Remembong

A little known fact about some of the shops found in Haight-Ashbury, is that a majority of them double as housing for the shopkeeps.

Due to their architectural design, it was quite easy for people to convert the first floor area into decently sized businesses, while renovating the space above as apartments. Not big enough for multiple people, but just enough for a single occupant, possibly two.

Donnie's Divination was one such building, which was why RJ and the gang were currently waiting in a hallway staircase as Donnie fiddled with the door lock.

After RJ and Tatterhood explained to Donnie why they knew the name "Reya" and what it had to do with Senior Hippie, the old war veteran decided to invite the three of them to his apartment for, in his words, "I think I can help you dig up some memories".

"Darn number locks", Donnie muttered, "I really need to save up for a finger print pad or something".

"Try 49231 boss", a small tanuki leaning on his left shoulder said.

"No, try 69987!", a small weasel on his right shoulder argued back.

These two were Tony the tanuki and Kathy the kamitaichi, Donnie's familiars. After the previous battle had ended these two had exited Donnie's weapon and had turned into two little mascot creatures riding his shoulders. Whether or not any mortals could see them was up to debate.

"Ah-ha! Got it", Donnie said as he finally inputted the correct code and opened the door.

"You lot feel free to get comfortable. Tony, Kathy, go prep tea and snacks for them. I'm going to go find my stuff", Donnie instructed as he entered the apartment.

Donnie's domicile was a rather small, yet homey apartment. It had a small kitchenette, a decently sized living room complete with a couch and recliner, and a small hallway that was connected to a bed and bathroom. Decorated with a slew of 60s-70s paraphilia, it reminded RJ of those old "psychedelic" detective movies. In essence, it was the apartment of an eternal bachelor.

"Sure thing boss!", Tony and Kathy replied cheerfully as they hopped off of Donnie's shoulders and made their way to the kitchen.

It makes for an oddly adorable sight seeing a small weasel make a pot of tea while her tanuki companion rustled through a cupboard to retrieve a tin of cookies.

"Where do you want us to-".

"Place your butts into the living room please", Tony replied as he placed a cookie tin on the center coffee table. The little tanuki then made his way over to the cupboards once more to grab some mugs.

Tatterhood took this opportunity to claim the recliner and kick up her feet, while RJ took up a seat on the couch. Senior Hippie on the other hand began to examine some of the decor hanging around the room.

"Anything look familiar?", RJ asked as he grabbed a jammie dodger for the cookie tin.

"Kinda...", Senior Hippie replied as he stared at a poster depicting the Beatles, "It's vague though...".

Decorating Donnie's walls were all manner of posters depicting movies and bands from the 60s, random decorative bits that pertained to spirituality as well as a stuffed deer head with a "50%" sticker. But there was one thing that eventually caught Senior Hippie's eye.

Hidden among all the posters, flanked by a chakra chart and an astrology map, was a little display case. Inside this case were a half dozen war medals, each of them different in terms of color and design. Senior Hippie couldn't make out the words, but something about them stirred something deep inside if only barely.

"Korea and Vietnam".

"Huh"?

Senior Hippie's focus was broken at the sound of Donnie's voice. Turning around, he saw that Donnie was now wielding a water pipe decorated with symbols of the zodiac.

"Back in the 1950s, North Korea tried to invade South Korea. At the time, the North was being backed by the Commies while the UN backed the South. I had turned 18 back when the Korean War started and served at least two tours up until it ended. A little after that, the Vietnam War happened. Not entirely sure why, but I had decided to re-enlist as a squad captain for that. Ended up retiring after...forget about it", Donnie explained, "Now let's focus on digging into that head of yours".

"Now this, is a Remembong", Donnie said as he placed the elaborate water pipe on the coffee table.

"A what?", RJ said in disbelief. He knew that he would probably be running into more and more weird magical stuff since yesterday, but a magic bong never occured to him.

"You heard me", Donnie said in a mildly annoyed tone, "You know how some oracles and soothsayers use sacred herbs and incense to try and see the future"?

"Yeah...".

"This is just the modern, modified version of that", Donnie explained as he took out the bottom pipe and placed a weird herb packet inside the compartment. Once he slotted it back in, the water pipe's decorations began to move around it like fish in a pond.

"Huh...modern problems require modern solutions, I guess", RJ quipped as he watched the remembong's activation, "Now what"?

Instead of answering, Donnie picked up the bong and offered to Tatterhood, who had just placed the recliner back into it's default position.

"Oh? Ladies first then?", Tatterhood asked with a sarcastic smile, "Don't mind if I do".

"Wait are you sur-".

But before RJ could complain and stop Tatterhood, she had had already placed the pipe over her mouth and took a deep breath. As she did, the remembong's symbols did a weird spinning corkscrew motion until she stopped inhaling. Once she moved the pipe away, the symbols rotated back into place.

She held the smoke in her lungs for a moment until exhaling a purple smoke cloud. The cloud hovered for a moment before showing a scene of her and RJ eating noodles at the Lotus Noodle House.

"Wait, how did...nope, no...It's gonna get explained soon", RJ muttered.

"Wooo, that's some strong shit", Tatterhood said with a please grin, "You got hit me up with your dealer's number".

"The remembong will dig up basically any memory, but it tends to work better on recent memories", Donnie explained, "Not entirely sure if it works on those with amnesia though".

"I-I'm not even sure if I can breathe", Senior Hippie complained, "how is this suppose to help"?

"Simple", Donnie said as he took the pipe back from Tatterhood, "Both you and I knew Reya, so I'm gonna dig up a really really old memory and see if you were there".