Falling Through Time

As Himino jumped through the portal, the very portal that her mother went through just fifteen years ago, she felt a sharp and intense pain like she never felt before. The pain shot through her body like a dagger. Soon she was through the portal and like magic the pain dissolved, and it was as if the event had never occurred.

Himino climbed up and out of "the well" as she was instructed to. She lost her breath as she took in the beautiful scene. An amazing forest of flowers and cherry blossom trees was filled with vibrant sunlight. The faint sound of flowing water told Himino that there was most likely a river or stream nearby. This was the seemingly untouched background of the place called Feudal Japan. After she caught her breath from climbing the wall of the well, Himino headed east, following the directions given to her by her mother, Yuma. After years of begging her mother to let her return to the place that had been her home for the first two years of her life, she finally broke!

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"Mom I'm 16, I think I'm old enough to know were I come from." Himino said while looking her mother, Yuma, right in the eyes.

"No, I won't have you going back to that place. I brought you here for a reason, to keep you safe from the dangers of that world." Yuma stated in a stubborn fashion.

"I know you can tell me how to get back. Please, I need to do this." Himino stood in front of her mother and got down on her knees.

"I want to do this, it's the most important thing in the world to me." Her mother walked pasted her towards her bedroom.

"Come with me." She said as she walked into her room. Himino got up and followed her mother as she entered the room she saw her mother reach up into her closet and take down a small cream colored shoebox. Her mother opened the box and removed a small pink book. Himino just stared at her mother the whole time, wondering what the heck she was doing. After Yuma removed the book she closed the box, and returned the box to it's shelf in the top of her closet.

"What is that, some cryptic manual from the past?" Himino said with a sarcastic tone.

"You want to go back so bad, read it." Himino took the book and began to flip through the many pages. The book was obviously very old, and the pages were worn and tattered. The text was small and hard to read, some in old world Japanese and some, near the back of the book, in English. The more Himino read the more she realized…

"This is a diary isn't it, your diary. From when you lived in Feudal Japan?" Himino pried curiously.

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner." Yuma said growing tired of her daughter's "will" to get where she had worked so hard to get her away from.

"Oh, don't be smart mom!" Himino snapped.

"And you watch your tone young lady." Yuma demanded in a motherly way.

"Whatever, sorry. Now, please tell me what this has to do with me going home?" Himino asked more confused than ever.

"First of all that place is not your home and it never will be. Second if you actually read it you'll know your way there and back like you've done it a million times." Yuma said starting to regret her decision to give in to her daughter.

"Okay whatever you say." Himino sighed doubtfully.

So that night Himino sat awake reading every word of the book, some very interesting, some boring, and some just disturbing. But just as her mother said every detail of how to get back was there and was memorized fairly easily. With all of the new info that Himino had received it was just a matter of deciding when to leave and whether she wanted to tell her mother or not. When Himino awoke in the morning she knew exactly what to do and how. First she got up, washed and dressed as always but there was a difference. She pulled her long shoulder length bluish black hair into a high ponytail with her long bangs hanging out the front, rather than leaving down to cover nearly half her slender face. Afterwards she didn't spend time applying any eyeliner and tinted moisturizer to her nearly flawless, slightly tanned beige skin like always. And instead of taking her usual half an hour to get dressed in her school uniform, which she hated because it made her look like everyone else in her school, she quickly found her favorite Nirvana band-tee and slightly baggy ripped jeans, and threw them on. Along with them she found several more casual outfits, a cute dark blue and black "Rotten Pieces" dress, a few pairs of socks and boy-short underwear, and some comfy flip-flops. After she tossed them all in a worn green gym bag and pulled on her chunky black Vans, she walked downstairs to grab some food and face her mom's oncoming questions.

As soon as she entered the kitchen her mother looked at her like she was insane.

"Where is your uniform?" Yuma asked while still chewing a piece of toast.

"I have some stupid track thing today before class, and coach said to dress down in something you don't mind getting dirty." Himino quickly replied thinking that would answer for the bag also and stop her usual bombard of questions, but of course she continued.

"Will you still have practice after school too?" Yuma shot back.

"Yeah, I guess so I'm not 100 sure." Himino lied.

"What's the gym bag for?" Yuma had no intention of leaving any question unanswered, typical mother.

"It has my uniform, duh. I have to go, they told us to be there a little early." Himino grabbed a slice of slightly burnt toast and headed for the door. "Oh, I'll be at Ria's house after practice, see ya!" With that Himino ran out the door so fast she could only hear the first word her mother said. "Wait……" But Himino was already out the door and had no intention of stopping. On her way to the bus stop Himino pulled out her cell, punched in Ria's number and pushed talk.

"Hey, I won't be at school today. But if my mom calls can you tell her that I said I was coming over, but I had to stop at the store first?" Himino sounded slightly desperate, slightly annoyed too.

"Okay wait, am I missing something?" she asked in her usual bored tone.

"No, I mean yeah, but I have to tell you later. Can you just do me this one favor, pretty please??" Himino pleaded in her most kidlike voice.

"Sure, anything for Himino-chan! Bye loser!!!" Ria hung up the phone and shrugged off the weird feeling that lingered after the phone call.