The Dreams

Chapter Forty Nine

Rina sat in stunned silence. Apparently, testimony for the day was now over. The others that had filled the great hall were starting to file out. She had not been prepared for the testimony to be Souma's memories. His grief and desperation left her feeling too drained to immediately get up and follow the crowd out.

None of them were affected by it quite the way she was. None of them were connected to the memory like her, and if she was going to place a bet she would put it on none of them experiencing the recovery of memories that should be long gone quite the way she did.

As the utterly overwhelming sensations started to ebb away she found herself with more questions than ever. Her frustration over the loss of her past life memories bubbled to the surface. As much as she had feared discovering what would happen once she reached the point of her previous death, she could not help but feel as though she was being deprived of a serious part of herself once again.

Souma's memory had done nothing to reveal to her how Yuzuki had died, but it did confirm that she had passed away and left Souma so grief-stricken that he went on to commit a crime that had led to one disaster after another in both their lives. She was sure that she should be angry about all the trouble she had been forced to go through, but now that she had experienced the memory of his grief and despair along with him, and with her ever hazier memories of life as Yuzuki she felt as though she could understand why he had acted in such a hasty manner.

Neither of them had anyone else in their life. Losing Yuzuki had been the same as losing his whole world. Rina had friends and family waiting for her at home and the idea of losing Hibiki was still unimaginable. If she did not have the people she had in her life she would be even more desperate to keep the one person she did have. She realized even now Souma still centered his life around Yuzuki. He remained completely dedicated to her and her happiness and did everything he could to protect her from any sort of suffering.

All she had been doing lately was running headlong into the sort of pain that he had hoped to spare her. The more she learned the more she wanted to know. It would mean even more suffering on her part and it might very well be torture for Souma as well, but she would never be able to get closure and move on with her life if she did not learn what she now knew she needed to know.

She needed to know about her death so she could finally understand just why Souma had been so determined to set things right again by stopping her from being reincarnated like any other soul.

Her realization came too late as they had already taken Souma back to his cell. She glanced around the room and realized she did not see a single friendly face. Mori had disappeared sometime between her entry into the hall and now. She was not sure if she was surprised or not. He seemed to be satisfied with causing trouble and being paid for his time and trouble in the form of unusual stories. A trial was hardly the right place for someone like him. There were too many rules and having one's stories turned into a matter of public record made them too common to be of interest to a collector of strange life experiences.

As she got up and made her way out of the hall she became aware of at least one set of eyes watching her every move. She could not say for sure who was watching her, but she could not shake the feeling of dread that settled into the pit of her stomach. Someone was watching her and their intentions for her were full of ill will.

She wanted to go to Souma. She had dozens of questions she needed to ask him and she was sure that he was in need of some comfort and support after being forced to share such a personal memory with all of those people. As long as she felt those eyes watching her and following her she would not go to see him. Whoever it was, they were not someone she wanted to have around Souma if he was in as fragile of a state as she thought he must be.