Puzzle Madness

Chapter 100 Opening Dream
Buzz.
The vibration of the tip of the tongue slowly stopped until it was still.

Ruan Jingbo opened his mouth wide, his tongue hanging out, but there was no guttural sound, no incomprehensible mumbling.

After Ai Xi finished his [Translation], the only sounds in the classroom were the whirring of the wind through the corridor and the gentle creaking of the ceiling fan.

Doudou looked at the draft paper on the desk and gave Ai Xi a thumbs-up:

"Huh? You can even hear that? You can go to the FBI to get wiretapped. That's impressive."

But curiosity overwhelmed his desire to continue expressing his admiration. He blinked:

"Dreaming? Dancing? Ruan, what did you dream about?"

There was no more answer. Just as abruptly as her previous opening—Ruan Jingbo transformed back into a flesh sculpture; even termites, with tiny wings fluttering, flew out of her gaping mouth, no one knew how long they had been there.

Doudou sat up straight in disappointment:
"It's so weird! I finally waited until I could speak, but now I'm talking to us in my sleep and speaking in riddles."

"Why did you suddenly react just now? Did we mention some key words in our conversation that triggered it?"

"Ai Xi, what were you talking about earlier? Oh, you said the head teacher was sleeping in the office."

He clasped his palms together and made a sleeping gesture beside his face:
"Sleep seems to be the key word, so it really is about dreaming; it's weird. How can dancing in a dream turn out like this?"

"Dream? Could it be some kind of mental virus? Like that videotape from 'Midnight Haunting' where you die after watching it? She looks a bit like Sadako, too."

"No, now that we've listened to her, we'll dream of playing Dance Dance Revolution in the arcade tonight, and when we wake up tomorrow, we'll be just like her."

Ai Xi shook her head; her narrow eyes were vacant with thought. She bit the cap of her ballpoint pen with her teeth:

"There's a possibility of a curse or a mental virus; but I don't think it's contagious, at least not through speaking."

Doudou took the school uniform that was still on the table, unfolded it, and looked at it carefully:
"That's right, classmate Ruan contacted you about drawing patterns for clothes; you are doing well now."

"As for this weird thing you drew."

His gaze shifted back and forth between Ruan Jingbo and the school uniform—the pattern, which had previously been puzzling, was finally easier to understand:

"Ah! Now I understand!"

"Here, look: mirror-image Chinese characters with body parts labeled and a scale. It's not meant for anyone else to see. It's supposed to be for practicing in the mirror."

"Practice identifying your body parts! Only your upper body, though."

"Plus the way she crawled in during morning reading class and the strange way she spoke just now—she wasn't practicing Locust Pictographic Fist at all, she was actually out of control!"

"She must be unable to control her body and limbs, and wants to solve this problem this way? What a strange method."

"But, Ruan must have understood her situation at the time; otherwise, she wouldn't have asked you to make the uniform. I think she knew it would turn out like this?"

Ai Xi bit her lower lip, covered it with her hand, and nodded:
"You're right, this possibility is more likely."

"And I tend to think it's a gradual process, like the ALS that Hawking had: it's not something that happens all of a sudden, but a gradual loss of mobility – there's a certain period in between."

"Because when she called me during the summer vacation, her voice was quite normal."

"Maybe she's a bit tongue-tied, but definitely not like this. She even mailed me her school uniform and asked me to alter it for her. She said she needed it urgently."

"I should have given it to her two days ago, but no one answered the phone. So I gave it to her today when school started."

Doudou frowned and folded his arms; his thoughts drifted off to who knows where:

"Am I wrong? Is this Sadako-san really an alien? Practicing body control in front of a mirror doesn't seem very robotic at all."

Ai Xi gently hit his arm:
"Her name is Ruan Jingbo! After all, we've been studying together for such a long time."

Doudou continued, his words full of appreciation and admiration:
"But Ruan Jingbo is so eager to come to school even though he's in this state. He's really studious! I'm so touched—eh?"

He looked up suddenly, his face full of shock at discovering a conspiracy:
"Maybe it was the homeroom teacher who did it! He's the real alien creature, using his brain waves to control us humans."

"He wanted to use this method to inspire his classmates' enthusiasm for learning: if someone is so horrible but still wants to study, then normal students should work even harder!"

Ai Xi was clearly accustomed to Dou Dou's off-topic thinking, and naturally brought the topic back to the topic:

"Forget about aliens and robots for now: you're the only one who's verified this [superpower] or [madness] thing, so it's best to continue thinking from that perspective."

"The hypothesis of brainwave control is reasonable; it could be accomplished through superpowers. But we don't know [who] did it, or [why] they would do it." His attention was immediately drawn to a completely new direction:
"Ah, a superpowered crime? But right now, there are no suspects and no clear motive. Even the testimony sounds like a dream. It's going to be very difficult."

"I can't skip class to do a background check. Remember the plot of 'Dr. Sloppy's Modern Mysteries'? Let's confirm the other clues first."

"She kept talking about [I had a dream] and [dancing on the dance machine]: it felt like dreaming and dancing weren't parallel events, but happened one after the other, with a causal relationship—"

"I think [the dream] is at least a very important trigger? Leading her to become like this."

"But I've never had a dream before, so I don't understand."

Doudou rolled his eyes and pointed two fingers in front of him:
"Remember what I told you? This kind of mania will only occur if you've done something wrong or if you've developed a mental illness or something like that."

"So there are two possibilities: First, someone used ecstasy to turn her into this state through dreams—what she said was a warning to us, be careful not to dream! Otherwise, why would she only say this one sentence?"

"Secondly, she had a horrible nightmare that frightened her into becoming ill; this illness turned her into a person with super powers. Because..."

Ai Xi took over the conversation:

"Because ecstasy is often more harmful to oneself—more harmful to others. I remember you told me that, but how can I confirm this?"

DouDou suddenly stood up, pushed open the classroom window, and pointed diagonally upwards—in the piled-up clouds, there were orange-red patches of light:

"I'm just paraphrasing: It's okay, I know how to verify it."

He coughed twice, frowned, and looked serious and solemn:

"Student Ruan, can you see anything in the sky? Like your parents floating in the sky or something like that?"

This time it was Ai Xi's turn to be stunned. She pressed the scar on her face:
"Doudou! What are you talking about?"

Doudou was still squinting, carefully examining Ruan Jingbo, observing whether her expression would change slightly.

"Oh—it's a way to identify superpowers; remember that agent I told you about? He taught me: look at the sky and notice if there's anything strange."

"Is it possible to see Godzilla or something? I can see my parents floating in the sky."

"Anyway, if you can see it, it means your superpowers have awakened! Ai Xi, do you want to see it too?"

Ai Xi also stuck her head out of the classroom window; the evening wind blew her hair into a mess:

"I just saw thick clouds. It might rain tonight! Does that count? Oh, ugh! Why are there termites?"

Doudou nodded at the motionless Ruan Jingbo and scratched his head:

"Oh! Then you're probably not crazy. As for Ms. Ruan—she's not going to answer at this point."

Ai Xi sat back in his seat and closed the window; but moths and termites chasing the fire still flew in.

Bang! A moth hits the ceiling light:

"If Jingbo was attacked by someone using trance, she wouldn't be the only one. It would happen again; it could become a mass incident."

"Look, Doudou—if the whale wave wasn't in your forehead, [Bold Line Aura] or [Threshold Aura]? It would definitely scare the shit out of everyone else. There's no way it could be covered up."

"So if there are other victims, we'll just have to watch the news; maybe they'll say it's a rabies variant spreading wildly?"

"Let's investigate the dream first. Whether it's a means, a medium, or the problem itself, it's more crucial than tracing Jingbo's current situation."

"If you can't find any special place, start with her home."

A fat termite landed on the wing of Ruan Jingbo's nose, about to crawl into his eye socket through his eyeball—Dou Dou grabbed it in his hand.

"[Dream], wouldn't that be too widespread? We can't just go out on the street and hand out flyers and ask passersby to help fill out the questionnaire—"

Ai Xi stood up and went to the blackboard to turn on the ceiling fan:
"I actually have some idea about this, but I'm not sure. I'll have to try it to find out."

Doudou scratched his chin, raising his eyebrows suspiciously:

"Huh? Don't try to do weird things yourself. What if you become a vegetable or something, and can only say one or two riddles as clues? Wouldn't that be even more troublesome? Ah, isn't it exactly like Miss Ruan now? She's confusing enough on her own."

(End of this chapter)