Ryuuya Sagura: 19
Kanna Urashima: 19
Ayu Miahara: 18
Chii Su: 15
Yui Su: 21
Mizuki Sekata: 18
Natsuki Otohime: 24
Ema Maeda: 35
Love Hina: What Dreams May Come
Prologue: Fields of White; Brain-static
White…
Everywhere and everything…just pure unblemished white, stretching on beyond the eye's ability to see or the mind's capacity to understand.
Endless yet finite, a maze of contradictions existed within this space, all of them blatant but somehow unseen. Lurking behind the purity.
Breath coming in dry rasps, he stretched out one hand, splaying out his fingers before him and peering through them, wondering if perhaps a stable point of reference would help him understand.
It didn't render the barren landscape any more recognisable, but the blankness seemed to heighten his awareness of himself. Every vein, every muscle that flexed beneath the organic polymer of his skin occupied his every thought with no other distraction available.
He was…
He shock his head softly, startled by the sensation of delicate waves of ebony hair cascading in front of his vision, swishing back and forth with the motion like fine silk curtains.
Now that he concentrated, he could feel other sensations.
His hair tickled at the tops of his shoulders and the back of his neck, implying a fair length to the dark strands.
The air was bitingly cold, and he shivered gently, micro-contractions across his body severing to provide heat for his chilled skin.
Why was it so cold? It hadn't been this cold here before had it?
Something about that thought drew his attention.
"Before?", the sound of his own voice, deep and dry, like that of a man weighted down too many years by bitterness and a hate not his own, seemed to calm his rising confusion as he realised that he could not recall why such a featureless place would seem familiar to him, "…why…why do I feel as if I know this?".
He jerked as an image of two women burned through his mind, one small and slender, the other taller, more developed, but both with faces obscured for his eyes.
His knees gave way as the ground seemed to lurch from beneath him.
"What…what is going on here?", he asked aloud, the void space around him seeming to echo his words back to him.
"I don't wish to be here anymore, I don't understand", he closed his eyes, wincing as a strange pressure seemed to build in his ears.
"Let me out!", he didn't know the source of his panic, only that he did not want to revisit this place a moment longer.
With that final shout things changed.
A fierce artic wind blasted across the white plain, threatening to topple him as he huddled closer to the ground, struggling to breath as the wind seemed to tear the air from his lungs and freeze his throat shut in its wake.
He choked, desperately trying to suck in vital, life giving oxygen, but there seemed to be none for his greedy lungs to take in.
As he felt his mind growing dim, abruptly, the wind stopped.
Eyes still shut he took great gulps of sweet air, refilling his oxygen starved body in preparation for whatever the White would throw at him next.
For long, empty minutes, he waited… but nothing further assailed him.
Daring to brave the unseen dangers, he cautiously cracked open one eye. Then the other, sitting back and trying to comprehend what he saw.
White… but not the featureless eternity in which he had previously been trapped. This place had shape and texture, hills and furloughs and…
Something cold and wet settled gracefully on his nose, dripping off the chiselled feature and dropping soundlessly onto the plain white cotton trousers that now adorned his legs.
He couldn't say whether they and the matching long sleeved robe he now wore, had always been there or only just appeared.
Had he been wearing anything like this before…
"Before what?", he asked himself, his brow creasing when the relevant memory failed to surface.
Another drop of cold shook him from his musing and he tilted his head back to locate their source, finding only oppressive grey sky staring back in return as pallid dots of white drifted down to earth.
Holding out his hand, he watched as one speck landed on his outstretched palm, melting and vanishing almost instantly.
"Snow?", as he stood, the fall whipped around him causing him to shield his eyes for a moment with one sleeve.
As the wind crested it carried with it a faint sound.
A distant sob.
Lowering his arm, he peered through the whirling snowflakes trying to locate the source of the sound.
Another sob, this time clearer and lighter, came from the direction of the trail that led through the woods a little way ahead.
He found himself walking before he could recall making the choice to do so, distant questions clamouring for his attention.
As he passed through the first layer of gnarled wood, twisted branches stretching skyward as if pleading with or for something, it occurred to him that he could not remember if this forest had always been there…
Deciding that such thoughts were foolish, he walked on, directed by the sounds of misery.
"Forests do not just appear", he told himself, as if feeling the need to confirm his choice as the trees loomed closer overhead the further he went, making his path seem darker and more closed in.
As quickly as it had narrowed, the path opened into a wide clearing.
He stood silently, transfixed by the sight that awaited him.
Garbed in a kimono that seemed to been made of the essence of winter itself, long raven hair that fell down by her feet in perfectly straight waves, bound loosely near the nape of her neck, was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.
Even standing with her back to him as she was, narrow shoulders heaving with quiet sorrow, he could tell she was gorgeous.
What was she doing in this place he wondered, and why was she so upset? Was she supposed to be waiting for someone, or had she gotten herself lost?
"Excuse me", he said gently, clearing his throat and smiling reassuringly when she jumped and spun to face him, her hands clasped before her protectively.
"It's ok, I mean no harm", he said, raising his own hands in a placating gesture, "I heard you and thought you might need help".
She regarded him with fearful eyes the colour of burnished gold and shied away a little.
"No, it's ok, really, I just want to help… do you know where you are?", she nodded slowly but didn't speak.
"Well then you're doing better than I am", he said with a small smile as he saw her relax a little. Now she didn't look as if she was preparing to flee at any moment.
"Why were you crying?", he asked, sighing when she didn't respond, "Ok, if you don't want to talk about it that's ok… but why are you out here?".
Her eyes grew wide and she turned rapidly on her heel, bolting into the cover of the trees before he could even manage a half step to stop her.
"What was all that about?", he asked, peering through the dense foliage but unable to catch even a glimpse of her retreating form.
Suddenly pain exploded in his gut, the violent sensation drawing a scream from him as his hand flew top the site of the feeling.
Before him, the white carpet of the forest floor was now stained a bright and vivid crimson, and from his stomach, glinting a wicked silver in between the dripping gore that covered its length, was the razor edged blade of a Katana.
He could feel his body going into shock, all the feeling from his extremities receding even as his blood-slicked hands tore themselves to shreds attempting to gain purchase on the blade.
"Looks like I win again", a delicate feminine purred in his ear, warm breath dancing enticingly across his earlobe.
He tried to turn to face his killer but his muscles no longer heeded his commands, and he could already feel consciousness slipping away.
"You're too late to save her".
Everything went black.
Most people wake from nightmares with a scream or a shout of some sort, but Ryu did not.
After seventeen or so years living one long waking nightmare, plagued by guilt, and visions of his sins both day and night, night terrors no longer held the same sway over him as once they did.
Still, why were these dreams coming to him? He had thought that after he had been separated from the Demon that had inhabited his body since he was born a little under two years ago, that he was done with sleepless nights full of tragedy and remorse.
It seemed that he had not yet been deemed worthy of such an honour.
As he lay in his futon covered in a light sheen of sweat, his shoulder length black hair plastered across his face and weak sunlight peeking in through the closed shades of his room in the Hinata Sou, Ryuuya Sagura reflected on this latest dream.
They had been coming to him for a little over three months now, and at first he had dismissed them as too much time spent listening to the plots for Kei's latest 'Manga Masterpiece', but, after a month passed without them stopping he had begun to question their origin.
The ending to this particular version had been interesting, though not the worst by far. Intriguingly all of the dreams ran along the same guidelines but varied massively on some details.
Ryu crossed his arms behind his head, not bothering to move the locks of hair that blotted out one half of his vision.
Only one thing was always the same…
"You're too late to save her"Ryu had spent most of his teens tortured by the memory of those he had hurt or failed in some way, and now it seemed he had another face to add to the list, even though he was sure he had never met her before.
Does a dream person really count?, he asked already aware of the answer however illogical it seemed.
"No rest for the wicked", he whispered softly to himself, failing to find any humour in the old saying.
A loud banging on his door shocked him out of his thoughts.
"Ryu? Ryu are you awake yet?", he heard Kanna's voice call from the other side of the flimsy barrier.
Ryu allowed himself to scowl even though she couldn't see it, his expression changing to a small lopsided grin as an idea struck him.
"Dammit it Yui go away, I am not a machine", he grinned as he heard a pause followed by the sound of someone reverse counting outside his door.
Kanna had been doing that ever since the student councillor had called her in to discuss her 'Anger Management Issues', after witnessing her launch him over a small fence with a vicious uppercut.
Kanna had overheard part of a conversation he had been having with Kei in which the other boy had been trying to get him to talk about the various merits of herself and Ayu, and assumed he had been bragging about things to his friends.
Of course the councillor didn't see this misunderstanding as a justification and had threatened to have her enrolment revoked if she didn't learn not to act on her impulses all the time and kept attacking her fellow students.
This new restriction in place, an uncharacteristic mischievous streak had reared its head in Ryu, driving him to test the boundaries of this new safety net whenever the mood struck him.
There was just something about teasing Kanna that he seemed to enjoy, even if it was rather childish of him.
The door slid aside and Kanna, forced smile in place, walked in, glancing down at him as he stared back questioningly, her gaze flicking over his exposed chest before settling firmly on his face, her expression suggesting irritation, but whether at him or herself he had yet to find out.
"Why are you still in bed?", she asked, crossing her arms and frowning at him, "There's only thirty minutes left until we need to catch the train. We don't want to be late".
"I won't be, I have the morning off remember?", he reminded her.
"I know that jerk, but when we all got in, you promised to walk with me and Ayu every day, don't tell me you're going back on your word", she ground her teeth as he shrugged nonchalantly, "Besides, you shouldn't just let two girls go all that way unescorted, there could be train gropers, or muggers"
"Yes, someone should be there to save them from you I suppose", he said, already aware that she was going to get her way, she and Ayu always did with him in most cases, but that didn't mean he was just going to hand her the victory.
He watched as she stiffened trying to hold in the shout that wanted to escape… and failing miserably.
"JERK!", turning on her heel with a toss of her dark hair, she stomped out of his room, slamming the sliding door hard enough to rattle the light fixtures overhead.
Ryu lay there for a few moments before reluctantly standing.
He could always use the spare time to visit the library and do a little extra research for his last project of the winter term, and there were… other, things to think about.
Christmas Eve was fast approaching.
Racking his hair back from his face Ryu stood. He'd leave all his thoughts about the reality of dreams for a less pressing time.
After all, they were only dreams…
Somewhere, in a small room, a girl with long raven hair sat on her futon, staring listlessly out of the dark room's sole window.
One slender hand reached out, touching the delicate glass but not jerking back from the icy kiss of its clear surface.
It was snowing again outside, but she wouldn't have minded going out for a while though those in charge of her would never permit it.
That to was ok. Those were the rules after all.
She breathed deeply, a faint smile gracing her pretty face as she gazed out at the white landscape with heavily lidded gold eyes.
In the cold stillness of her room, her musical voice whispered one name…
"…Ryu…".
---Authors Notes---
And there you have it my friends, the beginning of a new adventure. This one will be written slightly differently to my other works, what with dream sequences playing a large part, but I hope you all enjoy this newest addition.
Coming Soon: Chapter 1: The More Things Change…: we catch up with the life and times of the latest generation of tenants as they continue to go about their lives blissfully unaware of what is heading their way…
Till next time, Betweenheavenandhell