Talk:Niwa Sachiri

Sachiri Omake

Ch. 0: Academics 2

"Ahem~"

Scars and gouges still lurking in the shadows of his fur, Kappii cleared his spiritual throat and averted his gaze. With a capybara's herbivore-typical eye position, that meant completely turning around amidst the vague, still crystallizing surroundings of the dream.

"What's the matter? You're just a capybara."

"It's a matter of propriety," he said, likewise repeating his words from a few nights ago.

"It's hard to make me uncomfortable in my own dream," she replied absently as a wall nevertheless sprung up between them. "Though I guess if you were shaped like a person I'd have kicked you out by now."

Kappii found himself immersed in a fountain beneath a vast skylight opening into the night, surrounded by banks of carefully tended plants enclosed by the glass walls of a great conservatory. Through a slightly agape but conveniently obscuring door of warped glass panels, Sachiri's side resolved into a brightly lit library with towering shelves.

"Besides, it's just a dream. It's not like you're actually seeing me in person..." Her voice carried through over the fountain's gentle bubbling, allowing them to continue to converse. Despite her words, clicking heels on granite tiling had replaced the muffled silence of stockings on an indistinct floor. "Really though! At this rate, you might need to give me alone time you know. A girl needs her own room."

"Of course! We're teacher and student! It's not like we have to share the same room all the time," he agreed hastily. "In fact, as a wise sage, I too need time and space to contemplate weighty questions. I expect many a night I'll be too deep in meditation to join you and you'll be in your dream uh… doing whatever it is a healthy teenager does in their dreams."

"You do you and I'll do me."

The two fell into a slightly awkward silence. From the library came the sound of someone settling down onto a couch.

"S-Still!" Kappii said, changing the subject. "You certainly do like books. I think every night I've seen, you're always dreaming of books somehow."

"Not always. Sometimes I'll go explore or do some weird or exciting things. Well, taking the time to do reading makes sense. If you draw something in a dream, you can't take it with you. If you try to learn things like cooking or sports, it won't ever work out the same way in real life. Reading kind of comes with you though. It makes school pretty easy at least."

"I suppose. It must make reviewing easy, though you still have to do all of your readings in the waking world first."

"Hmm… Nah. Well, I find starting the book helps but for homework... I just fill in the answers in the morning."

Kappii blinked. "What? What do you mean? How can you read in a dream a book you haven't read while awake?"

"I'll read for a bit before bed, then I put in a bookmark and put it under my pillow. Then, once I'm asleep, I pull it off a shelf."

"That's ama- Quite impressive!"

"Is it?"

"Indeed! How long have you been able to do that? Since two days ago?"

"No…? Since forever. I mean when I was in bed in the hospital, that was just what I did. They just thought I was a quick reader. Actually I'd probably have had to repeat a year of school otherwise."

"That's highly impressive, Sachiri. Just the fact you can control your dreams with complete freedom is as well but if you think about it, even for someone else with that skill, reading a book you haven't read would be impossible. It must be a manifestation of the great power sleeping within!" He drew himself up even though there was no one to see. "Truly, a promising student!"

Ch. 1: Alertness vs. Search

"So, Sachiri."

"Mmhmm?" she replied, flipping over the grilling bonito in the pan.

"You notice anything off this morning?" Mei asked.

"Off? Not really?" Sachiri blinked. "Is this a test?"

"Maybe."

"Erk."

Sachiri wrinkled her brow, closing her eyes and opening them again. She looked around but, try as she might, she couldn't notice anything. Rather, it seemed like an entirely too open question. What, in a world of spirits, superpowers and mirror worlds, was 'normal' and not 'off'?

"Well that's sort of not really fair isn't it?" she said, trying to nonchalantly turn off the stove. "I've only been living in here for two weeks."

"You've only been in Tokyo for two weeks," Mei agreed, "but that doesn't mean it'll stay safe until you're familiar with the area. Crime's been on the rise and like I said, there's some weird things nobody's comfortable talking about. The first step to staying safe is staying alert! This is the sort of thing they try to teach the first month in police academy you know."

"I-" She opened her mouth, wanting to protest how she'd spotted the Puppetmaster before being spotted in return on her first full day in the city but then remembered that the full details of that fight had been somewhat glossed over. That was the other thing. Just hiding what she could see but wasn't supposed to see was hard enough without also having to see the 'normal' things that everyone else expected her to notice. Just the thought made her head hurt."

"Look at the clock," her cousin suggested.

"The stove clock?" Sachiri blinked again. "Oh. Well it's not like you can turn the clock back on my phone," she said. "Make sure you turn it back afterwards. I don't know how without the instructions you know."

"I will, don't worry. What about the fridge? You must have opened the fridge while preparing breakfast right?"

"You-" Sachiri opened the fridge. "You turned all your beer upside down... Why would anyone even notice that at the back behind all the proper food?"

"I got the idea from the calling card of one of the weird phantom thief cases they always foist on me. I thought that'd be an easy one though, since I noticed you turned them all rightside up the first evening here," she said, managing only to sound only slightly smug-satisfied as Sachiri laid out breakfast for two. "Remember to stay alert at all times. Especially when you're outside. And- Eh?"

"What now?" Sachiri said. "Oh, the salt shaker? Well, it's only natural right? I mean you have a pepper shaker and those things always come in pairs."

"Mmm mm…" she agreed. "That's actually a clever catch. It's more that I was sure I'd lost it though. Where'd you find it?"

"In the space between the fridge and the counter, hiding behind an empty beer can," she said, putting just enough admonishment to add a bit of a wince to the smug-satisfied. "Really."

"Well it was already empty when it fell in! And I couldn't reach it. Isn't it annoying that that space is always just slightly longer than anyone's arm?"

"Just use anything long next time."

"Wait. I didn't know I had a broom," Mei said suddenly, looking at the red plastic one now standing in the corner by the door."

"You didn't. I only bought that yesterday, but I mean, I just used the rice scoop and then washed it. And it's not the only thing," Sachiri said, placing a near full bottle of shichimi on the table as well. "Here. This was behind the leg of the couch. It's older than the new bottle you've half used so please use it up first."