Chapter 9

Completely and utterly disoriented, Mai blinked a few times in an attempt to clear the foggy film which covered her vision. Blurred shapes and colours were all she could see. Stumbling around, she looked for something with which to steady herself. Her own breathing rang loudly in her ears; she felt unfamiliar with herself, her own body and mind. Beyond her erratic breathing, she could hear some clanging sounds and possibly grunting. Before she got a chance to get her bearings, a flash of white appeared before her, followed by searing pain. Seconds after, another flash, which brought more pain. Holding her left side in agony, Mai felt herself being thrown backwards violently, hitting a hard surface in the process. With her head now throbbing but a newly cleared vision, she scrambled onto her knees, and watched in horror as in front of her very eyes, a man is stabbed repeatedly and savagely in the chest. The sound and sight of the steel blade plunging into the soft flesh, the dark red blood half squirting, half trickling down the poor man's shirt, the strong smell of iron which soon began to engulf the room, the heavy thud his body made upon contact with the floor. All these details Mai knew would be etched into her memory forever. The attacker turned slowly to face her, as if they had not noticed her presence until now. Fervently, she dragged herself across the floor, away from the terrifying scene she had just witnessed. She was able to spot a doorway and headed towards it, not taking any time to check whether the attacker pursued her. With the little amount of energy she had left, she managed to painstakingly stand on her feet, still bent over however. Breathing in great big gulps of air, she ignored the searing pain which wracked her, and placated her palm over her gaping wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Gasping, Mai continued to stumble around, hoping to find a way out. That was all she could concentrate on right now. After a minute or so, she came to the realisation that this place was not unfamiliar to her. Somehow, she was able to navigate her way through it, and find the exit. Once outside, it all came to her. The mansion! That's where she was! Although…she must be in another dream…Well…Looking down at the nasty gash in her side, she drily remarked to herself that the word dream wasn't the most accurate term to use. Deciding that the debate could wait, she looked for a spot where she could sit relatively shielded from view, to think all this through and figure out her next move. Spotting a fairly large shrub in the distance, away from the main house, Mai dragged her exhausted self towards it. Feeling relatively out of sight there, she fell heavily on the grassy floor. After having calmed down a little, and breathed away some of the shock from what she had just seen, she lifted her t-shirt, only to be greeted with a ghastly sight. The stab wound was wide open; the mess of slashed tissue, punctured skin and thick oozing blood was too much for Mai, and caused her to retch. She coughed violently before retching some more, feeling her stomach's contents rapidly shoot up the back of her throat and out within seconds. Wiping her mouth with a sleeve, she sought to stand, needing to get away from the pungent acidic puddle. Her body, however, had had more than enough and gave up. Mai's legs buckled, her head became too heavy to support, and she felt her life force being pulled downwards and out of her body. By the time she hit the ground, she had blacked out.

How long had she been out?

'Ah, you're awake.'

Mai's eyes flew open, only to see a white ceiling above her. She turned to the right, where the voice had originated from. A young boy of about 16 looked back at her, smiling kindly. Not knowing where she was, or who this person might be, she remained wary, smiling back cautiously. The boy seemed to catch on, and quickly added;

'My name is Sam, I'm a servant at the Hideyoshi estate. I saw you passed out on the grounds and…well, I couldn't just leave you there. So I brought you here. It was the nearest hospital I could find.'

He smiled again, and this time, Mai smiled back unrestrainedly, touched and thankful for his intervention. Lord knows what would have happened to here had she been left back there. The previous events rushing back to her, she quickly reached for her left side, a movement which caused her some pain. Still, she could see that it had been taken care of and bandaged up. Sighing with relief, she dropped back in the bed and looked around. White curtains had been drawn across the right side of her bay, but to the left, she could see rows of simple, metallic beds extending quite far along. Nurses flitted about, tending to various patients, some more gravely injured than others. Save from the nurses' and doctors' tapping steps on the cold checkered floor, some whisperings and coughing, it was fairly quiet. Too tired to stay awake long, Mai felt her eyelids become increasingly heavy, and soon she drifted off once more. When she awoke, the boy had disappeared. A doctor came to see her, asked her a few questions regarding her health, before checking up on her wound. She was glad to hear that they would allow her to return home soon. Except that she had no home. Not in this time anyway. Her heartrate quickened, and she felt panic well up within her. What was she going to do? She missed Naru, and Lin, and the others. They always knew what to do in these situations. But now she was alone, and didn't have a clue.

'Hey! The doctors say you can leave when you're ready! What's your address? I can arrange for a taxi to pick you up…'

Mai had never been a good liar, so she told the truth as much as possible.

'I don't…have an address.'

The boy's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

'Oh? Do you…I see…Then, what were you doing at the estate?'

'I uh…I was employed by them…to…work for them on…things.'

Her words had a very peculiar effect on Sam. His confusion suddenly gave way to complete and total understanding. He winked at her, before saying;

'I see. Right well that's about as much as I need to know about that. Not that I mean this as an insult to your person, but my master's preferences in the bedroom are not things I require knowledge of. Let's see, I guess I could lodge you at my sister's whilst the mess gets sorted… '

Though his tone of voice indicated amusement, Mai felt her cheeks burn up as she realised what he had thought she meant. She knew that contradicting him would be a silly move, so didn't. Being a mistress was certainly a better explanation that being some sort of weird time traveling futuristic person. After a couple of hours, she felt strong enough to leave the establishment, and it wasn't without an enormous amount of relief that she signed out. Doctors made her nervous. Especially when she knew she was in the wrong…era. Sam had taken care of her bills, unbeknown to her. He really was a kind person through and through. Within the next hour, he had brought her to his family home, although the only person still residing there was his sister. The fact that the cottage was small in size only added to its charm. Situated in the more rural districts of Tokyo, it was surrounded by a few fields and other similarly built homes.

'It's not much, I know, but it's home. Please, make yourself comfortable.'

He gestured for her to walk in, and no sooner had she crossed the threshold that a very young girl came running to her. Without a hint of hesitation, she threw her arms open wide, and did a little running jump. Not knowing what else to do, Mai caught her, before realising that it had been a bad idea. Her wound had not healed sufficiently for this kind of movement, and the burning pain reminded her of that. The little girl gasped, her blonde curls bobbing up and down slightly as she placed two tiny hands on Mai's face. Her doleful brown eyes welled up with tears, and she asked in a worried tone;

'Are you hurt? Did I hurt you mommy?'

Taken aback by the girl's words, Mai carefully put her back down, before patting her head and shaking her own. She turned around and looked questioningly at Sam, who had been witnessing the exchange with a pained expression. The child grasped Mai's hand, and led her into a small but cozy room, where a few dolls had been arranged carefully onto a wooden dresser.

'Look mommy! Sammy got me dolls! This one is Papa, this is you, and this is me! Do you like them?'

Unsure as to whether she should play into the girl's delusion, Mai simply smiled and nodded, her hand still holding the child's.

'Aiko, let the nice lady rest for a bit, you can play with her later.'

Sam's voice was strained. Mai could tell that a tragedy had struck these people, but she knew not what that might be. Her heart reached out to Aiko in particular.

'NO! Then mommy might leave again. For a long time…again.'

The poor girl held onto Mai with surprising strength, refusing to let go. She seemed terrified at the idea of letting her out of sight.

'Please, stay. Stay.'

This time, Aiko's tears did leave her eyes, and rolled down her cheeks as her whimpers gradually turned into sobs. Unable to do much else, Mai got onto her knees with some difficulty, and brought the child towards her, resting her head on her chest, whilst stroking her hair in order to calm her down. The sobbing soon subsided, and Aiko promptly fell asleep in Mai's arms. After having carefully laid her down on her bed, Sam took her to the living room, which was decently sized, with a small wooden table in the middle of it. The windows were open, letting in a refreshing summer breeze. Pulling up a chair for her, Sam sat opposite, his expression sorrowful. So much in fact, that Mai felt obliged to ask what was wrong. He remained gravely silent for a while, as if unsure as to how he would attribute words to the emotions he was enduring.

'I need you to not breathe a word of this to anyone.'

Surprised by the sudden urgency, she simply nodded.

'That little girl, Aiko…she…Her mother, she…Remember when I found you on the Hideyoshi estate? That same afternoon, in fact, shortly before I found you, a woman committed suicide on that same estate. She burned herself to death. That was Aiko's mother. She was the lady of the house. Emi, she was called.'

Horrified, Mai's hand flew to her mouth. Emi?! Aiko was the burning woman's daughter?! Why did she…?! Suddenly, the voice she had heard in her previous vision came back to her, and it sounded very familiar.

'I tried to stop her but I was too late. The flames had already spread too much. I had promised Aiko that I would bring her mother here one day….They haven't seen one another in maybe…4 years. Yes, 4 years. It's bad enough that she had lost her father, now this?'

There was something poignant about seeing the young boy shed tears. Mai reached out to him, taking the hand which rested on the table in hers. It was clear that no words could comfort him, so she stayed silent. She knew that this was finally what Naru had been looking for; there clearly had been a sequence of events, a cause, which had thrown all these lives into turmoil, and Emi into the flames. She had to find out what. Furrowing her brows, she thought carefully about how to undertake the task. She couldn't just barge in with a ton of questions, tact was necessary. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt the one person to whom she probably owed her life at this point.

Before she was able to decide on a plan of action, a nauseatingly agonising pain pierced her very being, ripping her apart in two. Mai grasped at the table, but found that she couldn't move willingly. She felt as if she was being stabbed by tiny needles over every inch of her body, and was soon overtaken by convulsions. Falling onto the floor, all she could do was scream, certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that what awaited her, was death.

On his end, Naru had only just landed in the mansion, though about 50 years back into the past. He looked around for any signs of commotion, anything that might indicate when exactly he had arrived. However, within minutes, he was on his knees, gasping for air, attempting to control the blinding pain which coursed through him savagely. Feeling for all the world like he was being split into two, Naru's last thought was of Mai, before the darkness hit.