Paprika (36 page)

“I did, sir. It was about seven o’clock this morning. I thought it might have been why she couldn’t wake up.” Ube put his hand in his pocket and produced the DC Mini he’d removed from Atsuko’s head.

“What made you think that?” Konakawa mused as Ube passed him the small, gray conical object.

“Last night, Miss Chiba was telling me how dangerous it would be if she fell into a deep sleep while inside a patient’s dream. Especially when she mentioned the DC Mini, she looked very worried and went quiet. She seemed to suspect that it could make the wearer sleep more deeply. Anaphylaxis, I think she called it.”

“That would seem the correct conclusion,” Konakawa said, impressed by the memory and sharp insight of the young inspector. “And even if that weren’t the case, as long as she’s wearing the DC Mini, the enemy can access her dreams and project offensive images into them.”

Of course, neither Konakawa nor Ube knew the real truth – that Osanai had been prevented from taking Paprika’s DC Mini when they were fighting because Ube had already removed it.

“By the way,” said Ube, taking another DC Mini from his pocket. “Miss Chiba was holding another device in her hand. I took it from her, as I thought she could be affected by this one as well.”

“That’s funny.” Konakawa took the device from Ube’s palm and scrutinized it. “Was she holding another DC Mini when she started Tokita’s treatment?”

“She had it in her drawer as a spare.” Ube opened the drawer beneath Atsuko’s console and exclaimed loudly. “It’s still there! Chief Superintendent! She didn’t have the third DC Mini before! She must have taken it from someone in her dream!”

10

The morning sales meeting ended, and Noda returned to his office.

He’d been up early, and as he cast an eye over the sales plan, he started to feel drowsy. He’d had some coffee, both at home and during the meeting, but he still felt sleepy. It often happened that way. This time was different, though; the lure of sleep was strangely seductive, strangely insistent.

Being aware of his own fatigue was nothing particularly unpleasant for someone of Noda’s age or status. It wasn’t a fatigue based on worry, and anyway, the sales plan wasn’t particularly urgent. As he sat at his desk in his comfortable office armchair, he allowed his body to sink into a creeping state of drowsiness, and for a few moments enjoyed the sensation of dozing off. It was a sensation akin to numbness, as if his hands and feet were melting away. This was not the same as sleeping late, nor was it time for a midday nap. Noda liked to call it a catch-up snooze.

The telephone was ringing. Somewhere between waking and sleep, Noda stretched out his hand to pick up the receiver. He may only have been doing it in a dream; the telephone may not actually have been ringing in the first place. It was no longer even clear that he was in his own office.

Tatsuo. Tatsuo
.

Someone was calling him. A distant voice began to seep into his mind. A woman’s voice. Not his secretary’s voice, nor that of any female employee.

Who is it? Who is it?
asked Noda.
Hello? Hello? Who is it?

Had his voice reached the other person? It seemed to have drifted off emptily into space. The woman at the other end was calling him again, more urgently now. Pitifully so.

Who is it? Who are you?

But Noda knew who it was.
Ah. Such a familiar voice. Yes, it’s her voice. That girl. What was her name again?

It’s Paprika! Help me! Help me, please!

That’s it. Paprika! The girl I adore. She must be in my dreams again. It sounds as if she’s suffering because she can’t wake up. I’ll have to go and help her
.

Where are you
, asked Noda.
Shinjuku Station, in my dream
, answered Paprika.

Shinjuku Station, in her dream. How can I get there? If only I could think of a way, I think I could go there immediately. How can I get there
, he asked.
How can I get there
.

Don’t wake me. Don’t force me to wake up. Come and join me inside my dream. With a DC Mini. Please. Please
.

Please. Please
. Noda woke with Paprika’s words still echoing dreamily in his ears. He was sitting at his desk and had his phone pressed against his ear. All he could hear was the distant, continuous tone of a disconnected call. She must have hung up. Or perhaps there had been no phone call in the first place. It had been a dream. The whole conversation had taken place in a dream.

But Noda knew enough about the DC Mini and its functions to realize that he couldn’t ignore his conversation with Paprika, just because it had been in a dream. It had been so clear: Paprika was really asking for his help. Perhaps, due to some foul trickery, she really was unable to wake up, she really was in trouble. What should he do? Shinjuku Station, she’d said. But there would be no point in actually going there. He would have to use a DC Mini and go to help her in her dream. Something he’d previously mentioned in jest was now coming true. The DC Minis were in her apartment. He had to get there. Noda stood up.

11

“So there’s really no other way, is there? We have to put the DC Minis on, go to sleep and help Paprika in her dream,” Noda concluded after hearing all about it from the police officers and discussing things briefly with Konakawa.

Noda had come to Atsuko’s apartment saying he’d felt a vague premonition. He didn’t mention that Paprika had communicated with him in a dream. Konakawa might have believed it, but the other two would surely have questioned his sanity. He would tell his friend about it later.

“But this is psychotherapy, specialist work. And highly technical too. We haven’t got the skills!” Konakawa protested. “What would happen if we all fell asleep?!”

“That’s why we have to join Paprika, to find a way of waking up together.”

“In a dream?”

“In a dream.”

Morita and Ube looked on open-mouthed.

“You’re saying we can only help her by getting inside her head? Then so be it,” Konakawa said resolutely. “Shall I go first? If she still doesn’t wake up, you come after me.”

“No. I think we should both go at the same time,” argued Noda. “We don’t know which of us will be more useful to her.”

“Once we’re asleep, be sure to remove the devices from our heads quickly,” Konakawa instructed his juniors. “If the DC Mini has the effect of deepening sleep, it must be dangerous to keep it on after entering a dream.”

“Er, you keep talking about going to sleep,” Morita said with some misgiving, “but can you really go to sleep right here, just like that? And anyway, where will you do it? There are only two beds. If you put Miss Chiba on one of them, that leaves only one. Someone is going to have to sleep on the sofa. That’s not going to be easy.”

“We’d better sleep close together,” Noda said, as if to banish Morita’s fears. “We don’t know what might happen as a side effect of the DC Mini. We’d better forget about distinguishing dream and reality from now on.” Noda blushed under the astonished glare of the officers. Yes, what he’d just said must have sounded utterly bizarre. “Anyway, we can’t leave Paprika in this pitiful state forever. Let’s move her to the bed. She’s moving, yes, but it’s not like during her treatment, when she needs to operate the PT devices. I’ll sleep in the chair instead of her. I know a bit about computers. If Paprika gives me instructions in the dream, I might be able to operate the devices somehow.”

“Can you really get to sleep in that chair?” Konakawa, himself a poor sleeper, said with a dubious look at Noda.

“Don’t worry about me. I can take naps during meetings while I’m pretending to think about something,” Noda replied. “And anyway, I was up early today. I feel quite sleepy already.”

Morita and Ube lifted Atsuko and placed her on her own bed. Konakawa lay fully clothed on the patient’s bed, while Noda sat facing the PT equipment. Atsuko started to moan quietly, making occasional movements. Her face was virtually expressionless, but faint echoes of sorrow or suffering would occasionally flit across her features. Her appearance was at once childlike and alluring. As Noda put the DC Mini on his head, he was sure she’d been transformed into Paprika in her dream.

Konakawa was convinced that he would soon be making those muffled “can’t get to sleep” noises, but tried to force himself to sleep anyway. He groped at the DC Mini on his head to check that it was still there. All he could do now was to rely on the soporific effect of the device.

“I can’t sleep with you two standing there,” Konakawa barked at his two subordinates, who hovered anxiously near the door. “Go in the next room, will you?”

There was nothing for them to do at that point anyway.

“All right. We’ll wait till you’re asleep, then come and remove the devices.”

Morita and Ube transferred to the living room, leaving the three in the gloomy half-light of the bedroom, accompanied only by the quiet sound of their own breathing.

“She seems to be in some kind of park with a fountain,” Noda said as he watched the monitor screen. Judging by the tone of his voice, he was already beginning to feel drowsy. Or perhaps he was deliberately using that tone to help Konakawa get to sleep, aware of the soporific effect it would have on him. “She’s waiting for us there. I’m sure of it.”

“We need to get there quick.”

“Paprika telephoned me in a dream to ask for help.”

“Really? I did wonder … How you knew she was in danger … Coming so suddenly like that.”

“Well … That’s how I knew.”

Their conversation broke off.

In no time at all, Noda’s head was starting to drop.
Hello – I’m feeling sleepy now …
Konakawa thought as his awareness grew increasingly opaque. A telephone call from a dream? He found that notion perfectly acceptable, proof indeed that he was slipping into the realm of dreams. If possible, he wanted to maintain the proper attitude of a police officer, even in his dream. Was he really capable of that?

They were in the living room of a small house that looked new. The living room was one of only two downstairs rooms.
Ah. It’s the house where I was born, when my parents were still young
. Paprika started looking for her parents. They weren’t there. The front door had been left open. It was dark outside. What if some bad person were to come in? It was a memory of her parents and their frequent absences, when she would have to look after the house again.
There! Someone’s got in!
But it wasn’t that scary man who always came peddling his wares, always aggressively, sometimes to the point of violence. No. This time it was a woman. She wore a flimsy yellow dress and her hair was all over the place.

“Hey, you! Think you’re good-looking, don’t you!” the woman shouted at the child Paprika. The woman stood with legs astride in the hallway. It was Nobue Kakimoto with her hair turned reddish-brown, eyes slanting upward. “And I suppose you think you’re clever, too. Well, you’ve no need to act so arrogant. In fact you’re not clever at all. All you’ve done is learnt things from books, because you think men won’t take you seriously if you’re good-looking but stupid. You’re only being stubborn, just to save face as a good-looking woman. But hey, it’s not fashionable anymore! It’s the age of feminism, you don’t have to be good-looking! And you know, you really are quite stupid. You want proof? You deliberately side with that gargoyle Tokita, as if to say that other men are inferior and they’re not good enough for you, but then you go and fall in love with him and in the end you can’t tell the difference between good and evil …”

Stop it! Please stop it!
the child Paprika wanted to wail. But the words wouldn’t come out. Of course they wouldn’t. Because this memory of Nobue, who continued to hurl abuse at her, may actually have been a “shadow” of Atsuko Chiba. She was, in a way, hurling abuse at herself.

“Stop that!” shouted her father as he came in from outside. “You’re a bad maid! Came after seeing the direct mail, did you?!”

No. It wasn’t her father.

“Tatsuo!” Paprika gasped through her sobs.

“Goodness!” As Noda entered, Nobue momentarily changed into Paprika’s mother when she was younger, flashed a coquettish glance at him, then disappeared into the understairs cupboard.

“Paprika! I’ve come to wake you up!”

“Tatsuo. Will you have some tea?” Paprika stood and started to go to the kitchen. Having been asleep so long, she didn’t really understand what Noda meant.

“Paprika! Paprika! You called me!” Noda said impatiently as he grabbed her arm.

She could smell Noda’s fragrance.
That’s right. I must wake up
. “Ah. You’re sleeping right next to me, aren’t you.”

“I’m sleeping in front of the monitor. You’re on the bed. What should we do? Should I press one of the keys? I don’t know if I can. But if you tell me how, I’ll try and wave my arms about.”

“There is no such key,” said Paprika, shaking her head. “We’ll have to find some other way.”