Reiyouki Sentai Seitenger

6.10 About Helen

Itsuki looked down, unable to decide whether or not he could tell the truth to his sister. But at the same time, it was exactly for that reason that he had to mention it to Erika. They were siblings, and they stuck together since the tragedy that took their parents’ lives ten years ago. He shouldn’t be excluding her about anything.

Then again, the issue was about Helen. He wasn’t sure how he would explain it to Erika without angering her. Those two were childhood friends, after all. Even though he was unaware of it until Helen arrived at the Mizuhashi mansion, that fact still remained.

He sighed and raised his head to face his sister. “I’ve been dreaming of someone… for a long time now since the tragedy.”

Erika frowned, but didn’t say anything. This had only allowed Itsuki to continue speaking.

“I kept seeing a little girl in my dreams. Same event, slightly different scenes. But I’m sure that it was telling me something that… I have to figure it out. That girl was running away from something. Most of the time that I’d see her in those dreams, her dress was covered in blood. I’d always see her crying behind a boulder while desperately trying to hide. Whenever I’d ask what was wrong, she would only shake her head and smile. But it was a very painful smile and so I would try to calm her down whenever we would see each other in those dreams.”

Of course, it didn’t surprise him that the last part had shocked Erika.

“Are you saying that you’d always talk to her in those dreams you have of her? Does that mean that the dreams would end up like a series of scenes surrounding a crucial event or something?”

Itsuki thought about it for a short while before answering. “I guess… you could say that. I never saw the scenes diverting from whatever tragic event that had happened there. And then… while I was fighting Otoguri, it showed me a similar scene of that little girl. But this time, she would encourage me to fight the illusion and that it was going to be okay. Everything was muddled up to the point that Otoguri managed to escape. So I had no idea what I’d seen after that. I could’ve been hallucinating. But who knows.”

“And yet you would say that to Helen-chan after you grabbed her wrist while she tried to calm you down and heal you,” Erika said after moments of silence between them.

He couldn’t believe that he actually did that to Helen. But he wanted to know Erika’s opinion about the other matter that bothered him up to that point.

“By the way, where is she?” he asked before he could even stop himself. He bit his tongue when he finally realized what he had done.

“You mean Helen-chan? She said she would head out to the records room to find something there. She said that she might have figured out the reason why Otoguri had specifically targeted you.”

Itsuki frowned. “What do you mean she knew the reason? I thought it just so happened that I was the only one there.”

“Well, that’s not what she thinks. And even Shuichi-san agreed to that.” Erika paused and sighed before continuing to speak. “But Onii-chan, why did you say those words to her, anyway? Even when you said that everything was muddled to you after Otoguri escaped, there has to be a reason why you would say something like that to her.”

It looked like there was no escaping on this one, huh? Then again, he should’ve expected this from his sister. As Makoto once said, Erika was always perceptive of things around her once she truly put her focus onto them.

Once again, he took a deep breath before speaking. “After Otoguri retreated, the illusion of the little girl I saw remained in the area. I’m not sure how long it stayed there. Or if you even saw it while trying to approach me from that hundred meter distance. But it was there. When I asked who she was, there was no answer. But when she turned, she slowly changed — like witnessing a time lapse. I saw the illusion change to Helen the moment she faced me.”