trades you pick up as a private eye, and all that he needs is a paperclip, which he finds right there on Johnny’s desk. That’s a relief - he forgot to bring his lock picking kit again, and the last time that happened… well, let’s just say it didn’t end well. Aiba forces the lock open and the drawers slide out. Good thing Sho didn’t see that. He’d have a heart attack... even though technically, the whole him distracting Johnny while Aiba gets the information thing was Sho’s idea.
Aiba fingers through the folders inside. They look like business documents full of numbers. How would Aiba know if they’re relevant? He tries another drawer. Nothing. Another? Nope. He’s running out of time.
When the fourth drawer flies open, the first word Aiba sees is in capital letters at the top of a page: Commencement. Aiba pulls the folder out and studies it. That’s the ceremony Jun talked about, isn’t it? Aiba pulls out his phone and snaps pictures of the document, pushes it back in, and pulls out another.
Aiba gasps, then slaps a hand over his mouth. Did someone hear him? He waits for a few seconds, and when the only sound is Sho and Johnny laughing over something, he relaxes and focuses on the file. It’s full of hand-written notes, most of which don’t make sense, but Aiba can recognize enough to know that it’s about Ohno’s incident.
-MJ recovered. Keeping OS out of Border. Influence is greater than anticipated - MUST keep him from merging. Time away should restore balance, but might cause further integration.
-OS returned. Taking measures to make sure he isn’t trusted by others. Dreams are coming back normal. Doubt in self should prevent further episodes.
-Ghosts are frequent. OS dreams abnormal. “It” is happening. Rumors of dreamer remembering have spread. It’s too late now. “It” must be stopped A.S.A.P. Must make OS a Ghost.
Aiba trembles. There aren’t any dates listed for them or any of the memos in between them, but the last one is probably at least a month old. Is that why Ohno is missing? Is he hiding from Johnny, or did Johnny… no, he won’t even consider that. Aiba snaps a photo and stuffs the file in its place, pulling out a few more and taking pictures without bothering to see what they are.
He checks his watch and shuts the cabinet drawers. It’s been ten minutes, and Sho estimated that the interview would take fifteen. He takes another look around before sneaking back out of the office and heading over to join Sho and Johnny in the living room.
Aiba nearly crashes into the butler when he turns the corner. “S-sorry!” he stutters. “I was looking for the bathroom. Where is it?”
The butler grins, but the smile is empty. “Right here,” he says, showing him to one of the doors only a few steps away. “I like your ring, by the way.”
Aiba blushes and mumbles a thank you before rushing into the bathroom. Once the door is shut and locked, he releases a full-bodied shiver. He puts the hand with the ring over his chest and clutches it with the other hand, as if he’s trying to push the ring past his skin and into his heart. He just showed them that he had something he shouldn’t. He showed them his contact with the dream world.
*
Aiba’s not surprised when it happens.
He prepared for it. He printed out the photos and left them on Naga-nii’s desk. He sent the pictures to Sho (who, in his excitement, didn’t notice Aiba’s defeat). He wrote Sho and Nino a note explaining everything. He wrote Jun that explains only one thing: that Aiba loves Jun.
Aiba falls asleep with the ring hanging on the chain that’s around his neck. He put it on the necklace so that Jun would be close to his heart.
(He doesn’t put that in his notes. It doesn’t need to be explained, even if it is cheesy.)
Aiba awakens to a desolate world smothering in black. A man with a feral grin and wild eyes is waiting for him.
---
A/N: fyi - I'm still taking drabble prompts here.
This is about a week later than I wanted it to be due to a family emergency (which is okay now). I've also been having frequent and severe headaches recently. Here's to hoping they don't get in the way of writing anymore, because they sure have been impending schoolwork.
But enough about that. How's the chapter? I was still not feeling too great when I wrote this, so it's a bit... sarcastic? (and might have grammatical errors, sorry!) But I think I can guess everyone's reaction. Something like... OMG AIBA NOOOOO! YOU ARE SO EVIL FOR THAT CLIFFIE UPDATE NAO OR FACE MY WRATH. *throws bricks*
But hey! We're finally on the road to discovery! Is turning Ohno into a Ghost really a part of Johnny's plan? What do the other things in the notes mean? Will Aiba be okay? Who is the butler, and who (if not the butler) is in Aiba's dream? Guess if you have ideas! I like hearing them :)
For now, I bid you adieu. Hopefully not for long! I want to tell you what happens, too!
Pairings: Ohmiya, Jun/Aiba
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own the plot, Arashi owns my heart, and Johnny owns Arashi and my wallet.
Word Count: 2,783
Summary: AU. Dreamcatchers force their way into dreams and steal them, leaving no trace within the dreamer’s memory. Ohno is one who makes people forget. Nino is the one who isn’t supposed to remember.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 15.5 | 16
.chapter seventeen.
It’s not that Sho doesn’t trust Aiba. Really. It’s just that Aiba’s “super brilliant plans” have a tendency to end in ways that aren’t exactly… ideal.
Thing is, Aiba doesn’t always consider the limitations of reality in his ideas, such as his recent competition to determine whether sea urchins or chestnuts are stronger by performing tests, one of those tests being to play catch with them. The band-aids are still scattered across his hands; Sho stuck them on after Aiba came to Sho with blood trickling from his hands but a massive smile on his face because he determined the winner. If not for the circumstances, Sho would have tried to talk Aiba out of it before even listening.
Or would he have? Maybe he really would have done it anyway. Sho is different than he used to be.
But it doesn’t matter; Sho’s not even sure he had a choice. It’s been three days of agonizing nothings since Sho told Jun his theory, Jun told Aiba of his past, and Aiba told Nino and Sho the news. Three days since they learned about the “ghosts” of the dream world and that Ohno is in danger of becoming one.
Three days since Ohno’s disappearance.
Jun has kept in contact every night, and the four of them have been working together and trying to find out anything they could, but what could they do? Jun is traversing worlds searching for him, but Nino, Aiba, and Sho can’t seek out the invisible. They can only dream of him and hope that one day the man in their dreams is actually him.
The weight of the ordeal on Nino is unbearable to watch. He locks himself in his room all day and sleeps, waiting to find him. “He’ll come back to me,” Nino whispers every time Sho tries to talk to him. “They promised. He will come back to me.”
Sho asks why it’s they and not Ohno, but Nino doesn’t say anything. He knows something, Sho can tell, and even though Sho can’t think of a single reason why Nino should withhold information in this situation, he knows that Nino would never keep it to himself unless he’s trying to protect Ohno.
To make things worse, Aiba has been acting strangely, too. Aiba loves everyone - that’s just how Aiba is - but the way he talks about Jun is suspicious. His eyes are becoming like Nino’s, so full of emotion and still so lost. Will he end up losing both of them to the dream world, now? Last night, Sho wasn’t visited by Jun; he dreamt of Nino and Aiba dangling off a cliff, clinging desperately to the same rope. Sho tried to pull them to safety, but the rope burned at his hands, and they were too heavy for Sho to lift, and his fingers grew numb until he couldn’t hold on anymore. They fell into the abyss and-
Sho grits his teeth and rips himself away from his thoughts. He can’t fall into despair now. Nino and Aiba need him.
He heaves warm breath onto his chilled fingers. Sho is waiting for Aiba, who asked to meet him in the Nagase’s office because of some brilliant plan that he refused to explain over the phone. Strangely, even the building’s front door is locked, and Sho is forced to wait in the cold. It’s already the beginning of February. It’s been months since those final days of summer when Nino first began remembering. Have these months been long or short? Busy or slow? Sho’s sense of time is warped. Has he spent this entire time dreaming?
“Sho-chan!” Aiba calls. Sho turns to smile at him. He ends up grimacing instead.
Aiba is wearing a costume made of mirrors, including a mirror helmet with a rectangular hole for his eyes. The places around his joints are flaps so he can move. He waddles closer, and Sho can see his face wincing in the reflection.
“I’m right here, Sho-chan!” Aiba says confidently. “Right in front of you! You can’t see me, right? See, I dressed up in mirrors and made myself invisible! I call it Mirrorman!”
“Aiba,” Sho interjects wearily, “I can see you. Very clearly. So clearly that it’s painful.”
Sho can’t see Aiba pouting, but he can picture it. “Really? Well, it just has to be in the right area. But I have a plan, and we can use the Mirrorman costume for it!”
Sho sighs. “Why don’t you tell me what your plan is, and then we’ll decide if it would be best to use Mirrorman.”
Aiba shrugs, glancing at the building. “I guess Naga-nii isn’t in today? He must be working for once. So, my plan! You said that the guy in charge of Jun-chan and Oh-chan’s world is somebody named Johnny Kitagawa, right?”
“Right…”
“Well, for some reason he can teleport into our world or something. That’s how he found Jun-chan and Oh-chan when they were younger, right? So this Johnny guy is a real person in our world. You said that all of the records of the kids that went missing just disappeared, so we can’t find any info. But don’t you think Johnny would have files or something like that? Don’t you think he would keep important papers and stuff?”
Sho leans against the wall, watching the white puffs in the air as he breaths into the cold. “Yes, Aiba-chan, that’s true, but we’ve already thought of that. I asked Nagase-kun to help right after I found out about Johnny. He looked into it, but he couldn’t find anything that seemed related. If something was there, Nagase-kun would have found it.”
Aiba is quiet for a few seconds. The flaps of his outfit clash together as the wind blows against them. He takes the helmet part off, staring at it in his hands as he speaks. “I know. But when Jun told me about… what happened to him and Ohno, it made me think. I mean, Johnny seems like a really put-together guy, from what he told me. Like how he punished Oh-chan. He seems to know what he’s doing. And it made me think that someone like that wouldn’t just throw away important stuff. Don’t the bad guys in movies hide the incrementing evidence?”
“It’s incriminating evidence. And yes, but this isn’t a movie, Aiba.”
“But we can go into his house with the Mirrorman suit and search for it!” Aiba insists. “There must be something! If we wear the Mirrorman suit, he won’t see us. Ohno’s missing and everyone is so sad. We have to try!”
Sho shakes his head. “And get arrested for breaking and entering? We can’t become invisible with this thing. Aiba, even if there was something, where would it be? We don’t know where to look. I mean, hell, if I were Johnny, I… would…”
Of course. Why didn’t he think of that before, when Nagase told him the search came up clean? The accusations were there, the evidence wasn’t. There was no cover-up, as if Johnny knew for sure that no one would ever find it.
“If I were Johnny,” he repeats, grinning at Aiba as optimism finally returns, “I would be a walker of two worlds. If I were him, I would have the perfect places to hide anything I didn’t want to be seen.”
Aiba’s eyes widen. “The Border!”
“The Border,” Sho confirms. “But also here, in the real world. Think about it: we can’t go into the Border, and dreamcatchers can’t come into our world. Not really, at least. So let’s say there were certain things you wanted to hide from one or the other. What would you do?”
Aiba returns the smile. How long has it been since Aiba smiled like that? “I’d hide the stuff from us in the Border, and the stuff from the dreamcatchers in the real world.”
“Exactly. Nagase-kun told me that nothing seemed related. But if Johnny were smart, he’d hide anything incriminating somewhere in the dream world. Let’s pay Johnny a visit - without the mirrors - and find anything and everything we can. It might mean nothing to us, but maybe it will mean something to Jun.”
Aiba responds by pumping his fists in the air. The arms of his costume fall and clatter to the ground, shattering into giant shards. Aiba grins sheepishly. “Oops.”
*
Aiba pushes the black-rimmed frames back up, wriggling his nose as if doing so would keep the glasses from sliding down again. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, and then checks to make sure his shoelaces are securely tied. He undoes the bottom button of the shirt Sho had lent him and buttons it again. He runs his tongue across the fronts of his teeth to make sure that lunch wasn’t still lodged somewhere in between. He taps his fingers against his belt.
“Stop fidgeting!” Sho scolds. “You look unnatural!”
“I’m nervous,” Aiba admits, but he tries to calm his movements. Johnny’s mansion is much larger than Aiba expected, and knowing that they were about to knock on the door of a man who could very well be a Bad Guy didn’t help with Aiba’s confidence. Nino’s the one who’s good at stuff like this, not Aiba. Aiba’s never been a great liar. He wishes he could have been Mirrorman so he could face Johnny without actually facing him.
But he isn’t going to back down. Aiba twirls the ring on his thumb around, closing his eyes. Jun had given it to him as an experiment to see if it would disappear or go with Aiba into the real world. The test succeeded, and Aiba awoke with Jun’s ring sitting on the joint of his thumb. Aiba refused to give it back after that. Something of Jun’s entered into the real world with Aiba, and that gives Aiba hope. It’s proof that Jun isn’t a part of Aiba’s dreams - he’s a part of Aiba’s life.
Aiba freezes when the front door swings open. When had Sho knocked? “We are here to speak with a Kitagawa-sama. Is he available?”
The man at the door frowns at them, but steps to the side, holding the door open. Well, that’s a start. Aiba expected the door to be slammed in their faces. Like this: Do you have an appointment? No? *Slam.* High society sure didn’t work the way Aiba expected.
And neither is Johnny. He’s not some stern, bulky middle-aged man in a business suit like Aiba thought he’d be. When he meets them in the oversized living area, Aiba finds that he’s older, in his late sixties or early seventies at least, and is a few inches shorter than Sho and Aiba. He looks like someone who would be the weird janitor at a junior high, not some political villain who’s kidnapping children and plotting the demise of people everywhere. No, on second thought, the kidnapping children thing does sort of fit. Aiba can picture him hiding in the bushes and luring in little kids with pieces of candy. Aiba shudders.
“YOU, cold?” the man asks in English, snapping Aiba out of his daze.
“No! Me no old!” Aiba sputters.
Sho rolls his eyes and addresses Johnny in Japanese. “Kitagawa-san? My name is Sakurai Sho, and this is Aiba Masaki, my assistant. I’m a reporter for News Zero, and in just a few weeks, we will be holding a new segment in which we profile prominent figures in our society. I understand that you have not only been an active member of the United States Embassy in Tokyo, but that you’ve also been an important sponsor in the past two Volleyball World Cups, and you’re the president of your own company. Pardon me for dropping by without notifying you beforehand, but would you honor me with an opportunity to conduct a brief interview?”
Aiba marvels at Sho’s charisma, convincing the unwilling man to speak with him in a matter of minutes. Aiba wanders off casually, and once the butler leaves to get some tea and Sho has Johnny preoccupied, Aiba slips away and begins his search.
The office is easy to find, but the information is another story. There’s nothing unusual about the office: there’s a desk, some bookshelves, filing cabinets, and landscape paintings on the walls. He checks the shelves, desk drawers, and paintings (behind the paintings, for a secret safe, of course) before tackling the cabinets.
They’re locked, but it’s nothing Aiba can’t handle. Lock picking is one of those trades you pick up as a private eye, and all that he needs is a paperclip, which he finds right there on Johnny’s desk. That’s a relief - he forgot to bring his lock picking kit again, and the last time that happened… well, let’s just say it didn’t end well. Aiba forces the lock open and the drawers slide out. Good thing Sho didn’t see that. He’d have a heart attack... even though technically, the whole him distracting Johnny while Aiba gets the information thing was Sho’s idea.
Aiba fingers through the folders inside. They look like business documents full of numbers. How would Aiba know if they’re relevant? He tries another drawer. Nothing. Another? Nope. He’s running out of time.
When the fourth drawer flies open, the first word Aiba sees is in capital letters at the top of a page: Commencement. Aiba pulls the folder out and studies it. That’s the ceremony Jun talked about, isn’t it? Aiba pulls out his phone and snaps pictures of the document, pushes it back in, and pulls out another.
Aiba gasps, then slaps a hand over his mouth. Did someone hear him? He waits for a few seconds, and when the only sound is Sho and Johnny laughing over something, he relaxes and focuses on the file. It’s full of hand-written notes, most of which don’t make sense, but Aiba can recognize enough to know that it’s about Ohno’s incident.
-MJ recovered. Keeping OS out of Border. Influence is greater than anticipated - MUST keep him from merging. Time away should restore balance, but might cause further integration.
-OS returned. Taking measures to make sure he isn’t trusted by others. Dreams are coming back normal. Doubt in self should prevent further episodes.
-Ghosts are frequent. OS dreams abnormal. “It” is happening. Rumors of dreamer remembering have spread. It’s too late now. “It” must be stopped A.S.A.P. Must make OS a Ghost.
Aiba trembles. There aren’t any dates listed for them or any of the memos in between them, but the last one is probably at least a month old. Is that why Ohno is missing? Is he hiding from Johnny, or did Johnny… no, he won’t even consider that. Aiba snaps a photo and stuffs the file in its place, pulling out a few more and taking pictures without bothering to see what they are.
He checks his watch and shuts the cabinet drawers. It’s been ten minutes, and Sho estimated that the interview would take fifteen. He takes another look around before sneaking back out of the office and heading over to join Sho and Johnny in the living room.
Aiba nearly crashes into the butler when he turns the corner. “S-sorry!” he stutters. “I was looking for the bathroom. Where is it?”
The butler grins, but the smile is empty. “Right here,” he says, showing him to one of the doors only a few steps away. “I like your ring, by the way.”
Aiba blushes and mumbles a thank you before rushing into the bathroom. Once the door is shut and locked, he releases a full-bodied shiver. He puts the hand with the ring over his chest and clutches it with the other hand, as if he’s trying to push the ring past his skin and into his heart. He just showed them that he had something he shouldn’t. He showed them his contact with the dream world.
*
Aiba’s not surprised when it happens.
He prepared for it. He printed out the photos and left them on Naga-nii’s desk. He sent the pictures to Sho (who, in his excitement, didn’t notice Aiba’s defeat). He wrote Sho and Nino a note explaining everything. He wrote Jun that explains only one thing: that Aiba loves Jun.
Aiba falls asleep with the ring hanging on the chain that’s around his neck. He put it on the necklace so that Jun would be close to his heart.
(He doesn’t put that in his notes. It doesn’t need to be explained, even if it is cheesy.)
Aiba awakens to a desolate world smothering in black. A man with a feral grin and wild eyes is waiting for him.
---
A/N: fyi - I'm still taking drabble prompts here.
This is about a week later than I wanted it to be due to a family emergency (which is okay now). I've also been having frequent and severe headaches recently. Here's to hoping they don't get in the way of writing anymore, because they sure have been impending schoolwork.
But enough about that. How's the chapter? I was still not feeling too great when I wrote this, so it's a bit... sarcastic? (and might have grammatical errors, sorry!) But I think I can guess everyone's reaction. Something like... OMG AIBA NOOOOO! YOU ARE SO EVIL FOR THAT CLIFFIE UPDATE NAO OR FACE MY WRATH. *throws bricks*
But hey! We're finally on the road to discovery! Is turning Ohno into a Ghost really a part of Johnny's plan? What do the other things in the notes mean? Will Aiba be okay? Who is the butler, and who (if not the butler) is in Aiba's dream? Guess if you have ideas! I like hearing them :)
For now, I bid you adieu. Hopefully not for long! I want to tell you what happens, too!