Editing Phenomeno:Case 03 (section)

===4===

That night, I couldn’t sleep as Yoishi’s naked body kept flickering in my mind. Before I knew it, I was once again drifting in that blue dream world after falling asleep. Looking around me, now I could confidently say this place had become a second home for me: The old Japanese style mansion. As always, I began to wander lazily around the mansion. Yoishi was by my side on this day as well. 

“Before we wake up, let’s find the entrance of that room.” Her dark eyes shined, with her usual black and white school uniform, she spoke with enthusiasm. Promptly taking the lead and walking forward, she opened the fusuma door completely and wandered around. 

“Hold on.”

Still confused between reality and dream, I spoke out to her:

“That was….I wasn’t trying to peep in the bath. I was trying to stop the peeping toms from going there.”

“I don’t care.” Said Yoishi without looking back. “Why does this mansion have a room you can’t get into? Why can’t you go out of this mansion? I want to find that out today.” 

….That’s right. This girl didn’t even have a general reaction of being embarrassed when seen naked. She only cares about paranormal events. Going on a trip without bringing a change of clothes, not taking a bath, vomiting everywhere, not helping out at the festival, digging around at the tori of the three god mountain shrine; that’s the kind of girl she was. I had completely forgotten because of that juvenile peeping scene at the bath. Breathing a sigh, I followed her. 
The dark, chilly, heavily worn floorboards gleamed in the dim light filling the room. Without knowing why, I thought it was early in the morning just before the sun was about to rise. The air felt tense, as if prickling my skin.  It was the first time it was nighttime in this dream. it wasn’t like the filter of a bluish 8 mm film I was used to, it felt as if I were drifting at the bottom of the pale blue sea. The air felt traced with stickiness, I rubbed my body to get rid of that feeling.

Without a care, Yoishi continued exploring the mansion opening the fusuma doors, I was looking into the rooms after her when suddenly, in one of those rooms, I saw the girl of the mansion sleeping there and became flustered. 

“Hey, Yoishi! Everyone is sleeping, leaving the doors open like that is rude.” Yoishi suddenly stopped. And looked back at me and stared at my face intently. 

“Did you just say something?”

“What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t leave the doors open for people who are asleep…”

“Where was someone sleeping?”

“Eh?” I took one step back and stood in front of the room the girl was sleeping in and pointed there.

“Isn’t she sleeping there?” Yoishi silently came to my side and took a look into the room. Then silently shook her head. 

“I don’t see anyone.”

“Eh? But, the girl of the mansion is—”

Yoishi cut me off halfway: “People are living in this mansion?”

“….You never saw them?”

Ignoring my question, Yoishi continued, asking how many people there were in total. 

“Uhhh…. The ones I know of are the head of the household, his daughter, two cousins. Also, the servants are also around here somewhere…”

“What are the characteristics of the head of the house? The daughter? Do the two cousins resemble each other?” Being asked questions in rapid succession, I explained the characteristics of the family as well as I could remember. Yoishi remained silent for a while listening with her hand on her chin, before long she uttered something cryptic. 

“The two cousins may be pointing to something”

“The cousins?” I mean, weren’t they just supporting characters? The daughter had been firmly established in my mind as the main character in this dream. However, Yoishi had come up with something, Is that so? She muttered as she suddenly closed the fusuma in front of her. And she vigorously ran off from that place. 

“H-hey, Yoishi!”

While I was still dumbfounded, Yoishi was running around the mansion, closing all the fusuma and sliding doors that had been left open.

“Hey, What are you doing?” She didn’t answer. Before long she returned again to where I was standing in front of the daughter’s room when she pointed to the door.

“Open the fusuma”

“Eh?”

“This time, open it with your own hands.” What is she saying? I wondered. Yoishi’s facial expression suggested she would keep silent and not move until I did as she said. It couldn’t be helped, as I turned to face the fusuma door. 

Is this what they call a Kayou pattern? The blooming flower was thinly drawn on the fusuma with streamlined brushwork. Finally, I put my hand on the fusuma, but did not manage to grab it. My fingers slipped as they passed through. 

--Ah, that’s right. When I think about it, I hadn’t opened a fusuma door in this dream before. I thought I would try to open it, but each time my fingers didn't work and the sliding doors just moved subtly, so it became troublesome and I passed through as it was. It was a dream after all, I didn’t think it was strange or anything. I was a spirit in this dream after all.

“Isn’t this hard?” I asked Yoishi, who silently opened the fusuma door again, and closed it again.

“It’s simple.”

“…Is that so?” Once again, I tried to put my fingers on the Fusuma. Like before, my fingertips did feel something but, they just ended up passing through and I couldn’t open the door properly. Without knowing why, a chill crawled up from under my feet. Yoishi could easily do something I couldn’t, she also couldn’t see the people in the mansion. 

Did she perceive the dream differently from me? No… Thinking about it rationally, Yoishi was a part of my dream, and it would be correct to assume that the Yoishi in my subconscious was saying something weird again.

“That’s enough.” Yoishi nodded slightly. I shook my head.

“Wait. A little bit mor-“

“It’s fine. You can never open the fusuma”

“….What, did you say?” That shouldn’t be possible. It was just because I was lightly drifting around, that was why I couldn’t grab hold. As I was about to say that, Yoishi announced something strange.

“I'm sure that for you, the fusuma is not a thing you can open.” 

When I heard those words –I heard a creaking sound from somewhere. It echoed from somewhere in the mansion is what I thought, but in fact, it echoed from inside me. A rustling sound that felt like it had echoed from afar, innumerable echoes ringing, and becoming louder, finally converging together. When I realized they had changed into someone’s voice. 

Opening it is forbidden. This room belongs to「xxx」. Absolutely must not be opened. That voice, where was it from? Before I knew it, my knees where trembling furiously. It was incomparable up until now. Even in that strange house, even in that hospital late at night, they had not trembled so much. 

“Is it scary?” I heard the usual line from her. “Do you feel fear now?” Those eyes, endlessly dark, filled with unending darkness. I trembled all over; I felt I was confronting something extremely ominous.

Yoishi is not a living human being. If you meet Yoishi by chance, you will die in seven days. Those who come across Yoishi’s ghost stories meet a terrible end. Those kinds of urban legends on the internet were vividly becoming real and cornering my heart and soul. The whole mansion quickly became distorted, and, that might have been because of my scream, I thought. This was not just my dream world: when my heart and soul became exhausted, this world too, would distort. But – Originally it was just supposed to be a dream. And yet, why did things become so fearful? If I wake up now… the usual everyday routine would be waiting for me, wouldn’t it?
However, I had been gazing at this dream for too long. And, this dream which already had Yoishi included in it had become a continuous story. Suddenly the word "possessed" crossed my mind. And I was reminded of the phrase a woman who had once been with Krishna said, "It's already gotten a bit inside."

I – looked silently at Yoishi’s face. Is she trying to destroy something important of mine? The moment I realized that, a chill ran down my spine. This blue world was just a dream. It was the same dream I had seen repeatedly, but I wasn't scared to see it. Rather, I had enjoyed wandering about. Certainly, I had felt the presence of a hidden room; it might have been an influence of ‘the house that grants wishes’. This kind of exhaustion hadn’t set in until, she appeared. That’s right; it was her words that had brought upon such hopelessness and distortion. Just by having something connected with her, is enough to manifest a door to the underworld. If she opens her mouth, that door is sure to open. You’ll end up seeing something you’re not supposed to see.

But,

“If, you really are scared…” Yoishi spoke with a different air than usual. “It would be better to not continue from here on.”

“…What?”

“If you continue from here on, you might end up seeing something you’re not supposed to see.”

“………….”

“The thing I can say for sure is that you have to open the fusuma door yourself to finish this dream.”

I didn't understand anymore. The tremors of my feet were even shaking the whole mansion. No, this blue dream world itself was shaking and distorting. It would be the correct decision to end this dream. It would be correct to end it without seeing something I wasn’t supposed to see. 

However…

“….Yoishi, I can’t take it anymore.” I spat out. “I didn’t believe you were a cursed person, or that someone would die if they came in contact with you. But I can't do it anymore. I’m scared” I spoke while slapping my shaking knees. “I’m…scared of you.” I knew those kinds of words would usually hurt other people. But I really was a coward after all. I may have liked scary things, but I had no tolerance for them. I realized that I didn't have an inquisitive mind about the strange and unknown like her. My spirit, worn out by various things, was fragile and at its breaking point. It was as if my nerves had peeled out of my skin, on top of that, Yoishi’s words were painful. If I continued to listen to Yoishi, I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something inside me would crumble and disappear without a trace.

“--I’m sorry.” I bowed my head as I apologized. “Please disappear, Yoishi.” Gripping my trembling knees, I beseeched the Yoishi in my dream. It was a dream I was dreaming willfully, yet, I didn’t want to see her shape anymore, I wished that from the bottom of my heart. Whereupon, something in the blue dream world began to shake; I slowly raised my head to see no one by my side. I looked behind and in the surroundings: Yoishi’s figure had completely disappeared. I let out an unsteady breath, and crumpled to the floor. More so than Yoishi disappearing, it was a sigh of relief that I was once again, in control my dreams.

That’s right… This was after all, my dream in the first place. With renewed confidence, I once again faced the fusuma door. 

To end this dream, you must open the fusuma door with your own hands. Whether Yoishi’s suggestion was right or wrong, I had to do it, I thought. There was no reason to not open it. Why would I be scared of something like a fusuma? Why would I be scared of the presence on the other side of the fusuma? If I don’t open this door, I'll keep dreaming this dream for the rest of my life.

“I will end this dream.” I tried to persuade myself as I spoke those words. I placed my shaking fingers on the fusuma’s handle once again. I concentrated my fingertips on the slight texture of the flat surface. Taking a deep breath, I gradually poured my power into it. As if I was breaking an ancient seal, I poured power into my fingers. There was a slight hint of movement, and the fusuma eventually moved. At that moment, I felt an overwhelming light shining at the back, the sound of something breaking violently. However, that quickly passed by and in front of me, the fusuma opened. However,

--However.

“…..What is this?” Before my eyes, there was no trace of daughter’s tidied room from before. Neither the daughter, nor the futon was there. It was like a completely different room. The air pierced my nose; it was a dead room on the verge of collapse that looked like it hadn’t been used for a hundred years.

“…What is this place?” My voice shook; I realized the fear hadn’t gone away.

“That is….?” In the dark interior of the room, something was there.
Something was placed on the alcove at the back of the room. My brain felt completely uneasy about trying to understand what lay there. But I realized, Yoishi had said it: it was something I wasn’t supposed to see. However,

I had already opened the fusuma. 

I will immediately end this dream. I will return to my normal life. That’s right, with all the courage I could muster, I took one step forward. The sound of the tatami mat bending echoed along with that of a creak similar to that of a person crying. I approached the alcove, and grabbed it.

In the dim light, what stood there was --- an old kokeshi doll.

A kokeshi doll, it had been left there for countless years, without being cleaned by anyone. The brush strokes depicting the soft corner of the eyes, I was about to recall something, when the kokeshi spoke:

“Even after I told you not to open it...”

   ◯


“…Nagi-kun”

I heard a voice. “Get a hold of yourself, Nagi-kun”, it made me feel somewhat better; the moment I realized who it was, I finally woke up.

“Are you alright?” In the darkly lit room, the one shaking me was Krishna-san. “You were making a lot of noise like you were having a nightmare. Sorry I entered your room because of that” Saying that, she opened the curtain. The moon’s light seeped in; Krishna-san’s figure in her fancy sleep-wear became apparent.
“Did you have a bad dream?” She said, as she sat down on the bed, slightly putting her hand on my knee, I became flustered and pulled back my knee. 

When I think about it, both Krishna-san and Yoishi were supposed to be asleep in the guest rooms in the first floor. My voice echoed from the room in the second floor – How much did I yell to reach that far?

“Don’t worry.” Krishna-san said with a smile, As if reading my mind. “Yoishi and I were in the same room, I woke up because she was grumbling in her sleep.”

It was my first time seeing Krishna-san without glasses. On top of that, she was too cute in those strawberry pajamas. She was reflected in the moonlight with her smooth bobbed hair slightly disheveled. My heart started beating fast, to hide that I took repeated deep breaths.

“Is there anything troubling you?” Krishna-san asked me. That straight gaze was fixed on the inside of my eyes, as if she could see right through me. I nodded, and began to open up bit by bit about everything that had happened until now. I started talking about seeing the same dream recently, about it being a lucid dream, about the large Japanese style mansion as the setting and it being a continuous story. About the family living there, about there being an unreachable room. Yoishi’s recent appearance in the dream, the dream rapidly becoming creepier due to her. However, while in the middle of my talk, I became sour. I know from experience. People's nightmares are not scary to hear. Rather, the more desperately we try to convey that fear, the more the listener will be disillusioned.

“Well, it’s that sort of thing, but – It’s not scary, is it?” Hearing me say that, Krishna-san crossed her legs and looked at me with a serious face. 

“No-That is, not really a good tendency.” Hearing that unexpectedly serious tone, I unconsciously sat up straight.
“A dream is a chaotic piece of memory randomly constructed from your unconscious mind. And, in that dream, the room you can’t go into is – probably… A thing you unconsciously want to forget, that’s a high probability.”

“I was told something similar by Yoishi”, in my dream of course, I added.

“And yet, why did you open it?”

“…..Eh?”

“People are animals that can forget things they don't want to remember. And that especially goes for humans: who have this rare ability. It's an important factor in keeping a human sane. Digging that up as a joke is just problematic.”

It seemed Krishna-san was implicitly laying the blame at Yoishi.

“I’ll give you one stern warning.” With a strict, straight gaze towards me, Krishna-san spoke.

“Don’t associate with her anymore.”

“No, but it’s a dream—” Krishna-san cut me off quietly:

"Listen, Nagi-kun. I told you before. The spirits try desperately to seek meaning. They seek meaning because their existence is weak." 

"Yes, but what does that have to do with my dream….?" 
"In seeking meaning, many ghosts and Yoishi Mitsurugi are almost the same."

“……”

“Maybe she and you -- no, she and all human beings, are in a different place from the very start. Perhaps she is already in the world beyond while still living. We are standing in this world talking about the world beyond, in comparison: she stands alone in the world beyond while talking about the world beyond. That is exactly why her words are filled with gloom, causing fear and anxiety in the listener.”

That’s right, within the dream, the fear I felt was that I was going to be ‘taken away’ by her. To a place I wouldn’t be able to come back from, I wouldn’t be able to wake up again, I thought I would be dragged to the world on the other side. At that moment, above all else: I feared Yoishi. I was frightened by something that could be glimpsed in her dark eyes.

So that is what is known as the power of the world beyond. 

“She seeks meaning in the paranormal. And her reason for seeking it must also have something to do with the other side. It's not a good thing for a living person to start digging into. There are some things people aren’t supposed to know.” With those words, I remembered that forgotten dark room. There was certainly something over there that made me think I didn't want to stay there for even a minute or a second. I scratched my head, and I asked:

“But –what should I do? How do I stop seeing that dream?”

It’s difficult, replied Krishna as she folded her arms. “If you are conscious of a specific dream, it will inevitably be easier to link with -- The best thing is to turn your consciousness towards something else, like a manga or a novel, until you fall asleep naturally.” With that she looked at me: “But regardless, you too are to blame for seeing the same dream repeatedly.”

“Eh?”

“Didn’t I tell you? You have no tolerance for the occult. In spite of that you’ve ignored my warnings recently. You choose to wander around in the depths of this world by choice. On top of that, doing exactly what a child like Yoishi tells you to do, that’s nothing more than reaping what you sow.”

“T-that’s cruel, please don’t say such coldhearted things.” Without thinking I grabbed Krishna-san’s shoulder, the petite occult site manager jumped in a shock and her cheeks turned flush red. 

“A-anyway, as soon as the festival is over, I’ll take responsibility and take Yoishi back to Tokyo, You spend your summer vacation here in your hometown. Your mind and spirit is exhausted from living in Tokyo alone for so long! Got it? Well, Good night!” saying that rapidly like a machine gun, she got up and darted out of the room. For some reason or the other, it seems she realized that she was in a guy’s room late at night, on top of that in her pajamas.

I took a deep breath.

“But, you know...” I gazed at the half-moon from the window. “I was told not to associate with Yoishi ever again but… She’s here until the festival. Even though it’s unpleasant, I’ll end up meeting her somehow”.

To be honest, when I think about it, it’s not Yoishi who I’m afraid of; rather, it’s the words she spits out. For example: What I had been looking at with peace of mind up until now had turning it into something uncomfortable. Making me feel that there was no safe place in this world, that kind of despair. Her words were filled with these kinds of unlucky things.

On the other hand, to call her unpleasant -- I don’t feel that’s the case. She’s a little difficult to approach, and it’s not like I can just call her eccentric or anything.

“Dammit…I don’t know!” Why do I have to be so sleepless about Yoishi? Getting angry at myself with thoughts like that, I got up and left my room. I moved through the dark corridor, passing my sister’s room along the way, going down the stairs to the first floor. I poured myself a cup of water in the kitchen and drank it in one gulp. After idly spending time there for a while, I was about to return to my room, when I realized it…

The second floor, which was added around the time my sister started going to junior high school, had a Western-style structure; the first floor had my parents’ room, the tatami room and the guest room -- Everything was a chain of Japanese style rooms. I think they had been made in such a way to accommodate a large number of guests; however, all of the partitions were fusuma doors. 

--You can never open the fusuma.

I recalled the words Yoishi had said in my dream. 

“…It can’t be.” Feeling slightly nervous, I proceeded into the corridor, and stood in front of the guest room. Taking one gulp I stretched out my hands, and placed them on the fusuma. I could feel the dry touch on my fingertips. With that, my heart became stronger, and I put all my strength into them. The fusuma opened abruptly. The living room where the party was held the other day spread before my eyes. On the tatami mats, there was a large table, and in the corner, a Buddhist altar. On it, my grandmother and grandfather were smiling peacefully, it was the living room I had been used to since childhood. 

“...... That’s right, didn't it always open like this?” Muttering that, I once again moved in the direction of the stairs, once more standing in front of my parents’ room. Taking a gulp, I put my fingers on the fusuma, quietly opening it. 

“….It opens. It was just a dream after all, how ridiculous.” as I muttered that triumphantly, in that moment, I realized it. 

In that dark room, there was no futon. It was the dead of night, but neither my mother nor father were present. The moonlight shining in from the window was clear and blue. This is, just like the mansion in the dream, dyed in pale blue everywhere. In that room with no one else, the sound of my heartbeat had started reverberating loudly. There’s no way, I muttered.

At that moment, as if being guided by something, my eyes were drawn to the inner part of the room. I noticed a closet was there, and the pattern that was drawn on that fusuma came into view, it was the Kayou pattern…

--You must not open it.
--This room belongs to「xxx」, that’s why you must absolutely not open it.

Remembering the voice I had heard in the dream – I staggered into the room. I recalled the story Yoishi had spoken of in the dream, about a dream you couldn’t wake up from. Things that happen in the dream begin to manifest themselves in reality, is what she said.

“No, it’s the other way around.” I said as if trying to convince myself. “I had unconsciously seen this pattern here, that’s why it appeared in my dream." I said that, standing In front of the design that was exactly the same as the one in the dream.

“That’s right, I’m sure of it. That’s why I should be able to open this one as well.”

Up until now I had opened two fusuma doors. Just like those two, it would be fine to try and open this one as well. But – my hands were shaking. My legs were as well, I couldn’t take one more step. Without knowing it, I was sweating. I couldn’t get close to the fusuma which was just a few meters ahead of me.

--It’ll be fine if I do it tomorrow, I thought. That’s right. I shouldn’t push myself. It’ll be fine if I open it tomorrow when it’s daytime.

But, the moment I tried to escape placing my foot at the entrance, I heard a scraping sound behind me. Something cold ran down my back, my legs became petrified.

--What is that sound?

I want to know. But, I don’t want to look. I’m not supposed to look.

My heart began to throb violently.

But, my neck was, slowly turning back.

I didn’t want to know the true identity of that sound, but as if it was being manipulated, my head turned back.

In the dark interior of the room – The fusuma, was slightly open.

It was just a few centimeters, a gap appeared, from which the jet-black darkness could be seen.

From the other side of the darkness, something was peeking at me.

While listening to my screams from somewhere – my consciousness… disappeared.