[series] Dreamcatcher: chapter eighteen
Title: Dreamcatcher 18/??
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:
Summary: AU. Dreamcatchers force their way into dreams and steal them away, leaving no trace of it in the dreamer’s memory. Ohno is one who makes people forget. Nino is the one who isn’t supposed to remember.
Notes: DC HAS RETURNED. The first chapter in a year (yes, I'm well aware of how much I fail). Aaaand... it's a bit of an info-heavy chapter. Yikes. Sorry :/ But I swear an oath under pain of death now that I'll never make you guys wait that long again.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 15.5 | 16 | 17
.chapter eighteen.
Ohno wonders if Nino dreams of him.
How long has it been since Ohno last entered one of Nino’s dreams? How long since they’ve been able to talk and touch? Time causes memories to become fuzzy, unsure, and Ohno is so afraid that one day, he’ll come to check up on Nino and Nino will have forgotten again, just as he should have in the first place - as if there was never any magic behind their encounter and it was nothing more than a delay.
Ohno watches the scene unfold from a safe distance, hugging his arms around his chest. Jun is kneeling beside Aiba with his back turned to Ohno, unaware of the other dreamcatcher’s presence, but Ohno can tell without seeing his face that Jun is crying. Sho is pacing frantically back and forth, pulling at his hair and cursing. Nino is clutching the letter that Aiba left with the most desolate of looks on his face.
Ohno never wanted anyone to get hurt.
Without a doubt, the dreamcatcher who invaded Aiba’s dream is Kamenashi Kazuya, the missing Ghost. Ohno caught a glimpse of him seconds before he entered Aiba’s dream, but by the time he reached Aiba, it was too late. Ohno read the note before Sho, Nino, and Jun arrived.
If you’re reading this, it means I was right. I’m sorry, guys, but I messed up. Johnny’s butler saw the ring Jun gave me and I think he recognized it. If Johnny really is a bad guy, he might do something. But I realized something. If the butler recognized it, it must mean that he’s been in the Border and knows who Jun is. And THAT means that he goes in between the Border and the real world like Johnny. So maybe it’s possible for Ohno to do it, too.
I’m not gonna run away if Johnny tries to stop me, because we’ve been trying for so long and haven’t really gotten anywhere. But Johnny knows something, and maybe that secret is the thing we’re missing. I know you guys wouldn’t want me to, but I have to try.
P.S. Jun-chan, I love you.
“No,” Ohno whispers, a lump catching his words in his throat. He swallows it back down and tries to fight the tears. “Aiba-chan, this wasn’t supposed to be your fight…”
The plan that he’d been going over with Tsuyoshi-san this entire time is their only chance - but Johnny made the first move. The others are so concerned with Aiba that they aren’t seeing that they are in just as much danger. He isn’t supposed to act upon their plan until Commencement, but he can’t wait for a perfect opportunity while Johnny erases everyone he loves.
Ohno was wrong back when he was talking with Tsuyoshi, when he gave up and said that there was nothing that could be done. He knows exactly what he needs to do now.
And he knows exactly what kind of consequences his actions will carry.
“I love you, Nino,” he whispers, but this time he doesn’t pray that somehow Nino will hear. Ohno simply stares at Nino and allows the memories to flash by, countless time reduced to seconds of internal data. Biting his lips in resignation, he leaves the other four behind, hoping that they will still remember him, even if they never see him again.
The mansion is quiet and dark - exactly the kind of conditions Ohno had been hoping for, but now he thinks the stillness is making him even more anxious. Surely someone spotted him sneaking into Johnny’s mansion. Surely he would get caught. Surely-
Ohno takes a deep breath and thinks of Aiba lying helpless in his sleep with the others crowded around him. This has to be done.
The only other time that Ohno has been inside of Johnny’s mansion was back on the day of his own Commencement, when he and Machida were ushered inside after the celebrations. Ohno only vaguely recalls where Johnny’s office is, but Tsuyoshi gave him the directions he needed. Tsuyoshi knows what Aiba figured out: that Johnny would separate any incriminating evidence by keeping anything a dreamcatcher would find suspicious in the real world and anything a human would find suspicious in the Border. They came up with a plan together to sneak inside of the mansion during the next Commencement, when any occupants of the mansion, including Johnny and any guards, would be outside. Ohno isn’t sure what they can do with any evidence Johnny might be hiding, but if it’s worth hiding, then there must be something they can do with it to use it against him.
There. Ohno licks his lips and tiptoes up to the familiar wooden door, pressing an ear against it. No sounds. No light shining through the cracks. Cautiously, he wraps his fingers around the doorknob and slowly twists it. Unlocked.
He opens the door, betting everything on what he’ll find inside.
And it’s a losing bet. Hands snatch him from the side and force him forward, the door shutting and locking behind him. The light flickers on, and Ohno is met by an old man with narrowed eyes and an unreadable frown.
Johnny.
“I’m surprised it took you so long,” he muses, waving a hand in the air lazily. The man behind Ohno, the one who forced him inside, takes the cue and grabs Ohno by the shoulders, pushing him forward and forcing him to sit in the chair in front of Johnny’s desk. Ohno cautiously glances at the other man and barely manages to keep himself from showing any signs of shock. It’s Akanishi Jin. How long has he been working with Johnny? No, that’s a stupid question; all dreamcatchers work with Johnny. But Akanishi is working with what seemed to be at least some knowledge of what’s truly going on. What about the others in the KAT-TUN unit? Could they be Johnny’s henchmen, too?
Johnny looks up at Ohno and smiles, clasping his hands together and leaning forward against his desk. “Black or white?”
“Huh?” Ohno notices the chess board in front of him, pieces aligned neatly in their places. “Um… I don’t know how to play.”
“Oh? That’s a shame.” Johnny picks up a white pawn and slides it to a different space, then does the same with a black piece, then white again. He’s… playing with himself? “But I suppose you’d rather get right down to business, of course. Personally, I enjoy games like this. Lightens the atmosphere, don’t you think?”
Ohno takes a shaky breath and manages to keep his voice stable as he speaks. “No. This isn’t a game.”
Johnny shrugs the comment off lightly. “No, it’s not. It’s quite serious, in fact. More than you realize. Much is at stake here.”
Ohno stays silent. Johnny pauses, contemplating his next move before he picks up his next piece. “You know, you could compare the different worlds to chess. On one side, you have the dream world. On the other side, reality. The Border is a special place, a grey area amidst black and white. We’re the lines on the board that divide black and white. And as the grey area, we are unique in that we are a perfect balance of the two and contain characteristics of both. Fascinating, isn’t it?”
Johnny knocks a black knight down with a white bishop. Ohno lets him continue. “You see, when a dreamcatcher moves from one world to another, they have to maintain that balance. They can’t take on more white or more black. In the real world, that balance is kept because they are unseen, unheard, and not remembered; in the dream world, they are completely aware and in control, to the extent that they can manipulate the situation and can feel any physical abnormality. You, what do you think happens when they lose that balance?”
Ohno licks his lips, shifting uncomfortably as Johnny stares at him, waiting for an answer. “They become ghosts.”
“That’s right,” Johnny says with a smile, switching his attention back to his game against himself. “That fact is drilled into the mind of every person within the Border. All of the training that one must go through before becoming a catcher is all for the sake of learning how to maintain the balance. You saw what could happen when this balance is thrown of first hand, didn’t you? Your friend Jun allowed too much black to mix in with his grey - too much reality into his dream state - and he nearly lost his mind. Of course, you managed to swoop in and restore that balance, but just look at what happened to that little girl.”
Ohno clenches his fists and nearly yells at the old man, but Johnny speaks again before he has the chance. “So you see, the balance is very important. Vital. So let’s imagine for a moment that a certain boy comes and becomes a dreamcatcher. Now, this boy is not special. He has no unique gifts, no super powers. But he does have a natural, raw talent for moving from world to world. Others must make a conscious effort to keep the balance, but this boy does it without even thinking. It is actually the exact same power that I have. I can completely move from world to world because I can manipulate the balance in a certain way. This boy’s power, then, has the potential to rival mine.”
“But I don’t do anything like that,” Ohno blurts out, biting his lips and regretting saying anything.
“Not consciously, like I said. Would an analogy be easier to understand?” Johnny reaches below his desk and pulls out a scale, setting it in the center of the chessboard, knocking over some of the pieces in the process. He picks them up and places a handful on both ends, with the black pieces on one side and the white on the other, adding and removing until the weight is evenly distributed.
“Now, this is how the real world and the dream world are naturally separated. The dream world” - he motions toward the white pieces - “is separated from the real world” - he points to the black - “and both are equally balanced. The Border is a mixture of both, but keeps itself equally weighted and in the center of both, as to not disturb this balance.
Johnny picks up a black piece and places it on the white side of the scale. “So what happens when a dreamcatcher enters a dream? They automatically disrupt the balance. The Border, our entire existence, is a mixture of worlds, and because of that, we force reality and dreams to mix. But look now. The scale is uneven. So what do dreamcatchers do?”
Ohno squirms. Johnny’s interactive lesson is giving him a headache, and he’s still trying to prepare for whatever punishment Johnny has waiting for him. “They restore the balance.”
“Precisely.” Johnny picks a white piece up off the board and places it on the black side. The scale evens out. The chess pieces are quite heavy, Ohno notes to himself. They look like they’re made of marble, or some other type of stone.
“Why are you telling me this?” Ohno asks, voice barely a whisper.
Johnny grins; it must have been the question he was waiting for. “Two reasons. First of all because, as I said, your ability is like mine. Dreamcatchers maintain the balance much like this scale shows - when it’s off on one side, they remove the excess weight. That’s just a metaphor, of course, but you get the idea. That’s how those stones come about: those are the pieces of dream that are taken away in order to keep the balance. But you and I are different. And the answer to just about everything is in this simple difference. Have you figured it out yet?”
Figured what out? The way things work, the so-called balance… all of it is too much for Ohno to process. Could there be some key, some answer to it all? Have there been clues pointing to it all along? Why Nino is remembering, why there have been so many catchers becoming ghosts, why-
What is it that makes you different from other dreamcatchers?
Isn’t that what Tsuyoshi asked him? Ohno squeezes his eyes shut. That would make Johnny right: everything has been because of Ohno. That’s what Tsuyoshi was trying to tell him.
Dreamcatchers catch dreams, but Ohno’s have been different and the unique, clear stones are evidence of that. Dreamcatchers don’t live in the real world and can’t interact with it, but Ohno was able to move that pen back when he wrote Nino the note. Dreamcatchers maintain the balance… but hasn’t Ohno been doing that? When he saved Jun, he manipulated the dream to do so. When Nino first remembered, he switched the environment around and had to make sure it was stable. Keeping the balance within dreams is perhaps the only thing that Ohno has been doing right, but Johnny seemed to be hinting that this is the difference.
People cherish memories because they cherish each other. You began to cherish Nino, but then, you had all of these memories. Nino didn’t. You wanted Nino to cherish you as much as you cherish him, but without his memories of you, he never could.
He wanted Nino to remember. He wanted Nino to remember. He wanted Sho and Aiba to remember. He wanted Jun to be remembered. And perhaps in the past, when he bid his mother farewell, he hoped with all of his heart that she wouldn’t forget him. Everything that’s been happening… it couldn’t be simply because Ohno willed it to happen, could it?
Ohno hugs himself, nails digging into the skin on his arms. But Johnny said it’s not some kind of super power, right? So Ohno must have done something to actually make it happen.
You’re asking the wrong questions and making the wrong assumptions. Don’t ask why Nino remembers - ask why you are no longer making him forget.
Calm down, Ohno tells himself. Retrace the steps. The answer is there somewhere. Back to the beginning, when Nino first…
Wait. But Nino wasn’t the first dreamer to remember. Ohno’s mother was. Has Ohno been causing her to remember, too? But he never entered her dreams. Until Tsuyoshi brought him, he hasn’t interacted with her since he first went to the Border. Dreamers forgot their dreams because dreamcatchers stole them, packing them into tiny gemstones and storing them in the Border. It’s not unreasonable to assume that Johnny forced the families and loves ones of the people he took to the Border to forget using a similar process. But with Nino, the stones were almost completely clear. Just now, Johnny said that the stones were the excess of the dream, taken to keep it balanced. The stone is there, but if it’s clear… does that mean nothing is taken away?
Ohno’s eyes fly open in alarm, a new train of thought crashing into his head. The stones from the remembered dreams have been clear, but they were there. The fact that he held them in his hands after leaving the dream proved without a doubt that Ohno caught the dream. The dream became his. The color of dream stones shows that certain parts of the dream were weeded out and contained in order to maintain balance. Then wouldn’t a clear stone signify that the balance hadn’t been maintained? That Ohno hadn’t done anything to keep the world from falling apart?
“Do you see?” Johnny asks, still smiling. He lifts the black queen up and holds it up to Ohno.
The black queen. Black. The dark substance that Ohno found within the dream that Jun was trapped in. The matter that infested Nino’s dreams several times; twice it nearly devoured them both, but Ohno suppressed it the first time and Nino fought it off the second time.
“Dreamers create their own dreams. Dreamcatchers don’t dream. We can only manipulate them. That place was created out of your fears.”
“But there isn’t anything I’m particularly afraid of…”
But Ohno had been afraid. He had been terrified of all that could go wrong, that Nino would forget again. And Jun must have been scared and overwhelmed when the little girl’s dream turned out to be a nightmare. And Ohno was lost in all sorts of emotions when he nearly became a Ghost himself. The darkness came because of the catcher, not the dreamer. But catchers aren’t supposed to feel emotions as strongly as humans.
The information overloads and Ohno wonders if his head will explode from all of it, but a single sliver of truth weaves into his thoughts and connects all of the others.
What is it that makes you different from other dreamcatchers?
“Dreamcatchers don’t dream,” Ohno whispers, voice unnaturally coarse.
Johnny laughs, loud and rambunctiously, as if it’s the most amusing thing he’s ever heard. “Hey, you! You’re skipping ahead of me! I was getting at something else, a connecting fact, but yes, you’re absolutely right. Dreamcatchers force the dream to become their own - like stealing one of these pieces and painting it their own color. They do not create their own unique dreams, dreams that portray their own subconscious desires, ambitions, ideas, emotions…”
Johnny leans forward and stares at Ohno again, this time with wide, wild eyes. “But you, Ohno-kun, have broken the most important rule there is. You’ve been dreaming.”
---
A/N: To those of you I've kept waiting: I beg your forgiveness OTL
To those of you who supported me as my life became a special kind of hell: I can't thank you enough.
This story WILL be finished by the end of this semester. REALLY.
I will post as often as possible - probably every other week?
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:
Summary: AU. Dreamcatchers force their way into dreams and steal them away, leaving no trace of it in the dreamer’s memory. Ohno is one who makes people forget. Nino is the one who isn’t supposed to remember.
Notes: DC HAS RETURNED. The first chapter in a year (yes, I'm well aware of how much I fail). Aaaand... it's a bit of an info-heavy chapter. Yikes. Sorry :/ But I swear an oath under pain of death now that I'll never make you guys wait that long again.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 15.5 | 16 | 17
.chapter eighteen.
Ohno wonders if Nino dreams of him.
How long has it been since Ohno last entered one of Nino’s dreams? How long since they’ve been able to talk and touch? Time causes memories to become fuzzy, unsure, and Ohno is so afraid that one day, he’ll come to check up on Nino and Nino will have forgotten again, just as he should have in the first place - as if there was never any magic behind their encounter and it was nothing more than a delay.
Ohno watches the scene unfold from a safe distance, hugging his arms around his chest. Jun is kneeling beside Aiba with his back turned to Ohno, unaware of the other dreamcatcher’s presence, but Ohno can tell without seeing his face that Jun is crying. Sho is pacing frantically back and forth, pulling at his hair and cursing. Nino is clutching the letter that Aiba left with the most desolate of looks on his face.
Ohno never wanted anyone to get hurt.
Without a doubt, the dreamcatcher who invaded Aiba’s dream is Kamenashi Kazuya, the missing Ghost. Ohno caught a glimpse of him seconds before he entered Aiba’s dream, but by the time he reached Aiba, it was too late. Ohno read the note before Sho, Nino, and Jun arrived.
If you’re reading this, it means I was right. I’m sorry, guys, but I messed up. Johnny’s butler saw the ring Jun gave me and I think he recognized it. If Johnny really is a bad guy, he might do something. But I realized something. If the butler recognized it, it must mean that he’s been in the Border and knows who Jun is. And THAT means that he goes in between the Border and the real world like Johnny. So maybe it’s possible for Ohno to do it, too.
I’m not gonna run away if Johnny tries to stop me, because we’ve been trying for so long and haven’t really gotten anywhere. But Johnny knows something, and maybe that secret is the thing we’re missing. I know you guys wouldn’t want me to, but I have to try.
P.S. Jun-chan, I love you.
“No,” Ohno whispers, a lump catching his words in his throat. He swallows it back down and tries to fight the tears. “Aiba-chan, this wasn’t supposed to be your fight…”
The plan that he’d been going over with Tsuyoshi-san this entire time is their only chance - but Johnny made the first move. The others are so concerned with Aiba that they aren’t seeing that they are in just as much danger. He isn’t supposed to act upon their plan until Commencement, but he can’t wait for a perfect opportunity while Johnny erases everyone he loves.
Ohno was wrong back when he was talking with Tsuyoshi, when he gave up and said that there was nothing that could be done. He knows exactly what he needs to do now.
And he knows exactly what kind of consequences his actions will carry.
“I love you, Nino,” he whispers, but this time he doesn’t pray that somehow Nino will hear. Ohno simply stares at Nino and allows the memories to flash by, countless time reduced to seconds of internal data. Biting his lips in resignation, he leaves the other four behind, hoping that they will still remember him, even if they never see him again.
The mansion is quiet and dark - exactly the kind of conditions Ohno had been hoping for, but now he thinks the stillness is making him even more anxious. Surely someone spotted him sneaking into Johnny’s mansion. Surely he would get caught. Surely-
Ohno takes a deep breath and thinks of Aiba lying helpless in his sleep with the others crowded around him. This has to be done.
The only other time that Ohno has been inside of Johnny’s mansion was back on the day of his own Commencement, when he and Machida were ushered inside after the celebrations. Ohno only vaguely recalls where Johnny’s office is, but Tsuyoshi gave him the directions he needed. Tsuyoshi knows what Aiba figured out: that Johnny would separate any incriminating evidence by keeping anything a dreamcatcher would find suspicious in the real world and anything a human would find suspicious in the Border. They came up with a plan together to sneak inside of the mansion during the next Commencement, when any occupants of the mansion, including Johnny and any guards, would be outside. Ohno isn’t sure what they can do with any evidence Johnny might be hiding, but if it’s worth hiding, then there must be something they can do with it to use it against him.
There. Ohno licks his lips and tiptoes up to the familiar wooden door, pressing an ear against it. No sounds. No light shining through the cracks. Cautiously, he wraps his fingers around the doorknob and slowly twists it. Unlocked.
He opens the door, betting everything on what he’ll find inside.
And it’s a losing bet. Hands snatch him from the side and force him forward, the door shutting and locking behind him. The light flickers on, and Ohno is met by an old man with narrowed eyes and an unreadable frown.
Johnny.
“I’m surprised it took you so long,” he muses, waving a hand in the air lazily. The man behind Ohno, the one who forced him inside, takes the cue and grabs Ohno by the shoulders, pushing him forward and forcing him to sit in the chair in front of Johnny’s desk. Ohno cautiously glances at the other man and barely manages to keep himself from showing any signs of shock. It’s Akanishi Jin. How long has he been working with Johnny? No, that’s a stupid question; all dreamcatchers work with Johnny. But Akanishi is working with what seemed to be at least some knowledge of what’s truly going on. What about the others in the KAT-TUN unit? Could they be Johnny’s henchmen, too?
Johnny looks up at Ohno and smiles, clasping his hands together and leaning forward against his desk. “Black or white?”
“Huh?” Ohno notices the chess board in front of him, pieces aligned neatly in their places. “Um… I don’t know how to play.”
“Oh? That’s a shame.” Johnny picks up a white pawn and slides it to a different space, then does the same with a black piece, then white again. He’s… playing with himself? “But I suppose you’d rather get right down to business, of course. Personally, I enjoy games like this. Lightens the atmosphere, don’t you think?”
Ohno takes a shaky breath and manages to keep his voice stable as he speaks. “No. This isn’t a game.”
Johnny shrugs the comment off lightly. “No, it’s not. It’s quite serious, in fact. More than you realize. Much is at stake here.”
Ohno stays silent. Johnny pauses, contemplating his next move before he picks up his next piece. “You know, you could compare the different worlds to chess. On one side, you have the dream world. On the other side, reality. The Border is a special place, a grey area amidst black and white. We’re the lines on the board that divide black and white. And as the grey area, we are unique in that we are a perfect balance of the two and contain characteristics of both. Fascinating, isn’t it?”
Johnny knocks a black knight down with a white bishop. Ohno lets him continue. “You see, when a dreamcatcher moves from one world to another, they have to maintain that balance. They can’t take on more white or more black. In the real world, that balance is kept because they are unseen, unheard, and not remembered; in the dream world, they are completely aware and in control, to the extent that they can manipulate the situation and can feel any physical abnormality. You, what do you think happens when they lose that balance?”
Ohno licks his lips, shifting uncomfortably as Johnny stares at him, waiting for an answer. “They become ghosts.”
“That’s right,” Johnny says with a smile, switching his attention back to his game against himself. “That fact is drilled into the mind of every person within the Border. All of the training that one must go through before becoming a catcher is all for the sake of learning how to maintain the balance. You saw what could happen when this balance is thrown of first hand, didn’t you? Your friend Jun allowed too much black to mix in with his grey - too much reality into his dream state - and he nearly lost his mind. Of course, you managed to swoop in and restore that balance, but just look at what happened to that little girl.”
Ohno clenches his fists and nearly yells at the old man, but Johnny speaks again before he has the chance. “So you see, the balance is very important. Vital. So let’s imagine for a moment that a certain boy comes and becomes a dreamcatcher. Now, this boy is not special. He has no unique gifts, no super powers. But he does have a natural, raw talent for moving from world to world. Others must make a conscious effort to keep the balance, but this boy does it without even thinking. It is actually the exact same power that I have. I can completely move from world to world because I can manipulate the balance in a certain way. This boy’s power, then, has the potential to rival mine.”
“But I don’t do anything like that,” Ohno blurts out, biting his lips and regretting saying anything.
“Not consciously, like I said. Would an analogy be easier to understand?” Johnny reaches below his desk and pulls out a scale, setting it in the center of the chessboard, knocking over some of the pieces in the process. He picks them up and places a handful on both ends, with the black pieces on one side and the white on the other, adding and removing until the weight is evenly distributed.
“Now, this is how the real world and the dream world are naturally separated. The dream world” - he motions toward the white pieces - “is separated from the real world” - he points to the black - “and both are equally balanced. The Border is a mixture of both, but keeps itself equally weighted and in the center of both, as to not disturb this balance.
Johnny picks up a black piece and places it on the white side of the scale. “So what happens when a dreamcatcher enters a dream? They automatically disrupt the balance. The Border, our entire existence, is a mixture of worlds, and because of that, we force reality and dreams to mix. But look now. The scale is uneven. So what do dreamcatchers do?”
Ohno squirms. Johnny’s interactive lesson is giving him a headache, and he’s still trying to prepare for whatever punishment Johnny has waiting for him. “They restore the balance.”
“Precisely.” Johnny picks a white piece up off the board and places it on the black side. The scale evens out. The chess pieces are quite heavy, Ohno notes to himself. They look like they’re made of marble, or some other type of stone.
“Why are you telling me this?” Ohno asks, voice barely a whisper.
Johnny grins; it must have been the question he was waiting for. “Two reasons. First of all because, as I said, your ability is like mine. Dreamcatchers maintain the balance much like this scale shows - when it’s off on one side, they remove the excess weight. That’s just a metaphor, of course, but you get the idea. That’s how those stones come about: those are the pieces of dream that are taken away in order to keep the balance. But you and I are different. And the answer to just about everything is in this simple difference. Have you figured it out yet?”
Figured what out? The way things work, the so-called balance… all of it is too much for Ohno to process. Could there be some key, some answer to it all? Have there been clues pointing to it all along? Why Nino is remembering, why there have been so many catchers becoming ghosts, why-
What is it that makes you different from other dreamcatchers?
Isn’t that what Tsuyoshi asked him? Ohno squeezes his eyes shut. That would make Johnny right: everything has been because of Ohno. That’s what Tsuyoshi was trying to tell him.
Dreamcatchers catch dreams, but Ohno’s have been different and the unique, clear stones are evidence of that. Dreamcatchers don’t live in the real world and can’t interact with it, but Ohno was able to move that pen back when he wrote Nino the note. Dreamcatchers maintain the balance… but hasn’t Ohno been doing that? When he saved Jun, he manipulated the dream to do so. When Nino first remembered, he switched the environment around and had to make sure it was stable. Keeping the balance within dreams is perhaps the only thing that Ohno has been doing right, but Johnny seemed to be hinting that this is the difference.
People cherish memories because they cherish each other. You began to cherish Nino, but then, you had all of these memories. Nino didn’t. You wanted Nino to cherish you as much as you cherish him, but without his memories of you, he never could.
He wanted Nino to remember. He wanted Nino to remember. He wanted Sho and Aiba to remember. He wanted Jun to be remembered. And perhaps in the past, when he bid his mother farewell, he hoped with all of his heart that she wouldn’t forget him. Everything that’s been happening… it couldn’t be simply because Ohno willed it to happen, could it?
Ohno hugs himself, nails digging into the skin on his arms. But Johnny said it’s not some kind of super power, right? So Ohno must have done something to actually make it happen.
You’re asking the wrong questions and making the wrong assumptions. Don’t ask why Nino remembers - ask why you are no longer making him forget.
Calm down, Ohno tells himself. Retrace the steps. The answer is there somewhere. Back to the beginning, when Nino first…
Wait. But Nino wasn’t the first dreamer to remember. Ohno’s mother was. Has Ohno been causing her to remember, too? But he never entered her dreams. Until Tsuyoshi brought him, he hasn’t interacted with her since he first went to the Border. Dreamers forgot their dreams because dreamcatchers stole them, packing them into tiny gemstones and storing them in the Border. It’s not unreasonable to assume that Johnny forced the families and loves ones of the people he took to the Border to forget using a similar process. But with Nino, the stones were almost completely clear. Just now, Johnny said that the stones were the excess of the dream, taken to keep it balanced. The stone is there, but if it’s clear… does that mean nothing is taken away?
Ohno’s eyes fly open in alarm, a new train of thought crashing into his head. The stones from the remembered dreams have been clear, but they were there. The fact that he held them in his hands after leaving the dream proved without a doubt that Ohno caught the dream. The dream became his. The color of dream stones shows that certain parts of the dream were weeded out and contained in order to maintain balance. Then wouldn’t a clear stone signify that the balance hadn’t been maintained? That Ohno hadn’t done anything to keep the world from falling apart?
“Do you see?” Johnny asks, still smiling. He lifts the black queen up and holds it up to Ohno.
The black queen. Black. The dark substance that Ohno found within the dream that Jun was trapped in. The matter that infested Nino’s dreams several times; twice it nearly devoured them both, but Ohno suppressed it the first time and Nino fought it off the second time.
“Dreamers create their own dreams. Dreamcatchers don’t dream. We can only manipulate them. That place was created out of your fears.”
“But there isn’t anything I’m particularly afraid of…”
But Ohno had been afraid. He had been terrified of all that could go wrong, that Nino would forget again. And Jun must have been scared and overwhelmed when the little girl’s dream turned out to be a nightmare. And Ohno was lost in all sorts of emotions when he nearly became a Ghost himself. The darkness came because of the catcher, not the dreamer. But catchers aren’t supposed to feel emotions as strongly as humans.
The information overloads and Ohno wonders if his head will explode from all of it, but a single sliver of truth weaves into his thoughts and connects all of the others.
What is it that makes you different from other dreamcatchers?
“Dreamcatchers don’t dream,” Ohno whispers, voice unnaturally coarse.
Johnny laughs, loud and rambunctiously, as if it’s the most amusing thing he’s ever heard. “Hey, you! You’re skipping ahead of me! I was getting at something else, a connecting fact, but yes, you’re absolutely right. Dreamcatchers force the dream to become their own - like stealing one of these pieces and painting it their own color. They do not create their own unique dreams, dreams that portray their own subconscious desires, ambitions, ideas, emotions…”
Johnny leans forward and stares at Ohno again, this time with wide, wild eyes. “But you, Ohno-kun, have broken the most important rule there is. You’ve been dreaming.”
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A/N: To those of you I've kept waiting: I beg your forgiveness OTL
To those of you who supported me as my life became a special kind of hell: I can't thank you enough.
This story WILL be finished by the end of this semester. REALLY.
I will post as often as possible - probably every other week?