I was sitting up in bed. Ruka Akizuki—Alka—was sitting next to the bed, gleefully showing me photos on her tablet.
“Isn’t he cute?”
“Yes, he is.”
“Oh, and this one—”
Alka was normally pretty quiet, almost indifferent. But the moment she started talking about her little brother, her face came to life.
I enjoyed going through these photos myself, and that helped bring us together.
Every now and then, she’d swing by my room, and we’d talk about dates we wanted to go on, or our ideal boyfriends.
I’d always wanted to be part of these girl talks, so a part of me was like “I have to enjoy them!” and we’d talk so much that dinner crept up on us. My throat would hurt from all the chatting, and I’d laugh at myself for it the next day.
Chamomile tea always helped me relax, and we’d sip on that while talking about the kind of boys we liked, and it was fun. The only problem—Alka was so hung up on her brother that I had to watch what I said, or I’d unleash the kraken.
Alka’s research had worn her out, and she’d come over to let off some steam.
“So cute!” I whispered, looking down at the picture of her brother in my hands. “Good looks, a good personality— What more could you want?”
“He’s even nicer than you think! If I left toys lying around, he’d be all, ‘Don’t make a mess!’ and put them away for me.”
“So sweet! I wish he was my boyfriend.”
Instantly, Alka’s gaze turned icy.
“Never. Roy’s mine! And it would never work out, Asako, you’re too old for him.”
“You’re even older than I am, Alka! And you’re siblings!”
Her face fell. “Our ages grow farther and farther apart. He’ll be eight years old forever.”
I felt instantly guilty. I shouldn’t have said that.
“S-sorry.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it.”
Alka did her best to smile.
“Once we find a cure and you can lead a normal life, I’m sure the boys will come after you, Asako.”
“I’m not into pick-up artists…”
“True…but I bet Director Ishikura—your dad will brush the flies away.”
“With his serpent stare?”
“Exactly! Good thing you take after your mother, Asako.”
My father could leave a very stern impression. I laughed awkwardly.
“I don’t want anyone hitting on me, but…I do dream about a prince on a white horse coming to rescue me.”
I paused for a moment, looking out the window. A little bird pecked at a budding leaf, then fluttered off toward the blue sky above.
“Someone who’ll cure everything that’s wrong with me and take me in his arms.”
“I’m sure that’ll happen. As long as you keep fighting. But…”
“But?”
“You can’t have Roy.”
She was so dedicated to him, I had to laugh.
“I can’t make any promises,” I said. “He’s a leading candidate for my prince!”
“Ha, then I’d better rustle up some other princes and pair you up with them. Oof, but they’re gonna have to pass Director Ishikura’s inspections first. What a headache! He’s likely to grab a horse-killer and chop up all suitors and their horses, prince or not.”
Our laugher echoed through the hospital room—
✦ ✦ ✦
“Eeep!”
Eve vaulted out of bed with a strangled cry.
She always slept in her costume to avoid anyone catching a glimpse of her sleeping face, but she’d been sweating so hard that the inside had become a swamp.
It felt gross, so she reached out of the costume’s mouth, grabbed a towel, and wiped herself off.
She was badly out of breath, and even from outside the costume, you could tell that she was clearly upset. Unable to contain her frustration, she grabbed the costume head and threw it.
Her bangs were plastered to her forehead, her skin the kind of pale that precedes a fainting spell.
Eve staggered to her feet and moved to the sink so she could wash her face. Leaving the water running, she stared at herself—at Asako, in disbelief.
“What was that dream?”
She dreamed often. Things that bothered her, things that happened just before she slept, old memories, subliminal desires—the usual. And this dream was clearly an old memory.
But it wasn’t hers. It felt more like she’d been peering into someone else’s mind—and in a highly vivid fashion, too. That was deeply unsettling, and it had shaken her so much that it had woken her from her slumber. It was far too early to be up and about; the sky was still dark.
“Was that…Asako’s memory? I’ve been here over a century! Nothing like that has ever happened!”
Asako had been in shock, which kept her sealed away for over a hundred years. And that had allowed Eve/President Eva to largely do whatever she wanted.
To prevent Asako from inadvertently waking up, she’d regularly steadied her nerves with the girl’s favorite chamomile tea—and occasionally fought her off by slamming her own head into things. But if the seal was rapidly unraveling on her, that was genuinely terrifying.
“Is this a sign she’s about to awaken? Why? That dream… Did something yesterday stimulate her unconscious desires?”
Eve had no clue what would have produced this flashback, so she concluded it was just a coincidence. There were plenty of obvious causes, but Eve was prone to immediately forgetting anything that didn’t interest her.
“Um, guess I’ll have to wait and see. It could just be a hundred years or so was always a hard time limit on this possession? I do hope you’ll hang in there and sleep a little longer. Hokay!”
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Eve banged her head on the desk corner a few times as she laughed and scolded herself. Her forehead was dripping blood.
“No clue what riled you up, but you’ve gotta stay asleep! That’s the price for killing me!”
She wiped the blood off with a towel, then cleaned it out of the carpet like a murderer disguising a crime scene.
“All done! The bleeding has stopped, so better buckle down and work!”
She put the head on her rabbit costume like a businessman doing up his tie and struck a pose. Then she did a few basic calisthenics and left the room.
“Hang in there, Eve! You’ve gotta face the music! These poor kids think they can hoist you by your own petard! Show them who’s boss!”
Eve slapped her belly like a sumo wrestler about to strut their stuff and marched on out.