There was another dream. Morganite drifted in waves of tranquilizing sleep to find herself at the bottom of a dark ocean. From inside the black currents appeared four eyes and a huge mouth filled with jagged teeth. There were footprints, and as soon as the murky waters changed to bluish-green, Morganite opened her eyes and found herself inside her inescapable apartment yet again.

Now it was six in the morning and she sat at her table, those bright colored pencils making lines in orange and red. The TV spoke in difficult Japanese. The words were like machine gun fire and the foreigner was to catch the rounds in her open palms.

She was actually doing okay.

A few more lines came onto the page. Then a sharp pain from deep inside her head furrowed her heavy brows.

"I've had the tar beaten out of me so many times."

A memory.

She and Jasper were sitting in a field—the same field where they used to train together. They took a short break as the little aristocrat caught her breath, and the sky turned champagne pink and tangerine orange and brilliant gold.

"I know how it feels to be weak. It's frustrating. But if you're determined, you can get stronger."

"But—" The little pink one leaned a bit closer to her knees. "Do you think I'm getting stronger?"

"What do you think?"

And then, for only a moment, Morganite heard Jasper screaming.

The vision only lasted a few seconds in real time, but Morganite returned to her living room with shaking palms and jet lag. The television kept speaking to her as if she had gone absolutely nowhere, and a droplet of saltwater made a cameo onto her sketchbook.

The woman on the news started talking about a sea monster. The immigrant only understood about 60% of it, but here's what she said:

"An interesting creature was spotted along the coast of Japan from a fishing boat yesterday afternoon. The video is quite blurry, but the creature can be made out here—"

They paused the footage to draw a bright red circle around the center of the image, where there was an enormous greenish-blue face. With four eyes. And wild white hair.

And a gemstone for a nose.

Morganite's shuddering hand dropped her tangerine pencil.

They unpaused the video. The 'sea monster' caused a wave of angry, frothing water to come over the lip of the boat. Beneath the crew's panicked yelling, there was a familiar howl before another wall of upset ocean came onto the deck. After that, there was nothing but water spots on the cell phone lens and silent, horrified confusion.

The clip played again. And one more time after that.

"No one is exactly sure what this creature is, but experts are currently investigating—"

Morganite was entirely still. She could no longer understand what was being said. From the television, there was only static that could be transcribed in hiragana and intense waves of her own shock. The ex-aristocrat sucked in a breath. Her exhale came with a tidal wave. It spilled onto her cheeks and even onto the table. Her sketch turned into a water color painting as the fat parts of her palm smeared themselves across her face. Somewhere, in another dimension, rays of beautiful sun parted the black clouds of a hurricane.

Her dainty hands were soaked.

That intense moment of sun shine, however, was short lived. Morganite immediately set herself to the task of putting together a bag. She didn't need much. One 10,000 yen note. Her house keys. A few pieces of candy.

She organized her pencils, glancing through eyes fogged up with elated mist. Then she left the apartment and headed straight for the beach.