I had so many nightmares that night. Every single time I woke up it only took me minutes to fall asleep again. It took less time for me to wake again from terrors. There was death. There was so much death just surrounding me. I knew I needed to run. So I did. But sadly, when I started running, I woke up at Motoki's house. I was all alone, but in an instant I realized it had all been a dream. It had all been an idiotic, pointless, bad dream. I had known about Adashino and where he had lived because of the first time I had met Ginko and looked at some of his memories. I had made up an entire few months in my head for no stupid reason.

I hated myself at that instant. I put my head down in my hands, nearly weeping and laughing all at the same time. E

verything had gone too quickly and nobody had acted quite right the entire dream long. Well…it had been a dream after all. Every single thing I had said and did had been ridiculous, and the same could be said about Ginko.

But I still had questions. The last thing I remembered happening was Ginko walking out to me while I had been in Mo's back yard. I was still wearing what I had worn that day, so maybe I had only been out for a day at the most. I wasn't sure though. I sat up slowly, my back was aching, my leg was on fire, and there was a dull throbbing swelling up in my head. The thin blanket that was covering me fell off, and I finally saw my leg.

The whole length of my left thigh was wrapped in a bandage that had a small amount of blood that had bloomed through the light cloth. I tried standing without moving my knee too much, but I couldn't help but wince and quietly yelp as I walked out of the open doorway. I limped my way through the narrow hallways. I reached my hand up to my head, hoping to balance myself. My fingers brushed a tender spot on my left temple.

After taking a long and slow breath, I could walk normally again. I took careful steps in Mo's main room. He was sitting, facing me, and looking as if he was seeing a ghost. He fumbled with his cup for a moment and then set it down, smiling warmly at me.

I glanced down a figure that was slumped over in a position that had to be uncomfortable. His white hair and his clothes were rumpled, like he hadn't been sleeping well.

"You've awaken." I slid to the wooden floor beside Ginko. Motoki pushed a cup in front of me, it was still warm. I could muster a smile back, so I took the drink and stared at its contents for a few seconds before trying to swallow it. My throat was dry, and the liquid only just managed to help. "He only just dozed off. The poor fella' hasn't had much sleep for 'bout a month now if I think 'bout it. Hasn't given 'imself an hour off once, not since what happened."

I stared at him. "What happened?" I glanced at Ginko and shoved him to his back with my right hand so he wasn't in such a cramped position. I gave my attention to Mo, who for just a second looked as if he was going to laugh, but then turned serious again.

"…He said you might not remember," the old man sighed, he was tired too, "There was a dog, it bit you, knocked you down. You almost died, apparently. He saved you, but he had to use this stuff…you had a weird reaction to it and ended up in a coma and he said you were probably having weird dreams. He said you might have a little trouble getting used to life again." I laughed and set my cup down.

"I had some weird dreams…or nightmares more like." I looked over at Ginko again, then back to Mo. "Wait!" My hands slammed on the table, "I was asleep for a month?! Wait, are you… better?"

"I was rid of that stupid seed a day after you were hurt. Yeah, he's been takin' care of you this entire time. Kept on worryin' to himself when you first went under. He really thought you were gone. But, of course, you're mostly better now. I could say the same for that beast that got you. It just stopped fighting you and him, and it ran away into the trees."

I slowly chewed some pieces of fruit that had been set in a dish in the middle of the small table. We sat in silence for a few minutes. It was just plain silence. Ginko was quietly snoring, and I could hear some people outside. The silence was nice, it felt good.

"Is there a stream or any place I can bathe?" He told me of a deep, clear stream that was only a few paces into the woods.

"And R," I paused in the doorway, "are you sure you don't want to be here when he wakes? He'll be up in a few minutes if I'm not wrong…"

"He'll live," I said swaying back in forth in the doorway. I had become used to this reality easily. I hoped it was real. I wasn't a fan of how anyone had acted in my hallucinations.

Motoki smiled, and I could feel waves a creepy old manliness being sent out from him. "I could just send him to you while you're bathing."

I tried smiling sweetly while I smacked the top of his balding head. "I could just leave forever never to be seen again." I left the old man, who was feigning tears now, to his own devises.

I really needed to bathe. I felt disgusting and I was sure I looked it too. I combed my hands through my hair. It had grown close to an inch compared to what I last remembered it being. I propped a small mirror up on the rocky bank, looking at my face as I rubbed a rinse for hair through my scalp. I tried not to use this stuff too often; even though it made my hair soft and nice looking, I didn't have much of it and it had been an expensive gift or offering from one extremely small village.

I would try to lie and say that I was only at that stream for twenty minutes, maybe half an hour. But I'm trying to be a better person, so I'll be honest and tell you that I was there for close to three hours. I wasn't bathing the entire time, for a portion of the time of was cleaning my clothes, and the other part of the time I was just sitting there on the shore. My muscles felt tired, I didn't feel like moving.

I finally stood and wrapped my plain grey kimono around myself, tying it with a sash that was decorated with small blue flowers. My hair was nearly dry and I felt better now. I grabbed my bag and jogged back to the house.

Ginko was sitting outside, sitting like he usually does, smoking. He looked bored, like he had been waiting. But he also looked tired, and as I got closer, I could see how tired he really looked. By the time I was sitting next to him, he had put out his cigarette.

"I'm awake…Motoki told me what happened." He nodded, absentmindedly. "He said you took care of me the entire time." I tried looking at him.

"You were almost d… gone" I just barely heard the "d" that he had cut off short before saying "gone" in his mumble of words.

"Well I'm not now so now need to worry your pretty, white head. I'm okay now."

"No you're not."

"Pardon?"

"I don't know if you're completely 'okay' now. Follow me," he stood up fluidly and walked into the house as I followed close behind. "The old pervert is taking a nap right now."

I eye him suspiciously. "What?"

"Did you make him go to sleep?"

"I didn't kill him if that's what you mean. I'm not saying I didn't 'make him' though." I smiled, nearly tripping through the doorway.

Now, I couldn't be sure of my emotions towards Ginko. It was hard to remember what I was feeling before I had gone into a coma of sorts. My feelings were forming again. I tried remembering things that had happened between us before the accident. I remembered the day we were in the hot spring, and there were those men who were sent to get me. I smiled at the thought and sat on the ground.

"I need to do one more check up on you." He opened a small wooden box that held some medical instruments.

"One more?" I put my chin on my fists, watching him.

"I had to make sure you were doing well with the medicine…" he trailed off, mumbling something that didn't sound too important. I absentmindedly nodded. "The only thing I need to do is check your breathing and pulse, to make sure they've regulated to normal."

"They weren't normal?"

"The dreams, or hallucinations, you were having were causing you to have an accelerated heart rate. You were only in a coma because you had a bad reaction to the medicine I gave you in the first place."

"…Oh." I curled my knees up to my chest. The dreams felt more like dreams now. I knew it should be a good thing, but it gave me a weird feeling. The memories from the dreams were disappearing, like they should be.

"Lie down," he said pushing my shoulder a little bit. I complied, resting my arms by my sides. He was done quickly, and I sat back up. "You're fine, Ruri."

I looked around and realized something. "Why are all of my things packed up? Wait, you came out to me right before I was hurt, what did you want to say?"

"I just figured that if you woke up you want to leave as soon as possible, and if you didn't wake up…"

"So if I had died you would've just tossed everything out?" I became annoyed.

"It would've been harder to pick up and throw it away after you were gone." I opened my mouth to retort, but closed it quickly. I was taken aback by what he had said. I stood up so that I was a little over a head taller than him, he was sitting straight up on my knees.

"Answer my second question."

"I don't remember…" he answered much too quickly.

"Yes, you do." I countered. He was intelligent, he remembered.

"It doesn't matter." He stood up quickly to tower over me.

"It matters," I whispered out and breathed in a thimble-full of air, "Though, you obviously don't want to talk about it…so I'll just forget about it." I snatched my bag from the floor. "Just remember, you won't ever see me again. Anything you want to say you should get out now." I didn't know why I was so mad all of sudden. I was confused, and wanted to be alone now.

I walked to the door, and he put his hand on my shoulder. I stopped moving immediately. "Listen, you're going to strain yourself too much if you go alone, I know you and what you'll do."

It was true; I would do something stupid for something else. I would try anything to save anyone I came across. I didn't realize I was still fragile though, susceptible to being hurt to a farther level. My leg hurt, the bandages probably needed to be changed too.

"You know," I turned to face him, "You didn't need to pack everything in my bag away. I'm sure there were some things in there that you could've used. I may not be very useful any time else, but I do have some pretty nice medicines in that bag." I laughed off the insult to myself, I hadn't meant to put it in there it had just slipped out.

He sighed deeply, "Let's get going." He pulled on my elbow and led me through the passageways of Motoki's house. The old man was sleeping now, he wouldn't know that we had left until he woke later in the afternoon.

As we made it to the unused walking trail I stopped Ginko, and pulled my arm from his light grasp. The town had stared at us as we had walked from it, some smiled and waved and some just looked curious. That was always the most fun part I thought, leaving that is.

"Thank you… for helping me." My voice was caught up in my throat. It was more difficult to thank him than I thought. My ego usually always got in my way, and now was no exception. He barely acknowledged my praise by simply shrugging. For a second, and only a second, I wished for my dreamscape life back. But then I looked around, and smiled. This life could work for me, it had worked for the last twenty years of my life.

I almost stopped walking. "Ginko, exactly how many days was I sleeping?"

"Thirty three," he answered without pause. "Why?"

"I'm twenty now, and I wasn't even awake to know about it." I stomped my foot, but kept on walking.

That was fun. I've wanted to write this chapter since I started writing this story. I really was going to write another chapter while she was still in her dream/hallucination world. I liked how it turned out. But now… they've got to get together. Also please review, I don't care if it's three words or whatever just please.