CHAPTER 1: SUMMER STORMS
I seem to recall it was raining that day. The air smelt damp as I awoke, and as I slid back the shutters and walked out onto the veranda of my home, the sound of heavy raindrops assaulted my ears. The chime of a clock further down told me it was nine o’clock, so my brother would have already left for work. I entered the kitchen and started to fumble around for my breakfast.
My name is Seraph and im 18 years old. Im blind. I have been ever since an…accident…when I was fifteen. It pretty much screwed up my life. I was planning to head into the Japanese Self Defence Force after I left school. But now…well, it’s surprising how a body adapts.
I was pretty decent at literature before I dropped out of high school. So I took up a small journalist job. Using my computer I wrote out small articles, which my brother proofreads and then takes with him. See, my brother, Cain, who’s twenty-two, is the assistant editor at the Shimizu branch of the best selling Japanese newspaper. He managed to get me the job. Unfortunately it means he has to commute from our small mountain town to the city of Shimizu everyday. I tell him he should rent a small apartment nearer to the city, but he insists on coming home to look after me, although I can take care of myself. My parents were always away over-seas and never dropped home much, so their house was ours effectively.
And so it was. I had gotten used to being alone in the dark. The summer had come and with it the occasional summer storm. Normally in our town, when the storms came, they brought masses of water, with the rivers coming close to flooding and the town generally was cut off except for the train. But this year the storms brought more than flooding and damp air. For that was the year that Kida came into my life.
I was eating my breakfast, planning my article. I had had a phone call from the Editor-in-Chief about a summer festival to be held in Okinawa this year. Okinawa was always a popular summer destination, and he had given me some phone numbers to call to get details about it. I was thinking about Okinawa, and how I had enjoyed it so much when our school made a trip there the summer before the accident, when an image popped into my mind.
It had been a while since I had seen it last, but it was clearly my front door. The image was slightly blurred around the edges but otherwise it was as clear as I was looking at it. But at a strange angle. Almost as if I was looking up at it. Suddenly a hand appeared from the right side of my vision. It floated uncertainly, and then fell again. I got up and started to walk to my front door. The image in my head disorientated me and I walked into several walls before I got to the door. I opened it, and in my vision, the door opened. Then the biggest shock. I saw myself look out from behind the door. It was clearly me, although older than I had last seen myself. I angled my head down and the image in my head angled down until I was looking at…myself. Then the hand appeared again. I reached my own hand out, temporarily wondering if I was going crazy, but then the image of myself touched the hand…and I felt it. I could feel this hand, weakly grasping mine. All of a sudden, a word formed in my head, as if spoken to me but without sound.
“Beautiful…”
Then the vision vanished and I was sitting in darkness again. I would have played it off as a dream, that I had fallen asleep on my breakfast. But I could still feel the slender hand in my grasp. Using this hand as guideline, I knelt down and reached out until I felt something firm, yet soft, and very well rounded beneath my palm.
“A girl...?”
She had no clothes on and was soaking wet from the rain. As far as I could tell she had no wounds, but she would catch cold if she stayed out here much longer. I picked her up and carried her back into my home. I felt more comfortable completely blind, and had no difficulties getting her to my couch.
After the second person view I had received from this girl, I was a bit befuddled, but had enough sense to dry her off and make sure she was warm. As I waited for her to wake, I tried to get on with my article, but my mind kept returning to her. Why could I see through her eyes? Where had that voice in my head come from? How on earth had she got here? The roads were washed out, and there was no way they’d let her on the train naked. I briefly considered her falling from the sky, but no air routes went over this way, and besides, she’d be dead from the drop. But there wasn’t even a single wound on her.
I wondered where she had come from and why she had ended up in my house. But the main question just kept circling around and around my head until it became the all-consuming thought in my head.
“Who are you?”
* * *
It was some time later before she woke up. I had given up completely on my work and was sitting in my armchair, waiting by the couch. I heard her stir then the vision in my head started up again as, I assumed, her eyes opened.
“Where am I?”
I flinched as the voice sounded in my head again. It wasn’t a nasty voice. It was soft and had a slight musical quality to it. But even so…
The girl, noticing my sudden movement, turned her head, and once again I found the image of myself in my mind. Slightly unshaven, I noted that my dark hair had turned white. Probably from the shock of the accident. My eyes were permanently shut, sealed over with scar tissue. I never covered them as I saw no reason to. My body was toned, as I worked out regularly, having nothing better to do with my spare time. I was wearing a plain white vest and baggy shorts.
“Its him…”
The voice again. I was starting to get an idea of what was going on here. I must have developed psychic powers overnight.
“So you’re finally awake. How are you feeling?”
The girl continued to look at me and the voice in my head sounded again.
“He doesn’t know that Im mute. But how can I tell him? He won’t be able to see my sign language!”
“Mute huh?” The vision in my head jumped as the girl flinched.
“But how?”
“Yeah, its kinda weird for me too. I can hear all your conscious thoughts. I can also see what you see.”
“He’s crazy,”
“I can assure you, Im not crazy.”
She flinched again.
“Okay, if you can hear this put up your hand,”
I shrugged and put my hand up.
“O~Kay, and if you can see what I see, how many fingers am I holding up?”
Her hand appeared and three fingers extended, along with her thumb.
“Three fingers. And a thumb.”
“Oh my God!”
I shrugged again. Suddenly the doorbell rang. I got up.
“Stay here. Oh and don’t look at yourself.”
The vision in my head immediately looked down to give me a full view of her body, which was thinly covered by a sheet from her waist down.
She immediately covered her breasts with a small scream in my head.
“Ow. I told you not to look.” She looked at me and I saw that I was blushing. I turned and headed for the door, all the while watching my receding form. But when I got about five metres away from her, everything went black.
“Hey, are you okay?” Nothing.
I retraced my steps and suddenly everything awoke again. I saw myself, about five metres away and her voice was in my head
“What?”
My face screwed up in puzzlement. I tried a little experiment. I took a step back. Everything went black. I took a step forward and everything lit up again. I shook my head and went to answer the door.
“What’s the point in having psychic powers if they only work within a five metre radius of a person?”
I opened the door.
“Hiya Seraph.” It was the mailman. I waited for my psychic powers to kick in. But nothing happened.
“Are you going to take it?”
“Uh…sure.” I awkwardly stuck out my hand and took the mail. I said goodbye and turned and walked back to the room.
“So maybe Im not psychic.”
But yet again, once I got within five metres of the girl, the vision and voices started up again.
“I was calling you. I thought you could hear my thoughts.”
“It seems it only works within five metres of you. And only you.”
“Oh. So that explains the little dance you were doing.”
“The what?”
“The two steps forward, one step back thing.”
“Oh, that.” I tossed the mail on a near by table. Funny, I had never really seen this room for a while. It was reasonably sparse so that I didn’t walk into things. I turned to look around, but the picture in my head kept on me.
“Of course, it’s her vision, not mine.” I thought.
“Uh, do you think you could do a favour for me?”
“If you do one for me.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“Find me some clothes.”
“Sure.” I went to my bedroom and opened a closet. I rummaged around, groping in the darkness. This new constant switching between blind and second sight was going to be another thing to adapt to.
“Of course,” I thought, “That’s if she wants to stay. She might want to go home.” It would be a shame. I wanted to see so many things. But it wasn’t my decision.
I returned and when the second sight returned, I found myself looking at a girls face. She was standing in front of a mirror my brother had set up on the wall, joking that it was one of the few possessions he owned that I couldn’t use. She was about seventeen or eighteen, with long soft pink hair, done up in a high ponytail. Soft pink eyes. Very feminine features.
She turned as I entered.
“Oh, you’re already doing my favour. I wanted to get a good look at you…Um. You’re very beautiful.”
She turned away from me, forgetting I could see her expression through her eyes in the mirror. She was blushing.
“Um…it’s been a while since we had a woman around the house, so I haven’t got any girl clothes. Just these.”
She looked at the clothes. A pair of baggy jeans and a loose t-shirt.
“These are fine. Thank you.”
She went to put them on.
“Don’t peek…um… I mean…uh.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
She slipped them on whilst I stood at discreet six metres away.
When she was done, she turned to look at herself in the mirror.
I drew a bit closer. The jeans were a decent fit. But the way she wore the t-shirt…instead of wearing it like a t-shirt, she had tied around her chest so that it acted like a makeshift bra.
“That’s…different.”
She looked at me in the mirror, so that I could see her and myself simultaneously. She smiled.
“I hate leaving these unsupported.”
She laughed silently as I blushed right down to my toes.
She turned to me and bowed.
“Thank you for your hospitality and the clothes. May I ask your name?”
“It’s Seraph. Seraph Shinkai.”
“Im Kida. Kida Chihara”
“Pleased to meet you. Care for a drink?”
“Sure.”
We went over to the kitchen. I started to grab a cup, but I kept missing it.
“Uh, could you move a few metres away? I’ve been doing this blind for so long, seeing it from another persons perspective is just confusing.”
“But then we wont be able to talk.”
“Well, close your eyes then. Just for a minute.”
“Okay.”
The darkness returned. As I went through the familiar routine of making tea, I laughed. As I finished, I called to her.
“You can open your eyes.”
She did so.
“What were you laughing about?”
“I was just thinking. We’ve only met a few hours, and found out we have some weird psychic connection, yet we’re acting as if we’ve been doing this for ages. I guess I’ve been adapting to life for so long, this is just another step.”
“My mum always used to say that change is a constant in life, and we should just deal with whatever comes up.”
“Sounds like a smart person,”
“She is.”
I offered her the tea and she took it from me.
“Huh. It’s an interesting colour. It’s been a while since I’ve seen tea.”
“So how long have you been blind?”
“Since I was fifteen. About three and a half years.”
“So you’re eighteen?”
“Yes. How about you?”
“Eighteen on the 12th of September,”
“That’s a few months from now. So where do you live? Where did you come from?”
“A small mountain town called Yokosuka,”
“Never heard of it.”
“Its fairly remote. The roads are only open from April to October. There’s no other passage except for the rivers and they freeze in November until March.”
“A bit like this place. Apart from the train, which is pretty much open all year round. Do you want to call your parents, let them know you’re okay? I’d expect their worried about you.”
“I can’t speak, remember?”
“Oh. Right. Sorry.”
“I guess it’s easy to forget if you can hear my voice in your head.”
“Do you want me to call them then?”
“No. It’ll be alright. Besides, they don’t have a phone.”
“Oh.”
We were silent for a moment, sipping tea.
“One thing’s been bugging me.”
“The fact you can see through my eyes and I can speak into your head?”
“Apart from that. How on Earth did you get here? As you can see, the rains around here have washed the roads out.”
“I don’t know. I remember waking up late at night and having this intense need to go somewhere. I can’t explain it. I remember that I started to walk, into the night. The next thing I remember is waking up on your doorstep and seeing you. Then I woke up on your couch, which is when the really weird stuff began.”
“Hmm.” The picture in my head started to view the room as Kida looked around.
“You know, I never noticed how dark and dingy this room was until now.”
“I’m surprised you can joke about your disability.”
“I prefer to think of it as a liability rather than a disability. I can still do stuff. And like I said, Im quick to adapt. Its no big deal.”
“I lost my voice about ten years ago. I had an accident and the doctors had to remove my vocal chords. I had to learn sign language, and since then I’ve never had a proper conversation with anyone. I’ve always had to be accompanied by an interpreter or my mom. But just “speaking” with you like this…it’s nice.”
“Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t partially enjoying this experience. Seeing rain, my home, colours, for the first time in three years. I had wanted to go into the JSDF, but they kinda have a thing against people who can’t see. So I now do a journalist job. It’s not what I wanted to do. But maybe…maybe its what I was meant to do. Maybe this is who I should be.”
Kida just looked at me. Perhaps she was applying my thinking to her own problem. I realised I couldn’t hear her thoughts.
“Can I use your shower?”
“Um, sure. Third door on the right. “
“Thanks,” She started towards the bathroom, but just before she walked out of the zone of communication between us, she turned and looked at me.
“Oh, and Seraph?”
I turned my head until the image of myself was facing her.
“Don’t peek,”
I smiled and wondered if she was smiling too.
I heard the shower start up and I let out a sigh. She was going to be here until the rains let up and the roads became usable again. So until that happens, life was going to be weird…
* * *
