Vacay (self-insert #6)

Chapter 1

Sir Dorey steepled his fingers, his usually jolly Santa face somber. "Let me restate what happened." He said after a while, resting his chin on one hand as the other moved to scroll with the mouse. His pale blue eyes darted around on another screen, and for a moment I wriggled uncomfortably. Having people read my writing made me self conscious, like they were only picking at the parts they didn't like and holding them under a powerful microscope. "When you walked past Oliver, you could see exactly what he was seeing in that moment."

I nodded.

"He was holding the ancient money from the Meiji era, am I correct?" He waited until I nodded. "Money previously owned by the hospital staff."

My head bobbed up and down.

"Hm. Very interesting." He scrolled a bit more. "Without tests, I'm afraid..."

Nope. No tests. "Look, couldn't you give me an educated guess? A hypothesis?"

Sir Dorey sighed. "Dimensional travel has never been the focus of the Society...though I may have to revise that. If I were to base it off of what I know so far, it would be that you and Oliver are very alike."

I laughed.

"Spiritually speaking, of course. Where you come from, things like psychometry and psychokinesis aren't possible. Here, though, they are."

"So you're saying I'm an dimensional version of Oliver?" I said skeptically. "Shouldn't I look more like him, then?"

He shrugged. "Like I said, spiritually speaking." He reminded me. "Besides, I'm not an expert. So, when Oliver was using his psychometry, perhaps you both overlapped?"

I had to admit, his hypothesis was better than anything I could think up. "You might be right."

"It's worth considering." Sir Dorey broke into his usual grin. "Well, it was nice talking to you, Miss Narumi. We'll talk later."

I shut down my laptop after checking my emails (none, not including the stream of random pictures of Chibi Naru that Madoka was filling my inbox with) just as Naru slipped inside, briefcase in hand. My insides froze the second I looked at him. Naru didn't exactly give off funsie or even casual vibes, but right now he looked like he was about to commit murder. "I give in. I ate all the snacks." I blurted out before slapping a hand over my mouth. I knew very well that this wasn't about the empty wicker basket in the corner of the office. This was about Gene. "Sorry. You probably want to be alone, right?"

"Thanks."

His Royal Highness rarely expressed gratitude, so I made an extra effort to gather my things as quickly as possible. Out on the sofas, Mai stood near Bou-san and Ayako as the trio stared at Naru's office, bewildered. "Why's he in such a foul mood?" Ayako whispered, taking extra care to make sure the irate CEO wouldn't hear her.

"He's always like that after he gets back." I could tell that part of Naru was also about to get shoved under a magnifying glass when the door jingled open timidly. Mai whirled around instinctively. "Welcome!"

A young man returned the smile anxiously, a little girl around four or five clutching onto his much larger hand with wide eyes. "Um, good afternoon. You are...what one could call 'mediums', right?"

This sounded promising, especially since ninety nine percent of visitors usually asked about fortune telling or incense. Mai urged them to take a seat while I called out Naru who, to my relief, had the decency to hide his irritation. "I'm Akifumi Yoshimi and this is my niece, Hazuki." The man was saying when Mai returned with glasses of iced tea. "I was wondering if you could examine her. I was thinking of just bringing her to a hospital for treatment, but..."