It’s the middle of the night when I’m awoken to a grumbling emanating from where Takehiko is. Opening my eyes, it takes a moment to get used to the black room. When the fuzziness fades, I find Takehiko still fast asleep. However, something’s off. His face doesn’t have the same relaxed smile he fell asleep with. It has now been replaced with a pained expression like he’s trying to unsee whatever is happening behind his eyelids. His hand tightly grasps his pillow as he begins to sleep talk. “No...They’re still over there...Ichiro!” His whole body visibly ceases up and the fist he’s made begins to shake next to him. I hear the squeak of Dara’s bed and spot him thrust a pillow over his head as he turns upside down. Could this be what said he experienced last night?

“Stop! There has to be...mmph.” He finally flattens into the bed again, but something on his face catches my attention. The shred of moonlight in the room reveals a tear slowly flowing down over the bridge of his nose and onto his hand. After that, he goes quiet and seemingly returns to a peaceful sleep.

That was one hell of a night terror. I once found my father having one when I had heard him screaming all the way in his room. It was right after Ev died and from the sound of it, it seemed like his brain was making its own assumption as to how the scene went. Seeing someone as exuberant as Takehiko go through something like that was unpleasant to say the least. Even in sleep, it’s impossible to escape from your own brain.

Sunshine replaces the moon's glow and fills the room with radiating warmth. Today, I’m actually the first one to rise, but it doesn’t really come as a surprise after seeing these two last night. I fix my slightly disoriented clothes and pull the sheets over the now fluffed pillow. The clock in the room reads 8:00, meaning we have an hour or so before the breakfast service. I glance at the two boys still sleeping. Dara is back on top of the pillow with his horn nearly poking a hole into it. His mouth is stuck open and his hair makes a mess over everything. Takehiko, on the other hand, has gotten himself into hugging his pillow next to his body instead of it being under his head where it’s supposed to be. I don’t know how he’s even breathing because he’s pressed into the plushness without revealing a fraction of his face at this point. The covers are halfway off the bed and only covering part of his left leg. These two astound me at their sleeping positions and how they even manage to be comfortable. Well, if it suits them I guess.

Thankfully, the room has a working hot shower and since I have no clue when the next time I can properly bathe is, I take advantage of the opportunity. My body shudders under the first wave of shockingly cold water, but as it gradually heats up and I lather my hair, another memory of Everest forms in my mind. When I was little and he’d watch me, he’d take the job of making sure I was clean. One day, I had played in the mud and he was laughing at me even though it must’ve been annoying for him to know he now had to clean the brown mess from my hair. Grass was stuck all over me, yet he didn’t care. Ev just wanted to be happy with me, nothing else. I truly believe that almost nothing could bring my brother down. After he had washed every last speck off of me, he let me go back outside and blow bubbles by his side, completely ignoring the fact that I could get messy all over again. That’s one reason I can’t go along with the idea that Kulym exists. How could He possibly let someone as kind-hearted as my brother meet such a gruesome end at his young age, in front of my immature eyes nonetheless.

After my quick rinse, I get redressed and decide to get the two boys out of dreamland. They’re still exactly how I left them so I open the curtains, letting the morning sun rain down on them. I stride over to Takehiko and remove his beloved pillow, causing the sun to glide over his face. He scrunches his nose and reaches out blindly in hopes of recovering his missing pillow, but alas, it’s safely in my arms, far from reach. Squinting his eyes open, he slowly pushes himself up with his hands. “Miss Nanami?”

I put the now squashed pillow back in its rightful place on the bed. “Time to get up sleepyhead.”

Rubbing his eyes, he responds, “But I’m still...” A yawn escapes his mouth. “...tired.”

“If you want breakfast, I suggest you get your ass out of bed. You better want breakfast considering it’s coming out of that coin you got last night.”

He groans and falls back onto the bed. “But I’m comfy,” he whines.

I swear to Kulym he has the temperament of a toddler. I sigh and grab him by the arm, dragging him so his whole torso is flailing off the bedside. “Come on already, Mr. Magician.” Takehiko groans again so I pull him even further. “Why are you so frickin lazy huh? You’re the one that invited yourself in the first place. I wouldn’t push it if I were you.”

He mumbles into the sheets but manages to at least get on his feet this time. His face is a tired wreck as grey bags hang under his eyes like sandbags.

“Now, you both need to take a shower so I don’t have to smell you for at least part of this trip. It’s either you or him first,” I tell him quite seriously.

Takehiko looks at me grumpily but not a word leaves his mouth. He removes the pillow from his bed and instead of embracing it like I would’ve expected, he meanders over to Dara’s bed and raises it up. In a mere second, the pillow is smacked straight across Dara’s face and I’m left staring dumbfounded at the two. Before I can say anything, Dara instantly wakes up and understandably seems concerned as to what just awoke him so suddenly. When he catches sight of the perpetrator with ‘weapon’ in hand, he immediately steals the pillow away and strikes Takehiko in the stomach. “Is that really how you wake someone up you idiot? What in the hell were you thinking smashing that into my wound?” Can we go one minute without these two trying to kill the other?

Takehiko only continues to stare at him with such a blank expression that one could suspect he was a zombie. “Wake up,” he states almost robotically.

Even Dara seems taken aback by his shift in energy from usual. “Hey, what’s with you this morning? I mean, you’re still being a dick but did that episode last night keep you up or something?”

Takehiko creases his eyebrows, “Episode? What do you mean ‘episode’?”

Dara now shifts his gaze to me. “Nanami, you heard it too right?” My reflective look makes him add more. “In the middle of the night? The yelling?”

Ah yes, the night terror. “Oh yeah, you seemed super upset, Takehiko.”

Takehiko repeatedly moves his focus between the two of us. “What am I missing? Are you guys messing with me?”

“You really didn’t realize it?” Dara questions.

“Realize what?” Takehiko asks, becoming more energetic as he seems truly baffled at what we’re asking.

“You were screaming in your sleep. I didn’t sleep until you finished,” Dara continues.

With even more exuberance now, Takehiko responds, “No. I would’ve noticed.” He pauses and the color leaves his cheeks. “Right?”

I finally speak up more concerning the subject. “Takehiko, you were crying.” He just averts his eyes and directs his attention to my bed, an upset air in the lines of his face. I push on. “You said a name too at some point. Ich...Ichi...I don’t really remember.”

Takehiko hesitates before replying. “I’m taking a shower.” He leaves abruptly and locks the bathroom door behind him. Dara glances at me perplexed and I return the expression.

“At least I didn’t have to shower first,” remarks Dara.

Takehiko takes his sweet old time because it’s nearly half an hour when he finally emerges from the bathroom, steam still slightly rising from him and his face devoid of emotion. His wet hair is tied back into a much tighter ponytail than yesterday. “Your turn,” he says to Dara as he passes by. Dara heads in without a single word in response. I quietly sit on my bed, watching as Takehiko lays down on his now made up bed and looks towards the other side of the room. Even with him reposed, I can sense the stiffness in his back.

“Oi,” comes from his bed. “I’m not mad at you or anything if you think I am. I just...Don’t let it get to you, ok?”

“Why would I? I didn’t even think much of it at the time.” I realize I spoke much harsher than I intended. I mean the guy was basically trying to apologize. He turns his head slightly towards me, the chains on his ears clinking together as he does. His mouth opens as if to say something, but nothing except a sign escapes it and he goes right back to staring at the wall.

Once Dara is out, we all proceed to head downstairs and sit at a table, waiting for our much-anticipated breakfast. It’s a simple meal of plain eggs and bacon, but nonetheless welcome to our roaring stomachs. From the silence that hangs dead over the table, it’s clear the air from last night’s meal was a one-time occurrence.

Once Dara’s finished eating, he sets down his fork and peers at the two of us. “Ok, so what’s the plan for today?”

Takehiko replies through a mouthful of eggs. “Plan?”

Dara sighs. “Yes. If we don’t figure out an efficient way of asking for intel on potential Cassidy sightings, then how the hell are we going to get anywhere? Even someone like you could figure that out.”

Takehiko stops chewing, an irritated face printed on him. “What do you mean someone like me?”

I can already tell where this is going so I immediately interrupt. “So, like which places and tactics would prove the best right?”

Dara leans into the table. “Yeah, something of the sort. What matters is that we don’t draw unwanted attention. If we’re too pushy or ask too many things, people could become suspicious and attract more of a spotlight on us.”

His point is extremely valid and one I hadn’t seriously given thought to before. If even one person becomes suspicious of us, our goose is cooked and it’s off to a jail cell with us for even being suspected of any sort of plot.

Takehiko is the one who speaks up again. “Why don’t we just split up and cover three different places at once? It wouldn’t be as noticeable as three stupid young adults walking around the same place, asking the same thing. Also, someone might be able to recall things better when they only have to concentrate on one of us.” He munches on a bite of cold bacon.

“That’s actually a great idea.” I remark. “If we just figure out parts of Arocia for us to ask around and a time to meet up, it could work.”