Session 1

[ROOM 203 - Dr. Akira Kurose]

"Good morning Kobayashi-san, How have you been?" said Akira. "Today is our first session so to celebrate I have some fun activities planned for us today." He said while pointing at various objects on the table.

"Let's start by drawing", both Akira and Kaya picked up two sheets and sat opposite to each other.

Though a bit nervous, Kaya looked enthusiastic.

Akira was a perfectionist BUT drawings were the only exception. He never really liked art lectures in elementary school and sometimes even played sick just to avoid art. Nevertheless he made a landscape of a beach. It was neat, shaded and slightly more detailed than what a therapist would do for a session. It seemed like he had been practicing his drawings for today.

Whereas Kaya was a natural at it, She hadn't drawn for ages but still managed to draw much better than Akira though not particularly neat but it sure had an artistic touch to it, She made a huge white mansion in the foreground with 3 human figures near it. It had birds, lakes, mountains and even forests in the background. The detailing was so fine that she even made two small boulders in the forest. It isn't possible to capture and understand it in the movement let alone describing it.

Kaya couldn't hold her smile while showing her drawings. It was the first time she had smiled in months. Akira sighed happily and kept both of their drawings in the patient folder and moved on to the next activity.

Sand Tray, It is a very common therapy session used by psychologists to analyze the mental condition of the patient based on how the figures are placed in the sand tray.

Both of them started and were having fun.

Kaya flattened the sand and placed a house to the one corner of the box again placing three human figures beside it. Though there were more than twenty human figures she only picked three. She then made the scenery, green shrubs randomly spread across the board and a group of trees on the opposite corner of the sand tray.

Nurse Tanaka interrupted and called Akira for an urgent question, "Carry on till I return", Akira said before leaving.

Akira checked the documents as soon as possible and returned to room 203 in a minute or two.

He apologized for the inconvenience. Akira then saw that she had made a really messy tray. Kaya placed some trees lying down on the ground while some upside down. He soon called it a day and offered her a ride home; she timidly declined.

Once she left, Akira took some time alone to look at the progress today. It was a success since Kaya opened up a bit to him.

He glanced over at her painting, she had used cool colors, which meant that she feels calm which is a good for therapy. He assumed that the 3 figures are Kaya and her parents. He didn't really pay attention to the background and roughly concluded that it's just a forest, birds, lakes, mountains. Though he also observed that the boulders were small but similar shaped. It reminded him of something but he couldn't recall what exactly even after thinking hard,

He kept it aside and started analyzing the sand tray, it was 3 human figures which just like the painting was Kaya and her parents. Akira was relieved that Kaya was opening up to him and that he could start talking sessions from the next day and that he had completed the hardest phase.

While keeping everything back on shelves Akira noticed that two figures were missing. He was confused for a bit "The kid from last session must have taken it with him," he thought to himself.

*To Be Continued*